You came.

Okay, we got a lot to cover.

Let me just give a shout out really quickly to our campuses, okay, because there's a lot of people around this area that are watching that are taking part today.

So out in Upland, give them a big cheer, and at West Co, big cheer, Rancho, big cheer.

I need to start by saying a few things, okay?

Because this has to cover, this has to be kind of a foundation for everything I say over the next four or five weeks.

I'm not sure it's gonna be four or five yet.

Depends on how well you listen and how much material we get in every weekend, okay?

I remember telling the story many times about my younger brother who got caught up in a movement and he believed that everything around him was possessed by demons.

You ever been around somebody like that?

Everything is demonic.

Everything.

Coffee, sugar, has little demons in them.

Chocolate, cake.

Every morning he used to get up and his Ford wouldn't start, remember?

He would go out in the morning and lay hands on the hood of that Ford and try to cast the demons out.

Finally, I said, dude, that has nothing to do with demons.

That's a...

Ford. That's what Fords do, right? Okay. The problem with a series like this is that sometimes you can go overboard. You've got a group of people who believe everything's demonic, and then another group of people who don't believe that anything's demonic, and both are bad.

Both.

The second thing is when I do a series like this, there's a real struggle in my soul because I'm trying to learn how to harmonize.

How do we become a church that anyone, no matter what you've done in the past, no matter what you're doing now, when the time comes that you feel, I want to go and search for something beyond, something deeper than myself, how can I make you feel welcome when you come into this place while at the same time...

every weekend teaching the scripture because the scripture is offensive. Isn't it? It's the best news ever that we are saved by grace through faith. But also there are going to be times I say things that if you just happen to come that weekend and I'm talking about that and you don't have a background or a backdrop that kind of governs the words that I say, I might lose you.

Now, the only way a pastor deals with this is this way.

It's not my church and it's not my responsibility.

God is in the business of converting and I have to believe that he'll get people here at the right time and the right place to hear the right things.

My job is not to try to outmaneuver.

My job is just to preach the good news of the gospel.

That's the second thing.

A good example of that is this is pride month.

Okay, so this whole month.

Our whole world is celebrating number one on the list of the seven deadly sins.

Pride.

So people are going to be celebrating this everywhere.

So how as a pastor do I address this while at the same time, someone who may come in this week who's in that kind of lifestyle looking for the good news doesn't feel like that they're somehow worse than anybody else.

How do you do that?

Because as I said before, I guarantee there are more Christians who are sleeping together heterosexually than there are gay men and women.

And because this is always a heated topic, think about it.

If I told you that I went to a campsite and I noticed all these gay men and women sleeping together, you'd say, that's terrible, but I guarantee there are more heterosexuals there sleeping together.

But it doesn't bother you as much.

How can I, as a pastor, present the good news of the gospel while being cognizant of the struggles we have?

And the answer to that is this, is you deliver the truth.

You don't sacrifice truth, but you do it with tears, the sadness.

Because we're all in this together.

God's law is not given arbitrarily.

He gives it to you because he wants you to possess, to live the best life possible.

In the same way a father would say to his children, don't do this, he doesn't do it to be the big bad cosmic boss.

He does it because he knows life doesn't turn out well this way.

And that's something the secular world will never understand about us.

They think Christ followers are standing in the way of progression.

They think we're archaic.

when in reality they can never get it through their heads that we really do love people.

And we're not trying to bind them, we're trying to free them.

So as you look around culture, because it's moving at warp speed, to set the foundation for this series, I want to go back to a passage in Ephesians 6.

This is going to be this weekend's text.

This is a text that we often read through, but we never really take the time.

It's primarily used as a supportive text, not as necessarily a text that we concentrate on, but it's rich with meaning.

And the apostle Paul, when he writes to the church at Ephesus, wants the Ephesian Christians to know there's a real battle going on, man.

And he writes these words, he says, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

He uses the word, palle.

Remember I told you that Greek is a very precise language.

There are other words for wrestle or struggle.

He uses the one that is most violent.

So when you had boxing and wrestling matches in Rome, you and I think of boxing and wrestling matches as sport only, and it's interesting and pay-per-view.

But back then, it was not.

This kind of word used, when you had a boxing match, they had steel knives on the end of them.

You were fighting for your life.

It wasn't just for sport.

If you lost, you died.

So he uses a very aggressive word and he says, this struggle of ours is not against flesh and blood.

These are terms that do distinguish between, as we've said before, the celestial, what's up there in the terrestrial, in land, what's here.

He says, our struggle, you may look out and think, man, our struggle is with man.

Our struggle is with what we can see.

And he says, no, it's not.

Your ultimate battle or struggle is against, and then look what he does, rulers, powers, and world forces.

Now when I first studied this in seminary, I thought, why does he use these three particular words or phrases?

And then you start to realize what he's doing.

He's explaining to you that there is a demonic hierarchy.

There's a strata of authority.

So he uses rulers, which is archos, from which we get our word architect.

So the demonic forces are organized, extremely organized.

And you have at the top of the hierarchy what we call rulers or architects who draw out the plans.

They're the ones who determine legislation.

And then he says it's against powers.

exousias, from which we get our word execute.

So you have rulers who draw up the legislation, and then you have demonic forces who are the generals who give the direction, who form the strategy, and then pass it on to world forces, cosmocreatores, which is a term that refers to humanity.

So there are demons who infiltrate, this is say infiltrate, not infiltrate, various political systems and human leaders, and human leaders, demonic force.

What he's saying is you've got a hierarchy and you've got the prince of the power of the air who has assigned rulers, demonic forces, who pass the legislation to determine what are we going to do on planet earth.

And then you have powers or demonic generals who lead the forces and they execute the plan that has been written and they do so as they take possession of world leaders.

That's pretty heavy stuff, man.

He says, so our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, powers, and world forces of this darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.

Now, a couple of things.

First of all, Satan and his forces are anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-biblical authority, anti-anything that is pure and good.

And he's not just a god, he's a god of evil.

But he reiterates once again that the battle is spiritual, against spiritual forces, against pneumatica, not the physical, but something that you and I cannot see is in full operation.

And then he says, this word wickedness that he uses, by the way, is a word that almost always, I can't say always because there are some rare occasions, but almost always is associated with perverse sexual practices.

It's almost like Paul is saying, you know the forces are in full deployment.

When you look at culture and you see debauchery, you see sexual immorality at an all time high, it's a word referred to as wickedness.

In the heavenly places, now this isn't heaven, final heaven you and I are going to go to.

This is the Greek word Uranos.

So he's referring to the atmosphere.

It's the same word that Jesus uses when he says, when you pray, you ought to pray, our Father who art in heaven, not the final heaven, but the heavens.

He's closer than the air that you breathe.

That's what Uranus means.

So this battle that's going on is real and it's fought in the heavenly places.

So just for a start, there's a different strata and rankings of the demons in the supernatural empire.

Dupes of Satan and his demons exist.

What does that mean?

Remember what we said, if you're not for Christ, you're against him because you're going the natural flow of the world.

And if you're not protected by the Holy Spirit inside your life, then you're on the broad way to destruction.

And that means you, even though you don't willingly do it, you then are available for Satan and his demonic forces to occupy to achieve their purposes.

Okay?

Now, having said that.

just when you thought it was safe.

That means that the unseen impacts the seen.

I put Louis Pasteur here because Louis Pasteur was responsible for what we call spontaneous generation.

And so in the 1800s...

Pasteur gave this theory.

He said, we think that you can see everything that is seen is the only thing that can be understood.

He said, you know, there are thousands and thousands and thousands of viruses that are floating around all the time on your food and your handshakes everywhere that you can't see and they cause major disaster in the physical world.

Jesus says basically the same thing that Louis Pasteur said, only he said what is true in the biological world is true in the spiritual world.

There are all kinds of things floating around that you can't see that are impacting humanity.

The demonic forces are well organized.

That's what I wanted to show you in Ephesians 6.

I don't make that up.

This is from the apostle Paul.

Architects who determine legislation, generals who execute strategy, forces who march and enact.

Three, the demonic forces are led by Satan.

Now, the thing you need to know about Satan is everybody's always saying, the devil made me do it.

Well, he can't be everywhere.

He's not God.

He's not omnipotent, all powerful, omniscient, all knowing, omnipresent, everywhere.

If he's in Texas, he's not in Arizona.

But he has massive demonic forces in the same way God has massive angelic forces.

And those forces go out into the world to achieve his purposes.

You know, in James 1 it says that the devil has the goods on you.

You're tempted.

He knows exactly what to lay, what trap to lay to get you to fall.

You say, that proves he's omniscient.

No, it just proves he's been watching you a long time.

His demonic forces come back and report.

You know that guy Jeff Bynes, he looks like he has his act together.

He's got this weakness over here.

If you really go hard after that weakness when he's tired, when he's physically tired, I think we can bring him down.

He does the same to you.

The demonic forces are anti-God and anti-Christ.

They seek to corrupt all that is good, to deceive all people and nations, to destroy allegiance away from God.

I go back again.

The bottom line is, just to give you an overall view, if you look out there and you say, wow, is the world really gone mad?

The answer is yes.

Does it really want to destroy itself?

Yeah.

Because Satan comes to do what?

Kill and destroy.

Christ comes to bring life.

So if you're duped and you're deceived, and this is the life you're living, it's not gonna bring you joy.

It's not gonna bring you health and wealth.

It's not gonna bring you the kind of prosperity that you need in the soul.

It's gonna bring destruction.

So can't you see, can't you understand that when a pastor like me says, look, this is not good that we celebrate Pride Month, which is really sexual immorality.

Now you may disagree with me.

You say, well, I don't think that's sexual immorality.

Well, that's another conversation, but at least give me the benefit of the doubt that I'm actually on your side.

I'm trying to say to you, God has a better way and this will destroy you.

Okay?

Now having said those things, and of course we've not even started talking about abortion, the politicalization of humanity, adultery, fornication, Christian atheism, which are Christians who claim to be Christians but live like there's no God.

We'll get into that.

In our time, the demonic activity has gone to warp speed.

On one hand, I feel incredibly responsible that I'm here at this time.

I'm not somebody that will say, hey, Jesus is coming back tomorrow.

If you don't believe that, you're just stupid.

I don't know when he's coming back.

I'm just supposed to remind you to watch and to be prepared, right?

And remind you that you can be deceived, that you've got to watch yourself.

So I go back to Tennessee.

I mentioned that and I met with my brothers.

I hadn't been back to East Tennessee in many, many years.

You got to know, East Tennessee is the buckle of the Bible belt.

But things were different this time.

We got road rage in Elizabethan, Tennessee.

Well, they got like 10 cars on the road.

You still got road rage.

I witnessed it firsthand.

The vulgarity now, you would have never heard a person drop the F-bomb in public 10 years ago.

And now it's like it's part of the language.

Just commonplace in front of everybody.

People who are serving you behind the counter in restaurants, the way they talk, the way they act, what they talk about, you would have never heard 10 years ago.

Pornography.

I know it's always been, but in the past it was in secret and there was shame to it.

Now it's in public and there's no shame.

I met with one of my brothers and he said, Jeff, can you feel it?

I said, feel what?

Can you feel?

There's just something different.

Yeah.

There's anger and frustration and bitterness and rage and hopelessness and fear and immorality and pornography and adultery and debauchery everywhere.

I went downtown Johnson City, which is the little town next to the town I grew up in.

There used to be a quaint little town with little cafes.

I thought, well, I'll just go back and have a cup of coffee at my favorite cafe.

Folks.

The disease, the drug, the police were everywhere.

It's totally changed.

This is not Portland.

This is little Johnson City, Tennessee.

People don't go down there anymore, but I didn't know that, so we didn't stay very long.

This series is meant to answer three questions.

Number one, why is this happening now?

Two, from where does it all come?

And three, what are we supposed to do?

Now, let me give another warning.

There's an old saying in apologetics that goes like this, an elephant has ears, I have ears, that doesn't make me an elephant.

Just because two things have something in common doesn't make them exact.

So some of you might think, wait a minute, pastor, this is the kind of thing I've been trying to avoid in my church life.

And you've been so good about not going here.

Well, of course, some of the things I say are going to sound like other pastors because we're kind of all on the same team.

Even though we may disagree with each other, there's still going to be a central theme in these messages.

Why is it happening now?

The answer is simple.

It really is in some respects because the Judeo-Christian values that caused the West to prosper have slowly been eradicated, thus removing the blessings that are associated with them.

See, if you didn't grow up in America, you're not going to get this.

And don't you dare think I'm starting to put the America above the kingdom of God.

Stop it.

That's not what this is about.

And this is not some old white man who's saying nostalgically, I wish things were the way they used to be.

That's not what this is about.

But I would be remiss if I didn't give you some information scripturally.

that for 2,000 years, the Jesus movement infiltrated much of the Western world, and it brought with it economic flourishing and the pushing back of demonic forces.

Jesus told us Jesus brings life, therefore do his principles, and Satan brings death, the violation of those principles.

In fact, when Jesus began his ministry, some of the main things that he participated in was to subject the demons to his power.

Was it not?

Did he... Have you read the gospels?

What did he do?

He went around casting out demons.

That's not the only thing he did, but he did that quite often.

And when Jesus began his ministry, the demons realized, we're in trouble.

There's a greater power.

And as a result, the demonic forces were relegated to the fringes of society.

You with me?

They were kicked out of downtown and they were forced into the wilderness.

They were still there, but they were forced.

Remember what we read in Matthew 12, but if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.

Or how can one enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man and then he will plunder his house?

Jesus said, one of my...

Objectives is to plunder the house and bind the evil one and relegate him to the fringes and get him out of the central city of God or the city of people.

Luke 10, then the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning.

So Jesus' ministry relegated demonic spirits, especially in the West, to the fringes.

But if society attempts to eradicate Jesus, it does so at its own peril.

The demonic forces that were forced to the fringes are now once again in the Western world taking center stage.

The rulers and the powers and the principalities, all of them have returned in full force.

So what Paul wrote in his day about the Greco-Roman world has always been true about the Western world, but Christ and the followers of Christ have pushed back evil for many, many years.

Does that mean there's not been any evil?

Of course not.

Well, that's ridiculous.

Evil's always around.

Notice something that Jesus said very carefully in Matthew 12, 43.

When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it.

Then it says, I will return to the house I left.

When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order.

Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits, more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there.

And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.

This is how it will be with this wicked generation.

It's not enough to cast out spirits.

The house, the vessel or nation or generation must be occupied by something else.

And 2,000 years ago.

Jesus left his home in heaven and he overpowered the demonic forces.

The Roman empire and Western civilization comprised of a house of spirits.

The entire Western world, when Jesus came on the scene, was the house of the gods.

But into that house came the word of God and the good news of the gospel.

And everything changed.

Everything.

Because the demonic forces were pushed back to the fringes.

Folks, this isn't just me saying this, this is historically verifiable.

Because of the Jesus movement, people stopped sacrificing their children on molten altars.

They stopped throwing the deformed into the rivers, believing that life is sacred and a gift from God.

And because of Jesus' commitment to us, men and women became committed to each other in a thing called marriage.

Adultery actually became illegal.

Did you know that?

It's still actually on the books.

It became illegal.

It was illegal because the damage done to both spouse and children and the burden on society as a whole.

Men stopped divorcing their wives and ceased having mistresses.

All men, of course not.

There was a Jesus movement that transformed the lives and hearts of many men and women.

And the Jesus movement and the Judeo-Christian values had significant impact on the Western world.

Again, if you didn't grow up here in America, you don't understand what we've lost.

You don't.

You just don't.

The sick, rather than discarded, were treated with dignity and respect because of the Jesus movement.

Hospitals emerged because of the Jesus movement.

The sick weren't discarded, they were treated because of the Jesus movement.

Children were valued, mentored, taught about their identity in Christ.

The Ten Commandments actually began to govern most societies and serve as the foundation for legislation.

That's the impact of the Jesus Movement.

Did society always get it right?

No way.

But when they got it wrong, historically speaking, it was a disaster.

It was often the Christians who saw it, detested it, and changed it.

As in the case of Wilbur William Forrest and the abolition of the European slave trade.

Took them 70 years, but for all practical purposes, you can say that the Christ follower movement ended slavery.

In the case of Abraham Lincoln and the defeat of slavery in America.

Now were there some Christians who had slaves?

Oh yeah.

Were there some churches that still said slavery's okay?

Oh yeah.

But after time, the cream of the crop rose to the top.

And guess what happened?

The Jesus movement pressed down, removed to the fringes the demonic forces who cause all kinds of demonic activity.

It's the historian Rodney Stark that I pointed out numerous times in his amazing work called The Rise of Christianity States that Jesus, the Jesus movement pushed back the immorality and transforming culture from the inside out.

The before and after Jesus is amazing, folks.

Two more books I'll recommend.

Dr. James Kennedy wrote a book, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born?

Fantastic book.

John Orberg wrote a really good book called Who Is This Man?

And talks about the impact and influence of Jesus and his followers for over 2,000 years.

One of Jesus' primary objectives when he came was to drive out the demonic spirits that had deceived and occupied so much of culture.

And after he drove them out, he would take up residence.

Now look at Matthew 8, 28.

When he, that is Jesus, arrived at the other side in the region of Gardenius, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs met him.

They were so violent that no one could pass that way.

What do you want with us, son of God?

They shouted.

Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?

Some distance from them a large herd of pigs was feeding.

The demons begged Jesus, if you drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.

Now in the first parable, Matthew 12, the spirits find no rest on the fringes and so they seek to return and repossess the house it left.

When Jesus cast the demons out.

In the second story, the spirits pleaded with him to be cast into the pigs.

Now what does that tell you?

It tells you this, the spirits, the demonic spirits are parasitic.

They need a host to possess.

Jesus' ministry and the subsequent ministry of the disciples then cast out the spirits and relegated them to the fringes of society.

They're still present, but they had fallen.

Remember Jesus said, I saw Satan fall.

Still active, but essentially bound.

The spirits are always waiting to return to take possession of a house that they think rightfully belongs to them.

And when they come back and find the house swept clean, they bring with them seven other spirits to occupy so that the possession is deeper and more intense now than it was in the beginning.

And that's what you're seeing.

Let's be clear.

Jesus crushed the head of the serpent.

The demonic forces are subject to Him.

His followers took the gospel to the West and relegated the forces of evil to the fringes of society.

Judeo-Christianity swept the houses clean and invited Jesus in to occupy the hearts and souls of men.

However, since the turn of the last century, Jesus and the Jesus movement has been attacked from every side.

This is something that didn't happen overnight, folks.

This has been going on for a very long time.

and the hearts and souls of men and women in the West have expelled Christ and the Jesus movement from their midst.

He's been kicked out of social and political arenas.

He's been ridiculed in the places of higher education.

And as a result, the spirits have found the house empty upon their return, and now they are stronger than ever before.

Let me say a third time, if you didn't grow up in this America, you're gonna have a hard time understanding what I'm saying, you just will.

This is going to sound insane, I know, to many.

But when you see what is happening in places like Target, and our schools with our children, and in Washington, and in Disneyland, and in the public arena.

It is merely the result of the return of the demonic forces into the open, swept clean house no longer occupied by the one who is greater.

So we have mass shootings, children killing children, genocide, sexual immorality, mutilation of our children, the sacrificing of our children.

You say, well, Pastor Jeff, this has been going on for a long time.

I'm going to show you in the weeks to come, yes, but it's far more intense in many, many ways right now than it's been in a very long time.

Now again, let me stop here.

Man, I don't want to be the guy that stands up, you're all going to hell.

This is the end.

Repent.

That doesn't do anything.

But what I do want to say is that I love you, man.

that I'm worried for you and I'm worried for me.

And you got to be on your guard because I'm going to show you some of the signs and symbols from the dark world that have returned to American culture.

And it's going to shock many of you.

And to think that the signs and symbols of the gods, to think that they don't care about those signs and symbols and they're meaningless.

From Asherah poles to sacred altars to demonic signs that began reappearing at alarming speed back into Western civilization so that the gods can plant their flags in places they call their own.

If you think that this is not important to the demonic spirit, you've not read the Old Testament or the New.

Now I'm not saying that every sign is chosen and it's chosen because some business or corporation or America itself wants to associate with the demonic forces.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not saying that they choose to identify with what is evil and corrupt, but I've tried to show you through Ephesians six that these rulers and powers work through human forces.

They dupe you.

They deceive you.

to accomplish their own ends.

And those who are not protected by the spirit of Christ, do you understand that the house has been swept clean and the demonic forces return?

I'm going to show you through many signs and symbols.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

Please don't put me in that category.

I'm simply trying to tell you what I see, what I've researched, what I've been reading about, what I've studied.

I know you go to Google and there's all kinds of conspiracy theories, all kinds of lies, all kinds of things that should not be written, especially by Christians.

I got it.

I got it.

That doesn't take away from the things that are true and that are real.

My hope is not in America.

My hope is in the kingdom of God.

That's my hope is in Christ's kingdom.

I know that, but it's still my job to tell you what's going on.

Not so that you'll march on Washington, not so that you'll go picket somewhere, but so you will watch your back.

So you'll be careful.

And although this series will wake us up to spiritual realities I think previously hidden, it's not designed to bring fear and trepidation.

It's not about gloom and doom because we're the winners.

We talked about that.

We're the winners.

It's not about nostalgia, back to the good old America.

It's not about politics.

I'm asking you to do the best you can during this series to separate politics from this.

It'll be hard for some of you because when I say something, you think, oh, he's talking.

No, I'm not.

I'm not talking about politics.

I'm talking about the Bible.

Let me talk about the Bible and understand that broad is the way that leads to destruction.

If you don't watch your back, everybody's susceptible, folks.

There's no immunity here.

This is not about you finding a technique to cast demons out.

It's not about that either.

I believe Colossians 1.13, the apostle Paul also said, for he has rescued us from the kingdom of the sun, he loves.

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Paul said, it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.

I don't want you to go around, man, Pastor Jeff, I wonder if I'm possessed by a demon.

Resist the devil and he must flee.

However, it's also dangerous to become presumptuous that somehow you're free from any danger.

Because if you do that, you'll become weak and lethargic in your spiritual disciplines.

I got to spend some more time with my high school basketball coach not too long ago, and we had all kinds of funny conversations about all kinds of things.

And then right as I was about to leave, he was in the big lazy boy chair, and I was kind of on the floor just looking up at him.

He likes it that way.

And he leaned forward, he grabbed my hand, because he's gotten older, he's gotten a lot more mellow.

He said, Jeff, I just want to say something to you.

I probably should have said a long time ago.

He said, I'm proud of you.

I'm not proud of you because you're successful.

I'm proud of you because of your preparation.

Anytime you want to do something, I see you.

You always prepare.

I watch online a lot.

I don't watch every week, but I watch and I think, my goodness, how much time.

And I thought, if that's true that preparation is 95% of the battle, like Coach said, I'm What impacts your life more than anything else?

And the answer is your discipleship, your prayer, your scripture, your accountability, your community.

Can I tell you something personal?

Here's what I've noticed in my own life.

When I slide on my time with God, prayer, scripture, accountability, I also slide in holiness and purity.

And I've noticed the pattern in my own life that when I slide on those things, because I think I'm strong, I think, I can skip that today, I'm strong.

You know what happens?

I become narcissistic.

It's all about me.

And then I become rationalistic and I'm very good at that.

Well, you know, I'm good at these other things.

I may have this sin in my life, but I'm good over here.

And then I become a grace abuser.

Well, I know this is wrong, but I'm going to do it because God will forgive me.

Oh, you've never done that.

But Paul said, don't give the devil a foothold.

Because once he gets in, you're not strong enough.

You know, the word for foothold is scabbard.

It refers to a scabbard.

Sorry, that's not the word for foothold, but in reference to the etymology of the word is scabbard.

You know what a scabbard is?

It's the sheath that you put the sword in to give it a resting place.

Paul says, don't give the demons a resting place.

Don't let them enter in.

Don't give them space to reside.

That's a scabbard.

Folks, every part of your life, every part of your being is a spiritual house.

And in your spiritual house, you've got compartments.

And every compartment of your life that you refuse to give over to Christ is a foothold for the devil.

And once you let him into one part of the house, he starts knocking on the doors of the other.

I'm not obeying Christ in sexuality, but I'm good with my money and with other things.

You're not safe.

I don't honor God with my money, but I'm good in other areas.

You're not safe.

Okay, I do have anger problems and I throw things and I say things I shouldn't, but I'm good in other areas and it goes on and on.

Yeah, I know I drop the F-bomb from time to time and I know I've got a foul mouth.

Foothole.

And do not give the devil a foothold.

In any area of your life that you allow something that is anti-biblical or anti-Christ, every room in your spiritual house becomes accessible.

I can be an habitual liar and still be a Christ follower.

I could be a master manipulator and still be a Christ follower.

I can look at pornography and still be a Christ follower.

I can take what doesn't belong to me, break up this marriage through adultery, blame everyone else for my failures, watch, read, engage in things that clearly offend Jesus without anything significantly impacting me.

Let me tell you what you are.

You're delusional.

And you know where that word comes from?

Oh yeah.

all the way back to the devil himself because his tactics are to distort, disorient, and deceive. Paul recognized that danger and told us, and everything you hear from this day out and every sermon in this series, remember, you're going to have two responses. I'm going to save one for the end, but he's trying to tell you to resist spiritual attributes.

Folks, look at this.

I got nothing.

I mean, folks, get a close up.

This is not Michael.

Michael's up here.

His shirt would bust.

Look at it.

And I work hard.

You know why I got nothing?

Because I'm 58 years old, my body doesn't respond anymore.

But if I do nothing, oh, it's worse than this.

It's like Gumby and only 50 and older will know who Gumby is.

That's right.

Paul said, exercise the disciplines of the spirit.

And if you don't, you'll not be able to stand.

One more time, if the totality of your experience or your spiritual exertion is one hour and 15 minutes on a Sunday, you will not make it.

The battle is constant, requires attention.

They are highly organized, man.

They're after you.

You know, often we'll say this, I've heard this in apologetics too, there are no atheists in foxholes.

Do you know why there are no atheists in foxholes?

Because you're in danger and when you think you're going to lose your life, man, you're crying out to God.

If you realize the danger you're in, you wouldn't forego the spiritual disciplines.

See, you think you're safe.

You don't realize everything around you is trying to destroy you.

I think some of us are going to get to heaven and God's... Now, hold on a minute.

Some people, let me say it that way, are going to get to heaven and he's going to say, dude, I never knew you.

He probably won't say dude, but for the sake of Californians, dude, I never knew you.

And you're going, what?

And then I think he's going to say, dude, I gave you the prophets, the scriptures, and the house of the Lord, and you ignored them all and listened to culture.

What part of 1 John 5, 19 did you not get?

For we are children of God, but the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one.

So why did you think you could go through life without spiritual disciplines and think you were going to be okay?

When you have your devotions, do you ever get distracted?

Does the phone ring at the right time?

Is there a knock on the door?

Do the children start acting up?

Do you have brain fog?

And you think it's coincidence, don't you?

The devil and his demons do not want you to go into the word of God and to pray.

See, when you start looking at it like that, I'm telling you, you'll be successful because you'll say, hey, get thee behind me because you know your soul, your life.

You're tempted in weak areas and you feel like, man, this is a full on attack.

Why is it so strong?

I'll tell you why.

Because there are demonic forces after you.

Now don't go around thinking, man, everything that happens is demonic force.

This is the problem.

Sometimes you're just being stupid.

Devil leaves you alone.

You're so stupid.

He doesn't need to bother you.

You'll take care of yourself.

I'm sorry.

Sunday morning.

It's interesting, if you've got a tea time in Palm Springs at 10 o'clock, man, you're up and energetic.

But if you're going to go to church, oh, do I really want to do this?

You think that's accidental?

The fear of generosity.

You don't think Satan binds you in your finances because he knows if you get out of that, God's going to bless you, open up the windows of heaven?

You ever wonder why...

Your thirst for revenge almost takes over and possesses you.

It's no accident.

So what happens when demonic forces come back into a nation or culture and there's an absence of Christ, which means no resistance, it means that demonic forces waltz back in undeterred and begin to wreak havoc.

And I'm going to show you over the next few weeks how that's exactly what's going on.

You better determine now that you're in because the enemy is smarter than you, more organized than you, outnumbers you apart from Christ.

He's more conniving than you and he doesn't underestimate you like you do him.

And unless you know who the enemy is, where he is and what he can do, you'll have a difficult time defeating him.

I'm begging during this series that you become spiritually woke.

I'm praying by the end of this that you wake up.

and you see that that affair you're having is destroying you, that what you're doing right now is ultimately bringing you down and you're delusional.

You think, I can keep doing this.

I can keep stealing, cheating, lying, manipulating, and you think it's okay.

Be sure your sins will find you out.

Today is the day of repentance.

I have to stop.

During World War II, one of the favorite allied tricks, and I'm reading this, was to make wooden tanks or trucks in order to trick the enemy.

When enemy planes flew overhead, they couldn't tell the difference and wasted their time and ammunition.

The enemy wasn't always full though.

One time when the allies had a wooden tank, the Germans dropped a wooden bomb.

The Germans also had a sense of humor.

Deception has always featured strongly in warfare.

And the purpose of deception is to gain an advantage so that you can take more ground.

Some of you are allowing far too much ground to be taken from you.

And the reason is you've been deceived by a world system under the sway of the evil one and you're spiritually asleep.

And you've been deceived into believing what the Bible calls evil as good and what the Bible calls good as evil.

And I hope that I can open your eyes, that God will use me and the Spirit will open your eyes and get you back on course.

Father, thank you for the truth of your word.

As always, maybe especially in a series like this, everything that I said that is consistent with your word, I pray that it would go deep into our hearts and wake us up, that revival would come.

Amen.

that our allegiance, that our spiritual disciplines would take a deep root in our lives and our heart.

Anything I've said is not consistent with your word.

Again, I pray that it would be like seeds scattered on the road, be trampled on, be forgotten.

Open our eyes to both your love for us, your law for us, and the changes we need to make because we're saved by grace.

In Jesus' name, amen.