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it talks all about the reason for the great war that we talked about last week.

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And basically it was saying the whole reason for this war in the first place is that this woman

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gave birth to a son who was to rule the nations. And we said the woman is God's covenant people

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through all times and the son is Jesus. And so this war breaks out because Jesus was born to rule.

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Then the second section of this chapter it covers the war itself. It's all about God's army

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defeating Satan and casting him down to the earth. And then this third and final section

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beginning in verse 13 it tells us what the enemy does with his defeat. And as we're going to read

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he doesn't take his defeat well. He doesn't just say well God won I'm gonna concede everything

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and just you know throw me into hell now. That's not it. Instead the Bible tells us that he is

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enraged and he is seeking to wage war on all of God's people. And it's going to use very

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fantastical language right. It's going to describe Satan as this great dragon who is pursuing this

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woman in the wilderness. And when we read stuff like that it's easy to kind of be like oh well

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that's pretty fantastical language. We don't really see anything like that today. It actually

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reminded me I don't know if you've read the Pilgrim's Progress. If not you should. That's a great

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work by John Bunyan. Highly recommend it. But in the Pilgrim's Progress the main character

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Christian is in a valley called the Valley of Humiliation. It's a wilderness type place. And he

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meets the great dragon Apollyon. And he is confronted by that great dragon Apollyon there.

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And they wage war. They engage in war. And he's having to fight against the great dragon. And

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Christian is greatly wounded but he's able to overcome the dragon by the word of God. And by

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the sword of the word. And by the power of God. And that's another great story where you're reading

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about this dragon and this person. And it seems like something out of a fantasy novel. Does it

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not? Like we can all just agree on that. Dragons and people fighting against them. It seems like a

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fantasy novel. But I think what we fail to understand is that this is actually going on

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right now. The Bible is telling us here that the dragon is right now pursuing God's covenant people

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in the wilderness. So we read that and we hear that. But the problem is we disconnect from it

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because it doesn't look like how we expected to look. Right. Like when we read this we go okay well

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I've gone outside and I've never seen a dragon before right. Like I've never been pursued by a

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dragon in a wilderness. So how is this going on now. And the way it's going on is very subtly. I

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mean that's how Satan works. He's a very subtle being who often works in that way. And we typically

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think that unless we see something fantastical it's not actually happening here. This it reminded

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me there's a pastor and he made friends. There's a pastor in America and he made friends with a

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pastor in Africa and they met together many times over the course of their friendship. And at one

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point the pastor in America was talking to his friend his pastor buddy from Africa and he said

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you know what amazes me about where you are is that when I go to visit you demonic influence is so

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prevalent there. He's like you see it everywhere and people are hiding it and people are calling on

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demons and people are actually wanting to be possessed by demons and you see demonic presence

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everywhere. He said you just don't see that in America. And the African pastor started to laugh

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and he said brother that's because in your country the demons wear three-piece suits.

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And that's not a joke that's a true story that actually happened. And the African pastor was

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trying to get him to understand that just because you don't see the same thing that we see doesn't

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mean that you don't have demonic presence in your country. It's just a lot more subtle where you are.

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You can appear in great fantastical ways to a tribe that's in a village somewhere that doesn't

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have access to all sorts of technology but in America the best way to influence an entire generation

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is to influence the people who are in leadership. To influence people who are teaching in schools

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and what's on media and what's being reported. There's all sorts of demonic activity going on

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today. The dragon is still pursuing the woman in the wilderness. It just doesn't look how we expected

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it to look. And so this passage is going to tell us what this work, this pursuing of the woman actually

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looks like in our world today. I want you to look at verse 13. This is going to set the stage for

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everything. It says, and when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth he pursued the

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woman who had given birth to the male child. And so this sets the stage for everything that's going

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to unfold. And after Jesus' victory on earth God cast Satan down to earth. He's in a fit of a rage

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and so he makes war on God's covenant community. But notice this, look at verse 14. Before God's

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people can even despair God gives us encouragement. Verse 14 he says, but the woman was given two wings

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of the great evil so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place

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where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. All right, so real quick there's

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a lot of symbolism going on here, right? I mean there's a woman who's not actually a singular

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woman but a whole covenant community and she's given two wings on which she can fly into the

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wilderness. So what does that mean? Like does the church actually have wings? So why the two wings?

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What significance would that draw to our mind? Anybody think of any other stories in the Bible?

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Okay, anything involving wings there? I was this close to giving you theologian of the night,

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I mean you were right there. So yeah, this is actually an illusion to God's rescue of the

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Israelites from Egypt. So basically what happens is in the Bible God refers to Egypt as a serpent

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or a dragon and you read about that in Jeremiah 46-22 and I want you to also remember that the

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Pharaoh of Egypt he wore a diadem and what was on the very center of that diadem we've talked about

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at a bunch? A serpent, right? So in the Bible Egypt is called a serpent and a dragon and the

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Pharaoh had a serpent and so you have in the Old Testament a dragon or a serpent pursuing a covenant

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community in the wilderness and this is what the Bible says in Exodus 19-4, you yourselves have seen

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what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on what? Eagles wings and brought you to myself.

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So notice the similarities there. Just as God led the Israelites into the wilderness away from the

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Egyptian serpent by bearing them on his wings so too God also leads the church, the covenant community

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of faithful believers into the wilderness away from Satan the serpent and the wilderness is a

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place of refuge for God's people and it doesn't mean that we're going to be entirely unharmed by

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the serpent while we're in the wilderness but it does mean that God will always preserve his people,

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they will not suffer a final defeat but the other thing about the wilderness is the wilderness in

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the Bible is always a place of what? What happens to people in the wilderness? It is there that they are

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starts with a T. Tested, all right there you go, tested. It's always in the wilderness

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that people are tested right? I mean think back to the Israelites in the wilderness, they're there

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for 40 years and they were tested while in the wilderness and the thing is about that while

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they're in the wilderness they're facing temptations by the devil himself, they are lured away by sin

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and they had all of God's resources at their disposal, they had Moses leading them, they had

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God leading them as a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and they had God's word at hand where

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they could rely on the word of God, they had everything they needed because God had equipped

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them and yet they fell, they gave in to sin and they fell away. Who else was tested in the wilderness?

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Jesus right? And so what's really interesting is in the in the Old Testament God said of Israel

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you are my son and then they go into the wilderness where they're tested and in the New Testament

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the father speaks right after Jesus' baptism and he says you are my beloved son with whom I am well

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pleased and then it says the spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness like and the the word used

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there is funny in Mark's gospel because it's like how they would normally drive a horse with a whip so

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it wasn't like you know this nice pleasant thing like I'm just going to lead you out here like

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Jesus was driven into the wilderness to be tested and what's interesting is while he's in the

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wilderness for 40 days just as the Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years, Satan tries to

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tempt Jesus, tries to get him to disobey the father and Jesus quoted verses from Deuteronomy

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while the Israelites were still in the wilderness the very words they were getting are the words

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that Jesus used to overcome it's like Jesus is saying see you could have done this like these are

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the same words you had but Jesus by his obedience proves himself to be the faithful son of God

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whereas Israel failed Jesus succeeded he is the true Israel and so the Bible is telling us here in

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Revelation that as we are going throughout this life we are in the wilderness and we are going

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to be tested here and we're going to face all sorts of temptations but the question is are we going

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to be like Israel who fell or are we going to be like Jesus who was obedient to what God said to do

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even in the midst of sin and temptation and this issue is not just theological it is incredibly

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practical as well because I want you to just think about the overwhelming presence of sin and

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temptation in this world I mean is it not absolutely abundant in our world today we're

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surrounded by all sorts of temptations we're surrounded by all sorts of advertisements that

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you never wanted to see you're surrounded by all sorts of inappropriate posts on social media

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in on tv these days just the ads they can run on tv that would have never flown back in my day

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which is weird to say I'm I guess I'm old now I'm saying back in my day so that's weird but

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things that would have never been allowed on tv years ago we're now just on mainstream tv and

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every single vice known to man is around us all the time and so the Bible is saying here

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this is the world you live in this is the wilderness everything is around you all of this sin all of

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this temptation and you have to decide are you going to be like the Israelites or are you going

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to by God's grace rely on the spirit of God and be obedient like Jesus and this starts at a young

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age in our world too I mean I wasn't exposed to this stuff until I was a teen but it's starting

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younger and younger and younger is it not I mean we're in June so you know what that means for

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the world everybody's celebrating a certain sin that God said is an absolute abomination but here

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our world is celebrating it and I saw just this past week I was reading an article that there was a

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gay pride festival and at this festival it was billed as a a gay pride parade and festival

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that was family friendly and so they were encouraging bring all your children bring your

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youngest kids this is going to be family friendly and while they were there they were singing songs

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about how great it was to be gay and trans and they were encouraging kids to before you leave

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here consider whether you're gay or whether you're trans just just feeding that into them

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not only that but they had a grown man who was teaching boys how to do a quote gay dance so

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those aren't my words he the dancer actually said I'm going to teach young boys how to do this gay

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dance and young male children were getting up there and doing that and then they had an adult

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male transgender person who was dancing inappropriately and ended up taking dollar bills from small

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children and this is what was being billed as family friendly bring your children here this

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is something they need to see that's the kind of world that we're living in where temptation

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and sin is all around us and and it's presented as being something that's good in our world wants you

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to not question it they want to say this is good for you this is something that you should accept

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in your life and let me just ask you is that not just a new way of asking satan's old question

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did god really say that's what he does right did god really say that that

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that you are not allowed to be in a loving monogamous homosexual relationship did god really say that

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he didn't mean when he says homosexual the bottom he doesn't mean it that way he means

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peteresty and taking advantage of small children but if you're in a loving monogamous homosexual

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like well that's totally fine right did god really say that you have to be the gender that

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you're born with did he really say that i mean did god really say that that that that that sexual

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intercourse is meant to be between one man and one woman who are together in holy matrimony

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and and no one else did god really say that you should wait until you are married to live together

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did god really say that did god really say that you should never use drugs under any circumstance

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even if it is to take away pain or for medicinal purposes did god really say you can't use any drugs

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it's a subtle tactic is it not you see our world in christians today we like to believe

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that satan's main goal is to get people to just to throw the bible out that's not his main goal

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his main goal is just to get you to question what god has already written it's the same thing he

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said to adam and even the guardian did god really say you can't eat of that tree satan loves to put

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a question mark where god put a period and he wants you to question everything that god has

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clearly revealed in his word because if he can get you to do that he can get you to do anything

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and that's the kind of temptations that we face in our world today and the worst news for us is

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not just that he tempts us but but the bible says here that this dragon is pursuing the woman in the

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wilderness meaning that as christians today we're going to face not just temptations but persecution

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as well and it's coming and it's already here i mean think about this it was only one year ago

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early last year where a transgender person walked into a christian school and opened fire and killed

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christians in cold blood now this was not a typical school shooting where someone just goes in and

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they just shoot up any old school right this was a targeted attack this person left a manifesto

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talking about how much this person hated christians and what this school was teaching this person had

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even been there at some point this was a targeted attack against the believing community seeking to

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put them to death for their faith and it wasn't in nigeria it wasn't in iran it wasn't in afghanistan

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it was in nashville in america so we can't believe this lie that oh christians are completely safe

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in this country that's what our world tells us all the time but you don't have to face persecution

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here no one's persecuting christians here we love christians no you don't we have a target on our back

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at all times and don't think that just because we live in the south and in the deep south and in the

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bible belt that we are exempt from this because the dragon pursues us we have a target on our backs

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at all times persecution is going to come but i want you to remember the encouragement that god

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gives us here he says he will protect his people he will bear us up on his wings and that doesn't

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mean that every single christian is going to be exempt from suffering or even death i wish it meant

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that i wish i wish that this meant as christians we don't have to suffer or face persecution

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but that's not what this means for god to protect his people in the wilderness and bear them up on

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his wings it simply means that god is going to ensure that his people never suffer a final defeat

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that his church will continue to exist no matter what so the enemy may cast its flaming arrows at us

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they may pursue us they may target us they may condemn us they may persecute us but the bible

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is saying here jesus is going to ensure his church is always going to be around he said in the gospel

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of matthew upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it

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that doesn't mean that satan and his demons are not going to wage war against it it means they will

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not prevail against it jesus will have the victory and by god's grace and his mercy we get to share

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in that victory and that's good news for us i want you to notice there verse 15 through 16 notice

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what it says it says the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep

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her away with a flood but the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth

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and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth so i don't have time to reference

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all the old testament passages i was going to but if you want to understand what this symbolism means

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in the old testament waters were typically associated with persecution from an enemy

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enemies they would say like a torrent surrounds me i'm engulfed in in a torrent of destruction and so

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so water was associated with persecution and opposition from the enemy and and the bible

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is portraying that here is something that christians are experiencing that they're saying that the dragon

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is pouring forth destruction like a river upon god's covenant people and that's how it feels sometimes

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right when we're experiencing slander and lies when we're experiencing opposition

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and falsehoods persecution doesn't it feel like we're drowning in a river of persecution and

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destruction doesn't it seem like we're in a flood of evil in this world and what the bible says

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here is is actually pretty interesting it's it's actually recalling the exodus once again god is

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constantly trying to draw our attention back to that event to say hey look i did it here i was faithful

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my people here i was strong enough to rescue them here you can trust that i'm strong enough to rescue

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you and be with you because just think about it like this right after god led the israelites out of

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egypt where did they have to pass through the waters of the red sea right so water surround me

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there's a tornado around me but the israelites are able to pass through the waters without harm

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but who was swallowed up and the bible literally says swallowed up in that passage who swallowed up

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pharaoh in the egyptians aka the serpent the waters swallowed up the serpent and then what's

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actually really interesting here is in this passage it says that the earth comes to the

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help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon poured

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from his mouth this is actually another reference back to the old testament if you can get this

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reference you certainly win theologian of the night what is this illusion to there's an illusion

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here to an old testament past i see you in your study bible lisa jav looking at the you trying to

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find the answer in your study bible okay i don't know if a study bible even have this in there

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anybody know the reference a cool reference in the old testament

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anybody remember the destruction of kora the book of numbers

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you're all trying to ask for a number sermon series i'll give you one okay we need to go back

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and add that to our bible reading plan but you remember that there was kora and a bunch of families

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who rebelled against moses and his leadership and basically they were trying to to overhaul the whole

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operation there of the israelites and the wilderness and and so moses takes kora and all the families

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that had disobeyed and were were rebelling and they moses put them before all the israelites and

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he basically said this he said okay if all these people die in natural death of natural

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causes are of old age like most people do then i'm not sent from god and god's not sovereign

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over all this but he said if the earth will open up its mouth and swallow all these people right

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here and put it into their lives then you will know that god has sent me and he rules over all

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guess what happened the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed all of them up and they

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perished right there and so god is saying hey do you remember that event do you remember that

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event from the old testament from the wilderness he's saying i'm not going to be in the wilderness

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i was able to protect my people then i'm able to protect you now i know that you're still surrounded

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by many waters and there's all sorts of evil and rebellion against you but you need to trust that

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i am able to take care of the evil that is in your presence and then very quickly the final

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verse there in verse 17 the bible says the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make

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war with the rest of her offspring on those who keep the commandments of god and hold to the

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testimony of jesus and he stood on the sand of the sea now here's the most important thing for

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you to know about this verse when it says that the dragon is standing on the edge of the sea

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you have to remember that in hebrew thought the sea was associated with evil and chaos okay

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they believed it was the place or the origin of evil and chaos it was the sea which is why we

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read about in revelation 21 1 the bible says then i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first

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heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more first time i ever read that

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verse i was really bummed out because i was like man i love the ocean i love the surf that's going

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to be not fun at all if we don't get it but that's that's not what the bible's saying there the bible's

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not saying there's going to be no oceans in the new heaven in the new earth the bible's saying

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there's going to be no more evil and chaos it's saying the sea because the sea was the place of

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evil and chaos which is also another cool reference back to the throne of god because remember earlier

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in revelation chapter four when we got that vision of the throne room of god it says that before the

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throne of god there's a sea of glass that's like crystal do you remember that the the crystal sea

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of glass what is that a picture of if you have a sea but it's as clear as glass it means that

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there's no chaos right it's still waters and so in god's feet is the very promise that in my presence

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there will be peace there will be calmness there is no evil or chaos but you have the dragon here

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standing on the edge of the sea looking out towards the sea meaning he is standing in the

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midst of chaos and evil and it makes sense what we're going to read next time in revelation 13

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where it says that he's going to look out into the sea and he's going to call out for himself

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an ally a beast who's going to arise out of the sea and join him in this attack on god's people so

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so that's what you need to understand about all that symbolism there it's just saying

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that it's associated with evil and chaos but more than anything what i want you to understand is

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this passage is a call for the church to persevere the god is saying to us i know that you're in a

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hard world it's a fallen world right we our world has been corrupted by sin god says i know that's

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what the world is like jesus says i've experienced it firsthand i know what it's like to face temptation

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i know what it's like to be weak and surrounded by evil all the time and trying to obey the father

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in the midst he's like i know what it's like i've been there but the call is to persevere

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because even though we're going to face temptation even though we're going to face evil even though

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we're going to be persecuted god promises he will preserve his people nothing will ever bring an end

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to his covenant people the church will stand forever and even if you die you will live again

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no matter what there is nothing the enemy can do to us to separate us from the love of god or

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take away the victory that is ours in christ jesus so it's a call for boldness it's a call for

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perseverance and it's a call to faithfulness because i want you to notice god he clearly laid

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out the guidelines for his covenant community here he said of his covenant community they are those

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who keep the commandments of god and hold to the testimony of jesus you know it's never easier to

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deny god than when you're in the face of opposition and temptation right when the world is against

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you i mean just again look at this month look at june you post any bible verse that says god gave

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people over to what was unnatural after their their sin and and their lust had warred within them

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and risen up god gave them you post that bible verse on facebook tonight and watch how many people

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come against you you see people celebrating gay pride you say one thing about what god lays out

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is his good and perfect design for humanity and see how people come against you it is never easier

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to deny god than in that moment and say why didn't really mean it like that now i'm for you i'm with

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you i'm i'm an advocate i'm an ally like it's never easier to deny god than when you're being

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persecuted when you're being opposed when you're facing temptation and listen to me i know this

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firsthand when you stand on the word of god and you say i'm going to preach the word and i will

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not sugarcoat it i will not water it down i will give the explicit word of god because the bible

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tells us the word of god is the power of god i have no words of power the word itself is the

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double-edged sword that is sharp enough to the pierce and separate bone and marrow soul and spirit

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it's the word of god we have no power and when you give people what the bible says

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and they come against you it's very easy to be timid and say well i want you to like me

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so i take back everything i said i'll change my view on this the call for god's people is to be bold

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to persevere and be faithful to what god says the bible says let god be true and every man a liar

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so if you have to stand alone with no one else with your bible so be it it is better to stand

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with god than to stand with the world amen all right michael you give us the word of wisdom for tonight