Sermon Tone Analysis

Putting on the full Armor of God

Ephesians 6:10:20

Opening Prayer

Alright we are back in the series The Armor of God.

Would you open you Bibles with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians 6 and let me know you are there by saying amen.

In the last few weeks we talked about how we are to be strong with the Lord’s mighty power, this refers to strength from God, not strength we humans can somehow obtain.

The words “be strong” describe continual empowering of the Christian community.

God’s strength and power are part of the Kingdom blessings available to God’s people.

The power that raised Christ from the dead, that same power, empowers us, God’s people as we prepare for the spiritual battles we will face day to day in our lives.

Remember the theme through our series is “you cannot win the battle if you are not prepared for the fight”.

Scripture tells us that in our Christian life we will battle against rulers and authorities (the powerful evil forces of fallen angels headed by Satan.

Listen, To withstand their attacks, we must depend on God’s strength and use every piece of HIS armor daily.

Paul is not only giving this counsel just to the church, just to the body of Christ, but to all individuals within the church.

The whole body needs to be armed.

As we do battle against the “mighty powers of darkness,” we must fight in the strength of the church, whose power comes from the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells the church at Ephesus, and us that we can have a winning life when we put on the “Full Armor of God”

IF you are there in Ephesians read with me beginning with verse 10:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

What Paul is saying is: if we only put on pieces of the armor of God we will not be able to withstand the schemes of the devil.12

For we do not wrestle against flesh 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore, take up the whole armor of God (You see here that Paul makes no error in what he says, to take up the whole armor of GOD, no just a some parts on the days you feel good, but put on all the parts, why… that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

(listen to me, The Armor of God gives us strength to withstand the day and to stand firm in our faith of Jesus Christ)14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.”

This morning I want to speak about our Big Idea;

Our Big Idea is=====

It takes the whole armor of God to have a winning life.

It takes the whole armor of God to stand out from the crowd.

It takes the whole armor of God to stand for the truth.

It takes the whole armor of God

Without the armor of God we are defenseless towards the enemy.

We found that the first piece of armor is the belt of truth and we learned that we must have the belt of truth firmly fastened around our waist, we just can’t have it as part of our arsenal, is must be in place each day of our lives.

We confirmed through scripture that Satan is a liar, and scripture tells us also that Jesus is the truth and we must know the truth, He must not only live inside of us, but we should live out HIS truth in our daily lives.

The translation of that means: a person professing to everyone that he or she is a Christian, cannot go to church on Sunday and then live the rest of the week like there is no God.

That is not having the belt of truth on.

The second piece of the Armor is the Breastplate of righteousness, and we learned that righteousness comes to us as a gift from God because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.

Remember the statement last week that the devil cares about the very same thing that Jesus does.

The devil cares about the same piece of real estate in us as the King of Kings does, as the Savior of the World does.

The Devil wants our hearts.

The Breastplate of righteousness when worn protects the heart, the very thing the enemy is after.

Putting on the breastplate of righteousness helps us live out the righteousness in our lives.

Remember what James the brother of Jesus said in James 2:18 he said “Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works”.

Another words it is because of my faith, what I believe in, what I live for, what I love,….is

why I do the things I do.

The third piece to the armor is we are to be fitted with the right shoes,, some shoes are too small, they hurt our feet, others are too big and they cause blisters, and the fact is when our feet hurt it effects the rest of the body, So Paul is saying we must have the right shoe on,,, our Gospel shoes help us to take our stand, to stand our ground and to stand firm so that we can be ready to share our peace that we have with others.

Listen to me

A HEART AT PEACE WITH GOD BOTH STANDS FIRM AND MOVES FORWARD, TRUSTING in God and PROCLAIMING Him.

This brings us to our fourth piece of Armor to be put on The Shield of Faith.

We find it in verse 16 in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish, all the flaming darts of the evil one”.

God uses items that people are familiar with in the physical world as teaching tools for the Christian life.

Of course, this full armor of God is for the spiritual battle every Christian is confronted with!

And so again, in order to understand what these pieces of the armor are good for in the spiritual world, we need to first understand their purposes in the physical.

Paul looks at the Roman Soldier as an illustration or example for us to see.

Two types of shields were commonly used by Roman soldiers.

One was a small, lightweight, round shield that was strapped to the soldier’s left forearm and was used to take blows during hand-to-hand combat.

How many of you have ever felt at the end of the day you’ve been in hand to hand combat with the enemy?

The other, which Paul refers to here, was a large shield measuring about four and a half feet high and two and a half feet wide.

It was made of sturdy wood covered with metal and a thick layer of oil-treated leather.

The metal deflected arrows, while the oily leather extinguished the fiery pitch with which arrows were commonly swabbed.

That type of shield was ideal for full-body protection.

What The shield protects us with, is our faith in God.

What is faith?

If we look at the original Greek word for faith, means a firm conviction of belief to give complete trust.

Hebrews 11.verse 1 tells us that: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”

Faith is a firm belief in something even if it is not seen!

The best way to illustrate this faith is oxygen, We must have oxygen to breath however we don’t actually see it.

You cannot see the air we breathe, but you know that is there.

You have faith that every time you take a breath there will be the unseen oxygen.

Ephesians 6:23(Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ) Verse 23 tells us that faith comes from God.

Romans 10:17 (So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ).

this tells us, that, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Faith comes from God’s Word!

Now, is faith a strong belief on God’s Word?

What good is it if I say, I have faith in a shield to protect me, but I leave it lying on the floor?

Or I leave it at home as I march off to the battle?

James 2:17-18 tells us, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

And look back again at Hebrews 11.

After defining faith in verse 1, we read all the actions taken by godly people are BY faith!

Putting all of these truths together about faith, let me suggest a simple definition: Faith is taking action on what you believe!

Godly faith, which is the true faith that God wants us to have, is taking action in what we believe from God’s Word!

If a shield is designed to block attacks, then our Shield of Faith is to block the lies and the schemes of the devil.

How can we have a winning life with the Shield of faith?

How can we extinguish, all the flaming darts of the evil one?.

First, Our Shield of Faith is our response with God’s Truths to the Devil’s lies!

Remember how Jesus Christ Himself responded to the Devil’s lies when He was tempted in the Desert?

He responded with Scripture.

Each time He responded with “IT IS WRITTEN” He responded with scripture.

We are to respond with God’s truths when we are given lies.

Secondly, a shield is to be held by the arm and ready to be moved to where the attack is coming from.

In other words, Christians must be alert to look out for the attacks of the devil.

We are to keep watch.

Paul continues to tell us to keep watch, in fact when Jesus went to pray in the garden, Jesus wanted the disciples to keep watch…what are we keeping watch for?

The Schemes of the devil.

And our Shields of Faith must not be tiny; we are to grow in faith by hearing and studying God’s Word more and more.

Are we reading and listening to God’s Word on a daily basis?

If not, our shield of Faith will be tiny and we will find it difficult to block the flaming arrows of Satan.

1 John 5:4 tells For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.

And this is the victory that has overcome the world--- our Faith.

Psalm 28:7 Says the Lord is my Strength and my shield.