Courage In The Face Of Evil (GODtalks)
Message Transcript
Alan Kirkpatrick (00:01):
Good morning, Grace Place family, both on campus and on our online campus. We're glad you're here today. Second Samuel beginning at verse 10. I'm sorry. Second Samuel chapter 10 beginning of verse 12 is our reading for today. Be of good courage and let us be strong for our people and for our cities of our God. And may the Lord do what is good in his sight. So Joe AB the, uh, and the people who were with him, drew near for the battle against the Syrians. What are we this segment for you from a book that was written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. And it's the section where he talks about the arrest. And I want to read this to you before we get started today, he writes the majority, sit quietly and dare to hope since you aren't guilty, then how can they arrest you? It's a mistake.
Alan Kirkpatrick (01:08):
They are already dragging you along by the collar. And you still keep on exclaiming to yourself. It's a mistake. They'll set things straight and let me out. Maybe he was guilty. But as for you, you were obviously innocent. There are no, there are logical. These are logical people. They will set things right. Again, why then should you run away? And how can you resist right? Then after all, you'll only make the situation worse. You'll make it more difficult for them to sort out this mistake. And it isn't just, you, you don't put up a resistance of some kind. You even walk down the stairs on tiptoe, as you are ordered to do so, your neighbors won't hear at what exact point then should one resist when one's belt is taken away. When one is ordered to face into the corner, when one crosses the threshold of one's home and arrest consists of a series of incidental irrelevancies of a multitude of things that do not matter. And there seems no point in arguing about any one of them individually, especially at a time when the thoughts of the person arrested are wrapped tightly about the big question, what for the arrest, the evil Marxist in
Alan Kirkpatrick (03:00):
Soviet union mastered the arrests.
Alan Kirkpatrick (03:05):
They learned that
Alan Kirkpatrick (03:05):
People would comply easily
Alan Kirkpatrick (03:08):
With little fuss, no need
Alan Kirkpatrick (03:11):
Send armed troops, or bring some kind of intention to the subject of the arrest. They could take them by surprise at night while they slept, or while they dined at the favorite restaurant while they were on vacation or while they were in the break room of their workplace. One of the stories he tells about a woman who comes over to the table of a man and leads him out of the restaurant and into custody. So easy. It was for them to arrest someone and take them away. And in their minds, they struggled with the issue of I'm innocent and sooner or later, they'll sort these things out and they'll find out that I really don't belong here. Why was it so easy when faced with the evils of Marxism that many people were just arrested so easily, it has to do with the people believed that justice would win out because they were truly innocent, that they hadn't really committed a crime against the state. And, and they were innocent and sooner or later someone would figure this out and someone would come to the rescue and release them. That belief is even present today in our world, in our circumstances.
Alan Kirkpatrick (04:36):
And it is really
Alan Kirkpatrick (04:38):
Kind of centered in this belief system that the innocence of, of a person will always prevail. And then in the end, justice will win out. And it is, it's wrapped around a kind of fundamental belief in all of us in the goodness that resides in all of mankind. And we believe that maybe this person may not be good or that person may not be good, but sooner or later, the justice of our situation will arrive on the desk of that person who has goodness, that one person who is able to exact, uh, look over our situation without bias and, and recognize that we are truly innocent and will right
Alan Kirkpatrick (05:25):
Wrong. And Jesus spoke to this
Alan Kirkpatrick (05:29):
Mark chapter 10, verse 17 through 18. It's significant that we understand this. It's crucial that we understand as believers, what Jesus is saying here, and that we learn to live with this understanding and that it is at the root of our basic understanding about mankind.
Alan Kirkpatrick (05:52):
And I'll read that
Alan Kirkpatrick (05:53):
This passage to you. It says now he was going out on the road, talking about Jesus. And one came running and knelt before him and ask him
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:04):
Good teacher. What shall I?
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:07):
Well, I do that. I may inherit
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:10):
Eternal life. Jesus immediately, uh, speaks to him about his greeting. That's based in that understanding that all are good. And Jesus says to him, why do you call me good? No one
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:30):
Is good, but God, that is no one is good. But one that is
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:37):
God, Jesus.
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:39):
I wanted to bring a baseline understanding into the life of this person, seeking eternal life. You are not going to find the answers in a another person. You're not going to find remedy justice and redemption in the best that society has
Alan Kirkpatrick (06:57):
Offer, but
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:00):
You are coming to me and I'm telling you right away that there is only one
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:05):
Who is good. Yeah.
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:07):
There is only one who has good intentions for your life. A good purpose, a good outcome for you. And that is good.
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:16):
God alone.
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:18):
Goodness is an attribute of God. And man, without God is incapable of divine, consistent goodness,
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:26):
Character. We all need
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:30):
God living in us in order to have the goodness of God full out towards others. Genesis chapter six, verse five, as another reminder to us of mankind.
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:43):
Oh my goodness. Then
Alan Kirkpatrick (07:45):
Lord saw that the wickedness of man Genesis chapter six, verse five, was great in the earth and that every intent and the thoughts of his heart were only evil,
Alan Kirkpatrick (08:00):
Evil, continually. Jeremiah talked to us about the heart
Alan Kirkpatrick (08:05):
Being desperately wicked, and that there's only one who can know all of the intents of your heart and what's exactly going on inside of you. And that is God alone. And we're told over and over again in the new Testament that we need to seek Christ on the throne of our lives in order for the goodness of God, to flow from us, that when we are left to our own devices, we will always choose wrong overwrite. We will always do injustice rather than justice. It is the nature of our fallen
Alan Kirkpatrick (08:40):
Full man. In second step,
Alan Kirkpatrick (08:42):
Samuel chapter 10, the King of the Ammonites had died. And to give you a background about the story in the passage that we're reading, his son, Hannon had ruled in place and David was the King of Israel and he wanted to show kindness to Henan. And so he, he sent delegates to express constellation to the new King over the loss of his father, but who Nan had allowed himself to be convinced by the princes and the advisors that were around him to tell him that David didn't mean good to him. The David wasn't coming to, to, uh, to send this delegation for his good, the David was scouting out to see how he could conquer him or overcome him or to see what great Weldy might have and take it away from him. And when David heard this, um, you know, it troubled him in his heart and, and the, the delegation that he had sent down to Henan was mistreated and, and made fun of and mocked and not allowed a visitation with the King directly.
Alan Kirkpatrick (09:49):
And as a result of that, this trouble David, and he became very angry that what he meant for good had been treated in an evil way. And as the, as the Ammonites learned that David was angry, they decided to, to get their men together and go to battle against Israel. They thought it's only a matter of time before the self fulfilling prophecy comes to place that they're going to come and try to overcome us. So they send an army in advance and they, they went to their neighbors and they got them to, to gather with them as well, the neighboring countries. And they put together this, this massive army to March against Israel. And as it developed, the Amorites were a raid at the walled city to, um, to, uh, go against Israel. And the Syrians had gathered in the open field and Joe Eben, the Israelites found that they were sandwiched in the middle of God.
Alan Kirkpatrick (10:42):
Uh, David had sent them out to answer the marching armies and they found themselves sandwiched in the front was this mighty army. And behind them was this mighty army. And we read and talked about it last week. How Jacob commanded his brother to be on one side, to fight the enemy. And he would fight the ones on the front side. And if, if his army, if the armies of the enemy overcame his line, that the, his brother would bring reinforcements to help. And if it happened on the backside, he would be the reinforcements to help. They found themselves sandwich. What do you do when evil is all around you? When, when your, your front is, is at attack and your back is that attack. And we've been living through this many of us through 2020, that the evil of the enemy not personalizing in any personality, but just the work of the enemy in our world has, has come to kill, to steal and to destroy. And we have literally seen the face of evil Joel Eben. His men begin to prepare for battle. One of the things that we learned from watching a, what David instructed and watching the army of Israel was that they had learned something. God taught Israel very early on. And that is that appeasement is never an option when you're faced with
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:00):
The Bible clearly tells us that evil
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:03):
Has no intention of making a bargain, a treaty and agreement with you that you must be ready to stand up against evil bursts, decile Indians chapter two verse four says for, we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the good news
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:22):
News. Our purpose
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:24):
As a church is to please God, not people. He alone examines. The motive
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:32):
Of our heart. Evil will sound.
Alan Kirkpatrick (12:35):
I know treaty with us. It will make no agreement with us. And if it did, it would make no difference because it doesn't stand behind any of its agreements. First, John chapter three verse eight says the one who does what is sinful is the devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Don't miss that. The reason the son of God came was destroy the work of the devil against your life. He came, it says in John 10 and 10 to steal, to kill and to destroy. But Jesus said, I came that you might have abundant life. You might have fulfilled life, life to the fool. I've come to destroy, not just put in check, but to destroy the work of the enemy against your life, to redeem you and bring you to myself. And so Joanne, the men of Israel faced evil. Head-on they recognize theirs. We're not going to go out and try to wave a white flag and surrender. It's either we're dying on this field and that was God's design, or they're dying on this field. And that was God's design. There is no way we're trying to make some kind of a covenant or agreement with
Alan Kirkpatrick (13:48):
It's evil. And so joy
Alan Kirkpatrick (13:51):
And his armies begin to face him. I'm wondering this morning, how is it that you stand up against evil when, when you are pushed back, do you even recognize evil when you see it? Are you able to recognize evil when you see it? I was struck by reading Alexander Solzhenitsyn's book and Ben rereading recently, and going back through particular sections of the book, and it really amazes me how so many millions were led off as lambs to slaughter in the arrests in the cities, in their homes, in, in restaurants just casually, just walked off and put into prison. And many, many of them died in the Gulag. And it's it. It is fascinating to think. And, and you, you really should be examined. It began to realize that there's, there is a flaw in us as human beings, that we are often unable to see evil when it presents itself, when it comes and just stands in front of us, we're often reasoning that that's not really what it is.
Alan Kirkpatrick (15:00):
And as he was talking about in the arrest segment, that we think that justice will eventually went out. It seems like it shouldn't be difficult for us to know good from evil, but in reality, almost everyone automatically, you know, we, we know that a it's wrong to kill. We know that it's wrong to torture someone. There are issues that we are pretty concrete on and, and we feel like they're right and they're wrong, but we don't have to look very far in our society to recognize that even among Christians, there are people who believe that it's okay for a woman to have an abortion. And people who believe that, that, uh, that, that, that is wrong. You're, you're killing a life. You're destroying a part. How is it that two people could have so different views on the same kind of a situation you and I are ultimately easily deceived.
Alan Kirkpatrick (15:58):
And the enemy knows that that's how the enemy succeeds in leading us into sin and, and leading us away from the presence and the power of God. We need the Holy spirit to lead us away from evil and into obedience to God. Jesus said to the disciples, before he ascended, I must go away. There's an emphasis on this urgency of Jesus saying, he's hung out with these guys for three years. They don't want him to go anywhere. They're happy after the resurrection. They're like, all right, man, let's go forward from here. Let's continue this ministry. We're standing with you. You're our leader. Let's go. And Jesus, that, that sense of expediency of him saying, I have to go away, but I'm sending the Holy spirit. And he is going to be not only with you, but in you. And he's going to lead you step by step.
Alan Kirkpatrick (16:56):
You are going to know as he leads you, right from wrong, good from evil, what your next steps are supposed to be. You're going to see something. So in advance that is wrong. That is evil. That is destructive for you and your family and your nation. That, that the enemy will, will Telegraph it. Uh, we'll be trying to hide it. And, and the Holy spirit will Telegraph it out to you. You will know in advance and you will know how to counter step and to move in that season. In that direction, you must be spirit led. You're not able to stand against the evil on your own. John chapter 14, verse 26, but the helper Jesus said the Holy spirit, whom the father send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance. All things that I have said to you, and many of you that are here today, or listening online have had that very experience in your walk with the Lord where the Holy spirit is brought back to remembrance to your mind in a particular season, passages of scriptures are true that have been taught to you through the word of God.
Alan Kirkpatrick (18:16):
That help you make a stand in that moment. In that instant, we desperately need the Holy spirit to lead our lives. And the question then becomes, you know, how can we facilitate the work of the Holy spirit, the leading of the Holy spirit in our lives? How can we make it easy for the Holy spirit to lead us so that we're not deceived and walking around and, and treating evil like it, it actually is good. And then surprised one day that we are under arrest, that we have been taken away captive by the enemy. And the answer is, is that there are two values that are developed in our life through spiritual formation that help more effectively allow us to navigate as people of God and be led by the Holy spirit. There are things that God is teaching you right now through what's called spiritual formation.
Alan Kirkpatrick (19:14):
Now, how, how is spiritual formation taking place in your life right now is one of them. The teaching of God's word is, is taking rough edges off. It's bringing understanding and truth into your life. There are relationships in your life. Some of them have been callous and difficult and challenging, and some of them have been loving and warm and friendly. And they're all a part of God's spiritual formation in your lives. There have been encounters in your life that you've had like many of the Bible characters that we've read about. You've had a dream. You've had a vision. We have a, uh, a Hannah's here today. She had a, she had a dream. She had a vision that we should make mask as a church. And, and these, the seasons that God brings truths and words into our lives. In, in those manners, you have had experiences in your life.
Alan Kirkpatrick (20:06):
I remember I had a friend who was going through a real difficult time, and he was looking for one of those object lessons in nature. God does that to us. Sometimes it doesn't need, he gives us, we'll walk outside and, and we'll see the lilies are growing or the flowers, or God's taking care of them. God can take care of me. Right? And so he was out in nature. He was sitting on a park bench, near a little Lake, and he was waiting for God to send him a sign. He was really discouraged and God send me a sign. And suddenly out of this Lake, a turtle crawls up a water turtle, and it starts walking towards the bench where he's at, and he's still amazed. And he says, speak God.
Alan Kirkpatrick (20:50):
Okay? But there are all kinds of ways that God is speaking to us through friendships and encounters and object lessons. And through his word, as we get into God's word is a primary way that he's constantly speaking to us every single day through his word. Right? And, and it's so important that you and I put that into practice. But as in the process of spiritual formation, there's two things God's trying to do, and you're fighting him on it. That's going to help you be spirit led, all right, stop fighting. Here's the number one, the value of self discipline, the value of self discipline. God has not given you what you want when you want it. And, and he has called you into self discipline in particular areas of your life. And when we respond favorably in the area of self discipline, we grow to better be led by this Holy spirit to be led by God's spirit.
Alan Kirkpatrick (21:51):
When we allow God and we say, yeah, do that work in me. Cause that's going to make a lot of room for the Holy spirit to do his work inside of me. If I learn about self-discipline, you know, if I can begin to govern myself, look at Proverbs chapter 25, verse 28, whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls. Your, your susceptible to every attack of the enemy. You're a broken down wall city. When you are not practicing self discipline, self disciplined in action is, is us saying there are 14 things I can do with this weekend. I've had an invitation to go do this, to go do that. I've had a desire to go do this, to go do that. I am disciplining myself to bring my family to God's house, to worship and put him first self-discipline is, you know, my coworkers want me to go out after and, and, and celebrate. Somebody's a new home that they bought. And we're going to go to a place that wouldn't make everybody in my family happy, including my wife. And as a result of that,
Speaker 3 (23:12):
Uh, I'm going to
Alan Kirkpatrick (23:13):
Say, I'll check out. I'm not going to go guys, if you, if you change and you decide to go somewhere else, that that isn't a place that would displeasing to my wife, to me, to my God. Then I will go with you. Self-discipline enacted in, in our lives on a daily basis, makes it easy for the Holy spirit. Then to lead us in our next steps, we have a wall up against the attacks of the enemy, and we're listening to the Holy spirit. We're being led moment by moment, day by day by the Holy spirit. And so when the enemy comes in to arrest us, we are ready. We're Watchman on the wall. We know he's coming. We've seen him a mile off, and we know what God wants us to do in that instant. The Holy spirit speaks to us. Take no thought what you should say in that hour, but the Holy spirit will give it to you.
Alan Kirkpatrick (24:12):
Jesus told his disciples on one occasion, Paul and Silas, as captives in jail, they hadn't learned to, to prepare themselves and make room for the leading of the Holy spirit. And they, the Holy spirit prompted them to sing worship songs and they began to sing worship songs. Can you imagine coming out of the jail cell, uh, the songs of worship and God shook the place and opened up every one of those gels cells and they were allowed to walk out and to begin again in preaching the gospel, there is no jail cell that can hold them. I was, I was struck by what John MacArthur was saying. Uh, as the city kept challenging their church in California, and we're going to shut you down and we're going to put you in jail for six months. He says, I've followed God in a lot of ways.
Alan Kirkpatrick (25:05):
And my favorite, one of my favorite, uh, old tests, or one of my favorite characters in the Bible is Paul. And he said, you know, um, I've I've, he was put in jail. His whole life was, you know, when he went into a city, he didn't ask, you know, what's the best accommodations you have here. He would ask what the jail cell was like. Cause he knew that's where he was going to go. And he was going to spend time because they had threatened to arrest him said, come and get me. I've never had a prison ministry or a jail ministry. I'll start one. All right, that's being led of the spirit and knowing that the things that are coming towards you, God has remedy for them and God's going to lead you through them. And God's going to direct you. The second value. That's so important for making room to be spirit led and courageous living is that, that of the value of deferred gratification, Psalms chapter 27 verse 14 says, wait for the Lord, be strong and let your heart take courage.
Alan Kirkpatrick (26:02):
Wait. But the Lord part of self discipline is also enacting that value of self gratification that we always want. We want something, we have money in the bank. We have the ability to go do that. We just go get it. And it's, it's delaying that gratification. It's waiting until God provides the moment, the opportunity and the time. Because when we get engaged in things in instant gratification, we get drawn a way by our lost our own desires, our own passions. We get stuck the way from the things that God has actually caused us to, to focus on from being focused and, and transforming the world that God has placed us in. We are suddenly out of business. There's an out of business sign hanging where, where we should be in business, doing mission, work kingdom, work for the Lord or engaging our families. We're too busy. We wanted to go out. We just needed some time off. We needed a break we needed to get away. It's just been all too hard. It's been too tough. So we put this on the credit card and we decided we were just going to go do X, Y, or Z.
Alan Kirkpatrick (27:16):
John Maxwell said it this way you can play now and pay later, or you can pay now and play later. It's understanding the significance of deferred gratification in every area of our life. You don't have to have it right now and you don't get to take it with you afterwards. Right? Deferred gratification is, is making room in our hearts for the courageous living that the Holy spirit will direct us in for God saying, you know, I don't have to meet all of these wants in my life. God's taking care of my needs. And often God just surprises me and gives me a want, even though it's not something that's needed in my life, I'm blessed to follow his leading. And I want to defer gratification in line with waiting on the Lord to do the work that he does. A believer who is not actively involved in resisting evil and obviously seeking to do good is not being led of the spirit.
Alan Kirkpatrick (28:29):
No matter how much they think they might be surrendered to the lore. The faithful believer is not an observer, but a good soldier of Christ. Jesus, who is engaged in active service for the Lord. The success of my calling and your calling is in knowing good from evil. God told the prophet Amos that I'm going to set you out at the Gates. And as people come in, I want you to establish justice. The you call out evil. You call out what is good. It is the job and the role of the church to call out what is good and what is evil. We don't have to be standing necessarily on the corner of some street with a megaphone screaming at people you're at appropriately dressed. You're doing drugs,
Alan Kirkpatrick (29:24):
But how do we establish justice in the Gates? We're raising families who cherish and love God. We're living. By example, we took the extra $10 that HEB gave us in change. Uh, inadvertently, we took it back and gave it to the checker who check this out. We're establishing justice in the Gates. We see someone that's hurting. That's wounded that needs help. We go and give them a helping hand. We direct them to where they can get permanent help, not just today's food, but through Jesus Christ, your life can be transformed. We're establishing justice in the Gates. We're showing people what is good and what is evil. And the same time walking in humility saying, don't follow me when I stray, keep following Jesus. But as long as I'm following Jesus, follow me because I'm going to just take it to him. I'm going to take you into his presence and show you who can make a difference. Paul exhorted, every believer in second, Timothy chapter two, verse 23 through 26 of Boyd, foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife and a servant of the Lord must not whirl, but be gentle to all able to teach patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may, and let's read this together. This last line, come to their senses and escape. The snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do as well.
Alan Kirkpatrick (31:16):
It crushes us. Doesn't it to think that we had been taken captive by the enemy to do his will. One of the thing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn story points out to us is people have been taken by the enemy and they're doing his will. They're not doing what they think is the right thing. They are doing. What? The one who is influencing them, who is directing them. And listen to me, people, not everyone is a Satanist worshiper. They're not obviously going out to, to, to a, uh, a Satan synagogue to worship the devil, right? But if they're not worshiping God, they're influenced by the enemy. He is the one that is giving them thought direction, uh, encouragement along particular lines. There is no justice in this world, but the justice that comes from God, there is no goodness in this world, but the goodness that comes from God and blows through the life of those who are sold out and committed to relationship with him,
Alan Kirkpatrick (32:31):
We cannot
Alan Kirkpatrick (32:32):
Stand against evil in our world without the Holy spirit,
Alan Kirkpatrick (32:38):
Without the Holy, we are often, uh, not even able to recognize what is good and what is evil. And we're engaged sometimes in the process of culture and community calling evil good and not even recognizing the difference. God says you got to make room or two, two values that I'm trying to form it. You that are, that are going to make it easier for the Holy spirit to work, teach self-discipline raise up the walls. You want to hear one voice. It is my voice speaking into your life so that you're crystal clear on how to move forward.
Alan Kirkpatrick (33:18):
Stop trying to build your own work, delay gratification, and allow me to do what I need to do. You're not ready for what you think you're ready for. You're not ready to engage in, in some areas that you think you're ready to engage in. Without the Holy spirit, we can't tell good from evil, even in the life of the disciples, walking with Jesus, we can see this over and over again. We can see them resisting on one occasion, a group of people who they come back and tell Jesus, they were casting out, you know, a devil's in your name, but they weren't with us. So we rebuked him. Aren't you proud of us? You know, we tore down their tent and we said, no more meetings over here. Cause there's just one group of disciples. It's us. We see it over and over again. We see, uh, at the, at the table at the end of, of, uh, you know, the, the Lord's supper, Jesus telling Judas, one of the 12, go do what you have to do.
Alan Kirkpatrick (34:35):
Crushes you, man. Some of you are parents. Who've been betrayed in your own household, by your children who against the things that you have taught and valued and lib have, have rejected them, turn their back on him and walked away. You need the Holy spirit to lead your life. Every moment we always make the wrong choice, bad decisions, misjudge evil for good, good for evil. We always do it. When the Holy spirit is not directing our lives, we can be so easily deceived. Hebrews chapter five, verse 13 and 14 for everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness or he is a babe, but solid food belongs to those who are of full age. That is those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil in the process of spiritual formation. The Holy spirit is working you out, running you, challenging you breathing life into you, instructing you, correcting you and you're making mistakes and I'm making mistakes. We're making mistakes as followers of Christ. And he course corrects us and shows us where that was wrong and brings us back to a place of repentance to our brothers and sisters that we may have offended. And to the Lord are who we are following in our lives that we've surrendered to him. And he's helping us understand in that process. This is good. This is evil. This is good. And this is evil. What do you do? How do you stand against evil?
Alan Kirkpatrick (36:39):
God is challenging us to allow spiritual formation, to make room for those values in our life to discipline ourself self-discipline and to delay gratification and to say, I choose what you want for my life over what I want for my life. He closes that passage out by saying solid food belongs to those who are of full age. What's he talking about maturity? You can tell, you can tell that I believe this Dennis Prager had a, had a video out that, you know, I knew this too. He said at six years old, I knew that man was not basically good he's Jewish. And he said, the reason I knew man was not basically good is because I read the book. Genesis X is a little bit it's like even the best of them were sorry. Examples of goodness. Right? They all had failures. So he said, I know it wasn't intrinsically a part of humanity that they were good.
Alan Kirkpatrick (37:43):
Right? He said, I knew they needed a good God. And that's, that's so huge for us to, to understand it. And it's a part of our maturing in the Lord. When you have matured in the Lord, you understand that society is not looking out for your best government. Isn't looking out for your best. Humanity is not looking out for your best interest globalism. Isn't looking out for your best. Who's looking out for your best interests. God alone. Yes. He's the good God who has good plans for you. But you're in a world, surrounded by people who are allowing evil to lead their lives. So what will you do at the, at the end, after we've
Alan Kirkpatrick (38:36):
Had the worship team come back and we're spending a time in prayer, Michelle's gonna come up and talk to you a little bit about a class that we're starting next Sunday at 6:00 PM. And you can get online and participate in that class. Uh, we'll have a Google hangout set up for you. And the class is just simply titled stand up for Jesus. How do you make a stand and evil times? We need to get ready. We're already seeing some forms of persecution in America. Nothing like other countries have seen, but we need to be ready to stand. One of the things that I was talking to another pastor, uh, in the parking lot this week, and you know, he said, one of the things that that seems to be happening across America is the church is being revealed. The real church is being revealed. There's a lot of consumer Christianity that's been going on and people are going where it's been comfortable and nobody really challenges their belief systems, their, their social media postings or anything else.
Alan Kirkpatrick (39:37):
And, and so they've just been gravitating and moving along thinking, uh, yeah, God will accept this and God will accept that. And God will accept something else. But missionaries that would tell us that one of the challenges about going to particular places overseas was that they wanted to, to add Jesus. They love Jesus. You know, when he talked about how great Jesus would, they were like, Oh, that's great. We need Jesus too. Let's put him up here with Buddha. Let's put him up here with, you know, a Muhammad let's put him up here with, he can just be one of the gods that we will. They're like, no, no, he has to be the
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:09):
That's it,
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:11):
He will not share the throne. And it was, they said there was challenging breast to be able to tell people, you know, you have to tear these things down in your life. You have to get rid of them. He is only God alone.
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:25):
Yeah. All by himself, solid food
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:29):
Belong to those who are full age by the worship team to come back. Grownups grownups are
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:38):
Led by the spirit and
Alan Kirkpatrick (40:41):
Filled with God's word led by the spirit and filled with God's word. We see the perfect example of what that was all about in the life of Jesus before he started this ministry, you remember he's he's baptized. And then it says he was led of the spirit where out into the wilderness and in the wilderness, he begins to be tempted. And the spirit is showing him the word of God, right? Because the temptations come and, and, and the enemy would, would say, you know, uh, it says in the Bible that if you I'll take you up to this high pinnacle, and you know, if you cast yourself down, it says the angels will protect you and watch over you. This is the habit that you didn't read. The whole counsel, the book, it says, don't tempt the Lord, your God, this has been out here for 40 days.
Alan Kirkpatrick (41:37):
You're hungry. Um, why don't you just turn these breads into stone? And, uh, you know, I'll go the grocery store and get a little butter and men I'm telling you what, we will have a feast, you know? And, and we can, we can sit here and eat, go ahead. You know, you're, you're hungry. This thing's all over now. Uh, just go ahead and turn those stones into bread. And man, we will have a feast. Okay. I'll sit here with you. We'll just have a good time. And he said, you didn't read the whole counsel of the book is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, I'm going to delay, gratifying myself with food. And I'm going to listen to the voice of God and follow his leading. He led me into the wilderness and he can lead me out of the wilderness. Amen, man.