We're going to continue looking at verses 26-39 of Luke 8. Sometimes it's a challenge, as I've mentioned before, to relate to some of the stories that we find in Scripture. But the Bible says everything that we have in the Bible is profitable for us, it has application to us, and so that's what we want to continue seeking to do is to understand what's going on here and understanding how it applies to our lives as well. So let me begin reading verse 26 through verse 39 of Luke chapter 8. Jesus and His disciples have just crossed the Sea of Galilee, and it says in verse 26, Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. And when He came out onto the land, speaking of Jesus, He was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons. and who had not put on any clothing for a long time, and was not living in a house, but in the tombs. Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man, for it had seized him many times. And he was bound with chains and shackles and kept under guard, and yet he would break his bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert. And Jesus asked him, What is your name? And he said, Legion. for many demons had entered him. They were imploring him not to command them to go away into the abyss. Now there was a herd of many swine feeding there on the mountain, and the demons implored him to permit them to enter the swine, and he gave them permission. And the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and reported it in the city and out in the country. The people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting down at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they became frightened. Those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon-possessed had been made well. and all the people of the country of the Gerasenes and the surrounding district asked him to leave them, for they were gripped with great fear. And he got into a boat and returned, but the man from whom the demons had gone out was begging him that he might accompany him, but he sent him away saying, Return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you. So he went away proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. May God bless his word. We've been talking about the fact that even though we maybe can't relate real closely to the guy in this story that is demon possessed, we can relate in terms of needing a change. And so the first thing that we said was, all of us in this room, regardless of where we might be in our lives, how old we might be, male, female, married, unmarried, or whatever it may be, we all are in need of change. And we looked at various scriptures that highlight the fact that because we're sinners, And yet we're called to be like Christ. All of us, as long as we're still sinning and not exactly like Christ, are in need of change. And therefore, we need to pray that God would help us to be humble and accept that fact, that all of us need to change and therefore to be open to correction. So I mentioned that it might be hard to get into this story and realize, okay, this guy was demon possessed, and Jesus and his disciples went all the way across this lake or this sea to change his life. That's what they went to do. That's what Jesus went to do. Because they left from that point on and went back over. That was their sole purpose in going, was to change this man's life. And it's important for us to see that this story has a lot to say to us, Calvin said this about this story, �We must now add the symbolical meaning. In the person of one man, Christ has exhibited to us a proof of His grace, which is extended to all mankind. Though we are not tortured by the devil, in the way that this man is, yet he, the devil, holds us as his slaves till the Son of God delivers us from his tyranny. naked torn and disfigured we wander about till he restores us to soundness of mind it remains that in magnifying his grace we testify our gratitude so what Calvin is saying there is the first application is when we go from being unbelieving to being believing we are rescued just like this man was rescued. We're rescued from the clutches of the devil. Whenever we go from unbelief and rebellion against God to belief in Jesus and submission to God, we're being rescued from the dominion of Satan. Now we can take that a little further that even as Christians, and we'll see this hopefully as we look at some scriptures this morning, even as Christians, we're still in the process of being experientially delivered, we're positionally delivered, we're declared righteous in the sight of God, we're forgiven of all our sins, and yet Paul could say, I find in me a principle of evil. A principle of evil is just like our father, the devil, before we became a Christian. Don't you remember Jesus said to the Pharisees, you are of your father, the devil. Until we're rescued from the domain of darkness, we are under the domain of the devil. And yet, Jesus rescues us from the domain of darkness, brings us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, and we are changed. We're freed from that dominion. And yet, there are still what some people have called, there's still rebels in our midst, so to speak. There's still on the fringes of our lives, in some sense, those who are still trying to regain ascendancy over the throne of our life. Satan has been dethroned And yet there are things in our lives that still seek to regain the throne or to overwhelm us. And those desires are the evil desires of our flesh. And so there's a lot in this story that we maybe can't personally relate to because we can't imagine running around without any clothes on or living in a cemetery or being strong enough to rip, you know, chains and do those kinds of things. And yet, we all know that we can relate to what Paul said when he said, I do the things that I don't want to do. I need to be free. I need to be set free in light of that very thing. But what we talked about last week is that we all need to change because we all need to be more like Jesus and ultimately be like Jesus. And yet, change is harder than we think. And the reason why change is harder than we think, because it's not just like changing a diaper, or changing your clothes, it's about changing your heart. And as we read in the scripture, the Ethiopian can't change his skin, and the leopard can't change his spots. It takes God to do that kind of fundamental change in our lives. And so therefore, if change, fundamental heart change toward God and toward people is so hard, the application is we need to be more patient with each other. We need to realize that When I tell my children you need to be different or when someone comes to me and says, you know, you need to be different, there may be some things that can change very quickly. There may be other things that are so deep-rooted in our lives in various ways that it takes a long time. It is quite the fight to be different. And that's what I want to talk about today is the reality of the fight that we're all in. The third point that we're going to talk about is there is hope for change. There was hope for change in this man's life, and that hope for change was in the person of Jesus. If Jesus had not come, if Jesus had not set him free, he would not have been set free. But he was set free, and he was set free through Jesus. Jesus set him free. So if we can relate to that man to some degree in terms of being bound by evil in some sense, not doing what we want to do and doing the very thing we don't want to do. Just like his hope was in Jesus, our hope is in Jesus as well. And yet, what I want to highlight today is that not only do we need to realize that we need to be patient with each other, but we also need to realize that even in our own fight to be different, we have to Expect a fight and embrace the fight. One of the ways I see that in Luke chapter 8 is if you notice, thank you very much, if you notice in this passage it says, in verse 28. 28. Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him and said in a loud voice, 29. What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me. And look at verse 29. 30. For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Now that's very interesting to me because it appears what was happening is Jesus comes on shore And the man begins coming toward him. And as I mentioned, he was coming toward him because Jesus wanted him to come. He didn't want to be around Jesus. He wanted to run the other way. But because Jesus has authority over the demons, he came to Jesus because Jesus wanted him to come. But as he was coming, Jesus, it appears, was commanding that unclean spirit to come out of the man. But he doesn't come right away. He makes an appeal. He comes to Jesus and says, what do we have to do with each other? Don't torment me. And then they go on to have this conversation. Jesus says, what's your name? And they say legion, which means a lot of demons. And they begin to pray to Jesus. in the sense that they ask Him to let them go into the swine. And Jesus gives them permission to do that. But the point I want to make at this point is Jesus was commanding the demon to go out and the demon had to leave. There's no doubt the demons knew that Jesus had the authority to command them to leave and they were going to leave. but it's interesting to me how they put up a fight. They put up some resistance. They wanted to be on their own terms, so to speak. And so that's helpful in the sense that you see that same kind of thing in other places in scripture as well. You don't have to turn here, but in Luke 4, 35, Jesus tells this man who has a demon, he says, Be quiet and come out of him. And it says, And when the demon had thrown him down in the midst of the people, he came out of him without doing him any harm. And so, in that situation, Jesus commands the demon to come out, and he doesn't just come out quietly. He throws the man down on the ground and then comes out. There's another scripture in Luke 9, a little further on in Luke, verse 41, it says Jesus is coming down from the mount and he says in verse 41, you unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you and put up with you? Bring your son here. This man had come wanting his son to be delivered from this demon. In verse 42 it says, while he was still approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground and threw him into a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. The picture that's being painted there for us as we look at these various accounts is that the demons had to leave, but they didn't want to. They had to do what Jesus said, but they did not go quietly. And the point is, neither should we think that The world, the flesh, and the devil and their influences on us are going to go quietly. We are in a fight. Jesus rules, Jesus reigns, Jesus is in authority over the world, the flesh, and the devil, our enemies, and Jesus is able to deliver us from them but it's very, very clear that typically it doesn't happen without a fight. If you would turn to Joshua Chapter 1, to me this is just interesting to think through in light of this Old Testament story. Obviously Joshua is leading the people of Israel into the Promised Land. Isn't that where we all want to go? Promised Land in one way or shape or another? And at the very beginning God talks about this whole process, and it says in Joshua chapter 1 verse 1, now it came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' servant, saying, Moses my servant is dead, now therefore arise, cross this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am given to them, to the sons of Israel. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads, I have given it to you, just as I spoke to Moses. From the wilderness in this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and as far as the great sea toward the setting of the sun, will be your territory. No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I have been with Moses, I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and courageous, for you shall give this people possession of the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them." So God tells Joshua, I'm going to keep my promises to my people, and I'm going to give them the land, the promised land. He says that several times. In verse 2 he says, "...to the land which I am giving to them, to the sons of Israel." He says in verse 3, The sole of your foot will tread on all the land that I have given to you. Then you notice in verse 6 he says to Joshua, be strong and courageous. Why? For you shall give this people possession of the land. So which is it? Is God going to give it? Or is Joshua going to give it? Yes! Is God going to give it to them? Or are they going to have to fight for it? Yes! It's a very, very important thing to realize is that God is the one who gives us the promised land. God is the one who overcomes our enemies, which is what they were doing, having to go into the promised land and defeat people bigger than they were, more numerous than they are in different ways. And yet, God says, I'm giving this to you. You're not earning this. This is a gift of grace. I'm giving it to you, but you have to fight. for it. You have to fight for this gift, not to earn it, but that's just part of the process. And so it's helpful for me to realize that the picture that we find in scripture is that God is the one who defeats our enemies, and yet he sends us into battle. And if we can hold those two things together, God gets the glory for the victory, and we take responsibility for fighting. I mentioned several weeks ago the story of Little Faith. I think it was actually the weekend the ladies were on the retreat. So you may not have gotten to hear the story, but just a couple things in that story that I wanted to recap. The story of Little Faith comes out of the Pilgrim's Progress that John Bunyan wrote. And the story is about a man named Little Faith who gets mugged. gets beaten up by three thugs. And those three thugs are faint heart, mistrust, and guilt. They're three brothers. And they attack him and they wound him. And as the story goes, you've got Hope, Hopeful, and Christian, two pilgrims, that are looking at what happened to Little Faith and trying to figure out what should we think about what happened to the experience of Little Faith? What was going on there? And as the story goes, Hope will ask the question, shouldn't have that man Little Faith been encouraged that even though they robbed him of some things, they didn't rob him of the most precious thing, which was his jewels or his certificate to glory. And Christian replies by saying, you know, you would have thought that that would have been the case, that he would have been comforted that though he lost houses, lands, other things, he didn't lose his salvation. But he says, unfortunately, little faith being little faith, didn't actually see it that way. And it says, "'Tis a wonder," this is Christian speaking, "'Tis a wonder he did not die with grief, poor heart. "'I was told that he scattered almost all the rest of the way "'with nothing but doleful and bitter complaints, "'telling to all that overtook him, "'or that he overtook in the way as he went, "'where he was robbed and how and who it were that did it "'and what he lost and how he was wounded "'and that he hardly escaped with his life.'" So you got this picture of a true Christian who loses things in this life, is wounded and hurt, but he doesn't lose his salvation. He's got the most precious thing, and yet he doesn't see it that way. And he's not able to fight very well. And he doesn't do very well in terms of living out his days on the way to glory. And Hopeful asks the question, well, why couldn't Little Faith be more like that other man in the story, Great Grace? See, Great Grace comes along, and those three thugs run away. And so Hopeful says, well, why couldn't Little Faith be like Great Grace? And Christian says, well, that, you know, all of God's children aren't like that. All of God's children aren't his champions. There are some people that are true believers that have little faith. And he goes on to talk about how it's very easy for us to think, well, if I had encountered those three guys, if I'd encountered faint heart and mistrust and guilt, I think I would've whipped them pretty good. I think I would've done pretty well. And Christian tells Hopeful, you just don't know what you're talking about. You just, essentially he says, you're crazy if you think you would have easily defeated those enemies. Because he says, if you look at great grace who defeated those guys, understand that it wasn't without a fight. He goes on to say, I must tell you that though great grace is excellent good at his weapons, meaning he knows how to fight very well, and has done and can do, as long as he keeps them at swords point, meaning he can hold off faint heart mistrust and the other guy, well enough with those weapons, yet he says, you know what? If they're able to get to him, if he's not able to keep them off of him with his weapons and they're actually able to get to him, it will go hard with him and they'll knock him off his feet. This is great grace, not little faith. They'll flatten him out. He goes on to say, and when a man is down, you know, what can he do? Whoso looks well upon great grace's face shall see those scars and cuts there that shall easily give demonstration of what I say. Yea, once I heard that he should say, and that when he was in the combat, we despaired even of life. So what's the picture that's being painted here by John Bunyan? He's saying, look at even the strongest of believers. And if you look close enough, you'll see battle scars. And if you know the history of their life, you'll see times when they were not flat on their, just laid out. If you look close enough, if you know the history, if you know what their thoughts and feelings and experiences were, if you know really how life was, you would see that they were just going around whipping enemies and knocking them down without any effort at all. It was a fierce battle to the point that men like Paul could say, we despaired even of life. We thought we were goners. That's very, very important. Both of those pictures are very important. The picture of little faith, real faith and yet weak faith, and the picture of great grace having scars on his face that even when we do well in the battle, we don't come out unscarred. There are verses in the Bible that highlight for me this reality. Look, if you will, at 1 Timothy. In 1 Timothy, Paul talks about the importance of having a battle-ready attitude in our lives. And I'll just highlight some phrases here that he uses several times in these what are considered some of the last writings that he wrote before he went to glory. 1 Timothy 1.18 Paul says, This command I entrust to you, Timothy my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight. You fight the good fight. In 1 Timothy 6.12 he says, Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Fight the good fight. Then in 2 Timothy 4.7, which is considered to be his last writing that we have, it says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Fighting the good fight is essential to keeping the faith. There's another interesting verse in Matthew 11, 12, where Jesus makes a very, very fascinating statement when he says this. Matthew 11, 12, he's talking about those who are entering the kingdom and are a part of the kingdom. He says in Matthew 11, 12, From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. What does that mean? It doesn't mean that violent men take the kingdom of God by force. It means there is a spiritual battle taking place. That's what is required to be a part of the kingdom. It requires the reality of being in a spiritual battle. There's a sense in which as long as you're in the domain of darkness, Satan's okay with that. But once you've been transferred, then his kingdom is threatened. It was interesting to me when we spent all those years working through Romans, when we got to Romans 7, And thinking through just all the various things Paul talks about in those chapters and considering Romans 7, there's a way in which you can look at Romans 7 as good news. Even though he's talking about the principle of evil in him and doing the things that he doesn't want to do and those kinds of things. How's that good news? Well, it's good news in the sense that you wouldn't even care that you were doing the things that you don't want to do. In fact, you wouldn't be doing the things you don't want to do, you'd be doing the things you wanna do. Before we come to Christ, we're just living as we want to. The only thing that affects us is people's opinion and maybe consequences that might come to us, but basically we're living out of our heart. But when we become a Christian, the Bible tells us there's a war between the flesh and the spirit. and we end up doing the very things that we don't want to do so that you could say that the struggle with indwelling sin is good news, because if there is no struggle, that's bad news. That means you haven't ever been delivered from the domain of darkness. But if there is a struggle against indwelling sin, where you cry out, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? If you can say that, long for that, and fight make war against the flesh, then that's evidence that you have the Holy Spirit, that you've been born again, that you're not in the domain of darkness, but you're in the kingdom of God's beloved Son. And so we have these scriptures that talk about fighting. We have other scriptures that talk about working. In Philippians 2 it says, So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. So who is supposed to be working? The Bible says God is at work in us and we are to be working. or to take responsibility. We're totally dependent on God. God gets all the glory for whatever victories, whatever progress, whatever growth, whatever change takes place, but we are to be very much about the battle. But let me just clarify some things here. What are we fighting against? We're fighting against sin and not people. Look at Ephesians 6. Sometimes you think, you know what? If I just had different people in my life, I wouldn't have as much sin. I'd be much happier. Things would be much better. If it weren't for people, life would be great, that kind of thing. But the reality is that's not true for any of us. In Ephesians, and all of us feel that way to some degree or another at various times. But in Ephesians 6 verse 10, it says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. So he's talking to Christians that are still having to fight the schemes of the devil. Okay, we're talking about spiritual battle. But he says in verse 12, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Verse 12 says our struggle is not against flesh and blood, people. How do we know that? One way we know that is Jesus never sinned and yet he was treated terribly by people. He was crucified. He was never treated the way he ought to have been treated by anybody on this planet. He was never honored in the way that he should have been honored or loved or anything like that. He was, they didn't believe who he was, they didn't trust him in the way they should have, they crucified him. Nobody, on this planet respond to Jesus the way that they should have, and yet He loved them perfectly. It says, it's not really about what people are doing to us, it's about where our own heart is. And that is very much about the spiritual battle that's going on. And that's what Paul is talking about here, that our struggle is about the flesh versus the spirit. It's about spiritual influences on our lives that are affecting our heart attitudes. that we need to address. And so how do we address that? If you would look to, look at John chapter eight, John chapter eight. Before I read the scripture, let me just remind you, I don't know if you've ever seen this, There's a rapper video where he talks about making war. And in that video, he quotes John Piper. And I guess there's a sermon where John Piper actually quotes another guy, Ed Welch. And Ed Welch says this, he says, there is a mean streak to authentic self-control. Self-control is not for the timid. When we want to grow in it, not only do we nurture an exuberance for Jesus Christ, we also demand of ourselves a hatred for sin. The only possible attitude toward out-of-control desire is a declaration of all-out war. There is something about war that sharpens the senses. You hear a twig snap, or the rustling of leaves, and you're in attack mode. Someone coughs, and you are ready to pull the trigger. Even after days of little or no sleep, war keeps us vigilant. The picture is, we're in a war, and where we are being overwhelmed with being controlled by things we don't want to be controlled by. In that context, I think he's talking about addictions of various kinds. He says, we need to be mean. But Piper highlights in his message, it's not mean toward people. It's mean toward sin. It's a hatred of sin. It's wanting to make war on sin. And he says, it's not for the timid. Piper's quote in that context is, I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addiction and their shortcomings, and I see so little war. Murmur, murmur, murmur. I just hear Piper saying that. Why am I this way? Make war, he says. And that's what the Bible is telling us to do. That yes, we should be grieved by the sin in our lives, but the Bible tells us to get up and fight. Realize that Jesus is your victor. Jesus is gonna enable you to overcome, but he calls you to get into the battle. He calls me to get into the battle. And what is the weapon that we bring? The weapon that we bring is what we find in John 8, where it says, in verse 31, So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. They answered Him, We are Abraham's descendants, and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say you will become free? Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son does remain forever. So if the son makes you free, you will be free indeed. So in our story with the demon possessed man, Jesus sets him free. Here, Jesus says, if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. The question is, how does Jesus set us free? Is he gonna show up at our house and cast out the demons? Or subdue our flesh? Or rescue us from the world? In some kind of wave his hand type gesture. Well, no, what he says is, up in verse 32, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. So which is it? Does Jesus make me free or does the truth make me free? Yes, Jesus sets me free through the truth. The reason why we are bound by Satan is because he's the father of lies. That's how he holds sway over us. That's what he got Adam and Eve to do, was to believe the lie. And they turned their back on God and they sinned. And so the way we're freed from demonic influences in the world and through our own flesh is through the truth of the gospel, which tells us some very, very important things. Let me just direct you to one more scripture here. Well, maybe not one more. In 1 Thessalonians, It's very, let me just kind of, so much I could say on this point just with regard to the truth, but I just want to highlight one aspect of it this morning. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul makes an interesting statement when he says in verse 9, he talks about the reception that they had when they preached the gospel. He says in verse 9, for they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. So it's interesting to me that Paul kind of summarizes what happened in the lives of the Thessalonians by saying they turned away from idols. To do what? To wait for Jesus to come back. And believing that he was gonna rescue them from wrath. There are two things going on there that I just want to briefly highlight that I think are huge things in our lives. There are lies that bind us. One lie is the lie of self-dependence. That I can be good enough to be accepted by God or I have power in myself to do whatever needs to be done. the lie of self-dependence. The Bible says if we depend on our own good works and our own power, we will not be saved. We will not be rescued from the wrath to come. We have to believe that we have no righteousness of our own, that we cannot save ourselves, and that we are totally dependent on God and His mercy through Jesus to save us. If we depend on Jesus, we'll be delivered from the wrath to come. And when He comes back, not being a part of that wrath, we will enjoy all that God has promised us. And so we turn away from the idol of self-dependence, but we also turn away from the idol of the world that says, You only go around once, so you might as well enjoy the world as much as you can. When God says, you know what? What I promise you is better than anything the world has to offer. Trust me for what is infinitely better. And so, these believers, through the gospel, turned away from the idol of depending on their own righteousness and their own power, and they turned away from looking to the world to satisfy them, and instead they waited To be satisfied. Until when? Until Jesus came back. Believing that he was going to come back and fulfill all the promises of the kingdom that's promised to us by God. And so a lot of our fighting is a fighting with regard to turning away from our own self-dependence and turning away from pursuing satisfaction in this world. God is continually humbling us to show us our sins so that we'll trust and rest in Christ alone. He's constantly taking away things from us in this world so that we'll long for what He promises us and we'll look forward to that and not put our hope in what we have. There is a method to what we might consider God's madness in our lives. He wants us to rest in the righteousness of Christ. He wants us to hope in Him alone for our happiness. And He's at work to lead us to fight to move more and more in that direction. Well, the last few minutes that I have, let me just highlight a couple other things. The fight is a fight to trust. and a fight to love. That's what it says in Galatians. Galatians 5, 6 says, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. We're to fight in every situation to trust God. To trust that no matter what's happening in my life, I am right with God because of the righteousness of Jesus. And to trust that no matter what God might take away from me in this life, my satisfaction is in Him. I can trust Him, and then I am fighting to actually love the people in my life that are hard to love, not only because of their sin, but because of my sin. People aren't hard to love simply because they're hard to love, they're hard to love because of me, because I am not what I should be. It's not just the other person. Jesus loved perfectly. And so I have to fight to trust and fight to love. But the last thing, and this is the last point, is that The Bible calls us to not fight people, but fight sin. It calls us to fight with the truth, fight with the truth to trust, and fight with the truth to love, and to not give up, not grow weary in that fight. Look, if you will, at Luke 11. There's so many scriptures we can look at, but I'll close with this one, Luke 11. The scripture highlights the fact that we're dependent on God for what we need and yet it encourages us to persevere. You probably recall the story where Jesus in verse 5 talks about a man who goes to his neighbor, goes to a friend at midnight, needs three loaves of bread because he's had a guest come in. And in verse 7, the guy, the neighbor says, Do not bother me, the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything. Jesus says in verse 8, I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs. And then Jesus says in verse 9, so I say to you, ask, and the verb there is ask and keep on asking, and it will be given to you. Seek and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you. And then in verse 13 he says, If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? What do we need to overcome sin in our lives and to trust God and to love? We need the Holy Spirit. So we pray for the Holy Spirit, and we don't stop praying for the Holy Spirit. And we don't stop pursuing trust, and we don't stop pursuing love. There's a verse in Galatians which says, for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. If we do not grow weary, one of the biggest challenges for us is we get tired. We get tired of fighting. We get tired of having to get up every day and deal with certain situations or with certain people, certain circumstances, and we're just tired. We don't want to make the effort to put on the armor of God. We don't want to make the effort to apply the truth to this relationship or this circumstance. We don't want to have to fight to trust. We don't have to fight to love. And yet the Bible encourages us, don't quit. Don't quit. Piper, in one of the messages he gave one time, was talking about the fact that in our day and time, we live in an age where we breathe the air of quitters. And we have to be careful of that fact. We don't even realize it sometimes how easily we're tempted to give up He says, I need very much this inspiration from another age, because I know that I am in great measure a child of my times, and one of the pervasive marks of our times is emotional fragility. I feel it as though it hung in the air we breathe. We're easily hurt, we pout and mope easily, we break easily, our marriages break easily, our faith breaks easily, our happiness breaks easily, and our commitment to the church breaks easily. We're easily disheartened, and it seems we have little capacity for surviving and thriving in the face of criticism and opposition. That's why over and over again the Bible says persevere, endure. You remember in 1 Corinthians it says the very first characteristic of love is that love is patient. The last thing it says is love endures all things. Love is patient, love endures all things, every circumstance, every relationship. In our own strength, no, but by looking to God and fighting with the truth that He's given to us. And the good news is that one day everything will be different. One day we will be rescued from the sin that we have to fight, from the world we have to fight, from the devil we have to fight, and we'll be able to lay down our sword. and will be eternally at rest. But that day hasn't come yet, and we need to pick up our swords, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and fight, fight, fight, to trust and to love, to the glory of God, depending on Him in every situation. Let's pray. Father, we ask for encouragement. We pray that we would see ourselves and our circumstances and our relationships in light of what we've talked about this morning, that you would apply the word to our lives and that you would encourage us in the ways we need to be encouraged. You know what we need to hear. You know where we need to be encouraged and strengthened and I pray that you would do that. for your glory and for our good, that we might indeed continue to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.