Sermon Notes 5-14-2017

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.