Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / December 14, 2025 | Ephesians - Spiritual Warfare

Transcript

December 14, 2025 | Ephesians - Spiritual Warfare · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be honest with you, the message I've got for you this morning as we wrap up Ephesians chapter 6 might have been better during Halloween time.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I say that because we're going to be talking about spiritual warfare.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to ask you a question here first, which is really tell you a story and then ask you a question.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: So when I was in college, I was in a fraternity at Kansas State, and I'm going to let that roll over for just a second as you settle into that space.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I was in a fraternity house, and that house was haunted by two ghosts.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: One was named George and one was named the nurse.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: George loved Star Trek.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know why that was one of his things, but he loved Star Trek.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he was a little naughty, right?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: During my time in the house, there would be some chairs that tipped over with nobody in them, some objects that flew across rooms, different things that were attributed to George.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: The nurse, so named because she was previously a nurse when my house used to be a hospital.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Poof.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But uh she supposedly fell down the elevator shaft during one of her rounds, passed away.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but she's a benevolent kind of ghost.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you stayed in her hallway, uh, which my room was, uh, she would, I guess, help you recover from any illnesses that you had.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it goes.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we would talk with alumni that had been in the church, you know, 30, 40 years beforehand, and unprompted, they would tell us stories about George and the nurse in the house, right?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So this was not just something that I experienced or my friends did.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here's my question for you.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: What was that?
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: What is that?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because I will tell you, the Bible does not have a category for George and the nurse, okay?
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's not uh it's not a framework that Scripture gives us for how to handle supernatural activity.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, the Bible does not, as you'll see clearly, the Bible does not discount supernatural activity, but it does define it and clarify it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so what the Bible does is it tells us uh that spiritual activity, the spiritual realm, is very real.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It is something that we should be consistently um alerting ourselves towards, on the lookout for, but that it consists outside of God, we have angels who are for him, for his will.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: They are different from humans, okay?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: You do not become an angel when you die.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then you have fallen angels or demons.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: That these are the categories, of which there's kind of like an umbrella, but these are the main categories that Paul, Jesus, and the rest of the authors of Scripture use to describe what is going on: angels and demons.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, two-thirds of Americans say that they believe in the spiritual or the unseen realm.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: 90% of Christians uh agree that there is something spiritual beyond this world.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I have questions for the 10% of Christians that think there isn't something spiritual beyond this world.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what they're doing, but anyhow, the problem becomes when you say, well, okay, yeah, sure, there's something beyond this world, something we don't understand, something that can't be seen but is real.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then you ask, well, what is that?
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And even amongst Christians, you're gonna get a lot of mixed answers.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be ghosts, haunted mansions, graveyards, crystals, tarot cards.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get different things that comprise spirits, right?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Discovery Channel and their endless TV shows about going to haunted places and like putting microphones there and trying to find out what's going on.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get into Scripture, it takes the spiritual realm very seriously.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: This is not something to be trifled with.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not something for the purpose of entertainment.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: It is an active battle between the forces of good and evil that many Christians are unaware of that is happening presently and involves them intimately.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul does not allow us to handle this category casually, but what's interesting is he does presume that the church in Ephesus is very aware of angels and demons.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: Keeping in mind, if you've been with us the last couple weeks, we went through the household code, and it was, you know, husbands and wives, and parents and children, and slaves and masters, and then immediately he rolls into this.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Like he just goes, and let's talk about it.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so there's no preamble.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: There's no, hey, you might have seen something.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know what that is?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: He just starts talking about being prepared for battle against these spirits.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so while our culture may treat this whole topic very casually, uh the Bible does not do so.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul refuses to let us do that.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: He tells us that standing firm and resisting spiritual attacks requires more than superstition or rituals.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: It requires putting on the full armor of God.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let's take a look.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: We'll begin in uh Ephesians chapter six, verse ten.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Finally, bless you, be strengthened by the Lord and by his vast strength.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heavens.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything to take your stand.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: So God talks about the spiritual world in terms of an active battle between the forces of good and evil.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: And what is interesting here, perhaps, if you're unfamiliar, is that He does not just talk about it as this sort of, you know, a warfare between the angels and the fallen angels, but rather that you and I are intimately involved in that plan.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: We are on the spiritual battlefield, whether you like it or not, you are there, you are present, okay?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the question becomes, what are you going to do now that you are on a battlefield where there is alive ammunition firing at all times?
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: Preparation really becomes the focus here.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to prepare for this battle, which is fought spiritually?
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And why should we prepare for battle?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, as Paul's going to explain here, when he at the very end he says, for this reason, take up the full armor of God.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you need to be aware of these things because it impacts you.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: Like your life is impacted by the spiritual battle that is going on around you at all times.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Again, if you had glasses that could sort of see these things, you would perceive the spirits doing stuff in and around you that you can um can't see currently.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: There are various times in scripture uh where this happens, where people sort of have their eyes opened up.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh there's, you know, you can think in the book of Numbers when uh you have Balaam and the donkey, right?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: And he's hit, I'm not gonna get into all these stories, but he sees an angel.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: He thinks that something is bothering his donkey, and the donkey can see the angel that is barring the path forward, but Balaam can't see it until the third time, and God reveals his uh sort of takes the scales from his eyes, and Balaam can finally see the angel.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: You have Elijah and Elisha, you have, I mean, there's dozens of these examples where all of these figures are present in our world.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a distant thing, it is just that we can't perceive them.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And so you should care about that, is the point.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is not denying, and I think this is also another point, he is not denying the existence of supernatural activity, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: He is saying that it exists.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: He is just clarifying what it means when he talks about it.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: And he is encouraging Christians to be personally engaged with the battle.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that in view, Paul gives a series of commands, three actions for the Christian to take.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is he says, Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his vast strength.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why do you need to be strengthened?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because you and I are not strong enough to withstand the schemes of Satan by ourselves, right?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: We are weaker than he is.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Our God is not.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our God is victorious, he is stronger than all of these forces.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: He has defeated them.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, you and I, just engaging in this casually, we are weaker than the schemes of Satan and his forces of evil.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: And so you must be strengthened by the Lord by his vast strength.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's the only way that you are going to be protected from these schemes, is by relying on Christ.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: We also lack the tools to even engage with the enemy.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: The battle that's taking place here is spiritual in nature.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know about you, but I don't have any spiritual tools on my own.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I need to rely on Christ to give me those tools.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: We'll explain them in the next section.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's the armor of God.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, Paul says that we need to put on the full armor of God, which he'll explain in just a moment.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, you can be a Christian who ignores the situation.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can be a Christian who thinks the situation is like overly casual and it's just in the movies, right?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: But Paul says, you've all been given access to this armory, basically.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: The door has been opened into this ancient armory where God has equipped you for battle, and the question becomes, are you going to go in and put on the armor?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because not everybody has this innately, right?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: This passage over and over again will imply that it requires intention on your part to put on the armor of God that has been given to you freely.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, do you want to go out onto the battlefield missing all of your armor, or do you want to have it on?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then third, he says, so that you can stand, so you need to be strengthened and put on the armor, so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Paul is going to say three different times in this whole section we're looking at this morning, that the purpose of this battle for Christians is to stand.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the language behind that is not like literally just standing on your two legs, but it's to hold firm and take the line, right?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: That Christ has already won.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so, what might be surprising to you if you're familiar with this passage about putting on the armor of God and spiritual warfare is that the battle that we are engaged in presently is actually not an offensive battle.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: That comes later.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: At the moment, for all of us, the point is that we are going to receive spiritual tools and instructions that give the idea of a defensive stronghold that is strengthened by Christ and is fighting back against the flaming arrows of Satan that are being fired at all the Christians.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so the point is rather to stand firm, hold steady, do not give ground, do not step back, but like press into this space that God has for us here.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: He also implies, when he says that we are standing against the schemes of the devil, that Satan has schemes.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that might go unnoticed, but he is our enemy here, God's great enemy, who by the way is not equal in power, but nevertheless is his great enemy, has a plan.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: He has intention of his own.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: He is crafty and he is smart, and he is far more effective than we want to give him credit for.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: You look to the garden and you see how he brought about and tempted Adam and Eve, and we say, This is what he is capable of doing.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is saying, look, you're you're fighting someone or a being, right?
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not an idea, it is a being, and his forces, which we'll talk about in just a moment, and his forces, and you should not underestimate them.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: By yourself, absent the power of Christ, you are too weak to engage in this battle in your own.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: But with Christ, with his armor, you can stand firm against all of their schemes.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so, deception, accusation, spiritual oppression, physical or emotional harm, creating division, whatever Satan is doing, as a liar, as a murderer, as a thief that he is, nevertheless, these schemes can be recognized and refuted.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, and maybe the only corrective in this passage where he's uh redirecting the Ephesian thought for those in the church is he says, Stop thinking so often, though, about this battle in terms of flesh and blood and humans against humans.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, this battle's bigger than that, and there are rather many more forces and deeper, more sinister forces behind flesh and blood.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: Our struggle is not against that, but against the rulers, authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: When he says rulers and authorities, this list of names, which is basically what he's doing, is elsewhere, he does this elsewhere in Scripture.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And when he does that, rulers and authorities does not mean kings and queens, right?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: He's talking about powers, significant powers in the spiritual realm that are demonic in nature.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that even within that, there's a hierarchy amongst them, just like there's a hierarchy amongst the angels, even now.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: He also speaks of them as powers in darkness.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh darkness is a theme for Paul, as is light, uh for him describing basically which side that you're on.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: He did it in uh earlier in this letter when he described those who are um children of light and children of darkness, and how important it is that you act like you are a child of light rather than acting like you are a child of darkness.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: When Paul describes his own conversion to Christianity, he will say that he moved from darkness to light.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is a big theme for him.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_00: In uh Ephesians 5, verses 8 through 11, Paul says, For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Walk as children of light.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: Don't participate in the fruitless works of darkness, but instead expose them.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the very end of that sentence, he says that these are the forces in the heavens.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is a phrase unique to Paul in the letter to the Ephesians, but he's used it a number of times, and he just means the spiritual world.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't mean like capital H heaven.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so all he is saying right here is he's clarifying who we are fighting against.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: And he says it is not the people, but rather those who are behind, the beings behind the people in various forms of influence.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to resist in the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: So you have a battle that's coming, and uh for some of you, you go, I'm in that battle right now, but you have a battle that's coming, and the idea of addressing it is preparation.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: Preparation.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: So, as a summary here so far, all Christians are engaged in a battle with spiritual demonic forces.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: In response, we are commanded to seek the Lord's strength, put on the armor of God, and take our stand against these evil schemes.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: I briefly, I'd press into one part of this, which is the word all at the beginning, all Christians.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: All Christians are engaged in this spiritual battle, just as all humans are on this battlefield as well.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody is influenced by it.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you say, Well, I don't I don't really feel like all that much in my life I have encountered or engaged with demonic forces.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And on the one hand, I would say, great.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um, on the other, I would question one, uh, our ability to see and perceive the things that are really there, and two, your proximity to the front lines.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you that in my experience, uh actually, I saw I've seen a lot more spiritual activity when I worked at a Christian camp that was, you know, trying to share the gospel with kids.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: The stories that came out of the counselors uh during from those summer camps were unlike, or we see this in missionaries in foreign countries, of stories that they come back with, people who are on sort of this bleeding edge of this battle against darkness.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that is where you tend to see these stories, whatever you want to say, weird things, end up happening a lot more frequently.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I have stories that I could tell you, and yet I find that when I have am taking steps back from those front lines, I go, I don't see it as often.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a reason for that.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, we're still all on this spiritual battlefield.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: This lesson is all the more important uh when you recognize where different types of spiritual influences might be coming from.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: For the church in Ephesus, they had a huge place of demonic worship sitting in their backyard.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: One of the seven wonders of the ancient world was the temple of Artemis, which this is what it looks like today.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: I know that really doesn't strike you.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but back in its day it was magnificent.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was a temple devoted to Artemis or Diana, kind of whether you're Greek or Roman, different words there.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was this massive structure dedicated to the god of childbirth and hunting.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it was also a massive tourist attraction, uh, such that a huge part of the Ephesian economy was based upon people coming and buying little idols, silver idols, uh, to worship there and take home as souvenirs, okay?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the Mickey Mouse ears, but it's different in Ephesus, okay?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And there was no deeper claim being made there.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was just giving an example.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um in Acts chapter 19, there's this interesting story where uh the gospel has disrupted Ephesus so much and uh created so many new believers.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: God has been working so mightily that it begins to uh affect the local economy.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the silversmiths who make these idols for this temple uh throw Paul out of town.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of funny.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um Paul ends up coming back and uh shares the gospel.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, back on track though.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: This is in their backyard.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what you need to understand, furthermore, like why is this demonic activity?
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because the Bible is consistent in the Old Testament and the New in saying that when people are sacrificing to various gods, that they are really not gods at all.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: The world, the spiritual world that exists, is not filled with many gods.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: It is filled with one true God and those who are with him and against him.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's Baal, it's Asherah, it's um Vishnu, it's Zeus, it's you know, Diana, it's all of these different gods, it's Horus, whatever you want to call it, there is demonic presence behind it.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the God that is, you know, in marble or stone or um marble is stone, and gold and wood, whatever, that that is a mask that they are wearing.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: I just want to show you briefly.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: In Deuteronomy, uh, in the Old Testament, they dealt with this.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: They provoked God's jealousy with different gods, they enraged him with detestable practices, they sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods they had not known, right?
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: In 1 Corinthians, Paul tells them something very similar to this.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, you need to recognize you are in the Greek culture, pantheon, all this stuff, right?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, as they are sacrificing to these gods, they are not gods, they are demons.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And people think that they are gods.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, what is so captivating about this is that they still have power.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: That these false gods, there are things happening, wild things that people can't explain, supernatural things, because there is power behind them.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: In uh the uh book of Exodus, when Moses is uh redeeming Israel, or God is redeeming Israel through Moses, and he brings the ten plagues, the first two plagues are replicated by the Egyptian magicians.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it says that they were able to replicate the first two plagues, which was turning water into blood and bringing the frogs by their secret arts.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Many places in the Old Testament, if you're looking for it, you will see that Israel is uh warned against engaging with magicians.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and this is not David Blaine's street magic kind of thing.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is people who have access to the occult.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so the Bible does not discount those things.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, it says be aware of what they are and the various forms that they take.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And in the case of the Ephesians, that you have got a hot bed of activity in your backyard.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, be aware, right?
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: In order to fight against these schemes, to stand firm in the evil day, you need to be aware of what they are, right?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And as you become aware of what they are, and you are prepared by putting on the armor of God, then you are able to stand firm.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is the armor of God that we are going to don here?
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, Stand therefore with truth, like a belt around.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Your waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandal with readiness for the gospel of peace.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: So there are six different items here.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And depending on what commentaries you read, some people will attach a lot of meaning to like what part of the body is being covered.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's relevant.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Paul chose these words for a reason.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: He's inspired by the Spirit, but I think he is more just describing the dress of a soldier.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it is interesting to think that Paul would be in prison at this time in Rome, guarded by a Roman centurion while he's writing this.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's probably looking at somebody who's guarding his cell while making this.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, there are six different pieces here, and each one is associated with a different spiritual tool or thing for you to use and prepare yourself with so that you might stand ready.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the belt of truth.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is, I think it does come first because deception is Satan's first weapon.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you go to the garden and you say, Well, what did he do first?
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he lied.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: He lied to Adam and Eve.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, surely not.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: God didn't say that.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: That wasn't what he meant.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: He deceives, he lies, he gives false promises.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Truth is our starting defense.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: Even when you look at uh Satan's attempt to tempt Jesus in the desert, what did he do?
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: He lied to Jesus.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Second is this armor, chest plate or breastplate of righteousness.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, even earlier in Ephesians, Paul has said, as elsewhere in Scripture, that our sinful actions uh give Satan the opportunity to influence our lives.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh earlier when he was talking about what it means to be a child of light, he says, Don't let the sun go down on your anger, so that Satan will not get a foothold.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: So a life of righteous living, right, where we are seeking God and we are honoring him and we are carrying out his will, is another defense that we have against the schemes of Satan.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And absent that breastplate or chest plate, absent this desire for righteous living, you are inviting, whether you would say that or not, it's what's happening, you are inviting evil into your life.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Beyond just sin, something that is sinister in nature.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your feet sandal with readiness for the gospel of peace.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: This is the third one.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Roman soldiers wore really thick sandals, so this is not flip-flops that we're talking about.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: But these would be the kind of boots uh that you could cross mountains in.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh that there it's there's an element of readiness.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: Are you prepared?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_00: Are you whenever the enemy appears over the horizon line, whether you were anticipating them or not, are you watching and prepared with the gospel of peace?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Do you have this message that is ready?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And are you sort of, do you have live feet?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: Be prepared and firmly grounded with the gospel message.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth is the shield of faith.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I would press again into this idea that the types of activity that we are being asked to do here is to stand in a defensive posture where the shield makes a lot of sense, okay?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what does it do?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most evocative images in this passage.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: It says it extinguishes the flaming arrows of Satan.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so behind that statement is the idea, Christian, that flaming arrows are being sent your way.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you goes, Yes, I've seen them, I know them, I recognize them even now.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the ability to extinguish them, to make them clatter harmlessly to the ground, is your shield of faith that you are holding up.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why does this mean anything?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, because your faith, right?
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Your faith in who has won and the promises of God and the power that he has and all of the things here, believing that this is true, is your faith.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so when Satan hurls lies at you, right, we can go, as you can tell, we go back to the garden frequently and we talk about Adam and Eve, and we say, Well, what would it have looked like to have faith in the promises of God so that when Satan came along and told a lie, they were able to stand firm.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: When Satan comes along and tells you lies, or one of his minions, are you able to recite and focus on your faith, or will you put down your shield and let the flaming arrow pass through?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: The final two, the helmets and the sword, are the ones that the soldier would pick up last before battle.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the helmet of salvation, critically important because beyond our faith, there are going to be times where you feel so distant, so separated, so removed from the love of God and the glory of God and the presence of God that you are going to question in your darkest moments whether or not God has completely forsaken you.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: And yet you need to remember that your salvation by grace through faith in Jesus Christ is something that cannot be taken from you.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: You are in the Father's hands.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so Satan might tell you, make you think that you can lose this, that you can have it be stripped away from you, that he can take it, but you that is not something that is even possible for him.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: He does not have that power.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so put on this helmet that reminds us, right, that we are secure, that sort of pushes out all of that noise that is saying otherwise and rests us in our eternal home.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth and finally is the only offensive part of this set, which is the sword.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: This might be surprising to you, right?
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, I was ready for, you know, my big broad sword.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was ready to hack and slash and do some real damage.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what God is saying here is, your greatest weapon against the enemy is my word.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: I go back to Jesus being tempted in the desert, and I say, How did he respond to all of Satan's temptations?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: By quoting scripture.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: There we go.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we just said the answer, so I was kind of feeding it to you.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: By quoting Scripture.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus responded to the schemes of Satan by quoting scripture back to him.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so you say, What does it mean for me to engage in a battle that I can't even see properly?
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: To have spiritual weapons, to be prepared for spiritual warfare and flaming arrows that are coming my way?
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: The answer, here, you want your weapon.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is the word of God and knowing it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, though, Paul has this image of a soldier that is standing firm, is pushing back this tide and is extinguishing these arrows.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: But then he talks about their vigilance.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, pray at all times in the spirit, with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lots of alls there, right?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because the type of soldier that is prepared for the battle and is ready to stand firm in the evil day is not one who just, you know, prays before they uh go to take their final, praise because they're starting to come down with a flu, praise because, you know, they're going to be late to a meeting.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like the type of individual who has an active prayer life.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because you go, again, first of all, prayer is powerful and effective and it actually matters, all right?
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think we would pray more often if we actually believe that that was true.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: But second of all, you go, what does it mean to engage in spiritual warfare?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: Well, then you need to do something spiritual.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so not only do you need to believe these things about God and strap onto this armor, but you need to be paying attention to the battlefield that only exists in the spiritual realm.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to do that, you need to be praying and thinking and looking into it.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Pray at all times in the Spirit, with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So not just you, but your prayers are for others who are standing with you in battle, and they are praying for you.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that is part of building up this body that is ready and capable to handle these schemes.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Peter, who by the time that he wrote his letter later in the New Testament, was decades removed from what we read about him in the Gospels.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh 1 Peter 5, 8 through 9, the Apostle Peter gives some encouragement to the folks that he is writing to there.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who is uh has some battle scars from the spiritual battle, somebody who is entrusted by Christ with the ability to cast out demons and who has done it.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody who knows what it means to be on the front lines of battle.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Listen to what he says.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Be sober-minded, be alert.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same kind of sufferings are being experienced by your fellow believers throughout the world.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: You are with others in this struggle and these attacks that are being thrown against you, but also it does not suit you to be casual or lazy in the way that you think about this battle.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And in fact, you bring harm upon yourself by removing your defenses when you choose to treat this so casually.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: So, what should we do, right?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: How should we engage in this battle beyond what Paul has said here?
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: A couple suggestions, a couple thoughts.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: First, wake up to the real world.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you've seen The Matrix, this is take the red pill, okay?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_00: That there is a world that exists beyond the one that you can see.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the Bible makes no bones about it, that it is true.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you have felt weird things, whatever, you've you've gone to a place and you've felt that it was haunted, or that you thought that you experienced a ghost, or I don't know, whatever it is that you read it, had a tarot card or a palm reading, and you felt like there was some kind of connection.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to recognize that you were feeling something real, but it probably wasn't what you thought it was.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: That there is something uh real like demonic activity, and that it does exist, but there is also angelic activity.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's not really the focus of this message, but that there is, God is always working in the spiritual, spiritual realm for those he loves and cares for.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was even one of the passages that Jesus quoted back to Satan was that was related to the Old Testament promise that angels were tending to the needs of the saints.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Satan tried to twist it, but Jesus wouldn't let him.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: Anyhow, so what does it mean to wake up to the real world?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, uh, when your eyes are open to this spiritual battle, I do think it changes the way that you see your temptations, your frustrations, and your fears.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: A first step would be simply imagining the spiritual battlefield, trying to train your mind to look towards these things, to not allow it to be distracted by the many faces that Satan plays on, but rather to see and understand what it means to have spirits around us that are engaged in the material world.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: Keep in mind, I would draw back to your attention the command to not engage in the battles against flesh and blood, that that is not where our primary concern rests, but rather in the things and the beings behind those spiritual battles, or behind the flesh and blood, excuse me.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I would also press in and say that I don't think, right, that every single bad thing that happens is demonic activity.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody runs a red light, I don't think there's just a demon sitting in the driver's seat there, okay?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: But rather that there's probably what it means, we need to raise up the floor as Christians of what we perceive to be as spiritual activity in our lives and in our world.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's more the action here.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, not that everything is this, but more than what we thought beforehand, right?
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is just we are sinning and we are bringing sin into this world and we live in a broken world, just like not every good thing that happens is an angelic being behind it.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, we wake up.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, spot the subtle attack.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to recognize that most of the time Satan doesn't use a pentagram and candles to reach us.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: His great skill is deception, and the devil has a knack for infiltrating our mind without our notice.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: The screw tape letters by C.S.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Lewis, which is um fiction written from the perspective of a demon trying to influence a Christian.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_00: One of the quotes of the demon in that book says, Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I would say is there is no innocent lucky charm, astral projection, horoscope, new age meditation, Ouija board, seance, crystal healing, tarot card kind of practice.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: I had guys in my fraternity house at K-State who used a Ouija board and they said they talked with George.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: I believe they talked with something, I don't think it was George.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: You are dealing in the occult, and that is simply a face for something that is sinister.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: If you have dabbled in those things, if you are now and you feel like there is power behind them, recognize that there is power behind them.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: That power is not stronger than Christ, though, and ultimately you are dealing in something that is far more evil than you can imagine.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: When it comes to entertainment, be wise and be careful, okay?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think there's a lot of Christian liberty here, the freedom in Christ that we have to make these decisions for our own, for our families.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: I will just share with you my personal conviction, okay?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a problem with wizards and sorting hats, okay?
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: That is not where my concern primarily rests.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_00: I have a problem with exorcisms and demonic activity, okay?
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so, horror movies, I grew up watching a lot of horror movies, horror movies that have people who are, I mean, their heads are spinning and they're spitting pea soup, okay?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you know what I'm talking about.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like those kinds of movies, I think we should really stay away from.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think you'd have a hard time making a good argument that it's a positive thing for you as a Christian to be engaging with that type of entertainment.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you have kids, I think you need to think about this question even more carefully.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: They need to understand the spiritual world, but they need to learn about it from you and not from Hollywood.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Third, is that we would armor up with intention.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is the most straightforward application here because we have six different areas that we were given for taking up spiritual armor, right?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so my encouragement to you is think of one of them this week and daily focus on a way that you can uh gird yourself in the type of armor that Christ has given to you.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so maybe it is that you focus more on scripture memory because the word as the sword, you want it to be as sharp as possible.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is your faith.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is focusing on truth.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is, you know, desiring to um remember and reflect back on what it means to be saved by Christ and not have anybody, any force to be able to take that from you.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: But pick one of these elements and perhaps even a physical reminder of your duty to put on the spiritual armor every day.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: My stepdad gave me a coin that has the armor of God on it that I have on my dresser.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Use these kinds of thoughts when you are tempted and attacked, which you will be.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth and finally is that we would stay alert in prayer.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus was in the garden preparing for his arrest, um, I would draw your minds back to that story where he asks the disciples to spread out amongst the garden and to pray for him.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: And what do the disciples do?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: Is they fall asleep.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's late at night or really early, early in the morning, and they don't stay.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus wakes them up and he goes, No, I need you that Satan is prowling around right now.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: He is moving about, and in fact, we find out out from elsewhere in Scripture that Satan has influenced Judas ultimately, because don't you know it was Satan's scheme to kill Christ?
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: The great irony and beautiful irony of it is that he brought about his own destruction by killing Christ.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: But nevertheless, it was the scheme of Satan.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus is encouraging this episode, pleading with them.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Pray, pray, be attentive in prayer, be praying for me, because Satan is moving, and yet they fell asleep again.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_00: So my question for you is how would you characterize your prayer life?
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: Is it locked in or is it lazy?
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_00: Is it focused on just present needs, things that you can see that are right in front of you?
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Prayers that, you know, even if they didn't come true, not much about your life would change.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: But rather to have this kind of prayer life that is described here that is like a soldier on guard.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: Put a sticky note on your mirror in the morning that says, stay alert, reminding yourself to be spiritually engaged with your daily tasks.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: That as you go about your life in your day, that there are two worlds that are interacting with one another.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: One that you can see and one that you cannot.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: Make a habit of praying for your loved ones and fellow believers who are enduring spiritual attack.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Pray for their strength and for Satan's schemes to be defeated.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let me close with this.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: The image that we have here is of a soldier who is confident in their ability to stand against all that the enemy throws against them because they know where their strength comes from.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: Satan has schemes.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: Satan has plans.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is going to attack you.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Demons are going to try and afflict you.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably happened to you before, and it will probably happen to you in the future.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: And yet the one that you serve and who is your savior has defeated them all.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Apostle John gets a vision of the future.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he writes about in the book of Revelation.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I know the book of Revelation is hard to understand at times, right?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: I get it.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: But all of that battle that's going on, that is Jesus defeating the forces of evil once and for all and finally putting them under his feet.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: He places his foot upon their neck and sends them to hell.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: That is the victory that we already have in Christ.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_00: So there is no affliction against you that is more powerful than Christ.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: There is no temptation that is against you that is more powerful than the draw of Jesus in your life.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: The question is, have you placed the armor on yourself or have you let it fall to the ground?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: And there might be an answer somewhere in here where the afflictions or the difficulties that you are experiencing, it's not always explained by demons, but it might be, and it could also be, I'm traveling a lot of coulds here, but it could also be because your armor is sitting on the ground and it is not on your body.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: So my encouragement to you is gird yourself, right?
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, find your strength in the Lord, put on the armor of God, and stand firm against the evil day.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: You have everything you need to do that.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: And the battle is coming, I would say the battle is here, but it is also coming, and you need to be prepared for these kinds of things.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: You can start today.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you, thanking you, Lord, that you tell us clearly what is going on, that you have power, all power and majesty and might as our King.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, to triumph over our foes, over your great foe.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, to uh give us the tools that we need to stand firm in this battle.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, to give us the encouragement to know that strengthened by you, we are capable of fighting back.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: By ourselves, not enough, but with you more than enough.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, I ask that your Spirit would give us a discerning heart to know and understand what are the schemes of the evil one as he tries to twist and manipulate and lie and accuse and afflict us.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, help us to see these things for what they are.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_00: Powerful, but yet it attempts to hurt us from one who has already lost the battle.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: Let us not fall prey to his schemes.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, let us see them for what they are and to bring up our shield so that they would clatter to the ground harmlessly.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Father, for anybody even now who is traveling in the occult, who is doing things that they should not, perhaps because they know not, let them become aware, Lord, of what the harm is, the true harm, in things which we think are mundane.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to see the world as it is, as you have created it, and help us to be alert so that we might persevere in the time of struggle, knowing that there are others who are with us in the battle, and that there is nothing that comes against us that is not defeated by your power.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's in your holy name that we pray.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Love you.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great week.