Suit Up: Stand Ready For Battle

Let's go to the Lord in prayer, if we could, one more time this morning.

God, we just ask that you would prepare us all, Lord, for the battles that we can't see.

Make us alert, Lord, grounded in your gospel, covered by faith,

secure in our salvation, and bold with your word.

Help us to stand, Lord, not scared, but ready.

In Jesus' mighty name we pray.

Amen. Y'all know that over the last two weeks, we've been learning what it means

to stand firm, not in our own strength, by the way, but in the strength that God provides us.

In fact, in week one, we saw that the battle is real, but the battle belongs to the Lord.

Our job isn't to win it in our own power, but to stand firm in his.

Amen. And in fact, in week two, we looked at the first pieces of armor,

the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.

And we learned that to stand strong, we need to be anchored in truth and aligned

with righteousness because what you believe at your core shapes how you live.

But here's the thing. God doesn't just want you and I protected.

He wants you and I prepared.

And because faith isn't just a defensive posture, by the way,

it's readiness, it's alertness, it's expectancy.

As this next slide says, the Christian life isn't a break room, it's a battlefield.

And Paul paints a picture of a soldier standing at attention,

alert, grounded, and ready to move, standing, but steady.

So today, we're going to keep building. We're going to look at what it means

to stand, not just in protection, but in preparation for the resistance that's

inevitably coming, right?

So we're going to look, start with today, Ephesians 6, verses 5 through 17.

Ephesians 6:5–17

You'll see it on the screen.

Ephesians 6, 5 through 17.

And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel

of peace in all circumstances,

take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts

of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

And that leads us to our first point today. Number one, wear the shoes of readiness,

be grounded in the gospel.

That verse 15 there said, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes

from the gospel of peace.

In fact, when Paul talks about footwear in this passage, he isn't just talking about comfort.

He's talking about readiness.

Roman soldiers actually wore hobnail boots, by the way.

Sturdy sandals, if you view it, with spikes driven through the soles. Why?

For traction, for stability. So when the ground got rough or the battle got

intense, they wouldn't be slipping and sliding.

And they could actually stand their ground no matter what came.

And in the same way, Paul is telling us your footing in this spiritual battle comes from the gospel.

The good news of Jesus, y'all, isn't just the message that saved you.

It's the foundation, get this today, that steadies you.

Romans 5.1, you know this verse, says, Therefore, since we have been justified

through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Y'all, that peace is your grip.

That peace is your footing.

That peace is your stability in the chaos of life all around us.

The enemy would love to throw you off balance today with fear,

with guilt, with shame, with anxiety and distraction.

But y'all want you to see this today. The gospel anchors your identity.

You are forgiven, justified, adopted, and empowered, church.

You know who you are in Christ, and you know whose you are. In fact,

as we see in this next slide, Isaiah 52 verse 7 says it like this.

Isaiah 52:7

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

You ready for that tonight? Do you want to have beautiful feet tonight?

Gospel grounded people don't just stand, they go.

They go. They're not frozen in fear or wavering in doubt. They're ready to move, church.

Ready to respond. They're ready to advance.

Not because of their strength, but because of the security that they have in

Christ alone. So here's the challenge.

Put on the shoes of readiness today. Plant your feet in the unshakable truth of the gospel.

And y'all, when the ground beneath you starts to shift, guess what's going to happen.

You'll still be standing, not slipping, not panicking, standing firm, ready, steady, sent.

This world needs to hear, y'all. This world needs soldiers that are going to stand in God's army.

Well, number two today, take up the shield of faith.

Block the flaming arrows.

Ephesians 6, 16 that we read earlier, in addition to all this,

take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

Think about this today for a moment. if the belt and breastplate protect your

core, the shield is what guards you from the incoming assault.

And Paul doesn't say, by the way, if the arrows come, he says they will.

The enemy doesn't fight fair. Do you know that, right?

He hides in the shadows and launches, according to this passage,

fiery darts from a distance.

Think about those fiery darts. Here's some examples. Fear, that keeps you paralyzed.

Lies that whisper you're not enough. Temptation that promises pleasure but delivers regret.

And then shame that replays your worst moments over and over again.

Those are some examples of those fiery darts.

But guess what today, Eastwood? Faith is our defense. not faith in circumstances

or in ourselves for sure, but faith in who God is, what he's done,

and what he's promised to us. Amen.

This is the victory that has overcome the world, it says in 1 John 5, 4, even our faith.

Psalm 56, verse 3 says, when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Psalms 56:3

And as you see on this next slide, the shield of faith, I want y'all to get

this, the shield of faith, it says in this passage, extinguishes,

not just deflects it, but it puts out, extinguish those fiery darts.

The fire that was meant to consume you and me, it turns panic into peace,

doubt, peace, doubt into trust, y'all, wounds into an opportunity to witness.

So the question today isn't, will the arrows fly? The question is,

what will you believe when they do?

Will you believe the voice of your enemy or the voice of your Savior?

Which are you going to believe? Our challenge is raise your shield,

trust your God, stand your ground.

That's our calling, y'all, and our surety. Our God is with us.

Remember Emmanuel, God with us? always, in every way, in every situation.

And that leads us to number three today. Put on the helmet of salvation.

Guard your mind.

Take the helmet of salvation. It says in Ephesians 6, 17, the mind,

I want you to get this today.

The mind is the battlefield where many spiritual wars are won or lost.

And the helmet was essential for Roman soldiers. It protected the head,

the seat of thought and command.

And spiritually speaking, don't miss this today. Your thoughts direct your steps.

For sure. Paul says to put on the helmet of salvation because when your identity

is secure, your choices are stronger.

If the enemy can confuse who you are, guess what? He can distort how you live.

Do you get that? Wow. Paul says that.

Put on the helmet of salvation. When your identity is secure,

your choices are stronger.

If the enemy can confuse who you are, then he can distort how you live.

That's why the scripture tells us, Romans 12, 2, do not conform to the pattern

of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of what? Your mind.

2 Corinthians 10, 5 says we take every thought captive, or we take captive every

thought to make it obedient to who? To Christ.

You are not what the world says. You are not your past. You are not your feelings. Guess what?

You are saved by grace through faith.

You are secure in Christ. You are sealed by the Spirit.

You are spoken for, a child of God, redeemed and restored.

The enemy wants to cloud your thinking with confusion, with fear, with falsehood.

But when you remember who you are in Christ, guess what? You live with clarity.

You live with confidence.

You actually live with courage.

Don't leave your mind exposed strap on the helmet let salvation shape how you

think and your thoughts will shape how you and i stand.

Number four, take up the sword of the spirit.

Fight with God's word. Amen. And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, Ephesians 6, 17.

The sword, y'all, is the only offensive weapon in the armor of God.

Everything else, the shield, the helmet, the breastplate, the belt,

and even the shoes is designed for defense and protection. but the sword.

The sword is for battle. And your sword is what?

The word of Almighty God. You know, when Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness,

he didn't get into a debate, did he?

He didn't try to negotiate. He didn't just grit his teeth and hope for the best. What did he do?

He said, it is written. And then he quoted scripture.

Matthew 4, 4, for example, man shall not live on bread alone,

but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Do not put the Lord your God to the test, he says in Matthew 4, 7.

Worship the Lord your God and serve him only, Matthew 4, 10.

You see, Jesus uses the word to push back the enemy.

And if that was his strategy, it should be ours too, I would think, right?

Y'all, we need to be very familiar with your sword.

I mean, you just don't go into battle just picking up something you're not familiar with, do you?

Be saturated in God's Word. That's a challenge for us today, y'all.

This is so important today because the sword of the Spirit is not just having a Bible. It's using it.

Using it. What good is a sword that's laying on a shelf collecting dust? What good is it?

What good is it? That's why we challenge each other to memorize God's word,

to hide his words in our heart that we may not sin against him.

It's so important, y'all.

In fact, we have a scripture memory program going on right now.

Everybody's encouraged to go through that at your own pace, but we are going

to meet together again and touch base with everybody where they're at right now.

And look, we have that in place, but also y'all, it's not just that it's, are we saturated?

Are we marinating in God's word? Do we spend time in his word?

Do you read his word? Like I always thought about it this way.

It's kind of like, you know, do y'all, those of you that have those special

someone in your life, maybe it's been for years, but Hey, you,

you know what it's like, or when you first had that special someone come in

your life or whatever the situation,

do y'all remember anybody here getting love letters right

getting those just letters of communication let me

ask you when you got those letters you just throw them on the shelf and wait you

know six weeks to a year to read them how fast

did you get in them pretty quick right now some of y'all are like brother judd

text right not letters today it's the texting right i get it i get it but i

want to simply say the point is that we're hungry for relationship with somebody that that's special.

And the God of the universe has written us his word.

It's God-breathed, scripture says, inspired by God. God-breathed. God's breath on a page.

The one who loves us more than any human being could possibly hope to love us

because he knows us inside and out, even our thoughts, even our motivations.

And he loves us still. Wow. And he's written this letters to us? Not just one, but many.

Y'all, we've got to equip ourselves. When you speak God's word over your fears

and over your doubts and over your temptations, over your family,

your future, your mind, you are fighting back with power.

For the word of God is alive, scripture says, and active, sharper than any double-edged

sword, it says in Hebrews 4.12.

How many of us wield our sword how many

of us are swinging it you see the sword

of the spirit like i said is not just having a bible it's using it it's not

just head knowledge it's heart application you don't just carry it what do you

do you swing it you wield it you use it you use it and y'all want to say this

today as we see in this next slide.

The Bible, this is not a dead book. It cuts through confusion. It's a living sword.

It silences the lies. It reveals truth.

It strengthens those who are weary. It equips you and I as followers of Christ for battle.

So here's the challenge, y'all. Don't leave your sword on the shelf,

like I said. Draw it daily.

Memorize it. Meditate on it. Declare it. Pray it. Use it.

You know, I mentioned this earlier, marinate in it.

That's really what it's like. It's like a sponge, right? You're soaking it up, marinating in his word.

When you don't know what to say, speak the word.

When your mind is under attack, speak the word. When you feel weak, speak the word of God.

When you feel overwhelmed, speak the word.

That's how we fight. You can't speak it if you don't know it.

Not with fear. We don't fight with fear. We don't fight with our fists,

but with faith-filled, spirit-empowered truth.

This world, y'all, our culture needs truth. They're crying out for truth.

Not your truth, God's truth, the truth.

He is the truth. So I have to ask today, ready or not? Are you ready or not?

Are you ready to hear hard truth, though?

I said this earlier in a different way, but you're not in a playground today.

We're going to a playground tonight, but you know what? What we're talking about

today, you're not in a playground. Where are you?

You're in a battlefield. You're in a battlefield.

And spiritual warfare isn't a theory. It's your reality.

It's in the air we breathe. So I got to ask you, are your feet grounded in the

truth of the gospel, steady no matter what comes?

Are you holding up the shield of faith, trusting God's promises over the enemy's

lives? Is your mind protected by the helmet of salvation rooted in your identity in Christ?

Are you actually wielding the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God?

Not just reading Scripture, but declaring it and declaring God's promises over your life.

And I'm not talking about some kind of name it, claim it, pie in the sky.

I'm talking about seizing the promises that God has given you,

such as I will be with you always.

The enemy won't wait for you to be ready. But the good news is you don't fight

alone, do you? And you don't fight unarmed.

God has given you and I everything, church, that we need to stand.

This week, don't live spiritually unarmed. Suit up. Suit up. That's the challenge.

In fact, the application challenge today, we're going to see over the next couple of slides.

I want you to use what God has given you, by the way. And let's talk about a

few things that I think we can do as a challenge today, as we see in this next slide today.

Gospel grounding is the first one. Gospel grounding. Here's the challenge.

Write one sentence that summarizes the gospel.

Say it out loud every morning. This week is your foundation.

You pick one of these. Here's one, the gospel grounding.

Number two, shield of faith. Name one lie that you're tempted to believe,

maybe that keeps coming back up in your walk with God.

Then find and write down one scripture that promises, one scripture promise

that tells the truth on that and post it where you'll see it every day.

And then here we go on the next slide. This next one is helmet of salvation.

Spend five intentional minutes every day reflecting on who you are in Christ.

And let that truth shape your thoughts for the rest of the week.

And then the last one, the last challenge is the sword of the Spirit,

which is the Word of God, right?

Memorize one Bible verse that speaks directly to a struggle that you're facing.

How many of you are facing struggles out there today? How many of you got stuff you're facing?

That's one challenge is to take that sword and to memorize one Bible verse this

week that speaks directly to the struggle that you're facing.

And then not only that, use it in prayer and conversation this week, that same verse.

You see, you don't need new weapons. I want y'all to see that today.

We don't need new weapons in our battle. We need to use what God has already given us.

Y'all, his word is sufficient. How often we stray off of this fact that God's Word is sufficient.

It's sufficient for you and me and our life and what God has called us to do.

And it is sufficient for the church. It's sufficient for this culture, for this world.

It is sufficient. You don't need new weapons. You just need to use what you have.

Because when you're armed, church, with truth, with faith, with identity,

and with the word, guess what?

You will be able to stand.

You'll not be shaken. You'll not be moved. And y'all, I know you're sitting

out there today and you're thinking, you know, I want to be that person.

I want to be that soldier that stands firm.

I want to be that soldier that does this. Because we have a world,

Eastwood, that's dying without Christ, that's dying and going to hell for all eternity.

While many, I think, we just feel like, hey, we're, as Keith Green used to sing

years ago, we're asleep in the light.

We're just thinking it's all fine. You know, we're coming to church.

We have our stained glass windows, right?

I mean, I get to see all our friends and to socialize. But I think so many of

our churches today have become just that, just country clubs.

That's all they are is country clubs. I'm sorry, this world doesn't need another country club.

They need a mighty army of God who is going to love them enough to go out into

this world, not fight people, because as we learned earlier,

people are not our enemies.

Our enemies are things we can't see, right?

In the spiritual realm, the forces of darkness, those that have seized hold in our culture today.

And it's not something new, right?

Y'all, we're in a battle. We got to wake up to that fact.

So many people, if we all really believe that we're in a spiritual war,

I mean, how many of us would have trouble just wanting to put forth an effort

to read God's word and to want to go share our faith with somebody if you really believe it.

That's the question we have to ask today. Do you really believe it?

That's the whole gist today, y'all. Are you securing God's salvation?

If you put on the helmet of salvation, you say, you got to have right thinking first.

You got to be right with God. You got to be a member of the army.

We don't need weak soldiers.

We need soldiers who are going to stand, soldiers who are going to make a difference,

not in their own strength, but in the strength of Almighty God.

And dare I say it, we need more Charlie Kurtz in this world.

Some people may not like that, and that's okay.

We do. We need people who are going to take the stands that they need to take in our culture today.

They're going to love people enough to tell them the truth.

They're going to love them enough to tell them in love and love them enough

to share the gospel with them.

Instead of just talking about it, instead of just reading it,

instead of just coming to church and thinking your spiritual life is A-OK.

Because I want you to know the devil loves you coming to church in a sense.

Now, I want you to get that too out of balance because I believe if you're here

today, it's because God drawed you here today.

I want you to get that first of all, because the Bible says nobody seeks after God.

You wouldn't even have a desire to be in this service if God did not draw you here.

But I also believe that people who warn the pews, that the devil loves it when

we come to church and it does become a social club or a country club.

And it's just, you know, we just go through the motions.

We just sing our songs and we leave the exact same as we came in.

When we are not ready for battle, when we don't go out with the shoes that are

going to spread the gospel and the beautiful feet that are going to spread the

gospel that God has given us to share.

He loves that because the more he can lull you asleep in the pews,

you see, that's when you're asleep in the light, the more he can make you ineffective in this world.

And as we've seen, we're in a war.

We're in a war and we need everyone to be able to stand.

Your family needs you to stand. Your community needs you to stand.

Your workplace needs you to stand. Your church needs you to stand.

You see, it's easy to sit on the sidelines, but to say, I don't want to get in the battle.

Today, some of you, let's bow our heads for a moment, close our eyes as we close and pray together.

Maybe some of you today have been sitting on the sidelines. Maybe some of you

know that God wants you to take a stand today.

And by the way, why don't you go ahead and stand with me right now as we talk

about this in our prayer time.

Maybe some of you today know that, hey, God wants me to become involved at Eastwood Baptist Church.

This is one of the local bodies of Christ here in our community.

And you know what? I feel like God has brought me here for a reason.

And I want to step out in faith today. I want to become a member of Eastwood

Baptist Church. That may be you.

Maybe some of you may have already members. Maybe you just want to say before

the Lord, Lord, I want to stop being a nominal Christian or a casual Christian,

as my brothers DeGarmo and Key used to sing back in the day.

I want to stop that, Lord. I want to sell out to you.

Lord, I just don't want to be a Sunday morning only Christian.

I want to be a 24-7 on fire soldier for the kingdom of God.

That may be you. You can do business with God where you stand.

You may need to come down to this altar and pour out your heart to God.

And if you want to come, if you want to hear about the gospel and what God has

done for you, I preach it over and over.

But I'd love to share with you today. if you want to come down for prayer or

anything today, the important thing is you do what God calls you to do.

Y'all, you can hear these messages about being part of the army of God,

about being involved in spiritual warfare, and we can all say hallelujah, amen, man, that's it.

But if we, as the mighty army of God, the body of Christ, do not take a stand, who will?

We don't want the enemy to take foothold, do we?

God has called Eastwood Baptist Church to do a specific job in Baymanet, Alabama and beyond.

Are you part of the solution? Are you part of God's army in this area? Are you part of this?

Or are you just sitting on the sidelines?

Don't sit there. Get in the game. Get in the game. Get in God's army.

Serve him with your whole heart.

Father God, today as we come before you, Lord, we can only cry out,

Lord, that we would hear the voice of your spirit, Lord.

And God, we would not be swayed by this world and by this world's thinking.

Father, I pray today that people would surrender to your call on their life, Lord.

In Jesus' name, as you continue to pray this morning, just be obedient.