Discipleship Vol 1 #7 Righteous Living -- Own Your Zone

Transcript

Speaker: episode number seven. I can't believe was already eight week seven. How did that happen? And I've called this one Your Zone.

Speaker: Okay, so first things first. Today's lesson. In Proverbs, which is a book of wisdom, chapter 24, chapter 24, Verses 30 to 34. We have one of my favorite passages.

Speaker: i think I say that every single week. It's all my favorite. I love it all. But I do love this one in particular. I went past the field of a sluggard.

Speaker: A lazy bones. I do nothing. Past the vineyard of someone who has no sense. No cup on. Thorns had come up everywhere.

Speaker: The ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed, and learned a lesson from what I saw.

Speaker: A little sleep, a little slumber, little folding of the hands to rest, and poverty will come on you like a thief. and scarcity like an armed man. Roll the EastEnders theme tune. Very, very dramatic stuff.

Speaker: All of us have a field. All of us have a vineyard. All of us have walls.

Speaker: But it whether or not something grows in our field Barley, wheat, corn, r thorns, weeds, dandelions.

Speaker: That's up to us. We all have a vineyard. But whether we produce grapes for wine or nothing, it's our responsibility.

Speaker: We all have walls as in defensive walls, but whether or not they're strong and in good condition, are full of holes that foxes can run through, again, we have a lot of say in the matter.

Speaker: lot of personal responsibility that goes into looking after your field, your vineyard, your wall, your property. That's what I call a zone.

Speaker: And you know, everybody has a zone. If I think of this hat, lovely hat I got from Saudi Arabia. But if I look at this hat and I say this hat is my zone, I can put my family in that zone.

Speaker: They're my responsibility.

Speaker: With my phone, you guys, Owen House Ministries, Friends that I have that don't live near me, they're part of my world as well.

Speaker: Or let's say as an author, I write fantasy and science fiction books. I have written Christian books too, I haven't published them yet, but I but i will. They're part of my zone, they're part of my world.

Speaker: Or my job. Whether or not you love or hate your job, and it is in your zone, as are your colleagues and your students or your clients, your bosses.

Speaker: Your life is your zone. Places where God has strategically placed you so that you can show up and show Christ.

Speaker: And the first person who had zone was the man. made in Genesis 1 and 2. Usually we call him Adam. Now Adam was made in the wilderness of the earth.

Speaker: When he was made in Genesis 2, apart from the Garden of Eden, nothing else had grown. The whole world just looked bare and and scant. But the Lord God took him and dropped him into the Garden of Eden, where things had grown supernaturally quickly.

Speaker: But he wasn't there to just lie on grass and chew leaves all day long. He was given a job. He was told, Adam, man, this is your zone.

Speaker: Work it. Take care of it. It already had trees whose fruit was good for eating. But if he wanted it to continue looking that way, he had to take a watering can and start watering the grass, watering the flowers. He was responsible for Eden looking the way he wanted it to look like, in accordance with the heartbeat of God.

Speaker: He also had a spiritual job as well. Ezekiel 28, 13-17. thirteen to seventeen um says that Eden was on a mountain, God's holy mountain. And Eden means pleasure or delight. The garden of pleasure, the garden of delight was God's holy mountain.

Speaker: And we know it was a mountain because we're told in Genesis 2.10 that Eden had a river. Let's call it the River Eden. And it split into four heads. And, you know rivers flow downhill.

Speaker: So he was on top of a mountain. And from that mountain, he was able to see all around Eden. And considering the fall of the demons and Satan had already occurred, you know what? There were probably demons all around that mountain hissing at them and cussing at them and waving their fists.

Speaker: And he and Eve would stand on that mountain, rebuking the demons, putting them back in their place. We're actually told that God blessed Adam and Eve and said to them, be fruitful and increase the number.

Speaker: Be happy, have kids. Fill the earth. Don't just stay in the garden, do go elsewhere. And subdue it. Rule over it, take over it, govern it, subject it, bring it into bondage.

Speaker: Do so for the fish, for the birds, and for every creature on the ground. Some translations say all the creeping things, like the demons.

Speaker: Adam and Eve were not ignorant of evil. They could see everything. But they were innocent of evil. They weren't complicit with the darkness.

Speaker: But they had zone. Eden first and foremost, and then the world. And they had to be kings and priests, making the world look the way they wanted it to.

Speaker: And again, sometimes people think Adam and Eve didn't do heck of a lot. They were just really, really boring people. But actually, Adam was the first prophet.

Speaker: No sooner had he been created, he was able to walk, talk, rationalize, reason what was good, reason what was evil, name things, and communicate.

Speaker: The Bible calls him the son of God, the son of Jesus. Angels were God's staff, humans are his family.

Speaker: He was the first linguist who was able to speak straight away and understand speech.

Speaker: He did beneficial, meaningful work. He was a farmer a gardener looking after Eden.

Speaker: He was a taxonomist. He named all the animals that were presented to him. He was also the first patient. The Lord Jesus anestheticized him, put him to sleep and then made Eve from his rib.

Speaker: He had to exercise faith. When he woke up with a probably a painful side there a woman walking around and Jesus said, oh yeah, I did that. I made her.

Speaker: He could have said, screw you. No, he didn't. He had to make a decision. Okay. Yeah, you did. I didn't see it. was asleep. but I believe it.

Speaker: He was the first husband, the first father. He was a king and priest of the earth. His job was to rule and reign with Jesus. And after the fall, he co-founded Clothes Designing, but a very unfortunate enterprise. ah His material of choice were fig leaves, which are didn't really hold together very well.

Speaker: But he had mission on the earth. He had a job. He had a zone. And he understood but he had to own his zone.

Speaker: And in the same way, we do too. You know, 1 Timothy 620 says, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.

Speaker: And what has Timothy been entrusted with? The same thing as us. We looked at the second week, the gospel of grace, the gospel of the cross and the empty grave, that Jesus died for our sins, but he rose again in new life, and we can have that life through him.

Speaker: That we are citizens of heaven, no matter what happens on the earth, where we move to, who despises us.

Speaker: God has your passports in heaven. And right now, Jesus Christ is building property for you there.

Speaker: That absolutely nothing can separate you from the love of God. You already have it. You've received us You can't work for it. You can't twist his arm. You can't manipulate him.

Speaker: His love is yours.

Speaker: That you're chosen, predestined, preordained, found, redeemed, restored by his blood.

Speaker: That you are a son and a daughter of God and you're an heir and a co-heir with Christ. That you have a job to do on the earth, to push back evil in your time.

Speaker: and in heaven you will be given such incredible blessings, you cannot begin to imagine how good they are. Because they come from a God who is absolutely good.

Speaker: That you're the child of light. The child of the kingdom of light. With no association in your spirit with the dark one or the darkness.

Speaker: but you've got a heavenly passport and before the foundations of the earth were chosen, sorry, were you were chosen for such a time as this.

Speaker: That you've been reconciled to God and now you're an ambassador of heaven and your job is to reconcile lost people to the one who wants to find them.

Speaker: The lost sheep to the good shepherd.

Speaker: But on your worst day, in your spirit, you are a new creation. the old is gone, the new has come. And there's now no condemnation for you in Christ Jesus.

Speaker: Just his righteousness. You're right with God. His justification. It's just as if you've never done anything wrong. But you are free and you are a child of the promise.

Speaker: That's what you've been entrusted with.

Speaker: So it's very important that I emphasize this. But we don't do good works to get saved, to get good with God. We do them because we have been saved.

Speaker: Think of in like you know a marriage or a friendship. You know the reason you you make that special person, that extra cup of tea without the masking? Or the reason you wash the dishes, um even after and maybe someone else ate or drank. It wasn't even new but you washed the dishes anyway.

Speaker: Or maybe you know that a certain song or TV show just annoys your family member, so you turn it off and then walk into the room. You're already family.

Speaker: You're all already friends. of these things, trivial, small, big, significant, they're just the overflow. They're just and evidence of the love that already exists, of the bonds that's already real.

Speaker: Ephesians 4 puts it very well. It says, as a prisoner for the Lord then, because Paul was an early Christian, but he spent a lot of his time under a house arrest, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you've received.

Speaker: So he's not telling people, do good things to get that life. You already have it. You're already good with God. Therefore, this is the logical next step.

Speaker: He says be humble. Don't be arrogant, throwing your weight around. me, me, me, me. me me me me me No, think about other people for a change. ah Or be gentle.

Speaker: Yes, there are times when someone might need a clip around the ear, but in general,

Speaker: be mindful of where they are, of their journey, and be kind.

Speaker: Be patient. Bearing with one another in love. Not through gritted teeth. hair But actually, because you genuinely love the person. It's like, okay, Jesus. so When I was their age, I made mistakes too.

Speaker: So I choose to be patient and love them.

Speaker: Make every effort to keep unity through the bond of peace. You know, sometimes people say, grin and bear it. You know, pretend that everything is fine. sweep things under the carpet.

Speaker: No, he wants real unity, real oneness, real togetherness through the bond of peace, health, welfare, wanting someone's soul to prosper.

Speaker: He also, in verse 12, he wants his children to equip each other for works of service So the body of Christ's children can be built up.

Speaker: Can become stronger. It's why we do these discipleship courses. and It's because knowledge is power. And the word of God, the Bible, is a powerhouse. It is the ultimate weapon we have on the earth against evil.

Speaker: The evil that's coming after us, our family, our friends, our loved ones. And God wants his children to be strong, to be competent, to be equipped to help themselves and to help others. Can you please tell what is competent?

Speaker: Can you pronounce that word? Yeah, competent. Yeah, yeah. Sure. So if you say someone is incompetent, it's like they they know nothing. and Like, they're they stupid. Okay. Competent.

Speaker: They're clever, they're intelligent, they're wise, they're able to make good decisions.

Speaker: Ah, okay, thank you. okay I understand. Because I know when i first became a Christian,

Speaker: the people around me, God love them, some of them are great. But there was an expectation that you would just... Figure it out. You're a Christian now, and of course you know what to do. You're a Christian.

Speaker: No. i think that's really, really crappy, terrible advice. We assume that people know something without being told those things.

Speaker: i think it's and it's it's shocking. um The first time I ever tried to drive a car, I drove for about three seconds, before I crashed into someone else's property and cost 1000 euros worth of damage.

Speaker: Because no one had told me what to do. but And the second time I drove a car, I was told Brendan, this is first gear.

Speaker: This is second gear. You will not be in third gear today. Let's practice first and second gear. And you know what? Now I can drive like a pro. ah but Because someone took the time.

Speaker: while some people might say drive dangerously. i think I drive wonderfully.

Speaker: haven't caught that much damage again. But you actually have to be taught these things. Walk through the them. Covering the basics.

Speaker: And God's aim is that we achieve unity in the faith. A point where actually all of his children are biblically literate.

Speaker: know his word, know the gospel. In fact, I'm convinced that if I were to line 20 random Christians up and put them in a line and ask, what's the gospel of Or tell me your identity in Jesus.

Speaker: A lot of people don't know. but They might know glimpses, might know part, but there's a lot of ignorance out there. And it's very sad.

Speaker: um Also, Jesus wants you to know him, to know the Son of God. What does Jesus laugh at? What does Jesus find funny? What's Jesus' opinion on elections, who to vote for and who not to vote for? Because there isn't always a right answer, but there's always a wrong answer. but Or with the people in your world.

Speaker: How much of your time and energy does he want you to give to each person or each group of people?

Speaker: He wants his children to be mature. You know, and maybe a two-year-old screaming can be a bit funny sometimes. It's like, ha ha ha ha, they have no emotional intelligence.

Speaker: When you're in your 40s and you're behaving like you're two, it's a bit of a problem.

Speaker: And he wants his children to have the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. I looked that up in Greek yesterday. It means stature, age, growth, maturity, wisdom, accountability, eligibility, and the fullness of Christ.

Speaker: I'll come back to the red, I'll stick with yellow first. He wants his children to speak the truth in love. There's a big problem in the world today, a deficit of truth.

Speaker: where people don't want to hear the truth because that's offensive. Right, okay. Good one. ah Now you're a man you're a woman. there there There is no third option, sorry. but but but but

Speaker: He sees his children as one body, where he's the head, and his children are the kidneys, the liver, the toenails, the back hairs, think I'm the latter.

Speaker: And he wants his children to support every ligament to grow and build itself up. Not with shallow encouragement, like, oh, you're so amazing. No, in love, where it's true, where it's real.

Speaker: ah As each part does its work. You're part of a body, and you have a part to play. And if you don't do your part, someone else either has to accommodate it,

Speaker: Or there's lack. There's a deficiency. It's like a jigsaw puzzle. Imagine finishing a jigsaw only to realise one piece is missing. And it's like the character's face or something.

Speaker: Imagine how disappointing that would be in the natural. That shows you how God feels when his children just aren't working together in love.

Speaker: What he does not want us to do is what's in red.

Speaker: If you behave like an infant, very immature, it's like you're a wave being tossed here and there. You believe everything. You believe every false teaching. You believe every lie. you believe every crafty word. You believe every pyramid scheme.

Speaker: and they become darkened in their understanding. where they can literally hear something wicked, something that hurts them, and say, okay, yeah, uh-huh.

Speaker: Where they've separated themselves from the life of God, which is eternal life. And if you don't have eternal life, that's called spiritual death.

Speaker: He doesn't want his children to be ignorant. but have hard hearts, but hearts of flesh, hearts of love that beat for the things that God's heart beats for.

Speaker: He doesn't want to to live without any sensitivity or care or compassion.

Speaker: And it says a lot of people have just given themselves over to licentiousness, debauchery, lewdness, outrageous conduct, shocking to public decency, wanton violence, wickedness, hedonistic lifestyle, unrestrained shameless behaviour, sexual excess, moral depravity, a lack of self-control, a disregard for moral boundaries, indulging in every kind of impurity, full of greed. Here are the things he doesn't want his children to be involved in.

Speaker: Or anyone for that matter. Can you please tell about this rudeness? Yeah, rudeness would be normally affiliated with and sexual sin. So like ah adultery or, you know, you're not married to someone but you're sleeping with half the time.

Speaker: Oh, okay. yeah Thank you. No worries. and Now I understand. right Instead he wants his children to remember what they've been told in the word of God.

Speaker: Because your spirit is already alive in Jesus Christ, but your mind needs to be changed. Your mind, your heart, your will, that's called a soul.

Speaker: Your spirit gets saved first, your soul has some catching up to do. In fact, it can get changed for the better or the worse every day of your life.

Speaker: So he says you have to make a conscious decision to put on the new self. Almost like you're putting on clothes to be created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Speaker: Again, you are in your spirit, but in your mind, you have to make a decision every minute of every day. um you going to yourself to more like Christ or more like the words in red on the screen?

Speaker: Because one of those things looks like Jesus and one doesn't.

Speaker: But instead, because you say, because you're good with God, the Apostle Paul told the early church, put off falsehood. Stop lying and stop believing lies. Stop wearing lies like they're clothes.

Speaker: Speak the truth.

Speaker: It's okay to get angry. But don't sin in your anger. Don't be hateful in your anger.

Speaker: Don't give the devil a foothold. Don't give the devil a place in your life, in your heart, in your family. If you're stealing, stop.

Speaker: but but but I remember when I was a teenager, that was when online streaming first became thing, like streaming TV shows. And when I first heard of it, I said, that is absolute nonsense. Why would anyone do that? just wait for you TV. two your laptop might get a virus.

Speaker: Three, you're not a real fan if you're stealing their content. Well, when I became a university student, I did a 180. And I was like, it's not a sin to watch illegal content. It's a sin to upload it. So i I justified this to a T and everyone in my world started doing it because I told them it was okay.

Speaker: And after about four years, I said, God, what the heck am I doing? So I said, no, need to stop that. And I just need a detox because I filled my head with nonsense.

Speaker: Most of them in, you know, witchy TV shows and supernatural stuff. and I just said, no more. no, and and and no, no, no. And then a year later, God said, I'm going to give you two gifts.

Speaker: Prophecy. For those who who know me for a while, you you know that I dream prophetically and visionary, a seer. I see spiritual things, including in the future. And the gift to interpret.

Speaker: dreams and visions. After a year of not doing it anymore, then God said, you gave something up and my sin had been with my eyes. i went So he said, I'm going to give you two gifts related to your eyes.

Speaker: And that's when I became a seer, prophet, and an interpreter of dreams and visions. And I wonder, God, if I had not spent four years dabbling in that sin,

Speaker: Would you have activated those gifts four or five years earlier? Very possibly.

Speaker: So yeah, don't steal. God is a giving God, but if you're stealing, he might be withholding blessings.

Speaker: Work. Do something useful. Now that looks different for all of us, depending on our circumstances. But it he just means be productive. Don't just sit around on...

Speaker: Candy Crush for eight hours a day.

Speaker: Share with those who are in need, so be generous.

Speaker: When you speak, don't let unwholesome. That means decayed, rotten, corrupt, worthless, diseased, unproductive, putrid, poor quality, unfit for use.

Speaker: Talk come out of your mouth. How about you encourage someone instead? Why not talk about how amazing Jesus is instead? Or tell a funny joke and make a sad person feel happy?

Speaker: Say what's helpful for building someone up according to their needs so that they benefit. That they walk away and they say, wow, I just love being around that person. They always make me feel so special.

Speaker: And get rid of bitterness, rage and anger. Brawling and slander. Malice. Instead, choose kindness. Choose compassion.

Speaker: And forgive people and forgive them quickly. Because we've been forgiven by Jesus. So just do to others what he's already done for us.

Speaker: So a good works, it's not to get good God. It's because you are good with God. It's not to get into the flow the things of Holy Spirit.

Speaker: He already lives within you. So now flow in him and let him flow through you. He fixes you first, layer upon layer upon layer, and he will bless people through you from the overflow.

Speaker: Can you please, um you said that bird, and I am trying to think, what's that bird? Is that the same bird?

Speaker: It is How do we even pronounce that bird? Sure, putrid. Imagine a really bad smell or something really ugly to look at.

Speaker: and Imagine if you were walking down the street and you just... Right? God's like, when you speak, don't word vomit.

Speaker: Don't just go all over someone's character or reputation or their feelings. All right? Thank you. I understand.

Speaker: Now, you're not going to forget that one, Anita.

Speaker: All right, so with the things of God and the family of God, the body of Christ, there is no unemployment. We all have work to do. We all have gifts.

Speaker: We all have his own. And we all have a purpose for being here. He sent us for a reason and a very particular season.

Speaker: You know, even Jesus spoke to his disciples in John 4, 35,

Speaker: And he said to them, do you not say four months more than the harvest? Because, you know, they were they were farmers and shepherds and fishermen. They were agriculturalists. They knew at times and seasons.

Speaker: He said, i tell you the truth. Open your eyes. Look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest. He's saying in the natural, people understand this is when you plant, this is when things grow, this is when you bring things in, this is when you're busy.

Speaker: But Jesus says violent crime up in all the first world civilized colden trees on earth.

Speaker: Religious manipulation and political bigotry, where literally politicians despise the citizens. Everywhere you look, it's there.

Speaker: You know, America, the land of the free, 2020, BLM spent the year burning it to the ground. Politicians, that people vote for, for some bizarre, bombastic reason.

Speaker: Corruption everywhere you look.

Speaker: Loneliness. Have there ever been a time where people felt lonelier?

Speaker: Every year there's a new war breaking out or a new big conflict. Murder and physical trauma.

Speaker: You don't have to luck hard to find broken people. In fact, I've never met a person who didn't have some degree of brokenness. And I know it's very easy to sit around and say, oh God, you know, when in five years time, when I'm married and I have children in a house of my own, then I'll serve you.

Speaker: I said that to Jesus five years ago. Well, five years later, I still don't have a house, a wife or those kids.

Speaker: So imagine I were still sitting around telling Jesus, well, the next five years, Lord. Now, there comes a point when you just have to say, Lord.

Speaker: My eyes are open. I'm looking in the fields. I'm looking in my zone. They're ripe for harvest. Who? Who is ripe for harvest?

Speaker: Is it the children who play on the road outside where I live? Am I supposed to put a kids group together for them? Or on Sundays, kids church?

Speaker: Do I have a teaching gift and a functioning laptop? I can do a discipleship course.

Speaker: Or maybe there's an elderly lady who lives down the street and it's probably been three and a half months since you last saw one of her children or grandkids cars and the driveway.

Speaker: And you can guess she's probably very, very lonely. Why not invite her over for a cup of tea? And then people get afraid. But if I'm kind, what if she never goes? What if she wants tea every day? What if she does?

Speaker: but Yes, there are boundaries. Yes, we have to be wise with who, when, and where. But you don't have to look hard for the broken people. They're already in your zone.

Speaker: You just say, God, who do I help first? Who do I zero in on first? And he'll make a way. He'll make it very, very obvious to you.

Speaker: And a word of caution is to be content. When he starts releasing you into helping people, into owning your zone, it's very easy to think, oh, my discipleship course, you know, i only have like, you know, five people online on a certain week. Not this one, but an imaginary one. But, you know, that other person, you know, they just started theirs last week. and they already had 73 people online.

Speaker: Thank God for them. But you know what? Equally thank God for your five. Don't sit around wanting what someone else has. You open a door for bitterness, jealousy, and envy, and when you let those things in they do not come up easily.

Speaker: You have to put on your gardening gloves and pull those suckers up from the root.

Speaker: Or I can think of times in my life where I absolutely knew that I knew that I knew who I wanted in my zone. Who I wanted in my lane.

Speaker: Who I wanted in my inner circle of friends to bless, to support, to bless me, to tell me how amazing I am. let me tell you, those people never came. They're still not in my world.

Speaker: What are they doing now? Couldn't tell you. Instead, he sent me the misfits. Instead, he sent me people that I didn't even like.

Speaker: Now I love them. He sent me the nameless, faceless people from the side of the room that I would never go near.

Speaker: Because they're not nameless or faceless to Jesus. He sees the heart. He knows who can be a blessing to us. And who we can be a blessing to.

Speaker: So be okay with your lane. Stay in your lane. And love the people in your lane. in your zone. Could you please tell what is misfit?

Speaker: Yeah, misfit, Anita, are the weird people. Okay. People who think it's okay to walk down the street dressed as Spider-Man, even though they're in their 20s.

Speaker: The people who... You would love to sit down, have a full-on conversation with about Jesus, but they go on holidays to catch Pokemon, playing Pokemon Go. There's a Garajos in the Amsterdam Dam. This kind of crack.

Speaker: They're the misfits. The weird people. Okay. Thank you for telling me and like explaining. ah

Speaker: And in Luke 16.10, Jesus actually says... That whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much. But if you're dishonest with very little,

Speaker: but but if he increased what you had, you would be dishonest with that too. So don't sit around thinking the grass is always greener on the other side.

Speaker: Be happy with your grass. Be happy with the people God's put in your life. Because even if they weren't the people you wanted, even if they weren't the people you would have chosen, even if they were the people you prayed God would not give you, they're the right people for such a time as this.

Speaker: And there's something in you that is uniquely suited to bless them. And there's something in them that is uniquely suited to be a gift and a blessing to your life.

Speaker: Like I said, there's no unemployment in God's house. We're all part of a body and we all have a part to play.

Speaker: Not every Christian knows this. Sometimes they get a little bit too distracted.

Speaker: But there is one being who knows it.

Speaker: And the Bible calls him the enemy. Satan. The devil. And even if you do not want to own your zone, he does.

Speaker: My family are quite house proud. We like to have, you know, the garden that everyone compliments at this time of year year with the Christmas decorations. Someday I might give you a walk through with the camera and show you my house. It literally looks like we live in a snow globe.

Speaker: but Not in this room, because all the decorations are behind my camera. um but ah where am i going with that if that's just me bragging there was a point of that sentence yeah um you can have the most home proud looking home but you know what we still get weeds i don't know how i could spend an hour plucking them up from the roots i go out two days later there are more

Speaker: Dandelions. Why they exist? No idea. But no matter how often I kill them, with a lawnmower or my fingers, there are always more. If that is true in the natural, how much more in the supernatural?

Speaker: So we can't be complacent. Because we are humans, we need our beauty sleep. But we have an enemy which is spiritual and does not sleep.

Speaker: And the Bible tells us in John 10.10 that he steals, he kills, and he destroys.

Speaker: In the Greek, to steal means to steal secretively and with stealth. Like I said, ah we could spend hours and hours in our garden.

Speaker: Within two days, the weeds are back. It happens that quickly.

Speaker: Kill means to sacrificially offer on an altar by burning. The enemy wants to burn you alive and burn everything you are and have to the ground. It means to butcher completely.

Speaker: Because we are the body of Christ. His fingernails, his heart cells, the aorta, the legs, toes, the back hairs. Woo!

Speaker: He wants to butcher it.

Speaker: Totally divide it. Totally conquer. Tear to shreds. Maul it.

Speaker: And to destroy in the Greek, because John 10.10 was originally written in Greek, means he wants to cut you off from God entirely. He does not just want you to perish. He wants you to perish violently.

Speaker: Look at all the violence going on in the world today. um Media, celebrity, and political personalities who push it on the working class in particular.

Speaker: In Ireland, especially in Dublin, we have a certain judge who is infamous for a light sentencing. It doesn't matter how many women get slashed across the face or pushed in front of trains.

Speaker: Oh, you know, um these people aren't bad, they're just poor. And suspends their sentence. Why put wicked people in jail when you can leave them on the streets?

Speaker: He wants you to be lost. And not just you live a happy life and then you burn in hell He wants it to be miserable for you.

Speaker: Every second of your day to steal your peace, your joy, your happiness. He wants to abolish you. Like the walls I mentioned earlier, he wants to ruin you.

Speaker: He wants to blot you out. So if anyone thinks of your name, you're just an empty space. It's like you never even existed. Everything you were, are, have, and accomplished, obsolete, redundant, unmentionable.

Speaker: He wants to vanish you away. And ultimately to cause the loss of your everlasting life. Bring you to a place where you curse God and Jesus.

Speaker: And you say, Jesus died the cross for my sins? no he didn't. He's an imaginary. Jesus is just a curse word. There is no cross. That's the point he wants you to get to.

Speaker: Can i ask question? course you can. Yeah. It's about the the stealing part. Yep. um So, so... Can he also steal the gifts God gives you?

Speaker: the anointing that he gives you?

Speaker: Excellent question, Catherine. Well, he's the thief.

Speaker: When he steals. Can he steal your gifts? And can he steal your anointing? Okay, super. So the Bible tells us that the gifts of God are irrevocable.

Speaker: Meaning if God gives you a gift, he will not take the gift away. However, a gift can be hijacked.

Speaker: That's to say, I have a teaching gift, for example. Hence, why we're here at tonight.

Speaker: But the enemy could try to manipulate me teach falsely. He can't take away the teaching gift. It was given by God, and God says, I'm not taking it. Well, literally, was given by Holy Spirit.

Speaker: But God says, i'm not taking it back. I gave it freely. for you to have freely. Yes, so you would do something righteous and holy and profitable with it, but it was a gift.

Speaker: But if I, for example, were to start saying, you know, guys, Jesus is not the only way to father God. and You know, I read a book recently, and you know, Buddha is also actually Jesus. You know, when In the in-between years, you know, Jesus actually went to Asia and Buddha was just what they called him. And he taught people enlightenment.

Speaker: Okay, I'm speaking absolute nonsense. But if you were to believe me, and then I would, and then let's say you say, Brendan, that was so great. Here's 50 euros for online banking.

Speaker: And then I start to make like a habit of this. Well then, my teaching gift could be hijacked. The teaching gift could be real. I could still teach effectively. I could still teach creatively.

Speaker: I could still teach powerfully, but I'd be teaching deception. That's when you call someone a false teacher. So I'd say, your gift can't be taken, but it can be hijacked. And the enemy can use, abuse, and misuse it for evil purposes.

Speaker: Um, like I was once praying for someone who, she told me she was a seer, so much of my style, she could see spiritual things, and I said, okay, fair enough. So I prayed for her.

Speaker: And after praying for her for about 45 minutes, I thought I would get a thank you, at the very least. But actually, she looked at me, she said, Brendan, I see you.

Speaker: You are covered in shadow. It's like there are thorns and thistles and dark plants all over your face. You look evil. That's kind of crack. And I just said to myself, okay, there's obviously a spiritual issue going on here with her, where evil spirits had entered in to her.

Speaker: Did she have a seer gift? I will give her the benefit of the doubt and say yes she did. Why not? Was she seeing from God? No, her gift had been hijacked. She was seeing from the enemy.

Speaker: And because, now listen, there are times yes God will show you something bad happening in someone's life, but it's not to condemn them. It would be to to fix the problem for a solution.

Speaker: What she did was she wanted me to feel lower than her to elevate herself out of pride. That was very, very clear from her posture, her demeanor. So she got to stage, sadly, where she could not tell the difference between a picture from God and one from a demon.

Speaker: Did she still have the God-given gift? Yeah. Assuming it was real to begin with. But she was under such deception, she couldn't tell the difference between the real and the counterfeits.

Speaker: Is that clear? Yeah, yeah just um because I just wondered, and the story about Samson, right? Cutting his hair and then he's cold.

Speaker: Yeah, that's awesome. I would say Samson lived under, this is very theological language, a different dispensation than the body of Christ.

Speaker: Insofar as Samson lived under the old covenant, the old Testament law, and where yes, where Holy Spirit, let's say, could come on someone temporarily and then leave them again, or the same way he came on Saul and Saul prophesied, but he left Saul.

Speaker: um Whereas for us, the body of Christ, Holy Spirit comes in the moment you believe in the finished work of the cross. And he will stay there as long as you believe that.

Speaker: So then the gifts of God for the building up of the body of Christ through Holy Spirit, that's all the body of Christ dispensation, like being a Christian, if you will.

Speaker: Whereas that wasn't applicable to anyone who lived before the cross was even thing. So with the Old Testament, yes, gifts and anointings came and they left because Holy Spirit could drop on someone and then leave again. Their relationship with Holy Spirit is very different from ours. We have a much better one.

Speaker: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. It's a good question because I know it's it's heavy stuff theologically, but if you understood that, you're doing great. Yeah, ah yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker: Yeah. Yes, I do. Awesome.

Speaker: But since you mentioned that, and here's Samson. but

Speaker: It was prophetic. Yeah. I actually texted her to ask that question. I'm joking.

Speaker: There are ways in which the enemy will try to steal... your timeline, your destiny, your zone. And sadly, the Bible has a heck of a lot of examples as to when he successfully did that.

Speaker: And Samson, for example, is like the Hercules of the Bible, real strong man. um His mother um was infertile and she prayed to the Lord um to have that she'd have a son and God said, okay,

Speaker: And she made a very curious request. She said, Lord, if you give me a baby, boy, I'll never put a razor to his head. i won't cut his hair.

Speaker: And effectively with Samson, his hair was so long, but Holy Spirit would come upon him and give him supernatural strength. He lived in times of war.

Speaker: To beat his enemies. His enemies were called the Philistines. ah They came from Crete, the Greek island.

Speaker: Samson was a man of God. But he was not a godly man. He was God's choice on the earth to fight against evil.

Speaker: But he was very compromised with evil. Particularly through his love life. He really had a thing for the femme fatales, for the bad girls.

Speaker: And most famously, or infamously, is a woman called Delilah. Delilah came from the race all of his enemies.

Speaker: The people he was supposed to be fighting against. The people who wanted him dead and his nation of Israel dead.

Speaker: Samson was like, oh, but she's so beautiful. Oh, she's so amazing. And they struck up a romantic affair.

Speaker: Delilah was informed by the other Philistines, find out Samson's weak. We want to kill him dead. So she begged and she pleaded day after day after day.

Speaker: And eventually he said, it's my hair. I probably showed the wrong day get a haircut, otherwise my hair was so long, I could have done a really great Samson example or impression. But Jalai said, oh, that's nice.

Speaker: So when he was asleep, she cut his hair, and she called up her boys, the Philistines. They came in. They gouged out Samson's eyes.

Speaker: They made him work like an animal. They chained him to some pillars, a building fell on him, and he died. but Why? Because he could not get his libido under control.

Speaker: He chose not to control his urges and his surges and his feelings. He didn't submit his sexuality, his romantic life, his love life, to God. Sounds like a very small thing, you know, as a part of your life.

Speaker: But a building literally fell on top of him and he got crushed because of it.

Speaker: And all throughout the Old Testament, for decades and decades afterwards, the Philistines attacked his country, pillaged his country, set up five big cities of control and wickedness and demonic activity.

Speaker: Samson could have ended that in his day. But many of his people were enslaved and died because he chose ah wicked woman over the will of God.

Speaker: Hey, could you please tell what is... Nah, this is n What is that? Hold on, please. I i have to um spell it.

Speaker: i can't even is The vow? Yeah, thank you. What is that? Okay, the Nazarite vow was a promise and that his mother had made and when she was praying to God regarding not cutting his hair and the way he would be brought up and the way he would live. So there were to be certain restrictions on his lifestyle choices as he got older?

Speaker: Yeah, ah I think if I have understood right, God was calling Samson only this one word you just said. that Yeah, the Nazar.

Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, so basically he had to he wasn't allowed to cut his hair with a razor. um He wasn't allowed to touch corpses.

Speaker: and Human corpses He wasn't allowed to touch animal corpses That was all part of the vow Or the promise That he was supposed to follow in life But actually Every time you read a chapter of his life He's breaking a different promise but He's killing people Or he's sticking his hands inside dead lions He yeah he was very disobedient And only small things But in the end, a building fell on top of them.

Speaker: So it all climaxed.

Speaker: Thank you. I understand.

Speaker: Later, 1 Kings 11, you have, at first, an amazing king called King Solomon, the son of King David and the David and Goliath story.

Speaker: Solomon was so rich that if you had silver, people looked down on you. His country was so rich that have silver, people are like, oh, please, silver? Oh, that is so last century. That's how rich people were in his day.

Speaker: And he was so incredibly wise. But he was also very, very foolish. He married a lot of women and had a lot of concubines, probably for political reasons.

Speaker: He probably said, oh, I'll marry all these women to have like you know um peace with that person, peace with that king, peace with that region. But he allowed his wives to bring demonic worship into his kingdom.

Speaker: And they basically... had had a culture of peace, of love and prosperity. And they turned it into nation built on the blood of infants.

Speaker: So the Lord sent the prophet Ajiha to Jeroboam, who was a man of good standing, a man of righteousness, And Ahijah, it's really sad actually, the Bible says he had a new cloak.

Speaker: God love him, he had probably just bought at the market, spent hundreds of euros on it, and it looked so lovely. But God said, make a prophetic statement here.

Speaker: So he took off his cloak, and he tore it up. And he said to Jeroboam, the kingdom of Solomon is going to break into two.

Speaker: Because of what he has done, the nation of Israel is going to become a kingdom of Israel and a kingdom of Judah. It's going to split.

Speaker: There's going to be division and you are going to rule the bigger part. and Or bigger in terms of of destiny, trajectory, moving forward in things of God, or at least that was supposed to happen. But, uh,

Speaker: It didn't take long before both kingdoms just went into chaos.

Speaker: A little bit of idolatry. A little bit of compromise. But it just became a big rolling ball and it steamrolled into the destruction of not only one kingdom, but ultimately both of them.

Speaker: Both of them i ultimately ended up in slavery and exile in the Babylonian Empire. One king compromised, and look what happened as a result.

Speaker: Because they didn't own their zone.

Speaker: couple chapters later, there was a young prophet that God gave a message to. An accurate message, and he heard accurately. He loved Jesus, well, he loved God.

Speaker: Then there was an older prophet. Not a wicked prophet, not a false prophet. An old prophet.

Speaker: And the old prophet, we don't know what his motivations were. Maybe he was envious of the new prophet, thought, oh, I'm thinking back to my glory days.

Speaker: Maybe he despised the young prophet. Oh, he's getting all the good messages from God. He's going to get big following, lots of traction, lots of crowds and followers. I wish I'd had that.

Speaker: So the old prophet manipulated the young prophet. He said, oh, you know, what you said is wrong. You know, God gave me a word. That was a lie.

Speaker: did not speak to the old prophet. But the young prophet said, hmm, see, God said this to me, but he's saying this. um Should I believe God, respect my elders? who Well, the young prophet decided to follow the old prophet.

Speaker: And he got eaten by a lion. Literally, mauled to death. It became cat food. Little bit of manipulation. He should have owned his own and said, God said this, i'm not going to walk away.

Speaker: But the older prophet should have owned his own and said, God loves this guy, going leave him to it. But instead he manipulated the young prophet and everything he was supposed to prophesy, bring to the earth, speak on God's behalf, all the miracles he should have performed, none of it happened.

Speaker: Instead, the old prophet got the younger one literally eaten. because he didn't own his own. Instead, he stole the young prophet's own.

Speaker: I'll come back to this one in a moment, actually.

Speaker: And then in Daniel, chapter two and three, there's an emperor... of the Babylonian Empire. His name was Nebuchadnezzar. Try saying that ten times fast.

Speaker: And he had a vision and a dream. And in the dream, he saw a massive statue. The top of it was made of gold. It represented his empire, Babylon.

Speaker: The next part was made of silver. It represented the next world empire of Persia-Medes. replaced Babylon. Babylon fell in a day the Persia-Medes empire.

Speaker: The next one is the empire of Greece. That happened in between the Old and New Testament, but we'll look at it a little bit on Thursday next week.

Speaker: Then there was the empire of iron That was Rome, the one you see in the New Testament.

Speaker: And then the feet, which has ten toes, obviously, is the Empire of the Antichrist and the Ten Kings, a wicked conglomeration that you read about in Revelation, the last book in the Bible, which has not happened yet, but will happen at the end of the world.

Speaker: Nebuchadnezzar has this vision. And he sees five powerful world empires that are going to come to prominence.

Speaker: He has the potential to say, you know what? My empire is going to serve God. My empire is going to love God and do everything it can to get the word of God out there on a global scale while we have the time.

Speaker: but in the very next chapter, Daniel chapter three, No. He creates that statue, not from all the materials, just out of gold.

Speaker: He says, you know what? Those other ones won't exist. That's nonsense. Mine will be the only one that exists. Because I am God.

Speaker: He was given a word from God. And he was given the interpretation. And he heard and he understood. but he had pride in his heart. So he literally fashioned a sculpture out of gold and said, bow down and worship it, or I will throw you into a furnace of fire.

Speaker: Little bit of pride, but oh my goodness, inherently destructive.

Speaker: And another thing we have to be very mindful about that can steal our zone is a little sleep. A little slumber. little folding the hands to rest.

Speaker: A little, pfft, I don't care. Not my problem. A little bit of apathy. A little bit of, um,

Speaker: why would I care if no one else does it? Why should I?

Speaker: And we end up leaving a world broken. Leaving people burning, leaving people bleeding all over the place. Just because we can't get over ourselves and just choose compassion, choose generosity.

Speaker: little planty But it can be very destructive to other people's lives.

Speaker: But what God would say to the apathetic is, lazy bones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? I mean, look at the world even over the last five years.

Speaker: Just how insanely wicked and reprobate the world has become. What is it going to take to awaken? To shake people into alertness?

Speaker: Into motion? Into action?

Speaker: You know, there are times in our lives where they can be good times. which is great. I love good times. But even good times should not be lazy times.

Speaker: You know, the Book of Esther is a wonderful book. um Where it talks about a woman who was plucked from obscurity. And she was put into the emperor of the Persian Edith's harem.

Speaker: She would bathe in lotions and potions. Her jaw was to look beautiful until the king wanted her.

Speaker: But one of the king's men tried to bring about the genocide of the Jews in her day. a holocaust, if you will.

Speaker: And her relative Mordecai said, Esther, what are you doing? Do you think that just because you share a bed with the king that you'll be okay?

Speaker: Na-na-na-na-na-na, girl. Maybe you've come to your position for such a time as this. Maybe God put you in the country he's put you in Put you in the job he's put you in Has put you in the relationships he's put you in So you can do more.

Speaker: So you can turn the tide. so you can push back evil in your time. and see God's will done on the earth.

Speaker: Or Jonah. You know, Jonah was quiet a disobedient prophet. God gave him a word for Nineveh, which was a city in the Assyrian kingdom.

Speaker: They were very wicked evil people. And God said, Jonah, destruction is coming to them. Go tell them.

Speaker: Jonah resisted, so God sent a fish to swallow him and spat him out.

Speaker: Jonah relayed the message and the people of Nineveh said, Oh my goodness. God, we're so sorry. and they completely turned their lives around.

Speaker: Now Jonah should have said, Oh, thank you, God. You're so good. Instead, Jonah said, God, I knew you were good. I knew you wanted to save them. but He was angry.

Speaker: Now God said, Jonah, There are 120,000 children there who do not know the difference between their right hand and their left. Did you actually want the children to die?

Speaker: Seriously?

Speaker: And Jonah's problem ah is that he was a prophet. And he had told everyone destruction was coming. And instead salvation came. And now he thought, they're going to call me a false prophet. Fuck!

Speaker: So instead of rejoicing that God's will had happened, that people were saved, he felt furious and suicidal.

Speaker: That's how bad this was. so you know what? There was a very, very strong, intense sun and he sat under a tree and God sent a big leaf to cover him from the trees. Sorry, from the heat of the sun.

Speaker: And the next day, God sent a worm to eat up the leaf and said, okay, you've had a pity party. You have felt sorry for yourself. You've licked your wounds. Now get back up your feet and live your life, for goodness sakes.

Speaker: So there are times to recover. There are times to sit down. There are times just be vulnerable before God. But don't exaggerate the season.

Speaker: Don't elongate the season unnecessarily. Don't make things longer and more difficult than they were meant to be. Your good time, your comfortable time, should not be a lazy time, should not be an excuse to do nothing.

Speaker: There comes a point where have to get up and live your best life again for Jesus.

Speaker: What that looks like... Holy Spirit will reveal to you, but it largely comes down to you. You get to model what you want your life to look like.

Speaker: You have a lot of say and how you spend your time and who you spend it with. But a lot of us would sooner hope that someone else comes and fixes all of our problems for us.

Speaker: But there are certain things that only you can do, that are your job, that your responsibility for your world.

Speaker: One of the best things that we can do is be strong in the Lord and mighty in his power by putting on the full armor of God.

Speaker: When I was younger, i used to think the armor of God was actually just like a metaphor for something. But actually, i remember years ago when I was at work, well, I was on the way it's to work, God gave me a dream and an angel was holding up um a life jacket.

Speaker: But I knew the life jacket was like a breastplate. And some people think angels are a sweet, lovely, cute, little, funny angels. No, this guy roared.

Speaker: At four o'clock, put this on! And then he was gone. yeah I was looking around the bus like, did I not see that? ah And I thought, what the? So I tried not to think about it again throughout the day.

Speaker: But at four o'clock, I said, God?

Speaker: Okay! I think this was the first angel I'd ever seen. was there in my classroom with the students, you know, pretending I had itchy armpits, you know, putting on this life jacket, putting on the breastplate.

Speaker: And oh... My goodness. Instantly, 14 people began absolutely screaming at me, telling me what a terrible teacher I was, how awful, how I should get a new job, how I never should get unhired, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, what the?

Speaker: And you know what? It sounds like a small example. Just a little sleep. Just a little slumber, just a little folding hands to rest.

Speaker: Had I not put on that breastplate, had I not put on that life jacket, that armor, I literally would have walked away from teaching that day immediately.

Speaker: Without the shadow of a doubt.

Speaker: So instead, with the armor, now I see it's actually as, in the spirit realm, real defensive wear that God has given us.

Speaker: You know, one of them is the belt of truth.

Speaker: Surrounding yourself in the word of God. Surrounding yourself in Jesus. Who he is to you.

Speaker: What he did for you through the cross.

Speaker: who you are to him.

Speaker: you know, it's very intentional that I started off this series looking at evil. The cross is the solution to evil and your identity of the body of Christ.

Speaker: Because most people that I talk to don't know this. And if they did, they would not struggle with half the issues that they struggle with in life. But rather, they're so surrounded by evil, by deception, by lies, they don't even know what truth is.

Speaker: Oh, another thing he's given us, in until I kind of grew up playing Lord of the Rings in the Forest, is the breastplate of righteousness.

Speaker: It protects your spiritual heart.

Speaker: God looks at you and you're right with him. It's just as if you never sinned. And therefore you choose to do righteous things. You choose to do good works.

Speaker: Not to get good with God, because you are a good of God, but also it's defensive.

Speaker: If you are, if you have things in common with the enemy, you're more vulnerable to the enemy.

Speaker: And there are chinks in the armor.

Speaker: But if you only have things in common with the Lord, it's a lot harder for the enemy to land any blows against you.

Speaker: Can ask, did you see the angels, angels, literally, or with your spiritual eyes?

Speaker: That one was with my spiritual eyes. Sometimes I'll see demons in front of me on people or in people, where that one is with my spiritual eyes. Oh, okay. He looked human, but i I knew that he wasn't because he hadn't been there before. He just appeared. So I knew it was an angel.

Speaker: and But he came in the form of a human because sometimes they will look like people, sometimes they'll have... The wings and the shining lights. But how you appear and disappear, I knew it was an angel, though.

Speaker: Oh. Yeah.

Speaker: Brian, I have a question. Go for it. You said that the angel told you to put on your um breast shield. Yeah. And at four o'clock you did so. Can you please explain a little bit what exactly did you do?

Speaker: Yes. Did you really put on a ah real physical vest or did you like pray or what did you do? I pictured it in my mind's eye. And I said, okay, because he was holding something up, I said, gosh, God, maybe the armor actually does exist.

Speaker: So I was there kind of like, you know, subtly because there were 15 people looking at me. moment Putting it on literally as as though it existed. Now, you don't always have to do that. I just find it helps.

Speaker: But I say, God, I put on this protection to guard my heart. That nothing is going to kill my heart stone dead today. Nothing's going to cause me heaviness of heart or take me out and or defeat me.

Speaker: But my heart's still going to keep on beating physically and spiritually. It's still going love people. It's still going to care. still going compassionate. um So sometimes people just think about it Sometimes people actually find it helps to actually act like they're putting it on if i'm depending on where you are and who's around Both are good options Yeah, that's so interesting, thank you No worries right can i Can I also ask, or maybe that's more a curiosity why Why did they lash out like that? Confusion Confusion

Speaker: in confusion Um, I suppose at the time, i hands in the air, I can be honest. I wasn't as good a teacher then as I am now.

Speaker: Hands in the and they air, humbly, I can admit that. Um, and I suppose

Speaker: back then I would have made a mistake, that I hate when people do it now, of assuming that people know things. Back then I would have thought, oh well, this is obvious to me, so obvious to everybody.

Speaker: Or, oh, well, you know, m they're this advanced or progressed, so obviously that doesn't need an explanation. And that's where I would have been. um so i would have been a bit naive in that respect and and then also i isn too smart because you think everyone understands but but you know what though when i was younger i would have thought if they don't understand that they're not smart they're not intelligent they're just stupid but actually now i would say

Speaker: no if you're in a teaching role It's your job to make sure people... Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely. No, no, I said that you were... I know, I know, yeah I know. like know But no, for me, i i didn't have the sensitivity to people's blind spots, to where people where we're we were lacking in knowledge or or foundational understanding, ah which is why nowadays I always try to make sure that I leave no room for a confusion.

Speaker: Thank you. Falcon? Falcon?

Speaker: Alright, the next one, that your feet are fitted, there's a long phrase, with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. I don't think that there's any better of time to have a peace than Christmas. Here are my elf shoes.

Speaker: and Imagine in you are walking into, like a Santa's grotto or something, or Christmas morning, and you just want to bring peace, welfare, health, prosperity, joy into the room.

Speaker: There are tough crowds out there. Believe me, I've met them. The very first sermon I taught was God uses women, God loves women, God empowers women, God strengthens women, women can be pastors.

Speaker: i think my intention was to get a girlfriend. All the guys in the room said amen. The women went nuts. and They were like, no, we can't. I was like, what is this? ah but but but There was no peace in the room. It was a tough crowd.

Speaker: I have taught in hard environments. Teaching for five years and seeing no growth whatsoever. Scattering the seed of the word of God and wondering what was the point?

Speaker: There are harsh environments. There's rough terrain. Some soil in people's souls is so rocky and so full of weeds that they just choke the seeds of life.

Speaker: But if you've got your shoes on, you carry the gospel of peace everywhere you go. It doesn't matter who's there.

Speaker: If it's snowy, windy, stormy, sunny, rainy, You carry Christ and you carry him well.

Speaker: But the Lord is also interested in the level of your faith.

Speaker: I was a super big Marvel fan before it became all woke and communist. Now it's crap. It used to be amazing. was my Captain America shield.

Speaker: That no matter what you face, what wicked words people speak, what humans or demons throw at you,

Speaker: you're protected. And what is faith?

Speaker: It's the confidence that we have that the cross is sufficient, that you have crossed over from death to life, that the blood of Jesus is in you,

Speaker: and And it's washed you free from every sin. on what is sin? Sin just means you missed the mark. You didn't get a bullseye.

Speaker: On the morality, you got somewhere else. You're not perfect. But the blood of Jesus makes you perfect in God's eyes. That's the faith. Faith that God is absolutely good.

Speaker: We're also told to wear the helmet as a helmet.

Speaker: Like in Star Wars, maybe it's the Boba Fett or Dango Fett, one of those helmets.

Speaker: That your head is focused on the things of God. But after these discipleship courses, you go back. And you know what? Look at the Bible references on the screen.

Speaker: And read them for yourself. Meditate on them. Just read one and for an hour and say, God, what does that mean? Or send me a voice notes or someone else in the group and say, what's that about?

Speaker: does that mean the same thing in your language? That you think God's thoughts. You have God's opinion.

Speaker: And also...

Speaker: that you carry the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

Speaker: You know, I absolutely love knives and swords. This is probably one of my all-time favorite possessions. This one's from Turkey. really like this one. Or i also went to Comic-Con one year and I just came back with like swords and Lord of the Rings. This one is Sting.

Speaker: Or I have another one, which might be my all-time favorite. This is Arwen Evenstar's sword from Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring.

Speaker: Very, very sharp. Sometimes when my siblings misbehave, I chase them around the house with these. ah but

Speaker: Very sharp. They can cut. The last in particular sliced my finger the day I got it.

Speaker: The word of God is sharper than that. You know, swords can cut through flesh. Bones, if if you strike hard enough. But the word of God cuts through soul and spirit.

Speaker: Truth and lies. Your thoughts and your intentions. And they're not always the same thing. Today, a lot of people say, if you thought it, you are it. Nonsense.

Speaker: You can have an intrusive thought. You can have a random thought for a moment. And then there are other things you're actually planning to do. The word of God reveals all those things.

Speaker: If you, every morning, think about this, or even put them on, you're owning your zone.

Speaker: Proverbs 4.23. If you learn nothing else today, this is one to take home with you. Above all things guard your heart. It's the wellspring of life. All the issues of life flow from it.

Speaker: I have a password on my phone because I do not want people reading my messages.

Speaker: Do you have a password on your heart? You're so fat. Access denied. You're so ugly. Access denied.

Speaker: You came from nowhere. You've arrived nowhere. You're going nowhere. Incorrect password. One more option or your phone will be turned off for 30 minutes.

Speaker: You show Jesus so beautifully. Access granted. We have a password on our phones. The one in your heart? Because only you can put it there.

Speaker: God doesn't say above all things, i will guard your heart now. We're all big boys and girls. It's our responsibility.

Speaker: And the same with the mind.

Speaker: We demolish. Don't pray that God does this. Do it yourself. We demolish arguments. And every pretension... every lie, every illusion, every falsehood that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.

Speaker: And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. When people say to me, you don't love Jesus, you're just doing this for attention.

Speaker: Well, that's an argument. They're making a case. I say, bullcrap. I don't let that in.

Speaker: I'm watching TV and they say something like, you know, God is dog spelt backwards. God's not real. That sets the self up against the knowledge of God.

Speaker: Lie. I don't receive it.

Speaker: If I have a thought in my head that says, gosh, Brendan, you thought by this age you'd be a millionaire. You're going nowhere in life. You're wasting your time.

Speaker: The Bible says take it captive. I literally imagine I'm putting handcuffs on it. And I hear the Garda sirens.

Speaker: Adios, bye-bye. Slán, lat. I don't let it in. i don't let it take root in my field, in my vineyard, in the soil of my soul.

Speaker: Instead, I say i bind that in Jesus' name. i arrest that in Jesus' name. That's a criminal in Jesus name. And I will not have any parts with it. Think of like a pirate finger puppet. I'm Jack Sparrow.

Speaker: Pirates come in to steal, to kill, to destroy.

Speaker: get your sword and you don't let it in. I don't care if I don't pierce my hands. And you don't let it in It's your mind. You're in control of what takes root there.

Speaker: And if you do struggle with negative thoughts, it's not too late. Call it out. Call it what it is. Suicidal thought, up and out.

Speaker: Leave in Jesus' name.

Speaker: Doubts. Be gone. Take a hike. Bugger off. Whatever you have to say. It's your responsibility. You demolish it.

Speaker: God's given you that job. Don't try to fix the world. Get yourself fixed first.

Speaker: Can I ask um ah one question? So, ah this is for example. I hear literally a voice, but the voice but voice telling me Janita you are so stupid and I'm like in the mother name of Jesus God calm and down now you are not from the Lord shut up in the mother name of Jesus I rebuke you the word says I have the wisdom of the Lord and so is that the same thing yes it is Peter

Speaker: take thoughts into captivity. Exactly. Because it's like you're putting handcuffs on it. Like, you're a guard, you're a prison um a police officer, a prison warden.

Speaker: You're putting handcuffs on it, so it's not free. You've made it a prisoner. Because it wants you to be a prisoner. You have the authority to turn that around. Amen? Yes, amen.

Speaker: Another thing we need to own our zone with is prayer. There was a king in the Old Testament called Hezekiah, and Hezekiah was actually given a word um that he would die.

Speaker: And it came from a prophet who wrote the Bible, a reputable prophet, a prophet who got it right lot.

Speaker: And Isaiah the prophet said, I'm sorry, king, but you you you're not going to survive this sickness. Well, Hezekiah rolled around he prayed.

Speaker: He said, remember, Lord, how I have walked faithfully and with wholehearted devotion. And have done what's good in your eyes.

Speaker: And he wept before the Lord. He cried before the Lord. He was honest. He was transparent. Father and Son. no illusion. No boundaries. No borders.

Speaker: And the Lord's heart melted for him. And God said, Isaiah, go back. Now Isaiah was like in the middle of the court chart. He was like, wait, what? He probably had to go through all you know this the king's security and say, hey, sorry, it's me again. I just, yeah, thank you.

Speaker: And i said, hey, God heard you when you prayed. You have 15 more years of life left. When Isaiah said he was going to die, Isaiah was spot on.

Speaker: He had heard from God. Sometimes God will tell you when someone's about to die. But prayer can change everything. Because God hates death.

Speaker: God wanted Hezekiah to live longer. Hezekiah prayed and even death was postponed. That's the power of prayer.

Speaker: You also have to own your zone by controlling the ear gate. What you listen to.

Speaker: You know, we all like the story of David and Goliath, a little boy a big giant, the little boy won. But do you know that literally, well, before David stepped on the battlefield, his brother said he was a shepherd of a few sheep.

Speaker: Intimidation. His brother said, you're conceited, you're wicked. You're not good. You're immoral. You're disgusting.

Speaker: A character assassination from his own brother. His brother said, I'm wicked your heart is Obviously, his brother didn't like him, but he wanted David to be the villain in his story.

Speaker: His brother said, You're not here to look after us, to feed anybody, to give us food, to pray.

Speaker: You're here to watch the battle. You just want to see blood, guts and gore. Misrepresenting his own brother's heart. The king him a put down and said, you're incapable of fighting the giant. He's more powerful than you. He's been killing people his whole life.

Speaker: You'll do nothing. You're not helpful.

Speaker: The king spoke limitation. You're only a boy. What are you going to do? You're only a oldt woman. You're only single. You're a single mother.

Speaker: You're only a housewife. You're only in a wheelchair. limitation and Limitation, limitation, limitation, limitation.

Speaker: When no one else wanted to face Goliath, the king said, okay, let me dress you in my armor. Now, the king was like six or seven feet tall. but but Manipulation. David couldn't even walk in it. He had to take it off.

Speaker: When Goliath saw him, he cursed him. He spoke the enemy's report, the devil's report over David's. And he said, you're going to be bird food. Animals going to eat you up. Gobble, gobble, gobble.

Speaker: He prophesied his death.

Speaker: But David walked down the battlefield. He killed Goliath. He chopped his head off. And at the end of the chapter, 1 Samuel 17, King Saul was like, this guy, who's his father? Who's his dad?

Speaker: And David turned around and finally he spoke about himself. My name is David, son of Jesse, your servant in Bethlehem.

Speaker: Every word spoken over David did not penetrate his ears, did not enter his heart or his mind, because David knew who he was.

Speaker: The son of a promise. And the same for you. When these words are spoken over all of you, and I'll be honest, they will probably all be spoken over you within the next few weeks from different people.

Speaker: But if you know that you know that you know that you are a son of God, that you are a daughter of God, they will not penetrate.

Speaker: The ears will be like locked gates and they will not enter. Again, access denied.

Speaker: That's why it's so important and to know who you are.

Speaker: Okay, I'll few more examples for you.

Speaker: In Matthew 21, Jesus walked into a temple. And think of with, you know, when you're booking a flight with Ryanair or some other airline.

Speaker: If you don't book your seat... Soon enough, they will charge you lots of money to do at the end. And if you decide to put on your extra baggage closer to the time, they will punish you by making you pay lots and lots of money.

Speaker: That happened in Jesus' day. Before the cross, the Jews had to go to a temple and sacrifice animals for the forgiveness of their sins.

Speaker: Because Jesus hadn't died yet.

Speaker: But people were unprepared. They were apathetic. They didn't prioritize the animal sacrifice, the forgiveness of their own sins before God.

Speaker: So instead, they went to the temple empty-handed. So businessmen were there. And they said, oh, we'll sell you a dove for 100 euros. We'll send you a pig for 750 euros.

Speaker: Well, Jesus walked in and he saw the people who needed help didn't even want it.

Speaker: Didn't care enough to bring an animal with them.

Speaker: And he saw other people who were very rich trying to get rich off other people's religious fear.

Speaker: And Jesus was furious. So he actually kicked over the tables, kicked over the chairs.

Speaker: He made a whip. I think this is hilarious because no one ever imagines Jesus doing this. ship And he whipped them out of the temple and he says, get out of my father's house.

Speaker: It is okay to have a holy hatred of spiritual abuse. It's okay to have a righteous anger when you see people being played for fools.

Speaker: A godly indignation when you see people who just don't care about what's good. A divinely inspired irritation when you get really annoyed at how wicked people are and the wicked things they do.

Speaker: There are times to get angry. but just keep your anger in the light of Jesus.

Speaker: And you know what? Sometimes loving people and owning your zone happens in the margin of your day when you're not even expecting it.

Speaker: You know, Jesus at one point um was in a house in the land of Tyre. He went there because he was tired. but i'm Bad pun, I know.

Speaker: And a woman from Canaan or Syrophoenicia, she wasn't even a Jew, saw him. And she was like, Jesus, Lord, Lord, Lord, my daughter's demon-possessed, help her. You know, because...

Speaker: These things happen. I was sick in bed with the flu a couple months ago when someone was like, Brendan, please pray if want to commit suicide. like i'm sick in bed at the flu. These opportunities will often come in the margin of your day.

Speaker: When you're in that place of rest. When you're somewhere to get away. to be away. When you just want the world to stop. That's when these opportunities will often appear.

Speaker: But Jesus, because he is Jesus, did heal the girl, he restored the girl. She was not on his to-do list. She was not even an Israelite.

Speaker: And he came specifically in those days to reveal Israel to God, or a God's Israel rather.

Speaker: But he just loved her mother's faith that he healed her anyway.

Speaker: But before healing her, he gave fertile talk Now gave a you a but little parable, and metaphor. And he said, it's not good to give dogs children's bread.

Speaker: Because he came to feed the people of Israel, his own nation, that was his focus. So the dogs were were the Canaanites, other nations, and in his metaphor.

Speaker: This woman had to get over her offense. She had to own her zone. A lot of people are so busy being offended at God, offended at Jesus, offended at the Bible, offended at a Christian, offended at someone they saw on Christian TikTok.

Speaker: That they stay away from Jesus. Oh, all you Christians are the same. Oh, I hate your God. You know, your God hates blah, blah, blah, blah. Your God hates gossip and gambling. Well, I love my bingo for goodness.

Speaker: If this literally the biggest problem the 21st century, God says, don't give your money to the bingo man four times a week, maybe give it to the poor. Seriously, is that where we've arrived? Is that the definition of a problem in these days?

Speaker: But Jesus gave a metaphor and he called this woman a dog and she knew it. But she got over her offense very quickly. because she wanted her demon-possessed child to be free.

Speaker: you know what? Jesus healed that child. Thanks, Alicia, see your message. It's totally fine, okay? God bless, man.

Speaker: And I think that's a very big one today, especially. People break so easily. got so many snowflakes around the world. Everyone's getting crushed and broken over stupid, silly things.

Speaker: But actually, we need thicker skin.

Speaker: If you don't have hard skin, you're not going to own your zone.

Speaker: You want to know how hard skin? The Apostle Paul. In Acts chapter 16, there was a girl who had a python spirit, and a demon that looked like a snake inside of her.

Speaker: And that demon would prophesy, it was fortune-telling. Think of today, know the tarot cards and the crystal balls. Paul said, demon, leave her in Jesus' name.

Speaker: And she was set free.

Speaker: Well, people had been making money off her fortune telling, and they were not very happy with Paul. So they had Paul put in prison for helping the slave girl.

Speaker: But God is so good that that same night... The prison doors were opened. Everyone's shackles and chains fell off.

Speaker: And they were free. The prison warden freaked out and was about to kill himself. And Paul said, no, na no, no, no. No, you're free as well.

Speaker: Because if you refresh people, God will refresh you. Paul had rescued this girl. So God was rescuing him. And Paul even rescued the man who had locked him up.

Speaker: That's the beauty of God.

Speaker: That's what happens when you own your zone.

Speaker: And you know what? Sometimes you get so busy that you cannot do literally everything. In Acts chapter a six, there are a lot of Jews um who were getting saved, Jesus people, the Israelites.

Speaker: And people were saying, they're getting dinner and I got no dinner. You're looking after those people. You're not looking after me. ah And the disciples could have said, well, you know what? You ungrateful git. None of you are getting any food.

Speaker: But they didn't. They said, we're Bible teachers. We cannot wait on tables. We cannot look after everyone and everyone's need and solve everyone's problem.

Speaker: So instead, they said, let's get seven people who love God, who love people well, who have integrity, who are honest, who have good character.

Speaker: Let's give them jobs. How about they can look after this issue?

Speaker: They identified people's gifts. They delegated responsibilities. They avoided burnout. They equipped people and they released people to do God's work.

Speaker: Because the best servants of Jesus don't want power. They don't want attention and favor. They don't want to be master manipulators or control freaks.

Speaker: We want to see all of God's children participating. we want to see all God's children growing and doing what God has sent them to the earth to do in these days.

Speaker: Hating evil is a big one that Christians don't talk about all that much today, but they should. Let your love be sincere and real. Hate what's evil.

Speaker: Hate that there's more human trafficking on the earth today than literally ever before in history. Hate that millions of children are being murdered before they can even take their first breath outside the womb.

Speaker: Hate that there's so many wars happening around the earth. Hate that people are being religiously abused and manipulated in so many different ways.

Speaker: Hate that there are genuinely witches and occultists who want to see the world burn, and they're in cahoots with media, stars, celebrities, and politicians.

Speaker: Hate what's evil, and hold fast to what is good. Don't be complicit with the darkness. Be the solution. Expose evil, and fight the good fight of faith.

Speaker: And here's the last point for you.

Speaker: Because it can be easy to inspire people and tell them, do what God likes, do God's work. It's not easy. Some of the people who I've disrespected, betrayed and hurt me the most have been God's people.

Speaker: And in 2 Kings 4, 38 to 41, there's a very lovely little story where there was a time of famine. Kind of like today, there's a famine of peace in the earth, a famine of hope, a lack of joy, a lack of compassion.

Speaker: And God's people, the prophets, said, let's make a stew. There isn't a lot of food, but if we all work together, we can make a stew.

Speaker: So some guy got the carrots, someone got the potatoes, which we love in Ireland. Someone got the peas, someone got a little bit of beef, someone got the gravy.

Speaker: One guy brought gourds, and they did not taste very good.

Speaker: God love him. I don't think he meant it maliciously, I think he meant it to help. But he put the goo words into the pot of stew.

Speaker: One bad vegetable. And next thing they all began eating and they said, there's death in the pot. There's death in the pot. Bit of an exaggeration, but never come between men and their food, you know?

Speaker: a little bit of miscommunication. a little bit of, that's not the way we do in my church.

Speaker: A little bit of, oh, we've never done it that way before. The famous last sentence of many churches. little bit of, oh, in my culture, we don't speak to people like that.

Speaker: Small little differences. But they said there's death in the pot. It's disgusting. It's horrible. Oh, first war, and I feel faint.

Speaker: But there was a prophet called Elisha, the boss. And he said, give me that pot stew. And he got some flour. And you know what?

Speaker: He poured the flour into the pot of stew. And he said, here. Here's some unity.

Speaker: Here's some peace.

Speaker: How about instead of fighting with each other? We add some love.

Speaker: How about instead of God's people tearing each other to shreds, we try adding peace for a change.

Speaker: How about instead of saying, I'm never going to serve ever again. i hate you people. We persevere.

Speaker: How about... Instead of always being on the offensive, we try being gentle and kind for a change.

Speaker: How about instead of shouting and screaming and all the aggravation, we give self-control a try.

Speaker: And he added the flower, and the prophet's very... slowly, suspiciously, put their spoon into the bowl and thought, dun-na, dun-na, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun.

Speaker: And it was wonderful. Miraculously, God took away the sour taste and he healed the food in the pot.

Speaker: And that is what building the House of God together looks like. We will have different cultures different ways of speaking, different personalities, different experiences, different gifts, different strengths, different beliefs on certain things. And that's okay.

Speaker: So long as we add what the Bible calls Holy Spirit fruit, which we will look at next week in lots of detail,

Speaker: it can change the atmosphere. It can change the taste. And then just like the Virgin Mary, we carry Christ.

Speaker: You know, Mary said in Luke 1.38, I'm the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.

Speaker: That's a woman who said, God has spoken to me. I choose to own my zone. I choose to carry Christ. She carried him in her womb.

Speaker: We carry him in our hearts.

Speaker: So in closing, as you venture into the coming hours, days, seasons, and new year, let us ask ourselves, am I owning my zone?

Speaker: Am I ingesting good seed? Am I depositing good seed? Am I scattering good seed?

Speaker: What bad seed do I have to stop throwing out all over the place?

Speaker: What weeds are in my heart that I need to uproot and pull up?

Speaker: In my vineyard, which grapes are sickly sour? Blech. And who needs to drink the fine wine produced by my good grapes? Which walls in my life need to be torn down?

Speaker: and which ones need to be repaired. And may our heart's desire be that we own our zone.

Speaker: Okay, guys, thank you so, so much for your attention, for your participation. are there any thoughts, comments, questions, criticisms and challenges? It's all over to you.