Our Struggle Is Not Against Flesh and Blood (Ephesians 6:10-12)

Welcome to not 9:18 devotional but 9:15 devotional. My name's Dwayne and let's go ahead and jump in with the scripture. Let me go ahead and post this up here for us. And so today we're going to be in Ephesians and we're going to be talking about uh we're going to start the process of talking about the full armor of God. And so that's going to encompass Ephesians 6:es 10-18 or so. And today we're going to just be covering uh 10 through 12. And and really we're going to be talking about 12. and I'll head back and we'll we'll touch on on verse 10.

So, let me let me cover this with you. Let's read it. So, this is Paul just for some context and he's uh writing this letter to the church at Ephesus. Most likely he he is in prison. He is in Rome and most likely he's even chained to a guard. So, keep that in mind when as we read this and and what what your where your mind should go as as he writes what he writes. And he says here finally, and so he's he's got this first five chapters that happened before this. And so this is the end of the book of Ephesians. This is the last chapter. And Paul says, "Finally, be strong in the Lord and mighty and mighty power in his mighty power.

Put on verse 11, put on the full armor of God." This is what we'll be talking about all next week. 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, but against the rulers, against the authorities, and against the powers of this dark uh age. And I can't see the bottom of it because it's hidden. But I have trusty old standby right here because I don't have it memorized. So, uh, against the powers of the dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

And so, what does what does all that mean, uh, Dwayne? Well, I'm glad you asked. So, our battle, uh, Paul uses, um, uh, Paul says to put on the full armor of God. And he talks about it. He says, "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood." Uh, the struggle is in in the in the text that Paul is is writing in in the in the Greek here, it means to wrestle. We're wrestling. So, so our our our enemy is not a distance away. We're we're not we're not fighting this with arrows and rockets and and and shooting. Our enemy is right in front of us. In fact, oftentimes, our enemy is right here in our ears.

And so, our battle is not against flesh and blood. My battle is not against Sherry. My battle is against the sin that lives inside of Sherry. And I and I I have no battle with Sherry. And I that I'm just making the example. Love Sherry. Go Sherry. I I'm just making the the the the distinction that when we have that rough text message, that rough conversation, and whoever that might be with, it it's time to start asking the question, what was this about? Or what what do I need to know in that conversation before I respond? Because at the at the end of the day, again, scripture says that's not who my battle is with.

My battle is with the enemy. My battle is with the sin. And so if we take a moment and we stop and before we respond or before we go down some path and we take a moment to pray and bring God into that circumstance or that situation and and now we get back up to verse 10 and and what God is saying is you're not doing that inside of you. He says finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. It doesn't say go work out and be strong in yours. It says, "Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power." And so, how do we accomplish this task? How do we battle the enemy?

How do we wrestle with him? We don't wrestle with him in our strength. We wrestle with him in God's. And in order for that to happen, then we have to be in community with the Lord. We have to we have to be in the word. Th this and as we go through the full armor of God, text is one of them, our Bible. And so we we need to be at that place. And so we need to recognize that this is what it is. And these Ephesians knew this firsthand. This was the city of Aremis. This was this was in Acts where they burned all the sorcery books. So the Ephesians, as Paul writes this, know firsthand what he's talking about.

He knows there's a there's a there's another realm because they were in it. They they burned millions of dollars in today's economy of sorcery books. They did that in Acts chapter 12. Uh in Acts, I think it was chapter 12 where where where they finally realized that that was wicked and evil. And so as Paul writes this, there's a reason why he writes it this way. You we're going to learn as we go through this this these verses, these following verses, that he uses the word stand multiple times. And when you're wrestling with someone, how do you win?

You stay on your feet. you stand. And so that's important to to remember as well too. So these this battling that we're doing is close quarters. This battling that we're doing is daily. This battling might just be what we hear. It's not necessarily what we could feel, see, and touch on the outside. And so we're going to we're going to dive into what that armor looks like in this upcoming week. But it's important to understand who our enemy is. It's not that person. It's not that person. It's not the person over there. It's not your boss. It's not your employee.

It's not your cousin. The enemy is Satan. The enemy are the evil forces um that are in the heavenly realms. It's not who we're looking at. We might end up being held captive because of that, but that doesn't change who the enemy actually is. And so that's important to make the distinction. So, so what we need to realize is that we're going through our day, the enemy is there. He's in our ear. He's with us. And we have to make sure that we stand on our feet. and that when we stand on our feet that we're standing in uh the Lord's power in his mighty strength, not not inside of our own.

All right. So, thoughts, comments, suggestions. I think I think we trust in a lot of things all the time. Um but trusting in the big kahuna is probably the easiest bet on the table. Amen. The big kahuna. Yes. That's that's where uh that's where our salvation line. Okay. All right. Well, yes, I agree. We we trust in our in our Lord for all of our strength and for our salvation. That's where it should that should where it should always rest. And so, Monday, we'll start what the what the armor looks like and why it's called the piece of armor it is and what it's used for.

And so, hopefully uh next week will be a great series. And uh and so until then, uh anybody else? 30 seconds, 20 seconds. I I'll just chime in. I'll just chime in for Oh, hey. I'll just say it's been uncanny like how many times this week I've heard when you know, if you think about the helmet of salvation, how how many times I've heard in and also in relation to this past Sunday's message taking all of our thoughts captive. I mean, that has like something every day this week has come up in relation to that. It's it's wild. All right, cool. Well, good.

Well, then next week we'll dive deep into it and Yeah. And of course, uh, taking every thought captive, which I believe is in Galatians. That that that ties right into what we're talking about in here. So, that's perfect. All right. Well, then, let's bow our heads. Let's pray it out. Let's have a great weekend. And, uh, and we'll see you guys back on Monday. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for um thank you for making the statement, Lord, that that that we it takes the pressure off of us that we know that it's not inside of our strength that that it it doesn't matter how much we work out, Father, that it's not in our human ability, Father, but it's in our spiritual might that we get from you.

And so, Lord, I pray that uh for this weekend for just a a a great experience that I think if you're not at church that you'll be at church. Um you'll be in community. And remember, we talked about this earlier today. Church isn't necessarily the building, F. It is the community. It's the body of believers. And so, Lord, I just pray that everybody would would would uh would would get some praise, would get some worship, would would pray uh and and and find that that that group that that uh that they can be a part of, Lord, that they can lean into and that those people can lean into them.

Uh watch over us this week. Guide us. Uh allow us to recognize who our enemy really is. allow us to allow us to understand that that's not the person uh Lord, but it's the sin, it's the enemy that lives inside of there. And so, Father, we just thank you for that. We love you for who you are and for all these gifts that you give to us. Father, thank you. We love you. In your son, Jesus name we pray. Amen. All right, we'll see you guys on Monday. Thanks, Dwayne. Thank you. Have a blessed day. Thanks, Bye.

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly edited for readability.