Message 1 - Tailor Made - Know Your Enemy

Ephesians 6:10

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Good morning, family. I don't know if that surprised you. I I'm I'm going through some uh physical derby right now, and uh while they were working on me, somebody's phone in there started playing the Mission Impossible theme. And I went inside of me, I went, ah, and then I remembered it wasn't uh it wasn't me, it wasn't us, it was somebody's phone, and they like that music, and uh so uh we're starting a new study this morning, but talking about it for a while. Where if you want to go ahead and get to it, it's if we're gonna be looking at Ephesians chapter 6. And specifically, when you get there, you'll see a uh one of the captions says the army of armor of God, probably, and that's where we're gonna be spending uh most of our time uh in these next few weeks as we uh walk through this next study. Uh we have an enemy, and that's clear in scripture, uh clear in a in a all through the Bible, and the enemy is not the people that on the nightly news that are shouting death to America. Uh it's not the multitude of anti-Christian groups that we see out there nowadays, uh, it's not the political persuasion that doesn't line up with yours or mine. Uh uh it's not those folks that are confused right now about genders and sexuality. Uh the enemy has a name, and I say that matter of factly because we're gonna see it in this passage as we work our way down through it. Uh God's word is gonna tell us that. It's gonna say, your enemy, my enemy is not flesh and blood. Uh, but our enemy does have a name. Um actually, he has several names in scripture. He's called Satan, uh Lucifer. Uh uh it's interesting that the ladies are going into a study uh on angels. Uh, the next study that's coming up, uh Lucifer was once the top angel of all the angels, and uh he rebelled against God. And and so this is who we're talking about here. That's the enemy. He's called a roaring lion by Peter in uh in Peter's letter. He's called the Daystar because referring back to that time when he was the top angel and and the most beautiful of them all, which was part of his problem. Uh he's called the tempter. We talked about that last week, the or the deceiver we talked about last week uh from the book of Revelation. He's he's the accuser. Uh he is the serpent. Those are just some of the names. Uh in fact, in Ephesians here in chapter six, he's called the devil. And uh so so when you hear those names, you know we're talking about that same person. I was listening, interestingly enough, I was listening to uh uh bought radio this week, and there was uh a couple pastors were uh talking, interviewing each other, uh kind of a discussion panel, and they got into a discussion about uh the uh when they have preached messages specifically about the devil, uh Satan. And uh all of them, what what was interesting about the conversation was uh as they got into the talking about you know the different messages they preached, uh one of them said, Well, did when you preached about him, did unusual things happen uh that week? And they all agreed that yeah, that was every time they preached on him specifically, uh something has happened just as a kind of a reminder that he's real, he's powerful, and uh this is not just some you know uh something to mess with. I share with you a few weeks ago uh in our last series, because we got into this a little bit about the time when I was teaching on it, and the tape recorder kept turning itself on in the middle of the night, uh, which definitely spooked Mary Lou and I a little bit uh together to have that happen. So that was an interesting conversation. I'm gonna come back to in a in a moment ago, but uh we're talking about a very powerful individual uh who hates God, who hates his followers. Uh in fact, uh the reality is he hates humanity. Uh he's bent on doing, and and these are all, we're not going to, we're not looking right now at chapter and verse, but these are all things that are made clear in the Word of God. He he is bent on doing everything in his power to uh destroy God, destroy God's plan. Uh he will fail. Scripture makes that clear. He will fail. I I per you know, I was talking to someone this week and we got into this subject, and and they were they were saying, you know, uh uh well I don't I don't understand why he keeps trying so hard when he knows in the end that he's gonna fail. And my response to that was, I'm not sure he knows. He you know, it's interesting about deceiver. Deceivers uh tend to deceive themselves as well. I'm convinced, just like in the original fall, when he when he originally somehow thought that he could uh cause people and cause the angels to follow him instead of God. And now some did, but he thought he was better than God. He deceived himself in the thinking somehow he had more power and was over God, and he was totally wrong. So I I my my perspective is he knows what the Bible says, but I think he thinks that somehow he's gonna outsmart God in the end. That's just my personal opinion. Uh he's doing everything in his power to keep people from coming to know God and know God's love, which is why our last study on how important it is to share the good news is is so important because we have an enemy that's trying to keep that message from getting out there. And God has given you and I the privilege and the ministry of any time we have an opportunity of sharing the good news. But Satan has a goal of making sure that people don't accept that, don't hear it. So we do have an enemy when it comes to that as well. Uh Satan's one of his missions is to make uh life miserable. Uh he hates, like I say, he hates humanity, he tries to keep us away from believers, especially any way that makes us healthy and strong in our relationship with God. If you wonder why you uh fall asleep every time you try to have a little prayer time, my sus my suspicion is it's that he's he's saying, uh, I don't want you to talk to God, go to sleep. If you want to wonder why you have such a hard time, you're gonna start reading the Bible and it's like, oh, just I just can't seem to get into this. Uh I think all this is the enemy doing what he can to make us not want to do those things that make us healthy as a believer. He's doing his darndest to get us, to make us as miserable as possible. He wants us to have godless days, days that we don't think about God, or uh, you know, where uh uh where we're just so miserable that we're angry at God. All those things he's involved in because he's involved in him and his demons are involved in in our day-to-day. Or he may he may take another route. He may make things go so well for you in a day that you don't think about God. You know, things just uh uh we we tend to talk to God when we're struggling, so so he doesn't want us to struggle. He may, he's just, in fact, what we're gonna find out as we work our way through this is uh he has different strategies and they're always changing him up. About the time you and I figure out what it is that he's trying to do in our life, he'll switch it up. And uh so this is the guy that we're going to be talking about. And I was sharing with you when I was listening to those pastors, and they're talking about anytime they talked about Satan, how things have something unusual has kind of happened. And so Friday I'm working on a message. In fact, I just had typed in my notes uh for today about that conversation that I listened to those pastors having. And just at that moment there was a knock on my office door, and it was a young lady, and she said, Can I talk to you? And I said, Sure, come on in, have a seat. And so she introduced herself, told me her name, and then she says, Uh, I'm a pagan witch. That's a new one. I've never had not I've heard of it, but I've never had one come into my office before. And she says, uh, I'm yeah, I'm a pagan witch, and uh I have a couple questions I'd like to ask you. Uh she says, Me and my fellow witches are right now, there's a house in Grand Island that we are trying to drive, there's nine demons that live there, and we're trying to drive these nine demons out. Very unusual conversation. I did not anticipate. But here's what came to my mind. She told, we're trying to drive these demons out, and I and I said to her, I said, Why? And she says, What do you mean? Why? I said, Well, let me tell you a story. And I told her this story that comes out of scripture. Jesus, there's a point where, and you'll remember it, Jesus drove some demons out of, I can't remember, it was a man, I think it was a man, and he drove the demons out. And remember, the Pharisees followed that up by saying, the reason he did that was because it was with the power of Satan that he did that. Remember that conversation, that experience? And then if you remember, Jesus' response was, why would Satan work against himself like that? Why would he give up territory like that? Why would he work against him, drive his own demons out? And so I, and if you get, so I said to her, I said, so why are you as witches trying to drive demons out? I'm not sure she got it, what I was trying to point to. And and then she says, Well, I, you know, I've done a lot of reading and studying and and uh I read about a lot of religion and stuff. I said, so you're a person that's looking for the truth. And she says, Yeah, I want the truth. It says, good. I said, and I had a I had one of our Bibles that we give out on my desk. And I says, Here, I want to give you this Bible, and I'm gonna mark by what I want you to read. Uh took her to John and I said, I'd like you to read that and then come back. And then let's talk about what you've read. Uh, but uh so talk about you know where does is Satan uh uh is he out there? Is he moving around us? He he definitely is, and that was a reminder to me, uh actually, as preparing for this message that uh he's real, he's alive, and uh I don't know that that was his warning to me or just God making sure, like I've said before, that I take this study seriously and that and that you take this study seriously. So, Ephesians 6. Uh, and uh I'm gonna we're gonna cover just kind of an introduction this morning, so jump around a little bit at some different verses, but uh first of all, jump down to verse 10. And and that in verse 10 we read this. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Now, obviously, we're we've jumped right into the fact the end of Paul's letters. There's a lot of territory and a lot of things that he had to say that we've moved past, and in this letter, he wrote this letter to the Christians in Ephesus. Uh if you look more in the beginning, he spent the first three chapters. Paul's uh epistles, his letters are always, he he he follows a formula, and it's that way in every letter. The first part of his letters, uh Romans, Ephesians, Colossians, uh they're all the Corinthians, uh, they they are they always start off with what we what we call the doctrinal section, which is basically teaching about God, uh, just giving uh things that people need to know about God. And he does it in Ephesians as well, in those first three chapters of Ephesians. He starts off just helping us, trying to help us understand about God. Back in chapter one is one of my favorite statements in the Word of God. Uh in chapter one, he writes this uh and you also, talking about you who are followers of Christ, who have made that decision to accept the offer of forgiveness that God is offering us uh as a gift. He paid for it on the cross. Uh Jesus paid for that gift so that God could offer us. So you who have accepted that gift, uh, who you uh and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, that's what we just talked about, that gospel, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, because that's what it's about, you gotta make a decision when the gift's offered, you gotta decide. Do I believe that? You know, do I believe Jesus died on the cross as a payment for my sin? Do I believe that because of that God's offering me forgiveness as a gift? Uh do I accept Jesus as the one who has provided my salvation? Uh do I believe that? That's what it's about. Uh we were talking yesterday in the men's uh Bible study in breakfast that you know some people know the exact moment they made that decision. They can say, you know, it's back, you know, March 17th, 1974. I've understood this and I asked Jesus to be my Savior. Some people can't. They can say, well, I know it's this period of time, but somewhere in this period of time, I, you know, I heard this message and I kept thinking about it. And uh just, you know, one day I just thought, you know, this is true. I believe it. And and I told God that I accepted that gift of forgiveness. Uh and uh, but all of us, if we are in Christ, it's because at some point we we believed. It came together in our minds, and we said, I get it, I understand what God has done, I accept that offer of salvation, the gift. He goes on. When that happened, when you made that decision, you were marked in him with a seal. If you remember, and you may have heard this before, this seal here is talking about the king would have a seal back in those days. And if he was sending uh an important message uh or sending an important article to uh another part of his kingdom, uh he would take it at the end and he would put his seal on it. And the rule was that that seal should not would not be broken, should not be opened until it got to where it was supposed to be. And so Jesus is saying, when you believed and accepted Christ as your Savior, accepted that gift of forgiveness, he sealed it, he goes on, with the promised Holy Spirit, and get this, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those, excuse me, those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. In other words, that seal is not going to be broken until the day that you stand before God in his presence. Nobody can open that seal, nobody can change that, nobody can break it, including you and me. There's nothing, just like Paul said in Romans uh uh uh chapter eight, nothing can separate us from the love of God uh who as long as we are as Christ is our when Christ is our Savior. That's what that's talking about. So uh that back in chapter one, that's a major biblical truth in that doctrinal section that he taught us and wanted us to understand. So you should not, one thing you should not be worrying about as a believer in Christ is if in fact you are a child of God, if you made that decision, if you accepted that gift, you are his child. Nothing will change that. Someday you're gonna stand before him in his presence and go on and live with him forever. That's a promise sealed by the Holy Spirit who lives within you. Then in chapter two, Paul talks, starts talking about some significant, because that is true of us, some significant changes that have taken place. And he walks through some of those as well, now that we know Christ is our Savior. Uh in fact, look at verses one and two of chapter two. He says, As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin before we knew Christ. We were dead in our transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world, and of the ruler, and this actually we talked about names of Satan. Here's another name. And of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit, who is now at work in those who are disobedient. That's talking about Satan. In fact, keep that phrase in mind. Uh we won't get it to it this week, but we're going to come back to that title for Satan in probably next week, Lord willing. Uh to those who are disobedient. So he says, here's the truth. Here's what you used to be. He's just announced what we are now because we accepted Christ as our Savior. Here's what you used to be. Uh, you used to be under the guise, under the direction of the spirit of this world who is at work in those who are disobedient. Uh now, so because we're going to go back to that a little later, that that phrase, but uh it's another title for Satan. And then Paul goes on and says, just as we walk through Ephesians quickly, he says that as believers, we are now part of a body. If you look at chapter 3, you'll see that. We're part of a body. When when you invited Christ to be your Savior, you became part of what's called a couple of names, the body of Christ, uh, the church, that uh we're we are a body. There, that's why Paul in in other letters, he writes in the Corinthians, he writes some of it here, but in Corinthians he says, you know, there's some that are hands, some that are ears, some that are eyes. We need each other. And uh, and and if you're in a part of this church, it's because this body needed you, and there is a way that you are helping us stay healthy. You have a function. Uh, and so we're a body. He tells us that in chapter three. Then you get into chapter four, and Paul begins to talk about what we should look like as believers, act like, be like, as God's family, as his children. And then in chapter five, uh what what uh we should look like, what marriage should look like for believers. Marriage is a big deal to God because marriage not only represents the most intimate and powerful relationship uh among us as humans, but it also is a picture of God's relationship with us. We're called one of the titles for the church is the bride, the bride of Christ. And then we move into chapter six, and beginning of chapter six, he talks about as a believer, what our family relationships would look like. What, how our parenting, what that's supposed to look like. And then he goes into uh work relationships. Uh he is slate back in those days, it was slave and master, uh, but we can easily apply it to our work. So there's a lot of practical and amazing things in this book of Ephesians. And then we move into what we're looking at now and in the next few weeks, into okay, knowing all this about ourselves, we also need to know that we have an enemy, and he is bent on, as if you're a believer, he's bent on making your life so miserable, on getting you off track, on uh causing you and I to lose our heart for God. He's he's gonna do everything he can to make those things happen. And so here's the question how do I protect myself from us for that? How do I keep that from happening to me? How do I fight this enemy? Because I I know he's more powerful than I am. So what do I do about that? And that's what we're gonna be talking about together. Uh in fact, even a little earlier in Ephesians, he briefly brought up one of the ways that Satan really uh works in our lives. Back in uh chapter five, he says this he says, In your anger, do not sin, do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. You you heard those, you know that verse, and and do not give the devil a foothold. One of the key ways that Satan works in our lives is through anger. Uh, you know, he he that in fact he says there, when when we allow anger to remain, to to grab onto us, what we actually are doing is giving Satan a foothold into our life, a place that he can grab on to. And and and that he will do everything in his power to cause it to grow, to become bigger and bigger. Uh and so that's a key thing that Satan uses to go after us. And and and honestly, some of us in this room, we know exactly what he's talking about. Either maybe now, maybe right now, maybe you're struggling right now with something that uh happened to you. Someone, something that someone did to you, and and the angry is just, it's there. It's, you know, it's it's it's making food not taste good. It's, you know, it's making it hard for you to go to sleep at night. Uh, and and you wake up in the morning and it's right there again. Uh, if that's not where you are right now, I suspect every one of us in this room have walked through that at one time or another. So Paul says anger's a big one. Anger is one of those areas that uh Satan loves to grab hold of and loves to uh you to take uh and get a foothold in our life and make us miserable. All right, so chap there's a quick, just uh kind of an introduction. Now back to chapter six and uh verse this section starting with verse 10. So what we're gonna find out is that one of Satan's tools, in fact, the anger we just talked about, and tools is probably a bad word, okay? What we're gonna find out is that Satan is at war with us and he has weapons, weapons of war. Uh that he, you know, tools are used to, we use tools to fix something. My grandsons, uh, several of my grandsons uh spent the night the other night in our backyard. They they did a great job. They actually, we have a tent, and they pulled the tent out by themselves. And I'm I'm inside, I'm thinking, waiting for them to say, hey grandpa, come help us with this. We don't have to do this. Didn't didn't they they did it all by themselves. They put the tent up and uh uh and then uh they were getting things ready, but uh eventually I knew uh someone comes in and says, you know, hey grandpa, I need this tool. And I would tell them where the tools are. Well, tools are good things. We use tools to build things, but these are weapons we're talking about. Satan has weapons that he uses against us. Satan is all about destroying, he is not about fixing. So Paul writes, based on that fact, we are in a war. Verse 10, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Uh last Sunday we wrapped up our study in Matthew 10. And I said, remember, one of the things that John makes clear in the book of Revelation is the fact that Satan's main weapon, his most powerful weapon, is in reality deception. But don't think, and don't take that to mean that he doesn't have other weapons or and that he's not powerful. Uh we will underestimate, we will underestimate him to our jeopardy. Uh, he is powerful and and he is destructive, and he hates you. I'm telling you, he absolutely hates you. Uh and it's not like a choice, honestly. It's not, you don't have a choice about whether you're gonna do battle with him or not. Uh I think some of us uh as Christians, certainly the we're in the world, but even some of us as Christians, we we like to pretend that, well, if I just if I just ignore him, just you know, I'll leave him alone if he leaves me alone. But here's the thing, he won't. He absolutely won't. My heart was when I talked to that young lady uh on Friday, man, my heart was breaking for her. Uh, you know, I might when she walked in my door, just like when anybody walks in my door, one of the first things I do is say, Lord, help me know how to minister. I didn't even know what she was going to say to me at that point, but but to see a young person uh deceived into thinking that in Satan's realm of the world, there was somehow a positive power that she could grab on to, and to be deceived to think that she, and and I don't care how many of her friends she has, that somehow they're gonna go up against Satan and get anything done. All they're gonna do is open their lives up to more damage that he wants to do. Uh that's who he is. He despises you, he despises me. And here's the thing that's true even if a person is not a follower of God. He hates humanity. Uh someone may think to himself, well, I you know, I'm neutral, I'm not a follower of God, I'm not a follower of Satan either, so I'll just stay out of his way. I'll stay off his radar. He'll just ignore me. No, he won't. He absolutely will not. He hates humanity. Uh he may pretend, uh, or better yet, deceive you into thinking that he doesn't care about you, but the only reason he even does that is to keep you on your heels and to think that you don't really need this offer that God's offering because he hates us. In fact, look at verse 12. For our struggle, and this is the verse I was or what I was talking about a little bit ago, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against all authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So we're gonna talk more about what all that means uh next week, Lord willing, but but here's what we're up against. And and we are up against an evil power who not only is he after us, he's got he has got demons who are in his under his command, and they're all out to get you. That should make you a little frightened. And and again, I said it last week. Uh I we don't maybe that was the wrong way to say it, because Jesus, remember in Matthew, he said to the disciples when he's talking about end times and how things are gonna get so bad, he said, but don't be afraid. So so Paul Kennedy just said, be afraid. Well, okay, listen to Jesus, don't listen to me. But but here is the reality. We do have an enemy, he is after us, and he is powerful, uh, but we're okay. Uh Josh, would you take us, or Mike, take us back to the side before this? Because there's a one end this morning. Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Two things as as we stop this morning, two things to note as we close. Uh if it's just me against Satan or me against demons, and and that's what frightened me for that young lady the other day. If it's just her against, if there's nine demons in their house they're talking about, and there may be, I mean, this is this is where we make a mistake of thinking, oh, those things don't happen. Yes, they do. Scripture's clear about that. But but if it's just me against Satan or you against Satan, we lose. We lose. Every time we lose. If we haven't figured that out by now, we better. We better. The only way that we win this battle is by asking God for help and relying on his strength to help us. But he's there, he lives in you if you're a believer. Uh the Holy Spirit, God the Spirit lives in you. So he is there, and you don't have to be afraid, but you need to be aware. Otherwise, why did Paul take the time to write this passage out and talk to us about this armor that we're going to be looking at in the weeks to come? Secondly, and it's also in this verse, his strength is mighty. Satan's definitely powerful, no doubt about it. But not in comparison to the one who's on your side and the one who's on my side. Uh we just need to be sure that we take him seriously and that we're ready for the battle. And that's what we're going to be talking about. And I here's what's going to be amazing to me. If you look down, look, and I would encourage you to look down through the armor of God. It was, you know, as it played out in that in that opening uh video, uh, you may look at those things and think, wow boy, those are probably, man, there's some deep spiritual things here going on. You know, these I'm either these weapons are wonderful, wonder what's coming on. What you're gonna do, what's gonna be amazing about them is how practical they are. How practical they are. They're within your reach and my reach, and we need to be reaching because the enemy is against us, and like I say, he wants to destroy us. When I was in high school, we lived in part part of my high school career was in uh California. Uh we lived in a town called Linwood, I've talked about it other times, but I went to high school in Barstow, and uh at that particular time there was a uh lot of racial tension where we lived. Just just uh uh you know, there's the blacks, the Mexicans, the whites, and they were all at each other's throats. It just was a uh a hard place to live, honestly. Uh and I and I remember one day when this really became uh uh reality to me. Honestly, I've always been I I like people and and I like to be friends, and and I really don't look at anybody as an enemy. And but one night I I had to stay late for band practice. So I'm on my, I'm walking, uh, my dad's gonna meet me, some pick me up somewhere. So I'm walking down from school to this hill, and before I even recognize, I was thinking about something, I am surrounded by another racial group. And the the their intention was to do me severe bodily harm. Uh and it's like I will, I and I don't know them. They're not like people I've ever done anything to. I just done the wrong color. And so they're they've got me surrounded, and they're they're they're moving in close, they're calling me all kinds of names, uh, they're very clear on their intentions, and that is to to uh mess me up as much as they could. And so this, and I don't know what to do. I mean, I'm saying to them stuff like, I don't even know you guys. I have nothing, I don't know beef with you. What's and they didn't care, it's obvious. And so, and I'm just you know, kind of like, okay, well, here it goes. And all of a sudden, everything stops, and these this crowd suddenly parts, and I see one of my best friend who was of that race. Uh, his name was Rick Costello, and uh I see Rick, and he we're good friends. He comes to our church, he doesn't know the Lord, uh, and he's pretty, and he is a big, strong dude. And all of a sudden I see the waters part, and Rick comes up beside me and puts his arm around me and says to these guys, you touch my buddy, and you'll pay the price. And I went, and I never had a problem ever again. Well, here's what here's what we're gonna find out. We got him, he's on our side, and as long as we take the time to take advantage of the armor that he's given us, he's saying to all Satan and his demons and all those people out there that are all those enemies out there that want us to do this harm. This is mine, it's my daughter, this is my son. Better not. You better not. So I'm anxious to look at this together, but let's pray now. Father, thank you. Thank you for well, I first of all a reminder that we do have an enemy. We need to know that we are up against a powerful enemy. We need not to take that lightly. I think sometimes we do. We we kind of think there's no big deal, and it is. It's a big deal. I thank you even for the reminder this week to me that uh uh that I'm talking about real things here. But George Lord, I'm really looking forward to digging into this armor together. I think this is going to be so encouraging to us. And and the other part of that is we're gonna see that these are very practical things, but they're things that we really need to make a part of our life, for our protection, uh for sure, because that's what we're being taught here, but also just so that uh we are pleasing you as our Father. Thanks, Lord. Thank you so much for loving us, for being on our side, for wanting us to be with you forever, and for making that possible because of what your son did on the cross. I pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

Well, church, let's sing one last chorus together.