Protect yourself from the world
Introduction: Ephesians 6:16
You have to protect yourself from the world,
There are Things that will make you mad at people:
People do rude things
Talk to you crazy
Try to get over on you
Disrespect you
There are things that make you get mad at family:
Take you for granted
Try to use you
Lash out at you
There are things that make you mad at government:
We have police killing people
People killing police
Good police scared to pull law breakers over
Bad police are scaring good people and causing them to react and act abnormally
Teachers dating students
Children cussing out adults
Children dressing like adults
Interest rates are higher than ever before
The people that need help get taken advantage of
People taking advantage of the government
Government taking advantage of the people
Cancer and automobile accidents are taking friends and family members out.
And if you are not careful you will get mad at God for letting it happen.
Now you are mad at everybody around you and you can't trust God because you don't know what tomorrow will bring. You have to protect yourself from the world.
And don't claim to be a Christian. You can wear a shirt with cuss words on it and nobody will say anything but if you wear a shirt that says Jesus Christ you are out of dress code, and people are try to get you to take it off.
I want to address something here. The first amendment has been misinterpreted,
The First Amendment states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
In its original context, this passage meant that the U.S. would not have an official “state Church” like England. The English government officially supported the Church of England, using taxes to support Anglicanism. The founding fathers, who promoted the Revolutionary War, did not want the same kind of church.This is the extent of this passage from the First Amendment. There is nowhere in the Constitution that forbids individuals from mixing faith and politics or from sharing their faith in a state-related function or location.Witnessing at work Title 6 Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides general rules for all private workplaces employing fifteen or more people. It stipulates that a company that allows employees to engage in non-work related conversations, such as those about politics, family, sports or other such topics, may not prohibit voluntary religious discussions between employees either. The water cooler and employee lunchroom are a type of public forum where citizens share ideas and interact at a variety of levels. In informal settings, such as break rooms or hallways, and at times when workers voluntarily interact about non-work issues, employees may discuss their religious views or voluntarily pray together. The same rules apply as would to any other private conversation.Other employees may not stop religious exchanges simply because they overhear a religious conversation. For example, at a large retail store in Indiana, an employee and several coworkers met informally and as privately as possible each day for a brief word of prayer before clocking in for work. They asked God to bless their supervisors and colleagues and prayed for other needs. One day, company management asked the group to stop because another employee had been offended when she saw them quietly praying. The employee contacted Christian attorneys who informed store management that another worker's offense at this quiet religious activity did not justify prohibiting it. If the workers had been discussing the previous night's TV programming, no question would have been raised.However Your discussing the things of God must not interfere with your work. Many people have been fired for performance issues but not about God conversation. because that is against the law. So if you want to be a good witness at work you must first take care of business in the work place.
Ephesians 6:11-16 NIV
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Paul admonishes us to take up your shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. I love how Paul calls it the shield of faith as faith is the only thing that will block us from the world.
See the enemy will come in the form of arrows, bullets, cakes, pies, money, relationships, marriage, jobs, and advanced thinking, depression, oppression, and suggestion if you are not careful. There is not a weapon that the enemy will not use to keep us from kingdom living and his best soldier is you.
Illustration (I put up a shield that I had and i had parishioners throw balls at me while I preached. During this time i preached behind the shield and the balls did not hit me they hit the shield)
Sometimes the attacks come in all forms and sizes.
That is why we must take up the shield of faith. We have to be intentional about picking up the shield of faith. Just because we are Christian and have been saved all of our lives doesn't mean that we always pick up the shield of faith. Many of us have access to the shield but we never use it. Paul's advice would be for us to pick it up daily and use it because we never know how the enemy will attacks us.
Many of us our being hit with same weapons every day and we have yet to overcome and pay attention to the weapons used.
You think your yearly sickness, your seasonal relationships, your random phone calls, your casual conversations, your atmosphere at work, your random car issues and occasional tiredness is a coincidence, but it is all an attack when our shield of faith is not up.
Many of us have our shield behind us, and we are carrying on the burdens of this world instead of allowing our shield to block us by faith from the worries of this world.
verse 10 says that we should be strong in the lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full Armour of God so that you can take a stand against the devils schemes.
The enemy is scheming on the perimeter of your household and the full Armour is our best defense. To protect ourselves from the world.
Roman soldiers used a shield and in Greek the shield would be called a thyreos- which is a a gate or door shaped shield which looked like a full door. It is big enough to provide full protection from an attack. So the shield of faith which protects the whole believer, covering their whole person in spiritual warfare.the Lord himself is our shield as it says in Psalms 7:10 My shield is God most high who saves the upright in heart.
Zechariah 12:8 says On that day the Lord will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will like David, and the house of David will be like God. Like the angel of the lord going before them.
So our shield has to be Personal protection all day.
If you watch the news it should be behind the shield of faith in prayer.
People come to you with advice it should be behind the shield of faith in with prayer.
If people come praising you it should be behind the shield of faith in prayer.
And your prayer should be by faith, I know you will work this situation out.
The shield of faith should be on you at all times. It's a lifesaver.
We must protect ourselves from stresses and stressors in this world. Although we are a midst of a world that is revolved around stress we must not be overcome by its tactics to infiltrate our shield.
Without our shield we absorb the problems of this world. So much that we carry the burdens of everybody around us.
Our families are good but our mothers and loved ones are not
My brothers and sisters are not doing well and we can't Live like God would have us to live because we are carrying around so many burdens.
You gotta protect yourself from this world man.
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6-7 NIV)
But when things really start coming at you. It's time to kneel behind the shield.
Series....
Church Shield
We should bring our shields with us to church so that we can create a tortuise shield that no enemy can infiltrate.
The Roman military had an inventive and very effective tactic that made use of their large shields. When enemies would begin firing arrows and other projectiles at the army, the soldiers would close ranks into a rectangular array—called the testudo, or "tortoise," formation—and those on the outside would use their shields to create a wall around the perimeter. Then those in the middle would raise their shields over their heads to protect everyone from airborne missiles. The result was a formidable human tank that could be stopped only through a tremendous effort.
what happens in the Church shield
We have to make sure we don't lie to each other in this place. We must leave worldliness outside and take everything to God in prayer. That person next to you is your family and we have to protect family inside of this tortoise. Because if the enemy can come in here and cause disention then guess what we will be at war with each other and that will force us to divide and become unprotected by the shield of faith.
Even when we come together to shield each other and hold each other up we still have to protect ourselves from the world.
We don't want you to live 2 lifestyles we just want you to be honest with who you are and the Holy Spirit can bring you from there to here.
But you have to protect yourself from the world.
No amount of success can protect you, no amount of money, no amount of knowledge, and no amount of connections can protect you. The only weapon that will protect you is the shield of faith.
That is why we walk by faith. When your shield is up you are being led by faith. And the boldness that people get when they have a shield up is unreal. It's like a chump behind the computer talking noise to someone in a distant city. With protection you can fearlessly do what God wants us to do.
We have to protect the body inside the shield by making sure that the place we are most vulnerable is prayed over. We must take everything that we experience together to God in prayer.
Closing
So this week when you wake up grab your shield of faith.
When you walk out of the house pick up your shield of faith.
When you get to work pick up your shield of faith.
Before you answer the phone pick up your shield of faith.
Before you eat lunch pick up your shield of faith.
Before you drive home in traffic pick up your shield of faith.
Because when the little attacks and big attacks come we need to be protected by faith. So that we can live by faith.
Because without faith it is impossible to please God.
Maybe you have been walking around unprotected. And you have been feeling the stressors of life from bed time to bed time. From this day forward you must take up your shield before every activity in life so that we will not be overcome by the world. But in turn we will be overcomers through Christ Jesus.
