Your Story Has A Villain

Let's go, Porch! It's so great to be back with you guys. I love this place. You need to know that. If we don't know each other, I used to hang out here for a long time. I love the people here. I love Kylen. I'm so thankful for his leadership and the way God is using him. Those aren't just platitudes. As I sit there and worship, I'm just like, "Holy Spirit, you are moving in this place."

He was so kind to say that you're going to get to hear from me, but my prayer is literally today that you would hear from God…not my words, but the Holy Spirit would intersect with those words and change lives. Some of you are like, "Oh man! I didn't even know what I was coming to. A friend invited me to The Porch. I thought I was joining a restaurant, and here we are." I'm glad you're here. No drink specials tonight, but we have the water that will make you never thirst again.

I'll show you something I brought with me tonight. This here is one hundred $100 bills. You can kind of see that. I figured I would give it to somebody. Yeah, a couple of hands. Okay, I'm going to do that. Before we give it away, I have to tell you the story behind it. People have different hobbies. My biggest hobby is Facebook Marketplace. I buy and sell stuff on Facebook Marketplace.

I had this motorcycle for sale, and this guy DMs me and says… By the way, it's 11:30 at night, almost midnight, and he DMs me. I'm up. My phone makes that noise. I'm like, "Oh, I got a DM." He goes, "Hey, I want to see your bike right now." I'm like, "Hey, that's not happening." He responds with some curse words. I'm like, "No big deal, buddy. Not gonna happen."

Well, the next day, I'm going on a date with Monica, my wife, and we're on our way to this restaurant. We actually pull up to the restaurant, and my phone makes that noise. I get a DM. I look at it. He goes, "Yo, I'm at your house." Which is confusing because he didn't have my address. I'm like, "How did he get to my…?" I'm kind of panicking because the kids are there by themselves. I'm like, "What do I do?"

I look at Monica, and I'm like, "Okay." I'm trying to figure out how I tell her the backstory of what's going on. Right then, my neighbor calls me. My phone rings, and it's my neighbor Tyler. Tyler is who you want to have as a neighbor. He runs marathons for fun…with guns. No joke. I don't know what it is, but you run a marathon and shoot stuff. That's what he does for fun. That's my neighbor. He always knows what's going on.

So, he calls me and says, "Hey, do you know somebody is on your lawn?" He's always watching. I go, "Yeah. Tyler, man, here's what's going on," and I kind of catch him up. I'm like, "I've got this motorcycle for sale. This dude DMs me, and now he just shows up. I don't even know how he got my address."

Tyler is like, "Yo, I've got you." I'm like, "What do you mean?" He goes, "The bike is in the garage?" I'm like, "Yeah." He goes, "I'll show it to him. If he wants to buy it, I'll take the cash. If he doesn't, I'll send him on his way." I'm like, "Yo, Tyler." "Love your neighbor as yourself," you know. That's what's up.

So, Monica and I are at the restaurant, this Italian place, and we have the Ring cam. So we pull up the Ring cam, and we're being entertained as we sit there ordering spaghetti. I see the guy there. I have a perfect view. I see Tyler go get my motorcycle out of the garage. I see him walk it out to the street to the back of this guy's truck, and then they're out there for a long time. It kind of stalls for a minute. Like, "What's going on? He doesn't like the bike? I don't know."

You know, he's looking at it. No, I see him hand Tyler some money, and again it just stalls. It's taking way too long. "What's going on?" We're just watching. Then I see Tyler walk the bike back to the garage. He calls me again. He goes, "Hey, did you see that?" I'm like, "How did you know?" I go, "Yeah. What happened? I saw you bring out the bike, and then I saw you put it back. I saw him give you money. What happened?"

This is what he said. He goes, "Fake bills." I go, "What do you mean?" He goes, "He was trying to buy your motorcycle with fake money." I'm like, "How did you know?" because I'm like, "Would I have sold it to him?" I probably would have been like, "Thanks, man. Here's the bike." Thank God for Tyler. He goes, "Well, I just held it up to the light. It felt funny to me. I held it up to the light, and I realized it didn't have all of the markings it was supposed to have. It wasn't authentic. It wasn't real." So, what you need to know about this is I bought it for $12 on Temu.

The reason I start there… Like, you're at church on Tuesday night. You're singing some songs. "The battle belongs to…" You know, "I fight on my knees…" Hands raised. "Hands lifted high, O God!" Right? Surely you're a real-deal Christian. What I learned doing ministry here for a long time is there are people who memorize Scriptures. They have ichthus tattoos on their ankles and Philippians 4:13 on their letter jackets.

But you look at last night or last week or your search history, the hashtags you click on, your TikTok algorithms, and you're like, "Wait a minute. I don't know that Jesus is actually reigning in my life." I'm not trying to scare you. This is not a fear tactic. I just get compensated to tell you the truth, and I want you to know there's a real danger to you going out there, saying, "Hey, I'm the real-deal Christ follower," but you not being the real-deal Christ follower, because you have an enemy, and he hates you.

I spent the last three years studying spiritual warfare, everything the Bible has to say about Satan. The Scripture says more about spiritual warfare than it does about marriage. Here are some conclusions. I'll give you the punch lines up front. You don't even need to buy the book. This was all for a book. You don't need to buy the book. I'll tell you some conclusions I made.

First, you have an enemy who hates you. He hated your spouse before you met your spouse, and he hated your children long before they were born. He studied you and generations past, your parents, your grandparents, and your great-grandparents, and he knows your inclination to sin. He understands your appetite. When I say he… There are hundreds of thousands of demons, of devils. They have a leader, but there are a lot of them.

He's not afraid of you in any way. You don't scare him in the slightest. It's not going to be like, "Oh, I know jujitsu." No, that's not going to work. He's terrified of your God. He is terrified of your Jesus. So you want to make sure you're the real-deal follower of Jesus. You don't know of him; you know him. That's different. "I know of him. I've read his book." That's different than "I commune with him. I talk with him. I have a relationship with him. I know his voice." It's different.

Let me show you from the Scriptures the danger. There's this story in Acts 19. That's not where I'm going to be. This is just a setup. I'm going to be in Ephesians 6, but to set it up, there's a story in Acts 19 where Paul… Paul was this dude who was lost. He would have been hungover at The Porch. He was lost. He was a religious zealot, actually, and a terrorist. That's this guy. He has this radical conversion, and he becomes the greatest missionary the world has ever known, and now the church is moving.

In Acts, chapter 19, people who get near Paul are healed in the name of Jesus. If his shadow falls on somebody… Like, they couldn't walk, and all of a sudden they could walk. They couldn't see; now they could see. They couldn't hear; now they could hear. They couldn't talk; now they could talk. He's healing people. The Spirit of God through him is healing people, and he's casting out demons.

There are these seven brothers. Their dad's name is Sceva. Sceva is a Jewish priest. These seven brothers are going around, and they saw Paul. Like, they saw him at The Porch. Hands raised. They're like, "I fight on my…" They're singing a song, getting the tattoos, the letter jacket, the whole deal. So, they see a demon-possessed man, and they go up to him and say, "Hey, in the name of Jesus whom Paul talks about, come out."

This is what it says: "One day the evil spirit answered them, 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?' Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding." Now, here's a question: Did that happen? Is that history? Like, somebody saw it and wrote it down. Does it happen today?

I don't know if you caught it. Seven dudes run up to one guy, and that guy turns on them with a demon and fights them, and they leave naked and bleeding. Nobody is wondering who won. This isn't like Jake Paul versus Tyson. "Was it thrown?" Nobody is asking. If you go into a fight with clothes on and leave without clothes on, you lost every time. It's like, "Loser. Take the L. You lost to the demon man." Why? Because they were pretending to know Jesus. Do you know who knew Jesus? The demon did. They got whupped because they were pretending to have a relationship with Jesus.

I'm going to be in Ephesians, chapter 6. We're going to look at the "armor of God" chapter. I'm going to give you seven articles toward victory in this state of warfare. That's the reality. If you are a real Christian, you understand you're in real warfare. That's not a word we use often…spiritual warfare. If you are a real Christian, a follower of Jesus, then you understand… You start reading the book, and you understand you are in a battle, at war, in warfare.

That's the message today. I'm going to fly. I'm breaking preaching rules. I'm going to go too fast. I'm going to give you too much. Write down as fast as you can. Don't get stuck. If I say something, and you're like, "Oh, let me wonder about that a little…" No, no. Write it down and think about it tomorrow, because I'm going to keep going, and the train is going to leave you. I'm just telling you it's going to be like drinking from a fire hydrant, so take notes as fast as you can.

I'm going to be in Ephesians 6:10-18. Here's the setup, just so you know what's going on. Paul wrote this. He's in prison in Rome but on house arrest. He has one of those ankle bracelets. That's what's going on. Some of you have those tonight. We're glad you're here. Welcome. Paul is on house arrest, most likely chained to a Roman soldier.

So, as he's talking through these pieces, we're like, "Put on the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness and the belt of truth." Maybe you grew up in that church. I'm like, "I don't know what that means." I don't do well when I'm like, "Wait. Is it on? I don't know because I can't see." Here's my suspicion. I think Paul is talking about the marks of a true Christian, someone who has a real relationship with Jesus, an authentic Christian. That's what I think he's talking about here, and this is what he says.

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." You don't have to be afraid. You have access to God's power. "Put on the full armor of God…" It's not an article, like, one thing after the other. In the Greek it's like it's all on or not. "…so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

This is huge. Your enemy is not your roommate. Your enemy is not your boyfriend or your ex-boyfriend's girlfriend. Your enemy is not that person who sat behind you in calculus. Your enemy is not your neighbor whose dog barks in the middle of the night. That's not your enemy. Your enemy is demons. They hate you, and they'll use people to discourage you.

Whenever you cut yourself, hate yourself, or want to kill yourself… Whenever you poison yourself with alcohol and laugh… You're like, "This is amazing! One more drink. Drink!" You're having fun, and then you're hugging the toilet. They receive it as worship. You vape the THC. You're like, "Oh man! I've just got to escape my reality." They're like, "Worship."

Hear me. They receive it as worship. They love it when you hurt yourself. You have sex…the soul ties, the bonds, and then the rip and the heartbreak. You can't sleep, and you're crying. They're just like, "This is amazing, guys. Hey, circle up and watch. She's so pathetic." They receive it as worship. I'm not playing games. What's going on?

"Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes…" That's the moment of your greatest temptation. You can't sleep at 2:30 at night. What are you going to do? Who are you going to call? "…you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist…" Okay, we're going to fly. Are you ready?

1. Walking in truth. Real followers of Jesus who understand real warfare walk in the truth. There is a war over what is true. You grew up in a generation…lucky you…where it's their truth and your truth and his truth and her truth and our truth, and that's just not the truth. If your truth is you can fly, and you go up to the top of the Bank of America building and jump off, the truth, the "capital T" truth of gravity is going to show you that your truth was a lie.

There is truth, and there's this war that's fought over what's true. But here's the problem with most of you. Now hear me out. I know it feels like I'm throwing shade early in the game. Hear me out. Most of you aren't on a truth journey; you're on a happiness journey. You're not asking, "What's true, because I want to pursue that no matter what it costs?" You're like, "What's going to make me happy? That's all I want. If I can believe a lie and it makes me happy, then I want to believe a lie. If I can know the truth, but it makes me sad, then I don't want to know the truth. Keep me naïve to the truth."

Here's the good news: the truth will set you free. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one gets to the Father except through him. That's the good news. If you believe a lie, it may make you temporarily happy, but at some point, you're going to come to the realization that it's a lie, and it's going to make you very, very, very sad. So find the truth.

2. Acting in righteousness. "…with the breastplate of righteousness in place…" The breastplate of righteousness guards your heart. It protects your heart. This is what you need to know about your heart. Your heart works like Netflix. Do you guys understand what I mean by that? Do you know how Netflix works? "You like Suits? How about The Office? What about Office Space? You like Gossip Girl? What about Gilmore Girls? What about The Summer I Turned Pretty? What about Outer Banks?" Right? Just me?

That's how your heart works. You feed it something. Some people say, "Well, the heart wants what it wants" (Selena Gomez). No, the heart wants what it's fed. Your heart wants more of what it's fed. Listen. I've spent a lot of time here. I love this place. It's like home for me. I love you guys. I look out there, and I'm like, "The future of the church is bright. Oh, praise God."

I used to have this conversation here all the time. Right here. I'd stand there. A young lady would come up. "Pastor, I need help. I need some relationship advice. I only date losers. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm only attracted to losers. I'm attracted to guys who hurt me. Can you help me?" I'd go, "May I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure. Sure. Ask away."

"Okay. Hey, what are your favorite songs? What music are you listening to? Who's your favorite artist?" She's like, "No, I'm looking for relationship advice."

"I got you. Hang in there with me. Okay? Hang in there. We're going to get there. Just hang in there real quick. Who's your favorite artist?"

"Oh, man, I don't know. Um, Sabrina Carpenter. You know, 'Please Please Please,' 'Espresso.' That's a jam, a real bop. Uh, anything by Taylor. Like, the queen. Right? I mean, come on. Oh, gosh. 'Virginia Beach,' Drake. Uh, got to throw Kendrick in there."

"Okay, okay. All right. What's your favorite show?"

"Oh, man. I may have confused you. I'm looking for relationship advice."

"No, I got you. I got you. What's your favorite show?"

"I don't know, man…Love Island. But, Pastor, I just don't understand why I'm only attracted to losers."

It's because you systematically fed your heart through algorithms to only love losers. That's why. You thought, "Oh, no. The music doesn't affect me." Sure it does! Look at your dating history. It affects you! Okay? Do I need to say it louder for the people in the back? It affects you. Grandma was right. Garbage in, garbage out. It's true, though. This is how they work. Homage to Grandma.

3. Ready with the gospel. Verse 15: "…and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace." If you're following Jesus and you understand you're in warfare, you are ready with the gospel. You represent the gospel. The gospel is the greatest news the world has ever seen.

I was just getting my hair cut. That's right. I paid somebody to do this to me. I was there, and the guy had a bright smile. I said, "Hey, listen. Do you have a faith?" He said, "Yes, I'm a Christian." So I asked him these two questions. "Between 1 and 10, ten being certain and one being not so sure, if you died today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven?"

He answered somewhere in the middle, but I'm going to ask you guys. I'm home tonight, so I'm just curious who's here. I want you to think of a number from 1 to 10. If you were to die today, how certain are you that you would go to heaven? Don't say it out loud. Just think of the number. Ten is "I'm certain." One is "I probably wouldn't." You know, five, seven… I don't know where you are.

I want you to think of your number. Think of it right now. You're going to do something with this, so get a number. Round up or down. Don't go ".5" on me. Some of you are like, "Oh, man. You caught me." Get your number. You got it? Give me a good head nod. "I got it. I'm not going to overthink this. I got my number." Everybody, you got it? Okay. Everyone, close your eyes just for a second. I'm going to watch your purse. I know not everybody is a believer. Close your eyes.

All right. You're going to raise your hand. Everybody is going to raise their hand. If you are a 4, 5, or 6, raise your hand. All over the room, fours, fives, and sixes…up top, down low…everywhere. You're not alone. Okay, put it down. If you are a 1, 2, or 3, raise your hand. Okay, a lot of ones, twos, and threes all over the room. You're not the only one. There are a lot of you. Okay, you can put it down. If you are a 7, 8, or 9, raise your hand. Okay. All over the place, sevens, eights, and nines. Hands down. All right. Open your eyes.

The barber said, "I'm a 7." I said, "If you stood before God and he asked, 'Why should I let you in?' what would you say?" Think about this question. If you stood before God and God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, asked, "Why should I let you in?" what would you say? This is what he said. I was surprised by it. He said, "Because he sent Jesus to die for my sins and he raised Jesus from the dead."

Here's why that surprised me. I ask somebody this every day, and almost always, if they say, "Seven," they go, "Because I tried hard. Because I was good. Because I went to church. Because I read the Bible. Because I was born a Christian. Because my parents are Christians." "Because I…" Right? But he said, "Because God sent Jesus." You just need to know so that you're clear: that's the right answer.

But here's what I asked him next. I said, "You believe Jesus died for your sins?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well, what are you going to do in hell, then?" He was confused, just like you. He said, "What do you mean?" I said, "You told me there's a 30 percent chance you're going to go to hell. The only thing anybody can do in hell is pay for their sins forever. The only person who doesn't have to go to hell is the person whose sins have been paid for."

Listen. Every sin will be paid for either in eternity in hell or on the cross, and if you believe it was paid for on the cross through Jesus, then you're going to heaven. That's 1 John 5:13. "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life." Scripture says you can know. Ephesians 2:8-9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast."

The salvation is a gift from God, gifted 100 percent to those who have believed upon Jesus, his death and resurrection, for the forgiveness of sins. So, I asked him, "Do you think Jesus died for 70 percent of your sins?" He said, "No, 100." I said, "Let's pray." It's amazing how we can be in church on a Tuesday and miss the gospel. I'm not mad at you. I'm so angry at times at Satan who distorts the truth a little bit and would have you here tonight thinking that you can't be certain.

You're like, "Well, it would be arrogant for me to be sure I'm going to be with God." Arrogant if it had anything to do with you, but if it has everything to do with God's work on your behalf, then you, like Paul, are boasting in the finished works of Jesus. So I boast about Jesus, because I can't get in there on my own, but Jesus paid my way in.

4. Firm in faith. Verse 16: "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one." Roman shields weren't like trash can lids. They weren't like Captain America's shield. Roman shields were large and wooden. They were like doors, 5-1/2-feet-tall pieces of wood.

To defeat the Romans, all you would need were these flaming arrows, flaming darts. You'd shoot them into the shield, and it would turn into firewood. So Romans learned they could soak a strip of leather in water overnight and then coat the outside of that shield with wet leather, and it would extinguish the fiery darts of the enemy.

Paul is using this verbiage to say, "Hey, you are to stand firm in the faith." You're there, and your faith, your belief in God, is your protection. Listen. This is an interesting takeaway from studying spiritual warfare for three years. I believe the Enemy can only be victorious in your life in direct correlation to how little your faith is. The greater your faith, the more your ability to be protected from the Enemy.

When I moved to Dallas, I was not a believer. I loved the party scene. I lived in Uptown, Lower Greenville at the time. I was there at this bar near The Village apartments. I had become a Christian, but I didn't have Christian friends yet. That's like some of you here. I hadn't learned I needed to replace all of my old friends with new Christ-following friends.

So, I'm with all of my old friends, and we're at the bar. Some of them had had way too much to drink. I'm a brand-new Christian. The littlest one of our crew does what guys do when they've had too much to drink. He walks through the bar and finds the littlest guy in there, and he goes, "What are you looking at?" They get all chest to chest. Guys do that weird thing. I don't know what's going on, but they're bumping each other with their chests, you know, two little dudes.

So I walk up, and I'm like, "Hey, man." I'm sober. I'm a believer at the time. I separate the two of them, and I say, "Hey, I'm so sorry. He's had too much to drink." I go like this. I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to take him home." He goes, "Don't you touch me." I was like, "No, I'm sorry. We're going to go. He's had too much. I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean to interrupt your evening." They get all chest to chest again, so I go and separate them again, and he goes, "I told you, don't you touch me."

"Hey, man. Why are you doing that, little buddy? I'm trying to get my friend home. You don't have to be all mean to me. I'm trying to get him home." By that time, all my boys had come, and my boys… They know where the creatine is. They're big dudes. They circle up. There are eight of them. I'm like, "Oh no! Guy, this is not going to go well for you."

He does the craziest thing I've seen. This guy pulls out his phone. He's just looking at me. (You can't tell from down there. I'm weird tall, 6'7". I really am. People always come up to me like, "I didn't realize you're really 6'7"." No, I'm a liar. Come on.) He pulls out his phone. I'm watching him. He pushes a button. "Hey, you here? Good. I've got something I want you to take care of." I'm like, "Who was that? Batman? Who'd you call?" I don't want to find out, so I'm like, "We've got to go, man. Let's go. Hey, we've got to go, guys. Let's go. Party's over. Let's go."

We go outside, and I mean, it's like Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones had a baby. There were two guys. He had a chain around his neck. Not like this chain…a chain you pull a car with, with a padlock right here. Just walking up, coming at me. They're like, "Are these the guys?" I'm like, "No, sir. They left." I think about that young man's response. He was just looking at me, unfazed, like, "You don't know who I know. Whatever you're going to do to me you're not going to do long. Backup is on the way."

That's what it means to stand firm in the faith. Like, "No, no. No matter what it costs me, I'm going to follow Jesus. If I'm all by myself…I lose all of my followers and all of my friends and my significant other breaks up with me…I'm still going to follow Jesus. I'm going to be in heaven with Jesus forever, so whatever you're going to do to me you're not going to do long. I'm just going to go with Jesus." First John 4:4 says, "…because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

5. Aware of your salvation. Verse 17: "Take the helmet of salvation…" The helmet guards your mind. It protects your mind. This is your thinking. Wars are fought over real estate. The Enemy is trying to attack your thinking by whispering lies to you. "You're not pretty enough. You're not fast enough. You don't make enough money. You're not stylish enough. You don't have enough friends. You don't make enough." All the things.

These are the lies he comes at you with, and you have to be mindful. The Scripture says, "Take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ," because we don't fight with the weapons of the world. That's what it says. It says, "Set your minds on things above…" "Do not conform to the pattern of [Dallas], but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." That's Romans 12:2.

So, you're thinking about, "What does it look like that I'm saved? What does it mean that I'm saved? How does that impact?" You say, "These intrusive thoughts come. I can't control my thoughts." Do you know who controls your thoughts? You do. The Enemy doesn't want you to know that. He wants you to be like, "No, intrusive thoughts…they rule the day." No. Intrusive thoughts come and go. What you do with them is up to you.

You don't think you can control your thoughts? Watch this. Think of a yellow school bus. Do you see it? It's yellow. It says "School Bus" on the side in black. It has the tires. Do you see all the windows? Do you see the yellow school bus? Give me a head nod if you can see a yellow school bus in your mind. All right.

You just controlled your thoughts. That's what you just did. I told you to think of a yellow school bus. You said, "Okay, I will," so you did. You control your thoughts. You're like, "Yeah, but what about when he tells me to kill myself?" Tell him, "No." Say, "No, I'm not going to do that." Like, "No. How about I think of Jesus on the cross? Jesus died in my place. I'm going to think about Jesus." What if he's like, "Cut yourself"?

"No, I don't want to cut myself. Instead of doing that, I'm going to remind myself that I've been created in the image of God and my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who's in me who I've received from God. I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price; therefore, I'm going to honor God with my body." Just do that. You don't have to believe a lie. You don't.

6. Responding with the Word. "…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The Enemy is going to lie to you, and you respond with the Word. You have to know the truth. This is your offensive weapon, as they say. It's the mark of a believer. Jesus is tempted four times by Satan himself. Satan has never been anywhere near you. You got assigned some demon, some lower-level, snaggletooth demon. Satan is with rulers and where there are wars. He's not omnipresent.

So, you have some demon tempting you, but Satan himself was there with Jesus. Jesus hadn't eaten in 40 days. Satan tempts him four times, and Jesus responds four times with memory verses from Deuteronomy. If your only hope of overcoming Satan is to respond with a memory verse from Deuteronomy, how are you going to do? So, what might Satan tempt you with? How might he lie to you? What's the temptation you most face or the lie you're most susceptible to believing? This is a dialogue. Anxiety? He's like, "Be anxious."

What if you were like, "Philippians 4. I'm not going to be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, I'm going to present my requests to God with thanksgiving, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, is going to guard my heart and my mind in Christ Jesus. I'm going to go 1 Peter 5:7. I'm going to cast my anxieties on him because he cares for me. I'm going to go Matthew 6. 'Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow has enough trouble of its own. Who by worrying can add a single hour to his life?'"

What else might he say? "You're not man enough." Sometimes you can even say, "Hey, I'm not. I just have the Creator of the heavens and the earth on call. But I'm going to go Genesis 2 on you. I've been created in the very image of God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and Philippians tells me he's going to finish the work he started in me. Ephesians 2:10 says I am his masterpiece created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for me to do; therefore, I am man enough."

What else might he say? The Enemy is going to come to you and say you're not loved. You're going to go, "Well, that's interesting, because the most famous verse in all of the Scripture says, 'For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.'

Then the Scripture says, 'This is love, not that one lays down his life for his friends but that he lays down his life for his enemies.' While I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. And here's the deal. The purchaser gets to determine the value of something, and God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, said I was so valuable he was willing to give his Son for me, so it seems like he loves me a lot."

What else might he say to you? "You will fail." Here's the deal. That's true. Like, a lot. I just jujitsu that. He's like, "You're going to fail." I'm like, "You're right, but he's the God of second chances. Romans 8:1 says, 'There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,' and 2 Corinthians 5 says he's no longer counting my sins against me. Did you hear that? He's no longer counting my sins against me."

When he says, "I'm going to inflict pain on you like I did Job…" "The Scripture says these are light and momentary afflictions that are producing something in me, a greater joy. In Romans 5, it says I'm going to rejoice in my suffering because it produces in me hope, and hope character, and character perseverance, so that I can keep on going, because I'm not yet home. One day I'm going to be home, and I'm on my way home, but I'm not there yet." You just respond to those lies with the Scripture.

Now listen. You're like, "Hey, that's cool. You're a pastor. You went to seminary." First of all, no, I didn't. Second of all, I'm dyslexic. I'm ADD. I've failed just about any subject you can think of. But this is my survival tactic. It's all I have. I don't enjoy reading anything. Like, nothing. But I do it out of discipline, to discipline myself for godliness so that when the day of trouble comes, I know the truth.

7. Engaged in prayer. "And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people." I'll just say it like this. It's like, if all of these pieces of armor are in a trunk, the trunk is locked, and you want to put the full armor of God on, the way you access the armor… The key to the trunk is prayer.

In every war, the soldier is talking to their commander-in-chief constantly. "Hey, I'm walking into this Starbucks. Who's in here who I need to…?" I'm not talking about prayer like you're in your closet on your knees. Those are good prayers. I'm talking about praying without ceasing.

"God, I'm at The Porch tonight. There's temptation around me. Would you strengthen me? Is there anyone here you want me to share the gospel with? God, I think my neighbor raised their hand. Would you give me the courage to have a conversation with them afterward?" You're talking to your commander-in-chief. In summary, if you are a true follower of Jesus, you understand that you are…

1. Walking in truth.

2. Acting in righteousness.

3. Ready with the gospel.

4. Firm in faith.

5. Aware of your salvation.

6. Responding with the Word.

7. Engaged in prayer.

This is what it means to understand that you are in real warfare. (It's like magic. It's not. It's just the first letters spell warfare. It's not a big deal.) Guys, I'm burdened. There were a lot of you who raised your hand earlier. I don't know if you'd have the courage. You don't even have to. I'm not going to call anybody out. I'm just curious. Did anybody raise their hand earlier who could raise their hand right now and say, "I raised my hand earlier on one of those numbers"?

I don't know if it was 0 or 9, but if you raised your hand earlier, would you raise your hand right now? Could you do that? Okay. I'm just telling you there were a lot, most of the room. Okay. Thank you for your courage to say that after what I shared. I've kind of bet the farm. I've gone all in. Listen. This is the great news and why you're here. It's really good news.

I forgot to say that about my barber. When I told him that, he smiled really big and said, "That's good news." I was like, "It is good news, the best news ever." You don't have to pay for your sins. That's what God did on the cross. He paid for all of your sins. You can be with him forever. So I'm just curious. Is there anybody who raised their hand…? A second ago, you raised your hand, like, "I was an 8" or "I was a 9" or "I was a 7" or "I was a 5" or "I was a 2."

And right now you say, "You know what? I believe I'm a 10 because of what Jesus did on the cross. I'm getting that for the first time. I understand he paid for all of my sins…not 90 percent of my sins, not 60 percent of my sins, but all of my sins. I believe that right now. I believe all of my sins were taken care of on the cross." Is there someone who just raised their hand who would say, "No, I'm now a 10. I was a 7 earlier, but now I'm a 10. I was a 2 earlier…" Keep it up really high. That's big stuff. That's really crazy stuff.

This is life-changing stuff, because I'm going to ask you to do something. If you didn't just raise your hand… You're like, "I don't want everybody to see me." I'm going to make it even harder on you. That's my gift to you. This is what it means. As you follow Jesus and take your stand against the Enemy, your shield of faith is going to increase.

If you're here, and you're like, "Hey, I was a 4; now I'm a 10" or "I was a 9; now I'm a 10…" If you just raised your hand or you didn't and you should have, would you just stand up? I'm going to pray over you. That's what's going to happen right now. Just stand up. You're going to be like, "Everybody is looking at me." They are. They are looking at you. That's true.

Broncos, I want you to come here. Y'all just stay standing. It's okay. It feels like, "Oh, man. Everybody is looking at me." They are, for sure. I'm saying this for all of your benefits. Sometimes I think you hear this, and you're like, "Okay, great. I was a 9. I'm trying. You know, it's a boyfriend and the vape thing. I'm trying. I love to party. I'm trying." Anybody ever feel like, "I'm trying; I'm trying to go all in"?

Here's what I want you to do. I'll ask you. Which would you rather have? This is the real deal. This is $100. If you try to spend this, you're going to go to prison. It's $12. Which one would you rather have? Oh, you'd rather have this one. Hey, God is the same way. He would rather you follow Jesus if nobody else here did and just you did… He's like, "I would rather you be real than all 3,000 of you pretend." Wherever you are, wherever you're watching us from, he would rather one of you say, "I'm really going to go all in with Jesus" than all of you to know every word to the song and just pretend.

So, Roxanna, I want you to try to take this from me. I wasn't ready. You took it fast. I want you to try to take it from me. Okay, you did it again. You took it. Try to take it. You can't try to take something that's being freely given to you. You can take it or you can leave it. That's up to you, but it's a gift from God. Give it up for Roxanna. That's yours. That's a gift for you.

To those of you standing, I am moved by your courage. The word repeated is stand. "Stand firm in the faith. Stand." Right now, you are standing firm in the faith. If you're sitting, and you're a follower of Jesus…you have the Holy Spirit at work in your life, and you're like, "I'm a 10"…would you just throw your hand on the back of somebody standing? You can stand up too. Just stand up around and put your hand on their back.

Don't let anybody be by themselves, faithful people. You right here, if you're followers of Jesus, move around. Find somebody. Throw your hand on the back of somebody. We're just going to pray over them. That's what's about to happen. We're just going to pray over them. The Holy Spirit has been moving here. Kylen has told me about it, and I celebrate that with you all.

I'm going to pray. If you're a follower of Jesus, pray this out loud with me, and if you stood up tonight for the first time, we're praying it with you. You can pray it with me. There's nothing magic about these words. It's about the heart behind these words. I'll just say a line, and you can repeat it.

Dear God in heaven, I have run from you. I have sinned against you. I have gone my own way. I know you sent Jesus to die for my sins, and you raised him from the dead. Would you give me that same Spirit and guide me in this life, walking toward you everlasting? Thank you for salvation. In Jesus' name, amen.

Porch, salvation has visited you tonight.