Sermon Central
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Spiritual Warfare: A Winnable War, Pt. 4
Contributed by Dave Kinney on Nov 9, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: I ask you, who is in control of your mind? I will proof to you through this teaching, that it is either “The desire of the flesh” or the “Desire of the Spirit”.
This maybe one of my most important sermons in this series as we begin to understand the battle that there is for the mind!
I ask you, who is in control of your mind? I will proof to you through this teaching, that it is either “The desire of the flesh” or the “Desire of the Spirit”.
Luke 12:29 “Do not seek what you should eat or drink, nor have an anxious mind.”
“Anxious” = being suspended between two realms. (Hope or fear, doubt or faith)
A man who was on a diet was coming up on his favorite donut shop and he began to think how good a donut would taste with his coffee. So he said to himself, “Lord, I will only stop if there is a parking space right in front of the shop.” And sure enough after 7 times around there was a parking place!
Sure we fight the battle of the bulge and other battles, but there is a battle more deadly, more deceitful and determined – the battle over our minds!
There is a battle between God and Satan for the control of your mind!
I don’t know who said this, “The mind is a workshop where the important decisions of life and eternity are made. The mind is an armory where we forge the weapons for our victory or our destruction. The mind is a battlefield where all decisive battles of life are won or lost.”
Please let this sink into your thinking – God did not save you to a defeated life, a defective life or a depressive life – but He has given you a defense for your life – your thought life!
1. The Weakness of Our Flesh. Vs. 3
Some people think that they can go to a distant monastery to escape the flesh! I heard about a young man who went to a monastery and the discipline was silence for a year. Only once a year he could speak 2 words.
After a year the man comes to the Monsignor and he asks, “You can speak 2 words, what would you like to say?” The man said, “Bed hard!” So then he goes back for another year.
The second year he come to the Monsignor and is permitted to speak 2 more works and he says, “Food terrible!” And he goes back for another year.
The third year comes and he can say 2 more words and the Monsignor asks, “What would you like to say?” the man responds, “I quit!” Then the Monsignor said, “You should quit, all you’ve done for 3 years is complain!”
LifePoint: We don’t fight with flesh and blood because we don’t fight against flesh!
Our battle is not with Republicans and Democrats, the government, the school districts, the Taliban or Bin laden or your mother in law – it’s against Satan and his minions that try to take control! Folks, we can’t out wit, out work, or out war the devil – he mocks our relationship with Jesus, knocks our salvation and stocks our position in Christ!
Some think that only education is the weapon – not always! Educate man all you’ve done is make him more dangerous. Some think that legislation is the weapon – not always! You cannot legislate a man to love his neighbor. Some think that the environment is the weapon – do you really believe that if we just change a man’s city or county that his flesh will improve? Whether you take a man from the suburb or the sewer and fail to deal with the old nature – he’s still prideful and polluted in his heart!
Let me remind you that Adam and Eve lived in the perfect Garden with perfect smarts, perfect peace and in a perfect environment and still they messed that up BIG TIME!
They say that in years past to see if a mental patient was ready to be released a doctor would put then in a room and turn on the water faucet on and let it over flow onto the floor. Then the doctor would tell the patient to mop the floor and clean up the room. If they started to mop the floor without turning off the water they weren’t ready to leave the hospital. This describes our society – we’ve been mopping up our problems but failing to turn off the cause of problems – the flesh!
Vance Havner once said, “Our world is fast becoming a madhouse and the inmates are trying to run the asylum. It’s a strange time when the patients are writing the prescriptions, the students are threatening to run the schools and the children control their home…”
2. The Warfare of Our Foe. Vs. 4
“Mighty through God”
a. The Participants.
Ephesians 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
