Battle Ready - Ephesians 6:10-17 Part 2

When we first moved to Kansas City, we lived in Hunter's Glen apartments over I 29 and '76, that might be a little loud. If you could pull me down, just a little ring in the thing up here. Thank you, Jesse. We lived in Hunter's Glen apartments over here. We had a cat at the time. We didn't have the cat very long. We gave the cat away to someone, but middle of the night, the cat jumped up on the entertainment center, knocked over a stereo speaker, and it went crashing. So I don't know what's happened. I wake up and I hear this crashing sound in the other room. It's sounding somebody kicked in the door. So I wake up, I'm kind of like a little confused. What do I do? We had just moved in, this unpacked, and I had put a 22 rifle and a shotgun under the bed, nowhere else to put it in our little apartment, and so I just, I scrambled around, I grabbed that shotgun. I go walking down the hall, not knowing what I'm going to encounter, and there I see the cat looking at me and the speaker knocked over. It was like, oh, what a relief. Go back to the room, tell Carrie, everything's fine. It's a stupid cat, knocked over thing. And she goes, hey, is that a, do you keep a loaded shotgun under our bed? And I said, no. And she goes, oh, I was going to say, I don't know, I love the idea of keeping a loaded shot. I said, it's not loaded. She goes, wait a minute. So that meant that you went down the hall with an unloaded shotgun to find out what was going on. He goes, I don't know what's worse. You keeping a loaded gun. Are you in your boxer shorts with an unloaded shotgun confronting the guy that just kicked in the door? See, if it had been a real threat. It hadn't been to the dumb cat, but an actual person meaning harm to our family, I would have been ill prepared for the battle in that moment in my boxer shorts with an unloaded shotgun. We want to be properly equipped if there's a real threat facing us. There is a real threat facing us. That real threat is a spiritual threat. We started talking about last week. We are in a spiritual battle, the word of God tells us. We started talking about that last week. If you want to grab your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter 6, uh, it's page 979 of the Bible underneath the chair in front of you, the house Bible there. If you grab that, page 979 you'll find our passage. It's just the next passage in a long journey through the book of Ephesians, but it kind of sets up a little bit like a three-part message in the middle of this. What I talked about last week, what we'll cover this week and how Russell's going to wrap it all up next week, kind of fit this whole thing together, this battle that we're in, this spiritual battle. We're in a battle, and we want to be well equipped, and if we look at these passive before today, we'll see how God has equipped us, and we can be prepared for the threats that we face. Let's do a little quick review last week, what we talked about, is how we're in this battle against the enemy, chapter 6, verse 10 through 13 is where we were last week. Rustin just read those. We're going to pick up verse 14 here in a minute. But just to review, we said last week, we need to be on the alert. Verse 12 tells us we wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers over this present, darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. We are in a battle against evil forces. We have a very real enemy. We're engaged in a battle. We need to be on the alert. We also talked about not underestimating the enemy. Verse 11, we noted that the enemy has schemes for our life. Strategies for our life. The devil has a plan for the attack on your life, your family, on this church, on everything that God is doing. We don't want to underestimate what the enemy is doing. We need then to rely on God's power. Verse 10, we need to be strengthened by the Lord. It's not our strength. It'll say we get stronger and stronger so we can fight the devil, but we learn to rely on the Lord, to abide in the Lord, to walk with the Lord, so that we find our strength in him in the middle of the battle we face. And if we do that, we can stand firm with confidence. Stand firm with confidence. Verse 13 says you may be able to withstand. In the evil day, having done all to stand firm. Now, in the middle of those verses, even the 4 points we made last week, he made reference, the writer of the Apostle Paul made reference to the armor of God. We kind of skipped that because we're going to come back to it today. Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. Today we're going to take a deeper dive into the armor of God. Now, I said last week we were going to talk about the armor of God. People oftentimes will send me things related to what I just preached or to a sermon coming up. Someone sent me this. you're familiar with the Babylon B. It's kind of a satire site out there that puts out these kind of fake articles. They sent me this one. The Apostle Paul, hoping no one notices the armor of God does not include pants. There's a whole Babylon beard of the call about how he skips the pants in the armor of God. We're not talking about the pants. about these other pieces that Paul lines out for us today. It's a great metaphor, the armor of God. You would have been very familiar with this if you lived in the 1st century. If you lived in Ephesus, where the recipients of this letter were, or as the letters circled around the Roman Empire, you'd get it right away. It was a very common sight to see soldiers wandering the streets clad in armor. It was a very prominent metaphor for Paul to draw for. He was, in fact, riding this as a prisoner in the city of Rome. So as a prisoner in Rome, you would have seen Roman soldiers clad in armor all the time. So it's very fitting for his mind to go there when he thinks about the battle we're facing, to think about the soldiers he was around, the armor they wore, to say, we need armor just like these soldiers have armor. Satan is on the prowl. We are under attack. Schemes have been devised for you, for your family, for this church. Are you ready to face the battle that wages in front of us. God has provided all that we need to stand firm. As how old do we need? Now, I want to say, this probably, uh, is something that we all are very aware of, the spiritual battle we face. Every time, not every time, but many Sundays, after we preach, if it's me, or if it's rest, everyone else, it's kind of common for someone to shoot us a text and say, hey, I appreciated what you said about this, because I'm going through this and that really helped me. This week, I got more of those than I typically do, which tells me this is something that's very pertinent in people's lives, a spiritual attack. I heard someone say one time, I never heard a sermon I didn't get something out of, but I've had some very close calls. I think there might be very close calls here. But I think last week was a sermon that people submit. I needed that. I needed that passage because I think it's a very real thing we feel, the spiritual attack that we're under. You see, the spiritual tact that your family's under. You see the spiritual attack that your kids are under. And we say, what do we do in the face of the spiritual tact that we're all facing? We can stand firm today because of the armor God has given us. We can find strength in him. So we're going to unpack this. We're gonna go pretty quick. There's 6 pieces of this armor. We had to get through all of these, and this time we have here, but we're gonna ask 2 questions. What is it and how do we put it on? What is it? And how do I put this on in my life? Let's start with the belt of truth, the belt of truth. Verse 14. Having fastened on the belt of truth, or some say, with truth, like a belt around your ways. This referred, and in Paul's day would have referred to the thick, wide leather belt that a soldier would wear, protect his lower abdomen. gathered up his loose fitting tunic. It gathered up his loose fitting clothing to prepare prepare him for battle, and it held his sword. But what is that for us? I want to say today, I believe the belt of truth that we need to take on? Is our knowledge of God's revealed word that protects us against the lies of the enemy? It's our knowledge of God's revealed word, what God has revealed to us, the truth that God has given us, because we're going to be confronted with the lies of the enemy. Satan is a liar. He's the father of lies. It is attacked, often come in the form of lies. And our best defense against the lies of the enemy is going to be the truth of God's word. We look for guidance in so many things that will lead us astray. Sometimes we're led by our feelings. Have you ever been led by your feelings and turned out it wasn't very good. You ever had your feelings lead you astray? That was me all the time. That what I feel like doing in the moment isn't what I ought to do in the moment. You ever had a friend give you bad advice? We've all had friends give us bad advice. We've been the friend with the bad advice. You can't trust always the advice of other people. You can't trust the culture around us. We get bombarded with all kinds of worldviews and ideas and opinions. I was explaining to someone yesterday as on the young adult retreat, and they were talking about something. I said, yeah, before Facebook, we had email forwards. And they said, what was that? I said, well, we couldn't just go give our opinion on social media. We just email it to people. And if you agreed with it, you just forward it to people. And I said, before social media, my inbox as a pastor was full of forwarded emails of everyone's opinion about culture. Now we have other platforms. whatever technology brings our way. We'll have a new platform to throw our opinions at people, and a lot of those are gonna be wrong. Where do we go to hear the truth? We go to the word of God to hear the truth. It's going to be, it's going to trump our feelings. It's going to trump our friends. It's going to trump our culture and everything else is out there. The word of God is our true God, our is our true God and our sure defense. How do we put it on? How do we put it on? We put it on by learning, claiming and walking in the truth of God's word. Learning the word of God, claiming the word of God, and walking in the truth of God's word every day. We need to spend time in the Word of God so that we know the truth when we're confronted with the lies of the enemy. You know, the Bible all over from beginning to end talks about the work of the enemy, talks about the devil, talks about Satan. We go back to the very 1st encounter with evil that we have in the Bible. It's in Genesis chapter 3, when the serpent comes and tempts Eve, to eat from the knowledge of the tree of good and evil. You know, the very 1st words out of the enemy's mouth. You go back to Genesis chapter 3. Go back to chapter two. says, the Lord God said to man, you can eat of any tree in the garden, but don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can't eat from that one. Chapter 3, verse one. This is the very 1st words, did God actually say? Is that interesting? The very 1st words of the enemy in the Bible are questioning the truth of God's word. Did God really say that? Did God actually say that, and nothing has changed? From Genesis chapter 3, to your life and my life this week, nothing has changed. It will always be the strategy of the enemy to get you to doubt the word of God. This is why walking in the truth, of living in the truth, learning the truth is so vital. That we have the truth of God's word always before us. We need to test everything against the standard of God's word. I started someone this week about what they believed and what I believed, and I just said, you know, we should always ask ourselves, why do I believe what I believe? Where did I get that idea? And can that be trusted? Where did I get the ideas that I have, the worldview that I have, and can the source of that be trusted? You can trust the revealed word of God, the authoritative word of God. We need to test everything through the lens of God's word. I've talked about this a lot before. Many times. I think it's so important. We have a choice of viewing the world through the word or viewing the word through the world. We can look through the lens of culture at the word of God, or we can look at the culture around us through the lens of God's word. It's kind of going to the optometrists, use your eyes checked. I get my eyes checked every year, go to the eye doctor, and they put that thing in front of you, and you're like this, you like this. You're like this, you're like this, line A, line B, line B, line C. That thing stresses me out. can hardly ever tell the difference. But you got to, which lens are you going to put on? You can click the culture, you can click the Bible. You can click what your friends think, or you can click what Jesus says. You got to decide, which lens you're going to look through when you look at the attacks of the enemy. We need to be walking in the truth, claiming the truth, living in the truth. Truth will win the battle. Second, We put on the breastplate of righteousness. Verse 14, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, righteousness like armor on your chest, or some translate, like, we need the body armor of God's righteousness. This was that breastplate the soldier would have worn. Sometimes made of metal, other times made of a heavy piece of leather that would protect their vital organs to protect their heart, their torso, from the attacks of the enemy. What is it for us as believers? It's our right standing before God, resulting from our faith in Jesus. This is what I think Paul has in mind here. It's the righteousness that we have because of Jesus. Now, the Bible uses righteousness a couple of ways. Sometimes the Bible's talking about the righteousness of how God sees us. In other words, he looks on us and he sees not our sin, but he sees the righteousness of Jesus. We're seen as righteous because of Jesus. Other times the Bible calls us to righteousness, to live to walk in righteousness, to live righteously. That means that we're living the way God wants us to live. And so when you come to this verse, you'll get a couple of opinions, is he saying that we should trust the righteousness of Jesus in the middle of the attack? Or do I live a life of righteousness regardless of the attack? I think you should do both of those. I think both of those are biblical. I think though, what Paul, I think he has in mind here is more the former, that it's our righteous than Jesus, because he's talking here about the armor of God. This is God's armor. We're not to get stronger to fight the devil. We're to be strengthened by the Lord to fight the devils. references a lot of this that's mentioned in Ephesians 6, all throughout the book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, of God's armor that we step into here in Ephesians 6. It's our right standing before God. What the Bible puts this way. 2 Corinthians 5.21. For our sake, he made him who to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus took on our sin, so we get to take on Jesus' righteousness. Philippians 3.9. We are found in him, in Jesus, not having the righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. It through my faith in Jesus that I am made righteous in the eyes of God. We've talked about this a lot. We went through the book of Romans several years ago. We talked a lot about there. We were in Hebrews not long ago. We're talking about there. And in Hebrews, some of you were around then, some of you maybe knew, but I told the story, some of you remember my story of going to night court in North Kansas City to fight my parking ticket. You remember this story? I go there ready to defend my actions. I mean, I had this whole speech. I'm like fired up, going to defend myself before the judge, and why I should not have gotten this parking ticket. And the judge looked at my shirt. I was wearing a chief shirt, had a little logo right there. And that judge said, young man, he's an older judge. Young man, is that a chief shirt you're wearing? I said, yes, sir. He said, step up here a little closer, and I step a little closer. He goes, I really like that shirt. He said, I'm going to throw out this ticket. You're good. You can go. Because he liked my shirt. No, what happened on that day? He didn't see my guilt. He saw a shirt he liked. Okay? This is how this works. The some theologist called the imputed righteousness of Jesus. You're going to stand before God one day and God, if you're a follower of Jesus, will not see your guilt, he will see the righteousness of Jesus. And he'll look on you and you will be justified in that moment, not by your actions, not by my actions, but by what Jesus did for us. This is what he means by the righteousness of Jesus. So we need to put it on this way. We remember that our acts of righteousness are insufficient, and we trust the righteousness that comes only through Christ. How do I put on the breastplate of righteousness? I remind myself. I am not righteous by my own deeds. I am made righteous by Jesus Christ alone. And what helps me fight the attacks, the accusations of the enemy is remind myself that my righteousness is in Christ alone. Why? I think the enemy attacks me kind of 2 ways. It's like I'm going down the road, there's a ditch on each side of the road, and I put my car in both sides ditches on either side. Sometimes the enemy attacks me by driving me to doubt and despair. I am worthless. How could God ever love me? I keep failing him over and over again. I fall into the same sins. I should have learned by now. I should be better than this by now. How could God keep forgiving me? Hey, ever have that happen? Any of me ever throw that at you? In those moments, I do remind myself, it's not, my righteousness doesn't depend on me. My righteousness is in Christ alone. The other kind of the complete opposite attack is the temptation to think too much of ourselves. You ever think, hey, actually, I'm not that bad after all. Look at all these good things I actually do. Look, I can see clearly why God would love a guy like me. That's the temptation of the enemy. And so we toggle between the despair of how could God ever love me? And the pride of, look how good my life is. And either attack the enemy, we need the reminder that my righteousness is in Christ alone. I made righteous, even when I fail God, my righteousness in Jesus. And when I think I'm a pretty big deal, I'm still worthless and my righteousness is in Jesus. I need to remind myself that I'm made righteous by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Guards my heart from doubt. It guards my heart from pride. My righteousness is in him alone. Gospel shoes. What are these? Verse 15. As shoes for your feet. have been put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Feet sandaled with readiness, feet fitted with the preparation that comes from the gospel. What does the word gospel mean? The word gospel means good news. It's the good news of what Jesus did, the good news that he died on the cross for me. The good news that my salvation is in Christ alone, that he died for my sins. He rose from the dead, through faith with him, I can be at peace with God. So when he says, you need to have the readiness of the gospel of peace. What he's saying is, you need on your feet, the readiness, the peace that comes from knowing the good news of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us. But what are they? Again, opinion's a little divided. People will fall into kind of 2 camps, and I don't think either one of them is right or wrong here, which is kind of a couple of ideas, and I'm going to tell you what I think Paul has in mind. Some say it's the idea that we should have our feet ready with the gospel to take the good news of Jesus into a lost dark world, that part of what we do as soldiers armed with God's armor is we have feet ready to run into the darkness. Others say, no, the feet are what keep us planted on the battlefield. Keep us stable in battlefield. I would fall into that 2nd category. I think what he was talking about here. What he has in mind is standing firm in the face of attacks because we were at peace with God. Now, should we run into the darkness with the gospel, of course, lots of that throughout the Bible. I think when I look at the context of this passage right here, he's talking about standing against the attack. Verse 11, put on the whole arm of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 13, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand an evil day, and having done all to stand firm. I think what he's picturing here. Are these Roman soldiers clad in these heavy leather sandals that have on the bottom nails or metal studs on the bottom that help them to grip on the battlefield? Like, if you watch a football game today, You guys will be watching a game. Looks like you're dressed for it anyway. You're going to see different footwear on different players. This isn't the shoes of the receiver are sat on the ends to help them run quickly down the field. I think it was a mind of those cleats of the linemen, dug in, protecting their quarterback from the attack of the other team. We stand firm when Satan comes at us, our feet are stable, because we know the gospel. We know the truth of the gospel, and we have the peace that comes from the gospel. It's reminding ourselves. To stand firm in the face of the attacks of the enemy, reminding ourselves that the gospel has given us peace with God. When the enemy wants to knock me off my feet, I have peace with God, no matter what comes at me, I or the good news that I'm at peace with God. I trust the gospel. When I'm tempted to believe there's another way to be saved. I keep my feet planted in the gospel. What I'm tempted to doubt my salvation. I got my feet planted in the gospel. When I'm deceived into believing that God has abandoned me, given up on me, stopped loving me. I have my feet planted in the gospel, when temporary storms wage against me, my feet are anchored in the gospel, in the middle of the tact, the gospel reminds us how the story ends. In the middle of the attack, the gospel reminds us how the story ends. You can take anything the enemy throws at you because you know that we have the victory. The gospel tells me the victory. Now, I'm kind of a petty person. I hate to admit that. But when I watch a football game and we win, when we lose, I don't wanna listen to talk radio the next day. I'm just bitter. I don't want to hear it. I don't know. But when we win, I can't wait to turn on the talk radio. listen to what everybody's saying. Can't wait to get to the Geezer Club on Tuesdays at 9 AM to hear these guys break down the game. What I also love, this is how petty I am. I also like to go listen to what the losing team is saying the next day. I know I should move on. I want to be better. The Lord's still working on me. But I wonder, what are they saying in Denver the next day? And so I was on the internet. I on Twitter. I'm on Facebook. What are the Denver fans thinking on Tuesday, right? And I found some things that they were saying on Monday. Now I thought this was kind of fun to listen to. Okay, the game hadn't happened yet. I want you to hear the arrows of the enemy that I found. This is from Monday. You know, and everybody talks about the Kansas City Chiefs and, oh, they got, you know, Kenneth Walker, and they're going to run the ball. When have you ever known Andy Reid to want to run the ball? I love the Broncos in this game. I'll take the Broncos. I think this is a golden opportunity for the Broncos. You got a Chiefs team. with Patrick Mahomes playing his 1st game since last December. They got an unknown at left tackle. I think there's a lot of reasons for the Broncos to be able to go in and steal this one. I think they do. I'm gonna go with the Broncos. The Broncos are still the best team in this division. And Travis Swift, I mean, it's over. It's a wrap. He's got soft hands like me. No chance he's bouncing back. Give me the Broncos. To start this party right with the wind NKC on Monday night, I think they put it off. him. And City has no shot. An undrafted rookie left tackle against Nick Benito. Game over. Pat Mahomes, good luck, buddy. You're gonna need it again. Mahomes first game back from major knee, a surgery. I think it's the best case scenario start for the Broncos and maybe the worst for Mahomes. I'm not a believer in what Patrick Mahomes is saying right now about his knee. He is not 100%. And you have a defense that's ready to go. They're going to bring so much pressure. The Denver Broncos beat up on the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah, yeah, that's Monday, huh? That's Monday. I love that video now. I would have hated that on Monday. I love that on Tuesday. Why? Because I knew the score. I knew how it ended. You could come at me all you want if I know that we won, if I know that we won. You can say whatever you want to say if I know that we won. You can tout all you want. Here's the thing. The gospel shoes are saying, I know how the story ends. I'm dug in here. I've got my feet under me because I know the score. I know how this thing ends. I can withstand anything you throw at me because I have my feet firmly planted in the gospel, the shield of faith. The shield of faith. What is this? Verse 16. You guys might need to move me there. My thing is not, uh, You got me back there. Thank you, Jesse. Appreciate you guys. The shield of faith. What is this? The shield of faith. This is it is faith in God's plan and promises, when the enemy hurls arrows of doubt and discouragement. Verse 16, circumstances, in all circumstances, all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil. And this was a 4 foot by 2 foot shield, probably made of wood, covered in leather, and you could soak that leather in water, and when those enemy shot those flaming arrows. They were extinguished by the water soaked leather of that shield. This is what God's, this is what faith does. Faith says, God, I believe in you. I believe you have a plan. I believe your promises, and no matter what the enemy throws at me this week, I will not be defeated by the doubt and discouragement that the enemy wants me to experience. I believe that God is telling the truth. I believe that he cares about me. How do we take it up? It's when we have faith in God's plan and God's power. God's plan and God's power, no matter what comes our way. I'm trusting you, God. I'm trusting that you care about me. I'm trusting that you have a plan. I'm trusting that you have the power. This is going to be my shield when anything is thrown at my way. Common sight this summer. You might have been at a pool or at the lake, and you might have seen this play out. If not this summer. It's some summer in the past, a dad in the pool standing with his feet firmly planted in the water, waist high, little boy on the edge, a little girl on the edge, trying to encourage him or her to jump into the water. And what's dad saying, I got you. I got you. I'll catch you. See, look, I'm standing here. I can catch you. I'm not going to let you sing. I'm not gonna let you drown. Some of you have done this, right? You have had these conversations with your kids pleading with them. It's okay to jump. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I think of that image when I think of the power of God and the love of God. The God, what cares about me? He's not going to let anything, ultimately harmful, come to me that isn't going to be part of his great plan. It may be horrible in the moment, but he's got this situation and control, and he has a plan that's all working out for his purposes. You can shoot whatever dart you want at me. I am shielded by my faith in the plan and purposes and love of my father. When uncertainty leads to despair. When trials lead to discouragement, when the attacks lead to doubt, in those moments, we trust the love of God, we trust the strength of God. The helmet of salvation. Verse 17, take the helmet of salvation, so crucial to have your head protected. We down at the young adult retreat this weekend, and it's bike weekend at Lake of the Ozarks. There are motorcycles everywhere. Russ, you ride a bike. I don't know if you do this. I saw about 500 motorcycles and 2 helmets all weekend. And so, Leslie, you make sure he wears his helmet. I'd say, maybe we can get some of the cool kids at Lake the Ozarks, he's going to take it off. But these guys, what are they doing? Not having their helmet on. You gotta have your helmet on your head. It's vital. protect your brain here. It treked your mind. What is the helmet of salvation? It's the confidence and hope that we have because of our salvation. The confidence and hope I have in my mind, because of my salvation. Salvation. This isn't about, um, get saved. Verse 17 is that you need to become a follower of Jesus, because the readers here are already followers of Jesus. If you're not a follower of Jesus, I hope you'll hear today the good news that we've been sharing all throughout this message, that Jesus died for you, that you can have peace with God, you can have your sins forgiven through faith in Christ. This is to people who already believed that. It's a reminder to them to remember the hope they have. 1 Thessalonians. 58, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope, the hope of salvation. Our salvation is a future hope that today gives us peace. Today gives us confidence. It's not just something that happened in the past or something we're waiting for in the future. It's all of that and a present reality. I have peace with God today. I have confidence in my walk with God today because of the salvation I have in Jesus Christ. I need to learn. to lean on God's promises when feelings betray me. That's how we put it on. We lean on God's promises when our feelings betray us. When Satan seeks to destroy your assurance of salvation, with his weapons of doubt, his weapons of discouragement. We don't listen to the attacks of the enemy. We don't trust our own feelings. We go to the truth of God's word. First John 5.13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Lord, who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. You know, from the word of God, what is the evidence that I am indeed a child of God. I go to the truth of God's word. First Peter, one, three, God has caused us to be born again to a living hope. through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time. My confidence, our hope, of our salvation. We lean on that and not our feelings. We trust the Lord and not let our feelings lead us astray. And then finally, we take up the sword of the Spirit, verse 17, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. This is a this Greek term referred to the Roman gladius, a short sword about 2 feet long, used in close hand-to-hand combat. The only offensive weapon on the list here. I think I would put it this way. Truth maybe is kind of a general knowledge of the word of God. I think when I'm going at someone with the sword of the spirit, it's a specific word for God at a specific time of need. I need this word right now. This is just the right promise, the right, the right, uh, declaration from the word of God. I need right now for what Satan's coming at me with. Jesus modeled this. In Matthew chapter 4, we see the temptation of Jesus. 3 times he was tempted by the enemy. And all 3 times he countered with a specific word from God. When the enemy said, make these stones loaves of bread, he said, it is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. When the enemy said, throw yourself off of this pinnacle. He said, it is written. Don't put the Lord your God to the test. And the 3rd time when the devil said, bow down, and all this will be yours. Jesus said, it is written. You shall worship the Lord, your God, and him only shall you serve. Every attack of the devil. Jesus had a specific counterattack in the word of God. We need to arm ourselves with God's word. So we have the right verse at the right time. The our weapon is not the Bible as a whole. That is true, but I think specifically, we need a word for the moment. You need a counterattack to every attack that the enemy is throwing at you. We need to be in the word, be prepared for whatever comes our way. It's preparing. Think about all the things you prepare for in life. All the things you study and research. Are you giving yourself to that same intensity? We're doing a family trip to Disney World. I thought you could just show up at Disney World and get a paper map and start riding rides. You can't do that anymore. You got to plan it all out. We got apps that are tied in fast passes or express passes. Thankfully, Marissa has done all this research for a year. She's researched this, and she's talk to people and listen to podcasts and watch videos. She said, I think the hours she's put in just so we can ride a ride. You got things in your life like that. You pour hours and hours of research to prepare for some moment in time. How much time are you investing preparing for the attack of the enemy on you and your family? Are you in the word? Will you give it the time? You give it the devotion, give it the dedication to be ready for what's going to come at you from the enemy. What do we do with all this? Let me just, we're just going to run it back. I try to think of, we always ask this question, now what? I think a way to repackage part two. We're just going to say the same thing we said last week. This isn't rocket science, all right? What do we do? You getting the word. You got, how are you gonna have the belt of truth around your waist if you're not in the word? How are you going to have the sword ready if you're not in the word? How you going to have your feet anchored to the gospel if you're not in the word? How are you going to be reminded of the salvation, the righteousness of the peace, the gospel, not in the word? Get in the word. Do your homework, prepare for the counterattack. You say, I'm going through something. I don't know the right verse. Just text one of your pastors. Text your life group leader, text a friend, text someone in your discipleship group. Text someone you met at Forge the other night, man. And hey, I'm struggling with this. Give me a verse. I need something. Help me here. I need something to counterattack the enemy, get in the word and be ready for his attack. Get on your knees before the Lord. Trust in him. Rly on him. Again, you don't we don't say get stronger so you can beat the devil. It's abide in the Lord because in his strength, there is victory. Ask him to be your strength. Ask him to give you peace. Ask him to remind you of the righteousness found only in Jesus. And then finally, we said last week, get in community. We need to speak the truth to each other. We need to preach the gospel to each other. We need to pray for one another. We need to get in the fight together against the enemy, and be armed with the armor that God has given us, to trust in him, in community, relying on him, on our knees, and in the word, ready this week, for the enemy, is coming for you. You need prayer today, couple of things you can do. One, we have Willie and Kathy back at the prayer corner. You're going to sing a song in a moment. So, I'm going through something. I need someone to pray with me. They're back there. They're ready to encourage you to pray with you, to share with you. Go back and talk to them. You have your connect card there in front of you. You say, I want to talk more. Maybe say, I don't, we talk about the gospel. I'm not sure I know what that means. I'm not sure I'm really a follow Jesus. Just check that box. I want to talk about following Jesus. You want us to pray for you? Let us know how to be praying. You want someone to call you to talk through what you're going through? Check the talk to a pastor box. Don't walk out of here without reaching out for the help you might need this week for the battle coming at you. Let's pray together. Jesus, we thank you, that we have all we need, that you have armed us. We thank you that we have the truth of your word to counter the attacks, the lies, the accusations of the enemy. We thank you that our hearts are protected by the righteousness of Jesus, that our feet are rooted in the truth of the gospel, that the salvation protects our minds from the doubts that the enemy throws at us. We thank you for your word at the right moment to counter the attack of the enemy. Help us this week to rely on you, not to do anything on our own strength, but to be strengthened by you, Lord, so that we might stand firm in the face of the attacks of the enemy. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention Genesis 3 · chapter mention Matthew 4 · chapter mention