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Disarming the Devil – Part Two

August 8, 2009 by Narrow Gate Baptist Church

The Enemy

The Bible spells out for us that the devil at his core is a liar. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44.

The devils tactics are clearly illustrated in the Bible. In 1 Pet 5-8 we read, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

Devil Weapons #1 – Accusation

The first tactic I want to examine of the devils is that of accusation. Revelation 12:10 says that the Devil is “the accuser of the brethren”. The first front the devil will attack you on is regarding your past. The devil will be the first to step up and tell you, “you can’t really be a Christian or born again, you’ve done too many bad things.” Satan will not just remind you about these things in your mind but he will manifest them physically in your life. You’ll run into someone, come across an old email, letter, or document, that immediately sends you back to a time when you were either completely without God or had turned your back on God. Satan does all of this in the hope that he can derail you. He will either attempt to derail you through the pits of defeat and depression or use the lurid details of the past to wrap you right back into sin.

The Biblical Defense

What’s the Bible solution to this problem? II Cor 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” In other words, when we got saved we were justified of our offenses. God called us “not guilty” and wrote out names in the Lambs book of life. Not only are the past sins forgotten specifically but also the urges to gravitate towards sin provided we are regularly identified with Christ through our faith, study of His Word, and prayer.

Some would say that’s fine for my past but what about when I sin today? Have you ever noticed that when you slip and sin, (and we all do every single day by the way), the devil will come with all the condemnation in the world? “Some Christian you are, why even bother trying, God isn’t going to continue to love you if you act like this,” says the voice from the pit of hell in our spirits. The Bible has the answer.

First, the Bible says that, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” Rom 3:23 In that same chapter we’re told that, “… there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” Rom 3:12 Every born again believer reading this sins. The good news is we have forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. The Bible promises us that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Did you happen to notice any stipulations for God to forgive us our sins other than us simply confessing them? There aren’t any. Is there an expiration data on this promise or a limit on the amount of times you can tap into this amazing promise? Absolutely not.

The devil and frankly many Christian teachers today would have you convinced that you have to work to keep your salvation but that is a completely foreign concept in the Bible. All over the pages of the Bible the only requirement for salvation is to belief in Jesus Christ and once done the salvation is forever. You can never lose it and there is absolutely nothing you can do to merit it. (John 3:16, John 3:36, John 5:24, John 6:40, John 6:47 just to name a few) The devil keeps millions of Christians in an uncertain bondage about there own salvation because of the lies he tells about the gifts of God.

Never for a minute forget who you are in Christ. Stay rooted in the Word of God for your answers as it is truth and not matter what spiritual or life challenge you are facing, the truth will always set you free!

Pastor Miller

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A Much Needed Dose of Compassion

July 26, 2009 by Narrow Gate Baptist Church

Anyone who is familiar with my teaching knows that I’m big on the fundamentals of faith. While I think there are all kinds of religious topics that make for interesting discussion and debate, most of them don’t amount to much. The fundamentals though, those universal foundational elements that anchor the person of faith, are essential. I think all of us would have a lot more success in our walks with God if we paid more attention to the fundamentals and less on the minor details that usually cause division and strife in the body of Christ.

One of those absolute fundamentals I have a real passion for and I hope you’ll get on your radar screen this week is compassion. Merriam-Webster defines compassion as the, “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” Let’s face it, our world is lacking something fierce in the realm of compassion. I’m sad to say that one group that often specializes in a lack of compassion is Bible believing Christians.

This week our family has been doing a study in the book of Job. Job is one of those Bible books that has left many a learned theologian and believer puzzled with questions about God’s will and suffering. I’m not here to engage in those discussions. We would be here for a while! In our study this week, I couldn’t help but notice a very simple theme in the often complex book of Job; it’s never a good idea to jump to conclusions without all the facts. Job’s so called friends were essentially railing against Job because in their own spiritual arrogance and zeal they were convinced they knew what was best for Job. In reality of course neither they nor Job knew all that God was doing. However those friends were quick to condemn Job who in reality was an awesome man of God. While their friend suffered from physical pain, emotional turmoil, and a grieving heart, they lashed out against him with high minded arguments instead of softening there hearts and attempting to alleviate Job’s pain.

As Christians we often lash out against everything under the sun in the name of being Christian without any situational facts. We are ready to sink our fangs into other people at will if they for whatever reason act or believe in a way different than our own. Again we do this a lot without knowing the first thing about the person we may be ready to thrash. Hating sin and standing up for truth is a great thing, however if our motives are selfish, ego driven, and are accompanied with anger and an overall lack of internal peace in our spirit, chances are we are not acting with compassion.

Compassion requires a soft heart. If our hearts are hardened so much by our own doctrinal stances that we cannot engage the world in a spirit of love we are completely missing the mark as Christians. We can engage in compassion every single day. It’s simply a focus on others and helping where help is needed. It can be very simple! Pull off the road and see if the person stranded because of a flat tire needs help. Offer a bottle of water to someone working hard in the heat. Take a few minutes to ask if you can help and really mean it. The Bible says that we as believers are, “… light of the world.” Matt 5:14. Do people see our light or do they more often see the darkness of our doctrinal restrictions, spiritual arrogance, and hate?

Compassion knows no religious denominations or doctrinal boundaries. We must be extra careful not employ our Christian love only with people who think as we do. That takes absolutely no faith and zero trust in the Lord by the way! The Bible says in the gospel of Luke 6:35-36, “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” We may know for a fact that the person we are getting ready help may live against God, but that doesn’t change the fact that we should help. We all live against God. Let us not forget that we all, “sin and come short of the Glory of God.”Rom 3:23 Way to often, we as Christians forget that our halos are not as magnificent as we think they are. Everyone is going to need some help on this side of heaven at some point, as Bible believers we should be the first to step up and offer that help.

All the great works in the world will not get us to heaven. That’s not what I’m suggesting here. I am suggesting that as a result of knowing Christ, our hearts can soften and our works can be agents of compassion in every step we take. I challenge all of us this week to slow down a bit and be with others with our compassion instead of merely talking at others with our beliefs.

Blessings,
Pastor Miller

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Wednesday Night Service – Disarming the Devil

July 16, 2009 by Narrow Gate Baptist Church

Join Pastor Miller for the Wednesday night service at Narrow Gate Baptist Church. Pastor Miller’s message is entitled Disarming the Devil.

Posted in Devil, Life Difficulties, Podcasts, Satan, Spiritual Attack, Temptation, Trials and Tribulations, Wednesday Night Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Disarming the Devil – Part 1

July 15, 2009 by Narrow Gate Baptist Church

I’ve written and taught many times that one sure fire way to tell that you are living right for God is that Satan begins to attack you on every front. I firmly believe it is one of the best indicators a Christian can have that they are heading in the right direction in their walk with God. The reality of course is that the process of being attacked by Satan is not the most enjoyable thing to participate in. While we are all unique in the eyes of God, the attacks of the enemy are universal across many pivotal areas in our lives as Christians. Over the next few weeks I want to deal with some of the hot targets of the devil against the Christian and identify how we can not just survive spiritual attack but achieve absolute victory through Christ Jesus!

In order to do battle we must be very clear on two things. First, we must know who we are in Jesus Christ and secondly we need to know exactly who our enemy is. Far too often, both of these key areas get completely missed in teaching about spiritual warfare. Long before we sharpen our weapons we must first know where we stand and where the enemy stands who is against us.

A New Person in Christ

The Bible says in Gal 2:20 that, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” We need to get straight right away on what our identity is. One of the biggest reasons so many of us have failed over and over again in dealing with spiritual attack and sin in our lives is because we have forgotten who is really in charge in our lives and who we are directly identified with. Notice the words, “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” Every step you take as a blood bought believer, Christ is with you. Every place you go, every conversation you have, everything decision you make, Christ is with you. The challenge for us is to remember this identification because when we forget it we can easily choose our own ways, the ways of the world, flesh, and sin and not the ways of Christ.

In the book of Romans the Bible says, “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” Rom 8:37. Verses like these are often used into today’s motivational style preaching as a feel good medicine with very little power to the listener because the emphasis is placed on the wrong portion of the scripture. Yes we are conquerors but we do so through Jesus Christ. If we identify with Him in our lives we have the strength to conquer anything because He has already conquered everything on the cross!

My Bible says that, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4 It is our faith in the son of God that gives us access to victory to overcome any and every challenge. Not works, not title or status, but simple faith.

Those are just a few of many great scriptures describing who we are in Jesus Christ.  Next time we’ll journey into understanding who our enemy really is, how he works in our lives, and most importantly how to achieve victory over him.

Blessings,

Pastor Miller

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The Gift Of Life

July 9, 2009 by Narrow Gate Baptist Church

Happy Thursday everyone!
Every now and again you come across something in the sea of crazyiness online that really touches your heart. This morning I came across a video that I wanted to share with all of you. The sad reality of today’s world is that the value of each and every life is often forgotten. I hope this video will give you a moment of pause to think about the importance of all life.

The couple featured in this video took on a known challenge when many would have terminated life because it would have been easier and less painful to do so.  Regardless of what kind of challenges we face in life, God very rarely calls us to easy. He does however call us to great things through his Son Jesus Christ. When I watch videos like this one I’m reminded that the problems I’m facing today, really are not that bad and I would venture to guess while your problems may seems like giants today, they are not so bad either.

Let us pray for each other that our hearts value life. Let us pray for those who have made and will make very difficult decisions about the lives of unborn children. Let us pray for those whose decisions meant life was not continued, that the Lord will heal their hearts.  For those that continued on for life despite a bad report, let us pray that God grants them the endurance, patience, and courage to never quit.

Appreciate your life today.

Pastor Miller

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