Be Prepared for Battle - Ephesians 6:10-17 Part 2

Um, this week, um, I was um, doing a lot of sermon prep and thinking about this um, this passage. We're going to be in Ephesians 6 versus 10 through 17 versus part 2 of sorts from Tyler's. He spoke last week, kind of big, high-level things, and we're going to speak more specifically this week, but the armor, the whole armor of God. And this week, as I was prepping, my kids, especially yesterday, we're watching some TV while we were having some downtime. I was kind of refining the sermon and thinking about those things, and at one point, my kids, I hear the TV. And I'm like, what are they watching down there? Like, TV for kids is so strange now. It, um, they're watching things for like 5 minutes. They're watching things that are not interactive at all. If you were like me, when I was a kid, we had shows that like interacted with the watcher, like Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. like, you know, hey, you have to speak to Mickey Mouse for some reason, like the TV's like, speak to me. There was things like Dora the Explorer was a big one. There was all kinds where you would, they would have some kind of moment of asking you a question and that you would respond. Maybe Blue's Clues was your choice. Seems like every generation has a blue dog, but this one's bluey. Ours was blue, I guess, but when I think about that, I'm like, man, the TV shows today are so different. For example, one that I didn't watch all that much, but always sticks in my brain is Dora the Explorer. Any Dora the Explorer fans out there? Okay. Yeah, back, we got the songs. You know, she was the 1st to teach us Spanish. So that's why we're so good at our Spanish now. We're bilingual. But Dora, she was this small Hispanic character who would teach you Spanish and she was always on adventures. She would have a backpack. She had a map, and she had her friend Boots, and they would go along these paths to find something, and she would make pauses often, and she's like, in the background, it's very obvious what she's looking for. She's like, we got to find a bridge. Do you see the bridge? And like she has this awkward amount of time. But as a kid, you're like, yeah, where is this bridge? And you point to it, like, there it is. And then, like, you answer and she doesn't respond. You're like, Dora, it's right there. There's the she doesn't respond. And then she even says, yeah, you got it. You're like, yeah, I got it. But Dora had an enemy, and the enemy was Swiper the Fox. Anybody remember Swiper? He was this little fox that had this purple bandana on, and you were always keeping your eyes out for Swiper the Fox. When he showed up, you have to let Dora know. First off, because she never sees them. She's just oblivious every single time. And then we have to have a certain chant that stops swiper. Swiper no swiping, right? And you say it 3 times, and after the 3rd time, he's still kind of coming. And then he says, oh, man. And then he just goes away. And then Dora is always protected. You're always thinking, when you see Swiper, door is about to get mugged. I better be on my best. I better get strong. I gotta help Dora out, right? But the reality of those shows, as all of us know, as adults is we actually aren't doing anything for Dora, right? We have no kind of protection. We offer no kind of strength. The only strength that Dora has is in the writers and animators as they give Dora that strength, right? She's not going to get mugged because that would be horrible for kids to see, right? So whenever we think about this and we think about shows, we think about movies, we think about this idea of plot armor, these characters are only as strong as the writers make them to be. Today in Ephesians 6, 10 through 17, we're talking about this armor of God that God has given us, that it's been bestowed upon us, and we think about how God has equipped us with his whole armor, that he is preparing us for battle, that he has written into our story, that we are strong as we are in him and in his might. We don't have this plot armor that nothing bad will ever happen, but we are written in by his grace and mercy that we are strong as we stand firm in the gospel. As we stand firm as we're equipped with the whole armor of God. So if you have your Bible, turn to Ephesians chapter 6. We are going to read this real quick. Ephesians 6, 10 through 17. That reads, Paul writes, finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened down, fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which which, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This is the word of God. Let's pray. God, we thank you for this morning. We thank you for cooler weather. We thank you for time together. Lord, thank you for times of encouragement of being around brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage one another, or thank you for your word, that it never returns void, that in the reading of your scripture, we are benefited. And you are glorified. Lord, I pray that you would take the scribbles on this page that have been prepared by this sinful person, and would you make it glorifying to you? Would it build up your church? Would it bring you glory and would we look more like Jesus as a result of it? Lord, we thank you and we love you in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're back in here at kind of part 2 of our section on Ephesians 6 and some handholds that for us to kind of follow along. We'll be here on the screen. We got 3 of them. We need to be strengthened in him. We need to be strengthened with his armor and be prepared for battle. Now, don't let 3 points fool you in that 2nd part. There's like 6 parts. So, but where did they get going? So the 1st part, be strengthened in him. Verse 10, it says, finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Tyler pointed this out last week. This word strong is the be strengthened, be strengthened in the Lord, something that is happening to us, that we are weak and that we need to be strengthened. This idea that if we are apart from Christ, we are weak and we need his strength. All through Ephesians, we've been talking about this, how we need to put away the old self and put on the new self. Ephesians 21, we see that we were once dead. in our transgressions and sins, that we could do no good thing because we were dead. In Romans 5, we see that Paul writes again, while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly. We were weak. We were dead. We could do nothing good. We could do nothing apart from his grace apart from his mercy. Tyler pointed this out last week with Robin and Batman, right? That same idea, that as Robin is a superhero of sorts, he's definitely a sidekick, and he's only really strong as he's with Batman. Batman is the one who gives Robin the equipment. He gives him the confidence, he gives him the ability to fight in the fight. But if Robin was by himself, he could do nothing. So apart from Christ, we can do nothing. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are weak in our sins. Romans 7 even continues this, that even as believers, we are still weak, and we have this bend towards the wrong thing. We have this bin towards the wrong choice that Paul says often, I do the very thing that I hate, and the very thing that I want to do. I'm not able to do it. We are weak and Paul says, I know, be strengthened in him. Be strengthened in his might. Tyler made this connection last week that we are only strong when we are in connection with the Father. When we are abiding in Christ. John 15.5. Jesus says it very plainly to his disciples. Abide in me. Live in me. That word abide is like humble abode. It's our humble house. Abode is the active form of abiding. We live in Christ. Live in me because apart from me, you can do nothing. It's not that you can do some good things or some okay things. You can do nothing apart from abiding in Christ. We are weak on our own. We can only be strong in him. And he says, Paul says, be strengthened in him. Be strengthened in his mind. This might that he's talking about, is not new to Ephesians. He's already mentioned this in the 1st chapter. We read this months ago, but verses 19. He says, what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe? according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. This might that we are strengthened by is the might that raises the dead to life. It's the might that takes nothing at the beginning of all things and turns it into something. It's the might that takes a humble baby at Christmas time and seats him in the heavenly places to stand and as king for all of eternity. This might, we need this might. This might is the one we need. We need miraculous, supernatural strengthening. We need every bit of it, not just some of it. You need every bit of that might in order to be strengthened. Not some, it's not a ranking scale. There's not some people who need all of it and there's some people who need a little bit. We all were dead in our sins. We all were weak in our sins. We are still bound to make bad decisions and continue down the path that we don't want to be in. We need every bit of that resurrection might in our life to be strengthened. Now, we can read this and see Paul saying, be strong, stand firm in this military language here. We should rightfully read that in here. But this is not Paul saying as a drill sergeant, be strong. Uh, you uh, you need to be better. You got to work harder. You need to stop sinning. He's not saying, quit being weak men and women. You sorry, bunch of sinful suckers. He's not saying any of that. This is more like Paul on a rescue mission. More of like being in the Coast Guard. We painted this image before. This is Paul urging the Ephesians to not look to be strong in themselves, but to the look to the one who strengthens them. Paul is lowering down the lifeline to weak humans and saying, hold on, stand firm, get in. You must be strengthened. Hold on to him to be strengthened, hold on to the lifeline. This lifeline is Jesus. This lifeline is his mind. We have to hold on firmly to him in order to be strong. You are not strong enough yourself, but you are strong as you abide in Christ. Paul says you are weak, but you can be strengthened in him and his might. How are we strengthened? He jumps in, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand against, you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Last week, Tyler spent a lot of time about how we are not just weak, but we have a very real adversary. We have a very real enemy, the devil. If it was not already difficult to try to tread water in your own righteousness, trying to be good enough, you have an enemy who's stepping on your head, putting you under the water, right? We have a very real enemy in that we must be strengthened in order to withstand his attacks. Simply put, the devil wants to kill you. So you need to be strengthened with all the might of Christ in order to withstand him, to stand his plots. So how can we withstand our own weaknesses and the schemes of the devil? Paul says, God strengthens you with the whole armor of God. The whole armor of God. We'll talk about it more in a moment, but the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes with the readiness of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. We need the whole armor, not pieces. When you're saved, he gives you the whole armor, not just a sword. He doesn't just give you a limit. He equips you with the whole armor of God. Every bit of that is essential for your survival. I used to work at an outdoor store. And we talked about layering systems. It's not really armor, but it's kind of like armor and weather, right? Layering system is about to get cold outside. We're thinking about how do we how do we stay warm? If you're an outdoor person, if you're for leisure or for work. And the temptation is just to throw on the heaviest stuff you got. I was, okay, well, I'll put on this giant fleece hoodie, and then I'll put on this giant jacket, and then I'll put up another one, and I'll get a blanket. I'll cover myself up with that Now, from my experience as an outdoor recreation expert, I'm just joking. I worked there for a few years, but that does not work. More weight, more loft makes you warmer, but it also makes you sweat. And if you're sweaty while you're also trying to get warm in the cold, you're going to get cold. A layering system, a good one has a couple parts. The 1st one is the base layer. that's closest to you. What it's designed to do is to take moisture away from your body. If you think about athletes, They have this tight clothes, under armor or Nike compression stuff and it takes moisture away. Then you have this midlayer. It's the puffy one, right? It's the Patagonia jackets. the really puffy ones. It's the nice jackets that you have. That's the midlayer. And then to say extra warm, when it's windy outside or rainy outside, you have an outer layer and outer shell, that's waterproof and windproof. Now, if you have a good system of layering, you are not only warm when it's cold out, but you stay dry. Because if you get any kind of moisture in that system, it's gonna fail. So you could have the best outer layer, you could have the best mid layer, and then you could have something that you just throw on underneath like a cotton shirt. There's a saying in the outdoor industry and it says cotton kills. Cotton kills. If cotton just soaks up moisture. That's why when you're wearing it in the summer, it gets really dark around the pit areas, right? And it sags down, right? Because it's just holding on to moisture. If you just have a cotton shirt on under these really nice pieces of clothing for keeping warm, you're going to be cold. So if you have one part that you put on, that's not right, the whole system fails. Does it matter the amount of work you put into it? It doesn't matter the amount of money you spent on it, it will fail. That's why Paul says you have to take up the whole armor of God. You need all of the armor that God has provided. He provides the strongest, the lightest, the best armor. Leave yourself made armor at home. Cotton kills. Your own righteousness kills. It will only drag you down. We know that God's armor is the best because it is battle worn and battle tested. It's been worn. We know it works. We've already read Isaiah 59 and 14 through 21. So keep that fresh in your mind, that there was sin in the world. There was no hope. People were running away from truth. There was no righteousness and there was no one to stand in the gap. There was no one to intercede, no one to make things better. So God put on righteousness himself. He put on a salvation helmet himself, and he went and it says his own arm, which is biblical language for Jesus. His own arm comes in and provides righteousness and salvation for God's people, and that he puts his own words in their mouth, and they will forever give him glory as his people. God puts on the armor. Jesus puts on the armor, God in flesh, because God saw that humanity was in trouble. They were bound for destruction. truth was gone. Hope was trampled and there was no one to save us. He raised up a victor, a judge, a hero to come and save us, and that's Jesus. And in the very armor he wore is the one that we're talking about today. This is his armor, his own possession. He wore it. He forged it. He fought in it. He earned the victory. Christian. If you're in here and you've put your faith in Jesus, you are clothed with the very earned righteousness that Christ has earned on your behalf. His earned salvation. He earned it in blood and sweat. He earned it with his death. And as he raises in victory, he bestows it to you in this attire of grandness of majesty is now given to you. And it's not just armor. It's not something separate from him. He himself is righteousness. You are clothed with him. You are in Christ, at the seat of blessing with Christ, in the place of power, with him. We sit at his table. He strengthens you and clothes you with himself, with his armor. Christ is too merciful. Christ is too gracious to give you just parts of the armor. He gives you every bit of it. You get every bit of the armor of God, placed on you, fastened to you, and each part must work together, fully to stand against the schemes of the devil, to give you firm ground to stand on. So we need to be strengthened. And we are strengthened with his armor. We need to be strengthened with his armor. The 1st part of this armor is the belt of truth, verse 14, he says, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. We need to have it fastened on. It says, stand, therefore, stand firm, be strengthened once again. Take courage. We said this a little bit last week. The armor that he's talking about is the armor from Isaiah 59. But whenever he's thinking about armor, he may not be thinking of some of divine looking armor. He's probably thinking about what the Roman soldier he's tied to, what he's wearing. He's talking about the righteousness that Christ has, but he might be thinking, oh, it might look like this. So he's talking about this belt, and you've seen the pictures of the Roman soldiers. They have this big breastplate and then they have this belt that comes and it hangs down low. It's kind of this apron of sort. It's this thick leather. Um, and it's sometimes reinforced with metal plates. But the Roman soldier, the 1st thing they put on was this tunic, right? We've seen that before, it's that bright scarlet tunic, and without any belt, it just hangs free. It hangs down below their legs. And if they were to run around with that, they would trip up. They would not have the confidence to make moves. The belt would keep the tunic from being too loose, and it would allow the soldier to move freely. The breastplate was actually attached to the belt. The breastplate was heavy. It's made of metal. So they would actually attach it here so it would displace the weight from just the shoulders to be on the hip, so it was better balanced. They actually would hang the sword on the side of it, like a holster that we have today. It was the foundational piece of armor. Without it, the soldier would trip over his own tunic and be weighed down with the weight of the breastplate. And God's provided armor. Truth is the foundation that we set everything on. If you don't have truth, none of this matters. You can't stand firm on anything. If we're saying, I think it's true. It could be, this is my truth, not your truth, we have no ground to stand on. We have no foundation. Without truth, the whole system fails. What is truth is the question our culture asks. Maybe my truth's different than your truth, right? Our culture says that. We have questions going around our culture that we don't understand what biology is, it seems like. We don't understand a lot of questions. What is truth? We ask that question. Jesus gives us the answer. John 1717. He's in the garden. He praying to the Father. He's talking about the disciples. He says, God, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is true. His word, the Bible. What God has spoken, what he has intended, that is true, what he defines. His design is the foundation of truth. And notice that the phrasing says, find truth and put it on. It says having it fastened on, as if to say it has been fastened on for you. It's been fastened on by God. He has given you this truth. He has given you this anchor piece of armor. This truth that we follow, isn't new. It isn't hidden. It isn't secret. It's God's word. He has given it to us. He has fastened it around us. Sometime after, um, my grandma died, my last grandma, and, uh, she was, she was an amazing woman of God. In many respects, my family owes so much to her from raising my dad, but also being the one that brought him to church every single week. He was very wayward until she hit him upside the head, right? But after she died, we went into her house, and we were looking for keepsakes, we were looking for all kinds of things as we were cleaning out the house before we do the big garage sale to begin to move things out. I gravitate towards the bookshelf, not because I'm a book nerd because I'm looking for Bibles. So I'm like, I want one of their Bibles. And I find my grandma's Bible and my grandpa's Bible. My grandma's Bible was falling apart. It had notes in it, keepsakes in it. It had, um, I mean, it was just beat up, right? And the age old saying, if your Bible's fallen apart, the person who owns it's not falling apart. Have you heard that before? And I'm looking through it, and I look at the very front, on the end sheet like this. It's blank. Everyone's Bible has that. And she has written in it. If it's not in the word of God, it's not in the will of God. And I'm like, that phrase, that phrase framed her life. And it's a simple phrase that we can hold onto. If it's not in the word of God, it's not the will of God. Now, we obviously can stretch that to the extreme, right? Well, there's no cell phones. How can we deal with cell phones? But what she's saying, what we're talking about, what we're framing is that if God does not speak about it, if he does not define it as such, if he does not give us the truth in this manner, then we need to be aware. We need to base our life on truth. We need to build our foundation on what God has provided. hold firm to truth. Put it around yourself as anchor, as an anchor in support. Now, we have an age old adversary. He attempted Adam and Eve in the garden. He's older now. 1000s of years older now. He has perfected his his schemes of temptation and destruction. He has personalized it, like we said last week. He knows how to trip you up, but his schemes are the exact same. Deception. He asked the same age old question. Did God really say? Why is this such a big deal? Well, they may have dealt with that back then, but that was just a cultural thing. We begin to question what the Bible says about these things. We've been to begin to question what God has said. The enemy attacks the foundation of the whole armor. to weigh you down and trip you up. If he can get you to question God's word, he can get you to question God himself. And that's what he's doing. The 2nd part, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, put on the breastplate of righteousness, the exact same phrase, it's been put on to us, it's been fastened onto us, it's bestowed to us by God and his strength in his mind. Now, this is the main protection of the armor. This is the part that comes over. It's kind of like football pads, right? Covers the shoulders, cover the chest, but it goes down further and it comes around the back. This is the breastflate. It protects all the vital organs. It protects the entire midsection. It's heavy. It's strong. It's attached to the belt to take some of the weight off of the soldier's shoulders and puts them on his waist. And it's his breastplate of righteousness. Maybe you've heard this word, you've seen this word, you've used this word, and maybe you don't know what it means. The simple way I like to define it is that it is rightness. It's us being right before God. So the breastplate of being right with God. Without Jesus, we're all wicked and dead in sin. You were an enemy of God. By all accounts, you were not right. You were not in rightness with God. You were in wrongness with God. You were in the wrong place. But he puts the breastplate of righteousness on us. He says, for our sake. This is 2nd Corinthians 5.21. He says, for our sake, he made him, Jesus, to be sinned, who knew no sins so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. An incredible verse. If you haven't read that, if you don't have it memorized, if you're not looking at that often, man, put that down. Mark that, come to it often. God sent Jesus to stand in our place. Not just to be a role model that we would follow after, not to just be a good teacher that we would listen to, but to be the person who takes our punishment. who stands in our place in the mud, stands in our place in the filth and dirt, and he raises us up to be in his place, the rightness of God. He gives us his righteousness. It's not a righteousness of our own, that we have, that we earn, that we pay for, but it's one that's been given to you and purchased with the steepest of costs. His life. The enemy takes aim at our righteousness often. His schemes come in our righteousness often. How can you be right with God? Look what you're doing. Look at the thoughts you're thinking. How can you be right with God? Imagine if the people at church knew what you were doing right now. You can't be right with God. You're not even a Christian. Christians don't act like this. He attacks our righteousness, saying that we have to earn it. That you haven't done what you were supposed to do. So you can't have been saved. But he places his righteousness on us. He has fastened it to us by his blood, and that will never be removed as it's attached to truth. We hold firm, we stand fast. We are strengthened by the truth of God's word, recognizing that it is not a righteousness that we have earned, but that he has earned and has given it to us as a gift. And since this righteousness was freely given to us as a gift, we keep it as a gift from Jesus himself. We didn't earn it. And if it was given as a gift, we can't lose it. In the same way that I give a gift to somebody at their birthday, I don't expect it back in 6 months, that gift is theirs. The gift that we've received in Christ is ours. Now, in the moments of weakness, in the moments of failure, when you feel convicted of sin and you feel, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, righteousness goes beyond just feeling. But listen to what Jesus says in John 637. He says, all the Father gives to me. will come to me. And whoever comes to me, I will never cast out, not ever, never, ever. Right? Never means never, not sometimes, or only if you don't do these things, not ever, the people who come to Christ for salvation, who come to him for his righteousness are forever his and never thrown away, never cast out. His perfectly purchased and earned righteousness is yours in Jesus. As you place your faith in him, your righteousness is tethered to his righteousness, the perfect life that he lived, the death that he died, the life that he now lives. And as he stands in victory at the right hand of the Father, we stand there with him. Our righteousness has been given to us by God, be strengthened in his righteousness. The 3rd one, be strengthened by the gospel of peace. Be strengthened by the gospel of peace. Verse 15. He says, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Now, the shoes of the Roman soldier, I don't think anyone's, I guess people wear them kind of today. They're kind of funky, but they were like this leather kind of boot like I'm wearing, but the toes are cut off. Their toes are free, right? Ashton always makes fun of me because I wear sandals all the time. Ashland, shame on you. But we, the toes are free and there's leather straps up here and on the bottom, there's like spikes like cleats and it gives them traction. It gives them mobility, ability to be strong as they're standing. The shoes of the gospel of peace. The gospel is the good news. It's the good news that Jesus came and preached. the good news that the apostles wouldn't preach. The good news that we preach. And it says of peace. He's making a clarifying statement here. This type of good news. The gospel of good news. The gospel of peace with God. Now, oftentimes commentators are differing on the interpretation of this. What does it mean to stand in readiness with the gospel of peace? Sometimes we take this and we say, we need to stand ready with the gospel of peace, to share it and move forward, to town and take gospel ground, that we have these cleats on our feet, the freedom of mobility that we're able to go forth confidently as we're sharing the gospel. The other type of commentators, they say, no, we are standing firm, ready, that we're standing, because we have peace with God, and we're no longer on the other side as his enemy. We stand on his side at the ready, like a good soldier. We have firm foundation with the cleats that we're wearing. We've been strengthened by the gospel of peace. I lean towards that 2nd one because the armor of God is not something that we're conjuring up. It's not something that we're doing. It's something that's been bestowed on this as we were being strengthened in him, strengthened in his might. He has strengthened us to stand confidently in the gospel of peace because we're no longer his enemy. He's made us his son, his daughter, a soldier in his army. He says, stand ready. The enemy's coming. Stand ready in the gospel of peace. stand firm. We have this firm foundation in the gospel of good news, the gospel of peace because you are no longer his enemy, but you are co-heirs with Christ in the gospel that he bought. Be strengthened by the gospel that made you his son, his daughter, no longer at war, but at peace with him. We're no longer worried. And my, God, do you, do you love me? God, am I on your side? Stand ready. You're on this side, son. You're on this side, daughter. Stand ready. We're going to go against them. You're on my team. That's the readiness of the gospel of peace. We need to stand ready. We have firm ground only as we stand on the readiness of this gospel. And we're telling it to ourselves, and we are telling it to others. This is the gospel that we share. Then he says, be strengthened by faith in him. Verse 16. He says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. This yield is a beast. It's about the size of a door. It's about 4 feet tall. So like, I almost made a short joke. I'm not going to do that. But it's a tall shield that you hold with your arm that protects most of your body, and that it was had this leather cover on the front of it that was drenched in water, so as the enemy who would sometimes light the end of their arrows on fire, as they're lobbying them over, that it would catch onto the shield, and it would be extinguished. The enemy was looking to cause pain to burn, to catch things on fire to cause destruction, but the shield that was drenched in water would extinguish the flames. Now, some commentators like to mention that these shields could be linked together, that as you're standing on the front lines, you would link arms, you would link shields with the person next to you, that you would be able to stand firm against the aggression of the enemy. It would create a strong line that wasn't easily broken as the enemy advanced into the row of strong shields. Paul says, take up the shield of faith, like, take up faith like the shield, a call to hold up faith in times of attack. The interesting thing about the shield is that it's something that has to be directed. It's not just something like the breastplate that's there always protecting you as long as it's on. The shield has to be taken up. It has to be pointed towards the enemy. So we take up the shield and it's our 1st line of defense. It is, it's held up as the enemy stands far off in lob's arrows, and it's also held up as the enemy draws near, trying to break the line that we hold it up. First line of defense. Oftentimes the enemy would never scratch the surface of the armor because they got stopped at the shield. They got held back. So faith is meant to be our 1st defense. It's much like a shield. Whether the enemy is far off, lobbying arrows are near trying to break the line, we take it up together as we link arms in a church, as we link arms in a life group. We hold faith close, encouraging each other to stay strong. When I think about faith, I can, I always think about Shadrach, Meshach, and the Bindigo. Maybe some VeggieTale fans, Shakrach and Benny, we know them, right? And we understand the story that Shackrack and Benny, they were taken to enemy ground. They were exiled from Israel, from Jerusalem, and they were in Babylon. And they were to be part of their life now, right? Nebuchadnezzar was this evil king, right? at Babylon. And he built a golden statue to himself. And he said, everyone has to bow down and worship this statue. If you don't, you're dead, right? So Shackrack and Benny, they love God, they fear God, they have faith in God, and they refuse. They stand strong. They refuse. to bow down. And then they find him. And they said, hey, I'll give you one last chance. You have one last chance to not do this. But this is how they responded. Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace and out of your hand. That's faith. That's faith. But listen, what do they say next? But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship that golden image. That is faith in the face of the fiery furnace. They stand firm as they hold up the shield of faith, and our God can defend us. Our God can deliver us, but even if he doesn't, he's still God. And I still worship him. We have this faith as a shield when the enemy's far off, casting lies towards you. You're not saved. You're not righteous. Look at these things. And when he's up close and your life is at risk. When all of life is crumbling down, the onslaught of the enemy seems to never end. Take up the shield of faith. Just like Rakshak and Benny. It isn't just faith. It's not just faith. Don't just have faith. What does that even mean? Secular cultures as I have faith. Faith in what? They had faith in God. Your faith is only strong as it's tied to something worth being having faith in. If your faith is in people, your faith will fail. If your faith is in your ability to save yourself, your ability to stop sinning, your ability to do anything, your faith will fail. If it's tied up in money, tied up in pride, your faith will fail. Put your faith in the God who made the heavens and earth, who rose Jesus from the grave and sat him at the right hand of the Father to be king forever and ever. It's an immovable faith as we place it in him. Our faith can be unstoppable as we continue to duck behind the almighty. As we continue to duck behind his strength, his power, his might, hold up that faith in him. And remind yourself of all that he's done for his people and all that he promises for those who continue to follow. Then he says in verse 17, the 1st part, take the helmet of salvation, this helmet of salvation. This is the final piece of defensive armor that we see here. It's the final piece. It's also protecting a very vital part of the soldier's organs, right? This part is mentioned in Isaiah 59 that he put on the helmet of salvation. He took the breastplate of righteousness and he went forth, and he won the victory. So he says, take on Jesus' helmet. God's helmet, of salvation. And this again is not from us. Paul is not saying, be saved. He's saying to save people. You're saved. Put it on your head, protect your head, protect your mind, protect everything. It's already been earned. Just put it on your head, guard your mind and head with the salvation that God has provided. Last week I was watching some football. I've been watching football lately. I'm not a big football fan, but after OU's lost, I'm probably just going to stop watching football, to be honest. But I was watching that game. And we were not doing great, but our quarterback, OU's quarterback. He drops back and the enemy, the enemy, sorry, I'm all in armor of God mode. The other team, they surround him, and they're being blocked, and one of the defenders, he reaches over to try to tackle, but he gets the back of our quarterback's helmet, and he rips it off. And then our guy's still up. The quarterback's still up. He could make a play, but then the defense is coming down. And I'm thinking, 0 no, what is this guy going to do? You could see, you could see fear in his body language and you could see, I got to do something, but all he ends up doing is just laying down. That's all he could do. Imagine if he were to break out on the side and get hit by one of those £300 linebackers. His life could be ended right there. He was left vulnerable without his helmet. If you're going through life and you aren't sure that you're saved. If you've never actually put your faith in Jesus, you are vulnerable. You do not have any ground to stand on. There's no truth. There's no righteousness, there's no gospel of readiness to there. If you don't have the helmet of salvation that's been placed on you by Jesus, you are vulnerable. We can have assurance of salvation, not because of what you've done, but because of the righteous price that he's paid for you. And if you have placed your faith in him. know that that helmet has been placed on you. Know that you are saved, and that you are no longer vulnerable. You no longer have to just take a knee because you feel like you're vulnerable like the quarterback. You have the helmet, you can stand firm. You know that you can continue on because the salvation that has been given to you by Christ. It's not us. It's not our salvation. He is given it to us. The enemy looks at this often. He tries to make you feel vulnerable. He wants you to run around like a chicken with your head cut off. He wants you to lay down like a quarterback without his helmet on. He wants to render you useless. Just like earlier with righteousness. you sure you're saved? You're doing that thing again. You're thinking those thoughts again. Are you sure you saved? Are you sure Jesus saved you? If he can get you to think that, if he can get you to believe the lies. He can render you useless with guilt and timidity. Lastly, with the arm, he says, be strengthened with his word. He said, and take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. This word is Makyra. And this word means sword or dagger. And it could be multiple things. It could be a 5 inch dagger, like a little side arm. They had sidearms just like we do. It wasn't quite as dangerous as it is today. Or it could have been an 18 inch long sword. But either of those, both of those, as bladed weapons, they are both offensive weapons. This is the only one that is offensive in the entire armor of God. But look at it. It's not the gun of the spirit. It's not the bow of the spirit. It's not the catapult of the spirit. It's at max, an 18 inch sword of the spirit. So earlier when we're... With the cosmic powers, the principalities, the authorities, the rulers of this age, you have been equipped, with 18 inches of the sword of the spirit, to wrestle with those powers, a cosmic fight, up close and personal. You have to know your weapon. You have to know what you've been given. You have to trust it. You have to be able to wield it. The sword is from the spirit. It is God's word, not your word. So as an encouragement, maybe you're like, don't, I don't know how to wield this yet. I've never been trained. I'm a new believer. How do I stand? How can I attack? God's word is powerful because it's God's word. Not your word, not my word, it's God's word. It's powerful because it's his. Isaiah 5510 through 11 is one of my favorite verses. We read this and it says, for as the rain and snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. This means that it is powerful. His word always accomplishes what he intends for it to accomplish. When he says the rain from the heavens and water in the ground. If it rained, it rained last night. It hit the ground. That water will water the ground. It will benefit that plant that it touches. As the word of God reaches our hearts, touches our hearts, enters our ears, touches our brains, it affects you. It is powerful in its hearing. It is God's word. It always accomplishes what he means for it to accomplish. It always provides what we need at any given moment. His word is powerful. Jesus used God's word in the desert as the enemy was lobbing arrows as he was tempting him. God, Jesus always used his word, God's word to combat it. Every time the devil brought a test, Jesus would swing the word, the sword of God, and it did exactly what it was meant to do. It is powerful in its reading, its hearing, memorizing, meditating, praying, audiobooks. It's powerful in everything. God's word is powerful. It is powerful. Anytime you spend in this book, it will benefit you. One minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 3 hours. You are benefited by reading God's word. You're benefited a little bit if you spend a little bit of time. You're benefited more if you spend more time. As you begin to understand, what is the author saying? What is God saying to me as you're asking good questions, as you're asking any question? What does this mean? How can I apply this? God, what are you saying to me? Where's your heart in this? You don't need a little bit. You need more of it. You need all of it. The whole armor of God provides you with strength things. So take up the whole armor of God. Last point will be quick. says be prepared for battle. Be prepared for battle. Taking a few steps back to verse 13. He says, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, having done all to stand firm. You need to do every, you need every bit of God's armor. He clothes you with it. He equips you with it all for that evil day. You've been equipped with God's armor. But Paul says here, you need to do everything to be prepared. You may be equipped, but you've not been trained. You've not been prepared. In my 1st seminary class, my professor said this. We were talking about a topic that was difficult, that I've never heard before, but it's absolutely true in scripture. And he says, and all of us students were excited. We want to go tell everybody about it. We want to start correcting all the old people, right? We want start correcting all the young people. Everyone's wrong. We're going to go out there and we're going to show them why they're wrong. And he says, hold up. He said, I've just given you a sword. Be careful where you swing it. What do you say that? You've been equipped, you have the head knowledge, but you don't know what you're talking about yet. You don't know how to actually swing that properly. We call this cage stage for seminary students, right? They get all the information. They have no outlet for actually doing it, no actually application for how to actually use the information that we have. You have been equipped with the armor of God. You are clothed for battle, yet you're not trained as a soldier. You don't look like a soldier. Your diet does not reflect that of a spiritual soldier. You're taking in things that would not reflect a soldier in God's army. The content that you indulge in, the movies, the TV, books, music, whatever content you're bringing in. It does not look like a soldier of God. That's not the diet that they would take in. Maybe the places that you dwell mentally or physically are not places where soldiers should be. You're allowing the lies to continue to be in your mind. You're allowing the questions to be what actually guides your thoughts. Maybe the weight of the armor is still new. Maybe you're a new believer. It's unfamiliar. You don't know how to carry yourself. Paul says, do everything to be prepared. Although all strength has been provided and what he has given us, We're commanded to follow soup, to walk worthy of the manner in which we've been called, just like he said in Ephesians 4.1. 2 Timothy 2.4, Paul writes this to young Timothy. He says, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. Paul, through all of Ephesians, has reminded them to no longer walk as the Gentiles do, but to walk as someone in Christ, to take up the armor of God and to be part of his army, to be one who sits at the table of the king, one who serves in the ranks of the army of the Lord, one who wears the king's armor. Be strengthened in the might of the Lord. Be strengthened in him. Leave your old ways in the past, and push forward to Christ. What parts of your diet, what parts of your spiritual diet? Are you still continuing in, that keep you from being ready for battle, that keep you being weak, that keep you questioning all these things? Is there something that you can be rid of and be more ready for battle and his strength? He will bless it as you ask him to show you. He will strengthen you as you continue to say, notice and yes to him. Be strengthened by God and take up his armor, that he has bestowed upon you, and march in file behind our king into battle each day. A couple questions that we can take home as we wrap up. How can you set up reminders of his provision? We oftentimes slip into all the things that we provide. Look at all the things that I've done. Look at the education that I've done. Look at all the disciples that I've made. Look at the ministry that I've been a part of. We think about all these things. I've done all these things, and every single time, if your faith is in your works, it's going to fail. How can you remind yourself of what God has provided? God has provided the armor. Ancient Israel did this all the time. This was a practice that they always did. We practiced this last week. Lord's supper. You didn't win this. Christ earned it, and we practiced that, we remind ourselves of all the works that he did. They would have things called Ebenezers. They'd set up piles of stones. As you walk past it, you would tell your kids, you would tell yourself, this is where God brought us over the Jordan River, or he'd go buy another pile of stones. This is the grave of Achan, who presumptuously sinned. They would wear tassels on their clothes that was meant to remind them not to sin is what it says in Leviticus. Put tassels on your clothes that you don't sin. Think of times when God has provided for you. Mark them down, write them in a journal. Make a memento. Tell somebody, God provided, and that's something to be told to. The 2nd one. God's word never fails. How can you challenge yourself to be in the word more? Not as a checklist? Not as something that, oh, Dalton said I had to be in the word more, but if any bit of the Bible benefits you, more benefits you more. Maybe you read the Bible great. Maybe you have a set quiet time, but maybe there's times in the day where you're like, you know, actually, I could be memorizing scripture. I need to have accountability with this person. Maybe we can be meditating on scripture together. Maybe there's a podcast that I can be listening to. Maybe I could replace this other podcast with one that glorifies God more. And then 3rd and lastly, we are weak. How do you need to be strengthened by his might this week? Have you been neglecting the powerful word in your life? Have you been having a diet that's filled with secular lies? Ask someone this week to keep you accountable. Have you been accepting the lies of the enemy about your position with God? Practically speaking, pray these pieces of armor. Read through scripture. This has been given to you. Encourage yourself. With God's word. And then lastly, have you isolated yourself in sinful thought patterns? Maybe you've isolated yourself. and you have no one to talk to. Go to life group today. Go to life group today, be in community, be encouraged, and Let's work, let's serve God together. Let's put on the armor of God. Let's be strengthened in his in him and in his mind. And let's go on as good soldiers of the Lord. Let's pray. God, you are good and you are faithful to us. We thank you for all the many blessings that you've given us. Lord, that we couldn't save ourselves. We've tried. We can't justify ourselves. We've tried. And Lord, every time we fail and we come back to you, You're so gracious to accept us. Lord, thank you for John 6, 37 where it says that you never cast this out if we've come to you. Lord, would you encourage those today that are weak? I pray that this would have been a benefit to them, a blessing to them. But ultimately, Lord, would you receive all the glory, Jesus' name. Amen.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention