NEVER FIGH T YOUR BATTLES UNDRESSED!
The Invisible War – Part 8
10-06-13 Sermon
EPHESIANS 6:10-18
TO WIN THE INVISIBLE WAR I MUST…
I must _____________________________________________________
“A final
word: Be strong with the Lord’s mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be
able to stand firm against all strategies and tricks of the Devil.” Eph. 6:10-11
“For we are
not fighting against people made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers
and authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of
darkness who rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the
heavenly realms.”
Eph. 6:12
I must _______________________________________________________
“Use
every piece of God's armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that
after the battle you will still be standing firm!” Eph. 6:13
Fight from victory not_________________________________
THE 6 PIECES OF SPIRITUAL ARMOR
1. The belt of truth
represents ______________________________________________
“So
stand ready, with the Belt of Truth tight around your waist…” Eph. 6:14a
2. Purity
means__________________________________________________________
“…with the Breastplate of Righteousness
protecting your chest.” Eph.
6:14b
“Who may
ascend to the hill of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure
heart.” Psalm
24:3-4
Jesus said “Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God.” Mt.
5:8
The Great Commandment, “Love God
with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself.”
3. Serenity means_______________________________________________________
“On
your feet wear the Shoes of Good News, prepared to share the Gospel of
peace.” Eph. 6:15
“Great peace have they who love your law and nothing can make them
stumble.”
Psalm 119: 165
“As much as it is possible
as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.”
Romans 12:18
“God was in
Christ making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God
did not hold the world guilty of its sin and he gave us
this message of peace.” 2
Corinthians 5:19
4. Certainty is __________________________________________________________
“At all
times carry the Shield of Faith; for with it you will be able to put out
all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One.” Eph.
6:16
Doubt your _________________
and believe your ____________________.
“Without faith it is
impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6
5. Sanity means _________________________________________________________
“Put
on the Helmet of Salvation...”
Eph.
6:17a
“Keep your mind on things above,
not on worldly things.” Colossians 3:2
6. Maturity is______________________________________________________
“…and take the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Eph. 6:17b
Hebrews 5:12 -
6:1. “Though by this time you
ought to be teachers, but you still need somebody to teach you the elementary
truths of God’s Word. You need
milk, not solid food. Anybody who lives on milk is still a spiritual baby. But solid food is for the mature who by
constantly practicing have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” “Therefore, let us leave the
elementary teaching about Christ and go on to maturity and faith in God.”
P______________________ is the way
you put on the armor.
“Do all of
this in prayer, asking for God's help.
Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; always praying
for all God's people.” Eph. 6:18 (TEV)
NEVER FIGHT YOUR BATTLES UNDRESSED!
The Invisible War – Part 8
10-06-13 Sermon
We’ve
been working through a series I’ve been calling The Invisible War. One of the things that 9/11 taught us
is you have to be prepared for an attack.
That’s really what I want to talk about in your personal life
today.
9/11
told us that we weren’t ready for that kind of warfare. And we were caught off guard because we
didn’t know who the enemy was, and we didn’t know how they were going to
attack.
This
same principle is true in your life.
We’ve been talking about the battles that you go through in life. The reason why life is so hard, why it
is tough, why it is difficult, the reason why you have so many battles in your
life is that there are unseen forces around you. This is called The Invisible War.
This
weekend I want to wrap up this series by looking at how to fight the battle by
preparing for it. And what kind of
armor, what kind of equipment you need to wear. The Bible is very, very clear about this.
Before
we actually look at the full text I want to make three points. I want you to write these things
down. These are the three things
that Paul teaches us about fighting the battles that you fight: The battle
against discouragement, the battle against depression, the battle against
doubt, the battle against despair, the battle against darkness in your life,
the delays and dead ends and difficulties. These battles that come against you in life, unless you’re
prepared for them, you’re going to be taken out by Satan just like the Twin
Towers were taken out by the terrorists.
The
first thing in Ephesians 6 that we’re going to learn is this…
I must get dressed for the battle.
Nobody
would go out onto a battlefield naked.
Nobody would go play NFL football without putting on some padding,
suiting up, putting on a helmet – these kinds of things. You don’t just go out into a fight
without being prepared for it.
Here’s
what the Bible says in Ephesians 6:10, “A final word: [Paul says] Be strong with the Lord’s mighty
power. Put on all of God’s armor [circle that phrase,
“God’s armor”] so that you will be
able to stand
[If you don’t have on the armor you’re going to fall, you’re going to slip,
you’re going to stumble.] firm
against all the strategies and tricks of the Devil.”
I
hate to tell you this but you were born into a battle. You didn’t ask for this battle, but
when you were born on earth you were born into a cosmic battle. There is an unseen war going on between
good and evil, between light and darkness, between God and Satan. They are not equal enemies. Satan is far inferior. He’s a created being. God is a zillion times more powerful
than Satan. And one day he’s going
to wipe him out. But he allows him
to exist right now so that people have a choice, because it’s not real love
unless you can choose to not love somebody. So God gives us choice between good and evil.
But
in this cosmic battle between God and Satan people are often pawns. Satan cannot hurt God. He can’t hurt him at all. So what do you do when you can’t hurt
somebody? You go after his
kids. You want to hurt me, you
hurt my kids or you hurt my grandkids.
So the bottom line here is that Satan often uses you as a pawn to get at
God. He tries to hurt you.
Notice
what this verse says, “Put on all of
God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all the strategies
and tricks of the devil.”
The
devil is real. He’s real. He’s actual. He’s factual.
He’s not just a force. We
like to joke about Satan. We think
of him in red pajamas with a tail and horns and a pitchfork. But Satan is no laughing matter. He hates you. He wants to destroy you. He wants to destroy your marriage. He wants to destroy your career. He wants to destroy your finances. He wants to destroy your life. He would be happy for you to take your own life. Satan wants to mess up your life.
And
notice it says he has strategies and tricks. Satan is subtle.
Satan is strategic. Satan
is smart. He’s far smarter than
you are. So don’t try to outsmart
Satan. You’re never going to
outsmart him and he’s not afraid of you at all.
That’s
the bad news, that you were born into a battle. The good news is you were born to win. And the Bible says in 1 John, “Greater is he who is in you than he that
is in the world.”
Satan
is not afraid of you. But he is
afraid of who is in you – God. And
greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. When God’s Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus
Christ is in you, you don’t have to be afraid of Satan. But you’ve got to get dressed for
battle.
The
second thing we’re going to learn from this passage is this…
I must know my real enemy.
One
of the reasons why you walk around defeated and discouraged all the time is
because you don’t know who your real enemy is. You often think your enemy is other people. That’s not the real enemy. You often think the enemy is the economy. Or the enemy is a political party. Or the enemy is something else.
Who
is the real enemy? If ask you
that, who’s responsible for all the mess in the world? Who’s responsible for all the mess in
our culture, the mess in our economy?
Who’s responsible for all this mess?
Some
of you would say the Democrats.
Some of you would say the Republicans. Some of you would say the Tea Party. Some of you would say a pox on all of
them. Some would say militant
Muslims. Some would say the gay
agenda. Some would say atheists.
Some would say the problem is right-wing politics. Some would say the problem is the media and the course of
our society.
You’d
be wrong in every case. They are
not the real enemy.
Look
at what the Bible says, verse 12: “We are not fighting against people [If you think other
people are the enemy you’re wrong.
We are not fighting against people…] made of flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers and
authorities of the unseen world, against those mighty powers of darkness who
rule this world, and against wicked spirits in the heavenly places.”
You
are no match for Satan. You trying
to take on Satan is like you trying to shoot a rubber band at a
battleship. It’s going to have no
effect at all. Satan is not afraid
of you. He’s not scared of you and
you cannot hurt him.
But
everybody gets used by Satan. Yes,
Christians get used. Sometimes you
say things and Satan put those thoughts in your mind. Even a believer?
Absolutely! You have been
used as a pawn in Satan’s plan all along.
You cannot beat Satan but God can.
The
other thing I want you to understand about this is, not everything that is spiritual
is good. There is spiritual
wickedness. There are good spirits
and there are bad spirits. There’s
spiritual light and there’s spiritual darkness. There is righteousness and there is evil. Just because somebody says, I’m
spiritual, doesn’t mean they’re good, because there are evil spiritual forces
too. Not everything that is
spiritual is a good thing.
The
third thing this passage is going to teach us is …
I must use every piece of armor.
We’re
going to spend today’s session looking at the pieces of armor. In verse 13 it says “Use every piece of God’s armor to resist
the enemy in the time of evil, [And we’re in evil times right now] so that after the battle you will still
be standing firm!” God
says you can have victory. I want you to fight from victory
not for victory. Stand in the place of victory – of what
Jesus Christ did on the cross for you.
But he said you’re going to have to put on every piece of God’s armor to
resist the enemy so that you’re still standing after all of these things have
happened.
The
first thing that a Roman centurion would put on would be the belt. If you’ve ever watched weight lifters,
professional weight lifting at the Olympics, or sometimes even wrestlers, they
will wear a heavy belt. They cinch
it up around their waist; it gives them support and stability. It’s what holds them together.
So
the first thing a centurion would put on would be the belt. It was not only strengthening his core,
the center of his being, but it also held the weapons that he was going to wear
as he went out into battle.
Paul
makes a parallel. He says what you
need to wear as a Christian, you need to wear a belt and it is the belt of
truth. Notice this verse, verse
14, “So stand ready,
with the Belt of Truth tight around your waist.” The
belt of truth gives your life stability.
It gives your life strength.
If your life isn’t based on truth then you’re going to have sinking
sands, shifting sands; you have no strong core. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, The person who builds
his life on my truth is like a guy who builds his house on the rock. When the hurricanes and the earthquakes
come, because you’re built on the truth, you’re like a house on the rock. You’re going to withstand it.” But he said “If you don’t build your house
on truth [your life on truth] it’s going to be shifting sands and it will be
easy to blow you over.
What
does this represent?
1. The belt of truth represents
integrity. Integrity is knowing
and doing the truth.
The
first thing you need to put on in your life is integrity. It’s the belt that holds everything
together. If your life isn’t based
on truth it’s going to fall apart.
So you need integrity – moral integrity, relational integrity, financial
integrity, sexual integrity. You
need integrity in the different areas of your life.
I’ve
explained this to you before but let me do it again. Integrity does not mean perfection. It doesn’t mean you always do the right
thing. Because if you had to be
perfect at integrity, nobody’s got integrity; because nobody’s perfect. Everybody slips, everybody
stumbles.
Integrity
is not compartmentalizing your life so that you don’t appear different ways
with different people. Integrity
comes from the word “integer” which means “unit of one.” It means your life is not a bunch of
pieces of pie, but it’s the filling in the middle. In other words, that you act the same way with
everybody. You don’t act one way
at work and another way at church.
You don’t act one way at home and another way with your friends. Integrity means what you see is what
you get. That you’re not faking
it.
The
opposite of integrity is knowing the truth and not doing it. That’s called hypocrisy which is
wearing a mask. So integrity is
the opposite of hypocrisy which means I’m exactly what I appear to be.
If
you lack integrity in any area, you are going to be vulnerable. As I said, if you segment your life and
say, “This is my church life and then this is my work life, this piece of the
pie, and this piece of the pie is my sex life, and this is my sports life and
this is my friendship and social life,” you already lack integrity, because
you’re not acting the same in all of those areas.
Integrity
is knowing the truth – but more than just knowing it – it is doing the
truth. That’s the one that gives
you stability. It holds you
together in the middle, in the tough time. It gives you strength.
The
second piece that a Roman centurion would put on is they would put on over the
tunic some body armor. They would have a breastplate which could cover the
heart. Then the other part of the
body armor would cover the rest of their vital organs – the lungs and the liver
and the kidneys, and all of those things.
No soldier is going to go out into battle without body armor on, without
the breastplate and the body armor.
The
Bible, Paul says, what you need for your spiritual battle is what he calls the
breastplate or the body armor of righteousness.
The
next verse he says “Put on the belt of
truth
[and then he says] with the
breastplate of righteousness protecting your chest.” What’s in your chest? Your heart. He’s talking about your heart here.
What
is righteousness? Righteousness is
purity of heart. That’s what it
is. So the second piece you have
to put on in your life is purity. First integrity, knowing and doing the truth, and second you
have to put on …
2. Purity which means keeping my motives
clear. Keeping my motives clean,
having a pure heart.
That’s
what righteousness is. He says
when you put on the breastplate or the body armor of righteousness you’re
saying, God, I want a pure heart.
I want to have pure motives.
Let
me show you a couple of verses.
The Bible says in Psalm 24 “Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? [What does that mean? It means who can get close to God. That’s what it means. Who can get close to God? And here’s the answer…] He who has clean hands and a pure heart.”
That doesn’t mean perfection because
none of us are perfect. But a pure heart means that even when you do the wrong
thing you want to do the right thing.
That’s a pure heart. Even
when I do the wrong thing I regret it because I want to do the right thing. That’s a pure heart.
And
Jesus said “Blessed are the
pure in heart for they shall see God.” Only the pure in heart get to be close to God.
If
you want to be blessed, if you want to be blessed in your family, if you want
to be blessed in your business, and you want to be blessed in your finances,
you’ve got to have a pure heart.
God will not bless an impure heart. So you need to put on not just the belt of truth – integrity
– but you need to put on the breastplate of righteousness which is purity –
keeping my motives clear.
Is
your heart pure? You don’t have to
have a lot of talent in life to succeed.
But if you want God’s blessing, you do have to have pure motives.
Satan
always wants to attack you with impurity.
And the reason he wants to attack you with impurity is if he can get his
foot in the door, you’re a goner.
So he’ll attack you with moral impurity – pornography, movies, books,
songs. If I said get a drink of
water, go out and drink out of the gutter, none of you would go out and drink
out of the gutter. So why are you
watching all of those gutter shows on television? Mind pollution is far worse than physical pollution because
your mind is all you’ve got. And
when you allow anything to go in your mind you are polluting it.
You
say, “I watch that kind
of stuff all the time, but it just doesn’t bother me.” That’s the problem. If it doesn’t bother you that means
your conscience has already been seared.
If your conscience was clear and pure, it would bother you. The fact that you can hear all that
kind of language and it doesn’t bother you means that you don’t have a pure heart.
If
you don’t have a pure heart, a brave heart, you’re a pushover for Satan. You don’t have to be strong but you do
have to have integrity and purity.
You have to have the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.
Another
way Satan will try to get you to be impure is through greed. Because if he can get you greedy,
wanting more… he’ll get you to cheat on your taxes, he’ll get you to accept a
shady business deal, to shade the edges.
He’ll try to get a door ajar in your life through success, through
praise, through applause, so you don’t depend on God anymore. You have to keep your heart pure. If you don’t, you’re going to lose the
battle in life.
But
on the other hand if you keep a pure heart, your motives pure, Satan fears the
person with a pure heart. Not the
perfect person, but the person with the pure heart who wants to do the right
thing. You don’t have to be afraid
of him; he is afraid of you.
The
third thing that a soldier would put on are the shoes. The Roman soldier’s
shoes had hobnails in the bottom.
They were little nails that were nailed in there to make the grip
better. It’s kind of like cleats. Cleats in a football shoe or cleats on
a golf shoe. Because you needed
these shoes with hobnails so you didn’t go slip sliding away in the
battle. You needed to be able to
take a stand and hold your ground.
You didn’t want to stumble, you didn’t want to slide, you didn’t want to
fall. No Roman centurion would go
into a battle in crocks, because you would going to go slip sliding away. So you would put on these shoes.
Paul
says this represents peace in your life.
He calls them “the shoes of the good news of peace.” “On your feet wear the Shoes of Good News, prepared to
share the Gospel of peace.” A Roman soldier
needed to have good footing so he could stand his ground, so he wouldn’t
slip.
For
you to stand spiritually so you don’t slip, so you don’t slide, so you don’t
stumble in the next ten years and lose everything you’ve got, so you don’t fall
away, you’re going to need the shoes of good news prepared to share the gospel
of peace.
Circle
that phrase “the gospel of peace.”
What is he saying? If you
want to stand in life and stand up under the storms you’re going to have to be
at peace. He’s talking here about
relationships. There are three
kinds of peace – peace with God, peace with myself, and peace with everybody
else. It’s called reconciliation. Peace with God, peace with myself, and
peace with everybody else.
Jesus
called it the Great Commandment, “Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as
yourself.” Make peace with God,
make peace with your neighbor, make peace with yourself. Be in harmony with God, be in harmony
with your neighbor, be in harmony with yourself. He’s saying be reconciled to God, be reconciled to other
people and be reconciled to yourself.
If
you’ve got conflict in your life, you have just opened your door to satanic
attack. He said if you don’t have
peace in your heart, if your mind is not at peace then you’re going to be wide
open. You’re a pushover for Satan when you’re not at peace.
Where
do I get this peace that gives me my solid ground? Obviously, if I get up in the morning and I’m at peace – I’m
at peace with God, I’m at peace with you, and I’m at peace with the world –
I’ve got a strong footing. I can
stand. If I don’t have peace
relationally and any of those relationships I’m a pushover. How do I get that kind of peace?
The
third thing you need is serenity.
3. Serenity is living and speaking the gospel
of peace.
If
I’m going to get dressed for battle, I need integrity, living and doing the
truth; I’m going to need purity, having my motives clear; and I’m going to need
serenity, living in peace and speaking peace to other people. I live it and I speak it.
Where
do I get that kind of peace? If
you don’t have serenity in your life, you’re a pushover for Satan. If you’re anxious, if you’re worried,
irritable, then you’re a pushover for Satan. So you need the gospel of peace in your life.
How
do I get it? The Bible says this
in Psalms 119, “Great peace have
they who love your law [What
is the law of God? It’s the
Bible. Great peace have those who
love this book.] and nothing can make
them stumble.”
I
love other translations that say “Great peace have they who love your law and nothing can
offend them.” In other words, the more I love this
book, the less I’m offended by what you say. The more I love God’s Word, the less I’m offended by what
happens to me. I’m not offended by
all the things that people try to be offensive to me. Why? Because I
love God’s Word more than I love myself or more than I’m worried about what you
think of me.
Follow
me on this: Satan is going to attack your integrity with lies. And Satan is going to attack your
purity with lust. But Satan is
going to attack your serenity with worry.
Every time you worry it’s leaving yourself vulnerable. It’s not wearing the shoes of
peace. When you’re worried you’re
not at peace and Satan can just push you over, because you’re anxious, you’re
fearful, you’re worried. So he’s
going to cause that lack of relational peace is going to cause you to be
anxious.
The
Bible tells us that we’re to do two things with peace. We’re to live it and we’re to speak
it. We’re to live peacefully and
we are to speak peacefully to everybody else.
Romans
12:18 says this, “As much as it is
possible as far as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone.” God says I want you to be a peacemaker,
not a troublemaker. I want you to
build harmony not conflict. I
don’t want you to be critical; I want you to be a peace builder and a bridge
builder. He says “As much as possible, [I love that part!] as far as it depends on you…” Some people, have you
learned, it’s impossible to live at peace with them. It may have been your mother or your dad or your boss. You go, no matter what I do I just
can’t please her. No matter what I
do, he is un-pleasable. No matter
what I say. The Bible says “As far as it depends on you…” You take care of your part. There are some people that you just
can’t please. There are some
people you just can’t be at peace with.
But he says as far as it depends on you, you are to live in peace. That’s reconciliation.
If
you have un-reconciled relationships you are wide open for Satanic attack,
because you’re not wearing the shoes of peace. You don’t have peace in that area, in that un-reconciled
relationship. That’s the one area
that Satan could put that spear into your side.
The
other thing he wants you to do, God says, you need to speak peace. 2 Corinthians 5 says “God was in Christ making peace between
the world and himself. [That’s why we call our outreach the
PEACE Plan. Because we’re to go
make peace between the world and Christ.]
In Christ, God did
not hold the world guilty of its sin [that’s good news] and he gave us this message of peace. [We share the message of peace through
the PEACE Plan. So we have been
sent to speak for Christ. Notice
it says “sent.” When you’re sent
somewhere that means you’ve either got to walk or run or something; you’ve go
to move. Can you understand now
why peace are shoes? Because
you’ve got to wear shoes to walk.
If you’re being sent somewhere you need to wear shoes.
He says if you’re going to share the message of peace you need to wear
the shoes of peace because you’re being sent to speak for Christ.] God is calling to you through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with
God.”
You
can’t do the PEACE Plan without going.
That’s why the Bible says “Go into all the world.” But the problem with a lot of people is this: They want to
live in peace but they don’t want to speak
peace. A lot of people are scared
to death to talk to other people about Jesus who is the Prince of Peace. A lot of times you have friends and
neighbors who need to hear the good news of peace and you chicken out. You lose your nerve. You take the shoes of peace off.
And
because you take those shoes of peace off you want to live in peace without
speaking peace. The Bible says
everybody around you, you need to tell them about the good news that God’s not
mad at you. He’s mad about
you. And God wants you in his
life, and God wants you in his family, and he died for you so that you can have
peace with God.
What
you need to do is speak up. And
speak up and say what you believe.
Paul
says the fourth thing you need in this spiritual battle is what he calls the
shield of faith.
Verse
16 “And at all times [circle “all times” –
not just some of the time. You
don’t go to the grocery store without this.] carry the Shield of Faith; for with it you will be able to
put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One.” He says you need the shield of faith in
order to protect yourself from the burning arrows that Satan’s going to throw
at you. What is this shield of faith?
It is the fourth quality you need in life and it is certainty.
4. Certainty is the shield of faith. Certainty is trusting the promises of
God when everything is going wrong in my life.
That’s
the shield of faith. The certainty
of, I know what God has said and he’s going to help me through this, so I’m
going to trust God when all these arrows are coming at me.
I
saw a bumper sticker many, many years ago that said, “God said it, I believe
it, that settles it.” That’s ok
but really the bumper sticker should say, “God said it, that settles it,
whether I believe it or not.”
Because God’s truth isn’t based on whether you believe it or not. It’s still true even if you don’t
believe it, because God cannot lie.
God said it, that settled it whether you believe it or not.
What
God said about sex is true whether you believe it or not. What God said about life is true
whether you believe it or not.
What God said about money is true whether you believe it or not. When you put your faith in the shield
of faith you have the certainty that God’s promises are true even when it
appears that they are not happening in your life at that moment.
The
Bible says all these burning arrows come at you. I love the King James Version of this. It says, the fiery darts. What are the fiery darts that come at
you? They’re all mental. They are things that Satan puts in your
mind. Let me give you what some of
the fiery darts are:
Doubt. Doubt is a fiery dart. “Did God really say…? Can you really trust God? Isn’t that just your
interpretation? Maybe that’s for
another time? Did God really mean
that when he said...” And that
creates doubt. That’s a fiery
dart.
Discouragement
is a fiery dart. Satan goes,
“You’re never going to get any better.
Things are never going to change.
It’s only going to get worse.
Why do you even try?”
That’s a fiery dart. Discouragement.
Delay. Why is this taking so long? I wanted it to happen by now and it
hasn’t happened. Delay is a fiery
dart.
Difficulty. Why is this so hard? Why is it so hard to make my marriage
work? Why is it so hard to get a
job? Difficulty.
Depression
is a fiery dart. I just feel like
giving up. I feel like it’s not
worth it. I feel like I can’t even
put any effort into it.
Delay,
defeat, all of these things, when these things happen in your life, you need
certainty. And in a time when
everything is thrown up, like the recession that we’re in right now… When you
think about this, America the wealthiest nation in the world on the verge of
bankruptcy... Who would have thought of that? That’s what I call uncertain times. When life is totally uncertain and it’s
thrown up in the air, you need certainty more than anything else. You need the shield of faith in your
life. And the shield of your faith
will help you to handle those darts like the dart of doubt.
What
do you do with the dart of doubt?
Here’s what you do: You
doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs.
A lot of people are stupid and they do the opposite: they believe their
doubts and they doubt their beliefs.
That’s dumb. Doubts are
meant to be doubted. Beliefs are
meant to be believed. Doubt your
doubts and believe your beliefs.
Whenever
you start believing your doubts and doubting your beliefs, Satan has just
cracked a door open in your life and you’re open for Satanic attack. You need that certainty.
The
reason why he says, always carry the shield of faith, is because he’s always
shooting at you. He wants to
create doubt in your heart.
The
Bible says “Without faith it is
impossible to please God.” So you have to
have the shield of faith. You’ve
got to carry it with you. I’m
going to trust God no matter what my feelings say. I’m going to trust God no matter what my eyes tell me. I’m going to trust God no matter what
I’m hearing. I’m going to hold on
to the shield of faith. That is
certainty.
The
fifth thing you need, and of course this is what a soldier needs, is he puts on
the helmet. Of course the helmet was probably the most important part of a
soldier’s armor, a centurion’s wear.
Because if you get a head wound, that’s often a mortal wound. If you lose your head you’ve lost it. Not many people are walking around
headless! So you want to wear a
helmet. He says you’ve got to put
on the helmet.
Verse
17, “You need to put on
the helmet of salvation.” What is the purpose of a helmet? It is to protect your mind. So the fifth piece of protection you
need is sanity.
5. Sanity means I protect my mind from evil
thoughts.
That’s
what a helmet does. It protects
your mind. It protects your
head. If you’re going to win the
spiritual battles of life over doubt, discouragement, depression, defeat and
all these other things, you’ve got to learn how to control your thoughts. So you’ve got to have sanity protecting
my mind from evil.
What
is it that protects my mind from evil?
Salvation. When I put on
salvation, I get a whole new mind.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ, if you don’t have him in your heart, if
you’re still outside the family, you have zero protection against Satan. None whatsoever. Satan is not afraid of your words. He is afraid of God’s Word. Satan’s not afraid of your
thoughts. He is afraid of God’s
thoughts. It is salvation that
protects your mind. It’s the
helmet of salvation.
I
don’t want to go into this in a lot of detail because we’ve spent weeks talking
about the importance of guarding your mind. But it is amazing to me what people allow in their mind –
what they’ll read, what they’ll think, what they’ll listen to... Let’s just admit it. Do you know what television is? It’s a drug with a plug. That’s really all it is. It’s a drug with a plug. Most of it on there is not really very
good for your brain. There’s some
good stuff. There’s some stuff
that’s just fluff. But there’s a
lot of stuff on there that’s actually bad. It’s not good for your mind.
The
Bible says this in Colossians 3:2, “Keep your mind on things above, not on worldly things.” That means when Satan
shoots a dart of doubt in your mind go, “I’m not going to believe that. I’ve got the helmet of salvation
on. Instead, I’m going to think this.” You
cannot choose what happens to you.
You cannot choose everything that’s going to happen to you. But you can choose what you’re going to
think about. You have one hundred
percent control over that. When
you choose to think on things that are good and true and right and just, when
you choose to think on the Word of God, you are putting on the helmet of
salvation.
When
you think about each of these issues – integrity and purity and serenity and
peace and certainty and sanity, you know what that is? It’s the perfect picture of Jesus. What this is talking about is letting
Jesus Christ live through your life.
Nobody has more integrity, more sanity, more purity, more certainty than
Jesus Christ.
There’s
one other thing that you have to have in order to fight the battles in life and
win. Paul says you’ve got to put
on every piece.
The
sixth piece is maturity. What is maturity? Just knowing a lot of the Bible? No. It is
knowing the Bible and knowing how to use the Bible against Satan.
6. Maturity is the ability to use the Word of
God against Satan.
Unfortunately,
most people don’t know how to do this.
You may have been in church for years, two years or ten years, and
you’ve heard lots of Bible taught, but you don’t know how to use the Bible
against Satan. That is
maturity. How to use the Word of
God against the devil. Maturity is
when you practice the Word of God, not just know it.
Here’s
a passage Hebrews 5:12 - 6:1.
Paul’s talking to believers and he says, You guys, you’ve been
Christians for a long time and you’re still immature. You’re still babies.
You ought to be able to be a teacher. “Though by
this time
[you’ve been a Christian this long] you ought to be teachers, [You ought to be teaching the Bible, not
just sitting listening to it.] but you still need somebody to teach
you the elementary truths of God’s Word.
You need milk, not solid food. Anybody who lives on milk is still a
spiritual baby. But solid food is
for the mature [Then
here’s the definition of maturity...] who by constantly practicing [not, “I know that Bible, I’ve studied
that Bible, but I practice the Bible.”]
have trained
themselves
[and you can train yourself.
That’s maturity.] to distinguish good
from evil.”
What’s
he talking about there? Maturity
is when you know the Bible so well that when you hear an idea and go, “That’s
not of God. That’s wrong. That’s foolish. That’s dumb. This is right.
That’s wrong.” And you can
quickly judge, “That’s not right.
That’s not what the Bible says.
That’s wrong. I shouldn’t
say that, I should say this.
I shouldn’t do that, I should do this.”
You’ve trained yourself to know right from wrong. “Therefore, let us leave the elementary
teaching about Christ and go on to maturity and faith in God.”
The
seventh weapon that a soldier would have and of course this one is important is
his sword.
A
sword is so important because this is an offensive weapon. The shield is a defensive weapon. But the sword is an offensive
weapon. This one is where you’re
going after Satan rather than him coming after you. You’re taking over territory. You’re expanding.
You’re enlarging the kingdom.
You’re going after what you want to go after in life, because you’re not
just defending yourself like some poor person under attack. You’re saying, I’m coming after you
buddy! You’re not going to get my
family, Satan! You’re not going to
get my job, Satan! You’re not
going to get my career. You’re not
going to get my marriage. You’re
not going to get my mind. I’m
coming after you.
The
Bible calls this the sword of the Spirit.
Notice the next verse, verse 17.
He says “You take the sword
of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” This is your sword.
The Bible is your sword.
And the Bible says it can cut, and the sharper your sword is the more
you can do with it. This is your
sword.
Listen
very closely: The Bible does not become your sword until you memorize it. All the words that are in this book and
you’ve got it on your shelf; it does you no good at all. But if you memorize the Bible verse,
it’s in your mind and remember that’s where the battle is. Now it becomes a sword.
If
you had a Bible – you could have a hundred Bibles on your shelf – and as long
as they’re closed and on the shelf, they do you no good. There’s no power in them just sitting
there. It’s only when you take
truth out of here and you put it in here
and you remember it, then it becomes a sword.
Jesus
taught us how to fight Satan in the temptations that he went through in the
wilderness. In every temptation he
answers Satan’s dart with a quoted Scripture. Satan goes, Why don’t you do this? And Jesus is modeling it for us. He says, “It says in the Bible…” and he quotes back.
Jesus
did not pull out his pocket Old Testament when he was tempted. When Satan said, I’ll give you all
these things if you’ll fall down and worship me. He didn’t say “I know somewhere over here in
Deuteronomy… Hang on just a
minute. I know over here somewhere
there’s a verse that says...”
No. He just quoted it. He had it in his mind.
The
Bible does not become your sword until you memorize it. The single most important thing you can
do as a Christian is memorize verses that help you. Bar none.
Because when you’re temped you never have a Bible with you.
You
say, do I have to memorize the whole Bible? Of course not.
What do you memorize? The
verses that help you in the most tempting areas that you have. If you have a problem with impatience,
you’d better be memorizing some verses on patience. If you have some problems with anger, you need to be
memorizing some verses on anger.
If you have a problem with watching where your eyes go in lust, you need
to be memorizing some verses on lust.
If you have a problem with spending too much, you need to be reading
through Proverbs and find the good ones and you write it down on a little white
card and keep saying it over and over until you’ve got it memorized. You don’t have to memorize the whole
Bible. But you need to memorize
the ones that help you. If you’re
always copping out and not standing up and saying what you believe, you need to
memorize some verses on courage.
If you have problems with doubt, you need to memorize some verses on
doubt.
Whatever
you’re struggling with that’s what you need. Because then you’ve got a sword to fight back. Otherwise when Satan puts those
thoughts in your mind you’ve got nothing to fight back with. You’re like, I’m just going to take you
on, Satan! And Satan stands back
and goes, You think I’m afraid of your words? I have no fear of your words. But when you quote the Word of God, that’s a sword.
How
do I put on all this weaponry? Or
this armor? So that you’re protected
against Satan and discouragement and doubt and all these things that he throws
at you? Prayer is the way you put on the
armor.
You
put on all these pieces by praying about them. And you say “God,
today I need integrity in my life.
I need it! I need to know
your truth and I need to do your truth.
I need to build my life on truth.
And God, I need purity in my life today. There are a lot of impure things out there. I don’t want impure relationships,
impure thoughts. I don’t want
impure motives. I need a clean
heart.” And
you ask God to give you a clean heart.
And you say, “God, I’m so
stressed out. I need serenity
today. I need peace. I need to put on the shoes of good news
of peace. And God, today I’m going
to be anxious and I’m going to have worries and I’m going to have fears. I need you to give me serenity and I
want to put on the shoes of peace.”
That’s
how you say it. And, “God, today when doubts come at me I need
certainty. I need to know,” and you just mentally
dress yourself. You don’t go into
battle undressed. And “God, I need sanity. My life is insane right now. My schedule is insane right now. My world is insane right now. I need sanity.”
“I need the helmet
of salvation. I need you to help
me protect my mind from all the goofy ideas that Satan tries to throw in there,
and go, you’re nuts, you’re dumb!
All those whacky, crazy thoughts that I get. I need sanity.”
And
“God, I need maturity. I’m going to memorize a Bible verse.” If you memorize one verse a week, at the
end of this year you’d have fifty-two verses memorizes. That means you have fifty- two swords
to use. You’re no longer
defenseless against Satan. You
need maturity.
Prayer
is how we fight the battle. A lot
of people don’t get prayer. A lot
of people think prayer is something you just tag on. Something like singing the National Anthem before a game.
You know it’s kind of nice. You
know it’s important. But it has no
relationship whatsoever to the game.
Then everybody claps and then the real game starts.
A
lot of people think that’s what prayer is. You just kind of do it. You do it before you eat, you do it before you go to sleep,
you do it in the morning, you do it before a meeting. You don’t really have to put your mind in gear. It’s like the Charlie Brown Christmas
special, and the teacher “wa-wah, wa-wah, wa-wah.” It doesn’t matter.
No. Prayer is how you fight the
battle. Prayer is how you win the
battle.
Prayer:
Father, we know
that Satan laughs when we try to fight him without any armor on and without any
weapons. Forgive us for all the
times that we’ve thought other people were the enemy. Help us to realize we’re not fighting against people made of
flesh and blood, it is the spiritual evil, the satanic influences, the evil
rulers and authorities, the unseen world, the powers of darkness. We’re not going to win by human
methods. Help us to put on the
mental armor of integrity, knowing and doing the truth; of purity, keeping our
motives clean; of serenity, living and speaking good news of peace; and living
in harmony; help us to put on certainty, trust in your promises; and sanity,
protecting our minds from evil; and maturity, using the Word of God. Help us to practice using it and that
we would do it realizing it is in prayer we win the battles. In your name I pray. Amen.
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