OPEN YOUR BIBLES to EPH 6 & 2 COR 10
1. We learned in our last study that we are engaged in a battle.
a. The earth? It’s not a PLAYGROUND for Christian Games!
b. NO, it’s a BATTLEFIELD for Christian Soldiers.
We are in a fight, a warfare… but not with our hands or words…
· READ 2 Cor. 10:3-6
2. But it’s not just through our studies that we’ve learned this!
a. NO, everyday of our lives seems to be 1 fight after another.
b. There’s this temptation, that temptation…
c. This struggle and that one.
d. This weird, goofy thing and that dumb situation…
YOU MIGHT EVEN BEGIN TO THINK…
WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!??
· BUT you’re not alone… You’re experiencing the same things that your brothers & sisters in the Lord are…
John 16.33 "These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
2 Timothy 3.12 Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
1 Cor. 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
Spiritual Struggles, Fierce Fighting, Troubling Tribulations…
· They are common among the brethren, among Christians!
· I think we all agree with that… BUT here’s the issue:
Q: ARE WE ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN THE SPIRITUAL WARFARE USING ALL OF GOD’S SPIRITUAL STRENGTH & SPIRITUAL WEAPONS?
Eph. 6.13 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.
You see, you’re not going to be taken down. I won’t be taken out.
· We can stand in Him, be strong in Him, enjoy victories by Him!
· No matter where you work. No matter who you’re married to.
· No matter where you live, or what culture is doing…
· We can stand and be strong because we have been given the right equipment… the right fighting armor!
TRUE STORY…
A 50-year-old construction worker in Knoxville, Tenn., survived his Jan. 14 impalement by a 3-foot-long, 3-inch-thick metal rod that fell off of a bridge and which went point-first through the man’s skull and neck, coursed down his trunk, and stopped only when completely embedded in his body. He was semiconscious at the scene but talkative later at the University of Tennessee Medical Center. The man WAS NOT wearing the required hard hat. – OUCH!!!!
NOTE: Here’s a guy that had the right equipment, was given the right training, and decided they weren’t necessary… & paid a price.
· Through our time this morning, it’s my prayer that you don’t pay the price… that you put on the WHOLE ARMOR of God.
· You understand every piece & daily clothe yourself with them.
· When Paul says PUT ON, he’s saying hide yourself in the Lord.
· That you would daily seek refuge under His guidance & protection.
Psalm 32.7 You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah
I. (6.14-15) BE ARMED
1. (14) The BELT of TRUTH.
a. Here’s an important area, one that is unseen.
b. It’s that inward… private part of you. It’s your character.
c. Is that hidden part of you truthful or not?
Before we move on it’s worth remembering where Paul is…
· He’s in prison, chained to a Roman guard 24 hours a day!
· And as the Holy Spirit moves upon him to write these letters, the picture of the Roman Solider is right before him.
· He looked at the helmet, the breastplate, the sandals…
· This is a great illustration he must have thought!
A question I’m often asked is, “How does God speak to me?”
· ‘I hear other Christians say, “The Lord said this”, “God impressed this upon my heart…”’
· BUT ‘I’ NEVER HEAR HIM.
· I want to hear His voice, see His burning bushes, feel His presence! Oh… what a great desire to have.
Psalm 42.1-2 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
NOTE: God often speaks SUPERNATURALLY through the NATURAL.
· He’ll take our time in His Word… our time devoted to prayer.
· He’ll use the Bible studies on the radio, or a friend’s phone call.
· He’ll use our ordinary, everyday lives to speak to us personally.
1 Kings 19.11-12 Then He said, "Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD. ’ And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; 12 and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
APP: I believe we run a great risk when we believe that God WILL ONLY speak through weird & loud & out of control ways.
· Only when there’s laughing, or barking, or screaming…
· IT’S TRUE… this is in many churches today!
· Believe me, your Heavenly Father wants to speak to you…
· His words and power are even flowing to you right now…
I read about a doctor who forgot to tell her new patient, a little boy, how his hospital room intercom worked. It wasn’t long before his light flashed. The doctor answered by calling his name and asked what he wanted. There was complete silence. She repeated myself. And after a long pause the little boy said, "Jesus, I hear you but I don’t see you. Where are you?" He was so sensitive to hearing His Savior’s voice!
So Paul is there and the Lord speaks to Him through the armor on this great big Roman Soldier chained to him!
NOTE: He sees the belt of truth… the cord that holds everything else up on and on the soldier.
· If you lost he belt… you lost everything!
· And truly, what is the belt of truth for the Christian?
· A growing intimate relationship with the TRUTH Himself.
John 14.6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
2. (14) The BREASTPLATE of RIGHTEOUSNESS
a. Here’s the weapon that covers the heart… righteousness.
b. Righteousness has been defined as ‘just doing what is right’.
NOTE: It’s amazing to me just how physically upset people get when they live with a guilty conscience.
· They worry about being found out. They feel horrible and fret about the harm they caused in another person.
· Feelings open them up as a prime target of the wiles of Satan!
It was your great American wit, Mark Twain, who once said, Man is the only animal that blushes, and the only animal that needs to. We are ashamed, are we not, of things we’ve done in the past. Nobody is free who is unforgiven. Instead of being able to look God in the face or to look one another in the face, we want to run away and hide when our conscience troubles us.
But let’s be careful here… good works and doing things right, a person’s self-righteousness does not make for a good breastplate.
Isa. 64.6 But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away.
· Only the righteousness of Jesus Christ can enable the believer to stand before men and before God and to fight the good fight.
· But along with that, there is nothing like a clean conscience, a life lived apart from sin and in Jesus.
APP: A lot of people today have sad hearts, hard hearts, and broken hearts because they’ve dropped their breastplate of righteousness – They’ve decided to live WRONGLY.
3. (15) The SANDALS of the GOSPEL OF PEACE
a. Each day, every day I get to tell people GOOD NEWS!
b. That their sins are forgiven and that Jesus loves them!
c. Factoring Jesus into any situation will bring peace.
d. Did you know that? Do you believe that?
Romans 12.18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
Some of you need to take Jesus into your workplace…
Some of you need to take Jesus home with you…
Some of you need to take Jesus into your marriage…
Some of you might even need to take Jesus back to the church you just left & reconcile with the leadership there…
John 14.27 "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
NOTE: Let’s not lose sight that these are spiritual weapons…
· Enabling us to fight a spiritual war…
· Lies, unrighteousness, wars & fights… all tools to destroy the Christian and to render ineffective the Church of Jesus Christ.
4. (16) The SHIELD of FAITH
a. The shield covered all of the armor and soldier’s front side.
b. It was large 4x2, about the size of a door.
c. And a soldier stood behind it fully protected from the fiery arrows of the approaching enemy.
NOTE: Fiery darts are launched at you & me all of the time.
The fiery darts of the wicked one come fast and furious, and they are going to continue to come. The only thing that will bat them down is this shield of faith.
· Wicked thoughts, horrible temptations, evil enticements…
· They weren’t launched from the world or from your flesh…
· They came directly at you from the pit of hell itself!
You might be in church or in prayer or in the Word…
· AND OUT OF NOWHERE, that thought rushes in.
· And you become burning with anger, or burning with gossip, or burning with ugly sinfulness…
AND so in the fight against lust, & gossip & hopelessness & sin.
What are we supposed to do?
2 Timothy 2.22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
APP: Run from sin and get under the cover of your brothers/sisters.
· You come to church, you go to a prayer meeting, you hook into a small group Bible study…
· Don’t just run away, but you run away from sin and run to your brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ!
NOTE: Have you noticed that our church is growing?
· Oh how glorious to enjoy His blessings in our midst!
· We are determined to follow His lead staying on His course, following His lead.
· But there is that feeling in some that it’s too hard to get to know my brothers & sisters. ‘I feel all alone’.
· Might I suggest that is YET another ‘fiery dart’?! One designed to burn you up and then burn you out… right out of church.
APP: Take the step and get involved with a small group & watch the faithfulness of the Lord blossom in your life.
· Put up your shield of faith, hanging on tightly to Him
· And you’ll find that those darts will bounce right off.
· Then you’ll become so grounded in the faith, so strong in Him that you’ll help someone else coming to Calvary get hooked in!
USE your BELT of TRUTH, BREASTPLATE of RIGHTEOUSNESS, SANDALS of PEACE, SHIELD of FAITH…
5. (17) The HELMET of SALVATION
a. The helmet protects the head, the mind of the Christian.
b. You know, if it wasn’t for my salvation, my relationship with Jesus… THIS WORLD would really bum me out! Amen?
c. IF this world was all we had and all the hope there was…
d. BOY would we be stressed & distressed!
e. But we’re not… WHY? Because of hope, a blessed hope!
Jer. 17.7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.
1 Thessalonians 5.8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.
This HOPE, this desire… it’s what keeps us sane & happy & blessed!
· I firmly believe with every ounce of my being that Jesus is coming back soon!
· Just as Peter, James, John, Mary, Martha and the great saints of old looked forward for Jesus to come… SO DO I… SO DO WE.
· And do you know with each day passing, our lives become purer & stronger & more protected as we daily put on our helmet of salvation!
6. (17) The SWORD of the SPIRIT (Word of God)
a. God’s Word is so powerful in the spiritual realm.
b. If we would fill our hearts and minds and lives with the Word of God, oh how many areas of life would be strong!
Remember when Satan came up against Jesus personally to tempt Him and taunt Him and try to destroy Him?
Matt. 4.4 But He answered and said, "It is written, ’Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ "
c. Here in the orig. lang. Paul uses the word ‘rhema’.
d. It refers to the exact, spoken word of God.
e. Most likely, Paul was looking at the 6-inch sword that the Roman soldier would use in hand-to-hand combat.
In another place Paul writes:
Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
This Word is the LOGOS, the entire Book is sharper…
· But here, Paul says the Word, the Holy Spirit giving us the specific word needed at just the right time…
· The Spirit will whisper in your ear & you receive it and obey it.
John 14.25-26 "These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. 26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.
NOTE: All throughout the Bible, we are encouraged to be men/women of the Word.
Psalm 1.1-2 Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.
Psalm 119.11 Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You!
· Read through it… Study it… Memorize it… Share it…
7. (17-20) PRAYING always with all PRAYER & SUPPLICATION
a. In all the hand-to-hand fighting… there’s a time to retreat.
b. Not retreating to run away, but retreating to a call out some long-range artillery… PRAYER!
Matt. 6.6 "But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
In my prayer life, I can travel the globe and intercede on behalf of my brothers and sisters worldwide.
· I can ask for God’s protection & provision for Denny & Barb.
· I can ask for God’s plan & purpose to be done in the Muslim countries.
· I can pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
· I can cover Aurora with His blessed love…
· I can be watchful for my brothers and sisters here in fellowship.
AND SO… we are equipped & prepared to win this spiritual fight.
It’s not physically, not in the flesh… but through the Spirit of God.
Zech 4:6 So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ’Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.
