1. The concept of “Spiritual Warfare” as opposed to physical warfare.
2. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are engaged in spiritual warfare on a personal level and in a wider sense in terms of attacks upon the church. Last week we spoke of …
B. Review last week’s message (“Tough Love”)
C. Introduce this week’s message (“Wicked Schemes”)
1. Opening Illustration
2. Opening comments regarding the devil
II. Body
A. Distraction
1. Attention is on material things rather than spiritual.
a) 1 John 2: 15-16 – Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.
b) Cf. 2 Cor. 10: 1-4 – “Spiritual warfare” as opposed to material warfare.
(1) 2 Tim. 2: 4 – No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who has chosen him to be a soldier.
(2) We become weak and in-effective when we major on the minors and minor on the majors.
c) Illustration: -- It was a 99-degree Sept. day in San Antonio when a woman accidentally locked her 10 month-old baby niece inside a parked car. … “The lady was mad at me because I broke the window.. I just thought, what’s more important—the baby or the window?” (Fred Arriola)
2. Priorities out of balance.
a) Cf.: -- Colossians 3: 2 – Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
b) Keep first things first.
B. Discouragement
1. One of Satan’s most potent weapons is trying to get you into a feeling of discouragement, so maybe you’ll give up.
a) Discouragement is a lack of hope.
b) Often it comes after a major break-through or victory.
2. People often discourage us.
a) Oswald Chambers said, “A man who is continually criticized becomes a good for nothing; the effect of criticism knocks all the gumption and power out of him.”
b) Spouses can often fall into a habit of discouragement
c) Church volunteers can find discouragement by the words of other people.
3. Circumstances can discourage us.
a) Where we are in life and where we want to be.
b) National affairs
c) Failures – “Embrace failure but don’t let failure become your friend.”
4. Galatians 6: 9 – And let us not get tired of doing what is right, for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t get discouraged and give up.
C. Disillusionment
1. Disillusionment is the state of being disenchanted or disappointed by unfulfilled expectations.
a) Proverbs 13: 12 – Hope deferred makes the heart sick; but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
b) Illus: “Beach sand castles” –
(1) Have some of your carefully created castles been washed away?
(2) Waves need not always destroy. God uses them to often re-direct our lives.
2. If you expect perfection from people, your whole life is a series of disappointments, grumblings, and complaints.
a) It is easy to become disillusioned with other people. Paul’s interaction with the people at Corinth was apparently filled various disappointments.
b) When Gene Smith wrote his book about the life of Herbert Hoover, he entitled it, “The Shattered Dream.”
(1) Many lesser figures have also experienced shattered dreams. In fact it is a rare person who has not, at least once in life, known a shattered dream.
(2) The question is, "Do we keep on working, do we keep on dreaming, do we keep our spirits high?" (Robert C. Shannon)
c) Bruce Barton (1886-1967) said, “If you pitch your expectations low, taking folks as the inefficient creatures, which they are, you are frequently surprised by having them perform better than you had hoped.”
d) Frederick Faber (1814-1863) said, “There are no disappointments to those whose wills are buried in the will of God.
3. 1 Corinthians 11: 1 – Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. (NIV) Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
D. Discontentment
1. This is a big one.
2. Numbers 21: 5-6 – And the people spoke against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loathes this light bread. And the LORD sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died."
a) Saint John of the Cross (1542-1591) said, “The children of Israel did not find in the manna all the sweetness and strength they might have found in it; not because the manna did not contain them, but because they longed for other meat.”
b) 1 Corinthians 10: 10 -- And do not grumble, as some of them did — and were killed by the destroying angel.
3. We are often unhappy because we want something we don’t have or can’t have.
a) “The grass is greener on the other side.”
b) One person noted, “Half the world is unhappy because it can’t have the things that are making the other half unhappy.”
c) Samuel Butler said, “Complainers are the greatest persecutors.” (1612-1680)
d) When your car begins to ping and knock, you know something is wrong inside.
4. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) -- Nine requisites for contented living:
a) Health enough to make work a pleasure
b) Wealth enough to support your needs;
c) Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them;
d) Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them;
e) Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
f) Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor;
g) Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others;
h) Faith enough to make real the things of God;
i) Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future
5. Colossians 3: 17 – And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.
E. Discord (division)
1. 1 Corinthians 1: 10-11 – Now I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
2. There are four ways the devil brings about division in the church.
a) Selfishness
b) Favoritism
c) Narrow-mindedness
d) Lack of Fellowship
3. Alan Redpath noted, “The secret of every discord in Christian homes, communities, and churches is that we seek our own way and our own glory.”
a) A. W. Tozer said, “It is too bad that anything so obvious should need to be said at this late date, but from all appearances, we Christians have about forgotten the lesson so carefully taught by Paul: God’s servants are not to be competitors, but co-workers.
b) The problem with the church today is not corruption. It is not institutionalism. No, the problem is far more serious than something like the isolated incidents of pedophiler priests. The problem is pettiness. Blatant pettiness.
F. Disassociation
1. Hebrews 10: 25 – Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
2. Communion is strength; solitude is weakness. Alone, the eland is an easy target for the stalking lion. The devil would like to isolate believers just like predators separate their prey from the herd thereby weakening it and easily killing and devouring it.
a) 1 Peter 5:8 "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:"
b) Billy Graham said, “Churchgoers are like coals in a fire. When they cling together, they keep the flame aglow; when they separate, they die out.
3. The German philosopher Schopenhauer compared the human race to a bunch of porcupines huddling together on a cold winter’s night. He said, "The colder it gets outside, the more we huddle together for warmth; but the closer we get to one another, the more we hurt one another with our sharp quills. And in the lonely night of earth’s winter eventually we begin to drift apart and wander out on our own and freeze to death in our loneliness."
a) Christ has given us an alternative: to forgive each other for the pokes we receive. That allows us to stay together and stay warm.
b) Paul’s emphasis on forgiveness to the repentant offending brother in this epistle.
