Grace for Battle | Grace to & Through | Pastor Rob Koke | Shoreline Church | Message

Good morning, everyone, again, and a special welcome to all of you who are watching online from around the community, the state, the nation, and in some cases, even around the world. Come on, would you give a great big hand clap for those of you who are watching online? Hey, I got some pretty exciting news to share with you. Our daughter, Danielle, and her husband, Fredlund, gave birth last night at 2.30 in the morning to Arlo Richie Germain. He was born at 2.36, six pounds, four ounces, and so I was up. I got to be honest. I was up, you know, kind of tracking. Laura was at the hospital. She's still there. Everything's great. Everybody's healthy. Everybody's happy. It's awesome. I'm so, so grateful. But at 3 o'clock in the morning, I was getting text messages, and I was so thrilled, and I was so kind of wired, you know? Another grandchild. That's our fourth grandchild, and we've got one on the way from my son. I mean, we are so, so blessed. So anyway, if I get a scripture wrong or, you know, something goes a little bit haywire, you know where I've been. You know the journey. All right, let's all of us stand to our feet. We do something at the beginning of every single message. We wrap our understanding around a collection of phrases that we call our Shoreline Creed, and it just helps to remind us that Christianity is all about grace. And so if you're new to Shoreline, you can just read along.

The rest of us, we're going to say this with some enthusiasm and passion. You guys ready? Come on. You guys ready? Okay. Here we go. I am loved by God. I cannot earn it. I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the Spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Come on. Let's give God praise for that. You may be seated. So a couple of years ago, someone pulled a prank on my oldest son, Luke. And I got to admit, it was hilarious. They placed an ad on Craigslist and said, a brand new tractor, mint condition, moving sale, only $500, must sell today, and then put Luke's phone number at the bottom. Just in case you're thinking about doing this for somebody else, they don't allow you to do that anymore. But back a couple years ago, slipped it in, and my son's phone didn't just start ringing, it melted. And there were farmers, you know, these are kind of salt of the earth, get started, break of dawn, work-focused people, and they started calling Luke at 4.45 in the morning, wanting to know how much horsepower there was. About a few phone calls in, Luke was just confused. He was beginning to wonder if he actually even had a tractor. But then by the 300th phone call, he wasn't answering at hello anymore. He just said, there is no tractor.

And that's what he said to me when I called him one day. I said, Luke, this is your dad. There is no tractor. And the funny part about it is that he had no idea who did it. He had no idea who his unseen adversary and enemy was. But he eventually found out. And it wasn't one of his peers, it wasn't one of his friends, it wasn't anybody in his family, even though I wish I would have done it, oh man, that would have been so awesome to have that in my arsenal of memories. You know who did it? Here, this is the one who did it. Yeah, D.R. Dickey, our business administrator here at Shoreline, he was the unseen adversary. Luke is still planning his payback. We're in the last chapter of the book of Ephesians, and in this chapter, chapter 6, Paul is describing our battle against an unseen adversary, but this is not a prank. This is the real deal, and he wants to unveil who our adversary is. And so here in Ephesians, chapter 6, starting in verse 10, it says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you may be able to take your stand against the devil's schemes. Now let me just pause to let you know that next week we're gonna kind of unwrap this whole idea of the armor of God and how important it is to winning the battles of life, but Paul goes on to say and reveal in these next few verses who our adversary is. He says, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. And you know what? It's kind of easy to lose sight of this reality. I mean, we live in a beautiful world, right, with majestic mountain peaks and lush green valleys and beautiful crystal-clear rivers. We live in a world, you know, with an incredible variety of animals and plant life. We look up into the stars and see the expanse of the cosmos. We got families and friends and relationships. We got our careers and, you know, we are entertained by beautiful music and

inspired by incredible stories. It's hard to imagine that surrounding this natural world that we live in every single day, there is also a spiritual world. But there is this beautiful landscape, this beautiful picture of what God intends for us in every area of our lives, in our family life, in our career life, in our health, in our relationships. It's a wonderful life. It seems like that natural world is all that exists. There are natural laws, like the law of gravity, the law of thermodynamics, the law of lift. Science is making discoveries every day about how this world works. We understand the concept of seed time and harvest. What you plant as a seed, you reap as a harvest. We understand that in terms of our food supply, but we also understand that in terms of our daily choices and actions. What we do seems to have some consequences. We plant seed and then we reap a harvest and it feels very natural. But I'm here to tell you that surrounding this natural world that we engage with every single day by our five physical senses, by our eyes and our ears and our sense of smell and our taste and our touch, there is a supernatural world and the Apostle Paul is giving us some insight into it. Now, to be fair, we're going to be talking this morning about some of the darker forces that are in that spiritual world, but there is an even much more positive reality of the angelic forces of that spiritual world and God and Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. And, you know, that's a message for another day, but we're going to unpack together here this morning what I think the Apostle Paul wanted us to know about this world that surrounds our natural world. So here's the 411 on the enemy. And the reason we're taking some time to do that here today is because I'm convinced that a lot of us, we're not so quick to embrace the fact that there is an enemy that we're facing and we're not quite sure what to do about it and how it impacts our life. And so we're just going to take some time to get the 411 on this today. The first thought that I want to share with you is that our enemy is a fact. The devil and his demons are real. Many people don't believe that the devil exists. There are many Christians that believe he exists, but practically live as if he doesn't. Keith Green, who was a Christian singer back when I was in

college, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth... He sang a song, and I still remember the lyrics of it. He was describing how the devil is thinking, and he said, my job keeps getting easier because nobody believes in me anymore. And C.S. Lewis, the famous Christian philosopher, he also articulated this point. He wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters, and it's a book all about conversations that demons are having with each other and their superiors and how the spiritual world might work. And in one of these conversations between two demons, he says, it's easier to work if nobody believes. When you start reading the Bible, you read Genesis chapter one, that God created the world, and then Genesis chapter two, some of the magnificence of God's creation. You don't have to read any further than Genesis chapter three to realize that we are facing an adversary, that there is an enemy that's at work in the world. When you think about the book of Job, the devil takes center stage in that unfolding drama. Jesus, when he starts his ministry, he gets baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit descends upon him like a dove, and then he gets led into the wilderness, and when he's out there into the wilderness, the devil comes to tempt him with three temptations. You know the story. Acts chapter 10 and verse 38

kind of sums up this whole reality by saying this, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and healing all who are under the power of the devil because God was with him. So there's a lot of scripture verses. In fact, this message today is chock full of scripture references highlighting the fact that we face an adversary and how he works and how he functions and how we can defeat him in our lives. I'm just bringing it up to let you know that it's not some obscure idea with a verse here and a verse there, and you're just kind of jumpy to conclusions. There's a lot of scriptural real estate devoted to understanding this, and we don't fully know how it all began or how it got started. There are a couple of verses that pull back the curtain a little bit found in Isaiah 14, in Ezekiel 28, and Revelation chapter 12. It seems that the angels have been given the same freedom that we have, the power to choose. And there was a rebellion in heaven led by one of the archangels, Lucifer, who is more beautiful than any of the other angels. Theologians speculate that he was the worship leader

and pride filled his heart. And a third of the angels joined him in this rebellion and they were cast out of heaven. And I wanna pause here for a moment because this is remarkable to me when I think about it, that one third of the angels rebelled against an all powerful, all loving God, not just one or two or a handful or a dozen. We don't know how many angelic beings or demonic spirits there are in the world, but it wasn't just a few, it was a third of them. That tells me something about Lucifer. He is cunning and he is persuasive. And while we as believers have no reason to fear him, we shouldn't underestimate him either. And I don't know how people deal with the evil that is in the world if they don't embrace the idea that there is a supernatural force at work that's seeking to kill, steal and destroy. It feels to me like you can see it almost everywhere. You see it in the inner cities and gang warfare and people using drugs to destroy people's lives. You see it in the prostitution circles. When I was preparing this message, another A-list celebrity lost a child to suicide. Who inspires that kind of behavior? When you think about the idea of wars and geopolitical conflicts and terrorism, and you get all of these ideas,

these people that are inspired by the enemy, I believe, and they're going to blow themselves up and blow other people. up thinking you know that they're gonna have 72 virgins at the end of the day. It's just a really sobering truth that we face an adversary. The enemy is a fact. The second thought is that the enemy is our foe. The word Satan actually means adversary. Over and over the Apostle Paul is challenging his son in the faith, Timothy, to fight the good fight. I have fought the good fight. Fight the good fight. Endure hardship like a soldier. And so if it was good advice for Timothy to share with his son in the faith, I thought it would be really important to emphasize it especially for our graduates here this morning that you know we are in a battle. Life can sometimes be a struggle and sometimes it's not against the enemy himself. Sometimes it's just our circumstances or battling you know for our dreams or we're fighting you know for good in society. We just got to be reminded that sometimes life is a fight. And referring back to Ephesians chapter 6, this is actually pretty insightful and liberating if we think about it. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. You know because a lot of times the challenges that we experience in life are our relational challenges and we think our enemy is our friend who betrayed us or our schoolmate who wrote something on social media or perhaps our spouse or people that we work with. We think that our enemy is people and this verse says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our enemy is not people. Now when I say that I don't mean to communicate that we don't need to do the hard work of of working on our relationships and forgiving those who offend us and and having the hard conversations that will bring relational peace into our lives. I just want you to know it that at the end of the day ultimately there is an enemy who is cheering on all the dysfunction that we experience in life. So ultimately your adversary is not your boss and it's not your kids even though they act like it at times and it's not your neighbors, your fellow citizens, it's not your

husband or your wife. But that reminds me of a funny story I heard about how the devil showed up one sunny Sunday morning to a country church, a small country church, and he just showed up and he walked in from the back and he just started breathing fire and roaring as loud as he could and everybody was shocked and ran out of that church as fast as he possibly could except one older gentleman who was sitting on the second row he didn't budge and the devil walked up to him and said you're not afraid of me and he said nope and the devil said why not and the man said well I've been married to your sister for 45 years. Turn to your neighbor right now and say you are not my adversary. Come on turn to him and tell him. But there is no doubt that the enemy influences people, uses people. You think about Adam and Eve tempted by the serpent that led to the fall and all of its consequences. You read the Bible and how he used Delilah to bring down a champion named Samson. Satan entered Judas the Bible says inspired him to betray Jesus and as a reward for following Satan's plan he was filled with so much guilt and remorse that he went out and hung himself and I just need to remind you that at the end of the day that's exactly what the enemy does he uses you and then tries to destroy you. When you think about theology I don't think it gets any more complex than this. God is a good God and the enemy is a bad enemy. God is good the devil is bad. I was reading in my devotional time this morning before I came to church it just so happened to be you know on the journey I was working my way through the gospel of John and I was in the 10th chapter and and this verse popped up this very morning John chapter 10 and verse 10 the thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Here's this beautiful crystal-clear picture of the reality that there is a thief who's out to kill steal and destroy but Jesus said I have come into the world to give you life and to give it more abundantly. Don't blame God for the negative things in your life. He's not the author of your tragedy, your sickness, the negative things that are happening in your world, your hard times.

Every good and perfect gift comes from your heavenly Father. It is the enemy that comes to kill, steal, and destroy. So our enemy is a fact. The enemy is our foe. And then thirdly, our enemy is fraudulent. Our enemy has a strategy, and we shouldn't be ignorant of it. His chief strategy is deception. Now there's a reason for that, and we'll get to it a little bit later in the message. The enemy is defeated. We'll get to that. And so all he has left now is deception. But don't underestimate how influential that deception can be at times. Over and over, this idea of deception gets brought up in 2 Corinthians 11 in verse 3. But I fear lest how, somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. In other words, just like the serpent deceived Eve, that's his strategy with us. In Revelation chapter 12 in verse 9, he deceives the whole world. That's his primary method. And then there are little avenues where this deceit kind of plays out. In John, the Gospel of John chapter 8 in verse 44, Jesus Himself describes the enemy as the father of lies. How can you tell if the devil is lying? His lips are moving. He lies about everything. He exaggerates everything. He'll get hold of some negative information that might be impacting your life and blow it up beyond anything that even resembles the truth. Has this ever happened to you? It's happened to me from time to time. You know, I'll start feeling, you know, a little bit sick or something, and then, you

know, my imagination starts working over time, and I think it's the enemy that's kind of blowing things out of proportion, adding, you know, gasoline to the fire of what's going on in my brain. And then pretty soon, you know, I'm thinking that this is going to be life-altering and life-threatening, and about three or four hours down the road, I'm wondering who's going to show up to my funeral and what they're going to say about me. I'll hear the voice of the enemy, but I don't always recognize it as the voice of the enemy. I just want you to know He's a liar, and He'll lie to you about your value and your worth, your future and your job, your career and your family and friends. He's lying to so many young people, talking about how if you want to have, you know, fun and pleasure and joy in life, what you need is sexual freedom. Just go express yourself. And never is there a whisper about the emotional damage that's done. They never talk about STDs and all kinds of things that could happen. They never mention unwanted pregnancies. It's all a lie. And the devil will whisper to you and say, if you want to find your mate, you know, just go to the bar. And so you ladies, you go to a bar and some guy sits next to you at the bar, buys you a drink. You might think he's being generous. Let me promise you, he's making an investment that he's hoping to collect on later on in the evening. And it's all so phony and fraudulent. You have never walked into Walmart, just staring there at some things on the wall and have some guy stand up next to you and say, can I buy you a toaster? The devil is described this way in first Peter chapter five and verse eight. The devil, your adversary walks around like a roaring lion, like a roaring lion. He's not a roaring lion because he doesn't have any teeth. So he can only prowl about like one, but his roar can at times be intimidating.

Lots of bluster, lots of noise, lots of shouting. And he wants you to think that he's all powerful and everywhere. And though he's not, sometimes the Bible says he masquerades as an angel of light. He might clothe himself in some religious sounding phrase or hide behind someone who speaks with religious authority. And somehow you get the message that God doesn't love you anymore, that you've messed up so bad that there's no more second chances for you. In Genesis chapter three and verse one, it says that the enemy actually insinuates doubt. And the way he did it with Adam and Eve in the garden, did God really say that? Did God really promise that? And he used that sign right there in Genesis chapter three. He used that strategy and he's been using it ever since. How many times has the enemy inferred that God was not faithful, that God was not good? Did God really say he would do that? And in Revelation chapter 12, it says that the enemy is an accuser. He's an accuser of our brothers and sisters. He accuses them before God day and night. And I don't know how that all works, but God sent his son Jesus into the world to forgive us of our sins. You are completely and utterly and totally forgiven by the blood of Jesus, which is powerful to take your sins

as far as the East is from the West. But I can guarantee you that the enemy will try to accuse you and keep you in your guilt and in your shame. And please don't underestimate for a minute the destructive power behind believing a lie. People give up on their dreams because they believe the lie that they're not good enough. Women sell their bodies because they believe the lie that they are worthless. People turn to drugs and alcohol because they believe the lie that they need those things to cope. And like I said, terrorists do unspeakable things because they believe the lie that something good will happen from it. So the enemy is a fact, the enemy is our foe, the enemy is fraudulent, but let's get to the good part. The enemy is finished. I paused there because in the first service, everybody erupted in applause. Let me just try it one more time. Our enemy is finished. How does it feel to be manipulated right there? The only real power that the enemy has is the power that you give him. This is not a fair fight. When we talk about the fact that there is a spiritual world that surrounds this natural world that we live in,

it's not a fair fight. Luke chapter 10 and verse 18, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. One third of the angels fell, but the good news is that two thirds are left. The enemy is outnumbered two to one. And that's just the angel to demon ratio. On top of that, we have God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And when Jesus observed the battle, he didn't say, oh my gosh, it was like, you know, nip and tuck for a while. You know, it lasted for years and years and years. There was all kinds of casualties. No, when pride filled Lucifer's heart and those demons chose to go with them like lightning, it was a flash. It entered their hearts and then boom, they were cast down to earth. Jesus totally defeated him. Colossians chapter two and verse 15, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Hebrews chapter two and verse 14, Jesus through his death destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. To sum it up, Jesus disarmed him, destroyed him, defeated him, and made a public display of him.

Yeah, he's defeated. But I know some of you might be thinking then why is his work so prevalently displayed in our world? Why is he still around? Well, I can tell you, it won't be for long. be for long. Let me try to describe it this way. In World War Two, there are two days that everyone celebrates in World War Two, D-Day and V-E Day. And while this is not a perfect analogy, I think it makes the point. D-Day was the decisive blow, the invasion of Normandy, where the Allied forces were able to establish a beachhead on the beaches of Normandy and France. It assured that Nazi Germany would be defeated. The back of the enemy was broken. And even though on that day that fact was completely established, it didn't happen for a few months, in fact, close to a year, until V-E Day came. That's Victory in Europe Day. This happened a year later when the enemy actually laid down their arms and the fighting officially stopped. What is really interesting that historians note is that the fighting between D-Day and V-E Day was some of the most intense fighting in the war. Even though the enemy's back has been broken, even though he has been defeated like a dying snake, he is lashing out at everyone he possibly can to kill, steal, and destroy. We can't pretend that he doesn't exist, because if left unchecked, he will destroy the beautiful landscape of our lives. I don't know if you've noticed, but as I've been preaching this morning, this beautiful landscape has gotten darker and darker and darker and filled with all of the cracks and crevices and spider webs and destruction that is an image of what the enemy wants to do in our life. When you think about it, there is a way to victory. Next week we're going to be talking a little bit about the armor of God and how important it is for us to be dressed for battle in a way that can win every single day, and it's not a fair fight. You don't want to miss that. But today I want to leave you with a very simple and straightforward thought. James chapter 4 and verse 7 says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. It's a pretty simple statement, but it's incredibly profound. It's the perfect, unfailing way to treat our enemy. Resist him and he will flee. I think it also helps us to understand the right perspective. Jesus didn't want us to live unaware, but he didn't want us to live intimidated either.

Again, referencing C.S. Lewis, he said, there are two equal and opposite errors that we can entertain about our enemy. One is to disbelieve that he exists, and the other is to believe but have an excessive and unhealthy preoccupation with him. And the enemy is equally pleased with both errors. So what's our response? Resist him and he will flee. Everyone shout out will. Come on, say it with a little bit more enthusiasm. Resist the devil and he will flee. He tempts you to shipwreck your life. Resist him. He entices you to lose your temper. Resist him. He lies to you and says you're worthless. Resist him. He tries to intimidate you with fear. Resist him. And if you do, he will flee. Not maybe, not hopefully, but absolutely. And let me tell you something, when you turn back to God, he can magnificently and spontaneously and beautifully and rapidly restore everything that the enemy has stolen. That dark landscape of your life, it can change back to a beautiful landscape when you resist the devil and turn to God. I don't know. I just want you to be encouraged today. God is so good. Sure, the enemy is bad, but God is so good. He comes, the enemy does, to kill, steal, and destroy, but Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. And graduates, that's the life God has for you. That's the plan God has for you. Let's embrace and believe the beauty of His victory in our lives. And everyone said? Amen. Amen. Come on, let's pray. Father, I thank you so much just for bringing us together here this morning, Lord. We thank you for the truth of your word. Yeah, the enemy is real, but he's defeated. He tries to deceive, but we're aware of his intentions and his strategy. So we're not going to believe his lies anymore.

We're not giving in to his accusations. We're not going to walk down the road of deception any longer. We're going to resist his influence in our lives and live free in Jesus' name. If you wouldn't mind just remaining in an attitude of prayer for just a moment longer. You know the ultimate way that this plays out, with every head bowed, every eye closed? The ultimate way this plays out is that the enemy wants to blind you of your need for a Savior. He's going to try to deceive you and speak to you and say, you don't need Jesus. You don't need the forgiveness of your sins. You're good enough just the way you are. But we're gathered together here in church, and even though the enemy is trying to cloud your mind with discouragement or cloud your thinking with lies and deception, we've exposed him this morning. And here's the beautiful truth of Scripture, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. And if you're here in church today and you're not where you need to be with God, and you say, Pastor, I'm not living right. I'm not doing right. I'm not where I need to be. I need prayer. Maybe you made that decision at one point in time, but you slipped away, and today you need to rededicate your life to serving Him. Or maybe you've never invited Jesus into your heart. If you want to meet Him for the first time or rededicate your life to serving Him, would you please raise your hand quickly and boldly wherever you are? Wonderful. God bless you. God bless you. Hands are going up all around this building.

All of you with your hands raised, I want to lead you in a very simple prayer, and I want you to follow me in this prayer from your heart, sincerely praying with faith. And everyone else, as a reaffirmation of your faith in God, let's just join them, celebrate with them. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I thank You for sending Jesus. Jesus, I ask You to come into my heart. Forgive me of my sins. I put my trust in You, and I will live for You from this day forward by Your power, for Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Would you give them all a great big hand clap? All right. With nobody leaving early or moving around, would you just stand to your feet? I'm going to ask our prayer partners to slip on out here to the front, and they're here so that if you have any prayer requests whatsoever and you want to receive prayer, please come forward after we're dismissed. Those of you who prayed to receive the Lord today, we have people on our left and on our right that are holding up a sign right now, made brand new. We want to give you some information that will really help you to live this Christian life that you just prayed to receive, so please take advantage of that. Next weekend is Memorial Day weekend. We are going to honor all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It's going to be a beautiful, moving service. We want to encourage you to be a part of it next week. It's going to be really, really special. God bless you.

Have a fantastic rest of your Sunday, and hey, live in victory. He made that possible. God bless you. We'll see you next week. God bless you. Amen.