The Dark Side

Speaker 1: 0:00

So today, guys, let's sit up, let's lean in and hear a message from Pete Stansberry. Come on, give it up for Pete. Woo Woo, yeah, man, it touches your heart. I love the word. I memorize the word all the time. I wanna quote a song. I'm gonna try, anyway. Sometimes I mess up. It's the first song and it starts Blessed is a man.

Speaker 1: 0:24

But you know, that's what the new King James Hurston says and NIV says blessed is the one, you know, because it's just not man. It's women, kids, youths, anybody. But it's blessed is a man who walks not in the council of Mungali, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seats of the scornful, but his desire is in the law of the Lord, and in it does he meditate day and night. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters which brings forth its fruit in its season. Its leaves also shall not wither, but whatever he does shall prosper. With the Mungali, this is not so. They're like the chaff which the wind blows away. Therefore, they shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For God knows the ways of the righteous, but the ways of the ungodly shall perish. Beautiful song.

Speaker 1: 1:09

There's something about memorizing verses that just kind of gets in your heart. I want to speak on another passage today, but this one I haven't memorized yet, but some of it just sticks to your heart. This is out of Matthew 11, verses one through 19. I'm just gonna touch on this and then we'll come back to it in a little bit. But to what shall I liken this generation? It's like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their companions and saying we played the flute for you and you did not dance. We mourned to you and you did not lament. For John came neither eating or drinking, and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say look, a glutton and a wine-beaver, a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but wisdom is justified by her children.

Speaker 1: 1:53

So what I think Jesus is saying is like somebody's playing music but nobody's dancing, you know. Or somebody's grieving but nobody's mourning with them. And it's almost like the Holy Spirit is prompting but nobody's stepping out. God's heart is broken for the person in front of him, but you're not grieving. And on the flip side too, it's like people are pointing at you and saying oh, look what you're doing and they're missing it.

Speaker 1: 2:22

Lord, I just ask for your presence now. I know you're here, god, but just more God. I wanna release maybe some inspiration, some revelation, maybe something that people haven't thought about today. God, I want us all to grow, including myself. You are free to use me anyway you want to. Lord. I know from speaking that things come up that I didn't even plan on and, god, you're more than welcome to do that in this time. Bless the words I'm about to speak and may they bring life and strength and encouragement every year, here today, and your precious name, lord, thank you.

Speaker 1: 2:59

So, as I said, I love learning scriptures. Writing them, I can't. I'm 66 years old, I'm close to retirement, I'm debating I could retire and I'm saving money, because I hate to say this, but I think money is maybe many of our God. You say do I have enough money? God, be secure, you know, instead of just saying God, when's your? You know I wrestle with that. But when I'm saving up money in the bank, I'm also saving up something kind of in my memory banks, which really is what makes me wealthy, and that's learning these scriptures and these verses. I can't explain how rich it is when you know a verse and you're like a passage and you go into time of prayer and you start to quote it and you start to truly pray the word and you just it's just kind of it's just, it's like God is in it. I can't encourage you enough to start not just reading your Bibles but the writing of scripture down and starting to learn it, starting to memorize it.

Speaker 1: 4:05

There's a couple Psalms that I use and the way to keep them is to just kind of put them into a routine. We all have routines. We develop, you know. Plug it into your routine somewhere. I'm an RN, I work at a hospital and I deliberately parked far from the hospital so I have kind of a long walk in and when I'm walking in I quote the 19th Psalm. It's like the heavens declare you're glory, o Lord, the firmament is so forth to the handiwork. Day and the day at other speech, night of the night. It reveals knowledge. There's no language, no speech where your voice is not heard, and it goes on to say you're like a strong man running to race, set before him. I love that. You know it's like God, I'm like your man running this race, set before him, and you are speaking. Help me to hear today. So it's actually a prayer and you can pray it going in. And then the 139th Psalm. I love and that's kind of one of my deepest treasures.

Speaker 1: 4:59

You might say search me, o Lord, and know my heart, try me and know my anxious thoughts. I preach on that here. See if there's any wicked way in me and leave me in the way everlasting. That's actually how it ends. It starts, o Lord, you searched me and you've known me. You know about God searching our hearts and when I'm walking out it's like automatic. I open the doors the last of the doors are out power. You just walk out and all of a sudden it's just like it starts bubbling up and I have to start and think about it because it's such a routine in my life. O Lord, you searched me and you know me and you know 139th Psalm is about. You know how we're fearfully and wonderfully made. You know all my days before there's one of them. You know. You know every word.

Speaker 1: 5:37

I'm gonna speak before I spoke and I'm kind of contemplating my day. What do I see today? Do I see anything? And maybe I'm just hoping. Maybe I see just a little sliver of light in some of it. Did anybody here see the moon this morning? A little changer. It's actually a full moon, but that's why I got one of these apps to tell you about, you know, pc Universe, but it was only 2% visible. It said 2% of a full moon. Today is actually I didn't time this out, I think this might have been a Godfinger or something Today is actually what they call the new moon.

Speaker 1: 6:19

Now, what's interesting about the new moon, when you can't see it at all, is the other side is a full moon Because the sun is all behind it. So there's actually a beautiful full moon up there. We just don't see it because the light is behind it. If we were on the moon, on what you might call the dark side of the moon, which is actually what's facing us, you know, we would see the earth like we have never seen it before. Can you? You've all seen big full moon rise like a harvest moon or a super moon. Can you imagine what it looks like for the earth to rise on the horizon of a dark sky? Huge, big, blue, wonderful globe? I mean, that must be spectacular. Elon Musk and I they're going to be selling tickets to see that. I can just see this coming. Can you imagine that picture that earth rise from the Apollo? They said that is the most copied picture so far that earth rise and that's just like a half earth, that's not like the full thing. They weren't up there when there was a full, not full moon, full earth rising. So there's a dark side of the moon and then there's a bright side of the moon.

Speaker 1: 7:38

What I'm titled in this message today is kind of about you know, the dark side. This. There was an album that came out like 50 years ago. So those of you my age you probably heard of this. It's called the dark side of the moon. I know you probably know this. I love this picture.

Speaker 1: 8:01

I've been thinking a lot about this album lately because I'm kind of an old rock and roll fan. You know we listen to classic rock and roll. You know on the radio and we were coming when we were driving up. We drove up last night. You know Nancy's got this classic rock and roll on and I'm trying to rehearse my message and she asked. They asked have you got your message ready?

Speaker 1: 8:18

I thought I'm working on it and you know I'm driving but I'm trying to think about it. But rock and roll was playing and I kid you not. I look over on our our stereo and see us playing sympathy for the devil by the rolling stones. You know, it's just what came up on there. It's like this is unbelievable, this is unbelievable. So I told you, now I kind of need to put some worship music on because I can't get this train going. You know, I'm doing all this in my mind. I'm not writing notes or anything. I'm driving. But when I'm driving, sometimes when you're just on the freeway and your mind wanders, that's my favorite time to rehearse psalms or passages. I know, because you know you can just use that time for God.

Speaker 1: 9:01

So anyway, it's this album and even that picture. I think that picture is kind of prophetic. In a sense. It's prophetic about like the word of God coming to us in that one beam of light and getting into our lives, into our hearts and just going out and reflecting all kinds of ways. We're made in God's image. We're supposed to reflect God wherever we go. And that picture kind of does that.

Speaker 1: 9:23

This album you know this was back from my druggy days, you know before BC days and this album, the songs on it even, were kind of all spiritual and since there's actually a song on there called Breathe. You know, breath is actually the Greek word for spirit, you know. You know. There's a song on there called Time. You know how much time is valuable to us. Oh, what's it to know. There's another one called Money. It's got that cha-ching, cha-ching, you know. Start to it the Time. One's got all these bells going off.

Speaker 1: 9:56

There's one that's called Us and them. Now, how prophetic and relevant is that to where we are in a country right now? I mean, we're all kind of being divided into Us and them. What's going on in Israel? It's all Us and them, and it should be we, you know. And that Us and them song goes on to talk about with and without. It's really with Jesus or without Jesus. Every one of these people, the people that made this. We watch a story about the artist that actually did this the other day on PBS. They have a special kind of going on about the guys that did this and all the album covers they made back in the 70s, and every one of us were made with special, unique gifts.

Speaker 1: 10:35

I love what Jacob was talking about earlier today, about everybody that walks in. We need to be grateful, for Everybody that walks in has got a story. You know we are all. You know God's stories and when we invite Jesus in and becomes, with Jesus, our testimonies, I mean what Jacob just said to me. You know a valuable and precious that is to me to know that maybe my life has made a difference. Sorry, I'm just spitting on your floor, you know, isn't that? You know it's just like, is that a treasure? Isn't that what we want?

Speaker 1: 11:09

So, anyways, back to the moon thing. The moon is actually 2% visible. I went out looking for it. My wife was wondering why are you going out? I went out like two or three times. I rose at like 6.58. But there was clouds. I couldn't see it.

Speaker 1: 11:21

One thing's got me thinking about this. I used to go to the oceanfront to do my devotions. You watch the moon rise there when it's a full moon and there's this little hairline sliver sometimes. And it rises when it's a new moon, like this early in the morning. You know it's not like a full moon in the evening and it's beautiful Usually. You know Jupiter, there's a bright star. To me it's almost more impressive than a big full moon. But as I'm thinking about that sliver and like walking out, as I'm walking out of the hospital, how we just had this little sliver of light. And I think that's how most of us see our lives. We just see the darkness, we just think about the darkness, we just feel the darkness. We don't know that God's got our backs, we don't know that from behind us it's bright and full and glorious and awesome. All we see is the dark side, not the dark side of the moon, the dark side of our lives.

Speaker 1: 12:20

And what I want to talk a little bit about, what I was thinking about, you know, meditating on the word of the Lord, just getting these things into our heart. You know, it's about getting closer to God, deliberately choosing to become brighter, to shine more for God. And how do we do that? I mean we all want to do that. I mean, when somebody gets saved, they say Jesus, I accept you out. I wrestle with this all the time because it's like, well, they're, yeah, they accepted the Lord and they're saved and they're going to heaven. But I haven't seen any change. I haven't seen any. You know evidence like a repentance. You know of things changing their lifestyle. I don't, you know, I don't, I don't know if they're saved. I think God sees our backside. All we see is the dark side of the moon. We don't see any light at all shining from them. It's just darkness. Don't you want to shine more for God? I mean what he just said that makes me feel like maybe I meant like 10%, you know, as opposed to 2%. Maybe I'm just shining a little bit more.

Speaker 1: 13:32

I've been listening to his Parker. Another one of our youth is a very good friend of Jacobs. He's got me listening to this podcast. It's called Practicing the Way and in it there's one series. They have different ways of Jesus Basically following Jesus' behavior, not just his teachings, but looking at what he did and bringing that into your life.

Speaker 1: 13:57

Looking at things like fasting regularly. You know, before you know, up until about 100 years ago, if you were a Christian you were expected to fast twice a week, two days a week. It was normal. They would not let you be a pastor or anything unless you were fasting at least one day a week. Some people were that way, they were just that serious about it. So, fasting Sabbath, practicing the Sabbath, you know they're in prayer, you know just having a good, rich prayer life.

Speaker 1: 14:22

And then one that recently has really been touching my heart is solitude, having times of solitude, having times of just getting alone with God. There is a desperate attack on our solitude. These people do not have a quiet moment in their day, especially young people. They have their phone, they go to sleep with their phone, they wake up with their phone in bed. They're getting this constant input and you know so much of it's just not good stuff. And even if it is good stuff, they don't stop and get quiet. They don't stop and not just read the Word.

Speaker 1: 15:08

I'm not just talking about reading the Bible, you know, but maybe getting those verses and memorizing them and meditating on them. Blessed are the men who meditate in the Word of the Lord. His delight is in the Lord and he meditates in it day and night. You know, when they're talking about this solitude, you know, and they actually encourage people to get away, and even get away from your Bible. And I'm thinking, well, how do I do that? Because I've got a lot of verses in me that I just meditate on. But when you meditate on them and things just come to life in you and you get to see what's in you, there is in one of the podcasts I heard a story about them.

Speaker 1: 15:47

They were sitting around the fire in this one 17 year old, they're asking everybody what do you fear most? In this one 17 year old, he says I fear being alone. More than anything else, I fear being alone, the quiet, the silence, the silence. Is it that maybe normal for a lot of us? It's hard to just sit in a quiet place and be alone. You know, it's interesting that when Jesus gets baptized and God says this is my son and whom I'm well pleased, and then he goes into the wilderness, the next thing he does is go into the wilderness.

Speaker 1: 16:30

Now, when I think of the wilderness, I think of solitude, I think of being alone, I think of being away from people, away from things. You know where, it's just quiet. And what did Jesus encounter in the wilderness? Satan. You know, when we get quiet, we get ourselves. The enemy shows up. The enemy shows up.

Speaker 1: 16:54

See, what we don't realize is when we're getting quiet, when we're in solitude and we think we're by ourselves. That is actually a time of encounter. That's a meeting place, and we are meeting the demons that are harassing us, that are like us, that are destroying us, that are bringing us down, that are keeping us helpless and hopeless, that are keeping us away from church, keeping us away from friends, keeping us away from salvation, keeping us away from healing, restoration, keeping us away from the full moon that Jesus wants us to shine out. You know, because we don't get quiet and get away and plug in to God and say God, I need you. We don't learn how to wrestle with the enemy and learn to use the word, to apply the word, just like Jesus said no, it is written. And even Satan comes back oh yeah, but it is written. This, no, this is the word of God for this, and just having the word of God and doing that warfare in the inner man, inside inside, because that's where we need to change. You know, we want to shine by the gloriously, but it's not a superficial thing. It's got to come from the very spirit within. We got to know who we are in God. I've heard stories by people in this church and I've experienced the same thing of having to wrestle with the enemy.

Speaker 1: 18:22

When I was just a new believer, I moved into a actually I was living with my wife at that time and we moved into actually the pastor saying, well, you can't be living again. This is sin. You know, we're kind of religious and that okay, so I moved in my brother who was out and he just had his house and moved to his house and I just started having like doors were opening and things were sitting on the bed and it was just creepy. I left at one o'clock in the morning freaking out. I thought this place is haunted. I'm driving around one o'clock in the morning and the thought occurs to me I gave my life to Jesus. Now he's supposed to take care of me in these things. He is my salvation, my healer, my protector. I went back, climbed in that bed, things started happening and then my spirit, deep within my spirit, I left. I just laughed. I said you can't do anything to me, I belong to God, I belong to Jesus. And deep within me nobody knew what was else going on, nobody knew. Deep within me I knew I was God's.

Speaker 1: 19:27

We need to have those encounters with the Holy Spirit and with the demonic to know who we are. You know, as Christ's followers, we should be just shining out with peace and assurance, with love, with the fruit of the Spirit the love, the joy, the peace, the patience, the kindness, the goodness, the gentleness, long-suffering, self-control. When battles come up, we know, you know it beacons for nothing but everything, with prayer and letting the peace of God, god, our hearts and our minds. You know we have to go to war and that happens in the secret place of solitude. You know we want to lead others to Christ but we've got to take our own ground first before we can take ground for others. We need to know who we are. You go into any church, in this church, and you see some people just shine out because they have encountered like tragedies, brokenness, hard things and out of hopelessness and desperation they called out to the Lord and he came through for them and they know God is faithful and they show it, they reveal it whatever they do, and they're a true witness of the Holy Spirit. We need to just walk with God and through those tough times, crying out and just growing with the things of God, growing with the things of God. Thank you, lord.

Speaker 1: 20:57

Okay, now I got to start my message. Let me find an urge. The wisdom is justified by her children, wisdom is justified by her children and the Holy Spirit stirs up in us. Do we really hear them? Are we dancing to the music of God? Are people looking at us and saying I'm the man of God and we know by God's mercy, by God's grace. Yeah, it's blind, but now I see I am by some miracle God's.

Speaker 1: 21:42

So I want to close with one last passage out of Philippians. I really like what Jacob was talking about, about Silas and Paul, because they're singing and rejoicing in that jail and what that turned into with those jailers and his family. It turned into the church of Philippi, the Philippian church, and in Philippians it's like one of my favorite books. I mean you want to read. It's only four chapters. It's full of good memory verses, beautiful verses about God, about Jesus, about his faithfulness.

Speaker 1: 22:17

In chapter four I'm always trying to learn new stuff and I've learned, you know, kind of the key verse for prayer a good one to know is four, six and seven Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication and thanksgiving, make your request known to God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's a good verse, but then it's good to kind of keep what's leading into that and what's coming out of that. So if you go back to the first two chapters, there are about a couple of ladies in Philippi that are kind of feuding and stuff. So that's not relevant for me right now. It's in the Bible, so it's relevant somewhere for somebody, but I haven't memorized that part.

Speaker 1: 23:01

But then Paul goes on and says Rejoice in the Lord. And he says that a lot Philippians is known as a book of joy and rejoicing. Rejoicing that word actually in the Hebrew in the Old Testament, means dancing, rejoice, dancing with joy, rejoice before the Lord. Again I say rejoice. Let your gentleness be known to all. I'm a fruit of spirit. Gentle, let your gentleness be known to all. The Lord is at hand, isn't that good? He eats us for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your request known to God. And the peace of God no, it goes. And finally, brethren, oh no, and the peace of God will guard your hearts and your minds through Christ Jesus. And then it goes on and finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things have good report, if there's any virtue, think on these things.

Speaker 1: 23:52

I want to back up a little bit here. In those times of solitude, what we want to do is we want to connect with God, we want to know it's God speaking to us and not the enemy, because the enemy will lie to us. It's just like he did with Jesus. He'll start quoting scriptures to us, you know, and we need to be able to discern the difference. And you know, when God speaks to us there's a sense of peace and the enemy it's like. There's like anxiety and restlessness. When God speaks, he brings conviction. He's like oh God, I'm so sorry, I need to change, I need to change. The enemy comes along and brings condemnation, like, oh man, I'm in fear. That comes with that insecurity. We need to recognize the goodness. When God's been dealing with us, we just feel good. There is another.

Speaker 1: 24:42

I've heard recently that some people say the only way you know whether it's God or the enemy because the enemy comes, is it fruit of life? Is by the result. By what? By stepping out if I doubt what comes out of it. You know, wisdom is justified by our children. It's the fruit of the spirit. So we have to step out and trust God. But you know a lot of it is.

Speaker 1: 25:06

You know, I've been a Joyce Myers fan for years actually better years ago, I've had the privilege of doing that and her Madden one popular book by far, is a battlefield of the mind. She talks about that a lot. We've done small groups on it. That's where the battle's at. We gotta guard our minds. Take every thought.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Captive is what Paul said. And then he says whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, this comes right after. You know being anxious for nothing but everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your request unto God, and peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. And Christ Jesus, I think, goes on to say finally whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, if there's any virtue, if there's anything that's praiseworthy, think, meditate, contemplate these things, spend your time thinking unto goodness of God, the greatness of God, worthiness of God, praising Him and honoring Him. Let that be what's rising up on you, even in that dark place where you're getting into the enemy and he's telling you and he's lying to you you'll never amount to anything, you're not good for anything, you do not have any anointing, you're never going to change. Start praising God, start worshiping God and just say I don't have time for that nonsense. God's got my back. I mean, I got a big bright light on my backside. You know you might see 2%. Pray for four, for eight, for 12, to become a big full moon. The heavens declare His glory and so do we. We remain in His image to declare His glory to a dark, hurting world. We are His lights shining in a dark place. I want to encourage you to move towards that.

Speaker 1: 27:03

Let me go on a little bit more with that Philippians passage, the next verse, which is interesting, and I've been kind of getting convicted of it, so I'm going to come back a little bit. And finally, brother, why are things are true? What are things are noble? Where are things are just? What are things are pure? What are things are lovely? Whatever virtue, if there's anything praisory, think on these things. And then Paul goes on to say and that which you learned and received and heard and saw in me that do? Now that kind of convicted me. It's like am I actually doing all these things I'm praying about being gentle, rejoicing, being anxious for nothing? Am I known for doing those things? Are people receiving and learning that from my life? You know, if that's what I want? So I'm going to wrap up with that, just a quick prayer. But if that's what you want, jacob's going to come up and we will pray. But my prayer is that you hunger for more of God to sign through you.

Speaker 1: 28:07

I have this problem with Christians that think okay, you know, I'm like a dark side of the moon. You know they don't think this way, of course, just darkness. I don't need to change anything. I've accepted Jesus. They are missing out on the kingdom of heaven. You know the kingdom come here on earth now, today, as it is in heaven. Kingdom of heaven is righteous peace and joy. That's what he wants us to have. So many are missing out on it.

Speaker 1: 28:41

My encouragement to you is to press into the things of God so that others can see the light of God in you. So we're going to pray a little bit about that. I would encourage you to get more into your secret place, and it can happen while you're driving, even with sympathy with the devils on this table. You can get closer to God. Let him have more of you. Don't worry about filling up your checking account. Fill up your memory bank with him, with Jesus. Even more important, fill up your story, your life, with testimonies like what I just got. That's something I can share with my people, who I'm going to work with tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 29:30

You want to hear what I heard. It's almost like bragging. It's bragging about Jesus. I have no idea. That's just a neat story. That's not what's my story. That's so many stories from worshiping you know, breaking them. It wasn't six, it was actually four, and I would get loud and it was actually spontaneous another time as guitar, and I would just sing out my heart to God because I love His presence.

Speaker 1: 29:57

I encourage you guys to do that. Wake up your family worshiping God in the middle of the night, because you will be blessed. You will be blessed. So, lord, I thank you for the privilege of your presence more than anything else. It's just a privilege of your presence. Lord, I ask that these words would be alive and that we would maybe never look at the moon to sing. You know and realize that every month there's a dark new moon coming. Lord, 2%, you can't even find it. I couldn't even find it this morning. People walking all around us that are saved, but there's no evidence in their lives. Help us to have that evidence, the fruit all over us. God. Help us to be just bringing your kingdom to a hurting world. I thank you for this privilege. I thank you for Jacob and I'm going to turn things over to you. Amen, amen, give it up for Pete here. Please stand up here, god bless.