The Weapons of Our Warfare
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Good evening, it’s good to see everyone tonight. 2 corinthians 10
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
2 corinthians
(Let’s Pray)
You know thw aposlte Paul was the very first man, to go to the city of Corinth and preach the gospel there. He was the very first one to bring the good news of Christ and what He did on the cross they had never heard.
When Paul would go to an area and begin to share the gospel in such a way that people would respond eventually there would be a gathering of people enough they could meet together, and a small church would begin to form.
But Paul being Paul couldn’t stay there very long he was a man who as He even says in this chapter wants to move beyond, he says as your faith grows I wanna see our area of influence be enlarged and Paul wanted to move on.
He was always thinking about the next place He could go, the next place He could share Christ, and what that meant for this local church in Corinth is that Paul needed to work hard to raise up a group of individuals who he would refer to as elders and they would oversee the flock and to ensure their safety.
The reason this was neccesarry was sticking to the metaphor of a flock eventually wolves would show up and they would try to get in among the flock and try to scatter the flock and you know what that means from a metaphorical standpoint these wolves would preach other gospels, other teachings and other things that were gonna mess with the people’s hearts and minds.
Now usually when the body of Christ realizes that a wolf is among them, they can take some type of steps to secure their safety at least to some degree from these individuals but it is reall dangerous when the flock actually embraces a wolf.
Somebody comes in among them with not good intentions and the body is all kind of enamored with sort of a person and they actually begin to embrace them and of course when that happens the danger is off the scale for what that wolf can actually do in that place.
That is what had been happening in Corinth some wolves had come into the flock. In the way of Jewish legalists making their way into the body of Christ and they were beginning to draw people away from the gospel of Jesus to their own teaching and in order to do that they had to kind of talk about Paul and slander him and they did it and they were fairly succesful at it.
They succeeded at winning over a number of believers there in Corinth. They began to say things about Paul that cast a very dim light on his person, demeanor, and eventually his gospel.
Paul felt the need to defend his ministry because of the massive onslaught of criticisms coming his way. Because these Jewish legalist were attacking Pauls gospel now theres a problem. because Paul knew that what was really under attack was their understanding of grace.
What Jesus accomplished on the cross and he knew that the very foundation of the gospel which will save their souls is under attack and he spends many chapters defending his gospel, and his spiritual office given to Him by Christ.
Exposing the worldly thinking of these Jewish legalists, he bgins again..
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!—
I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
Thats one of the criticisms they were leveling against Paul they would say: “Yeah that Paul he puts up a good fight in a letter, but you get the guy in the same room with ya and he is as tame as a pussy cat.”
Theres nothing to him
Boy dont we know what this is all about with the growth of the internet, I think one of the worst additions to the internet was the comment section. Because people get very bold when they are sitting at home in front of their computer.
Nobody is around them to question or challenge what they believe and boy they will say things and they will be very mean spirited from time to time in the things they say.
Sometimes I’ll see a comment from someone who I know in person really isn’t that way and when you talk to them in person they are much more gentle and reasonable but there is just something about it you know.
This is what Paul is being accused of, they were saying this about Paul he is tough in his letters but get the guy alone in a room and you know he is gonna back down right now.
So Paul says here in verse 2
I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.
So when he says walking according to the flesh he is talking about that idea of being bold in a letter and then backing down in person. He says I see some people are accusing us of being that way so I earnestly hope that I am not going to have to be as bold as I think I am gonna have to.
He had nothing to lose, and he was prepared to stand up to these false teachers and to anybody who had been sucked into their lies if the situation warranted. Remember Paul is the guy who stood up to the apostle Peter he wrote about that in his letter to the churches in Galatia.
Now you think about it Peter was a pillar he walked with Jesus during his Earthly ministry and the Lord said alot of amazing things to Peter, alot of really intersting other things.
I mean ITS PETER but he was not operating and acting in line with the gospel and Paul called him out, in front of everybody, he is like hey what are you doing pal.
Paul wasn’t afraid to deal with this sort of a thing in fact did you notice in verse 1 that Paul says by the meekness and gentleness of Christ I appeal to you...
By the meekness and gentleness of Christ I am speaking to you. Whats he talking about there? Well he picked two words that Jesus used to describe Himself with Meek and Gentle.
But if you read through the gospel accounts that those words although Jesus did use them to describe himself, those words did not mean weakness, because Jesus was anything but weak i meaa good grief he called it like it was.
He looked at the Pharisees and said you brood of vipers. He would say you guys are blind and you lead other people in your blindess and you dont care bout people, and he was just strong so were not talking about weakness here are we?
MEEKNESS- POWER UNDER CONTROL
He had all power but he controlled that power and it came forward in the form of meekness, we know what power out of controls looks liek we have seen situaitons where somebody has been elected into office and they come into that office and that power goes to their head and they get outta control and begin to abuse that power its not power under control its power outta control.
They begin to do things in such a way that eventually they get in trouble get arrested get impeached or whatever.
Well thats humanity and often how we deal with it, meekness is power under control it is gentleness when gentleness is needed. What that means is Jesus didn’t walk into a situation like a bull in a china shop but rather in situations where gentleness is needed there was ample gentleness.
Let me show you a prophecy that was given about Jesus
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a faintly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
You know what a reed is and it is bruised maybe hit by a boat or something its hanging now but even though it is hanging by a thread but He is not gonna break it, but look at what He is going to go on to say.
A burning wick He will not quench
You ever walked by a candle and someone has blown it out but there is still that little bit of orange glow on the end of the wick and its smoking and usually when we see that thing we just lick our fingers and just psst put it out all the rest of the way.
The meekness and gentleness of Christ was prophesied by Isaiah to say that Jesus would not do that obviously this means where there is a need for gentleness among people he will minister that gentleness but please understand this where there is a ened for strength and confrontation He will do that as well.
he will call it like it is not out of anger but out of truth, Paul wanted very much to immulate that, so he says in the meekness and gentleness of Christ I appeal to you.
So we dont wanna mistake those things with weakness.
2 Corinthians
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
Key words in that verse are in and according
What he means in this verse is that though we walk in the flesh but not according to the flesh, were human were walking in our humanity were in this body of humanity we live within the natural realm.
I eat food I breath air, I need sleepits all part of the natural realm but although I live in this real, when it comes to warfare I do not fight within that realm and what he is saying is this even though I am in this body of flesh I do not wage war through the flesh or with worldly ways.
We fight but we dont fight the way the world fights, You cannot have spiritual victory from human effort. Now that we are in Christ we fight differently.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
The weapons of our warfare are not fo the flesh
The weapons we fight with are not human in origin, we know how to fight according to the flesh it starts with putting up my fists and readying myslef to take down the problem, or maybe its a unkind word, or maybe its using power to kind of make life miserable for someone.
Paul says we dont operate that way, in fact our weapons are not of the flesh.
Look what he goes on to say...
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
So God has given yo and I weapons to fight or battles in this life, and these weapons though they are not of the flesh they have divine power.
There is nothing divine about me i am a human being but when I go into battle rather than fighting the way the world fights I have the precious privelage to fight wqith Gods instruments that carry divine power from God Himself.
What weapons?
HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE FIGHT WITH:
Speaking the truth
Fighting in Prayer
Swinging the Sword of the Spirit-the Word of God
Faith and Trust in god
bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit
SPEKAING THE TRUTH- You know speaking the truth is a powerful weapon when it comes to defeating the lies of the enemy. The issues of wickedness and the beliefs of man. Man is so screwed up, we are so messed up as people.
We think we know things and we become so pasionate about what we think we know. so many times we are dead wrong. The world believes the opposite of what is really true.
So we must speak the truth not out of arrogance not to make me look good and the other person look bad but out of a need to be truth tellers.
What did Jesus say the truth will do?
YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH AND IT WILL SET YOU FREE
This is why we need to use it in our circumstances because it has the power to set people free!
Look what else we fight with
PRAYER
prayer is amazing, prayer is really amazing. its a shock we dont do it more often, I think we would if we believed more what it was able to do or accomplishing.
one of the reason people dont pray as much is because they are not convinced it will do any good.
We face an issue and instead of prayer we resort back to using fleshly carnal ways of fighting and it never works does it.
you hear people say “well all we can do now is pray” What a slap in the face to the power of prayer. ALL WE CAN DO IS PRAY?
NO WE GET TO PRAY LETS GET AFTER IT LETS PRAY FIRST BEFORE WE DO ANYTHING ELSE!
What else do we fight against?
SWINGING THE SWORD OF THE SPIRIT
Using the word of God to fight against evil. When Jesus faced the temptations of Satan in the wilderness he used the word of God he pulled out the sword of the Spirit!
What else do we fight against?
TRUSTING THE LORD
We need to remember to have confidence in times of trouble not confidence in me and you but confidence in the One who loves and cares for us.
BEARING THE FRUIT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
What an amazing thing it is to go into a battle scenario and be able to dislpay the fruit of the Spirit instead of the fruit of the flesh. Cause thats usually what happens when we get challenged when we get pressed we just flesh out we get angry and panicked I say things I shouldnt say and pretty soon I am doing things that are making things worse
instead of making them better and yet the Holy SPirit desires to make us look like Jesus, and if someone gets in my face and say your an idiot and I say I love you.
People dont know how to deal with that.
It freaks people, out but it can really pour cold water on their fire. The Bible tells us that a gentle answer turns away wrath. Well that gentle answer is the fruit of the Holy Spirit to bring forth that fruit of patience kindness and love in a very difficult and challenging situation, and is used by us as weapons of our war fare.
Our desire should be for them to come to Christ not beat em down to a pulp you know what I mean?
Which is what a fleshly battle is all about, these weapons have divine power to do what?
DEMOLISH STRONGHOLDS
What is a stronghold, it is a place which has been fortified so as to protect it against attack
A place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended and upheld.
Now those sound positive but what happens when a stronghold is bad?
When its a stronghold of the enemy or sin, when I have allowed a sin over and over agin into my life repeatedly over time and it now has become a stronghold that I cant penetrate and it keeps knocking me to the floor what then?
Paul says that these things that God has given us these weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are of the Spirit and have the ability to demolish those things in our life.
The most important thingto discover about strongholds is that you and I cant do anything about em, i mean theres nothing we can do to break em down in and of our flesh even though we try.
They will se and recognize a stronghold sin or unforgiveness that has just grabbed us and we will try to chaneg but we cant on our own we need weapons with divine power to demolish those things in our lives.
I want you to know about this divine power that Paul speaks about this is our birthright, for power, its ours by birthright, bc we are in Christ you dont have to plead with God please give me this power its YOURS already.
Paul talked about it
having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,
So in other words you and I have resurrection power at work within us. Now tell me what in this life cant you handle? If the same power which raised Jesus from the dead is on the inside of you and me?
THAT POWER IS OURS AMEN!!!
Paul prays to the church in Ephesus he prays I pray that your eyes would be opened so that you could see this.
IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIVES
Its amazing isnt it?
He has given us all the tools neccesarry to stand and fight against the enemy which some to kll steal and destroy the work of GOd in your life you and I have been given divine power to spoil the devils work in this world.
So you have a tremndous problem that you cant seem to break through with?
Remember in Christ you are more than conquerers and stand up and fight knowing the weapons you use are not according to the flesh but carry divine power that raised Jesus from the dead!!!!!