I Declare War: Part 3

ACT LIKE A WOLF

Good morning mighty warriors! I hope you are ready to declare war as we continue this series based on a study by Levi Lusko. In his study he uses the imagery of wolves and the way they focus their intensity on their goals and how they operate within their family to illustrate how we, as Christ followers, should declare war on that part of ourselves that gets in between us and God. In between where we are and who God is calling us to be. We need to realize that this is a war, not against other people, but against the powers of this dark world and we need to declare war on our enemy and let the wolf rise in us.

In this series we are looking at how sometimes our biggest enemy is ourselves. Week 1, we looked at our thoughts. The things we allow our minds to focus on lead us in a direction toward those things. We need to THINK LIKE A WOLF and be in control of our thoughts. Take every thought captive and make them obedient to Christ. Last week we said we need to SPEAK LIKE A WOLF. Our words are weighty and matter. When we speak we impact other people, we impact our future and we impact our own lives. So naturally, we need to take this a step further. If we make our thoughts obedient to Christ and guard our speech, so far all we have is good intentions.

When that doesn’t lead to a changed life/new actions/a whole new way of living, then unfortunately that’s when people around us will would use our example as an excuse to reject the Good News that we are trying to share. They may refer to hypocritical people they have known in the past. People who’s love for God is all just thoughts and words. Author Brennan Manning once wrote...

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” -Brennan Manning

In the NT, James asks Christ followers, “What good is it if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?” He teaches that faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless faith produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. (James 2:17) To put our good intentions into practice we need to take action. Not only should I THINK and SPEAK like a wolf, but I need to ACT LIKE A WOLF.

If you brought your bible, we are going to look at 1 Thessalonians 5 today, so go ahead and turn there. When it comes to knowing how to act the most important factor has to be identity. If you want to act in a movie or a play you have to know what character you will be identifying as so that you can portray them. Knowing how old you are must be important, because people are always telling me to act my age. What ever your goals are in life, you have to know how to act before you can actually act. In 1 Thessalonians 5 Paul gives us a clear picture of our identity and how we are called to act, and this is our driving scripture for today starting in v5...

1 Thessalonians 5:5–11 NIV

5 You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6 So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9 For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10 He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Paul is saying since we are creatures of the day, let’s act like it. Christ came and set us free from darkness, changed our lives, and transformed us into a new creation. Now we are children of light! We have a new identity! Our daily activity should come from our new identity.

In this series we are saying that we need to declare war and we are illustrating this war in our lives with wolves, so let’s talk about wolves for a second. We are going to declare war and to do that we need to ACT LIKE A WOLF. How do IDENTITY and ACTIONS play a part of the daily lives of wolves? An important part of a wolf’s identity is it’s pack...

WE NEED A PACK.

In “The Jungle Book”, Rudyard Kipling said, “For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack.” This is actually a very true statement. There are many benefits the wolf gains from being a part of a pack. For one thing, a lone wolf has no protection. No one to watch his back. No one to learn from. No one to encourage and inspire them to accomplish tasks and reach goals. Just like you and me, wolves even want to be loved. Jim and Jamie Dutcher, the people that lived with the Sawtooth Wolf Pack, said this...

A wolf is impelled by many individual desires — it wants to breed, hunt, explore — but its most profound desire is the one that touches us at our very core as human beings: A wolf wants to belong.” -Jim and Jamie Dutcher

When the family is healthy and strong, every wolf receives strength. Therefore, every wolf cares for the entire family. If you want to know the direction your life is going, LOOK AT YOUR PACK! Look at what you are putting into your pack and look at what your pack is putting into you. Motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, said...

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” -Jim Rohn

This has been studied and works itself out pretty well. If you look at your life through the lens of that principle you will most likely find that it is pretty accurate in many areas of your life. Spiritually, physically, financially. Take your 5 closest friends and you will probably be able to find your zeal for God somewhere in the average of theirs. Your physical health. Your finances. Your motivation. Levi Lusko says, “It makes sense that if you are going to do life with people, you are going to end up where they are going.” Craig Groeschel likes to say, “Show me your friends, I will show you your future.”

In “The Compound Effect”, Darren Hardy writes...

“According to research by social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, [the people you habitually associate with] determine as much as 95% of your success or failure in life.” -Darren Hardy

If we want to be wolves who are living for Christ every single day, we have to do life with people who are going to push us forward with integrity and love toward Christ. Paul said it this way to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:22...

2 Timothy 2:22 (NLT)

22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts.

If you want to change your life, but you are finding it difficult, stop and look at who you spend the most time with. For sure, we want to be in a place where we can share the Good News of our merciful savior who offers life to a lost and dying world, but we should also pay special attention to our pack. The people who are closest to us, the people we surround ourselves with, should be other Christ followers with the same goals. Sometimes, the easiest way to change your life is to change your friends. To wolves, the pack is very important. They even have a social structure to their pack. You’ve probably heard of the “Alpha male”, but did you know they also have an “Alpha Female”? The alpha’s are essentially the leaders. The other wolves look to them for direction as they lead the pack in specific areas. God may be calling you to be a leader in your pack! It doesn’t matter who you are, God has a specific role for you in your circle of closest friends.

Maybe you know God isn’t calling you to be the pack leader, wolves have other positions in their packs too. They also have a “Beta Wolf.” The beta wolf is like a lieutenant. There can be multiple beta wolves and they kind of keep the peace and keep everybody else in line and doing what they are supposed to do. And there can be multiple positions all down the line, but there is always an omega wolf at the other end of the spectrum. The omega wolf is the one who always gets to eat last. He will be pushed away and often probably feels lower than the others. Even so, there is an important function that the omega wolf provides for the pack. He is in charge of moral. He is essentially the goof ball of the pack, always cracking jokes. Everyone’s like, “Oh, Bob!” Bob the omega wolf. The omega wolf is basically the court jester. Has the messy hair and makes strange noises.

I think it is amazing that we can learn stuff like this about animals. I love this about wolves, because that is how it is in the body of Christ! No matter who you are or what your story is, there is a place for you in the body of Christ! He has made you unique and you are an important part of His Church so that we could all work and suffer together in love.

As a follower of Christ, your pack is an important part of your life. And equally so, you are an important part of the life of your pack. If we are going to IDENTIFY as Children of the light and ACT like sons and daughters of the day, we need a pack. We also need POSTURE.

WE NEED POSTURE.

What does that mean? Experts who study wolves say you can learn a lot about what a wolf is going through based on their posture. They can watch a wolf and tell if it will be able to join a specific pack based on its posture. Even when they are pups, they can watch a wolf and from it’s posture they can kind of see how it’s life is going to be. Are they tense or relaxed? Is their fur bristled? Are their tails tucked under their body or upright, wagging or pointed. Their ears (up or down). Wolves will stand upright to broadcast confidence. They say the alpha male stands upright and his posture shows a kind of nobility.

Our posture is also important. They say our posture can contribute to stress. If you hold yourself in a posture that says, “Don’t gut me, don’t slit my throat.” (One arm over stomach, other hand covering neck), after 15 minutes of holding that posture they will see your cortisol rates test through the roof. It tells us that we can cause ourselves to feel stressed by standing stressed.

When you exercise, the instructors are always repeat one specific thing no matter what the workout is. “Check your form.” Stand up straight. Why? Because if you don’t have the correct posture you can actually end up hurting yourself. They also say, “breathe” a lot. Our breathing is important. Did you know that most Americans live in a state of shallow breathing. If you aren’t breathing in a way that makes your stomach bulge out then you are shorting your body of the oxygen it needs. When you do that, it causes your heart rate to go up to compensate and when your heart rate goes up it starts to affect your mind. When your HR reaches 120 BPM, your mind loses sharpness. At 150 BPM your mind basically shuts down. That’s why when you get in a heated argument or something you walk away and 5 minutes later you go, “Why didn’t I say that!” or “I shouldn’t have said that.”

Our posture is important. The book of Psalms is riddled with posture. Over and over again it says, “Put your hands in your pockets, look at your toes and praise the Lord!” Right? Actually, what’s repeated is a victory posture! David said...

Psalm 63:4 NLT

4 I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer.

Lifting our hands like we are celebrating a victory! In the book of Exodus, a group of people called Amalekites attacked the Israelites and so Moses climbed to the top of a Hill to watch the battle and as long as moses held up his staff in his hand the Israelites had the advantage in the fight.

Listen to this declaration of war in the book of Joel...

Joel 3:9–10 NIV

9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and attack. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am strong!”

What should the posture of the weak people be? To stand tall and declare their strength. We can stand tall with arms raised in a posture of strength and victory because we have been made strong by Christ! You have been rescued from your weakness. You are a mighty warrior. In his book, “Mere Christianity”, C. S. Lewis said...

“Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.” -C. S. Lewis

If we are going to act like children of the light, we need a solid PACK, a victory POSTURE, and...

WE NEED A PRE-GAME.

Not like a game before the game, but a routine that gets us ready for what we are facing. This is would be where you put your game face on. When I was a kid there was a pretty big group of my family that raced motorcycles, including Uncle Mike. Before every race we would get all the bikes ready, then pack our tool bags and fill our camel backs. And the morning of the race, no matter how many of them I did, I was always sick at my stomach. My nerves would bunch up and my stomach would severely hurt. I remember sitting on the trailer or even sitting on the bike before the race would start and in my head I would just start trying to visualize everything I was going to do. Visualize the time keeping, the trail riding, pulling into the checkpoints, and especially that last 5 seconds when they would countdown the start.

Believe it or not, every week when I am getting ready to come up here I go through the same nerves and pre-game routine. Before the church starts I will grab someone to go to a quiet place where we can pray and get my mindset in the right place and give everything to God and leave it all up to Him.

In the book, “American Wolf”, author Nate Blakeslee explains the ritual that wolves typically go through before they go on a hunt. He writes...

“They often gather to howl before setting off for a nightly hunt, apparently as a kind of morale-boosting exercise. This type of howl often follows a “rally,” an exuberant display of affection in which wolves leap on one another, forming a furry pile of tail-wagging bodies.” -Nate Blakeslee, American Wolf

If we are going to act like children of the light, we have to have a pre-game so we can put ourselves in that mindset. For you it may be that prayer every morning before you start the day, or reading the verse of the day from your bible. Maybe you like to worship God by singing in the shower where nobody can judge you. Our pre-game can also be much more than just a quick routine. One of my favorite pre-game stories in the OT is with Elijah. God used Elijah to do many amazing things, but the very first thing we read about Elijah in the bible is when God told him to hide at the Kerith Ravine. The word, Kerith, comes from the Hebrew word karath, which means “to cut off, cut down”. So quite literally, before God used Elijah to do so many amazing miracles He took him to a place where he could wear him down. Just like practice for a basketball player, Elijah was being trained to rely on God. He was getting his game face on so he could ACT like a man of God.

We have a new identity, Children of the light, so we need to act like it. If we are going to act like children of the light we need a PACK, we need POSTURE, we need a PRE-GAME. There is something else that actors use when they act that is important to us as Christ followers as well.

WE NEED PROPS.

I know it sounds strange, but bear with me on this one. First, lets look at the definition of a prop...

PROP (noun): Something used in creating or enhancing a desired effect; something that props or sustains.

We all know that actors use props. When these movie or theatre companies go to make a movie or production they have a prop master that goes and carefully curates the props for whatever they are trying to create. They use these props to enhance their scenes and make them come to life. The props also help the actors get into character. The actors will use the props, like the fake swords or the wardrobe to help them act according to their identity.

We also need props. Notice in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 that when we are getting dressed up to match our new identity.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 NIV

8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

Since we belong to the day we need to get dressed for the part! That means those things aren’t natively there, we gotta keep putting them there. You gotta keep putting on faith and keep putting on love. Your hat of hope falls off, you gotta put it back on. You start acting like something you are not, a creature of the night, then you look down and realize, “Those pants don’t go with this shirt, what am I wearing! I am a creature of the day! I gotta change my clothes.”

When I am up here speaking, I try to use props to help illustrate or enhance the desired effect, which would be to teach God’s word and communicate God’s love. I also need props to help sustain me or prop me up. If you’ll permit me another example from preaching. One thing I bring up here with me every week is my bible. You may not have noticed, but most weeks I don’t even open it because I either thoroughly prep and print my notes or I use this tablet. So why even bring the bible. To me, having the bible sitting next to my notes is a prop for me. It helps me stay focused on what is important. It is a reminder that I am standing up here as a representative of God’s word, not my own words. As much as I am hoping the tablet doesn’t crash, I am reminded that I am relying on God, not technology.

Jesus constantly relied on visual aids in His ministry.

When Jesus thought the disciples about humility in Mark 9:36 he took a child into his arms. When the Pharisees were trying to trip Jesus up about taxes in Matthew 22:19 he asked for a coin. When Jesus taught the disciples about faith he used the fig tree to illustrate in Matthew 21:19. In John 6 when Jesus fed the 5000 people, he didn’t make manna rain from heaven or even make a food truck pull up. Instead he used a young boy’s lunch box.

Earlier I mentioned Moses raising his staff in the air. He held his arms up so long that he was too tired to hold them up any longer, so Aaron and Hur had to prop up his hands so he could continue to keep them raised.

Even though we need props, we are not like actors who are acting like someone they are NOT. We are acting like who God says we ARE! We aren’t faking it until we make it. If anything, we are PRACTICING it until we BECOME it. Does everyone know who Michael Phelps is? Former competitive swimmer and the most decorated Olympian of all time with 28 medals. Here is what his swimming coach, Bob Bowman, said about him...

“One thing that separates Michael from other swimmers is that if they don’t feel good they don’t swim good. That’s not the way it is for Michael. Michael performs no matter what he’s feeling. He has practiced it for a long time. For five years, from 1998 to 2003, we did not believe in days off. I had one because of a snowstorm, two more due to the removal of wisdom teeth. Christmas? See you at the pool. Thanksgiving? Pool. Birthdays? Pool. Sponsor obligations? Work them out around practice time.” -Bob Bowman

Our spiritual life is a lot like that. The bible doesn’t tell us how to feel, it tells us what to do. We aren’t supposed to do what we feel like doing, God wants us to do what is right. LOVE when we don’t FEEL like LOVING. Be in control of our actions.

Proverbs 16:32 ESV

32 Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

Proverbs 25:28 ESV

28 A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

You don’t have to ignore your feelings, just don’t let them be in control. Don’t let your feelings run your life. Your daily activity should come from your new identity. Children of the light. Adopted into the God’s family. His pack, if you will.

One final thought about wolves, then we will close. Earlier we talked about the social structure of the wolves. The alpha all the way down to the omega wolf. When the wolves greet the alpha wolf, they all will bow low. But none bow lower than the omega wolf. God tells us that He is the Alpha AND the Omega...

Revelation 1:8 NLT

8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God. “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.”

And because He is the Alpha we should bow low, but what is interesting is that He is also the Omega. In our scripture for today we see that God chose to send His son, Jesus Christ, as a servant. The lowest of all. And he died for us. While he was here teaching us how we should act he used a prop, washing the disciple’s feet, and said that He has given us an example to follow. We too should be like the omega, the least of the wolves, and humble ourselves and bow low to the Alpha and Omega, the Almighty One. We are children of the light. Remember your identity and you will know how to act.