BE121105
WAR WITH GOD
2. The Sword, Cordial and Horn
(TITLE SLIDE) INTRO
Samaritan’s Purse put out a story about brutal persecution going on in Southeast Asia and the Sudan. This year in the Sudan, a pastor was singled out by Muslim revolutionaries and drug behind a tank by his bound hands then left for dead. He lived, but lost an eye and his hands are wrecked for life.
- No more productive manual labor,
- no more eating normally,
- no more throwing a baseball with his kid,
- no more caressing his wife.
His commitment as a follower of Christ cost him so much. Yet on the day he emerged from the hospital he proclaimed:
“if I lift these withered hands, may they point the way to Jesus Christ!”
There’s no resentment, no ‘why God did you allow this to happen’, no agonizing over the “problem of evil”, no dark night of the soul, no apathy, or self pity or withdrawal from church. Why didn’t he do any of that?
Because he gets it. Gets what? He gets that he is in a war. He knows that when Jesus called him, he called him to a cause and self denial and sacrifice and to being a solider in a spiritual war of the worlds, and soldiers take hits. He gets what Paul said to Timothy:
(SLIDE) 2 Tim 2:3-4 Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. And as Christ’s soldier, do not let yourself become tied up in the affairs of this life, for then you cannot satisfy the one who has enlisted you in his army.
Are you tied up in the physical affairs of this life? Then you’re not thinking like a soldier. A soldier expects bad things to happen. Should this pastor resent God? Why? He’s at war:
(SLIDE) Eph 6:10-13 For we are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.
If he accepts this as truth, would he resent Jesus for his wounds? This is par for the course! I think he might say:
I knew when I signed up for the Master’s kingdom that I was signing up for war! Other people are not my enemy, they are the battlefield for spiritual forces of good and evil, the territory I’m fighting for. All temporal wars, recessions, cultural fads, broken relationships, social movements, persecutions, temptations are expressions in some way of this spiritual conflict.
- Everything is a potential weapon,
- Everyone is a potential casualty.
Now those radical Muslims who attacked this Christian also see themselves as “holy warriors”. They will maim and kill and strap bombs to their bodies as an expression of how they view spiritual conflict. So how is that different from you, the Christ follower who are ALSO called to spiritual warfare?
It’s in the weapons that you use. It is HOW you fight. It is the MEANS of our warfare:
(SLIDE) 2 Cor 10:4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world (sarx). On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
So if we’re soldiers, how do I war with God? What are my weapons exactly? Well, in the book the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the children are given three weapons in Narnia:
- Peter is given a Sword…
- Lucy is given a cordial…
- and Susan is given a Horn.
Because Lewis meant for this to be a Christian allegory, we see a beautiful picture here of the spiritual weapons mentioned in the Bible which we use to war with God.
(SLIDE) 1. SWORD
In the TLTWATW, Peter gets a sword for his confrontation with the evil White Witch. A sword is clearly about offense. It’s how a solider inflicts damage. Now keep in mind, the battlefield is souls:
2 Cor 4:4 Satan, the god of this evil world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News that is shining upon them.
So what kind of activity would a Christian be doing if they were on the offensive? They would be about the liberation of souls
- from destructive thought and heart patterns
- from lies that hold us captive to serve only ourselves and the enemy
- opening eyes to see Truth
You could equate the SWORD with one idea: WORD. In the list of spiritual weapons from Ephesians 6 Paul includes an ACTUAL sword just like Peter’s from TLTWATW and he says what it represents:
(BULLET) 17: take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
SO when you think Sword, it’s synonymous with:
– SWORD = God’s Word, the Bible, the Gospel, Jesus Christ himself
– SWORD = The Holy Spirit’s Inner Nudge
– SWORD = The Truth
So two things: first, we war with God clearly by getting the truth out about Jesus Christ. A more common term in church circles is: evangelism. When followers of Christ, the liberated ones, go back into the world to seek and to save the lost, we are doing one of the primary things Jesus did to beat back the kingdom of the enemy and take back his ill gotten territory.
Evangelism is an act of war.
When you’re engaged in talking to your friends about your relationship with God, about matters of the heart and truth; friends that’s warfare. You say, but that’s supposed to be loving, isn’t it? Of course it is! Remember, you’re not warring against your friend! You love your friend. Your friend is not the enemy, your friend is the battlefield!
Specifically the battle is in their mind and heart. Here’s how Paul describes it:
(BULLET) 2 Cor 10:5 With these weapons we break down every proud argument that keeps people from knowing God. With these weapons we conquer their rebellious ideas, and we teach them to obey Christ.
You’re warring against ideas, straw man arguments, or beliefs that have blinded them to the Truth. You hear these in the lunchroom or over coffee:
- God is a capricious, untrustworthy, why should I want him?
- There’s no reason to believe God even exists
- I’m a good person, I don’t need “religion”
- there’s no reason to believe Jesus existed or rose from the dead.
Part of evangelism is a spiritual act of war against proud arguments, high sounding ideas that have no foundation in TRUTH. That’s your sword. You say, but I’m not an intellectual Rick, I don’t argue well. You still have a sword, a word:
- the WORD of your story,
- the WORD of your grace encounter with God is irrefutable.
- Telling your story is wielding your sword.
But secondly, the Sword helps us war with God not just for territory “out there” but for territory “in here” – as we mature. See, after being freed by Christ, when you surrendered to him, experiencing his washing forgiveness and grace – you’re now a marked person and you’re going to be attacked. So no surprise that if our enemy is “the Father of Lies” our counter attack will be the truth!
We use God’s truth to battle, whenever we speak the truth to each other when we’re in crisis or pain, whenever we push back thoughts of despair and hopelessness and confusion.
- a insight from Scripture,
- rejecting a lie
- This is how we “take thoughts” captive
- This is how we WAR with God for Christ’s kingdom to spread inside us
Friends, how many times can you trace a bad month, a terrible season in your marriage, or relationship with God, a broken friendship, a time of depression or sulking hopelessness to one simple thing:
- You held onto a stubborn, proud, false idea in your head or heart…
- Maybe it was a lie about God, a falsehood about someone else
- This is why unresolved anger (Eph 4) gives the devil a foothold in your heart, because unresolved anger always leads you to think false thoughts about someone else.
But then we take our stand, and use the Sword – GOD’S WORD – TRUTH – to fight back. And all of a sudden we come to our senses and it’s like the sun rises for the first time in months.
So it’s our job, to be soldiers with swords, IE people of the TRUTH.
- People who know Scripture, who speak the truth, who can recognize false ideas and then who know how to talk truth to outsiders.
That’s how we WAR with God… with a sword, and also with a:
(SLIDE) 2. CORDIAL
This was Lucy’s gift. What’s a cordial? A vial of healing potion which she used in the battle to heal those wounded in the war against the white witch.
In the Bible, we are told that our fight is against principalities, powers, authorities. We said that Satan is called,
- the God of this world
- the prince of the power of the air.
That means our enemy is a powerful being who controls the world by controlling the air – it reminds us of a military term: air superiority. This is his realm. We’ve already seen he can control nature, disease, death, he brings suffering, seeks to destroy us… he fuels the curse and ultimately death itself.
So part of our warring with God is that we push back against the devastating consequences of the fall with healing acts of the Kingdom. I believe that ideas, ideologies, and corrupt systems that entrench the curse in society are fueled by our enemy. Such as?:
- western materialism. Think of how bitten we are by this ideology and how it keeps us from a life of sacrifice, giving and putting people before things
- societal racism. Remember how in the 1930’s all of Germany was under the grip of a whole system of polluted thinking against Jews, or the south in the 60’s against blacks, or our abandonment of the unborn in the name of “love”?!
- systematic political corruption
I could go on, but I think these are clear examples of what Paul calls “things taught by demons”. Ideologies that gain sway over a whole population and do what? Bring persecution, injustice, suffering, fueling the curse.
So what is the cordial? It’s our New Testament mandate to be salve, the healing balm that God’s people apply in order to REVERSE the CURSE. In other words,
- we are called to not only preach the gospel,
- the Kingdom mandate is ALSO about pushing back the disastrous effects of the fall by struggling to reverse the physical effects of evil on earth.
(BULLET) Remember, Jesus announced the Kingdom, not just as the coming of Good News of God’s acceptance through forgiveness, but also through sight for the blind, healing for the sick, freedom for prisoners. Friends,
- every act of compassion motivated by love is an act of war!
- every dollar you sent down to help victims of Katrina,
- every dollar you sent to help folks devastated by earthquakes in southeast Asia
- every bit of food and clothing you donated our free distribution center
- whenever you build, heal, help, nurse, restore, mend…
- you curse the curse!
Every cup of cold water, every time you meet a need, is an act of WAR! You are saying “Thy Kingdom come” and look forward to the day the Kingdom will be all and in all, as described in John’s Revelation:
(BULLET) 22:2-3 And the leaves of the tree [of life] are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse.
Christians for 2000 years have understood that we war with God by reversing the curse. That’s why Christians invented universities, hospitals and orphanages and food and clothing distribution centers like ours. We are called to war with God by holy revolt against evil, to minister to the casualties of war with the cordial of healing… but there’s a third weapon, the:
(SLIDE) 3. HORN
This was given to Susan. What was the horn for? It was to call for help in time of battle. When the spiritual weapons are listed in Eph 6 Paul concludes:
(BULLET) Vs 16-18 In every battle you will need faith as your shield to stop the fiery arrows aimed at you by Satan. Put on salvation as your helmet, and… Pray at all times and on every occasion in the power of the Holy Spirit. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all Christians everywhere.
Jesus always connected prayer with faith. We only have time to see this one time, Mark 9. A man came to Jesus with a demonized son which the disciples could not heal. The father pleaded with Jesus to do something. Jesus said, my authority is not the question here… the question is do you believe?
The man said, I do, but it’s not strong, it’s just the faith of a mustard seed. Jesus said, that’ll do, and healed the boy. The disciples were miffed! They asked, why could we not do it? And Jesus said, when resisting forces in the spiritual realm like this, you need:
- more faith,
- more prayer and
- more fasting.
Actually each Gospel records a different word, which says that those terms are synonymous. Faith is Prayer is Fasting is Faith. Now think about that. Jesus was saying, in our war against spiritual forces of evil, requests offered in faith, persistent prayers and earnest fasting before God are acts of war.
Quite literally, when we press the horn to our lips and call for help, we are acting out in faith. And Jesus said with that kind of faith:
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Now, this whole discussion always raises the question, if God can do it, why doesn’t he just do it without our needing to ask? This gets us back to what we said earlier in this series: if God’s given us freedom, then this weapon of prayer and faith is really…
- About a declaration that we have freely chosen to trust him
- in prayer we are freely joining God in his purposes – “thy Kingdom come, thy will be done.”
It’s critical to understand that when Jesus says he’ll grant any request, it’s with this caveat: IN MY NAME. What Jesus is doing in giving us the HORN, is saying, here:
- I wait to be freely wanted.
- I wait for warriors who care about what I care about.
- I wait to respond to those who trust me and will represent me on behalf of a broken world.
Jesus would ask people, “what do you want?” Think of a solider on the battlefield. What does he ask for? Well, he might ask for …
- a trip home,
- a better cot,
- to be removed from the battle front,
- to get a Hummer with 22 inch wheels and a kickin’ sound system!
Now is that solider really committed to the cause for which he is fighting? Is he really making requests “in the name” of his superior officer? No. He’s sending requests for stuff that have nothing really to do with his commission as a solider. If he’s committed to the cause, and his Commander, will that not flavor his requests? AND the answers?
Yes. He’ll start asking for
- air cover
- better intelligence
- more supplies and resources for the fight, armor, ammo,
- more reinforcements
How many of us are the first solider and our prayer lives reflect it? "Oh, God, please give me that great parking spot right now. Lord, smite that driver, please - in the love of Jesus, of course..."
If we’re that second solider, the requests in Jesus name go more like this:
- God reveal yourself to my friend, I know you won’t coerce him, so I pray for an open door
- God heal my friend, and beat back the curse in her body, bring Life
- God protect him from the evil one’s influence so he can think clearly
- God remove the obstacles to speaking your truth…
(BULLET) Jesus said,
- Pray and pray and never give up. Pray persistently!
- Pray with faith, believing that all things are possible.
- Pray in Jesus name, as if you’re in a war zone, not a health spa!
You need support ask for it! You say, but I have just a little faith. That’ll do.
As a sophomore in college, a group of us started fasting and praying for my older brother who was far from God. Every week, with tears, we pleaded for him. Ironically he seemed to be getting progressively worse with each report from home!:
- First, we found he had turned to alcohol in a more serious way
- Then I learned he moved far from home,
- The next report, he had shacked up with a girlfriend who was bad news… but we kept praying.
- Then he lost his job,
- Next report, he burned his bridges with extended family members
- After 4 months of prayer I learned he was coming home but he got busted for a DWI and was in trouble with the law.
I saw him that month, and my wife can attest to this, he looked like hell. Like we were literally praying him into hell. I didn’t even realize until later what a spiritual war was waging in his soul.
- finally 5 months after we had started praying for him, he hit rock bottom and went to jail.
- We kept praying. He got out of jail and came home.
- Next report: He got befriended by some Christians.
- Next report: He made his peace with mom and dad.
- Then in April, 8 months after we started praying for him, I got a call at school. It was my brother:
"Rick, I just wanted you to know, I became a Christian today."
Now do I think God over-road his will and forced him into the faith? No. I believe our prayers battled evil forces meddling in his mind and life, and I believe our prayers on my brother’s behalf had authority to bring him to a place where he could finally hear God’s voice through the din of noise…
Then it was up to my brother to choose, and he bowed the knee of his heart…
The next time I saw him: he looked like heaven!
Friend do you realize the privilege you have? You have a horn, use it!
CONCLUSION
I hope you get a sense of your responsibility today. There’s a war on. Do you question the bad stuff that happens to you? Expect it! And don’t be incapacitated by it, fight back. How?
- With the Sword, bringing the Word, the Gospel, renewing minds
- With the Cordial, bringing Healing, Good deeds, reverse the curse
- With the Horn, prayer, and all acts inspired by faith, bringing power.
