TAKING GROUND | Week 1 | Sermon

the people of the church. Because that's how God reaches people, not through programs, but through people. And so they chose to do that. They took ground during tough times. And I think we're called to do the same thing.

We're called to do that. A matter of fact, I love how it now gives us an example. The scripture always goes, okay, they all did it. But let's talk about one guy's story. If we can learn from this one guy's story. It says Philip, who was also another one of those seven leaders that stepped up and served. So he stepped up, became a leader, was you know, knew the Lord. And next thing you know, he's getting scattered. And it says Philip,

for example, went to the city of Samaria and told the people there about the Messiah. Crowds listened intently to Philip because they were eager to hear his message and see the miraculous signs he did. Many evil spirits were cast out screaming as they left their victims. See, there's an actual spiritual warfare

going on that's busting out into the physical realm. And many who had been paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. So now this guy Philip, who had been faithful, he's running for his life. He could have got bitter. Sacrificed. I stepped up. I was a leader. Said, god, now I lose everything?

He goes into this area and starts preaching. In the next few verses, what it says, it busts out. He basically ends up planting another church and the same thing starts happening in Samaria, which by the way, Jews and Samaritans Samaritans, the Jews didn't like Samaritans. They looked down on them. So think of the humiliation of I gotta go seek refuge in this land where we always look down on these people.

Instead, he starts talking about Jesus. Another movement happens. It gets so big. But then the enemy who was trying to destroy the church and that didn't work moves into I will deceive and distract the church.

A guy comes along named Simon the source. Can go read the next section. And and he wants to buy this power of the holy spirit, and they could have easily got distracted. Like, we're not gonna have anything to do with that. It gets so big of a movement that finally Peter and John slip out of Jerusalem, and they come and check it out, and it's a big thing. And so this guy was faithful.

Tough times, instead of retreating, keeps going forward, gets planted in area that seems ridiculous, chooses to be faithful to take ground. The Holy Spirit's power comes in and has success. It's now busting out in a way instead of retreating into himself and worrying about his problems, he goes forward with the mission.

And in doing so, there's now a great success again that he started. He wasn't a pastor. He's just one of the guys that was a part of the church, and he just did it. And in the midst of all of that,

God asked him to leave that. Because when you jump down to verse 26, it says, Now as for Philip, an angel of the Lord said to him, 'Go south down to the desert road that runs from Jerusalem to Gaza.' What?

He was faithful. Tough times. He stayed faithful. Success. In the middle of the success, God told him to leave the success and go to this desolate I've been down in that area.

Go to this desolate road that's basically where caravans travel. It's like, wait, I'm just going on a highway somewhere that I don't even know where? He says, I want you to leave the success now and the comfort that I provided after you were faithful to trust me. That could be hard.

That's difficult. And if I don't really, really, really have faith in the Lord and trust Him, probably not going to do it. We'd probably make excuses. God, you got to be kidding me. You're gonna ask for more. You're gonna ask me to walk away from this crowd and end off in isolation over here. But he does it.

So so he started out. Says he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, eunuch of great authority under Candek, the Queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship. So he's a converted, he's a proselytite to Judaism.

So he was there for the big hubbub that was happening around Pentecost and all that. Now he's heading home. And it says, and he was just seated in his carriage. He was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. So this guy's he comes and he meets this guy that's just sitting there reading the Bible.

And and that's interesting. So God calls him tough times. He takes ground. It explodes. In the middle of the success, he goes, I want you to leave that. And then he goes out and he meets one person. And he chose to do it anyways.

And as we look at the rest of this story of what happens, I think there's three principles in this that allow us to know that, hey, if you and I are gonna take ground first of all, when I say take ground, yeah, there's taking ground in our own personal faith. There's taking ground and trusting God and stuff like in my marriage and all that. When it's tough, I need to take the ground. But what I want to specifically point out is the bigger overall mission

that we've been given as believers that many of us, if you struggle with understanding, isn't my life got more to it? Where's my true purpose? I've been successful in my job, and I'm gonna tell you the purpose is in pointing people to Jesus. That's what we're called to do.

Jesus's last words were go make disciples of all nations and and teaching them and discipling them. It says go reach people. Go point people to Jesus. That's what we're supposed to be about. And that's not just a pastor's job. That's our job. That's where we're the church. We go and do that.

We are called to be the church. We need to trust God. That's our mission. Matter of fact, of all the things we do as believers, we come to church. We worship together. We praise God, we pray with each other, we fellowship, we we do all these things. You realize almost everything we do right now as believers, when the Lord comes back or we go to meet him, we'll continue to do those things.

There is only one thing we've been called to do on this side of heaven that has a limited time offer only, and that's to help other people come to know Jesus.

And we have got to realize that we're in a war. There's an enemy that wants us not to do that. He wants to distract us and just worry about ourselves and our own problems and not care about that because he wants to destroy or distract or deceive the church.

And many of you are sitting here struggling in your life because you refuse to grab ahold of the ultimate purpose that you're here for.

And then a lot of people go, oh, you're one of those churches that you only care about the outsider. Why do you keep telling me to not go to this service or go to that service? You just care about new people. I care about people because that's what God told me to care about.

Well, you just care about the numbers. I do. I care about the numbers. We count people. You know why? Because people count. Every person counts. Well, how big a church you wanna get? Well, how big is God's love? For God so loved the world. That's a pretty big number.

We're supposed to be about this, And oftentimes, get distracted. So what does it mean? The primary thing to take ground that I wanna talk about here is the primary way we take ground as followers of Christ is by personally pointing people to Jesus.

That's how we take ground. And we need to understand that tough times are an incredible opportunity to do it. They're an incredible opportunity to do it.

Why? One, it's a chance for us to lean into our purpose and get something meaningful out of this like, hey, they had to leave. They lost their jobs. They ran. But God used that as the gateway to have them go beyond Jerusalem. They were faithful.

When times are tough, do you pull back from your faith or do you lean into it? The other thing about tough times is a lot of times, the tough times we struggle with are tough times as a culture, so we know everyone else around us is struggling, kind of what we did in COVID. And

so people are open to the gospel when there's tough times. Ever thought about that? It's tough for you, it's tough for them. They they might be more open to receive the gospel. And are we willing? I get to point a lot of people to Jesus by just being up here and preaching. I get to do what Philip got to do in Samaria.

But I try to do what Philip does on this Gaza Road too every time I'm out. Wherever I go, there I am and there's people that need Jesus. It happens a lot on planes with me, by the way. Usually because I get bored and so if at least I start a conversation, time goes by even if they don't wanna know Jesus.

Or there is a defense mechanism. Someone is annoying me, I start talking about Jesus. So I at least can change the conversation and they get saved. Or they shut down the conversation and I can go to sleep. But it's happened a lot.

And and and and one time I was on a plane, sat down next to a guy, he saw my bible, he asked me a question. So I said, I'm a pastor. Oh, that's interesting. He goes, I'm Jewish. And I said, oh, we believe in the same God. And then and then he started going, well, you know, I know all the stories. I grew up going through the Torah. I know it all, but I'm not really religious. I don't I'm not into this God thing. I'm like, okay. So we talked a little bit and kept it light. As we were flying, we hit the worst turbulence I've ever experienced. Kinda scared me a little bit too. I mean, was like baggage fell out of the overhead compartments. Some woman screamed when it fell. And you're like, what is going on? And when that happened, this guy grabbed my hand.

I'm like, I really need to say something or otherwise this is gonna get awkward. So I said the only thing I know how to say because I'm me. God expects me to just be me, use my story

and point people to Jesus. So I looked him right in the eye as he held my hand and I said, hey, where are you at on this whole God thing now? And you know what he said back? I'm kinda reconsidering. Will you pray for me? And I talked to him. We had a great conversation. He wasn't ready by the end of the flight,

but he said, I gotta go think about what we just talked about. I never saw him again. I'm just thinking that hey, the Holy Spirit's got this. I think I was the guy that just opened a door that someone else can walk through with.

But you got to be committed that. So how what Philip does here he proves over and over again. There's three things in here that if we're going to take ground, there's three principles that are still true. Way we take ground especially with pointing people to Jesus is still the same and the first one is I

have got to be a follower not a fan. So the first way we personally Point people to Jesus is by being a follower not a fan.

Being a follower not a fan. What does that mean? Philip was genuinely a believer in Christ. He really did believe that Jesus was life. It wasn't that he lived in Jerusalem. Wasn't that he had this. He believed that life came from him not from anything else. So he had no problem fleeing and still staying still staying committed to what God asked him to do.

Fans are fickle. You see, here's the difference between a fan and a follower. When a fan when it gets hard, fans quit. Followers have grit. That's what I almost made the big idea. Fans

quit. Followers have grit. The whole book of Acts really describes all these men and women that they had a spiritual grit to them. That's why I wanted to go through the book of acts because I think that is the key element missing in the Western church today. Too many people sitting in churches have no spiritual grit.

We come here and you're a big fan of your church. You're a big fan of God. You're big fan of it. As long as the victory things, as long as the the revival's happening, you're you're happy. But the second it gets hard, the second it gets tough, you check out. And that questions, are you really a follower of Jesus?

Or are you just a fan? You know, when teams are bad, their stadiums aren't his fault. Although there's a few teams that have such a history that people will follow them no matter what. Doesn't matter. Dallas Cowboys fans. You talk about the five rings that happened like, I don't know, 17 presidents ago.

And then you can come back to Cardinals fans. We talk about the ring we never had. The one we should have won. But you know what? If you're truly a follower, not just a fickle fan, you stay committed. Go Cardinals. They're playing right now. They're probably already losing.

But tough times is a chance to ground. So I'm saying go Cardinals. Go get that first round pick, the number one pick in the draft. Don't be just kind of bad, just commit and rebuild the team. There's hope. But the idea is you got to genuinely say, if I'm truly a follower, I will intentionally construct my life around the gospel.

Church isn't something I go to. It's something I am. When I talk to people, know when a transition happens. Look at me. I love your church. I love your church. They keep saying your. When you say I love my church something's changed. It's our church. It's us. You are the church

people ask because hey, why are we you know, we're letting the high school have its homecoming dance and people get mad. Oh, you're letting high schoolers in there. They're gonna play crazy music and all. Yeah, they're renting our facility. They're just using our facility. We want them to have a safe place.

Know and we do it for free. It's cheaper for like someone complain on the other end. I can't believe the school is giving money to a church. What about separation church estate? The school defended us. The principles they wrote back. I go, you're crazy. Rock Point's the best. We don't they're saving us money. And how much this would cost? They do it all for free.

Testimony. And everyone's right, but you're gonna let that music and them be in the holy ground of the church? This building and this place is not the holy ground. You know the holy ground of the church is? Us. So you gotta ask yourself, where are you taking your holy ground in your life? And so are we truly

followers of Christ? Because followers produce followers. Because you say, well, you just care about the outsiders. No. We care about making disciples. And when he says go make disciples, a true disciple will make a disciple. So

if you are worried about us doing all this outreach and you're mad at that because you want depth and meaning, you're not a real disciple. You don't understand what it means to follow Jesus. You're focused on yourself and your own problems.

Tough times is a chance to take ground. It's a chance to use your story, your testimony. So anyway, when it says to witness, says you'll be my witnesses that means to give test of to testify to that's a court term when you give a testimony. It's your perspective, but it's about someone else.

Our story is supposed to be our point of view about Jesus to point people to Jesus.

That's what we need to be about. That's what we get to be about. Because then look what happens next. Verse 29. The Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage. So here's the Holy Spirit now. Tell him, go over to that guy. You hear him, go over there. Now here's the question. Did he

audibly hear the Holy Spirit? Because I think, first, we need to if we're gonna point people to Jesus, we gotta be a follower, not a fan. Secondly, it comes from the power of the Holy Spirit, not ourselves. We do the natural. He does the the supernatural. But this sounds kinda supernatural. How did he hear the voice of the Holy Spirit to go do? Some people go, I don't really always hear the voice of God. How do you know when to do that? How do you know the Holy Spirit talks to you? How do you

well, here's the thing. It could have been an audible voice. An angel told him to leave in the first place. That was an audible voice.

But, you know, you hear this you you hear all these stories. Jesus had an audible voice. God the father comes down and sends angels audible voice. But every time you talk about his prayer, it doesn't

flat out say it was an audible voice. What's interesting is it's always connected to the word of God. And that's primary. I preach on this a few weeks ago. You go study the holy spirit. The primary job the holy spirit does, he draws us to Christ, but he he helps grow us. And the one way Wayne way he grows us is he illuminates

the the word of God in our life. That's what changed Peter

from from fifty days before denying Christ all of sudden preaching a sermon where he goes through the whole testament and explains all about Jesus. He couldn't figure that out the whole time when Jesus was walking with him. What's different? You go in the book of Matthew, it says during the forty days after Jesus resurrected, Peter now has the holy spirit. It says by the power of the holy spirit, it illuminated the word of God to Peter. Jesus taught it, but now the Holy Spirit illuminated,

made it understandable and practical.

That's what the Holy Spirit does. He speaks to us through the word of God. If you have a hard time listening to Holy Spirit, it's because you're not listening. The way you listen is you need to be in the word of God. He always talks through the word of God, and he will bring it up. So you're like, well, I was reading the Bible. I'm going through the Bible. Day after day, I read this. Like, it doesn't speak to my life right now. It doesn't speak sometimes it does. You cry. It's powerful. It's awesome. But a lot of days, you're gonna read something and study it, and it doesn't actually feel like anything to you there. And then all of sudden, a week, a month, a year later,

you're in a situation, and all a sudden, that oh, man. I remember reading this in the Bible. And a lot of times, it's not even for you. You're dealing with someone else, and it comes out in a conversation, and you help them with it. But the Holy Spirit can't illuminate something you're ignoring.

And that's why so notice what happened right here. You said, well, well, how did that work in this case?

It says the Holy Spirit said to Philip, go over and walk along beside the carriage. What happened just before that? He listened. He meets this guy, and he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah. It makes the point that he was saying it out loud. Philip heard the word of God. What part of the word of God? We'll see him in Isaiah 53.

Isaiah 53 is a powerful passage describing Jesus hundreds and hundreds of years before he came. It describes how he is the lamb of God that would sacrificially die for us and and die unjustly

to to for us to to to heal us. Go read it. It is powerful, beautiful. You think Old Testament God is angry? It is all about the grace of God. Well, he hears that aloud. The Holy Spirit draws that. He had been one of those guys sitting in Acts two forty two, devoting themselves to the apostles teaching. They were always at church. They heard the word of God. They also met daily to discuss it and pray about it. He's in the word of God. He now knows the word of God, and he hears that. And the Holy Spirit goes, remember? That's about Jesus. That guy probably doesn't know.

That's how he heard God speak. And we know that because what he does next.

From the power of the Holy Spirit, it says look what he does. It says, Philip ran over and heard the man reading again. And he said, do you understand what you're reading? See, he realized I know what that means. I bet he doesn't. He's coming from Israel. He's a he's a God fearer, but he doesn't know this. Like, I didn't know this until we had the Holy Spirit to teach us. And he brought that passage to mind. He knows what he's saying. So he says, the man replied, how can I unless someone instructs me? And he urged Philip to come into the carriage and sit with him. The passage of scripture he had been reading was this. He was led like a sheep to the slaughter.

And as a lamb silent before the shears, he did not open his mouth. He was humiliated and received no justice. Who can speak of his descendants? For his life was taken from Earth. The eunuch asked Philip, tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else? So beginning with this same scripture,

Philip told him the good news about Jesus. He took scripture and walked through that passage and pointed him to Jesus. And so then what happens? Says as they rode along, they came to some water and the eunuch said, look, there's some water. Why can't I be baptized? Man, they got a really far into this conversation.

He's already understanding baptism and wants to get baptized. That's a he he got pretty far with this guy. And and and so when he says, why can't I be baptized? And Philip said, because you're not ready.

You see, you gotta wait till you're spiritual enough to not make God sickened by you when you get in that water. You know you're not really all in. You're not committed, so you can't get in the water because you're afraid you'll be a hypocrite.

And he said, you got to wait. And plus your aunt Edna wants to come all the way from Wisconsin to see it, so you got to wait.

And you haven't done our eight week baptismal class to learn what it is because you got to really know because you can't be speak up to spiritual enough. No, that's not what he did. He said stop the carriage and they went down. He baptized them. Why did he do that so fast?

Because baptism is a first act of faith. It's one of the first steps to hearing God. It doesn't make God love you. It's a it's a demonstration that I am accepting that love of God. I'm accepting

that death, burial, and resurrection of Christ is how I'm saved. I'm accepting that my old life dies and is buried because I am a sinner separated from God. But then I rise out of the water because the power of the Holy Spirit the love of Jesus. I have now been made new if you wait because you think you're not spiritual enough. You don't understand what being a Christian is in the first place Because waiting to be spiritual enough, you never will be.

If you're afraid that God knows what I did last night, great. But guess what? You're worried about that? Think about it. When when God knows what you did yesterday, today, he knows everything you're still gonna do. And he knew that when Jesus climbed on the cross. He knew that.

Getting in the water is a way of thanking God and identifying and saying, I can't believe in the state I am right now. All I know is he died and I can have life. And I'm still an idiot, and I'll probably still do a lot of idiotic things after I get out the water. But I'm taking that first step of trust and faith. So if you are a believer in this room

and has not been baptized, you need to get baptized. Because that's the first step. We think it's an act of maturity. I get mature, then I feel spiritual enough, then I feel good enough, then I get in the water. No. Getting in the water when you feel totally unworthy is the point.

It's a step that helps mature you. God, I can't believe you did this and I feel like an idiot, but And then the spirit empowers you and you go, well, maybe I should start changing my life to match this.

It's it's not the destination. It's fuel for the journey. And so in a few minutes when I close, we got water out there. We got people out there. We got towels. We got shorts. We got ushers. There is no excuse.

I am going to challenge you to start getting scared right now. You probably won't listen less my sermon, but join the 50 other people that have already done this this weekend even though we just baptized 230 couple weeks ago. Walk out there

and get in the water and if you're like, well, I'm not even sure if I understand who Jesus is, but I'm intrigued by all this walk out there and tell them that and they will explain it to you. It's in first you wanna start hearing from the Holy Spirit. You wanna start hearing.

You gotta be in the word, and then you gotta take those steps. Baptism is a first step of faith, not a final step of faith. That's what it is. See what it does in your life and you just start taking those steps because as we see what's happening here,

look what goes on. It gets crazy here. So he says, you ordered the carrot to stop. He goes down and baptize him. And then the understatement of ever, if there was ever scripture I said, I wish there was more information here. It just says, they came up out of the water, the spirit of Lord snatched Philip away.

And and the eunuch never saw him again. Like, that's all you're gonna say about that part? Ain't that weird? How did he get did he Mary Poppinsome right out of there? Did he scotty beam him away? I don't know.

Maybe he just got, hey, I gotta go. Someone came up and he had a message. You need to head this way. Because it says he was on his way to Sesser. Maybe he said, they need you in Seserah and he started out. Maybe that's what it meant. He snatched him away. He just it's time for him to go. But it says he he left. He never saw him again, but this man went away rejoicing.

And then look what Philip does. He goes all the way. God brings him away from the success to reach one guy. It says, meanwhile, Philip found himself farther north at the town of Asaasatos. He preached the good news there and in every town along the way until he came to Caesarea.

He just kept doing his job. Big group, little group, one person, didn't matter. He knew what the mission was. He knew what the do you know what the mission is guys? We are in a spiritual war.

He knew what he did it. So what did he but how did this work? It worked because by being a follower not a fan from the power of the Holy Spirit. And then if you look at this passage, it's with the word of God.

That's how we point people to Jesus.

A lot of you don't want to share any Jesus with anybody because you don't understand it's take your story know the word of God know a few verses know how to explain the gospel with the word of God. The word of God is the one thing that is sharper than to any two edged sword. You don't need to argue everything. Need to understand everything about philosophy. All you need to do is take the word of God in your word your story of how God has changed you and share the gospel clearly and the Holy Spirit does the rest.

A lot of us hold back because we're afraid and some of the fears are afraid of rejection, but it might happen. And usually the people want to share with these people we know which is a good place to start and you're afraid of what they're going to respond to.

But aren't you more afraid of what will happen in their eternity if they never know Jesus?

If you love somebody you will risk their rejection by loving them enough to share the gospel with them. It's true. And and and and this one guy and sometimes you think, well, is it really gonna make a difference? Is it gonna matter?

You know, it's cool about about this story that Philip got pulled away. Never saw this guy again has no idea what happened in his mind. He's probably like I left this big massive crowd got to leave lots of people one guy he probably thought that was success but would say Samaria was a bigger Ministry for him, right?

Well, here's the deal. We know from the church fathers that around January. They're already writing about a movement of the church in Ethiopia and Africa that spread out in Africa, which is now the ends of the earth. Everyone talks about Paul being the guy that took the gospel

way beyond into the ends of the earth. This guy went further than Paul ever went and we know now that he went back rejoicing. He started sharing the gospel a church movement got up a culture of Christ became it spread into other parts of Africa.

This man brought the gospel to Africa. That's where it started and it blew up. In Ethiopia January there was already a strong presence from him. And by the year March, two years after Rome declared this, Ethiopia was the second nation on Earth to declare itself a Christian nation. And when the Islam

kind of swept over the continent and really swept through Africa and a lot of and they did it in literal battle, turned away from this and turned to Islam or you'll die. Most of a lot of churches crumble, but not in Ethiopia to this day Ethiopia 78% of the people there still go to church every week.

98 said their faith is central to their lives.

Millions and millions of people have come to Christ in Africa, and it came from this one guy. Philip reaching this one guy reached more people for Jesus than how many people he reached in Samaria. You never know. Are you willing to love enough to care about the one? The reason we care to grow

is not because I just see a mass number. I just care about the one over and over and over again. And we're called to it. As my dad used to say, there's a difference between a soldier and a civilian is which way do you run when a battle begins? That's the difference. Soldiers run towards the battle. That's their job.

Civilians run away from the battle. As a Christian, we are soldiers. We are in a spiritual war whether you like it or not. That's what we are. And my dad used to say that's the job. If a soldier complains about battle, why are they a soldier? They may hate it. They may not like it. It's not pleasant, but that's the job.

Tough times when you see the battle, which way are you running? The battle for people to know Christ because you know what? Our enemy is not the people of the world. Our enemy is the system of the world. Our enemy is the enemy of God. The people out there are the prisoners of war.

Too many of us Christians we shoot at the prisoners of war when we should be fighting the enemy and trying to free the prisoners of war.

How about you? Because it is spiritual. How do I know this?

That spiritual warfare is very real. And every now and again, it busts out like it was in this church in Samaria where you start to see the demonic and the influence. And it does happen. It doesn't happen all the time. Satan doesn't need to possess everybody to get them to do stupid things.

But there are moments where Satan will come in and there will be demonic activity that is more clear and it's usually to scare people to frighten them to distract to destroy. That's what it's for. And there's two extremes of this. There's people that if you hear about this, you're like, no way. That's crazy. I don't accept it all

Or there's the other extreme that I'm worried about telling the story to you guys right now because you're the person like, yeah. Knew it. It's a demon behind everything. Joe Biden's a demon. That's a demon. Everything's a demon. It's all demons. That's not true either. We have personal responsibility.

We're all a bunch of sinners. We can muck up this world without Satan. But there are moments where he tactically moves in a very clear, strong way because he has an objective. And we as Christians gotta be aware of it. And the gospel is the main thing he tries to stop.

And and and so I know this because a couple weeks ago, a woman that's been coming to our church for all, heard her mom now know the Christ, she's married and has kids. It's wonderful. And how I know them expressed she used to be my neighbor when she was younger.

And it's crazy. They all know Jesus now and are in this church.

But she came to the prayer room and said, need to talk to Bill. I talked to her. I don't know why she didn't just come up to me and talk to me. So I go up. She goes, hey, Woody, why didn't you come? She said, I've been afraid. There's something I just feel the Holy Spirit through reading the word. You're talking about the Holy Spirit. I don't know why.

I just feel like I'm supposed to tell you this story. I'm like, okay. That's that's weird. But okay. Okay. Well, let's figure it out. Just tell me the scary part. Why are you afraid of telling me? Just dive in. She goes, okay. When I was 13 years old, I was demon possessed.

I go for a long time. No. It just was one night. And I go, okay. Tell me how that worked out because sometimes people just have a crazy ideas.

And she goes she starts to tell me your story. She goes it was this night. I was 13. No dad around my sister. My mom my mom was, you know, trying to be spiritual, but was getting involved in like dark spell like Wiccan and and seance kind of stuff trying to speak to the dead. She wanted to speak to people had people over they were doing all that. I was 13. I had very bad self esteem. I was struggling with depression. I was a loner and I think all of that influence all sudden one night. My mom had people over next thing, you know, I started acting weird and and I go weird how I go. Well, I can only tell you my mom told me because I don't remember it at all.

And that got me kind of intrigued because a lot of times when something like this happens, it's not you anymore. Doesn't remember the night out. It's only from her mom and her sister. I I mean, what happens? Because I started being very defiant and weird and they go what's wrong with you? And I went out in the garage and as I went in the garage because I started speaking my mom said and my sister freaked out. She started crying because I started using different voices and all sudden it wasn't just changing my voice. My voice sounded like a deep toned male voice. Then it sounded like just these voices started coming out and scaring and tearing my mom freaked out. Then when they tried to say, they tried to calm me down as I sat there all of a sudden the garage door, I never touched it. The garage door just went, it actually came off its hinges and crushed inward.

Had to get a new garage door.

And when I woke up the next morning, my mom was like, are you okay? Like she's I I I got I got account. I found a counselor. I'm taking notes like why? What happened last night what happened last night and she goes I didn't do that was a part took her out and showed her the garage door and her sister was still freaked out

and it woke her mom. So he took her to have found a Christian counselor, but what was weird is she goes when I woke up. I felt okay, But then I went and talked to the counselor. He told me about God. I started to lean, but I never really got it.

I kind of got it. I said I want to believe God. Don't want to you know, I kind of reached out. He prayed over me and then a few years later ended up ironically ended up at Rock Point and came to Christ here. Her mom came to Christ. Now she's married, beautiful kid, all this stuff. It's all transformed. She's here and she goes, I don't know. Maybe it's because you're my neighbor. I don't know. I just felt like I was supposed to tell you when I lived next to you. I go, wait. When this happened when you lived down the street from me? And I go, when? And that's when she said the exact date and I knew the time. And I go,

hair went up on my arms, goosebumps. And I said, did it happen like between one and 2AM? She goes, yeah. How do you know that? I go, I think I have answers for both of us.

She goes, what do you mean? She goes, on that exact time, I still remember this clear as day because this only happened to me one time. One time, it spilled over in this way. I woke up at 01:30 in the morning out of a dead sleep, and I instantly was wide awake and I felt terror.

It literally felt a physical like something was holding me down. And I was like terrorized. Was like, there is something in my room. And I sat there for a minute just feeling I was, like, shaking.

And at first, said, okay. Wake up, Bill. Maybe it's just you had a bad dream. Wake up. Okay. No. Maybe I'm having a panic attack. I know what panic attacks are. This isn't a panic attack. And I was, like

and then I thought for a minute, okay, maybe maybe I'm feeling there's something in my house. That's what it is. I heard something unconscious asleep and now I know there's someone in my house. So then I willed myself as scared as I was. I got up to go check on my kids And I went through and cleared the house. And

I was looking around and everything was fine. So I was like, but why do I still just feel this hopeless, this darkness, this terror? Just just I couldn't describe the sense of something was there.

So then I went out in the middle of my room. I stood in the middle of my family room. I could see out my front door has a window in it. I'm looking up the street and I'm looking around and I can't figure out what's going on. And then this is how the Holy Spirit speaks to the word of God illuminates it As I sat there, clear as day, I heard in my head a verse I had not read in years, but I remembered and knew it, called it out. It says, he who is in me is greater than he who is in this world.

And, like, why did that just pop into my head?

And then Ephesians six, put on the full armor of God so you can fight the arrows, the flaming arrows of the enemy. You need to understand the tactics. It says, understand the tactics of the enemy. That full armor of God is not talking about just physical battle. He's talking about the spiritual war we are in that we don't even see. This invisible war. And that mess that's and I started going through the armor of God and and the the shield of faith and the, you know, helmet of salvation. But then all of a sudden, stood out to me, just like it was almost like an audible voice, but it was a recalling of what I knew. I preached on it. And it and it was this idea of the sword of the spirit and the shoes of the gospel of peace. Because that whole illustration is using Roman armor and how they fight to describe how we need to learn to fight spiritually,

and the sword of the spirit's the only offensive weapon. So I heard, take your sword. This is not a chance to circle the wagons and step back. You need to attack something right now. You need to stand your ground. The shoes,

they put nails through their suit through their shoes so they had the original cleats. So when the Roman soldier fought, they could actually face someone and they could dig their feet in and get it solid. And I loved how the Holy Spirit brought to mind the very end of that passage. I love it. It says, put on the former of God and then and then and stand your ground. And this says, and when you've done everything to stand your ground,

then stand your ground. And that sounds repetitive, but it's really saying it's it's giving you the picture of the soldiers all suited up. He's walked out to get into battle array. The enemy's coming. He's about to fight. And what it says is you're like, I'm ready. I'm standing ground. But then the last thing they do is

plant that foot and then fight. That's what it's saying. And that was clear as day. And I realized I am in a spiritual battle like I've never experienced before. The the spiritual is busted into the physical and something's going on. Something's rotten in net mark. So I literally

did a I I decided to pray and I just I physically did that. I planted my foot. I did my best Gandalf. Thou shalt not pass. No. But but that was my prayer. It was basically

quoting scripture and praying, God, don't know what's going on, but something ain't right here. There's something wrong. There is a presence. There is an enemy doing something. I have no clue what it is, but I'm gonna I am just gonna call out and ask for your protection, for your angels to come into this moment, protect my family, protect my home. And as I started to build and pray this, I started to feel less fearful and more confident. And then all of a sudden, I just opened my eyes. And for whatever reason I fell out, I looked straight up. When I opened my eyes, I saw

the house. It was our former youth pastor's house, by the way. Because the way that our street bends, when I look right out my window, the first house I see is the house this girl lived in. And I felt led to say, I didn't think this is just about my house.

I said, God, and I pray for my neighbor right up there. I pray that whatever's going on in that house, that there is evil or there's something going on, that you will protect that family and show them Jesus, That they will come to know Jesus in a clear way. And I went and prayed for the whole neighborhood. And right when I got done praying, said in the name of Jesus and the blood of Jesus, I just pray and I have no idea what's going on, but I'm just gonna do what you asked me to do, God. I'm gonna do the natural and I'm gonna trust you to do the supernatural. In the name of Jesus, amen. Boom. And the second I said amen, I felt like Frodo.

It's finished. Sam, it's gone. I didn't feel any fear. I felt hope. I felt joy. I felt peace. I walked back in. I laid my head down and immediately fell asleep.

When I got up the next morning, my wife goes, How do you sleep? I go, Fine, except between about 01:30 and two. She goes, What happened? She goes, I think I did went to battle with Satan.

She goes, What? I go, Well, maybe it wasn't the main guy, but it felt very demonic in origin. And then she's like, you got to tell me about that. And I did. And then I went on my way, thinking I'll probably never know what that was about. But then I knew. It was that girl.

And guess what right around to her mom said you just stopped sat down the ground fell asleep. I put you to bed. It was done. Never happened again. And then she came to know Christ. God answered my prayer. She started crying sitting in that prayer room. She said, you prayed for me. I go, yeah. I didn't know I was. God

let me. I'm telling you guys. I got to be a part of it. The Holy Spirit did all the work. But he woke me up and said, hey. You want to be the tip of the spear? Grab your sword, plant your feet, and take ground. That, men.

So many of you are wandering through life going, why do I not feel like I have purpose even when I'm successful? Or you think all you gotta do is be better at your job and you'll be off purpose. No, you won't. You were built for this kind of battle.

That's what we're supposed to do. We're all supposed to do. But men, that's what it means when it says men be the leader in your home. God woke me up. I was the one that had to stand in the hallway there. You are the one that leads the way. Get in the fight.

Quit running from the battle, but get in the battle. And when times are tough, that's when you need to stand your ground even more. That's the whole point of the gospel.

We get the pleasure. Gets I mean, I got teary. It's like, had no idea that God used me to reach this whole family for Christ, and I actually got used to help protect that home that night.

Doesn't happen all the time that way, but it does happen. And the question is, if it ever happened to you, are you ready for it? Are you ready for it? So hey, here's what I'm gonna simply ask us to do. Take the first step. Some of us you already know the Lord. You've been baptized.

Where is tough times taking you out of the fight? Armor up, plant your feet and get back in the fight. Get back to putting your life around pointing people to Jesus, being the Church. But for some of you, like I already said, you need to take that first step. You know the Lord. Just as the eunuch said, we got water

and towels and shorts and shirts. It's 200 degrees out, so if nothing else, you'll be more comfortable than everybody else out there.

Go do it. What's stopping you? The only thing that's stopping you is an enemy, and he doesn't even care about you. He's trying to distract the church because he can't destroy it. So he wants to take us out of the fight.

Father God, I pray that we will not be distracted. We know we're not gonna be destroyed. And I pray that each one of us in our heart will understand the joy,

the joy of being in the fight, the joy of knowing Christ, the joy of what life is meant to be, that you give us that ability to have that courage to plant our feet in the gospel and take the sword of the spirit of your word and take ground, especially when times are tough.

I pray you will bless us with that joy. You'll bless us with that experience. And I thank you for what you're going to do in through and around us as we just trust you. Thank you for letting us be the tip of the spear of what you are doing in this world.

And I pray for those that need us get up and walk over there and courageously declare their faith before others in this concept of baptism. And Lord, may they not do it as they feel like an act of guilt or an act of I gotta do this to be loved, but it's actually a response to your love.

I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Love you guys.