July 16: Joy Service “The Whole Armor of God” Ephesians 6

Joy Service Wed, July 16

Ephesians 6: 10-20 “The Whole Armor of God” 

Intro: 

Read Text: 10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Me- 

When I was little, I had the “armor of God set”. I loved to play with this and it was a lot of fun for me. At the time I just thought this was a toy, I did not realize the power and the importance of those things. 

I loved the “Battle Belongs to the Lord” song. I love this image of battle, this image of spiritual warfare. Picturing a battle does something for my brain. It helps me visualize the battle going on internally in your soul. This song helps me picture and understand that there is a battle going on over you. Just like the army then and now, we need to have our armor strapped up and ready. 

This is something that Andy Blackston (MA) first showed me. 

I firmly believe that there is a spiritual warfare going on; there is a constant battle over you and your relationship with the Lord. Sometimes I can feel like in the movies where you have the good guy in on one shoulder, and the bad guy on the other. Sometimes it can feel like this two fold battle. I believe that there are forces of evil trying to attack you so it is important to see what the Lord says about our weapons and protection. 

There are actions and momentum waves in battle. This is how my spiritual warfare can sometimes feel. It is human to feel these changes. Not everything we do is perfect. Our spiritual life can be a battle. Battle causes a lot of pain and it takes time. Our Spiritual life can feel like this at times. 

There have been many moments in my life where I feel this constant battle going on. Where I feel like I have been strong and where I feel like I have been weak in battle. 

There are forces of evil that are trying to get at us each day. We see words like “dark forces”: evil powers” and such wording in this passage. Sometimes you can just feel a dark presence. 

Personal story on the shield. Catain America as a kid, and how I am a natural protector. I like to protect. 

We- 

We need to put on the armor of God “under all circumstances”. This is something we need to always do. 

It sounds so easy, you would think it is easy but we constantly find ourselves getting beaten and battered by satans attacks. 

HALT examples (We are more liable to fall when we are Hungry, Angry, Lonely and Tired. 

“The day when evil comes”. This is scary for us. We are going to be tempted and have evil days. This is when our armor needs to be its strongest. Maybe you have had a few days of evil already. 

One of the biggest things that is misunderstood to kids my age or younger to me is how to act when those evil days come. I would advise you as more seasoned believers to step in and offer advice to younger believers. 

A good soldier is going to have his guard up; he is going to stand watchfully. I am sure we have some military in here and I know for a fact that you have to be alert and ready. 

I feel like we can get comfortable and relaxed in life. We live in a very comfortable and luxurious lifestyle. When we do this our guard slips. 

We put the wrong armor on sometimes. We put our faith in worldly armor. 

We put on too much of the world, not enough of God. We find our protection or armor in worldly things. 

We are only as strong as our weakest link. This can go a couple different ways: as a group we are only as strong as our weakest link, and for you personally this can go for how you go about your spiritual life. You are only as strong as your current weakest link. 

Conditioning stories and mindsets of team oriented conditioning. 

There is accountability in war. There is a team feel. Cliff Mann: “How are you doing spiritually?” This is an accountability question. 

We can all connect with one or a few of these “pieces of armor”. Like I said earlier I connect with the shield of faith. 

God- 

Belt of Truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit

I like how right after that in verse 18 he says pray at all times. This is no considence. He wants us to pray at all times. prayer is one of our weapons and one of our strengths. 

Prayer through the spirit gives us power. Prayer can be such a weapon. It is no considence that God puts prayer as one of the things we need to do. 

This is a calling, pleading message from the Lord. we are called to pray. If prayer is one of our biggest weapons then why do so many people struggle to pray? I spent the last few days in Houston and a preacher said “why do we pray like God is retired?” 

The spirit is a “sword of spirit”. The Holy Spirit is one of our biggest weapons. The sword was the biggest weapon of its time, it is no coincidence that God picked sword to be the one with the Holy Spirit. 

Verse 11- Put on the “full”. Insert Greek word: The word means Panoplia- the full armor or whole armor. Not a single piece missing. 

God’s armor is stronger than your armor. 

When we put on God’s armor, we can stand up to forces of evil. 

Just like my toy armor set was small and weak, God’s set is real and legit. 

You- 

What would it look like if you put on the armor of God this week? 

Maybe that looks different for you. Helmet? Shin guards? Breastplate? 

Maybe you have a weak spot in your armor that you need to firm up. 

What would your life look like if you let God be your armor? Not yourself. I gurantee that you will feel safer, stronger, and more connected to the Lord. 

Maybe putting on the armor looks differently for you. Maybe you need to ask God to help put the armor on. Maybe you need to have an accountability partner. Maybe you need to use the weapons provided to us more. Maybe this looks like letting go of control and letting God do what he does best. 

This can look different for everyone but what would your life look like if you had on the full armor of God. 

We-

We are going to be stronger against the devil’s attacks if we put on our armor. 

We need to hold each other accountable. 

If we all put on our armor we are together stronger. We are able to rely on each other. 

Strong communities rely on each other. Baja example. 

My dream and hope for yall is we can rely on each other. We can make ourselves stronger. 

In Verse 18 is says “be alert and pray for all the Lords people”. If we do thai we will be stronger and better. We will all be stronger together. 

Prayer Exercise and Joshua Final Prayer.