Pastor Jeff on the Radio

Announcer: You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries, the teaching ministry of Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub. On today's program, Pastor Jeff concludes his message "Stay in the Fight" from the series "Waging War" and shows you how to oppose darkness, target the real enemy, and remain faithful to your mission in Christ.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: Our mission is to challenge people like you to respond to the Word of God. If you're looking to grow in your walk, you're in the right place. We invite you to visit pastorjeff.com where you'll find a wealth of resources to equip you in your faith. While you're there, you can sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly devotional emails delivered right to your inbox. Now, let's hear today's message from God's Word with Pastor Jeff.

No, he told the king, what you're doing is wrong, God hates it, you need to repent, stop. Did he suppose 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. Pick a side. Expose darkness. Oppose darkness. How do I do that individually? When you sin, you participate in darkness. Every time you say to yourself, that'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 they'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.

I just got back from vacation. I'll make it personal. Have you 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, 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. It's not just kids. We grow up and we think we grow out of correction. What about when a friend lies or lacks integrity? What about when a coworker is heading down the wrong path? 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.

The great apostasy is 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 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. Here's what people say in church: Don't judge, lest you be judged. 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. We judge each other, not because we don't love each other, but because we do. 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. That 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. 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. We better pay attention to what he says.

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. You can offend everybody with Genesis chapter one in the world. When we're talking about the LGBTQ or we're talking about Black Lives Matter, 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. If I'm going all in with Jesus, it means my attitudes toward 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 knows that the world is the Lord's and everything in it, so he wants to have a hand in everything.

The devil 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. 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. Many of us don't fight this fight or stay in the battle 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 want to have a nice Thanksgiving dinner.

I 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 was talking to 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 or 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.

Announcer: You're listening to Pastor Jeff Ministries, and today's message "Stay in the Fight" from the series "Waging War" shows you how to oppose darkness, target the real enemy, and remain faithful to your mission in Christ. We'll get back to Pastor Jeff in just a moment, but first, listeners like you make this ministry possible. And when you give this month to help share bold biblical truth with people around the world, we'll thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's powerful booklet "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission." This scripture-filled resource unpacks what it really means to be transformed by Jesus. Because when you're made new in Christ, everything changes: your identity, your purpose, and your calling to advance God's kingdom. Request your copy today when you give to Pastor Jeff Ministries at pastorjeff.com. Now, let's get back to Pastor Jeff for the conclusion of today's message.

Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub: That's why we have to champion our identity and choose to oppose darkness. We have to because Satan's a liar. He doesn't just lie in church, he lies everywhere. Once you're a liar, you know what that makes you? A liar. It means you can never be trusted. That's what Satan does. As you get older, you see the same sins I fell for and the same lies I told and the same lies I believed are the same lies he's using with that generation of people.

Singles, listen. 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 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. I'm a God of favor and I'm a God of blessing. 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. Dwell on that. The devil will get you to say, well, you chose to fight and now you're dealing with some of the consequences. 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 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 says, see, see, see? Jesus isn't as good as you said he was because if your God was good, you wouldn't be going through this. Then we get mad at God because he's not doing what we want him to do for us because our life's no longer comfortable. In reality, God hasn't changed and he's still good and you're on mission and your life's never going to be perfect on this side of heaven. You stay in that fight and you keep walking and you persevere and you live for Jesus. I promise you what's coming is greater than anything you would ever know.

You have to target, from now on, you have to target your real enemy. Verse 12: "For our struggle." That means it's not just your struggle, it's my struggle, it's all of our struggles as believers, "is not against flesh and blood." Literally, blood and flesh. Your battle is not against another human being. Your battle is not your boyfriend or your girlfriend, your battle is not against your spouse, your battle is not against your kids. Kids, your battle is not against your mom and dad. Your battle is not against your boss and your battle is not against your employees. Your battle is not against your neighbor, your battle is not against the politician that we didn't or did elect. That's not the battle.

The rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. The battle is taking place in the unseen realm. It starts in the unseen realm. The unseen spiritual realm is where the problem starts because we have an enemy of our soul. 1 Peter 5:8 says, "be sober and on the alert for you have an adversary, the devil, that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." You study who this devil is in Isaiah 14, Ezekiel 28, and other passages, and you'll realize that he was a created being by God and was created so beautiful and so wonderful.

As he was leading the worship to the throne of God, he decided, why should he get all the glory? I'm pretty awesome too. Worship should stop with me. That's when he got booted. That's when he took a third of the angels with him. We don't understand all these spiritual forces of darkness, but it appears that there's different levels of demonic influence, like presidents and governors and mayors and city council people. When I say the devil's coming after me, he may be, but it's probably not him directly because he can only be in one place at one time. But he's got hordes of those that help him to keep me off mission, to discourage me, and to distract me from giving Jesus all your worship and living on mission for him.

The devil's constantly at work doing that. The battle, if we don't realize it, we'll end up fighting each other rather than fighting where the battle's coming from. If you're in a marriage, let me just give you some marital advice. You're going to have some challenge from time to time. But your spouse is not the problem. The spiritual entity behind your spouse is the problem. If you don't deal with that first, you can't fix what's reality in front of you. When things happen, it's what's going on behind that we have to watch, not just what's coming through the people that we're talking to.

Your spouse is not your enemy. Never. If you don't know that, you're going to say, well, you've never met my spouse. But if I'm going to champion my identity and push the darkness back and I'm not going to allow my spouse to live in that darkness, but I'm going to focus more on me and say, God, I'm a new creation. I'm a husband, I'm a father. You want me to be a good husband and a good father. I clearly don't know what I'm doing and I need you to help me to become that because you told me I could. I want to love my wife the way Christ loved the church, and I clearly don't know how to do that. So change me, and then you do whatever you want to do. I know you're for our marriage, so you'll make it work.

Now you do that and then you get a wife that says, dear Jesus, I do not know how to submit to my husband as unto the Lord. I have a really hard time doing that, but I want to because I want to do what you want me to do. Lord, I clearly can't do that very well, so would you help me? When two individuals are doing that, marriage can sizzle on this side of heaven. Not perfect ever, but sizzle. When Christ's power is coming through, it's a different entity than when it's two individuals trying to work it out. Counseling is fine, but too much counseling is about working on your behaviors.

If I hear one more married person tell me they have a communication problem, I'm going to be like, I know! You have two genders, you see the world totally different, you're both sinners, you both have different backgrounds. How could you not have a communication problem? Everybody has that. But you don't fix it by going to counseling for 25 years. You fix it by centering on your new identity in Christ and letting Christ be Lord over all of that. You've got to target your real enemy. When you get mad at people, your boss, your pastor, your church, your neighbor, whoever, there's something else going on behind that.

You get mad when you watch the news, there's something else going on behind that. You've got to target your real enemy because if you know truth, you realize that the enemy is always at work trying to take truth and distort it and twist it and make it normative for Christians. A bending of the truth is never normative for Christians. We don't just need to say it here, we need to say it everywhere we go. When people know what side you're on and who you're for and they see the love coming out of your eyes but you're unwilling to bend, that's when the power of God is unleashed.

John 10:10 says the reason he came: to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to destroy your life, your singleness, your marriage, your family, your home, your neighborhood, and our church. That's all he cares about: massive destruction. Target him. You start fighting him in the heavenly places. We're already seated with Christ in the heavenly places. You start praying. You start saying, God, I can't change anything but you can. Unleash your heavenly forces. You do what you need to do to make this a reality. You start targeting your real enemy and Jesus' power can start coming through.

Your battle's not against other people. Even when we see politically what's going on or educationally, your battle's not with individual people. Your battle's with the system of evil in the heavens that's behind all of that and driving all that. You're going to see me get passionate during this series about some things. But I'm not mad at people. I'm mad at the satanic influence in people that's keeping them from knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm really upset with the way that Christians are being duped to believe it all or Christians are being duped to remain neutral rather than push back.

I'm not against people. Even people that think 180 degrees different than me, I'm not against them. I'm praying for them. That's what we're called to do. We're called to pray for our leaders and all those in authority. Not if they agree with us, but we're called to do it because we care for their soul. That's what it means to target our real enemy. Before you get angry at another person or when anger comes up or frustration or fear, target what's going on behind this. What's really driving this and why is it that I'm upset and take it to the Lord.

If you'll do this and you'll champion your identity and you'll choose to oppose darkness, you'll draw a line in the sand, you'll target your real enemy, then don't ever back down. Don't ever stop. He says, "Therefore, take up the full armor of God." That's not part of it, piecemeal, it's all of it. We're going to talk about it in the coming weeks. "So that you will be able to resist." Resist, oppose, be hostile to. James 4 says, "resist, be hostile to, oppose the devil and he'll do what?" He'll flee from you. He can't handle resistance.

The devil can handle neutrality, he can handle you turning tail, he can handle you dealing with criticism. He cannot handle you saying, no, I'm choosing this side. You may take my life, but I don't care, you will not take me from being on team Jesus until I meet him face to face. He can't handle it. Resist in the evil day. I think there's an evil day coming unlike any other that we've lived through, but we're living in evil days. He says, and having done everything, to stand firm. Having done everything, choose your side. Having done everything, resist. And never, ever, ever back down.

Many of us hear this and we think, well, we're fighting from the remnant side, we're like the losing team, we got to really battle. You're not. You're on the winning side, even though there's a remnant. I'm battling from the position of this: I know I already win. So what am I afraid of? I've already died and my life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is my life appears, then I'll also appear with him in glory. What do I care? I'm pushing back the darkness, I'm holding back the darkness. Not for me, I'm already saved, but for our church, for our kids, for future generations.

We can't just talk about truth, we have to exercise truth. That's why we're starting Brave Academy to build up the next generation. That's why I hope we get another campus and can build a couple more Brave Academies. That's why I hope we get a high school. I've got so much vision. I want to drive the darkness back. I believe God called you to this church because he created you to be a warrior and not a wimp. It's in your gut. When you drive the darkness back and when you oppose the darkness, the only Christians that criticize are cowards.

When you hear a Christian criticize, well, that guy's too involved, here's what you know about them: they're not engaged in the mission. They're not in the fight. They're in for comfort and they realize if people started living like that, they'd have to give up their comfort and actually get in the mission too. When you hear criticism, just know that's a sign you're doing things the right way if you're being obedient to Jesus, if you're living in a Christ-like manner, if you're letting his power come through, if you're depending upon truth. Then when you hear criticism, it ain't you, it's them.

Don't ever back down. I'm seeing a hostility against Christians in our world like never before. It's coming. We used to talk about it in the early '90s like, there's coming a day where it's going to be hard to be a Christian. It's hard to be a Christian if you're going to do this. You can't just wear a WWJD bracelet and go to youth group and that's enough. You're going to have to make a stand. People are going to have to see what you're making a stand for. You have to speak it with your mouth and live it with your behavior and be willing to deal with the consequences.

There are worldwide, real, physical threats that are coming. 2020 changed me. It developed my theology of resistance and hostility and opposition towards those that don't uphold the truth of God. I will not apologize for upholding the truth of God. I won't, ever. There are threats on you if you have a mind where the scientific community will say that you're wrong and you can only say this and you can't say that. There are threats against what you're going to speak and how you're going to speak it and what you believe, even if the facts are contrary.

There are economic threats that are coming. In Australia right now, if you go to get cash out of your bank, you can't get it out of your bank because they want everything to go to a cashless society and they want to put a chip in your finger within the next year. Friends, it's coming. The end is near. How near it is, I don't know. I believe God can breathe his life through his Holy Spirit and push it back for a long time. I'm not gloom and doom. I have great hope.

These are the days God's given us to stay in this fight. Don't you ever back down. Don't you ever give up. You stand on the truth, you stand on the character of who Jesus Christ is and you let his power be unleashed in and through you and you will never, ever have to apologize because when I'm preparing you for the day that you stand before Jesus face to face and no matter what happened to you, you can hear these words: Well done, good and faithful servant. Let me present you faultless before my Father. It's what we've been talking about for years and it's all happening right now. That's what we should be looking forward to.

Don't be surprised if bad things happen in this world, they're going to happen. Link arms, stand together, and keep fighting. I believe our best days are ahead. That's why God says to run with perseverance. From now on, never back down. Champion your identity. Choose what side you're going to fight on. Let's target our real enemy. The enemy of our soul and the souls of all those around the world. Amen.

Announcer: Thank you for listening today. That was Pastor Jeff with his message "Stay in the Fight" from the series "Waging War," showing you how to oppose darkness, target the real enemy, and remain faithful to your mission in Christ. Thanks for joining us for today's program.

Before you go, just a quick reminder. When you give a gift of support today, we'll thank you by sending you Pastor Jeff's powerful booklet "Made New: Discovering Your New Identity, New Focus, and New Mission." This scripture-filled resource will help you understand what it really means to be made new in Christ, how your identity, your focus, and your mission are transformed when you surrender your life to Jesus. Request your copy today when you give to help others hear the truth of God's Word. Just visit pastorjeff.com. That's pastorjeff.com. We'll see you next time.