Prepare for Battle (Part One) | The Unseen World (Part Six)

Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and

live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this

message. We are in the middle of a series

called The Unseen World where we've been looking at this whole

issue of spiritual warfare and the spiritual realm.

So here's what I want to ask that we do.

Before we dive back into the series, I just want to invite

you to pray with me. God, we thank you for being with

us. God, we thank you for guiding

us. God, we thank you for the truth

of your word. God, we pray that you would just

bring it to life in and through us this morning.

God, that your Holy Spirit would resonate within us.

God, the truths that you want us not only to learn, but the

truths that you would have us to apply to our lives.

God, as we're about to go through and continue going

through some pretty heavy subject matter, God, I pray that

you would just wipe away a spirit of fear.

God, that this series is not about fear.

This series is about victory, and it's not based off of

anything that we've can do is based off of everything that you

have already done. God, we thank you for Jesus.

We thank you for the cross. We thank you that when Jesus

said that it is finished from the cross, he was talking about

exactly what we're going to be diving into this morning.

And God, we pray that you would guide us and speak to us and God

challenge us and encourage us in this in Jesus name that we pray,

Amen. So in over the past five weeks,

this is week six of our series over the past five weeks, if you

were with us in the first week, we kind of read some headlines

that have been taking place in our country.

Over the past five weeks. There have been some absolutely

devastating headlines and, and, and events that have taken place

not just around our country, not in a different nation, in a, in

a different culture, but right here in our own very own

backyard. From, from a, from a massive

drug bust in the metro Atlanta area to two instances of

domestic violence that that both resulted in murder right here in

Hall County, to, to the absolutely devastating,

devastating loss of a little 4 year old girl right here in our

own very backyard. And listen, whether or not,

whether or not you, you, you know, those are involved or, or

you, you knew those were involved.

I think that we can all agree that we look at headlines like

that and we look at instances like that.

And we're all left asking the same question that we started

this series with God, what in the world is going on now?

What in the world is going on? And, and, and if you have any

amount of time and experience and years up underneath your

belt, we're left thinking, it didn't used to be like this.

What in the world is going on? And what we've been unpacking

together is we have not only been identifying examples, but

exhibitions of evil in our world.

And not just identifying exhibitions of evil, we've been

putting a source to it and we've been putting a name to it.

You see, if you've been with us over the last several weeks,

we've been talking about how the origins of all evil, the

everything that we see and everything that we experience

and everything that our hearts are broken over, the origins of

that evil, the roots of that evil.

It's found in Satan and his demons and, and all the forces

of, of hell. And we talked about over the

last several weeks how their main goal for me and for you and

for all of us, for the people in this room watching this online,

for everybody outside of this campus, whether they're in

church or out of church, whether they feel close to God or far

from God, the goal is still the same For Satan, his demons and

all the forces of hell. It is to keep you and I far from

the true loving heart of God. You, you see, one of the things

that we're going to be looking at this morning is, is how we

are to interact how, how we are to live in light of the

spiritual war that's going on around us.

If you were with us last week, we talked about how it's not

just about identifying the sources.

It's about understanding that there's a spiritual battle

that's raging all around us and this spiritual battle there,

there, there's no neutrality in this spiritual battle.

And if you're new to the series, I would highly encourage you to

go back. You can either look through the

Riverbend app or, or our website or the YouTube channel or

wherever you listen to podcasts. I think it'd be very helpful to

spend some time for you to spend some time kind of walking back

through where we've been so far in this series, The Unseen

World, but to kind of keep us all on the same page and to keep

us focused on where we've been so far.

We, we've kind of been riding on the rails of this, of this main

truth or what we call this big idea throughout this series.

It's something that we want to keep front and center in our

minds. And if you're taking notes with

us here, it is, it says the unseen world or the spiritual

realm. The unseen world is just as real

as the one I can see. And it's shaping my life every

day and it's shaping my life every day.

You see, here's the reality is we exist.

There are there are two realms that are existing simultaneously

that are going on, that are functioning simultaneously.

There is the world that we can see and touch and experience

with our five senses, this physical realm.

And then there is this spiritual unseen realm that we cannot see.

But just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean that it's

there. And our big idea throughout this

series is not just to convey information.

It's not just about information. It's about an invitation.

It's not like, hey, that's a good thought, or I'm glad I know

that the Bible says that it's OK.

So how do we engage? How do we engage?

Like I said before, if you were with us last week, we talked

about we kind of turned the corner last week was kind of

this kind of this hinge that that pivoted us from, from

information more to equipping. And if you weren't here with us

last week, I want to kind of just bring us all up to speed on

4 realities, 4 realities of this spiritual war, 4 realities of

this fight. Here's the first one for taking

notes with us is surface battles are only symptoms of a spiritual

war. Surface battles are only a

symptom of a spiritual war. Those 3 instances and

exhibitions of evil that I just spoke about a couple minutes

ago, those are pure evil, but the roots are directly

spiritual. You see the instances that we

just referred to and that we talked about and we there,

there's many, many, many, many more more for us, but we've got

to understand that, that all instances and exhibitions of

evil have spiritual roots to them.

This is why, and I wrote this at the top of your note sheet, This

is why the apostle Paul writes it like this in Ephesians 612.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. You see, our true enemy, the

origins of evil, our true enemy is spiritual in nature.

Our true enemy is spiritual in nature.

Let me kind of get us to think about our spiritual enemy maybe,

maybe in a different way. Think about our spiritual enemy

almost like, like the flu, right?

If you've ever had the flu, you know that the flu comes with a

lot of nasty symptoms, right? There's body aches, there's

headaches, there's there's fever, there's nausea.

There's just the, the, the will to die when you have flu, the

flu. And, and here's what we would

say. You would be foolish to ignore

those symptoms. So if you're, if your fever gets

high and the body aches are really bad and the nausea's

really bad and, and you're, you're, you're just like desire

to go on and live another day gets really bad.

What do we do? We put on the pajama pants and

then we stumble down like the medicine aisle at Kroger.

And then we either get some, we get some, some, some, some

Tylenol or some Excedrin or Pepto Bismol or or or or Nyquil.

And whether or not Nyquil knocks out the symptoms or not, we just

won't. We don't want to be awake for

the symptoms. So we take Nyquil, right?

But when we take that medicine, when we take the Tylenol, the

Excedrin, the, the Pepto Bismol, the Nyquil, we, we're not taking

that medicine thinking that we're actually curing the flu,

right? We're taking the medicine to, to

treat the symptoms. You see, we know that in order

to knock out the flu, we don't just need to drag ourselves to

the medicine aisle of CVS. We need to drag ourselves to the

doctor, and we need to let him or her prescribe some medication

that's actually going to knock out the flu.

Why? Because the flu is the core

source of all the symptoms. Same thing in spiritual warfare.

We would be foolish and idiotic to ignore the symptoms of

cruelty and abuse and injustice and greed and racism and and and

and and all these just nasty exhibitions and examples of

evil. We'd be foolish and idiotic to

ignore them, to stick our head in the sand and ignore them.

The Bible never calls us to stick our head in the sand and

ignore those symptoms. But the Bible's just reminding

us in Ephesians 612. Listen, the things that we think

that we're really warring against, that we're really

against, they really are symptoms of an overall spiritual

war. They're really symptoms of an

overall spiritual war. So we can really address the

symptoms, but we also need to get to the root cause of the

spiritual war. Second reality about this fight

is this. There is a God who's for me, and

there is an enemy who seeks to destroy me.

Maybe you're here with us this morning and you need to be

reminded of the fact that there is a God and He is for you.

He is for you, there is a God who created you, who made you,

who made you uniquely you, and He is for you.

He desires good for you and I don't know your back story in

here, whether in the room or online, but you may do to life

circumstances, you may start to doubt that there really is a

God. Let me assure you, He does exist

and due to maybe some past decisions or some choices that

you've made, maybe you're in a position to where you're

doubting that this God could ever love you.

Let me assure you, He most definitely does.

He most definitely does. You see, God has done everything

to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him.

He, He's given us His word, the Bible.

He's given us His Son, Jesus. If you were with us several

weeks ago, we talked about how we have all been protected,

supernaturally protected by His angels in ways that we will

never know. God has also sent people into

each and every one of our lives to draw us to Him, to point us

to Him. I know that there's stories all

across this room to where you can go back to a conversation to

where there was a man or a woman that sat down with you and

you're going through a difficult time, a tough time.

And they were there with you and they, they, they would laugh

with you and they would cry with you and they would pray with

you. But ultimately what they did in

the way that God used them in your life is they pointed you to

him and you are where you are right now in no small, small

part to God using that person. You see, I, I happen to believe

that there's not a single one of us who is here in this place, in

this space, in this moment by accident.

Why? Because God loves us.

He is for you. But as much as God loves you,

there is an enemy, Satan, his demons, and all the forces of

hell that absolutely hate, hate you.

You see, God hates or Satan hates you so much because God

loves you so much. And Satan is not Satan and his

demons and all the forces of hell.

They're not just trying to like, make you squirm a little bit.

Satan, his demons, and all the forces of hell.

Their main goal is to rip your life to shreds.

Their main goal is to attack you, to attack your family, to

attack your kids, to attack your friends.

Their main goal is to is is by temptations and unholy and

unhealthy thoughts to derail you from the plans that God has for

you. Make no mistake about it, Satan,

demons and the forces of hell. They do not want to sit cross

legged and play Patty cake with you.

They want to rip your life to shreds and they want to leave

you being just. Another sad statistic brings us

to reality #3 in this spiritual fight, the choices that I make

in the spiritual war have generational ramifications, have

generational ramifications. You and I, we all have decisions

and choices that we make every single moment of every single

day, and those choices and decisions have generational

ramifications. If you're a mom, if you're a

dad, if you're a grandparent, if you're, if you're a leader, if

you have any type of influence over somebody else's life,

listen to me very closely. If you feel that you don't apply

to any of those categories, mom, dad, grandparent, leader,

influencer over anybody's life, you also need to listen to me

very carefully because you need to be prepared for what God has

prepared for you later on. The choices that you and I make

as parents, grandparents, leaders, influencers have have

an effect that is far reaching than just on ourselves.

Wouldn't it be nice? And I think that this is a lie

that hell itself whispers to us. Hey, if you fall, it's just

going to only going to affect you.

What a lie. If you make a bad decision or a

bad choice, it is. Hey, it's your, it's your life.

It's only going to affect you. What a sham.

Let me let me read you some statistics that I came across.

61% of American adults who regularly attend church.

So 61% of us in this room with us online and probably even

higher because we do live in the Bible Belt. 61% of American

adults who regularly attend church attended church when they

were younger. In other words, it was a mom, it

was a dad, it was a grandparent, it was a family friend, it was a

neighbor that brought us to church.

If you're if you're new to like Southern Baptist cliches, I'll

throw one out for you just so that you can participate in the

Southern Southern Baptist Cliche game.

You ever heard the, hey, I have a drug problem.

I was drugged to church every week.

Stupid anyway, but statistically true.

Still still. So 61% of American adults who

regularly attended church attend church, attended church when

they were younger whilst check this out while 78% of those who

do who were not churchgoers as children are still absent from

churches today. So people that are not involved

in a local church, who do not know, you know, this hope that

we have found in Jesus, this the sense of community that we found

as a body of Christ. 78% of the people that do not go to church,

they, they, they, they, they didn't go to church as as

children. They weren't quote UN quote,

made to go to church. A parent, a grandparent, an

authority figure in their life and influence in their life did

not bother to take them to church.

Here's the point. Mom, dad, grandparent, leader,

bringing your family to church. It matters.

And I'm not just talking about like it matters on Sunday.

I'm talking about it matters generationally.

About half of all American children will experience their

parents divorce before turning 18.

It's no wonder that children of divorced parents are about 50%

more likely to go on to experience divorce in their own

marriage. Children who grow up with the

knowledge of a parent's infidelity are twice as likely

to cheat on their spouse. And this doesn't even address

the deep seated trust issues, insecurity, anxiety and

confusion these children will be carrying with them throughout

their adult years. Children of Alcoholics are four

times more likely to become Alcoholics themselves.

Listen, what you and I do with the decisions of choices and

temptations that present themselves to us, they matter.

It all matters. Chairs, let me kind of break it

down to you like this. I am 100% convinced that Satan,

his demons, in all of hell would be perfectly content with every

single one of us in this room, every single one of us online.

I would even say every single person in every single church

this morning across this country, across the world.

Satan, his demons, and all the forces of hell would be 100%

content with us giving our lives to Jesus, yet living

hypocritically, dying, and going to spend eternity with God in

heaven. And yet, based off of the way

that you and I live, our our our children reject God and forever

change the spiritual trajectory of our family's generational

lines. On down the tracks, you see

Satan, his demons, and all of hell.

They're not just about today. They're playing the long game.

If you really want to know why so many temptations and so many

cultural shifts are taking place in our younger generations, that

is exactly why. It's because they're playing the

long game. The long game for what?

4th reality of this fight is. The fight is for my soul.

The fight is for my soul. It's playing the long game for

our soul. Here's the fact of the matter.

Every single one of us, we were created with a temporary body

that will age and will one day die.

If you're in your 20s, I promise it's true, even though you don't

think that it'll ever happen to you.

Several years ago I remember telling Julie I was like, hey,

it just hit me. There's another generation of

adults younger than us and she goes, there's actually 2.

And I was like, thanks for that. We, we, we're all created with a

temporary body that will age, it will breakdown, it will one day

die. However, in that temporary body,

we're also created with an eternal soul, and that soul is

that part of us, that innermost core part of us that makes us

us. The soul is that part of us that

is Genesis 1 describes for us that God created in his very own

image. That is, that is the part that

will live forever. And even though our bodies will

will age and, and, and one day die, our soul will live forever

and our soul will live in one of two places, either in heaven

with God or apart from God in a very real place called hell.

It is a battle for our soul. It's not just a battle for your

Tuesday, it's a battle for your eternity.

And I would argue the states could not be any higher.

So with the realities of this spiritual war, there's some of

us that we may be sitting here thinking, good grief, I know me

better than anybody knows me. And I have a front row seat to

just know how inadequate I really am.

Do I have any hope in this when it comes to like the

generational ramifications? That's really, really heavy,

Ben. That's really heavy when when it

comes to the stakes for being, for my, for my eternal soul.

What hope do I have? I, I think our hope is found in

kind of a strange place. Our hope is found in a choice.

It's a choice that we have to make.

Here's the choice. Do you in this fight, in this

spiritual war, do you want to be a warrior or do you want to be

prey? Do you want to be a warrior or

do you want to be prey? Let me kind of unpack that

question. Here's the first thing that we

need to understand is God did not design any of us for defeat.

God did not design any of us for defeat.

You know, everything that we have just walked through,

through the word of God about like over the course of this

series, from who God and his angels and, and, and, and heaven

to to to Satan and demons and, and, and hell.

It's all, it's all correct. It all comes from his.

It all comes from his word. But if you're like me, you're,

you're sitting there thinking, man, this is so heavy and, and,

and what chance do I have? Well, I think it's first of all,

it starts off with understanding.

God did not set you up. God did not create you for

defeat. I want to get you to do an

exercise with me. If you look at the top of your

note sheet, there's a passage from Ephesians 6.

There's a passage from Ephesians 6 that we're going to be walking

through this morning and then also next Sunday morning.

But I want to concentrate on those first 2 verses that are

there. Ephesians 612 and Ephesians 613.

Look with me at Ephesians 612 again.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole

armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil

day, and having done all, to stand firm.

You see that at the top of your note sheet.

Here's what I want to ask that you do.

I want to ask that you take out like a highlight or a pen or a

pencil or or lipstick or whatever.

And I want you to. I want you to circle that word.

Therefore, I want you to circle that word.

Therefore, our real enemy is not flesh and blood.

Our real enemy are the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic

powers over this present darkness, spiritual forces of

evil in the heavenly places. That's our real enemy.

Therefore means God did not just leave us hanging.

Therefore means God is not just sitting from heaven, sitting

back in heaven going, hey, best of luck to you.

Therefore, means there is a choice that he has given us.

And the choice is, do you want to be a warrior or do you want

to be prey? To break it down even further,

let me ask you a question. What is your plan against

rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over this present

darkness, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places?

What's your plan to combat them? You see, this is a spiritual

war, and the spiritual war requires spiritual weapons.

This is not a flesh and blood war, this is a spiritual war.

But we have to understand it begins with a choice that every

single one of us has to make. Do you want to be a warrior or

do you want to be prey? If you want to be a warrior in

this spiritual war, then we need to go a little bit further and

dive into this choice just a little bit more.

Again, taking notes with us. Here's the second realization

about this decision to be a warrior.

My strength is in God's armor, not self-made armor.

My strength is in God's armor, not self-made armor.

Pull in Ephesians 6. He's going to, we're going to

dive into this next week. He's going to outline for us in

Ephesians 6, starting in verse 13 and then following.

He's going to outline to US six components of spiritual of

spiritual defense, 6 components of the full armor of God.

Since components of the full armor of God.

Again, this is a spiritual war that requires spiritual weapons.

Where do we get spiritual weapons from our heavenly Father

God? This has nothing to do with our

best intentions. This has nothing to do with our

best good deeds. This is a spiritual war.

You see, one of the things that we need to understand is that

this is not an issue of of of discipline.

This is not an issue of willpower.

This is an issue like young David when he was a teenager,

getting ready to take on Goliath.

And he goes into the King's chambers, the King's tent, Saul.

And Saul says, hey, David, you take on my armor so that you can

go fight this giant. And David shirts off that armor

and basically tells Saul, Saul, this armor is not going to be

adequate for this battle. I'm facing what you and I count

on, whether it's discipline or willpower or operating in our

areas of strength or good intentions or good deeds are

going to be woefully inadequate. You see, to understand how we

are to engage in the spiritual battle, we have to echo the

words and the sentiment of young David right before taking on

Goliath. This battle is the Lord's.

This battle is the Lord's. And when we start to understand

that the battle is the Lord's, what you and I are facing,

whether they are unholy and unhealthy thoughts, whether they

are temptations, whether, whether it is being paralyzed, a

pursuit of our minds and our thoughts and our hearts trying

to paralyze us by fear. All the tactics that Satan and

his demons in the force of hell try to pull out against us, the

battle is the Lord's. And when we start to understand

that the battle is the Lord's, then we'll start to understand

this third component of being a warrior.

Taking up the armor of God is a daily choice, not a one time

decision. Taking up the full armor of God

is a daily choice, not a one time decision.

How many times have we heard people give their testimony or

their story about how they came to Jesus?

And it starts with something like this.

Well, back when I was in student ministry or back when I was in

my 20s or back when I was a younger man or a younger woman.

And you sit there and go, OK, like #1 praise God that you made

a one time decision. But you know, no offense, you're

in your 60s now. What's God done in your life

over the last decade? One of the things that Paul, the

more you start reading in the New Testament, one of the things

that Paul presents is he presents this like metaphor of

taking off the old self and putting on the new self.

And, and, and he presents this in, in the book of Romans and

then in Ephesians 4 and on into Colossians 3.

This almost this dichotomy of take off the old self and put on

the new self. The the fact of the matter is,

is just because you have given your life to Jesus and you have

asked Jesus to forgive you of your sins and to take control of

your life, that doesn't mean that you don't still struggle

with temptations and struggle with what you maybe formerly

struggled with. Let's do kind of a quick

informal poll. Raise your hand in here.

Raise your hand and you can do it with its own line if you want

to. Raise your hand.

If after you've given your life to Jesus, you are never tempted

to sin ever again and all your struggles just went away.

If you raise your hand, I hate to break it to you, you struggle

with lying. The same thing.

It's, it's a daily decision. It's daily choices, right?

The same thing, the same thing is true when it comes to

acknowledging putting on the armor of God, this full armor of

God, it is a daily choice, not a one time decision.

And here's how that daily choice is made.

It's getting up in the morning and letting go intentionally

spending some time with God in prayer, letting go of any

illusion of an attitude of hey, I've got this, I've got this.

Let me tell you a quick story. Wasn't wasn't going to share

this with y'all. Last couple weeks I joined a

gym, which is probably bad publicity for that gym.

I'm not going to tell you who it is.

It's not working yet. However, that first day, you

know, if you've ever joined a gym, obviously I'm new to it.

That first day there, there was a personal trainer and he wants

to he wants to get a baseline. And I was like, I can tell you

the baseline, it ain't good. So, you know, we're he, he's

running me through some workout and we, we get to like, you

know, towards the end of the sets and he, he's the guy and

he's, he's like, stand over me. He's like, you got this, you got

this. And I was like, no, I don't you

can yell at me. I've got this all the time, but

my arms disagree with you, man. You know, here's the thing.

How foolish is it for us to get up in the morning and go, hey,

this day ahead, I got this. It's much better.

It's much more godly. You really want to be a warrior

in this spiritual fight. It's letting go of any illusion

that you got this and it's going to God with an attitude of hey,

God, you've got this, this day ahead of me.

It is too big for me. This thing that we call

marriage, that we call parenthood, that we call work

and, and, and social dynamics and cultural issues.

I don't. I don't have this.

God, you got this. And that needs to happen every

single day. Every single day.

Here's the 4th reality behind being a warrior is being a

warrior is about refusing to retreat.

Being a warrior is about refusing to retreat.

He didn't think that that's what was going to go in the blank,

did you? Let me show you what Paul says.

He says, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may

be with be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all

to stand firm. Go back at the top of your notes

sheet. I want to get you to underline a

couple words. I want you to underline the word

withstand, and I want you to underline the words stand firm.

The apostle Paul uses the same Greek word there.

I put it in your notes. Here's the Greek word and

tenesta is to oppose, to resist, to stand firm one's ground, to

stand firm one's ground. Did you know that there's

there's a lot of Greek words that Paul could have used that

would signify to attack, to advance, to take ground, but he

didn't use any of those words. The Holy Spirit of God did not

inspire Paul to use any of those words.

Instead, he inspired Paul to use this word that means to stand

firm one's ground. What does that mean?

Check this out. My goal, your goal in being a

warrior is all about holding the ground that Jesus has already

won for us. You see, a lot of times when

when we think that being a warrior is about attacking the

gates of hell or advancing against the gates of hell or

taking ground against the gates of hell, we start to slip into

our own strength. And when we start to slip into

our own strength and we start to ignore and we start to forget

the ground that Jesus has already given us, it's a refusal

to retreat. Let me kind of put some feet on

that force this morning. This means that when the enemy

whispers, you're not really forgiven.

You had that whisper this week, maybe this morning you're not

really forgiven. A warrior responds with I've

been made new in Christ. You see, you're not fighting for

acceptance. You're standing in the

acceptance that Jesus has already secured for you when

temptation comes and you're fighting that same struggle, and

you've given in before and before and before and Tom and

Tom again. When temptation comes, a warrior

doesn't fight to earn victory. A warrior resists because Jesus

has already conquered sin. He's already conquered sin.

If you're struggling with a habit and with an addiction and,

and just this like this pattern of returning to the same sin,

let me go ahead and tell you, it's not about your willpower.

It is about understanding that through the cross of Jesus, he's

already defeated sin. So you're not resisting that

temptation in your own willpower.

You're claiming the cross of Jesus against that temptation.

You're enforcing that freedom that Jesus has already given

you. When anxiety rises, anybody with

us this morning, that's facing stress and and anxiety and

worry. When anxiety rises, instead of

surrendering to fear, a warrior stands in the peace that Jesus

has already given them and reminds their heart and their

mind and their soul that I am standing in the peace of God.

Not a peace that is defined by my outward circumstances.

Not a peace that is defined by my feelings.

I'm standing in His peace. When trials come, and I know

many of us this morning, over this past week, we've

encountered a lot of different trials.

A warrior refuses to despair. Why?

Because you hold the ground of resurrection hope.

And what is resurrection hope? That no suffering is ever wasted

and no darkness will ever prevail.

When past failures resurface, Any of you have a bad memory

when it comes to the good things, but a really good memory

when it comes to the bad things. When past failures resurface, a

warrior doesn't bow to guilt. You stand in the finished work

of the cross, and you remind your soul that Jesus has already

bore that shame. And when culture, fear in the

enemy distorts truth, a warrior doesn't retreat.

You hold firm to the truth of Scripture and hold firm to the

truth of sound doctrine and the Word of God.

You see, a true warrior is about holding the ground.

Jesus has already won for us. As we kind of take a turn to the

personal, I want to walk through some questions for us this

morning. Here's the first one.

What is your source of strength in the battles that you're

facing right now? The fact of the matter is, no

matter how smiley or happy or what good facade we may put on,

every single one of us is fighting some type of battle.

Some of us, the people around us, the people closest to us,

they know what that battle is. Others of us, we're just not

quite ready to give voice to that battle.

But every single one of us, we're fighting some battle of

some sort. Here's my question to you.

What is that source of strength for you?

What's your source of strength in, in, in your battle?

And who your source is will determine whether you're a

warrior in the battle or you're just prey in the middle of the

battle. Here's the second question I

want to ask you. What battles in your life do you

need to turn over to Jesus? What battles in your life do you

need to turn over to Jesus? Almost echoing the words and the

heart of a young, young kid by the name of David, long before

he ever became king, to where he said the battle is the Lord's.

What battle in your life right now?

Maybe your heart, maybe your mind, maybe in your family.

What battle do you need to turn over to Jesus and go, Jesus,

this is your battle. I need to turn control over to

you. And then third question, before

we kind of enter into a time of prayer and response, it's a

question we don't often ask, but we should really ask a lot more

often. Here's the question.

How healthy is your soul? How healthy is your soul?

Listen, if you if you haven't surrendered your life to Jesus,

then we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to talk

to a pastor about what it means to surrender your life to Jesus.

But many of us in here, we have surrendered our lives to Jesus.

But if we were really to get honest with ourselves about

ourselves, we find the condition of our soul to be kind of

unhealthy. We're weighted down, we're

cluttered, we're distracted. We're riddled by guilt, shame,

fear. Know that God desires better for

you. God desires to build within you

a pure and a clean heart, a contrite heart, a healthy soul.

Here's where that starts. Is acknowledging that you have

an unhealthy soul, the condition of your soul is unhealthy right

now. And So what do we do if we have

an unhealthy soul? We come and we bring our clutter

and we bring our junk to Jesus and we say, Jesus, cleanse me,

cleanse me, purify me, make me whole in just a moment.

We're going to pray and we're going to give the opportunity to

respond this morning. Maybe you need to come down,

talk with a pastor. Maybe you need to come down and

just spend some time praying. Maybe there's some battles going

on in your life to where you need to grab the hand of

somebody that you came with or somebody beside you and say,

hey, would you come down and pray with me?

I need to lead turn this battle over to to Jesus.

Maybe you just need to come down and say just Jesus, would you

cleanse and purify my soul this morning?

Whatever God's calling you to do as a response to His word, to

this message, we pray that no sense of pride or hesitancy

would enter into your mind as you would boldly and obediently

come and pray. God, we love you.

We thank you for being with us and for guiding us.

God, we acknowledge that not only do you love us, but God,

you are for us. God, there's not a single person

in here this morning that you do not desire to be their source of

hope, our source of hope in our battles.

God, there's not a single one of us in here this morning that the

battles that we are facing are too big for you.

God, there's not a single one of us that if we, if we turn those

battles over to you or try to hand you those battles that you

would reject that. God, you're actually inviting us

to give you the things that we cannot handle.

God, I pray that you would also help us to do a self diagnostic

this morning and really ask ourselves, what is the condition

of my soul? God, I pray that you would have

your way in and through us this morning and God that we will be

obedient to your calling. And it's in Jesus name that we

pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.

Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect.

You can head over to our website, Riverbend Church dot

Life.