The Armor of God - Part 2
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The Armor of God
The Armor of God
Intro - otherstuffhere
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 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. Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
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Nashville stuff?
pray
figure it out!!!
The Shield of Faith
[talk about shields…and Cap’s shield]
When I think of faith, my mind immediately turns to scripture about faith. What God’s word tells us about what faith is.
It turns that way, because often we confuse faith with religion; faith with church…[elaborate on that]
…but all that other stuff isn’t what faith is really about; it isn’t what faith is. The author of Hebrews, in fact, finds it to be such an important issue that they clear up exactly what faith is!
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.
Heb 11:1-
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
[expand on that..eventually alluding to Paul…]
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
That is what faith is…[expand on idea from the point of view of us fixing our eyes on stuff; on the solution we can understand, or the protection we can understand(keep on listing here)]…but those things are just temporary! When we set our hearts on God, and carry in us the assurance that He loves us, created us, and actively makes a way for us, not just in this life, but the next as well - then we truly are protected by faith.
***And that faith becomes for us a shield. It deflects all the bad stuff, because in light of everything the world throws at us, we are saved and we are safe in the arms of God.**
How do you take up that shield?
We have to believe. And believing starts, believe it or not, in the head as much as in the heart. So that can start for us when we understand that we have been bought!
We have been saved.
Helmet of Salvation
[this needs to be about our understanding of our salvation. move toward …]
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.
[expand]
Sword of the Spirit
We like this one, don’t we? Oh we like to wield that sword.
When I think about the sword of the Spirit my mind races toward Peter...
…He had no need or reason to swing that sword, but how quickly he fell back onto human impulses. The same impulses we all have.
But we need not. We really needn’t.
You see, we swing those swords to condemn, to cast light on evil, or to try to show the way. But we miss out on the very core of the message of Christ when we do that.
Church, we aren’t God. We don’t get to sit in the seat of judgement. Jesus doesn’t just say “Judge not, lest you be judged,” he also says, “for by your own measure it will measured to you!”
So if that isn’t reason enough to convince you that being the judge of any person is a bad idea, that condemning people isn’t exactly your role, then how about these words from the gospel of John:
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
John 3:
He didn’t come to condemn, and let me tell you if He didn’t, we shouldn’t either.
We point people to Jesus, and He takes care of the rest.
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.
We point people to Jesus, and He takes care of the rest.
matt 27:
[wrap it up and invite]