Helmet Of Salvation: We Are Not Good Enough Series

THE ARMOR OF GOD AND THE LIES OF THE ENEMY

Helmet of Salvation: We Are Not Good Enough

Ephesians 6:10-18

#armorofGod

INTRODUCTION… Start with the End in Mind

This morning I want to share with you where we will end up in our time looking at God’s Word and then I want to rewind and get us there. This is kind of like one of those TV shows that starts with a very shocking scene and then the credits come on and then the next scene is… “6 hours before”… duh duh duh! Then, the rest of the show is the journey how you got to the opening scene. That is a little bit of what we are going to do this morning.

Where will we end up? We will end up at… “You are not good enough.”

How is that for an encouraging message for today? “You are not good enough.”

So, let’s play the rest of the episode and see how we get there.

SERIES REMINDER

Today, we are continuing (we finish next week!) with a series of messages about a word picture of a Roman soldier that the Apostle Paul uses in Ephesians 6: The Armor of God. I hope and pray that the last 9 weeks have been intensely relevant to your life. Think about this part of the sermon as the beginning of the show when they say… “previously on ‘The Armor of God Series.’ We have uncovered so many schemes of the Devil that are planned and shot at us like flaming arrows:

Week 1: Truth changes from person to person.

We talked about how truth in the Bible from God is objective and not relative or subjective. If something is not true from God, then we do not need to wrap it around us like a belt. We must always go to God and ask “What is Your opinion” and then we align and change ourselves with what He says rather than tying lies to ourselves.

Week 2: It is wrong to judge.

This scheme of Satan is based on misreading Scripture. The belt of truth around us means we communicate the truth to a world that does not accept the standard of God; we must then do so with gentleness, respect, firmness, and lack of hypocrisy. Discern well what is good and bad, moral and immoral, and share God’s standard with those closest to you.

Week 3: Follow your heart

Our hearts are championed in our world as the motivator and director of our lives and what we can rely on when all else has failed us… this is a scheme of Satan. Our hearts and trusting only in our feelings will lead to a thrust from Satan right through our breastplate of righteousness. We will be astray because our hearts are unreliable. We must guard our hearts very carefully.

Week 4: Compassion over truth

The Devil wants to take compassion, a good thing, and turn it into a weapon against our breastplate of righteousness. Our society tells us that if Christians ever speak out against sin that we are intolerant or bigoted or lack compassion. Compassion, our world tells us, must be prioritized over everything else. Compassion over truth is disastrous. Jesus shows us our sin and with compassion does not leave us in our sin. Compassion is walking with someone in their sin and leading them out.

Week 5: Forgive and cut them out

The footwear of peace challenged us that the absence of conflict is not actual peace as Satan’s scheme would have us believe. The world’s definition of peace and God’s definition of peace are different. Cutting people out of our lives does not create the kind of peace God wants for us. Rather, God’s definition of peace includes reception and restoration and restitution as He defines forgiveness in which we should follow.

Week 6: Do what makes you happy

This scheme of the Devil is shot at us to make us think that we need to live our lives in the pursuit of happiness and that this is the fulfillment of all that we want or need. This breaks down our peace and makes us have unsure spiritual footing. We are told happiness will fill all the holes in our heart and bring us peace, but in the end what we really need is to invest intentionally in our relationship with Jesus Christ. He adds happiness and fulfillment.

Week 7: God is not good

We look around us and see that there is much evil and brokenness and terrible disasters in the world and Satan wants us to drop our shield of faith with a lie that God is not really good. The belief that bad things in the permissive will of God do not diminish His goodness allows us to bring up our shield once more and protect ourselves head to toe with believing loyalty.