January 23, 2011
Morning Worship
Text: Isaiah 61:1-3
Subject: Spiritual Warfare
Title: The Battle for Your Heart
I want to begin today by reassuring you of who you are “in Christ”.
1 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Everybody say, “I’m a new creation…and that makes me precious to God…”
Ephesians 2:6, And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus… Everybody say, “I’m seated with Jesus in the heavenly realms…and that makes me precious to God…”
Luke 10:19, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you… Everybody say, “I have the authority of Christ…and that makes me precious to God…”
Mark 10:22-24, 22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours… Everybody say, “If I have faith in God, then whatever I ask for, I can believe that He will do it…and that makes me precious to God…”
All of those wonderful promises from the Lord take us to where I want to be this morning. We have all these promises and God intends for us to have them to their fullest. But there is a battle that is constantly taking place in you. It is the battle for your heart. The enemy who comes but to kill, steal and destroy knows that if he can get you to doubt in your mind, then that doubt will settle into your heart and you will never experience the abundant life that Jesus came that you might have. And that is exactly what he wants to do in your life.
Read Isaiah 61:1-3…
Lord, open the eyes of my heart to see and understand…
Open my spiritual ears to hear and believe…
And open my mind to the revelation You are about to give… In Jesus’ name…
As a child of the Living God, you can win the battle for your heart.
I. YOU CAN WIN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR HEART BECAUSE YOUR HEART IS THE DWELLING PLACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me… I really want you to see just how special you are to God. These are the verses Jesus read from in the synagogue in His hometown when He began His ministry in Luke 4. Notice that the very first thing that the prophet spoke was not about the ministry, but about the minister – the one on whom the Holy Spirit would rest. It was the anointing that made Jesus who He was. Now for Jesus the Holy Spirit anointing came as a dove, the symbol of God’s power coming upon Him for ministry. Jesus didn’t need to be saved – He is the Savior. For the rest of us, the coming of the Holy Spirit takes place when you are born again. When you become a child of the King, where does the transformation take place? It is in your heart. Ezekiel prophesied of a time when, 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh… (Ezekiel 36) That tender heart for the things of God comes when you become an adopted child of the King. Romans 8:17 tells us just how special you are. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Now bear with me just for a few minutes while we get everything in place. Look at Romans 8:10, But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your (Your what?) spirit is alive because of righteousness. Romans 5:5 Where does that take place? 5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. OK, now let’s organize our thoughts. 1) If you have trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then His Spirit is in you. 2) God has given you a new spirit – your spirit is alive – you are a new creation 3) God has poured out His love – by giving you the Holy Spirit – into your hearts. Everybody with me so far? Everything is well and good – right? Well it would be except for one thing… the minute that you were saved you were drawn into a battle. You have an enemy, as I mentioned earlier who wants to kill the new man that you are, who wants to steal every promise from you that God has given for you to have, and who wants to destroy your faith in order to keep you from being who you are intended to be “in Christ”. Ephesians 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This enemy of yours is not alone. He has an army of vile demons that is bent on destroying you. Revelation 12 says that the dragon swept a third of the stars out of the heavens with his tail and flung them to earth. According to one website there are 300 sextillion stars in the sky. (for perspective multiply 3 trillion by 100 million. If you do the math and figure that 300 sextillion is two-thirds of the number of spirits that were originally created then that must mean there are 150 sextillion demons spirits that are here to frustrate you in your walk with the Lord. But remember this, you are special to God. He has placed His Spirit in you so that when He looks at you He sees a reflection of Himself. The Holy Spirit has set up a stronghold in your heart. Now where do you think that satan is going to try to attack in order to defeat you? He will have to pull down your stronghold – attack your heart. And he does that by speaking to your mind in order to create doubt in your heart. Every day the constant assault goes like this… “if you were really a man/woman of God then you would never have done that… God doesn’t really care for you or else why would He let you be sick, suffer loneliness, experience pain, struggle financially… when was the last time God healed you? When was the last time He provide for you… when was the last time He delivered you…? And the assault goes on and on. Your enemy is relentless to the point that you begin to think that your inability to hear from God, to receive from God, to be empowered from God is all your fault – you’re no good – your heart must be bad. But the devil is a liar and the father of all lies. Your heart is good. Everybody say, “My heart is good…” It’s good because the Holy Spirit is dwelling there. It can be no other way. God is good and cannot be contrary to His nature. Your flesh may be weak, but your heart is good.
II. YOU CAN WIN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR HEART BECAUSE OF THE GOOD NEWS THAT HAS BEEN GIVEN TO YOU. Your heart is good but that goodness is often veiled by the darkness perpetrated by the lies of the enemy. Your heart isn’t dark – it is only veiled by darkness. Your ability to allow your heart to be what it now is by nature is broken. It is veiled by the dark lies told to you by your enemy. You are pinned down in your bunker in the battle unable to move for fear of being wounded in the battle again. Have you ever noticed that in every fairy tale, every fantasy novel, and every ancient myth there is a common story. That story is the battle between good and evil. Dorothy battles the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz… Frodo battles the dark powers of Sauron in The Lord of the Rings… Little Red Riding Hood battles the big bad wolf… and you battle the captain of numberless demons. Go back to Revelation 12. The dragon was waiting for the woman to give birth to her child so he could destroy him. But the woman grabbed the child and ran off to Egypt. So what does the dragon do? 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 The woman was given the two wings of a great eagle, so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the desert, where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. 15 Then from his mouth the serpent spewed water like a river, to overtake the woman and sweep her away with the torrent. 16 But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. 17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. But here is that good news. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners… The lies that you hear from satan come so often and so relentlessly that you begin to believe them. But the Jesus that you have in your heart came to bind up the brokenness of your heart. He is able to set you free from the bonds that hold you captive. He is able to lift the veil of darkness that keeps you from seeing the truth about the goodness of your heart. So how do you stand against the attacks of the enemy? First of all you have to be willing to enter into the battle to stand against him in God’s strength – the power of His might. You cannot run from the battle. Listen to me – whether you are saved or unsaved the devil’s plan is to take you as far away from the truth of the bible as he can. You can’t pretend that there is no battle. To do so would be like putting on a blindfold and running across the intersection of 18th and Broadway in Quincy. Secondly, you have to understand that there is a battle. Jesus said in Matthew 13:15, For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ You must open your eyes to the attacks that are taking place. Be willing to see them for what they are. The third thing is this. Never agree with satan on anything. That is what he wants to get you to do. You want to eat healthy and exercise so you try and this thought comes to your mind… You’ll never be able to do this. Just one little candy bar won’t hurt. You’re not strong enough to withstand the temptation. Exercise will make you sore – it’s not worth it. Now most of us would look at this and say, “Well, I’m just too weak. I can’t do it.” Not even understanding that this is spiritual warfare. But the correct response would be to recognize the source and then begin quoting scripture, “I’m a temple of God’s Holy Spirit. I’m going to take care of this temple because I know it honors God and the word says that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me…” Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks… Faith comes by hearing… say to this mountain be cast into the sea… If your enemy can get you to agree with him he’s got you right where he wants you. But you have to take it even a step further than just not agreeing. You have to know who you are in Christ. You have to depend on the power of His might that is abiding in you. You have to believe that your heart is good…
III. YOU CAN WIN THE BATTLE FOR YOUR HEART BECAUSE THE LORD HAS GIVEN YOU HIS FAVOR… to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor … Look at verse 2 and 3 and see the contrast between who the devil says you are and what God says you are… to comfort (God) all who mourn, (devil) 3 and provide (God) for those who grieve in Zion (devil) — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Do you believe in your heart that you have found favor with God? Before I go any further let me clarify something. Because I have told you that your heart is good and that you are special to God it does not give you the liberty to live your life the way you want without any regard to what He wants just because you are special. Remember the Spirit that live in you is the Holy Spirit. When he convicts you of sin He does it gently in your heart. When your enemy condemns you he does it viciously in your mind. Now let me ask you again. Do you believe that you have found favor with God? You have found favor because of your relationship with Him. You find favor when you are transformed by the renewing of your mind… that means being in agreement with what God says and not with what the devil says. Give God the glory for what He has done, is doing, and will do rather than giving satan credit for what he has done.
You are in a battle. It doesn’t do any good to try to hide from it. You cannot go AWOL in this fight. But you can give in to the lies of the enemy and be taken prisoner. Or you can learn to recognize the lies of devil and immediately take charge of the situation. Jesus said in Matthew 13:12, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it.
It is time to lay hold of the kingdom.
It is time to lay hold of the promises.
It is time to confess that your heart is good and not bad.
It is time to agree with God and stop agreeing with the devil.
Everybody say,
I will not give in… give up… or, give out.
I will confess God’s promises…
I will have faith in God…
I will move mountains…
Because my heart is good…
My faith is strong…
My enemy is a liar…
I don’t believe his lies anymore…
Cause I am a child of the Living God…
I am receiving my inheritance right now…
Every word… every promise…
That God has given… I receive…
I am transformed by the renewing of my mind…
To be conformed to who God says I am…
And not who satan says I am…
I am advancing the kingdom in my life…
And forcefully taking hold of it…
I will not grow weary in the fight…
But I will wait on the Lord…
And renew my strength…
In Jesus’ Name!
