Fighting with the Full Armor of God: Prayer - The Summoning of Divine Power

{Ephesians 6:16-20}


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, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

[Rev. Dan Whang]

I will be covering the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer.
When we refer to the FULL armor of God, it is the full protection... nothing is left lacking. We will be equipped for battle.

Helmet of Salvation

I would like to refer to this as the "Hope of Salvation"

"But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation." - 1 Thessalonians 5:8

We differ this from our faith in that our faith is based on what has already been done for us. Hope is for what we has not yet come to pass. It is what drives us forward.

Sword of the Spirit

Everything else we've covered is for our defense. The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon.

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." - Hebrews 4:12

Most of the time, we think of the sword in fighting the enemies and trying to kill them. But I would like to introduce the idea that the sword should first be used on ourselves. We should use the sword to help us reveal our own hearts. Don't get suicidal thoughts now...

Three powers of the Spirit

Power to search and convict - The spirit can reveal hidden sins that we are unaware of. It can convict us of things we should do or things we should not.
Power to comfort - When we are broken and dejected over sin, it can restore us even in the face of our most heinous sins.
Power to convert - The Spirit works to change our hearts and turn us to God.

Prayer in the Spirit

"praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints"
There is this all encompassing language. We should be praying at all times, in every situation.

Prayer as Empowerment - Prayer summons divine power. It is like the heavenly walkie talkie in the middle of the battle. We can and should call for spiritual backup, support, & supplies..
Prayer as Life - Prayer is not our focus. God is our focus. It is like having a conversation and trying to focus on conversation instead of the other person.

I have an encouragement about prayer. It is simply this...
Make prayer your #1 response to everything in life.
Like this oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. All this blame and fishing industry collapsing... What can we as a single human being do? I thought, we should pray.

Application

1. Make Time
2. Make Lists
3. Make Partners

"...The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." James 5:16 (NIV)

Fighting with the Full Armor of God: The Shield of Faith

{Ephesians 6:10-16}

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 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;

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

The shield provides overall protection.

How the Shield of Faith protects.

The enemy attacks us in two ways:

Attacks of Enticement

Satan wants us to place our satisfaction in money, hobbies, food, our family, our job... everything but God. All these things are good things and they are not inherently sinful. The problem comes when they become the ultimate thing. Say our job becomes where we get our ultimate satisfaction... we will become insecure. Because our worth, our joy is tied to our performance at work. We become jealous of co-workers that may be doing a better job than us. We get a bad performance review and we are crushed.

Faith gives us a long-term view, exposing short-term quality of sinful gratification and its consequences.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. - Hebrews 11:24-26

Faith pursues the greater pleasure, treasure, and satisfaction that we have in Christ

We do not always experience the pleasure, joy, & satisfaction in Christ. So very often we chase more immediate, but fleeting pleasure.

Attacks of Fear

When the devil attacks us in this way, he is trying to provoke us to the following:

Atheism - We start wondering if God even exists...

Blasphemy - We think God is not good. Or he is unjust....

Despair - We lose hope. We consider ourselves failures.

Faith recognizes the limits of reason and clings only to what God says about himself.

Faith takes hold of promises because Faith sees the trustworthiness of the Promiser.

Fighting with the Full Armor of God: the Breastplate of Righteousness

[Ephesians 6:10-14]

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

{Rev. Dwight Yoo}
The Breastplate of Righteousness

What is it?

There are two types of righteousness.

Imputed Righteousness
The righteousness of Christ given to us by faith.

Imparted Righteousness
We are restored to wholeness & holiness. The spirit of God changes you.

For the breastplate, we must have both types. We cannot separate the two. Christians must have both.

Why does it matter?

The roman armor of the breastplate was used to protect the vital organs. All the vital organs sat behind the breastplate. In the Christian's life, the breastplate of righteousness protects our conscience. The conscience is very delicate. The devil comes and accuses to try and make us hopeless. The devil wishes to bruise the conscience so that we run from God. We think ourselves unworthy, inept, and failures. But there are two types of sorrow: Godly sorrow will make us turn to God, repent, and ends in joy. Worldly sorrow makes us hopeless and discouraged. We end up hiding from God and running from Him. The devil wishes to encourage worldly sorrow.

How to put it on?

Daily Claim the Imputed Righteousness of Christ

We are children of God through Christ. We are accepted because of Christ. We are loved because of Christ. We need to claim all the promises we have through our faith in Christ.

Daily Exercise Imparted Righteousness

We give up our former sins and live the life as God wishes. Areas of our lives where we are not fully submitted to God gives a place for the devil. If you look around the city, there are these things called bird spikes. They are located where there are perches above places where pedestrians walk. They keep birds from perching there are taking a crap on your head. This is the same for the spiritual life. When we are fully submitted to God, there are bird spikes to keep the devil from crapping on our heads. If we have places in our lives where God does not rule, the devil will come and attack us there.

Cherishing the Path of Wisdom

{Proverbs 4:5-7, 26-27}

Get wisdom; get insight;
do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
Do not forsake her, and she will keep you;
love her, and she will guard you.
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom,
and whatever you get, get insight.

Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.
Do not swerve to the right or to the left;
turn your foot away from evil.

[Rev. Paul Kim]

Wisdom is to value wisdom.

Desire wisdom, in contrast to our society

As a society, we don't really desire wisdom. We seek fame, fortune, comfort, gadgets... not really wisdom. There is a Ten Commandments of America Culture which describes what our society. Notice that wisdom is missing. We have movies on romance, bravery, freedom... but wisdom?

Wisdom recognizes our own ignorance and foolishness

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding (3:5)

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. (3:7)

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice. (12:15)

Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him (26:12)

Gospel Reminder: A weak and humble posture.

This reminds us of our needfulness. We are not self-sufficient. We are like children... like beggars. We cannot boast in ourselves. Both the Gospel & wisdom share the same posture.

Wisdom chooses wisdom, repeatedly down a path

delivering you from the way of evil,
from men of perverted speech,
who forsake the paths of uprightness
to walk in the ways of darkness,

(2:12-13)

I have taught you the way of wisdom;
I have led you in the paths of uprightness.
When you walk, your step will not be hampered,
and if you run, you will not stumble.
Keep hold of instruction; do not let go;
guard her, for she is your life.

(4:11-13)

We learn how to frame the issue

We have before us the path. We have a choice between wisdom and folly. It is not just a set of perspectives, but the worldview or perspective of Proverbs. It shows us how to view the choices. When we run into temptations and choices, the view of Proverbs helps us to see the issue clearly.

We choose repeatedly

We are constantly being tempted. We must not forsake the teaching. Not depart from the path of wisdom. There is a repetition and constancy to the choices thrown at us.

We can see the trajectory

Ponder the path of your feet;
then all your ways will be sure.

(4:26)

[the adulteress]
she does not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.

(5:6)

There is a final destination at the end of the road. Each decision results in a step which results in a path... which will end in a destination. We have lived long enough to see the results of our choices. What happens when someone turns on the TV day after day for 10 years? What if someone read for 15 minutes every day for 10 years? (They would have read about 200 books.)

Gospel Reminder: take Gospel steps to a loving, free, intimate relationship with God

What is the best final destination? A loving, worshipful relationship with God. To be freed by the love, grace, & acceptance of God.

Fighting with the Full Armor of God: The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace (Part 2)

{Ephesians 6:10-15}

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 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.

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

How does the Gospel of peace ready us to stand and fight.

Have you ever gotten into a fight? If you have, you know that traction is important. It is important to have good footing. For the Romans, as we mentioned last week, the soldiers wore shoes with spikes on the bottom, like cleats.

The Gospel of Peace gives us the Eagerness to stand and fight.

The gospel gets sweeter as we hear more of it. As we learn more about ourselves, we see how undeserving we are... but we also learn how immensely loved we are.

Ever since Adam & Eve, the human heart has rebelled from God. All of our hearts are bent away from God because of sin. (Romans 8:7-8) To put it simply, the human heart is at war with God.

Jesus died for us while we were still rebelling. while we were still going where we wanted. (Isaiah 53:5-6) Not only do we have peace with God through Jesus. We have also been reconciled with God. It is like we had a strained relationship... and now there is love and restoration of our relationship with God. (Romans 8:31-39) For those in Christ, the God of the universe is always for you. This knowledge will give us a cheerful eagerness to fight.

We stand with an Eagerness of Love.

For a christian, we see our sin & His love. What keeps us from sin and keeps us fighting? We remember God's love for us & try to please God. We will resist sin because we know God's love for us is so great. Our God has been so good to us, we wish to honor Him.

We stand with an Eagerness of Sure Victory & Glory.

We gladly enter warfare. If God is for us, we will gladly & eagerly enter battle. We are promised victory in the war. We may get beat up and scraped, but we will be victorious. Why? Because the God of the universe is for us. We will not ultimately fail. We may lose some battles, but the war is already won by God.

Fighting with the Full Armor of God: The Shoes of the Gospel of Peace (Part 1)

{Ephesians 6:10-18}

and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

Caliga - Roman shoes that soldiers wore. They were flexible and it made the army very mobile. These shoes had thick metal spikes on the bottom that gave lots of traction, much like clets. They had thick soles that protected soldiers feet from various spikes and traps used by their enemies.

"readiness given by the gospel of peace" can mean two things. In this sermon I will cover one, and I will cover another one later. We will cover that the gospel is something we should be ready to deliver. When you are trying to deliver the gospel, this is spiritual battle. There are also other biblical reference to the feet that deliver the gospel/salvation.

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet 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.' " - Isaiah 52:7

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!" - Romans 10:14-15

Two main points
The Gospel is the Good News of Peace for the Religious and Irreligious
Living in the Gospel prepares us to Deliver the Gospel

The Gospel literally means "Good News". When we read about other countries, we hear statistics that 80% plus people are "christian." But that doesn't mean much... because there are many christians that don't know the Gospel. They are culturally raised in a church, but do not have a relationship with Christ. Because of this, we continue to send missionaries to preach the Gospel. For those who are religious, they feel they just need to follow rules x, y, & z. If they follow the rules and do enough, God would be pleased. But that is NOT what the Gospel says. The Gospel says we can NEVER do enough. We cannot live lives good enough. But the Gospel says that Christ has done it for us. So we try to live good lives not because we have to earn salvation, but rather we live lives having already received everything through Christ.

For the irreligious, they don't care about earning salvation. But the gospel is multi-faceted. Shalom. Fullness & wholeness in all of creation. No more racism, poverty, or death. The irreligious don't care about about earning points with God. But they are also disturbed by death, by brokenness, by all these things that are messed up. We can tell them about a God who is restoring. A God who sent His son to restore the whole world, the relationships, everything. The kingdom that God is creating is one where everything works as it should. We are to be a foretaste of heaven. A citizen representative of heaven.

The Good News has to be Good News to us - In order to be a good messenger, you need to live in the Gospel. Is the Gospel good news to you? If something is not important or meaningful, you will not share it. You will talk about those things that are precious to us. If the Gospel is precious, we will easily discuss it and commend it to our friends. For us, the news always gets better each time we hear it. When we first accept it, it is good. But then we learn more... and it gets more amazing. God not only loves us. He wants us to work with Him. He has adopted us into His family.

Allow the Gospel to speak to your inadequacy - You are not winning because of clever arguments. You are not reaching people because you have impeccable character. People are reached because God works through you. God works through even our inadequacies. God opens eyes, He softens hearts.

Allow the Gospel to speak to your Unworthiness - Our motives are always impure. If we waited until our motives were pure to serve, we would never serve. The devil would point out our previous mistakes to keep us on the sidelines. We should stand on the Gospel when we feel unworthy. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." - 1 John 1:9

Fighting with the Full Armor of God: The Belt of Truth

{Ephesians 6:10-14}

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness

[Rev. Dwight Yoo]

Review of previous sermon (The Unseen Battle)
The Reality of our Battle - The moment we become Christian, we are thrown into a spiritual war.
The Nature of our Battle - Spiritual, not physical
How to Win the Battle - Even though there are battles still, Jesus has won the war.

"Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth" - Technically, the belt is not a part of the armor. Back in those days, men wore tunics. They were just a single piece of fabric with a hole for your head. It's a flowing garment. This was everyday wear. If you needed to run or fight or do some sort of activity, they would pick up the loose portions of their garment and tuck it into their belt. In some translations, it is called "girding your loins." This tucking is what those translations are referring to. How do we prepare for battle? We start in the truth.

What does Paul mean when he refers to truth? Some scholars believe it refers to objective truth. You need to know the content of the gospel. Other scholars believe it refers to an attitude of truthfulness, subjective truth. You need to be living out the truth. You are sincere and committed to the gospel. For myself, I believe it means both. You need to understand both the content and also be living out of the gospel.

Objective truth means understanding the central message of the Bible. The gospel. Understanding sanctification... so we aren't guilt-tripped by the devil. This isn't a Sunday school quiz. Not just knowing the names of all the books of the Bible, or who is the oldest person in the bible, or the names of the minor prophets. But more like things such as what is God's purpose for me? or the fact that Christians are adopted into God's family... and we no longer need to live as slaves.

Subjective truth means taking what we know and letting that inform our lives. Here is the truth and I want to see that shape my life. Not living lives of hypocrisy but sincerity. What you believe will impact how you live your life. Even if it is a lie. Imagine your old brother plays a prank on you. He tells you that you are adopted. For that time when you believe it... your life is impacted.

Ephesians 4:17-24 tells how the combination of the two views of truth looks:
"Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."

The devil does not fear people who only understand the objective truth. People who only know objective truth can become proud of their knowledge. This is dead orthodoxy.

"To enter on this spiritual conflict ignorant or doubting would be to enter battle blind and lame. As the girdle gives strength and freedom of action, and therefore confidence, so does the truth when spiritually apprehended and believed. Let not any one imagine that he is prepared to withstand the assaults of the powers of darkness, if his mind is stored with his own theories, or with speculations of other men. Nothing but the truth of God, clearly understood and cordially embraced, will enable him to keep his feet for a moment, before these celestial potentates. Reason, tradition, speculative conviction, dead orthodoxy, are a girdle of spider-webs. They give way at first onset." - Charles Hodge

The devil loves when we only pay God lip service. When all we have is head knowledge. There is no consistency in our lives. We know the right answers. But when the tough times come, they have to say: I really don't believe it.

Why Satan loves hypocrites:

• Hypocrites have no grounding.
• Hypocrites have no power in private.
• Satan will use the hypocrisy of hypocrites against them.
• Satan uses hypocrisy to damage Christ's reputation and His bride.
  

One who masters the content of the Bible and is mastered by the content of the Bible, such a person will stand. People who know the Bible and live lives of consistency & integrity will be a blessing to those around them. We are all human, we will fail. But we have strength & power through Christ. Each time you stand, you are are fleshing out the gospel. Every time you stand, you become more like Jesus. Jesus is the word in flesh. We are becoming more and more like Him, each & every time we stand in the truth of God's word.