Understanding Spiritual Warfare Series

Understanding Spiritual Warfare

Ephesians 6:10-18

Intro-

Good Morning to those listening online- Happy New Year

We are glad that you are here- if you would turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 6,

We will be looking at the armor of God and how it works or doesn’t work in our lives.

Because we are or we are not using it.

I am calling this series “When the enemy attacks” and have talked about it in both our Wednesday prayer sessions, Men’s meeting last Thursday, and coming at it hard in this morning.

We try to do our best to understand that God loves you, coming out of Christmas I hope that you see just how much the Lord loves us that He would come to this world and redeem mankind that desperately needed a savior.

What we also do not understand if God loves us that much that Satan because He hates God will also hate God’s people and does not want them to have that relationship with Him.

As hard as Jesus is trying to show His love, Satan is trying to destroy any chance of that relationship taking place.

Satan hates you. He hates you if you are a child of God.

It is not a question of if we are going to be attacked, it is what are you going to do when you are attacked.

Scripture tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

The Lord tells us to humble ourselves, therefore under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time.

Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

1 peter 5:8” Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy (adversary) the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same sufferings.”

This is a familiar verse, but how many of us apply the teachings to our lives.

Paul is talking to the church about how we can keep the devil off our back and influencing our lives.

Peter tells us the devil is out to devour us and destroy and be aware of his tactics and Paul tells us how we can do that.

Ephesians Chapter 6:10-18 Read from the Bible

Chapter 6

He says children should obey their parents,

Parents should bring their children up in the fear of the Lord.

Workers should honor their bosses,

Bosses should do right to their workers.

Then he gets to the meat of the chapter and tells us what God has provided for us to defeat the enemy of our lives

Not by our strength, but by the power and strength of the Lord.

Like armadillo warfare, because most people are like that commercial for the personal credit card. He is a super hero in a armadillo outfit and his wife and kids surprise him in his cave and he gets scared and balls up as a defense.

Most put on this big show of how strong a Christian they are until something happens in their life and they roll up into a ball and get kicked around.

I have said before that when you’re in a crisis is not the time to wonder what you’re going to do. Where you’re going to put your trust.

In war there is always an objective.

Sometimes it’s over land like Russia.

Sometimes over a superior race like Hitler tried to accomplish.

The Gulf war was because a smaller country was going to be taken over by a larger country for their resources.

The war on terrorism where extremist kill and destroy anyone who doesn’t believe like them.

Our mission as a Christian is to rescue people from the grip of Satan and show the mercies and the love of Jesus Christ.

Jude 1:23

“Rescue others by snatching them from the flames of judgment”.

Our battle is spiritual. We must win our battle first spiritually and then physically. Sure there are the Ben Ladens, Hitlers, Castros, Chevezes, because they are willing tools that spread evil dominance in the world.

Aim Today: not to scare anyone, not to advocate violence.

To lead people to understand how they can take up the full armor of God as they move forward in the call of Jesus Christ for their lives.

Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord.

He tells us it is a spiritual battle first before it’s physical.

There are many kinds of strength, but the most important strength you should aim to have is the strength of the Lord in your life.

There are Toeholds and Strongholds.

A Toehold: is an aggravation,

A Stronghold: is something you just cannot get away from.

Some Christians treat things going on in their life as toeholds, but truth be told they are strongholds because they cannot get rid of them by themselves.