Intro:
1.Larry lived and breathed golf. As a teenager he was ranked in the top 16 teen golfers in the nation. In his senior year he was in car accident and his left arm was amputated just below the elbow. He would be fitted with a prosthetic hand, with some practice he got his swing back, rejoined the school team, scored better than ever, and went to college on a golf scholarship. Larry was quoted as saying, “that I would like to be the first pro golfer with a prosthetic, but if I don’t succeed, I won’t be a failure. We only fail if we don’t try.”
2.I have been sharing with you the vision of this house so that you may get plugged in and get out of your comfort zone. I challenged you to leave your comfort zone so you may operate in the gift zone which prepares you for the challenge zone so that you will go to the end zone.
3.I want to speak to you today on the challenge, but to encourage you that you are on your way to the end zone.
4.In football the challenge zone is the actual game. The main goal is to win. We as God’s children are declared the victors; we already won. All we have to do is play and victory is ours.
5.Even though we as a team will win you as an individual still must play and work just as hard. The team has won but you as a member; your outcome has yet to be determined.
6.It is important that you as an individual do all you can for the team. That means you have to be prepared and ready.
7.We all must step into the challenge zone with our “game face” which is an expression of someone who is totally focused on the job.
8.You got to get your game face on, Jesus had a game face in (Isaiah 50:7) it says that while Christ was being tortured and crucified He “set His face like a flint.” He made up His mind that He would see through the plan of salvation for all mankind no matter the pain and hurt He would have to endure to fulfill God’s redemptive plan.
9.Players are not in the game to amuse themselves; they are there to win. They have studied their opponent and know both his strengths and weaknesses. They must do their best to win. There is no tie in this game. Winner takes all.
10.Matthew 24:4-5, 11(4) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. (5)For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (11) And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
11.In Matthew chp.24 the disciples ask Jesus about the end of the world. In His response He talks about signs of wars, rumors of war, earthquakes, famines, and pestilence; all of these He mentions once but He mentions deception 3 times.
1.We are to watch out for deception. It is deception that I believe is Satan’s number one attack against the church. Jesus said in Lu 21:8 And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
2.Paul warns us in 2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
3.We are living in a time when the Holy Ghost is pouring out revelation knowledge into the body of Christ giving them creative ideas to assist them in reaching the world with message of Jesus Christ.
4.Revelation is flowing and along with that comes deception. There are also false teachers and revelations that quietly slip in the Church and deceives many.
5.We are warned by Paul in 1 Tim. 4:1-2(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;(2)Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; also in 2 Tim 4:3-4 (3) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;(4)And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
6.In football when a team gets within 20 yards of the goal line, the defense will put up what is called a “goal line defense”. This defense is designed to frustrate the efforts of the opponent when they are close to scoring. This defense is made up of the toughest and fastest players; they are sometimes on reserve for this very moment.
7.The enemy has called for his “goal line defense” in these last days; Satan knows he has but a short time (Revelation 12:12), and he knows that he must keep each of us from the end zone and scoring.
8.That is why he will try to come at us and try to pull us down, get us out of church, and away from the goal line, and keep us from fulfilling our call.
9.Let me just say this; the first sign of backsliding is poor church attendance. It happens when the church is no longer a priority in our lives.
10.Church that is why we must have on our game faces and fight. We cannot afford to lose anyone!
11.Satan has 3 main areas of attack. These attacks are his goal line defense when Christians are in a scoring position. We can find this plan of attack outlined in the book of Jude 10-11, (10) But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. (11)Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
12.These spiritual assassins; the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the rebellion of Korah were used then and they are used now against the church.
I. The way of Cain.
1.In Genesis 4 we read the story of Cain and Abel. Both were making sacrifices to the Lord, but it was Cain’s that got rejected. Many have debated over why Cain’s was rejected; some say it was his attitude, it was said that it was because he didn’t give God his first fruits while others believe he was not to have given of his trade but rather that which was a true sacrifice. It was always blood that atoned.
2.My thought on it is not only was he not given a true sacrifice but that he was doing it with the wrong attitude.
3.In Ge 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee [shall be] his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. All Cain had to do was give in a proper attitude, he just needed to be a “cheerful giver”.
4.As far as Cain was concerned, if God rejected his offering, God had rejected him. He then sees how God has accepted Abel’s offering and he envies Abel and his blessing.
5.Cain had to blame someone and it wasn’t going to be himself; so it had to be Abel’s fault that his offering was unacceptable.
6.Cain murders his brother in a fit of jealousy. A life was taken because one man could not take rejection. Even though God told Cain how to get it; he still felt that it was someone else’s’ fault.
7.This same spirit is attacking our churches, people come in with talents but don’t get accepted right away. The pastor may not use them on their terms and they feel rejected.
8.Satan whispers in their ear, “if your gift was rejected that means you were rejected”.
9.So many will leave the church because they assume that the leadership is rejecting them all together, when in reality the Pastor may feel that it is not the right time for their particular ministry.
10.That is why we must guard ourselves from the fiery dart of assumption. When we jump the gun and assume we create situations that never existed. That is why it is important to always have all the facts before we assume.
11.When we go into a situation especially one like ministry, we must enter it humble and with a servants’ heart. That means I am here to help in whatever capacity I am needed.
12.When we are rejected it goes against our pride, and if we are not careful, it will lead us into hatred. Pr 16:18 Pride [goeth] before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
1 John 3:11-13,15(11) For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. (12) Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. (13) Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you…(15) Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.
2.Bottom line is this if you hate it is the same as murder in your heart. This is the spirit of Cain. Rejection leads to hurt, offense and then hatred. From there you will find yourselves in the way of Cain.
3.What is in our hearts will come into the open, so we must guard our hearts at all costs; “for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
4.In some manner we will experience rejection, whether it concerns our gifts, our children, our families or our own selves. Our response will determine whether we enjoy victory or taste the bitterness of defeat.
5.Keep yourself always in check with the Lord so that the enemy has no room to work. If something happens give it to the Lord and let Him work it out. He can do it without the emotional attachment that we would use. That is why we must “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
6.In these last days the love of God must be demonstrated through the Church to the world. We are the Church and we must learn to love people and open our hearts to all people if we are to fulfill the words of Christ. The only way this love will be demonstrated is to keep our hearts free from the spirit of Cain.
II. The error of Balaam.
7.The word “error” means to “go astray”. We may start off in the right direction, but subtly we can get off God’s chosen path and the spirit of Balaam will lead us instead of the Holy Spirit.
8.When you examine Balaam’s life you can see how this happens. His story is told in Numbers 22 and 23.
9.Balaam was a prophet and he had a reputation for being accurate. It was his relationship with God that determined that accuracy. His fame had reached Balak, king of the Moabites. Here is a nugget of information the Moabites are a people that were conceived in sin by Lot and his daughter after they fled Sodom and Gomorrah.
10.So Balak contacted Balaam because he feared Israel and wanted Balaam to use his powers to curse Israel and stop them from invading his nation.
11.Balak sends men to Balaam hoping to entice him with some material incentives. They being a pagan nation thought his power were the source of witchcraft; they knew nothing of God.
12.Balaam being impressed with the offer goes to God to seek His blessing. Let me stop here I can’t believe a prophet of God would think for one second that God would allow a curse on His nation. As if a blessing of one man would be worth the curse of a nation.
1.So he presents this offer to God and without hesitation God tells him “Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.”
2.Balaam got his answer obeys and tells them; “thank you but sorry I cannot do this thing that you ask.”
3.He did good, he passed the test and was probably proud of himself. But as we know it temptation doesn’t give up so easily. The men return a second time this time promising riches and honor.
4.Now I am sure with this new offer on the table Balaam was thinking just like we would; “surely this is why God told me “no” the first time it was so that I could get a better deal!”
5.So he goes back to the Lord to see what He thinks about this new deal. This was his mistake; he had already got his answer the first time God was not about to allow Israel to be cursed no matter the deal. He told Balaam that he was not to curse a blessed people.
6.Balaam was in this for one reason and that was “himself” he didn’t want God’s will he wanted God’s permission. This showed that Balaam possessed a love of money, or what 2 Peter 2:15 calls “wages of unrighteousness”.
7.There is something to learn from this story about the nature of God. When He says “NO” to something and you keep pressing Him about it, He will let you do it. His blessing is not in it, His will is not in it, but you can pursue it. As parents I am sure there have been times when you let your child do something that you told them “no” the first time but because they kept pressing you; you let them do it.
8.Just like the children of Israel in 1 Sam. 8 they begged for a king, God was to be their King, but they wanted to be like everyone else. Despite the warnings about all the heartache and grief they would have they still wanted a king so God gave them a king and they paid for it. There is a price to pay when man is in a role that belongs to God. Look at our own government, when a nation excludes God from its affairs this is what you get.
9.That is why it’s important that we search our hearts and discern our motives to see if we are allowing the Spirit of God to lead us or just our own lust and desires.
10.That is why we hear about so many “Christians” acting in open sin, but say that they prayed about it and feel God’s blessings. Oh they know what the word says but they feel God has given them special permission. God doesn’t have to tell us “No” twice if He said it he meant it.
11.It is sad to say but we make a lot of decisions based on how we feel. If we don’t feel like going to church we want, if we don’t want to pray or read our Bibles we don’t. We justify our feelings as the will of God even though these “feelings” contradict God’s Word.
12.In a survey that was conducted by the Barna Research Group they found that 4 out of 10 born again adults relied on their Bibles or the teachings of the Church as their primary source of moral guidance. When asked the basis on which they formed their moral choices, nearly half of all the adults cited it was their desire to do whatever brought them the most pleasing and satisfying results.
1.We must be careful not to fall prey to this spirit of gain or this “What’s in it for me” spirit. When we take on that attitude we become a slave to self and we will sin against God and make terrible decisions based on self. When we make these decisions based on gain we follow in the spirit of Balaam.
2.Balaam was a prophet seeking God for the right direction, but when greed and gain became his motive, he began following the leading of a devilish spirit. Consequently, his life was taken from him. We will also lose in the end if we compromise our principles for material gain.
III. The rebellion of Korah.
3.In Numbers 16 we find the story of Korah, who instigated rebellion against Moses and Aaron. He influenced 250 chief princes of Israel to join in his rebellion. (People seldom rebel alone. They seek numbers).
4.Their complaints were… Moses exercises too much authority, He acts too holy, He lifts himself above others, Took them from Egypt to die in the wilderness, He’s acts like a prince over us, Did not take them to the Promise Land, Did not give them their promises, Blinded the eyes of the people to the fact of unkept promises
5.Every accusation Korah and his followers made exposed their own motives. These were transgressions of which they were guilty. Ro 2:1 ¶ Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.
6.This same spirit of rebellion is alive and in full force today in the church. It is this same spirit that will challenge Christian leadership and sow division and discord into the church. This rebellious spirit has been the result of many church splits.
7.The same accusations Korah used are being used to against the Pastor of the church.
8.Today it would sound like… He has too much authority, He acts like he’s the only one that hears from God, He exalts himself above us, Not leading us in the right direction, Acting like a king over us, Teaching only things that apply to him and not us, Preaching about the promises of God but none fulfilled, He doesn’t preach the whole truth
9.It is this rebellious, independent, prideful and antichrist spirit that refuses to submit to any authority and loves to challenge spiritual authority. This spirit will blind the individuals from seeing that Pastors are needed because they bring… Protection (Psalms 23), Nourishment and knowledge (Jeremiah 3:15), Biblical thinking (Deuteronomy 32:29), Equipment for ministry (Nehemiah 9:20, Ephesians 4:11-12), Instruction (Psalms 32:8), Out a hunger for God (Psalms 14:2), Us into a fear of hell (Proverbs 15:24), Us into the way of happiness (Proverbs 16:20), Us wisdom when instructing others (Proverbs 16:23), Us help in training our children (Proverbs 17:2)
10.When people open themselves up to a wrong spirit and begin to speak against the authority of the local church they conform to the spirit of Korah. The end result is destruction. The ground swallowed Korah. Moses did not have to defend himself. God had judged that rebellion, and destruction was its reward.
1.As we are careful to guard ourselves from the way of Cain, the error of Balaam, and the rebellion of Korah, we will walk in maturity of God and be overcomers in these last days.
2.It is at this point in the challenge zone that we can make our way to the end zone. If we can break up this defense the enemy has put up to stop us we will score.
IV.The End Zone
3.It is in the end zone that all the efforts and all the pain that was suffered is rewarded. It is in the end zone you get to dance and be free; here is the place you get to celebrate.
4.We are running a race and the finish line is just ahead. In sports when you are near the goal there is an extra push within that propels you to the finish line.
5.In relay races the fastest runners are held off to finish the race. I believe that when Christ started this race each generation had their place to run, but now we as the last generation are the ones that get to take the baton across the finish line.
6.Christ saw it fit to make us the fastest runners. We are the ones that must finish this race. When Jesus turned the water into wine, it was said that the best was saved til last. That is a spiritual principle that means church; the best is yet to come. He has saved the best for the last.
7.God chose us to labor in these endtimes. He put within us a new spirit of victory. We can be all God has called us to be. Watch out serpents and scorpions here we come.
8.No power in hell can stop us. “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”. The latter rain has been saved for us. Now is the time to rise up, run this race, knock down the opposition and rejoice in the “END ZONE!”
9.It is time for the young people to walk in the spirit of David and proclaim “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel”!
10.It is time seniors to have the spirit of Caleb who at the age of 80 years old demanded, “Give me my mountain.”
11.God is pouring out His Spirit on all flesh. This is a new day of God’s Spirit. Oh taste and see that the Lord is Good.
