Ep 20: Xtreme Faith – Part 4

Hey, thank you again for coming and joining us with. It’s all greek to me, Vicki and I are going to be discussing further words concerning spiritual warfare that deal with faith. These are faith photos and we want to be able to make it simple and easy for people to understand why God has used so many pictures, why God has used so many photos because we need faith in every aspect of our life, whether it’s in the home, whether it’s in our personal life in the church and they were working in the field against the spiritual warfare and people, the enemies, the demons, the devil himself, the world, the flesh, all of it. That’s why there’s so many pictures and these pictures we’re gonna be talking about today. Three of the most important ones concerning our faith in these photos we bring to you in this discussion. So we see that this world is not just the physical world, we also have a spiritual world and when you look at scripture concerning the various categories of spiritual beings, the the rulers and powers and all the variety of there’s about seven or eight different categories and ranking of spiritual beings and there’s a fight going on and satan and his demons are trying to uh distract us from our faith too sidetracked us to keep us from fixing our eyes on jesus christ who is the author and finisher of our faith and one of the things that he uses is he tries to eclipse our faith. He literally tries to block an eclipse is is a body of planet that comes in the way of uh you know, the moon or the sun and it gets dark. It also it talks about this in the scriptures in luke chapter 22 verse 32. But I’ve prayed for you, Jesus said that your faith may not fail. That word fail that your faith May not be eclipsed. That’s what Jesus said here in Luke 22 and verse 32 when once you have turned again. So this was gonna he was gonna go through a trying time. But Jesus already anticipated that. So jesus sees when we’re going to go through hard times. He knows when we’re gonna be attacked. He knows the beginning from the ending and he says satan is going to try to shake us up now let’s just talk about this a little bit. But he said that he prayed for him, he prayed for him. Yeah. So that’s pretty amazing. Yeah. But but what are the things that could shake us up in life? What are some of the things that Satan is thrown at you and me and others are Children or relatives, People in the body of christ or out of the body of christ that you know that have tried that he’s tried to eclipse our faith. You know this can’t be the bible can’t be true. Well when you go through difficult marital problems. Yeah. Your faith gets a clipped when you have ever had any problems but not really. I can’t put them on camera. But uh, I would say that, uh, when your Children have problems, uh, financial problems, physical illnesses, um, things like that. Your faith is always tested every day of our life. I think it’s tested. Well, what choice will we make? Who will we choose? Will we choose God? Or will we choose ourselves? Our own reasoning and our own reasoning, You know, God says you’re not gonna win the battles. With your own reasoning. We need the armor. Like you just spoke about recently. The soldier, we need to be daily preparing ourselves for the enemy’s warfare that’s coming and it’s going to happen. You know, I mean, everybody in this particular case, I was gonna say that Peter and the apostles were attacked by government officials. They were attacked by religious officials. You know, they look like losers there in the outcasts. And Peter had left his job, his livelihood, his boat, his, you know, hometown. And he was following jesus for three years and here and here he is going through an eclipse of his faith and he’s ready to die for jesus. He took the sword, He cut the guy’s ear off. Remember. And yet you know, Jesus is telling him, look, your faith is satan has asked for permission to God because they can’t do this. He cannot attack us without God allowing that to happen. So he gets permission. And when it happens, he used government, he used, uh, you know, his own ambitions. He used physical attack. He used the religious leaders of the day to make them feel unworthy or no honor, no respect. And jesus said, you’re going to get shaken up like weed is shaken up sifted, sifted. But here’s the big word from jesus christ, the revelation, I have prayed for you. And even when you go through tremendous political upheaval sickness, you know, physical sickness, uh, financial pressure, all of that, right, jesus christ is praying for us. Why? That, that we don’t go through that. Oh, no, no, no. He knew it was coming, that we would realize that this attack is permitted by God to create in us a testimony that’s gonna shine right through the pressure that we’re gonna let people see christ in the midst of all of this, I think, you know, sometimes we get out from under God’s authority. I don’t think peter, you know, at this point maybe was doing that. He was still walking with the Lord and satan still tries to attack us. But when we make bad choices, we can’t blame God for the results of our bad choices. When we’re in the center of God’s will and we get battles, then we can just cry out, Lord save me. But when we’re when we deliberately turn our back against God, we open up the door for supernatural evil powers to come and attack us in the discouragement could be a child that maybe has left home rebellious or on drugs or alcohol or maybe there’s a pre Merrill pregnancy, all kinds of things happen to the believers and you almost feel like, you know, what’s the point of believing? And yet and yet Jesus says, I have prayed for you. What? That your faith, faith that connected you to God who loves you and forgives you and saved, you will not be eclipsed by this darkness that has come to shut out the light coming through. And after notice there’s gonna be a recovery when once you have turned again, come back, repented and come back to God. Come back to reading the bible, Come back to prayer, come back to fellowship with the believers. Then you will strengthen your brothers. In other words, these tests and trials will be used to strengthen other people that will be going through them. It’s pretty amazing. Yes. So you’ve been able to counsel people because of what you’ve been through, You’ve been able to share with women things that you’ve gone through, that you’ve been able to strengthen and help and encourage other women, right? This is a great passage of scripture on the eclipse of faith. Now let’s go to the next one. The fight of faith first timothy 6 12 Fight the good Fight of Faith. Take hold of eternal life to which you were called. And you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Again, it calls this fight and I wanna, you know like you agonize, it’s almost like the olympic agony games. But this is an actual combat. Is that the same word for the olympics? Yeah, I wanna that’s what it is. Yes. A battle of fight. And uh and then and then you come to the point of the soldier, the soldier, the strategy otis in second timothy chapter two. But you know before we leave the fight, let’s go back to the fight for a minute. Notice in chapter four of second timothy in verse seven, I have fought in verse seven. I have fought the good fight. Now if you’re going to get into a fight at least make sure that it’s a good fight. You know, I have fought this corona, I have fought this good fight and I have finished the course and I have kept the faith. All of this is wrapped up in faith, you know. So what I’m saying is that these three images that we have of the fighting, of the soldier, of the athlete and of the farmer, I have kept the faith, this is delineated. It’s explained in chapter two. That’s why I went back and if we could just go now to the uh the second timothy chapter two passage and uh just if you begin to read those first few verses notice what it says in second timothy chapter two, beginning with verse one, go for it. Read it to us. You therefore, my son be strong in the grace that is in christ, jesus. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses. These entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others. Also suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of jesus christ. So that’s the first, that’s the first example. Now, the example is of of a disciple, you know, paul is talking to timothy to be strong in God’s grace and the faith that led him to become a believer and in jesus christ and the things you have heard from me and the president, many witnesses these entrust now to faithful men who is going to be able to teach others. Piece does. This is men full of faith, who will be able to pass on the faith in the grace that saved them and change them. It’s absolutely beautiful. And then it continues and it gives you the first illustration. So, keep reading from verse three and 4 about the soldier. Mhm suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of christ, jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life so that he may please the one who has enlisted him as a soldier that’s almost like a baptist preaching over here. So he talks about number one, he says suffering hardship, that’s what a soldier does. So we need to be prepared as soldiers in the spiritual battle of faith that we’re gonna suffer, it’s not gonna be like, everything is gonna be nice and we’re gonna get money and just name it and claim it. No, that that’s not the christian life because millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world who are christians and a living, you know, in very difficult places where the gospel is not welcome or wanted countries who are oppressing christians because of their christian faith, whether it’s because of other religions that are coming down on them suffering hardship. You see, suffering is number one, number two, it says here, you know, be a good soldier of jesus christ, no soldier in active service. So the second thing is service. So not only am I too suffer, I’m also to serve as a good soldier, I need to know what my objective as a soldier is, what uh division I’m in, what my job is, whether I’m going to have a gun or I’m gonna, you know what exactly am I gonna do? Am I going to be a foot soldier? Am I going to be in an office? Am I gonna be in the front? There’s all different types of service that we can commit combating and it says, uh, no soldier in active service, entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life. So I can’t just abandon being a soldier in this spiritual war of faith and go and do what I want to do. Well, I think I had enough of jesus christ and the bible and the church, I’m gonna go and do something else. I’m tired of being responsible, I’m tired. Has that ever happened, mom? Yes, but I didn’t run away. You didn’t run away. Don’t run away. So we can’t run away. We can’t go and join the affairs of everyday life. Because what’s gonna happen is we’re just gonna waste our life if we’re not motivated, guided and directed by God. And the third thing here, it says that that so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier that surrender that surrender. So you have, you know, you have this, this suffering, you have this serving and then you have surrendering not to yourself, but to the Lord, jesus christ, in my, in my being a soldier. And then of course the soldier uh you know, he he’s followed up with the illustration of the athlete. You know, no athlete uh competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. Okay, so you got to keep the rules to great illustrates a wonderful illustration and then he has to finish the course. He has to finish the course, stay on course, they finish it right and do it according to the rules. And then the last illustration here is of a farmer that is a hard working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crop. Now you gotta, you got to put this in the context of a disciple, you got to put this in the context of of a faithful man Who is now going to teach other faithful men in verse 15 it says study to show yourself approved under God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed handling accurately the word of God, cutting the word of God straight, making sure the patterns are theologically correct. Biblically correct. We just don’t make it as we go along. And then when you go to the final chapter four and verse seven, then you have these three illustrations again, Vicky notice what it says and you out there that are studying in second timothy chapter four and verse seven, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course and I have kept the faith right there. So you have here the three illustrations repeated again. The soldier fought the good fight. The exactly the athlete finished, finished the course and the farmer kept the faith. You need a lot of faith to be a soldier to take instructions commands. You need a lot of faith to make sure you do things according to the rules. You need a lot of faith to be able to keep the faith as a farmer when you’re planting seeds when you’re watering it when you’re working so hard. So faith is really so critical and crucial and uh that is the spiritual warfare that we’re fighting. So I want to talk about the various eclipses of our faith in this life. I mean we’ve been attacked by sickness and the loss of job sometimes our own flesh in the world, the devil himself will attack us to keep our eyes away from jesus christ that we’re supposed to fix our eyes are for our focus our eyes on jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. But satan comes with with with some kind of a block so that we cannot see jesus, we cannot hear jesus, we cannot sense and feel the presence of the holy spirit. And so this becomes an eclipse of faith. This happened to Peter. In fact jesus told Peter in luke 22 31 Simon Simon behold, satan sat on us. Uh you know has demanded permission. It’s kind of a conflict here demanded permission. How do you do that to God? But he’s demanded permission to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, jesus said to Peter that your faith may not b eclipse or eclipsed or fail. The word fail. And when once you have uh turned again come back in other words, strengthen your brethren. Now look, there wasn’t any problem with the faith. The problem was there was a An eclipse of that faith like it says in Luke 23:45 The sun was obscured and the veil in the temple was torn into. There was a probably a lunar eclipse that day that it just blocked the sun. I don’t know how God did it when jesus died and the veil in the temple was ripped into. But we know that in our lives there are various experiences we go through that will eclipse God in our life, that will eclipse faith in our life. And uh and the scriptures, we forget the word of God, we we we forget who we are, we we throw aside our morals, we throw aside our truth, we we take off our our armor that we should have on because of this attack that comes on us and jesus himself is praying that our faith beastie would not be eclipsed but he was talking to Peter and then peter of course denied the Lord and then he came back, he was broken hearted when he remembered the word of the Lord and usually it happens that way you remember what God said or you read something God said or somebody reminds you and reminds you of who you are and you come back to the Lord, you repent like the prodigal son and you return and you know just fall on your face and not look for any benefit but simply o God be merciful to me a sinner Like in Luke 18 with the with the Republican that was crying out to God that was you know tax collector just crying out to God. This is a fantastic scripture because Jesus Christ hints the number one. His prayers are effective to protect Peter. The other thing is that when Peter that there was gonna be a time when Peter returned. So This is uh this is a positive thing for the Children of God. Those of us who are believers, you know, you may go away but you have to come back. I know a believer, a friend of mine that was away from Jesus Christ for over 20 years and recently returned back and repented and asked my forgiveness. I there was nothing to forgive but he needed to return to reading God’s word to being around other christians fellowship and studying God’s word, coming to church, doing the things that he once did and you know, but when you are not a believer, when you’re not a child of God, you leave and you stay away and you don’t forget those people. But jesus christ said when you have returned, this is an evidence that you are a believer And you need to understand Luke chapter 22 here and then Jesus Christ said this that when you return then you’re going to have the ability to strengthen your brethren. So now you can speak from your personal experience from what happened to you and help other people in your life. Then then we talked about the fight In 2nd Timothy 6 12 were to fight the good fight of faith with. I mean, are you a fighting or have you given up? So I forget that boss, forget that brother, forget that wife, that husband, those kids, you can never do that. Fight the good Fight of Faith. You ought to be God’s representative in that person’s life. And when you’re going through such trials, don’t blame God. Consider it all joy when you encounter those things, don’t say I’m being tempted of God James chapter one and God cannot tempt anyone of us with evil. He himself tempts no one. It says in verse 13, but after we’ve been tried and we’ve been approved, we received a crown of life verse 12. Even to those who love him, if you love jesus christ, you’re gonna push through all the problems in your life and graduate from from the trial of of uh you get your Master’s degree or your doctor, some of you have gotten your doctorates in those trials. But here it is. You’re gonna be able not only to help other people now, you’re fighting these battles, you’re in the fight, you’re not giving up, you’re able to help other people because when you fight the flesh the world, the devil things in your life that you know are wrong. And you are fighting, you’re also an example for all those people that have given up and they were able to come and talk with you. You’re a great like the people who are sitting in darkness. And then the other thing that we talked about was that no soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life. So he may be able to to uh please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. Listen, we have only one person to police, Not my will, thy will be done. This is really what the what the fight is all about. Am I going to do my will? The apostle paul put it this way Galatians 2 20 I am crucified with christ. Nevertheless I live, but it is and I who lives, it’s christ who is living in me and the life that I now live in the flesh. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. This is the fight in my life on a daily basis. Am I going to live for? Tom am I gonna live for self? Am I the center of my life? Am I gonna going to govern my own life? Or does my life belong to God? For me to live is christ to die his game. My life is going to be surrendered fully to God for him to do as he pleases Now this was another a soldier. But there’s there’s another aspect I want to go on a little bit further in just a moment to explain to you about first Peter in chapter five and how God talks about the fact that the enemy, the devil comes like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. That I have to resist him firm in my faith. And I want to talk about that word. There are many fantastic passages of scripture that deal with spiritual warfare In Genesis. Chapter three is the first one with Adam and Eve and Lucifer. The devil. Who is, who has that whole discussion. You can read that on your own exodus 17 between America and Israel. The fight between the Flesh and the spirit and how we need to keep our hands up and how to fight in prayer. And as we do, as we deal with the spiritual aspects of our life and we’re in the word of God were in prayer. We’re actually doing it in a community with other brothers and sisters. That and we hold our hands up that we’re having the victory and we’re not, we get so tired, we don’t have time for prayer. We don’t have time for God. We don’t have time for the bible. We don’t have time for going to church and hanging out with christians. We lose the battle. There’s so many wonderful passages we talked about Second Corinthians 10, 3 through five, Second Corinthians two verse 14 we talked about these passages Ephesians 6, 10 through 19. Colossians 2 15. But this one is the one I want to end with. First Peter five Verse eight through 11 be of sober spirit beyond the alert your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour but resist him until these steamy huh against to stand, stand against him. Firm stereos that is the word used for the feelings, stereos in your faith. And our faith has to be like a failings. And I’ll explain that in a minute, knowing that the same experiences of sufferings uh suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world and after you’ve suffered for a little while, the God of all Grace, I love this who called you to his eternal glory in christ will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you to him, be the Dominion forever and ever Amen. Well, what is the feelings? The feelings to Rose is an adjective, properly solid firm describing what is immovable? Will not budge stable, not changeable. Standing fast without buckling or giving way steadfast literally, it means it came from the log that was there. But then uh it really was talking about the toes, the log that that is fixed there. But how the toes in your on your foot. The big toe to live there all together tight and you’re able to have a strong foot. But the resist is this Andy steamy him, your adversary, the devil, he’s coming. But we need to be firm, steady us In your faith. And this is what it’s talking about is talking about the soldiers from the Greek uh fighting that was going on the battles and how they would be lined up. They called it the failings. This was the studios to be immovable like a block. They were 16 rows deep. And uh this is the way the romans did it when they imitated the test studio or the turquoise when they were going. But this was a feelings, the row of a feelings going forward from side to side being protected. Now God says that this is how we’re to be against the devil who comes like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We need to have harmony and unity tightness uh with other brothers and sisters and be able to stand against the evil one like a failings. And this is we’re to do this firm in our faith and that’s what feelings is talking about. Listen, it’s been exciting talking to you And getting deeper into the Greek words. That was first Peter five Verse nine about being strong and and right there, a firm in our faith and so in the spiritual warfare, we take the whole armor of God, We have specific instructions and I hope you continue following us with it’s all greek to me and we’ll see you next time right here. God bless you.