A Nation at War
Ephesians 6:10-12
There’s more to life and living in this world than meets the eye. The Bible tells us that we are in a war zone where unseen spiritual forces battle constantly. As Christians we are part of this war. While the Bible assures us of victory, the tragic reality is that countless Christians are living in ongoing defeat and the cost to themselves and those around them is devastating. This morning I want to start a critical series on the epic struggle each and every one of us is engaged in every single day of our lives. I do not simply want to teach you about warfare. I want to show you from the Word of God how to win the war. I cannot emphasize strongly enough how critical it is for you to be in church if at all possible every single week for the duration of this series - no matter how long it takes. It does not matter if you need to shift your plans, adjust your schedule or simply say ‘No’ to some other stuff. You need to be here. We are going to uncover God’s perspective on practical issues like . . .
How to overcome temptation with the power God has released!
How to pray so heaven is moved and your loves ones are saved!
How to command Satan so that he and the demons obey!
How to break family curses and walk in freedom!
How to set others free from the bondage they are in!
How to engage in life so that Satan loses every single day.
How to share your faith so that people are saved.
I am adding two special Friday night/Saturday classes during this series that you do not want to miss for anything - they are both essential to your victory. The one is on Spiritual Gifts - and the other on How to Share Your Faith Effectively. There is almost nothing that is more important for you to be doing in these days than to give yourself fully and faithfully to this series.
The Title of the series is "A Nation at War" and the nation I am speaking about is not this great nation of America, but the one my Bible refers to when it speaks of "a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God." (1 Peter 2:9.) While we have in a war, I do not believe we have been at war. Here is a newsflash - you cannot win a war against a proficient enemy you do not believe in, you cannot win a war you are not engaged in and you cannot win a war you are not prepared to sacrifice for.
There was once a boxer who was being pummeled in the ring by his opponent. Blow after blow by his adversary left him bloodied and swollen and in a whole lot of pain. His trainer, trying to encourage his man between rounds, kept telling him, "You’re doing great, Fred. He’s barely touching you."
To which the boxer responded, "Then you better keep your eye on that referee, because somebody is killing me!"
Church - we had better keep an eyes open - because somebody is killing us . . . and this world bears the bloody, painful scars of our conflict: nations at war, shattered lives, broken homes, suicide, rape, abuse, and immorality of every kind. The command to engage has been given but most of the Church in the West is still waiting to be drafted - marking time as if there is no danger - and while she waits, the enemy is ravaging her loved ones, pillaging her resources, devastating her forces and destroying her world.
Now to the best of my knowledge the war is not over and to the best of my knowledge, the war is not going away. So having said that I believe we have no option but to grab out munitions, deploy our forces and engage the enemy. The good news I have for you this morning is that I have seen the movie - and we win. The bad news I have for you this morning is that is you do not want to be a casualty in this war, you need to be prepared to do a little training, get a little dirty, take a little fire, do a little fighting and wise up a whole lot because you are living in occupied enemy territory.
Jesus didn’t hunker down in a church and somehow from behind a pew somewhere command territorial spirits and principalities and powers over a city to leave in His name. No - He engaged the enemy, He demonstrated power, He forgave the sinful, He healed the sick, He fed the hungry, He cast out demons, He gave hope to the hopeless and then just before He left He gave us the authority of heaven and the keys to the ammunition depot - and deputized us to finish the battle He had begun, and told us we would do even greater things than He did because He know the battle would get more fierce as time got short for the enemy.
So in case you missed it, I have a declaration to make. "You and I are at war!" In fact, we are engaged right now in the greatest battle know in the history of mankind. It has lasted longer, been more widespread, cost more lives and killed more civilians than any other war ever has. This enemy is more cunning and proficient than any enemy ever was, is fighting for greater stakes than any enemy ever did, and is in our backyard, at our front door and in our homes. This war will be either the cause of your greatest joy as a Christian, or of your deepest pain. If you do not engage you will become discouraged, depressed, dejected and defeated. Your will become distracted, disillusioned, divided and disobedient.
Whether you like it or not, you got involved in a very personal way the day you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. He said to you, "Follow Me," and then He turned around and walked right onto the battle field.
And now this war affects every area of your life. There is no way you can avoid the conflict. There is no bunker or foxhole you can crawl into that will shield you from this battle.
So since we are at war, and since there is so much at stake both here on earth and in eternity, we’d better find out what spiritual warfare is about and how to fight the battle successfully.
Amen!
Let me begin by stating the obvious. The essence of the war we are talking about is spiritual.
Spiritual warfare is that conflict being waged in the invisible, spiritual realm that is being manifest in the visible, physical realm.
In other words, spiritual warfare is a battle between invisible, heavenly forces that affect you and me. The cause of the war is something you and I can’t see. But the effects are very visible in the kind of problems I mentioned earlier in the day-to-day stuff you and I face all the time.
It’s hard enough to fight an enemy you can see. It’s much harder to fight someone you can’t see. In his classic statement on spiritual warfare, Paul wrote: "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places"(Eph 6:12).
This verse identifies the enemy, Satan and his demons. We’ll develop all of this as we go along, but the point I want to you to see here is that we make a big mistake if we think people are the real problem.
People can be bad, no doubt. But as bad as people can be, they are merely conduits for this greater battle. I think one of the big mistakes Satan has lured us into is getting us to fight people rather than fighting that which is causing people to be the way they are.
Everything we see in the visible, physical realm is caused, provoked, or at least influenced by something in the invisible, spiritual realm.
TWO WORLD VIEWS
Your world view is simply the lens through which you perceive reality.
There are really only two categories of world views. One is a natural or materialist world view, what people today call the scientific world view. This view says that man by his reason can figure out how the world works.
People who hold this view seek life’s answers in the natural realm. If you can put it in a test tube, examine it under a microscope, or explain it through natural processes, that’s all you need.
The naturalistic view is not sufficient because it is limited to the physical realm. Therefore , it doesn’t engage spiritual realities. It lives in the natural.
The second category of world views is the spiritual world view, which says there is a realm outside of the physical.
There is a wrong spiritual world view that is very popular nowadays - that has a strong influence from the East. This is the world of horoscopes, and palm readers, and all sorts of New Age teaching - and is very man centered.
Obviously, that is not the world view of the Bible. The world view of the Bible is that the spirit world is real, God is the center of the universe and mankind is engaged in a cosmic battle. Now the tragedy is that many Christians are living with a world view that does not really believe that. Oh, they believe in God, but do not battle for their children, their neighbors, their cities, their country or their lives. Much religion engages the world at a human level.
What I want to do with the rest of the time this morning is talk about the five primary areas of your life this battle effects. I am telling you this because if you are going to win - you are going to have to position yourself to effectively engage the enemy in these five areas. The degree to which you fail to engage the enemy in these five areas is the degree to which your life will be filled with pain and failure - and you will lose - its as simple as that.
1. This Battle Effects Your Personal Life
Many believers are seeing the wounds of spiritual warfare in their personal lives. This doesn’t mean these people are doing something really bad. It could be that they have a problem such as uncontrolled anger.
Did you know that our emotions can give the devil entry into our lives?
"Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." (Eph. 4:27)
You see, failing to control anger gives the devil a foothold in your life. Then what happens is he uses that anger a his base of operations to launch more spiritual attacks against you. Come on now - you know what I am talking about!
That is why many Christians are suffering today because of anger that was not resolved yesterday - and anger is just one of the many human emotions Satan uses. Here’s the principle - if you lose control of an emotions, Satan takes control of it and then uses it to cripple us emotionally - and when you look again you are into all sorts of destructive and addictive behavior.
2. This Battle Effects Your Family Life
Many believers are also feeling the effects of spiritual warfare In their families. Let me give you an example of family relationships and spiritual warfare.
Paul wrote to husbands and wives in 1 Cor. 7:5, "Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time that you may devote yourself to prayer, and come together again lest Satan tempt you because of your lack of self-control."
Paul is saying that when a husband and wife don’t have a fulfilling sexual relationship, the devil sees that lack as an opportunity to come in and bring about moral destruction in the family. So this thing of spiritual warfare gets right down to the nitty-gritty aspects of everyday life.
3. This Battle Effects Your Church Life
Spiritual warfare also has an impact on church life. Paul told Timothy to watch out for "doctrines of demons" that will infiltrate the church (1 Tim. 4:1). The Bible says that in the last days the church will be undermined by teachers who claim to teach the Bible, but are teaching doctrines from hell.
You know Satan does not want you to come to church for the next few weeks - so you watch what he is doing to drag into your life as we embark on this journey. I told the leadership recently that we had better pray for the congregation and for ourselves because I believe Satan is going to try his hardest to come against us because he does not want us to be doing this. You watch what happens this week as Satan engages you in warfare. Best you be suited up.
4. This Battle Effects Your National Life
According to passages like Daniel 10, entire nations are influenced by the invisible battle in the angelic realm. Satan is called "the prince of the power of the air" with good reason (Eph. 2:2). And America is under the greatest attack because America has been the flagship of truth and the bastion of Christianity. I fully expect the war to get more intense and more personal in America. With our strong Christian heritage and our biblical stance in support of Israel - you best believe Satan will be throwing some of his greatest munitions at us.
5. This Battle Effects Your Spiritual Life
This may be the statement of the obvious but without it this would simply be incomplete. Satan will do anything and everything in his power to dilute your love, to distract your focus, to disappoint your hope, to divide your attention - and he does it so subtly that if you are not careful, by the time you notice it is too late - and instead of reacting to your apathy or mediocrity, your simply excuse it ir explain it away. And at best you deal with it with hollow commitments and empty promises.
Is anybody there this morning? The place of apathy starts to look familiar when it becomes the place you live.
Friends, my Bible tells me that right now in the heavens, a spiritual battle is being fought - that battle is affecting your Personal Life, your Family Life, your Church Life, your National Life and your Spiritual Life. Where is that battle being fought? In the heavenly places! Where? In the heavenly places. Let me give you this - although the battle if fierce, did you know that it is in those very heavenly places that your blessings lie?
Ephesians 1:3 tells us: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." This verses tells us that God resides in the heavenly places, and so do all of our spiritual blessings.
Precious believer - God has given you everything you need to win - to win in your Personal Life, your Family Life, your Church Life, your National Life and your Spiritual Life The first step is recognizing that we are a Nation at War, we are a people at war and you and a man or a woman at war - engaged in a very personal way at a very personal level. So the question is no whether we are at war or not - the question we must end with this morning is simply this:- Will you win or will you lose? God has provided everything you need to win. And now we have come to decision time - and it is your time to decide. You can tell me, ‘You know what pastor Emile, I hear what you are saying but I think I want to leave things the way they are - I’ll take my chances." Or you can say, "It is my turn now. I am ready. I am prepared to do a little training, get a little dirty, take a little fire, do a little fighting and wise up a whole lot because I realize I am living in occupied enemy territory. For too long now Satan has had a hold on my personal life, my family life, my church life, my national life and my spiritual life. For too long now I have been at war but not in a war. And by the grace of God I chose that to be different from today on. Pastor - will you pray for me."
It is your decision time. Let us pray!
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