1 00:00:02,760 --> 00:00:04,920 Good morning everyone. Today's scripture reading comes 2 00:00:04,920 --> 00:00:08,920 from Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 19. 3 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:13,000 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. 4 00:00:13,120 --> 00:00:16,400 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:19,960 against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against 6 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:23,320 flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, 7 00:00:23,320 --> 00:00:26,400 against the powers of this Dark World, and against the spiritual 8 00:00:26,400 --> 00:00:28,480 forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 9 00:00:29,240 --> 00:00:32,759 Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of 10 00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:36,520 evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you 11 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:40,600 have done everything to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt 12 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:44,040 of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of 13 00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:47,560 righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the 14 00:00:47,560 --> 00:00:50,240 readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 15 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:54,520 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which 16 00:00:54,520 --> 00:00:57,280 you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil. 1 17 00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:01,360 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which 18 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,400 is the Word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions with 19 00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:07,240 all kinds of prayers and requests. 20 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:11,200 With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all 21 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:14,920 the Saints. Pray also for me that whenever I 22 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:18,600 open my mouth, words may be given, may be given me, so that 23 00:01:18,600 --> 00:01:22,080 I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which 24 00:01:22,080 --> 00:01:25,760 I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it 25 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:33,720 fearlessly as I should. One of the earliest Christian 26 00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,680 writers to take on the inner life seriously was a man named 27 00:01:38,880 --> 00:01:43,640 Evagrius Ponticus. If you can say it, 10 gold 28 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:47,080 points for you. Evagrius was a 4th century monk. 29 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:52,000 He was highly educated. He lived near Constantinople, 30 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:55,320 which was one of the capital places for the early church. 31 00:01:55,880 --> 00:01:59,280 He was brilliant. He was connected, he was 32 00:01:59,280 --> 00:02:02,480 respected. He was like on his way up in the 33 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,160 church world, right? If there was someone that's 34 00:02:04,160 --> 00:02:06,640 going to get a promotion, it was probably going to be him. 35 00:02:07,720 --> 00:02:12,240 And then, like many of the early desert Christians, he left the 36 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:17,840 city for the wilderness. Now, you and I, we tend to 37 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:22,960 romanticize, like, going off maybe to the beach or off by 38 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,280 ourselves for a while. Like, we think like, yeah, he 39 00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:28,680 probably, like, went on like, a nice little retreat, right? 40 00:02:28,680 --> 00:02:32,720 Like, no Wi-Fi or anything. Maybe some good books, a good 41 00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:37,800 sweet drink, just sitting out, looking out at nature alone, 42 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:43,400 maybe sing a couple songs. But what the desert fathers and 43 00:02:43,400 --> 00:02:47,720 mothers discovered was that when they left the noise of the city, 44 00:02:47,720 --> 00:02:55,520 they did not leave the battle. They finally just got quiet 45 00:02:55,520 --> 00:02:58,760 enough to hear it. Evagrius began to notice 46 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:03,640 something about the human soul. He noticed that temptation was 47 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:07,120 not random. Temptation had patterns. 48 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:10,920 It had strategies. It had what Paul in Ephesians 49 00:03:10,920 --> 00:03:15,120 would call schemes. And he wrote about these as the 50 00:03:15,120 --> 00:03:19,160 8 evil thoughts. Later writers would adapt these 51 00:03:19,160 --> 00:03:22,600 into the seven deadly sins. These would be patterns like 52 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:30,040 gluttony, lust, greed, sadness, anger, Acadia, Vainglory and 53 00:03:30,040 --> 00:03:33,520 pride. They were disordered desires. 54 00:03:33,640 --> 00:03:36,920 They're false scripts. They're spiritual forces that 55 00:03:36,920 --> 00:03:40,080 are bent towards getting us away from God. 56 00:03:40,800 --> 00:03:45,600 And of all of these temptations, Evagria said that the most 57 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:49,240 dangerous, dangerous of them was Acadia. 58 00:03:50,320 --> 00:03:52,400 Now Acadia. It's hard for us to translate. 59 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:55,280 We don't have like a one for one translation on it. 60 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:59,320 Sometimes it's called sloth, but that's honestly too weak because 61 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:04,120 it's not just laziness, right? It it's more like spiritual 62 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,200 apathy. It's listlessness, it's 63 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:09,760 restlessness, it's a loss of heart. 64 00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:12,880 It's the inability to stay present to to your 65 00:04:12,880 --> 00:04:17,519 relationships, to your calling, to your work, to your home, to 66 00:04:17,519 --> 00:04:22,560 God himself. And so Evagrius called this the 67 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:26,240 noonday demon. He said it attacked the monk in 68 00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,560 the heat of the day, around late morning into the early 69 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,560 afternoon, when the sun seemed to barely move, when the day 70 00:04:33,560 --> 00:04:37,760 fell unbearably long, when prayer felt pointless, when the 71 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:42,840 monk would look out the window and imagine that life must be 72 00:04:42,840 --> 00:04:49,000 better somewhere else. If we're honest, if we didn't 73 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:52,000 know that this was a vagarius written back in the 4th century 74 00:04:52,200 --> 00:04:56,280 as you knew when I said it, it could have been written today. 75 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,440 That strange moment in the middle of the day when you are 76 00:05:00,440 --> 00:05:04,680 not doing anything obviously sinful, but if you're honest, 77 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,040 you're not fully alive. You're restless. 78 00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,760 You're picking up your phone and turning it on and scrolling and 79 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:13,560 then turning it off again and turning it on again. 80 00:05:13,560 --> 00:05:17,120 You're you're going to your fridge and looking for nothing 81 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:21,400 to eat. You're bored with your own life. 82 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:24,160 You begin to feel kind of like irritated. 83 00:05:24,160 --> 00:05:27,920 You might have like a low grade sadness or anxiety. 84 00:05:28,760 --> 00:05:32,840 You have this, this desire to just be anywhere except for 85 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:38,200 where you are. And then this thought begins to 86 00:05:38,200 --> 00:05:44,160 pop up, an almost animated idea that you need a different job. 87 00:05:45,760 --> 00:05:48,960 I need a different house, I need a better body, I need a 88 00:05:48,960 --> 00:05:52,640 different spouse, I need a different life. 89 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,880 And maybe sometimes that could be your own intuition or wisdom. 90 00:05:57,880 --> 00:05:59,600 Maybe sometimes that's the spirit. 91 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:05,080 But sometimes Evagrius would say that this is war. 92 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:09,120 Not dramatic war. Not horror movie war, Not Lord 93 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:11,200 of the Rings giant epic battle War. 94 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:18,680 No, this is a quiet war. A war over your attention over 95 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,480 desire. A quiet war over whether you 96 00:06:22,480 --> 00:06:27,360 will stay rooted in love or drift off into escape. 97 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:35,120 This is spiritual warfare. If we're honest, the idea of 98 00:06:35,120 --> 00:06:38,160 what we call spiritual warfare just raises all kinds of 99 00:06:38,160 --> 00:06:40,840 different questions and and opinions in US. 100 00:06:40,840 --> 00:06:44,160 Like, how does spiritual war really affect me? 101 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,880 Should I be afraid of it? How do I defend myself? 102 00:06:47,880 --> 00:06:51,000 But I think that if we're really honest, most of us ask the 103 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:58,440 question, is this even real? Thankfully for us, Scripture 104 00:06:58,440 --> 00:07:02,840 does have some to say about it. It's not a lot, but it's not 105 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:05,960 nothing. And this morning's passage is 106 00:07:05,960 --> 00:07:10,600 one of the most important spirit spiritual warfare passage in all 107 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,040 of Scripture. And it's at the end of the 108 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:17,960 letter of Ephesians, which is the book that we've been 109 00:07:17,960 --> 00:07:21,720 teaching through through this year and a little bit of last 110 00:07:21,720 --> 00:07:24,240 year. So here's the plan. 111 00:07:24,240 --> 00:07:25,800 We're going to talk about spiritual warfare. 112 00:07:25,960 --> 00:07:30,400 I'm going to kind of sum up the book of Ephesians, OK? 113 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:34,480 Because we cannot understand the armour of God in spiritual 114 00:07:34,480 --> 00:07:37,960 warfare without understanding what Paul said before. 115 00:07:38,360 --> 00:07:41,520 And then we're going to just go verse by verse and talk through 116 00:07:41,520 --> 00:07:44,200 it because this is what I found as I was studying it. 117 00:07:44,200 --> 00:07:47,320 When you, when you have a passage of Scripture that you're 118 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:49,560 going to preach often, you kind of begin in the back of your 119 00:07:49,560 --> 00:07:51,080 mind going, yeah, I'm going to talk about this. 120 00:07:51,320 --> 00:07:53,520 I'm going to talk about this and I'm going to talk about this. 121 00:07:54,160 --> 00:07:58,560 And as I sat down and I studied this, it became completely 122 00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:03,400 different than what I thought. I found that my ideas about the 123 00:08:03,400 --> 00:08:08,080 armor of God in warfare are dramatically different than like 124 00:08:08,080 --> 00:08:10,440 how I was raised in my culture and stuff. 125 00:08:10,840 --> 00:08:13,320 So I'm kind of excited to be talking about that. 126 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:17,040 So if you have your Bibles with you, whether paper, which we 127 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:20,320 encourage, or you have it on your phone, go ahead and go to 128 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:24,760 Ephesians 6 verse 10. It's also going to be up on the 129 00:08:24,760 --> 00:08:30,000 board. OK, so where do we start? 130 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:31,040 We start at the beginning, right? 131 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,679 We start with the idea that what is Ephesians, but it is a letter 132 00:08:34,679 --> 00:08:40,200 written by the Apostle Paul to a group of churches in Ephesus. 133 00:08:40,320 --> 00:08:42,559 OK. It's the only one of Paul's 134 00:08:42,559 --> 00:08:45,680 letters and Scriptures that's more encouraging than not. 135 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:48,680 Most of the time Paul is saying like, Hey, I heard you guys were 136 00:08:48,680 --> 00:08:51,080 doing this. Stop, please do this. 137 00:08:51,080 --> 00:08:53,800 Instead. This letter is much more of a, 138 00:08:53,840 --> 00:08:56,040 hey, I hear that you're doing a really good job. 139 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,280 Here's how we begin to like continue to live into that. 140 00:08:59,480 --> 00:09:01,240 And so at the beginning of the letter, Paul starts with 141 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:05,320 literally this like worship song about how great God is since the 142 00:09:05,320 --> 00:09:09,760 beginning, how Jesus came and he he died and rose again and 143 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:12,720 defeated the powers of of darkness and death and is now 144 00:09:12,720 --> 00:09:16,640 King Jesus sitting on his throne above all of heaven and earth, 145 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,800 all authority is. And now he is taking his church 146 00:09:21,040 --> 00:09:26,200 and he is uniting all people together under himself as a new 147 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:28,880 humanity. Ephesians one through 3 is just 148 00:09:28,880 --> 00:09:33,800 this beautiful teaching about who Jesus is, what the gospel is 149 00:09:33,800 --> 00:09:38,800 and what it means for us. Now often we like we like that 150 00:09:38,800 --> 00:09:41,840 part, but we really want to get to verse to chapter 4, which is 151 00:09:41,840 --> 00:09:46,440 like the how do I then live? And you have this like rapid 152 00:09:46,440 --> 00:09:49,480 fire of Paul saying like, Hey guys, you should be united. 153 00:09:49,480 --> 00:09:53,000 He talks about life in light of the gospel for our sexuality and 154 00:09:53,000 --> 00:09:56,440 our and our money and our attitudes towards one another. 155 00:09:56,560 --> 00:09:59,040 He talks about what does the gospel mean for my marriage? 156 00:09:59,040 --> 00:10:02,200 What does it mean for my family? What does it mean for my work? 157 00:10:03,680 --> 00:10:09,840 And then we reach the end of the letter, chapter 6, verse 10, and 158 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:12,400 Paul's going to summarize everything he's talked about. 159 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:15,760 Let's go ahead and start reading it. 160 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:22,040 Finally stop. The whole letter has LED up to 161 00:10:22,040 --> 00:10:25,080 this moment where Paul is going to tie all of the themes 162 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:29,920 together and he's going to talk about how we are to live in 163 00:10:29,920 --> 00:10:34,480 light of this letter. OK, so a couple things that we 164 00:10:34,480 --> 00:10:36,200 need to remember as we read this passage. 165 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:41,120 First is that the you's are all y'all's, right? 166 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:43,800 You've heard, you've heard Pastor Ben talk about that a few 167 00:10:43,800 --> 00:10:46,000 times. Paul's not writing to one 168 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:48,080 person, He's writing to a group of people. 169 00:10:48,080 --> 00:10:49,800 So anytime you see a you, it's a y'all. 170 00:10:50,160 --> 00:10:53,880 It's the y'all of it all. Second thing I'm going to let 171 00:10:53,880 --> 00:10:59,480 Stephen Fowl say for us, there is one further important point 172 00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:02,920 to make about this passage. It is very easy to read the 173 00:11:02,920 --> 00:11:06,200 discussion of the armor of God and then to assume that this is 174 00:11:06,200 --> 00:11:09,160 a set of instructions to individual believers. 175 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:16,520 Sorry, that is not the way the text reads. 176 00:11:16,640 --> 00:11:19,720 Rather, the commands Take up the armor of God is a summons to the 177 00:11:19,720 --> 00:11:23,440 community as a whole. Taking up the armor of God is a 178 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:26,880 communal practice tied to the unity of the church and the 179 00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,720 church's witness to the powers. In this respect. 180 00:11:29,720 --> 00:11:33,840 This passage continues the emphasis on the common life of 181 00:11:33,840 --> 00:11:36,320 the church that began in four one. 182 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:42,200 So we end our sermon series on Ephesians with Paul's word 183 00:11:42,200 --> 00:11:47,480 summoning up the book and telling us what it all is about. 184 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:54,800 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his 185 00:11:54,800 --> 00:11:58,440 might. Now, often I feel like what we 186 00:11:58,440 --> 00:12:02,600 hear about the gospel is like, now you can rest now, you can 187 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:04,840 have peace now. Like, don't worry about 188 00:12:04,840 --> 00:12:07,000 anything. Good vibes on everybody, right? 189 00:12:07,680 --> 00:12:09,520 That's not what Paul's saying at the end of the letter. 190 00:12:09,760 --> 00:12:14,400 No, Paul is saying that we are to be strong in the Lord and in 191 00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,040 the strength of his might. Or as Eugene Peterson gives in 192 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:21,960 his a paraphrase, God is strong and he wants to make you strong. 193 00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:28,000 Yeah, but what listen to what is important though, what is 194 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:31,840 important for us to understand is the how God wants you to be 195 00:12:31,840 --> 00:12:34,000 strong. OK? 196 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:36,400 It's not just that God wants you to be strong. 197 00:12:36,560 --> 00:12:38,960 The important thing is how he wants you to be strong. 198 00:12:39,480 --> 00:12:43,160 And it's, it's masked in our English language, but in the 199 00:12:43,480 --> 00:12:48,520 original language, we see that this verse is mostly written in 200 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:52,640 the passive, not the active. How many of my English teachers 201 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:54,040 in the room know what I'm talking about? 202 00:12:54,360 --> 00:12:57,080 Got a couple English teachers that are like, yeah, what that 203 00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,880 means is it means that this passage is not about what we are 204 00:13:00,880 --> 00:13:05,520 doing, but what God is doing to us. 205 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:12,320 It means that this passage is about God's activity, not our 206 00:13:12,320 --> 00:13:14,800 activity. So another way of saying it 207 00:13:14,800 --> 00:13:20,480 would be let God make you strong or I like better abide in Christ 208 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:25,400 and his strength. What Paul is saying is that we 209 00:13:25,400 --> 00:13:30,240 are to have faith, faith in God's strength to care for us. 210 00:13:30,480 --> 00:13:36,400 The word might in this verse also is the word Kratos OK, 211 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:40,040 which means power, strength. And This is why I want you to to 212 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,560 know that word because Paul has used it earlier in the letter as 213 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:46,120 well. He uses it in verse 119. 214 00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:48,960 And what is the boundless greatness of His power towards 215 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:53,240 us who believe these are in accordance with the workings of 216 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:58,200 His strength of his Kratos? OK. 217 00:13:59,840 --> 00:14:04,080 In the first part of the letter, Paul is making an invitation to 218 00:14:04,080 --> 00:14:08,280 know God's strength, right? He wants you to know God's 219 00:14:08,280 --> 00:14:10,560 strength. At the end of the letter, Paul's 220 00:14:10,560 --> 00:14:13,840 invitation is to live into that strength. 221 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:18,520 It is knowledge versus wisdom. It's orthodoxy versus 222 00:14:18,520 --> 00:14:21,280 orthoproxy. It is knowing how to play the 223 00:14:21,280 --> 00:14:25,160 game versus playing the game. Do we have any armchair 224 00:14:25,160 --> 00:14:30,080 quarterbacks in the room? What Paul is saying is stop 225 00:14:30,080 --> 00:14:32,720 being an armchair quarterback. Some of you have a lot of 226 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:35,600 opinions about how to live the Christian faith and are not 227 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,320 living it. So Paul is saying that it's not 228 00:14:39,320 --> 00:14:43,280 just about wanting to know God, but it is knowing God 229 00:14:43,280 --> 00:14:45,200 relationally. OK. 230 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:49,040 This is the essence of faith. Dallas Willard, one of my 231 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,840 favorite teachers, talks about that belief is not faith. 232 00:14:52,840 --> 00:14:55,000 Anybody can believe. The demons believe, right? 233 00:14:55,240 --> 00:15:00,280 It becomes faith when you begin to act into your belief. 234 00:15:00,800 --> 00:15:04,480 That's the essence of faith. God is not looking for you to 235 00:15:04,480 --> 00:15:08,920 only be strong on your own. He is looking for you to have an 236 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:14,280 abiding strength. Paul beats this drum all through 237 00:15:14,280 --> 00:15:17,000 his letters, right? This idea of it's not on you 238 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:19,600 when you get saved. It's not on you to develop these 239 00:15:19,600 --> 00:15:22,640 abilities. OK, he wants you to lean into 240 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:25,400 the Father have faith as he gives you it. 241 00:15:25,560 --> 00:15:29,520 OK, Second Timothy 21 you therefore my son, be strong in 242 00:15:29,520 --> 00:15:32,480 the grace that is Christ Jesus. Notice it. 243 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:35,160 It's be strong what he doesn't stop it there with a period. 244 00:15:35,160 --> 00:15:38,440 He says in the grace that is in Christ. 245 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:41,640 Other verses talk about have joy. 246 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:46,360 Is it a period there? No, it's in the Lord, my 247 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:48,600 friends. The reason He does not want you 248 00:15:48,600 --> 00:15:51,200 to have strength on your own is at the end of the day, your 249 00:15:51,200 --> 00:15:56,240 faith may fail. At the end of the day, your joy 250 00:15:56,240 --> 00:15:58,120 may fail. There is a limit. 251 00:15:59,560 --> 00:16:02,920 He doesn't want you living off of the stream of your own 252 00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:05,240 strength and joy. He wants you living out of the 253 00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:10,240 deep well of His own. OK, it's like this. 254 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:14,640 My daughter is is learning how to cross the street right now. 255 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:19,320 But we park at daycare across the street and every time we 256 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:23,720 have to say stop, don't go because she doesn't know about 257 00:16:23,720 --> 00:16:27,520 cars, she doesn't know about the danger, she doesn't know about 258 00:16:27,520 --> 00:16:31,800 looking both ways. And so my instruction to her is 259 00:16:31,800 --> 00:16:35,920 stop and hold dad's hand, right? I don't want my daughter to just 260 00:16:35,920 --> 00:16:37,560 know how to cross the street right now. 261 00:16:37,560 --> 00:16:40,560 I want her to know that I need to help her cross the street. 262 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,640 God is not looking for you to know all of the problems in the 263 00:16:44,640 --> 00:16:46,920 world, to handle all the problems in the world. 264 00:16:46,920 --> 00:16:51,920 He's looking for you to take His hand and to walk alongside him. 265 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:58,560 So how are we to do this? How are we to have this abiding 266 00:16:58,560 --> 00:17:02,280 strength with Jesus? Well, Ephesians 611 gives us 267 00:17:02,280 --> 00:17:05,040 some instruction. Put on the full armor of God. 268 00:17:05,520 --> 00:17:07,319 Why? So that you will be able to 269 00:17:07,319 --> 00:17:09,920 stand firm against the schemes of the devil. 270 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:15,599 Now, before we go any further, I, I want to acknowledge 271 00:17:15,599 --> 00:17:18,800 something. For a lot of us, the moments a 272 00:17:18,800 --> 00:17:22,280 preacher or a teacher or anybody really starts talking about 273 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:25,880 devils, demons or spiritual warfare, we get a little bit 274 00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,440 uncomfortable. Nod your head if you you agree, 275 00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:30,280 kind of get a little uncomfortable about the subject, 276 00:17:30,280 --> 00:17:32,280 right. And I get it right. 277 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,080 Like for most of my walk in the last 30 years, I did not have a 278 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:39,160 a theology for it. I didn't have a way of like 279 00:17:39,160 --> 00:17:42,000 connecting my life to it. Most of the time I had like my 280 00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:44,520 walk with Jesus and my discipleship in spiritual 281 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,600 warfare was over here. Like I know it's real, but I 282 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:53,840 don't know how it connects. And the reason is, I think, is 283 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,400 because most of us have had a schizophrenic relationship with 284 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,280 the demonic. What do I mean by that? 285 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:04,240 I'm gonna let CS Lewis say it for me. 286 00:18:04,600 --> 00:18:09,080 There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can 287 00:18:09,080 --> 00:18:13,080 fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their 288 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:16,360 existence. The other is to believe and to 289 00:18:16,360 --> 00:18:19,200 feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. 290 00:18:19,920 --> 00:18:23,760 So what he's saying is, is that you and I, we live in a modern 291 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,000 age, right? You have an iPhone in your 292 00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:29,000 pocket, you drive a car. You're able to get any 293 00:18:29,000 --> 00:18:32,040 information you need in a, in a moment's notice. 294 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,680 If you need to talk to an expert, you have ChatGPT right 295 00:18:35,680 --> 00:18:39,240 there for you. OK, so the idea of like a, a 296 00:18:39,240 --> 00:18:42,960 spiritual evil kind of sounds like primitive, right? 297 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:47,720 Embarrassing or, or something from a less educated age. 298 00:18:48,880 --> 00:18:52,520 It's this idea that CS Lewis would call chronological 299 00:18:52,520 --> 00:18:56,680 snobbery. But on the other hand, when we 300 00:18:56,680 --> 00:18:59,840 do think of the demonic, even if we don't believe in it, when we 301 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:04,200 think about it, we've allowed things like Hollywood to inform 302 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:08,000 our imagination. We have this idea that like 303 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:11,840 demons are possessing people in beds and causing them to spit up 304 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:14,760 pea soup. Or maybe the demon is the yellow 305 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:16,880 eyes I see in the dark corner of my room. 306 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:20,040 Or maybe the demons are like throwing people and stuff all 307 00:19:20,040 --> 00:19:22,920 over the place and causing great harm and I need an exorcist 308 00:19:22,920 --> 00:19:25,560 immediately to stop it from destroying my house. 309 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:31,520 Our imaginations, if we're honest, have been formed more by 310 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:34,680 Hollywood about this subject than what Jesus has to say. 311 00:19:37,640 --> 00:19:42,160 The worst one of all, honestly, for most of us is the idea of 312 00:19:42,160 --> 00:19:48,600 Satan as a red guy with horns. All of those are bad pictures. 313 00:19:49,480 --> 00:19:52,960 And so we need to have a better idea if we're going to be able 314 00:19:52,960 --> 00:19:58,120 to fight this battle. OK, so honestly, when I was 315 00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,720 studying for this, I was more and more realizing this is a 316 00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:04,560 sermon series, not a sermon. There is so much to talk about 317 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:09,520 on this subject, but we only have an hour because I'm going 318 00:20:09,520 --> 00:20:14,240 to preach for an hour. We got like 20 minutes. 319 00:20:16,120 --> 00:20:19,320 So what I'm going to do instead is I am going to talk to you 320 00:20:19,320 --> 00:20:22,520 about what are a few of the basic things that Scripture have 321 00:20:22,520 --> 00:20:24,360 to say. And then at the end of the 322 00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:27,000 sermon I'll give you a couple of resources if you're interested 323 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:29,080 in learning more. Does that sound good? 324 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:37,560 OK, so first thing, where should you and I get our source of 325 00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:41,760 truth? Well, for me, as a disciple of 326 00:20:41,760 --> 00:20:44,840 Jesus, I believe Jesus is our creator, our sustainer. 327 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:47,920 He knows everything there is to say about the universe. 328 00:20:47,920 --> 00:20:50,800 He's the source of wisdom. So the place we should start is 329 00:20:50,800 --> 00:20:53,440 probably what he has to say about the devil. 330 00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:56,440 Agree. Is that scientifically, would 331 00:20:56,440 --> 00:20:57,560 you guys agree it's probably good? 332 00:20:57,560 --> 00:20:58,200 Yeah. Thumbs up. 333 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:05,720 OK, so John 848 is where we are going to begin. 334 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:10,120 He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in 335 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:12,280 the truth because there is no truth in him. 336 00:21:12,520 --> 00:21:15,840 Whenever he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature 337 00:21:15,840 --> 00:21:19,240 because he is a liar and the father of lies. 338 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:21,840 OK, so two things that we're going to talk about. 339 00:21:21,840 --> 00:21:29,280 First that Jesus has to say. First, he is a murderer, OK? 340 00:21:29,280 --> 00:21:32,640 He's bent on destruction. His whole goal is to tear God's 341 00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:35,360 creation down. And John Mark Comer says in his 342 00:21:35,360 --> 00:21:38,640 book Live No Lies, the devil is the archetypal villain who is 343 00:21:38,640 --> 00:21:42,320 hell bent on destruction. He just wants to watch the world 344 00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:46,240 burn. His motto is tear it all down. 345 00:21:49,960 --> 00:21:53,600 Marriages, tear him down. Trust, tear it down. 346 00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:56,640 Joy, tear it down. Love, peace, happiness, tear it 347 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:58,840 down. Your ability to abide with 348 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:02,800 Christ, distract them and tear it down. 349 00:22:05,240 --> 00:22:09,560 But the way he does this, OK, is really specific according to 350 00:22:09,560 --> 00:22:13,920 Jesus. And he says that Satan is the 351 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:20,680 father of lies, which means the primary strategy of the enemy is 352 00:22:20,680 --> 00:22:24,960 not usually dramatic possession. It is deception. 353 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:31,560 OK, The enemy's primary weapon in your life is lies. 354 00:22:32,160 --> 00:22:34,760 And I, I would agree with this because how to say and operate, 355 00:22:34,760 --> 00:22:36,640 we can look at John 3 and Matthew 4. 356 00:22:36,640 --> 00:22:39,360 We're not going to turn there, but just real quick, go look on 357 00:22:39,360 --> 00:22:42,560 it on your own. Genesis 3, the serpent comes to 358 00:22:42,560 --> 00:22:45,760 Eve and he doesn't have like this giant weapon. 359 00:22:45,760 --> 00:22:47,720 He doesn't have like magic spells or something. 360 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:52,320 He begins with just a question. Did God really say he begins to 361 00:22:52,320 --> 00:22:54,960 bend reality? He's distorting God's word, He's 362 00:22:54,960 --> 00:22:57,960 distorting God's character. He's distorting the meaning of 363 00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,480 freedom. And then in Matthew 4, when 364 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,080 Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, that same pattern 365 00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:06,360 shows up. The devil comes to Jesus not 366 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:09,520 mainly with like brute force, but with ideas. 367 00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:13,840 Hey, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. 368 00:23:13,840 --> 00:23:15,080 The angels are going to catch you. 369 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:20,680 Hey, bow down and worship me. Every temptation is a false 370 00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:25,560 story about reality. Satan is giving false stories 371 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:30,040 about identity, about appetite, about power, about trust. 372 00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:38,240 Satan is giving false stories, lies, or ideas. 373 00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:41,080 And here's why this is important. 374 00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:46,960 Ideas are the building block of how you and I live, Dallas 375 00:23:46,960 --> 00:23:49,920 Willard says. We live in a world of ideas and 376 00:23:49,920 --> 00:23:53,520 everyday we navigate the world by faith. 377 00:23:55,200 --> 00:23:57,160 OK, so let me give give an example. 378 00:23:57,280 --> 00:24:01,760 OK, our ideas build mental maps that we live out of, right? 379 00:24:02,480 --> 00:24:06,120 OK, yes, we'll talk about more. So for example, you need to go 380 00:24:06,120 --> 00:24:09,440 to work in the morning. You have a mental map of how to 381 00:24:09,440 --> 00:24:11,400 get there. You have ideas of how it's going 382 00:24:11,400 --> 00:24:13,000 to work. You're going to drive down Main 383 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,560 Street, turn right at the light and then pull into my parking 384 00:24:16,560 --> 00:24:18,160 lot. You have ideas about that and 385 00:24:18,160 --> 00:24:21,760 it's formed a mental map of how you will get there. 386 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:24,200 You have mental maps about how you're what you're going to do 387 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,160 about when you get home to relax. 388 00:24:26,320 --> 00:24:29,320 For some of you, you want to take off your shoes and turn on 389 00:24:29,320 --> 00:24:31,520 the office and just veg out for a little bit. 390 00:24:32,360 --> 00:24:35,600 For some of you, it's it's getting a hug from your spouse 391 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:37,920 or maybe getting a good drink from the fridge. 392 00:24:38,200 --> 00:24:41,960 Those are all ideas, but they're forming a mental map of how you 393 00:24:41,960 --> 00:24:44,880 are going to be restful at the end of the day. 394 00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,480 But these can be really simple, like how we drive to work. 395 00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:57,640 But they can also be more complex, like I need to be in 396 00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:01,800 control in order to be safe. That's going to form a mental 397 00:25:01,800 --> 00:25:04,280 map of how you live. OK. 398 00:25:04,800 --> 00:25:07,840 I need to always be on call, willing to do whatever the other 399 00:25:07,840 --> 00:25:10,640 person wants in order for me to be loved. 400 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,120 That's an idea that forms a mental map of how you can live. 401 00:25:15,640 --> 00:25:20,560 OK, we have mental maps about money, about our own bodies, 402 00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:25,000 about what love requires, about what successes, about your 403 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,800 identity. We all have mental maps that 404 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:33,160 lead us to live in certain ways that are built on ideas. 405 00:25:33,600 --> 00:25:37,120 Willard would go on to say. We truly live at the mercy of 406 00:25:37,120 --> 00:25:43,520 our ideas. And if that's true, if you and I 407 00:25:43,520 --> 00:25:46,720 are living at the mercy of ideas, if the mental maps are 408 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,840 made out of them, we want to live out of the true ones, not 409 00:25:51,240 --> 00:25:53,760 the lies, right? So think for a moment. 410 00:25:53,760 --> 00:25:56,960 If you are on your way to work and you have an idea of how to 411 00:25:56,960 --> 00:25:59,520 get there, you want to have the right way, right? 412 00:26:01,440 --> 00:26:03,920 You don't want to turn left at the at the light. 413 00:26:04,000 --> 00:26:05,960 If you have that idea, are you getting to work? 414 00:26:06,840 --> 00:26:09,760 No, you need to have right ideas. 415 00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:12,400 And so guys, This is why lies are such a problem. 416 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:15,360 Lies are not just incorrect statements, they are a false 417 00:26:15,360 --> 00:26:18,800 version of reality that will begin to live inside you and 418 00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:23,480 affect the way you live life. You will begin to live at odds 419 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:28,280 with what actually is. The problem is not just the lies 420 00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:31,840 we tell, it's the lies that you and I live on a daily basis. 421 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:36,800 I am what I accomplish. I am what people think of me. 422 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:40,720 I'm defined by my desires. If I forgive that person, 423 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:43,440 they're going to win. God is disappointed in me. 424 00:26:43,680 --> 00:26:47,600 I'm too far gone. I am alone. 425 00:26:48,240 --> 00:26:53,520 These are more than thoughts. These are what Paul and 426 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:59,000 Ephesians call flaming arrows. This means that spiritual 427 00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,160 warfare is not Lord of the Rings. 428 00:27:01,720 --> 00:27:07,000 It's not the Battle of Helms Deep with us standing on the on 429 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:11,600 the wall, sword ready armor on the enemies at the gate. 430 00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:15,400 It's raining, it's dark, there's epic music, and I'm surrounded 431 00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:17,800 by my brothers and sisters ready to fight the battle. 432 00:27:19,320 --> 00:27:23,000 Maybe sometimes it's a little like that, but what it's much 433 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:31,400 more like is a Russian spy spreading disinformation online, 434 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,640 causing some people to believe lies and the rest of us to 435 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:47,200 question what is even true. Often it is an invasive animated 436 00:27:47,200 --> 00:27:50,440 thought. Have you ever experienced that 437 00:27:50,440 --> 00:27:55,280 before, where you're sitting alone, maybe reading, maybe 438 00:27:55,280 --> 00:27:59,720 watching TV or something, and if you are honest, a thought comes 439 00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,840 into your head that you were not even thinking about and it 440 00:28:02,840 --> 00:28:11,400 doesn't even sound like you. This is why John Mark Comer also 441 00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:15,040 says and live no lies. Jesus sees our primary war 442 00:28:15,040 --> 00:28:20,120 against the devil as a fight to believe truth over lies. 443 00:28:21,440 --> 00:28:26,120 Our battle, my friends, is over the very ideas in which we live 444 00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:34,200 over truth and lies. Let's continue verse 12. 445 00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:37,960 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the 446 00:28:37,960 --> 00:28:42,160 rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this 447 00:28:42,160 --> 00:28:45,640 darkness, against the spiritual forecasts of wickedness in the 448 00:28:45,640 --> 00:28:48,800 heavenly places. Here's here's the deal, my 449 00:28:48,800 --> 00:28:51,280 friends. There's one idea we have to get 450 00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:55,040 really right, and that is who is my enemy. 451 00:28:56,640 --> 00:29:01,760 Because who you decide your enemy is, is going to define who 452 00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,280 you're going to treat as a human and who you're not going to 453 00:29:04,280 --> 00:29:08,920 treat as inhuman. Because you and I naturally 454 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:13,760 treat our enemies with disdain. We want them removed. 455 00:29:15,200 --> 00:29:19,200 Some of us want them dead. We treat them as objects. 456 00:29:20,200 --> 00:29:23,160 This is the definition of dehumanisation. 457 00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:29,640 This is this is the idea that got in Nazi Germany right back 458 00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:32,720 before World War One. Germany was a happening place. 459 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,760 It was a height of culture. It was a height of the church. 460 00:29:35,760 --> 00:29:40,400 There was so much super good Christian information, biblical 461 00:29:40,400 --> 00:29:43,400 studies and stuff coming out of the German church. 462 00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:49,680 But this one idea slid in that was the Jews are always coming 463 00:29:49,680 --> 00:29:52,800 on top. Why do the Jews always have what 464 00:29:52,800 --> 00:29:55,920 I don't have? Why are the Jews always getting 465 00:29:55,920 --> 00:30:00,600 in my way? And that idea it it may have 466 00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:04,280 started small, but it spread through the culture. 467 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:08,320 And that's why someone like Hitler was able to get to power 468 00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:13,720 and to change the way of a nation to kill millions of 469 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:19,200 people with just an idea of who my enemy is. 470 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:23,560 This idea effects how we treat people today. 471 00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,760 It it affects how we treat immigrants that come into our 472 00:30:27,760 --> 00:30:31,640 country. Do we look at them as lost 473 00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:35,160 people looking for hope? Or do we treat them as invaders 474 00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,800 that need to be sent away? It's how we talk about our 475 00:30:39,800 --> 00:30:44,240 political our political rivals, about people on the opposite 476 00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:46,040 side. You had Donald Trump this week. 477 00:30:46,040 --> 00:30:49,320 Call them Democrats again. Or Democrats. 478 00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:53,800 You have Hillary Clinton refer to Republicans as a basket of 479 00:30:53,800 --> 00:30:57,480 deplorables. Pew Research found that the 480 00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:01,200 growing shares of Republican and Democrats describe people in the 481 00:31:01,360 --> 00:31:05,760 following ways. close minded, dishonest, immoral and 482 00:31:05,760 --> 00:31:11,760 unintelligent. Just listen to those ideas and 483 00:31:11,760 --> 00:31:14,080 think about like our nation was built on the idea that we were 484 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:18,680 to come together, even if we disagree, to be able to to find 485 00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:22,240 middle ground that would that would cause prosperity for us 486 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:25,280 all. How do you and I live into that? 487 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:28,800 If the idea we have is the other side is dishonest, immoral and 488 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:34,720 unintelligent? When we believe that another 489 00:31:34,720 --> 00:31:40,000 person is not human, will will gossip about them, will become a 490 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:44,320 voyeur of their story, Not considering their story causes 491 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:47,520 them pain and hurt themselves, but instead use it for our own 492 00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:50,440 gratification, a type of pornography. 493 00:31:50,440 --> 00:31:52,520 And let's talk about pornography for just a second. 494 00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:56,320 Pornography only happens because the person on the screen is not 495 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,000 a person but an object for your desire. 496 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:02,960 So you need to consider how do you talk about your neighbors? 497 00:32:02,960 --> 00:32:04,280 How do you talk about Co workers? 498 00:32:04,280 --> 00:32:07,440 How do you talk about family? Who are the enemies in your 499 00:32:07,440 --> 00:32:11,640 life? Paul is saying that no flesh and 500 00:32:11,640 --> 00:32:15,160 blood human is an enemy. In fact, you have one enemy and 501 00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:24,040 it is Cosmo Kratos, the world powers spiritual beings, those 502 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:29,560 spiritual beings that we find in Genesis 6 on through to to the 503 00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:33,040 book of Daniel, right In Daniel, they have the weird story where 504 00:32:33,240 --> 00:32:36,840 Daniel is praying on the floor for his people and himself and 505 00:32:36,840 --> 00:32:38,480 he's praying for help and rescue. 506 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:41,440 And it takes a couple weeks and then an Angel comes to him and 507 00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:45,480 says, I am so sorry that I am late, but I was stopped by the 508 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:49,760 Prince of Persia. What a little weird, right? 509 00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,160 It's those same spiritual beings that Paul was referencing 510 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:59,560 earlier in the, the the book. And look at where the battle 511 00:32:59,560 --> 00:33:02,600 takes place in this passage. It's not, it's, it's the 512 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:06,160 heavenly realms, which is not to say up in the sky like it does 513 00:33:06,160 --> 00:33:08,480 not affect us. But Paul when he talks about the 514 00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,200 heavenly realms earlier in the letter, he was talking about 515 00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:14,200 that's where Jesus rules and influences your life and 516 00:33:14,200 --> 00:33:16,560 empowers you and loves you. It's, it's everything that's 517 00:33:16,560 --> 00:33:18,320 around you, the spiritual realm around you. 518 00:33:19,040 --> 00:33:20,640 And that's where the battle is happening. 519 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:23,920 Is it in a spiritual world right around you that is affecting 520 00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:29,080 things? I know it's a little weird. 521 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:31,880 Do we all just like acknowledge it is a little weird? 522 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:35,280 I think Jesus knew that and that's why he didn't have a lot 523 00:33:35,280 --> 00:33:40,800 to say about it. It's like this. 524 00:33:41,240 --> 00:33:44,680 My final example, do we have him up on the screen? 525 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:49,960 This is Gollum. This is Gollum in The Lord of 526 00:33:49,960 --> 00:33:52,280 the Rings. Gollum is a miserable, terrible 527 00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,760 person, right? He is obsessed with the ring and 528 00:33:55,760 --> 00:33:59,680 is willing to lie, cheat, and steal anyway in order to get the 529 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,200 ring. In Frodo, one of the main 530 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:05,800 characters is trying to carry the ring to Mordor. 531 00:34:05,960 --> 00:34:10,120 He says what he thinks about Gollum to Gandalf the wizard. 532 00:34:10,239 --> 00:34:16,520 He says I hate him, I wish he had never been born, and Gandalf 533 00:34:16,520 --> 00:34:20,880 reminds him that Gollum is to be pitied because Gollum is not the 534 00:34:20,880 --> 00:34:22,920 bad guy, the bad guy is the ring. 535 00:34:23,440 --> 00:34:27,000 The Ring is what did it to Gollum, and it's later on in the 536 00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:30,400 story that Frodo encounters the ring in terrible ways that 537 00:34:30,400 --> 00:34:35,560 almost begin to deform him. You and I need to have a good 538 00:34:35,560 --> 00:34:39,840 definition of what our enemy is. So what are we to do? 539 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,880 Take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist 540 00:34:43,880 --> 00:34:47,760 on the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. 541 00:34:48,679 --> 00:34:54,040 OK, we tend to get stuck when studying the armor of God 542 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:58,120 because we get lost in studying the individual pieces. 543 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:01,400 OK, how many of you went to Sunday School and think you 544 00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:04,200 could name a few? A few of you, right? 545 00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:08,520 And it's not bad, but we get lost in what the functions of 546 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:12,720 the pieces of the armor of God are instead of the illustration 547 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:16,000 that Paul is using. OK, Paul is using a really 548 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:20,600 specific illustration for an abiding relationship with God. 549 00:35:20,920 --> 00:35:24,760 Let me show you some scripture to show you that that the armor 550 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:29,000 of God is an illustration, not a individual practice you're 551 00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:32,760 supposed to just do everyday. OK, so Paul uses same language 552 00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,840 in Ephesians 424 and to put on the new self. 553 00:35:36,840 --> 00:35:40,200 It's the exact same phrase as the armor of God, which in the 554 00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:43,720 likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of 555 00:35:43,720 --> 00:35:46,880 truth. The same image is used in Romans 556 00:35:46,880 --> 00:35:49,320 1312. The night is almost gone and the 557 00:35:49,320 --> 00:35:52,120 day is near. Therefore, let's get rid of 558 00:35:52,320 --> 00:35:56,520 ourselves of the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of 559 00:35:56,520 --> 00:35:59,200 light. OK, both of these are an 560 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:02,240 illustration. It's not about the armor itself. 561 00:36:02,480 --> 00:36:05,720 Now you want something that will really blow your mind is that 562 00:36:05,720 --> 00:36:08,920 Ephesians is not the first time the armor of God shows up. 563 00:36:09,080 --> 00:36:12,680 But in fact, Paul is referencing something in the Old Testament. 564 00:36:12,800 --> 00:36:15,040 It's like if you look down at your Bible and it was a web 565 00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:18,800 page, you had a little blue font on the word with the nice little 566 00:36:18,800 --> 00:36:21,640 underline. You could click on the pieces of 567 00:36:21,640 --> 00:36:25,040 the armor of God and you get a passage like Isaiah 11/5. 568 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,520 Also righteousness will be a belt around his hips and 569 00:36:29,520 --> 00:36:32,440 faithfulness the belt around his waist. 570 00:36:32,640 --> 00:36:36,800 Or Isaiah 52, seven how delightful on the mountains are 571 00:36:36,800 --> 00:36:40,680 the feet of those who bring good news or the gospel who announce 572 00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:43,960 peace and bring good news of happiness, who announce 573 00:36:43,960 --> 00:36:48,360 salvation and the says to Zion, your God reigns. 574 00:36:48,640 --> 00:36:52,120 What all of those are saying are those pieces of the armor of God 575 00:36:52,400 --> 00:36:54,600 are the pieces that God wears himself. 576 00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:57,800 So how are we supposed to understand this? 577 00:36:58,160 --> 00:37:02,080 Snodgrass wrote a commentary that post both Pastor Ben and I 578 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:03,440 used throughout this sermon series. 579 00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:04,840 We love it. We'd highly recommend it if 580 00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:06,360 you're looking to do a more in depth study. 581 00:37:06,680 --> 00:37:09,400 And he says that the ways we look at the armor of God are 582 00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:12,920 three. Either the armor God provides, 583 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:17,280 the armor that God himself wears, or the armor as God 584 00:37:17,280 --> 00:37:22,960 himself. OK, all of that is to say, the 585 00:37:22,960 --> 00:37:26,920 Armor of God is an illustration for our abiding relationship 586 00:37:26,920 --> 00:37:32,280 with God. OK, so let's look at the pieces 587 00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:36,360 with that in mind. Verse 14 Stand firm, therefore, 588 00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,160 having belted your waist with truth, and having put on the 589 00:37:39,160 --> 00:37:42,400 breastplate of righteousness, and having strapped on your feet 590 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,720 the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all taking 591 00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:49,480 up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to 592 00:37:49,480 --> 00:37:52,920 extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil. 1 And take 593 00:37:52,920 --> 00:37:55,760 the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is 594 00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,920 the word of God. Again, this is not about the 595 00:37:59,920 --> 00:38:05,240 mechanism, OK? Because if we treat it that way, 596 00:38:05,240 --> 00:38:08,920 we begin to think, if I can just believe hard enough, then I'll 597 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,280 be protected. If I can just quote enough Bible 598 00:38:11,280 --> 00:38:14,360 verses, then I'll be safe. If I could just muster up enough 599 00:38:14,360 --> 00:38:16,920 spiritual discipline, then I can stand. 600 00:38:17,120 --> 00:38:19,080 But that's not what Paul is talking about. 601 00:38:19,280 --> 00:38:23,000 The armor of God is not primarily primarily a list of 602 00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,800 things you can do for God. It is a picture of what God has 603 00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:31,800 done for you in Christ. Each pieces of the armor is 604 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:37,160 relationship language about your faith in Him, your trust in Him. 605 00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:40,720 You are going to Him and knowing He is in control. 606 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:43,800 For example, the shield of faith does not mean that your 607 00:38:43,800 --> 00:38:46,640 subjective ability to believe is what protects you. 608 00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:51,160 That would be crushing because some days your faith feels 609 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:55,160 strong and other days your faith feels thin. 610 00:38:55,840 --> 00:38:57,480 It's not A Great Grass puts it this way. 611 00:38:57,760 --> 00:39:01,920 The faith protect that protects is not to suggest that humans 612 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:04,320 protect themselves by the power to believe. 613 00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:09,000 To speak of faith is not to focus on human belief, but on 614 00:39:09,000 --> 00:39:12,720 the faithfulness of God. What protects us from the arrows 615 00:39:12,720 --> 00:39:15,840 of the evil 1 is our relationship with God. 616 00:39:16,240 --> 00:39:18,880 This is what's important. What protects you is not the 617 00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:21,880 strength of your grip on God, but the strength of God's grip 618 00:39:21,880 --> 00:39:24,920 on you. The shield is not ultimately I 619 00:39:24,920 --> 00:39:27,440 believe enough. The shield is I belong to the 620 00:39:27,440 --> 00:39:32,400 faithful. 1 So when the arrows come, accusations of shame and 621 00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:37,000 fear and condemnation and despair, you don't answer them 622 00:39:37,000 --> 00:39:39,640 by saying, Do I have enough faith? 623 00:39:40,240 --> 00:39:43,920 You answer them by looking outside of yourself to Christ 624 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,800 and saying He is faithful. He has died for me, He has rose 625 00:39:47,800 --> 00:39:52,200 again for me, He intercedes for me, and I am his. 626 00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:57,000 This is the shield. And the same is true of the 627 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,680 sword of the Spirit. When Paul says the sword of the 628 00:39:59,680 --> 00:40:03,360 Spirit, which is the word of God, he is not simply saying 629 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,360 memorize a bunch of Bible verses and throw them at your problems. 630 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:09,920 That would be like Harry Potter with like incantations and 631 00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,120 spells. Now of course the Scripture 632 00:40:12,120 --> 00:40:14,880 matters. Jesus himself uses it in his 633 00:40:15,200 --> 00:40:18,880 resisting the enemy. But the word here, the word here 634 00:40:18,880 --> 00:40:24,360 Paul uses is Rhema. Which always is used in the New 635 00:40:24,360 --> 00:40:29,720 Testament for a a word about the gospel. 636 00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:33,560 So the sword of the Spirit is not merely religious 637 00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:36,960 information, it is the gospel announced, believed, prayed and 638 00:40:36,960 --> 00:40:39,200 spoken into the lies of the enemy. 639 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:42,280 When the enemy says you're condemned, you say there is no 640 00:40:42,280 --> 00:40:45,600 condemnation in Jesus Christ. The enemy says you're alone. 641 00:40:45,720 --> 00:40:48,400 You say I have been adopted through Jesus Christ. 642 00:40:48,400 --> 00:40:51,640 When the enemy says sin defines you, you say, listen, I have 643 00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,040 been washed, sealed and made alive in Christ. 644 00:40:55,440 --> 00:40:58,520 You see, the the armor is not mainly about self-defense. 645 00:40:58,520 --> 00:41:04,960 It is about union with Christ. So Paul is not saying go out and 646 00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:07,120 become strong enough to fight the devil. 647 00:41:07,320 --> 00:41:10,600 He is saying put on Christ, stand in Christ, speak Christ, 648 00:41:10,760 --> 00:41:12,920 rest in the faithfulness of Christ. 649 00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:16,600 Because in the end, the only thing that can withstand the 650 00:41:16,840 --> 00:41:20,320 eyes of the enemy is not your resolve, is not your strength, 651 00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:25,040 is not your willpower, is the faithful, finished, unshakable 652 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:31,720 work of Jesus Christ. Now you are instructed to do one 653 00:41:31,720 --> 00:41:36,080 thing in verse 18 with every prayer request, pray at all 654 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:39,200 times in the Spirit. And with this in view be alert 655 00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:42,400 with all perseverance, with every request for all the 656 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:46,800 Saints, and pray in my behalf that speech may be given to me 657 00:41:46,800 --> 00:41:49,920 in the opening of my mouth. To make known with boldness the 658 00:41:49,920 --> 00:41:54,040 mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, 659 00:41:54,520 --> 00:41:58,480 that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to 660 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,760 speak. When you're reading a passage in 661 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:06,080 Scripture, a really good skill to develop is looking for the 662 00:42:06,080 --> 00:42:09,280 repeated phrases, right? So when the writers of Scripture 663 00:42:09,280 --> 00:42:11,680 or writing Scripture, they don't underline, they don't bold, they 664 00:42:11,680 --> 00:42:13,720 don't highlight, they repeat phrases. 665 00:42:13,720 --> 00:42:16,880 So when you see a repeated word, you can take your highlighter 666 00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:19,120 out and say, oh, look, that is an important word. 667 00:42:19,360 --> 00:42:22,920 And the word prayer here appears four times. 668 00:42:23,600 --> 00:42:27,680 So spiritual warfare is, again, not about you and I wishing 669 00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:30,640 against the enemy, right? Paul's not saying, hey, guys, 670 00:42:30,640 --> 00:42:33,560 wishing all things, be alert and wish it all away. 671 00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:35,840 Wish that the enemy would stop attacking you. 672 00:42:36,040 --> 00:42:39,240 Wish that that lust would stop, Wish that you know you'd stop 673 00:42:39,240 --> 00:42:44,520 eating too much food. No, he says, pray. 674 00:42:45,320 --> 00:42:47,800 The difference between a wish and a prayer is a wish is you 675 00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,680 hoping something will happen. Praying is going to the one that 676 00:42:50,680 --> 00:42:55,920 can make it happen. And so as children, we have an 677 00:42:55,920 --> 00:42:58,280 abiding relationship with Christ, praying to him. 678 00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:01,240 Father help me Father protect me. 679 00:43:02,720 --> 00:43:07,680 So to sum up, I was struggling with an end for the sermon 680 00:43:07,680 --> 00:43:09,280 because there's just so much there to say. 681 00:43:10,560 --> 00:43:13,320 And this is what I think I want you guys to walk away with. 682 00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:19,400 I want you to walk away with with let me rephrase this. 683 00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:26,280 When Jesus taught, at the end of his teachings, he always gave 684 00:43:26,280 --> 00:43:29,640 either a practice to go and do or a question to ask. 685 00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:32,880 And so I want to ask the question, what lies are you 686 00:43:32,880 --> 00:43:36,640 believing today? What are the ideas that are 687 00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:41,360 driving your life? And whenever, whenever I preach, 688 00:43:41,360 --> 00:43:44,560 I always sit down and I I try to say, where have I lived into 689 00:43:44,560 --> 00:43:46,760 this? And so I had to sit down this 690 00:43:46,760 --> 00:43:49,040 week and I had to say, what lies have I believed? 691 00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:54,720 And I was taken back to being 8 years old, going to a birthday 692 00:43:54,720 --> 00:44:00,520 party and, and being told I was the weird kid and having no one 693 00:44:00,520 --> 00:44:05,040 want to play with me. And then taken to to 6th grade 694 00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:07,080 when I I was homeschooled and I went to public school for the 695 00:44:07,080 --> 00:44:09,720 first time and I heard the same thing again. 696 00:44:09,720 --> 00:44:13,440 And you're kind of weird. I had a teacher say that to me 697 00:44:13,440 --> 00:44:16,520 and you're kind of weird. And spent a lot of 6th grade 698 00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:21,000 alone, which took me to when I was 14 and went to summer camp 699 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:24,120 and spent the time by myself. And I had a friend and I know he 700 00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:26,480 meant it jokingly, but he said maybe no one likes you. 701 00:44:28,720 --> 00:44:31,600 And I felt that at 18 years old. I felt that when I went to 702 00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:37,800 college and I majored in theatre because of this idea that nobody 703 00:44:37,800 --> 00:44:40,360 likes me so maybe I should go and be someone else. 704 00:44:42,680 --> 00:44:45,240 I felt that in my dating life, no one really liked me. 705 00:44:46,280 --> 00:44:48,520 The first six months of my marriage, my relationship with 706 00:44:48,520 --> 00:44:52,200 my wife, I was waiting for her to leave me because people 707 00:44:52,200 --> 00:45:00,680 didn't really like me. If I'm really vulnerable, church 708 00:45:00,680 --> 00:45:05,040 planting the last year and a half was really hard, and there 709 00:45:05,040 --> 00:45:09,120 was an idea that popped up over and over and over and over again 710 00:45:09,520 --> 00:45:13,960 that no one really likes you. And man, it caused some real 711 00:45:13,960 --> 00:45:18,680 heartache for me, just that idea, that mental map breaking 712 00:45:18,680 --> 00:45:21,840 through into my life. And I said some things I'm not 713 00:45:21,840 --> 00:45:24,280 proud of because of it, and I did some things I'm not proud of 714 00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,240 because of it. And I got really wounded. 715 00:45:29,280 --> 00:45:33,600 But what helped me was not praying the armor of God against 716 00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:37,680 it. What helped me was finding my 717 00:45:37,680 --> 00:45:44,560 way back to abiding with Christ, to resting in His arms, to, to 718 00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:48,520 learning the phrase, I don't only like you, but I delight in 719 00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:50,840 you. That's the truth. 720 00:45:52,680 --> 00:45:55,080 And so my invitation for you is this practice. 721 00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:58,880 I want you to sit down this week and I want you to to think about 722 00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:00,840 what are the lies that I've believed? 723 00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:06,920 What are lies that have caused me to live in unhealthy ways or 724 00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:09,680 hurtful ways or ways that have hurt myself? 725 00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:14,800 And then I want to invite you to go to Scripture and begin 726 00:46:14,800 --> 00:46:17,160 reading it and seeing what's true, OK? 727 00:46:17,440 --> 00:46:19,800 If you don't know where to begin reading, start reading the 728 00:46:19,800 --> 00:46:21,440 Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. 729 00:46:21,920 --> 00:46:23,400 If you've read those, read them again. 730 00:46:24,240 --> 00:46:27,040 And then read the New Testament and then read the Old Testament. 731 00:46:27,040 --> 00:46:28,160 See, I fixed the problem for you. 732 00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:30,680 You know what to read on Monday, OK, or Tuesday. 733 00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:35,120 I know it's a holiday on Monday. And then I want you to pray that 734 00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:38,320 truth. I am liked. 735 00:46:38,720 --> 00:46:43,480 Not only am I liked, I am loved by my Father and he delights in 736 00:46:43,480 --> 00:46:45,680 me more than any person ever could. 737 00:46:45,920 --> 00:46:50,160 And my life lives out of that. OK, I said I'd give you a couple 738 00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:54,960 resources on spiritual warfare. Live No Lies for me was the book 739 00:46:54,960 --> 00:46:57,640 that helped me understand spiritual warfare in regards to 740 00:46:57,640 --> 00:46:59,800 my daily life. It stopped being just out here, 741 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:02,920 but it gave me a frame of reference for what's what the 742 00:47:02,920 --> 00:47:05,200 Bible actually says about it. Renovation of the heart is 743 00:47:05,200 --> 00:47:08,600 really good if you want to learn more about ideas, OK, if you're 744 00:47:08,600 --> 00:47:10,880 attracted to the idea of like my life is built on ideas. 745 00:47:10,880 --> 00:47:13,440 What does that mean for me? And then deliverance is kind of 746 00:47:13,640 --> 00:47:16,720 a a bigger view on spiritual warfare, kind of like an 747 00:47:16,720 --> 00:47:19,360 academic view. Another resource that we always 748 00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:24,520 recommend is Bible project podcasts, videos and stuff on 749 00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:27,160 the subject that are fantastic search spiritual beings and 750 00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:31,160 you've got it. But again, my, my will for you 751 00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:33,480 today is that you stop living out of the lies that you 752 00:47:33,480 --> 00:47:37,560 believe. We all have lies that we live 753 00:47:37,600 --> 00:47:41,560 out of. Some of them entered into our 754 00:47:41,640 --> 00:47:47,160 into our lives when we were 8, some of us 5, maybe even younger 755 00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:50,960 than that. Sometimes they're spoken by 756 00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:53,680 people, sometimes they're lived experience. 757 00:47:57,280 --> 00:48:01,560 But Paul's invitation to the church is for you to learn how 758 00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:04,680 to abide with Christ, not so, Not for you to be able to learn 759 00:48:04,680 --> 00:48:08,840 to fight your own battles. It's so that you can rest in 760 00:48:08,840 --> 00:48:13,800 Him. It's so that it's so that his 761 00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:17,240 strength can hold you up. His joy can penetrate your life.