The Armor of God Pt 2

I remember some of you who remember Channel 10 and some of these stations from Wichita, they used to always say, you know, this guy would say, it's a beautiful day in Cakeland, you know, or whatever it might be like that, you know. It's a cold day in Cakeland right now, but it is beautiful. Would you all stand? I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning.

I want to welcome all of you who are joining us online. And would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity we have together as believers. And if there be any among us that don't know you, we want to welcome you right now. But Lord, we just want to come to you this morning as we come just as we are to worship in song, Lord, by faith. Now, by feeling, they come along, but they're like that caboose and they change like the weather.

But, oh, you're faithful. And so by faith, we come to you. And we have an objective faith, and it's toward you and your word and what you've told us that we know to be true. We thank you for that, Lord. Oh, we thank you for coming down, Lord, for this earth, living among us, dying for us, raising from the dead and seated up there at the right hand of the Father.

Thank you for interceding for us, Lord. And thank you for sending the Holy Spirit like you promised to lead and guide us, Lord, to convince us of sin, righteousness. In judgment, Lord, you step down this. Oh, let me see this host. I sin.

Lost. I sin.

My sin.

You may be seated. Father, as we consider you this morning, I know, Lord, you've instructed us to let our light so shine that we glorify you, Father God. And so, way, may we reflect you, Lord Jesus, the light of the world. In a dark world, Lord, where there's a heavy spiritual. battle going on, but greater are you, Lord, who is in us than he who is in the world.

And we thank you, Lord. Let's reflect now, Lord, I lift up the hearts of each in this sanctuary this morning. Lord, help us be real and honest before you. Help us worship just honestly before you, Lord. With all the weaknesses that we have, we know that our weakness, you're made strong. And we thank you, Lord. Praise to the blessed. Tread, tread. Person's blessed.

Praise you, Lord Jesus.

Lord, I thank you that, Lord, those times we feel weak, those times we feel pulled down, Lord. We can look to you, we can praise you and worship you anyway. We can study your word through it. We can ask you to lift our weary hands as we praise you. Give us strength. We thank you, Lord. Nothing, and really, we are nothing, Lord. As I said, first service, the Sermon on the Mount kind of declares that right off the bat,

that blessed are the poor in spirit. Those who realize it are very depravity without you, Lord. We are just sinners saved by grace, and by golly, we deal with that till the day he takes us to glory. But you are faithful, Lord, and we trust you, Lord, while we're on topside this earth, as old Dr. McGee would say, to just bring us through, to strengthen us, to encourage us,

Lord. Would you all stand? Stand up and stretch just a bit before you set again. Yeah. Lord, we thank you so much for your love, your grace, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord. Lord, we thank you, Lord. Would you encourage each of us in our walk and witness for you, Lord? Will there be plenty of evidence to convict us for being Christians, Lord?

Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. down there and those folks in that nursery in that toddler area whatever that that's all called god be glorified thank you for those ushers who that usher all that goes on in the ministry we give you praise in jesus name amen amen the lord bless you there it oh there it is now it's on

good morning if you could locate your seat grab a bulletin we'll go over a few announcements glad that you could be here with us this morning a few things to take note of uh first of all tonight is our intercessory prayer night so uh join us back in the agape room from six to seven uh for that um also tomorrow uh evening is the benefit dinner for uh pastor luke wise again um i announced this last week but it was it's been a week so luke used to pastor the nazarene church here in ark city and he has been diagnosed with uh with brain cancer and so he now is back in his hometown still pastoring but he's a young guy, got young kids. And so the Ministerial Alliance is putting on a benefit dinner for him

tomorrow evening at the Nazarene Church here in Arc City from five to, oh, let me make sure I get my times right here, from five to 730. And so come on out, support that and keep him in prayer too. Also the live nativity is coming up December 8th and 9th. If you have volunteered to be one of the people in the live nativity, there is an instructional sheet out in the lobby by where you got your bulletin that tells you all the information that you need to know. Your name is

on it. So also women's breakfast is coming up this Saturday at Daisy Mays. And then, how did I not spot you? You're wearing a snowman hat. And then Jana's going to come up and make a quick announcement about the trip next weekend for Operation Christmas Child. Thank you. Good morning. First of all, I want to thank you for having me. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here.

Thank you guys. We blew away our goal of 200 boxes. If you were here the last few weeks, you saw that we had 245 boxes that we took to Wichita. And Mary blessed me with more information this morning. Mary is on the prayer team for Operation Christmas Child. And so she is praying year round. And there are opportunities year round if any of you guys are interested

also. Just talk to me. But the East Wichita area where our boxes go, we had 12,277 boxes. So that's a blessing. And then if you still want to fill out or fill a shoe box and you didn't get an opportunity to, you can still do that online until the end of the month. And those boxes would go to hard to reach places. I did want to say that now, last week, I think Ryan

told you we were full. Our spots were all full, our 40 spots for people who want to go on to the processing center in Dallas. But six opened up. So we now have six spots available. If anybody still feels led to go down and process boxes, it's the next step. We kind of look through and make sure that no cash goes or checks go to kids. They couldn't use them. So a lot of us put our

money in the box. And so we open them, check them for that, check them to make sure they don't have candy and anything that could hurt the kids or anything. And then we pray over them and ship them on out to not sure where they'll go. We always, we never know where they'll end up. But we are leaving. This Saturday at eight, we'll meet here at 815. If you have any interest in going, these sheets

will be out on the back lobby. I did want to share a quick story. There's an Operation Christmas Child Project Leaders Facebook page that I was reading through today. And these boxes just bless people all the way from, you know, from the minute you guys start praying over them and filling them up here. I was reading that Facebook page. I can't hardly tell this story. It was,

it was, it was a long story and it was just such a blessing. Somebody asked if anybody on the Facebook page knew anything about the boxes that were going to Atlanta with a sticker on them that was just number 82. And somebody said, yeah, those, those are in memory of my son. He was 18 and he was rock climbing and he fell and passed away. But he loved Operation Christmas Child and he wanted to

be a pastor. And so this is their way. I don't know how many they filled for him, but it was their way of, you know, keeping him in their memory. So anyway, yeah, if you have any desire to go and continue to, well, it's a fantastic time. First of all, we wear crazy hats. They play loud music. We get free t-shirts and we work for five hours this year, five hours. And then we stay overnight. If, if you, you know, a lot of people

say, I don't know people at Calvary very well. This is a great opportunity to sit in a van, with a bunch of people for four hours, work for five hours, come back four more hours. You will know people. So if you have any desire, my phone number is at the bottom of the sheets and they're also on the table in the lobby. Thanks, Ryan. So, okay. Now this morning, before we get into

our responsive reading and the word, uh, we are blessed to have just a gaggle of kids about to come in here. They had to move these back to fit everybody in. So the kids are going to do some music for us. They're going to sing a little Christmas medley for us. So kids, come on down. No one I'm more impressed with the singing or the fact that they all fit on the

stage. Either way, it was a, it was a beautiful thing. So thank you kids. Okay. For our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm three, Psalm three, looking at the new American standards. So we sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in your row. If there's not one in your row, make a friend. And as you are turning to Psalm three, if you are

able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word. I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with my good friend, Mason and the even verses Psalm three, a Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom, his son, Oh Lord, how my adversaries have increased. Many are rising up against me. Many are saying of my soul, there is no deliverance for him in God say law, but you, Oh Lord are a shield about me, my glory and the one who lifts

my head. I was crying to the Lord. I was crying to the Lord. I was crying to the Lord. I was crying to the Lord with my voice. And he answered me from his holy mountain. Say law. I lay down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustains me. I will not be afraid of 10,000s of people who have set themselves against me roundabout arise. Oh Lord, save me. Oh my God. For you have smitten all my

enemies on the cheek. You have shattered the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing be upon your people. Oh, and father, we do praise you for being the shield that is about us. And Lord, as we talk about the armor of God this morning, may we understand that you truly are our greatest place of safety, refuge, and salvation. And so Lord, may we find that in you today in Jesus name. Amen.

You may be seated. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter six, Ephesians chapter six. Last week, we started into a series on the armor of God that will take us through the end of the book of Ephesians. We'll finish Ephesians next week. Um, but, but we started discussing the armor of God. We said that there were three things in general that we would cover as far as the armor of God was concerned. First,

we talk about the battle. Then we talk about the armor. Then we talk about the prayer. Well, last week we talked about the battle, the fact that we are in a spiritual battle. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you're in a spiritual battle, whether you want to be or not, because there's a very real enemy that we face and there's a very real battle. And it's not new.

This battle has been going on since the very beginning of time, since the time that Satan stood before Eve in the presence of a, or in the, in the form of a serpent tempting her. It was a spiritual battle and that spiritual battle continues today. But God has given us everything that we need in order to fight that battle. And what he's given us is armor, all of the equipment that we will need in order to fight the battle. And so today we start talking about

that armor. So picking up in verse 13 of chapter six, this is what it says. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm, stand firm. Therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all taking up the shield of faith

with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God with all, well, we'll deal with prayer next week. So there's two things he's going to tell us. He's going to give us an exhortation and then he's going to talk to us about the armor. The exhortation

that he gives to us starts in verse 13. He's already told us about the battle, but he says, therefore, in light of our present warfare, in light of our need to stand, he gives us an imperative command, a command that you and I have to take very seriously. And that command is to put on the armor of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The full armor of God. Now, not only do we have to put it on because we have to take it up and

wear it. It can't just be something that we know about. It has to be something that we put into action in our lives, but he also uses a qualifying word for the armor of God there. He uses the word full. That means complete the whole armor of God. God has not just given us one or two things to use. He's given us everything that we need. The problem oftentimes that we have as believers in

Jesus Christ is we don't take the full armor. We only take what we want for the day when we need to be completely clothed in order to go into battle. He says, put on the full armor of God. Why? So that you can resist in the evil day. That word resist means to withstand, to oppose, or to stand against. We are to stand against the evil, not only that comes against us, but to stand against the evil that goes on in the world. And the only way

that we can do that is clothed in the full armor of God. He says to take up the armor so that we can resist in order to stand firm. Now, the very beginning of verse 14, he's going to say the exact same thing. Stand firm, therefore. And it's interesting how many times he has used that word to stand. Because right now we're living in a time and in a culture where if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you stand for the

truth, the world is telling you to shut up and sit down. And in a world that's telling us to shut up and sit down, it's time for us instead to stand. And so that's what he tells us to do. He tells us to take up the armor, to resist, and to stand. That's the exhortation. But now he begins to tell us about the armor. And there's going to be six pieces of the armor that he tells us about. But I'll remind you again

that Paul had a very clear view of what a Roman soldier looked like at that point in time. Because in the empire of Rome, war was a fact of life. And warriors were everywhere. Those who took up the armor, those who went to battle for Rome were everywhere. As a matter of fact, even the police force was dressed more like soldiers than they were. police officers. Not only was war a fact of life in Rome, and soldiers were all around him, but Paul

at this point in time, as he's writing the book of Ephesians, is himself in prison. And according to most commentators and historians, would have been chained to at least one, if not two, Roman guards as he is writing this. And as I told you all last week, Paul was the guy that liked to ask a lot of questions. And I believe, my theory is that as he sat chained to that Roman guard, he started asking things. Tell me about your armor. Tell me why it's important. What's important about the different

pieces that you have? Explain that to me. And of course, our favorite subject to talk about is ourselves. So the Roman soldiers would have had no issue talking about all of the armor that they wear. And Paul, like a good pastor, took all of the physical things that he saw around him and drew spiritual application to it. And that's what he does with this armor. And so he gives for us these

six pieces of armor that we as believers in Jesus Christ need to wear if we are to stand in the evil day. The first thing he tells us to do is to wear the belt of truth. Notice what he says in verse 14. Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth. Now, in each of these, I'm going to tell you what was important for the Roman soldier about this particular piece of armor and

why it's important for us in the spiritual application of the piece of armor. So the most important piece of equipment that a Roman soldier wore, the thing that tied everything together was their belt. It was a leather belt, and in front of it, there hung a large or a long leather apron with oftentimes armor on top of it that protected the groin area of the soldier. That belt was very important because it gathered together the loose-fitting clothing that they were usually wearing so that there was nothing that impeded them in battle. It also is what held the sword

onto them, and it's what they fastened their breastplate to so that it would stay in place so that it could do the job that it was supposed to do. If you will, the foundation for everything that the Roman soldier wore was the belt. And so it was important that they girded that belt about them, otherwise the rest of the armor would not operate as it was supposed to. Paul tells us that we are to gird our loins with the belt of truth.

We're to gird our loins with the belt of truth. I would define the word truth for you, but surely you know what the word truth is, right? Literally, the definition is in the word. If you look up the word, it says whatever is true. I'm not making that up. That's just the definition of the word. And so truth is something that's really under attack. And I've talked about this multiple times

because it needs to be talked about multiple times. In our culture, truth is under attack. Whether it be truth as far as what the news gives out or truth as far as what God's word has to say, truth is massively under attack. Right now, we live in a postmodern, I've seen it called hyper modern, even modern world. And we have seen a shift in thinking. But what we have to understand is that this attack on truth

is not something that started within the last 15 to 20 years. We've seen it flourish in the last 15 to 20 years. But this attack on truth has been going on for a very long time. I'm reading a book right now called The Beauty of Intolerance by Josh and Sean McDowell. It's a fascinating book. As a matter of fact, if you have teenagers, if you have kids, I would highly encourage you to get

the book, The Beauty of Intolerance, because it really teaches you a lot about the culture battle that's going on right now. From two guys who are very good at fighting it. Well, anyway, they have this chapter on truth. And in this chapter on truth, he points something out. He points out that this battle for truth, this shift in thinking was not something that happened quickly. It really started

with a handful of movements in the world. There was, first of all, the Renaissance movement, which reinvigorated people's, not necessarily idea of thinking, but their artistic ideas and got them thinking outside the box artistically. There was the age of enlightenment, which wasn't really enlightenment, but it's where most of our modern philosophy, has come from. There was the industrial age, which sort of created a sense of pride in man, because all of a sudden we started inventing things and figuring out that we could do so much more than we used to do. But in the midst of, but the culmination of the Renaissance,

the age of enlightenment and the industrial revolution came Charles Darwin. And Charles Darwin, who at one point in time, believe it or not, was a theology student, developed his theory of Darwinism, where our modern day theory of evolution comes from. And basically the idea of Darwinism is that you don't need God. He wasn't active in these things. He didn't create these things. And ultimately what happened is man completely pulled themselves away

from the truth of God slowly, but surely, and began to develop truth for themselves. Well, the point that these guys make in the book is that that shift in thinking has moved the base for truth away from God and his word and has made man the sole arbiter of truth. And now in their, in their pride, man can begin to say, this is what I think is true. And this is what I think is false. Interestingly enough, if you carry that out to its fullest extent, we become our own gods

determining what is right and what is wrong. That's why so many times you hear this phrase, and it's a phrase that I hate more than anything that I can imagine. And that's that, well, that's my truth. Wait, wait, so are you saying that your truth is different from my truth? And what they'll say is yes, that's true for me. And that's my truth. They've taken a phrase that was said at one point in time.

Remember somebody saying that phrase, perception is reality. Well, I'm here to tell you something. Perception is not reality. Perception is pseudo reality because wait for it. Reality is reality, right? Truth is truth. But we have taught people that your perception is your reality. So if that's what you perceive, then that's what's real because you are the arbiter of truth. And if we think that

this is only happening in the world, we need to understand that. And the point that they make in this book is that this is not exempt from the church because kids today may believe that there is a God. They may absolutely believe that there's a God, but they have fashioned a God in their own likeness because they have decided what God will and will not allow them to do because they are the arbiter of truth. And rather than things being filtered through God's word to see whether or not they're true, they're filtered through my perception and my perception is reality. I'm not making this stuff up. A couple of guys smarter than me came up with

it. But the more that I look at culture today, the more I'm like, that's exactly right. That's why people can lie to you, bold faced, and you can't call them out on it because it's their truth, right? So what is truth? That's the question. Well, interestingly enough, again, Josh and Sean McDowell point this out in the book. They say it's interesting because a really famous man asked that

question to Jesus. Pilate asked him, what is truth? And he said, what is truth? And he said, what is truth? And what they didn't realize, what he didn't realize was, is that the very meaning of truth stood right in front of him because truth is not a what, truth is a who. And truth is found in the person of Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, everything that is true, especially morally

speaking, finds its root, finds its nature, finds its foundation in God. And so as we look for what is true, we find it in God. And so as we look for what is true, we find it in God. And so as we look for it to find its foundation in who God is, because God is truth. After all, how did Jesus refer to himself as the disciples? He said, I am the way and the truth and the life. Therefore,

if we want to know truth, we must first know God. Well, where is God revealed to us? Well, God has revealed to us in his word. Therefore, if we are to put on the belt of truth, then we need to know who God is as he is revealed in these 66 books. That is so vital. That is so vitally important. And brothers and sisters, in a world today that is telling you that you can define your own truth, not only about the world, not only about medicine,

not only about reality, not only about morality, but also about God, we'd better hold on to something that's true. Therefore, gird your loins with the belt of truth. And it has to be the most important thing in the world to you. You have to care because they need you to know something. If you don't care, you'll fall for what's false and you'll fall into a lie.

He says, gird your loins with the belt of truth. Number two, we are to wear the breastplate of righteousness. We are to wear the breastplate of righteousness. Now, again, when a Roman soldier would wear the breastplate, it was usually a piece of leather that was covered either in chain mail or it was covered in just metal itself. And it was of utmost importance to us to know that it was

because what lies right here? Well, your heart, your lungs, all of your vital organs are in this area right here, right? The really important area of your body, because if the enemy can stab you in the heart, you'll bleed out. If he can puncture a lung, you'll suffocate. Therefore, this is a very important part of your body. So they always made sure to put on this breastplate, but you and

I don't wear a physical breastplate. Instead, what do we wear? We wear righteousness. We wear righteousness. Well, what does righteousness mean? The word righteousness is defined like this. It is the condition of being acceptable to and approved by God. Now, I think that that means two things in the context given to us here for the breastplate of righteousness. Number one, you need

to make sure that you are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, because you must wear the righteousness of Christ that he grants to us by faith, that he grants to us when we put our faith in Jesus Christ. Go with me over to the book of Philippians. Philippians chapter three, verse nine. Go about two pages to your right. Philippians chapter three, verse nine. And I want

you to notice what it says. It says that I may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that is derived from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. The righteousness which comes from God. On the basis of faith. So if I want to protect my vital organs, then I must wear the righteousness of Christ. Because if I try to wear my own righteousness, you know what that will leave

me susceptible to? The attacks of the enemy. Because my own righteousness is like wearing a paper towel, right? I don't know if you've ever noticed this or not. I don't even care if it's the bounty quicker picker-upper. A paper towel is not going to protect you. But if I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ and I am of the utmost protected, because the righteousness of Christ

is impenetrable. Not only does the breastplate of righteousness speak with being clothed with the righteousness of Christ, that's our position, our righteous position. But I think it also speaks of our righteous action. Our righteous action. The way that we live our lives. There is a pastor that I really appreciate. His name is Wes Bentley. I've shared about him before. Runs a ministry called

Far-Reaching Ministries, where they literally go into the most dangerous places in the world and give out the gospel. They are in places like Lebanon right now. They're in places like the Sudan and the places nobody will go with the gospel. They go there. He's been blown up like four times. And he goes there and he shares the gospel. He is a true warrior, right? And when he

goes there and shares the gospel, it is of utmost importance that he lives a righteous life. And he has a philosophy. And this philosophy has stuck with me. He shared it with us a long, long time ago. And it says this, obedience is the safety net of the believer. Obedience is the safety net of the believer. Because the most protected place that you can be is living in the will of God. Because if you're living in the will of God, you are, first of all,

protected from moral stain, right? If you are obeying God, if you are following what God has to say, yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit, you're not going to be stained by the immoral things of this world. And then being disqualified because you are stained by the moral things of the world. Remember we said that one of the areas that the enemy loves the most is the is in the area of moral failures. As a matter of fact, not many weeks can go by without reading an

article in a newspaper about another megachurch pastor that has somehow fallen into some sort of immorality. One of the latest ones is a guy, and I disagree with every aspect of his theology almost, but he runs the International House of Prayer up in Kansas City, Mike Bickle, who now is being called into account for sexual allegations. You know why? Because he quit wearing the breastplate of righteousness.

And if you don't wear that, if your actions aren't righteous, then you are susceptible to the moral stains of the world, which can disqualify us. Not only are we, does it make us susceptible to the moral stains of the world, but when we don't live out that righteous life, we live under the guilt of sin. And when we live under the guilt of sin, it renders us useless because all I can think about is the guilt that I have. Brothers and sisters, we must wear the breastplate of righteousness, not just the righteousness of Christ in our position, but the righteousness of Christ in our position. And if you don't wear that, if your actions aren't righteous, then you

don't live out that righteous life, but the righteousness of Christ in our position, but the obedience is more important than we give it credit for. So where to wear the belt of truth? Number two, the breastplate of righteousness. Number three, I tried to shorten this down and be like the shoes of the gospel, the sandals of peace. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of

peace. That's the best I could do. Sorry. So just, I'll give you a second to write that down. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Okay. So this is what it says. Well, that's exactly what it says. There's really no reason to read that out of scripture. It says that because I couldn't short it down. I remember now. Now the shoes that the Roman soldiers would have worn would

have been laced up somewhere about the middle of their calf. Usually some sort of a sandal that gets laced up really high so that it is, so that it supports their ankles and holds onto their feet. The underneath side of the shoes that they wore was a piece of thick leather that was usually embedded with some form of a metal spike, whether it be a nail or a, um, I just lost a word here. It is some form of a metal spike so that they could grip because sometimes they would be fighting on uneven terrain. Sometimes they would be fighting in muddy terrain,

no matter what they had to be able to stand. And so the most important thing that they could do is have the right kind of shoes that would give them a firm standing. Well, you and I don't have to wear the sandals of, of, of the gospel. We don't have to wear some form of sandals. Although if you wear Birkenstocks or those like sandals of the gospel, it feels like those are sandals of the gospel.

Anyway, our feet are to be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now there's three words I want to point out to you about how our feet are to be shod. The first word is the word preparation. Now when we think about the word preparation, we think about probably what you did on your way to church this morning. You got prepared, right? Am I dressed? Check. Have I brushed my teeth? Check. Do I have

my coffee? Check. Why didn't you ask about your Bible first? Huh? Huh? Do I have my Bible? Check. I got prepared before I came to church, right? Are the kids? They'll make it anyway. So am I prepared for everything that I need to do for getting to church, right? That's when we think of preparation, which, you know, that word preparation has another meaning to it in the Greek. That word preparation can also mean a firm foundation. Oh no, that's a

pretty fascinating thought, isn't it? To stand on a firm foundation. But if you think about it, if I'm standing on a firm foundation, what am I? I am, I'm prepared. I'm prepared for whatever comes my way, right? Again, it's wrestling season. So my mind's, one of the first things that they teach you when you start wrestling is, is a good stance because you have to have a good firm stance. And usually your, your coach, especially as little

kids, they'll say, all right, everybody stand up straight. Everybody stands up straight and he walks around and starts pushing people down, right? He goes, you know, I was able to push you down because you don't have a good stance. You got to get a good stance. You need a firm base, right? Because if you have a firm base and he has some kid get a firm base, he tries to push him down

and he can't. He goes, why can't I push him down? Because he's prepared. He's standing on a firm foundation. He has a good stance. Well, brothers and sisters, you and I need to get a good stance. We need to have a firm foundation that we stand upon. What's the firm foundation that we stand upon? The gospel of Jesus Christ so that we can be prepared for whatever comes next, right? So the

first thing we point out is that there's a firm foundation. That's our preparation. Number two, what do we just stand firm in? The gospel, the gospel. The word gospel literally in its most base meaning just simply means good news. And of course we know in particular the good news is the good news. The good news of Jesus Christ. The good news that Jesus Christ saw that you were a depraved

sinner, dead in your sins, dead in all of the garbage that you think you could hide from everybody else in the world, but that God absolutely sees. He saw that you were dead in that sin. And because of the great love with which he loved you, he said, I can't let them die in that sin because I don't want to be eternally separated from them. So Jesus came down, lived a life among us. And as he lived a life among us, a perfect life, he became the perfect sacrifice.

Died the perfect death. And then rose again guaranteeing the fact that the sacrifice was accepted. Brothers and sisters, when you put your faith in that, you become a brand new creation in Christ Jesus. We call that the gospel. Last night I was listening to one of my favorite Christmas songs ever. It's the song God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. I particularly enjoy the rendition

by the Barenaked Ladies, but that's just me. Take that for what you will. But it says this, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. Let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's power for we had gone astray. Oh, tidings of comfort and joy, right? That's the gospel. I said, who would have ever thought that a band called the Barenaked Ladies could declare

the gospel of Jesus Christ without meaning to, right? That's just the most amazing thing. Talk about the foolishness of man being used by God. Declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, that's the gospel. That we stand firm in. How can I stand firm against the attacks of the enemy? By standing firm on what Jesus has done for me at the cross. And so we stand firm on the gospel. But I want

you to notice the qualifying word for the gospel here. It's the gospel of peace. Ah, that's a great word, isn't it? You know, peace takes on two different forms in our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. You see, the day that you came to know Jesus as your Savior, the day that you surrendered to Jesus Christ, you had peace with God. You had peace with God. You had peace with

God. Because whether you realized it or not, you were at war with God. And if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, if you're here this morning and you've never surrendered your life to him, you need to understand something. You're not at peace with God right now. You are at war with God. And you know what God always wins? The war. You need to

know you will surrender to Jesus one way or the other. You'll either surrender to him on this side of eternity and receive salvation, or you'll surrender to him on the other side of eternity and receive judgment. Either way, if you're not saved, you're at war with God. But the day that you surrendered your life to Jesus Christ and said, I'm a terrible sinner, please come into my heart and forgive me, you made peace with God. It's like the gospel signing

a peace treaty. But as you walk with Jesus Christ, you begin to achieve the peace of God. You see, your peace with God doesn't change. That's dependent upon the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The peace of God can change depending on what you do. Whether or not you're resting in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. And I don't know why, but I feel like I'm supposed to tell somebody in here, you need to surrender something

because you don't have the peace of God in your life right now. I don't know who it is, but you need to surrender something to Jesus because you don't have any peace in your life right now. As a matter of fact, there's war in your life right now, and you need the peace of God. And Jesus just wants you to know whatever it is, surrender it to him and quit holding on to it because it's not yours.

It's not yours to worry about. But we can achieve the peace of God. What's the peace of God? Well, when I stand firm on the gospel truth, when I stand firm on who Jesus is, then I have the peace of God dwelling in my life because I know that he's the one who's absolutely in control. I mean, he hasn't failed me yet, and he won't fail me anytime soon because his promises are always yes

and amen. He says, you have your feet shod. The preparation of the gospel of peace. Number four. Sorry, I'm trying to move quick. I'm going to be running a little bit late today, so hang in there. Number four, the shield of faith. Verse 16, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Now, there were two different types of shields that the Roman

soldiers would carry. One was a small round shield. A lot of times we see that, especially when they're in their military. But then comes the real shield that the heavy infantry guys carried. That's the kind of shield that's being spoken of. That shield was about two and a half feet wide, and it was about four feet tall-ish. It was big enough that they could crouch down behind it to absorb all of the arrows that

would be shot at it. And they would shoot flaming arrows, and so they would cover it on the outside. It would be wood, and then it would be covered on the outside with leather and then coated with something, hopefully water, that would extinguish the fiery arrows. If you have ever watched the movie Gladiator, it's a movie that's going to be a big hit. It's going to be a big hit. It's going to

That very opening scene of Gladiator, when they're in that battle, and those flaming arrows come down, and all of the Roman soldiers crouch low behind those arrows, that's exactly what's being talked about here. That's the exact scene of what's taking place when he says, the shield of faith. Now, I learned something a little bit about Roman military warfare, warfare at that point in time. They said they would shoot flaming arrows at their enemies, not just to kill people, although that was a fringe benefit.

Flaming arrows to start the battle because it would confuse the enemy. Because when the arrow stuck into your shield, you would think your shield was on fire, and the goal was to get you to freak out, be confused, and throw down your shield, thinking that it's on fire, which would leave you susceptible to attack. That's why Paul says, take up the shield of faith, which is able to extinguish the fiery arrows of the enemy. You see, you and I, the shield we carry is not some large wooden thing. The shield we carry is faith.

Faith is defined simply like this. It's the conviction of the truth of anything. It's a belief. I've used this illustration before, and I'll probably always use it because it's the best one I can come up with. Each of you exercised faith when you walked in here this morning. When you walked in here this morning, you looked at that chair, you sized it up, and you said,

I have the strong conviction that that chair is the best one I can come up with. That chair will hold me up, right? And then you exercised that faith by sitting on that chair. Believe it or not, you exercised faith this morning. I don't know about y'all, but I'm eating a little more brownies here lately, and sometimes I look at chairs designed for, you know, three to five

year olds, and I look and I go, hmm, my conviction is not that that will hold me up, right? And so I'm not going to exercise faith because I know that my faith will fail because that chair will fail. But you and I exercise faith all the time, and we're to hold on to that faith. We are to have faith in God. We're to have faith in his word, and we're to have faith in who I am and who you are in Christ.

And the enemy will seek to fire all of the flaming arrows at us because he wants to confuse us, and he wants us to get us to drop that shield of faith, to stop believing, to allow confusion or doubt or discouragement to cause us to say, you know what? Maybe I was wrong on this. And we throw down that shield of faith, and it makes us susceptible to all the other attacks of the enemy. Brothers and sisters, you need to understand something about faith. Faith is not a feeling.

We live in a feelings-based world right now, and we're all looking for something that's going to make me feel good. I need you to know something. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a settled conviction. It is a belief, and we have to stop living our lives based on feelings because I'm here to tell you right now, you're not always going to feel it. You will not always feel like

you belong to Jesus. You will not always feel the feeling of faith. You will not always feel the warm fuzzies every time you get into the word of God, but you still have to just keep believing. You have to continue to hold on to that shield of faith no matter what the arrows that are thrown at you are. It's one of the hardest lessons I ever had to learn in my walk with Jesus Christ is to

believe even when it didn't make sense, even when I don't feel it. And you will find that if you will believe no matter what, the Lord takes care of everything else. He said, we are to hold on to the shield of faith. But I want you to take note of one more thing about this shield. Remember we said he throws flaming darts at us, but what does it say that that shield is able to do?

There's a word that's used in there. See it? It is able to, go and shout it out, extinguish the flaming darts of the enemy, right? Not only does it block it, it puts out the fire. Brothers and sisters, believe. Number five, we are to take the helmet of salvation. We are to take the helmet of salvation. Now, again, the Roman soldiers had a couple of different

types of helmets that they used. One was a leather helmet that had a metal band around the forehead, but the one that was most often used was a completely metal helmet that covered the back of the neck, came down over right here, and then down to here. The only thing that was left exposed was the eyes and the cheekbones. It covered everything. It was lined on the inside either

with fur or with leather or with felt so that it would protect the helmet. It was lined on the head from the metal, but that thing would stop anything. It stopped all of the attacks of the enemy that would come against the head, because after all, if you cut off the head, the rest of the body is rendered useless. If you damage the head, the rest of the body is rendered useless, right? And so they always aimed for the head. So the Roman soldiers protected their heads with

the helmet. Well, you and I are to protect our heads as well, only we are not to protect our heads with a physical helmet. We're to protect our heads with the knowledge of salvation. Salvation is the thing that protects our heads. Now, the word salvation in its base form in the Greek is the word soteria. As a matter of fact, I'm going to give you a $5,000 word that you can

impress all your friends with later, okay? The study of salvation is called soteriology. That's a pretty fun word, right? Everybody say soteriology. See, impress your friends later and be like, oh, I was studying in God's word about soteriology, and they're like, ooh, what's that mean? They're like, well, it's the study of salvation. He's so smart, right? You'll impress everybody. Christmas party. Anyway, so the word soteria literally means rescue

or safety. It means to deliver or to save. That's the idea. Now, salvation is a concept that's given to us all through scripture, but it's especially talked about in the New Testament. In the New Testament, there's three tenses of salvation that are always used depending on the part of scripture that you're in. The first tense that's used is the past tense. You have been saved. We call that

justification. That's the day that you're saved. You have been saved. You have been saved. You have That's the day that you put your faith in Jesus Christ. You are justified. You are legally declared righteous in God's eyes, and now you sit in the position of being righteous because you have been justified by faith. We're told that in Romans. We're told that in Philippians. Lots of

different places where we are told that that righteousness is granted to us by faith. That's the past tense. That's who you are. That's who you were the day that you became born again. The second tense that's used is the present tense. You are being saved. It has nothing to do with your position in Christ. It has everything to do with the practicality of how you live. We call that sanctification. The process of you becoming

more like Jesus. The process of you walking away from the things of sin and walking towards the things of Jesus. And then there's a third tense for salvation that's used, and it's the future tense. We'll call it glorification. That's when you go home to be with Jesus. You see, in justification, you're set free from the penalty, of sin. In sanctification, you're set free from the power of sin. And in glorification,

you're set free from the presence of sin. But that salvation is what protects our melons. It's what protects our heads. Because after all, where does so much of the spiritual battle in your life take place? Right up in the old melon, right? That's where so much of it happens. And so that knowledge of who you are, reminding yourself that either you are, saved, or you're being saved, or you will be saved, is so important.

You know, there's a beautiful Old Testament illustration of this. It's given to us in the 23rd Psalm. The 23rd Psalm, David talks about the shepherd anointing the head of the sheep with oil. He said, he anoints my head with oil. Well, do you know why shepherds did that? You see, when sheep were living out in the wilderness, they had all that wool on top of their heads,

and what else is in the wilderness? Bugs. Bugs would start buzzing around in the wool on top of their heads. And as that bug would buzz around in the wool on their head, it would drive them crazy. They would actually start beating their heads on things to try to get rid of the buzzing sound. They'd beat their head on the ground, up against rocks, and it would drive them nuts, right?

Kind of sound familiar? Kind of sound like spiritual warfare? Kind of sound like when the enemy's attacking you? So what the shepherd would do is he would take that horn of oil, and he would pour it on the head of the sheep, and it would do a handful of things for the sheep. The first thing that it would do is it would kill the bug. It would kill that which was causing so much issue. The second thing that it would do is it

would have a soothing or healing effect upon the head of the sheep if any damage had been done from banging their head against a rock. But then the third thing it would do is it would protect it from future infestations. And so David so aptly says, he anoints my head with oil. But what's oil always synonymous with in scripture? It's always synonymous with the

Holy Spirit. Who bears witness to our salvation? The Holy Spirit, because he's given to us as a seal, right? So how do we protect our heads? We protect our heads with the helmet of salvation through the power of the Holy Spirit. As he reminds you, you belong to Jesus. When those discouraging, fearful thoughts come in. And when you find that the power of sin is

still strong in your life, Lord, I need to be delivered from this. He reminds you that you are being saved. That you're in the process of Jesus making you who he wants you to be. And when everything seems heavy and you're like, Lord, I don't know if I can take anything else on this earth. You're reminded of glorification. This place isn't your home. And one day you will be saved

from here. Now continue on because you have a future and hope. Put on the helmet of salvation. The very last thing that he tells us to put on is the sword of the spirit. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Again, there was a couple of different types of swords that the Romans would carry. They had a really long sword, but that's not the sword that's being

referred to. The sword that's being referred to here is about two foot long, what's called a short sword. And that short sword was double edged and it was sharp. It was so that they could do hand to hand combat and they could adequately deal with their enemy. And that double edged short sword was something that they could handle. And it's what they took into battle

with them. Interestingly enough, we are told in the book of Hebrews, perhaps you've heard this verse, something about the word of God. We're told that the word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any, anybody know this next part? Two edged sword, able to pierce between bone and marrow. It's almost like all the word works together, right? And so we have this

sword. Interestingly enough, what did Jesus use when he was tempted by Satan? When he was tempted by Satan, he used the word of God. He kept responding, it is written, ironically enough, all out of the book of Deuteronomy. For those who think that the Old Testament's irrelevant, he used the book of Deuteronomy and he continued to fight against the enemy. Do you remember one of

the attacks that Satan brought against him? He says, it's written in the word and he misquotes scripture to Jesus. But Jesus says, but it's also written. And he quotes scripture properly back to him. You see, he did war with the sword of the spirit. It is the only offensive weapon that we have in our arsenal. Everything else is defensive to help us to stand. This is the only thing that

allows us to move forward. Therefore, we need to know the word of God. As a matter of fact, don't turn there, but write down, Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 47. Deuteronomy 32, 47, because it says this, don't let these words depart from your mouth because they are your life. They're your life. Now, the question for you, is God's word your life? And I know the easy thing right there is

to want to start amening. But before you amen, I want you to think about something. Do you say God's word is your life? Or do you live like God's word is your life? Because it's one thing to amen it on a Sunday morning sermon, and it's a whole other thing to live it out on Thursday afternoon. Amen. Amen. We need to live like it's our life. And you need to know what it has to say. And I

want to tell you a couple of things about the sword. First of all, the sword is meant to be used. So if you're going to use it, you have to know it. You have to know your sword really, really well, right? The soldier was practicing training all the time in order to use their sword very, very well so that they could use it effectively so that they knew it inside and out. Matter of

fact, you go all the way back into the old Testament. This isn't the Roman empire, but in David's empire, he had this group of warriors called his mighty men. And David's mighty men, one of them said he fought so hard with a sword that his hand clung to it. And it became like a part of his arm. That's what God's word should become like for you. You should know it really,

really well. As a matter of fact, we don't use swords in the military very much anymore, but we do use guns. And I've got a couple of former students that are in the military and both one of them in special forces when trying to go into special forces. And they both tell me the same thing. You better know your gun really well. And they make you know everything that you can about that gun, how to operate it, how to use it,

how to be familiar with it so that there's no question so that when you go into battle, you don't have to think, you just have to react because you know it so well. But not only do you know it well, but the other thing that we need to realize is you don't need to defend your weapon. You just need to use it. Can you imagine somebody looking at a Roman soldier being like, I don't believe that sword is sharp. And he's like, right? He believes now, right? And so too

many of us are afraid. We're like, oh, but what if they don't believe that my sword is real? What if they don't believe in what the Bible has to say? Quit worrying about whether or not people believe it and just start using it because you believe it, right? And if you believe it, use it like you believe it because we're told that God's word never returns void. So use it.

But if you're going to use it, you better know it. These 66 books are the most important thing that you can know in your entire life. And for far too long, we as the church have allowed it to sit on our shelf, gathering dust and brothers and sisters, my heart, my vision, my goal for this next year that God, I feel like has laid on my heart is that we as the church are in the word of God together. Not just on Sunday morning. And so what I'm going to start doing starting right after the new year,

starting January 1st, our last church service of the year will be December 31st. And in that bulletin, I will give you a weekly reading plan. It will have an Old Testament reading. It will have a New Testament reading, and you can decide what you're going to do. You can decide if you're going to read through the Old Testament in this year. You can decide if you're going to read

through the New Testament in this year, or you can decide if you're going to put on your big boy, big girl pants and read all the way through the whole Bible. It's up to you. No, no condemnation either way, as long as you're in the word, but then we're in the same place at the same time in God's word. That way, anytime you have a conversation with somebody that's a part of this church and you say, tell me about what you're reading in the word, you're going to somewhere be near the same place because I believe that continuity of spirit and that knowledge of the word is the greatest thing that we need in the world that we live in today. Amen. And so brothers and sisters, we need the sword of the spirit.

So Paul has given us everything. Everything that we need. He has told us about the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the sandals of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. Now the question is, are you going to put on the full armor of God? You have everything that you need. Now it's up to you. So brothers and sisters, this morning is communion Sunday,

and the ushers have so aptly got all of the kids ready to go. So go ahead and unleash the hounds.

And when they all find their spot, if you would please keep an eye out, look for your look for your tiny person. I'll explain what we're doing with communion. Okay. It's communion Sunday. So let's take just a moment to talk about what we're going to do before we take part in it. Inside these trays are a couple of cups stacked on top of each other. The top cup is the juice,

the bottom cup is the cracker. But what does that mean for us? Well, we are reminded that this meal that we take together as family is the declaration of the death of Jesus Christ. It declares the one place of hope that we have as believers in Jesus Christ, and that's in the blood of Christ, in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. So on that last great night of the

feast, it tells us he took the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. And he took the cup and he said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood that is shed for you. And we're told in first Corinthians that as often as we do this, we are to do so in remembrance of him. So we are encouraged, do so in a worthy manner. And so as I look out on this crowd, I'm reminded that I better tell you

guys what a worthy manner means. First of all, if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, you just need to realize this meal is really not for you. And that's not to be exclusive because the moment that you decide to put your faith in Jesus, surrender to him, like we've talked about, you too can partake in this meal with a full, clean conscience. So if you're here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I want to tell you that you're at war with God. And his greatest desire is to see you surrender

to him because the shed blood of Jesus Christ and his body that was broken for us is the thing that brings us peace and that brings us hope. And so surrender to him. If you're here this morning and you are a believer in Jesus Christ, we're reminded that to partake in a worthy manner means the heart needs to be clean before the Lord. As we go through the day, a week, a month, it's easy to allow things to come up. Sins of the flesh, areas where

we failed to put on that full armor of God. The best thing that we can do is just clean our hearts back out. Scripture tells us that if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So as the worship team comes up, and I'd like to invite them on up, as the worship team comes up to sing this last song, I would just encourage you to ask the Lord to search your heart.

Search your heart to see if there'd be any wicked way and then confess those things to your great high priest, Jesus. That way we can all partake together as family. And so the ushers are going to come down and they're going to hand out the elements as you receive your elements. If you would please stand and we'll all partake together. Father, we come to you and Lord, we thank you.

Thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, that you endured the nails and the stripes. Lord, the crown of thorns on your head. Lord, as they pierced your side, as you died of a broken heart. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken. Father, I thank you for your blood that was shed. Lord, the blood of the new covenant, the blood of the covenant of forgiveness through faith. Lord, the blood that seals

our salvation, past, present, and future. And Lord, I thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, the firm foundation, upon which we stand. And so Lord, would you ever keep us in mind of the great love that you have for us? And we just thank you, Father, in Jesus name. Amen. Let's partake. And if you would bow with me one more time. Lord, be with us as we go out from here now. Father, may we stand firm in

the truth of who you are and the truth of who we are in you. Lord, as we face the enemy on a daily basis, may we find our rest in you. Father, I thank you and I praise you for who you are. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.