Soldiers Called to War: Fighting For Our Lives - Altoona

Our theme this weekend has been “Soldiers of Christ: Called to War”

We have talked about the type of person God wants in a soldier and spent a few hours yesterday talking about going out to war to find recruits for the Lords Army - how to evangelize and answer challenges we face as we talk to people.

For our first lesson today, we will look at the war we face from a different angle. Yesterday we were looking outward. Today we are looking inward at the battles we face daily against temptation - how to gain victory when we personally are attacked by Satans forces. This is the kind of warfare that Paul is talking about in when he gives us the armor of God. He talks about being able to stand in the evil day, and having done else, to stand… The evil day he is talking about in this passage is the day in which you are facing satans attacks… the day or time of temptation.

So our goal for this lesson will be to equip you to deal with each battle as it comes.

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We will never be good soldiers of Jesus Christ if we are making excuses for sin in our lives. Unless we kill the excuses, we will not be able to properly fight the battles that we face each so day… Excuses make giving in to temptation so much easier. Here are some examples that we can commonly be guilty of using:

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I am only human – Being human is not an excuse to commit sin… You are a human, but as a Christian, you are so much more! You are a child of God that has been forgiven of your sin, has been given God’s Spirit, and is being remade in the image of Christ… You are a human with God on your side… You are a human who has been given high expectations by God.

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This is my personality… I am just an impatient person or I tend to be proud, angry, or arrogant… or just name the sin… Just because you feel like you are easily tempted because of your personality or that a certain sin is just part of who you are does not mean it is something that you should not change. If you met me 10-15 years ago, you would have thought I was very shy and an introvert. These things were true for me much of my childhood and teenage years, but once I became a Christian, I could not use this as an excuse not to seek to build relationships, to open up with people about my struggles or sins, or to share the Gospel with people… We have to overcome tendencies that we have that lead us to neglect what God wants us to do or things about us which lead us to be tempted to sin…

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It is _____________’s fault (spouse, kids, siblings, Satan’s, etc)… You have NO ONE to blame for your sinful thinking and actions but YOURSELF! James says in , “…each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”

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I am unable to fight… my flesh is so weak… I can’t do it! Jesus knows that the flesh is weak… He says so to His disciples in the garden of gethsemane… But He also tells them to prepare for the temptations that would come by prayer…

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God will forgive me, right?... This one is terrible. Have you ever used God’s grace and willingness to forgive as an excuse to sin…? Just taking His forgiveness for granted… It is true that God is gracious and is willing to forgive, but don’t use His kindness as an excuse to rebel against Him and to live however you want… Don’t be presumptuous and just assume God will forgive you… and don’t assume that if you commit sin with this kind of motivation that your heart will not be affected or hardened…

I am sure I have missed some excuses, but I share these with you to tell you this: THERE IS NO EXCUSE TO NOT FIGHT TEMPTATION. There is no excuse to sin that is acceptable. We must kill the excuses. Then after we have done this, we will be able to fight as we should.

And the first part being able to stand against the devil and his schemes is to remember the word of the Lord

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REMEMBER GOD’S WORD

The word is one of the most important tools/weapons that we have as Christians to fight temptation. It helps us to be victorious in our spiritual battles. If we are not spending enough time in the pages of God’s word, it will affect us spiritually. We will grow weaker… We won’t be able to fight temptation as well. There is almost always a correlation between the amount of time someone is spending in Bible study and prayer and how they are approaching sin in their life…

Whenever we are tempted, we need to remember what God’s word says about the sin we are being tempted to commit, And we need to remember the hope that God has set before us. This is exactly what Jesus did! In the account given in Matthew Chapter 4, verse 1 through 11, Jesus faced and conquered every temptation by the use of God's Word. In each instance, he said, "It is written!" He found His strength in scripture… It was His lifeline in defeating the adversary and overcoming when He was tempted…

Jesus gives us a great example to follow here! When we fortify ourselves with a knowledge of God's Word, we have built the best defense against temptation. I would encourage you to look back over the past few weeks and to write down the sins that you were tempted to commit. We know what sins we are guilty of committing the most and what Satan uses to attack us… Once you make your list, find every single passage you can that talks about those sins, and write them down and memorize them. Whenever you are tempted, remember those passages. Recite them. You will be amazed how you can resist the temptation whenever you do this accompanied with prayer.

In , verse 11, the psalmist said, “I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” ()

Memorizing passages that deal with your temptations have a way of helping you rightly think about what you are being tempted to do… You learn to see that specific sin as sin – as rebellion to God – and you learn to hate it and grow in your desire to overcome it. The scriptures give us the strength that we need.

The armor of God…

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PRAYER – Our Lifeline!

We must, whenever we are tempted, seek the Lord… we must draw near to Him. Prayer is a life-line for us when we are in battle. And it isn’t because prayer in some way is powerful. It is because the God whom we pray to is powerful.

READ ,

In , after we are told about the armor of God, we see the importance of prayer in our spiritual battle. Paul says to “pray at all times… with all prayer and supplication… for all the saints…” This shows us that there is not a battle that we face… not one fight that we face, that prayer is not an important part. On the evil day, the day of temptation, we need to make sure that we remember that the battle ultimately is against a foe that is more powerful than us and that the battle belongs to the Lord. And based on this, we need to call the Lord into the battle to fight along with us. We need His strength in the inner man so we can overcome.

Paul even says in , “Pray for me also.” Paul understood that he was just as much at war as anyone else and was just as much in need of prayer as anyone else. He asked for the prayers of the Ephesians so that he could have the strength to fulfill his ministry for the Lord and to be faithful to Christ. Paul shows us in his example here not only that we should be praying for ourselves as we battle each and every day against temptation and sin, but we need to pray for each other…

We need to pray… Jesus instructed His disciples to pray about being delivered from temptation (). Jesus knew how important that it is for us to pray, not just as we are being tempted, but even before temptation comes so we can stand firm when we are attacked.

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REMEMBER THAT WE ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS BATTLE. WE HAVE FELLOW SOLDIERS, AND WE CAN CALL IN REINFORCEMENTS AS WE FACE OUR BATTLES AGAINST SIN.

Get accountability… use the technology we have to text, call, email, Facebook message, video chat. With your brothers in sisters when you are facing temptation… pray together… seek God’s word together… DO NOT THINK YOU CAN FIGHT SATAN ALONE!!! YOU NEED GOD, AND YOU NEED YOUR BRETHREN!!!

I believe that we just don’t realize how important it is to spend time with our brethren, going to one another’s home to encourage one another, study with one another, pray with one another.

There is always a need for us to reach out to each other, to confess our sins to one another… To ask for the prayers of God’s people regarding specific sins we are struggling with. This is what James commands his readers in , “16 …confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” We need all of the help we can get if we are going to win our daily battles against temptation… We need all the prayers we can get because they are effective… they accomplish much in the battle.

We need to confess our sins to one another, but we also need to call in reinforcements even when we are facing temptation that we are in danger of falling into if we don’t reach out for help. I can’t begin to explain how important and helpful it is to have accountability. We need to be willing to humble ourselves sometimes and ask for help when we are struggling with sin, which I can speak from experience- IS NOT THE EASIEST THING TO DO! It can be humiliating sometimes going to a brother in Christ and telling him that I have sinned. But even though it can be hard to do, it is so helpful. It can be helpful knowing that someone else knows what you are struggling with, that they are praying for you, and that they are going to be there for you to help you defeat what it is you are struggling with.

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. 10 For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. ()

Woe to the one who falls when there is no one to lift him up.

There are brethren here that care about you and want to see you make it to heaven to be with the Lord! If there is any way that we can help you, I think I can speak for everyone here in saying, don’t be ashamed or afraid to ask for help. Paul needed help. He needed the prayers of God’s people so he could find the courage to be bold in his work.

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Make it so that Satan has less opportunities to tempt us, especially in areas we know we are weak. How many times have we put ourselves into situations to sin because we were being lazy with our time or neglecting things that we should be doing?

Paul says,

“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh” ( ESV).

This may seem pretty simplistic, but if you want to have less time in your life to sin and live like the world, get busy doing good. Get busy working on your spiritual growth. Get busy doing the work of the Kingdom. Get busy fighting! And you will not have the time for walking according to the flesh…

We have so little time, and we need to work on finding the best uses for it so we can be as pleasing to God as we can and less distracted as soldiers.

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The danger – we can fall in battle!!!! Not only can we sin, but it can get to the point where we lose our souls for going AWOL – for fleeing our duty to be good and faithful soldiers!

READ

This is a sobering passage that sums up what we can look forward to if we continue to live a life of sin. This is not talking about committing one single sin and then repenting from it… The tense of the Greek words here show that this is a continual action that is not being stopped… Whenever you give your life back to the world, whether you still claim to be a Christian or not, this is what you can hope for… all you can have is ““a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries” where God himself will bring his vengeance… These are very sobering passages that show us how important it is to make sure that our lives as soldiers are focused on pleasing Christ and not being distracted by the attractions of the world. These passages show what our enemy wants to happen to us!

What are we doing to make sure we don’t fall in the battle and lose the war for our souls? What are we doing to make sure that we do not go on sinning willfully and become hardened and deceived by our sin? I have given just a few of the things we can begin doing.

In our putting on the armor of God – by remembering God’s word and by spending time in prayer, we are strengthened to fight and to overcome… but the thing is, it is not by our own strength that we become victorious and are able to stand… it is by God’s strength… Paul says in , that when we do these things, we have his strength and power with us… “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” ().

God has given you everything that you need to win the battles you go through.

“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” ()

There is always a way of escape when you are tempted… We have talked about many of those ways today… Kill the excuses… Draw near to God by remembering His word and by going before His throne in prayer. And get your fellow soldiers involved in helping you to win your daily battles through confession & prayer…