Win the 50-50 Ball (or, Let's Take This Fight to the Devil)

10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Ephesians 6:10-18

As you probably know, I’m a soccer nut. I have played, coached, and watched the game on various levels throughout my life, and I have made some observations about the game. There is a huge difference between playing levels. One way this can be easily observed is in how a team plays 50/50 balls. To explain, a 50/50 ball is a ball in the air – anybody’s ball. The lower the level of play, the more times the ball bounces. There’s even a big difference between college soccer and professional soccer; in the pros, every single ball is contested.

There are reasons that young players don’t go up for the ball

1. They think someone else will get it.
2. They don’t know where the ball is going.
3. They’re afraid of the ball/They don’t know the proper technique for receiving a high ball.

You might be wondering what this has to do with us. Here’s the scoop: spiritual warfare is a reality, but sometimes, much like a young soccer team, we allow the "ball" to "bounce" before we do anything about it.

Here are some reasons Christians often neglect spiritual warfare:

1. We think spiritual warfare is someone else’s duty.
2. We don’t know where Satan is going to attack.
3. We’re afraid of spiritual warfare or we don’t know how to combat Satan.

This is why we’re even talking about spiritual warfare, a topic that often gets overlooked in today’s "I want to be able to see, touch, and empirically observe everything" culture. Believe me; Satan is real. He is the father of lies, and one of the biggest lies he lets us believe is that he isn’t real. We can be assured that whenever the Gospel is on the move, Satan is on the attack.

Let’s start here: spiritual warfare is the duty of every Christian. It’s never "someone else’s" duty. 1 Peter 5:7 reminds us to "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." When we ignore him, we are just allowing Satan to pick off the weak, the struggling, the young…

Jesus told a parable about how the Word goes out, and he put it this way: Some people are like seed along the path, where the Word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the Word that was sown in them. He always comes when someone begins to learn and grow in their faith, and, as Christians, it is our duty to be ready – not just for ourselves, but for others.

2 Timothy 3:12 tells us that "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" and this often takes the form of spiritual attack. If we claim Jesus Christ as our lord, we will experience spiritual attack, and we need protection.

To think that it’s just the pastor’s job or the job of the staff or church leadership is ludicrous. It would be like saying that war is the job of the platoon leader. Sure, he’s on the front line, but he’s not the only one fighting! The whole platoon fights, and likewise, the whole church fights. It would be like telling a soccer team captain to go get every 50/50 ball – it just doesn’t happen that way.

Remember that our fight isn’t against flesh and blood – it’s not against people, but against all of Satan’s minions: the rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

How can we know where Satan will attack? He will attack where the church is moving forward. He will attack when we are obeying God’s will. Remember the verse I read about the devil? He is a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Lions don’t attack their prey in the strength of the herd. They look for a straggler, one who has gotten separated from the others.

Are you separated from God? Are you separated from others? Satan loves to pick off lonesome Christians. This is one reason why it’s important to come together to worship. It’s also a huge reason why cell groups are so vital in the life of a growing church

So how do we fight against these types of opponents, these rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces? How do we win at spiritual warfare? We take the fight to the devil. James 4:7 tells us to Submit to God and resist the devil, and the devil will flee! Spiritual warfare is the created against the will of the Creator. Because God is love, God allows free will and gives choice. He allows us to make bad choices. He allows us to choose to fight or to choose not to fight against Satan.

We resist the devil by simply not allowing him to influence or sway us. If we know the word of God, we can be sure that we know right and wrong. By doing "right" instead of "wrong" we resist the devil!

We also put on the armor of God, which we’ll be looking at in detail starting in two weeks.
Our most powerful weapon is prayer – we have been given the privilege of speaking directly to God for our empowerment and protection.

Not only that, but the Holy Spirit intercedes on our behalf. Paul concluded his letter to the Ephesians with the admonition to "pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints."

Because we’re committed to taking the fight to the devil, I know we’ll face spiritual opposition. And rather than just guess that we’re going to pray for one another, we need to start now.

We ended the service by pairing up and praying for one another - not chit-chatting or sharing prayer requests, but simply beginning to pray in the Spirit. If you're reading this online, find someone to pray for and pray together.