He went right on time. So one day I was driving to see my brother. He got, he was in the hospital with this disease called pancreatitis, which among other things means that your pancreas is letting out digested uses where they're not supposed to go. And so your body's digesting your own organs. And it can be really, really, really bad. And I had only had, at that point, one other friend who had ever had that. And it was bad for him. It did not go well for him. So I was, this was about three years after my other brother had died. And so I was kind of in a little bit of a, a little psych panic. And so I just drove, right? I was like, I have to see him. I got to get eyes on him. So I just drove to the east. And this was when I had just gotten a brand new Garmin GPS toy and stuck it to my windshield. And I was like, I'm going to go the fastest possible route. And I hit it. And I was driving through Missouri. And it said, get off the highway here. And so I got off the highway here. And I was like, I never knew about this road. And then this two lane highway turns into a two lane country road. And I'm like, oh, strange I never knew about this road. But I'm watching the GPS. I'm getting closer and closer. And I'm only 20 miles away. And I look at, I see a yellow sign. And it says, caution. Road ends in water. And I look at the GPS. And it says, board the ferry. And I look at, there's another sign that says, ferry runs until 5 p.m. And it's 8 p.m. And I'm 20 miles from my destination. For more of my brother is in the hospital. And it took me two hours to get there. Because I had to re-route. And you know, if I had known where I was going, this would have been a better trip. We don't want to see signs that say roads end in water. That's not what we're looking for. And I want you to be equipped where the road is going. Because as we're finishing up this series on a spiritual warfare, I'm very much aware that many of us have been deceived. We have been deceived by well-intentioned people who didn't know the truth. And so they basically have said that the life of the Christian is a life of one victory after another. And they've taken out all the parts about the continuing battles we have against evil that is very, very present in this life until God wipes it out at the final resurrection. And I don't want you to be deceived by the oncoming river across which there is no fairy. I want you to know what's coming. I want you to be prepared because I have good news for you. You have everything you need. You have everything you need. First Peter says, we have everything we need for life and godliness through his great and precious promises and the Lord Jesus. We have everything we need for life and for godliness through his great and precious promises, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence. Get everything you need. One time I was on a trip next to a man who is a little bit older than me and he'd run a few marathons and I was trying to make conversation with him. And so I shared with him what I thought was an interesting piece of information. I said, you know, actually everybody, almost pretty much all of us, have enough store-up energy to run a marathon if we could just push through the pain and he just started laughing. So that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. And I said, what do you mean? He goes, you ever drove him by a junkyard? What you just told me is basically saying that every car in that junkyard has a big enough fuel tank to drive across the country. Yeah, but they don't have engines. You can't just use the fuel if you don't have the developed engine to get it, to use it. And every one of you have everything you need for life and godliness, but you've got to learn how to use it and you have to develop the skills and the wisdom to use it. And that's what I want to talk to you about today. How are you going to develop and use the skills to use the power? How are you going to develop the muscles and the skills to use the gifts that God has given you in this present evil age until the day when he brings us home? So let's talk about that as we stand and read this glorious picture story from Revelation chapter 20. It's a description of life now and what's coming in the near future and how we get through it. Here's the word of the Lord from Revelation chapter 20. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection. Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and they will reign with him for a thousand years. And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, God and May God, to gather them for battle and their number is like the sand of the sea. And they will come out to deceive the nations. I don't know, that's in there twice. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. But fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were. And they will be torn in a day and night forever and ever. Then I saw a great white throne in him who was seated on it and from his presence earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead great and small standing before the throne. And books were opened and then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, death and hidees gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged each one of them according to what they had done. Even death and hidees were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. That's why the reading of God's Word, all men are like grass, and all of our glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but not God's Word. God's Word stands forever. You may be seated. Even knowledge of him who's called us, we have everything we need for life and godliness. And we need to grow in our skills and our ability and our wisdom to put those things to use. I want to prepare you, I'm not trying to prepare you for life. We are living in this period he described as the thousand years. It's not a specific number. Obviously not even Jesus said he knows the day when he will return, but it's this time between the first and the second resurrection. And those who've experienced the first resurrection are in heaven, and they're reigning over us with Jesus. And we're down here on the earth with evil. And the evil is being pushed back and it's receding, but it's important to know that it's not going anywhere. It's going to continue. And I know what you're saying, you're saying, but Ricky, you're a mystic. You have almost euphoric optimism about the future. Every time people want to say something like that on the good old days, this or that, you're always the one reminding us that things are way better than they used to be. And they are way better than they used to be. And if you don't believe that, then come, let's talk. But that does not mean that evil is going anywhere. It will persist. But if the church is going to grow from now until the end, how can evil remain? Well, come on. Do you know the church? I mean, there's reasons why we're going to deal with evil. One of them is simply this. It only takes a very small minority to exert a great amount of evil. How many people did it take to pull off the attack, the 9-11 attack on the World Trade Center? 20, 40? How many people suffered? How many people's lives were changed forever? How many people did it take to bomb the building in Oklahoma City? Two? How many thousands of people were affected? Evil is going to remain. Not in order. These are able to exert a great amount of evil. And Satan's work continues primarily through deception, through just the evils of worldliness. The revelation describes this great harlot who is making the nation's drunk on her sins and on her wares and its sexual immorality and the greed and what parades itself as joy is actually all leading to death and destruction. And it blinds her eyes. And the false prophet who's always there tied to power, tied to violence, but is able to bring people under his influence. So in the name of what they see as religion almost, or not almost, as religion, they think they're serving God by being violent. And honestly, what Revelation 20 seems to be saying, and Second Thessalonians seems to be saying is that's actually going to get worse. Now anybody who's studied the 20th century at all would say, it's kind of hard to imagine it's going to get worse, right? I mean, the millions upon millions of deaths in the name of nationalism and socialism and communism and fascism, like how can that get worse? And maybe look back and Jesus comes back tomorrow and goes, no, that was it, didn't you see it? I'm going to be like, great, but probably not. There's probably at least one more beggar one out there. Evils going to continue and we need to not be deceived by it. Evils going to continue outside the church, pressing in on it, and the evils going to continue there. And sometimes in the name of the church, and that's a sad thing that we have to embrace and we have to acknowledge, even if I watch the coronation, I watch the highlights of the coronation. Well, that's kind of cool, aren't we never seen that in our lifetime? It was cool, you know, we put the screen up and did all the anointing and had a little kid read, you know, we welcome you in the name of Christ and King Charles says, you know, in Christ example, I have come not to be served, but to serve, and I'm like, yeah, that's pretty cool. And it was cool, but it was also this, I don't know, it's a word, conflagration between worldly power and church power and all this, you know, the beauty and the pomp and the altar there and I'm going to walk into Westminster once, but seeing the words up on the altar, the nations of this world become the nations of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever and it's glorious and it's beautiful and I got chills when I saw it. But to see that combined with the earthly king of England and to look back over history of hundreds of years of colonialism and slavery and the wars that were fought in India and China and the evil things that were done in the name of this empire, how would you feel if someone told you, no, this is, this is the kingdom of Christ, evil done in the name of the church, evil done by people in the church who are well-meaning, but just deceived. I mean, it was a big problem in my life, it was something I had to really deal with, it gave me a great deal of dissonance when I was in my 20s and I was brought up in this culture that just revered, you know, Confederate generals who loved the Lord and I would read their journals and their prayers and then take a step back and go but they were fighting to defend evil, deception, we're all susceptible to it and it's oftentimes in the church and some of you have been about different kinds of evil within the church and your hearts are still bearing scars from being in the church and being lied to, sometimes about well intentioned people, other times by just selfish, narcissistic people, people in the church doing damage, doing harm and we acknowledge that's one of the reasons the Lord called me to Tulsa, I wanted to come here because I feel like one of the specials, I don't know why you call it, the stink is of our ministry's ability to empathize and apply the gospel to people who've been hurt by the church and there's a lot of people in this town and we have to acknowledge that that Satan isn't going anywhere, that he is here and he is within the church oftentimes but the good news is that the true church will prevail, the true church will prevail, the true church is going to use all of Satan's tools against him and will prevail for those of you who shudder at the thought of the church, it's a sign of the power, it should be a symbol of the power of the gospel, the power of the true gospel and Christ that you're still here, you're still here because the gospel's true, because Jesus is real, I mean there are Christians in China and in India despite the evils done by the British Empire because the gospel's true and it's real and it can't be hidden even by Satan's lies, there are true Christians among the African Americans and American throughout the South because the gospel is true despite the evils of slavery, it's nothing Satan can do, can can overpower the work of the gospel and it's fascinating, it's fun to just around tell the stories in a reminder, I was talking to my kids yesterday and we were talking about games, computers and I made the comment, I said you know what's hilarious to me is that the only reason the internet is what it is today is because of pornography, I mean for the first 10 years that we had an internet the only way that anybody made money off of it was through porn and they made enough money to build what we now call the worldwide web and through that worldwide web the gospel is now going to every nation in the world, God using what Satan intended for evil, the internet got built in Africa because the amount of money people were making with the Nigerian scam, frankly, and now the gospel's going to every nation in India, in Africa, God using what Satan intended for evil, for his glory and for his good and that's what God does and he is at work and the church is prevailing and it's growing and it's living in places where it's been oppressed and where they've tried to shut it out like China and India, the church is growing and it's breathing and it's living and it's growing in America to quote Mark Twain the reports of the churches demise have been greatly exaggerated, you know? I mean come on, what generation in the last 15 years has been more maligned than millennials, millennials right, they're awful, they're the worst people ever, selfish brats, godless pagans, you know what the last Barnapale report shows, millennials are going to church right now to rate a 39% by far the most church generation in America is millennials the smallest church, least church generation right now is boomers, which is hilarious to me, I'm neither one, I'm generation X, millennials, I got beaten up like y'all did, I don't feel that bad for you, but the gospel is still growing right, people over and over again we're telling me how a COVID is going to be the end of the church, I mean everybody just left church and not going to come back, I heard that a lot, we lost 40% of our church during COVID and the Lord has grown us again, regrown us bigger than we've ever been, and stronger than we have ever been, and I believe the church in America is actually, I almost hate to say this because I don't want anybody to notice it, but it's undergoing a revival, it really is, and yet to know where to look to see it, but it's powerful, the New York Times, I mean that's a bastion of Christianity, the New York Times has four overtly Christian writers, now there's only one or two things, either they're trying to sneaky subversive way of influencing American culture, or they're greedy and smart enough to figure out there's a lot of Christians out there who want to read these people, the New York Times, that's amazing, the most popular comedian in the country right now, Nate Bargotsie, filled up Nashville's arena, the biggest crowd is ever assembled in the Nashville arena, it's coming to the B.O.K. Center in September and the ticket prices are just absolutely ridiculous, overt Christian, I mean he has a podcast every week where he talks about what he learned in church that day, it's a, there's this small awakening going on, the thing that we've been praying for, the church is not going to perish, and as the church grows, evil's going to get matter and matter, and the two are going to continue to clash, but you have what you need for it, you're prepared for it, and that's what I want to talk to you, I want to tell you about your contributions, your contributions in this eternal war, which take place, very small, very hand-to-hand combat in your life, we have contributions to make, and we are part of this surge, this going forward of true Christianity, and the first thing we do is we praise, our praise matters, I just love the call to worship ahead, Josh Reid, it's part of this little story in Revelation, Revelation tells the entire, the story of all of history, like five different times I think, maybe someone say seven, the seven is a good number, whatever, but at least five times, and one of them is Revelation 12, 13 and 14, and Revelation 12 is the battle between Satan and Eve, and his attempt to try to keep Jesus from being born, he couldn't be born, until he's mad, and he gets a, and he stands on the edge of the sea, and he calls forth in chapter 13, the beast, and the prostitute, and the prophet, and he's deceiving nations, and he's waging war against God's people, and then in Revelation 13, 14, we have the lamb, and his fair army on the mountain, and you're just kind of ready for like the war, right, it's like this, this, you know, you can hear the, let's get ready to rumble in this corner, the dragon, and his beast, and his prophet, and his prostitute, and in this corner, the lamb, and his army, and they sing, like a rave or a fight, and they sing, I, some of you know, the story I told a lot of times of just feeling pretty worn out on Mondays, and I was praying to the Lord about it, and kind of had this vision of myself, coming off the football field at the end of the game, and I tried as hard as I could, but we lost, and you see myself just draped over my coaches, shoulders, and I'm sorry, did my best, and God gave me this vision of him picking my head up and going, Ricky, you're in the band, I won the game, you don't think I'm going to let you be responsible for something as important as winning the game, I won the game, I've defeated them, they're defeated, your job is to play boomer sooner and let everybody know that they've been defeated, you're just in the band, play the fight song, play Rocky Top, play anything but Dixie, that's not one that's not allowed, but play anything else, you're in the band, play the song, and the thing is, the band matters, they really do, they whip up your team, and they make the other team just annoyed, and they hate the sounds, and they feel defeated, the band actually matters, and when we praise the Lord and the midst of great suffering, we beating back evil Satan hates it, and he flees from us. When, you know, Joe, chapter one, after his children and his riches and his fields and everything he has has been taken away from him, he bows down into the ashes and he worships God, and Satan hates it, when the church in Nashville at Covenant Press held Haley's funeral, Haley struts his funeral on Saturday after she was killed there on Monday, when the elders were gathering around the pools of blood and holding hands and praying, and asking Jesus, but Jesus they still loved and trusted to receive these wounds and his wounds, it mattered, and Satan was being pushed back. The first thing we do is we praise, especially in the light of evil, we praise, and it pushes Satan back, and we pray, what did Jesus teach us to pray? Thy will be done, Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, Thy kingdom come on earth, He's telling us to pray to push back darkness, and it got to bring His light, and we know the darkness hates the light, but it can't overcome it, and we pray, and we learn how to pray, and we learn how to worship. That's why it's important for you to learn those songs and teach them to your children so that when the darkness comes you've seen, you have light, and we pray, and we pray for God's kingdom in general and in specific. I encourage you, pray to Lord's Prayer every day, you may think, I so wrote, and whatever. Jesus said to you, it's so funny people are like, I don't know how to pray. Jesus said, pray these words, if nothing else, pray those words. I mean, I think when he said, pray those words, he meant, pray those words. I don't think they're like a metaphor or an example. I mean, pray those words, and then pray specifically if you want to, and I encourage you to pray specifically, God loves to answer specific prayers just because, can I let some show off? And He loves you, and you know, one of the most convicting questions I've ever been asked is, if God answered every prayer, every prayer exactly how you prayed it. If He said, this is your prayer list this week, I've been keeping it. I'm going to give you everything, everything you've grown this list or getting it. But anybody else's life be better. Would anybody else be in heaven outside of your family? Would the world be changed by that prayer list? I kingdom come. Learn how to use your prayers as a way to pushing back darkness. Learn how to protect yourself. Learn how to protect yourself from lies. For a second Corinthians says, though we walk in the flesh, we're not waging war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare, not a flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. Do you know how to do that? There are evil thoughts or sinful thoughts or temptations that we all deal with. They come up in our minds all the time. They're different, but all of a share in the fact that we all have them. What are they? Have you taken those descriptors to specifically look for ways to pray against them? James says, resist Satan and he'll flee from me. How did Jesus resist Satan by claiming the promises of God by trusting him? What are the temptations that Satan brings to your mind? I mean, for me it was always money. That's why Bianca made me memorize. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires. Godliness with contempt and his great gain. I am your inheritance and your great reward. No good thing does he withhold from those who love him. Have you taken your specific temptations, your anxieties? Don't just have anxieties and don't beat yourself up for being anxious but remind yourself. Cast all your anxieties upon him for he cares for you. Don't be anxious for your life, for your father who provides for the birds and for the flowers. He knows you need these things and he will give them to you. What is your struggle? The promises are there. You have everything you need. Protect yourself from those thoughts, those fears, those weapons of Satan. To defend yourself. We praise the Lord and we pray to Him and we protect our minds and ultimately we proclaim the gospel and everything we do. Especially when we are in the midst of suffering, it's so funny how I used to think that I had to always be happy because if I wasn't always happy, then nobody would want to trust Jesus. Because I knew I trusted Jesus and I was sad, obviously he doesn't work. And I was like 19 when I thought that, so give me a break. But a lot of people still think that it could be further from the truth. Nobody is getting converted by Barney. Nobody wants to be Barney. But when they see you at peace in the midst of suffering, maintaining your faith in the funeral home and the graveyard, they know that you have something they don't. They know you have something they don't. And you cause them to want to look to God and wonder what it is. I can't draw the illustration any more starkly than the story I told you last week. The police chief in Nashville, what have you learned from this terrorist attack? What have you learned from this attack? It has strengthened my faith in God. To see the response of these believers has strengthened my faith in God and proclaim the gospel. Give a reason for the faith that is within you. You've got everything you need. You've got everything you need. Paul tells us, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, praying it all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. You've got everything you need. There's a golf tournament going on right now and it's it's a rich golf course which is in my neighborhood so me and my kids all walk to it. And right before I left yesterday, I looked in the garage where I have two very large golf umbrellas and I thought to myself, those might come in handy and then I walk up without them. And especially as my son came home because he got sent home when the started pouring down rain and he literally came home. It could not have been wetter if he had been thrown in a bathtub. I mean, he's just, I just thought, man, that would have been handy. Too bad we didn't take it. You've got everything you need for life and godliness. Learn how to put it to use. Please pray with it. Father in heaven, thank you for Jesus. Thank you for how He's defeated the evil that is around us and most importantly maybe the evil that is within us. Would you calm them? Teach us how to use our faith. Teach us to praise you in the midst of darkness. Teach us to pray with specificity. Would your Holy Spirit teach us, show us where to pray and how? Would you teach us how to protect our minds? Take evil thoughts captive, not allow to seek any place to grow within our minds. Would you show us? Would you show us what it means to proclaim your gospel and everything that we do? Whether it means using words or simply helping and loving or listening. We pray that you would be at work through us and Jesus precious and powerful name we pray.