The Battle Within us!!!
Acts 16:16-16:31
Matthew 24:6-7, "And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places."
In the Book of Luke 21: 9 - 10, we see these words spoken again, "But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:"
In addition to all the troubles that we face right here on planet earth, there’s a lot of people who are convinced that we should be worried about visitors from another planet
I have a message. That message is that all of us, are fighting even if we don’t realize it... and the only way that you can be victorious in this war is to be on the right side and that right
side is Jesus Christ...
I’m talking about a war between “Good” and “Evil”, a war between the “Powers of Darkness” and the powers of Heaven......a battle between “Light” and “Darkness”. This war is about the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child on the face of the earth, from Adam to the last child that will be born before time ceases to exist as we know it.
Signs of this great battle for the souls of men are everywhere. All you have to do is look around and you can see many who’s got the scars of the battle. Lot’s are wounded emotionally........... some are not able to cope with every day life and its pressures. Some carry around scars of guilt and shame some carry a wounded spirit or a broken heart that sends them over the edge and makes them feel like life just ain’t worth living.
The weapons in this war ain’t bullets, knives, but words, prayer, sin and faith. Satan’s arsenal is filled with temptation, loaded fiery darts of passion and he lays traps, or minefields, where we walk every day. He’s an enemy that’s out to kill, steal and destroy everything that he can, including your very soul.
God’s weapons of this warfare are love, faith, Prayer, a sound mind and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Blood of the Lamb and the Cross of Christ. God’s weapons are more powerful than the devil’s,
BUT none of them can be used without faith and trust in God to make them work.
The problem is that most people won’t use God’s weapons because they don’t want to surrender their will to God’s will.
When an addict is fighting for their life, doing everything in their power to overcome whatever has them bound, it’s a fight with eternal consequences. too many try to fight this battle alone, with “will power” can be strong enough to break that bondage.
Let me tell you that “will power” just won’t work most of the time. If you don’t think that’s so, then tell me how long an addict can go without a fix from the needle or the pill, just relying on will power? How long can the man who needs his cigarette stand the jitters of needing that next puff...there may be a few cases where people claim to overcome these addictions through will power, most fail, and then that adds to their hopelessness and
frustration.
The reason that people can’t overcome these things on their own is that these are not just physical battles with a physical addition. They are spiritual battles that can only be fought, and won, in the realms of the
supernatural.
Listen what the Word of God says about it.
look at the Apostle Paul..... Paul was an addict before he was an apostle. he didn’t take drugs, he wasn’t hooked on tobacco and he wasn’t a man given to drink. Paul was a Pharisee, a man who dedicated his whole life to obeying the commandments of the Law. But he was an addict. He was addicted to ambition and to recognition.
Paul was first called Saul. As Saul, he was a defender of the faith of the Jews and he loved the idea of persecuting Christians He was constantly going before the High Priest to obtain letters of authority to kill, maim and imprison every Christian he could find. Saul was fighting the battle against God. He was trying to win a battle that he couldn’t win. He could do nothing to overcome his desire for recognition and power. In fact, he saw nothing wrong with the way he was living and the things he was doing.
It’s a sad thing to see most of the world living for the devil, and fighting in his army, and not even realizing what they are doing.... No one would admit that they are fighting against God. Every man is right in his own eyes because he is blinded to the truth. The truth is that unless you are living for God and serving Him, and working for Him.. then you are fighting for the devil.
Saul was soon gonna come face to face with the war that was raging around him. He was fighting on the side of Satan, thinking he was doing God a favor, but he was gonna meet the Lord on the Road to Damascus. It was there, in the middle of the day, that he was knocked off of his horse into the dust by the True Light from Heaven. Jesus knew that Saul was a sincere man, sincerely wrong even though he thought he was right; and Jesus also knew that Saul’s sincerity needed some direction.
Saul didn’t know who he was fighting for. He thought that he was doing the right thing the whole time. But he soon found out that he had been in the devil’s army, fighting against the very God that he thought he was serving. It took the power of God to break through his blindness and to shatter Saul’s addiction, and it still takes the power of God to truly break any addiction today. You can’t do it on your own, but with God’s help, according to Jesus, in Mark 9:23, "… If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."
When Saul gave his heart to Jesus on that road to Damascus, God changed him completely, making him a new creation in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Saul’s addiction to power and ambition to the chief among the Pharisees came to an end, broke down forever by the power of God. From that day on, God gave him a brand new name, Paul...... and a new purpose, to preach the gospel; and a new life. All that he had been in the past was forgotten by God and forgiven. The blood of Jesus had washed away every sin and Paul was filled with the Holy Ghost and power.
He kept fighting the same war between the worlds of good and evil, but now he was on the right side for a change.
In the story that we read earlier we can see that Paul and Silas are battling the forces of darkness as they walked the streets of the city. They were going about doing good, praying and ministering, but satan never stops trying to win the war, so even in the simple things of living for the Lord, they are still in midst of the war.
Let that be a lesson to us all. Don’t ever think that the war isn’t raging just because life seems to be good right now.
Your next battle with the devil is just ahead so be ready for it.
The girl that followed them, crying out that these men are the servants of the most high God, and they are here to show us the way of salvation, she wasn’t there to be a part of their evangelistic team. She was fighting in the devil’s army against them and she was doing everything she could to play on the ego and the former addiction that Paul had for recognition and power. What she was saying sounded good, but it soon became evident that her intentions were nothing but bad..
Sometimes we can become involved with people, on a job, or in a relationship that seems so right in the beginning. We can’t see nothing wrong. But before long, something just don’t feel right anymore. That’s called the power of discernment, where the Holy Spirit living in you, begins to warn you that everything is not like it looks....
When the disciples finally rebuked her and cast that spirit of divination out of her, is when they really discovered just how much they were involved in a war of two worlds. satan’s forces came out strong through the people who was around them, especially the men who were making money off of this demon possessed girl.
The disciples were beaten, tortured and then cast into prison and put in chains; locked away to be forgotten.
Satan plays for keeps. He meant to destroy the disciples completely. His methods are subtle most of the time, but he can be as confrontational as he wants to be when the battle gets harder. He was perfectly happy to allow the little girl to do his dirty work for him, but now it was time for the “big guns” to go into action.
Sometimes living for the Lord ain’t fun. Sometimes God allows things to happen to us that we just don’t understand. Paul and Silas may have thought, “Lord, we were doing our best,
so why are we in jail?”
It’s okay to ask questions, but then we need to accept the answer and leave it in God’s hands. Nothing can happen to you that God don’t know about.
Like Paul and Silas in that jail, God will make a way for you to escape the traps that the devil will lay for you. You may face some strong temptations to fall into your old life but don’t quit, keep fighting. All of us face temptation, but that don’t mean that you’ve to give in to it.
And even if you fail, and all of us fail from time to time, God don’t give up on you. He says in Hebrews 4:16, "Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need."
1 John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
Jesus paid the debt for your sin. His blood washes away all sin, that from the past, from the present and for the future. You can’t do nothing that the Blood of Jesus can’t wash away. All you have to do is repent of the sin, ask for forgiveness and then get up and walk on in your service to the Lord.
1 Corinthians 10:13, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
Matthew 28:18, Jesus said, "… All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."
As an extra bonus for their faithfulness, God gave them an opportunity to preach the gospel to the very men who had them in jail. The jailor’s whole family was saved.
All of us here have been victims of addictions of one form or another. Any sin that controls your life is an addiction, and only the power of God could break the hold that sin had on you.
If you’re here tonight and still battling sin in your life, God is here to set you free. You’re not here by accident, but by appointment. God chose to lead you here today, to this church, and to this service, so that you could be set free once and for all.
We’re in a spiritual battle, A War of the Worlds of Good and Evil. Whose side are you on? If you aren’t on the Lord’s side, then there’s only one master that you can be fighting for, the devil. There is no neutral ground. There is no fence. It’s either all for Jesus, or all for the devil. Whose soldier are you right now?
The choice is yours. The victory can be won. You can join the only army that is destined to win. Why not surrender to Jesus everything? Why not give yourself to Him? He loves you, and He wants you to be on the winning team. He will help you to overcome any sin, any addiction and any habit. Jesus has all power to set you free right now and forever more.
