Sermon Tone Analysis

; This is the attitude that we have.

Eyeservice can go both ways.

It could be rolling your eyes, bad body language, other types of insubordination.

There is the other side, the suck up, the brown nose, always trying to pander to the boss for the wrong motivations.

We shouldn’t be this way either.

We should do everything as unto the Lord.

Our promotion comes from the Lord.

,; 6For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.7But

God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.

Example B/E Pierre working on Saturday.

; Not working out of spite, but in goodwill.

We may not always get acknowledged for our achievements, and hard work.

In fact in some cases the only time we may hear something from the boss is if we messed up.

That’s doesn’t feel good, everyone likes to be patted on the back, and told that they are doing a good job every now and then.

But if we don’t, but are doing our best as unto the Lord, then we know that the Lord is happy with our labor, and that should be enough.

This takes a certain leven of maturity.

I remember one time I had a really sorry attitude towards the company that I was working at.

I didn’t agree with some of the things that they were doing and it really affected my mindset, I had lost some respect for the management because in my mind what they were doing wasn’t right (and these people were supposed to be Christians.)

This went on for a period of time, and I was angry at work all the time.

Then finally I realized that THEY have to answer to God for what they are doing, and I have to answer to God for my attitude.

I let their actions affect my attitude.

This was wrong, and I changed my attitude.

You know what happened?,

I became more productive, and I received a promotion and was commended for my work.

During a performance review the Administrator commented that several months ago they had noticed a change, and as a result I was rewarded.

All because I began to work as unto the Lord, and not unto men.

; Again promotion comes from God, not from man.

So we should work to please God.

; If we are the boss then we must remember that God is watching.

Just because someone is the boss doesn’t give them the right to threaten people.

I knew a guy who was constantly threatening folks, you’ll do this OR ELSE.

This breeds resentment with the employees.

Then there was a structural change and now he has a boss over him, and he doesn’t like it.

This doesn’t mean that as a Christian boss that you have to be a pushover, you can still hold people accountable, and expect good work.

But you don’t have to be a slave driver.

Really before God are boss and worker equal?

Are servant and master equal?

Of course they are.

So both have an obligation to treat each other respectfully knowing that there is a heavenly Master in heaven that we are all accountable too.

Eph 10-18 The Christian Armory

So as Paul puts the finishing touches on his letter he wants to bring everything home.

We have been dealing with the Riches that we have.

God’s storehouse of blessings.

Our position in Christ, our access to the Father, our victory over sin, so with all of these blessings, with all of these riches, with all of this treasure that we have in God, wouldn’t it be foolish if he didn’t give us the weapons to protect it?

He has, he has given us spiritual blessings, and equipped us with spiritual weapons that have empowered us to be victorious.

These weapons are described as weapons of warfare, ones that a solider would use to defend themselves against an enemy on the battlefield.

This is exactly what Christianity is, we are engaged in a warfare.

As we shared on Sunday Night, people thing that Christians are weak, that Christians need a crutch to lean on.

On the contrary, Christians go through life going against the grain, against the flow of the world.

I gave the illustration of the salmon swimming upstream.

The ones that make it are the ones that are in the strongest part of the river swimming against it.

The ones that are resting in the pools are caught by fishermen and bears.

; Notice here Paul doesn’t say to be strong in our own might.

Now we have to be strong mentally, we have to exercise our faith, and stand firm.

But the strength that we stand and fight in is given to us of the Lord.

It is not our own strength.

On our own we are no batch for the devil, but Jesus has already defeated the devil, and we are in HIM.

It is through HIS strength that we stand.

It’s not in our ability.

One of the advantages to being a Christian is that we have access to God’s unlimited power.

God is Omnipotent – That means all powerful.

Rev Jones praying to go to Germany, God how am I going to go and do this?

God told him “Go in This” and the Spirit of the Lord in mighty power washed over him and gave him the assurance that God was going to be with him.

God gives us power – If God be for us?

Who can be against us!

; God equips us to go and fight.

He doesn’t send us out to battle with inefficient and ineffective equipment.

God doesn’t set us up for failure.

The US military is the best equipped and best trained military in the world.

But training alone won’t win battles and wars.

If the solider doesn’t have a weapon to shoot, or an airplane to fly then he will lose.

Americas military can be successful in any conflict in any part of the world if the politicians don’t get in the way.

So God gives us equipment to go to battle in this “Spiritual Warfare” BUT WE ARE THE ONES THAT HAVE TO PUT IT ON” Who has read the book, or saw the movie “Blackhawk Down” It was to be a two our mission to capture senior level officials of Warlord Muhommad Farah Aideed, and possibly Aideed himself.

Because of the speed, duration, and timing the soldiers wanted to travel light so they left behind things like body armor, canteens with water, night vision goggles, etc.

You can have the best battle plan in the world, but guess what?

The enemy also gets a vote on the outcome!

Things didn’t go as planned and the soldiers found themselves in need of the equipment that they left behind.

In that battle 19 Americans died, but because they were still the best trained and best equipped military in the world they inflicted a casualty count of 1000 dead 4000 wounded on the enemy.

We need to make sure that we go to the Christian Armory that God has given us and equip ourselves for the battle for our souls!

This is a spiritual battle, and much of the battle that we fight is internal.

It’s a battle for our own soul, so we need to make sure that we are equipping ourselves with the arsenal of weapons that God gives us.

; WE are fighting a spiritual adversary.

We can’t just walk up to the devil and smack him in the face.

But this battle is raging in a spiritual realm

There is a battle raging in the heavens, on earth, and under the earth.

This battle has been waged by satan against the God and Creator of all things.

This being, satan, also known as lucifer who held a position in God’s kingdom as the Anointed Cherub that covereth.

This being that was created by God, who conceived rebellion, who had dominion of the world before Adam, was defeated and stripped of his glory and dominion.

This devil, that old serpent continues to wage warfare against God using God’s most loved and cherished creation, Mankind.

This battle is waged in the spirit realm, and also in our carnal realm.

It is waged in the heavens, in the earth, and under the earth.

Today we’re going to try to see how and where we fit in to this battle.

This is information that we need to know.

The enemy of our soul, that serpent the devil loves nothing more than people being ignorant to these things, and to ignore them and pretend that it doesn’t exist.

To understand where we fit in we need to understand Christ’s Position, satan’s position, and our position.

There are layers to God’s creation.

The way that we live, think, and reason are all built on the laws of this realm.

But there are other realms that exist and coexist next to ours that are not subject to the same finite thinking and rules of nature.

Angels and evil spirits operate and fight in these realms, and have a dramatic impact on our finite world.

Angels can operate completely unseen and undetected to the natural world.