Ephesians 6:13, Beloved, We Are At War (Part 3)

Ephesians 6:10-12
Beloved, We are at War, Part 3

Illustration:  I read an article not too long ago about how intimidating it is to play football on the same team with Peyton Manning.  He is one of the most focused, brilliant and intense players the game has seen.  And while this means players get to play with a legendary quarterback, it also means they are going to be challenged more than they ever have before.  Other players get nervous in the locker room because they are afraid of his random pop quizzes about plays, strategy and the upcoming opponent.  Practices in a lot of ways are more in the hands of Peyton than the coaches.  If a player makes a mistake he is the first one to get angry and correct them.  It is not unusual for him to send texts or audio messages to coaches in the middle of the night about ideas for the next day’s practice.  There is a tenacity to keep getting better, to study the game and opponents, to perfect every aspect of the game to gain victory.  It is rewarding, for sure, but, it is also very demanding to play with Peyton Manning.

 

Brothers and sisters, we are at war.  We need to be to our war what Peyton Manning is to football.  We need the same kind of tenacity for our struggle on this spiritual grid-iron.  There is no place for laziness or indifference.  We are at war.

 

What have we learned so far about this war?  We learned that our enemy is spiritual.  And last week we began to look at 5 spiritual weapons our enemy uses against us.  We saw that he uses doubt and deception.  Let us finish the last 3 now.

 

#C.  Discouragement.  Satan loves to discourage people.  What is discouragement?  Discouragement means to make someone less confident in something and therefore less likely to do that something.  It means to make them lose motivation, lose ambition, lose zeal.  It means to make someone less determined in whatever direction they are going, to make them not want to do something they have set their sights on.  We might say someone doesn’t have the heart to go on anymore. 

 

Illustration:  Former heavy-weight boxer James (Quick) Tillis was a cowboy from Oklahoma who fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. "I got off the bus with two cardboard suitcases under by arms in downtown Chicago and stopped in front of the Sears Tower. I put my suitcases down, and I looked up at the Tower and I said to myself, 'I'm going to conquer Chicago.' "When I looked down, the suitcases were gone."

 

That’s the way it is.  We are more than conquerors in Christ yet Satan wants to steal our suitcases.  He wants to steal our zeal, rob our ambition, turn our motivation into moping, and altogether lose heart in the cause for Christ.  Satan plans to discourage us from pursuing godliness, serving, trusting and hoping in God’s promises, bearing fruit, spreading the Gospel, and glorifying God.  He wants to throw cold water on the fire of our hearts. 

 

He uses this weapon in at least 2 ways.  First, he discourages people from coming to Christ.  And second, he discourages believers in order to keep them from living fruitful, productive, Christ-centered, God-glorifying lives.

 

And Satan has many vessels of discouragement.  He has many ways in which to inflict us with discouragement.

 

#1:  The Church.  In Matthew 16 Peter tried to get Jesus to not go to the cross.  You’ll be surprised that some of the discouragement you get when you determine to live for Christ actually comes from other believers.  Don’t let even God’s people discourage you from living for God. 

 

#2:  Religious people:  Jesus harassed by Pharisees and teachers of the Law.  Paul was harassed by the same people.  Peter too.  People who are religious - meaning they are slaves to a man-made, outward, exterior form of religion, with rituals or codes based on man’s ideas and traditions rather than based on Scripture – they will often be most oppositional to the Gospel.  They will often be the source of discouragement to anyone who wants to live for Christ.  This is because it is their religion, and, the merit they earn by adhering their religion that they are relying on to be righteous before God and the Gospel and grace and Jesus Christ are a threat to that.  Religious people can and will be a source of discouragement. 

 

#3:  Enemies of Christ:  Enemies of Christ are a source of discouragement coming from those who try to persuade people to doubt and throw people into confusion; those who persecute the name of Jesus Christ.  John 15:18, 20b, 21a, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.  If they persecuted me they will persecute you also.  They will treat you this way because of my name.”  Second Timothy 3:12 says, “Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted”. The world is under the control of the evil one (1 John 5:19) and out of hatred for Christ the world will make trouble for all who belong to Him.  But notice in John 16:33 how Jesus doesn’t want us to be discouraged, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” 

 

#4:  The Cost.  Another way people are discouraged is when they count the “cost” of being a Christian.  Someone says, “Well becoming a Christian means I’m going to have to stop doing this and stop doing that.”  Jesus said “What does it profit you to gain the whole world and yet forfeit your soul?”  Then when it comes to Christians, Satan wants to discourage us by making us think the cost of serving Christ is too much.  This happened with Mark when he was on a mission trip with Paul as we’re told in Acts 15.  Mark was travelling with Paul everywhere until the travelling with Paul became too much for him.  He became so discouraged and he quit the mission trip early and headed back home.  Paul was so disappointed that he refused to take mark on the next mission trip, which resulted in serious argument with Barnabas, which resulted in Paul and Barnabas splitting up and going on separate mission trips.  The cost to serve Christ is high.  race…(Mark was discouraged and left Paul and Barnabus on their first missionary journey (Acts 15:36-40). 

 

#5:  Love for the world.  One of the best ways Satan discourages people from loving and living for Christ is by helping them love the world.  Demas was discouraged from serving Christ in this way.  He decided he loved the world more than working for the Gospel.  Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:9, “Demas, because he has loved this world, has deserted me…”  But 1 John 2:15 says that if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him.  James is even more severe when he says in James 4:4, “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred towards God?  Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.”  Brothers and sisters, do not let yourselves love this world.  Do not do it.  Do not be discouraged from your labor of love and your service to Christ because of a love for the world. 

 

#6:  Guilty feelings.  Satan wants to distract us with guilt over past sins and make us think we are not forgiven.  When someone says “I know God has forgiven me but I just can’t forgive myself”, that is not an attitude the Holy Spirit produces in someone.  And as much as it has the appearance of humility it is actually a very prideful attitude.  Here are 2 problems with this attitude:

First, a person who says this is really saying they are not a sinner.  Their attitude betrays a view that they shouldn’t have done something so bad.  And the reason is because they just didn’t see that they were capable of such things. 

 

Second, a person who says this is actually living by their own standards, not God’s.  That’s why forgiveness from God doesn’t really make much a difference to them and they think they need forgiveness from themselves.  They have broken their own standards, which is more important to them than God’s.  They have set themselves up as the highest authority in their lives and they are the author of their own code of ethics.  That’s why they talk about how they’ve let themselves down.  They are acting as though they are a greater judge than God and the real pardon, the pardon from guilt that really matters can only come from themselves. 

 

But brother or sister, if you are saying this, you must realize that your pride is at the root of this and Satan is having a heyday with it.  You need to humble yourself and lay aside your own standards.  You need to grieve because you’ve broken God’s law, not your own flawed and puny set of standards for yourself.  Acknowledge that all sin is against God, sin is anything that is against God.  You need forgiveness from the One who will judge you for your sin.  If you want real freedom from guilt, if you want a clean conscience, if you want your sins forgiven, then you have to turn to God by faith in Jesus Christ.  Who are you that you would treat God as a lesser judge than you?  Who are you that you would treat God’s forgiveness as a lesser thing than your own?  Have you really seen that your sin is actually against God and not you?  Have you really seen that what you really need is forgiveness from Him?  To minimize the power of God’s forgiveness

 

When someone has truly seen their sin for what it is – an offense against God – and they have truly accepted God’s forgiveness by turning to Jesus Christ, it is life-changing. 

 

 Always behind pride is our enemy waiting to exploit our pride (Romans 8:1; Phil. 3:12-14 to “face forward”).  First John 1:9 says we need to confess. 

 

            #D.  Disobedience.  Satan uses doubt, deception, discouragement, and fourthly he uses disobedience.  He disobeyed God, then led 1/3 of the angels into disobedience, and, now he leads humanity into disobeying God. 

 

God’s desire is obedience.  It shows our love for Him - Jesus said in John 15 that if we love Him we will obey His commands.  A disciple of Christ is one who obeys Christ.  In the Great Commission in Matthew 28 Jesus said, “Go and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.”  Disobedience is purged.  Paul said in 2 Corinthians 10:6, “And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience until your obedience is complete.”

 

Obedience to God is the purpose of man.  After 12 chapters of exploring the purpose of man, the author of Ecclesiastes says in chapter 12:13, “Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  Fear God and keep His commandments,  for this is the whole duty of man.”  God despises a person’s religion when they don’t really live for Him.  Samuel the prophet said to Saul the 1^st King of Israel (1 Sam. 15:22-23a), “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  To obey is better than sacrifice and to heed is better than the fat of rams.  For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance is like the evil of idolatry.” 

 

While God’s desire is obedience, Satan’s desire and designs are for disobedience.  He started with man in the Garden.  He led Adam and Eve into disobedience in the Garden in Genesis 3.  God told them not to eat from the tree, and Satan led them into eating from it.  He started in the Garden, and, now that the whole world is under his control (1 John 5:19) he continues to champion the cause for disobedience to God.  Listen to how Ephesians 2:2 describes his power to lead humanity into disobedience, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”

 

            #E.  Division.  Satan divided Adam and Eve.  He got Peter to cause division between Jews and Gentiles in Galatians 2:11-14.  He scolded the Corinthians for their disunity because they were acting immature and worldly.  He ensnares some to cause division with their criticism, oppositional attitudes, 2 Timothy 2:23-25. 

 

            ***These are 5 weapons Satan uses against believers:  Doubt, Deception, Discouragement, Disobedience, and Division.  What must we do knowing this is how our enemy is coming against us?

 

#3:  Our Assignment is to Stand, and Stand Strong

            Our Assignment is to Stand, and Stand Strong.  Notice the word Paul says over and over again – “Stand”.  [Read verses 11, 13, 14a].  Paul’s concern was that believers stand. 

 

Trees Blown Over.  About a month ago we had a really bad storm that many people were left without power for days.  The wind was very powerful.  In our neighborhood alone there were almost 30 big, mature trees knocked over.  Three houses on our block alone had trees fall on them, and many more in our neighborhood.  Huge limbs were laying everywhere in yards, in streets, on sidewalks.  There were also many places where large sections of sidewalks had been broken apart because root bases were torn from beneath as these huge trees fell sideways.  As we drove around we also saw giant splintered stumps sitting everywhere.  They looked humiliated with their once proud oaks lying on the ground next to them. 

 

How could such strong trees be knocked down?  The winds that came were powerful, that's for sure.  But, the vast majority of trees remained standing, having withstood the best attempts of the gale-force winds.  Why, when they looked normal and healthy to the naked eye, did all these other trees fall?  Two reasons:  the roots weren't strong enough, and, the inside of the tree was more dead than alive. 

 

What condition is our faith in?  Are we as alive on the inside as we appear on the outside?  Do our roots go deep enough?  If not, when Satan sends his winds we're going to be uprooted.   Or like so many trees during that storm our lives are going to snap at the base and everything is going to lay scattered all over the ground. 

 

Brothers and sisters we must stand in this war.  God said in Isaiah 7:9, “If you do not stand firm in your faith you will not stand at all.”  First Corinthians 10:12 says, “So if you think you are standing firm be careful that you do not fall!”  In 16:13 Paul says, “Be on guard, stand firm in your faith!”  Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Second Thessalonians 2:15 says, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold on to the teachings we passed on to you…”  James 5:8 says, “You too, be patient and stand firm because the Lord’s coming is near.” 

 

#A:  We can only stand strong in our Weakness.  God said to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, my power is made perfect in weakness.”  We stand not in our strength.  The Christian life is not lived and advanced in the power of self.  God’s strength is not a turbo booster as we do it in our own strength.  No brothers and sisters, we stand only as long as we dependend on the strength the Lord provides.  God’s strength comes when there is a recognition of our own weakness, and in seeing that we ourselves are weak we then trust the Lord for the strength He gives. 

 

#B:  Standing Strong also requires what Ray Pritchard calls “A Warfare Mentality”.  He says in his book, Stealth Attack, “Adopting a warfare mentality means understanding that we are always at war, that a battle is raging all around us, and that we are frontline soldiers.”  The Bible talks about a warfare mentality often.  It doesn’t say the phrase, “Warfare Mentality”, but it says in 1 Peter 5:8, “Be self-controlled and alert.” …this is soldier talk.  If you were a soldier on the streets of some enemy territory you would be very careful wherever you walked, knowing there are IMD’s and snipers and booby traps everywhere.  So it says, “Be self-controlled and alert.”  Why?  He goes on, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith…”

 

#C:   Standing firm also requires the armor of God.  And that we will begin next week.