Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Let me read that again. A better response to that would be what? A better response to that would be, Amen. Let's quote our verse. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of and of and of a... God says here that He gives us the power to tread over our enemies.

Not only that, He says nothing shall by any means hurt you. This morning, I'd like to continue in our series of Facing Your Giants. I'm preaching on this subject, The Giant of Our Accuser.

The Giant of the Accuser. Who are we talking about here? Obviously, we're talking about Satan. And we've talked about temptation. We've talked about how he tries to get you to do wrong. But this morning, I'd like for you to understand how he tries to get you, period. And what he does every day to try to defeat you, to try to discourage you. It's not just attempting to do wrong.

It's a trying to engulf and envelop every area of your life. And in order for us to be able to get victory over this, folks, look at me. This is very important this morning. You and I have to understand who our enemy really is. And we also have to understand who our enemy is not. Because may I say, one of the criticism and probably well-founded of some of our circles is that we're fighting the wrong people. Oftentimes, we end up fighting ourselves and each other. But we are not each other's enemy, whether we realize it or not. This verse tells us that God has given us power over the enemy.

Who's the enemy? He also tells us that, you know what? Nothing shall hurt you.

So he's not given us a spirit of fear. We talked about that last Sunday. Could I ask you this? If I were to ask you who your greatest enemy is? Many of us would say, well, spiritually well.

No, let me ask you this. Who is it that gets you the most during the week? Who is it that absolutely gets on your nerves?

Who is it that absolutely drives you crazy? Some would say, my boss. Some would say, my employees.

Same people. Some would say, my neighbor. Some would say, this guy at work. Some would say, my wife.

I said, amen, the wrong place right there. Some would say, my husband. I would ask you, who's your greatest enemy? What seems to cause you the most problem? And who is it that seems to cause so many problems in your life?

And many of us, if we were honest, we would maybe mention a few individuals or somebody in our life. And may I say, dear friend, that whoever's given you the most difficulty right now and whoever it is that has absolutely made your life miserable, can I tell you this? They are not your enemy. You say, yes they are.

You don't know what they did. Look at me, dear friend. They are not your enemy. And you and I have to understand that or we'll never get anywhere in our spiritual life. May I say this morning, you and I, it's important that we acknowledge Satan and not people as our enemy. Satan's our enemy, not people. 1 Peter 5 says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil. Adversary means enemy.

Adversary means an individual that is striving, striving to defeat or discourage. Our adversary, the devil, this verse says, as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I want you to know this morning that that word walketh, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. You know what that word walketh means?

That word walketh is a word which means this, to make use of opportunities. That means this, Satan literally every second of every day is looking for any opportunity to get at you. And oftentimes he uses people to do it.

They don't even realize it. Again, can I tell you this, that sometimes God has used you to get at others. You know there's been times in your life that you and I, if we weren't living in the spirit, we let Satan give us an attitude or a problem and we ended up causing grief to an individual and we became what they thought was their enemy and it never was us, we didn't even realize it. And can I say in your life that Satan does that through people and before long we're fighting at each other, we're mad at each other and the whole problem is not each other. It's Satan.

He's the accuser of the brethren. You and I got to understand who our enemy is and this morning I think the gist of this whole message is for you to understand when you walk out of this building who is your enemy and who is not your enemy. Because when you're fighting somebody that's not your enemy, look at me folks, once you get this, when you're fighting somebody or something that is really not your enemy, you'll never win. Because they weren't your enemy to start with.

You'll never win it. You'll never defeat it, you'll never get over it, because they're really not the enemy. And as soon as you defeat them, and as soon as you chew them out, and as soon as you think you get the hand over them, and you let them know how you feel, guess what, the enemy's still there because it never was them to start with.

Tough crowd. Psalm 22, 13. They gaped upon me with their mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. Just as Satan tried to destroy Christ, he attempts to destroy you and me today. He's doing the same things, he's the same person, and you and I have got to understand who our enemy is. Number one this morning, I want you to notice this, we have to know who we are fighting against. We have to know who we are fighting against. We must not give Satan advantage over us relating this. If you and I think we're fighting each other, we give Satan the advantage.

You know why? Because now we're taking everything out on each other and on a person or on an individual instead of on Satan. So he goes by, we never do anything against him, and he loves every second of it because now we're mad at each other. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 tells us this, now I want you to listen. To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ.

Listen to this. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. What is he saying there? He's saying this, if you refuse to forgive others, you are giving Satan an upper hand. And you and I should not be, we shouldn't be ignorant of his devices. We shouldn't be ignorant of how he works.

Look at me, dear friend. Somebody's done you wrong, if you forgive them, you just spit in Satan's face. Because he loves it when it bothers you. Satan loves it when it defeats you. Satan loves it when you can't even operate your life because you're so hurt and so worried and so overtaken by what somebody's done. Satan absolutely loves that. But if you realize, hey, Satan's the real enemy here, not the person. And you forgive the person and you just go on with your life, Satan hates that. So you and I got to know who we're fighting against. We've got to understand that people really aren't the problem.

You say they are in my house. Can I tell you this, for ten years, and I know I say that a lot, can I tell you this? For ten years I spent in evangelism and I preached for many times a different preacher every week of my life. And I could sit down and within fifteen minutes I could tell if I'm talking to a bitter preacher or a happy preacher. I could sit down and easily tell if the preacher is just mad at this person, that person, and these people and all that they do. And you can easily tell when a pastor is already defeated, can't stand it seems almost half his church members, looks at all of them as if they're the enemies, everybody's out trying to get him, and yet you would sit with preachers that went through more difficulty but they'd be happy in the Lord.

And I'm going to be honest with you, pray for me because that's the way I want to be. And let me tell you the difference because some preachers think that people are the enemy. Can I tell you this, they're not the enemy. Satan's the enemy.

You and I have got to get our eyes off people. We've got to understand if we're going to fight Satan we've got to know who we are fighting against. Ephesians 6 12 says for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Some of us do.

But if we're wrestling everybody we can get our hands on. Do you know there's some people in life they just like to fight. They just like to start something.

They just like to get on something and they always got to have something going, and they always got to have conflict with somebody, and they always complain that they have so much conflict in their life, but they're the ones starting at half the time. Listen, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. That's who our enemy is. May I say first this morning that you've got to understand who he is.

Who is he? Well the word devil means accuser. He's our accuser. He is constantly accusing us in your mind reminding you of everything you've done wrong, in your mind reminding you of how rotten you are, in your mind reminding you of every sin you've committed, and while you ought to just go ahead back and commit that sin, and he is an accuser of the brethren the Bible says. That's what he does.

That's who he is. The Bible also says that he is the enemy of God. He's not only Satan, the Bible says he's tempter. He is continually tempting on us. He is continually focused on our demise.

Matthew 4-3 says it communicates the story of Jesus' temptation. And what did Satan do? He was relentless on our Savior.

Relentless. And that's exactly what Satan does to you. He tempts, he tries, he digs, he prods, he does everything he can do every second of every day. He's coming, and if we're not mindful of it, and we're not aware of it, we're sitting ducks for him.

We get up in the morning, we go to work, we sit under temptation all day long, we have not read our Bible, we've not done anything to sow to the Spirit in our life, we've not gotten any of God's Word in us, we've not gotten anything spiritual in us, and then we wonder why we keep falling to sin. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians that Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. He's an angel of light. The Bible says that he's a murderer. The Bible says he's a liar. The Bible also says that he is the god of this age.

That's the truth, isn't it? John 8 says that he was a murderer from the beginning. This is what the Bible says about Satan. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. I wish Jesus just wouldn't beat around the bush here. I wish the Bible would tell us how it really feels about Satan.

You've got to understand not only who he is, but second, you've got to understand what he can do. The Bible says that he is a strong enemy. The Bible says he is subtle. The Bible says that we have to learn to stand against the wiles of the devil. What does that word wiles mean?

Well, that word wiles means cunning, crafty, a strategist. That means this, Satan has a little pow wow every second of every day, strategizing how he can get you and how he can get me. And while he's spending all that time trying to get us, we're spending zero time trying to fight him.

Before long, men, he'll have us so taken. Men, we're mad at everybody, have conflict with everybody. This person's mad, that person's mad.

Argue that this person, depressed about this, discouraged about this, defeated about this. Before long, we'll think the whole world hates us. Before long, we'll say, why do I go to that church? Everybody's mean to me at that church.

Everybody says stuff to me at that church, and that is nothing but a lie of Satan because he know that's a weak spot with you, and he tells you that constantly. He has strategized about this for months, and we're sitting ducks. We don't read the Bible in the morning. We don't listen to preaching.

We sit here and doze off. We don't really care. And before long, Satan has us. We're not in church anymore. We're not in our Bible anymore. We're not around Christians anymore, and Satan won.

You know why? Because we thought people were our enemy. Because we think the church is after us. Because we think that preacher just preaches too hard. Well, thank God a preacher cares that he will. It's about time we expose Satan for who he is and what he does.

We've got to be warned. The Bible says that he is determined. The Bible says he will continually attack you. The Bible says also, by the way, that not only is he strong and he's subtle and he's cunning and he's crafty and he's relentless.

Are you looking at me? Do you know what the Bible also says about Satan? Is that he is already defeated.

See, that's important for you to know too. He has already been defeated. Oh, he is kicking and scratching, but it's done.

It's done. I mean, we already know how it ends. He's already defeated. He already knows what his demise is going to be.

So you know what he's doing? Every last Christian he can while he has the time. And of all times right now we hear prophecy and people love prophecy and they say, well, the end times are coming and people will get on TV and they'll say all these things. Well, the Lord might come soon and I'm telling you, I hope he does. But let me tell you why it's wise for us to know prophecy. And let me tell you, the only way prophecy will do you any good is if it makes you live closer to God now. That's the whole thing about prophecy and studying the Bible. You know, the only way that does you any good is if it makes you live better for Christ now. That's what prophecy ought to do. That's the whole thing that Lord might come back soon. Let me tell you what it ought to do.

It ought to make you want to live closer to God. You know why? Because Satan's going to fight harder now than ever. Because his time is limited. You got to understand who he is.

You got to understand what he can do. You got to know who we're fighting against. Second this morning, we have to know who is fighting for us. You see, Satan is fighting against us. Satan is kicking and scratching and clawing. He's strategizing, he's crafting, he's cunning. He will push every button you have.

He'll even push buttons you don't have. He'll do everything he can do to try to get in your mind, to rob you of purity, to rob you of strength, to rob you of power, to rob you of peace, to rob you of harmony. You get down in the bed at night and you don't have peace and you're just all defeated by so many things.

Satan loves that. He's fighting against us. But can I tell you this morning, there is also somebody fighting for us. I want you to turn to Joshua chapter five. This is a really interesting passage of scripture.

I don't make you turn a lot, but I want you to turn here. I want you to look at Joshua chapter five. Very important we're not far from being done. We have to know who was fighting for us. Joshua chapter five, look at verse 13. Here's Joshua looking over the city of Jericho, getting ready to go to battle. We've gone through all this process that got us prepared and gotten the soldiers that Joshua needs and all these things.

And Joshua comes into this situation. Here he is looking over the battle, getting ready to happen. And in a sense, he had the same mentality that some of you and I have. And here's our mentality. I've gotta fight these battles during the week. I need Jesus on my side.

That's what we think. I've got these battles I'm gonna have to fight. I want Jesus on my team. I want Jesus in my army.

I want Jesus on my side. Look at verse 13. And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand. And Joshua went unto him and said unto him, art thou for us or for our adversaries?

Big mistake. Look at verse 14. And he said, nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord. Now, some of you say, well, I don't really understand sometimes, but let me tell you who just said he was there. God. He is captain of the host of the Lord. He's captain.

Look at this. Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord, am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and did worship and said unto him, what saith my Lord unto his servant? And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot for the place wherein thou standest is holy.

Because you're in the presence of God. And Joshua did so. Now let me tell you an interesting thing about this story. Joshua was going into battle thinking that he needed God in his army.

And Joshua found out that the whole time he was fighting in God's army. Look at me, folks. It's not your army. It's not my army.

It's not even your battle or my battle. We're in his army. He's not on ours.

He's not under us. He's not taking commands from us. In fact, the Bible says God, what he wants in our life is for us to let him fight the battles. Because the Bible says the battle is not ours, but the what? The Lord's.

Look at me. All of a sudden Joshua says, hey, are you for me or for my enemy? That's not the question. The question is, are you for God or not? The question isn't, hey, is God for you? The question is, are you for God? The question isn't whether he's on your side. The question is, are you on his side? The question isn't, will he come help you fight your battles? The question is, will you let him fight his battles?

Dear friend, look at me. You've got to know who's fighting for you. He is doing the work. He is fighting the battles.

He is covering it all. Look at me, dear friend. You don't need to fight things on your own and say, well, I need God to help me. No, you don't.

You need to step back and let God cover it. We are here to serve him. He's not here to serve us. You've got to know who's fighting for you.

You say, well, how do I do that? Abraham Lincoln said this. He was questioned one time, and somebody asked him about his faith. He said this, sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side. My greatest concern is whether or not we are on God's side. What do we know about Christ? Well, first, we've got to know who's fighting for us.

Number one, we can trust him. Hebrews 13 5 says, he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Listen to this verse. Second Chronicles 32 8, with him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah King. Listen to me.

Look at me. Hezekiah's going to battle. What does he say to this people? He said, hey, they have the arm of flesh, but we have the Lord. And he will fight, he says, our battles. He will fight our battles. And the Bible says the people rested in those words.

Let me give you some rest this morning. God is not here to help you fight your battles. God is here to fight them for you.

Do you get the difference? There's nothing you have to bear. There's nothing you have to carry. There's nothing you have to worry about.

Listen to that. God will fight our battles for us. He's not going to put up with fighting them with us.

He doesn't need our help. He will fight them for us. That means this, our job is just to trust them. Our job is to cast our burdens upon them, and let Him sustain us. Psalms teaches us. Isaiah, chapter 43, verse 2. When thou passes through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. Look at me.

When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. You can trust Him. You say, how can I trust Him? Well, first, He's proven.

He's proven. The Scriptures repeatedly tell us that He has never lost a battle, and He never will. Second, He's powerful. Psalm 145, thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. Interesting verse in Daniel, chapter 4. Nebuchadnezzar, who was against God, had this to say about God.

How great are His signs. How mighty are His wonders. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His dominion is from generation to generation.

That came from somebody that doesn't even like God. But He respected them. He realized He is powerful. He's proven, and He's powerful.

We've got to trust Him. Second, you've got to submit to Him. You've got to know who's fighting for you. And when He fights for you, you've got to submit. Psalm 147, submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Look at me, folks. Do you know that victory can only come in your life when you submit to Christ? You have to submit to Him for any battle or any victory to occur. So many times we say, well, preacher, I've been fighting right now in my life. And what happens is oftentimes people are trying so hard to defeat this, so hard to get over this.

Look at me. That will never come till you submit to God, till you trust Him, till you lay it all to Him, till you let Him have control, till you give it to Him. When you submit it to Him, then He fixes it. Then He'll take care of it.

But as long as you and I are still trying to do it, He can't, and He won't till we submit to Him. I want you to notice, thirdly, first, this morning, we've got to know who's fighting against us. Second, we have to know who's fighting for us. But third, we have to know our position.

We have to know our position. Let me read you these verses, and I'll let you go this morning. 2 Timothy 2, beginning in verse 1.

This is what it says. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Thou therefore, endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Listen, verse 4 says, No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Look at me, dear friends. One of the biggest things about military, and I've never served in the military, I got out of high school, went right to Bible college, felt God call me to the ministry, and so I've never spent, now my dad did, I've been around a lot of military, I've preached at a lot of churches that have quite a bit of military, I've preached on military bases, but I've never been in the military. But let me tell you something, you'd have to be an ignoramus if you didn't figure out one thing about military. You will not exist there very long if you don't know your position.

As soon as you begin to think you are in charge when you are not in charge, you're in trouble. And dear friend, look at me, I want you to understand something through this whole Facing Your Giant series. You and I have got to understand how Satan works.

He is absolutely relentless at trying to get us. I did this series because I all of a sudden realized that some of these, I guess you would call it, what's the best way I could put it? Maybe some of these difficulties in my life, they had become giants. Because when Satan gets on you, you can take things that used to bother you a little bit and they will absolutely become giants. And if you don't know how to face it, you don't know how to deal with it, we're in trouble.

You know what I think accumulatively? I've never seen marriages breaking up at a rapid pace like they are now. I've never seen God's people, Christians, having so many marriage problems, having so many emotional problems, having so many mental problems.

I mean, some of the weirdest stuff you'd ever believe. Look at me, folks, the Bible says there is spiritual warfare going on. And you and I are trying to fight some of these things in our flesh, and we will fail.

And here's what's happening. Satan is attacking us and he's beginning to, look at me now, he's beginning to convince us that people are our enemies and people are not your enemy. May I challenge you this morning, Kerwin Baptist Church, I'm not your enemy. I don't wanna be your enemy. But don't let me become your enemy because I don't wanna be it.

I've seen people get so mad at preachers and so mad at their pastor and a lot of things will go on in their life and before long they're mad at the preacher about this and about that. Look at me, dear friend, I'm not your enemy and I don't wanna be. You're not my enemy either. Let me tell you, all of us have the same enemy and that's Satan. And if we're not wise about it, we'll begin to fight each other and then Satan can sit back and not have to do anything. Look at me, when we start fighting each other, he doesn't have to do anything. He just sits back and watches us absolutely destroy ourselves.

Let's not let that happen. Father, we thank you for this morning. Lord Satan is our accuser. He's our adversary. And he right now during this invitation time is walking about as a roaring lion. Your word tells us. Seeking whom he may devour.

Seeking who will let him defeat them. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.