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Introduction:
I want to
spend some time this morning reviewing the last message of this
title that we went over almost a month ago.
Those of you who ordered the tape from that message know that
the tape didn’t record very well and if you haven’t
already got my notes from then, they are available for you. If
you go to the table in the foyer after service, Trevor can arrange
to get you a copy.
But for the sake of momentum, let’s just go over some of
what we talked about last time and then get into one of the areas
of the battle specifically.
We began by
comparing the similarities between the concepts of a struggle
and a battle. “Struggle” & “Battle”
both have to do with:
- Effort
– both carry the immediate thought of expending a lot
of effort.
- Fight
– both imply that there is a fight happening (internal
or external)
- Sacrifice
- both words carry some degree of discomfort or sacrifice.
- Possibility
of Losing - (greater possibility = less incentive to fight)
- Threat
- And finally, the fact that we can lose means that in some
way we are being threatened. (greater threat = more incentive
to fight)
So that is
kind of a snapshot comparison of how a “Struggle”
& “Battle” are similar.
Next we talked about how they are different. In particular, when
we think of the phrases “Life is a Struggle” vs “Life
is a Battle”, how do those two ideas contrast.
They contrast in the areas of:
- Purpose
– when “life is a struggle”, our eyes tend
to be focused on what is happening day to day. We can so easily
lose perspective that the Bible tells us that everything has
purpose ... and today is just one small piece of a very large
life; and life on earth is just a tiny piece of eternity.
When “life is a battle”, we are more aware of the
designs God has for each day and each area of our life. And
even if we cannot articulate what the purpose for each day or
area is, we believe, in faith, that God IS watching, that He
IS in control, and that He has good intentions for those who
trust in Him.
-
Method of Handling Hardship – when “life
is a struggle” we tend to enter into a mode of self-pity.
Because we cannot see any purpose, we cannot answer the question
“why is this happening to me” which in essence reveals
that you think you deserve better.
When “life is a battle”, because we believe that
there is purpose behind every struggle, we tenaciously search
for the resources to do one of two things that the Bible tells
us hardships are designed for...
i.)
Endurance Training
Heb 12:7 & 11 Endure hardship as discipline; ...No discipline
seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however,
it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those
who have been trained by it.
ii)
Conquering
Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness
or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake
we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to
be slaughtered."
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death
nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present
nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Many
times, the endurance of a hardship IS the conquering of
the hardship. It’s like you’re telling this
problem ... “you’re not going to discourage
me nor distract me from doing the right thing.”
- Victim/Agent
– the area that many of you commented on for the last
message was this whole idea of Victim & Agent.
You see, when “life is a struggle” we tend to see
ourselves as victims of someone else’s will. It’s
because we don’t believe there is purpose, and because
we feel emotions of self-pity that we begin to believe that
life is happening to us. Our reactions to life’s hardships
tend to be more instinct than choice. We lose our power of self-determination
and start reacting on impulse instead of thinking through how
we are going to manage our behaviours. Because we believe we
are a victim of our circumstances, we excuse our reactions and
behaviours as NOT BEING OUR FAULT! I’M A VICTIM OF CIRCUMSTANCES.
However, when “life is a battle” we realize we are
still in control of how we react and how we handle life. Although
circumstances may push our buttons and compel us to react inappropriately,
we know that our reaction IS STILL A CHOICE. There are no excuses
of I HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO DO THIS BECAUSE THAT HAPPENED TO ME.
- Empowerment
– That concept of Victim/Agent leads us to another related
but slightly different contrast between the strugglers and the
battlers.
Strugglers are losing or have lost their sense of empowerment.
God has given each and every one of us a “free will”.
That basically means that, although there are events and circumstances
which tempt us to react in sinful ways to the hardships of life,
we never ever ever lose the right and the power to react properly
or godly. Nobody else in the world or in the spirit realm can
ever make you do something in obedience or disobedience to God
... that power is always your choice, and your choice alone.
This idea of empowerment of your free will is the answer to
the question that many people ask, “Why does God allow
so much suffering in the world.” It is because He will
not make YOU obey Him and live under His blessing, that we He
will also NOT MAKE serial killers stop their behaviours, and
why he will NOT MAKE all the rich people of the world share
with all the poor people of the world and relieve the hunger,
and why He will NOT CORRECT so many other injustices in the
world.
And if God Himself cannot take away the right to empowerment
that He has given every person, then certainly no person or
circumstance can take away your right to choose.
In
summary of the contrasts,
Strugglers lose sight of any purpose and tend to act out of self-pity;
excusing their sinful choices on the fact that they are victims
of their environment. Not only is their sense of empowerment depleted
or eliminated, but they often blame God for not acting on their
behalf, when He’s the one who gave them the sole right to
determine their actions in the first place.
Battlers always choose to believe that there is a purpose to everything
including hardship, and they maintain the understanding that nothing
and nobody can make me choose to be disobedient to God. I always
have the power and capacity to choose the right course.
How
does this all affect our Christian journey?
Jesus said that our entire calling of obedience to God is summarized
in two commands, Matt 22:37-40 "'Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
and 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'
Some have put together a cute little word puzzle to express this
concept saying that JOY stands for J – Jesus, O- Others,
then Y-You.
Battlers
know that following Jesus is fully within our power. We are all
able to do this to the capacity that God has enabled each of us.
Loving God and Loving others is our sole purpose.
Strugglers tend to lose sight of purpose and forget their empowerment,
they tend to switch the word love for the word blame. If we “Blame
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your sould
and with all your mind.” and “Blame your neighbor
NOT yourself”.
Let’s
leave that kind of overriding understanding of Strugglers and
Battlers for a moment and let’s look into the three areas
where the Battle is waged. Again, I take this concept from the
book Wild at Heart as I mentioned in my last message.
Wild at
Heart proposes, and I agree, that the Battle really takes
place on three fronts.
- The Evil
One (Devil, Satan, etc)
- The World
- The Flesh
Let’s
look at a parable Jesus told and use that as the backdrop for
these three components. Jesus tells them of a farmer going out
to sow his seed into the ground ... some falls on the path, some
falls among rocks & thorns, an some falls on good soil ...
then he elaborates on the meaning with his disciples...
Matt
13:18-23 "Listen then to what the parable of the
sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and
does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what
was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The
one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man
who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since
he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution
comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who
received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears
the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received
the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word
and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty
or thirty times what was sown."
I want to look at each component of the Battle starting from the
weakest to the strongest.
1.
Evil One
It may surprise
many of you for me to say that weakest component of the Battle
is the Evil One. It seems from our perspective many times that
Satan has all the cards and we are pawns in his evil scheme. NOT
SO
I must clarify that when I say that Satan in the weakest component
of the battle, I do not mean that he is the least effective or
that he is the least intelligent even. Certainly he has been around
a lot longer than you or I and has thousands of years of experience
with humans to know what their weaknesses are and how to toy with
their natural appetites to distract them from serving God.
So please don’t take this to mean that you really don’t
mean to give Satan a second thought when it comes to the Battle.
Sometimes, considering his influence in your circumstances is
the first place you should think about; BUT IT IS NEVER THE PLACE
YOU SHOULD END WITH. As I’ll describe in later messages,
the place you should always end with is your flesh.
I’ve explained to you what I don’t mean when I say
that Satan is the weakest component in the Battle, so let me explain
what I do mean by that.
As far as arsenal that Satan has in his stockpile of weaponry,
he is actually quite limited. Taking into account all his experience
and therefore all his knowledge, and taking into account a network
of countless demons his bags of trickery with which to engage
us in battle all of these advantages are really only wielded in
battle through one very limited weapon ... deception.
Remember that we discussed Empowerment. God has given you and
I the right and responsibility to choose for ourselves. It is
a God-given right to determine for ourselves how we will behave.
That means neither Satan nor the world (which we will discuss
next) can make us sin. Nobody can make us lose the battle of obedience
to God.
But there are certain lies which the Evil One will try to get
us to believe. These lies are skillfully crafted and expertly
delivered using all sorts of media ... dreams, thoughts, television,
magazines, popular opinion... etc. Like the defense lawyer in
an OJ Simpson trial, he will try to get you to focus on the least
important aspects of your life and then he’ll ask you to
make eternal decisions based on temporal criteria.
Jesus, in his dealings with the Jews who were following him, he
makes a statement that speaks with pinpoint accuracy. Correlating
truth and obedience he says John 8:31-32 “If you hold to
my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know
the truth, and the truth will set you free."
Peter writes about several of the things we have discussed this
morning ... empowerment, resisting the devil with faith (what
we believe to be true), and productive suffering. Peter makes
the connection with our God-given empowerment when he focuses
on being “self-controlled”. 1 Peter 5:8-11Be self-controlled
and alert. Your enemy 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 kind of sufferings. And the God of all
grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you
have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make
you strong, firm and steadfast. To him be the power for ever and
ever. Amen
.
Satan’s only weapon is to make us believe that we are not
“SELF-controlled”... that we are to some extent “power-less”.
Conclusion
Again, I do not want us to take this message this morning to mean
that we don’t need to consider the Evil One when we are
dealing with hardship (and it is not only through hardship that
the Evil One attacks us ... indeed, it is through any and every
appetite of the flesh).
Eph 6:10-18
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on
the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against
the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against
the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor
of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to
stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist,
with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your
feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which
you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take
the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is
the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with
all kinds of prayers and requests.
What I do
want us to clearly understand is that Satan’s only weapon
against us is deception. And as we read here in Ephesians, we
have so many weapons at our disposal, the most first one mentioned
in the list is “truth”. It is the first line of defense
that we have in our Battle against the Evil One; but it is not
the only line of defense.
James tells
us James 4:7-8
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you.
It is my belief
that the devil will flee from us quite easily most times because
his entire game plan of attack, no matter how cleverly designed,
hangs on one rotten thread ... deception. If we don’t fall
for his lies, he has no other form of warfare. He will most often
retreat and come again later with another plan of deception.
This is why things like prayer, Scripture, worship, and fellowship
are so vital to us; they keep us close to the one who is the Truth.
John 14:6-7 Jesus answered,
"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me."
2.
The World
An amalgamation
of all the souls on earth and their ungodly desires, the incorporation
of billions of individuals organizing systems and priorities and
preferences which agree with our most basic ungodly desire for
self-determined independence from God. “I have overcome
the world”, persecution because of the word ... they hated
me they will hate you also.
3.
The Flesh
That component
of man that desires independence from God and wants to fit in
with the World more than with God. Strongest component because
it is internal and it is the component that the other two are
appealing to in order to dissuade you from obedience to God.
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