Let's Get Ready to Rumble
Several months ago, I told you that whenever the church decides to really do something to advance the cause of Christ, then the church usually suffers an attack by Satan. We see that all throughout the Bible. You want me to get that door over there, please? Now we see this pattern throughout the Bible whenever godly people begin to make an effort to do God's will, or begin doing God's will more perfectly than they have in the past, not something new. I mean, Abel was killed after he decided to offer an acceptable sacrifice.
And David, you know David and Goliath, David was persecuted after He wasn't persecuted before, but after he accepted the anointing to be the king, to be the leader of his people. And then he started to be persecuted after that. And the prophets were tortured and humiliated when they tried to say and do the right thing and tell the people what they needed to hear, and not before. And Jesus was attacked by Satan after he began his public when he stood up and said, you know, this is it. I'm here.
The Lamb of God. You know, when he stood up and started his public ministry, then Satan attacked him. And the early Christians were martyred when their faith began so long as their faith didn't make much of an impact, there wasn't much of a problem. But when their faith began to make an impact in Jerusalem, and when their faith began to make an impact in all the cities where they were established, that's when the trouble started. You see, whenever you begin to make noises like a Christian that the world can hear, whenever you begin having an effect for Christ that the world can see, you can be sure that Satan, who is the prince of this world, will step in and try to silence your voice and cripple your activities, so that the world will no longer notice you or hear the message that you are trying to give to it or will hurt you and make you so tired that you will not have any energy to give that message.
Well, you know, this congregation right here has grown steadily from its founding in 1939. We celebrated that a couple of weeks ago. It has reached that with the gospel and with the good works to this community for many, many decades. And all of this work in the past has brought us to this point where we today are in the process of making an even stronger appeal for Jesus Christ. I mean, you know, we had a newspaper article, we had a nice picture of the church in the the paper, and one of our elders, you know, we started this new thing, stand up for Jesus.
And the very first person that had his picture in the paper and a caption that read, it said, Harold Weaver, stands up for Jesus. And underneath was a little blurb about Harold and his past and a comment or a quote from Harold confessing Christ and the ideas, what better person to get than one of our elders, our senior senior in the sense that he's been an elder the longest here, to stand up in front of the community and say, I'm not afraid and I'm not ashamed to confess that I am a Christian and that I am a member of the Church of Christ here in Choctaw. This church is a good church, and we want you to come here. We've had one of our ministers, Vince Miller, in the in the in the high school, preaching to the kids. And a couple of months back, when they decided to put a night club here on on Choctaw Road, half the church showed up at the hall meeting, at the town hall meeting, and and in no uncertain terms, let the, the council people know that they wouldn't stand for that kind of thing in this in this community.
And we're also, at this point, poised to become much more visible, much more effective with the completion of our renovations of this building. A lot more people are going to be able to fit into this auditorium to hear the gospel being preached. There are going to be a lot more classrooms where we can teach a variety of Bible subjects to a lot more people. More space and more facilities will be available in order to have fellowship activities and benevolent activities. We're going to have a TV studio here where we're going to be producing video lessons that will provide training for preachers all around the world.
Imagine, as we sit here this afternoon in Haiti, a 100 men and some women are going to be trained with the leadership training material that we have been producing here in our own studio. And this, along with the many years of bible correspondence work that Robert George and his crew have been doing, enables this congregation to make an impact, not only in this community, but in countries all around the world. We're poised also to open an internet site that will give us access to the 65,000,000 people who, who use the internet every single day and start preaching the gospel to them, from our own website here. And all of these things that we're doing, and in the future, we're, we're planning to have a low power TV station here so we can produce our own television programs and just reach out into the community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. We're in the process of making a lot of noise and making a big impression for the gospel from our little spot right here in Choctaw, America.
And because of this, because of this, I believe that Satan has decided to interfere. You know, Dave was talking about that. If you were in our class this morning, I had to stop Dave because he was preaching my sermon. He was saying exactly the same thing. I said, Dave, Dave.
After he had preached the first two points, I figured, believe one for me. You know, we talk about the devil as if he is some mythical character, some cartoon, maybe a person who died along with Abraham back there. Maybe he's dead along with Abraham. We fail to realize that Satan is a powerful force in the world today and that his influence is felt in our own lives and especially when we begin to make a difference for Jesus Christ in our own home and in our community. That's why Peter warns us in 1st Peter chapter 5 verse 8.
He says, Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Well, I'm here to repeat that warning to you today, brothers and sisters. Be on the alert, because in the last little while, that roaring lion has been prowling among us right here at Choctaw. You know, his presence is seen in his handiwork all around us.
We just haven't kind of put it together. Innocent people have been attacked. Marriages are under tremendous stress. We've had equipment failures, and job losses, and sickness, and accidents, and an overabundance of temptation. Our plans have been delayed repeatedly, and our efforts have been frustrated every turn to try to get this project going.
And children struck down with crippling disease. You know, I mentioned these things in a very general nature, but from my vantage point as a minister, you know, we get calls in the office. You hear about things, but we get all the calls in the office. And I have noticed that we are being subjected to a tremendous amount of spiritual attack that we, as a church, have not had in a very long time. You know, so far, we've just kind of bumbled along, and we've taken our licks.
And I've heard people say, Well, life's like that. You know, there are always problems. That's true. But I'm telling you that the number and the intensity of things that have been happening in our church family recently has begun to somehow dull some of that enthusiasm and slow down our progress and cause a few cracks in our unity. And when that happens, you know that the attack is by Satan and that it's beginning to take its toll.
Well, I think we've taken a whipping long enough and it's time to fight back. You know, in the sports world, when they're about to start a boxing match or a hockey game, what does the announcer say? You say it. I can't hear you. I can't hear you.
He said, let's get ready to rumble. Right? Something like that. Have you heard that? If you haven't heard that, raise your hand.
You guys don't have cable. Yeah. Let's get ready to rumble. That's the war cry. Let's go.
Let's get it on. Well, in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 to 20, Paul, who was no stranger to spiritual warfare, tells us how to fight off an attack from the devil. I want you to open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, please. And while you're doing that, let me give you a little background about Ephesians. Now, the Ephesians lived in a large and a sinful city.
They were a dynamic church. I like to think we're like that church, Very dynamic. They were responsible for planting many other churches in the area, and aside from the allurements of a pagan and worldly surrounding, the Ephesians also had to contend with a lot of other problems, lot of other issues. There was infighting inside the church between members. There was family strife, and there were doctrinal differences among them.
And because of their dynamism and their size and their success, they were a target for Satan's attention. And so, Paul explains how to deal with the snake when he attacks. Paul explains to them how to rumble, but how to rumble Christian style. There's a difference. And so in Ephesians chapter 6, we learn how to rumble Christian style.
First of all, he says in verse 10, be strong in the lord. Be strong in the lord. Finally, he says, be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might. That's the first way to run. Be strong in the lord.
In other words, our strength comes from God. We're the strongest when we depend on him for everything. When we begin to depend on God for our food, and our money, and our housing, our safety, our security, our health, our success, and our salvation, and our peace of mind, when we depend on him for everything, then we are strong in the Lord. You know, a lot of times we forget this, and we start to rely on ourselves. We start to rely on our skills, our bank account, our expertise, our capacity to work hard, work things hard, because that's the way we've always done it.
That's the way we were trained as kids. You just put your head down and you butt. You grit your teeth and you just go for it. And Christianity is such an upside down experience for most of us because God tells us, I don't want you to do that. I want you to depend on me.
I want you not to become independent. I want you to become dependent on me. I don't want you to become a big, strong hero. I want you to become like a little child and take my hand and hold on to me. And that's very tough for us to do.
When we do this, when we begin to depend on ourselves, we become an easy target for Satan. And he comes along and he sucks us into using our resources to fight this battle. You see, God's strength and God's resources, and God's ability are without end. And he tells us to rely on his resources, not our own. Strength in the Lord looks like weakness to the world.
You know, we like our heroes independent and tough. However, those who are strong in the Lord, even though they may seem weak, because we're on our knees, We're not up there in a fighting stance. We're on our knees praying to God, and that looks pretty weak and wimpy to the world, but when we are strong in the Lord, that's when we win against Satan every time. Because John tells us, He, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. When we rely on God, we guarantee our success.
Secondly, rumbling Christian style, Be aware of your enemy. Verse 12, Paul says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. You see, our mistake here, right here in Choctaw, is in preaching the theory but not believing the theory. I preach the theory, but I don't think we believe the theory. You know, we all said it to each other when we started, Man, we're doing such a great thing for the Lord.
We're building to the Lord. You know, we're building to glorify God. And we better be careful because, you know, Satan will really interfere in this. Satan will get us. But then when the theory actually becomes a reality, but then when the bombs start going off in people's lives, we don't realize what's going on.
You know, we're like a boxer who, has done all the training and everything, and then when the big fight comes, we're sitting in the corner and the bell goes, we don't get off the stool. And the other guy comes over and cleans our clocks while we're sitting there on the stool. Let's recognize that God's word tells us that our battles on earth are a result of a spiritual warfare that is taking place in heaven. It's not just about money, and it's not just about health, and it's not about marriage, and it's not about reputation or buildings. Paul says it's about the force of light, which is the church of the Son of God, and the force of darkness, which is Satan and his followers, who are battling over the souls of men and women here on earth, here in Choctaw.
That's what it's about. You know, we threw down the challenge when we put up this sign over here, that said that we're gonna build to God's glory. We threw up the challenge. Did we think for a moment that Satan wasn't gonna pick up the challenge? You think the devil doesn't know how to get to Choctaw?
A lot of people always ask me for instructions. I don't think Satan needs instructions on how to get here. You know, we said we would build to God's glory, and Satan picked up that challenge to make sure that God would get no glory. I mean, I mean, it it was like simple as pie. We said, we're gonna do everything we can to give God glory.
Well, that was like a slap in the face, because the last thing that Satan wants is for God to receive any glory at all. That's like we were waving a red flag right over here in Choctaw when we did this thing. Now we should've seen the first signs. We should've seen his influence when it first appeared. Do you see it?
It's staring you right in the face. Do you see the first sign, the first attack, the first blow? The first attack, we didn't get it. He managed to discourage 30% of the people from being involved in this project. Somehow, he convinced 30% of our congregation that they couldn't, they shouldn't, they wouldn't, they can't, not now.
30% of the brethren somehow said to themselves, Well, I don't think I'm gonna do this. Certainly, it wasn't the elders that convinced them of that. Certainly, it wasn't I. Certainly, it wasn't the word. Certainly, it wasn't the need.
Certainly, it wasn't the project. Then who? Who put it into somebody's mind that they were not gonna do this? Either way, the first blow was struck back there. And you know what?
We didn't even see it. We didn't even get it. In order to rumble, you have to know you're in a fight. And you have to know who you're fighting against. And you have to know what's going on.
And then thirdly, you have to be prepared to fight. In verse 11, Paul says, Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Do you see it? You know, if he says, repent and be baptized, you'll come forward and you'll go into that water and you'll be immersed. If he says, do not murder, you will hold on to your temper and you will not, you know, get angry because you know that maybe that'll lead to violence and violence can lead to murder.
If he says, do not steal, you won't take what belongs to another. Right? You'll do all those things because those are real things. But here in verse 11, in black and white, he says, Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. That is just as real.
That is a real life experience that this, this spiritual being called the devil, more powerful than anyone of us, is consciously trying to destroy our lives and our souls, and anything we do for God. This passage in verse 11 is just as real as the passage in Mark 16 or Acts 2:38, and just as real as the promise where God tells us we're going to be in heaven forever with him. Paul takes for granted that there will be a fight, and if you are an active Christian, a growing church, you're gonna be attacked. And this is where we have been slow in understanding. But I think we're with it now.
I think we got it. I think we got it now. Now, to those who are getting to rumble, he describes the preparations that they must make in order to win, and he also describes what winning is all about. So how to get ready, and how do you know you've won when you've won? Well, first of all, he talks about the preparation.
Prepare how to prepare to fight, how to train to fight, how to be ready to fight. Now he says that the preparation is completely or excuse me, that the preparation is to completely cover yourself with the armor or the protection of God. That's how you get ready. You get ready to rumble by completely covering yourself from head to toe with the protection of God, and he describes this in detail beginning in verse 14. So let's read that.
He says, stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with the truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with with which you are able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be, given me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Note that the armor he talks about includes 4 very important pieces. 1, you've got to know the truth. You gotta know who you're fighting and how to fight. 2, you've got to live righteously. You've got to live right.
3, you've got to obey the gospel, and obey God's word. And 4, you've got to be steadfast in prayer. That's how to cover yourself. That's how to cover yourself with God's protection. Paul says that if you are covered with these things, you will be prepared to do battle.
Now, usually Christians lose the battle, and unfortunately, I've seen a lot of Christians lose the battle. That's one of the things about being a minister that you see a lot of. You see who's winning and you see who's losing. And I've seen a lot of people lose. I've seen a lot of people get beat up so bad, they quit.
And usually, Christians lose the battle with Satan because there's a crack in the armor. There's a piece of the armor they haven't put on, or there's a crack in the armor. Either they are ignorant of the truth about God or themselves. And that's what was happening to us. We, you know, we weren't getting it.
We were getting pounded out and we weren't realizing what was going on here. Or they don't live right. They want to do battle with Satan, but they're not living right. You can't win and sin. A little poem there.
You can't win and sin. They don't go together. You sin, you lose. You gotta deal with your sin if you're gonna deal with Satan. Or they've fallen away from the gospel.
They want to win against Satan, Oh, I'd love to take care of my problem. I'd like to do this. I'd like to overcome this habit. I'd like to get my marriage straight, and yada yada, and it goes on and on and on. But, but they don't obey the word, they don't come to church, they don't serve the Lord, they don't teach others, they don't study on their own, they have no prayer life, but they wanna win.
But they wanna win. Or, and this is, I think, the most neglected part, they neglect to pray for themselves or their family or the church on a regular and a fervent manner. I am so thankful for the people who pray for me, because I know there are many of you who pray for me in your prayers. Please, Lord, bless the elders and bless the deacons and help the ministers. That's me.
That's me, and I am so thankful for those prayers. You have to put on all the armor if you're gonna win. Now, Paul also explains that after you've made the preparations, what does victory look like? I mean, in boxing, when the guy is down and the referee has counted to 10, you know it's over. It's a clear victory.
Everybody knows who wins. But how do we know when we've won? How do we know that we have won the rumble, Christian style? Well, Paul explains what victory over Satan consists of. He says it three times.
I'll read it to you and see if you can figure it out. He says, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the scheme of the devil. Then in verse 13 he says, Therefore, take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. And then in verse 14 he says, Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth. What do you think victory is all about?
It's about standing firm. You see, our job is not to destroy the devil. We can't do that. Our job is not to, you know, out argue the devil. We can't do that.
Our job is not to punish the devil. We have no right to do that. God is going to do all those things at the end of the world. Our goal is to stand firm against the devil. When we are able to withstand all of his attacks, and when the smoke clears, you know, the bombs go off and things happen and you don't know.
You're being slapped right and left, and when all of a sudden it stops and the smoke begins to clear and you're starting to look around to see if all the pieces are still there and you realize that a, you still have faith in Jesus Christ. B, you still have hope that you're going to heaven. And C, you're still loving your brothers and sisters, and you still have a love for the lost. If those things are still standing, then you have stood firm, and the devil has been beaten back. That's what victory is all about.
The wonderful thing about standing firm against Satan is that every time you do, you go stronger and he grows weaker. Every time you've gone through one of those bombardments, and the smoke clears, and you're still there saying, Lord, I love you. You can kill me all day long, but I still love you and I'm still gonna serve you. And Lord, I'm still looking forward to the day that you're gonna come. And Lord, I still love my brethren to get on my nerves, but I still love them.
And I still want to preach the gospel to the lost. If you can say that after you've been through your mess, then you have stood firm and you are so much stronger, and he is so much weaker, and the only thing he's got on you is to destroy this old carcass here that's gonna go anyways, but he can't touch you. He can't touch you. This morning, I want to invite not only those who need to become Christians, we wanna provide that opportunity every Sunday, every every time we meet. If you realize that it's time for you to become a Christian, to confess Christ, repent of your sins, be buried in the waters of baptism, it'd be a good time to do it.
And we want to give the opportunity for you to be restored. If you've been unfaithful, if you've been sinful, if you you know, you know it. We don't have to explain it to you. If you have not been a faithful member of the Lord's church, attending regularly and serving, remember, I keep telling you, attending church is not ministry. And serving the Lord, if you haven't done that, you need to be restored.
Is it a good time to do it as well? But this morning, I also extend an invitation for those who have personally been suffering Satan's attacks in one way or another. And I encourage you to come forward, and we'll pray for you, and we'll rumble for you. Let's not allow Satan to hold us back today. Let's break the chains that bind us, and let's come and suit up in God's armor of prayer and ministry, so we can stand firm against the one who would discourage us and destroy the good work that we have begun on his behalf.
If you're ready to rumble, we encourage you to come forward now as we stand and as we sing our song of invitation.