Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God has moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 2: It's been a minute since I've done one of these
Speaker 2: little videos setting up the sermon for you, but I
Speaker 2: wanted to let you know that by the time you
Speaker 2: see this, we are probably already well underway with Elevation Nights,
Speaker 2: and I want to invite you to join us Elevation
Speaker 2: Nights dot com in the following cities Seattle, Washington, Vancouver, BC, Sacramento, California,
Speaker 2: La Anaheim, Boise, Idaho, Salt Lake City, and Denver.
Speaker 1: I have a little cheat sheet over here.
Speaker 3: September twenty fourth through October third, it's going to be
Speaker 3: an amazing night of worship and the Word and me
Speaker 3: and Holly and the team all we want.
Speaker 1: To see you there, So go right now if there's
Speaker 1: still time, and get a ticket and meet us there.
Speaker 3: But I wanted to set up the message for you
Speaker 3: today personally because I believe there is a word for
Speaker 3: those of you that have been dealing with the discouragement
Speaker 3: or maybe even.
Speaker 4: Just the deceit of the devil in your mind. In
Speaker 4: your mind, and just put in the comments real quick.
Speaker 4: The battle is in your mind. That's where the battle is,
Speaker 4: and the truth of God's Word has something for you
Speaker 4: for the battle in your mind.
Speaker 1: We're going to be in two scriptures.
Speaker 3: Today, Acts chapter fourteen, verses twenty six through twenty eight,
Speaker 3: Matthew Chapter four, verses eight through eleven, and some other
Speaker 3: ones too.
Speaker 1: But we'll get it as we go.
Speaker 4: If you're ready for the word of God, put it
Speaker 4: in the comments right now.
Speaker 1: I'm ready. Let's go. From Italia, they sailed back to Antioch,
Speaker 1: where they had been committed to the grace of God
Speaker 1: for the work they had now completed. On arriving there,
Speaker 1: they gathered the church together and reported all that God
Speaker 1: had done through them, and how he had opened a
Speaker 1: door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there
Speaker 1: a long time with the disciples. Now, I know I'm
Speaker 1: dropping you in the middle of that passage and just
Speaker 1: not telling you much about it at all. It doesn't
Speaker 1: even say who the characters are. It just says they
Speaker 1: they they I'll come back to that, but let's look
Speaker 1: at one in Matthew chapter four before we officially begin
Speaker 1: the sermon. Matthew chapter four, verses eight through eleven. And
Speaker 1: this one should be a little bit more familiar to you,
Speaker 1: both in the Bible and in your own life.
Speaker 5: Again, the devil, you know him.
Speaker 1: That is a character who needs no introduction. Again, the
Speaker 1: devil took him to a very high mountain, him being Jesus,
Speaker 1: and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and
Speaker 1: their splendor. All this I will give you, he said,
Speaker 1: if you will bow down and worship me. And Jesus
Speaker 1: said to him, away from me, Satan, for it is written,
Speaker 1: worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. And
Speaker 1: verse eight and nine is where a lot of us
Speaker 1: have been living lately, where the devil has been talking
Speaker 1: to us and taking us places in our minds. And
Speaker 1: verse eleven is where we want to get today by
Speaker 1: the time I'm done preaching.
Speaker 5: Verse eleven says, then the devil left.
Speaker 1: Him, and angels came and attended him. Then the devil,
Speaker 1: how many want to get to verse eleven by the
Speaker 1: time I finished today. Then the devil left him and
Speaker 1: angels came and attended him. So I like to give
Speaker 1: my messages fun titles, titles that are fun for me,
Speaker 1: and sometimes I like to have you say them to
Speaker 1: your neighbor. And basically, what Jesus told the devil was
Speaker 1: get out of here. And so I'm going to have
Speaker 1: you say to your neighbor what Jesus said to the devil.
Speaker 1: And just tell your neighbor, I know you're not the devil.
Speaker 1: Tell him I love you. But for the purpose of illustration. Now,
Speaker 1: the next thing is my title, and you say it
Speaker 1: to him, real nice, say it, real polite, but say
Speaker 1: it firm. Look at them like they need to leave. Okay,
Speaker 1: like they need to leave, they've overstayed their welcome, and
Speaker 1: tell them this. Let me show you the door. That's
Speaker 1: my message. Let me let me show you the door.
Speaker 1: This is an international ministry, so idioms don't always translate
Speaker 1: across cultures. That is a polite way of saying, you
Speaker 1: gotta go. Let me show you the door. I'm making
Speaker 1: a call. You need to go. Now look at your
Speaker 1: other neighbor and say, let me show you the door. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in Jesus' name. Put that at the end so it
Speaker 1: sounds it's nice and be seated. Be seated, God is good.
Speaker 1: Jesus ran that devil off away from me, Satan. In
Speaker 1: the King James version, it says get the hints, Satan.
Speaker 1: That's basically saying, let me show you the door, got
Speaker 1: to go now, I've got something to do. And Jesus
Speaker 1: ran the devil off and made him flee because when
Speaker 1: the devil came to him with three different temptations. Each
Speaker 1: time the devil came at him, he had the perfect comeback.
Speaker 1: And that's what we need to develop in our lives
Speaker 1: is a comeback strategy for when Satan comes at us.
Speaker 1: Come on, when accusation comes at you. I want you
Speaker 1: to have a comeback strategy. Have you ever had a
Speaker 1: perfect comeback but you couldn't say it because you calculated
Speaker 1: the dam I mentioned that it would do, and you
Speaker 1: realized you were not in a position to take the shot.
Speaker 1: Maybe it was your boss, or maybe you just didn't
Speaker 1: want to have to mop it up later, or maybe
Speaker 1: you knew that if you said what you were going
Speaker 1: to say, maybe they had something they could say. This
Speaker 1: is not a marriage seminar, So I'm going to move
Speaker 1: quickly through it to where you have the perfect comeback
Speaker 1: and you can't use it, or you have the perfect comeback,
Speaker 1: but it's on a delay, and you think of it
Speaker 1: like Thursday, but it happened Monday, So it'd be kind
Speaker 1: of awkward to go back and say, Hey, say that
Speaker 1: thing again, say that thing again, say it again. I'm
Speaker 1: ready for you now because it was on a delay.
Speaker 1: There's actually like a term for that. They call it
Speaker 1: staircase wit. It's when you have to go all the
Speaker 1: way down the stairs and you're almost out the door
Speaker 1: and you remember what you should have said, or you
Speaker 1: think of what you should have said, and you turn
Speaker 1: back around. But I like to share these little stories
Speaker 1: that we share as preachers because they're funny. And forgive
Speaker 1: me if you've heard this one. But there is a
Speaker 1: story of a lady who went to a church and
Speaker 1: she was not used to going to church, and so
Speaker 1: she didn't have a lot of church clothes, and it
Speaker 1: was a really traditional church, and so she went in
Speaker 1: what she had, and she went in her her clothes,
Speaker 1: but they weren't very modest and they weren't very nice,
Speaker 1: and everybody there was dressed very modestly and very nice,
Speaker 1: and so the lady sat through the service, and she
Speaker 1: was moved by it. And when she was leaving the church,
Speaker 1: the preacher was waiting at the door. It was a
Speaker 1: very small church, and he would always shake everyone's hand
Speaker 1: on the way out the door, and when he saw her,
Speaker 1: he took the opportunity to tell her, we're so glad
Speaker 1: to have you as our guest today, and you're welcome
Speaker 1: to come back here. But before you come back, I
Speaker 1: want you to pray and ask the Lord what he
Speaker 1: would have you to wear when you come back to
Speaker 1: our church. And so she left pretty heiressed by that,
Speaker 1: and she went home, and she came back the next week.
Speaker 1: She came back the next week and she sat through
Speaker 1: the service, and this time people were a little bit
Speaker 1: more offended and annoyed, and especially the pastor, because the
Speaker 1: whole sermon he's thinking, woman, I told you, And so
Speaker 1: he's waiting for it at the door when the service
Speaker 1: is over and he says, hey, I thought I told
Speaker 1: you to pray and ask the Lord what you should
Speaker 1: wear to this church before you came back. And she said, oh,
Speaker 1: I did. And he said, but you're wearing the same
Speaker 1: thing that you wore last week. And she said, uh huh,
Speaker 1: and he said, well, didn't you pray and ask the
Speaker 1: Lord what to wear before you came back to this church?
Speaker 1: And she said I did. And the preacher said, well,
Speaker 1: what did he tell you? And she said, he told
Speaker 1: me he didn't know, he'd never been to this church before,
Speaker 1: and that it is the power of a perfect comeback.
Speaker 1: Shut that down. What do you say to that? Three
Speaker 1: times Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness. Three times Jesus
Speaker 1: had the perfect come back. Satan said, if you're hungry,
Speaker 1: because Jesus had been fasting for forty days, turn these
Speaker 1: stones into bread. You know, the Bible says that God
Speaker 1: can do anything. And Jesus said, it's also written, do
Speaker 1: not put the Lord your God to the tests the
Speaker 1: perfect come back. Okay, well, let me get you to
Speaker 1: prove God's power. If you're really the son of God,
Speaker 1: throw yourself off this high point and the angels will
Speaker 1: catch you. Doesn't the Bible talk about angels? Angels will catch.
Speaker 5: You right, prove that you are who you say you are.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said, uh, I don't. I don't have to
Speaker 1: do that because I know what the word says. It
Speaker 1: is written. Each time the enemy came to Jesus. Each
Speaker 1: time Satan spoke, Jesus had the perfect come back. The
Speaker 1: third time is the one we reference just now in
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter four. And it's so beautiful because Jesus doesn't
Speaker 1: even bother to argue this time. He just says, let
Speaker 1: me show you the door. Get the hints away from me, Satan,
Speaker 1: and it works and the devil leaves. So there's three
Speaker 1: things that are happening in this passage that may be
Speaker 1: happening in your life, and it's what I want to
Speaker 1: talk about for our lesson today. The first one is
Speaker 1: the devil led Jesus. The second one is he lied
Speaker 1: to Jesus. The third one is he left Jesus. So
Speaker 1: he led, he lied, and he left. What did he do?
Speaker 5: Everybody say, he led, he lied, and he left.
Speaker 1: Now it occurs to me that a lot of us
Speaker 1: are stuck in the first two that in your mind,
Speaker 1: the devil is telling you stuff, and he is leading you,
Speaker 1: and he is lying to you, but.
Speaker 5: You can't figure out how to make him leave.
Speaker 1: And thankfully for us, Jesus gives us the perfect comeback.
Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing though, that a lot of people, when
Speaker 1: you talk to them about you know, the devil is
Speaker 1: talking to you, or the devil is tempting you. They
Speaker 1: kind of have a not me. I don't know what
Speaker 1: you're talking about, attitude, and it is possible. Let me
Speaker 1: just say this in the very beginning. It is possible
Speaker 1: that the devil is not talking to you. It may
Speaker 1: be that you are a more advanced Christian than Jesus.
Speaker 1: So maybe Jesus had to fight this, but you don't.
Speaker 1: Maybe you have matured more than Jesus. Or there is
Speaker 1: a second possibility, and I can illustrate the second possibility
Speaker 1: this way. You say, well, the devil doesn't discourage me.
Speaker 1: I never think I'm not good enough. I never think
Speaker 1: I don't have what it takes. I never think I
Speaker 1: can't do it. I never think I should change all
Speaker 1: of this. You know how, on your GPS, this is
Speaker 1: just an illustration. You put in a destination and then
Speaker 1: you put it. Some people leave the narrator on where
Speaker 1: it says out loud where you need to turn in
Speaker 1: stuff like that, But the person on the GPS does
Speaker 1: not talk unless it wants you to turn in a
Speaker 1: different direction. You can run the GPS as much as
Speaker 1: you want, and if the GPS likes the direction you're headed,
Speaker 1: it won't say anything. So maybe the devil isn't saying
Speaker 1: anything to you. Yellow Wake Now, maybe he likes the
Speaker 1: direction you're headed in. Good golly, miss Molly, help this
Speaker 1: man preach. So if the devil is talking to you,
Speaker 1: that tells me something about where God is taking you.
Speaker 1: If he's not, it shows me that he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to waste any resistance on a Christian that doesn't have
Speaker 1: any forward momentum. If he's not discouraging you, you are
Speaker 1: not being pushed past your comfort zone. He will feed you.
Speaker 1: He will comfort you all the way into complacency. But
Speaker 1: if you ever start making progress, everybody say progress. It
Speaker 1: is significant for a lot of us to realize that
Speaker 1: Jesus was tempted by the enemy on the verge of
Speaker 1: his earthly ministry. He was the eternal Word of God.
Speaker 1: He was not new to the scene, and yet this
Speaker 1: was the moment that the Word made flesh was about
Speaker 1: to begin his mission to the cross. And so the
Speaker 1: devil starts talking, And the fact that the devil is
Speaker 1: talking to Jesus tells us that God is taking him somewhere.
Speaker 5: God is taking me somewhere. Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 1: That's why I've been struggling, because God is taking me somewhere. See,
Speaker 1: I used to just give in to every sin, but
Speaker 1: now I try to resist it. So I'm struggling now.
Speaker 1: But the struggle that I have now is proof of
Speaker 1: the fact that I'm headed somewhere. I wasn't headed before.
Speaker 1: The fact that I'm struggling more now does not mean
Speaker 1: how I need to preach this for somebody. Because the
Speaker 1: devil has been telling you the exact opposite, and the
Speaker 1: Lord has been talking to me about the fact that
Speaker 1: the devil has been talking to you. You are worthless.
Speaker 1: It is too late, It's over for you. Nobody even cares.
Speaker 1: Nobody would miss you if you're gone. It would be
Speaker 1: better for them if you were gone. You are actually
Speaker 1: the reason they are that way. You can't recover from that.
Speaker 1: You didn't recover from the thing before it, And what
Speaker 1: makes you think is going to be any different now.
Speaker 1: It is very instructive for me to realize as a
Speaker 1: preacher that I'm not the only one up here talking.
Speaker 1: I'm not the only one who's saying words to you
Speaker 1: right now, at the very moment, Jesus is about to
Speaker 1: do the most good.
Speaker 5: He is the most tempted. Coincidence, I think not.
Speaker 1: And what happens is you get so distracted by the
Speaker 1: conflict that you don't see the progress. You get so
Speaker 1: distracted by the conflict that you don't see the potential.
Speaker 5: Wouldn't it be just like the devil to kill you.
Speaker 1: In the wilderness where Jesus was when he fasted forty
Speaker 1: days and forty nights. We know that this devil stands
Speaker 1: no chance against Jesus, but we're not so sure about us.
Speaker 1: What I want you to realize today that took me
Speaker 1: a while to figure out, is that when I am
Speaker 1: coming into the season of my greater impact, when I'm
Speaker 1: coming into the season of greater surrender to God, which
Speaker 1: is the goal of a Christian right, the goal of
Speaker 1: the Christian is not just our eternal and everlasting preference
Speaker 1: being met at every turn. When I'm coming into that season,
Speaker 1: when God wants to do something new through me, I
Speaker 1: should expect the following. Every door that God opens, there
Speaker 1: will be opposition. Listen to me. No door that God
Speaker 1: opens will be unopposed in your life. No door that
Speaker 1: He opens to your growth, no door that He opens
Speaker 1: to your relational intimacy. No door that He opens for
Speaker 1: you to be a witness for Jesus Christ and your
Speaker 1: sphere of influence. No door that God opens will be
Speaker 1: without opposition. The greatest way that you can deal with
Speaker 1: the opposition is to realize that God opens doors that
Speaker 1: nobody can shut. If he opened it, they can't close it.
Speaker 1: If he opened it, your IQ can't close it. He
Speaker 1: knew the exact number of your IQ and your SAT
Speaker 1: score when He called you into your situation. So if
Speaker 1: the statistics can't close it, if the haters can't close it,
Speaker 1: if the sickness can't close it, the only one thing
Speaker 1: that can close it is if you get distracted by
Speaker 1: the conflict and give up on the progress, which is
Speaker 1: why Jesus said, away from me. I'm on the verge
Speaker 1: of something that God sent me to do. I'm on
Speaker 1: the verge of fulfilling my mission to forgive the sin
Speaker 1: of all who would believe in my name. And I
Speaker 1: know I'm repped up real early in my sermon, but
Speaker 1: I need to preach to somebody to tell you that
Speaker 1: God is not the only one who opens doors. The
Speaker 1: devil does too, doors of discouragement, doors of disappointment, doors
Speaker 1: of dysfunctional behavior that were planted in your heart, sometimes
Speaker 1: in early developmental stages of your life. And when I
Speaker 1: heard about Jesus saying away from me, Satan, it gave me.
Speaker 1: It gave me hope to realize that he's giving me
Speaker 1: an example that every door he opens will be opposed,
Speaker 1: but it cannot be closed by anyone other than him.
Speaker 1: Clap your hands and give God praise because he's a
Speaker 1: door opening God. Jesus had the perfect comeback for the devil.
Speaker 1: He said, away from me, Satan. And sometimes we don't
Speaker 1: come back at the devil like we need to. In fact,
Speaker 1: instead of telling him to go away, we tell him
Speaker 1: keep coming. And we don't even realize we're doing it. Now.
Speaker 5: I know this message is not comfortable to hear.
Speaker 1: You think it was comfortable to prepare. I don't preach
Speaker 1: what I want to preach. I preach what God gives
Speaker 1: me to preach. And the Lord told me that the
Speaker 1: devil has been talking to you. Telling you is just
Speaker 1: one time. It doesn't matter telling you. Everybody does that.
Speaker 1: It's not abnormal, Yes it is for you. You're a
Speaker 1: child of God. Your family has different customs. Uh, huh.
Speaker 1: You're a citizen of a different kingdom, and I wanted
Speaker 1: to share with you an example of how as God
Speaker 1: opens doors in your life, and in my life, and
Speaker 1: in the life of our church, that there will often
Speaker 1: be opposition. Go with me to Acts chapter fourteen, the
Speaker 1: scripture that I read first, and I want to show
Speaker 1: you about two people that God really used. One of
Speaker 1: them I know you've heard of. His name is Paul,
Speaker 1: and the other one you don't know as much about.
Speaker 1: His name is Barnabas. And when the Bible says in
Speaker 1: Acts chapter fourteen, verse twenty six, God, I love your word.
Speaker 1: Thank you for the privilege to preach it. From Atalia,
Speaker 1: they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed
Speaker 1: to the grace of God for the work they had
Speaker 1: now completed. That burst, to me is so rich that
Speaker 1: I don't want to skip it. It says that they
Speaker 1: went back to the place Antioch where the center of
Speaker 1: the church was really beginning to be molded and melded.
Speaker 1: Jews and Gentiles all coming out of the church. At
Speaker 1: Antioch the third biggest city in the Roman Empire, and
Speaker 1: so it was positioned in such a way as to
Speaker 1: be ascending hub and the first missionaries that were sent
Speaker 1: out from the Church at Antioch were Paul and Barnabas. Now,
Speaker 1: when it says that they had been committed to the grace,
Speaker 1: put the verse back up for me for the work
Speaker 1: they had now completed. It really spoke to me because
Speaker 1: sometimes I do the opposite, I try to complete the
Speaker 1: work without getting the grace. And so there was a
Speaker 1: period where the Church at Antioch was fasting and praying,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to send two believers to the Gentiles,
Speaker 1: those who weren't Jews, those who were not included in
Speaker 1: the Old Covenant but were being grafted into the New
Speaker 1: Covenant through Jesus Christ. And they knew they wanted to
Speaker 1: send Paul because Paul was uniquely gifted and graced for
Speaker 1: this assignment. I want you to remember, when the devil
Speaker 1: starts talking to you, God will never let you go
Speaker 1: where you are not graced to be. You can go
Speaker 1: there on your own, but he'll bring you back. He'll
Speaker 1: bring you to a place where he'll show you you
Speaker 1: are not grace for that. Paul was grace for it.
Speaker 1: So every time God says go, he gives grace for
Speaker 1: everywhere he says go, and in this season of your life,
Speaker 1: you may be trying to grind without grace, and that
Speaker 1: would be a problem because when you try to grind
Speaker 1: without grace, you leave yourself wide open to the devil.
Speaker 1: And it's possible that life could open a door to you,
Speaker 1: but you don't have the grace to go through it.
Speaker 1: And until we get sensitive to the spirit of God,
Speaker 1: we will find ourselves going into situations that we don't
Speaker 1: have grace for because we've seen others go there because
Speaker 1: we thought we had to go there to prove something.
Speaker 5: Just like the devil was tempting Jesus, you know.
Speaker 1: Throw yourself off the highest clip. You're the son of God, Jesus,
Speaker 1: I don't have to prove anything to you. I was
Speaker 1: just baptized into Jordan, where my father said I was
Speaker 1: his beloved son and whom he was well pleased, you
Speaker 1: know that scripture. So Jesus had the grace to do it,
Speaker 1: Paul had the grace to do it. Barnabas had the
Speaker 1: grace to do it. So when the enemy comes to
Speaker 1: you and tells you you can't do it, tell him
Speaker 1: I got grace for this practice at one time, Say
Speaker 1: I got grace for it. I can't explain it. I
Speaker 1: got grace for it. I can't break it down for
Speaker 1: you in a formula. I got grace for it. It
Speaker 1: makes no sense on paper. I got grace for it.
Speaker 1: I didn't even think I was that good at.
Speaker 5: It, but I've got grace for it.
Speaker 1: I know there are more people that are more qualified,
Speaker 1: and more smart, and more educated, and more intelligent, and
Speaker 1: more tall, and more broad and more strong, and more
Speaker 1: holy and more righteous, and have better beards. But I'm
Speaker 1: grace for it. I just saw a guy with a
Speaker 1: I was feeling envious, so I had to preach through it.
Speaker 1: Tell somebody I got grace for this, and then the
Speaker 1: grace that God gave them at Antioch with the confirmation
Speaker 1: of the elders of the Church at Antioch, they went out.
Speaker 1: And I want you to notice three things that are
Speaker 1: gonna help you have the perfect comeback for the devil
Speaker 1: when he comes at you this week. You are not
Speaker 1: gonna get to the bottom of the stairs and think,
Speaker 1: oh wait. You are not gonna wait till next Saturday
Speaker 1: night to say, oh, I gotta go back to church.
Speaker 1: I gotta go, I've gotta go to elevation. You are
Speaker 1: not gonna get stuck. Watch me illustrate. Ooh, the Lord
Speaker 1: just gave me this. You are not gonna get stuck
Speaker 1: at the bottom of the stairs this week, thinking I
Speaker 1: gotta get back to church to get a word for
Speaker 1: the devil. You are gonna have the comeback for him
Speaker 1: at the door the moment he knocks to try to
Speaker 1: tell you what you're not And who am I preaching to?
Speaker 1: The hasstate for it today? Yeah, a comeback. I thought
Speaker 1: it was interesting because Jesus had a comeback for the devil.
Speaker 1: It is written. It is written, he knew the word
Speaker 1: of God. He had to come back for the devil. Now,
Speaker 1: thought was interesting how in the passage we read they
Speaker 1: were coming back to the place where they were sent from.
Speaker 5: They were coming back to the grace that they started with.
Speaker 1: I thought that word comeback was interesting, kind of like
Speaker 1: a double meaning. Right, they're coming back to Antioch. They've
Speaker 1: been gone, twelve hundred miles of travel have passed, and
Speaker 1: twelve months of time. Twelve hundred miles of travel, twelve
Speaker 1: months of time, and they have seen some amazing things.
Speaker 1: So the Bible says that they came back. And I
Speaker 1: kept reading and I was like, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the comeback, but I also want to talk about
Speaker 1: point number two. These all start with. See number one
Speaker 1: is comeback and number two is I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the connection because I noticed, and I want you
Speaker 1: to notice, how many times in this passage Acts chapter fourteen,
Speaker 1: the word they appears. It says from Attalia they sailed
Speaker 1: to Antioch. They sailed to Antioch, where they had been
Speaker 1: committed to the grace of God for the work they
Speaker 1: had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church
Speaker 1: together and reported all that God had done through them.
Speaker 1: What God does through you is a lot of times
Speaker 1: determined by the they that you are connected to, Because
Speaker 1: if anybody could have done it alone, it would have
Speaker 1: been Paul. And for all of you who try to
Speaker 1: do it alone in your own strength, maybe you're a
Speaker 1: better Christian than Paul and Jesus, but the rest of
Speaker 1: us need a Theay.
Speaker 5: And so imagine they're picking, like, we got to send
Speaker 5: Paul because.
Speaker 1: He's and he's of the tribe of Benjamin, and he
Speaker 1: can really speak to the Jews and the Gentiles, and
Speaker 1: he has a Roman citizenship, so he's very able to
Speaker 1: be very fluent in both languages, not only the language
Speaker 1: of faith in Jesus, but the language of Judaism. And
Speaker 1: who should we send with him? Barnabas? You said Silas.
Speaker 1: Now Silas went to prison with him in sixteen. Silas
Speaker 1: could sing. But Barnabas had a very special gift. His
Speaker 1: name means son of encouragement. Now does this say something
Speaker 1: about what Paul struggled with that the one they sent
Speaker 1: with him was one of these guys. Now look at
Speaker 1: your neighbor, big smile, thumbs up, and say, you need
Speaker 1: one of these guys. You need a Barnabas. They looked
Speaker 1: at Paul. Paul, You're powerful preacher, You're amazing preacher. You're
Speaker 1: a man of God, and you're annoying it. And you're
Speaker 1: called and you're chosen. Now, Barnabas was not only an encourager,
Speaker 1: but he was the one who brought Paul into the fold.
Speaker 1: To begin with, they were scared of Paul. Paul was
Speaker 1: the one who would go and have the Christians executed
Speaker 1: before he became one. Before the Lord smacked him right
Speaker 1: off his beast and told him, I'm Jesus of Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Who do you think you're messing with? I'm about to
Speaker 1: show you how much you must suffer for my sake
Speaker 1: because you're my vessel. That's where Paul was. And the
Speaker 1: people were like, you want us to have the guy
Speaker 1: that was the terrorist on our team, And Barnabas is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's changed, Let's give him a chance. Thank God for Barnabas.
Speaker 1: Barnabas was hopathetical. Barnabas was optimistic. Barnabas was able to
Speaker 1: see the best in Paul. He was able to see
Speaker 1: the Paul in Saul. So I want to talk about
Speaker 1: your connections today because the fact that they made it
Speaker 1: through everything they made it through was the fact that
Speaker 1: they were they. I believe the reason that the devil
Speaker 1: doesn't leave your life a lot of times is because
Speaker 1: you try to run him off alone and there comes
Speaker 1: a point where you can't fight this in your own head.
Speaker 1: There comes a point where you can't fight this with
Speaker 1: your own personality. If you could have gotten you out
Speaker 1: of this, you'd be out by now. So what you're
Speaker 1: still doing here Maybe you are waiting on the right connection.
Speaker 1: And perhaps the reason that we feed some of our
Speaker 1: insecurity sometimes is because we stay in isolation where there
Speaker 1: is nothing to prove anything. Other to us than the
Speaker 1: words that the devil is speaking. And so it's important
Speaker 1: and I need to slow down on this a little bit.
Speaker 1: That the Lord told me to tell you that there
Speaker 1: may be a Barnabas that you are missing in your
Speaker 1: life that is causing you to remain stuck in the
Speaker 1: loop that the devil has you in. There may be
Speaker 1: and there may be some people in your life who
Speaker 1: are the opposite of Barnabas, some people in your life
Speaker 1: who really aren't headed where you're headed. And I would
Speaker 1: kind of like to refer you back to my title.
Speaker 1: You may need to send them a text right now
Speaker 1: and just to send them and listening to a sermon,
Speaker 1: let me show you the door, and that will be
Speaker 1: code for you to have the conversation that you need
Speaker 1: to have because you cannot fulfill a Pall sized mission
Speaker 1: without a Barnabas sized encouragement. And sometimes it will be
Speaker 1: a byob situation that stands for be your own Barnabas.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the people that you need to encourage you, they're
Speaker 1: having a bad week too. Guess what, maybe you need
Speaker 1: to do what David said. David said, I encourage my
Speaker 1: self in the Lord. I know what's written in the
Speaker 1: psalms because I wrote them. I'll quote my own psalm
Speaker 1: back to myself when I'm struggling. And this is so important,
Speaker 1: so you don't get stuck stuck at the bottom talking about,
Speaker 1: Oh I need to get the church.
Speaker 5: Oh I need to get around the right people.
Speaker 1: You do. But there's a lot of time between Sunday
Speaker 1: and Sunday, so there will be situations in your life
Speaker 1: where you need a connection to something. You need a
Speaker 1: connection to someone, You need a connection to people that
Speaker 1: can remind you of the purpose that God put inside
Speaker 1: of you. Come back. Connection. Isn't that good?
Speaker 5: Paul and Barnabas, It says this.
Speaker 1: Abby, go get my notes off the shelf for me,
Speaker 1: real quick. Just get the whole folder. The whole folder. Now,
Speaker 1: this will be great. I want to act this out
Speaker 1: because I really want you to get the story in
Speaker 1: your heart. Abby. They bring me the whole folder, Abby,
Speaker 1: Abigail means Father's joy. So sit down with me, be
Speaker 1: my Barnabas for a minute. In the illustration, remember I
Speaker 1: told you Paul and Barnabas. Go back to verse twenty six.
Speaker 1: Show them. In the text, it says they went from
Speaker 1: Italia to Antioch, which is not like going from Marvin
Speaker 1: to Ballentine. This is a three hundred mile trip in itself.
Speaker 1: Remember I told you they've already been twelve hundred miles
Speaker 1: twelve months, and now they have a decision to make
Speaker 1: on the way back because they have to give a
Speaker 1: report to the church how it went. And the part
Speaker 1: that I didn't read you was everything that happened before
Speaker 1: Acts fourteen, twenty six, and twenty eight, kind of like
Speaker 1: I didn't read you how Jesus fasted forty days before
Speaker 1: the devil left.
Speaker 5: I just got straight to the park the devil left,
Speaker 5: and I was.
Speaker 1: Hoping you would shout, but you didn't even shout about that,
Speaker 1: so I know you're not going to shout about this.
Speaker 1: And the angels came, and that's exciting, and we all
Speaker 1: want to get there. But realize, if we put ourselves
Speaker 1: in the historical context of this passage, that Paul and
Speaker 1: Barnabas have three hundred miles to travel and they have
Speaker 1: to figure out what are we going to tell them
Speaker 1: when we get back. And you know, Barnabas was probably
Speaker 1: keeping good notes and stuff like that, because Paul was
Speaker 1: the one who was mostly talking, and so they have
Speaker 1: three hundred miles to figure out together when we stand
Speaker 1: in front of the church that send us, when we
Speaker 1: get back to Antioch, what will we report? And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying that Paul was a pessimist, because I don't
Speaker 1: believe he was. He wrote amazing verses like I can
Speaker 1: do all things through Christ. His strengthens me, and now
Speaker 1: unto him who is able to do him measurably more So,
Speaker 1: I am not throwing Paul under the bus, but Barnabas.
Speaker 1: Barnabas had the gift of encouragement, and so I think
Speaker 1: while they were going back, they were probably going through
Speaker 1: their log of everything that happened over the next twelve months. Okay,
Speaker 1: what are we going to tell them when we get there?
Speaker 1: Barnabus and they're going through their notes, because how do
Speaker 1: you condense twelve months into one talk? Because it said
Speaker 1: they gathered the church together and told them. I imagine
Speaker 1: the first place they realized they had to talk about
Speaker 1: was Cyprus. When they got to Cyprus, the island called
Speaker 1: Cyprus that's in Acts chapter thirteen. And while they were there,
Speaker 1: God was using them, and Paul's like, you remember that guy,
Speaker 1: that sorcerer in Cyprus? And Barnabas like, yeah, yeah, what
Speaker 1: was his name again? And Paul's like, oh, I'll never
Speaker 1: forget his name, Elimis Elimas. His name literally means sorcerer.
Speaker 1: Barnabas like, oh, yeah, I remember now, Elimas.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Even Barnabas couldn't see much good in Elimis. He's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: he was a bad dude, because right when we were
Speaker 1: going to have an audience with the governor of that city,
Speaker 1: Elimas started trying to interrupt us and distract from g Jesus.
Speaker 1: And just when it looked like we were going to
Speaker 1: make progress with a very important governor, Elimas stood up
Speaker 1: and distracted. And Paul's like, yeah, that guy, he got
Speaker 1: on my nerves. I hate Alimis. If I ever see
Speaker 1: a Limis again, I'm gonna tell him. And Barnabas is like,
Speaker 1: well wait, wait, not, Paul, do you remember what you
Speaker 1: said to him? And Paul's like kind of and Barnabas goes,
Speaker 1: I got it. I got it written right here. Now
Speaker 1: put up acts chapter thirteen, verse eight. Look what happened.
Speaker 1: But Elimas, the Sorcerer, for that is what his name means,
Speaker 1: opposed them and tried to turn the governor from the
Speaker 1: faith he was about to receive Jesus, which would have
Speaker 1: been a major open door for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: He was a gentile and he was a governor. And remember,
Speaker 1: right on the verge of God doing something amazing in
Speaker 1: your life, right when you are.
Speaker 5: At the threshold of it, right when.
Speaker 1: You are at the doorframe of it, anybody there right now,
Speaker 1: there will be a devil. The devil doesn't mean the
Speaker 1: door wasn't real. The devil doesn't mean God wasn't in it.
Speaker 1: The devil at the door might mean you are headed
Speaker 1: in the right direction and he's trying to get you
Speaker 1: to turn around. And Barnabas says Paul. You looked at
Speaker 1: Elimas and I quote verse nine and told him, well,
Speaker 1: verset in, you aren't chid of the devil and an
Speaker 1: enemy of everything that is right. You are full of
Speaker 1: all kinds of deceit. Will you never stop perverting the
Speaker 1: ways of the Lord. And Paul's like, I said all that.
Speaker 1: He's like, yeah, you said all that. You called him
Speaker 1: a child of the devil. It is kind of mean, Paul,
Speaker 1: but it was the perfect comeback for the situation. Because
Speaker 1: watch what God did in verse eleven. Then suddenly after
Speaker 1: Paul spoke up, Suddenly after Paul confronted the opposition, suddenly
Speaker 1: after Paul refused to let the devil block his door,
Speaker 1: I'm looking for somebody today who refuses to let the
Speaker 1: devil have he said. The hand of the Lord is
Speaker 1: against you. You're gonna be blind for a time, not
Speaker 1: even able to see the light of the sun, and
Speaker 1: immediately missed in darkness came over him, and he groped
Speaker 1: about seeking someone to lead him by the hand. And
Speaker 1: look what happened in verse twelve, Barnabas said, and when
Speaker 1: the pro consul saw what had happened, he believed, for
Speaker 1: he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord. So
Speaker 1: maybe when we get to Antioch in a few days,
Speaker 1: we'll tell him about the sorcerer at Cyprus, and we'll
Speaker 1: tell him how we faced resistance. But we'll tell him
Speaker 1: that after the resistance came a revelation, after the resistance
Speaker 1: came a revelation. Yeah, Paul said, we're going to tell
Speaker 1: him about the sorcerer, and Barnabas said, yeah, but we
Speaker 1: got to make sure to tell him that if the
Speaker 1: Sorcerer wouldn't have been struck blind, the governor wouldn't have
Speaker 1: seen Jesus. Let me show you the door the resistance.
Speaker 1: What's the starting place of the revelation? Now? What resistance?
Speaker 1: You ok? Being up here with me like that, I
Speaker 1: didn't check. Let you tell me. Tell you didn't get
Speaker 1: to choose what to wear to be on stage and
Speaker 1: nothing like that. But you're doing great. Imagine this that
Speaker 1: the resistance that you're facing in your life right now
Speaker 1: might be the door to a revelation of how great
Speaker 1: God is. Maybe, maybe let me show you the door.
Speaker 1: You want God to take the resistance away while you're
Speaker 1: simultaneously praying for him to make you strong. How will
Speaker 1: he make you strong with no resistance? How will he
Speaker 1: show you who he is if he doesn't let you
Speaker 1: find out who you're not without him? Remember that, Paul,
Speaker 1: when you looked at him and said you child of
Speaker 1: the devil? That was the perfect comeback. So when we
Speaker 1: get back and we get to Antioch and we're in
Speaker 1: front of the church council, let's make sure that we
Speaker 1: tell them that there was resistance, but it led to revelation,
Speaker 1: and then and then we should tell them about the
Speaker 1: pettiness in Pasidia. I like to alliterate it because I
Speaker 1: believe Paul would have done that, don't you. And Paul said,
Speaker 1: we got to tell them how when we got to
Speaker 1: Pasidia there was so much pettiness that these Jews who
Speaker 1: were jealous started trying to stir up trouble. And Barnabas
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, but Paul, you handled it, great man.
Speaker 1: You handled that so good when they were trying to
Speaker 1: stir up trouble against you and they rejected you. Do
Speaker 1: you remember what you said, Paul? And Paul's like, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: kind of, but tell me about it. And Barnabus goes, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: well I wrote it down. Look at Acts chapter thirteen,
Speaker 1: verse forty four in this good bed, because I'm trying
Speaker 1: to get you to see that what the devil is
Speaker 1: telling you tells me something about where God is taking you.
Speaker 1: And I want you to get your stack back in
Speaker 1: your hands, and I want you on your three hundred
Speaker 1: mile journey with your Barnabas. Whether the Barnabas is a friend,
Speaker 1: whether the Barnabas is this sermon because you're watching it
Speaker 1: alone on YouTube, Whether the Barnabas is your own spirit
Speaker 1: because you've been consulting. Your flesh too long, and your
Speaker 1: feelings too long, and your past too long. But greater
Speaker 1: is he that is in you than he that is
Speaker 1: in the world. I want you to remember the pettiness
Speaker 1: in Pasidia. We got to Pisidia. We were preaching, man,
Speaker 1: it was amazing. We left the island of Cyprus. We
Speaker 1: got the Pasidia. People were listening Acts Chapter thirteen, verse
Speaker 1: forty four. Please, on the next Sabbath, the whole city
Speaker 1: gathered to hear the word of the Lord. And Paul,
Speaker 1: you were preaching, man, And the Jews saw the crowds,
Speaker 1: and they were filled with jealousy, and they began to
Speaker 1: contradict what you were saying, and they heat the piece
Speaker 1: on you. They said things about you that weren't true. Man,
Speaker 1: this is Barnabas talking. Word to the wives. Let Barnabas talk.
Speaker 1: Let Barnabas talk. Quit listening to the accuser all the time.
Speaker 1: Let Barnabas talk. Let the God who believes in you speak.
Speaker 1: And Paul was having abuse heaped on him, and Paul
Speaker 1: and Barnabas answered him boldly. Now Barnabas got in on
Speaker 1: this too.
Speaker 5: He said, we had to speak the word of God
Speaker 5: to you first.
Speaker 1: Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy
Speaker 1: of eternal life. We now turn to the gentiles. Let
Speaker 1: me ask a question. How many of you are not
Speaker 1: Jewish by birth? Raise your hand. This is how you
Speaker 1: got here. Think about it. They rejected Paul, and because
Speaker 1: they rejected Paul, Paul reached you. So maybe Paul and
Speaker 1: Barnabas decided on that three hundred mile trip back to Antioch.
Speaker 1: When we get there, let's make sure to tell them
Speaker 1: that rejection can become redirection. I thought your neighbor and say,
Speaker 1: they didn't reject me, they redirected me. That was my
Speaker 1: GPS talking. That was God using that to get me
Speaker 1: on a different path, because I would have always stayed
Speaker 1: in that place if I didn't feel a rejection. Paul
Speaker 1: actually turned to the crowd and said, we were preaching
Speaker 1: to you, but now we are turning to the gentiles
Speaker 1: because rejection can be redirection. So let's make sure we
Speaker 1: tell them about the pettiness in Pasidia and the sorcerer,
Speaker 1: the sorcerer in Cyprus. But Paul, I also think we
Speaker 1: need to tell him about the lynching. I think we
Speaker 1: need to tell them about the lynching. That you went
Speaker 1: through in Litta, because when they got the little Paul
Speaker 1: was doing miracles. Man, you'll mind if I tell you
Speaker 1: these Bible stories real quick. My barber told me, don't forget.
Speaker 1: The people you're preach into hadn't opened their Bible all week.
Speaker 1: I was like, they open it some. He's like, maybe
Speaker 1: the app but you really need to dig into these
Speaker 1: stories for us now. Yeah, I want you to get
Speaker 1: it because if you don't get this part of it.
Speaker 1: When I read you a verse that says the Devil
Speaker 1: left Jesus or Paul and Barnabas stood up and reported
Speaker 1: how the Lord opened the door, you'll think that the
Speaker 1: door opened without difficulty, and you will be surprised when
Speaker 1: you struggle, and you will think that you are not
Speaker 1: a saint because you struggle, and you may even begin
Speaker 1: to believe the devil that you are not who God
Speaker 1: says you are. And when they got to lit A,
Speaker 1: Paul performed miracles to the extent that one who was
Speaker 1: crippled from birth got up. Now, when he got up,
Speaker 1: the crowd went crazy, as crowds do when people who
Speaker 1: have never walked before start to walk. And they took
Speaker 1: it a little too far. In fact, they started saying,
Speaker 1: Paul and Barnabas are gods. Barnabas is Zeus, Paul is Hermes.
Speaker 1: And Paul's like, no, no, no, no, no, no no no,
Speaker 1: we're servants like you. And they're like, oh, yeah, we
Speaker 1: know who you are. You are Zeus and Hermes. But see,
Speaker 1: other people can't tell you who you are. When you
Speaker 1: know who you are, and when you know who you are,
Speaker 1: you don't get too high and you don't get too
Speaker 1: low because your hope is built on what Jesus says
Speaker 1: about you. So Paul wasn't too swayed by the lows,
Speaker 1: he wasn't too swayed by the highs. He said, we
Speaker 1: are just men. We are servants who have come to
Speaker 1: tell you about Jesus. That's all we are. We are
Speaker 1: just the ones who opened the door. We're not the door.
Speaker 1: And so they started preaching that, and the people were
Speaker 1: going crazy. And then what's what happened? In Acts, chapter fourteen,
Speaker 1: verse nineteen, it says that they stoned Paul. What happened
Speaker 1: Some people came in who were jealous, some people came
Speaker 1: in who were mixed up, and they stoned him and
Speaker 1: dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead and maybe.
Speaker 1: Paul says, we've got to tell them about the lynching
Speaker 1: in Lita, and then Barnabas says, yeah, but we gotta
Speaker 1: make sure we tell them what happened next, Paul, because
Speaker 1: it was amazing, because they stoned you and left you
Speaker 1: for dead, and they turned on you and they condemned you,
Speaker 1: and they accused you, and they buried you, and they
Speaker 1: maligned you, and they hurt you, and it looked like
Speaker 1: it was over. But give me verse twenty. It is written,
Speaker 1: It is written, but after the disciples had gathered around him,
Speaker 1: but after the help came, but after the connection came,
Speaker 1: Paul got up and went back. Now, I don't know
Speaker 1: who needs this in your section. Be a Barnabas for
Speaker 1: five seconds, tell them get up and go back. Come on,
Speaker 1: be my Barnabas for fifteen seconds. Reach three people, say
Speaker 1: get up and go back, Get up and go back,
Speaker 1: Get up and go back. Because the report isn't in
Speaker 1: the rocks they threw at you? Is that who rows
Speaker 1: up after the rock? Ah? God, you see what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Come on, you might have to be yob for a second,
Speaker 1: but take twenty four sect five seconds and praise.
Speaker 6: God, get your gut up, and you went back.
Speaker 1: I'm going through my list. I'm going through my list.
Speaker 1: High five. Your neighbors said, we got up and we're
Speaker 1: going back. I'm not staying in this place. I'm not
Speaker 1: staying in this place. I'm not staying under these rocks.
Speaker 1: I'm not staying on this debt.
Speaker 6: I'm not staying.
Speaker 1: Under this crippling anxiety. I'm not staying under this bad report.
Speaker 1: I'm not staying under this weight of depression. I'm not
Speaker 1: staying under the same of my past. I'm not staying
Speaker 1: under the written record that was held against me. Y'all,
Speaker 1: Thank God for Abigail Barnabas verdict, and thank God for Jesus,
Speaker 1: who is my Barnabas. Thank God for the Greater Wise,
Speaker 1: thank God for the Holy Wife, thank God for the Annointment.
Speaker 6: Thank God said they threw their rocks by you, Rosa
Speaker 6: al Rosa, How rose up? Who feel like breaking today?
Speaker 1: Yeah? How five? Your neighbors say you'll be balmed, I'll
Speaker 1: be barnabus Now encourage.
Speaker 6: Him, saying you can make it.
Speaker 1: You got this. God's with you, you got a grace
Speaker 1: for it, you were made for it, you were porn
Speaker 1: for it. You were falling for it, you were filled
Speaker 1: for it. You'll got the holly ghost. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: get to the sea.
Speaker 6: Your door is off us.
Speaker 7: Go through.
Speaker 1: Your door. Fill a Barnabas spear in the house today.
Speaker 1: And verse twenty six, so that's chapter fourteen says that
Speaker 1: on the way from Italia to Antioch, where it all started,
Speaker 1: God said, let's go back to where it all started.
Speaker 1: He who will be a good work in you, will
Speaker 1: be faithful to perform it. If God opened the door,
Speaker 1: he will fill the room when you get in it.
Speaker 1: That's how I know I'm so full of this word.
Speaker 1: I'm so full of this word to help somebody who
Speaker 1: has been hungry in the wilderness for forty days, who
Speaker 1: has been lynched in Lita, who has been stirred up
Speaker 1: in a place called Pasidia, or who has even had
Speaker 1: to deal with a sorcerer in Cyprus. To remind you
Speaker 1: of everything that you went through was the door to
Speaker 1: who God knows you can be and who you can help.
Speaker 1: And by the way, verse twenty seven says something so
Speaker 1: fascinating to me. For our narcissistic culture that always wants
Speaker 1: to know why is the devil doing this to me?
Speaker 1: Or when are people going to do something for me?
Speaker 1: The Bible says Paul and Barnabas got up verse twenty seven,
Speaker 1: and they gathered the church together. That's connection, and they
Speaker 1: reported all that God had done through them. That's credit.
Speaker 1: God did it through you. Given the credit. There's the comeback,
Speaker 1: there's the connection, and there's the credit. Stop giving the
Speaker 1: devil God's credit. What the devil did to us to
Speaker 1: try to destroy us, God turned into a door to
Speaker 1: develop us. Even some of the little things in your
Speaker 1: life that you call coincidence, some of the things that
Speaker 1: you call coincidence, are just things that God did that
Speaker 1: you haven't given him credit for. Yet. The odds that
Speaker 1: you would be here, the odds that you would be you,
Speaker 1: the odds, the odds were against you, But God was
Speaker 1: for you. Give him his credit. He said. God was
Speaker 1: working in the rejection. God was working in the resistance.
Speaker 1: If the sorcerer wouldn't have spoken against us, he wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been blinded.
Speaker 5: If he wouldn't have been blinded, the governor wouldn't have seen.
Speaker 1: If they hadn't rejected us, we would not have redirected
Speaker 1: to the gentiles and this church wouldn't have been here today.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to get you to show the devil the door.
Speaker 1: How do you get him to leave your life? Begin
Speaker 1: to list all the things that God did that you've
Speaker 1: been forgetting about. So when I lift my hands like this,
Speaker 1: I'm not just lifting. I'm listing. One he brought me
Speaker 1: out of bondage. Two he brought me out of sin.
Speaker 1: Three he broke my shame and set me free. For
Speaker 1: he cut my feet on a rock and gave me
Speaker 1: a firm place to stamp. Five he's fuck piece to
Speaker 1: my storm. Now it's your turn. You got a hand.
Speaker 1: What did he do for you? Begin to lift your hands,
Speaker 1: Begin to lift your victories. Begin to report the open door,
Speaker 1: the door he opened, the way he made, the time
Speaker 1: he came through. When the devil shows you your deficiency.
Speaker 8: Showing the door, showing the door, you have the perfect
Speaker 8: come back.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to the devil, away from me.
Speaker 7: He was showing you what to do, and he could
Speaker 7: do this because of who he is, and he's in you.
Speaker 1: He's in you.
Speaker 5: Greater is he that is in me, then he that is.
Speaker 1: In the world. So resistance is a door. Rejection is
Speaker 1: a door. Rocks are a door. I just gotta stop
Speaker 1: and remember who he is.
Speaker 5: Jesus said to Satan away from me.
Speaker 1: You ever wonder why he waited till the third time
Speaker 1: the devil tempted him to send him away. I thought
Speaker 1: about that a lot this week. One, I think he
Speaker 1: was setting an example for us to know that temptation
Speaker 1: isn't something you resist once and you're done with it. Two,
Speaker 1: I think he was doing it to show us the
Speaker 1: three types of temptation we all face. The lust of
Speaker 1: the flesh turned these stones into bread, the lust of
Speaker 1: the eyes throw yourself off, and the pride of life.
Speaker 1: A bow down and worship me and I'll get all
Speaker 1: the kingdoms of the world. But another reason, I think
Speaker 1: is because of what the devil said the third time.
Speaker 1: He said, Jesus, you see all this, and he took
Speaker 1: him to a high place. It says he can see
Speaker 1: all the kingdoms of the world, which lets us know
Speaker 1: that this was not a physical transportation, it was a
Speaker 1: mental one. There's no mountain high enough to show you
Speaker 1: all the kingdoms of the world. So this was all
Speaker 1: happening in Jesus's mind, just like it's all happening in yours,
Speaker 1: And the real challenge is not to get back to
Speaker 1: Antioch physically, it's to get back to your grace. Yes,
Speaker 1: So the devil took him. The devil took him to
Speaker 1: a high place, and he said, all this I'll give you. Now,
Speaker 1: Remember the devil did three things. He led Jesus. I
Speaker 1: don't mean that Jesus was following him. I mean that
Speaker 1: he took him there when translation says he led, and
Speaker 1: then he Now, the first two times the devil quoted
Speaker 1: a scripture at Jesus, but the third time was an
Speaker 1: outright lie. He said, all this I will give you
Speaker 1: verse nine, if you will bow down and worship me.
Speaker 1: And then the devil said leave. He led, he lied,
Speaker 1: and he left. And you say, what was the lie
Speaker 1: in verse nine? The lie is that anybody was worthy
Speaker 1: of worship other than Jesus. So when the devil said
Speaker 1: worship me, Jesus said, get out of here. I'm not
Speaker 1: the worshiper, I'm the worshiped. To said now let me
Speaker 1: show you the door. For those of you who really
Speaker 1: know your Bibles, you will be familiar with John chapter ten,
Speaker 1: Verse ten. The thief comes to kill, still and destroy,
Speaker 1: But I have come that you might have life and
Speaker 1: have it to the full, or King James have it
Speaker 1: more abundantly. Tell the devil get the hints. I have life.
Speaker 1: I have life. This is my life. God gave it
Speaker 1: to me, and I'm gonna live it for him. But
Speaker 1: there's another thing that Jesus said just before he said,
Speaker 1: the thief comes to kill, still and destroy, but I
Speaker 1: have come that you might have life in verse nine
Speaker 1: that I want to show you today where Jesus said,
Speaker 1: I am the door. When the devil shows you your
Speaker 1: failure this week, show him your door. And when oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna help you for I get off the stage.
Speaker 1: When he tells you you don't have a right to pray,
Speaker 1: you know how unworthy you are, show him your door.
Speaker 1: Just don't even argue with the devil. Don't tell him
Speaker 1: you're worthy, you're great, you're awesome, because you and I both.
Speaker 5: Know that isn't true.
Speaker 1: You and I both know that at your highest you're
Speaker 1: not God, and at your lowest you're not the devil.
Speaker 1: So when the devil comes to try to rock you
Speaker 1: with that stuff this week and try to get you
Speaker 1: to give up on what God gave you, show him
Speaker 1: your door. Let me show you the door devil. Let
Speaker 1: me remind you what Jesus did for me. Let me
Speaker 1: tell you how he bled for me. Let me tell
Speaker 1: you how he suffered on God at this hill. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you how he sweat with drops of great
Speaker 1: blood until the point where he was in agony, saying, nevertheless,
Speaker 1: not my will, but yours be done. When the devil
Speaker 1: shows you what you're up, I guess show him your door.
Speaker 1: Your door is Jesus. He is the way, the truth,
Speaker 1: and the life. When the devil shows you your disease,
Speaker 1: show in your door, say by his friends, I am here.
Speaker 1: I got a door, And walk the enemy right to
Speaker 1: the cross of Christ in your mind and remind him
Speaker 1: that Jesus is your way to God. Right now in
Speaker 1: his presence. There are at least fifty people in this room,
Speaker 1: and probably hundreds all over the world watching online, who
Speaker 1: need to give your life to Jesus right now, right
Speaker 1: in this moment. Not tomorrow, not when you get your
Speaker 1: stuff together, not when you get your credit score up,
Speaker 1: none of that. Right now you need to come to
Speaker 1: the cross. He is your door. Not by words of
Speaker 1: righteousness so that we can boast, but by grace through faith,
Speaker 1: we are saved. And I want everybody to stand on
Speaker 1: your feet right now as I offer you this invitation
Speaker 1: to come to Jesus, to come to him and live,
Speaker 1: to come to him. All of the accusations, all of
Speaker 1: the sins that you've committed, all of these can be
Speaker 1: forgiven if you place your faith in Jesus. He is
Speaker 1: your door. And right now, in the name of Jesus
Speaker 1: who Paul and Barnabas preached, in the name of Jesus
Speaker 1: who defeated the devil and sin and death and hell
Speaker 1: and the grave, I offer you this abundant life, this
Speaker 1: eternal life, this life that cannot be taken away.
Speaker 5: With your heads bowed and your eyes closed.
Speaker 1: Those of you who are here today and you've been
Speaker 1: captive to the devil to do his will, today is
Speaker 1: your day of liberation. There is therefore now no condemnation
Speaker 1: for those who are in Christ Jesus. And now I'm
Speaker 1: going to lead you in a prayer. This prayer is
Speaker 1: for those who are coming to Jesus. Enough of what
Speaker 1: your past says, enough of what your flesh says, enough
Speaker 1: of what your good works can do. None of that
Speaker 1: can say. If you come to Jesus, he will pardon.
Speaker 1: Come to Jesus, he is merciful. Come to Jesus, he
Speaker 1: is flowing with forgiveness. And right now, if you pray
Speaker 1: this prayer in your heart, the Bible says that if
Speaker 1: you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and
Speaker 1: believe in your heart God raised him from the dead,
Speaker 1: you will be saved. With head's bowed and eyes closed.
Speaker 1: At every location, we're praying out loud together as a
Speaker 1: church family for the benefit of those who are coming
Speaker 1: to God or coming back to God. This is your
Speaker 1: comeback moment. This is your comeback Sunday. Now repeat after me.
Speaker 1: If God is speaking to you out loud, heavenly fathered.
Speaker 5: Today is my day of salvation.
Speaker 1: I believe that Jesus Christ is your son, and today
Speaker 1: I make Jesus the Lord and savior of my life.
Speaker 1: I believe he died that I would be forgiven and
Speaker 1: rose again to give me life.
Speaker 5: I receive this new life.
Speaker 1: This is my new beginning.
Speaker 5: I am a child of God.
Speaker 1: On the counter of three shoots your hand up. If
Speaker 1: you prayed that one, two, three, shoot him up, shoot
Speaker 1: him up. I knew it. I knew it. God bless him. Amazing.
Speaker 1: Come on, let's put a party atmosphere in the place
Speaker 1: for him. Come on, let's put an angels in heaven.
Speaker 1: Rejoice over one sinner party atmosphere in the place. Glory
Speaker 1: to God. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is
Speaker 1: because of you that this ministry is possible. You can
Speaker 1: click the link in the description to give now, or
Speaker 1: visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
Speaker 1: share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.