The Battlefield of Life

Introduction

Good morning. First, I want to take this time to thank the elders for giving me an opportunity, letting me speak. I’d like to thank Ken, even though he’s out of town. Thank you for helping me prepare a talk. Have you ever thought about what goes into being a soldier? On being a successful soldier. Have you ever thought about what it takes to win a war to win a battle? I made a mental list of myself and I decided to go through it. First, you needed to be mentally prepared. Have the mindset that you’re there and you’re gonna see things that are really scary sometimes and that the average person won’t be able to comprehend. Next, you needed to be physically prepared, not being willing, not only being willing in the mind, but also being willing in your body.

The third thing I put on my list was you needed to have the right gear, the right weapons, and the right clothing to make sure you’re mobile and dangerous at the same time. You need to have the right team, people you can look at and say, I trust you with my life. And those people look at you with the same trust and love. You need to establish a goal and a mission, something you want to achieve by the end of all this. And lastly, you need to be able to follow the orders of a leader.

The first thing you needed was situational awareness, being aware of everything, training yourself to scan and analyze. They did this by enhancing their peripherals, by having them walk in paths and being naming, being able to name all the things that they can see on their sides. Second, they had people look at a busy street and look at people to see who is a threat and who is a civilian. Second, they needed to learn how to survive. You need to be able to stay alive to do the mission. You go in there and you go into a foreign land and you’ll face very, very different things: earthquakes, fires, flash floods, temperatures. Sometimes you won’t even have the right stuff to eat, water to drink. So they have to teach you how to do all that.

The third thing that they said is you needed to be fit. It may only make sense. You need to be able to move. You need to be able to be at the top of your peak, at the top of your performance. The second, the fourth thing they told us was you needed to put the matters at hand. See, when you leave, you understand that you’re leaving everything: your home, your family, your children, everything. But there’s still one thing. You still understand that there’s a duty to do.

1. Why Do We Face Dangers in the Battle of Life?

Well, we are the battle of life. The battle against sin. I have three points for you today. And the lesson will be yours. My first point is, why do we face dangers in the battle of life? And the first point obviously is simple. Satan. We understand that Satan is our number one enemy. Satan deceives and lies. He wants us to fall. He wants us to crash and burn. So turning to Genesis chapter 3. And we’ll see a couple examples of how Satan is lurking and trying to tempt everyone.

Beginning in verse 1 as Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast in the field, which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Has God indeed told God in seed said, You should not eat of any tree of the garden of Eden. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the tree, but of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, nor you touch it, lest you die. Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day that you eat, your eyes will be opened, and it will be like God, knowing good from evil.

So when the woman saw of the tree, she saw it was good for food. She took of it and ate it. And she gave to her husband, and he ate too. See, we see that Satan, Satan understood that Eve knew her instructions clearly. God told Eve, do not eat of the tree. And the serpent said, You will surely not die, deceiving her and lying. We understand that in 1 Peter chapter 5. 1 Peter chapter 5, beginning in verse 6, it says, Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that the proper time he may exalt you, casting all the anxieties of him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. See, we notice in the passage it’s it’s described as the devil as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And just like a soldier prepares so that he won’t be defeated, we also need to prepare in God so that we won’t be devoured. Verse 9, it tells us to resist him, and it also says to be sober-minded and to be watchful. So let’s look at how Satan works. Let’s look at Matthew chapter 4.

In Matthew chapter 4 and verse 1, we see that Jesus is coming out of the wilderness. And beginning in verse 1, it says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted for 40 days and forty nights afterward he was hungry. Now when the tempter came to him, he said, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written, He shall He shall give his angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said, It is written, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. Again, the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to them, All these things I will give to you if you fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. We understand that Satan even had the audacity to tempt the Lord, to try to tempt the Lord.

You were understanding that he tried to get Jesus to use his powers for himself on three different occasions for his hunger to save himself, and well, let’s think about that for a second. If Jesus saved himself from falling on this little thing, what do you think he would have done if Satan tempted him on the cross? We understand that even again he gave him a shortcut. All these things I would give to you if you fall down and worship me. Now the Lord has come to the earth to show us that we can resist Satan. He came as a man to show us that it’s possible. Hebrews chapter 4, verse 14, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weakness, but was in all points tempted as we are without sin.

Another point I believe we face dangers in life are people, the people we choose to surround ourselves with. We all consider 1 Corinthians 15, verse 33. Do not be deceived, for bad company corrupts good morals. Most people in the world are not spiritually minded.

And some do understand and still choose to not follow the word. They decide to live their happy life instead of a faithful life. Let’s look at some passages in where that’s the case. In 2 Corinthians 6, turn there. In 2 Corinthians 6. Beginning in verse 14, it reads, Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has with unbelievers? What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? What communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? This passage warns us that we need to be putting ourselves in a place where we can control our own destiny. We need to be advised to avoid those who will lead us away. We also see in Romans chapter 12.

2. Where Would We Face Temptations?

Romans chapter 12, verses 1 through 2. It says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that that is good and acceptable and perfect with the will of God. We understand that we are not to be conformed, we’re to be transformed, and not to the world, but to God. We’re to present ourselves as a holy and acceptable living sacrifice. So my second point is where would we face temptations? Where we we see all these things? And I think the obvious things is we have a couple of public places.

For school, we have the kids, the teenagers, young ones who want to feel like they want to fit in, they want to follow the crowd. It’s hard living a life that you can’t go anywhere, and you can’t go to every party, and you can’t do certain things. It really sets you aside. And for the workplace, the same thing for the adults. All your friends are gonna go out after work, and what are you gonna do? Stay inside. And while they’re partying, you’re gonna be enjoying yourself alone. It’s a hard life. It’s not, we were never promised an easy life, and we were never promised to be the same as everybody else. We also understand in some private situations, in some private places like home, where we have a family, and we’re too busy trying to make them happy.

They can lead us away, they can influence us the wrong way sometimes. And some people don’t even have the luxury of, like myself, growing up in a church. Some people are alone in their faith when they go home at night and during the day. And even in the church, even in the church, we can be tempted by those who do wrong, they discourage us, they hit us hard with their words and their actions, and they influence us to do wrong things. We even have those that can teach false doctrine. We see that in Acts chapter 20. Will you please turn there? Acts chapter 20. Beginning in verse 28.

3. How Do We Overcome These Things?

I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among us, and not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise a man speaking twisted things to draw away from the disciples, to draw away the disciples after them. My final point this evening is we established why and where. But let’s just let’s talk about how we face them. How do we overcome these things? We need to be aware, be aware of the dangers. Just like a soldier thinks about his surroundings, we need to understand that we can’t put ourselves in certain situations that’ll lead us away, that’ll lead us astray. We understand that even as something like going to a movie, if we’re going and watching something that a Christian shouldn’t be watching, there’s a good chance that that’s going to influence us.

The people that we choose to associate with, date, or marry. If you have a friend and he’s a bully, or he likes to talk about people and gossip, or you have a judgment, a judgmental person in your life. Chances are they aren’t your friend if they if you ask them to stop. And chances are they might persuade you indirectly to follow that.

Surround yourself with your family, surround yourself with Christians. I spend so much time with my brother, with my roommate, with a brother of Christ. I see Trey and Caleb over there. I love to talk to them. I love seeing them. I love surrounding myself with that. Because I know they’re going to get me to the places that I need to be and help me be the person that I want to be. So we need to understand that too. But finally, we need to put on the armor of God. We need to understand that the battle belongs to the Lord, and without God, there’s no way we can win that. I want to read the first verse of the battle belongs to the Lord. In the blue supplemental books, it says, in heavenly armor will enter the land, the battle belongs to the Lord.

No weapons that no weapon that’s fashioned against us will stand, the battle belongs to the Lord. And we sing glory, honor, power, and strength to the Lord. We understand that we need God’s armor to face this battle. No weapon will ever come against that. No weapon will ever prevail. And for the final scripture, I want to look at Ephesians 6. Ephesians chapter 6. And beginning in verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day.

And having done all to st all to stand, stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shop showed your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you are able to quench all the fiery darts from the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Conclusion

Just like a soldier needs the right uniform, the right weapons, clothing, we need this armor. God is the only way we win this. We understand that Satan is out there. Sin is out there. Sin is every day. We are going into a sinful world. But that does not mean we have to be sinful. We understand that we need the breastplate of righteousness and the gospel to guard our feet. And we need to withstand Satan’s fiery darts with the shield of faith. And we need to protect our heads with the helmet of salvation. And lastly, we need our main weapon, which is the sword of the spirit, which is God’s word. Have you been trying to fight the battle on your own? Or have you been fighting the battle without the right gear?

No matter how much evil we face in this world, we understand that our Lord is the only way to win. So if you haven’t been fighting the right battle and you want us to help, we can. Or maybe you’ve obeyed the gospel and you understand that you need some help. We would love to be there for you. We would love to help you. If we can help you in any way, please come forward as we stand and sing the song of invitation.