M*A*S*H-My Armor Shall Heal
How To Recover From Spiritual Decline(NIV)
Most of us probably remember the TV show M*A*S*H about a group of Dr’s and a Army hospital set during the Korean War. It was this hospitals job to tend to soldiers who were injured. The soldiers who came to the hospital had suffered all kinds of wounds. Sometimes the soldiers who came to the hospital were from the enemy side. For some of the soldiers, the most devastating wounds to heal from were mental and spiritual.
A church should be just like that hospital. Tending to the physical as well as the spiritual wounds suffered.
All Christians at one point will face a Spiritual decline. If you allow your Spirit to decline, you invite an attack from the enemy. Even if for a moment it can invite disaster.
Ephesians 4:27
27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
How are we to fight against the enemy? With the Armor of God we can stay in the Spirit and combat the plans of the enemy.
Ephesians 6:10-18
EPH 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
Belt of Truth
The devils fights with lies, and sometimes his lies sound like the truth; but only believers have God’s truth, which can defeat the devil’s lies.
Body Armor/Breastplate of Righteousness
The devil often attacks our heart-the seat of our emotions, our self-worth, and our trust. God’s righteousness is the body armor that protects our heart and ensures his approval. He approves of us because he loves us and sent his son to die for us.
Shoes/Peace that comes from the Good News
The devil want us to think that telling others the Good News us worthless and hopeless. He wants us to think the task is too big and the negative responses are too much to handle. But the shoes God gives us are the motivation to continue to proclaim the true peace that is available in God-news that everyone needs to hear.
Shield of Faith
What we see are the devil’s attacks in the form of insults, setbacks, and temptations. But the shield of faith protects us from the devil;s fiery arrows. With god’s perspective, we can see beyond our circumstances and know that ultimate victory is ours.
Helmet of Salvation
the devil wants to make us doubt God, Jesus, and our salvation. The helmet protects our mind from doubting God’s saving work for us.
Sword of The Spirit/Word of God
The sword is the only weapon of offense in the list of armor. There are times when we need to take the offensive against the devil. When we are tempted, we need to trust in the truth of God’s Word. This sword is not meant to be used as a weapon against our fellow Christians but against the devil.
A soldiers armor can be damaged in 2 ways.
1 by violent assault
2 by neglect
A Christians spiritual armor can be damage in the same way
1 by violent assault when you are overcome by temptation of sin
2 by neglect when you fail to perform your duty and “maintain” you armor.
In ancient and biblical times, when a soldiers armor needed repair they took it to someone who was trained to repair and work on it. When our spiritual armor is damaged we cant take it somewhere to get it fixed. We can repair it though. We can recover from a spiritual decline
How do we recover if sin is the cause of our decline?
Revelation 2:5
5 Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
In the O.T. Tabernacle, the lampstand represented illumination. This illumination was a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ.
John 8:12
JN 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
If you are not willing to repent, God and Jesus cannot help you.
Remember when you first found your faith?
Go back to the scriptures that inspired you.
Remember the joy you felt?
Revisit the song that may have inspired you. The most important part is your repentance.
What happens after repentance? How do I repent?
Hosea 14:2,4
HOS 14:2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him:
"Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.HOS 14:4 "I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
If you know something you’re doing isn’t right or that you are headed in the wrong direction stop doing it and head in the other direction.
Do a 180o degree turn and start walking! What happens when you are in a car driving and you realize your going the wrong way or you missed a turn? You turn around!
How do we return to the Lord as it says in Hosea 14:2?
1 Allow Conviction
When you find the root of sin, allow the Holy Spirit to convict your heart. Don’t ignore feelings of guilt or wrong doing. This is painful but essential to the process of repair. How would a armor smith repair a dent? He would pound it with a hammer. If the armor had feelings this would probably be painful as well. Have a renewed repentance. Repentance is a cleansing agent that removes the tendency to sin.
2 Reaffirm your faith in the promise of forgiveness.
To many people are unable to believe God can forgive them or they are unwilling to let themselves be forgiven.
Faith in the promise of forgiveness is the tonic that restores strength to your spirit. Faith infuses your spirit with peace from that promise. Peace in believing that promise of forgiveness.
3 Ask others to pray for you
We have all struggled or stumbled at one point in our Christian walk. No one is ever too good to ask for prayers or bad enough not to deserve them. There is no shame in asking someone to pray for you. Even Paul did it!
Romans 15:30
RO 15:30 I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.
4 Ask God to help repair your faith
Romans 15:13
RO 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
From peace flows joy, from joy flows love, from love flows great deeds.
How to recover from neglect being the cause?
These last few weeks we have been talking in terms of the military. If anyone here has ever been in the military you know most of your time is spent doing maintenance. If you don’t maintain you equipment, it will fail you when you least want it to. If you neglect to maintain your Christian duties, your faith will fail right when the Devil wants it to. Return to your Christian duty and maintain your Faith.
1 Read The Bible
this is God speaking to you through his written word. Meditate on the Word of God. Fresh thoughts of God come when you meditate on his word. The Word of god is like fuel to the fire that should burn for him. When you learn to meditate on Gods greatness, you will realize that through him you are more than conquerors.
2 Reflect upon yourself and your behavior
Work on your behavior with God and your behavior with those around you will improve.
3 Learn the proper way to pray
I cannot stress enough that if you are not praying the correct way God cannot answer your prayer. Meditate on the things of God before you pray(Nature, Character, Holiness, Compassion). A soul in meditation is on its way to prayer. God answers all prayers. Sometimes, the answer may not always be a yes. If your prayer coincides with his plan for your life, and you have prayed properly, your answer will be yes. Pray to God to help restore you. This is his promise.
Psalm 56:13
PS 56:13 For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.
4 Learn to fellowship
There is strength when you fellowship with others. Share your struggles, share your victories with your fellow Christians. No doubt, they have gone through the same experiences. Working together builds the spirit of the church.
Ephesians 4:16
16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Hebrews 10:24,25
24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Verse 25-Never give up on going to church. You’ve never been too bad or too good not to go to church.
5 Establish a new covenant with God
Break the covenant of sin and recommit yourself to God. A covenant with Heaven and Hell cannot exist together. God has given us his covenant of grace.
Romans 3:22-24
22 This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
No matter how great your sin or your spiritual decline, God can still use you mightily. Look at what the Apostle Paul said.
1 Timothy 1:15,16
1TI 1:15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners--of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.
CLOSING
All Christians at one point will face a spiritual decline
As Christians we use the Armor of God to combat the Devil
Armor can be damaged either by violent assault or neglect
No matter how great our decline can can and will repair us if we follow his guidance.
