Your Mind The First Line Of Defence

Your Mind, The First Line Of Defense

Divine Weapon Number One

Last week – we kicked off, what is going to be the theme for much of my teaching in 2002 – in a message called This Means War…Listen we have an enemy, a powerful enemy. Scriptures says;

“Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour.” 1 Pe 5:8 (NLT)

“Then the dragon became angry at the woman, and declared war against the rest of her children – all who keep God’s commandments and confess they belong to Jesus.” Rev 12:17

QUESTION – Is God’s word true? Should you believe what His words says? OF COURSE we should.

WELL – his word says that satan, the most powerful being there is, next to God has declared war – on you (look at your neighbor -- ‘satan has declared war on you’)

Yes - it’s true satan (the roaring lion, the angry dragon) has declared war – on you, your marriage, your family, your church and your life… AND for some, the battle damage is pretty devastating. YOU SEE - satan is very proficient at this warfare – he’s being doing it for 1,000 of years, to billions of people (you’re not his first target).

We have an enemy… AND – as we said last week, we are losing territory. satan is taking from us, things that are rightly ours because we are a blood bought believer, because we are a child of God.

NOW – before I remind you of what we have lost – I want to remind you of who it was that gained this territory, I want to remind you of the one, who both fought & won, the battle that gave you all of that stuff to begin with.

Thursday morning – was an awesome morning for me… But to be honest, I didn’t want to get up when the alarm rang at 5:45 am. BUT – I knew I had to go, to my men’s bible study at 6:30 am. It was an incredible ‘God time’ with Jessie, John Shipman, Mike Spaulding & Daniel Echols.. Just asked one of them and they will tell you…

After that time of study I grabbed my hang time journal to do my quiet time – I turned to Isaiah 53… I read it a couple of times, trying to find out what I needed to take with me for the day. One thing that ‘really’ hit me, were these words in verses 5 & 11; [Isaiah 53 is an awesome chapter, that vividly describes Jesus death]

“But He was wounded and crushed for our sins. He was beaten that we might have peace. He was whipped, and we were healed!” (5)

“When He sees all that is accomplished by His anguish, He will be satisfied…” (11)

CIRCLE - “He was beaten that we might have peace…”

{‘Jesus was beaten so that I could have peace’}

LISTEN - Jesus went through all that the cross was – he took every punch, endured every pain, shed every drop of blood - so that I so that you could have peace… so that we could have peace… so that, this territory, and so much more would be ours…

AND – when Jesus sees us, when he sees you, when Jesus sees me, experiencing that peace, when Jesus Christ, sees all that His anguish has accomplished, he is satisfied.. BUT on the contrary – when Jesus sees us give back territory to the enemy – when He sees you and I, give back to satan the things, he that suffered and won for us, on the cross, when YOU, give back to the dragon, to the roaring lion –

Your peace

Your hope

Your joy

Your significance

Your guiltlessness

Your victory over sin & temptation

Your satisfaction & fullness of life – Your freedom - when Jesus sees you give up -

THESE things – He is not satisfied…

QUESTION – have you lost any of those things?

OKAY – HERE’S ANOTHER QUESTION – do you want to get them back? Do you want to get back what’s yours? If so you need to declare war on satan…

BUT – how do we declare war on satan. How do we fight an enemy that is so much more powerful than we are… How can we possibly stand firm, how can we hold our ground, let alone defeat, an enemy that is the most powerful being there is, next to God – How do we overcome - an enemy that knows us so well and has been engaged in this war against the Christian for 2,000 years… Last week - saw that the answer to those questions is found in 2 Corinthians 10;