How do I resist evil? - Alpha Course 11

well good afternoon and welcome to crowd church great to see you was that a little dance there son oh yeah double wave i'm so excited to be back here today it's good to have you back how was your summer thank you yeah it was really good you know it feels like it went really really quickly but then it seems like ages as well since you know we were here together so it's kind of strange isn't it how time does that but yeah overall really good thanks what about you matt yeah it's been a good summer so far on friday we dropped josh off which is just a beautiful thing so josh is back that's not a beautiful thing that's so sad my eldest daughter is you know she's just finished her um a levels and everything so she was planning to go to uni but she's the third year and i'm so glad so i'm not ready i'm not ready for her to go yet forget whether she's ready or not i'm not ready yeah fair enough well to be fair this is josh's second year so it's not like we've not done this before yeah yeah and it's good for josh because the first year was a bit rubbish so if you are watching this by the way uh and you are a student happy happy return to university i hope you hope you hope this year is better than last year because you know that was all a bit rubbish wasn't it anyway we're not here to talk about my children although i'm quite happy to do that we are here because crowd is in fact an online church yes we are and uh this is our church live stream so a big warm welcome to you uh great that you could join us make sure you say hi in the comments if you're watching on facebook or youtube we now actually have youtube working it wasn't working earlier but it is working well done well done sorting out good i love it i love it yeah do feel so welcome with us today we are an online church but perhaps those people that maybe don't feel the point of church or want to find out more but not sure how to get involved we are here for you online every sunday at 6pm we would love you to get involved we love it when people say hi we love when people comment so do join in with the conversation absolutely get involved as i know a number of people have so uh in fact we can go to the comments now uh sharon's there hi harren he says hi queen of crowd church oh i love that yeah he's talking to you get me a t-shirt get me a t-shirt absolutely absolutely so yeah welcome everybody good afternoon good sunday afternoon now so uh i'm going to put the number on the screen let's see if your number pointing skills have improved any over the break as you explain this here is another way that you can get in touch with us if you would like to get in touch with us you can go via the whatsapp member i've been practicing i've been practicing here is what's that number so if you don't want to put your comments out on the live stream then you can get in touch with us via this number we would love to know about you if you want us to pray for you we believe in prayer so do get in touch with us and that's just another way that you can do that shall we let everyone know what's going on today then matt do it go for it okay so we are carrying on with our alpha series now alpha is kind of about the foundations of what foundations of what christian believes i can't speak today i think i've lost the power of speech the foundations keep back in of what christians believe i need to at least enunciate can point to the number at least that's that's him yeah it's like i can only do one thing it's either speech which which would we prefer i think i'd probably need to go with speaking thing is this live church um so we are carrying on with our alpha series and today's talk is um called how can i resist evil and that is with the amazing dave connolly now you've known dave for years and years haven't you matt yeah absolutely dave uh was one of the first people i met when i moved to liverpool back in 91 no 92 i want to say 1992 is when i moved to liverpool and so i've known since 1992. he was the pastor um him and nick were the pastors of the church which i joined so such a top bloke very wise got a lot of experience uh under his belt and um yeah a really great guy to listen to so i stoked he could do this talk because yeah absolutely really really looking forward to hearing what dave's going to say about this topic so after dave has done his talk we'll have a little bit of reflection time we'll have a song have a brilliant worship song which you can join in with or just use it as a time to reflect and then after that matt and i will be back for conversation street now this is a brilliant time of the livestream where you can get involved and we will talk about the things that you want to discuss so do keep commenting and let us know any questions any comments that you have we'd love you to get involved yeah absolutely so we have got all of that coming up uh what's that noise in the background is that you feeling back or is that me what the beeping the screw yeah the screaming or is it just me that can hear in my ear but anyway it's gone now that's the main thing it's your fans matt it's your fans and your imaginary fans in your ear screaming at you oh wow uh so i've missed the banter cell what i have done is i've missed the banter no one's been here to make fun of me and that's uh that's always a shame really so i'm glad to have you don't worry don't worry i'm back to fill that gap don't worry i'm all about that i'm here for that that's awesome brilliant right uh shall we crack on shall we jump straight into the talk and then uh we'll be back after this so yeah as sal said we've been going through the alpha series this is part 11 i think of the 14 parts we're going through so uh get grab your notebooks uh and make or don't grab your numbers right in the comments uh write questions and stuff in the comments and we'll be back after this here we go hi guys it's my privilege to be with you today my name is dave connolly if you don't know me and we're going to be looking at the topic of how can i resist sin and we only have opportunity today just to have a brief look at this topic let's look at the question where does temptation come from can we ever really be free what about the bad stuff we read about every day in our newspapers or online do we just accept it is this how life is or is there something we can do that could actually make a difference well if you've got your bible with you today you may want to open it up for some of the scriptures i'm going to share i would always encourage people to whatever version of the bible you read to try and follow along or go back later and check the scriptures out romans 12 21 says this do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good how's this even possible you might be thinking the claim of the new testament is that just as behind goodness lies god himself behind evil in the world lies the devil i remember when i first became a christian i had great difficulty coming to believe and understand that there is a god especially a god who could actually love me knowing what i'd been like and what i'd done and then somebody said to me you know dave the devil exists as well well this didn't shock me too much because of some of the things i'd seen in my life and some of the things i'd experienced and some of the things that actually done i know for some folks it's enough believing in god but that really is stretching the imagination now to think that there's a devil for some people it's the other way around they find it easier to believe in the devil than they do to believe that is actually a god i think for most people the idea of spiritual evil you know spiritual forces of evil is very hard for them to comprehend i think most people find it very hard to believe that there's a devil this is to do with the false image that we've conjured up in our imagination many people um have a false image of god like an old man with a big white beard on a cloud somewhere looking on at all that is happening in the world you know for me that's crazy and it's unbelievable yet so many people have a false image of the devil they have a picture of the devil with horns and cloven hooves with a fork tail and and that's equally unbelievable and actually unbiblical would you like to turn with me to ephesians chapter 6 verses 11 and 12. the apostle paul says this put on the old armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places other words he's saying this spiritual warfare is against forces that are cunning powerful and evil warfare of course generally is not a pleasant business so why should we believe in spiritual looking around our world we see evil regimes institutional torture violence mass murder brutal rapes terrorist atrocities on a scale unimaginable a few years ago sexual and physical abuse of men women and children and the least could go on and these things lit up our newspaper daily some of you may remember or may have heard of an incident that took place in march 1996 a guy called thomas hamilton who was 43 at the time entered the primary school gym in dunblane in scotland and opened fire on the class of five and six-year-olds sixteen children and their teacher were killed seventeen other children and teachers were wounded the head teacher at the time said this evil has visited our school on any kind of theology or worldview which ignores the existence of spiritual as a great deal to explain you may have come to a place where you have made a decision to pursue christianity and christ and it may be that you started to struggle you become more aware of temptation that perhaps you weren't aware of previously it's like before you're a christian you were just going with the flow and now you find yourself moving against the flow we're the only ones going in that direction everybody else seems to be going in a different direction we've seen how the apostle paul believed in the existence of these forces and jesus himself was tempted by the devil true and jesus taught his disciples to pray deliver us from the evil one so scripture tradition and reason all point towards the existence of the devil i believe it was c.s lewis who once said there are two equal and opposite errors in which we can fall about the devil and evil spirits one is to disbelieve in their existence and the other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them they themselves are equally pleased by both errors i'm sure you're aware that today in our society there's a whole new interest in the demonic and india cult powers witchcraft spiritualism poem reading ouija boards channeling consulting the dead astrology horoscopes and all this stuff is expressly forbidden in the bible and i think a lot of people today also explore these kinds of things because they are searching the searching for something spiritual they're searching because deep down inside they know that there has to be more to life than what they have another question is how do these evil forces work what's the devil's tactics ultimate aim and jesus tells us this is actually to destroy us jesus said a thief comes to steal to kill to destroy they're not actions of a friend or an ally but jesus said but i have come to do the opposite jesus said i came that you might have life and have life in its fullness and right at the beginning of the bible we have an expose of how the devil works and if you've got your bibles you might want to open it up in genesis chapter 3 the devil here appears in the form of a serpent and we see his initial tactic is to raise doubt let's look at verse 1 he said to the woman did god really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden very similar way when he's tempting jesus he came to jesus and he said if you are the son of god again casting doubt and the way he comes to each of us today he comes with us by casting doubt if god loved you this wouldn't happen well that wouldn't have happened or if you were a christian you wouldn't have done this if god was real and if you look back a few verses in genesis chapter 2 verse 16 and 17 we see first of all god gave a wide-ranging permission in verse 16 he says and god commanded the man you are free to eat from any tree in the garden and secondly he gave one prohibition but you must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil and then thirdly there was a penalty for when you eat of it you will surely die now the prohibition here was because there are things we don't need to know about or experience god didn't want us to know evil he wanted us to know only good and he warns us that there's a penalty if we disobey it says when you eat of it you will surely die now watch the way in which evil operates the first thing that happens is that the demonic powers ignore the permission verse 1 did god really say you must not eat of the tree in the garden today when he tempts us he ignores the permission god has said that he has given us all things richly to enjoy that's the generosity of god but satan ignores that satan does not tell people who are not christians about all the wonderful things it's possible to enjoy as a christian the amazing privilege of a relationship with god himself the knowledge of having peace the peace and the grace of god in our lives daily to see our lives being transformed to see ourselves being freed by the goodness of god but the devil ignores that and he concentrates on a tiny list of things we are told to keep away from and this very good reason why we should keep it away from those things that god doesn't want to see us come to harm in any way and then the enemy denies the penalty we read about in verse 2. yes then the serpent said to the woman you will not surely die for god knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like god knowing good from evil and we see in these verses that follow the consequences of breaking trust shame and embarrassment we read about in verse seven and because there are things that we are embarrassed about we tend to cover them up and that's what adam and eve did with the fig leaves then their relationship the friendship with god had been broken verse 8 says this and they hear the sound of the lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife hid see that hid themselves from the presence of the lord and if you read on in verse 10 the man says i was afraid so they hit don't be afraid don't be ashamed come to god and god immediately starts to try to draw them back to himself see in verse 9 but the lord god called to man where are you and that's the cry of a parent whose child has gone astray or got lost so the devil's tactics are to destroy us not to do what's good to raise doubt he tempts us to draw us away from god he is the accuser he's not our friend listen my friends if the holy spirit is pointing out something that is wrong in our lives he will be very specific we'll know what it is and we can repent and we can turn away from it we can turn back to god the holy spirit brings conviction into our lives which offers forgiveness and hope you know when the enemy comes he brings condemnation and he brings hopelessness and guilt and he causes you to turn away from god so know the difference between conviction from the holy spirit that will draw you to god and condemnation which is from the enemy which will always want to drive you away from god and we are told in the new testament that jesus was tempted in every way that we are and the way in which we may be tempted it may be that a thought is placed within our mind something we know that is not good it's an evil thing we know it hasn't come from god and we have a choice whether to accept or reject it and jesus rejected it we need to make the distinction between temptation and sin when we are tempted we make a decision whether we submit to it or whether we resist it it's only sin if we adopt that thought for ourselves and dwell on it and act on it every time we embark on a course of sin we don't realize that the aim is to lead us on a path that leads to destruction at this point you might be asking well what's our position well colossians chapter 1 verse 13 says this he has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the son of his love if you have come to that point in your life where you have received christ into your life as your lord and savior it's important for us to know that jesus has set us free from the addictions the habits the patterns of our past and that means that we don't have to do the things we used to do we are free free to stop we have been transferred from one dominion of darkness to the kingdom of light the kingdom of jesus where jesus rules i want to share a verse with you from colossians chapter 2 verse 15 that revolutionized my thinking and my life and it's simply this and it's talking of jesus having disarmed the principalities and powers he made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them in it you know yes the battle isn't over yet on the cross satan the devil he was defeated he was demoralized the cross and the resurrection are decisive moments in history but the devil was not destroyed there will come a moment when he is destroyed when jesus returns an illustration to show the differences could be like d-day and v-e day d-day was the decisive moments in the second world war on the 6th of june 1944 that determined the outcome of the war there was no real doubt about the future of it but it wasn't over the mopping up operation continued until ve day on the 8th of may 1945 when the war in europe was over and in a sense we live between d-day and v-e day we live at a time when satan is a conquered foe but he's still around he's still trying to influence he still lies and if your experience is anything like mine i found that when i came to christ there were some things i was set free from almost immediately and then there were other things that i struggled with but little by little as i surrendered my life to christ as i aligned my life with the word this ongoing process continued in utterly setting me free and that will be a way that continues till jesus returns but one day he will return and there will be no more evil and actually this is the amazing grace and love of god given that there are still some battles going on we're all vulnerable how do we defend ourselves then we read in ephesians chapter 6 verses 13 to 17. therefore take up 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 gated your waist with truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness having shot your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taken the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god he goes on to say keep your relationship with jesus right put on the best place of righteousness verse 14. one definition of righteousness is right relationship with god and with other people we're encouraged in verse 15 to get involved in service it says having shud your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace this is talking about each of us standing up and standing out in our communities where we live where we identify to being a follower of christ it continues in verse 16. keep trusting god in difficult times it continues about putting on the elements of salvation that's where we will win the battle of the mind when jesus was being tempted he responded to the temptation by quoting scripture and i want to encourage you to read this bible get to know these scriptures let them become life to you let them become something that will sustain you in hard times and cause you to flourish at other times it's fascinating to me that there's no piece of armor for the back we're most vulnerable when we're running away and ephesians 6 vs 18 says this and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests the enemy hates it when he sees the people of god coming to the knees to pray don't be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good wow thanks dave so much in that talk for us to unpack and talk about so i hope you've got your questions ready get them in the comments let us know what you would like us to discuss and when we come back after the song then we'll have a good get into this and um and have a little chat about some of the things that you would like us to talk about first of all we're going to we're going to have a song now now please join in with this if you want to or just use it as a time of reflection and the song is actually called overcome so really fitting with what dave was saying and it's talking about um you know jesus has overcome evil he's overcome all these things if you're struggling with fear if you're struggling with doubt any of the things in your life that you're finding really difficult jesus has overcome so you can come to him um at any time so let's get into this song now and then we'll be back for a chat in a minute any second that now the darkness fades into new beginnings as we lift our eyes to a hoping or creation wait with an expectation to declare the reign of the lord our god we will not be moved when the earth gives way and for everything there's an empty gray for there is now the silence breaks in the name of jesus as the heavens cry let the earth respond all creation shouts with a voice of triumph father is overcome and for everything there's an empty gray for there is a one who's overcome he shall reign forever strongholds now surrender for the lord our god has overcome who can be against us jesus our defender he is lord and he has overcome sure the lord our god has overcome and for every fear [Applause] there's an empty grave for there is a one that's overcome we will not be blue for there is someone who's overcome there's an empty grave for there very good very good indeed i do like that song yeah i do great very very cool great very cool yeah right well where did we begin i mean there's just so much to talk about matt let's get into this oh dave's in the comments hey dave how you doing thanks for your talk thanks for your talk brilliant talk um yeah great talk to think about right and here's the thing right so so um dave said at the start of his talk he found it easier to believe that the devil was real than he did god at the start of his faith journey jeremy when he was sort of thinking about this thing he's like well then i know the devil's wrote because i've kind of met him john mean is he's kind of out there the exact opposite to that right i could go okay i believe that uh god's there and god's real but the devil just seems a bit weird jeremy just seems a bit a bit far out there where were you on the whole god and devil thing um i think probably um easier yeah easier to believe because of evil in the world um but you know i kind of didn't struggle to believe that there was a god because of creation and everything around me you know it kind of just seemed so obvious that it was all there um but yeah i think maybe matt it's that whole kind of um cartoonized is that a word you know pitchfork you know all of that i think that's kind of we go oh ridiculous but when we're talking about evil then of course you know you just have to watch the news or open a paper or you know it's just just everywhere isn't it it's yeah it interesting one i have regular conversations as i'm sure you can imagine with various folks around the world about god and why i believe in god and one of the questions that i get asked a lot is around this how can there be a god if there's all this suffering and injustice in the world right yeah this is a big bigger question than what i'm about to give give credence to it i mean i i i we will be doing a lot more on this topic so we can't do that one as well in just this one short session now there's so much to talk about with that there is there is but one of the things which i find fascinating um at least in my head how my head works is i see all the evil i see all the injustice and it makes me believe in god more because if i if if i didn't then i'd have no hope there's just injustice whereas if there's a god of justice at the end of all of this it all gets settled and sorted out does that make sense yeah i understand where you're coming from doesn't make it easy to kind of accept those things but it does help you to i mean hope is such a massive thing isn't it without hope that just a horrible place to be yeah you're right you're right i think that is a whole topic for another another crowd church but yeah really really interesting i think lots of people use that argument yeah they do but like i say for me it strengthens my faith it kind of causes me to believe actually you know that there has to be a god to to deal with all of this and so the irony is of course in all of this um i i say irony it's interesting um dave talked about and you talked about it the cart the cartoonization i don't know if that's the right way to pronounce it the cartoon anyway the the character version yeah sure is the best way of saying it yeah the characters we have of god the old man sat on a cloud with a big white beard and the devil the little red creature sat on your shoulder with a pitchfork and a fork tail and i don't think that's been helpful at all especially when you look at the severity of evil that's in the world right yeah yeah absolutely so how did you how do you how do you reconcile the whole god devil thing in your head wow that's a that's a nice easy question to drop in there on me matt thanks for that um as you can see this is not rehearsed in any way i must admit i i do struggle with the concept still i do i don't struggle with the concept of evil i do struggle with the concept of you know the devil who is this person out there sort of trying to get us i think the overarching idea of evil i definitely i definitely kind of can get my head around that more but i was thinking about how this sort of related to me an example from my own life and actually in that song it talks about every fear being an empty grave and i think fear is certainly something that is used against a lot of us um you know and it is a horrible thing if you're gripped by fear if you have a lot of fear in your life that is a really horrible thing to live with and as a child and as a teenager i really really struggled with fear i was i was just not the sort of scared kind of thing but you know going to bed at night not able to sleep i used to think that the house was going to burn down i used to think that i'd be left on my own used to think that my mum would die you know all of these kind of fears that i had would sort of grip me in the night and i went to um like a bible camp with with the church that i went to at the time and someone prayed for me and it was really incredible because they were talking about um that when we have fear in our lives it's like the devil kind of sets up these sort of the runway towards the fear so you kind of create this runway in your mind and the fear is like the plane taking off on the runways and the more that you kind of allow yourself to dwell on that and go over it the more the runways kind of get consolidated and so it's easier for the food to kind of take off and he was saying about praying for bombing the runways so bombing those runways in your mind so that those fears actually have they can't land they can't they can't take hold of you yeah um it was incredible actually it was a real really it's sort of life changing and i'm not saying i am free from fear of course we all struggle with that particularly at night but um i i love that sort of image of um you know praying that god would bomb those runways in my mind so that fear can't take flight very good kind of tangent but i mean just that it just really made me sort of think of that yeah but just going back to dave's talk um i really liked the bit he said about the difference between the holy spirit and what the holy spirit will be saying to you and what the enemy would be saying to you and that is so important because i think we we struggle so much don't we with our own worthiness oh you know god can't love me or you know those those awful thoughts that come into our head this is for everyone but this isn't for me you know god is love god loves everyone but not me we just disqualify ourselves and i think actually thinking about it like that you know the holy spirit would never say that to you you know would only bring uh dave said brings conviction that leads to forgiveness and hope wow that is that is incredible isn't it yeah yeah it is totally and the opposite of that of course he talked about was condemnation yeah hopelessness and guilt yeah hopelessness and guilt is the opposite of that so if those thoughts in your head are leading you that way you know where they've come from yeah it's interesting isn't it sort of identifying where things have come from you know there's is this from the devil is this from me or is this from god you know and there's there's different or is this from other people i don't and there's these different sort of sources of information that we can receive and i really like that test is this bringing condemnation is it bringing life or is it robbing you is it stealing from you because you know we read that david that verse john 10 10 talking about the devil he comes uh not but to steal to kill and to destroy yeah that's that's the mo right exactly if you think about if you think about a loving parent you know a loving parent will correct their child because we want our children want the best for our children so we want to correct them when they're you know we're doing something that we know is going to hurt them but we're still going to correct them which is hard but you know if we're just constantly kind of putting them down and making them feel bad and you know unloved that a good parent wouldn't do that yeah and it's the same isn't it with god well it is and the bible says doesn't it and luke uh six i think it is if you being an evil person know how to give your child good gifts how much more does your father in heaven and it you know you don't and it talks about you know the goodness of god i really like this analogy they did on the very early alpha courses years ago when we first started doing alpha they gave this analogy they said if you take the word god and add an o you get good if you take the word evil and add the d you get the word devil and i just thought it was a really clever way of sort of understanding that god is good and the devil is evil and yeah and understanding the difference between good and evil i mean it's not just you know the hollywood blockbuster kind of good triumphing over evil stuff that we see day in day out it's more like this is almighty god crushing this enemy over here now james asks a question he says and this is a really great question what's the right balance of recognizing evil and the devil but not becoming some form of obsessed ghostbuster yeah thinking that the devil is directly behind all badness and i think that's a great question i think that's a really good book have you ever read the book pierce in the darkness yes yeah do you remember that book when it first came out all the christians ready it came out like 25 30 years ago and everybody read this book and it was a it's if you've not read it read it it's a great sort of story it's a thriller kind of novel where the author kind of parallels reality with the spiritual realm doesn't he and there's these sort of angels and demons battling alongside what's going on on earth the downside to that book was everybody thought there was a devil around the corner waiting to trip them up yeah it's like i didn't want to leave the house after reading that book i mean it's like terrifying scared me yeah i i yeah so i think that there's definitely a balance there i think you know it's we we don't need to be afraid and i think as a child i always preach this whole kind of view of you know the devil is out to get you and watch out and you know all of these things so much so that i was like in fear of you know those sorts of things and fear of but where actually you know that actually what we want to tell people is that you don't need to be afraid because jesus has overcome you that's what that song is all about isn't it let's not give in to fear and be let's be aware of these things but let's not be afraid let's not think that every every every nasty thing that someone says to me or everything that someone does to me which isn't what i want them to do that's not the devil making them do those things all right i don't think do you agree matt yeah i think it's it's funny isn't it there's a certain type of christian that you'll come across uh that feels like the devil is behind everything and um there was this great phrase they told us at bible school which i'll never forget if you're warring talking about spiritual what we call in the church spiritual warfare which is where we in effect try and battle the devil but if you're warring more than you're worshiping and worshiping and in the word then you're warped it was the four w's there's too many w's there say that again if you're warring more than you're worshiping or in the word then you're warped and i thought it was a great phrase and i was always reminded when um when god created the earth right there in the book of genesis uh you can you can picture the different types of people right if you're faced with the darkness and you know but bible says god saw the darkness and the earth was that form and he kind of turns up if you're one of these kind of warring christians that you know thinks the devil is behind everything you're going to come out and you're going to go you know what i take authority over that darkness i banish the darkness and i'm going to pull the darkness down and all that sort of stuff which is you know maybe in the right place that's right or there's the christian which is kind of totally afraid and goes man alive it's dark out there i'm staying indoors there's nothing i can do about it and then there's a third type which is what i want to be he's he's the christian that goes oh it's dark out there and turns on the light because the answer for darkness is always light and i think we don't have to be afraid because of that because jesus has overcome the darkness he is the light of the world and i think you're so right in saying actually we don't need to be afraid and that's the balance i think it's not to pretend that the devil doesn't exist i think we have to what does shaman put here i think we need discernment to know what's what but also remember that jesus said not to be afraid because he is stronger than anything or any one else and i think that's fundamentally what you're saying jesus in your corner you're all right absolutely we're not saying that nothing bad is ever going to happen to you we're still going to struggle with things that everybody struggles with but to know you can go to jesus that you can you know ask for help plus courage for strength for all of those things that that is a gift indeed i would say absolutely so really fascinating conversation i i put on there a little quote um i actually remembered the quote from the film the usual suspects which changed yeah it was kaiser soze was the word that you were struggling to spell i think wasn't it there's no way i was going to be able to spell kaiser i was like how does i don't even know so i put it i put it down to the guy that originally said it the best thing the devil ever did was to convince the world he didn't exist and i think that is is actually quite a powerful statement isn't it is it's not to give him too much credence but actually to understand i think that there is an enemy and the bible says he walks around like a a roaring lying looking for whom he may devour but then again one of the things they told us at bible school which imagery is always in my head but it's okay because he's been declawed and defanged he's like a gummy lion sure i thought was brilliant uh that was just me that may be helpful for someone i don't know that should actually be a new confectionary gummy lions yeah we've got gummy bears haven't we so why not have a whole animal range how do you um how do you deal this is not question for you so this is generally just everyone what do you think about evil is evil real does evil exist and how do you deal with it how do you resist it how do you fight it i thought the talks day from dave was fantastic and i think if you're struggling with things like fear or condemnation or you feel like you're attacked is maybe a bit over dramaticizing what's going on but you may that's how you make jimin you just don't know what's going on listen to what he said again watch the replay because there's so much truth in there and look at the scriptures that he mentioned in the bible because there's a lot of freedom in those when you understand what jesus did on the cross at calvary and the freedom that that brings for us absolutely yeah great advice there matt and don't forget everyone that we would love to pray with you if you are struggling with any of these things we'd love to pray for you get in touch with us by that what's that number or via our website um and we would love to pray with you we're gonna much better the first time i was just warming my finger up getting ready over here what you're doing yeah yeah yeah just pull me up no i'm glad you told me because we would never would have guessed we never would so uh the joke just keeps on giving this whole point to the phone number thing well what can i say i'm here to amuse you matt let's uh let's end conversation street there i think that was a good point to end um but like sal said if there's anything that's come up today that you would like prayer for anything you would like us to kind of stand with you in prayer do get in touch with us by the way sometime or by the website you do not need to be a christian to request prayer in fact we get requests every week from people who are who don't have faith uh what i would call the christian faith but still come and go can you please pray uh and can you please pray that god would do something in my life because you know what he's an awesome god and he can so if that's for you get in touch with us via the whatsapp number that would be great absolutely next week yeah we have got our next alpha and it's how and why should i tell others and we've got june ahola and mark jeffrey as well as matt doing the talk there so it'd be great to hear from them and what they have to say on that topic and then all the usual stuff as well yeah absolutely all the usual stuff coming up so make sure you join us next week uh we would love to see you there now uh we are gonna close today's service before we do sal it's been great having you back oh thanks matt it's been really good to be back thanks for having me everyone it's gone by very quickly hasn't it these things do they know right yeah yeah listen it's been great to see you we are going to play another worship track another worship song after that song has finished the live stream will automatically end so from me and from uh the beautiful miss sally burch thanks for joining us do and just stay engaged in the comments uh sing along with the worship it's been such a great privilege to be with you this week do come again and join us next week sunday at 6 00 p.m uh and we will have a great time who's james is leading next week with anna right yeah james and anna next week so that's going to be brilliant so definitely tune in next week but have a great week everyone and get in touch with us if we can help in any way absolutely god bless you have a great week bye for now see ya bye you were the word at the beginning one with god the lord was high you're hidden glory in creation now revealed in you are christ what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ my king nothing compares to this jesus you didn't want heaven without us so jesus who brought heaven down sin was great your love was greater what could save us what a wonderful name it is christ what a wonderful name it is death could not hold you it felt tore before you silence the bulls of sin and grace the heavens are roaring the praise of your glory yours is the kingdom yours is the glory yours is name of jesus christ what a powerful name is