The Strategy of Distraction

In “The Strategy of Distraction,” part of the Pastor’s Choice series, Pastor Derrick Overholt begins with something most of us rarely experience anymore: silence. Two minutes without noise quickly exposes how uncomfortable stillness has become and how instinctively we reach for our phones, fill the quiet, or distract ourselves from what is happening in our own hearts.

Derrick Overholt speaks honestly about the way constant noise, notifications, entertainment, news, work, and even good responsibilities can dull our spiritual senses. Many of us are overstimulated, anxious, and spiritually tired, not simply because life is busy, but because we have forgotten how to be quiet before God. Like Martha distracted by many things while Mary sat at Jesus’ feet, we can be near holy things and still miss the voice of Jesus because our attention is scattered.

Drawing from Ephesians 6, Derrick reminds us that our battle is not merely physical. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil. One of the enemy’s most effective strategies is not always obvious rebellion, but subtle distraction: a flood of noise, gradual desensitization, and an obsession with the visible world that keeps us from recognizing the spiritual battle around us. The devil does not need to be loud if he can keep us too busy to listen.

This message also reframes God’s warnings in Scripture as loving protection, not lifeless rules. Like a parent pulling a child’s hand away from fire, God’s commands guard us from the things that burn our hearts, families, and futures. Through passages like Psalm 46:10, Exodus 14:14, 1 Kings 19, and Luke 5:16, Derrick points us back to a biblical pattern: God often speaks in stillness, Jesus regularly withdrew to pray, and the people of God must learn to hear their Commander before crisis comes.

Derrick offers practical steps for fighting distraction and staying spiritually sharp: guard what enters through your eyes and ears, take inventory of your digital habits, schedule intentional digital fasts, put on the full armor of God daily, stay connected to accountable Christian community, and practice immediate repentance before pride and condemnation harden the heart.

If your mind feels loud, your prayer life feels distant, or your soul feels dull, this message is an invitation to turn down the noise and make room for God’s conviction, healing, direction, and peace.

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Transcript

Pastor’s Choice And A Bold Start

Derrick Overholt 0:02

The Lord is really walking through this uh Pastor's Choice Sermon series where each pastor's kind of talked about what's been on their heart. Um over this year, God has really been telling me three big things, and really the one that I'm gonna talk about today is kind of a fresh one that the Lord's been dealing with me on. And so I'm gonna switch mics. There we go. So I don't have to carry this thing anymore. I just realized I was still holding a mic while I had another mic right here. And so the Lord's been really walking with me through it. And so uh to begin today's service, uh I just want to take a moment of silence. And

Two Minutes Of Silence

Derrick Overholt 0:46

so if we could just be here for a moment, is it awkward? That was

Why Quiet Feels So Hard

Derrick Overholt 2:31

two minutes of silence. And what's become awkward is actually a gift from God. The reason why I wanted to start this, I felt like the Lord laid it on my heart to say, you can't be quiet. It's uncomfortable for us. And this is what he's been saying to me. And what normally happens why at the end, did somebody pick up their phone, play with their phone for a minute? Did somebody start whispering to one another? Did somebody look at me like this dude's gone crazy? Is he alright? Right? How long is this going to be? Does he know what he's doing? But it's it's a gift from God to step into silent spaces. And so because we are so afraid of silence, we take out this phone most of the time, we take out iPads, we take out the TV, and we fill this blank space, and we instantly have to fill it with Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, TVs, books. Most of us in the room can't even go to sleep without having some type of noise going on. Running around. The world gets louder, louder, and louder, and our lives become crazy and chaotic, and we can't even hear the voice at all. If we're low key at all. We might hear a single word from God. This was an example. Thank you guys. That was a lot of work for them to even do that four minutes of thing here. But that is what our lives look like on a daily basis. This thing right here, the watch that I took off this morning, they're a distraction. And not only that, there's so many other distractions. So a couple of weeks ago, when I opened the service, I felt like the Lord gave me the word about distraction, and I spoke about it for about four minutes with Mary and Martha. And there they were in the room with Jesus. And Martha was so consumed with all of the things that needed to be done that she missed the point of the king of glory being in her living room. Mary didn't. And she sat very quietly at the feet of Jesus. And it was not by coincidence that Patty's talking about why she had this morning. We have crazy anxiety. We struggle with our minds being all over the place and racing and going through all this stuff. Many times it's self-induced. Because we've always got to be feeling the quiet spaces up. This year, the word that has been, one of the words that we're given was sharpened Christians are prepared for crisis. Well, how many people know how to sharpen a knife? Not a lot of us, because like it's precise, but it's some of us. Can I sharpen a knife by taking the knife and banging it on a stone? But it makes noise. Why ain't that working? Can I sharpen a knife by running it through cardboard? No, that's worse for them than anything, really. No, we have to lay that knife down on a precise angle and slowly bring it over the right kind of stone. Just because there's noise going on when I bring a knife to a grinding wheel doesn't mean I'm sharpening the grinding wheel or sharpening the knife. I'm destroying the knife. It will not get sharp on a big loud grinder. But when we lay it down and quietly and precisely pull it over the right kind of stone, the edge of that knife becomes sharp. It's not the chaos and stuff. And that's what we're doing in our lives. We're dulling ourselves on a constant basis with all the noise of this world. And we're not ready for if crisis meets because we can't listen. Oftentimes we hear that we are the army of God. But with the example I just gave and all the noise going on, how in the world are we ever going to hear the marching orders? We're not. And the truth is, is I don't want to be in a war that I don't even know I'm in. Right? So I need to be quiet and I need to hear what the commander is teaching and what he's saying and which direction we're going.

The Battle You Cannot See

Derrick Overholt 8:16

One of the big things that I felt like the Lord has given me this year is that we are, and I talked about it with the youth this week, that we are in a spiritual world and we don't even notice it. See, in the book of Genesis, God said, Let us make man in our image. That's the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit together saying, Let us make man in our image. So we are made in the image of God, in the image of Him, He created us. So we also have spirit. You don't deny this because where do we go when we die? Our spirit goes to heaven until the new earth is made and we raised up, right? So you already believe that. But how much do you really believe that? Because have you thought about what's going on in the spiritual realm of your life right now, at this day, when you woke up this morning? No, I haven't. And it it just came to me that I am living a physical life. When the battle that's actually being raged for my soul is in the spirit. Ephesians chapter 6, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers and against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. We are fighting a battle in the physical that's actually in the spiritual. And we don't understand why our anxiety is so high. Because we're not actually paying attention to the devil's schemes all around us at all times. Now I'm bringing this to you today as something that I'm currently walking through. These sermons like this, they hit hard and they get a little solemn because I'm walking in it now. So if it's hitting you, welcome to the game because it's hitting me as well, and it has. I've been jumping through scripture and praying over the church over the last few months, and the Lord's been showing me this uh this clear blueprint of what the animals and the enemy's tactics have become. And the main tactic that the devil has right now is to stay incognito, means to stay out of the limelight. Listen, the devil doesn't have to show up in our community and manifest himself and start flopping around on the floor. The devil doesn't have to show up in the community and wreak havoc over here to get somebody's attention to worship him. Because our culture is bowing down to him at every moment. So you don't have, he doesn't have to do anything. He's already got the world. And that's why the scripture says that he is the ruler of the world. So a few weeks ago, it was about six weeks ago, I guess, I taught, I had a sermon on a word that God gave me called desensitization, which I have learned how to say now. And if you haven't heard it, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. But instead of sudden things that he would do to bother you, he brings in small little things. And the Lord gave me the word sin shots. And that's one of the big ways that he comes in and he gets us. And then isolating the spiritual, which is what I'm talking about right now, the ultimate goal is to trap people entirely within the bonds of physical world, keeping our eyes locked on the things around us, keeping our eyes locked on immediate gratification on material success, on our anxieties. We completely forget that we are on a spiritual battleground. If we come to the realization that we're in a battle in the spirit realm, but that the Lord's already won that battle, then we can come and we say, Lord, I see what's going on, I see the enemy's plan, but you won the battle. And you've given me the authority through the blood that you shed for me, and I will no longer deal with those things. Then our eyes turn to the Father. Instead of our eyes looking at the physical of what's going on. Well, I can't pay my bills and I've got my job, like if I'm fixing to lose a job, or I've got this going on and I'm sick, and I've whatever of all these physical things turn our minds to the real battle in the spirit. The Lord has already won that battle. He's already won all battles, but we turn to him and we see that, devil, you do not have a place and you will not wreak havoc on my mind without me realizing it. Because, see, the devil, if we're not paying attention to the spiritual realm, the devil's throwing images at us and things constantly to make our mind this anxious mess of chaos. And we're not turning and going, get out in the name of Jesus. We're going, what is going on in my life that this is going on? Why I don't understand? Why is this going

Noise As The Enemy’s Strategy

Derrick Overholt 13:51

on? Well, the third thing I feel like the Lord is talking to me about and us is the flood of noise that we just had an example for. The enemy doesn't want to force himself outright. He just simply wants to keep us very busy, overstimulated, bombarded with a ton of notifications, distract us with entertainment, keep the modern chaos of this world at the forefront of our mind at all times. You don't understand. Most of what you see out in the world is actually Satan's scheme to keep your eyes off of Jesus. That TV show that makes you have some fear inside, that's the devil's plan. The agendas that's out here in the world that are totally against the scripture, but that have been brought in over the last 50 years silently, little by little, that's the devil's plan. He's gotten you okay with them. And in the spiritual rim, he's dulled us. And we're no longer sharp. We're a bunch of dull blades with rust all over them. And they're not good for much of anything. You know, they find a knife under the water that's been rusting for 200 years and they try to pull it out, it does nothing. And that's what we have become because we're not paying attention to what the devil's schemes are. Because the devil knows that the very moment that we get quiet, his grip on us slips. He knows that when we're quiet, we will hear conviction. Conviction brings repentance, which brings us closer to God. We will hear direction, we will hear God's plan. But it's alarming how blind we have become. We even have internal negotiations with ourselves. Well, you know, I probably shouldn't watch that. Well, then why are you? Why am I? Oh, but what if that no, no, it's really not. I'm overthinking this. No, like listen to the spirit. Stop playing it off. Why are we trying to talk ourselves into things that will definitely dull our blade? So many things in our life that we we make a decision, we have to look at the spiritual side of it. You know, when I go on vacation, I have to think about where I'm going and what I might see to be sure that I keep my eyes and my ears safe from the devil's schemes. Because all it takes is on the first day to see something and get locked in and be dulled all week long to a place that could have been a type of relaxation. See, we we have to look into the Word of God and realize that there are a number of warnings for us. Now, unfortunately, today a lot of people see the Bible as a set of rules. It's not just like uh your kids not sticking their hand in a fire or playing with a stove, it's not just a set of rules. If the creator of the universe put together words from thousands of years that all came together and tells you about a loving God who created his favorite creation, who then fought for his favorite creation with his son's blood to buy it back and gives us a way to follow him. If he has some things he says, do not do, it's the exact same thing as you and I looking at our child and saying, don't put your hand in the fire. But no, the world right now, it's really sad because some of us have even done this, and some of us are doing it right now with our families. We look over at our growing child who's a teenager, and we see them sticking their hand in the fire, and in the spiritual rim, the skin is falling off. And yet we look at them and go, yeah, it's okay. Let me help you figure out a way to live with your hand in the fire because that's really what you want to do. And I'm gonna keep helping you, even though I know that this is destroying your life. And you look, well, but my child's gonna think I'm just a bunch of rules and I'm like. Okay, that's your job, is to protect them from getting burned. And if your whole life needs to be turned upside down to keep our children from being burned, then that is what we do. Because we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against the devil's evil schemes to destroy our life and our families' lives. So when we look at the Bible, we have to stop looking at it like it's just a bunch of rules that I gotta follow. No, hello. The creator of the universe knows what's best for his creation to keep it safe. So when you look at all the things in the Word of God and it says, don't do this or don't do that, or hey, I got a warning for this and a warning for that, it's to keep you from being burned. It's to keep you from constantly being burned. And it's to keep other people, his creation, from being burned. So let's look at the word of God as more of what's our Father in heaven trying to protect us from? We shouldn't look at it as, oh man, if God's real, he's taking all the fun out. It's really fun to be burned all the time. It's really fun to lose my heart. It's really fun to have all these troubles and anxiety. Oh, that's really that fun. No, sin's miserable. So it gives us some scriptural warnings in the spirit realm. Now I'm only going to bring up a few because they're all over the place in the Word of God. But 1 Timothy 4, chapter 1, verse 1. Now the Spirit expressively says, of course, that's the Holy Spirit talking here, that in latter times some will depart the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. Y'all, that is in so many churches right now. My wife and daughter went to a church the other day with certain types of flags hanging all over the outside. And the moment she said it, I had a vision of the name of the church, Church of Satan, was what popped up in the vision. And yet it has a lot of members at the Church of Satan down the street. And we ourselves could do the same if we continue to walk away from spiritual things, seeing that the devil's plan is to quietly, over a number of years, get us to be okay with the things that are ungodly. Little by little by little, we could become apostate. We could become the church in Revelation that God's like, I'm gonna spew you out of my mouth. Lord, help us to never be that. Ephesians 4, chapter 14, warning us not to be tossed to and fro by the waves of carried about by every wind of doctrine, by humankunning and craftiness of deceitful schemes. And Jesus, even talking with the parable of the sower, said, and he directly warned that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the word. All this noise chokes out the life. The devil's schemes are to be quiet and to let you fall into a pit. Because it's all around us. Just turn around. Follow the world for one second, and you're in its pit. So God has given us this thing of silence. And when I say this, I'm not saying that you just be quiet all the time. I'm not saying just like what we did earlier for two minutes. But yes, in prayer time we should. Problem is, is we talk too much because we're trying to fill up the space. We're not the first ones to do it. It was written about in the 12 disciples. I mean, there's Jesus on a mountaintop with Moses and and uh Elijah. And was it Peter that says, Well, do you want me to build something right now? I'll do it right now. Could you just be quiet and be here for a second? Be quiet and listen. And at that moment, was then God's voice came out, and those two disappeared and said, This is my son. Right here. Look at him. Stop just trying to work it all up all the time. Stop trying to figure out a plan. Listen. Put your eyes on him. Follow him. Well, I don't know what's going to happen next. You don't need to know what's happening next. Look upon your leader, our Savior in heaven.

God Speaks In Stillness

Derrick Overholt 23:52

A few scriptures to kind of point toward that is Psalm 46, 10. She said it earlier. Be still and know that I am God. One of the good ones that I love is in Ephesians chapter 14, and Moses is leading the Israelites out to get away from Pharaoh, and Pharaoh's coming at them. And there's a huge sea in front of them. And you again kind of mentioned this as well. Mountains in our way. But here's a sea in our way. And thousands of people shouting at Moses, how could you bring us here? Was there not enough graves in Egypt that you want us to be buried here? And the noise, could you just imagine the chaos that was going on? What was Moses' words? The Lord will fight for you, and all you have to do is be silent. Did he really say that or did he look at them all and say something else? Could y'all just no, I'm won't say it because there's kids in the room, and my wife hates when I say that. So all we have to do is stay silent. When you're in the battles in our lives, remember we're in a spiritual battle. The devil's trying to grab at us. Turn to the Lord. God, I know you've won this battle. Satan, I command you to leave me alone right now in the name of Jesus. And then sit in silence and listen. God, what do you want to say right now? Are you trying to show me something in my life in this trial that I might be bringing this trial on myself over and over again? 1 Kings chapter 19, Elijah looked for God in the great wind, the earthquake, the fire. God wasn't in any of the noise, he was in the low whisper. And then we even see it into the New Testament as Jesus himself, the Savior of the world, pulled away on a regular basis over and over again. We see one in Luke chapter 5. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. Well, I don't have time to, I'm so busy. Really? Jesus had three years to do his ministry and yet he did this all the time. Yeah, I know we're in ministry. But if we don't pull away and hear the marching orders from our Father in heaven, what are you marching for? So, as I said earlier, I'm totally dealing with this personally. To give you a little bit of confession, I even while preaching, I feel like I always have to earn something. I feel like I always have to fight through, constantly have to be filling in all the quiet times, working on projects, even here at the church. I feel like if I'm not physically doing something, then I'm not, I don't deserve to be here. But yet I have worked myself into a frenzy. How many of you are doing the same? So if I'm honest, it's not just about a strong work ethic. It's an intentional strategy to keep noise so busy that I can't face the quiet. My racing thoughts demand me to build a project because it won't be quiet. But it'll also stop me from seeing the true condition of my heart. When the Holy Spirit says, Hey son, I'm trying to get you to stop doing that. That's what's bringing this on. Hey, son, I'm trying to get you to move over here. Let someone else do that. And I don't. Silence is a gift from God. And just as much as we get up every single morning and prayerfully, this is what you do, you at least brush your teeth. I don't know, some of you are shower at night, shower in the morning, but you have personal hygiene that you do every day. Spending time with Jesus is more exp more uh important than that. If you're to go out in the world with stinky breath, it's terrible. But what's even more terrible is when we go out in the world with stinky attitudes. Not convicted. Just lukewarm.

Five Practices To Stay Sharp

Derrick Overholt 28:43

So I found five things that we can do to help battle against these things. We got to guard the gates, the eyes, and the ears. Talked a little bit about it six weeks ago, but it's good. We need to hear it on a regular basis. It is time for us to look out for what's all around us and remember that on those TV shows, the majority of them have an underlying scheme of the devil to pull you away from the Father God. TV shows are meant for you to get caught in and binge them. And then we spend eight hours in a weekend watching our favorite show, and we spend three minutes talking to the creator. And then we go, why does my life seem so upset right now? I'm just telling you my exact experience right now. I'm not pointing fingers at anyone. But if any of this steps on your toes, it's not me. I'm sorry. But we have to guard what is going on around us at all times. These are stopping us from hearing the word of God. Are you listening? This can be a great tool. It's a lousy master. One of my favorite sayings from Pastor Neil. This is ruining our lives because we're stuck on it. And when we took our two-minute little thing earlier, how many people's immediate reaction was to reach into pocket and pull out the phone? It would have been mine if I didn't know what was going on. And I know this because throughout this week I tested myself in many areas. And somehow, this thing is living, somehow, attached to my hand. And I didn't even notice the devil had put this thing into my life and got me where this was what I looked at the most. Again, be a good tool. But when it becomes the thing that we do the most, I would venture to say that might even be our God. If we pick up that phone to be entertained at every silent spot in our life, it's probably our God. Because if we spend 20 hours a week on our phone, which you would be surprised if you looked at your phone and its battery usage, uh, the average would probably be three to four hours per day of it being used. Check it out. And how much did we pray? How much do we talk to the Lord? How much do we spend that time with Jesus? Again, this is my own conviction right now, but I know I'm not alone. So we need to take a digital inventory, we need to see what's going on, we need to see what we're watching, and we need to take and remove the things that are ungodly. Psalm 101.3 says, I will set no wicked thing before my eyes. So if it pricks our conscience the first time, it won't the next. So listen the first time. Put it away. You don't need another app on your phone. You don't. We all need to go back to stinking flip phones. I wish I could. We need to schedule digital fasts to reclaim the silence. I did this some time back. And uh, well, it was during our prayer and fasting time. It's 21 days. Oh, it's amazing. And I'm gonna do it again. I'm going back to my old fossil watch. How many people from my early 2000s wear fossil, right? I'm gonna pull it out of the drawer. I gotta buy a battery, put it back in it because it's been sitting there 10 years. But I'm gonna get the distractions off of my wrist. And I'm gonna turn my phone to where it only notifies me at different times. Because why does this need to be our boss? Why do we need to let everyone in our life have access to every area of our life at all times? Your boss calls you at eight o'clock at night. Why? This is your family time. That boss does not need to call you at eight o'clock at night, and you don't need to answer it. People in your life don't have to be able to call and get you immediately. Listen, this was me just last year. You could call me and call this phone at any time. I would always answer. That's not my family deserves better than that. My wife and kids, they deserve better than that. So after 4:30, I'm sorry. I'll catch back with you at some point in time. It might be today, it might be tomorrow, it might be next week. That's just the way it is. Let's go back to the days of the 90s when I had a cord on my phone that was attached to a voicemail that I went to check a couple times a week and go, oh, dude, Uncle Dan called me four days ago. And you call him and you leave him a message, and then a month or so goes down the road and you finally talk. It was actually kind of nice to not have all of the news and everything traveling around at lightning's pace. Why do I need to know what's going on in Venezuela two seconds ago? Why? I can't do anything in Venezuela. Like, why do I need to know everything that's going on in Russia 30 seconds ago? Like, I can't do anything about it, but I can pray for them. So I don't need to sit for 30 minutes and see it all and get my brain all in a messed up place, right? So silence forces us to confront the true condition of our heart. A Holy Spirit to convict us and heal us and speak without competition. We need to put on the full, this is number three, put on the full armor of God daily. Now, if you've missed a couple of weeks of our Wednesday nights, go back, listen to them. They're talking about it. It's really great. So we need to put on all of the armor of God. And this is from later on in chapter six of Ephesians. It says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. We are in the evil day right now. We are there. And having done all, stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, which means that we're going to have to uh push off the lies. And having put on the breastplate of righteousness, which means we're going to have to let the Lord call out sin. And as shoes for your feet, having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace, we're going to have to walk in the truth that God's got all this. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, all times, all day, every day, all the time, with all prayer and supplication. This is putting on the armor of God. Daily. Wake up. Lord, I'm putting it on now. I need you. Number four, we need to stay anchored in the flock.

Accountability Keeps You In The Flock

Derrick Overholt 36:57

Wolves go after the lone sheep standing out in the field. When that sheep got distracted, it was once apart just a couple weeks ago. But he got distracted over here and he's moving over here and he gets devoured. Completely devoured. We need to be in the flock. Because when we are together, the wolves don't want to come inside. So surround yourself with a few trusted, mature Christians who have the permission to look into your life. Listen, guys, one of the greatest freedoms that I have received in the past five years is accountability. Wait, what? You have to tell everybody your deepest, darkest stuff that you're dealing with every moment. So freeing. Because the devil can't use it anymore. It's been exposed. I've got somebody helping me to keep away from it. It is the most freeing thing that I have experienced is accountability. And if you are you or I are too prideful to let somebody into our life, then it's clear that there's a sin holding you back from God. Clear. Because you shouldn't be hiding anything. Husbands, if your wife doesn't know the code to this and have full freedom to walk through it, you need to check your spirit immediately, right now, and go repent to your wife right now. Women, the same thing. There should be no secrets between a husband and a wife. Husband and wife should be the type of friend that they know everything about everything. But you also, if you're going to have that type of relationship, you have to be all right with them screwing up every now and then because they're human. So stop condemning just because you did what? And then it's like a week. Yeah, of course he's never going to tell you what he did ever again. Because you didn't give the grace that you would hope somebody would give to you when, not if, when you do the same. So we should not have any locked areas in our life. I get people now and then they grab my computer and they're like, hey, can I use your computer? I'm like, yeah, yep. They're like, well, uh, do you want to type in a code? Nope. Here's the code. Alexandria 626. Have at it. Because there's nothing on it I'm hiding. I ain't worried about it. Right? If you can't do that, there's a reason. Check your spirit, talk to Jesus, repent now, find accountability, and move into freedom.

Immediate Repentance Breaks Strongholds

Derrick Overholt 39:44

The last one, number five, practice immediate repentance. Something that I found that the devil really loves to do is use condemnation. And so when we take a sin shot, I'm horrible. Man, I can never get over this stuff. It's never gonna be ending. I'm always gonna live this way. I'm always this, that, or the other. And then two or three hours goes by, and oh, this is terrible. Or what's worse, and one thing that I do with my wife, and I try to do it as much as I can when I wrong her or the family, my children, I apologize to them a lot. And I try to do it immediately because if I let 20 minutes go by, just 20 minutes, a hardened wall begins to block inside my heart. And I start getting prideful and thinking it's their fault. They did it, they got me to this point, they brought me here, they this, they that. And then all of a sudden, four or five hours goes by and I'm still dwelling on what they did, what they this, and not dealing with what I just did. So soon as you do it, immediate repentance, immediate. I've stopped in conversations and said, wait, I am so wrong, and I need to repent now. Please forgive me. But then when I wait, man, the type of effort it takes inside of me to open my mouth and repent, it's excruciatingly painful. But do it right up front. That's pretty easy. There's grace in that moment. So immediately let the Holy Spirit convict your heart. And the moment you feel it, the moment that you feel you're in the wrong, stop everything. I am sorry, I just said this and I know I shouldn't have said it. Please forgive me. I'm gonna work on this in the future. Let's back up a little bit and start this conversation over because I totally took it down the wrong way, you know, and deal with what has just happened. But immediate repentance keeps the soil of our heart soft and maintains clear spiritual vision and completely breaks the legal right of the enemy to have a stronghold in your mind. Because when we, it's almost like I've construction, we see it all the time around here. But when you've got, if you've seen the machine that rolls over and makes things compact, have you anybody ever tuck a shovel or something and tried to dig into that? It's hard. But has anybody ever walked up to a pile of dirt that a dump truck has just dumped? You can just go real easy. That's what happens in our soul when we don't repent immediately. Every minute is a steamroller over and over and over and over until the soil of our soul rocks hard and the devil takes hold and says, now it's a stronghold. I can get you there. And every single time he tries to get you.

Prayer To Quiet The Noise

Derrick Overholt 43:06

What we're gonna do now is just take a couple minutes on the flip side. We're gonna pray. Jordan, if you come up and play some. I'm not gonna make it super awkwardly quiet like earlier. But during this time is not a time of us to uh ask God for a word for the church or anything like that. It's between you and Jesus. If the Lord gives you something, I highly encourage you to write it down. Please take a pen, pull out the notes on your phone, put it in there. But don't pull out your phone to look at Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, any of those. Leave those where they are. Some of you need to take your watch off. Go ahead, take it off, put it down. So we're gonna let Jordan play just a little bit. Father, I'm bringing this uh message today from self reflection, what I'm currently dealing with and what I feel like you have set in. My life and I pray and I believe for the church as well that we need to heed the spiritual warnings, Lord, of this desensitization that's happening inside of us and inside this world. God, that uh we are isolating into the physical world only and we are not looking around at what the devil's trying to do. We're not paying attention, and the flood of noise in this world is causing us to stay distracted so much that we don't hear your voice. So, God, I pray right now, Lord, for just want to take this moment to practice what it means to stop and listen. In Jesus' name, Dad, give us strength to push off the things of the world and focus on who you are. God, I pray, Lord God, that we would clearly hear your voice at all times, in every moment of every day, in the troubles, in the trials. Even when we're in the valley of the shadow of death, help us to fear no evil. For you are with us, your rod and your staff that comfort us. God, that you would, in the midst of everything that's going on, prepare a meal in front of my enemies so they know we aren't scared. We're gonna enjoy a meal with the one who already won the battle. Help us as we walk out into this week. Help us to be missionaries in everything we do, that we don't live two-sided lives. Help us, Father, to see the schemes of the devil so that we are totally uh in tune with you and see shin send shots before they ever come in our direction. God, that you would quieten the noise. Quiet the noise that we get used to peaceful silence to hear your voice. Not just one word here or there, but sentences, conversations. In Jesus' name. Touch my brothers and sisters. Fill them with your holy presence. Give them strength this week. Give me strength this week. Touch us all, Father. In the holy name of Jesus of Nazareth. Amen.