Protected

Text: Ephesians 6:10-20

Focus: Spiritual warfare

Function: to see the power of God available for believers

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. ¹¹Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ¹²For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. ¹³Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. ¹⁴Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. ¹⁵As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. ¹⁶With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ¹⁷Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

¹⁸Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. ¹⁹Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.

This is a whole new subject for us compared to the three weeks as we examined the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life.

Today, we are going to be looking at another mystery, spiritual warfare. I titled the message “Protected” because I hope at the end of the message we too can experience the power of faith in God through our preparation and prayer life.

Brother Paul tells us to be aware of the spiritual struggle that is going on around us. We can’t see into the spiritual realm very well, except every now and then I think I can see a shimmer of light at times that I believe to be the manifestation of an angel. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that angels are ministering spirits sent to take care of the saints. We can’t see them, but according to scripture, they are there, When Elijah was holed up in a town and the Syrian army had surrounded the town to capture him, his servant panicked until the prophet prayed that he could see the army of angels that were protecting them. I doubt if the enemy camp could see them, but while things are happening here on earth, there are also battles going on in the Spiritual realm.

Daniel fasted for 3 weeks of years. He fasted eating nothing but bread and water. He was fasting for an answer to prayer about what was going to happen in the future for the nation Israel since they were deported into captivity in Babylon.

God sent the angel Michael to answer his prayer at the beginning of the fast. But, the angel didn’t arrive for 21 years. The reason according to scripture was that the angel who had charge over Syria got into a personal combat battle with him. At the same time, on earth, there was a the Syrians conquered Israel. Then, the Persians took over Syria and the angel that protected Syria was defeated and Michael was finally able to arrive in answer to Daniel’s prayer.

Or course, Daniel is recording a metaphor for us full of symbolic language. But at the same time, he implies that there are spiritual battles going on against us of which we are not aware.

Trust in God. That is the answer.

And he gives us clues as to how we can be more effective in our Christian lives.

Remember that we are engaged in spiritual warfare and our message is contrary to the messages that the Devil puts out.

The Devil is resisting us. So Brother Paul gives us some instructions in order to win the battle against Satan.

He tells them to “take on,” to receive, to place their trust in as their weapons to protect them. It is an action, “take it up.” The battle is coming for sure and God does not want us to shrink back, but to be prepared with the resources the He has provided for us. We’ll get to that in a minute. But we have this armor that we deliberately take time to put on, learn to use, and then effectively use as genuine soldiers in God’s battle for the souls of men and women.

He says, having done all we can to stand. In other words, practice and preparation, to stand firm.

I suppose the biggest command in the passage, besides pray without ceasing later on, is this command from God to Stand firm.

Stand firm. Have faith. Don’t waver in the middle of the battle. Remember that God is on our side. Here is a promise from God from Romans 8:31. If God is for us, who can stand against us?

I mention that there were three big sins in the OT. One was idolatry. The one mentioned the most is a lack of concern for the poor and the third which is relevant to our discussion is a lack of faith in God’s promises. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that those who come to God must believe that He is and a rewarder of those who seek after Him.

Trusting the promises of God is an important step to our spiritual victory. We read the stories of faith in the OT and we see the God delivered people in His own way and in His own time and it seemed as if He delayed sometimes to test their faith. But God always came through with what God intended to happen.

I love the story of David and Goliath. It is a great metaphor for Spiritual warfare. David was probably about 14, just before age to join the army. He hears Goliath’s taunts and being filled with the Spirit, he knows that the size of the enemy is nothing compared to the power that is available to the people of God.

You know the story. But there is a detail in there about the armor of God verses trust in human resources. David goes to fight Goliath, and Saul, the king, with the finest armor available, lends him his armor to face Goliath. David puts it on and says, I can’t fight with these. He wasn’t trained in the conventional weapons, But he was trained in faith.

We know from the Psalms and from later on in the book of 1 Samuel that David worshiped the Lord. He had a prayerful relationship with God. David trusted God. Earlier when both a lion and a bear attacked the sheep he was caring for, David, by faith in God killed the predators and kept his sheep secure. He choose 5 stones. He only used one. He was prepared as best as he could, but his faith was in God.

With one stone he defeated his enemy, because God was on his side and he trusted him. And David knew that it was a spiritual battle that he was facing and that God was on his side.

It is a great story of what can happen with us when we are filled with the Spirit.

The final aspect of preparation for the battle so that we can stand firm is prayer.

Paul commands us to pray without ceasing. In other words, walk with God in your daily life.

Remember that God is there and present with you and with your thoughts. Communicate your love, concerns and needs to God through your thought life.

And when we pray, he requests that we pray for other saints as well as themselves and for him, or for preachers. Pray that they may have the boldness to say the right thing at the right time so that people may come to believe in Jesus.

It takes boldness to proclaim the gospel message of love for our enemies in the middle of such divisive times in our nation. Remember, the gospel message is good news for the entire world through Jesus Christ. The world doesn’t want to hear the message, love your enemies and there will be spiritual warfare against it. You will even be called unpatriotic. But it is a message God wants us to proclaim with boldness.