Sermon Tone Analysis

*SPIRITUAL WARFARE*

*Ephesians 6:10-18*

/   There's an old fable that says the Devil once held a sale and offered all the tools of his trade to anyone who would pay their price.

They were spread out on the table and each one labeled.

Hatred, malice, envy, despair, sickness, sensuality -- all the weapons that everyone knows so well.

But off to one side lay a harmless looking wood-shaped instrument marked "discouragement."

It was old and worn looking but it was priced far above all the rest.

When asked the reason why, the Devil replied, "Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others.

No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others.

Once I get inside I can use any tool that suits me best."/

* *

In the same way, you and I are engaged in a real battle

We know we are facing a real opponent because this world bears the bloody, painful scars of this conflict/: war among nations, shattered lives, broken homes, suicide, abuse, and immorality of every kind.

\\ /My goal is to help you see that this battle in which you and I are engaged is first and foremost the Lord’s battle, not ours.

Only when we see this will we be able to wage victorious spiritual warfare.

\\  You and I are at war! /In fact, we are engaged right now..

No war in history can compare with the battle you and I fighting.

/

/~*~*~*~*It can be either the cause of your greatest joy as a Christian, or of your deepest pain./

\\ /The war I am talking about is the spiritual warfare that you became a part of the day you trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior./

This war affects every area of your life.

/There is no way you can avoid the conflict.

There is no bunker of foxhole you can crawl into that will shield you from the effects of this battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan.

\\ /A lot of Christians don’t even know they’re at war.

/But others can see the results of the battle in their lives, because they have become casualties of spiritual warfare.

/

/----They are discouraged, depressed, downtrodden, and defeated.

/

/----Others are marital and family casualties.

----Divorce, conflict, and abuse are some of the battle scars these believers bear./

\\ >>>>/Since we are at war, and since there is so much at stake both here on earth and in eternity, we’d better find out what spiritual warfare is about and how to fight the battle successfully./

THE ESSENCE OF THE BATTLE \\ Let me begin by stating the obvious.

/The essence of the war we are talking about is spiritual.

\\ /A DEFINITION \\ /Spiritual warfare is that conflict being waged in the invisible, spiritual realm that is being manifest in the visible, physical realm./

\\ \\

In other words, spiritual warfare is a battle between invisible, angelic forces that affect you and me the cause of the war is something you and I can’t see.

>>>>/But the effects are very visible in the kind of problems I mentioned earlier in the day-to-day stuff you and I face all the time./

\\ It’s hard enough to fight an enemy you can see.

It’s much harder to fight someone you can’t see.

In his classic statement on spiritual warfare, Paul wrote/: “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”(Eph 6:12)./

/>>>This verse identifies the enemy, Satan and his demons./

The point I want to you to see here is that we make a big mistake if we think people are the real problem.

\\ \\

Ø      People can be bad, no doubt.

But as bad as people can be, they are merely conduits for this greater battle.

Ø      Satan has been successful in getting us to fight people rather than fighting that which is causing people to be the way they are.

/>>>All of us have tried to change people who are not doing right.

What we need to understand is that what happens through people, including you and me, has its roots in something much larger./

/This fact does not excuse the wrong things people do.

They are still responsible.

But it helps us focus on the //real enemy./

/A FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLE FOR SPIRITUAL WARFARE/

/>>>Everything we see in the visible, physical realm is caused, provoked, or at least influenced by something in the invisible, spiritual realm.

/ \\ /TWO WORLDVIEWS/ \\ Your worldview is simply the lens through which you perceive reality.

\\ \\

There are really only two categories of worldviews.

One /is a natural or materialist worldview, what people today call the scientific worldview.

This view says that man by his reason can figure out how the world works.

\\ \\ /

/>>People who hold this view seek life’s answers in the natural realm.

If you can put it in a test tube, examine it under a microscope, or explain it through natural processes, that’s all you need./

\\ /The naturalistic view is not sufficient because it is limited to the physical realm./

Therefore, it doesn’t answer the ultimate question: (1) who you are,

(2) where you came from, (3) why are you here.

(4) After death?

\\ />>>This view does not address the invisible part of human beings, the soul, and spirit./

\\ The second category of worldviews is the spiritual worldview, which says there is a realm outside of the physical.

/A spiritual worldview is very popular right now, but unfortunately it is often not a biblically based./

Instead, /it is a man-centered view that believers in any form of spirituality that seem to pay off.

This is the world of horoscopes, and palm readers, and all sorts of New Age teaching./

/ /

/Obviously, this is not the worldview of the Bible.

It is possible to have a spiritual worldview that is plugged into the wrong spirit./

/>>>Your worldview affects your approach to spiritual warfare because it colors the way you see the nonmaterial world—and it determines whether you even believe in a spiritual realm./

\\ In order to understand spiritual warfare, we have to address it through the lens of the spirit, with the help of the Holy Spirit.

/THE IMPACT OF THE BATTLE/ \\ >>>/Even though the battle we are talking about is spiritual in nature, it has very definite effects in the visible, physical realm./

Four areas of life this battle effects \\ /1.

This Battle Effect your Personal Life/

Many believers are seeing the wounds of spiritual warfare in their personal lives.

This doesn’t mean these people are doing something really bad.

Ø      /….It could be that they have a problem such as uncontrolled anger.

\\ ….Our emotions can give the devil an entry into our lives./

To see the relationship between your emotions and spiritual warfare, look at several familiar verses in Ephesians: \\ /“Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another.

Be anger, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity” (Eph.

4:25-27) \\ \\ /

/Please notice that failing to control anger grants the devil an opportunity to get a foothold in your life.

Then he can use it as a base of operations to launch more spiritual attacks against you./

/~*~*~*~*Many Christians are suffering today because of anger that was not resolved yesterday—/and anger is just one of an assortment of human emotions.

/If Satan can seize our emotions, he can destroy our to function by crippling us emotionally or leading us into all manner of destructive and addictive behavior.

\\ //2.

This Battle Effects Your Family/ \\ /Many believers are also feeling the effects of spiritual warfare In their families./

/The devil messed up the first family in the Garden of Eden, and we have been dealing with the effects of Adam’s and Eve’s sin ever since./

Read:   I Peter 2:11-12;3:1-4;7

So this thing of spiritual warfare gets right down to the nitty-gritty aspects of everyday life.

C.H. Spurgeon once said/, "Prayer pulls the rope down below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God.

Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly; others give only an occasional jerk at the rope.

But he who communicates with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all his might."/

\\ Our ability to deal with the spiritual realm will determine whether we win or lose in the physical realm.

\\ Satan’s job is to get us to ignore the spiritual realm or give it low value.

If he can divert us from the spiritual realm, he can divert us from finding spiritual solutions.

\\ /THE LOCATION OF THE BATTLE/ \\ Where in the universe is this great battle called spiritual warfare being fought?

\\ Paul tells us it is /“in the heavenly places”/ (Eph.

6:12), which means the spiritual realm.

\\ /THE HEAVENLY PLACES/ \\ /In the Bible, the word heaven describes three levels of existence (see 2 Cor.

12:2).

\\ The first heaven is the atmosphere that surrounds the earth, the environment in which we live.

\\ The second heaven is what we commonly refer to as outer space, the heavens where the stars and planet exist.

\\ The third heaven is the throne room of God, the place we normally think of when we here the word heaven.

/

 

In the book of Ephesians alone, we find numerous reference to heavenly places in addition to the reference in 6:12.

\\ Ephesians 1:3 tells us: \\ “/Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

\\ \\ /

/This verses tells us that God resides in the heavenly places, and so do all of our spiritual blessings./

\\ This is important because if you are engaged in a spiritual battle and need help to win, the help you need is with God the Father, who is in the heavenly places.