The Armor of God

INTRO.

[SP NOTE: Tell a story of a time that you were frustrated because you felt like something should’ve been easier than it was. Maybe you felt like you should have beaten a level of something sooner than you did, or you should have already passed a test that you couldn’t pass, etc.]

Baseball is an unbelievably frustrating sport. I played all through high school, but for whatever reason I always struggled with hitting. I had some grace for myself my freshmen and sophomore year because I was smaller and hadn’t hit my growth spurt yet. I figured I would eventually figure it out when I filled out and got bigger. But my junior year was one of the most frustrating years of baseball in my life.

When we weren’t in a game, I was a GREAT hitter. I could hit the ball wherever I wanted to in practice, at the batting cage, or in the backyard when I was working with my dad. But for as great as I was at practice, I just couldn’t do it in the game. And the further we got into the season, the angrier I got. I kept thinking, “I should have figured this out by now. I know I can do this. Why, when I get into the game is this SO HARD?”

TENSION.

You ever felt like that before? You ever found yourself asking, “why is this so hard?”

Why is this test so hard? Shouldn’t I understand this by now?

Why is this relationship so hard? Shouldn’t we have moved past this by now?

Why is my faith so hard? You ever asked that before? God, I’m surrendering my life to you, can you help a sister out?

Maybe that’s a good question for us to sit on…why is following Jesus so hard?

[Pause for crowd response]

You know what I learned when I was asking that about baseball? I learned that there was a difference between offseason and in-season. In the offseason, my focus was on mastering the art of hitting a baseball. Every day my goal was moving from being bad at something toward becoming a master of something. In this case, hitting a baseball. I started off bad, and I wanted to practice enough so that I could be good. And the better I got, the easier it got. The more I practiced, the more the difficulty of hitting a baseball went down. That was what defined my offseason.

But in-season was a totally different game. In-season, you’re not focused on mastery, you’re focused on victory. It’s not about moving from being bad at something to getting good at something, it’s about winning. The thing about winning, though, is that it requires an opponent. The opponent isn’t always another person, it could be yourself, it could be the CPU in a video game, or it could just be the game itself. But winning assumes an opponent.

The reason I struggled to hit well in the game was that, in the offseason, I didn’t account for purposeful resistance from an opponent. I assumed that, since hitting had become easier for me I the offseason, it would stay easy for me when I stepped up to the plate against the purposeful resistance of an opponent.

And maybe what was true for me in baseball is also true for a lot of us in our faith. What if the following Jesus can feel so hard and be so defeating is that we’ve expected that the hardest part was over the second we walked across the stage, stood up in the crowd, raised our hand, or prayed the prayer?

What if, the second we walked across the stage, stood up in the crowd, raised our hand, or prayed the prayer didn’t take us out of a fight, but put us right in the middle of one?

TRUTH.

This is the same tension that the church in Ephesus was facing. Ephesus was one of the most influential cities in the Roman Empire and part of what made the city unique was its diversity. It was a melting pot of people groups, cultures, and religious beliefs that had a MAJOR value on inclusivity. The people who lived there worshipped as many of the gods and goddesses of the city as they liked. But the church was loyal to Jesus and only worshipped Him. And part of what the Ephesian people were learning was that life on the other side of following Jesus was HARD. There was resistance. And so, the founding pastor of their church, Paul, wrote them a letter to remind them the truth of the story of Jesus and to teach them how to live out that truth in the middle of a spiritual mess full of people who believe all kinds of different things from them. Here’s what he says in chapter 6,

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. Ephesians 6:10-13

This is victory language. The language Paul uses is pointing to an opponent. Hear me: you are in a fight. Following Jesus doesn’t take you out of a fight, it puts you in one.

And now that you know, Paul says, “be strong in the Lord and His mighty power.” He had to start there for people in the church who were like me. See, I LOVE to be strong…in my power. And what I have found is that part of why following Jesus feels so hard for me, sometimes, is because I’m trying to prove something to God. I’m trying to show Him how strong I am so that He will be impressed with me. But that’s not how this works. You will only make this harder on yourself if you try to be strong in your power. Because the opponent you’re up against is stronger than you. You need borrowed power.

I know that, because of what he says in verses 11 and 12. The armor of God is necessary SO THAT we can take our stand against the devil’s schemes. You have no hope of standing unless you’ve got armor.

See, the bad news is that you are in a fight, and YOU ARE NOT STRONG ENOUGH. In your own power you cannot stand against the devil’s schemes. You are in a fight, and you are not strong enough. But the good news is that HE IS STRONG ENOUGH.

And for some, maybe God brought you here tonight in the middle of your frustration so that you could hear that you are not strong enough…and you don’t have to be. He is plenty strong, and He’s given you access to what you need in order to be strong. But you have to humble yourself enough to admit to yourself that you cannot win this fight on your own because you’re not strong enough. Following Jesus is hard because none of us are strong enough to actually do it on our own. Following Jesus is hard because you can’t win this fight AND keep your pride. As long as you hold onto your pride you will be losing the fight. The opponent is strong.

Verse 12 says,

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.

I find that interesting. Because I would think that Paul would want to diminish the enemy in front of his troops. You don’t want to talk your enemy up; you want to make them small.

It’s like Curt Cignetti talking about Notre Dame before the college football playoffs and saying that they’re going to whoop them. He knew he was up against a WAY better team…he’s just trying to make them seem smaller, so his team feels like they’ve got a fighting chance.

But Paul doesn’t do that. He calls the enemy “powers, authorities, and rulers.” He would only say that if at some level it was true. See, what he’s doing is he’s giving a true picture of the enemy we’re up against because he knows our temptation to hold onto our pride, lie to ourselves, and think that we can still do this on our own.

And as Paul talks about that, he gives two places where the enemy has power, is in a position of authority, and has rule: This dark world and the heavenly realms.

That’s confusing to me because I thought that God had authority over both of those places…

Matthew 28:18 says,

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (NIV)

So, who is wrong here? Paul or Jesus? Neither. Remember what Paul is doing, he’s reminding us that we are not strong enough for this battle. And when it comes to “this dark world” and the “heavenly realms,” Paul is teaching us a truth that our enemy has power, authority, and rule over us. We are not strong enough.

But again, the good news is that, although our enemy may have power, authority, and rule over us, the enemy does NOT have power, authority, and rule over Him. We are not strong enough, but He is strong enough.

On our own, we were under the power, the authority, and the rule of our enemy. We were owned and defined by our sin, and we were powerless to get ourselves out. But because of Jesus we are no longer under the power, the authority, and the rule of our enemy.

Look back at Matthew 28,

18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)

We are not strong enough, but He is strong enough. And for every one of us who has believed in Jesus and follows Him, we don’t fight this fight on our own power, we have borrowed power from our God who has all authority on heaven and earth! It means that even though we aren’t strong enough to break ourselves free from repeating the mistakes of our family, He is strong enough and has given us everything we need to rewrite the history of our last names.

Even though we aren’t strong enough to break ourselves free from the grips of addiction, He is strong enough and has given us everything we need to live free from being owned by our impulses and appetites.

Even though we aren’t strong enough to break ourselves free from racism and prejudice, He IS strong enough and has given us everything we need to love people who look different than we do and treat them with the dignity that has been placed on them as God’s child!

Why is following Jesus so hard? Because following Jesus didn’t take you out of the fight, it put you in one. The day you said yes to Jesus is the day you picked a fight with the devil.

But now, not only do we get to fight for ourselves, but we have been called by God to invite others into the fight too.

See, before Jesus, you weren’t strong enough to win your fight. You only win your fight because of the authority that Jesus has given you over the enemy. But there are still so many people in a fight that they cannot win. They’re not strong enough and they don’t yet know that, even though they are not strong enough, He is strong enough and has offered to make them strong.

That’s what Jesus was calling us to in Matthew 28. Now we get to use that authority over our enemy, not just for ourselves, but for the people around us.

APPLICATION.

And how do you do that exactly? Preach.

Here’s what I mean – the lives we live every day are made to preach. You preach every time you do something you should. You preach every time that you don’t do something you shouldn’t do. You preach when you love your neighbor as yourself. You preach when you don't return evil for evil. You preach when you create beauty. Our lives are made to preach.

And what are we preaching? We’re preaching that all authority on heaven on earth over our enemy has been given to Jesus. We’re preaching that, even though we are not strong enough, He is strong enough and has offered to make us strong.

But understand – there’s consequences to preaching.

An old pastor named Daryll Johnson said this about preaching…

"When you're preaching, you're not just preaching to your church. You're preaching to the principalities and powers of the air. And they are listening to you declare to them that their reign of terror is over."

Preaching has consequences. But this is the best part of the passage in Ephesians. Look back at how he ends in verse 13,

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.

The NLT translation says it like this, "Then, after the battle you will still be standing firm." It indicates victory! It means that the battle won't kill me, it’ll form me! It means that if I stand my ground, I’ll STAY standing! It means that I might get it and it might hurt, but I’ve got help!

If it’s not hard, I’m not preaching!

So my challenge to you is this: if you’ve got the audacity to look hell in the eye and say, “your reign of terror is over,” then you better come dressed to preach. And so right now I want to pray the armor of God over you as you step into the fight and that God would help you come dressed to preach.

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. Ephesians 6:14-16 (NIV)

Belt of truth: Jesus, help me to remember the truth of your Word when the enemy is telling me lies. I pray that you fill me with the truth so that I can stand firm in the middle of war. Amen.

Breastplate of righteousness: When war time comes, it easy for me to sometimes make the wrong decisions and stray away. The only way for me to make it through any battle is to stay close to you so I pray, that you help me not give into my weakness and fall into temptation. Amen.

Shoes of peace: Jesus, you are my peace, you give peace that surpasses understanding and I want that. It is your peace of the Gospel that is the foundation during times of trouble. So, help me stand on the peace of your Gospel and please give peace in the middle of battle. Amen.

Shield of faith: Jesus today I take up the shield of faith. In your name I extinguish every dart and arrow by which the enemy would seek to take me down spiritually, physically, mentally, or emotionally. I lift the shield of faith against every attack of the enemy in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Helmet of salvation: I put on the helmet of salvation and pray that you would protect my mind from thoughts that could lead me astray. I reject any negative thoughts from the enemy, and I pray that you help me replace those thoughts with the truth of who you are. Amen.

Sword of the Spirit: When I find myself in the middle of battle, Jesus I pray that I pick up the sword of your Word to fight back with. Your Word is strong enough to demolish anything, nothing can come up against it. Help me to fight back with scripture first and not last because I know that with you on my side, the battle is already won.