The Art of War . Knowing The Enemy

Wonderful.

All right.

So, if you have been around Red Door, or in recent times, you would know we

have just recently finished our series called Starting Five, which was from

Ephesians 4.

And, we were looking

at the fivefold ministry.

And I would highly encourage you if you Missed parts of that series, or

you missed it altogether, to tune in and listen to the podcast.

It is a bit, a lot of conversation amongst you all.

Thank you for the results.

Adam's been having an absolute ball of a time constructing a

spreadsheet and

seeing where you all fit within the scope of the Apostle,

Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd,

Teacher.

So yeah, and

so, Adam's just been pondering

about, you perhaps how

we can keep stoking the fire in this area, developing an understanding

around these, different functions that Jesus has given the church and,

and how they can operate in both within, the walls of our church family,

but also beyond these walls as well.

So today though brings us to our next series, which is on spiritual warfare.

Super fun.

Who's excited?

Oh yeahm,

Adam was really excited about this font,

apparently.

So, Yeah, I got

a zoomed in version of this font, as he was explaining to me very

passionately about how wonderful it is.

It does not come across, however, on this, does it?

No.

If you zoom in, there's quite the detail apparently, and that's quite wonderful.

Those of you who are into fonts would be, you can talk to him about that later.

Alright, so over the next month or so, we are going to be looking at

this topic of spiritual warfare.

And let's begin by reading.

Which is probably one of the key passages on this subject.

Also from the Book of Ephesians, happily enough.

So there's a bit of, continuing theme here,

coming out of, the Starting

Five series.

But this is probably one of the key passages on this subject.

So let's begin by reading this, and then I'll explain the why behind

this series a little bit more.

So, finally, Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand

against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against

the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual

forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil

comes, you may be able to, may be able to stand your ground, and after

you have done everything, to stand.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the

breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness

that comes from the gospel of peace.

In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with

which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Amen.

Take up the helmet, salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is

the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all

kinds of prayers and requests.

With this in mind, be alert, and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people.

Amen.

So, what is the why behind

this series?

We'll continue

the basketball analogy,

which we, dived into

so well in the series just gone.

It's not enough to know your position on the court.

to play, to know your team members skills and abilities

and strengths and weaknesses.

If we're going to play the game of basketball well, we also need

to have an understanding about the opposing team, don't we?

Right?

So if we are going to engage in this life well, we need to understand the

opposing team that is coming against us, that we do in fact have a very

real enemy, who has very real power and skills and abilities and strategies

that is aimed at coming against us.

And that is what we are going to be exploring through this series.

Today is about laying a groundwork foundation and, from here we're going to

go into, you know,

what are our weapons in this war in which we find ourselves, both

offensive and defensive weapons.

And then we're also going to hit, it's going to be a fun one, the

wonderful topic of deliverance.

Oh, A6, how are you?

Just like, oh, okay, I might be busy for the next four weeks.

In Hosea 4.

6, God says, My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

And one of the reasons that we can find life to be so very

hard, is we have forgotten there is actually an opposing team.

That is coming against us.

We don't have an awareness and an understanding of the

reality of spiritual warfare.

We don't know or we've forgotten that we are actually in a war zone.

We've forgotten that there is a very real enemy with real ability

and intent to steal, to kill and destroy, as it says in John 10.

10.

And we don't know how to stand and how to fight this enemy that prowls around like

a roaring lion, seeking who he can devour.

That's from 1 Peter, chapter 5.

1 Peter 5 · chapter mention

There's a quote.

From the book, The Art of War, anybody heard of this book, The Art of War?

Anyone actually read it?

Of course you have.

I would see you going, yeah, I reckon I know who's read it in here.

I was right, it's Sam Ridger.

So the quote goes like this.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the

result of a hundred battles.

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained,

you will also suffer a defeat.

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will

succumb in every battle.

So today really is about knowing the enemy.

So that's where we're going to start in this series.

And Knowing our true enemy, but also knowing ourselves as well, as

this quote so beautifully explains, to know our identity and the power

and the weapons that we have in Christ so that we are able to take

our stand against the enemy schemes.

When we forget that we're in a war zone, We can, get really

derailed by how hard this life is.

We can end up somehow shocked that life is so difficult and hard because

we forget that there is an enemy that is actively at work against us.

We are in wartime.

Sometimes we live like we're in peacetime and then we're so shocked and surprised.

But we shouldn't be shocked and surprised when life is hard because

life is hard in a war zone, isn't it?

All right, so today is about laying the groundwork for the coming weeks ahead.

So let's just begin by establishing a little bit of context from

the book of Ephesians, seeing as this is a key passage for today.

And having spent the last six weeks or so in Ephesians 4, hopefully most

of you, many of you, are somewhat familiar with the overall context of

Paul's letter here, but let's just begin by looking at Paul's letter.

From chapter one, what Paul so beautifully writes here, when he

says, Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has

blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be

holy and blameless in his sight.

In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in

accordance with his pleasure and will.

To the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely

given us in the one he loves.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,

in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us.

With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us.

The mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed

in Christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment

to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

Now, there is so, so much just in this passage alone, but two key things to note.

In light of today's theme, we have been chosen.

To be holy and blameless.

So we have been chosen to be wholly dedicated to God.

We have been chosen to be free from accusation, free from guilt and shame.

We have been chosen to be in right relationship with

God and with one another.

And a second point to know is that God's will In all that he is doing in the world

and all that he has done through Jesus is to bring unity to all things Which

means that things right now are not as they should be in this fractured broken

world in which we live But God is at work to bring and restore unity to reconcile

all things all creation to himself And then ephesians 2 8 to 9 Says for it is

by grace that we've been saved through faith and this isn't from ourselves.

It's God's will The gift of God and it's not by work so that none of us

can boast For we are God's handiwork and we've been created in Christ Jesus

to what to do good works Which God has prepared in advance for us to do.

So we've been saved for good works Not by good works.

We've been saved for good works Which when we engage in we then participate in God's

plan to bring unity to all things And so in Ephesians 1, Paul reminds us we've been

chosen by God, adopted into his family, equipped with every spiritual blessing.

Yet in chapter 6, he makes it clear that adoption into God's family means that

we are going to be targets in a cosmic battle between light and darkness.

But we've been rescued from the dominion of darkness, but the enemy

still seeks to steal, to kill, and destroy, to thwart the works of God.

And I know this can seem like a lot and sometimes, you know, as I'm

writing this I'm going, sometimes it feels like I'm writing some kind

of science fiction movie, right?

And he's talking about angels and demons and demonic and

evil forces that are at work.

And it can all just seem just a little a little bit much, can't it?

But let me ask you this, can you give a better explanation for the

state of this world around us?

Because I, I certainly can't find a better explanation than the one that the

Bible gives about why the world is the way it is, why there is so much suffering

and pain and groaning in this world.

This place that we now live in, and you may have heard this phrase,

we live in this reality of the already but the not yet zone.

This is the zone we live in, the already but the not yet.

The fancy word for this, the fancy theological word for this,

is inaugurated eschatology.

Use that.

in a conversation today.

But basically what it means when Jesus came, he inaugurated the kingdom

of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Eschatology is the things of the end times, right?

So this began with Jesus, but he didn't bring the fulfillment of it yet.

He started, but the fulfillment is yet to come.

So we are in this in between space where the battle still rages.

And why does the battle still rage?

Why doesn't God just unleash all of his heavenly forces and bring

that final defeat that Revelations talks about to the enemy.

2nd says this, the Lord is not slow in keeping his promises

as some understand slowness.

Instead, he has been Not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.

This is why we wait in this place of the in between.

And this is why we wage war in the place of the in between.

We don't just hunker down, we don't just sit in a bunker, but we actively

participate in this warfare with weapons that we have purchased.

been given, which we are going to go into more about actually,

Luke, not that Luke knows this yet.

We'll be preaching on this next Sunday.

You get to do the armor of God, Luke.

Hey, I hope you

say yes.

So today though is about understanding the supposing enemy

of God and therefore our enemy.

So what's the first step in any battle?

Well, first it's recognizing that you're in one and then it is knowing your enemy.

So the key passage today, let's just reread a couple of verses from

Ephesians 6 again, verses 10 to 12.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so they can take your stand

against the devil's schemes.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

Some of you need to hear that today, right?

You who are harboring hurt, bitterness, resentment towards another person

and you think they're your problem.

The battle is not against flesh and blood.

It is against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this

dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

So the implication of this passage, and I've said it already, I'll say

it again, we are in a war zone.

So in this passage Paul reveals that advancing God's kingdom purposes through

obedience to his will and ways will be more difficult than we realize.

We won't just have our own corrupted natures and desires to reckon with.

There are more than just human obstacles to be overcome in this fight.

There are powerful spiritual beings that strategize and carry out plans

to derail the best intention of God's people to live lives worthy of the

callings that they have received.

And Clinton Arnold, in his, commentary on Ephesians, writes this, Living a life

pleasing to the Lord and engaging in the mission of the Church is not easy

because there are powerful supernatural beings that strategize and attack.

Because of this, God makes available his power and divine resources to

believers, so they can resist the assaults of these hostile spirits and

advance God's kingdom into the world.

Believers are called to appropriate these gifts, cultivate their corresponding

virtues, and above all, pray in the Spirit as an expression of their dependence on

the Lord to receive God's enabling power.

So, understanding this war zone.

Help us frame this a little bit

more, and to get a

biblical understanding by what we mean by this idea of this war

zone in which we find ourselves.

Let's just have a look at Colossians 1 verses 9 to 14.

Colossians 1:9–14

There is quite a bit of scripture today, so you Bible nerds are going to love this.

So, for this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have

not stopped praying for you.

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the

wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy

of the Lord and please him in every way.

Bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might, so

that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks

to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of His

holy people in the kingdom of light.

For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the

kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

So there are two ultimate kingdoms is what this scripture tells us.

There's the kingdom of light, which is ruled by Jesus, and there's the

kingdom of darkness, where Satan rules.

And so the heart of spiritual warfare is bringing rescue to those who are

in or under the influence of the kingdom of darkness, and rescuing

them into God's kingdom of light.

And what does this rescue look like?

Colossians 2, 13 to 15.

It says you were dead because of your sins, because of your sinful

nature, was not yet cut away, then God made you alive with Christ.

For he forgave all our sins, he cancelled the record of the

charge, selling it to the cross.

In this way he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities, he shamed

them publicly by his victory over the cross, victory over them on the cross.

So this is what is now Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour that we're

rescued from darkness into light that God has now made us alive.

And you've got to remember, according to the Bible, real death

isn't when our heart stops beating.

Real death is separation from God.

Therefore, real life is being in eternal covenant relationship with God.

So God has now made us alive, he's brought us, restored us back

into relationship with himself.

We are now forgiven of everything.

We are now blameless, free from accusation.

What an interesting position to occupy, isn't it, when so much of this

world tells us we are anything but.

Those things.

And we'll get on to that a bit more in a moment.

All charges now against us have been cancelled.

They have all been borne by Jesus.

So what this means though, is that you're either in one kingdom or the other.

You're either a citizen of the kingdom of light, Or you're a

captive to the kingdom of darkness.

There is no neutral territory.

There is no demilitarized zone in this spiritual battle.

You belong to one or the other.

Interestingly to note though, you can be a citizen of the

kingdom of light and still behave.

More like a citizen of the kingdom of darkness, yeah?

We see that happen quite a bit, and this is a part of spiritual warfare as well.

So we have this cosmic warfare between these two kingdoms, but

where is the battleground exactly?

Where are the arenas where the spiritual warfare is fought?

So one way of understanding this is one arena is our mind.

So this is the realm of our thoughts and belief, and to defeat the devil we've got

to be renewed in the spirit of our minds.

So we know, as I think, you know, the classic Joyce Meyer book,

The Battlefield of the Mind.

It's one of the key battlefields in this war.

Then there's the church.

You know, other Jesus believing churches in our cities are not the enemy.

If Jesus is eternally praying for our oneness, which he says he is in John

17, then we must recognize that Satan is continually fighting against it.

But there is a battle in the broader church, because we are constantly fighting

against one another, instead of fighting with one another against our common enemy.

It's one of his strategies.

And then there is the heavenly places.

You know, so it says in, Ephesians 6, we just read, and this is the spirit

realm, it is here that angels and demons wage their war over our cities.

Carolyn.

You know, she prayed for that at the

beginning, of the service.

This, what we are seeing happening in the Middle East is an ancient spiritual battle

that has been going on for centuries.

But it affects us.

And how that all works together, well, there are books this

thick that are written on

that.

And,

And I'm actually going to, I'll post on Church Centre for those of

you who want to really dive deeper into this, because there's only

so much ground we can cover on

a Sunday.

I'm actually

going to post some resources, some books that I can recommend on

this topic.

Some websites

that are really helpful on this topic as well for those of you who

want to do a deeper dive into this.

So just as a little bit of

an aside,

I just wanted to touch on why it might be

sometimes, we find ourselves

being resistant.

to engage in this topic of spiritual warfare.

I think sometimes we might just be resistant because it all just sounds

a little bit weird, doesn't it?

C.

S.

Lewis has this great quote, which I think anybody who's

ever talked on spiritual warfare

tends to, speak about

this quote.

But there's a lot of wisdom in it.

And he writes, There are two equal and opposite errors into which our

race can fall about the devils.

One is to disbelieve in their existence.

The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.

They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist

or a magician with the same delight.

So what do we mean by materialist here?

What does C.

S.

Lewis mean?

So whether literal or functional, many Christians live like, neither

God or any other spiritual beings have any interaction with their life.

Living life based on the belief that in the material world is all that there is.

And so what the, as actually Christians who genuinely believe that

what the Bible speaks of as Satan and demons is just a metaphor, the

Bible's just speaking metaphorically when it speaks of these things.

And so that is to, to have an adoptive mind.

a, I guess a materialistic, world view of this life that we have.

The material is all that

there is.

Yeah, I'm

not quite sure how you read scripture that way, but anyway, have a chat

to those who believe that way.

Maybe you'll

understand.

Then he uses

this word magician.

What does he mean there?

It's really those who are possessed or oppressed.

Everyone needs deliverance, and deliverance is demonstrated through, you

know, the, the excessive and extreme ways.

And when we see this kind of

obsessive focus, with the

demonic, you know, what they can cause in a lot of people

is just this very resistance.

Well, I don't want to be like that.

So we end up throwing out the true biblical worldview in the bath

water of an unhealthy deliverance

ministry, people just

getting overexcited by it.

And like C.

S.

Lewis so

eloquently put, the enemy

is happy with either one.

And so what is the biblical worldview exactly?

Just to, define it again.

It is that the supernatural realm is a reality as real as our physical one,

And there are spiritual beings that exist in this realm that either do

God's bidding, angels, or are opposed to God, and actively work against them.

So, who is it that we are fighting against?

Who is our enemy?

And how does he act?

So let's begin with Satan.

It's so fun, isn't it?

Alright.

One thing the Bible clearly testifies to is that God, and we who

belong to God, have an adversary.

His name is Satan, but he goes by other names, such as the Devil, Beelzebub,

the Father of Lies, the Serpent, the Dragon, the Evil One, just to name a few.

He exists, he is intelligent and powerful, he has schemes and strategies,

he is a liar, a murderer, a slanderer.

He is powerful, but non omnipotent.

He is intelligent, but not omniscient.

He is active, but not omnipresent.

What does that mean?

Those things, all those O ones, they are what's true of God.

Okay, one of the mistakes we can make is thinking that Satan is somehow

the, the yang to God's ying, right?

He's not.

Okay, he's not on equal terms with God.

He is not equally evil as God is equally good.

Not at all.

So he does not share these characteristics of God.

Still though, he still has power.

So where do we first read about him?

Genesis 3 is where we first see, Satan coming on the scene.

So Genesis 3 verse 2 to 5.

Genesis 3:2–5

Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat

from any tree in the garden?

The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the tree in the garden,

but God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of

the garden and you must not touch it.

Or you will die for, you will not certainly die.

The serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it,

your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

So this conflict that we see happen here, it's important not just because

it's the first encounter between Satan and mankind, but because it is

representative all subsequent encounters.

And this is the essence of spiritual warfare, what we see

here, and we can learn a lot about our enemy from this passage.

So what can we observe and learn?

Firstly, Satan is crafty.

And this word crafty, the Hebrew word, is the word for wise.

He's actually incredibly wise in the ways of evil.

He knows how to manipulate and deceive.

He is not stupid.

2nd says he masquerades as an angel of light.

He is brilliant.

He can be beautiful.

3rd See, we take these stereotypes.

We do the little red guy in the onesie with the tail and the pitchfork, don't we?

And we make this caricature of him.

But he can mask as an angel of light.

He can be beautiful.

His deception is powerful, and he knows our weaknesses, and

he knows how to exploit them.

You know, I sometimes hear people say, oh, the devil's so stupid.

And I say, I suggest if you really believe that, you actually don't

know your enemy that well at all.

Because he is a master of deception.

He is ancient.

Do not underestimate him.

Do not underestimate him.

So also we learn from this passage, he cleverly undermines

God's character and motives.

That's one of his key strategies.

Did God really say?

Did God really say?

This is a deconstruction question.

So he's enticing Eve to deconstruct here her trust in the goodness of God.

He doesn't come straight out and say it.

He doesn't come straight out with a full frontal attack.

He's too clever for that.

But his question has the subtext underneath it, that God can't be trusted.

He doesn't have your best interests at heart.

He's withholding something good from you.

And that you don't actually need him.

This is how he works.

And this is why the picture of a serpent is so profound.

Because It is serpentine in the way he works This weaving this,

not direct, but this subtle, manipulative, weaving, undermining.

Next, he awakens simple desires in us by insinuating we're missing out at its call.

All sin is the act of seeing and taking something that isn't given by God.

Remember, we are not the creator.

We are the created.

There is a God who is sovereign overall who.

Scripture says there's a good father who gives good gifts to his children.

There are things that are for us To receive, and there are things that

are not ours to receive, but the enemy says those things that he has said,

don't take, you need to have them.

You are missing out.

He's holding out on you.

AJ Swoboda, in his book, the Gift of Thorns, which is a brilliant book,

writes this, when you begin believing you're missing out, look down, there

is some kind of snake at your feet.

That was really good.

So when the woman sore.

Genesis three goes on to say, when the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was

good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom,

she took and she ate, saw and took.

That is the pattern of sin.

Over and over in scripture, the enemy causes our gaze to look at something

that is not ours to have, and then.

He incites our God given good desires to take that which is not ours to have.

See and take, see and take.

Think of David and Bathsheba.

David saw and he took.

She was not his to take.

So he doesn't outright say, follow me.

But, that is what he is tempting Eve to do here, to forgo her trust and dependence on

God and to follow the way of evil instead.

Think of Jesus in the wilderness, is what the enemy was doing with Jesus, wasn't it?

Tempting Jesus to follow him instead.

So the agenda of Satan also is to isolate, to isolate us from God and

community, and to make decisions of good and bad for ourselves.

That's what he's enticing Eve to do here.

Is this not the world that we live in today?

You do you.

Be your own person.

Follow your own heart.

Decide for yourself who you are and what's right and what's wrong

and what's good and what's bad.

Be your own person.

You don't need others.

You don't need God.

Life isn't found in submitting your will to God.

Life is found in pursuing your own will.

That is the epitome of anti Christ way of understanding the world.

And we are fooled into believing it.

Over and over and over again the world is and even us in the church are as well

Which is why so much of the world has bled into the church because we have

believed the lie That we need these things to be happy that we need these

things to be content these things that God has says They're not good for you Yeah?

We can fall prey to the enemy's schemes.

So Satan or the devil, he has a plan, he has schemes, he has methods

that we are to take a stand against.

Paul says in Ephesians, Satan's desire is always to take what wasn't

his, to kill God's good creation and destroy the works of God.

John 10.

10, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

And his means are seductive, laying before us the nature of evil and they're

fanning into the flame our desire for it.

And this is what he did with Eve, and his strategy has not changed.

But then he doesn't operate alone, does he?

No, there are demonic forces at work as well.

We're doing okay, people.

Yeah?

Gonna give anyone nightmares?

No?

Hang in there.

This is good stuff.

So Matthew 25, 41 refers to the eternal fire that is prepared

for the devil and his angels.

So demons, they're fallen angels.

Angelic beings who, like Satan, have rebelled against God.

When he fell, Satan took some of the angels with him, one

third of them, scripture says.

In Revelations 12.

4 and Jude 6 also mentions angels who've sinned.

So biblically, demons are fallen angels who, along with Satan,

have chosen to rebel against God.

And so in Ephesians 6, to use Paul's language there, these are the rulers,

the authorities, and the, and the powers.

that we read about in the scripture at the beginning.

So being wise to his schemes and his methods, scripture reveals that we have

a very real enemy known as Satan and his demons and that they have a very

real agenda to destroy the work of God.

And so we have these warnings in scripture, 1 Peter 5,

8, which we are to heed.

Have I got it there, Don?

1 Peter 5?

No?

Oh, sorry about that.

It says, Be alert and of sober mind.

Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion,

looking for someone to devour.

2 Corinthians 2, 9 11 says this, Another reason I wrote to you, Writes

Paul, was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything.

Anyone you forgive, I also forgive.

And what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I have forgiven in

the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us.

Really pay attention there to how closely Paul has tied forgiveness to spiritual

warfare, and one of our strategies of outwitting the enemy, forgiveness.

Forgiveness.

For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Right, Paul.

So there's three key strategies these dark forces employ to

do this, to work against us.

Deception and lies.

Satan's primary weapon is deceit.

He masquerades as an angel of light, as we've talked about.

He doesn't announce his presence with a roar.

He slips in with a whisper, sowing seeds of lies.

You know, sometimes that's all it takes.

You know, you do want, I don't know if you've ever had that question,

you go, well, there's only a certain amount of angelic beings, be they on

God's side or Satan's side, right?

But there's so many more humans now.

So how can they keep working so effectively when there's

now billions more of us?

Well, welcome to the wonderful world of the internet and social media.

You know, he doesn't need to actively have minions haunting people when he can

be sowing wonderful deceit and lies that just goes globally in the fraction of

a second.

This is what

it is to be wise, to understand how these things can work.

You know, it doesn't mean we all have to become Amish and switch

off from society and go live on.

Although that sounds glorious, does it not?

Off the grid?

Oh yeah, sounds

wonderful.

But we're

wise.

We're wise to how these things can be used in the hands of the enemy.

Isolation, key strategy.

Satan loves to isolate us, getting us to believe that we're alone in our

struggles, that no one understands, and that we don't need God or his people.

Constantly cutting off the one sheep from the herd.

Then we are vulnerable.

We are not made to live in isolation.

We are not safe in that place.

We need one another.

And division, that he loves to divide.

I mean, one of his names is Diablos, which just means divide.

So how he sows discord in families, churches, communities.

Why?

Because a united church is powerful in the hands of God.

Scripture tells us our battle isn't against flesh and blood, but our enemy

is constantly convincing us that it is.

When we divide, he wins.

When we turn on each other, darkness wins.

This is why forgiveness is so powerful and so very necessary in our daily

walk, because we are constantly being tempted to turn on one another.

So being wise to our weapons.

So we're going to go into this more in the coming weeks.

We're going to talk about the armor, um Truth is a massive weapon in our arsenal.

5 says, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they're divine power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up

against the knowledge of God.

And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

So to combat the schemes of the enemy, Followers of Christ must

stay clothed in the armor of God.

We must stay immersed in His Word.

His Word is so powerful because it is truth.

Now we just started a new round of Project 73.

And, it started last Monday.

If you haven't started with it, get on board.

Jump

on, to, Church Centre,

onto our website, you can find the details there, but begetting in the Word of God.

How will you know if you're being deceived if you don't know what the truth is?

How will you be able to stand on the promises of God if you don't

know what the promises of God are?

And His Word is alive and it is active.

It is just truly our most powerful, both offensive and defensive weapon

in this fight, is the Word of God.

Know it, feed on it, fight with

it, and, you know, when we realize we have been caught

in the schemes of the devil,

be quick to repent and to confess.

You know, this is what actually we find Adam doing as we read on in

Genesis 3 when God says where are you?

What's happened?

What have you done?

And then Adam actually begins to confess.

Sadly, he doesn't do a brilliant job of confessing.

He begins well by actually sharing with God what had happened.

But then he, you know, does a stereotypical fallen human

thing of beginning to blame everyone else around him.

It was her.

It was you, God.

You put her here with me.

Everybody's fault but mine.

But repentance and confession, man, they are so powerful in

this war.

I'm going

for time here.

The other day, it was only, was it last weekend?

Yeah, I think it was last weekend.

I was in the car, and I'm driving, and, you know, I'm not the most patient person

in the world, and sometimes, if you talk about demonically manifesting, put Dale in

traffic, and,

who are you

right now?

And, but,

I was, yeah, I was finding myself just so agitated and frustrated, but

probably even more so The normal, particularly as it's a Saturday

morning and there wasn't even that much

traffic.

And, I just, what

is going on?

What is wrong with me right now?

And it just really wasn't pretty.

Thankfully I was in the car by myself.

And then because I had been researching for this series, I kind of went, is

there something spiritual going on here?

Because it just, it felt a little bit more than just my normal bad behaviour on the

road.

And, And so I'm

like, Lord!

Is there something, is there something spiritual going on here?

And it was so funny.

And I don't, I don't, okay.

I'm hesitant to go, you know.

But anyway, I'll share the whole story and you do what you will, right?

But I look down.

And my clock, just at that moment I'm having this conversation with

God, and on the clock it's 10.

10.

And I'd just been in John, so that was my, scripture for the morning, John 10.

10, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and destroy.

All right, all right, I'm going with that, I'm going that this is spiritual warfare.

All right, so I might, right.

Lord show me where has the enemy gotten a foothold here?

Where is he bringing this strife and this just this agitation, right?

Because sometimes it's not, you know, we can we

can make spiritual

warfare this extreme, like so this extreme oppression and possession

and all of this kind of stuff.

But sometimes it's just this robbing of peace.

You're just just like, ew, what is this?

There's anxiety, there's tension, there's

And um Sorry, I don't know what the word for ngang ngang is, but you know what?

It's the ancient Hebrew.

And so I just began to, like, Lord, what is this?

And began to confess what I was feeling, what had been going on.

And, and then it's like, all right, Lord, what are my promises on which to stand?

Like, no, you are my Lord and you have given me peace.

And began to claim these things and the armour of God.

And.

It was just like, sitting at the lights, having this moment, and

then it was lifted, and it was gone.

And this, this, this oppressive, agitating, disrupting thing

left.

And and that's

just a little example.

But because I fall into this trap of forgetting all the time,

that I am in a spiritual battle.

And it was only because I was preparing for this series that it kind of, oh, maybe

there's something else going on here.

So think about your world at the moment.

Where is there strife?

It doesn't have to be all out.

Sometimes it's just these little footholds of strife in your world.

Trouble, peace disrupted.

What might it be for you that you need to take a stand against?

Stop letting him kick your butt.

Basically, take a stand.

You've got truth.

You've got weapons.

You're in Christ.

Lean into the power that God has given you, because he has not

left us defenceless in this fight.

And so as I bring this home I just want to talk about this idea of

worship as spiritual warfare, because tonight we are gathering in Fremantle

at the Naval Store, and we're not gathering for a nice sing along.

It's actually an act of war.

To stand united and to worship the King is an act of warfare.

In Second Chronicles, which has been a passage that we have

been in a bit for our call to

prayer on, the Tuesday nights.

And, we have this passage here.

We have the

people of God and this opposing army coming against them.

And it says, after consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to

sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness.

As they went out at the head of the army saying, give thanks to the

Lord for his love endures forever.

So the people of God are going out into battle and who gets put at the

front, at the army, the worship team.

Because worship is powerful act of spiritual warfare.

And so tonight as we come, there is so much more going on than

us having a nice kumbaya time.

Yeah?

We're waging war.

We're becoming an outpost for God's kingdom in a place of darkness.

You know, it's Fremantle.

It's all going on.

Freemantle, isn't it?

So to be able to come, Can I see that hand?

Oh yeah, sure.

So, Fremantle, you know, we have the port, right?

It's literally a gateway.

And where the naval store is literally at the front door of our, of our city.

And so when we go up to the naval store, it's actually a high place, which

is an interesting spiritual dynamic.

So know that if you want to come, we're going to be a waging war, but

I want to just add this statement.

It's an unfair fight when it comes to the kingdom of light

fighting the kingdom of darkness.

You declare the name of Jesus, and the darkness flees, like

someone just switched the light on.

So, what I'm trying to say here is, in the midst of this conversation today, please

be clear.

There's a

great story

where this, old theologian, pastor guy, was talking

to another person.

And he was kind of being interviewed and he says, Oh, how do you go

wrestling against the devil?

He goes, Oh, to be clear, I don't wrestle against the devil.

It's an unfair fight.

I actually wrestle against God and I hope to lose.

I'm saying that story just to clarify the nature of this battle.

We are fighting a battle and we're on a side that it's unfair.

But the question is you've got to step into that authority

and that position of light.

Does that make sense, Church family?

So tonight we're going to be doing that and recording it as well.

Fantastic.

Well done, thank you for that.

Alright, one other little thought.

Because you might just be in this place at the moment, you're like, man, I've

just had the proverbial kicked out of me.

And this idea of standing, I got nothing.

Yeah.

There's a beautiful, actually no it's not, it's a weird story, it's scripture so,

you know, it's good, but yeah, there's a story in the Old Testament where Saul

is being tormented by an evil spirit.

And he has David come and play the harp to him.

And it says whenever David played the harp, that the evil spirit

would stop tormenting Saul.

If you're in a place where you just feel tormented and harassed and you're

just like, Oh, come tonight as well.

Because while you might feel like I don't have it in me to stand

and fight, you know, I'm barely managing to hold it together.

You come and you just be.

And you allow worship to minister to you that you would find peace in that

place where you are being tormented and allow the Holy Spirit to minister

to you and to bring deliverance to you in that space as well, hey?

Alright worship team, how you come?

Let me just finish.

So in this war, church family, you've heard this phrase

before, knowledge is power.

It truly is.

We must know our enemy, but more importantly, we must know our God

and the weapons He has given us to stand firm in Christ, recognize the

reality of the spiritual war we are in, be aware of the enemy's tactics

and suit up with the armor of God.

Our victory is assured.

Isn't that great?

Amen.

And let us not lose sight of that.

Our victory is assured when we know the one who has already won the war.