Summer Series: Ephesians 6

All right, can you guys hear me?

All right, or do I need somebody to turn my volume up?

There's always one Good morning, rigo.

How's everyone doing this morning?

Beautiful weekend, wasn't it?

It's going to get warm today and then we've got lots of rain coming.

We really need that.

We need the rain, and it sounds like God's sending some our way.

Need that, so we need the rain.

It sounds like God's sending some our way.

So I think I'm a clean-up hitter.

I think I'm the last of the various speakers throughout the last two months, so I hope I or you're going to be really disappointed.

I don't know, we'll see.

But our lesson today we were asked to pick a chapter that resonates with us, something we wanted to talk about.

So Ephesians 6 is where I'm going to take us in the time that we have today.

It's going to be a little different format.

I have slides for probably two and a half hours, so buckle up.

We're not going to use all of them, but Josh might appreciate it.

He won't have to worry about preaching.

So I had a couple of different ways.

I thought about taking this Ephesians chapter 6, and I've always liked, when I study, to make sure that you're taking in the whole book in context, to make sure you're grasping what the author was, what God was talking to us about.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

So, while we're going to be focusing on the full armor of God in chapter 6, I want to play a video for you guys here at the beginning.

That Bible Project puts together.

It's kind of a cartoon type approach, but it gives you an overview of what the entire book is about.

And they really don't get into the armor of God, the part in chapter 6, which was good that way.

It didn't take away from my lesson.

But we're going to.

The tech guys were over here making this work earlier, so we're going to see if this works.

When I click forward Before we start the video, I guess, when we talk about the full armor of God, just to lay the groundwork, I guess what are your thoughts on?

When you think about armor and, in the spiritual sense, the armor of God, what do you think we're going to be focusing on here?

What are some things that come to mind when we hear about armor?

Protection, that's great, yep, anyone else?

Oh, you took Rigo's.

Anybody else have anything other than protection?

Just that when we're younger like David was when he was a shepherd boy we might not have the strength to be able to carry on from the beginning, but as we grow and we get stronger and stronger, our protection increases.

We go on with our life.

I like that.

Now I know who I'm going to call on the rest of the class.

I like that, thank you.

So, without further ado, let's go ahead and see if this video will play, and then we've got some other questions to kick that off.

That's not the blue screen of death, but it is a white screen of death.

Oh boy, here we go.

Try again.

Ah, here we go.

Paul's letters to the Egyptians Ooh, that's loud the story of how Paul came to the city of.

Ephesus is really interesting.

You can go read about it in Acts, chapter 19.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Ephesus was a huge city.

It was the epicenter of worship for most of the Greek and Roman gods and for over two years Paul had a really effective missionary presence there and lots of people became followers of Jesus.

Years later, after being imprisoned, Paul wrote this letter.

The movement of thought in the letter divides into two really clear halves.

In the first half, paul is exploring the story of the gospel, how all of history came to its climax and Jesus ends in his creation of this multi-ethnic community of his followers.

The second half of the letter is linked to the first by the word therefore and here Paul explores how the Gospel story should affect how we live every part of our life story, personally, in our neighborhoods, in our communities and in our families.

So let's dive in and we can see how Paul develops all of this.

Chapter 1 opens with a beautiful Jewish-style poem where Paul praises God, the Father, for the amazing things that he has done in Christ Jesus.

From eternity past, the Father has purposed to choose and bless a covenant people, and think here the family of Abraham and Genesis.

Genesis 12:1–3

Chapter 12, verses 1 through 3.

And through Jesus now anyone can be adopted into that family.

Jesus' death covers our worst sins, our worst failures, and in Jesus we find God's grace.

In fact, paul says that grace has opened up a whole new way for us to understand every part of our lives.

He says in chapter 1, verse 10, that God's purpose was to unify all things in heaven and on earth under Christ, which is a title that means Messiah.

God's plan was always to have a huge family of restored human beings who are unified in Jesus the Messiah.

This divine purpose became clear, paul says, when we were first made into that family, and here he's referring to ethnic.

Jews in the family of Abraham.

But then Paul talks about how you and here he means non-Jews you all heard about Jesus and salvation through him, and you were also brought into this family by the work of the Holy Spirit.

And so here he's referring to events told in the stories of Acts about how God's Spirit brought together, jew and non-Jew into one family in Jesus.

It's just like God promised to Abraham long ago.

Notice also, how in this poem Paul begins by talking about God, the Father, but then about Jesus, the Son and then here at the end about the.

Spirit, all three working together as Paul tells the story of the gospel.

It's really cool.

After the poem, paul responds with a prayer.

He prays that these followers of Jesus would not just know about the personally experienced power of the gospel, that they would be energized by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and placed him as the exalted head of the whole world.

Now in chapter 2, Paul goes back and he elaborates on some key ideas from the poem in chapter 1, especially God's grace and this new multi-ethnic family of Jesus.

He begins by retelling the story of how these non-Jewish Christians came to know Jesus Before hearing about Jesus they were physically alive, but they were spiritually dead.

They were trapped in a purposeless life of selfishness and sin, and they were deceived by dark spiritual forces of evil.

But, amazingly.

God in his great love and mercy, he saved them he forgave all of their sins and he joined their lives to Jesus' resurrection life, and he's brought them back to life too, and so now, having been created as new human beings through Jesus, they have the joy of discovering all of the new calling purposes and tasks that God has set before them.

Not only have they been shown God's grace, they've also been invited into a new family Before hearing about.

Jesus, these non-Jewish people.

They were not just cut off from God, they were cut off from his covenant people, the family of Abraham, and for a really practical reason the commands of the Sinai covenant.

They formed like a boundary line around the family.

They were like a barrier that kept most non-Jewish people away.

But in.

Jesus.

The laws of the Torah have been fulfilled and the barrier is removed.

The two ethnic groups have become, as Paul puts it, a new unified humanity that can live together in peace.

So Paul goes on in chapter 3 to marvel at the unique role that he got to have in spreading this good news to non-Jewish people.

And even though he's in prison he's thanking God for the chance he's had to see this covenant family grow so huge.

So Paul closes the first half of the letter with another prayer.

This time he prays that Jesus' followers would be strengthened by God's Spirit to simply grasp and comprehend the love that Christ has for his people.

The second half of the letter begins with Paul shifting gears and he starts challenging the reader to respond to the gospel story by how they live their own life story.

So he starts in chapter 4 with just the everyday life of the church.

The church is a big family with lots of different kinds of people, but he emphasizes that they are one.

And one is a key word in this chapter they are one body that's unified by one spirit.

They have one Lord with one faith, they have one baptism.

They believe in one God.

It's a lot of unity.

However, paul says unity is not the same thing as uniformity.

He goes on to explore how Jesus' new family consists of lots of very, very different kinds of people, but they're all empowered by the one Holy Spirit, each using their unique talents and passions to serve and to love each other and to build up the church.

And here he uses two really cool metaphors One is building up the church as a new temple, and the second is that they are all becoming a new humanity with Jesus as the head.

And this new humanity is a metaphor he's going to run with for the next couple chapters.

Paul challenges every Christian to take off their old humanity by a set of old clothes and to put on their new humanity, in which the image of God is being restored.

And he then goes on into this long deception where he compares his new and old humanity.

So, instead of lying, new humans speak truth.

Instead of harboring anger, they peacefully resolve the conflict.

Instead of stealing, new humans are generous.

Instead of harboring anger, they peacefully resolve their conflict.

Instead of stealing, new humans are generous.

Instead of gossiping, they encourage people with their words.

Instead of getting revenge, new humans forgive Instead of gratifying every sexual impulse new humans cultivate self-control of their bodily desires Instead of getting drunk new humans come under the influence of.

God's.

Spirit, and he spells out what that influence looks like in four different ways the first you have to do is sing singing together, but also singing alone and this is really interesting.

But the first thing that Paul thinks of about how the Spirit works in the lives of Jesus' people is singing and music, the third sign that the Spirit's influence is being thankful for everything.

And the fourth is that the Spirit will compel Jesus' followers to put themselves underneath others and to elevate others as more important than themselves and Paul actually expands on this fourth point by showing how it works in Christian marriage.

So you have a wife who calls Jesus.

She is called to respect and to allow her husband to become responsible for her, and the husband is called to love his wife and to use his responsibility to lay down his selfish agenda and to prioritize his wife's well-being above his own.

And Paul says it's this kind of marriage that's actually reenacting the gospel story the husband's actions mimic Jesus and his love and his self-sacrifice.

The wife's actions mimic the church, which allows Jesus to love her and make her new.

Paul then applies the same idea to children and parents, as well as slaves and masters.

Paul closes out the letter by reminding these Christians of the reality of spiritual evil.

These are beings and forces that will try to undermine the unity of Jesus' people and to compromise their new humanity.

So Paul challenges them to stand firm and to put on this metaphorical set of body armor which he describes in here.

And Paul has drawn all of these pieces of body armor which he describes in the book.

And Paul has drawn all of these pieces of body armor from the book of Isaiah to the messianic king.

And so now, as the Messiah's followers, we need to make the Messiah's attributes our own, since we made up Jesus' body Practically.

I think Paul needs for Christians to begin to form habits proactively, using prayer and the scriptures and our relationships with each other to help us grow and mature as followers of Jesus.

And that's the letter to the Ephesians Very powerful.

It's where Paul summarizes the whole gospel story and how it should reshape every part of our life story a little longer than you probably expected for an intro, but I I've used the bible project a couple times when I wanted to just get a high level overview of of a chapter and then really dive into the words.

So again, hopefully that was helpful.

As we set the stage for ephesians, I wanted our minds to be in what paul was talking about all the way through Ephesians as we look at the very last part, chapter 6.

And we're going to pick up with chapter 6, verse 10, which we have up on the screen here.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil forces of the evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that, when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground after you have done everything.

Again, after you've done everything, all the things we've talked about stand standing in Christ.

Paul encouraged us, as we heard through that story earlier, to put off our old self, to take on this new humanity, to focus on doing the things that bring peace, to share that good news and that gospel.

And I don't find it ironic that he closes out the chapter with some tools, this full armor, and he describes that we're not talking about having a battle with our brothers and sisters because they have a different political view than us or that they have different principles.

But he's saying it's much bigger and much broader than that.

It's a spiritual battle that we're dealing with and then he, as Christ does in many examples, uses physical things that we can relate to to help us appreciate how we should use tools to fight the spiritual battle.

Any thoughts on that?

Now that we've gone through the summary and as we look at the armor, does that change your perspective on what?

Dave?

I think your comment was valid in that David wasn't able to handle Saul's armor.

Right, he's like I don't need that, I need God, and I think God is giving us that armor picture.

But we're going to go through each one of the pieces of the armor that we can use and, quite frankly, that Christ asks us to pick up and use every day because we need it.

We're in a battle each and every day.

Whether we know it or not, whether we put the armor on or not, the battle's there.

I keep pushing the wrong button.

I'm wondering why it's not going forward.

So battles are guaranteed.

Be prepared You're up against more than you can handle on your own.

That's from the message in verse 13.

Victory is possible.

Definition of victory here is we're going to be standing in the end.

We've got Christ on our side.

We're going to be standing at the end if we keep our focus on him.

So how do we do that?

How do we put on the armor of God in an everyday way?

How do we relate that to us in today's world?

So the first one is the belt of truth.

We talk about that in Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 14, if you're following along the belt of truth.

Ephesians 6:14

So when we think about belts, what are some different ways that we use belts today?

Hold your pants up.

It'd be embarrassing if they fall down, wouldn't it?

If your pants fall down around your knees and you're out working, what happens Other than people laughing at you?

You can't walk, you can't get the work done right.

So it keeps you held up, it keeps things in place, it lets you stay focused and being physically capable of doing the things that you need to do.

And I think on the spiritual side, you know, paul reminds us that.

You know we are to put on the belt, not to physically hold our pants up, but that belt needs to be the belt of truth.

Truth is what should be holding us together.

Truth is what we're supposed to be focusing on, so it doesn't trip us up, so we don't fall down, so we can focus on the things that Christ is wanting us to focus on.

Remember earlier in Ephesians, as we heard, paul talks about putting off the old self, the things that weigh us down, the things that drag us down in this world, and focusing on the new self, helping others out, putting others and elevating others above ourselves and, above all, proclaiming Christ's gospel and the grace that he's given us and the peace that we have through him.

So the belt of truth stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist is about telling us focus on the things that are important, truly, truly important in the long term.

Truth is what God says, talking from the spiritual perspective, lies is what Satan tries to tell us each and every day through our friends, through social media, through our co -workers.

So things, ah, it's not that important.

You know, don't worry about church, don't worry about the things that are important.

We need to stay grounded in the word, where the real truth is and the truth that really matters.

And that's our belt, that belt of truth that we want to really focus on, making sure it lets us carry on our work for Christ without the pants falling down around our legs so we can't get the work done right.

Who we choose to believe determines our everyday victories.

If we choose to believe our friends and the influences of the world, that's where our heart's going to be at.

But if we focus on the truth of Christ, then that's what's ultimately going to matter.

I mentioned earlier, truth keeps us from being tripped up by all the temptations that are out there.

Let us strip off in Hebrews 12, first part, chapter or verse 1, let us strip off every weight that slows us down.

How do we do that?

What's a practical way of doing that?

To help us put the belt on every day, every morning, make a commitment to begin your day mentally, emotionally and spiritually to embrace the truth of God.

And that can be different ways for each one of us.

For me, the habit that I have worked hard to get into, whether I'm getting up at 3 in the morning to go catch a flight somewhere, or if I'm working from the home office, or I'm working from the Akron office, or it's the weekend, I find for me, if I'm working from the home office, or I'm working from the Akron office, or it's the weekend, you know, I find for me, if I get myself into a habit and do something at the same time each day, it's easier for me to stay in that habit.

Mornings are when I like to get into the word first thing.

It helps get me started out.

For me it's, you know, get a cup of coffee if I'm home, get out on the porch, watch the sunrise, get into the Word that morning.

And it helps set my mind and my framework of mind for whatever comes that day and it could be the best of days, everything is going great.

Thank you, lord.

It could be the day that I know I've got headaches.

I've had headaches coming at me at work because of whatever that might be.

Again, thank you, lord, for the morning you've given me.

You're going to help me get through this, and that truth and that confidence that we have in Christ is that belt that we buckle around.

And so, whether that is a morning thing for you or it's an afternoon thing, at lunchtime, at evening, I think what God wants us to focus on is focus on his truth and begin your day and end your day focused on the things that are important, which is Christ's word, and then don't keep it to yourself, as Josh has been telling us with the Nineveh story and Jonah Don't keep it to yourself.

We'll get to that in a minute.

Number two the second thing Paul mentions in the book of Ephesus, chapter 6, verse 14, is the breastplate of righteousness.

We don't talk about breastplate a whole lot today.

I mean, the battle armor that people had back then were a little different, but Paul was talking to the Ephesians, so he's using things that they can relate to.

When you think of a breastplate, what comes to mind for you guys?

Protecting the heart.

I love that Yep Protects the heart.

If you're looking at this guy up here, it's all that metal, all the stuff that you know Saul had, the heavy armor, the big shield, all the stuff we'll talk about.

It was too heavy for David to carry at the time as a little boy, but as a big man and as a military guy he had that.

It's basically our body armor that the police force wears, the bulletproof vests, those kind of things that protect the vital organs.

So it's a tool to help protect us.

But on the spiritual side, he said that breastplate for us isn't physical metal protecting this physical body, but it's righteousness.

So what is righteousness?

How do you define righteousness?

Thoughts, right, relationship with God.

I like that.

Any other thoughts?

Any other definitions?

Doing right I think that's half of the answer.

Sorry, rigo, doing right in whose eyes, right?

I knew you knew the answer.

You just didn't finish the sentence.

I had to finish it for you.

Everybody knew that right.

It's obvious.

I've had it defined and we even use it at my work.

We use it as a part of our creed Do the right thing for the right reason, right.

Do the right thing for the right reason, in this case in the spiritual world.

Let's do the right things for what Christ has asked us to do.

So the breastplate of righteousness, that's what's protecting us.

If we do the right thing for the right reason, even when it doesn't feel right or even when it's going to hurt, even when that's going to bring maybe some negative things in the world, if we're doing it for the right reasons for Christ, then he's going to be glorified and that's really what matters, this righteousness that we're talking about in Romans 3.22,.

The righteousness from God comes from faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, providing a proper focus on my relationship with God and as I live out this relationship with people.

That's how it helps protect us.

Love God with all your heart, with all your soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

That one should sound familiar if you were here last week.

Right, we had Brett talk and no, it was Kevin.

Kevin talked about the Beatitudes.

This is coming out of the Beatitude.

Blessed or happy are those who hunger, want that truth and that righteousness of God, seeking that out.

If we stay there, that is going to be what's going to protect, as Ron said, our hearts.

It's going to protect us so that we help make those right decisions as we go through our life.

Because we know we're humans, we tend to drift towards what we're focusing on.

Classic example and I don't have all the newfangled gadgetry in my car or my truck driving down the road that keeps you between the lanes because it's got sensors and everything If I'm driving and I get distracted and I look down to pick something up, what naturally happens.

If I'm focusing over here, I naturally am going to drift to the left or right, depending on which way I look.

So where we focus is where we tend to drift.

If our focus is on doing the right thing, with what God has asked us to do, we're going to tend to stay on track a lot better than if we're starting to get distracted by all the things that the world's got to offer, all the fun things that everybody says we should be focused on.

All the things that the world's got to offer, all the fun things that everybody says we should be focused on.

Another example maybe that helps us to relate on how to stay focused on the true things that matter is Peter and Jesus walking on the water.

They were out in the water, waves crashing, and Jesus comes along.

At first they think he's a ghost.

Peter being a typical Peter that he was, jesus said it was him.

He's like if it's you Lord, tell me to come out.

He says come on.

He jumps out and he's walking on water.

That had to be an awesome feeling.

That had to be an awesome feeling.

But go ahead, dave, you're talking about really what we're focusing on.

We know there's cameras everywhere.

Right, yep Off.

The car wash automatically.

Help me, yep, okay.

Mm-hmm, or guidance on what we're focused on.

So we need to make sure that our eyesight, our little eyeball cameras, are focused on God, not us all who are left to Christ.

Amen to that, dave, amen to that.

And what did Peter do?

I mean, he was excited to see the Lord.

He was laser-focused on Jesus.

He stepped out.

He was still walking, but what happened?

He got distracted by the winds and the waves.

That's the stuff of the world that influences Jesus.

Didn't let him drown, just like God didn't let Noah flounder forever.

He gave him another chance.

He reached down and he picked him up.

Where our focus is is very, very important, because we're going to tend to drift where our focus is at.

We have 15 minutes to get four more, so we're going to have to keep moving.

I told you I had a thousand slides here.

So the feet or shoes of readiness, the gospel of peace, that's what that is, the gospel of peace.

The gospel of peace that's what that is, the gospel of peace.

So, and with your feet fitted, with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

We heard throughout that gospel story at the beginning, from Genesis and the way that that was painted in the picture early in Ephesians, to how it was a new humanity and that we were supposed to spread that good news to all.

It's not just for the Jews anymore, it was for the Gentiles, and Paul ended up spending a lot of time going and talking with the Gentiles to spread that good news.

That doesn't stop, because the Bible is here now and the apostles did their job and it's important for us to have our feet equipped and ready with that gospel of peace that we know to get out there and share it with others.

Don't keep it to yourself, and the only way you can have your feet ready is to be in the word, like we talked about earlier.

Stay focused on that daily.

The rest of the armor we're building on to Dave's point earlier we're building on helps us to be equipped so we can be confident in sharing our story of how we found Christ and the peace that it gives us.

That peace that we're talking about is not financial peace.

It's not peace because I don't have any family issues.

It's not peace because I don't have a job or job isn't going well.

It's the peace of knowing Christ.

It's the peace to knowing that it's going to be okay because Jesus has already conquered Satan and we're going to win in the end.

It's that peace that gives us the strength to get out and share that good news.

Let others know that there is hope in a world that is full of darkness and a world where Satan is constantly trying to attack us with whatever our weaknesses are.

He's throwing things at us which we'll see in the next couple of slides, to walk in the battle.

We need that peace.

We need the peace with God.

First.

We've got to have that peace with God.

Right by Him, jesus, god reconciled everything to Himself.

God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross Colossians 1, verse 20.

Colossians 1:20

We need peace with others.

The biblical perspective of peace is we've got to be at peace with others as well.

Do your part, especially with the household of faith here, right, do your part to live in peace with everyone, as Romans 12, verse 18 says live in harmony and peace, then the God of love and peace will be with you.

Romans 12:18

2 Corinthians 13.

We can read all throughout the New Testament where we hear about that story of peace.

Don't look for constant conflict, look for peace.

And that peace isn't I'm not going to confront it.

I'm not going to confront them about the sin that may be plaguing them.

No, the peace is the peace of Christ.

But in that peace don't look for conflict.

Look for ways to resolve that conflict by helping others, though Elevating others above yourself.

It's not about getting my way.

It's about helping others and showing them God's way, and you've got to be at peace with yourself.

If the Holy Spirit controls my mind, there's life and there's peace.

Romans 8.

If I give you peace this is John 14, 27, I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give.

It isn't like the peace that this world can give.

So don't be worried or be afraid.

Again, it's not the world's peace, it's not financial peace.

It's the peace of Christ that we can have, putting on this armor breastplate of righteousness, the shoes that are ready to share this good news, and having that.

Well, we're going to get to the helmet and a few other things here, but it's the belt of truth, it's the breastplate of righteousness, sharing that peace.

How do we do this then?

How can they preach unless they are sent as it is written?

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

That's the story of what we should be focusing on.

It's what Jonah was asked to do is to go preach to Nineveh, share the good news that there is hope.

He didn't want to do that.

Josh will talk a bit more about that today, as he did this morning, but our job should be to get out there and share the good news that has given us salvation.

By sharing the good news, that's how we wear it.

Don't worry about anything, but pray about everything.

With thankful hearts, offer up your prayers and requests to God.

Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, god will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand, and this peace will control the way you think, the way you feel.

And finally, friends, keep your minds on whatever is true, whatever is pure, on whatever is true, whatever is pure, right, holy, friendly and proper.

Don't even stop thinking about what it is.

Don't even ever stop thinking about what is truly worthwhile and worthy of praise.

Philippians 4, 6 through 9.

You know the teachings I gave you and you know what you have heard me say and saw me do so.

Follow my example and God, who gives peace, will be with you Again.

Go out there.

Share that word.

The fourth one.

The fourth one is the shield.

Did David pick up the shield from Goliath or from Saul?

Did David pick up the shield and the sword when he was asked to go out?

No, he had the Spirit of the Lord working for him.

He was too small to handle it, but when we pick up our shield, it helps us.

And the shield here is not a physical shield, but it does act like the shields that were used in battle, deflecting things that are thrown at you Fiery darts as we see here.

Take up the shield of faith.

Faith is our shield.

That's the part that gives us the strength to hold up the shield and block the things that are coming at us from this world.

Take up the shield of faith, which you can use to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

What are some of the flaming arrows of the evil one?

What are some of the flaming arrows of the evil one?

What are some of the things that Satan throws at us?

Temptations, lies, the things of the world.

Yeah, so there's lots of things that are thrown at us, a lot of things that are thrown at us.

So what does it look like?

Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

I think we've all heard that.

But living that sometimes is tough when you've got those things being thrown at you, testing our faith.

So when our faith is being tested.

That's when we really need to stand guard.

That's when Satan's working at his hardest.

Get that shield up and block it, while not letting down on all the other armor.

It's trusting God above all else.

He's going to make it work out here or in the hereafter it's going to work out.

How does it protect us?

It extinguishes I thought that's an interesting word.

It extinguishes the fiery darts that are thrown at us.

Those look familiar Riga.

Those look familiar Riga.

Fear, doubts, confusion.

Sometimes Satan just uses confusion.

Oh man, I don't know.

Is that really what he meant in the Bible when he said that He'll try to get you to question?

He challenged Jesus with Scripture when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness.

Jesus with scripture when Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness.

Do you think he's not going to tempt us by just trying to get us to doubt the word that we read?

Trust in God with all of your heart, soul and mind.

Temptation and words from others.

We wear it by focusing on God's faithfulness.

He's been faithful throughout all of scripture and he's going to be faithful with us, and I think that's what Paul was reminding all of the Ephesians as we look at the whole book.

He was talking to, you know, the epicenter of a church, a city that had all these pagan gods and now had come to the realization that Christ is it died for them.

He's really wanting them to stay focused only on Christ.

Put away all those other things that are distracting.

You Got two more to go the helmet of salvation.

Let God's saving power be like a helmet.

So when I think about helmets, there's a couple different helmets I've thought of.

Yeah, you guys are bike riders, right, you wear a helmet.

I hope Military helmet.

So you've got bike helmets, you've got military helmets.

Motorcycle helmets what's that?

Football helmets?

You're working on a construction site.

You wear a helmet.

Why do we wear these different types of helmets?

Protect our heads and what's inside right, our heads, our hearts, our brains.

They think it's important.

The salvation Christ has given us is that helmet that protects us.

We know that we have victory in Christ.

God's got saving power.

It's like a helmet.

He rescued us, the salvation he gave us.

He rescued us from sin and darkness.

We have salvation.

We just have to embrace that, run with that and share that good news.

The helmet of salvation protects our mind from the false lies and hopes that the world gives us Constantly throwing at us.

It's not worth it.

That's all just a bunch of garbage.

You know, live your life to the fullest.

You only live today.

Live it to the fullest right.

No, live for Christ.

That's what matters.

Impure thoughts, self-deception, doubts and discouragement are all things that distract us.

We've got to stay focused on the salvation that Christ gave us and the hope that we have, and these all build on each other, in my opinion.

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the faith and love as a breastplate and as hope of salvation as a helmet.

And love as a breastplate and as hope of salvation as a helmet.

When I choose to think about the cross is how it helps me and how does this situation look like in light of the cross of Jesus.

That's a question we can ask ourselves.

When I'm tempted, when I'm dealing with the challenges of this world, I'm looking at making a decision and I'm weighing out.

What should I do?

This is an important question we can ask ourselves.

If I look at it through the lens of Jesus Christ and what he did for me on that cross, that may change my perspective, or should change my perspective on the way I make those decisions that way, I'm making godly decisions and not selfish decisions or things that are going to make me feel good, but I'm doing things in light of the gift of salvation that was given to us and the grace that we have through Jesus Christ.

My salvation comes from Him alone.

He alone is my rock and my salvation from him alone.

He alone is my rock and my salvation, he is my fortress, so I will never be shaken.

Psalm 62 is where we read that.

So how do we wear it?

We wear it by being in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, examining what we see and hear and allowing God's word to guide me in all that I do.

The last one we're going to look at and wrap up with is the sword of the spirit, and when we look at the belt, we look at the breastplate of righteousness, we look at the shoes, we look at the shield, everything we've looked at.

Those are all typically defensive weapons, right Things that help us to defend against the enemy.

The sword of the Spirit, as we read in Ephesians 6, 17,.

And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

It's the Word of God, the Spirit of God.

The Word of God is our sword and what I got to thinking about this and I thought about the offensive weapon versus the defensive weapon.

A sword can be used to help defend a bit, but it can also be used for good or evil.

When we use our words, we use God's word.

It can be used to build somebody up or we can use it to actually just cut them down and tell them how evil they are and what they're doing.

I don't read that in God's word.

I don't read where he tells us to go out with the sword and just slice and dice and tell everybody how evil they are and how they're going to have to repent or they're going straight to hell.

That is a true message.

But how you share that message with others if they're not living right is as important as the message itself.

We sing a song onward Christian soldiers marching off the war.

I'm sure back in the day you had your sword.

Yes, and the sword.

The word of God helps us rightly divide what's right and wrong and it helps us to know what's right.

But how we use that sword is as important as anything.

Wrong button again, the Bible is our greatest asset and our greatest reassurance.

It is God's word, it's a gift to us, it's matchless, it's consistent, it's flawless, it's instructional righteousness.

It gives us the guide that we need.

I heard it said and again it's a man's words, but we talk about Gary had in his class some weeks ago that there's so many different translations available out there and the church has evolved over the years and you've had splits and all that, and new versions of the Bible came out.

When you look at the general available Bibles whether it's the Message, the New King James, the King James, the NIV, generally speaking, if you read that word it's going to point you to Jesus and that's the important part and I thought that was an interesting way of phrasing it up.

We can have our favorite translations and I might like NIV versus the King James or the other way, because it just I read it in that language a little bit better.

But at the end of the day, if I'm truly focused on all the things we've just talked about, and wearing the armor here and fighting against Satan.

The Word of God is going to point us back to Jesus and it's going to compel us to want to share that message with others.

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our life.

It straightens us up, it straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right.

It is God's way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing that God wants us to do.

That's the sword that we carry.

It's the spiritual scripture that helps us to live our lives and share that message to others and give them the hope that we have.

The word of God is a living and active.

It's sharper than any two-edged sword.

It penetrates even to the dividing of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow.

It judges the thoughts and the attitudes of our heart.

So it does the part of a knife, a scalpel, whatever.

It helps to cut out the bad.

It helps us to know what is good and evil.

It gives us that guidance.

It's the tool that we can use, that word of God to guide us and walk us through this life, together with all the defensive armor that we've talked about earlier.

It protects me as it works, a sword on me and as a sword for others, helping them to see what is right and wrong.

For, though we live in a world, we do not wage war as the world does.

The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.

On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

But the Lord is faithful and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one, and pray in the spirit and on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests, with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all of the Lord's people.

Now, this is the final piece that oftentimes we don't put in as part of the armor, but as I continue to read Ephesians at verse number 19, pray for me also that, when I open my mouth, words may be given to me so that I will be fearless to make known the mysteries of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

So Paul's in prison.

He's talking about all the armor that we're supposed to wear, how we're supposed to have our feet ready to go out there and share that gospel.

And then he asks, as a final thing, to constantly pray and not only us praying constantly for god to give us the guidance we need, but then personally ask for the prayers for himself.

Pray that I have the strength, give me the wisdom to speak god's word.

Help the spirit move through me to share the message, as god wants me to share it, so that others have the ability to know that peace that we have in Christ Jesus.

So I hope this lesson, as we talked about the whole book of Ephesians, but then at the end, the tools that are available for us, the armor that's available for us to stand strong in Christ, has been helpful.

Again, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace, that shield to extinguish the fiery darts I think that's somebody's battery about to die.

It's a good timing helmet of salvation and then the sword of the spirit, god's word.

Any closing thoughts as we, as we wrap it up, helpful, a reminder, a refresher.

I know it.

For me it was.

I spent a lot of time looking at different ways.

I wanted to share this.

I hope that intro with the whole book of ephesians helped set the stage.

But let's let's not lose sight of all that.

But I think it's important for us to take this armor with us and pick it up every day.

If you've got your helmet sitting at home, go bike riding but you leave it on the shelf, is it going to do you any good?

The same here If we don't pick up the armor and don't use it, it doesn't do us any good to have it.

Let's make sure we use that in our spiritual battles each and every day.

Josh's lesson in prayer.

Yes, I know that everything here protects in front of us, it protects in front of us Our back doesn't have anything to protect us, because God has, god's got our back.

I like that.

I like that.

That's pretty awesome, and doesn't he, though?

He has got our back even in the worst of he, though he has got our back even the worst of times.

He's got our back.

Any other closing thoughts before I finish this out in prayer.

All right, lord god, we thank you so much for the blessings of the day.

We thank you, father, for your love and your grace and your mercy.

Um, it's, it's been passed on through the ages, and and we are grateful for the word that we have, the sword of the Spirit, that word that helps us and guides us in the decisions that we make.

Help us, father, each and every day, to wake up, to focus on picking up the armor that is out there for us to be used, to help us to continue to proclaim your word and the grace and the love that is available to all.

Help us to have the feet that are ready and equipped to go out and share that.

Let's not be bashful, but help us to be willing to share.

It's scary getting out there talking to someone we may not know or talking about things that may be uncomfortable with others, but help us not to be bashful.

Help us boldly proclaim your word as we talk to our friends, our co-workers, our families.

Continue with us as we go through this service and with Josh as he preaches the word this morning.

Help us to learn from it, to give us strength as we walk for you each day.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.