HOW TO OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD

0:02 I'm sure you remember those black t-shirts with the World Trade Towers on the front and then the words never forget on those shirts. We saw them and if you were alive during 9-11, those t-shirts were riveting. I mean, they would cause a lump in your throat. Never forget. Never forget. People walking around wearing those. And when I would see those shirts, and I still see them today, I ask myself, well, man, I hope we do remember. I mean, I hope we never forget what happened on 9-11. Yet, isn't it true that human beings, we have a difficult time remembering things. We remember what we should forget and forget what we should remember.

0:59 today God is going to challenge you and me through his word to remember in other words God's going to say in no uncertain terms don't forget can you believe God said that he did the Bible tells us in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 11 God is speaking to his people before they moved from the wilderness into the promised land. And he said, be careful that you do not forget the Lord, your God. That was thousands of years ago. God's people had gone through a wilderness. I mean, 40 years of wandering in the wilderness, 40 years of tough sledding, as we like to say. 40 years of God guiding them supernaturally, 40 years of miracles, 40 years of death, 40 years of hunger in many circumstances. Yeah, God dropped protein from the sky. God gave them water out of a rock. So God is telling his people, hey guys, when you move into the land of plenty, when you move into an area where your bank accounts are full, where it's a bull market, don't forget me. Don't forget the Lord your God.

2:37 As I look back over the last 25 years since 9-11, as I look at the trajectory of our nation, have we forgotten God? I mean, straight up, have we forgotten the Lord, our God.

2:57 Because in a real way, 9-11 was our wilderness, wasn't it? And in a real way since then, we're, I mean, we're in the promised land. Yeah, there's some issues, but this is as good as it gets on this side of the dirt. But notice, nobody forgets God in the wilderness. you forget him in the promised land. I don't really have a problem forgetting God when things are tough, when I'm struggling, going through a dark time. Oh, I'm in sync with God, but suddenly I'm out of it. Suddenly things are going well and I'm hitting on all cylinders. I have a tendency to forget God. never forget never forget here's the question against the backdrop of that phrase what should be remember I mean never forget all right looking back at 9 11 and of course God's conversation with his people never forget never forget but what should be remember what should remember. Number one, evil is real. That's the first thing we should remember looking back at 9-11. And also, as you read God's conversation with his people, he warned them about the evil.

4:31 Evil is real. And the Bible talks straight up about evil. It confronts evil. It doesn't sugar code it or psychoanalyze it. It doesn't explain it away. Oh, your nursery was painted the wrong color. Your family of origin was jacked up. You have a hormonal imbalance. I mean, yes, some of those things are true. No doubt about it. God though, through his word tells us that we have a problem and the problem is sin. I have a problem in my life and you have a problem in your life. The Bible talks straight up about sin, about evil. And during 9-11, we saw evil personified, didn't we? Evil took off its mask. 19 terrorists hijacked four planes. two were flown into the World Trade Center, the other into the Pentagon.

5:40 The other was on its way, a lot of people think, to take out the Capitol. Thousands were killed. We saw bravery like we'd never seen before in modern times. I mean, yes, on battlefields, but we saw it in real time because of television and back in the day, the internet. We saw it. We saw the first responders. We saw the firemen. We saw the police officers. We saw it. Yet we contemplated evil. And you know what's so interesting about evil? Sometimes when you talk about evil, and the Bible is very, very direct as it talks about evil, sometimes when you talk about it, people try to complicate it. They try to make evil complex. academia does a great job at that our legal system does a great job at that our government does a great job at that political pundits do a great job at that oh it's complicated friends evil is not complicated it's not the reason people call it complicated is they don't want to do with the truth.

6:59 Complex. Give me a break. Sounds like some Harvard or Yale professor that I've been reading about. I was reading some of the professors and what they were saying from Harvard and Yale about evil. I was on the ground laughing. If you want to talk about educated idiots, just take a tour of the Ivy League. Oh, they're really smart. Wow. Now, yeah, their IQs are great. But as far as understanding good and evil, guys, we're in a fight against good and evil, evil and good. And we have a system now that is so inverted, we call good, bad, and bad, good. The Bible tells us in Isaiah chapter five, verse 20, woe to those who call evil good and good evil.

7:53 who put darkness for light and light for darkness. We have a toxic trifecta going on in today's world. Islam. And let me talk about Islam for a second. We love Muslims.

8:14 Not Islam. Islam is dark and it's demonic. And the closer you follow the Quran, the darker you become. On the other hand, the closer you walk in concert with Jesus, the more light you have, the more love you have, And the more forgiveness you have. So you've got Islam as a part of this toxicity. You have Marxism slash socialism taught in our communistic colleges, perpetuated in pretty much everyday life. All the algorithms, everything just pound socialism and Marxism into us 24-7. Here's the thing. They don't work. They don't work. Marxism, socialism, communism, responsible for over 100 million murders worldwide. So you also have in this toxicity the LGBTQ ideology and trans movement.

9:28 and then you have Islam. So you have all of these things, three of them I could say to lift out, for example, socialism, the LGBTQ ideology and Islam and they are together and you're like, what, those are interesting bedfellows. What do they have in common? I'll tell you what they have in common, evil. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So here you have the trans group in the LGBTQ group talking about the gay lifestyle and if you identify as a plant, you're a plant or whatever. And then you go to some of the Muslim countries and you say, hey, I'm gay. They'll throw you off a tower and kill you. It doesn't make sense. But yes, it does in Satan's twisted ideology. Evil is real.

10:22 And we saw it in 9-11 and we better see it now. And if you don't see it, you've got some serious problems. It's not a psychological issue. It's not a financial issue. It is a sin issue, and we're seeing it in real time. Charlie Kirk's assassination, evil.

10:47 This moron, Luigi Mangione, evil. Lindsay Clancy, you can say whatever about hormones. And yeah, I mean, that's a real deal and postpartum and all that. But evil. Let's call it evil, evil. And hey, guys, they are coming after you. If you don't know the score, they're coming after you. And they're coming after the church. Because the church is the body of Christ. The church is what's holding the world together. You remove the church, we're talking straight up chaos.

11:30 Evil is real. But there's something else we should remember, we shouldn't forget. Freedom has a price. I'm sure when the children of Israel moved into the promised land, I mean, they were just like, they were banking. You know, they were on a roll. Everything was going great.

11:52 I'm sure they didn't really think about all the sacrifice and all the things that had happened to miraculously have this tract of land. They were just kind of enjoying the benefits of it, you know? And it's difficult to understand or appreciate freedom if you've not seen or you've not been a part of the bloodshed to secure it.

12:18 Our freedom was attacked on 9-11. Freedom has a price tag. Here's what's interesting about freedom. Some people say this. It's a free country. like that's an excuse mayhem. Freedom always has a framework. Freedom always has fences.

12:47 Just doing whatever you want to do, going completely buck wild? No, no. That's, again, chaos. That's not freedom. And the Bible tells us when we meet Jesus Christ, we experience ultimate freedom. Yet freedom with fences. And the fences are put there for our best interests in mind. It's a free country. How funny is that? And the people say, oh, I've got my rights.

13:19 Really? Huh, that's interesting. I've had a lot of dogs in my life. I love dogs. and the dogs that I've had, they have had this tendency to run off. My favorite dog was a 7.2 pound Malte Poo. and she was, she was incredible. Kind of gets me a little emotional. Woo! Talking about her. Anyway. Ava lived in an amazing yard our yard I spent a lot of money on our yard and our fences we fed her organic dog food and purified water and we took care of her vet bills and she had the life She could do whatever she wanted to do within the framework of our backyard.

14:29 But one day, one day, one day, she dug out. And she didn't realize it in her little matepoo mind, but when she dug out, she was putting herself at risk, wasn't she? Coyotes and cars and other things. We're the same, aren't we? we don't realize what we have look at our yard look at what God has done look at his grace look at his mercy I mean we don't realize the price tag people walk in fellowship church you think this just appeared here what are you smoking I've spent a fortune over 35 years financing Fellowship Church, and many of you have as well. It cost me financially to be up here and to be a part of this church.

15:26 And friend, if you are not tithing, you are disobeying God. one of the reasons that God tells us not to forget, one of the reasons God says, remember me, remember me, remember me, is he has set in forth this cycle of remembrance. Like going to church once a week. If you don't go once a week, you're disobeying God straight up. It's not complex. Yeah, but I have so many extracurricular activities and I have this hunting lease and I've got to play golf. Give me a break. You're telling God that? You have a meeting every week, corporately, with the God of the universe. Be here. Why do you think God tells us to tithe? Does God need our money?

16:19 No, I don't need your money. Fellowship Church doesn't need your money. So if you think that, I don't know what you're smoking. We do it because of worship. We do it because God knows that if we don't, we think we've made it. You've not made Jack. everything you have comes from the hand of God. Everything. Everything. How about spending time with God daily? Another remembrance. Don't you see the brilliance of God? And we have the freedom to do this. So freedom enjoyed without freedom remembered can become freedom lost. Don't lose your freedom.

17:13 Do those things that God commanded. I don't have time to get into Deuteronomy chapter 8 and Joshua chapter 1. God told his people, when you get to the promised land, follow my word. Follow it. Worship me corporately. Worship me as a family. Worship me financially. God said that thousands of years ago. So you do with it what you want. But we're to remember that evil is real and freedom has a price tag. And think about what Jesus did for us for our freedom. I mean, that's just absolutely ridiculous.

17:57 There's one more thing I want you to remember. And God wants us to remember is I think about 9-11. Courage is costly. Courage is costly. I love what Charlie Kirk said about courage. Charlie Kirk said, you know, you don't have to be talented to be courageous. All you've got to do is just make the right decision.

18:29 Students, we need courage in today's world. We're built for courage. The Christian life is about courage. and if you don't find yourself walking in courage something is sideways in your life what is courage? it's a God given ability to stand in the face of fear and fallout is to do God's will no matter what courage I mean did we see courage on 9-11 or what? I mentioned four planes that were hijacked in 9-11.

19:19 One of them, a lot of people think, was supposed to hit the Capitol. It was Flight 93. And those passengers took over those terrorists. And Todd Beamer said those famous words as they killed those demonic men. He said, let's roll. Let's roll. Sadly, too many of us have rolled over in our world today. we've forgotten 9-11. We've forgotten the evils of Islam, the lust of the LGBTQ movement.

20:15 We've forgotten the satanic strategy of socialism and Marxism. We've just rolled over and we've said, come on in, integrate, integrate. infiltrate, and very soon we're going to look around and we're going to become like Europe, and they will dominate because the word Islam means submission. And I've got one question. Islam has perpetuated numerous terroristic activities. Where are the Muslims standing and saying, this is wrong? Oh, you'll have a few. Where are the Muslims?

21:10 Hey, if some of us as Christians did that, you don't think the church and Christians would go absolutely crazy hey guys we gotta wake up and smell the coffee here again let me say because people chop my sermons up every time i preach now what i see on social media i don't watch very much of it but it makes me laugh i didn't say that no i didn't say that either i didn't say that it's out of context out of context out of context out of context in context i have muslim friends that i love that I pray for. They are misguided. It is a demonic religion. The founder of Islam was a pedophile warlord who was illiterate. Compare him to Jesus Christ, our Lord.

22:09 Compare the Quran, which is basically a rape of the Old Testament, to the Word of God. compare the darkness to light. I think you get it. So that's what we should remember. Okay, I guess we're done. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. We're not done, we're not done, we're not done. Because in the Bible, listen to me, when God uses the word remember, it's not remember like, oh, I mentally remember, I recall it, that's not it. In the Bible, when God says remember, Remember, God is referring to a response, a change. So we have Deuteronomy 8. Remember, don't forget the Lord your God intersecting with another text in the New Testament, Romans chapter 12, verse 21, which tells us our response. Okay, it's great to remember, hey, freedom has a price tag and encourages a constant.

23:07 It's great to remember all those things, but what should our response be? How does it affect me? What should I do? Because here's the phrase that pays. You ready for this? What we remember determines how we respond, and how we respond determines what we remember. Let me say that again. what I remember determines how I respond and how I respond determines how I remember Deuteronomy 8, you can look it up later, but remember Romans 12, 21, but response. Here's what the apostle Paul said. You ready for this? Don't let evil conquer you. Don't.

23:59 Evil is trying to conquer you and you and you individually and collectively on a micro level and a macro level. Evil is coming after us. No doubt about it. And if you don't feel it, something's wrong in your life. So don't let evil conquer you. But conquer, I love this, evil by doing, say it with me, good.

24:29 Good. Overcome evil with good. so we should not again adopt the tactics and techniques of darkness we overcome evil with good but notice this is not passive this is active. We have far too many patty cake preachers out there at little soft-serve churches talking about love and grace and mercy and you can reach your potential and God wants to bless you. All those things are right. That's just not the full gospel. but when I was called to be a pastor, God gave me the mandate to preach, thus saith the Lord.

25:24 No matter if the churches are packed, no matter if there's a friendship circle, I am called to preach the word of God in an unbiased and a real and a spirit-filled way, and that is Fellowship Church. And we've done it for 35 years, and we're not backing down. six things that you can do today to respond in the right way number one you'll see it fight you're in a fight i'm gonna fight and when you're in a fight you know you're in a fight but what scares me is sometimes in my life i realize i don't i don't i don't feel the fight well something's probably wrong if you don't feel the fight just just do some homework with god First Timothy chapter six, verse 12 says, fight the good fight. I love this. The good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Fight it. Not only do we fight it, we do something else. We identify evil. Hebrews chapter five, 14 says, solid food is for the mature who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.

26:39 you've got to know your opponent. Did you watch the game last night? I'm talking about the game. Texas versus Ohio State. What if, okay, okay. What if when Texas hit the field, what if they were like, who are we playing? I mean, what if it was just the University of Texas and their opponent didn't show up and their entire schedule this year was just question marks?

27:12 You would go, oh, that's ludicrous, Ed. Well, that's how ludicrous a lot of us are when it comes to fighting the good fight of faith. We've not identified the enemy. We've not identified greed and anger and lust and pride and gluttony. Fight the good fight.

27:36 Identify the enemy. Expose the enemy. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It's your fight and mine. And then resist. Resist the enemy. The Bible tells us in James chapter 4 verse 7, Submit yourselves then to God. Resist the devil and he will. say it with me, flee from you. As you've heard me say a million times, we're not fighting for victory. We've already won. We're fighting from it. So don't act like a loser.

28:07 Satan cannot go toe-to-toe with you or me because we have Jesus. We have the dynamite power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So we fight, we identify, we expose, we resist, we confront, okay? We hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught so that he can encourage others of sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it. And then we engage. This is the sixth thing. We engage with the fight. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter six, verse 13, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. Sounds pretty tough to me, doesn't it? And after you've done everything to stand. Are you getting dressed in the army of God?

28:57 There was a bodybuilder who went to Africa. He'd never been to Africa before. He wanted to see the real Africa. So he went to this little tribe and these people had never seen muscles like this guy had. And they said, take your shirt off. So he took his shirt off and he did what bodybuilders do. flexed. posed.

29:24 They were like, wow. Then the chief walked up to him. He said, I've never seen muscles like you have. And the chief said, what do you use your muscles for? And the bald builder said, to pose. I mean, just what you saw. That's what I use my muscles for. and then the chief shook his head and said what a waste as the Lord Jesus looks at our lives is he looking at you and me and going what a waste is he seeing the muscles that you have and I have by the Spirit of God that we're not using and leveraging to fight? Because see, the Christian life, you didn't even understand what I was saying, the Christian life is a fierce life.

30:27 fight identify expose resist confront engage fierce I want our church to be fierce I want you to be fierce as a pastor I want to be fierce not looking for a fight not being mean spirited but standing and honoring and taking hell by the square foot. Oh, I almost forgot. I almost forgot this.

31:15 We're to remember all these things, but there's one more thing that we should remember that we shouldn't forget that trumps everything, even 9-11. don't forget what happened on a hill outside of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago.

31:40 Don't forget when every demon in hell thought, we won! Look at the scoreboard! He's dead! You're putting him in a tomb! Game is over! but on Sunday something happened didn't it Jesus rose from the grave it was the death of death he died on the cross for our sins he took the punishment that you and me deserve he rose again and suddenly the scoreboard changed death had been defeated and he'd open up a can on the enemy. So I'll leave you with this.

32:38 What we remember determines how we respond and how we respond determines what we remember. have you responded to the gospel of God Heavenly Father thank you for this great church thank you for this service in which we could remember I pray that we never forget God the things that you want us to remember and I pray that we respond by being fierce individually fierce in our marriages fierce with our families fierce in our careers fierce in our thought life, fierce in our behavior. God, give us this fierceness that your son so perfectly exemplified. I pray, God, if there's someone here and you've never responded to the gospel of Jesus, that you would make this decision right now today.

33:43 Just say, God, I remember, I remember. I'm reminded of what you did 2,000 years ago. And you know, I know God is great to recall that, but I wanna respond to that because what you did demands a response. And I respond right now. Just say that. I respond right now. Just pray that prayer with me right now. I respond right now to you, Jesus. I ask you to come into my life. I give you all that I am and all that I'll ever be. take my life, Lord. Use me. I want to be in the game. I want to be a fierce follower of Christ from this day forward. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.