(Sunday School) Armor of God series | Intro to Spiritual Warfare - Ephesians 6:10-13

Sunday school today we're doing things a little bit different.

We are doing Sunday school for youth and adults as we start

this new series in Ephesians called The Armor of God.

We also, because we're using the class forget to know R&O for new

people that's going to be in the older kids classroom.

And then next week we're doing membership class in there as

well. And so, so we're excited to have

all ages in Sunday school. I do believe that all ages can

benefit from this Sunday school. And so I'm going to be asking

questions along the way and trying to get participation.

And I just want you to know the format of this is that you can

raise a hand and ask a question if it's, you know, concerning

whatever the topic is I'm on at the moment where we're talking.

And I would answer those or we'll have, if you don't get

your question answered at the stop of every kind of point or

section, we'll have questions. I will ask you questions.

And I'm hoping to get some answers from you as well as

probably some scripture reading as well.

So please have your Bibles open and open them to Ephesians

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6. And why, why we're excited about

this series is because we believe that there's a lot of

spiritual warfare going on right now that people don't recognize

it to be that. I think people just think in

general terms, and especially Christians.

Of course, all people, unbelievers don't really think

about spiritual things, but even Christians sometimes neglect to

remember or to know what Scripture says about evil going

on in the world. Has spiritual forces behind it

that are making things work, things that we can't see, things

that are happening, influences that are happening.

An organized system of evil that is happening behind the scenes

that may be at work in even some of the physical people that we

see in our world doing evil. And so putting on the armor of

God or the full armor of God. It's all about spiritual

warfare, fighting the spiritual battle.

And so I would like to start out by reading all of the verses

from Ephesians 610 through 20. So pull your Bibles there as I

pull my Bible there. Sorry, we've kind of had a crazy

morning with the projector not working.

So we had to do this, this quick fix here.

But it turned out great. I mean, other than the screen

being a little bit off, you wouldn't have noticed if I

didn't tell you, right? But the screen is a little bit

wonky today because of the projectors down here instead up

there. OK, Ephesians chapter 6, verses

Ephesians 6:10–20

10 through 20, I'm going to read.

It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of

his might. Put on the whole armor of God

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

devil. 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.

Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be

able to withstand in the evil day.

And having done all to stand firm.

Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth,

and having put on the breastplate of righteousness 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. 1 And take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all

times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication to that

end. Keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints

and also for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my

mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as

I ought to speak. So in the context of the book of

Ephesians, which I think that we need to do, is understand that

Paul is in prison, chained to a Roman soldier at the time of the

writing of this book. This is the time where he wrote

Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, and I believe

Philemon. And so all four of those letters

were written in a prison in Rome.

And so it makes a lot of sense that he's using this armor

analogy. He sees this in his everyday

life. In fact, he sees it every single

day, 18 inches away from him, chained to him.

No, I'm not saying that the I doubt the Roman soldier was

always in full armor, but as he walked around and as he saw

different soldiers changing in and changing out shift or, you

know, walking through the city, he could see a soldier that had

all this different apparel on it.

And this would also make sense to a lot of the citizens.

The Ephesian church and people in general would have understood

that he's talking about a soldier.

He writes this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit

while using his own personal experience, logic, and reason to

teach the church how to do spiritual warfare.

Now to give a little more context of, of the book of

Ephesians, the first 3 chapters are all about theology and the

last three chapters are all about what do I do with that

theology. So chapter 1 is God's, God's

grace, God's glory, his spirit and his power.

We're going to have to look at some of these throughout this

series. Go back chapters to to find out

what he means. We need to have the full

context. Chapter 2, depravity,

regeneration and the church, an ecclesiology.

That's what the study of the church, a theology of the

church, that word is. Chapter 3, Mystery, prayer and

Isaiah 3 · chapter mention

love. And then finally we get to

therefore. So when you are reading one of

Paul's letters or another epistle, often times this is how

the books are laid out. They are laid out with a lot of

theology up front. And then finally you get to this

place where it says therefore, and maybe you've heard this

before, but we got to find out what the therefore is,

therefore, and usually it's to apply the theology, apply

whatever Paul said about spiritual truths.

Now how do I use this in my practical everyday life?

So it goes on to talk about unity and maturity and

membership. And then in chapter 5, light

versus darkness worship, how it plays out in marriage in chapter

6 with children at work. And then it ends with this

section on spiritual warfare. So let's look at our verses.

Now knowing that all of the context, let's look at our first

verses as we get into this intro into spiritual warfare.

And I believe this, this this whole series is probably going

to take about 8 or 9 weeks. Is that right Mike?

Because each one of the armor every, we're not just going

verse by verse, we're actually going to break up some of the

verses have two pieces of armor in them.

And so we'll have to take two weeks on those verses to look at

what these the armor is. But I get the opportunity to

open us up with the first 3 verses before we get to the

armor talking about recognizing the battle and all that stuff I

just said, just so you know, is in this wonderful slide that I

made for you walking through kind of the context of the book.

But let's get to our first verses, 10 through 11.

It says, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of

His might. Put on the whole armor of God

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

devil. So I guess the question is,

First off of that first verse, whose strength are we doing

spiritual warfare in? What does that verse say?

Whose strength we're supposed to use?

Anybody want to answer that? His whose God almighty, right,

Because why? Because he is strong.

He is the strong man who, who can, who can bind the strongest

of any spiritual force. Actually in, in, in, in one of

the Gospels, Jesus tells a parable about first you have to

bind a strong man and then you can plunder his goods.

That is talking about and, and, and that's where the Pharisees

are, are trying to say he casts out demons by the power of

demons. Jesus.

That's what what what they're saying in that passage.

And he's saying, no, a house divided against itself cannot

stand. What he's trying to tell them

is, look, no, the house that I'm coming against is has been

infiltrated by a person he calls the strong man.

And so in order to get rid of this strong man, someone else

stronger has to be able to come in, be able to bind him up and

plunder his goods. That verse is talking that Jesus

is the stronger man, stronger than Satan, greater is he who is

in you than he who is in the world.

Jesus is the strong man and God himself is God Almighty.

That's talking about his omnipotence.

What is what is omnipotent means?

It means all powerful. Omnipotent potency is powerful

and so if we go back to Ephesians chapter one, verse 11,

as I said, we would look at different verses throughout the

book. In chapter 1, verse 11, it says

in him we have obtained an inheritance, having been

predestined according to the purpose of him who works all

things according to the counsel of his will.

So that verse right there is saying that he works all things

part of God's omnipotence or all being all powerful is that he's

in control of all things, that he's sovereign.

That's what the the word means. And so when we're talking about

be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might, we're

talking about not just the strength of the creator who

spoke everything into existence and the power of Jesus name who

can cast out demons and defeat Satan.

We're also talking about the sovereign will and power of God,

that nothing can thwart God's will and power.

So when we're going through spiritual warfare, we must

remind ourselves of God's sovereignty.

We must say, OK, look, there are things like the book of Job

where Satan comes to Job and says, I want to test this guy

and God saying, OK, go ahead. Like in God's sovereignty, he

allowed spiritual warfare in Job's life.

And for a long time in that book, like most of the book,

there's a lot of lamenting and sorrow and pain, and that's what

happens during spiritual warfare.

But in the end, it's said that he was blessed greater than what

he had before this happened. And so remember, spiritual

warfare can be used for the good of God's people, for the good of

God's people. We always think of it as bad and

evil because there is evil behind it in the forces against

us. But just remember, God is

sovereign according to the purpose of him who works all

thing according to the counsel of His will.

He works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Now, does that mean that God is on the hook for evil and He

causes the evil to happen to you now?

But He certainly allows it, and it has to be a part of some sort

of plan, His sovereign will and plan that He has to glorify

Himself and ultimately for our good.

So in our spiritual warfare, we must not remember whose strength

we go in. So let's see whose strength

we've answered that. Whose armor?

Going back to that verse, whose armor are we putting on God's

armor, right? What are the pieces?

What are the pieces of this armor?

How many are there? I'd like to hear, you know, how

many. What's your opinion about how

many pieces of armor are there in Ephesians 6?

It's going to be 14 through, I think about 18 lists them all

or, or, or, or let's just say 10 through 20.

Take some time to look at those verses and I'd like to hear you

shout out how many pieces do you think that there are?

Six. OK.

And and so let's hear some of those belt of truth, breastplate

of righteousness. What?

What was that? Yeah, shoes of the gospel of

peace or gospel readiness of shoes of the gospel of peace.

That one's a little bit hard to label actually.

But that's then you said what? Shield of Faith.

OK anymore? Sword of the Spirit, Helmet of

Salvation. All right, so now is there

another one in there? That seems like it should be in

there, but it isn't quite an armor isn't quite a piece of

something praying, yes, prayer, praying in the spirit at all

times or prayer right. Like, like prayer is that one

underneath the sword of the spirit, which is the word of

God, but it doesn't have a, a, a piece of armor attached to it.

And so it's interesting to think there's, I like to say there's 6

+ 6 plus there's more than six, but there's, there's not at the

same time 6.1. But anyway, prayer is its own

thing. And so you could think of it

like this if you want. I don't want to steal all the

Thunder when we get to that. But you've got the armor.

And now prayer is kind of what brings it all together with some

confidence, with remembering all the things, all the pieces of

the armor we need to remember through prayer and through the

word of God. Word of God in prayer actually

work together very symbiotically as well.

I actually heard it said once that I know you've probably

heard me say this before, but if a man or a woman reads more than

they pray or prays more than they read, well, it's like

having two legs and one's longer than the other.

You got to try to figure out how to get them to both be even.

Otherwise, your walk is a little bit funny if you're not reading

and praying equal amounts or if you're stronger in one, try to

get stronger in the other. Anyway, so that's the pieces.

Yes, there are 6 pieces of armor.

God provides the armor, so let's move on.

These are it right here. The belt of truth, breastplate

of righteousness, shoes of the gospel of readiness, shield of

faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit, and the

bonus of prayer. So let's move on to these

verses, finishing 11 and 12. Put on the whole armour of God,

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

devil. 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 heavenly places.

So the question is, who are we doing war against here?

That's my question. I'd like anybody to answer that.

Maybe it's one, maybe it's one answer, or maybe it's multiple.

Who are we doing war against according to this verse?

The devil, all right. And he's mentioned in verse 11

schemes of the devil. So who are these rulers,

authorities, cosmic powers and spiritual forces?

Because that's not just talking about the devil, is it?

Who are they? What'd you say?

Lori? And his army.

OK, so Satan has an army. Does that mean that Satan is

organized? Armies are pretty organized,

right? The military is a pretty

organized machine to some degree.

Often, I think Satan drives this train.

Also, every time we're teaching, he comes through trying to quiet

us down. So all right, so Satan has an

army. Yes.

These rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces

of evil, I would all call demons.

These are all the demonic realm. And the demonic realm ruled by

Satan as the leader has an organizational structure which

are called authorities rulers. Powers and spiritual forces and

where we get this from, I guess is we we've got to go to other

places of Scripture. So Daniel 1013, if somebody

could grab Daniel 1013, somebody else grabbed Jude 19.

Who's going to do that? Raise your hand if you've got

one or the other. OK, Leanna's got what?

Daniel 10130, you got Jude 19-K. Hold on to that.

Who's God? Daniel 10/13 OK, go ahead and

read that for us. Daniel 1013.

Be loud if you can. OK, I'll reread that.

It says the Prince of the Kingdom of Persia withstood me

21 days. But Michael, one of the chief

Princess, came to me, for I was left there with the kings of

Persia. What is going on here?

This is Michael. Here is Michael the Archangel.

OK, so this is talking about a spiritual battle between angels

and demons. And the demon there is called a

Prince, while the Angel is also called a chief Prince.

So both in the spiritual realm, angels and demons have these

these roles, these authoritative roles, this organized structure

of where what Daniel would say is he's the Prince of the

Kingdom of Persia. That could be talking about.

A lot of theologians believe that's talking about and a demon

who has authority over a place, because remember, Satan and the

demons are not omnipresent. Only God is omnipresent, which

means everywhere all at once. OK, Satan cannot be everywhere

all at once. He is just a fallen Angel.

We're going to get into who he is.

And demons are the same thing, fallen angels, They are not

everywhere all at once, reading everybody's mind all at once.

No, in order for them to play out this spiritual warfare, they

have to be organized and they've got to communicate to one

another. They've got to have a way to

communicate to one another and to kind of disseminate orders

and give directives and things like that.

And so they each have their own provinces and areas.

I know that sounds kind of weird, but this is the reality

of it. Let's go to what is Jude 19 say?

OK, so that's talking about in the book of Jude, apparently the

Archangel Michael was was fighting with the devil over the

body of Moses when he died at his burial.

Things that weren't exactly mentioned back at that time.

You know, I think that's in Deuteronomy where it talks about

Moses died and right before it goes into the book of Joshua.

But that gives us some idea that there were spiritual forces at

play back then. So there are there are angels

and demons fighting against Revelation 12, seven.

Let me just let me read that to you.

Revelation 12/7 says now war arose in heaven, Michael and his

angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his

angels fought back. So this again tells us that

there are there's a spiritual war going on.

We can't even see it. And it's been going on since

before humans ever came onto the earth.

Because let's get into who the devil is.

We need to know our enemy, yes. Well, yeah, to some degree

because of things like the book of Job, where in the beginning

of Job chapter 1, it says that Satan and and the other sons of

Job 1 · chapter mention

God came into God's presence and brought this accusation against

Job. And so somehow got in a in the

heavenly realm. Like when it talks about heaven,

there's a heavenly realm, a spiritual realm where these

forces actually can communicate with one another.

Yes, yes. And when we're talking about

heavenly places, you know, right now.

So we, we believe in a heaven and a hell, but it's not quite

the eternal state of heaven and hell.

Jesus tells the parable about the rich man and Lazarus and the

rich man dies, goes to what is hell now, where he is in anguish

in a flame and he begs for water and he and he begs that someone

would go tell his brothers not to come to this place.

But from far off he sees Abraham carrying Lazarus in the bosom

and and it says there's a great chasm and we can't, can't

crossover. And so maybe from that in other

places, we understand that there is a spiritual realm where

humans can't interact in their state of judgement or in their

state of glory with God. If you go to heaven, your, your

spirit is with God. You go to hell, you're in

judgement. There's no interacting on that

part. But as far as the angels go and

demons, there's a there's a sense in which we don't fully

understand how they can move in and out of.

Yeah, there's a battle going on. So now I believe so.

This is the thing though. We always want to blame just the

devil and the demons for the spiritual warfare going on.

We need to be aware of that, and we're going to get into that.

But I also want us to look at there are three enemies, not

just the devil's one of them, but does anybody know the other

two enemies that we are at war with in this spiritual battle

flesh. There's one more, one more enemy

that we are at at war with. Well, let, let's let me read

this verse to you and maybe you can answer the question.

Ephesians 2, two and three. It says in verse one, it says we

were dead in our trespasses and sins in two in which we once

walked following the course of this world, following the Prince

of the power of the air, that Satan, the spirit that is now

working, the sons of disobedience among whom we all

once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the

desires of the body and the mind.

And we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

I like how that rhymes at the end there, you know?

Anyway, so we talked about the devil.

We talked about flesh. What's the other one?

The world? The world.

The world. OK, so we're going to walk

through as quick as we can. Not that we have to end right at

10, I don't think. But these three people or three

forces at work against us in spiritual warfare.

First we have the devil. He is the word devil means

slanderer or Satan means adversary who has an angelic

being who fell from his position in heaven due to sin and is now

completely opposed to God doing all in his power to thwart God's

purposes. You guys know the story that

before humanity was created there was a war in heaven.

Some believe that Revelation 12 that's actually talking about

that. Some believe that that's talking

about something in the future. But Satan and his demons were

cast out of heaven in in Revelation, it calls 1/3 of the

stars of heaven. But Satanist demons were cast

out of heaven because in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel, what is it

Ezekiel? I have the verses here anywhere,

somewhere in Ezekiel. There are two places in these

these in the Old Testament that simultaneously are talking about

a king and Satan at the same time and it talks about him

being cast out of heaven. Revelation tells us the same

thing because of pride, because he said I will ascend to the

throne. And in Isaiah 14, I will

they're, they're called the five I wills of Satan in Isaiah 1412

through 15. I'm not going to read them, but

if you want to take notes, go look at those verses.

So who is Satan? Oh yeah, it's Ezekiel 2813

through 17 as well. So Satan is fiercely, fiercely

opposed to God's work. Satan rules the fallen world

system in rebellion against God. He is the liar and father of the

lies, as Jesus says. He's come to steal, kill and

destroy again. Jesus says that and John, he's

on the hunt for vulnerable Christians first.

Peter, 58, talks about he's a roaring lion ready to devour.

Satan's greatest tool is deceit because he is the liar and

father of lies and he will one day face God's judgment and

demons. Then our fallen angels who who

are cast out of heaven. Grudem says sometime before

Satan tempted Eve in the garden, a number of angels sinned and

rebelled against God. So let's look at second Peter 2

verse four and Jude 6. Leanna, you already had Jude.

Are you still close to that Jude verse 6?

Somebody else read Second Peter 424.

OK, go ahead. OK, so he's saying God did not

spare angels but put them in chains of darkness to be kept to

judgment. What does Jude 6 say?

OK, so there apparently are demons that are being kept in

chains. Well, now trying to understand

what that means is a little bit difficult because this is this

is apocalyptic language, This is spiritual language.

We don't know if there's literal change in the spiritual realm.

Just like in Revelation chapter 20, it says that there was an

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

Angel who came down from heaven with a great chain and he bound

Satan and put him in a pit and had a key and locked him with

the. Is that talking about a literal

chain with a literal key? That's the biggest, biggest

argument about the end times. There is actually is trying to

understand that passage about a a literal 1000 year reign

Millennium thing, right? So many people disagree about

the chain is a figurative chain that binds them in a sense.

Not completely, but binds him from completely taking over the

whole world, binds him from completely deceiving people so

bad that nobody can understand the gospel.

So. But evidently some demons are

bound and waiting for judgement. There are there are demons also

that are on the that roam the earth, just like Satan can roam

the earth and they have limited power.

Again, they're not omniscient, they don't know everything,

they're not everywhere all at once.

They are smart though. And let me just say it this way.

If you existed for at least 6000 years or more, however long, I

don't know when all things were created, especially in heaven

before earth was created. But if demons existed and has

has has observed us human beings for the last 6000 years and they

don't die, they would gain a lot of knowledge about humanity and

how it works, right? I mean, you ever been in a close

relationship with someone, a kid, a wife or a friend?

You just, you can complete their sentences, you know what they're

going to do just based on habit. And that's only after a couple

of years. Imagine these well organized

appointed spiritual beings in countries and States and cities

and provinces that are watching people assigned to families and

groups of people to take notes, to learn what they're doing, to

figure out how to thwart their plans, to stir up their own

rebellion against God. I mean, again, now here's a

controversial one. But demons cannot possess a

Christian. Demons cannot completely take

over a true believer who has the Spirit of God.

Now they could oppress A believer.

And if a believer is given in too much sin, like drunkenness

or, you know, different things, I think you're inviting satanic

or demonic influence into your life when you take in substances

like alcohol and drugs, so much so that you're inebriated.

You've now given over control of yourself to whatever wants to

take control, you know, So in a sense.

And, and by the way, you know, Paul talks about, you know this

in Ephesians 4 in the sin list and he calls it, what's that?

What's that word in Ephesians chapter 4?

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

He calls it, it's like a, a spell or a kind of a witchcraft

sounding type of a word. And my, my, my Bible's not

working right now for some reason.

Ephesians chapter 4 in the in the sin list.

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

Is there a sin list in chapter 4?

Maybe I'm wrong. That's maybe it's talking about

don't be filled with wine, which leads to bakery.

Maybe it's in Galatians. I don't know.

But it talks about oh, sorcery. That's the word sorcery when it

says the word sorcery. The word in Greek is pharmakeia,

which comes from our word for where we get pharmaceuticals and

pharmacy. What are those drugs?

Right. Well, why is he bringing that up

as a a sin? Because pagans have used drugs

and alcohol and certain, you know, medicinal herbs to have

kind of a euphoric experience, not just for recreation, but

also to communicate with deities who are, there are no other

deities or heavenly beings or other gods.

The only spiritual beings are God and angels or Satan and

demons. And so every time any religion

is reaching out to some kind of deity, they're actually, Paul

says in I think 1st Corinthians 10, what they offer as sacrifice

to gods. They give to demons and not to

gods. And So what I would say, I think

MacArthur actually said this very well, and I agree with it,

was any false religion is worshipping a demon.

And it's not just human forces that set up that false religion

with all of its history and all of its false teaching, with all

of its books. In fact, a demon is at the head

of every false church. This is the battle we're facing.

OK, let's talk about the other two, the other two that we're

fighting the world. The world is an organized

system, ideas and ideologies in opposition and rebellion against

God. Satan is actually not only

leader of the demons, but the second Corinthians 4/4 says he

is the God of this world who's blinded the minds of unbelievers

or the Prince of the power of the air, which we just read in

Ephesians chapter 2. Satan has a lot of influence in

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

the world. He uses his demons as this

organized system to communicate to people in power, to push

ideologies, false teachings, false religions on to the world.

I think it's first John 216 is a verse that says the lust of the

flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

That is the world. Everything that you can see.

I wish I had that right. The lust of the eyes, the lust

of the flesh is is passions and desires.

The pride of life is, you know, the success, and we look out at

the world and we see, you know, kind of.

The way things operate and, and, and and sometimes we look at it

and we're like envious and covetous.

I want this, I want that. I want their possessions.

I want to live like them. I want to have as much money as

them. I want to have as much power as

they do. And how did they get there?

I want to get there. It's all a ruse to try to get us

distracted, getting us to really say we yeah, we're believers, we

love God. But I think we sometimes, if

some people are honest or maybe in our own cells, we have idols,

idolatry and Satan. Not only the Satan is is trying

to invent idols for us to go worship out there in the world.

Colossians 28 says they see to it that no one takes you captive

by philosophy and empty deceit according to human tradition,

according to the elemental spirits of the world and not

according to Christ. There's philosophy and human

tradition that set itself up against God, philosophies and

ideologies pushed by even our government systems and school

systems. I love, you know, Vodi Baucom

passed away and man, I love that guy.

I mean, he was my number one guy that I went to for just about

everything. And one of the things he said,

which I agree with, and I'm going to say this caveating that

I have my own child is in public school, but he said he said

this. He says if we keep sending our

children to Caesar, then don't be surprised that they come back

Romans because the government ultimately who leads and and

rules what's going to be taught and educated in our public

schools. Also, not all of it's bad.

Math's not bad, right? English is all right, you know,

but but when we get to things that are theoretical or, or

political or ideologies that are just one guy's stance or

opinion, I mean, that's when the war sets in, in our kids.

And we better, if we're sending them to public school, we better

be having more influence than they get 6 hours a day there.

And that is difficult. That is very difficult.

And so that's one that we need to keep our eye on.

I think that's the world now. The last one is the flesh.

It is a compulsive inner force inherited from man's fall, which

expresses itself in general and specific rebellion against God

and his righteousness, our own flesh, talking about the

passions of the flesh, the desires of the body.

And it's not talking about our physical bodies, because when

God created our physical bodies, he said it's all good,

everything is good. We weren't created evil, but we

did fall. And so the fall causes this,

this built in nature. Now that's in us that only wants

to go the sinful way. We're bored.

And that's why in Ephesians 2 it says we were born dead.

We are dead in our trespasses and sins.

We are spiritually dead because of the fall, the inherited

nature. Even though we have a physical

body that's living, we have a dead spiritual nature that

actually wants to side with the world and side with Satan until

we're born again. When we get born again, we get

the new nature of the Holy Spirit, God's nature put in US.

And now when you become a Christian, now there's a war,

internal war, the Spirit and the flesh.

Galatians chapter 5 has a lot to say about this war.

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

It says the sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the

opposite of what the Spirit wants.

The Spirit gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful

nature desires. These two forces are constantly

fighting each other, so you're not free to carry out your good

intentions. So the spiritual battle from

without and from within, we need to remember that three enemies,

the world, the flesh and the devil, Romans 87 the sinful

nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God's law and

it never will. We're all included, even non

believers. They don't have the Spirit of

God, but they still are fighting against the world, the flesh and

the devil too. They just don't know it and

probably don't care. Nobody is exempt from this

battle as a human. So I want to close then with

this last verse for the day. Therefore, take up the whole

armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil

day that's today and all the days before this was written to

now 2000 of them, 2000 years of them having done all to stand

firm. How do we wage war according to

these verses? Let's hear some answers.

How do we wage war? By God?

His strength, right? God's strength.

We saw that in the first verse, Ephesians 316.

If we keep going back to our text in the context of what this

was written, Ephesians 316 that according to the riches of his

glory, He may grant you to be strengthened with power through

his spirit in your inner being. We get the power through his

spirit in our inner being. We need to remember we have the

Spirit of God another. What's another good principle on

how to do war? Who, who?

What information do you have to know who you're fighting?

Have you seen my notes? Knowing the enemy, You've got to

know the enemy. Who's the enemy again?

Tell me the three word The the world, the flesh and the devil.

The world, the flesh and the devil.

And then next, what did that verse?

What is this whole section telling us to do?

Fight. How are we going to fight?

What are we supposed to do? The major imperative is to put

something on, put on the armor of God.

We're putting it on or taking it up.

In the in the different verses it says put it on or take it up.

What does this mean? It's like putting on clothes.

It's a daily ritual. I hope you put on clothes every

day. You know when you get up.

I'm sure you all do, right? It would be weird if you didn't.

Why is it that we do this as a ritual?

Because it's just socially a thing I need to do and sometimes

forget. We've got to put on the

spiritual clothes, right? Spiritual clothes, put them on.

We need to have those habits and disciplines to remember, and

we're going to learn that in the series what those are.

And then finally, what do we do with this armor?

It says we're wrestling. We're fighting as as Leanna

said, but just remember, this is spiritual fighting, not

physical, spiritually wrestling. And then finally standing firm,

you know what's, it's always fun.

I've never been over to, you know, London.

But I always see videos of those, the, the Queen's Guard.

And all they do is stand there, you know, and people go up to

them and they take pictures next to them and they're trying to

get them to, to do something. And they won't do anything until

you get too close. And then they're pretty scary,

honestly. I mean, I've seen, I've seen

them if somebody gets in their face or pushes them or spits on

them, they'll eventually like do something, you know, after

several warnings. So I get that in my mind when I

think of standing firm, that dude is not letting anything bug

him. Like a lot of words are

happening and he is standing still.

Sometimes we're so unsteady, right?

Like on when things are happening in the world all

around us, we're tossed to and fro.

We can't stand still. And that's, that's part of the

battle is not being fooled into the little childish things that

the enemy is doing. Somebody read Exodus 1412

through 14? Somebody want to read that for

us? Exodus 1412 through 14,

Anybody have it? Do you want a microphone?

You don't want a microphone here.

Say it loud, OK? Didn't we say to you in Egypt,

leave us alone, Let us serve the Egyptians.

It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to

die in the desert. Moses answered to the people.

Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the

deliverance the Lord will bring you today.

The Egyptians will see you today you will never see again.

The Lord will fight for you. You only need to be still.

Isn't that beautiful? Stand firm, the Lord will fight

for you. We need to learn how to what it

means to stand firm instead of getting, you know, distracted

and pulled off of our post like that standing warrior, that word

stand firm means to maintain or abide.

You've heard that before to abide in the the Christian life.

Keep doing the things you need to do.

This life is about disciplines and habits and rituals.

That and listen to this last verse and I'll close with this.

It says in Thessalonians 2:15. So then, brothers, stand firm

and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by

our spoken word or by our letter.

There are rituals, habits, traditions that come from

scripture that we need to keep doing over and over again, and

we will be ready to fight this battle.

Thank you for being here in this first introduction to the

series. I'm excited about it.

God bless you guys and you have any questions or need prayer?

Let me know. But otherwise, let's get some

coffee and greet some people.