Transformed By Ephesians (2)
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Transformed By Ephesians
Transformed By Ephesians
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Pray
Confession of Faith
Confession of Faith
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name
I am not moved by what I see or by what I feel. I am moved by what I believe. I believe the WORD of God! The victory is mine! I have it now! I can see it through the eyes of my faith! In Jesus Name
Intro:
Do you know there is a reason Paul is preaching about being a Christian Soldier! Because we have a responsibility to protect ourselves spiritually and to train and develop other Christ Followers to protect themselves spiritually from the onslaught of evilness in today’s world!
We have a duty to Jesus Christ to fight the Good Fight of Faith!
We have a responsibility to be proactive about our lives and defending the cause of Christ!
Our duty is to take the whole armour of God. Note part of the armour but the armour in it’s entirety!
This is an absolute necessity! The armour is essential to our success in today and the success of future believers in there evil day!
Paul says we are living in the "evil day."
What is the "evil day?"
Paul is referring to today—to the onslaught of evil that is in the world today: "the days are evil" (Ephes. 5:16).
⇒ An evil day refers to any day— where the attack of temptations and trials can confront at any given moment during a day.
⇒ An evil day a day when you go through unusual temptations and trials — When it seems like people and circumstances are just throwing evil attitudes, and evil ways in your direction!
We must WITHSTAND! But many of us fail because we did not do what the bible tells us to do each and every day
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Wake Up!
There is the enemy of the Christian soldier. The enemy is the devil and his strategies. The word "wiles" means the deceits, craftiness, trickery, methods,
means, plans, and schemes used to deceive, entrap, enslave, and ruin the souls of men.
the strategies which the devil uses to wage war against the believer.
He will do everything he can to deceive and capture the mind, body and soul of a believer in Jesus Christ!
Pay Attention
1. There are the strategies that appeal to the lust of the eyes. Satan will see to it that something crosses your eyesight that is very appealing to the flesh and pride of life:
⇒ some delicious food
⇒ some attractive person
⇒ some person who is exposing the body
⇒ some possession: clothing, land, cars, houses, whatever
⇒ some position
⇒ more authority and power
Satan will present something to the eyes that is so appealing, that you are doomed unless you are clothed in the full armour of God. Satan will entice you to eat a second helping, take a second look, buy the unneeded possession, begin to selfishly seek more power and more position. He will use all the strategies he can to appeal to your flesh and pride as a believer.
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.
2 Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God.
3 In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.
Another strategy of the devil is to send a false teacher, a very impressive teacher, across the path of a believer. Don’t forget that Satan is not a fiery red person with horns, a pointed tail, and a pitch fork in his hands. He is a living being in the spiritual world—a being who is transformed into a messenger of light. And he has ministers who walk about as ministers of righteousness, but they proclaim a righteousness other than that of Christ. Their message is that of self-righteousness, that of...
• human goodness and works.
• ego and self-image.
• personal development and growth.
• self-improvement and correction.
• mind and will.
These messages appeal to the flesh of man, and they are helpful. I realize and acknowledge, but those are not the messages of power we need as Christ Followers! Those messages cannot deliver us from all the trials and sufferings of life or death. They can only lead us down a path of death, decay, and eternal judgment.
My point is this: one of the most prominent strategies of the devil is to deceive man, woman, boy and girl with false teachers and ministers and their appealing but false messages. We can get caught up in a ministry where it’s all about you and me and never about Jesus Christ and what he wants from you and me! That’s why we must be clothed in the full armour of God.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14 And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
11 so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.
Ask you the person nearest to you Did you put on your spiritual clothes on today?
Some of us woke up and did not get dressed properly today!
There is something interesting that Jesus told his followers in Luke 24:49
49 “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.”
He told the believer’s to be still until the received the power from heaven!
Paul is telling us to make sure we have the power from heaven by putting on the Armour Of God!
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
12 Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world.
We fight - we wrestle. which means to be in warfare against spiritual rebels who are against God. Not people - but the spiritual entities that use people and circumstances against us!
This war is not human or physical, but spiritual.
Think of the sport wrestling - not the professional stuff which is acting, but collegiate or high school
Is more of a contest between two people who are trying to get each other in a place where they can be pinned down! The victory occurs when one has been able to press and hold down the other until the opponent surrenders! Now back in the day - in Greek wrestling and this is why I think Paul used this analogy when two wrestled the winner would hold down the opponent and gouge his eyes out resulting in blindness!
Can you imagine the devil wrestling in your mind with worldly thoughts that you become blind to the truth! endeavors to throw the
Here’s my point! You are not struggling against people or flesh and blood. Your enemies are not human or physical: they are spiritual—spiritual forces that possess unbelievable power.
Paul identifies 4 Types of Spiritual Evil
Four Kinds of Spirit Rebels
1. , principalities, now these are chief rulers or beings of the highest rank and order in Satan's kingdom
2. authorities, now these are the ones who get the chief rulers and their job is to execute the will of the chief rulers
3. world-rulers of the darkness of this age, - these are the spiritual world-rulers
4. spiritual wickedness, - these are the wicked spirits of Satan in the heavenly realm
This reveals some very clear things to us.
The forces of evil are powerful forces and numerous! There are large number of evil forces struggling against believers of Jesus Christ!
The other thing is that these forces are apparently organized into a government or a hierarchy of evil.
On top of that they are rulers of the darkness of this world. Darkness in the Bible means the ignorance of truth and reality, Darkness in the bible means not knowing the real nature and purpose of things.
Light is knowing God Light is knowing Jesus Christ Light is knowing that God and Jesus is our Source and our Purpose and our beginning and our end! Light is knowing the truth and reality of mankind and this world: Light is knowing that God created each of us for Himself,
Light is knowing that God loves each of us and saves all of us to live with Him eternal-ly—
Light is knowing that an amazing gift awaits us if we will only believe and trust in Jesus
The forces of evil are the rulers of darkness, the rulers who blind us so that we won’t see or believe the good news! The good news of Jesus Christ - The Good news of eternal life, The good news of eternal salvation!
We are wresting with The forces of spiritual evil!
They want you to be loyal to them! They want you to dive them the devotion that belongs to God! They are after your spirit! That part of you that is designed and destined to worship God and to serve God! The are after the part of you that lives eternally! If they can capture your spirit , they have you eternally—They control your life and presence forever and ever.
So they do all they can to lead you away from Jesus and drive to the world
and spiritual wickedness
Think about this for a moment and be honest. Think of all the wickedness and evil and wrong-doing and selfishness in the world—all the...
• division
• prejudice
• favoritism
• anger
• hate
• pride
• arrogance
• stealing
• war
• killing
• arguing
• selfishness
• immorality
• lying
• cursing
• bitterness
The list could go on and on. The evil of man consumes the news reports every day. Just think about it! Don’t we know better? Are there not enough of us who know better that we could change things?
I believe we do. So why is the world in the state it’s in!
Paul tells us
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Put your armour on - child of God! God bless you and God keep you is my prayer