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April 4, 2023
Nurturing Faith and Family: Insights from Ephesians Chapter 6
In this episode, we conclude our exploration of the book of Ephesians, focusing on chapter six and discussing the significance of positioning ourselves in Christ and understanding spiritual warfare. We address the importance of raising godly children and the responsibility of parents to foster a genuine relationship with Jesus in their household. The conversation also covers the importance of honoring our relationships with our parents, children, and ultimately with God. We delve into the concept of the armor of God and standing against the devil's tactics. Join us as we gain a deeper understanding of our roles as parents, children, and devout believers in our faith, and be encouraged by the message of God's love and grace throughout this discussion.
Chapters
Transcript
0:00:01
Welcome to the city light church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with city light church, feel free to visit us at city light n y c dot com. That's city light n y c dot com. Pastor Bojan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the holy spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by his grace, and that he has a real hope and a future for you. Well, are you all ready for infusions? We've been in the book of Ephesians and we're now gonna conclude with Ephesians chapter six. What a glorious book This is a book in the bible that you can actually you can read the whole book in in one sitting or in a couple of days. You read it over and over again. So much strength, so much power, so much revelation contained in this powerful short six chapter book. But we're concluding with Ephesians six and verse one.
0:01:14
You can break down the book of Ephesians into three separate sections Each one called sit, walk, stand. We're first over and over again shown that we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ, the apostle Paul solidifies and cements our identity in Jesus. That we're in him. We're seated in heavenly places. We were raised up together with Jesus, and we're sitting in this place of rest, in this place of victory. Hebrews also just compares us seated with Christ with our position of rest. He gave himself up for our sins once for all, and then he sat down at the majesty on on high. At the right hand of the Magisteon high. Why did he sit down because the job was done? The work was done. Why do you get to sit down in Jesus? Because the work of your salvation is done.
0:02:12
And people get caught up of when is the Sabbath day, Saturday, Sunday, for the Christian, the new testament Christian, every day is aabbath day. Every day. Every day is a day of rest. Where you get to cease from your own religious labor. You get to cease from your own religious driving. You realize there's nothing I can do to contribute and add to the Christ. This is good news. Right? I'm glad he worked on it and finished the job so I don't have to work on it. What do I have to do? Yield, surrender, be with him, but I'm not working on my own salvation. I'm consumed with him and what he has already done. There's no more doo doo left for me. Thank god.
0:03:01
So you're sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and then because of how we're sitting, having been fully forgiven, fully accepted, fully approved, he then exhorts us to walk, walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called. In other words, because Jesus did all this for you and he has transformed your life and he has bought you with his own blood and he even took the job of salvation away from you. He did it himself and made you to sit together with him. Now because of all that, now you can walk. You can walk his children up the light. Walk in the light. And he stresses walking. And then as he closes, ephesians, encourages us over and over again to stand. Not to clog, not to fight, not to strive, but stand in the victory that was already accomplished on our behalf, Amen.
0:03:51
So he begins after having talked about families and the role of husbands, the role of wives, he begins at Fusion six, talking about the little kids, children. And he starts off with every parent's favorite verse and entire bible. Children obey your parents and the Lord. For this is right. Amen. What also needs to be addressed? I mean, this is given there's not much to to pull out from this. I mean, it's just factual, and we know it to be God's way, God's order. But there is also responsibility on parents here to raise their kids up so that they will want to obey and so that they will want to do what is right. Amen.
0:04:40
And I I am fascinated by this. I'm fascinated by it because I wasn't raised in a Christian home. And then I got saved as a teenager. And then when I started hanging around in churches, I was really taken aback. I thought all of the kids, all of the teenagers everybody would be on fire serving the Lord. I know how naive of me, but that's just what I thought. I thought this great gospel truth has been kept from me. My parents didn't know it. They didn't share it with me. And all these kids how privileged they are to be in homes where the parents know the gospel, but I noticed some were serving the lord with great passion and zeal and others, they were no different than the world. And then as I made friends, Christian friends, they would share with me what's happening inside Christian schools. And some of them were joking. Some of those Christian schools are worse than secular public schools. And I'm now as a teenager, I'm fast and how does this happen? And I want to make sure it doesn't happen to me.
0:05:38
And I've always when I see parents with with godly kids, serving the Lord pastor James and I have talked about this. His kids are older than mine. I've asked him. Tell me some things that you did. What are some things you and your wife prioritized? Your kids are both serving Jesus. I wanna know. But one thing that seems to be clear all across the board is that you, as a parent, you have to have a real relationship with Jesus. Kids are not gonna be attracted to rules of regulations and dead religion. Church unity isn't gonna come and rescue them. Christianity is awful. Christianity smells. But Jesus in a living vibrant relationship with him that's gonna bring life to them. Amen.
0:06:22
So with the parents, it has to start with the basics of a living true authentic relationship with the Lord, something that the kids can see. That's something that's put on. And I say this with love in my heart. One hit of kids' church or youth ministry a week is not going to do it. It cannot do it.
0:06:47
They are being I don't use this word lightly, They're not being taught now. They're being indoctrinated all of the time. They're being indoctrinated in school. Trained by their friends and they go home, go on their devices, algorithms are programmed for them constantly gunning for their mind, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, and then we think that one hour in a children's church and then talking to God over our food is gonna undo this. It's not. They can't see us just talking to God over our food. The thirty second blessing over dinner I'm talking about.
0:07:23
It has to be something that they see that they see that when you're a late or when something good happens, that you lift your hands and say hallelujah and give glory to God. It has to be that when they see you going through something difficult, a crisis that you go to the Lord first. It has to be seen that the lord and his ways in the kingdom are something that you and your spouse prioritize, and not in a forced way, but it's what comes up in conversation. And the little cameras are always recording. Oh, wait. It's like the eye of a store on you know? But we gotta we gotta protect our kids. Hallelujah.
0:08:02
God over and over again throughout the scriptures he places an emphasis on protecting kids. And this phrase is often throughout the scripture's godly seed. Godly seed. God is after godly seed. Godly kids who grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Hallelujah. Father in Jesus' name, I pray right now for all of our kids that are downstairs, the youth in our church, father that you would be round about them as a wall of fire, that you would protect them, and that you would put a special grace on all the parents. That we would be able to disciple and to love and to teach in a fallen world, in Jesus name, amen, hallelujah, Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise. And it is the first command with with promise. It's a blessing attached to the commandment. That if you honor your father and your mother, it will be well with you and your days may be long upon the earth. Who just wants long days upon the earth? If they're junky days upon the earth. But I want it to be well with me and my days to be long upon the earth, and there should be I mean, isn't it It should be a healthy, honor from kids. And now, you know, as we're going through Ephesians and we're seeing God's model for family, God's structure. God's order, which brings life, which brings blessing, it brings healing. And then you take a step back at culture and you look you realize why the enemy is after this most crucial and most important thing, the family, and the structure and the order of the family.
0:10:04
Another translation of that word honor, of course, it means to respect, to referentially deferred to. But another just so you know, when you see that word on there in the bible. Oftentimes, it's used as a synonym for material wealth and possessions. Closely associated with the word glory, which the first use of the word glory was Abraham loading up his his donkeys and his beasts of burden with so much wealth and so much treasure that there was a covet, a weighty glory that came upon them. Why am I saying this? Well, for several reasons, so that when you read in the scriptures, when the Bible says the Lord will give grace and honor no good thing or will he withhold from those that walk up rightly? You don't just go, oh, cool. The Lord gives grace an honor. What that is is a promise a prosperity and a promise of material wealth and provision, the Lord will honor you. When kings would honor one another didn't mean that they just sent banners and confetti. Whoo, I'm honoring you. There was a wage to it. Amen.
0:11:06
And also, I'm that know when it says children honor your mother and father It's also suggesting material provision. Let's get so quiet here. We're just Jesus, when he was rebuking the Pharisees, he talked about honoring your mother and father And then he said, you fair he sees, you're now telling the people that instead of the children honoring their mother and father, blessing them materially, that if they give that same gift to the temple, it's considered Corbin. It's considered as unto the lord. And in other words, they're saying, you don't even have to take care of your parents, which you were gonna give them give here to us, and it's cool. God sees it the same. And Jesus rebuked him for that. But the connection there is that in In teaching about honoring your mother and father, Jesus himself made the association, especially in a time where there was no social security, there was no safety nets in place, There was no but he also was gonna take care of him. He said it was on the kids to honor their mother and their father. Amen.
0:12:09
And everybody, you know what we all have in common right now, all of us? No matter how diverse these places we all have parents somewhere. Amen. Okay. I said that's maybe I could call a little bit of a stronger reaction, but If your response when I said that was I'm in the world. I don't wanna hear that. I'm trusting God for myself. I can understand that. But why not get to the place of faith where you believe for your own life. Lord, I am trusting that you're gonna make my cup overflow so much that even if my parents don't need it, I'll be able to be a blessing to them and get them some of those things that they never wanted to get for themselves. They just didn't even think they were worthy of those things. I wanna be a blessing to them in their sunset years. Amen. I want to honor them in that way. Hallelujah, it's in the order of god. It is right. It is holy. It is beautiful. And when you so honor, then you reap honors reward. Amen. Hallelujah. If we're good to our parents, We're gonna reap that in our kids, kisses and hugs and obedience and love that they show towards us. Hallelujah.
0:13:30
Verse four. And you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. But bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Let's look at that same verse in in the amplified bible. Isn't it funny when you call for the amplified and then it just to be continued. When I got saved, I thought all the churches in Brooklyn that their names were like out of the amplified bible. Like our name is city light church, But in Brooklyn, there's always like eighteen parts to the name. You know, our church of the Savior on his most holy hill of the most high god in Jesus Christ.
0:14:18
Fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Do not exasperate them to the point of resentment. With demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive, nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them. But bring them up, bring them up tenderly with loving kindness in the discipline and instruction, discipline and instruction. And the New King James that we originally just read that word training is used.
0:14:54
The nurture or training and admonition of the Lord, that word training is the same word that another place is in the new testament like in Hebrews is translated as chastisement. When we hear the word chastisement, we think somebody's getting hit Somebody's getting severely, cruely disciplined. It's not what it means. It's child train. When the Bible says, the Lord chastises that means he trains us. And the Bible is saying to the dead, two things.
0:15:20
Recognize that you're one of your primary roles is to be a teacher. New dads will ask me, what is what is the Christian role of a dad? I'll say it's three three things. One, protect, provide, and teach. You are a teacher. You are a teacher every day. And as you're teaching, what the verse is saying is, Don't crush the child's spirit as you're correcting. Hallelujah. And this ties into verse one about the emphasis and the weighty responsibility on parents to rear kids who want to obey. It's having a real relationship with the Lord, giving your kids space to explore their Christianity and teaching and answering questions.
0:16:05
Just last night, I'll do this awesome. I'll just ask you, do you have any questions about that? And sometimes I'll get no. I'm cool. Alright. You're set.
0:16:13
Last night, I said, hey, do you have any questions about God? He went, yeah. If God is so strong, why doesn't he just kill the devil? I thought, this is a good question. I've had that question myself, but you're you're not even lying yet and you're asking this question. And I told him, I said, well, Satan is defeated. He was defeated at Jesus' death burial and resurrection. That's where he lost his authority over us. In that sense, the devil has been defeated.
0:16:46
But the bible also speaks of a combination of all events. At the end of the age is when the lord himself will take Satan and his demons and throw them into the lake of fire. How many of you know the devil's not in hell? He's not burning in hell. He's the prince of the power of the air. And hell consequently was not made for people. It was made for the devil. Jesus said that it's for the devil and his angels. People end up in hell when they choose to follow after the devil and reject the free gift of salvation that's offered through Jesus Christ. So I told him that that eventually at the close of the age, the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire that burns forever. And in that sense, in your words, Victor. That's when God will kill the devil.
0:17:33
So does this make sense to you? Yes. Okay. And I wanna make sure it makes sense to him, but does he think I'm trying to be theologically slick to appease his precocious mind. I said, do you have any other questions? Goes, yeah, where's heaven? And I go, you take two left, you make a right. No. I I said, that's a great question.
0:17:58
The Bible oftentimes gives the location of heaven and the one word it just always uses is above. It's above. In fact, being born again can just as easily be translated as born from above, born from the kingdom, born out of heaven. But then he immediately followed up with, when I said above, I was kind of joking with him and having fun. And he said, but I Is it like another universe or another dimension? And I'm like, I knew watching those Marvel movies would open his mind up. He was gonna start thinking, Just not any of the new Marvel movies anymore. Amen. It's another message holiday. Protect your kids.
0:18:48
So I said, yeah, what do you mean? I wanted to hear what was in his heart. But this way, we're having a conversation about things that really a new believer of any age would have. And I just started to tell, yeah, about heaven. You know? We know that It is a different place, vastly different than this place, but they're very similar.
0:19:06
And he's he some people think it's only spirit but it's more than only spiritual because we know that Jesus is up in heaven in a physical flesh and bone body. You know the Godhead was forever changed after Jesus' resurrection? Because Jesus went up during the incarnation he assumed the body of a person. And at his resurrection, he went up in a flesh he's not switching bodies. He even said in the same way, you saw me go up. That's the way I'm coming down.
0:19:35
A lot of times people don't think about what form is Jesus in right now. It's an inflection bone but glorified body. Well, that changes everything then because we don't know the nature of a glorified body. We do see scenes at the resurrection. I'm getting away from infusions here, but this is a good stuff. I'm seeing. You see scenes at the resurrection where he just seems to appear out of nowhere inside rooms going through walls. It's it's different laws and principles that apply to this glorified body.
0:20:04
But when I tried to get away from when talking about heaven was this idea that heaven is only spiritual Because when you talk about it, there's only spiritual people tend to see it as ethereal, unable to be grasped by trying to hold a gust of wind. So heaven is not that real, you know, it's miss and cloudy and somewhere in the background. I hear the harp and it's not too compelling. It's nothing like that. Heaven is real. Heaven is more real than this stuff because the unseen created that which is seeing. And so we're just having fun talking about this and What's happening is we're we're laying the foundation and we're feeding the fire that's inside his belly. And we're just as far as Emily and I, we just have young kids. There's other parents here who have older kids than us who's absolutely done a phenomenal job. But that's something that just should be such a priority.
0:21:01
Those statistics about people who are leaving the church today and they're huge huge exodus out of the church when you peek under the hood and you start to examine those statistics, what you find is that the overwhelming majority of them are now the adults who grew up in church, but they grew up with a powerless version of Christianity. A dead version of Christianity and something that didn't help them. And now in their late twenties, early thirties, they're forsaking the Lord but this is something that's our job as parents to interrupt, and we cannot outsource this. Let's do you. Verse five, So the advice and the instruction to family concludes and verse five bond servants. Advice to bond servants, servants, and slaves. Be obedience to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and sincerity of heart as to Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers. But as bond servants of Christ doing the will of god from the heart.
0:22:33
We know that this verse has been used in the past to enforce or even promote the concept of slavery. If you know something about history, you may have heard that this is one of several verses that was used to actually tell slaves that it's God's will for them to be slaves and that it should be kept as slaves. A couple of points here. One, God is not for slavery. You cannot believe in a god who came in the form of man to redeem us from slavery. And say that this god is in any way, shape or form, pro slavery.
0:23:11
The vast, vast, vast majority of the instruction I'm keeping servants is actually for bond servants and uses that phrase, your bond servants or indentured servants. And there is a difference. A bond servant. Paul calls himself a bond servant of the lord. That means a willful servant. Oftentimes, it's even to refer to as a willful servant who's indentured in chains of love. They can go at any time, but they don't want to. This is something that was a part of everyday life in the ancient world. In a in a world where there once again were no safety nets, There was no FEMA that was gonna come and rescue you and your village gets ransacked and you lose half your family and you have nowhere to go and nothing to do. You just have to close on your body. Your best bet is then to connect with another family and say we're gonna work for you. We're gonna till your ground. We're gonna tend to your livestock, and you you will take care of us, and this this agreement of indentured servitude is reached.
0:24:12
But I want you to see a bigger picture here. And that's that god has, since the beginning, worked in the context of a fallen world. There are several things that you'll see him doing that is not God's will yet. You still see him allowing or doing those things. Why? Because he's working within the confines of a world that we messed up? He didn't mess it up. That's not his will. That's not his heart. The Garden of Eden was nice, as my wife is so quick to point out, they didn't even have to kill animals in the Garden of Eden. So perfect. I love a good carnivore diet, but nothing had to die. And God's perfect kingdom. But then we messed up. We're the ones who rebelled. We're the ones who saw Satan become the God of this world. And now God is moving and rescuing and orchestrating his plan under the canopy of a fallen world. So you'll see, for example, in the old testament, you'll see God give the children of Israel instructions on how to obliterate an entire opposing army and spare no one.
0:25:22
And I understand that's confusing atheists that Tolkien's character and the God delusion, he has actually used this phrase. He has said, the God of the Christians is the genocidal maniac, God. And I get that. You look at that and you go, this this this this looks crazy. What is that? That's God. Working, using and accomplishing his will, but in the context of a fallen world. God doesn't want any death. But now he's got to preserve the promise of the Messiah that holy seed inside of Israel, inside of the nation of Israel. And there's other nations that wanna wipe Israel off the face of the planet, or even in a more submersive way come in from the other side and intermarry with Hebrews, anything to dilute that seed, anything to keep the Messiah from coming. So within the context of that, mean, God would have left and say, we're gonna send a delegation and you're gonna negotiate with them, and it's all gonna be fine. And, no, there was no negotiating with when Satan had possessed an opposing nation to try to destroy the Messiah to come, there was only one solution. Wipe them all out. Is that God's heart? No. Is that his perfect will know? But he's working in the context of a fallen world.
0:26:35
Is servanhood? Slavery of any kind, God's will. Absolutely not. But back then he was saying, you you're you're all about this. Your whole economy is based on this. So we're gonna deal with this, but while you're figuring it out, at least be kind and gentle to your servants, amen.
0:26:56
Let me read to you this. The worst thing to happen is slavery, by the way, was Christianity. The gospel found slavery in the world. And in many regions, particularly the Roman and the Greek, it was a very bad form of slavery. The gospel began at once to undermine it with its mighty principles of the equality of all souls and the miss and dignity of manhood and of equal work of redeeming love rocked for all souls by the supreme master. But his plan was not to batter but to undermine. So while the gospel in one respect left slavery alone, it doomed it in another. Amen. Verse nine. And you masters do the same things to them giving up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven. And there is no partiality with him. Hallelujah.
0:28:00
Let me give you another example that just came to me. I feel like I've either lost some of you or you're just letting the peace of God wash over you and I'm listening now. This would be like a couple Emily and I are debt free. One hundred percent debt free have been one hundred percent debt free for years. This will be like a couple, Amen. And that's God's will, by the way.
0:28:21
If the Bible says, God, he hates that. In fact, talking about slavery, it says that if you're in debt, you're a slave. And God doesn't want you in debt to anyone else. So let's say now a young couple, massively that comes to Emily and me and says, look, we have all this debt. I want you to meet with us. Well, I'm gonna meet with them. And I'm gonna find all these ways of how I'm gonna put go full on holy ghost Dave Ramsay on them. Right? I'm gonna bring in faith, I'm gonna bring God's will for prosperity, I'm gonna bring in those basics, and I'm gonna work with them on that debt. Does that mean that I like that? No. Does that mean that God approves of that? No. But we're gonna work in the confines of that system that you created for yourself. And over time, we're gonna get you out. Amen? Hey, man. That's the best I can do right now. How about you guys? Hallelujah.
0:29:14
Verse ten, finally my brethren. After everything you've just learned and everything I taught you, Stent. Just stand. This is something we as Christians have to be comfortable doing. I know the motivational gurus and the experts and every third person is, if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward, and you gotta go. You gotta I understand all that. That has a place. But also in Christianity, there are ebbs, there are seasons, and not always, can you be making giant leaps and strides forward. There is a time where you just need to stand. Stand your ground. And over and over again here, we'll see Paul is using the word stand. It sounds nuanced. It sounds like like just a little a little change here in our thinking, but this is important. He's saying stand because you are victorious. This is so important when you are in a crisis, when you're finding yourself experientially in a pit.
0:30:18
It's so easy to get a defeatist mentality. It only takes like a few days of getting hit. And by day three, I've seen some of the strongest Christians just if they're not encouraging themselves and letting others encourage him within three days, it's overwhelming. You're getting clobbered out there. But you never want to see yourself as the clubboard one clawing their way up trying to get back to the mountaintop.
0:30:41
When the reality. God's reality, which is the truth in the mind of God, you are victorious. You are the conqueror. The bible calls you more than a conqueror because Jesus did all the conquering and then gave all the benefits to you. So you're not the defeated trying to get the victory. You're the victorious standing their ground. Amen. You're standing your ground. This is important.
0:31:12
That shift in attitude. I'm not trying to get to victory. I have the victory. And I'm gonna stand in the victory that Jesus purchased for me. And all Satan can do is bring doubts confusion, emotions trying to get me to what? Just one thing. Stop believing that I'm in that place of victory. So there is this this holy stubbornness. There's bulldog tenacity. The stickability that we're supposed to have is Christians. Where we just stubbornly believe what the word says about the situation. I'm not gonna change what the word says when I feel pressure from outside situations. I'm gonna exert pressure from the word outwardly until my circumstances line up with what the word says and not the other way around. Amen? Amen.
0:32:03
Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord. I notice it doesn't say be strong in and of yourself, but be strong in the Lord. And it's really his echoing in first Samuel where David, can you believe it? He had all his mighty men. They loved him, but some bad things happened, and they picked up stones in one of his stone. And he went and he the bible says he strengthened himself and the Lord. And it's saying, you be strong, but not in and of yourself. Be strong in the Lord. Not my mind. I don't have any of my own. But in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able and there it is again to stand against the wilds of the devil. So he introduces now this concept of the armor of God, which we're gonna get into in just one second.
0:32:55
Let me talk about this thing called Wiles. He says, put on the whole armor of God and you'll be able to stand against or withstand the wild, which is another word for strategies, the the clever craftiness of the devil. Of which she has multiple strategies. But he's not very creative. He is a created being, and so he reuses and recycles and repeats a lot of his strategies and wiles.
0:33:27
And there is one strategy that I've labeled strategy number one. His most often used strategy. A classic. And you find it throughout the whole bible starting in Genesis right in the beginning. He comes to man when they're in the garden of Eden, where they didn't have to kill any animals. This is a perfect, beautiful place. And they have everything they could possibly want. And what does he do? He put his finger and points to the one thing they don't have. Oh, but you're not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he just awakens all that covetousness, all that lust, all that desire and disturbs their peace by highlighting the thing that they don't have and causing them to forget and ignore all that they've been given. That's strategy number one. That's a classical devil move. And he's been doing that since, you see it throughout the whole of scriptures, and he's doing that right now.
0:34:33
If you're wondering, Why you may be struggling in the area of joy? Constant frustration. Ask yourself, Am I not paying enough attention to what he's already given me? There there is a As with many truths in the gospel, there's attention. There's attention. On the one side, it says be content. Contentinence is such a blessing. In the same way, you wanna break barriers? Don't show you should. You said, do you wanna move forward? You wanna receive and realize the promises of God? That's all right. That's all good. But not if it consumes you to where you've lost your peace. Abethallelujah. Amen. So put on the whole armor of God. And he tells you why you need the armor of God.
0:35:30
For we do not wrestle verse twelve, and this is anyone who's ever blown a shofar away with the banner in church. You know you love this verse. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Note that he uses that word wrestle very specifically. Because you're at the top. In Christ, you have the victory. And there's just a attention, a wrestling, what Satan endeavoring to do. To just get you to stop believing that you're at the top. To get you to stop paying attention to the fact that Jesus has purchased your victory with his blood. And so there's this wrestling. The battle is in the arena of faith. And this verse is so true and it's so powerful. And at the same time, it's been used in bizarre ways to get god's people more devil conscious than they are God conscious. And so you can go into Here he actually begins to describe levels and hierarchies of demons. And I know there's whole teachings that get deep deep into that. And I I explored them early on in my walk with the Lord, and then I just put it down because I saw zero fruit to becoming a pastor who's an expert at demonology also. It's enough for me to know that they've been defeated And there's some other key things to know.
0:37:14
These principalities, they're high ranking spirits. They're up in the air. They reign over entire territories, usually entire over entire political systems and regions. And that's what a pro a principality is in Daniel, He tells Daniel during his fast that the Prince of Persia resisted him when the angel comes to bring The answer to Daniel's prayer says I wanna come sooner, but the Prince of Persia resisted me. Well, he's not talking about the physical Prince of Persia. Somewhat the spiritual prince of Persia, a principality that was also influencing the natural prince. And so there are these things called principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness and heavenly places.
0:38:06
What's important for us to know? A couple of things. One, they don't have any authority over our lives. This is important to know it at the cross Jesus stripped Satan of his authority over us. The words authority and power are often used into changeably or translate it interchangeably in our bible. Satan still has some power. If you didn't have power, we wouldn't be told to put on the whole armor of God. But over us, over the blood lord Christian, he doesn't have authority to an unbeliever who's out there alone and exposed, the enemy has authority over them. Really to do as he sees fit. And that's why he runs a havoc and runs a mess in people's lives. But to the believer who knows who they are in Jesus, Who knows their rights in Christ? Who believes? Who goes around believing the truth? Which is the devil has been defeated and is under their feet? Then he's defeated for them and he doesn't have authority over them. Amen. And so I encourage you don't get too caught up with trying to become an expert on the demonic. Maybe after you've become an expert on Jesus, go in that direction. First first get completely consumed with him, his person his word and you you'll find then that other stuff just kinda is taken care of. Amen.
0:39:30
I've never seen a Christian obsessed with demons and a demonic walking in victory. Never. There always a mess. Always in pain. Always did so much drama and movement in their life. I'm not gonna be invited back. I can tell. You know, some people they have their pet pet doctrine. You can come against anything, but don't come against I feel so important when I'm tearing down principalities. Don't tell me I can't. You don't know what I did. You're preaching today, pastor, because last night, it was two of them. I shot them out of the sky. That one I took out with a shukka high at eighty yards. The other five, I shabbered away.
0:40:24
One thing to know about these giant ranking spirits in the sky, they're real. And guess what? They have a legal right to be here. You can't go and rebuke the principality. You can't cast it down. You can't shout it into submission. You don't wanna hear this. They have a legal right to be here. You said, when did they get the legal right back in the Garden of Eden? When men sold out and committed high treason against God, that's when Satan became the God of this world. And so these giant territories, they're not going anywhere until that age. They have a legal right to be here. They don't have a legal right to be in my life. That's illegal. They don't have a legal right to intrude in my church, on my family. That's illegal. But as far as say, New York City, they have a legal right. So what do we as Christians do? Well, their authority, their power is magnified through the people that they can affect How do they affect? What do we know from the word of God? How does the principality rule?
0:41:24
Apostle Paul said that strongholds or houses fortress is made of thoughts. They're undone when you take every thought captive. So the only way these principalities work is when they get a critical mass of people thinking the same thing and believing the same thing. So if we can get if Satan can get a critical mass of people to all agree and believe the same thing, picture a giant spirit in the sky with thousands of tentacles. And each person who believes that thing that's erroneous, that's contrary to god's truth, contrary to the word of god, that's a tentacle in a skull. We can set him free. That principleity is a right to be here, especially when people are saying, yeah, I believe this lie. There's another one. There's another one. There's another one that joins the Marb the mob army of darkness. That's why the preaching of the word is holy. That's why the bible says Paul said, You wanna see the power of God?
0:42:24
The gospel is the power of God. Because when the truth of God's word comes forth, it comes into a mind and it can heal the mind. It can realign the mind with God's word. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Imagine a mob of people. They all believe this wicked thing to them. It's as natural as breathing. And this principality has all these tentacles upon every head, and you can just control this mob. But then anointed men and woman of God come, and they present the truth. And these minds start the lies, start getting replaced with the truth of God's word. Do you know what you would see in the spirit? Those tentacles one by one tentacles are being snapped off. People are now getting the mind of Christ and now this principality can't work through them anymore.
0:43:10
Imagine what would happen if imagine what would happen if a critical mass of people in New York City didn't believe the devil's doctrine. But believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Believe that he died in the cross for our sins. Believe that he's empowered us through his grace and by the Holy Spirit to live the high life with him that there is something called the order of God. And that it is blessed to be aligned with the order of God. Imagine what that would do to New York City. Hallelujah. Which which by the way, this is why you'll notice nowhere in the early church, all the acts, all of the new testament.
0:43:46
Did you ever see them praying against the demon? You never said, what did they always pray for? Two things. They first, they prayed for themselves. You look at acts. They actually pray. They said, Lord, annoint us that we would speak your word with boldness, and then they prayed for their listeners hearts and minds. Because they knew if they can transform the heart and the mind with the word of God, that principality would lose its power. This is any of this help. Amen. This also explains why there is such a such a coordinated attack to sabotage people's thinking. What wasn't considered controversial just ten, fifteen years ago now? It's it's absolutely controversial.
0:44:34
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wild of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood But against all those other things, therefore take up the whole armor of God. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. So this is the third or fourth time he's using that word stand. And he once again introduces this concept of the armor of God, then he goes into the detail. Stand therefore. Have ingirded your waste with truth. So a belt of truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shied your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Amen. The armor of God.
0:45:37
How do you put on the armor of God? He leaves that part out. I mean, there's an insinuation, but it's easy to miss. And because it's easy to miss, you know what we got a generation ago? A bunch of wackadoo books that would lead Christians in this morning one hour morning routine of putting on the armor of God. A lot of you can't relate to these stories. Consider yourselves blessed. You're like, what is he talking about? And do this stuff? But yeah. People are so hungry for freedom and there's so little biblical literacy, but they know they're oppressed, they know they're hurting, and then somebody comes out with a book and say, which you're missing, Is the armor of God? Obviously, duh. Paul talks about it.
0:46:24
But you left the house naked, you didn't put your armor on. You need to go and there's a book on how to put the armor of God. You the helmet of salvation and you put it up and you take you kinda just you faith it, you act it out like a mine. You take the belt of truth and the breastplate of break. You're like Iron Man in the morning, but you're putting on. And people would do this. And then later, it's like my life is no different, but I got this one hour long routine in the morning. And I didn't put on my sandals that were shot for the preparation. I didn't lose this, and then I tripped falling out. Is this terrible? How do you put on the armor of God? You put on the armor of God when you appropriate the truth of what these armor pieces are representing.
0:47:12
So when you understand righteousness, when you understand that means right standing with God, and when you understand that Jesus took his right standing, his righteousness, and gave it to you, and nothing can ever change that. And you're heaven bound and you have full unadulterated access to god the father because you have been made righteous through the blood of Jesus. When you know that and own that truth, guess what you're wearing twenty four seven. The breastplate of righteousness. Amen. When you have committed to the word of God and you realize that that's your parameter, Excuse me, barometer for your life. That's the plumb line for your life. And you praise God's truth. Guess what you're wearing? Twenty four seven. The belt of truth. Amen.
0:47:57
When you're filled with hope because you believe in salvation, he purchased it with his own blood. You believe that you are saved now and that all things will one day be redeemed and fully saved. It's impossible to get discouraged. You have this divine hope in you. You now have the helmet of salvation on your head. Amen. You wanna be wearing the armor of God all the time? Absorb the truth.
0:48:22
Concerning righteousness, salvation, evangelism, sharing the gospel. The shield of faith Above all, take the shield of faith because there's lots of fiery darts. The enemy would throw fiery darts of confusion, of discouragement. But when you're full of the word of God and it's producing faith, it'll be hidden. It's not one of those little buckler shields is a Roman shield that will be a full body shield from your head down to your toes. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You can't forget that offensive part of the armor of God. It's the sword of the spirit. When Satan tempts you, make sure you answer back with scripture. Unless you want a prolonged battle. If you want a short one, see what Jesus did in the wilderness and respond with it is written. It is written. And that's sort of the spirit will come and it slices, it dices, it menses, it gets the job done.
0:49:34
Verse eighteen, praying always with all prayer. What does that mean? Praying always with all prayer. Means praying with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit. So he's just saying, pray with all the different kinds of prayers. There are different kinds of prayers. We often take all prayers, put them under the same umbrella term for prayer, but there isn't. There's the prayer of intercession when you're praying for somebody else. There's the prayer of petition when you're coming to God and asking for something for you. There's the prayer of dedication and consecration. Where like Jesus in the Garden of the G Sesame, you're committing your whole life to the Lord and you're saying not my will, but yours be done. Oh god, I give you my life. There's praying in other tongues. There's praise which can fall under the general umbrella of prayer.
0:50:22
He's saying all that stuff. Used at all, praying with all manner of prayer, all kinds of prayer, and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Worship team, you can come on up. And for me, he says, pray for me. And I'll take this time out city light church to also ask you to please, pray for me, pray for my family, pray for pastor James, pastor Meaux, the other pastors of Sunlight Church and their families.
0:50:54
If the apostle Paul could solicit prayer? Certainly, I can. And his this is not the first time he asked for prayer, but he's always asking for the same thing. Saying pray for me that I would have utterance. You know what utterance means? Freedom of speech that I wouldn't be hindered in my talking, that I wouldn't be afraid, is that pray for me for utterance? For boldness that I would speak as I ought to speak. Praise for us in every way, but if you're gonna pray one thing for all of us, pray that we would never back down. We would never be shy. We would never compromise. We would have boldness and freedom of speech utterance. Hallelujah. And if a friend asks, why does your pastor seem so mouth that you can say I've been praying for him? We've all been praying for him. He's now been given freedom of speech and whoa, it's been something ever since.
0:51:47
First, verse sixteen. I know verse twenty. Thank you. You're so patient back there. For which I am an ambassador in chains that in it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Taichikus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord make all things known to you, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs and then he may comfort your hearts. Whom I have since? Okay. Peace to the brethren. And love with faith from god the father and the lord Jesus Christ. Grace to be with all those who love our lord, who love our lord Jesus Christ and sincerity. Amen. Amen. Holiday year.
0:52:58
I just want every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're here under the sound of my voice, and you're not absolutely certain that you're heaven bound. I wanna say a prayer with you and for you. If you're not absolutely certain that God forbid if you were to die today, if you're not certain that your sins are forgiven, and that you would be accepted into heaven. I wanna pray with you and for you. Jesus died on the cross, in your place, receiving the punishment that you deserved in himself so that you could be pronounced not guilty and innocent, and he offers you salvation. For free. There's nothing you can do except believe, receive, and accept him as Lord of your life. If you're here and you're not absolutely certain that you're heaven bound, I wanna pray a prayer with you and for you. I'm not gonna ask you to get up out of your seat, but I'm gonna ask you to lift up your hand on a count of three. If that's you, one, two, three, just lift up your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Keep your hand lifted up. Oh, else. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else, I see you in the back. Keep the hand lifted. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Who else? I want you to think of Jesus. Think of him on the cross. Think of what he endured. He did it. As your substitute. He did it because he loves you.
0:54:35
Now all of those who've raised their hands were all gonna pray together, but I want you especially to be extra loud. I want you to mumble this. Just say it loudly. I want you to hear you. I want the enemy to hear you. The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, you gotta say it out loud with your mouth. You confess with your mouth to Lord Jesus. And you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Let's all pray this together, especially those of you with your hands lifted, say this, Lord Jesus, I believe in you. Today, I repent. I turn my back on the world. And I turn to you Lord Jesus. You are. My Lord and my savior. Today, I'm born again. I made you. I'm yours and you are mine in Jesus' name. Amen.
0:55:33
This is the city light church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about pastor Boyon Jansick in City Light Church. Visit us at city light n y c dot com at city light n y c dot com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.
Welcome to the city light church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with city light church, feel free to visit us at city light n y c dot com. That's city light n y c dot com. Pastor Bojan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the holy spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by his grace, and that he has a real hope and a future for you. Well, are you all ready for infusions? We've been in the book of Ephesians and we're now gonna conclude with Ephesians chapter six. What a glorious book This is a book in the bible that you can actually you can read the whole book in in one sitting or in a couple of days. You read it over and over again. So much strength, so much power, so much revelation contained in this powerful short six chapter book. But we're concluding with Ephesians six and verse one.
0:01:14
You can break down the book of Ephesians into three separate sections Each one called sit, walk, stand. We're first over and over again shown that we are sitting in heavenly places in Christ, the apostle Paul solidifies and cements our identity in Jesus. That we're in him. We're seated in heavenly places. We were raised up together with Jesus, and we're sitting in this place of rest, in this place of victory. Hebrews also just compares us seated with Christ with our position of rest. He gave himself up for our sins once for all, and then he sat down at the majesty on on high. At the right hand of the Magisteon high. Why did he sit down because the job was done? The work was done. Why do you get to sit down in Jesus? Because the work of your salvation is done.
0:02:12
And people get caught up of when is the Sabbath day, Saturday, Sunday, for the Christian, the new testament Christian, every day is aabbath day. Every day. Every day is a day of rest. Where you get to cease from your own religious labor. You get to cease from your own religious driving. You realize there's nothing I can do to contribute and add to the Christ. This is good news. Right? I'm glad he worked on it and finished the job so I don't have to work on it. What do I have to do? Yield, surrender, be with him, but I'm not working on my own salvation. I'm consumed with him and what he has already done. There's no more doo doo left for me. Thank god.
0:03:01
So you're sitting in heavenly places in Christ, and then because of how we're sitting, having been fully forgiven, fully accepted, fully approved, he then exhorts us to walk, walk worthy of the calling with which we've been called. In other words, because Jesus did all this for you and he has transformed your life and he has bought you with his own blood and he even took the job of salvation away from you. He did it himself and made you to sit together with him. Now because of all that, now you can walk. You can walk his children up the light. Walk in the light. And he stresses walking. And then as he closes, ephesians, encourages us over and over again to stand. Not to clog, not to fight, not to strive, but stand in the victory that was already accomplished on our behalf, Amen.
0:03:51
So he begins after having talked about families and the role of husbands, the role of wives, he begins at Fusion six, talking about the little kids, children. And he starts off with every parent's favorite verse and entire bible. Children obey your parents and the Lord. For this is right. Amen. What also needs to be addressed? I mean, this is given there's not much to to pull out from this. I mean, it's just factual, and we know it to be God's way, God's order. But there is also responsibility on parents here to raise their kids up so that they will want to obey and so that they will want to do what is right. Amen.
0:04:40
And I I am fascinated by this. I'm fascinated by it because I wasn't raised in a Christian home. And then I got saved as a teenager. And then when I started hanging around in churches, I was really taken aback. I thought all of the kids, all of the teenagers everybody would be on fire serving the Lord. I know how naive of me, but that's just what I thought. I thought this great gospel truth has been kept from me. My parents didn't know it. They didn't share it with me. And all these kids how privileged they are to be in homes where the parents know the gospel, but I noticed some were serving the lord with great passion and zeal and others, they were no different than the world. And then as I made friends, Christian friends, they would share with me what's happening inside Christian schools. And some of them were joking. Some of those Christian schools are worse than secular public schools. And I'm now as a teenager, I'm fast and how does this happen? And I want to make sure it doesn't happen to me.
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And I've always when I see parents with with godly kids, serving the Lord pastor James and I have talked about this. His kids are older than mine. I've asked him. Tell me some things that you did. What are some things you and your wife prioritized? Your kids are both serving Jesus. I wanna know. But one thing that seems to be clear all across the board is that you, as a parent, you have to have a real relationship with Jesus. Kids are not gonna be attracted to rules of regulations and dead religion. Church unity isn't gonna come and rescue them. Christianity is awful. Christianity smells. But Jesus in a living vibrant relationship with him that's gonna bring life to them. Amen.
0:06:22
So with the parents, it has to start with the basics of a living true authentic relationship with the Lord, something that the kids can see. That's something that's put on. And I say this with love in my heart. One hit of kids' church or youth ministry a week is not going to do it. It cannot do it.
0:06:47
They are being I don't use this word lightly, They're not being taught now. They're being indoctrinated all of the time. They're being indoctrinated in school. Trained by their friends and they go home, go on their devices, algorithms are programmed for them constantly gunning for their mind, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, indoctrinating, and then we think that one hour in a children's church and then talking to God over our food is gonna undo this. It's not. They can't see us just talking to God over our food. The thirty second blessing over dinner I'm talking about.
0:07:23
It has to be something that they see that they see that when you're a late or when something good happens, that you lift your hands and say hallelujah and give glory to God. It has to be that when they see you going through something difficult, a crisis that you go to the Lord first. It has to be seen that the lord and his ways in the kingdom are something that you and your spouse prioritize, and not in a forced way, but it's what comes up in conversation. And the little cameras are always recording. Oh, wait. It's like the eye of a store on you know? But we gotta we gotta protect our kids. Hallelujah.
0:08:02
God over and over again throughout the scriptures he places an emphasis on protecting kids. And this phrase is often throughout the scripture's godly seed. Godly seed. God is after godly seed. Godly kids who grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Hallelujah. Father in Jesus' name, I pray right now for all of our kids that are downstairs, the youth in our church, father that you would be round about them as a wall of fire, that you would protect them, and that you would put a special grace on all the parents. That we would be able to disciple and to love and to teach in a fallen world, in Jesus name, amen, hallelujah, Honor your father and your mother, which is the first commandment with promise. And it is the first command with with promise. It's a blessing attached to the commandment. That if you honor your father and your mother, it will be well with you and your days may be long upon the earth. Who just wants long days upon the earth? If they're junky days upon the earth. But I want it to be well with me and my days to be long upon the earth, and there should be I mean, isn't it It should be a healthy, honor from kids. And now, you know, as we're going through Ephesians and we're seeing God's model for family, God's structure. God's order, which brings life, which brings blessing, it brings healing. And then you take a step back at culture and you look you realize why the enemy is after this most crucial and most important thing, the family, and the structure and the order of the family.
0:10:04
Another translation of that word honor, of course, it means to respect, to referentially deferred to. But another just so you know, when you see that word on there in the bible. Oftentimes, it's used as a synonym for material wealth and possessions. Closely associated with the word glory, which the first use of the word glory was Abraham loading up his his donkeys and his beasts of burden with so much wealth and so much treasure that there was a covet, a weighty glory that came upon them. Why am I saying this? Well, for several reasons, so that when you read in the scriptures, when the Bible says the Lord will give grace and honor no good thing or will he withhold from those that walk up rightly? You don't just go, oh, cool. The Lord gives grace an honor. What that is is a promise a prosperity and a promise of material wealth and provision, the Lord will honor you. When kings would honor one another didn't mean that they just sent banners and confetti. Whoo, I'm honoring you. There was a wage to it. Amen.
0:11:06
And also, I'm that know when it says children honor your mother and father It's also suggesting material provision. Let's get so quiet here. We're just Jesus, when he was rebuking the Pharisees, he talked about honoring your mother and father And then he said, you fair he sees, you're now telling the people that instead of the children honoring their mother and father, blessing them materially, that if they give that same gift to the temple, it's considered Corbin. It's considered as unto the lord. And in other words, they're saying, you don't even have to take care of your parents, which you were gonna give them give here to us, and it's cool. God sees it the same. And Jesus rebuked him for that. But the connection there is that in In teaching about honoring your mother and father, Jesus himself made the association, especially in a time where there was no social security, there was no safety nets in place, There was no but he also was gonna take care of him. He said it was on the kids to honor their mother and their father. Amen.
0:12:09
And everybody, you know what we all have in common right now, all of us? No matter how diverse these places we all have parents somewhere. Amen. Okay. I said that's maybe I could call a little bit of a stronger reaction, but If your response when I said that was I'm in the world. I don't wanna hear that. I'm trusting God for myself. I can understand that. But why not get to the place of faith where you believe for your own life. Lord, I am trusting that you're gonna make my cup overflow so much that even if my parents don't need it, I'll be able to be a blessing to them and get them some of those things that they never wanted to get for themselves. They just didn't even think they were worthy of those things. I wanna be a blessing to them in their sunset years. Amen. I want to honor them in that way. Hallelujah, it's in the order of god. It is right. It is holy. It is beautiful. And when you so honor, then you reap honors reward. Amen. Hallelujah. If we're good to our parents, We're gonna reap that in our kids, kisses and hugs and obedience and love that they show towards us. Hallelujah.
0:13:30
Verse four. And you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath. But bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Let's look at that same verse in in the amplified bible. Isn't it funny when you call for the amplified and then it just to be continued. When I got saved, I thought all the churches in Brooklyn that their names were like out of the amplified bible. Like our name is city light church, But in Brooklyn, there's always like eighteen parts to the name. You know, our church of the Savior on his most holy hill of the most high god in Jesus Christ.
0:14:18
Fathers do not provoke your children to anger. Do not exasperate them to the point of resentment. With demands that are trivial or unreasonable or humiliating or abusive, nor by showing favoritism or indifference to any of them. But bring them up, bring them up tenderly with loving kindness in the discipline and instruction, discipline and instruction. And the New King James that we originally just read that word training is used.
0:14:54
The nurture or training and admonition of the Lord, that word training is the same word that another place is in the new testament like in Hebrews is translated as chastisement. When we hear the word chastisement, we think somebody's getting hit Somebody's getting severely, cruely disciplined. It's not what it means. It's child train. When the Bible says, the Lord chastises that means he trains us. And the Bible is saying to the dead, two things.
0:15:20
Recognize that you're one of your primary roles is to be a teacher. New dads will ask me, what is what is the Christian role of a dad? I'll say it's three three things. One, protect, provide, and teach. You are a teacher. You are a teacher every day. And as you're teaching, what the verse is saying is, Don't crush the child's spirit as you're correcting. Hallelujah. And this ties into verse one about the emphasis and the weighty responsibility on parents to rear kids who want to obey. It's having a real relationship with the Lord, giving your kids space to explore their Christianity and teaching and answering questions.
0:16:05
Just last night, I'll do this awesome. I'll just ask you, do you have any questions about that? And sometimes I'll get no. I'm cool. Alright. You're set.
0:16:13
Last night, I said, hey, do you have any questions about God? He went, yeah. If God is so strong, why doesn't he just kill the devil? I thought, this is a good question. I've had that question myself, but you're you're not even lying yet and you're asking this question. And I told him, I said, well, Satan is defeated. He was defeated at Jesus' death burial and resurrection. That's where he lost his authority over us. In that sense, the devil has been defeated.
0:16:46
But the bible also speaks of a combination of all events. At the end of the age is when the lord himself will take Satan and his demons and throw them into the lake of fire. How many of you know the devil's not in hell? He's not burning in hell. He's the prince of the power of the air. And hell consequently was not made for people. It was made for the devil. Jesus said that it's for the devil and his angels. People end up in hell when they choose to follow after the devil and reject the free gift of salvation that's offered through Jesus Christ. So I told him that that eventually at the close of the age, the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire that burns forever. And in that sense, in your words, Victor. That's when God will kill the devil.
0:17:33
So does this make sense to you? Yes. Okay. And I wanna make sure it makes sense to him, but does he think I'm trying to be theologically slick to appease his precocious mind. I said, do you have any other questions? Goes, yeah, where's heaven? And I go, you take two left, you make a right. No. I I said, that's a great question.
0:17:58
The Bible oftentimes gives the location of heaven and the one word it just always uses is above. It's above. In fact, being born again can just as easily be translated as born from above, born from the kingdom, born out of heaven. But then he immediately followed up with, when I said above, I was kind of joking with him and having fun. And he said, but I Is it like another universe or another dimension? And I'm like, I knew watching those Marvel movies would open his mind up. He was gonna start thinking, Just not any of the new Marvel movies anymore. Amen. It's another message holiday. Protect your kids.
0:18:48
So I said, yeah, what do you mean? I wanted to hear what was in his heart. But this way, we're having a conversation about things that really a new believer of any age would have. And I just started to tell, yeah, about heaven. You know? We know that It is a different place, vastly different than this place, but they're very similar.
0:19:06
And he's he some people think it's only spirit but it's more than only spiritual because we know that Jesus is up in heaven in a physical flesh and bone body. You know the Godhead was forever changed after Jesus' resurrection? Because Jesus went up during the incarnation he assumed the body of a person. And at his resurrection, he went up in a flesh he's not switching bodies. He even said in the same way, you saw me go up. That's the way I'm coming down.
0:19:35
A lot of times people don't think about what form is Jesus in right now. It's an inflection bone but glorified body. Well, that changes everything then because we don't know the nature of a glorified body. We do see scenes at the resurrection. I'm getting away from infusions here, but this is a good stuff. I'm seeing. You see scenes at the resurrection where he just seems to appear out of nowhere inside rooms going through walls. It's it's different laws and principles that apply to this glorified body.
0:20:04
But when I tried to get away from when talking about heaven was this idea that heaven is only spiritual Because when you talk about it, there's only spiritual people tend to see it as ethereal, unable to be grasped by trying to hold a gust of wind. So heaven is not that real, you know, it's miss and cloudy and somewhere in the background. I hear the harp and it's not too compelling. It's nothing like that. Heaven is real. Heaven is more real than this stuff because the unseen created that which is seeing. And so we're just having fun talking about this and What's happening is we're we're laying the foundation and we're feeding the fire that's inside his belly. And we're just as far as Emily and I, we just have young kids. There's other parents here who have older kids than us who's absolutely done a phenomenal job. But that's something that just should be such a priority.
0:21:01
Those statistics about people who are leaving the church today and they're huge huge exodus out of the church when you peek under the hood and you start to examine those statistics, what you find is that the overwhelming majority of them are now the adults who grew up in church, but they grew up with a powerless version of Christianity. A dead version of Christianity and something that didn't help them. And now in their late twenties, early thirties, they're forsaking the Lord but this is something that's our job as parents to interrupt, and we cannot outsource this. Let's do you. Verse five, So the advice and the instruction to family concludes and verse five bond servants. Advice to bond servants, servants, and slaves. Be obedience to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, and sincerity of heart as to Christ, not with eye service as men pleasers. But as bond servants of Christ doing the will of god from the heart.
0:22:33
We know that this verse has been used in the past to enforce or even promote the concept of slavery. If you know something about history, you may have heard that this is one of several verses that was used to actually tell slaves that it's God's will for them to be slaves and that it should be kept as slaves. A couple of points here. One, God is not for slavery. You cannot believe in a god who came in the form of man to redeem us from slavery. And say that this god is in any way, shape or form, pro slavery.
0:23:11
The vast, vast, vast majority of the instruction I'm keeping servants is actually for bond servants and uses that phrase, your bond servants or indentured servants. And there is a difference. A bond servant. Paul calls himself a bond servant of the lord. That means a willful servant. Oftentimes, it's even to refer to as a willful servant who's indentured in chains of love. They can go at any time, but they don't want to. This is something that was a part of everyday life in the ancient world. In a in a world where there once again were no safety nets, There was no FEMA that was gonna come and rescue you and your village gets ransacked and you lose half your family and you have nowhere to go and nothing to do. You just have to close on your body. Your best bet is then to connect with another family and say we're gonna work for you. We're gonna till your ground. We're gonna tend to your livestock, and you you will take care of us, and this this agreement of indentured servitude is reached.
0:24:12
But I want you to see a bigger picture here. And that's that god has, since the beginning, worked in the context of a fallen world. There are several things that you'll see him doing that is not God's will yet. You still see him allowing or doing those things. Why? Because he's working within the confines of a world that we messed up? He didn't mess it up. That's not his will. That's not his heart. The Garden of Eden was nice, as my wife is so quick to point out, they didn't even have to kill animals in the Garden of Eden. So perfect. I love a good carnivore diet, but nothing had to die. And God's perfect kingdom. But then we messed up. We're the ones who rebelled. We're the ones who saw Satan become the God of this world. And now God is moving and rescuing and orchestrating his plan under the canopy of a fallen world. So you'll see, for example, in the old testament, you'll see God give the children of Israel instructions on how to obliterate an entire opposing army and spare no one.
0:25:22
And I understand that's confusing atheists that Tolkien's character and the God delusion, he has actually used this phrase. He has said, the God of the Christians is the genocidal maniac, God. And I get that. You look at that and you go, this this this this looks crazy. What is that? That's God. Working, using and accomplishing his will, but in the context of a fallen world. God doesn't want any death. But now he's got to preserve the promise of the Messiah that holy seed inside of Israel, inside of the nation of Israel. And there's other nations that wanna wipe Israel off the face of the planet, or even in a more submersive way come in from the other side and intermarry with Hebrews, anything to dilute that seed, anything to keep the Messiah from coming. So within the context of that, mean, God would have left and say, we're gonna send a delegation and you're gonna negotiate with them, and it's all gonna be fine. And, no, there was no negotiating with when Satan had possessed an opposing nation to try to destroy the Messiah to come, there was only one solution. Wipe them all out. Is that God's heart? No. Is that his perfect will know? But he's working in the context of a fallen world.
0:26:35
Is servanhood? Slavery of any kind, God's will. Absolutely not. But back then he was saying, you you're you're all about this. Your whole economy is based on this. So we're gonna deal with this, but while you're figuring it out, at least be kind and gentle to your servants, amen.
0:26:56
Let me read to you this. The worst thing to happen is slavery, by the way, was Christianity. The gospel found slavery in the world. And in many regions, particularly the Roman and the Greek, it was a very bad form of slavery. The gospel began at once to undermine it with its mighty principles of the equality of all souls and the miss and dignity of manhood and of equal work of redeeming love rocked for all souls by the supreme master. But his plan was not to batter but to undermine. So while the gospel in one respect left slavery alone, it doomed it in another. Amen. Verse nine. And you masters do the same things to them giving up threatening, knowing that your own master also is in heaven. And there is no partiality with him. Hallelujah.
0:28:00
Let me give you another example that just came to me. I feel like I've either lost some of you or you're just letting the peace of God wash over you and I'm listening now. This would be like a couple Emily and I are debt free. One hundred percent debt free have been one hundred percent debt free for years. This will be like a couple, Amen. And that's God's will, by the way.
0:28:21
If the Bible says, God, he hates that. In fact, talking about slavery, it says that if you're in debt, you're a slave. And God doesn't want you in debt to anyone else. So let's say now a young couple, massively that comes to Emily and me and says, look, we have all this debt. I want you to meet with us. Well, I'm gonna meet with them. And I'm gonna find all these ways of how I'm gonna put go full on holy ghost Dave Ramsay on them. Right? I'm gonna bring in faith, I'm gonna bring God's will for prosperity, I'm gonna bring in those basics, and I'm gonna work with them on that debt. Does that mean that I like that? No. Does that mean that God approves of that? No. But we're gonna work in the confines of that system that you created for yourself. And over time, we're gonna get you out. Amen? Hey, man. That's the best I can do right now. How about you guys? Hallelujah.
0:29:14
Verse ten, finally my brethren. After everything you've just learned and everything I taught you, Stent. Just stand. This is something we as Christians have to be comfortable doing. I know the motivational gurus and the experts and every third person is, if you're not moving forward, you're moving backward, and you gotta go. You gotta I understand all that. That has a place. But also in Christianity, there are ebbs, there are seasons, and not always, can you be making giant leaps and strides forward. There is a time where you just need to stand. Stand your ground. And over and over again here, we'll see Paul is using the word stand. It sounds nuanced. It sounds like like just a little a little change here in our thinking, but this is important. He's saying stand because you are victorious. This is so important when you are in a crisis, when you're finding yourself experientially in a pit.
0:30:18
It's so easy to get a defeatist mentality. It only takes like a few days of getting hit. And by day three, I've seen some of the strongest Christians just if they're not encouraging themselves and letting others encourage him within three days, it's overwhelming. You're getting clobbered out there. But you never want to see yourself as the clubboard one clawing their way up trying to get back to the mountaintop.
0:30:41
When the reality. God's reality, which is the truth in the mind of God, you are victorious. You are the conqueror. The bible calls you more than a conqueror because Jesus did all the conquering and then gave all the benefits to you. So you're not the defeated trying to get the victory. You're the victorious standing their ground. Amen. You're standing your ground. This is important.
0:31:12
That shift in attitude. I'm not trying to get to victory. I have the victory. And I'm gonna stand in the victory that Jesus purchased for me. And all Satan can do is bring doubts confusion, emotions trying to get me to what? Just one thing. Stop believing that I'm in that place of victory. So there is this this holy stubbornness. There's bulldog tenacity. The stickability that we're supposed to have is Christians. Where we just stubbornly believe what the word says about the situation. I'm not gonna change what the word says when I feel pressure from outside situations. I'm gonna exert pressure from the word outwardly until my circumstances line up with what the word says and not the other way around. Amen? Amen.
0:32:03
Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord. I notice it doesn't say be strong in and of yourself, but be strong in the Lord. And it's really his echoing in first Samuel where David, can you believe it? He had all his mighty men. They loved him, but some bad things happened, and they picked up stones in one of his stone. And he went and he the bible says he strengthened himself and the Lord. And it's saying, you be strong, but not in and of yourself. Be strong in the Lord. Not my mind. I don't have any of my own. But in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able and there it is again to stand against the wilds of the devil. So he introduces now this concept of the armor of God, which we're gonna get into in just one second.
0:32:55
Let me talk about this thing called Wiles. He says, put on the whole armor of God and you'll be able to stand against or withstand the wild, which is another word for strategies, the the clever craftiness of the devil. Of which she has multiple strategies. But he's not very creative. He is a created being, and so he reuses and recycles and repeats a lot of his strategies and wiles.
0:33:27
And there is one strategy that I've labeled strategy number one. His most often used strategy. A classic. And you find it throughout the whole bible starting in Genesis right in the beginning. He comes to man when they're in the garden of Eden, where they didn't have to kill any animals. This is a perfect, beautiful place. And they have everything they could possibly want. And what does he do? He put his finger and points to the one thing they don't have. Oh, but you're not allowed to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And he just awakens all that covetousness, all that lust, all that desire and disturbs their peace by highlighting the thing that they don't have and causing them to forget and ignore all that they've been given. That's strategy number one. That's a classical devil move. And he's been doing that since, you see it throughout the whole of scriptures, and he's doing that right now.
0:34:33
If you're wondering, Why you may be struggling in the area of joy? Constant frustration. Ask yourself, Am I not paying enough attention to what he's already given me? There there is a As with many truths in the gospel, there's attention. There's attention. On the one side, it says be content. Contentinence is such a blessing. In the same way, you wanna break barriers? Don't show you should. You said, do you wanna move forward? You wanna receive and realize the promises of God? That's all right. That's all good. But not if it consumes you to where you've lost your peace. Abethallelujah. Amen. So put on the whole armor of God. And he tells you why you need the armor of God.
0:35:30
For we do not wrestle verse twelve, and this is anyone who's ever blown a shofar away with the banner in church. You know you love this verse. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Note that he uses that word wrestle very specifically. Because you're at the top. In Christ, you have the victory. And there's just a attention, a wrestling, what Satan endeavoring to do. To just get you to stop believing that you're at the top. To get you to stop paying attention to the fact that Jesus has purchased your victory with his blood. And so there's this wrestling. The battle is in the arena of faith. And this verse is so true and it's so powerful. And at the same time, it's been used in bizarre ways to get god's people more devil conscious than they are God conscious. And so you can go into Here he actually begins to describe levels and hierarchies of demons. And I know there's whole teachings that get deep deep into that. And I I explored them early on in my walk with the Lord, and then I just put it down because I saw zero fruit to becoming a pastor who's an expert at demonology also. It's enough for me to know that they've been defeated And there's some other key things to know.
0:37:14
These principalities, they're high ranking spirits. They're up in the air. They reign over entire territories, usually entire over entire political systems and regions. And that's what a pro a principality is in Daniel, He tells Daniel during his fast that the Prince of Persia resisted him when the angel comes to bring The answer to Daniel's prayer says I wanna come sooner, but the Prince of Persia resisted me. Well, he's not talking about the physical Prince of Persia. Somewhat the spiritual prince of Persia, a principality that was also influencing the natural prince. And so there are these things called principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness and heavenly places.
0:38:06
What's important for us to know? A couple of things. One, they don't have any authority over our lives. This is important to know it at the cross Jesus stripped Satan of his authority over us. The words authority and power are often used into changeably or translate it interchangeably in our bible. Satan still has some power. If you didn't have power, we wouldn't be told to put on the whole armor of God. But over us, over the blood lord Christian, he doesn't have authority to an unbeliever who's out there alone and exposed, the enemy has authority over them. Really to do as he sees fit. And that's why he runs a havoc and runs a mess in people's lives. But to the believer who knows who they are in Jesus, Who knows their rights in Christ? Who believes? Who goes around believing the truth? Which is the devil has been defeated and is under their feet? Then he's defeated for them and he doesn't have authority over them. Amen. And so I encourage you don't get too caught up with trying to become an expert on the demonic. Maybe after you've become an expert on Jesus, go in that direction. First first get completely consumed with him, his person his word and you you'll find then that other stuff just kinda is taken care of. Amen.
0:39:30
I've never seen a Christian obsessed with demons and a demonic walking in victory. Never. There always a mess. Always in pain. Always did so much drama and movement in their life. I'm not gonna be invited back. I can tell. You know, some people they have their pet pet doctrine. You can come against anything, but don't come against I feel so important when I'm tearing down principalities. Don't tell me I can't. You don't know what I did. You're preaching today, pastor, because last night, it was two of them. I shot them out of the sky. That one I took out with a shukka high at eighty yards. The other five, I shabbered away.
0:40:24
One thing to know about these giant ranking spirits in the sky, they're real. And guess what? They have a legal right to be here. You can't go and rebuke the principality. You can't cast it down. You can't shout it into submission. You don't wanna hear this. They have a legal right to be here. You said, when did they get the legal right back in the Garden of Eden? When men sold out and committed high treason against God, that's when Satan became the God of this world. And so these giant territories, they're not going anywhere until that age. They have a legal right to be here. They don't have a legal right to be in my life. That's illegal. They don't have a legal right to intrude in my church, on my family. That's illegal. But as far as say, New York City, they have a legal right. So what do we as Christians do? Well, their authority, their power is magnified through the people that they can affect How do they affect? What do we know from the word of God? How does the principality rule?
0:41:24
Apostle Paul said that strongholds or houses fortress is made of thoughts. They're undone when you take every thought captive. So the only way these principalities work is when they get a critical mass of people thinking the same thing and believing the same thing. So if we can get if Satan can get a critical mass of people to all agree and believe the same thing, picture a giant spirit in the sky with thousands of tentacles. And each person who believes that thing that's erroneous, that's contrary to god's truth, contrary to the word of god, that's a tentacle in a skull. We can set him free. That principleity is a right to be here, especially when people are saying, yeah, I believe this lie. There's another one. There's another one. There's another one that joins the Marb the mob army of darkness. That's why the preaching of the word is holy. That's why the bible says Paul said, You wanna see the power of God?
0:42:24
The gospel is the power of God. Because when the truth of God's word comes forth, it comes into a mind and it can heal the mind. It can realign the mind with God's word. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. Imagine a mob of people. They all believe this wicked thing to them. It's as natural as breathing. And this principality has all these tentacles upon every head, and you can just control this mob. But then anointed men and woman of God come, and they present the truth. And these minds start the lies, start getting replaced with the truth of God's word. Do you know what you would see in the spirit? Those tentacles one by one tentacles are being snapped off. People are now getting the mind of Christ and now this principality can't work through them anymore.
0:43:10
Imagine what would happen if imagine what would happen if a critical mass of people in New York City didn't believe the devil's doctrine. But believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Believe that he died in the cross for our sins. Believe that he's empowered us through his grace and by the Holy Spirit to live the high life with him that there is something called the order of God. And that it is blessed to be aligned with the order of God. Imagine what that would do to New York City. Hallelujah. Which which by the way, this is why you'll notice nowhere in the early church, all the acts, all of the new testament.
0:43:46
Did you ever see them praying against the demon? You never said, what did they always pray for? Two things. They first, they prayed for themselves. You look at acts. They actually pray. They said, Lord, annoint us that we would speak your word with boldness, and then they prayed for their listeners hearts and minds. Because they knew if they can transform the heart and the mind with the word of God, that principality would lose its power. This is any of this help. Amen. This also explains why there is such a such a coordinated attack to sabotage people's thinking. What wasn't considered controversial just ten, fifteen years ago now? It's it's absolutely controversial.
0:44:34
Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wild of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood But against all those other things, therefore take up the whole armor of God. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. So this is the third or fourth time he's using that word stand. And he once again introduces this concept of the armor of God, then he goes into the detail. Stand therefore. Have ingirded your waste with truth. So a belt of truth. Having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shied your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Amen. The armor of God.
0:45:37
How do you put on the armor of God? He leaves that part out. I mean, there's an insinuation, but it's easy to miss. And because it's easy to miss, you know what we got a generation ago? A bunch of wackadoo books that would lead Christians in this morning one hour morning routine of putting on the armor of God. A lot of you can't relate to these stories. Consider yourselves blessed. You're like, what is he talking about? And do this stuff? But yeah. People are so hungry for freedom and there's so little biblical literacy, but they know they're oppressed, they know they're hurting, and then somebody comes out with a book and say, which you're missing, Is the armor of God? Obviously, duh. Paul talks about it.
0:46:24
But you left the house naked, you didn't put your armor on. You need to go and there's a book on how to put the armor of God. You the helmet of salvation and you put it up and you take you kinda just you faith it, you act it out like a mine. You take the belt of truth and the breastplate of break. You're like Iron Man in the morning, but you're putting on. And people would do this. And then later, it's like my life is no different, but I got this one hour long routine in the morning. And I didn't put on my sandals that were shot for the preparation. I didn't lose this, and then I tripped falling out. Is this terrible? How do you put on the armor of God? You put on the armor of God when you appropriate the truth of what these armor pieces are representing.
0:47:12
So when you understand righteousness, when you understand that means right standing with God, and when you understand that Jesus took his right standing, his righteousness, and gave it to you, and nothing can ever change that. And you're heaven bound and you have full unadulterated access to god the father because you have been made righteous through the blood of Jesus. When you know that and own that truth, guess what you're wearing twenty four seven. The breastplate of righteousness. Amen. When you have committed to the word of God and you realize that that's your parameter, Excuse me, barometer for your life. That's the plumb line for your life. And you praise God's truth. Guess what you're wearing? Twenty four seven. The belt of truth. Amen.
0:47:57
When you're filled with hope because you believe in salvation, he purchased it with his own blood. You believe that you are saved now and that all things will one day be redeemed and fully saved. It's impossible to get discouraged. You have this divine hope in you. You now have the helmet of salvation on your head. Amen. You wanna be wearing the armor of God all the time? Absorb the truth.
0:48:22
Concerning righteousness, salvation, evangelism, sharing the gospel. The shield of faith Above all, take the shield of faith because there's lots of fiery darts. The enemy would throw fiery darts of confusion, of discouragement. But when you're full of the word of God and it's producing faith, it'll be hidden. It's not one of those little buckler shields is a Roman shield that will be a full body shield from your head down to your toes. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You can't forget that offensive part of the armor of God. It's the sword of the spirit. When Satan tempts you, make sure you answer back with scripture. Unless you want a prolonged battle. If you want a short one, see what Jesus did in the wilderness and respond with it is written. It is written. And that's sort of the spirit will come and it slices, it dices, it menses, it gets the job done.
0:49:34
Verse eighteen, praying always with all prayer. What does that mean? Praying always with all prayer. Means praying with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit. So he's just saying, pray with all the different kinds of prayers. There are different kinds of prayers. We often take all prayers, put them under the same umbrella term for prayer, but there isn't. There's the prayer of intercession when you're praying for somebody else. There's the prayer of petition when you're coming to God and asking for something for you. There's the prayer of dedication and consecration. Where like Jesus in the Garden of the G Sesame, you're committing your whole life to the Lord and you're saying not my will, but yours be done. Oh god, I give you my life. There's praying in other tongues. There's praise which can fall under the general umbrella of prayer.
0:50:22
He's saying all that stuff. Used at all, praying with all manner of prayer, all kinds of prayer, and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Worship team, you can come on up. And for me, he says, pray for me. And I'll take this time out city light church to also ask you to please, pray for me, pray for my family, pray for pastor James, pastor Meaux, the other pastors of Sunlight Church and their families.
0:50:54
If the apostle Paul could solicit prayer? Certainly, I can. And his this is not the first time he asked for prayer, but he's always asking for the same thing. Saying pray for me that I would have utterance. You know what utterance means? Freedom of speech that I wouldn't be hindered in my talking, that I wouldn't be afraid, is that pray for me for utterance? For boldness that I would speak as I ought to speak. Praise for us in every way, but if you're gonna pray one thing for all of us, pray that we would never back down. We would never be shy. We would never compromise. We would have boldness and freedom of speech utterance. Hallelujah. And if a friend asks, why does your pastor seem so mouth that you can say I've been praying for him? We've all been praying for him. He's now been given freedom of speech and whoa, it's been something ever since.
0:51:47
First, verse sixteen. I know verse twenty. Thank you. You're so patient back there. For which I am an ambassador in chains that in it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. But that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing, Taichikus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord make all things known to you, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs and then he may comfort your hearts. Whom I have since? Okay. Peace to the brethren. And love with faith from god the father and the lord Jesus Christ. Grace to be with all those who love our lord, who love our lord Jesus Christ and sincerity. Amen. Amen. Holiday year.
0:52:58
I just want every head bowed, every eye closed. If you're here under the sound of my voice, and you're not absolutely certain that you're heaven bound. I wanna say a prayer with you and for you. If you're not absolutely certain that God forbid if you were to die today, if you're not certain that your sins are forgiven, and that you would be accepted into heaven. I wanna pray with you and for you. Jesus died on the cross, in your place, receiving the punishment that you deserved in himself so that you could be pronounced not guilty and innocent, and he offers you salvation. For free. There's nothing you can do except believe, receive, and accept him as Lord of your life. If you're here and you're not absolutely certain that you're heaven bound, I wanna pray a prayer with you and for you. I'm not gonna ask you to get up out of your seat, but I'm gonna ask you to lift up your hand on a count of three. If that's you, one, two, three, just lift up your hand. Thank you. Thank you. Keep your hand lifted up. Oh, else. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else, I see you in the back. Keep the hand lifted. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Who else? I want you to think of Jesus. Think of him on the cross. Think of what he endured. He did it. As your substitute. He did it because he loves you.
0:54:35
Now all of those who've raised their hands were all gonna pray together, but I want you especially to be extra loud. I want you to mumble this. Just say it loudly. I want you to hear you. I want the enemy to hear you. The Bible says, if you confess with your mouth, you gotta say it out loud with your mouth. You confess with your mouth to Lord Jesus. And you believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. Let's all pray this together, especially those of you with your hands lifted, say this, Lord Jesus, I believe in you. Today, I repent. I turn my back on the world. And I turn to you Lord Jesus. You are. My Lord and my savior. Today, I'm born again. I made you. I'm yours and you are mine in Jesus' name. Amen.
0:55:33
This is the city light church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message, or if you would like to find out more about pastor Boyon Jansick in City Light Church. Visit us at city light n y c dot com at city light n y c dot com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you, and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to city light church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.
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