We must recognize our true enemy - not flesh and blood, but spiritual forces of evil. We're called to be strong in the Lord and put on the full armor of God. The passage from Ephesians 6 serves as our guide, detailing each piece of spiritual armor we need.
Notes for this sermon: https://bit.ly/4fKaqic
Website | https://lifechurchww.com
Facebook | https://facebook.com/lifechurchww
Instagram | https://instagram.com/lifechurchww
Vida Music | https://vidamsc.com
LIFE Church
Ephesians, The Radiant Church Chapter 6 | Beth Toon
Thanks for listening to the Life Church Podcast. We hope you enjoy this message. For more information about Life Church, visit LifeChurchWW.com. I'm happy to be here this morning and I'm happy to be here with you and I feel really privileged. I get to bring the last of our messages on this amazing series that Pastor Bob, Pastor Caleb has brought some great messages on Ephesians. What a great series. I think that when the Lord puts a message on our pastor's heart, there's a reason behind it. It's not some just cute little sermon series that it's going to be fun to listen to. There's a reason and there's a purpose and I believe that God is wanting to mature and deepen and grow His people. There's things coming in our world that we want to have the power, the authority of God, to walk in. Today, I get this great privilege to do this and I don't know about you, but I feel so also blessed to be in this church. Do you guys feel blessed to be in this church? Our pastors are so committed to the truth. They're so committed to the Word and it's such a blessing to be here. I just want to honor Pastor Bob and Kara before I even get started and they are in Montana. I'm administering the Word this weekend and so I get this privilege to bring this last word. So you guys ready? Ready for a word? I'm ready. I've been preaching to myself for the last week or so on this Word. I needed it. So I hope that this Word comes and strengthens you. So here's what we're doing today. We're going to talk about Ephesians 6. You guys ready to hear the Word? All right. Finally. All right. I'm going to stand in front of it. Just a minute. Don't read it. Finally. Finally. Paul has been talking to the Ephesian people. He's talking to Life Church you. He's been saying this is who you are. You're a people that has the spirit of God living inside of you. You're loved. You're accepted. You're adopted in his family. You are amazing. You have to know that. He's also said like this is how you live. You want to be imitators of Christ. You want to build his kingdom. You want to live your life that way. Then he comes to this last verse. He's like finally. Now I read that word finally. I'm like he's got something important to say to us finally. I want you to hear this word that will really strengthen you and everything else he said. Now finally listen to this word. Ready? Finally. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, against the rulers, against the authorities and against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, not if, when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. Then after you have done everything to stand. Stand firm then. Three times. Stand. Stand firm. With the belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests with this in mind. Be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. Ah. Okay. Today we're going to talk about this right battle, right tools, right battle, right tools. So if, well, here's what Paul is saying. He's saying, you have an enemy. When you invited Jesus into your life, you signed up to be in a battle. You just did. You already are. And if you don't know it, you're going to fight the wrong battle because you're going to have your mind on the wrong things. Paul is strengthening us here to say, I want you to realize you have a battle that you're fighting. If you have your mind on only what you can see, you're going to be just focused on that and not thinking about all the unseen things, the spiritual forces of evil that are behind all those things that are coming at you. So we don't want to be people like that. We want to be people empowered by the Word, understand what's happening in the spiritual realm. And what's going on there is what is important. So here's what we're going to do today. We're going to talk about those tools. Now I am a pretty forgiving person just because of my personality. I like people. I love people. I like to get along. I like peace. I don't like conflict. Like some of you just like it. I don't like it. So you know who you are too, right? Like there are some of you who like it. It's not me. In fact, if somebody hurts me, here's what I say to myself. I say they didn't mean to. They didn't mean to. They put up with me on their mind and plot some way to hurt my feelings that day. So I just tell myself they didn't mean to. They were having a bad day. Now if though I find out that somebody's been plotting against me and scheming and studying me and figuring out the best way to come against my weaknesses, now I have a whole different thing stirred up in my spirit. I'm like, oh, now I'm all stirred up. I still have to forget, but I'm stirred up in a whole different way. Have you been studying me? You have an enemy. Who does that? Can we get stirred up in our spirit today to come against that enemy who's studying you, your family, your children, your weaknesses, your personality, everything you can. And he has a method against you. And today we're going to come into some sort of revelation and understanding of the battle that's against us. I'm going to stop right now and I'm going to pray for you because I believe that God wants to do something in your life as you sit here and as you hear this word. He wants to give you some sort of tool or understanding that is going to free you from what you're dealing with. So God, I pray for your people this morning and I pray that you would do a work in their lives as the word is being preached. Thank you for your presence. Thank you that you're a God who will show up when the gospel, the good news is preached. Show up in the lives of your people today, God, in Jesus' name. Okay. The first thing I want to do is I want to help you to understand sometimes what the battle might feel like. Oh, I'm new at this. And so there's times where I forget that I have a slide. So what's the right battle against the devil and his schemes? I guess I've already said that, but there it is. It's against the devil and his schemes. So what are some of the things that it might feel like if you're in a battle? So one of the things is sudden or severe changes for the worst, suddenly, sometimes we are going along in life and we think, oh, everything's good. And then suddenly we're going down this path, suddenly we get knocked off the path. Anybody ever felt that? All of a sudden, like what's going on in my family, in my marriage, in my finances, in my health? What happened? You have an enemy that wants to come against you. How about the temptation to sin beyond the normal? We all sometimes have that temptation in our spirit. But what about whatever it is that you face in the temptation to sin? All of a sudden it's just there and it's strong and it's coming against you and you can't get it off your mind. You are in a battle. There's an enemy that's trying to come against you. What about an atmosphere of pressure or oppression? You're going along and you're fine, you're in, I'm here and I'm fine and then I walk over there and all of a sudden I'm not fine. I'm depressed, I'm anxious, I'm angsty, I'm having suicidal thoughts. Do you realize sometimes I want you people that struggle with that to realize there are times where you have an enemy and you walked in an atmosphere and it's there. If you'll battle and pick up the tools I'm about to tell you can overcome, I just saved somebody's life today I feel like that God is going to help you today to not walk in that spirit of suicide. So what's another one? Severe discouragement or confusion. Sometimes you know what it feels like when you know God's called you to something and you just are so discouraged. It feels like something's pushing your head down. Something is just, is confusing, you can't see, you don't have vision for your life anymore, you're in a battle. How about crippling condemnation? Anybody? That crippling condemnation, you can't get things out of your mind that you just, you think everybody else is thinking that and they're not. It's the enemy's tool against you to get you to think that it's all you and it's because it's true, it's the enemy, intimidation and fear. Some of you people, there's a call, not all of you people, there's a call on your life to walk in the things of God. The enemy will do everything he can to pull you away from the call of God and intimidate you and make you afraid to walk in those things. And you absolutely know that God's called me to it, but there's a fear that's gripping you and you can't walk in it, you're in a battle. Negative tapes, plain in your mind, we all, we all have had times, we've got that kind of thing going on in our mind. All right, so the enemy will use these kinds of things against you. The other two things that the enemy wants you to think, he wants you to make two mistakes in how you actually think about him. One is to overestimate his power, to overestimate his power and to make you think that he is more powerful than you or that he is, that he be scared of him. I've heard people say like, I'm not going to step out into that thing of God because I'm afraid it's going to put a target on me to the enemy. Well, yes it does, but you have a God that lives inside of you that is stronger than what the enemy can do. The word actually says that he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. So don't overestimate his power and don't underestimate his power. He's real. And Paul is trying to say, listen to his language, there's rulers and powers and authorities. I mean, it's a real thing, Jesus called him the prince of this world. It's using language, it talks about kingdom things. Paul actually calls him the ruler of this age. He don't underestimate his power and Jesus actually says this. He says the thief calls him a thief, he comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly. All right, don't underestimate and don't overestimate. Here, I want to make something really clear before I go any further. Satan and God are not equals. They're not like equal in power. Satan was created by God. God can flick the enemy away with a pinky. He can flick him away with the psalm, actually says he can overcome the enemy with the breath of his nostril. I love that. God just has to sneeze and the enemy has to, it's not equal, it's not like we have to sit back and eat our popcorn and wonder who's going to win this battle, right? No. God wins. We know he wins. He's more powerful than Satan ever thought about being. Oh, let me make this super clear and this is going to lead the rest of my message. We live with the reality of two kingdoms in our midst. There's the kingdom of God, kingdom of light, the Bible calls it and there's the kingdom of darkness. And both are here. Both are operating in your sphere, just like in mine. There's tools that we pick up that's going to give access to one kingdom or the other. And that's why I'm going to give you tools today that are the tools of the kingdom of God. If you pick up the tools of the kingdom of darkness, what you do is you give access to him and he has now some sort of ability to have power in your life. And so God says, I want you to learn to pick up the tools of my kingdom so that you walk in victory, you walk in authority, you walk in the things of God that he has called you to. Are you guys ready for that today? Just a little silly illustration that God gave me as I was preparing for this. If I am in my living room, laying in my recliner, watching the news, which I love to do, and suddenly on the screen comes a picture of a house on fire. And then I realize, oh my gosh, that's my neighbor's house. So what am I going to do? I'm going to run in my kitchen. I'm going to find the biggest bucket I can. I'm going to fill it with water. And then I'm going to run back in my living room, I'm going to throw the bucket on the TV. No. Ridiculous. It's the wrong battle. The fire is happening. It is true. It's happening, but I'm in the wrong room to have any power over that fire. So let's get the right battle. What if, same illustration, I run into my closet and I'm like, I need a tool to go help them, and I pick up the most ginormous fan. I can possibly find, I run into my neighbor's house and I turn the fan on, try to blow out the fire. That's wrong tool, Beth. You're going to fan the flame of the enemy if you pick up the wrong tool for fighting your battle. And some of us do that. Somebody comes at us and angers some sort of opposition, and we pick up the same exact spirit that they came to us in, anger and bitterness and slander or gossip. And we unknowingly, we just agreed with the power of darkness. We picked up a tool that we've now given him access. God says, forgive, bless those who curse you. He's giving us tools to the kingdom of God. Okay. So what are the right tools? You guys ready? Okay. Your spirit awake? Okay. Your body's awake. Is your spirit awake? Okay. Here we go. Right tools. What are the right tools? Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. The first tool to overcome the plan of the enemy against you is this, submission to God. The first thing that you want to do is you want to submit to God. Listen to this scripture in James, James 4 7, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and He will flee from you. The first thing you have to do to overcome any battle is you have to say this, Lord, is there anything in my life that I'm doing that has given the enemy any access to my life? Is there anything that I've done to contribute to this battle? You always want to ask the Lord that question if you find yourself in a battle. Always ask Him if crippling condemnation, Lord, do there any lies that I have agreed with the enemy over my life? If there's sin in your life, if there's a battle that extra temptation to send, Lord, show me where I open the door to that. Show me where I need to shut the door to that. Submit to God before you do anything else. The context of this scripture actually is very interesting. In James, he actually is like, you have all kinds of fights and quarrels among you. And you're fighting these battles and you haven't even prayed. And maybe when you do pray, you're praying with wrong motives. Then he says, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? He's defining these two kingdoms. If you pick up the wrong tool, it's friendship with the world and you're going to have all this fights and quarrels among you and all this strife. And then this is where he says, submit to God, resist the enemy and he will flee from you. So that is our first tool. And I want to ask you this question. What are the tools that the enemy uses against you the most? You would be wise to ask this question. What are the top three ways that he comes against your particular life? The Bible says, don't be ignorant of his schemes. Ask him that question. What does he come against me with the very most? Is it the condemnation? Is it that temptation to sin in some particular way? Because then when you know that, you can stand in this place of saying, right when it happens, you're very aware, it's the enemy. It's the enemy and you don't have to start beating yourself up against you. You just submit to God and say, God help me. Like for me, if anybody says one hint of negative about me, I have this thing that my head can start spinning. If I hear that, the enemy can use it against me to cripple me with fear, intimidation or wanting to stand back. God says, no, every time that comes, I want you to stop and say, God, what do you think? What do you say about that situation? Is there something I need to go and ask forgiveness? Whatever it is, I'm the Lord's and he is going to help me fight that battle. What is it for you? Whether the top three ways that he comes against you, I know you can think of that. Think of it before you hit the pillow tonight and it'll help you. All right. Let's go to the armor. You guys ready for the armor? Okay. The first thing in the armor of God that Paul taught, oh, here we go again. This says, sometimes you know what I think the thing that most of, or a lot of people I should say, get stuck with the enemy really uses against you as anxiety. And I actually, I don't want to skip over this scripture, the Bible says, cast all your anxiety on him. Why? Because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion. He's not a lion. He prowls around like a roaring lion. He is not a lion. We know what, there's only one lion and that's the lion of Judah, right? So prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. When we don't give God the things that tend to make us anxious, we open the door, we pick up that tool of anxiety and the devourer wants to come in and torment you and devour things in your life. All right. All right. Now we're going to go to the armor. The first thing it says, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. The people in the culture of the day that Paul was writing, they totally knew what the armor looked like on a Roman soldier because they were everywhere. They were ruling that area at that time. And so this belt of truth that Paul is talking about was the first piece of armor that that Roman soldier would put on is the belt of truth because every other armor tool that I'm going to talk to you about has to go in the belt of truth. So here's my question, are you building your life on the truth of God's word? Are you building your life every day, not just Sunday, not just coming to church, every day, Monday, Tuesday, Friday when you are deciding what you're going to do for entertainment? When you're sitting in front of your social media and deciding how you're going to respond to that person that just ticked you off, are you going to have the ability to stand in the truth of God's word in that moment at work when that person is just irritating you? Are you going to stand on the truth of God's word? The number one tool that the enemy has against us is deception. He wants to deceive you into thinking that you know something when you are deceived. The definition that I like to use for deception, you won't find this when you look in the dictionary, but this is to me the truth of this definition of deception. I think I'm 100% right and I'm 100% wrong. That is what it means to be deceived. You think that you know exactly something about what is true and you couldn't be more wrong if you're not standing and have the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Deception is his number one enemy. He wants to lie to you about you, he wants to lie to you about what's going on in the culture, he wants to lie to you about decisions you're making, put your life in the Word of God. You can also deceive yourself, did you know that? It's not just the enemy that can deceive you, you can deceive you. You want to know how? The Bible tells us how. In James 1.22 it says, "Do not be hearers only of the Word and so deceive yourself, but be doers of the Word." Do you know if you sit here today and you're like, "Good Word Beth, so good," but you don't take anything I say and actually apply it, you have deceived yourself into thinking that you got changed by the Word of God in the house of God. You're not changed by the Word only by hearing it, you're changed by doing it. Don't deceive yourself and leave here and forget everything that the Word of God spoke to you today. Number two tool, let me just say this, I'm not going over every tool in the armor today simply because of time so there's other things you read it, the one that I'm really, I'm not going over because it's a sermon all in and of itself is the breastplate of righteousness. That was a very heavy piece of armor that actually really had to be in the belt of truth because it was so heavy, but let me just say, character, your character is a great tool to overcome the enemy. Live your life with integrity as all I must say on that one. Okay, here's the next one though I am going to talk about. Take the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God, okay you guys? I love this one and you're thinking isn't that the same as the belt of truth? No, this one is completely different than the belt of truth. This word word right there, what that word is is it's called Rama, R-H-E-M-A Rama. A Rama word is a specific word for your specific battle. When you go through something and you have, let's say you're all foggy minded, you can't find the will of God, you don't know, you're in a battle. You need to get in the Word and ask Him, what is a Rama word that you want to give to me for my specific situation? You have a diagnosis, you need a Rama word to walk through that. A Rama word will strengthen you like no other. I went through a season back in 2020 where I battled. There was a battle on my life, I was diagnosed with cancer, it was the thing I was most afraid of before that. If you would have asked me what's your greatest fear, I would have told you that. But the Lord came and gave me a word that allowed me to stand and not in fear but in the Word of God that I was going to be fine. You need a word when you're going through something. And another thing I love about this tool, the sword, that word sword, the Roman soldier actually had two different sizes of swords. He had a big one and a small one. So the big one was the sword that he like everybody, all you people stay out of my space. He's like wielding the big sword like all you enemies, stay away. That's not that sword. This sword is a small sword for when that soldier was in hand-to-hand combat, wrestling on the ground. That devil in his nasty breath was right in his face and he needed a sword to deal the death blow to the enemy. That's not that big sword. That's a small sword that was able to come in hand-to-hand combat. How many of you feel that when you're in a battle? It feels like that devil is right in my space. You need the Word of God, a specific Word of God for your specific situation. So be in the Word and ask the Lord and he'll give that to you. The next one is the shield of faith. Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. What is faith? What is faith? Here's what the Bible says. It says it's confidence in what we hope for, assurance of things yet seen. So when you're going through something, the Lord's going to give you a word and then you're going to stand on it with the shield of faith saying, I believe that this is the Word of God. It's me saying, I know who you are and I know what you've promised and I'm going to stand on it even when I can't see the answer yet. That is faith and we need the shield of faith to go through every battle. The story in Luke 8 that Jesus tells us, it's in this, Luke actually tells us this story. I think it's one of the best pictures of a battle and it's Jesus in a bow with his disciples and there's a great storm and the storm is causing all kinds of waves and waters coming in the boat and it's a big storm and the disciples are afraid they're going to die. And they look over and Jesus is asleep and the disciples go to Jesus and they're like, Jesus, don't you care that we're about to die? Do you feel that when you're in a battle sometimes, like Jesus, don't you see when I'm going through, don't you care when I'm going through? I feel like I'm about to die and nothing's happening to help me. And Jesus gets up and he speaks to the storm and he says, peace be still. Just a word of authority, he says, peace be still. And then he gets in the disciples' faces and he says, he corrects them. And he says these three words, where is your faith? Where is your faith? Because he wants them to know that they can keep their eyes on the one that they know who he is, he's God. He just fed the 5,000, he's God and they know who he is. He's like, where's your faith? You know who I am, you know what I can do. Why do you have your focus and your attention on the storm? Now if it's me and I'm in that place and the Lord is asking me that question in that situation, here's what I'm going to say, Lord, with all respect, isn't this a reasonable fear? I was feeling like I was going to die. And the Lord says to his disciples, even when it's a reasonable thing to be afraid of. He says, don't pick up the tool of the enemy because if you pick it up, you've given access to the kingdom of darkness in your life and you're looking for freedom, but you'll never find it. If you don't pick up the shield of faith, you have to pick it up so you can give access to the kingdom of God to overcome and to bring you freedom, the shield of faith. All right. Ready for the next? With your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. That's a mouthful. Here's what all of that means. You're going to cultivate peace. You're going to be ready. You're going to be ready with peace. Shoes. Shoes. We all know this. You have to put the right shoes on for the right journey, right? I want to take a five mile walk this afternoon, but I'm not going to do it in my Sunday sandals. You have to have the right shoes on to walk the journey and the battle that you're in. What is peace? The definition of peace, wholeness, completeness. It means an inner rest when everything around you is not at rest. I want to tell you a story that is going to give you the best picture of peace. There was two painters and they were asked to be in a contest and the winner was going to win $250,000 and what they were to paint was a picture of peace. The first painter, he begins to paint and he paints a lake and there's sun beaming off the lake and there's trees and birds and trees singing and there's a shepherd with his sheep walking in the distance and he sits back, he's like, "Ah, peace." Then the second painter. The second painter, he had a completely different idea of peace. In his picture, the sky is black and there's lightning bolts bursting through the clouds and there's a lake but there's really high thrashing, crashing waves on his lake and there's trees but they're bent over in the wind and then at the very bottom of the picture in the very right hand corner, perched on a rock is a little bird with his mouth open singing at the top of his lungs, a little glimmer of light shining down on this bird from heaven. The second painter, guess what? He won that contest. That is the best picture of peace. No matter what's going on in the world, you can sing. You can lift your voice to God. You can trust that God has got your back. That is a picture of peace. In Philippians, Paul writes, now this is a letter he writes from prison and not just a prison, the worst prison and he, you know, most of us, before I even read this, most of us start this scripture, if you know it by memory, in the don't be anxious about anything and you're like, how? Right? Like, I just can't not be anxious. We forget he starts with the Lord is near, don't be anxious about anything but in everything, every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding. The way I interpret that is like, that kind of peace will blow your mind. Have you ever experienced peace when nothing around you was peaceful? That's God. That is the person of God showing up in your situation and he will do that for you. It'll guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, peace. I love right in the middle of this, he says, present all your requests to God with thanksgiving, with thanksgiving. I'm going to tell you why I think he puts that in there. I think he puts that in there because when you came to faith in Jesus, he put a seed in you that has every single thing in it that you will ever need for any battle you will ever face to be victorious in. There's a seed inside of you with everything in it you'll ever need. With the right nutrition and the right conditions, that seed will, it'll bloom and produce fruit in your life. It's like an acorn seed. A little tiny acorn seed has everything in it with the right nutrition to become a mighty oak tree. People of God, that's who you are, I'm looking out at a people that are strong, that have the Lord together. We're a mighty army, we're a mighty oak tree, but we're going to have to do the things and access the kingdom of God, not the kingdom of darkness, to walk in the fullness of everything he's called as to individually, but also as a people. Okay, peace. God wants us to walk in peace. He also wants us to pray and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Can I suggest to you, if you're in a battle and you're not praying, you're not battling. You are not battling if you're not praying. God says, after all this, you got to pray. You have to ask me, what do I do? How do I get out of this? And then when you hear the Lord say this, I want you to walk in this way, take that step, then you have to obey, and sometimes it's the hardest thing ever. Sometimes when I've been in a battle and the Lord has said, I want you to do this. Sometimes it's like, gosh, that's so hard, Lord. I remember one time I was in a battle and it was a relationship thing, and the Lord spoke to me and he said, I want you to give extravagantly to that person. I want you to give anonymously and extravagantly. That's the last thing I wanted to do in that situation. I didn't want to do it, but I did it, and guess what happened? Because my mind was swirling around with that situation, and when I did that, guess what happened? The peace of God, I let it go. I was no longer tormented by that, and I was so thankful. When you're in a battle, pray, ask the Lord and obey, all right? Okay, I'm going to pray for us. If you're in a battle, and you're like, I identify now, now what Beth? Well, first thing, I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to pray, and I want you, when you leave here, okay, don't deceive yourself. You go home and you put that belt of truth on you, and you get that sword of the spirit, and you ask the Lord for a Rama word. You get your shield of faith, put on your shoes of peace. Don't get on your couch and take your shoes off. You get up, and you put on your shoes, okay, and you're going to pray, okay, by your heads. I'm going to pray for you. God I thank you. God you are a good and faithful God. Thank you for your presence. Thank you that you give us every single thing we need to walk in victory. Now I pray, God, for the person here who's very anxious. Dealing with major, major things, Lord, would you take their face, and would you turn it to see you in their boat with them? God would you give them everything they need? Lord, the person who's sitting here depressed, the person who's in a marriage crisis, Lord, I pray that you would give strategies. The enemy had a strategy against that marriage, but now God, your strategy is going to overcome every plan of the enemy. And I thank you for that, God. Thank you, Lord. You're a good God, you're faithful, you're true. We give it all to you, Jesus' name. Thank you for listening to the Life Church podcast. We want to help you on your journey of finding the life you remain for. Please visit LifeChurchWW.com to take your next step and connect with us. [music] [BLANK_AUDIO]