INVINCIBLE CHURCH 1-28-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
1/28/2024
God’s Plan: Purpose / Life / Battle / Victory
Romans 12:1-2
We’re living in a season of extreme instability and distrust right now. The world has never seen anything like the unmitigated evil that’s all around us! But the reality is there’s nothing new under the sun! It’s just that the scope and levels of it are mind blowing!
Because there’s never a break from it! The internet and social media gives us instant access to every single perversion, crime and evil act out there. But still we shouldn’t be afraid of it or stressed out about it. We’ve got to keep fighting it because…
…we’re God’s people and God’s got a plan for us! So, we ought to be responding with courage and confidence! If we’ll remind ourselves every day that our only purpose in life is to bring God glory and pleasure by faithfully following Jesus… period… and if we’ll do what Jesus says, then there’s nothing to fear or fret about! Paul tells us how and why in…
Romans 12:1-2 NIV - Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, Holy and Pleasing to God … this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by The Renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is … His Good, Pleasing and Perfect Will.
Followers of Jesus know that tests and trials are part of God’s plan, which means we know that our stability and provision doesn’t come from the government, a political party or an elected leader! Our identity is in Jesus, so our stability and provision comes from Him!
We know Jesus is our Savior from sin… and the Bible also says He’s the Lord of everything we need for life and Godliness. He made all of it available to us through His sacrifice on the cross! So, we need to stop, look, listen and hear what Jesus has been saying to us all along, which is…
God’s given us a plan of action that we “get to do” for everything we’ll ever face in this life! So, we have to be discerning, understanding and prepared for what God’s doing in the world right now… and how He’s going to work in and through us in the process for all of it!
We have to guard against becoming complacent in the process of following Jesus because of worldly influence! We have to be great listeners and overcomers! Our prayers are the key to success and the instructions Jesus gave ought to be the foundation of our prayers!
We have to remember the root cause of most all problems are spiritual in nature, so public heath officials, politicians and economists don’t have the answers, which means our prayers are essential and critical in fighting the spiritual battles of this world!
The church has to respond in humble obedience to God’s action plan if there’s ever going to be peace, safety and prosperity! But no matter what happens or what the initial outcome is, we have to keep fighting and keep a positive attitude because the Bible tells us in…
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NIV - 16 Rejoice always …
So, for us to be in the best spiritual condition for getting our part of God’s plan done, we have to stay positive, always praise Jesus and be joyful… no matter what’s happening around us! It’s not easy, but we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us!
There’s no excuses so stop making them because the foundation of God’s action plan for us is really simple…
LOVE – PRAY – THANK – GO – MAKE – TEACH – ASK – SEEK and KNOCK! Now here we go again… more reps… because we need to LEARN them – MEMORIZE them – and LIVE them out! It’s the plan Jesus spells out for us in the Bible which brings glory and pleasure to God!
There’s the preparation for bringing God glory and pleasure…
1) LOVE Matthew 22:37-39 - 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
To love the way God tells us to love will always conquer evil! Also, note that the Greek word for neighbor includes family, friends, strangers, enemies. The entire Bible expands on it all through the New Testament. It’s an agape love for all of God’s creation!
2) PRAY 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – Pray continually!
This part of the instructions can’t be any more plain and clear than that!
3) THANK 1 Thessalonians 5:18 - 18 give Thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
We have to find a way to give thanks in “all circumstances” … not just the circumstances we like or we feel good about!
God’s will for all believers always starts with these 3 actions: loving God and others with joy – praying continually – and always giving thanks, regardless of our circumstances!
Then, there’s the implementation for bringing God glory and pleasure…
1) GO Matthew 28:18-19 - 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …
Every day… everywhere we “go”… in all of our circles of influence… we’re on a mission from God to deliver the truth!
2) MAKE Matthew 28: 18-19 - 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit …
We’re supposed to use our gifts, experience and resources to equip, produce and prepare other followers of Jesus to do “His work” as obedient disciples!
3) TEACH Matthew 28:20 - 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We’re also supposed to use our knowledge, wisdom and experience to teach them the truth of God’s principles, promises and patterns from the Bible!
Obedient followers of Jesus who intentionally live by the guidance of the Holy Spirit will have a positive influence on the world for all that is good!
Then, there’s the strategy for brining God glory and pleasure…
1) ASK Luke 11:9-10 - 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
We ought to continually be petitioning God for clarity in all things He wants us to give, receive, speak and do for Him and others!
2) SEEK Luke 11:9-10 - 9 “So I say to you … Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
When we diligently and intentionally seek to know God better, God is faithful to give us opportunities to serve Him! Our responsibility in the process is to pursue Jesus in obedience, then the opportunities are going to happen!
3) KNOCK Luke 11:9-10 - 9 “So I say to you … Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Once the opportunity is available… and we discern and confirm it’s from God, we have to take action to get the process started! Knocking is taking the first step in initiating what God wants done!
Then, the power of the Holy Spirit inside us empowers and guides us to reflect the glory of God to a lost and dying world! It’s a spiritual battle that God wants us to fight for Him! So, not only has He given us access to His power through the Holy Spirit, He’s also given us all the tools and weapons we need in the battle to bring God glory and pleasure.
1) GOD’s WORD 2 Timothy 3:16-17 - 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2) GOD’s WILL 1 Peter 4:2 – 2 As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires, but rather for The Will of God.
3) GOD’s WAY James 1:2-4 - 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your Faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
If we’ll follow God’s plan, then we’ll never, ever, never, ever have to worry about what the enemy is going to do! Now, we certainly need to be aware of the enemy, but we don’t have to worry about him!
We have to stop focusing on and worrying about what others aren’t doing for God… and stay focused on getting to know God better and doing more of what we can do for God! The Bible tells us that Satan’s never going to stop the lies and deception! It’s his strategy!
Jesus warned us… we’ll be attacked and the enemy will get more clever with it. So, we have to be prepared to fight the good fight! And if we want to fight effectively, we have to be keenly aware of what we’re up against from the enemy… this time… and every time!
Basically, spiritual attacks have been happening since the Garden of Eden. Every attack proves that our struggle isn’t against humans (flesh and blood)… but against rulers, authorities, supernatural powers of darkness and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm!
The enemy’s battle strategy has always been to create temptation, anxiety, distrust and fear! A lot of times, the deception is done by generating false evidence that’s made to appear real. And with every step of Satan’s plan, the false evidence is presented to be true! But if we’re faithful to God’s plan, the truth will always will out over time!
The enemy’s plan is to try and gain power and control over people’s decisions. Most importantly, he wants to confuse people about who they’ll decide to truth for eternal salvation and where they’ll go to pursue their spiritual conviction… which includes the church!
This causes fear in a lot of people and urgency in others… or a feeling of some kind of required mandate in others! False religions demand that people go through ceremonies, rituals, traditions or customs to “get right” with God, which is all a lie from hell!
So, it’s past time to put down our idols of comfort and convenience and follow God’s plan, which Jesus said is to pick up our cross daily and follow Him, making whatever sacrifice we have to make along the way!
God’s given us a process and strategy for His action plan so that we’ll be fully equipped to fight the good fight as well! We’ve got to take all 9 of the action words from Jesus, apply them to our life and then get to work living what we believe!
We have to be strong in the Lord. We have to put on the whole armor of God, trusting in His undeniable and undefeatable power so we can stand firm against the devil’s strategies because it’s foolish to rely on our own weak and worldly ways!
Evil is here! In boldness, forms and fashions like we’ve never seen before! It’s easy to discern what’s been happening! We’ve been bombarded with a relentless wave of lies and deception! The world is pretty much in total chaos!
We’ve got a few leaders with sound moral values, but evil is so rampant in every shape, form and fashion. The only way we can defeat it is with God’s action plan, based on Biblical truths and principles, working in unison with the power of the Holy Spirit!
How we respond to God’s action plan going forward is critical! We’ve got to develop better habits and patterns! And if the government, economy, border, health and security finally stabilize, we can’t just go back to our old way of life and habits…
… because there’s a message of truth and discipline that God has intended for us to realize and learn in all this! We have to make the most of this season of training God’s has us in! Not just say we’re able to endure it… we can’t to be able to fight better with the training and equipping!
So, let’s be determined to be good leaders! Our old routines aren’t going to work for getting the new assignments done. God’s prepared us by giving us the opportunity to go through a season where we had to pray and believe like never before!
We need to realize that the enemies’ original plan for this was to be devastatingly deadly… to generate the most fear and distrust in God as possible and try to force others to rely on government! But God is faithful to his plan, promise and principle (as always) and He responds to the prayers of His people in only the way God can!
Only God knows how much worse this could be if He doesn’t intervene! He’s always been with us through it all.. and He always will be! As His people, we need to be thankful for that… no matter how it impacts us because we know what a lot of people don’t know…
Those who aren’t His people will answer for it on judgement day! It’s easy to see who rejects Jesus… especially now! We need to love them enough to pray for them and keep speaking the truth to them as well! It’s part of God’s action plan for us!
Pagan leaders may say that “Prayer didn’t do it… God didn’t do it… We did it”! But those are evil and wicked people who reject Jesus and are going to answer for it one day! They don’t even realize how much prayer they need… and they don’t care!
That shows us the only way to untangle all this intentional/evil web of lies, deception, manipulation, suppression and oppression is through the power of the Holy Spirit! We have to live the truth and respond with God’s wisdom, courage, confidence and boldness!
We are the ambassadors and warriors for the lion of the tribe of Judah! It’s time to go beyond speaking God’s truth to start roaring it! It’s the only way to put a stop to the confusion, fear, hatred and distrust among the people!
So, we need to be extremely thankful that He’s trusting us by putting us here for just such a time as this! It’s an honor and privilege that we “get to” do this for Him! When God surveyed the span of all time and all possibilities and all the critical turning points, He chose us!
God looked at this season of attack from the enemy with all the manipulation, dishonesty, confusion and hate… and God called our name to be used by Him to stand and pray and speak the truth of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! We won’t be silenced and we won’t be stopped! Not because of us, but all because of Him and His power!
We’ll pray until we see the name of Jesus exalted… and His glory fills the earth! We’ve got an assignment! God’s still calling us to live in truth and righteousness! Followers of Jesus are gaining momentum around the world through prayer and truth!
A lot of believers are realigning their priorities to get in sync with God’s will and waking up to the magnitude of the mission that God’s given us! We’re in a battle and it has nothing to do with the military, economy or politics! It’s all rooted in the spiritual realm!
We have to maintain constant spiritual awareness now… our prayer and humble submission to God are the only weapons that will make a difference! God is aware of all who stand on his behalf and we’re extremely valuable to Him. Jesus proved that at the cross!
The church that is aware, awake and involved is more essential now than it’s ever been! Our nation’s heritage, founded on a Christian worldview, and the constitution that was written to protect our right to worship God are systematically being dismantled!
The best news is God’s still in control and He’s purifying His people! We want to make sure that we respond to Him with humility and determination! And if we’ll faithfully repent and pray, we’ll keep seeing the grace, mercy and deliverance of our God! We won’t stop!
God’s given us an action play! When the church (God’s people) step up and put it into practice, it always works! And it always has! But we have to learn to use the weapons God’s given us for warfare and stand strong against the devil’s schemes!
Our nation and the world needs spiritual change, not political alignment! We can’t compromise, even for a short season of personal gain and worldly acceptance! We’ve got to decide whom we will serve! It’s our choice!
God is faithful to His people and if we’ll continue to stop, look, listen and hear, He’ll direct our steps and secure our future! Because down the road, we’re going to face greater threats than pagan politicians!
Lawlessness keeps growing exponentially… open boarders aren’t God’s design! He’s separated us from each other in the past, for our own good, but we keep failing to follow His plan. It’s called illegal for a reason! The media compounds the problem by mocking and criticizing those who stand for what’s right! Law and order are in jeopardy!
We’ve been betrayed by a lot of our corporate, political and in some cases, even church leaders! They don’t put the interest of God and His people first! They don’t even put the interest of the nation first! They keep us divided by propagating something they call racism…
… which isn’t even a valid term! Racism is people hating other people… not ethnicity hating ethnicity! There’s only one “race” in God’s design and it’s the human race! These pagans refuse to celebrate the good in our heritage and only highlight the weakness!
They’re narcissistic, materialistic and hedonistic! They surround the capital building with maximum security, even calling in the national guard to protect themselves, while the stop construction of the boarder walls and condemn and hinder the boarder patrol who are supposed to be and trying their best to protect us! It’s betrayal!
But even more concerning than that is the apathetic church that’s been more concerned with comfort and convenience than the purposes of the kingdom! A lot of churches have treated the blood of Jesus with a casual contempt that’s very sad and scary! The reality is…
… we’re approaching the end of the age! There’s not a timeline for it, but the way things are unfolding now can be seen highlighted in scripture! Victory in Jesus is real and attainable for us because our Lord, Savior and King Jesus has defeated Satan and every evil power of the world!
Praise Him! There’s been an awakening among a lot of believers! God’s message can’t be stopped. That’s why we’re invincible… on this rock… every Sunday … and every day… His truth gets proclaimed… always has… always will!
God has set love, peace, joy and prosperity in front of us! The alternative is death, deception, depression and destruction! It’s our choice! Please choose Jesus to be your Lord and Savior today! It’s the most important decision you’ll ever make! Your life literally depends on it!
To call Jesus “Lord” only gives Him a title… To submit to Jesus as Lord, Savior, and King… and then serve Him in faithful obedience brings glory and pleasure to God!
Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins, which is the only way we could even have a choice to be with God in heaven! There’s no doubt Jesus wants everybody who will to be with Him in heaven!