I was reading an article and it spurred my thoughts about the message for tonight. The gist of the article was that most of the Body of Christ is not prepared for dealing with the things that enemy throws at us.
It made me think about some of the things we’ve been taught in the past and what we really need to understand about the warfare that we are in. We know that Satan is the god of this world. He is not a puppet pulling strings. But he has enough people in his pocket who are listening to him and doing things he wants them to do.
And the world, just like it was in the time of Jesus, is not in our favor. We must understand that the world – how it operates and what it values – is against us.
Sometimes we get discouraged because we’re doing our best to live how God wants us to but we’re constantly faced with attacks. It almost seems non-stop and depending on which minister you listen to he or she makes it seem as if you have some sort of sin in your life that’s giving the enemy an opportunity to attack you.
But I ask you: who in the gospel had things coming at him non-stop? Jesus. What about in the epistles? Paul. Non-stop, They dealt with issues everyday. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s no different for us. Well, it shouldn’t be if you are living the life of a disciple.
And I thought about Ephesians 6. It’s a very powerful passage. In verses 10 through 14, God uses the words “stand” and “withstand” four times. Let’s read these verses.
(10) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
(11) Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to STAND against the wiles of the devil.
(12) For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
(13) Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to WITHSTAND in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND.
(14) STAND therefore having your loins girt about with truth … We’re going to stop right here.
We see what God intends for us to do. First, we are to put the armor on. Second, we are to stand. We cannot stand first then put the armor on. The armor comes first. Do you see this?
I want us to think about a few things. There are some reasons why we fail to stand in our Christian walk.
One reason we fail is because we don’t take the time to build a clear picture of the Hope in our minds. Turn to Hebrews 6. We’re going to read verses 13 through 19.
(13) For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself.
(14) Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
(15) And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
(16) For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
What he’s talking about here is the ancient custom of cutting a covenant. When two warring tribes cut a covenant, they became “brothers” and were no longer enemies. If one of them is attacked by another tribe, the other tribe would also considered itself under attack and would join forces with its brothers in the battle. In other words, the enemies of one tribe became the enemies of the other tribe.
(17) Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
What did God confirm by an oath? His promise to Abraham.
(18) That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie [What are the two immutable things? The promise and the oath.], we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.
(19) Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.
What hope do we have? The promise that God made to Abraham, the father of all those who would believe. And that hope shows up in whom? Jesus.
Another reason we sometimes fail as Christians is that we don’t mentally prepare ourselves for the long and difficult fight with evil. We don’t prepare ourselves for a long fight because we’ve taught we don’t have to do anything. All we have to do is put it in God’s hands.
A third reason we sometimes fail as Christians is because we see the path to God requiring a price we are not willing to pay. I thought about John 6 where Jesus tells the disciples that they would have to drink his blood and eat his flesh.
In verse 60 it says “Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?” Remember that? And Jesus turns to the 12 and asks “Are you going to leave too?”
Many in the Body of Christ have already left. What Jesus requires is too difficult. Now don’t misunderstand me. They are still going to church. They are still “active” but they are not living the life that Jesus has called us to live.
A fourth reason why many Christians fail to stand is we’ve been taught doctrines of devils about the Christian life. These false doctrines have been developed by seducing spirits and delivered by preachers who actually believe they are preaching and teaching sound doctrine.
Turn to First Timothy 4 and we’re going to read verse 1. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”
“God wants you to be happy.” That’s a doctrine from devils.
“God wants you to live like the son or daughter of a king.” That’s a doctrine from devils.
We hear these teachings over and over and again and when they don’t manifest in our lives we think God is not being honest with us. If the preacher is telling me that I am supposed to be living like the son or daughter of a king – I’m supposed to have riches galore and I don’t have them – something is missing. I understood what the preacher said so God, what’s going on? Do you see what I mean?
And when you hear this stuff over and over again you can begin to think that the Bible is not true. Maybe this Christianity stuff is not what they say it is. I keep hearing these messages but I’m not seeing them manifest in my life. So is this stuff true or not? You will eventually begin to get discouraged and then you will begin to do what you think you need to do to take care of yourself.
One more. We take our eyes off of Jesus. We are being taught in churches today that the Christian life is not about God and His kingdom. We are being taught that the Christian life is about me – what God can do for me.
But the Christian life is not about you. It’s about what the kingdom needs from you.
All of this had me thinking about how and why people go to church. Let’s take little children first. Little children go to church for one reason: Mom and Dad says “We’re going to church.” What most churches do for the children, because they want them to enjoy church as much as possible, is have a lot of games for them that in many cases are not even church related.
But it’s something to entertain them and keep them busy. So they grow up thinking that church is supposed to be entertaining and fun – just like the games. And they grow up and realize that they know very little about God. They weren’t trained to follow God, to understand what He’s all about because they played games.
By the time they get to be 13, 14, 15 years old, they’re ready to leave. Church is no longer fun to them. There aren’t enough activities. There aren’t enough soul stimulating things to do. They have not been taught about a true and honest relationship with God and what it means.
And those precious few 13, 14, 15 years old who have been taught get to school and are assaulted. You believe in all this God stuff. Really? Come on. They’re getting this from people who don’t believe in all of this God stuff because they haven’t been taught God stuff.
So we lose our children when they become 16, 17 and 18 years old because they have a set of car keys and can do what they want to do. They don’t go to church.
Now if you think about what I just said, it explains a lot about why certain things have happened over the last few years in this country. If you have no solid scriptural foundation then you’re going to do what sounds good. You’re going to do what feels good. And you’re going to do what makes people happy – makes your friends happy.
That’s one of the reasons that when you look at the polls in this country, and I’m not going to get political, but when you look at the polls for example of how people view homosexuality and same sex unions (I don’t use the word marriage. They are civil unions.) overwhelmingly the young people are in favor of it. They haven’t been taught what the Word says about it. And you can go down the line on any topic. If they have not been taught what the Word of God says then they will be in disagreement with God.
And we shouldn’t blame them. I know they have their own minds. I know they make their own decisions. But we, the parents and other adults, play a role in all of this. And when we get heaven you better believe God is going to let us know the role we played.
We spend more time helping our children understand how to drive a car, how to keep out of an accident than we do telling them how to understand God and stay out of the devil’s clutches. A lot more time. Evidently, driving a car is a lot more important than God!
Let’s talk adults. Adults who have not been church goers go to church because they have been invited. And they’ll stay at the church for a while because they like the worship or they like the way the pastor teaches or preaches. If all of this makes them feel good, they’ll stay.
However, when these adults are forced to examine themselves compared to what scripture says, then you will lose many of them. They have decided that this is the life I want to live and I will go with God until He interferes with my life.
It has always been an interest to me how people think about relationships. When it comes to relationships with our spouses, we’re very clear on what that relationship looks like. Very clear. I love my wife with a passion and anyone who has seen us together will know this.
I can’t say that I love God with the same kind of passion that I love Doris Just being honest about it. And I know that if my love for Doris is greater than my love for God, I am out of balance. So everything I do is going to be out of balance.
Our relationship with God, our relationship with Jesus, our relationship with the Holy Spirit plays a big role in how we view our relationship with church.
Christians need to learn that they were saved for a reason – to serve God.
The next time we’re together, we will finish this message. I don’t want to rush the next part so it’s best to stop here.
But let me say this: our Heavenly Father has sovereignty committed the sharing of the Gospel to His children – to us. If we don’t stand up for the Gospel, if we are willing to live in the shadows, if we are not willing to ruffle some feathers, people will go to hell ladies and gentlemen and it will be because of us. Let this sink in.
If we don’t share the Gospel, and I mean the true, unvarnished, uncompromising Gospel, then no one will. And that’s the privilege that we have as God’s sons and daughters. We have the privilege of introducing people to our Heavenly Father.
Listen to me, we have the awesome privilege of introducing people to eternal life! But we must take a stand in the face of adversity and withstand the enemy’s attack. Will you do that? Please stand.
