Fight Ready

Speaker 1: 0:02

And I'm so honored to be here today. I was praying all week for you guys, like what do you want to say to local vineyard father? And I believe God has gave me a word for somebody today, even if it's just one, because Jesus goes for the one. Come on, somebody. I want to go. I want to read out Ephesians 611 through 12, and that's how I'm going to start my message today. If I can just pull up this Bible up real quick and you can go ahead and pull out your Bible. You have the paper back or the app and you can follow along here. It's just a quick read.

Speaker 1: 0:36

Ephesians 611 through 12 says and Paul was writing this letter to the church in Ephesus and he says Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. The devil's scheme in y'all, and he's trying to get you. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, it's not against your spouse, it's not against your child or your grandchildren, it's not against that crazy coworker you can't stand, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms and I'm not talking about Star Wars, right there. Stay with me real quick, father. I just thank you for your presence here, lord. Without your spirit, I'm just words. And Lord, nothing is received, and after lunch everyone forgets about it. So I ask for your presence here right now to speak into the hearts of people that need you today. So we just say thank you in advance for what you're about to do in Jesus' name. Everybody said amen, amen.

Speaker 1: 1:52

So back in college I got into mixed martial arts with a friend inviting me to the gym and he said, hey, you should check out this gym I'm going to, it's a great workout. And I said, yeah, sure, no problem at all. And I checked it out and after one class I was like this looks fun. And then eventually I started to compete. You probably see some pictures up here in a minute and I did it for a while while I was in college and young and I'd never been a fighter, believe it or not, never been a fighter.

Speaker 1: 2:21

I try to avoid conflict as much as possible, but I think there's the competition inside me that say you know what? I think I can do this because I'm kind of a competitive person, and so in order to win a fight, I knew that I had to outwork my opponent in preparation for the fight. That means I had to do two a days, and basically what that means is in the morning I would do strength conditioning and then after school because I was going to college at the time I'll go straight to the gym and spar with my teammates and learn some techniques and pushing my body to the breaking point of exhaustion, only training with the best guys in the room that were stronger and more experienced and better than me getting beat up every day. And because I knew, if I put myself through that crazy fight camp, I knew that when I got into the cage I looked at my opponent. I was like he has nothing for me because I already went through hell.

Speaker 1: 3:21

My gem has a saying, and it's a big poster on the wall, and it says hard work beats talent when talent refuses to work hard. So that's why I have to start reminding myself every day. That's why you have to start reminding yourself every day that you are a child of God, that he has forgiven you, he has forgiven me, and that I am loved and that I have a purpose. And Jeremiah 29 says for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. So God has a future for all of us.

Speaker 1: 4:05

And what's interesting about that verse in Jeremiah 29, and the reason why I wrote it down, is because at the LGA, like Pastor Jacob mentioned and I did a picture of the LGA old school crew members right there in a second but the thing is I remember I shared a bathroom with two other guys that's another story anyway and I remember every morning I would get ready in the bathroom and that verse, jeremiah 29, was on the wall. So every morning I had no choice but to look at the verse every morning. And I'm going to tell you something that was crazy about God is that he will put you in a place and around certain people for a season, and that verse was just for me during that season at the LGA Love of green lines, by the way and little did I know God was helping me battle the devil lies. When I was reading that verse every morning I brushed my teeth. He was helping me fight the devil. Schemes that saying that Daniel, that God has no purpose for you and you messed up way too much in the past and there's no future and hope for you. Every morning I read that verse and it reminded me that God did have something great for me. But I'll tell you what the devil is a lie. I want you to turn to somebody and say the devil is a lie. Come on somebody. Come on that you have to remind ourselves every day that you are love, that you are treasured by God, that you are a child of God, that you are fearfully and wonderfully made and that you are a brand new creation in Christ.

Speaker 1: 5:43

So how do we train and stay? Fight ready, and that's the title of our message today Fight Ready, point one. Walk with power, walk with power. In order for me to train properly, I had to make sure that I was doing the right techniques, and so that means that when I was at the gym, I had to make sure I submitted to my coach when he would teach me the right techniques in a different positions. In the same way, we have to submit. There's that word again. We have to submit to God daily that knows a little bit more than us. That is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. And the good news is that at the end we already know the story, we already know the victory. But there's already something great.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Pastor Chris Hodges said that your ability to fight the devil is only strong as a relationship with the Lord. In James 4-7, it says submit yourself, then, to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. And this verse it says submit yourself to God. When you do that, then you have the power and strength to resist the enemy, his lies, his schemes, and then from there he has no choice but to flee from you. So when you surrender your life, your plans, your desires, your anger issues, your ministry, your marriage, your relationships here you go, your money. When you submit these things, when you do this, you walk by faith in the power of the Holy Spirit. And my last and final point close the door after you submit. Close the door after you submit. Close any doors in your life that give the enemy access.

Speaker 1: 7:42

During fight camp I would have to cut 15 pounds before weighings and weighings is usually the day before the fight and it would take about two months to cut that 15 pounds and I would only eat chicken and broccoli every day for two months. That means no salt, no sugar, no carbs, no delicious bread from Subway, and it was terrible y'all. I mean you can ask any of my roommates, isaiah or Jacob, back in the day. You don't wanna be around me when I'm cutting weight because I'm so irritable and angry all the time. I'm like Hulk smash type of thing. You know what I mean. I had to close the door. Check this out. I had to close the door to those things to make weight. I had to close the door to that cupcake. I had to close the door to that beer when I'm hanging out with my friends and I'm looking at it in my mouth with slobbering. I had to close the door.

Speaker 1: 8:32

One door I failed to close for a long time as a believer in Christ was unforgiveness. I let the door wide open and I fell into the devil's schemes over and over and over again because I didn't close that door and I couldn't figure out why that. I struggled with pornography for years as a Christ follower. I remember I would cry myself to sleep almost every night and saying God, why do I struggle with this thing as a believer? I thought when I accepted you as a believer that this thing will go away. I thought my past issues and trauma would just go away. But about eight years ago from today, god revealed to me why I struggled with that addiction, why I struggled with that symptom. He said, daniel, there's a root issue, so that's why you have the symptom.

Speaker 1: 9:41

My beautiful wife which is Lodi right there today at the time when we got married, she was living in Italy and so we was living about a year apart in another country because of the whole visa process, and at the time she was going to this church in Italy and they invited her to this international conference. And it kind of worked out perfectly, because I decided to go visit her in Italy and she's like hey, daniel, there's this conference that's coming up, this international conference on the other side of town. You come in town, so we should go check it out. And I was like, okay, what does it call? She was like it's called Supernatural. Now I was like, hmm, what is that Super natural now set up? And first I was suspect and I was like, all right, we'll check it out.

Speaker 1: 10:33

It was a two night conference and so we booked a place to stay in that area and then we went to this conference and when I walked into this door, this huge building like some huge factory building, and there was thousands of people there, over 40 different countries represented in that conference, and I had to wear some like earpiece because they was translating the messages and the only message they spoke was either Spanish or Italian and I didn't understand really either of those and so I had someone speaking English to me. It was one of those type of conferences and it was crazy, but one the second night of that conference it was different speakers and stuff like that worship. It was awesome. But the second night was the night that changed everything for me and I remember, like it was yesterday. It was a teaching pastor on the second night and there was on the stage, just like this, and it was thousands of people and they said there's hundreds of young people here today, young adults.

Speaker 1: 11:35

That is struggling with the symptom and you've been dealing with for a very long time and it's because you have unforgiveness in your heart. And when I heard that, I felt the Holy Spirit just touched me right here and they say I want you guys to come to the front of this altar and it's playing something spiritual like this. I want you to come to this altar right now and I'm gonna walk you through a forgiveness prayer and I promise you God is gonna do something big in your life. And at first I was like I'm not sure about that. And then Lorde encouraged me about shoving me in the middle of the aisle, like this, you know, encouragement shove. And I was like oh, and I went to the front hundreds of people in the front and I was in the back of that group and I just had my hands all like this and I said, okay, god, I expect you to do something. And so they walked me through this prayer, walked everyone through this prayer and basically, long story short, they said I'm gonna go through this prayer and I want you to repeat after me and I want you to say the person's name out loud and say it three times. And right now, go ahead and do it. I forgive Natasha Davis, I forgive Natasha Davis, I forgive Natasha Davis, which is my mom.

Speaker 1: 12:57

And when I did that the third time, something broke in me. I started sobbing and crying and then eventually I started yelling. It was like one of those nasty ugly cries, like slobbering and everything. It wasn't good y'all. And then I fell to my knees and I started crying some more and then eventually I got back on my feet like this, and then when I got up on my feet, I felt like a hundred pound backpack was lifted off my shoulders.

Speaker 1: 13:26

As a believer, for years, since 2006, I never felt something like that in my life and that was the first time that I experienced God's supernatural power in my life. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2, 10 through 11, anyone you forgive, I also forgive, and what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his schemes. The enemy has outwitted me for years as a believer, because I have unforgiveness in my heart towards my own mom, and that's why I struggled. But ever since that conference, when I got on my feet and felt that 100 pound backpack off of my shoulders, I never dealt with that symptom ever since then, and that was because of unforgiveness in my heart that God revealed to me, and as I was talking, I felt the Holy Spirit moving just now, and I already felt Him here when he was worshiping, and I believe that God has revealed to you a name specifically that you've been holding on for way too long, and today's the time to let it go. This is the time and moment to get things right before God, with confession and forgiveness.

Speaker 1: 15:08

And maybe for some of us we are unaware, like I was unaware, because I thought when I accepted Christ I forgiven those who hurt me, those who trespassed against me. But evidently there was still something there. So just ask the Holy Spirit right now to show you that person. Maybe you're unaware of Pray with me Now. As I was talking, I believe the Father dropped the name in your heart. Maybe you was unaware for years, you just put it down and buried it deep inside and you forgot. But something came up and let me tell you, there's pain before the birth and after the birth there's glory, and if that's you, god has revealed that name. I want you to pray this prayer with me, like I did eight years ago, to be freed from a symptom that was haunting me for years.

Speaker 1: 16:13

Lord, I have a confession to make. I haven't loved others well. I have resenting certain people and not forgiving them in my heart. God, I know that you have forgiven me for so much, over and over, and I need your help right now to follow you and to forgive others. So, in faith, I now forgive. You can say that person's name out loud or in your heart. Right now, god knows. You can say that person name again in your heart or out loud. You can say it again, and I also forgive and accept myself because you have made me new in Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.