Rabbi Schneider - The Word is Your Sword
I want to reach out to all my brothers and sisters today. I want you to know God has called you to be free. The call on your life and your destiny is to be happy. Jesus has given us his joy. This is abundant life. Jesus said, I have come to give life and have come to give it abundantly. Now think about this in relationship to what I just said, that God's call in our life is it would be free. We'd be happy, right? That we'd have peace. And we'd have peace. We'd have peace. But like Israel, that was promised a territory that we call the Promised Land.
But in order to anchor the Promised Land and take possession of it, they had to first drive the enemies out. And God was with them as they took territory and drove the enemy out. And the Lord said, I'm not going to drive out your enemies all at once, but I'm going to drive them up before you little by little. So the Hebrew Bible was written, Paul said, for our instruction. In other words, the stories in the Hebrew Bible, the stories of the Israelites, the patriarchs, the words of the prophets. Paul told us in the New Testament, when all that was recorded for us, for you and I, as New Testament believers, those of us in the New Covenant upon whom the end of the ages has come, in other words, the things written about in the Hebrew Bible are applicable for our life today is we're following Jesus.
And what I've just said is, is that God called Israel to the Promised Land, but in order to take possession of the Promised Land, they had to drive out the Amorite, the Hittites, the Jebusites and all the other sites. And they were driven out little by little. Today we're not driving out Amorite, and Hittites and Jebusites. We're driving out fear and worry and unbelief. Fear and worry and unbelief are our enemies. There are the Jebusites , Hittites, Amorite, and all the other rights today.
Now, listen what Paul said. Be anxious because that's the enemy. Be anxious for nothing. But in everything, by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus as we drive the enemy out, by calling upon God to help us, by rejecting anxiety and fear and we grow.
We grow in strength so that more and more we're able to shut it out as we seize God's Word and replace thoughts of anxiety with thoughts that are based in the word right. For example, God will help you. You will overcome. God is going to be there for you tomorrow. That neither height or depth or anything is going to separate you from His love. But God is causing all things to work together for good in your life. When you begin to replace thoughts of worry and anxiety with God's word about His written word.
You know what happens then? The peace of God comes in and guards your heart and your mind. Friend, beloved brother, sister, you're in a fight. Pick up the weapons of warfare. Paul said Our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and forces. A spiritual wickedness put on my friends the armor of God and warfare and fight, drive, anxiety and fear out of your life. Trusting that God is with you and using His Word as a sword to come against it.