A Practical Approach To The Theology Of Suffering (Aeronova Retreat 2023) - Dick Dungan (Part 1)

​Dick Duncan shares his personal journey of following God for 48 years, experiencing pain and suffering along the way. His journey of personal suffering and healing as well as walking with others during suffering gives an inspiring and revelatory view of the theology of suffering.
This series of teachings is recorded live from The Retreat by AeroNova 2023. To find out more about how to attend the annual Retreat visit theretreat.aeronova.org. 

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Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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I just want to say that Dick has been truly a spiritual father to me from afar for the first few years, but we met many of you know, we met in Russia. We were coordinated and connected. And he was my roommate. I was his roommate, planting churches 30 years ago next month. And we were in the middle of a great, great revival. Yeah, 1000s of people coming to Christ. And it was a warzone that Russia was on the brink of revolution. And the communists in parliament were attacking the President and the President ordered tanks to come in and fire into the parliament building and arrest the communists that were in the parliament rest. It's like arresting half of Congress, if you can imagine. And it was CIT tanks and checkpoints, and we had guys, Russian soldiers with Uzis, breaking down doors next to us in the hotel. It was high adventure. But in the midst of that, God was moving. And three churches, big churches, really beautiful churches were birthed out of that so quickly, as 1000s of people were coming to the Lord, and we were preaching three times a day. And I mean, can you believe that? I mean, just three times a day, and you'd preach and 1000s of people would come to Christ, and you just, and they've just kept happening. And they're in that crucible, God began to bond our hearts together as roommates. And Dick has just become truly him and Mary, spiritual father and mother to us. And so you guys know, my heart. One of the things that's so important to me is to honor our spiritual fathers and mothers. And, God, it's in my heart to always give you guys as much space as you need to share and pour into us. Because we're very mindful. I mean, we, we have close friends, and you're going to be talking about some of them today, spiritual fathers who poured into our lives, and they're on the other side of the veil right now. And I promise you, they can hear everything we're saying, and their hearts are with us and what's happening here. But we want to receive all that we can while you're still with us. And so I just asked Dick calm. We don't even ask him to speak on the topic or the theme. There's nothing, we just say, please come and speak as long as you like. So we may not get lunch. And you know, I got a feeling if that's the case, we still won't be hungry, because we'll be fed in the Spirit. And we got snacks over there. So. But if we need to come back after lunch, and do more, we will do it. But, brother, just take your liberty in the Lord. Thank you so much for everything. And we love you. I love you. I have pretty well figured out that I may not get to the message based on what's happened the last day and a half. And what I've heard God say through the messages that have already been spoken, I was wrestling actually wrestling with okay, how do I acknowledge the reality of the powerful truths that have already been spoken? Riley, I don't know where you are. Hi, Larry, are right there. Wow. I just so appreciate the spirit of boldness, that you had to communicate your heart and what God has revealed to you and shown you and the way you develop the sensitivity to the Lord, and the way you respond to the Lord and your vulnerability there. And so thank you for that. And, and brother, just I'm going to be vulnerable today. As a reminder as our team, they know a lot of our story, but even they don't know all of my story and I'm gonna probably share some of that. Chad and Brooks, five sons, I've communicated with them. David and Jennifer's, you know, I just that I love the younger generation because they're facing things that we never faced and we got to be in the battle with them. And I can't tell you how many young people have have shared their heart with me and Colin and I've had some good good discussions via text and maybe a phone time or two, but it's been awesome. Now here is a region University and wow, thank you for singing that song. I definitely want to hear it again. So who have I missed? Because Oh, there you are, Tyler. Last night he spoke about God wanting to bring the chaos into order. I spoke to Mary and I's heart and to chat and Brooks heart, and we prayed for our kids. And we have a grandson who's not walking with the Lord. And, and yet he's been introduced to the Lord, He's prayed to receive Christ, but he's just made some decisions. And so we just started praying over our grandkids, that God would bring chaos. I love that word. I'm going to carry that with me. God wants to bring chaos into order. And then I gotta get back to Mike. Because you heard him tell about how beautiful Hawaii is. And I agree, it is beautiful. And actually, Mary and I did the writing of the the editing the final editing of the core values book we did at their place in Hawaii. In 17, I think it was or what it was, and, and wrote in the personal processing questions in the small group discussion questions. And then the ingredient I along with our friend Timothy Metcalf did a video series and couldn't believe it is a little video series together trying to put it together to help people understand how important it is to have foundational internal core values that are based on the Bible on the Word of God. Scripture, the word so. So anyway, I wanted to share in light of Mike's encouraging word about a Hawaii We're just a couple of weeks ago, we had the privilege of having one of our grandsons of little nine year old girl that he's kind of become a surrogate father to for the last seven years and she came to visit us with him. And we went out into our backyard. And she found a little grasshopper. She's nine years old, and she lives in the city where there's not much green. And we are blessed with a big backyard. One year our backyard is gone. It's a cornfield. And the other year it's a bean field. Okay, in fact, Lucy had a vision of it long before she ever knew us, or really knew where we lived. And God showed her where we lived in a vision, which is really amazing. So I had a wonderful afternoon with this little nine year old Sophia. And she took me all over our backyard, she found this little grasshopper and it jumped on her little finger and she was fascinated with God's creation. And then she went into our garden, and she started picking our tomatoes and picking our cucumbers. She wanted to go pick our jalapeno peppers, but I couldn't let her pick those because they're for a special thing. So I think she did pick four or five before I caught her. But God's creation is everywhere. Whether it's in Hawaii, mountains of Colorado, the cornfields of Nebraska or backyard you know, we're so blessed. And it's interesting that we would have this subject this year because last fall we have a we have an autumn Blaze maple. How many of you know the color in the fall of an autumn Blaze maple. And maybe it's just because because I'm an official octogenarian now. Anybody know? You know what that is? an octogenarian? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, we have good friends that love Mary nice so much that they bought us t shirts that say octogenarian on us. So if we look in the mirror, we won't forget how old we are. But last fall, I was walking across to the mail, get the mail and I looked down and I saw one of the autumn Blaze Maple Leafs and it was brilliant. Read it And I stooped down and I picked it up. And it was like, perfect. There wasn't a hole in it. And I started, I'm just, I'm just stopped in my yard. And I started worshiping. Because that leaf was so beautiful, with all the little veins in it, and the color and the brilliance of it, that it brought me to a place of worship almost instantaneously. So, enjoy, the theme is so good for us to take that time to, we're fortunate, we can go out on our back deck and look at our corn field, or our bean field, or in the winter, I have some beautiful pictures of snow, you know, because sometimes we get snow there too. And it's beautiful. And my friends in Texas, I send them pictures all the time and say Eat your heart out folks. You know, but they write back and say, well, actually, we're grateful that we're not there. But we miss you know, it's a very kind of, so I want to pause for a minute and pray. And I think we will get into the message in what trust the Lord started this about four or five months ago when I just started hearing, theology of suffering. I started hearing that word. And I've learned over the years when the Lord re peed something to me periodically over a period of time he's trying to say something to me. So after the third or fourth time, I said, Lord, what are you? What are you saying? And it was like the Spirit of God just spoke into my spirit and said, I want you to understand my perspective on suffering. Okay, Lord. So it wasn't long after that I visited with a rod and I just told him what was kind of going on. We had a little board meeting and for our ANOVA and, and everybody seemed to agree that maybe that would be something that God wanted me to speak about. And so I've been on a journey. And I have a file about that thick right now that's full of my notes. And, and there's no way I can share it all with you. Yes, I just made on that journey of trying to understand it myself in a better way. And then I've tried to condense it down. I was hoping I would have kind of a final draft that I could maybe make available. But that's going to have to happen after I edit for a little more, because right now I have a lot of other notes that aren't down on the computer yet. Excuse me. So it was said earlier, and I can't remember if it was rod or Mike but information will change what you think. What revelation will change what you believe in how you live. And it's been my heart and my journey for years, to be able to walk in Revelation did be able to really hear what the Lord is saying to me in my inner man, so that I can come here to him and say, Lord, what is it that you're wanting me to grow in my understanding of so that I can apply it to my life, I did hear Mike say something about, he's a practitioner, he kind of stole my line because I've often thought of myself as a practitioner. Now, I want you to know, I surround myself with people that are well learned in the scriptures. Rod has a doctorate degree, Grady has several degrees. I've been mentored by individuals that have degrees. But all of those men that I've been drawn to have understood the value of hearing the Holy Spirit, and letting the Holy Spirit take the word and bring transformation in their lives. Some of those aren't with us anymore. And in fact, since last December, Mary and I have lost now six individuals that have been close in relationship to us over these last 40 or so years. And while we've been here I've kind of reflected on them being a part of that great cloud of witnesses. So I want to share what Brother Doug White would be saying to me, when I enter into heaven with him someday, when that day is calling because this is what he did. When he was pastoring, the church that I went to Bible school at in 1990, and 91, I would walk by his office, and he always left his door open unless he was in a meeting, and his desk face the door. And so I would walk by his office, and he would see me and he'd say, beloved, you come here, and tell me what God's been saying to you. I believe that's what he'll say to me when I get there. So another guy named Jim Hilton, he was one of them, just what was the Lord? Back in the 80s, when I went through a very, very difficult time of my life, and went to a meeting thanks to brother David Schoening, right here, who had moved to Texas and went to a church called Lake Country Baptist Church. And a guy by the name of Jim Hilton, Pastor Jim Hilton. walked with the Lord intimately. And he got done preaching on a Thursday night. And I couldn't tell you what he preached about. But he got done preaching Nene, lean forward on the pulpit, and he said, well, the Lord's here. And he's told me that there's a pastor here that's been deeply wounded by a church split. And a field let him God Oh, healing tonight. And I knew that was me. He's up there now. He's a part of that cloud. And there's more. But we won't have lunch, if I tell you more. So we'll have to get on. So that's my prayer. Father, I thank you right now. I thank you for the beautiful presence of your Holy Spirit. That is in our midst today. The way you have hovered over us, the way you've been speaking, and our hearts, our spirits, Lord, we say thank you for that. I pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of who you really are and who you've created us to be. And I trust you to take what I've tried to put together. What I've sensed, you've given to me. And I asked now that you would speak. I thank you Holy Spirit, that you can speak to a group group of 50 people or 5000 people with no confusion, address, every need that is needed. Thank you for that. And I trust you that you're going to do that today. As we wrap up our time together in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. We're close to the introduction. You know, doesn't seem to matter how long I speak how long I've been walking with God. I still get nervous when I stand up in front of people. You know, it's interesting. I had a high school teacher Her name was Mrs. Mon Sagar. And I was a small kid in school, I weighed just a little over 100 pounds. And, you know, I wasn't very confident and with this, this teacher when I I went to her her class, her English and speech class. And she wasn't much better than my wife, Mary. But she called me up. She called me up higher, you know? And put something within me that told me that. Yeah, you can. You can communicate. And I'm so grateful because really, she went home to be with the Lord. We have someone from our school where I graduated that keeps you posted when people pass into eternity and they listed her her daughters. And so I wrote both of her daughters. You know, gratitude is the entrance to fullness of life. If no, gratitude is a enters the fullness of life. And so I wrote both of her daughters and I said, this is what your mother did for me. And I just want you to know that because she invested in me, I've had the privilege to go wander around the world and preach the gospel. Before many people, multitudes, and nations, it was such just a sense of fulfillment to let those two daughters know that their mother, a school teacher, had an impact. So I'm going to share literally, it was a word from the Lord, I got back in 1987. I had been involved in a church lit tragically, I was the one that led it. And the Lord saw fit to take me to the desert for about three years, and bring prophetic individuals into my life, to speak correction in a my life. One of them was our brother Raz Robinson, who just went home to be with the Lord as well. And I'm forever grateful for that. But as a result of going through that split for his split, church, split, scuze, me and December the seventh of 1919 84. I ended up leading a small gathering of people, I often tell people, I'm the only person pastor that's grown at church from 90 to about 35, in a little over a year. Because as God took me through the desert experience, and revealed truths to me and what he was doing in my life, I started sharing it with those that had followed me out. And they didn't like what I had to say. And so some of those, we had some blessings. subtractions, you know, that decided that they didn't go, they didn't want to be there anymore. But it's during that time, the LORD laid on my heart, Psalm 133, that says, Behold, how good and pleasant it is, when brother and dwell together in unity, it's as the oil coming down upon Aaron's head down upon its beard down upon the hem of His garment. It says, the dual of Herman coming down upon Mount Zion, that there I commend my blessing, even life evermore. So that'd become my daily prayer, to see unity come because God was taking me through brokenness. One time with my face in the carpet. I was crying out to the Lord, because he brought such conviction and in my heart for my arrogance, and my pride and my rebellion, and all this stuff that was in my, in me, you know, and the carpet one morning, about this time, I was crying out the Lord and I made this statement. I said, Lord, either fix me or kill me. Because I really don't want to live like this anymore. You know, the Lord's got a beautiful sense of humor. You know what he said to me? He said, They will kill your son, if kill you. Because actually, what I said was this, Lord, that's, he said, I will hug you. Yeah. And I said, Yeah, they'll, they'll kill your son. I said, Lord, that sounds like That'll hurt a lot. He said, Yeah, I said, I'm going to pour you out like a drink offering. And when I get done, there'll be nothing left me. And he's still doing that. Because there's still too much for me left. You know, but when he does it, there's a different response. Now, there's a heart of gratitude. So in the midst of this, I'm praying, Psalm 133. And, and John 17, which I believe is kind of, to me the real Lord's Prayer, you know, because he's praying for you and I, and, and so I'm praying that daily and one morning at five o'clock, I was going down to the office, which is in downtown Norfolk, downtown, only 25,000 people and not a big town. So it's it's pretty quiet at five o'clock in the morning. And so I park in the parking lot across from my office, and there's no other cars there yet. And I get out of the car and I close the door and I heard the word persecution. What Lord, persecution. I said, I don't understand Lord. And our Lord say to me, that's the answer to your prayer. I said Lord helped me as I walked to the office, I said, Lord helped me understand that. And the Lord said, there will only be unity in my body, when they recognize they need one another. Right now, the church doesn't recognize they need one another, but persecution will bring it. Little did I know that God had an assignment for me to go to China 40 times. And now agree and Sandy have outrun me, they've went there between 40 and 50, probably somewhere. But that was a part of the journey. So as I've been preparing for this, interesting, I shared it with David when they were still in Germany, back in March, or April, or May, April or May, before you came back. And David said, Are you kidding me? Persecution, he said, I've done a study about that. I said, Send me what you've done. And he sent me about four or five pages of just scripture that talks about persecution, four or five, scripture, four or five pages of scripture that just talk about persecution, you know, that he had went through. So I'm gonna read a couple of verses this morning. And then we're going to take a pause. I'm just going to read a verse, and pause. And I'm asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us about what he wants to say, if you got to Notepad, aveanna, whatever, you can do it. But I'm trusting God's going to speak to you just as an introduction, as I read, just a couple, three of these verses, parts of them, to lay the foundation for God's perspective. Because what I heard was his theology of suffering. But when the Lord started working this out in me, what I've, if I've titled The message is the message would be a practical approach to the theology of suffering. So what I want to hopefully be able to do is share with you what 40 almost 48 years of following the Lord has shown me in my journey as we've walked through these things of pain and suffering. So I'm going to read this verse at a part of it. And then just take a pause. And let the Holy Spirit speak to you. Matthew five, starting verse 10, it says, God blesses those who are persecuted, for doing right. For the kingdom of heaven, is theirs. As Matthew 510 God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the kingdom of heaven is there those are the words of Jesus. Now, I'm going to share the word the Paul only part of a scripture but it's taken out of Romans eight verses 12 through 19. And it says this, but if we are to share His glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal later. But if wieder share are to share His glory we must also share his suffering. Yet what we share now is nothing compared to the glory He will reveal to us. Out of Philippians 129 For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him From the apostle Peter, First Peter four, verse one. So then, since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with sin First Peter four verse one. So then since Christ suffered physical pain, you must arm yourselves with the same attitude he had, and be ready to suffer too. For if you have suffered physically for Christ, you have finished with pain. Time doesn't allow for us to share what you heard. What I encourage you maybe this afternoon or as we go throughout, you know, you know, have a chance to share with one another and then also ask the question, Lord, why did you give me this after that scripture was read. I've often found when people are suffering and going through hard times, they ask the wrong question. The question they usually ask is why me? That's the wrong question. The right question is, Lord, what are you trying to show me? What are you trying to say to me? Between now and the time we close, I want to kind of just give you a brief overview, I want to go through some realities of suffering. Then my hope is to identify the battleground that we're we find ourselves suffering in and then also the identify the enemies that we have to recognize in our life. And then by God's grace, I want to move as to an eternal perspective as we close our time together but as I get into this, I want to share a little bit of my journey. 1972 My life was in a very, very dark place. During those years, I was gambling, drinking immoral. And one night after coming out of a all night gambling joint St. Paul, Minnesota, passed out on the sidewalk while walking to my car 20 below zero. You know, God's good. He sent a policeman by there was a security guard at this Sears store where I worked as an Allstate agent, probably within seconds after I passed out. And he found me he was on patrol during the night in this large city of a half a million people in St. Minute St. Paul, Minnesota, and God brought him by that street. And he only took me on November 30 1973, we're in Dallas. And I'm struggling with issues of life. Again, got drunk and passed out at the wheel drunk and drove underneath a semi tractor trailer rig in Dallas and they took me to the hospital and I had internal injuries and they opened me up so I have I don't have a zipper but I do have a large scar here to here where they they put me back together and you Gotta had a plan that I wasn't wasn't time yet for me to go. And but I made a deal with God at that time, if you ever made a deal with God calling you the only one I know I made the deal if you get me out of your God, you know, I'll, I'll get my life right, you know? Well, six months later I was out drinking again, come out of a bar. And as I was about to open up the door of my rent brand new Buick Electra, all the sound systems that you can get, you know, and all the luxuries in a nice car can have. And a guy stuck a gun in my ribs, and held me hostage all night long. And stole the car. What I've discovered and I realized that God's not a respecter of persons, I mean, just that he knew I was a mess. You know. And so he knew it was going to take a lot to get me to the end of myself. And he's been trying to kill me for a long time. And I've had melanoma in my head and a few other things, you know. But God has a plan. And he has a plan for everyone have you planned for these young people here. I so appreciate your work last night, to the younger generation. That's got a plan. So let's move on. I'm so grateful to be alive. I put my little bride through hell for 13 years. And God delivered me and set me free. You know, he who has been forgiven much loves much. Sometimes you can measure by how much you love by how much you realize you've been forgiven. If you're not walking in the revelation of how much you've been forgiven, it's hard for you to love people. You know, Mary, and I'll celebrate 61 short years, in March 61. You know, I tell her all the time and seems just like yesterday, and she says well, maybe little longer. She's a realist. She's a realist. I'm a dreamer. You know, really, so? Okay, we're gonna look at the realities of suffering. All my lands? All my lands. Wow. Okay, I'll try to go as far as I can go. Hopefully we get through it. I hate to rush. It rush. First reality of suffering is this, walk through these because you'll recognize them I'll walk through them quicker than I probably would otherwise. Okay. The first one is is mankind you and I will experience suffering because of the fallen nature of man. Reality is you and I were conceived in to see him. Often. When I have young people, young men especially come to me, they're dealing with different issues in life. I asked him, How much do you know what you've been forgiven for? And often they'll say, Well, I've been forgiven for my sin, you know? And say, Yeah, that's true. But I said, let's go back to what God said about what you've been forgiven for back in Exodus 34. Because years ago, I probably shared this with you at some point in time, way back, who knows? But with a lot of young guys, I've shared this Do you realize or you're walking into Revelation, what you really been forgiven for? Well, sin is a common thing come to Christ, your sins will be forgiven. But that's not what it says. Or all it says in Exodus 34. It says, After Moses wants to see him face to face, you all know the story, you can't do that I'm gonna put you in the cleft of the rock, which is a prophetic word and put you in Christ. Okay, want to put you over here and now I'm gonna let my goodness pass before you. So he did that. And then he goes on to say, he says, You've been forgiven your iniquity. You've been forgiven your transgression, and you've been forgiven sin. So probably 30 more years ago, I said, Lord, why do you have you in here three different things that we've been forgiven for. When I know I've been forgiven for my sin. But all of a sudden, I'm seeing something different. And so I did a word study and just the Sunnah, opposite of that is this iniquity is the twisted evil nature that you inherited from Adam. Okay? That's why it says in Scripture when we behold him were changed from glory to glory, we receive a spiritual adjustment. Have you ever been to a chiropractor and they straighten out your spine? Okay? So things work in your body. Well, that's what happens with iniquity is broken off of you and I, when we behold Him, and we hold his word, we get a spiritual adjustment. And liquid is broken. He forgives that we didn't ask for we inherited, He forgives our rebellion. That's what transgression is. And we've all been born with that nature we inherited from mom and dad, they didn't know they gave it to us. But they gave it to us anyway, you know, because they inherited from their parents, okay. And that's that desire to be your own God to be your own boss. But he says he forgives that as well. But on this journey of faith and obedience, God has to reveal to us those places those hidden places in our heart, where we're still trying to be your own God. Or we're still trying to run our own life. So that's the reality, the rain falls on the just and the unjust like I should. I could share story after story after story of individuals that I know that are going through painful experiences, I'll share one. As I've gotten older, I get the privilege of doing a lot of weddings, I do an average of two weddings a year of young people that I've known since they were born. And last year, I did a wedding for a young couple that are absolutely in love with Jesus. But they discovered that on this young lady's pancreas, and on her liver, she has lesions, malignant cancerous lesions. And they're they've been married just over a year. Now their life is before. We love those kids so much. And we don't know how short term life we're praying for a miracle. We're crying out. There's a large community just like we've been praying. There's a large community that has been praying for this couple. Because we love them and we love their family. But we don't know. Only God does. But we're not going to give up. We're not going to give up. So the rain falls on the just and the unjust alike, and you know, stories, you know, people, my brother Grady, and I'm not this. I love this guy so much. We walked together for 30 years now. And they just got back from Guatemala. They leave next month for Bolivia. They've been in, in Brazil. We've went to China together many times. And he's been battling cancer. It's not curable. And yet he keeps going, he doesn't quit. He doesn't give up. And he just keeps pressing through. He knows perseverance and it's a battle. And he didn't ask for that. Did ya? Didn't ask for that. And his pressures made Sandy has walked with Him through these times. But it falls on Justin and just like Secondly, mankind we mankind will experience suffering because of our personal rebellion. Our irresponsibility, our carnal lifestyle, that is reflected in how we participate and follow worldly and fleshly desires. And we will also suffer when people we love suffer. Our daughter went through a horrible divorce in 2003, which is against everything that Mary and I stand for. And during those years, we walked through that pain with her. And we have some amazing stories that God's done as a result of just walking through that. She was going through that and I went to the Lord and cried out to the Lord and said, Lord, what do I do? You know, we've offered to help. We've tried to do everything we can. Both her husband and herself were at the end of it. And they go through this devastating divorce. Lord spoke this word to me. He said whatever you do, don't reject your daughter. And then he said, You've done a lot of things that I've done It's agreed with, and I've never rejected you. That's a word by the way. So we've seen healing, we've seen amazing things happen, our daughter got remarried. Now we have three more beautiful grandchildren. We love him and enjoy him so much. And when we have our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, guess who shows up at our table? Our daughter's first husband, because of her two children that are there with us. And our daughter's second husband, with their three children. And we have 18 to 20 people around our table, celebrating life together. Oh, little sidenote. Her husband now is the older brother of her first husband. So that's an interesting adventure. God's got to say to humor. What we're finding that God's at work and that as we persevere, no give up. Oh, there's so much more I can share with that. Third thing mankind will experience suffering when we choose to follow Jesus Christ, in obedience to the calling of God on our life, when we choose to obey the scriptures, led by the Holy Spirit, Satan, and his demonic forces will be released in assignment against us. And one of the things I've, I've learned regarding these realities, realities, is that the enemy will do anything he can to distract us and destroy us. But the reality is, that if we, if we choose to set aside that old nature, and follow Christ, and we choose not to be controlled by the things of this world, then that Satan unlike it, the demons of hell will be assigned against us. And we've experienced that, you know, talking about persecution, I had no experience in persecution, really, in reality, until I took a team smuggling Bibles into China in 1996. We ended up in the city of Ciuffo, China, which is the home of Confucius, birthplace of Confucius, we're there, we're in a hotel with our team. And we're meeting with Chinese brothers and sisters. And as we sit there in that meeting, there's two sisters, one who had just got out of prison. And then her sister who is, you know, it's amazing in China for years, they train these young people up 15 1617 years old, and then send them out to buy to have to plant churches throughout China. I mean, that's reality, okay. And so we're setting its room with these two Chinese ladies, young women, ones names harmony, and I can't remember the other one, or English name. And then we're setting there with a brother, two brothers, one of which was also in prison with an individual that is referred to now by the book called the heavenly man. And I can't remember but this was a room, a jail, made his prison bait, okay. And we're sitting there listening to them tell their stories. And the presence of God was arresting on these individuals. There was an ounce of bitterness, not an ounce. They're sharing their story of what they went through in prison. And the radiant presence of God, the glory of God was resting on their faces. And they were actually expressing gratitude that they had the privilege to suffer for Christ. That's only my second or third trip to China by that time. And I it's kind of new to me. You know, I had heard stories. I had read the Foxes Book of Martyrs. You know, back when I was told I should read it early in my life, my faith. You know what this was real. I went back to my room and lay down on my bed. China has hard beds. These are nice here compared to China beds. I lay down on the bed and I said, Lord, I don't have a clue. I just was weeping before the Lord. I don't have a clue. And the Lord said down second, Peter A Second Peter four. We don't have time to go through that. But let me tell you what it says there. Second, Peter four says this. While I read the one verse, it says that you're done with sin when you've been persecuted versus okay? Then you go on in that chapter, and it says two things. You said, when you've been persecuted for my sake, then you're filled with joy. And I just seen it the other room. And then the next thing it says, and the glory of God rests on you. And the glory of God was resting on them. We don't understand. That's reality. Okay. So we may make some progress. I don't know. We'll see. I knew I was in danger. Okay. So next thing recognizing the battleground, I'm going to walk through these, I'm not going to be able to cover it all. If you desire a manuscript on this, I'm going to get back and re edit it. And we can make that available. But there's a lot of Scripture I've got blocked far more than I can cover right now. Okay. But recognizing the battleground is suffering. So we want to clearly recognize it battleground. And we want to clearly recognize our enemy, because we have real enemies. And they're odd bedfellows because they work together in mysterious ways. And you can't always figure him out. And so you have to be able to have the Holy Spirit working in you and be in community where you can have discernment of what's going on in someone's life. So I'm going to take something from the spirit filled life Study Bible, anybody in the room have what they call the king, New King James, spirit filled life today, Bible powerful, powerful Bible that I've used for 30 years, I use other references now, but that's kind of a foundation, because it has in there, that thing called Word wealth. So you can look in the index and or in the beginning, it's at the index in the beginning, whatever that is in the front, you look there and look at keywords throughout scripture, and it'll direct you directly to the verse, and then the definition. So I'm going to share those with you briefly. Okay, so we can move forward. Okay. So the first enemy we have, we got to recognize the battleground is in the world, the flesh and the devil. We have, that's the battle, that's the territory that we're in all the time, every day. Okay. So the world the first thing, Jesus said, My kingdom is not of this world. If my were my kingdom, where this world my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to Jews to the Jews, but my kingdom is not from here. That's John 1836. And it says, in John 1528, or 18 1518, says, If the world hates you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore, the world hates you. How many of us have ever thought, well, the world really hates me, we got a whole world of that word, there is the word Cosmos snot. athanassios. It's not nations that go into the all nations and preach the gospel, it's a different word for world. This one is cosmos. And this is a kind of the short definition of it. Okay? The world system alienated from an opposed to God, you and I were born into a world system that is alienated from and opposed to God. Back when God got a hold of Mary and I got a hold of our hearts, because of bad decisions I've made. We were deeply in debt. And I started opening the word and it said, Oh, no man, nothing but love a borrower becomes a slave to the lender. The story is in our core values a book. But that's where we established our first core value that we would live the rest of our life on. And that core value is we would not allow the world system to control our decisions in life as a written core value that we wrote it up. But instead, we would trust God for a provision. She wrote out the first Well, we went on, we went on a Cash System, literally went on a Cash System $50 a week for groceries right on for the family of five. It was an interesting journey. And But eight years later, in March of 1987, Mary wrote out the last chapter oh no man, nothing but love. Because it was a core value we established we were not going to let a World allow a world system to control us. And took us eight years of discipline every month writing out a check to pay off a bill. Okay. And since that time 1987, we've lived totally debt free. I've went around the world, trying to respond to God's calling, I've never paid for a trip yet. God is paid for a month. We had a man go to China with us in 1997. A year later, he was a chaplain, a voluntary chaplain at a mission. And he come with a bunch of teenagers smuggling Bibles. And I thought to myself, I can't put him with a bunch of teenagers. So I guess he better room with me. So he and I became roommates. God spoke to him after that first trip, that he was to pay for every airline ticket that Mary and I ever needed to go to China. And over the next few years, he donated between 60 and $70,000, to our ministry to pay for every one of our trips. And he was a voluntary chaplain at the mission, the homeless mission. But God bless him and called him, okay. The world there's a lot more scriptures on 1633 says in the world, you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world. key verse here for the world. First, John 215 to 17. I'm not going to read it all. But that's for your notes. Do not love the world, or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is a naughty name. So I started praying over that and asking the Lord start looking up words, and it's interesting the word love there. I thought to myself, well, that's gonna be E. Ross, that's going to be love with the hook candidate or something like that. You know, what I find out the root word of it is actually a god plan. You know? And what the Lord told me when I said, Lord, why is that? The Lord spoke to me, he said, read it like this. Do not or actually like this. Don't give your heart to the world. Don't give your heart to the world. Don't love the world. Don't give your heart to the world. For where your heart there is, or how's that scripture? Go? Yeah. Wow. So what do we do with that? Wow. Okay, only one thing to do with the world, we got to renounce it. We got to renounce the ways of the world. We're in it, but we're not of it. So we have to renounce it. Okay. So on it, to share a little bit of what that word means. If you look in, look up the word renounce it means this to formally declare one's abandoned enough. So formally declare, I'm not going to be in this world, I'm going to abandon the world. No. It also means this. Reject, refuse to abide by refuse to recognize repudiate, reject, stop using or consuming. Otherwise, don't let the world's things consume you. Here's a quote from one of those devotional devotional classics. It's by my Henry now, and hey, have you read Henry now and Grady has been great. He introduced me to Henry now and as far as the writings are concerned, and wow, I'm a slow learner, but it's powerful. Listen to these words, through a spiritual discipline, we prevent the world from filling our hearts to such an extent that there is no place left to listen. We read again, through a spiritual discipline we prevent the world from filling our lives to such an extent that there is no place left to listen. That's what happens. Well, the flesh, we're gonna cover these three things and then maybe we can if you feel like we need to be down there. I want to honor the dinner schedule. Let's schedule when we come back, we'll continue. If we could, I would love to because I feel like I'm not getting the job done here. Okay, well wrap it up so we can get out of here then by 10 minutes, right? Okay. I'm gonna just cover the world to flesh things out. Well, then I'll come back for the rest of it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay, so flesh. What do we do with a world system? What? We announce it? What's that mean? What? We reject the system. Now, reality is Mary and I still live in the world. You know, we have a house, we have to pay taxes, we have a car, we have to buy gas, we have to do all that stuff. We have one credit card for ministry and one for for personal use. At the end of the month, it's paid off. We create no debt. See, because we don't want that system to control us say, but it took us eight years a discipline to do your tracking with me, you know, so it's never too late to use the words of my friend Steve whose home was the Lord now it's never too late for a fresh start. You can decide today. You don't have to let that control you the flesh. Okay. So, Matthew 2641, Jesus spoke to the three to Peter, James and John. He said, Watch and pray. Less you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak. We all know the Scriptures we're familiar with them. The word wealth in the spiritual life Study Bible King New King James birthday Version says this. It's it's what they The Greek word is sark's, spelled, sar X pronounced SAR que es sark's. Okay, so it's literally means this sark's is the lower nature of the person, the seat and vehicle of sinful desires. So it's sark's as the lower nature of the person, the lower nature that we all inherited back of the person and it's the seat or the vehicle of sinful desires. Okay, just going to share a couple of verses with you on this Romans 725, the apostle Paul, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh, sir, the law of sin is that old nature sin a lot more verses here, and we're not going to be able to go through them. But I want to take you to Galatians Galatians 516 says this, but I say walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, the desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And then down in Galatians 519, it says, Now the works of the flesh are evident. And it goes on to say, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, rather revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you, in times past, that those who practice these such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. You know, wow, wow. I mean, I'm sharing verses with us today that are not on our refrigerators. I mean, how many times you've been in a, in a Christian bookstore and found these verses on your refrigerator? Again? No, no, because they're not the verses we want to hear. But if we're going to do what God's called us to do, we've got to hear these verses. Okay? I mean, one of my favorite says, I love Galatians, But collations 220. I've been crucified with Christ. And it's no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and the life I now live in this flesh. I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. And then it goes on to say, But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world world has been crucified to me and me as a world. You know, understanding what Paul's saying, the only way we deal with the flashes by Crucifying the flesh that's the only way. You can't. You can't crucify the world. And you can't cast out the flesh. Say, you got to renounce the world. You got to crucify the flesh. And then you got to say that till right now, okay. The third word satan, okay. So the world, the flesh and the devil, okay? And the word wealth there is this and I love it and we'll get to the victory and then we'll get out of here and go down to lunch. Okay, and then come back. Because what I got to share with you later is really good. So the word welfare for Satan is honestly say 10 It's pretty difficult. That's a Greek word. Okay? says an opponent. The hater Listen to these words to describe who he is. He's the hater. The accuser, the adversary, the enemy, the one who resists the one who obstructs and the one who hinders whatever is good. That's our enemy. He doesn't like us, he wants to kill us. Okay, that's what he wants to do. I'm going to save the rest of this to kind of connect us together to the next phase. Okay? Because it's too critical. Father, thank you. Thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank you for our brother sharing yesterday that we overcome by the blood of the lamb by the word of our testimony, by not loving our lives and to death. Jesus name, amen. Thank you for joining us today. Aaron ova is raising up spiritual leaders in many nations through our spiritual enrichment events, syndicated net cast international prayer Council network, and numerous international seminary scholarships. 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