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Welcome to Breen Community Church. As you can see, we're going to have our communion today. We're going back to our old way. I'll give you instructions right before we start it and also explain why our church has chosen to do it in this manner. Maybe the other way that we've been doing it may be simpler and easier and efficient, but we are doing this deliberately, and I'll explain that a little bit before we get started.

Let me get into a few announcements. Our Family Ministry Christmas Lunches, if you desire to participate in that, the sign-ups are taking place right now, and on December 11th, which is next Sunday, you'll be put into groups, and then you'll be instructed to go, and they'll give you instructions for that.

Also, on New Year's, there's a ping-pong tournament going on at 5.30, and again, at all levels, and the entrance fee, I believe, is $5. And so after the ping-pong tournament, this year we're going to start our New Year's Eve service at 11, and it's a little bit earlier than normal, and the reason why is because we have service the next day, so New Year's Eve is on a Saturday night, and then we want you to be at home sleeping by 12.30.

So as soon as it's over, we want to give you plenty of time to go home and rest, and then so our Sunday service, New Year's Eve first, and then we are planning to have special lunch prepared for that, and so come ready to eat that New Year's Eve day.

No, New Year's Day, okay? And so just keep that in mind, and a couple other things. When you were coming in, you probably got a postcard, postcard, whatever you want to call this. This basically is to remind you of the Christmas service that's going on, and every year, Christmas is probably, you know, one of the days where there's a lot of people who normally don't go to church, are willing to come to church, even a lot of non-Christians, so we have a lot of visitors that come on that day, and so we want to use that opportunity to do two things.

One, you can take this and give it to your non-Christian friends, coworkers, family members, and invite them to the service as we explain about the Incarnation, the meaning of Christmas, and obviously that's going to take us into the Gospel message, and so it would be a good opportunity for non-Christian friends that if you're waiting for a particular time to bring them and introduce them, this would be a good time to do that.

So this would be for you to take and to give to people. So you can take as much as you want. We'll print more if we need it. But the other part of it is, as you are inviting people, and even if they don't come, it'd be an opportunity to kind of break the ice, and to be able to open a conversation when they say, "Why is Christmas so important?" and to be able to share with them what Christmas means, the Gospel message.

So even if you feel like they're not going to come, it'd be an opportunity as you're inviting them to maybe break the ice and share the Gospel with them. And so please take this, as many as you need, and if we need more, as I said, we'll replenish that.

One last thing, and I'm going to announce this a few more times before it happens. Every Christmas we have a Lottie Moon offering, and that's used for the missionaries who are out in the field. And so especially in the last few years, because of the pandemic, the missionaries have been moved around, as you guys know.

And so there's a lot of funding that was needed to kind of move them around from country to country, and they're slowly starting to start to go back to their mission field. And so we're asking that we collectively give for that purpose, for the missions, and then we hand it over to the IMB, and they'll use and distribute it.

And so that's how we collect missions offering every year. So we want you to be mindful about that, and so on Christmas Day, we'll have a special Lottie Moon offering. And that's what our denomination calls it, but particularly it's for missions, oversee missions. So I'll remind you as we get closer to the date, but that's coming up, but we want you to kind of give purposefully for that reason.

All right, I think that's all the announcements for today. Let me pray for us for the offering. Again, if you're paying electronically, try to use Zelle. If you don't have any other avenue, Venmo is an option, but if it's possible, try to use Zelle. Those of you guys who have physical offering, again, our physical offering box is in the back.

All right, let me pray for us. Gracious Father, we thank you for our salvation. Thank you for the access that we have in you. We know what a privilege it is, Lord God, to be living in this country where we can practice our faith and gather together in worship without fear of physical harm.

But we also know we have many brothers and sisters around the world, Lord God, where this is such a privilege. Help us, Lord, to continue to take advantage of what you've given us, that as we gather that you would strengthen your church, that we would become a brighter and brighter light where you have placed us.

I pray, Father, that our worship would be given to you in spirit and in truth, that even in the giving that we would give purposefully, cheerfully, that it may be multiplied for your use. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Church family, let's all rise together. Okay, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 4.

We're going to be in this text for a few more weeks. Luke chapter 4, and I will be reading starting from verse 1 all the way down to verse 13 today. "Jesus followed the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.

And he ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, he became hungry. And the devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, tell the stone to become bread.' And Jesus answered him, 'It is written, "Man shall not live on bread alone."' And he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

And the devil said to him, 'I will give you all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall all be yours.' Jesus answered him, 'It is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only."' And he led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.

For it is written, "He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not strike your foot against the stone."' And Jesus answered and said to him, 'It is said, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test."' When the devil had finished every temptation, he left him until an opportune time.

Let's pray. Gracious Father, we pray for understanding. We pray for hearts that are fertile, ears that are open, and wills, Lord God, that are eager to apply. May your word and your word alone go forth and will not return as you have promised until it has accomplished its purpose.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. I don't know how many of you guys are aware, but we, in our church, we actually have a security team. And you don't know who they are because they don't have security uniforms on. And years ago, there was a discussion, and it is led by our Elder James.

And so we have police officers at our church that are helping out with that. And so they are scattered throughout the church. And so, just in case, right? And I think in the last two to three years, especially when the BLM, the marching was going on, there was a lot of threats, specifically to churches.

And we were hearing on the news that they were going into churches. And again, there were actually some shootings that were going on inside the church. And so, to take that threat seriously, not that we are expecting anything to happen, but it is good to have a security just in case if anything does happen, we are at least somewhat prepared for that.

Now, when there is any kind of threat in our lives, we are going to do everything in our power to at least try to be ready, to minimize the danger. If you knew that there was a threat to your home, that you got a notice from your HOA or police station saying that there is a crazy guy in your neighborhood with a gun, and he is just breaking into homes, that you guys really need to prepare yourself.

You are going to make sure that that door is locked. You are going to make sure that it is not easy to break in. You are going to make sure, maybe even purchase a firearm or something. You are going to do everything in your power to protect yourself because of the danger in your neighborhood.

Now, I bring all of this up not to tell you to feel secure at church or we need to be ready, although that would be our natural response. In the text that we are looking at, there are different characters that are presented to us. And obviously, we talked about the Holy Spirit.

So, even though it was not the main part of the text, I think it is important for us to understand the role that the Holy Spirit is playing in Jesus' temptation. We looked at Jesus himself, right, that in his humanity. And the reason why he is even able to be tempted is because he veiled his glory.

And so, Satan is coming to him trying to tempt him. But there is a character in here that is a major character that sometimes we can just kind of brush over. And that is the devil himself. The devil himself plays a major role in this temptation. And so, in each of these events, it says that the Holy Spirit led him to be tempted by the devil.

The devil is playing an active role. In fact, the demonic presence in the life of redemptive history begins from Genesis. He does not just come in somewhere way down the line and waits until Jesus shows up. If you read the Bible, just as the Holy Spirit sometimes is in the background, we do not notice.

It is kind of a side character that sometimes we do not notice. And in the same way, we can kind of look at the devil and he is also a side character. He just kind of mentioned he is there, but then we talk about all these other events that are going on.

But if you read the Old Testament and the New Testament carefully, demonic activity is very prevalent all throughout redemptive history. In every act of God that is significant enough that was recorded, there is some sort of demonic activity that is taking place. I think Dr. Harris in his book, Darkness and the Glory, he has a chapter on that where he kind of chronicles the demonic activity in redemptive history.

The reason why I bring this up is as we are getting into the meat of the text, and we are going to jump into the different temptations, but it is important for us to recognize the demonic activity that not only is taking place here, but the demonic activity that is also taking place in our lives.

They did a survey of the whole United States and they asked if you believe in God. Now, that does not mean that everybody who said that they believe in God believes in the Judeo-Christian God. But particularly in the United States, the majority of those who said that they believe in God obviously have a Judeo-Christian background, whether they are Christian or not.

They said that over 90% of people who were surveyed in the United States say that they believe in God. Living in California, you may not feel that way, but if you have ever been to the Bible Belt of the country, one time I was at Knoxville, Tennessee, not Nashville, Nashville has become a little bit more secular.

If you go to Knoxville, Tennessee, I was there for some thing that I was doing and they asked me, "What do you do for a living?" I said, "I am a pastor." Clearly, the people that I was talking to were not Christians. I am not going to describe to you why I do not believe they were Christians.

But they said, "Oh, you are a pastor." "Oh, my sister is a pastor." "My uncle is a pastor." "My grandfather is a pastor." "My brother is a pastor." "I think my father wanted to be a pastor." And so basically, kind of, you know, talked about how like seven, eight different people in their lives, "Oh yeah, yeah, we are Christian.

Good, good for you." You know, and said, "Yeah, I go to church. All my life I go to church." And if you have ever been in that area, you will see a church like literally like two per block. I mean, it is so, over there you can see it is probably more than 90%.

But this was a survey that was taken all across the board in the United States. More than 90% say that they believe in God. Now, what is interesting is, the same people that was interviewed that asked and said, "Do you believe in God?" 75% of them say that they do not believe in the devil.

Which is interesting. Right? If you believe in God, why would it be so hard to believe in the devil? Especially as Christians, I mean, we are reading the same Bible. And this is my theory. This may not, I do not know how accurate this theory is, but this is my theory.

Why would they have such a hard time? Why would they think it is almost comical to believe in the devil, but they have no problem saying that they believe in God? My theory is, majority of those people who claim to believe in God, obviously they are not, even the ones who say that they are Christians, they do not believe in the God of the Bible.

So, the God that they believe is only benevolent. The God that they have professed to believe is, like, when you are in trouble, He will help you. That if you honor Him, that He is going to bless you. He is going to multiply your health and wealth. And so, demonic activity does not fit into the culture that they have created.

The God that they have embraced, so where would the devil fit into that? Everybody dies, everybody goes to heaven, God always loves us, He is for us, you know, and He loves us unconditionally. And so, the God that they have embraced does not have room for the devil. Now, we know that a lot of them are not Christians, but if we were to come into the church and ask, maybe even in this room, how prevalent is the thought of demonic activity, is it in your life?

Now, if you are a Bible-believing Christian, you are going to say on paper that you believe in God. If you believe in God, why wouldn't you believe in the devil? Right? So, of course, we believe in the devil. But what effect does it have on your walk with God?

How aware are you that there is demonic activity in your life? I believe, again, this is my theory, but part of the reason why the mention of the devil, and we hear it every once in a while, why it's always in the background, is because maybe even the way that we think about God is not accurate to what we see in Scripture.

Because God helps us in times of need, He forgives us unconditionally, and so, one saved always saved, and so the way that we think of God, maybe there's no room for the devil. What would the devil be doing when we are completely protected, and whatever we do, we're safe, and God loves us, and once we die, we're going to persevere, we're going to go to heaven.

So, what place does the devil play in that paradigm? Maybe the reason why we don't think about that is because he doesn't necessarily fit into our mindset either. Well, Ephesians 6, 10-12, Paul says to the church, "Be strong in the Lord and in strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places." He reminds them that in the context of sharing the gospel, building the church, and raising families, that there is demonic activity.

That our struggle is not against the government, our struggle is not against the economy, it's not against people, he says it's against demonic forces. And that's why he says you have to put on the full armor of God. If we were fighting politics, we'd just get the right politicians in there.

If we're fighting economics, get the smartest economics professor to be the leader of the church. But he says it's spiritual. Therefore, he says to pray. After you put on the full armor of God, you have to pray, pray, pray, pray, pray. Because this is not something that you can win by your own might.

By organizing, by having money, by being trained, by having experience, by being gifted. He says our battle is beyond that. And if we forget that, it doesn't matter how organized you are, it doesn't matter how big you make your church. You cannot fight demonic powers by physical power. In fact, in Matthew 6, verse 13, if you remember the Lord's Prayer, if you've memorized the Lord's Prayer, part of the Lord's Prayer says, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." If you happen to have the NIV or King James or New King James, your Bible reads this way, "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." Right?

So if you have the NIV, you already knew that. And the reason why is because NIV and King James were based, the translations were based on later manuscripts. And in later manuscripts, it makes it into a person. Now, whether you have the older version or the newer version, whether it says the evil or the evil one, it's important for us to recognize that when we think of evil, it is not just some force.

It is not just some malevolent force that kind of wants to do bad. It's not just some ambiguous power. The Bible describes evil from a being, from an individual, Satan himself. The names that Satan is called in different ways, some of these names actually describes who he is. Prince of Darkness, the Elzebab, Lord of the Flies, Antichrist, Father of Lies, the Great Dragon, the Old Serpent, the Accuser, Adversary, Belial, Angel of Light, Murderer, Enemy, the Evil One, the Tempter, Satan.

There are other names that are given to him, but all of these things describe his nature and his activity. And we are told that we ought to pay very close attention. So there's only one devil, but many demons. So the devil is not running around everywhere because he is not omnipresent, nor is he omnipotent.

But it is a very powerful being, and Revelation chapter 12, 3-4, most theologians believe that's a description of Satan's fall, and it says, "In his fall, he swings his tail, and a third of the angels fall with him." So when the Bible describes devil and his angels, he's talking about the third.

Now if you know anything about angels in the Bible, the angels, a single angel is powerful enough to thwart an army, and he has the third of it. So the demonic power and influence is tremendous. I want to take some time this morning to at least cause us to be aware of the warning that we have been given about demonic activity.

So when we look at the temptation that we realize that this has been going on from the beginning. Satan has been thwarting, trying to take away God's glory from the beginning of creation, and he has not let up at all, and this is continually what he is doing. When we look at the temptation of Jesus, it's not simply, "Oh, Jesus went through that, and he conquered," and yes, all of it is true, and that's the most significant part of the temptation, but his temptation represents the fall of mankind.

And Satan, even today, and even in your life, even right now, is actively working to devour each one of us. And so we need to be aware where the attack is coming, because the person who is the most dangerous is the one who doesn't recognize that you're in battle.

That you're living in a time of peace when there's war going on, when your enemy is trying to deliberately break you down, and you're not aware of it. And so that person is in the greatest danger. So this morning, I want to kind of at least present to you, to at least put into your mind that this is real.

As much as we profess to believe God, that same God that we believe, the same Bible that we read, tells us about demonic activity. Let's go to the beginning of Satan's creation. Who is he? Typically, a lot of people, if I was to ask you to draw a picture of the devil, the picture of the devil that you may draw is probably from some cartoon, or some media, or some movie that you watch.

So basically, it's a caricature of the reality. But if you actually read the scripture, it doesn't look anything like how the Bible describes it. In Ezekiel 28, 12-13, and 15-19, it describes to us Satan's creation and his fall. It says, "Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre and Satan." So he's right off the bat, "Oh, king of Tyre, how's that Satan?" Well, you'll see why the theologians believe that even though it is a letter written to and addressed the issue of that time, that there's something bigger going.

A lot like a lot of the messianic prophecies, where he was speaking to a particular king, but clearly the application was much bigger than that. "Thus says the Lord God, 'You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. For in Eden, the garden of God, every precious stone was your covering.'" So clearly, this cannot be a physical person.

King Tyre is talking about Satan. And you'll see as we go. But look at how he's described. "You had the seal of perfection." He said, "Full of wisdom." Full of wisdom. Remember who is described as having full of wisdom? King Solomon, the wisest person. He said he was filled with wisdom and perfect in beauty.

I don't know how Solomon looked, but I don't think he was perfect in beauty. God made him full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. So this ugly picture that you have of Satan is not accurate. That's the picture that you may think of when you say the devil. You may be, they may be drawing or projecting the moral character of the devil.

But the actual physical appearance of the devil, he said, it's beautiful. So in fact, if you actually were able to see the devil, he said he was made perfect in beauty. So what makes the devil the devil is not his physical qualities, but his moral quality. He was perfect.

"You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created until unrighteousness was found in you. By the abundance of your trade, you were internally filled with violence." So the corruption happened internally. "And you sinned." Right? It doesn't make him ugly all of a sudden. And when you sin, right, it doesn't make you ugly.

Your physical appearance doesn't change. So he's still beautiful. He's still filled with wisdom. He's made perfect. "Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God, and I have destroyed you, a covering of cherub, and from the midst of the stones of fire." And then verse 17 describes his fall.

"Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor." Everything that was given to him was corrupted because of what? His own pride. Because of his arrogance. Because he was made so beautiful. He said, "I am so beautiful. Maybe I can challenge God.

Maybe I can touch some of His glory. Why aren't people worshipping me?" He said, "That was the fall of Satan." Now, the reason why I share this with you is because this is what he was tempted by. This is how he tempts you. This is how he tempts us.

Think about how much of our life is about getting attention. I mean, think about when you got up this morning and you put on your whatever it is that you put on. How many of you looked at it and said, "I'm going to put the ugliest thing that I have in the closet today." I changed my tie twice because it didn't match my red shirt.

Now, why did it have to match? Because I want you to like me. That's why. Right? I don't want you to send me texts like, "Can you please wear something else?" Right? Everything that we do is really, in the end, like there's some level of self-presentation because we want people to see us a certain way.

We work hard because we want to drive a certain car. We want to live in a certain house. And so much of it is so that we can be better in this world. You started out low. You worked hard. Got good education. You know, play baseball, softball, football, whatever it is.

But the purpose is to win. It's to get on top. Now, all of it, in and of itself, is not evil. But at the core of what drives us, if we're not careful, is similar to Satan's fall. Because he was made beautiful, his beauty corrupted him. And his wisdom became corrupt because he said, "Look how wise I am." Pride and this coveting, no matter how small it may be, enters into him and corrupts him.

There's a reason why Jesus brings up the corruption of pride in the Pharisees over and over again. That slight little bit of pride, it ruins everything that we do. Even in the context of preaching the gospel. Even in the context of doing God's work. We're always comparing. We don't just want God to just get the glory.

We want God to get the glory through me. And so all it takes is some pride. You stick a little bit of pride in there and it ruins every good endeavor. That was Satan's fall. I cast you into the ground. I put you before the kings that they may see you.

Isaiah also describes the fall of Satan. And he says this, Isaiah 14, 12-15. "How you have fallen from heaven, O star of morning, son of the dawn. You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations." And listen here from verse 13. "You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven.

I will raise my throne above the stars of God. And I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will make myself like the Most High. Nevertheless, you will be thrust down to Sheol, to the recesses of the pit.'" God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

You notice here, describing the fall, where every part of it is, "I will ascend. I will do this. I will do this. I will do this." The only person that can say that and be accurate is God. I Am. He's the only I Am. So the "I will" that Satan is proclaiming is the arrogance of, "I will do this.

I'm going to do what only you can do. I can try. I can wish. But you will not." That's why he says in the book of James, "Don't say, 'Today or tomorrow I'm going to go here. I'm going to do that.'" That's arrogance. He doesn't say, "If the Lord permits it.

If it is the will of the Lord." In other words, recognize who you are. The only one that can say, "I will" is God. And in his arrogance, he said, "I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that." Because he was made powerful. In fact, the greatest concern of leadership is not ability.

If we put somebody in leadership, is he able to do that? We have all these qualifications. He's above reproach. He's not pugnacious. He's temperate. He's not a drunkard. He's a husband of one wife. He's believing children and all this stuff that he says. But when Paul singles out to Timothy, do not lay hands.

Do not ordain somebody into ministry, especially if they are young believers. And this is what he says. "Not anoint a young convert so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil." The primary concern, with all the other qualifications that are given, the primary concern that Paul points out about putting somebody in leadership, that he's going to become proud.

Because he's given some sort of honor. He's given some sort of authority that it's going to get to his head. And then once pride enters his head, he's going to be ruined. So he said, it doesn't mean that only young believers struggle with pride. But he said young believers haven't been tested.

They haven't been broken. They haven't been humbled. And so when you give leadership to people who have not been broken, have not been humbled, haven't seen that he's not capable, that only God is, and he hasn't learned to be dependent on God, and you give him some authority, and then he bears a little bit of fruit, and it gets to his head, and he begins to say, "I will.

I will. I will." And it destroys him. We need to be aware of the active work of our enemy. If we're going to fight in this spiritual battle, first thing I want to point out is the power of Satan. He's powerful. In Jude chapter 9, in verse 9, it says, "But Michael the archangel," remember Michael the archangel?

He is the chief of the angels. So if one angel is powerful, imagine the power of Archangel Michael. "Archangel Michael, when he disputed with the devil, and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke you.'" Archangel Michael, who is the most powerful of all the angels, he said he did not dare challenge the devil directly.

He said, instead, he said, recognizing the power of the devil, he said, "The Lord rebuke you." Not by his might, not by his power. So if Archangel Michael recognizes the power of the devil, where do you and I stand? You see how dangerous it is for us not to recognize what the enemy is capable of?

In fact, when the enemy is very effective, you don't even know it. You have thoughts, you have behavior, you have emotions, that the enemy has led you to, and you don't even know it. Words come out of your mouth that may even be influenced by Satan, and you don't even know it.

Because we don't recognize the power that is against us. He is powerful, far beyond what you and I could possibly imagine. He desires to devour us. 1 Peter 5a, be of sober spirit. Be alert. It is not safe for Christians not to be sober, because not to be sober means you're not aware that you're in the middle of battle.

You have an enemy who wants to kill you, and you're not even aware of it. You're in the midst of that. The soldier who is in the middle of conflict and is not aware that he's being shot at is in the most danger. He doesn't hide. He doesn't grab his gun.

He's not running. He's just casually walking through while he's getting shot at. That's what he means, be sober. Be sober in spirit. Be on the alert. Your adversary, another word for the devil, the enemy, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. The image of a roaring lion, most of us who grew up in the city, the closest thing that we've ever seen a lion is in a zoo.

Well fed, sitting on his stomach, and usually like, "Where's the lion? He's lazy. He's sleeping again." You know what's interesting was, years ago, I was sitting in front of our Indian pastors, and I asked them, knowing all the persecution, you know, and you guys remember several years ago, they were beaten up and left in the woods for dead.

And some ranger came in and basically saved them. They were kind of left out there to be devoured by wild animals. And so I'm talking to them and said, "You know, of all the things that you guys experienced, what's the most difficult thing you've experienced in preaching the gospel in this very hostile area?" And they sat there and kind of think for a while, and they said, and they looked at each other and they said, "There was this one time we were going to this remote village, and we thought we were going to get killed by a tiger.

So I thought they were joking, you know. It was like, 'Tiger?' And they said, 'Yeah, yeah, we were out in the open field, and we had to go through this long stretch, and then halfway through we saw up in the hill a tiger was walking down.' And they said, 'We're dead.' And so quickly they hid themselves behind this boulder that was in the middle, and if the tiger kept on coming the direction that it was headed, they said, 'We're done.' And by the grace of God, the tiger came and maybe sniffed something else in the wind and then took a left turn and went away and never recognized it." And he said, "But if that tiger came our way, that would have been it." Of all the things that I thought they would say, that was not on any of my list.

The tiger, the most scariest thing that you encounter were tigers. He says, "Our enemy is like a roaring lion, a hungry lion, seeking someone to devour." He is not passively waiting for us to come. He's actively looking. Actively looking at this powerful being that even Archangel Michael would not dare to pronounce judgment upon him.

He says, "Our enemy, the devil, is roaring around like a roaring lion, wanting to devour who? Not just anybody. He's not going to devour his own. He's not going to devour those who follow him. He's talking about us, Christians. And that's why he says, 'Be sober. Look carefully. Know that you are in the midst of a spiritual battle.'" Now, if I stop here and say, "Okay, you should be scared.

Go home and lock your doors." You know what I mean? You better start fasting and praying. But the same Bible tells us in 1 John 4, 4, "You're from God, little children, and have overcome them because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." The reality of satanic powers around us, who is trying to devour us, we are protected by the Spirit of God.

He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. So is he saying, "Relax. Yeah, there's danger there, but you're protected. So continue to live your life in peace. Don't worry about it." No. The reason why he shared this is so that you would be sober.

The reason that he shares that is that if you just kind of nonchalantly walk around in your life without recognizing that there is danger, unless what? You abide in me. That the only one that can protect you from the enemy is the God who created him. And outside of him, even Archangel Michael, even Archangel Michael said he wouldn't dare challenge him.

So the application of why this is presented to us is so that we would be sober. That we are in enemy territory. And it is clear when we get into that, when Satan offers all of these kingdoms, he wasn't just making this up. He said that authority has been given to me, and I can give it to anybody that I desire.

We are living in his territory. He's the God of this age. He's the Prince of Darkness. So for people who claim to be children of God, and not living day to day, realizing that we are in spiritual battle, that person is in grave danger. It's no different than if you had two countries who are in conflict, and you have the uniform on, you have the soldier uniform on, but because you are not aware that there's a battle going on, and you put on the uniform of your side, and you walk into the enemy territory, just to grab some coffee.

Just get some rest. And you're just walking around in enemy territory with your uniform on, not realizing everybody on that side wants to kill you. And the only way that you would be safe is to be on the side where your general is protecting you. And that's why there's so much of the Bible warns us about being lukewarm.

And drifting. Because it doesn't sound that dangerous to simply be lukewarm. Lukewarm is kind of like, you know, it's neither hot nor cold. You don't feel any danger. You're not going to get burned. You're not going to get frostbite. Just lukewarm. Lukewarm basically is neither here nor there. You just kind of put on the uniform.

You put on the uniform, and just walking around enemy territory. And you're getting shot at, and you don't even know it. And you have all kinds of problems that may be happening as a direct result of the enemy trying to trip you up, but you don't even recognize that there's a spiritual war going on.

Maybe if I tweaked it. Maybe if I moved my money around. Maybe if I had this relationship. Maybe if I did that. Maybe if we just manipulated the situation that the end result's going to be different. Not recognizing that there's a spiritual attack. This is why this is so important.

The enemy is smarter than us. More powerful than us. He's more learned than us. He knows the Bible better than us. Has more experience than us. He's wiser than us. And he's better looking than us. In Matthew 10, 28-31 it 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 the soul and the body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a cent, and yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear.

You are more valuable than many sparrows." Now Satan is a powerful, wise being that comes to Jesus and tries to thwart Him through temptation. But you know how Jesus overcomes? Because there's a greater fear of God than of the devil. So as the devil comes, "If you do this, I will give you all of this." But he said, "But the word of God says." But God said this, "I cannot submit to you because I have one that I am more fearful than you." If we're not living in awe and fear of the living God, you should be afraid of the other powers that are against you.

You are not safe. That's what the Bible says. By our own power, by our own might, we are not safe. And I'm not just talking physically. I'm talking even mentally. All kinds of thoughts, all kinds of feelings can easily be manipulated. Remember? Judas was not a believer, so he completely just possessed him.

He wasn't just being influenced by it. He said he went into him. But Peter, the head apostle, Satan manipulated his thoughts and his emotions. Even though Jesus clearly said, "This is the reason why I came, so you must not go." And Jesus recognizes satanic influence on the apostle, his hand-picked leader among his disciples.

He says, "Get behind me, Satan." When we're not aware, and we allow all kinds of things to percolate in our hearts and not deal with it before God, basically he says, "Do not give room for the scheme of the devil." And he is scheming. And the danger that we're in is when we do not recognize the scheming activity and we have no fear of God, automatically we think, "Well, we're safe." He says, "No." That's why he says, "Recognize that there is a spiritual battle going on." So the way, the primary way the devil tempts us and he devours us is by twisting the Word of God.

It's not the only way, but that's a primary way that we've seen. We've seen that in the Book of Genesis. We've seen that in the false teachings that are coming in. The primary problem all throughout church history has been false teaching. Let me say this. Matthew 24, 23 says, "At the end times, behold, there are going to be times when they say, 'Behold, here is Christ.

There he is. Do not believe him. For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.'" Now, he says, "Are the elect, are they able, true elect, able to fall away from their faith?" No. Even here it says, "But the delusion is going to be so powerful that even the elect, if possible," meaning that it's not possible.

So what is he talking about? He's talking about people who look like the elect. You're going to be surprised that that person, they were leaders. They bore so much fruit. They were so gifted. They were so committed. They were so hardworking. They fell away? That's who he's referring to, somebody who looked, we all thought that they were elect, and because of their falling, they say, we realize, oh, they were not elect.

They left us because they were never really of us. That's what he's referring to. He said that's how strong the delusion is going to be. And so the delusion is targeted to professing Christians. Professing Christians, that's what he says. And how does he do that? He twists the Word of God.

I mean, remember the Garden of Eden? He comes up and he shows up and he says, "He was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and he said to the woman, 'Indeed has God said you shall not eat from any tree?'" Has he really said that?

Is that really in the Bible? "The woman said to the serpent, 'From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said you shall not eat from it or touch it or you will die.'" And then Satan just straight up says, "You will not die." And just straight up, it's a father of lies.

He's perverting the Word of God to see if they're going to bite, and they bit. Why did they bite? Because they looked at the tree and they said it looked like it was good for food, attractive to the eyes, and it was good to make one wise. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, also pride of life.

It's not by accident that Jesus' temptation is food, first one. And then the lust of the eyes where Satan takes him up to see all of his kingdom and showed him, right, lust of the eyes. And then he said, "If you really are the Son of God, jump off this thing." Also pride of life, your identity, prove yourself.

It's not by accident. These things are connected. I don't know how many times I would say something up in the pulpit and somebody would come to me and say, "Why are you twisting the Bible?" The Bible doesn't say that. Something I say offended them. There's a lot of things now in our culture that I'm going to say, because the culture has drifted so far away from God.

Even just a basic teaching of what the Word of God says, there's going to be some people who are affected by it. And everyone's going to say, "Oh, and usually when they challenge me, the way they challenge me is not, 'I don't like it,' you know, because there's not a lot of authority.

Now usually the way I get challenged is, 'Why are you perverting the Word of God?'" And so I would normally push back, say, "Which part of the Bible am I perverting? Which passage are you looking at that I'm not interpreting correctly? What part?" And usually there's no answer. If you can correct me with the Word of God, I mean, I'm submitted to the Word of God.

I don't want to tell you my opinions. I should be corrected. But I can't be corrected by your opinion, because it doesn't sit well with you, because you have certain prejudices that you have. I have prejudices that I have to correct according to the Word of God. Now let me, I'm going to save the rest for next week, but I'm going to, let me just share this with you, because I want you guys to be aware why the study of the Word of God is so important.

Like, we didn't have so many things, you know, we could have been about missions, we could have been about, you know, outreach or homeless or social justice, but we just decided that our church, we're going to be about the Word of God. That's not how we came to the conclusion.

We came to the conclusion that we've drifted so far. We've drifted so far from what the Word of God says. It doesn't even look the same. Read the Scriptures. Read the Scripture for yourself, and then compare what's going on today, what is being taught, what is being practiced. It doesn't even look the same.

How can this be the same church? How can this be the same God that was handed down to us? It is not. And that's why we chose, we want whatever we do, whether it's prayer, whether it's evangelism, whether it's discipleship, whether it's helping the poor, whatever it is, we're going to do it biblically because of what we see in Scripture.

The reason why this is so important is because the primary way that Satan devours us is by taking maybe even good intentions and then twisting that just a little bit. Years ago, I was on campus at UCI, and I was evangelizing, and I ran into these two young men.

And they said that they were evangelizing. And through our conversation, we found out that they were part of the local church in this area in Irvine. If you guys don't know what the local church is, the local church was started by the disciple of Watchman Nee, and his disciple's name was Witness Lee.

So years ago, they used to be called the Witness Lees. And I said, "Oh, you guys are part of the Witness Lees?" And they said, "No, no, we're not Witness Lees." I said, "But who founded it?" They said, "Witness Lees." But they call themselves a local church. And so we started talking, and we didn't get to end our conversation, but they were clearly engaged with me, and I was engaged with them, so they were excited that somebody that they met on the street wanted to talk to them.

They're probably used to getting rejected, and I'm used to getting rejected. So these guys want to talk to me and found out that they were seminary students in Anaheim. They came from Texas, and they had 200 seminary students in their 20s that would come and get trained for two years, and then they would go.

And they told me that they would do study in the morning, and they would be sent out to the campus, and they said there are 17 full-time seminary students that are just engaged at UCI. That was then. I don't know how many they have now, but I know that they're very active.

So we made an appointment and said, "Hey, let's get back together next week, and maybe we can talk." So this went on for about eight, nine months. Every Wednesday, I got together with them, and it took about four weeks to figure out exactly where we disagreed, because initially all they talked about, "You've got to be able to read the Bible." I said, "Yeah, me too." "But you've got to know really about the Bible." "Yeah, me too." They said, "No, no, no, no." And then they said, "You've got to read this Bible." So they gave me the recovery Bible, and the recovery Bible has a little bit of the Bible, and then the rest of it is like the study notes.

But they really knew that Bible well. I mean, they were being instructed every day for two hours in the morning and two hours at night. They were just studying the Bible, at least their recovery Bible. And then I came to where we actually disagreed, because I read online, or I read somewhere, and it said they were motorless, and they had believed that they needed to be baptized at the church, and it said they rejected all of that.

That's not true. But we did finally come to a place where we disagreed. And the main thing was, they said they believe that there's two separate kinds of Christians. They said one set are Christians who profess, but they're not bearing fruit, like real fruit. They're not on fire for God.

So those Christians, when they die, they're going to pay for their sins. And then the ones who are really committed and belong to the right church, which is them, the local church people, that when they die, they're going to enter into the millennium, and they're going to enjoy the presence of God and all of that.

So I said, "That sounds a lot like the purgatory that the Catholics believe in." They were immediately, "No, no, no, we don't believe in—it's not purgatory. It's different." They said, "So explain it to me." It's where Christians die to pay for their sins, and then when their sins are paid for, they come out, and then they can join the other Christians.

That's purgatory. But they just refused to be called—"We're not like the Catholics. We don't believe that." At the end of the day, "Okay, so I won't call it purgatory. I'll just say the place you go to pay for your sins." I said, "Where did you get that in the Bible?" So we landed on this text, 1 Corinthians 3, 12 through 15.

And so we realized that this was the primary text, and that they were using other texts to prove that. So I spent almost seven months on this text with them, because they brought it up. It's like, "You need to know that. You need to read the Bible. If you read this, how can you say that this is not what it says?" And he read, and let me read it for you.

"Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident, for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward.

And if any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, yet so as though through fire." So he was reading that. "Hey, see how it says, 'Your works will be tested, and if it doesn't, it will suffer loss.'" In other words, you're going to pay for these sins, and then you're going to come out and be saved at the end.

Interestingly enough, that's exactly—this is the proof text that the Catholics use. Now they have other extra biblical material that they use, the Apocrypha, but this is for the Bible that we use, this is the text that they go to. This proves purgatory. So we're going back and forth, and you know, talking about this, and I asked him, "Do you think it's important that you understand the text within the context?

Because this is a part of a larger letter that Paul wrote." And he said, "Of course we do." I said, "Do you know what he said before this text?" And he's like, "Don't know, so even though it's important—" So they would always look at the Recovery Bible, and they would quote the study notes in the Recovery Bible.

"But look what it says." He's like, "But that's not the Bible you're quoting. That's Witness Lee's writings. Let's look at the Bible to see what it says." So like I said, I spent seven months with them going through passage by passage in 1, 2, 3, 4, and the ramification of that, how that's connected to the rest of the Bible.

And so I opened up with them in 1 Corinthians 3, 5-12, which is a text right before this is written. "What then is Apollos, and what is Paul, servant through whom you believe, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one?" So for the sake of time, I won't read the whole thing.

But basically what happens prior to that text is Paul is addressing a problem that there's division in the church. And this division is at the core of every other problem in 1 Corinthians. It's because you're not united, saying, "We're Apollos, we're Peter, we're Paul, we're Jesus." And as a result of that, it created this division in the church, and this division led to all kinds of chaos in the church.

Paul was addressing that all the way from chapter 1 to chapter 3. So chapter 3 is the conclusion of this argument. Now, in order to understand the problem of what's going on, you have to understand that there was tension in the church. It was a legitimate tension. In 1 Corinthians 16, 10, look what Paul says.

"Concerning Apollos, our brother, I encouraged him greatly to come to you with the brethren, and it was not at all his desire to come now, but he will come when he has opportunity." Now, I'm not sure exactly how you read this in Greek, and I've read it in different translations, and it pretty much says the same thing.

Does that sound like Paul's a little bit frustrated? I read it. I know it's the Bible, but the Bible's honest. Paul says, "I encouraged him greatly to come," and he says, "It was not at all Apollos' desire." Right? It sounds like to me there's something going on. There's some tension.

And I can understand why, because Apollos was not converted by Paul. Apollos was the scholar who was expositing the Old Testament, and he's the one who connected the dots in the prophecies, and he came to the conclusion that the Messiah is going to be a suffering Messiah. And Achilles and Priscilla brings him aside and say, "That Jesus, that Messiah you're preaching, already came." So he was the scholar, and he was the preacher.

He was the one who was able to attract attention, exposit the text, and people were coming to him. Paul, remember what they say about him? They say, "Letters are strong, but his presence is weak." And his presence is talking about his ability to communicate. In their Book of Acts, it said it was a habit of Paul to preach on and on and on.

He actually killed people with his sermons. They fell asleep, and they fell off, and they died. He was not a good communicator. He was an evangelist. Apollos was the scholar. And so you could see, maybe there was a little bit of tension. Then on top of that, remember Peter in the Book of Galatians?

Understand, Galatians was written maybe a year before 1 Corinthians was written. So it was written around the same time. Remember what Paul did in Galatians? He writes, he said, "I'm not serving man. If anybody comes to you, preaches the gospel, other than what I preach to you, let him be anathema." The highest and the most critical judgment be upon him.

And then he says, "I had to confront Peter. I had to embarrass Peter in front of everybody because he was confusing the gospel. He would not sit with the Gentiles. And it was confusing that you have to be a Jew in order to become a Christian, and that needed to be corrected." And they say, "He publicly rebukes Peter." And then on top of that, not only rebukes Peter, if you read the text, it says, "And also Barnabas." That's what it says, "And Barnabas also got caught up into this mess." Now you would think, humanly speaking, right?

I mean, Peter, the leader among the apostles, would say, "Who's this guy? This guy used to kill people, and now he's going to embarrass me?" You would think if, humanly speaking, if this played out, you would have had the Church of Paul, Church of Peter, and Church of Apollos.

And we would have had 2,000 years of different history. 1 Corinthians is written right around the time that Galatians was happening, and so my guess is there was some human tension in them. And it took a while for Peter maybe to come around. By the time he writes his letters, he says, "No, I was wrong.

Peter was right." Peter was humble enough to accept his rebuke, and so they continued to spread the same gospel. But this is what's going on in Corinthians. The Church was divided. "No, Peter is right. No, Apollos is right. No, Paul is right." It's in that context that he is writing this, because the churches were divided, saying, "You've missed the mark.

If you allow Satan to divide us because of this, Satan has won. Have you forgotten?" And so in 1 Corinthians 3.10, it says, "According to the grace of God, which was given to me, like a wise master, builder, I laid a foundation. Another is building on it, which would be Apollos.

But each man must be careful how he builds on it, for no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ." So 1 Corinthians 3.12-15 is basically an explanation of the division that's taking place, that each one, Paul, Peter, Apollos, that ultimately God's going to test what they're doing.

That if what they're doing is wrong, God's going to test them. They will be saved, but their work is going to be tested. So the point that he's trying to make is, do not divide over this. That's why Paul says, "When I was with you, I resolved to know nothing but Christ crucified." The Jews look for signs.

The Greeks look for wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. It is foolishness to those who are perishing, but it is the power of God to those who are being saved. So the point that he was trying to make is, fixate yourself on Christ. Do not turn from it to the left or to the right.

In season and out of season, you stick with the Word of God, because God has ordained not your organization, not your intellect, not your will, not the program, but God has ordained the Word of God. The foolishness of the Word of God being preached, that it may seem foolishness, it may seem that it doesn't have power, but God has ordained it in order to dumbfound the wise, the people who think that they know, that they would dumbfound them to recognize that what God was doing was more than powerful.

It is the greatest wisdom. That's the point of 1 Corinthians. That because you have strayed from that, it is causing all kinds of divisions in the church. So it is not about purgatory. I wanted to share this with you because many, many instances of this has happened since, other than this.

It was that this was very clear to me. So much of false teaching and people who fall out is because they have some Bible. They have some of it, but they do not have all of it. So when Satan plants seeds, when Peter was trying to get Jesus to not go to the cross, Peter did not say, "I don't want God.

Let's rebel together." He didn't say that. He used his love. "I love you, Jesus. Even if they all fall, I will not fall." Satan tapped into his loyalty. Satan tapped into his love to thwart what God came to, what Jesus came to do. So if Peter's maybe good intention can be manipulated by Satan to be used against the gospel, how important is it that you and I do not turn from the Word of God to the left or to the right?

How important is it that you and I stay sober spiritually? How important is it that we do not just simply have a superficial grasp of the Word of God, but that we would also say, "You say this, but God says this." My goal this morning was simply to plant seeds in your head that not only this morning, but that we are all aware.

Not simply because the news says, "Oh, we have a gunman out there who's trying to shoot us, so you should be careful." No, even without a gunman, the danger is real and constant. We need to be sober. We need to make sure that we understand that we are soldiers in enemy territory.

We are not home. That we are going through, one day we will be home with the Lord, and to live our lives fully being aware that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the devil and his demons. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we pray for revival.

We pray, Father God, that you would give us the conviction to abide in you. Not simply because we want to bear fruit, although that's what you warned us, but because we need you. We need you to be our refuge. We need you to give us clear mind. We need you to purify our hearts, to open our ears, that in the midst of storm, Lord God, that we would not run to the world, but to you and you alone.

Help us, Lord, to be aware of the spiritual attack that we're under. That we may withstand the scheme of the devil. That we may honor you, Father God, in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, so we're going to ask the pastors to come up, and I'm going to open up the communion table.

So this is the way it's going to go. There's going to be four stations. There's one here, two here, and one there. We're going to ask the two side groups to come alongside, and then take it and go down that way. We're going to ask the two sides in the middle to come on this side, and then take it down the middle.

If you happen to be right here up in the front, obviously you can come to the front and get it. But for all of you, if you can, to do that. Also, if for whatever reason, as you're in line, you see that there's other lines that are completely open, yeah, you don't have to be Asian.

You can break out of that line. You know, come on the shorter line, so that the lines will go a little bit faster. So I'm going to read the text and open up the communion table. And I want to explain to you why we want you to come, instead of us just giving it to you.

And there's nothing wrong with that, but the reasoning behind what we're doing is we want you to be intentional about coming up. We don't want you participating in the communion, and somebody just dropped it up and opened your mouth and put it in, and there's not a lot of thought and intention behind it.

So we want you to contemplate, to think, to pray. If there's any sins, to confess, to confess. If there's anything that you need to come before the Lord and acknowledge, to acknowledge and to be prayerful, so that when you are ready, you are willfully coming to the table. So again, I want to remind you, the communion table is for baptized Christians, because it is a ceremony celebrating our union with Christ.

So if there was no union to begin with, obviously there's no power behind it. So we ask you to stay in your seats. But for the rest of you, when you come up, again, one by one, come up intentionally. So let me open it up for us. In 1 Corinthians 11, 23, it says, "For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread.

And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way, he took the cup also after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.'" Heavenly Father, we pray that you would anoint this sacred time.

May it be used, Lord God, to sanctify your church, to cause us, Lord God, to reflect deeply upon the body of Christ, that this would cause us, Lord, to reflect on the grace and to celebrate your sacrifice for us. Lord, we do not participate it by our own merit.

We do not participate because we did not sin this week. But knowing, Father God, in our weakness, that Christ came and suffered on our behalf, that he who knew no sin became sin so that we may become the righteousness of God. So help us to come to this table recognizing the body, recognizing you, that it would cause your church to be sanctified.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Again, one by one, as you are ready, we invite you to come. >> For the closing praise.