Life Lessons from Jeremiah Pt. 7: Real Spiritual Warfare By Louie Marsh, 6-14-2026 1) Ever felt like God has TRICKED you? "7O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me. 8For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. (Jeremiah 20:7–8, ESV) "6know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me." (Job 19:6, ESV) then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me. (Job 19:6, NIV) . 2) If I'm called by God, I must ANSWER that call. 9If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. (Jeremiah 20:9, ESV) "16For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! 17For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but if not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship. 18What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel." (1 Corinthians 9:16–18, ESV) 3) Doubt & fear work to DESTROY me. 10For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him." (Jeremiah 20:10, ESV) 4) But God will OVERCOME them. 11But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. 12O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause. (Jeremiah 20:11-12, ESV) 5) I must WORSHIP Him for delivering me. 13Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers. (Jeremiah 20:13, ESV) 6) Be PREPARED for the struggle to continue. 14Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed! 15Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is born to you," making him very glad. 16Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon, 17because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great. 18Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?" (Jeremiah 20:14–18, ESV) "3He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted." (Isaiah 53:3–4, ESV)