Sermon Tone Analysis

INTRODUCTION

STORY: The Best Elementary Kids Game Ever - RED ROVER

Purpose: to try and build up your team bigger than the other team,

How: Form a line and hold hands

Then you called out someone on the other team to run and try to get through your linked arms -

Red Rover Red Rover send Levi Right over....

If you stood firm and held your ground and your arms didn’t fail to stay linked that player became part of your team.

You win that battle - But if you broke the bond and the runner gets through He would win the battle and could pick one of the people whose link he broke to join him on his team as the prize. .

Paul in these last 3 chapters of Ephesians has been teaching us, as the church, what Our lives should look like if we are truly followers of Jesus.

In fact he opened his teaching on the duty of the church in Eph.

4:1 “I, urge you to WALK worthily of the calling with which you have been called.

AS the CHURCH- as Gods chosen people - we have been called to Walk in a manner that is worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

When Paul Speaks of the gospel He is speaking of the unconditional Grace that God shows us through Jesus Christ.

Eph.

2:8-10 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 2:9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast.

2:10 For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we may do them.”

The gospel is the good news that God loved you so much that He said there is nothing Im not willing to do to redeem you from the bondage of your sin.

Gods unconditional grace means that He freely gives it to us not based on who we are or what we have done, But complety on His perfect righteousness.

Jesus is God gift of unconditional grace .

The Gospel of Salvation is this - It is the good news that everyone of us can find eternal life through Belief in Jesus - and When Paul tells us as the church to walk worthy of our calling He is saying

“WALK WORTHY OF THE GOSPEL BY WHICH YOU HAVE BEEN SAFVED!”

Walk in a way that brings God all the glory for your salvation.

and over the last few weeks we have been studying together at what it looks like for Christian to walk worthy of the gospel of Christ.

In order to walk worthy of our calling it means that we will

walk in unity with one another ( without grumbling and complaining)

walk in Maturity as believers ( growing in our knowledge and understanding of Gods word)

Walk in Holiness as God is holy - (striving to be more like Jesus daily)

Walk in Love - showing grace and forgiveness towards one another in the church

Walk in the Light as Jesus is in the light- proclaiming His gift of grace in our community

Walk in the Holy Spirit- letting him be in total control o our lives

(and) walk in harmony with one another as an example of Christ relationship with His church.

This seems great!

we know how to please God - We know how to live as Christians.

Walk in a manner that brings God all the glory.

and now in our text this morning as Paul is wrapping up this letter to the church of Ephesus- he begins by saying this

Finally, [Now that you know how to walk worthy of the calling by which you have been called.]

FInally, “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of HIS might.

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil”

I find this kind of funny that Paul for the last 3 chapters has been telling Christians that in order to be like Like Jesus You need to walk like Jesus and now as he wraps it up he says the reason we need to walk like Jesus is so that we can SZTAND FIRM when spiritual battles comes into our lives.

BIG IDEA: to WALK in VICTORY means to STAND FIRM in Christ

LETS read our text one more time before we break it down this morningListen to our text.

Eph.

6:10-13

“10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Paul Begins our text this Morning with the Charge to BE strong - and to Stand Courageously because you have been fully equipped for the battle you are about to go through.

I believe there are 3 truths we can pull form our text this morning that will help us stand firm in Christ when Spiritual battles come into our lives.

Who our battle is against?

Why our battle is happening?

How our Battle can be Won?

Who WE are in a battle against

Vs 11b - 12

that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

“

Paul describes our spiritual battle as a wrestling Match.

Example: Wrestling in High School.

Wrestling Example- Growing up I was on the wrestling team for my school.

I won 39 and lost 3-

I loved wrestling because it was hard work and the more you put into it the more reward you recieved.

I wrestled in many tournaments and won most of them.

6 minutes doesn’t seem like that much time until you are on the mat giving everything you got to win the battle.

At one particular tournament I was going to go up against the state champ for the gold medal for the tournament.

My opponent and I were wrestling to see who would stand victoriously on the podium- I had already wrestled 4 matches earlier in the day and my opponent only had wrestled 2.

I was tired.

and my opponent was strong.

and He knew how to wrestling.

The match was hard at the end of the first period the score was tied 3 to 3 Each of us had 1 take down and one escape,

as the 2nd period began my opponent chose to go down.

and as the whistle blew He shot out of there like a rocket and scored a point, I was now down by one.

We battled it out and the score stayed the same.

the final period began and I chose down.

As the whistle blew I escaped and tied up the score., but as I got the points shot in grabbed my lag and got me down.

Now with a 2 point lead.

He did what every smart wrestler did at this moment- he held on tight and pressed all of his weight on me and gave everything He had to hold me down until the time ran out.

I struggled and struggled to get out but to no avail.

1 minute was, now 30 more seconds gone.

If i was going to win this match I had to leave it all on the match- I looked up at the clock and with 15 seconds left to Go I climbed to my knees and with every once of Energy I could bullster I reached Behind me Put my arm around His neck and Stood up and shifted my weight as hard as I could- I caught him by surprised and in an instance He was on His back with 7 seconds left on the Clock- 5-4-3 (The ref slapped the mat - I twas a pin- I had one the match.

I can honestly tell you the truth that I gave everything i had in me to win the battle.

Paul is telling us this morning from our text in Ephesians that We are in a battle but it is not against flesh and blood but it is in a battle that is so much greater.

understand that your greatest spiritual enemy in this life is not those who disagree with you on social media, but it is the devil.

We are in a spiritual battle against Satan and His followers.

and He is ready to do everything in his own power to win the fight.

Example of studying the enemy before battle-

Football teams watch play film from the other team to learn how they run their plays,

If we are going to stand firm against the devil than we need to understand who he really is and how He plans to fight against us.

We need to study the past so that we can stand firm in the present.

1 Peter 5:8-9 ‘ your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Billy Graham described the devil this way “don’t think of Satan as a harmless cartoon character with a red suit and a pitchfork.

He is very clever and powerful, and his unchanging purpose is to defeat Gods plans at every turn-including his plans for your life.”

As a follower of Jesus Christ - Satan hates you with every passion in his heart.

He wants to destroy you- He wants to destroy your faith, He wants to destroy your marriage, He want to destroy your family-He wants to destroy your testimony in our community.

and he will stop at nothing to win this fight.

Story of Satan

The Bible tells us that God had many angels in fact thousands upon thousands of angels. in heaven whose purpose was to serve God.

In Ezekiel 28 we read about a special angel, an angel who was more beautiful than all the other angels, and more powerful.

In fact the Bible Tells us that he was made with the seal of perfection full of wisdom and prefect in beauty .

His name was Lucifer.

He had great power and authority over all the other angels.

The Bile tells us in Ezekiel 28:17-18 That Lucifer became proud and decided that He no longer wanted to serve God but wanted to be God