WHO IS YOUR ENEMY?
ROMANS 12:14-21
Pastor Ryan Akers
Warrenton Wesleyan Church
Romans 12:14-21: 14Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them. 15When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad. 16Be friendly with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people. [a] 17Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, 18and do your best to live at peace with everyone. 19Dear friends, don’t try to get even. Let God take revenge. In the Scriptures the Lord says, "I am the one to take revenge and pay them back." 20The Scriptures also say, "If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This will be the same as piling burning coals on their heads." 21Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.
I’m coming to you this morning with a simple message. The front of the bulletin and the notes within were the message I planned to preach. It was the message I sat down and prepared for and was ready to stand up here today to deliver. But it wasn’t the message God desired for you to hear today. Next week you will hear it, but today comes a message straight from my heart.
I want to ask you a question this morning. It is a simple question. But your answer and the actions you take behind your answer may have an eternal impact. The question is, “Who is your enemy?” Now that’s a strange question. I’ve heard hundreds of pastors preach messages on who is your neighbor. And that’s easy my neighbor is everyone around me whether I know the person or not Jesus says they are my neighbor and because they are my neighbor I am commanded as a believer in Christ to love and honor and help my neighbors. But I have never heard a pastor ask, “Who is your enemy?”
Well that’s a little more challenging question. No one ask Jesus who our enemy is. "I don’t know who my enemy is, I love everyone everyone is my neighbor so how can I have enemies?"
How many of you (don’t raise your hands) have ever had somebody in your life that you just couldn’t stand? That when they walked into the room when you saw them or heard there voice you just cringed. You were instantly annoyed. When someone even just mentions their name we are just like, “Man I can’t stand them. They did this or they do that. Or they did this and really hurt me, or when they are around they act like this and its just annoying.” I don’t know why you can’t stand this person. Maybe they hurt you. Maybe they are a know it all or are incredibly demanding or are always wanting their own way. Maybe they are incredibly selfish. But for whatver reason I have a hard time believing that most if not all of us in here at one time or another have not had someone come into our lives that challenged our patience.
ILL(For me the person was Pedro Rinzler- exchange student, disobeyed my parents, he was rich and thought he could do anything he wanted. Arrogant)
My battle with Pedro was keeping me from going to the next level in my relationship with Christ. Through Pedro God showed me how to overcome the real enemy in our lives.
HOW TO OVERCOME THE REAL ENEMY
1. REALIZE WHO THE REAL ENEMY IS…
This may shock you. This may be hard for you to hear, but I want you to listen to me then we are going to get into God’s word to back up what I’m about to say. The real enemy is not the person who annoys you. Its not those who bring you harm. Its not people who blame you. Its not those who laugh when you fail. The number 1 enemy in your life is not even Satan. The number 1 enemy in your life is you.
What!? How is that possible? How can you make such a bold statement? I make it because its true. The number 1 enemy in your life is you. The number 1 enemy in my life is me, because we control our own lives. We control how we think, what we say, how we act. We control what annoys us. We control what grudges to hold, what attitudes to have, how we will react in every situation whether good or bad. We control how we treat others, how much love we give out or don’t give out. It’s up to us.
“No pastor. Satan does that. Satan is the enemy. That’s what my pastors and bible school teachers and parents all taught me growing up. Satan made me do it.” Your right in that Satan is an enemy, and a very powerful one, but he is not the number 1 enemy. Satan may oppress you. Satan may try to trick you or influence you, but in the end, when the choice has to be made it is up to you to make the conscious effort to let the Spiritual enemy win that battle. You have the power to say yes or no.
We can’t blame Satan for everything. There are 6 billion people in this world. It would be pretty arrogant to think that Satan is only worried about you. Satan can only be in one place at one time. He’s not worried about us on an individual level at all times. But we like to think he is because if we think like that then we don’t have to responsibility for our actions. We can just blame someone else whether they are of this world or not.
Satan is awesome at what he does though. He is awesome because he is an expert at turning you and me against each other. We are our own worst enemies because we have an inbred selfish desire that even as Christians likes to dominate and control us. And when we choose to let that innate selfish desire control us then Satan uses that to turn Christians and non Christians alike against each other. When that happens churches split, leadership resigns, pastors are forced out, friendships are destroyed, people stop giving their time, talents and tithes. That’s when you see people leaving the church because of something that they didn’t like or didn’t go their way. Why? Because we may have accepted Christ, but we never learned to use the power of Christ to overcome ourselves.
Hear me on this today. Our real battle is not each other. Your real battle is not your ex wife or her lawyers. Your real battle is not with the know it all co worker you can’t stand. Your real battle is not with your drug addicted child, or your jerk boss, or your church leadership. Our real battle is not each other, our real enemy is ourselves and our real battle is on a spiritual battlefield against the great deceiver. It’s spiritual warfare.
Ephesians 6: 12-13 says, “12We are not fighting against humans. We are fighting against forces and authorities and against rulers of darkness and powers in the spiritual world. 13So put on all the armor that God gives. Then when that evil day [a] comes, you will be able to defend yourself. And when the battle is over, you will still be standing firm.
Alright so if I accept the fact that I am my own worst enemy what is the next step…?
2. SUBMIT OURSELVES TO CHRIST
Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “ Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.”
That verse says it all. Trust in the Lord with what? Let me hear you say it… ALL, everything, nothing is kept to you. If you keep one thing you will fail. If you keep an 1/8th of 1 of the littlest teeniest items you will fail. Our selfishness will take over and win against us. Remember we our own worst enemy. Either you are going to be the lord of your life or you are going to let God be the lord of your life. Personally I would rather let an infinite creator take command rather than trust the finite created to run things. (Amen)
But this is where we fail. We want the best of both worlds don’t we? We as finite limited in power, limited in knowledge, limited in everything, want to be able to believe in Christ and go to heaven, but at the same time we want to control our own lives and do what we want to do. We want all the reward with none of the work. We want all of the benefits without any of the sacrifice.
But that is not how God works. Christ Jesus died for you and me so that we could overcome ourselves and be with him for eternity and in return for this free gift God ask us to wholly devote our lives to him. To trust in him, to submit to his ways. Some would say that is demanding or controlling, but I say its freeing. Its freeing to not have to make all the choices ourselves. Its freeing to not have to solve all of our own problems. Its freeing that we don’t have to try to figure it all out. God says submit to me, trust in me in every and all things and I will make your paths straight. I will bless you. I will lead you down the path of victory where we would lead ourselves down a path of confusion and loneliness.
Luke 9:23-25 says, “23Then Jesus said to all the people: If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me. 24If you want to save your life, [a] you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will save it. 25What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself or waste your life?
Realize who the real enemy is, submit ourselves to Christ to overcome that enemy, then….
3. BECOME FILLED WITH DIVINE LOVE
I have read this next verse many times. It has become my life verse and I want you to listen closely to this verse because there is such incredible power behind these words.
I John 4:20-21 says, “20But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? 21The commandment that God has given us is: "Love God and love each other!"
If you say you love God but right now this very minute there are people in your life that you hold a grudge against. If there is someone you resent, that when they walk into a room you are instantly annoyed than the Bible says, God says you are a liar. That’s not Pastor Ryan’s words, that’s God’s words.
I read a scripture in the beginning of this message from Romans talking about how to treat our enemies. This scripture talks about how to treat those who hate you, who annoy you, who disrespect you, and no matter how many times they do it, this verse still stands.
Romans 12:14-21: 14Ask God to bless everyone who mistreats you. Ask him to bless them and not to curse them. 15When others are happy, be happy with them, and when they are sad, be sad. 16Be friendly with everyone. Don’t be proud and feel that you are smarter than others. Make friends with ordinary people. [a] 17Don’t mistreat someone who has mistreated you. But try to earn the respect of others, 18and do your best to live at peace with everyone. 19Dear friends, don’t try to get even. Let God take revenge. In the Scriptures the Lord says, "I am the one to take revenge and pay them back." 20The Scriptures also say, "If your enemies are hungry, give them something to eat. And if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. This will be the same as piling burning coals on their heads." 21Don’t let evil defeat you, but defeat evil with good.
When we say, “God this person hurt me, God says, child pray for them.” God this person stole from me, God says, child, forgive them and let me handle it. God this person failed miserably and it was awesome, they finally got what they deserved, God says, child, be sad with them. Child feed them because their hungry, child give them something to drink, child live at peace with them.”
But why God? They don’t deserve it. They didn’t do anything for me. In my darkest time they laughed, in my sad times they mocked. When I was hurt they kept hitting. Why should I do anything for them. And God will say, because child, I love them. Because I died for them. You killed me and I still love you. Because you can’t love me and hate others.”
Learn who the real enemy is. Its not your neighbor, its not another human, it ourselves. Then overcome this enemy by submitting to Christ, when we submit everything to him, God will fill us with divine love that truly conqueors all evil.
When I learned this I was able to finally realize that Pedro wasn’t not my enemy. I asked God for forgiveness and asked Pedro for forgiveness, we are now great friends and the freedom I felt when I took that step is simply to hard to put into simple words. It was a divine freedom that can only be found when we overcome the enemy.
It doesn’t take faith to give to people in our church. It doesn’t take faith to give to our missionaries. It doesn’t take faith to give to Agape. But it does take faith to give to those that you have struggled with.
When we get to heaven there will not be a Wesleyan section and a catholic section and a Baptist section. There will be just be heaven.
Our enemy is not flesh and blood. Our enemy is ourselves. If you haven’t already, pray today that God would transform you today.
I heard a quote this week that said, “Everybody wants to be like Jesus, but know one wants to live as he did.”
Why? Because of one thing. Pride. Our pride keeps us from truly moving beyond the basics of Christian understanding. True blessing and holiness comes from our loving God and loving all people as passionately as Christ loved us. And we know how much he loved us, he died for us, and why he died he looked straight at the men that nailed the nails into his hands and said, “Father forgive them.” That is the love we all should learn.
