The spiritual discipline that I want to look at tonight is “service” as a Christian we should serve the local body of believers…that means we should be volunteering for ministries or a ministry on a consistent basis. We should be serving it is a discipline.
What I want to do tonight is give a staunch reminder of the fact that as we “serve” we are actually enlisted in battle and it is a spiritual battle.
Let me just inform you…the Spiritual discipline of serving the Lord is actually going to battle for Him because there are spiritual forces against you.
I think if we start looking at our service to the Lord in the light of the fact that we are battling the spiritual forces of evil we will start to take it more seriously.
As I have done the past three weeks I want to look at the concept of “Battle” through the eyes of what Jesus says the greatest commandment is. Love the Lord you God…
-Our Heart has to be in the right place to do battle. Acts 5:3 Satan “filled” control or influence his heart and not only did they lie but it damaged his service to the Lord. Their lie was to cover up selfishness…many times we do not serve the Lord because we are selfish.
Sometimes because we are selfish we act like what we are doing is serving the Lord but it really serving our own ego.
This become extremely dangerous for those of you that have been in the faith for a while. Psalm 55:20-22 we learn how to say the and do the right things but our heart is waging war.
How? Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, "I have made my heart pure; I am clean from my sin"? Only the Lord can make our hearts pure first of all in Salvation GOSPEL.
As a Christian we need to be reading His Word, spend time in prayer and repenting of and confessing sin.
Now as a Christian who’s heart has been made pure and who is practicing the 3 disciplines we discussed in the last three weeks we are ready for Battle.
-We do battle with our mind- 2 Cor 10:3-5 Notice Paul is saying here that we destroy arguments against God by…using our mind to take “every thought captive” This helps us to understand that when you have a doubt you put it to the test. (I don’t know enough to talk to others)
2 Corinthians 2:10-12 “outwitted” The Puritan Thomas Brookes wrote a book based on verse 11 called “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices”
Here is Brookes remedies when “Satan casts in vain thoughts while we are seeking to serve God”
1. The God we serve is great, holy, majestic and glorious.
2. Despite wandering thoughts it is needful to be resolute in service.
3. Vain and useless thoughts that Satan casts in are not sins if they are resisted and disclaimed.
4. Watching against and resisting sinful thoughts are evidences of grace and sincerity of our hearts.
5. We must labor (serve) to be filled with the fullness of God.
6. We must labor (serve) to keep up holy and spiritual affections.
7. We must labor (serve) to avoid worldly cares.
It is about having an understanding what is going on when you serve.
Examples:
-“I am going to feed the homeless”: Realize that the homeless are people that need to hear the good news, they may feel that the Lord has rejected them like society has, they may not realize that there is a spiritual stronghold from Satan and his demons that is keeping them from getting out of their situation.
-“I volunteer for nursery”: Realize that those babies need to be safe and cared for and Satan and his demons want them to be uncomfortable and not want to stay in the nursery, therefore the parents don’t feel comfortable leaving them down there and then they don’t stay for service.
-“I clean the church”: Realize that when you are cleaning you are making the church look good so when new people walk through the doors they don’t feel that they are in a place that no one cares about. Satan and his demons will use that to defame the name of the Lord and His people.
-“I run a Community Group”: Realize how welcoming you are can impact the people that come out. How you keep people on track with what you are doing will assist in a helpful meeting for everyone. Satan and his demons don’t want them coming to your house for spiritual development so he will try to get in the way and cause them to act on their bad attitude or their frustration when the group is not doing just what they think it should.
With our mind we purpose to serve the Lord
-We do battle with our strength Eph 6:10-12 God equips us with the strength
David said in 2 Samuel 22:39-41 that the Lord equipped him with strength for battle.
How? Romans 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
The battle is for souls.
Interestingly enough, as a Christian Satan’s number one battle against us is to lead us into sin. As Brookes tells us he “hides the hook with the bait”
Remedies from Brookes
1. Keep greatest distance from sin and playing with the bait.
2. Understand sin is bitter sweet.
3. Understand sin will usher the greatest and saddest loses.
4. Understand sin is deceitful and bewitching.
5. Understand sin is losing the battle.
1 Peter 5:1-9 sums up our service or battle plan.
Emphasis on verse 8 We battle for the Lord because it is over Souls. The very souls of our friends and family members, the people at work and at school, the person next door, the stranger.
No comments:
Post a Comment