Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
Not Flesh and Blood: Our Real Enemy
We explore the spiritual warfare perspective of tragic events like political violence, examining how Christians should respond to evil in the world by understanding its spiritual roots rather than merely political ones.
• Understanding that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of evil
• Recognizing patterns of spiritual influence throughout history that resurface in different forms
• Avoiding the trap of fighting spiritual battles with only political tools
• Putting on God's armor—truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and Scripture
• Standing prepared rather than cowering or hiding when facing spiritual attacks
• Praying constantly in the Spirit against evil influences
• Moving beyond feeling helpless by recognizing our access to God's power
Stand prepared with the full armor of God to face the spiritual battles of our time, knowing that while we play a role in God's plan, the ultimate victory belongs to Him.
Without Danielle in here it's quiet and you can tell her. I said so. No, no, it's never the babies. Don't blame the children. Wow, Just blame the children. Well, good morning, I'm glad to see all of you, glad to see you. And was the drive okay? Good, great, awesome. Yeah, we did that not so long ago. And just fun stuff, fun stuff, and we will remember it for all of our lives and anyways, anyways, it's going to be a good, it's already a good day. It's going to get better.
Speaker 1:I had a perfectly good sermon, studied, outlined, written out manuscript form, prepared Wednesday and Thursday, and I was excited that I had Friday and Saturday to continue to tweak on it and to make it what I want. And then we were driving home Friday in the car and I just felt like we had to go a different direction than the Sermon on the Mount this week. So, in light of what happened with Charlie Kirk, which I'm sure you're all aware of, we've got a different scripture to look at this week and then next week we'll jump back into our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. This is not going to be political, at least not more so than usual. I sort of hate when people say well, you can't be political from a pulpit. Well, the fact of the matter is, the whole Bible is political, okay, so in one way, shape or form. So it is unavoidable that the Bible as it gets on the inside of you is going to impact how you respond and act to the world around you, including how we govern and organize ourselves. So it's not like I'm just trying to be political, it's just sometimes it is. That's not going to be the point of this, just a little bit of a disclaimer. We're going to go to Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 10 through 18. The ESV will be on the screen, hopefully if my iPad back there doesn't go dead. Carrie's not even here to hear that, but it's close, it's getting there. I'm going to be reading from a different translation, but let's read Finally, finally this is after a very long discourse from Paul to the church.
Speaker 1:Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of the starkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and make the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and, with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Let's pray one more time Heavenly Father, get this into our life, get it into our heart, get it into our mind, encourage us and strengthen us, and let us walk out of here emboldened and encouraged.
Speaker 1:For such a time as this, this event that just transpired, this crazy thing that just happened, this act of violence, it's striking. It's striking, it just is. On one regard, as parents, it is heartbreaking because that family is now shattered. And then, just from just a general perspective, it's just crazy that this is a thing that's happened to this person, to this guy and, let's be honest, this young man I say young man, he's 31, not that much younger, but he's a young man he was killed over a difference of opinion. It's essentially what it was, and those opinions that he had and because I know everybody in this room are the opinions that we mostly have. I'm not saying we agree with everything he ever said, but for the most part we have those exact same opinions and they're not strange, they're not radical, they're not crazy opinions, matter of fact, the opinions that he espoused on a regular basis. They're orthodox in the grand scheme of human history. These are normal things that he is talking about and that he's believing in, that he is trying to get other people to understand. That has been the norm in America and been the norm in other societies for millennia. Okay, so it's not crazy.
Speaker 1:We just so happen to live in a time and place where certain things have happened, as we have talked we will talk about, that has pulled vast swaths of people away from normal, away from common sense, away from the truth, away from any grounding that they may have had in any sort of religion based around God. We just live in that time and place right now. How did we get here? What do we do about it as Christians? How we get here? What do we do about it as Christians? How do we respond? What should we think about this? Is there something that we can do? And we don't got time to do a thousand little essays on each one of these questions. We got this one moment, right here, right now. But the scripture we just read gives us a foundation and a framework to respond to the evil of the world. And we gotta respond because evil is not going away, at least not right now, and we have a role to play in this world for God to deal with evil right where we are.
Speaker 1:Before we dig into our scripture, I think we need a bit of perspective. This is a horrendous act that has happened, but it's not the first time that something like this has happened. I am sure the people who experienced the assassination of JFK and his brother probably felt something similar to what we're going through right now. I'm sure the people who were connected to and associated and looked up to MLK felt something very similar whenever he was assassinated. They understand what we would be going through, and some of you probably I say some of you, one of you probably remember some of those things as a kid. Okay, sorry, you're not all old, you're just older than us. Okay, that's it Right.
Speaker 1:So this is not necessarily a new thing. It's a horrible thing, but it's not new, thankfully. In the grand scheme of US history, this is not super, super common. It does seem to happen once every 30 years or so, but in the world this stuff happens a lot more often than what we're used to. This insanity, this assassination attempt, it's a thing that other people are more used to than we are. And finally, to make sure we're all on the same page, these sorts of things are not always political. It's not always about right and left. They often can be and will be.
Speaker 1:But that's not the point of the sermon, as we will see, because right, left and everything in between can be caught up in wrong, can be caught up in sin, can be caught up in sin, can be persuaded into doing something and having attitudes that are not scriptural, that are not part of God's kingdom. It doesn't matter right or left and everything in between. The fact of the matter is there is something that is influencing ideologies and philosophies and the way that we view life, and right or left can fall into the trap of picking up things that we have no business picking up. We see this throughout history. History is clear on this from ancient Egypt, babylon, china, ancient Greece, from the Roman Empire, the French Revolution, from fascist Germany and Italy, and let's not forget the plethora of communist movements that have happened over the past 150 years. We see devilish views and attitudes bubble up out of populations and out of cultures and the end result is often this horrible disasters, bloody disasters, devastation for people, normal people like us.
Speaker 1:And even now, right now, in the time and place where we live, we know, because we all of us in here again, if there were visitors in here, I would say this a little differently but we know the truth. We are people who follow the truth, we are grounded by the truth of the gospel and the truth of Jesus Christ, and because we are in the truth, we look out and we see the insanity of some people around us. That's why this entire thing stings so much is because it doesn't fit what should have happened. It doesn't make any sense. Matter of fact, even if you're not a Christian, I listen to non-Christian podcasts and I listen to quite a few podcasts from people who aren't Christian this week and they sense that something was just strange about this thing that happened. But for us, we get it. We know why it seems so foreign, we know why it's harmful, we know why it's counterintuitive to real life, but we want. How do people come into a position where they believe that this is an appropriate thing? How do people come into a position where they are cheering the death of a father and of a husband and somebody who never harmed anybody? How do we get there? How do we get there and how do we live through that? How do we deal with it? As a parent, I think about if it's like that now, oh my gosh, what's it gonna be like for my kids, and so that's on your shoulders. What are we supposed to do all of this? How do we get here? And the simple answer is it's simple, right?
Speaker 1:The devil, the devil, devil, the devil. I say we don't talk about the devil enough. I also don't want to get the devil too much credit, but the devil is real. He's the enemy of your soul, right? He is the reason, he was the choice, he was the junction of Adam and Eve and the choice that they failed at following God's law was because he was there, and so it's because the devil and his minions that this is a thing that we deal with was because he was there, and so it's because the devil and his minions that this is a thing that we deal with, and, among many other things, the devil works in all kinds of ways and I'm afraid sometimes we are fooled into thinking that the devil's attacks and the devil's influence is strictly found in something like you might see in Hollywood, like the exorcist.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I think that's the only way that we give the devil credit for doing anything. It's extreme, it's super obvious, it's dramatic, it's a little scary, and while that might be the case sometimes even though I've never seen anything like that before in real life what seems more likely throughout human history, and especially these days, is that the enemy's attacks and influence seems to be more connected with something that's just in the air. It's in the air, something that whispers in the air. In particular, for us these days, it seems like the enemy's attacks and influence are related to a popular set of values. Influence are related to a popular set of values, values that seem to get espoused by the world that we live in and these values are dressed up as love and acceptance, but they don't really get love and acceptance right in a way that truly matters, in a way that is authentic to what love and acceptance really are. And these values, which are just sort of in the air that we breathe, erode the connection to God in his perfect order for our lives. It sets the person up for radical failure.
Speaker 1:I prefer to live, if I'm honest, with people who are all Christian. I feel no, it's not the South. The South is a place with lots of churches and lots of Christians. Okay, god tell you, not all of them are Christians. Not everybody who shows up to a big church down the road, not all of them actually are Christians. I will say it is much easier to live in an environment where at least people are pretending, because there's just something about at least that's the power of Christianity, that's the power of God's Word, even if you don't believe, but yet you still live in the framework of Scripture, even though you don't know it, you are still producing something fruitful for the rest of everybody else. I found that amazing, and it becomes even more powerful whenever you actually do believe in that stuff. So I prefer to live in an environment with Christians and Christianity. That's just how I wanted to be. Christians and Christianity, that's just how I wanted to be.
Speaker 1:The problem is this new, loving and accepting values that are just sort of around, and we could go into a history about where they were introduced, back in the 50s and 60s and even before that, in the United States. But we're not going to do that. But these values that are sort of being stirred up and pushed right, they're producing destruction. We see the fruit of their labor. The fruit of their labor is what happened to Charlie Kirk. The fruit of their labor is what happens in cities all around the country when anything goes wrong and there's rioting and there's destruction. Okay, we see it playing out around us in dramatic ways.
Speaker 1:I've got an eyelash in my eye. Oh, this is not good. Sorry, guys, very sorry. Okay, we're good, all right, I promise I didn't do that just because I lost my place in my notes. I didn't lose my place in my notes, but it was convenient for me to regather. That's not fun. And let's not think for a second. Okay, that's not fun. And let's not think for a second. Okay, let's not think for a second that we also aren't susceptible to these attacks, these influences. Okay, if you don't guard your heart against this stuff, it becomes very easy, becomes very easy to walk into the danger and destruction that these values produce, and not just destruction for yourself, but destruction, as we are well aware, of other people outside yourself.
Speaker 1:Now let's start talking about our scripture, the first part of our scripture, which is actually the second part of our scripture, which will make sense in a moment. But it says For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. We're not struggling against a political party, we're not struggling against a political movement. No Christian group ever is. I'm not saying there are not practical concerns and practical considerations that we have to deal with as Christians in certain environments, whenever there are things happening that we don't agree with. I'm not saying that. But the enemy is not a person, the enemy is not just a movement. That's just sort of what's bubbling to the surface of the real problem that we are facing.
Speaker 1:The real enemy that we are struggling with is a demonic darkness that tries to wrought destruction in God's good creation, mainly humanity. The enemy of God hates us, hates us, and the enemy will do anything he can to destroy us. And what we find is one of the ways the enemy continually trips up humanity from generation to generation is that he introduces these whispers of lies. Sometimes he whispers, sometimes he screams. And these lies and these broken ideologies that are produced from these lies from the heavenly places, as the scripture says, influence our hearts and minds, and it's not necessarily a possession, but a large-scale spiritual disinformation and manipulation that has practical implications for societies at large.
Speaker 1:We see this In scripture. We see this. If you were to look back through the Old Testament, you would see this happening in Noah's age. If you were to look back through the Old Testament, you would see this happening in Noah's age. There is a spirit that takes people away from God, that leads to utter destruction and self-innocence. We see this in Sodom and Gomorrah. We see this in Egypt, with their use of slavery and their attempted genocide of the Jewish people. We see this in ancient Greece, with various sex cults and relational systems built on pedophilia and homosexuality. We see this these things are not new From the very beginning of time there has been these spirits that produce these broken ideologies and philosophies and ways to do life, and they are whispering and shouting and if you're not careful it bleeds into the church. Even these are spiritual attitudes that crop back up over and over again in human history and they have a source. It's not random.
Speaker 1:Nazism we hear that word a lot, now used incorrectly. But Nazism is evil. It's not just a political science term. We think it is is evil. It's not just a political science term. We think it is. We think it's describing a supreme right-wing, racist, extremist people. But the reality is what Nazism represents is a spiritual attitude that people have been entangled in. Before Nazism and fascism were even modern terms. Okay, nazism, and what it is, has existed for a long time because it's part of who the devil is. He is hatred, he is pain.
Speaker 1:Transgenderism is not just a part of liberal ideology. It's not brand new. It's a lie that has been told throughout the generations in the spiritual that influences the natural. It's not new. Same with homosexuality, same with slavery and racism, even the racism and slavery in the US. Same with a group of people who might struggle with gossip. That's a spirit they're not possessed. But there's a spiritual influence, negative spiritual influence that people expose themselves to, that brings them into a position where they are gossipers or maybe they're gluttons to. That brings them into a position where they are gossipers or maybe they're they're they're gluttons, right, there's a spirit that that produces pervasive, pervasive violence and disorder that's come to dominate many regions and cities in the world and in the us, and we give these things technical terms we call them socialism, we call them communism, we call it homosexuality, we we call it things, and we attach faces to them, we attach people, groups to them.
Speaker 1:But these people are not the enemy that we contend with. Yes, we've got to deal with them, yes, we can't let them push us over and yes, we have a say in how things should operate in any given society that we live in. But they are not the enemy that we contend with and that we're really fighting against. We are fighting this present darkness, as the scripture told us, and we're fighting on a level that goes above and beyond law and order. It goes above and beyond voting. It goes above and beyond politics. It is spiritual in nature, spiritual in nature. It's not random chance that creates these distortions of God's order. It's the devil and his company who roam around inspiring destructive ideas and people who are not guarding themselves, who are letting themselves be manipulated into these lies that poisons large-scale societies.
Speaker 1:And let's not think again for one second that we are immune from the potential impact of these spiritual forces that we deal with and we walk through, that seem to come out of thin air. Right, they're there, they're there and they never go away. And also, let's just remember that, without being an alarmist, it does seem that we are in a season of strong spiritual attacks which are producing practical evils. Now, at any given time and point in human history, in any given town, society or culture or empire or kingdom or state, there is going to be evils which are being produced by spiritual attacks. We just so happen in our particular environment in the United States, are sort of reaping the attacks. Right, we are sort of living through the failures of the church to properly deal with some of these things. Through the failures of the church to properly deal with some of these things, spiritual attacks, spiritual attacks, not physical attacks though they can produce physical attacks but the primary source, the root cause, is spiritual.
Speaker 1:And something I learned a long time ago, I mean, I think I probably have a journal entry whenever I wrote this down, whenever I was 16 or 17 years old at some point. But the only way to respond to spiritual problems is with spiritual tools. You can't make a law that is can actually deal with the heart of a man, which is where evil comes from, through the sway of the enemy, right? So what do we do? We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, right? We're not going after this thing on our own, okay? And frankly, I'm glad because I'm going to tell you, my flesh and blood, my back, hurts right now. My hand, this hand, is completely numb right now, cannot feel it. So my flesh and blood, right, ain't good, right, don't get me wrong, I don't feel old or anything like that, but some stuff ain't working like it should and on top of that, I just I make mistakes, I'm fallible and in comparison to the problems that we've, I sat there and watched the newsfeed, which you probably shouldn't do, but I sat there and watched the newsfeed as you see the news that this man was shot, and then you see the news that he is dead and you stand there and you feel thoroughly helpless to do anything about this evil, and not just this issue, but any issue that we face.
Speaker 1:What can we really do about the heart of man? That is evil. What can we really do about the people who are celebrating the fact that this innocent man is dead? And so you look at these problems and my flesh is not enough. So thank God, this is not a struggle of flesh and blood. Thank God that I'm not going to this problem under my own strength. Thank God that I'm not relying on myself. Thank God that it's not about me. Thank God that it's all about God. Finally, it says be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
Speaker 1:Put on the whole armor of God that it's all about God. Finally, it says be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. We're not showing up to the fight relying on the tools that we have, because my tools are broken. We're showing up empowered by the Holy Spirit. We're showing up with the correct tools necessary to do something about the problems we are facing. It's not about you, thank God. It's all about him. All about him. Put on the whole armor of God today and do your part. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and, as for shoes, put on your feet, having put on readiness given by theplate of righteousness and, as for shoes, put on your feet, having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Speaker 1:So, what do we do? If it's not about us, if it's not about the flesh and blood, what are we doing? Well, first of all, it says we stand, we stand. We don't hide, we don't cower away, we don't shy away, we don't back down. We stand, we stand, we get up, we don't stop in the face of trouble and tribulation, we get up and we keep going and we celebrate whenever we are persecuted, because Jesus was persecuted first and we are walking in his footsteps. So you stand and you stand prepared, you stand prepared. You don't just stand, you stand prepared. Let me say it this way. Let me say it this way when a football team shows up. If they have not practiced, if they haven't studied their plays, if they don't have a game plan going in against a particular team and if they don't show up with their helmets, they are not prepared and they are going to fail. It's the exact same thing that we have to deal with as Christians. As a church, we stand prepared.
Speaker 1:Part of the problem is that and this is just an observation and probably an observation that you guys understand and see and are aware of Part of the problem is that too many churches, too many church groups, big and small, any denomination you pick, any non-denominational you pick, it doesn't matter. There are too many churches that fail to properly prepare to stand up to the spiritual tax of the enemy. And there's lots of reasons for this. Sometimes it's just laziness, sometimes it's poor leadership, sometimes it's the simple fact that people grow comfortable and they rely on other people to do all the spiritual work for them. They rely on the pastor or the staff to do everything that they should be doing on their own. And I've told you guys this before it is not my job to just do all the evangelism of this place, and it's not your job, it's not my job just to do everything. You have jobs, the job description, and what ends up happening oftentimes is that some of these churches might have a season where they are spiritually prepared and they were growing and they were doing things that are good, but what happens is that the elders sort of fade away and the people underneath the elders never took the time to prepare because they were always relying on somebody else to do all the spiritual warfare stuff. But you've got to prepare. A lot of well-meaning Christians are not doing a very good job of preparing. They're just not. They come in to a church service, they feel good, they get their sort of punch card Jesus time, and then they come back the next week, hopefully to do it all over again, just to feel good.
Speaker 1:That's not preparation. That's not what the church is called to be. You have a role to play. You have to read your scripture, you have to pray, you have to ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You have to have the fruit of the Spirit developed inside of you. You've got to ask for the gifts of the Spirit and then the wisdom and understanding how to use those gifts for His kingdom. You have to do that. That ain't my job. Sorry, it's not any pastor's job. That is your obligation and your responsibility, and any failure that you might have outside the church normally is not church hurt. Normally it's not because of poor leadership, it's because of laziness. You have a role to play. You have a job to do, so stand prepared.
Speaker 1:What does that preparation include? What does it look like? What are the specifics? I wish I had more time. I really do. I'll be finished in just a bit, but really everything I'm about to talk about needs to be its own sermon.
Speaker 1:Okay, so just know that this is simplified. This is kindergarten version. You've heard the scripture before. You've sang songs about it. There's nothing better than a VBS all about the armor of God. I've had a couple of those in my lifetime. So we know the armor of God. We get it right.
Speaker 1:But let me walk through this just briefly so that we understand what preparation includes. We put on the belt of truth. In a society struggling with the relatively simple binary choice of male and female, we need the truth. Right, there are people out there who can't figure out what they are, which seems a little stupid. We need the truth. We need the truth. The truth is exceptionally important to how we build our lives. The truth is necessary to build a successful life, to build a successful society. Without truth, we fall apart, everything falls apart.
Speaker 1:This is slightly random, but I have been reading a book on how to lay out and do foundations for houses. Okay, I'm a weirdo, I get it. And one of the things the first thing really, that the entire book talks about is that you've gotta have a reference point, reference pin, you've gotta have something that stays exactly where it is so that you pull all of your measurements from that, no matter what, so that you pull all of your measurements from that, no matter what, so that you can lay out a straight and accurate and level foundation. Because go ahead and tell you, in my brief time, doing construction in Rabun County, where there is no inspectors, I've seen some foundations that were sort of just thrown together and I've seen some foundations under some $2 million houses that have cracked in two because they did not have the correct reference points.
Speaker 1:You might want to call these reference points truth points or the truth point, and in your life, if you do not have the truth point, there's nothing to measure from, there's nothing to gauge your life around. Does that make sense? Truth is important to building up your life. Truth is important for church, truth is important to society. In Jesus we are granted the perfect truth. He is the perfect reference point and his gospel, his word, god's word, is sort of our vision, our lens to sing that reference point. Build your life around that. Build your life around that and it will protect you from the attacks of the enemy.
Speaker 1:Then we put on righteousness Righteousness For those of you who are here on a regular basis and you've been paying attention. You have heard this word several times as we have walked through the Sermon on the Mount righteousness. And ultimately it is Jesus' righteousness, granted to us through his sacrifice and subsequent power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, that allows us to not just be self-righteous but to be empowered to be righteous and to be in right standing with God, to truly live righteously. We're not just doing things to check off a list. In Christ Jesus, and through his grace and mercy and the power of the Holy Spirit, we can actually live a life pleasing to God. We don't have to live a sinful life and all righteousness boils down to living a life in alignment with God.
Speaker 1:I was told this example one time about the practicality of living a righteous life. Let's pretend this cord right here if you can't see it. There's a cord, I promise, and on one side of the cord is unrighteousness and on the other side of the cord is righteousness. So one side, you're following God, you're connected to God, you're living a life doing things that God wants to do. On the other side is everything that God isn't okay.
Speaker 1:Here's the problem, here's what happens and here's why righteousness is important. Too many people and I've had seasons in my life where I've been this way we like to stand right next to that line, for whatever reason. Right, we get a close. We know we'll dip a toe over here. Okay, dip a toe over here and maybe you make it to heaven doing that way. I don't know, god says something about spewing out lukewarm people, but we live over here and here's the problem with that. When anything happens in our walk with God and we're walking right next to that line and there are attacks of the enemy, whenever there is in the very air that we breathe these for lack of a better word spiritual ideas that take us away from God, well, it's easy to step over that line in a more significant way. Why do that why live close to the line?
Speaker 1:Righteousness keeps you away from that line so that whenever things do happen and things will happen you're not stumbling all the way over here. You're just having a bad day. Righteousness protects you. Righteousness serves as a point of armor for you against the attacks of the enemy, because it keeps you away from temptation. It keeps you away from things that are going to drag you down. It keeps you away from these attitudes because you know, because you're grounded in righteousness, that I don't need anything on this side. I don't need this stuff.
Speaker 1:Righteousness keeps you over here and keeps you away from that Righteousness. Get righteousness right and you provide a form of protection from the attacks of the enemy, and then we put on peace. It says we put on peace which makes us ready, a peace provided from readiness. I'm running out of time here, so I'll try to hurry this. If you have the peace of God, which he has so graciously provided to us, then it becomes easier to be ready to face whatever is in front of us. What is in front of us is not nearly as important as what is inside of us, and what is inside of us produces a peace that allows us to be ready to step into action, even whenever other people might be afraid to step in to action. Does that make sense? Even though death might be over here? I know what's inside of me has overcome death, and so I have a peace about the death that's in front of me, so I can still walk towards the death if God's calling me that direction. It's peace that makes you ready to do work for the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1:A simple example as I prepare to preach and teach which I hate getting up here and doing this. You guys know this, you don't know this. I hate this. I'm not talking in front of people. I do hate talking in front of people. I hate this. I failed my college speech class, the only class ever failed. Okay, hate doing this. As I prepare and as I study, what I am doing is I am building up a level of of comfort with the material, which then produces peace, so that I am ready to stand up here.
Speaker 1:My fear. Peace makes you ready to do work for God. You need peace that God provides and if you're living today in anxiety and in fear, right, I encourage you to ask God for peace and let that peace propel you into situations you never expected you could walk into. But because you have peace, you're ready for it. You're ready for it. We let holy faith shield us.
Speaker 1:I don't want to oversimplify here, but faith carries you through when you have doubts and when there are problems in your life, doubts that the enemy throws at you through various circumstances. You might go through whenever you're suffering or whenever a loved one is suffering and you're wondering what does this mean for my relationship with God? What does this mean about God? That they're still suffering? And it might produce some doubts. Maybe you have some doubts being produced as you intellectually walk into Christianity and you're trying to figure some stuff out. There's some doubts there. A simple faith doesn't mean there's not doubts. A simple faith doesn't mean there's not struggles or issues. But in spite of those things, you still believe. You still believe. The enemy fires off these doubts at you, one at a time, sometimes multiple at a time. And your faith, even though you might not have every perfect answer, you want your faith in a God that loves you, protects you from those things and you can keep moving forward. It bounce off your shield. You keep going and then we guard ourselves with salvation.
Speaker 1:Salvation Don't forget the significance of salvation. Don't forget what it means to be saved. It's not just a word that you hear in church, it's not just Christianese, okay. It's not just some sort of church lingo. Salvation right, we hear it all the time growing up in church, right, but it means something. You are saved from something. You are saved to something. You are saved because your life is transformed. You are saved from sin and from death. You are saved so that you can live a different way, that you can live in righteousness. You are saved so that you can have peace. That makes you ready. Don't forget the significance of salvation in your life. Amen, don't forget it, don't minimize it. Build it back up in your life. You are saved. That's awesome, it's fantastic. And then we go armed with scripture Promise I'm almost done Armed with scripture. Fyi.
Speaker 1:Anytime Paul talks about scripture in the Old Testament, as he does here and as he does in a place in Timothy in particular, guess what he's talking about? He ain't talking about Matthew, mark, luke and John. So what's he talking about? Paul is talking about all of Scripture, all of the Old Testament. You've got to be in all of this thing. You've got to be Genesis all the way to Revelation. You've got to have all of it Right.
Speaker 1:And, yes, the appearance of Jesus that we have in the Gospels is exceptionally important, but in the appearance of Jesus in the Gospels he makes sure to connect himself back to the Old Testament. So we've got to have every bit of this. Why? Because it is our weapon to face the lies of the enemy, to cut through the bull. Basically, this thing cuts through the bull. This is a representation of God, his character, who he is, his truth. And if we are grounded in the truth and we have access to the truth, we can step into temptation, we can step into spiritual problems and we can actually go into offensive mode and not just defensive mode.
Speaker 1:I think about Jesus and his life, in particular the temptation of Jesus. How does Jesus deal with the temptations from the devil? He deals in scripture, he deals in the word of God in order to face the temptations the devil throws at him. And then even in his life and in his teachings, over and over again, he uses scripture. He uses the Old Testament in particular to solve practical, spiritual, emotional and all sorts of various problems. If it was good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for us.
Speaker 1:Know the word of God, know the word of God. Come on, don't go a day without reading a scripture. And maybe you're not a reader. Let me encourage you try your best. At least, for the love of goodness, get the free Bible app, find an ESV translation or a 1984 NIV translation or any other several translations, and at least listen to a verse. My goodness, hit the play button and get God's Word into your life.
Speaker 1:You want to know what you can do to the problems of the world. It's in here. It's in here. It's not flesh and blood, but it's the truth of God that we are attacking the problems of the Lord, problems of the world, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication to that end. Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication to that end. Keep alert With all perseverance, making supplication for all saints.
Speaker 1:Really wish I had more time. We could break all of this down line by line, word by word, and we would have a sermon series that would last about six months. But pray constantly in the Spirit, constantly in the Spirit. What does that mean? Well, you know, normal praying We'll talk about that in two weeks. Praying I have an entire sermon on it. I've preached on it before Pray, but then don't forget the Spirit.
Speaker 1:Let me go tell you, a Christian life without the active role of the Holy Spirit in your life is sort of like those horrible dreams where you wake up in front of a crowd without any clothes on. That's what it's like. I'm not saying that those denominations who deny the active role or active gifts of the Holy Spirit in your life I'm not saying they're going to hell, but what I'm saying is they're showing up to the fight without all the tools. We've been granted the Holy Spirit. We've been granted the gifts of the Spirit. We've been granted the promise that in our groanings and in the languages that nobody else can understand, that he is interceding for us on our behalf. And so, as we stand and as we prepare for the attacks that the enemy is throwing at us, we stand in prayer and we stand knowing that the Holy Spirit is there, interceding with us for our behalf. Keep alert, it says, don't be an alarmist, but don't sleep on what the enemy is trying to do in your life and around you.
Speaker 1:There is a staggering amount of pain in this world and in our country, big scale, small scale, personal scale. It is wrought with pain, wrought with pain Wrought with pain. In some ways, it is real easy to ask what can I really do about this? Listen, we live in a country that has massive churches, churches that have 20,000, 30,000, 35,000 members, and they have an endless budget. And even in the towns where those churches exist, there is still evil, there's still problems. So we ask ourselves, as individual Christians what can I do about it? Well, get over yourself. Get over yourself, stand up and realize who you're facing and who you're fighting. It's not flesh and blood, it's not a Democrat or Republican, it's not a communist. It it's not a communist. It is a spirit of the age. And we have the tools necessary to fight that spirit of the age with confidence.
Speaker 1:Attack the problems with prayer, pray against the evil spirits, pray against the evil influence of these attitudes. I'm not saying go out there and do an exorcist on somebody out in the street. I'm not saying go out there and do an exorcist on somebody out in the street. I'm not saying that God, please don't make me do that. And now that I've said it, but you can pray. If you're sitting there, like I was when all this happened, and you're wondering what you can do, stop what you're doing and pray.
Speaker 1:Heavenly Father, in your power, in your authority, in your grace and in the name of Jesus, step in and do something that only you can do. We're not hopeless, we're not helpless. We have power, we have strength, and it ain't about ours and it's all about His. Amen. Amen, let's pray. Let's pray, heavenly Father, we love you, we thank you for this day, we thank you for your word, and I just want to pray, simply for everybody in this room, god and for myself, that we would be encouraged to stand prepared. Stand prepared that we would be alert to the attacks of the enemy, but we would not be overcome by the attacks of the enemy. We know the end of the story, god. We know that you're in control, we know that you have everything handled and that you have graciously given us an opportunity to be a part of the plan, to be a part of the story.
Speaker 1:And I pray under your anointing. I pray that, as we are connected to your truth and as we are covered in your blood and you've gifted us with salvation, that we would walk prepared, with the full armor of God, into the world, knowing that we have a role to play. Help us, lord. Lord, let us remember salvation. Let us have faith. Let us know the word of God. Let us just simply believe and have hope and have peace. Let us be ready. God, god, I pray. If there's any, any problems in this room right now, I pray that we would offer them to you with belief that you will deal with them, whether it be sickness, whether it be relational issues, whether it be financial issues, whether it be whatever it might be. God that we might be dealing with and walking through and struggling with, I pray in your holy name that you would step in and do something great for us. In Jesus' mighty name, we pray and we all said together amen.