The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
00:01 a lot of confusion going along in terms of spiritual warfare and as a conservative church here we almost never
00:08 speak about it. Well, some churches speak about it all the time. So, I thought we're going to
00:14 recap uh brother Yian has talked about uh Daniel um the final vision chapter 12.
00:22 So, we're going to go back to 10 because Daniel chapter 10 is a chapter that a lot of spiritual warfare stuff has come
00:28 out of. And so therefore what we want to do is to look at what actually scripture says about spiritual warfare rather than
00:35 a lot of theories that have come out. Um and then how do we apply it's very practical when you apply it. Um as you
00:41 know the biggest thing that's happening in the world today is the elections that come out for America that will affect
00:49 the rest of the world on Tuesday. It's very interesting is it? Um a lot of sermon material there.
00:56 This is the 21st of September. uh Cleveland, Ohio uh New Springs uh
01:02 revival center. They actually got hold of the Republican nominee uh and they
01:08 laid hands on him and said this is the anointed one. Let's pray for him. Uh and
01:14 and Donald Trump, I don't know whether it's a Christian because when they asked him what is his favorite verse, he doesn't cannot answer that. And he came
01:21 back with my favorite verse is an eye for an eye which actually explains
01:27 the ugly turn in which this election has gone. I mean you know the only verse he can remember is an eye for an eye. And
01:33 then this is what pastor Daryl Scott actually prayed that if you run he told
01:39 him you run for president there's going to be a concentrated satanic attack against you. He says there's going to be
01:44 a demon principalities and powers that going to go to war against you on a level that you've never seen before. and
01:50 I'm going to be watching it every day. Our leaders going to be supporting you every day. But he didn't realize the I
01:56 don't know satanic attacks comes from him or other people. This is the kind of
02:02 person uh who's doing all the attacking. You know, is this God's anointed? Is the
02:08 presidential election a um uh underlying spiritual warfare that happens that's
02:13 happening against God's man? On the other side of Asia, we have Governor Aok, who is a Chinese Christian governor
02:22 of Jakarta going for election as well. And here we have whole bunch of church members all praying. He represents the
02:29 1% Chinese in Indonesia. They're praying for him. He's an evangelical Christian.
02:34 Uh because uh they some of the Islamists there have said is unislamic to vote in
02:40 a non-Muslim. So therefore they and he disagreed and they had a huge protest. 100,000 people turned up. Now, which one
02:48 of these is actually spiritual warfare? It seems as if we could be confused, isn't it? Hopefully, at the end of this
02:55 sermon, you will understand which one of this is spiritual warfare, which one is not. Let's look at the context. The
03:01 context of Daniel chapter 10 is very important. On the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, a word was revealed to
03:08 Daniel who was named Beltaja. And the word was true. It was great conflict. uh
03:14 he understood the word and had understood and and had understanding of the vision. You need to understand the
03:20 last chapter was the first year of Dyrus and the first year of uh Cyrus the Israelites were given the mandate to go
03:27 back about 10,000 of them went back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Uh but
03:34 life wasn't easy. They had a lot of encounters, a lot of difficulties. The Samaritans at that time had re uh
03:41 occupied the land and stopped them at every turn and this was the third year
03:46 and all they had managed to do was just build the altar. The rest of the temple lay in urine in in ruins and the initial
03:54 euphoria of coming back and reestablishing God's uh temple had already long dissipated and evaporated
04:02 and and Daniel was stricken in his heart at 80 something years of age and he and
04:08 he said these words these days Daniel was mourning for three weeks. I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my
04:14 mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks because he was so troubled at this great uh darkness
04:22 that has enveloped the land. He was frightened. And what the devil does is that he gives us a spirit of fear that
04:27 although you pray this holy task of reestablishing the temple, nothing seems
04:33 to work. It seems as if God doesn't hear you, God doesn't care, you're all alone, you better give up. And in every
04:40 spiritual conflict, whether it be building a temple or serving in church
04:46 or things at home, these are the three things going to hit you. God doesn't care. He doesn't hear. And you better
04:53 give up. That's what spiritual warfare is about. And so therefore, I wanted to summarize three things which are very
04:60 important in spiritual warfare that comes out directly from this passage that we are always loved, we are always
05:06 heard, and we are eternally secure. These are three factors that will
05:11 undergurt our fight. Uh the first thing is we're always love. On the 24th day of
05:16 the first month, I was standing in the bank of the great tigers river that is tigers. I lifted up my eyes and saw a
05:22 man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from around his waist. His body was like barrel. His face was like the
05:29 appearance of lightning. His eyes were like flaming torches. His arms and legs were like the gleam of burnish bronze.
05:34 And the sound of his words were like the sound of a multitude. And this description is very much like the description of Jesus Christ in
05:41 Revelations chapter 1. So he has a vision of God and yet on the other hand the angel comes. So this Daniel who's
05:49 belleaguered, who's confused, who is frightened, the answer to the prayer is a vision and then the angel talks to
05:55 him. It's very important that the lessons that we learn in spiritual warfare comes from the angel's response
06:01 to Daniel's spiritual warfare. Okay. Uh the first thing he says, "Behold a hand touch me and set me trembling my hands."
06:07 And he said to me, "Daniel, a man greatly loved. Understand the words I
06:13 speak to you and stand upright for I have been sent to you." And he had spoken these words. I stood up
06:18 trembling. We are always loved. The first thing that we encounter in spiritual warfare is that the devil will
06:25 tell us we are not loved. We are sinful. God is far from you. He says this again,
06:30 "Oh man greatly loved." In the Hebrew, it is greatly coveted, greatly ex
06:37 esteemed as God greatly loves us and wants us. Today, we have something
06:42 better than a vision. We actually have history. We actually had Jesus Christ
06:48 die on the cross, which Daniel does not have. And Romans Paul says, "But God shows his love for us in that while we
06:54 were sinners, Christ died for us. So since therefore we now have been justified by his blood and much more
07:00 shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. So instead of a vision, we actually have history where the son of
07:07 man came in the world 2,000 years ago and he proved his love by a tangible
07:13 sacrifice upon the cross to show us that he loves us. Second of all, through this
07:18 sacrifice, God gives us his spirit. Romans 5:5 and hope does not uh put us
07:24 to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has given not only we
07:29 actually have the death of Jesus Christ, it puts a spirit and we can actually experience God's love. Let's look at
07:36 Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12 gives us an amazing glimpse into the heart of God. How could Jesus Christ
07:43 undergo all that suffering? It says so in verse two that when we suffer we
07:48 should look to Jesus the founder and perfector of our faith who for the joy
07:53 that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is seated right hand of the throne of God. Here we
07:59 have Jesus Christ before the cross. He's in heaven. He's got total do joy
08:06 total happiness total security. He's in with father son and holy spirit. What
08:12 would he need? The Bible says here for the joy set before you. That means there is something else joy. And what is that
08:19 joy? That joy is the joy of reconciling all of us. That's how precious he is.
08:24 That's why he came to the world because of the joy of reconciling every single one of us to him. This is a glimpse of
08:31 God. But what has love got to do with spiritual warfare? I know God loves loves me. What has that got to do with
08:36 spiritual warfare? Well, let's look at Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6
08:42 tells us that the key to spiritual warfare is the armor of God to look at a helmet of salvation. You need to have
08:48 breastplate of righteousness, belt of truth, sword of the spirit, shield of faith. So you will get up
08:55 every morning and you think you know this morning I work on my shield of faith. I take my shield faith and polish
09:00 it and tomorrow I better learn how to tell the truth. Next day I learn about this. I mean do you do that? How many of
09:08 you get up every morning and say this is my shield of faith? Let me polish this up and tomorrow I get up and learn not
09:14 to tell lies. Is that how we actually put on? How do we put on the armor of God? Three chapters earlier, Paul tells
09:22 us here we have that you being rooted and grounded in love may have the
09:27 strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, the length, the height and depth and to know the
09:33 love of Christ that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God. What is the fullness of God? To
09:39 be like him in all honesty and truth, in all righteousness, in all faith. Isn't
09:45 it? That is the armor of God. To be like God. How do you become like God? by understanding the enormous extent and
09:53 depth and breadth of his love. And the more we dig into the word, the more we meditate like the Lord's supper on his
09:59 sacrifice, that actually motivates us and molds us to be like God. So
10:05 therefore, the love of God is very important. The first thing in spiritual warfare is to remember we're always
10:10 love. The second thing that we need to remember from this passage is that we're always heard. This is Amelia Ahart. She
10:17 was the first woman who actually very famous who flew across the Atlantic Ocean. She started a uh a whole
10:25 generation of female pilots after that. And recently there's a CNN article that
10:32 came out that showed that well she had crashed. They thought she had crashed and died in 1937. She's never hurt
10:38 again. But they found some bones in these islands just north of Australia in the middle of the Pacific. And they've
10:44 now established that these are the bones of Amelia Heheart. And during the time when she actually crashed, she actually
10:51 didn't crash. She landed on an island. In an island, she was there and there were 100 messages, radio messages sent
10:60 out of distress calls. Out of this 100, not a single one were responded to. And
11:07 when her engine died, when the fuel went out, the the the airplane was washed into sea. and they never found it found
11:14 found found her later on. Isn't this sad to be stuck on an island for month after month after month until you slowly
11:21 shrivel up and die of dehydration or malnutrition.
11:26 So, but this is not the case. If you look in the word here in Daniel, it
11:31 says, "And he said to me, fear not, Daniel, for from the first day
11:37 you have set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God. Your words have been heard. You have
11:44 come. We have come. I have come because of your words. So, so the angel tells
11:50 him that the from the first day he got on his knees and started to pray to God. God actually heard that prayer. All
11:57 right. But um and and the reason why the angel comes was because of that exact
12:03 prayer. There was a delay. There's a delay in the establishment of the the the temple. But that's not because God
12:10 doesn't want to establish it, but because there is a spiritual battle. Um,
12:16 now the prince, this explanation, the prince of the kingdom of Persia withtood me 21 days, but Michael, one of the
12:23 chief princes came to help me, for I was there with the king of Persia, and I came to make you understand what is to
12:29 happen to your people latter days. For the vision is for the days yet to come. So the prince of the king of the king of
12:35 Persia the uh is basically a demon basically is a spiritual warfare and
12:42 although angel wants to come and and minister to Daniel on the first day he
12:48 is prevented from 21 days because of this spiritual battle. But the thing to note is that all the devil can do is to
12:54 delay the answer. He cannot stop the answer. All he can do is delay. One
13:00 Peter says, "For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. His ears are open to their prayer, but the face of the
13:05 Lord is against those who do evil." So God will hear you when we're in trouble,
13:10 when we're struggling with temptation, which is a spiritual battle that goes on within our hearts. The eyes of the Lord
13:16 are on the righteous whose ears are open to their prayer. Daniel 9:19 says, "Oh
13:23 Lord, hear. Oh Lord, forgive. Oh Lord, pay attention
13:28 and act. Delay not for your own sake, oh my God, because of your city, your
13:34 people called by your name. Why does God act? Why does God hear? Because we are
13:39 his people, his church, his people. That's important. Uh this is
13:46 Revelations, my favorite passage on prayer. If you look in Revelations uh chapter 8 verse 105, the lamb opened the
13:53 seventh seal and was silenced in heaven for half an hour. You know what happens
13:58 to heaven all the time? People, the creatures, everyone is praising God all
14:03 the time. But God calls an intermission. An intermission is for half an hour.
14:09 What is an intermission for? Then I saw seven angels who stand before God and seven trumpets were given to them. And
14:15 another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden sensor and he was given much incense to offer with prayers
14:21 of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints
14:26 rose before God from the hand of the angel. This is what happens. The the our prayers are like sweet incense to God.
14:32 It rises up to his nose. He smells it. And you know what the result is? The angel took the sensor and filled it with
14:39 fire from the altar and threw it in the ground. There was peels of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an
14:45 earthquake. That's what our prayers do. They go up to heaven, get processed, and
14:50 they sends lightning down. that actually changes our world. Last thing that we
14:55 need to remember is we are eternally secure and spiritual warfare. This is
15:01 the message. Oh man, greatly loved, fear not. Translated modern English,
15:09 chill out. Be cool. Peace be with you. Be strong
15:16 and good courage. As he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, "Oh Lord, uh let my Lord speak for you have
15:23 strengthened me." This is the message. And I and people are a bit surprised. This spiritual warfare he's just
15:29 described to me that he had difficulty bringing the message to me. He'd been fighting with the the prince of Persia.
15:35 And he comes to me and he says, "Chill out. Peace be with you. Be strong." I mean is that I mean I thought uh we
15:43 should be doing something. Look at Daniel 10. He describes, "Do you know why I've come to you? But now I must
15:48 return to fight with the prince of Persia, and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come." So there's
15:54 a series of demonic forces of which they could be fighting. What can I do? Daniel says, "What can I do? Can I uh call the
16:02 Ghostbusters?" Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't
16:07 say, "I'm fighting the prince of Persia. I'm fighting the prince of Greece. I need your help. I need a prayer circle.
16:13 I need all of you to really bind the prince. All you put your left hand forward or right hand forward and bind
16:18 it and bind that. He doesn't say that. Absolutely astonishing, isn't it? And
16:25 we've got a whole bunch of theology that comes out from Peter Wagner, for example, on territorial spirits and Ron
16:31 Phillips, Cindy Jacobs, and they're all talking about these spirits that the
16:37 peace the the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece are all demons. They're
16:43 in charge of various nations. So therefore, in Malaysia, there's also a demon in charge and he wears a red
16:48 t-shirt, right? Or is it yellow? I don't know which one.
16:54 Uh and so therefore, we must spiritually map all the nations uh before uh um we
17:01 we fight basically. This is a um Argentinian pastor, Omar Cabera. before
17:08 he starts a campaign, what he does is he checks into a hotel and for three four days he allows the Holy Spirit to
17:15 cleanse him. He feels that he leaves this world. Uh and then he has to
17:20 identify in into another realm where spiritual warfare takes place. The attacks of the enemy become very fierce.
17:27 He has seen some spirits in physical form. He has to learn their names, break their power over the city. It takes four
17:34 to five days, sometimes more. This is spiritual warfare. Is that what Daniel
17:39 asked to do? Find out the names. Uh spiritual mapping plays the same
17:45 important role that intelligence and espionage play during war. It reveals
17:50 the conditions behind enemy lines. It shows us the enemy lines, location, number, weapons. Above all, how the
17:56 enemy can be defeated. So if you pray hard enough, the Lord will tell you the name of your enemy. Oh, in the name of
18:02 your neighbor, what he likes, what car he drives, what weapons he has. This is
18:07 the kind of theology that's come in. And then we have the prayer walk. The prayer walk comes with the fact that if you
18:13 actually have territorial spirits, therefore, you must have one territorial spirit over sub. And so therefore,
18:19 before VBS, we used to be walking around every room, you know, to cast out the demons from the room because the demons
18:25 infest the room, isn't it? Because it's all territory. If there's a prince of Persia, prince of Malaysia, that means
18:30 be prince of Sububang Jaya, right? So in order to establish God's rule, we walk, we walk all over the place and we claim
18:37 it for God. The problem is how are you going to claim North Korea and walk there?
18:43 You walk there in the name of Jesus, they'll lock you up and then all the missions fund that we spent on you would be wasted. Isn't it?
18:50 The important thing is to come before the presence of God, not the presence of Kim Jong-un. because with the power of
18:58 God we can prevail. Uh this is uh Peter Wagner who puts forward all these ideas
19:03 on spiritual warfare and he actually had uh his office and oper across his office. He was renting this uh a room
19:11 was a statue. It happened to be an ugly statue. You know why the devil always chooses ugly statues, right? Isn't that
19:18 stupid? If I were a devil, I would choose a beautiful statue. And the statue had a finger pointing towards his
19:24 office and things were not going right in his office. So therefore said look you know uh the the the demon is
19:30 infested this and so therefore we have to have this removed. So he called somebody else they prayed they remove it and things became better. His friend
19:37 John Wimber actually called him and said look you know uh Peter you've been having all these headaches I know it's from the devil. You cast it out. So he
19:44 cast it out and he no more headaches. The problem is how can you be an
19:50 evangelical pastor and preacher and Christian and you've been invested by the devil.
19:55 That's not possible because once you buy into the territorial spirits then you go haunted house. Would you buy a house
20:02 Eldrin? How do you sell haunted houses? Are there spirits there? And a lot of us
20:07 are so superstitious that that in this church we ask the pastor to come and pray for your house because your house
20:13 has some roaming territorial spirits. And the worst place to work is where I work in the hospital. Do you know how
20:19 many people have died in every single room? Right? So I've got pastors coming in and they're like witch doctors. They
20:24 go into each room say bind you. I cast you out in every single one. I mean
20:30 where do we get that kind of theology? And then there are some pastors that tell you look you see the dragon in your
20:36 antique chair which is worth like a million dollars. I think you need to get rid of it. Give it to me.
20:44 And what about the chain that you wear? Do you know it looks like a dragon and could be infested with spirits?
20:49 Spiritual warfare is all the ladies, can you please take out your dragons and and put it on the offering table?
20:56 So the problem is spiritual warfare has been devolved so far away from scripture that we think the demon and and Jesus
21:02 Christ at the same level at the arm wrestling. And this is an insult to God.
21:08 Uh this is a screw tape letters. Uh the preface written by CS Lewis says these
21:14 words and I'm going to read that to you. There are two equal and opposite errors
21:20 um into which our race can fall about devils. One is to disbelieve their
21:25 existence. The other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally
21:31 pleased by both errors and hail the materialist and the magician with the same delight. So basically what
21:38 Christians do is we we think he's a roaring lion. He's always in our sights.
21:43 We're obsessed with him or we think he is the angel of light and therefore he's never in your sights. Let me see how
21:50 this translates. You have marital conflict between husband and wife and she's totally convicted. It's his fault.
21:56 He's influenced by a demon, a spirit of strife. He needs deliverance.
22:02 All right? And so therefore, and she thinks he thinks she's crazy.
22:07 This is a simplistic rendering of a marital problem. And so therefore, instead of going to a counselor, you go
22:13 to a pastor and he's all too happy to try to cast something out which was never there in the first place. And so
22:18 therefore, you think you have a solution. So after he's cast it out, then you have a perfect husband. Right?
22:24 If that's the case, your guys better line up and we'll have Arnold cast out some stuff from you.
22:31 Um, had a car accident. How many people I mean Asians so super a car accident?
22:36 Two car accidents in the road. What are the odds in it? There must be something in your house. A dragon infested the
22:41 mirror we need to get rid of. What about prayer? This is a guy who was lazy. You
22:48 know, he didn't get a promotion. Then he got bitter and then he made worse his
22:54 work. And then he got fired. Then he got depressed. And you pray for him. spirit of alcoholism, spirit of bitterness,
23:00 spirit of depression. Hey, hello, be more hardworking, isn't it? So is because this kind of
23:08 theology has made us actually stupid and we're not looking after the real things.
23:13 Yes, there is a spiritual battle behind, but the solution involves getting rid of real factors in your life rather than
23:20 this simplistic ideas. This is uh another aspect is to not to look at the spiritual aspect at all. This is a CNN
23:26 interview of one of the Donald Trump supporters. And you know what she said? This is the kind of person who must lead
23:32 our country, our country. God can use this man. He used a harlot. It's all
23:38 about what God can use. God can use this man. It's all about the plan. Yeah, God can use a harlot. God can use a donkey.
23:44 Why don't you put a donkey on the ballot? That's not the point. The point is the ethics of a man, isn't it? All right.
23:52 That what his life is about. Uh what does it say? Oh man greatly loved, chill
23:59 out. Peace be with you. Be strong and of good courage. Why does he say that? The
24:04 same words were said to Joshua before he entered the promised land. A big battle to clear the promised land. Be strong
24:10 and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be careful to do according to the law that Moses my servant has
24:16 commanded you. Because in every aspect, spiritual warfare is conducted by God. Every instance of Old Testament warfare
24:23 was preceded by the ark of God going out in front. When they had to capture Jericho, they marched around seven
24:30 times, blew the horn, and then the walls came down, right? Because spiritual warfare involves God. The focus is never
24:38 on the enemy. There is a cosmic battle. Verse 11 uh 20 to 11. Do you not know
24:45 why I've come? I will now return to fight against the prince of Persia. when I go out behold the prince of Greece
24:52 will come but I tell you what is inscribed the book truth there is none who contends by my side against these
24:58 things except Michael your prince so it tells you that behind political events is a cosmic battle you're not involved
25:05 as Ghostbusters but the vision is told and the vision is told in Daniel 7 there
25:11 will be one two three four different empires one after another vision is
25:18 fought out with Persia and then Greece coming in and then the rest of Daniel
25:23 chapter 11 talks about the division of Alexander's kingdom into four different parts and all the political intrigue
25:30 where the king of the north fights against the king of south the whole thing is there political event that actually happens and finally the
25:37 antichrist is the antiocus epiphanist he comes and he directly impacts the people
25:42 of god and then a vision he reveals to him in uh verse chapter 11. Let me read
25:48 to you. And the wise among the people shall make many understand that though
25:54 for some days they shall stumble by the sword and flame and by captivity and
25:59 plunder, when they stumble, they shall receive little help. Many shall join
26:04 themselves to them with flattery. Some of the wise shall stumble so that they
26:09 may be refined, purified, and made white until the time for the end while it
26:15 still awaits the appointed time. and the king shall do as he wills. The way you
26:22 live out your life is dependent on the way you look at history.
26:28 Our view of history is foundational. If history is an assortment of random
26:33 events, then whatever happens to you is actually a waste of time because it's all random. It doesn't make sense
26:40 anyway. And so therefore, what should we live do? We should eat and drink and for tomorrow we die, isn't it? But as the
26:47 vision tells you, history is not a series of random events, however evil
26:53 they may be. History is pre-ordained, predetermined every single step. That's
26:58 why God brings this prophecy to tell Daniel each empire will come, each
27:05 empire will cause turmoil and trouble. The trouble, if you look at all this,
27:10 there's no longer Rome, there's no longer Greece. Greece is now bankrupt, right?
27:16 All that happens in the stage of human history is that we arrange the furniture but different people sit on the
27:22 furniture. Every kingdom that comes is just a rearrangement of furniture. But God allows a rearrangement. An important
27:29 thing that impacts you is that when this rearrangement of furniture comes, we have a role to play. When that comes,
27:36 when turmoil comes upon our nation, some of us will stumble and receive no help.
27:42 We will be killed. Some will join themselves with with them with flattery,
27:49 which means they will leave the ranks of the Christian church. Some will stumble so that they may be
27:55 refined and purified and made white, which means some will suffer
28:01 persecution, affliction, but through this they will be made stronger. Three things happen.
28:08 We've got this funny idea in spiritual warfare. If I pray hard enough, if I'm if I I love God enough, I'm going to be
28:15 bulletproof. Nothing bad will happen to my family. Nothing bad will happen to my life. Nothing bad will happen to my nation.
28:21 Maybe the things happen in this country is because we haven't prayed enough. Hello. Do you not think Daniel not
28:28 prayed enough? And still bad stuff happens and it will happen. Let me give you an example of Acts 5. You read Acts
28:35 five. The first miracle happens through the healing of a man who was uh lame. And then persecution breaks out. And the
28:43 first thing persecution breaks out, they throw them in jail. And you actually have the angel coming at night. The
28:50 angel springs them from prison, takes them out. You go out and tell them the gospel. They get out, they share the
28:56 gospel. The same time they took them back, right? And the and the and the
29:02 Pharisees and the and and the authorities actually beat them. You know, beat them now with a rotan. You
29:08 know, take the cat of nine tails, which is basically a leather whip with some hooks at the end to slash the back 39
29:15 times. All right, save one. Then you ask yourself a question. The spirit of God
29:21 is powerful enough to get you out of prison, but not powerful enough to save you from a beating.
29:26 Is that right? No. Because after the beating, you know what happens? and they left the presence
29:33 of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer a dishonor for the name. You see in a Christian's life
29:41 your prayer will reside the spiritual warfare will result sometimes you get out of prison and sometimes you get
29:47 beaten half to death but the end result is they rejoice that they were counted
29:53 worthy to suffer this honor for his name that the gospel that God's name will be
29:58 made worthy. So, oh man greatly loved, fear not. Peace be with you. Be of
30:04 strong and good courage. All right. So, because at that time,
30:12 at that time shall arise, this is 12, Michael the great prince, who has charge of your people, and there shall be a
30:18 time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time, your people shall be
30:25 delivered. Everyone whose name shall be found written in the book, and many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth
30:31 will wake up, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt.
30:36 So no matter whether you're beaten, put in prison, or let go,
30:42 the promise is that the spiritual warfare will be won. Michael, the great prince, who is the archangel in charge
30:47 of Israel, will come and there'll come a time of trouble, but your people will be
30:52 saved. Those who sleep in the dust shall rise and awake and some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting
30:58 contempt. That no matter what troubles you go through, but the end result is not the still the same. It is within
31:03 God's control. How many of you ever been on a ride like this?
31:09 Australia dreamland. Put your hands up. Yeah, some of you have seen, right? What did you think when you get in the ride
31:15 like this? Fun, right? Why do you think you get in a ride like this? because you know it's
31:21 going to be great, right? But if you went two weeks ago at Dream World that fell over and you
31:30 say, "What's the big deal?" You fall over, you swim, right? You didn't realize that underneath there is a conveyor belt with cog wheels which
31:37 sliced up four people and they all died. Two children were
31:43 flung out and they were saved. Now, if you knew that, how many of you going to go to Dream World tomorrow?
31:50 you're not going to go to dream world, right? But when you get on a ride, I I
31:55 mean a ride like that, you know, sometimes it's rough. Sometimes it's it's it's always scary, right? But what
32:03 the vision and the prophecy does, it tells you that this is not a dream world ride. In the real ride of life, it's
32:09 going to be rough. It's going to be tough. It's going to be scary. But the end result is going to be the same. God
32:16 will bring you to everlasting life. And if you knew the final outcome that
32:23 you're eternally secure, that is the most important factor in spiritual
32:28 warfare that will make you persevere. Nothing else will make you persevere.
32:33 Right? So you get on to a roller coaster, you strap on, and you know that if you keep the strap on, in the end,
32:40 however rough the ride is, you will make it in the end. And that's what God is
32:46 telling Daniel through this vision. Uh Jesus sent out his disciples to
32:52 evangelize, share the gospel throughout the land of Palestine. And they came back. You know what they were excited
32:59 about? They're excited about the demons. Never seen one in their lives. Even the demons are subject to us in your name.
33:05 Say, "Cast this one out. Cast that one out." Whoa. This is like Ghostbusters.
33:11 And and and Jesus looked at them say, "Hey, hey, hey." You know, he said, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from
33:17 heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and all over the power of the
33:23 enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits
33:31 are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. You miss the point. It's not the point that
33:38 you are able to cast out demons. The point is the most important battle that's got to be won is the one that
33:43 involves your eternal salvation. That is what you should be uh uh uh um rejoicing
33:49 in. I mean which who you think of these two young people will do more acts of
33:58 bravery and fly the airplane in such a way to defeat the enemy. The fighter pilot or the one who sits at home and
34:04 flies the drone? Which one will be braver? This one? No,
34:13 this one. You know, you know what? Whatever happens, he's got no skid in the game. He will never die. This is the
34:20 one. If you fly too low, you might get shot down. You might die. Once God
34:25 preserves you and tells you, you will never die. You will rise again. Then you will be free to be bold, to be brave,
34:31 and to live your life out as it should have been lived. not covering and protecting yourself and and only going
34:37 halfway for Jesus Christ because the rest of the way is too perilous. The whole idea is to give you eternal
34:43 salvation and to tell you that you are saved. And and Jesus says he's disarmed
34:48 the rulers and authorities and put them into open shame by triumphing over them in him. He has disarmed them. Death in
34:56 Corinthians says, "Where's your sting? Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil. He will flee." You know why you flee? Because the lion got
35:01 no teeth. The lion's got no teeth. Why? Because
35:07 Paul says, "Death wears your sting." Because when Jesus rose from the dead,
35:12 he defeated the last great enemy. And so, no matter what happens, we are
35:18 eternally secure. And when you go into battle and you know that you will never ever, it's like playing video game. You
35:23 can rise again, right? You get shot down 53 times, but you can reboot again and you start again and again. Why? Because
35:28 you could get resurrected. And that's the most powerful reassurance in our lives. Um
35:36 um last challenge is that the challenge of spiritual warfare. Let me end with the challenge of spiritual warfare.
35:43 We see turmoil in our country from financial
35:50 troubles. We see people totally divided.
35:55 Make no mistake, every single piece of turmoil that infests us in this country
36:02 is predetermined by the power of our living God. There's nothing that happens to us today that is beyond his control.
36:10 The prophecy of Daniel tells us that these times will come and God will be in
36:17 control. And the challenge for spiritual warfare is what Daniel writes. Many
36:23 shall purify themselves and make themselves white and refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly and none of
36:31 the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand. There are only two kinds of people in the world
36:36 today. Daniel tells us there only two kinds. One is the wicked who cannot
36:42 understand and the other one is the wise who can understand. And you look at
36:47 these two politicians and you have to decide from their behavior and from the words that they say who is the wicked
36:53 who doesn't understand and who is the wise who understands. That's spiritual warfare that you
36:59 understand. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky
37:06 above and those who turn many righteousness like stars forever and ever. In the dark land which is
37:12 predetermined. This turmoil is predetermined. As the land goes darker,
37:18 the wise will shine brighter and brighter and brighter. Christians, if
37:24 you're living in Malaysia today, this is your opportunity that in the darkness of
37:30 this land, they're going to look at people who can start to shine. Whatever little thing that you do in love for
37:35 another Malaysian, a kind word that you say and the gospel that you bring, you're going to shine
37:42 like the brightness of the sky above. Paul ends with these words. For though
37:47 we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. Weapons of our warfare are not of the
37:54 flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. When we fight, it's not with bazookas
38:02 and drones, with spiritual warfare. What do we fight? What are the strongholds of
38:07 the devil? You know what he says? Stronghold is a fault. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised
38:15 against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ. In
38:21 Colossians it says so see that no one takes you captive by philosophy empty deceit according to human tradition to
38:27 the elements of the spirit of the world and not according to Christ. That's the
38:32 spiritual warfare we now encounter. We tear down strongholds. We come to the
38:38 world which are trapped by the idea of mysticism. The idea that there's no God.
38:43 All religions are equal. Cash is king. I can live a good life. There is no need
38:49 for God. God is there to serve me. These are the things that trap
38:54 our fellow Malaysians. And our job in spiritual warfare is to tear down those strongholds. And you
38:60 don't know how how how tightly they are. I got a a patient of mine some time ago in hospital who actually had a curable
39:08 cancer of the cervix in 2013. And she was asked to have it removed and
39:15 so so she could be cured. But her mind was like this trapped in this ancient
39:21 idea that only Chinese medicine can cure her. And whenever you tell her and tell all
39:26 the clinical studies, this is the mind is just fixated. And three years later on in 2016, she comes in, her tummy is
39:32 totally bloated. It's full of cancer. The kidneys are all obstructed. She's vomiting. She's in pain. And you tell
39:38 her, "Okay, you think we can relieve your suffering by putting a tube into the kidney?" No.
39:45 However terrible pain she feels, her mind is still trapped. It's just wonder, isn't
39:51 it? And she's still dying slowly clinging on to the belief that only Chinese medicine can heal her. That's
39:57 what it's like for many of the fellow Malaysians who are around us, our neighbors, our friends, our relatives.
40:04 The biggest hole the devil has is on their minds. And that stronghold needs
40:10 to be torn down. You know where we tear this down? We tear this down at vacation Bible school
40:17 in two weeks time because where do they learn all these stupid ideas that all religions are equal to God, God is there
40:23 to serve me, there's no need for God. All this rubbish that they pump into their heads, they start when young,
40:28 isn't it? Right? That you could get all the A's in life, you tell your children, then you could be successful in life.
40:34 You don't need God. We pump that in so early. So therefore, vacation bible school is a great
40:40 opportunity where we got 250 300 kids that come and there's an opportunity we
40:45 can tear down the strongholds and put in the gospel, isn't it? And yet only 50%
40:52 full. You guys got three weeks. Don't wait last minute. What about two weeks from now? We got opportunity to tear
40:58 down strongholds. We've got some warriors with us. Not Michael, not Gabriel, but Arnold.
41:09 That's fing this is alpha cause we are the alpha cause 25
41:15 seekers their minds encased in ungodliness and there's a great
41:22 opportunity where could we break that stronghold there's the names of all of them send our email we need to pray and
41:27 ask the devil to break that stronghold why by by how do we break the stronghold
41:33 let me end with this verse it says but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling
41:39 block to the Jews, a folly to the Gentile. When you preach Christ, the people will think you're crazy. But you
41:45 know who these people are? They're the wicked. When you preach Christ to those who who
41:51 are called, both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of
41:57 God. They think it's going to be wonderful. And these are the people who are wise. In the world, there are two
42:02 kinds of people according to Daniel. The wicked and the wise. And the way to differentiate them is what we preach.
42:09 Christ crucified. And that will be our victory in
42:14 spiritual warfare. I'm going to end with a word of prayer. And we'd like to institute this practice
42:20 that uh maybe some of us are undergoing like Daniel a dark period in your life
42:28 where there is uncertainty where there's struggle and there's temptation to leave
42:33 the faith and you're not as strong as you want to be and maybe you want to be
42:38 prayed. So we're going to have Arnold and a few other people up in front all the time. Uh and uh at the end of the
42:44 service, please stay back. We would like to pray. We would like to have the privilege because spiritual warfare is
42:50 not fought alone. Spiritual warfare is fought by the body of Christ that we
42:55 care for each other. We defeat the devil by what? By the love that Jesus Christ lays in our hearts and the devil cannot
43:03 beat that love. And so therefore the same love that Jesus died for us, the same love we show each other by praying
43:09 and giving our lives in service for them. So at the end of the song, can I have the the the the team up? We will
43:16 actually we're going to sing a triumphant song. You know why? Because the victory has already been won and the
43:22 kingdom is on the way. It will be fully realized and we need you see history is
43:29 dust not a random sequence of events. Each one of us in this church has a role
43:36 to play in the turmoil of our country. We are looking to every single one of
43:41 here of us here to be wise not wicked to live and fulfill your path whatever you
43:48 do to extend God's kingdom because that's the only thing that matters.
43:54 Father Lord we just uh commit all of us into your hands. We're all involved in
43:60 spiritual warfare because the devil wants to take us away. He wants to tell us we're not loved.
44:07 He wants to discourage us and tell us that like Amelia Heheart, our radio signals are not received.
44:14 He wants to tell us that we can fail. But Father, Lord, we come before you. And with this last song, we're going to
44:20 declare that we cannot fail because our names are written in the book of life.
44:26 We cannot fail because Christ has paid the debt. But we must be wise. And we pray this
44:33 morning that you fill us with your spirit that we will be wise to honor and glorify your name. We ask for Jesus'
44:39 sake. Amen.
