How to Survive a Spiritual Attack - Part 1

Today on Bold Steps Weekend, Pastor Mark explains how to survive a spiritual attack.  Drawing from First Peter chapter 5 verse 5, Mark continues to teach from the sermon series, Headlines: Navigating Life in Two Worlds.

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:00):
Today on Bold Steps Weekend, Mark Jobe explains how to
survive a spiritual attack.

S2 (00:06):
I would encourage you to do the opposite of what
a lot of what I would call prosperity preachers would
tell you to do. Some of you need to do
the opposite of pumping yourself up, and some of you
in Sydney to get on your knees and say, I
am weak and I am in need of God. You
need to lean in and press in to the power
and goodness of God.

S1 (00:37):
Welcome to Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, president of
Moody Bible Institute and senior pastor of New Life Community
Church in Chicago. My name is Wayne Shepherd. Well, Mark,
your whole premise for this series has been how to
live as a believer in difficult circumstances, in this culture
that's antagonistic, and how do we survive in our faith
in that culture?

S2 (00:56):
Wayne, I don't think there's anybody that's been following Jesus
for any time that does not know the sting of
spiritual attack. I mean, it is vicious and it is
ongoing and it is incessant. And these days it's strong.
And so it's not if you're going to be spiritually attacked,

(01:17):
it's when you're going to be spiritually attacked. And so
this passage powerfully sets us up to be able to
survive the attack that's coming your way.

S1 (01:28):
Thankfully, God's Word speaks to this issue. So let's turn
there now. First Peter chapter five, verse five.

S2 (01:34):
It says in the same way you who are younger
submit yourself to the elders. All of you clothe yourselves
with humility towards one another, because God opposes the proud,
but he shows favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God, that he may lift
you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on

(01:57):
him because he cares for you. Be alert and sober minded.
Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion
looking for someone to devour. Resist him. Stand firm in
the faith, because you know that the family of believers
throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering.

(02:18):
Word of the Lord. Alright, so if you're taking notes,
I want you to write this down. I'm going to
give you five things you need to understand to prepare
for spiritual attack. Number one, you need you need to
embrace an attitude of humility. Now, Peter starts in this

(02:40):
chapter by speaking to spiritual leaders, and he talks to elders.
And by the way, if you've been around the church,
God has established a church. And when we call when
we say elders New Life Community church, we have a
group of elders, that doesn't mean that they're old people.
It just is a term that means that they are

(03:01):
spiritual leaders that have been given the commission. The ministry
of overseeing the spiritual health of a congregation. They're called elders.
We meet with those elders on a regular basis. The
Bible has qualifications for elders, and it's their responsibility to
watch over the spiritual well-being of the congregation. And so

(03:26):
Peter is addressing elders, first of all. And by the way,
how many of you know that oftentimes, if the enemy
wants to really derail a large group of people, he
will attack the leaders first. And that's why I would
encourage you to pray for the pastors of New Life

(03:49):
Community Church and the elders of this church on a
regular basis, that God would protect their hearts, that they
would walk in purity, that they would be discernment, that
they would that they would withstand the attacks of the
enemy because the enemy always seems to attack. First of all,
the leaders to try to derail. And on a side note,
by the way, can I say that my heart is

(04:11):
incredibly grieved when I hear of a pastor that's either
fallen in moral failure or financial impropriety, or goes through
a divorce in their life? And I've been a pastor
long enough to know over 30 years, and I've had
so many pastors that I've known that were men of men,

(04:36):
women of God, who God had called, who were living
a life. But my heart is grieved when I see
they've had to step out of ministry sometimes because their
marriage fell apart, or because there was moral failure. And
people ask me sometimes and approach me and say, well, well, pastor,
when you see that happen, don't aren't you like mad
and shocked? Like, how could they? And my response is always, no.

(05:01):
I understand how they could, because every single one of us,
whether a pastor or not, a pastor, you have a
heart that has the flesh in it, and it's by
the grace of God that we stand. So our response
when we hear someone has fallen from the faith should
not be to throw rocks. It should be to get

(05:21):
on our knees and say, Lord, help me to stand strong.
And Lord, pray for them that they may be restored
as well. And so the Apostle Peter, he's speaking to
first of all, spiritual elders, and he talks to them
first of all about elders and standing strong and living. Right.
And then he shifts in verse five and he addresses

(05:45):
a broader audience. And then he says, all of you,
he's speaking about spiritual leaders, first of all. Then he
switches because all of us come under attack. And he says,
all of you clothe yourselves with humility 80 towards one
another because God opposes the proud but shows favor to

(06:07):
the humble. Now, you may not understand exactly why, in
fighting a spiritual battle, Peter would emphasize humility, because normally
when we think of a spiritual battle, we think the
opposite of humility. Have you ever seen warriors getting ready

(06:27):
for the battle? And they kind of chant and they
scream and they cheer each other up and they pound
their chest, and you see these war movies and they're
hitting their shields with their spears and making noise. It's
the opposite. It feels like it's the opposite of humility.
It's courage. It's strength. It's. Hey, look at me. Don't
dare to attack me. And so when we're getting ready

(06:49):
for battle, I remember when I was a wrestler, um,
in high school and on a wrestling team, there was
guys that would, uh, on the opposite team that they
would come up and they would always, like, jump up
and get ready and then run to the front and
look at you like this. You know, they were they
were letting you know, hey, don't mess with me. It
was an intimidation. Like, I'm strong, I'm tough. Don't mess

(07:11):
with me. And so this idea of humility seems opposite
to winning a battle. Yet in the spiritual realm, what
God is saying is that part of the strength that
you have to overcome a spiritual attack is exactly the
power of humility. In fact, this is what he says.

(07:33):
He says, all of you clothe yourselves with humility. In
other words, put on an attitude of humility towards one another, because.
And then he goes on to tell us why humility
is so important in winning these battles. Listen, because God
opposes the proud. That word there God opposes This is

(08:00):
a very strong word. It means it's a it's a
verb that vividly pictures God as one who places himself
in battle array against someone. In other words, the idea
is that when someone is proud, God pits himself against

(08:20):
the proud. As someone that's ready to do battle with
someone that's proud. The Bible says that God hates a
proud heart. And if you want to lose the favor
and grace of God, quickly let pride enter into your
heart and it will quickly sabotage your ability to live

(08:43):
for God. In fact, if you study Scripture and find
out a little bit about we talk about Satan or
the devil or the enemy, we use those that terminology.
But ultimately, if you study the if you study the
history of Lucifer, a angel that was really set apart

(09:05):
to guard the glory of God. You will see that
it was pride as he exalted himself, as he was
around the things of God, and as he guarded the
glory of God, he started to touch the glory of God.
He started to want some of that for himself. He
started to elevate himself. And as he was around the
holy things, he said, I want some of that for me.

(09:26):
And it was that that caused this angelic being to
fall that we know now as Lucifer or the devil.
But he wasn't always that way was pride that made
him fall. And what what Scripture says over and over,
not just in this passage, but it says that God
opposes the proud, but he gives grace keros unmerited favor,

(09:54):
undeserved goodwill to the humble. In other words, picture it
this way that the moment that you get a proud heart,
the moment that you start to elevate yourself. And how
does pride show up? Pride shows up in lack of prayer.
Pride shows up in you taking the glory for things
that belong to God. Pride shows up in your oh,

(10:15):
I'm hitting someone here in your unwillingness to say I
was wrong. To ask forgiveness, to humble yourself and initiate reconciliation.
Pride shows up when you look down at others who
have fallen and are weak, and you act like that
could never be you. And instead of trying to go

(10:37):
along and help people out, you cast criticism and judgment
upon them. Pride shows up in arrogant, rude attitude towards
other people. Pride shows up like our opinion is the
only opinion that matters and no one else is right
or wrong around us. Pride shows up and when we're worshiping,
I refuse to humble myself before the King of Kings

(10:59):
and Lord of Lords, because people may look at me
and think that I'm less pride, opposes itself to worship,
opposes itself to humility, opposes itself to the fruit of
the spirit of meekness and temperance and love. Pride sets
itself as an ultimate bastion against the grace and mercy

(11:21):
of God. Can I say this? Listen, pride is that
incognito sin? It's like carbon monoxide in the house. It goes.
It's imperceptible at times. You don't know it's there because

(11:44):
you can't really smell it. But it's deadly. And we've
all heard the tragedy of someone where some furnace was, uh,
the oxygen wasn't able to get out, and suddenly the
carbon monoxide goes through the house and the family ends
up dead because they can't smell it. They can't see it.
It's an invisible disease, but it's deadly. And listen, in

(12:04):
the spiritual world, we see in morality and we can
call it out. We see drunkenness and we can call
it out. We see certain sins that someone's worshiping an
idol falling away from God. We see it and we
call it out. But pride, oh man, pride can seep
itself into a church, into spiritual people. It suddenly gets

(12:28):
itself into there. And in the spiritual realm, it looks
like the heart of a Pharisee. In the spiritual realm,
it shows up by we become very, very religious, but
we use our religiosity to pump ourselves up, to elevate ourselves.
We pray not so God can hear us, but so

(12:48):
others can hear us. We put on a veneer of
spirituality so others will will pat ourselves, pat us on
the back and say, well, you're really spiritual, you're really good.
And it puffs us up a little bit. We're more
concerned about what other people think than really what our
heart is before God. We are concerned about appearances and

(13:08):
the opinions of others more than a genuine sense of
what God says about us. We refuse to come to
the altar when it's time for prayer. When God has
convicted us because we think others may think that we
have issues or problems which we all know you have anyways.

S1 (13:30):
You're listening to Mark Jobe on Bold Steps weekend, and
Mark will return in a moment with more of this message.
But before we continue, I want to make sure you
know that you can revisit these messages by going to
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(13:51):
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(14:14):
in Bible feature that puts Scripture right at your fingertips.
Download the app for free today from your App Store. Well,
let's return now to Mark's message How to Survive a
Spiritual Attack.

S2 (14:33):
And the Bible says God resists the proud. Not only
does he resist, he sets himself in battle array against
the proud Christian or non-Christian. But he gives grace favor. Undeserved,
unmerited favor flows when he finds a heart that is humble,

(14:58):
a heart that acknowledges, I need God. A heart that
says I don't have it all together. A heart that
says I can be corrected. I asked for forgiveness when
I needed to ask for forgiveness. I acknowledge my sin.
I know that I am weak and I need the
grace and strength of God. I don't have it all together.

(15:20):
I'm a broken person in desperate need of God's goodness
in my life. That's humility. The grace of God is
pushed away by pride, but the grace of God is
attracted to humility, like mosquitoes, to a good bite on

(15:44):
a summer day. And basically, the grace of God is attracted.
There's a scent that attracted. It's like a a an
aroma that draws the grace of God. When God smells humility,
when he perceives humility, then the favor of God, the unmerited,

(16:07):
undeserved favor of God starts to flow towards a heart
that is humble before God Almighty. And that's why he
says in verse six, humble yourselves therefore y. Therefore, again
you've heard the expression, when anytime you see the word, therefore,
you ask that after yourself, why is it therefore it's
building on a previous thought. Because God's favor flows towards

(16:31):
the humble. He says, therefore, humble yourselves under God's mighty hand,
that he oh, listen to me, that he may lift
you up. Aren't you happy that as God that can
lift you up, that you don't have to strive and
fight and push and press and connive and manipulate to

(16:53):
try to be lifted up? Some of you just need
to let go and stop trying and just say, God,
I'm going to humble myself before you. I'm going to
do what's right before you. I'm going to let you
fight some of my battles that I cannot fight, because
then God will lift you up when you operate in
a spirit of humility. By the way, it's not the

(17:16):
only place that it says it. In James chapter four,
which is a parallel passage, I would call it Scripture.
It says James chapter four, verse six through ten. It says,
that is why Scripture says God opposes the proud but
shows favor to the humble. Submit yourselves, then to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come
near to God, and he will come near to you.

(17:37):
Verse ten. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will
lift you up, because he shows favor to the humble.
So the first thing that I would say is you're
preparing for a spiritual battle. If you're in the middle
of a spiritual battle right now, that's intense. That's powerful.
I would Encourage you to do the opposite of what

(18:01):
a lot of what I would call prosperity preachers would
tell you to do. Some of you are looking at
yourself in the mirror and saying, you've heard this being
told to you. You need to look yourself in the
mirror and saying, I'm a champion, I'm a winner. I
can do this, I am great, I am strong, I
am powerful. And that's what you look. You look yourself

(18:21):
in the mirror and you say, that's who I am.
No one can mess with me. I'm strong, I'm powerful,
I'm great. I'm confident, I'm courageous. I'm smart. And you
go out to fight the battle and you fall flat
on your face. Because in essence, what you're doing is
you're pumping up your pride. You're focusing on yourself. And
some of you in Sid need to get on your

(18:42):
knees and say, I am weak and I am in
need of God, and my confidence is not in myself
and my strength and my ability and my verbal expression.
My confidence comes from God. And no, I am not strong.
And no, I am not super intelligent, but I depend
on the intelligence of God and the power of God

(19:03):
and the grace of God. Some of you need to
do the opposite of pumping yourself up. You need to
lean in and press in to the power and goodness
of God. Let me just be honest with you today.
One of my great fears is that I would cross

(19:26):
lines of pride and arrogance or touch the glory. And
that God would somehow have to humble me. I I'm
reminded of Nebuchadnezzar as he went out, and he saw

(19:47):
what he had done, and people pumped him up, and
he looked at what he had achieved, and his heart
became haughty. And God said, yeah, you want to be haughty,
I'm going to show you. And he humbled himself, and
for seven years gave him the mind of an animal,
and he walked around in the palace that he had
created in the backyard, eating grass like an animal, his

(20:07):
mind out naked, long hair, nails growing like a wild beast.
Because God said, you will not raise yourself up. I
will humble you if I have to. Leaders are in
a dangerous place because people come up to leaders and
they say, oh, you're this or you're that. I tell
all the leaders that I that I raise and coach
don't believe, don't believe the headlines. Don't let your heart get.

(20:31):
Don't let your head get real big. When people come
up to you and say. You're such a man of God. Oh,
you're the only one. Oh, you're so anointed. Don't believe
the press. Don't let your heart get pumped up too
much with accolades. And again, don't let your heart get
too low with criticism because they both will come and
stay in a place of asking yourself, Lord, are you

(20:52):
pleased with me? Lord, are you pleased with me? Whether
no one in the world is pleased? If God is
pleased with you, then you are in the right place
at the right time with the right attitude. Secondly, not
only does he say humble yourself if you're going to

(21:12):
survive a spiritual attack, he says this. Throw all your
anxiety on God.

S1 (21:27):
How to survive a spiritual attack. As the title of
today's lesson on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe, it's
part one of Mark's final message in his series headlines
Navigating Life in Two Worlds. If you've missed any part
of this study so far, let me invite you to
catch up right now when you visit Bold steps.org. As
a listener supported ministry, Bold Steps Weekend relies on the

(21:49):
voluntary donations of friends like you who share our vision.
And right now you can give a one time gift
or sign up to become a bold partner when you
commit to giving a monthly donation of any amount for
either opportunity. Just click the donate button on our website.
Or call us at 800. That's [phone]. Well, Mark, we

(22:15):
are very excited about our bold step gift this month
is called Lies Girls Believe and the truth that Sets
them Free. Now the author, Dannah Gresh is with us.
And Dana, I want to commend you because not only
is this book so full of wisdom, biblical wisdom and insight,
but you've organized it in such a fun way. I

(22:35):
would imagine young girls look at this and think, I
want to pick this up and read this.

S3 (22:39):
I hope so, you thrill my heart saying that. That makes.
Thank you. Because years ago I was a cheerleader in
a Christian high school, and my cheerleading coach did a
Devo with me on the Bible verse. I don't know
the reference, but it says whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might. And if you're listening

(23:00):
and you've done devos with teenagers listens. They stick with
you for years. For decades that that DeVoe has stuck
with me. And I've always wanted to do anything I do.
I wanted to give Jesus my best. So when we
wrote Lies, Girls Believe, I went to the bookstore, the bookstore.
And I looked at the bookshelves and I said, what
are the best books here that are being sold to

(23:23):
these tween girls? And I picked up books with cartoons,
and I picked up books with graphics and art and
just thrilling, fun books. And I was like, lies girls
believe is gonna look like that. And I think it does.
I really think it does. I think it's absolutely beautiful.
So thank you for saying that. I think it matters
and it draws them through the content. It keeps them

(23:44):
engaged in the content, and it makes it a really
fun experience for them.

S1 (23:48):
Well, it's so creative the way that you've done it here, Mark.
I just think it's it's going to really have hit
the mark with these young girls.

S2 (23:55):
Absolutely. I'm holding a copy in my hand scrolling through
the pages.

S1 (23:59):
And.

S2 (23:59):
There is great compelling artwork, creative, colorful design specifically for
8 to 12 year olds. But more important even than
the art. Is the message so important? So if you're
a mother that's struggling with how to reach the heart
of your 8 to 12 year old, or how to
help them navigate some of the peer pressure that they're

(24:22):
experiencing at school, or if they're asking spiritual questions or
asking questions about sex, identity, who they are. This is
not a topic or time that you can ignore. You
need to jump in that and disciple your daughters. So
this tool is specifically designed for that. Thank you Dana.

S3 (24:44):
My pleasure. Thank you so much.

S1 (24:46):
To request your copy of Lies Girls Believe, just give
a gift of any amount to support Bold Steps weekend
by going online to Bold steps.org. Or call us today
at 800 Moody. You can even send your check in
the mail. Just address your envelope to bold steps. 820
North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. That's bold. Steps

(25:08):
820 North LaSalle, Chicago, Illinois 606 ten. And quickly, before
we close, I want to invite you to download our
Bold Steps app available in your app store. We've got
a range of really cool videos and insightful teaching series
available for you there, so be sure to download and
check out the Bold Steps app. It's free! It's in
your app store. I'm Wayne Shepard, that's all the time

(25:31):
we have today, but be sure to come back next
weekend when Mark continues explaining how to survive a spiritual attack.
Be clear minded in your faith that you learn how
to live as a believer in a culture that's antagonistic.
That message coming up and you'll hear it next time
on Bold Steps Weekend with Mark Jobe. Bold steps is
a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.