The Battle Line Has Been Drawn
For the past 8 weeks, we have talked about building our lives and our church for Christ. We’ve talked about preparing ourselves for His service, about committing ourselves to becoming His willing servants.
Why? We talked about it last week, because we serve a God who can meet our every need, because we serve a God who sacrificed it all for us on the cross. And with that sacrifice, He gives us the victory. Why wouldn’t we want to share that message with the world?
Our vision for the next 5 years is clear.
5000 salvation decisions
5000 additional people in our SS programs
Double our attendance
500 of you on short term missions projects
500 new churches planted
500 missionaries sent to the field
5000 of you as lay ministers serving in our community
And when we talk about those kinds of goals, that type of God sized vision, you can rest assured that there will be opposition. We have already starting seeing results. We’ve already started seeing God moving like never before in this place.
I received an e-mail this week from a man our church. I want to share it with you:
…You must realize that you are "drawing a line in the sand". You are challenging Satan to battle. You are calling a people to follow Jesus with all of their heart. You are leading a church to touch the world in a way that even your dad never dreamed of. And Jonathan, all of the forces of evil, and influences of the evil one, will be unleashed to try to destroy what God has ordained before the foundations of the world for you to do...
Do not let "doing" take the place of "being". Do not let all of the duties of this mammoth responsibility keep you from the only thing that matters...time with your Father, intimacy with Jesus, and soaking in the Holy Spirit. Do not let good things take the place of the best thing. You will have to daily carve out time to spend in the holy place. And please be aware that satan will try to get you to be so busy "pastoring" that you don’t have time to feed your spirit. When you changed the "wall" to say "Not I but Christ", you challenged satan to war.
I read that e-mail and I must admit, I was stunned. I stopped and read it again and again. Why? Because those words are more true than any of us can imagine.
We have drawn a line in the sand and we are daring Satan to cross it. We are daring Satan to attack us. He has seen what is happening here in our church. He has heard the sermons that we’ve been talking about over these past weeks. He has seen what is happening in your lives. He has seen what is happening in my life. And my friends, HE WANTS TO STOP IT! And he’s willing to go to battle to make that happen.
Today, I want to talk about that battle. I want to talk about those attacks that are most certainly coming. They are on their way. He will come after this church. He will come after you. And he will come after me. And we can’t afford to let him win!
Ex. 10:1 Now the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his servants, that I may show these signs of Mine before him, 2 and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and your son’s son the mighty things I have done in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD.”
Moses was called by God to confront Pharaoh on behalf of the children of Israel. He had been raised in a most unlikely scenario. He had fled Egypt after he killed one of the Egyptian guards. He had been in the wilderness for years where God found him. And now, in this chapter and in the previous chapters, God had brought him to his defining moment.
I read this passage last Saturday night. And even though I read it amidst the hustle and bustle of kids jumping on the bed and kids chasing the dog around my room, these words jumped off the page of that Bible.
I had read the e-mail that I shared with you earlier. And here these words were now being read and I saw what God had planned for us as a church, for us as Christians was exactly what He had planned for Moses in this passage.
God wanted Moses to confront Pharaoh. And, he wants us to confront Satan. To confront Satan and show him the power of almighty God. To show Satan whom we serve. And, so that we, and our children, will see that He is Lord.
Satan is out to destroy what is happening in our lives. He is out to destroy this church. He is out to destroy me as the pastor. He is out to destroy, but we serve God, and God will protect us.
There are four principles I want to share with you this morning that we must all understand if we are to win this battle.
1. The Danger is Real
Eph. 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
The word “wiles” is where we get our word “methods.” Meaning, this is the word for specific tricks, traps and schemes that Satan will use to destroy us. He knows our weaknesses and he knows how to get to us, to make us fail in our lives.
Heb. 12:1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2. The Enemy Is Strong
Eph. 6:12 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.
Meaning, he is of a spiritual realm – beyond any human ability. So, to think that we can defeat him by conventional, human means is ridiculous.
3. Our Protection Is Promised
Ex. 3:2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
Why was the bush not consumed? Because God was there. When we are in God’s control, when he is present in our lives, we cannot be consumed. Nothing can destroy us. But there are three things that are critical for us to understand.
i. Spirit filled prayer
ii. Spirit filled lives
iii. Spirit filled service
I have said this to you many times over the past couple of months. That Satan can never move the hand of God but he can always move the hearts of men if we are not grounded in Christ.
Gen. 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good,
God is in control – He never sleeps or slumbers – He is always intimately aware of the very intents of our heart. And as long as we trust in Him, we have nothing to worry about. Because – and please capture this truth – “We are not without protection!”
The more we trust in the Holy One, the more protection we have! The more fierce the storm, the more fortified the shelter! The more ferocious the fight, the more empowered we become through God Who gives us the victory!
I John 4:4 “…greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
And those who believe and trust Him – not just for the ultimate victory but daily victory in our lives – are the ones who can be assured that they can endure and overcome any spiritual attack!
I John 5:5 NIV Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
And, how do we as Christians overcome the world?
I John 5:4 NKJV For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith!
“The Evil One knows that he can not move the hand of God, so will attempt to change the heart of man!” But He will NOT be able to change the heart of the man or women who daily puts their total trust in God!! This “victory that has overcome the world” is provided for us by God - through our faith! Our faith is the conduit by which God delivers victory in our lives.
Therefore, we need to be rooted, grounded, anchored, steadfast, immovable in our commitment to Christ. Over the last 8 weeks, as our hearts have latched on to a powerful and practical verse –
I Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
4. The Victory Is Ours
Ex. 3:7 And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…
God sees our oppression, He has heard our cries, and He will deliver us. When we changed the "wall" to say "Not I but Christ", we challenged Satan to war. But God will deliver us in the battle. He will help us stand against the “wiles” of Satan.
Ephesians 6:10-14a is one of those portions of scripture that just keeps on repeating the fact that we need to stand our ground as we stand on God’s Word and His power! Notice how many times this passage instructs the believer to STAND:
“10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to STAND against the wiles of the devil. 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to WITHSTAND in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND. 14 STAND therefore…”
Four times in this passage, the Bible says the word “Stand.” You would think that if there is a battle, the Bible should have used the word “FIGHT” or “RUN” or “MOVE.” But, here, the Bible tells the believer that in the middle of the battle, he should “Stand.” Be “immovable.” “Anchored.”
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you.
Literally, the same Greek word for the word STAND (“ISS-stay-mee”) is also the same Greek word for the word “RESIST” or literally, “STAND AGAINST the devil and he will flee from you.”
So, do you want to know how to fight the devil when all this spiritual attack that I have warned you about comes?
Will the Devil come and attack us with all the power of Hell behind him – YES! Then what should you do? “Resist the Devil?” How do you “resist” the devil? By standing your ground in Christ!” By fighting him? No. By challenging him to a spiritual duel? No.
You just Stand firm in Christ and His Word, pray to the Lord, obey His teachings, Draw near to God, and let GOD FIGHT THE BATTLE!
If we were to read further along in Ephesians 6, you would notice that at around verses 15 & 16, you hear about “Shoes of the Gospel of Peace” & the “Shield of faith.”
What is so interesting about these particular shoes is that when in battle, the soldiers who were to hold the shields up were given special shoes to wear. Why? Well, they needed to have special shoes so that when they held up the shields – that were really, really heavy…Note that these shields were NOT the little round shields that a soldier would wear on their arm, the Greek word for this particular shield is “Thuron” (pronounced “thoo-ron”) which is translated “door.”
Literally, these shields were as heavy as a door. Not as tall as our doors today, but 2x3ft and a couple inches thick. They looked a lot like the types of shields that riot police would bring to break up a riotous crowd.
They would take these doors or shields and they stand side by side and make a long line of these shields so as to make a make-shift wall during battle. If you stayed behind these shields during battle, you would be safe.
So, they could not afford any of these soldiers who were assigned to hold these shields to slip and fall down, so they gave them special shoes.
Shoes that had over 1-2 inch spikes nailed into the souls of the shoe so that they, in essence, had make-shift cleats…that, upon position, they would sink these spikes into the ground as they held up that shield.
In other words, they were going no where. They’re not going to budge – even amid the attack. Why? Because they were anchored to the ground.
We need a powerful army of Christians who are fully committed to going to battle. Committed to standing arm in arm, locked together, as we face the formidable opponent that is Satan.
[INVITATION]
1. How protected are you from Satan’s attack? Well, just ask yourself, how often do you commune with God every day? How often do you ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you and give you his thoughts today?....
2. Friend, if you are here today and you are not saved, you are walking around this earth without any protection from Satan! You need spiritual protection – you need a Savior – Jesus Christ.
3. At TRBC, we are committed to equipping our members in the Word of God and discipling them on how to be a committed Christian who is protected from Satan. If you are looking for a church that sees this as a priority, then I invite you to join our church today.
4. Baptism.
If you have never really accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, would you do it right now? Do not delay or put it off. If you would like to receive Christ by faith, pray this simple prayer in your heart:
Dear Lord, I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I believe Jesus died for my sins on the cross, and rose again the third day. I repent of my sins. By faith I receive the Lord Jesus as my Savior. You promised to save me, and I believe You, because You are God and cannot lie. I believe right now that the Lord Jesus is my personal Savior, and that all my sins are forgiven through His precious blood. I thank You, dear Lord, for saving me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
If you prayed that prayer, God heard you and saved you. I personally want to welcome you to the family of God and rejoice with you.
