Ruslan Buzhduga & Sofia Zhiryada
Sermon Transcription:
What a privilege and what an honor it is to be here and worship with you all, both those who are in the house and those who are online. I'm really grateful to be sharing the Word today, to be sharing just some of the things that the Lord has shown me in His Word. It's exciting; I find it super, super exciting when I get to see this. I pray today that you would begin to see a little bit of what I'm seeing, and I want to share that with you. I'm just really thrilled and thankful. I want to give a big thanks to our pastors who invest in us and who give us these opportunities. When I think about it, it’s such a privilege. You know, everyone talks about preaching and pastoring—it's a difficult job. Not everyone's out to do it, and not everyone always sees the positive parts. There's a lot to it. But when I get to understand that, not only through the Word but anytime we speak, we have an opportunity to see someone have hope again. We get to see someone just receive from the Lord what God wanted to give them. When you open your mouth, whether you're on the job or wherever you are, you have an opportunity to give life to people. Sometimes we don't see that. We only see it as, "Ah man, I should really share the gospel because I'm a Christian," or, "I’m preaching today, so I need a word."
But to understand—and I'm so grateful to be here, you guys—I just want to share that with you: I'm grateful to be here to share just some of the things that the Lord has shown me. I want to get right into it. We're going to open up the Word, and if you would, open up with me to 2 Peter 1. 2 Peter 1:2: "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust." Amen.
The Bible says here that we were given everything that we need that pertains to life and godliness. His grace has given us all things—everything that you need, all things. Starting at this place, I just want to encourage us as we go into the Word that we have been given everything already. You, today, don't have to be a failure. You don't have to live in guilt and shame. You don't have to live stuck. That’s really the heart of it—you don't have to be stuck today because God has given us everything through Christ.
You know, a while ago, I was talking with one of my old friends. I remember speaking to him over the phone, and he was just really discouraged. He was really going through it, and I could see so many of the things that he was sharing—the disappointment, the doubt about his own calling. All the things that once seemed clear to my friend were now murky, now foggy, and not clear. There was this depression settling into his life. I remember him just talking about all the things and all the lies. He wasn’t calling it that, but he was just like, "Yeah, this is just what I have to do." And I’m thinking, "Whoa, hold on a minute." I remember thinking on the phone, "The enemy is harassing him. The enemy is just rolling him through it, and he doesn’t even see it."
I remember saying to my friend, "Hey bro, where do you think the enemy is in all this?" There was a good long pause, and then he said, "Man, I don't think I even gave it a thought. I don’t even think I thought, 'Where could the enemy be? Could this be the enemy?'"
Sometimes, there are things that happen—things you've been involved in, things that you did—that make you feel like you deserve some of the disappointment, some of the failure, some of that shame. You feel like you should be bearing it. But I want us to remember today—I want to talk about, we're going to talk a good deal about the enemy—but I want to show you today in the Word that we have been given everything in Christ. Though the enemy has tactics, though the enemy has a plan, we've been given everything that we need to have a victorious life in Christ. Amen? Amen.
He's going to fight you. Remember this: the enemy is going to fight you. He’s going to fight you, and you're going to see why he wants to fight you, why he wants to break you down. Jesus said the enemy comes only to kill, steal, and destroy. That’s what he's come to do. That’s his job. Okay, now that we know his job, what is he trying to steal, kill, and destroy? Now, as a believer, if you have believed in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, your fight is no longer with sin. Sin has been dealt with on the cross. You don't fight anymore with sin. The Bible promises that everyone who believes in Jesus enters the New Covenant, right? And God's promise under the New Covenant is that He's going to send His Holy Spirit. He's going to enable you to defile your idols, to walk away from all that stuff that you couldn't, and you're going to be able to walk in freedom. That's the promise, right? So, as a believer, that's going to happen. That's what the Bible is saying—it's going to happen in your life.
Your fight now is not against sin. Your fight now is the fight of faith—to stay a believer. And if today you're not a believer, it is to become a believer. I want to encourage you today that the enemy is going to fight us. He's going to fight to steal, kill, and destroy our faith. He's going to try to take that away because he knows if he can do that in your life, then he'll have you stuck forever in the old covenant, forever working, forever stuck under all that stuff. You know, he's not so concerned with us coming to church, believe it or not. He's not so concerned that you show up, that you open the Word, and you do all the Christian stuff. But he's deeply concerned—deeply concerned—church, about you growing up in Christ. He's deeply concerned. We're going to see the fear; we're going to hear the fear in the enemy's voice as we go into this Word, and we're going to pick up in Exodus chapter 1.
So, what has happened in the Word where we're going to start is very simple. God made promises to Abraham. Abraham was the father of faith. He was the first one, long before there was a law given. God spoke to Abraham, He called him, and He made promises to him. The Bible says that because Abraham believed God, it was credited to him as righteousness. So, Abraham was the first person to believe in God, and he was given right standing with God because of it, pointing towards a people who would be called children of Abraham because of faith. They would have the same thing—that because you believe in Christ, because you believe in what He has done, He's going to give you that same righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
God gave Abraham all these promises, and those promises were that you're going to have so many descendants. You're going to have all these children and children's children, and they're going to be as the sand on the seashore without number. This was given to a man who was 99 years old with no kids, and a wife who couldn't have children. That's some faith. He believed in God; he said, "God, I believe You. You said it, I believe it." And that's the kind of faith.
So, what has begun to happen as we go into this story is that these promised children, this family, begin to grow. There was that first son given, Isaac, and then from him, Jacob. And Jacob had 12 sons. If you guys remember the story of Joseph and how they ended up in Egypt—there was a famine, and they ended up in Egypt—the Bible says that there were about 60 or so people that made it down to Egypt. Just a few generations later, this is where we pick up in our story. Those people had begun to multiply, and those promises God gave to Abraham were starting to take shape. It was starting to look like this is happening.
And that's where we read in Exodus chapter 1, verse 7: "But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied, and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them." Now there arose a new king over Egypt who did not know Joseph, and he said to his people, "Look, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and it happen in the event of war that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land." Therefore, they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Rameses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel. So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve with rigor." This word "rigor" simply means ruthlessly or without mercy. "And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage—in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor"—or no mercy, just hard, cold, harsh treatment.
The first thing I want you to notice in this passage is the panic in the king's heart. He says, "We've got a problem here. We've got a problem because there's a legitimate threat arising right in our midst. These people are growing up. They're stronger. They're mightier than we are. They are more than we are. There's more of them than of us. They're stronger than we are." It's almost like they don't even know it yet, but in case they ever do find out, we need to get rid of this problem. We need to deal with this problem because they are stronger and mightier. It says that they were in dread of the children of Israel. They were afraid. They were afraid, and that's why they put them to harsh work.
Now, how does the enemy keep them under control? How does the enemy take care of this threat? How does the king, the enemy of these people, take care of this? The first thing he does is burden them under heavy loads and keep them in bondage to build his kingdom, rather than enjoying God's promises over their lives. Rather than enjoying God's purpose for their lives, which was to worship Him and to be a part of His kingdom, they're now stuck building the enemy's kingdom. They're building cities for him, building all this stuff for the enemy's kingdom.
That's step number one—that's how he does it. The second thing he does is he kills the males. As we read further on in this passage, what Pharaoh begins to do is seek a compromise. He reaches out to the midwives of the children of Israel and tries to gain their compromise. He makes an agreement with them: when a male child is born, they are to kill it. He tries to kill all the male children.
Why the males? Well, in that time, it was different from today in terms of the roles between male and female. If you were male, you were considered a military threat—a potential military threat. Growing up, you had great value in your life because of war, and that's how the kings saw it. They thought, "Males mean a bigger army." So, when we read this, it's not necessarily the same as today. That's what the enemy does. Pharaoh seeks to kill all those who would grow up to be a military threat against his own kingdom. How does he do it? Through compromise.
He approaches the people who are supposed to bring life, the midwives, and turns them into agents of death. That's how he's doing it. The next thing Pharaoh does, if you know the story—we're not going to read all these verses—is he says, "Okay, now because the midwives refuse to compromise, we're going to drown the male babies in the Nile River." He seizes and captures all those male babies to drown them in the Nile River, trying to kill them before they could ever grow up into a military threat.
The Bible calls the believer children of Abraham. Let me take you to Galatians chapter 3, verse 7, and then verse 29. Verse 7 says, "Understand then that those who have faith are children of Abraham." If you have faith, you're a child of Abraham. Verse 29 says, "If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." What does that mean? It means that this story we're looking into, this picture we see in Exodus chapter 1, is a type of what was to come. What's to come is your life, my life—the generations that would be in bondage to sin and what Christ has done in order to free you. So, we see here that you are Abraham's child, and as we look at this story, we see how the enemy sees the children of Abraham, the children of God, the children of promise. He sees them as a spiritual threat to his kingdom.
You and I today, as believers, are the seed of Abraham. We are those who follow the Lord, and we've decided, "God, we're going to follow You with our lives." But the enemy sees you as a problem. The enemy sees you as a problem. The first thing we noticed in that passage was the fear. Listen, the enemy hates you. The enemy hates you because, first of all, you are made in God's image—you're His child. Secondly, he is afraid of you. He is in dread, as we read in that passage, of what could happen to his kingdom if you were to understand who you are, if you were to understand what God has called you to and what He's done for your life. He is really afraid of that. He sees that as a really big threat to his kingdom.
Today, as we look at this passage, we see that the heart of the enemy is shaking because of the believer. The heart of the enemy is afraid because of those weak sinners who have trusted in Jesus, who are now following Him and are now being grown up by the Holy Spirit into maturity. That's a really big problem. So, the enemy says, "Let's kill them while they're young."
The first thing he does is try to put heavy burdens on you. He'll try to keep you busy building his kingdom rather than enjoying God's promise, God's calling on your life. He's going to seek to burden you down. The first thing he'll do is convince you that you still have to work, that you have to do something to please God. He'll put you to work; he'll keep you building. And if you're stuck under the old covenant, there's no telling what you won't do. He'll convince you that you have to do more, that you have to do so much in order to be pleasing to God.
So, he'll place these heavy burdens on you. He'll bring up the shame of the past, the guilt of the past. He'll burden that onto you. He'll make it feel so real to your heart. Like my friend, he felt it so real on his heart—the burden, the guilt, the shame of the choices he made. It felt so real, it felt so personal. It felt like, "I should have to feel this way because I did it. I was the one who did that stuff. I keep playing it over and over again." The enemy will capitalize on this in your life. He will place that heavy burden, and it will be out of proportion to what has actually happened. It will be so heavy, so deep, so hopeless.
The next thing the enemy will try to do—and this is in no particular order, and this is not all he will do in your life, these are just some of the things we're seeing—is kill anything in you that can grow up to be a threat to his kingdom. God has a calling on every believer's life. He has a calling on your life today. He has a calling, a purpose for you in His kingdom. The enemy will try to kill that. He's going to try to kill the dreams that God gave you. He's going to try to kill the purpose, that drive you have to follow the Lord and to see His kingdom be built up. That drive is given to you by the Holy Spirit—it's not your own desires. You suddenly want to see people get saved. You suddenly think that one person receiving hope is worth it for you to keep going. The enemy is going to try to kill that, to stamp that out.
He's going to do it with compromised teaching. He's going to do it in the place where you're supposed to be given life—he's going to try to bring death. That's why it's so important what we listen to. I used to be really big on podcasts, and the Holy Spirit used to bring me back and remind me, "What are you listening to? What fruit is it bringing in your life, Russ?" Because Jesus said, "You'll know them by their fruits." What fruit is it bringing in your life? Is it bringing forth life, or is it bringing forth death? If there's compromise, it's going to bring forth more death.
So, whatever it is you're tapping into, whatever it is you're watching or listening to, the enemy is going to try to bring compromise into your life. He'll try to kill your purpose by taking you astray that way. He's going to do it because he hates you. He can't stand the idea of you growing up effective in God's kingdom. He can't stand what would happen to his kingdom—he's going to lose ground left and right.
Lastly, he's going to seek to drown you in the life we live now. I forgot to explain this, forgive me, but at that time, the Nile River was essentially the central system of everything that happened in Egypt—all the business, the trading, everything that went on was on the Nile River. There was fishing, there was agriculture that was watered by the Nile. If you took away the river, there wouldn't be anything left in Egypt. The river was the center point; it was the system that everything belonged to. That's kind of what the enemy will try to do—he'll try to drown you in that system. He'll get you so busy working for money that you'll get so distracted, and you'll just be flooded. And that's kind of what it feels like, doesn't it? When you get into something and it just seems to overwhelm you, it seems to govern everything that your life is about. That's what the enemy tries to do in your life.
He tries to drown you—whatever it is he can get you into to just push everything else away and drown you in all of the busyness of life. Life—it could be good things; these are not bad things, guys. You can go to work, you can enjoy a job, and be full of the Spirit, and be there as a witness and a testimony. But you could also be drowning in the simple things of life, and that's what the enemy seeks to do to you. He seeks to keep you in this place because he's afraid of you. He's afraid of what Christ in you will do. It's not necessarily us—we're broken sinners, amen? It's Christ in us, the hope of glory—that's what he's afraid of.
Now let's go back into the Word. Let's see what God is going to do. Isaiah chapter 10, starting at verse 12, says this: "Therefore it shall come to pass when the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, that He will say, 'I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria, and the glory of his haughty looks.'" Verse 24: "Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts: 'O My people who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you in the manner of Egypt. For yet a little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction.'"
I'm going to pause right here for a moment. What he's saying is when God performs His work on Mount Zion, He's going to do this, and we'll get into it in just a moment. We read here about the king of Assyria, and we're like, "What's going on?" This was another enemy that came against the children of Israel at a later time, and God actually groups them together here with Pharaoh. Did you see that? He said, "In the manner of Egypt." He's going to do the same thing—he's going to seek to overthrow them, and God is about to do something about this whole situation. What does He do? He says, "When the Lord has performed all His work on Mount Zion..." Verse 26: "And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as His rod was on the sea, so will He lift it up in the manner of Egypt." Verse 27: "It shall come to pass in that day that his burden will be taken away from your shoulder, and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil."
Amen! The work that God says He is going to perform on Mount Zion—that work was what Christ accomplished on the cross. That's the work He's referring to. He says, "When this work is finished on the mountain, this is what I'm going to do: I'm going to punish the enemy, and all of the burden, all of the yoke..." The yoke was like a piece of wood that would go over the neck of an animal to keep them working for their master, right? They would plow the fields or whatever it was. So that yoke is what keeps you doing—it keeps you stuck, really. You can't run off and enjoy whatever you want to do; you're stuck. And He says that because of this work that I will perform on Mount Zion, I will break the yoke. The burden will be taken off your shoulder, and the yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be destroyed because of the anointing oil.
You see, when Christ came to this earth, right before He went to the cross, He was in the Garden of Gethsemane. The Garden of Gethsemane was essentially a grove of olive trees, and there He was praying before He went to the cross. He was praying to the Father, and He was asking, "Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass from Me. But not My will—Yours be done." And then the Bible records that His sweat became like drops of blood. He was under immense pressure, Church.
Some of us, I don't know if we know this—we're so far removed from how food is made, but oil is made in a press. And when you get olive oil, you have to take those olives, smash them down, and press all of that oil out of them. It's almost symbolic that Jesus is in this garden going through that process Himself—going through that process. He's being pressed by all the weight of sin, all the weight of guilt. He's seeing it right before Him; He knows He's got to bear it. It's weighing Him down in such a profound way that He is sweating drops of blood. He is in excruciating pain, under immense pressure because He was going to break the yoke off your neck. He was going to break the enemy's hold on your life. That's what He was doing. You see, Christ had come and paid the ultimate price. And because He was crushed, the anointing oil that flows out of His life—the anointing that flows from Christ—is now upon the life of the believer. The Bible says that He will break the yoke because of the anointing oil.
In the Old Testament, anytime there was a new king, they would anoint him with oil. They would pour oil on his head, and it would flow down. It symbolized being sent, being established for a purpose. It wasn't just to take a bath or smell good; it meant you were established for a purpose, dedicated for a purpose. And this really shows us that God's calling on your life—God's purpose for your life—is what He seeks to bring you into. That's what the Holy Spirit seeks to bring you into. He wants you to enjoy what God has for your life—the purposes that God has for you. You know, the enemy has lost his grip. The Lord has punished the enemy, and he's lost his grip because of what Christ has done on the cross. All the enemy has left is deception in your life. All he has left is the devices, the trickery, and staying hidden in your life.
Listen, when Jesus would heal someone who was demon-possessed, those demons would cry out. They would get out of there, and they would be like, "Jesus, are You the One who's come to torment us before our time?" They knew. They knew their kingdom was crumbling. They knew it was just a matter of time. "Is it now? Are we really getting punished now?" That's what they were saying. The Bible records this in Matthew 8:29—that they were crying out because they were afraid. You see, the enemy's camp is afraid because of what Christ has done. Because Christ was crushed, and His anointing breaks the yoke off of your life. His anointing breaks the yoke off of your life. You're the promised seed of Abraham. You're the one God has a purpose for. You have a purpose in life. The enemy is so afraid of you, first of all, finding out what your purpose is—what God would have you do—and he's so afraid of you growing into what that might be. He doesn't want that, so he's set up so many things in your life, so many traps, so many things that could cause you to fall into them. But God—God has sent Christ to give us freedom. God has sent Christ so that we can be free today.
Why did He give us freedom, Church? Why did He give us freedom? Why did Jesus die on the cross for us? It's not just so we could be free and live our lives without purpose. There is a purpose. The first reason is so that you can worship Him, so that you can bless His name and be free in His presence as His child. The second reason is that you can join Him to build His kingdom. That's why He promises freedom. That's why He gives freedom to us. Listen to this: 2 Corinthians 10:3 says, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled."
Church, you have weapons. God has given you weapons. He has not left you without offense or defense. We read in the beginning that He has given us all things that pertain to life. He gave you stuff, Church—He gave you gifts, He gave you instruments with which you can wage war.
The first thing is to recognize what is happening, to recognize what is going on. Recently, I had a situation where I was waking up in the morning, and I was just so discouraged. The day wasn't even started, and I already felt behind. I felt this overwhelming drag, and this went on for a while. I had taken on a bunch of things over the summer, and I felt like this was kind of part of it, but it was consistent—it was every morning. I remember waking up and just having this discouragement, feeling like everything was not good, that I wasn't good enough.
I remember thinking, "Okay, something is wrong here. This is out of proportion to what my life is about. This is not what I should be feeling." I remember talking to my wife and sharing these thoughts, and she reminded me, "No, no, no—what does the Bible say? What is the truth over your life?" As soon as I began to do that, I began to recognize the enemy.
See, what the enemy would like to do in your life is stay hidden. What he'd like to do is stay hidden so that you could never see him. He'd like those thoughts to stay and for you to understand them as your own thoughts. He would like you to think, "This is just who I am," when you're not—because you've been bought free. Because you've believed in Christ, He is making someone new. That is not who you are anymore. You don't have to believe that. You can agree with what God says.
God has given you weapons, Church. What are these weapons? I'm not going to go into great detail, but there are a few weapons mentioned in Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians 6:10 says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Church, these are some of the weapons that you have. These are some of the armories that God has given you. But you can choose to put them on or not. You can choose to take them or leave them. He's given us the truth, He's given us His word, and we can know what God says. So when you wake up in the morning feeling a certain way, you can ask, "Is this what God says about me? Is this God's opinion? Have I read and seen what He says?" No matter what it is, we can understand by discerning. We can have the truth; we can have that belt of truth. We can have that breastplate of righteousness—not our own righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ that's been given to us. Wear that, Church. Wear that. When the enemy comes at you, throwing punches, you know whose righteousness you're clothed in. It's not your own righteousness. It doesn't matter how well you've been doing—God is doing something in your life. God is making a man or a woman out of you. Agree with God—that's really what this is all about.
The shield of faith—believe God, believe what He said. Be prepared to always share what God is doing in your life. Be always ready to share the gospel at every opportunity you get. You don't have to be given an opportunity on the stage. Actually, more times than not, it will be in a very simple way—right there on the job, right there in the office, in the classroom, in the parking lot—wherever. You'll have an opportunity to share. Be prepared, Church. You can wear this armor. You can have it. You can have the sword of the Spirit, the word of God. I'm not going to get into detail on all these things, but I want you to know that you have been given weapons. You have been given the instruments to stand firm, to have victory in your life because Christ has won the ultimate victory over sin in your life. The enemy—all he can do now is come in with deception.
That's what he's going to try to do. He's going to try to come in unnoticed. He's going to try to bring in discouragement. He's going to try to bring compromise. He's going to try to bring in that overwhelming feeling that life needs more attention than the kingdom of God. He's going to try to get you distracted away from your ultimate calling, from your purpose. You'll find yourself—not seeing your purpose anymore in His kingdom. I was so brokenhearted when I was talking to my friend. But Church, that's why He gave us each other—to watch out for one another, so that you can see your brother or your sister and help them. You can say, "No, no, no—that's the enemy in your life." I need that, Church. I need my wife all the time. I'm talking nonsense, and she's symbolically splashing cold water at me, saying, "No, that's not true. What you're feeling isn't legitimate. That's not proportional. That's not true." We need people like that, Church. If you're not connected, if you're not communicating, if your friends aren't bringing you closer to Christ, you've got to pray about that. You want people who are watching with you, who are aware of what's going on. You've got to have someone watching your back.
Today, I want you to know that Christ has done everything. You can live a victorious life because of Christ. He's given you all the instruments. He's given you everything that you need. We are not without; we're not hopeless, we're not desperate, waiting for God to do something else. He has done something on the cross for you. Are you still a believer? Listen, Church, I'm going to say something that you might wonder about. If today you find yourself realizing that maybe you're not a believer anymore, I want to say that's okay because you need to acknowledge that. The worst thing you can do is deceive yourself into saying, "Oh yeah, I'm a believer," but really not be a believer.
Who is a believer? It's someone who believes right now, today: I am forgiven, I am loved, and His sacrifice is for my life. The way He sees me—in His eyes, I'm as perfect; I have the righteousness of Christ. Do you still believe that, or have you slipped away? I've got to be honest with you—I found myself in a place where I was talking, and I thought, "Man, I sound like an unbeliever right now." And that's because I was—I was not believing in that moment. I was not believing God's promises. I was letting the enemy harass me, just like my friend was letting the enemy harass him. And I don't want to see that over your life today, Church. I don't want to see the enemy pushing you around, and you just thinking, "Well, this is just my situation. This is what I've done. It seems like I need to go through this." Church, you have truth. You've been given everything that you need to live a victorious life, and the enemy is in dread over you. He is in dread over your life because he knows what could happen to his kingdom if you open your mouth and share what God is doing—what God has done—with those around you.
He knows that he's going to start losing ground. He knows that the kingdom of God is mightier than his kingdom. He knows that he doesn't have the power anymore. He knows. So all he can do is try to keep you in that place, under the burden, under the yoke. Listen, Christ has burst that yoke apart—it's gone. It's gone because of Christ. You don't have to stay stuck. You've been called to live a life of victory. God is with you. He will fight your battles. He will do it all. I want to read in closing one more passage. I know there's been a lot of scripture reading, but hang tight. 1 John 5:4-5: "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" Church, if you're a believer, you're an overcomer. If you're a believer, you have victory in your life. You can have victory.
Why does He give you victory? So that you can worship Him, so that you can praise Him. He brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt so they could worship Him in the wilderness. He brought them out there so that they could be a part of His kingdom. Church, you have a purpose in your life. You have what God is calling you to do. That's really what that anointing oil symbolizes—it is His calling on your life. It's what the enemy does not want to see come to pass. He does not want to see that happen. But Church, you have everything you need to grow up, to be raised by the Holy Spirit, and to walk in freedom and victory. With that, I want to give it over to Sofie.
Church. Let's stand together. This service is for celebrating and rejoicing in the truth today. We've heard a lot of truth today, but I want to add one more to that: the truth is, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again with the yoke of slavery. You have the tools you need. You have been given the weapons you need. Use them. Keep the faith. Don't fall into unbelief and the lies of the enemy. What we've learned today is that if you're a believer in Christ, the truth about you is that you're no longer blind to the tactics of the enemy. The veil has been lifted. You can see when he's coming. You have weapons for when he is coming. And you are free from the power that the enemy once had over you. You have a reason to worship today. So if you believe that you can have a victorious life, let's worship today in spirit and in truth. Let's have the enemy hear our shout of victory coming from this place today because we are forgiven, and we have a reason to worship. We are victorious because of Jesus. Let's worship!