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Ephesians 6:11
Come worship with us on Sunday mornings at 9:30. This week our study is centered on fighting the right war. The Devil’s blinding power of deception and destruction can be seen in the way he has reversed the focus of this truth from Scripture. His efforts have been very successful in America where the Church spends most of her time fighting herself rather than the enemy. Just to comfort you, Christians didn’t start the conflict with each other Cain did! Notice first
- THE METHOD OF WAR! Paul teaches we aren’t in conflict with flesh and blood. The word for conflict means “to wrestle” and is used in the LXX in reference to Jacob wrestling with God. The idea or concept of wrestling gives us a clear picture of one-on-one or hand-to-hand combat. The Devil’s method of war is very personal, much tailored, and very detailed to attack your mind to do the most possible damage to you and to God. The war with Satan is the ultimate “2 fer” deal. When we sin, even just in thought, we hurt ourselves and we hurt God at the same time. When Jacob wrestled The Angel of the Lord, Jacob held on until the Angel blessed him. Satan hangs on to us until he beats us down and we give in, or we get out of his hold by being strong in the Lord and His mighty power. That suggests that God must get us out of Satan’s hold!
- THE MISCONCEPTION OF WAR! Let’s consider four deadly misconceptions.
- Other Christians are not the enemy. The sad truth is that the Devil’s forces of evil are more unified and organized than are Christians. The reason is that they are all united in their hatred for God and anything or anyone related to Him; and they all have one common goal which is to destroy! As long as the Devil can keep Christians fighting one another, we aren’t fighting him, yet he is still destroying us! He does that by causing us to believe that God’s plan for our life is not as good as our own ideas. Remember, doubt always results in disobedience.
- The church can never offend anyone! That’s really saying there is no such thing as absolute truth! Read the first three chapters of Romans and see if you think God is concerned about offending us with our sin. My Bible tells me the mere preaching of the Gospel is an offense/stumbling block to the unsaved. It’s time the Church became more concerned about offending God than people!
- To reach/win the lost, the church must adapt to culture and society. You’ve heard the current idea that Churches must be “seeker sensitive!” Scripture teaches that there are NONE that seek after righteousness, all have sinned, none are righteous! There is just no such thing as an unsaved person seeking the Lord—sin doesn’t work that way! Watch how effective Satan is in his work. If someone came to church and was looking for the truth, and the church believes they can’t offend anyone, how is that person ever going to come face-to-face with the reality of the condemnation of their sin? Read 1 Cor. 1 and other passages like it. Sin is certainly an offense to God, and until it is an offense to people, it will only lead them to hell!
- We as God’s people can continue to live as though none of this pertains to us. As long as Satan keeps us focused on fighting other Christians instead of fighting together against him, we will continue to take a ho-hum attitude toward sin. Guess who will be offended at the Judgment Seat of Christ!
If we can help you with this or any other spiritual matter call us at (574) 643-9419.
