Armor of God | Week 3 | Message

Do not give up. Gear up. Put on the armor. Do not give up because you're in a war. So we're in Ephesians chapter six verse 13. If you have your Bibles with you, I'd love you to pull them out, open up, read along with us this morning. You can even use your Bible app, Ephesians chapter six verse

13. As you're turning there in your Bibles, I'm gonna pray for us and we're gonna jump in.

Father God, thank you so much that we get to come here this morning and open your word and hear your truth. Thank you for the reminder this morning that we are in a battle.

And God help us take this seriously. Help us identify the parts in our life that, man, when we walk out of this room, we want to gear up.

Father, may we open our ears to hear what you have to say and our hearts to receive and to to be transformed by what you're going to do this morning. In Jesus name we pray. Everybody said, Amen. Amen. So we're in Ephesians chapter six verse 13 And Paul is reminding us, the church, gear up because you're in a fight.

Verse 13, here's what he says. Therefore put on every piece of God's armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm. Now I wanna point out what what he's saying, what he's explaining is

you and I, when it comes to our Christian walk, when it comes to following Jesus, we have a part to play. Now it can get confusing because man, we can't earn our salvation. We cannot earn the love of God.

All that that is a gift given to us. And when you say yes to Jesus, you accept a gift. You cannot earn a gift. All you can do to a gift is receive it. But what Paul is calling and urging you and I to do is because we've received the gift, now gear up.

Because it's possible for you and I to walk our Christian life having already given up, Not doing the hard things. Not jumping into the fight. Not not actually actively fighting against the enemy in our life. Because the enemy, he cannot touch our salvation. If you're a follower of Jesus, he cannot take that away.

But what he can do, what he wants to do is confuse you. He wants to make sure you're not connected to God. He wants to make sure you don't feel any of the victory that you actually do have in Jesus. That you don't feel any of the love, the joy, any of the peace, the patience, the kindness,

the goodness, the faithfulness, the gentleness, the self control that comes from being connected to God. He wants you to give up. He doesn't want you to fight. And what Paul is telling the church, what God's word is saying to you and I this morning is gear up. Don't you dare give up. Do not give up in your fight.

He gives us three pieces of armor. Verse 14, he says, Stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth, the body armor of God's righteousness. For shoes put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared.

Now Paul, he's writing this letter while he's under Roman house arrest. So he's literally imprisoned in his own home, and every day he has a Roman soldier showing up in his living room to make sure he doesn't leave. And as he's writing this letter to a church about how to live out our faith, how to live for Jesus, he's like, you know what? It's just like that.

It's just like a soldier who shows up every day dressed and ready for conflict, whether it happens or not. Because the truth is, you and I, each and every day in our Christian life, we are walking into a war zone. So we need to gear up. And the first three things he tells us as Christians to gear up in,

well the first thing he says is

the belt of truth. So here's my first point today. To win spiritual battles, I need to gear up in the belt of truth. Now I'm excited like Paul's telling us, we're in a battle, we're in a war. And he says, the first thing you need to put on is a belt. I'm like, are you kidding me? A belt?

Serious? So what? Our spiritual pants don't fall down? A belt? Why a belt? That's so lame. But when it comes to Roman armor, the belt, it is it is essential. It is foundational. Because what a belt would do, it it had two main purposes. Your belt when you're when these guys are going into fights, they're wearing tunics.

So when it was time to battle, what they would do, they would gird themselves up so they would take all the cloth and they would wrap it around their belt so they would be able to move freely, unhindered, be able to move fast, quickly, and understand what's going on in battle.

The second part of what a belt does for for this armor is it would hold everything else together.

It straps the the body armor down on your body so it's not flopping. There's this huge metal body armor. Make sure it's tied to your body and make sure you can clip on your sword so it's ready for battle. The the belt is foundational when it comes to fighting your battles.

And Paul's saying that foundational piece, that piece that's gonna help you fight quickly, move quickly, fight in freedom, that's truth. So put on your belt and wrap yourself in truth. You see, the reason Paul starts with truth, the reason he starts with this central piece of a belt being truth is because our enemy,

one of his favorite tactics is to lie and deceive us. He, since the beginning of time, has been a liar. I mean, if you open your bible to page one, you're gonna see God create the entire world,

and then he creates two people called Adam and Eve, and he says to Adam and Eve, alright guys, I've created this phenomenal garden for you. You can eat from any tree in this garden except this one. The tree of knowledge of good and evil because if you eat of it, if you choose to disobey me, you will die.

Do not eat of this tree. And then our enemy steps onto the scene. And he goes up to Adam and Eve. He's like, God told you you're gonna die if you eat this? No. That is not true. That is not what's gonna happen. The truth is God is holding out on you. He knows that if you eat this fruit, you're gonna be like him,

knowing the difference between good and evil. He does not want that. God's holding out on you, you're not gonna die. You're gonna be better for it. And because Adam and Eve were deceived by the lies of the enemy, man, sin and death was introduced into our world.

From the beginning of time and right now today in our lives, the enemy is a liar and a deceiver. And he will come into our life and he will start to whisper things into our ear when we're alone. When we're laying in bed at night trying to go to sleep, he will start to say things like, man, you are so worthless.

You have no purpose. Nobody wants you around. You're never gonna be loved. See, because the enemy, he will first attack who we are and our identity in Jesus, and then he'll attack who God is. He'll start to say things like, man, God is not gonna make sure there's enough for you. You can't give. God's not gonna provide that.

You can't go serve. You don't have enough time. You don't need anybody. You don't need to follow God. He's holding out on you. He wants to take all the goodness out of your life.

You see, our enemy, the same lies he whispers to me, he whispers to you. And he tries to get us confused. He tries to make sure we can't move. We that we don't know what's going on in the battle. We don't know what's going on in the fight.

And we just get so wrapped up in the lies that that we don't know who our enemy is and we don't know who we're fighting with and we we start to get upset with people rather than the enemy and we start to we just get wrapped up in these lies that he whispers in our life.

I mean, Jesus even talks about the enemy and who he is, that that he is a liar. In John chapter eight verse 44, he's talking to these Pharisees, and these Pharisees were they were the holy people.

They were the people who followed God and and Jesus is calling them out and saying, no. You guys are living your life believing the lies of the enemy. This is what he says to them. For you are children of your father, the devil,

and you love to do evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning and he has always hated the truth because there's no truth in him. When he lies it's consistent with his character for he's a liar and the father of lies.

Jesus even identified, he pointed out that our enemy, one of his primary tactics is to lie and deceive you and I. So what do we do? God's word tells us we need to wrap ourself in the truth. It's gotta be the foundational piece of our armor. We've got to put on our belt and wrap ourself in the truth.

So what does that mean? How do we do that? How do we become people who put on the belt of truth? Jesus actually in the same passage. He talks about truth. How we become people of truth. How we wrap ourself in the truth. In John eight thirty one-thirty two, so a couple verses above that, Jesus says,

Jesus said to the people who believed him, you are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Jesus is telling his followers, man, if you wrap yourself in the truth, if you pursue truth, if you go after truth,

you will be free from the lies of the enemy. You'll know what's going on in the battle. You'll know how to fight. You'll know you'll be able to move. It'll hold everything together. Just wrap yourself in the belt of truth. So how do you and I do that? I mean, Queen Creek, Gilbert, 2025, Arizona. How do we do that?

See, we've got to put ourselves in places that is committed to speaking the truth. That's why, man, I love Rock Point Church because I believe we are a church that will boldly and confidently proclaim truth even if it doesn't feel good.

That's why we sing worship songs before service. It's not like the warm up for the pastor. It is us proclaiming truth. Proclaiming truth about who God is and who we are. We need that. We need that to wrap around us, to hold us together. Some of us, we need to get in a small group

because we've started talking about the lies of the enemy and it's become the thoughts that we think. We've internalized them. We say them to our family. We say them to our kids. We say them at work and we need to process them in an environment where someone can start to speak the truth over us.

It's like, dude, that's a lie. That's not who you are. That's not who God is. God's not holding out on you. Man, wrap yourself in the truth. That's why we need to be dedicated to reading God's word because his word is truth. Jesus tells his disciples that he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

If we want to be people who wear the belt of truth, who put on our belt, we've got to wrap ourselves in the arms of Jesus.

So where in your life, if you are brutally honest with yourself, are you believing a lie because it's more comfortable than the truth? Because it feels right. Where in your life are you believing a lie from the enemy?

To win spiritual battles, I need to gear up in the belt of truth

and the body armor of righteousness. Now righteousness, it's it's not a word we use a lot. It's kind of a churchy word. So here's how I like to explain righteousness. Righteousness is God's holiness and justice and goodness lived out.

So when it comes to our walk of faith, there's kind of two categories of righteousness and how it applies to us. The first thing is positional righteousness. We have if if we've said yes to Jesus, we have positional righteousness. Here's what that means. When we say yes to Jesus,

when we say Jesus, I want you to be the Lord and the Savior, the leader and the hero of my life, then all of our sin, Jesus paid for on the cross. And He trades our sinfulness, our unrighteousness for His perfection and righteousness. And we are now in the position that when God looks at you, he sees the perfection

of Jesus all over you. He sees the righteousness of Jesus all over you. He sees you as if you have lived unbelievably and perfectly righteous. You and I, we don't have to earn that. We don't have to work for that. That is a gift we get to receive that we are seen in God's sight as perfect and righteous.

Now, that's positional righteousness. Then we have practical righteousness. Practical righteous Positional righteousness happens the day we say yes to Jesus. Practical righteousness is a lifelong process of living that out. It's practicing the position we've already been given. And so Paul is talking about

practical righteousness. He's saying, you and I, we've gotta put the body armor on and that is the righteousness that we practice. We've got to start fighting our sin. We've gotta start living out holiness. We've gotta start living a life that honors God.

So I did some research on, you know, this Roman body armor. And and this armor mean these are thick metal plates meant to protect people from arrows and swords. They are not light.

They're anywhere from 30 to 40 pounds that these guys would put on them. And I think you know, God calls us to put on our righteousness and put on our body armor and we put it on and we're like, phew. This is heavy. God, I'm supposed to fight this sin that I've been doing since I was a kid. That's heavy.

God, I have to cut off this relationship and the way we interact. God, that's heavy. God, I have to purify my mind. I'm not even allowed to think these thoughts? That's heavy. And what you and I can do, we think that the righteousness God asks us to practice is a burden rather than a protection.

And we take it off and we throw it down and we run out into the battlefield completely vulnerable. And what we have to realize is our enemy is not a fool. Every shot he takes, he wants to make sure it counts. And the body armor's main purpose is to protect your vital organs, specifically your heart.

Your heart is an organ physically that pumps life and oxygen to every cell in your body. And the enemy wants to make sure any shot he takes pierces your spiritual heart, the core of who you are. We run out into the battlefield and we don't wanna wear our righteousness and we run out and then man we just get hit.

But if you're living without your body armor, either you've been wounded or man the arrows are flying right by you and it's just a matter of time. We get hit and we fall and we crumple and we're like, oh my goodness, I feel so ashamed. Why do I feel so much shame? Why do I feel so much self hatred? Why do I feel so hurt?

Why am I just overwhelmed with just this depression and anxiety? And we start to think, man, God, why are you so upset with me? You're mad at me because I wasn't aware, I wasn't doing the right things. When the truth is man, that is a wound. That is an arrow from your enemy. When I was six years old,

I had my buddy over at our house and we we were looking for something to do, something to play and we were digging through the garage and we found these golf clubs. We're like, oh, this is gonna be awesome.

So we run inside and we we talked to my dad. We're like, dad we found these golf clubs. We got the golf balls. Can we go in the backyard and hit these golf balls as hard as we can? And we we lived up next to the woods so you know, it would have been fine. We weren't gonna damage anything. My dad said, okay,

you can go out there and you can hit those golf balls but listen to me, whenever one of you is swinging, I want the other one to take three big steps back because if that golf club hits you, it is going to hurt. We said, okay. And we ran outside

and we're just slamming those golf balls as hard as we could. We're just taking turns swinging and hitting them as hard as a six year old could hit. And it was my friend's turn and he was just slamming the golf balls and I was just standing there thinking, I wonder why my dad says that.

I was thinking, man I bet it's because it looks way cooler up close. And I take a step and I'm like, oh I was right. This is so much better. And I take another step and I take another step closer.

And my buddy, he swings back and he hits that golf ball as hard as he can. And that golf club comes around and it hits me in the forehead so hard and I crumple.

I mean, I am on the ground, I'm screaming, blood is coming down my face. My buddy, he goes and gets my dad. My dad runs out, he picks me up, he puts me in the car, we're on the way to the hospital and I'm sitting in the back of the car like, dad, my head hurts so bad. And what he could have said was,

well, I told you not to stand that close.

But he didn't. I could tell and I could tell you now, my dad was just as heartbroken that I had been hurt as I was.

I think some of us, we've run out into the battlefield without our body armor righteousness on and we've been wounded. And we think that shame, that anger is coming from God, but the truth is we have a heavenly father who will always pick us back up. He'll always bring us to healing. He's not upset. He's not frustrated.

To be honest, he's just tired of seeing you wounded because he loves you.

What does it look like for you to put on your body armor? To put on your righteousness? You know, it's so easy to justify, to flirt with that cashier at Walmart because it's not hurting anybody.

But we've got to put on our righteousness because we're vulnerable to the enemy. It's so easy to think, I'm just visiting this website when I feel alone. It's not hurting anybody. But you're vulnerable to the enemy. I just want to be comforted by this substance rather than God being my comfort. You're

vulnerable to the enemy. What sin do you need to start fighting? What addiction do you need to start tackling?

Man, we've got to put on our armor because we're vulnerable to the enemy. What is that thing in your life right now that you've just decided, God, that's too heavy. I don't want to put that on. That's too heavy. What is that area of your life right now if you're honest that you're just running into battle without any armor?

To win spiritual battles, I need to gear up in the belt of truth, the body armor of righteousness, and the shoes of peace.

Verse 15, I wanna read that again. It says, for shoes put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared. Now that word good news, this is so cool. It's the same exact word in the original language that we translate to say gospel. You realize the gospel

is literally it literally means good news. It is the gospel is the foundation of what we believe as Christ followers and that means good news. What Paul is saying is that peace you get from the good news of Jesus, man put that on your feet and stand firm. See these shoes, the Roman soldiers,

they were pretty phenomenal. Their shoes were amazing because they were basically the ancient version of cleats. What they would do is they would take a bunch of these tiny little nails and they'd put them through the bottoms of the shoes and they would strap strap these sandals on their feet. And so when they're in battle,

man, they're not going anywhere. They're standing firm. They're getting ready. They're digging in their heels. They're digging those nails into the ground. Doesn't matter what terrain they're on, the enemy is not gonna be able to push them back.

And Paul is saying, Man, put on your shoes and stand firm in the peace you get from the good news. Now the gospel, the good news, we hear that term a lot. Here's how I like to summarize what that is, what that means. And by the way, if you were

trying to figure this whole Jesus thing out, if you're not exactly sure what what that is and and if if you're all in on this, this is exactly what the enemy does not want you to know or believe. The gospel. It is this. Because of our sin, because of my sin, I have been eternally separated from God.

But rather than leaving me in my sin, Jesus Christ became man and he lived the perfect life. And he died on the cross in my place for my sin, rose again defeating sin and death, proving he's God and offering me eternal life starting now into forever with him. That's what we believe. That is the very foundation

of of what it means to be a Christ follower. It is victory over sin. It is victory over death. And Paul is saying, put your shoes on and stand in the peace that comes from the victory you have in Jesus. You see we we we are so nervous and we're so anxious to talk about our faith. Why is that?

I mean we will talk about anything that we like like, oh my gosh intermittent fasting changed my life, you've got to try intermittent fasting. It's like sourdough bread is is life changing, try sourdough bread. Some of you have essential oils and you're just rubbing them on people. It's like stop.

We're so out there with everything we love and then somebody brings up faith and we're like, yeah, just I'm sure. Yep. Why? This is the thing. It's the foundation of our faith. It gives us victory. It gives us not just life, but eternal life. Why are we so afraid and anxious and uncomfortable to talk about that?

It's because your enemy one of his tactics is he doesn't want you to talk about the victory you have in Jesus. So he makes you uncomfortable. He makes you afraid. He makes you feel like, oh, they just wouldn't want to be my friend anymore if I talk about this.

So I used to play little league baseball and unlike Bill, I was very bad. Like just horrible. I was kind of a chunky kid and so I was super slow. I couldn't really move on the field well. But the one thing I had was if I connected with the ball, man, I I was strong. And so

we were playing this team and we were getting destroyed. And I would tell you it's because they were a good team, but the truth is we were just very bad. And so, we're almost done. It's my turn up the bat again and I'm just feeling like I don't wanna do this anymore.

I'm on deck and I'm swinging and then it's my turn to get up to the plate so I walk up. And as I'm walking up, I hear something. Over in the parent's section on the other team where the other team's parents sit, I hear this conversation. They're like, oh man, that kid, that kid can hit. And I said.

And then I look over at the coach and the coach of the other team, he's shouting to the outfield, outfield. And I said

You better believe I was standing firm on that plate. Why? Because I saw that my enemy was afraid of what I was about to do.

If you are a Christ follower in the room, your enemy knows what you can do and he's afraid of what you're about to do. So put on your shoes because you have the victory in Jesus. Put on your shoes.

Put on your shoes church. You realize we have Easter coming up in three weeks? Studies have shown that eight out of 10 people are willing to go to church at an Easter service if they were personally invited. Who do you need to invite?

Who do you need to point to Jesus by loving them like Jesus? Who do you Let's be people who go live intentionally. Let's put on our shoes and stand in the confidence and the peace that we have victory in Jesus.

Scripture tells us, Jesus talks about in the book of Matthew, tells a story about there's gonna be a day where God is going to bring everyone before him and he's going to separate them into two groups.

On one side will be everyone who has ever said yes to Jesus and said, Jesus, you are my Lord and Savior and I trust in your righteousness, not my own. And on the other side will be all those who have not made that decision to follow Jesus. All of those who have not accepted the free gift that Jesus offers.

And they will be separated from God.

I don't want to stand there on that day looking across and seeing my friends, seeing my neighbors, seeing my coworkers, seeing my family with tears streaming down their face asking, why didn't you tell me?

Why didn't you tell me?

Church, let's put on our shoes and be people who stand boldly in the victory Jesus has given us and point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus. Let's put on our shoes.

You see, Paul, he's telling believers like you and I, do not give up because we're in a war. Do not give up because you're in a war zone. Do not give up church. Gear up. Put on the armor because you are in a battle.

I remember when I was 10 years old, my mom, she surprised me. She wanted to take me to 6 Flags for the first time. And you know, I was excited. I thought it was gonna be awesome. And so we get there. If you know anything about me, I hate heights. I hate them. People always ask, you know, don't you wanna go skydiving once before you die? And I'm like, no.

I'd rather just die. I don't wanna experience that. That sounds horrible. And so we get there and and she bought me the ticket. I was in the park. We were so excited. And 10 years old is tough because you're too big for the little kid section.

But then I I didn't wanna go. Everything else was just monster roller coasters. And I was like, mom, I'm not doing it. I I don't like the highs. I don't like the lows. I don't like going fast. I don't want the loop de loops. I'm not doing it. So what I ended up doing is just in the middle of the day, sitting on the bench in Six Flags, just sitting there miserable.

And my mom comes over and she says, Hunter, I know you and I know what you like. Would you just get in the roller coaster once? Would you just trust me and do it? And I said, no. And I sat there miserable.

Then a little while later my mom comes up, Hunter I you're here. You're here. You're in the park. Would you just trust me and get in? Because I really think it's gonna be a lot better than you just sitting there. I said, fine. So we get in line and I'm nervous. And we start getting closer and I'm getting anxious.

And and then we get in the cart and I'm like, the the the big strap comes down and I'm like, hey, I don't wanna do this anymore. Is there any way I can get out? And my mom says, don't listen to him, just go. And we go. And it was awesome. It was unbelievable.

We were walking around the park and I was seeing other little kids. I was like you gotta go on the roller coaster. It's scary but it's so awesome. Get in. Just get in and go and it's scary and the highs and the lows and the upside down. It's terrifying, but it's amazing. It's so much better than just sitting there.

And I think this morning, God is coming into our life and he's saying, Why are you just sitting there? You're in the park, you have Jesus, but you're just sitting there in the middle of the war zone miserable. And I get that it's hard.

You know, you have to have these habits in your life to wrap yourself in the truth and to put on your righteousness and to lace up shoes. It's not comfortable. It's not easy. It's a little scary. There are highs and lows and upside downs. But would you just trust me? Because it's so much better than where you're at.

And the truth is, if we step in, if we put on our armor, if we gear up and we decide I'm not just gonna sit there, I'm not just gonna give up, I promise you it is so much better to live in the victory that Jesus has given us than just sitting there miserable giving up.

Amen.

So church, where do you need to gear up? Some of us, we need to start wrapping ourself in truth. We're believing the lies of the enemy. We've got to put ourself in the places that we hear the truth and trust the voice of God. Some of us, we've got to put on our belt and wrap our self in truth. Some of us,

we've got to put on that righteousness. We've got to start fighting that sin and fighting that addiction and cutting those bad things out because God is tired of seeing you wounded. We've got to put on our righteousness. And some of us, we've got to put on our shoes

and stand in the peace and the victory that Jesus has given us.

Don't be that kid that's just sitting there miserable at Six Flags. That you're in the park, you're here, you're connected to Jesus, but you're not enjoying any of what God has to offer. It's scary and it's hard, but it is so much better than where you're at. What is it going to take for you to stop giving up

and gear up in God's armor? Father, I want to pray for each and every individual in this room. God, show us exactly what we need to do to gear up in your armor. Give us the strength. Give us the direction, and help us actually walk out of here transformed because we chose to do something.

In Jesus name we pray. Everybody said, amen. Hey, we love you guys. Thank you for being here. Hey, thanks for joining us for our service online this weekend. Be sure to follow us on our Rock Point social media to stay connected throughout the week and see what's happening here at Rock Point.