Angels & Demons: counter attack
There is a major battle going on for your heart and mind for whatever has your mind, has you. After Jesus sought to be baptized signifying his yielding to God’s call upon his life, he immediately came under attack. Matthew 4 and Luke 4 share Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness. The Devil knew what a threat Jesus was to his plan to take over the world and the hearts and minds of God’s children. He knew that if he could win over Jesus then everybody and everything else would fall like a deck of cards. In our Scripture today, we see that the evil one will always attack us on 3 fronts. The first is your appetite. Any time that you make a decision based on your appetite, your passions, your desires, it’s always based on the immediate without thought to future consequence. In the wilderness, Jesus fasted for 40 days, and trust me, by that time Jesus was hungry. "The devil said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, turn this stone into bread.' Jesus’ response was, 'It is written: people do not live by bread alone but every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Your appetite, whether it is sexual, material, emotional or physical is a key motivation in your behavior and actions.
Second is your worldview. You and I have been immersed in a secular, materialistic, humanistic worldview that denies a spiritual interpretation for life and excludes God’s active role in the world. This is so pervasive that it affects our faith in what we believe God can do and what we allow God to do in our lives. Faith and God's activity are directly connected for Jesus said, "According to your faith, it will be done to you." So the most obvious place to attack is this place where we are most skeptical. Verses 5-8, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.' Jesus answered, 'It is written: worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Our culture teaches us that truth is relative and it is up to each human being to determine what is right or wrong for them. Everything is allowable as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. Jesus said truth is not relative; we must align ourselves with the Word of God and the will of God and serve his purpose only.
The third front evil will come at you with is the temptation of false religion. Look with me at verses 9-12, "The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If you are the Son of God,' he said, 'throw yourself down from here. (Even the devil quotes scripture.) He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.' Jesus answered, 'It is said: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" False religion is when we use God for our own earthly ends rather than submitting ourselves to be used by God for his eternal purpose. It manifests itself when we come to worship out of obligation or just to get our spiritual fix. It manifests itself when we only pray for ourselves and our needs or those close to us without giving any consideration to the will of God. It manifests itself when we bargain with God in the midst of a crisis or when we use the church to network and make business connections.
The second thing we learn from our Scripture today is Jesus' strategy of counter attack for us to break addictive cycles of sin in our own life. Sin requires aggressive treatment. It didn’t matter that he was famished 40 days in the wilderness, there was no lag time between Satan's temptation and his response. Temptation requires an immediate response. The first counterattack is that Jesus maintained a constant state of mental and spiritual alertness. 1 Corinthians 10:12, "If you think you are standing firm, be careful you do not fall." Jesus was expecting the attack. The problem is that we can be lured into a false sense of security. Things are going fine, we’re having some victories against temptation and then all of a sudden, it blindsides us. So we always have to be on the lookout, aware that attacks can come any time or from anyone or anywhere in life. You also have to be aware of the conditions in which you are vulnerable: like times when you’re tired, stressed out, overwhelmed, and depressed. Make sure your guard is up during these times because when there’s a weakness, you’re vulnerable. This is especially critical in the dry seasons of life. We all have wilderness dry times in life, whether that be in our marriages, our careers, our relationships or even our spiritual lives. These can be times when we are susceptible to sin and failure. As frustrating and difficult as these times might be, there is a positive aspect about dry times. It is why the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. It is in the dry times that we can learn to depend upon God the most, to really trust God and get beyond just believing in God.
The second aspect of this alertness is to be proactive by making precautions. We see this every May when every TV station has a new program of hurricane preparedness. We know when the season is here and we know what preparation we’re supposed to make. Then why is Home Depot and the convenience stores and grocery stores always packed to the gills and the shelves emptying quickly? You can’t just talk about precautions. You’ve got to make them! Jesus said in Matthew 24:43, "If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into." The thief doesn’t come when you are aware. That is the counter attack strategy of Jesus to maintain this constant mental and spiritual state of alertness.
The second counter attack strategy we see in Jesus is that he immersed himself in the word and prayer. Notice that Jesus didn’t respond with his own words or his own reasoning. Instead he turned to the Word of God. When I am faced with temptation (which is like bait when you’re fishing, meant to capture you’re attention and get you to act), one of the worst things I can do is think about it because my deceitful heart is going to get me to contemplate the bait and think of a way to get the bait without getting the hook. In other words, how can I play with fire (sin) and not get burned? The simple answer is: you can’t! You are never going to get the bait without getting the hook. For "Jesus said, it is written: 'One does not live by bread alone but every word that comes out of God's mouth.'" Every decision Jesus made was by every word that comes from God's mouth. Some of you might be thinking that seems like an awfully narrow way to live. I want to tell you it is anything but! It is a freeing way to live because the difficult decisions of life have already been made for you through the wisdom of God. It’s like taking a test and having all the right answers before you even enter the classroom or walking into a grocery store with a shopping list you’re going to adhere to. That’s why God has provided his Word for you. It is your guide, your map and your key to living a holy life. The Psalmist put it this way: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path" 119:105. When we align every decision we make, even when we don’t feel like it, even when our appetite says that’s not what we crave, it makes sure that we don't take missteps. When you start the day with the Word of God, it puts you on the right track and exposes artificial bait.
The problem is the Evil One can take a good desire and pervert it to his own ends. "The devil led him (Jesus) up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world." The good desire is that Jesus came to claim all the kingdoms of the world and all of its subjects for the kingdom of God. He came to redeem all humanity. But for that to happen, Jesus could not claim the kingdoms of the world apart from obedience to God and the discipline of the journey to the cross. Here is how the devil perverts it. “Jesus, I will give you exactly what you want without having to obey or submit yourself to the discipline and the pain of the cross. You can have it instantly. The blessings that God has for us is tied to obedience, discipline and self-control. We see this throughout Scripture. The Word says, "Do not be deceived.” And “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” God has given us desires and because they are from God, they are good. But too much of a good thing is not good at all” whether that be hunger, passion, exercise or anything else. Too much of anything, food, sex, exercise, sleep or even video games becomes a perversion and is not good for us.
When I immerse myself in the Word and prayer, I am most aware of Jesus' presence with me. I am reminded that Jesus understands my weakness and He is helping me in my time of temptation. I see it is His power at works in us and the gates of hell cannot prevail against us.
The third strategy of counter attack is fully embracing your identity in God. You and I have to fully embrace our new identity in Jesus as children of God. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "If anyone is in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation. The old has passed away. All things have been made new." You are not who you were. Your past no longer defines you or controls you. You are now a new creation in Christ. This new identity begins to determine everything else in life. It’s determines your self-esteem, your attitudes, your thoughts, your decisions, your relationships, your spending habits and all your actions. Pastor Zan Holmes tells the story of growing up and every time he began to run outside to go play in the neighborhood, he would always hear her voice say, “Remember whose you are.” And he would go on to say that he never forgot that: “Remember whose you are” and remember who you are.” You are a child of God! If you claim that you begin living like a child of God. There is no other choice. This is how we are to live holy lives by living into our new identity. And here’s the good news: you’re not left to your own devices. Just as Jesus was not alone in the wilderness because God was with him every step of that 40 day journey, God is with you too. Let me says that again: God’s got your back!
If we would read beyond the time in the wilderness, we would find that the first thing that Jesus did was call the disciples and form a community of support around him. Jesus knew he couldn’t live his life or fulfill God’s will alone. And try as we might, we can’t either! Tim Allen rose to fame as a comedian and then the star of TV's Home Improvement. A lot of you know him as an actor but you didn’t know that he spent time in jail in the late 70s for a drug charge. Tim got into some bad habits being a college hippy and not your typical kind of criminal. So when he was arrested, he was thrown into a holding cell and he said it was the scariest thing in the world. It was with about 14 big, hardened kind of criminals with multiple kinds of records. The kind where a guy blinks and he’s got tattoos on his eyelids. He said what was so scary about this scenario was there was one toilet right in the middle of the room. So he thought here he is, thrown into this holding cell with 14 monster looking guys and he thought, "I am not going to use it no matter what." Now you know that the more you think about what you’re not going to, the more you have to. Am I right? So he started walking back and forth and thinking. Then he thought, "Oh my gosh, what’s going to be more embarrassing? To soil myself?" So he went over and sat on the toilet right in the middle of the cell. Fourteen guys came at him at one time. Then they turned their back, formed a semicircle around him to protect him from the view of the guards standing in the hallway looking into the cell. Tim Allen said all of a sudden he realized that this is what it means to be human. We have to have each other’s back and nowhere is that more important than when we are under attack.
Not only does God have your back, but we need to have each other’s back as well. That’s why it’s so important to be in a community where people are telling you that’s who you are until you live into that. You need a community of trusted believers. Jesus tells us to “Keep watch over yourselves” which can be interpreted in only one way: mutual accountability. The problem is that this runs so counter to our understanding of the spiritual journey: mainly that it is private and very personal. The reality is that we don’t naturally invite others into our spiritual lives. It’s difficult because it requires openness, vulnerability and absolute mutual trust. Jesus makes it clear: we can’t travel alone and the best counterattack is a strong community of faith and mutual support.
If this is all you’re doing coming here once a week, you are not going to make it. You will be tempted and you will stumble and it will not only impact you, but your family and your church family. You need a community of people who are not going to demonize you for dealing with your demons. You need people who won’t allow you to rationalize our sins and instead will make you confront your stuff. Do you have that kind of community in your life? If you don’t, you won’t make it. This is serious and we need to see that we are in a universe of multiple kinds of spirits; and yes there are things that are real that we can’t see. We are under attack. But there is a power greater and that greater power is the Lord Jesus Christ and it is manifested in the community of faith in our lives. Do not be deceived. We were meant to live together in our faith.
