I have found that there are three basic types of sermons. The first kind of sermon tells about what will come our way to hurt us, and it teaches what we can do to help prevent that from happening. The second type of sermon tells about what we are doing that might allow something bad to come our way and it teaches what we can do to help prevent that from happening.
And the third type of sermon is a kinder and gentler sermon that doesn’t really warn you about anything unpleasant and does not teach us anything at all. It is an entertaining kind of sermon that gives us what we want, but does nothing to give us what we need.
Today, I am going to be preaching about something that is coming our way and it will wreak havoc upon every life on this earth. I will also teach on what we can do to help ourselves, and others, be prepared for the coming disaster.
The first biblical verse I want to quote today is found in 2 TIMOTHY 4:2. It gives my justification for preaching this sermon. It says –
“Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”
In the very next verse, 2 TIMOTHY 4:3, we find a verse that tells us what is coming our way.
“For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.”
And in 2 TIMOTHY 4:4, we are told what most people will do when it gets here.
“They will reject the truth and chase after myths.”
Okay, now that I have your full attention, the subject of today’s message is SPIRITUAL WARFARE. That is a subject most do not want to hear about because it requires us to think about things that we might not have that much information about. Well, today I am going to give you the basics so you can understand this spiritual war and how it involves us.
I encourage you to open your bibles to EPHESIANS 6, and keep your place there for we will come back in a few minutes to read that.
Let me begin by asking you a question that we already know the answer to: How do you feel when someone does or says something that hurts you? Of course, the answer is we get hurt, and invariably, when we get hurt the first thing we want to do is ‘get even.’
ILLUSTRATION:
One of our marines was on the front lines in Afghanistan and received a letter from his fiancé. She told him that there was someone else and she had decided to break it off with the soldier so she could go with other man. She told him to send her picture back so she could give it to her new beau.
Can you imagine how hurt this marine was? He was in the worst place in the world to be; he was in the worst situation to be in; and he receives the worst news of his adult life. So, after a few days of grieving, he came up with a plan. He got every one of his buddies to give him the picture of their girlfriends. There was about 30 in all.
He then put them all in a box and included a letter to his former fiancé, saying;
‘I got your letter about breaking up with me and how you wanted me to send your picture back to you. I must say that I am a little embarrassed. I would love to do as you requested, but for the life of me, I cannot really remember who you are!
‘Here are some of the pictures I have, and I am sure your picture is in here somewhere. Would you go through them, take your picture out and send the rest back to me?
The whole purpose of that exercise was to inflict the same kind of hurt and humiliation on her as she had given to him. Why is it that when we get hurt, the first thing we want to do is get even? As if hurting someone else will somehow magically make our hurt go away.
When we get hurt, we become our most vulnerable, because instead of keeping our mind on what we are doing, it only focuses on what we are going through. And if a person happens to be in a dangerous area, such as a war zone, their mind needs to be fully focused.
How many of you are glad we are not in a war zone right now? Would it upset you if I informed you that we ARE in a war zone? I am not talking about the war against terrorism. I am talking about a war that is much worse than that. I am talking about a spiritual war between God and Satan. It is much worse than anything we have ever fought before.
Our very first war in America was the War of Independence. That was a war that established our right to worship God without being persecuted by the government or without them telling us how to worship. Back then, we thought we had won that war, but looking around at what’s happening today, it is clear that we did not win. We are slipping right back where we started; being persecuted for our beliefs and having our right to worship freely severely hindered.
The war we are in now will have the most casualties of any war ever fought. It isn’t a physical war but a war that is fought in the spiritual realm, and we are all fighting in it.
The Apostle Paul starts writing the sixth chapter of his letter to the EPHESIANS, and in,
EPHESIANS 6:10-12, he begins his teaching about this war.
‘Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.’
‘For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against evil authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.’
He tells us that the devil has a scheme against us, and he instructs us to put the full armor of God on so we will be able to withstand the devil’s onslaught. He reminds us that this is not a physical war, but a war involving our very spirits. Paul tells us who our enemies are, too. They are the powers of the dark world, the forces of evil in the heavenly realm.
Why are most people unaware of this war? I think it is because we only pay attention to the five physical senses: Feel, taste, hearing, seeing, and smelling. We all but ignore the spiritual senses. And by ignoring them, we end up succumbing to them.
We must always be aware of what is happening around us that might affect us. An old saying goes like this: “What you don’t know will kill you.”
A good example of this is found in how to cook a frog. There are two ways in which to do so. You can heat a pan of water until it is boiling, and then you drop a frog in the boiling water. At that point, however, the frog notices something very wrong and will jump out of the pan and start hopping all around the kitchen trying to get away from that bad thing it just experienced.
Or, you can put the frog in a pan of lukewarm water. The frog is comfortable in that water and will stay there. Then, if you turn the heat up a little bit at the time, before it knows what is happening, the frog’s goose is cooked.
The water around it heated up so slowly, the frog did not become aware of it until it was just too late to save itself. That describes the situation we are in today. Our society has gotten so evil it is ready to destroy us, but we haven’t noticed because it took so long to get that way.
If you took a snapshot of society 40 years ago and put it beside a snapshot of today’s society, the difference would be shocking, but we went from one to the other taking one small step at a time, and we didn’t even notice the change. Now, our spiritual gooses are in danger of being cooked.
You and I sit here today, busy with the things we do and seeing how they involve us, but we do not always see the bigger picture of how things involve the world around us. This spiritual war is not a figment of someone’s wild imagination, and it is not some sort of video game. It is a bloody war that is a fight to the death . . . between God and Satan, with us in the middle. This war is being fought over our souls, and we are largely unaware of it.
Is that dangerous? God says His people perish for lack of knowledge, and this is exactly what He was referring to. We cannot fight this war, and we cannot even defend ourselves against this war if we do not have information about this war. And by ignoring it so we can be comfortable does nothing but put us at immediate risk.
People say they don’t like messages like this because it scares them and upsets them. I do not want you to be scared or upset, but I also want you to stay spiritually alive and healthy. And so I do as God has instructed me to do through His Holy Spirit; I am teaching you so you can remain safe.
We receive our Godly blessings as our knowledge in God grows and it grows when we read His Word. And the only way we can win when the spiritual war comes against us, is if we know His word and walk in His blessings.
Does this war affect you?
Have you ever prayed for something and either did not get an answer, or you got your answer after an extraordinarily long time? Could that be due to spiritual warfare instead of God just ignoring you?
In DANIEL 10:12-13, we see why this situation might happen.
‘The angel said, “Don’t be afraid. From the moment you humbled yourself to receive understanding, your prayer was heard, and I set out to come to you. But I was waylaid by the angel-prince of the kingdom of Persia and was delayed for three weeks.’
‘But Michael, one of heavens chief angel-princes, came to help me. I left him there fighting with the prince of the kingdom of Persia. And now I'm here to help you understand what will happen to your people. This vision has to do with the future.'
Daniel had been praying for several weeks but not seeing or hearing anything from God about his prayer. And then, an angel from God appears and explains why there was no answer. God has sent His angel to Daniel, but the devil’s angel kept him from delivering it for three weeks. They were in all out spiritual battle; two powerful enemy soldiers fighting a war in the spiritual realm . . . and it affected Daniel and his ability to get his prayers answered.
The angel tells Daniel that after three weeks of fighting, God sent the angel Micahel to help him. That allowed this angel to proceed to Daniel and deliver the prayers answer. But then in verse 20, the angel says he must go back soon and continue the fight against the angel of darkness, or the Prince of Persia.
Some scholars believe that ancient Persia is where the devil landed when God hurled him out of heaven. That makes plausible sense when we understand how much conflict Persia has always been in and how much trouble it has caused everyone else. And it even makes more sense when we find out that ancient Persia is today’s nation of Iran.
There is another interesting passage about the spiritual realm found in 2 KINGS. It tells us how Elisha’s servant awoke to a very scary scene.
2 KINGS 6:15-17
‘Elisha's servant got up early, and went out. He saw an army with horses and chariots all around the city. The servant said to Elisha, "Oh, Master, what can we do?"
“Elisha said, "Don't be afraid. The army that fights for us is larger than the one that fights against us."
“Then Elisha prayed, "LORD, open my servant's eyes, and let him see." The LORD opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw that the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.’
The servant saw the physical while Elisha saw the spiritual. If you can picture that, it will help you understand the basics of spiritual warfare. It is mean, dangerous, and evil; and it occurs in the unseen realm, the heavenly realm. It doesn’t so much involve your physical body, but does involve your eternal soul.
We tend to think it isn’t real since we cannot see it, but we must see it from another perspective. If you put a blindfold on and walk down the middle of a highway during rush hour, you cannot see the cars, but that does not mean they aren’t there. And the very moment one hits you, you will become an instant believer in those things you cannot see.
2 CORINTHIANS 4:4 reaffirms that information.
‘The eyes of those who do not believe are made blind by Satan who is the god of this world. He does not want the light of the Good News to shine in their hearts. This Good News shines in the greatness of Christ. Christ is as God is.’
I have been talking about a spiritual war. What would you say is the fastest way to lose any war? Wouldn’t it be going into battle without taking any of your weapons along with you? Or, not having any weapons and also not having any knowledge of who your enemy is or what they are going to do to you.
If you understand nothing else about what I am talking about today, know that the devil wants to kill you.
1 PETER 5:8 reaffirms that, too.
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
As humans, our first instinct is to fight the one who is fighting us. We want to show them who they are messing with, don’t we? But good common sense says to know about your enemy before coming up against them.
We have all seen preachers and others who try to boss Satan around by ordering him to leave, or demanding he take his hands of somebody, etc. And while we do have the ability, in Jesus’ power, to stand our ground, we have no right to start ordering Satan around, like we are more powerful than he is.
In JUDE, verse 10, it tells us that men disrespect and abuse those things they know nothing about. And then it says it will be those things that destroy man.
In verse 9, it shows where one of the most powerful angels in Heaven, Michael, was approached by Satan and told to hand over Moses’ body to Satan. What do we see happening? Michael does not release Moses’ body, but he also does not get arrogant with Satan. He says God will deal with Satan. That is how much respect and knowledge Michael had of Satan.
And if Michael would not do personal battle with Satan, my suggestion is that we do not either. Rather, we defer to God’s power over Satan, and then instead of ordering Satan around, we stand firm in the Word and then keep doing what we were doing. Satan is not nearly as powerful as God, but he is certainly more powerful than we are.
We are soldiers in this war, but we are not commanders. You will never find a corporal in one army ordering a general in another army around, and we do not order Satan around. If war is to be waged against Satan, let your commander do it while you keep following the last order you were given.
And be sure you always keep the full armor of God on!
EPHESIANS 6:14-17 explains this armor and how we need it.
‘Keep the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.’
‘In addition, hold up the shield of faith, with which you can put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.’
There is a very good reason why God gave us His armor and that is so we could be protected against the evil realm.
The Belt of Truth protects us against the lies of Satan for they can destroy our faith. the Belt of Truth gives us discernment so we can detect those lies and tell right from wrong.
The Breastplate of Righteousness covers our hearts from the weapons Satan throws at it. We receive that protective Breastplate when we accept Jesus as our Savior. It is our very protection through Christ.
The Shoes of Readiness enable us to go where God calls and keeps us ready to do the job He gives us. It was these shoes that brought me into the ministry and it will be those shoes that lead you into the ministry of your life.
And let me inform you of another very important bit of knowledge. Just because you love God; and just because you are a believer does not mean you will never have any doubts. But if we keep our Shields of Faith lifted high, we will never succumb to those doubts.
That Shield of Faith is the Word of God, so when you are attacked immediately open your Bible and start reading the promises of God.
The Helmet of Salvation protects our minds. By wearing it, you prevent the devil from messing with your mind and leading you down a bumpy path into the fire of hell. Keep that helmet secure by praising God out loud throughout the day, and by staying in prayer all day long.
And your Sword of the Spirit is your faith in Jesus Christ. That sword will keep you from falling on the enemy’s sword of lies and corruption.
But, as with any weapon, it will not work if we do not keep it at the ready and keep it oiled with constant usage. To a believer, the armor of God is a “must have”. To a non-believer, it is something to be feared.
I believe the most powerful weapon a Christian has is simple prayer. That is an open communication between the center of our hearts and the center of God’s heart. It is so powerful that even Satan cannot interrupt it or understand it.
In EPHESIANS 6:18-19, it tells us about prayer.
‘Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all other believers.
‘Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me by the Holy Spirit so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel …’
Praying in the Spirit is not just uttering some quick prayers or giving God a grocery list of your top 100 favorite requests. It is submitting your will over the authority of God while giving Him your undivided attention – all while asking for His intervention. It should be planned and continual, not sporadic or hit and miss.
In prayer, you should concern yourself with the needs of others, too, and not just pray about our desires and conveniences. Prayer should cry out to God so that what we ask for will ultimately glorify Him.
CLOSING PRAYER
