Winning the War - Body Armor

If you want to click or flip in your Bible, we're going to get over to Ephesians 6 in just a moment.

And then we're going to bounce around a little bit.

We're in week three of our winning the war series.

And this series is, this particular message is talking about body armor.

And I told you from the beginning when we started this message, this series would be a great one.

If you don't take notes, this would be a great one to take notes in.

Open your note app on your phone.

Don't go to Facebook or Instagram, please.

But you can open that note app.

Take some notes down if you want to, because I believe God wants to help us learn how to win in life.

We don't have to always feel like we're losing, but there's a way to actually turn things around and feel like I'm winning.

And so one of the things that I do to try to make myself feel better in life is I throw this weighted vest on a few times a week.

And I go out for about a three or four mile ruck.

Sometimes you'll see me up and down the roads back here because I recognize a couple of things with this vest.

Like, one, you throw a weighted vest on, and it's a great way to build some strength and endurance.

You think walking a few miles is hard in the heat.

Throw an extra 20 pounds on your body and then go for a ruck, and you realize, like, oh, this is a little bit harder.

It's building some strength, it's building some endurance.

The beauty of this, too, would just be the reality is, man, there's some plates there that are here for protection.

Like there really are some plates in here.

There really is armored.

You see somebody in the police force in the military, as they're going into an action that's going to be heavy, you see them put something like this on because they're trying to armor up and protect some of the most vitally important pieces of their body to live.

And the reality is this is part of the armor in one essence that God has called us to put on.

Part of the piece we're going to look at today.

And I think for so many of us, we put on armor in a lot of different ways, if we're honest.

Our armor may not look like God's armor, but for some of us, our armor looks like I'm going to follow culture and popular opinion because I don't want to open myself up to attacks.

And so I just tend to go with the flow because I'm trying to protect myself.

I think sometimes we throw on some armor that might look like avoiding conflict because I don't like it.

So I'm going to do my best to pretend like everything's good, even when it's not, because I'm going to avoid as much conflict as I can.

Some of us we armor up, and our armor might look like I've got to have a certain number of dollars in my bank account to feel comfortable and at peace.

Anyone like that?

You don't have to raise your hands, but like there's a magic number in your bank where you feel good.

And when that number's not there, suddenly it's like I feel kind of vulnerable and exposed.

We we armor up in a lot of ways.

We armor up in trying to, our armor for some of us is comfort.

I just try to make my life as comfortable as I can.

Because I feel good.

That's my way of protecting myself.

And the reality is we're in a war.

We've talked about that.

We're going to read this same set of scriptures every week as we go through this because I think these are good reminders to continually hear and build on.

And so Ephesians 6, starting in verse 10, I'm reading out of the New Living Translation.

It says this a final word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's, put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

God has tried to create a way where you and I can be victorious no matter what we face.

We talked about this in week one.

You can go back and catch it on podcasts or go to YouTube.

Listen, we fight from a place of victory.

We don't fight to win.

We've already won.

And God is just leading us into that victory.

You can't lose.

The enemy knows that, so he tries to get us to give him our victory that we already have.

Keep going.

I can preach that message all over again.

Sometimes I think we need to hear it.

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in heavenly places.

Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.

Then, after the battle, you will be standing firm.

He doesn't say maybe you will.

After the battle, you will.

Why?

Because we fight from a place of victory.

Let me just remind you again so that we can let that sink into our hearts and minds.

Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth.

We talked about that last week, right?

Don't want our pants falling down two weeks ago, right?

That belt to keep everything up, man.

That truth is what holds everything together and the body armor of God's righteousness.

Righteousness is this fancy word that we hear in church.

Maybe we don't fully understand what it means.

I'll try my best to give you the sixth grade definition of righteousness, if we can.

Righteousness is living by God's design.

That's probably the simplest way we can break that down.

That is when we win.

Somebody that is righteous is not morally more superior than anybody else.

Sometimes we like to say that or make people think that.

Being righteous is not following the right set of rules, and I get it right all the time.

Actually, what we're going to see in scripture is that righteousness has a lot more to do with me submitting my life to Jesus and following it the way he asked me to live it.

And so this is one of those sermons where it's like, man, sometimes it gets a little uncomfortable, but the really the heart behind it is, will I submit myself to God's wisdom and design for life?

That's the challenge.

And so if we're going to live life by God's design, how do we do that?

Romans 5.21.

If you want to write this one down, put it in your notes, hold on to it for a later moment to go back to it.

It says, So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death.

Now God's wonderful grace rules instead.

What rules now?

Grace.

It's not sin anymore, grace.

I think it's important to catch what scripture's saying here because we have a tendency to think I'm already in a losing situation.

And Paul is trying to remind us you're fighting from a place of victory because you already live under God's grace.

Giving us right standing with God, resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Right standing.

If you look at other translations, it would say righteousness.

It is this idea that you and I are able to be covered in God's armor of righteousness because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Period.

You don't get to put this armor on because you do right things.

You already have it on because when you surrender your life to Jesus, he covers you with his righteousness.

That is what grace is.

And I think this is so important because for some of us we think, man, I got to do the right actions so I can be right with God.

But the reality is when we surrender our life to Jesus, you are already right with him.

And so now we go follow his way because he's already made us right.

Maybe the better picture or analogy that I could say is you don't put on God's armor to become righteous, you put it on because you're already righteous.

That's the beauty of grace.

That's the beauty of the work of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection.

Is it's not something you earn.

It's not a checklist, so then I can say I got the armor on.

It's armor that he's already given to you to put on.

Not because you're good enough.

Not because you hit a spot where you're morally superior than anybody else.

I know some people think, as the pastor, like I'm this morally superior person.

I'm not.

It's only because of Jesus that I stand here today.

It's only because of Jesus that I get this opportunity.

I'm not better than anybody else in the room.

I still have my good days.

And I promise all you gotta do is ask my wife or kids, I have my bad days.

Some of you might even see me on some of those moments, on my bad days.

But I stand here because he's made me right.

And so part of understanding this right armor that God has given us is trusting that he's already given it to us, and so we can put it on because he's made us righteous.

And so the challenge with righteousness really becomes am I willing to submit my life to Jesus?

Am I willing to submit my life to all that he says?

This is probably the biggest crux of what we're fighting in society right now, is a struggle to say, I'm willing to submit.

It's not a popular phrase in today's world.

But it is the lifeline of everything we do to protect ourselves when it comes to following Jesus.

To be covered in his righteousness means I have surrendered my life to him, means I'm willing to submit.

Yes, I am able to put on this righteous armor because of what Jesus did.

But then Paul also said put on, which would require an effort on our part as well.

Grace is not opposed to effort, by the way.

Grace-driven effort.

But grace is not opposed to effort.

Grace actually works together with effort.

And you and I effort in this life is to submit and surrender as much as our life as we can to Jesus.

That is the effort we're called to give, to surrender.

You want to win in life?

Surrender.

It seems like a dichotomy.

It seems like the opposite.

But here's what I can tell you: the moments I have gained the most victory in my life and in my walk with Jesus is the moments I have been willing to surrender the most in my life.

And so part of walking righteously is having submission.

And I understand in today's world we've all had bad leaders, right?

And so we have this bad feeling when we talk about submission because we've had bad leaders that tried to force us to submit.

We have that problem because we're American.

We don't submit to anybody.

It was the declaration of independence, not the declaration of submission.

And we confuse our national heritage with our religious one.

The best declaration of spiritual independence is submission to Jesus Christ.

And so we have to embrace this idea, whether we like it, whether it's comfortable or not.

I promise to be uncomfortably real.

We're about to get in that spot where I'm gonna step on my toes and all of yours too, hopefully.

And we're gonna trust that God is working here.

Philippians 1.21 says this for to me, living means living for Christ.

And dying is even better.

Paul's words in Philippians 1.

If you know Paul, living means living for Christ.

That means in this life from here on out, living does not mean living for Jason anymore.

Living means living for Christ.

Paul's picture is submission to Jesus.

So many people want to talk about Jesus is my savior.

What I wish we could talk about is not has Jesus saved me.

I wish the conversation we could continue to grow in is am I living for Jesus?

Because everybody wants to point back to a VBS when I was seven years old where I surrender my life to Jesus.

Praise God for VBS.

Y'all know some of you just take your kids there because it's free child care.

It's okay.

Nobody judges you, it's all right.

They're hearing Jesus along the way, so it's okay.

But the question somewhere should shift.

If we want to be protected from the attacks of the enemy, the question is not, did I pray or prayer once in VBS when I was a little kid?

The question is, am I living now for Jesus?

Because Paul's words were I'm living for Christ and dying is gain.

It's not I'm living for myself.

It's not I'm living for a bigger checkbook, it's not I'm living for the job that I have.

It's not, I know this is gonna bust some of your parents' worlds.

It's not living for your children.

Yes, your kids are special, but when they become the center of your life instead of Jesus, it's a problem.

We expose ourselves in a way that is dangerous.

And I think we have to understand that part of our life is surrendering to what God has declared is right for us.

And I get so many people, here's the conversation as a pastor, people come to me and ask, what does the Bible say about take your pick?

In today's popular culture, what does the Bible say about sexuality or marriage?

Or and they always ask that question, not because they really want to learn, because they want to get in an argument.

And so for me, when I have those questions come to me most of the time, I follow their question up with a question.

Part of it is because Jesus was the master at that.

If you ever read the gospels and somebody asks Jesus a question, he always pulls a Jesus juke and asks them a question in return.

I'll answer yours if you answer mine.

And so I say, man, how much of what I tell you is because when we're done, you want to surrender to what Jesus says is best.

Oh, not at all.

I'm just looking for a fight.

Cool, man.

Roll on then.

I'm not gonna fight with you.

Because you're not interested in following Jesus, you're interested in justifying your actions.

Then just keep justifying your actions because you're not ready.

Somebody that's ready for Jesus has surrendered their will to him and they've submitted to what he wants.

Somebody that's trying to hold dogmatically into what I want, that's not that's not the Jesus way, that's the American way.

And so we have to acknowledge, as uncomfortable as that is, there's some things we're gonna run into.

Because uncomfortable reality is we want to define sexuality by what the world tells us.

All you gotta do is flip on the news right now.

Everywhere you go, WNBA can't just be a conversation about women playing basketball.

It's become a political thing because nobody can seem to define what a man or woman is.

I can tell you a simple cheek swab and a test that will tell you if you got an XX or an XY chromosome.

It's not that complicated.

You're like, Pastor, I can't believe you're saying that.

Well, but because somewhere we have to ask ourselves, am I following what the world is defining as what is right?

Or am I surrendering my life to what Jesus has defined already?

Because Jesus has already defined these things.

And I don't even have to go back to Leviticus or Deuteronomy or pick one of those Old Testament books.

Jesus made it really clear when he defined what human sexuality was and what marriage was when somebody asked him about it once.

And so the question is, am I going to submit my life to what Jesus says, or am I going to live by what the world tells me?

That's the challenge.

And one of those protects us, the other leaves us exposed to what the enemy wants.

We talk about finances and we see money and possession as our own.

We never stop to understand that scripture tells us everything we have is a gift from God, and anything you have, you only have because God has given you the ability to have those things.

All that money in your bank account is a gift from God.

No, it ain't.

I worked hard.

I learned the skills.

Who gave you the ability to work hard and learn those skills?

Who put the health in your body to be able to actually accomplish those things?

Because somewhere we've either got to surrender our life to Jesus or we do it the way the world tells us.

But every time we do what the world says, we're taking off armor and we're leaving ourselves exposed.

We go through life exhausted and stressed out because more is better.

And if I could just fill my schedule up, man, it's got to be the best life ever.

And we skip right past the part in scripture where Jesus said, hey, I should take a Sabbath and just take a day off.

And we wonder why life feels like it's stressed and out of control.

It's because we never take a break.

Man, I love opportunities to go on a retreat and get away, but but here as a pastor, can I tell you, man, the thing about retreats that always gets me is everybody wants to go on a retreat.

So good to just unplug and get away for a few days.

It is.

But then we just come right back to the rat race and we just pick right up where we left.

And to me, every time I've ever been on one of those moments, all it's told me is maybe I need to adjust my life when I come back home because I'm not meant to run a rat race.

Maybe I actually just need to find 30 minutes in my day.

There's this beautiful feature on your iPhone, if you if you don't know how to find it, it's called Do Not Disturb.

You have permission to turn that on and then put it in your pocket and don't let anybody disturb you.

And spend a beautiful moment undisturbed with Jesus in your day.

Novel concept.

People all the time text me in the morning.

I try to text you, but your phone's on, do not disturb.

Yeah, it is every day.

Because the first part of my day is Jesus, so the rest of my day can be with Jesus.

Because y'all don't want Jason if I don't get that first part with Jesus.

There's a way that protects us, there's a way that leaves us exposed.

Offended in today's world, everybody wants to be offended by something.

Nobody wants to do what Colossians 3 says and forgive freely.

We want to live offended.

Living with an offense is taking this armor off and exposing your life to the attack of the enemy.

Freely forgiving is God's gift to lead you in life and protect you from the enemy destroying you.

If you haven't figured that out by now.

Why I always say live unoffendable.

Because every time you pick up an offense, every time you pick up bitterness, every time you pick up unforgiveness for what somebody did to you, you're taking this armor off and you're giving the enemy a free shot at the most vital place of your life, your heart.

Isolation, man, I get so many people tell me, I don't need church.

I don't need community.

I could do this thing on my own.

There's nothing in the Bible that says I have to go to church to be saved.

The problem is we just don't read the Bible enough to actually know what it means because it doesn't say that.

In fact, Paul said, if you want to go back, there's this funny two-letter word in verse 12, it says, For we are not fighting against flesh and blood.

And so somewhere we keep believing this lie that I can do it on my own when God said, We.

So why do we have worship and prayer at the end?

Because we need each other.

Because there are moments where we're in a fight and I'm not strong enough to do it on my own.

And I need somebody to pray with me.

Because you weren't meant to do it alone.

You weren't meant to fly solo.

In fact, you can't follow scripture if you don't have a community of people that you do faith with.

How can you pray for one another if you're flying solo?

How can you care for somebody that's in need when all you're worried about is yourself?

It's the antithesis of everything in scripture.

But just because there's not a scripture that says thou shalt go to church to be saved, we say the opposite, and it's just not true.

You can't live scripture out without being a community.

Why are we doing groups together?

Because there's something that happens when we do life with other people and we learn how to live for Jesus and follow him in today's world.

When we do it together, we put the armor on.

When we fly solo, you've taken it off.

And so we hit this moment where for some of us, what we like to say is, man, it's just it's a weak choice.

That those things that we talk about, it's just a moment of weakness.

We like to say, man, I failed or I messed up.

But I'm I go back to what we just read in Ephesians 6.

He said, we're in a spiritual battle.

This isn't a hang up, this isn't a weakness, this is an all-out assault by the enemy that we're in.

And when we choose not to gain in that fight and engage in that fight, we lose.

Because you're not playing for something that's weak, you're not playing for something that's maybe good or bad.

We're playing a game of life and death.

And the enemy is playing to kill, steal, and destroy you.

And Jesus has come that you might have life and have it to the fullest.

That is the game we're in.

That is why God talks about armor, because it's not a game, it's life and death.

And so for us, we have to understand every time we choose our way, we're taking one of these plates out.

Every time we choose our way, every time we choose the world's way, we're unstrapping from this armor that's here to protect us.

And here's the beauty of it for some of us.

This is the part where some of us would say, Man, I've just that whole list, like I've got it all jacked up.

Like I've just failed.

I might as well leave.

No.

Here's the beauty of the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can surrender your life to him right now, strap on this armor and learn to follow him.

You don't have to wait till shame wears off.

You don't have to wait till you figure life out and then follow him.

You can start right now and follow him.

The hope of the good news of Jesus is, in spite of how many times we've messed up, and that laundry list is long for Jason, his grace covers me and equips me with something I can't do on my own.

And I don't have to let shame or guilt be the thing that keeps me exposed to the attacks of the enemy.

I can let the grace of God cover me and protect me no matter how many times I failed him.

That is the good news of the gospel.

That is the hope that we all live in.

That is the news that we declare every week, and why we invite everybody to experience this.

It's available for all of us.

One last verse.

Matthew 5, 6.

I love the red letters in the Bible.

This is the Sermon on the Mount, if you know what Jesus is talking about here.

He says this blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

I don't know about you, but I love that verse.

That verse is actually a verse that I pray over my life consistently.

And to me, that is a very interesting way for Jesus to start the sermon on the mount.

Arguably, one of the most important sermons Jesus ever preaches.

Holistically, one of the longest messages ever recorded in Scripture.

And he starts off by pointing out how much our desire affects our ability to live righteously with God.

That there's something here that Jesus is pointing out that's really important.

And I think we need to understand this.

The key to armoring up with righteousness isn't defeating the enemy.

The key to armoring up with God's righteousness is defeating yourself.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Righteousness is a desire problem, not an enemy problem.

The enemy just knows how to play off our desires to move us in his direction.

Why?

Again, I say, because we're not playing from a place of defeat, trying to win.

We're playing from a place of victory, and the enemy's trying to influence our desires to take the armor off so we can lose.

And Jesus understood from the very beginning, before he gave any rules to follow, before he gave any examples, blessed are those who hunger and thirst.

Blessed are those who desire my way over the world's way, because you will be satisfied.

That's essentially what Jesus is saying.

Our desires affect the direction of our life.

I'll say that one more time.

You should put that in your notes.

Your desires affect the direction of your life, and your life follows your strongest desires, period.

Every time.

Your life follows the direction of your desires.

I mean, it's just the way it works.

You desire to gain wealth, man, you're going to move in that direction.

You desire to leverage wealth for kingdom good, your life will move in that direction.

You desire to be in relationship with somebody, then I find a way to forgive the unforgivable because my desire is relationship.

When I desire to be right because I've been offended and somebody owes me an apology, then I don't desire to be in relationship.

I desire to be proved right and justified in my actions.

Your life moves in the direction of your desires.

Or I desire for them to be good at something else.

Take your pick.

Desire sets the direction for our life.

And we often say we want stronger faith, but if we don't feed that desire, then you're feeding the desire to stay weak.

We say we want to grow, but if we don't feed that desire, we don't grow.

We say that we want to see a marriage strong, but if you don't pray or date that person, your marriage is going to stay the same or get worse.

There's an epidemic in today's world that people are married 25, 30, 35 years, and then when the kids are out of the house, they get divorced because it feels like I'm living with a stranger now.

Because I made my life about my kids and my career for 25 or 30 or 35 years, and now I don't know the person that I'm married to.

The greatest gift, hear me, moms and dads in the room.

The greatest gift you can give your kids is to love each other well.

Period.

You want to teach your kids how to have a great marriage?

Love your spouse well while they're at home.

Because they're gonna follow your example.

Which means my kids are gonna pat their wife on the butt and kiss them in front of their kids and embarrass the crap out of them.

Why?

Because that's what we did at our house.

And then we hear, ugh, it's so gross.

We did a lot.

We still hear it.

I don't care.

I want my kids to know I love that woman.

All my kids to know I would do anything for that woman.

Include go to prison if I have to to protect her.

Praise God.

I want my daughter to learn how a man is supposed to treat her.

That he should pick up the tab and he should open the door, and he should close the door.

And he should hug her and he should tell her that he loves her.

And that I would take my daughter on dates because I wanted her to learn that what a man should do if he's going to date my daughter.

Probably my daughter is ruined, and she hasn't really dated anybody up until this point, and I'm perfectly fine with that.

The bar is high.

This is how we armor up.

Desire.

I think the second grass the second greatest battle we face for many of us is will I actually do what I desire?

That's really the biggest struggle.

James said it, faith without works is dead.

Am I gonna do what I claim to desire?

That's the greatest challenge for any of us.

The promise of this armor is that it comes with a promise.

Jesus said that if you do things my way, you will be satisfied.

That is a gift from Jesus.

You follow the world's way, it's going to be empty and hollow and leave you hungry for more.

Because there is no life in it.

It's overpromising something that it cannot deliver.

If we were able to find peace and joy and happiness apart from Jesus, the world should have already done it.

It seems to be getting worse, not better.

That there is desire in us that is meant to follow and honor God and everything that He wants to do.

And when we honor Him and we do things His way, He gives us strength to do what we can't do on our own.

So here's my question for you Where am I failing to submit my desires to live by Jesus right way?

Like this would be the honesty in this moment.

Where am I failing to surrender or submit my desires to live the way Jesus has called me to?

Can I tell you, as a pastor, one of the most spiritually dangerous phrases I hear anybody use when we have conversations like this, is they tell me one day I will.

But today's not the day.

So we have a world that wants to live together, sleep with whoever we want to, do whatever we want to, but then one day when I get married, I'll start doing it by Jesus' design.

Hear me.

You can't build godly integrity on sin and deceit.

It's just impossible.

You can't magically one day flip that switch.

If you're not doing it now, the desire will still be there to not do it then.

Because one day never comes.

You want to know when the one day is, it's today.

The best time to have followed Jesus was yesterday.

The next best time is right now.

The worst time will always be tomorrow.

Because tomorrow never comes.

Because when tomorrow gets here, it's today.

You won't.

I mean, I've just seen it over and over and over again.

One day life will slow down, and then I will.

One day when it's not so crazy, I'll make sure my kids get in church and they can grow.

And one day never comes because life moves at the crazy and it only moves according to what you prioritize.

And so some of us, and if we were going to be terribly honest, we've got to stop saying one day and say, Man, God, what are you saying to me today?

Where do I need to submit?

Where do I need to surrender in my life right now?

Not one day now.

Here's the the beauty of this moment for some of us.

If we were going to take inventory right now in your life, which plate have you let quietly slip out?

See, I mean, like, here's the beauty of one of these plate vests, if you don't understand what they are.

Nothing more than a piece of metal in here.

If I can get it out, maybe.

I should have practiced this part.

I'm in trouble now.

Come help me, John.

You got me.

Help me out here, big guy.

I'm flying blind here, man.

I'm gonna put your muscles to work.

Maybe.

Oh, come on.

Is that it?

Come on.

There you go.

Attaboy.

Let me pull that bad boy out of there.

My chest is too big, I know, right?

Right.

Come on.

Make me feel good about this.

There we go.

There we go.

Come on.

Attaboy.

Woo! Here's what a lot of us do if we're just gonna be honest.

We walk into life and we walk into church just like this.

And it looks like I'm protected.

It looks like I got the vest on.

I wouldn't go into a dogfight like this.

Because it doesn't matter what it looks like.

I know I'm not protected.

And for so many of us, man, the one day is is this plate that we've just left out, man.

We've dropped the plate.

One day I'm gonna surrender my life to Jesus and get it right.

One day I'm gonna make my faith a priority.

One day I'm gonna make my kids' faith a priority.

One day I'm gonna make reading the Bible a priority, or praying, or going to a group, or and you're walking through life, man, you can look like a Christian and still totally be vulnerable to everything the enemy wants to do in your life.

Because he said to put on his armor.

And so what plate have you let slip, man?

Is the fact that maybe I have let the truth of God's word, maybe for somebody in here, if you're completely honest, you're lying to yourself or you're lying to somebody right now.

And you've let the plate out here.

You're exposed, man.

And some of the biggest lies we say, we say it almost every week to people we know, is two really easy words.

I'm fine.

I had a friend tell me the other day.

He said, How you doing?

I'm mediocre.

Probably the most honest statement most people ever say.

Instead of just saying, I'm fine, just trying to be honest, mediocre.

Not as good as I want to be, not as bad as I could be.

For some of us, man, we've let the plate of God's righteousness out, man.

We're trying to do it our way.

I'm gonna live my way and just hope somewhere along the way, God will bless my way.

If you haven't figured it out by now, God doesn't bless your way, he blesses his way.

You want to walk in God's blessing?

Do what he said he's blessed, and he will bless you.

If you don't feel like I'm experiencing the blessings and the victory that God wants for me, then I should ask, where in my life am I trying to do things my way instead of his way?

Because you've taken the plate out and you're exposed.

Faith, man.

Some of us we've taken the plate out because we don't have faith in God.

I gotta be in control.

You don't have to raise your hand if you're a control freak, but let me just tell you right now, God will always do all he can to rip that steering wheel out of your hand.

Because you can't live by faith and be in control.

And every time you want to be in control, man, you're taking the plate out.

Because I don't know if you figured this out yet.

God doesn't need your help to accomplish his will in your life.

He doesn't need your help to fix your problems, he just needs you to trust him and do what he said.

For some of us, we've taken the plate out because we don't pick up the word of God.

We don't know the truth.

We talked about truth last week, the belt of truth, two weeks ago, I mean, keep saying last week.

But it is the reality.

You want to know why you can't find victory?

You want to know why it feels like your life is exposed and you keep getting beat up everywhere that you go.

You don't know the truth of God's word.

And so you take out that armor plate and you're exposed.

Scripture is so hard to read.

That gummet, pick up a version and start reading.

It's not complicated.

There are easy to understand ways, make it a priority.

We do a Bible reading plan together every year as a church.

You can hop on our Facebook page, you can find it and start where we're at today and go along with us.

Why do we do that?

Because to me, the greatest gift I could ever give as a pastor is get somebody to read God's word and believe what it says.

So if we stand all across this place, here's the question I want to ask.

Maybe for somebody here today, maybe the reality is you just need to surrender your life to Jesus.

Maybe you realize I've been running from God instead of running to Him.

I've been doing everything my way instead of His way.

And today is the day I need to surrender to Jesus.

If that's you, would you say, man, I just I'm ready to surrender my life to Jesus, Pastor?

Anybody?

You're like, man, everybody's looking around.

Like, it's cool, it's all right.

I see your hand.

Anyone else?

Today's the day I need to surrender to Jesus.

I see your hand.

Can we just pray a really simple prayer together and do that as a church?

Say, dear Jesus, today I surrender my life to you.

Forgive me of my sins.

I'm here to live for you.

I'm me to love you.

The rest of my life.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Go live for Jesus.

Go grow.

Find a group.

Get plugged in next week.

Keep growing.

But for some of us in here, I think the reality is there's a real piece of this.

There's some very specific things I wrote down.

We're gonna get ready to go into time of prayer.

I'm gonna invite some of my friends to come down so that they can pray with you as we sing this song.

Here's what I want to say to you today.

Some of you are standing here in church, and the scariest place to be is to walk into church and act like I have it all together when I don't.

And then to walk out of this place still broken, but man, I got the vest on.

I got no plates in here, I got nothing to help me once I get out that door, but at least everybody in the room is gonna think I got my life together.

And I just felt like for somebody, you're here struggling, and the invitation has just come down.

You want to learn how to put on the armor?

We fight this fight together.

Not you, we.

I feel like for some, there's somebody that's battling with bitterness and unforgiveness.

And you're gonna keep carrying that until you just come forward and surrender it and give it away.

I feel like for somebody, man, lust is a struggle.

I feel like for some, comparison is killing your life because you're trying to look at what everybody else has got, and all it's doing is creating this envy inside of you because you don't have what somebody else has got.

And you're missing the joy of all the blessings God has given you because you're worried about somebody else's blessing.

And for some of us, man, if we can just be really honest, it's just pride.

I'm just too proud to admit I need help.

And man, when you are in that spot, you're you're just leaving yourself exposed.

Somewhere you're gonna have to take a big old humble pill and swallow that pride and come forward and just admit, man, my life is jacked up.

And I need some help.

And I'm struggling.

And would you pray with me?

As these guys lead us in worship, man, if there's any of those moments where that's you, I got something going on in my life, I need somebody to pray with me.

I want to invite you to come down front.

Find one of my friends down here and let them pray with you.

Don't walk away pretending like you got it all together.

Come down and learn how to win that battle as we pray together for each other.

Can we do that as we worship together?