Our Great Salvation

Prayer

Happy Father’s Day.

I’ve been thinking…I’ve been thinking about Father’s Day. And I’ve been thinking about my dad. And I’ve been thinking about things he has taught me over the years. I’ve been thinking. I’ve been thinking about how powerful it is when your dad says words of blessings over you.

I’ve been thinking…I’ve been thinking about salvation and following Jesus. I’ve been thinking about how the church has presented the gospel…

I think we’ve oversold the benefits of following Jesus and undersold the cost of following Jesus.

We’ve been fighting battles as a church.

I’ve been thinking about those people who are on the fence about following Jesus. Those people to which someone has shared the gospel that says, come to Jesus and he will make your life better but now you are seeing all these people who do follow Jesus struggle and you wonder…Why would I follow Jesus if they are struggling and suffering just like everyone else in this world. Does Jesus really make everything better?

Because I know some that would say, if you begin to follow Jesus in this world for real, then guess what…you just put a target on your back for the enemy to start target practicing on.

One of Elizabeth’s favorite verses is John 16:33

John 16:33 NIV

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

So on this Father’s Day…we are beginning a new series. A series that I hope will bring light to what God has done for us, what we now have access to and why following Jesus really is the best option, well THE ONLY OPTION to have a truly meaningful and fruitful life both here on earth as well as in the life to come.

So buckle up, because we are starting a series today I call Battle Ready and we will be going through the book of Ephesians. Line by line and verse by verse.

Today’s Message is called Our Great Salvation…

“Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” - Ephesians 6:17

Satan’s Strategy: - Mind Games

Luke 4:7 Slide…play it up…

Luke 4:7 NIV

7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

This is a promise of scripture right…if we simply bow down and worship, it all will be ours!!!

That sounds extremely inspirational until you realize who said it…

I really enjoy the game of chess. I am not that good at it still but I enjoy it.

Well Satan is a Master Chess player. He knows if he can make the first attack, and put a thought into your mind he has a better chance of winning. He will scheme (plan).

Ephesians 6:11- “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.”

Paul also wrote to the Corinthian church about Satan’s schemes by telling them…

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Satan’s schemes, his strategy is to attack your mind and get you to fall into temptation, or doubt. He has arguments against the knowledge of God. He uses the wisdom of this world, he uses pretension…(pretending). He uses temptation to place a thought in our minds and once we fall prey to that thought, once we entertain that thought, it can lead down a road to being imprisoned in chains of addiction.

Satan is too cunning to come at us with a huge chain. He is not going to come at you carrying shackles of pornography, or gossip, or slander or addiction. He is going to come at you with a single choice. A temptation, and if you fall into that temptation, it gets easier to fall prey to it again, and again, and again…

Before you know it you have fallen into a sin pattern and are imprisoned in a cycle of sin that you didn’t mean to fall prey to, but it just happened.

But there is hope!!!

God’s Provision- Helmet of Salvation

You Have Been Saved (Justification) Ephesians 1:1-14

Ephesians 1:1–14 NIV

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. 11 In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. 13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”- Romans 3:23

“The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ our Lord” - Romans 6:23

“But God demonstrates is own love towards us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8

“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, then you will be saved.”

Paul wrote it this way to the Ephesians.

Ephesians 1:1-14- You have been saved. You have been justified before God. Redeemed, made right, chosen and marked with the promised Holy Spirit until the day you die. You have an eternal anchor in heaven. When you die, you will be saved from eternal damnation and hell.

But salvation is more than that…

You Are Being Saved (Sanctification) Ephesians 1:15-17

That you may know him better. Be transformed into his likeness.

Sanctification is a big word that means you are being saved continually. You are separated from your sin, and separated to God for holiness.

That doesn’t mean we won’t struggle, but we should at least be struggling.

The problem is I believe to many of us fall into this pattern where we are saying we are struggling with a particular sin, but we are not really struggling, we are simply allowing that sin to be in our lives…we are falling into that sin’s power and being chained to more and more. We really need to struggle against sin.

As we read already we need to take those thoughts captive.

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NIV

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

And lastly…

You Will Be Saved (Glorification) Ephesians 18-23

One day our King will be returning and when he does.

Revelation 21:3–7 NIV

3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” 5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. 7 Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children.

Someday, at the coming of the Lord Jesus, all who are in Christ will be glorified.

Those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:30) The creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Romans 8:21)

That is, we will be glorious.

The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Matthew 13:43)

But our glory will not be our own but the glory of Christ who is the image of God. We will be glorified with his glory.

To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:14) The Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. (Isaiah 60:19)

We have been given a complete salvation. You have been, you are being and you will be saved! Our minds need only to accept the free gift of salvation and allow that truth to sink down deep into our souls, giving us a new identity.

Leonard Ravenhill puts our salvation this way…

I truly believe on of the greatest tricks of the enemy is he has tricked us into believing that salvation means that we can place salvation on like a helmet.

It’s not like that though. The helmet of salvation is not something that we put on to make us better. It is a belief that the old man is now dead. The old life I once had is no more.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

My old man is dead and gone. The flesh with it’s passions and desires are dead and I am now made alive in Christ. This is why salvation outside of Jesus is impossible. For salvation only comes through new life and there is only one Jesus who paid the penalty for my sin, for your sin…there is only one Jesus who was dead and buried in the tomb for three days. There is only one Jesus who raised himself from the dead and by that same spirit of God that raised Jesus to new life, we now have resurrection life living within us when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead.

And once we proclaim that truth,

We HAVE BEEN saved…

We ARE being saved

And

We WILL BE saved.

This is the true gospel.

That there was nothing I could do to earn back God’s love for me. By my sin, I had broken his laws. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ.

Now I am justified…Now I am being sanctified…and one day I will be glorified

The truth of identity in Christ. Paul wrote it this way to the Ephesians…

You are Blessed (1:3) You are Adopted (1:5) You are Redeemed (1:6) You are Forgiven (1:7) You are Chosen (1:11) You are Included with Christ (1:13)

You now have access to God almighty as your Heavenly Father

JFK

See it’s your position that get’s you access to God, not your performance.

God is our Father, and even if a father is a very important man His children have a personal access to him that others don’t. They can come to speak to their father without appointment, in the middle of the night, while wearing pajamas. He does not require them to suit up if they want to address him.

God is our Father and what He says about us should mean everything. He is the one that says I am blessed

While the truth of those scriptures I shared a few minutes ago are so important to us and our walk, if we are pretentious, putting up a false image of who we really are, then those truths will never actually reach the real you.

I believe this is one of the most effective strategies that Satan has used to keep people imprisoned and oppressed. To keep people from experiencing the true love of the Father.

We believe the lies of Satan and who he says we are. The temptation to live out of a false self.

Luke 4: 1-11 The Temptation towards a False Self

Luke 4:1–11 NIV

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” 5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” 9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; 11 they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

If Satan tempted Jesus in these ways, played these mind games on him, rest assured that he will play them on you.

Performance: I am what I do.

“If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Luke 4:3

The lie these days comes out like this. My value is found in my job, my career, my marriage, my ministry.

My name is Joe. Not Pastor Joe. I am a pastor yes, but that is my calling. That is the work that God has for me to do here, to minister the word of God and to pray. It is important work, but it is not who I am. I am Joe. A child of the most high God who loves me and gave himself for me.

We start proclaiming a false identity when we place all our value in what we do instead of who we are already.

Possession: I am what I have, or don’t have.

“I will give you all their authority and splendor…If you worship me, it will all be yours” - Luke 4:7

Satan really uses this lie today to trap us into believing we are not enough, or we don’t measure up.

Popularity: I am what others think about me.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down”

By taking him to the temple, if he would have jumped he would have an immediate following…people would have most certainly made him a star!

Look, there’s Jesus, the man who jumped and angels caught him.

Certainly they would have thought he was a great and mighty man, someone to respect, follow and revere.

The problem is that when we live out of these false selves, when we allow Satan’s schemes to take root in our lives instead of taking them captive, we are stuck.

Jesus went to the Word of God and what the Father had spoken about Him.

It’s what He used to deal with these temptations that Satan came at him with. And it is so important to realize that before Satan attacked Christ, his identity was already firmly established.

Luke 3:21-22 “You are my son with whom I am well pleased”.

But for today, when dealing with the battle of the mind, I believe the apostle Paul has some good advice for us.

First remember to take every thought captive…

Second…Pray.

Philippians 4:6–7 NIV

6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

We need to learn how to pray…to pray and hear from God. To allow him to speak into our identity. Pray, petition him.

Thank him for everything he has already done and thank him for what he will do but we need to petition him. Pray with and Seek Him. Be real with him.