I. World of trouble.
A. It is no secret that we are living in a “World of trouble”, just step outside and look around, open a magazine or newspaper, turn on the TV or radio or just stand in line at Wal-Mart and it want take long to see and hear bad news. We are surrounded by hurt and hurting people. It’s a tough to live in this day in age. The “good ol days” seem like a fairy tale compared to today.
1. The days of old are gone, now we are a fearful society. Always watching our backs and looking over our shoulders. Americans alone spend billions in preventive products from healthcare and home security to simple things like hand sanitizer.
2. We are always on the lookout. We are always looking for ways to prevent the “what if’s” in life. What if I… (ex.). We can keep ourselves up all night long thinking about the “what If’s”
B. The Bible tells us that we are living in difficult times.
1. PERILS Luke 21:9-11, 25-26 We can discern that we are living in the last days by perils that we can see in the world such as wars, great earthquakes, famines, pestilences, fearful events, perplexity of the nations.
2. PEOPLE II Timothy 3:1-5, I Timothy 4:1-3, II Peter 3:3 We are living in the last days by the kind of people who live in the world today. People who are selfish, covetous, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasures etc .
3. PERSECUTION Luke 21:12, 16-17 We are living in the last days by the persecution that God’s children are experiencing today all over the world. Even in countries where there used to be freedom for evangelism there is persecution today.
4. PROBLEMS Luke 21:34 Luke 17:26-30 We are living in the last days by the problems facing today’s society such as surfeiting, drunkenness and cares and fears and worries .Jesus revealed such a condition will prevail during the last days and warned His children not to allow themselves to be drowned in the cares of this life lest the day of His coming come upon them unawares.
C. Such problems are evident in the world but they here in the church as well. The atmosphere of defeat that lingers in the world has also made its way to the church. The house of God has become a broken home for the saints of God.
II. The enemy wants to serve you up cold
A. John was a forerunner for Christ fulfilling Isa 40:3 ¶ The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. (4) Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: (5) And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [it] together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].
B. He did not look like everyone else. Wild looking (long hair and beard) wore camel’s hair. Lived in the desert.
C. Ate locust and wild honey
D. Preached the truth.
E. The enemy looks for trouble makers, those that shake up his kingdom.
F. He takes notice of those that are always preparing for the Presence of the Lord.
G. He will try to shut you down. Just as John was beheaded for making way for the Lord the enemy seeks our heads as well.
III. Fighting a 3-D battle for your head
A. The enemy in Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: Joh 8:44 he is a liar and a murderer. In 1 Pe 5:8 he is like a lion walking about looking for his victims.
B. Satan will do whatever it takes, he will attack you with 3-D tactics, and that is to discourage, deceive, and destroy you.
C. He wants your head. If he gets your head he gets control. He wants the headship of the church and family. 2Co 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
1. Issues of the mind hold you in bondage to yourself; it places a fear upon you that keeps you from moving forward. Every time you are ready to take a step forward here this issue is keeping you from enjoying life. It has become a reminder of a life you can’t have.
2. This battle can debilitate you into a lifestyle of defeat. It can drain you of every ounce of faith; and deplete your spiritual bank account. The enemy wants you at a mental melt down; where you don’t know your down from your up and your left from your right; he wants to get you to a place where you are running here and there.
3. Just a place can cause you to question everything and exhaust you to finding answers, you start reading every book, watch every TV preacher you can hoping that it would have the answer, make you go to revival after revival hoping that the evangelist would call you out.
4. When you are in a battle over your head, no one knows about that this inner hurt that you are carrying inside you. Here at church and in public you wear a smile that you got to put on cause if you didn’t you would expose this issue to others.
D. Satan can have you placed on house arrest and convince you that there is no escape. Like a lion he stalks you looking for those vulnerable moments to pounce you.
1. There are days when the enemy comes in like a flood against you. It is at those moments when we feel like this is our life and that we must accept it for what it is. The Bible tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: Ephesians 6:12 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].
2. There are attacks on the mind that will lead us down a path of mental and emotional frustration and instabilities. It is here in the mind where the true battle lies. It is here where we make our decisions and choices for our lives, rather they be good or bad. Satan will invade our thoughts with the intent to wear us down.
3. The head is considered to be the center of life for the body. The head supplies the life and functions for the body. If your head doesn’t work properly neither will your body.
4. In Bible times an enemy wasn’t considered defeated until his head was severed from the body. It was to show the severing of power and life, and then would victory be proclaimed. When David cut Goliath’s head off it symbolized the destruction of the Philistine army.
5. When Satan takes the mind, the victory that Christ gives us is forfeited.
E. His tactics are blunt and powerful weakening the young and the old.
1. Never in history I have I seen an overwhelming display of mental and emotional unrest. There are young children on medication for what was once considered adult problems. We have unstable teenagers that display aggression and hostility. Adults that become confused and break down.
2. It doesn’t matter what the social class or race; children to adults everywhere are being overwhelmed mentally and emotionally, leading to substance, sexual, and bodily abuse.
3. Satan is ripping the Church apart from within the Believers using two modes of attack which are depression and anxiety, which will fuel other mental and emotionally attacks. These forms of attacks have become silent killers within the body of Christ.
4. Depression here in America will affect over 20 million people a year. 1 in 6 adults will have depression in their life time. It is from depression that 1 in 13 teenagers will take their own life. An average of 1 person every 18 minutes will kill themselves, as well as every 2 hours and 12 minutes a young person will have taken their life. It was an average of 13% of young people in the total population in the year 2000 that have killed themselves; this is an epidemic.
a. Depression has crippled many ministers and laity. As well as destroyed many marriages and lives among ministers and laity. Depression will kill the vision of the Church and cause it to grow cold and fall apart.
b. It is from depression that many will never realize their full potential in Christ. Many ministers and lay people will never fulfill their calling and many prayers will be given up on. Depression will silence faith and weaken the mind.
F. Then there is the other attack anxiety.
1. Anxiety will affect 1 in 8 Americans between the ages of 18 and 54; this totals over 19 million people. Anxiety will cripple a believer and wrestle with their faith. It will cause them to sway their judgment and seek to take control of their situations, and push God out.
2. Anxiety will cause us to be angry and frustrated, causing us to do things rashly; which most likely becomes a wreck less act, which we will later regret.
G. It is from these two attacks that many will also wrestle with fear, condemnation, doubt, and low self esteem and other mental and emotional disorders.
1. Satan will combine all these attacks together to weaken the believer, to make your goals unreachable and your dreams unobtainable. Satan is fighting and is playing dirty. Satan wants nothing more than for you to give up, to throw in the towel, and succumb to his attacks. He wants your head on a silver platter.
2. He will remind us of our past and our failures, telling us that “God doesn’t love us anymore, and is displeased with us”. Satan will tell us that is why we are having so many problems.
3. Satan will cause us to give up and fall short, telling you that the blame is on God, the pastor, the church, and ourselves. He will fill our mind with garbage, to the point where we feel that we are about to snap and break down.
a. It is these elements that drive many to suicide, sexual perversion, and chemical and substance abuse within the body of Christ. It is why we see unwed mothers and single parents. Why the Church has a hard time keeping new converts and young people.
b. He succeeds in convincing you that your issue is just who you are and that you need to accept it for what it is and live with it.
IV. Look up for your redemption is near
A. He may be brow beating you now and have you near the chopping block, but you need to look up and see that your redemption is near. The war of the mind is a constant battle, but doesn’t have to be a consistent war, for it says in 1 Peter 1:13 ¶ Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
1. We are to protect our minds and the minds of those in the church by putting on the Helmet of Salvation and teaching others to do the same, instead of neglecting them. Giving them the necessary tools to aide in this battle.
2. We are to let the Lord protect our minds in the midst of the battle for it says in Psalms 140:7 O GOD the Lord, the strength of my salvation, thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.
3. And to let the …Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
B. In the midst of the battle of the mind, be still and know that He is God. Now is not the time to say “I give up” but rather it is now time to proclaim that “NO WEAPON THAT IS FORMED AGAINST YOU SHALL PROSPER” you are more than a conquer in Christ Jesus
1. Then you tell that old devil when he starts messing with our mind … greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. That God shall supply all your needs according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.
a. Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
b. Romans 8:1 ¶ [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
c. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
d. 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.
1. Don’t give up and don’t give in for weeping may endureth for the night but joy cometh in the morning. Many are the afflictions of the righteous but the Lord will see you through them all!
2. Don’t put up with him, but put him out. (4) (For the weapons of our warfare [are] not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds ;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Church that lie the enemy is telling you that you just need to live and deal with that issue is nothing more than a lie from hell. You need to shake yourself find whatever faith you have left make up your mind that you are going to go straight to Jesus. It doesn’t matter what is in your way; you got to get to Jesus, even if that means being like that woman with the issue of blood and get on your hands and knees and crawl up to the master and touch the hem of his robe so that you can be free at last free at last Thank God Almighty I am free at last. For He who the Son sets free is free indeed. Isa 59:19 … When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him… I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
Ro 16:20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you. Amen.
