Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow Him today.
Good morning. Like 3 months to get to today.
We got two more in a series in Ephesians, and I stand with
really mixed emotions over a part of it is the joy of like,
I've done my part after today. I've done my part in this
series. But there's also sorrow in that
because it's a privilege. And I just want to say thank you
to Pastor Jason and the team for allowing me to walk in this
space with them. And thank you to you for
receiving God's work through me as I try to open the Scriptures.
And that's what we're going to do this morning.
So if you were hearing in the NLT there a final word finally,
but you know, we're going to drag that over 2 weeks because
that's what we're going to do before we open up to the
Scripture there. We're going to say our
confession together. It's so important that we do
this regularly because as we say it, we remind ourselves and
those around us of the kind of community that we are.
We are a community that is on the way.
We are moving towards the wholeness that God intends for
us. And there are days when we see
more of it and days where we stub our toes against the old
self again, right? And So what we believe is this 2
fold idea that I still have a fight with the old self and it
still has expression. And Despite that, I am beloved
to the God who made all people and all things.
And so we say this together. We are badly broken.
We are deeply loved. Yes, we are.
I don't know if it's because I'm British born that we've had such
a weight of British authors show up throughout the series.
Maybe, maybe they're just really good writers.
And, you know, we just like what they say.
But as we come to this text today, we're talking about
spiritual warfare. And some of you have been like,
let's go. I am ready for this.
I've been waiting for this moment.
And some of you are like, oh, no, it's finally going to get
weird. I'm possibly going to disappoint
everybody in the house today. We'll see.
But I like how Lewis writes in the introduction to his book,
the Screw Tape Letters. He says there are two equal and
opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils.
One is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to
believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.
They, the devils themselves, are equally pleased by both errors
and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.
Which one do you tend towards? Do you tend more towards the
materialist view that sort of considers any spiritual force
language, spiritual warfare language to be archaic and that
we've explained it all with science, thank you very much.
In psychology? Or do you learn more towards the
magical view of life? Which one is your go to?
We all probably have a preference.
What Lewis is saying is to camp in those spaces, either of them,
is to fall into the very trap we should be aware of and moving
away from. So one thing we must do as a
people is face the reality of evil.
We need a worldview that makes room for and takes seriously the
reality of evil. Sometimes our news feeds make
that painfully clear for us. Other times we just go about our
day and we get our stuff from HEB and we just kind of carry on
and there is no evil. Evil's been dealt with.
The March of humanity and progress has dealt with all of
these things. Then it spikes again and
something terrible happens in the world and we ask why?
Where did this come from? Our Western world view is
frequently challenged by these things, but global Christians
and the majority of historical Christianity assume the
existence of actual personal, strategic and intelligent agents
of evil. So the main goal this is
important to think about. The main goal of the devil and
rebellious spiritual forces isn't to scare you on Halloween.
It's not even necessarily to garner your worship.
The 1st and ultimate goal is simply to turn you away from the
love of God. In the Congo, this might look
like external manifestations of power to control and coerce
people in your life. It might look like, you know,
$1000 of glass and metal to sit in your front right pocket to
distract and numb you. So this week, the goal of this
message is really to bring clarity and readiness.
And next week, as we actually, for reals, I promise, finish
Ephesians, we'll get into what the fight really is.
So we're going to have our text open here to Ephesians 6 verses
10 through 17. I'm going to forewarn you.
There's also going to be references out of Isaiah today
and possibly a quick dip into Romans, depending on how well I
manage my time together here. So Lord, you were the one who
inspired your word through those who transcribed this down for us
in a culture and a context that was different from ours in many
ways, but also was people like us.
And you can speak to us today across millennia to bring your
word to bear on our lives. May we see you, Jesus.
The whole heart of this series has been to have an apocalypse
of our eyes to open and see you more, Jesus.
So may we see you and your goodness and your glory and your
power and your might, and may our own lives be reframed in
light of who you are and what you have done and are doing.
And Father, may you receive all the glory.
We ask this in your name, Jesus, Amen.
This is where we start. Every day is a fight and there
is no neutral ground. Every day is a fight and there
is no neutral ground. That's a really stark statement.
It's kind of binary or dualistic, and our culture will
press against those things so hard.
What I'm saying is there's not a single day you wake up in this
age when you're not in contested territory.
And there are two options. You're either walking in God's
Kingdom or you're walking opposed to God's Kingdom.
And that opposed to God's Kingdom takes many, many forms,
but it's really as clean and as simple as that.
Now, culturally, if we step back and start following just the
stories we've been telling for the last few decades, we've
adopted more of a kind of blended, weird, grey, murky
morality and understanding of things.
The rise of the antihero, right? The the, the kind of, well, we
got a superhero, but they're kind of messed up and we're not
sure if we should be cheering for them.
And we're not really even sure if there's a redemptive arc to
the plot. But boy, was that a good film.
And we should probably give it some awards because it speaks to
our cultural moment of confusion.
Author Mark Sayers, who I've referenced before in his book A
non Anxious Presence, talks about this Gray zone where we're
just unclear about what is happening and what's right and
what's wrong. And it's, it's very, very
confusing. That's a culture that we've been
in and that's the culture that would oppose this clean, clear
God's Kingdom and not God's Kingdom.
Now, I want to speak just a brief moment of hope.
And this is based on some content that friends have sent
to me that I've been listening to that for nerds in the room,
all 12 of you that are here today, go look up Meta
Modernity. Meta modernity.
It is the move from the everything can be very clear in
modern thinking. CS Lewis writing is in that era.
Then we get into postmodernity where we question all power and
authority and everything is corrupt.
Meta modernity is amongst our young people where they're
going. Look, I know, I know there's
problems, but I still have a hope that yearns in me towards a
good and beautiful and true future.
And I'm going to make a conscious choice to pursue that
good and true and beautiful culture, even knowing there's a
bit of a hot mess behind me and I'm part of it.
It's not naivety, but it also hasn't given into the cynicism
of our age. So if you are someone that hears
this phrase every day is a fight and there is no neutral ground
and something in you bristles, I'd ask you to just question
where that bristling comes from. Most likely it is rooted in a
culture that wants to deny absolutes and therefore will
draw you further away from the heart of God who is absolute.
Abraham Kuiper, an old dead guy, said there is not a square inch
in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ to
his sovereign overall does not pry mine.
Every day is a fight and there is no neutral ground.
But we actually begin with this beautiful, encouraging,
strengthening news reading from the NASB verse 10.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might
be strong. It's it's either a command, sort
of a step forward, or it's a declaration of something that
has happened be strengthened, something that is gifted to us.
Either way, where we're told to be strong isn't in our strength,
our brilliance, our insights. It's in the Lord and in the
strength of his might. Now this strength and this might
in the Greek is this word Kratos.
And that's important. Just park that somewhere if you
can, because we're going to get to it again in a moment as we
talk about this idea of knowing your enemy.
But before that we're reminded, don't just know your enemy, know
the King, know the sovereign one, know the Lord who is strong
and powerful and place yourself right there.
Remember all the language throughout Ephesians, Paul's
been saying in Christ. So that's where we are located
told be strong in him. And then we're told this put on
the full armor of God. Now, just some of it, not just
your preference, not just the part that seems really fitting
today, but all of it. Put it all on, and whose armor
is it? It's the armor of God.
So it's not just what He gives, but it's His own armor.
And I'm going to show you that in the text.
As we get into those various pieces, we're going to look in
Isaiah and see that this is not just some bolt on, but this is
integral to who Christ is. So we're told to put on the full
armor. Why?
So that you will be able to stand firm.
This passage will tell us three times about standing firm
against the schemes of the devil.
Now, if you are someone that hails more from the materialist
camp, Paul is Speaking of a real created spiritual being who is
personal and powerful and has a plan to try to destroy God's
creation. This is not just some
psychology, an idea or a metaphor in Paul's worldview.
This is a real being who has schemes, plans, strategies.
It's not just chaos, haywire. Let's see what happens.
This is a militant move against God's Kingdom, and we are to
stand firm now as a Western nation with a strong military
history. We like to think of the armor in
more aggressive terms, and we're going to push into the enemy
enemy territory and take control of things.
But the language of this passage is predominantly 1 of defensive
solidity. I'm not going to be moved.
The schemes of the devil are not going to take my feet and move
them somewhere else. And then if we weren't sure
about quite what Paul meant by the devil, he goes on in verse
12 and says for our struggle picture, like a wrestling match
or close quarters combat, our struggle is not against flesh
and blood. It's not your neighbor, it's not
your boss, it's not a political figure.
That is not who we are fighting. It's not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the
world forces. Remember, we're told to stand in
the Kratos, the strength, the power, the might of God.
These world forces are cosmocrators.
They are cosmic counterfeit powers that are seeking to
infiltrate and imitate the true power of God.
We ought to stand against these and the the world forces of this
darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the
heavenly places. As you can see with the NASB,
the spiritual forces forces is just a a word that they've put
in the translation. It's not there.
We might read it more like against the spirituals of
wickedness in the heavenlies. That word spirituals is
pneumatici. It's the plural of the same word
that can get used of God's Holy Spirit.
Again, a counterfeit that the enemy uses to try to deceive, to
discourage, to destroy God's people.
And we are to stand firm against these things.
I don't think Paul's giving an exhaustive hierarchy of evil.
So if you were thinking like, let's pull out the devil's org
chart and see if we can kind of mess with that a little bit.
It's not that what he's giving is this big sobering picture.
There are rulers, there are dark powers, and they are operating
in the unseen or heavenly realm. But guess what?
So are you. Do you remember what we're told
in Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 2? That we have every blessing in
Christ in the heavenly places? In Ephesians 2 we're told that
we are seated in Christ in the heavenlies.
So whilst your life is here in the now, it's also operating in
the not yet. Whilst it's here in this
physical experience of life, it's also taking place in the
heavenly realm simultaneously in Jesus.
So you are not helpless, you have not been left alone, and we
are not some vague outpost of the Kingdom left to fend for
ourselves. We are a people seated in Christ
in the very place where there is contestation happening against
God's plans. So then we get the armor, verse
13 through 17. And essentially what Paul is
communicating here is, is, is that we need to get ready.
We need to be ready every single day, but that getting ready has
this background imagery going on that culturally we might need
some help to take a hold of. Because what Paul does is shows
us that Christ is the divine warrior who clothes us, his body
in his armor. All throughout this series I've
been enjoying playing Texan because it's not just talking
about you individually, but it's talking about all y'all.
This is communal and individual. We're an army of soldiers
together. The Paul speaks of two forms of
standing, a standing firm, immovable, and also this word
resist, which does have a little bit more of a leaning in and a
kind of pushing back off my line.
There's something slightly more aggressive about the word resist
or to stand against. And he says therefore, because
we're in a fight, right, every day is a fight and there is no
neutral ground. Therefore, take up the full
armor of God so that you will be able to resist on the evil day
and having done everything to stand firm.
That evil day could be general like this age.
I don't know if you've noticed things are pretty messed up
still. Or it could be pointing to a
climactic day when things get worse before the end.
Either way, we need to be prepared.
Paul summons us to wear the uniform so that we can resist
and be standing when all is said and done.
And then he leverages over the next several verses these two
strong sets of cultural imagery. So Pauls writing to the church
in Ephesus and the surrounding area and Roman occupation and
the Roman rule and the Pax Romano was sort of like the the
cultural bread and butter of the day.
So as he starts speaking through these belts and these
breastplates and these helmets and these particular short
swords and everything else that he uses in here, immediately
people would be picturing the Roman soldier that was out on
the streets, right, or the Garrison that was nearby.
And these Roman soldiers would suit up to a point, and then an
attendant would come and would put their helmets on them and
would hand them their swords. And as we read through the text,
you'll see we're putting on, we're putting on, we're putting
on. And then we take, we receive,
we're given something. These Roman soldiers had a few
different mottos. A couple of them are extremely
well known amongst our US services, and these weren't
official in the Roman setting, but they were well known.
There was Semper Paratus, always ready, it's Coast Guard
language, and there was Semper Fidelis, always faithful.
These keyed into core ideas of the Roman army and culture to be
prepared to be ready, and to be faithful and loyal.
So along with the armor and the picture of the Roman soldiers,
it was also the sort of commitments of those Romans that
would be surfacing in people's minds as they heard these texts.
And for us, we may not grab hold of that unless it's presented to
us. So I want you to have that in
mind as we come through the actual armor.
But the other image that Paul would have been drawing from is
out of Isaiah. And we're going to read 3
passages here. One of them's pretty lengthy,
Isaiah 59 verse 9 through 20, and it starts really in the 1st
6 verses showing how badly broken culture was.
And I think as we hear it, we might clearly see how badly
broken we still are. Therefore justice is far from us
and righteousness does not reach us.
We hope for light, but there is darkness, for brightness but we
walk in gloom. We grope for the wall like
people who are blind. We grope like those who have no
eyes. We stumble at midday as in the
twilight among those who are healthy.
We are like the dead. All of us growl like bears and
moan sadly like doves. We hope for justice, but there
is none for salvation. But it is far from us, for our
wrongful acts have multiplied before you, and our sins have
testified against us. For our wrongful acts are with
us, and we know our wrongdoings. Offending and denying the Lord
and turning away from our God. Speaking oppression and revolt.
Conceiving and uttering lying words from the heart.
Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away,
for truth has stumbled in the street and uprightness cannot
enter. Truth is lacking, and one who
turns aside from evil makes himself a prey.
Now the Lord saw, and it was displeasing in his sight, and
note that there was no justice. There is a problem, a major
cultural degradation and brokenness that is infected
everybody. But then the good news comes,
and he saw that there was no one and was amazed that there was
not one to intercede. Then his own arm brought
salvation to him. We are now Speaking of the
Messiah, the divine warrior. OK?
And his righteousness upheld him.
He put on righteousness like a breastplate and a helmet of
salvation on his head. And he put on garments of
vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself with zeal as a
cloak according to their deeds. So will he repay wrath to his
adversaries, retribution to his enemies.
To the coastlands he will deal retribution.
So they will fear the name of the Lord from the West, and his
glory from the rising of the sun.
For he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the
Lord drives. A Redeemer will come to Zion and
to those in Jacob who turned from wrongdoing, declares the
Lord, the divine warrior, clothed in the divine armor,
right? This is a picture that would
have been prevalent in the mind. This is one of the reasons that
the people were expecting a conquering king who would drive
out the Romans passages like this with a bedrock by which
they understood the work of the Messiah.
Come with me to Isaiah chapter 10.
I'm actually going to start at verse 33, but I think we've got
34 onwards on the screen. Behold, the Lord, the God of
armies will lop off the branches with terrifying power.
Those who are also who are tall in stature will be cut down, and
those who are lofty will be brought low.
He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, and
Lebanon will fall by the mighty ones.
OK, so we're still in judgement. God's active justice at work.
Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch
from his roots will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest
on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the
Lord. And he will delight in the fear
of the Lord, And he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor
make decisions by what his ears hear.
But with righteousness he will judge the poor, and decide with
fairness for the humble of the earth.
And he will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and
with the breath hold that word of his lips.
He will slay the wicked also. Righteousness will be the belt
around his hips, and faithfulness the belt around his
waist. One more Isaiah 52, verse 7.
How delightful on the mountains are the feet of the one who
brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of
happiness, who announces salvation and says to Zion, your
God reigns. The divine warrior is clothed in
divine armor for justice and liberation.
Now what Paul is going to do now is talk about this armor where
essentially he's telling us to get dressed and to watch each
other's backs. This is how the Roman armies
functioned, would have been a togetherness and a solidarity
that meant as long as no one broke ranks, nothing was going
to get through and they could hold the ground.
Their Shields would lock together and they would be able
to cover above and in front, and they were unmatched in combat
for a very long time. Paul wants us to get dressed in
this divine armor. But before that, we've got to
ask, what kind of armor do we tend to reach for?
Do we reach for physical strength?
Does our armor equate to our bank balance?
Or is it the resume I got to get that one more gig, I got to take
that one more perfect volunteer role just to even out everything
in my resume? Is it your intellect?
Is that what makes you feel secure and safe?
If these are your ultimate armor, they all require a
striving and hustling that can lead to anxiety and to
exhaustion. More fundamentally than that, we
have to ask, how do those kinds of armor line up with Christ,
with the cross, and with the foolishness of the gospel?
What the world would see is ridiculous.
The way of Jesus summons us to a different kind of armor, the
kind that confounds the powers and principalities by refusing
to engage in enemy tactics on enemy terms.
What the devil wants you to do, and all of the powers and
principalities that are working individually and locally and
globally and cosmically and systemically, and it's all this
functional work to try and distract and dissuade people.
What what the devil really wants you to do is to fight dirty like
he fights. You might be right, but the way
that you can test can disqualify you.
We are called to a different way of being and living, putting on
the armor at its most fundamental.
I will go to Romans chapter 13 to following along verses 12
through 14 because this isn't the only place that Paul writes
about armor. He says let's behave.
This is chapter 13 verse 12. Sorry, the night is almost gone
and the day is near. Therefore let's rid ourselves of
the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Again, this language of riding ourselves that we saw in
Ephesians 4, to put off the old humanity and to be renewed in
the spirit of our minds, and to put on the new humanity.
Here he says, let's put off these deeds of darkness and put
on the armor of light. Let's behave properly as in the
day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual
promiscuity and debauchery, not in strife and jealousy, but put
on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh
in regard to its lusts. So there's a part of what we
need to understand is that we're not coming at these just as
individual pieces. There is a holistic way of
viewing this. If you're like, great, now I've
got a great big list of things I need to do in the morning for
spiritual preparedness to face the day.
Thanks a bunch, Johnny. That's not it.
That could be part of it, but at its most simple it's to follow
what Jesus says when he says abide in me and I in you.
To put on Jesus and to say I need to be clothed in my real,
true, deepest identity as a beloved one of the Father who
has been redeemed by the blood of Jesus and set free from the
power of sin and death. That would be a great start to
your day. Y'all OK if you just began that
way. Eyes pop open, you're like, OK,
I'm here and this is what is happening.
I am putting on the Lord Jesus today and I'm ready for whatever
is outside the door or even just past the covers of this bed.
I'm ready because I am in Christ.
Now let's get to the armor. Some of you been waiting.
Like I want to go there. The weapons of the divine
warrior are powerful, and they are powerful enough to withstand
and overcome the threats of death and destruction.
But you can't wear 2 breastplates and you can't wear
2 helmets. I mean, you can try.
You're going to look ridiculous. It doesn't work, but what we
need to begin to do is name, well, where's the counterfeit
armor that I've been putting on? And I need to take that off and
I need to put on the real peace because we're told to put on the
full armor of God, not just some of it.
So the belt of truth, verse 14, we're told, stand firm.
He says this so many times. It must mean something, right?
Like maybe we have a habit of running away or rushing into
territory that wasn't ours to rush into.
Christ has already won the battle.
Stand right there, stand firm, therefore having belted your
waist with truth. I don't think this is like a UFC
big gold belt. This is more likely the fabric
girding up of the loins that would be beneath the plated
armor that created an integrity of the whole armour and also
provided a strength and agility. You know, if you've ever
sprained an ankle or a knee, when you wrap it, it feels
stronger, right? It's it's supported in a way
that's what this belt of truth does.
It supports and integrates everything together.
The divine gift of this belt of truth that was worn by Christ
and is now worn by his body. The church is God's objective
reality and character, who he is not because of our opinion, but
because he exists. And what that does for us when
we stand there knowing that God is love and good and kind and
patient, is it creates a security in our posture.
We're held together by a truth that's outside of ourselves.
But this is counterfeit armor, this sort of posture of striving
that's based on our subjective truths, what I think, my
opinions, my insights into things.
And the problem with that is it creates an anxiety where we
constantly have to defend our being right.
And that gets done through being a superior intellect or having a
dogmatic or cynical personality, right?
That is hard to just receive truth as truth and go, OK, but
we're summoned to be actually childlike in our faith where
when God says I will take care of you and I will never leave
you or forsake you would go, OK, good, great, got it.
You won't leave me, you won't forsake me.
I'm secure. That is a truth that I can hold
onto. Now, I've had a year where I've
experienced some moments where that has felt questioned.
But just like David shared this morning during worship, we need
to remember there's a longer arc to God's stories.
And sometimes we just got to stand firm.
Don't move your feet away. And that's one of the reasons we
need this, the body of Christ together.
Because on the days where I want to question, on the days where I
want to just say, ah, what do I know?
I have brothers and sisters who will come around me and remind
me of the goodness of God and his faithfulness across the
years of my life that this one moment is challenging.
When I read the whole story, I go wait, hold on a moment.
I'm going to to quote Margaret Feinberg.
I'm going to remain suspicious that Jesus is up to something
good because it's based on truth.
We're told to put on this build of truth and the breastplate of
righteousness. This is not your righteousness.
This is why we've got to get this is the divine warriors
armor. It's His righteousness, and then
He goes. You get to wear that, which
means on the day when you struggled in your thought life
or the days where you've gone places you should not have gone,
there is redemptive hope for you.
And you can walk back into light and have the breastplate of
righteousness put back on again. A posture of security because
our identity is protected by His performance, not ours.
The false armor, it's like a self righteousness and it's
very, very fragile and we end up because it's so fragile, having
to protect with with perfectionism or with career
climbing or with blame shifting. If you find criticism hard and
defensiveness comes up, you might be wearing the wrong
breastplate. There is a breastplate of
righteousness that you can wear where you can just own it and be
like, yeah, you're right. That does not look like Jesus.
That doesn't sound like him. You're right.
OK, Lord, help me walk differently.
Your identity is not contingent on other people's opinions about
you. You're secure.
Then there's these shoes. Jesus has run ahead bringing
this good news, right? And now we're sent ones to go
and declare the victory is won. Jesus has done it, and there's
this readiness that comes, and these are the same kind of shoes
that would also enable a soldier to stand firm on the
battlefield, to have traction and grip and stability.
For us. It's the inner stability of
being reconciled to God because Jesus has done it.
There's not a moment at which I have to go.
Well, are you still my Father? I've been adopted, the paperwork
is signed. There's no take backs happening
here. The Father is like you're mine,
I want you. You always have a seat at my
table because Jesus has done it. I have a peace with the Father
and therefore a peace that can be had with all people, which
means I can be a person of peace and I can stand firm there even
when it's chaos around me. The false armor is a false
peace. It's extremely unstable, and
it's present anytime that we try to manufacture peace through
people, pleasing through control, through withdrawal.
Conflict is a part of my story where I have tried to avoid it
at all costs. Anger has always felt dangerous
and like there's nothing redemptive and holy about it.
And anytime I found something in Scripture, it's like God's
righteous anger I just kind of breezed on by.
Like, surely that's not in the Bible because anger is wrong.
Turns out I was wrong. Anger is an emotion.
Anger can lead us towards righteous conflict for the sake
of making true peace and loving others well.
But my strategy would be just to withdraw.
Peace out. I'll take the flight mechanism
please. I'll just get as far away from
this situation as I can. Then it starts to feel a bit
better. But that is a false peace.
It's not a piece that's grounded in my security, in the Father
and in his love. It's not stable.
What about the shield of faith? Romans would have these big
Shields that were leather that they would soak in water so that
when the enemies fired their arrows that were, you know,
let's make an arrow worse that's lighted on fire.
That'll be fun. It would hit the shield and be
extinguished by the shield. This was the the form of combat,
right? So they would soak the shield,
and we're told to take up the shield of faith, an active trust
in God's promises, an active trust in God's promises.
It could also be the shield of his faithfulness that Jesus has
done it. He was faithful to the Father in
all things. And I like that line of thinking
because then this soaking a shield in water makes me think
about baptism. And I have been buried with
Christ in his death and raised into new life with him.
So when the enemy takes a pot shot at me with a flaming arrow
or he's like, well, you did that wrong.
You said that wrong, you thought that wrong.
It can hit and land. I can be like, hey, listen,
baby, I was in those waters of baptism.
My shield of faith is soaked. I trust his righteousness and
his faithfulness and your arrow goes out because it's not about
me, it's about him. I don't get to walk through life
denying that I've done anything wrong.
I get to walk through life proclaiming Christ has done
enough to pay even for that. I hold the shield of faith.
But the false version, the counterfeit would be self
preservation where I end up with a defensive posture in the
negative sense that can look like deflecting vulnerability
with sarcasm or through stoicism like an emotional numbness or
intimidation. Like, Oh, yeah, I'm going to
shout louder at you. Listen, some of us have had
experiences with those engaged in spiritual warfare that you
were like, that is that seems kooky, not like, real.
And maybe you've been told, like, if you want to pray with
real authority, you've got to shout real loud.
I think shouting and not shouting is a personality
preference. I don't think there's a point at
which the devil is like, there were too many decibels in that
prayer and I need to back off right now.
Like if you're a loud prayer, cool, pray.
Your authority does not come from your volume.
Your authority doesn't come from being quiet either.
It's just your personality and your way of being.
Welcome to the human race. I'm so glad you're here.
We don't need to yell at the devil.
We need to hold up a shield of faith and says Christ is the
faithful, 1 and I am in him. And then we take the helmet of
salvation. It is handed to us the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. So let's talk about the helmet
for a moment. The helmet can be understood
here as the secure knowledge of our ultimate identity and
future. It creates a confident posture
because I know whose I am. Our mind is protected by the
fact of our salvation. And a false piece of armor would
be a self defined identity that has not had an ear to the
father. And that sort of identity is
very insecure. We'll end up protecting our mind
with a helmet that's maybe about our physical appearance, what
people think about how we look or our social status or our
reputation. We want people to think well of
us and we do everything we can, but that sort of living is
exhausting. It'll wear you out so fast
compared to the beautiful gift of Jesus going I have saved you,
you are mine. And then we're told to take the
sword of the Spirit, the most offensive of the armor pieces,
the word of God. I think it was really
interesting because that word for word there in the Greek is
Rhema. It's not Lagos like the eternal
word that John speaks of. It's Rhema, which is like a word
for breath, which we heard in Isaiah.
The God's breath would be at work against the wicked and
against injustice. It's this idea of God's personal
conversational approach into our lives as well.
This Word of God, the Speaking of God in the present tense to
us brings about a posture of discernment.
And the way that we use God's Word is in his way to bring
healing, to cut through lies, for sure to reveal truth.
But for the sake of wholeness in our dysfunctional counterfeit
armor, we use our words as a weapon.
We go on the offensive, we use gossip and cutting sarcasm and
weaponized arguments to wound people and to control people.
See, all of this control and power and self-image stuff sits
right in the Kingdom of darkness.
It's the powers and principalities at work trying to
pull us into a way of being and a way of warfare that is just.
It's like we ended up on the wrong side.
It's like you started playing for the wrong team midway
through the game and you didn't even realize you were running
the wrong way down the field. The armor of God calls us to a
place of standing. There's an invitation to rest in
our gifted identity. Our security is based on Christ
and his finished work. So we can put down all of the
false armor. We can stop building counterfeit
identities. We can stop believing that our
security is based on our constant, exhausting
performance. This is part of our standing
firm is to name the fight and to get ready.
The gospel invites us to stop this exhausting work of striving
and building our counterfeit armor and to simply receive and
to stand in the perfect complete armor that God has already
provided. So for us, there are some
practices we can enter into. I framed them around Semper
Paratus and Semper Fidelis. I hope those who have served
have lost loved ones who serve who are serving a thank you.
I hope my use of these terms is OK to you.
They did exist back in the Roman army days so I'm just going with
that. It's a Latin thing, not AUS
military thing. But I want to acknowledge these.
These phrases are precious to people for good reason.
But to always be ready means to get dressed every day, which
means to keep Christ fresh in your thoughts and your
affections every single day. This can happen through the
daily opening of the scriptures. Not for more knowledge, but to
know Him and be known by Him, to have relationship with God, to
wonder in adoration at the kindness and the goodness of the
Lord. It can happen through
contemplative prayer, prayer that brings us not into a list
of to do's, but into a place of being as one of His children.
It can look like memorizing Scripture so that we're putting
the Word deep into us, so that it is there as a resource at all
times, a shield for us to remember.
When the fiery dot of the enemy comes, we go away.
There's a promise of God that speaks to this.
Now I'm going to trust in Him more than I hear your threats.
But this can also look like keeping watch, being always
ready means we get dressed, but we're we're being observant.
And that means we need to know and be known by others.
We have to be a people in community with other people.
And sometimes that looks like you're midweek community group,
right where you spend some time together and you share your
stories and you know the depths of things.
But also it can look like service together, like jump in a
service project together. And as you do that work side by
side, you learn things about one another.
You get to know what your friend is like when they get tired, Did
they get grumpy? Did they get short?
Did they get silent? What's going on in there?
You get to come alongside one another to know each other.
This is a part of always ready and then always faithful
confession. What if instead of viewing
confession as this sort of like I gotta own up to my awfulness,
I'm a terrible person, What if we viewed it more as disclosing
the enemy schemes and our need for help?
Question. Where's the frontline in your
life and who else knows about it?
You're only alone on that line because you've believed you
couldn't share it with somebody and that nobody would stand
alongside you. Where's the frontline in your
life and who else knows about it?
One of the other reasons that we practiced confession is so that
someone else outside of your thoughts and feelings can go.
You are covered by the blood of Jesus.
You have been rescued and redeemed.
This sin does not own you, and you can be free to walk in a
different way. We need to be ones that receive
good news. Just as the Roman soldiers would
receive the helmet and receive the sword.
We need other people and to be always faithful.
We have to acknowledge where our struggles are and where we're
tempted to abandon the line. We also need to everyday make
Jesus is Lord. The banner you gather under no
other banner will do. Every other banner is
counterfeit to the ultimate one. Jesus is Lord and we are either
walking with Him or we are not. And these are our choices.
And you have the freedom to choose what we don't get to do.
As I've heard Pastor Jason says, baptize our old humanity and
stick a label on it and say like, well, this old stuff is
now fine. That's still the old junk.
Get rid of it. Get rid of the rusty, nasty
armor that doesn't protect you. Put on the armor that Jesus
gives to you. Yes, you need to know your
enemy. That was the title of this
message. But more than that, you need to
know your King who has overcome every enemy, even death, so that
you will stand firm on this day and all the days to come until
Jesus comes again. Church, next week, we're going
to hear the last message in this series to talk about how we
fight. Ready for that?
Let's stand together. I'm going to pray over us, send
you out. Thank you for bearing with me.
Jesus, we thank you that you've gone ahead of us.
You are the divine warrior who has liberated us from the powers
and principalities that sin and death no longer hold any sway.
They have no ownership of us. We have been set free.
And so we, your church, ask that we will be found, ready and
faithful every single day, clothed in your armor, walking
in your ways, covering and protecting and serving alongside
one another. That you would be glorified.
That the world would hear the good news about Jesus.
That the powers and principalities would look on and
be confounded because we don't fight in their way.
We fight in the ways of the Lord and His alone.
Holy Spirit, would you go with us as we go out into the
community? That we would represent Jesus
well and that we would have our greatest joy in you.
We ask this in His precious name, Amen.
Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about
experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and
community, and we hope that you've been able to experience
that today. As grateful as I am that you've
spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no
substitute for full participation in a local church.
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is those who show up week after week faithfully giving their
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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you
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