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"Here as in Heaven."
For more information visit : garden.church
You're listening to GARDEN CHURCH Podcast. We're in a series called Church on Fire, a journey through the book of Acts. This is the story of ordinary people filled with the spirit carrying the presence of Jesus into every corner of the world. The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is alive and in us today. Join us as we step into the call to be people set set on fire for his mission.
Darren Rouanzoin:Okay. Quick question for you to start off this talk. Why don't you think about if you can right now calculate how many voices of influence you listen to by the time you got to church. How many voices spoke into your life? You opened up your phone.
Darren Rouanzoin:You opened the news app. No. Did you go to Instagram? Did you go to your emails? Want you to pull out like did did the news tell you to be anxious about the chaos in the world?
Darren Rouanzoin:Did the Instagram influencer tell you what you needed to buy or how to manifest peace or whatever it was? What were the voices that you listened to before you got to church? A question I'm I'm curious about answering today is really whose voice gets the final word, the final say in your life? Never in history have we had so many voices of influence that we consume than now. And I'm not talking about just, you know, Instagram as a whole.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm talking about the thousands of scrolls or the YouTube shorts or the podcast that are that are filtering and influencing the mindset, the world view that you have. The reason I bring this up is because in our text today Paul walks through the streets of Philippi and a voice starts following him. A girl with the spirit shouting out loud things about him that are completely accurate. True words. And Paul turns around and shuts it down.
Darren Rouanzoin:He silences this girl with a sentence. No ritual, no argument, just the name of Jesus. And when that name was spoken, something leaves and the city in Philippi riots in that moment. So I wanna talk about the things that influence us. The voices that have power in our lives.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I wanna look at this text which is a fascinating text. I was praying and prepping on Monday and Tuesday and I was supposed to teach a much longer text in acts. By the way, we started this series on 08/24/2025 and it's just gonna keep going. Because I think actually I'm I'm I'm fine slowing down because I think we need a healthy diet of the word of God. And so if you have your bibles, can I see them?
Darren Rouanzoin:And then we'll open them together. Let me let's see them. Let's go, peep. Let's go, church. Acts chapter 16.
Darren Rouanzoin:We left off in 16. Last week, I teach I teach. Teach. I use words sometimes. Acts 16, Paul, the greatest missionary who ever lived, is trying to evangelize the world and he's trying to get to Asia and the spirit says, no.
Darren Rouanzoin:And he tries another route and the spirit of Jesus, the only time that that phrase is ever used in the scriptures says, no. And then he goes to sleep at a dead end. And he has a dream about a Macedonian man waving to him saying, help us. He shows up to Philippi, takes a boat to get across to that region of Macedonia which would be Europe. And he has a dream about a European man and the first person he meets is an Asian woman.
Darren Rouanzoin:She gets saved and we pick up in the rest of the story, Acts 16 verse 16. It says this, let me pray. Lord, we welcome your presence right now. We invite you holy spirit to speak to us. May the word of God become alive in our soul.
Darren Rouanzoin:May it disciple us. May this influence us more than anything else. May your word be living today in fresh ways. And I pray in the name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit that you would set captives free. Amen.
Darren Rouanzoin:Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a female slave who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune telling. She followed Paul and the rest of us shouting, these men are servants of the most high God who are telling you the way to be saved. Finally, she kept this up for many days and finally Paul became annoyed. Let's just pause right there.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is not a random phrase. There's a as I was studying and I just need to let you know I definitely geeked out all week and nerded out on the context, so you're getting bible nerd version of myself. We got a lot of bible nerds at GARDEN CHURCH. If you're new to our church, we are we are passionate bible nerds. And how many of you know context matters?
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes. Say context matters. Matters. Alright. So this is not a random phrase that's thrown out.
Darren Rouanzoin:There's a there's two words here that I was doing a dive on. And the first one's pneuma, which is the word spirit. This woman has a spirit. And the second word is this Greek word, pythana, which means a python spirit. Now don't get all trying to trip out, to name the different spirits.
Darren Rouanzoin:You have a bunch of charismatics in here, which is fine. We're charismatic, but we're not going go dive in deep dives into the different types of spirits. But this matters for the kind of influence that would have shaped the world view two thousand years ago in Philippi. The kind of voice that was connected to what's going on. Paul is is doing something here, but Luke as the author is wanting you to understand something.
Darren Rouanzoin:So that python spirit is the same species of spirit the Greek world believes stood behind the Oracle at Delphi, which is a location in Greece at the time, in the modern Roman empire at that time. But it was known for the most famous fortune teller in antiquity. Delphi was the location for that. To the Greek worldview, Delphi was the center of the world. That was the epicenter of all things spirituality and spirituality.
Darren Rouanzoin:And it came from this mythological belief system that Apollo killed the serpent and the serpent's powers then became came out of Apollo in that location of Delphi, the center of the world. It was known to have a cult practice where fortune tellers and prophets would emerge with this capacity to to tell the future, to help people. So Luke writes pneuma pythana, yeah, and he's using a technical religious vocabulary that would have been understood by everyone in Philippi at the time. It was a brand of spiritual life. A specific kind of fortune tellers that were trained in Delphi, who were part of a cult that had the spirit that empowered them to tell the future or predict things.
Darren Rouanzoin:So kings and queens and businessmen and women would go to these fortune tellers for advice. They would go to this mystical power to understand if their business plan would work out, if their relationships would work out, if their future looked favorable to the gods. And so, this the people in the first century Philippi would go to this expensive exclusive brand of Delphi spirituality for wisdom and all things of life. It's what we do with Google and AI. We don't realize that we are using the same thing today only it's just hidden in the word technology.
Darren Rouanzoin:But this is the crown jewel of spirituality in the ancient Greek and Roman empire and she's owned by plural owners. Her spiritual bondage is their business model. She's not a person to them. She's a revenue stream. And she shouts what technically is true.
Darren Rouanzoin:Servants of the most high God. She was telling everybody that these guys were talking about the servants of the their servants of the Most High God showing you the way to be saved. Or in the Greek, a way of salvation. Did you catch that? There's a trap.
Darren Rouanzoin:See in that city, the most high God was Zeus. This is Zeus. I think we have a picture of it. And a way of salvation with no definite article sounds like one more option to religious life. It's a menu.
Darren Rouanzoin:You choose your own adventure. So their true words rearranged into a lie. Their true words rearranged in a way that becomes a lie. Now stay with me because this is happening all over the place. And the problem Christians, church people, is we don't know the difference between truth and the truth.
Darren Rouanzoin:We see this kind of Delphi spiritual branding everywhere. It's the voices that sound close enough to the truth that we might not see a problem with the voice. So we see it everywhere right now because it's not just out there. It's in our pockets, on our phones. It's in this church because so many of us don't even know what truth is.
Darren Rouanzoin:What biblical doctrine is. We just consume Christianity. We have our favorite followers on or the people we follow online who might read some scripture, but not might not know the truth about what they're reading. I mean, this is what's going on. We have TikTok influencers telling you to manifest your future and your destiny.
Darren Rouanzoin:Just believe the right things and the things will happen. I see this all over the place. They might the influencer online might have a scripture in their bio, but they'll say, hey, to deal with your anxiety, just believe in yourself. Do you know church that believing yourself is not the gospel? It's the oldest religion on earth just with a ring light.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'm gonna keep going. Just wait. It's the follow your heart theology. Only when you read the bible, Jeremiah seventeen nine says, the prophet says that the heart is deceitful above all things. The bible counsels you to not follow your heart, but disciple your heart.
Darren Rouanzoin:And I shared this last week. I'm gonna keep hitting on it. But then there's that verse that many of you love, Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. You know it. You're like, that's my life verse.
Darren Rouanzoin:Don't mess it up. Okay. Hold on. For I know the plans he has for you, says the Lord. Plans for what?
Darren Rouanzoin:To prosper some future? Yeah. Except in context, it's written to a church or a group of people, the Jews, who are going to Babylon. They're gonna stay there for seventy years in exile. So God's actual plan in that verse including seven decades of them getting what they didn't want.
Darren Rouanzoin:But let's rip it out of context, put it on our mug, wake up every morning and say he knows my plan, the plan. And then there's something else and it comes from a therapy culture and I'm not against therapy but I wanna talk about it for a It's this protect your peace thing. Yeah. Hit a chord there. You're like, yeah.
Darren Rouanzoin:My Pilates instructor, my yoga instructor, they all say the same. Oh, I hit hit another nerve. Didn't know we had a bunch of unclean spirits in this room. Can you can you hold that one together? I mean, did.
Darren Rouanzoin:I knew. I'm in Costa Mesa, so that's fine. Just kidding. Protect your peace and then cut off anyone that drains you. Sounds like wisdom and boundaries, just self worship.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's just emotional fragility to a generation that thinks they're emotionally mature and aware and only their emotions drive everything. And I just think the problem is Jesus says, take up your cross, love your enemies and lay down your life and that has nothing to do with the best version of your curated self worth. I I just it got and then let's talk about crystals. Buy them at Target now. So you can, you know, protect the environment and atmosphere that you walk through, and then you can get tarot cards at Starbucks.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can go to psychics because, you know, there's spirits. Let me just say church, there are unclean, impure, evil spirits, and then there are holy spirit. There is a holy spirit, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. There's no neutral. And the reason you don't know that is you're influenced by new age spirituality on TikTok and Instagram, and you just think it's just about peace.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's not about peace. It's about taking away the reality of the story of God, which means you have an enemy. Are we alright? The girl in Philippi had a five word statement of theology that was completely accurate and Paul shut it down. Jesus will stand up in synagogues and it's the demons who confess who he is.
Darren Rouanzoin:Before the leaders, the teachers, the Pharisees, before the disciples know, they walk into strange territories like the Garrison's, and it's like, what do you want with us? Servant of the most high, the one true son of God. And he says, shut up. Because truth from the wrong mouth still deceives. And this is why I'm saying it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Paul prophesies in first Timothy chapter four, the spirit clearly says that in later times, some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. The Greek word for things taught instruction is doctrine. The church in later times, brothers and sisters, we are in the later times. When did the end time start? Acts chapter two at 09:00 in the morning.
Darren Rouanzoin:According to the Joel and according to the apostles, that's when the end times began. We are in the later times where in the church, we don't know the difference between the doctrine of God and the doctrine of demons. In our church garden, we haven't been influenced enough by the word of God to know the difference between truths, ideas that are accurate, but said with some spin on it, and the truth who is living. And so Paul shuts it up, and then it goes on. He says, she she kept this up for many days.
Darren Rouanzoin:Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned around and said to the spirit, in the name of Jesus, I command you to come out of her. At that moment, the spirit left her. When her owners realized that their hope of making money was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to face the authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, these men are Jews and are throwing our city into uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice. The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods.
Darren Rouanzoin:Ouch. After they had severely flogged had them severely flogged, they were thrown into prison and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet to into the stocks. I was reading this text and I'm supposed to continue today and talk about how they get freed from the prison and worship, which that will be next week. But I was overwhelmed by this for for lots of reasons because Paul endures the truth about who who what he's coming to do.
Darren Rouanzoin:Right? And and I I don't know. I just think it's fascinating for us because we can talk about the AI, we can talk about algorithms, we can talk about the influence, the voices we're in we're hearing, but we can also talk about movies. Anyone see the Odyssey? I'm really disappointed that there wasn't more of you.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're like, I don't Do you know that movies are cultural artifacts that get into the mindset of what we believe as a culture? So for me, it's it's a write off. First time I realized that, talk to my tax accountant. There you're like, don't blow it. You've had a thousand years to read the story.
Darren Rouanzoin:Don't give away the ending. Okay. You could have read it like, you know, at the time Jesus was no. I'm just kidding. Homer's The Iliad.
Darren Rouanzoin:So there's this thing that Christopher Nolan, the director does, where the whole premise is around this worldview where everyone's supposed to live Zeus's law. There's no such thing as Zeus's law in ancient antiquity. He mixed it up. And it and the idea around the Zeus's law is check this out. This is so fascinating.
Darren Rouanzoin:Treat people with kindness and dignity, how you would wanna be treated because you might be entertaining a God. So let's just take Christianity, mix up some concepts, throw it in as this really great progressive ideology. But most of us don't even know that's what's going on. But there's this whole the whole thing is about Zeus's law. And we have to have a mindset to see what's going on in the world.
Darren Rouanzoin:And the problem is we've gotten comfortable living and believing lies our culture tells us. Wow. In the church that you're comfortable with a little bit of poison. Just a little bit. It's poison.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's destroying you. Meanwhile, you're really working on practices. You're really trying to get quiet. You're trying to rest. You're trying to heal your anxiety.
Darren Rouanzoin:You're trying to do all these things, but you don't realize you're held captive by an enemy who's been working against you from the beginning because he hates the children of God according to Revelation. He's been at war, raging war against the people of God from all time. Are you guys good? So I got to this place and I was like, oh, we have a lot of new people in our church. I have been talking about things about Jesus for so long.
Darren Rouanzoin:I need to do a little recap. So I'm gonna do a deliverance detour. Is that okay? Can we talk about deliverance for a second? So Paul endures it, and then he says, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.
Darren Rouanzoin:No ritual, no incantation, no repetition. The name of Jesus, it comes out. He doesn't speak to the girl, he speaks to the demon. Very much, if you read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John, it's very much the messianic model. It's the model of Jesus that Paul uses the name of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Hold on. Paul lives the name of Jesus. Hear me on this. The name of Jesus is not some magic formula. Because we'll read in a couple chapters, Acts chapter 19, and this is not an emo band.
Darren Rouanzoin:The seven sons of Sceva try to use the name of Jesus and who Paul talks about and they get beat up by the demon possessed guy. Because to use the name of Jesus means to live under the authority of the name you confess. It means to live a lifestyle that's oozing in the group in the Greek, it's ooze you, that's leaking out of you power from the holy spirit because your life has been aligned to the name you represent. Taking the Lord's name was never about saying Jesus Christ after you stubbed your toe. It's about reflecting Yahweh into the world in a way that the way you live doesn't discredit who Yahweh is.
Darren Rouanzoin:His character of justice and righteousness and love and compassion and forgiveness so that when you go into the world you are an image bearer. Does that sound familiar? So Paul represents the king and he speaks in the name of Jesus. And I love what Luke does in verse 18. It says the spirit in the Greek, I think I have this written up, went out, it went out.
Darren Rouanzoin:But this is a joke in Greek because the next line is that the owners hope for making money also in Greek went out. So that is a Greek play on words that we miss that's kind of funny, but every culture monetizes somebody's bondage. Our culture is not exempt. The smartest engineers in the world have a generation that keeps a teenager scrolling at two AM because her anxiety is ad revenue. It's cool.
Darren Rouanzoin:You'll hear it. Go ahead. Just keep going. Keep bondage alive and well. Now he says in the name of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:Now can we go back to where we started 08/24/2025? Go to acts chapter one verse one. I'm gonna tell the bigger story in acts and then I'm gonna connect it to the biggest story in the bible and then we're gonna land and do ministry time. Sound good? Remember where we began?
Darren Rouanzoin:Acts one verse one. Most we weren't even here in Costa Mesa. We're in overflow space. Hey, overflow. I just wanna say hi to you.
Darren Rouanzoin:I saw you earlier worshiping. I know there's a ton of you in overflow. It was warm in there. You guys are blessed. You get treasures in heaven.
Darren Rouanzoin:No. That's that's a lie. I don't know if that's true. You just were late. Someone's going, no, I chose this seat for someone else.
Darren Rouanzoin:I see you. I see you. In my former book in my former book, what was his former book? Say it. Luke.
Darren Rouanzoin:You can say it deeper next time. Luke is the word we're looking for. The gospel of Luke is season one. Okay, and season one summarize life ministry of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's Luke.
Darren Rouanzoin:He says in my former book, Theophilus. Who's Theophilus? He's the gospel patron that funded Luke's expedition of writing a biography of Jesus and his church in the book of Acts. Some wealthy business guy said we need to we need to get a proper account sent, a historian, a brilliant man, Luke, to write the accounts of the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach.
Darren Rouanzoin:I wrote about all that he began. Because what happens at the end of Luke? I'll wait. I'll wait. Jesus is raised from the dead?
Darren Rouanzoin:Yes? Okay. So season one, he's born. He ministers in the power of the kingdom of God. He tells everyone what's gonna happen.
Darren Rouanzoin:He dies on a cross. He raises from the dead. He says wait to be clothed with power. Acts, he I wrote all that he began to do, which means what? He's continuing to do it.
Darren Rouanzoin:Season two, in a nutshell, is the life and ministry of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through the local church. That's the book of Acts is the continuation of the ministry of Jesus. So when Paul says, in the name of Jesus, he's casting out a python spirit out of a slave girl in Philippi. It's not Paul freelancing or building some side ministry of his own that his friends could give to so he has a tax write off. He's not trying to build something outside of what Jesus is doing so that one day he can be in quiet and survive the chaos.
Darren Rouanzoin:No, he's doing what the church is called to do, the ministry of Jesus. But we've forgotten the ministry of Jesus. And here's what we've done, we've sold the church seats and a prayer so we go to heaven when we die. But that's not the book of Luke, that's not the book of Acts, what we have is the continuation. So we have the history.
Darren Rouanzoin:Here's what happened written by Luke who gives you theology why it happened so that you as a disciple live now in response. That's Luke and Acts summary for you, you're welcome. But then the question is what is the ministry of Jesus? Well according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, according to Matthew and Luke, the summary is real simple. The ministry of Jesus is preaching the kingdom of God, healing the sick and casting out demons.
Darren Rouanzoin:Mark was even quicker than that, it's preaching the kingdom and casting out demons. John is eternal life, which is about right shalom, right? Written to a different audience. He was he was using language obviously clearly anointed by the Holy Spirit. But it was about what does shalom life look like now?
Darren Rouanzoin:What does Zoe, full abundant life look like? And he he talks about healing, he talks about casting out demons, he talks about signs. But it's different than the other three. The three synoptic gospels, preaching the kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons. This is our task as the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:This is the task as a follower of Jesus. That you participate in the ministry of Jesus. So what you see in Acts chapter 16 is what we call deliverance. Deliverance is the action of being saved or free. Now stay with me because this is gonna correct a lot of bad theology in the church.
Darren Rouanzoin:We call Jesus savior because he saved us from sin. Yes? But he also saves us from the oppression of the kingdom of Satan. He's our deliverer. If your gospel only handles the guilt of sin, it's half the gospel.
Darren Rouanzoin:Jesus came for the guilt and the shame and he also came for the chains. One John chapter three verse eight, the second half of that verse says a summary statement, a mission statement of Jesus. The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. Not manage the devil's work. Not reduce the stress of the devil's work.
Darren Rouanzoin:Not silence the noise of the devil. To destroy the devil. He says in the gospel of John, Jesus says, the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full. So life is Zoe, abundant life, overflowing beyond the rim, beyond capacity.
Darren Rouanzoin:The reason Jesus came was give you the life that you were intended to live in the first place. A life marked by healing and wholeness and shalom and right relationship with God, right relationship with your spouse, right relationship with yourself and everyone. That's the that's the idea that Jesus came. But he contrasts that life with an enemy. And this is the side we neglect as a church because we love new age spirituality.
Darren Rouanzoin:We believe there's neutral spirits. So yeah, it's gonna work itself out. No, you have an enemy working against it working out. This is part of a bigger story. Go to Genesis chapter one.
Darren Rouanzoin:It's the beginning of the bible. If you go to the table of contents, turn right. Verse 26, for the sake of time, I'm gonna go, you catch up. Chapter one verse 26. Then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule, have dominion over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, over all the creatures that move along the ground.
Darren Rouanzoin:So God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created them, male and female, he created them. Who created them? God. God blessed them and said, be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule, have dominion over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves along the ground.
Darren Rouanzoin:So Genesis one, God creates humanity in his image and likeness, and then he gives them power and authority and responsibility to care and steward for creation on his behalf. You as a human were commissioned in Genesis one to cultivate environments for the rest of creation to flourish. That's dominion. In my home, I have dominion. Well, Alex and I have dominion.
Darren Rouanzoin:Alex, it's there. It's we're we're partners. Yeah. I'm the head. Right babe?
Darren Rouanzoin:Just kidding. In my home, I have dominion. But if you came over and started pulling food out of the fridge, laid in my bed, rearranged the furniture, we would have a problem because it's not your house. Adam and Eve had the keys to the house of creation, but in Genesis three, they gave the keys away. Sin entered into the story through disobedience, rebellion against God's way of life and rejection of God's way, and humanity handed over dominion to Satan, which is why the devil in Luke four and Matthew four will stand next to Jesus and say in the wilderness, I will give you all of the kingdoms.
Darren Rouanzoin:Jesus doesn't correct him because it's true. First John five says, the whole world is under the control of the evil one. The thief did not pick the lock to get in. The door was open for him and the keys was handed to him. So when Jesus comes onto the scene in Mark chapter one and says, the kingdom of God has come near, that's the dominion of Yahweh.
Darren Rouanzoin:The reign and rule and sphere where God's way of life is available for anyone is at hand and he starts acting like he's in charge. We see a different gospel being preached than believe in me so that you go to heaven when you die. No. Jesus confronts everything that's lost in Genesis three. In his ministry, he forgives sins.
Darren Rouanzoin:He heals sickness. He casts out demons. He calms out of control creation. He conquers death itself. Can I grab a microphone?
Darren Rouanzoin:So what we have is every wound of the fall gets confronted in the ministry of Jesus. He did not just say preach the good news. He said, demonstrate it. And here's why I bring this up. Church, my family, you cannot educate a demon out of someone.
Darren Rouanzoin:I love therapy. Big fan. Huge fan of therapy. You cannot therapize the kingdom of darkness into retreat. Therapy cannot raise the dead.
Darren Rouanzoin:It cannot cast anything out. Hear me. Evil is overcome by the power of God through the Holy Spirit. Now, I'm a pastor and I love you. I want I want you to do this.
Darren Rouanzoin:Anxiety, some some anxiety and depression has nothing to do with demons. Some of you need a doctor, you need a counselor, you need therapy, you need medicine, and I cheer you on in this room for that. But some of you, your chains are spiritual. And for those of you, medication and mindfulness is not the solution. It's the authority of Jesus in your life.
Darren Rouanzoin:Which brings us back to Philippi. Paul did not run a seminar for the girl who's filled with the spirit. He spoke to the thing riding her and in the name of Jesus, it left. That's the ministry of Jesus. And that ministry is available for you today.
Darren Rouanzoin:Being a disciple of Jesus is an act of war against every other power that opposes God's way of life. What that means for Costa Mesa is Christianity is not a hobby. Christianity is not an accessory to your already busy life. It's not a brand that you buy merch for and think that's enough. That's not living in the name of Jesus.
Darren Rouanzoin:That's wearing the name of Jesus without his authority. Christianity is about choosing a side in a war. And that means you have an allegiance to the side you choose, and that has consequences. So which side are you on? And this is what mean, look, you We look over this all the time.
Darren Rouanzoin:The most famous prayer were given by Jesus is our father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
Darren Rouanzoin:Church, that's why Jesus teaches you to pray. Hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. And then we rush past this, but we need deliverance from evil. And deliverance is not a special event once in a while. It's a daily prayer against an enemy that's coming at us.
Darren Rouanzoin:Because normal Christianity is recognizing that we have an enemy. And for most of us, the enemy doesn't need to come to us like a movie. He doesn't need to attack us with scary things. He just needs us to believe his lie. The lie that's just a rearrangement of some truth without your knowledge of what's real.
Darren Rouanzoin:How does it work today in my experience in the church? Well, the enemy demons push us towards fear, towards inappropriate anger, and bitterness, and rejection, and self hatred, and unforgiveness, lust, shame, compulsions of every kind. I see that the enemy tends to know you well enough to push you towards the things you're already prone to. And when people give in, the demons turn around and get you to blame yourself for what he caused in your life. Isn't it funny that the enemy tempts you and then prosecutes you for falling into his trap?
Darren Rouanzoin:But the power of evil over Christians is found simply in our agreements with the lies. Because Satan has no authority over a child of God. The only authority he has is the tool he uses to get you to agree with a lie he sold you, which is why so many of us are owned today. That girl is set free because of the gospel, because of the ministry of Jesus and Paul living the ministry of Jesus, walks into a town gets annoyed and sets a girl free from bondage, from an evil spirit. Some of you have walked in here today and you're owned by something.
Darren Rouanzoin:And here's what I believe in this church. Some of you are owned by your past and you spent so much money trying to get free, but it keeps traveling with you. Some of you are owned by a substance, by a habit you can't break. Many of you are owned by an agreement, a simple lie that you've been sold when you were young that grew to be a dragon in your life today. I'll never change.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll always have anxiety. I'll always struggle with lust. I'll always struggle with alcohol. I'll never be enough. I'll never find a partner, a spouse.
Darren Rouanzoin:I'll never have friends. I'll always have depression. These lies that create identity hold you captive. What's the lie you brought in here today? Would you all stand with me?
Intro/Outro:For more information, visit us at garden.church.