​This last Wednesday we talked about the reality of Angels, Satan, and Demons. We talked about where they came from and talked about some of the false beliefs about them.  In this post I want to talk about how we are involved in Spiritual Warfare.  We talked about briefly how Angels and Demons fight but we did not go into much detail or our part in the battle.  We said that we are fighting a REAL war against a REAL enemy, for a REAL King who has ALREADY WON the Battle! So how do we fight? Let’s talk about it!
 
A couple weeks ago a man named Mark Bearden (Mrs. Sarah Baines Dad!) came and preached about prayer.  In one of his sermons Mark talked about Matthew 26:48-54.  In this passage we see Jesus betrayed by Judas and arrested by the high priest’s guards.  During the arrest of Jesus, Peter draws a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the high priest’s guards.  Jesus picks up the ear and puts it back on the guard’s head and then tells Peter to put the sword away.   Earlier Jesus told the Disciples to go and prayer and they ended up just falling asleep.  Peter failed to fight the actual battle.  He went to the sword, instead of to God in prayer.  Jesus then tells Peter “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt 26:53 ESV) Jesus doesn’t need us to fight a physical battle for He commands all the Angels in heaven! Our battle against the enemy starts with prayer!  We pray that God would keep us from temptation. We pray that God’s will would be done.  We pray that God would be glorified.  We pray that His Gospel would be proclaimed! This is how we fight!
 
The other side of this is for us to look at Ephesians 6:10-20.  Here Paul urges us to put on the Whole Armor of God.  Paul tells us that if we put on the Armor of God we will be able to stand against the schemes of the Devil.  Every piece of the Armor of God represents different aspects of Christ’s character and work.  I want to point out that there is only one weapon in the armor of God, every other piece is for defense.  In verse 17 Paul tells us to take up the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Scripture is our weapon against Satan.  Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44) and the Bible is Absolute Truth.  Look at Matthew 4:1-11 as Jesus was tempted by Satan.  Jesus uses Scripture every time Satan tried to tempt Him.  Satan’s goal is to replace the Truth with a Lie so to resist him is to stand upon the truth of God’s Word (Romans 1:25, James 4:7). 
 
There are two things we need to do to fight in Spiritual Warfare.  Pray and Study the Bible!  If you don’t know how to pray without your mind wondering, try using the Holy Hour method (Click HERE FOR LINK). The Holy Hour is designed to help us stay focused and reminds us what we need to pray for. There are twelve different sections and all you have to do is set your phone’s timer to go off every five minutes and after all twelve you will have spent an hour praying.  If you don’t have an hour cut it in half.  The idea is not just to pray for a certain amount of time, the idea is that you actually PRAY!
 
If you don’t know where or what to read in the Bible, start at the beginning and go to the end. Also, every week on the back of your Wednesday fill-out sheet is a list of Chapters of the Bible to read that go along with what we are studying on Wednesday nights.  But don’t just read…STUDY the Bible!
 
Love you guys!
Trevor

With only one day of school left before summer vacation, what will you do about your friends who do not know Jesus?

Last night we talked about how it is OUR responsibility to share the Gospel with people.  Your friends, your family and even the strangers that you pass by every day will not give their lives to Jesus unless you share the gospel with them.  2 Corinthians 5:17-21 shows us this. Let’s break it down.

V.17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
Verse 17 tells us that if you have given your life to Christ you are no longer the same person you were before salvation.  With that you have a new responsibility and a new goal.  Before salvation your goal was to worship yourself and bring glory to yourself but in Christ the goal is to glorify God!

V. 18-19 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.”
First, Christ has reconciled us to himself.  This means that before, we were cut off from God because of our sin, but now, because of Jesus’ payment for our sin, we are no longer cut off and we have a relationship with Him.  Secondly, now that the truth has been brought to us and Jesus has reconciled us it is our job to point people to reconciliation.

V.20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
You will never save anyone because you never lived a perfect life and you never died on a cross for anyone.  You will however, share the gospel with others who will be saved, not because of you but because the Holy Spirit worked through you.  This should bring much comfort and joy to you.  That means that it isn’t up to you to have all the answers and that it’s not up to you to be a great speaker for people to hear the gospel and give their lives to Jesus. What this means is that the Holy Spirit speaks through you when you go share the gospel.  You don’t have to know all the answers (the Holy Spirit knows all the answers and will guide you), you just need to be obedient to what God has called you to do and that is MAKE DISCIPLES!

V. 21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
This is the gospel AKA the POWER OF GOD UNTO SALVATION (Romans 1:16-17).  Jesus was perfect. Never once did He sin.  In Jesus’ death He took on your sins and paid the price for them IN FULL!  Through this Jesus now offers His righteousness so that when we die we will get to be with him for all of eternity!  If you know this truth…GO TELL PEOPLE!

Tomorrow is the last day of school.  Your classmates are important to God. Your classmates should be important to you.  What is more important than sharing the gospel with them? NOTHING!

​Love you guys! Praying for you!
Trevor

This past week we started a new series called "Man on the Island." The focus of this series is to ask the question: "What happens to MOTI (Man On The Island) when he dies?"  At FBCE Students we know that sadly for MOTI, unless he gives his life to Jesus, when he dies he will be separated from God for eternity in Hell.  

Many will say that what we believe is unfair and God wouldn't do such a thing.  Our response to that is two fold: One, God says that is what He will do (Romans 1:18-25, John 3:18, Revelation 20:15, Revelation 21:8). Secondly, on the fairness of it all, man is not judged by what he does not know but what he does know or should know, they are left without excuse (Romans 1:20) because God's glory has been revealed to everyone through creation. It is also unwise to question God's fairness look at Romans 9:20. Who are we to question the fairness of God? If you think it is unfair of God to send MOTI to hell just remember life is never fair.  There is a lot of good, hardworking people who live in poverty and there is a lot of corrupt, lazy, criminals who are among the wealthiest in the world...life isn't fair.  Some people are born with illnesses and others are perfectly healthy...life isn't fair.  The unfairness in the world is born out of Man's sin dating all the way back to Adam's first sin.  We have no one to blame but ourselves for the fact that MOTI goes to hell.  

We are MOTI's only hope to hear the gospel.  Romans 10:17 says "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." If we want MOTI to go to heaven its up to us to get the Word of Christ to MOTI.  Whether that is hitting the mission field or purchasing Bibles to be sent out into the world.

This does not just go for MOTI.  This goes for every single person you come in contact with everyday.  Your friends, teachers, coaches, parents, siblings and everyone else you see daily, THEY NEED TO HEAR THE GOSPEL!  You have the Opportunity to share Jesus with everyone of those people everyday!

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE, GO MAKE DISCIPLES!