Gear Up

Zachery Klundt

Supernatural • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Ephesians 6:10–20

Spiritual Warfare

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Gear Up

Hi all!

Welcome to our message part of the evening!

I hope that you guys have had a good week.

And if you haven’t I am sorry for that.

I hope that this week will be better for you.

But hey, if you are just joining us and you maybe were not with us last week, we are starting a new series called Supernatural.

This topic is all about spiritual warfare that we all will face or have faced in our lives.

And not only are we talking about this but we are also looking at how do we combat this when it happens.

So last week, we really hit on that there is this invisible war waging all around us and we may not have really been aware of it but I hope that we are now.

And we looked at which we learned that we gain our strength not by doing more push ups but by drawing onto the Lord his power, and his strength.

And in verse 11 it says this:

Ephesians 6:11 ESV

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

And this where we are going to be at tonight.

We are going to be talking about putting on the whole armor of God.

So that we can stand against the schemes/ the trickery that the devil brings our way.

So I am going to pray and they we are going to just jump right into

Pray

Ephesians 6:13–15 ESV

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Ephesians 6:13–16 ESV

So we are not going to be covering all the parts of the armor of God tonight but that is all the more reason to come back next week.

Which I know we normally would not have had youth group, but we will be doing a live stream next Sunday.

Here is why, I believe that we are all bored and this give us something to do.

If your family inside your house is doing something, go spend time with them, we will post this on our page that you can view anytime.

But just know that next week we will be back here at 6, for our third message in this series Supernatural.

But I do not want to get ahead of myself.

This week we are talking about the first part of the amor of God.

That is right we are going to be breaking up the armor of God into two weeks/ well actually the next three weeks will all have aspects of the armor of God.

So here is the passage for this week:

Eph

Ephesians 6:13–15 ESV

As we spoke talked about last week.

We were challenged in verse 11 to put on the whole Armor of God.

Again Paul is repeating himself, and if he is repeating himself it must be important!

Paul is repeating himself, and if he is repeating himself it must be important!

(See what I did there)

It is saying virtually the same thing as verse 11 that verse 13 is saying.

Instead this time of withstanding against Satan— we gear up to not only withstand Satan but the evil of our day!

Again Paul has just laid down this massive truth bomb that our fight is not against flesh and blood but against an enemy that is invisible to us!

Our fight is against the evil one- the devil and his crew.

SO THEREFORE: GEAR UP!

Put on the Armor of God so you can withstand:

It says nothing about fighting- it takes about withstanding- in a defense posture.

Which we are going to go into great detail into this next week.

But for this week we have three points:

Number one is:

Putting on God’s Armor is an everyday routine

If you were in the middle of a battle- you would not stop and take off your armor would you?

No way- you could get attacked any second in a battle.

Then here is the question— why are we not gearing up for battle everyday?

Maybe because the evil days are not here yet?

in verse 13 Paul states:

Ephesians 6:13 ESV

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm.

Put on the armor of God that you MAY BE ABLE to withstand in the EVIL DAY— When the evil comes.

Yeah I have news for ya, Paul already saw the days as evil

Ephesians 5:16 ESV

making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Paul is telling them there don’t be fools- be wise.

The days that we live in are evil.

I do not think I need to convince you of that.

If I do, shot me a message and we talk about how 2 week old babies are left in trash cans, or how little girls are taken from their families to be forced into be sex slaves, or how students bring guns to school, people are mean, and they are cruel, we see the human heart of selfishness, greed, and desire— we see the porn industry makes 9 billion dollars a year- We see that sin all fun and games— marriage that was suppose to mean something is treated as disposable.

I hope that you do not need convincing that we live in an evil day.

Which is why it is critical that we gear up.

So like everyday when I get ready for the day, what do I do?

I go to my closet and I put out my outfit.

What matches what, nope I can’t wear those shoes, they don’t match— right i am sure this is pretty typical for all of us.

We would never leave the house naked, that is be embarrassing and shameful.

And if we would never leave our house naked or with a mismatching outfit— then why do we leave our house without first putting on the armor of God.

I believe that we can make the case that this is more important than if your shoes match.

There is an invisible war going on around us— people are going to hell— we have consist temptations in our lives— and we are more worried about our drip— then our spiritual armor and then we wonder how come we can’t resist temptation— how come my addictions are still there— why can’t I just stop doing what I don’t want to do—It because you are leaving your house unarmed, unprepared, and outmatched every single day— but hey at least you look good.

Guys showing up to church or online youth group— doesn’t cut it.

We have to put on the whole armor of God and it starts with truth and righteousness.

Truth and Righteousness protect us

Ephesians 6:14 ESV

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

So before we begin, the armor of God was not this new thing that was only found in the New Testament but this can all be traced back to the Old Testament, we will see.

The first piece is the belt of truth.

Now in some translations here is verse 14 it actually says like the NASB

Ephesians 6:14 NASB95

Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

This term girded up your loins— is not common for us at all.

We see it in scripture.

your loins refers to your hips to your knees.

and the phrase gird up your loins means as you know men did not wear short but tunics.

And these tunics were really hard to do activities in.

So they would be told to gird up your loins as they prepared for battle or other activities

I have a picture here showing the process of girding up your loins.

SHOW PICTURE: EXPLAIN

This was not just for men but women as well.

In the NASB

Proverbs 31:17 NASB95

She girds herself with strength And makes her arms strong.

Proverbs 31:

So those seeking to be a proverb 31 woman make sure you know who to gird up!

Now that we know this little piece of information we can take about the belt of truth that is now around our girded loins.

The belt of truth is found in the Old Testament book Isaiah.

Isaiah 11:5 ESV

Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.

faithfulness is what the Hebrew is translated here, and the greek which is where we get our New Testament translation form also translates it as faithfulness but our english Bible translate the greek into truth.

But how is Isaiah talking about?

Isaiah 11:1 ESV

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

We of course are talking about the Messiah The coming King- the one to come from King David’s line.

This King would hold truth on his belt.

This king will save his People and he will offer peace.

Isaiah 11:6–9 ESV

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

The toxic effects of the fall, brought about by the first Adam listening to Satan’s lies, would be reversed by this second Adam and heir of the line of David, whose foundational qualities are truth and faithfulness.

I believe it is fair to say that we need truth to tell us who we are.

We are all seeking out who we are, we are searching for our identity.

Psalm 51:6 ESV

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

We want truth— Truth gives us freedom.

Seek out truth- dress yourself with the truth of the Gospel.

That you are a child of God, who is loved, and cared for by the almighty— who thought enough of you to send his only son to take your place.

Arm yourself with the Truth of God’s word.

Study it, read it, memorize it, sleep with it up your pillow/ take it with you everywhere— because this is how we are to be equipped by truth.

Next armor piece is the breastplate of righteousness.

Again let’s dive back to the OT

Isaiah 59:17 ESV

He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.

In the preceding chapters, Isaiah describes God’s promise to deal with the physical enemies of his people, especially Babylon.

But now the prophet describes the divine warrior coming to deal with the far greater and more dangerous enemy of their souls: sin.

Here is the deal loved ones, we are not righteous.

We know this:

Isaiah 64:

Isaiah 64:6 ESV

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

We can offer nothing to God.

Meaning that our righteousness is worthless.

We cannot arm ourselves with our own righteousness- you mind as well go outside naked because you will not be protected by anything.

If the Lord were to deal with his people according to their own deeds, there would be nothing to anticipate but fearful judgment.

But Isaiah declares that the divine warrior would not come as a wrathful judge; instead, he would come as their Redeemer to bring them salvation.

We want to put on the breastplate of Righteousness that is from the divine warrior Jesus who brings salvation that we can boast in!

He makes us righteous by his works not ours.

Continue to seek and obey the Lord’s instruction.

As we deal with this evil world.

Lastly:

Be a Herald of the Gospel

Ephesians 6:15 ESV

and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

Paul is not concerned about your dripping kicks okay.

Check this out in

Isaiah 52:7 ESV

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Now Paul was coming back to this passage in Isaiah—

And Isaiah says how beautiful are the feet of him who brings good news.

Who is bringing the good news?

We all know who is the Good News- it is Jesus!

but who brings it?

Do you know what a herald is?

A herald is a messanger.

A herald is a messenger who would run from town to town, city to city and share news.

Heralds needed good shoes to run far and fast to carry good news that people were hungry for.

I watched this last week actor and personal hero of mine, John Krasinski put on a talk show from his living room called Some Good News.

As of Friday it had 11 million views.

Folks people are hungry and desperate for some good news.

And you have the best news, the greatest news.

That Jesus came to this earth to live a perfect life, to then die for you and for me on the cross so that our debt could be paid in full— Yet Jesus did not stay in the ground- Nope he rose three days later and He is in heaven waiting to return to his final resting place here on earth!

YOU SEE YOU HAVE THE GOOD, BETTER, AND BEST NEWS!

Its not some good news it is all the good news- it is the Gospel of Jesus.

So as you are wondering what to do with all this time make HIS NAME KNOWN TO ALL!

May your sandals be ready to share and spread the Gospel of peace.

As we close here, may you have already come to this conclusion.

It was Jesus who wore the armor first.

You see this armor that we put on every single day has been battle tested— it actually has not marks— AS Jesus wore it yes, but the enemy could not touch him!

He wore that armor all the way to the cross and freely laid it down so we could pick it up and put it on daily!

It is God’s Armor

But unlike King Saul amor that did not fit David has he prepared to step out into battle

God’s amor fits us perfectly every single time.

From the belt to the breastplate to the shoes everything is perfect and fitted just right.

So tonight before you go to sleep put on the armor of God!

And tomorrow morning before your feet hit the cold floor— make sure you are equipped with the amor of God.

For only the armor of God can withstand the attacks of the enemy/ the evils of this world— how do we know— because the amor has been battle tested— and it held up perfectly.