On August 27, 2023, Pastor Jerry stood before our church with a declaration, saying, “We are under attack.” This is not a personal attack with words or bullets, but rather is a spiritual attack. 1 Peter 5:8–9 says, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
Similarly, the apostle Paul said in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Peter and Paul both warn us that the enemy of our souls, Satan, and his band of cohorts, his demonic horde, are always on the watch, trying to get Christians to fall.
For some, the attacks come as strong temptations to our besetting sins. For others, it is a physical attack against their health. For still others it is a battlefield of the mind for control of thought life.
For some time, our elders prayed through this situation, discerning what to do about this increased spiritual warfare that our church is engaged in. After much prayer and thought, we discerned the Lord leading us to do a church wide study on spiritual warfare. From January 7 – February 25, 2024, the weekly sermons will be geared toward equipping all of us to engage in this spiritual warfare. Additionally, our small groups will have a study on spiritual warfare called, “The Invisible War” by Chip Ingram. This 8 week intensive study will take us through what we must do to engage in the battle that the enemy of our souls is waging against us.
I am asking, no more like begging, each of you to join us in worship every Sunday in January and February and to attend a small group each week for these two months. The goal is to do what Paul taught us in Ephesians 4:11–12, “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” The elders’ and pastors’ jobs are to equip each of you to do the work of service for the Lord and in this case, that work of service is to fight and engage in the spiritual battle that we are facing.
There will be sign-up sheets on the Missions bulletin board in the lobby for small groups. If you have a small group already, then there is nothing for you to do except attend your group. If you are not plugged into a small group, we encourage you to find a group that meets your schedule and plan to attend each week. Some of our groups are full because the home that hosts the group cannot accept any new members (e.g. the group that meets in our home is at 12 and our living room is packed with everyone there.) However, we do have a number of groups with plenty of openings to accommodate anyone who does not have a small group. Also, if we have more people desiring to get in a small group than we have openings, we will launch some additional new small groups as well.
Our goal, over the next 60 days, is to remind each of us about the spiritual battle in which we are engaged and to equip us to resist the devil and his schemes against us. May the Lord work through us to experience many spiritual victories in 2024.
Happy New Year!
Pastor Tom
