Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Sharpen Your Sword

Amen! It's always good to be in His presence! Hallelujah! Exciting things are going on. It's good to have an answer to prayer. I just was able to greet one of our young men out in the hallway. Father has done a great work in his life. He's home, praise God, and we believe for good; amen? God's Word is a high tower that we can run into, be safe, and believe those promises, praise God. You raise up a child in the way that he should go and when he's old he'll not depart from it. It's good to have him home! Be in prayer; there are others as we're battling in this age that we're in, battling for our young people, for our own lives. We're talking about that a little bit tonight.

Be sure to pray for all those who are away. It's funny, even at the softball game the other night the ump said, "How many people do you guys have coming tonight?" We always have many more people at the games than anybody else. I said, "There's a three week period when it's a ghost town around here. We go to school year round. We've got a three week window. People are virtually bailing, having a good time out at the beaches and mountains." So those that are away recreating while we're still slaving, pray for them anyway! I know many of you will be going in the next couple of weeks. Always be in prayer one for another. I know that you are. We'll see everybody get home safely.

I want to talk a little bit about the age that we're in, the war that's going on for the souls of our young people, of man today. It's interesting to see. We were in Africa when the date of 6/6/06 came around. You know, there was talk all over the world about that. It's amazing the pieces of information that the world has about the antichrist, whether they're going to make movies, The Omen, or whatever. People have an idea of what 666 is all about. There was a lot of talk going on all over the world. We're sitting at a restaurant in Africa, we were either going to the bush or coming back, I can't remember, but anyway, we were sitting there and happened to realize it was that day. One of the young ladies there had made a comment. I thought it was interesting, at that juncture they were wondering what weird things happened on that particular day. It was a day like any other day, Jesus was Lord, amen? That's basically what I told her. I said, "We're not moved by all that kind of thing. Jesus is the Lord of our lives, praise God. He's Lord of every day. We're expecting His soon return; we're expecting to live victoriously until He does return.

The hour that we're living in, the spirit of the age, the spirit of antichrist that is so prevalent today; we've talked about the weapons that are being wielded against us as believers. I personally believe that we-as we've talked so many times-the greatest danger that we're facing as believers in our society today is our affluence. We're living, as the Lord said, "As it was in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah so shall it be in the day of the coming of the Son of man." As it was in the days of Noah, every man doing what's right in his own eyes. There's an absence of absolutism, of truth; everything's become relative, even in the churches. Our churches have become more contemporary and user-friendly. Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of God unto salvation." There's the need to return to the old paths that Jeremiah speaks of. The need to guard our minds against all of the natural weaponry of medical science, of the phenomenon of this power called "credit" in our generation. It's a new thing. Credit is a brand new business. Many of us, just like the rest of the world, are getting bound up living beyond our ability. We're living beyond our faith, whether it's financially, whether, as we talked about, in the area of medical science and technology. We want to guard ourselves and make sure that we don't live beyond our faith, our ability to trust God; that we don't forget what our true weapons are. They are not carnal. They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; amen?

We want to talk about that war a little bit, and how to prepare ourselves because of what is happening. Turn to the book of Ephesians, Chapter 6. Let's remind ourselves of what the apostle says here in Ephesians 6:12. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." There's a war for your soul that's going on. It is supernatural. It is the spirit of antichrist. It's not in the ways that many of us would think. We're not being seduced back to the old ways, many of us, of the drug culture, the promiscuous life, drunkenness, revelry. These things are very obvious. But many of us are being lulled to sleep through our ease, through our comforts, and through our trust in the arm of the flesh, in the natural. Probably most of us want to oppose and say, "No, I'm trusting God. I believe God." We need to look at a couple of things and ask ourselves some questions. For instance, when you begin to battle in the physical, when you begin to feel sickness coming on, what's the first thing you do? Is the first thing you do go to-I mean, after all, we've got Tylenol^® PM/AM, we've got it for every kind of imaginable thing; Advil^® pop a pill, whatever. I'm not opposed to medicine; I'm opposed to trusting in it. There are some times that you could use it. There are times that it might be necessary in our lives. That's not what we're talking about tonight. We're asking the question, "What's the first thing you do?" Maybe I ought to ask the question this way, "Which institution's weaponry are you most efficient in, the world's or the kingdom's?" Do you know better what pill works for what symptom? Have you spent time studying that? "For aches and pains I take this, and for headaches I take this. If you take this, it perks you up, and this does that." What do you know about the world, their wisdom, and their methodology? How proficient are we in the kingdom where we live by faith and not by sight? How proficient are we in the spiritual weaponry that God has provided for us? How quick are we to use it as opposed to the natural?

Each of us is going to have to come to grips with where we are. We need to realize that though these seem to be little foxes, they're the ones that end up destroying the crop, the fruit that brings glory to God. It's the little foxes that spoil the vine, the things we let slide. Let me point out just a couple other things so that we can get the spirit of what I'm talking about. I think it's important. We talk about this a lot. We just taught on fear and anxiety that we face in our day. We have not received the spirit of fear. "We're to be fearful for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let our requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, that passes understanding, keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." We're not a fearful people, because we've not received that spirit. We're constantly admonished, "Fear not, I am with you."

We have little things that we call cell phones. We carry them around "for emergencies." I'm not against-well, I am, sort of. No, I'm not against cell phones. Do we trust in technology, or are we trusting in the fact that He's given His angels charge over us? Are you living in the supernatural? Who are we as Christians? We're strangers on this planet. Beloved, there are only two trees to eat of in that garden. It all goes back to that. There's the technology, the humanistic approach, the natural resources, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil-and the tree of life. How many things today are distracting God's people from the simple life of faith? "Without faith it is impossible to please God." Those little foxes come in and we begin to trust in the wireless. We begin to trust in the drugs, we begin to trust in the army, we begin to trust in IRAs, and savings accounts. All I'm saying tonight-I'm not saying there's anything wrong with any of that if it's kept in its proper perspective. What I'm asking you is, "How strong are you becoming in the Lord? How proficient are you in your weaponry?" Let me ask you this question: Can you, like David's mighty men, pick up your sling, and throw to within a hair's breadth? Does the Scripture still burn in your heart? Is the Word of God still a fire in your bones? When you speak, do your words carry life and power? You know our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Second Corinthians makes it clear. It's just something that rolls off our tongues. Many of us here understand the concept that 2 Corinthians 10 speaks of. The weapons are not carnal. They're not carnal. Hear what it says, "They are mighty [say it], though God."

We're fighting everything that's carnal, everything that's natural, everything that's of this world, everything that distracts us, everything that we've put our confidence in, and everything that we've become proficient in. I've watched some of you people do text messaging. You've become experts. How well do you pray? You put a lot of hours into doing all that, video games, and whatever else. The Scripture says in 2 Timothy, Chapter 2, "No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life; that he might please him that called him." As Paul's speaking here in the second epistle to Timothy he says, "No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this life, of this world." Now I want you to notice that it doesn't say we don't involve ourselves, because we're in the world, we're just not of it. It says "entangles himself." Jesus said it this way; "The cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things," do what? We become entangled. It begins to choke out the Word of God in our lives. The good soldier, the man that knows what he's been called to do, the one that's warring against these principalities and powers is not entangled by spiritual forces that are in high places, this wickedness, the rulers of the darkness of this world. Satan prefers darkness, his deeds are evil. We're children of light. We run to the light constantly. There should be nothing in those shadows that attracts us. Now, I'm speaking of some things that are amoral. There's nothing wrong with a cell phone. It's an amoral, inanimate object. But these things-we've got to understand this-these things are being used for another kingdom. Their whole purpose in the eternal scope, and I don't want to get off into eschatology right now, but I've shared it before. All of this technology is for the purpose of introducing Antichrist. God is allowing men's eyes to be opened, just as it was in Babel, just as He prophesied would take place from the eating of the tree of knowledge, they would become as gods. God is basically using it against them for His eternal purposes, but at the same time, that's its origin. Can it be used for good? Yes, but it cannot be exclusively used for good. It is never good if the spiritual is diminishing and our trust is in the other aspects that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is producing. We're living in this world; we're not of the world. The only way that the fruit of the tree can be properly used is by those who are proficient, and who are partakers in the abundance of the tree of life.

This is what Paul is calling us to. Now watch this, and begin to ask yourself the question, "Really, what do I trust in? When my child leaves home..." See, we convince ourselves, "God uses the technology. It's one of God's gifts to us." Okay. "And God has given the wisdom to doctors and medical science. That's a gift of God to us." Okay. We could go on and point out some other things. Churches today are all talking about the different-it's interesting today in America, so much of our evangelism is in mass mailings. We're using Madison Avenue and Wall Street methodologies in the church. "That's wisdom, brother!" There's nothing wrong with mass mailings. There's nothing wrong with many of the other methods that are being used, but what are we trusting in? Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God." We're living by faith. Without faith it's impossible to please God. All I'm asking you to do is reexamine your heart and say, "How proficient am I in the weaponry that was put in my hands the day I surrendered my life to the Lord Jesus Christ? I used to trust in the world, and I now acknowledge Jesus as Lord." Paul says in Romans 6, "Don't you understand that's what we used to do? That's who we used to be."

We're facing these principalities and powers on a continual basis. They're warring against our souls. They're trying to bring us into their dominion, trying to cause us to trust in them. We talked about credit the other day. We have people thanking God for blessing them with prosperity as they're buying homes for nothing down and interest-only payments. Now that's not wrong, in and of itself; it's called renting. There's nothing wrong with that. But, how do you see yourself? What do you see yourself as? Why do you even think you have to have those things? What's happened to us that now, in this generation, we're too good to be raised in one bathroom, three bedroom homes, two bedroom homes, or as I've shared in my testimony, no bedroom homes-one room. "Pastor, you're saying you'd rather have one room?" No, I'd rather have one hundred rooms! I'm for mansions. I'm on the side of mansions, I'm going to one! Amen? "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places [praise God!]. If it were not so I would I have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place, I shall surely come and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also." I've got one waiting! I'd live in one here if God gave it to me, but I'm not going to sacrifice my faith for it. I'm not going to get it by the world's methods. I'm not going to get it in my own strength. I'm not going to get it by the spirit of antichrist and say, "God gave it to me," because without faith it's impossible to please God.

Now, faith doesn't mean you have to pay cash. I'm not against financing. It takes just as much faith to make the payment as it does to pay cash. What do you trust in? We say God's our source, but what evidence is there of that by the way we live the rest of our lives? Do we truly pray in faith every day? As you're praying when you start your day do you pray in faith? When you start off the day and pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give me this day my daily bread." When you're praying that, are you praying it in faith? "Don't lead me into temptation." Are you praying it in faith? "Deliver me from the evil one." Are you praying it in faith? Praise God, I've got multiple air bags! I don't have to pray in faith! I can roll this thing over and get out unscathed. I'm ready for any female-driver-on-a-cell-phone-putting-on-her-makeup that you can throw against me." The little foxes...

Paul, in 1 Timothy, Chapter 6, says, "Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life." We're in this fight. It's the battle of retaining our faith. It's standing against the principalities and powers. It's not becoming entangled or ensnared with the affairs of this life. Paul says, "It's being committed so that we can be pleasing to Him who has chosen us to be a good soldier." Those of us that enjoy different aspects of sports or even some of the business aspects-the majority of us look at people that are successful at whatever it is they're doing, whether it's in business or in sports or whatever-frankly, most people aren't willing to pray the price to become great. Most of us, generally, are satisfied with mediocrity. Some of us think that's too much of an effort. We believe in being the heavy big brother that everybody else can carry and say, "He's not heavy." But there's a price to pay. You can't entangle yourself with the affairs of this life. The apostle says, "We must become temperate in everything else if we're going to master the treasure of our hearts." Are we mastering this walk called "Christianity?" If so, we have to become temperate in all the other things. I'm not just talking about being temperate in how much time you spend in the mall or how much time you spend watching television. I'm talking about being temperate in how much we trust in what the world has introduced into our lives that's "other than" God. I want to encourage you; I want to warn you against "other than." Anything that's other than your faith, anything that robs your faith, anything that distracts you from becoming stronger and walking in the spirit so that you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh is dangerous to you; dangerous. "The weights, the sin," Paul says, "that does so easily beset us." But what are we hearing in Christianity today? "Oh, God's prospering and blessing, praise God! Eat, drink, and be merry." I don't think that's the message for the hour, because perilous times are coming. Many are going to depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, if this is the last days.

You don't even hear teaching on eschatology anymore. People don't believe. We've become truly amillennialists. Christians are moving to that in droves. They believe today is the millennium. "God's going to prosper us. We, as Christians, are just going to keep getting richer, and richer, and better, and better. And, with science and genetic engineering, pretty soon we'll live to be a thousand years old. We're in the millennium right now!" If this is the millennium, we got ripped off! Anybody seen a lion lying down with a lamb lately? Here we are, fat cats in America saying this is the millennium. Go to Palestine. Go to Africa. Go where we just came back from. Go hang out in the slums of Kwangware and tell me this is the millennium. Those are Christians. We judge Christianity, set our doctrine by the broken reed of Egypt; this nation, living by credit thinking we've done something. As Christians, we need to come back to trusting in God. I'm not worried about what you possess. Whatever you possess is not the issue. Father's calling us, very clearly, into examining our own hearts. As young David said in 1 Samuel 17-oh, for the privilege of being able to stand and say just like the young man, "I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. You come against me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield, but I come against you in the name. Sickness and disease, I come against you in the name. Poverty, fear, I come against you in the name.

This seductive culture today of amusement-you want to know why kids are running around messing up their bodies with all these tattoos, and putting in implants and piercings? It's because they've just got too much time on their hands; idleness, Sodom. The sin of Sodom was not homosexuality; it was prosperity, and idleness. Here we are facing this. How do we protect ourselves? By staying diligent, becoming masters as we walk in the spirit and not in the flesh, as we begin to come against this tide that's trying to destroy the church today. We're not tolerant. That's the great word today "tolerant." "We just need to be tolerant." I have no tolerance for sin. I have no tolerance for anything that would rise and boast against the name of Jesus. Every tongue that rises against us in judgment we will condemn, for that's the heritage of the servants of the Lord. "Their righteousness is of me," saith the Lord. We stand and proclaim the righteousness of God, a jealousy for a people to live separate from the world. I don't mean separate living as in not wearing makeup and having funny hairdos. I'm talking about not trusting in what the world trusts in. I'm talking about having treasures that are laid up in heaven, praise God. We are called to fight for our very lives in this day. How proficient are you in the name of Jesus? "Oh, I know the name! I pray in the name of Jesus." The seven sons of Sceva came and said, "In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, come out." That devil turned to them and said, "We know Jesus. We know Paul. Who are you?" What kind of response do you think you're going to get?

You don't have to go to Africa to deal with demons. They wear fifteen-hundred dollar suits, demon-possessed folks. They wear white smocks and you go down and pay them a lot of money to listen to your organs. They approve your loans. We're at war. When's the last time you walked into a place and people were aware of your presence because just your being there stirs up the powers of darkness? As Jesus walked onto the coast and that demon possessed man came running and said, "Depart from us." How strong are our weapons? How strong is your presence? Are you known? "I know Jesus. I know Paul." Do you have reputation? Scripture says that our names are written in the heavens. That's not just the Lamb's book of life. Are we doing enough damage to the kingdom darkness that we're on the "Ten Most Wanted" list?

As we come and deal with reality and who we really are, what we're capable of doing, whether we're living by faith or whether we're living by sight, like David, we understand the total distinction of the weaponry, ours against theirs. We come in the name. Our weapons are not carnal; they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Father calls us and we go forth to do exploits, Scripture says. The book of Revelation, Chapter 12, verse 11, the witnesses asked, "Who are these people?" The eleventh verse says, "These are they that overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death, overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony." Listen to what we have. We don't have what the world has; we have the name of Jesus. We have the prayer of faith. We have the blood of Jesus.

I don't mean the old, traditional Baptist Pentecostal, "I plead the blood, I plead the blood, I plead the blood." Now, there's nothing wrong with saying, "I plead the blood," if you know what pleading the blood is. Pleading the blood isn't some magic [incantation]. "I plead the blood and that saves me," as though it's like a St. Christopher's medal. We know the blood was put upon the lintels in the day of visitation in the Passover. The death angel passed over because there was a covenant. Basically, what you're saying when harm's coming your way and you're going to plead the blood is, "I have a covenant. I have rights. I'm the child of God. I'm not under judgment. There is no weapon formed against me that prospers. I've been given all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means harm me. At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He's Lord. The prayer of faith saves the sick. What things soever you desire when you pray if you believe that you receive them, you shall have them." Are you ready? Have you been exercising? Is faith the first thing you run to? Is the name of Jesus the first thing you run to? Is the prayer of intercession the first thing you run to? Then you're in good shape, you're doing well, praise God! You're not entangled with the affairs of this life. You're staying lean, mean, and ready for battle. You're living by faith, believing that God is watching over His Word on your behalf and performing it, living in true assurance of Psalm 34, that His angels have been given charge over us.

Angels are cool! Are you all aware of your angels? Can I ask you a question? On a daily basis, are you as aware of the presence of God through His angelic messengers as you are of your cell phone? Let me ask you another question: Are you as strongly anticipating the voice of the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you are that thing to ring? (Dear God, we get seven hundred calls a day!) Everybody is walking around with things stuck in their ears. How are you going to hear God? What is so important? In comparison, how much time do you spend talking about nothing versus hearing something that will change your life for eternity? We think we're alright, everybody's doing it. "It's the world that we live in." Well, change your address, because we're at war! Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying throw your cell phone away, I'm saying, "Get in the presence of God." You know what? The more you do, you're going to find yourself taking that thing, shutting it off and saying, "This thing isn't ringing for the next 15 minutes because I've got something important to do." "Well, it's at that time..." Hey, you aren't the president! If you were that important there would be another guy with a bag following you around and the phone would ring. "It would be that 15 minutes when my child would have an accident." That's what the angels are for! You say, "Yes, but mine's like the one on the commercial." That's what most of us think, but He's given His angels charge over us. Do you believe that? What can we trust Him with? If you can't trust Him to get your kids home from the store then how are you going to trust Him with their eternal souls?

We are called to live by faith. We're called to build ourselves up in the proficiency of our weaponry. We're called to walk in the spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. We're called in Ephesians six to put on the full armor of God. Are we doing that constantly, putting on the armor: helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, loins girt about with truth, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, sword of the spirit? How many of you have memorized all the little buttons on your phone so you can text message? How many of you have memorized-you don't even have to memorize your friends' names, you've got instant dial. There are still lots of little numbers. How many of you have all those little numbers down and you don't have Ephesians 6:17 down? What's real? What's important? What are we doing in this warfare? Basically, all we're doing tonight is asking you to come to a reality check, to understand the urgency of this hour that we're in. Put on that armor, the whole armor, verse 11 says, that we might be able to withstand, and having done all, stand; having done all, made every preparation.

As we get ready to end tonight, that's the question we need to ask. "Am I confident that I've done all I can do?" See, when you've done all you can do, you can rest. The Scripture says it this way, "Labor to enter into rest." How do you labor? You labor by ceasing from your natural labors. Spiritual labor is ceasing from your natural labor, the Scripture tells us in Hebrews. There's a rest for the people of God. Cease from your own labors, trusting in your own strength, trusting in the world's methodology, and you'll enter the rest of God. That's the ability to embrace His sovereignty, His providential care, to understand that He'll drop the measure of faith into your heart that will cause you to be able to stand. He's going to go before you and make a way where there is no way. His glory is going to be your rear guard. He's going to set up ambushments against those who would come and oppose you. It brings a sobriety, an awareness of the hour.

In our nation, beloved, we're living in perilous times. Everything is smoke and mirrors. We are not what we think we are as a nation, as a people. I'm thankful for the opportunity to have lived in this nation growing up. Not only spiritually-I know I'm a pilgrim just passing through. But, not only spiritually-I look around. This isn't what I grew up with. This isn't the place that I know. I look at the way people behave. I look at what their goals are, and it's so foreign. In the natural it's that foreign! So, how foreign is it in the supernatural, in the spiritual? There is nothing that I recognize.

I am so glad that next year I'll have been a Christian for 40 years. I'm so glad that part of my testimony is I don't recognize anything from that other life. Nothing there makes any sense to me. There's nothing of value there. Our treasures are laid up in heaven where thieves can't break in, where moths can't corrupt. My heart breaks as I look around. I see men that I grew up with in the faith overcome. They're no longer preaching the gospel, but worshipping the creature more than the Creator. I'm not saying I'm better. I was going down the same road they were. I thank God for His deliverance! But there's a remnant. God picks it. It's not by any merit. He's given you that grace, and He's given you that faith, and not you only, but people all over the world. Treasure it! Don't count what you have common. Don't cheapen that love that you once had for the Word of God, a life of faith, a life of prayer, and think that can become an addendum to life. That is our life. For me to live is Christ.

Father, we ask that You would make that real in our hearts tonight. We ask that, as a people, we would come to this reality check. That we'd go to the Scriptures and ask ourselves, "Am I a child of faith? Am I living in the spirit? How much have I been seduced by the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of things? How much has it entered in and choked the Word of God out of my life? What did I used to believe You for that I now finance? What did I used to believe You for that I now pop a pill? What did I used to trust You for that I now have security systems and constant communications?" Lord, we know there's nothing wrong with any of those things, but it's the trust. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Check our hearts, Father. Build our faith. Strengthen us in this day. Make us proficient in the use of the name of Jesus so that devils would tremble. Make us proficient in the prayer of faith, that those around us would have their needs met as we intercede. Father, make us proficient that we could lay hands on the sick and see them recover. Father, make us proficient that the Word would come out of our mouths like a hammer and break the rock in pieces, that captives would be set free as we witness Your grace and Your word of reconciliation, that souls would be saved. Make us strong, because your church has become a powerless people, looking for the graces of the world, looking for the graces of politicians, looking for the graces of moguls, looking for the graces of Hollywood stars and their endorsements. We're not of this world, Father. Make us strong and let our boast be in You. Help us to glorify Your name, we ask, Father, in that mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you, and say, "I've got to sharpen my sword." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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