A Battle Worth Fighting!
Pastor Glenn Newton 11-21-99
2 Corinthians 10:2-5
This morning I want to deliver a message of Hope. I want you to know today that
no matter what trial, no matter what temptation, no matter the crisis, whatever it is that
you might face..............GOD WILL SEE YOU THROUGH! (REPEAT)
Our you with me this morning? I have something so much better than
Thanksgiving Turkey to share with you this morning, I know that’s hard to believe, but
it’s true. This morning won’t be your typical Thanksgiving message, I’ll have one of those
tomorrow night for the Community Service, which by the way it would be great to have as
many of you there as possible, just in case they start throwing tomatoes.............
You see, what’s neat about preaching to you, I believe God layes on my heart his
message that he wants me to give to you. Now sometimes I may do a better job of
communicating that message than others, but I can tell you that through my prayer time
and study time, this is what he wants to share with you this morning.
This week as I thought about you and prayed for you, which I do everyweek, I
was reminded that some of you are faced with some of the hardest times in all of life.
Others are being overwhelmed by the pressures of this life, others are hurting because of
finances, relationships, or health problems, ..................The fact is life isn’t easy, and as a
Christian we don’t live our life unopposed. In other words, not only is life not easy, we
have an advisory who would love nothing better than to see us destroyed.
I tell you all that because it’s the truth, but I want to share with you What You
Really Need To Hear This Morning, So as my Second grade teacher would say, OK, Let’s
put on our listening hats so we can learn......
It’s True, You have an advisary, one who would destroy you and your family, But
the Good News is The Creator God, the one who created the World out of nothingness,
He is on your side, You have the Son of the Living God, Jesus right now stands in Heaven
interceding on your behalf, You have a friend, he’s not like any other friend, his name is
Jesus, and he has done what no one could do, He has won the victory for all those who
follow him.
No matter what you face this morning, As a Christian, you can have Victory in
your life. And I’m not talking about some Philosophical type of victory, where’s it’ only
in theory. I’m telling you that this victory can be played out in your real life. I’m talking
about having Victory over Fear, Whatever kind of Fear that binds you, God wants to set
you free! I’m talking about Victory over doubt, God wants you to know without a
showdow of doubt that He will keep you, protect you, and hold you. He desires to set
you free from doubt and transform you into a great person of Faith, AND HE CAN DO
IT!!!!
Whatever it is that keeps you from being Free, whether it’s Fear, doubt, worry,
your past, your insecurities, whatever it is, God Almighty, your Creator will set you free
and teach you how to be an Overcomer in this world.
For you that our new to the church, and to the study of God’s Word, I understand
that this concept of a Spiritual battle may be a new concept. But I’m amazed at the
number of Christians who have been in church for many years that have not understood
what is going on in the Spiritual realm.
Nola woke up in the middle of the night, which is not abnormal, she was on her
way to the kitchen for a drink of water when she noticed a shadow in the living room.......
she came running back into the room and tried to wake me up, and she says, “there’s
someone in the living room and he’s laughing, he laughing.” I said, “what in the world are
you talking about?” She pulls me into the living room, half-scarred, half-asleep, She’s
Right---- there he is, He’s laughing, kindof chuckling, The shadow stops his laughing and
says, “This family is ours, we will destroy you -- and just then two little demons race
towards Calah and Karinda’s room, Nola grabs my arm and says, “I’ll take them, you take
him.”
Nola runs to the girls room and pulls out the only weapon that works in this kind
of fight, she hits her knees and starts praying, and she pray’s and battles for protection for
our girls. I’m praying like I have never prayed before, claiming the power of the Blood of
Jesus, and claiming victory in the name of Jesus, and demanding that this presence leave in
the name of Jesus.
After it seemed like hours, but it had only been ten minutes or so, Nola finally
breaks through and the demons leave, and at the same time, this unwelcome presence
leaves. It was silent again, and there was a peace you could almost feel.
Nola looked at me and said, “were shaking the strongholds of Satan, and he
doesn’t like it, but he can’t stop us! We must be doing something right.”
That was a dream that Nola had a couple of years ago. God used that dream to
remind of us of what was going on in the Spiritual realm all around us. And before then
and since them, Nola and I have had experiences that confirm what that dream was telling
us.
While we were in College, my senior year, I had been sick with Sleep apnea for
about two years and still had not found out what was wrong yet. I had this fear that I was
going to die in my sleep, because that’s how bad I felt. If you think I’m hard to wake up
now, you should have seen me back then. One night, we had been asleep for about three
hours, and Nola and I woke up exactly the same time, and sat up in bed. That had never
happened before, and has not happened since. The hair on my neck was standing strait up,
the adrenaline was flowing, I knew someone was in the house, this was a couple of years
before the girls came along. We lived in a apartment that had an upstairs, a middle floor,
and a unfinished basement. I grabbed my baseball bat and I knew I was going to meet
someone, that’s how sure I was someone was in the house.
Nola followed me at a distance all through the house, nothing. We went back to
our room, and we just had this overwhelming feeling of Fear. We realized it was demonic,
and we began to pray. You see for about two weeks I had been having all kind of thought
that I was going to die, that they wouldn’t find out what was wrong with me, that I would
never be able to preach, never be able to have a family, never be able to do what God had
called me to do. Nola and I got next to our bed, on our knees and we prayed, claiming
the Blood of Jesus, claiming the victory that was won on the cross for us until we finally
had a sense of peace. Then we climbed back in bed and slept great the rest of the night.
Do you know what I’ve learned since that time?
Satan’s a liar. He’s the Father of lies. He tries to get us to believe things that are
not true. He likes to prey on our weaknesses. You see he has no choice but to Lie,
because he is a defeated foe, he’s a loser. He knows once people know the truth, that that
truth will set them free from his reach.
Now I’m coming to my point, this is a one point sermon. I want to share with you
why I believe God wants you to hear this.
Let’s Read Gods Word again. 2 Cor. 10:3-5 read
I want to Tell You that Yes, We are in a battle, but it’s a Battle Worth Fighting!
When you read this passage, you realize that we have weapons for this battle, now it’s not
the weapons that we would think of when we go to war. These are weapons that God
provides for us.
For the most part we can narrow down our weapons to two. Prayer, and God’s
Word. In verse 4 it says, “these weapons have divine power to demolish strongholds.”
These weapons are powerful and are available to us.
I want to share with you why I think this is relevant to us today. Nola and I have
been here now for over 2 1/2 years, and in that time we have grown to love you, and we
definitely know that you love us. We went through a time of healing, dealing with some
past problems and let downs. You see when Nola and I came, this church was hurting in
many ways, but what you may not have realized was that we came to you also hurting
from our last church. Healing doesn’t happen overnight. But I believe that God has
brought us together, a Wounded Pastor for a Wounded Church, that will in turn be able to
reach out to our Wounded World.
Friends, weve made some good strides, we have united together, which is no small
task, and we have also grown along the way. God has blessed us. We have tried some
things that have not worked, some things have. There’s only one way to learn, and that’s
through some failures along the way.
In this last year your faith has been stretched, as a church we have gotten off of
welfare and were making it, we’ve had some setbacks, but here were still here and I have
the sense that You Still Believe that Were Going to have a Breakthrough, Am I Right?
I believe that we are getting ready for a new phase in our journey together, and it
will be the best one yet. Let me tell you why.
What were the two weapons that we have to Fight this Battle with again? Prayer
and God’s Word.
I believe that we have had our hand on this weapon for a while, we are still
learning how to use it effectively. As a church, we come together to pray on Wednesday
nights, we sing a little, I may share a scripture, but our Focus is prayer, and our prayer
focus is the Lost. On Sat. mornings we have a group of men, called the Fisherman’s Club,
there’s usually four or five of us, we look at God’s Word, we share with one another, but
our main focus is we Pray for one another. When we leave every Sat. morning to go to
breakfast, we know that we’ve reached heaven, God has blessed our time together. On
Sunday mornings, at 8:30, an hour before most people show up for SS, we have a few
people who gather around the alter right up here and pray for this service, that God will
have Freedom to move and to work, We pray for people who are thinking about staying in
bed to be moved in their spirit and come to church, we pray for the unchurched in our
community to be drawn to our little church so we can share Jesus with them.
You see, we are starting to get a handle, we need to keep it up, don’t give up,
keep getting better, master it.
But you see we’ve been fighting this battle for too long with only the one weapon,
until now. God’s Word is the second weapon we have. Obviously, you read your Bibles
at home, I hope. We do study God’s Word during SS classes. But for too long we have
not disciplined ourself in the study of God’s Word. But now, because of the leadership of
the church board and your williness to step out and try something new, I believe we are on
the verge of some great things.
Let me ask you something, “Do you think Satan is happy that we have decided to
Emphasize God’s Word in our church?” Preach. Something happens when a person
starts getting into the Word in a meaningful way.
God’s Word is alive, sharper than a double-edged sword.
God’s Truth begins to convict us, it changes us, it causes us to be more Christlike.
God’s Word empowers us, because we KNOW The Truth.
God’s Word strengthens us,..................puts passion, it will make us hungry and thirsty for God...
................helps us to grow and mature in our spiritual walk.
I imagine as we have started this Sunday night Bible study, Satan has tried all kinds of
things to discourage you, am I right? Has he lied to you? I bet he’s told you it’s too hard.
He’s told you that you don’t have enough time? What other lies has he planted in your
mind, he has a bunch of them. You see, the fact is he will do everything he can to keep
you away for God’s Word, because it is through God’s Word that God will set you free.
Friends, if we are going to move to the next level, and reach the potential that God has for
us, We need to fight this battle with both weapons, and be good at it. Satan is a sore
loser, he won’t just give up, we have to be determined to be an overcomer, and we don’t
have to do this alone, We have the Champ, the Victor, the King of Kings on our side and
spurring us on to victory.
How about you, We need you. In the church, we need everybody pulling together
for complete victory, and when that happens, there’s no telling what God will accomplish
through a bunch of wounded, broke down folks like ourselves. Don’t you want to find
out? Take serious the battle. Take serious the weapons, let’s learn to use them together.
