Put On the Full Armor of God (Ephesians 6:13)

All right, everyone. Uh, welcome to 9:15 devotional. So, today we're going to continue on. Last week, we I threatened you with a series. I threatened you with Ephesians 6 10-18, which is uh the part where Paul talks about putting on the full armor of God. And so, let me go ahead and pop the scripture up here. uh scripture on uh it says, "Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand." And so, um let's talk about that. Let's talk about what Paul is.

So, first of all, Paul right now is is in prison in Rome. Uh he's most likely chained to a guard. So he's staring at what would be armor every day. And and maybe the message doesn't tell us this, but maybe that's the reason why he uses it as the analogy when we start talking about what that armor is. And that'll be tomorrow. But for today, he uses starts off with therefore. So he's referencing verses 10 through 12, which we covered on Thursday, which is that our battle is not against Helen. Helen's a it's not Helen. Our battle is against what the enemy might be doing and using Helen for.

And of course, I'm just picking on Helen. Um, but we're not waging war with the failed deal or with our daughter or with uh the company that we're trying to get to come out to fix the cabinets they put in. That's not who our struggle or our challenge is with. It's it's with um it's with the with the things in heavenly realms. It's it's with forces, dark stuff. And so that's where it's at. So he says, "Therefore, because of that, that we need to put on the full armor of God." Whose armor? Not our armor. We don't go buy it. We don't create it. We didn't manufacture it.

God's already done that. We just have to put it on. And it's God's armor. It's not our armor. I I feel much better putting on a a piece of armor that God made than a piece of armor that my wife made. I've seen her use tools. I'm not really with So, so I am going to be much more comfortable using the armor that God gives me than anybody any armor that man might create. And then he goes on to say, "And so when the day of evil comes," and I want to I want to land here for just a second. He doesn't say so if the day of evil comes and Christ said that you you uh he said uh tough times are coming but he said take heart I've overcome the world.

So Paul's not saying if the day of evil comes he says when when it comes so you can expect it. It's coming. That's it's going to happen. and and whether Paul is referencing tribulation and whether you're a post-trib or a preerttrib whether whether he's whether Paul is referencing the second coming of Christ and all that comes and entails with that or whether Paul is represent or Paul is referencing 10 o'clock today I I don't know but evil is around us all the time and so he says put on the full armor of God so when the day of evil comes so we know it's coming and again that might be a little bit later today that we may have a struggle with the enemy with that spiritual warfare.

And so we need to be prepared for that. He doesn't say when it happens, go grab a piece of armor because oftenimes it's too late, right? The arrows through you. It's tough to it's tough to get up the shield when you've already been shot. And so he says, "Put on the full armor of ar put on the full armor of God so when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand." So that's preparation. And we'll talk about the different pieces of armor as we go through this week and and we'll end it on I think Tuesday of next week. But it's important to know that we don't wait until that day approaches in order to be able to put something on.

He says, "Do it now. Put that armor on now. Get prepared now. Know what those pieces of armor are today so that we can we can use them. We can take them up." Other other translations don't say put on. They say take up. In other words, they've been created. All we got to do is pick it up. All we have to do is agree to use it. All we have to do is say, "Thank you, Lord. I've got this now. I'm I'm I'm my faith and my hope and my trust is in you, not in man. Not in the self-help book I read yesterday or the parenting book, but my my my my trust and my my faith comes in the word that you created for us." So that you may be able to stand your ground.

Another interesting thing when we take a look at battle, this doesn't talk about us as Christians going and attacking, he's talking about us in defense. And when you looked at the Roman army, what they would do when they were being attacked is all of the all of the soldiers would stand arm to arm, locked in place with a shield in front of them. They didn't move. They stood there locked together in defense. And so in this text when he says you have done that's the plural you. He's talking to many people. And so as a as a military thing we we want to be able to just stand our ground.

That's all we need to be able to do. If we put on this armor we don't have to go on the offense. That's not what he's talking about. It's just so that we have the ability to fight the enemy where we're at. And it says, "And then after you have done everything, you've you've listened to everything God has instructed you to do," and he uses the term stand in this verse twice to stand. And that should be a a visual. The visual you should have is the dust has all cleared, the smoke is all gone away, and the whole group of us are still standing there locked in arms with a with a with a shield of faith standing right in front of us.

and that we've stood because we did what God asked us and commanded us to do. And so that's what what it looks like when we put on the full armor of God. We prepare today. We get in community. We lock arms together. We don't fight this by ourselves. We're not advancing to go fight. I'm not saying don't go evangelize. That's not what this scripture is about. Yes, some of us are called to do that. This is talking about when the enemy attacks, what do we do? We grab a brother or sister in Christ or two or four or 10 of them. We're being attacked. I don't want to go through this by myself.

I want my father in heaven and I want my fellow Christians next to me. And I'm going to stand here and when the dust settles, we're going to have done everything we can and we're going to be the ones standing. And this is what Paul says. This is what it looks like for us to put on or take up the full armor of God. All right. So, thoughts, comments, suggestions. Fire away. Fire when ready. No pun intended. Man, I've got something. I uh I struggle when I when I get my time in the morning with the Lord. It's sweet. It's quiet. I'm in my corner. I'm getting all these these great downloads and it's it's just this peaceful moment.

But then flipping on the switch to go, man, I'm actually walking into a war zone for the day, right? How do I go from that sweet time with the Lord into a war zone? And so, just being able to flip that switch and being able to marry those two ideas together is something that that I Yeah, that I walk through every day. Yeah, I heard uh I heard I I think that sounded like Adam. I can't I can't see who that was. Um Yeah, was that It was sounding like Adam. Um you know, Adam, I heard uh Kevin Miller. We were doing a study and Oh my gosh. Oh, I'm drawing a blank on the book.

I did it with him. It'll come to me in a minute. Anyway, he was talking about uh the the writer in the book, we're talking about rebuilding the temple, uh rebuilding the wall, and he was talking about micro prayers and and and he did micro prayers all the time. And so, we have that moment in the morning where nothing's bothering us. We have no distraction. We have the word of God and we're reading and we're getting our day set and right and we're we're ready to rock and roll and we're ready. And it's kind of like Mike Tyson says, "Everybody's prepared until someone gets hit." And now like your game plan goes out the window.

And Kevin Miller talked about uh and he really emphasized the fact that that uh gosh, I'll pull up here. I'm talking uh really talked about uh micro prayers, right? So if you're walking into that meeting, it doesn't have to be all right, let me let me go to my quiet place and let me go find 10 minutes and let me sit down and let me really commune with the Lord. It's just something that says, "God, I want you to be with me as I as I start this conversation." And just doing that one simple thing can allow us to be able to remember the peace that we had that morning.

We've got the word of God in front of us. And it's just that that recognition. Hey Lord, I I you you you promised me if if I if I saw if I saw your face that you were going to walk in this with me. And so that that quick little prayer says, "Hey God, I'm calling on you. come with me in this thing because you're right. I agree with you, Adam. It can get tough. You're you're doing in the morning where there is no battle. No one's throwing spears and knives at you. So, it's easy to read the word and get connected. And in the moment you get to step in that battle, it's like, "Oh, I got hit.

Now, what do I do?" Um, I hope that made sense. Yeah, that's great, man. I appreciate that. And, uh, we'll we'll definitely remember the the Tyson reference. And that was Nehemiah. We did the study of Nehemiah. It was Nehemiah that did that and he would go in front of the king with a micro prayer and uh and I think that that's what we I struggle with that and I don't know if Adam that's the reason why Adam brought that up because that's still something that I do. You know I get in the heat of the moment at at the office and and and you know all of a sudden I know I need I know I need to pull God into this but it's like oh and then all of a sudden you have the meeting and you're like ah why didn't I bring him into that?

Ah yeah. So, I I think that's I think that's important for us to remember. Someone else. Yeah, I got something real quick. The thing that helps me is uh I hold on to James 11:19. It's my favorite rose because before I recognize I used I never did recognize the enemy but now holding on to that it I listen more carefully and I I become present with God and then I do not speak I pause. Yeah. That's so James and of course and of course then it uh I don't get to angry. There you go. So he's talking about James says be quick to listen uh quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger.

And so that's a verse that works well for for uh Mr. Algarian. And so that that's important. That's the whole does it need to be said? Does it need to be said right now? And does it need to be said by me scenario. And if you employ that filter that that definitely works out well. But the one thing I want to make a point of right here is that this is going to flow perfect Charles for as we go through this series is that what you just did was you you put on you put on a piece of armor. You put on the the word of God right here. And so that's what you're using to battle the enemy with.

And that is exactly what we're going to pray through. You're prepared in your day. And this is the scripture that you use to prepare that. For me, it's Philippians 4:6-9. I have that at my at my disposal. When the enemy says, "No, you gota you got to worry about this. You got to take control of this." I go, "No, I stand on Philippians 4 6-9." And that is exactly what we're going to be talking about as we go through this week. All right, 20 seconds. Anybody else? I just posted uh Isaiah 41:10. Fear not, for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God.

Amen. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Awesome. Amen. Praise God. And I love that when we tie the the Old Testament, we bring it right into the New Testament because we can't have one without the other. That's fantastic. Thanks, Agie. All right. Well, let's let's bow our heads. Let's pray out. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for Aggie and and bringing Isaiah into this because it is important. Um it's it's a promise. These are all promises, Father. And we know that when we when we obey you, that's that doesn't mean the trial isn't there.

It doesn't mean that there isn't a sharpening that's going to happen. It doesn't mean there isn't a thing that's going to take place that's going to bring us closer together as a as a tribe, as a community. Uh but Father, will you promise to be with us and walk with us as we go through this? And so, Lord, I just pray that as we go through this series that we would literally continue to make each and pick up each and every piece of this armor, that we would continue to make it who we are. In the Old Testament, the Jews would would uh uh we talk about writing it to the tablet of your heart, the felactories.

And these were little things, boxes that they would carry that they would write scriptures and put them in. It was a physical reminder of you on a daily basis, Lord. And I pray that we would do that as a body of believers. And so, Lord, walk with us today. Guide us, direct us, keep us safe. Allow us to be able to have your armor to fight the enemy, not the armor that we think we need. Father, we love you. We praise you. And as always, in your son Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, I'll see you guys tomorrow. Have a great day. Amen.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.