Armer of God

Have you ever wondered the secret to living a long life?

Well Elizebeth Sulliven a few years ago shared her secret to living one. Watch this video...

So there you go… You want to live a long life drink some Dr. Pepper.

But you know I think most of us would say we want to live a good long life,

And if you have been with us we have been looking at this book of Ephesians where we have been looking at this book of the Bible where Paul (the author) is telling us how when we accepted Christ we became a new creation and really it was a new begining for our lives.

And today is the last part of this series, and Paul tells us not how to live a long life, but how to live a strong life.

Because the issue is each of us has an idea of what a strong life looks like and in this passage Paul begins to bring us away from all these things that so often take our focus off of God.

And so I know thats a short introduction, but I just want to dive in, because we will be in Ephesians 6:10-20 and we will just be starting in verse 10, It says this:

Ephesians 6:10 (NIV)

The Armor of God

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

So Paul Starts and he actually gives the base here, because he says be strong in the Lord.

And this sounds really simple doesn’t it? Because really He is saying you want to live a strong life, root it in God,

But there is an issue, because often times we look at different things in our life and we go that looks strong.

Arikas first car she had was a 2013 Ford Focus (show picture) and if you have seen a 2013 Ford focus it looks really nice for your first car after college

Well here is the issue, because on the 2013 Ford Focus they tried anew tranmisission and in the few years we owned it, it had the transmission go out multiple times and always had constant recalls and issues. (it was fun)

But you know here is the thing, because either intentionally, or unintentionally we do this in our walk with God.

Because we have these things in our lives where we go that looks amazing

That looks like it will fill me,

That looks like something I can build my life on

And we chase these cheap things that might look nice and seem cheap, but they cost us so much more than what they are worth.

We need to understand that the things we often root our life in our so prone to breaking.

Before anything we need to understand that God is offering something so much better.

Be Strong in Him. Root your life

And lets look at this next part, because Paul tells us in verses 11-12 how to be strong in God, He says:

Ephesians 6:11–13 NIV

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.

You know its really interesting, because the focus of these three verses are two things:

First it tells us what is the biggest threat to us standing strong with our walk with God.

And he actually mentions that the biggest threat is not a group of people or really anything physical, but the biggest threat is actually what is happening on a spiritual level.

And let me pause here because really Paul is introducing something called spiritual warfare

Basically God is pursing us, but the issue is while He is pursing us Satan is wanting to pull us away from Him.

And in this passage Paul is saying we need to understand who the enemy is.

Because when I say enemy, Paul is not saying your neighbor, he is not saying the right or left side of the political isle

But Paul is saying the enemy is Satan,

Some of you might have seen this online somewhere, but if you have a jar and its filled with red and black ants they will actually live peacefully with eachother (use jar)

But if you take the jar and begin to shake it

The ants will actually begin to attack the other ants.

And I think so often our world looks like this, where satan has shooken things up and because of that we blame others and we get in attack mode

But here is the interesting thing, because When you came, people expected him to be a warrior that would take the Romans who were opressing them down, but what we see instead, is He is loving others radically

Because while Satan can use people but so often the greatest threat we face in standing strong in our walk with God is actually the things He brings in our own lives, but its easier to look at others and go they are the problem.

Often times the enemy works through an addiction we have

Often times the enemy works through our need to create gossip or speak hate where we cause division

The enemy works through our selfish and prideful desires that we have

And like I said satan can 100% use others, but the issue is so often our focus becomes pointed outward, that we miss the footholds in our life and we go “wow, I am glad I am not like that person”

While we are creating destruction in our life and others.

And this is why Paul says put on the full armer of God.

Because if we are going to deal with these things that are going to pull us away we need the right equimpment and really even more than that we need it from God

Its almost how a couple of years ago our house had flees and if you have ever gotten flees it is terrible!

And so I tried everything to get rid of these things

I started with these cheap home remedies, then when that didn’t work I tried cheap store bought stuff

And finally I ended up calling an exterminator, because I could not do it alone

And heres what I want you to get to stand strong in God we cannot do it alone, but we need to put on the full armer of God.

And Paul gives us a really descriptive picture of what the armer of God is, because Paul is writing this out of prison and he would have most likely been chained to a Roman soldire.

And so look what Paul says here. He says first in verse 14:

So Paul starts with the belt in verse 14 it says:

14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,

You know on a Roman soldier a belt was actually the first thing they would but on and it actually held everything else together.

And so Paul points out that we need the belt of truth,

And I want you to notice one of the biggest truths that we need in our life.

Because throughout this letter Paul keeps reminding them who they are.

What their identity is

And this is the biggest truth we need that our identity is a child of God.

You are loved, cared for, and God has a plan in your life.

Do not let things convince you that you do not matter,or that you are to far God,

Because the truth is God loves you and in pursuing you.

And I want you to notice what he says next Because this says place the breastplate of righteousness

and the breastplate would guard your heart

Can I just say it is really important to guard your heart because if we do not guard our heart it only takes one blow to cause a lot of damage.

I mean do any of you remember a few months ago when a dear ran through the front of the church?

If was one blow that caused a lot of damage where we had to get a new door and glass was all over the building

But you know when we do not guard our hearts and chase other things its really easy to look at our lives in our rubul and go “how did I get here?”

Well, look at verse 15 because Paul moves to the shoes He says: 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

Really what Paul is saying is that we need to live a life where we are standing on the Gospel and this should give us peace

You know it is amazing what a good pair of shoes can do.

When I was training for a Marathon, I had a really old pair of shoes and I would trip and twist my ankel non stop

I mean I would run over a pebble and would fall on my face

And I finally invested in a nice pair of shoes and it was amazing how much more stable I was.

And in this verse it is basically saying to stand on the Gospel. Live a life where everything you do is a result of God and what he is doing in your life.

Because when circumstances change or an issue comes up you are going to stand firm if you are standing in the gospel.

And I know this is a lot, but this is one of my favorites verse 16 because it says: 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.

You know the Roman soldures shield was actually wooden and then it was coated in leather so when flaming arrows would be shot at them the wood would stop the arrow, but the flame would not get to the wood because of the leather.

And I have never been shot with a flaming arrow,

but I imagine if I went out in a field with Joe and I said I want you to shoot that at me and Ill hold up this shield

I would imagine that I had some strong faith that the shield I have actually works. And that is why Paul says take up the shield of faith. Basically trust God.

You know so often we say we trust God, but the moment something goes wrong we go okay God I trust you, but I am going to take this in my own hands.

And Paul is saying trust God above all else

Lets look at at the last two pieces of Armer Paul mentions in verse 16 because he says: 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

You know if you have ever been to a construction sight they a lot of times have a sign that says hard hats required.

And its to protect your head but it also makes it so you do not have to be as on guard that something might hit your head

It makes it so you do not have to feel like you might get hit all the time.

And really I think Paul is tell us, look your life should not be living in fear that you will mess up or stumble in your walk with God, Because you have the helmet of salvation. Basically God has won the war.

And this does not mean we should live however we want, but so often I see so many Christians concerned over messing up and it actually paralyses them.

And Paul is saying when you have the helmet of Salvation on you know that Satan is already defeated, so start living into the calling that God has given you.

And then finally we get to the last piece of armer which is the sword. and everything else has been defensive and this is actually the only offence part that Paul mentions.

And it is the word of God, basically when we read or hear God’s word something happens where darkness and sin flees and God takes over.

When we encounter God, we should not stay the same but we should be completely transformed.

Because we can try to break old habits or addictions, but only God and His word has the power to change our heart and others.

And you know like I said there was a lot here this morning and maybe your head is spinning, but can I just end by asking the question I started with?

Are you living a strong life with God as the head of your life and where you are rooted in Him.

Because we can catch ourselves drifting away, but what would it look like to remember that the identity you have and to live into that identity.

I think about that illustration we talked about a few weeks ago, maybe today your life has things in it that are toxic,

What would it look like to take the toxic things off and put on the armer of God.

Lets go ahead and pray