[0:00] ask you to take your bibles if you would and turn with me to first peter chapter five and verse eight i know i am totally all script you even get an outline sent to you but i don't have peace that's what the lord wants me to do i don't do that to you often i have dealt with stuff today and this week in the last two or three weeks uh and uh i was sitting there praying i have a whole message on uh training children and trying times and that's really what i wanted to preach i just don't think i ought to i also want to bring jason up here and let you get to know what god has done in chile he's been known a long time and god has used him greatly and i'm very proud of him uh but i really would like to talk to you just a minute about the fact that you are in a war and i deal with so many of you and and uh we talk and i think you fail to remember where you are and what's happening to you i think i fail to remember it also uh and i want to talk to you just a little bit um uh open your bibles to first peter chapter five and verse eight how can we defend ourselves against what the devil's doing we're in new york city uh we went to one pastor all i enjoyed meeting all the pastors and talking to them we went to uh one one pastor and he said oh don't come to the city unless you plan on staying and know you're gonna get hurt you're gonna be the city is gonna fight you and all this junk's gonna happen to you and everything he said would be true uh went to another place and the guy actually pulled out a book and uh uh handed it uh read it to us and i knew the author uh well i don't know him i just know of him i don't know any of these famous people except trent cornwell and uh he wrote a book and uh uh but it said there's a if the minute you go into the ministry there is a target on your back and if you're looking for an easy way in an easy life then you don't go into the ministry and that is very true and then i deal with of course i was just in thailand you know that and uh wonderful missionary it's wonderful time no whining really no complaining uh and i just feel like here's some verses that we ought to look at first peter chapter five and verse eight you know how to defend yourself number one you need to be aware of what's happening and i really do think because of people i talked to i'm just going to chew the fat with you for a little bit i think you don't really believe there's a devil i think you don't believe he really exists i think you read the bible and you think uh in fact as i heard a guy say a friend of an ex a friend of mine he's still a friend we don't talk but he's still a friend but he said uh he said you know in the bible times it looked like there was devil stuff but we now know that was probably an epileptic seizure and in bible times this was happening but we now know there's probably a medical excuse and i just thought to myself i'm so stupid i think it was the devil because it's what the bible said and uh i i think god would have known how to say epilepsy i just think god's that smart i mean he was smart enough to tell them that they ought to take a shovel with them and dig a hole to cover up their stuff so it wouldn't contaminate everybody with collar and hepatitis and people can't figure that out today in foreign countries and and i i just think god knows and i think you read the bible and you ignore exactly what the bible says to you the bible is very clear there is a real devil and he is really at work in the world and he really does want to destroy the bible says in first peter chapter 5 verse 8 be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour i'm not sure what part of that you don't believe but i will admit to you that i am a fairly ignorant and illiterate person and i just believe it exactly like it says it i'm not smart enough to figure out that i don't have an adversary i'm not smart enough
[4:04] to believe that peter was talking to an ignorant and illiterate people in his day that didn't know any better and he told them there was a devil i really believe it's holy word of god here i believe it's as holy today as it was the day it spoke and fell from his lips and he said you ought to wake up and pay attention that you should be vigilant you should be on the lookout at all times you should realize that you are really in a war and that you really have an adversary there is somebody who is out to get you and not only does he want to get you he wants to devour you that is a very ugly word i mean that is he doesn't want to hurt you he doesn't want to take you prisoner he wants to eat you alive he wants to destroy you what's the first step in having victory knowing that you are under attack knowing that your worry and fear are tools of the devil and not of our god knowing that the accusations that run through your mind about what you feel about other people or what you feel other people might be saying about you are really attacks of the devil the bible says fairly you ought to memorize this verse you ought to memorize this first be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil is a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour peter said that in that verse right there the god used the apostle peter to say that in ephesians chapter 6 and one of the most famous what i just hate about this sometimes it seems to me that all the new educated people are i made somebody mad recently but they all think they're calvinists and so and they've done away with the holy spirit and done with the devil and it's like it's like neither one of them exists if you're real smart how'd you do that i mean you must have got it out of another book you didn't get out of this book in ephesians chapter 6 in ephesians chapter 6 we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and the rulers of darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places jesus constantly reminded people to watch and pray and when you hear that i don't know what you think but it's really something you watch all the way through the bible it was that when you pray you never forget to keep an eye open the devil's after you you you never think i'm spiritual enough now that i won't get hurt you never relax you never rest in zion you are always alert because you know the devil's out to get you i met some people over the years that visited me and prue that used to be in the military and they told me things that they said they said that nobody can know you've done this stuff because you get in massive trouble but when they were overseas and some of the countries in the middle east and they were they put a guy out to be in the military out to be a watch and at night he was supposed to stay awake and somebody would walk around to see if they could find him and when they found one of their guys asleep they severely mistreated him they said they blindfolded him stuffed their mouth full of socks and beat up on him a little bit and did all sorts of things to him and said because you're supposed to keep us alive they said now you're not going to hear that report because we're not supposed to tell you that but if you're on guard you better be on guard or we're going to get you but you don't think you ought to be on guard you don't realize that the devil's coming after your kids and that tragedy struck real close to our family today we've known that for a long time but but but but that's probably going to happen but you just need to know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood it's not somebody else it's the devil you're in an all-out war this moment an all-out war to take your kids an all-out war to destroy your marriage an all-out war to destroy your sanity an all-out war to mess you up and work you over and defeat you that's where you are the first step in getting victory is knowing that it's happening because you could easily think well my kids just having a medical problem here let's go get some medicine for my kid but if you
[8:07] had been alive in jesus today they were dumb enough to say we need god on this and you just said we need appeal you just said we need something else you need to wake up and realize we're in a real war number two you need to learn truth if you read the bible the way you get victory is you learn truth that's why it is so important we study and read our bibles because every anything you see everything you see you say seeing is believing seeing will deceive you seeing will deceive you they don't have it anymore i don't suppose i haven't been to six flags in a long time haven't actually lost anything there i don't even want to go look for anything if i did lose it there but back when i was a youth director i used to go there on a regular basis and you know they even had a place that was a house of illusions years ago probably before y'all were born and in this house of illusion you could lay a ball on a table and it would roll uphill and you could put you they turned the water on and it would flow uphill and everything in that room worked backwards and they showed that this house proved that what you see is not what's true and i think what they did was it kind of tilted your feet on the floor to a degree you didn't notice it and tilted the house the other way and it really didn't really work that way you're just dumb enough to believe it because seeing you don't always know and here's what the bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood here's what the bible says we have an adversary here's what the bible says you need to learn truth there are two or three of us in this room that took lessons to learn how to be a pilot and wasted a whole lot of money and have never used it for anything i could take a three dumb dummies in this room right now right dan yeah i wasted a lot of money on that but you know what they teach you real quick they teach you to watch the gauges because you can't even trust what you feel you can't trust what's going on because you need to know what's really happening and there's this little dial there and the guy i can remember him saying to me over and over if it's brown you're going down and and and uh i was like uh he said if you go down long enough you'll be dead and so he said watch that gauge uh i was always like i'll just go higher buddy he'd say he'd say going down is bad i said good let's go high and he said you don't have to get that high but anyway i was i was a coward what's truth psalm 34 7 god allowed his man to realize i'm in charge there's some beautiful verses in the bible somebody asked me the other day what i really thought about demons i said i think a room's full of them i'm talking about more than just you guys i also think the room's full of angels and i ain't talking about you guys the angel of the lord encamps round about them that fear him and delivers them would you look at that in your bible the angel of the lord encamps round about them that fear him and delivers them it doesn't say he attempts to deliver them it says he just wins the victory we are more than conquerors greater is he that's in us and he that's in the world there is no reason i should live in fear there's no reason i should live in doubt when i live in fear and doubt when i'm afraid of what's going to happen tomorrow it is only because i choose to not believe god bible says in second kings chapter 6 and verse 17 elisha prayed and said lord i pray thee open his eyes that he may see and the lord opened the eyes of the young man and he saw and behold the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire rounded about elisha i love that story it's just a crazy story you you probably are smart enough you don't believe it but elisha is just kind of laying there and all these armies surround him and they're about to kill him and the guy working with elisha's like man you need to get nervous and elisha's like i don't need to be nervous the guy said do you know how many people are out there and elisha looked at him said you know how many people around us he said yeah me and you and all of them and elisha said god would you just open his eyes let him see you really are in charge
[12:08] here and he opened his eyes and looked up and they were everywhere and the little the young man goes oh not that bad there are more than one stories told that you can read about uh uh the god of the herbies new herbies island herpes i don't know how you say that word not herpes i hope new herbies island whatever uh patent wasn't it you know his wife dies and he knows the cannibals will probably eat her so he lays on her grave and years later when some of the chief gets saved and some of the people are saved and they're there he asked him he said you didn't attack that night and why didn't you y'all were all around you were waiting and the guy and the chief says we would have but you had all those soldiers with you and he said i want any soldiers i was there by myself and the chief said oh no we saw them and they had big swords and big spears and so they didn't want to attack elisha said lord open his eyes why don't you ask god to open his eyes right open your eyes right now won't you realize that what this book says is god's going to take care of you why don't you realize that god is going to take care of your financial problems you've got to quit being stupid now i mean god ain't going to take care of me if you just keep running the credit card through the machine i get amen there i mean hey god god ain't gonna hey if you're stupid he's gonna let you get stupider till you figure it out but god will take care of us you know one of the reasons he wants you tithe you know one of the reasons he wants you tithe because he wants you to step up and say i know you're in charge i know you meet my need so i'm going to give money because i i know who's i know where my i know where my bread's buttered i know where everything i got is coming from so i recognize you with every dime i get so we learn truth god has it under control we learn truth he is going to protect us in psalm chapter 91 in verse 4 he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his trust shall be thy shield and buckler that's poetry so it's probably not true it's just a poem right i know it's a word of god and he is right now you don't understand that but i grew up on the farm watched it all the time back in the days when free-range chickens meant you got to step in what they left and nobody wanted them nowadays all you rich people just want free-range chickens but back when i was a kid daddy said build a pen they'd get our shoes nested but anyway you know what happened you'd have a chicken out there a hen she'd have all their little chicks and all of a sudden there'd be a shadow come running across the yard it'd be a bird flying up above them called a hawk and when that thing happened that that hen something make all kind of noise and all those little birdies would come running to her and she'd lay them big old feathers out there and she just waits and come on down try to get my babies that's the illustration he's using the devil can try to attack but the god of heaven's got you covered in angel chapter 6 and verse 22 he shut the mouth of lions he shut the mouth of lions in hebrews chapter 13 and verse 5 he said let your conversation your manner of living be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have learn to be happy with what you have learn to be happy with what you have and this is what he said because he said here's what you got really i will never leave you or forsake you i will never leave you or forsake you did you know your husband may fail you your wife may fail you your children your church your pastor may fail you but there's one guy who will never leave you and never forsake you and you never have to worry about that he proved that by dying on a cross for you he said i will never leave you or i'll never and i'll never forsake you what you you want to have victory here's what he told you to do in first peter chapter 5 and verse 7 he said make sure i'm right on that verse i don't know if it's second or first first peter 5 7 says casting all your care upon him for he cares for you you imagine what the god of heaven said i remember i remember a couple of times i was talking to my daddy when he was all
[16:09] worried about things going wrong and i said dad you need to talk to the lord about this you just need to tell god about it and he said i'm not going to bother god with such minute details that i'm dealing with today i said the whole world's minute compared to him the whole globe's minute compared to him the universe is minute compared to him there's nothing that could ever be brought but the great god of everything looked down and said y'all just tell me about it just throw it on me just let me carry it because i really do care about you you don't get you can't beat that well i don't know what you're worried about i don't know what's beating you up i don't know what you're hurting about but i mean sometimes uh sometimes i carry a lot of junk when i think about what's going on and i just want to tell you tonight cast it on him you need to come find a place to pray and you need to reach down into your gut and pick up all the garbage that's eating you alive and worrying you and scaring you and making you feel like you're less and making you feel like god's not going to meet your needs and making you feel like your life's falling apart and you're just putting on the altar and say there it is i ain't picking it up when i get through here i cast it on you and i'm going to go back to my seat and just know you got it that's what he said cast it all on me i care for you while you're doing that if you want to have victory you need to strengthen your faith how can i get stronger in my faith somebody sat down with george muller one time and said you know we don't all have the gift of faith and george muller picked up a handkerchief and said and he showed how the handkerchief was weak and george muller said nobody has a gift of faith like this he said what you do if you exercise it'll get stronger in luke chapter 17 and verse 5 they prayed and said increase our faith it says the apostle said to the lord increase our faith now right now you may be worried and may be scared and may be nervous and and you may be saying i'm trying to trust god but i can't trust him well why don't you pray this prayer i'm having trouble trusting you so increase my faith increase my faith if you want to know how to increase your faith you listen to the word of god romans chapter 10 and verse 17 so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god i think that's very interesting i heard one preacher say when you read your bible read it out loud because it says hear it so hear it i know you probably think that's corny too you figure he read not hear but you know what you you need to fill your life up with the word of god you have got to change the way you think i take a missionary and i go to the mission field with him and i try to show him what to do and my whole time i'm there i'm trying to pull out his dumb brains that won't get it done and take them out of his head and put something in his head and get it done because if he keeps doing what he thinks he's going to fail and here's what god says y'all gonna fail so stop thinking your own thoughts quit thinking like an american quit thinking like an american christian start thinking my thoughts word of god we ought to fill ourselves up we ought to fill ourselves up you know back when i was a kid they didn't have mugs they had coffee they had coffee cups and coffee cups sat on saucers and saucers were good because everybody spilled coffee and had a place to go now they give you a mug don't fill it up back then they give you a coffee you need to fill it up till it runs off into the saucer you need to you need to fill up on the word what is it you're scared about what is it's got you worried what is it makes you feel less what is it that makes you feel like you're going to get beat up read this bible faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of god the next thing you got to do if you want to strengthen your faith you got to act on what you know in hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6 by the way it's like one of my favorite favorite verses i mean there's a bunch of favorites but it's like one of my favorite favorites look at what it says without faith it is impossible to please him
[20:10] did you know that god wants to know you trust him the god of heaven wants to hear this i just trust you i don't understand this i don't feel it i don't feel like this is true i'm just going to trust you i don't even believe this is true but i'll just trust you i don't know how this is going to work out but i'll just trust you without faith it's impossible to please him look what it says by the way it doesn't say accept things like they are in this verse it does not say that it says you come to god believing that he really does exist and that he will answer your prayer he is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him so a guy walks up to god and say god help me get used to living under all this junk i'm living i just my life stinks and i just need to learn to accept it i don't know what that verse is i don't know if you can y'all not read i mean what is you know i used to tell a privian you can't you is there a word there you don't understand rewarder that means god gives rewards in case you didn't understand that you know what he said he said right there he said y'all come to me believe that i really am believe i really do exist believe i do hear you when you pray that there is a god in heaven set up in heaven said just speak to me that's what it says believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him god's up in heaven said you have not because you ask not god's up in heaven said knock on the door i'll open it come look at him you'll find it i'm a great god and i do great things the way we get victory the way we strengthen our faith is by filling our hearts with god's word and obeying it and obeying it the first time i uh i think because i've been on airplanes a lot in the last two weeks i said at the airport thinking i might like try to fly again i said it's just a waste of money i'm not going to do that but but i remember the first time i sold by myself i've been wanting to for days and i told that i kept telling the instructor i'm ready he kept saying no you're not i said just i am and then he let me down to the end of that row and he was all by myself and i thought oh lord ain't but two of us in this cockpit right now that's me and you and i ain't sure i can get us down so you better know what you're doing here that's really a lot like how it works a man steps out to preach he doesn't know if god's going to use it a man steps out to pray he doesn't know if god's going to use it you step out to share your faith you don't know if god's going to use it but you obey you obey you obey john 15 70 said if you abide in me and my words abide in you you ask what you will it will be done i gotta quit so let me just give you a couple of things real quickly i'm that's enough on the bible you know what the next thing you change the way you think you always say thank you did you know a christian needs to learn to say thank you one of these learn to say anything else first thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 18 says in everything give thanks that that in the greek that means in every good thing right no in the greek everything means uh i mean it's a really hard everything it means when things go wrong you say thank you because it really didn't go wrong because he'll fix it in everything give thanks for this is the will of god i'd like to know god's will for my life all right start saying thank you i like know what god wants me to do in my life he wants you to start saying thank you you thank you thank god for the wife you got now you don't need another one you thank god for the job you got now you don't need another one you don't mean god can give it to you but right now today that's what he's giving you quit being a griper quit being a complainer quit being a whiner in everything give thanks this is the will of god we saw this in isaiah chapter 26 and verse 3 but he will keep you in perfect peace if you'll just stay your mind on him see what you think about right now is not what's going wrong it's just how good he is
[24:12] i thought today my wife could find me on the floor tomorrow morning things like that happen when you think about things that happen i don't want to say online do you think about god i'm gonna wake up in his presence before y'all find my body i'll be talking to him and enjoying him keep your mind on him and he'll keep you in perfect peace because your mind is stayed on him you have an adversary it's a devil he's going around seeking whom he may devour he will find you he will seek and destroy he'll steal your joy he'll let you live a life in misery and he flat out said in john 10 10 the thief that's the devil comes but for to steal to kill and to destroy but i didn't come for that i came that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly i came to give you the best you ever dreamed of heaven be sober be vigilant you have an adversary uh we're very emotional people things affect us we feel things we hurt we want to cry we want to shout we want to get mad we want to fight here's what you need to know be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil is like a like a roaring lion going around seeking whom he may devour you're not going to turn to that you're going to trust jesus what are you going through cast it on him what are you going through i think the best thing in the world do is just write down and here it is okay lord own you now your problem oh if you had a rich friend and you were having money problems and you were such a relationship you could just walk in like i mean i heard about some guy paying a bunch of people's debts at target and walmart and stuff like that this guy walked in and paid off everybody's layaway if you had one of them friends you'd just say well here's my debt you'd go home you wouldn't even worry about it because you'd be like he'll take care of that won't you won't he huh well you do have somebody like that he said cast all your care on him why are you hurting i know you're hurting i hurt because you're hurting what is it i want to ask you to throw it on him somebody's trying to make you feel like the biggest loser on the planet but it is not him i preached something similar to this in guatemala when wayne cook and i were down there a year or two ago i told him how much god loved him how much he wanted to answer the prayer and this guy said and i promise you that close to me right there under my face he kept looking straight up at me and i rivers flowing down his face as you serve a god who loves you won't you come trust him won't you come tell him i believe i believe you