INTRODUCTION
• Life can be tough at times. It seems like there are times when nothing seems to come easily. It seems in our spiritual walk that we take two steps forward and three back.
• I have seen people who would just give up and quit when things got tough for them. I see other people who persevere through the tough times in life.
• When look at what is happening to our society today it seems like we are fighting a losing battle. Society in general seems to be sliding so far from God that is seems hopeless. The church seems to be fighting a losing battle in the arena of ideas. It seems like those who have anti-God agenda are winning the battle.
• Many Christians feel bruised and defeated.
• I know some of you are really struggling with your faith. Somewhere along the line you were made to think that life would be easy when you gave your life to Jesus, only to find that is not true in the way you thought it would be.
• The battles rage within you. There seems to be a temptation at every turn for some.
• Here is what it boils down to. We are all in a war. I do not think we really understand that.
• Today we are going to start a four part series that comes from the sixth chapter of Ephesians. The section we will cover over the next four weeks deals with the armor of God.
• We are in a battle. We are all soldiers in God’s army. Before you give your life to Jesus, you are at war with God. When you give your life to Jesus, we are then engaged in another war. The enemy is trying to take you captive, he wants to try to get you back on his side.
• If we are going to wage a successful campaign against the enemy, there are some things we need to know. Over the next four weeks, we will look at some of the things we need to understand so that we can be victorious in our war with the enemy.
• Today, we will focus on the importance of knowing our opponent.
• READ EPHESIANS 6:10-12
If we understand our opponent, we will realize how important it is for us to:
SERMON
I. KNOW WHERE YOUR STRENGTH COMES FROM (10)
• Verse ten begins by encouraging us to be strong in the Lord.
• The word “be strong” means to “be empowered”. We are encouraged to let he Lord empower us to fight the battle.
• Philippians 4:13 says, “I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.”
• Put another way, “I can do all things through Him who EMPOWERS me.
• We suffer defeat in our battle when we decide to go it alone. How many Christians do you know, who when they would be fighting a particular battle against some sin, would go into the woods and hide. Or maybe they were trying to defeat an enemy by their own strength.
• Our soldiers are fighting in Iraq. They are empowered for the fight by the U.S. military. These soldiers did not decide on there own to go fight the battle, they were empowered by our government and military to go fight the battle.
• Our soldiers know their power and strength comes from the military and the training and support they receive from the military. Even as teams of soldiers are fighting in the streets, they have air cover to help strengthen them in their fight.
• The ONLY way you will win the battles you are fighting is when you fight them with the Lord! We MUST understand our power comes from Him.
• Throughout the Old Testament, when the Israelites would go to battle, God made it clear that He was the reason and the cause of their victory.
• When God was helping Gideon put an army together to fight the Midians, Gideon had an army of over 30,000 men. Listen to what God said to Gideon in Judges 7:2, “The Lord said to Gideon, "The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ’My own power has delivered me.’
• We are not meant to fight the battle alone by our own power and strength; we are meant to let the Lord empower us!
• When you are in the middle of a battle in your life, you need to let God strengthen you; you need to let God’s people know that you need help. You do not always have to let them know every detail, but we are ALL in the same army. Outside of Jesus, we are powerless!
• READ JOHN 15:1-5
• When we see the magnitude of the opponent, it will help us to depend on God for our strength!
As we get to know our enemy, we will need to:
II. KNOW THE TACTICS THE ENEMY USES (11)
• Verse 11 begins by encouraging us to put on the full armor of God. Over the next two weeks, we will look at the armor in more detail.
• We are told we are to put on the full armor of God so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
• We are encouraged to out on the FULL armor of God. This armor includes more than something to cover us up, it includes the weaponry and implements needed to not only protect us, but to enable us to do battle from an offensive stand point.
• The reason for this is so that we can “stand firm” against the schemes of the devil.
• Standing firm was a military term that meant, “to hold on to a position, to not lose ground gained. You cannot launch an offensive if you cannot maintain the ground you have already gained.
• One of the problems we have when we go to battle is we have not gained any ground to launch an offensive from. We start our walk with God and we still hold on to the things from the past, things that are dragging us down. We have not conquered much if any ground to launch a successful offensive from.
• The goal of the Christian is to stand firm, to not surrender or give ground to the enemy. We see a situation in Iraq where it appears we did not stand firm on ground we had already gained; now we are losing lives trying to retain it.
• When we give up ground gained, it becomes harder for us to take it back.
• If we are going to successful fight against the enemy, we need to know some of the schemes he uses.
• The devil does not come out and tell you the terrible consequences that follow when you listen to him.
• One of the schemes the enemy uses is deception.
• In Genesis 3, when Satan is trying to get Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, he uses scheme of deception. READ Genesis 3:1-6
• Notice he tricked her into eating it. He did not say, “Eve, you know I would like for you to eat this forbidden fruit because it will put separate you from God, it will cost you your home in this beautiful garden and you will be subservient to your husband and he will have to work by the sweat of his brow AND by the way, you are opening the door to condemn the whole human race!”
• Didn’t hear that did she?
• Look at the beer commercials. They are great, drink all you want, stay thin, and you get to have snow bunnies rolling around in the swim suits in your yard in the winter! You are the popular person if you drink the right beer.
• They do not tell you how many people are killed on the highways each year because of alcohol; they do not tell you what can happen to your body after a long period of abusing it. They do not show you the family who was destroyed because a man or wife became an alcoholic. They do not show you the wino in who lives on the street that stinks so bad the flies will not even follow him. They do not tell you how many women get raped when alcohol is involved.
• There was a bar around our home church that on a particular night of the week would open up to teens. They would not serve alcohol, but they would serve drinks with alcohol names. Why do you think they did that? To drum up future business!
• The bible tells us the enemy will disguise himself as an angel of light. 2CO 11:14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
• Jesus calls him the father of lies in John 8:44. "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
• The word “schemes” denotes, “cunning and deception”. The word was often used of a wild animal who cunningly stalks and then unexpectedly pounces on its prey.
• I have watched my cat “Boy”, stalk a rabbit. He does not yell out that he is coming to “play” with the rabbit, he slowly stalks it, then he jumps the surprised rabbit, then he invites the rabbit over for dinner.
• In 1 Peter 5:8 we are warned, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
• Satan will misquote scripture and do anything he can to ruin you. He is telling the homosexual community that God is a loving God, so what they are doing would not jeopardize their salvation. This is a twisting of God’s word.
• One of the ways we fight this is we are to take every thought captive to Jesus. 2CO 10:5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,
III. KNOW WHO YOU ARE FIGHTING (12)
• I have been told that one of the more difficult parts of the Vietnam War was the fact that it was hard to tell who the enemy was and who were friendly at times. IF you are going to fight a successful war, you MUST know who you are fighting.
• Many times in the past, the church has declared war on the wrong enemy.
• People are not the enemy. The battle is on a higher level than the flesh.
• Look at verse 12 again with me. READ.
• Each of the items listed is a different level or different arm of the military for the devil.
• We are locked into a spiritual battle. People are victims of the enemy, not the enemy. Some of them are willful participants in the devils army; most have been deceived by the schemes of the devil to join up with him.
• If we were fighting in a prize fight, we could do our road work, hit the punching bags, do some sparing, and lift some weights to get ready for the fight.
• 2CO 10:3-4 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.
• We MUST understand we are fighting a spiritual battle against spiritual forces.
• We have to resist demonizing people and go to the real source of the fight, the devil. You cannot fight a spiritual fight on a physical level. You can do all the running you want, lift all the weights you want, but it will not help you fight a spiritual battle.
• I really do think we understand where the battle is, it is a battle for the mind. How many of us do not take our bible studies seriously enough to read the lessons and fill out the books ahead of time? How many of us do not encourage our children to come to Sunday school and better yet set the example for them b being there ourselves? We would not dream of having them skip out on school every week would we? I am not saying school is not important, but what about strengthening their spirit?
• Our children will not be ready for the battle if we do not prepare them. We will not be prepared to fight the battle unless we prepare ourselves.
• How did Jesus fight the devil? With scripture. How should we fight him? With scripture.
• Folks, we are guilty of underestimating the enemy, we have been lulled asleep.
• Think this one out with me. Let’s say we are going to have a drill sergeant come in for six weeks to train us so that we could see what it is like to go through military training. Let’s say we are required to go. ALL of US. Now, how seriously do you think most of us would take it?
• Now let’s change it up. We ALL have been called to go to the front lines of Iraq in 13 weeks. Now your survival depends on what you learn. Would we take it a bit more seriously? What if all of our children 10 and up were called to go fight in 13 weeks. The military is offering an optional training class; would we have our kids there? YES!
• Brethren, the battle we are fighting is much more dangerous than what is happening in Iraq. We are in a spiritual battle for the very soul of each person we meet, including our own.
• Know your enemy, prepare to fight him. Don’t give up ground; do not be seduced by his lies.
CONCLUSION
• How are you preparing for the battle for your soul? If we understand our enemy, we can better fight him.
• I have watched movies on the revolutionary war. We watched Mel Gibson’s “The Patriot.” Rachel commented on how dumb the British were for just lining up in a straight line to get shot. Why did we win that war? I believe God had a hand in it, but I believe the British did not know who they were fighting, they underestimated their enemy. They did not understand they way they fought and they did not understand their tactics.
• In the next two messages, we will look at the full armor of God and we will see how each piece is so important to our survival.
• Whose side are you on? If you want to be in on the team that has won the battle, it is time for you to give your life to Jesus! We are fighting a defeated foe!
• 2TI 4:7-8 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.
• I hope they can say this about you when it is all over!
