INVINCIBLE CHURCH 8-4-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
8/4/2024
Enemies of God Pt 2
Various Scriptures
Aiding and Abetting The Enemy
Most people who have been blessed to spend any “significant” amount of time at all in the church know more than they think or realize about the Bible! But, most people’s general knowledge pertains to the main characters in the Bible who God used to reveal Himself to the world!
Because these key people were “chosen” by God, we would never “think” of them as “Enemies of God,” even though at various times in their lives, every one of them “sinned and dishonored” God in some really “major ways”! But, even in their “seasons of disobedience,” they weren’t Enemies of God!
So, as God’s people, we’re never considered His enemy. But, if we’re living in “continual/unrepentant” sin, we’re guilty of “aiding and abetting” the enemy! This means we step outside the hand of God’s favor, so we can’t be blessed, and by default, we help the enemy!
God still loves us, but we’re operating in the dangerous realm of “spiritual darkness” without the protection of God’s “iron dome of defense”! He doesn’t take it away! He always keeps it in place and functioning perfectly. We just choose to “step out” from under it!
There are examples of it in the Bible from “cover to cover”:
Adam and Eve – Failed to follow instructions / Broke boundaries / Committed the original sin
Noah – Faithful / Obedient / Righteous at first but had an incident: Drunk / Passed out naked
Abram [a.k.a. Abraham] – Impatient / Adultery / Deceit
Isaac – Favoritism
Jacob – Deceit
Joseph – Pride
Moses – Murder / Anger / Impatience
Joshua – Obedient most of the time, then made critical decisions without seeking God first
Eli – Fear / Doubt
Samuel – Anxiety / Favoritism
Saul – Pride / Arrogance
David – Murder / Adultery
Solomon – Polygamy / Indulgence
The Old Testament prophets – Some of “all the above”!
That’s just “scratching the surface” of the Old Testament! We could spend years “digging deeper” in the Old Testament before we ever even “get to” the New Testament! But today we’re going to start with a verse from last week and celebrate what God uses us to do for His glory. When just one faithful Follower of Jesus takes a stand for what’s: good – right – pure – and God-honoring!
Colossians 1:21 NIV - 21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior!
Notice it says “once,” not “always”! It also says “in our minds,” not “in our hearts”! A True Follower of Jesus doesn’t have an evil heart! But, the passage also says that sometimes we’re guilty of “evil behavior,” and “evil behavior” is what leads us to:
Aiding and Abetting the “Enemies of God”
We are going to look at three examples in the form of “real-life” stories. We’re going to start with one from the Old Testament and then finish with two from the current day! The goal is to learn how to recognize when the enemy is tempting us to trust our “mind and feelings,” where our “selfish preferences” reside, instead of trusting the Holy Spirit, who lives in our “heart and soul.”
We have to train our brains to seek God first and “discern” the actions he would have us take before we react to the temptation that the enemy is trying to manipulate into our “mind and feelings,” so we can defeat the temptation that’ll “aid and abet” the enemy!
So the first one is:
We can “aid and abet” an enemy of God when we allow our “physical fear” to prevent us from accomplishing God’s purposes for us! We see it in the story of David and Goliath. David was full of “faith and passion” for God and would not tolerate Goliath “disrespecting” God’s name!
When David “showed up” at the battlefront, Goliath was “blaspheming and mocking” God! So, David went right into “battle mode” by seeking God first to defend the “honor and name” of God’s kingdom! David took a stand against Goliath and killed him with a “stone and sling”!
1 Samuel 17:45-47 NIV - 45 David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. 46 This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give all of you into our hands.”
Then he cut off Goliath’s head with the giant’s sword! [Signified “total domination”] When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they ran from the Israelites! God gave Israel a great victory because one man was willing to “stand and fight” for God’s name!
An important point in this story is that Goliath was taunting the Israelites by dishonoring the sovereign God of the universe! He was challenging God’s people to “stand up” to him and prove that their God was more powerful than he was!
Until David “showed up,” none of the Israelite soldiers were willing to “step out” in faith and face the giant! But, David’s faith was so strong; he was willing to “believe and trust” that God would “go” with him and give him the “ability and power” to defeat the giant!
David’s faith was strong because he had always focused his life on pursuing the “things and ways” of God! He had experienced the “grace and mercy” of God all through his life! God had delivered him out of all kinds of “difficult and dangerous” “circumstances and situations” in the past!
Since David “chose” a “lifestyle” of pursuing God first, “no matter what,” he had a whole lot of opportunities to see the: faithfulness – credibility – and powerful nature of God “firsthand”! It was a continual “process” that increased his: belief – faith – and trust in God!
David had “no doubt” that God would be with him in the battle and deliver him from the Philistine! He had “no doubt” that God would lead him to a victory over “evil” for the sake of His kingdom because David’s motive was purely to defend “God’s honor.”
This sets up #2:
2. We can also “aid and abet” an enemy of God by “doubting His promises”! It’s It is always going to hinder us “in accomplishing” the purposes He has for us! One of the “easiest and most direct” ways God gives us to evaluate ourselves and see if we have this kind of “doubt” in God’s promises is through the tithe!
Look at:
Malachi 3:8-10 NIV - 8 “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob Me! But you ask, ‘How are we robbing You?’ In tithes and offerings! 9 You are under a curse – your whole nation – because you are robbing Me! 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in My House! Test Me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it!
This is the only situation in the Bible where God tells us to “test Him”! It is acceptable to “test God” in regard to “tithes and offerings.” But, even this test is “unacceptable” if we go into it with a mindset of doubt in His “promise and provision”!
Another “unacceptable” kind of testing is when our “doubt” leads us to “demand” something from God to prove Himself to us! We see it when Satan tried to tempt Jesus into jumping off the highest point of the temple mount so God would command angels to save Him!
Jesus told Satan, it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test”! Satan was trying to manipulate Jesus into “proving” God’s Word was true by forcing God’s hand! If Jesus was in danger, God would have to save Him! But, Jesus refused to test God because:
We are supposed to accept God’s Word by faith without requiring a “sign”! God’s promises are always there for us when we need them. So, it is “evil behavior” to manipulate our situations trying to “persuade or coerce” God into fulfilling His promises! Jesus said ititHimself in:
Luke 11:29 NIV - 29 As the crowds increased, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation; it asks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” [The Preaching of the Truth}
The greatest “real-life” example that I was ever blessed to be a part of in this was at another church where I served. Part of my responsibility was overseeing “the church budget.” The lead pastor came to me, saying God had put something on his heart. The story was explained in person or can be watched online
I saved the best for last.
3. We can also “aid and abet” an enemy of God by “failing to take a stand” against worldly organizations, companies, and entities that try to “mandate or require” us to compromise the biblical principles of our faith. One of the most common reasons that professing followers of Jesus fail to take a stand is the fear of “personal financial ruin.”
By the way, “financial ruin” doesn’t keep God from accomplishing His purposes through us. What it does do, though, is prevent us from accomplishing “our purposes” for ourselves. Listen, it is okay to be wealthy as long as our focus, motives, and goals are all on Jesus!
Now for the rest of the story. Most everybody is aware of, and probably has been affected by, the “evil push” for diversity, equity, and inclusion ([DEI]). It would take a multi-message sermon series to cover everything the Bible says about [DEI].
It is all attached to the demonic strategy of “wokeism,” and there are too many acronyms to list here! There are so many components to this evil strategy that even proponents of it stay confused. Plus, we know that God is not the author of “chaos and confusion.”
But every bit of it is judgmental, biased, hateful, spiteful, unforgiving, irrational, perverted, and rooted in “evil and paganism”! But the enemy has disguised it as equitable, reasonable, and inclusive. Like with all deception of the enemy, it’s totally the opposite!
What is proving true in real-time and in real-life examples is, “Get woke, go broke”—both spiritually and financially. There is a passage that gives us valuable insight into the benefits of doing things “God’s way” and the bad consequences of doing things “the world’s way”:
Daniel 1:8-10 NIV: 8 But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. 9 Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, 10 but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.” The passage goes on to say that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah became the best at everything, so the king put them in his service.
I can give a lot of real-life “firsthand testimonies” about faithful True Followers of Jesus taking a stand for “right vs. wrong” and “good vs. evil,” many from right here in our faithful Invincible Church family. But I want to take a minute to talk about the most recent one!
It is kind of a parallel with the Daniel passage. A lot of you know that we have been praying for our faithful brother Corby and his job situation. This journey didn’t start for Corby in the past two years. This same company downsized back in 2015, and Corby got laid off.
But he kept running the race with “patient endurance”! He ended up working for the City of Rockwall, running a weed eater, and quickly became a supervisor, speaking the truth of Jesus every opportunity God gave him. It was kind of like God sent him to a training program!
In 2017, he was called back to the original company and quickly started moving up the ladder again, traveling all over the world as a “trusted representative” of this company. Then recently, the company made the decision to require “acceptance and training” in [DEI].
When Corby saw the agenda for the training, he could see “right away” that a whole lot of it would “dishonor God” and compromise the biblical principles of his faith in Jesus. So, he started seeking God and called on “brothers and sisters” to pray.
I’ve told this story to a few people since finding out about it. Some have said it is just the company trying to avoid a lawsuit, and maybe that’s so. But the “hand of God” isn’t one-dimensional, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional!
The “dimensions and dynamics” of God are “infinite and unlimited”! This is a worldwide company, and the ripple effect of what God will do through the faithful act of one, two, or three True Followers of Jesus out of somewhere between 6,000 and maybe as high as 18,000 people will reverberate to people all over the world!
We can’t even imagine all the things God will do through the faithful stand that our brother Corby took for what is right. So, faith by definition is taking a risk! When true faith is present, obedience follows. God loves “faith-inspired” obedient action!
When we “live out” our faith in who God is, He will always prove that He is faithful to His children. But if we view God through our doubt and expect something of Him as a way of determining whether or not we are going to trust Him, we are in danger of testing God.
So, these “real-life” stories of victory for “right vs. wrong” or “good vs. evil” ought to prove to us that the God we serve is capable of defeating any of the giants in our lives—anger, fear, depression, financial issues, doubts of faith, or whatever else we’re dealing with!
It should also give us the “confidence and courage” to know that as an ambassador, warrior, servant, or saint for Jesus, we can “take on” any challenge of “dishonor and disrespect” to God’s name that the enemy wants to throw at us!
If we have a strong belief in God, faith in Jesus, and trust in the Holy Spirit, then we’ll be in continual prayer to discern the action that God would have us take to defend His honor against any attacks from the enemy.
We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but we know what’s happening now, and a whole lot of it is blasphemous and an abomination to God. So, we have to trust Him and stand up for what’s right!
Now, it is hard to trust somebody we don’t know very well. We can only know God better through prayer, His word, and serving Him in obedience to whatever He calls us to do. It is what builds our faith in Jesus!
The “big takeaway” from today’s message is that for a True Follower of Jesus, battles with the giants in our lives will always result in victory if we stay true to our faith in God and His power!