Enemies
Pt. 1 – Enemy Appeal
Text Backdrop for Series:
Read these to you as a backdrop for entire series and then will come back and read some specific text for today’s thoughts.
Ecclesiastes 3:1, 3, 8
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
David declared in 2 Sam. 22 and in Psalm 18, that God taught his hands to war. We need to ask Him to do the same today. We like to quote Joel 2 – in last days – but we also need to go read Joel 3 which reveals that we are in a war! The prophet calls out the nations and says prepare for battle! We are at war!
Joel 3:9-10
9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, "I am strong!"
Psalms 119:98
Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are my constant guide.
2 Corinthians 2:11
11Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
We are at a disadvantage if we don’t know the devices of our enemy. We must fight intelligently or we fight disadvantaged. The one with the knowledge has the advantage. That is why every government has an intelligence department to learn about their enemies!
I. Introduction
Came to tell you that like it or not. You have an enemy. I came to sound the alarm and tell you that you are behind enemy lines and you must recognize that we are at war.
There are 3 ways to live life. We can live enemy oblivious and continue to be defeated and destroyed and never figure out why. Or we can live enemy obsessed. We can blame everything on the devil. Some of you blaming stuff on the devil that you did to yourself. You just played the fool and now you are suffering the consequences of natural law of motion which says To every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction. So a demon didn’t bring the pain you did. That pain and outcome was the result of your action! There isn’t a demon behind every bush. So we cannot be enemy obsessed. The proper way to live is to become enemy conscious again! You need to recognize that there is an enemy that is out to destroy you. You must recognize that we are not at peace. We are not friends. His one desire is to kill you and he will use any means necessary. Notice I said we must become enemy conscious.
I don’t know why it surprises us that we have enemies. Israel has come to the conclusion that having an enemy is normal! That is why their air travel is the safest in the world because they live life expecting to have an enemy. They aren’t surprised or shocked that someone hates them enough to try to destroy them! Check out Jesus’ experience. He had enemies. His disciples had enemies. They were boiled in oil, beaten, stoned, crucified and tortured. And we freak when someone looks at us funny! We want everyone to love us and desire the best for us. We want everyone to be in our fan club and think we are cool, awesome, and the bomb. We don’t want to make anyone uncomfortable or offend anyone. However, I have news for you . . . if we are going to live according to the Word we will have enemies. There is no way to avoid it! Jesus said that not only should we expect it we should count ourselves as blessed when they persecute, revile (hate our guts), and lie about us! Grow up and deal with it. The Gospel is offensive and Jesus is offensive. We should think it is normal to have enemies. There will be folks that don’t like us, respect us, or root for us! We must remember that we aren’t fighting flesh and blood and our weapons are not carnal. We don’t stoop to their level or tactics. However, we do recognize that spiritual warfare is carried out through humans both for the good and the bad.
Now with all of that said, I believe that there is an insidious doctrine that is being shoved down our thoughts and we are being strong armed into believing that tolerance is a God idea. And although our culture is basically honing in one area of tolerance we have swallowed it in every area our lives and we have become tolerant of everything! What Christians used to blush over we now buy and bring into our homes. What we used to stand against we stand beside. What we used to battle, now we barely blink! The only problem with that is that God never tolerates enemies! We have become so tolerant for sin that we are best buds with what is trying to kill us! What we used to distance ourselves from the discussion is now how close can I get without going over line.
II. Enemy Appeal
Text:
1 Samuel 15:1-5, 7-9
1 One day Samuel said to Saul, “It was the LORD who told me to anoint you as king of his people, Israel. Now listen to this message from the LORD! 2 This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies has declared: I have decided to settle accounts with the nation of Amalek for opposing Israel when they came from Egypt. 3 Now go and completely destroy[a] the entire Amalekite nation—men, women, children, babies, cattle, sheep, goats, camels, and donkeys.”
4 So Saul mobilized his army at Telaim. There were 200,000 soldiers from Israel and 10,000 men from Judah. 5 Then Saul and his army went to a town of the Amalekites and lay in wait in the valley.
7 Then Saul slaughtered the Amalekites from Havilah all the way to Shur, east of Egypt. 8 He captured Agag, the Amalekite king, but completely destroyed everyone else. 9 Saul and his men spared Agag’s life and kept the best of the sheep and goats, the cattle, the fat calves, and the lambs—everything, in fact, that appealed to them. They destroyed only what was worthless or of poor quality.
I Samuel 31:1
1 Now the Philistines attacked Israel, and the men of Israel fled before them. Many were slaughtered on the slopes of Mount Gilboa.
2 Samuel 1:2-10
2 On the third day a man arrived from Saul’s army camp. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show that he was in mourning. He fell to the ground before David in deep respect. 3 “Where have you come from?” David asked. “I escaped from the Israelite camp,” the man replied. 4 “What happened?” David demanded. “Tell me how the battle went.” The man replied, “Our entire army fled from the battle. Many of the men are dead, and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.” 5 “How do you know Saul and Jonathan are dead?” David demanded of the young man. 6 The man answered, “I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear with the enemy chariots and charioteers closing in on him. 7 When he turned and saw me, he cried out for me to come to him. ‘How can I help?’ I asked him. 8 “He responded, ‘Who are you?’ “‘I am an Amalekite,’ I told him. 9 “Then he begged me, ‘Come over here and put me out of my misery, for I am in terrible pain and want to die.’ 10 “So I killed him,” the Amalekite told David, “for I knew he couldn’t live. Then I took his crown and his armband, and I have brought them here to you, my lord.”
A. We have become too comfortable with our enemies.
Saul became comfortable with the idea of sparing his enemies. Samson became comfortable sleeping in the lap of the enemy.
I came to tell some of you that you have become way too tolerant of your enemies. Some of you have even come to the place where Samson came to and you now trust your enemy. But you need to understand that your enemy isn’t pulling any punches. And while your enemy is trying to kill you all you are doing is trying to fight him off till next Sunday. No, it is time to go for the jugular. Go for blood. Quit trying to knock him out or down and try to remove his head.
Some of us have become way too comfortable with lust, anger, and porn, flirting at the edge of fornication or adultery, laziness, drunkenness.
The last time I read the Book we are supposed to be at war with these things. And yet we have become so comfortable with the enemy that we have begun to agree with the enemy. I will always be this way! We have accepted the enemy rather than slaughtered the enemy.
I came to tell you that those things and those people that keep you involved in those things aren’t your friends! They are your enemy. Well they are just my buddies, my hanging out partners . . . no harm . . . no foul. You need to get a clue! They are assigned by the enemy of your soul to stagnate, distract, and destroy you. It may not seem like they are hurting you, but anything or anyone that causes you to quit moving forward, growing, maturing, and making progress is an enemy. If they provide you opportunity or the distraction that keeps you the same they are an enemy! If they keep you bound, addicted, dependant they are an enemy.
One man said it like this, “The enemy is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on.”
How close is too close. When you begin to see any enemy as a friend you are too close. When you begin to justify collateral damage, justify pain, justify digression, justify backward movement, or justify bondage then you are too close!
Our problem is that we want to kick it with what we have been called to kill!
Too many of us have become more acquainted with our enemy than we have with our victory!
Some of the things you are now used to and satisfied with you were called to overthrow.
Saul’s issue wasn’t ability, power, or authority . . . he had 210,000 men. His issue was obedience! Our issue isn’t ability, power, or authority . . . we have power to bind and loose, life and death, our issue is obedience.
They destroyed everything accept what appealed to them. I have news for you . . . your enemy will probably be something you are attracted to! How many of us would destroy our enemy accept it appeals to us?
You need to discern your enemy and then you need to destroy your enemy. Quit allowing things to stay alive that you were instructed to kill! Because . . .
B. What you refuse to kill will kill you!
Saul was so comfortable with the enemy that he refused to follow the instructions of God and he kept alive what was supposed to be dead and I read to you the end result! It was an Amalekite that ultimately killed Saul.
What have you been instructed to kill that you allow to remain alive? What did God say to you 10 years ago about that relationship? What did God say 6 weeks ago about that activity? What did God say yesterday about that habit? What you refuse to destroy will rise up and destroy you! It may not happen today. It may not happen next week. It may not happen next year. Ultimately, however, the thing you refuse to decisively deal with will come back and decisively deal with you!
Some of you have been asking yourself, "Why am I still in same season? Why am still fighting the same battles? Why am I still fighting the same temptations and struggling with the same issues?”
Season doesn’t change until the enemy in the present season is destroyed! Same Enemy – Same Season! New Enemy - New Season. You don’t get a new season until you destroy the enemy of the present season. You don’t go further in the Promised Land until you destroy the enemy that is in front of you now! You can’t get to Canaan until you stop and destroy Jericho!
Some of you are tired of the same old season, but until you quit sleeping with the enemy of that season and being attracted to that enemy so that you will rise up and slaughter that enemy then you will remain where you are!
C. How do we destroy enemies?
1. We must position them for destruction!
Get their influence out of our life, cut them off, and distance ourselves from them. You have got to come to the position of Luke 11:23. Where you examine the people and the things in your life and you say, “23 “Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.”
Once I determine that they are working against me I dismiss them from my life! There are some people and things in your life that must be removed if you are going to live! You can’t tolerate them one day longer. Get their number out of your phone. Quit going to their house. Unfriend them! Dismiss that thing or it will destroy you! That is what Samuel’s response was. He brought out Agag and positioned him in front of him and destroyed him.
2. Pass them by!
Keep growing, keep progressing, and keep maturing. While they are hollering, complaining, trying to distract you just keep pushing past them! You will instantly know that they are a threat if they rail against your growth! You have to outgrow your enemy! That enemy will try to get you to stay the same because your forward progress is an indictment against their laziness and reveals which side they are on. Your growth will diminish their control over you!
3. Pray for them!
Matthew 5:44 - But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.
You don’t have to or need to hang out with them, but you need to pray for them.
