Rick Warren - Never Fight Your Battles Undressed! – Part One

Today on Daily Hope with Pastor Rick Warren, we continue

in our riveting journey through the series The Invisible War.

In it will explore the unseen world of good and

evil and see how it impacts our day to day existence.

Join us for eye opening biblical insights into the spiritual

dimensions that influence our lives in ways we never imagined.

Right now, here's Pastor Rick Warren with part one of

a message called never Fight Your Battles Undressed.

One of the things that nine to eleven taught us

is you have to be prepared for an attack. And

that's really what I want to talk about in your

personal life today. If you'll take out your message notes.

Nine to eleven told us that we weren't ready for

that kind of warfare, and we were caught off guard

because we didn't know who the enemy was and we

didn't know how they were going to attack. This same

principle is true in your life. And we've been talking

about the battles that you go through in life and

the reason why life is so hard, why it is tough,

why it is difficult. The reason why you have so

many battles in your life is there are unseen forces

at work around you. This is called the invisible war.

This weekend, I want to wrap up this series by

looking at how to fight the battle by preparing for

it and what kind of armor, what kind of equipment

you need to wear. The Bible is very very clear

about this. If you have a Bible, I want you

to open to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six. If

you don't have a Bible, all of the verses are

written out there in your outline. You can pull that out,

and before we actually look at the full text, I

want to make three points. I want you to write

these things down. These are three things that Paul teaches

us about fighting the battles that you fight. The battle

against discouragement, the battle against depression, the battle against doubt,

the battle against the spare, the battle against darkness in

your life. Again, delays and dead ends and difficulties, these

battles that come against you in life. Unless you're prepared

for them, you're going to be taken out by Satan,

just like the twin Towers were taken out by the terrorist. Now,

the first thing in Ephesians chapter six that we're going

to learn is this, write this down. I must get

dressed for the battle. I must get dressed for the battle.

Nobody would go out onto a battlefield naked. Nobody would

go play NFL football without putting on some padding, suiting up,

putting on a helmet, these kind of things. You just

don't go out into a fight without being prepared for it.

I learned to term a number of years ago when

we were doing the forty Days of Purpose in a prison.

Do you remember when we were doing forty days of

Purpose all over America? And we did this in a

number of prisons that asked us to come and study

the purpose of life with them. One of the prisons

was called Sierra Prison in northern California. Six thousand men

in a maximum security prison, and they wanted to do

forty days of Purpose. We have now planted a church

in that prison that runs several hundred people. Over two

thousand prisoners have gone through forty days of Purpose at

that prison. And in fact, there was an article in

the New York Times on the front page that talked

about the change they'd made. This prison had never gone

more than two days without a lockdown because there was

so much violence and conflict among the prisoners. Since they

had done forty days of purpose, they'd gone five and

a half years without a lockdown. That's the difference that

it made. In fact, there are seven cell blocks in

this prison, and one entire cell block is committed to

celebrate recovery. It's an amazing, amazing thing. Well, I went

up there to visit them one time when they were

planning the church in the very beginning and just starting

the church, and Danny Duchane, the prisoner who is the

pastor of that church, told me, he said, now, Rick,

when we go out onto the field, this is a

giant football field where six thousand prisoners gather, he said,

you never go onto a field without being suited and booted.

And I said, what does that mean. He said, well,

you don't go out in shorts or you know, cut

offs and flip flops, because he said that makes you

very vulnerable. You go out with real pants on, and

you go out with hard shoes, so you're ready to

either fight or fight. You know, you're either gonna have

to run from people trying to beat you up or

you're gonna have to fight your way. So you never

go on the field without being suited and booted. And

actually they made a very important statement when they started

that church, as they had one hundred and fifty guys

gather in the middle, and they said, you know, just

as Moses was told by God to take off his

shoes because it was holy ground, we're going to dedicate

this prison to Jesus Christ. And so they said, men

of Sierrat Church, deboot, and in front one of six

thousand prisoners, one hundred and fifty guys who were forming

this church years ago, took their shoes off. In the

middle of the prison. You could have heard a pin drop.

But the point was, when you're going into battle, you

have to be suited and booted. You have to be

prepared for it. Now here's what the Bible says. And

Ephesian six, verse ten, a final word Paul says, be

strong with the Lord's mighty power. Put on all of

God's armor. Circle that phrase God's armor. Put on all

of God's armor, so that you will be able to stand. Said.

If you're not, you don't have on the armor, You're

you're gonna fall, You're gonna slip, you're gonna you're gonna stumble.

So you'll be able to stand firm against all the

strategies and tricks of the devil. Now, I hate to

tell you this, but you were born into a battle.

You didn't ask for this battle, But when you were

born on earth, you were born into a cosmic battle.

There is an unseen war going on between good and evil,

between light and darkness, between God and Satan. They are

not equal enemies. Satan is far in fury. He's a

created being. God's a zillion times more powerful than Satan,

and one day he's going to wipe him out, but

he allows him to exist right now. So people have

a choice, because it's not real love unless you can

choose to not love somebody. And so God gives us

a choice between good and evil. He's actually using that

right now. But in this cosmic battle between God and Satan,

people are often pawns. You see, Satan cannot hurt God,

he can't hurt him at all. So what do you

do when you can't hurt somebody? You hurt his children,

You go after his kids. You want to hurt me,

You hurt my kids, you hurt my grandkids. And so

the bottom line here is that Satan often uses you

as a pawn to get it God. He tries to

hurt you. Now, notice what this verse says, put on

all of God's armor so that you will be able

to stand firm against all the strategies and tricks of

the devil. Now, the devil is real. He's real, he's actual,

he's factual. He's not just a force. You know, we

like to joke about Satan, we say, you know, we

think of him in a little red pajamas with a

tail and horns and a pitchfork. In fact, we name

our teams, you know, the Diablos, and we like the joke.

But Satan is no laughing matter. He hates you. He

wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your marriage,

he wants to destroy your career, he wants to destroy

your finances. He wants to destroy your life. He would

be happy for you to take your own life. Satan

wants to mess up your life. And notice it says

he has strategies and tricks. Satan is subtle, Satan is strategic.

Satan is smart. He's far smarter than you are. So

don't try it out smart Satan. You're never going to

outsmart him. And he's not afraid of you at all.

Now that's the bad news. That you were born for

about the good news is you were born to win.

And the Bible says in first John, greater is he

who is in you than he that is in the world.

Satan is not afraid of you, but he is afraid

of who's in you God. And greater is he who

is in you than he who is in the world.

And when God's spirit, the spirit of Jesus Christ, is

in you, you don't have to be afraid of Satan.

But you got to get dressed for battle. Now. The

second thing we're going to learn from this passage is this,

I must know my real enemy. I must know my

real enemy. One of the reasons why you walk around

defeated and discouraged all the time is because you don't

know who your real enemy is. You often think your

enemy is other people. That's not the real enemy. You

often think the enemy is the economy of the enemy

is a political party, or the enemy is something else.

Who is the real enemy? If I ask you that,

who's responsible for all the mess in the world. Who's

responsible for the mess in our culture, the mess in

our economy. Who's responsible for all this mess? Some of

you would say the Democrats, some of you would say

the Republicans, some of you would say the Tea Party,

some of you would say a pox on all of them,

and you'd all be wrong. In every case. They are

not the real enemy. Look at what the Bible says,

verse twelve. We are not fighting against people, And if

you think other people of the enemy, you're wrong. We

are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood,

but against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,

against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world,

and against wicked spirits. Many translations say spiritual wickedness in

the heavenly places. Now, you are no match for Satan.

You trying to take on Satan is like you trying

to shoot a rubber band out of battleship. It's going

to have no effect at all. Satan is not afraid

of you. He's not scared of you, and you cannot

hurt him. But everybody gets used by Satan. Yes, Christians

get used. You know sometimes you say things that Satan

put those thoughts in your mind. He's even a believer. Absolutely.

I have said things to my wife that I know

looking back that was from the devil. She knew it

was from the devil too when I said it, and

you have been used as aupaonn in Satan's plan all along.

You cannot beat Satan, but God can. Now. The other

thing I want you to understand about this and write

this down, is not everything that is spiritual is good.

You write that down. Not everything that is spiritual is good.

There is spiritual wickedness. There there are goods, and there

are bad spirits their spiritual light and their spiritual darkness.

There is righteousness and there is evil. Just because someone

says I'm spiritual doesn't mean they're good, because there are

evil spiritual forces too. Not everything that's spiritual is a

good thing. And by the way, Satan doesn't fight fair,

So a lot of times he's going to put ideas

in your mind. You've got to catch him in the acto. Well, hey,

I know where that one come from. You See, Satan

can't physically attack you. He can't come out and slug

you and punch you. What everything he does in your

life he does by suggestion. And so this battle, that

the spiritual war that you're in, it's in your mind.

It is a mental battle. And those thoughts of depression

and those thoughts of discouragement, and those thoughts of anger

and fear and worry. Those are coming from the evil one,

and they're going to come at you, and you need

to understand them and catch them in the act. Now,

the third thing this passage is going to teach us,

and we're going to look at it, is use every

piece of armor. I must use every piece of armor,

and we're going to spin today's session looking at the

pieces of armor. In verse thirteen, it says, use every

piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the

time of evil. And we are in evil times right now,

so that after the battle you will still be standing.

God says, you can have victory, and I want you

to fight from victory, not for victory, stand in the

place of victory to what Jesus Christ did on the

cross for you. But he said, You're going to have

to put on every piece of God's armor to resist

the enemy, so that you're still standing after all these

things have happened. Now, let me give you a little background.

When Paul writes this passage Ephesians, he's in prison. Paul

was at this time the most famous prisoner in Rome.

The Roman Empire is spread all over Europe and Asia,

and Paul has been taken as a prisoner to appeal

to Caesar, the Emperor of Rome. He's the most famous

prisoner in Rome right now. And so not only is

he in prison, but he was chained twenty four hours

a day to a Roman centurion. And as Paul is

writing this, he's writing it as he's chained to a

Roman centurion. And Paul looks up and he's writing on

how to handle spiritual warfare, and he looks up and

he sees this fully dressed Roman centurion. He goes, hmm,

I could use this as a teaching lesson, and I

can compare every part of a Roman soldier's garb, weaponry,

protection and make a spiritual parallel to the things you

need in your life to guard against depression, despair, defeat, doubt, difficulty,

and all the things that get hit you down. And

so we're going to look at that and today in

just a minute. And I actually I own a complete

set of Roman armor underneath all of his weaponry. The

first thing that a Roman centurion would wear would be

a red tunic, and this was kind of like his

long john. So he's standing here in his underwear. Actually

right now, the first thing that a Roman centurion would

put on would be the belt. Now, if you've ever

watched like a weightlifters, professional weightlifting at the Olympics, or

even sometimes even wrestlers, they will wear a heavy belt

like this. They sent it up around their waist. It

gives them support and stability. It's what holds them together.

And so the first thing that a centurion would put

on would be the belt. It was not only strengthening

his core, the center of his being, but it also

held the weapons that he was going to wear as

he went out in the battle. Now, Paul makes a

parallel and he says, what you need to wear as

a Christian is you need to wear a belt, and

it is the belt of truth. Notice this verse verse

there on your outline in verse fourteen. So stand ready

with the belt of truth tight around your waist. Now,

the belt of truth gives your life stability, It gives

your life strength. If your life isn't based on truth,

then you're going to have sinking sands, shifting sands. You

have no strong core. Jesus said in the Sermon on

the Mountain, the person who builds his house, who builds

his life on My truth is like a guy who

builds his house on the rock. And when the hurricanes

like they're having back East and the earthquakes like they

had back East this week come. Because you're built on

the truth, you're like a house on the rock, you're

going to withstand it. But he said, if you don't

build your house on truth, your life on truth, it's

going to be shifting sands and it'll be easy to

blow you over. Now what does this represent, Well, you

might write this down. The belt of truth represents integrity.

Integrity and integrity is knowing and doing the truth. And

the first thing you need to put on in your

life is integrity. It's the belt that holds everything together.

If your life isn't based on truth, it's going to

fall apart. And so you need integrity, moral integrity, relational integrity,

financial integrity, sexual integrity. You need integrity in the different

areas of your life. Now I've explained this to you before,

but let me do it again. Integrity does not mean perfection.

It doesn't mean you always do the right thing, because

if you had to be perfect at integrity, nobody's got integrity.

Because nobody is perfect. Everybody slips everybody he stumbles. Integrity

is not compartmentalizing your life so that you don't appear

different ways with different people. Integrity comes from the word

integer or integer, which means a unit of one. It

means your life is not a bunch of pieces of pie,

but it's the filling all in the middle. In other words,

that you act the same way with everybody. You don't

act one way at work and another way at church.

You don't act one way at home and another way

with your friends. Integrity means what you see is what

you get, that you're not faking it. The opposite of

integrity is knowing the truth and not doing it. That's

called hypocrisy, which is wearing a mask. So integrity is

the opposite of hypocrisy, which means what you know, I'm

exactly what I appear to be. Now, if you lack

integrity in any area, you are going to be vulnerable.

As I said, if you segment your life and say

this is my church life, and then this is my

work life, this piece of the pie, and this piece

of the pie is my sex life, and this is

my secret pornography life over here, and this is my

sports life, and this is my friendship, social life. You're

already lack of integrity because you're not acting the same

in all of those areas. Integrity is knowing the truth,

but more than just knowing it, it is doing the truth.

And that's the one that gives you stability. It holds

you together in the middle, in the tough times. It

gives you strength.

You're listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. We're so happy

you've chosen to study along with us today. Here's Pastor

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