"Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan!'" Matthew 4:10

Today you woke up, congratulations. You are already one step ahead and above the competition. I have talked about this a few times before (Loaded on 5/30/18 and The Upside Down on 6/1/18) and I am bound to talk about it some more in the future, but we are in a constant daily war. The thing is we already know who is going to win and that is our God. Everyday is a new battle to the war and we choose who wins based off who we feed (Wolves on 5/22/18), either the flesh or the spirit. God wants us to choose him daily and everyday is a second chance to make him first in our life. Every morning (I try) to start my day off with a prayer. The first thing I do when I wake up is thank God for another day, I was once told it is a blessing and that we should give him praise. Jesus taught how to pray, he taught us the “Lord’s Prayer”. The Lord’s Prayer is in Matthew 6:9-13 which says, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debuts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, and reliever us from the evil one.” At the end of the the Lord’s prayer I pray or help for that day, for God to help give me strength against the devil and all that he throws at me that day and allow me not to fall for his temptations. I pray that he is with me helping me guiding me in him and in the Spirit. A good old fashion “Not today Satan”. The song I chose to go with this verse is Not Today Satan by KB featuring Andy Mineo, off of his last studio album, Tempo. KB is a lyrical assassin and has a way with words and the Word. In the first verse (KB’s) bars 1-3 say, “Yeah, I live my life on the regular, ayy; But his attacks are perpetual, ayy; Forbidden Fruit seems so edible, ayy.” Everyday is a new day, we try to live it to the fullest. We have to live life for God and for his glory. The devil is constantly trying to catch us off guard, trying something new and old to catch us off balance. 1 Peter 5:8 says, “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” We have to be sober-minded. We have to be ready and aware since the devil is constantly throwing temptations at us. The devil knows our weaknesses and when we are at our weakest, he tries to take full advantage of it. He knows our weaknesses better than we do. He tempts us with the Forbidden Fruit, he wants us to fall. We cannot fall for it, even if it seems so right and it is what we want. Bars 6,10, and 15 say, “So I’m under armor like I’m Curry, I’m just covered by the blood, OJ Simpson with the defense.” Can we just take a moment to appreciate the Steph bar, like what!!! Ephesians 6:10-18 says, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, 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. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” He connected the popular armor of God scripture with the outspoken Christian, first ballot Hall of Famer Steph Curry which is endorsed by the brand Underarmour. Supa hot fiya, but “I am not a rapper”. Little does the devil understand is that we have the best defense, the best defender, ran by the best defensive coordinator. This is a war, we have to be protected and nothing is stronger than the armor of God. We are saved from sin thanks to the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus. He died of this world in order for us to do the same and live in the light and have an eternal life with him in heaven.  His blood redeemed us from a life destined for eternal darkness. His blood is the ultimate sign of his grace and mercy. Isaiah 41:10 says, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” First off OJ did it, I am sorry, but come on. But that is not the point, he was acquitted of his murder charges. He had the best lawyers that money can buy and boy did they work (this case is one of the reasons why the Kardashian’s are so famous, shoutout Rob). It is the same with God. He is the best defender that money can buy, and we basically got him for free. Now onto the second verse (Andy Mineo’s). Bars 1-4, and 5 say, “Yeah, speak of the devil, ayy; I think I know where he live, ayy; I think  he is politics, ayy…Yeah,  I think he made the Explore page.” I am not a fan of politics, never have been and probably never will. I just think they are all shady. I think this is a place the devil has a foothold on around the world. But in the end I also trust in my God, that everyone that is in power is there for a reason; and that he will use it all for his benefit. Politics, money, and (social) media are three things that the devil uses for his benefit. They “rule” this dark world. They have huge influences on all of us from the youth to the old and the devil uses this to his advantage. I have tripped myself a handful of times because of social media (Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram — the unholy trinity of Social Media), just take a listen to Killing Spree by Logic featuring Ansel Elgort (warning: very profane language). The media in a whole is a monster, everyone is always glued to their phone trying to get caught up with what is hot or not, our phones are always flooded with the bad news and not what is good in the world. Bars 7 and 9-12 say, “I’m askin’, ‘Lord, give me more faith’… Ayy gotta keep my face north; And I know my days short; So I stay woke, never daze off; ‘Cause, uh, evil never takin’ no days off.” I pray man, I need more faith and the world needs more faith (Mark 9:23-25). We got to have our heads up both figuratively and literally. We have to have our heads up when we are down, we have to have our heads up to God, and we have to have our heads up so we do not turn or run into the devil’s schemes. We have to have our eyes open and have to be ready for the devil’s next move. We have a limited time on this earth, we are all going to die one day. We have to make the most of our time and live life to the fullest. We have to live with love and peace, spreading his Word, we have to contribute and try to complete the Mission that Jesus started. We cannot take any days off, we have to always be on guard and ready. The devil takes no days off, he is always ready to trip us and to catch us at our weakest. We are almost done here, we are now on the third verse (KB’s). The first two bars say, “I know your ways, Already read all your plays.” The thing about the devil is that he is not that smart, even thought he thinks he is. He is very repetitive, he tries and tries again. He has been throwing the same things at us over and over again. He even threw what he throws at us at Jesus (Matthew 4). He tempted him the same way he tempts us, if you have been tempted with it the chances someone else has been tempted with it is extremely high, 100%. He has a playbook, but it is has very few plays. We have a playbook too, the Bible. It has many plays, and they have proven time after time to be better, smarter, and stronger than the opposition. We have to know our playbook, front to back (better than we know our favorite songs). Bars 8 and 10 say, “Buildin’ this place right on top of your gates…My squad too deep.” Matthew 16:18 says, “And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.” Jesus established the church, he is the one that started it. He built it strong, he built it on top of a sturdy foundation (Luke 6:46-49). He built it on top of Hades in spite of him. The devil is no match to Jesus, he is no match to us because of who we got on our side. We have the best team, we have the best coach, we have the best player, we have Hall of Famers left and right. We roll deep and we have to back each other up, we have to help each other out. We cannot do this alone. Bars 16-18 say, “Grandma said, don’t let him fool ya; He bring up your past; Boy, bring up his future.” O not let the devil fool you, like I said, he uses every advantage he can get a hold of, he will do anything to get the upper hand. He catches us at our weakest and he knows our weak points, where we lack faith. He will bring up our past, but all we have to do is bring up his future. We already know who wins the war. Jesus has already defeated him for us, the war was over before it started. He is no match to our God. Revelations 20:7-10 says, “And will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth—Gog and Magog—and to gather them for battle. In number they are like the sand on the seashore. They marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God’s people, the city he loves. But fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.” Bars 20-22 say, “Your name is racist, hatred, graceless; All disgraces trace straight to your engagement; Deface the nations but on that day you face the Maker.” The devil is everything bad in the world. He is the hate, he is the darkness, he is what bring us down, he is what throws us off. He is the drugs, he is the guns, he is the hate and evil that drives people crazy. He will stop at nothing to win, but in the end he will always lose.

“Not today, Satan, not today; Amen” (Outro)

Lord, thank you for being our defense, for being our rock, for being our armor. Thank you for the plays to run against the opponent. You are the best coach and the best player in the league. I pray you are with us giving the strength, faith and wisdom to constantly fight off the devil and his temptations. Give us the words and knowledge to say “Not today Satan”. I pray all this in your son’s name

#LetsBeAMovement