The Armor of God

10-11-2020

Prepare for Battle

Welcome

Intro

This morning will be a bit different sermon

Last week we called you to ACT

Agree with the Holy Spirit about the sin in your life

Confess your sin

And then Turn from your sin

Agreeing and Confessing might be easy because it does not require anything in your life to change as we know it

But the Agreeing and Confessing is the heart change and then once the heart is changed you take the next step to change the physical

Mark 1:15 NASB95

15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

See last week you were given the opportunity to do just that

And some of you might be here today going I missed the opportunity to ACT

You will have that same opportunity this morning to repent from your sins

To agree with the Holy Spirit about the sin in your life

To confess your sin this morning

and then to turn from your sin stop doing it and run to Jesus

But for those who were here last week and ACTed this is not your time to sit back and relax

Because church I think that is what we do

We have a really good God moment and we repent of our sins and we start to feel good and then Monday happens or maybe Thursday happens

And we start to think

But I repented last week life should be good and I can coast

I wonder if we as the church think we have done something good so we deserve to put it on auto pilot

The question we must ask ourselves is do we want a cruise line church or a battle ship church

Church is not the place to come and put it on auto pilot

Church is not the place to come and think that you can just coast because you came to the altar last week and repented

Now is our time to be preparing for battle

I believe I told you last week that after you ACT and leave this building the battle will be on

Ephesians 6:10–12 NASB95

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Understand this church our battle is not against each other

Our battle is not against each other, our battle is not against the lost people of this world

Our battle does not take place in the work place, or on Facebook, or with people who do not believe the same as we do

Our battle does not take place with in the church

We first need to understand who our enemy is

John 10:10 NASB95

10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

Understand church this is our enemy

Our enemy wants to steal everything you have, not just your physical possessions, but you peace, your wisdom, your comfort, your security

Then our enemy wants to kill you

And as if that was not enough our enemy wants to destroy your legacy

Our enemy wants to destroy your witness that is pointing to Jesus

So church

It would make sense then that we should not be in auto pilot right

It should make sense that we are not on a cruise ship here at church

But that our church is more of a battle ship

So it would make sense then that we are not walking around lounging on the deck of the church just waiting and not doing anything

But rather we are to be preparing, studying, equipping and arming ourselves to go to battle each and everyday church

What I am wearing you would not wear into battle

But that is what we do

We have great God moving moments, and then as a church universal we sit back and say we need to catch our breath

When it should be God giving us breath each and every time and giving us energy each and every time

This is not what we wear to battle church

The Bible has something to say about that

Just because you ACTed last week doesn’t mean you get a week off

Rather it means you dig in and arm up and stick close to God

dive deeper into the Word, continue to repent, dare I say but ask God to search your heart out

That and patience and humble are prayers God answers

But God gives us instruction for battle

Because I think it is important to adhere to scripture and I know in the past we have started from the ground up

But Paul wrote this for a reason

Ephesians 6:13 NASB95

13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

Do you understand that you and I are to put on the full armor of God

One thing you need to know about armor is that after a while it starts to take the shape of the person

So my vest at work fits me, not it wouldn't work for you but it would be uncomfortable because it is contoured to me

But if we don’t pick up a piece we are that much more vulnerable

And susceptible to the attacks of satan

So church it is imperative that we take up the full armor

Each and every piece of the armor and apply it and use it

Ephesians 6:14 NASB95

14 Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

We are to stand firm

Remember what Paul told the church a colossae that they are to root themselves in the truth

We know the truth to be a person and his name is Jesus

We are to wrap ourselves in truth

This is the center of who we are and we should wrap ourselves in truth each and everyday

Understand this is not a one time deal, but a daily thing

And to wrap yourself in truth is an important thing and it is not just putting on a belt but to put on a belt in such away it won’t easily come off

It was so you could easily move around and work in that belt

The people Paul was writing to believed that from your belly came your emotion

So if you wrapped your belly in truth then you wouldn’t be controlled by your human emotions but you would be controlled by truth

You would be grounded and centered in truth

Then in the same verse Paul calls them to put on the breastplate of righteousness

Matthew 15:18 NASB95

18 “But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and those defile the man.

We are to protect our heart from what the enemy wants to do which is attack it

Putting on the breast plate of righteousness is taking the action step to protect our heart

God is righteousness

We are to put on God

That means that we get into the Word of God and prayer and

We put on righteousness

We do and put on what is right

Jesus is right

Ephesians 6:15 NASB95

15 and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

To put on special shoes

Jordan Shoes Story

We are to put special shoes to go out

In scripture we are to Go and we are to be prepared to give a defense

So church as we put on the shows we are to prepare ourselves to go and share the Gospel message

Church we are to preparing ourselves each and everyday to go and share the Gospel

each and everyday means we work to memorize scripture maybe you practice sharing the Gospel with your spouse, or kids or family members

Most of us will probably leave the house like this

Because the other parts of the Armor difficult and we look different

Ephesians 6:16 NASB95

16 in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

We are to take up our shield of faith

This give us the ability to keep ourselves safe

As your faiths grows, your shield grows

The opposite is true but as your faith shrinks so does your shield

Then as your faith grows it is learning to lean on your faith

If you and I forget to take this with us then we go without any sort of real defense

Ephesians 6:17 NASB95

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

We take up the helmet so that we protect what goes into our mind

We take up the helmet so that we can remind ourselves who are salvation is in

Like Paul told the church at Colossae we are to keep our minds focused on things above

So stop giving so much of your thought time to the things of this world and focus on what is going to last eternity

Then we are to take up our sword of the spirit

You have heard it said but this is the only primarily offensive weapon

Meaning we don’t have to sit back and wait to be attacked by satan

We should arm ourselves and go out and do the work of the Lord

The sword is the Bible, it is the word of God

We are to take it with us when we go out

This is not something that we swing around wiley niley but we are to use it with precision

Remember though our battle is not against flesh and blood

So we don't use the sword of the spirit against people but we real enemy

We are not going to the use the Word of God to dig people but to encourage them and lift them up

This is how we are to go out and about each and everyday

When we go out with only part of it we go it just doesn’t make good sense

This is how you and I are to go out and about according to scripture

Not what we wore before

Stop going around thinking this a cruise ship church

This is a battle ship church

You are welcome to come and be healed and be trained and be loved on, as well as you are expected to be going out, to be wearing the full armor of God

Not just bits and pieces

We are not to just wear only the comfortable parts but we are to put on the entire armor

Then Paul calls us to pray

Ephesians 6:18–20 NASB95

18 With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

We have said this before but Prayer is one of our most powerful weapons that we often never fully use

Paul calls the believer who is to wear the entire armor to also pray as they go out each day.

We have said this it feels like a million times

But church we are to be a praying church

CLOSEING

This morning as the musicians come up

If you are here this morning and do not have a personal relationship with Jesus we want to invite you to the front and someone will meet with you and open up the Bible and show you how your sin separates you from God and how God sent Jesus to pay for your debt of sin

And how you can begin a relationship with Jesus through repenting of your sin

Agree with the Holy Spirit

Confess your sin

Turn from your sin

And believe in Jesus

Or maybe you are here and you missed last wk or did not repent last week and need to ACT this week

Or maybe you need to spend sometime at the altar

Or maybe you need to come and join the church this morning