Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub with Pastor Jeff Ministries. On today's program, Pastor Jeff continues his message, Stay in the Fight from the series Waging War, showing you why standing strong in your spiritual battles begins with embracing your new identity in Christ.

We're committed to equipping you with solid biblical truth, so you can live boldly for Jesus. Visit pastorjeff.com for more resources to help strengthen your walk. And be sure to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly email devotionals for encouragement sent straight to your inbox every week. And now, here's Pastor Jeff with today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: So what I want to do is highlight four ways to stay in the fight. Four ways to stay in the fight. Four ways to persevere when you feel like, "Ah, I don't know, I've given enough to God, I've given enough to His mission, I've given enough to church. I don't know." Here's what you need to do.

Notice what he says. He says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." "Finally" means from now on. It means from this point forward. Some of you are not believers and you need to give your life to Christ today. Many of you today are believers, but you haven't been in the mission for a variety of reasons. Either you've been distracted by pain or discouragement or frustration or all sorts of different things, or you've been having a habitual sin problem in some way and you feel like, "I'm not worthy to do this." Here's what he says: "From now on." Like, it starts today. Don't wallow in your past, don't wallow about where you've been, but from now on, here's what he says.

Number one: Champion your new identity. Champion your new identity. He says, "Finally, from now on, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might." One of the reasons that you're so discouraged is you've been trying to live out of your own strength. You cannot live the Christian life apart from Christ, and you cannot live the Christian life apart from other people. It's impossible.

You can't isolate from God and other people and expect to grow in Christ. You can't expect to stay on mission apart from other people. You can't. When I hear people like, "I'm not going to go to church, I'm just going to be the church," I'm like, you're nothing. If you're not engaged with other people that are doing the work and you're not submitting to leadership to get the work done, you're not. It just doesn't work. I've never seen someone like that.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. It means this: Be resolute in your identity. It means when you come to Christ, here's the great news: You were dead, you were rebelling, you were a sinner, you were all these things, but now in Christ, you've been born again. You've been made new. Behold, all the old has passed away; behold, all things have been made new. You've been given a new identity. You've been given a new purpose. And by the way, you've been given a new name. You're not a sinner that's filthy and rotten and horrible; you're a saint. You're God's holy person. You're one that He has purpose for, that He set on the planet.

And here's why this is so important: Many Christians, even if they know about identity, don't live out their identity. That's why in Brave, the R stands for being resolute in our identity. I'm preaching to your identity; I'm not preaching to your behavior. Every single one of us this week has behavior we wish we could rewind and erase and do differently all the time. I'm preaching to your identity. I'm preaching to who Christ says you are. And what the Bible says is that the moment you trust Christ, you've been given a new identity. And when you start speaking that and you start living that, your life will change.

Now think about some of the things the Bible says. I'm not going to give you a hundred of them here, but I'll give you a couple. This is what you are in Christ. I'll use it first person: I am a child of God. I am the salt of the earth. I am the light of the world. I am reconciled to God. I am in peace in my relationship with Him. I am free from the vicious cycle of sin and death. I am indwelled by His Holy Spirit. I am a joint-heir with Christ. I am seated in the heavenly realms in Christ. I am already washed, sanctified, and justified by the blood of Jesus. I am bought with a price, and so on and so forth.

Now why is that so important? Because anytime you look in the mirror, you won't feel like that. No matter how mature you are in Christ, you won't feel like that. "I am pure. I am holy. I am good." Why? Because of who I am in Christ. The mystery of the gospel is Christ in us, the hope of glory. Because Christ is in me, all the things true of Christ are true of me.

And here's what most Christians think: Because they thought they were neutral before they came to Christ, they think it's still neutral after they come to Christ. Friends, I didn't sin the ways I sinned until after I became a Christian. Once I crossed the line, I was a good religious kid. Now all of a sudden, I was tempted in ways I'd never been tempted before and failed repeatedly. And then I thought to myself, "Well, I'm not even a Christian because before I became a Christian, I was like a better person than after I became a Christian."

But the reason is I didn't know my identity. I didn't realize I'd been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. And I didn't realize that there were weapons that I needed to fight with now, and I didn't realize that I had to stand on my identity. And when I stopped standing on my behavior and started standing on my identity, things began to change.

Let me explain. Let's make it real this morning. Some of you struggle with something. It can be depression, it can be some emotional issue, anxiety, whatever. It can be a habit or hang-up. It can be porn, it can be alcoholism, it can be drugs, it can be whatever. It can be the way you treat people. It can be your anger. It can be that you swear. And here's what we tend to do when we think the world's neutral: "I heard that message; I'm going to work on that. I'm going to try harder." How's it working for you? Things go from bad to worse when you try to work on them. "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might" is me rooting myself in my identity.

Instead of saying, "Lord, I can't believe I looked at porn again. Lord, I can't believe I got drunk again. Lord, I can't believe I did this again. Lord, I can't believe I got angry like that again. Lord, I can't believe... I'm going to try harder." The devil smiles every time you say you're going to try harder because he's not afraid of you, but he's afraid of Christ in you.

But when you struggle with something and you go over here and you begin to say, "Lord, forgive me. I don't want to live like that. Lord, teach me to love what You love and teach me to hate what You hate, because I want to live with You. I don't want to ever get caught up and bound in that sin that dragged me off. Lord, I know I'm forgiven, and I know I'm holy, and I know I'm righteous. Help my behavior catch up with my identity." Every time I've struggled with anything and I've rested in my identity, my behavior eventually catches up. Every time I've tried to change my behavior, it goes from bad to worse, or I have to hide it.

And there's a number of people, men, I'll talk to you, there's a number of you guys that aren't involved in mission for Jesus outside the church or inside the church because you're steeped in sin of porn, and you've been trying to get free from it forever. You go to conference after conference and group after group, and it goes from bad to worse. And here's why: Because you're fighting the wrong battle, and Satan loves it.

Instead of trying to fight to change, why don't you come over here and say, "Lord, I know I'm pure. You made me pure when You forgave all my sins. And I am pure, and I want to live pure, and I want to love purity. Lord, teach me to look at the right things and teach me to be satisfied in who I am in You and all these things. Lord, take that garbage away. Teach me to love what You love, teach me to hate what You hate, teach me to love women the way You love women, and teach me to hate the way other men do when they don't do it that way." When you live that way, it'll go away. There is no sin that has power over you unless you give it to them. Amen?

Which means whenever you come to church, you don't have to be ashamed to come to church. We've all had behaviors this week we'd be ashamed to put on the screen or come up here and testify to. Every one of us has. I have, and you have. But we don't come here to put our behavior on display; we come here to put Jesus Christ on display. We come here to remind ourselves of who we are. We come here to remind ourselves that our behavior will catch up if we continue to worship Jesus and champion our identity.

And we get strength from Christ. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul said he rejoiced in his weakness, for where I am weak, there He is strong. When I relinquish my power and say, "God, You fight that battle, because I can't do it anymore," that's when Satan has no power. The reason most of us don't change is we keep making commitments as to what our strength is and how we're going to get better. And every time we do that, you can picture the enemy in the corner, "Ha ha ha, keep trying. You'll never change." And I love it because now you're going to get discouraged, then you're going to blame God, and it's all your fault because you won't let God work through you.

Friends, any sin that you've sinned, welcome. The cross of Jesus is bigger than that. His blood covers that; His blood cleanses that. But now that He has, don't wallow in it forever. Claim it. Speak it. When you start speaking about who you are and you start living that way, "I live with God's favor. I'm blessed, I'm holy, I'm righteous, I'm good." My behavior doesn't always look that way, but it's catching up. It's a process of sanctification until I meet Jesus when it'll be perfectly aligned.

But I'm done wallowing in my sin. I'm done talking about, "I'm terrible, I'm a loser, I'm this." I did that for years; it never got me anywhere. And some of you need to stop blaming yourself and wallowing in your sin and say, "Lord, the reason it's so miserable is I haven't let You work in and through me. I'm going to champion my new identity. Will You come show me that I actually am that? Will You teach me to love what You love, will You teach me to hate what You hate, will You teach me to live how You want me to live, and I'll do whatever You show me?" I promise you, in a matter of weeks, you'll be in a different place.

Standing firm on the Lord. So be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. How powerful is the Lord? He created everything out of nothing; He can handle your problem. Amen? So from now on, champion your new identity. When you're counseling people, speak to their identity. When you're encouraging people, speak to their identity.

One of the tricks the enemy plays when people are struggling with stuff, we point out, "Well, here's what you did wrong, and here's what you did, try harder." All that does is exacerbate the problem. Here's what you did wrong, here's why you're doing it wrong: Because you're not letting God lead in that situation. Here's who God says you are. Here's how God wants you to live. Do you want to live the way God wants you to live? Start claiming your identity and start moving on from your past. Amen?

So from now on, from this point forward, you champion your new identity. Number two is this: From now on, choose to oppose darkness. From now on, choose to oppose darkness. Notice what he says: "Put on the full armor of God." We're going to talk about the pieces of armor in the coming weeks, but put it all on. You don't just need one piece. This spiritual battle requires the fullness of everything that you're going to need for the mission God's called you to.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries. In today's message, Stay in the Fight from the series Waging War, shows you why staying in the fight begins with embracing your new identity in Christ and depending on His power.

We'll return to Pastor Jeff shortly. But first, when you place your faith in Jesus, you get more than a fresh start; you get a brand new life. As scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, you become a new creation. To help you grow deeper in that truth, Pastor Jeff's written a powerful booklet called "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission." This encouraging resource will help you understand who you are in Christ and how God calls you to live boldly for Him in a world that desperately needs the gospel. We'd love to send it to you as a thank you for your gift to help share God's word through Pastor Jeff Ministries. Just visit pastorjeff.com to request your copy today. Now, let's return to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's teaching.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: We're going to talk about the pieces of armor in the coming weeks, but put it all on. You don't just need one piece. This spiritual battle requires the fullness of everything that you're going to need for the missions God's called you to. So that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

What are the schemes of the devil? The schemes of the devil are his methods of getting to you. He has game film on every single one of us. He knows exactly what he needs to lob in your way, with who needs to say it, the tone they need to say it with, or the circumstance needs to happen, just to get you all riled up. He's got all sorts of game film on you. He's got game film on our church of how to get under our skin as a church. He's got game film on Denver, he's got game film on Colorado, he's got game film on the United States and every other nation around the world. He knows how to do it individually, he knows how to do it corporately. He's always at work. It's never neutral for him.

If you're not saved, he's constantly working all the time to keep you from knowing Jesus. He doesn't care if you're religious, irreligious, good, bad, doesn't matter; he just doesn't want you in Christ. If you've met Christ, he's constantly at work. He doesn't take vacations, he doesn't take a break, just to get you distracted from knowing and growing in Christ and staying on mission for Christ. He does everything just to get you to feel bad about yourself and then blame God for how bad your life is. He's always at work.

So if we're going to choose to champion our identity, then we've got to do this too: We've got to choose to oppose darkness. Now notice what it says. So that you'll be able to do what? Stand firm. Stand firm against the schemes of the devil. The devil is alive; we'll talk about him in a minute. He's alive, he's coming after you. Most of us picture this: Because we don't think of this in the context of mission, because so often this Ephesians 6 has been taught in the context of a local church where everything's good, "stand firm therefore." Here's how we think: "I had a hard week, but I've got to stand firm. You know, I'm standing firm, I've got to stand here. I'm just a passive person." That's not what he's saying.

Stand firm means this: You choose whose side you're going to be on. You choose: Are you going to live for Jesus or are you not? Pick a side. Pick a side. When Jesus writes a book to the... or when Jesus in the book of Revelation writes a letter to the church in Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3, He says to them, He goes, "Listen, I wish you were hot or cold, but you're neither one. You're lukewarm, and I'm about ready to vomit you out of My mouth." What was He saying? Pick a side. Quit wallowing in neutrality. Be for Me or against Me; quit staying in the middle. I hate that. Let people... I mean, if I've saved you and you have a new identity, then get on this side and stay here and start working with Me. Choose it. That's what it means to stand firm.

And what do we choose to do? We choose to oppose the darkness. When you're in spiritual battle, you're opposing the darkness. It's an aggressive, hostile act against that which is wicked. That's what it means. It means when we see things in ourselves and in others that are wicked, we highlight them. We point them out, we expose them, and we oppose them. We expose and oppose the darkness. That's what we do. And every time you try to expose the darkness and tell people here's what's really going on, you will have a counterattack. You will feel something in your life that goes a different way. Choose a side.

There's so many characters in the Bible we love. Did John the Baptist choose a side? Or did he say, "Well, you know, what's good for you is good for you, but I would never do that. I would never sleep around with somebody else's wife, but that's your business"? No, he told the king, "What you're doing is wrong. God hates it. You need to repent. Stop."

Did Jesus oppose darkness, or did He pick a side? Jesus told the truth. Jesus loved everybody. There wasn't a person on the planet Jesus didn't love because He created them all, but read through Matthew 23. He talked to the religious leaders of the day: "You sons of hell. You children of the devil. You whitewashed tombs; you clean the outside to look good, but inside you're full of wickedness and dead man's bones. You sons of hell, you travel the world over to win a single convert, and when you do, you make them twice as much of a son of hell as you are." Did He pick a side?

Where do we get this idea that being with Jesus means just love everybody and just associate with everybody and make sure everybody's happy with you? That's not Christianity. That's a lie. Christians stand firm on the truth and they live it out. Amen? Pick a side. Expose darkness, oppose darkness.

You say, "Well, how do I do that individually?" When you sin, you participate in darkness. Every time you say to yourself, "Ah, it's not a big deal, nobody's going to know about that, nobody needs to know about that, I would never share that at church but nobody needs to know," every time you do that, you're saying, "I'm crossing the line. I want to go back." When you're neutral, you participate in darkness.

As parents, we know this intuitively. We must choose to oppose darkness. You must choose it. When we talk about confronting and correcting the behavior of our children, why do we do that? It's because we love them. It's not because we hate them. We love them; we want them to change. If they're disrespectful or they're disobedient or they're doing something, we tell them what we're doing not because we hate them; we're telling them because we love them and we want them to grow and be the fullness of what God created them.

Or how about this? I just got back from vacation. I'll make it personal. You've been to the beach lately? Seen how people dress? Some of the women, I saw... it was like dental floss and a fig leaf for the bathing suit. It's disgusting; it's gross. Why can't we tell people that? Not because I don't want to look at you, which I don't want to look at you and it's wrong and it is, but it's not good for your soul.

When I'm watching an eight-year-old boy, or one of my kids tells me, "Dad, an eight-year-old boy was taking pictures of his mom like that," it's disgusting. It's wrong. Girls, listen to me. If you have daddies at home that tell you how to dress better, listen to them. They know what in the world they're talking about. Amen?

But it's not just kids, right? We grow up and we think we grow out of correction. But what about when a friend lies or lacks integrity? Or what about when a coworker is heading down the wrong path? Or what about when a person who says they love Christ is steeped in sin? Can we not expose that and oppose that? Not because we hate the person, but because we love them and we see where that ends up.

I mean, we hear about this great apostasy that's coming; that's what the Bible teaches. You know what apostasy means? Literally, it means to choose to fight for the other side at the last minute. That's what apostasy is. It's saying, "I'm on Team Jesus," I profess that, but at the last minute, I'm going to fight against everything that I was for. That's apostasy.

Friends, here's what people say in church: "Well, don't judge lest you be judged." Yeah, read through the Bible. Judgment begins at the household of God. We're called to judge each other. You say, "Well, that sounds rude." It doesn't. You want me to be judged, don't you? If I were having an adulterous affair, which I'm not, by the way, but if I were, would you not want me to be judged? Would you not want discipline to come down on me? Would you not want me to repent? Or would you want me to stand up here and say, "Well, my personal life's my personal life, but I'm still a good preacher"? Because that's what some churches do. And it's garbage, and it's wrong.

So we judge each other. Not because we don't love each other, but because we do. So as the veil gets pulled back, we judge things. That's why from here, I preach biblical authority, not just here so I get applause, but out there because we care about the people that are steeped in the sins. We as a church have lost all biblical authority because we're afraid to tell people that the way that they're going is wrong.

I remember when I taught through the book of Genesis and had leaders in our church leave because they said, "If you teach that, I'm not going to come back here," which only gave me more fervency to preach it hard. Because I'm not going to punt or change the Word of God to make you feel comfortable because I have to answer to God for what I say. So if when you're studying the book of Genesis, you learn that God's the only eyewitness to creation as to when it happened and how it happened, then we better pay attention to what He says.

And if God said He created the world in six days and rested on the seventh, that's just what I believe. If you don't, it's because you don't believe God. God said in the first chapter He created two genders, male and female. God said in the first chapter marriage is between a man and a woman; there is no other marriage. God said in the first chapter there's only one race. I mean, you can offend everybody with Genesis chapter 1 in the world.

So when we're talking about the LGBTQ, or we're talking about Black Lives Matter, or we're talking about all these organizations and different things that oppose God, why am I opposing it? Because I don't like people that are steeped in that sin? No, it's because I love them enough to know if you stay on that road, you will spend an eternity apart from Christ in hell, and Jesus died for you and loves you and there's a way out. He can free you from your sin. That's the gospel.

It's loving to correct behavior. It means if I'm going all in with Jesus, it means my attitudes towards Him, my speech, my speech against the darkness, my behavior corresponding, it all has to line up. The devil's put his hands everywhere in our society. He wants... he knows that the world is the Lord's and everything in it, so he wants to have a hand in everything. He wants to have a hand in how we view gender and marriage and life and science and history and eternity, but God's already ruled on what happens. God's already shown us everything that's true. So anything that doesn't align with this book, we expose and oppose, and we're hostile towards it. Not towards the people in it, but towards the ideas behind it. Does that make sense?

And here's the reason why many of us don't fight this fight. Here's the reason many of us don't stay in the battle. Here's why: Because you appreciate comfort more than you value Christ. "I just want to be comfortable. I don't want anybody to be upset with me. I mean, I want to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. I just want to have a good, comfortable working environment. I want my neighbors to know that I'm a good person. I'll just cozy on up to them." You can cozy on up to lost people, but if they're drowning and on their way to hell and you don't speak the gospel and they don't see a difference in your life, there's no hope for them.

I saw a friend of mine this week that shared the gospel with a Muslim that was so offended that said back to him, "You're telling me that if I don't believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, I will go to hell for all eternity?" He said, "That's exactly what I'm telling you." She left the party before the party even got started. This guy's talking to me on the phone, he said, "I just feel so discouraged." I'm like, "You did awesome! That's the gospel! You're either an aroma of life and an aroma of death, and when this woman comes to Christ, I want to do a video about it so you can tell people this is how you did it. Because that's the gospel."

That's why we choose our new identity. We choose to live in our new identity, and we choose by God's grace to oppose the darkness. We have to. We have to. Because Satan's a liar. He doesn't just lie in church; he lies everywhere. And once you're a liar, you know what that makes you? A liar. It means you're never going to tell... you can never be trusted. That's what Satan does. And so as you get older, you see, well, the same sins I fell for and the same lies I told, the same lies I believed are the same lies he's using with that generation of people. Same stuff.

Singles, listen. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. I'm coming forward. Some of you singles are so discouraged that you're not married, and you hear every one of these lies: "It's because you messed up sexually, it's because there's nobody out there that's living for Christ like you are, it's because if you go all in with Jesus, everybody's going... I mean, I heard every lie you've heard. Jesus can't redeem that, there's no other virgins out there, whatever, they're all lies. You can't trust what the devil says. Here's what you can trust: I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, and they're plans for good and they're not harm. And I'm a God of favor and I'm a God of blessing, and keep walking with Me, I got you." That's our God.

That's why we have to know the Word and focus on whatever's true, whatever's right, whatever's noble, whatever's excellent, admirable, praiseworthy. Any of those things, dwell on that. Because here's what the devil will get you to do: The devil will get you to say, "Well, you chose to fight and now you're dealing with some of the consequences."

Now listen to me. If we send people off to war, we send soldiers off to war, we knew in World War II when the soldiers were storming the beaches of Normandy and reports came back, many died. Nobody said, "Are you kidding me? How did that happen?" But yet we're shocked when we're on mission for Christ that bad things happen. Cancer happens, people die, discouragement, friendships you thought you had that didn't... all these things go haywire, and then the devil whispers in your ear and he says this, "See? Jesus isn't as good as you said He was. Because if your God was good, you wouldn't be going through this."

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message, Stay in the Fight from the series Waging War, showing you why staying in the fight begins with embracing your new identity in Christ and depending on His power.

We're glad you joined us for today's message. Before you head out, here's a quick reminder that when you give to help share the gospel through Pastor Jeff Ministries, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's booklet, "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission" as our thanks. It's a powerful guide to help you understand your new identity in Christ and your calling to live boldly and advance God's kingdom. And that's the same powerful truth you can help more people discover through your support. So request your copy today at pastorjeff.com and join us next time for more bold biblical teaching from Pastor Jeff.