Be strong in the Lord (what it looks like) and our warfare

We're looking at the end of Ephesians chapter 6 here. We're winding down. We're going to kind of intro to the spiritual armor this morning, and then we have two weeks off for the holidays. So if you come next week early for Sunday school, it'll be lonely. Bill will be here. Bill's always here. And then also the following Sunday. So the next two Sundays, don't come early for the first hour, but then we'll pick up in January. I believe the 6th, if I have my dates correctly. And then we'll pick up on continuing in the spiritual armor.

So, Paul gives us the thing that if you've ever been in a, and this is not meant to be a negative joke, but if you've ever been in a Baptist service you know that the pastor has to say finally four or five times, right? In closing, it's never in closing, but Paul's telling us finally. So he's actually going to actually finally wrap up. We know the words that are written, so we know he actually means finally.

He's going to circle us back around to unity in the Lord. He's going to close with a passage of loving in unity as a spiritual body and submitting to one another. So he's been building on these principles all throughout the book. He's going to actually tie together in chapter 6 themes from the whole book in an integrated way that It's pretty masterful from a writing perspective. It's really well constructed the way he put the letter together and he's going to bring these things together for us in chapter 6. We talked about unity and we talked about submitting to one another in Christ and he's going to tie those things together and we have this opportunity to study what I think is a pretty powerful passage in light of that.

So he says, finally, be strong in the Lord, and I'll read the whole passage just so we have context. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Sorry, just in case you don't know where I'm at, I'm in Ephesians 6, starting in verse 10. 11. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. So let's take a moment here and consider some things that I think are relevant for us culturally. I come from a charismatic background. In junior high and high school, I was charismatic. Anyone else have that background?

It's okay if you don't. If I'm alone in the room, that's kind of fine. It's better for everybody else. But I want to give you, because it was not a good place theologically, okay? So I want to give you some background that I have on this, not because it's bragging points, because it's not. But I want you to understand some error that gets taught about this topic so that you can kind of take away from this why we need to understand what is true here. This is for comparison and contrast purposes. I used to get up in junior high every morning and having memorized this coming set of spiritual armor verses recite a prayer and put on the spiritual armor so that I could go out and fight Satan.

No one else looks like they do that, so that's good. It worked really well, because I didn't know any better. Unfortunately, I didn't do anything in the context of what Paul's teaching, but I did it. Yeah, it made me feel good. That's probably a good way to describe that problem.

And I participated in prayer meetings where we would bind Satan. We'd pray for prayers of protection. I don't know how, but he got out every time. So we had to do it again. And then we would go, I drove around all of Carson City. We went on prayer walks through neighborhoods and I knew guys who had horns, the ram's horns, and they'd go hike to the top of hills and they would blast the ram's horns for war so that Satan would know that we were coming for him.

I mean, like, this is a thing. Okay. I know that around here, that's not common in Holly Hills, but there are people that do that today even here in Denver because they have not been carefully taught what's in here and you may face that someday you may go meet somebody and they'll say oh I go to such-and-such a church and they'll go there and you will you will talk to them and they'll say oh yeah I was you know fighting Satan about this or that they actually believe they can so we want to talk about what does Paul say Not what's my opinion, not what is my experience, but what does Paul say because then we know what is true and we can do something with it. I wish, in an idyllic sense, I wish that I had been taught properly so as to not have gotten kind of duped and sucked into the error because I spent a lot of time in fear. and spent a lot of time not trusting, quite frankly. So let's keep in mind that when I look at this here as a teacher, I want you to know that my background isn't necessarily influencing this, but I might call out things that are not part of your exposure in past churches.

So Paul says, be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might. So the first question I have here is, why does Paul want the body to be strong in the strength of God's might? And this may seem kind of obvious, but let's consider that for a second. Because it's obvious we can't do it in our own strength. It has to come from Him. It's the only way. We can't do it in our own strength. And there's a tremendous amount of gumption that we're told to have as Americans. We're going to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. In this case, this is much more about being in Christ, in God's strength. Paul, this isn't his first time actually addressing God's strength in Ephesians.

Let's go back to chapter 1 and let's see what Paul says and see if it might shed some light, no pun intended, on what we have here. Starting in verse 18. So Paul writes in Ephesians 1, 18-19 and we will read into 21. He says, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might, which He brought about in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. So in chapter 1 he started off telling us this important thing. How does he describe the understanding of the believers in verse 18? What is he praying for? For the eyes of their heart that they would be opened. That they would be enlightened and that these truths would impact their lives.

What power is He hoping for them to understand? His power. God's power. And it's the resurrection power that raised us with Christ. He wants that power to be something they understand in their walk, in their innermost being, in their heart. So when we come here and we see the strength of God's might, we know what strength and might that is. We know what power that is.

That is something that is infinite versus the finite. Positional truth. So Paul is concerned about these believers understanding that there's a spiritual battle going on, conditionally it's impacting them, but they're resting in positional truth. They're resting in God's power, not their own.

So the word translated, be strong, can be elongated to be strengthened. It's a present imperative passive. The idea there is that you want to be strengthened with the strength of God's might. Not strengthened of your own accord. Not your own might. Because we are in the Lord. Our strength is in Him. Our life is in Him. We're hidden in Him. It's almost like there's a theme, right? Didn't we call that out at the beginning of Ephesians? God's strength is infinite and perfect. So then, after being strengthened as might, Paul says, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

So, one of the things that I think is most often not obvious when we look at the English translation is that this is written almost entirely in a second-person plural Greek conjugation, the way that all these things are streamed together. So second-person plural means you all, right? Or as I learned appropriately in Texas, all y'all, right? I lived there for five years but I learned y'all before that because I worked with a good Texan gal, a dear friend Erin, and she taught me y'all before that so I could say y'all in Nevada.

But y'all put on the full armor of God and what's fascinating about that is we tend to think Y'all put on the foot that we tend to read this and see this you individually. So get up by yourself in your bedroom, and recite the prayer and put on the spiritual armor so you can go be fighting by yourself is the way that I was taught this. Not the second person plural, not all of you as a body in Ephesus, not all of you as a body Holly Hills, not all of you as a body church in Denver, but go out as individuals.

That's how people misunderstand this passage. So we want to consider the second-person plural nature of what Paul has put together. And we're going to take a look at what that looks like here. We had a picture here, and it's also on your handout, of this Roman formation, and we'll see why that matters. We're not going to do that yet, but I just want to say that's there.

Consider Paul's writing style throughout the book of Ephesians. Are there any other places, and you guys pick them out, call them out, no pressure, if nobody has any ideas. Are there other places in the book of Ephesians where Paul is writing second person plural for the body to be considering doctrine and theology?

5.13 on? Okay, 513 on. Actually, it goes even before that. Remember in Ephesians chapter 3? In Ephesians chapter 3, when he's talking about the body and loving one another, and he's talking about the dimensions? He says that you all together would comprehend the incomprehensible love of Christ. That's pretty cool.

That's second person plural for us to be considering together this love concept. In chapter four, when he's talking about we build each other up in the body, that's second person plural that we would come together and be teaching to come together as a complete man. And then, as Tom has appropriately called out, that we would have wisdom and be living out as imitators of God and imitators of Christ this life. Thematically, the second person plural principle is important. And he's not surprised us with, oh, this is the first time in Ephesians that we have this body togetherness, and it's part of the body life that we have. So we're standing together. And that's important. He says, put on together the full armor of God. What does it mean to put on the full armor of God? Since it's not me standing in my bedroom praying that prayer alone. To go out and battle alone. What does it mean to put on the full armor of God?

Positional truth. Understanding who you are in Christ. We understand who we are We have all of those assets already with us. Every element of the armor is related to our salvation and related to our identification with Christ. So when he says put those on, or later on in 13, take them up, the principle is that we are actually walking in who we are in Christ. So taking that and putting it on is important as a principle.

The other thing that's important to understand is that Paul's focus is not on the earthly nature of the armor, but specifically the opposite of that. The analogy of the armor is of God as armor that doesn't falter. God is armor, God is our armor, and He does not falter. Put on the full armor of God, not the armor of your own making.

Bob? How do you do this? That was the thrust of my question. So how do we do that? What does that... Go ahead and... Well, I admit it. I mean, Martin and I were talking about this this morning. I mean, to accept the positional truths and apply them to our lives, you have to come to the end of yourself. Identification begins when you come to the end of yourself. Yeah, when we abide, as we abide and we're called out, we're putting on this armor.

The interesting thing about this is that it's an aorist imperative middle. Aorist is actually an interesting word. We've kind of got a tradition in Bible churches that means past action with ongoing results. That's some of the time true, but not always true. So we want to be careful when we pull that out. Otherwise, it becomes erorist, right? I'm just kidding. But erorist, actually, the word etymologically means miscellaneous. It can be used in different contexts. So we want to be careful what it is. But he says erorist imperative.

So put this on. And the timing of it is not specific to every morning. The timing isn't, when you get up in the morning, put it on. The timing isn't, you need to do it before you get in the car and go to work, or before you come home from work, or if you're at the lunch break and somebody swears, and you're like, oh no, I heard a potty word, and now I've got to put on the spiritual armor. The timing isn't specific to that.

The timing is more about in the realization. of who we are in Christ. And so the timing and the nature of the timing is not about a once and for all armor putting on, the timing is about in the realization of who you are in Christ, be putting it on and be reckoning and clothing yourself It turns out there's quite a bit of cross-reference in the New Testament about these things. And as it turns out, Paul tends to use this analogy with Roman colonies, because they would understand the spiritual armor and understand the Roman colony and seeing the soldiers around. He doesn't seem to write it across to every church body, but we've got some cross-references there.

Romans 13, 12. 1 Thessalonians 5.8 he says putting on Christ or similar concepts in 1 Corinthians 15.54 in the main service I'm suspecting sometime next year we'll get to Galatians 3.27 and at that point in time we'll see further this putting on Christ principle and even here in Ephesians 4.24 what does he say he says and put on the new self which is in the likeness of God and has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. So, this idea of putting on Christ is not new. We've seen it before in Ephesians, but it's also a principle that we want to carry. carry forward and understand.

The armor described here in the broader context of Ephesians 6, 10 through 17 would have been the armor of the Roman Testudo, which we would translate tortoise formation, and you can see the photo on the screen or on your laptop or on your handout on page two there at the top. The funny thing about this picture is that I was looking for a picture of the Testudo formation and I stumbled across it and somebody has released this in what's called the creative commons format which which the way the licenses is Used anyone can use the picture. They just have to attribute the author Well, what was funny as I went to the source photo and multiple people said this is great. I'm using it here and here So this this photo has actually been published in various places because it's a really nice good modern reenactment photo and I'm gonna use it too, so What you'll notice about this formation here is that there's protection from the front and protection from the top. When we later on see the spiritual warfare weapons, what do we see about the shield of faith in verse 16? What's the shield for?

It'll quench the arrows. But what you notice about this formation, this tortoise formation, is that you have really good coverage for the arrows. See, what's an enemy want to do? The enemy wants to disband your formation well before they come into contact with you. Because right there, you're protected. Right there, you're going to be harder to defeat. Right there in this formation, you have this ability to maintain and move as a unit. So Paul's using this analogy of the tortoise formation. Why does that apply to us? Why would he call us to consider in this standing together and this putting this armor together? Why is he wanting us to consider this principle?

It's because we're not alone. We're a body together. We're united together. We're to be theologically together and be loving one another together and coming together in an intimate and meaningful way. But what does our enemy want? He wants to scatter us. And we're going to take a look at how he does that with the schemes here in a few moments. Paul says, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. And the Roman soldiers, he says you shod your feet with peace, right?

The Roman soldiers had shoes called caligae that were cleated with nails. They were like serious, like if you've ever seen soccer cleats or baseball cleats or football cleats, they have moderate depth. and track cleats and golf cleats. There's lots of cleats. They have moderate depth, but these were actually substantial.

They would be closer to a three-quarters inch nail driven through the bottom of the sole of the shoe so that when you locked yourself into position, I'm standing like this as though I have any idea how you would stand, but when you lock yourself into position, you're securely in place because the enemy is going to run at you.

You've heard of whorling dervishes, maybe, or people being worked up into a frenzy. A lot of the way that the battles would go is you'd have these barbarians come in, they'd get themselves worked up, adrenaline coursing through their system, and they would go running at a formation. If you run at that formation, you're okay. if you're on the defensive side, right? You're okay, you're standing there, but somebody running at you at full speed, you need to be able to brace yourself, right? So standing firm is really an important detail.

Now, what did I say that I like to do? I'd get all girded up so that I could go do what when I was in junior high and high school? You forgot? That's okay. I was going to go fight Satan by myself. We were going to go battle and God was going to be victorious through me. It was going to be awesome. Is that what he says to do? Does he say, gird yourself so that you can go out and spank Satan's honey? He doesn't say that. Stand firm. It's defense. This is an important principle because when we consider this, this violates the charismatic teachings in a very strong way.

Now what is Paul trying to do in the church in Ephesus? We're in chapter 6, by now we should have a rough idea of what Paul's purpose is in the church in Ephesus. What's he trying to do? He starts off by showing that they're a heavenly body. They're heavenly assets. He wants them to be firm in who they are in Christ, and he wants to establish the church in Ephesus. He spent two and a half years there on his missionary journeys, at least, and he wants the church in Ephesus to be here until the day that Christ returns. He's establishing a church.

If we look at Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, there's two of them in rapid succession. He's trying to establish them. We're looking at Galatians. Paul's having to combat, if you will, not the same way necessarily, error in teaching. Because he's trying to establish them. He's going to die, he knows one day. He tells Timothy he thinks the time's coming soon. Bob? Randy, I mean the concept of Paul's epistles, many of them, is sound theology at the beginning, the first three chapters, and then the application, how the condition is impacted by our position.

The fact that it's standing firm is a perfect example of that. He's trying to make sure that the church is established, standing firm, they've got their cleats on, and the rest of their spiritual armor, but it's defensive. And you missed it if you were listening on the audio, but Tom made a D for defense. You can tell that he would be good at a football game.

So we have this idea that these believers are established and they're stabilizing one another. But as we kind of hinted at before and talked about before, God has prepared works for us to do. called us to love one another, to be united, to equip one another, to be wise so as to be light, to walk in the spirit and to submit to one another. All of those are kind of one another principles that he's been building up. Because if those things are in place, then when we're in formation, as things are going down, we can hunker together and we can support each other.

We can be a defensive unit. He's establishing the church there. He wants them to lean in and come together in unity of Christ. And recently I saw that in the news headlines. I hope you don't hear that that way. So let's talk about schemes next here. These are the schemes of the devil. And of course I just said that and then worded this question. Whose schemes are these? Well, they're Satan's. And should we be afraid of them? No. Not if we're standing.

So one of the things that I've noticed, you'll forgive me because I dabble in consulting and business development stuff. I've done that off and on throughout the years. And there's a marketing technique that is abbreviated to FUD. and anything that sounds that bad you know is probably a bad idea but FUD stands for Fear Uncertainty and Doubt okay so marketers especially today with the internet love to hit you with the fear uncertainty and doubt strategy because they're like do you know what people are doing with your data do you know who's snooping on you do you know this and they hit you with the fear and I know that my first reaction is like oh no right oh fear And what happens when we start with fear? It magnifies.

We're not rational. I think that's really an important thing for us to start with. Satan, when he comes to Eve in Genesis, let's turn back to Genesis chapter 3, because this is his first round that we have recorded. Genesis chapter 3. This blows my mind, because Eve just totally gets suckered in. And I'm like, wait, you did what? So, Genesis 3.

Moses records for us, Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, Indeed, has God said, You shall not eat from any tree of the garden? Did God say that? What a simple question. God did say, he commanded him in 2.16, the Lord God commanded man saying, from any tree of the garden you may eat freely, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die. Satan goes, did God say that?

That's not fear, but it's uncertainty or doubt, right? Did God say that? Is your position really in Christ? Are you really securely in Christ? I have discipled and mentored various people over the years and had them ask over and over and over the question, is my salvation secured? But they never asked it in the same way.

They were looking for chinks in the armor. They were looking for, well what about this situation? What if Okay, let's just, we're just gonna hypothesize, right? And then they what if, right? They what if and they doubt their way into, are you really, really sure that you're saved? So let's talk about the practical application of that doubt for a second. This is a scheme of the devil, all right? If you are thinking about what if, Are you setting your mind on things above where Christ is seated in the heavenlies? You're not. Are you resting in who you are in Christ? Are you putting on the full armor of God? No, you're not.

And so if Satan can come and he can dilute truth with just a little bit of arsenic, if you will, a little bit of lie, and he says, well, and this is one of my favorites that I hear, If we see somebody die in sin that proclaimed Christ, then they were probably not saved. How about that one? Have you heard that one before? I've heard it lots of times. The MacArthurites love that one. They pull it out as often as they can. Because it sounds convincing. Well, God's believers should be faithful.

And if you die in sin, then we don't even know if you're saved, because you died in sin. Which is a strawman argument. Who did you die with? According to the scriptures. I mean, assuming Paul knows what he's talking about, inspired by the Holy Spirit. Who did you die with?

Christ! You're in Christ! Put on the full armor! So you can stand against the schemes of the devil. The devil wants to come and make you doubt. This is really important after fear, uncertainty, and doubt. How did Jesus respond to the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that Satan presented to him?

With scripture. Jesus responded with scripture. Satan said, well, I've got these things. Isn't it written? Jesus says, no, it's written. And he responds to Satan's misrepresentation of the scripture, because Satan likes to say, did God really say that?

He's consistent. He's got one technique. And so we have to know the scripture and be standing firm in it and teaching one another and loving one another in it so that we come back and we combat the schemes with truth. One of the things that I think Satan has done masterfully, if we're going to give him any credit for anything, is that when I say Satan, what does he look like in your mind? Yeah, red outfit with a cape and a pitchfork or a trident of some sort. He's got horns. He's got a good tail, which is important. It's kind of convincing, right?

But that's not who the Bible says Satan is. Satan masquerades as an angel of light. When we get into Galatians, I'm guessing at least in the next month, We'll get to like five or six, one five or six. He says, Paul says, if I or an angel comes to you with another gospel, ignore it, dismiss it, reject it.

Truth trumps all. Truth trumps all, and we need to know where it is. We need to study it and be confident and stand in it. But worldly misrepresentation of Satan means that everybody who is uneducated about the scriptures, and uneducated in a worldly way, is worried about Satan, the red-tailed devil with pitchfork, when he's right next to him on the light rail. When Satan as a deceiver is doing things, he's on CNN 24 hours a day, or whatever he's doing. And I'm not saying CNN is Satan's network or something. Please don't go that direction with that. As it turns out, the worldly networks are the worlds. Who does Christ say that people who are not saved, who's their father? Their father is Satan. Well, they're just repeating what their daddy says. So, in the wilderness, fear, uncertainty, and doubt, Jesus responds with the scripture. When we're talking to the world, and they misrepresent spiritual truth, we need to respond not with our opinions, which may be valid. I've got some good ones. But instead with the text of the scripture.

And when I've talked to people about grace, for example, I've said grace is the unmerited unlimited blessing of God due to the totally adequate work of Christ on the cross. And then said here, I didn't say that Paul said it. People who grew up with weird legalistic relatives who had rejected Christianity have said, that's the first time I've heard that. It wasn't because I said it, it's because Paul said it. It's because Peter said it. It's because God inspired it.

So we see the standing firm is in Christ, it's standing firm in the truth, it's standing firm in the Scriptures, and we're not having any of the deception and misrepresentation. So then Paul continues, he says, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Is Paul referring to the flesh, aka the sin nature here? No, he's not.

He's talking about human beings, earthly wars. How many of you have seen the excitement over between the Ukraine and Russia right now? Russia's amassing large amounts of tanks over there. You know, and I have a brother-in-law who's coming here hopefully on Wednesdays, who's in the army, and my best friend Abe is in the army, and it's like, oh no, these people could suddenly get called to international conflict, and these things are real.

Paul's not talking about that here. It's not that they're not real. But he's talking about the spiritual armor is not for that purpose. Okay, the spiritual armor is not about flesh and blood. But he says, but against the rulers powers the world forces of this darkness, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Now that's a long list. And I chose for very specific reasons not to dive into each item on that list. I will tell you, as a charismatic, this list was important. That's why we were doing the different kinds of girding up and praying in different scopes. It's because we wanted to make sure that we had this whole list covered. But God has this whole list covered, so I'm going to treat it like God has this whole list covered.

You can study this further if you want, and I'd be more than glad to talk to you about it more. But given the constraints of time, I decided that we wouldn't go into the deep nuances of this that are here. Because in part, we don't have answers for all of why God allows there to be, say, a dark prince over this area, such as is referenced in Daniel.

But that being the case, God has dominion over all because he was the creator. Let's step back for a second. God as creator is one of the most important doctrines that we can understand in all of the Bible. God as creator, in contrast to evolution, as is accidentally happening, God as creator gives him dominion, it gives him ownership, it gives him sovereignty and authority, So God as creator can come and no matter what dominion that Adam lost when he fell and Satan usurped, God is ultimately in control.

When we look at Job, this is one of my favorite spiritual warfare passages, when we look at Job in the beginning of that book, what does Satan do? Does he just come in of his own authority? He has to get permission. And that's an important thing for us to consider. Why does Satan have schemes? Because he doesn't have permission. Think about that. If Satan is a schemer, it's because he can't do something directly. In the Charismatic Church, we were binding Satan all the time in fear that he was causing all the garbage. We were blaming Satan for flat tires and empty gas tanks and everything else. And I'm not joking. We were.

But the thing is that Satan, as a schemer, wants us to be thinking about these rulers and these powers and these spiritual forces, but they don't get to act without God's permission. But if you're thinking in your mind, made in God's image, having a brain, having a mind. If you're thinking in your mind about all these things instead of setting your mind on things above, you're out of the game.

Anybody ever go to like a little league game and the batter gets up there. It's a t-ball game. We'll make it real simple. Pitcher didn't even have to be involved. Batter gets up there, he swings, he hits the ball and you watch the ball and the ball's going out and out in right field is a kid staring at the birds. He's not set his mind on the baseball, which is the thing he needs to catch, right? Like, that's how we're going to get the out. That's how we're going to end the inning. That's how we're, you know, you can't win anymore in Little League, but, you know, pretend you could win, right?

Randy, I coached many of those kids. Yeah, I was one of those kids, right? I was like, whoa! It reminds me of a comedy routine, but we won't go there. The thing is that if you're not setting your mind on the ball, you're not going to catch it. In my case, one time, you're going to get knocked out. It's pretty good. I missed the ball because I wasn't paying attention.

From a spiritual warrior perspective, if Satan's schemes have us not setting our minds on things above, what does What does he have to worry about? Are we in formation? Are we ready for the flaming arrows? No, because we're going to be talking about the carpet colors, or we're going to be talking about the various things that divide us. But Paul has established unity already in chapter four. He's brought us together.

And so at this point in time, we're ready for the other name for this formation, and you're going to love this, is the discipline formation. right? And it's not spankings, right? But the idea is you have to stay in order. If you don't stay in order, that formation stops being useful real quick, right?

So the idea here is that God is the solution and he has put us in Christ and he's given us the ultimate protective armor and the schemes of Satan which lead us to doubt and to question and to be uncertain don't convince us of anything and so we can set our mind on things above and we can rest on who we are in Christ. So God is the solution. Then in 13 he says, therefore take up the full armor of God and that is the aorist imperative active second-person plural again because we want to make sure that we understand that there. He says take up Therefore, so that we can resist the schemes of the devil, take up imperative active this armor.

You could choose not to. You could choose not to be resting. You could choose to be walking in the flesh. You could choose to be saved, got that checked off, and walk away. That's not going to establish a church. It's not going to build each other up. It's not going to be resting in who we are in Christ. So he says, instead, take up the full armor. take it up, pick it up, put it on together.

And again, how you do that, right? How do we do that? As it turns out, the analogy breaks down a little bit. But what's important is actually that when you put this armor on, you would usually do it with your fellow soldiers. And you'd be checking each other all the way around 360 degrees. Because the last thing you need is to be thinking that your stuff is on, but it's not. The enemy comes charging and attacks, and it flops off.

That's pretty stinky. Bob? So I This is partially where I was kind of trying to sidestep some of the rabbit trail, not because I don't think we should answer it, but this is where we start getting into bits of conjecture. So I'm going to just say up front that this is an opinion statement, and I'm willing to be corrected and discuss this, and I won't be offended in any way.

The idea here with the spiritual forces in the heavenly places is not that Satan has a war going on in his throne room, but that when we look at this spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places, that Satan called a third of the angels and they followed with him, right? And so that wickedness is there in the heavenly places.

I don't know where it is in the sense of like, oh, well, I just get out my atlas and we go, it's over the North Pole. Definitely the North Pole. But instead, we understand that those forces left and we know it was in the heavenly places. And then after that we can look in places where we see that there's dominion that was given over different geographical spaces.

But that's kind of why I was sidestepping this is not because I didn't want to answer it, but it's more that there are some uncertainties and conjecture is not the place of truth. Paul tells us we can bless the walls of spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. Are these two separate rooms up there? I have no idea. It seems like scripture tells us that it exists, but it doesn't tell us much more. It doesn't tell us anything about it.

It says that's where the real battle is, which is interesting. We think the battle is here. Yes, and where's my battle? It's right here. It's against blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, so that it doesn't matter the spatial element of it or geographical or spiritual versus physical.

God has provided a way to handle it, and all of it is in Christ. And when we go over these over the next two lessons, we're going to see all of it is related to the Trinity actively engaging with us as our armor. Because we have the Son, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all three involved.

Very quickly, I mean, our flesh is crucified, we've been risen in years of life, right? We're resurrectively in place. Yes. It's interesting here that I think Satan's in control of the principalities and powers of this earth. So that means the world system, I mean two out of the three are listed here, but positionally we're in Christ. So our own flesh, our own sin nature has been crucified.

So I think that's kind of neat to look at this. The other two are kind of out of our control unless we by faith put on the armor of God, right? I mean, you see where I'm going with that? It's not dealing with the human flesh, the sin nature, that's been done away with, positionally. And now we're talking about Satan ruling through this earthly system, right?

And the thing that he goes on to with the last part of this verse, which I think kind of wraps this idea together, is he says, so that we will be able to resist in the evil day. And if we were to cross-reference that with 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, He says in 5 4 but you brethren are not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief For you're all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness So then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober For those who sleep do their sleeping at night and those who get drunk get drunk at night But since we are of the day let us be sober having put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet the hope of salvation So we have this idea of the day being evil. The day is not the 24-hour day. In fact, this is the day that the Lord has made. Genesis, God made each day and called them good. The day being evil has to do with the worldly system and those who are being influenced by their father Satan. And that's an important thing for us to consider.

I'm an optimist. I'm just a little personality, too much information, right? But I'm an optimist and I love people. This is hard for me. This doctrine that the days might be evil, I am that sappy guy that wants to love everybody and hopes that everybody gets saved in a touchy-feely way. I'm like, I love people. But this says something that I have to be challenged by personally, that the days can be evil, not because the clock is evil, but because the world system is saturated with this scheming and this deception.

I always want every movie to have a happy ending. I want all the people, all get saved all the time. Yeah, but I want an extra, it's pretty ridiculous. We just finished reading a fiction book this week and I was crying at the end. I was like, oh no! That's me, okay? Go ahead. No, I can't watch the Hallmark Channel. It messes with me.

I get all caught up and I'm crying. But the thing that's here is that the resisting in the evil day is... Remember, the Ephesians are surrounded by paganism. The Ephesians are surrounded by paganism and the pagan rituals are pretty gross. We talked about that over the last months. The pagan rituals are pretty gross and so the day is evil not because God didn't make it but because of what Satan is trying to distract them with.

If I were to recite or restate this verse it would be actually Galatians 5.16. Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. That's an important variance there.

So God's provision is for us to stand firm. We're not moving. We know what is true. We know where our life is hidden. And we know our purpose on the earth. Our purpose is to be a reflection of His love and His life to one another in preaching the gospel and being an example of Him while we wait for His return with anticipation.

And we're going to find out some cool things about our position in Christ over the next couple of lessons. Again, next two Sundays we're off. Don't come early. But in January we'll pick back up, I believe the 6th. Any other thoughts or questions? Things you wish I hadn't said? Things you wish I said? Just so you know, I didn't prayer walk around the church building. I think we might have to do that before we get into the main service.

I'm just kidding, just kidding. I saw the ram's horn though. Yeah, the ram's horn. I'm building an electric ram's horn. Let's go before the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the chance that we have to study your word and gather together and come together. Lord, I just pray that as we consider this passage, we would consider the second-person plural nature of this, that we would come together and be supporting one another and loving one another in an Ephesians way through the empowering of your Holy Spirit as we abide. We just thank you for who we are. In Jesus' name, Amen.