"Battle Ready" Pt.2

Hi, this is John O'Danting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Well, everybody, I'm ready for this.

I hope you are.

We are on part two of this battle ready series.

Go with me to Psalm 24.

So wake up, you living gateways.

Lift up your heads, you ageless doors of destiny.

Welcome the King of Glory, for he's about to come through you.

You ask, who is this glory king, the Lord, armed and ready for battle?

Our God is ready for battle.

He's battle ready.

The mighty one, invincible in every way.

So wake up, you living gateways, and rejoice.

Fling wide, you ageless doors of destiny.

Here he comes, the King of Glory, ready to come in.

You ask, who is this King of Glory?

He's the Lord of Victory, armed and ready for battle.

The mighty one, the invincible commander of heaven's hosts.

Yes, he is the King of Glory.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for this beautiful picture of who you are and how you're at work in our lives.

And today we pause with everything going on in our world.

And right here in this moment, through this online experience, would you, by your Holy Spirit, touch our lives?

God, we open up our hearts to you today.

We declare individually and all together as a community.

Father, would you change us?

We ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Last week we started this series, and I want to just share a couple of thoughts before we dive into week two.

We talked about how our amazing God is battle ready.

We look through the Father, uh, through the lens of our Father as being a good God, being a faithful God, being generous, being kind, being gracious, being overflowing with mercy.

But what about battle-ready?

Our God is battle-ready.

The Father is armed and ready for battle, and he wants us as his sons and daughters to rise up in faith and step into the fight that is called our lives.

The big question was simply: are you armed?

Are you dangerous?

Are you battle ready?

And we gave four strategies for battle-ready sons and daughters.

This quote from C.S.

Lewis the enemy will not see you vanish into God's company without an effort to reclaim you.

We have an enemy.

We have a spiritual enemy.

Whether you call him Satan or the devil or Lucifer or the father of lies or whatever you want to call him, we have an enemy.

He's a defeated foe, but he still wants to see you defeated.

And so there's going to be moments in your life that feel like an attack and they're deeply spiritual.

Will you fight?

I can't help but wonder what we've missed out on because we gave up, rolled over, and quit instead of advancing and taking valiant faith fight steps forward.

So the four strategies we talked about last week is that battle-ready sons and daughters refuse to allow other people's fears to shape their faith.

They remember yesterday's victories to prepare for tomorrow's assaults.

They refuse to pick up someone else's baggage as they make ready for war.

And they remember why they're fighting and who they're fighting for.

So as promised, this week we're going to begin a journey in looking at the weapons that God has prepared for us.

Well-made weapons.

Did you know that God's prepared weapons for you to not just see from a distance or be aware of in terms of peripheral, but claim, wear, and own as a part of the arsenal to push back against the attack of the enemy.

I promised you that we would take some time in Ephesians chapter 6, and we're going to start in Ephesians 6, verse 11 today.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention Ephesians 6:11

Put on God's complete set of armor provided for us so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser.

The enemy has strategies.

He's a liar, he's a cheater, he's an accuser.

His MO is steal, kill, destroy.

We read that in John 10, 10.

But God has provided armor for us so that we will be protected as we fight.

The Father has laid out well-made weapons for us.

So the weapon I want to start with today, the very first weapon, and we'll just get through one today, the weapon is called truth.

All right, the weapon of truth.

Ephesians 6, 14.

Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth.

There's a funny word, girded, right?

And just for the sake of humor, um, wherever you're at right now, I'm just gonna pause.

And I want you to just stand to your feet, wherever you're watching.

If you're driving a car listening to this, please don't stand up, keep driving.

But if you're at home in your living room, in your kitchen, would you just like stand to your feet and uh just like nice posture, like you're about to sing the national anthem?

And then on the count of three, we're all gonna say girded together, just because it's fun to say one, two, three, girded.

There it is.

You got it out of your system.

Sit down.

Girded, what does it mean to be girded?

To be girdled, me girded, not girdled, girded.

It means to encircle a person all the way around, to secure garments and a sword to the body is actually the literal translation.

About a belt girding you would be to hold your garments in, to hold your sword in place, but to surround you.

So the imagery here in Ephesians 6:14 is that truth as armor is meant to be worn like a belt.

Ephesians 6:14

Truth as a piece of the armor that God has provided for you is meant to be worn like a belt to surround you, the belt of truth.

And uh maybe you studied the uh the these weapons, this these armor, the spiritual armor.

Maybe you read about it in Sunday school, maybe you've done Bible studies about it, but we're gonna do our own study.

And so I want you to think about truth being like a belt that's girded, it surrounds you, it holds everything in place.

But right now, when I say the word truth, what comes to mind?

Right in the chats, in the comment, when I say truth, what do you think about?

When I say the word truth in relation to it being like a belt that you wear, when you think about truth, what do you think about truth?

Type it in the comments for me, real quick.

You might think truth as a standard, you know, um a baseline, truth.

Uh, maybe you think about God's word, the Bible.

When I say truth, what do you what do you first think about?

Um, and while you're typing that in the comments, I want you to get this thought in your head as we get going today.

The enemy wants you exposed and vulnerable.

The enemy of our soul wants each one of us exposed and vulnerable.

Um, have you ever been pants?

This is kind of funny, but have you ever been pants?

And maybe you don't know what it means to be pantsed, but um, you know, I've seen teenage boys doing this, being a youth pastor for a long, long time.

I don't know why this they think it's so funny, but basically, you know, a couple of guys might sneak up behind one of their friends and they grab the legs of pants and like pull them down.

And like in this stark moment of being startled, the pants are down, usually around the ankles, and so somebody's scrambling to pull up their pants, right?

Have you ever been pants?

I don't know.

One time I split my pants.

I was on a bouncy castle, I was racing, and it was like an obstacle course, and there was this big, big, huge slide at the very, very end, and I was winning.

I got to the top of the slide, I threw my legs over, split my pants wide open, and then I slid down the slide exposed to everybody who was cheering me on at the bottom.

Not my brightest, most beautiful moment, but um that feeling of being exposed, not a good one, right?

Especially when it comes to um our vulnerable bits, let's put it that way.

One time uh I was a camp counselor in Vancouver, and I was on a tube behind a boat and I was doing tricks for the camp director.

He was taking photos from the boat, I was doing barrel rolls.

So I'm lying on a tube, and a barrel rolls where like you do this stunt and you come, you know, underwater and you come back up.

And so I was doing barrel rolls on a tube, and he's in the boat, you know, taking photos for a slideshow.

Well, we're in the ocean.

I do a barrel roll, I come back up, my bathing suit, gone.

And uh so I let go of the tube, and there I'm swimming around in the ocean looking for my swim trunks.

I've have you ever felt exposed?

Not a good feeling.

The enemy wants you exposed and vulnerable, not physically in terms of clothing, spiritually, in terms of your heart, your soul, and what you believe to be true about God.

How does he want to do this?

By convincing you that God isn't who God claims to be.

He'll whisper a lie, he'll introduce a thought.

The enemy wants you exposed and vulnerable by trying to convince you that God isn't who God says he is.

Let's look at Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

The serpent was clever, more clever than any wild animal God had made.

He spoke to the woman, do I understand that God told you not to eat from any tree in the garden?

The woman said, No, not at all.

We can eat from the trees in the garden.

It's only about the tree in the middle that God said, Don't eat.

So the serpent told the woman, You won't die.

God knows that the moment you eat from that tree, you'll see what's really going on.

You'll be just like God, knowing everything, ranging all the way from good to evil.

You'll be just like God.

Wait a second.

In Genesis chapter 1 and 2, when God created sons and daughters, he made them in his likeness and in his image, as God's kids were already just like God.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And here comes the enemy trying to convince Adam and Eve that God isn't who he said he was.

Isn't it just like the enemy to try and convince us that we've fallen short, we lack something that God has already spoken over us as being it true?

Isn't it just like him to try and trick us to believe that God isn't who he says he is?

Genesis 3 carries on and says, When the woman saw that the tree looked good, realized what she would get out of it, lies, she know everything.

She took and ate the fruit and then gave some to her husband, and he ate.

Immediately the two of them did see what's really going on.

They saw themselves naked.

They sewed fig leaves together as clothes.

When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the man and his wife hid in the trees in the garden.

They hid from God.

Listen to this.

God called out, Where are you?

He said, I heard you in the garden.

I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid, is what Adam replied.

And then God said, Who told you you were naked?

Did you eat from the tree?

Isn't it just like the enemy to try and convince us that we've fallen short, that we lack something that God has already given us, already spoken over us as being true.

And when the enemy does, and when we live in that lie, it's like he's pants us.

Okay?

I want you to get that image in your head.

When the enemy whispers something in our ear that goes against what we know to be true about God's nature and character and his heart for us, and then we believe it, and then we live in that lie, it's like we're exposed and vulnerable.

The enemy wants you exposed and vulnerable so that you will hide from God and not chase after his presence.

So, how do we stay girded with truth?

What does this all have to do with truth?

Okay, so in this uh Ephesians 6, the Greek word for truth is a word called Alethea.

Alethea.

Okay, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I studied this this week.

Alethea is variously translated, truth, alethea, as unconcealed.

All right, hang with me.

The literal meaning of the word Alathea is the state of not being hidden.

Truth.

When something is true, it comes into the light.

When something is true, it's no longer concealed.

When something is true, it's the state of not being hidden.

The belt of truth means that you understand how to live life not hidden from the Father.

Get this.

Somebody needs this today.

To live your life never hiding from God.

Genesis 3, immediately the two of them saw what's going on.

When they heard the sound of God strolling, they hid from God.

And God said, Where are you?

And Adam said, I heard you and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.

The enemy lies, we listen to the lie, we believe the lie, we act on the lie.

The result of the lie brings us shame.

And so we hide from the Father.

We hide.

The deeper the lie goes, the deeper our shame.

The deeper our shame, the more we hide.

Who are you hiding from God right now?

What shame are you carrying in this season?

What lie have you believed and lived out that's caused you to hide from the father?

The father's calling out to someone today, son, daughter.

Where are you?

Who told you you were naked?

You know, when you miss the mark and give in to the lies of the enemy, that's actually not the real issue.

We all do that.

We all miss the mark every day.

We have a new nature.

Jesus gave us this brand new spirit nature, not an old sin nature, but we still miss the mark.

So that's actually not the issue.

The real issue is that those moments when we miss the mark would keep you hidden from the Father, would cause you to turn and hide in shame, to pull away from relationship with God.

When you miss the mark and give into the lies of the enemy, that is not the real issue.

Grow, overcome.

If you've got a habit going on in your life that you're not proud of, grow, learn, gather some people around you to help you, pray, believe in faith, change.

But that's not the real issue.

The real issue is that that sin in our life keeps us hidden from the Father, keeps us riddled and covered with shame and guilt and condemnation, and so we run and so we hide.

To wear truth as armor, as a belt, means that despite my failures, I always run back to the Father.

To wear truth as girded around me, this idea of the state of not being hidden, as I wear that as a piece of armor in the assault of the enemy, it means that despite the lies I believe, I will overcome, I will push back, and I will always run to the Father.

To live in truth means to not hide, to live in the state of not being hidden.

Romans 5, verse 12 through 14.

Romans 5:12–14

It says this, you know the story of how Adam landed us in this dilemma we're in.

Sin started in the garden with Adam and Eve.

First sin and then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death.

That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone.

When sin entered the world, God's original plan for us as sons and daughters in terms of closeness and relationship was changed because of sin for everything and everyone.

But the extent of that disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail for Moses.

So death, this big abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses.

Bit of a Bible lesson here.

Even those who didn't sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command still had to experience this termination of real life, this separation from God.

Verse 18, here it is in a nutshell.

Just as one person, Adam, did it wrong and got all of us into trouble, another person, Jesus, did it right and got us out of trouble.

But more than just getting us out of trouble, listen, Jesus got us into life.

Okay?

One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong.

One man said yes to God and put us in the right.

Jesus is that one man.

Jesus is the one man who undid the separation that started in the garden.

Jesus is the one man who doesn't just get us out of trouble, but gets us into life.

To fight, to be battle ready, and to push back with a belt of truth isn't just to eek through life and hopefully I don't mess this thing up.

It's to get into real life that Jesus paid for.

In other words, Jesus not only pulls up our pants, he becomes the belt that holds us from ever being naked and exposed again.

Jesus, this belt of truth.

Jesus, this path to never hiding from the Father ever again.

To know Jesus is to know truth.

The state of not hiding from the Father.

Today's big question.

Are you choosing to wear Jesus as your truth?

Your way to closeness with the Father.

No longer concealed, no longer hidden, and free from the bondage of shame.

Today's big question: are you choosing to wear Jesus as your truth?

The state of no longer hiding.

Your way to closeness with the Father.

No longer concealed and hidden, no longer shackled by shame and guilt.

In John 14, 6, Jesus explained, I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life.

Jesus said, I am the Alathea.

I am the state of never being hidden again.

I am the life.

No one comes next to the Father except through union with me.

To know me is to know my Father also.

These are Jesus' words.

To know Jesus is to know truth firsthand.

To know the Father is to know Jesus, who is our truth, our Alathea, our state of never being hidden.

Jesus' goal isn't to get us into heaven.

Okay?

Hang with me.

Heaven's not the goal.

And I know some people who say they follow Jesus, but they live with this escapism mindset, like, oh, it's so hard down here.

I just can't wait to get to heaven.

That's actually another lie from the enemy.

It's for life that Jesus brought truth to you.

It's for freedom that Jesus set you free.

And someone here believes that if I die, somehow things will be better.

Maybe you've been struggling under the weight of anxiety and stress over the last six months.

Maybe you've had moments of ideology about ending your life by suicide because you just think, man, if I could just get to heaven, everything would be fine.

God has a bigger purpose for you.

Son, daughter, stop hiding.

Come home.

Are you battle ready?

Jesus doesn't just get you out of trouble.

He brings you to life.

He brings you to real life.

Jesus' goal is actually not to just get us to heaven, it's to get us close to his dad.

It's to get us close to the Father.

It's to never live behind the blanket of shame and guilt ever again, never be hidden from him.

John 14, 6, Jesus explained, I am the way.

I am the truth.

I am the Alathea.

I am the state of not being hidden.

The deeper the lie goes, the deeper our shame.

The deeper our shame, the deeper we hide.

The Father's calling out someone today.

Come on.

I see you.

You've been struggling under the weight of shame.

You've been embarrassed.

You've been broken.

You've been hurt.

Come out of the darkness and step into the light today.

Son, daughter, where are you?

Why are you hiding?

Who told you you were naked and that that was the problem?

The goal is to live unconcealed, to live not hidden from God.

Physical nakedness wasn't the father's concern.

Okay?

To be clear, I'm not suggesting that we all run off and join the nudist colony.

Okay?

This is that's not what I'm suggesting.

Um, but physical nakedness wasn't the father's concern.

Spiritual nakedness, clean, unhidden, open, beautiful access.

Physical distancing caused by shame was what caused and concerned the father.

Adam and Eve distanced from God.

They hid.

That's actually what bothered God.

That his prized creation, his son and his daughter, they hid from him.

That's the issue.

Hear me now, 2020.

Physical distancing isn't new.

It's not a new problem.

Sin, brokenness, sickness, disease, heartache, shame, they have always separated people from a real relationship with God the Father.

There has always been a gap between us and God because of sin.

And so God still says today, son, daughter, why are you hiding?

Where are you?

Ephesians 6, verse 10.

Ephesians 6:10

Now, my beloved ones, I have saved these most important.

Important truths for last.

Be supernaturally infused with strength through your life union with the Lord Jesus.

Stand victorious with the force of his explosive power flowing in and through you.

Put on God's complete set of armor provided for us so that you will be protected as you fight against the evil strategies of the accuser.

The enemy wants you exposed and vulnerable so that you'll hide from God and stop chasing after the Father's presence.

He's going to be sneaky, he's going to deceive you.

He's going to lie to you.

He's going to try and convince you that somehow you've fallen short and that you lack something that God has already spoken over you as being beautiful and true.

He'll whisper in your ear, and boom, you get spiritually pants, and then hide from the Father.

Ephesians 6:14, put on truth as a belt to strengthen you to stand in triumph.

Ephesians 6:14

What does it mean to be battle ready with a posture that says, I'm standing in triumph?

It means this.

It means I'm surrounded with truth, Jesus.

Jesus, my truth.

He is the truth.

He is the state, the perfect state of never being hidden from the Father.

And so I lean into Jesus to learn how to be unconcealed in my relationship with God.

Today's big question: are you choosing to wear the truth of Jesus as your truth, your way to closeness with the Father, no longer concealed and hidden, free from the bondage of shame?

I want to close with this story.

In 2004, the story of Shrek, not the green ogre, but Shrek the Merino sheep caught international attention.

So in 2004 in New Zealand, this beautiful merino sheep escaped from his shepherd.

And this sheep evaded being found by hiding in a cave for six years.

Six years.

Hidden and concealed, he missed out on regular shearing from his shepherd.

It was the shepherd's job to keep that beautiful sheep clean, spotless.

And when the sheep are close to the shepherd, they're ready and able to submit to the shepherd to shed the weight of their wool.

True story.

For six years he grew, and when they found him, he had 60 pounds, six zero, sixty pounds of wool covering his little sheep body.

Enough to make merino wool suits for 20 large men.

That's a lot of wool.

Why am I telling you about Shrek the sheep?

Simply to say this, stop hiding from your shepherd.

Stop hiding.

Sheep need their shepherd.

The longer you stay hidden, the heavier the weight gets.

Six years, 60 pounds of wool.

The longer you stay concealed and hidden behind shame, the heavier it gets.

John 10, Jesus went over it again.

I speak to you eternal truth.

I am the gate for the flock.

All those who broke in before me are thieves who came to steal, but the sheep never listened to them.

I am the gateway.

To enter through me is to experience life, freedom, satisfaction.

A thief has only one thing in mind.

He wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy.

But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect, life in its fullness until you overflow.

I am the good shepherd who lays down my life as a sacrifice for the sheep.

Stop hiding from your shepherd.

Come into the light.

Sheep need their shepherd.

The longer you stay hidden, the heavier the weight is.

The belt of truth means that you step into the state of refusing to hide from the Father.

Someone watching right now is already coming to life.

I can sense it.

You feel the curtain lifting, and you're aware for the first time that Jesus pulls you out of the state of being concealed and hidden and brings you into life.

Someone else watching today has already chosen to follow Jesus.

You've chosen Jesus as your truth, but you're still hiding from the Father.

You're still living under the immense weight of shame and guilt.

So today's big question will you today choose to wear Jesus as truth?

Alethea.

The state of not being concealed or hidden.

To put on the armor, the belt of truth that God has prepared and laid out for you.

This truth belt has a name.

Jesus.

Jesus is your way to closeness with the Father.

Jesus is who brings us to that place of no longer being concealed or hidden.

Jesus is who sets us free from the bondage of shame.

And to close, I want to read John 14, verse 16 and 17.

John 14:16

Jesus says, I'll ask the Father, and he'll give another Savior, the Holy Spirit of truth.

The Spirit of truth.

Jesus, God made flesh, human body, lived, loved, served, died, rose victorious, and then I'm going to give you my spirit of truth, the very essence of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the spirit of Christ, whom we have received, the spirit of truth, the state of not being hidden.

And this spirit will be to you a friend, Jesus said, just like me.

And the spirit will never leave you.

The world won't receive the spirit because they can't see him or know him, but you will know him intimately.

You will know the spirit of truth intimately because he will make his home in you and will live inside of you.

Son, daughter, come out of the cave.

Come out of the darkness.

The belt of truth isn't just to believe a set of rules that we think are true.

The belt of truth is Jesus who shows us what it means to be unconcealed.

The state of no longer being hidden from the Father.

Stepping out, stepping out from behind our shame, our guilt, the weight of our past, our brokenness, our hurts, our disappointment.

Taking Jesus by the hand and saying, You promise to bring me to life.

You promise to bring me to freedom.

You promise to pull me out of darkness into light.

And so I choose you today.

Everybody watching, that's my prayer for you this week.

And I just I'm just gonna ask God to do something beautiful in your life today as we close out.

Beautiful in your home this week, as you carve out quiet time with the Father.

That anything that's felt like a barrier of weight, that's felt like you've been hiding behind, would just crumble and fall.

The lies of the enemy, the accuser, would be pushed back with this all-encompassing, girded belt of truth.

That you would no longer feel naked and exposed, but that you would just step into the light and no longer being hidden from the Father.

That's his desire for you.

That's his desire for us.

For those of you watching today who've never made the decision to surrender your life to Jesus.

You didn't even know that closeness with God was possible and that Jesus is the way.

I want to tell you there's good news for you today.

Jesus has made it easy.

A good shepherd.

He laid down his life and paid a price that you and I will never have to pay.

And the Bible's clear, it says when we believe this in our hearts and speak it with our mouth, that we come into the new life that Jesus promised.

Are we gonna have a fight?

Yeah.

Are we gonna have setbacks?

Yeah.

Are we gonna make mistakes and miss the mark?

Yeah.

But don't stay hidden from the Father.

Keep coming back to relationship with God.

I would love to pray a prayer, a simple prayer with everybody watching today, a prayer of faith for those of you who are saying yes to the shepherd today.

Yes to relationship with God.

Yes to new life and freedom and salvation only found through Jesus.

So would you pray this simple prayer with me, everybody watching, all across Evolve Church, online, across the city of Edmonton, around Alberta, across the nation of Canada, and other countries watching today from around the world, would you pray out loud, wherever you're watching from?

Just repeat after me.

Say, dear God, thank you that you're pulling me out of darkness.

I'm no longer hidden, no longer concealed.

I wear Jesus as my truth today.

My path to freedom, my path to real life.

Would you forgive me for everything I've done wrong?

I'm yours every part, today, and every day.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, apply for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.

We hope to see you.