The Foundation of War

Welcome to Worshiping the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. Today we are concluding our series The Four Living Creatures, where Pastor Robert shares about the four heavenly creatures' faces in the Bible, and what they represent for the body of Christ worldwide, the church, and our own lives. Today's message is about the lion face on the creatures, which represents prayer and how we go to war in the spiritual world. Pastor Robert has some incredible things to share, so let's join him now. So this is our fourth message, final message in the series, The Four Living Creatures. And I know that when we started you had no clue where I was going, and now you're just loving it.

It's one of your favorite series of all times. So this week we're going to talk about the lion. The lion represents prayer, but we're going to zero in on war, because you've got the warring lion. I just want you to understand that we are in a war, and we don't want to be in a war, but we're in a war. It's a spiritual war, and it's happening whether you show up or not. And if you don't show up in prayer, you're going to lose the war. You're going to lose battles with the enemy, because he's showing up. There's a verse in the Bible that when you show Christians this verse, many of them have never seen this verse, but there was a shorter route to the promised land that God did not take his children by for one reason.

Let me read it to you. Exodus 13 verse 7, it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, it's Exodus 13 17, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. In other words, God has always known that his people had an aversion to war, but we're in a war. Ephesians 6 says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, principalities of ours. Many of us would rather it just say, for we wrestle not.

We just don't have to wrestle in the kingdom, but we do. So this week is the foundation of war, and I'm doing something a little differently. I have five points for you, instead of three.

Yeah, yeah. So all right, five points. Here's number one, pursuit. This is a principle of prayer, which is a principle to win the war. Pursuit. Now I wrote, the Lord gave me these points, and then I wrote much of the message on Thursday, and Thursday night when I was going to bed, I felt, you know, these five are in the Lord's Prayer.

Duh. So I'm gonna, I'm gonna use the Lord's Prayer for every point and show you, but I'll show you other scriptures too. Luke 11 verse 1, it came to pass as he was praying Jesus in a certain place, when he sees that one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. So he said to them, when you pray, say, our Father, all right, we're gonna stop right there. Here's the greatest thing about prayer. You get to pursue the Father.

You get to have a relationship with the Father, that you never could have had without the Son. Here's the way Jesus said to his disciples, right before he goes to the cross, John 16 verse 23, and in that day you will ask me nothing. He didn't say a few things, nothing. Most assuredly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you until now. You have asked nothing in my name. In other words, you've asked the Father, because that's what's the context, nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive that your joy may be full.

You know what the joy is? It's not asking, it's whom you get to ask. You get to ask the Father. Now I've done a lot of study on the Father, and most of the time in the Old Testament, when you think that the person is talking to the Father, the person is actually talking to the Son. The Father is very elusive in Scripture. Daniel gets a glimpse of him in Daniel 7 and says, I saw thrones put in place, and the ancient of days came in.

That's the Father. But all these places where all these great men and women of God had a conversation with God, it was the Son. And you can go back and look at it, in every one of these it says, the angel of the Lord was talking to that person. And we know the angel, the angel of the Lord, the messenger, is Jesus. Until now. That's what Jesus said.

Until now. You've not asked the Father anything. But now, I've made a way you can talk to the Father. You know the greatest thing about prayer is you can talk to the Father.

We miss that. There's a pursuit of relationship in prayer. And if you want to win the battle, talk to the big guy.

Talk to the ancient of days. Hebrew says, we can walk right in boldly. Boldly to the Holy of Holies. Because of what Jesus has done. So the best thing about prayer is the pursuit.

That we get to pursue the Father. Here's the second thing about prayer. Praise.

This is how you win the war. If you're going to win the war, I'm trying to take us to a higher level in prayer. Second one is praise. Again, back to the Lord's Prayer, Matthew 6-9. In this manner, therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Winning the war is about praise. Prayer is about praise. If you leave praise out of your prayer, you never got to prayer.

The first thing you do is you know you're rectifying the Father, but the first thing you say to him is you praise him. In 2 Chronicles, there are two scriptures that probably all of you have heard a phrase in these two scriptures. But you might not, if I said, where is this phrase in the Bible?

You might not have been able to tell me. So let me read the two scriptures and you tell me if you've heard these phrases. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 15. Thus says the Lord to you, do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. You ever heard that phrase? The battle is not yours but God's.

Let me tell you the other phrase. Verse 17. You will not be defied in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

You ever heard that phrase? Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. Okay, so how is the battle that I'm fighting right now that you're fighting, how can I get that battle to be God's and how can I just stand there and watch God win the battle for me?

Well, just go on down. 2 Chronicles 20, verse 21. And when he consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord and who should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army.

In other words, before you pray, the first thing you do is praise. And they were saying, praise the Lord for his mercy endures forever. Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir who had come against Judah and they were defeated. For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. All Israel was doing was singing. Just praising God and the battle became the Lord's. So praise is a weapon. Here's number, it's one of the ways you win the war.

Here's number three. Petition. Petition. Matthew 6, verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, we're petitioning God for this, for his kingdom to come and his will to be done. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

A couple of things I want you to notice. Isn't it wonderful that when Jesus taught the disciples how to pray, he said, oh yeah, you can ask for the needs that you have. It's okay. Daily provision and good relationships are something Jesus said is the Father's will for you. That's what he said in this prayer.

Yeah, it's okay. You can pray about that. So you can petition God. 1 John 5, 14.

Now this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Now let me just say, that's what, that goes along with the Lord's Prayer because we're praying, your kingdom come, your will be done. So we ask anything according to his kingdom and his will, it'll be done. We know he hears us. Verse 15. And if we know that he hears us, whatever we ask according to his will and kingdom, we know that we will have the petitions that we have asked for. Now just need to make one simple little statement here about this. It's not for your will and your kingdom.

Those petitions don't get granted. You know, I pray, Lord, that everybody will let me be the boss. That's, that's not, that's not it.

You know, it's, it's amazing. I don't know if you've ever watched this, but when you have children in the home, if you have a pet, the youngest one gets to be the boss of the pet. Because she needs somebody to boss.

She gets bossed around all day and everybody bosses the child younger, so the younger one will boss the dog around. Just, just watch it. It happens. But that's not what he said. He said, no, no, no, I'm not hearing you if you're praying according to your will and your kingdom. But if you're praying according to my will and my kingdom, not only do I hear you, but I grant your petitions. You need to pray. You know why you're grumpy?

Because you're carrying burdens that you weren't designed to carry. And in prayer, you get to give him the burdens, and you let the battle become the Lord's, and you get to stand still and see the salvation of God. But you got to give him the battle.

You got to put your petition. So here's number four, protection. Matthew 4, verse 13, and do not lead us in the invitation, but deliver us from the evil one. It's part of our daily prayer, daily bread, daily deliverance, daily protection from the evil one. Some versions say evil. In the Greek, it literally is the evil one. Lucifer, Satan, the devil. Now, I have a question because we're talking about the face of the lion.

There was a face of a man, an ox, an eagle, and a lion. So I have a question that I don't want you to answer out loud because sometimes I say questions in such a way that I'm tricking you, and you get it wrong then. So don't answer out loud. But is the lion Jesus or the devil? But don't answer out loud. Let me just tell you something. The Bible never says that Satan is a lion.

Oh, this is so much fun. Because you're thinking of the verse, but you're thinking, I don't know where it is. But there's a verse. It says he is a roaring lion. No, it doesn't.

Let me read it to you. 1 Peter 5-8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Doesn't say he's a lion. He says he walks about like. And grammatically, like is a simile, right?

I thought you'd say it first. Okay. Thomas Knight catches each other grammatically all the time and have fun with it. It's a simile. In other words, it's similar. He's similar. He acts like. St. Corinthians tells us that he masquerades as an angel of light. That he pretends to be a good person, but he's not.

I'm telling you, he pretends to be. Let me tell you who the lion is. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah, and he has prevailed.

That's what Revelation says. He's the lion. Jesus is the lion. You want to defeat the one who pretends to be the lion?

Talk to the real lion. Because he's the one who protects us. Now, we're talking about protection. Let me just show you something that happens in prayer.

It's happened to all of you before. 2 Kings chapter 6 verse 8. Now the king of Syria was making war against Israel.

There it is right there. It's a war. It's against the people of God. And he consulted with his servants saying, my camp will be in such and such a place. And the man of God sent to the king of Israel.

Now the man of God hears Elisha, not Elijah with a J, Elisha with S-H, Elisha. And the man of God, Elisha, sent to the king of Israel saying, watch, beware that you do not pass this place for the Syrians are coming down there. Then the king of Israel sent someone to a place at which the man of God had told him. Thus he warned him, and he was watchful there, not just once or twice.

So more than two times this happened. Elisha said, let me tell you where he's going to be. Therefore, verse 11, the heart of the king of Syria was greatly troubled by this thing. And he called his servants and said to them, will you not show me which of you is for the king of Israel? In other words, who's the traitor among us? And one of his servants said, none, my Lord, O king, but Elisha, the prophet who is in Israel, watch this, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.

Here's what I want to tell you about that. God will not only tell you how to defeat the enemy, he'll tell you how he's going to come against you next, because God knows the future. God, remember we said he's all powerful, he's all knowledgeable, he knows everything, and he's all present. By the way, did you notice that Satan is not omnipresent? In the last verse we read, 1 Peter 5, he walks around.

I just wanted to give you a little theology there. Satan's not everywhere. He goes from place to place.

He walks around. God's everywhere. So God will tell you, this is how the enemy's about to come against you. I remember one time, the Lord woke me up about 3 a.m. Well, that's not entirely accurate. My bladder woke me up at 3 a.m. And while I was up, the Lord spoke to me, and he told me how the enemy was trying to come against me.

In just the middle of the night. I'm just telling you guys, the way you do war is you develop your relationship in prayer with God. See, God wants to take Gateway Church higher in grace, that was the first week, higher in humility, that was the second week, higher in worship and abandonment, that was last week, and higher in prayer and warfare.

And I'm just trying to help you understand how you can go higher. You need to understand there is a war, and if you don't show up in prayer, you're going to lose the war. We've got to show up, and he'll protect us.

Here's the number five proclamation. Matthew 6 13, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. You end proclaiming how great God is.

It matters what you say. People have taken this teaching too far, and you know, words this, and you can say this, and you can make things appear, and no, no, no, no, I'm not saying that. But let me show you a couple of scriptures in Proverbs. Proverbs 6 2, you are snared by the words of your mouth. And Proverbs 18 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue.

It's real simple. Are you agreeing with God's word over your life, or are you agreeing with Satan's word? What's coming out of your mouth? You need to be proclaiming the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. That's 1 Peter 2 9. You're a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim, that you may speak out loud the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

So we're to proclaim. I tell you something else you can do. When Satan's lying to you, why don't you tell him his future? When he's telling you your future, you can tell him Revelation 20 verse 10, the devil who deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. You can say, you're telling me my future, I'll tell you what my future is. My future is heaven, your future is hell, and you can just go to hell right now.

You just go ahead and go. You need to proclaim it. You need to speak what God has said in his word. Now we're going to get to communion. I'm going to show you something about communion maybe you've never seen. 1 Corinthians 11 26, for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. So this is what that verse has said. When you receive the Eucharist, and that's not a Catholic word by the way, it's a biblical word, Eucharisti, all it means is give thanks.

So maybe you never even thought about that. When we partake of communion, we're giving thanks. That's what the word means, give thanks.

But what are we giving thanks for? When every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. Well why do we want to proclaim his death?

Let me tell you why. Because his death changed everything. His death is why we're forgiven of all of our sins. His death is why we can walk into the Holy of Holies and meet with the Father. His death is why until now you couldn't talk to the Father.

But now you can have a relationship with the Father. It's because of his death on his cross. It's because his body was broken and his blood was shed. And every time we receive communion, we're telling the message that Jesus died for the sins of the world. Every time. That's what communion is.

That's the Eucharist. So I want you to get your elements. And if you don't have the elements, if you're at home, if you've got time, and you can pause it. You can probably pause it. I think you can.

And ask the young people. Ask your grandchildren if you can pause it. All right. All right. And but you can go to the kitchen and get something and partake with us. All right.

And go ahead and start get that top part off because it took me about 30 minutes last time get that top part off. But let me explain something to you. The bread represents his body. And here's what Jesus said. He said, this bread represents my body, which is broken for you. He's saying this in the upper room to the disciples right before he goes to the cross.

Here's what he's saying. It's broken. My body's broken.

So yours can be put back together. So the body of Christ can be put back together. Jew and Gentile can be put back together. Ethnicities that were divided in Genesis 11 at the Tower of Babel by language can be put back together.

I'm dying so that everyone in the world could be made one. And that was his prayer. He leaves from communion and he goes to the garden and he prays John 17. And he says, here's my prayer.

I'm praying they'll all be one like the Father and I are one. So when we do this, we're proclaiming the victory that happened at the cross. He said, you proclaimed the Lord's death. We're proclaiming the victory. So let's give thanks. All right, Lord, we give thanks for what you did on the cross for us. We tell you thank you that you became a human, that you lived the life that we couldn't live, that you died to death we should have died, and that your body was broken so we could receive a new resurrected glorified body one day and live forever with you and the Father in heaven. So Lord, we do this today in remembrance of you.

Let's take the bread. And let's give thanks for the cup. It says in the same way he lifted up the cup, he said this is the cup of the New Testament, the New Covenant. It's my blood that shed for you. So Lord, we give you thanks.

Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. And so we thank you that you shed your blood so that we could be forgiven of all of our sins. And we can have a relationship with you and the Father for all eternity.

We do this in remembrance of you. We want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We hope you found this series encouraging and challenging. Next time Pastor Robert is starting a powerful new series and you won't want to miss it. We pray you have a blessed day.