The “when things are going good” syndrome.

• Deuteronomy 6:11-12 (NLT) – The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, ¹² be careful not to forget the Lord, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
• 2 Timothy 3:4b-5a (NLT) – They will … love pleasure rather than God. ⁵ They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.

Then the enemy, Satan and his imps, comes in like a roaring lion.

• 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT) – Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 
• The devil’s job is to wear out God’s people – Daniel 7:25 (KJV) – And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
• But we are told not grow weary in well doing –Galatians 6:9 (NKJV) – And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

But we got some roar too!

• Why? Because there’s a Lion in you also! – Revelation 5:5 (NKJV) – But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.”
• We too must be violent (strong and forceful) and not give up to advance the kingdom of God – Matthew 11:12.

And the believer must stay in fight mode.

• Fight mode is the norm for the believing believer – 2 Timothy 4:7 (NKJV) – I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
• Are weapons are not normal – – 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NKJV) – For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
• The Old Testament battles show us the right way (and the wrong way) to fight – Joshua chapters 6-7 & Isaiah 37:36.
• Matthew 6:33 – But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Lawlessness must be confronted!

• 2 Thessalonians 2:2-3 (NLT) – Don’t be so easily shaken or alarmed by those who say that the day of the Lord has already begun. Don’t believe them, even if they claim to have had a spiritual vision, a revelation, or a letter supposedly from us. ³ Don’t be fooled by what they say. For that day will not come until there is a great rebellion against God and the man of lawlessness is revealed—the one who brings destruction.
• But we, the Church, are called to restrain lawlessness – 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7 (NLT) – And you know what is holding him back, for he can be revealed only when his time comes. 7 For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way.