The Grace Zone - Part 13

The Grace Zone – Part 13

Believe or not, we have finally come to the end of our journey through the book of 1Peter. I loved studying 1Peter, and there is the title for this morning. Spiritual warfare is what we are going to look at, and the reason why we are looking at spiritual warfare is because over all these last few weeks, Peter has been describing and defining what we call the grace zone. He is saying this is God’s grace, and it is pertaining to husbands, to wives, to leaders. There are different situations we have looked at, how in suffering, how in trials, this is God’s grace, and he has been encouraging saying I want you to stand in it. As we finish off today, he does bring this to our attention of one crucial fact. And that is, that we have an enemy who is trying to get us out of the grace zone. As much as Jesus wants us to stand in His truth, in obedience to His Word and receive the grace of the Holy Spirit to empower us, we have a very real enemy who is trying to nudge us out of the grace zone. To finish off this series, we will look at some truths out of this last section, where that is exactly what Peter is saying. How do we resist the enemy? How do we stand strong? How do we face up to the armies of the enemy and live victoriously?

 We are reading from 1Peter chapter five, verses eight to verse fourteen. Pater said this: “⁸ be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.¹⁰ And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. ¹¹ To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.¹² With the help of Silas,^[b] whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.¹³ She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark. ¹⁴ greet one another with a kiss of love.”

Amen, that is the end of the book. When last have you heard a real African lion roaring? Can you think back? We have this privilege every year of having this yearly outreach into Swaziland, and we came together at a game park, and there they have this big lion enclosure that is fenced off, and there are some lions in there. We sleep in tents, and every night you can hear these lions when they roar. And there is something about the sound of a lion, it’s difficult to judge the distance even, because there is such a deep base, an authority to their roar that they could be close, they could be far, but you just know that they are out there. I love the fact that Peter does not want to leave us with any doubt about the fact that as believers, we do have an enemy. But to me the highlight of this passage is one little word that says this; be self-controlled and alert, your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion. What that tells me is that this enemy of ours is intimidating, maybe he make a lot of noise, maybe he can look aggressive, but he is only like a roaring lion.

The good news of the Gospel is that we do not serve one who is like a lion, we serve Jesus. The King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, who is the lion of the tribe of Judah. I love what it says in the book of Revelations. Chapter five verses five says: “Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. ² And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” ³ But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. ⁴ I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. ⁵ Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. He is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.” Is that not wonderful? Jesus, the lion is on our side, and when we understand that, we can learn to resist and stand strong and be steadfast. As our enemy like a lion tries to come against us. What I want to do this morning, is to take four words that Peter used,  and practically say how are we going to stay in this grace zone? How are we going to work with the lion, against one who is like a lion? The four words that Peter used, he said:

1.      Be self – controlled. What does that really mean for us?

2.      And alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him.

3.      What does it mean to resist the enemy?

4.      Stand firm. What does it mean for us to stand firm?

First word is self – controlled. As I was driving to church this morning, they were getting people to phone in on the radio, they were surveying how the New Year resolutions go this year. And as can be imagined, there were very few callers, Let me ask you, how many of you still walk in your new year’s resolution? I would guess not a lot, because when it comes to something like self – control, people say this is not a big strength in my life. Peter says that one of the ways that we are going to stand against the enemy is to understand what it means to be self – controlled. Self – control means in terms of the Bible. In our hearts, there are two competing sets of desires.  When Paul wrote to the Galatians, he says that we have the desires of the flesh, and the desires of the spirit. And they are in conflict with each other. So that means that at any one given moment, there are normally two opposing sets of desires. There is what your flesh wants to do, which is normally selfish, greedy, lazy, and then there is this side, this is what God wants you to do in any particular situation. And they are completely opposite with each other. A self – controlled life is that you live in such a way that we do not keep pandering to the desires of the flesh. We have sufficient strength to not give in to the desires of the flesh, but to live according to the desires of the spirit. Now, here is the good news. The power of self – control is not self – will. In other words, we do not live self – controlled lives where we have to force ourselves. I’m going to try harder; I will do this new resolution. That is not what empowers our self – control. What we discover is the beauty, the good news about Jesus Christ, is through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, is the Holy Spirit actually empowers us to live self – controlled lives.

 What that means is to be in a situation where you are feeling these two desires clash. The way to be self – controlled is not necessarily what happens in the moment there, it is what happens in all the moments preceding that. Paul says this in Galatians chapter five verses twenty two and twenty three: “²² But the fruit of the Spirit. “ Fruit is not something that happens instantly, fruit is not fast fruit grows, fruit comes from a seed and takes time and conditions to develop. Fruit trees sometimes takes years before they produce good quality fruit. Paul is saying here is the fruit of the spirit: “is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.” What Paul was trying to teach us here, is the more we allow the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the more yielded we are to the Holy Spirit, the more we work on our relationship with Jesus, get up in the morning, read the Bible, spend time in prayer, we go to church like today, we worship Jesus, we do our best to obey Jesus, and we empower Him as much as we can. The more we walk with Jesus, the more access we give to the Holy Spirit to our hearts, the more fruit He begins to produce in our lives. So, self – control is not powered by self - will, but by powered by more and more of the Holy Spirit at work in our hearts. So, what does self – control look like?

 Did you, maybe years ago, some of you grow up in a church culture or environment, you learnt about the armour of God. Sometimes you sing songs about it; the problem sometimes is that we forget the concept is the armour of God is something you put on normally by prayer. You pray in the morning, Jesus I’m putting on the breast plate of righteousness, and I’m putting on the helmet of salvation, I’m taking up the shield of faith. All that is all very well and good, but I do not really believe that is what the armour is actually is. The armour of God is the way we live our lives that protects us from the enemy. Then, we find out that self – control is a part of it by making certain choices of putting on the armour, or we take the armour off. We put on the breastplate of righteousness. In other words, as we walk in right relationship with God, our hearts are guarded. We put on the helmet of salvation, as we bring self – control into our thinking, not allowing our thoughts to run into self-pity, doubt, meditating on all kinds of disaster, or worries or anxieties, in other words, we guard our mind with self – controlled thinking. We experience the helmet of salvation. That shield of faith, means every time things go wrong, or bad news, or worries, we say Jesus, my faith is in you.

 And as we remember what God has said, what Jesus has said, we put to death those arrows of the enemy. How living a lifestyle either puts on the armour of God, or by making bad choices, is taking off that armour, and leaves us exposed. That is what Paul was talking about in 1Thessolonians chapter five. Verses five to eight: “⁵ you are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, gets drunk at night. ⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.” It’s those decisions we are making through the course of our day, that is putting on God’s armour, protecting us from the enemy, or leaving us exposed. Ephesians chapter six verses thirteen to eighteen, it says: “¹³ therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God¹⁸ And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests .With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”  Self – control is not powered by self – will, but is powered by your relationship with Jesus, and access the Holy Spirit has to our hearts. This is what self – control means. The problem is, if we are carrying secret stuff in our lives, secret habits, or unconfessed that, basically what all that means, is that when the day will come, we are putting ourselves in a position where we have dropped the armour in certain areas in our lives. How do we live a life of spiritual warfare? It is not just in a moment, it’s a lifestyle of self – control, making wise choices.

Secondly, it is not just self – control, it speaks about being alert. Now, alert is when your eyes are wide open, and your senses are tuned to what is going on around you. I have the privilege this last few days I have been invited to join thirteen other pastors around Zululand. We went to Mozambique; we lived in one of the pastor’s beautiful beach house overlooking the sea. For four days I get to spend time with the pastors while they were relaxing, encouraging each other, we worshipped together. And we walked along the beach. As we walked on the beach, we began to notice the strange marks like footprints, marks in the sand that goes up and down. We have never seen that before. They said these were turtle tracks. This part of the coast is where the turtles come in and go out. And once you realize this, oh, the footprints of the turtle, suddenly we were alert, looking out for them. Praying God, we want to see a turtle, and lo and behold. I got to spot a turtle coming down from laying its eggs and returning to the ocean. Here is the point. When you know what the footprints of a different animal is, you get to look out for it and be aware that it is somewhere in your vicinity. My question to all of us is: Are you aware, do you know what the footprints of this enemy we have are like a lion.

 Do you know what his footprints look like in your life is? It might be different in your life compared to mine. And if we learn to recognize, these are the footprints of the enemy in my life, then it will put me on a state of high alert when I see them. For example, all of us have areas of strength and areas of weakness. Areas where we are vulnerable to temptation, and areas where we are a lot stronger, it varies from person to person. For example, when I became a Christian, a year later, I was the youth leader. And normally, that is the age where teenagers are prone to experimenting with alcohol and things. But by the grace of God, and now that I had become a Christian, I became the youth leader, I just kind of never got to that stage. I still hate the taste of alcohol, and I have never been drunk in my life. The bottom line is this, for me that is not a temptation. I do not like going to bars, I am not in any way drawn to alcohol, and it is like a big nothing in my life. But maybe you, you have a different story. Maybe you have a different background. I have spoken to in the church, this area; they know it will take just one drink, it will lead to two, then three, then four then it will lead to disaster. What that means is as soon as that person steps into an environment where alcohol is freely available, they need to start recognizing the footprints of the enemy. They need to start recognizing, I call it the red flag environment, and this is a dangerous environment for them. For me, there are other areas. Just like for you, there are other areas. The enemy does not even have to be that creative because most of us will fall for the same kind of temptations time and time again. What is it for you?

 Some people are very susceptible to things like offense or unforgiveness. As soon as there is a relational rift, the enemy can hook you by putting some bitterness or unforgiveness in your heart, and he has you. Men, even ladies, lust is a huge one. You can be sitting at home with the DSTV control going through the channels wondering what movies are on. But actually, in your mind you are thinking; I wonder what I can find. It is a red flag environment. For some of us, it is dealing with money, dealing with finance, we could make a deal here, or pocket that there, that might be your red flag environment. All of us have different environments. My point is, are you aware of the enemy’s schemes in your life? Have you learnt to recognize his footprints Have you recognized these environments are dangerous ones. Paul says in 2Conrinthians chapter two verses ten and eleven: “¹⁰ Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, ¹¹ in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” Paul realized, he had to address something strongly in the church, and some of the people were marginally if not very offended, and he realized the enemy can have a field day right here, if we do not deal with these relational issues now, the enemy can get a hold of someone. What are your red flag environments? Are you aware of them? Do you know what kind of environment or situation is dangerous for you to be in? Peter said, be alert.

The third word you used then, self – control and alert, now he says I want you to resist him. How do we resist the enemy? James spoke about the same thing, James chapter four verses seven says: “⁷  How do you resist the enemy? Jesus was in the desert, the enemy came to Him and He resisted until he fled from Jesus. I am going to give an answer that might take you by surprise. There are two parts to how to resist the enemy. The second part, we learn to stand, there is a word that pertains to Christian maturity, but at first glance, you think that does not sound very bold and mature. There is a word that strong, mature Christians have learnt to embrace. How do we resist the enemy? We learn to flee. Run away, we stand in obedience to God. Run away from situations and temptations, where the enemy is trying to bring us down. I Corinthians chapter six verse eighteen say: “¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” Solomon, as he wrote so many proverbs, He said I observed a foolish young man who walked passed the adulteresses house. You don’t walk near that house, you walk the other side. You flee from a situation. You do not try stand in a situation of temptation, oh, I can handle this. No. You run away.

In 1Corinthians chapter ten and verse fourteen, “¹⁴ Therefore, my dear friends, flee from idolatry.” Idolatry is anything that we potentially love more than Jesus. It could be a good thing, but if you love something more than Jesus, then a good thing becomes a god thing, then it turns into an idol, which is a bad thing. Paul said flee from that. Someone once said if you love something too much, give it away. I have had people give away cars and boats, because they know that now this thing becomes an idol. Flee from anything that is trying to take away your love for Jesus. 1Timothy chapter ten verses ten and eleven: “10 For the love of MONEY is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many grief ¹¹ But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.” Are you someone who is just after money? Flee from all that. 2Timothy chapter two verses twenty two: “²²  We learn to resist the enemy, number one: By fleeing from those red flag environments. Hopefully you have identified that this is a problem area. When in those areas, do not hang around. Remember Joseph, this man of God, God was raising him up; Potiphar’s wife comes and tries to seduce him. What did Joseph do? He did not try preaching the Gospel to her, he ran away. Flee from those areas of temptation. It’s not just a random running away, Proverbs chapter eighteen verse ten says: “The name of the Lord is a fortified tower;  the righteous run to it and are safe.” You resist the enemy by fleeing temptation, and running to the Name of the Lord who is our safety.

 Lastly, number four, you need to stand firm. To stand means not to give in, to doubt or to disobedience. We have all been there. In those moments when you know what God’s word says? You know what God wants you to do, but there is pressure against you to buckle, to doubt and to fear. When there is pressure against you, well, let me just go do my own thing. I want to do my own thing. To stand means in those moments not to back down and give up, but to keep on trusting. The reality is there are days and seasons; the Bible speaks about in the day of evil. There are times in our lives, and maybe you are in one right now. It just feels that this is an ongoing struggle. Maybe for you, the whole year has been one of those ongoing struggles. And the highlight of this might just be this, I’m still standing. My faith is still in Jesus, I am still obeying my God.

We stand firm in obedience, in Ephesians chapter six, verses eleven to fourteen: “ ¹¹ Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. ¹³ Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. ¹⁴ Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, ¹⁵ and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. ¹⁶ In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷ Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

Many years ago, there was a great king, Jehoshaphat. He faced armies that came together to make war against Israel and Judea. God came to Jehoshaphat as he faced this huge army. He knew he was outnumbered, he knew that technically, he had no chance of winning this war. 2 Chronicles chapter twenty verses seventeen: “¹⁷  That is what it means to stand. It means you remember what God has spoken; it means you know that God id faithful, even though the situation looks bleak. God reminds us, you do not have to fight the enemy. Jesus faced the enemy, Jesus conquered the devil. We are more than conquerors in Christ, but we do have to show up for the battle. And we show up for the battle through obedience, through patience, through faith. Through keeping our trust on Him.

To wrap it up, remember the key theme, the whole way through this series, 1Peter five verses twelve. “¹² With the help of Silas,^[b] whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it.” And my prayer for all of us, Peter’s prayer for us, is that even though this has been a shocking year, even though this year has stretched you to the limit, even if this has been a season of great temptation, do not back down, do not give in. But rather as we learn today, self – control. Self – control comes from spirit closeness. The closer we are to Jesus, the more the Holy Spirit has access to our hearts, the more self – control life we can live. He said be alert, have you identified those red flags? Have you identified the footprints of your enemy to know when you to be on the lookout. He said resist, and resist often means fleeing. Out of that environment, do not hang around, flee the environment and run to Jesus. And then he said stand firm. Stand firm and don’t give in to doubt and disobedience. This is the true grace of God, let us stand firm in it. 

Website: http://www.outlookchurch.co.za

Senior Pastor: Brent Brading