Spiritual Wardrobe Given for Warfare - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

Ephesians chapter six beginning in verse 14. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Father, we bow our hearts before you this morning. In light of your word, help us understand what you wanna teach us.

We pray, Lord, that our hearts would come to this conclusion that you are worthy to be worshiped, not just in song, but in obedience. Lord, we need you, and there are many people in here that have different needs. And, Lord, we know that you will meet those needs, but right now we wanna come and say, despite everything else that's going on in my life, Lord, help me obey you. Bring us to that place this morning, we pray. Take this word, Lord.

Let it be delivered in the unction of the Holy Spirit. Despite any weakness, Lord, we boast in our weakness that your power may wrestle strongly upon us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. You may be seated.

These past couple of weeks, we have put a pause on our series concerning spiritual warfare with the conference two weeks ago and brother Keith Daniel who was with us last weekend. But though this series was put on pause, there is something that did not cease during that time And that is the reality of spiritual warfare. Just because we dismiss ourselves or do not think the fact that there is warfare going on, does not mean that there is not warfare going on. And the enemy is still on his assignment. Day by day, he is looking, he is watching, and he is planning his next attack on you and me individually and on us corporately.

But thanks be to God, He has given us everything necessary to be able to not just realize that there's warfare, but overcome anything that would come against us. And this is found here in Ephesians chapter six concerning this spiritual armor called the armor of God. And these are not just some theory things that we just kind of meditate on. These are practical applications. The same way you and I put on articles of clothing is the same way that we are to take each piece of this spiritual armor and put it on, apply it in a practical sense.

And we talked about this, but for the sake of remembering, each piece serves a purpose, and we need every piece. It doesn't help us to have some on and some off, but we have if we have all of them on, we can rest assure that there will be great victory in our Christian experience. And we've already established three weeks ago, the first piece of this armor, and that is the belt of truth. And how fitting that that is the first piece that the Apostle Paul mentions. That if you do not have truth as the foundation of your life, if you do not not just to have truth, but fasten that truth.

It's speaking of putting it on tightly. All the other pieces of armor are ineffective, are irrelevant. We need truth. We need to be convinced that this word, no matter what culture says, no matter what society says, no matter what other people who claim to believe in this word, though they do not fully believe it, when we come to the place that every single command, every single attribute, every single warning, every single promise is to be interpreted the way God intended it to be interpreted, there you and I are safe. It's not just to have this idea of truth and try to interpret it our own way.

No. The way God intended to interpret it. When we come to that place and embrace it, then all these other pieces will make sense. How can you know the breastplate of righteousness if you don't first have truth? How do you know what true righteousness is?

How do you put on the helmet of salvation if you don't know what truth is concerning salvation? How do you put your feet in those shoes of the gospel of peace, the readiness of the gospel of peace, if you don't know the gospel of peace, or you have a different version of the gospel of peace? No. You and I must first embrace fasting and build our lives upon the rock, which is the revelation of who Christ is in light of this word, and everything else will make sense. And so we continue from that first piece to the second piece of armor, and you see it here in Ephesians six fourteen.

Put on what? The breastplate of righteousness. And the scriptures speak about two types of righteousness relating to the believer. There are two types of righteousness that we have to understand. The first type of righteousness is our positional righteousness, or another word for it, a theological term is imputed righteousness.

This righteousness speaks of what Christ has transferred into our account as we put our faith in him. This righteousness is not a righteousness that you and I develop, it is a righteousness that is deposited. It is the righteousness in which Christ has performed through his life, in which he walked perfectly in accordance to all the laws given by God, and it is then given to us as though we walked in that righteousness through the transaction of faith. Therefore, this imputed righteousness deals with our justification. It is something that is credited to us.

It is something that is attributed to us. It is not something that you muster up on your own. No. It is something that you receive humbly. Imputed righteousness, positional righteousness.

And this righteousness is the righteousness that gets you to heaven brothers and sisters. This is the righteousness, not your own, not mine, that gets us into glory. So many are trying to muster up their own righteousness and that will get them nowhere. They'll be greatly disappointed unless they come to the place where they receive this type of righteousness. But there's a second type of righteousness.

It is not the positional righteousness, it is a progressive righteousness or practical righteousness. And this righteousness speaks about, as you and I come into that positional righteousness, we also receive a power, a supernatural deposit, an energy so to speak, an activation to live out righteously. Now we come to a place through this righteousness that because of where we are positionally, God gives us a new heart, He gives us a new spirit, He gives us a new ambition to live out the commands of God. This is what it means to have a progressive righteousness. It's a practical righteousness.

It's something that we actually live and do and act. And this righteousness is dealing with our sanctification. It's something that's continually growing. It's something that's continually being renewed, and it is a result of our union with Christ. This righteousness does not save you.

It is the result of being saved. So when we speak about the breastplate of righteousness, which type of righteousness are we dealing with? Not the first one. This breastplate is speaking about the second type of righteousness, that practical progressive righteousness. In other words then, to put on the breastplate of righteousness is for a believer who is already made righteous by Christ to grow in progressive Christ conforming lifestyle.

Christ made this available to us, and it is our responsibility to daily put that on. And now you might be thinking as I did when I came to this verse, what does me living out righteously have to do with spiritual warfare? I'm aware that as a believer, I am to live in accordance to the word of God just as my simple duty of receiving Christ and his grace. But how does practical righteousness relate to spiritual warfare and Satan attacking me? Well, the same way that a breastplate is intended to protect the vital organs of a soldier.

Protecting from the blows that would puncture or damage the very things that we need to live. It's the same way that this breastplate of righteousness protects us from the deadly blows of Satan that would come against us in our spiritual life. These are life threatening blows and apart from the breastplate of righteousness, you and I are risk are at risk of receiving something from the enemy that can greatly damage us and damage others. Pursuing righteousness is a Christian ambition to allow Christ to reflect in every faculty of my being, in every sphere of my daily existence. When you and I pursue righteousness, you know what that means?

It means that you have this ambition that you want Jesus and his character, and his attitude, and his love, and and all his characteristics to me manifest in every arena of life. That's what it means to pursue righteousness. That's what it means to put on this breastpiece. But when you and I fail to daily put that on, we place ourselves in dangers of the following unfortunate ramifications. You know, you want to know what happens when a person fails to put on righteousness?

They open themselves up for Satan to disqualify their testimony before the world. Number one, they open themselves up for Satan to attempt to disqualify a professing Christian's testimony before a world that is watching. A believer who fails to place this breastpiece becomes a weapon in the very hand of the enemy that he is supposed to be fighting against. Whether that professing Christian knows it or not, when he fails to pursue righteousness as the top goal of his life, what he does by failing to adorn himself in holiness, is that he gives the ability to the enemy to more effectively convince the world of the purposelessness and the powerlessness of the gospel. That person who professes Christ better be very careful when he fails to put this on.

Why? Because the enemy loves and his one of his main strategies in making the world more hardened towards God in this gospel say, look at that. That's what a Christian looks like. No different than you. Look at that.

See how exposed he is? Look at all that flesh. There's no righteousness covering him. And this is not just true for our day to day living as Christians, just in our endeavors on a weekly basis. This is especially true if you are a part of any ministry on any level.

Be sure of this. Any ministry loses all credibility when their ministers, not just full time ministers, when their ministers do not pursue a lifestyle that is clean and honoring to the Lord. Any ministry loses credibility when the ministers fail to pursue a life that is clean and honoring to the Lord. I find it amazing that when young Timothy was a pastor of one of the booming churches of that day, when Paul writes to him in first Timothy four twelve, he says, let no one despise you because of your youth. Young people love to quote the first part of that verse.

Don't despise me because of my youth. Finish the verse, but set the believers an example, right? In speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. So he's saying, Timothy, do you want to gain credibility in your ministry? Do you want people to take what you have to say seriously?

Do you want people to really receive what you have to give in your service to God? Live it out. Even as a young person, live it out in speech, and conduct, and love, and purity, and faith. And when you do that, you get authority. One way for a person to gain authority, meaning that there is actual punch to what he says or what he does, is that their life backs it up.

And one way to drain any power or effectiveness in your service to God, whether you preach full time or you're on the worship team part time or you do anything else in ministry, is when you fail to live it on the six days of the week other than that Sunday. I cannot tell you the examples for fear sounding judgmental, but it is just true in light of the scripture of so many people whether ministry through preaching or even worship, that in my life and the life of so many people have lost even the ability to hear what they have to say or sing along with them simply because they have failed to put on this breastpiece of righteousness. And the enemy longs for that. Yeah. Keep it off today.

Keep it off the next day. Don't pursue it. But when you and I do pursue righteousness, we give the devil nothing to work with. You see that? You and I give nothing for Satan to work with when we make it our ambition to live wholly before God.

Let me read this to you in Daniel six four. Then the high officials and the satraps sought to find a ground for complaint against Daniel with regard to the kingdom, but they could not find no ground for complaint or any fault because he was faithful and no error or fault was found in him. That's where you and I need to need to get to in our walk with Christ. Where even the world is trying to find and pin something against us, they would be stunned to realize that this person is blameless. In first Timothy three seven, for a person to even qualify to be an overseer, one of the qualifications is that they are spoken well of by outsiders, not by the church, by outsiders.

Unbelievers should be able, though they don't agree, don't they'll persecute you and criticize you, they should be able to look at your life as an overseer. This is true for all believers to some degree, and be able to say, that person lives out what he preaches. That person is a person of standing character. That person is blameless. I hear what he has to say, and I see what he does, and his integrity with dealings and different matters.

This person is blameless, and this is how it works with spiritual warfare. As the enemy looks for somebody to point the world to, to put a sour taste in their mouth, when we put on this breastpiece, we give nothing for him to work with. It's not only that, when a person who professes Christ fails to put on this breastpiece of righteousness, what they do is that they cut themselves off from certain blessings with certainty. There are specific blessings that God has reserved for those who are on the avenue of pursuing righteousness. So if a person is living in unrepentant sin, if a person is careless regarding their character in Christ, and does not make it their ambition in life to actually live like him, what they will do is cut off the resources that God wants to give them to empower and enrich their walk.

Matthew six thirty three, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. So all these things in the context of necessities in life, not to worry, not to be anxious because God wants to bestow these blessings on me. You know what that's dependent upon? Not me being a Christian, but me prioritizing his kingdom and the advancement of it, and me pursuing the righteousness of God. That is the necessity for me to receive the necessities in life.

Pursuing his righteousness as a top ambition of your life. Psalms five twelve, for you, oh lord, bless the righteous. For you cover him with favor as with a shield. You bless the righteous, and you cover him with favor as with a shield. Psalms fifty five twenty two, cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.

He will never permit the righteous to be moved. Isaiah three ten, Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds. Tell the righteous that it's gonna be well with them. They're gonna eat the fruit of their deeds. There are hundreds of verses that speak about what the righteous position themselves to receive from God.

And you know what Satan wants? For you not to have it and for you not to display it. And so what he wants to do is convince you that righteousness should not be top priority in your life, and in doing so, you forfeit what God wants to bestow on you. And this is why as a church now let's speak contextually here. This is why as a church, if you wanna know why, that if there's any ministry that any person wants to be a part of, because of the word of God and because of these things and because of spiritual warfare, not just because it's the Christian duty, but because of spiritual warfare included, we make it a priority that if any person wants to serve at any capacity that they make it their ambition to live a holy life.

In other words, if you do not prioritize holiness in your life and to live righteously, you're gonna find it very difficult to serve in this church. Because we cannot afford for the enemy to point at any minister, not full time minister, any minister on any level and say, look at that hypocrisy. Look at what true Christians look like. Look at this. No.

No. No. No. No. Other places might want to do that, and they do.

And this is not a self righteous statement. This is not a legalistic mindset. This is scripture. This is scripture. We cannot afford on any level of ministry to not have this breastpiece on because not only will you wound yourself, you will wound others with you.

Put on the breastpiece of righteousness. What is the practice of a person who puts on this? What does it mean? What does it look like for a person to put on the breastpiece? Let's just listen to this verse.

Listen to the Apostle Paul in Acts twenty four sixteen. Look what he says, so I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. I exercise this discipline that I were to live in a way of freedom from offense before God and before anybody else. And is that a way to live? If you want to honor God, yes.

If you want to be blameless, yes. If you want your ministry to be so effective, yes. I live in a way in which I make sure that there's nothing about me that would offend those who watch me. And he's saying it as though it's a continual thought process. He's not careless in his character.

He's not careless in how he walks. He's fully aware. And this is what it means to walk in righteousness, to have that kind of a mindset. Then we come to the fourth piece or the third piece rather. We see here that the apostle says that you and I are too as shoes for your feet, verse 15, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

This piece speaks about the shoes that cover the feet. And yes, there is a protection involved in that. The protection is that you and I are standing firm in our understanding that we have peace with God through the gospel. But shoes are not necessarily just meant for standing, shoes are meant for walking. They're meant to take you from one place to the other.

And so when he speaks about this type of article of armor, in a practical sense it speaks about the individual who consciously and intentionally aims to share the gospel wherever he or she goes. Are you familiar with Isaiah fifty two seven? How beautiful are the feet upon the mountains of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. How beautiful are those feet? And here we come with the same idea that you are to put on the readiness of the gospel of peace.

And again, the question that we can ask ourselves as we come to this scripture is, just like the breastfeed of righteousness, what does me, as a believer who has the responsibility to share my faith and to share this what does that have to do with spiritual warfare? Not in the fact that, yes, it's a battle whenever we go out, but in a sense of defense. Because we're talking about standing firm against the wiles of Satan, standing firm against all the floods that he brings. What is what is me sharing have to do with me being protected from the enemy of pushing me over? Interesting question.

And this is what Paul has in mind. And you would not believe that as much as preaching and sharing our faith whether to an individual or to a crowd, as much as it is an offensive act. Offensive, not offensive. There is so much protection involved with that. There is so much protection in the practice of sharing my faith.

Let me explain. When we think of a person who is driven by the great commission, they can be so motivated by this mission that their thoughts by default are consumed with sanctified desires and strategies. In other words, when a person, by thinking of ways and of the timing and being continually prayerful for opportunities to know how to share this gospel that has changed them, they by default push out other thoughts that would reside there otherwise. I can give you an example of this in my own life, in the life of some even in this room, that in my college experience after I've given my life to Christ, friends of myself have just dedicated whatever we could to being missional in our faith. And when we have done that, I can tell you there was a great protection with it.

That when you take your campus and you make it a mission field, when you take your nine to five and you make it a mission field, and you partner with that with a prayerful life, and you make those people around you on a daily basis the goal of receiving salvation through the gospel that God has deposited in you, it really eliminates much of temptation and other suggestions and other pursuits in life that might drift you away. Does this make sense? When you dedicate, and this is just an example, and it's not just it's not just to say so that you can copy paste it, it's different for every person's life, but in my context when I was in that place in college and and those band of brothers and sisters came together, and those weekends were dedicated to just sharing our faith, it left out all the other options that you can do on a Friday night. It left out all the other suggestions that can come on a Saturday. Because we were consumed with a mission, with with a passion, and this is available to all believers.

And what it does is it brings us to a place where we are in eliminating different unfortunate possibilities that might consume our time. But it's more than that. It's more than that because whenever you and I give the gospel away, somehow, someway, we always receive something in return. That though we focus on others and we're desiring for others to come to a place of receiving the truth, whenever any effort is made, there seems to be a sense of joy in that process. That when you give this gospel to somebody, and you can testify to this if you've ever shared your faith on any level, there's just this joy of knowing that another soul has heard the gospel of peace, especially when they give attention to it.

And there's a whole another level of joy when they receive it. So when when we come to that place, there's a simplicity in this thrill of knowing another soul in this generation has received what they needed to receive in order to make sure that they have eternal life. But it goes even deeper than that because that is a pure joy. That is a true joy. Acts eleven eighteen, when when Cornelius's house received the gospel and the gentiles received this inheritance, And Peter comes back to share it.

It says that they all fell silent and they glorified God and saying even the Gentiles have been granted repentance to life. So there is a simple joy in just knowing that we've given this gospel away again, but there's a deeper element that there is a joy, yes, in sharing and knowing that somebody's hurt, but there is a refreshment and a rejuvenation that comes about the person who goes and does this work. There is this jolt that comes to the soul in the process of declaring this wonderful good news. Isn't that true? Have you not experienced it?

That your faith comes alive when you're active in evangelism? No. Yes. Absolutely. Because I can tell you this myself and I can tell you with those that we've done it with, that there was not a moment when we went out evangelizing, that we came back and looked at each other and says, you know, that was kind of a waste of time.

We we we wasted our evening doing that. We should have done it with not once. And if it's done in the power of the Holy Spirit, if it's done from a pure heart, you and I will never say that for the rest of our lives. There's this life that comes again to your faith. Even as you're sharing it, as you're sharing the gospel, you at the same time are hearing it coming from your lips, and your heart is testifying, yes, this is true.

I've been changed by it. And there's this just spiritual mixture of telling, but hearing, and receiving, and confirming, and joy explodes in the soul. And I believe part of that is this. I really believe part of the reason why you come home after a late night of sharing your faith, or even from that shift at work where you had the opportunity in that lunchroom to just whisper some truths of this book, I believe the part of that is that this is the reason why the Holy Spirit was given. The Holy Spirit was given to empower you and I to be witnesses.

And when we witness, we taste something of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in that moment that you and I could not know otherwise. He's been given to empower us to witness, and so when we witness, we know something of his power right there and then. And I've seen many bored Christians That's those two words should never come in the same sentence concerning the description of a believer. Bored Christian. How can it be?

God lives in you. God has a plan for you. God has commands for you and me. But I've seen bored Christians come to life when they put these shoes on. When they've gone out, they've realized that there is purpose that rushes in.

There are testimonies of how God can use somebody in their weakness. There is a sense of this is why I was created. And a second consequence of that is this, that when you taste of something of the Holy Spirit as you go out in your vulnerability and humility and desire to serve the King of Kings, There is also a distaste for all the sinful and cheap thrills in life. There's nothing more thrilling than doing this, and you don't need a microphone or a pulpit to do it. And there are even on my end, there are even nights where I just lay back and think about those testimonies of how when you place yourself in that situation, so many things can happen.

And this is one example I've shared before, but I'll share it again because I just think it's so real and raw, but it has such a redemptive theme in it. One of those nights when we went out, we'd come back. We usually come back after that. People would just go different places around the city, and we would come back to our apartment. And we would debrief about the different people we shared with.

And it was just such a beautiful picture of how people did not come up with the excuse that I need to be in full time ministry to do this. Nobody was in ministry at that time. Everybody was working different jobs. Some were students, some were full time. But we just saw something in the book of Acts and we said, this has to be lived out.

So we came back and we debriefed and one person shared, but he he he didn't share with too much joy. And he had said, you know, me and a couple of guys, we went to a group of guys downtown Toronto, and when we shared, we were just being mocked and mocked and mocked. And there was the head mocker that was doing all the mocking while the other guys behind him were giggling. It was a group of four or five guys. And as we tried to share and as we tried to even extend tracks, they just continued to mock, and so we just came to the place where we just pulled back and moved on.

And in that room together, we looked at one another, and we looked at this brother, and we encouraged him. He says, brother, you planted the seed. That's all you can do. Jesus saves. You are the sower.

You did what you could. A few months later, that same individual had contacted me with a text message. You will not believe it. I said, call me. He called me and he said, remember a few months ago where we came after that night of evangelism and I shared about that person that was just railing me and railing the rest of the guys?

Said, yeah. He says, well, you know how I went to Germany not too long ago. Right? I said, yeah. I said, I was at the airport, and I went into one of the stores just to grab some snacks, and I saw the same guy in that place.

And when I saw him, I tried avoiding him as much as I could. And as I'm walking away trying to purchase, all I hear is, excuse me. And I look behind me, and it was the same guy that I witnessed two months prior. And this person recognized me. He remembered me, and he began to explain, not just explain, apologize for how he spoke to me that night.

And he began to say things that I will never forget. He told me the reason why I was mocking you is because I'm a pastor's son, and I walked away from the church. And when I saw you and those other guys on a Friday night coming to me and my friends when we were living in the world, I was trying to dismiss the reality that this was true by mocking you. But I wanna let you know that I'm back in church and I'm serving with the youth. Does that sound boring to you?

You know why we're bored? Because we don't take these commands seriously. Was that person in ministry? No. Was that person in seminary?

No. All he was was a person that says, okay. I'm gonna put these shoes on and just see what happens. Those are one of so many that we can spend the next two hours talking about by just seeing what happens when you in simple faith obey what the scripture say. Jesus had said, I've given these things to you concerning commands that your joy may be full.

Put on these things. Now caution, this is not foolproof because there are many people who do this, but unfortunately, and some ministers even who full time preach this gospel have fallen. How is that? Because they forgot to do the first thing, and that's put on the breastplate of righteousness. You can't just put on these shoes and not put on the breastplate of righteousness and walk out there and preach.

It's just a matter of time before a dart comes and hits you in the heart, and hits you in a vital organ. That's why many have fallen because they got excited about the gospel of peace and running with it. They forgot to put on this. We need every single piece. Do you see how they connect now?

What's the application in this part? Make your school, sister. Make your workplace, brother, your mission field. And just watch what will happen when you wake up in that morning, you press that snooze button. You realize that you have a greater mission ahead of you.

And this is not a message to describe how you can do that in those different contexts. Discover that as you pray and seek the Lord for wisdom. But I can guarantee you this, that if you and I take this on a consistent basis, just the same way that you have to put on your shoes every single day, you put on these shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace, you'll see things happening. And what it does is it protects you on a practical sense with your energy and time and even when you experience the joys of it, temptation kinda loses its power when you see the awesome testimonies that come about and being faithful to the word. Then we move on to the fourth piece of armor in verse 16.

There's a strong exhortation with this specific piece in all circumstances. There's some translation above all. Not saying that it's most important, but it's just this strong understanding concerning it. A shield of faith. Now a shield mainly is used for defensive purposes.

It is purely defensive actually. That when you take this shield, Paul confirms that there is this purpose, it extinguishes not some, not three quarters, all the flaming darts that come from the wicked one. What are the flaming darts of the wicked one? What are we speaking about there when we're saying that he launches these arrows towards each and every single one believer? Well, we know this.

We've talked about this weeks before, that the enemy and his darts is the attempt to convince you and I to distrust the character, commands, promises, and warnings that come from God. We have to take the shield of faith because these arrows come to convince us otherwise. In other words, the enemy is continually this is his main job description for the believer, to convince you that God really isn't good as your heavenly father, and that he's really not in this for your good. And he does this in many ways. He will whisper and bring this word before you, and make you come to a place where you would not trust in the simplicity of it.

He'll challenge his word directly, or he'll point to a circumstance in your life and then point back to God and say, look how faithless he is in your circumstance. How did God allow this to happen? Maybe he abandoned you. Or he will lie to you, and he does on a continuous basis, that God's prescription on life is really a cheap version of what you can do if you have full control. These are the darts.

Temptation, Lies. Discouragement. Distraction. That's a major dart in our day, don't you think? And this is where we have to be very careful because if you and I do not take up the shield of faith, these darts can poison your soul.

If you have your bibles, turn to Psalm 73 because this happened to a specific individual who is a worship leader. Psalm 73, the Psalm of Asaph. Psalm 73 verse one. Truly, God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. That's how he starts, but he's getting vulnerable here.

But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled. My steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. And for the next several verses, he goes on to describe how these people who are not living righteously, who are not living in union to their God, are prospering, are free from calamity, seem to live long lives, and he's trying to reconcile. He's living for God and he's being rebuked every single day.

How can this be? Kind of messes up that whole prosperity gospel theology, doesn't it? How can this be? I'm living for you, Lord. And you know what unfortunately happened to this man because he did not take up the shield of faith.

Scroll down to verse 21. When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant, I was like a beast toward you. He's speaking to God. Because he did not take up the shield, these darts had so infected him that he actually became bitter towards God. And many believers walk with that bitterness in their own heart.

He's come to a place where he was convinced that God really isn't good, that God is not really for him, that God does not really have everything already ordained for his life, even all the calamities and all the trials. He allowed the enemy to take his gaze off of the faithfulness of God. That can happen at any point in your life if you are not careful to take up this armor. I remember having a conversation even with one individual, a young lady, who openly admitted that she was so bitter because she had seen all these people who are not even saved getting married, and here she was longing for a husband, and God did not seem to be answering that request. And she actually came to the place where she was crippled by bitterness.

She was stone cold in those worship services, even came to the place where she was she had trouble talking about God. How do we protect ourselves from getting to that? We take up the shield of faith. Now what does that mean? A synonymous word for faith is trust.

And this is not something that's just gonna come from heaven. According to Ephesians six, this is something that you and I need to take up. That I am in those moments to take up trust in God in those circumstances. So when the dart of doubt comes, I take up my trust in God, and I realize that he is faithful in leading my days. When the dart of temptation comes, I take up in that moment trust in knowing that God is more sweet and more satisfying than my sin.

When the dart of discouragement comes, I take up my trust in him and realize that my ultimate fulfillment comes in the final word given by Jesus Christ. When the doubt of fear, that dart comes, it tries to penetrate my heart. I take up this shield, and in that moment I trust that God is protecting me even if I don't sense it. See, this is what it means to take up the shield of faith. That when those darts come no matter what they are, you in that moment can realize and should realize that God is good.

Now here's the rule with trust on a relational level. Trust is generated and strengthened on a relational level, usually when you grow in your understanding of that other person. When you do not know a person, it's hard to trust them. But when you grow in understanding who they are, and you witness their consistency in their character, you are now more at rest to trust them. Let me give you an example.

There are very few people that I will give the password to my phone to, But there are only some because I know them long enough, and I know their hearts, and I and I've seen the consistency in their character enough, that if they were to come up to me, grab my phone and say, what's the password to your phone? I will not question their motive or what their desire is for it. Cause I trust them. I can't do that with just anybody, but I can do with certain people. But that trust, that rest is a result of me knowing.

And the reason why I believe so many Christians are frantic and they freak out when something doesn't go their way, really? One of the main reasons because they don't really know their God. They don't really know how good he is. They don't really know how consistent he is in his dealings with his people. And because of their lack of familiarity with this person, when things go out of whack, so does their mind.

So how does this shield the faith, how is it how is it strengthened? How is it a greater reality? How is it something that I can experience on a stronger level? Well, grow to know God. Seek him in his word and see how from the beginning to the end he is the same.

See those different situations. Do you think that God has placed in this book stories of men and women with different circumstances in life? Do you think God has placed this in this book for us to just look and say, well that's a nice story? No. He wants to show us how I deal with people, how I deal with different circumstances.

And the more you're familiar the more you realize, even if you go to biblical counseling, what will they do? They will point you to stories in the Bible to show you the faithfulness of God. Look what God has done with Abraham. Look what God would do with Joseph. Look what God that's the whole point.

Know your God and you will know him to a place where you can trust him to a greater degree. Don't know him? It's gonna have a lot of trouble in your life when you come to a place where these darts come your way. And we come to a place now where we're gonna land, and that's verse 17 of Ephesians chapter six. And take the helmet of salvation, and take the helmet of salvation.

This is the fifth piece of the armor. And we're gonna conclude here because we've said much about the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Take up the helmet of salvation. You know what Paul is not saying? Get saved.

Because he's speaking to the saved. He's speaking to those who are already believers. And so he's not saying, make sure that you are right with God in salvation. Wouldn't it be a terrifying fact that you can take on and put off salvation? He's not speaking about salvation.

What he is speaking of is the truth of salvation. And when it comes to our salvation, there are three aspects. There is a past, present, and future reality that we are saved when we put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We are continually being saved from the power of sin, and we will one day be saved from the presence of sin. And so when you and I choose to put on this helmet of salvation, what we are doing is, depending on whatever the attack is, we meditate on one or three or whatever aspects of our salvation.

See there are some people that have really great trouble understanding that they're saved by grace, And part of their warfare is that the enemy continually pounds on their head that you need to work, you need to work, you need to please God, you you didn't do it right today, you didn't pray long enough today, God's not happy with you. And they come to a place where they are literally living their entire pilgrimage with pain because they are uncertain of God's love for them in Christ. There are some who are struggling with a besetting sin, and the enemy keeps launching that temptation. And you know what you and I need to put on? The helmet of salvation in regards to the present salvation that we're experiencing as a continuous deliverance from the power of this thing in my life.

And then there's a future aspect, which Paulie Paulson uses so many times when he comes to his counseling concerning present sufferings. That there's a future glory that awaits, that there is something to look forward to, and what a great hope we have in the midst of spiritual warfare when we look ahead to what's to come. So you have verses like Romans eight twenty two and twenty three. For we know that the whole creation groans together in the pains of childbirth until now. But not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

And so there's cry in my heart regarding this salvation that one day I'm going to be delivered. Oh, have you ever received pain in your body? Aches? Even disease? Even in those physical pains, realize that every ache is a cry that there's a glory coming that would deem you from this place in this body.

Emotional pain, distraught, discouragement, whatever it may be. When you and I put on this helmet of salvation and we look forward to what's ahead, it's amazing how things can just wash away. There's something so powerful when this mind chooses to meditate upon the salvation. So many things are extinguished. So many blows lose their force.

And this comes with you and I really knowing what this salvation is all about. When you realize what Christ had done with your penalty, and what Christ is doing in your life, and what Christ will do in the days to come. Whatever comes against this mind of yours, when you choose to meditate on the truths of the gospel, the only person that will be frustrated in this warfare will be Satan himself. We have something coming up in verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit, but we will leave that for another day. Would you bow your heads with me as we close?

Lord, we thank you for the practical applications of these pieces of armor, And we pray, Lord, that we would be aware of placing them upon ourselves every single day. And God, in this moment right now, if there's any anything of our lives that is lacking any of these articles, Lord, bring us to a place bring us to a place of humility even in this moment to say, lord, I have not been wearing this lately, but I choose to put it on today. Thank you, Lord, that when we choose to take upon ourselves every single one of these things, how victory, how victorious we become in Christ concerning these darts and these blows and these lies. And so Lord, we give you praise that you've given us all these things and help us to apply them. And Lord, if there's anybody in here that does not have the helmet of salvation on, and it is totally affecting the way they see you, the way they see their circumstances, Lord, may the truths of the gospel, may the truths, the inexhaustible truths of the gospel be our daily food.

And bring us to a place in which we know we know how much you love us and what's ahead of us and what's for us even now. Help us realize that Satan will fight us day and night to get into this word and to take these things seriously. And, Lord, even help us as a community because these these these instructions were given to a church. Help us as a church to put on the breastpiece of righteousness. Help us as a church put on these shoes of the readiness of the gospel of peace.

Help us as a church to take up the shield of faith when trials and temptations and different things hit us as a community, help us as a church to put on the helmet of salvation to be gospel centered. Lord, we worship you that you have defeated the enemy on the cross and that you've given us everything necessary to walk in victory. Receive this praise as an act of worship. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.