The Game You Must Win! (Nate Heitzig) - Part B

Satan won't stop when you're down. Satan wants you dead. Satan won't stop when you look.

He wants you to lust. And if we aren't daily making a conscious effort to do what God has called us to do, to be steadfast, to stand firm, knowing that the suffering we experience is experienced by all believers, then we will naturally begin to do what Satan knows we shouldn't. Battles are messy, especially spiritual warfare. But when it comes to your battles with the enemy, you have something to look ahead to that will keep you going.

Today on Connect with Skip Heitzig, Skip's son, Nate, shares why your ultimate victory with the enemy is guaranteed. Right now, we want to tell you about a resource that will help you grow in your relationship with God as you apply His Word in real life ways. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused the reevaluation of priorities, life choices, and the path forward. This illuminates the question, what do I want out of life? Here's Skip Heitzig with some thoughts on priorities.

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Call 800-922-1888 to give or visit connectwithskip.com. Now, as we join Nate Heitzig for today's teaching, we're in 1 Peter chapter five. We have these triumphs. We say, man, I'm feeling good. I finally got rid of this sin that I've been struggling with. My family's healthy. I have a new job. I see the horizon. Things look good. Things are going my way.

Things are just going up and up and up and up. And then finally Satan comes in and knocks your legs out from under you. And you hit the ground. Some tragedy happens. Something happens in your family.

You lose that job. Your health goes out the door. A temptation comes. A new sin comes.

And it takes your breath away, knocks you out. And you begin to spiral. And you begin to question all those things that you were so sure of before. Well, maybe God's plans for me are not of good. Maybe His plans for me are actually evil. Maybe God's doing this to me. Everything's going wrong.

Nothing's ever going to be better. And we begin to spiral and spiral and spiral. It's psychological. And we've just fallen into Satan's game plan instead of playing our game plan. Instead of saying steadfast, instead of standing firm, we allow the psychological effects of the exchange to bring us down.

Rising and falling, going up and down, losing and winning. You know, when you think of David, two other names come to mind. David and Goliath and David and Bathsheba. One represents his greatest victory, the other his greatest defeat. One his greatest moment of faith, the other his greatest moment of failure. And times of greatest temptation often follow times of greatest triumph. And we see this throughout the entire Bible. We need to remember though, that the suffering we experience, this exchange, it's not isolated to you. Every Christian who has ever lived on earth has experienced this. All the greats in the Bible, all your brothers and sisters sitting in the seats, all the people who come to church pretending they're perfect and don't experience this, experience this.

The suffering is universal. Right after the father said, this is my beloved son, the devil was there to tempt him. The devil always opposes those who God approves. Those who are obedient and are faithful to God become the biggest targets of Satan. And many times in our lives the most difficult trials come after the greatest triumphs. After Jesus had his mountaintop experience of being transfigured with Moses and Elijah, a demon-possessed person was waiting at the bottom of the hill. David right after slaying Goliath was met with praises from the people and a big old spear from King Saul.

Samson after he destroyed a thousand enemies, met a girl named Delilah. Peter who boldly stood for Christ and even hacked the ear off of a soldier only hours later was ashamed to even acknowledge he knew Jesus. Christian, sometimes our successes, our wins can cause us to feel invincible and we can let our guard down.

And then when Satan comes with the exchange and takes a piece, we're not ready for it. In the contest between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal, God personally worked in a powerful and tangible way. Elijah literally called down fire from heaven.

You're like man if I ever did that I would never doubt God again. Yet only a week later Elijah was running scared for his life, depressed and he even asked God to take his life. No sooner had Israel been delivered from Egypt than Pharaoh came pursuing them with his army. No sooner had Paul had an abundance of revelations that he was hit with a thorn in the flesh by a messenger of Satan.

Look whether you're 15 or 50 you need to hear this. Whether you've been a Christian for three months or 30 years, this is for you because the most intense suffering, the most intense temptation comes in the beginning and the end of the Christian life. In the beginning of your Christian life because he wants to derail you from walking with God. He wants to deter you from ever making an impact, from ever being a Christian, from having an impact, from ever being used by him and so he hits you in predictable ways with heavy duty temptations or suffering.

Offering you all the kingdoms of the world so to speak if you just leave Jesus, if you just leave the church. He causes you to doubt your salvation but it's also at the end that the greatest attacks come. Because if he can get you to fall in your last lap he can get you to fall in your last lap. And so it's discredited all the years of faithful running, all the years of faithful service. Just ask Ravi Zacharias who after decades of faithful service, decades of being the greatest apologist in our modern history, a guy who brought so many to faith all hard and it discredited all the years of faithful service.

There are those in this race who do not finish well. We lower our guard, we put our spiritual lives in cruise control but we don't realize that we don't have our seat belts on and Satan would love nothing more than to scrape your dead body off the pavement because Satan won't stop when you're down. Satan wants you dead. Satan won't stop when you look. He wants you to lust and if we aren't daily making a conscious effort to do what God has called us to do, to be steadfast, to stand firm, knowing that the suffering we experience is experienced by all believers, then we will naturally begin to do what Satan knows we shouldn't. So what's the solution? How do we fight against Satan?

Well as we've all heard, the best defense is a good offense. I believe that instead of focusing on doing the things you shouldn't, some people spend so much time saying I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do this. Instead of focusing on what we shouldn't do, I believe that each and every day we should get up and focus on doing the things that you should do. Do the things that you should do. Build a habit. Wake up every day and do the things God has called you into doing. Build it so it becomes a hedge of protection around your life and naturally you're going to find yourself not doing the things that you shouldn't.

It'll be like a top performing athlete. You spend so much time training, dieting, perfecting your craft that when someone offers you a donut, a bad habit, you're like no no bro I'm good because I want to keep myself in tip-top shape. I want to keep the good habits I've created so I can win the race.

It's so important for us to build those good habits. Just like the exchange, don't let the suffering or the loss throw you off of your game plan. Don't let the pieces Satan takes throw you off of your game plan.

In order to win the game you'll lose some pawns. Play your game. Stay steadfast. Stand firm. Knowing the suffering, knowing the temptation, knowing the pain is universal. Just ask Frank Reich in the 1993 Buffalo Bills.

Somebody who doesn't know what I'm talking about is going to google this and find out later. When difficulty tackles you on the field of life, don't sit on the sidelines thinking about how things should have gone. Pick up your ball and run the race because it's not over until it's over and with Jesus Christ Christian there's always another do-over. So turn your fear into faith because God wants to turn your interruption into an opportunity. Stop looking at what happened and start looking at what's happening because Jesus Christ wants to use your pain and your suffering as an opportunity to show himself strong on your behalf. The most important thing to do when you fall is to get back up. Come on Christians. We tell our kids this all the time growing up. Why do we forget it as adults?

When you fall down, get back up. After all, what is God's attitude towards us when we mess up? Is he out to get us? Is he angry with us? If you love someone, set them free.

If they don't return, hunt them down and kill them. Maybe for your psycho ex but not God. No, God's attitude towards you is like the shepherd with the lost sheep. He will search for you. He will find you or he will find you or as the father and the prodigal son story, God misses you.

He yearns for a relationship with you. So in this game you must win. You need to know your adversary.

You need to recognize that to win the game you'll lose some pawns and finally you need to play the end game. Let's read verse 10. But but may the God of all grace who called us to his eternal glory by Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while. I want to pause there because I really hate the word a while because it doesn't give us an end. It doesn't even say a little while. It just says a while.

How long is a while? Could be a day. Could be a week. Could be a month. Could be a year. Could be the rest of your life.

But guess what? In comparison to eternity in heaven, even a lifetime of suffering is just a while until we get to experience joy. After you have suffered a while he will perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. You know through the years I've found that so many of us think that God will forsake us because well people have forsoken us. People have left us. Maybe your parents left you when you were a kid. Maybe they abandoned you. Maybe your mom or your dad walked out on you. Perhaps you were a victim of your parents having a divorce and that's left this hole in your heart where you feel forsaken. Maybe your spouse has forsaken you. Maybe you're a victim of infidelity in your household and now you have this hole that you feel like you can't be loved.

Maybe you feel alone, sad, hopeless, feeling like there's no future for you. You need to realize that although people might forsake you, although people might let you down, God never will. He will never leave you. He will never forsake you. He is with you. He loves you. He cares for you.

He wants good things for your life. You do not serve and follow a God who is disinterested in your life. This is not Bruce Almighty. God is not a big bully with a magnifying glass burning ants on the anthill and we're the ants.

No, that's not who our God is. He is compassionate, caring, concerned and He wants to help you in your pain and suffering. Cast all your cares upon Him. Why?

Because He cares for you. You know if we're honest, most of us would prefer to avoid the fight with our adversary the devil. If we were asked and given an option to either fight and win or avoid the fight altogether and be left alone by Satan, I think if we're honest, we'd all choose to just be left alone. I don't need to win.

I just don't want to lose. In fact, we would prefer to Skip the suffering and loss and instead just experience the success and the triumphs. We'd prefer it if the Lord would drive us in an air-conditioned escalate from cool water to green pasture. Lord, keep the AC up.

Just avoid the valleys unless you're a Phoenix Suns fan, then you like the valley. But God is with us in the valley. God is with us in the pain. God is with us in the suffering and when we're in the suffering, guess what?

He has His eye on the thermostat and His hand on the dial and He is watching you. He is waiting for you and after a little while, He's going to come in and He's going to bring that refresh. He's going to bring that peace and He's going to settle you. He's going to protect you.

He's going to strengthen you. Isaiah 43 2 says, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned. The flames will not set you ablaze.

Hebrews 13 5 through 6 says, I will never leave you nor forsake you so that we may boldly say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear. We will not be saved. I will not fear.

What can man do to me? Come on somebody. This is the courage the next generation needs. This is the warriors of the Lord's army that the next generation needs that says, I don't care what you throw at me. I don't care what the world throws at me. I don't care what pain or suffering I experience. I don't care what culture cancels me because I'm not part of this culture. I'm part of a heavenly culture. I don't care what the world brings. I will not fear because what can man do to me? My security is in heaven. I'm a child of God.

We need to train our kids up to be warriors in this society with that kind of a courage, not with this fear that the world wants to impose. Look, before the Avengers, the end game didn't refer to a superhero movie, but it referred to chess. This is my favorite part of my message by the way. You probably, maybe you don't care. You're like, okay great. I don't care.

This is my favorite part of my message. The end game in chess often occurs right after the exchange that we talked about before where you're trading pieces with somebody back and forth. It happens after the quick flurry of the exchange when one of the opponents finally gets the advantage because they've strategically played the other opponent into falling into their end game, usually with a big sacrifice. Perhaps they sacrificed their queen and the other opponent just can't resist taking that queen, so they take that queen not realizing that taking that queen just played right into the other person's game and now they're in trouble. The player who has kept their cool, the player who has stuck to their strategy throughout the game, finally gains control even while losing pieces along the way. They'll force their enemy to make a mistake and in this moment it becomes clear to the opponent that the outcome is inevitable. Now in professional chess when this happens, the player who is behind often takes the honorable approach and resigns knowing that the cause is futile. They won't play it out to checkmate.

They'll just resign because they recognize they've lost. They've been played into the end game. Notice that it says in verse 10, but the God of all grace who called us. Let me ask you a question. Who is it that perfects, establishes, strengthens, and settles? It's God.

Let me ask you this. Who is it that wins this game? Whose game is this actually? Is it us versus Satan?

No. It's us and God versus Satan. This is where the plot shift happens in the game of chess with our adversary the devil. This is when we and he realizes it's not us versus Satan like he's thought all along. It's us and God versus Satan. This is the end game where Satan realizes that we're not alone. That every move that's been made from the beginning of time in the garden when Adam and Eve bit that fruit has all been made for his defeat. Even the moments where Satan thought that he was on top.

Even the moments when he exchanged and got those pieces in your life. It was all part of the grand master's plan and they were all made to put Satan into a corner and in this moment he realizes that he's lost. Jose Capablanca the author of Chess Fundamentals wrote this and I want you to hear these words and I want you to think of them in relation to your spiritual game, your spiritual life. He said, to improve your game you must study the end game before everything else. For whereas the endings can be studied and mastered by themselves the middle game and the opening game have to be studied in relation to the end game. Christian what if you started looking at your sufferings?

What if you started looking at the exchange and the pain in your life? Through the lens of the end game. Through the lens of the final countdown. The final match. The final move.

Let me tell you something the devil doesn't want you to know and that is that he was soundly defeated at the cross 2,000 years ago. Remember when Jesus cried out the words it is finished to Telestai. It is accomplished. What was finished? What was accomplished?

The work the father gave him to do. Finished was Satan's death clutch on humanity. Prior to his crucifixion on the cross Jesus said, now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Through his death Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil. Colossians 2 14 says having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us which were contrary to us he took out of the way nailing it to the cross. Therefore Christian we are not fighting to obtain victory.

Oh man the devil hates you hearing this Christian. We're not fighting to obtain victory. No we are resting in the victory that he has already obtained. We don't fight for victory. Oh Lord give me victory in this. Oh Lord take away the suffering.

Oh Lord take away the temptation. No we fight from victory. Lord I thank you that you've already won. I thank you that the devil is defeated and I'm not under his weight or his chains or his bondage. I thank you that there is victory in your name and I thank you that you won't give me more than I can handle and until then I can trust in your name and give you praise still. Tetelestai it is finished.

Now I want to share with you something that blows my mind maybe it won't blow yours maybe you've heard everything but this blew my mind the first time I discovered this. Tetelestai in the Greek and this is why Greek is so important is a perfect tense verb. Now that might not mean anything to you but what that means in the Greek is that when Jesus said it is finished he wasn't saying this one task is finished now in this moment he was saying it is finished it always has been finished from the beginning of time it has been finished and it always will be finished until the end of days Tetelestai it is finished. This is the end game that God planned from the beginning of the battle in the garden until now he even prophesied of it to Satan's face and he didn't realize what was happening in Genesis 3 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman between your offspring and hers he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. The second Adam and Eve bit into that fruit God began arranging the pieces and putting into place his end game and let me tell you something Christian Jesus has been studying his end game above everything else. And while Satan has gotten caught up in the exchange in trading pieces with you he missed the most important move of all. When Jesus cried out Tetelestai Satan thought it was checkmate he thought he had won but it wasn't his winning it was just the final exchange move by Jesus Christ exchanging himself the most powerful piece on the chessboard so that you and I the pawns could become co-heirs with Christ so that you and I could become royalty and in that moment Satan thinking he had won was actually himself put into checkmate this is where his head would be crushed. We must never lose sight of one vital truth this Christian is not our battle this is the Lord's battle. This is his chess game versus Satan and guess what Satan's just been outplayed it's not us versus the power of hell it's not our personal war we're simply individual soldiers in a vast army who are to obey the directions given to us by the captain of our salvation but remember the simple truth as we close. I said before that in chess when you're put into the end game and you realize you're going to lose a gentleman a professional will resign they won't carry the game out you need to know Satan is not a gentleman.

Just because he's lost and he knows he's lost doesn't mean he's going to resign no he's going to take as many pieces as he can until his head is finally crushed once and for all and Jesus Christ returns. He wants to bring as much suffering as he can he wants to deter you and pull you away from the victory that you have in Jesus Christ. Satan will always seek to drive you away from the very thing where your victory is found that is the cross the Holy Spirit will always draw you to it. Sure the devil will say to you to it. Sure the devil will say you're not worthy to approach God not after what you've done but your response to Satan should be my access to God's throne has nothing to do with you or me or what I've done and everything to do with what he's done and what he is doing through his son Jesus Christ. Remember Jesus said to Peter Satan has been asking for you but I have prayed for you. Our defense against the accusations of the devil is the interceding son of God. First John 2 1 my little children these things I write to you so that you may not sin and if anyone sins we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous Romans 8 33 who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen it is God who justifies it is he who is he that condemns Christ Jesus who died more than that who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

Christian don't let a liar and a loser at that keep you from the victory of the cross and keep you from repenting for your sin and experiencing the work of forgiveness. That concludes Nate Heitzig's message from the series now streaming. Now here Skip to share how you can keep this broadcast going strong connecting you and others around the world with the gospel.

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