You are called to stop begging God to overcome the enemy and instead praise Him for the victory already secured at the cross. By standing firm in your identity as a co-heir with Christ, you can extinguish the enemy's attacks with faith. Trust that Jesus is seated within you, and let that confidence silence the fear of battle.
Welcome to The Real Church Podcast. Our mission is for you to know the love of Jesus and live out your God given purpose. Now join us and listen in to the latest message from pastor David John Phillips.
Okay. So we are finishing our series titled sit, walk, stand, which is really a summary of Ephesians. See, the first 3 chapters of Ephesians can be summed up with the word sit, which talks about our position with Christ. We're seated with him in "heavenly realms". We're 100% *forgiven*.
We're 100% in right standing with him, and we have all of his power and authority and dominion inside of us, and we're seated beside him over all of those things. Number 2, the the the chapters 4, 5, and the first half of 6, we talked about last week was to walk. What does it look like to not just be so heavenly minded with all of that sitting stuff that we're no earthly good, you know, where we're not just talking about those things, but we're actually living them out. That we're so heavenly minded that we're earthly amazing, and it comes out in our work. It comes out in our speech.
It changes the atmosphere of places we walk. Our our our families are a result of what God has done in us. We we become a a "thermostat instead of a thermometer". Right? Instead of letting the junk around us cause junk within us, we let Jesus within us, the heaven within us, create heaven around us.
How do we actually walk in practically in in this world? And then today, we're talking about standing. Because we've learned you can't you can't walk in Christianity before you sit. As a Christian, the first thing you do is you sit in his presence. You rest.
And out of that comes walking. We learned that when you learn to continually sit in God's presence, you will continually walk like him. And standing comes next. We must also learn to stand. We must know how to stand in battle, how to stand against the enemy of our souls.
And that's what Paul is talking about in Ephesians-6:11-12. Let's go there. Pull out your bible or bible app on your phone or look at our notes if you're in our church online experience. *Ephesians-6* verse 11 says, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against spiritual forces of evil in heavenly realms.
So God has an arch enemy, an arch enemy Satan, and Satan has countless demons that are under his power, and their goal is to fill the whole world with evil and to exclude God from his own kingdom. See, we only see flesh and blood. So a lot of times we think it's people coming against us. Whether it's your spouse or your ex spouse, your ex wife, ex husband, or your children, your grandchildren, your grandparents, your parents coming against you, your your bosses, your employees, or the political powers of of America or of the world, wherever you are watching this. But Paul says, no.
It's not people coming against you. Paul says, our struggle is not against people. Our struggle is against the rulers, the authorities, the the principalities in heavenly realms, the powers of this dark world, spiritual forces. So basically, our fight's not against people, our fight's against the lies that they believe because they're fed to them by the "father of lies". And who's the father of lies?
Satan. So let's talk about warfare. Right? There's 2 thrones at war. *God* is claiming the earth for his dominion, and Satan is wanting to illegally take authority for himself.
And then the church as a whole, the church's role is to *overcome* Satan, which means to succeed against, to overcome Satan through how? Through the finished work of the cross and through the fact that Jesus is placed on the inside of us. All of the power of Jesus is inside of us. So we overcome through the finished work of cross of the cross and what Jesus has already given us. Let's continue.
Warfare. Warfare. The attacks or the many attacks of Satan against God's children. Now, are many of those. Right?
And I'm not necessarily talking about in your daily Christian walk where it gets hard sometimes for us to say yes in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit. It gets hard to say yes to Jesus and then we immediately blame Satan. Well, Satan made me do it. I'm not talking about that. Sometimes, winning the battle against ourselves is the hardest part.
Renewing our mind and learning to take the focus off of us and put the focus on Jesus sometimes is the hardest part. And James is pretty clear about that. Let's go to James-4. I love the book of James. It says, what causes *James-4:1*, what causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but you do not have, you kill. You covet, which means to to want what somebody else has. And you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
And when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your own pleasures. So it's selfishness. All fights write this down. Right? Remember this 1.
All fights that we have are a product of selfishness. And I know it's easy to point the finger and say, it's their selfishness. No. You're continuing the fight because you you need to be right. What if you were selfless in the fight?
And, we're not preaching on that today, but man, be encouraged because God has given you grace. Go back and listen to, the message from you last week about walking. And I I know God's gonna touch you in such a way that will encourage you on how to squash fights and show Jesus in the midst of every situation. But, verse 4. Now, this seems harsh, but but stick with me here.
It says, you adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. It's pretty self explanatory. Or do you think scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell within us because he gives us grace? This is so good.
Because he gives us grace, that is why scripture says, so what we're about to read is because he gives us grace. And it says, that is why scripture says, God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble. That is a a a product of his grace. How is God opposing the proud a product of his grace? Let me explain.
Maybe, just maybe, you've had a dream delayed. Something that you've wanted to happen and it's been delayed, and you're blaming the enemy for fighting against you. Maybe, just maybe, it's not the enemy opposing you in that. Maybe it's God opposing you. God himself.
Because he opposes the proud. I'm not saying that God God doesn't send sickness. He doesn't send diseases. Right? If it's stealing, killing, and destroying, then it's not from God.
He loves you. But because of his grace, because of his giving you what you don't deserve, sometimes if we're trying to move forward in something in pride, *God* knows pride comes before destruction. And if he doesn't block us from moving forward, then we might make our dream come to pass, but then fall in destruction because our pride causes us to fall. So in his grace for us, he's blocking that and causing our pride to hit up against himself. We can't move forward until our pride is broken.
And once it's broken, we're humble. And what does it mean to be humble? To lean on God, not to lean on yourself. So that then when that dream happens, whenever whatever it is happens, right, we're trusting in his power, his authority, his ability within us, instead of trusting in ourselves. And so we have the character necessary to carry that call.
So just because your dream's not happening doesn't mean Satan's opposing you and attacking you in that area. Maybe it's God. And maybe we just need to sit in process and trust him. Just to clarify, once again, I'm not saying God sends sickness and disease against you. The Satan comes to "steal, kill and destroy".
But I am saying out of his love and grace for you, he helps you in process and allows you to move forward when you're ready. Somebody needed to hear that today. So let's, let's get back let's get back and talk about the actual attacks of Satan because that that a lot of times is just us warring against our self and warring against God because of pride. But let's talk about the attacks of Satan. See, he sends sickness.
He attacks our mind. He attacks our rest. He attacks our spiritual life. And and he attacks our relationships. And and and what do we do?
How do we stand? Like, we are sitting in the finished work of Christ. We're learning to to walk with him practically in our life. And how do we deal with the attacks of of Satan? Remember, Ephesians-6, God says to stand.
Literally, Paul says to stand against, which means to hold your ground. Think about warfare in real life. You have 2 enemies, 2 foreign nations attacking 1 another. Usually, 1 is trying to attack the land of another. Right?
To take the land from them. And then the other is holding the land that is rightfully theirs. So one's marching on, the other is standing. And we're not told to march, we're told to stand. What that means is the ground that the enemy is attacking is not his, but God's, and God has given it to us.
Therefore, it's our ground. So we don't have to struggle to gain what is already ours. We only need to stand on our ground. We're not fighting to get. We're standing in what we already have got.
Let me explain. There's a difference between the war that Jesus won and the battle that we fight. See, Jesus won the war against Satan and his horde on the cross. When Jesus screamed at the end of it, he screamed out, He said, he was saying, It is finished. It is finished.
It has been finished and will always be finished. The war is over. Period. *Colossians-2* 15 says this. I'll just read it here.
It says, and having disarmed the powers and authorities. *Jesus* disarmed Satan. He's an unarmed foe. He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. So God proclaimed his son victorious over the whole realm of darkness and the ground that Jesus won he has given has given to us.
So we don't need to fight to obtain what has already been given to us. We only need to hold it against the attacks of the enemy. Our task is literally to stand our ground, not to attack. *God* has already conquered and has given us victory to hold on to. In Jesus, Satan's defeat is already done, and we as the church are put here in order to keep him defeated.
Satan's constantly attacking us in order to try to get us to not believe in the finished work of Jesus. You can't stand without sitting in the finished work. So that means then, and and and and follow me here. I'm gonna read this to you. When we fight to get the victory, this is gonna help somebody.
When we fight to get the victory, we're showing that we have already lost the battle of belief. Let me explain what I mean. When you're attacked, maybe your health is attacked, your finances are attacked, your rest is attacked, your relationships are attacked, there's difficulties in life, misunderstandings, situations, whatever they are, think about them now, situations that threaten to overwhelm you. So So what do we do as Christians? We pray and we struggle and and and fight, but nothing actually happens.
Why? Because we're trying to fight into victory instead of "fighting from victory", instead of fighting from what is already ours and the finished work of Christ. See, in our fighting to win something, we're proving that we don't believe that Jesus has already won something, that thing for us. So we're giving to, we're attributing to the enemy what is already ours. If in our mind, victory is still something to get catch this.
If in our mind, victory is still something to get, then we'll never we'll never reach that victory. See, we must repent, which means to turn, which means to change our thinking and realize what we already have and trust what we already have. In the kingdom, once again, only those who sit in the finished work of Christ can walk it out. In the same way, only those who sit in the finished work of Christ can stand against the attacks of the enemy. Our ability to stand comes from sitting in the finished work, which means then that Satan's main goal in life is not to get you to sin.
Think about that. Satan's main goal is to get you to take your eyes off of what Jesus has already given you. Satan's main goal is to get you to take your eyes off of the finished work of Christ. Because as soon as he take your eye he takes your eyes off of the finished work of Christ, as soon as you quit sitting with Jesus in the finished work, then you're destined to stumble and fall, and you're destined not to stand against his attacks, but to let every fire fiery dart of him to hit home and cause havoc. So how does he do that?
He uses your thinking. He uses your feelings. He uses the circumstances of the world. He uses things that we can taste, touch, the tangible things to get us to stop, to take our focus off of him, and put our focus on us and the world around us. In Ephesians-6, it tells us in detail how to deal with these attacks.
We go to Ephesians-6 verse verse 13. Give me a second. We'll read verses 13 through 17. It says this, therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate plate of righteousness in place.
And and with your feet, all of this is stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness. Stand firm with your feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all of the flaming darts, the flaming arrows of the evil 1, and take the set the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So that really, you know, we have all of this armor, but the shield of faith, it distinguishes all. It's like the the coverall.
It just it it it extinguishes, excuse me, extinguishes all of the flaming darts of the evil 1. So what does faith say? In the midst of the circumstances that the enemy attacks, all of these arrows, faith says, I am seated with Christ. Faith says, you have all authority and power over everything, and you're in me, so so therefore, I have your authority as a co heir with Christ Jesus. Faith says, I am in right standing with God.
*Faith says, I am forgiven and I can fall forward into you. Faith says, I already have, I don't have to try to obtain. Faith says, thank you Jesus*. I am healed. I am delivered.
I am saved. Thank you Jesus. Faith says, praise the Lord. I can praise you in the midst of this circumstance for the victory is yours and I'm gonna see it come to pass. So what would happen then if we tried to if we stopped trying to win the battle and realized the battle was already won?
I'll tell you Satan's attack wouldn't work at all. So let's stop asking God then to *overcome* the enemy to and stop asking God to help us to overcome the attack of the enemy, and instead praise him that the enemy has already been overcome and that he's already given us everything we need to stand our ground in the midst of the attack of the enemy. See, the more we grow in *Christ* now, once again, catch this. Highlight this. Like, write this down.
The more we grow in Christ, the less we'll beg God to do something, and the more we'll praise him for what he's already done. Example. When I lead someone to Jesus, I know they really receive Jesus when they quit begging for forgiveness, and they start praising God because they are forgiven. How can you believe that you're forgiven if you're always begging for forgiveness? *Romans-4:8*, blessed is the 1 whose sin is never counted against them.
His blood was good enough to pay for all your sin. What if we stopped begging and we start praising him for what we already have as sons and daughters of the most high God? See, the Bible says the Bible says that we are, *Romans-8:37, that we are *"more than conquerors"** in Christ Jesus. So wait a second. A lot a lot of people teach that we're conquerors.
No. It says we're more than conquerors. So we're not just a mere conqueror. No. Jesus is the conqueror.
But he's then giving given the inheritance to us as heirs of his throne. **Heirs and co heirs* with Christ*. So we're we're not just a conqueror, we're an heir. It is ours. Period.
So stop trying to conquer what has already been conquered and praise God for what is already yours. That's amazing. So, question. Has losing battle after battle been the experience of your life? Think about it.
Have you found yourself hoping that 1 day, just 1 day, I'm going to be strong enough in my walk with Christ? 1 day, I'm gonna be strong enough to win to win. And if that's the case, then my prayer for you is Paul's prayer in Ephesians-1:18-22. Listen. I pray that the "eyes of your heart" may be *enlightened* in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at the right hand in heavenly realms, far above every rule and authority, power and dominion, every name that is invoked not only in this present age, but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. So he's saying, God, I I pray, and my prayer for you is that our eyes are open, we're enlightened to what he's already given us, That everything is under the power of Jesus, but we're seated with Jesus as co heirs, and Jesus is in us, therefore everything is under our feet as well. It's already done, so let's stop believing that it's not. And let's rest in the finished work of Christ, so that we can stand against the roaring lion of the enemy, and realize that those roars, or those circumstances, those things that he's causing this world, are not the truth, but his truth, it reigns supreme.
And by faith, we're gonna not allow the junk of the world to create junk in here and contaminate. No. No. We're gonna allow the heaven that we're seated in in heavenly realms with Christ Jesus that he's placed in in us, Jesus inside of us. We're gonna keep our eyes on that in the midst of the junk, and that what he's placed in us is gonna overcome the junk and change the atmosphere.
Be real with you. The difficulties in life, they make it worse. Right? Sometimes, Satan may attack you even harder than what he is right now when you try to stand your ground. Because he doesn't believe that you really believe what you say.
He's trying he knows he can't displace Jesus from the throne, but he doesn't believe yet that he can't displace Jesus from your heart, from your belief, because he doesn't believe you believe it. Stand in the finished work of Christ. Resist, but submit to God. Keep your eyes on him. Resist the devil and he will flee.
In Jesus, you have overcome. And he flees when he realizes that you realize you've overcome. Because then the Jesus in you is clear to him and he has to run because he is already a "defeated foe". Isn't that good? Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you for who you are. Lord, I pray that people are set free from watching this today. Lord, that they're set free in every area of their life. Lord, and they have the confidence to stand against the attacks of the enemy because they have the faith to sit in your finished work, in your love for them. Lord, that that people today who have been struggling and fighting depression and sicknesses and diseases and and stress and relationships, Lord, they realize that they're not fighting against people.
They're fighting against the enemy. And really, they can just stand because Jesus is with them. Lord, I pray freedom and peace just to flood the people that are watching right now. Thank you, Jesus.
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