Unlocking the Power of Spiritual Warfare 🛡️

Welcome to Friendship Vallejo. I'm Pastor Justin, and this is the place where everybody's welcome, nobody's perfect, and anything is possible. I don't have a title for this. I don't really have a, like a call, a text, sit down, and all of this. We're going to be jumping all over the place. And so if I were to do anything and be trying to attempt to answer the question of how do we engage in spiritual warfare? I think that's kind of the question I would. I would posit for us this morning. How do we engage in spiritual warfare? And so grab your Bibles, go to Ephesians, chapter six. And we're going to start in Ephesians 6, verse number 12. And I want us to see this because spiritual warfare is really summed into two different scriptures. And on the back of your bulletins, the first half of this sermon, you're going to see listed, take away the spiritual, the armor, and I'll give you some other stuff in a second. All of you watching on you on YouTube, thank you so very much. Y', all, we have, like, 80 individuals who are watching us on YouTube, so, hey, YouTube, God bless you so very much. Do us a favor, make sure you like and subscribe to our YouTube channel. And I'm so glad you guys are tuned in. To all of you watching on Facebook, I'm so grateful as well. Do me a favor, like, and share this, and I need your help today on YouTube and Facebook. I need you to help me put my sermon points and things in the comment section. So please engage. Don't just watch, but please engage. I know you're watching NFL Countdown. The packers start playing in an hour and 13 minutes. I understand, I understand. But here's what I need you to do. I need you to re engage with the word amen. And do me a favor. Before we go watch the packers absolute dismantle the Falcons, I need you to comment on YouTube and comment on Facebook as well. All right, so let's jump into this today. So let's engage in spiritual warfare. Go to Ephesians 6, verse number 12. It says this. Spiritual warfare summed into two scriptures. Ephesians 6, verse 12. If you don't have this underlined, underline it. The scriptures we call today underline, highlight them, please. Here's a challenge I give you. I wrote a book called Sermon Notes. It's on Amazon. And one of the things, I want you to look at your emotions before we dive into the word of God. And then also, every time you have a Scripture that is called, I want you to write the date next to it in your Bible. It's important because these dates are markers in time. So I want you to mark the date in your script in the Bible. I want you to mark it in your margins of your Bible. Just mark the date. You can write the service time, write the church if you want to as well. So just write the date on the side of it. That way, when life hits you or you're searching for something, you1 know what sermon to reference, you know what scriptures we reference, and it helps you build a dictionary. Was it a thesaurus? Dictionary, Dictionary, more so. I don't know, a reference book. Reference book. There you go. A reference book of where to go to when life hits you. And it's not just my words. You can go to it and then also. Then go find the reference points and you're in the. On the. The online as well. All right, so spiritual warfare. Ephesians 6, verse 12. Our struggle, our wrestle, our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of at of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Spiritual warfare is. This is spiritual warfare. You are never fighting people. You are fighting a spirit. I want you to hear this. You are never fighting people. You are fighting spirits. So spiritual warfare requires a different type of weapon. And the weapon that spiritual warfare requires is the weapon that Jesus tells us in the Great Commandment what he wants us to do. And he says, I want you to love the Lord your God with all your heart. Then he says, I want you to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Right? The issue we have here is that if I don't love myself, I can't love you. I'm gonna let that sink in for a second. If I don't love me, I can't love you. And the reason I don't love me is because now I've slapped the creator God in the face by saying, by not loving me, I don't like the one who created me. And so we have. It's a whole. It's a whole triangle. You love God, love yourself, love others. And if one of the sides of those triangle is knocked out, love doesn't exist. And so the reason we get into battles with people people is because we've fallen out of love with ourselves. We don't love other people because, first of all, we're not in love with God. This is the challenge that Jesus says that love then is not something that is defined by the world. Have you noticed in this world, we just throw the word love around? Like, we love our cars. We love. We love. We love our houses. We love our jobs. I meet you. I meet you at the bar for 15 minutes. I am so in love with you. To me, it started singing a song. I'm so in love, I'm losing my mind. I'm on emotional roller coasters. I met you yesterday on Tinder. Now all of a sudden, my whole life is upside down. I'm in love with you. Everybody's mama, everybody's daddy, everybody's auntie, everybody's sister, everybody's brother. Oh, my God. The thing about it there, I love Courtney Marie Lester. I love Camden Nehemiah Lester. I will go to war for Courtney and Camden. I love them with a love. Because every single day, I choose to love everything about them. The disciples walked with Jesus for three years. He loved them more than they loved him. For us to think that we can just throw the word love around and the reason Satan begins to win is because we've just given love to everything. I love my cars. I love my clothes. I love my friends. No, no, no, no. There's a love. I will go to war. Like I told somebody one time a while ago, said, you want to see a side of Justin, like you want to see Roselle come out, cross me about my wife for my son, right? I will snap a neck real quick. I remember one time somebody said something about my father after church one Sunday. My dad was a pastor and one of the kids. I was in youth church with something my father and I. I was 6, 4, a starting left tackle for my football team. Why would you do that? I crossed him so bad. Say something about my family and. And I'm across you, but say something about one of my friends. Ooh, that's weird. I'm going to be there with you because there's a love. I like them, I know them, but I don't choose daily to love the bad parts about them. There's a difference. You don't love your car. You just really, really like it. If you don't love your like you love, you love certain things we've thrown love around that we've misinterpreted and taken power from the love of Jesus. What did Jesus do? He gave up his body, stayed on a cross for six hours to show you when we rejected him how much he really loves us. We don't have energy to give that love to every single thing in our lives. And so the reason we don't love people fully is because we're loving all everything around us. Everybody has access to deep parts of your heart that places only your spouse or your children or God need to be. So I'm not saying we don't need to like people and treat people with dignity and respect. But we have to be mindful of how Satan loves when we love everything. Because here's what Satan does. Go to John 10 and 10. I wanted to show you this. Satan has one thing he does. Satan is not some slithering little snake coming and hissing at you. Say I look at Satan like a lion with no teeth, right? What's he going to do? Like gum you to death, right? He looks really, really massive. He's got no nails, he's got no teeth and he's just going to roar. The devil can only do what God allows Satan to do. So let's look at what God allowed Satan to do. John 10:10. He says, Our greatest enemy does one thing. The thief comes to steal, to kill and destroy. That's it. He's coming to steal your ability to love. He's coming to kill your ability to love. He's coming to destroy your ability to love. Because if I can destroy your one weapon, I can keep you from having life and living life to the fullness. That's John 10 and 10. Your enemy. That's all Satan comes to do. Satan comes to steal your ability to love. Kill your ability to love and destroy love in your life. If you ever want to see where Satan's at. Work. Satan. Satan ain't working with your enemies. Like, he's not coming with a bad boss. He's not coming with clothes that are too tight. Satan ain't in your tight clothes. You need to go to the gym. I'm gonna let that sink because some of y' all mad. Satan didn't come with bad food. You don't season your chicken, right? Satan ain't in your chicken. You don't know how to cook. The thief comes to steal love, to kill love and to destroy love. How do we know that? Because it's the antithesis of what Jesus says. I do. I come. John 10:10 the that you might have life and live life fully. Life fully is found in loving others, not hating them. Because here's the issue we focus so much on hate. Everybody a hater. Everybody don't like you. We lose so much energy finding people who don't like you that you can't even rejoice in the people who do. Think about it. We come to church, you go to work and you're looking for the co worker. We you go to a meeting and as soon as the meeting is over, ooh, I bet that person was frustrated. Ooh, that person was weird. Did you notice that, that you missed the people who. Let me give you this principle. They're always more for you than are against you. I'm going to say that again because you want me to preach a sermon on haters. And ain't no hateration in this churchery, right? No. There's always more people for you than are against you. So Paul is giving this and he's a church planner. He's telling him this is how you fight. Go to Second Corinthians, chapter 10. So Ephesians 6. Our battle is not against people. Your battle is against the authorities of the dark world. What is the dark world doing? Stealing, killing and destroying. So then what do we do with spiritual warfare? Go to Second Corinthians, chapter 10. Second Corinthians 10. Paul says this, verse number three through five. I want you to underline this, want you to hold this. For though we live in a in the world, we do not wage war like the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, we have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. The world's fights try to make you doubt God's truth. We'll be really clear. So. So what do we do? How do we do this? Here's the one thing. How we do this one thing. How we demolish arguments, how we demolish strongholds, how we set how we kill every pretension. He says we take captive every thought and make it obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ. Put it like this. I had a dog. His name was Prince. I love Prince. I grew up with Prince. He was a Rottweiler. And I wish he passed away unfortunately, but I had a dog. He was a Rottweiler. And Prince, Prince and I, we would train every single morning. We'd run before school, we'd run after. Prince would come and sit on the sideline of football practice. I grew up with this dog from a kid all the way till he passed. When I was out, when I was graduating from high school and my mother, I had friends come over my house. And when friends would come over my house after school, my mom would say, justin, put Prince in his cage. I wanted Prince to stay. But Prince was a Rottweiler. Prince was aggressive. Prince was a Rottweiler he was all over the place. He was being trained by a kid in middle school, so he didn't know what he was doing. My parents were busy, so I didn't know what I was doing either. I love my Prince. When my little. My sister's friends or my friends came over, my mom would say, justin, put Prince in his cage. Give Prince something to eat and tell Prince to sit down until your friends leave. So I would take Prince. Begrudgingly. I would take Prince. I put him in the cage. I locked the cage up. I'd tell Prince, sit down. And Prince would sit down because he knew who his master was. You. This is the principle of this text. Every thought that is against the Father, you have the authority to tell that thing, sit down and listen to Jesus. We get so comfortable with anger and cussing and animosity and jealousy and envy and things that are not the fruits of the spirit, but are the works of the flesh. So what do you do when your anger rises up? Sit down and listen to Jesus. What do you do when negative thoughts rise up about people you work with? Sit down and listen to Jesus. Because I. The one thing God tells us to do in spiritual warfare, you take every thought that is against the gospel and you make it obey Jesus. That's it. You don't have to fight people. You don't have to knock somebody out. You ain't got to give somebody a piece of your mind. You. You ain't got to lose your mind. Go gray early. Get a hunchback early. You tell your thoughts. Sit down and listen to Jesus. Paul is saying, you take every single thought. You make it captive. You tell it, sit down, because it came from my flesh, but you will obey the One who made me. And he's instructing the church to do something that was counterintuitive. Because the way we love to respond to tragedy, the way we love to respond to things around us is put me on stage and make my opinion matter. And what Paul is saying here is, no. The only opinion that matters is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you want to get through the tension in your life, you tell that thought that. That demon, that negative thought in your mind, that negative restlessness in your body, your sleeplessness, your grief, your pain. Sit down and listen to Jesus. So what are some things that you are holding on to because you don't trust Jesus? No, no, no, no, no. What things are you trying to become popular with because you don't trust Jesus? Paul says, the only thing you do in warfare, you love and you make Everything obedient to Jesus. You lay your emotions to Jesus. You lay your retaliation to Jesus. You lay your revenge to Jesus. You lay that status. I mean, your Kool Aid to Jesus. You lay that friend, that co worker, that loved one, that person you go to church with, that person you go bowling with that person you play dominoes with. You lay that in front of Jesus and you ask Jesus, what do you need me to do? And so we give Satan so much room because we try to fight stuff in our flesh where all you have to do is make it captive in the spirit. You do not fight people. You fight a spirit. And how do you know who's been hit with the spirit of division and dissension and helplessness and negativity? The ones who are living into the works of the flesh in accordance with to Galatians 5 and not trusting the works of the spirit. So what are they doing? What happens? Well, let me show you. In Scripture, go to Genesis, chapter three. We've made this stuff, I think, spiritual warfare so complicated. So let's talk about this. We focus on the. We've made so many people demons. We've made so many people demonic. I said this a couple weeks ago. That which you don't understand. We demonize. And so we're focusing on the wrong enemy. You're fighting your auntie, when really you got to deal with some trauma in your life. You're fighting your uncle, but really you got to have a conversation with God. You're fighting your co workers. Really, you got to have a conversation with God. You've outgrown a workplace, so you're trying to take somebody else's job when really it's time for you to move on. So let's talk about Satan. I know we don't like talking about Satan, but oh, baby, we got to name Satan so we can kill Satan. Because I don't live with devils, I cast devils out. I wish I had a witness in this Presbyterian church. I don't live with devils. I cast the devil out. But in order to cast the devil out, I got to know what the devil is doing. Go to Galatians, chapter three. Watch the text. Look at the text. Now, the serpent really here, the word there is more of a lizard. Because later in the text, God breaks his legs. We believe that at this time, Satan was actually more of a lizard walking in the dark desert, walking in the tree. And so when God cursed him to be on his belly, he breaks his legs, and that's when he becomes a serpent. The word here is not serpent, it's more of a lizard. But anyway. Now, the serpent was more crafty than all the other wild animals the Lord God made. So he said to the woman, did. Did God really say, you must not eat tree? Any eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we might eat fruit from the trees of the garden, but. But God did say, we must not eat fruit from the tree that's in the middle of the garden. But you must not touch it or you'll die. The serpent says, you will not die. Serpent said to the woman, for God knows when you eat from the tree, your eyes will be open and you'll be like God, knowing good and evil. Isn't that what sin does? Then the woman saw the fruit of the tree was good food, pleasing to the eye, desirable for gaining wisdom. She took some of it, ate it. She stood there, she turned to silent Adam and gave it to Adam, who was with her. And he ate it. Then both of their eyes were open and they realized. Chapter two, the last verse. They were naked. They put fig leaves together to cover themselves. Let me give you some tactics of Satan. I put this on your sheet and I want to go through this. Those of you online, I want you to make sure to put these in the comments. So what is the first tactic of Satan? Number one, Satan is cunning. Look at verse number one. He's more crafty than any other wild animals. God created every animal but this. Satan came along and he was cunning, he was slippery. Look what he says. He's cunning to them. He's slippery. Slippery. He's crafty. He's. He's creative. Satan is a creative, cunning thing. Number two, he's tempting. Look at the text. He came and said, did God really say, you can't eat this? Because watch this. You're only tempted by stuff you want. Back it up and dump it again. You're only tempted by stuff you really want. Satan was tempting. I know. You hungry. You know there's all these trees here. You sure you want this one? Because I promise you, there's something slick about this tree. Satan is cunning and he's tempting. Not only that, I can think about it. If you go back to chapter two. Eve had just come into the world's flesh had been sewn back together. Adam, finally, Adam's weakness. We're going to get to this later. Adam's weakness was that he didn't think he was capable of handling all of this garden. So God gives him a helper. And then now what does Satan do? Come and tempt them like, hold on, you want some more? Because listen, man, now that you got two of y', all, you can do some more. Satan tempts you with things you want. Not just that, but look what he says. He openly goes against the word of God. He openly goes against the word of God. Did God really say, are you sure? I mean, come on, think about it. Did he really say what he said? I freeze a series last month down in the DMs, and we talked about things. I gave you scripture. Even if I didn't agree with some of the stuff I went to scripture studied, it was on my face with it. And most of the emails I got afterwards were, pastor, I get it, but Pastor, I know God's. I know the Word of God says this, but my grandmama God. I know the Word of God says this, but what we used to do. I know the Word of God says this, but this is what a pastor before told me. No, that's like. That sounds a lot like Satan. Satan says, did God really say, are you sure? No, let's question it. Let's interrogate, let's deconstruct it. Did God really say the devil? In James, chapter three, James literally says, demons know there's a God. He knows the word of God. That's why the first people that recognize Jesus were not disciples. It was demons. They know the word of God and will openly question your stability in it. Did God. Be careful of people in your life who force you to constantly question the revelation of God on your life. Be careful of people in your life that when you tell them this is what the Lord has told me to do, they force you to question what God said. Watch it. To do what they think you should do. Well, I'm talking in this place. Not just that, but number four, what does Satan do? He diminishes the image of God in your life. All throughout chapter two, Adam was talking about Lord God, Lord God, Lord God, Lord God did this. Lord God made this. Lord God calling me to do this. And then the Lord God. And then in chapter three, did God, God. What Satan will cause you to do is to question what God has done in your life. Did God do it or did you do it? Do you really need to give God praise for that? Because look at you. Look how smart you are, Adam. Look how strong, strong you are, Adam. Eve. Listen, girl, you just got here, but you know everything in the garden too. God. Satan will cause you to move from Lord God to Did God. It's amazing. Lord God in that Text is a personal word there. It's an engaging word. The only person God had relationship in the earth was animals and Adam. And he moved from relationship with God, Lord God, to did God. Be careful of when things. Things come in your life to change your name for God. From Lord God to did God. Satan number five. He plays on your weaknesses. Adam had strength. In chapter two, Adam was silent. In chapter three, Adam had strength. The word there and the words in the Hebrew there. In the text, the Bible, we believe that Adam was about six inches from Eve. That's why she turned to her husband. She didn't go across the field. She didn't run across to another garden. And Adam was right there. But in chapter two, he's naming all these animals. In chapter three, he gets silent. Satan wants to keep you quiet. The power of life and death is in your mouth. And so what Satan wants to do is try to keep you quiet, to play on your weaknesses so you can be quiet and allow and try. Because what we love to do is play the blame game when it comes to sin. It's my mama's fault. It's my daddy's fault. It's that pastor's fault. You know what they said to me? You know that pastor didn't preach that sermon. Nobody told me. Because we get silent so we can play the blame game. No, Adam, this was your fault. Because God told you, not her, but you decided to be silent. The problem in our community, brothers, were too quiet. There's no reason why. We put out a plea to volunteer at Lincoln elementary for 30 minutes once a month. And the only people that have signed up are the three men that I pay at this church, having gotten one email, one phone call from one man to volunteer down at Lincoln elementary to watch over our children. But then we wonder why sex workers are standing right outside the playground. Men were too silent. And we're sitting there getting mad at Eve. Eve, why'd you do this? Eve. I can't believe. Eve. Now we're naked. Now we gotta cover ourselves up. Eve, I can't believe you're going to do this. No, because we're too quiet. Not just that, but look at Satan. He's a partial truth teller. He says, you won't die, but your eyes will be open. He gives them a truth they don't understand. He asks them a question they can't even answer. Are you sure this is. And not just that. But then lastly, he reveals that we don't listen. Adam was right there, but we didn't trust the word of God. So what do we do in all of this church? We got to face our fears, really. I believe we're afraid of the responsibility that comes with being gifted. Look at the. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter 6. Go to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. God tells us to fear him in such a way that will lead us to honor him, to worship him, to give God our all. That's why I talk about all the time, like, I ain't scared of none of y' all because I'm really, really scared of God. I will preach the gospel with clarity and dexterity because let me tell you something. I don't want my, my boss to fire me, right? And so when we get to a place where you realize your workplace, your marriage, your children, your life is an opportunity to fear God fully, you stop being scared of people when you realize, I know the one who made me. So do we honor our Creator, or do we honor creation more than we honor the Creator? I'm talking in this room. This type of fear. Go to Deuteronomy, chapter 6. Watch the text. Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. These are the commands, the decrees and laws. The Lord your God directed me to teach you and to observe in the land you're crossing the Jordan to possess so that you, your children, and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping his decrees and commands that I give you so that you may enjoy long life. I want you to underline that. I want you to hold that when you fear God, when you honor God, when you worship God. The goal here, so that you may enjoy long life only when we truly fear the Lord. All the authority that we're giving to worry and anxiety and fear when we give that authority to worship. I said this in our young adult group. I said, it's amazing to me, when we talk about self care, it's always like messiah massages and like sex and alcohol and going out to eat and going to a concert, whatever. Self care is, never worship. Like, we're not sitting here like, oh, I can't wait to care for myself by going to talk to the one who made me. Like, when my car breaks down, I go to the mechanic. When my phone breaks down, I go to the Apple store. When my life breaks down, I go have some sex or drink some alcohol. Like, I want us to really put this in perspective. We don't come to the one who creates created us to say, that's self care. We go to the World and say massages and alcohol and people and text messages and parties. Self care starts at the altar when you go to the one who made you. But the issue is we don't truly fear the Lord. So then that's where Satan comes in and makes us fear the world. So by worshiping God, by fearing God, we avoid being trapped by the world's pull to go our own way. Because by doing so we are defying God and it gives way to immoral behavior. Here's what fear does. Fear of God gives you a chance to do three things. It gives you a chance to worship. It takes away your worry and you always win when you are on your face. When you are spending time in worship with God, real fear will get put pull you to worship. Real fear will take away your worry and real fear will say, baby, I always win when I'm trusting God with that part of my mind and my body that is so consumed with the world and worry and fear and anxiety and stress. When I give it over to Jesus, it gives me a chance to worship. It takes away my worry for the future and I always win. You never lose in the press presence of God. I'm gonna say that again. You never lose in the presence of God. I. I bet you've never gone to your Bible, got out of your Bible and say, I just wasted my time. Look at me. I know, right? You've never gone to your Bible like man. Oh, I could have. I could have been on TikTok instead of reading my Bible. Not God gave me new revelation. Ugh, I can't believe I spent some. You never lose when you spend time worshiping the Lord. You do lose when you spend time honoring people more than you honor God. Go to Psalm 115. I'll show you in Scripture. Go to Psalm 115. I'm all over the place. I'm loving this. I am so. Whoo. Baby, we're not even in second Timothy yet. Oh my God, this is so much fun. And I have time, baby. This is good. Psalm 115 says this. Verses 1 and then verses 16 through 18. Underline, highlight this. Mark this off. This scripture is a scripture. I want to challenge this some of you to memorize and to sing even, right? Look at this. Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name be the glory. The the word glory there. Wilkes talked about this last week. The word glory there in the Hebrew is a weight term. It's a weight. So the so, so, so the word weight there is the same way. I want you to think about the sun and the or and the planets orbiting around them. That the sun has so much weight that it pulls things in order as well. That's what glory does. Glory pulls things in order. So when we're talking about glory in scripture, it is the weight of God that. So when we sing songs like throw your weight around, God put some things in order to look like you. So why do we give God glory? Why do we want God to pull his weight around? Because look at the verse, verse number one. Because his love and his faithfulness. That's a I could shout right there in my own shoes. I'm thank you, Lord, for your word. Why do I want God to put things in order in my life? Why do I want God to throw his weight around in my life? Because of his love and his faithfulness. Go to verse number 16. Because the highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to us. It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to the place of silence. And it is we look at somebody say, you, come on, look at somebody, say you, look at somebody say you come on, look at somebody say, you. You extol the Lord, not the dead. Both now and forevermore. When I am fearing God, I am not worried about creation. I am worshiping God now and forevermore. Because I always win. Why do I always win? Because God throws his weight around by. Because he loves me and God is faithful. And the church said, amen. I really hope you see this at the text. Like, this is so beautiful. So when we fear the Lord, we work. It gives me a chance to worship. I don't have to worry, and I always win. Now that's good in concept, because some things are good in concept. Until commitment is required. There's a reason why all throughout scripture, God and Jesus say over and over and over and over again, do not be afraid because we're afraid. And fear mismanaged leads to idolatry, leads to worry, leads to anxiety, leads to insecurity, and leads to a brevity of emotions. I'm not talking about fear of like spiders in the dark. I'm not talking about fear of heights. I'm talking about the things in your life like fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of intimacy, fear of losing control. Here's the principle I want to give you. What is fear? I've heard so often that fear is the opposite of faith. But I want to tell you this. Fear is a whole lot of faith in the wrong thing. Fear is placing faith in your what ifs? I want you to grab that. That's the first principle. Fear is placing faith in your what ifs. That instead of putting faith in the promises of God, we put faith in. But what if, what if they don't listen to me? Go to Exodus chapter four. I'll show you this in Scripture. Go to Exodus chapter four. Go to Exodus chapter four. Fear is putting faith in the what ifs. To give you Context With Exodus 4, Moses has murdered somebody. He went got married. He's on the backside of the mountain. God comes to him in a burning fire, in a bush. He calls Moses. And then Exodus chapter four, we get this conversation that Moses has with God. He calls Moses and knows Moses story, knows Moses, history knows everything about Moses. And look at Exodus chapter four. Moses responds, verse number one. What if they don't believe me? What if they listen to me and say, the Lord didn't appear to you? Fear he's having a conversation with God. And his response to God, when God tells him what he will do, what he will overcome, what will occur? Moses response, but what if don't we do this? What if the economy drops? What if my body gets weak? What if they don't like me any longer? What if we break up? What if my marriage doesn't go well? What if I lose my job? What if my spouse cheats on me? What if I can't have kids? What if my kids get hurt? What if my car wrecks? What if I never marry? God tells you what he's going to do in your life. And Moses first response, but what if? But what? And you know what he does? Look at what God tells him to do. I love this part of the text. God tells him, verse number two. He says, what's in. In your hand? That's a whole sermon. What's in your hand? And Moses has a staff. God says, throw it down. Can I give you this? What was written on that staff is what makes this so powerful on the staff. On the staff for these leaders were three things. Number one, you had your family name written on the staff. You had your tribe name written on the staff. And the way your staff was made, told people where you were from. So when God says, moses, the way that people are going to know that I'm walking with you is every time they see your staff. And he's like, bet. Because for him, my mom is on there, my daddy's on there. Where I grew up is on there. What high school I went to is on there. The tribe I'm with is on There. What people know about me is on there. How people think I'm popular is on there. My past is on there. So yes, the faithfulness of God is real. And God tells him, Moses, throw it on the ground. Because what's going to get you to set people free is not what's in your hand, but it's what's on your heart. And the issue is you are putting so much faith, Moses, in what's in your hand, you forgot what's in your heart. I called you Moses in spite of you. I selected you Moses, in spite of you. So throw down your history, throw down your past and trust me in the future, what things is God calling you to throw down so you can trust in him? That's a whole sermon right in of itself. Cuz some of us cannot move forward because you're telling God, God, I love you, but I need my staff. God, I love you, but I need, I need my past. I need my. I need the fear of the past to haunt me. Because I'm only comfortable in the fear of something retaliating against me instead of trusting you for my future. God, I need the grief, I need the, the trauma. I need the attention, I need the popularity. And God says, if you love me, throw it down and watch what I'll do with you. Not because it doesn't matter, watch this. But it matters too much to you. Not because what's happened in your life is not important. But it cannot be more important than God. Can I give you this principle? What you fear the most reveals what you value the most. So if you fear losing your marriage, what do you value? Your marriage? If you're worried about something happening to your child, what do you value your child? If you're afraid you can't pay bills, what do you value? Financial security. If you're afraid of death, what do you value? Life. Because what you fear the most reveals what you value the most. But here's the other principle to that. What you fear the most reveals where you trust God the least. Back that up again. What you fear the most shows where you trust God the least. You're afraid of losing your marriage because you don't trust God with it. We have a world that's not making Christian homes. We're imitating church people and not imitating Christ. So we don't know how to be Christian husbands or Christian wives or Christian parents. Because we found two people in church and are trying to mimic their marriage instead of asking the Lord, what do you need for mine? Because we don't Trust God with it. You're afraid of something happening to your child. Did you pray over your child's school this year? No, no, no, no. I mean, did you go lay oil? You took the elders, laid oil on top of that church, on top of that school, and said, no violence will come to this school? Or are we sitting there saying, oh, my God, I hope we get more officers? And we want to blame Vallejo PD for something you should have put your faith on. I ain't got none of y' all this morning if you can't tell. Because I got no fear, because I fear Jesus. Are you terrified of not having enough because you're not trusting God to be your provider? Are you afraid of dying because you haven't trusted God with your life? We know there's only one or two places you can go. You say yes to Jesus, heaven is my only option. You say no to Jesus, hell is that option. If I'm afraid of dying, it's because I haven't trusted God with my life. So I want you to answer the question. I put it on your sheets this morning. What are you not trusting God with? And I'm not saying this to beat you up. I'm saying this so we can bring God to it. Because I don't want to fix the symptom. I want to heal the disease. It's a challenge of, like, the reason we have to get root canals, because we didn't confront the cavity. So let's kill the cavity so we don't have to pay for the root canal. What are you not trusting God with? Fear reveals what you value the most. Fear reveals where you trust God the least. But thirdly and finally, fear reveals where you can grow the most. In your faith, fear reveals where you value the most. Fear reveals where you trust God the least. And fear reveals where you can grow the most in your faith. This is what I'm trying to get to in this text. Because fear shows us something that's so powerful. Go to second Timothy, chapter one, verse number seven. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse number 7. I'm gonna break this text down. I'm gonna close this sermon. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse number seven. I want to show you what God gave you and what God did not give you. And when we see this, hopefully it opens us up to see that there are certain things in your life that just, frankly, do not matter. Second Timothy, chapter one, verse number seven. Look at the word of God, for God did not give me the spirit of fear or cowardice. Read another translation for the Spirit God gave us. God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us three things, power, love and self discipline. For the spirit God gave us does not make you timid, but gives you power. Is that in your Bible? It gives you love. Is that in your Bible. And the gift of God gives you self discipline. What is cowardice in this text? The word cowardice there is manifesting all timidity, shirking and shrinking to the daily difficulties of life. That instead of you meeting difficulty with warfare, you meet it by shirking away and letting the difficulty overwhelm you. God did not give you that. What did God give you? God gave you three things. This is so important because the language that Paul is giving Timothy in here is to remember Timothy when you were called. Remember Romans 10, when God caught, when you said yes to Jesus and you were gifted with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. And the Holy Spirit does not make you fear people. The Holy Spirit does not make you fear the world because we overcome the world. That's cowardice, that's anger and that's shirking from the duties of your gift. When you fear a person is because you haven't trusted the one who made them to. And whenever you are concerned with retaliation or revenge, you are not trusting God's word. You have stepped out of your anointing and you've stepped back into your flesh and said, God, I can handle something because I think I'm wiser than you. Paul had a concern for Timothy, who was what? He was watching Paul at the end of his ministry. Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. Timothy, you are gentle, but do not let your gentle spirit be mistaken for cowardice or timidity. Because you will, Paul says, have adversaries against the gospel you're preaching. But you were never given the authority to be scared of the people you are preaching to, Timothy, because God did not give you that power. Let me tell you something. Just because you're nice doesn't mean everybody can take advantage of you. I'm talking in this Anglican Church. Just because I laugh and giggle doesn't mean you can cross me. Just because I'm nice to you and hug you doesn't mean you can cross me and treat me any type of way. Because let me tell you something, I'm trusting someone that you can't see and my trust ain't in you. That's why I don't trust arrogant people. I don't trust mean people because they put an authority in their emotions. When my authority, authority is not in my emotions. My authority is in somebody you cannot see. You can't cross me because I'm nice. I trust God too much that if you cross me. Matter of fact, let me show you what happens when you cross someone who is trusting God. Go to Romans chapter 12. I'm about to bless you all your Anglican heart. Go to Romans chapter 12. Because when, if you trust God and don't have to go around being mean, being arrogant, being ridiculous and cussing everybody out and slapping everybody on the face face and giving everybody a piece of your mind and screenshotting and sending stupid text messages and putting crazy statuses out, talking about people and subtweeting people and creating videos to tear down people. Let me tell you what happens when you trust God. Romans 12 says this. Romans 12, verse 17 through 21. I'm going to give you the gospel. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible. Live at peace. Don't take revenge, but leave room for God to do that. You can't do what God can do. I know, I mean you find 99. I mean you a bag of chips and some soda on the side. But let me tell you something, you can't do what God can do. So if your enemy is hungry, Paul says feed them that in your Bible. I just want to make sure I'm not, I'm not making up. Let me put a left. Let me lesterize this text. If your enemy tweets you or if your enemy puts a status up about you, like it, Help their algorithm because they want popularity. Feed them your enemy is thirsty, give them something to drink. They throw in a party. You didn't get invited, baby. Like share the status and honor them. You know why? Because what you're doing, the text says is you are heaping burning coals. Is that in your Bible? Is that in your Bible? I promise I'll make it up. I trust God too much to to waste my anointing on people who are ridiculous in my own life. I'm nice because I trust the one who made me. And I just don't have time to waste my oil on places that ain't gonna light a flame. So what is Paul doing? I'm giving this to you. He's telling Timothy, remember the day you met God. Remember the day that the Spirit dwelled in you. Remember what mountains like. Remember when you first met Jesus? And the mountains that you couldn't wait to cast into the sea because you just read your Bible. Remember how you felt, remember the authority, the battles you. You could face, and then you left out and went into the world, and it told you what you couldn't do, what you can't do, what your skin color says you won't do. No, Paul is trying to remind Timothy. No, no, no, no, no, no. God didn't tell you what the world told you. He gave you love, power, and discipline. He did not give you fear. So what is this? The word power is the works of the Holy Spirit. We believe it represents when Jesus, the Holy Spirit came and rested on Jesus in baptism. I'm gonna give you this, okay? I'm gonna. Give me five minutes. Go to Isaiah, chapter 11. I got so many scriptures. Let me see if I can get through this. Go to Isaiah, chapter 11. Let me show you this. What is the power of the Holy Ghost in your life? Let me show you what the power of the Holy Ghost does. The baptism of Jesus and the opening of heaven was prophesied in Isaiah, chapter 11. And let me show you this in Isaiah 11. Isaiah, chapter 11, verse number three says these words, verses one through three, one through three says this, a shoot will come out of the stump of Jesse Jesus, and from his roots a branch will bear fruit. Verse 2. And the spirit of the Lord will rest on him. So what does the power of the Holy Ghost, what does the Spirit of the Lord do for us? It gives you wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he delights in your worship. So when God says, I gave you power, I'm resting on you to give you wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and worship. What are you doing with that? Or are we more consumed with the world and worry and fear? Number two, he says, I give you power. Number two, I give you love. The love here, the word there is very interesting. It's authenticity. He said, timothy, he gave you authenticity. The way that you know someone or people in your life are not for you is when they try to make you live outside of the authenticity that God gave you in the first place. And so the world was trying to tell you who you are so you don't have to trust what God says you are. I said this two weeks ago. We live in a world of same. Everybody's got the same marriage, the same children, the same, the same job, the same this, the same that. And the people we eviscerate are the ones who decide to live differently. No, they're being authentic. Paul tells Timothy, timothy, God gave you power. The work of the Holy Ghost. He gave you love, authenticity, Then here's the gift that he also gave you. Self discipline. Go to Titus, chapter one. Titus, chapter one. Go to Titus, chapter one really quickly. Titus, chapter one. Then we're gonna come back to Second Timothy. Then I promise you I'm done. This is my third close. So go to Titus, chapter one. Look at this. I hope this is helping anybody today. I hope I'm helping. Titus, chapter one, verse number seven says these words. Since an overseer manages God's household, he must be blameless, not overbearing, not quick temper, given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, he must be hospitable. One who loves what is good, self controlled, upright, holy, disciplined, must hold firmly to the trustworthy message that's been taught to so he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. Now, I want you to see this. These words are intentional. Self discipline is not a personal achievement. Self discipline is a gift from God. Consistency is a gift. That's why the Spirit will convict you when you get out of line with yourself. The Spirit will assist you to teach, to train, and to correct. But you cannot do that Hallelujah to other people if you first don't let trust, the gift of God in your life to do it with you and him. If you are not allowing God to teach you, you can't teach others. Sorry, that is new. If you are not allowing God to train you, you can't train others. And if you are not allowing God to correct you, you cannot correct other people. God is not giving you the Spirit to be fearful. But what happens is, because I don't like what I've been given, I then lowered my position and power over other people. But God says no, you have been empowered to have power. You've been gifted with love, and you've been gifted with the ability to be disciplined. And so what do we do with this? We'll go back to second Timothy and let's read the entire movement of this text. It is so beautiful that if we isolate that one verse out, I think we miss the authority of the entire verse. Look at what Paul writes to Timothy. He says, I thank God whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear consciousness night and day. I constantly remember you in my prayers, recalling your tears, longing to see you, that I'm be filled with joy. I'm reminded of your faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I'm persuaded, now lives in you. For this reason, I want you to grab this text. Paul says, I want to remind you, fan the flame of the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands. For the Spirit of God did not make you timid, but gives you power, love and discipline. So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord or. Or me as his prisoner. But join with me, Timothy, by the suffering of the Gospel, by the power of God. Why? Because he has saved us. He has called us into a holy life, not because of anything we've done, but because of his purpose and his grace. The grace that was given to us in Jesus Christ before the beginning of time, but is now has been revealed through the appearing of Jesus. Timothy, we saw Jesus. And what did he do? He destroyed death. He brought to life. He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. And so this Gospel church, you've been appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That's why you suffer. That's why you go through what you go through. But you are not shamed with the gospel. Verse 12. Because I know who I believe in. And I am convinced that he is able to guard what he has put in me until the day he returns. So what you've heard from me, keep the pattern of sound teaching and faith and love in Jesus. Because here's the principle. Verse 14. Guard what God has deposited in you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit. Can I tell you this church and I'm done. Stop wasting your anointing. Petty things. Paul says guard what God put in you. How expensive is your gift to you? Because if you want to know how Jesus thinks about you, when the world wanted to kill you, Jesus said no, take me instead. You are so valuable that he gave his life so you could live yours. He stayed on a cross. And how powerful was your sin and my sin? It took Jesus, God six hours to deal with your stuff. So yes, it's heavy, it's impactful, so guard it. See yourself as expensive. I refuse to waste my minutes on my phone. I refuse to waste my worship of God. I refuse to waste my prayer time. I refuse to waste my worship time. I refuse to waste my family reunion. I refuse to waste the gift that God has given me on pettiness. How many times have you other people in this room? Let me be very clear. There are people in this room who are called to Peter. Preach like you really are and I'll start calling names if I need to, like you really, really are. But you're not guarding the deposit. And so the reason we get angry with other people is because other people are Doing what we know God has called us to do. Because the reason you can see the vision for something else is because you're called to it. You know, the other day, but we're calling humility. The other day, I was out of town for my birthday, and I asked Brandon to teach young adult group. Couple weeks ago, asked Cameron to teach young adult group. They did amazing jobs. I'm seeing the group message, and I'm seeing all these messages. Oh, my God. Like, thank you so much. Oh, my God, P.J. cameron, you guys are so amazing. Like, you guys did a really great job with the young adult group. My wife was like, how does that make you feel? And I said, it makes me feel great. She said, why? I said, because, like, I love young adults. My whole ministry has been built around ministering to people my age. But recently, God called me to minister to men, men 40 to 60. And I gotta. I gotta get in the ground. I gotta get in the city. I gotta meet elsewhere. And she says, you're not. I said, no, I'm not intimidated because God has assigned people who can still do that work because I got other work to do. But I said, but if I was intimidated, I would create conflict among gifted people. We create conflict among gifted people suppressing other people's gifts because we don't like where God is called. You. So you're mad at certain people who sing. You're mad at certain people who preach. You're mad at certain people who got stuff at your job. You're mad at the person your boss gave an assignment to. You're mad. No, not because you aren't gifted, but. But maybe you have to guard your gift and see the depth of your gift. Maybe our issue is what Paul was telling Timothy in verse 6. We stopped fanning the flame. We've gotten lazy. You are anointed. I want to tell you this church, you are extremely, extremely, extremely anointed. I think a whole lot of us are just really lazy. We're just lazy. And so we pick fights because we're bored. We don't like people because we're bored. We find stuff. We make up stories about people because we're bored. And. And the reason is I don't want the responsibility that I know my gift will bring into the world. So I then fight people who got it, because I know I have it too. I just don't want the weight of the responsibility. And so here we are. Because fear will cause you to get comfortable in places you're not supposed to be in. Fear will cause you to twist God's word to meet your standards instead of trusting his standards. Fear will cause you to run from people who are assigned to cover you because you're lazy. I'm talking to gifted people in this room who are just lazy. You, your first ministry, feel you're mad like Pastor Justin. You got to do this for kids, you got to do this for young adults. You got to do this for men, you got to do this for women. Pause. Why is your spouse not worshiping with you? You can't do anything here until you finish your first mission field, which is your home. Children are sitting at home watching football while you in worship by yourself. No, that's not the church's fault. That's your disciple making field. The reason we can't get outside of the four walls in certain areas is because we haven't finished the mission at home. You and your spouse don't worship together. You and your children don't worship together. You and your lover, y' all making love, but you aren't talking about love. Y' all texting each other but won't get into the text of scripture, talking about everything else. Your first mission field is your home. Your first mission field is secondly, then it's your workplace. And then the place we come to rejoice that Jesus is at work is church on Sunday. Church isn't the mission field, that is. But we're lazy. And so we fight there, we fight here, we fight at work, we fight in our jobs. We fight with our loved ones because the first place where God is calling us to be, we don't like the responsibility. What would happen if you trusted God where you didn't want God to go? What would happen if you trusted God to have an uncomfortable conversation with your child, an uncomfortable conversation with your loved one, an uncomfortable conversation with your spouse? And by uncomfortable, let's talk about Jesus. Y' all want to talk about this Jesus stuff? If you can't love me talking about Jesus, you don't love love me at all. Do you love yourself enough to trust that if you open up your mouth about Jesus, nothing will be wasted? I come against the authority we've given fear. And so here's how I want to end worship. Today we're gonna pray, and then I'm gonna. We're gonna have our benediction. And at the end of our benediction, I'm going to stay as long as I need to. For those of you who feel like your flame has died. God woke me up. God hit me last night. I was sitting there and I was ready to go. The Lord said, get on your face. I got on my face. And he took me to this text and reminded me my responsibility in this seat that I sit as pastor. The reason we see so much pettiness and ridiculousness around us is because I gotta fan the flame. I'm talking to 45 of you on YouTube. Actually, the Lord gave me, very clearly, 45 who need to be here at 11. You tuned in. You were gonna watch and then watch football or do something else. I need you in worship because your flame has gone out. There's 13 of you in this building as well. Your flame has gone out. You're fearful of men. You're fearful of women. You're fearful of life. You're fearful of finances. And that tells me where you trust God the least. Today, my authority, the power of God that sits on my life, I'm going to lay hands on any person who wants me to to fan your flame again. You are anointed. You are called. You are the beloved of God. You are the head and not the tail. But your flame has just gone out. Divorce life and sickness and grief. Your flame is dim. And I want to put that flame back high again. Every head is bound, every eye is closed, asking the Holy Spirit one question. Holy Spirit, what does this say to me? Holy Spirit, what does this say to me? Talking to people in the building where you feel. Where laziness has just really overwhelmed you. Today, I want to fan your flame. I'm talking to people in the building who life has just really, really hit you. And today I want to come against the authority you've given. Fear. I don't know if I could be a good spouse. I don't know if I can be a good wife, a good husband. I don't know if I'm a good enough. This. I can't preach because of this. If people only knew my story, they would do this to me. No. God says no. Today I want to fan your flame. You're not done. Your life isn't over. Your marriage is not done. Your children don't hate you. What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? What is the Holy Spirit saying to you? Let him minister to you. Let him minister to you. Those of you watching online, there's. There's, like. There's so many of you on YouTube today, God is really, really coming to you. He got me with you. So clearly I want to minister to you. You are not done. God just wants your flame to be relit again. Holy Spirit, thank you for your word. Thank you for its clarity. Thank you for your word that makes things make sense. I have some fearful people in here, God, people you love, people you care for, people you know. You know them fully. And God, I come before youe as an intercessor for so many of my anointed friends. God, we've been lazy. We don't want responsibility. Because, God, I don't. I don't feel like being the one that confronts the power. I don't feel like the one that kills the generational curse. I comfortable in the things I like to do, God. And I don't. I don't want to be the one that destroys the past and our family. But God, today, by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, God, I rebuke every stronghold. I rebuke every place where we've allowed Satan to have dominion. I rebuke God in the name of Jesus. Every negative word, every negative thing that someone has spoken over the lives of your. Your children. Father, in the strong, matchless name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I come against generational curses. I come against inauthentic living. I come against God, life and lifestyles that we've bought into that are contrary to what you thought about us. Father, in the strong, matchless name of Jesus, drive us back to our faces. Wake us up again with the gift you put inside of us. God, as we lay hands today, fan the flame of power and authority. Fan the flame of our gifts. Fan the flame of our spiritual warfare. Fan the flame, God, of our anointing that we will stop saying no to your yes. Father, in the strong name of Jesus, I give you my friends and I thank you for their lives. I thank you, God, for the people that we are called, called to via the people we will minister to. But God, before we get to others, God, I thank you for them. I thank you that you called them, that you made them, that you crafted them, that you blew life into them, that you know every strand of hair on their heads. You know the future before it happens. And so, God, every place they're worried. I pray you give them vision to handle. Every place they're fearful, I pray you give them strength to overcome. Come every place they're anxious, God, I pray you give them sight to run forward. Every place they're weak, God. Hallelujah. I pray you give them authority. Because you told us, God, you did not give us the ability to be fearful of the world, but you gave us love. You gave us authenticity. You gave us discipline. You gave us power. So, God, by the power that's in this in the both the bellies and the hearts of my friends who wake them up again to themselves. Wake up that gift of anoint that anointing that gift to preach that gift to sing that ability to lay hands Wake up the interpretation of scripture Wake up my friends again God, by the power of grace divine give us such clarity God that we can call a demon and devil a devil and cast it out that we get uncomfortable with the demons in our homes, the demons in our workplace places the demons in our jobs, the demons in our churches, the demons in our car, the demons at the park, the demons inside of school. We get uncomfortable with violence we get uncomfortable with abuse we get uncomfortable with anger we get uncomfortable with animosity we get uncomfortable with jealousy and fits of rage. But right now, God, wake up the fruits of the Holy Ghost inside of us that we will be people who love and have joy and have peace and have patience and have strength. God, thank you that your word is real and true. Thank you God that you have trusted us with these gifts. Forgive us for the times we told you no. Today God, awaken our yes Take away the fear we have and give us hope that's only in you and we trust what you said in Romans that hope will not make us ashamed. We trust what you said it's in Jesus name we pray everybody said amen I want you to try something can you take one moment and give God a joyful unfearful praise And I just want to challenge us let's take a moment can we just praise God without fear? Can we praise praise God without abandon? I want to challenge you I don't know what you're waiting on I want to challenge you let's end worship giving God glory without our fears Come on I want to challenge you Give God praise without abandon Come on I want you to give God a joyful praise I'll wait for you Come on I'll wait for you.