Chico Alliance Church
September 10, 2006
Pastor David Welch
"Spiritually Aware, Alert, Armed and Aggressive" Pt 7
I. Be Aware
II.Be Alert
III. Be armed & aggressive
A.Be fully empowered
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Ephesians 6:10
All the armament in the world will be of no benefit if we don’t have the strength to use it.
We must first understand our power source. This is a supernatural battle that requires supernatural strength. The kind of strength necessary for this battle can only come from the Lord. Paul instructed them first to be empowered by the Lord. He used a passive tense verb – be strengthened by someone. Be strengthened in the Lord. Be empowered. The kind of strength necessary to do battle with the enemy only comes through vital spiritual connection with Christ. Once we have been empowered, we need to be armed. That is the second command in the passage repeated twice.
B.Be fully armed (Put on / Take up God’s complete armor)
Put on the full armor of God, vs 11
take up the full armor of God, vs13
Paul clearly explained why we must employ the full armor of God.
so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Vs 11
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Vs 13
The reason we need to be empowered in the Lord and protected by his armor is so that we will be able to stand and resist. We need both God’s power and God’s armament in order to engage the enemy. Paul instructed the believer is to be fully armed in order to engage the enemy.
In between the two commands to appropriate God’s armament, Paul described the enemy we must be fully armed to engage.
Paul employed a word indicating a fierce face to face conflict. Because of the use of that word, last week I indicated that our battle with the enemy is ultimately a personal battle.
I have subsequently realized my interpretation was not correct. Paul’s use of the word “wrestle” still indicates that the battle is personal and up close. However, there is no such thing as an army of one. The war that Satan wages is a war against the church.
The battle may be personal, but the war is communal. We are called to fight side by side.
Paul’s call to prayer in the midst of this battle is a call to the church to continually intercede for one another. I’ve come to understand that this war must be one that we fight together. We must fight side by side. Our fight must NOT be against each other but against our mutual enemy. Individual warfare goes against everything God designed the body to be and do.
So the armament that Paul outlines in this passage is not so that we can personally resist the devil but so that we can go to war for each other as Kingdom warriors.
C.Stand firm
Paul is very clear that we are to do everything we can to stand and resist the enemy.
Stand firm therefore (in light of our mutual war)
The command to stand is clear. It means to engage the enemy. Here is where a new perspective on spiritual warfare is forming in the depths of my soul. The command to stand is not a command to stand and wait, or be ready for the enemy’s attack. The command to stand is a command to take a stand. Any battle that focuses only on defense is ultimately doomed to fail. A football team may have the best defense in the world, but without offense they will always lose. God never intended us to just sit around waiting for the enemy’s attack. The church must go on the offensive. Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail.” Where is Jesus going to build his church?
He is building his church smack dab in the middle of Satan’s territory. We must march against the enemy’s strongholds and smash through his gates. Ultimately every war is about territory. God calls every believer, as a soldier in his army, to regain the territories captured and held by the enemy.
Even though God gave Israel the Promised Land, they had to take personal possession through warfare. They had to destroy fortresses and annihilate enemies. Satan has established and operates out of fortresses in our life, in our families, in our church and in our community. We must demolish those fortresses and evict the captors. I have always understood this armor as primarily defensive save the sword at the end. The reality is we take up this armor in order to go on the offensive. The armor is all for the purpose of offense. The armor described by Paul here is intended to demolish the fortresses of the enemy as we march against his strongholds. Yes, each piece of armor does protect us, but each piece of armor deals a decisive blow to a particular scheme of the devil.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
Satan’s schemes center on words and thoughts which generate feelings and motivate behavior. Satan perpetuates thinking contrary to kingdom principles. The foundational truths revealed in the pieces of armor from this passage are intended to counter the major schemes used by Satan to keep the church in defeat. Paul listed five foundational fortress busters. I call it the Pentagon of power. He concludes then with two application principles that make it all work. This is another one of Paul’s long sentences in the original language. The rest of this passage is all connected to the main verb “stand.” Paul commands us to stand having taken up the whole armor of God. After we have been empowered and armed – TAKE A STAND! Reciting this passage without understanding its implications and applying its truth is like carrying a gun without bullets.
Without a firm grip on these five truths any attempt to engage the enemy for ourselves or others will result in defeat.
This is a contrast in the ways of God and the wiles of the devil. This is a contrast between how God designed things to function and what Satan promotes as how life should be lived. All of God’s ways are based on the humble submission and service to others.
Satan’s ways are based on proud self-reliance and dominance of others.
Humble submission is the core of all of God’s ways. Proud self-reliance lies at the core of everything that Satan promotes.
God’s ways are based on the need for connection with him. Satan’s ways are based on disconnecting from God.
God’s ways encouraged us to look outside of ourselves. Satan encourages us to find life from within ourselves.
1.Truth
Satan wields a double edge sword. He works at getting us to embrace his lie or seeks to prevent or pervert God’s truth. His self-promoting life deals with the proud notion that I am the keeper of truth. There is no absolute truth. Truth is relative according to how it benefits me. It becomes true if I feel it is true. His first effort is to get us to embrace his lie. His second step is to get us perpetuate his lies by speaking them to ourselves and to others. The last stage to get us to live his lie. If that doesn’t work, he seeks to prevent us from hearing God’s truth about God, about ourselves, about others, about himself.
God declares – “My word is truth” “Satan is the father of lies”. God calls us to know and embrace the truth that sets us free and demolishes Satan’s lies. God calls us to speak the truth in love that promotes the growth of the body. God calls us to live the truth.
Spiritual warfare has to do with taking every thought captive to the truth of Christ.
Engaging the enemy had to do was speaking the truth. Jesus confronted the lies and deceptions of Satan by speaking the truth. Jesus is the truth.
2.Righteousness
Righteousness has to do with adherence to a standard. Satan’s first attempt is to get us to establish our own standard. Satan promotes a self righteousness that has nothing to do with God standard. Satan always seeks us to live disconnected from God. If that doesn’t work Satan also promotes unrighteousness. He urges the words of unrighteousness. He suggests the words that violate God standard of purity and godliness. He seeks to get us to reject God standard and live according to our own standard. Paul talked to the Romans about those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Satan is not only called the father of lies but the accuser of the brethren. Part of the fortress that Satan seeks to establish not only has to do with the promotion of our own standard but the perpetuation of guilt, condemnation and shame when we fail to live by God’s standard.
Only the breastplate of righteousness can demolish Satan’s intricate scheme. Only the righteousness of God is sufficient to put us in right standing with God. Keep my commandments!
We are called to seek and embrace the righteousness of God.
We are called to speak the word of righteousness.
We are called to live righteous in an ungodly world.
The power of this piece of armor is not our personal righteousness but the very righteousness of Jesus Christ offered to us through the sacrifice of Christ that inspires us to live according to God’s standard. Spiritual warfare has to do with understanding our standing. Jesus is our righteousness. Jesus lived a perfect righteous life. Jesus said that the prince of this world has come and has found nothing in me. Spiritual warfare as to do with speaking the word of righteousness revealed in the Scriptures against all self-righteousness and against the accusing voice of the enemy.
Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? It is Christ who justified. It is Christ who declares us to be righteous.
3.Peace
Satan promotes a life of dominance and control over others. Satan continually promotes a disconnect from God and prevents or perverts community. Satan promotes worry, strife, disunity, stress, broken relationships resulting in anger, bitterness, loneliness, misery, weakness and distance from God. He inspires the words of disunity. He promotes thoughts and words that discourage and de-energize.
A key to victory in the battle is a firm footing. The shoes are a very important piece in the whole scheme of armament. Our preparation for marching against the gates of hell must include a clear understanding that the gospel is about peace and love and service not dominance or control. We are called to pursue and embrace peace. We are called to speak peace. Were commanded not to speak any word except the words that build up and energize and give grace and encourage. We are called to live in peace with all men so far as it depends on us. Jesus is our peace. Jesus made peace. Jesus preached peace. Jesus said my peace I give unto you.
Spiritual warfare has to do with speaking peace into the turmoil of this world, the broken relationships, the stress of our day, into the anger and into the bitterness stirred up by the enemy. Disunity and strife are one of Satan’s strongest fortresses. Much of Scripture or deals with broken relationships. The deeds of the flesh are almost all describe relational disasters. The fruit of the Spirit promotes an intimate community of love, peace, long suffering gentleness, kindness and self-control.
4.Faith/trust
Satan’s first scheme is to promote self-trust. On the flip side he encourages people not to trust God. He may encourage people to trust everything and everyone but God. His scheme is encourage people to try to make life work on their own terms.
Running his self-reliant theme and his rejection of God he urges people to seek life from every thing but God. He promotes anger at God and distrust. Such a disconnect from God brings defeat, wilderness, helplessness and fear. He promotes thoughts and words of doubt, discouragement, disillusionment and defeat.
God provides a shield of faith to extinguish those fiery darts hurled at us. God encourages us to embrace trust in him. God encourages us to speak the word of faith, of trust in him.
Job cried out though he slay me yet will I trust him. God encourages us to live our life by continual trust in him no matter what. By faith the saints of old were enabled to attain extraordinary victory. By faith, the saints of old were enabled to endure extraordinary hardship. Jesus endured and rose victorious over sin and death is because he entrusted his soul to a faithful Creator. Jesus himself is the author and perfecter of our faith.
Spiritual warfare is about embracing a life of faith.
Spiritual warfare is about speaking the word of faith into a world of doubt.
Spiritual warfare is about actually living by faith.
5.Salvation
Satan promotes a fortress that consists of the thought that we are to save ourselves. If we are to find life it’s only what we can make it. Be all that you can be. You can be anything you want to. Save yourselves! If that doesn’t work he convinces people that they really don’t need a Savior. He promotes the words of pride. If all that doesn’t work he seeks to prevent us from really understanding the glory of the salvation freely offered to us to Jesus Christ. He speaks the words of insecurity, lostness, hopelessness, fear, condemnation.
God provides us the helmet of salvation to protect our thinking. We are urged to receive his free gift. We are urged to speak the words of salvation, the good news of our transfer from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved Son. We are urged to speak to good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ to a world in bondage. Finally we are urged to live out, or work out our salvation by living as children of the King. Spiritual warfare is about speaking truth of our salvation into the lies of the enemy.
You see, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, are the words of God spoken into the lies of the enemy that are binding and blinding people. The sword of the Spirit has to do with applying God’s truth in order to demolish the fortresses that Satan has managed to erect in our lives, the lives of our family, the lives of our church, the lives of the people in the community around us.
Rise up O Church of God and put your armor on.
It is time we took the offensive.
It’s time we opened our eyes to the fortresses in our own life and those that are binding those around us, put on the armor and take up the sword and reclaim what the enemy has stolen.
With continual prayer I call on us to begin to speak the truth into the fortresses of Satan’s lies and deception, the fortresses of unrighteousness and sin, the fortresses of disunity and stress and worry and broken relationships, the fortresses of unbelief and fear, the fortresses of hopelessness and insecurity.
