0:05 Can we can we pray again? Our heavenly father, we come to you through the blood of Christ. Lord, just seeking your grace, seeking your word, to hear your heart. Please speak to us this morning, Lord. You've said many things, many wonderful things. Continue 0:24 to speak to our hearts in Jesus name. Amen. All right. This morning, I wanna I want to talk about war. Um, I've been asked this question more than once lately. Uh, hey, you were in 0:43 the military, right? And, yeah, I say, and then like the question comes about war. Like, you know, we're at war with Iran or whoever. it's not even or Venezuela or Syria or Denmark over or Greenland and I get asked questions 1:00 about like what's going on. Um and uh you know I I've been retired from the military for over 5 years and so I've kind of I don't keep up with the I'm not as in it as much as I used to be. But you know that as I'm getting 1:17 asked this questions especially not as much here with you guys but at work I get asked that question and I sense a fear and so um you know one of the things I want to make sure is that you're not fearful and so I want to address my 1:36 opinion and kind of my testimony on war to my my church family and it says that in the last days there will be wars and rumors of wars. You can Google it and look it up. It's in uh at least three of the gospels. I know it's in Matthew, 1:50 Mark, and Luke. But whenever Jesus says that, he says, "Don't be afraid. Don't be terrified." When the news is always telling you about some conflict or some military action that has taken place for you, 2:08 brother and sister, of of Jesus, don't let it scare you. and that's from Jesus or I wouldn't have authority to say that. But I do want to talk a little bit about war this morning. And so I'll give you some of my testimony and some of what I 2:25 see in scriptures. And you know, I ask you to anything I say doesn't matter if you don't go talk to your heavenly father about it and he he confirm it. Otherwise, it's just my opinion, my words. But I want to start with just kind of 2:41 asking like what why why you know why are we at war? What is war? How did we get here? Um and kind of think about that. And there's a verse in scripture, a passage in scripture that absolutely answers this question with such wisdom. 2:58 And it's it's in James chapter 4. And if you want to turn there, read it in your Bible. So anytime the topic of war comes up, this is the scripture that kind of answers like how did we get to this state? Like why are there wars? Why are there 3:11 conflicts? And again, we could be talking about like a world war or wars between nations or we could talk about wars between gangs or we could talk about wars in a home between siblings or between a husband and wife. This 3:25 question answers well why why is there a war? And it says it starts with that that question like what what is the source of this? Like why is everything so heated? Why is there so much tension and conflict? And it says because 3:45 your pleasures are controlling, right? It says that's that's the problem. And so you want something really bad and you can't have it. And so you fight for it. you say, "I really I'm I'm going to get it." And it even says 4:02 you'll murder for it. You'll want it so bad that you're willing to kill somebody else for it. And it says you don't have it because you don't ask. And I understand that to mean you didn't ask God. And you say, "Oh, I did ask God. 4:19 I asked God. I said, "Lord, fix that other person that's causing the war. Take care of that." Like that's the problem. I'm a Christian. I ask God for things, but he's not answering my prayers for some reason. And sometimes this is the answer. You're 4:37 so selfish. You're so focused on you and your pleasure and your world and your inconvenience. And the fact that gas has gone up 80 cents a gallon. That is your focus. War has caused the when I get gas at the pump, it's expensive for me now. 4:55 Lord, stop the war. This is very inconvenient for me. And I'm not just talking about nations. You know, at almost every level, this is the problem. You're focused on your pleasures, spending it for yourself. And brothers and sisters, I I I look at 5:12 this. This is me. This is exposes me. And one of the things I appreciate about our God is that when I study this Bible, which is the source of how I got the answer and because of the Bible, because of this these three verses, I have more 5:28 wisdom on the subject of war than everybody else in the world who doesn't know God. They may not understand why they're in a conflict. I know because God tells me why. And I see that when I open my Bible and I start seeking after God and I go to 5:44 Genesis and I start reading, he tells me from the very beginning what the problem is. And he says, "As soon in the Garden of Eden, the problem was Eve saw that fruit and she wanted it." Now, she must not have considered the 6:02 cost very much, but she said, "I want that fruit." And because of that desire, there's a tension that has been our entire lives since since this moment. It created this conflict. It created emnity between man and God. All because 6:19 she wanted the fruit. And again, this is consistent with what James says. And then we see, you know, uh I think it's the very next chapter, we see a murder, right? I think that was in James, right? You have something or you want 6:37 something, so you're willing to kill for it. You say, "Oh, I would not me. It's other people that war and kill." I would never do that. I would never murder. But I see these two, remember, Cain was a religious guy. This whole conflict 6:54 started because they were both offering sacrifices to God, right? You you can go read. I think you're familiar enough with your Bible that I'm not taking I'm not making this story up. These were two religious fellas. 7:11 And God warned Cain and he couldn't handle it that his brother was getting more he was more pleasing to the Lord than he was. His brother was more righteous than he was and he couldn't handle it. So he killed him. 7:30 You say, "I wouldn't kill." Really? Would you speak evil against somebody that's more righteous than you? Have you ever done it? I believe I have. I don't know a specific incident, but I believe my flesh is so thoroughly rotten that 7:45 I've probably done that. There was somebody more righteous than me, and I could not handle it. So, I had to speak evil of them. I had to use my tongue as a weapon to murder them by the way I spoke. I don't think I'm I think there's 7:59 scripture to support that. You can look it up. But this tongue is a restless evil. Especially when it feels like somebody else is getting something that you feel you should get. And again, God starts the Bible this way, showing us. And still in Genesis, 8:19 we learn of a guy named Jacob. Of all the of all the people in the Bible, I think he's the one I connect the most with. From the moment he was born, he was grabbing. It's not fair. I'm not letting Esau get ahead of me. Grabbing, grabbing, 8:37 grabbing, grabbing. We're talking about war. Grabbing. He grabs his birthright. He grabs his blessing. He schemes. Yeah. He doesn't want to be known as like a brute that grabs. He's he's more careful and more cautious. And I found 8:54 that in my flesh, that's me. I don't want any of you to look at me and go, "Oh, Josh is a grabber." But if I can suddenly get my way in things, I've seen that in my flesh. I want it my way. And so it caused conflict with his 9:09 brother immediately. He has to flee his brother. The family is split because of Jacob's grabbing. And so you think, well, maybe the problem was Esau. And so then he he meets Laban and encounters Laban and again grabbing 9:24 right starts grabbing. Well, I want I want Rachel. I don't want Leah. And you see the conflict. Brother Jared shared a wonderful message. If you missed it, please go back and listen to the message from Brother Jared last week 9:37 about Leah. But there was a a tension, a war, a fight between those two. And it continued to the next generation. so much that the brothers were willing to throw one brother. They were going to kill him, but they found a better way. 9:51 We'll just sell him as a slave and get rid of him forever. Grabbing brings war. It brings death. And God has started off our Bible to tell us, I'm trying to tell you that the problem is you. That every one of you, there's a flesh in which dwells no good 10:11 thing. And if it is left unchecked, it brings about war and death. And so it leaves us helpless. It leaves us longing, desperate. All right. So, let's talk a little bit 10:30 more about it. Now, here's my testimony. I grew up This is a sign uh in front of my neighborhood. I think it's still there. I haven't been there in in many years, but this is the this is the neighborhood I grew up in. It's 10:42 literally a community, a neighborhood of war veterans. So, we moved there when I was four or 5 years old. This is the home that I I grew up with, right? So, when we were four or five, we moved to this colony, and it was originally established uh 10:58 here's some notes on it. You can read I'll talk through some of them. It was established by Americans that had served in the SpanishAmerican War around around 1900. And so these guys had been in war and they decided to set up a community, 11:13 right, where they could live and and work and farm together, right? They'd had a they'd been through war together and now they want to just live in peace together. Man, this is starting to sound pretty good, isn't it? And so at 40 or five, we moved there 11:28 because my dad was a Vietnam veteran. When I when I moved there, you had to have participated in one of four wars to be able to live in this this colony. That's what we called it. If I say colony, that's what we called it growing 11:40 up. And so you had to either you had to you had to be in World War I. Is it was did anybody serve in World War I? Anybody in the room? All right. I'm just checking your history. If you did, come tell me afterwards. World War II, 11:57 it's more possible, probably still unlikely, Korean War or Vietnam. If you had served in one of those four wars, then you could apply to live in this community. And it it was and it was wonderful, right? They would give you a 12:11 plot of land. You pay 10 bucks and you can live there the rest of your life taxfree. I pay I pay about $6,000 a year just to have the privilege of owning my home here in Flugerville, Texas. And believe me, I I have a share in this 12:27 colony, by the way. It's one of my things my dad wanted for me. He wanted me to have a share there. Amber will never let us move there ever for a lot of reasons we can talk about outside of this, right? But it's tempting 12:38 sometimes. $6,000 in taxes or none in taxes, right? But there is so much tension and friction in there in that colony. It didn't work. But this is where I grew up. And so there weren't a lot of kids to play with because war veterans tend 12:53 to not have a lot of children. There were a few grandchildren that would come and visit their grandparents in the summer. I got to know them. And there were a few, you know, kids. There weren't none, but there weren't many my 13:05 age that I could play with. And also too, I remember my mom telling me, "Hey, I like to explore. I don't know about you, but I like I like to go hiking. I like to explore the neighborhood." And my mom told me, "Hey, uh, don't go into anybody else's yard or 13:19 property." I was like, "Why not?" And she said, "They'll shoot you." Right? I'm a kid. I'm telling you what I learned as a kid. I'm like, "Why would why would people shoot a kid?" And my mom explained, "No, no, no. They've been 13:31 through war and they get spooked and they're almost they almost all have loaded weapons and so don't go into their yard." I was like, "Yes, ma'am." Right. This was my neighborhood I grew up in. And we lived in a a mobile home. It was 13:48 almost like a trailer park where they give you like a kind of a big plot of land. And I remember being in that trailer park and I'd done something I wasn't supposed to do. I don't remember what it was, but I I know this. Here's 14:01 what I remember about it. I deserve to get a spanking. I deserve to get the paddle across my backside for what I did. I was at eight or nine years old in this story in this story. And so my dad sits down at the table. I sit down. I can I can picture 14:17 him. This is a vivid memory. I've forgotten so many things. Some of you I don't even remember your name, but I remember this story. And I remember the paddle. He had a paddle. And the paddle used to be on top of the refrigerator. 14:27 And my dad had bore holes into it and used a a a lighter to light the holes and burn off the splinters to make it more aerodynamic. Right. I wish I had this thing so I could show you how aerodynamic this paddle was to really 14:44 get up speed when it comes across your backside, right? I guess it made I guess it created air flow and there's some physics maybe you guys can explain to me, but it hurts. And so I had done something wrong and I'm waiting for the 14:56 the spanking, but the spanking would never come. My dad sat down. I think he had uh he might have been drinking and he sat down and he started talking about the war, the Vietnam War and he started telling me stories and I'm I'm nine years old. Anybody 15:14 who's eight or nine years old? Raise your hand. I want to kind of see. All right, Josh. There's a Josh that's eight or nine. Perfect. So, I'm his age and he's telling me these stories about war and that it was horrifying. 15:30 I'm just like, man, what's going on here? You know, I think about it now like I I've forgotten almost every spanking I've gotten. But I remember this punishment. It seemed like it went on for hours. He just told me what 15:42 happened in war. And I'll tell you a little bit. I'll tell you a little bit. I never got the spanking, but I I have a memory of just like how bad war is. And this is from probably the more powerful side of the war. You see, my dad was a a 16:02 medic in Vietnam, kind of like a nurse. We got a few of you that are nurses. So, my dad was a nurse. And so, he was he did not want to join the military, but during that time, they had something called a draft. And they made you join 16:16 the military. They forced my father to go serve in the military. We've since learned, the United States has learned that's a bad idea to make somebody go join the military. My dad considered fleeing and actually going to 16:33 Canada to avoid it because my dad did not want to kill people. He did not want to be involved in conflict and so he actually thought about leaving. And I I I heard this from my grandfather who outlived my dad. And so he didn't. 16:49 He decided to do his patriotic duty and go serve in the United States military. But they made him a medic. And medics saw the worst of the war. Those of you that are going to be nurses or that are nurses, you know, imagine you're an 17:05 emergency room where the, you know, what you're seeing is the most gruesome cases constantly and while you're trying to treat a patient, bullets are flying around your head. That was what he experienced. He he told me. And if you notice, this is I don't know 17:25 if this was the helicopter he flew on regularly. I think it was because it's got his name on it. I don't know if you can see it, but it says medic and it says Muire. MC cq UI R E. My name is actually spelled with a G. Even in the 17:39 church, people have put a Q in it because it sounds like Muire. Josh Muire, but it's actually a G, but they misspelled it on his helicopter as well. I saw this uh picture and I said, "Dad, that's a problem." And he said, "What do 17:54 you mean?" And I said, "There are so many laws being broken right there." Because the rule is we're more civilized in modern warfare. We're far more civilized now than we are in the Old Testament. I'll tell you that. And so, 18:11 if there's a cross, that red cross means, "Hey, these are medical personnel. They're not going to shoot at you. You're not allowed to shoot at them according to the rules of war." And so I said, "Dad, you're holding a weapon. That's illegal." And he just 18:28 laughed. He said, "Yeah, you're right." I said, "Oh, all right. No argument there." And so this is not how war should be, but it was an absolute chaos. It was completely upside down. It was a complete mess. And my dad told me about 18:45 taught me a word. I picked it up even before this conversation when I was being disciplined. He told me a six-letter word that to this day I know intimately. It was napal. Have you guys ever heard the word napal? It was used 19:01 it was developed in Harvard in 1942. You know, one of our most prestigious universities developed this chemical. And the way this chemical works, it's it's named it's a combination of the two acids that come together to create one 19:15 of the most awful weapons around. And so what it does it it basically u becomes like a jelly diesel like imagine like a a jelly a jar of jelly and imagine that it it's on fire and when it touches your skin it burns so hot that 19:34 it pretty much disintegrates everything. Remember that emergency room I was telling you about? This is what he was dealing with. And another thing about war, modern war, is that you don't just treat your side. When somebody's injured 19:50 and you're a medic, you treat any wounded, whether they're the enemy or whether they're your ally. And so my dad was describing treating everybody. And he said he would go, you know, those of you that are nurses, you know, you 20:05 see you see a a wounded person there and the first thing you do is check their vitals, right? You check for a pulse. Are they even alive? Because it's like a triage, but it's like intense. And so he would go check the pulse. This is what I 20:22 remember vividly. He would go to check their pulse and he would grab their arm and it would disintegrate in his hand. It had an impact on him and it has an impact on me. And then he he said there were children there were children caught up in this. 20:40 There were civilians caught up in this and he would describe the children and he said that they would be hit with this napal and he said he would have to just throw them on piles. They were still alive and he would just have to stack them up. 20:59 He didn't have time to treat them. He's describing this. I would have rather that paddle to my backside than to hear these stories. And if you think that I'm being more grotesque or over the top with this, then I'd encourage you to go read 1st 21:17 Samuel 15. And there's probably something you missed in that story. You know, that's the one where Saul is supposed to wipe out the Amalachites. You remember? But he doesn't. He keeps King Aag for, you know, keeps him alive and he keeps the 21:31 choice animals. If you read that story carefully, Saul was commanded by God to wipe out the babies, the infants. And he did that with no problem. It looks like war is brutal. I hate it. But that's what happens. So he's describing all 21:48 this stuff. He's describing the intensity. Nap to cremate a body. It takes about 1,400 to 1,600° of heat to cremate a body to turn it to dust and ash. This napal would burn at 2,000 degrees and some accounts say as high as 5,000 22:06 degrees. It was horrible. War is awful. When I see CNN or I see Fox News or whatever the news outlet and I see these unreleased military photos of a missile hitting a a terrorist or hitting the enemy, they hit the tank or they hit 22:25 the, you know, u their headquarters or whatever. When I see those, you know, I suppose for some Americans, they're like, "Yes, I don't necessarily think that." I think, "Well, there's a dad that didn't go home to his children that day." 22:43 Whether they're enemy of the United States or not, somebody lost a father, that's war. It's awful. We get disconnected from it. See, I I grew up in an era where we were connected to it. If you were in the Vietnam era in the United States, you 23:02 knew somebody that had died and you knew a lot of people that had been affected by it. Growing up in that veterans colony, there were people missing limbs. I remember a guy up the road. He had no legs because they had been cut off because of 23:16 the war. I remember he had a this is like 1980s he had a big satellite in his yard and so he got TV reception and as a 8 nyear-old boy I remember thinking wow he gets to watch TV all the time he doesn't have any legs but he gets to 23:31 watch TV all the time that's the way as a kid I thought I don't know Lord would I rather not have legs or would I rather have TV silly isn't it but these are the people that I ran into because of war awful everything about it is awful 23:47 I don't like it. I'm glad to be as far away from it as possible. But it is happening right now to brothers and sisters all over the world. But we can become disconnected from the reality of it and we can forget to pray. 24:05 But there's something worse than napal and there's something worse than war. Just just when you think it's not going to get any worse, it's going to get worse. And so I have a responsibility for when I look through this Bible to 24:19 tell you the truth. And I want to tell you the truth. And so I want to look at some scriptures. And if you think I'm I'm going to put them on the screen and if you think I'm making them up, I want you to turn to them. And I want to read them to you. So 24:33 the first one is Matthew 10:28. This is the Lord speaking and he says, 'Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. In other words, 24:52 don't worry about a nape palm canister falling from the sky and incinerating everything. You're not to fear that, but you are to fear God. This is serious. You should have a fear and awe and reverence of God because scripture says 25:11 it. This is not some old covenant verse, old covenant law that doesn't apply anymore. This is Jesus in the new covenant telling us what we should fear. If we fear him, we won't fear anything else. Here's another one. Hebrews 12:28-29. 25:30 says, "Therefore, since we have received a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude. We should be the most thankful people on the planet." Thanksgiving should be pouring out of us. Why is that? Why do you say that, 25:45 Josh? Because we need to offer to God an unacceptable service with reverence and awe. For our God is a consuming fire. Is he a loving heavenly father? Absolutely. Is he merciful and kind? 26:03 Absolutely. Is he a consuming fire? Absolutely. Behold our God. Here's another verse in Hebrews. Hebrews 10:31. It says, "It is terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 26:22 It is worse than falling into the hands of a war. It is a worse carnage. It is more terrifying to face God in his righteousness than it is to face the carnage I just described. These aren't This isn't my opinion, brothers and sisters. You're seeing the 26:42 same verses in your Bible that I see. It's scary. Here's some more. Matthew 8:12, it says, "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness, and in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth." 26:59 I'll say a couple things about this, and then I'm going to read it in other places. Outer darkness is one of the most terrifying things I can think of. Before I was born again, before I came to a knowledge of God, when I was in my early 20s, I was in 27:15 college and I used to have the most terrifying nightmares you can imagine. I would be absolutely petrified in my bed. I would not move because I was in such fear. And I remember crying out. I thought demons were attacking me. 27:32 And I remember crying out to God that I'd heard about from a young age. Help me. Help me. I was crying out like a three-year-old. I'm a I'm in my 20s. I'm probably 22 years old and I'm crying out like a three-year-old. Help me. I was 27:48 terrified. The Lord showed me later. I really believe this is what he showed me. I can't I don't remember how he said it or how he revealed this to me. He said, "It was not demons that were attacking you, Josh. I was trying to get your 28:02 attention. What I was doing is I was pulling my hand away from you just a little bit. And the terror would come upon you so intense that you would cry out to me and I would put my hand back and you would wake up the next morning. 28:15 The sun would be shining and it was like nothing had happened. It was intense and it was real. And I pray that nobody ever has to go through that ever. That fear. I have not experienced it in 30 years since I surrendered my life to the Christ. I do 28:32 not have those nightmares anymore. But I'll tell you this. I hope you never have to go through it unless it it brings you closer to Jesus. If that is the case, then I I pray you go through this. I pray that you int experience a fear so intense and an 28:49 outer darkness so real that it drives you to Christ. I love you and that's why I say that. If it drives you to him, then yeah, go through that. I hope you have sleepless nights until you go to Jesus. This is so real. weeping and nashing of teeth. One 29:08 of my children, I was I was awake and they were sleeping. This was at night and and they grind their teeth and I kept I didn't know what to do. Like stop. They were sleeping so I couldn't like stop doing that. I could just hear them grinding 29:24 and I like I wanted to stick my fingers in pry. I didn't know if I'd get bit or what, but they were grinding so hard in their sleep. And I don't think I've ever met anybody whose tears were so intense that they were grinding their teeth the way I even 29:40 just heard my kids. But I think this is picture language to try to give us a glimpse of what our Lord is trying to say to us. And I don't want to go into all the context of this. I think it's for us to go back and examine oursel and 29:54 say, "Lord, are you speaking to me?" But I want you to see how often this comes. This is Matthew 8:12. Here's Matthew 13:42. and throw them into the furnace of fire, and in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Here's Matthew 30:11 13:30, exact same verse. And and will throw them into the furnace of fire, and in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Here's Matthew 22:13. Then the king said to his servants, "Bind him hand and foot and throw him 30:24 into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth." Here's Matthew 24:51. and will cut him into pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. And in that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. 30:38 Here's Matthew 25:30. Throw that worthless slave into outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth. Here's Luke 13:28. In that place there will be weeping and nashing of teeth when you see Abraham 30:52 and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves being thrown out. And here's I think the worst of them all for me. This is the one that hits home the hardest and the one that drives me to 31:10 the Lord. It's at the end of the sermon on the mount or towards the end. says, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven will enter. Many, 31:28 many will say to me on that day,"Lord, Lord, Lord Jesus, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles?" Lord, it's me, Josh. 31:45 I was part of Austin CFC. I used to put money in the offering box. I even got up in front of people and shared messages. I did that all for you, Lord. And then I will I will declare to them, 32:06 I never knew you. Scary to have the Lord Jesus tell me, Josh. I never knew you. What are you talking about? The elders knew me. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people in church 32:24 knew you. I never knew you. Lord, please know. It says, "Depart from me. Get away from me. Go to hell." All those things I was describing, it's for you. Get away from me. Oh, my heart would break. That's I can only imagine 32:43 what that's like. You who practiced lawlessness, Josh, you were more focused on other things. You weren't even focused on me. You didn't even want a relationship with me. All right. Pretty heavy stuff. But I believe it's the truth. 33:01 And one thing I'll tell you about the truth, remember Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." One of the things about the truth is if you'll face it, if you'll face the truth, you get all of the truth. And so everything 33:14 I I believe I said is true. All those verses were in scripture. But there's more to the truth. Where does it leave us? You know, David, you know, when you think of a psalmist, and I hope you read the psalm psalms often for encouragement. There's tons of 33:30 encouragement by just opening up the psalms, but many of them were written by David, who was a man of bloodshed, a man of war, who saw all the atrocities of war, probably maybe even worse than I described. But he was also a man after God's own 33:49 heart. And so where are we at, brothers and sisters? So we face the truth that God is a consuming fire. That he will throw people into hell. That he's he takes like if he says something, it is the truth. He's not playing around with 34:03 us. But I picked a few verses that are also the truth. You know, when you read those psalms, you see a psalmist, what do you do? What do you do when you're in this situation and you see, you know, death and war and you're you're afraid. What do you do? 34:21 You run. And when you read through the Psalms, you see the psalmist turning to God and running towards God. Wait a minute. You said he's a consuming fire. I did. Turn your direction to that consuming fire. He desires that none should perish, that 34:40 all should come to repentance. Turn around and run to him. And you'll discover these these attributes of him. You'll discover a a peace and arrest inside of him as you go to him. And I'll give you some of my favorite 34:59 verses. These are the ones that help me. John 6:37. Lord, I've made so many mistakes in my life. I wish I could tell you that the things I shared with you this morning scared me so bad that I never sinned. If I tell you that, I'm lying to you. I 35:17 have many sins. And I thought, even even being part of this church, I thought, man, they don't know. Brothers and sisters, listen carefully. If you've ever had this thought, I'm going to tell you the solution for it. All these brothers and sisters are so 35:33 wonderful. God, I've heard their testimonies. God has worked so much in their life. They don't know me. I did this until I settled it here and my prayers have been here often. Lord, I have nowhere else to go. You have the words of eternal life. I come 35:53 to you, Jesus. I have nowhere else to go. I'm a sinner. I'm scared of you. I'm scared of hell. I believe you. I come to you. And what does he say to me? What does he say? Last six words. What does he say? Do you believe that? I believed it. 36:16 That's why I ran so fast and so hard to him. You said you won't cast me away. But that's not my reality. It's true. You are consuming fire. You do send people to hell. But Lord, I I believe this that as bad as I am, you will not cast 36:35 me away because you promise. Remember, if I accept the truth, I get all of it. And if I run to Jesus, he says, "I won't turn you away." Here's another one. I realize the problem, Lord, when I read those scriptures and I go read them in 36:50 context, and I encourage you to all those verses about weeping and nashing of teeth. Go let them search you. And when you discover that it's sin that leads you to hell, you say, "Lord, I have a problem." And it's sin. And you see this promise that they call 37:08 his name Jesus. His very name means savior. He will save you from your sins. And you go to him. You run to him and you say, "I have nowhere else to go. Save me, Lord Jesus. Save me from this sin that's that's causing war in my 37:23 life. It's causing conflict with everybody I'm around. Save me from it, Lord. He won't turn you away." We just saw that. Here's my favorite verse. Put them together as one. I'll go slow through this. I'll conclude with this. 37:42 It's in the book of Jude. If you've ever read the book of Jude, that's a brother of Jesus that didn't believe in Jesus when he was alive, but after he was converted, sounds like he was a pretty fiery guy. He was trying to 37:55 expose the hypocrisy inside of uh the church at the time in the early church. And he says that people are taking the name of Jesus and using it as a license to sin and he's calling it out. But he concludes that letter with one of 38:14 the most wonderful passages I can think of. He says now to him, who's him? To him who's able to keep you from stumbling, who's able to keep you from the sin that will take you to hell. He's able to do it. And not only that, he's going to 38:33 make you stand in his presence. It's not going to be depart from me, I never knew you. It's going to be he will make you stand in his presence with uh with great joy, blameless. Now, how on earth are you going to do that, Lord? 38:50 Remember, if we accept the truth, we get all of it. And when Jesus speaks the truth, we get all of it. Lord, you can do this. You can make it stand. I can stand in front of a holy God as if I never sinned a day in my life. 39:04 Blameless. That's an incredible word, Lord. I'll tell you, brothers and sisters, the blood of Christ is powerful enough to cleanse you so that you're blameless as if you never sinned one time, even a little bit, a day in your life. 39:23 Do you believe that? It's awesome. I know the, you know, the ridiculousness in the sense of the world of what I just said, but I want you to discover it. It's critical that you discover how powerful that blood is. And you don't ever dishonor 39:39 that blood. It came at a very high price, but it allows you to stand be in the presence of a holy God, a consuming fire of whom it is terrifying to fall into. You're going to stand in front of him as if you never sinned once and 39:57 you're going to have such great joy. Is it in your Bible, too, or am I just wishing this? Am I just a fanatical unreality guy that just hopes this is the case? Is this not written in your Bible? And it gets better to the only God, our 40:14 savior. They call his name Jesus because he saves us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Lord, Lord. You remember that? Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he's able to make me stand calling 40:33 him Lord. And he is my Lord. And he gets all the glory, and he gets all the majesty, and he gets all the dominion, and he has all authority. before before time now and forever. Do you believe it? 40:53 If you look at if you look at the truth, if you allow the truth to penetrate your heart, you'll get all of it. You'll get this reality, too. All right, let's wrap up. Oh, yeah. And all the people said >> really. And all the people said, 41:10 >> "Amen." >> Amen. All right, let's summarize what we talked about. We talked about war and where it comes from and we looked at the James and we looked at the first three verses of chapter 4 and and we see that in our flesh dwells no good thing and we 41:24 have the capacity to be the worst of murderers and we have the capacity to war against everybody even those that are really close to us. And then we said we acknowledge the truth. We faced up to the fact that war is bad. It's horrible. 41:41 But then we also faced the the truth that hell is even worse than war. And we looked at it. We looked it right in the eye. We faced the truth. And then we concluded with just I could have gone anywhere within with its promises. There 41:56 are so many promises throughout the scriptures. I picked a few of them. And I said they're all in Jesus. And I said if we face that truth, we get this truth that he is the way, the truth, and the life. Let's look to Jesus. That's all I 42:11 have. Brothers and sisters, may God bless you. As I was listening to this message, I 42:33 was thinking the Lord has ordained me to conclude a message on war and I have no connection with war. My parents were teachers and my grandparents were teachers. I have no connection with war. So, but whenever I see the news about 42:51 war and things of the war, even now just pains me. It is terrible to watch what happens. the ground level details. Um but praise God, our God is a prince of peace. But as believers, uh there were some wars we're always constantly 43:09 involved in. Uh brother Josh started with James 4, the root cause of all the wars, the conflicts, quarrels and all of that. Uh apart from that, there is another war we're also always constantly involved in. And uh God has given us uh 43:26 the promises and armor of God. Uh please uh open Ephesians chapter 6. I was thinking about these verses as I was listening to the message. Ephesians chapter 6. There is a war that is constantly we are involved in that's why 43:43 God has given us the full armor and God has asked us to wear the full armor. It is in Ephesians chapter 6:1 onwards. put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So you know there 43:59 is a war going on but we need to be on the side of God. So God has given us the full armor. And for our struggle is not against the flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, 44:18 against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. It's not about fighting against the flesh and blood. As true believers of Jesus who followers of Christ especially those who are know the new covenant uh our calling is not to fight against the 44:37 flesh and blood clearly forbids and but we need to fight against the spiritual forces of darkness because for everything um there is a there's something going on in the spiritual realm and uh the only uh God has given us a tremendous power and privilege uh 44:53 to bind the forces of darkness through prayer. Therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist uh in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, having therefore g having girded 45:08 your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shaw your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with you, with which you will be able to 45:24 extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer, and petition. Pray at all times in the spirit and with this in view be on the 45:41 alert with all the perseverance and petition for all the saints. So many things the Lord is reminding us here particularly the word of God which is a sword of the spirit and a shield of 45:59 faith because we're constantly attacked by the evil one. the doubts, doubting, doubts about God's love, doubts about God's sovereigntity, doubts about so many things that we see how can a good God allow suffering in my life, in others 46:14 lives. Lot of doubts um but the then we have the faith shield of faith sword of the spirit and with all prayer and petition at all times the spirit we have a weapon a praying weapon through prayer we can move people. Um these days the 46:31 wars in the war I see that um it's not happening on the ground it is remotely someone is controlling the drones and they're going out attacking like everything is remote it's almost like a uh working like working from home war 46:46 from home someone is not even stepping into the foreign country and doing it right we could do that through prayer uh in the in the war against the spiritual forces of darkness we have such a tremendous power if you're in a family 47:00 find like pray with wife or husband or other brother or sister there's so much power in a united prayer we can bind the forces of darkness this is all this war constantly happens whether there's a war in Iran a war in Middle East or not this 47:15 war we're constantly involved in the other verse I was thinking about uh thinking of subject of war is is from Matthew 11:12 Matthew 11:12 says from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of 47:33 heaven suffers violence and the violent men take it by force. The kingdom of God suffers violence. You can go and meditate on that. My understanding of this violent man take it by force. We need to be violent not against people, 47:47 not against things but against the sin we see in our own flesh. the if we need to hate it like we hate um smelling a rotten meat like that repulsiveness Lord I I hate this sin sin of pride sin of jealousy I hate this love of money that I see I hate this 48:06 lusting and I see Lord help me Jesus has his name is Jesus he will save his people from their sins we just heard and he will not cast us out he will give us a grace and the power of the Holy Spirit when we need the kingdom of God suffers 48:22 violence and the violent man take it by force. Believers need to be violent. Yes, we need to be violent against the sins that we see so that we can grow in a Christlikeness. We cannot make peace with sin. We have to be violent against 48:37 it and repent quickly and settle things with God and seek his grace. The the one way of showing uh true repentance is not just feeling sorry and telling God Lord next time when I go through the same temptation with your help my response 48:51 will be different. I will call for the grace of God. I will seek for the power of the Holy Spirit. And finally I want to end with this my favorite verse in Daniel 11 uh 32. I was talking to one of the brothers today. I was reminded of this 49:07 verse uh especially in the times when we are paralyzed with fear with all the things that are happening we don't know lot of uncertainty lot of u unknown and we also see the warnings in Matthew 24 Jesus himself said the lawlessness will 49:24 increase in the last days and the love of many will grow cold that's the real warning when the lawlessness increases but there's a beautiful promises promise in Daniel 11:32 two uh the second part I I'll read the full verse. By smooth words he will turn to 49:40 godless godlessness those who act wickedly towards the covenant. But this is what I want to focus on. But the people who know their God will display strength and take action. The people who know their God will display strength and 49:56 take action. Our our goal is to know God our God fully intimately. Those who know their God will display strength. We don't have to be afraid. We don't have to be uh paralyzed with fear like many. Um even this verse I think I heard 50:11 during the times of COVID when everyone was so afraid about death and about the virus. This verse gave me so much uh encouragement. People who know their God will display strength and take action. So may the Lord help us to know him more 50:25 and to be stable in him, not to be afraid, but to wage war against sin that we see in our lives and not fight against the flesh and blood. Our wives, our sp our spouses, our brothers, sisters, no one is, we're not going to 50:39 fight against the flesh and blood. We if we are doing it, let's stop it today and just focus on fighting against the spiritual forces of darkness. May the Lord help us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the wonderful reminders you have given to us 50:56 and the calling you have given to us Lord as believers. Father, help us uh to be rooted and grounded in your love and Lord wage the war against the spiritual forces of darkness every single day through your help, through 51:14 your armor and not to fight against the flesh and blood. And we know we have seen this uh Lord the real wars that are happening right now on Lord of nation raising against nation and uh kingdom against kingdom all those things Lord 51:30 are not a surprise to you because you have equipped us with the truth. These things would happen but Lord those who know you will display strength. Lord we want to be the people who know you. Even in these days Lord we can display 51:44 strength. We can be stable. We don't have to be afraid. And help us to be the violent men Lord like the kingdom of ga uh kingdom of God is taken by the violent men. Um Lord help us to be violent against the sin we see in our 51:58 own lives. Uh Lord and to seek your help, the grace of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and the encouragement from the scripture so that we can grow in Christlikeness. Please help us Lord. We fix our eyes upon you not on the 52:11 circumstances Lord looking onto Jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith. Help us to complete this run. Help us to run this race, Lord, until we reach our goal to be Christlike. Please help us. We ask all these things in the 52:25 mighty name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. That's all for today and uh um so that's end of our formal meeting. Let's uh meet again for lunch and have fellowship. And those who joined our Zoom, may may the 52:41 Lord bless
