The Spiritual Battle and Love of God — Gary Henderson

The Reality of Spiritual Warfare

I'm going to start, and I'm going to take a question, and I'm hoping to answer it for you. He says, the weapons of our warfare, now I've said this to you before, and I'll say it to you again, if you're unaware of the spiritual warfare we're in, that's unfortunate.

Because we're in battle, we're in war. And every time I turn on the TV, I kind of feel like I'm losing it. So I thank God for, where did our missionary go? Where is she? Oh, she's right here. It's good to see some faithful people in the battle, but he says, we're in a battle.

I said to you a year ago, I said to you about a year ago, I was under such darkness, and under such a, see we don't think Christians can be, you know, possessed of the devil, so we got another little term called oppression.

And, oh, now it's theologically correct, but to be honest with you, when you have no control over your thoughts, when you cannot focus on anything, I couldn't focus on the Word of God to save my soul.

And so, I said this to you, I'm going to say it to you again, it's important. I would not have come out of that without the prayers of my wife and my kids. They gave me a whole, I could not. Someone said, tell us how you got out of that.

I didn't get out of it. I did not get out of it. I did not get out of it. It was the first, do you have any idea how important you are to each other? Satan does. He has a vested interest in destroying the body.

I came away from that with a whole new appreciation for my sisters and brothers in Christ that actually are on praying ground. You know how I'm talking about them? That are on praying ground, that actually pray, and that God actually hears.

So, you know, on praying ground, I need you. So, having said that, he says, the weapons of our warfare, because we're in a war. He says, they're not firing on the fight. He says, they're pulling down the strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought of the obedience of Christ.

I said, well, who are these weapons? I've got to win the battle. I'm in this to win. I'm in this to win. I hope you are. So, I want to know, what are these weapons that I can have? I'm going to win. I can't stand losing.

It kills me. Several things that work every single time for me. I'm not going to go back over them. Prayers that God has answered every single time. All based on Scripture. All based on the Word of God.

Things that always work for me. They'll work for you. So, having said that, what are these weapons that bring us success, that are so powerful that every preacher just, you know, he wants everybody sitting on the edge of his seat, just spellbound.

You know, just, I want to get you on the edge of your seat. I want you to be spellbound. I want to bring into captivity everybody's thoughts. That's how I want that. So, what is this stuff that, what, what?

What I just spoke was the truth. So, I'm going to give you two things that I think, well, three things that I think God's talking about there. He said, these are your weapons. Here's your weapons. Number one is the obvious Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit as Power for Spiritual Battle

But you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you should be with a set of people. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the other parts of the earth. You all know the verses.

He says, you're going to need power. You're going to need, you are going to need that. Stay right where you're at. Don't move until, stay right here. Don't move until you have received power from my Spirit.

You're going to need it. Trust me. In this battle, you ain't going to win it without it. You need the filling and the fullness of God's Spirit in this battle. You will not win this battle. The flesh cannot win this battle.

And all of us preachers at some point in time have tried that. Fake it until we make it. Boy, do you know how quick that gets you in this business? Guys, bring me back. Would you guys bring me back? This pulpit keeps me accountable.

You need to confess that. I lack the discipline. So I have deliberately put my in accountability place. It's this pulpit right here. Ministry will put you in a place of accountability where, you know, plastic won't cut this.

Plastic won't get it. Put yourself someplace. You don't have the discipline? Stupid. You make me a lesbian. I really don't care. I don't have enough discipline. So I put myself someplace where I have to have discipline.

That sounds like the chicken's way out. But it works for me. You do whatever you want with it. I wish I was a more disciplined person. I just am not. So to compensate for that, here I am. And guess what I had to do this afternoon?

Study and pray. Put yourself someplace where you're accountable. Some people say, well, I joined the ministry before I'm accountable. Hang on. Go get ministry. Go do something positive. I'm going to sit around and be accountable.

Now, which one of these did you just lie about? My son went to that. You want to go to that the rest of your life? Put yourself in a place where you're of some positive use for God that makes you accountable.

It works. Trust me. Did I say that? It works for me. I know it works for you. I know some practices it has worked for. I'm just telling you it works for me. Weapons of our warfare are not carceral. The first one is this Holy Spirit.

When I came to you, I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. That doesn't sound like a powerful man. Weakness and fear and much trembling. I declared nothing. The only thing among you said Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but a demonstration of the spirit and the power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, get this, but in the power of God.

That's all I care about. I don't want you to get all huffed up. We, all of us preachers realize, revved up preachers, getting kids all, man, I can get these kids going. It won't last long without the Holy Spirit.

I can sell ice to an Eskimo. If I thought he needed ice, I can get it to him. That isn't what we're talking about. Amen? We're talking about something. I want your life to be so full of the Spirit that it touches somebody for eternity.

I got to move on. He says, okay, first of all, you're going to need my spirit to do this. Paul says, he acknowledges that your faith in God's hand and the power of God, the spirit of God. You're not in the flesh, but in the spirit.

So be the spirit of God dwelling in you. If any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Are you with me? So, how does the Holy Spirit work? He does not work in a vacuum. I wish, I wish this was fire from heaven kind of stuff.

Wouldn't that be nice? That's what Satan's going to do. He's going to say, you mock me, and fire is going to fall from heaven. He has the power to call fire down from heaven. Some kid steps out here and he smocks him.

Yeah. Oh, go up thou bonehead. Oh, go up thou bonehead. And here comes life. Mark my own words. I'll make believers out of all of them. Now, that is a pheromone. I know I've hit this a couple times. But I felt very fresh today to hit it one more time.

Knowing and Defending the Word of God

To defend. When you defend this, how much of this do you know?

How much of it have you hid in your heart? Stay with me.

I'm going to try to communicate this to you. I said this to you this morning, and I'll try to say it to you again. You do not forget the things you've learned. If you've forgotten them, you did not learn them.

So, if you have forgotten them, you did not learn them. But the comforter is the Holy Spirit. The comforter shall come in my hands. So, the Lord will teach you all things. And one of the things, he will bring to your remembrance what sort of things I have taught you.

Amen. Please put the Holy Spirit's work in this. He wants to help you with this. And you say, well, this is just a phrase that's written. How many times, how many times do you say, man, I wish I knew what the...

I wish I had at my fingertips what God has to say about that. Never mind. I just have to trust God with this. I decided one day, I walked into a parts store. And this is a junkyard. I want to part. And this 19, 20-year-old kid in a junkyard, they have to go every part for every vehicle.

It's not just Ford. It's not just Chevy. It's a Jeep. It's everything. And this kid, by heart, says, that's a 3708 standing back there on the left. I said, well, this kid knows his stuff. I'll bet he just sold one of them.

He used to be my board chairman. He said, that kid knows every part in this building. He knows the number of every part in this building. And I don't know my Bible. That kid, he knows the business he's in.

He doesn't have to go. Now these kids don't have to go to computers. They ain't got a clue. The computer they can't find before, it drives me nuts. That young, that drives me nuts. And if their computer's down, I can't help you.

I've been to places you wouldn't even believe. It's set right there, kid. One of the newer computers. Sorry about you young folks, but it drives me nuts. That's the truth. That's happened to all of you.

You've got the IV in your hand, stand in front of the safeway, clear. I don't know what's worse. It's not in the computer, really.

This is wrong.

This should not be asked when it comes to God. Don't you know what He thinks about that? You're supposed to know what He says. You're supposed to know what He thinks. You're supposed to know. I said this to you, I'll say it to you one more time.

Wisdom, Hearing, and Obedience

What is wisdom? Now somebody said the fear of the Lord. No, that's the beginning of wisdom. The beginning of wisdom is because the man that fears God is listening. If you don't fear God, you won't listen.

I've had to take my kids and whack them a few times and say, Are you listening? Did you hear me? And if you don't, I'll help your hearing, son. Let him hear, let him hear, but let him take heed of what he hears.

You know how important hearing is? Let him have ears to hear, let him hear, but let him take heed of what he hears. For what measure he measures is to be measured unto him, and unto him that hears shall more.

I'll keep talking if you keep listening. That's what God says. And I'll shut up if you quit. That's how important hearing is. Why? Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of what? The mind.

See, this has to do with our thinking. This has to do with our mind. God says, I want control of your thoughts. He that heareth my words. Hears what? My words. And believeth in him that saith unto me, has everlasting life, and shall not commit a judgment, but is passed from death unto life.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, in which the dead shall hear the voice of God, and they that hear shall live. Do you have any idea how important it is that you're hearing?

And what is it that you're hearing? The voice of the Son of God. Listen, I don't want just the mind of Christ. I don't want just the power of Christ. I want the words of Christ. Seen, or hear, or heard.

These have to enter into the heart of man, the face of God, and the presence of his beloved. But God has revealed them unto us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things in, the deep things of God.

The natural man receiveth not the things in the Spirit of God. For the foolishest of us, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually served. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ. Is that right? I can think, I can see, I can see you as God sees you. I can see the world around me, now I'm wise. Now I need one more thing. I can see you as God sees you.

I can see the world around me as God sees it. I can see my own heart as God sees it. I need one more thing. I need to be able to communicate with these people. The gospel is... You know, I don't agree with Francis Schaefer.

First, I think if Francis was here, he'd say amen to this. He's the one, and some of you guys quoted him, you said, well, Francis Schaefer said there's a lot of good sermons, and some of them are preached.

You know what the church has done with that? Something Francis Schaefer, I don't think he ever attended a church, he was, well, I don't really have to tell anybody. I just have to live it. Really? Yeah, I'm just going to live it.

Well, that's good. Go and live it. But your neighbor ain't going to say, well, you just live it. There is power in the gospel, or this book's not true. He has to hear it. Faith comes by hearing it, hearing my heart.

The Word of God and the New Birth

The Word of God.

This is going to be short. I'm going to leave this with you. I'm going to say it again. See, see, see. I want to be able to.

I don't want to just see the world. I want to speak to the world.

I want the world to know what God has to say about this. Not what Gary has to say. It ain't worth five cents. But what God has to say. Is he eternal? We are born again, not of corruptibles. He could have been corruptible.

How? By the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Put it in your heart so you can share it with somebody. Of His own will be God. We are already up with the Word of Truth. That we should be a kinder person unto His creatures.

Wherefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflowing worthiness. And receive what is meekness in God's Word. Which is able to save your soul. Amen? I've got to shut up. You ain't got the point, but now there's no point for you, the rest of the New Testament.

Because that's about 20 verses right there, all in a row. Okay, I've said this. The weapons, obviously, are His Holy Spirit. You better be Spirit-filled. You better have the fullness of the Spirit of God in your heart, in your life.

It'd be kind of handy if you knew what to say. It'd just be kind of handy if you kind of knew what God would say about it. People are always saying, what would Jesus do? I say, what would Jesus say? It's good to know what Jesus would do.

It's really good to know what Jesus would say. Are we all on the same page? One or the same, and this is the last of my three points. Let's consider one another. It's not the law of the big words. Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.

But exhorting one another and so much more to see the day approaching. Now the assemblies have figured out how to assemble. We're real good at that. Don't you guys ever see those parallels in Scripture?

Anyway. I know something I forgot. Thank you, Lord. What did He tell us? He said, these words which I have commanded this heart to read in a book somewhere. On the wall of your desk somewhere. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shall speak of them.

When you sit in the house, and are walking by the way, when the light is down, and the light is up. He said, and put them as a sign upon your hand. And as a promise between your eyes. Write them upon your doors, or your door throats.

And educate, He says. And if you go to Israel today, any Orthodox you see, they take that quite literally. They wrap their hands up. They put the philosophy in. Every hotel room in Israel has a little...

Where did they call out? Where's someone? Where did they call out? Where are you? There's a little thing they keep the Scripture in. And you know, here's what's sad. They think that's what God meant. They're all here.

I just think God said, you know, I think He's trying to say, hey guys. Duh. I want this to be everywhere you look. I want to be everywhere you look. I want to be a part of every single solitary thing.

You can't teach your kids. Wait a minute, kid. Wait a minute, kid. I've got to run home and get my Bible, and open this up. These words which I have commanded you to say shall be in your heart. Put them in your heart.

I'll leave that with you. It's... See, these are not just for preachers. These are for everybody. And you have a hard time learning? Employ the Holy Spirit. He said, I'm going to help you with this. I'll leave that with you.

And as I said, I don't learn Scripture. I'm just reading. I first wrote this on the right-hand side of my Bible, down here about three ways, cornered down and above you. Are you with me? I'm just reading.

So, maybe you ought to just try that sometime. Just try to read it. Try putting it in your heart. Try putting it in your mind. But shouldn't you become so familiar with it, it's that you just know where that's at?

Hey, don't tell me you can't do that. I said to my wife, where is that?

And she said... She hollers, it's three rows down and right on the corner. It's on or two. She knows right where it's down to that. I said, read. She walks out of my shop. She says, where on earth are your Biscuits?

I said, honey, they're right over there behind that pile of junk on the street. Don't tell me you can't do that. I'll leave that with you. I'm going to go back to this love thing, because I want to quote Drifter says, you know what?

The Love of God as the Foundation of Ministry

See, all that stuff I've been telling you about, all that reconciliation stuff, all that going out and sharing Jesus, everything has got to be based on love. It will not work. You know, the other day I had two phone calls in the same day, which I think I said, I'm starting to hear you, God.

You know, two phone calls the same day, I'm getting it. The boy called me up and said, do you remember me? I said, you know, honestly, I don't. What's your name again? So he told me his name again. I said, why should I remember you?

He said, well, I remember you. I'll never forget you. Well, I don't know if you're a dog or a cat. Break your leg off my rollie eraser. Why will you not forget me? He said, you know, I was in first grade.

I started a couple of Christian schools. I was principal one for a while, chaplain one for a while, anyway. He said, you come in every Friday. And you come into our classroom every Friday. And you come to my desk every Friday.

And you get down on one knee. And you go over all my courses with me and how I did that week. And then he said, you always say the same thing. I started to wonder about you. I said, did anybody ever tell you Jesus loves you?

And I started thinking, I'm going to tell you you did last week.

Yeah, he told me that last week. I said, well, how long have you been here?

He said, I was just here one year. He said, you're the first person that ever told me that. He said, I don't remember anybody telling me that since. He said, I'm going to get married. And the girl I'm going to marry, somebody needs to tell her.

He said, I know in my heart Jesus loves me. He said, she doesn't. She argues with me every day. But he said, if you would tell her Jesus loves her, if you would tell her, she might believe you. A couple days later, a lady called and was having a coffee with my wife, actually.

And she said, you know what I love about your husband? She said, oh, what do you love about my husband? And she said, he used to tell me, he used to come along. This is a different place. He'd down on his knee every week and tell me that Jesus loves me.

And I started thinking about that. And my wife said to me, she said, you know how I'm down to, what, five minutes of your time?

Yeah, just five minutes of my time.

And these are all adults now. In fact, these are all people getting married in their 30s. This is all when they were in the first or second grade. Two people, two different places, two different times.

But they both said the same thing about, you know what I remember most about you?

Oh, you're better than these old preachers.

You know, man, you fired right up there. You're a fired-up preacher.

I remember you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You want to tell the truth?

Sometimes we get this all wrong. Sometimes we think that, you know, I'll tell you what would make a difference. I told you the other night, I'm going to be a real Calvinist. I just think that irresistible love of God.

I know the grace of God. I know the theology. You know, I would say the irresistible love of God. If I had to write a book. Love each other, would you? We can't fight. Guys, we can't fight. We can't do that.

Satan's got us fighting each other and hating each other and not praying to each other and not loving each other.

And he's defeating us.

Let it go. Satan's going to lose if we love each other. He knows that. He has a vested interest in that. Everyone that loveth him that begot, loveth him also that is begotten of God. I'd like to say, John, this can't be true.

Everyone that loveth him that begot. Everyone? Loveth him also that is begotten of God. John, that can't be true. I know these people. My gospel is if you love God, you love me. That might be kind of a stretch some days.

But if I love God, I love you. I love you because I love God. Because his spirit and his love is shed upon my heart by his spirit. I'm going to leave that with you.