Sermon Central
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"Spiritual Warfare: A Winnable War”, Pt. 1
Contributed by Dave Kinney on Oct 5, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: Its high time Christians stop sounding retreat and start shouting “charge”! Instead of the devil taking it to us, we should be taking it the devil – that’s the heart of spiritual warfare!
“Spiritual Warfare: A Winnable War”, Pt. 1
During one of the darkest periods of WW2 after the collapse of the French to Germany and before America got involved, Winston Churchill gave a speech on BBC radio that rallied his country in a powerful way. He said in part, “Now that the battle for France is over and the battle for Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization.”
If you are a Christian you also are in a battle everyday! And upon this battle depends your joy, overcoming sin, happiness in your marriage, and the well being of your children! The problem: most Christians don’t realize this is a fact of life and too many of us are asleep in the barracks rather than being active on the battlefield!
Kind of like the guy who had too much to drink and he was driving -- all of the sudden he turns down a road going the wrong direction. The police finally pull him over and said to the man, “Hey fella, what are you doing, you could have killed yourself and someone else. Didn’t you see the arrows back there?” Then the driver responses, “Arrows, I didn’t even see the Indians!”
Billy Graham once said, “Much of church warfare is fought be blind-folded soldiers, who cannot see the forces against them, who are buffeted by invisible opponents so they respond by striking at each other.”
General Douglas Macarthur said, “In war there is no substitute for victory.”
Folks, its high time Christians stop sounding retreat and start shouting “charge”! Instead of the devil taking it to us, we should be taking it the devil –that’s the heart of spiritual warfare!
I heard a true story about a football player who graduated from collage. He wasn’t that great a player but he was a great strategizer with a quick mind. The head coach came to him one day and said, “Will you let me teach you to be my assistant coach?” He said, “Yes sir, what do you want me to do?” The head coach said, “I want you to be a scout for us and help me build a strong and competitive team again.”
So the new assistant coach said, “What kind of player do you want me to find?” The coach said, “There’s the kind of guy that when you knock him down he just stays down.” The assistant said, “Well we sure don’t want that kind of player!” Then the head coach said, “No way, but there’s the guy that when you knock him down twice – and he stays down.”
The assistance said, “We sure don’t want that kind of player!” The head coach said, “No way! There’s also the kind of guy that when you knock him down he gets up, and he gets knocked down and gets up and gets knocked down and he gets up again and again!” The assistant responded, “That’s the guy we need!” To that the head coach taught his new assistant a valuable lesson, he said, “No! What we need is for you to find the guy who keeps knocking everyone down!”
Church, we have to get off the defense and get back on the offense – we need to take it to the devil again!
How To Get Ready For The War
1. Realize The Attack We Face. Vs. 10
There’s no war like this in any history book because it’s a spiritual war!
There’s a war going on right here in this sanctuary! You may not see the bullets whizzing by or the bombs bursting in air, but its real! This war is being fought in every home, with every family and even in our hearts right now!
The big 4 “D”s are being hatched everyday in lives all around us and they are killing, destroying and stealing from more people: they are: Drugs, Divorce, Disrespect and Deception!
Notice Paul says, “WE” – in this war there is no deferment, no draft dodging and there’s only one way to get out of this war - by DEATH!
Folks, God not only put salvation in our hearts but He also put a sword in our hands! So the way I see it, we are in the Lord’s army and as Christians we ought to get ready to RUMBLE!
1 Timothy 6:12 “Timothy, fight (agonize) the good fight (struggle) of faith.”
2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought (struggled) the good fight (agony).”
I’m concerned that most Christians have surrendered to the barracks with firing a single shot! Careful that we do not put our weapons down and just go the way of the world! We can’t straddle the fence any longer and we sure can’t be like Switzerland and be neutral! Do you realize that when you got saved you did choose sides – God’s side!
