There is a great rivalry in this part of the country. The UK/U of L Rivalry. From a mascot standpoint, it isn’t much of a fight. A Wildcat versus a Cardinal.
My Grandma Ulmet lived a number of years in Louisville. She loved the city, and loved the U of L Cardinals. It grew into a love of the actual cardinal birds. She loves to watch them, and spot them at her feeders. They really are beautiful birds.
But what you may not know, is that cardinals are very territorial. In fact, they have been known to attack, and fight off other intruding cardinals with great zeal. One pastor tells the story of a time when they owned a van which had large side mirrors and chrome bumpers. Remember those? Occasionally, one of the cardinals living in their area would attack the bumpers or mirrors, thinking his reflection was another bird.
One day, as this pastor watched the cardinal assail the mirror, he thought to himself, “What a foolish creature; his enemy is merely the reflection of himself.” The pastor writes, “Immediately the Lord spoke to my heart, ‘And so also are many of your enemies the reflection of yourself.’”
Ever said any of these things about yourself? Things like, “I am my own worst critic.” I know that I have. Often. Or “No one is harder on me, than myself.” I have told many people that I have worked with and met that if you think I am hard on others. You should try living inside me for awhile. I have often said things like, “I am my own worst enemy.”
In fact, the truth be told, many of my battles in life are simply the results of my own actions. And as we deal with this issue of spiritual warfare, it is so important that we separate what is of our flesh, from what is of the devil. Before we go about the business of girding up our weapons in an all out assault on Satan, we need to make sure that the real enemy we are dealing with is not our own carnal, earthly, in the flesh, self.
But to do that, we need to take up another weapon of our warfare. And that weapon is humility. Now, follow this with me. Many of the problems we face. Many of the difficulties in our life are not direct assaults from Satan. They are the results of our own actions, and activity. We have behaved as our own worst enemy.
But to recognize that, to get free from that, we have to humble ourselves. We have to acknowledge our own behaviors and attitudes that have put us in the position we are in.
How about this pretty famous saying, “The devil made me do it.” We like that one, right? And many of us operate daily with that mindset. We may not always implicate the devil, but we do all we can to implicate someone other than ourselves.
Think about it. When something goes wrong in your life, what do you naturally do? If you are like me, and you are. . .whether you will admit it or not, you look for someone to blame. Some other person, who must be the reason why this has happened to you. Because if something goes wrong in my life, there is one thing I know for sure, it wasn’t my fault. Right?
Remember the big stink from the drive-thru customer who spilled hot coffee on his lap at a McDonalds? Forget that he spilled the coffee. It was McDonald’s fault that the coffee was too hot. So now you see nice little warnings on the cups telling you that your hot beverage is in fact hot.
In fact, warning labels can be hilarious. Because they come about because of people that have done things, and then blamed the manufacturer. So, a warning label has to be added. Check some of these out. Here are some real life "warning labels":
"Do not use snow blower on the roof."
"Do not allow children to play in the dishwasher."
A warning on an electric router made for carpenters: "This product not intended for use as a dental drill."
On a baby stroller: "Remove child before folding."
On a bottle of prescription sleeping pills: "Warning: May cause drowsiness."
A sticker on a toilet at a public facility in Ann Arbor, Michigan warns people that: "Recycled flush water unsafe for drinking."
On a cartridge for a laser printer: "Do not eat toner."
On a household iron warns: "Never iron clothes while they are being worn."
On a blanket: "Not to be used as protection from a tornado"
I like this one on a bar of Dial soap: "Directions: Use like regular soap."
On a string of Christmas lights: "For indoor or outdoor use only"
On a Superman Halloween Costume: "This costume will not enable your children to fly." Can you just see the guy standing in line at the Wal-Mart asking for a refund. “It doesn’t work. My kid can’t fly.”
Warning labels because someone, somewhere, did something, can we just be honest. . . really stupid. . .but it wasn’t there fault. It was the manufacturers fault. If we know anything, it is that we’re not to blame.
And the same thing can happen spiritually. We can blame everyone else for the position we are in, and if we run out of people to blame, we will just blame God. But that avoids the battle inside us. That avoids the enemy inside us, which may be hiding in the stronghold of pride. That avoids recognizing that we are often to blame for the place, the situation, the predicament we find ourselves in. That place needs the weapon of humility.
Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5:23. Let’s look at a scenario Jesus describes where someone finds themselves in a mess, needing to use their weapon of humility. In this case, due to conflict with someone else. Matthew 5:23 (read through verse 26).
What does Jesus say to do when someone has something against you? Debate them? Point out how they could have helped the situation? Highlight their own shortcomings? Because I don’t know about you, but the people that are implicating me, they have plenty of things to be working on themselves. Know what I mean?
No. Jesus says, “Agree with your adversary quickly.” That takes humility. One definition I read this week of humility is refusing to defend your image. And that is pretty Biblical, because in and of ourselves, our image isn’t much to defend.
So what if our adversary is Satan? What if our adversary is our own self image? Turn over to the book of Colossians. Colossians 3. Some verses to help humble us (read verse 1 through 17). Turn back a few pages to Ephesians 4:17 (read through verse 24).
You see, humility is recognizing that the “old man”, who we were, was not much to brag about. It got us in all kinds of trouble. We truly were our own worst enemy. And now our salvation, our righteousness, our ability to relate to God as His children is no point of pride for us, but is a point of humility and recognition that it’s not me. It’s all God.
If we will put on humility, recognize our own faults and weaknesses, we can stop being our own worst enemy and then start dealing with our true enemy, Satan.
Then when Satan comes against us, and tells us that we aren’t loving enough. In humility we can say, “That’s true. I don’t have enough love. But the Son of God died for all my sins, even the sin of my imperfect love. I didn’t do it for myself. God did it for me.”
When Satan attacks us for being impatient. In humility we can say, “Yep. In my flesh, I am very impatient. But since I am born again, Jesus is my righteousness, and through His blood I am forgiven and made clean.”
You see, when we humble ourselves. When we don’t have to defend ourselves, and our image. We can agree quickly with our adversary, and experience the corresponding freedom that comes with that act of humility.
Remember, freedom begins with the name of Jesus on our lips. It is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts. As we allow the humility of Christ to bear fruit in our lives, and grow in our hearts, victory and freedom is just around the corner.
Satan hates the nature of Christ. He hates seeing our hearts being surrendered to God’s will for our lives. So Satan hates humility. He hates it when we just own up, stop blaming others, and recognize who we are without God’s grace and mercy.
There are few ways to more rapidly disarm our enemy, be it Satan or ourselves, than to just acknowledge in humble simplicity the words of the prophet Isaiah when he said, “But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter. And all we are the work of Your hand.” (Isaiah 64:6, 8)
Some practical application – the home. Maybe your wife or your mother has criticized you for being insensitive. You can be your own worst enemy. You can take the stand of pride and ego, and escalate the conversation into a battleground. You can point out all that she has done wrong, that has made your life so difficult and turned you into an insensitive person. Or you can humble yourself, agree with your wife, and ask God to complete your freedom by moving the nature of Christ into that part of your life.
Maybe your husband or father has told you that you don’t understand the pressures he faces at work. More than likely, he is right. And you can be your own worst enemy, and mount a counter charge full of his not understanding the pressures you face at home or at school. Doesn’t address his emotions or thoughts. Only escalates the accusations and attacks. Or you can humble yourself, agree with your dad, and pray together that God will bring greater freedom to your family by helping each of you see each other clearer through the eyes of Christ.
There are times in our lives when we need to take a step back from the battle, and before we blame Satan for this, that or the other we need to take a good look in the mirror, and see if we aren’t attacking ourselves or each other like territorial cardinals. I am fairly confident that in the last 50 years, Satan has probably not done all that much more damage to the church than we have managed to inflict on ourselves.
Humility is a huge weapon of our warfare. And that brings us to the most humble act of all. The very first step towards freedom. We end our series at the beginning. Let’s quickly look back at all we have examined over the past five weeks.
Non-rhetorical questions. Call out the answer. In “Operation Enduring Freedom”, unlike earthly warfare, where do we keep our eyes? (On Christ, our commander)
And in “Operation Enduring Freedom,” rather than confrontation and aggression, what is the mindset for truly enduring spiritual freedom and victory over the enemy? (The mindset is peace) It is not calling out this spirit and that. To truly experience spiritual freedom and victory in our daily warfare, your mind must be filled with peace.
We have said it over and over again, and I hope you have it memorized by now, “Freedom starts with the name of Jesus on our lips. It is completed with the nature of Jesus in our hearts.”
We looked at the reality that in spiritual warfare, many people would rather not fight. And for some good reasons. Some people are just too spiritually and emotionally exhausted to put up another defense. It’s not that deep inside they don’t want to fight, but they have reached a point of being so spiritually exhausted that they simply do not feel they can put up another defense.
Some people would rather not fight because they are afraid of what life might be like if they were truly free. They fear life on the other side of freedom. Sometimes we would rather hold on to our excuses, then have to face the reality of an unknown life of complete freedom. And others would rather not fight because they believe that there must be another way. Can’t we just avoid the battle?
But we saw in the book of Deuteronomy, that sometimes God will position our lives so that we have to face the battle. Why? Because God knows which battles we need to fight, and He knows the impact of that battle on the big picture.
We have talked about strongholds. Not the physical places, such as caves up on a mountainside which were very difficult for an enemy to access and attack. But the strongholds Paul spoke of as fortified places that can be places of defense for the enemy.
Strongholds in our mind and thought patterns that come from the world, our experiences, wrong doctrines. Strongholds like pride, unbelief, failure, fear, or cold love.
And last week we examined our weapon of worship. Remember what Francis Frangipane writes, “No man will worship through the great battles of tomorrow who complains in the mere skirmishes of today.” So we have to learn to worship in the wilderness. Worship with a love of God as the ultimate motivator and sustainer of our worship. And fulfill that purpose we were created for of bringing pleasure to God through our worship of Him.
Five weeks examining this “Operation Enduring Freedom.” If you missed any of it get a copy of the tapes, check out the manuscripts on-line at stonewallwesleyan.com, or invite me over for a piece of cherry pie and a personal one-to-one replay.
Yet, for all of that which we have explored to lead us to a place of truly beginning to experience that enduring freedom. For all that to bring about a deliverance and release in our lives. We have to humble ourselves. And a major part of that humbling process is to repent.
In the book of Matthew you find Jesus preaching the Sermon on the Mount. One sermon. Just a few short minutes of Jesus teaching, and you see this truth of humble repentance being a key to freedom repeated multiple times.
There is the passage we looked at just a few moments ago. Leave your gift at the altar, and go be reconciled before offering your gift.
The Message says it like this, “If you enter a place of worship and, about to make an offering, suddenly remember a grudge that a friend has against you, abandon your offering, leave immediately, go to this friend and make things right. Then and only then, come back and work things out with God”
Mac Lucado writes, “As far as I know, this is the only time God tells you to slip out of church early. Apparently, He’d rather have you give your olive branch than your tithe. If you are worshiping and remember that your mom is hacked-off at you for forgetting her birthday, then get off the pew and find a phone. Maybe she’ll forgive you; maybe she won’t. But at least you can return to your pew with a clean conscience.”
Before we can even begin using the weapon of worship to tear down strongholds, we need repentance. We need to humble ourselves, and make things right with others, and with God.
A little later in the Sermon on the Mount you find the Lord’s prayer, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Forgive us. Repentance. Deliver us. Freedom. But notice the order. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Repentance precedes deliverance.
A little later in the sermon. “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Before you start helping others. Before you start providing guidance and direction to others. Get right yourself. Get the plank out of your own eye. Repent of those things in your life that have blinded you to your true condition. Humble yourself, and see your own plank before looking to help free others. Repentance before deliverance.
There are places in our lives, areas that we hold back from allowing God to fully control. Areas where we fail to humble ourselves, and acknowledge our own inabilities. And areas where we fail to humble ourselves, and repent of our own shortcomings. And those areas, sometimes in a manner even more debilitating than any attack from our enemy, can open the door for many of the battles and struggles we face. Our own worst enemy, can truly be ourselves.
As we wrap up our series, I want to provide you the opportunity to take that first step towards finding true, lasting, enduring freedom. I want to give you the chance to repent to God, humble yourself, and allow Him to save you from yourself, so that you can be saved from the enemy of this world.
So I want to lead you into a prayer of repentance. Where you are sitting, silently pray after me –
Heavenly Father, there are areas in my life I have not fully surrendered to you. (I want you to name them, right now in your prayer. List them out, tell God these areas in your life that you have not fully surrendered to Him.). God I have not fully surrendered these areas to you. Humble me, and allow me to give them over to you.
And Father, there are areas in my life I have not fully confessed to you. (This is your chance. Repent of those areas of sin and compromise in your life. Name them specifically so that He can begin to set you free). God, forgive me of compromise. I ask You for courage to approach the pulling down of strongholds without reluctance or deception in my heart. By the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the name of Jesus, bind the influences that reinforce compromise and sin within me. Expose the strongholds in my life.
(Opportunity to take a step of commitment.)
(A great deal of inspiration from this message taken from Francis Frangipane’s book "The Three Battlegrounds.")
