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NOTE
Podcast: Acts 29 Vancouver
Episode: City within the City: Occupy
Publishing Date: 2026-06-14T03:04:44-07:00
Podcast URL: https://acts29.ca
Episode URL: https://acts29.ca/city-within-the-city-occupy/

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In Amos 9, verse 11,

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Cool. We go back to that series we were doing on the city in the city,

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as in the church is a city in the city.

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Today we talk about this idea of how do you occupy the city that you are in.

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In Amos 9, verse 11, which is then repeated in Acts 15,

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around verse 15, there's this thing that God says where He says,

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I will raise up the tent of David.

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I was trying to find the scripture in the Bible, and I was trying to Google it,

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and I was wondering why I wasn't getting it because I kept writing,

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I'll raise up the rent of David.

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I brought back all kinds of...

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So every time I wrote tent, I was writing rent, and so I'll raise up the rent of David,

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and that didn't work too well.

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So I will raise up the tent of David that has fallen,

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and I'll repair its breaches,

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repair its breaches,

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raise up its ruins,

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and rebuild it like the days of old,

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rebuild it like the days of old.

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This was in Amos 9, verse 11, and the intent of God in doing this was

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so that Edom, which is another way of saying ends of the earth,

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or Gentiles, or unbelievers,

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is just another way of saying that,

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so that Edom, or the ends of the earth, or the Gentiles, or the non-believers,

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can seek and call on My name.

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And so this was said in Amos 9, verse 11,

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and later on Peter repeats it in Acts 15, verse 15,

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when they are having an argument at the Jerusalem Council

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once Paul comes back with the new mission approach,

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which says you can go and preach to the Gentiles.

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And so what was God talking about when He said, I'll rebuild it like before?

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What was so special about David's tent?

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And without going into details, we can say that some of the things David did,

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what David did was pretty amazing.

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The tent used, the ark used to be in the temple,

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and he has the audacity to go take the ark,

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which is the most sacred thing in the Israelite universe.

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He took the ark and he put it on a hill under a tent.

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David's tent was really that. It was a tent.

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He took the ark, which was the most sacred object in Israel,

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and put it under the tent.

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And so what was the idea when God is saying, I'll rebuild the tent?

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What's He saying?

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So here are some of the things David did.

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He reconstituted worship.

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He just changed how worship was done.

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He appointed 288 prophetic worshipers

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and maybe around 2,000 others to sing.

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It was crazy.

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So that is one of the things he did.

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Next thing he did was make God's presence the main thing.

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People began to realize that it wasn't just the ark, it was the presence of God.

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Three, he opened access to God, or to presence.

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People could come who had never seen the ark,

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because only the priests would go and see the ark.

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He opened access for everybody to come and see the ark.

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And this is a guy who lived in the Old Covenant.

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He should have been scared of doing it.

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The only reason he wasn't scared of doing it was because he knew what God wanted.

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He opened access to presence to everybody.

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He realized that this was transitional.

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After all, it was in a tent.

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He would then help his son build a temple,

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which was built based on patterns that God had given.

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And then he would do things only according to blueprints.

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He would get blueprints from God, and he taught people that,

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listen, you can't just do things based on rules and laws.

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You have to receive blueprints from God.

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Look at 1 Chronicles 28 in the message.

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First Chronicles 28.

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Verse 11, 12, and then 19.

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Verse 11, 12, and 19.

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So this is when David is now getting blueprints from God and saying,

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hey, Solomon, I want you to build a temple based on the patterns and blueprints that God has given.

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First Chronicles 28, verse 11, reading from the message.

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Then David presented his son Solomon with the plans for the temple,

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for the temple complex, port, storerooms, meeting rooms, and the place for atoning sacrifice.

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You would think, what's the big deal in making a room?

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Just make a room.

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Verse 12, he turned over the plans for everything that God's Spirit had brought to his mind,

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the design of the courtyards, the arrangement of rooms, and closets for storing all the holy things.

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And then go to verse 19.

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Here's what he says to his son.

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Here are the blueprints for the whole project as God gave me to understand it, David said.

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How crazy is it that everything he did, he did based on blueprints that he would receive from God?

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How do you get an architectural plan from God?

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What kind of guy was he that in the old covenant, he knew how to get these things?

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How much easier it should be for us?

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And so these are the things that he did when he built the tabernacle.

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And so God is saying in Amos chapter 9, way after David, and later Peter says in Acts 15,

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but listen, God wants to rebuild.

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And I would suggest to you that Acts 29, as in this church, has been practicing this.

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We have been rebuilding David's tent in our presence.

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We have reconstituted worship.

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For us, presence is more important than anything else.

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We hunger after it.

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We talk about it.

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We recognize him right now in this room.

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We talked about this last week.

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In the radiance and the essence of his nature, he is here.

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He's glad we're talking about him.

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We've opened access to his presence.

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It's not a clergy, lay people thing.

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It's not meant for some.

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It is open access.

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And again, now that it's summer, we'll go public with it.

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And when we go public with it now, it'll be better than it was last time.

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Because we know more.

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Remember how we increase in awareness or how we increase in awareness with nature?

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What was it?

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Love, practice, knowledge.

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We talked about that last week.

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And then transitional.

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One of the reasons this church may never own a building is because a building will never tell us where to be.

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If next week the Lord tells us to move to Kelowna, we'll all have to travel four hours to get there for the service.

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Joey will have to sleep much earlier.

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And then blueprints.

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Most of the things we do have to come through the Spirit of God giving us blueprints.

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If we don't have blueprints, we don't do.

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Any questions on that?

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I just want us to be located.

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I want you to see where this church is at.

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This is not a boast.

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It's just an estimation of where we are at.

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Anyone wants to ask any questions or push back on that?

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Because this is an important step towards what God wants us to do in this city.

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Any questions?

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This is worth celebrating, eh?

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We did this together.

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Don't clap or anything, but recognize it.

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This enthusiasm is overwhelming, so keep it down.

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But please understand that we've, by the grace of God and by the Spirit of God,

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and by our willing participation and passion, have arrived at a place where God wants us to.

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It's easy to launch from here.

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Any questions?

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Okay.

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If that's the case, then once the church kind of begins to arrive near God,

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let's us have the inheritance appointed to us in the city that we are.

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Inheritance is given, though, and it must be possessed.

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Inheritance is given, but it must be possessed.

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Go to Deuteronomy chapter 1, verse 20 and 21.

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Deuteronomy 1, 20 and 21.

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Deuteronomy 1, 20 and 21.

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Reading from the NIV.

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Then I said to you, you have reached the hill country of the Amorites,

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which the Lord our God is giving you, giving us.

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See the Lord your God has given you the land.

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Go up and take possession of it, as the Lord has given you the land.

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Take possession of it, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors told you to.

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Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged.

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The word possess comes from a Hebrew word which means yarish,

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and it means to possess by dispossessing.

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As in, if you want to possess something,

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you have to first dispossess those that occupy that area.

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It's the story of Israel.

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When they would be given an inheritance,

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they would have to go to that place and then dispossess before they could possess.

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Today our battle is not against flesh and blood,

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but the principle still stands where inheritance needs to be possessed.

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This is often the problem with a prophetic word.

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A prophetic word is revealing what God has for you.

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It's an inheritance given to you,

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but now begins the actual work of possessing it.

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That's when my laziness, my inconsistency, my entanglements are exposed.

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So as long as it's just a prophetic word, it's an inheritance.

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It's like giving you land in which there is oil,

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and then begins the actual process of drilling for it.

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Otherwise you can sit on that land and nothing happens.

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And the reason God says, fear not, neither be discouraged,

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is because in the process of possessing an inheritance,

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you will face opposition.

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You will face opposition.

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So he says, fear not, neither be discouraged.

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Even Psalm 2, verse 8, Jesus had to pay a price.

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What does it say in that? Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your heritage,

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the ends of the earth as your possession.

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And was he opposed? Yeah.

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So if the city of Richmond is the inheritance that God is giving to this church,

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he may be giving it to others too, but that's between him and them.

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But if he's giving the city of Richmond to us as an inheritance,

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then a couple of things have to be realized.

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There is dispossession involved and there is opposition involved.

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Any questions on that? Can you push back on that?

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This is, I'll prove it to you from the Bible,

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that this isn't some newfangled theory.

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It's been in the scriptures forever.

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Any? Yeah.

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Yeah. So if you go to Acts chapter 19, for instance,

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you have Paul enter the city of Ephesus.

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And once he begins to enter the city of Ephesus,

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he knows that unless Artemis, who is the ultimate deity in Asia Minor,

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where Demetrius the silversmith says they all worship Artemis,

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he knows that unless Artemis is dealt with, the darkness or bondage does not lift.

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And he begins to go about it.

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Some of the evidence that then comes to pass because of his dealing with it is twofold.

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One, 50,000 drachmas worth of papyri and magic books and things like that are burnt

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and people turn from divination and witchcraft to God.

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And that's a conversion that draws people into the kingdom.

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And then on the other side, there's Demetrius who's now raising a group of people to riot in Ephesus.

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And his words are that, listen, Diana of Artemis, who is well known throughout Asia,

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is beginning to lose her reputation because of this troublemaker called Paul.

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And so this is a New Testament story.

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Leave alone the dispossession and the possession of Israel, which was land related.

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We do not wrestle with flesh and blood anymore, like Israel used to.

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So it's different when it comes to us.

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But Artemis is one example.

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Any other questions, guys?

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And therefore, because I believe that the only reason we moved to Richmond is because the Lord told us to.

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Because when we were in Burnaby, hey, that place was large enough to hold us.

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And the rent we paid there and here was the same.

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It wasn't for the sake of money that we moved to Richmond.

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There's a very specific command saying move to Richmond, and that's why we came here.

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Any other questions?

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OK.

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In which case, whether it be in Corinth or whether it be Athens in Acts 17 or whether it be Ephesus in Acts 19,

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ideologies and systems need to be undone.

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Ideologies and spiritual systems need to be undone for people to come out of darkness.

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To come out of darkness.

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And as early as Exodus, we see this happening.

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As early as Exodus, we see this.

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Where we see the power of Yahweh in collision with the power of Egypt.

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We see it that early.

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So we need to realize that time and time again throughout scriptures, the Holy Spirit intervenes on two levels.

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First is the spiritual invisible.

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Second is the spiritual invisible.

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And the second is the visible.

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Throughout the Bible, there's this pattern of the Holy Spirit.

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It's a two dimensional battle that results in liberation.

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In the liberty of captives, which is from Isaiah 61.

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And we'll talk about that now.

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So it always happens on two levels.

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There's the invisible spiritual and there is the visible.

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And the Holy Spirit is always, all his intervention unfolds on these two levels almost consistently through the spiritual.

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And so it's a two dimensional battle which results in the liberty of captives.

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Isaiah 61.

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And so if we were to look at Egypt, and I know I mentioned this before, but given what we are studying, it's worth remembering again.

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Because behind the visible tyranny of Egypt.

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Behind the visible tyranny of Egypt.

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Behind the visible tyranny of Egypt.

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Behind the visible tyranny of Egypt.

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Behind the visible tyranny of Egypt were spiritual powers that needed to be subjugated.

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To be subdued.

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So in Exodus 7.10, you see the snake of the magicians.

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Of the magicians being devoured.

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And the snake of the magicians in Egypt basically symbolized occult powers that Egypt was famous for.

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There were two things that, there were three things in Egypt that were absolute top-run deity divine kind of things.

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One, Pharaoh. Two, Ra. Three, the serpent.

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They were symbolic of Egypt.

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And so when the magicians cast down their rods, and sorry, when Moses casts down his rod and it turns into a serpent,

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and the magicians cast down their rods and it turns into serpents in Exodus 7.10, it's actually a battle between powers.

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It's a conflict.

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And the serpent that Moses creates when he, that Moses' rod becomes a serpent, that devours the others.

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It's actually a battle that is happening there.

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The plagues were a way of saying, your gods, the plagues were a way of saying, your gods are judged and defeated.

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That's what is happening through all ten plagues.

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You read about this in Exodus 12, verse 12, that Egypt's gods were being judged and defeated.

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We're talking about 4,000 years ago.

00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:21.000
So the Nile was believed to be the sacred abode of a Nile god called Hapi.

00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:26.000
The Nile was believed to be the sacred abode of the Nile god Hapi.

00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:32.000
In the first plague, the Nile god died, turned bloody red.

00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:43.000
In the second plague, frogs were supposed to be the symbol of the god of fertility called Hecet.

00:20:46.000 --> 00:20:50.000
And suddenly, the goddess of fertility multiplied beyond control.

00:20:51.000 --> 00:20:53.000
In the fifth plague, livestock began to die.

00:20:53.000 --> 00:20:57.000
I'm just skipping some. In the fifth plague, livestock began to die.

00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.000
The bull was sacred to the god called Apis.

00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:08.000
The cow was sacred to the god called Isis.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:13.000
The ram was sacred to the god called Amon.

00:21:13.000 --> 00:21:20.000
Even today in most religions, animals represent deities or vehicles that the gods use to transport themselves.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:32.000
Which is why the building of a sacred calf, of the golden calf in the desert, was inviting people back to the gods of Egypt.

00:21:32.000 --> 00:21:35.000
It wasn't just something that happened by chance.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:45.000
It was a very deliberate act where there was Yahweh, and then there is a sacred, sorry, a golden calf that they built, which was reminding people, let's go back to Egypt.

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:46.000
This place sucks.

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:47.000
This place sucks.

00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:53.000
Let's go back to not just the lentil and the soup of Egypt, but let's go back to the gods of Egypt.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:03.000
And so, when livestock began to die, it was the death of multiple gods that was happening there.

00:22:04.000 --> 00:22:07.000
In the ninth plague, and this is when it gets seriously interesting.

00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:18.000
In the ninth plague, Ra, which was one of the highest deities in Egypt, was blotted out of the sky.

00:22:18.000 --> 00:22:22.000
That must have been like terribly frightening.

00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:30.000
Every morning in different religions all across the earth, people wake up in the morning to do all kinds of worship of the sun god.

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.000
It is common to almost every religion in the world.

00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:37.000
There is some element of the worship of sun god.

00:22:37.000 --> 00:22:44.000
Ra was supposed to be the sun god of Egypt and was one of the highest deities in the Egyptian pantheon of gods.

00:22:44.000 --> 00:22:54.000
Just imagine, you get up to go and worship the sun god that you have and your ancestors have worshipped for years, and suddenly it gets blotted out of the sky.

00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:55.000
Total darkness.

00:22:55.000 --> 00:22:59.000
Such deep darkness that it begins to frighten people.

00:22:59.000 --> 00:23:01.000
That is the ninth plague.

00:23:01.000 --> 00:23:10.000
The tenth plague, Pharaoh and his sons got their authority to rule because they were supposed to be a divine line of kings.

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:15.000
That was their, it was a divine right to rule.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.000
I met people like this.

00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:27.000
I remember going, meeting a man in Indonesia who comes from a divine line of kings and every so often, so please don't think this is something of the past.

00:23:27.000 --> 00:23:38.000
This man who later became a believer would go up into a tower and spend time with a demonic deity called Rato Kiddo.

00:23:38.000 --> 00:23:43.000
I'm talking about a few years ago.

00:23:43.000 --> 00:23:46.000
Till he met Christ and gave his life to Jesus.

00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:50.000
So this is as real now as it was then.

00:23:50.000 --> 00:24:00.000
And so the death of Pharaoh's son is profound because what you're saying is that the son of their god, Pharaoh, died.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:03.000
It was literally like the son of God dying.

00:24:03.000 --> 00:24:05.000
And that was the ultimate blow.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.000
Once that happened, you know, Egypt knew there was no escape.

00:24:09.000 --> 00:24:14.000
This conflict of powers is still happening.

00:24:14.000 --> 00:24:16.000
So it was in Ephesus.

00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:18.000
So it was with Artemis.

00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:21.000
So it was in Thyatira with Jezebel.

00:24:21.000 --> 00:24:28.000
So it was with, there are a few more examples that I can give you.

00:24:28.000 --> 00:24:46.000
So having defeated, having defeated the powers of Egypt, having defeated the powers of Egypt in the heavenly realm,

00:24:46.000 --> 00:25:09.000
the Lord broke the bondage in the physical realm, drowning Pharaoh's chariots.

00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:19.000
And Hossman.

00:25:19.000 --> 00:25:22.000
Crazy.

00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:29.000
It goes back to what we were saying earlier, two dimensional, first in the invisible spiritual, then in the visible.

00:25:29.000 --> 00:25:34.000
Any questions?

00:25:34.000 --> 00:25:44.000
See, the problem is when believers who become aware of this are sitting here, for instance, some of us may actually begin to think,

00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:47.000
no, no, no, this isn't true for now.

00:25:47.000 --> 00:25:50.000
It was in the past.

00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:52.000
That's one way of approaching it.

00:25:52.000 --> 00:25:57.000
The second thing is, oh, but Christ died in the first place.

00:25:57.000 --> 00:25:58.000
He is risen.

00:25:58.000 --> 00:26:00.000
He broke the power of the enemy.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:02.000
So it's all good now.

00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:04.000
We don't have to worry about praying like this.

00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:06.000
That's the second approach.

00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:14.000
And the third approach is just ostrich like, which is to disappear under a stone and pretend nothing like this is happening.

00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:17.000
Christ did break all powers.

00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:18.000
He subjugated them.

00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:20.000
We have to be careful about that.

00:26:20.000 --> 00:26:30.000
He made a public spectacle of Satan on the cross and rode triumphantly with demonic hordes of prisoners behind his chariot.

00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:31.000
This is true.

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:33.000
But if that is true, then here's my question.

00:26:33.000 --> 00:26:41.000
Why aren't people just turning to Christ immediately as soon as you tell them about Jesus?

00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:46.000
Because, you know, the people who are in the cross are the ones who are in the cross.

00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:49.000
Why aren't people just turning to Christ immediately as soon as you tell them about Jesus?

00:26:49.000 --> 00:26:52.000
Because, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 puts it this way.

00:26:52.000 --> 00:27:00.000
We are still in a time and a place where people are blinded by the enemy.

00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:02.000
Ephesians puts it this way.

00:27:02.000 --> 00:27:10.000
That the children of disobedience are still under the sway of the prince of the power of the air.

00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:12.000
Inheritance is not land.

00:27:12.000 --> 00:27:14.000
Inheritance is people.

00:27:14.000 --> 00:27:18.000
In Isaiah 45, when it says, I'll give you the treasures of darkness,

00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:22.000
Charismatics may think, oh, treasures of darkness means more money.

00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:29.000
No, treasures of darkness, the most precious treasure that is hidden in darkness is actually the souls of men.

00:27:29.000 --> 00:27:34.000
Do you realize that you at one point were a treasure that was hidden in darkness?

00:27:34.000 --> 00:27:42.000
That someone had to come and by the power of the Spirit of God, redeem you and set you free so that you're no longer treasures of darkness.

00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.000
You've been transferred into the kingdom of the sun.

00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:51.000
Any questions before we go on?

00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:55.000
Please feel free to ask and push and challenge.

00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:05.000
Because if you don't really, if you're not able to believe this, then we won't be able to actively do anything about it.

00:28:12.000 --> 00:28:17.000
Are you suggesting that you should be in the church?

00:28:17.000 --> 00:28:20.000
Actually, none of it is just physical.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:26.000
Yeah, but to answer her question, her question is valid.

00:28:26.000 --> 00:28:35.000
I'm saying that everything is first dealt with by God on a spiritual invisible and then on a physical visible.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:43.000
Very clearly, Ephesians 6, well, which I've been repeating a few times says our battle is not against flesh and blood.

00:28:43.000 --> 00:28:53.000
But the spiritual invisible still is as real and prevalent as it was four thousand years ago.

00:28:57.000 --> 00:28:59.000
Any other question?

00:28:59.000 --> 00:29:01.000
Yeah.

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.000
What's the parallel to the drowning of Pharaoh, hysterics and horsemen now?

00:29:09.000 --> 00:29:15.000
I would take you to Acts 8, Acts 13, where there were powers involved that was dealt with.

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.000
But then Simon the sorcerer had to be dealt with.

00:29:19.000 --> 00:29:27.000
Simon the sorcerer was someone who was preventing the governor from seeing Christ.

00:29:27.000 --> 00:29:35.000
And he had to be removed from the way, not in a way that destroys him, because God is continuously into redemption because he died for redemption.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:41.000
But sometimes God has the ability to deal with people who keep people in bondage.

00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:47.000
So that is not something that we deal with.

00:29:47.000 --> 00:29:49.000
That is what God does.

00:29:49.000 --> 00:29:53.000
Ours is not to do anything but deal with the invisible while God begins to deal with visible bondages.

00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:57.000
How he deals with it, let you and I not be the judges.

00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:01.000
How he does it is up to him.

00:30:01.000 --> 00:30:05.000
But he does it.

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:07.000
He says, I'm the one who removes kings.

00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:11.000
I'm the one who removes the kings of the world.

00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:15.000
I'm the one who removes the kings of the world.

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:17.000
And he does it.

00:30:17.000 --> 00:30:21.000
He says, I'm the one who removes kings and installs them.

00:30:21.000 --> 00:30:27.000
I'm the one who can one day Herod was seated on his throne.

00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:29.000
I'm just taking pictures from the book of Acts.

00:30:29.000 --> 00:30:33.000
One day Herod is seated on his throne and he's saying, I'm the great one.

00:30:33.000 --> 00:30:39.000
The next day he is dead because his insides have been eaten up by maggots.

00:30:39.000 --> 00:30:43.000
And the reason given is the guy began to think of himself greater than God.

00:30:43.000 --> 00:30:45.000
Did Peter say that it happened?

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:47.000
No.

00:30:47.000 --> 00:30:49.000
Did God do it?

00:30:49.000 --> 00:30:51.000
Yes.

00:30:51.000 --> 00:30:53.000
When did sometimes judgment come from the mouth of man?

00:30:53.000 --> 00:30:55.000
Paul did that.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:31:01.000
Paul did that to the sorcerer saying, for a time now you will be struck with blindness.

00:31:01.000 --> 00:31:03.000
It is almost a form of discipline.

00:31:03.000 --> 00:31:07.000
But that is when a very specific word of judgment is given.

00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:09.000
Otherwise, it's not yours and mine to judge.

00:31:09.000 --> 00:31:11.000
Ours is to do what we are called to do.

00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:13.000
And there are two things.

00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:17.000
One, in the invisible deal with the powers that keep people captive.

00:31:17.000 --> 00:31:23.000
And if you think it's not powers that keep people captive, then hello, you're reading the wrong Bible.

00:31:23.000 --> 00:31:25.000
Really.

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:35.000
And then the second thing we have to do is bless our enemies if someone is an enemy.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:41.000
Or embrace everybody because our intent is to draw people to Christ with love.

00:31:41.000 --> 00:31:45.000
Anything else is not Christian?

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:51.000
Any other question?

00:31:51.000 --> 00:31:53.000
Yes.

00:31:53.000 --> 00:31:55.000
Pardon?

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:57.000
I didn't understand the question.

00:31:57.000 --> 00:31:59.000
Yes.

00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:01.000
Pardon?

00:32:01.000 --> 00:32:05.000
Who does have the greatest effect on spiritual invisible attacks?

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:07.000
I didn't understand the question.

00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:13.000
Who has the greatest effect when we are talking about spiritual invisible attacks?

00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:23.000
Is it more like, because Daniel talks about, Daniel was talking to God regarding to answer from the God.

00:32:23.000 --> 00:32:35.000
And the question is?

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:37.000
Okay.

00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:39.000
That's the rest of the sermon.

00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.000
What is the way to deal with this?

00:32:57.000 --> 00:32:59.000
What is the way to deal with this?

00:32:59.000 --> 00:33:01.000
I can't hear you.

00:33:01.000 --> 00:33:05.000
Is it a way to deal with this?

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:11.000
I mean, guys, opposition, some of the simple opposition things that we have to deal with is just plain dullness.

00:33:11.000 --> 00:33:13.000
Spiritual dullness.

00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:19.000
There are times when you and I have come here, unfortunately not me because I'm not sitting where you're sitting.

00:33:19.000 --> 00:33:29.000
But there are times when I can go to a church and someone else is preaching and I can sit there completely dulled out or completely in unbelief.

00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:43.000
It's fascinating how we can sit under the word that is true and be completely dulled out and in complete unbelief or complete blindness, which is fascinating.

00:33:43.000 --> 00:33:57.000
I mean, who would come and sit for a three hour service in the middle of a hot summer afternoon and want dullness, unbelief and blindness in a place of life?

00:33:57.000 --> 00:33:59.000
Where do you think that's coming from?

00:33:59.000 --> 00:34:05.000
Just that level of opposition itself is hard to overcome.

00:34:05.000 --> 00:34:13.000
Leave alone the sins that entangle us, the resentment that rises, the dislike and the hatred that might come your way.

00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:17.000
These are all like 101 level.

00:34:17.000 --> 00:34:23.000
Once we overcome that, then we can begin to deal with things that need to be dealt with.

00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:35.000
One day we might move to a church that has AC, but for now we shall endure.

00:34:35.000 --> 00:34:39.000
Standing here, it's very odd. I see people.

00:34:39.000 --> 00:34:43.000
At first I was wondering why this church looks different today.

00:34:43.000 --> 00:34:47.000
There are a lot of people doing this.

00:34:47.000 --> 00:34:51.000
Feel free to do it. It's quite hot.

00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:59.000
In every city, in every city, there are systems.

00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:03.000
And when I say systems, I mean two things.

00:35:03.000 --> 00:35:12.000
One, I mean ideologies and two, I mean evil, demonic systems.

00:35:12.000 --> 00:35:15.000
There are systems in every city that need to be dismantled.

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:23.000
And if we say we are the city within a city, then who else but us?

00:35:23.000 --> 00:35:27.000
And we do it through... how do we dismantle it?

00:35:27.000 --> 00:35:38.000
We dismantle it by word, worship, war, walk.

00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:41.000
By the spirit.

00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:44.000
This is how we dismantle it.

00:35:44.000 --> 00:35:48.000
We dismantle it by word, as in using the word.

00:35:48.000 --> 00:35:51.000
We dismantle it by worship.

00:35:51.000 --> 00:35:56.000
We dismantle it by war, like we'll talk about it, using words.

00:35:56.000 --> 00:36:02.000
Because the only thing that Jesus wars with is the sword of the spirit that emerges from his mouth,

00:36:02.000 --> 00:36:05.000
which is a symbolic way of saying that's what we war with.

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:08.000
And then our walk.

00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:16.000
Because morality or purity is proof of our intimacy and it intimidates the enemy.

00:36:16.000 --> 00:36:24.000
Morality or purity is what gives us traction to stand.

00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:26.000
Jesus put it this way.

00:36:26.000 --> 00:36:35.000
And I think John, he said, the prince of darkness is coming, but he has nothing in me.

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:42.000
That gives someone the ability to have traction to stand.

00:36:42.000 --> 00:36:44.000
So now we look at Psalm 149.

00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:51.000
We started the service with Psalm 149 verse 1 to 4.

00:36:51.000 --> 00:36:53.000
We started with that.

00:36:53.000 --> 00:37:00.000
And then we shift to verse 5 to 7.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:08.000
Because there's a jarring shift in Psalm 149, where suddenly into the psalm,

00:37:08.000 --> 00:37:15.000
this psalm is the last of the hallelujah psalms that people used to read when they were going to the temple.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:22.000
And if you go to it, you'll find that the first four verses are like most other psalms.

00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:28.000
Rejoice before God, shout, dance, play the timbrel, play the harp.

00:37:28.000 --> 00:37:34.000
And it goes on that way and it invites the saints to rejoice and sing on their beds.

00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:37.000
And suddenly from verse 5 onwards, it changes.

00:37:37.000 --> 00:37:41.000
If you go to Psalm 149, verse 5 onwards,

00:37:41.000 --> 00:37:46.000
Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.

00:37:46.000 --> 00:37:52.000
May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands to inflict vengeance on the nations,

00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:58.000
punishment on the peoples, bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,

00:37:58.000 --> 00:38:00.000
to carry out the sentence written against them.

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.000
This is the splendor of the glory of all the saints. Praise the Lord.

00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:06.000
There's a sudden shift in Psalm 149.

00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:17.000
It's like a jarring shift where this was supposed to be a celebratory hymn that was sung by a congregation with shouts of hallelujah.

00:38:17.000 --> 00:38:25.000
And then suddenly it shifts to a two-edged sword in their hands.

00:38:25.000 --> 00:38:28.000
In the hands of the very ones who were praising and dancing.

00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:34.000
A two-edged sword in their hands to do what?

00:38:34.000 --> 00:38:43.000
To execute vengeance, which is such an odd word to bring in the middle of a celebratory psalm,

00:38:43.000 --> 00:38:51.000
for chastisement or punishment of people, for the subduing of nations,

00:38:55.000 --> 00:39:07.000
for executing sentence upon kings or powers, and for the shackling of kings.

00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:11.000
Suddenly the tone of the psalm changes.

00:39:11.000 --> 00:39:14.000
It's crazy.

00:39:16.000 --> 00:39:22.000
Earlier on I said that Acts 29 has learned how to really reconstitute worship

00:39:22.000 --> 00:39:29.000
and really begin to enjoy the favor of God, of Psalm 149, 1-4.

00:39:29.000 --> 00:39:32.000
We practice that. It's become so natural for us.

00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:38.000
It doesn't need any stirring up. It doesn't need any coaxing by Tuni.

00:39:38.000 --> 00:39:39.000
It just happens.

00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:45.000
But this part is now what God wants us to shift to so that the city can be affected.

00:39:45.000 --> 00:39:48.000
Verses 5 to 7.

00:39:48.000 --> 00:39:58.000
What does it look like for a people of praise to suddenly possess a two-edged sword in their hands to execute vengeance?

00:39:58.000 --> 00:40:03.000
Again, we are not fighting against flesh and blood.

00:40:03.000 --> 00:40:06.000
And we'll try that out today.

00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:20.000
So what does vengeance mean? Vengeance means the act of writing wrongs.

00:40:20.000 --> 00:40:25.000
The act of writing wrongs.

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.000
The act of writing wrongs.

00:40:29.000 --> 00:40:40.000
The act of enforcing God's justice when order is violated.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:55.000
And God is saying, listen to Acts 29, this is your splendor, your privilege, your responsibility.

00:40:55.000 --> 00:41:03.000
Your responsibility that I give.

00:41:03.000 --> 00:41:06.000
Crazy, eh?

00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:12.000
Can you manage a muted hallelujah?

00:41:12.000 --> 00:41:16.000
He's saying this is your splendor, as in this is your glory.

00:41:16.000 --> 00:41:22.000
I'm giving it to you. It's part of your splendor.

00:41:22.000 --> 00:41:24.000
It's part of your glory, Church.

00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:26.000
This is your privilege.

00:41:26.000 --> 00:41:28.000
This is your responsibility.

00:41:28.000 --> 00:41:36.000
It says that in the last verse.

00:41:36.000 --> 00:41:42.000
So on one hand, it is the act of writing wrongs, of enforcing God's justice.

00:41:42.000 --> 00:41:47.000
On the other hand, it is our responsibility, our splendor, our privilege.

00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.000
Vengeance is the Lord's. And I know you know that scripture. Vengeance is the Lord's.

00:41:51.000 --> 00:41:57.000
But the saints are the means by which God carries out justice that is written.

00:41:57.000 --> 00:41:59.000
That's what Psalm 149 is saying.

00:41:59.000 --> 00:42:04.000
Not for a moment are we saying we are out to harm people.

00:42:04.000 --> 00:42:11.000
But Ephesians 6-12, let's just read it so that nobody questions or doubts where we are going with this.

00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:14.000
Ephesians 6-12.

00:42:14.000 --> 00:42:21.000
Ephesians 6-12.

00:42:21.000 --> 00:42:25.000
Starting from verse 10, just so we are clear.

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:32.000
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

00:42:32.000 --> 00:42:41.000
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

00:42:41.000 --> 00:42:48.000
For our struggle, not mine, not yours, our. For our struggle, so no one is exempt.

00:42:48.000 --> 00:42:54.000
For our struggle, so it is a struggle. It is a jockeying for position.

00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:57.000
For our struggle, you're not exempt.

00:42:57.000 --> 00:43:03.000
You may have a mindset that thinks this doesn't exist, but that doesn't make the earth flat just because you think it is.

00:43:03.000 --> 00:43:08.000
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, so it's got nothing to do with human opponents,

00:43:08.000 --> 00:43:13.000
but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world,

00:43:13.000 --> 00:43:17.000
and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

00:43:17.000 --> 00:43:24.000
Let me read some other versions so that we get as helpful a picture as is possible.

00:43:24.000 --> 00:43:31.000
Ephesians 6-12.

00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:35.000
For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies,

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:41.000
but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,

00:43:41.000 --> 00:43:49.000
against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places.

00:43:49.000 --> 00:43:57.000
For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against persons without bodies.

00:43:57.000 --> 00:44:04.000
The evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and great evil princes of darkness

00:44:04.000 --> 00:44:13.000
who rule this world, and against huge numbers of wicked spirits in the spirit world.

00:44:13.000 --> 00:44:17.000
Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings,

00:44:17.000 --> 00:44:23.000
but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms.

00:44:23.000 --> 00:44:31.000
For they are a powerful class of demon gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.

00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:34.000
This will be a plane about what we're dealing with.

00:44:34.000 --> 00:44:39.000
So don't for a moment think this is against human adversaries,

00:44:39.000 --> 00:44:41.000
because that is not what Christ called us to.

00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:48.000
He died for every man, woman, and child, and has no intent of harming them, but setting them free.

00:44:48.000 --> 00:44:57.000
So, Vendence is the Lord's, but the saints are the means by which God carries out that justice.

00:44:57.000 --> 00:45:01.000
Guys, always remember, the battle is not between God and the devil.

00:45:01.000 --> 00:45:04.000
The battle was always between man and the devil.

00:45:04.000 --> 00:45:08.000
There was no contest between God and Satan.

00:45:08.000 --> 00:45:14.000
The battle has always been between man and Satan.

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:27.000
Genesis 3 is a description of the seed of the woman being the one that tramples the seed of the serpent.

00:45:27.000 --> 00:45:32.000
And so, Jesus Christ came down in the flesh for what?

00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:37.000
1 John 4, to destroy the works of the devil.

00:45:37.000 --> 00:45:41.000
He took on flesh, and then he leaves his body behind.

00:45:41.000 --> 00:45:48.000
Romans 16, 19 says, soon Satan will be crushed under whose feet?

00:45:48.000 --> 00:45:50.000
Your feet.

00:45:53.000 --> 00:45:55.000
Any questions?

00:45:56.000 --> 00:45:59.000
Try not to sleep through this.

00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:01.000
Try not to sleep through this.

00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:07.000
It's very hard to capture what is happening here by listening to the audio.

00:46:11.000 --> 00:46:18.000
With some perspectives, I like, oh, the devil is out to get me this.

00:46:18.000 --> 00:46:20.000
It's all constant.

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:28.000
How do we balance this with the extreme of there's a demon behind every bush and stuff like that?

00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:36.000
Yeah, it can go wonky if we don't have questions like this, if we don't keep examining the steps we are taking.

00:46:36.000 --> 00:46:47.000
I may have shared this here ages ago, but in one of Paul Anaconda's crusades in Argentina,

00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:53.000
he was praying for people and people who had demons were being affected,

00:46:53.000 --> 00:46:56.000
and they would take them into a tent and they would pray for them.

00:46:56.000 --> 00:47:01.000
And then they found a guy walking around like this saying, keys, keys, keys.

00:47:01.000 --> 00:47:05.000
So they caught him, took him into the prayer tent, and started casting out the demon of keys.

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:13.000
The guy had lost his keys, and he was just walking around looking for his keys, but he was muttering keys, keys, keys.

00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:17.000
So they thought he had a devil in him, they put him, and they started casting out the demon of keys.

00:47:17.000 --> 00:47:23.000
So these terrible things can happen, and we Charismatics are particularly good at it.

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.000
But it's really, I'm not trying to encourage Dilna at all,

00:47:29.000 --> 00:47:38.000
but really questions like this will help us be keen on staying on track, because it's so easy to skewer this.

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:41.000
So easy.

00:47:44.000 --> 00:47:50.000
Yeah, but again, just because of an extreme doesn't mean we abandon the original,

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.000
because it's the only things that are authentic that will be counterfeited.

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:03.000
Guys, there is no restoration without vengeance.

00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:18.000
There is no restoration without the element of vengeance.

00:48:18.000 --> 00:48:34.000
As in the enemy must be avenged for what has been done.

00:48:34.000 --> 00:48:44.000
One of the places where Jesus leaves the sentence out, but in Isaiah 61, if you read Isaiah 61, verse 2,

00:48:44.000 --> 00:48:55.000
the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he is upon me so that I may proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the vendence of our God.

00:48:57.000 --> 00:48:58.000
Isaiah 61, verse 2.

00:49:01.000 --> 00:49:04.000
And you see this right from the beginning, Genesis 3.15.

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:06.000
Genesis 3.15.

00:49:06.000 --> 00:49:24.000
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.

00:49:24.000 --> 00:49:25.000
He will crush your head.

00:49:26.000 --> 00:49:29.000
As early as Genesis 3.15, it had already begun.

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:32.000
Isaiah 58, verse 6.

00:49:33.000 --> 00:49:34.000
Isaiah 58, verse 6.

00:49:36.000 --> 00:49:41.000
Isaiah 58, verse 6.

00:49:48.000 --> 00:49:58.000
Is this not the kind of fasting I've chosen to lose the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, break every yoke?

00:49:59.000 --> 00:50:02.000
The idea of undoing what has brought us into bondage.

00:50:02.000 --> 00:50:03.000
Revelation 20.10.

00:50:04.000 --> 00:50:05.000
Revelation 20.10.

00:50:06.000 --> 00:50:09.000
I'm just showing you beginning, middle and end.

00:50:09.000 --> 00:50:10.000
Revelation 20.10.

00:50:16.000 --> 00:50:21.000
And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.

00:50:21.000 --> 00:50:24.000
There will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

00:50:24.000 --> 00:50:26.000
It's not an end of the devil.

00:50:26.000 --> 00:50:28.000
It is the torment of the devil.

00:50:28.000 --> 00:50:30.000
There's a price to pay.

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:31.000
There's a price to pay.

00:50:34.000 --> 00:50:41.000
If this bothers you some, then know that someone paid this price for you, which is why you and I are sitting here.

00:50:42.000 --> 00:50:44.000
Someone paid the price for it.

00:50:56.000 --> 00:50:58.000
So let's talk about two-edited worship.

00:50:58.000 --> 00:50:59.000
Two-edited worship.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.000
Two-edited worship.

00:51:06.000 --> 00:51:07.000
What do you mean by that?

00:51:08.000 --> 00:51:10.000
Two-edited worship, we are talking about the sword of the spirit.

00:51:11.000 --> 00:51:13.000
Sword of the spirit.

00:51:13.000 --> 00:51:17.000
As in using his powerful word.

00:51:18.000 --> 00:51:20.000
Using his powerful word.

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:22.000
And why do we call his word powerful?

00:51:22.000 --> 00:51:25.000
Because according to Hebrews 1 verse 3,

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:32.000
it forms, it sustains, it upholds.

00:51:33.000 --> 00:51:45.000
According to Psalm 29, it splits, it breaks, it destroys, it creates.

00:51:46.000 --> 00:51:49.000
Psalm 29 is a powerful psalm with regard to the word of God.

00:51:49.000 --> 00:51:57.000
So two-edited worship is worship that begins to use the words of God in worship.

00:51:58.000 --> 00:51:59.000
I'm not talking about music.

00:51:59.000 --> 00:52:01.000
I'm just saying two-edited worship.

00:52:01.000 --> 00:52:03.000
Worship is not with music.

00:52:03.000 --> 00:52:12.000
Perhaps you know this, but the first time the word worship is used is when Abraham takes Isaac up to offer him as a sacrifice.

00:52:12.000 --> 00:52:13.000
And it says he worshiped God.

00:52:13.000 --> 00:52:16.000
And there was no Sheldon, no Tune there.

00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:18.000
It was just musicless worship.

00:52:19.000 --> 00:52:22.000
So the idea of worship is different.

00:52:22.000 --> 00:52:24.000
It doesn't have to be connected with music.

00:52:24.000 --> 00:52:27.000
But two-edited worship is when we use the sword of the spirit.

00:52:27.000 --> 00:52:30.000
When we use the words of God, which are powerful.

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.000
Hebrews 1, 3 talks about how it upholds, sustains, and forms things.

00:52:34.000 --> 00:52:40.000
Psalm 29 talks about how it breaks, splits open, destroys, and creates things.

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:42.000
To use that in worship.

00:52:42.000 --> 00:52:47.000
There's nothing wrong with using songs that express feelings, emotions.

00:52:47.000 --> 00:52:48.000
I'm yours, you're mine.

00:52:48.000 --> 00:52:53.000
But there is something to using this kind of worship, which we have to learn.

00:52:53.000 --> 00:52:58.000
Because this is an essential part of Psalm 149, 5 to 7, working out in a city.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:02.000
Two-edited worship is high praise.

00:53:02.000 --> 00:53:10.000
If you notice in Psalm 149, it says, and the saints shall have full-throated high praise as they lie in their beds.

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:12.000
As in day or night, it doesn't matter.

00:53:12.000 --> 00:53:14.000
It's full-throated high praise.

00:53:14.000 --> 00:53:17.000
So the question is, so then what is high praise?

00:53:19.000 --> 00:53:26.000
We have examples that we can look at, and that might help us define it better than giving it a definition.

00:53:26.000 --> 00:53:28.000
Two-edited worship is high praise.

00:53:28.000 --> 00:53:30.000
Look at Ezra 3.

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:32.000
Ezra 3.

00:53:32.000 --> 00:53:34.000
Ezra 3.

00:53:38.000 --> 00:53:40.000
Ezra 3.

00:53:41.000 --> 00:53:42.000
Verse 10 onwards.

00:53:42.000 --> 00:53:44.000
Ezra 3, verse 10.

00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:50.000
Ezra 3, 10.

00:53:54.000 --> 00:53:55.000
Okay, let me read it.

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:57.000
It's beautiful.

00:53:57.000 --> 00:54:04.000
When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets,

00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:10.000
and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, who was a prophet worshiper,

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:18.000
and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord as prescribed by David the king of Israel.

00:54:18.000 --> 00:54:21.000
With praise and thanksgiving they thanked the Lord,

00:54:21.000 --> 00:54:25.000
He is good, His love towards Israel endures forever.

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:30.000
And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.

00:54:31.000 --> 00:54:36.000
But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads who had seen the former temple wept aloud

00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:40.000
when they saw the foundation of the temple being laid while many others shouted for joy.

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:45.000
No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:50.000
because the people made so much noise and the sound was heard far away.

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:51.000
Just think of that.

00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:53.000
The sound was heard far away.

00:54:53.000 --> 00:54:58.000
I know there were a greater number than us, but the sound was heard far away.

00:54:58.000 --> 00:55:01.000
High praise is when all the limits are taken off.

00:55:01.000 --> 00:55:03.000
It's unrestrained.

00:55:04.000 --> 00:55:05.000
That's one example.

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:07.000
Let's look at some more.

00:55:07.000 --> 00:55:10.000
Second Chronicles 7, 1-3.

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:13.000
And you'll find a common element in most of them.

00:55:13.000 --> 00:55:15.000
Second Chronicles 7, 1-3.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:17.000
Second Chronicles 7, 1-3.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:25.000
Guys, with my whole being, this has to be done.

00:55:28.000 --> 00:55:29.000
Yeah.

00:55:29.000 --> 00:55:30.000
Yeah.

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.000
I mean, you should have seen New York yesterday.

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:40.000
You should have seen the church in New York yesterday, the one that we are connected with.

00:55:43.000 --> 00:55:46.000
I've never seen them so happy.

00:55:51.000 --> 00:55:53.000
Second Chronicles 7, 1-3.

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:56.000
Gosh.

00:55:56.000 --> 00:56:00.000
When Solomon finished praying, fire came down from heaven

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.000
and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices.

00:56:04.000 --> 00:56:07.000
And the glory of the Lord filled the temple.

00:56:07.000 --> 00:56:11.000
The priests could not enter the temple of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled it.

00:56:11.000 --> 00:56:16.000
When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the Lord above the temple,

00:56:16.000 --> 00:56:19.000
they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground,

00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:22.000
and they worshiped and gave thanks to the Lord, saying,

00:56:22.000 --> 00:56:25.000
You know, in the Hebrides revival, this is what happened.

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:31.000
There was no fire falling, but people in the village of Arnole,

00:56:31.000 --> 00:56:32.000
they are walking around.

00:56:32.000 --> 00:56:34.000
There are people in the dance halls.

00:56:34.000 --> 00:56:36.000
There are others walking around.

00:56:36.000 --> 00:56:40.000
And suddenly they know that the presence of God is in the place.

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:42.000
There was no fire, no cloud, no nothing.

00:56:42.000 --> 00:56:46.000
But they knew that there's this heavy sense of God.

00:56:46.000 --> 00:56:49.000
This is about the presence of God in the place.

00:56:49.000 --> 00:56:51.000
There's this heavy sense of God.

00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:55.000
This is about 70 years ago, so I'm not talking about ancient history.

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.000
And so they knew there was the presence of God.

00:56:59.000 --> 00:57:00.000
The dance hall began emptying.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:01.000
People began to leave.

00:57:01.000 --> 00:57:02.000
They don't even know why.

00:57:02.000 --> 00:57:04.000
The music is still playing, but the people are leaving.

00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:06.000
Finally the DJ got it, and he left too.

00:57:06.000 --> 00:57:08.000
But the point is, they've all left.

00:57:08.000 --> 00:57:12.000
And now there are men and women walking in the streets,

00:57:12.000 --> 00:57:16.000
and they're going down on their knees, and they're beginning to cry.

00:57:16.000 --> 00:57:20.000
There are guys that have lived sinful lives who don't know what is happening,

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:22.000
and they begin to weep.

00:57:23.000 --> 00:57:25.000
They didn't know what was happening.

00:57:25.000 --> 00:57:26.000
It wasn't even repentance.

00:57:26.000 --> 00:57:31.000
It was a word called penitence, where they know something is wrong.

00:57:31.000 --> 00:57:34.000
Guys, this is 70 years ago.

00:57:36.000 --> 00:57:40.000
We are supposed to be the carriers of something called Hebrides 2.0.

00:57:40.000 --> 00:57:44.000
And God will be faithful, and you have been faithful.

00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:46.000
God will be faithful.

00:57:46.000 --> 00:57:49.000
There's no question to that, but you have been faithful.

00:57:55.000 --> 00:57:58.000
I am so glad that I'm used to you not responding.

00:57:58.000 --> 00:58:02.000
Any other preacher would give up.

00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:07.000
But praise the Lord, I see beyond your faces, into your hearts.

00:58:07.000 --> 00:58:09.000
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I totally get it.

00:58:09.000 --> 00:58:10.000
Yeah, I get it.

00:58:15.000 --> 00:58:20.000
You know, what you find with 2 Chronicles 7, Ezra, is what you find in Psalm 136.

00:58:20.000 --> 00:58:25.000
And this is part of what high praise and two-edged worship looks like.

00:58:25.000 --> 00:58:29.000
It's called antiphonal singing,

00:58:30.000 --> 00:58:34.000
where if you go to Psalm 136, it's called antiphonal singing.

00:58:35.000 --> 00:58:38.000
Where if you go to Psalm 136,

00:58:38.000 --> 00:58:41.000
give thanks to the Lord for He is good.

00:58:41.000 --> 00:58:43.000
His steadfast love endures forever.

00:58:43.000 --> 00:58:46.000
He who created the sun and the moon, his steadfast love endures forever.

00:58:46.000 --> 00:58:50.000
He that restored the fortunes of Jacob, his steadfast love endures forever.

00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:53.000
It's called antiphonal singing. It happens in heaven too,

00:58:53.000 --> 00:58:56.000
where you'll have a set of angels go, holy, holy, holy,

00:58:56.000 --> 00:59:00.000
and then another set go, and the whole earth is filled with your glory.

00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.000
It is words being spoken back and forth between heaven and us.

00:59:04.000 --> 00:59:10.000
It's first heavens, us here in the church, saying things, and heavens responding.

00:59:10.000 --> 00:59:15.000
That's part of high praise. That's part of what we call two-edged worship.

00:59:16.000 --> 00:59:21.000
Where you take Ezra 3, you take Psalm 136, you take 2 Chronicles 7,

00:59:21.000 --> 00:59:26.000
and you keep hearing this thing, where they remember what God has said, and they respond.

00:59:26.000 --> 00:59:30.000
It's no longer responding to Tunis. It's not responding to a Bessel song,

00:59:30.000 --> 00:59:33.000
or a planet shaker song, or a Revelation church song.

00:59:33.000 --> 00:59:38.000
It is responding to the very scripture and the heart of God that comes to scripture.

00:59:38.000 --> 00:59:42.000
And when a church begins to get this, the city begins to shake,

00:59:42.000 --> 00:59:46.000
as it did in Ephesus, as it did in Tyatira.

00:59:46.000 --> 00:59:50.000
We will go there. We will go there.

00:59:50.000 --> 00:59:56.000
Because my God, your hearts are on fire, so your faces don't show it.

00:59:56.000 --> 01:00:02.000
This place could burn down, and I wouldn't know it.

01:00:02.000 --> 01:00:08.000
So, when it comes to the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God,

01:00:08.000 --> 01:00:14.000
remember, according to Hebrew, the sword of the Spirit is the sword of the Spirit.

01:00:14.000 --> 01:00:21.000
Remember, according to Hebrews 4.16, what is it like? It is penetrating.

01:00:21.000 --> 01:00:32.000
It is sharp. It exposes what is wrong, and it reveals what is from God.

01:00:34.000 --> 01:00:36.000
It cuts through everything.

01:00:39.000 --> 01:00:43.000
That's the very nature of it. When you look at the sword of the Spirit in the book of Revelation,

01:00:43.000 --> 01:00:49.000
you see it in Revelation 1.16, where the sword of the Spirit that comes out of the mouth of God

01:00:49.000 --> 01:00:51.000
is meant to position the church.

01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:54.000
These are the things that happen when we engage in this kind of worship.

01:00:54.000 --> 01:00:56.000
It positions the church.

01:00:59.000 --> 01:01:01.000
How does it position the church?

01:01:01.000 --> 01:01:08.000
It positions the church by God revealing to the church through two-edged worship and word,

01:01:08.000 --> 01:01:11.000
that, listen, this is how you need to posture yourself.

01:01:11.000 --> 01:01:15.000
Hey, Jacob, this is how you need to lead the church.

01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:19.000
Angelic help is released in Revelation 1.16.

01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:22.000
Revelation 2.16. In Revelation 2.16, it changes.

01:01:22.000 --> 01:01:25.000
Now it is the sword of the Spirit that comes out of the mouth of God.

01:01:25.000 --> 01:01:29.000
And what is it for? It is for correction. It is for correction.

01:01:29.000 --> 01:01:32.000
He's speaking to one of the churches, and he says,

01:01:32.000 --> 01:01:37.000
the sword of the Spirit that comes from my mouth in Revelation 2.16 will correct you.

01:01:37.000 --> 01:01:40.000
It will deal with rebellion.

01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:44.000
It will deal with oppression and the enemy in your midst.

01:01:44.000 --> 01:01:51.000
And then there's Revelation 19, where it talks about, let me write it down so you have the scriptures.

01:01:55.000 --> 01:02:03.000
Revelation 2.16. It deals with rebellion or opposing powers.

01:02:04.000 --> 01:02:23.000
And then there's Revelation 19, verse 15 and 21, where it deals with the unholy trinity of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.

01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:32.000
These are the things that will begin to happen in our midst as we begin to indulge in this kind of worship, and we're going to try it today.

01:02:34.000 --> 01:02:36.000
Everything has a beginning.

01:02:36.000 --> 01:02:39.000
We will learn this just like we've learned a hundred other things.

01:02:42.000 --> 01:02:45.000
Any questions before we conclude?

01:02:50.000 --> 01:02:51.000
Any questions?

01:03:03.000 --> 01:03:08.000
Sorry, can you not?

01:03:10.000 --> 01:03:15.000
Yeah. So remember we talked about Psalm 149, verse 5 to 7 saying,

01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:21.000
listen, let the saints lie on their bed and with full throats begin to engage in high praise,

01:03:21.000 --> 01:03:29.000
and let them carry two-edged swords in their hands to execute upon the enemy vengeance, to execute upon kings' sentences,

01:03:29.000 --> 01:03:33.000
to bind powers and put their kings in shackles.

01:03:33.000 --> 01:03:37.000
This is the privilege or the splendor or the responsibility of the saints of God.

01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:40.000
The two-edged sword is what we are talking about.

01:03:40.000 --> 01:03:46.000
And in the context of the two-edged sword, we find the two-edged sword again and again and again in the book of Revelation,

01:03:46.000 --> 01:03:50.000
and it tells us what the two-edged sword that comes from the mouth of God does.

01:03:50.000 --> 01:03:54.000
And it is the same thing that happens when we employ that in worship.

01:03:54.000 --> 01:04:02.000
If this, just imagine, Miriam takes a tambourine, she takes Moses' song and she starts playing,

01:04:02.000 --> 01:04:07.000
and as she plays she begins to say, the horse and the rider are cast into the sea.

01:04:07.000 --> 01:04:15.000
We take that now and we take a tambourine and a Sue or a Phoebe or a Jane or someone who doesn't know how to play the tambourine,

01:04:15.000 --> 01:04:18.000
God forbid, comes and they start playing too.

01:04:18.000 --> 01:04:23.000
And we begin to sing the same song, the song of Moses from the beginning of the book of Revelation.

01:04:23.000 --> 01:04:26.000
The song of Moses from Exodus 15.

01:04:26.000 --> 01:04:29.000
You think that the enemy is not afraid of that?

01:04:29.000 --> 01:04:34.000
Do you know how long a memory Satan has?

01:04:34.000 --> 01:04:39.000
He knows what happened in Exodus 15, 4,000 years ago.

01:04:39.000 --> 01:04:42.000
It's not much for the invisible realm.

01:04:42.000 --> 01:04:44.000
They know what happened then.

01:04:44.000 --> 01:04:48.000
And to visit the same sentence upon them, to the tap of tambourines,

01:04:48.000 --> 01:04:52.000
only it's not one Miriam, it's 20 Miriams, 100 Miriams.

01:04:52.000 --> 01:04:55.000
Do you know what that does? Do you know that he is finite?

01:04:55.000 --> 01:05:01.000
Do you know what it is to be attacked from 120 different sides or 2,000 different sides,

01:05:01.000 --> 01:05:06.000
each with faith, each with faith that releases words that are in the scripture?

01:05:06.000 --> 01:05:08.000
Do you know what that does?

01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:20.000
The enemy knits painstakingly, quilts that shroud and blanket humankind.

01:05:20.000 --> 01:05:25.000
And then along comes some people who are nobodies who carry with them the sword of the spirit.

01:05:25.000 --> 01:05:35.000
And they begin to, with a two-edged sword, shred that painstakingly quilted shroud or blanket till there's nothing left.

01:05:35.000 --> 01:05:40.000
And people for the first time in their lives begin to take in lungfuls of oxygen

01:05:40.000 --> 01:05:43.000
and begin to see light and they can't understand why.

01:05:43.000 --> 01:05:45.000
And then the fishermen go out.

01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:49.000
They go down the river to Ngedi and they begin to spread their nets.

01:05:49.000 --> 01:05:52.000
And they can't understand why so many fish are being caught.

01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:59.000
Because a group of people in a little church in a corner of Richmond began to get the hang of two-edged worship.

01:05:59.000 --> 01:06:01.000
That's what begins to happen.

01:06:05.000 --> 01:06:09.000
That's what begins to happen. That's what we learn. That's what we'll apply.

01:06:11.000 --> 01:06:13.000
And it's not about making the church bigger.

01:06:14.000 --> 01:06:24.000
It's simply about other Jacobs, other Hippes, other Marks, other James coming to love this one who is in our midst and who is absolutely brilliant.

01:06:25.000 --> 01:06:28.000
That is the privilege everyone deserves.

01:06:30.000 --> 01:06:33.000
Someone did it for us, guys.

01:06:35.000 --> 01:06:36.000
Someone did it for us.

01:06:36.000 --> 01:06:38.000
Two things that Richmond needs.

01:06:39.000 --> 01:06:41.000
One is this kind of worship.

01:06:41.000 --> 01:06:43.000
And two is healing.

01:06:44.000 --> 01:06:46.000
This is a very diseased city.

01:06:57.000 --> 01:06:59.000
You see it in 2 Chronicles 20.

01:07:00.000 --> 01:07:09.000
Remember, warfare worship is not from earth to heaven.

01:07:10.000 --> 01:07:12.000
You have to think of it like this, guys.

01:07:17.000 --> 01:07:18.000
Richmond.

01:07:23.000 --> 01:07:24.000
Heavens.

01:07:24.000 --> 01:07:28.000
Where Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.

01:07:29.000 --> 01:07:38.000
And then there is this network or web or shroud or blanket over people.

01:07:40.000 --> 01:07:48.000
Which is the result of hundreds of years of idolatry, of divination, of witchcraft.

01:07:48.000 --> 01:07:50.000
In this city, there's not a thing.

01:07:50.000 --> 01:07:58.000
The health, the travel, the wealth, the family, the love, the relationships, the building, the government.

01:07:58.000 --> 01:08:04.000
Everything is planned and built on the sole basis of divination in Richmond.

01:08:04.000 --> 01:08:07.000
Because we are a pluralist society, things come in.

01:08:09.000 --> 01:08:14.000
And so when we engage in warfare worship, we are not worshipping from down there to there.

01:08:15.000 --> 01:08:24.000
This is one of those times when we understand that Ephesians 2, verse 6 says that we have to be in the same place.

01:08:24.000 --> 01:08:26.000
We have to be in the same place.

01:08:27.000 --> 01:08:36.000
This is one of those times when we understand that Ephesians 2, verse 6 says that we are seated with Christ in heavenly places.

01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:41.000
And we also know how Christ got there, Ephesians 1, 22 and 23.

01:08:41.000 --> 01:08:48.000
That he has been given a name above every other name and he is now seated far above all authorities, all powers, all rulers.

01:08:48.000 --> 01:08:51.000
It is from that place that we worship.

01:08:51.000 --> 01:08:57.000
It is being in the midst of holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

01:08:57.000 --> 01:08:59.000
Heaven and earth are full of his glory.

01:08:59.000 --> 01:09:01.000
It is being there.

01:09:01.000 --> 01:09:03.000
Oh, I don't know how to do that.

01:09:03.000 --> 01:09:05.000
How do you end up thinking of Hawaii?

01:09:05.000 --> 01:09:07.000
How do you end up thinking of California?

01:09:07.000 --> 01:09:11.000
How do you end up thinking of other places sitting in this hot place here?

01:09:11.000 --> 01:09:14.000
You'll already, like Kramer says, I'm already there.

01:09:16.000 --> 01:09:20.000
If you can imagine that, then trust me, holy imagination is good enough.

01:09:20.000 --> 01:09:22.000
It is good enough to begin this place.

01:09:25.000 --> 01:09:27.000
And it is from there that we worship.

01:09:29.000 --> 01:09:33.000
Seated with Christ in heavenly places, Ephesians 2, 6.

01:09:36.000 --> 01:09:43.000
In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat and Judah are in dire circumstances.

01:09:43.000 --> 01:09:45.000
2 Chronicles 20.

01:09:45.000 --> 01:09:47.000
They are going to be annihilated.

01:09:47.000 --> 01:09:53.000
They've got this huge army of Maeyunites and Arameans.

01:09:53.000 --> 01:09:56.000
I don't remember the other two tribes coming against them, a horde of them.

01:09:56.000 --> 01:09:58.000
They know that they're going to be destroyed.

01:09:58.000 --> 01:10:03.000
In verse 3, they're going to cry out to God, saying, Oh God, please help us.

01:10:04.000 --> 01:10:08.000
And once they're being to cry out to God, God comes through.

01:10:08.000 --> 01:10:14.000
And he says to them in verse 15 and 17, 15 to 17, listen, Jehoshaphat, how does he speak to them?

01:10:14.000 --> 01:10:16.000
There's a prophet called Jehaziil.

01:10:16.000 --> 01:10:24.000
And God says to Jehaziil, say to Jehoshaphat and say to Judah that you will not have to fight this battle.

01:10:24.000 --> 01:10:26.000
I will fight for you.

01:10:26.000 --> 01:10:28.000
Go up the ascent of this.

01:10:28.000 --> 01:10:31.000
And when you get to the top, they will be waiting there.

01:10:31.000 --> 01:10:34.000
And when you get there, send the singers ahead and begin to sing.

01:10:34.000 --> 01:10:36.000
What song? An antiphonal song.

01:10:36.000 --> 01:10:40.000
Of what kind? Praise the Lord for he is good.

01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:42.000
His steadfast love endures forever.

01:10:42.000 --> 01:10:44.000
And Israel begins to do this.

01:10:45.000 --> 01:10:49.000
This is what we are talking about in the Old Testament.

01:10:49.000 --> 01:10:55.000
Where once you begin to occupy that place and begin to speak words of God from there,

01:10:55.000 --> 01:11:02.000
you begin to see, think, plan, prepare, strategize based on the brilliance of the Spirit of God,

01:11:02.000 --> 01:11:06.000
who is a genius at warfare and has never been defeated.

01:11:08.000 --> 01:11:12.000
For a people of God to become like this is a great thing.

01:11:12.000 --> 01:11:15.000
It's a great thing because there is no model of it.

01:11:15.000 --> 01:11:18.000
There are preachers here and a teacher there and a course there.

01:11:18.000 --> 01:11:20.000
But a people...

01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:26.000
And we get to become that.

01:11:30.000 --> 01:11:35.000
Like it says in the message, from the least of them to the strongest of them,

01:11:35.000 --> 01:11:39.000
from the strongest to the runt, that's what it says in the message.

01:11:39.000 --> 01:11:41.000
They could chase a thousand.

01:11:41.000 --> 01:11:43.000
It is a group of people.

01:11:45.000 --> 01:11:49.000
And so they begin to hear what God has said, that you will not have to fight.

01:11:49.000 --> 01:11:51.000
And do you know what they do?

01:11:51.000 --> 01:11:55.000
In verse 18, they fall down on their faces in worship.

01:11:55.000 --> 01:11:58.000
And they worship with voices loud and high.

01:11:59.000 --> 01:12:04.000
And they praise the beauty of his holiness with David's songs.

01:12:04.000 --> 01:12:07.000
And the enemy then begins to... a strange thing begins to happen.

01:12:07.000 --> 01:12:12.000
They go up their center slits and they're singing this and the enemy begins to ambush itself.

01:12:12.000 --> 01:12:15.000
They begin to take their swords and begin to kill each other.

01:12:15.000 --> 01:12:18.000
That happens in that second place.

01:12:20.000 --> 01:12:24.000
Suddenly, things that have stood for centuries shredded.

01:12:24.000 --> 01:12:31.000
Shrouds, blankets, webs that have been around for ages.

01:12:31.000 --> 01:12:39.000
It will require a few new songs because warfare worship or two-edged worship

01:12:45.000 --> 01:12:54.000
recalls promises, recalls the prophetic, recalls victory.

01:12:54.000 --> 01:12:57.000
It's so cool.

01:12:57.000 --> 01:13:00.000
Just have a quick glance at Exodus 15.

01:13:00.000 --> 01:13:02.000
Exodus 15.

01:13:02.000 --> 01:13:05.000
Then Moses and the Israelites sang the song to the Lord.

01:13:05.000 --> 01:13:09.000
I will sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted.

01:13:09.000 --> 01:13:12.000
Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea.

01:13:12.000 --> 01:13:14.000
The Lord is my strength and my defense.

01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:16.000
He has become my salvation.

01:13:16.000 --> 01:13:17.000
He is my God.

01:13:17.000 --> 01:13:18.000
I will praise him.

01:13:18.000 --> 01:13:19.000
My father is God.

01:13:19.000 --> 01:13:20.000
I will exalt him.

01:13:20.000 --> 01:13:21.000
The Lord is a warrior.

01:13:21.000 --> 01:13:22.000
He is my God.

01:13:22.000 --> 01:13:23.000
I will exalt him.

01:13:23.000 --> 01:13:24.000
The Lord is a warrior.

01:13:24.000 --> 01:13:25.000
The Lord is his name.

01:13:25.000 --> 01:13:28.000
Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has hurled into the sea.

01:13:28.000 --> 01:13:30.000
The best of Pharaoh's officers are drowned in the Red Sea.

01:13:30.000 --> 01:13:32.000
The deep waters have covered them.

01:13:32.000 --> 01:13:34.000
They sank to the depths like a stone.

01:13:34.000 --> 01:13:36.000
Your right hand, Lord, was majestic in power.

01:13:36.000 --> 01:13:38.000
Your right hand, Lord, shattered the enemy.

01:13:38.000 --> 01:13:41.000
The greatness of your majesty, you threw down those who opposed you.

01:13:41.000 --> 01:13:43.000
You unleashed your burning anger.

01:13:43.000 --> 01:13:44.000
It consumed them like stubble.

01:13:44.000 --> 01:13:46.000
And it goes on and on.

01:13:46.000 --> 01:13:48.000
The enemy boasted, I will pursue.

01:13:48.000 --> 01:13:49.000
I will overtake.

01:13:49.000 --> 01:13:50.000
I will divide the spoils.

01:13:50.000 --> 01:13:51.000
I will gorge myself on them.

01:13:51.000 --> 01:13:52.000
I will draw my sword.

01:13:52.000 --> 01:13:53.000
I will destroy them.

01:13:53.000 --> 01:13:56.000
But you blew with your breath and the sea covered them.

01:13:56.000 --> 01:13:58.000
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.

01:13:58.000 --> 01:14:01.000
And it ends with Miriam.

01:14:01.000 --> 01:14:04.000
Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron's sister, took a timbrel in her hand.

01:14:04.000 --> 01:14:07.000
And all the women followed her with timbrels and dancing.

01:14:07.000 --> 01:14:10.000
Miriam sang, sing to the Lord for he is highly exalted.

01:14:10.000 --> 01:14:12.000
The horse and the driver he has hurled into the sea.

01:14:15.000 --> 01:14:17.000
Psalm 83, same thing.

01:14:17.000 --> 01:14:19.000
Psalm 83, 2 to 18.

01:14:19.000 --> 01:14:22.000
Oh God, I remember what you did in Midian.

01:14:22.000 --> 01:14:24.000
I remember what you did to Jabin.

01:14:24.000 --> 01:14:26.000
I remember what you did to Cicero.

01:14:26.000 --> 01:14:28.000
I remember what you did to Zalmunna.

01:14:28.000 --> 01:14:30.000
I remember what you did to Oreb.

01:14:30.000 --> 01:14:32.000
I remember what you did to Zeve.

01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:34.000
I remember what you did to Baal.

01:14:34.000 --> 01:14:36.000
I remember, oh God.

01:14:36.000 --> 01:14:40.000
And do you know who else is being reminded of what we are remembering?

01:14:41.000 --> 01:14:45.000
We have an active enemy who has a long memory.

01:14:45.000 --> 01:14:47.000
And who knows his time is short.

01:14:47.000 --> 01:14:49.000
And who knows what awaits him?

01:14:57.000 --> 01:14:59.000
Once you work up a sweat, it doesn't matter.

01:14:59.000 --> 01:15:01.000
You might as well continue.

01:15:07.000 --> 01:15:09.000
So we shall deal with Artemis.

01:15:09.000 --> 01:15:12.000
We shall deal with Pythos of Delphi.

01:15:12.000 --> 01:15:15.000
Remember that woman with the spirit of divination?

01:15:15.000 --> 01:15:17.000
That came into Acts 16.

01:15:17.000 --> 01:15:19.000
We will deal with Jezebel and Thyatira.

01:15:19.000 --> 01:15:21.000
But we will not deal with people.

01:15:21.000 --> 01:15:23.000
We'll deal with powers.

01:15:23.000 --> 01:15:30.000
How does it look if we as Acts 29 begin to engage these webs of power and ideologies

01:15:30.000 --> 01:15:35.000
in a city that is steeped in divination, which I can't speak about over the mic.

01:15:35.000 --> 01:15:39.000
But I will talk to you when we are not being recorded.

01:15:39.000 --> 01:15:44.000
Steeped in divination with regard to health, wealth, government, fame, travel, family, relations, property.

01:15:44.000 --> 01:15:52.000
When property is not built without the advice of what may be packaged as something,

01:15:52.000 --> 01:15:54.000
but is really the advice of powers.

01:15:55.000 --> 01:15:57.000
So here's how we go about this.

01:15:57.000 --> 01:15:59.000
And I'm going to ask Tuni and the rest of the guys to come up.

01:15:59.000 --> 01:16:01.000
Here's how we go about it, guys.

01:16:01.000 --> 01:16:04.000
First, position yourself based on what we've heard.

01:16:04.000 --> 01:16:06.000
And don't worry, we might get it wrong.

01:16:06.000 --> 01:16:08.000
We might be clumsy the first time.

01:16:08.000 --> 01:16:11.000
We might not have enough gas to go.

01:16:11.000 --> 01:16:12.000
Great.

01:16:12.000 --> 01:16:16.000
We got to where we got over years and we'll get there again.

01:16:17.000 --> 01:16:28.000
Position yourself as in, Father, how do I learn how to operate from here as a church?

01:16:29.000 --> 01:16:30.000
How?

01:16:33.000 --> 01:16:36.000
Next, understand the powers you're dealing with.

01:16:36.000 --> 01:16:40.000
Don't need names or anything, but know that this is a city.

01:16:40.000 --> 01:16:42.000
You know the strange thing about powers, guys?

01:16:42.000 --> 01:16:47.000
Whenever powers do a city a favor, the powers will afflict them with diseases.

01:16:49.000 --> 01:16:55.000
And if it's a city that is multicultural, you'll see the diseases by being treated by all kinds of remedies.

01:16:56.000 --> 01:17:01.000
All kinds of remedies, most of which don't have their basis in Christ,

01:17:01.000 --> 01:17:11.000
but have their basis in either idolatry or in systems that have to do with impersonal energy forces.

01:17:15.000 --> 01:17:16.000
This is a diseased city.

01:17:16.000 --> 01:17:21.000
We desperately need to be a church through whom healing flows.

01:17:21.000 --> 01:17:23.000
Desperately need it.

01:17:24.000 --> 01:17:31.000
My cries, oh God, how can the city be remedied if it is not through us healing?

01:17:31.000 --> 01:17:33.000
Not believers.

01:17:33.000 --> 01:17:34.000
We can get healing easily.

01:17:34.000 --> 01:17:36.000
Just go to each other and get prayed for.

01:17:36.000 --> 01:17:41.000
But what about the ones that have to go to people that'll give them something

01:17:41.000 --> 01:17:45.000
and in return afflict them with something worse because the pain disappears?

01:17:45.000 --> 01:17:46.000
No, have a rough idea.

01:17:46.000 --> 01:17:48.000
If the Lord reveals more, we'll deal with it.

01:17:48.000 --> 01:17:51.000
But otherwise, have a rough idea of the powers that we're dealing with.

01:17:52.000 --> 01:17:54.000
Then remember the promise God has given us.

01:17:55.000 --> 01:17:57.000
What is the promise God has given us for the city?

01:17:57.000 --> 01:17:58.000
Very simple steps.

01:17:58.000 --> 01:17:59.000
I'm not telling you anything new.

01:17:59.000 --> 01:18:01.000
I'm just outlining it.

01:18:01.000 --> 01:18:07.000
Then is there anything prophetic that must be spoken that will give us greater blueprints for what awaits?

01:18:07.000 --> 01:18:10.000
Then let us begin to think about the Lord.

01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:14.000
Then is there anything prophetic that must be spoken that will give us greater blueprints for what awaits?

01:18:14.000 --> 01:18:20.000
Then let us begin to engage in high praise and two-edged worship.

01:18:20.000 --> 01:18:25.000
And finally, remember to plunder because you must plunder.

01:18:28.000 --> 01:18:31.000
You know what Jehoshaphat did?

01:18:31.000 --> 01:18:37.000
One day he was scared of being annihilated and become captive.

01:18:37.000 --> 01:18:39.000
Seven days later, he's still praising.

01:18:39.000 --> 01:18:43.000
And for three days, they collected spoils.

01:18:43.000 --> 01:18:46.000
And that valley, he renamed the valley.

01:18:46.000 --> 01:18:50.000
He called the valley Baraka, the valley of praise.

01:18:50.000 --> 01:18:52.000
That's what he called it.

01:18:52.000 --> 01:18:55.000
These is how we go about it.

01:18:55.000 --> 01:18:57.000
Any questions? I'm actually done.

01:19:07.000 --> 01:19:08.000
Pardon?

01:19:08.000 --> 01:19:15.000
Plunder is receiving the treasures of darkness.

01:19:15.000 --> 01:19:18.000
Plunder is exchange.

01:19:18.000 --> 01:19:20.000
Ah, art thou diseased?

01:19:20.000 --> 01:19:23.000
Let me heal thee and thou shall be whole.

01:19:23.000 --> 01:19:29.000
I don't know why I'm going into King James, but plunder is two things.

01:19:29.000 --> 01:19:34.000
One, exchange and two, the treasures of darkness, the souls of men.

01:19:37.000 --> 01:19:42.000
Okay.

01:19:42.000 --> 01:19:45.000
So let's try this, yeah?

01:19:45.000 --> 01:19:47.000
Yeah?

01:19:47.000 --> 01:19:49.000
It's okay to say, yeah.