Grace Thoughts

Tim Kelley: God loves you.

Guest (Male): Hello friends. Welcome to Grace Talks, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelly. Grace Talks has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelly.

Tim Kelley: There's no mystery that the child of God is born again. As we've said many times, I taught many times in different venues, born again into a warfare. Some people will call it spiritual warfare. I'll call it spiritual warfare. The distance of personal adversary, a devil. Let me just balance this right off the bat. I'm not a a devil chaser. I'm not a demon chaser. I'm not looking for devils underneath the pillows and I'm not a Flip Wilson guy. The devil made me do it. Remember remember Flip? You know, some of you are way before your time, but but uh Flip Well, I'm not one of those type of guys.

I'm very practical in my approach to spiritual warfare and and how I I hope that I understand spiritual warfare, but I'm also not ignorant of his devices. I'm also not ignorant that we have an adversary and there is a devil and there is there are things called demons in the scriptures as as prevalent and clear as there is the Savior and angels and and and so we have this battlefield. Now, I see this battlefield scripturally really on three fronts. You can maybe add some there if you wanted to, but I think it comes under the umbrella first of all, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I wanted to find these cuz they're important. What's the flesh? The battlefield of the flesh? Well, in my understanding and what I like to teach through the years, the flesh Let me back up a little bit. When God created Adam and Eve, he breathed into Adam and Eve a certain humanity. Inside his humanity, we have I have I've taught this many times. If you knew this, may be new to you, but those who have been here have heard me talk about this in the past. Inside me at my birth, I have a certain need base.

I have a need for love. Who rather be loved than hated? We all do. I have a need for security, for affirmation, for acceptance, for safety. All those things and you can maybe add a few more into there. I have a need for those things and and and God that's not wrong. Those things aren't wrong. God made me that way. However, before sin came into the human race, those needs were met by Christ. They were met by God himself. My need for affirmation was met by my relationship with God. Adam and Eve was met by their walk with God.

Their need for a security was all there in the Garden of Eden. Their need for acceptance was all there in the Garden of Eden. So, all those basic human needs which make us human and God's the one that made us human, okay? They remain with us and when sin came into the human race, they those needs didn't go away, but what did change was man's relationship with God. In a sense, when they were thrust out of the garden, there was a ceiling that was put over man and their walk with God. So, they no longer could go to him as they used to for their love, acceptance, affirmation, approbation, all those different basic human needs, safety, security that we have.

And you can add your whole list of those human needs if you'd like. So, what happened is from this upward glance, we went to a horizontal glance. Adam looked at only other provision he had on earth, Eve, and Eve looked at Adam. As we said a few weeks back, then God created a marriage counselor because that was the next thing they needed, was counsel. Eve was incapable of meeting all of Adam's needs. She could probably meet some of them. Adam was incapable of meeting all of Eve's needs and that remained that way right up until the cross where Jesus Christ blew the lid off man's relationships with God again.

It was no longer legal. It was gracious. So, what's the flesh? The flesh is me trying to meet my own needs through my own strength. Our flesh is so sophisticated, so subtle, so indiscernible most of the time, we don't even know it's functioning until we become aware of it. We talked a few weeks ago in marriage. We talked about manipulation. It's all part of the flesh. I'm going to I'm going to position my husband or my wife, my parents, my children, do something. I'm going to I'm going to position them to put them in a place where they meet this certain human need that I have.

And if they if they don't do a good job putting them in that place, I'll keep maneuvering them emotionally, verbally, psychologically. I don't even know I'm doing it. But by gosh, I have these needs and you're going to meet them. So, the flesh, the devil loves the flesh because it's present. We acknowledge it at least subtly and subconsciously. He uses the flesh as a launching pad for all sorts of warfare in our lives. Then we have obviously the devil. He's just the big guy. Um the devil doesn't really think much of you. He thinks he hates God.

And because God loves you, he doesn't like you. But you're like not liked by default. I don't think he really care too much about you um if he didn't despise God and want to usurp God's throne. He hates God, thus he hates us. He lost the battle of the heavens. So, now he battles God for the earth, you being the battleground. Then we have the world. And this is really where I want to launch into the this morning's message. Satan, we know, second Corinthians 4 4 is the president of the world system. We know in John 12 24, I believe it is, or John 12 31 it is.

John 12 31, he's the prince of this age. We know that this age that he referred about is evil in Galatians 1 verse 4. We know that same age lies in infectious wickedness. First John 5 19 to be part of that verse. In other words, it's a it's an evil that wants to draw other people into it, this world system. We know that in Ephesians 2 2, he is the prince and the power of the air. And that word air there in the Greek New Testament is a word that is different words for air. Talking about different strata.

That particular word refers to the air right around planet earth, what you are currently breathing in and exhaling in. That's He's the prince and power of that air. The devil is not on the moon unless of course you go there and he may follow you. He's the prince and power of this air. Trench, an old scholar 150 200 years ago, I lose track of really how old he was, but he said he defined it this way, talking about the world system. The the word is cosmos or cosmos, however you want to say it. All the floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes, impulses, aims, aspirations at any current time in the world which it may be impossible to seize and accurately define, but that which constitutes a most real and effective power Look at that.

Being the moral or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of our lives we inhale again inevitably to exhale. That's the world system. You live here and it's programmed specifically. It it it gets to us through the media, through the music, through the educational system, through the books we read, what we avail ourselves to. It's the world system. It's the very system that runs the world. Now, as we say this at many times, what I face in the warfare of the world in America and what a Iraqi Christian faces in the warfare of the world in Iraq are two very different things.

In the Middle East right now, we've said recently that there are 7,100 Christians were have been killed in 2015. 7,100 Christians killed in 2015, last year, because they were Christians. I went to Starbucks this morning early and I got my my morning americano and my Sunday blueberry scone, the only time I cheat all week. My blueberry scone warm to perfection. And and I got my scone and and I didn't feel the least bit threatened. I felt very free driving down the road. But in Iraq or the Sudan or Somalia or Syria or other places where God's children are, they face a whole different persecution or a whole different world system.

They're not working They're not worried about their social security in the next election. They're worried about surviving. So, what I face in America and what they face in other parts of the world, the world system, the cosmos is different. That's my whole point. It's different. But we live here. What do we face? Well, I think it's probably narrowed down to two things. They're going to be almost the same thing is distractions and pursuits. These distractions of our life and the things that we pursue. Sometimes I think our Christian life is more American than it is actual Christian.

Sometimes I think we think more American than actually Christian. Satan is a master of marginalizing people's faith, especially in our nation. Persecution has a tendency to make faith rise to the top. Prosperity has a tendency to to take faith and just subdue it. We have what we call a when-then life. What do I mean by a when-then life? I'll give you an illustration. It's a high-tech, very expensive illustration cuz we don't spare any expense here at Grace Connection. All right. This is the when-then life right here. I'm not a rabbit. Here it is. When I get this carrot, then I'll be content.

Do you know what I'm saying? You know the carrot before the horse? You put the carrot in front of the horse and the horse chases the carrot around. Um what they used to get the the ox and the tread the the um oat because they'd put food down in front of the ox and just keep eating it, going around in a circle, moving the stone. So, this is what we have. This is what an American what we face in America. I have a when-then. When I get a little bit more wealthy or when I I finally attain this carrot and the funny thing is I'm I'm I almost got it.

I I got it. And we chase this carrot and sometimes, my friends, I'm going back and forth on the stage, but sometimes we chase this carrot for 50 years and we never get the carrot. I'm going to talk about getting the carrot soon. And so we chase this thing and this is what I say, when I get that carrot, then I'll have contentment. Now, what could this carrot carrot be? Numerous things. Another high-tech Hopefully this thing will So, it's broken three times. Here we go. Up. When I get more money, then I 'm going to be happy.

I 'll be content. When I get more, I'll be secure. I just need to get more. I talked to these folks um numerous times and people I know in my life circle, they would have this when I had certain this certain amount of financial security, then I'll feel content with my financial security. And I watched them all of a sudden they get And then a year later they're they're chasing it again. No, it wasn't quite enough like I thought it was and they keep chasing it and chasing it. When then When I get more money, then I'll feel secure.

Let me say this. Prosperity has no power to make us happy. Poverty has no power to keep us from happiness. Neither one of those things can touch it, my friends. Now, I got something even more regular than that. Let me Just take me a while. I have to go fishing over here. Bear with me. This is um this is a person. This is This represents a relationship. This was actually I asked my daughter um Sadie, honey, can you get me a doll? She she only has um 75 to 100 of them. I 'm not sure how many she has.

So, she gets me of course Anna from Frozen. Here you go. She actually sings Frozen songs too, which she's not, which it's good because she's really distracting when she does that. So, we look at we look at this. If I have that perfect person that could be Kristoff, a guy, or it can be a girl. This guy has abs. Look at that. And um and and Oh, it can be Oh, it can be a girl. And we chase and we chase this person. Now, I want this person. I want to look like them. Maybe if I lose 35 more pounds, I'll feel good about myself.

My self-esteem will change if I get skinnier and I look more like Anna or Elsa or let it go, whatever. And um and and so or if I can just have a relationship, I wouldn't have to deal with um my my loneliness so and all it's always right in front of me. Or if this person would just change a little bit just a little okay a lot. If they would just change a lot, I would be so much happier if they would If my husband was just a little bit more sensitive and, you know, I mean, yeah, we we we are are I'm sensitive, really sensitive.

And um and then and then All my wife is a little bit more affectionate or if my if they pay a little bit more attention over just had a little bit more time or we had another kid or two, whatever it is, I would find my level of satisfaction. That thing just dangles in front of me. Now, this is what's a little scary sometimes cuz this is what happens when we have that carrot in front of us. Sometimes I catch it. I got the carrot. Woohoo! But the problem is I still don't have fulfillment.