Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Good evening, East Rock family and visitors. Do we got any visitors? If we do, good evening to y', all, too. Glad you can make it.
[00:00:14] So we're gonna be in Ephesians 6 tonight talking about the armor of God. And there's sort of. I've noticed there's two kinds of extremes that people tend to gravitate to. When you're talking about spiritual things, even among believers, it's kind of strange, but this might ring true for you.
[00:00:33] So the first extreme is to say that there is no spiritual forces, no dark spiritual forces at work in our current time. Like, maybe people have come to the conclusion that that stuff was happening in Jesus's time and has since kind of gone away.
[00:00:49] And any problems that exist now, heard people argue, are just because, you know, human depravity. Like, people are messed up, people are broken, and we sin against each other kind of thing.
[00:01:02] Well, I would argue to that that if the Holy Spirit today is working, which he is, we know he is. If you're here today, you know he is. Personally, if the Holy Spirit is doing spiritual works, then doesn't it stand to reason that evil forces are still doing spiritual works? Evil spirits are still doing works. Right?
[00:01:28] So.
[00:01:29] But then there's the other extreme that seems to feel like there's almost demonic forces at work in anything bad that happens in their lives. Like if the car doesn't start, you know, like a demon sabotaged the battery. If you get bit by a mosquito, it was sent specifically to oppress you kind of thing.
[00:01:54] That's hyperbole, of course, but some of you probably know people, or you might be people, if you are that way. I'm not trying to offend you, I promise.
[00:02:05] I'm just saying I think there's a balance in between those two extremes, right?
[00:02:10] Where one says it's all humanity, I don't think that that's accurate. I think it's really clear in Scripture we are against spiritual forces in life.
[00:02:19] But at the same time, those spiritual forces aren't the root cause of everything that goes wrong in our lives.
[00:02:25] Like, that doesn't.
[00:02:28] Those extremes don't leave any room for, like, the fall of creation. Right. You know, it's things were good and things were perfect, and sin and death had not entered the world.
[00:02:41] And it was almost like God had made this perfect, pristine mirror. And when sin and death entered the world, it was like someone took a big rock and threw it right at that mirror and smashed it.
[00:02:53] So the mirror itself still exists, Creation itself still exists. Right. But it's A fractured, splintered version of what it once was.
[00:03:03] Now, the good news is, is that God has promised he's going to come back, he's going to restore it, he's going to set everything right, and there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth.
[00:03:12] But as we get into spiritual armor, taking up the armor of God, I kind of want us to avoid those two extremes if we can.
[00:03:23] All right, so let's read.
[00:03:28] It's a lot of verses. I'm just going to read through them quickly, and then we'll dive right in.
[00:03:34] All right, starting at chapter 6, verse 10 of Ephesians.
[00:03:39] Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
[00:03:47] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand. Therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
[00:04:34] To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplications for all the saints and also for me, that my words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
[00:04:53] All right, so let's pray.
[00:04:56] Lord, just ask that you would open up your word to us tonight, meet us where we're at, speak to us, and just bless us in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:05:09] Okay, so we're coming at the tail end of Ephesians. If I stand away from the mic, can y' all still hear me? Okay. Or should I talk into it more like this?
[00:05:18] Don't do that.
[00:05:20] Do this. Okay.
[00:05:23] Maybe you should take a vote. All right, leaning into the mic, raise your hand. Leaning away. All right.
[00:05:28] All right.
[00:05:30] So we've been in Ephesians for a while. We're coming at the tail end of it.
[00:05:34] If we could go to the next slide.
[00:05:36] Yeah. So Ephesus itself was a big city. It was an important city. It was under Roman rule, Roman occupation.
[00:05:45] It was a trade city. And there was a. At the time, in the ancient world, it was the seventh largest. There was a seventh wonder of the world, which was the Temple of Artemis.
[00:05:55] And the reason why it says Artemis or Diana is because the Greek.
[00:06:00] The Greek God was one and the Roman God was another, but they were essentially the same. So that's why if you study, you might see art. It's the Temple of Artemis or Diana. It's because it's the same God. Just they had different names for was rife with paganism and rife with the occult.
[00:06:19] So as I was looking into this, what I thought was like a really helpful chapter to kind of get better context of what's going on is Acts 19.
[00:06:30] If you haven't read Acts 19 in a while, I'm going to try and summarize it as best I can on the next slide. Yep, I'm going to read out loud. It's. It's more verses, but I promise they're applicable. You don't have to.
[00:06:47] I'm not going to put them on the screen, but I'm going to summarize them because they're relevant, very relevant. Acts 19 starting at verse 11.
[00:06:56] And God was doing extraordinary miracles or extraordinary by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that touched his skin were carried away to the sick. And their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.
[00:07:23] Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil spirit answered them. Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?
[00:07:34] And the man in whom the evil spirit leaped in the man and the man in whom the evil spirit had leaped on them, mastered them, mastered all of them, and overpowered them. And so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.
[00:07:51] Crazy story.
[00:07:53] And this became known to all the residents in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, as we might imagine. Right. This happened in Roxboro. Everybody would know about it.
[00:08:04] And fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled Also. Many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all, and they counted the value of them and found it to be 50,000 pieces of silver.
[00:08:26] So the word of the Lord continued to increase, prevail mightily.
[00:08:31] Okay, so why do I bring that up? Because it's super relevant to what Paul is, the audience Paul is talking to, right?
[00:08:39] So in Acts 19, at the beginning of the chapter, that's kind of when Paul first goes to Ephesus. And from the research I did, it was five to seven years after he left. So five to seven years after this stuff in Acts 19, he's. He writes the letter to the Ephesians. So it's super relevant. They would have all been familiar with the Sons of Skiva. They would have all been familiar with all these events, right?
[00:09:05] So a couple things I want to highlight. There was demonic activity.
[00:09:10] You can see that in verse 11, verse 11 and 12. They're. They're bringing. God is working so mightily through Paul that even his, like, handkerchiefs and aprons, people are like, basically like, Paul, will you please touch this? And then they're bringing it to sick people and they're being healed. Now. I'll just tell you now, Paul has no power. He has no spiritual power whatsoever.
[00:09:34] All. All in any spiritual power, all in any spiritual acts that he's doing come straight from the Lord. But. But Paul has so surrendered his life to the Lord that God is filling him up and doing these miraculous things to start churches, you know, to start new churches and breathe new life into this culture that was all about magic and the occult and, you know, temple prostitution and just all this, like, this long list of things that totally go against God's word.
[00:10:10] The Sons of Sceva.
[00:10:13] It's a crazy story.
[00:10:14] If you ever get into a fight and somebody is able to beat you up to the point where they can then tear all your clothes off and kick you out of the house, you've gotten beat pretty bad.
[00:10:26] Thank goodness that has never happened to anyone. I know, but imagine if it were in Roxboro, even five years later, seven years later, we'd all be like, hey, remember that time when so and so got the pants beat off of them? Literally.
[00:10:44] But the. The cool thing that happens, right?
[00:10:47] And why did that happen? We can't spend a ton of time as to why that happened, but basically they didn't have a relationship with Jesus is. Is why that happened. They tried to use God's name, invoke the name of Jesus, like they had seen and heard Paul had been doing, and they wanted some of that Glory for themselves. So they go and try and do it, but they don't know Jesus.
[00:11:08] And that's a big problem. And that's why the demon says, jesus. I know, Paul. I've heard about. Who are you? Right?
[00:11:16] So, yeah, because of this, there's a great revival, right? Everybody gets scared, and everybody. The name of Jesus is extolled. It says, like, the name of Jesus is lifted high.
[00:11:30] And why do I think there's a great revival? Because I looked into it, and it says they burned, like, 50,000. It was, like, worth 50,000 pieces of silver or 50,000 drachma.
[00:11:42] And that equates to about 50,000.
[00:11:45] A drachma was given for, like, a day's wage. So it's like, if you work an entire day, here's one drachma kind of thing.
[00:11:53] So in that little passage, it's saying they burned potentially millions, tens of millions of dollars worth of occult, like books, like their magic books that they had been putting all their faith in, all the. All these magical scrolls that they had bought. This was a big revival. It was a big deal. And people. They weren't reselling them, if you notice. They're not reselling them. They probably could have in that. In that trade city where the occult was so easily practiced. But, man, they burn them all as an offering to the Lord, almost as a way of repentance.
[00:12:30] So the last thing. There's a large riot later in the chapter where basically a lot of wicked merchants, they're silversmiths, and their bottom line is being interrupted. And it's being interrupted because so many people are turning away from idol worship, turning away from buying all that occult, like, stuff that they might be using.
[00:12:56] And they're turning to Christianity, they're turning to Jesus.
[00:13:01] And I got to thinking, like, man, what would that be like in America today? Like, how. How glorious a day would it be if, like, all the drug stores and, you know, all the drug manufacturers and drug dealers that are, you know, just, like, producing drugs and pumping them into America or pumping them into communities would. If they just had no more customers, you know, like, they just had to stop because it was no longer valuable for them. It was a no longer valuable use of their time. Like, what would it be like if all the sex trafficking stopped? What it be like if all the abortion clinics shut down? What. What would it be like if all the. The porn sites just shut down because nobody was visiting them anymore? You know, like a glorious day. That would be.
[00:13:50] I pray that that day comes.
[00:13:57] Yeah, I pray that that day comes.
[00:14:03] So why do I bring all that up? Because it's into this culture that Paul writes, right?
[00:14:09] And he's going to give them three spiritual commands. He's going to say, be strong in the Lord, the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God, and pray without ceasing for your church, for your brothers and sisters. And we're going to get into each one of those. But before we do, we're kind of lucky because Paul gives us a why we should do those things, too.
[00:14:33] You know, as a Christian, you're not always given a why. You're not always given a God says to do this. And here is exactly why God says to do this.
[00:14:44] There's a lot of things you just have to take with faith, right? I think somebody mentioned baptism in the first service. I think Tim mentioned it. Baptism in the first service, sermon. Like, why? What's the best reason for baptizing people? Because God tells us to do it.
[00:15:01] So there's, there's a lot of good reasons to do things. But I want to spend. Spend a few minutes on the why, because that will help us understand, like, what we're then supposed to do, if that makes sense.
[00:15:16] All right, so reason number one.
[00:15:20] We have a very real enemy, and that enemy is actively scheming against us.
[00:15:27] That's a good reason. If you look at the end of verse 11 and Ephesians 6:11, if someone's scheming against you, that means they are actively trying to attack your life in some way. They are, like, looking at your life and they're looking for an opening to try and hurt you in some way, right?
[00:15:51] And we know a lot more about the devil. We know a lot more about the enemy. Our enemy.
[00:15:57] Through other verses, right?
[00:15:59] John 10:10, we know he's come to steal, kill and destroy.
[00:16:03] Not just us, but our loved ones, our children, our husbands, our wives, our parents, our neighbors, anybody.
[00:16:13] That is his chief objective in life, right? To steal our joy, to steal anything he can, to kill anybody he can and destroy anything he can.
[00:16:23] We also know John 8. 44, he's the father of lies. He's been doing it from the beginning.
[00:16:30] And we know from 1st Peter 5:8, he wants to devour us, almost like he wants to devour our very soul. And he lurks around like a lion who's looking for a meal, and he's looking around to see who he might attack next.
[00:16:47] And so during studying this passage, I listened to several, several preachers. And one question I heard a preacher say that I thought was really valuable Was like, if you were the devil, how would you attack your life?
[00:17:05] Like, let's say.
[00:17:07] Let's say I'm the devil and I'm trying to attack John. How would I go about it? You know?
[00:17:13] Um, and if you just kind of really pause and think about that question, then maybe some of the hardships in your life, maybe some of the struggles in your life will become more clear, right? Like, well, it does make sense that Satan might attack me in that way, you know, So I just thought that was a really valuable question.
[00:17:34] All right, so that's the why, number one, right? Because we have a very real enemy who's actively scheming against us.
[00:17:43] Can we go to the next slide? Yeah. So reason number two, we wrestle with spiritual forces.
[00:17:50] Therefore we need spiritual solutions. Like, it seems pretty straightforward, right?
[00:17:57] I can't muster anything spiritual by myself. I can't make anything spiritual happen as much as I might try.
[00:18:04] If anything spiritual is going to happen, it's going to be because of the Lord.
[00:18:10] And what we're facing is an organized intentional evil.
[00:18:17] And it's spiritual forces that are in heavenly places.
[00:18:21] So it's kind of strange for us to think about, but basically we've got like a heavenly, heavenly realm, right? And we've got an earthly realm. And it is very clear that somehow, some way or another, they intersect.
[00:18:37] I don't know if they overlap. I don't know if they intersect, you know, different places or. I don't know how it works. But I do know that there's a heavenly realm, an earthly realm, and there are places where those two intersect.
[00:18:56] You know, in studying this, I looked into, like, what a lot of the old church fathers thought about these verses.
[00:19:03] Like, what does it mean to that we have spiritual, like, principalities and forces of evil against us. What does that even mean? And what does it mean in our context?
[00:19:14] Well, I thought it was really interesting because, like, normally when you look into that stuff, it's there's not always a consensus.
[00:19:20] Like, sometimes people are all over the place. You know, like one church, Father Augustine would say this, but Origen would say that, and Chrysostom would have this. And, you know, a Kinius or Quinius, however you say his name, would think something else.
[00:19:37] There was, like, large consensus on this. And the consensus was, ultimately we don't wrestle against other people.
[00:19:45] Like, if someone is opposing you because you're like, you're trying to do something for the Lord and someone is, like, actively opposing you, they are not your enemy.
[00:19:56] Like, they're a slave to sin, they're hellbound. They're being used of Satan, and they need your prayers and they need your grace and mercy and love more than anybody.
[00:20:08] So this, I feel like this couldn't come at a more appropriate time in our. In our culture.
[00:20:17] I am like, Casey, I didn't study. I wasn't like a Charlie Kirk fan.
[00:20:23] I had seen him do a couple arguments and I was like, well, you know, that's a smart way to reply to that.
[00:20:29] You know, I felt like he was a good orator, a good debater, but I didn't, like, study his works or anything until after he was murdered.
[00:20:37] And I was like, what? You know, I had to see, why is everybody so angry about this guy? And that's really when I started being more and more convinced that this guy loved the Lord.
[00:20:49] I don't think he did everything, every argument, perfectly and humble and this and that, but, man, it's clear he loved God. To me, I have no doubt.
[00:20:59] But I've seen, and I'm sure you've seen, because, you know, we live in the same society that you've got people that are cheering, like, cheering that he has. He was, like, shot and murdered in front of his family and children.
[00:21:13] And obviously that's wrong.
[00:21:16] He was not a dictator.
[00:21:18] He didn't kill a bunch of people. Like, he was literally just speaking his mind peacefully when he was shot.
[00:21:24] So, like, of course that is wrong.
[00:21:28] But because of that, you've also got this big uprising, right, of, like, I would say, justifiable anger, where people are like, enough is enough. Like, this guy didn't do anything wrong and you're celebrating his death and we need to take up arms and we need to get one of your people. You know, I've seen a lot of that, a lot of violence encouraged.
[00:21:51] And while that does resonate with me, it really does. Like, I was really mad, I was really upset. I didn't even know the guy.
[00:21:59] But the fact that I felt like I saw something of me and him, I felt like I saw, like, just, you know, Christians in general in him.
[00:22:11] It really kind of was upsetting to me. So I get that gut, visceral reaction.
[00:22:18] But we don't fight against flesh and blood.
[00:22:23] The answer for the church, the response for the church is not to encourage more violence or to go out and seek vengeance or any of that. Our weapons are not this world. They're not carnal, they're spiritual.
[00:22:39] And there's just no place for personal vengeance when you're following Jesus.
[00:22:45] And again, the reason why is because these people that are standing against Christians.
[00:22:53] They're not our enemies. You can think of them like pawns. You can think of them as, you know, puppets, however you want to, but they are being influenced by Satan and they honestly need deliverance.
[00:23:08] And you could say, man, I don't want to pray for that person. I don't want to be nice to that person. But they're in the exact same state that you and I were before we knew the Lord. The exact same state. Hellbound, separated from God, in desperate need of God's grace and mercy and love.
[00:23:25] So, man, what would Jesus do in that situation?
[00:23:30] He would love. I'm convinced he would love them.
[00:23:36] That might be a hot take. I don't know. I have no idea what y' all think, but I have a hard enough time figuring out what I think about things.
[00:23:47] But I will say it's very scriptural. Second Corinthians 10, you know, Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verses three through five. I'm just going to throw some verses out. Yeah.
[00:24:00] Our weapons of warfare are not of the flesh, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds.
[00:24:07] How powerful was it when his wife said, I forgive that man.
[00:24:12] Man, my goodness.
[00:24:15] What. What a powerful testimony. Sh.
[00:24:20] Who.
[00:24:22] Romans 12.
[00:24:25] Repay no evil for evil. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good.
[00:24:31] And 1st Thessalonians 5:15 says something very similar, as does 1st Peter, do not repay evil for evil.
[00:24:41] So those are the two whys. We have a very real enemy who's scheming against us. And at the end of the day, we don't fight against flesh and blood. We fight against a lot of evil forces that are trying to destroy us, destroy our families, destroy everybody we love.
[00:24:59] So we need to armor up. We need to ruck up.
[00:25:05] So let's get into the first command that Paul gives us right for doing, for being able to withstand these forces when they come.
[00:25:16] The first is be strong.
[00:25:19] Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Verse 10. Right. The very first verse, I got to thinking about this, and at least me, I don't know if it's just me, but sometimes I feel like the Christian life is like bench pressing.
[00:25:35] I'm terrible at bench pressing, so it's like a bad example for me. Just personally, I've never been good at it, but basically, you lay on a. Lay on a bench, you get a bar on your chest, and you try and push it up like this, like a push up on your back sort of thing, and you got weight.
[00:25:52] And I think a lot of Christians.
[00:25:55] Maybe I won't speak forever. At least me, I'll go back to me.
[00:26:00] Sometimes I can think that our spiritual walk is like, I'm just going to do the best I can. I will lift as much as I can.
[00:26:08] And then when I get in trouble, I got my good buddy Jesus to spot me and help me do my reps, you know, and it doesn't matter what amount of weight I put on, because Jesus has got my back now. To some extent, that's true, but I think it's a lot more like we're not even on the bench.
[00:26:26] Jesus has lifted the weight. Like, he's already done the work. Him, God the Father, the Holy Spirit, they are the ones lifting, and we're not even spotting. We couldn't even spot the weight. All we do is we say, hey, everybody, look.
[00:26:41] Look what God is doing. Look what God has done.
[00:26:44] He has lifted the weight of sin and death off of anybody who would believe in him.
[00:26:50] And so it's been helpful for me to think of it like that, you know, like, again, I have no spiritual power.
[00:27:00] I can't save anybody. I can't. Even if I do my very best and give the very best sermon I ever could possibly do, for me, it would not be enough to save a single soul or encourage a single soul to do anything godly.
[00:27:16] If anyone is led to do anything, it's because of the Lord.
[00:27:21] So we have to, like, how do we tap into that power? Right? How do we.
[00:27:26] How do we even practically do that? Like, be strong and be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
[00:27:37] It's. There's a saying I like that's.
[00:27:41] That's thrown around here sometimes where it's like an unguarded strength is a double weakness.
[00:27:47] And I think it's. I. I really do like that.
[00:27:52] I like that idea.
[00:27:55] But I feel like with spiritual matters, you can take it even a step further and just say, like, everything is weakness.
[00:28:02] Like, everything we do is weakness spiritually. Like, we may have different gifts God's given us, but again, if God isn't in it, no spiritual outcome is going to happen.
[00:28:14] Like, we are completely dependent on God's strength.
[00:28:18] So what does that look like? How do we tap into that? I think the very first thing is to recognize that truth. Like, if we're going to do anything spiritual, if anything good is going to come from our lives for God's kingdom, it's not going to be because we did something great or because we have some kind of amazing power.
[00:28:36] It's going to be because we've humbled ourselves before the Lord, and we've just genuinely asked him to please fill us, to please give us his strength.
[00:28:46] And I believe he does, and he will.
[00:28:50] And I got to wondering. I love Samson, the story of Samson, but what would it be like if Samson sought God's strength before calamity struck his life? Like, how different would his. The end of his story have been?
[00:29:07] If you don't know by. By the end of Samson's life? So he had spent his whole life striking down the Philistines, right? His enemy, the enemy of God's people at the time.
[00:29:18] And, you know, through what I view as a matter of pride, he tells, you know, he tells people that his hair is the source of his power. And they cut his hair, they capture him, and they gouge his eyes out, and then they make him his slave, and they parade him around their kingdom, and they just mock him and make him come out and perform for thousands of his enemies.
[00:29:44] And I've often wondered, like, what would it look like if Samson just came to the lord earlier and said, you know, God, I'm really struggling with lust for this Philistine woman, Delilah. God, will you help me? God, I'm really struggling with pride. You've made me so strong. You've given me supernatural strength. And it's hard sometimes to feel like that's not me, and that's from you. God, will you humble me? Will you help me?
[00:30:13] How different would his. His life have been?
[00:30:17] Of course, the. The good news about that story is God, in spite of Samson, shows up at the end and. And helps him.
[00:30:27] But, man, his life would have looked totally different.
[00:30:31] So I guess that's one thing is I would encourage us all, let's not wait till our lives are on fire to seek the Lord. If you're waiting till your life is on fire.
[00:30:44] You know, it's often God can do anything, but, man, people are going to get burnt. People are going to get hurt. You know, it's often too late.
[00:30:58] It's not too late for redemption, but there are lifelong consequences and things like that we all have to live with if we wait too long.
[00:31:06] So I guess that's my one encouragement here is as we seek the lord's strength, seek it today.
[00:31:12] Like, let's not wait until disaster strikes and calamity and we get captured by our enemies or this, that, and the other. Someone gets really sick, man, let's just seek the Lord humbly today and ask for his strength in all areas that we would be filled with the Lord in all areas of our life, that it would. It would work mightily through us.
[00:31:42] Put on the full armor of God. Number two, that you may be able to withstand.
[00:31:53] You may notice in reading these verses that Paul uses the word stand a lot.
[00:31:59] You know, verse 11, stand. Verse 13, withstand or stand against. Verse 14, stand, therefore.
[00:32:09] So this goes back to.
[00:32:11] Paul was a good teacher, right? And he was always looking for ways to try and incorporate what was going on, what people were familiar with, and like, use that to teach a biblical truth.
[00:32:23] And Ephesus, as I mentioned, is under Roman occupation. They've got soldiers posted everywhere. They're very. They're very familiar with Roman soldiers and Roman presence.
[00:32:34] So Paul is going to take the illustration of not just a Roman soldier, but a Roman army itself and some of their formations, and he's going to use that to teach, right?
[00:32:47] So Roman soldiers were trained to hold the line shoulder to shoulder.
[00:32:52] And Paul's readers would have pictured that.
[00:32:56] So the sense here of standing isn't this passive thing where I'm just kind of hanging out.
[00:33:01] It's all. It's very active. It's like a military stance. Like you're getting ready. You're bracing yourself for the battle that you're about to go into.
[00:33:11] It's resolute, it's disciplined, it's intentional standing.
[00:33:16] And again, why are we bracing ourselves?
[00:33:20] Because our enemy is real scheming against us, and because he's got a lot of forces that are also working in this world, and they're working to try and do his will, which is steal, kill, destroy everything I mentioned earlier.
[00:33:35] So because of that, we have to put on the whole armor of God that we may withstand what we're truly up against.
[00:33:45] So we're going to go through these. These different.
[00:33:48] These different pieces of armor. So the belt, when you think of a belt, it holds everything together. I'm wearing one tonight. It's pretty tight, if I'm being honest.
[00:34:01] Maybe a little too tight, actually.
[00:34:06] But the belt holds everything together. If you think about it, it's at, like, the center of your being, and it's like at the core of your being. And it says, put on the belt of truth. And it kind of holds everything else in place.
[00:34:19] And the thing about it is that's interesting is Jesus. He identifies himself as the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:34:28] So I don't know if that's what Paul is getting at here.
[00:34:32] You know, maybe this is just one of my applications and not his original intent, but I do think it's Good advice to just say, put Jesus. Let Jesus be at the center of who you are. Let Jesus be at the core of your life. Just like a belt. Just like your belt you'd put on. It would be at the core of your being. It would hold everything else in place.
[00:34:54] Let Jesus do the same.
[00:35:05] Put on the breastplate of righteousness.
[00:35:07] Now, I don't think it's very mysterious, the breastplate of righteousness, it jumps out to me that it covers the heart.
[00:35:17] So, you know, we have to claim this truth that we are righteous. We have righteousness because of Jesus. Like, we are covered because of Jesus.
[00:35:31] When he died on the cross, it was to pay for your sins, to pay for my sins and not his.
[00:35:36] So let that truth protect our heart from despair.
[00:35:41] Like, when you think you're not worthy, when you think God doesn't love you or God's not a good God.
[00:35:47] That is what that righteousness does, right? God loved you so much that he sent his only son to die for you.
[00:35:55] People don't do that for people that they. That they think are trash or they don't care about. Like, you are precious to the Lord. And we need to put that righteous. That. That breastplate of righteousness needs to cover our heart. In those times where it's like, man, how could God ever love me?
[00:36:12] Like, I just keep messing up. I just keep screwing up.
[00:36:17] How could he ever want someone like me in his kingdom?
[00:36:21] Like Jesus, when God looks at you, he sees his beloved son. You are in Christ. You are covered head to toe, and you will always be like that. If you. If you're a believer today, if you've asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, you don't ever have to worry about that.
[00:36:38] So let that truth cover your heart in those times.
[00:36:44] The shoes of gospel readiness.
[00:36:46] I thought this was such a cool example. This morning, our second gathering is literally putting this on display, right?
[00:36:53] Like, they are ready to share the gospel. They are ready to start a new church and be uncomfortable. Mary, I don't. Not to call you out, but Mary was like, you know, crying.
[00:37:07] She was visibly upset, I'll put it that way.
[00:37:12] And I was like, oh, Mary, you okay? And she was like, don't. And I was like, all right, take care. And just, like, literally walked away.
[00:37:20] I took her at a word. She did not want to talk, didn't want to go into it.
[00:37:25] But I just think it's such a good example, like, a cool example, right? Like, as we're starting a new church, their feet are ready, you know, like, they've listened to God, they've prayed, and God has sent them, and they're ready to go. You know, they're ready to spread the good news of the Lord.
[00:37:43] I honestly couldn't think of a perfect. Like, a more perfect illustration.
[00:37:47] And the other thing that shoes do is they protect your feet from rough terrain, right? Like, it's hard to.
[00:37:54] You know, there are places where it is hard to share the gospel. Like, not just, like, you'll get killed.
[00:38:01] We don't really face that around here.
[00:38:03] But there's a very real pressure that I felt in certain circles.
[00:38:09] I don't know if anyone else has felt that, but I've gone into places and really felt like, man, I should be quiet. I should not talk about God here.
[00:38:19] And this, this armor putting on the shoes of gospel readiness is saying, man, have your feet ready. Like, protect your feet. It's okay if they go on rocky terrain. It's okay. Okay if they go and they step on thorns or thistles to go share the word with somebody metaphorically.
[00:38:38] So just be ready to go. Be ready to go.
[00:38:43] The helmet of salvation.
[00:38:46] So the truth is that if you're a believer, you already have. You've already been saved. If you believe in Jesus Christ, the Bible says you have life now and you have life to come.
[00:38:58] Jesus will never let go of you. You're in his hand, and he will never be conquered.
[00:39:06] So because of that, you can feel safety and security in his hands.
[00:39:12] So when your mind starts to doubt salvation, remember you were saved by God.
[00:39:22] Remember the great real cost that he paid to make it a reality.
[00:39:29] If I go to a restaurant, I don't order something that looks disgusting. I don't pay for something that looks gross, right?
[00:39:37] I look for the thing, the super burrito at La Cocina. Anybody ever had that. By the way, Jake. I seen Jake's nodding. He's like, yeah, yes, testify.
[00:39:48] That super burrito is amazing, for the record.
[00:39:51] But my point is, I don't.
[00:39:54] I don't just throw money away and buy something that I think is trash or I think is, like, not going to be worthwhile.
[00:40:01] And God looked at us and he counted the cost, and he said, man, this is going to cost me everything.
[00:40:07] And then he still paid that price for us.
[00:40:11] So be encouraged.
[00:40:15] When your mind starts to run away, when your mind starts to make all these arguments, these, you know, form all these logical arguments that maybe you're not saved or that you never were or you misunderstood things somewhere along the way.
[00:40:31] Man, put that helmet of salvation on. You're Saved. You're secure in Christ. He's got you, and he's never going to let go of you.
[00:40:39] I see the time. I am very much aware.
[00:40:43] So.
[00:40:45] Well, let's. Let's fast forward Shield of faith.
[00:40:54] So there is more, but I have not, actually. Yeah, all right. Shield of Faith.
[00:41:03] So there's just two things that jumped out to me about this that I really liked.
[00:41:07] If you've ever seen 300 or the Gladiator, that's immediately where my mind went.
[00:41:12] Actually, I thought, this is Sparta, you know, when he kicks that dude in that pit.
[00:41:17] I don't know. I don't know if you've seen that, but it's pretty cool scene.
[00:41:24] But again, the images when the arrows. The flaming arrows fly, and there are thousands of them in the. In the air, and they're coming right at you, right? They're barreling down at you, and you cannot outrun them because they're all. They're littered throughout the sky, falling down on your place, right?
[00:41:44] You are entrusting your life with this shield.
[00:41:48] You're saying, man, I am about to die if this object right here does not protect me. So I'm going to hide behind it and I'm going to entrust my life to this shield.
[00:42:01] I thought, man, that's such a great picture of what we do as Christians, right? Is like, we entrust our lives to Jesus so that we might not die, we might not die eternally.
[00:42:15] So I just thought that was a beautiful picture. Like, we take shelter in the Lord. He covers us with his pinions.
[00:42:21] He is our strong tower. He is our refuge.
[00:42:25] We are in Christ.
[00:42:27] So just like a Roman soldier would place his faith in that shield to escape death, we place our faith in Jesus to escape death and. And God's wrath, most importantly.
[00:42:38] And the other cool thing, the last thing I'll say about the shield is that collective faith is powerful.
[00:42:47] Like, it wasn't just about a single Roman soldier holding up a shield, right? It was about a collection, an army, a legion of soldiers, thousands of them standing shoulder to shoulder together with their shields already. And they had lots of different formations that they would take to protect one another from flanks, from arrows coming in from every which way, every direction.
[00:43:14] And my goodness, what a great illustration for our church.
[00:43:19] Like, when I'm weak, when I'm having a horrible day, you know, maybe a loved one passes away.
[00:43:25] Maybe, you know, I'm suffering from some kind of physical injury.
[00:43:30] Maybe I'm just depressed. You know, I. You know, I get depressed sometimes. Like, life is hard Stuff happens, you know, like, during those moments, I really need yalls faith. I need you guys to speak truth into my life. I need you guys to come alongside me. And as those arrows are flying for me, I need y' all to lift your shields of faith and help me.
[00:44:00] So I just thought that was such a cool picture. Like, my faith can help you when you're struggling, or you might not even see an attack.
[00:44:08] Satan might have you pegged. He might have a sniper who shot this arrow. It's coming straight for you. You're totally oblivious. But maybe your brother, your sister, sees it, and because of their faith, they come up and they come alongside you and they protect you with their faith. And they say, hey, you know, I just want to warn you like this. This seems like it's coming for your life. And I'm not telling you to judge you. I'm telling you because I love you and I want to protect you and I want you. I want the best for you.
[00:44:38] So I think we just really, really need that as a church, like, I. In those moments of weakness, I really need your faith. Your faith can help me and can save my life, enrich my life and keep me from calamity. And I just think that's a really good lesson for us.
[00:44:59] Spirit of sword. Very quickly, it's been pointed out that it is the only offensive weapon in this whole list.
[00:45:06] And I think that is very intentional. It is the Christian's weapon of choice.
[00:45:12] If you go. We don't have time to study it, but if you go and look at Jesus being tempted, before he goes into public ministry, he's tempted by the devil three times in the desert, all three times. Jesus uses the word of God, which is the sword, to strike down those lies of the devil and overcome them. And Jesus is our example, right?
[00:45:31] So when.
[00:45:33] When the lies of Satan come into our lives, we need to be at the ready, right? We need to have our sword.
[00:45:43] So just a question to think about. If the sword is the word of God and it's our only offensive weapon, what does your sword of the spirit look like? Is it sharp?
[00:45:58] Have you sharpened it? Is it ready to go? Is it ready to cut down whatever enemy may come, whatever evil force may come into your life and attack you or your family or your loved ones?
[00:46:08] Or is it dull?
[00:46:10] Is it rusted from years of neglect?
[00:46:12] Has it been so long that you've used it that you don't even remember where you put it anymore?
[00:46:21] We need to read God's word. That. That is the. The.
[00:46:26] That is What Paul is saying, we need to have God's word at the ready and be ready to use it just like Jesus did, to strike down the lies of Satan.
[00:46:37] All right, let's skip to the application at the very end, please. Yeah. All right. Thank you all for bearing with me.
[00:46:46] What does all this mean?
[00:46:49] It means we're called to. We're not called to live in fear, but we are called, like, we're called to be bold. Bold as lions. Proverbs say, right? We are called to be bold for the Lord, but we're also called to be sober minded. So this idea that no evil forces are working against you, you need to throw that idea away.
[00:47:11] It doesn't mean that you live in fear. It doesn't mean that the devil's behind every corner, but it means that you need to understand.
[00:47:18] We need to understand that there's an enemy who wants to destroy us and destroy our lives and our loves, like our children and our marriages.
[00:47:28] And we need to be ready, arming ourselves up and ready for that. Because these verses are not a matter of, like, if they're going to happen. It's like this army is like, already standing against us.
[00:47:43] Like they're already in front of us whether we see them or not, and they're already trying to attack us. There are already arrows in the air coming for our lives.
[00:47:51] And so it's not a matter of, like, when. It's just a matter of are you going to armor up or are you going to ignore the arrows that are coming for you and your family and just hope for the best?
[00:48:08] So we're not called to live in fear.
[00:48:09] Very last verse. I want to share.
[00:48:12] This is from first John, chapter four.
[00:48:15] Says, little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
[00:48:25] So Jesus is the greatest and we can put our trust in him at the end of the day. Let's pray.
[00:48:35] Lord, thank you for this evening. Thank you for this church. Thank you for you being so good to us that you're giving us a second church, that your word is growing, people's lives are being changed for the better.
[00:48:53] I just ask that your work would continue.
[00:48:56] Please help us to put on the whole armor of God. Help us to trust and to stand in your strength to be strengthened in your might, Lord.
[00:49:07] And lastly, please help us to just pray. Pray for our brothers and sisters because we all need it.
[00:49:14] Please help us to remember to pray Jesus name, Amen.
