Skip to content Waging War: Engage in the Fight Jul 16 · 51 min ...more
Waging War: Engage in the Fight
July 16, 2023 · 51 min
This week we began a new series called Waging War Against Our Enemy. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he placed all of his present and future disciples on mission so that we would be actively advancing Christ's kingdom until he returns. That means that we are not called to be spectators and consumers but courageous warriors who actively engaged in the battle of sharing and living the Gospel in a hostile world. Many are not engaged in the fight because they know that criticism will come if they engage. This week we learned how to stay engaged in the battle without remaining passive. Knowing how to fight is very important so that we can experience the power of God. Our prayer is that this week's message lays the foundation for how to engage in the battle of Christian warfare. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church July 16, 2023 · 51 min · BRAVE Church
This week we began a new series called Waging War Against Our Enemy. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he placed all of his present and future disciples on mission so that we would be actively advancing Christ's kingdom until he returns. That means that we are not called to be spectators and consumers but courageous warriors who actively engaged in the battle of sharing and living the Gospel in a hostile world. Many are not engaged in the fight because they know that criticism will come if they engage. This week we learned how to stay engaged in the battle without remaining passive. Knowing how to fight is very important so that we can experience the power of God. Our prayer is that this week's message lays the foundation for how to engage in the battle of Christian warfare. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less This week we began a new series called Waging War Against Our Enemy. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he placed all of his present and future disciples on mission so that we would be actively advancing Christ's kingdom until he returns. That means that we are not called to be spectators and consumers but courageous warriors who actively engaged in the battle of sharing and living the Gospel in a hostile world. Many are not engaged in the fight because they know that criticism will come if they engage. This week we learned how to stay engaged in the battle without remaining passive. Knowing how to fight is very important so that we can experience the power of God. Our prayer is that this week's message lays the foundation for how to engage in the battle of Christian warfare. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Our father in heaven, we give you all the glory, honor, and praise for who you are. And Lord, we ask that as we open your word this morning that you will speak directly to us. Lord, we thank you for the gift of your son0:11 who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead. We thank you for the gift of your holy spirit who indwell all of us who believe. And father, we thank you that you've given us the honor to glorify your name0:20 here today. Father, thank you for the prayers and praises of your people. And father, we ask now that you would speak through your living and active word because Lord, we believe as a people that every time your word is0:31 faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you speak. So our invitation God is speak. We're ready to hear what you have to say. So now for all those who have gathered, desire to hear the Lord speak directly to you,0:43 who will believe what the Lord tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. The gospel is the0:55 greatest message on the planet that culminated with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Those 3 days have so much impact for us now and for all eternity that there's no greater1:06 news that I could ever tell. When Jesus was here on the in the world and he rose from the dead, he then gathered his disciples and he told them this, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to1:18 me. Therefore, go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you and lo, I will be with1:30
1:42 That Jesus Christ desired that when we repented of our sins and trusted him, and the Holy Spirit became resident in our life, that we would be on mission with Jesus Christ in this world for all that God
1:54 wanted to do. And what that entails is sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. That means proclaiming the gospel to those who are dead in their transgressions and sin, those who are apart from Christ.
2:06 All are born dead apart from Christ. We proclaim the gospel so the holy spirit will work, awaken their heart, cause them to repent and believe that he's the Christ. And he's put us on mission to do that very thing.
2:17 That's part of the gospel. The other part of the gospel is sharing with the saints how they can continue to grow in their faith and edify them so that they can become more spiritually attuned to the things of God and
2:29 fall in love with God more and even grow more in their obedience and holiness. And so when we come to church, we have this promise from God. He even told us that he would build his church and even the gates of
2:41 hell would not prevail against his church. We have the victory in Christ. The church is victorious, and so he's invited us through the church to be on mission for him
2:53 into the world. And yet, why is it that so few people who are born again actually engage in a local church and go all in in the service for their king?
3:04 Why is it that sometimes we play passive and we don't get involved and we don't go after the things of God. And yeah, we may dabble our toe here and there, but as I've told you before,
3:16 there's no sideline on the kingdom. There's no sideline in the kingdom. When when God saved you, he put you on the kingdom field. But if you're not playing the game, if you're not getting in the game, it's scary to be in
3:27 the game if you're not playing. And God wants you to be involved. And God when he saved you, he gifted you, he has a purpose for you through his church to help
3:39 advance the cause of Christ and advance his coming kingdom. And yet there's so many Christians that are passive. And I believe that I know why. Because even people that wanna get fired up
3:50 and even people that wanna get involved understand criticism comes when you fully engage in the mission of Jesus Christ. Second Timothy 3 12 says, anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
4:02 will be persecuted. When you engage in Christian mission, when you engage in the things God calls you to, when you start living the way God wants you to live, you will be criticized.
4:14 You'll be criticized from within the church and you'll be criticized outside the church. I can tell you in 34 years of being a Christian, I've been criticized more inside the church than I ever have been criticized
4:24 outside the church. And that's why many of us step back because we're afraid that if we step forward and people start poking at us, that we're not gonna be able to stand firm in the faith.
4:36 So it's easier to just sit on the sidelines and watch other people do it. And here's what you'll hear people say. Here's here's when you know people wanna be spectators. They'll tell you about the type of church they're
4:46 looking for. Here's what I'm looking for in a church. I'm looking for a I'm looking for a truth church. I'm looking for a pastor that preaches the word. I wanna hear the truth. I wanna I wanna know what the truth is. And
4:56 I don't intend on doing anything with it, but I just wanna hear it. And I wanna know we stand strong on those things. That's what I'm looking for. Then there's other people saying, no, I want a grace church. I mean, want
5:07 a church that appreciates the truth, but I wanna go somewhere that no matter how bad I've sinned and no matter what I've done that week, that group of just gonna love me and they're gonna care for me. And what both
5:16 groups of people are saying, I'm looking for a place that I can sit really, really comfortable and enjoy everything. And if I don't, I'm gonna start looking for another church. See, Jesus Christ didn't call you to a
5:26 grace church or a truth church. He called you to a Christ centered missional church. And when Jesus Christ is in the center, you can preach the full authority of God's word and call people to the standard that God
5:37 describes. And you can also be a grace filled church that says, there's no way you're ever gonna hit that standard 100 percent of the time. And even if this is the 10 thousandth time that you've sinned that way, God's
5:48 grace is sufficient for you. Welcome back. But let's get back on the field and serve Christ in mission. See, the purpose of the church is mission. And if you miss that, you miss everything. We're
6:00 living in perilous times. There's no doubt about it. We're living in confusion confusing times. We're living in times driven by satanic agendas and all these different things. But I'll tell you this, if you study world
6:10 history, which I did with my daughter this year again and refresh my mind on it, If you study world history, no matter what decade you lived in, you would say, you didn't know how history was gonna unfold, I'm living in
6:21 the end. It's over. I mean, just in the history of our nation, when World War I happened, war to end all wars, it's over. When Hitler rose to power, it's over.
6:33 And we have this tendency in our heart to live in fear rather than to engage in the fight. It's time to fight and it's time to fight the way God wants us to fight. Because it's not
6:45 even that you fight, it's how you fight that makes all the difference in the world. So before jumping into all the different elements of spiritual warfare and the things that we're gonna cover in this series, you need to
6:56 know how to fight. And most Christians don't know how. Just because you're fired up. I mean, if you ever hear a message and you get all fired up, I'm in now. And you get to your car, and by the time you get to your car,
7:07 you're like, I don't know what I'm fired up about anymore, but I was really fired up 20 minutes ago. It's because you have all the excitement, but you don't know how. I mean, just because I would get excited to get in
7:17 the ring, you know, in an octagon with 1 of the championship fighters doesn't mean I would be successful because I don't know how to fight. So my enthusiasm can only take me so far. And if you ever wanna know how to
7:29 engage in the battle and how to fight and how to avoid criticism and so that you're not just, well, do it, but if I do it, people are gonna poke holes at me and I'm I'm not really living all that great right now and I'm
7:39 struggling with this and I'm sitting there. I I don't know. I'll kinda continue to watch. If that's you, I believe God has a word for you today and in this series for how can you fight? What does he want you to do and
7:50 how can you engage in the battle that's before us? And if you've wanted to know that, believe God has answers for you today. So open up your Bible to second Corinthians chapter 10. Second Corinthians chapter
8:02 10. We're gonna look at verses 1 through 6 today, and I'm gonna highlight 3 different ways for how you can fight. Second Corinthians chapter 10 verses 1 through 6. Now the entire book of second Corinthians is really
8:14 about Paul defending his apostleship and showing that he's called of God. He doesn't need to defend himself. He's sharing the things of God. He's talking to this carnal church in Corinth that has trusted in
8:26 the Lord, but is not living out what they need to live out. And Paul's writing back to them. And what we're gonna glean from this text today is how Paul is going to engage in the battle with them. You say, well, what
8:37 does that have to do with anything? Because if you don't know how to fight in the church, you will never know how to fight outside the church. If you don't if you can't even engage here, how are you gonna engage out
8:47 there? So we gotta start here. This is gonna be foundational for everything we're gonna be talking about in the coming weeks so that we can wage war, but not the way the world wages war. That we can be on team Jesus
8:59 for doing what he wants us to do. So let's read these 6 verses together and then we'll unpack these 3 truths about how to fight. He says, now I, Paul, myself, urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I
9:11 who am meek when face to face with you, but bold towards you when absent. I ask that when I am present, I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we
9:21 walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but divinely powerful for the destruction of
9:33 fortresses. We are destroying speculations of every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to
9:45 punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. And here Paul, as we hear his heart, as he's writing back to this church where he has spent time leading people to Christ, getting the
9:57 church planted, getting the church started, helping people grow in their faith. He's writing back to them, telling them what they need to do and how they need to continue with Jesus and they're not listening to him. And
10:06 so here's what he writes back. He tells us how we fight. Now when you engage in the fight, I'm gonna give you point number 1, which is gonna be overarching for everything we talk about. You miss this. You miss everything
10:16 and how Christians are called to fight. And here's why it's important because when we get upset about what we see in the media and what we see going on in the world and we start bowing up, if we miss this point, we're
10:27 ineffective in our ability to fight the way God wants us to fight. When you engage in the fight, maintain meekness by modeling Christ's example. When you engage in the fight, maintain
10:39 meekness by modeling Christ's example. Notice what he says. He says, now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. What's he talking about?
10:51 He says, first of all, this is an individual thing. I'm the 1 writing to you. You're critiquing me. You're criticizing me. I'm not afraid to stand up when you criticize me and critique me and stand firm. But here's how
11:02 I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna appeal to you. I'm gonna plead with you. I'm not just coming over the top. I'm pleading with the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. Now what's
11:13 meekness? Most people think meekness is weakness. Meekness is bridled power. Meekness is when you have the authority, you have the power, you have the intellect, you have the wisdom with which you can crush another
11:24 person, but you choose not to. It's power restrained by the Holy Spirit. If you don't have that power restrained by the Holy Spirit when he's trying to work through you,
11:36 you lose every time. And the devil doesn't want you to know that. The devil wants you to fight in your flesh and the devil wants you to use your words and your intellect and your wisdom to do what? To win a battle by
11:48 putting other people down rather than winning the war of mission that Christ has put us on the planet to do. So how's he appealing? I'm appealing to you in meekness. Jesus in the sermon on the
12:00 mountain, Matthew five:five said, blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Meekness. I mean, in Philippians chapter 2, as Paul writes further on this topic as to what it
12:12 looks like, He says this. He says, make my joy complete by having the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in the same spirit, intent on 1 purpose. Do nothing from
12:23 selfish ambition or empty conceit, but with humility of mind, regard 1 another as more important to yourselves. Do not merely look out for your own interests, but also the interests of others. Have this attitude in
12:33 yourself, which was also in Christ Jesus, who although he existed in the very form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, emptied himself and taking the form of a bond servant and being made into
12:44 the likeness of men. Being found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on the cross. For this reason, God highly exalted and bestowed on him the name which is above every
12:53 name. So the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the father. What did he do? He showed meekness. He bridled his power. When you study the life
13:05 of Jesus and you see who he is and you see what he does, you realize that he didn't always come over the top with all of his authority and all of his power and all of his wisdom and all of his intellect and put people in
13:15 a corner and just make them feel small to show that he was awesome. He had bridled power, restraining power. I mean, here's just an example. You remember when he was in the garden of Eden, the night he was being betrayed
13:27 and here come his accusers and good for him, he had Peter next to him. Peter picks out a sword and tries to cut off Malchus' head, misses his head, cuts off his ear. Jesus puts the ear back on him and reattaches the
13:38 ear. And then this is what he says to Peter in Matthew chapter 26, Matthew chapter 26 verse verses 52. He said to him, put your sword back into
13:50 its place for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. Now think about who's talking. The 1 who is talking is the 1 that created the heavens and the earth out of nothing in 6 literal days. The 1 who is
14:02 talking has created every single life on the planet and is sustaining them. The 1 who is talking is the God of all gods. There is no other. Peter thinks in the moment I could protect him with my sword.
14:15 It's pointless, but what's your sword gonna do? I mean, I don't need your little toothpick. It doesn't help us. Let me put Let me reattach the ear. Thanks for trying. Thanks for playing. Here's what he says.
14:28 Or do you think that I cannot appeal to my father and he will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels? A legion is 6012 legions is 72000. We know from the old testament there
14:40 was 1 angel that was dispatched that killed 185000 Assyrians in 1 night. Jesus says, I can get more than 72000 of those guys come to work for me. I don't need your sword. It's not helpful. Your human
14:52 efforts to advance the gospel are not helpful. And why does he say they're not helpful? Here's why he says, notice what he says in the very next verse. It's really important. How then will the scriptures be
15:04 fulfilled which say that it must happen this way? Why not use your sword? Why not cut off his ear? Why not show that we're Christians? Why not show we're powerful? Because the word dictates that I need to die on a
15:15 cross and you're getting in the way of what God wants done. Stop doing your human efforts and start submitting to what the word of God says. That's meekness. Even when Jesus was in the
15:27 garden praying later that you know, praying earlier that night when he was praying, what was he praying? Not, hey, I'm gonna go to the cross and here's what I'm gonna do. Father, I don't wanna do this. Not my way though,
15:38 father, your way. I will submit to whatever you wanna do. I want the word to be fulfilled. Meekness is saying, I want God's word to have authority over my life whether I win, lose or draw,
15:50 that Jesus would get the glory and the honor in every relationship and every conversation I have. That's meekness. And the enemy knows he has no power against meekness. The enemy knows he can't win against
16:02 meekness. The enemy knows he can win against all of your human efforts and all of your bravado and all of your intellect and he can beat you. But when you humble yourself before the throne of God
16:14 and you allow him to work in and through you and you love people the way Jesus loved people, and you believe in God the way you're called to in the scriptures, and you wanna see the word of God unfold in your life,
16:24 that's a different way of fighting. That's a different way of fighting. 'm gonna give you 3 words here that will help you say, how do I grow in meekness? Because it seems like something that's a little bit intangible,
16:35 isn't it? I'm gonna give you 3 words. Here's the 3 words. Faith, hope, and love. Grow in all 3. As you grow in faith, hope and love, your meekness will automatically come from
16:46 them. Hebrews 11 1 tells us, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. My faith is the belief that Jesus Christ is Lord. First John
16:58 5 4 says it this way, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world. Our faith. Friends, Jesus Christ when he died on the cross and rose from the dead, he is
17:10 victorious. If you're on his team through repentance and faith, you are victorious. Faith in what? Faith in the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. Lord. Not just savior. The Lord does
17:21 save, but he's not savior without being Lord. He's Lord and savior. Right? That's who he is. Are you growing in your faith that Jesus is Lord? What's Lord? Lord is ruler, master,
17:33 king, judge, overseer, creator, sustainer, doesn't need you. That's the Lord. You say he says jump, you say how high? That's Lord. Is Jesus the Lord of your
17:45 life? Say, well, how do I know? Look in different aspects of your life. Look in your singleness or your marriage or your family with your kids or with your mom and dad or with school or with your job. Is Jesus Christ
17:56 Lord? Is he calling the shots in every area of your life? If not, grow in that. As you grow in faith to believe that Jesus sees the world and that everything he says came true or is
18:08 going to come true, you begin to have a massive amount of trust. I mean, when you look out at the world, we live in a crazy world. I don't know if you know that. We're gonna talk about it during this series. There's some
18:17 crazy stuff going on in our world. But if you know Jesus Christ is Lord, you also know this is no surprise to him. And by the way, this is the best time that you could ever live. Do you know
18:29 why? Because God created you to live in this time for a purpose for him to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen? If you wanna grow in
18:41 meekness, grow in the lordship of Jesus Christ in your life. Just little baby steps of him taking over more and more in every area. That's faith. How about this? Hope. Hope. Our world is hopeless.
18:54 The reason our world is trying to figure out all these different things and do all these different things is because they're hopeless and apart from Christ, this world is hopeless. And you will never find your hope in
19:02 this world. You will find your hope in Christ in this world for what he is going to do. Hope is what is going to happen based upon my faith that I believe the word of God is true. That instills my
19:13 hope. If faith is that Jesus Christ is Lord, my hope is that the word is true. Think about Romans 15 13. Now may the God of hope. Who's the God we serve? The God of hope. He's
19:25 not the God of despair. He's not the God in heaven that's biting his fingernails. He's not the God of anger and wrath. He's not the God that's like, oh, I can't believe this is going on in your country. I can't believe
19:34 this is going on in the world. I'm in such a panic. No, he's the God of all hope. He sees it all and he's like, better days are ahead. I got this. You can have hope in me. Now may the God of all hope fill
19:46 you with what? All joy and peace in believing. Do you have joy? 1 of the evidences of the Holy Spirit in your life, you have joy, you have peace. It doesn't mean your circumstances have
19:58 changed, but you still have joy and you still have peace so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Friends, I'm totally hopeful about this world. Not because I see the world and I have hope in
20:10 the people in the world. I have hope that Jesus Christ is Lord over this world and that he still has things he's gonna accomplish and that he's wants to use us as his church to accomplish those things. I have great hope
20:21 for that. You may remember when I talked through the book of Revelation. We're seeing all the things that we're gonna unfold. You know, had talks with young people and talks to my own children like, should I even hope to
20:32 get married? Should I even hope to have kids? Is Jesus coming to my lifetime? Here's what I said. Jesus very well could come in our lifetime and Jesus very well may never come in our lifetime. So do what you're called to
20:42 do. If wanna get married, get married, have lots of kids, get a job, serve the Lord with gladness, be involved in the church, do all those things with great hope that great days are coming.
20:54 That's what God's called us to do. Not to live in despair, not to live in anxiety, not to live in worry, not to say, look at this place, it's just so bad and it's gonna get worse. No. Look at this place. Our God is
21:06 still Lord over all of it and he is gonna redeem every inch of it. That's hope. Amen? When you grow in your faith and you grow in your hope, then you need to do this too simultaneously is
21:18 grow in love. Love is the litmus test of your understanding of who God is. Jesus said in John chapter 13 verses 34 and 35, a new commandment I give to you that you love
21:30 1 another even as I have loved you, that you also love 1 another. By this, all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for 1 another. How will people know that you're a Christian? Not by your church
21:42 attendance, not by joining a cadre, not by going to brave, not by saying I got to say, how will people know by the love that you have
21:53 for other people? That's how they know. And the only way you can love other people is to have a genuine relationship and love relationship with God. Because when you understand that God could love somebody like you, then
22:04 it's easy for you to love anybody else. And so a commandment I give you, you love 1 another in the same way that Jesus loved you. How did he love you? He loved you enough that in your rebellion and sin and
22:16 mocking him and walking away, he died for you. That's how you love other people. And here's the truth about the church. Here's the truth about the church. If a church could ever love
22:28 like that, the world would look on and say, I want to be a part of that because the world's looking for love. But just like the song says, they're looking for love in all the wrong places. They need to look for love in
22:39 the church when they see people that have different backgrounds and different skin colors and different socioeconomic groups and different political parties and different opinions and all that, but they love 1 another
22:51 and they care for 1 another and they're willing to sacrifice for 1 another. That's how the world will know that Jesus Christ is Lord. You do that, you grow in your faith, you grow in your hope, you grow in your love.
23:03 Guess what? Your meekness will increase. That's what happens. That's a byproduct as your humility grows in those areas. I mean, is how we can even tell who a believer is and who a believer
23:14 is. And if you ask people if they're a Christian, many times people say, well, I'm a Christian. Well, how do you know? Well, I go to church or well, I got saved at this count. Well, how do you know? Jesus says, I'll tell
23:24 you how you know. In the very next chapter in John chapter 14 23 and 24, Jesus answered and said to them, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make
23:36 our abode with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine, but the father's who sent me. How do you know somebody's a Christian? They obey the word of God.
23:49 If the word says do this, they do it. If the word says don't do it, they don't do it. If they're doing those things, you know they love God. If the word says do this and they don't, and the word says don't do this and
23:59 they do, here's what you know. They don't love God. It's that simple. It's not subjective. It's not feely. If you're not married and you're living together, I can tell you on the
24:11 authority of God's word, it's dead wrong. And I don't care what emotional thing you come up with like, we're saving money on our phone bill. Come on. You don't love the God that I'm
24:23 preaching about today if you do. If you do, you'll repent and you'll move out. Yeah, but my phone bill will become more expensive. Good. God can foot the bill. It's not that big of a deal. Amen?
24:37 And here's the problem. We love to keep biblical authority over others and not over ourselves. So when the word of God comes and we hear the word of God preach, there are times it's refreshment to
24:49 our soul and there's other times it feels like a sword that's piercing the deepest part of our soul and both are equally important because that's the Lord telling you, okay, this is what it looks like to come under my
25:00 authority in this area and you haven't been doing that and I need you to repent and get this 1 right. Right? That should be ongoing for all of us. That's what builds meekness. And here's the problem. Most Christians
25:09 don't fight with meekness. They view meekness as weakness and here's how most Christians wanna fight. They wanna fight with their mouth and they wanna fight with their intellect and they wanna fight with their bravado
25:18 and they wanna fight with their influence and they wanna win battles, which at the end of the day they can win. But here's what doesn't happen. The kingdom doesn't advance at all. So who cares? I mean,
25:30 when you're standing before Jesus someday and you're like, I was smarter than him. I put them in their place. Who cares? We're talking about reaching people for Jesus and growing up the saints. Why not take 1 on the
25:41 chin? Jesus did. He meekly died on a cross. That was great power that he did that. What is he calling you to do? How's he calling you to live meek? Because
25:53 if you miss this part, when we start talking about topics that are gonna make you come out of your seat, but you don't remain meek, we don't win the battle for the Lord. He doesn't work through someone that's not meek.
26:05 That's what he wants. That's what he wants. He doesn't want spectators and he wants us to fight, man. We wanna fight for our families, right? We wanna fight for our kids. We wanna fight for 1 another. We wanna wage war
26:16 that way. But really what we're fighting for, here's what I'm telling you I'm fighting for. I'm fighting for the next generation of the church. I'm fighting for the reputation of Jesus Christ. I'm fighting for the gospel
26:25 being lived out by the saints. I'm fighting for the salvation of souls. That's all of our fight. And if our battles don't result in the advancement of that, then we're fighting the wrong cotton picking battles.
26:37 That's what it means. So when you engage in the fight, maintain meekness by modeling Christ example. You wanna know how Jesus did? Just read how Jesus did it. Read what Jesus did and say, wanna be more Christ like, I
26:48 wanna do it more like you, Jesus. I don't need to be right here. I can be truthful here. And even if they don't hear me and even don't listen, and even if I have my doormat for them and they step all over me, I'm letting
26:58 them step all over me for you. And that's how I'm doing my battle because I'm letting you win. And when you realize that the creator of the universe has all the power behind that, you'll fight differently. So when you
27:08 engage in the fight, maintain meekness by modeling Christ example. Number 2 is this, when you engage in the fight, unleash power by gaining proficiency in spiritual When you engage in the fight,
27:20 unleash power by gaining proficiency in spiritual warfare. Notice what he says. He says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but
27:32 divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. So what's he
27:43 saying? He's saying, listen, he's like, when we fight, yeah, we're human. You're human. But when we fight, I'm not fighting you with human tactics. When it comes to the advancement of the gospel, we
27:55 don't share the gospel with guns, swords or a strategy of modern warfare. Those aren't the weapons that we use. You're gonna see in the coming weeks in Ephesians 6, 6 different weapons that have been laid out and even
28:06 others that we're gonna talk about in this arsenal, but they're all supernatural weapons that we need. We need God to go to work for us. They need to be divinely inspired weapons, not our weapons, not our talent, not our
28:17 ability. We need God's power to do what? To destroy fortresses. That word could be strongholds. Here's why. When we start talking about what's going on in our culture and you see different strongholds, different
28:28 fortresses, how the heck are we ever gonna beat that? How the heck are we ever gonna do something about that? Here's how we're not gonna beat that. By yelling about it and telling everybody else that they're wrong. That
28:37 doesn't change anything. Speaking truth about what's wrong and then taking the weapons of warfare that we have like prayer, like the word of God, like evangelism,
28:49 worship, obedience, all those things. We start putting all those things together and loving 1 another, and we're faithful, and we're loving, and we're hopeful, and we're trusting God that when he sees his church doing
29:00 that, here's what God says, I'll knock that down for you. I got that. Don't don't you worry about that. That's a paper tiger to me. That's nothing. It's when we fight in our own strength that we live in fear and anxiety
29:11 and stress. Wonder how's this gonna change and how's that gonna happen? We gotta make a stand and we gotta do something different. We get all worked up and nothing ever changes. See, God wants to make all the changes,
29:22 but he wants us to understand that the weapons he's gonna use are the ones he's gonna give us. They're the weapons that he's given us at his disposal for us to armor up with. And notice what the goal is. He says the
29:33 weapons of a warfare, they're not of the flesh, but they're divinely powerful. Powerful. Now who's the 1 saying that they're powerful? God's saying it's powerful. It's not me telling you God's got some powerful
29:45 weapons. It's God saying, I got powerful weapons. When you look in the world and say that can't change or how we ever gonna make it, God says, my weapons are more powerful than that. I can knock anything over. I can take
29:56 anything. I can make as much room and space for you as you need. But notice what Paul says he's doing. He says, we're destroying speculations in every lofty thing. Speculations are arguments and every lofty thing is
30:08 every arrogant obstacle of what? Against the knowledge of God. What's Paul wanna see knocked down? Anything that keeps people away from the knowledge of God. What's the knowledge of God? It's
30:19 experiencing the person of Jesus Christ. John 17 3 says, now this is eternal life that they may know you, only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Knowledge is experiencing the person of Jesus. Paul says,
30:31 we're gonna use divine weapons to knock down everything that gets in the way of people experiencing personally Jesus Christ. That's what we're fighting. If that's not your goal in the fight, you
30:43 have the wrong goal. Well, my goal is to change politicians. Okay, fine. But if it doesn't result in greater number of souls being saved and greater number of saints being edified, what
30:55 the heck difference does it make anyway? Our goal as a church is to advance Christ's kingdom. It's the gospel period exclamation point, end of
31:07 story. For Paul it was, he didn't see people according to the flesh. He saw they're either in Christ or they need Christ. That's how he saw the world. That's how we should see the world. And so what we're fighting for is
31:19 people who don't know Christ to see Christ and experience him. And what we're fighting for is people that know him to grow in him. That's the gospel. That's what he's fighting for. And so Paul is gonna use all the
31:29 weapons at his disposal to knock down everything that keeps people from knowing and growing in Jesus Christ. That's the board. That's the battle. Every other battle we talk about is secondary or tertiary to that
31:41 battle. Our battle is for the souls of men and women and boys and girls to be rightly related to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our battle. So when we
31:53 armor up, there's things that people like to use. Sometimes we talk about it. They talk about politics if we get the right leader in place. They talk about the programs that their church or their parachurch ministry
32:01 have. They talk about personalities of different people that are really gifted. They talk about power they've experienced somewhere at some conference, or they talk about their own prominence and who they are. Let me
32:10 tell you something. Politics, programs, personality, power, and prominence is no guarantee of advancing anything in the kingdom of God. None. None. And
32:22 I'm gonna be bold on this. I'm gonna tell you, doesn't matter who wins the next election. That doesn't matter in terms of who is gonna win more people for Jesus Christ. Man, I can make an argument that the worse the
32:33 politicians are, the better the church will thrive. We're going in the right direction that way.
32:46 And it doesn't mean we don't get out and vote. It doesn't mean we don't have opinions. It doesn't mean we don't get involved in the political process. We do all those things with the goal in mind that why we're doing
32:54 what we're doing is to advance Christ's kingdom on this planet because even if your favorite politician gets elected and even if your world's so great here, who cares when you stand before Jesus? Your faith, hope, and
33:05 love will not be found here. I mean, settling your life here is loving this world. It's like it's like choosing your sweet on the Titanic after it hit the iceberg.
33:17 It doesn't matter. What matters is knowing Jesus. What matters is being on mission for Jesus and as a church in general. I'm not talking about Bray. I'm talking about Denver church. I'm talking about United States
33:28 churches, churches outside as a whole. We lose our mission so much because Satan knows, man, if those people ever live with meekness under the authority of Jesus Christ and those people ever unleash the
33:40 power of God in their life for what he wanted to accomplish, I'd be in big trouble. So rather what I do is just stir them up and get them busy about a bunch of activity that won't really matter anyway. Friends, it's
33:50 about the mission of Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. It's about his gospel. God wants us to pray. He wants us to worship. He wants us to preach. He wants us to evangelize. He wants us to
34:01 be obedient. When those things happen, walls get torn down. And here's the thing, When you unleash power by gaining proficiency in spiritual warfare, proficiency is mean well advanced. It's being competent. It's being
34:12 skilled. Just because you're born again does not mean you're proficient in spiritual matters. It means you have the ability to grow into it, but you're not necessarily proficient. Anytime you
34:24 learn a new skill doesn't mean you're proficient. The first day you learn to ride a bike does not mean you're proficient in downhill mountain biking. Know, the first day you learn to swim doesn't mean you're proficient
34:33 in being an Olympic swimmer. I mean, you have to grow in these things. Any skill that you would ever learn, any sport you would ever learn, anything you would ever It takes time. The same is true spiritually. And here's
34:43 what we miss out on church sometimes. We think it's, if I'm a Christian, I should know how to do this. I prayed for somebody to healed. They didn't get healed. So I guess God doesn't heal anymore. Well, how have you
34:53 grown in your proficiency of healing? How have you grown in your proficiency of the knowledge of the word of God? How have you grown in your prayer life? I mean, there's all sorts of things God is always trying to grow
35:02 us in and no matter how proficient you are, you have room for growth. I promise you. Because on this side of heaven, we'll never be completely proficient, but we can grow in it. We can grow in what God wants. And
35:14 here's why he wants us to grow because the gospel is primary to everything we're talking about. Now, when I talk about the gospel, I see the gospel in 3 different parts in my Bible. I see it in 3 different
35:25 thirds. I see a first third is what we call justification. Justification is where we repent of our sin and we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. It's called
35:37 justification. That can happen in a moment. It happens when God by his grace reveals to us that we are dead in our sins, that we are apart from him, that if we were to die today, we would be having a
35:49 Christless eternity. And God, through his holy spirit, reveals to us, you need to turn from your sin and turn to me and gives us the grace to do that very thing, and we come to Christ. That's called justification. When
35:59 you come to Christ, everything that was true about Christ is true about you in Christ. You're loved. You're cherished. You're blessed. You're favored. You're you're forgiven. All those things are
36:11 true of you because you're in Christ, but you need to grow in all those things. You need to grow in that understanding. So that's justification. Justification is the moment that you turn from your sin and trust Christ.
36:22 Second is this. There's a second third that we call sanctification. Sanctification is where we grow in holiness. If justification is a moment, sanctification is a lifetime. It's a lifetime. It it never
36:34 ends. You never graduate from the school of discipleship. Sanctification is how do I grow in my holiness? Yeah. I know I'm saved, but then how do I live this out in this area and this area and this area this relationship
36:44 and that relationship? And as my life becomes more dynamic, how do I reflect and model Christ in every area of my life? I I wanna grow in that. And the reason majority of people come to church is because they're already
36:55 saved and they're learning how to grow in their faith so they can advance Christ's kingdom outside the walls. That's the gospel too. So you say, pastor Jeff, why don't you just preach the gospel? That's what I do every
37:05 time I'm up here. I'm either calling you if you're lost to repent and believe, or I'm telling you if you're saved to grow in your holiness with Christ and put that into practice. That's the gospel. And then there's a
37:15 third third to the gospel. It's called glorification. That's spending eternity with Christ. And if justification is in a moment and sanctification is a lifetime, glorification is an eternity.Show more
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