Act Like Men Session 2

All too often. I challenge you to take out a piece of paper and see how many reasons you can write down why you trust him. If you might come up with three or four, say okay well I did my best. Do not stop there.

I would challenge you to think of words like whatever wherever you lead me whatever it costs me and then stop and read what you just wrote down and say what else Lord. I had a professor one of my classes we were told to take a passage of scripture just a verse and make 20 observations off of that one verse and the first time we had to do it was like I got stuck after three but if you do this type of a thing if you spend time slow down whatever you whatever it costs me if you slow down you'll amaze yourself how many things the Holy Spirit's going to bring to your mind.

Guys that's worship just singing these and by the way I agree with what you said last night how amazing is it first of all it's a smallish room it's kind of like singing in the shower okay and we've got 30 male voices singing.

Many years ago I was at a men's retreat of a Keswick, America's Keswick. Our church was just one of many that were there in a large auditorium there have been somewhere between five to seven hundred men in that auditorium singing praise and worship songs.

We were lifting the roof off of that building. I had this wild imagination you guys know me. You get a bunch of Christian men together and there's there's somebody who's aware that there's much Christian men together and that would be Satan and if he can do anything he can to distract what's going on he probably sent a whole host of his followers to make trouble and when seven hundred guys, when thirty guys in one room lift their voices together there's a million reasons to trust you that just hurts his ears and he will flee.

Think about that guys this is one power that we have the power of worship. I'm going to ask you a question and if somebody wants to answer it fine if not think about it in your mind. So there's an announcement from the pulpit there's going to be a men's retreat.

I'm going to tell you what it's going to be all about. There's going to be a men's retreat. What motivates you to come? Anybody have thought? Okay we've talked about that thank you but it's iron sharpening iron.

We have a calling from our Lord to lead spiritually lead we talked about that all yesterday. What did you tell your wife why you were going to be leaving Friday and Saturday? Well let me put it to you this way what did your wife tell you why you should go?

Although sin has entered into the world and we know the curse that was laid on womanhood as of the fall her desire would be over the man. I firmly believe that the image of God is still there and it I firmly believe that it lightens up it excites the heart of a woman when her man is a spiritual leader in truth.

Guys that's why we're here to grow closer to God. Another reason we come here is for fellowship. I learned some things this weekend this has been fun. I met my brother Bruce for the first time as we were coming in brother I had a good time with you.

I learned from Dave Wilson he's very observant he was watching the pier that goes out there and he there's a whole lot of shells on the pier what's this all about but he's observant he noticed that the the birds would dive down grab a shell out of the water drop it and it would crack on the pier so that they can eat the clam and that's why we have some observant people.

I also learned that my son-in-law is not going to be disdained from getting rid of a guard he will pick him up and carry him away. I also learned that mini-me is a better shot than the original man.

Everywhere but the free-throw line you could not make that's what you and Shaquille O 'Neal have in common he could not shoot a free throw to save his life. Guys we've had an amazing time together so I've got a question I got a statement and again I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand.

Does this apply to you? I feel like I'm in a spiritual battle. Some of these phrases I'm going to say can be answered a lot of ways and in fact they can generate some amazing discussion. You might be in a spot where God is giving you a break and so you're not feeling it right now or you are there's there's a lot of reasons I haven't felt the spiritual battle in weeks.

Is that you? I can control my spiritual life and I don't feel like Satan's a really a really a threat to me because I've got the power the Holy Spirit within me and with him I can control it this is not a problem for me.

How many of these how many of these deceptions does Satan use to put you in a position where you're not prepared for what he's got in store? Yesterday Michael mentioned that the prayer the singing was amazing the prayers this morning were amazing.

Why do we sing? Why do we pray before we go into the teaching segment? I would say at least two reasons. One is to prepare our hearts because we're going to be there's a lot of distractions out there prepare our hearts get ready.

Jeff and I have been talking about and this is I'm throwing this one at you Michael where are you? I'm throwing this one at you. Should we intentionally have like two minutes of quietness before we actually start the service and invite people to let's kill the conversation and let's just prepare our hearts before we get started.

What a way to get your heart ready but I think another reason we do it is to prepare this room because I think as we gather together there were a number of Satan's minions waiting to do trouble and when those minions hear 30 male voices singing there's a million reasons to trust you I think alright I really do think I believe that that's part of the power that we have.

You see we got to get ready. We've got to get ready. Jesus the Son of God fully God yet fully man the night before he actually identified the twelve who would be called his apostles who went into his quietness and prayed all night to the Father and if Jesus all God finds it so important to spend an entire night before making this decision well I think that maybe is something that we need to do too.

If I'm going to give you one thing to carry through my time this morning it's be prepared. That's my one thing this morning is be prepared. Here was 1985. Michael Jordan was the rookie of the year. It would take a few years before he would win a championship.

The space race was going on. The race for conquering the space between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full swing and in fact did you know that the Soviet Union was the first to land a probe on Venus.

So that was all going on in 1985. Super Mario Brothers was released. We were talking about video games earlier today. There were some dramatic dramatic catastrophes. There was a volcano in Colombia that killed 23 ,000 people.

There was an earthquake in Mexico City that killed more than 9 ,000 people. Summit talks were going on between the Russia and the U .S. The Vietnam was over but the Cold War was people were scared of the bomb.

Life between the U .S. and the U .S .S .R. was scary. I served and I know what it was like to be serving during the Cold War. We knew each other but we were frightened of each other. We didn't trust each other.

We were in competition and there was fear. The United States had this feeling of superiority in many things. And one of those was in the world of boxing. The United States would define who was the world heavyweight champion.

That was our right. Along comes Ivan Drago. The Soviet Union had this massive specimen of a man, probably enhanced. And they're going to take on what nobody can take on, Ivan Drago. Well the first one wasn't Rocky.

It was Apollo. The first one was Apollo Creed. So Apollo Creed from the United States says we cannot let this guy have his way. So Apollo Creed, even though he was not the world heavyweight champion at the time, he had been, but he said I'm taking on Ivan Drago and we're going to show him what for.

And so they fought. Not only did Ivan Drago beat him, he killed him. And so Rocky then steps up. What was the difference between the two other than age? Apollo Creed never prepared. He was so confident that he was from the United States.

He was so confident he had been the world champion. He was so confident in his past exploits and this is just another out of the evil empire, Soviet Union. He was so confident he did not prepare. He went into the battle.

He didn't know how strong his foe was. He didn't know his foe's strength. He didn't know his own. He was unprepared. He went into the ring and not only did he lose, but he died. And so the movie then shifts scenes and you have Rocky who goes into the outer reaches of Russia, away from everybody else, and the most rudimentary of equipment, he trains and trains and trains and gets ready.

And it's interesting because the film will go to Rocky doing this and then Ivan Drago doing this with all the high tech. Here's the point. Ivan Drago was also prepared. Rocky, he had to be prepared. Now they fought in the ring.

They fought a physical battle. We see that as a battle between good and evil if you would, but clearly it was a physical battle. Gentlemen, ours is a spiritual war. Ours is a spiritual war. Somebody has Ephesians 6 got handed out.

Greg gave it. Oh, you haven't got it out yet? All right, Greg's going to be handing out slips of paper and reading. While he's doing that, Mike, I'm going to ask, while he's doing that, get Ephesians 6, verses 10 to 18.

There will be various times I'm going to ask you to read out of there, but if you would read the whole passage, Ephesians 6, 10 to 18.

Okay. We get,.

You may be able to withstand any evil day and having done all to stand firm. Stand there for, have you fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and then shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

We're in a spiritual battle, and I don't think any one of us can deny it. You may not feel it right now. I'm going to throw this thought out to you. If you don't feel spiritual battle, and if weeks can go by, and you don't feel spiritual battle, maybe it's because Satan doesn't think you're a threat.

Maybe it's because you have got such a deluded, watered-down version of faith and willingness to listen to the Great Commission. He knows he can't take you away from your salvation. All Satan can do is make you ineffective.

And maybe your life is so watered down that you're not a threat, so he's not going to jostle that cup and maybe wake you up. If you're not feeling it at all, maybe start praying about it. But here's the thing.

We cannot wait until the spiritual battle to get ready. So the question is, why is it necessary to be prepared for a spiritual battle? And I would say, first of all, out of this passage, our battle, our war, is not against flesh and blood.

It's not against flesh and blood. There are battles that are going on that are beyond our nature to be able to fight. We are built as men. There's the fight-and-flight syndrome. And most of us, at the right time, whatever it may be, we're going to stop and we're going to do mortal combat because combat is there.

But we don't battle against flesh and blood. Ours is against, it's a spiritual battle. There is one who knows about you. I'm here to tell you that Satan is not omniscient. He does not know everything about you.

But Satan is tenacious and does not give up and he will continue to try things that are going to maybe impact you in your specific way. And he's got a database and it says, Joey, that's a good one. I got that.

And he shares it with all the minions.

Joey's got a weakness over there, guys. If you need that one, pull that card out. He is our foe and he is going to be on the attack. He has such a need to replace God on the throne. And he even said that when he was up in heaven.

I will make myself like the most high. That he has to fulfill that proclamation. And the way to do that right now is to take each one of us 30 who have bowed the knee to the Lord and make it so that when we leave this room and we go out into the world, we're not going to be that witness.

This is a spiritual battle. The risks of not being prepared because the spiritual warfare will come. The first risk is that we tend to underestimate the thought. Culture has done a great job of normalizing the existence of Satan to where on Halloween there will be kids dressed up as a cute little Satan.

There are TV shows about witches and everything is done to make them seem OK. And so we underestimate the danger and the power and the abilities because, you see, we believe as men that we can control what's going on based on our experiences, based on our own value, self-worth, self-strength.

We have to know that our foe is Satan.

It cannot be minimized.

We have to understand the reason why he's going after us. Because my passport says citizen of the kingdom of God. Same with you guys. That's what my passport says now. Then there's no expiration date.

My passport has my birth date and my rebirth date.

OK, he knows this,.

But he wants us not to pass him along. And so that's his agenda. Get in our face. And he is so powerful. I think that we minimize the power that Satan has. Daniel 9. It's an amazing chapter. It's not going to be until sometime in the fall when we teach it.

Daniel is reading the scroll. The nation is in captivity. And it's been proclamated by God that there will be a year for every time that the nation of Israel did not give the Sabbath rest to the Lamb.

And it turned out they would be in captivity for 70 years. It was proclamated. And after the end of 70 years,.

My people who are called by my name.

Will pray. I will answer their prayer.

He goes,.

It's just about 70 years he prayed. I think you spoke about this yesterday. God sent Gabriel. He couldn't get to Daniel. Gabriel, the messenger angel,.

Could not get to Daniel.

Because the devils were holding him back. He couldn't get away. God sends Michael and the battle is on and Gabriel is free. Do not underestimate the power of your foe, Satan. Do not underestimate him.

By thinking, I've been a believer for a long time. I'm solid in my faith. I have the Holy Spirit. Do not underestimate the power that Satan has. Because it's real. We have to get prepared. The second big risk is overestimating yourself.

Thinking that you are going to deal in the battle.

When the battle comes.

Plenty of time.

Plenty of time to take care of it.

When the battle comes.

I gave Romans 12 to somebody. Did somebody have that?

Go ahead. Yes.

For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.

Don't think highly of yourself that is appropriate.

Don't.

But you know what you do have? You've got faith. And faith appropriated when it's appropriate, when it's taken on hold, is going to be the shield that you need. It's going to be what we're given. Galatians 6 .3 is going to tell us that when somebody thinks he's something,.

When he's nothing,.

He's deceiving himself. You're thinking too highly of yourself. That spiritual battle is not going to be a problem for me. Proverbs 3 .5 says, trust the Lord with all your heart and not on your own understanding.

Having this opinion of yourself that you are more than you really are puts you at high risk for that spiritual battle. The nation of Israel, I was going to ask my brother Jeremy, where are you? Do you know the story of the two battles of Ai?

Okay.

Nation of Israel. Nation of Israel goes into the promised land, beginning of Joshua. And God says, fear not for I am with you. I will go before you. I will fight the battle for you. They go to Jericho.

There's no way they beat Jericho except they walk around the city. Six days. The seventh day they walk around,.

The trumpets blow,.

The walls come down.

Total victory.

And so now they go into a camp after Jericho and the next city up is going to be Ai. Just a little thing. It's not recorded that Joshua ever turns to the Lord. In fact, it's not even recorded that they weren't aware of the sin that was in their camp.

And so they went totally unprepared and they were routed. They came back, confessed, got right, sought the Lord, fought the battle again, and won. Estimate yourself. Joshua was convinced, I already won a great war, I know how to do this.

You see the word Ai in that approach. And it wasn't until they stopped saying Ai and said You, Lord, that they finally won. Don't overestimate yourself. So what does it mean to be prepared for a spiritual battle?

Verse 10 in what Michael read is going to tell us to be strong in the Lord, not in yourself.

Peter.

There's a character for you. Though everyone else deny you,.

I won't do it.

I got news for you, Peter, before the cock crows. You're going to deny me three times. He had a problem of self-worth. Thinking that he could take care of it. And not being,. Jesus is walking on the water.

Peter goes, Oh wow, it's you, Lord.

Come on, come on, come on.

And he goes running until he hears the first wave hits him on the side of the face. He looks at the water and he goes down. Help me, Lord. Be aware and be strong in the Lord, not in yourself. 1 Chronicles 29.

Who's got that?

Go ahead.

Yours, O Yahweh, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty and everything that is in the heavens and the earth. Yours is the kingdom, O Yahweh, and you exalt yourself as head over all.

I'm going to challenge you guys to memorize that verse. 1 Chronicles 29, 11. And if you memorize that verse coming out of this, listen, I don't know if I'm in a position to get ready for the spiritual battle.

Matthew 20, 19, 26. It's a story about Jesus talking to a rich young ruler. He says, I've kept all the laws. What do I have to do to enter the kingdom of God? And Jesus says, sell everything you've got.

And he was distressed because this was one bridge too far. And Jesus said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a man to enter the kingdom of heaven. He says, with man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

Being prepared is allowing the strength of God to be your guide. For yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty. For all that is in the heavens and the earth.

Is yours.

Yours is the kingdom, O Lord. You are exalted as head above all. We are then told with some practical steps of being prepared for the battle. And it's in Ephesians 6. We are told to put on the armor of God.

The first thing that you want to do before you put on the armor is take inventory of yourself.

See, there are things about us.

That we hold in awe. I don't know about you, but there are things that we are in awe of ourself because we are so capable. I can read that book and I can talk to people about that book. I pray 13 times a day, whatever hit the eye in it.

We are in awe of ourself. But the things that don't matter are the things that are of self. It could be stamina. It could be strength. It could be insight. If it's of you, they don't matter in the spiritual battle.

The things that do matter.

Are things like the Holy Spirit,.

The gifts that He gives us, the Word of God, prayer, the armor, the church, and one another's fellowship. These are things that God ordains and gives us. They do matter. Start out by acknowledging the battle is there and that you are vulnerable in the battle against Satan.

We need to know where the battle occurs. We need to be responding accordingly and be prepared before that battle ever starts. And so God's armory is listed. Give me verses 14 to 18 again, please, Michael.

14 to 18.

Yes, give me those again, please.

All right.

So, verse 14. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and have shoes for your feet.

And having put on the readiness.

Given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flirting guts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation.

And the sword of the Spirit,.

Which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all things.

Truth, righteousness,.

The Word of God, the gospel,.

Faith, salvation, the Word of God again, and prayer.

This is the armory.

This is the armory that when we know we're going to be in spiritual battle, we need to go to that armory before this starts and to appropriate these. The belt of truth is that which helps us to withstand counterfeit.

That's one of the first attacks that Satan is going to give at you is truth light. The first one he's going to give you is going to be some deviation to the truth. I don't know all of you that well. I'm getting to know many of you better, but if somebody came up to our pulpit up front.

And said,.

Brothers and sisters, I now know what God wants. He wants us to have a gay pastor. You would say no. It's a bridge way too far, but it's that first subtle thing. It's that first subtle thing. And if you know truth, you see truth is not a relative thing.

Truth is not something that you get to define for yourself what is truth. There is one truth.

It's God's truth.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the light. There is no room for deviation or for swaying away from that one truth. And the more that you know that truth, and you've put that on as a belt of truth, when those little deviations come, you'll recognize it.

And by the way,.

The more that you know it, and it's there, and you can say, I don't agree with this because of this verse. It's not because I heard my pastor talk about it. Although that's a good thing. But you should follow up hearing what the pastor says and read it for yourself and know the passage.

Having truth enables you to withstand and to recognize and to see falsehood. The second one is this breastplate of righteousness. This was a piece of armor that was worn over the torso. This is the piece that was very defensive.

And very protective.

And it protected the heart. It protected you by the grace of God, this breastplate of righteousness. Because in and of me, I have no righteousness. In and of me, I cannot stand. We sang about that this morning.

My righteousness is nothing. If I put on the breastplate of righteousness, that says I am allowing the shield of God to protect my heart. That says in things of my life, I'm aligned with truth. In other words, when I'm tempted to go down that aisle in the drugstore where I know there's pornography, I'm protected from that.

I'm going to go in a different way. Having this protection from those things, my life is going to be aligned with God, with this breastplate on. My life journey is defined by righteousness, not by convenience or pleasure, peer pressure.

Young folks, you're going to be going through various stages of school where peer pressure cannot be underestimated. They're going to make it sound bright and fun. They're going to attack. Guys, when you're in the workplace and it comes to be Friday afternoon and all the guys are going to go out and knock a few down before they go home, they won't understand why you're not.

I want you to walk with the breastplate of righteousness that defines. You should eschew, you should avoid those habits that maybe you had before you were saved, or maybe they're creeping back into your life.

One of the comments coming out of my psychology classes is a good habit takes two weeks to establish. A bad habit takes one day. And I wonder why that is. Who's really motivating one side or the other?

But the other part of this breastplate of righteousness is to be transparent before God. What is it that destroys that breastplate of righteousness, its sin, its unrighteous acts? And you know through the guide of the Holy Spirit when those things are happening.

Be transparent with God. Confess it, repent it, and restore yourself with that breastplate of righteousness. Now shod your feet with the gospel. The gospel is the good news. It's the good news that I am a sinner.

God sent his son to die for my sins, ordained from before the foundation of the earth. There was nothing I could do to fix my sinful problem. He died on the cross. That one moment in time, the father turned away because the sin was on Jesus on that cross.

But then he said, just tell us to die and something's finished.

This is the gospel.

This is something that we should be walking in the world prepared with the gospel. Our feet shod. That everywhere we go, this gospel message is on the ready.

It's with us.

2 Timothy 3, 16, 17 is going to tell us all scripture is given by inspiration of God. I know that love is powerful for adoption, for improvement, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. The man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished under every good works.

When I walk in this world and the gospel is on my feet, I have no pebbles in my shoes. Having the gospel, having your feet shod with the gospel takes work.

Study.

Meditation.

Slow down when you read the scriptures. If you find a passage that gets your attention,.

Just slow down.

Pray about it.

Make five observations about a passage in scripture that got your attention. Meditate on it so that it's something you take with you during the day. And then there's the M word.

What's the M word?

Memorize.

There's no better way to be protected in the battle than to be prepared by memorizing. By the way, that would be a good one for you to memorize. And then apply it. When you read in the scriptures and there is a word in there that applies to your life, apply it and then celebrate it.

Repeat it back to God, the shield of faith. Hebrews 11, who's got that?

That's me.

Go ahead.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen.

There's nothing that we do to control this other than live in it. Faith are things that we do. It's the assurance of things that we're hoping for. So it's these things that we have in the future. This isn't like I wish, I wish, I wish.

This isn't my future. This is my hope and I'm confident in that hope because I have faith. Even though I don't see it, I'm convinced. I'm convinced that it's there. Self-defense is not sufficient in the spiritual battle.

Spiritual defense is sufficient in the spiritual. So take on with this faith. The picture of the shield. The soldiers would be carrying, the front row of the soldiers would have these shields. They'd be like six, seven feet tall.

They'd be wide. And as they walked up in front, they would sit and they would sit behind the shield. And the enemy lines firing arrows at the line wouldn't hit the person carrying the shield because the shield would protect them.

You're not stopping the arrow from being fired, but you're protected from the damage that that arrow could inflict. The only protection you're going to have out of those arrows that are coming from Satan are this shield of faith.

Because my faith is in him, not in me. Faith changes the outcome of the battle. But when the battle is going on, it's a little too late to try to make faith work and fit who you are. Take it on. And the helmet of salvation identifies, signifies my new identity.

Think about a helmet that sits on your head. Many of you, I'm sure, have seen war movies. And you can tell the Russian GIs from the Germans. Their helmet looks different. Take that helmet of salvation.

This is your new identity. This represents protecting my mind against Satan's thoughts. But where is he going to start to succeed by changing the thoughts in your mind? Put that helmet of salvation. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

And then we get into the word of God. We are told to take the one offensive piece of armor as the sword of the word of God. My grandson has followed in my footsteps. I was a collegiate fencer. That didn't mean I sold TVs.

In case you were wondering.

Fencing, all right?

Olympic-style fencing. My grandson has picked up on it. I've had fun giving him some thoughts because two things are going to happen in a match,.

In a fencing match.

One is your opponent is going to attempt to attack you. And what are you supposed to do?

Parry.

What, with your hand?

No, with your sword.

With your sword.

You push that attack out of the way. And then the other thing, after you've parried, what are you supposed to do?

Repose. Repose.

You come back on the attack.

The sword is actually a defensive tool, but it is the offensive tool that we have. The foe is going to use his sword to damage you. His agenda is to injure you, to destroy your effectiveness. And what you have that he cannot overcome is the Word of God.

There is no fabricated lie. There is no accusation that Satan can throw at you. There is no attempt to derail you. That can't stop the Word of God. With that, you use it to parry his attack and to go after him.

I love the account in the wilderness where Satan attacks Jesus. You can't answer this, Rich. You know the answer. What does Jesus do on all three attacks?

He uses the Word of God.

He uses the Word of God correctly.

See, Satan distorted the Word of God,.

And Jesus correctly used the Word of God to deflect the attack and to go right at Satan's heart. I want you to be careful of one thing here. There is a risk of being in the midst of a spiritual battle of some sort and saying, yeah, but God said.

Yeah?

Who's got my book, Retraction? It's a paragraph and a half through. Who did you get the book to?

I've got it. You've got it. OK.

A few months later.

Yeah.

Yeah, right here.

Yeah. OK.

A few months later, I left for Bible college to pursue a pastoral degree. During my first semester, I commuted with two other guys for the two-hour trip one way. They were mature Christians, and I welcomed the opportunity to converse with them on all things spiritual twice a week with eight hours of road time.