Stand Firm (Part 2)

Stand Firm II ( The Armor)

Sept. 23, 2001

Ephesians 6:10-20

How many of you this morning jumped out of bed, and your were already dressed and

ready for church? Anyone put on their Sunday clothes before bed last night? It would

save some time wouldn’t it?

Every morning, we have to make a choice, what will I wear this morning, what will go

with those shoes, what pair of overalls do I want to wear today?

I wonder how many of you woke up in a good mood this morning? How many of you

woke up in a real good mood this morning?

For you that woke up and didn’t really want to get up for whatever reason, but you

made it to church anyway, at some point, did you make a decision to “get happy”?

We can do that you know? We can choose what our attitude will be, just like we will

choose what we will wear. We can choose how we will respond to the day, to others, to

the day’s challenges.

This morning I want to talk to you about our choice of Putting on the Armor of God, and

what that really means for us everyday.

I imagine if your like me, you don’t sit around very long thinking about what to wear, you

just look, and decide and put it on, it’s kind of routine, you do it everyday.

I would suggest that it is very important that you put on clothes every day.

But what about this Spiritual Armor that Paul describes in our passage, Is it that

important? Do I need to put any thought into what I put on in my Spiritual life everyday?

Let me assure you this morning, Putting Your Spiritual Armor on is vitally important, it

will keep you alive, it will help your survive the spiritual attacks from the evil one who is

actively trying to destroy your faith, your hope, your love for God.

I’m curious this morning. You know I’ve been thinking about my preaching, and I’m not

sure that I have spent very much time on Spiritual warefare, I know I’ve talked about

some personal events that has made it clear to me, but I haven’t highlighted this truth very

much. So I’m curious this morning.

How many of you this morning would say, “I do understand what it means to be under

attack spiritually”. Raise you hand if you really understand what that means?

Just as we are finding out in our War against Terrorism, the same is true in our battle with

the evil one, Satan, We need to understand our enemy, and we need to know what he

looks like. I’m sure you have been hearing alot about the background and make up of

these terrorists, and you will continue to learn more, where they come from, what they

believe and why.

As Christians, we need to understand that we are not just living out our lives without

opposition. We are taught in Scripture that Satan is like a roaring lion, looking to and fro

for whom he may devour. Satan is also described as a snake, sly and deceptive. We also

have a picture of Satan coming in the form of Angel of Light. Scripture teaches us that

above all he is the Father of Lies, and he is opposed to anything Holy.

I would suggest this morning that if you don’t understand that your in danger as a

christian to the schemes of satan, then you probably will not feel the need to protect

yourself by putting on this armor of God described in our passage.

Look again at verses12.

Friends, during this life, it’s a struggle against the evil forces that are all around.

Temptation lurks all around. We live in a society that pulls against Holiness and against

living a life for God. If your not making conscious choices to live for God, then you will

be pulled away from Him.

The question is, HOW CAN WE PROTECT OURSELVES?

Let’s look at Paul’s instructions in v. 13

Paul is telling us that that we need to have the armor on, we need to be ready so when that

day of evil comes, when that temptation comes, we will be able to wage battle, we will be

able to stand firm, we will be protected, and we will also have the proper weapons to win

this spiritual battle.

This idea reminds me of what we tell our kids, as they grow and I think especially of kids

who are getting ready to start dating. Isn’t that a scary thought. Some of you arn’t far

off, and I realize it won’t be long for me either. What do we tell our kids?

We tell them, You need to know what your boundaries are before you ever consider going