Sermon Tone Analysis

/The Armour of God/

Open your bible to [[Ephesians 6:10-24|Bible:Ephesians 6:10-24]].

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The book of Ephesians is a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus while in prison in Rome.

Paul, prior to becoming a believer in Christ, he persecuted, imprisoned and killed many Christians.

His job was to enforce Judaism and to root out Christianity out of Israel.

But one day the Spirit of God came upon him and was converted.

As he was taught the word, Paul set out on journey to evangelize the then known world for Christ by establishing churches throughout the Roman Empire.

Finally, he was sent to Rome to be sentenced by Cesar for proclaiming the Gospel.

While waiting to speak to Cesar, Paul wrote many of the letters to the churches which today are part of our Bible.

Unlike other churches that Paul established, we learn from the book of Acts that this is the once church where he spent most time.

Ephesus was the capital city of the Roman province of Asia.

It was an important commercial, cultural and religious center, with a huge temple to the goddess Artemis considered one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Ephesus was /"the"/ religious center of the province of Asia.

Many tourists came daily from all over the Roman Empire to worship to the goddess Artemis, in addition, giant banks were located here where individuals could apply for loans.

If we were to compare Ephesus to anything today, it would be like any major industrial city like New York, Chicago, Toronto, etc.

Underneath all this power and wealth and this institutionalized religion, was where Paul came and established the church.

But the church was no institution; it is a body, a family, of believers of one faith or one mind.

The purpose of the letter is to proclaim God’s plan through Jesus Christ and help us understand our personal relationship with Christ, how we are to live with our fellow Christians as living expression of a Christ who still expresses His glory in human lives.

Let us look at our today’s reading again, verses [[10-13|Bible:ephesians 6:10-13]]

\\ Most of us have hear one time or another the term /“Spiritual Warfare”/, but what does this term mean and how do we apply it our daily lives?

Often times this term is over used or misused by sensationalism and superstition by many religious television shows which only serve to misguide believers and drive the world away from the true message of the Gospel.

Does Satan hold such great power that he can control and oppress the Christians?

Well, my goal today is to take away the non-sense approach to examining what the scriptures say about spiritual warfare and how we are to equip ourselves for battle.

I would like to speak about three principles of spiritual warfare

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We have the power to stand against the Satan through the mighty power of God

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What are the powers of Satan and how he uses them?

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How are we stand?

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We have the power to stand against Satan through the mighty power of God.*

If we read [[verse 10|Bible:ephesians 6:10]].

The key message from this verse is “be strong” which means two things, be and strength, receive strength, or endure.

It is not our strength that helps us stand against the enemy; but when we submit ourselves to God, it is God’s strength invested in us that helps us stand.

James 4:7 tells us /Submit yourselves, then, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you./  Therefore the power or resisting the devil is not found in us but it is found through submitting to God.

The devil does flee from us, but from God’s power within us that overcomes him and he flees.

We have a promise that as we draw near to God, He will draw near to us.

Therefore our resistance against the devil is not measured by our strength, but as we draw near to God, God will draw His spirit within us to fight against the devil and spiritual wickedness.

For this reason James 4:8 says, “wash your hands, you sinners, and purify you heart, you double-minded” to be double minded means to have divided views.

Means to be living in the world and living for Christ.

When we live in both worlds, we will never experience the power of God until we allow God to cleanse us, purify us and renew us by making us Christ-centered.

During the final days of World War II, there was a significant battle in the Belgium called the Battle of the Bulge, where the German army, the final German Army, made a massive launch over the American Army in an effort to split the American army and the British Army in order to isolate them and destroy them.

It was the middle of winter and the order from General Paton was to stand against the enemy.

For three weeks, the American army, fought in their fox holes, in one of the coldest and snowiest winter ever.

This was the bloodiest war in the history of this war, were over a million men fought and died.

800 tanks were destroyed on both sides.

The American army alone suffered 81,000 casualties.

Most of the casualties happened in the first three days of the battle.

History is always written by the victors, In this case, the outcome of this battle it left Germany without an army and the western front became wide open for the allied forces to enter Germany and destroy Hitler and his army.

Yesterday, my wife asked me.

What shall we do with our Friday night program?

We heard that a young man entered the program with a gun.

Especially, since we have prayed against violence and guns.

I told her, the following story.

When you chase a lion, the lion will run until the lion fells cornered and fells he can no longer run.

This is when the lion is the most dangerous, because he will turn against you with all of his might and power.

As we pray against the devil and against the violence, this is when the enemy will show its ugly face and will try to fight against us to divide us, to discourage us, and to destroy us.

We are told to /“Stand”/, when the battle is getting ugly, we told to stand.

When it seems we are becoming weak, we are told to stand.

When it seems we have no power, we are told to stand.

It is not by our power that the enemy is defeated, but by God’s power that is in us that we have the power to stand.

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What are the powers of Satan and how he uses them?*

Before we can understand Satan’s power, we need to look at his limitations.

Many see Satan as being in the opposite side of God, or in par with God.

Satan is NOT God, Satan is NOT an Evil God.

Satan is merely a fallen angel.

Satan was created by God and when he revelled against God, he was allowed to keep the powers invested in him for the simple purpose of fulfilling God’s will.

In the book of Revelation, we are told that after the Great Tribulation, an angel was given a chain and key to bind Satan and cast him to the bottomless pit for 1,000 years.

It did not take an army to cast Satan, but and angel of higher status than Satan to bind him.

The next misconception that we have is that demons are running wild creating havoc.

Let me say this, ALL angels MUST submit and obey God regardless of their stature.

Any angel that does not submit to God, receive swift judgement.

2 Peter 2:4 /For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment./

Means that angels who refuse to obey God are already bound and are awaiting judgement.

Satan knows that his time is limited, but to disobey God is to pronounce immediate judgement on himself.

In Luke 8, Jesus comes up to a man that is possessed with a legion of demons who begged Jesus not to send them to the abyss but pleaded to enter a herd of pigs.

In Matthew 8, we see demons crying out and asking Jesus if He has come to torment them before their time.

Satan and the angels that fell with him know the limit to what they can do and the show time in which they have to do it.

Satan might hate God, but he knows his boundaries.

Before the creation of the world, there was a /"war in heaven"/ where Satan and his angels revelled against God.

This war is nothing more than the rounding-up in which Satan is cast out of heaven and is limited only to the earth as part of God’s final judgement.

Never the Bible refers to Satan as having powers beyond to the ability to deceive those who are willing to believe his lies and the limited power granted to him to perform a specific task that he has permission to do.

In other words, Satan might have a plan, but that plan can only happen, if we believe his lies and we allow him to perform that lie through us.

Now, let us examine Satan’s powers – Let us take a closer look a Ephesians 6:11-12.

We are told to defend ourselves with God’s armour and stand by in His strength in order that we might stand /"against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms"/.

in [[Verse 11 says|bible:ephesians 6:11]] /"against the devil’s schemes"/ this means the devil lies, his tricks.

It is very important that we understand that fact.

Deceit, seduction and lies are the power of Satan.

No more, no less.

Satan has NO power to physically harm you.

Satan cannot control your mind nor force his power over you, unless you allow him to work in you.

Satan is a caged lion waiting to destroy anyone that he can convince to come into his territory by submitting to him.

/“The Devil made me do it”/ is nothing but a lie and a cop out because a spiritual being cannot harm a physical being.

Those who allow Satan to work in them, can endure personal physical damage.

Satan only has the power that we allow or God allows them to have.

That is why Satan is the master deceiver.

We know when we are deceived when our own desires and hopes are met rather than God’s will.

[[Verse 12 says|bible:ephesians 6:12]] /"For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."/

The word /“power”/, means the power of choice or power of influence.

The word /“ruler”/, are the demons, the devil

The word /“darkness”/, means ignorance over divine things which leads us to immorality

The word /“spiritual”/ means human’s spirit as belonging to God.