Ephesians Part 21
Gods Armor
Ephesians 6:13–18 (NLT)
13Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you
will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you
will still be standing firm.
14Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and
the body armor of God’s righteousness.
15For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good
News so that you will be fully prepared.
16In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of
faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.
17Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of
the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.
Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
3. YOU HAVE TO KNOW YOUR
WEAPONS!!
Ephesians 6:13 (ESV)
13Therefore 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.
Don’t
get to caught up on the armor! Some people read way too much in to it! What
kind of helmet, and the shoes are they tennis shoes or boots?? Listen here is
the deal WIN!! Throw the boots, swing the shield, do what it takes to WIN! But
we got some time so lets look at it!!
BELT OF TRUTH!
·
What’s the opposite of the truth? Lies.
·
Any lies in the world?
·
John 8:44, Jesus says
that Satan is the father of what? Lies—that lying is his native language, that
all he’s ever done is lie.
·
When you and I lie, we’re doing something
demonic.
·
Satan is going to lie to you. Satan is going to
lie to us. Satan lies all the time.
·
Something
need not be true to be powerful. Have you noticed that?
·
See,
Satan knows that something doesn’t need to be true; it just needs to be
believed.
·
So he’s going to lie.
·
He’s going to send false teachers,
·
He’s going to send bad counselors,
·
He’s going to try to stack and pack your life
with things that aren’t true.
He’s responsible
for lying, but you’re responsible for believing.
·
This could be lies about God,
·
this could be lies about yourself,
·
this could be lies about people in our church,
·
this could be lies about leaders in our church,
·
this could be lies about the word of God. It
doesn’t really matter.
Some of you are really governed by lies.
·
Satan has got a deep, deep, deep foothold in
your life.
·
You need to think, “Is this true or false?
·
Is this right or wrong?
·
Is this from God or Satan?
·
Does this lead to captivity or does this lead to
freedom?”
BREAST PLATE
OF RIGHTOUSNESS
·
What he’s talking about here is, one of Satan’s
tactics and tricks is to tempt us.
·
You ever been tempted?
·
Was Jesus tempted? Yeah. Luke 4, Matthew 4,
Satan comes and he tempts Jesus.
·
Hebrews 4
says, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us. He’s
been tempted in every way as we are yet without sin.
·
One of
the lies Satan is going to tell you is, “Well, if you’re tempted, you’re already
sinning.”
·
There’s a difference between temptation and sin.
o Jesus
was tempted, but he never sinned.
o All
temptation does is provide me an opportunity. I can either resist it, fight it,
defend myself from it
·
Or I could remove the righteousness of Jesus and
give in
·
Some of you have got excuses for your sin. You
don’t need to excuse your sin; you need to fight it.
·
You don’t have to give in to temptation. You can
instead, by the grace of God, through the power of the Holy Spirit, choose to
walk in righteousness.
·
And this is very important. Jesus died for your sin. He
gave you his righteousness. You are righteous in Christ. That’s your identity.
See, some of you, one of the lies you’ve believed is, “I
can’t change. I will never change. This is the way I am. I need to accept
myself.”
·
God loves you enough to meet you in your sin,
·
but he loves you enough to compel you away from
your sin.
·
And
that’s the breastplate of righteousness.
Next time you’re tempted, remind yourself, “This is a
demonic battle. Satan is trying to destroy me. I’m a soldier in the war, and my
enemy has come, and he’s trying to take me out so that I can no longer battle
for my King Jesus.”
BOOTS OF THE
GOSPEL
You have to sleep
with your boots on! We are at war!!
·
You never know when the enemy’s attacks are going to come, so
you must always be ready.
·
People who make the transition into ministry struggle with this.
o They’re like, “Oh, well,
what’s my schedule?”
o You work until Jesus comes
back or you die.
·
You and I, if we actually believed that we lived in war, we
would not be so disappointed, we would not be so frustrated, we would
understand, “Well, this is war, and during war, yes, there’s no schedule. This
isn’t a job. This is a war.”
The gospel:
The good news of the person and work of Jesus Christ is
the most powerful weapon we have.
·
Use it for yourself, and share it with everyone.
·
You’re part of God’s ground war, and Jesus sends
you every day to tell others about your King and his kingdom so they may be
freed from captivity.”
SHIELD OF FAITH
It says to wear “the shield of faith.” This is to
“extinguish flaming darts.”
What’s your arrow
of flame that haunts you??
·
Is it vain regrets?
o Satan
will haunt you for things that Jesus has forgiven you for.
o And
it’s gonna come out of nowhere.
o You’ll
just be walking along—it’ll be like a shot. “Where did that come from?”
o You’ll
be haunted.
o Accusations—you’re
not loved, you’re not forgiven, you’ll never change, you’re a fraud.
o Any
time you hear “you,” it’s your enemy.
o Revelation 12:10 says that Satan is the accuser of the
children of God, that he accuses them day and night.
You ever have days
it literally feels like it is raining flaming arrows?
·
Everything you’ve ever done, every way you’ve
ever failed,
·
Every sin you’ve ever committed, every mistake
you’ve ever made
·
It’s just raining down on you.
·
It’s a demonic attack. It’s not God condemning
you and accusing you and shaming you and opposing you. It’s the enemy shooting
you. That’s what’s happening.
So, what do you got to do? He says you’ve got to hold up
the shield of faith. “No, I trust the Bible. I trust Jesus. I trust the gospel.
I trust the truth. I trust it.” And you’ve got to hold it in your own hand, and
you’ve got to hold it over your own head.
SWORD OF THE SPIRIT (THE
WORD OF GOD)!
“Sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” This is
a weapon.
·
Christian, let me tell you this. You stop
reading your Bible—surrender.
·
You stop studying your Bible—surrender.
·
Stop memorizing your Bible—surrender.
·
Stop submitting to the truth of the
Bible—surrender.
·
Stop going to church and being under the
preaching of the Bible—surrender. Surrender.
Some of you’ve seen that, haven’t you? Life is hard, so
you put your Bible down and stop going to church. And then all of a sudden,
some of those complications go away.
·
It’s because you’ve joined the enemy’s team;
you’re an enemy combatant. He’s not going to attack you because now you’re no
threat because you have dropped your weapon.
·
Every time a Christian picks up the word of God,
We are declaring war on Satan and demons and the kingdom of darkness and lies.
The word of God.
·
This is an offensive weapon for the forward
progress of the kingdom of God through the church of Jesus Christ.
·
Most of what I’m saying shouldn’t be said, but
it has to be said.
·
“Let’s just get away from Jesus.
·
Let’s get away from the word ‘repentance’,
·
and let’s get away from calling people from sin
to their Savior.
·
Let’s just ignore the Book.
·
Let’s use the Book in a way that was never
intended. Whatever we do, let’s just not handle the sword well.
·
Let’s not pick it up, because as soon as we pick
it up, when we do there’s a lot of hostility and it’s a big conflict. And now
it costs me a lot. Now my family’s upset. And as soon as I tell the truth, then
there’s some resistance to that.”
Hey, welcome to war! Pick a team. You say, “I don’t want
to pick a team.” Team’s already been picked. You’re born on Satan’s team;
you’re born again on Jesus’ team. There are really only two kingdoms. There are
really only two teams. And if you’re on Jesus’ team, you better keep the sword
in your hand.
PRAYING IN THE
SPIRIT!!
One of the most important things in the battle is
communication.
·
You need to talk to headquarters; you need to
listen to headquarters.
·
We call that prayer.
·
He says to pray in the Spirit at all times for
anything.
·
How’s your prayer life?
·
If you don’t know you’re in war, you don’t feel
like you need to listen to the commander in chief, and you don’t feel like you
need to talk to him.
·
This ain’t vacation, friends. This is war.
·
Imagine an army going to war without a
communication plan.
·
Prayer is our communication plan.
·
It’s how we talk to God; it’s how God talks to
us.
·
It’s how
we tell him what’s going on, though he already knows, and it is the way that he
gives directives to us.
How’s your prayer life? Do you pray for our church? Do
you pray for our leaders? Do you pray for our other locations? Do you pray for
our new opportunities?
PERSEVERANCE, GRACE, AND
PEACE
A soldier needs to hold his post—right, soldiers? You
plant your feet. You stand.
·
Your king has sent you there to hold that line.
Your job? Stand there.
·
Whichever local church you’re in, stand there.
·
Whichever ministry role you’re in, stand there,
plant your feet.
·
My job is to stand with Carrie
·
It’s not a temporary deployment; it’s a lifetime
assignment.
·
I can’t abandon my post. My family will get
shot.
·
My job is to stand in the pulpit and to preach
the word of God and to take the shots that come from being the one who calls
the shots.
·
My job: stand, plant my feet. Criticize, picket,
protest, quit, hate me, resist me. I’ll be here next week; I was here last
week, and I’ll see you in thirty years. This is where I’m at. Stand.!
Paul’s final words. He says to pray for the leadership.
“Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that
end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints, and
also for me, that 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.”
Pray for me that I would not give up, that I would not
back down, that I would not calm down, OK? Pray for our church.
Closing!!
PRAYING
FOR GRACE AND PEACE
Pray for grace on
our church from Jesus.
·
True or false, we’ve gotten a lot of grace on
our church? Oh yes, a lot of grace.
·
Pray that the grace from Jesus continues on our
church.
You know what
peace is? Peace, is peace in our church.
·
There’s nothing worse than one soldier shooting
another soldier.
·
Don’t turn your guns on each other.
·
Don’t gossip about one another.
·
Don’t become embittered against one another.
·
Don’t despise one another. Don’t attack one
another.
·
Don’t criticize one another.
·
Satan and
demons have already got that covered, right? The enemy role is filled. We don’t
need you to join them. So pray for peace in our church.
Pray for our
future and pray for our opportunity.
·
This is Jesus’ mission, not ours. We don’t have
a mission, Jesus does. We’re just part of it.
