Same Demons Different Day | Book of John | Week 9

Come on, we're gonna sing about God's amazing grace this morning. Anybody thankful for that in this room? Let's go. All right, come on, sing it. Thank You, Jesus. You have set me free. You welcomed me in, called me by name. Was dead in my sin, now I'm dancing on that grave. Hallelujah. It really is amazing grace. Oh, oh, oh. T'was grace that taught my heart to fear and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear! The hour I first believed. Oh, we're singing. Hallelujah. There's no chains on me. Thank you, Jesus. You have set me free. You welcomed me in, called me by name, was dead in my sin. Now I'm dancing on that grave. Hallelujah. It really is amazing grace. Hallelujah. All right, come on, we sing. I'll testify of what he did. He gave me life. I'm born again. My heart is free. My soul is saved.

It really is amazing grace. You sing. I'll testify of what he did. Oh, he gave me life. Yeah, I'm born again. My heart is free. My soul is saved. Let's go. It really is amazing grace. It really is. It really is. It really is amazing grace. It really is. It really is. Come on. We sing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. There's no chains on me. Thank you, Jesus. You have set me free. You welcomed me in, called me by name, was dead in my sin. Now I'm dancing on that grave. Hallelujah. It really is amazing grace. Come on. It really is. It really is amazing grace. It really is. It really is.

It really is amazing grace. Yeah. All right. Come on. All right. Thanks and praise. All right. Come on. We're going to continue to worship. We're going to lift up the name above all names. The beautiful name of Jesus. The wonderful name of Jesus. The powerful name of Jesus this morning. So come on. We lift our voices. We lift our hands to the heavens. We sing. We lift our voices. We lift our hands to the heavens. We sing. You are the word at the beginning. One with God, the Lord most high. Now revealed in you are Christ. What a beautiful name it is. Come on. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a beautiful name it is. And nothing compares to this. What a beautiful name it is. The name of Jesus. The name of Jesus. You didn't want to live in without us. So Jesus you brought heaven down. Thank you Lord. The sin was great, your love was greater. So what could separate us now? What a wonderful name it is. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a wonderful name it is. And nothing compares to this. What a wonderful name it is. The name of Jesus. Oh, the name above all names. Oh, wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, mighty God. What a wonderful name it is. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. Come on, we lift our voices. Death could not hold you. Yeah, come on. Silence the boast of sin and grave. The heavens are roaring. The praise of your glory. For you are raised to life again.

You have no rival. You have no equal. Now and forever God you rule. Yours is the kingdom. Yours is the glory. Yours is the name above all names. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a powerful name it is. And nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. He has no rival. What a powerful name it is. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus Christ, my King. What a powerful name it is. And nothing can stand against. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. What a powerful name it is. The name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Come on. Hey, my name's Ellis. I'm the Lafayette Discipleship Pastor. Good to be in church, let's go. Hey, we just wanna take an intentional moment to pause. Man, we just sang this song about the powerful and beautiful name of Jesus. And we're gonna sing our next song, we're gonna learn it together today. It's called The Mighty Name of Jesus. And if you're new around church, you might be asking yourself, man, why do they sing so many songs about the name of Jesus? Well, I think you'd agree with me, names have meaning. Names are powerful. Man, even right now, if I stood on this stage and listed off a few names, I could evoke every emotion on the spectrum. I could evoke a lot of anger. I could evoke elation and joy. I could evoke support for a name or rejection for a name. In the Old Testament, it teaches us this as well. So many times in the Old Testament, what we see is that a name has almost the power of life and death, has the power to set a tone

and a trajectory for someone's life. A name could be a blessing, a name could be a curse. So as we start reading scripture and we get to a chapter like Philippians chapter two, we better stop and read that chapter thoroughly because it is just that good for you and me. We better write some dang songs about it. This is what Philippians chapter two has to say about the name of Jesus. Paul writes, hey, you and me, the church, we should have the same exact attitude as Jesus Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God, something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. He humbled himself, taking on the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. It says, being found in appearance as a man, he became obedient. Jesus, God became obedient to death, even death on a cross. This is where it gets good. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess, on earth and under the earth, that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So why do we sing about the name of Jesus? If you're new around here, we want you to make no mistake, we're here for one reason and one reason only, and that is to lift up high the name of Jesus. And if you're walking in here,

I don't know how you're walking in today, maybe you're in a great season, maybe you're in a season of struggle. Maybe you're walking in and you're in a room of 3,000 people and you are lonely, isolated. Can I tell you you're not alone? In our study guide this week, we would have gone through John chapter 11 if you've been following along. And in John chapter 11, Jesus goes toe to toe with death, and he calls a man named Lazarus out of the grave. Back to life. He says, roll away the stone. A dead man walks out of the grave, back into life, yet there's something significant binding Lazarus to the tomb. It's the clothes that he was buried in. And then what Jesus does next is profound for us, church. He doesn't go, Lazarus, unbind yourself, get out of the grave clothes. Instead, he points to the village, he points to the village, the community, the tribe, the people that he did life shoulder to shoulder with. And he says, you go unbind this man from his grave clothes, set him into new life and send him into freedom. And that's what we're doing here today. Look to your left, look to your right. You stand shoulder to shoulder with people who are declaring the name of Jesus together. So can we, with one voice,

declare the mighty name of Jesus. Come on, let's sing it. Come on. ♪ I pray into the atmosphere ♪ ♪ Spirit of God, you're here ♪ ♪ You have all authority ♪ ♪ I pray over my heart and mind ♪ ♪ I am healed by your stripes, your blood ♪ ♪ Declares that I am free in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I pray calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ Must break in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ And I draw a permanent boundary line ♪ ♪ The enemy has no right to come near my family ♪ ♪ No scheme could ever undo God's plan ♪ ♪ No matter the circumstance ♪ ♪ The cross has sealed my destiny ♪ ♪ It's in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I pray, calling on the power of heaven ♪ ♪ I proclaim, every weapon formed against me ♪ ♪ Hell must break, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ It's in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh, I know, all the power of fear and darkness ♪ ♪ Hill must fall, He's every key to every victory ♪ ♪ I hope, it's in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ I will not fear, I will not fear when the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life, it's the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ And I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides, by the blood of Jesus, sing out ♪

♪ I will not fear, I will not fear when the enemy comes near ♪ ♪ On the doorframe of my life, it's the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ And I will not fear, I will not fear ♪ ♪ There's an army of angels here ♪ ♪ I'm protected on all sides, by the blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ It's in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ It's in the mighty name of Jesus, oh I pray ♪ ♪ Calling on the power of heaven, I proclaim ♪ ♪ Every weapon formed against me, you must pray ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, it's in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ Oh I know, all the power of fear and darkness, oh it must go ♪ ♪ He's every key to every victory, I know ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ ♪ In the mighty name of Jesus, in the mighty name of Jesus ♪ Wow, Ellis is trying to take my job down here. He was preaching, wasn't he? Come on. Hey, let's just make that song our prayer. In the name of Jesus, we just call on you, Lord. Fill this room. We come against anything in the name of Jesus that disagrees with what you say is true about us. In the name of Jesus, you have the power to break darkness. In the name of Jesus, we tell the enemy, you can't have my family anymore. You can't have my marriage anymore. You can't have my body anymore. I belong to Jesus and Jesus alone. There's no name like his. There's no power like his. Nothing as wonderful and beautiful as the name of Jesus

and we claim all of that name for our lives right now. Holy Spirit, teach us more about your son, Jesus. That's why we're here. We wanna know him more. There's no one like him. We love him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen? Come on. Woo, hey. Hey, welcome to Flatirons. Turn to somebody right now. Welcome them, introduce yourself, and then go ahead and have a seat. Woo. All right. Man, it's good to see you all today. Hey, don't tell my doctor I'm wearing boots because I'm wearing my new belt buckle that I got. Come on. You can't wear this buckle. He's gonna call me later. I know that, but anyway. Hey, before we get into this, first of all, if you're new here and you wanna get more involved in information, just text NEXT to 80857 and then we'll send you some Bible verses and some thoughts throughout the week. You can do that on your phone right now. Also, in all of our lobbies, there's a new here place

that you can stop by and go, I have a question about how did you hire such a handsome pastor? And they'll answer that. It's not funny, but anyway, if you have your Bibles, we are working our way through John, so we're gonna be in John chapter 12. We're gonna start in John 11. We're actually gonna start in Ephesians six, but just get your Bibles out. You're gonna need those later. So let me tell you how today's teaching is gonna go, because some of you are going like, what kind of church did I end up in here? And I had back surgery, that's why I'm sitting down a lot. But anyway, we're gonna go through John chapter 11 and John chapter 12, all right, and a few other places. And I'm gonna pull out some really important truths of what John, the author, says. This is what Jesus said, and this is what Jesus did, and this is what Jesus told us to do. And then I'm gonna take those truths and apply them to our real current lives and what's going on in this world, in this culture right now, because Jesus does not allow us the luxury, the posture, the position of just hearing religious stuff and going, okay, I believe, that's it. Jesus said, unless you take what I tell you is true and actively, as in take action with it, like in the Sermon on the Mount, he says,

put it into practice, if you don't do that, then your belief system is meaningless, it's just religion, and it will crumble when storms hit your life, and they will, all right? So I'm gonna be honest with you, I strongly believe everything that I'm about to say and teach today, or I wouldn't say it or teach it. I also know this, especially the last half of the message, you might wanna leave now, because it's gonna get crazy in here, all right? But it has the potential to bring up all kinds of emotional responses in us, which I would say, actually, our spiritual disturbance or defensiveness is gonna come up in us, because much of what I'm gonna say or what Jesus is gonna say today is gonna kind of run head-on into the reality of what a lot of us have chosen to pursue and desire and value in our current lives, as well as what we're willing to look at and see it for what it really is. It's ugly, right, it's dark, and hopefully, we're gonna look at this and go like, okay, that's not okay, that's not okay, not on my watch, and then I'm gonna rearrange my life and take action to bring about change to move our lives and our world back to what God says is right and true. Now, some of, I know what I'm gonna say. Some of you are gonna sit and go like,

he's a conspiracy theorist, and I can't be, because it's fun, all right, but, and some of us are gonna, you're gonna accuse me of being political, which I can be, but I'm not gonna be today, I think, all right, and some of us, are you nervous yet? Because I hope you're on a seat belt, because here we go, all right. Some of you are gonna agree that what I say is true, but at the same time, in the same moment, you go, that's true, you're also gonna make a decision, I'm not gonna do anything with that, because if I were to change anything, it would cost me so much, and it would intrude on how I live my life, or the reverse of that, we're gonna tell ourself, okay, what Jim's up there saying is true, but it's really none of my business, you know, it doesn't affect me, it's not that bad, didn't really touch my family, and I'm busy, so it's not worth my attention. Some of us, though, I hope will take this to heart and possibly make big changes as to what we want our lives to be defined by and leveraged for, and if we'll do that, then people's lives will really be saved and changed, because we really believe around here, free people, free people, okay, it's not just a slogan. See, we see slavery and evil, and we just won't pray about it, we will pray about it,

we won't just pray about it and shake our heads and say, you know, somebody should do something about that. Hopefully, we're gonna pray about it, say amen, get off our knees and go, that someone is me, I'm gonna do something about this. Now, having said that, before we open God's word, I know what I'm gonna say, so we're gonna pray again. You can get prayed for like five times a day. Hope that's okay, but let's just pray really quick, and then we'll open God's word and see what he has to say to us. So God, in this moment, just calm us down, because some of us are right now nervous, going like, I think this is about to intrude in my life, and your word does, it's like a double-edged sword, and it goes right to the heart. It says, this is what's really going on, and because you love us so much, you wanna teach us truth that's good for us and good for our families and good for our marriages, good for our world, good for our heart. So Holy Spirit, we pray this all the time, just do whatever you wanna do in these next few minutes to tell us what you say is true and what you want us to do with that. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Okay, so before we get into John 12, we're gonna start in John 11, but if you have a Bible with you, I want you to skip over to Ephesians chapter six.

So it's towards about the middle of the New Testament. It's a passage that, in the last couple years, we've studied many, many, many times, but in light of the current condition of the world, which is crazy, all right, we should probably reread this and review this every week in here, as well as you should, I don't know, print it out and post it around your house and put it above your TV or your computer screen kind of as a filter that you're gonna view everything that's going on in the world through these verses, which we will see Jesus is gonna refer to these verses, but here's what Paul is teaching. He writes this in Ephesians chapter six. Look at this, he says, finally, he says, be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might. So he's gonna make us strong if we'll lean on him for strength, all right? Put on the whole armor, you're gonna need all of it, the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil and his specific schemes, all right? Paul is reminding us that there's a war being waged on you. All right, all mankind, but on you, he's saying, the noun or the verb there is specifically like you've been reconned, researched,

and the devil has saying, I know where she's weak. I know where I can get her, right? And it's formed against you. There's another one for her, another one for that guy over there, but you, he knows you. And his goal is, I wanna steal, kill, and destroy you and everything and everyone connected to you. But Paul's saying, it's not gonna feel obvious, but it is originating and it's coming from a place that's on a higher or maybe a lower or darker level, but it's being played out all around you every day. But if you don't pay attention, if you don't get strong, all right, it's stronger than you and it will consume you and it will crush you. And here's what he's talking about, verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers. If you have your Bible, underline those two words, the cosmic powers over this present darkness, this is the world we live in, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand firm. So Paul's making reference to the demonic attack on every one of us in every part of our life.

And he says it's gonna feel like in the day-to-day life, you're just gonna look around the world and go like, yeah, it's just bad people doing bad stuff, right? And Paul's saying that's part of it. But it's part of the deceitful scheme against you because you're gonna look at the world and you're gonna minimize it, you're gonna blow it off as, well, that's too outrageous or gross to even think about, so I don't wanna think about it. But Paul is saying, if you will open your spiritual eyes and pay attention and look deeper into what's really going on, while it may appear to simply be bad people doing bad stuff over there, in reality, it is a specific scheme of the devil against you. It's coming after you. Originating and being driven by authorities and cosmic, which literally means this. Cosmic powers means this. Cosmic means world power holders and spiritual forces of evil located or grounded in spiritual demonic darkness. And these cosmic powers have one agenda, to steal, kill, and destroy your life. They're coming after your marriage, your family, your children, your identity, your sexuality, whatever it takes. There's a specific scheme and agenda being played out against you. Always has been, always will be, until Christ comes back.

Now, I look around this room. I'm sure it's happened to the campuses, too. There's a bunch of you sitting in chairs and going, I agree, I agree with that, I agree with that. Because no matter where you are on the faith spectrum, a little belief, a lot of belief, most of us feel this sometimes. We feel like there's some kind of intentional spiritual attack on all or specific parts of our life. I'll prove it. Raising your hand, has anybody ever felt like their life, their marriage, or their family, has been under spiritual dark attack at one time or another? Look around. You feel it, and if you feel it, pay attention to that, because that's what's happening. And while it all comes from the originator of evil, Jesus is gonna point to three main cosmic power sources that every one of us will have to deal with and encounter every day of our life. Jesus calls them out and reveals them for what they are or for what they have become as opposed to what they were meant to be. Because these powers we're gonna look at, they were meant, they were created to serve and care for people. But they have abandoned that mission for something else. And this is where I'm gonna lose some of you, all right?

I'm gonna lose a lot of you later, but here, you're gonna write me off as a conspiracy theorist, but if you look around our world, it's really hard to write this off as conspiracy, because we're living it in real time. Because the big three that Jesus is gonna point to today are government, money, and religion. Can I get an amen? All right, I just need this crowd to talk to me a little bit more, all right? I just feel like I'm just talking to a vacuum out there. All right, can you, all right? If you agree, I'm gonna say some stuff, and I'm like, I might be the only one in the room unless I hear from you, okay? So for the sake of today, let's just call those three things the same thing Paul called them, all right? Corrupt government, corrupt wealth and commerce, and corrupt religion. Paul calls them the cosmic powers that run the world. All right, come on, let's go, all right. Now, if all that sounds like, well, this is gonna be depressing, I'm glad I came, let me skip to the end as to what Jesus promises about the cosmic powers and the one that runs them. Look at this, this is John 12. He says, now is the judgment of this world, this cosmic world. Now will the ruler of this cosmic world be cast out, and when I'm lifted up from the earth,

I will draw all people to myself. So while Jesus makes it clear, he didn't come to judge you, he came to save you, but he also makes it clear, a day is coming when he will judge the world and the ruler of the world will be cast out as well as those who he deceived and chose him. Jesus will do that when he is lifted up. He says, talking about his crucifixion, his death, his burial, his resurrection, and then through his spirit moving and working in us until he eventually comes again. That's how Satan's gonna be defeated. But Jesus makes it clear, until that day, the cosmic powers will never change their colors, the world's gonna continue to get worse, not better, and those powers will do whatever is necessary to eliminate or silence anyone or anything that threatens their power. power, their control, and their never-ending desire for greed and more wealth. Now, through that lens, let's read the Bible. Because this is the lens that Jesus saw the world, okay? So if you have your Bibles, we're gonna pick up in John chapter 11. Now, let me summarize it, because I think you read some of this in your study guide this past week. If you don't have a study guide, they're in the lobby, all right? It's a great story of Jesus raising one of his best friends. His name's Lazarus, who's been dead for three days,

and he calls him out of the tomb, and it blew people's minds, okay? And then the fame of Jesus, and people started putting their faith in Jesus, like it took off, because this is undeniable. We were at the funeral three days ago. We saw dead Lazarus, and then Jesus spoke, and he walked out. We saw it happen. And the only person that could be able to do something like that, according to our Bible, is the Messiah. So maybe, you're saying there's a chance, right? Verse, thanks, a dumber, dumber quote there. Here we go, all right, all right. So John chapter 11, verse 47. So that just happened. So the chief priest and the Pharisees, corrupt religion, gathered the council and said, what are we gonna do? For this man performs many signs, and we watched it happen. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans, corrupt government, will come and take away both our place and our nation. Now, notice what they don't talk about. They don't even entertain the idea that, you know, maybe he's the Messiah, that we've been teaching and preaching on, we've been telling our people for years, that God's gonna keep his promise, don't give up, he's gonna send the Messiah. Two weeks ago, we looked at a big festival, right,

a big holiday, and it was all about the promise. God's gonna send his Messiah. But that's not what they're talking about. No, what they're talking about is Jesus is checking off all the boxes of what the Messiah will do, but if we let Jesus go on like this, everybody's gonna believe in him, and we'll lose everything. And we made a deal with Rome. Religion made a deal with Rome. The evil empire that invaded their land, slaughtered and crucified our people. Rome, the government that claims that Caesar is the only God, which violates everything in Scripture that we say we believe, but we struck an alliance with corrupt government, and they'll allow us to be a little bit religious, as long as our faith doesn't interfere with the agenda of the government. Does that sound familiar? And under that table, we can get rich off the people God told us to take care of by charging them money to have access to God. The corrupt religious leadership, in bed with the corrupt government, lived like kings, corrupt wealth, while the people lived in poverty. Same world. Now, skip down to John 12. I'm just getting warmed up. Skip down to John 12. So we're gonna pick up this story this week.

It's about a week before Jesus is gonna be arrested, and Jesus is back in this little town called Bethany, right outside of Jerusalem. That's where Lazarus lives, who he raised from the dead, and he has two sisters, Mary and Martha. Now, Mary, one of the sisters, as an act of Jewish hospitality, all right, it won't make sense in America, but this is what they did back then, or gratitude, so thanks for raising my brother from the dead. Mary takes a pound of expensive ointment and dumps it on Jesus' feet. That's a lot of ointment. I just thought about that this week. How much ointment does it take? A pound, anyway, I'm sorry. And then wiped his feet with her hair. And again, we don't, that doesn't make sense, but it's an ancient Jewish hospitality gratitude. And Judas, right, the treasurer, he loses his mind, because that's expensive stuff. Look at this, verse four of chapter 12. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, and John always sticks this in here, he who was about to betray him. He's not gonna let us forget that, all right? So anyway, he said this. Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii? That's 300 days of wages.

Why was it not sold and given to the poor? Then John puts this in. He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief and having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, leave her alone, so she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me. Sidebar, soapbox. You know what drives me crazy? So many things, and you know who you are. When people say or email or post stuff like, I can't believe it, Christians. I can't believe Flatirons spent so much money on this or that or what, on buildings, on kids' rooms. I heard they hired an orchestra for Christmas. Do you know how many poor people that could have fed? I got that email. Now what I should do is I should point to Scripture and show examples of how people throughout history have brought their best gifts and their talents and beauty and art to be used to bring attention and worship to God. That's what I should do. But what I wanna do is, I can't, but I'll tell ya. Don't tell anybody, but here's what I would. So you care about the poor, do ya?

How about this? You go sell your house and your car. You downsize your lifestyle, give the gap to the poor instead of hypocritically telling other people what they oughta do with their money while you do little to nothing with yours. You go first. Because if you don't go first, you're in the same boat with Judas. You have charge of your money bag and rather than using it for the poor. or you're a thief and you're helping it for yourself, pointing at others and criticizing them to distract that you're stealing from God. That's what I wanna say, but I'm not gonna say that. That I think it, so anyway. Here's my point, you can erase that part from the, I don't care, right? We all live in the same tension. The same one that Judas lived in. Well, what are we gonna choose? We will pick a power to submit our lives to. We all will choose that. The power and name of Jesus or the power of this world. Money and what we think that our faith in money can secure for us. That really only Jesus can. See, Jesus said this. He says, you cannot serve both God and money. And actually, that's a mispronunciation, really.

Because what Jesus said was, you cannot serve both God and mammon, all right? And mammon was a name of a pagan demon that promised wealth and success. You would just worship him. File this away, we'll come back to it. Different day, same demons. All right, come on, I am coming, all right? Now look at this, all right? Because it's not enough to just go after Jesus, all right? They're not done. Look at this, verse nine. When the large crowds of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, because on account of him, many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. This is how the powers of this world always work. So don't miss this, Christians, because so many Christians, we naively pray this. Oh, Jesus, I'm trying to follow you, and I'm doing my best, and I just don't understand why all these bad, hard, unfair things happen to me. I thought if I had faith in you, and if I followed you, and you'd keep all the bad stuff away from my family,

and put this Jesus bubble around us, my money, my health, my kids. Why is this happening? Well, buckle up, buttercup. Here's why, right? Because you signed up for it. You signed up to follow a savior who says, hey, if you follow me, pick up a cross. Deny yourself. Walk a narrow, different path. Enter through a different, narrow gate that most people have no desire to find. You follow a Lord, Savior, and King to the powers, the rulers of this age, nailed to a cross. What do you think they're gonna do to you? See, if you publicly live out your faith, and live a changed life that can only be explained by the power of Jesus, change me. He gave me a new life from above. The powers of this world will be threatened by you, and they will come after not only Jesus, but anyone whose life testifies to the power and the name of Jesus and what he can do in a person's life. It cannot let you get out of him because then more people might believe in Jesus, and we'll lose our power and our income. This is how the world works. Now, keep going.

The next section in John 12, it's called the triumphal entry, all right? And Jesus rides into Jerusalem on this little donkey just a few days before he's crucified. We usually celebrate it like the weekend before Easter called Palm Sunday, all right? And big crowds are there, and they're cheering for him, and Lazarus is walking right there beside him, and people are going, that's Lazarus. He was dead, and I saw Jesus bring that guy back to life. And the response of the government, sponsored money-loving religion, again, it wasn't, maybe we should check out this Jesus. No, it's like this. Hey, we're gonna lose everything because of Jesus, so kill him now. Now, we're gonna skip over a lot of this. I was gonna skip over this next section, not because it's not important, but because it's so important. Full disclosure, I'm gonna save it for Easter. It's that good, all right? So I promise I'll come back to it on Easter, but I wanna skip down to a verse. It's really a directive repeated over and over in all the Gospels from Jesus' teaching. This is Jesus' teaching about the choice that every one of us, every man and woman, will have to make, all right, down in verse 25. This is Jesus talking, look at this.

He says this, he says, and I'll explain all this because it's a little bit confusing. He says, anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Now, I wanna leave that up there. Let's break it down. First, jump to the middle of the sentence because there's a phrase that applies to both loving your life and hating your life, and the phrase is this, in this world. In this world, you're like, what world? This world, the one that's being controlled and run by the spiritual powers of darkness that are trying to dictate to you how you should live your life. It's the same world that Paul writes about in Romans chapter 12. He says, don't be conformed to the patterns like the operating systems, how this world runs, all right? Don't say yes to that. The powers of this world say, this is what's good, this is what's right, this is what's wrong, this is what's bad, this is what's true, all right? According to the world's own self-interest, they're always looking out for themselves, never you. Jesus says, listen, I'll tell you what's right and wrong and true and not true. Paul says, don't conform to it. Why?

Jesus tells us, because look at this next verse. Anyone who loves their life in this world, you'll lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If we love our life in this world, love means this, all right? Anyone who holds onto intimate love, intimately entwined, is deeply committed to what this world promises to deliver you, if you'll embrace it, if you'll love this world. what this world says is true. Which by the way is, again, only to enrich itself. The world will never look out for you, right? If you hold onto your life by loving what the world loves, you'll lose everything, probably not by Tuesday, but this is where it goes. But he says, listen, the world never changes. The thief only comes. We've been talking about it last week. The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. There's no other agenda this world has for you. But whoever hates his life in this world, and hate means this, an aversion towards something that usually means I wanna be separate, right? The one who hates and the thing hated, I'm gonna put distance between, all right? So if you will see the world for what it is, not something to love and embrace, as something that can deliver love to you, it cannot, but something to put space between you and this thing,

the spiritual powers that wanna destroy you. I gotta put some space between us, all right? The result is you'll keep your life for eternity. Then Jesus cuts to the chase, verse 26. If anyone serves me, you gotta follow me. And where I am, there you will be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will take care of you. The Father will honor you. Again, we looked at this a couple weeks ago. There's no middle ground with Jesus. If you claim to serve him, then you have to follow him. Where I go, we're going too, right? And where I go, Jesus says I'm right there with you. You'll never be alone. If you choose to serve Jesus, the Father will honor you. Now, all of that makes sense, okay? And many of us, again, are saying or thinking, like in our minds, yeah, that logic, that makes sense, right? But here's where you're gonna get hung up. When you say, I'm gonna pray about it, I'm gonna think about that. What you really mean is this. If you stop and really grasp what Jesus means and how it would impact your life, if you truly embrace what Jesus says is true, things would be different. For me, when I say that phrase, I think about 20 things come to mind right now. That's gonna need to change. I need to start doing that, stop doing that,

increase that, decrease that. But for the majority of us, we won't do anything with this teaching today. And here's why. I wanna show you one more passage, all right? And in this, John is not referring to the evil cosmic powers that run the world. He's talking about us. He's talking about people who claim to believe, but nothing changes in our life. And here's why, look at verse 42. He says, nevertheless, many, even of the authorities, believed in him. So some people were leaning in, nodding their heads, right? They heard Jesus say that. Maybe they sat in rooms like this or sat in chairs like this. They nodded their heads and thought, yeah, I actually believe what he's saying is true. But for fear of the powers that run the world, run your job, run your school, run your business, run religion, control where the money comes from, right? We might lose all that if we follow Jesus. Because of that, they did not confess it so that they would not be put out of the synagogue. They'd get kicked out. Here's where a lot of us land. If I make a change in my life, it would, Jim, you have no idea what that would cost me.

I might lose her or him. I might get kicked out of this thing. And I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can pay that. I don't know if I'm willing to lose that. So John cuts to the heart of the matter. Here's the big reason why most of us don't follow Jesus. He's gonna be very honest. Four, they love the glory that comes from people. The reward this cosmic world says, I'm gonna give you all that you need, more than the glory that comes from God. That's the choice that we live in, right? Now what does all of that have to do with us right now living in this time, this moment, this culture, this country, this state, this city, this church, everything? I'll say it again, different day, same demons. And I'll say this, they have the same goal, steal, kill, and destroy anything aligned with Jesus. They have not changed. So here we go. You ready? I'm not responsible for your response, by the way, or your decision what you're gonna do with this. I'm only responsible. Sorry, that is water, I promise. I believe God's given me an amount of leadership and anointing to teach the word of God. I believe that, I don't apologize for it.

I believe God has revealed to me by his spirit what he says in his word. And I'm gonna apply this best as I know how, right? From listening to the Holy Spirit and apply it to our lives and the world that we live in. This is what God has told us to do. Jesus told us to be salt and light in the world. The Old Testament prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah command God's people to look out for the welfare of their city and their nation. And if we don't do that, it will not go well for the world or for us, God's people. So how are we gonna be salt and light in a pornographic dark world? What will we do when the enemy who is clearly evil seeks the destruction of all things good, holy, pure, and sacred? I'm asking, right, what will we do? Not what should be done or what should other people do. What will we do? And here's why, because all the prophets, teachers, and writers of the Bible, all great men and women, all the great saints and leaders and pastors of the past, they're all dead. They're not here. And they have handed the church of Jesus Christ to us. This is the we I'm talking about. This is our time and this is our watch. What will we do with it? What world will we hand our children?

When our children ask us, and I don't care if you're 16, eventually, down the road, they're gonna look at you, what happened to our world on your watch? What did you do to fight against the evil powers and fight for the truth of Jesus? Most of us here, here's why, we're gonna say something like this. You know it is what it is. Don't ever say that to me. What it is is a punch in the face, that's what you, right, that's right, it's like. I mean, we're gonna look at people and go like, well, seriously, what was I supposed to do about the world that would've made a difference? So here's reality of what I did, son, grandson, right? I just kind of checked out, because it was so dark and ugly, I didn't want to think about it. Or I pretended like, oh, I know, it's not that bad, all right, and I didn't think it would affect me or my family or my marriage or me, but looking back, I guess I should've done something. Said every Christian in Germany, before, during, and after the Nazis slaughtered millions of Jewish people, which makes their silence complicit with what happened. Here's my point, right? Jesus said it, you have to choose. If you love me, follow me. Wherever I go, you go with me.

Or love the world and follow it, so you get the glory that comes from this world that can really only come from God. See, some of us, many of us, most of us as Christians, here's what we think, somebody told us this earlier. When you become a Christian and a follower of Jesus, you're supposed to distance yourself from sin and brokenness of the world. That's not what Jesus said. What Jesus told us is that we have to hate, we have to distance ourselves from the systems of the dark world that are running this world. And then with that clarity, we run back into the lost and broken world with the gospel of Jesus, fully armed with the armor of God, and we fight for those who are being ripped off, killed, and destroyed by those very systems. This is the job of the church. Instead, Christians, at best, we ignore it or pretend it's not that bad, or worse yet, we just play along with the world. We're just like the world, the dark cosmic world that demands, follow me, and we follow. You say, what do you mean? You know what I mean, look at your life, look at my life. As I, what I'm about to say is true. You're just gonna sit there going, I don't want, I wish I had gone to the bathroom during this part, right? Because you know it's true, but it'd be so intrusive if you made a change in your life.

Or I'll just throw something out, all right? But you're already thinking, all right? All of Hollywood, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, here's what they know, if Christians say no to their product, we're not gonna give any more money to glorify sin on screen. They're done, because they won't have any more money. But we say nothing or do nothing. You know what we get? The worst Super Bowl halftime show in history. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you. Bad Bunny, his biggest claim to fame is gender-bending anti-American rants. How's that happen? Because nobody said no. And by that I mean this, I won't give any more time or my attention or money. Instead, we said yes, Bad Bunny becomes the number one streamed artist, passing Taylor Swift, who normalizes witchcraft in her music. Sorry, not sorry. See, message to the cosmic powers is this. Keep doing what you're doing,

and we'll fund it and we'll consume it. Christians, we do that. Let's just push into this thing. Some are going, no, don't push anything. No, no, all right. How about this? Pornhub, number one website in the world. Every pornographic website knows that if Christians were to stop engaging in porn, there would be no more advertising revenue, which means there would be no more trafficking, because 90% of the people in pornography are being trafficked, 90%. That statistic comes from our new partner in our anti-trafficking initiative. And most likely, YouTube's gonna shut me down because I used the word porn because they have such high standards. See, so sorry, I'm off the air now probably. But if Christians keep on saying it's not that bad, then the powers continue to thrive and take more power. I mean, just look at the last year. Sean P. Diddy, whoever, spent years organizing sex parties for the elite of Hollywood. He gets four and a half years. He gets two counts of transportation to commit prostitution and 50 civil suits for sexual abuse, and he's gonna be out in four years? He oversaw the rape of children. He gets a slap on the wrist,

and he'll be right back at it in four years. And listen, I'm obsessed with this, all right? You can't, I've watched a lot of docu, you can't ignore the testimony of the Epstein files. You can't. Anybody been watching the Ten of Panthers already? If only a fraction of it's true, then everything is corrupt to the core. Presidents, royalty, all of them, politicians, billionaires, prime ministers, music, sports, movie stars, corrupt government, corrupt wealth and power, and somewhere in there, wait, it's coming, all right? I would say corrupt religion. It's probably satanic, ritualistic abuse. Same demons, different day. They've all bent their knee to the spiritual powers of this world, and Jesus pointed to, and Paul warned us, you gotta be on your guard against, because they're tricky, and those same powers rooted in darkness will use everything at their disposal to get us to ignore and downplay what's happening, or better yet, come join us. See, if Christians continue to operate by the systems of this world, by downplaying the evil of this world, by minimizing the sin that's not so slowly killing our souls, our marriages, our children, our mental health, by continuing to choose the love of this world

instead of the love and truth of Jesus, if Christians continue to be ruled by the powers of this world, the powers ruled by the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy your life, then the spiritual evil powers of this world will continue to prosper, but God. God. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. If we've just listened to God, if we Christians would say no to this world and yes to Jesus, and separate ourselves and distance ourselves from the powers of this world, Jesus said we would actually experience eternal life. But we choose money and comfort and entertainment over Jesus, we choose power over Jesus, we choose control and influence, we choose for they love the glory that comes from people's approval more than the glory that comes from God. Even though I've yet to meet a person who says my highest goal and glory is pursuing money, I've yet to have met that person who's happy and satisfied. I haven't met him or her yet. I haven't met a person who consumes pornography who can look at me in the eye and go I love my life and what's going on in my heart. I haven't met him yet. But I have met countless people who have surrendered

their life to Jesus, and they follow him, and then whatever money, a lot or a little, whatever power or influence they have, whether it's met with approval or disapproval, those people have found peace. Isn't that what you're looking for? And joy, and they know that they are living a life of significance because Jesus is their life, and everything they have is from Jesus and it's to be leveraged for Jesus. Jesus recognized that while we live in this world, we are not of this world, we have to live different. Christians, we have to live different, we are set apart. The Greek word is kaleo, it means we are called out. But while we are in this world, we have to make a difference in this world, we are commanded to let our light shine, to fight for justice and protect the most vulnerable. So, let me bring this out of the, yeah, wouldn't that be great if the world was like that? Right, take it out of that and bring it into right now, reality that you and I are living in, real time, right now. I wanna give you a real life example of the evil powers rooted in darkness, and once again, they're trying to take more ground. We're very specific here, in Colorado. If you don't live in Colorado, you might be grateful in a minute. In Colorado, most Christian voters, and I'm talking to this, all these rooms,

because I think I'm talking to most of us. In Colorado, most Christian voters are so disillusioned with the state of our world, our country, and our state, we have checked out and given up. But if Christians would just wake up and hold their government accountable and vote your values that align with Jesus, not your political party or your allegiance, not your love or hate for a candidate, the powers lose their control, and when Christians don't, the cosmic powers continue to hack away at any and everything that looks, smells, or reminds them of Jesus, which always results in the attack and the assault on the most innocent, pure image bearers of God, the murder of children through abortion, the mutilation of their bodies, and the buying and selling of women and children. Now, back in November, I'm gonna remind you, church, through our Be Free initiative, we made a declaration, not on our watch. We declared, we're not gonna stay in the stands anymore, we're gonna march onto the battlefield, and we will end the trafficking of women and children in Colorado, right? Now, on the other side of the world, we said we're gonna go to war right here at home to fight for the freedom and dignity of women and children right here on the front range, and we will not stop. We'll leverage everything we have to bring it to an end. Let me tell you what's happening.

Right now, our elected, your elected Colorado leaders are supposed to represent us and protect our communities, homes and families. That's in the Bible, by the way. They submitted a bill that'll be voted on in a couple weeks, SB26-097, decriminalize adult commercial sex activity. Here's what that means. In the 250th anniversary of our country, we have a handful, seven politicians, that want Colorado to be the first state to fully legalize prostitution and everything that goes with it. Prostitution will become a legitimate business. Now, here's, I'm just saving email. Jim, are you violating the separation of church and state? See, I wanna say you're dumb, but that wouldn't be Christ-like. No. No. The state is violated when they leave its lane of law and order and step into God's theological lane of marriage, sexuality, gender, and parental rights. And now, they wanna pass a law that says women, right? Women are reduced to the level of a commodity to be bought and sold. See, some things belong to Caesar and some things belong to God. Jesus says, you make sure they stay in the right lane. Right?

But I thought we fought a war about this in the 1860s that established that human beings are not to be bought and sold. But apparently, progressive Colorado wants to reverse that. They actually say it will protect women better. What? Members of the bill claim that it will reduce violence and abuse and free up police to focus on more important things, like trafficking. They have no evidence to support it. I spoke a week ago with, I have a source down at the Capitol how cool is it to say that? But I do, I do have. Anyway, he, she, whatever, all right, told me that one of the supporters actually said this, it's gonna blow your mind. This bill will allow low-income girls a source of income so they can go to college. Are you kidding me? Is that what we wanna tell, is that what you wanna tell your daughter? Is that what high school career day's gonna become? Hey, girl, listen, if you want a higher education, you gotta sell your body over and over if you have any chance of having a better life. This is nothing other than the cosmic powers rooted in evil working out their scheme against our women and children. Don't be fooled, this bill is not about protecting women, it's about consuming them.

In every place like Nevada that has partially decriminalized prostitution, demand increases, domestic violence increases, traffic increases, sexual abuse increases, violent crime increases. Nearly 100% of the women currently involved in prostitution in the Denver area, they're already underage, being trafficked or being threatened, which is slavery. This bill doesn't protect the vulnerable, it normalizes exploitation and it grooms us to dehumanize women as simply commodities to be bought and sold. This is a bill that our elected officials are voting on behind closed doors. They're not gonna put it on the ballot to vote and they're counting on Christians to do what we always do, nothing, and by our silence, we are unintentionally giving our approval and blessing and permission, which means that our silence is complicity in this crime against women. This is our problem, it's our problem because 2,000 years of church history have handed us the baton and said this is our turn to fight for truth, to fight for love, to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. In John chapter eight, Jesus gets down in the dirt beside of a prostitute who's been caught in the act and he protects her from bad religion and bad government and bad power that wants to stone her and throw her away

and then after rescuing her, he says, your life needs to change and then he gave her her life back. Let's do the same. This is not political, it's not about a political party. I don't care, I really don't care. It's spiritual warfare and we'll bring the full armor of God into the capitol building and into our voting booths. If you care about protecting women, children, the most vulnerable in a way that Jesus cares about them, please do not ignore this. In Jesus' name. Should we pray about it? Absolutely, but then Jesus said, get off your knees and put your words into practice and go to war against the spiritual forces of evil in the dark realms that are consuming the people that Jesus cares about and loves. We cannot afford and the women and children that will be devastated by this bill cannot afford for us to be silent. We need to do something. So here's what I'm asking you to do, all right? Get out your phones. Most pastors go, put your phone away, get them out, everybody. Get them in the balconies, I'm watching, come on. That QR code right there is gonna take you a place on our website. It's gonna explain the bill to you.

It's gonna explain to you why it's ludicrous. There's a video of me on there, just kind of recapping all this. And then below that, there are seven, the seven senators that are gonna vote on this has their email addresses on it. Email them. Like right now. I mean, we're not gonna sing a last song. This is it. Right? So if you click on one of the senator's name, you can't like do a mass email to all seven of them or eight of them, however there are there, because it'll go to junk mail. So you have to do all this. You can use, we put the text in there for you. You have to sign your name and then you can send it or you can erase it and just tell them what you think about this, all right? So keep on doing this. I'm gonna keep on talking though, all right? But what, what if we do nothing? What's next? Hey, we're number, Colorado, we're number one. We were number one in legalization of drugs. We were number one as a destination spot for full-term abortion on demand. We were number one before the feds said anything in same-sex marriage.

And there's constantly a new bill saying, hey, let's restrict parental rights and the gender choices and surgeries of their children. What comes next after the normalization and legalization of buying and selling women? What's next? And why do I care about this so much? It's hit me last night. Why is this, Jim, you're really passionate about this. I know, it hit me last night. So I had some stuff happen to me as a kid. I've referred to it before. You know what? Abused kids usually become abusers or protectors. Some of this is our story, right? We got the crap kicked out of us or we got molested, whatever that is. And we just, that's all we know. So we just, or we do a flip side of that. We become protectors. By the grace of God, I became a protector. This is personal to me. Because there's some little boy or girl out there and she had no one to protect her. I don't want her to have to make the choice that what am I gonna be, another abuser or another protected? Keep on emailing. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle being waged

in this physical flesh and blood world against these beautiful women that Jesus loves. They don't love themselves and people treat them like just garbage, but Jesus loves them. This is our time to join Jesus in turning over the tables on bad religion, corrupt government, and selfish greed. I will leave this conspiracy theory. It's all for free. Somebody's making money off this, which makes our government officially a pimp. 1811, French philosopher, he said this. Ben Franklin gets credit for it, but he didn't say it. Look at this. Every country has the government it deserves. If we say and do nothing, this is where it goes. I say no more. Why, why? Because we love Jesus and we hate the systems of this world and now's the time to fight because free people, free people, we're smoking what we're selling, folks. Come on. And the lives of women and children hang in the balance of what we, the followers of Jesus, decide to do or not do. I don't know what. We're, we have, I'm scheduled to go eight more minutes and I'm not gonna, you have nowhere to go. You'll be the Baptist of Chili's. You'll be fine, all right? So you're fine, right? Standing against the evil scheme

against our women and children, standing up for the dignity of the most vulnerable target image bearers of God. So in James chapter one, so when I say let's worship, most people stand up and get ready to sing. That's not what the Bible even says. James chapter one says this is pure and faultless. This is religion. This is worship at its purest. Take care of widows and orphans. That's what you're doing right now. Hey, you cannot have our unprotected women. You cannot have our defenseless children anymore. Vote no. So I'm done. I'm gonna pray and here's what I'm gonna ask you to do. Two things, one is before you leave your seat, if it's at all possible, because your kids' ministry is planning on not even seeing you for another seven minutes. Will you send those seven emails? But here's what else. Would you be willing to think of five people in your life that aren't in one of these rooms and you know if they knew about this, they'd say no, not on our watch and send that link to them and say, will you? So there's about, I don't know, there's like 3,000 people in this room and across our campuses this weekend.

There'll be like 12,000 voting age adults, all right? It's like, can you imagine? I can't even do the math on that. Times seven, times five, times seven. I don't know if it'll make a difference, but when somebody asks, did you try? I did everything I knew. I would love this. I don't have the date right now, but I've been asked to go down and testify against this atrocity. I would like 1,000 of you to go with me. Amen. Amen. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! And we would go in love, not anger and hatred. We'll go with the posture of Jesus, all right? I'm gonna pray and then if you have to leave, they're just gonna keep on playing. I used to call it tinkle music, but people are like, I have to go to the bathroom now. So, uh, so. Yeah, are you with me? Are we together on this?

Is there unity on this? Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Come on. Let's all stand up and, unless it's better if you sit down and email, but don't, God, in the name of Jesus, and on behalf of the most vulnerable, hurting, yet beautiful, valuable image bearers of God, these women and children that are just being consumed, in the name of Jesus, we say yes to you. Where you go, we will go. We love you, therefore we'll follow you into the darkest place. We'll bring help and hope and restoration. In the name of Jesus, all things are possible. Even dead stuff, dead hearts, dead bodies, dead lives. No hope. In the name of Jesus, you're the God of resurrection, and so we're about to see it happen. Use us, your people, to move this world back closer to the world you had in mind. But we love one another and take care of one another.

Forgive one another, encourage one another, carry each other's burdens, and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves. That's our prayer, all in the beautiful, wonderful name of Jesus, amen. Amen, amen, all right. All right. Appeal!