Dang, you guys are singing this morning.
That was fire helping him screwed up with the preaching.
If you got a Bible, go ahead and get that open to 2nd Kings in
the Old Testament, particularly chapter 5.
If if you can't find it, that's OK.
We'll have all the relevant verses on the screen for you so
that you don't miss anything as you're turning there.
Let me just kind of lay some groundwork here on my sermon
this morning is it's going to be unhinged.
As the kids are saying, I'm going to be a little bit
unhinged in my preaching this morning.
And I don't mean theologically or biblically.
I've labored really hard to keep this bibliocentric and solid and
biblical. But I might just say some
unhinged things this morning because this week is Pentecost
Prep week. Because next week is Pentecost
Sunday. So this week we're preparing our
hearts and minds for Pentecost next Sunday.
If you don't know what Pentecost means, the word, it literally
just means 50. It's a celebration that 5050
days after Jesus's death and resurrection, he sent the Holy
Spirit to his people. And so for prep week this
morning, what what I want to do is I'm going to preach kind of
1/2 sermon and I'll bring it to fruition next Sunday.
This is like I said this morning, this is the layup.
And then hopefully, by the grace of God, the dunk is going to
come next Sunday. So my big goal is painting the
backdrop. I What I want to do over the
next 35 minutes is I want to show you biblically how real the
spiritual realm is and how much we as Christians, to be
victorious in that realm, need to depend on the Holy Spirit.
OK? Specifically, I want us to see
how the spiritual realm is not as some modern people would
imagine it, not just me and God or you and God or us and God,
although there's an element of truth to that.
But biblically, what we see is that the spiritual realm is a
highly populated, even crowded realm that is populated by both
good spirits like angels and messengers and bad malevolent
spirits, what the Bible calls evil spirits, unclean spirits,
demons, Satan, and even what the Bible would call malevolent
gods. And so to paint that backdrop
clearly, I want to say whatever makes things stick.
I'm not afraid of saying true things, even if it makes me
sound like your crazy uncle, which at some point in the
sermon, maybe I'll wear that hat a little bit.
But here's a little bit of another preliminary point.
Sorry. I feel like right now I sound
like my, my preaching is starting to sound like it, like
an antidepressant commercial where they list at the end of it
all the possible negative outcomes that could happen when
you put this into your system. But this, this needs to be said.
I'm bringing the spiritual realm to the forefront.
And so I just need to remind you that this sermon is, it's not me
teasing out some significant shift in my theology or my
preaching. For the last 10 years of
pastoring, I think my preaching, our preaching has been marked by
gospel centered, Jesus centered biblical exposition dominated by
the themes of Jesus's death for salvation, a trinitarian
understanding of God, the gospel of faith alone in Jesus, and the
possibility of joy in the believers life.
So let me say this up front, OK, especially since this is like
1/2 sermon. I got to say this up front.
The most important thing you can hear from me this morning is not
my theology on demons, my demonology as they call it.
It's not any of the unhinged things I'm going to say about
the spiritual realm. Those are all secondary.
Take them, wrestle with them, reject them, whatever you do
you. The most important thing you can
hear from me this morning is the Gospel.
Amen. So everything I'm going to say
is on this foundation. Jesus is real, loves you, He
died for you, came in the flesh. He was crucified by faith alone
in Jesus. You're gonna have all your sins
forgiven. You're gonna have all his
righteousness given to you. By believing in the gospel,
you're made more than a conqueror in all your spiritual
warfare. So Jesus is king and there's no
other. Amen.
Let's do it.
I was in the gym the other day and somebody came over in in the
middle of my lift and tapped me on the shoulder.
So I took off my headphones and he he said, hey, I heard you're
a pastor. It's usually pretty fun when a
conversation opens that way. Usually there's a lot of
apologies for cuss words and stuff like that on their end.
Of course, he goes, hey, I heard you're a pastor.
And I was like, yeah, I'm cold. And I hold my hand out to shake
his hand. And he leans in and he says,
what do you think of aliens? I nobody.
When I planted a church, I thought people were going to ask
me what's my eschatology? You know, I thought people going
to be like, are you a Calvinist or an Armenian?
Are you going to be complimentarian or egalitarian?
That's what I was prepared for, and I have answers to those
questions. What I was not prepared for was
somebody with my hand yet to be shaken, doesn't even know my
name, saying, hey, what do you think about aliens?
I'm not a current events preacher.
I think that preaching is best done by going as deep as you can
possibly go into the biblical text and allowing that to do its
work and then bleed itself out into the community.
There are times and there are seasons and there are moments,
and these times and seasons are moments.
What they're marked by is whenever I have more than a
handful of conversations with church people about a singular
issue, if there's, you know, one or two conversations about
something, I'll just let the pastoral ministry do the work.
But once starts to like this last month, come up multiple
times, and you got a guy in the gym who figures out you're a
pastor and he won't seem to know what you think of aliens, maybe
you should touch it. Don't worry, it's not going to
be a sermon about aliens. I might have a comment or two or
a paragraph on them. It's not about aliens.
It's about the Holy Spirit, the spiritual realm, and our need
for the Spirit. So we're going to be in this.
We're going to begin this morning with what is probably
going to appear to be like an awkward Old Testament text that
you don't know how fits into this conversation, and we'll
figure it out together. So if you're able, let's stand
for the reading of the word God. What a text here.
This is Second Kings chapter 5, verse 15.
You don't know the context yet. That's OK.
I'll catch you up. Here's what it says.
Name my boy Naaman Nae Nae. I'm not going to call him that
again. Naaman returned to the man of
God and to all of his company again.
I'll catch you up. And he came and he stood before
him, and he said, behold, I know that there is no God in all the
earth but in Israel. I have a present for you now,
except now a present from your servant.
But he said, Prophet, as the Lord lives before whom I stand,
I will receive none. He urged him to take it, but he
refused again. Don't worry, I'll catch you up.
So then Naaman said OK, if not you're not going to take my gift
then can at least we do this? Please let there be given to me
to your servant 2 mule loads. Wait for it of earth, dirt,
soil, what can I have two mule loads of dirt?
Why For from now on your servant will not offer burnt offerings
or sacrifice to any God but the Lord.
We're really going to 0 in on that as I won't have time to
cover all this text. But in this matter, he keeps on
talking to the prophet. May the Lord pardon your
servant, for when my master goes into the House of Ramon, that's
the God they worship to worship there.
Even if he leans on my arm and I have to bow myself in the House
of Ramon. When I bow myself in the House
of Ramon, the Lord pardon your servant in this matter.
I'm not even I'm not even going to worship Ramon anymore, but I
will have to my master might lean on my arm and if I do that,
pardon me. And the prophet said to him, go
in peace, Heavenly Father, where are we going to get the soil
from? We don't have access to that.
And so Lord create just created us a, an openness and a
willingness to understand the biblical and specifically the
Old Testament understanding of the spiritual realm.
We have such a different cosmology than them.
And in some ways they had, I'm sure, a better cosmology than
us. And maybe in some ways we
understand the cosmos a little bit better than them.
But we have things to learn from them.
And so I just pray that we would open our minds and hearts to the
word of God. And I was praying God.
I was praying this morning and I was just like, Lord, if I say
anything foolish or unhelpful, just be gracious and plug the
ears of these people and let it just bounce off of their chest.
But if there's anything helpful, anything moving, anything that
creates dependence on the Holy Spirit and shows our need for
the Holy Spirit, just drive that into us.
And so it's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people
prayed. Amen.
You can have seat, he's going back to Syria and he's like,
hey, I need 2 mule loads of dirt.
And of course that begs the question, what do I think about
aliens? A rumor circulated around the
Internet two weeks ago, and not just on the Internet, but it
actually ended up getting covered by most of the major
outlet sources. And so that's when you know that
something is worth talking about when it's not just on Reddit and
on Reddit comments, but circulating among major news
sources. And the rumor that's circulating
around right now is that the government hosted a briefing
where they invited several influential pastors throughout
the nation to talk about, you guessed it, the disclosure of
the governments private UFO files.
And this rumor has a fair amount of skeptics.
And so maybe this didn't happen, but this rumor has also been
confirmed by a few of the people who claimed to have been at that
meeting. Apparently in this supposed
meeting, which either did or didn't happen.
I just think we'll be talking about it in the months to come.
Apparently, these government officials didn't disclose to
these pastors what exactly was in the government's UFO files.
If you're keeping up with that at all.
They did their first file dump last week.
I'll save you the time. It was a big nothing burger.
It was mostly blurry pictures, blurry videos that you've
already seen circulating around. Apparently the juicy stuff, if
there is, is still waiting for us in the future.
And so they didn't disclose what was in the government's UFO
files, these pastors. But apparently what they did
brief these pastors on was #1 the future file releases and
disclosures are going to be brutal.
And #2 Dun, Dun, Dun, what's in these files has the capacity to
shake the faith of American Christians.
And so apparently they told these pastors, prepare your
people. According to American folklore,
President Jimmy Carter wept after first reading the UFO
files and was depressed for two or three weeks, allegedly.
Which all begs the question, what's what's in there?
What could it? What could that mean?
And is there room in the Bible for the existence of
extraterrestrial lives or aliens?
And I think the answer to that is a resounding yes.
Do I think that the current alien topic is actually fake and
could be a distraction? Did I get a clap for that or was
that a Boo? Was that a clap?
All right, cool, cool. I was wondering who was wearing
the tinfoil at do I think that the current alien topic is
actually fake and could be a distraction to get people not
focused on other global current events?
And yeah, I think there's a possibility that's what's going
on. Sure.
Do I think that aliens are actually what the Bible refers
to as demons Again, yeah. I think that there's a
possibility that that's true. When it comes to discerning the
nature of extraterrestrials, supposing that they're real,
which again, is a big suppose what I would do if I were you is
I wouldn't focus on appearance. I would focus on the messaging,
the message that they do or don't bring if there's a point
of contact, for instance, or, I don't know, a tape recording
that gets released in these files between aliens and humans
in the future. And these extraterrestrial
beings offer us a message that sounds eerily like a gospel,
some promise of healing or eternal life or World Peace
under the condition that we give them our loyalty or faith or
allegiance. If that's what happens, well,
well, well. I feel quite confident calling
these demonic beings. And interestingly enough, if you
take all the people who have had claimed experiences with UFOs,
you can, you can go ahead and take all the crazy uncles who
drank too much beer that night and had some backwoods.
You can throw that out, right? But if you take the experience
of pretty, pretty intelligent, academic, literate people who
have supposedly had these experiences, interestingly
enough, even you have negative experiences, which doesn't need
explanation. But even the positive
experiences with them, they tend to return to earth with an
almost identical message. You can have health, you can
have peace, you can have salvation if you give us your
allegiance, which is really interesting biblically because
Galatians says chapter one verse 8.
Even if we or an Angel from heaven to preach to you a gospel
contrary to the one preached to you, let him be a cursed.
Interesting. What does that mean?
What does that imply? This is what the verse implies.
It implies the possibility that a heavenly being could appear
with a false gospel. And so to tie it up with a bit
of a bow, here are my my two favorite quotes from theologians
on the subject of extraterrestrials, real or fake.
Who knows, maybe time will tell. But the phenomenal Catholic
theologian Carl Reiner said, quote Christianity is the
religion of the absolute future, and so if there are other
spiritual, corporeal beings in the cosmos, then they too stand
within the horizon of God's creative and gracious will.
The Christian therefore, needs not be disturbed by the
possibility of extraterrestrial rational beings.
Get this? Why?
Because Christianity does not need to be disturbed by the
sorry for Christianity does not teach that man is the absolute
center of creation, but rather that God is the center of
creation and that all creation exists from him and toward him.
Isn't that good? Or my buddy John Piper, who I
went to school with. No, I do like it.
I do like his writing. He says quote, no UFOs are
showing up except by the plan of God if they are fake.
He rules over the fake. If they are real, he rules over
the real. There are no cracks in complete
sovereignty. God's in control.
Nothing squeaks through. God governs illusions.
God governs atmospheric conundrums.
God governs all the reaches of space and everything in it, or
everything that could be in it. Isn't that good?
And so at the end of the day, who who knows?
I've never been to a UFO conference.
That's Andrew Johnson's job. I'm mine.
I've never, I've never. I've never been to 1.
And this sermon is even about aliens.
But as I was talking to some random dude in the gym about
aliens, and as my social media blew up with articles about
aliens and the possibility of them from major news outlets, I
will tell you this. It hit me.
This realization hit me like a bag of bricks.
I went, Oh my goodness. Right now the unbelieving world
is taking aliens more seriously then Christians take the reality
of demons in the powers of darkness.
I was like, these people are taking aliens more seriously
than I sometimes take the spiritual realm.
The secular world's more open to aliens than the churches to the
spiritual realm. And so there you have Naman in
the Old Testament, right? Here's the context of what's
going on in that passage. He's a military leader in Syria.
He gets leprosy. So with the advice of a it's a
it's a great story. You should go reread all of
chapter 5 S at the advice of a a little Israelite girl who's been
taken captive and held hostage in Syria, he sends a messenger
to Israel asking for help. The prophet Elijah in Israel
sends back a message and says, hey, wash yourself in, wash
yourself in the Jordan River 7 times.
And Naman doesn't act of faith and it works.
He's cleansed that weird. Here's where it gets weirder.
Naman is so psyched. And this is where we show up in
our text that he goes to Israel to meet with Elijah.
And he shows up with these gifts.
And Elijah says, no, I don't. I don't want the gifts.
And then it gets weirder because then Naman says OK, if you're
not going to receive my gifts, can can I at least have some?
Get this, get a load of this guy, get a load of soil, get
this he says, can I at least have some dirt, 2 mule loads of
dirt from Israel to take back with me to Syria.
Not strange. Look at verse.
Look at verse 17 really closely. This is the actual text, not the
cold Ike standard version. Then Naaman said OK if not,
please let there be given to your servant. 2 mule loads of
earth. Pause right there.
Here's my main point. What I you're the preacher, what
do you say about this? Especially like how do I preach
application for this right? OK, everybody after church you
got to go to Menards, look for 2 bags of soil, read the label
closely because it's got to be from the promised land and Old
Testament promised land because the soil is not the same
anymore. But that's a different
conversation. We can unpack that later.
Get 2 loads of soil from there and then bring it, bring it
home. You're going to do that?
What do I, where do I get my soil from?
Look at the text. The text says 2 mule loads of of
earth. How how are we going to do that?
I don't think anybody in our church owns mules, right?
I don't think so to maybe Craig had No, no, nobody owns meals.
What are we going to do? Two mule loads of dirt.
How do you apply this? What's going on?
Why does Naman want soil from Old Testament Israel to bring
back with them to Syria? We see like a child on vacation
who wants to collect seashells to always remind himself of his
time in vacation. No, look at the second-half of
verse 17. Bible, Bible, Bible Bible.
We believe the Bible. Why?
For from now on your servant, he's not going to worship or in
this language will not offer burnt offering or sacrifice.
Ramon would be the name of the God in Syria to any God but the
Lord Yahweh, the biblical God. What Naaman is showing you right
here is that Naaman believes that the land of Old Testament
Israel belongs to Yahweh, the God of Israel.
And so these two loads of dirt and the power take with them to
give them the strength to resist the influence in the power of
the Syrian gods. Here's one of my favorite living
theologians, Peter Lightheart on this subject.
He says, quote, Naman assumes that Yahweh are the God of the
Bible, can be worshipped only on Yahweh's land.
And so he asks for soil. Why?
Because he wants to establish a little piece of Israel in Syria,
like a little holy island in Gentile territory.
For Naman, land and worship are inseparable realities.
It's called cosmic geography. If you want to go really nerdy
this week. So if he's to worship Yahweh
faithfully, he must stand on holy territory in the midst of a
demonized nation. He needs to form a beachhead of
Yahweh's Kingdom within Syria. So Naaman's, Naaman's got a job,
right? He's probably got a family, He's
probably got a kids, and that job is back in Syria.
He just fell in love with Yahweh.
Yahweh, cleanse them, heal them. He wants to worship Yahweh.
He can't just leave Syria and live in Israel.
He's got a family of kids, a job.
So he's got to go March back into what we could call enemy
territory, a land that is under the spell in the influence of
false gods. So what's he do?
He grabs 2 mule loads of dirt naman.
He's trying to create like a portable temple, right?
He wants where when he's got this soil in his pockets, the
clothing back then have pockets, robes, OK, when he's taken, when
he's taking his soil with him, he wants to be a little place
where heaven is invading Syria. He's taking, I'm going to say
this slowly. He's taking holy ground to the
on converted nation. If you know Acts 2 really well,
you could probably preach my next sermon.
He's taking holy ground with them to the unbelieving nations.
There's no easy way to say this. Naman rightly sees the world
outside of Old Testament Holy Land as occupied by real dark,
malevolent spiritual forces. Yes that are under the
sovereignty of God, but yes still have real influence.
The Old Testament, not we think of sometimes we think of the Old
Testament as like that's the history book and then the New
Testaments, the spiritual book. No, no, no, all the Bible and
the Old Testament is actually surprisingly clear that the
spiritual realm is real and that the powers of darkness are real.
Take a look at Second Kings chapter 6.
You don't have to turn there. Second Kings chapter 6 verses 16
through 17. What's happening is Elijah is in
a battle and they're outnumbered and through prayers he ends up
seeing himself surrounded by what he couldn't see before an
angelic army. Here's the actual text quote he
said do not be afraid for those who are with us are more than
those who are with them. It's kind of a crazy uncle
moment. We right like you're the you're
the bad army. I'm the good army.
I don't mean that. I'm just saying for the sake of
the illustration right now he's looking at this and saying, oh,
we're outnumbering you right now.
What? He sounds crazy.
Then Elijah prayed and said, oh Lord, please open up his eyes so
that he may see. And the Lord opens the eyes of
the young man and he saw and behold, the mountain was full of
horses and full of Chariots of fire all around.
Elijah, what can you take from that?
Not only is the spiritual realm real, but it is sometimes an
unseen realm. Indeed, there's more going on
than you think. Daniel Chapter 10 An Angel
appears with a message to Daniel and explains to Daniel why the
Angel arrived so late. You know what he says?
Read your Bible, he says. Quote Daniel 1013 to 14.
The Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, but
Michael, one of their chief Princess, came to help me.
This is an Angel, for I was left there with the kings of Persia
and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people
in the latter days, for the vision is for days yet to come.
This Angel just told Daniel that he was late because in the
spiritual realm on his way to earth, another spiritual being
wrestled with them for 21 days. The Prince of Persia, Prince of
Persia is not an earthly ruler at this point in the Scriptures.
He's a being in the spiritual realm who wrestled with an
angelic messenger and delayed that messenger for 21 days.
And he's described in the terms of cosmic geography, he's over
Persia. He's got a stronghold in Persia.
He's got influence in Persia. So not only is the spiritual
realm on scene, it's also populated by good sometimes and
sometimes evil figures who sometimes have special power
over some areas. Yeah, there's more going on than
you think. Where?
What are you going to do about it?
Where are you going to get 2 mule loads of soil to keep you
from the powers of the enemy? There's just more going on than
you think. Or for Samuel 16, King Saul's
and rebellion against God. And the Bible says that this
happened to him, quote Now the spirit of Yahweh, the Lord, the
biblical God, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.
Did it remain a vacuum? No.
And a harmful spirit from the Lord tormented him.
And so these powers of darkness are real.
They're geographical. And what's scarier is that they
are personal. They don't just want Persia or
some geographical or political influence.
They want you. They want your soul.
Indeed, there's more going on than you think.
Where you can't find that soil at Menards.
What are you going to do? And then we turn to Christian
history. Again.
Same thing. The history of Christian
theology teaches us the same reality.
Arguably the most brilliant theologian of the 21st century,
although he's got plenty to disagree with, Carl Bart says
quote, the demons are not myths, they are the impossible
possibility of a reality opposed to God.
The brilliant Catholic The brilliant Catholic theologian
Thomas Aquinas, who has rarely been outshined, argues that
these beings are gifted even though they're deprived of
everything good, Aquinas said. Quote.
The demons retain their natural gifts insofar as these are from
God, but they're deprived of the order to the good, Aquinas is
saying. What he's saying is they're
competent, they're intelligent, they're gifted, they're probably
charming. Jacques Elul, a French Reform
theologian, argues again that they are not only deceptive, but
geographic and personal. He says, quote, Jacques Lewis
says the demonic powers are not imaginary.
They are the spiritual realities at work behind political, social
and ideological structures. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot more
going on than youth. Sometimes.
Not all the time, not all the time.
I was at a was at a baseball game yesterday and but before I
was, I was hanging out with the Newmans.
And before, before the baseball game, Sutton and I were making
some bets because sometimes we like to make some bets to
heighten our experience, the baseball game.
And so Sutton was like, not on DraftKings, just with each
other. And so we were, we were talking
to each other and, and Sutton goes, OK, if someone hits a
Grand Slam today at the game, you owe me a pack of Pokémon
cards. And so I, I got my phone out and
I was like, OK, what's the statistical probability and
likelihood of a, of a Grand Slam at the game?
Because I've never seen one live.
I've been to a lot of baseball games.
And essentially they broke it down and it was just under 5%.
So roughly one in 20 games you see a Grand Slam.
And so I was like, oh, I'm gravy, I'm good.
So I was like, yeah, I'll take that.
That's a bet I'm willing to make.
So we made that bet. And sure enough, what anything
happens in the second inning? There's a runner on 1st and 2nd.
I'm like, I'm good. And the pitcher beams the guy
batting. So all of a sudden, bases are
juiced, bases are loaded, bases are juicy.
First, second, third, three people on base.
I'm starting to get like a little bit nervous, but I'm
like, still, the statistical probability of this happens is
pretty low, right? I swear.
Like, I don't know if the Newmans know the pitcher from
Purdue and have like a relationship with him, but
almost like this guy was on Sutton's team.
He throws him a big meatball down the middle of the plate.
Bam, it's a Grand Slam. Like, are you kidding me, dude?
Less than 5%, one in 20. I put my hands in my face like
this, right? I'm like, I can't believe that
just happened. I look up and Sutton, Sutton,
just look at me like this. I was like, yeah, man, you, you.
I can't believe it. One in 20, but not 0.
When you experience a struggle or temptation in your life,
there's probably a greater probability that it's because of
your own sin, stupidity, and flesh in the spiritual realm.
Read the book of Romans. Romans 16 chapters long.
The devil doesn't even show up until chapter 16.
One out of 16 chapters about everything the book the Church
of Romans is going through. It's about spiritual forces, but
it's not 0, so I like that one in 20 number.
This is probably as close to it practical as I'm going to get
this morning. I would encourage you as your
pastor for every thought you have about demons and the
reality of spiritual darkness. Think at least twenty thoughts
about the goodness of Jesus for everyone.
Think 20 thoughts about the goodness of Jesus.
Do not imagine that there are demons in every book.
Certainly do not imagine that every person you don't get along
with is demonic. What are the chances?
Do not stay late obsessing over YouTube videos after videos with
unbiblical charts with 1000 pins connected by bare thread string.
It's not always spiritual, it's sometimes this.
For instance, last night I was a little nervous about this
sermon, and so I came over up late to try and prep it, and I
couldn't prep it because I had this massive migraine.
So I was like, spiritual warfare?
Was it spiritual warfare? Maybe.
I also felt like the Holy Spirit filled the room thickly, and it
was like spiritual warfare. And in the kindness of the Holy
Spirit, he whispered to me, there's probably a greater
likelihood that it was the 20 sugar cookies you ate at that
grad party, right? I was like, probably it's not 0,
it's not 0. Spiritual war, maybe not
spiritual war. Maybe.
I do know this. Ironically enough, some people
who do see demons behind everything can't see Jesus
behind anything. You guys like that one?
I'm going to read it again. That's good.
OK, some. Oh, man, I lost my spot.
Spiritual warfare. Yeah, sometimes people who see
demons behind everything can't see Jesus behind anything.
It hit a lot harder the first time.
I should have left it at that. But that's a that's a win for
the Kingdom of darkness. I think demons would gladly
declassify all their files about themselves if that would get you
to obsess over them and forget about Jesus.
They probably demons probably believe in that old axiom.
No such thing as bad press. And yet I don't want you to
become hyper spiritual about everything.
And yet I don't want you to become materialistic in your
theology. That's called being a Christian
atheist. Christianity is not just true
information. We have to reckon with Bible
verses that say, quote, be on guard for the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion seeking to devour you.
We don't want that to happen. We have to reckon with Bible
verses that say, quote, this is Paul in the New Testament,
brothers, I do not want you to be unaware of the schemes of the
devil. Somewhere between you don't want
to be ignorant and unaware, but you don't want to be that person
who won't take responsibility for any problems because you're
always blame shifting demons. Somewhere in there here maybe
here's the spot in the middle. Spiritual warfare is real and
you you're not adequate for it. Not you're not strong enough to
engage in spiritual warfare. And and when I'm not trying to
be mean, we are spiritually weak.
Let's be honest, modern Christians are whiners.
Modern Christians don't come to church to worship the risen
Jesus Christ. If it's raining, forget
spiritual attack. Daylight savings wipes out 30%
of church attendance in the western world.
We don't come worship Jesus if we only got 7 hours of sweep
instead of eight. And you think you're good
against demonic powers? The forces of darkness resist
the devil. Jesus is enthroned before us on
worship on Sundays, and sometimes we struggle to sing
along and we mumble the songs because we're afraid that we're
going to sing off key. And you're going to take on
demons. No, you think you got it in you
to win a spiritual war? No, we are like infants who have
been dropped into a war without armor.
And yet the Bible says, the Bible says, all this is real and
you don't have, you're helpless in the face of all of it.
And then it says, do not fear. Why not?
And yet the Bible says do not be afraid.
Why not? Satan, demons, darkness, false
gods, maybe even aliens. I mean, if the alien stuff is
real, if the government UFO files are dark and shocking as
the rumors make it sound, which is a big if, I think we'll see
three things #1 not a single true Christian will lose their
faith #2 multitudes of fake Christians will leave the faith,
probably by being deceived by some extraterrestrial religion
promises or gospel. So I think we'll see that.
And I think we'll also see #3 that multitudes of spiritually
curious unbelievers will convert to Christianity because it'll
finally get them to recognize the reality of the spiritual
realm and see their need for Jesus.
Do not feel, don't be afraid. Why not?
Why do I think that? Because of Romans chapter 8.
I'm sure that neither death, nor life, heights nor depth, nor
angels nor rulers is that all there is, nor anything else in
all of there's other stuff in creation, nor angels nor rulers,
nor anything else in all of creation will be able to
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It won't separate you from Him if you're in Christ.
It won't. It's 2026.
We've got 2000 years of discoveries that have happened
since the death of Jesus Christ and nothing has stopped them.
Neither evolutionary theory or the human genome or quantum
theory or black holes have stopped the gospel.
Where does that power come from? How can we live with such
confidence that nothing, no future filed dump, no future
discovery, nothing is the word the Bible uses.
How can we be confident that nothing will separate us from
the love of God? You don't live in Old Testament
Holy Land. You live here in Des Moines.
What do you got for soil? Is there any soil to keep you
safe that you can carry to the nation?
So you don't even own mules to take the soil home with?
Where are you going to get the soil?
And only Pentecost answers that question next Sunday.
Heavenly Father, I pray that you would strengthen us in your Holy
Spirit, that you would increase our spiritual intelligence, but
keep us from going off the rails.
Nothing and all of creation will separate us from the love of
God. That's a God who deserves
worship. That's a God who deserves
praise. That's a God who should get all
my joy. That's a God who's going to get
my whole life, the God for whom nothing will separate me from.
And so Lord, stir us up in in your spirit, and may we just
treasure this time that we have with you this morning.
So it's in the precious name of Jesus that all God's people
prayed, Amen. Let's stand together and let's
worship this God in spirit and in truth.