Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
everybody i want you to go ahead and take your bibles and i want you to turn okay let's go and turn to uh second corinthians chapter one second corinthians chapter one good to see you guys here how many of you know that it's important for your your minister to be honest with you that's a good thing right here some people just won't tell you the truth and they have reverend in front of their name some of them do but i'm going to endeavor to tell you the truth this morning and this is good and i'm going to show you that paul did it too but you know what i want to talk to you about this morning is just about crushing attacks of the enemy crushing attacks and i'm not talking about you know something like some big huge thing that's that's uh that's obvious you know some big like a car accident or something like that i mean those things god you know god intervenes but the devil can throw all kinds of stuff but what i'm talking about this morning is there can be satan knows how to plan crushing attacks mental emotional attacks he knows where to hit you and he knows where to hit you hard and i just want you to understand that even sometimes that it's not only you going through it that your pastor and people who have been in the lord a long time sometimes go through very crushing oppressive attacks of the enemy and i just felt like the lord as i was sitting there i really had a complete different message to preach to you this morning but the lord is kind of laid on my heart if you've been going through this in the last few weeks i imagine that somebody else in the room might be going through not just the normal stuff but a little above normal and i just want you to see that paul talked about this in his own life and i want you to see that that it is it's great difficulty it's great difficulty to try to put the truth into the world it's a great difficulty listen to plan a church to oversee a church to try to stand for the truth and to put that truth not only into church folk but put it into the world and i want to tell you there are times and over the years i've faced some pretty serious attacks of the enemy but i mean even in my own life and i want you to know this in my own life right now that there are crushing emotional attacks there are attacks you know my daughters getting the swine flu you know um there are financial things that i can't even go into all of them how many financial issues are in my own life and how many needs are coming up with you know my my children nancy's children you know the
pressures of having a baby you know it's come upon me as as an old fellow that i am now and um you know what i'm saying is there's these crushing attacks and i know that you guys face them and sometimes sometimes they're more in your thought life than you even realize and the whole thing the whole reason satan does this is because you're a threat to him if you're not a threat to the devil he's pretty much going to lead you down a gentle path of destruction okay he's just going to guide you you're already going down that path but he's just going to see to it that you continue but someone who tries to go the complete opposite path of truth and life and relationship with jesus and want and they want to share that truth with the world you're going to experience seasons of intense it seems and almost impossible attacks of the enemy and i want to put up a quote here we're going to put up this is by charles finney some of you may have seen it i think i put it on my my facebook this week but this is one of the probably one of the best books if you want to read a book from the 1800s is revival lectures by charles g finney it's one of the one of the christian classics that was put out there but of course finney was pretty much the spearhead and the leader of the entire second great awakening he was pretty much the spearhead of the anti-slavery movement before we ever reach the civil war i mean charles finney spoke to the whole nation without radio and television i mean he would go into places and he had a guy named father nash who would go ahead of him and literally pray him and father nation another guy would pray sometimes in 12 hour shifts over the city and over the lost and then finney would come and hold a meeting that might last two or three days it might end up lasting six months just to give you an example of some of the things that god used finney to do in 1831 finney went to hold a few days of meetings in rochester new york he ended up being there for six months and one hundred thousand people got saved okay and that wasn't just in rochester the the population of rochester wasn't even a hundred thousand but people from all around the area got saved people in rochester new york to this day talk about that changed the course of their city back in 1831 so just to give you a little background on charles finney but revival lectures even to this day i mean it's over 150 years old and to this day when i read this book the the spiritual understanding and discernment this man had of the scriptures and of what was going on in the spirit realm blows me away as he was a presbyterian minister who did not believe anything that presbyterians believe it was funny they tried to kick him out of his denomination but it didn't work because he was getting so many people saved so they had to leave him alone but none of the ministers around him liked him none of the colleges liked him he was hated
by so many people i mean there were certain ministers that would would uh you know say if finney's gonna come to my town i will oppose him with cannons i mean they didn't like charles finney but charles finney preached the truth but this is a man that understood what it means when you make up your mind to stand for the truth and he did even against the slavery issue in a time that wasn't popular and he stood for the truth and he preached the truth and he took that truth not just to the church but to the world and finney understood what it meant to be a man of prayer and he knew he understood about praying in the spirit he was baptized in the holy spirit actually and spoke in tongues he testifies to that in his journals so we're talking about a spirit-filled man at a time when that was just not really understood okay but this is something he said in revival lectures in chapter four on being filled with the spirit and he says if you're filled with the holy spirit if you have very much of the spirit of god on you and in you and you go after souls like he did he said this right here go ahead and put it up he said you must expect very frequent and agonizing conflicts with satan satan has very little trouble with those christians who are not spiritual but lukewarm and slaughterful and worldly minded and such do not understand what is said about spiritual conflict if you're going this you must expect it now see here i want to tell you we whine and whimper and complain when attacks come but what is this great man of god saying here we should expect it we should expect that there will be seasons that the enemy comes in like a flood i mean from all directions and more than anything he's coming in on your mind the primary warfare is in your mind and your thoughts and they come subtly they come sneaky the devil knows just how to slip through your defenses to get into your thought life to start tearing you up and actually angel and jordan and i guess dante was at a couple but we've been talking about in the youth meetings about controlling your thoughts and how important this is and i just want to say that i'm going to tell you your pastor at times goes through some very agonizing conflicts with the enemy agonizing now i'm going to show you where paul did too in second corinthians chapter 1 are you there let's just start reading it verse 3. paul said here blessed be god even the father of our lord jesus christ the father of mercies and the god of all comfort who comforts us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of god for as the sufferings of christ abound in us so our consolation also abounds and whether we be afflicted is for your consolation and salvation which is effectual in the
enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer or whether we be comforted it is for your consolation and our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the sufferings so you also be of the consolation now look at verse eight that's what i want to focus in on for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life but we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in god which raises the dead who delivered us from so great at death and dost deliver us in whom we trust that he shall also deliver us you also helping together by prayer for us for that the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons that thanks may be given by many on our behalf now i know this is a lot of words but i want you to see where paul said i didn't want you ignorant and guys i don't want you ignorant paul said i don't want you ignorant that when we went into asia and what was paul going into asia to do well what was the he was going into asia to do what plant churches to start new churches you have to remember that the synagogues were all over the place they had synagogues the jews had synagogues in all of these uh in all of these places you know you see where paul goes through the book of acts he went to thessalonica he went to ephesus he went to all these different places there were synagogues of the jews which the jews worshiped jehovah they worshiped the true god they worshiped the creator but what had the synagogues become the synagogues had become the old wine skin god had developed now a new move of his spirit he had brought forth new truth new revelation jesus christ the messiah now the church was the new church you get what i'm saying the the the what paul was trying to do what uh barnabas and those they were trying to plant a new church that was led by the spirit full of the spirit and would preach the truth and they were opposed primarily by the synagogues quote the other churches that said that you know again we're talking about two entities here the synagogues and the church both worshipping the same god but one worshipping in death and the other worshipping in life one that had an old truth one that has the whole truth you get what i'm saying is it any different today no see we are trying to plant a church that wants to be led by the spirit that's willing to stand for the whole truth we stand against many churches in this in this united states of ours in this region that yes they were say they worship the same god we worship but it's in death they will not tell the whole truth they
compromise they water things down and there's great opposition in that world and paul was saying we're trying to do something different here in asia and he said man when we got to asia and that was you know the seven churches in asia the the letters god told john to write the book of revelation to and he said ephesus and thyatira and pergamos and all those he said man he said when i went to asia he said we were pressed out of measure above strength boy doesn't that sound i mean here's an apostle now you have to understand this man's an apostle this man seen jesus christ on a number of occasions this man was caught up to the third heaven and encountered things he said he heard of god that he could it was not lawful or permitted for him to speak to mankind this man said my revelation of jesus christ was not from men but from god and this is a man telling us that new understood how to fight spiritual warfare he's the one that wrote about the armor of god he's the one that revealed it to us right and he said man when we got to asia we were pressed out of measure above strength to the point of despairing of life ever felt that way my question anybody felt that way lately it's weird how satan can come and bring depression and despair even when god just got through a few weeks before doing some great things in your life isn't that amazing it really never ceases to blow my mind and i want to say i go through it too i am not here saying i am high and mighty and better than anybody i go through the same oppressive crushing attacks that you go through the difference is with any of us the question always comes down will we stand or cave will we stand and fight it off and when or will we cave to it and that's why he said toward the end of this that i read when he got down to verse 11 he said you got you helping together with us by prayer for us boys why we need each other see folks i want to tell you don't let satan cause you to lose the vision of this church what is the vision of this church the vision of this church and we've got it in here right here the vision of this church is to plant a new testament church that will stand for the whole truth that will preach the whole truth in both the church and the world that will not back down that will move
in the gifts of the holy spirit and will have the presence of god now that's a good thing to stand for all right in a world that's opposed and against it all now i want you to see something this is another quote from finney that i want to pull up before we get into some more of the scriptures but this is from the same book but chapter 11 that last one was chapter four but this is something that he says here about ministers and just so you understand it's a great book one of them is how churches can help ministers that's one of the chapters how to preach the gospel but look what he says here he says a minister of the gospel and really let me just say this all of us are ministers of the gospel okay every one of us are called to preach the gospel in the world to win people to jesus to be an example to pray for we're all ministers okay there's just we just have different different positions in different offices but he says a minister of the gospel has the powers of earth and hell to overcome and that calls for wisdom the devil is constantly at work trying to prevent the success of ministers laboring to divert the attention um from the subject and he says religion now back then religion only meant christianity so i put in their true christianity because this is what finney meant but he said the everything's laboring the devil's laboring to divert the attention from the subject of true christianity to get the sinner away from god and lead him down to hell the whole framework of society almost is hostile to true christianity nearly all the influences which surround a man from his cradle to his grave in this present state of society are calculated to defeat the design of the ministry or the preaching of the gospel of jesus christ does not a minister then need great wisdom to conflict with the powers of darkness and the whole influence of the world in addition to the sinner's own opposition and he went on to say the sinner's own opposition to his own salvation we are in a war with the powers of hell the powers of the world and even people's own crazy ideas and the devil wants to stop us you understand the devil wants to stop the truth it's amazing just this week and i want to share this is a powerful testimony they were going to be here this morning but they said they were going out of town didn't know if they'd make it back in but you know on last monday i went to the campus and spent some time with the some of the a hot guys and you know i got there and we were talking i got there to their meeting and they had been praying from like 11 to 1 and i got there right before one and i thought i was just going to chat with them for a minute and i was going to go well we got to they got to asking me some questions about our church and what we believe and what we're about and
different stuff like that because there were some guys there that i hadn't seen before and i started sharing with them basically about what i've shared with you guys i preached the last few weeks about you know you haven't preached the gospel by telling somebody jesus loves them then until you tell them that they must repent and give up their sins and turn to god with all their heart and be an on fire christian until you've done that you really haven't preached the gospel until you expose where they're really living and get them to see that they're lost and i started sharing some of that and here's what's amazing i started sharing some of that and there was a young guy and i won't name his name but but there was a guy that said where does that leave me now here's a guy that was hanging out with christians who said he was a christian right and i think with all intents has intentions on serving god and following god but when i started talking about you know being in pornography or being in fornication or being in you know this this compromise and ongoing sin in people's lives right and that yet they say in their christians and that there comes a point there's to be repentance there has to be a getting out of that lifestyle this this kid just spoke up and he just said well where does that leave me he said but well here's what he said first he said you know i was listening to you a minute ago talk about the other side of the gospel not just that jesus loves you that is true he does or he wouldn't have died on the cross but the other side of the gospel that you have to repent and you have to obey and you have to follow and you have to you know be passionate about god and he said he said where's that leave me because i don't do that and i said well that means you need to repent that means you need to get free and he goes what if you've tried and you still keep falling into the same mess i said well if it you know we got through the whole talk about making provision for the flesh if you're making provision for the flesh you know like i told him i said alcoholic doesn't need to go in the abc store to buy gum right so don't make provision for the flesh right if you're doing that good right um if you're not making provision and you're repenting and you're serious and you understand that god will not tolerate it forever and you have the fear of god and the respect of god and his word i said then and if you find yourself still being pushed then you might need some deliverance but other than that it's a decision it's a determination i'm gonna live for god and they asked me to share my testimony i mean we were there from i got there before one o'clock and i didn't leave until about 3 30 and these kids were just asking questions and hungry and and i'm just saying standing up for the truth boy the next few days did i come under some attack for standing up for the truth on that university i mean attack i'm talking about even physical attack before we went out there and listen i've preached the crowds of 20 000 plus i've stood in churches of almost every size i am not scared to stand up in
front of people and preach this had nothing to do with fear but before i went out there on thursday the attack i came under mentally emotionally physically to the point it was almost difficult for me to stand this is somebody i mean i had prayed bound demons put on the armor i was ready to go right i'm just saying crushing attacks so i'm i guess what i'm saying this morning is don't expect christianity to be easy that is a lie from the devil let me tell you where disappointment comes from disappointment comes from false expectations or un let's say it this way unrealistic expectations right if you expect every day to go great and to be flying high and everybody you touch to be healed and everybody you talk to to be saved and the money to flow in and grow on trees [Laughter] you have a wrong concept of christianity mr joel osteen wrong it's war i want to show you something turn back to first corinthians chapter 15 real quick you ought to meditate on that second corinthians about being pressed out of measure despairing of life hey can you believe that your pastor sometimes doesn't want to come to church i'm like but you know what i love you guys i love you guys and i'm not letting the devil deter from what i know god wants to do in each of you and to the people we still have yet to reach um first corinthians though chapter 15. let's read this let's see where we want to start here ah he's talking about you know there i can't even believe there was an argument within this church about the resurrection i don't even understand that but anyway verse 31 he says i protest by your rejoicing which i have in christ jesus our lord i die daily and paul was talking about having to crucify his own flesh and temptations and lust i die daily but look at verse 32 he says if after the manner of men i have fought with beasts at ephesus what advantage is it me if the dead rise not let us eat drink for tomorrow we die he said don't be deceived evil communications corrupt good manners awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of god and i speak this to your your shame when paul you can put up the the beast definition but when paul was talking
about i fought with beast here this is a very interesting concept when he said i fought with beast there's the greek word and the definition but look what it says to be a beast fighter in the gladiatorial show to be a gladiator to encounter to fight with wild beasts now how many of you saw the movie gladiator does it really what interesting one of my favorite movies of all time gladiator what were gladiators slaves slaves for one reason or another forced to fight with beasts to fight with lions and tigers and everything else to fight with you know anything in in that realm and that's why actually these shows in the coliseum is what led to nero and some of the others just throwing christians in there okay this is the great persecution when they would feed people to lions okay but what is this talking about how does this refer to us the bible says once you become a christian you are bought with the price you are not your own you become a servant of the lord you don't pick your own destiny you don't pick what you do you don't pick what you do with your stuff if you are a true christian you are totally sold out submitted and jesus gets everything right you are a warrior and you are thrown into the arena of warfare whether you want to be there or not and you will take the sword and you will fight with all your might and you will kill the lions and tigers and bears or they will kill you see this is what christians we don't talk about sometimes you will win this war against satan or he will win you don't want him to win i have fought with beast at ephesus you know why paul said that what was at ephesus you know when we talk about the demonic warfare he had to fight at ephesus because it was the center of the worship of the great goddess diana and paul was talking about man trying to start a church there was a war i mean a war you guys one day i will be able to tell you all the stuff i have gone through in just the past year to even obey god to be here one day sometimes i shake my head and honestly i'm driving home from georgia yesterday
y'all have no idea how many things how many difficult situations are going on and i sit back and i go i don't even know how i'm doing this you know and i i have to admit i've had to fight a little bit of jealousy because my brother talked about this you know he's going to this methodist church over there now because basically he can't find anywhere else to go and he's going to this church but this church was a church plant right this methodist minister and i think this the minister there has a good heart and good intentions and and when he told me this i was just like i wouldn't know how to act but he said this before this guy started the church there that he went around and talked to a bunch of methodist pastors and methodist churches in any way he managed to get 125 000 and three years salary guaranteed and i'm sitting there going what i wouldn't know how to act you'd have to pin me down i might i'd probably be floating around and i thought hmm wow so i was as i was driving home i was going and uh and lord you know i had a dream i'll tell you all this well i had a dream when nancy and i were still in georgia and driving over here driving back and forth doing this and i had this dream that we were on a we're in a pond i don't know if i ever told you all this dream but i had this dream that i was in this i was in a pond behind my aunt's house out and she lives out in the country and but still opal like a phone number but she lives out there always but there's not a pond behind her house but there was a pond in my dream behind her house and it faces the pond the long ways it was going east to west you know and we were in this pond and nancy and i were on this um we were on you know those little rafts that you lay on you know when you're in the pool or at the i'm talking about the cheap ones and we were both you know there's not room for two people to lay down so we were kind of sitting on it you know both of us and of course it's sinking down in the water and and so we are we're kind of paddling along and in the middle as we get toward this side of the pond there's a fish tank in the pond and this is this there's a fish tank is huge but it's sticking up out of the water about this far okay and so it's kind of like there's a different environment but in this in this little fish tank there are all these little fish and you could tell and and in this fish tank these fish you could tell that no one had fed them they hadn't really been fed and they were they were eating like little what they could get off of weeds and roots of things that were still in there just trying to survive and nancy and i floated up to this thing
and started i i pulled out i had in my pocket a thing of real fish food and i started sprinkling it in there and man they went crazy you know just eating it and i was like wow they just they don't even understand what it means to have real food about the time we started doing that there was a huge splash over on the other side of the pond and nancy goes what was that in this dream and i looked over and it was a huge alligator swimming towards us and i thought to myself this isn't good and i started trying to get you know the raft over on the j i mean the best i could do was try to get us over on the other side of the fish tank where it might block it a little bit and then i woke up but what the lord was telling me we've laughed about that dream a lot since and that it had some other meanings but what the lord was trying to show me was that he had sent us here and he sent us here to feed his sheep had been that had been starving to death and trying to live off of what little bit they had and i know that god sent us here but we we were barely afloat we were barely afloat then and we're still barely afloat and the alligators are in the water but god's the one who delivers us amen i just want you to know this this morning i don't care how the attacks are and even some of the stupid junk that we've had to go through the last few months i want you to know that i'm fighting this and i'm winning this my commitment no matter what comes i'm committed to what god has said to do this so i want you to know i'm not moving people can come they can go people can attack people cannot attack people can struggle i'm still going to do what god said to do so i just wanted you to know your shepherd goes through this stuff too but he's not leaving you you know what i'm saying like a lot of people you know when it gets the the tough stuff gets going they they want to find somewhere it's easier and that's what happens and guess what it's not just church folks when it gets tough trying to find another church sometimes pastors want to say i'm out of this city you know what i mean tough stuff just want to let you know we're going to finish the work amen
i need you guys and we need each other but expect a crushing attack sometimes so i go through them too man rough i woke up yesterday fine i guess i could kid her a little bit i did wake up at her parents house at the in-laws house but anyway i was fine when i woke up i'm kidding they're wonderful um but i i don't even i can't even explain it i went i left that you know because i wasn't going to hang out i just met everybody and left the shower you know guys we don't hang out at baby showers okay and uh i took off you know i went up and got some lunch and then i went to my brother's house and i can't even explain it to you i left my brother's house and i've been there the night before so it wasn't anything with him or his house or anything but i left my brother all of a sudden i felt this oppression come on my heart and it was weird because i could feel it i could feel this demonic oppression but i couldn't seem to shake it off of me and all of a sudden i just for no reason i mean i started getting irritated depressed a little bit just irritable and i knew what it was and i still couldn't shake it off of me and it's been stuff like that it's just this weird and i know some of it is witchcraft know some of that we are right here at halloween halloween is a satanic high day for witches and satanists they are a little more active around this month but i remember in my mind even on the way home and nancy hadn't even done anything but in my mind i'm irritated at her what is that i'm irritated to the point i don't even want to speak she didn't do anything you know what i mean what is that it's demonic junk is what it is it's demonic oppression it's a tax well that's what he wants to do too in relationships stupid little voices right stupid little weird oppression anyway i'm just going to encourage you fight fight a little extra if you feel yourself sinking into some depression or some despair or you getting bombarded by thoughts don't just let it keep going on pray find the devil resist it and if you have to call somebody say pray for me now but fight this stuff okay i know some of you and i i know matter
of fact i know i not only know that you're struggling i know why i know what it is and i'm going to just tell you you can fight it fight those thoughts back push them out of your mind in jesus name put that armor on break the curses of the enemy and press through it okay you can because the good news is this in jesus name and in jesus strength and by his blood we can win i know this this old preacher used to say this he said paul called it a good fight for one reason what's a good fight it's not one you lose right he says the good fight of faith right well it's a good fight because if you fight you win if you're passive and do nothing and let it happen you lose that's why he called it the good fight of faith what is faith faith without works dead being alone faith does something faith says in the name of jesus devil i resist you in the name of jesus devil i bind you in the name of jesus i rebuke this attack of depression or i rebuke this attack of lust or i rebuke this attack of of lies i rebuke it in jesus name i put the armor of god on and listen the devil here's what's be he knows how to put thoughts in your mind to make you not want to do that how many of you say you know what to do and all of a sudden you just find yourself mad and i ain't doing it i see some heads nodding in here he's a crafty devil you know why he knows that our flesh does not want to do the things of god he's got an ally inside of us and so he'll move on us and move on that flesh to get that little bit of attitude rebellion and i'm gonna tell you where he gets it most time well if god cared about me or heard my prayers or answered my prayers he would do this thing right here and so you get this little attitude in you at god really kind of underneath the surface you know you know what i'm talking about well i bound it and rebuked it and resisted it it didn't go anywhere ah what jesus you know here we miss the point where jesus we talk about jesus in the wilderness resisting satan we have a record of three times right before satan left do you know that there's another scripture that says that jesus was 40 days in the wilderness being tempted of the devil and that jesus was tempted in all points like we are yet without sin meaning that the three temptations we have recorded we're not all of them forty days
jesus had to hang out with the devil i don't know about you i don't like hanging out with the devil but jesus had to be tempted in all points like we are and he resisted them all thank god being without sin he won that battle and when jesus now listen when jesus won that battle with satan as a man jesus wanted as a man full of the holy ghost when jesus came out of that battle what happened when he came out of that season of temptation and oppression and attack great miracles happened he came out with power he came out with the anointing he came out with a purity of the power of god on him and it says satan departed from him for a season meaning he he thought that this is the good news get through your season of attack and there will be a season the devil has to park depart from that mean he won't ever come back like that it just means there's a season where he's pushed back you beat him down he's he's got an eight count okay and you can get about the father's business for a little while without so much attack amen let's pray thank you father thank you lord for your word i thank you that we have power and authority in jesus name that we overcome satan revelation 12 11 that we overcome satan by the blood of the lamb by the word of our testimony what comes out of our mouths and because we love not our lives even unto the death that we are willing to fight this thing unto blood if need be to stand for the truth to preach the truth to believe the truth to share the gospel with the world and to fight all the beasts the spiritual beasts that are out there the principalities the powers the rulers of darkness to fight back depression and despair and discouragement to fight back demonic agitations to fight back lies of the enemy to fight back lust and anger and division and strife and and doubt and unbelief and and and just a give up spirit [Music] father i pray strengthen your people lord give them grace and discernment to recognize these attacks coming on their minds and their spirits and to push them back in the name of jesus christ and we thank you god that you give us the victory as we fight the good fight of faith and it's in jesus name we pray amen amen you