Friendly Fire & Collateral Damage // How God Became King - Read

Are you ready for a bold statement? Here goes: Our God, Jesus Christ, is the King of the World. And no—not in some spiritual, theoretical, or “far off future” sense. He is currently enthroned, ruling the world with grace and truth. That’s the truth. And that truth should change everything for us. Which brings us to a second bold statement: Most Christians don’t know or don’t live like this is the case. You see, when we realize the full weight of the fact that Jesus is King—how it happened and what it means—we will never see our faith the same way again.

As the Kingdom of God advances forward, an Enemy is constantly attempting to snuff it out. And that Enemy is not people who vote or think differently than you. In fact, our Enemy isn’t flesh and blood at all. And the sooner we realize that, the better off our relationships will be.

Now before we go there, I want to ask you a question. Who is your favorite actor or actress? Now someone that's a contemporary actor, actress right now that is living.

And when I say favorite, I don't mean just that you think they do a really good job. I would like to know who is your favorite actor actors that you feel like that if you had a chance, you could probably be friends with them. You'd really enjoy each other. Think about it for a second.

Okay, now turn to someone sitting near you and tell them who that person is. You don't have to tell them why. But just tell them who that person is. Okay. There you go. Go ahead and talk to each other.

Okay, that's kind of a fun discovery, isn't it? Who it is? Maybe you haven't really thought about it before. But I'll tell you who mine is. My favorite actor right now is Ryan Reynolds. Now as Yeah, he's a great guy. Not because he's really cute. But he is. But that's, that's not why. And it's not because he's really funny. Although he really is you know, it's not. It's not sad to find somebody nice to look at who's you know, doing a movie. That's not a sad thing. And it's certainly not sad to have someone be funny. But really, I like him because of who he seems to be as a person. All the people that talk about him say that, that he's the real deal that he's very, very kind that he makes more fun of himself than anyone else. And you know, he doesn't actually make fun of other people. He only does it with people who are doing it with him. And they're doing it as fun. He's got a great marriage, he's got beautiful children, all those kinds of things. I think we could be good friends. I'd like to try it anyway, and see if we can get his tie in here. Wouldn't that be cool? That'd be so good. That'd be so great. But no, I think I would really enjoy him. But the reason I think I'd really enjoy him is because of the things that he cares about. He and his wife, Blake, both, I follow them on Twitter. And it's amazing to me the things that they do. Yeah, he'll say funny things and post clips of his films and all of those things. But one thing he said about his films, I heard him in an interview, they were asking him on the Today Show, they said you've done several Netflix movies lately, and they're very, very family-oriented. And you know, they're, they're strong. What's that about? And he said, I've made up my mind, our world is so discouraged, I don't want to make a movie that discourages anybody, I just don't want to do that. And that's great. But if you follow him on Twitter, here's what you'll find out. If you follow his wife on Twitter, you will find out that they care about people immensely. They care about people immensely. And they're always giving money away and helping us be part of it, raise money with it. They care about one of my big deals of clean water, they've given so much money to clean water around the world. Just recently, they concluded over million-dollar fundraising and giving their own money, that much money to it for sex trafficking to stop that and to help find a girl who was lost. And right now a big deal that they have this challenge going on. Million Dollar Challenge will match every dollar given they're encouraging people to give $1 million people to give $1 that will help the immigrants and the people that are fleeing because of war. Just really powerful. And I am great. I really think it's a wonderful thing. So I really, really like him. And so, you know, I've read a lot of stuff about him, and a lot of stuff about his wife and I, I read it you know, preacher, I'm always looking for, you know, what are their religious convictions? What do they believe? Where are they? And he was interviewed about religion. And this is what he said. He said, religion poisons everything. That is sweet and good in life.

Okay, what's that have to do with our message?

We'll talk about it in a minute. Okay. All right. First, I want to tell you that the title of the message, as was mentioned in the pre is friendly fire and collateral damage. First of all, we have to look backward. So I'm gonna take like five minutes and tell you where we've been so far because it's important for us to know. We have been realizing over the last six weeks, a very exciting and transformational truth. That is that our God, Jesus Christ is the king of the world not going to be king. When Heaven is introduced in a powerful way for everybody. It's not in some spiritual ethereal future since it's happening right now. And the theme verse that we've read in one form or another, I believe every single week from Colossians 213 through 15. Do you want to follow along in your Bible or on your device on a Bible on there you can, but it's on the screen. This is what it says, You were dead because of your sins, and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ. For he forgave all of our sins, He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities, he shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. Now as Pastor Donnie shared with us again last week, we've heard it before but this is the truth. His death on the cross was actually his enthronement as king. It was his ascent to the throne. Now, it seems impossible, it seems very unlikely for the king of all time to become king in that way. It's very different from what we know. Now, not many of us would be old enough to remember when Queen Elizabeth became king, queen, she's been queen for a really long time. If you don't believe me, just ask Prince Charles. He thinks
she's been queen for a very long time. And when she came to the throne, it was very glittery and very bright and stunning in every possible way. People from all over the world, the rulers from all over the world came and bowed down to her. But that was not the way Jesus became king. He became king on a dark and disastrous day. But this darkened disaster at moment was the moment that would fix all the darkened disastrous things that sin had done to the whole world from the very beginning.

His moment of death was also the moment of life. This hopeless moment was the moment that hope was given this moment of terrible injustice was the very moment that amazing grace was given. This moment of extreme suffering guaranteed that one day all suffering would be done away with forever once and for all. This moment of greatest sadness welcomed us to endless life and endless overwhelming joy, the capture and the death of Jesus gave us life and freedom. In other words, if you want to boil it down to one sentence, the very worst thing that could ever happen, was actually the very best thing that could ever happen. Jesus won the victory at that moment when he paid the price for sin. When he arose again, he demonstrated his power and his victory over everything that humankind would ever fear. And whatever face Jesus Christ, that king who was so victorious is ruling right now with truth and grace. And that is the truth that should change everything for us. He told us that he had inaugurated he had brought in his kingdom, and our joy and privileges to participate with him, and bring that kingdom in, to bring it in and fullness around us. And we would participate in his as we pray, his kingdom coming and His will being done on earth, as it is in heaven. Now for that to be accomplished, there are some additional truths we need to know. And we're going to talk about those right now. The first thing I want to share with you is that the kingdom of God has always, always, always been opposed by the kingdom of darkness, always. Let's look at Jesus when he came to this earth to be the king of the world. When he came here, if you know the story at all, you know this, you know that when he was just a baby just being born, King Herod found out about him. And instantly before there was any chance to prove whether he had any power or not a little baby who was born in a stable, he goes after him to kill him.

He missed that time. So when Jesus was a toddler, he tried some more, he tried some more. And when it was evident that he was going to come with this with all of his fury, an angel spoke to his earthly father, his stepdad, we could call him Joseph, and said, they're still trying to kill this way, you need to take him away. And so he and his wife, Mary ran off to Egypt and took him there. And then after a number of years, the angels spoke to him again and said, Joseph, it's safe to bring your family back now. So there are two times during Jesus' babyhood that Satan and this kingdom of darkness tried to kill him. Then if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels, they are all eyewitness accounts, of people who actually saw him and you need to keep in mind, they give so much tremendous detail, and they actually call people by their names and why did they do that? Because whatever anybody wants to tell you, you can look up the historical evidence, those things were written, while the people who witnessed them were still alive, they can dispute anything, and they did not he called them by name.

There were attempts all through his life to kill him. And we read that he know, was able to slipped through a large crowd, he went out and hid in the desert, he always got away. Why did Jesus always getaway? Why were they unable to this large group of people? Why were they unable to get him? Well, because God knew. And Jesus knew it was absolutely vital that he made it to the cross, he could not just die, he had to choose to die willingly, he had to make the sacrifice, he had to die on purpose. That was very hard for anyone to understand. It was really hard for Peter and the disciples to understand. In fact, even though Jesus tried to teach them this and tell them this the whole time that he was here, the three years that he walked with them, they never really caught it. They couldn't believe it, because they had been expecting something different. They just, they couldn't get it. And when Jesus was telling them, this was right before he went to the cross the week before he went to the cross the week that actually we're coming into right now, he said to his disciples, he said, Listen, I have to go to Jerusalem, that I suffer, so I can suffer and die there. And Peter said, Oh, no, not you, Lord, that's not going to happen to you.

Jesus turned around and said to him, Get behind Me, Satan, the things that you are thinking, the things that you are saying, Now, Peter are not the thoughts of God, they're the thoughts of Satan. And that's what he meant. He wasn't actually calling Peter Satan. This is one of only two times that these four writers recorded for us that Jesus directly called out Satan's name. But he said That's not the way that God thinks that's the way Satan thinks he doesn't want me to go. Now keys are a sign of control and authority. These are my keys. This was it. It looks like a lot of stuff. But pretty much everything that's on here is just decoration from places I've been in a keychain with Charlie's picture on it. My car keys are on here. And there are four keys to four different doors at my house. But that's it. Don't call me up and ask me to get in here. The offices. I don't have those keys. I don't have them. Why? I used to have a whole bunch of keys. But I don't know why it's appropriate that I don't have keys now. Because I don't have control and authority anymore. That's pastor Jacob. Although I'll tell you a secret. Don't tell anybody. Bruce has got more keys than Jacob does.

Don't tell anybody that just keep it to yourself. Okay. I don't have any. I don't have any because I don't have authority. Jesus. Jesus does. Jesus did and he does. And he says, I have the keys to death and hell. Now some people will believe that Jesus when descended into hell, it tells us that he descended when he descended that he wrestled away the keys of death, hell, and life away from Satan, and he took them away from him. No, he didn't say it never had him. Satan has never been in charge of death. He's never been in charge of hell, he's never been in charge of life. Jesus has always had those keys. Revelation 1:18 says I have the keys. I have the victory. I'm in charge here. So if Jesus has already won the victory, and is already King, what's all this chaos about? Has anybody heard about any chaos this last week?

Any little bit, a little bit? If you're thinking about the slap heard around the world, if that's what you're thinking about? I want to encourage you don't talk about that. Don't make fun of it. Why don't you deal with your own slaps that you gave this week? Seriously? Seriously, an awful lot of people who are making fun of that may not have physically hurt another person. But they've made jokes at other people's expense. They verbally slapped friends, family, and co-workers, and they've done all of that. How about we just be quiet, take care of her own business, and pray for those folks. How about we do that? How about we do that? Okay. What is the chaos about though, in our world around the world? What is it? Pastor Donnie told us in a really elegant and scholarly illustration last week about clean-up operations after the war. He told us that, you know, when a war happens, the war will be over. But that not everybody gets the news all at once. And there are cleanup operations that have to be done wherever the war was being waged in small villages and all of that kind of stuff. And that's what he was talking about. Now. Donnie is a very intelligent, brilliant man if you hadn't noticed he is I am a very homey person. I was. I was born in Kentucky and raised in southern Ohio. And I tend to think about things in kind of a homey or homely way. So here's my illustration. Okay, this is what the chaos is about.

When I was a kid growing up in Caldwell, it was years ago. And at that time, it was not unusual for rural churches and small towns, small churches there to not be able to pay their pastors very well. And so people who lived in the surrounding area and attended that church would bring them produce from their gardens or maybe butchered meat, or whatever from their herds that they had, they would bring that as a gift to the pastor to help feed the family. So that would happen quite often for us because when they say that you would, that the pastor would get the offerings, this is how it really worked, the offering would be taken, and the treasurer of the church would pay all the bills, and whatever was leftover, the pastor would get. So as you can be aware, that would be often not too much. So this was a pretty good plan. It worked out good. Most of the time. My mom loved the butchered meat, and she loved the vegetables. But occasionally, someone didn't want to butcher a chicken themselves. And they would bring us a live chicken every now and then. And when they would bring us a live chicken, my mom would just hate it. She hated all of it. She hated the whole process of killing the chicken. She hated the process of plucking it and cleaning it. She hated all that but tried to be grateful. Now my dad was ordinary if you think I'm wondering, and people told me that sometimes I got that from my dad real honest, this is what Daddy would do. When it was time to kill the chicken. We had a big stump beside our garage was an old barn and it served as our garage there was a big stump out there and dad would shake, take the chicken out there and lay it across the stump and take a hatchet and cut its head off. Well, most of the time, Dad would tie the chicken's legs together. But every now and then if he thought life had been a little boring, and he wanted to make us kids holler, he wouldn't tie that chickens legs together, he would just hold it with his hand, take the ax and whack the head off the head would fall to the ground. And you know what that chicken would do? Right?

The chicken would take off running in circles. Its head was gone. And it wasn't hurting then it was done in a minute. But it would run around because its nervous system had not yet gotten the message that is all over Dude, you're dead. Then get it while that chicken was running around, it made a mess and made chaos all over the side of the garage, in the yard on the stump everywhere. And we kids would be screaming you know, it's like fascinating curiosity. You can't get turn your eyes away. That's what it was. My mother hated it. Did you know that that's why we have the chaos in the world today? The devil was just like that chicken. Jesus cut his head off at the cross. But the nervous system, the ruling authorities, the demons, all of that they and the devil haven't gotten the message out that this is over. You're done. You're done. But they will one day Satan and everything that cooperates with him will fall down. And it will be finally over the chaos. Chaos will stop and everything will be done. We read about it in first Corinthians chapter 15. You can follow this along as well. Then the end will come when he that's Jesus hands over the kingdom to God the Father, that's the kingdom that we are praying and working to build, he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all Dominion authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all of His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. So as we're participating in the cleanup operations, we're participating in this, there's still a lot of chaos going on. There's still a lot of places were in Satan's control and rule. People don't know that Satan has lost Satan doesn't know that he's lost. But the time will come when he does. And at that moment, it will be the moment that death is destroyed. The last enemy to be destroyed as death. And when Satan realizes once and for all that it's done. And Jesus gives the kingdom to the Father. That is the last moment that any bird, any plant, any chicken, any animal, and any human being will ever die again. Isn't that wonderful? There will never be any more death because Jesus will conquer it all. Now his enemies are in the death process right now. He has won. We are in the fight for the kingdom. But we are not fighting for victory. We are fighting from the Victory.

Jesus has already won. He has already won. And his enemy is Satan and his cohorts, the demons, and the principalities and authorities that work in the spiritual world with him, that is his enemy. But he has already won, it's already been decided there is no more chance now aren't our job, our responsibility, our privilege is to announce the kingdom and bring it in. Paul tells us about our responsibility and our privilege and Ephesians chapter six. Now, I'm going to have parts of this on the screen for you to follow along with me. But I want to encourage you so much to read this week. Read it this week. Ephesians six, read it multiple times because it will help you and encourage you so much in how to live right now in the chaos While the chicken is running around. So he tells us in verse, let's see what verses adherence verse 10. He says, Here's a final word, be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power. How are we strong in the Lord? Will we fight the same way, Jesus? Did we fight the same way he did? We fight from victory and our strength, and our ability to stand lies in fighting as he did. Now, here's the part you don't want to hear? How did Jesus fight?

He fought through suffering. He was the suffering servant. It was prophesied all through the Old Testament if you people will say, you know, if you gave the Bible to anyone who had never heard of Jesus, they would find Jesus all through the Old Testament. No, they wouldn't. The Jews have had the Old Testament for years and years and years and years. And they haven't found Jesus there. You have to meet Jesus first before you find him back there. Why? Because he didn't come and be the way that they expected him to come and be. It says all through the Old Testament that the Messiah will be a suffering servant, that he will lead and win the victory through the way that he serves and loves, and he will do that. But they didn't see it. They didn't see it at all. It's not how they expected it. And so they couldn't recognize him. They were expecting a king who would win by attacking, they were expecting a Messiah who would win through military power. They were expecting all of that they were speaking, expecting an aggressive takeover, a showing of great strength. In fact, the week that Jesus died, the week that he went to the cross on Thursday night, you remember he was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, he was praying there, and, and then this mob came to get him led by soldiers and Judas. When they came to get him, he woke up his disciples who had fallen asleep that were supposed to be praying with him, but they had fallen asleep, and he woke them up. And he said, Come here, those are those who are about to betray me are here, and they get up and they come. Now, I don't believe they had concealed carry laws back then don't think they did. But it was a common thing for people to carry small swords or small knives with them. And we know that the disciples had to have done that because of the way Jesus spoke to them. And again, this is Eyewitness accounting. And so when they, when they see the mob coming through the Olive Garden of Gethsemane where they were praying, I was so privileged to be in that very Olive Garden. It's incredible. A bunch of the trees that are in there are trees that are old enough, they were there when Jesus was there, and when I watched it, I could just imagine what it was like to see this mob come winding through and knowing they were there to get Jesus, they were there to capture him. And so the disciples say to Jesus, should we strike them with swords? And Jesus says, No, put them away. Put them away. No, no. Well, everybody but impulsive, Peter listened to him. And Peter must have been a really awful warrior. Because he went to strike with the sword and he kept the heist, high priests servants ear off, instead of, you know, striking him anywhere else. He cut the ear off. And the servant's name was Marcus. Again, let me tell you, it's another proof that this actually happened because Marcus would have been living during the time that this story is told he could tell if it wasn't true.

Cut the year off. Jesus says to Peter, put that away. No more of this. He says to all of the disciples, and He picked up the ear touched Marcus's face and he healed him. No more of this. You see how Jesus fought for the kingdom. He suffered without getting even. He served. He came to seek and to save. He served and loved. That's how Jesus won. And he said the servant is

Never greater than his master. He said, Remember if they, if they people, controlled by Satan, people who are caught up in the wrong ways if they persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. So what do you do? He tells us, Paul tells us in verse 11, put on all of God's armor, so that you will be able to stand firm against the strategies of the devil. What's his armor? Well, he tells us there, there's the belt of truth. That's God's truth, we got to know the truth, and it will protect us Breastplate of Righteousness, Hey, you can't protect yourself if you're not living righteously. If you're not doing the right things, the shoes of the gospel of peace, you know, these boots are made for walking. Now, these shoots or shoes are made for peace. That's what Jesus said, the helmet of salvation, to protect your brain to protect the way you think, the sort of the spirit, only the spirit, and praying in the Spirit, read it and study it. I really encourage you to do that this week. And I've been so encouraged by the people from last night and today that have talked to me. And they said, I think God is really doing something to me, because just this week, I read Ephesians six, or just this week, I heard on the radio them saying you should read Ephesians six, I think God is trying to tell me something. I think he's trying to tell you something, I think he's trying to tell me something. This is the way we need to be living in this world. We need to be fighting in this way. But what I primarily want to tell you this morning, you can read that on your own, I want to tell you, that God also speaks very powerfully to us about how we don't fight, it's very, very important to know how we don't fight, you know, in this horrible, brutal war that is going on right now, between Russia and Ukraine, a word and aggression here.

We're hearing an awful lot of politicians and military people talking about their concerns about chemical warfare. What if Russia does this? What if it throws us into World War? Three? Because then, you know, we would need to respond, we would need to retaliate? And, you know, they say, people will ask them, Do you think this will really happen? Do you think that Russia would really do this, you really think that Putin would do that? And the response is almost always, well, we have to be prepared that he would because he's already doing so many things that are outlawed in the international community for war. He's already targeted buildings that have crosses on them saying this is a safe place for people to be treated. Those kinds of things. He's already doing that. Well, we think that's terrible. But you know what, as believers, we often do the same thing. We use weapons in our fight, that are outlawed by our King, that are outlawed by Jesus Christ, the new law of love that Jesus Christ initiated, says we don't fight as the world fights. We don't get caught up in Satan's kingdom schemes.

Jesus tells us that the only possible way that we can win the fight the only possible way that we can live in his victory, the only possible way that we can actually help and make his kingdom come is what we have done to love other people exactly. As he has loved us. Does that outlaw confrontation that there could never be a confrontation? No, but it certainly outlaws the methods and the tools that we usually do to do it. We do it in a spirit of love. We confront when it's necessary and we do it for their good and for our good and we do it kindly. We're not doing it to win for ourselves. There's a big difference between warring and wooing. wooing is trying to draw someone to you with love. Warring is fighting someone and trying to beat them. We're called to woo people with love into the kingdom of Christ. Verse 12 says this is Paul talking again for we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies. Oh, that's important. Would you say that to me? For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies? That was so weak I'm going to ask you to say it again. Like you really mean it. Okay. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies. Wow. Have you ever had this experience before? And keep in mind, I'm not criticizing. I'm not criticizing the other people. I'm talking to us here. Okay.

You have a phone issue with your phone. And so you spend an hour or more on the phone, trying to take care of a charge that you have on your phone bill or trying to take care of an issue with your phone that's not working right. And not too far into the conversation. You realize, I'm talking to a person who is from another culture and their native language is another tongue. And we're not communicating very well. And you're having a hard time understanding, and they're having a hard time understanding you. They're very polite. They're very nice. They're wonderful people. But you go back and forth, your blood pressure rises, and you find yourself losing control. And after about an hour, the person says, I'm so sorry, but I'm going to be unable to help you.

Okay, heard enough for you. You've had that experience, haven't you? Yeah, you know what it's like. And so you insist that you need some help, and they pass you on to someone else. If you have done this more than once, you already know that that next person is not going to be able to help you either probably right. If you stay in that same cycle, it's not going to help you, you are getting passed on. Because the person that you're talking to is not really the person in charge. They're just following the policies, and what they've been programmed to do by the higher-ups. And if you lose your cool, if you blow your stack, if you do whatever you call it, you have done it for nothing. You have gotten really angry, and blown up to a person who has no power and control over you. The person that you're fighting is an entity whose face you will never see. It's a policy, it's a program, it's a company. Are you catching my drift?

That is exactly the way it is when we get mad at people. And we fight people. And we do ugly things to people who frustrate us. We do the same thing spiritually. We get all worked up with people who are not the problem and people who can't solve the problem. We lose our pools, we raise our blood pressure, and we do great damage. And we haven't even laid a glove on our enemy. Our enemy is Satan. People are not our enemy. That's really important. Say that with me. People are not our enemy. That's much better. You said that pretty good. People are not our enemy. It doesn't matter who they are, what they believe or don't believe. And it doesn't matter how they behave or how they don't behave, they are not our enemy. The people in our conflicts are not our enemies. If they're doing if they are doing something that is wrong, something that is blatantly wrong. They are doing it because they are deluded and under the control of our true enemy. And when we respond ugly, when we respond by losing our cool when we respond in that way, we are proving that we too are more led by our enemy than we are by the true king, the king of love. Absolutely. You don't have to like that it is true. Jesus said it. Verses 12 and 13. Paul tells us we're not fighting against flesh and blood. But we are fighting against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Now we can spend and if you read the book that Pastor Jacobs been mentioning, how Jesus became king, you are how God became king, you may be interested in reading the different things as it says about principalities and all of that kind of stuff in here. The big deal is it's the Spiritual Hierarchy of Satan. But the bottom line is, that this is a spiritual battle. We're not fighting people. We're fighting the enemy. And we already fight for victory. We know we've already won, there's no need for us to get so ugly about things. There's no need to get so vicious. We have already won. So in the spiritual realm, we fight with our prayers. But in the physical realm right here with the people, we see up close and personal. We fight this way. We love them. We pray for them. We forgive them. We serve them. We fight from victory. We don't retaliate. We have already won. Now listen to me. If you are a Jesus follower, it means you do things his.

Wait, right? Follow means I do you, okay? If you're a Jesus follower, you do not do doctrinal fights. You do not do theological fights. You do not do political battles. You don't. You're gonna have an opinion. You don't fight over it. You don't fight over. Listen, this is so important.

It is one of the most important things I'm saying today, I will guarantee you anything Jesus Christ did not fight over. Leave it alone. I'm gonna say that again. That's so important. Anything that Jesus Christ did not fight over? Leave it alone. Did you know that churches and denominations are formed over things that Jesus apparently didn't give a rip about? Jesus, Jesus never argued about baptism. He certainly didn't argue about what version of the Bible you use, because there wasn't a Bible. Jesus didn't are the things that we fight over. Jesus didn't even touch. He did not even touch and yet we rip each other to shreds over that kind of baloney. Wow. You know what it's like, what kind? What kind of an army would ever get to victory? What kind of a group of soldiers would quit following their captain and drift off into the weeds to debate something.

You could never win anything that way. You could never be effective in that way. And yet, that's what Christian soldiers do all the time. We don't keep following Jesus and doing it His way. We drift off into the weeds and we fight over political stuff. And we fight over our opinions and all kinds of stuff. Did you know that when you get to heaven, you're probably going to be wrong on at least 50% of the stuff you swore about? You said it was sure. Me too. Me too. We, you know, we're just we can be jerks and other J words, we can do that. We can do that. Honestly, it is heartbreaking to see the doctrinal issues where we take, our discussions, and our issues to the world. And we let them see us fight and massacre each other. It's terrible. We attack pastors, we attack other people, and we do all of that. You know, we'll write a Facebook post about members of our own family or friends. And we'll say I'm not gonna mention their name, but maybe me. They didn't. They didn't they didn't take it. And anybody who knows, you know who's you're talking about the person you're talking about knows who you're talking about. And you have just proven that you are a jerk. You didn't say much about the other person. Anybody with discernment says, Don't trust him, don't trust her. They'll do the same thing to me. It's just foolish that we do this. I think that Satan, our real enemy dances and celebrates over social media, maybe even more over Twitter than anything else, man, Twitter can attack 140 characters or whatever it is, it can rip people apart. It's a whole new way to tear down the kingdom and keep it from advancing. We kill people by friendly fire. We shoot at each other, we say ugly things to each other. And we forget Oh yeah, yesterday, I posted a scripture. And today I'm saying this ugly stuff. And I'm criticizing Andy Stanley, or I'm criticizing this person, I'm doing that kind of stuff. I'm saying this kind of stuff. And guess what? You're not doing anything to them. But you're friendly fire shooting, the people that you're supposed to be on the same side with you are hitting people who cannot believe in Jesus Christ because of the trashy trampy way you acted. That's exactly the way it happens. That's exactly it. So let's go back to my wannabe friend, Ryan Reynolds.

He said religion poisons everything that is sweet and good in this world. And when I read it, my heart was broken, but not at him. My heart was broken. Because I had to say, Amen, brother Ryan. And it's been doing it ever since Jesus was here. Jesus doesn't poison everything. Religion does. Jesus never asked us to be religious ever, ever. We're supposed to follow him. We're supposed to follow him. We're supposed to be like him was interesting. The interviewer pointed out Ryan didn't say he didn't believe in God didn't say didn't believe in Jesus. Didn't say he was an atheist.

What he said was religion, poisons everything. Organized religion has a problem. Listen, can you imagine being responsible for that? The interest of interesting thing I thought was, you know, Ryan was raised Irish Catholic in Canada, his wife was raised Southern Baptists. Okay, so if you know anything about denominations, you know, that's a real volatile combination right there. And they get along really good. Maybe they had to reject religion, in order to have a good marriage, Isn't that sad? I don't know that that's the case. I just know that. You know, I've been raised around religion my whole life.

And I understand why he thinks that way. Fortunately, I know a lot of people like you, who follow Jesus, and who live like Jesus. And so I see things that are really true, and really good. The average Christian, who hears that Ryan Reynolds said that, we'll just add it to their criticism of people who don't agree with them. You know, what Paul said, and he said this just in a different way than Jesus, it's time for us to quit criticizing the world, and take care of our own issues. It's time for you to do that. It's time for me to do that. It's time for the church of Jesus Christ, to really be the church of Jesus Christ.

And love serves, forgive, be sacrificial, the way he did to do anything else is an adventure in missing the point. I watched on Netflix, their three-episode thing this week, that's called Hillsong, a megachurch exposed, it was heartbreaking to me to watch it, I'll have to agree that a lot of the stuff that was said there was true, I will also have to say that I think it's very clear that the people who are doing it, including many of the Christians doing it, we're not doing it with any kind of grace or love or anything like that. But you know, they're telling everything that's wrong with this church giving, giving people who are out there, getting them to hit with friendly fire, and all of this as we shoot each other and do this, there was one guy, he was is a younger, dark-haired guy who was talking about, you know, he had knowledge of a lot of the stuff that was going on. And he lost his composure, when he was talking about it for a minute, he had to take a minute, and just drop his head for a minute and pull himself back together. And this is what he said, This is almost a direct quote If you believe all of this is true. And when he says this, he's talking about that Jesus Christ is God that He is king that he came to this earth to die for our sins and to raise from the dead. And those who put their faith in Him have life eternal, and those who don't do. He said, If you believe all of this is true, and you're worried about how you look, and you treat it, like a game keeping score, he got all choked up. And he said, Well, it's just unbelievable. And it is, it is, if we believe that we have the answer from the world, why are we not concentrating on loving them in such a way that they will hear the real Jesus and not fighting with each other over stupid stuff that Jesus didn't even talk about. So Paul tells us, therefore, to put on every piece of God's armor so so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. You know, what I think that helmet of salvation might be for, I kind of think it has a drop-down front on it, like the medieval things. It's supposed to cover up your mouth, so you just will shut up a whole bunch of the time.

And me to the helmet of salvation for this same for all of us. And we need to resist those times. We want to fight and win, and we want to do that kind of stuff. Because that's not the Jesus thing. That's not it. And he says, If you do that if you will put on every piece of God's armor, you will be able to resist the enemy and time of evil when you're tempted to do and say evil things. And then after the battle, you will still be standing firm. You may say well, it's really hard, Brenda, you know, it's all well and good. What you say I'm not even going to disagree with you. But you have no idea how hard to play Simon, you have no idea of the struggles that are surrounding me. You have no idea of the people that I'm trying to work with and all of that. You have no idea and I actually, you know, I actually believe some of that stuff is worth fighting about. Okay, well, think about this. My dad was a paratrooper in World War Two is a member of the 101st airborne, he jumped into Normandy to liberate France on D Day. And 15 days later, he was wounded in 11 places which effectively took him out of combat there for the rest of the war. But it was, an opportunity of great pride for him to liberate France and to serve the world in this way. The Band of Brothers was his favorite movie, to places he'd cry every time he watched the SOT several times, to favorite lines in the movie. One is, when they say this, the man says, We are a band of brothers, he who sheds his blood with me, is my brother. Wouldn't it be great if the church could pick that up? Wouldn't it just be awesome if we did that if we would say Jesus Christ shed his blood for all of us, and anyone who accepts his sacrifice, and says they will follow Jesus Christ as Lord, I'll accept him and her as a brother or sister, even if there are lots of things we don't agree going on. We don't even need to worry about it. I'm just going to they're going to be my brother, wouldn't it be great, it'd be so great. And you know what, it's what's going to be like in heaven, you're going to really hate it there. If you can't get over it, you know, it's what it's going to be like there. Okay. So then the second quote is from a part of the movie where they had landed, and this captain is talking to the leader of a small group of paratroopers that he was sending on ahead. And he says to this guy that he's sending out with the few with him, he said, listen, he said, This is where you, you have to go. And I'm really sorry to send you there. But we need you to go, and it looks like you're going to be surrounded. The guy drops his head and looks down like this and looks his captain straight in the eyes from underneath his helmet. And he says, Don't worry, Captain. We're paratroopers. We're supposed to be surrounded.

If you feel like you're surrounded this morning, congratulations, you're probably in the right place. You're probably in the place where God expects you through the power of Jesus Christ to live and love and shine and forgive and live valiantly. And to all of that. We're supposed to be surrounded because we have an enemy who hates us. But our enemy is never people. We fight from victory not for victory. Jesus is King. He has already won. We only fight for what he fought for. And we only use his weapons. The weapons are loving, serving, forgiving sacrificially, and laying down our lives. Now listen, friends, this is so so, so important. Jesus has never asked you to defend him. He wouldn't let Peter do it.

And he won't let you do it. He never asked you to defend him. He doesn't want you to debate and get caught off in the weeds somewhere. He wants you to follow him. You don't need to defend Jesus, he needs no defense and he can take care of himself. When you use your little Weasley arguments, trying to fight over doctrine, theology, and all different kinds of things, politics and all of that. When you do that. You are simply making it harder for people to believe IN THE REAL JESUS. You're killing them with friendly fire. And there's an awful lot of collateral damage. Fight like Jesus. Love, serve, forgive, pray, and lay down your life. Follow Jesus. Don't argue for Jesus. Don't defend Jesus. Let your life be so compelling by love. That people will say, I'm not sure I can believe everything she believes. But she was sure makes Jesus sound like good news. Sure makes Jesus look good.

That's what Jesus wants from us. People who look, live, and love like him, and never lose hope. If you fight with his strategy, wearing his armor, Paul tells us and Jesus Jesus says it to at the end of the battle, you will still be standing strong. So let's go back as we close right now, let's go back to that awful day. That looked awful when Jesus was enthroned. Remember, the darkened disastrous moment was the one that was going to end the darkness and disasters. The moment of death was the moment of life the hopeless moment was a moment hope was given. The moment of terrible injustice was the day, the moment that amazing grace was given the extreme suffering was the day that promised that one day all suffering within the moment of great sadness welcomed us to endless life, enjoy the capture and death of Jesus gave us life and freedom. And the very worst thing that could happen was at the same time, the very best thing that could happen. And this is what I want to tell you today. If you feel like you're surrounded if you feel like you're in a really dark time, a really dark season. And you wonder why the chaos I just want to remind you of this, don't be too quick, to judge what's really going on in this season of life. Because Jesus is King.

He can do the same thing for you that he did for himself. The worst moment ushered in the best. And if we love and live and give like Jesus, the same will be true for us. Let's pray together. Jesus, you are king. You are king we say it. Please help us live like it.

Lord, we need your strength and power to love like you to give like you to serve like you to forgive like you. Help us keep the main thing the main thing and quit wandering off in the weeds and shaking our fists and getting loud and getting all super religious help us be super Jesus super loving, super kind, super forgiving. And you will make a super strong and we will actually have a role in helping your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth and in heaven. We ask it in your name and for Your glory. Amen.