The Armor Series

The Armor

Ephesians Series

CCCAG, June 5th, 2022

Scripture- Ephesians 6:10-18

Introduction

Imagine for a moment you are in Southern Wisconsin in August. It’s 90-100 degrees, humidity about 80%. It’s hot! You don’t want to be having to work outside too much in that heat.

So of course, it’s when I decided to take FF1. In the first part of every class was a 2 minute drill. Part of the state test is seeing if you could put on all of your gear, in the correct order, in two minutes. For the first 20 minutes of every class would put it on and take it back off.

Hood goes on, the pants/suspenders, then the coat. You kneel down, check your tank’s pressure to make sure it’s full- turn it on, and then don the tank, tightening it down, Then mask goes on- tighten your straps and you get an airtight seal on it before attaching your tank regulator to the mask and breathing to make sure it works. Then you pull back the hood to cover any exposed skin on your face and head, don and strap down your helmet, and then finally your gloves.

The instructors would then look you over, and declare you ready to enter the burn building where they had built a fire we had to put out.

Why do they care so much that you do it right?

Because fire is really hot! You need to protect your body’s largest organ, which is your skin. Not only that, but a break in your mask seal could be a quick and painful death as you inhale superheated smoke filled with poisons.

We do that to protect our firefighters and make sure they can do their job in saving lives and mitigating property loss.

God has a set of protective gear for us that Paul describes in Ephesians 6. Like firefighting gear- it’s made to take the heat. It’s also able to take the poison trying to get inside you and neutralize it.

The Armor of God is a subject many of you may have heard a dozen sermons on this already, and it’s the subject of many famous preachers’ books and sermon series.

Saying that, when I was studying for this mornings message, I noticed something I never had before that I wanted to show you this morning, so we will be approaching it a little differently today.

Let’s read the scripture, and then we will dissect it a little bit.

Eph 6:10-18

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 Lord’s people.

Prayer

Premise

As I said a moment ago, I want to look at the armor of God a bit differently today. We often hear sermons that separate the pieces of the armor out and really dig deep into each one. I want to take a slightly different approach this Pentecost Sunday and look at it more as a whole, and what it really represents.

The first thing I want to point out is the imperative-

I. The imperative- (Vs 10 and 13, 14)

The word imperative means “the thing of most importance”. So as we look at Pauls’ teaching on the Armor of God, what is the most important use and function of the armor?

I’ll give you a hint- he says it three times in Verses 10, 13, and 14, and when the bible repeats itself like that- it’s saying- PAY ATTENTION- MAJOR TRUTH COMING.

To stand.

You know it sounds simple. You might be thinking- “Wait a minute…God doesn’t want me to fight?”

Let me point you to Rev 19 for a moment. Revelation 19 describes the return of Jesus at the end of the tribulation (describe valley of Megiddo). I want you to notice something in these verses-