The Armor Of God

Now again today we are looking at the church member or the member of God's family. Larry is read the passage of scripture in Ephesians chapter 6. Paul has been discussing relationships for a while and he concludes that discussion with the fact that he says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. That is important for us to know because we have a Tennessee as humans to get upset with people. That's not who were arguing with and that's not who we wrestle with, it's where the adversary and he uses people, and uses us to get an argument with each other and get a disagreement with each other. So it's important to know from this passage of scripture that they're not the problem, even though we perceive them as being the problem on the fact that they don't agree with us, is usually the first indication that we think they're a problem, but it's the adversary that causes this Discord. And so, we have to have a prospective on the fact that we wrestle not with flesh and blood. That's the most important part of this passage in my opinion that we know who were fighting, Because there's a tendency to think. Well, if people just get along with us, everything would be fine. Well, you know what? As I've said before and will continue to say, you may not be aware of it, but you're not perfect. I'm so people have a trouble getting along with you too, but as we are believers, we'd learned that we wrestle not with flesh and blood. That is with other people. We wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Now the Lord may take or the devil may take, I should say the attitude that we project and make it worse for my perception, the other person and cause us to argue and fight and so on and so forth, that's what the devil does. And if we recognize that right off the bat, we have a whole lot less problems in the world today. So it's important that we realize there were not resting against flesh and blood but I want to take a little bit of time and and this morning about the the Warriors that you see here in this passage of scripture. First of all, you remember that? there is it says we wrestle not We're told sometimes in centuries, past a community or a town or region would select a champion. And they would fight the champion from the other town and whoever one would win the battle in effect. We see that a little bit in the story of Goliath that he was the champion of the fellow and he would come out, he's doing challenges Israelites and nobody would take him on. That was a concept of Greek wrestling. Hand-to-hand combat. They need to be strength. They need to be skill and they need to be the, the ability to win a few times in order to be an effective as a great warrior and effective in hand-to-hand combat. But also it's important to know that. We also have the picture of the Roman soldier and the Roman soldier was armored for battle more conventional as we see it. Although, in those days, it wasn't quite the same kind of a battle but it's important to understand that the Roman soldier was 1. Who was actually fighting as we think of it as an army and many times, the Roman soldiers were told were separated into what was called. As you notice the, the account of the Lord, Jesus Christ, quaternions, those are a group of four Roman soldiers, who were trained to fight back to back in a square and fight to death. That was their pledge that they would fight until either, they weren't left in the enemy wasn't left. That was quaternions and that's why the Apostle. Paul Frances was committed to take care of four quadrants of soldiers that's 16 and they would guard him to their death because that was their pledge, they would do that. So the Roman soldiers were very skilled in battle but Paul uses that picture that makes an illustration about their armor and we want to look at that as the armor. It would she says the armor of God. And so will look at these elements of the armor first and see what they include. And I have perhaps some pictures that I've it will help to illustrate that as we go along. Yeah. So I want to look at the the armor first of all in this process or second of all, if you will, if you're looking at Roman numerals has to be the second Roman numeral, the armor was first of all. They were what we would call a belt. That was used and today would probably be a back brace. I met most of you don't think of it that way, but it was a belt or why not belt that went to ride around the lower waist on here to help strengthen the abdomen and the back, like, I say today, it would probably be a back brace that goes down to the bottom of the tailbone and up above the waist and strength, is that area? Both the abdomen and the back that was important for the Roman soldier. Justice is important for us today. If you start lifting heavy things to do it without a back brace, you don't notice it. The next morning,

You're a little bit sore. That's because that part of your body is perhaps a little weak and you didn't have your loins girded up as the King James says, we truth. Now I see important that we know that the Apostle Paul Conveys to us, what that bill was as far as scripture was concerned. It was true. It was true. Did you hear that truth? He doesn't say trying to figure out what this means. He says the holy spirit will teach you the truth, as he promises another present proof, that's what keeps your loins Girt about. That's what gives you the strength to fight the adversary, the truth of God's word. That's what we need to know. And that's why in this truth, we emphasized the scripture, we when someone ask a question, we tried as best we can do it, I can do the Scripture. It doesn't matter what our opinion is. Are some of you while I got an opinion about this and I think this is on the stove with that's fine. And we respect that. However, When push comes to shove, as they always say, you need to know what the scripture teaches what the truth of God's word is. We can see that today in the theory of evolution noticed that the theory number one, it's not the truth, it's the fairy. And someone has come up with this and denied the creation of God, which the truth of God's word, teaches, God, created heaven and earth in the beginning. God created, heaven and earth. That's the truth. Now, you can listen to whatever argument you want to, and you can be swayed sometimes with it. But ultimately God's word says God created the Heaven and the Earth. That's what counts as the truth. That's God's word. So that's what we have have confidence in when, when we're in the middle of a battle and and are back beginning to hurt, what do we need the truth to go to self? That's what account. So, it's important. We know that this is one of the basic pieces of armor, the, the belt of Truth. And then in addition, we have the breastplate of righteousness. Are the breastplate. Do it guards, the heart. Now, it's interesting when you come to different languages, that different languages and cultures have a have a different sheet of emotions, friends to the navajos, have the kidney, not the heart. So if you were to be translating the Scripture, it was, I'm sorry, the liver. They would say, Do not quit over in your liver rather than let not your heart be troubled. Did you know that? That's where the seat of their emotions is in the liver. However, the thought is still the same. Then we need to guard. Our emotions or emotional response. Needs to be directed to the truth. Not swayed by arguments that come up and show the breastplate is meant to guard the heart. So that we're not swayed by those emotions. That's what the truth of God's word does. And that's what the armor of God. Does its guards, our heart now, it's an addition. As we look at the picture of the shoulder, let me get the his nose so I can see what they are cuz I'm doing a little better today. And by the way, I pray for Bruce and because he's got a difficult job ahead of him. I have and have had for some time because Diane talk to me about it and her brother is Blind has one, I have and you seeing something and goes right on the side of my glasses here we found out the other day cuz Bruce could read the instructions for reasons. Known only to the vine line. They are in real fine print which is interesting since they're directed towards people who can't see how ever be that. As it may he started reading it and said you know this will hook up the Bluetooth Which means am I hearing aids for my special earbud will read for me? And it'll come in my ear where you won't hear it, and I'll be able to repeat anything boys, doing a good job of weeding know that little orcam is and we hope that'll work and we're going to work on that a little bit before brusco's this week. So pray about that pray that it may be an aid to me and helping me see some of these notes and so on because it's an interesting thing, when you point the finger it starts to read and when you go like this and stops it, an amazing, only the Israelis could come up with that kind of Technology but the Lord has blessed them and use them in that area. Anyway, that's the breastplate. It's important also that it says your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Roman soldier or sandals? I know sandals had cleats on the bottom of it. Probably heard if he stepped on you, but it probably would anyway, but if you stepped on your, those cleats would dig in. But the fact of the matter is, then when he stood on the ground, they gave him sure footing, he didn't sleep very easily because that gave him sure footing. That's what we're too. Be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now, there's two things there, first of all, is the gospel, the good news of salvation but also it's the gospel of peace. God is not at war with us. God is Not divided by something that's hard for us. What is difficult? Or they will be difficult for us to live with. He has given us his holy spirit, you enables us to do the job that he called to want us to do our feet, or did we shot them prepared for that? Menifee noticed that the Roman soldier didn't go barefoot. He wore these so that he could stand firmly. And the scripture says in his Ephesians 6, chapter, and having done all to stand,

Having done all to stand. I repeat that word stand several times in this passage stand there for Having done all to stand, that's what God calls upon us to do to stand. Because you see if we're fighting the adversary, it starts with standing. You don't say that and say, okay, have it your way know you say, wait a minute, I don't believe that and you stand up and fight with the adversary. Now, most people have a tendency to say, well we as Christians should be fired. We shouldn't fight amongst ourselves and we shouldn't fight with the ungodly but we should fight the adversary. This whole tassie's demonstrate the fact that we are armed with God's armor, were to be armored that way in order to fight the adversary, the devil. That's what's important. And, you know, there's a lot of people who I am. Sorry to say this. I shouldn't describe this way, but maybe this is the way that you can get it, they are mamby-pamby. If you will about standing for the truth, that's what God causes to, to stand for the truth. And we can't back down and say, okay, go ahead. That's what we're called upon to do to stand for the truth. And it, when we stand for the truth, God Honors that he gives us the armor of the holy spirit that enables us to stand. That's what we're called upon to do. So it's important to our feet, be shod so that we don't slip now in addition. We have the shield of faith.

The Shield of faith. It's important again. That we know something about this Shield when you see the picture, you will notice that it's about 4 ft long and about 2 ft wide. Most of the time we think of a shield is being about this big around. Know, the Roman soldier carry the shield. And in those days, people had not quite so much harder as they have today and so the Roman soldier was maybe about 55 and so the shield did a pretty good job of covering the full length of his body. There wasn't much to shoot at and he said, the scripture says this put take the shield of Faith where with you be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and that verse that you have in front of you, it says the shield of what

Faith. Say what is faith? Faith is believing that what you haven't seen? Faith is believing what you haven't seen. Believe in God's word that it tells the truth. That's what God calls upon us to be our shield with a, which we were able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. What does that mean? What the adversary is going to do everything you can to convince you, that God's word is not the truth.

We are to put on juice to begin with and we already Shield ourselves from question marks if you will, about the truth. So when you are called upon to talk with somebody about the fact that creationism is not really a reasonable concept, what are you? Do you go to the shield of faith? I believe one. God's word, says not. Let me just give you an example. If you were to meet Adam, 2 days after he was created, would he be about this long and a baby? That's two days old? No. God created him as a full grown male.

I don't know, what is a parent age was, but let's say he was in the prime of Life about 30 years old, he would stand tall and you would see him as a man, And his wife even as a woman. Because God created them with a parent Age. Now by the same token, there's a great deal of argument about the theory of evolution. Well, we've dated the rocks and they're so on so many centuries-old millions of years to wear the Stars. Take place, don't do you suppose that God was smart enough to figure that out when he created things? If you can make a man thirty years old? Why can't I couldn't carbonate rocks, he probably could, why could he put rings in trees when you cut them down, they would look like they were X number of years old. Well, you suppose God thought of that? Yes, where is your faith is in. God that he did this, right? That's where your confidence has to be faith in God. That can happen. If you believe God's word, and somebody comes up to me and says what the storms of this old No, the stones appear to be that old God created them the same time, he created everything else. Now even beyond that we're told to the stars are millions of light-years away.

You know what? If you read the first chapter of Genesis, it says God created lights. Does that mean that they were millions of light years away and wouldn't be visible? Even now no, does that mean that the Earth is millions of years old? No, God made them visible. When he created the earth? I don't know, I can't regard the line. I don't know what he created years old, so they become visible during the week of creation. I think the god hadn't figured out how the stores would be visible at the time, he created them and he did them according to Creation account. But there again, I believe God's work, that's what we have to do and I have confidence in. So it's important that we see that then there is something else that we have to look at. And that is the the What are the helmet of salvation? The helmet of salvation. What is the helmet? Protect The head, we've already protected the heart with the breastplate, but the phone was the one that was Dodge, get to buy the shield and hit this in the head. What's the protection there? The helmet, the helmet. And what is that called? The helmet of salvation? Salvation, have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, as your personal savior? That's the question. If you have, then you have the potential to Dawn this armor, but if you haven't, your head is exposed your hearts explode. Everything is both the lies of the adversary God wants you to be saved and we're going to be looking on Wednesday night 7, God's Will. And one of them we've already seen is that God desires. That all men, be safe, and come to the new Revenge. He has made provision for salvation. For all of us, salvation is not limited Cuz God's word says whosoever will may come. That means Christ sacrifice was sufficient for every man in the world and woman in the world and Charles in the world, it was sufficient. If you desire to be saved, God, accepts that And you can be saved. We have to take upon us, the helmet of salvation to guard her head and then it's also important that we see some final things about this armor. Now, for reason, don't, all of the Divine mind, I guess, I could say, because that was an expression that might from my former professors used to say, when things would go wrong. I don't know why it is that this all of a sudden has smaller print. But anyway, Roman numeral, 31 want to see the picture of communication because communication is the most important part of any War, fer, as a former police officer Nolan. Tell you, as well, when things started to go bad, the first thing you did was grab your radio and let other people know that she needs help the picture of communication and you wanted that communication to be real. Viable. I'm so this next verse says, praying always With all prayer and supplication, praying, always that's in effect the walkie-talkie the guards Eunice and you know what? There's no dead spots. You don't have to be. Can you hear me now? God always hears and answers our prayers. He is there 24 hours a day, 7 days, a week to hear what we need and then respond to it. That's our communication praying always with all prayer. That's should be a constant thing for us. Now, that doesn't mean that you continually have to be praying out loud. Lord bless me as I take this next step and tell me not to fall down and help no one to get offended by the fact that I'm working down there. So I'll get that's not the point but you should be constantly in communication. That you should be able to say the Lord Lord, like Peter did. And I thought of you, I said this to you before but one Peter got out of the boat to walk on a water. First of all, these the first human that ever recorded having walking on that walked on the water. Don't badmouth Peter, quite too much because of the fact that he likes face when he saw the window as Wards as he walks on water, that's something you haven't done.

Did you ever think about that? He walked on the water. And when he saw the winds and waves voices, he started to sing. And so, he said, Odell who sitteth upon the rim of the universe. Please hear my voice is there. I didn't say any of that. What did he say? Lord save me. Lord save me. That's what we have to learn to do as we pray. We need to tell Lord what we need. We need not to beat around the bush. We don't need to be flower in our phrases. We need to tell the Lord, what we need. And he will answer that for just, as I can remember, being a dispatcher in Fullerton, California on Friday nights. We had La Habra and Brea and Buena Park in Placentia and Fullerton and Anaheim all of the same frequency. And basically, in order to get someone to hear you almost had to take a number. And so the dispatcher job was to distinguish not between call signs because half the time to call Sun was covered up. But if somebody said I need to help you recognize the voice. Do you think God can do that? Shuriken you need help. Say, so don't beat around the bush if you need wisdom. Say so if any of you lack wisdom, James wants us to let him. Ask you, what? What are you do? Lord, give me wisdom in this. Pray for what you need. Don't beat around the bush pray because that effectively gives you instant communication with God, it's important that we understand this concept because very often we think was a complicated. No, it's not. Prayer is instant communication with God, whereby we have the capability of instantly letting him know what we need, and he will answer. When he knows what we need is, always known as Advance. What we're going to need. Busy waiting for us to ask for it so that we give the glory to him. That's what counts. And so, it's important that we have that concept now. Larry I haven't had you read a lot of words but I want you to read in this regard, there's a worse in Philippians 4:6. Would you read that please be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication, With Thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. Okay. First of all, it says, be anxious for nothing. Were you ever worried about anything? I don't know what's going to happen here. What does God's word say? Don't worry. Don't worry. Pray about it. Pray about it. Say Lord. I don't know what's going to happen here, but you do Pray about it and leave it with the Lord in everything by prayer and supplication and everything. Pray, now you don't call, you probably shouldn't worry about that because the Lord doesn't care about in everything. And everything. If the car is giving you trouble, starting pray about it then, or maybe holding up, because you don't want to get an accident down the street. Whatever it is. Pray about it. Pray about it. That's what God's word says. It's not, me saying is, it's God's word in everything by prayer and supplication. Let your requests be made known unto. God, that prayer should be concentrated. As I said earlier, focused on the purpose. Lord, save me, 1st, Thessalonians. 5:17, would you learn pray without ceasing? Now, what is that mean? It means that we should be able to pray at any moment. Again, we don't have us have to have a special time set aside. We don't have to have special flower Rewards. Well, I know you can talk to God. I need help in this case. You don't even have to pray out loud. You can just not even close your eyes cuz you might be driving. I don't want you to get in an accident cuz the Lord is there. And you can say, Lord help me get through this Lord. Direct me to what I should do. That's what you need to do. Pray without ceasing always. Be ready to pray. That's your communication. That's what counts. So we need to do that and then finally we should

That should be covertly. It means often and secret cuz it provides an update between us and God. Is the what God wants us to do. There are occasions when you may be facing a situation, say Lord, I don't know what to do in this case. You know what God knows, God knows exactly what you should do and he can communicate that to you through his holy spirit, just as he does just as the military does the soldier who says, you know, we just found out the enemies doing this. You need to do this, God knows what the adversary is about and he sends is that information by the Holy Spirit as a result of our prayer. That's what we need to remember read this passage and John. Would you Larry John 14:26? Right? But the helper the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Did you hear that? God, the holy spirit will tell you what you need to do and remind you things you already know. You have ever have trouble. Remembering things about God's word. Sure you did. If you're like me you as you get older you're forgetting more and more but God the Holy Spirit reminds us. That's why we need to pray. See Lord, what do you want to do in this situation? And I'll say, what, what did I do the last time? Oh, I forgot that, that's what's important. That we know what God is going to do. So is important that we pray and keep communication with him. So God wants us to have the whole armor. You notice he didn't say but on half of the armor and see how you do and then put on the rest, you don't put on the whole armor of God. and then after you got all the armor on, get the communication device working clearly, Praying always always in communication and God will enable you to defeat the adversary and you will find out that it's not too much as the scripture here says that, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but when you defeat the adversary, he flees and things trying to get back to normal. Again, all of a sudden this version that you had the argument with suddenly Start to think right. Suddenly you realize, hey, this person has been right all along and I didn't see it because the adversary was deceiving me. You know what? Cuz that's what he does. The adversary will do everything you can to feed you, and when it comes to the family, that's what Paul has been talking about obeying, your parents, honoring, your father and mother, all the aspects, and probably the hardest. One for women is wives submit to your husbands Well, I'm not sure I want to do that. Why do you do it? Because he represents Christ as the head of the house, that's God's purpose and so an entry fee, part of it is that they should submit to him. You'll find that he's a lot easier to get along with him in a number of things and not near so demanding. As you thought, how? Because God is going to work in his car, I realize that we as man can sometimes be difficult, but God works on us just like he does on women. And so we have to pray about these principles and see God working in our hearts will enable us to defeat, not flesh and blood but the adversary has burnt her father. We pray that you'll be with us from day-to-day help us in the armored with the truth to begin with. Help us have confidence in what your word says. So that we know that we believe Exactly, as you have said, and I realize that the adversary will do everything he can to lead us astray from that position. Help us to realize that you want us to know the truth that you want us to use Faith to Garden, are shells and do it for the helmet of salvation. And the sword of the spirit which is the word of God that truth. We pray that you won't be able to use that from day today, so that we can come to know what your plan is in the world. Today, we're asking in Jesus name, amen.