=Scripture Text: Eph.6:10-17 “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to STAND against the wiles (tricks, deceptions and schemes) of the devil. (12) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (13) Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to STAND. (14) STAND therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, (15) and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; (16) above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. (17) And take the HELMET of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God…”
=Paul sends a message to the church, to put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God… because you are UNDER Attack! There is not a person in this room, who is not CONSTANTLY UNDER ATTACK!
*No matter how successful you are… no matter how healthy, no matter how accomplished you are, no matter how blessed and fruitful you are…. You are either UNDER attack, or about to BE attacked somewhere, and sometime in your life… and you need to be DRESSED properly!
*God is telling us, “I’m going to BLESS you, but you’ve got to DRESS for the battle!”
=With EVERY ‘Blessing,’ there WILL be a ‘Battle!’ – The DEGREE of your battle, is always PROPORTIONATE to the Blessing to be RECEIVED! So, STAND! The LEVEL of BATTLE you will face is equivalent to the BLESSING you will RECEIVE! So, STAND!
**FOUR Times in this scripture text, God uses the word, ‘Stand!’ We don’t get DRESSED UP to run away! We don’t get DRESSED UP to RETREAT! We get DRESSED up to STAND!
*God has given us the clothes to DRESS up with, not to RUN but to STAND! Not to DESERT the territory, He gave to you! Not to run and surrender the GROUND… the TURF that rightfully belongs to you!
Eph.6:13 - (13) Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, (that evil day, is YOUR day of Temptation!) and having done all, to STAND…”
= and having done all, to STAND…” – You make the FIRST stand! Having done all… all that you can, to STAND! You have to make the first STEP… When Satan comes in opposition to you… you are to STAND (with and interest), in opposition to him! The enemy’s kingdom is the kingdom of sin, and to STAND in opposition to him, is to STRIVE against sin! We STAND in God’s GRACE to not GIVE UP!!
*AND WHEN HE equips us to STAND, the Lord gives us the articles of the Armor of God, beginning with the Belt of Truth and ending with the ‘Helmet of Salvation!”
=This is what I want to speak to you about today! The Helmet of Salvation!
=QUES: How important is it, to PROTECT your HEAD??
*MANY lives are MESSED up BECAUSE something MESSED UP their HEAD! When people get confused, they get confused in the HEAD! When people get DECEIVED, they get deceived in their HEAD! When people play with you to get you to follow them, they mess with your HEAD! Divorce… separation… splits and disagreements of all kinds, THOUGHTS of Doubt and FEAR, BEGIN in the HEAD!!
=QUES: How important is it, to PROTECT your HEAD??
=2 Cor.10:4,5 says, that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down of strongholds, (5) casting down IMAGINATIONS, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
=Tell the person next to you, “Put your Helmet On!”
*Here is our battle! It’s in the mind! It’s in the HEAD! The devil hits us, ‘Head On!” Here begins our fight, and we need to PROTECT our HEAD! (as a man THINKETH in his heart, so is he!) Prov.23:7
-He puts IMAGINATIONS in our HEAD! “Casting down IMAGINATIONS… and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God,” Imaginations come to the HEAD! = an appearance of reality that’s not true and not real; fictional! – “and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God..” – Here is another battle you will need to STAND against; the devil will challenge everything you KNOW about God!! You KNOW you’re healed! You KNOW you’re FREE! You KNOW you’re victorious! You KNOW you are MORE than a CONQUERER! You KNOW that all things will work for the GOOD! You KNOW that God is FOR YOU! You KNOW that NO WEAPON formed against you shall prosper!
=The Bible calls these attacks, ‘Imaginations!’ You’re being FOUGHT by ‘Imaginations!” Some of you are STRESSED because of Imaginations… What ifs? And Maybe’s! What if this happens? Maybe that will happen!? You may have slept ALL NIGHT, but got NO REST because of ‘What if’s’ and ‘Maybe’s!’
*QUES: You see how IMPORTANT it is, to keep the HELMET of Salvation On? You CAN’T fight these BATTLES with your Helmet OFF! There is a HELMET that will PROTECT your HEAD!
=Tell the person next to you, “Put your Helmet On!”
=The Helmet PROTECTS the Head! A football player would be crazy to go on the field without his helmet! He would leave himself…’Un-protected’ and risk getting a severe head injury from a VIOLENT collision rendering him PARALYZED for the rest of his life! HE WOULD WRECK HIS LIFE, without a HELMET! The Helmet of Salvation, protects your life from paralysis, preserves, sustains and saves your life!!
=The Helmet represents Government! Headship!
-Def. Headship = Authority! Chief place and position! Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth now and forever.”
*SOME are GOVERNED by their Heart, and NOT the HEAD!
1 Cor.11:3 “But I would have you know, that the HEAD of every man is Christ…
*You may have heard some people say, ‘Well, I’m just going to LISTEN to my heart!” Or someone may have once counseled you to, “Just LISTEN to your heart! You’ve got to follow your heart!” Can I tell you something? They have their HELMET OFF! They are OFF! They have NO HELMET! This is ‘NO HELMET Logic!’
*Listening and following your HEART, is living by your EMOTIONS!
*The BELT of TRUTH tells you what you “SHOULD” do… the HEART confuses you by what you FEEL! Your HEART experience will never win in a HEAD Fight! Telling the enemy ‘How you FEEL,’ has nothing to do with what you KNOW!!!!
*Facts – Your HEAD represents Government! Jesus is the HEAD of your Body! When the HEAD is gone…the Government is gone! When the Government is Gone you get ANARCHY!
=It doesn’t matter how much the HEART PUMPS…it doesn’t matter how well the LUNGS breathe… you go NO WHERE in life without a Head! When the BRAIN is dead, the heart can’t help you!
*There are people who are BRAIN DEAD, (who had a healthy heart), and still died! There are people who are BRAIN DEAD, and their HEART is pumping just fine, but they CAN’T FUNCTION!! At all! Because they have NO HEAD! Now I am talking about your life! Without the HELMET of Salvation… Without His Government protecting you… you are BRAIN DEAD!
* But I KNOW there are people who had HEART trouble who were SAVED by someone’s BRAIN! Heart transplants are done today, because of someone’s HEAD!
=In your own life… when you PUT ON the HELMET of SALVATION, you save your life! With the Helmet of Salvation, you can get your life BACK again! With the HELMET of Salvation, you can FUNCTION again!!
*A HORSE is controlled by his HEAD! You put a BIT in his mouth, and his whole body is controlled by his head! A 90lb, women, can get on the back of a 1000 pound horse, and have dominion over it, because if you can CONTROL his head, you can CONTROL the whole horse! If she gets a BIT in his mouth, she can say ‘go right’ and he’ll go right, she can say, ‘go left’ and he will go left… she can say, ‘Back up!” and he will back up! “WHY?” Why is that horse obeying someone who is SMALLER than him? Because she’s got him by the HEAD!!
=WHOEVER GETS YOUR HEAD… HAS GOT YOU!! And even if they are smaller than you, if you take off your HELMET, they can make you do what you DON’T want to do; GO where you don’t want to go; and SAY what you wouldn’t normally say!
-Tell the person next to you, “Keep your HELMET On!”
=WE ARE IN A WORLD OF ‘HELMET-LESS’ INFLUENCE!
*Our Government wants you to TAKE OFF your HELMET of Salvation! Deny the Government of Christ! Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end..” But NOOOO… our government says, “I can run your families BETTER than you!” But “WHO” is running our government? Pagans! We used to be a Judeo-Christian nation… but today they want to go in ANOTHER DIRECTION! A ‘Helmet-less’ direction! A HELMET-Less society takes NO RESPONSIBILITY!
“It’s not your fault if you’re overweight… it’s Mc’donalds fault! Let’s BLAME Mac Donalds!”
“It’s not you’re fault if you have lung cancer… let’s sue the Tobacco companies!”
“Hey… if you shoot somebody, it’s not you’re fault, let’s BLAME the gun industry!”
*This is what happens when you don’t have the HELMET of God to STAND for! This is what happens when you have NO HELMET of Salvation!
SELF-ESTEEM – Self Esteem is another issue! – “I need to love me… I need to love myself!” Self-esteem from Psychiatry…Psychiatry is from “Sigmund Freud” Freud was an Atheist!!
“I need to love me… I need to love myself!” Sounds nice! Sounds good, but where is the love of self driven from? If you love yourself, based on yourself, it is motivated by Pride! Ego! And pride and ego lead to tyranny! BUT Jesus said, “You want to have esteem?” Phil.2:3 “Let nothing be done through vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each ESTEEM OTHERS better than themselves.”
=QUES: Remember the 10 commandments? The FOUNDATION where every other law was subject too… but you CAN’T have positioned at a state building anymore? Recently in Oklahoma? “Thou shalt have not other Gods before Me… Thou shalt have no idols… Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD your God in vain… Thou shalt honor the Sabbath day, and keep it holy!” What was God saying? He wanted us to SERVE HIM First! To keep HIM First! BECAUSE When the God of ‘All Matter’ tells you that ‘You Matter,’ then you have purpose, and then you have self-esteem!
*You Matter to God! You will always matter to God! No matter what! No matter what battle you go through! When the enemy gets you to FEEL like you are all alone…. Live in what you KNOW! “I KNOW that God is for me!” “I KNOW that He won’t sleep or slumber and that He will not allow my foot to be moved!”
=Tell the person next to you, “Keep your Helmet on!”
=The world is motivated by it’s FEELING’S! We are in a FEEL GOOD society! A person that is motivated and led by their feelings, has taken their HELMET off… and is therefore a person who has no government!
=When you have NO HELMET, you leave yourself EXPOSED to your feelings! When you move in your feelings, you become a Kingdom without a King!
*The anointing of God comes on the HEAD! Psalm 23:5 “You anoint my HEAD with oil, my cup runneth over.” There is a POWER, an AUTHORITY that is GIVEN with the anointing on the Head! Is it any wonder then, why the devil wants to MESS with your head and keep it dazed and confused???!
CLOSING – tell the person next to you, ‘IT’S TIME FOR A SHIFT!”
=John the Baptist Father was a preacher in the synagogue. John preached in the wilderness. John’s father wore fine garments… John wore camel hair. John’s father ate regular food… John ate locusts and honey! John’s father preached the law… John preached repentance and coming messiah, and said, “I must Decrease so He can Increase!”
=What John was implying is, ‘There’s going to be a ‘SHIFTING!’ John had many followers… and now they would have to follow Jesus @ the time of the SHIFT! When did the SHIFTING take place? When John was be-HEADED! There was a GOVERNMENTAL Shifting! There was a SHIFTING of HEADSHIP!
=Some time later… Jesus is before Pilate. Pilate asks Him, ‘Are you a King?” “Are you the HEAD of the JEWS?” Jesus replied, “It is as you say.” Then Pilate proceeded to have a sign put over the cross that says, ‘Jesus, the King/Head of the Jews!” Many were upset with that and wanted Pilate to take that sign down, but Pilate responded, “What I have written, I have written.”
=Jesus…the HEAD of the CHURCH… is led to Golgotha’s hill. The HEAD of the mountain! There, there would be a SHIFTING of DEATH to LIFE!
=Jesus dies, is buried, and RISES on the THIRD day! He appears to His followers and says, “Don’t do anything until you have received power from on High!” Don’t do anything… don’t preach yet… because there is going to be a SHIFTING!!
*Acts 2:1-4 “And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled in one accord in one place. (2) And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. (3) Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. (4) And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” There was a SHIFTING of Leadership!!
**If you have been DRIVEN by your EMOTIONS… you are primed for a SHIFT!
**Whoever has your HEAD, has you! If your emotions and self-will are tiring you out, you NEED a SHIFT!
**Put Your Helmet on! I wish I UNDERSTOOD this principal earlier in my life!
**When a Authoritative, Governmental Figure, like a PRESIDENT, DOESN’T want to FOLLOW it’s congress…it’s establishment of ORDER… you do what’s called an EXECUTIVE order! It is motivated by emotion… this is motivated by ego… by pride… and you REAP disorder and chaos!
QUES: Have you taken OFF your Helmet? Have you made too many executive orders in your life? Running your own government? You NEED a SHIFTING!
DEDICATE TO MAKE THE SHIFT NOW…. COMMIT TO MAKE A SHIFT NOW…IF THIS IS YOU … STAND! MAKE YOUR STAND NOW! RISE UP…
Come forward… Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth now and forever.”
=Come forward if you need ORDER… if you need to be established, and we will pray for you!
