What to Do When¡K part 4 ¡§When you are attacked¡¨
Story ¡V I can remember being a little kid and going to my Grandma¡¦s house in Jacksonville. I always liked it because we would go down to the boardwalk and hang out, but before we did that we would stop by Macy¡¦s which had a bakery and get warm fresh doughnuts. They were the best!!! So one day I had just got my doughnut out to eat when I was attacked by this swarm of these ugly white ducks¡K then by the time that was over the bakery was out of doughnuts and I cried. I share that because it was the first memory I have of the feeling of being attacked.
Tonight we are going to be looking at what to when we are attacked¡K but before we begin lets look back over where we have been these past 3 weeks. The goal of this series was to get ours eyes off ourselves, and focus more on God. Life throws all kind of things at us and it is easy to forget about God in all this¡K That is why we need to know what to do when these situations come up. The first part of our series was on what to do when we are confused and we said that we should: Stop and recognize that God is good and he will not leave us confused, Seek God in your situation , and Submit your desires to Gods, and place your full trust in him. The second part of the series we looked at what to do when things go wrong. We should: Thank God for our current circumstances, Think about your life and see if God is trying to get your attention about something, Take your circumstances as a chance to grow, don¡¦t fight them, and Trust that God will protect you and deliver you. Finally, last week we looked at what to do when things go right. We said: Rejoice in the fact that God has given you a blessing, Rest and be restored by God, and Reach Out to others who are going through tough times. So that brings us to tonight and what to do when we are attacked. That might be a little bit of a vague topic for you so maybe I can help clarify what I mean by ¡§under attack.¡¨ The Bible makes it clear that satan is a very real force in the world today just looking to disrupt and destroy peoples lives.
1 Peter 5:8 ¡§Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.¡¨ NRSV
He is always on the prowl like a lion as this verse says just looking for any chance he can to get you to take your focus off of God. Have you ever had a time when you just felt like things were coming at you from every direction? It could be your life is getting way to busy and you have so many demands on your time, then something goes wrong at home, or you find out some other bad news and you are left asking the question ¡§how much more can I take???¡¨ More times than not, these are the devils little schemes to try to get you feeling so bogged down, and feeling under attack that you lose your focus on God.
This is what I want to address tonight, what to do when we are attacked¡K Back in that verse we read in 1 Peter it says to discipline yourself and to keep alert, but how do we do that? There is a story about a man named Jeremiah that I think would be of some value to us, and there are plenty of New Testament passages that deal with this subject. From these we can say that we need to do three things when we are under attack:
„h Pause
„h Pray
„h Praise
Before we begin our first thing to do when we are attacked, I want to tell you that story about the man named Jeremiah. Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet. Basically he was a spokesman for God to the people, In this case he was speaking to the people in the southern kingdom of Israel called Judah. The people have become very wicked under the leadership of a bad king and God has decided to punish the people by having another country come in and take all the people away for a while. God tells Jeremiah this and he begins to warn the people that the Babylonians are coming and they are going to take us away!!! As you can imagine the people did not respond to well to this message¡K It would be like me going up to New York City and telling them that the terrorist were coming to take them all away as a punishment from God. In fact the people persecuted and attack Jeremiah, even the priest in the temple had him put in the stocks!!! You can imagine that by this point Jeremiah was feeling under attack¡K Here he is trying to do the will of God and all he gets is more and more grief. It would have been very easy for Jeremiah to take his focus off of God and begin to get bogged down in all his problems,
But he had a habit of doing these 3 things to help keep him focused on God. So lets begin by looking at the first thing to do when we are attacked.
1. Pause, to recognize that God is in control.
We here this thrown around in church circles all the time, God is in control, but what does it mean and why is it important to recognize this when we are attacked? God is in control means that he has providence over all things, saying this a little different is, nothing happens outside of God¡¦s reign or rule. This is made clear throughout the story of the Bible, but here a few verses that show what I am talking about: Acts 17:28 ¡§For in him we live and move and have our being¡K¡¨ This verse is saying that only because of God can we even have life, so naturally he must be in control of it¡K Colossians 1:17 ¡§¡Kand in him all things hold together.¡¨ This says that everything owes its existence and survival to God and his control. So where am I going with this? God is not just in control of the good things, but he is also in control of the bad things, and even the evil of this world. That does not mean that I am saying that God is responsible for the evil or bad things, but that they all fall under his control. Even satan and the demons all have to submit to Gods power and control. When we are attacked we can take great hope in the fact that God has the power to change, stop, or fix any attack or problem that may be present in our life. Again it does not mean that God is immediately going to zap all the attacks but we can take comfort in his plan and his power. So the first reason why it is important to recognize that God is in control is because it is a source of comfort. The next reason why we should pause and recognize that God is in control is because it refocuses us on God. When we are in the middle of being attacked it is hard to look at things objectively. All we see is all the things that are going wrong around us and we fail to recognize that God has the whole situation in control. When a quarterback is in the heat of the game he sometimes can get a blurred perspective that might lead to some poor decisions, So when he gets to a point that things are just looking to tough or the game plan does not seem like it will work he will call a time out to get a fresh perspective from the side lines. This is what pausing and recognizing God is in control will do, it helps you to get a fresh perspective on your situation. Again these two things will help us get our eyes off of our circumstances and back focused on God.
2. Pray, for God¡¦s protection and peace.
Philippians 4:6 ¡V 7 ¡§Don¡¦t worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.¡¨
When you get attacked it is very easy to begin to panic and start to worry about anything and everything. This is just one of the attacks that satan will bring on top of the other attacks. We all can relate to this, when our country was attacked back on Sept. 11, 2001 all of us to some degree or another began to panic and worry. For some people this is still something they are in panic about and worrying more and more every day about. Now this might be an extreme case of attack, we all tend to do the same things when we are under lesser degrees of attack. This however is not what God would want for us. This verse says ¡§do not worry about anything¡K¡¨ ¡§Is God ignorant though? Does he expect me to not worry and get freaked out when everything is going wrong and I am under attack?¡¨ God understands that our human nature is weak and we will want to worry, but he tells us not to because he first off all knows that he is in control of the situation like we talked about in point one, But he also knows that we have his power at our disposal if we will just do what else this verse says¡K ¡§¡Kby prayer, and supplication, with thanksgiving let your request be made known to God¡K¡¨ So one of the amazing truths out of all of this is, that we do not have to worry ever again!!! But how do we realize that in our lives, we must pray. Prayer really does work, and if you don¡¦t know how it is so simple, Present your thoughts, feelings, and concerns to him just like you would a best friend. When we do look what the verse says is ours, ¡§and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.¡¨
When we pray we open up Gods peace and protection to come and minister to us during our times when we are under attack.
Story ¡V I can remember a time when I first started to do youth ministry and we had gone on a mission trip in Kentucky. One day we went on a trip into the Cumberland National Forest, and I was in charge of a group of 8th grade guys. They all thought I was so cool, which was making the day a blast. Well we were hiking along until I realized that I had no idea where the trail actually was. I casually asked the guys in a macho tone of voice if they had noticed we were off the trail. We then began to look around a little bit and still no trail to be found. Things began to build and I could feel the attacks coming. First this was my first trip and if I get one of these guys hurt it is over for me, second I have to have them back in 1 hour and we are lost, third I am scared, and fourth I cannot tell them because they think I am cool¡K so I started to panic. Finally, I realized that oh yeah, maybe I should pray. So we all stopped and prayed and a warm peace fell over me as we started to walk and we found the path. We were a bit late, but God saved us.
So after we pause and recognize that God is in control, and we pray, now what???
3. Praise, God that he will save you from your attackers.
Remember our story of Jeremiah the prophet who was under attack and practiced these things, well listen to what he says with a confidence that can only come from knowing God is in control and from being prayed up¡K
Jeremiah 20:11 ¡§But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.¡¨
& 13 ¡§Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of the evildoers.¡¨ NRSV (italics mine)
Remember the goal of this series is to keep us less focused on our situation, and more focused on God no matter what. And this is one of the best ways to do this. Praising God in the midst of being under attack is an awesome weapon against the attacks of the devil.
When we praise God for what he has done and is going to do in our situations, and our lives, it forces us to cast our eyes up. Were all called to praise God not only in the good times when things are going right, but we are called to praise him at all times. When we realize that God is in control and that we do not have to worry, really the only response left when we are attacked is to praise God.
We all have gone through times of attack and I promise you more are coming so remember to: Pause, Pray, and Praise.
Prayer time -----------------------
