The Fight's Too Big For You

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"The Fights Too Big For You" Brian Loveless Sermon on June 25, 2017 at Calvary Baptist Church, Grand Prairie, Texas. Part 1 of the series "Before The War"




Ephesians Chapter six. If you've been keeping up with the news you know that it's been an interesting week with all that has been going on in regard to Syria. Our fighter shot down a Syrian jet, Syrian drone. We had the Russian military fly within about five feet of one of our planes in a show of aggression. An article in The Guardian, the title of it this week was “As Syria's War Enters Its Endgame the Risk of a US Russia Conflict Escalates” We're always kind of living in the shadow of, it's not really if, it's just sort of when, right? Whether it's Russia, whether it's North Korea...

The Washington Times had an article a couple of months ago entitled “Is War With China Inevitable” and it noted in the article that half of China's public believes that military conflict between China and the United States will occur within the next 10 years. We're kind of always living in that shadow of what may come next, always in the shadow of war.

That shouldn't be a big surprise to us Jesus told us in Matthew 24 “you will hear of wars and rumors of wars” He said especially as I'm preparing to return. It's almost like birth pangs, those contractions are going to get closer and closer. You're going to see more wars, you're going to see more earthquakes, you're going to see more confusion, and you’re going to see more violence. Here in the month of August, God willing, leading up to judgment house I'm going to start a series on the end times; a series on the book of Revelation where we'll talk more about that war at length.

This morning however, I want to talk about a different kind of war. You see it is my belief that every single person in this room has a war to fight this week. Every single one of us on the floor, in the balcony, those working back there with our kids. Every single one of us in one way or another is going to go to war this week. Now bear with me just a minute, I want to cast this net exceptionally broad and see if maybe one of these fits you, so bear with me just a moment.

Your war may be external. Your war may be financial, this week is just another struggle with debt, and debt collectors, and unpaid bills and “how are we going to make ends meet”, and the car went out, and this happened, and that happened, and we got to send the kids to college one day... we got just a war every day not only in the bank account but between your ears - Financially. Your war may be financial in the sense that you have got to go to work and earn a living, but you hate your job. You can't stand what you do, and every day you feel like it's war with an unfair boss, its war with conditions that are so taxing you drive home every night thinking “I can't do this again”. You got to make a living so you find a way.

For some of you, your war this week is going to be physical. Some of you are fighting a war with your health, okay? Cancer, arthritis, trouble with your back, one of ten million different things, you have daily pain, daily struggle. You're in this brand-new phase of life with aging where you're not able to do the things you used to do and it bothers you. Every single day you have struggles you've never faced before, and that's your battle every day, to just make it through the day physically. You know what? For a whole lot of us it's a battle with our weight. I say that when we don't talk a lot about that in churches, I talk more about it because you know it's been a struggle for me. You know you see me up here or on that video. There's up, then there's down, and [with] these two eye injuries I got on the wrong side of that thing. Now I'm working to get back. I'm telling you this week it'll be a battle because there's good food everywhere and I really want to eat it! Right? But it's a fight. I want to live to see my kids grow up. I want to have a healthy body to serve in the ministry and I believe that's honoring to God in this temple. Some of you share my fight. That's a battle every week for you.

Some of you, your war this week is relational. You may be at war with your spouse; you may be at war trying to save your marriage. Nobody may know it in here, you may be keeping that a real safe guarded secret, but you are incredibly unhappy and you're just fighting every week to make it work. Some of you it is a war and raising your kids. Every new age has a new set of difficulty, some of you got little ones and they've got issues, and it is a fight man! Every week it's a battle, it's a war, to try to get them shaped into the human beings you hope they can be. Some of you, your kids are entering those teenage years and there's all those things that go with that. With the cell phone, and with the rules, and with online, and with all those things you know it's going to be war this week yet again. For some of you it's with grandkids and you're raising them, or maybe just worried about them. For some of you it's war and it's in relation to your parents. There is all this past stuff, all this drama, and all this baggage, and every single week it's a fight. For some of you, let's be honest, your war is you are flat exhausted. You feel like you don't have any resources to go through the week. You are so tired, but you make yourself go, but you know this week it's going to be a war. External. Some of you feel that don't you? I can see you do.

For some of us the war is internal, for all of us may I say, in some way or another. Its emotions; I'm going to fight a war this week with anger. I don't want to, but it's just in my DNA. I'm going to lose it a couple of times, I don't want to, I want to contain it, but every week I have new resolutions and every week I break them. Maybe for you, you were in a war with fear, scared to death of something out there on the horizon that might happen. Maybe it's a war with worry, just worried about the people in your life. You're worried about your marriage, worried and you just can't really help it. You wake up with it, you go to bed with it, just your mind turning, and turning, and turning, and trying to figure things out and you can't. Maybe, I understand this one, it's a war with depression. You know what? There are a lot more people fighting that battle than we think there are; a lot of people living under that cloud of “I just can’t”. This week is going to be another week where I'm struggling to get out of bed in the morning, with this cloud, this imminent hopeless thing over my head. For some of you, it's the emotion of shame; you just don't like yourself much. Somewhere way back, when you were kid maybe, you had all the self-image stuff and so you try to project a good image to people, but it's such an effort, it's so exhausting. You know “here we go again another week of trying to look the part because I just not crazy about me.” For some of us, listen I'm almost done, your battle, your internal battle is with temptation, or addiction, or some habit. I don't care if it's alcohol, I don't care if it's tobacco, I don't care if it's prescription drugs, I don't care if it's illicit drugs, I don't care if it's pornography, I don't care if it's sexual, I don't care if it's food... the battle is some thing you started out using and now it's using you. And you know this week you're going to war again and you just pray to God you can come out the other side of this week still sober. Maybe you have an internal battle this morning with apathy. I just can't seem to care. I go to war every week, but just being numb. I want to feel God, I want to care about something... I don't! It's going to be a war just to keep going when I feel nothing! I believe every person here has a war to fight this week.

Here's what I want to tell you. We ought to come to the house of God and be able to open up this book and not stay in the realm of the academic, and the realm of the one day. So much of this is telling you God's saying I know where you're at, I know what you're going through, there's nothing new under the sun, let me help you! So this morning, let's let him help us. I want to make a couple of statements and if you don't get anything else from this sermon I want you to get this. I don't know what your war is, for some of you I do, for a lot of you I may not, but I want to tell you: the outcome of your particular war will be determined every day before you even get out of bed. Whether you're going to have victory, whether you're going to have defeat that day in your particular war, I'm telling you the outcome is going to be decided before you ever swing your feet off the bed and they touch the floor. And it's going to be decided by your answer to one question. You ready for the question? Merl is. How many of you ready for the question say amen. The outcome of your battle will be determined by your answer to one question; tomorrow morning when you wake up, who will you give up on today? Who will you give up on today? You haven't even set foot out of your bedroom, will you give up on God or will you give up on yourself? My friends that will determine everything about how your war this week turns out.

I want to entitle my sermon this Morning This Fights Too Big for You. This fight, this war, is too big for you. Would you turn to Ephesians 6:10? We're going to be hanging out for the next four weeks, God willing, right in this passage just dissecting it, unpacking it, and finding out what God has for us. Ephesians 6:10. I’ve preached this, I've taught this, I've studied this, and every time I revisit it and go back, God gives me something new. It is a powerful section of scripture.
Ephesians 6:10,

10 Finally, my brethren [my brothers and sisters in Christ], be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles [some of your translations say schemes] of the devil.
12 For we [brothers and sisters in Christ] wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [or literally, heavenly] places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to [here’s that word again] withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
I want to note a couple of things in this passage. The first one is this, whatever your war is this week, whatever I said there that you were like “that's me”, or maybe it wasn't on my list, but you could say exactly “that's my war this week, I'm going to fight that one” let me tell you this: Your physical war has spiritual roots. Your physical war, worry, depression, family problems, work problem, right whatever it is, your physical war has spiritual roots. What you're seeing and dealing with is rooted in stuff you can't see.

Verses 11-12 says it like this
11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

One translation put it like this:
We're not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, we're fighting against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world. We're fighting against mighty powers in this dark world. We're fighting against evil spirits in the heavenly, the spiritual, the unseen places.

Your physical war has spiritual roots. A lot of you know this, but I want to reiterate it, this isn't mythology. This isn't like red thing running around with with cloven hooves, and a and a pitchfork, and little horns, and it's adorable and he stands on your shoulder...

The Bible says, and if this is true and it's more than mythology, there is a powerful fallen angel who leads an entire hierarchy of lesser fallen angels. They are working behind the scenes to pull the strings of this visible world. There are devils working behind the world systems, pulling the strings in ways you can't see, affecting the things you can see. C.S. Lewis once said there's no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split-second, is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.

So the first thing I want you to note is that whatever you think your war is on the surface, well my problem is my wife, my problem is my husband, if they could just change things would be better. My problem’s my job, if God would just grant me a higher paying job with a better boss, we can fix this. My problem is my illness, if God would, just like Paul prayed, “take it away, Lord”, if he just remove it from me I'd be okay, and there'd be no more struggle. My problem is this depression, and if he just give me better circumstances, and lift this cloud...

God says don't think your problem is just here [around your body], you're not wrestling primarily against flesh and blood. There are spiritual forces at work directing traffic in the visible world. There's an enemy who has an agenda for your life. We're going to get more to that here in just a moment, I want you to notice something else, verse 11, this is how he's going to carry out his agenda:

 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles[it’s the Greek méthodoi] of the devil [diávolos]. The méthodoi of the diávolos. The deceptive schemes of the accuser. The deceptive methods of the slanderer. Whatever his agenda is in your life here's how he's going to carry it out:

He doesn't usually attack he, narrates. He's going to come along and he, and his associates, are going to whisper to you. You having trouble in your marriage? They're going to tell you why. You're having problems with your health? They're going to tell you why God allowed that to come to you. You're having issues with depression? They're going to be right there to whisper to you how sorry you are, how life is hopeless, and God doesn't care. They're going to use the circumstances of your life and narrate those circumstances to bring about a certain purpose.

Do you understand 2 Corinthians 11:14 tells us that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light? His main goal is that you think my main problem is external or internal, and I've got to solve it. The Lord helps those who help themselves, I've got to work on this, I've got to beat this, and all the while he's behind the scenes narrating, whispering, keeping you down! Listen to me, his goal, here's what he's after, he wants to keep you occupied, pacified, distracted, addicted, anything to keep you from being the image bearer God created you to be. He's terrified that you will realize you are a son or daughter of Jesus Christ and you will get to know God, and God will start shining through, you he ain't afraid of you, he's terrified of Jesus, so if he can distract you, if he can pacify you, if he can occupy you, if he can addict you, if he can whisper to you that he's not the problem, they're the problem, it's the problem, God's the problem... He can hold you down for the rest of your life!

My dear friend, I don't know what your war is. I do want to tell you your physical war has spiritual roots. Now let me be careful to say this; there are denominations out there, there are folks out there, and God love them, I just have to disagree with them. I don't question their sincerity, but like everything that comes in life is a demon, okay? Like a dog barks and you’re like “demon dog!” If you get a cold “the demon of cold has entered me”. I don't think that's it all. I think we live in a fallen world. Things are going to happen, but I promise you the devil will be there to narrate your illness. “God must not care about you, why even continue fighting this battle”, right? All those things. Whatever your war, your physical war has spiritual roots.

How many of you with me now say, “Amen”. And that leads us rapidly to a second conclusion. If your war on the outside is rooted to the spiritual, if Satan himself and powerful fallen angels are working behind the scenes in your life, the second point is this: then this fight’s too big for you! You get what I'm saying? I don't know what your fight is, but I'll tell you this, it's too big for you.

1 Peter 5:8 - Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

One author said this, “the devil takes no holidays, he never rests, and he never sleeps. If beaten he rises again. If he cannot enter in the front, he will come around the back. If he can't enter at the back, he'll break through the roof or enter by tunneling under the threshold. He labors until he's in. He uses great cunning and skill. When one plan miscarries he has another, and another, and another at hand until he wins.”

Do you really think you're going to beat him on your own? Do you really think you stand a chance? Preacher doesn’t the the Bible say resist the devil and he'll flee from you? No it doesn't. The Bible says in James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

He’s not running from you, he's running from the one behind you when you submit yourself to Him.

I shared a very little-known scripture with my kids the other day warning them about taking spiritual things too trivially, about taking this enemy of ours too lightly, okay? They weren't doing it, but I think it's one of those moments when you're driving along and the topic comes up and it's a teaching moment. The book of Jude (1:9) talks about people who scoff at supernatural things. Here's what it says, but even Michael one of the mightiest of the angels did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but he simply said the Lord rebuke you. This took place when Michael the Archangel was arguing with the devil about Moses body but these people scoff at things they do not understand.

You see what that saying? It's incredibly mysterious. You remember the story of Moses, that God took him up on the mountain. He said Moses you're not going to get to go into the Promised Land, but I'm going to let you see I; and God said Moses you are going to die and I'm going to bury you. The bottom line is, very mysterious, apparently the devil himself wanted Moses’ body for something and Michael the Archangel, much like Gabriel one of the power most powerful angels we see spoken of in the Bible, resisted the devil but even Michael wouldn't rebuke him! He said the Lord rebuke you. If that angel, that archangel, wouldn't take the fight lightly, do you think you stand a chance?

I remember some years ago, Jenny and I and our kids were at Disney World, and we'd taken a vacation to Florida. We were on the Tom Sawyer raft. We just left Tom Sawyer land, and we were on that big raft with a motor and the whole thing, and we're going across. I'll never ever forget a woman there with her two kids, and I don't want to judge her I don't know what all was going on in their life, but she had a four-year-old little boy who was effectively trying his best to beat his mother up. If he'd have been 18 he had killed her. He's four years old and punching her in the legs, slapping her, screaming at her; and she's just standing there. I got to be honest with you, I have all sorts of stuff go through my mind, and half of its just crazy I'm sure. I'm thinking man when she turns I bet I could give that kid a little [smack] right? I'd give him a little trip when he goes... right? You know here's the thing; you're 30, he's four. Like, put a hand on his head, right? Do what my dad used to do to me.

My dad never beat us, but I guarantee he could get our attention. He would grab our sideburn and give that sideburn a yank. No permanent damage, but I guarantee you he had your undivided attention. I thought how insane for a four-year-old to take on a 40 year old? How insane, my brothers and sisters, for us to try to take on the devil? Matt Chandler a pastor at the village Church in Denton, and that have campuses all over, a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant, preacher, brilliant mind, brilliant writer, he got brain cancer. Had all these surgeries, you could see the scars, and you could see when he cut his hair down, and I watched sermons of him online. I'll never forget, man it stopped me in my tracks, he was saying in a sermon he stopped at one moment just looked at the crowd and he said “you are so easy to kill”. We get this idea sometime because all these songs and all this poetry, and I'll do it my way, and nothing can stand... do you understand? That’s all talk! We are so easy to kill! Who do you think you are that you somehow are going to win the war by yourself against the devil? That leads us to the third point.

Your physical war has spiritual roots, this fight’s too big for you, and now we get down to it. Every morning you must choose: fight, run, medicate... or pray. Every morning you must choose. I must choose will I fight, will I run, will I medicate, or will I pray?

Look at Ephesians 6:10, whoo a strong one:
10 Finally, my brethren...
We read it too fast because the want to get to the armor. We want to get to the object lesson. Let’s not miss it!
10 Finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord...
Not in yourself, not in your willpower, not in your resolutions, not in your best intentions, in the Lord], and in the power of his might.

The outcome of your battle will be determined every single day by your answer to one question: who will you give up on today? Will you give up on God and roll out of bed and try to do it yourself or will you, before you ever start that day, come before Almighty God and just own up to “I can't do it!” and give up on yourself. Here's the thing, I don't know that any Christian here would ever lay in bed and think “you know what? I think I'm going to give up on God today.” In our lowest moments maybe we would think something like that or the thought would pass through our mind, that's really not the point. It's not you saying God I refuse to trust you today, it is you saying “you know what, I'm going to worry today. I'm going to figure out how I'm going to deal with this problem relationship. I'm going to go into another interaction with my spouse without talking to God at all and just see how it goes. I'm going to try to avoid that person and maybe it won't ignite today. I'm going to manipulate my kids and lay down all sorts of regulations, and rules, and guilt, and and maybe I can twist somewhere I want them to go”

Somebody defined worry like this, and I didn't like it at all because I worry sometimes, you know what worry is? Trying to personally shoulder the burdens of life while effectively ignoring the presence and power of God. Worry is saying “I'm going to figure out some way to deal with these problems. I'm going to change that loved one. I'm responsible for keeping my business afloat. I'm on my own.” You would never lay in bed and say that to yourself, but listen when you don't come to God that's exactly what you're saying. What if before our feet ever hit the floor we said “God, I don't want to get out of bed today just to lose again this week. God I got a war, and you may not take the circumstances of this war away, you may not give me a new job right now. I’d love that. God you may not allow some kind of transfer out of my physical pain. God you may leave me in the middle of it, but God I know if it's me against these powers, if it's me against these devils, if it's me against these forces, I'm gonna lose! So God don’t want to try to do that. I'm coming before you this morning saying Lord, it's all yours. You're my only hope. You're my only strength. You're my only power. Do what only you can do.”

I want close with this. You say “I don't have any idea how to do that”, the next four weeks we're going to talk from this text about exactly how to pray, exactly what to do. One of my very best friends in the world pastor Doug Rife, he's preached here at Calvary, and he's over at Temple in Fort Worth. He was telling me a story that just frankly kind of broke me down. He has a lady in his church named Christy. Christy's a young mom, she's in her 30s, she has three kids, twin boys and a little girl. Her husband was a war veteran, came back from war and was a helicopter EMT. So a lot of action, a lot of difficulties, a lot of danger, but this young couple just raising their babies and doing life. [Then] just that lightning bolt that comes in life. Christy’s husband got sick, he got cancer. Before they knew it this 30 something year old vibrant man was gone. So here's Christy this 30-something mom and she has these two twin boys; and one of them is a daddy's boy. So he's just wrestling, and struggling with this in his own little way, and he can't come to grips with the fact that daddy's gone. Christy is doing her best to be a single mom and raise these three kids and follow Christ, etc. all that goes with that.

Well here's the thing, she works for an organization that provides housing and resources for the aged and disabled. They had a certain office, and Christy would come in and these clients would have to come and sort of check in periodically to continue to receive these resources to help them in the struggles of life. Well Christy's office moved, just a couple of blocks away. They closed the former office, they opened a new one, and they put signs on the door. They tried to alert everybody to the fact that they were moving, but some didn't get word. They put a sign on the door that said we're just a couple of blocks away. There was one client, a lady who was elderly, she had cerebral palsy, and she had arranged for a special transit vehicle to take her to the office for her check-in to get these essential resources. This lady gets dropped off at Christy's old office and she's on a cane, she's incredibly feeble, and she reads the little sign that says the offices moved a few blocks away but the transit is already gone and she's incredibly hampered in her ability to get there. Christy tells my friend Doug that this lady comes walking in the doors of the new office and as they're greeting her and they notice her knees are just torn apart; blood running down her knees, her poor little knees just torn up. Christy and some of the workers there immediately shuffle her off and get her into a chair, get some water, let her drink. They start washing off her knees, cleaning them up, and giving her medicine, putting on the bandages. Christy told Doug that while they were working that little lady leaned over and put her hand on Christy's arm and she literally said “Sweetie, I need you to understand that I didn't fall. I've just come to realize that in my condition, it's easier to get where I'm going on my knees.” In my condition, it's easier to get where I'm going on my knees. You know what? That broke Christie down because that was a word directly from the Holy Spirit.

This mama who's trying to make it all work, that this battle’s too much for... you see in her condition she'll get where she's going an awful lot faster from her knees. And my friend so will we.

Brian Loveless has been serving as Lead Pastor for Calvary Baptist Church in Grand Prairie, TX since November 2003. Brian shepherds, leads, feeds, and guides Calvary’s congregation, staff, and guests to spiritual growth and service for Jesus Christ. His main goals remain for folks to see God, share life, serve others, and stay connected.