When You Feel Like Giving Up 4-18-2021

THE INVISIBLE WAR WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE GIVING UP Sunday April 18, 2021 Scripture Reference: Hebrews 11:35- 12:4 (NLT2) Intro. A. Welcome to this first Sunday of our new sermon series entitled "The Invisible War". Here is another letter to a pastor that sets the table for what we are about to embark upon today and for the next eight weeks. "Dear Pastor, if I could sum up my life in a single word it would be 'conflict.' It seems I have to fight for everything. Everything is a battle. I battle with my kids, I battle with my husband, I battle with my job. It's even tough with my walk with the Lord. We struggle. We struggle with our money; we struggle with our intimate life. We struggle even just understanding each other. Plus, I've got all my internal struggles - all my internal fears and battles. I just can't seem to stick with stuff even when I know it's the right thing to do. Why is life so tough? Will the battle ever end? I really hope so because sometimes I just feel like walking away from it all." 1. Why is life so hard? That's a good question isn't it, but I would ask another question in response, that question would be, "Does life have to be this hard?" "Is a hard life the life God intends for us?" I think we would all agree that if a hard life is the life God intends for us then we don't really need to be followers of Christ because we can have a perfectly hard and difficult life without Him. Here is what Jesus told us, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life." John 10:10 (NLT2) 2. You know life wasn't always this hard. The Garden of Eden was also called "paradise", but as John Milton wrote, paradise was lost. It was lost when Adam and Eve decided that God's plan was not good enough and they wanted to try their own plan and as hard as it might be to hear, we have been carrying on that tradition of Adam and Eve ever since. Just as the prophet Isaiah said, "All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all." Isaiah 53:6 (NLT2) We call this "Sin", and this world has been broken ever since that fateful day when Adam and Eve said "no" to God. God even told Adam and Eve when He expelled them from paradise that life would be hard. Listen to what He told them. "And I (this is God speaking to Satan) will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel." 16 Then he said to the woman, "I will sharpen the pain of your pregnancy, and in pain you will give birth. And you will desire to control your husband, but he will rule over you." 17 And to the man he said, "Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit, I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it." Genesis 3:15-17 (NLT2) This why we are instructed to pray the Lord's Pray and say, "May will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." We pray this because it is not happening as it should. More often than not it is our will being done and frankly this is what is causing our difficulty and pain. 2. But not only is life hard on earth there is also a cosmic battle going on. As this sermon series is entitled, the invisible war. Here is what the bible tells us. "A final word: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. 12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places." Ephesians 6:10-12 (NLT2) You may not be aware of this, but you are fighting three different battles. Let me explain. a) The first battle is within. We call this the sinful nature. It is something everyone is born with and it is predisposition to live a sinful life. Have you ever done something you knew was wrong, but you did it anyway? The bible calls I the flesh or your sinful nature. This is sometimes a difficult pill to swallow but here is what the Bible says, "For I was born a sinner- yes, from the moment my mother conceived me." Psalm 51:5 (NLT2) b) The second battle is around you. The Bible calls this the "World". In the Bible the word "world" usually refers to the systems of this world we live in that are opposed to the things of God. This war we are fighting is difficult because there are the forces within us and there are the forces around us and they are both saying, "Do your own thing, live the way you want to live, and everything will be fine." Just as Satan said to Eve, "You will surely not die". c) The third battle is the battle against you and that is Satan himself. Yes, Virginia there is a Devil, and he is bent on your eternal destruction. He is powerful but he is not equal to God and let me add this because this is what I am trying to stress through this entire series. He is not equal to you either. In fact, here is what the Bible tells us, "But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world." 1 John 4:4 (NLT2) If Jesus lives within you then you need to understand that you are stronger than Satan. Tran. So yes, life is hard because there are these battles going on inside you and around you and against you, but this is not the end of the story. The Bible reveals to us how we can fight and win this battle. B. The bible talks about a group of men and women who fought these battles and won. We call them the Heroes of Faith and we read about them in Hebrews 11. We are going to look at those verses in just a moment, but I want you to know a few things before we do. 1. These people fought this battle well and I want you to fight this battle well and to do that you need to know what weapons you have to fight with, and you need to know the ammunition available for you to use. So that is what this series is about. It is about this war that is going on for our very souls and how we can fight and win this war with the resources God has provided for us. As we just read a moment ago, we do not have to fear Satan and these forces that are marshaled against us because there is someone greater than these forces who lives within us, if you know Jesus as your savior today. 2. Now please understand this. Learning to live by faith involves pain. We will see this in just a moment in Hebrews 11, but there will be times even as we walk faithfully with God that life will be tough and we will experience pain. We just read this a minute ago in John 10, "The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy." Because there are these battles going on it means there are forces working in opposition to us and this means sometimes you will have to endure the pain and struggle but know this as well. It is during these times that our faith will grow, and we will become even stronger to fight these battles. Living by faith is not a promise of an easy life, we call that place Heaven and in case you haven't noticed, where we live now is definitely not Heaven. What we are promised is God's help in the midst of our struggles so that we can be victorious. Trans. OK let's look at these verses in Hebrews 11. "But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. 36 Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. 37 Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. 38 They were too good for this world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the ground. 39 All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet none of them received all that God had promised. 40 For God had something better in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us." Hebrews 11:35-40 (NLT2) C. Did you notice that some of these people of faith were tortured and even died for their faith? Here is something I bet you didn't know. In the past 100 years more people have died for their faith in Jesus than died in all the previous centuries combined. Those who track these things tell us that every year around 14 million people die because they are followers of Jesus. Let me share with you three truths that come from these verses. 1. I said this earlier but living a life of faith does not spare us from pain and suffering. Just look again at those verses we just read. Talk about pain and suffering these people had it to spare. Unfortunately pain and suffering are a part of living in this sin broken world. These Heroes of faith suffered and so will we. The difference for us is that we know there is something that awaits us beyond this life that is worth whatever this life might throw at us. Let me remind you of these words from Apostle Paul. "That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. 17 For our present troubles are small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! 18 So we don't look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (NLT2) 2. The second thing is that some of God's promises will not be fulfilled for us in this life. We need to understand that just because a promise of God is not fulfilled in this life that doesn't mean it never will be. Delay is not denial. We just read in these verses, yet none of them received all that God had promised. It doesn't say they didn't see any promises fulfilled, but it does tell us that not all of them were. 3. The third thing I want to you know is that we do not receive the prize until the race is finished and note that I am not talking about just our own personal race. The Bible teaches us that we are runners in an historical race, and this is a relay race. Oh, friends this is so important so please listen carefully. There have been generations who ran their part of this race before us. Some of them might have been in your own family, like my grandmother and my mom. They passed off the baton to me and by God's grace I am passing it on to my daughter as I did Sherry and if God tarries, they will pass that baton off to their children and on it will go until God says the race it over. Friends I feel this is extremely important for us here at Cornerstone at this point in time. With this new school coming on our campus, we have an incredible opportunity to pass this baton on to the next generation. I shared with you a few weeks ago this verse that I am now calling my life verse. It is Psalm 71:18 and it says, "Now that I am old and gray, do not abandon me, O God. Let me proclaim your power to this new generation, your mighty miracles to all who come after me." Psalm 71:18 (NLT2) Friends I am asking God to help me be more lazar focused than I ever have before to reach this next generation. I read a recent statistic that 43% of Christians came to faith before they were 12. 2/3rds of all Christians came to faith before they were 18. Friends, it has become painfully clear to me that we need to give a great deal more attention to our children and young people. Our best chance to reach them for Jesus is NOW!!! D. Now let's look at the first four verses of Hebrews 12. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won't become weary and give up. 4 After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin." Hebrews 12:1-4 (NLT2) 1. Now let's just remind ourselves what the "therefore" is there for. It is referring to what has just been said. So, what the writer is tells us is that in light of these people of faith he talked about in chapter 11, here is how we should be living our lives. As I just said, here is how we should be running the race with this baton that has been passed off to us. 2. What we find in these verses are six powerful truths that can help us keep running this race no matter what struggles or difficulties may come. But if I were to give them to you today, I would have to serve you dinner as well so I am going to save these six truths for next Sunday so that we can have plenty of time to explore them. I hope that you will plan to be here to hear what God has to say to all of us when we feel like giving up. 2