Practical Helps for Spiritual Warfare (Part 2) | December 28, 2025 PM

Hi there Pastor Rivero from Liberty Baptist Church.

Before we begin, I just want to let you know you're going to be

listening to a sermon that is already in progress due to a

recording issue we had at the church.

We hope you enjoy the remainder of this sermon here at Liberty

Baptist Church in Easton, MA. Welcome to the Liberty Baptist

Sermon Archives. The message you're about to hear

was preached at Liberty Baptist Church in Easton, MA.

You can find out more about us or contact us at

mylibertybaptist.org or just look us up on Facebook.

And now we hope that this message from God's Word will be

a blessing to you. We saw the quality of war that

we were to war, what kind of warfare, a good warfare that we

were to fight in a biblical way. And we talked about what that

was to look like as well. And that really our fight is a

beautiful thing. Not because.

And if you're online, welcome here to Liberty Baptist Church

this evening. We've already been handing out

$100 bills to everybody. And you just miss that.

I can always say that so many times it's not funny after I've

done it a few times. But again, thank you.

And thank you for the guys in the back for taking care of that

as well. That we were to fight a good

warfare in the sense that it is a beautiful thing that when we

fight in the way that God would deem us to fight.

Then we talked about the tools of war, that they were to be

faith and a good conscience. You can't fight the war of faith

without having faith and a good conscience.

And then the stakes of the war. Remember that there was the

possibility that one could go no shipwreck, not that they would

lose their salvation, but rather that they would lose that which

they were trying to obtain here in this life and lose their

testimony, lose their way, lose their peace, lose well, pretty

much everything but your salvation.

And so we saw that that was a real possibility as well.

And then last week we gave 6 very practical applications that

we were to prepare ourselves for battle.

We were to guard our heart, that we weren't to ignore the

battlefield of the mind. That we were to know the rules

of engagement, that we're to clean tightly to the truth, and

that we were to be willing to train.

And we really based ourselves last week in Ephesians chapter

#6 Remember finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord

and in the power of His might, and to put on the whole armor of

God to make sure that we're putting on every piece.

And we saw that those were the loins girt about with truth, the

breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation

of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of

salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of

God. Then each piece being put on

with prayer. Of course, the hymn says that

that we often sing, but that comes from the Word of God

praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,

and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication

for All Saints. And so that's just by way of

review of what we looked at the last couple weeks.

And again, I think this is important for us, particularly

as we approach a new year, to be thinking about the things that

we want to improve on in our life, those places where we want

to be spiritually fighting the good fight.

And I hope these have been helpful to you.

And that will be continue to have some thoughts tonight that

will be helpful to you in a very practical way as well.

But I want our jumping off place tonight to be second Timothy

chapter #2 beginning in verse #1 where it says this Thou

therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ

Jesus. And these things that thou hast

heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou

to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

Now look at this verse #3 we actually mentioned this last

week near the end of the message.

Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus

Christ. Those who are called to be

soldiers of the cross are not supposed to be those who are

weak. They you say, Well pastor, you

mean that we're not to be weak. I mean, but we're weak

creatures. The Bible says we are but dust

and certainly that is the case. And the Psalm says that he knows

our frame that we're but dust. And the wonderful thing about

that is, is that he gives us the strength He gives us the armor.

He gives us the courage that we need.

Quits yourselves like men. The Bible says that doesn't mean

just quit. It means to quit to equip

yourselves and to strengthen yourselves and be strong in the

Lord and in the power of his might.

So sure we are weak creatures. Sure we are but us, but yet we

are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ that says endure

hardness and that's why we have something like today that takes

place. You know, we don't go into a

corner and cry. Well, at least so I don't tell

you if I go in the corner and cry.

At least that's what it is. But we know what are we going to

do? We're still going to have

church. And listen, I know not everyone

can show up. In fact, there's a majority that

can't for a whole host of different reasons.

That's why we let you know what the situation was.

But I think sometimes we forget how good we have it as

believers, and specifically how good we have it as believers in

the United States of America, where our brethren around the

world are often persecuted in countries that we don't often

think of. Where are there those who will

walk great distances to go to church?

No, I didn't say drive 5 great distances.

They will walk great distances knowing the Lord's Day is really

just for going to church. And when the pastor preaches,

they hope he doesn't preach for an hour.

They hope he preaches for two hours or for three hours.

And some of you are saying, is that going to happen here

tonight? Who knows?

It's warm. Who knows how long I can go

tonight, right? But the idea is this, when they

get into the House of God, they are not trying to get back out

of the House of God. They're trying to see what they

can get out of their time being in the House of God.

And they knew it took them an hour or two to get to church.

It'll take them an hour or two to get back home, maybe in the

dark. So while they're there, they

want to hear more of the word. And here in America we don't

often deal with that the same way.

But we're supposed to endure hardness as soldiers of Jesus

Christ, good soldiers, mind you, verse 4.

No man that woreth entangled himself with the affairs of this

life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier

in verse 4 gives us a bit of the secret here, gives us a little

bit of the secret sauce, if you will, of the spiritual life.

If you want to make sure that you stay on the path that you

need to be on, well, you better be be aware and you better be

engaged in spiritual warfare if you want to stay out of the

traps that Satan sets for you. And by the way, he is very good

at setting traps for us, isn't he?

He sets traps in the mind. He sets traps physically.

He sets traps in many hosts of different ways.

But if you want to stay out of trouble, you need to be active

and engaged in the fight for spiritual warfare.

Why? So you can please yourself.

And we talked about this morning, forget the issue of

pleasing ourselves. What does it say that he may

please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.

You say, well, I don't want to be a soldier.

Bad news man, if you're saved, guess what, you're a foot

soldier for Jesus Christ. He has chosen you to be a

soldier and again, he will make you victorious in the fight.

So we're going to go ahead and have a word of prayer this

evening and go ahead and as that bit of introductory to get us

into our message, but let's have a word of prayer and then we'll

continue with these other six items of the practicality of

spiritual warfare. Heavenly Father, I do thank you

for this evening and I thank you for all that you have done.

They do pray that you would just be with us in the word.

I pray that there's something here, something that's been said

the last few weeks that would just be very, very helpful to

someone who may be on the edge, someone who may be experiencing

some difficulty or maybe about to be experiencing some

difficulty. They don't even know it.

There's something they can take from these lessons, these

sermons that they can put away in their mind and pull out at

just the right time, be able to be a help.

Lord, thank you for your word. And I pray to you, bless, as we

continue this evening. And we ask it in Jesus name,

Amen. Well #7 this evening, as we

continue with the six items that I just gave you a few moments

ago in review #7 again, if you're writing these down, and I

encourage you to do so #7 shore up your defenses.

Shore up your defenses. That's one of the real keys of

spiritual warfare. Listen, what are your weak

points? Points when it comes to

temptation? What are your weak points when

it comes to spiritual warfare? You say I don't know what they

are. If that's the case, I got bad

news for you. Satan knows what they are.

Satan's very aware of what your weak points are and he is

constantly looking for the places in which to attack.

Listen, if you don't know what your weaknesses are, you need to

take some time in meditation, you take some time in prayer and

truly consider those triggers. Truly consider those things that

Satan can tempt you with and start to make a little bit of a

battle plan. Start to be able to pile some

things together to understand where he's going to attack and

how you are going to counterattack when those times

come. Listen, we need to be wise about

these things. Matthew 1016, Behold, I sent you

forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.

Be there for wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

The idea for us is that we had a better be wise as a serpent, but

at the same time we are not to be harmful like the serpent, but

rather harmless as a dove. Build standards in your life

like bulwarks against these difficult areas when you know

there's some places that need fortification.

Well, what would someone do back in the days when there needed to

be fortified cities differently obviously, than today because of

all the aerial warfare and different things like that,

although the certainly there are still some similarities.

But what would they do in those times when really warfare was

hand to hand and those types of things?

They would take the bulwarks and they would have to strengthen

them. They would have to find the weak

spots and they'd have to put more soldiers there or put more

earthworks there or build stronger walls there.

These are the things that they would do.

Listen, if you have weak points in your wall of defense, you

know what you need to do. You need to build them up.

You need to find ways the Lord will help you to be able to

build up your defense. You might need to shore up your,

your, your standards or your, your areas because of your life

situation or because of a particular temptation.

So it could be your life situation has caused some

difficulties that you need to be guarded against, or it could

just be some very particular temptations that you have in

your life because these are the ones that Satan likes to deal

with with you. Whatever they are, you do need

to have some protection. And the best way for us to be

able to do that is through biblical standards.

Now listen, when I say the word standards, people's eyes start

glazing over. They start thinking the

Pharisees and things like that. No, no, I'm not talking about

creating rules that the Bible does not talk about.

We see what the word of God says is what we're to do that we are

not to be like the Pharisees, that oral law, the Talmud where

they just started creating laws out of thin air and expected

everyone to live by them. But listen, only a fool would

not live their Christian life without having some personal

standards without understanding that there's some areas of

temptation. There's an areas of weakness in

my life and because of that, I'm going to make sure that I've

done what I, I can to shore up my defenses.

Listen, having standards is not a sign of weakness.

It's actually a sign of spiritual strength.

It means this, you recognize the areas you're weak, you recognize

the areas you're deficient. And instead of arrogantly

saying, well, nothing's going to hurt me, No, you say, well,

there's some things that I need to do above and beyond because I

know that if I get myself in a certain situation, if I get

myself into these types of issues, listen, I need to have

these standards in my life. It was a few years ago when and

Vice President Mike Pence had just become vice president that

some of you might remember he was openly mocked by people

because he had made the stand both as governor of Indiana and

then also as vice president that he was not going to be in a

meeting alone with a woman. That was a standard that he had.

Do you see book, chapter and verse where the Bible says if

you are alone with a woman, you know, there's nothing that says

in the word of God to do that. But is that a prudent standard?

Certainly. So it could be not just because

he was given to temptation that area.

It could just be that in his very real place of power, he

knew that it could be very simple for someone to come in

and make a false accusation. Can I help you with something

this evening? I don't meet with a woman alone

in my office by myself. If there's a woman that is of

any age near mine, even close to mine, at mine or below, unless

someone could be my mother or my grandmother, you know what I do?

I meet with my wife there. Why?

Because it's important that I have some level of standard

there. Because I'm afraid of myself.

No, I just want to make sure that I'm doing right and it's

not something I have to think about when the time comes.

It's just it's always my standard.

If you're a woman and I'm a man and we're alone, we're not going

to be alone. That's just the way that it is.

That that's, as you say, well, how does that work?

No, we're just not going to be, that's the way that it's going

to be. You know, there are all types of

other standards. We have gotten to the place

where we are. So the smartphone is so

ubiquitous. It's it's everywhere is what I'm

trying to say, that we feel like we have to have these with us

all the time. Listen, smartphones aren't for

everybody. The fact that you could be able

to look up almost anything in the world at any moment at any

given time, listen, that's a power that I don't know as we as

humanity ought to be able to have.

And it's caused a lot more problems of things that it's

helped. It could be that maybe you don't

need a smartphone. Why am I going to live without a

smartphone? Maybe that you need to live

without a smartphone. Or maybe that you need to

restrict what you can do on your smartphone and give an

accountability partner the password to your phone.

So you can't download apps, you can't delete apps, those kind of

things. You say that's crazy to be able

to think like that. Well, it could just be you need

some standards in your life to make sure that you're doing what

you need to do. It could be that maybe having a

television in your home is not such a great thing.

Now, listen, I know that when you have a phone, basically have

a television your home right from your phone, isn't it?

That's the way that it can be. But these are things that you

need to think about and these are things that you need to be

praying about. And it could be something small.

They could be something large. It could be that if you have a

difficulty with alcohol that you're not going to go to a

restaurant that serves alcohol. That could just be what you do.

Our family, we don't drink alcohol because we believe what

the Bible says about staying away from alcohol and not being

deceived by alcohol. But there are certain

restaurants that we go to that does serve alcohol.

I'm not sitting at the bar, but it doesn't bother me to be able

to be in the same building as where it is if I'm in a

different location in the building.

But listen, there's some people. That's not a good thing and you

know what you need to do. Don't feel bad that you have

made a decision of a stand in your life.

I'm not going to eat somewhere. And by the way, if there is

somebody that you know that has that standard, don't mock them.

Don't make fun of them. Say, oh, come on, what's the

matter with you? I really want to go to the 99.

Listen, nobody wants to go to the 99.

OK, That's no, that's not true. I like the 99.

But just say don't, don't do that, all right?

Don't make fun of somebody else because their standards are

different than yours. And by the way, don't try to

look down upon other people if your standards are higher than

theirs, All right? We're not talking about what the

Bible says. We're talking about principles

and precepts. Principles rather, that are an

outflow of what the Bible says. So be careful about that.

Standards aren't a sign of weakness, but rather a sign of

strength, as long as they're held in the proper place.

So #7 shore up your defenses #8 be aware of dangerous

situations. Be aware of dangerous

situations, and I know I just mentioned one of them as a man

to be alone with a woman, that's a dangerous situation.

But I'm talking about even far beyond that as well.

There's an acronym that I've heard of before.

I'm not the one who made this up, just to be very clear about

this, but I've heard it before and I've used it in teaching.

I've used it in preaching, and it's the acronym HALT.

HALT. It means this hungry, angry,

lonely and tired, hungry, angry and I would even put with the a

angry, I would put anxious as well.

Hungry, angry or anxious, lonely and tired.

Meaning this you better be careful in your decision making.

When you're hungry, you're angry, you're lonely and you're

tired. Listen, we know this.

What do we tell everybody when it talks about?

We talk about going to the grocery store.

Don't go when you're hungry. Why?

Because $100 bill at the grocery store, which you know $100 now

buys you like, you know, 3 loaves of bread and some milk.

I have something like that. I don't know, but $100 tab could

end up being a $250 tab because you went in hungry.

I made some bad decisions. You got home and you realized I

don't need half this stuff. I don't even like half this

stuff, but I bought it because I was hungry.

Listen, when you're angry, you make bad decisions.

You said Nah, that's not true. Are you for real?

You're going to argue with me about that?

We know that when we're angry, we make bad decisions.

You know what road rage is? It's people who are angry making

bad decisions, you know. Hey, you know what's a great

idea while you're driving to put your car and park in the middle

of the street and get out and start yelling at somebody?

That's a great idea, right? Well, in the moment it is

because you're angry. But when you calm down and cool

down, you think, what on earth was I thinking?

Why would I say that? Why would I yell at somebody?

Why would I gesture that way? No, no, this is not the way of

believers to act and to talk and to compose themselves.

You, you're angry. You're making a bad decision

when you're lonely. Listen.

A mind that is alone is a mind that can be dangerous.

Listen when you are alone, when you have a lot of alone time.

Could I encourage you find something to do with your alone

time. Exercise.

Find something to do with your alone time.

Listen or watch good preaching, good documentaries.

Try to learn something, try to learn a new language, download

an app and do something like that.

Fix something, buy something and build it.

Do anything like that. That will be healthy.

But when you're lonely, listen. A lonely mind is the devil's

workshop, and he will love to be able to tell you all these

different things. If you're lonely, text someone

else. Tell him you're praying for him.

And by the way, if you text someone and tell him they're

praying for him, here's something you ought to do.

Pray for him. Don't just tell him you don't

pray for him and don't pray for him.

All right, I'm kind of lonely, so I'm just going to text a

bunch of people, tell him I pray for him.

Well, you better have a lot of time to pray for him then,

because you're going to. You already wrote the check, all

right? You need to sign it and you need

to cash it. All right, That's what needs to

happen. Don't just say you're going to,

you need to do it and then tired.

How many times have we made just poor decisions because we're

sleepy? Poor decisions because maybe

we're emotionally exhausted just because we may have been slept,

but we haven't truly rested. You know, they say that you can

sleep, but doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to

rest. And boy, that's the truth, isn't

it? That you can get sleep from a

bottle, but you can't necessarily get rest from a

bottle. Where does rest really come

from? Rest comes from the Lord for the

heart of the believer. And so when you're hungry,

you're angry, you're lonely, you're tired.

Listen, you can make some very, very poor decisions, James 114

but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust

and enticed. Be careful.

This is what Satan wants to do. He wants to take you away from

that which is good and that which is right.

In those times when your defenses are down and get you to

make a very, very poor decision. Be aware of these dangerous

situations and listen. Don't be so naive to put

yourself in a dangerous situation because you feel like,

well, it's not like it's going to be a problem anyway.

Can I give you an example that here at Liberty Baptist Church,

we never have one person counting the offerings.

We have never since the very beginning had one person

counting the offerings. It was always me and someone

else. And now over time, we have

anywhere from two to three different people who can count,

of which I am not one of them. You know why we do that?

It's not because necessarily we are thinking that every single

person that counts, at any moment, they could steal all the

money. Although certainly I've been in

a church, I've told you before, where someone did steal of the

offerings. And it is a very real thing.

I want to make sure that no one is in a situation in which they

could be accused of a of a mispropriety and there be no one

there to be able to give them an alibi.

That's a dangerous situation. Once you get yourself in a place

where literally no one can say that, no, that's not what they

were doing. I could be alone.

Can I be honestly, I could be alone with the money here at the

church and not be tempted at all.

Listen, I'm not worried about stealing your money.

I'm not. That's the Lord's money.

Are you kidding me? I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to

make it out of the building without a lightning bolt coming

down from heaven and striking me or worse.

I'm not going to do that. I have no temptation.

But what would happen if someone says I see pastor alone with the

money all the time? I bet something's up with that.

Would I have any way to say that's not true?

I wouldn't, because I'm by myself.

Listen, be careful of dangerous situations.

The worst of accusations aren't even necessarily always the ones

that are true. They're the ones that you can't

refute because you've gotten yourself in a situation you

ought not to be in. So avoid dangerous situations #9

know this. You're on duty 24 hours a day.

You were on duty 24 hours a day. Remember, we've looked at all of

these verses about warfare, being a soldier, the armor of

God. We've looked at these week after

week. The military themes here are

very, very easy for us to be able to understand whether we

have been in the military or not.

And listen, there are times of rest and relaxation in the

Christian life. Even Jesus said to the disciples

that we need to come apart and rest for a while.

Although after he said that there was another burst of

ministry that they got put into. But yet the theory or rather the

the principle there is right that we need to come apart

before we get torn apart. That's what we need to do.

There are times when we need rest or relaxation.

That's why it's important. I think as a pastor, take those

vacations with my family or to have a day during the week where

I am just a family man unless there's an emergency or

something like that. Again, understanding that

because I think it's important to make sure that I'm rested and

recharged so I can be what I need to be for you all when the

time comes. But I will say this, even in our

times of rest and relaxation, listen, really, we're always on

duty. Just as the same way as I'm a

pastor, I can't say that certain times I'm clocking out.

You know, on Friday. It would have been great on my

day off. Remember I said that the offices

would be closed Thursday, Friday, and Saturday?

Guess where I was on Friday and Saturday?

Here. You know why?

Because I want us to have heat in the building on Sunday.

I want to have electricity in the building on Sunday.

To be honest, that's what I was thinking of in the first place.

There was not an opportunity for me to clock out and say, well,

I'll let someone else deal with it.

Why? Because it's who I am.

I'm a pastor and my family understands this and it's okay.

And I try to compensate on the other side of it, so they

understand that family is a priority as well.

Because without having my family being what it needs to be, I

can't be a pastor the way I need to be.

Because having a family being what it ought to be is one of

the requirements of a preacher In First Timothy chapter #3 But

in saying that, listen, in the same way, just as I'm always a

pastor, I'm also always a Christian.

And you're always a Christian. You never get to tap out of

being a Christian. You never get to say, hey today,

I'm not going to act like a Christian.

You know why? It's OK, Today is not a

Christian day. But five days out of the week is

fine. 40 hours a week. Being a Christian is fine, but

not listen, it is 24 hours a day.

I imagine in a war zone where soldiers would be, that there

are times when soldiers do need to rest.

There are times that they can't be out there on the front lines

24 hours a day. But could you imagine some of

them being in the barracks and an attack taking place and all

of a sudden someone came to the barracks, said, guys, everyone

get your weapon. Get out there on the front line.

You're needed. And all of a sudden there's an

uprising in the barracks and they say, are you kidding me?

We're off right now. It's not time for us.

Dave's laughing in the back. All right, hey, hey, Doc, we're

not going out there. We've got we got at least

another three hours before we're back on the lines.

Somebody would say, are you insane?

If you don't get out there, you may be dead.

Everybody get your weapon and get out there.

You may think you're off, but you're on.

You know why? Because you're a soldier.

And for us as believers, there's nowhere where the Bible says

that Satan attacks us from 9:00 to 5:00.

In fact, as I just mentioned to you, it seems that Satan tries

to attack us when we're out of our routine and when we were

unregulated in our emotions or in our physicality or any of

those things. This is when he loves to attack.

So I'm saying is this, you are always on 24 hours a day.

As a believer, you're always aware that there will be times

when Satan will want to attack when you're alone, when you're

awake at night, when you're on vacation, when you're taking a

day off, when you're far from home.

These are not the times to let your guard down.

In fact, recognize that because you're out of your normal

routine, Satan may be even more likely to attack you during

those times because he likes to get you in a place where you are

not thinking that things are are are that spiritual warfare is a

reality in your life. Don't let him lull you to sleep.

You are always on #10 Listen, don't go it alone #10 do not go

it alone. A term that's often used for the

military is something along these lines.

A band of brothers, and to be able to see the camaraderie, to

be able to see the closeness that veterans have that the

military has isn't an incredible thing.

And I've just been a party to just seeing a little bit of it

from the outside, being invited in by some of our veterans here

over the years at Liberty Baptist Church and particularly

our brother Dave. But I will tell you this,

there's a camaraderie and a closeness that the band of

brothers will have ancestors that lasts for a lifetime.

To be able to know there's someone that you serve with

that's in need years and years later.

Maybe someone's you didn't serve with, but you served in the same

with the same branch or even just serving for the same

country. There is something, there's a

closeness there that I, I don't know that I can even properly

explain because I don't understand it.

I was taking Brother Abel's. Of course, you remember Brother

Abel's here a few weeks ago, served in the United States Air

Force before he left the Air Force and went into the

ministry. But I was with him at Mansfield.

We were getting ready to go on the train to go into Boston.

He was talking to a gentleman and it was a veteran's day, I

believe that day or the day before, somewhere along those

lines. And he saw a man start talking

to him. And they both had served in the

Air Force. And these men have never met

each other in their life. And you know what They left

being, you know, friends be able to talk and to be able to

exchange ideas and thoughts. And I'm just kind of standing

there just kind of like, Yep, OK, I don't really know what

you're talking about, but that's all right.

You know, because they're they're giving letters like, you

know, your PT seven O 6. They're like, Oh yeah, you know,

I put a form FI7O2 like I, you know, like I don't know what you

guys are talking about, but you seem like you're having a good

time. Can I tell you, the only thing

that I can think of that would be closer than something like

that should be the closeness that we have as believers.

The closeness that we have. And I'm not trying to equate

what we are compared to the military because some of our

military friends and family, they are believers.

But I'm trying to tell you this, that we are a band of brothers

and sisters in Christ as well. Don't go it alone.

Satan wants to isolate. Satan wants to make you ashamed.

Listen, there should be the space here at Liberty Baptist

Church where someone can openly talk about the sin that they're

dealing with and that brothers and sisters in Christ can help

them, can pray for them, extend grace and also to extend a

helping hand when they're in need.

Now, I know that we don't want to say the deepest, darkest

things that are within us and there's probably some prudence

to that, isn't there? I know there's some

appropriateness to that, that sometimes there's some things

that men should only say to men and not in mixed company and

ladies should only share with ladies and, and not in mixed

company. I understand that.

I'm not trying to diminish that whatsoever.

But I will say this as you struggle and as I struggle just

to be able to be more like Christ and we have some very

particular struggles. You should be able to call one

of your brothers on the phone, men, ladies.

You should be able to text one of the other ladies in the

church and to be able to let them know where you're

struggling and have them pray for you and pray with you and to

talk you through it and to give you counsel and to give you

advice and to give you guidance. And you'd say, well, Pastor, I

don't even know what I would do if somebody called me and talk

to me like that. Well, I would tell you the best

thing that you could do is to be like 1 of Job's friends.

You say, weren't those the really bad guys?

I mean, they didn't seem very helpful to him.

Well, as I always say, Job's friends were the most helpful

the first week when they sat there with him and said nothing.

Once they started talking, they showed how foolish they were.

You want to be like 1 of Job's friends?

Here's what you do When someone comes to you and talks to you

about some need. Just do a whole lot more

listening than talking. You just listen to them.

Pray for them. Maybe even say something like

this. I don't even know how to help

you. I'm gonna be honest with you.

I don't even know how to unwrap what you just told me, but I'm

gonna pray with you. I'm gonna pray that the Lord

gives you wisdom. You can never go wrong with

James 15. If any man lack wisdom, let him

ask of God. If any man lack wisdom, that's

all of us. We don't have all the wisdom we

need. Ask of God, guess what, He will

give it to you liberally. The Bible says He will upgrade

you, not He won't chastise you for asking for help.

And so as you ask on behalf of someone else, and maybe someone

else asks on behalf of you, listen, there's a strengthening

that takes place. And I'm thankful that our church

has shown itself over the years to be a place of grace.

Yes, when sin needs to be taken care of, it is taken care of.

But when someone truly repents, when someone wants to get right

with the Lord, that this church does not push them off, but

rather puts arms of love, love around them, and says this, we

are going to help you get right with the Lord, because there

will be a time when you will hope that people will act the

same way towards you. Ecclesiastes 4 verses 9 through

Ecclesiastes 4:9–12

12/2 are better than one because they have a good reward for

their labor. For if they fall, the one will

lift up his fellow. But woe to him that is alone

when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up again.

If two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be

warm alone? And if one prevail against him,

two shall shall withstand him. And a three fold cord is not

quickly broken. I always look at my friend David

Corley. He was just here in June for our

20th anniversary of ministry. And my friend David Corley is

that other friend that I have. He's the one since the 8th

grade. We graduated high school

together. We graduated college together.

He just celebrated 20 years of ministry all at the same church,

being the pastor just a couple months ago.

And I look at him as someone that when I have a struggle,

when I have a difficulty, when I just need something, when I need

to complain, that he'll listen. Now he may rebuke me when I'm

done for complaining, he'll do it in love, but he'll tell me

what I need to hear, not what I want to hear.

And everyone needs to have a friend in their life that tells

them not what they want to hear, but what they need to hear.

But then even then, doing it in love and kindness and godliness,

speaking the truth in love. Don't go it alone #11 be a

joyful warrior. Be a joyful warrior.

Nehemiah 810 says the joy of the Lord is your strength.

Listen, it's easy to get grizzled and bitter in the

battle. Can I tell you, I've seen a lot

of pastors that are older than I am.

They've been in the battle a long time.

They've dealt with a lot of stuff.

And can I tell you, they get pretty bitter about the whole

ministry thing? I've heard pastors say something

like this. I've seen it all.

And listen, there are times when I feel like I've seen it all,

but then someone always shows me.

I guess I haven't seen it all. You know what, I may have seen

it all. Even if I have seen it all, I

haven't seen everyone and I don't know everyone's heart.

I, I've met different people and I, I would say that there's

probably maybe 10 or 15 different characters, if you

will, that you could find at any given church.

You, you probably could say something along that line, maybe

not characters, but characteristics, if you would,

that you can find at any church. But I will say, even then I have

to take each person as an individual.

And you know what, I just don't want to be someone that's been

in the ministry for twenty, 30-40 years and just get so old

and bitter about things that really he's not only good for

anything, but you know, there's a lot of Christians that get

that way too. Just get tired with the fight.

They get tired of the struggle. They're flesh.

In fact, maybe they get tired of losing in their flesh and they

just get to the place was like, well, what good is this even

anyway? I try to do right for a few

weeks and I just go right back to the same things I hear about

revival, but I've never experienced revival before.

It seems like other people are so much further ahead in the

church than I am. Like, what's even the point?

What am I even doing here? And you get so down, you get so

discouraged. Listen in the fight.

Don't lose your joy in the fight.

Don't lose that bedrock joy that you have from Christ.

Don't let any of the fighting diminish the joy.

In fact, joy is a help in the fight.

Listen, when you are down, discouraged and depressed, you

don't want to fight. When you were down and

discouraged and depressed, you know what?

You know what I want to do? I want to get another carton of

ice cream. That's what I want.

When I'm down and discouraged or depressed, you know it's not

going to help me, but it's going to feel good for about 30

minutes and it's going to feel bad for about the next six

hours, especially if it's at midnight when I ate it, you know

what I'm saying? But this is what the world tells

us. It's like you need that short

little dopamine hit and everything will be feel better

and you get that dopamine hit wherever you get it from.

Listen, it can come from a bottle, it can come from a video

or a photograph. It can come from a food, It can

come even from things that aren't necessarily bad, but they

have been taken into indulgence, like food.

But listen, there's no joy to be found in those things.

The joy of the Lord is our strength.

Many warriors are broken by what they've seen, by what they've

experienced. But our warfare is different.

The more we war and the more victories we have, the more

joyful we should become as Christians.

The older we get in the Lord, the more joyful we should be.

We should get say, well, things are getting worse.

I can't give you a better example than Samuel.

Samuel went through ministry and life.

In many ways it would have seemed that he was a failure.

His sons were not worthy to take over his judgeship.

The Bible makes that clear. The people didn't want him

anymore. In fact, they didn't just reject

Samuel, they rejected the entire theocracy that God had set up

all the way back from the wilderness 300 plus years ago.

And they said what? They said, give us a king so

that we can be like the other nations.

It was a total rejection of him and of his family.

But what did Samuel do at the end?

He says, but I'll do what you say.

I'll seek the Lord first. But I want you to know I'm going

to pray for you. I'm going to help you.

I'm going to do what I can. Samuel in his very end where it

seemed like he was being rejected, still said this.

They may be sour on me, but I'm not going to get sour on them

because the Lord is too good for me to have that posture in my

life. Listen, be a joyful warrior.

And #12 and finally, listen, remember this, you're always

going to be a soldier. You will always be a soldier.

I remember the very first time I looked at my pastor, Pastor Pert

back at Westgate, who served in the Marines for a few years

before he went to into full time ministry.

But I remember saying something to him about being an ex Marine

and he looked at me and he straightened up in a way that I

hadn't really seen him straighten up before.

And he said there are no ex Marines.

And I thought, well, but you're not a Marine.

He says there are no ex Marines. And I kind of thought like,

well, calm down man, like you, you're not a Marine anymore, you

know what I'm saying? But his idea was as not original

to him, by the way, that when you're a Marine, you're a Marine

for life. That's the way that you're

regarded amongst the brethren of the Marines, that when you are

one, you are always 1. And that's the way that it is.

You know, when I look at us as soldiers, you're always going to

be a soldier. There will never be a time that

you won't be a soldier. You're a soldier The day you got

saved, you got put into the battle.

You'll be a soldier through your life.

And I would say to some of us who are younger than others, you

might even look at those who are elder and say, I can't wait to

get to that age and I won't, I won't fight anymore.

And those who are elders say this is the fight ever going to

end because it never ends, does it?

In fact, it'll never end till you get to glory and you're with

the Lord and the perfection that is heaven.

It'll never end. But until that time, guess what?

You're always a soldier. I think of seeing some of those

soldiers, including here in our church, those who have served.

And when you see them in their dress uniform, you know, when I

see when I see someone in the military in the dress uniform,

it almost makes me wish that, you know, I was in the military.

You know, that I, I, because I look at that, it's so admirable

because each one of those medals aren't just little trinkets.

They represent someone or something or somewhere, every

last one of them. And when you see a chest full of

medals, you see someone, you say, man, that's meaningful.

You know, we get to heaven. We're not going to get a chest

of medals, but you know we will have.

We'll have our works tried by fire at the great, at the

judgment seat of Christ. Some will be wood, hay and

stubble. Some will be gold, silver and

precious stone. That's that's your medals that

you'll receive. I've done military funerals

before, and you've been here long enough, many of you.

I'm not a weeper. I don't cry very much.

I can probably count on very few occasions where I've actually

openly wept. It's not that I think it's

shameful for a man to cry or anything like that.

In fact, I think that's a a really awful thing that often

times men buy into. But the idea is that my tear

ducts don't work like that. OK, I'm not saying that.

I'm not, you know, I'm just, I'm so happy that I don't cry.

No, no. It's just that doesn't seem like

it squeezes out of my eyes very often, but it does happen.

I'll tell you, one of the things that does bring tears to my

eyes, and I've done this probably a dozen times over the

years as a pastor, is any time I do a military funeral.

Often times the military funerals I do are for people I

don't know. It's usually for men and women

who died here in our town or in this general area who don't have

a pastor. And I get the call and I go and

I help the family. But there's never been a time

where I stand there and do what I do.

And then they take that flag off the coffin and they fold it in

the very particular way that only the military can fold it,

and with such precision and with such care.

They take that and they hand it to the widow or the widower and

say that on the behalf of the United States of America, that

we mourn your loss. And then what really gets me is

when they play taps every single time, because I didn't know that

person. I didn't know that man or that

woman, but what that song represents is this.

The fight's done, the fight's over, you're at rest.

Now. We don't know spiritually if

they're at rest or not, but you understand, just physically

speaking, they are at rest. We don't get taps at the end of

our lives, soldiers, but we do want to get this well done, thou

good and faithful servant. That's what we're aiming for is

soldiers of Christ, you know, not necessarily someone playing

the trumpet, not necessarily someone playing some instrument,

not a chest of medals or a flag that's folded up that we can put

on a shelf or put into a case. You know, we want our Lord and

Savior to be able to say, well done, thou good and faithful

servant. How does that happen?

Well, it happens by warring a good warfare.

It happens by practically putting into place the things

that we find in the Word of God. It doesn't make you weak.

It's a sign of strength that you recognize that you have a weak

flesh, but that God has given you the tools to be strong in a

wicked, wicked world. Fight the good fight of faith.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.