Spiritual Warfare Series

TITLE: ?Who? Me? A Disciple? : Spiritual Warfare? 022403

TEXT: Matthew 10:1Jesus called together his twelve disciples. He gave them the power to force out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and sickness.

Luke 10:1,17-20 Later the Lord chose seventy-twoa other followers and sent them out two by two to every town and village where he was about to go... 17When the seventy-two followers returned, they were excited and said, "Lord, even the demons obeyed when we spoke in your name!" 18Jesus told them: I saw Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. 19I have given you the power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to defeat the power of your enemy Satan. Nothing can harm you. 20But don’t be happy because evil spirits obey you. Be happy that your names are written in heaven!

a(seventy-two: According to the book of Genesis, there were seventy-two nations on earth. Jesus probably chose this number of followers to show that his message was for everyone in the world that had made a decision to become a disciple of Jesus)

I. A DISCIPLE DEFINED

A. If you?ve come this far, you really have no option but to go all the way!

1. If you?ve have come to the place in your spiritual life where you

have made the decision that living for self, flesh, trying to gain the world by adopting its values is hebel, Hebrew for vanity, meaninglessness, something so empty that it is void of value, and have come to realize that the only way to truly enjoy this gift of life to its fullest is to surrender to Jesus Christ an occupy your rightful place of fellowship with God, then you really have no option but to go all the way and truly become a disciple.

2. In the first message in this series, ?Who? Me? A Disciple?? I taught

that a disciple learns solid Biblical principles and by faith puts them into practice in their daily lives no matter how much those principles contradicted the world?s principles, which by nature have been instilled in every one of us.

a. I could think of no more concrete of way demonstrating that

than how we handle money.

b. I hope that some of you have put the tithe principle into practice.

If you have, I have no doubt that most of you have already begun to see the miraculous results.

3. Last month I described a disciple as a learner and a doer. This

month I will give you another life characteristic of a disciple. A disciple is a fighter, a survivor and a victor. A disciple knows how to respond when attacked. A disciple is on the offensive in the spiritual battle that faces every one of us.

4. Jesus said (MT 10:16) I am sending you like lambs into a pack

of wolves. So be as wise as snakes and as innocent as doves.

B. It seems that way most days does it not. Well it seems that way

because it is that way.

ILLUSTRATION. There was a timid, rather odd little boy who sent to school. It was his first day in first grade. His mother had given him .45--just enough to buy a hot lunch and a ½ pint of milk. An older student spotted the dear in the headlights look on his face and with violent threats bullied the younger boy out of his lunch money. He gets caught in a scuffle and has to write on the black board 30 hundred times, ?Fighting will never solve anything.? Day after day, day after long day, the bullying continued. The young man, being young and naive did not think he had any recourse. Sometime later he rode his bike to school. His bike meant a lot to him?it was his transportation; it enabled him to fulfill his responsibilities. His bike was stolen?the lock was cut. Now he was forced to walk home?a two-mile journey. And daily, on that journey, the boy who stole his lunch, along with some of his friends circled him on their bicycles and would spit on him. He would run, but he never got away. It only stopped when they ran out of spit. Still he could fathom no recourse for his predicament. These daily events began to mount up in his life. It began affecting his self-esteem. Then his lack of self-esteem began affecting his schoolwork. Now his teachers are on his back. They are mean and rough with him; they expose him to public ridicule. He is soon labeled a slow learner. Now all of this has a singular affect on the young boy. He doesn?t want to fight, he doesn?t want to achieve, he doesn?t want to succeed, he just wants to crawl in a hole and die.