Unmasking the Spirit of the Age III, The Exercise of our Authority

All right, we need to move along. We've got some good things to talk about this morning. Turn your scripture to 2 Corinthians, chapter 10. As we prepare to receive the Word together, I want to thank the handful of you that came at 8 o' clock this morning to pray. Unknowingly. It was a real encouragement that you would set the Spirit and be here before the Lord. Alright? Second Corinthians, chapter 10. I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold to you when I am away, I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of acting in worldly fashion. For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war. For the weapons of our warfare are not worldly, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. For though we live in the world, we are not carrying on a worldly war. Have you ever had the experience of feeling helpless? That something was happening right before your eyes that you knew could have potentially disastrous results and you couldn't do anything about it? Some years ago, in the driveway of the former house in which we lived, one of our children. Which one was it? David or Amy, got in the car. Carol just reminded me that two of them have done it. Got in this old Valiant that I had that was parked and there's a very slight angle in the driveway and got behind the wheel and were doing the things that little kids do behind the wheel and reached up and pulled the select lever down from park into neutral. And I looked out the window from our family room and just watched the car with the kids behind the wheel going down the driveway. And the slope increases in severity. And I was just totally helpless watching this car go down. And there was a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, you know, of course, that the car could be hurt. And. In fact it was, and so was the neighbor's fence. But in both instances, the kids were okay. And we learned our lesson about parking brakes and locks and all that kind of stuff. But I was helpless. I couldn't do a thing to change that circumstance. And in a good way, those things turned out to teach us a lesson. But you've been in experiences, and so have I, where we've been helpless and we've seen things happen that we couldn't control and ended up bringing hurt and discouragement. You are facing perhaps today, that kind of a circumstance, as it were, a giant in your life that you know is there and you can't do anything about it. You feel helpless. A spouse that doesn't give you the time of day in terms of affection and concern and interest. Or perhaps a job situation that's a dead end street. But it's the only thing you have. And you're wondering, will it ever change? A personal Goliath that stands there mocking you, challenging you, questioning you. What can you do? Who is this that comes out here to challenge me? Beloved in the next 10 days, in a corporate sense, Northaway Christian Community faces two potential giants of just that sort. Two things are about to take place that will have a very significant corporate impact on our lives. And the potential is there for us to look at them and say, what can I do? What difference can I make? Do I have any hope at all in changing that circumstance? These things are so significant that I will say to you unequivocally that they will influence the course of our ministry for the next five years. The first one is the national elections, which are just nine days away. The national elections are without a doubt the most significant event in this decade. And perhaps, as some have said in the last 50 years, there are some very, very significant issues at stake. Geraldine Ferraro said recently when she was in Pittsburgh, and I quote from the Pittsburgh Press, that this isn't simply a choice between personalities or parties. We are making a choice about the things in which we believe. We are voting for a belief system in nine days, and we better believe that. And so the national elections come upon us and we look at that and say, what difference can I make? And that lie will be planted in some of us so deeply that we'll somehow get caught up in the events of the day and not even vote, along with 20 million other Christians who have conviction. The second issue that could be determined within 10 days because of the nature of the negotiations in which we have entered in is this facility in which you're seated this morning. As you sit here, there is a family and Reno, Nevada, that has on their desk an offer from this community for this building, an offer that was pounded out through a number of weeks of prayer and investigation and assessment. And we believe that God is at work to bring about the release of this building for us to continue our ministry. And yet you may look at this and say, what Can I do? What difference can I make? I mean, I wasn't on the committee, and I want you to know today that you're not helpless. But God has given you a place and a purpose and a very significant role in bringing about the fulfillment of what he wants to do, both in this building, in this simple little place where we are here, north of Pittsburgh, and in the nation. And ultimately, beloved, because of those two things in the world. Your conviction and mine today as a church should be this. We should see our spiritual birthright as being the authority to participate in a higher realm of existence than that which the world claims to control and operate in. We have been given by God access to a higher realm. And I'm going to keep saying those words because it is a higher realm than the world sees. The world, as. Paul alludes here in Second Corinthians, wages a worldly war. And its weapons are things like reputation, financial wealth, manipulation, psychological testings, polls, payoffs, and all manner of means of getting things done. These are worldly weapons. This is what the world uses to get what it wants. How many of you have at one point in your life been affected by just those things? But you see, beloved believers are not. I want to say it again. We are not competing on those with those weapons. They are not part of the satchel that we carry alongside of us to face our Goliath. There's nothing in our bag of weaponry that has to do with manipulation, that has to do with undercutting, that has to do with criticizing and pulling down by exalting ourselves. No, our weapons are not that at all. Paul says the weapons of our warfare are entirely different. It's a different power, it's a different spirit. It's a different realm. And you know something? I am totally convinced as I stand here before you this morning that the weapons of our warfare are superior to the worldly weapons that we are confronting. The elections are not going to be determined by the media, by the polls, by the politicians, the elections. Saints will be determined by the prayers of God's people, by the authority that's been given to us as believers in Jesus Christ. As you look back over history, president after president, in the early decades of our existence as a nation, George Washington said it's a foolish assumption to believe that man can enter into the government of this nation apart from the wisdom of God Almighty. You see, it's a higher authority that we invoke in this warfare. And when it comes to this property, we can't compete. We cannot compete with the real Estate acumen of these people in which we've entered into negotiations. We're dealing with the sharpie of sharpies. We're dealing with a person who has taught people how to be sharp. And we're not going to be able to go in there and somehow pull off a slick maneuver and just sneak this building out from underneath them. It's not the weapons of our warfare, but in our hands and on our knees and with our lips. The weapons exist to allow God to provide for us according to what he would purpose and do. And what I want you to do today with me for just a few minutes. I want you to exchange, beloved, the tradition, the pride, all the things in us that would bind us up and render us unable to receive God's word and truth today. Remember last week we talked about the difference between God's truth and man's ideas. And we said that God's truth was what persevered throughout eternity. God's truth was unswerving and unmoving. But man's ideas, they come and they go. I want you to exchange your ideas about what I'm going to say concerning the truth of God's spiritual weapons and receive his Word and plant it in your heart so that you can make a difference in these two specific areas in the next 10 days. Now, the first thing you've got to grasp is the establishment of our authority. Where do I have the right to say that we can invoke a higher authority than the world has? What gives me that right? Now I want to show you the Word of God. Our tendency in life is to segment spiritual and secular, isn't it? How many times we come in and we think, well, we're going to do things in church. We're going to go through our spiritual exercises. But when we leave here, it's back to the real world. Now, praise God. Many of you are being delivered from that dualism that is not of the Word of God. And we're being placed in a position to see that God is over all things by his Word. I want you to see what the Word says. The Word teaches just the opposite of that. It says this turn. Put that first scripture on, would you please? That the Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom is over all. Would you read that? Read it out loud with me. The Lord has established his throne in the heavens and his kingdom is over all. Rules over all. What does all mean to you? All the churchly kingdoms? All the kingdoms of religion? No, all kingdoms, beloved. The Bible says that the spiritual Rules over all. All. All. The next scripture that I want you to see is from the book of Ephesians. And it's the word of the Lord through Paul about the Lord Jesus. Read with me far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body. The fullness of him who fills all in all. I want to ask you a question. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? I have to say to you, church, we can read that scripture and write it off. So much jabbering by some sort of over inflated apostle in the first century. This is talking about Jesus. And notice what he says about that authority. For whom is it given? Over all things. For who? For the Church. And we are the Church, his body. A lot of other scriptures confirm this. Now this authority is not only for the church, it's shared with the Church. The Bible says that we are seated with him in Ephesians 2, 6. In heavenly places. In the Bible, when you see the word seated, it always represents the placing of authority. Where is the throne? What does God sit on? He sits on a throne. He is seated on the throne. What does that represent? His authority to rule. Where is Jesus seated? At his right hand. Seated at his right hand. In God's economy of things, being seated is the position of rulership. It's from that position that authority is exercised. That's why Jesus says in Revelation 3:21, he who conquers, I will have to sit with me. And they will rule the nations, conquering and being seated, from which we rule together. Now this is just so much spiritualization. It can be just so much out there. While it sounds great, it's got to come down to where we not only know it, beloved, but we believe it. And what do we need to do to believe it? We've got to have a revelation of God. There's got to be something so powerful that happens in us that it gets out of our head. I'd say 90% of you have heard what I'm talking about so far today. But beloved, if 90% of us believe that we change not just Wexford and the north hills, but we'd be doing such things for God that we wouldn't be able to keep up with it all. We know it, but we don't believe it. 1945. The United States of America had developed the most awesome weapon in all of human history at that time, our forces had defeated the Allies in Europe. And all that remained was the intensely strong willed Japanese resistance. In the west coast theater, hundreds and thousands of men were losing their lives going from island to island trying to root out the enemy resistance. Some of you, my own father, were involved in that conflict. And a very solemn and sobering decision was made by the President of the United States and his advisors to unleash this fierce weapon. Several days before the bombing of Hiroshima, Information was distributed, announcements were made, flyovers were conducted where leaflets were dropped. And it's a known fact that the Japanese government knew that we had this weapon. They knew it, we knew it. But it was not until that weapon was exercised. It was not until that weapon was unleashed that the war ended. It was not until that weapon. Revealed the awesome power that had been tapped. And I grieve over the loss of life. But you know, that weapon saved the lives of countless thousands of other people. And it wasn't until the exercise of it, it wasn't enough to believe that they had it. It wasn't enough to believe that they could do it. It had to be exercised. And church, I want to say today, it's not enough to just believe that we have this authority. It's got to be exercised. It's got to come out of where we think into our hearts and then out of our mouths. And I just want to talk for a few minutes about the way that we exercise that awesome authority that's been given to us as the Church of Jesus Christ. The great strategy of the enemy is to deceive the church and have it think that it has no power. You don't have. What kind of. What are you talking about, authority? How long have you been in debt? Well, all my life it seems like. You say you have authority. How long have you been sick? You have authority. You say this is the enemy talking to you. Look at your family. Two of your kids could care less about God. You think you have authority. How many of you know what I'm talking about? The minute you begin to see God's purpose in this, lies start coming, accusation. And the enemy puts his finger right on your failure, right on your judgmentalism, right on your weaknesses. And he lies to you and says you don't have any authority. And he makes you pay such a price for the exercise of your authority that you give up long before you ever exercise it. One of our local department stores boasts that customer satisfaction is their goal. And they say, we'll do anything that you need Done to be satisfied. You have the authority to be satisfied. And so you go back to take back your defective can opener and you have to wait a while to find a parking place. Then you walk inside the store and there's one person working at the service desk and there's 37 people in line all the way back to the housewares department. And you have the authority to get your refund back. And you have to make a decision. Will I stand in that refund line for two hours? Will I wait? And then when they get there, well, it's lunchtime. I'll be back at 1:15. You know what I'm talking about. You can find yourself just strung out so far that really the whole idea of having any authority at all just seems like a big joke. And you'd rather just sit there and hold on to that defective can open and go through all that hassle. Ever feel that way? It's a lie. Now, God has given us two clear, distinct ways to exercise our authority. The first one is prayer. Prayer is for us the number one means of God to exercise our authority. I've shared a number of times how profoundly influenced my own life was by the book Destined for the Throne by Paul Billheimer. Many of you have read that now. And I believe that God gave that man a revelation into what it was to exercise our spiritual authority in agreement with the legal action of Jesus Christ on the cross. And Paul Billheimer says by delegating his authority to the church for administering his decisions and enforcing his will upon the earth, God has placed the church in apprenticeship for eternal sovereignty with Christ by practicing in her prayer closet. Listen. The enforcement of heaven's decision in worldly affairs. The church is in on the job, training for rulership with Christ. This is what God purpose for the church, exercising the judicial power of God through prayer. Beloved, we don't really believe this. I think God looks down at the church many times and we're like the proverbial policeman who's sitting at Dunkin Donuts while across the street somebody's ripping off Best feeds. You know, just got all this authority and here I am and I've got the badge and I've got all the weapons, but I'm hungry. I'm having a charismatic community donut blast. And the enemy's ripping people off, holding them under the oppression of bondage. I'm telling you, beloved, the whole nation is shaking under the oppression of the enemy. And yet we have the authority we've been given by God the authority to change that. And There is this morning, and this is the focus, another dimension of enforcement that the scripture talks about. It's the weapon of praise. I yearn with all my heart that we'd be able to get past our little compartmentalization of what it means to praise God. That it isn't simply something we do here at North Way a different way than we did it 20 years ago. That it isn't just our way of having contemporary Christian music that praise biblical spirit energized praise is part of the eternal plan of God to bring about the transformation of the universe. Why is it so heavily spoken of in this word? There's way more in here, folks, about praise and worship than there is about salvation. In terms of specific references, Revelation is full of the praise and worship of God. That's how it's all going to end. And we have to just determine, is God, you know, is it just. Is that the way God's church works? And so we just have to do. No, it's God's program, if you will. It's his way of accomplishing because his life is involved. Worship and praise together. There's three great truths I want you to grasp that are weapons of praise. First, praise always accompanied conflict and conquest in the scripture. I don't have time this morning. I wish I did. To just illustrate. Joshua went about the walls of Jericho, a picture of it, a city oppressed and in bondage. And what did he do? What did he do on his seventh trip around? Just like that, I'm sure. Hallelujah. What did he do? He shouted. He declared the glory of God, blasted the trumpets and the walls came down. 2nd Chronicles 20 and Jehoshaphat. And surrounded by an invading army. What did they do? They praised the Lord. They sent out the praisers. And God confused the enemy and brought a victory. Paul and Silas sitting in a jail, in bondage, in stocks and chains, under the confinement of the Roman government. What did they do? They sang hymns to God and praised him. And an angel came in an earthquake and set them free. Praise always accompanied conquest and conflict. Secondly, in the scripture, listen to this. The tribe of Judah always went first. Just check it out. The tribe of Judah was always at the forefront of the moving of the people of God. What does Judah mean in Hebrew? It means praise. Praise always precedes the release of power and authority. And I don't have time to develop it, but you can check it out. And if Judah is. Is the first tribe, is it significant that Jesus Christ is called in the book of Revelation the Lion of the tribe of Judah. And so, you see, as we exalt him and lift him up and magnify him and put him first, he goes before us. You see, church, it's not that we're, you know, there's not some resonant tone going on here that we're going to somehow, you know, just the right atmosphere is going to be set. It's not that at all. It's Jesus Christ is released through our praise to bring about his will and purpose. Now, I want you to turn in one final scripture, Psalm 110. Do we have that? Okay, Psalm 110. This is the key that I want you to take with you this morning about how you can be involved and these two great needs in the coming ten days. The Lord says to my Lord, this is a Messianic prophecy. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. This psalm is the most quoted New Testament in the New Testament of any Old Testament scripture. Four times it appears five times it appears three times in the Gospels. The Father is saying, I will make your enemies to be your footstool. The Lord says to my Lord, I'm going to do it. I'm going to bring about the change. You see, church, this is what we're after today to see that the key that we must turn as a church, that is to let the battle be God's battle. Ours is simply to release God to do battle. Ours is simply to let God be God, to release God to do what he wants to do in this nation and in our church. Now look how this happens. Look at the second verse. The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter rule in the midst of your foes. How is God going to bring about the defeat of the enemies of God? The Lord sends forth from Zion your mighty scepter. You see, beloved, the scepter in some Translations, is it rod, rod of strength, and so on. Anyone have that? Okay, that rod, that picture of authority? The Bible is saying, the Lord is going to send forth from Zion your mighty rod, your mighty scepter. We know from Moses that the rod was the authority of God. Remember that how Moses received that rod, and that's what he used to set the captives free from the torment of the Egyptians. This is the strength that God gives our authority over our enemies, over the enemies of God is the rod of God. Now, where does it come from? Where does that say it comes from? From Zion. From Zion. Out of Zion. Out of Zion. Now, what is Zion then? Well, Zion was a literal place as Dean shared with us yesterday, on the west side of Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, northwest corner, I think it was. Is that right? Southwest corner of Jerusalem. It was a literal hill that the people of God would assemble upon. And through the Scriptures you see the development of Zion as a place of the assembly of God's people, so that in the New Testament we are called the Zion of the New Testament. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 23. We are called the church of the firstborn of Zion. We are Zion. We are the assembly of God's people. You've got to see this. Write that down. Hebrews 12:22, 23. We are Zion in the New Testament. We are the place from which God is going to send his authority. It's out of us that the rod that the rule, that the scepter of God is going to take place. Psalm 2, 6. On Mount Zion, my holy hill I have set my king. Beloved, it's from us, from our praises, the praising people of Zion, that God establishes his rule and his authority. This was so important that the greatest praiser of all the Bible, who is King David, he is called the warrior king because he had more conquest, more battle, more victory than any other king in all the Bible. Is it significant to you that King David was responsible for the establishment of 4,000 Levite priests whose full time job it was to praise God? He recognized that when they didn't praise, they didn't win church. Do we see that? That if we don't praise we're not going to win? And it's not our thing, it's God's thing. God's put us here to enforce what he would have us do, what his will would be. And I want to ask us today, will we allow the authority and the power of God that he's invested in his church simply to be some sort of a veiled threat to the powers of darkness, much as the A bomb was just, well, we're going to use this if you don't watch out. Or will we rise up and exercise our authority, the authority that's been given to us because of Jesus for these elections. There's so many scriptures that say that God will set kings in place and he'll tear down those that he would not have to rule over us. First Timothy chapter two says, first of all, when you gather prayer for authorities and kings and governors, church praise is the weapon whereby we can see God establish His rule in this nation. Secondly, who recalls the direct prophetic word that was given that our posture as we await for God to supply this building to us was to be praise. I want to remind you of that. We had a direct prophetic word that said your, your calling in these weeks was to praise God. And that's what I'm calling you to do. And finally I want to ask you for your life today. Would you exercise the weapon that God gave you of praise? So much more than just some spiritual idea that isn't going to matter folks. It will change your life. It will change the things that you're facing. David defeated his Goliath not because he'd practiced his strategies and all that as much as the fact that David had developed a heart of praise. And when someone defied his God, he knew that the God that he served had a higher authority than any other being in heaven or earth. And he praised his God and has God delivered him? And I want to ask you church, do you want to agree together that we're going to praise God these next 10 days? That we're going to really do something, that we're going to look down inside of ourselves and just break forth with praise together? I believe that's what God wants. That's to be our posture releasing his power through our praises. Let's close our Bibles up. Music ministry is going to come up and we're going to do this. Let's pray together. Lord God, as we just prepare our hearts and ourselves Lord, for these next 10 days of conflict, Lord, we recognize that we have a formidable foe. One Lord who has kept the world in bondage. And Lord, we are not unmindful of his schemes. Lord, we are not glibly making these declarations. We know that without the strength of your Holy Spirit within, Lord, we will fail, we will fall. We will take our place alongside the discouraged and downtrodden, O God, but with the high praises of God in our throats and the two edged sword of God in our hands, we will do victoriously. Lord, we bless you together we praise you now.