Your heart, not your body, but your heart has been circumcised by God when we believe
in Him.
And it's as if we died with Him through His resurrection, but then we've been raised with
Him through His resurrection into the power of God by us putting our faith in Christ,
our faith in the power of God.
As we finish up this series, I want to finish up on the high note of the cross and the resurrection
of Christ and the power of what Christ did through Him going and being nailed to the
cross and then rising again on the third day and how that canceled out the power of Satan.
I'm in Colossians 2, if you have your Bible and you want to follow with your Bible, I'm
in Colossians 2 starting at verse 6.
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as your Lord, continue to live in Him, rooted
and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.
See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends
on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.
For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form and you have been given
fullness in Christ, who is the head, and this is a key phrase here, who is the head over
every power and authority.
So as we walk in the fullness of Christ, walking in the reality that the fullness of God lives
in bodily form through Christ, lives in us and He has power over all powers and authorities.
He's the head over all powers and authorities.
In Him, verse 11, you are also circumcised in the putting off of the sinful nature, not
with the circumcision done by the hands of men, but the circumcision done by Christ,
having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the
power of God who raised Him from the dead.
In other words, your heart, not your body, but your heart has been circumcised by God
when we believe in Him and it's as if we died with Him through His resurrection, but then
we've been raised with Him through His resurrection into the power of God by us putting our faith
in Christ, our faith in the power of God.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God
made you alive with Christ.
He forgave you all of your sins, having canceled the written code with His regulations that
was against us and that stood opposed to us.
He took it away, nailing it to the cross and having disarmed the powers and authorities,
He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
So when we put our faith in Christ, Christ by virtue of going to the cross has taken
all our sins upon Himself, all the accusations that were in the law that are written against
us, they were all nailed to the cross and in so doing, He disarmed the powers and the
authorities of demons and Satan over us and then He triumphed over that through the cross.
So the picture here is a conquering king coming into a town with his POWs, with his
prisoners of war, through the triumph, he made a public spectacle of them.
The picture here is a medieval army chief coming in with those that he's captured and
announcing that he has power and authority over them and in the same way, Christ has
triumphed over them, He has disarmed, He has defeated for all time powers and authorities
and when we talk about powers and authorities here, we're talking about demonic authorities,
we're talking about rulers and heavenly hosts in the dark realm.
Christ has triumphed through the cross.
Well then, in Ephesians, he goes even further in explaining what happened through the cross
and through the resurrection of Christ and in Ephesians.
1 he's talking about prayer and he prays this prayer in verse 15 for this reason ever since
I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints I have not
stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers I keep asking that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
so that you may know him better I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened
in order that you may know the hope which he has called you the riches of his glorious
inheritance in the saints and his incomparably great power for those who believe that power
is like the working out of his mighty strength which he exerted in Christ when he raised
him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly realms far above all
rule and authority power and dominion and every title that can be given not only in
the present age but also in the one to come and God placed all things under his feet and
appointed him to be head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness
of him who fills everything in every way so this power of God has lifted you and I
up into the heavenly realm in a real spiritual sense over all powers and authorities and
the same power the same power that works through the resurrection of Christ now works within
us and we have all authority men and women you have all authority over all principalities
and powers you have all authority over the demonic you have authority over Satan and
now that's also been given to the church because you're the church but when the church comes
together in worship when the church comes together in taking communion when the church
comes together to hear the preaching of the word there's power in that and that power
is the fullness of Christ it's the fullness of Christ within that gathering that pushes
back demonic powers even in an area or region so Paul continues in Ephesians 3 he says this
Ephesians 3 10 his intent God's intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom
of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according
to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord so when we preach
the gospel when we come as kingdom people into any situation the intent is that through
us through the church the manifold wisdom of God may be known to powers and authorities
we have that authority working in us so when Jesus was preparing to leave the earth knowing
that he was going to build the church here on earth in Matthew 16 he says one of the
most important statements especially related to having power and authority over the demonic
and he says I will build my church this is Matthew 16 18 and 19 I will build my church
and the gates of Hades will not overcome it I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven
whatever you bind on earth we bound in heaven whatever you loose on earth will be loose in
heaven Jesus saying that when we become Jesus followers as a part of a local church we've
been given authority through the keys of the kingdom the keys of the kingdom to ask to seek
to find that when we bind something on earth in prayer when we believe God for something here on
earth it's bound in the fourth dimension it's bound in the heavenly realm also when we lose
something when we release something here on earth it's released in the fourth dimension and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against the church men and women I don't know where you go to church
if you're part of a fellowship but you need to be in a spirit-filled word-rooted powerful church
wherever you live because God has given this kind of authority and this kind of power to the church
and our churches should be through the keys of the kingdom advancing the light the love the
forgiveness and the power of Christ in every community all over the globe and it is happening
With over 2 billion followers of Jesus across the globe, with churches getting planted,
especially just innumerable amounts of churches being planted in China, India, South America, Africa, it's amazing.
Even in our own city, we're seeing churches planted. It's very, very exciting.
So we are a kingdom people with the keys of the kingdom.
The key is learning to use those keys.
So if you're not a part of a prayer gathering where you guys pray, here at The Road, we pray at noonday every day.
I should say Monday through Friday from noon to one.
And we come and we bring the keys of the kingdom and we ask God for stuff.
And we know that when we're asking, when we're seeking, we're knocking, we're pushing back the gates of hell.
And gates were always a defense, a defense opening over forts back in Jesus' time.
So Jesus is speaking of a church that's attacking the gates of hell.
It's a defense measure.
So Satan and demonic power should be on the defensive because the church is being so offensive.
That's through prayer, that's through evangelism, that's through discipleship.
All of those areas are a part of advancing the kingdom.
So I challenge you, be a part of a church that's advancing the kingdom.
I challenge you, you're the church, that wherever you go, you would know you have power and authority over the enemy.
Not because you're so special, but because God's special.
Because of what he did through his son Jesus, through his death on the cross, and through the resurrection of the cross.
So when you walk in the ways of the kingdom, God's going to anoint you, he's going to empower you with his kingdom, authority, and power.
So walk in that, grow in confidence, that's why we're doing these series.
That's why I just keep checking out all the different episodes and all the different series that we're doing through Empower You.
Because that's the point, empowering you to change the world.
Empowering you to make a difference against darkness, against satanic power.
So I hope this is helpful to you, share it with others.
Let's be the empowered church, let's go forth knowing the power and authority of Christ.
The power and authority of the cross, the power and authority of the resurrection, that is in us.
Walk that out, knowing that the gates of hell shall not prevail against you.
So God bless you man, and you guys go forth in a mighty way.
Empower You