I Just Didn't Know

October 31, 2004

Morning Worship

Text: Revelation 12:7-12

Subject: Satan Thrown Out of Heaven

Title: I Just Didn’t Know

In case any of you haven’t noticed, I like to preach. The more I do it the more I feel called to do it. And as I preach I go through seasons where I know that I am supposed to deal with certain areas such as healing, faith, prayer etc… Now as I have been spending time in prayer concerning where we go from here, the Lord is giving me clear direction.

We have been spending a lot of time in the area of basic Christianity and how we are to live our lives. Now I am being led to take you to different areas of Christianity to show you, not what is expected of you, but what is promised to you.

When I worked in construction down south we had a young man right out of high school come to work on our crew. Now our crew was noted for being able to take the time to train new carpenters, but this young man, we’ll call him Ox (we told the boss that he was a strong as an ox and as smart as one too!) –anyhow, Ox just couldn’t get it. We would show him, and help him understand for the moment, but when it came time for the next house, he just didn’t get it. What made it difficult was that everything he needed to know was right there for the asking, but he would stumble through the job doing things wrong and struggling all the way. When we would ask him, “Why did you do that?” he would reply every time, “Uh, I didn’t know.”

Many in the church stumble through life without direction or purpose and if you asked them why I am sure the answer would be very much the same as my young friend’s answer, “Uh, I just didn’t know!”

So now it is time for the church to rise up to become what it is supposed to be. I pray that as I preach today that you will take to heart what I am saying.

Revelation 12:7-12:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

Key verse:

Verse 11, “and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.”

I. SPIRITUAL WARFARE EVERY DAY (verse 7)

A. Warfare in Heaven. Do you know that there are dozens of conflicts going on around the globe as we speak? We don’t often hear about much other than Iraq or Afghanistan, but there are battles taking place every day. But those are taking place in the physical realm. The bible tells us that there are battles taking place in the spiritual realm and those battles are continual. The apostle Paul says that as Christians, we are in a battle every day of our lives. “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.” Our battles are taking place in the heavenlies with God’s angels fighting battles for us against the forces of the god of this world. That battle begins as soon as we call on God to act on our behalf for a certain situation. (We don’t have to fight the battle; but we initiate the fight) Sometimes the battle is difficult. We know that it took an angel twenty-one days, after Daniel prayed, to break through the spiritual stronghold that had been set up around the nation of Persia and he needed the help of Michael to do that. So every time people call on the Lord for help the battle begins.