living for today with an eye for tomorrow this is the voice of vision broadcast Now, here's our teacher, Pastor J.D. Hatfield. Well, hello there, friends. Once again, this is Pastor J.D. Hatfield of the Riverside Christian Fellowship in Hernando, Florida. As always, you can find us on the web at voiceofvision.org. We really appreciate you coming over there, and you can email me there, PastorJD at voiceofvision.org. You can find any of these teachings that you missed by hitting the Vision Radio button, and there's an archive there, and all the messages are titled like today's, Sermon Skirmish, Sermon Skirmish. The day that you hear this, if it's the original date of airing, it'll be right there on the front page, and you can see the, hear the audio and see the text. If you miss any of the text days and you wanna see that as well as hear the audio, hit on the daily blog button and you can hear it from there. Well again we said our message today we're entitling Sermon Skirmish and we're taking that from 2 Corinthians 10 5 it says we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. Let me go ahead and read the little bit of the verses surrounding that so we can get some of the context and most of you know that verse but Let's go ahead and read this in verse 3 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 for though we walk in the flesh We are not waging war according to the flesh for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh But a divine power to destroy strongholds We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought Captive to obey Christ being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete So Paul is talking about destroying arguments and all of that. And a lot of times people apply this by saying that, you know, those thoughts that come into your mind, you know, you cast down every imagination that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And that can be a fair application of this. However, Paul is talking about not singular thoughts, but systems of thought. He is going against false teaching and when he is writing or there with them or preaching, as it were, he is destroying arguments and every lofty thing raised against the knowledge of God. He's destroying strongholds in the sense of what are the lies in people's mind, what is the false doctrine, what are the false beliefs, and you know, the things like that, like when we talk about the Trinity and we say modalism or any of these other Christological heresies aren't real, we are doing warfare there. It's a sermon skirmish. You see, the church house is a war zone. It's a spiritual battleground. Again, when people talk about spiritual warfare, it conjures up all sorts of images, depending on what you've been taught about it or how you're used to, quote-unquote, practicing it. However, many have not considered the truth that preaching and listening to the preached Word of God is not only one of God's primary vehicles for growing us up, but that it is spiritual warfare. You see, we think of spiritual warfare as retaliation or, you know, sort of when something comes against us that we are reacting to that instead of being proactive. You know, now some people try to be proactive and pray against territorial spirits and things like that and that's not what we're covering here. You know, it seems like we get off into the ditch somewhere, get all fanciful with things and we forget that preaching itself is spiritual warfare of the first order. You see, the sermon, think about it, all God's people are right there. And when God is near, guess who else is near? Satan is near, just like when Jesus was led out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He was led by the Holy Spirit. Of course, right where God is, you know, active and proving himself in your life, that's where Satan comes in and tries to disprove that. And that's one of the reasons we have to realize that as we're going on with God, we will suffer in the sense of attack. That doesn't justify our sins and that doesn't justify us being downtrodden. It just means we got to realize what's really going on here. There's a spiritual battle, as we know, and you've got to think about it when we're proclaiming truth from the pulpit or the teacher from the Bible. It's a battle because truth is coming. You know, the greatest spiritual warfare that there is is when someone is evangelized and they come to Christ. You know, that's a spiritual victory, right? They came, you're taking one from out of the enemy's camp and putting them, you know, transforming them into, right? They're being converted into the heavenly camp. So the sermon is a skirmish in the heavenly realm. And it's gonna play itself out in the physical world, the most intense place of spiritual warfare. Now listen to me, because I'm sure you'll agree once you think about it. Hopefully I've got your mind ready. If not, then you're in spiritual warfare. Listen up. God bless you to do it. The most intense place of spiritual warfare is in proclaiming God's word. Martin Luther said that the highest form of worship is in studying and preaching God's word. We as people in the pews are also involved in this warfare. Jesus even said, let them be, you know, they have ears to hear, let them hear because certain people won't have it. They'll have hard hearts and deaf ears to the truth. That's why it's a warfare. And we're using the sword of the spirit to pierce through the hearts of men. Again, even us in the pews, we're involved in this warfare. When we're at church listening prayerfully to the Word of God being expounded upon, we are in a battle the likes of which many do not realize. But they ought to. The preacher is battling long-held notions and wrong-headed thoughts. He's trying to exalt God and His Word and Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of God and His Word in the lives of believers. The preacher's trying to foster correct doctrine and put down incorrect doctrine, you know, destroying arguments of everything that's raised up against the knowledge of God and indeed raising up the knowledge of God. Trying to correct incorrect doctrine and it's a battle for the listener as well. One of the old preachers is gone now and his name was Alan Redpath and he was the pastor of the Moody Church in Chicago for a few years there. He said that every time the preacher gets up in the pulpit, he is making an attack on hell. And I know that he's right. It's a sermon skirmish there. We're all in a battle and we think we just want to get all the happy feelings and the goosebumps. We're not realizing that there's a lot of things that we Instinctly, and our old man thinks that are right in certain ways that we, you know, are inflamed in our flesh and certain things that we're doing and that man in the front row might be thinking about cheating with his secretary and that person in the back might be thinking I've got to get myself something else to drink and the other person in another row might think I'm, you know, contemplating suicide. And so that word is important. That word is going out. It is a battle because the devil is trying to claim victims and God is trying to proclaim his son as the solution to those things. Again, every time the preacher gets up in the pulpit, he's making an attack on hell. We are combating things, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places, Ephesians 6.12. Oh, how we need to pray that we have ears to hear. Like I said, and as Jesus said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. What can you do when you're in the pew there? Well, you pray for your pastor. You pray for the message during the week. You pray that yourself and others won't be distracted. And then if they are distracted, you don't worry about that. You focus on yourself. Otherwise, now there is two people who are distracted. So we need to pray that we're not distracted. And we need to pray that we're not apathetic. Oh, that's good for somebody else, but it's not for me. Friend, every message is for you. Pray that we won't be distracted. Pray that we won't be apathetic and that we won't be thinking about what we're doing afterward. I've got this and this and this and this to do. You need to give credence to what is happening in the moment of the sermon. You are supposed to be meeting with God and hearing the echo of his voice. Thinking about that, you might not just go, hey, look, our preacher's real nice. He preaches nice little talks and all that. You see, those things are aligning with hell. They're not attacking hell. What are you doing? Are your ears aligning with hell? Are they attacking, in a sense? We gotta pray again that we won't be distracted, we won't be apathetic, we won't be thinking about what we're doing afterwards, and pray that we might put into practice tomorrow some of the pursuits the preacher will be discussing today. Even when we're listening and we want to apply what we've heard, sometimes we have this get it all done right now attitude. We think, okay, he's pressing for a A decision, I'm gonna make that decision. But Francis, it's not just your decision to start, it's your determination to stay that matters. But the enemy convinces us that all we have to do is make a decision. Again, but it's not just your decision to start, it's your determination to stay that counts. The warfare has just begun when we leave the church. It's as Jesus told us in Mark 4.15. The enemy immediately tries to take away the word that was sown. You know the parable, the seed and the sower, right? People receive the word with joy, but they have no root. They don't let it sink down. They're getting rooted somewhere else, and so, you know, it doesn't happen. Or they get that word, but the devil takes the cares of the day and everything else that's on their mind, and the word just blows away. Is the word sewn or is the word blown? If you do not attach concrete action to your decision, and a decision is needed, but if you don't act in accordance with that decision, the rest of this week and as you go on, it's only gonna lead you into a boom and bust cycle of frustration. Then you're just gonna be looking for preachers that will tickle your ears and make you feel good for that day, and you'll think, Sunday's my good day, and you'll even attribute it to God, say, woo, I just need my God fix, and then you'll just try to be with God more every day in that sense, but it's really still a boom and bust. You gotta live life, friend. You can't be in your prayer closet all day. Again, in Mark 4, 16 and 17, Jesus tells of those who receive the word with joy, but they don't have any root. So they fall away. It's like someone sitting there just planting, planting, planting, planting, planting, planting, planting, planting in the same old spot, but they don't let the thing root. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, you need to get on your knees and pray for your pastor, since he's engaging in spiritual warfare against the invisible forces of evil every time he steps into the pulpit and dares to faithfully wield the sword of the Spirit. Again, the classic passage, Ephesians chapter 6, 10-20. You should pray that his preparation is such that He does not set sail into the soil of his own imagination, but he stays in touch with the text. That is where we know the power is and God's word does not return void. It will do what God wants it to do. And it's supposed to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and takes people from the camp of the enemy and puts them in the, right? The camp of light. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. The church is ground zero in the war zone. It's where we get our marching orders. It's where we get our battle plans. It's where the community comes together and the general of that particular section, you know, is hearing from headquarters and saying, this is what we need to do. Of course, those that don't go to church are like troops that have gone AWOL. They aren't helping anybody else in the war. They certainly aren't receiving any help either. Yes, I said that. To have guns all around and no ammunition is a sad state of affairs for a soldier to be in. Won't you take up arms and join in the sermon skirmish? Pray for your pastor this week. Pray that you're not distracted this week and others aren't. Not apathetic. Not thinking about what's going on afterwards. That you're going to put into practice tomorrow what you learned today. That you realize that you're in a war zone. The servant's kermis. It involves all of us. We'll see you next time on the Voice of Vision broadcast. This is Pastor J.D. Hatfield. God bless you. Oh yes, I'm glad to know my life is here with Jesus And that that's where I'm always gonna be, right here The right hand of the Father of life. We'll see you next time on the Voice of Vision broadcast, where we are living for today with an eye for tomorrow. And reveling with God eternally.