R1610 Our Struggle

The struggle is real. Perhaps that's a phrase you've used or heard today, our struggle.

It's a topic from Dr. Don Wilton. This is The Encouraging Word featuring the Bible-based preaching of Dr. Don Wilton. Today we head to the book of Ephesians, beginning in chapter 6, talking about our struggle.

One of the joys of knowing that you're a part of the body of Christ is whatever your struggle is, you do not need to face it alone. We'd love to pray with you and for you. You can reach us on our website at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org, a great place to find free resources like the daily encouraging word email from Dr. Don or the daily encouraging word Bible guide. We'll be glad to send you. You can also call us at 866-899-WORD, 24 hours a day. That's 866-89-9673. We'd love to connect with you.

And now, Dr. Don Wilton. One week, I presented to you what God had to say about our world. The Bible is unequivocal in what God wants us to understand about our world in these last days. And today I want to speak to you from God's word about our struggle, the reality of our struggle, and what it is that God would say to us.

In application to each one of our own individual lives. And I've got such good news for you today. I'm so grateful that we can worship the Lord like this. You're listening to the right person. Not Don Wilton, God, our Heavenly Father, by His Spirit and through His word, I guarantee you, God will nourish your heart and He'll pick you up regardless of whether or not your team won last night. Regardless of whether or not you're going through deep, dark and difficult times. Regardless of that diagnosis.

Regardless that you've tested positive. Regardless that you're fighting for your life. God has a word for us and He fortifies us. This is what He says to us in Ephesians chapter six and verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. But against rulers, against the authorities. Against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, my beloved, take up the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand firm. Isn't that a beautiful passage right there? God's word tells us to consider four things. First of all, He tells us to look at.

Now I want you to just get this is beautiful. He tells us to look at. Look at the Lord Jesus. Now, can I just give us three basic reasons? First of all, because He's all we need. Now if you go and study the Lord Jesus, it's the most wonderful study.

I asked myself this question. What are the things that Jesus does for us that no president can do for us? What are the things that Jesus can do for us that no pastor can do for us? That no football coach can do for us? That no mom can do for us? No dad can do for us? And nobody can do them for ourselves?

What distinguishes? Why is He all we need? So here's just six ways. Six things Jesus does for us that nobody else can do. Number one, He always speaks the truth.

Always. He is totally truthful. Everything He says, truth. We live in a world where truth is relative. It's agendized. It's politicized.

It's skewered somehow. You measure it against the backdrop of multi-measurements. I better not get stuck on these six points. He always speaks the truth. Number two, He always offers everything. By the way, to what extent is Jesus complete?

Now remember now, Paul is saying here, in the middle of our struggles, look at Jesus. He always speaks the truth. He always offers everything that we need.

Number three, He always values everyone. One of the things I've loved about First Baptist Church Spartanburg, if you'd beg my pardon, and I know this may be true of your church. I trust it is.

It ought to be. We are the church where everyone can invite anyone to come to First Baptist Church to encounter the living one. That's the Lord Jesus.

Why? Because He always speaks the truth. He always offers everything. He always values everyone. Nobody's left out of the focus of the love of God. Jesus died for you. He loves you, everyone, equally. And when He comes into your heart, He treats you with everything that He is equally.

God doesn't have secret service agents and special agents and people that He has as His private pets. When Jesus went to the cross, He leveled the playing field. Number four, Jesus loves totally. His love is so pure. You don't have to try and figure out the partiality or compartmentalize the love of God in Christ Jesus. God so loved the world. Number five, He forgives completely.

I love that one. When you give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus, He takes your sin and He casts it as far as the east is from the west, He remembers it no more. We're the ones who have the problem. You ever gone to someone you love and raked up the sins of their past? God doesn't do that. The problem we have is forgiving ourselves. We've got a human problem and forgiving others. That's why Jesus said, forgive others as I have forgiven you. He forgives us totally. And then when you give your heart to Jesus, because we're sinners by nature and we're sinners by choice, if we confess our sin, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that's to believers, us, that's me. I mean, I can stand here today totally forgiven. I've said to you before, this sounds like a cute little statement. Most every time I stand in this pulpit, I stop somewhere and I say, Lord, please, I confess all my sin to you.

Why do I do that? Because I so profoundly believe I know that I'm a sinner. I know I disappoint God. I know I sin against God. And when I stand here, I want to stand here knowing that I've been totally forgiven. I want to speak from a blameless heart and that blamelessness is tied into in the Lord.

Look at Jesus. It's powerful. Okay, number six, He always keeps His promises.

Just want to get that one in there. He always keeps His promises. He never fails you.

He's never failed me. God said it. That's it. So here He tells us, Paul's looking at the church at Ephesus and there's so many things about the church at Ephesus. These Ephesian believers, they were in the middle of a massive struggle in Ephesus.

I mean, horrendous. Their days were very dark. They faced unbelievable political oppression, suppression, unrest. Christians were persecuted. Paul says be strong in the Lord. Look at Jesus. He is all we need. He has all we need.

Now you get into the attributes of God, right? He has all we need. He's omnipotent. He's everywhere. He's unchanging. He's eternal.

You look at His attributes. He not only is all we need, but He has, because He's God, all we need. Get this, the third one here.

I love the third one. He gives all we need. He's so loving. He gives it to us. He fills us with His Spirit. You just think of the fruits of the Spirit, love and joy and peace and long suffering. Now juxtaposed there to compare that to the struggle of our world. Jesus said, I'm going to give you all that you need. How can we be loving in an unloving world?

How can we be steadfast in an unsteady world? Look at. That's the first thing He said. The second thing He says, not only look at, but consider who. Now folks, listen to this carefully. Consider who.

Consider who we struggle against. I'll tell you, Paul writing to the church here under the inspiration of the Spirit, he puts his finger right on the pulse. He tells us who our struggle is. He says, boink, boink, boink, right there, boom, right there. Hello, do you love Jesus?

Do you love Jesus? Consider who it is that you're up against. And there He puts it out for us. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Now what is He saying here? He's saying essentially two things to us. First of all, He's telling us about the reality of Satan, the reality of the devil. The reality, the presence, the living reality of the devil. He is real and He's personal. You know who the devil is? He once was the chief angel who usurped his position and fell. Go and read it in Isaiah. What about this, the reality of the devil? What about him? He appeared in the book of Genesis as a serpent, as a snake.

That's what he did. Jesus, do you know when Jesus encountered the devil? Jesus not only spoke about Satan, you getting this?

Jesus not only spoke about Satan, He spoke to Satan, to the devil. Forgive the interruption. Dr. Don wants me to remind you that as you face the struggles, if you face even the enemy, we are with you to pray with you 24 hours a day at 866-899-WORD.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at TEWOnline.org. Now back to today's message. He met with him, the person, the reality. Not only shows us the reality of the devil, but he talks about the schemes of the devil. It's what he says there so that you may be able to stand against the schemes. The idea of craftiness and cunning and deception.

That's the stealth of an animal creeping up on a vulnerable creature to make a meal out of it. Devil masquerades. He places doubts. He'll cause you to doubt. He'll make you so depressed you can hardly stand yourself. He corrupts. He convinces. He sidetracks, gets you off track, takes you away from the truth of the word.

He'll do anything to get you out of church, to stop you worshiping. He'll distract you. Your phone will suddenly start blowing up with an email or a text right at the heartbeat of something God wants you to hear, and suddenly there it is. You hear the buzz. He's got you, got you, got you.

He's got you. He tempts us, leads us astray, blinds us to the truth. He'll take you when you've got just enough of the word of God, get you to use that little enough of the word of God against God. Now just go and figure that out. Look at Jesus.

Consider who? Well, the third thing he says is know what. Know what in our struggle. So, know what you're up against.

Know what the struggle is. I'm telling you, that passage there is so powerful, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Oh, I thought it was. Paul here is not prepared. He's not telling the church, the Ephesian church, to idly stand by and watch an assault take place.

He's not saying that. But he wants the church to understand the powerful nature of the assault that takes place and where it comes from. Know what. And that little word there in verse 12, for we wrestle, that little word wrestle there, by the way, very common back in this time that this was written, that metaphor, that direct comparison there, it really carries with it the idea of hand-to-hand combat. Hand-to-hand combat. I wish I could still do things that I was taught when I was an older teenager. Some of the things that I went through related to hand-to-hand combat. Lethal things that stick with me.

If I tried them right now, I'd break both arms in my back at the same time. But we understand that hand-to-hand combat. I mean, this is serious stuff. Paul's not playing a game here. Rarely you can talk about knowing what in relation to Satan and what he says here of being flesh and blood that that's not where we need to focus. He tells us three things here. First of all, he wants us to know that Satan acts himself.

He's personally engaged. Number two, he wants us to know that Satan deputizes himself. He deputizes his legions of demons. What you have here, folks, is very interesting because in the text it's the different strata or the rankings of those demons in the evil empire. That's what he's talking about here.

The order of satanic evil influence. He's saying to us, listen, don't try and put your head in the sand. It's not about there not being a struggle.

There is a struggle, but I've got great news for you. Look at Jesus. Consider who you're up against. You're up against Satan. And know what it is. Satan acts himself. Satan deputizes his legions of demons. They are rampaging across our world.

They're infiltrating our homes, our schools, our politics, but most of all, our hearts. And thirdly, not only that Satan acts himself and that Satan deputizes his legions, but thirdly, that Satan assigns to people, people who are infiltrated. Bible says you're either for God or you're against him.

Now, wait a minute now, folks. Bible says you either belong to God or you belong to the devil. It's no neutrality.

Which one? It's no middle ground, not according to the word of God. Thou shalt serve, worship the Lord thy God. God doesn't share space. There's no such thing as a sort of Christian. People who say, well, you know, I'm fairly religious, you know. That means you don't know Jesus. By the way, Christianity is not religion. Sure, you can call it a religion, but Christianity is not religion.

It's a personal relationship. Religion is believing in something. Do you know there are people in our world who believe in whales? I like whales.

I don't believe in them. People who believe in trees. I like trees.

I love trees. People who believe in statues. People who believe in chariots and horses. Satanists signs.

These are people who have been infiltrated by Satan to carry out paganism, immorality, and the denial of the truth of the word of God. That's why we're never living in a better day and age where the preaching of the truth of the word of God is more critical. We've never had a greater opportunity to share the truth of God in Christ. Now, pulpits, life groups, I commend you for the seriousness with which you go about teaching others, for your due diligence, your relentless pursuit.

Paul looks at the church at Ephesus and he sees them. He knows them. He understands.

He goes to the Lord and God gives him this word because this is the living word of God. Tell these people, yes, I see their struggle. I know their struggle. It's real. It's not imaginary.

On the contrary, it's awful. It's why when Paul died, I had fought the good fight of faith. Be strong in the Lord. And in this case, he says, look at Jesus. He says, consider who you're up against. Know what it is.

You're not wrestling against flesh and blood. And the final thing he says is, be fortified. Be fortified. It's that beautiful little word in verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God.

Get dressed right. Now, I look at this and the Lord's saying to me, just stick with me. Put your faith in me.

I love you so much. I give you everything you've ever needed. I'll fortify you. I'll help. I'm there.

I'm right. I'm going to tell you as a parent how to guide your children through this time. How to teach in that home or try to decide when to send them to school. How to deal with COVID. The struggles, the tiredness, the depression, the weariness. How to respond to the political divide. And to the deep rooted feelings that we all have. How to suffer loss and to celebrate gain. Be fortified. Be strong in the Lord.

Suffering loss yet celebrating gain. Perhaps the Lord has spoken to you as the pastor has stood in the pulpit and proclaimed God's word from the book of Ephesians today. I pray that you would open your heart to what he's about to share next from his heart here in the studio. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now?

Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God. This is exciting news.

If you said yes to Jesus Christ, yes to him for the first time or rededicating your life, welcome to the family of God. Welcome home. We have wonderful resources for you.

We'd love to put that in your hands. If you'll call us and let us talk with you, pray with you at 866-899-WORD. 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. As a matter of fact, that website www.tewonline.org is where you can discover wonderful resources like this. As you reflect upon your life this season, think about your friends and family members outside of Christ or those who are drifting away from God.

Could this be you? This Christmas, Dr. Wilton wants to encourage you to make a commitment to meet Jesus every day so you can learn more about him and be able to live a life of trust and not fear. With your gift of $30 and support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive the Spirit of God within you. A beautiful 52-week leather-bound devotional written by 52 trusted pastors and leaders, including Dr. Wilton. You will find blessings upon blessings as you read uplifting scripture verses, daily devotions and prayers. Plus, you will receive psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, instrumental music CD by gifted pianist and Louisiana College President, Dr. Rick Brewer. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request the new devotional and music CD. They will make great Christmas gifts of encouragement, too. Thank you for your continued partnership. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you from all of us here at the Encouraging Word. It's such a great resource. Discover more online at www.tewonline.org and get your copy about that Spirit of God tool to use throughout 2021 to spend more time in God's encouraging word. You can call for more details at 866-899-WORD or meet us online at www.tewonline.org.