Jesus Is Advancing His Church.

Steve Gentry

[0:00] Alright, go ahead and have a seat. [0:01] Welcome to Village Church. [0:02] If this is your first time here, my name’s Steve. [0:04] I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church and as always, I am thankful and grateful [0:08] to see each and every one of you. [0:10] If you have your Bibles, go ahead and open them to Ephesians chapter 6.

[0:14] We’re going to be in Ephesians 6 this morning. [0:17] This is a final week in the book of Ephesians. [0:20] We’ve each week covered about a chapter of the book and we have seen the plan of God [0:28] and what He desires to do in our lives through the book. [0:32] And what we’ve seen is that the gospel is the eternal plan of God and that through the [0:38] gospel, God is redeeming for Himself a people.

[0:41] He’s saving sinners to build His church and in that, we have these great promises of God [0:48] that He’s going to use us for the purpose of building that church. [0:54] And what we’re going to get into with chapter 6 is the kind of on the ground level of what [1:00] God is going to do for us, how God is working in us, and the lifestyle in which we are going [1:07] to need to expect to live in order to experience the purposes of God in our lives. [1:12] And what we’re going to talk about today is the armor of God.

[1:16] Now, I was raised in the church and so the armor of God was something that we constantly [1:21] went through in Sunday school. [1:23] I never knew why we needed armor, but I knew that the armor was there just in case that [1:28] I needed it. [1:30] And kind of what I didn’t kind of put together until later in life is that the armor of God [1:36] exists for purposes that I don’t necessarily find natural for my life.

[1:42] And the reason that I don’t find them natural is because they aren’t natural. [1:45] They are supernatural purposes that God wants me to commit myself to. [1:49] And there will be forces that come against me as I seek to follow Jesus, as I seek to [1:56] build his church. [1:58] Now, the way that I looked at spiritual warfare when I was a child was quite unique. [2:02] I went to a specific kind of church and in this church, the greatest controversy, this

[2:07] was back in the 1980s, the greatest controversy that we had about spiritual warfare in the [2:12] lives of children was Smurfs. [2:15] And the controversy that we endured in our lives was, is the show, the Smurfs, a wicked [2:23] evil that must be abstained from at all costs or our children will start practicing [2:31] witchcraft over boiling cauldrons like Gargamel, who was the bad guy in the Smurfs. [2:39] Now, the one thing that the Smurfs got right is that evil people have cats and he had a

[2:44] cat. And so the one takeaway that you can have right now is that don’t have a cat [2:53] because Asriel was evil and get a dog.

[3:01] Man, you guys are really missing a lot of spiritual nuggets here. [3:05] Anyway, but the way spiritual warfare was looked at is that what happened is that Satan [3:12] would use a form of entertainment and he would use it as a foothold to get into your [3:17] household and then he would overtake your household and your kids would run into the [3:20] woods and practice witchcraft or something. [3:22] Now, I’m not saying that there isn’t a realm of possibility where Satan works that way.

[3:29] But what I do want you to understand is if that’s the way that you expect Satan to attack [3:33] you personally, then you’re missing the way he’s actually going to attack you, because [3:38] what we’re going to see in today’s text is that he is way craftier than that. [3:41] And the number one way that you’re going to experience spiritual warfare in your life [3:46] is not a sensational room spinning, somebody spitting up pea soup. [3:51] But instead, the way in which you’re going to experience spiritual warfare is through

[3:56] discouragement. [3:58] That the enemy is going to seek to discourage you from living the life that God has called [4:05] you to live because you believe that it is too difficult for you to accomplish the task. [4:11] It’s not that the task isn’t too difficult for you to accomplish. [4:15] Instead, it is that God wants to strengthen you to accomplish everything that he has [4:21] called you to do.

[4:22] And you should be far less worried about Harry Potter than you are about wasting your time [4:28] because the devil is going to seek to dissuade you from using your time wisely, from [4:34] stewarding your relationship wisely so that you will waste your time and be discouraged [4:39] from the things of God because it is hard.

[4:44] God is going to call you if you are a follower of Jesus, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, [4:49] God has not called you to this yet. [4:50] He’s going to call you to faith in Jesus. [4:52] But I want to give you the truth instead of a half truth alive and no truth, because many [4:58] people come to faith in Jesus. [4:59] They have a half truth.

[5:00] That is, God has a wonderful plan for your life. [5:03] It’s a half truth. [5:03] God does have a wonderful truth for your life. [5:06] God has a wonderful plan that he’s going to work out in my life. [5:11] I believe that because the scripture tells me that. [5:13] But that’s only half of the story.

[5:14] But then comes a lie. [5:17] And that lie is that if you put your faith in Jesus and if you have enough faith and [5:21] you have strong faith, then your life’s going to be easy. [5:26] You’re not going to encounter difficulty. [5:28] You’re not going to encounter hardship. [5:30] You’re not going to have to endure pain.

[5:32] That’s a lie.

[5:35] The whole truth is that God has a wonderful plan for your life. [5:39] And you are going to encounter a lot of difficulty in experiencing that great plan [5:45] that God has for your life. [5:47] You are going to come into conflict. [5:49] You are going to come upon a lot of resistance. [5:51] You’re going to endure seasons of pain rather than just moments of pain.

[5:56] You are going to come against opposition and resistance that you never knew you were [6:02] capable of coming against. [6:04] And what God has done for you to endure that is he gives you his strength and he gives [6:09] you his armor to build his church. [6:11] And that is the plan of God. [6:14] Look in Ephesians, chapter six, verse 10, here’s what the apostle writes to close the

[6:19] book of Ephesians. [6:19] He says, finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. [6:24] He basically says the same thing twice. [6:27] He doubles down on something. [6:28] He says, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his might. [6:32] The reason he says it this way is because he wants you to be strong in the Lord, but

[6:35] he also wants you to understand the Lord is strong. [6:38] He wants you to understand that there is strength that the Lord does have for you, [6:42] that you’re going to have to depend on if you’re going to follow Jesus, because you’re [6:46] going to need to expect to have faith. [6:50] Then he goes on, he says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand [6:55] against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but

[7:00] against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present [7:04] darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [7:08] Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil [7:13] day. And having done all to stand firm, stand. [7:17] He gets very redundant right here. [7:19] He tells you to stand a total of four times in this passage, but three times in a very

[7:24] short amount of time. [7:25] And that’s going to be very important in just a few moments. [7:28] The redundancy of stand, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the [7:33] breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness [7:36] given by the gospel of peace and all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with [7:42] which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

[7:45] Take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, [7:49] praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end. [7:53] Keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints. [7:58] Number one. The Church of Jesus is on the move. [8:02] The Church of Jesus is on the move. [8:04] Now, you may retort and say, I don’t see the church mentioned anywhere in that passage.

[8:10] And what you’re doing is what we commonly do with the armor of God. [8:14] You are you are divorcing it away from the context of the rest of the book of Ephesians. [8:19] And that’s no way to read the Bible. [8:22] You have to understand every section of scripture in light of all of the scripture [8:26] that is around it. And so what we have in Chapter six is everything that he’s been [8:30] building towards for the first five chapters and for the first five chapters, he’s given

[8:35] us vision for the eternality of the church, vision for the foundation and the upbuilding [8:40] of the church, vision for God’s wisdom being shown through the church, vision for equipping [8:45] each other to be disciples inside of the church, vision for how you are to imitate [8:51] God specifically in all of your relationships. [8:54] Your marriage doesn’t exist for you. [8:56] Your marriage exists for God.

[8:58] Your children don’t exist to make you feel better about yourself. [9:02] Your children exist to show the strength of God in the relationship that he has for his [9:06] church. Your job and the relationship that you have with your boss doesn’t even exist [9:11] for you. Your job exists to proclaim the gospel and show the wisdom of God in the [9:16] fact that you do everything that you do to build the church of Jesus Christ. [9:20] That’s what he’s saying with the bondservant and master language in Ephesians six.

[9:26] And so for five chapters and the first nine verses of Chapter six, he gives us vision [9:32] after vision after vision for what the church is going to be and how our lives are to show [9:38] this amazing beauty of what God is doing through the gospel to build the church of [9:43] Jesus Christ. Then in Chapter six, he prepares us for the fight to accomplish the task.

[9:51] See, some of you are seeking to follow Jesus and you think it’s going to be a leisurely [9:55] stroll with Jesus.

[9:58] What Ephesians six informs us of is that Jesus is calling us into battle. [10:05] This is no leisurely stroll. [10:07] This is a fight and it’s the fight of your life and it’s the fight that will define your [10:12] life. And so you need to be prepared with a life that is saturated in discipleship and [10:18] the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ so that on the day that the battle is its fiercest, [10:25] you will be prepared to fight rather than fall.

[10:30] The church is on the move because every piece of armor that he talks about here is about [10:38] facing what is in front of you rather than retreating towards what is behind you.

[10:44] Shields are never taken up in retreat.

[10:48] Shields are dropped so that you can run faster.

[10:52] Swords are not wielded in retreat. [10:54] They are put away because you’re running scared.

[10:58] Everything that he tells us about here, about the armor of God, are things that are preparing [11:04] us to march forward against an enemy and to fight a fight. [11:09] And so what he means to tell us in this is that the purposes and plans of God are so [11:15] sure that we will not go backwards. [11:19] We will not stand still. [11:21] But in order to experience real growth in your relationship with Jesus Christ, in order

[11:27] to truly grow your faith in Jesus Christ, you will have a focus that is forward and [11:33] you will move forward in your life rather than letting what lies behind you distract you.

[11:41] The problem that I see with so many people’s efforts at discipleship is that you have no [11:47] forward momentum. [11:48] You want Jesus to equip you while you are standing still.

[11:54] You expect Jesus to give you everything that you need before you will take one step. [11:58] And there is absolutely zero faith involved in that.

[12:04] He doesn’t tell you how it’s going to happen. [12:08] He just tells you what the ends of your faith will be. [12:12] The ends of our faith will be victory. [12:16] The ends of our faith will be the kingdom of heaven. [12:20] The ends of our faith will be that he will reign forever and ever. [12:25] The ends of our campaign is going to be an undefeatable eternal kingdom in which we

[12:33] see Jesus face to face. [12:34] He wipes away every tear and we spend eternity experiencing the fruits of Jesus’s [12:40] resurrection in the kingdom of God, in which he makes all things new.

[12:46] Here’s where people struggle. [12:48] They are very comfortable with the ends and God designing the ends. [12:52] We are very comfortable even with God determining the ends because don’t those [12:56] ends sound wonderful? [12:58] I mean, they do. They are. [12:59] They will be.

[13:01] But God has not only designed the ends, but God has designed the means by which those [13:06] ends will be won. [13:08] And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are the means by which the victory will [13:13] be won. [13:15] It’s all happening in light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. [13:19] But he wants you to experience the reality that there will be battles headed towards

[13:24] the kingdom of Jesus. [13:27] The World War Two was fascinating that on D-Day, the day that those brave men stormed [13:34] the beaches of Normandy against what seems to be an impenetrable line. [13:40] And the Allied forces stormed those beaches and most people, most historians will tell [13:45] you that that is truly the day that World War Two was won by the Allied forces against [13:51] the Nazi regime.

[13:52] That was the day that the victory of World War Two was cemented. [13:57] But what’s interesting is, is that there’s D-Day, but then there’s V-Day, which is [14:01] Victory Day. [14:02] And Victory Day happened about a year later. [14:05] You may say, why was there such a lapse in between? [14:08] Well, because after D-Day, what happened is that the Allied forces basically had to

[14:13] march through Europe, town after town, facing the enemy, beating the enemy. [14:20] And when they reached Berlin is when we declared the fighting is over. [14:28] You see, the victory had already been won, but the fighting wasn’t over yet. [14:32] So it is with the kingdom of heaven. [14:35] The victory was cemented on the day of Jesus’s resurrection. [14:40] The victory was made certain that God will fulfill every single promise that he has

[14:47] ever made. [14:50] But the campaign still marches on as we fight this spiritual battle that Ephesians six [14:58] says that we will endure through our lives and we will fight with faith and we will [15:03] have impenetrable faith because we believe the victory is won. [15:08] No matter what the enemy throws at us, no matter what resistance we come upon, we march [15:14] forward because victory is ours.

[15:16] That is what faith brings into your life. [15:21] That type of courage, that type of certainty. [15:26] You see, courage isn’t something that you need in peacetime.

[15:30] Courage isn’t something that you need sitting in your living room alone in your lazy [15:35] boy. Nobody puts on armor and then sits in an easy chair. [15:40] What would the purpose be? [15:41] You’d look like an idiot. [15:43] Your wife would come home. [15:45] Something wrong with you.

[15:47] Why are you wearing armor? [15:48] You’re in a chair. [15:50] Armor is something that only makes sense on a battlefield. [15:55] And the reason that he’s telling us to stand and put on the whole armor of God is because [16:01] he wants us to understand that, yes, this is the eternal plan of God. [16:05] Yes, God is building his church and he’s going to build his church.

[16:08] Yes, the victory has been won and the wisdom of God is being proclaimed. [16:12] But we are the avenue through which God is showing his amazing victory as we defeat [16:19] the enemy through our lives of serving Jesus Christ as his disciples.

[16:27] Do not read the armor of God through the lens of individualism. [16:34] Because you do not put the armor on for your purposes, you put the armor on for God’s [16:39] purposes. And what are God’s purposes? [16:42] We told us that in Ephesians 1, starting in verse 22, when he said that God put all things [16:47] under Jesus’s feet and gave Jesus’s head over all things to the church, which is his [16:51] body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

[16:55] Friend, if we are, as verse 10 says, strong in the Lord, if we are strengthened in his [17:00] might, then we must understand that God is going to point those things towards his plan. [17:07] So many of you are asking for the strength of the Lord, but you’re not living for the [17:10] purposes of the Lord. [17:12] Why would God waste his strength on something that doesn’t accomplish his purposes? [17:18] So my question is, why would you try to waste his strength on things that don’t accomplish

[17:21] his purposes?

[17:25] See, many of us, we have a plan for our lives and most of our energy in prayer, most of [17:32] our energy in faith is spent trying to convince God to get on our page. [17:39] Faith is not a power that gets God on your page. [17:44] Faith is the strength to get you on his page. [17:50] And so when we throw up these cries asking God to bless things that will actually take [17:56] us away from his purpose and his plan, God responds and says, I want you to have my

[18:03] strength, but I’m not going to waste my strength on your plan. [18:06] I’m going to reserve it for when you get on my plan. [18:09] That’s what repentance is.

[18:12] Don’t try to waste the Lord’s strength. [18:16] Faith always pushes you to go somewhere and his armor represents God’s strength to get [18:23] you there. [18:25] Do not be afraid of the unknown where God is concerned. [18:28] God will always call you to uncharted territory. [18:33] Because God wants the credit for what you accomplish.

[18:37] See, God is like that. [18:39] He wants glory because he is perfect. [18:42] He’s unchanging.

[18:44] He doesn’t need to get better. [18:46] I do. [18:48] And he’s promised that if I will live under his strength with his power, with his might [18:53] for his purposes, moving the Church of Jesus Christ forward, as he has promised to do [18:58] through me, then I will experience his strength. [19:03] Number two, a movement of God requires the power of God.

[19:08] Don’t do it under your strength. [19:11] Don’t do it under your strength because you will eventually turn it into something that [19:17] God never designed it to be because you will make it all about you. [19:22] Now understand that armor, as I said, it’s only valuable if you’re going to use it to [19:25] fight a battle. [19:27] But the key is that the armor exists because there is a battle, there is a fight.

[19:32] But here’s the key. [19:34] Don’t fear resistance.

[19:37] Don’t fear struggle. [19:39] It builds faith.

[19:42] See, as I said, you don’t stand there and say, God, you know, before I move a step [19:46] forward, you better give me strength. [19:48] You better strengthen me where I am right now because I don’t want to encounter any [19:52] difficulty. [19:53] That’s no way to grow. [19:54] There’s zero growth in that.

[19:56] God empowers you as you march forward. [20:00] God strengthens you as you step out on faith. [20:03] God builds courage as you commit yourself to things that require courage. [20:11] You do not get experience in the fight during a time of peace. [20:15] You get experience for the fight in the fight. [20:20] That is why you don’t want to fight a war with a bunch of brand new soldiers.

[20:24] You need some generals to lead those new soldiers. [20:28] You need some people with wartime experience.

[20:33] And that is what God wants to give you. [20:36] And so my question is, why are you standing on the sidelines?

[20:41] Why are you pretending that this is a time of peace when the father tells us that this [20:44] is a time of war? [20:46] You need to expect to need God’s power. [20:49] You need to expect that you will encounter difficulty if you’re going to follow Jesus. [20:55] What amazes me is the people who say, I want to follow Jesus. [20:59] And as the first sign of difficulty, they act like this isn’t what I signed up for.

[21:04] What did you sign up for? [21:07] Jesus went the way of the cross. [21:08] What did you expect following him would result in with your life?

[21:14] Jesus is calling you to a life of difficulty because what is on the other side of difficulty [21:19] is the greatest joy, the greatest glory, the greatest wonder that you could ever [21:24] possibly experience. [21:27] You aren’t fighting a normal battle, though, in human terms. [21:32] That’s what verses 11 and 12 prepare us for. [21:35] It tells us that you’re going to come against the schemes of the devil.

[21:42] And then he says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, [21:48] against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against [21:51] the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. [21:53] And then we’re like, man, that is a lot of words.

[21:59] What he’s trying to get you to understand is that the things that you think are bringing [22:03] you down aren’t the things that you think are bringing you down. [22:07] People aren’t the greatest opposition that you will face in this life. [22:11] It’s the discouragement that those people might bring you, but it’s the enemy that’s [22:15] making it so discouraging.

[22:18] It’s the enemy that’s scheming against you. [22:21] The original language in verse 11, when he says the schemes of the devil means the word [22:27] that actually means craftiness.

[22:31] In other words, he knows where to hit you. [22:35] He knows where your soft targets are. [22:38] He knows what will discourage you. [22:40] And so understand that the devil, who is real, by the way, he’s not going to come [22:44] against you, maybe in the same way that he’s going to come against me. [22:48] Or the same way that he’s going to come against the person sitting next to you.

[22:52] He’s going to seek to discourage you and the things that will discourage you, not [22:57] someone else. [22:59] And so when you get discouraged and when things really start to bring you down and [23:03] when you begin to think those thoughts that you know that the gospel would be [23:08] counterintuitive to. [23:11] What you need to understand is that this is a crafty devil who knows just how to get

[23:17] you and you need to proclaim the truth of the gospel against that fact.

[23:24] And then he gives us the armor.

[23:29] You see, the armor. [23:31] Exists so that we won’t be deceived.

[23:35] The armor exists so that we won’t give in to those schemes of the devil. [23:42] The armor exists so that we will believe truth rather than believe lies. [23:47] But before he gives us the armor, he gives us the purpose of the armor and the [23:52] purpose of the armor is our endurance.

[23:56] The source of every resistance is you’re ever going to face in your life where the [24:00] things of God are concerned from the devil.

[24:03] And he’s going to use what will seem very common in your life to do those. [24:08] A lot of times we read verse 13 and we think that this is going to be, you know, [24:12] people’s heads spinning on swivels, that somebody’s going to float through the air, [24:16] that we’re going to encounter a spirit in our hallway.

[24:21] You won’t.

[24:23] What you need to understand is that these present darkness that is in your life is [24:30] any lie that would convince you to not follow Jesus in the fight. [24:35] You say, well, how do I know if it’s a lie? [24:37] If it’s convincing you not to follow Jesus into the fight. [24:41] It’s a lie, whether that be disappointment, whether that be hurt from people, whether [24:47] that be a sin that you are struggling with, whether that be discouragement from a thing,

[24:53] a person or a place, or whether that just be your natural tendency to not want to do [24:59] anything because you’re apathetic. [25:02] Whatever it is, understand that the source is the same. [25:06] The enemy knows where to hit you, and he is the source of resistance in your life. [25:10] Do not believe the lies of the devil. [25:13] Then he tells us that we need to stand.

[25:17] The first word that he uses is withstand. [25:20] He says that in verse 13. [25:22] Now, withstand is a different word than he uses at the end of verse 13 at the beginning [25:27] of verse 14. [25:28] The term for withstand is a term that literally means withstanding opposition. [25:36] In other words, there is a force that is going to come against you when you want to

[25:41] follow Jesus and you need to withstand that opposition and keep going forward. [25:46] But then he says in verse 13. [25:51] That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, in other words, [25:55] when you think you can’t withstand those opposing forces anymore, he says, stand firm. [26:02] Different word. [26:03] This is a word that is an enduring type of standing, but an enduring standing in which

[26:09] you continue to move. [26:12] It’s not standing still. [26:14] It means that you are continuing down the same road that God has called you on and you [26:20] are not dissuaded. [26:21] Stand, stand, stand. [26:23] Verse 14.

[26:25] Stand therefore. [26:27] He literally says the same word twice. [26:30] He says, stand, stand. [26:33] Well, thanks, Paul.

[26:37] Why would he say it that way?

[26:40] Because what he’s doing is he’s saying that when you’re withstanding against the opposition, [26:45] when you’re standing so that you can lean forward with your shield marching into battle,

[26:51] what’s happening in your life when you say I can’t do it anymore?

[26:54] I have no more strength. [26:57] I have nothing more to give. [26:59] I want to quit. [27:01] And the apostle Paul comes like a general talking to his troops saying, no one under [27:08] my orders is going to fall. [27:12] When you don’t think you can stand anymore, the apostle wants you to know God’s got more

[27:18] stand to give you. [27:20] So when you have done everything to stand, stand firm. [27:25] And when you think you can’t stand firm anymore, you stand because it is not about your strength. [27:31] It is about the Lord’s strength. [27:33] You are going to be tempted to quit. [27:35] You are going to be tempted to give into discouragement.

[27:38] You are going to be tempted to fall into sin and disobedience. [27:42] You are going to be tempted to think that you don’t have any more love to give over [27:47] to other people. [27:48] So you just need to spend a season focusing on yourself, giving yourself some me time.

[27:57] It’s a phrase that didn’t exist when I was growing up, me time.

[28:02] And it’s a phrase that I’m sure in a room like this, some of you have probably said [28:07] it, I just need some me time. [28:10] But I do want to offend you.

[28:16] I have to correct you. [28:18] I do because the most loving thing to do is to inform you that me time is a lie of [28:22] the enemy.

[28:25] God nowhere in scripture tells you that you need me time.

[28:31] Because it’s a lie from hell.

[28:35] A season focusing on you, you getting me time sounds an awful lot like I need to exercise [28:42] my selfishness. [28:44] I need to, I’m just not quite selfish enough for my tastes. [28:51] So I need to spend some time really focusing in on how I can grow in selfishness. [28:56] Because if it’s one thing I know I need to be, it’s selfish.

[29:04] No, no, resist that. [29:08] Resist the devil.

[29:11] Withstand that opposition.

[29:14] Because me time means I’m depending on my strength.

[29:20] The only way to combat exhaustion when you’re giving of yourself is not to take some time [29:26] to grow in your selfishness. [29:27] It is to admit that you have come to the end of yourself. [29:30] And verse 10, I need strength from the Lord.

[29:36] The way for you to combat discouragement is understanding that God doesn’t want you to [29:40] do it under your strength, that he wants you to do it under his strength. [29:43] And when you think you don’t have any more love to give other people, that is the Lord [29:46] telling you, you don’t have love they need, Jesus does. [29:50] And you need to lean into the power of the Spirit rather than the power of you. [29:54] You need to stand, then you need to stand some more.

[29:58] And then when you think you’re going to fall over backwards, you look behind you and you [30:01] say, there ain’t no mattress or pillow there. [30:03] So falling is not an option.

[30:06] Jesus wants me to advance. [30:08] Jesus wants me to move forward. [30:09] Jesus wants me to keep fighting.

[30:13] It will be the most difficult thing that you have ever done in your life. [30:20] That is why by God’s grace, he does not make you depend on your own strength to do it. [30:28] He has given you the power of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ to know [30:33] and to understand that the victory has already been won. [30:38] And if the victory has been won, then you can keep marching forward. [30:42] How do I know the victory has been won?

[30:44] Because of Ephesians 2.

[30:48] Starting in verse 20, he says that this has been built on the foundation of the apostles [30:53] with the cornerstone of Jesus Christ by which the walls are being built up and joined together [31:00] into a dwelling place of the Lord by the Spirit. [31:04] There seems to be a lot of certainty in that. [31:08] In other words, the victory of the church is not a question for God. [31:12] It’s a construction project with his perfection to guarantee it.

[31:19] Give your life for the purpose of discipling other people and God will miraculously give you more strength. [31:27] Nothing that is easy is worth doing. [31:32] See, the problem that some of you have in your life is that you don’t believe that. [31:36] You believe that the path of least resistance has the most payoff because it has the most downtime. [31:41] All that’s going to happen on that path is you’re never going to accomplish anything with your life.

[31:46] The hardest thing’s worth doing and here’s the hardest thing worth doing, that’s following Jesus, has the greatest payoff.

[31:55] When you commit yourself to hard things and you follow Jesus by faith, [31:59] you find that there’s always more and that you never exhausted.

[32:04] And he begins in verse, I believe it’s 14, to tell us about this armor. [32:13] He tells us that we need a belt of truth. [32:16] That’s good news because when you’re running towards the enemy, you do not want your pants to fall down. [32:22] That might trip you up. [32:24] You see, the belt holds it all together. [32:27] The belt has places for all the tools that you’re going to need

[32:31] and he wants you to know that it’s all fastened together by truth. [32:35] And if you have truth, why would you give a moment to lies? [32:40] And then he goes on and he says, and you have the breastplate of righteousness. [32:45] You see, that breastplate is the most important piece of armor because it covers all of the vital organs. [32:53] And what he means to tell you is, is that there is a righteousness that you have that does not belong to you. [32:58] Jesus has earned it. So you do not have to earn righteousness.

[33:01] You have to trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. [33:04] And when you trust in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, he gives you this protection that is impenetrable [33:10] because it’s based on the true righteousness that only Jesus has.

[33:15] And when you have that righteousness, everything that the enemy will throw at you, [33:21] nothing will penetrate the armor.

[33:25] Dr. Falwell used to tell us that the man or woman of God is bulletproof until the day the Lord decides to take him home.

[33:34] Because it’s based on God’s will. It’s based on God’s sovereignty. It’s based on the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

[33:43] And so I believe it. And so I just march forward and the devil can throw anything he wants to at me. [33:48] But I’m going to plant more churches. I’m going to take more risks. [33:52] I’m going to preach the truth of the gospel because you can throw anything at me. [33:56] And the only thing that’s going to affect me is that which the Lord either A, wants to discipline me with [34:01] and teach me a great lesson through or a thing that will take me into his presence. [34:05] And just so you know, heaven isn’t a great threat to me. It’s home.

[34:10] What are you so afraid of?

[34:17] And he tells us that when we have that righteousness, when we have that certainty, he then directly goes to your shoes. [34:22] And it sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? [34:25] No, because he wants us to understand that once you understand that you have the breastplate of righteousness, [34:29] you’ve got feet that will be willing to go anywhere. [34:31] But he says that these shoes are shod in the King James English with preparedness given to us by the gospel of Jesus. [34:40] In other words, our forward momentum has a purpose of proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to the world.

[34:47] That we believe that we will be discipled by the gospel and we will have the strength to disciple others in the gospel.

[34:55] And then he goes on to the shield of faith. [34:58] It’s interesting that we have an impenetrable breastplate on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. [35:02] But then he says, when you have faith, you will have a shield. [35:05] That will extinguish any dart, any fiery dart that the enemy has the audacity to try to throw at you. [35:14] And he wants us to understand that not only is God’s armor impenetrable, but it’s double impenetrable. [35:21] You can continue to move forward.

[35:22] And then there’s only one offensive weapon and that is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. [35:29] Because you’re going to have to swing something. [35:32] And he wants you to swing absolute truth in the word of God.

[35:37] But what’s interesting is so often we will look at this and we’ll say a lot of this sounds defensive. [35:41] And then we only have this one piece of offensive armor. [35:44] And I would say, well, you have all that defense so that you can keep moving forward undeterred. [35:48] Because God wants you to use the sword to kill the enemy. [35:52] In the book of Matthew, and speaking of the Church of Jesus Christ, Jesus says, he says that the gates of hell will not prevail against it. [36:00] And say, aha, there’s another defensive posture that we don’t get prevailed over.

[36:03] No, gates don’t move.

[36:07] Gates are what we will be victorious over because we are charging the kingdom of darkness. [36:13] And the gates of hell and anything that they throw over the wall can’t hit us. [36:18] Because we have impenetrable armor. [36:22] We are moving forward under the power of God. [36:25] Why else would I give my life to anything other than that?

[36:31] You see, the issue that I see is we have such an amazing vision, we have such an amazing truth. [36:36] And yet we spend our time on such foolishness.

[36:41] When this is what should captivate our very lives, because we have already won. [36:47] Because number three, the people of God, living the power of God, advance the mission of God. [36:54] Do you believe that? [36:56] The people of God, living the power of God, advance the mission of God. [37:00] That is the purpose of your life.

[37:04] Don’t waste your time on anything else. [37:06] Don’t waste your time on lesser visions. [37:08] Don’t waste your time on lesser pursuits. [37:11] And you say, what’s a lesser pursuit? [37:12] Anything else?

[37:18] The only issue that I see with the armor of God is that some of you would, not knowing what the armor exists for, just wake up one day, try to proclaim the armor of God on yourself, and then try to run off to battle. [37:31] But you run to the wrong battlefield.

[37:35] You see, the key that he wants you to hone in on are the different aspects of the gospel of Jesus Christ. [37:41] Truth, righteousness, gospel proclamation, faith. [37:45] And then he gives us the helmet of salvation.

[37:50] You see, the helmet of salvation is very interesting, because it goes after your thought life. [37:56] Why would salvation be compared to a helmet? [37:59] Because of how many lies you’re attempting to tell yourself every single day.

[38:04] See, the Father wants you to enter into environments of discipleship so that you will know the truth of all of these different things under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God, [38:13] so that you can know where the battle is to be fought. [38:16] You do not fight this battle in isolation by yourself. [38:20] Instead, you fight this battle with the church for the church, where you enter into environments of discipleship to grow in your understanding of what’s going on. [38:33] But what I want you to understand here is that a lot of you want to be discipled, but you have no vision for your discipleship. [38:39] If I were to ask this, I think I would stump a lot of you.

[38:42] If I were to come to you and say, hey, what’s your vision for your personal discipleship? [38:47] It’s a tough question, isn’t it? [38:49] Most of us would say something like, be more like Jesus. [38:51] And that’s not wrong, but it’s not really a plan. [38:55] It’s not really a vision. [38:57] You have to have a vision for where you are going.

[39:01] And so many of us, we are spinning our wheels. [39:04] We’re stagnant because we really don’t have a vision of where we are going, and we don’t have a plan of how to get there. [39:10] But what God’s vision for your discipleship is, what the whole armor of God exists for, what the enemy is going to try to stop at all costs to happen in your life, is that he doesn’t want you to change. [39:25] And the one common that I find with every single person is that discipleship requires you to enter the uncharted territory of change for the purpose of God. [39:35] He wants you to change your personhood, to find your identity in Christ. [39:39] He wants you to change your actions so that you’re entering environments for Christ.

[39:44] He wants to change who you are so that you can take that change into the lives of other people. [39:54] Because that is what advancing the mission of Jesus looks like. [39:57] And only the power of God can change people. [40:01] Friends, I am a changed person seeking to take change to other people because of the faith that I have in God. [40:08] And because I believe that he will accomplish his purposes through me. [40:11] I believe that.

[40:14] There’s no question in my mind whether or not Jesus will accomplish his purposes in me. [40:17] I know that he will. [40:19] Because the entire hinge that Ephesians swings on, in my opinion, is Ephesians 3. [40:25] In verse 10, he says that the church is the manifold wisdom of God. [40:30] And that through our activity, it’s being shown to all of the heavenly realm. [40:35] As we walk through this earth, defeating the enemy time after time after time,

[40:40] seeing more people come to faith in Jesus Christ, seeing more people discipled in how to follow Christ. [40:45] And then one day we will triumph and we will experience the ultimate victory of the eternal kingdom of God. [40:52] And so I ask you again, why would you waste your time on lesser things than the eternal kingdom of God?

[41:01] Our battle cry is that we must keep moving in faith. [41:07] Fight for it. [41:10] Fight for it. [41:12] Don’t believe the lie that you can just sit there.

[41:18] Wearing the armor of God without ever having to face the enemy head on. [41:25] If that’s what you think, then you’re not standing.

[41:31] Fight.

[41:34] Every week we reflect through communion, which is the Lord’s Supper. [41:39] What that table represents is that at one time, we could not have fellowship with God. [41:46] Because we were not living the purposes of God. [41:49] We were not fighting the battle that God has called us into. [41:52] But through the grace of Jesus Christ, He’s forgiven us of our sin. [41:57] He’s given us a new life.

[41:58] And if you have faith in Jesus, He invites you to His table to eat and drink the bread representing the broken body of Christ, [42:05] the cup representing His shed blood. [42:08] And when you eat and drink, you proclaim to everyone in this room, I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ. [42:15] Only come if that’s true.

[42:20] But today, when you come to this table and you celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, [42:24] I want you to understand that when you turn from that table and when you go out into this world, [42:29] you need to enter a fight. [42:32] And you need to fight for the Church of Jesus Christ. [42:36] You need to fight for your own discipleship. [42:38] And you need to fight for the discipleship of others.

[42:42] When you are ready, come.

[42:56] Come.