The Real Fight
Notes
Transcript
The Ultimate Personal Trainer
The Ultimate Personal Trainer
It was just before Easter (2014) and I was talking to a client about nutrition, trying to educate them on how to eat well and lose weight.
I remember discussing all the foods that could cause issues with weight gain.
This particular client loved chocolate, and they were eating a pack of chocolate biscuits per day! I was explaining how this chocolate eating habit could detrimentally affect their results and gave them some alternative solutions.
The client asked me if I ate chocolate and i said “very rarely maybe once per year!”
As the session went on I took off my jacket (I was hot!) but inadvertently 2 Cadburys cream eggs rolled straight out of my pocket and landed next to the client!
I had completely forgotten that I had bought them from the shop earlier!
The client started laughing and said… “guess that’s all your chocolate for the year then!” haha.
A personal trainer is one of those things that you get because you recognize that you need help with the whole willpower thing, you may need instruction on how to use equipment, and you need help laying out a plan of how to reach your goals. When it comes to our walk of faith we have to understand that our personal trainer doesn’t just help us build our own faith muscles, he also hands us the strength that we will lack.
Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
For whatever reason we as followers of Christ have bought into a lie. that lie is the lie that we somehow have to do things in our own strength, that if we really have faith then we will be able to deal with anything no matter what it is, we won’t show weakness, we won’t struggle. That we can have these huge faith muscles that everyone can see and understand and know. We pull verses about faith out of context. We add God in to many of our plans as an afterthought and then we wonder why we fail. But if we read this verse in Ephesians we find that we are to be strengthened by the Lord and his Vast strength. That word vast says a lot about what Paul is wanting the Ephesians to understand.
1vast \ˈvast\ adjective
[Latin vastus; akin to Old High German wuosti empty, desolate, Old Irish fás]
(1575)
: very great in size, amount, degree, intensity, or especially in extent or range
See God knew and wanted us to know that in order to make a dent in the whole calling thing that he gave us, we were going to need more than what we had on tap personally, he knew we were going to need more strength than we have in ourselves. so he was telling them. Listen don’t think you can do this on your own. You have this amazing personal trainer and he wants to give you his great intense ranged strength.
This verse is why it’s sad when Christ Followers forget and live a life of defeat. We have more than our own strength, in fact we have the source of all strength living and active in our lives and hearts.
A New Uniform
A New Uniform
(Talk about why Batman has always been the best, or Iron Man for that matter)
They don’t go into battle without suiting up so why do we?
Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
What we read in Eph 6:11 tells us Two important things. We have a part in how we live our walk. It doen’st say God will dress you, it tells us to put on the full armor of God. We have a responsibility in that walk, and our salvation is not a one time shot. It’s something that we work on every day of our walk with Christ.
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Suiting up every day is one of those ways. We do it because we need the protection that comes from the mess that is going to be thrown at us on a regular basis by the enemy of our souls. Because while the devil made me do it isn't an excuse, we do know that he has a plan and he’s going to work that plan every chance he gets to pull us down, and render our faith and witness ineffective.
Know your enemy
Know your enemy
Here is where we get tripped up. We lose sight of our enemy, and in doing so we lose sight of what matters most for Christ followers.
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Years ago I herd it explained like this and it’s always stuck with me, though I can’t remember where the idea came from.
“Christians spend the vast majority if their time shining their armor and fighting one another.”
We need to understand that fighting with each other is not only a waste of time but renders us impotent when it comes to doing what we are supposed to be doing.
Why is Paul warning the church in ephesus about this. Did he want to create a mythology around angels and demons, was he trying to paint this picture of some angelic and demonic battlefield. Was he attempting to scare the Ephesians into a certain type of behavior?
I don’t think so. I think he was reminding the Christians in Ephesus of someting that they had obviously forgotten. Stop fighting with each other and realize that there is so much more to do and to worry about. Every moment you spend fighting with each other, you’re giving ground up to the enemy, you’re weakening your defenses, you’re neglecting your spiritual walk and the things that matter and each time you do that, you’re opening up a chink in the armor that God has given you to stand in a world that needs you.
Doing our part
Doing our part
For this reason take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
Here it is again, it’s like Paul wants them to realize that they have a responsibility when it comes to how they do the christian life. In a minute we are going to read what the full armor is, but i want to pause here and think about what Paul is telling us.
Get dressed
Don’t skip pieces.
Get Ready
Have a plan and stick with that plan
Take a stand
This one is hard because many times we mistake what we are standing against. (remember that warning)
Those are all things we have to do.
Dressed for Success
Dressed for Success
Now that we know who we are fighting, now that we know we have a part in our walk of faith and in our growing continual salvation. We have to make sure we dress for success.
Stand, therefore, with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace. In every situation 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.
Each piece of armor speaks to what we are fighting and what we are supposed to be doing.
Truth holds it all together. The truth of the one who is the way the truth and the life.
Righteousness guards our heart. Not the kind of righteousness done to be seen but the true kind lived out by acts of service, by immersing yourself in the word and knowing who we are in Christ.
Being ready to share the good news that Jesus died, Jesus rose, and Jesus lives.
Knowing that at the end of the day no matter what happens in the physical world God has us. Our faith is not in all the stuff we see but in the truth of the one that Died and rose and promised us that we would do the same.
Immersing ourselves in Gods word. NOt worrying about how much we are reading, how long we are spending studying it, but actually doing so. digging into a set of scriptures and staying with it while we let the Holy Spirit push a new understanding of what we are reading into our lives so that it effects each part of what we do.
THat’s what we need, that’s what matters, and ultimately as we daily use the FULL ARMOR not just the parts that we like and the parts that are comfortable we will begin to see our lives change and the world around us affected.
This Week’s Challenge
This Week’s Challenge
You need...
Paper, Crayons or markers or colored pencils.
Draw out each piece of armor i know it sounds dilly but do it. Then each day when you get up shuffle through those drawings when you get up in the morning. Write the full verse on each drawing. All this is simply a way to remind yourself of what and who you are in Christ as you go out to live the day for him.