Standing Firm: Trusting God’s Faithfulness in Spiritual Warfare - Jeff Ryan - 3TC Podcast - 3/9/2025

The sermon emphasizes the reality that the church is not a place for perfect people but for the broken who need God’s grace. It highlights the dangers of spiritual warfare, reminding us that while the world obsesses over physical security, true protection comes from God. Paul’s message urges believers to prioritize prayer, not just for personal needs but for the advancement of the gospel, as it is the gospel that transforms lives and communities. Spiritual warfare is real, and the best defense is putting on the armor of God and remaining steadfast in prayer. Ultimately, God’s faithfulness is our greatest security, and when we trust in Him and pray for His kingdom to advance, evil retreats, and lives are changed.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the three timbers podcast. We hope this will encourage and uplift you today, as we gather here this morning, I'm always reminded of my perception of church before I understood church and my perception of church was these are the people who have it all together. These are the people who never make mistakes. These are the people who are pretty perfect. I don't know if you have ever felt that way. That's how I felt. And then I came to the church and realized I'm none of those things. And if I'm none of those things, probably a lot of other people are none of those things. And that can somehow be our perception. But the reality is that we are a mess. The reality is that we are imperfect. The reality is that we don't always do the things that we are called and should do. And if that's the only part of the story that we understand, well, that's a pretty bad story. But if we understand the whole story of God's goodness and God's grace and God's love, who Jesus was and why he came, it's a very different story. And so we want to be intentional about confessing to our Heavenly Father our mistakes, our missteps that were a mess, and allowing him We sang that song, oh how he loves me. And as we're singing that song, I don't even think I can comprehend the kind of love that God has for me, because my love can be limited, but his is unlimited. And so what we want to do is come before God confess our sins of omission and commission and allow God's grace to wash over us. Let's come before the Lord in prayer. You Lord, as we come to you, you already know everything that we're thinking. You know everything that we did and you know everything that we didn't do. You know those moments, Lord, where we lack faith. You know those moments, Lord, where we put ourselves first, above you, above others. You know those moments of judgment and those moments of weakness and Lord, as much as as we can't forgive ourselves sometimes, Lord, we must understand that you forgive us when we confess to you, Lord our sin, you love us that much. I pray, Lord that we can unburden ourselves and just give you Lord our sin and our failure. I pray, Lord that we could not just sing these songs but hear the words of oh, how He loves us. And I pray, Lord that as we say these words together from Colossians, one Lord that we don't just say them, but Lord that we hear them. Amen. Let us say these words together, the good news, For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son who loves and whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. Amen. Substance. I hope what I say this morning doesn't make waves. I got more last hour. There'll be more than it'll be coming. And big man, I appreciate that. You know, one of the things that I thought about the other day is that we are a culture that is obsessed with security. And when I really started to think about think of all of the ways in which we are obsessed with security, it's safe. We have end to end encryption on our phones. We have virtual private networks, VPNs. It can go on your computer or on your phones. Almost every internet search engine has a way that they say your data is secured and it won't be shared. We have opportunities to have home alarm systems put on all the windows and doors. We have car alarms that are in place for those who want them. We have things called Light 360 so that you can always know where your family members are, so that you can be safe, and that doesn't even take into account the firefighters and first responders and police and military. We are a culture that is obsessed with security. Why? Because we live in fear. We live in fear of the unknown. We live in fear of so many different things, and even if you have every one of these layers of security and more, I unfortunately, I have some bad news for you that you are still vulnerable. You and I are still vulnerable to be attacked and hacked by the evil one. Spiritual Warfare is real. We don't often think of it that way, but the devil wants to distract, the devil wants to divide, the devil wants to destroy you and your family and the church. I. How do we in a in a world that is obsessed with security, how do we protect ourselves from attacks, from the evil one? We rely on the faithfulness of God, and that's what we're going to talk about. We're going to kick off a sermon series as we celebrate the faithfulness of God, as we enter into the Lenten season, as we move towards Easter, we're going to be looking at the faithfulness of God that ultimately ends on the cross. And before we read our text this morning, will you pray for the words of Scripture, the words that will be spoken this morning? Let's pray, Father, we pray for Your Word that it would be a lamp unto our feet, the Lord, as you have delivered us from the dominion of darkness. Lord, sometimes we find ourselves still in that darkness and our thinking and our living. Lord, I pray that the words that come out of my mouth may be glorified to you. I pray Lord that we wouldn't just hear these words, But Lord, we would do what it says. I pray Lord that you would be lifted up. You would be magnified. You would be glorified. I pray, Lord, that we can clear our hearts and minds of that what hurts us and stresses us. And Lord really be in this moment, Lord, that we would be present here with you through the power of the Holy Spirit to hear Your word. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen, we're going to be in Second Thessalonians, chapter three. Second Thessalonians. Author is Paul to the church at Thessalonica, so I want us to be in chapter three, the first five verses. So if you got your Bibles, please open them up, bring that app up on your phone. But we're going to be reading Second Thessalonians chapter three, verses one through five. Here we go. Paul says, As for other methods, and we'll talk about what he was talking about, brothers and sisters, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored just as it was with you, and pray that we may be delivered from the wicked and evil people. For not everyone has faith, but the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do these things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ perseverance. Amen Thessalonica was the capital of Macedonia. It had about 100,000 or so people living there. It was a place of commerce. It was a place of philosophy. It was a really busy place. And when you read First Thessalonians and now Second Thessalonians, there is a primary theme that connects both of them, and that is about the impending return of Christ. When you read through these two letters, it's about Christ's promise to return. What has happened here is that some of the Thessalonians thought that they missed it. They absolutely thought that they had missed it. I think I told this story late last year, but when I lived in Florida, it was in the age of the space shuttle, and when the space shuttle comes back, there's a sonic boom. And I remember I was a very young Christian then, and one early morning when the space shuttle came back and there was a sonic boom, I thought Jesus returned, and I came running downstairs in my apartment, and I'm like, Oh no, I'm still here. I missed it. Well, that's where the Thessalonians were. They thought that they had missed Christ's return. And so what Paul was doing was he wanted to write them to assure them that they had not missed the return. He wanted to strengthen them because they were and would face persecution for being a follower of Christ. He also wanted to deal with some of those in the church who are not living according to biblical standards, who are not working and relying on others to pay for all of their wants and needs. So Paul was trying to really address a lot of different thing. Because what had happened was the church had fallen into idleness. They believed that Christ had returned and they had missed it. They had stopped spreading the gospel. They had stopped living for Jesus in a manner that would promote people coming to following Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, Paul was proud of where the Thessalonians were as far as their spiritual walk and their growth, but he did not want them to become idle and growing in their faith. He did not want them to fall prey to false rumors that were going around about Christ's return in the midst of all of this, in the midst of the persecution that they may have been facing, Paul says, I want you to pray, even though they were under attack from the evil one, even though Paul was under attack from the evil one, and we'll talk about that in a moment. Paul says, I want you to pray, but I want you to notice what Paul asks for. Prayer For. I. Did not ask for prayer for his circumstances. Paul says, I pray that the gospel moves forward. Why would Paul pray for that? Because Paul knows it is the gospel that can change lives, it is the gospel that can change hearts. It is the gospel that can change perspectives when the gospel moves forward. Communities change peoples change families change when the gospel moves forward. Now Paul is writing this, and he's writing this from Corinth, where he's being persecuted. People in Corinth did not want to hear the gospel. They were resistant to the gospel. Many were anti gospel. We live in a culture like that today. People don't want to hear the good news about Jesus. People don't want to believe the good news about Jesus. And yet, Paul, after being under attack by the evil one, because spiritual warfare is real. The Thessalonians understanding that spiritual warfare was real, Paul says, I want you to pray for the gospel to move forward and the gospel going, what does that mean? That means, if people have a reverence for God's word, that this just isn't a book. This isn't just paper and ink, but this was written by the living God through you and others. God wrote this book. This is not a book that you pick up in a store. This is the Word of God, the Creator of the universe, of heaven and earth. He wrote down his story so that we can understand what he's saying today. Oh, how he loves me. God wants you and I to know he loves you. And he wrote it down. And if you don't have reverence for this book, you cannot have reverence for whom the author and the book is about God. And so what Paul is saying is, I want people to understand and have reverence for the gospel message, reverence for the truth of the gospel. And so what does He ask them to do pray? He says, I want you to pray for the gospel. And here's the really cool thing. So we look at Paul as as an instrument that God was using in Corinth in Thessalonica, and Ephesus in Galatia and all these places, right? Paul was really further down the road in his faith. Then you have some in the Thessalonian church who are struggling a little bit in their faith. They maybe had doubts. They were giving in to rumors. And God says or Paul says, Pray. See, prayer is that intersection where we can all come to experience the faithfulness of God, whether you are a seasoned Christian, that you have been walking with Jesus for many years, or whether you are struggling to figure out your faith, that when you join in prayer for the gospel to move forward. You join with your brothers and sisters in Christ for the kingdoms and see that's how we fight off the attacks of the evil one. We pray for the gospel to move forward. Because when the gospel moves forward, lives change. Paul was in Corinth, but Paul, we know his story. Paul has been in jail. Paul has dealt with loneliness. Paul has dealt with struggles in his life. Paul understood the power of the gospel, and he says, I want the gospel to move forward. Notice. Paul doesn't say, hey, pray for my health. Pray for my safety. Paul says, I want the gospel to move forward. Why would Paul pray for the gospel and move forward? Because lives are changed and God is glorified when the gospel moves forward. And there's a difference between the gospel moving forward and the church moving forward. Like everybody says, I want the church to move forward and grow and grow and grow. And that's great, but it's about the gospel. When the gospel moves forward and the church, the people of God, are praying for the gospel to move forward, everything else takes care of itself, and that's what Paul was talking about. Paul understood it is never about the messenger. It's about the message. Paul understood it's not about Paul. Paul understood it's about God. And when we understand that, making sure that the message is more important than the messenger, we see lives change. You are a messenger. You are an ambassador. As Paul said, you and I are ambassadors for Christ, but it's not about us. It's about the message, not the messenger. And though we may not have all success and people accepting and we present the gospel, it's not about the messenger. It is about the message. And as I was reading this, and I hope that you have had this thought, as we've been talking, do we pray for the gospel to advance, or do we pray for our lives to advance? Do we pray for our marriages to advance? Do we pray for our businesses to advance? Do we pray for our kids and their success to advance? And there's nothing wrong with those prayers. I'm not saying that. It. But do we pray when we have a prayer life? Say, I pray that the gospel would move forward. I don't know if we pray like that. I know that we should praying that the gospel would go forth in our community, that the gospel would go forth in our country, that the gospel would go forth in our world. Because when the gospel advances, lives and communities are changed. And if you and I are not praying for the gospel to advance, who is if the people of God are not intentionally and actively praying for the gospel to advance, then you know, what does advance evil and the attacks of the evil one will continue to advance on us and others in our community, because the people of God are not praying for the gospel to advance in the lives and hearts of other people. And when people begin to have reverence for the gospel, because they see it in our hearts. They see it in our life. They hear it from our lips. They will begin to have reverence for God's Holy Word. And when they have reverence for God's word, and they see and hear and know that we are praying for the gospel to advance, their lives will be changed and our communities will be changed. I think what Paul was talking about, he's acknowledging, hey, I'm in a tough spot. He's writing to the Thessalonians saying, I know you're in a tough spot, and it would be easy just to pray for for us, but let's pray for the gospel. Let's pray for the gospel to move forward. Let's pray that the gospel will get into the hearts of people and of students and of neighbors. That's what Paul was talking about, even in the midst and look, we are called to pray for one another, and we are called to come before God, to pray to Him. But what Paul is saying is, don't get so lost in praying for yourself and praying for others that you forget to pray for the gospel because we are constantly under attack. The evil one, like I said, he wants to divide, distract and destroy our lives, our marriages, everything. But when the gospel advances, evil retreats. But when the people of God are not praying for the gospel to advance, then evil will advance. Prayer is a participatory activity. It's not one of those things that you sit on the sidelines. We are called to pray often, always, all the time. We are called not to be a spectator in prayer. So often people say, Well, I don't know what to pray about. Pray for the gospel to advance. Pray for the gospel to advance. We need as the church and the church, as we've said, it's not a building, it's the people of God, we are called to actively pray for the gospel to advance. And if we are all participating in that, guess what? The Gospel advance. But if we are participating in that, then evil advance. Look, we're all the same. We can look at what's going on in the world and know what the world is going on. How do we make this better? The Gospel does. Cuz the gospel points to Jesus. And so that's what Paul was saying here. Spiritual Warfare is real in sports. There's a saying the best offense is a good defense. Our best defense to defeat. The spiritual warfare that you and I face every day is prayer. And if you don't believe me, look at the life of Jesus. I want you to go as we get ready to move towards Easter the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knew what was coming. The Devil was at work and had been at work. Jesus was under attack. No time in human history has there ever been a greater moment of spiritual warfare than what Jesus was going through, from the garden to the cross, under constant attack. But listen to what Jesus did in that moment from Luke 22 he Jesus withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, the disciples knelt down and prayed, Father, if your will take this cup from me, yet not my will, but Your will be done. Jesus was saying, I pray that the gospel moves forward, even if it costs me and it cost him everything. See, the way that you and I can battle spiritual warfare is to pray for God's will and what is God's will. The Gospel advances with the gospel advances, evil retreats. But if we are not praying for that, then evil. Gain ground, if you were with us last week when we started our practicing the way, course, one of the statistics that was up there, I think it was something like 68 69% of people consider themselves Christians, and then you show that only 4% of people are actively living a biblical life of apprenticeship. Why is that? I think one of the reasons is that the gospel is not moving forward. It's been replaced by a social gospel. It's been been praised by a prosperity gospel, with either our gospels, because the church has stopped praying for the gospel to advance. We want the church to advance. We want the denomination to advance. We want the finances to advance, but all those things to advance. But do we want the gospel to advance? Spiritual Warfare is real, and it comes in many forms. Paul talked about this to the church in Ephesus, and I want to read to you, and I want you to really hear these words. I think we'll have them up on the screen. I want you to hear the words that Paul told the church in Ephesus about sports, spiritual warfare. And we're going to particularly look at verse 18. He says this, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly realms. Let me stop there for a second. Know your enemy. Know your enemy. We are not each other's enemies. Other people are not our enemies, other agencies, other whatever those are not our enemies. Our enemy is the evil one. So often we want to make something or someone else our enemy. Know who your enemy is. Your enemy is the evil one he is trying to distract and divide and destroy and demoralize us. So let's know our enemy. Verse 14. Verse 13, therefore put on the full armor of God. So Paul's saying it's not that you are going to escape spiritual warfare. It's coming. We can try to run, we can try to hide, we can try to avoid it. We're all we're going to have a battle. So Paul says, Alright, let's get ready, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you'll be able to stand your ground. After you've done everything to stand. Stand firm. Then with the belt of truth as reverence for God's word Bucha around your waist, the breastplate of righteousness protects your heart with the gospel and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, you're ready. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, the only offensive weapon here which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, protect your heart, protect your mind. Look at verse 18 and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert always. Keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Prayer. We need to be praying. We need to be praying that the gospel protects our heart, protects our minds, protects our eyes protects everything. Paul was telling the church in Ephesus, as he's dealing here at Thessalonica, that spiritual warfare is real. The devil is coming for you. He's coming for me. He's coming for the church. And we protect ourselves through praying and praying that the gospel advances in our lives and the lives of others and in our community, we need to be encouraging one another by praying that the gospel would be advancing. Now, when we hear those words, evil, the evil one, right, we think of the the red devil with the long thing and the pitch point. I have a pitch clerk over there that we could have brought out. It is, it is people who are hostile to the gospel. It is people who go out of their way to make sure that gospel cannot advance. They don't even know that they're being used in that way. And so we have to understand that we're going to be attacked. And sometimes you say, Okay, I'm praying for this, I'm praying for that. I'm praying for the gospel, but I'm still going through difficult times. Why does God allow me to suffer through spiritual warfare? I wish I consider and tell you I know, but God has a purpose. He's using it in some way to refine us. We can take solace in the fact that God will visit justice on those who perpetrate evil, against his Pilate, against his people, and ultimately, we can have hope that our future is secure with Christ, no matter what happens, no matter what attacks come our way. We know how the story ends. We know how it ends. I think it's important that we understand that in End Times. That the devil will lead a rebellion. Right? The rebellion will come, and the rebellion will be scary. And you can argue that the Rebellion has begun, you can argue that it hasn't, I think it's begun. But here's the thing, when Jesus returns, He will put down the rebellion. He will end it once and for all, because the gospel is the word of God. The Gospel is what changes people, because God's faithful. There is nothing in this book that isn't true, nothing, everything God promised that would happen happened, and everything that is yet to happen will happen when God spoke through the prophets, when God said this was going to happen, it happened in Genesis 315 when God said, I will put enmity between you and the wind and offspring. That's Jesus that happened. And when Jesus says, I'm coming back, he's coming back. When Jesus says he'll defeat the evil one and throw him in the lake of fire, he will do it. We need to trust the faithfulness of God. Listen to what Paul said earlier in Second Thessalonians, two verses, 16 and 17. May our Lord, Jesus, Christ Himself and God, our Father, who loved us and by His grace, gave us eternal encouragement and good hope encourage your heart and strengthen you every day. Good demon. Word friends. I want us to be encouraged, because I know that so many of us feel like we're under attack. Maybe it's our thought life, maybe it's our relationships, maybe it's our health, maybe it's our our family situation, whatever it may be, we all know what it feels like to be under attack, but what Paul saying is, be encouraged. Be encouraged through prayer that people are praying for you as you pray, be encouraged that people are praying for the gospel to advance, because that will change lives. Paul is saying, Be bold. Be bold. Live for Christ. Think of all of the security systems that we trust every day with our personal information and identity. When you text, you pray that it's not hacked. When you log online, you pray that somebody doesn't gain access to your bank account. You You pray that your security system on your home, protects your family, protects your car. We trust the security that our local law enforcement and our military give us. We trust all of those and we don't know make so we don't know all of the people, but we know God. So we need to trust God with our eternal security. We need to trust God that He will protect us, because God is faithful in all things, but we have to allow him to be able to protect us. And our greatest weapon against attacks from the evil one is not our intellect. Is prayer. Prayer, a commitment to prayer, will make evil retreat. And you know right now, and I sometimes can't even understand this, that right now in heaven, Jesus is praying for you. He is interceding intercessory prayer. He is praying for you right now, even if you don't know what you need right now, Jesus is praying before the Father for you, your name, your situation, your family, your temptations, your attacks, your frustrations, he is praying for you. That has to be a sense of encouragement for us. One of the reasons why we hold hands when we pray at the end of each service is so that we know we're not alone, that we've got brothers and sisters in Christ who are praying for us, who are praying with us as we pray for the gospel, to admit it makes us one that we don't have to feel like we're going through something alone, that you can't fight an army by yourself. We can't beat the devil by ourselves. But when the people of God come together in prayer, evil will retreat. We need to have faith in God's faithfulness. May say that again, we need to have faith in God's faithfulness to protect us. What happens when we do that? Persistent prayer leads to spiritual growth. Here's a verse if you got a pen or you got on your phone, here's a great verse that you can memorize that when you feel spiritually attacked, whether that's mentally or any other way. I want you to hear this verse, Psalm 18, two, in fact, why don't we read this psalm together? Ready? The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer, My God is my rock, and whom I take ready, my shield and my lord of salvation, my sorrow. That's a great verse just to write down have on your phone that when you feel. Under attack. Read that verse. I mean, look at that verse. It's so rich. He's our rock, our fortress, our deliverer. I take refuge. He's my shield, my strong think about all of those ways that God is described, that when you are stressed out, filled with anxiety because you're under spiritual attack, you can remember that. And I love how Paul adds this text. He said, I'm going to pray for you church at Thessalonica. I'm going to pray that God, that the spirit, directs you into God's love and Christ's perseverance need to be directed into God's love. What a great safe place to be in Christ's perseverance to have that character. Paul obviously talked a lot about spiritual warfare, and I love what he wrote at the end of his life to young Timothy. There's something to be said for having on through an experience, being able to look back and pass on what you have learned to other people. And you know we always talk about a testimony. Before you have a testimony, you have to have a test. And sometimes after being tested, our testimony is more powerful. Here's what Paul said to young Timothy in Second Timothy, he says at my first offense, no one came to my support. Everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength so that through me the message might fully be proclaimed, and all the Gentiles vineyard and I was delivered from the lion's mouth, the Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen, Paul says, I know what it's like to be abandoned. I know what it's like to be fighting a battle alone, but I also know what it's like still, that God is with me and God is for me. Paul there was celebrating the faithfulness of God to protect him. Look, it's important to have that end to end encryption on your phone. VPNs are a good idea. House alarms are good. Car alarms are good life 360 That's good, right? We're thankful for our first responders, our our military, but those are all good things, and we should trust them. But who are you trusting to protect you from the spiritual attacks of the evil one, God? And how are you getting that protection, praying that the gospel moves forward. Amen. Let's pray together, father. I thank you for your for your word, and Lord, I know that so many of us are under spiritual attack right now, Lord, whether it is through our thoughts, whether it's through fear, anxiety, whether it's through strained relationships, strange finances, health issues, temptation, Lord, whatever it may be, Lord, we know that our spiritual warfare is real and Lord, we know that we're not alone. We know Lord that we can trust in your faithfulness. We can celebrate your faithless. You are our rock, our refuge, our stronghold. I pray, Lord, right now for anybody in here who says, Man, that's me. I am. I am under spiritual attack, and I have been and I feel so alone, Lord, that they would one day be able to say, as Paul did, that the Lord was with me. The Lord did abandon me, father. I pray that we would sing this song Lord and just know Lord that You love us. You are with us, and you will never leave us nor forsake us. Amen. Thank you for joining us. For more information about three timbers, church, ministries and services. Visit three timbers.org. We would love for you to join us in person you.