Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
lord we thank you we praise you for your presence that you sent your holy spirit to be with us and to be in us and to lead us and guide us into all truth to teach us and show us things to come to give us power to be a witness well we thank you for that jesus name amen amen hallelujah you may be seated this morning i got one thank you uh everybody had their bibles this morning i hope should turn to ephesians chapter six this morning i want to talk to you about [Music] wounded warriors being a wounded warrior well let's get to ephesians chapter six first we're going to read a familiar passage of scripture there ephesians 6 go down to verse 10. let everybody get there ephesians 6 verse 10 finally my brethren be strong in the lord and in the power of his might and put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore take unto you the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints now you know a lot of people end when we talk about the the spiritual warfare that we're in against principalities and powers of darkness and wicked spirits in high places and uh we talk about the armor of god putting on the armor both literally and spiritually speaking and walking in those things but we forget i think a lot of people just kind of blow past or they don't finish that passage when it talks about praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit with perseverance for all saints and then we didn't read it but paul added right after that and praying for me he said praying for me um but this church we're no strangers to the topic of spiritual warfare demonology fighting satan and the powers of darkness you've been taught about that you've been taught about deliverance you've been taught about binding and loosing and spiritual warfare and your authority so this is not so much about that this morning as it is about the fact that i love the bible how it is specific the bible's always very specific and he says here i want you to notice [Music] in verse 11 when he says put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the devil against the wiles of the devil he said may that you may be able maybe it's not a given just because you're a believer it's not a given that you're going to win every victory that you're going to be in this battle and be unscathed that's not what it's saying he's saying yes it's possible in jesus christ to put on the armor of god to walk in truth to always walk in faith and have that shield up and quench every fire of dark is it is it possible yes because jesus is sufficient for all all power and authority is given unto him and if we always walk perfectly in jesus and in the truth and in righteousness and in faith then you're right we would quench every dart but here's the the fact of the matter is is that in this battle we may be the best trained warrior the best trained soldier in spiritual warfare but do we always do what we need to do perfectly no we don't we don't always walk in faith perfectly we don't always walk in righteousness and holiness perfectly we don't always walk in the truth perfectly and so because of that there are fiery darts of satan that get through everybody knows what i'm talking about if you've got to lift up a shield of faith to stop a fiery dart what what what what is that dart it could be a dart of doubt it could be a a fiery dart an arrow a missile a bullet whatever you want to call it a fear it could be of lust it could be of pride it could be of deception and false teaching it could be a lot of things it could be depression it could be suicide it could be all kind of these darts
see i was as i was praying about this this morning and last night the scripture kept coming to me in proverbs 18 verse 14. you can look at it if you want to but i want you to hold your spot hold a finger in ephesians there but it's very simple it says that the spirit of man the human spirit within man man is the spirit of soul and a body that the spirit of man will sustain his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear now i talked about that a little bit i've mentioned that in weeks past but i wanted to bring that out because i want you to see that you can be wounded in the spirit you can be wounded in your soul you can be wounded in your body we all know about that but the battle that we fight with satan is very real and the darts the arrows the bullets the missiles are real you know this morning when i was uh praying about this and looking in the scriptures and just meditating on what the lord wanted me to give i decided to look up some footage of of wounded soldiers because i started thinking about movies i've seen with soldiers getting wounded in battle now some of them are deadly wounds mortal ones one of the videos i watched on youtube this morning was a firefight the united states marines in afghanistan not sure when the footage was taken but the marines were pressing toward a hillside where they were being fired at and they moved across this field and they got in down into this ditch and they were down kind of hidden in a bunker and they were firing i mean they were kind of in a trench and they were just popping up and they were firing back at the enemy and the next thing you hear is this marine in not so nice language of course they're not known for their nice speech but starts screaming i'm hit i'm hit and he's cussing a blue streak but he took an ak-47 round to the neck but luckily it just caught him about right here and went in and went out oh it knocked him down he was laying down in the ditch and he was screaming in pain i mean this is a marine these are guys that are taught to take pain i can't imagine taking the 40 ak-47 round through the shoulder
the part of the neck and the shoulder there probably fractured this bone here blood everywhere but he was still alive and his buddies ran over and got him and patched him up you know they immediately started i mean they took their knives out and started cutting his pack off and cutting his clothes off and patching the plug in the bullet hole and calling for the the medics and the medevac and the next thing you see is him laying there and they're holding him and they carry him they pick him up and they carry him to the chopper and get him out of there and i was thinking about us as christians we don't do too much of that you know we're good at we're real good at saying you know why did you let yourself get shot you big dummy and i'm guilty of that some of that you know nancy and i were talking yesterday the day before because there many of you know about the singer you know jennifer knapp who was a christian singer and then she i think last year the year before she came out is she's lesbian but she's still a christian but nancy because a friend of her gave her an ipod years ago and brian just has he probably has every album known to mankind so he loaded all this stuff i mean it was over what four thousand five thousand songs on her ipod for and she had some jennifer nap on there so she was playing her ipod and came across some of this jennifer knapp stuff and started listening to some of her songs and some of the lyrics in her songs before she came out and said that she was lesbian homosexual and you can tell in her music you can tell what she was writing about everything she was talking about that she was struggling with that sin and struggling with that issue and struggling with that temptation in her life and trying to overcome it for a long time and never did and what made i i mean i almost we were talking about it i just really had to walk out of the room because i almost broke down in tears because it's overwhelming sometimes we can we can take a stand against say a sin of homosexuality as we should as christians the bible teaches it is sin and we take a stand against sin and we say it's wrong and it is wrong and it's a perversion but we cannot ever forget compassion
and patience for the person who's struggling with this whether they're struggling with that sin or another sin and i think that's where we miss it sometimes but see one side says well you show compassion and love by not speaking about it at all that's not the answer but then we can slip into this self-righteous prideful superior morality point of view where we forget that people there are reasons why they're struggling with the things they're struggling with they're wounded see right before we had that discussion about jennifer knapp and her and her songs are clearly crying out to god for help and not wanting to go back to the ghost of her past that were haunting her and she cried out for deliverance she cried out for help and it appears and see what i know happened was she never got taught about deliverance so she never got set free but before that i'm reading an article and i'm going to put this together for you but i'm reading an article that came out that yesterday i bega about nicole kidman's father and nicole kidman's father he's a you know a big time wealthy powerful elite individual that uh psychologist in you know in australia and he got he was getting accused and getting it possibly getting indicted i can't remember he said he was about to get indicted because he got exposed as being part of a group of elite child molesters in a wealthy child molesting satanic ring that's probably worldwide called the ninth circle there's evidence coming out now about the powerful wealthy elite across the world who worship satan and molest and sacrifice children to the devil and he got exposed and he immediately leaves australia and goes i can't remember now if it was thailand or somewhere like that but he leaves the country and he's dead now the moment it came out that he was part of this and i got to thinking because i've been keeping up with this as it's getting exposed in canada and england and the united states i mean we could go back and talk about the franklin case with the bush family and the child pedophile ring of the boys ranch out in nebraska and all that that happened what i'm saying is this is i know about all this
and i've known about it for over 20 years there are kids being molested and messed with and put through satanic rituals and tortured and all these things are happening to people out there and and some of it was 20 and 30 years ago and these some of these people that survived this horror that they went through are struggling with things that some of us have no comprehension they are so wounded they are so tormented and vexed by what they went through that's why a lot of them are homosexual and lesbian that's why a lot of them are confused about their sexuality i know they try to a lot of them try to deny that aspect but i'm telling you probably 80 to 90 percent of homosexuals were molested when they were children in some way either by other children or by adults or by older children this is not something either that's in a closet it's going on it's it's going on right now in the bible belt of america going on right now in auburn and opelika going on all over the place but i'm just here to tell you look folks there are a lot of wounded people that have and and some of you even sitting here you're still wounded your wounds are still open they're still bothering you they are not healed and they influence a lot of what you do and how you react to other people and react to stress and react to difficulty and i'm not here to tell you that it's all going to be you're going to get over it in a day some people it takes a lot longer to get healed and delivered and free and feeling whole and healthy spiritually emotionally physically some it takes people longer sometimes it takes people some folks a lifetime because they've been so messed up from the time they were kids why i'm telling you this this morning is to just keep in mind always keep in mind that though someone may be a you know a militant homosexual or you know an aggressive atheist or agnostic or um you know an angry just anti-christian individual out there in the world or even in the church always keep in the back of your mind and in your heart they may just be a wounded dog that's been pushed in the corner
and they're just not going to take any more crap off anybody else that gets near and it makes me sad because i know a lot of people what's sad very sad is that the church of jesus christ has got to be about two things not only preaching the moral standard what is right and wrong and what god expects by his word but also giving the answer to that and the answer to that is not just believe in jesus jennifer knapp believed in jesus jennifer knapp prayed jennifer knapp sought after god jennifer knapp wanted to be free but she never got taught deliverance she never got taught casting out demons she never got taught how to deal with it thoroughly and properly in the church world because we neglect that and so she never got set free so go to luke luke chapter 4. luke chapter four verse 14 after jesus temptation in the wilderness with satan for 40 days verse 14 says and jesus returned in the power of the spirit into galilee and there went out of fame of him through all the region round about and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all and he came to nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to read and there was delivered unto him a book of the prophet isaiah and when he had opened the book he found the place where it is written or where it was written the spirit of the lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor everybody say preaching the gospel number one but did jesus stop there no the spirit of the lord is upon me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted now this is a part we're not too good at we might be good now a lot of churches aren't even good at preaching the gospel anymore but this is the part of the the churches that we're not too good at anymore that's healing the broken heart then he says to preach deliverance to the captives oh
so wait a minute now obviously preaching the gospel the basic gospel message that jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead and we need to believe in him we need to repent we need to be born again obviously that's not enough to heal the brokenhearted there's something else too we got to preach what he say preach deliverance to the captives right this is what's missing and the recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty those that are bruised now this word bruise is interesting i mean traumatized and to preach the acceptable year of the lord and he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began to say unto them this day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears [Music] the message of jesus the command to the church because see a lot of people think well that was jesus that's what he was supposed to do no he said the works that i do john 14 12 the works that i do you shall do also right jesus basically gave the same command go and preach the gospel to all nations mark 16 and then he started talking about in my name cast out demons heal the sick right lay hands on the sick and they shall recover believers we'll speak with new tongues right can i just say that if we gave ourselves a grade not on how much knowledge we have not on how much maybe how many sermons we've preached but if we give ourselves a grade on how many broken-hearted people have i brought healing to how many captives have i set free truly set free most of us in here would get a d to an f we're good at acting religious we're good at going to church we might be good at paying our tithe and give an offering we might be good at at counseling somebody we might be good at preaching the gospel the basic gospel message but are we really healing the brokenhearted and setting
the captives free from the demonic oppression from the wounds and the sword are we are we running to them in the ditch like those other marines did and and patching that hole up and carrying them to get help are we helping them you know what i wrestle with more than anything else i wrestle in my own self as a minister as a pastor as a prophet as a teacher as a leader in the body of christ i can look at the people that god has used me to help but i don't tend to look at that as much yes have i led people to jesus christ over the years many i've preached the gospel in prisons i preached the gospel overseas i preached the gospel all over the u.s i preached the gospel in open air on college campuses on the street door-to-door in baptist churches and methodist churches and assembly of god churches and independent charismatic churches and yes i've seen people get saved but i've discovered something even people that get saved truly get born again i'm not talking about people that maybe confess jesus but never change but i've noticed some even people that confess jesus what grieves my heart more than anything else is when they don't stick they don't stay they don't change they don't grow they don't continue in their walk with the lord that's troubling so what i'm getting at is i can look at you know and this is what a lot of preachers look at and pat themselves on the back and a lot of christians we pat ourselves on the back we look at what we've accomplished oh i led somebody to jesus or well i preached a good sermon today or um you know i've fasted twice this week or i've been faithful with my tithes and offerings this this year or i've you know and we pat ourselves on the back and we think okay check check check check check the list check check check i'm doing pretty good but i'm telling you what you need to look at and i know this is terrible to say but what we need to look at is who have we failed so i struggle with i've failed people i have failed people i was either too tired or too lazy or too insensitive or too busy or whatever at times to do what i needed to do too self-absorbed
so instead of patting ourselves on the back and what we have accomplished let's start asking the question are we really doing the ministry of jesus now this i can tell you and this is something that is troubling to me for my own self because i need to do more of this but i've learned something if you want to truly see someone brought to jesus christ and you truly want to see the brokenhearted healed and the captive set free from demons and oppression and and and deep spiritual wounds in your own life and in people other people around you if you want to be a healer a true preacher of the gospel a true minister it will not come that kind of ministry successful ministry not in building a big mega church but in truly healing the brokenhearted and bringing deliverance to the captives if you want that it is will not come will not happen without the power and the anointing of the holy spirit on your life and working through you and there's only one way to get the power and the anointing of the holy spirit to do that and it's what jesus did what did jesus do before he started his ministry he went out and he fasted for 40 days and fought spiritual warfare against the devil and after that season of prayer and fasting and spiritual warfare he had the anointing and power of the holy spirit to go and preach the gospel with power and to heal the brokenhearted and to set the captives free do you want to set the captives free see there's a lot of people and and we don't have it as much in this church as it is in bigger churches there's been some of this in our church since we started but not as much but there is a tendency in the church world to want to have a title of sunday school teacher or youth pastor or pastor or associate pastor or this or that or whatever and there are people who can write out fancy resumes for for ministry positions believe me i've seen them i could write out a fancy resume of all my experience and my
accomplishments i'm an author i have an honorary doctorate degree i've done all these things i've preached in this prison maximum security prisons i've oh i could i could i could write it all out something i could make it sound real good too right but they're people that's got these these big resumes but they don't ever set the captives free or truly heal the brokenhearted and this is something that all of us should wrestle with because it doesn't matter if i'm the pastor of first baptist church or first methodist church or i've got 15 degrees or i've got this many years of experience or i've done this or done that the question always come back do i have the anointing and power of the holy spirit to lead someone to jesus christ to heal the brokenhearted to set the captive free to see their eyes open to truth to see them grow and mature in their walk i love what paul said to the galatians he said i tr he said i travail in birth again until christ be formed in you what are you talking about i travailed in birth one time in prayer and in preaching and in yearning for you and fasting and prayer until you got saved but now i'm i'm i'm travailing in birth again until you till christ is formed into you until you grow up and mature and become fruitful and productive christians see i'm not impressed by show outward show that makes people uncomfortable in this church because i'm not really interested in how things appear on the outside with you some of us learn to put on a good outward appearance at all times i mean that almost comes in the baptist training manual doesn't it how to put on a good outward appearance and all my former baptists are nodding their heads and smiling yes i'm not just picking on baptists because pentecostals are even better at it they can speak in tongues and act like they're spiritual and prophesy in church and and do all these things and still be home life and
personal issues are just overwhelming them see i'm not going to lie to you and i've shared this but i'm just going to say it again i am personally pastor dean and one of the deepest darkest struggles i've been in in a long time in my heart it's wounded over several different things and you know us men sometimes in us strong preachers i love it remember the movie predator with uh arnold schwarzenegger and uh what's his name jesse ventura i remember jesse ventura got hit or something happened he was bleeding you know and jesse ventura was really a navy seal for real i mean he was this yeah he was in this movie but he was really a navy seal but in the movie this guy says you're bleeding he i don't have time to bleed you know a lot of soldiers a lot of wounded warriors they get wounded in the battle and just keep fighting because they don't have a choice and i say that's a good thing i'm not saying you shouldn't do that matter of fact i think if the church didn't press on most of us we're wounded from different things that's happened in our lives or happened in church or whatever and i'm sure i've probably wounded some of you because i'm kind of a brash individual at times so i'm sure i've wounded you we wound each other we say things that are hurtful or offensive sometimes or you know maybe i don't talk to you i don't shake your hand i don't do something i don't come to your house and pray and you thought i should right i don't know i mean these things can happen all kinds of things can happen misunderstandings offenses end up with wounds but what i'm saying is is that we need to be open and real with each other i've told y'all several times if i told you everything that i was fighting with in my mind in my heart it would blow your mind it really would and sometimes it's just overwhelming i think about what's going on in my own family and i know though i know i you know i know about your family
we struggle with those that are lost living in sin confused messed up not listening to us when we preach the gospel to them saying hurtful things to us anybody got a family member that's that's uh said something to hurt you recently with a few hands let me show you something here go to luke chapter 10. are you there all right luke chapter 10. i'm going to read a familiar story that jesus told here luke chapter 10 verse 25. listen to me let's read this and behold a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him saying master what shall i do to inherit eternal life and he said unto him what is written in the law and how readers thou and he answered and said thou should love the lord thy god with all thy heart with all thy soul with all thy mind with all thy strength and thy neighbor as thyself and he said unto him thou has answered right this do and thou shalt live but he willing to justify himself sent unto jesus who is my neighbor and jesus answering said a certain man went down from jerusalem to jericho and fell among thebes which stripped him of his ramen and wounded him and departed leaving him half dead and by chance there came down a certain priest that way when he saw him he passed by on the other side and likewise the levite when he was at that place came and looked on him and passed by on the other side but a certain samaritan as he journeyed came where he was and when he saw him he had compassion on him and went to him and bound up his wounds pouring in oil and wine and set him on his own beast and brought him to an end and took care of him and on the morrow when he departed he took out two pence and gave them to the host and said in him take care of him and whatsoever thou spend this more when i come again i will repay thee which now of these three thinketh thou was neighbor to him that fell among thieves and he said he that showed him mercy on him then said jesus unto him go and do thou likewise now this story has been told many times
it has many applications but for the sake of what we're talking about today let me just point out to you something that i really feel that's illustrated and what i'm trying to say this morning here's a man that was going from jerusalem to jericho now jerusalem was the center of religion the center of the true religion of jehovah god almighty so maybe this man had gone to jerusalem to worship maybe he had gone to make an offering maybe he had gone to one of the feasts you know there was a that all the males had to go maybe um we don't know but it said he fell among thieves now what's interesting about this is the bible calls the jesus in john 10 said the thief cometh not for to kill and to steal and to destroy and he was referring to satan he's saying here's this man fell among thieves he fell among demons devils demonic attack physical attack and listen demonic attack as i said before can be spirit soul or body or all three but this man was wounded these thieves wounded him and robbed him now here's what happens this is the church world we see people all the time we walk by people all the time that have been wounded by satan they've been robbed of satan they satan has stolen everything from them their peace their sanity their family their money their health their happiness their joy their hope satan has robbed everything and left them wounded and it's interesting the scripture says half dead there's a lot of people walking around half dead some of them even call themselves christians they're so wounded they're so robbed they're so beat up they can't even help themselves and essentially said a certain priest came by a priest a minister of the gospel came by and ignored this and he saw them saw this wounded and just ignored and kept on just walked then a levite came by one of the set apart tribes of israel again a minister of the god walks around folks this is what the church does we got all these wounded people people been raped molested abused physically mentally emotionally satan's used people to do it to him and then sometimes just been satan himself
and demons and doing it in because they don't know how to fight they don't know how to defend themselves they don't have jesus in their heart they don't have strength against this enemy our job is to do what this man did to the best of our bill we can't we can't help everyone there's no way but we need to start asking ourselves am i am i passing by and trying to ignore the people that are wounded am i trying to just give them you know some some spiritual platitude some spiritual you know fortune cookie saying that we do and walk on by but no i said the samaritan took him up and poured in oil and wine now what does oil represent the holy spirit the power of the holy spirit are y'all with me to heal this wound to cleanse the wound how many of you know that olive oil can be used kind of as an antiseptic as well right but it said he poured in oil and wine oil represents the holy spirit this is what i said to you earlier you cannot help anyone that's wounded without the holy spirit without the power anointing oil of the holy spirit in you working through you and flowing through you not words not just words not just knowledge not just whatever you need to have the tangible anointing of the holy spirit flowing through you to help anybody that's wounded and the second part of that is said he poured in wine which wine represents in the new testament the blood of jesus a lot of people will not be able to apply the blood of jesus to their lives and walk in a relationship with him continuously unless somebody comes along first with the anointing oil of the holy spirit to bring some healing and deliverance in their life i'm not saying we cast demons out of unsaved people that's not what i'm saying not saying we don't try to lead people to jesus first to repentance that's not what i'm saying but i'm saying they won't be able to continue they won't be able to endure to the end they won't be able it's not how you start this race yes you must be born again yes you must believe jesus died on the cross for your sin yes you must believe he rose from the dead you must believe the scriptures you must believe the teachings of the bible and the doctrine of christ yes you must believe
all that and yes you must be born again but i know many who have been born again and they started the race right they started the walk right but they never finished the race they've fallen away they've gone back they've departed from the faith they've gone back to their sinful lifestyle and some of them is because no one ever brought healing to their wounds and deliverance to them and this is how we should measure ourselves not by knowledge not by degrees not by how big our church is not by what position we hope you better measure yourself by who am i loving enough to bring healing and deliverance to their womb so they can make it to heaven and in this church i need some of you i would love it if all of you but i need some of you to really rise up and become these healers and these deliverers to people because if i keep doing all the deliverances around here you will have to find another pastor follow it wears me out i'm just saying you can only do so much you're what i'm talking about and some of you think well i can't do it oh no you can you really can you just have to step out how do you think i started doing it well you're called to be a pastor no i did it long before i was called to be a pastor long before i ever passed her to church or did anything like that no i was just being a christian and i kept reading this stuff and we're supposed to heal the brokenhearted and cast demons out and set the captives free and so i started preaching this to people to new converts who were struggling what's wrong this is how the whole deliverance how i started in deliverance ministry i wanted people to get free and healed so they could walk the christian life and make it to the end and go to heaven see this is the problem if we believe once saved always saved it doesn't matter see we it's easy we just this is what the church did they always find an easy way out oh well you're once saved always saved it doesn't matter once you're born again oh oh and by the way once you're born again that takes care of everything deliverance and wounds and problems and that just takes care of everything but what do we find in the lives of people that's any you know what even baptist preachers and methodist preachers or whatever preachers that believe this nonsense about eternal security and a christian can't have a demon and getting saved fixes everything
even these preachers would have to if you set them down and they actually told the truth because some bunch of a bunch of liars but if they told the truth how many problems sit in their office every day of every week especially now how many people come through there on the verge of divorce on the verge of clinical depression taking every type of antidepressant pill kids rebelling teenagers rebelling got no control over their children just pandemonium struggling with you know pornography adultery oh yeah getting safe fixes it all i can't even believe that that that majority of the church in america bought into that one oh yeah just get saved and all your problems are over you can have your best life now every day friday oh no no no no no no getting saved getting born again accepting jesus is just the beginning what do you tell the believer that's struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts or lust so strong that they feel like they can't control themselves or homosexual lust and temptation or the husband being pulled at work by an adulterous or the wife for that matter where being the church is being destroyed see what they s what the what jesus said here was he was half dead that meant means he was half alive right get this if you're not born again you're all dead you're dead and trespasses and sins the problem is we get saved we're half alive we got to get healed of our wounds and we got to get delivered and then of course the the tough part after that you can get you can get saved you can get healed emotionally spiritually physically he you can get healed by his stripes we are healed
jesus paid for our healing it's available to make us whole you can get delivered from all your demonic mess from your past get every demonic stronghold cast out of you set free and then your daddy or your mama or your cousin or your aunt or your brother or your sister or your smart addict teenager is going to say something boom and wound you again or maybe the same perpetrator from the past who's wounded you severely in the past opens their mouth and does it again and you find yourself even as a strong christian just like that marine that marine was a strong marine that marine was in shape that marine was fighting in battle highly trained warrior but it doesn't matter how strong you are it doesn't matter how powerful you are no matter how spiritually in shape you are satan's bullets are real the darts are real and sometimes because we can't live it perfect they get through now you know what that marine he looked for in pretty good shape when they put him on the chopper he'll survive austin's friend when they were in afghanistan took an ak-47 round in here came out over here should have killed it if it hit his spine it would have but that guy came home had surgery and we know what he's doing now he went to ranger school now he's a ranger he's an airborne ranger but see you can get hit and this is one time about we've got to be better as a church when we see a brother or sister get hit being people who pray and fast and bring healing to that to that warrior so they can get back in the fight quick that's why i cry out to you guys to pray for each other pray pray pray pray pray for each other especially when you see a brother sister wounded pray pray and always know this that those who are in leadership are always the ones the enemies trying to hit first smite the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered that's a principle that's been in the bible since the days of the prophet zechariah right i'm going to close with this go back to
ephesians chapter six the war is only going to get more intense as warriors we're all going to have to have our swords and our rifles and our weapons and our armor on but we're also going to be have to be carrying the first aid pack first aid pack i think all soldiers correct me if i'm wrong don't they carry first aid packs all of them at least some kind of basic first aid pack i'll read this again verse 10 finally my brethren be strong in the lord in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore or for that reason take unto you the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and here's what i want to emphasize hear it do this especially now praying always with all prayer we could say all kinds of prayer here praying always with all kinds of prayer and supplication in the spirit can i tell you that you're not going to be able to pray in the spirit that's big ass holy spirit unless you pray often and much he says praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints do you see that you take up your armor you put on your armor you take the sword of the spirit which is the word of god that's a weapon but the praying for each other
it's the first aid kit it's the oil in the wine to heal people's wounds and to set the cap is free you hear me we've got a lot of wounded soldiers in this battle some of them will keep fighting even when they're wounded but that doesn't mean their wounds need to be ignored forever some of you are still dealing with wounds and you need to start praying that god would heal them you get focused on it because listen to me a wound that is not attended to starts attracting gnats and flies and what's biel's above call what is he the lord of the flies and he's attracted to your wounds and if you leave your wounds open and unattended and sometimes you need to go to somebody for help what did that marine do when he was hit in the neck he didn't ignore it he yelled out i'm hit i'm hit he let people know i'm hit help i need help over here sometimes you got to let people know most of us are not mind readers right you hear me this is important you know it really is these wounds after the after the the gnats and the flies start coming what do they bring they bring filth a wound is also an interest for more filth more sin to come in i've never seen a person that didn't get wounded that didn't ended up getting offended at god or offended with people or mad or whatever and ended up sinning more i've never seen that happen it opens the door away for filth and then if that filth is not cleansed out by the oil in the wine and by tending to it then it gets infected and then if the infection goes too long then it can kill you and bring death so wounds are a serious thing right all right take this seriously that's why proverbs 18 14 says spirit of man will sustain his infirmity his weakness
but a wounded spirit who can bear don't ignore your wounds some of you got willing still you think you don't i'm going to talk to adults for a second some of you think that you don't have wounds but some of you still have wounds from your parents you do even to this day i know some of you do rejection not feeling like you measured up or you please them or you were good enough hey guess what maybe you were screw up you know so what but don't act like it's not there some of us are still in a tizzy as adults to get our parents approval to get their attention to get their love to get their to get them to somehow tell us we're good enough we're okay i got news for you some of you're never going to get it i don't care if you become the president of the united states or richer than uh bill gates so you're gonna have to go to god to let those wounds be healed because guess what some of our parents the reason that they fell short and wounded us is because they were wounded and didn't know how to deal with their own wounds and so they really couldn't they were reacting to us as in and hurting us when they weren't really trying to some of them because they didn't even know how to be parents because they never got healed and they never were able to become functioning adults and that's why it's just continual perpetuation of problems but in jesus and if you are honest and you address it and sometimes confessing your faults and just being open and saying i'm hurting here see i'm saying it this morning i'm being open and honest with you i am hurting this morning and i have been for weeks now really for over a year it's been over a year
and i don't care if people hear it i don't care if my daughters hear this i don't care but they have wounded me now really starting with caitlyn from 2010 on it's been a perpetual wound in my heart and then the one that i thought would never do it did it even worse so i'm trying to deal with that so my first step is confessing it i'm hit and it's not always how do you deal with it i don't know here i am i'm pastor dean i'm the preacher i'm the pastor i'm just my wife says i hope she even said today i said you you better get your act together and she wasn't being mean to me she was like she knows i'm she we've discussed it i don't mean to portray her wrong in that but she because she was saying that like you know with a smile on her face i hope you get over this and you get your act together because there's some people that need you and that's what any soldier would say you know hey get better we need you in this battle you know but i'm just telling you confess your faults one to another pray one for another that you may be what healed you know i could admit i didn't do everything perfect as a dad i'm sure i've hurt them and disappointed them and wounded them at times with my words or my action or inaction i've asked for forgiveness but you get what i'm saying of us aren't even honest with ourselves or with anybody else about our wounds and offenses and can i just say an offense is a wound is the beginning of a wound and usually an offense leads to more wounds but it is impossible that we won't offend each other that we won't wound each other at times that's why forgiveness is so important it's why being honest with each other is so important i'm telling you some of the most dishonest people on the face of the earth are christians liars how are you today i'm fine you aren't anywhere near fine oh brother are you offended with me but no i'm not offended and you know they're offended it's come out of their mouth so many times you know they're offended at this
thing and you're trying to deal with trying to confront it are you offended no you're a liar some of you lied to the preacher's face we're fine nice there's so many people so yeah where i've gone up to married couples just because y'all headed there i'm going up to america how y'all doing i i can see the struggle on people's faces y'all got the grins now because you're just you'll have that for a little while love is blind marriage is the eye opener remember it is marriage is the crucible of life because i don't care how much bliss you got problems becoming because the devil hates marriage because it's made right but i've gone to married people i mean i'm talking about in big church when i was in big churches how are you i could see there on the verge of divorce we're great we're fine we're wonderful and then i hear you know two weeks later that they've separated live in church to the pastor do it all the time it's okay to say you know what pastor we're going through hell we're on the verge of divorce we're on the verge of depression the kids we're about to kill them or they're about to kill each other it's okay be honest i'm gonna add one more thing i know i need to quit i'm preaching long here i don't look at a watch as you all can see ah well y'all just got saved because i just forgot what i was gonna say oh oh yeah please know this because you know i'm from time to time i have to confront problems and issues in church right please understand that if i ever have to confront you or correct you or rebuke you or deal with a problem it is not because i want to nancy do i want to i don't get any joy out of it even though i'm not afraid of confrontation
i don't mind confrontation the reason that i don't relish doing it is because i don't want to be overly impatient with what's going on in your life when i know in my life it's not all together either so i try to give time and space so if i do finally say something to you about a problem trust me i've waited a long time and not done it easily and i'm not doing it from a place thinking i'm i've got it all together and you don't that's what i'm trying to tell you okay i'm letting you know i don't like it i would rather not have to do any of it it's just kind of like spanking faith or when i used to have to spank the girls i didn't relish having to bring discipline and correction because i know i was once a kid and i did far worse and all they did all of them right so that's where patience comes in i don't want to tear their tail up every single time they do something wrong but you have to i could tell face sometimes when it's spanking time i don't want to do this i don't like doing this i know you don't like it but i really i don't like it either but i have to when you don't behave and when a problem persists right but never ever ever think that pastor dean thinks it he's got it all together and you don't because i don't think that just so happens i happen to be the pastor as flawed as i am and as messed up as i am and i still have to deal with problems in the church okay so just let me know because some listen some of you there's been times that i've corrected people or i've had to deal with a problem and people have gotten offended and marlene's going yeah and that's okay i understand that it's gonna happen but just always know it's because i want to help you i'm not trying to hurt you never trying to hurt you i don't want to hurt you i really don't people think i mean the ball head the goatee intimidates some people like
your friend there's always that possibility [Laughter] always that possibility but just know you can run but you can't hide i know alabama pretty well i'll find you just know i love you guys and i want everyone here to be healed of their wounds to be delivered to become strong or stronger you may already be strong christian but to be stronger i want every one of you to make it and endure to the end and be in heaven when it's all said and done that's what i want it's what i long for is what i desire not your harm not here to beat you up i want you to make it there and that's why i get so sometimes i i have to you know i vent to my wife sometimes because i get frustrated when i see people not doing well because first of all i start feeling like i'm a failure like i failed you in some way but then i just want people to make it i want people to be strong i want people to make it to heaven more than anything else but to be able to to live free in this life healed in this life somewhat you know we may never be 100 until jesus comes or we go to be with him but i'm just saying you can be healed you can't be delivered you can get strong you can overcome wounds offenses sins that seem to be habits you can if you want to and there's people that help you and that's what i'm saying we we should be helping we got to help each other amen let's pray lord i thank you for this church i thank you for everyone here those that we have some absent today the lord i thank you for this church this local church fire and grace church and i ask you to bless and touch each and every one lord i pray that we can all begin to be like the good samaritan to each other and pour in oil and wine to bring healing to wounds and deliverance to strongholds and yes correction if need be correction i pray those listening those kind of our extended church that listen regularly
and god that you bring healing and deliverance and truth and strength into their lives to set them free so that they can be christians who endure to the end who overcome satan in this world a lot of there's a lot of obstacles there's a lot of warfare there's a lot of things we have to fight through to endure to the end and i pray god we will all do that and help each other make it you know one of the things when i pray that jesus name i don't say this one of the things that touched my heart more than anything else and listen to me for a minute here on this on october 2nd 2010 my mom passed away that was a tough day for me most of you in this room don't know how that feel some of you do it was a hard day and that was on a saturday that year and we were in between we were having our break our the fire and grace church break period that we had for a little while and we went to a church in lagrange uh heart of worship pastor steve evans church we went there just for i don't know how i managed because i basically cried on and off most of the day saturday i can't explain to you how emotionally draining and horrible that day was just trying to wrap my mind around it it took a couple of years before i wouldn't reach for the phone to call her and then realize she's not here but here's what's powerful and listen to me the next day was sunday morning and i i'm glad thank you god that it would have been easy to not get up and go to church that morning it would have been real easy and especially drive to lagrange to go to church but we got up and got ready and said no i'm going to church today and so we got everybody ready and we went to church and i was sitting in the back and i could just you know barely hold myself together because even talking about now it's kind of hard to even hold back the tears but i remember i was like nope i know my mom was ready i know she was walking with jesus and she had drawn closer to the lord even in the in the in the months and the year
leading up to when she passed away she had gotten closer to god even than she was maybe she knew in her heart but the music started and i can't tell you what song it was i just started worshiping god and immediately i was in the spirit and and my eyes were closed but i saw a vision as clear as i've ever seen a vision in my life and i saw my mom standing beside jesus in heaven both with white robes on it was crystal clear the presence of god was overwhelming me the peace of god and the presence of god was just overwhelming me and the tears were streaming down my face and i heard jesus say these words to me as clear as i've ever heard him in my life and he said thank you for helping one of my children find their way home and the flash in my mind went back to the day in december of 1987 that i led my mom to jesus in prayer and she was saved she was born again on that day after we had a terrible fight in confrontation the night before not me fighting her she just the demons and everything else just blew up at me and my brother because we were christians but when i heard those words i realized how how jesus looks at it help someone make it there at that moment for there was just one a moment that it wasn't my mom anymore it was just another human being a child of god a person that that god loved in so long and wanted to get to heaven and the fact that he would tell me that i had a part in helping her get there just happened to be my mom there's nothing like that and i think that's why there's going to be so much joy in heaven or why even now there's joy in heaven over one center that repents but i think when we get to heaven what's going to be our greatest joy besides being with jesus face to face our creator and our god seeing him face to face your greatest joy then is going to be turn around and find out who you helped to get there help somebody