Fight! - Using the right weapons to win the right war.
We are beginning a new series tonight! This will be just the introduction for a several week series.
Pastor Dan is a pretty easygoing guy, but there are certain things that upset him. Things that get him angry, and get him fighting. There are just certain things that get him fired up.
Here's a sampling from the list:
Bad drivers.
Mac people (Apple computer fans).
People who say stupid things.
Everyone has something that gets them riled up, something that they'll fight for. Maybe it's family or friends or their favorite band or sports team. We don't always fight with our fists (sometimes we do). We often fight with arguments, with logic, with insults, with glares and yes – even with violence.
The interesting thing is that in the Bible, God never says, “Stop fighting!”
Here's what He does say, in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Notice that it doesn't say, “We don't wage war.” There is a way that we wage war – we just do it differently than the world does. Most of us don't have the opportunity to fight with a tank or atomic bombs, and God isn't talking about the type of physical weapons to use; he's talking about something else.
God isn't saying stop fighting. He's saying fight the right battles, at the right times, for the right reasons, over the right thing. It doesn't matter which sports team is the best when there are children starving all over the world.
Fight the right battles with the right weapons against the right enemies
Check out Ephesians 6:12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
We're not fighting against the guy at school who makes fun of you, or the friend on Facebook who makes Atheist comments on your page. Our enemy is the spiritual forces at work, not people!!
Even when we fight for the right things, it's tempting to fight with the wrong weapons – using arguments, logic or insults. Those are the wrong weapons and they're against the wrong enemy. No body changes their mind as the result of an argument. And yet we constantly argue!
It's not effective! You won't change anyone's mind by arguing, each side just gets more sure of their own position. We need to fight spiritual battles with spiritual weapons.
We need to win this county for the Lord! You won't do it with tanks, arguments, logic or insults. If we fight with worldly weapons, we get nowhere. It's like fighting with bows and arrows against atomic bombs.
When we fight the right way with the right weapons, our spiritual weapons, the Bible says that they have divine power. God's power is better than your power – just a bit. When we use spiritual weapons we tap into divine power, bigger than us, stronger than us, stronger than what we are fighting! This power demolishes strongholds!
It's not about just surviving and sitting tight in your fox hole – it's time to make a difference, to fight the battle!
The heart of Christ is not about survival, it's about victory, demolishing strongholds. There are strongholds in this county and in this town that need to go down. Not people – alcoholism, suicide, poverty, drug use, small mindedness. We need to take the offensive, to take ground from the enemy instead of just hiding! When we use human weapons that is impossible. But when we use spiritual weapons the enemy doesn't stand a chance!
We need to stop fighting the wrong battles with the wrong weapons against the wrong enemy! There are spiritual battles that we can win! When we stoop to human weapons we fail, but with spiritual weapons the enemy doesn't stand a chance.
Stay tuned for more about Fight! This series will last for several weeks, we're just getting started!
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