Who Rules the World?

Does the devil rule the world and God rule only heaven? If the powers of darkness control of the world, that leaves no hope! Jesus said, “Greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.” Jesus came to save the world!

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather around the camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revive them with Cook Cameron.
Well, I’m super excited.
Today because I wanna I wanna share with you a thought that’s been, uh, circling around in my mind.
And, uh, again, we we’ve been going through What has made America such a a unique and prosperous and blessed nation.
Uh, when you think of of the beacon of of liberty and justice for all that has shown out to the world attracting millions of people every year to get to this place.
They don’t come here because they hate this place. They come here because they love our country.
And and and many of them will will will risk their lives and and and swim across seas and climb over walls and and do everything they can under the the cover of night to get into this place because there must be something very special about it.
And we know that it all comes down to the blessing of god, which was the result of a sacred promise made by our forefathers.
And our founding fathers. This idea of a sacred covenant.
I’m going through this book called the American Covenant, the untold story.
Written by my friend, Marshall Foster, and god made covenants with Abraham. He made a covenant with Noah.
He made a covenant with Adam in the Garden of Eden, Jesus came and talked about the new covenant that would be ratified through the shedding of his blood.
COvenants are sacred promises and god always holds up his part of the promise.
The only question is will we? And if we do, it always leads to blessing.
When we choose to sin, we choose to suffer.
And the path of obedience and faith is the path of blessing.
So here’s what, uh, what this has taught me, uh, made me think of to talk with you about.
You know, there are, some who have been taught in the family of faith that the world is destined for destruction.
The idea that that that the devil rules the world, and god rules heaven.
The idea that there’s this that there’s this, um, ceiling Beneath the ceiling is all of the worldliness that is run by satan and the devil and the powers of evil or darkness, whatever you wanna to uh to call them and that god is making heaven the nice place and we’ll get to go there and be with him in the beautiful place in the place where where there is liberty and there is freedom and there is blessing when we get there.
This is all the big trial and the big test. Now, that’s a really good question.
Certainly, this is a world that is full of evil. We see evil all around us.
There’s certainly trials and testings that go on all of the time.
But does that mean satan’s in charge that the powers of darkness are in control?
Well, I don’t think so.
When I read god’s word, that’s not that’s not what I find.
Because number one, if that were true, and the powers of darkness are really running the place, and it’s just gonna get worse and worse until ultimately it is completely destroyed.
Boy, that leaves no hope. That leaves no real hope here on earth for am I gonna tell that to my kids?
Are we gonna tell that to to to our grandkids?
And really what that does is it relegates those of us in the family of faith to the status of misfits who can really only hope to be somewhat of a subculture, but never the primary culture.
But I don’t see that when I read through not only the Bible, but the early writings of the of the founders of our country.
Those early Christians, those those men and women in the in the family of faith who who got ahold of the scriptures early on, and they read them, and it opened up their eyes.
And suddenly, they didn’t believe the governments that that told them that, uh, they needed to bow down to the government authorities that there was a god in heaven who loved them and had a plan for them.
And could deal with all of the problems both inside of their heart and in their homes, in their, uh, in their nation.
Listen to what what, uh, what what what Jesus said. Jesus said, in the world,
you will have trouble. Yeah. Check. But he
said, take heart because I have overcome the world.
He said greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world.
Well, who’s in you?
Well, that that’s the spirit of god,
the Holy Spirit. When we come to him, Uh, by faith, greater is he
in you than he who is in
the world? Who’s that? The devil?
The power of darkness? The prince of the
power of the air, the Bible, uh, has labeled him.
Greater is he and you than he who is in the world. Sounds like, uh, we’ve got the upper hand.
And then Jesus also said,
um, he said, now when he when two thousand years ago, he said to his followers, now is the time for the judgment of this world, this world system.
Remember, Jesus didn’t come into the world to judge the world but to save the world.
God so loved the world
that he sent his son. God created this world.
But Jesus said now is the time for the judgment of this evil world system.
And he said now The prince of this world, who’s that? The devil will be driven out.
He will be cast down. And then he said when I am lifted up, Speaking of the way in which he would die being lifted up on that cross, he said then I will draw all men to myself.
He was talking about a massive power shift in the heavenly places.
Where there was a time when the powers of darkness ruled on the earth.
And he says, but now is the time For the judgment of this world system, the ruler of this world will be cast out and driven away, and I will be lifted up And I will draw all men to myself, and he has been doing that in earnest for two thousand years.
Jesus did die on the cross as he said.
He was buried and then he rose from the grave ascended into heaven, conquering death and sin.
And he sat down at the right hand
of his father in heaven, and he has been ruling in session with the father and the holy spirit ever since and he said all authority has been given to me both in heaven and on earth.
He’s been given authority on earth. To overcome evil. And what did Jesus pray in his great prayer?
He said, lord, may your kingdom come and your will be done on earth? As it is in heaven.
He’s, like, he’s not saying we have to wait to get to heaven to see god’s will being done on earth and his kingdom coming to, uh, on earth, Jesus overcomes the world and he overcomes the world through his power working in the of his people like you and me so that ultimately the great promise would be fulfilled.
You look back in the old Cestimate prophets, and you hear them say that the that the the the knowledge of the glory of the lord will fill the land just as the waters cover the seas.
That the the the glory of the knowledge of god that people that that that people knowing god and knowing his ways will not be a subculture, but it will fill the land just like the waters cover the seas.
That that the whole world would be flooded with the knowledge of the goodness and the ways of god.
And remember, Jesus said, now go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations.
That is turn those nations into nations that have been discipled by me.
He said teaching them everything I’ve commanded you.
So every nation is to learn the the the words of god and to be taught those words and to obey those words, and it results in blessings.
For America, for every nation in Europe, in South America, in Africa, in on every continent around the world.
That’s the big picture.
You know, sometimes I think people, uh, who teach the Bible have less of an understanding of the victory of god on earth than the writers of the movie Lion King.
Do you remember the Lion King?
Well, remember that remember how how, um, little Simba He was lied to by scar, and he was told that he was responsible for his father’s death.
And he goes out into the wilderness, and there he’s lost. He loses his identity.
He loses his his sense of purpose. And then Rafiki goes out to him.
Remember, Rafiki goes out and he says, simba, simba, you’ve forgotten who you are.
And he and he says, follow me. Come to the water.
And remember, he he looks into the water and what does he see?
He sees an an image, but it’s but it’s blurry And then it comes into focus, and he and he realizes it’s the image of his father.
And then he hears the voice of his father, and he says simba, remember who you are.
And Simba begins to remember that he is a child of his father, that he is the son of the king, and the throne belongs to him And remember, Simba runs back into the Pridelands.
He defeats scar once and for all, and he resumes his place as the king of the pride lands and what happens to the pride lands?
The the animals come back.
The shadows begin to fade and the whole land begins to come back into full color and blessing and life.
Why? Because the king is on his throne.
It doesn’t stay in darkness and get destroyed by by scar and by the hyenas.
And I believe that we have a king who is on his throne right now.
And he’s ruling, and he’s reigning, and he’s causing all things to work together good for those who love him and have been called according to his purposes.
And we have great hope. Great hope.
For blessing in the future, if we will continue to humble ourselves and pray and turn from our wicked ways and seek god with all of our heart
to remember who we are We’re no longer slaves
of selfishness and pride.
We no longer need to be fearful of darkness and evil and and corruption and those who who work to to eliminate god from from our schools and our families and and and our nation.
We’ve been set free. We’re no longer slaves of fear.
We are children of god. He created us.
We were born naturally Here on this earth, to enjoy this life, to know god and love him, to be with him forever.
And we are born again when we come to him in repentance and faith.
Man, I I I love the message of the gospel.
I love hearing it
even if I’m saying it
to myself, all alone in my backyard. It reminds me of why I love God.
He didn’t give up on me.
He didn’t just look at me and say, man, you are you’re you’re you’re uh you’re you’re you you you’ve you’ve blown it.
He opened my eyes, and he gave me faith.
He humbled me, and he showed me the way. And he’s still showing me the way.
And I wanna see our nation get back on those ancient paths that lead to the ancient treasures of truth and blessing and freedom for all.
Will you pray with me?
Father, I I I know that there are are are many who would like to remove all mention of your name.
From our courthouses, from our schools, and from our government.
Lord, they’d love to to turn speech about loving god and loving your word into hate speech.
But god words about you and about Jesus and about your law and your ways.
Lord, that is that is the most loving speech that could ever be uttered.
And so I pray that you’d give us boldness to speak of how good you are and to talk about what great things you’ve done for our us personally in our families and foreign nation.
God, please continue to encourage us. Give us hope.
Don’t let us sink under the weight of discouragement or doubt and despair.
Strength my brothers and sisters. UNify us around the truth, lord.
And I pray that you would spark a holy revival in this nation.
So that she once again will be a brightly shining city on a hill for all the world to see.
Sending a message that there is hope, there is life, there is liberty, There’s blessing and there is safety when a nation honors the lord.
Let it be lord. Amen and amen. God bless you guys.
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