WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:05.440 So, for uh the last few weeks, we've been in a series called Who. 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:09.119 Who, really brilliantly titled, very complex. 00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:11.199 Just one one word, who. 00:00:11.599 --> 00:00:15.359 Next week, we actually start something really exciting called the whole story. 00:00:15.679 --> 00:00:20.960 And starting next Sunday, we're gonna go through the entire story of the Bible through the rest of our year. 00:00:21.039 --> 00:00:25.839 We've broken, we've broken the whole story of Scripture down into 14 different series, and we're gonna go through it. 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:28.640 And so if you're here for the year, we're gonna go through the whole thing. 00:00:28.719 --> 00:00:35.280 I I am it's a little it's a little ambitious and maybe a little bit like nerve-wracking, but as it's coming together, I'm I'm so excited about that. 00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:38.560 We've actually never done something like this, where we've had this year-long thing. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:39.840 So very excited about that. 00:00:40.000 --> 00:00:42.159 But today, we're gonna wrap up who. 00:00:42.560 --> 00:00:44.320 And the idea behind this is really simple. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:46.240 It's actually something that Madison mentioned in his video. 00:00:46.399 --> 00:00:49.280 It's not so much about what, that's not where we should start. 00:00:49.359 --> 00:00:50.880 It's about it's about who. 00:00:51.439 --> 00:01:01.280 We don't have a lot of control in our lives, maybe less than we would like to think, honestly, in terms of what will happen to us or what will happen around us. 00:01:01.439 --> 00:01:11.280 That's why, that's why the Bible actually warns us not to get too confident about our plans, about our five-year plans, or whatever that is, because we don't really know what is going to happen tomorrow. 00:01:11.519 --> 00:01:17.920 But the reality is if you have the right who in your life, you can go through just about any what that life throws at you. 00:01:18.159 --> 00:01:24.480 If you have the right people around you, the right people in the right roles, you can endure whatever you go through. 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:32.000 I mean, in fact, I'm looking at the room, and some of you I don't know very well, some of you I know really well, and I see people and I know what you've been through in the last few years. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:35.760 And I've seen the way that you've handled it, the way that you've come through it. 00:01:36.000 --> 00:01:40.640 And I know that you would say a lot of that had to do with who you had around you. 00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:44.640 If you have the right who, you can endure whatever life throws your way. 00:01:44.719 --> 00:01:49.200 And so if we want to have the best year possible, this is kind of the outset of our year conversation. 00:01:49.280 --> 00:01:50.640 We've got to get the who right. 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:52.480 And we've looked at four different who's. 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:53.519 Today's the fourth. 00:01:53.680 --> 00:01:55.359 Number one was who will I worship? 00:01:55.519 --> 00:01:56.799 That was the first that we examined. 00:01:56.879 --> 00:01:58.000 Who am I gonna worship? 00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:00.159 Who will I dedicate my life to this year? 00:02:00.239 --> 00:02:10.319 The obvious answer, if you're you know, in a church on a Sunday, might be like, well, yeah, Jesus, but man, it is so easy for our devotion to shift to other things, to just get those priorities out of whack. 00:02:10.400 --> 00:02:14.159 And if Jesus isn't in that top spot, then things tend to fall apart for us. 00:02:14.400 --> 00:02:16.240 Number two is who will I walk behind? 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:17.520 Who am I gonna follow this year? 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:18.800 Who's my teacher? 00:02:19.039 --> 00:02:22.319 We talked about the fact that Jesus, to his followers, was a rabbi. 00:02:22.400 --> 00:02:22.960 He was a teacher. 00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:24.479 They listened to his words. 00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:29.439 His words were the ones that replayed through their minds and affected the way that they saw the world. 00:02:29.520 --> 00:02:31.919 We want Jesus to be the one we walk behind. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:37.680 There was this phrase that we talked about, it was a common phrase, that may you be covered in the dust of your rabbi. 00:02:37.840 --> 00:02:43.120 May you walk so closely behind your teacher that the dust they kick up from their feet falls on you. 00:02:43.280 --> 00:02:44.800 We want to be that way with Jesus. 00:02:44.960 --> 00:02:55.919 Last week we talked about who we walk with and the importance of valuing wisdom in the friends that we choose, especially those close friends that we let in, that we live life arm in arm with. 00:02:56.000 --> 00:03:01.280 We want to value wisdom because Scripture says if you walk with the wise, you will become wise. 00:03:01.680 --> 00:03:05.919 But if you walk with fools, you'll end up doing foolish things yourself. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:11.039 And today, finally, the last one we're gonna talk about who will I work against? 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:12.960 Who am I gonna work against? 00:03:13.120 --> 00:03:16.639 Who am I going to maybe fight this year? 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:22.800 Now, I'm I'm a child of the the 80s and the early 90s, just out of curiosity, who's with me? 00:03:22.960 --> 00:03:24.639 Any other kids of the 80s, early 90s? 00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:24.960 Okay. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.080 Um, how many of you raised children in that stage of life? 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.680 Like the 80s, 90s, you had kids at home. 00:03:29.840 --> 00:03:34.639 Okay, so if if you're if you're one of us that just raised your hands, you won't you'll understand this phenomenon I'm about to talk about. 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:36.719 It was called Saturday morning cartoons. 00:03:36.960 --> 00:03:37.439 All right? 00:03:37.680 --> 00:03:39.599 Y'all remember Saturday morning cartoons? 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:49.280 That was like, I mean, you Saturday mornings, you woke up early and you planted yourself in front of the TV to see whatever the coolest new cartoon was gonna be. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:53.280 It was like a four-hour block of just nonstop cartoons, and it was it was awesome. 00:03:53.360 --> 00:03:56.319 I kind of wish it was still like that for two reasons. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:02.719 Like young people, little kids today, everything's on all the time, whenever they want, whatever they want, whatever episode they want. 00:04:02.800 --> 00:04:04.879 And so they they miss that anticipation. 00:04:05.039 --> 00:04:07.520 There's no like, oh, I wonder what what it's gonna be. 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:08.639 Oh, it's a rerun. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:09.759 I've already seen that one ten times. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:10.719 Oh well, it's what's on. 00:04:10.800 --> 00:04:12.560 Like, you don't have that, right? 00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.199 So maybe there's not that disappointment, but you don't have the anticipation. 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:19.920 You have nothing to look forward to because you have whatever you want at your fingertips every second of the day. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:23.439 But mainly, selfishly, I wish it was still like that for parents. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:27.759 Because I cannot look at my kids and say there's nothing good on, go outside. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.879 I just have to say, just go outside. 00:04:31.040 --> 00:04:34.800 I know that every episode of everything you've ever loved is on all the time. 00:04:34.879 --> 00:04:36.399 I don't care, turn it off, go outside. 00:04:36.480 --> 00:04:39.199 My parents could just be like, well, yeah, nothing's on. 00:04:39.759 --> 00:04:40.720 Go outside. 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:42.480 Makes it harder for parents. 00:04:42.639 --> 00:04:51.439 But but if you grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons, especially if you were a guy and you watched the ones that I watched, I'm talking like Teenage Mute Ninja Turtles, G.I. 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:56.319 Joe, all right, Transformers, stuff like that, all right. 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:02.399 If you watch those those shows, they were always pretty pretty easy to follow. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:04.639 We're not talking complex storylines. 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:07.439 You had a good guy and you had a bad guy. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.959 And it wasn't even hard to tell who the good guys were or who the bad guys were. 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:12.720 They didn't make it tough to discern. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:14.319 Like it was it was so obvious. 00:05:14.399 --> 00:05:19.680 You know, if you had the Ninja Turtles and the bad guy, his name is Shredder, and he has giant blades on his arm. 00:05:19.759 --> 00:05:24.160 Like it's not, it's someone you saw walking towards you in the street, you're gonna be like, I wonder if they have good intentions. 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:27.839 You know, it's just clearly bad guy, you know? 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:29.360 G.I. 00:05:29.439 --> 00:05:33.920 Joe, you had Cobra Commander, and and it's just a no, no one would have, no one would have a Cobra. 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:37.759 Like the 80s taught us that, Cobra Kai, I mean, hello, like it's cobras are bad. 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.000 That's what we learned in the 80s. 00:05:40.240 --> 00:05:45.439 You had, I remember Transformers, you know, you have the Autobots and you have the Decepticons. 00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:56.959 Their name is Decepticon, which is if you're trying to deceive anyone, it defeats the purpose if you name yourself the Decepticon. 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.360 Like, so it's not even, they're not even hiding it. 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:02.639 And it my older brother was really into He-Man, Masters of the Universe. 00:06:02.720 --> 00:06:03.600 Anyone watch that show? 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:14.399 All right, and so the bad guy in He-Man is Skeletor, and this is this is Skeletor, and he's just an actual skeleton, like a like holding a staff with a skeleton on it. 00:06:14.480 --> 00:06:17.600 And so you never looked at Skeletor and was like, I wonder if he's a bad guy. 00:06:17.759 --> 00:06:18.240 You know? 00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.600 And so just about every 80s cartoon ended the same way. 00:06:21.759 --> 00:06:27.439 Every episode, the the villain would just throw their fist in the air and be like, I've lost again, and it was over. 00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.879 And those were great. 00:06:29.040 --> 00:06:35.920 But what they did not do for me as a child was actually teach me how to discern who my real enemies in life would be, because they made it so obvious. 00:06:36.079 --> 00:06:38.879 I've yet to bump into anybody with a skeleton face. 00:06:39.360 --> 00:06:44.079 Like I've never met anyone with glowing red eyes, where I'm like, what's up with that? 00:06:44.240 --> 00:06:45.600 You know, I'm watching you. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:47.279 That's never happened to me. 00:06:47.600 --> 00:06:52.879 In real life, it is much more difficult to discern who's against us. 00:06:53.759 --> 00:07:05.199 In fact, scripture would tell us that very often we can completely and totally miss the boat on who is actually working against us. 00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:14.399 So much so that the very people that we would maybe see as our enemies aren't really our enemies at all at the end of the day. 00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:20.000 And so, 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 says, Stay alert. 00:07:20.399 --> 00:07:24.160 Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.839 He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:29.040 Stand firm against him. 00:07:29.279 --> 00:07:30.720 Be strong in your faith. 00:07:30.959 --> 00:07:35.680 Remember that your family of believers all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering that you are. 00:07:35.839 --> 00:07:40.639 Ephesians 6, 10 through 12 says a final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 00:07:40.800 --> 00:07:48.079 Put on all of God's armor, so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. 00:07:48.399 --> 00:08:00.399 For we're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. 00:08:01.040 --> 00:08:07.439 Now, for a moment, just imagine that the first time you're hearing these words is not, it's not in Scripture, right? 00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.399 If you've grown up in church, you've read these things before. 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:12.560 It's not in a church setting. 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:18.800 Just imagine that the first time someone ever says something like this to you, you're sitting at lunch with someone, you're talking about some situation that we all go through, right? 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:22.319 We all have people that make life harder for us than it ought to be. 00:08:22.560 --> 00:08:28.800 Whether it's people close to us, people that we work with, maybe it's a customer, maybe it's your boss, maybe it's someone that lives in your home, someone in your family. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.600 We all know what it's like to have someone that makes life harder for us. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:34.159 Sometimes it's minor stuff, sometimes it's severe. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:37.039 We get betrayed, we get lied to, we get lied about. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:40.720 But there are people that make life more difficult. 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:48.000 And you're talking to someone at lunch and you're saying, oh my gosh, this is what's going on, and this person's saying this, they're doing this, and I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm at my wit's end. 00:08:48.080 --> 00:08:50.399 And they look at you and say, you know what's interesting though? 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:53.919 That person's not really who you're working against. 00:08:54.240 --> 00:09:00.720 You're working against evil, dark, invisible forces in an unseen spiritual realm. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:03.039 Okay? 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:08.000 Every time someone says something like that, you have to play a little game in your brain. 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:11.919 And the game is called, Is it true or is this person nuts? 00:09:12.080 --> 00:09:14.240 That's the game that runs through your mind, right? 00:09:14.399 --> 00:09:19.679 Because let's be honest, the statement like that, our battle is not against flesh and blood. 00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:23.120 It's not against really, at the end of the day, the people that make life harder for us. 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:30.879 Our real battle is against evil, dark forces in an unseen spiritual realm. 00:09:31.440 --> 00:09:35.840 That is a statement that is either true or insane. 00:09:36.720 --> 00:09:39.279 There's not a lot of like wiggle room there. 00:09:39.919 --> 00:09:42.960 And so we have to sort of figure out do we actually believe this? 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:44.639 I think it's really important. 00:09:44.799 --> 00:09:51.200 Like students, I know you're here and I didn't plan this for you guys, but listen, your faith needs to be something that you actually believe in. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:10:05.120 Not just because your parents bring you here, not just because you were raised this way, but you want to get to a place with your faith, and this is for all of us, that you examine your faith, you examine it, you think it through, and you actually have to ask yourselves those hard questions, do I actually believe this is true? 00:10:05.279 --> 00:10:12.080 Because if that's true, if that statement is true, then you might need to rearrange the way you think about life and the way you approach it. 00:10:14.000 --> 00:10:15.679 So let's examine this just a little bit. 00:10:15.840 --> 00:10:16.879 Is this is this true? 00:10:17.039 --> 00:10:18.080 Is this something that we believe? 00:10:18.159 --> 00:10:19.519 And to what degree do we believe it? 00:10:20.399 --> 00:10:24.639 So there there would be people who would say that the world is is just what we see, it's all physical. 00:10:24.799 --> 00:10:25.919 In fact, we can kind of just show this. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:28.639 We're gonna use some circles to display this today. 00:10:28.799 --> 00:10:29.919 Circles are nice, they're helpful. 00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:33.120 So some people would say, hey, the world is just physical, it's just what you see. 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:38.639 What you see with your eyes, everything in this world is material. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:43.360 Anything that we would say is spiritual, that's just stuff we've imagined. 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:58.879 That's just it's just myth, it's just legend, it's just the kind of stuff that we invented in our minds to cope with life, to maybe be able to rationalize the fact that really bad things happen in the world, but at the end of the day, we are all just flesh and blood. 00:10:59.039 --> 00:11:00.639 There's nothing beyond that. 00:11:00.879 --> 00:11:04.960 And when when this thing that we live in called a body dies, we're it's it. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:06.879 It's like we had that that was our run. 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:07.679 That's it. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.399 And so we have to ask ourselves, is that is that true? 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:13.759 Is there nothing more than what we see with our eyes? 00:11:14.240 --> 00:11:16.879 Is there no higher power? 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:21.360 Is there nothing beyond the physical? 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:23.679 And some people would say, no, I I believe that. 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:35.679 And interestingly enough, you know, a couple hundred years ago, 150 years ago, if you were someone who was really passionate about science, the entire scientific community was moving as far away from belief in anything spiritual as you could imagine. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:44.720 I mean, the earliest truly like great scientists that made major discoveries that have shaped the world, you're talking like Isaac Newton, people like that, they were all people of faith. 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:55.039 They were totally comfortable believing in spiritual, higher power reality, at the same time recognizing the scientific laws of the universe, and those two things went hand in hand. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:06.320 But a couple hundred years ago, there's this massive move away from that, where to be someone who would truly be considered like a rational thinker, you couldn't possibly believe in God or the spiritual. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:20.320 But the last hundred years or so, the the momentum, even in the scientific community, has definitely been way, way, way more toward the idea of some kind of higher intelligence, designer, intelligent design, whatever you want to call it. 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:29.279 And so, interestingly enough, this whole idea that the world is only physical, it's not even an idea that has the kind of momentum that it used to have. 00:12:29.759 --> 00:12:33.120 But we have to ask ourselves: do I believe that that's the case? 00:12:33.200 --> 00:12:35.120 That all we are is what we see? 00:12:36.480 --> 00:12:43.279 I've come to a point in my life where I'm very comfortable saying, no, I believe there is much more than just what we see with our own two eyes. 00:12:43.519 --> 00:12:57.039 I feel like I've experienced enough, I've seen enough things that just do not have an explanation other than magical consequences lining up in a way that doesn't make sense, that I've I've seen that there is something greater. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:04.080 So then if that's where you're at, and I would imagine many of us are there, maybe not all of us, but many of us are probably like, yeah, I'm okay with the idea. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:11.120 You got up early on a Sunday morning, you could be asleep, you came to church, there's at least some part of you that's like, I think there might be something more. 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:15.600 So then we have to go, okay, there's there's a physical, but also now there's a spiritual too. 00:13:15.759 --> 00:13:17.279 Now we got two circles. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:20.639 But to what degree do they interact? 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:23.679 Because on one hand, they could be totally separate phenomena. 00:13:23.919 --> 00:13:24.240 Right? 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:28.720 We have this life, and then you die, and then you have the the next thing. 00:13:29.360 --> 00:13:37.519 And actually, I would say that in kind of modern American Christianity, we've worked really hard, unnecessarily, I believe, to separate the spiritual from the physical. 00:13:37.759 --> 00:13:42.799 We've almost treated the spiritual as if it's impractical. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:51.200 And so, you know, it's very common to have a lot of teaching that doesn't it doesn't lean heavily on scripture because the idea is like it's just not practical enough. 00:13:51.279 --> 00:14:00.799 We want to make sure that we're teaching people really practical things that they can they can take and do with their, do things in their life, make immediate change, and some of the spiritual stuff, like it's just uh it's not. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:03.440 We've sort of added to this separation, if that makes sense. 00:14:03.519 --> 00:14:06.240 I'm not saying we hear it his hand, I'm saying that like culturally. 00:14:06.879 --> 00:14:22.480 But the thing is, if if we are at our core spiritual people, like if you are a spiritual person and there's something inside of you that is deeper and even more real and more long-lasting than your body, then the spiritual can't be impractical. 00:14:22.639 --> 00:14:24.879 Like it's it can't be. 00:14:25.200 --> 00:14:29.600 And so we have to ask ourselves if I believe that there is spiritual and I believe that there's physical, do they interact? 00:14:29.759 --> 00:14:31.279 Do they have any interaction? 00:14:31.360 --> 00:14:33.759 And then the question becomes, if so, how much? 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:36.720 So some would say that there's a little bit of interaction. 00:14:36.879 --> 00:14:42.559 Yeah, I believe in the spiritual, I believe in the physical, but like this next scripture will show, sometimes they collide a little bit. 00:14:42.639 --> 00:14:44.320 A great example, this would be Jesus. 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:50.080 Jesus is God, according to our faith, he is God, and he's also a man. 00:14:50.240 --> 00:14:50.960 He's both. 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:55.759 So here we have in Jesus the spiritual and the physical colliding. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:00.720 And we see this in moments in the Bible when there's a miracle that happens. 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:10.559 A miracle would be a moment where the spiritual and the physical come together and something happens in the real world that you just can't explain, other than saying, yeah, it was a miracle. 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:17.200 Something unexplainable happened and influenced an event that wouldn't have taken place otherwise. 00:15:17.679 --> 00:15:33.679 And this can be both good, but it could also be, could be bad, because as Paul, the author of Ephesians and Peter, the author of 1 Peter, that we just read indicate, hey, there's not just good things in this spiritual reality, there's also evil. 00:15:34.159 --> 00:15:41.039 Satan, the devil, demons, whatever word you want to use, there can be there can be some negative interaction. 00:15:41.279 --> 00:15:54.320 Now, I will say that some people, we'll go on to the next one, believe that there's almost complete overlap, that the spiritual and the physical are one and the same, and and every single thing that happens at the end of the day has some type of spiritual root. 00:15:54.559 --> 00:15:56.000 Every single thing. 00:15:56.240 --> 00:16:04.799 And and if that's, by the way, your belief, just know that this is a church that there is room for so many different opinions on how this all works. 00:16:04.879 --> 00:16:06.960 None of us can claim to be an expert on this kind of thing. 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:10.000 In fact, if someone ever tells you they are an expert, they're not. 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:19.519 But we can look at scripture, we can look at the world and try to discern the best we can, hey, to what degree can we maybe be a little over the top sometimes? 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:28.159 And I have known people that it's like there there is a demon under every single rock, and it's just it gets a little weird, okay? 00:16:28.399 --> 00:16:32.399 I'll give you an example, and I got permission from a friend of mine named Doug to share this story. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:33.759 I actually don't know if I got permission. 00:16:33.840 --> 00:16:36.159 I just told him I was going to share it, so that's different. 00:16:36.399 --> 00:16:37.600 My bad, Doug. 00:16:38.080 --> 00:16:44.639 So a few years ago, we had this funny little moment where someone spilled something on the floor in the middle of our gathering, big big deal. 00:16:44.799 --> 00:16:47.279 And Doug is a man of initiative, he's a man of action. 00:16:47.440 --> 00:16:48.000 I like Doug. 00:16:48.240 --> 00:16:51.120 And Doug got up and he went to the back where we have a little storage closet. 00:16:51.200 --> 00:16:53.600 He knew where that was, and he got something to wipe it up with. 00:16:53.759 --> 00:17:03.919 But when Doug went to flip the light on in our storage area to turn that light on in there to find whatever he needed to clean the mess, he accidentally hit the wrong light switch and it turned all these lights on here in the room. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:07.519 We have these work lights that, you know, just make this place very bright. 00:17:07.680 --> 00:17:09.839 And that's what we use when we're cleaning and setting things up. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:15.200 And so, right in the middle of me talking, it's just like boom, you know, and everyone's all like, what's going on? 00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:19.519 So I had someone come up to me after the service, and they were very concerned. 00:17:19.759 --> 00:17:20.559 Very concerned. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:25.440 And they were like, There is something really nefarious happening today. 00:17:26.000 --> 00:17:28.079 And I was like, I thought it was a great Sunday. 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.720 I was like, I don't, like, what's going on? 00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:33.359 And I'm not, by the way, I'm not a spiritual skeptic. 00:17:33.440 --> 00:17:33.920 I'm a pastor. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:37.359 I'd be a pretty bad pastor if I was like, I don't think anything spiritual is true. 00:17:37.680 --> 00:17:40.160 And so I was like, well, what are you talking about? 00:17:40.240 --> 00:17:45.440 They're like, that moment when the lights came on, there is something demonic messing with the church. 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:49.920 And I was like, that wasn't a demon, that was a dug. 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:54.079 And those are very different things, okay? 00:17:55.039 --> 00:18:09.279 And it's it's it's something we can kind of laugh at, but but even honestly, even though it's funny, we've probably all had moments where something happens, something like just messes with us, and we're like, I think there's something more behind this. 00:18:09.440 --> 00:18:10.559 I get that idea. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:20.160 And some people do believe, they read, they read scripture in such a way that there is always every sickness, for example, every sickness is because of something spiritual. 00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:23.039 Now, I believe God can heal any sickness. 00:18:23.200 --> 00:18:24.799 I believe God can do anything. 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:34.160 God is God, He's not limited by anything, but I don't believe that at the root of every single disease, medical condition, struggle in life is some spiritual thing. 00:18:34.240 --> 00:18:35.519 And here's like an example. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:48.799 I actually don't have this on the screen, but in one of Paul, who was one of the leaders of the early church, in one of his letters to Timothy, this young pastor that he was he was raising up and teaching, Timothy was a really influential person in the early church, and Paul wrote some letters to him. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:57.839 At the very end of one of Paul's letters to Timothy, there's this really interesting line where he says, Oh, and by the way, Timothy, remember to drink some wine at night, that will help you with your stomach issues. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:18:58.400 Okay. 00:18:58.640 --> 00:19:03.200 So we know that Timothy had some type of stomach problem, and drinking wine would soothe that. 00:19:03.359 --> 00:19:16.000 Now, it's pretty clear in that moment that Paul, who's a man of great faith, who's a man who would pray over people, a man that experienced supernatural things, doesn't believe that Timothy has some deep spiritual issue. 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:19.440 That the reason Timothy's stomach is upset is because something is way wrong. 00:19:19.599 --> 00:19:28.240 Because he doesn't say, Timothy, I know your stomach's been bothering you, I want you to call an immediate emergency meeting, get everyone in the church together, we're all gonna fast and pray until it's over with. 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:32.960 He just recognizes, oh, Timothy has something up with his stomach, he should drink some wine, that'll help him out. 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:34.319 Like it's a really small thing. 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:50.480 So to me, that's just an example of maybe that there are things that are happening here in our world that don't always have to have some crazy supernatural reason or or something under the something that we don't see under the hood that's happening in that way. 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:52.559 It's maybe not total overlap. 00:19:54.400 --> 00:19:57.440 But I also don't think that it's it's minor overlap either. 00:19:57.519 --> 00:20:02.720 So what I would probably say is something like this, and this is just this is me, and maybe I'm okay with it going a little further out. 00:20:02.799 --> 00:20:13.920 I don't really, it's not, this is not to scale perfectly, but but I do believe that scripture teaches us that there is a spiritual and a physical reality, and there is significant overlap in those. 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:19.119 And I believe if you look at the life of Jesus, you see this very clearly. 00:20:19.440 --> 00:20:21.039 And I'm a Jesus follower. 00:20:21.519 --> 00:20:24.319 At the end of the day, that's I'm a Jesus follower. 00:20:25.039 --> 00:20:29.039 And so what Jesus says, that matters more to me than what anyone else says. 00:20:29.519 --> 00:20:32.480 And if Jesus believes something is true, then I believe it's true. 00:20:32.559 --> 00:20:38.720 There are lots of times where Jesus was very comfortable telling the people in his world, hey, I know you guys have grown up hearing this, believing this, forget that. 00:20:38.880 --> 00:20:39.920 That's not true. 00:20:40.480 --> 00:20:43.440 And he doesn't do that when it comes to the supernatural. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:55.440 Jesus talked about the supernatural, he talked about not just God the Father, he talked about Satan, he even talked to Satan, he talked about the demonic, he talked to demons. 00:20:55.519 --> 00:20:56.480 I mean, it's it's there. 00:20:56.720 --> 00:21:02.319 And if I'm gonna follow Jesus and Jesus had a comfort level with that, then to some degree I have to have that comfort level too. 00:21:02.400 --> 00:21:04.319 But we do see this overlap in his life all the time. 00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:07.759 Here's an example Mark chapter 5. 00:21:09.039 --> 00:21:16.079 Jesus is traveling and he's on his way at this point to heal a man named Jairus' daughter, and it says, when Jesus went with him, all the people followed, crowding around him. 00:21:16.240 --> 00:21:20.160 A woman in the crowd had suffered for 12 years with constant bleeding. 00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:27.680 She had suffered a great deal for many doctors, and over the years she had spent everything she had to pay them, but she got no better. 00:21:27.920 --> 00:21:29.680 In fact, she gotten worse. 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:36.480 She'd heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his robe, for she thought to herself, if I can just touch his robe, I'll be healed. 00:21:36.640 --> 00:21:38.400 And immediately the bleeding stopped. 00:21:38.559 --> 00:21:41.680 And she could feel in her body that she had been healed of her terrible condition. 00:21:41.839 --> 00:21:50.000 Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him, which is not a problem I've ever had in life, but that's an interesting experience. 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.559 So he turned around in the crowd and asked who touch my robe. 00:21:52.640 --> 00:21:54.880 And his disciples said to him, Look at this crowd pressing around you. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:56.640 How can you ask us who touched me? 00:21:56.799 --> 00:22:06.000 But he kept on looking around to see who had done it, and then the frightened Woman, trembling at the realization of what had happened to her, came and fell to her knees in front of him and told him what she had done. 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.519 And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:11.039 Go in peace. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:12.799 Your suffering is over. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:15.039 Your faith has made you well. 00:22:15.119 --> 00:22:15.920 Think about that statement. 00:22:16.079 --> 00:22:18.000 Jesus actually says this to many people. 00:22:18.400 --> 00:22:26.240 Your faith, a spiritual reality, the amount of faith and belief you have in God, has healed your body. 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:34.720 That there's an overlap, that a spiritual reality like faith can actually influence a physical condition. 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:38.880 And Jesus says it matter-of-factly, clearly. 00:22:39.519 --> 00:22:41.279 Your faith has healed you. 00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:43.680 That's an example of overlap. 00:22:43.839 --> 00:22:45.680 But like I said, it's not always positive overlap. 00:22:46.720 --> 00:22:48.400 It's not always a good thing. 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:53.759 Matthew chapter 4, Jesus has been baptized, and immediately after being baptized, we get this. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:57.920 Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:01.359 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. 00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:07.519 And during that time the devil came to him and said, If you're the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread. 00:23:07.599 --> 00:23:08.799 But Jesus told him, No. 00:23:09.039 --> 00:23:13.680 The scriptures say people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. 00:23:13.839 --> 00:23:19.599 Then the devil took him to the holy city Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and said, If you're the Son of God, jump off. 00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:21.200 It's like, prove it. 00:23:21.440 --> 00:23:28.799 For the Scriptures say he will order his angels to protect you, and they will hold you up with their hands, so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. 00:23:28.960 --> 00:23:32.559 And Jesus responded, The Scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God. 00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:37.839 Next, the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:44.160 I'll give it all to you, he said, if you kneel down and worship me, get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him. 00:23:44.400 --> 00:23:47.440 For the scriptures say, You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:23:48.720 And then the devil went away. 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:52.000 And angels came and took care of Jesus. 00:23:52.400 --> 00:23:54.319 So here we have overlap. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:23:57.519 Jesus is out in the wilderness, which would have been like a desert. 00:23:57.599 --> 00:23:59.359 He's fasting for a long period of time. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:01.680 He's praying, he's preparing for his ministry. 00:24:01.759 --> 00:24:04.480 He's about to go public and in a big way. 00:24:04.720 --> 00:24:08.559 And he has this interaction with like the devil. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:12.559 Just in person, one-on-one. 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:16.960 It's it's if someone came to you and said, like you're like, what'd you do yesterday on Saturday? 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:18.720 Oh, I had a weird day. 00:24:18.960 --> 00:24:20.880 You know, I was just hanging out in my house. 00:24:21.039 --> 00:24:24.640 Then all of a sudden the devil shows up, starts trying to get me to do all kinds of crazy stuff. 00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:26.640 But I was like, devil, I'm not having it, go. 00:24:27.359 --> 00:24:30.079 You would be like, again, here's the game that we play in our brains. 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:32.799 Is this true or is this person nuts? 00:24:33.200 --> 00:24:33.759 Right? 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:35.839 But Jesus clearly isn't. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:43.119 Jesus, he simply had a comfort level talking about spiritual realities. 00:24:43.279 --> 00:24:44.319 He talked about it all the time. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:46.480 Spend some time this week, read his teachings. 00:24:46.799 --> 00:24:57.680 Jesus can just simply, out of one hand, out of one side of his mouth, just be talking about anything that's happening to someone in the real world, and then all of a sudden just switch and be like, oh, this is because you have to pray. 00:24:57.839 --> 00:24:59.839 This is because uh there's a spirit at work here. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:02.000 It just kind of could flow with that really easily. 00:25:02.079 --> 00:25:03.920 He wasn't superstitious. 00:25:05.759 --> 00:25:07.839 He wasn't saying that there was a demon around every corner. 00:25:07.920 --> 00:25:08.480 It wasn't like that. 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.119 In fact, there were times that people sort of were superstitious. 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:17.839 There was a man that had been born blind, and people thought, well, it must be because of you know some great sin in his parents' life. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:20.480 And they asked Jesus that, and he's like, no, guys, that's not how it works at all. 00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:21.440 He's blind. 00:25:21.680 --> 00:25:23.119 And he healed him. 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:36.559 So Jesus wasn't superstitious, but he was very comfortable with the reality of spiritual, spiritual beings, a spiritual world, both good and bad. 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:45.839 And where this becomes really important for us is look, there is someone working against us. 00:25:47.279 --> 00:25:48.880 We do have an enemy. 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:57.920 And this year we will work against someone or something, and we better decide to work against the one who's really working against us. 00:25:58.240 --> 00:26:03.279 Otherwise, we're wasting our time and we end up playing right into our enemy's hands. 00:26:04.240 --> 00:26:06.640 So, who are we gonna work against this year? 00:26:07.359 --> 00:26:26.319 Our battle is not against flesh and blood, our battle is against unseen spiritual forces that mean to disrupt our lives and our ability to have a close walk with our God. 00:26:27.039 --> 00:26:28.880 Again, I believe this is either true or crazy. 00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:31.039 I've experienced it enough to believe it's true. 00:26:31.279 --> 00:26:53.039 And I think if we can understand this, if we could actually approach our lives in this way, when we deal with frustrations, when we deal with rough situations with other people, with whatever's going on in our lives, really difficult circumstances, if we could first stop and discern that very often we are dealing with a spiritual reality that is influencing what we're what we're experiencing, we could save ourselves a lot of trouble. 00:26:53.519 --> 00:26:55.680 We wouldn't spin our wheels so much. 00:26:56.160 --> 00:26:59.440 Working against people that really aren't, at the end of the day, our true enemy. 00:26:59.599 --> 00:27:00.319 So, how do we do that? 00:27:00.480 --> 00:27:02.000 We'll talk about this pretty quickly. 00:27:02.240 --> 00:27:03.599 It's like it's easy. 00:27:03.680 --> 00:27:04.319 It's not hard. 00:27:04.480 --> 00:27:05.200 This is super simple. 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:05.839 I'm just joking. 00:27:05.920 --> 00:27:06.720 This is really hard. 00:27:06.960 --> 00:27:08.160 I said, like, how do we do that? 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:09.599 As if, like, yeah, I got 10 minutes. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:12.160 We can just uh all right. 00:27:12.799 --> 00:27:17.359 At the end of the day, I think we have to start by recognizing that our enemy has strategies. 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:19.200 It says it right there in the scripture we read. 00:27:19.279 --> 00:27:20.319 The strategies of the devil. 00:27:20.480 --> 00:27:22.000 Some translations say schemes. 00:27:22.160 --> 00:27:26.160 Like, so our enemy has, you might just call it a playbook. 00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:29.920 There are certain things that our enemy thrives with, certain things that he likes to use. 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:30.880 Let me give you some examples. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:31.680 Fear. 00:27:32.640 --> 00:27:33.440 Fear. 00:27:35.279 --> 00:27:45.279 We are told in 2 Timothy 1.7 that our God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:47.519 Some translations will say a sound mind. 00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:51.200 Satan thrives on fear. 00:27:52.640 --> 00:27:56.000 And we don't tend to make good decisions when we're afraid. 00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:58.000 Have you ever noticed that? 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:02.799 How poorly you can think when you're really afraid of something. 00:28:03.359 --> 00:28:04.640 And this is an example I've used before. 00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:06.559 It's a little bit of a cliche, so I apologize. 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:09.039 But like it's it's like when you see a spider and you scream. 00:28:09.119 --> 00:28:11.279 Has anyone ever screamed when you've seen a spider? 00:28:11.599 --> 00:28:12.480 Just be honest. 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:14.000 Come on, some of you, like, raise your hands. 00:28:14.079 --> 00:28:14.480 Proudly. 00:28:14.559 --> 00:28:15.680 Come on, I'll raise mine. 00:28:15.920 --> 00:28:16.559 Yeah. 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:18.480 Like that is so silly. 00:28:19.200 --> 00:28:21.119 The spider should scream. 00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:22.000 You know? 00:28:22.480 --> 00:28:23.359 That would make sense. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:29.839 Like, oh my, a giant creature that could squash me with its finger, but we're like a tiny little thing. 00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:32.240 Ah! Like, you know, that's how we are. 00:28:33.359 --> 00:28:37.119 And, you know, spiders in America, we get we're blessed in North. 00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:39.039