Draft transcript prepared from the recording and edited for readability. Audio proofreading is still pending; please refer to the recording for the spoken wording.
You're listening to Sunday Sermons at Asbury Chapel. And the reading this morning comes from the book of Ephesians there in the New Testament. You'll see the page number for your pew Bible in your bulletin under Scripture reading. I originally gave them the New English translation, but I'm going to read from the NIV this morning. So it's Ephesians chapter 6, starting with the 10th verse and going on through the 13th. Ephesians 6, verse 10. Hear the word of the Lord. 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, but against the rulers, against the authorities, 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, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand. The word of God for the people of God.
Thanks be to God. You may be seated. I want us to walk this out this morning and just go through it verse by verse. Now, I promised myself I was going to put a little cap on today and just... So we'll see if I get excited or not. We'll see. But it's going to be hard not to get passionate about what this means because we often fail to understand what it all means. And I want to make sure that we lock in and that we focus this morning.
So Paul's writing to the church in Ephesus leading all the way up to this last chapter. He has said some profound things. Talking about the immeasurable riches of God. The depth of what it means for God to love us and to provide for us. He's walked through in many different ways how it is that we are supposed to live. How we are to have unity and maturity. How we're supposed to watch our mouths and say those things that are uplifting. Not things that tear down, but things that would lift up.
What does it mean to glorify God with our speech? He talks to households. He lets people know that in the most beautiful verse in the entire thing I think is going to be Ephesians 5, 21. Because he sets the standard right there. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. When we are loving each other. When we are playing the various roles that God has laid out for us. Whether we are happy in certain places or not. We have to understand that we're to glorify God.
And when we submit to each other. This shows reverence for God and reverence for the other. Huge point there. And that we will love each other. We'll love God enough and we'll love each other enough to submit. That means we're serving God and serving the other. Whoever the other is. Whatever the role is. It's about putting Christ first. Remember Jesus on the night he gave himself up. And that statement alone. The night he gave himself up. He submitted to what was coming. And even before then.
He submitted to his servants by serving his servants. And he took their sin in a metaphorical way. By wrapping the towel around himself. Washing their feet. He took the dirt from them. And put it on him. That is what it means to submit. And then as he gets into the different roles. In Ephesians chapter 6. And making sure that children obey parents. And that parents are good to their kids. He ends the whole thing with where we begin today. In Ephesians 6. Starting with verse 10.
And you see it in most of your translations. He wants to end everything that he has said. You ready? He wants to end everything that he has said. To the blessed church of Ephesus. With talking about spiritual warfare. Because you want to know what makes all of what we're supposed to do impossible. It's the warfare. That's what will make it all impossible. That's what will make it all difficult. Finally. Be strong in the Lord. Let's walk through it. So he ends it all with finally. How are we to be?
We are to be strong. And how are we going to be strong? By being in the Lord. Where are you found today? Moving to the margin already. Where are you found today? Are you in the Lord? Or are you in something else? Where are you drawing purpose? Meaning? Strength? Strength. Where are you drawing the might that you're going to need to live this old life? Because we just heard about this old life and how it treats us in the beginning of our service. When we went through those blessed prayer requests.
And so many more. Where will you draw your strength and your might from? Paul says be strong. Be strong. How? In the Lord and in his mighty power. You're not going to find the might, the power that you need. You're not going to be empowered by anything that's holy or helpful unless you're in the Lord. Where do you draw your strength from? Where does your might for each day or each thing that comes along? I hope you're drawing it from the Lord. So be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
Verse 11. Put on the full armor of God. Hold on a minute. We're supposed to put on armor? Yes. If there's anything after living several years in this world. It just takes several years that you start to realize this. This world can dish it out. Nod your head if you think the world can dish it out to you. Worry, strife, fear, doubt. What's going to happen? Who's going to do it? Who's going to help? Do I have to help? How bad is it? I know how bad it is.
And so putting on the armor of God is so important. But does it say that we just need to put on a little armor? There's nothing worse. I'm sorry, but there is nothing worse than looking at a middle schooler and say, Well, just throw a little bit of deodorant on. No. Take a shower. Take a shower. Wash your hair. Brush your teeth. Then put on some deodorant. Y'all, are you going to go to a dinner? Are you going to, if you, oh my goodness. If you're going to love somebody or maybe be loved somebody, are you just going to go cut the grass and then go, Well, I better get ready for my date tonight.
Are you just going to go in there and lick your hand, swap it over, and just throw on a little whatever? And they're not going to marry you. They're not even going to eat with you. I don't want to eat with you. And I wash feet for a living. You got to think about this for a second. It doesn't say that when you go out into this world that you need to go out there ill-equipped, unequipped. If you're going to go out there, you got to have on armor.
And the text is very clear in that one short little sentence that the armor you're going to need is the full armor of God. You got to be equipped from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. You got to have God here and here and here and here. You're going to have to have him all over. You can't just have a little bit. Well, I'll just, less is more. No, it's not. Not in this world that is going to dole it out.
As Christians who believe the Bible, that was redundant. If you're a Christian, you believe the Bible. Amen. But as Christians who follow the Word of God and believe in the Scriptures, we know this is a broken world. And we understand that God has sent Jesus to fix it, help it, redeem it, restore it, and to bring a piece of heaven onto earth so that heaven and earth can merge together and the glory of heaven can take over the darkness of this world. It's what we want to see.
But in order to see that, we have to be his people. And the only way to be his people is to be equipped from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. You got to have on the full armor of God. You cannot go out into this world and go, well, maybe it'll be okay. I'm not living my life on maybes. I got too much at stake. My soul, number one. And then the responsibilities that God has put on me and in front of me that I joyfully have taken on.
Because I have submitted to being a dad, to being a husband, to being a pastor, to being his child. And I got to be ready and I got to be equipped. We've barely made it through the second verse. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Got a couple things to point out there. Number one, we have to take a stand. It is important for us to take a stand. You are on the front line of God's armies when it comes to being in this world and advancing the kingdom of God.
Yes, he has chosen you. It is not a matter of Uncle Sam looking, hoping and praying, I want you. No. He died for you. And you should want him when you see that. This isn't recruitment. This is response. Something has happened. Darkness is fleeing. One of my dearest friends, Reverend Scott Hearn, in my darkest times, in my biggest struggles, he would look at me and say, Wit, do not forget, light is breaking out everywhere. Only somebody who knows Jesus can say such a thing. Because when you know Christ, you know light.
And you know when the light is advancing and when it is pushing. And every time I've seen it, it's been someone who's been equipped with a full armor of God from the top of their head to the soles of their feet. You have to take your stand. And you can't do that, go backwards. You can't take your stand if you're holding a sword, but you've got nothing to protect you. You can't go out there and advance the kingdom if you're wearing your armor, but you have no sword.
What will you do? How will you stand? How will you fight? The second thing in that verse, so that you can take your stand against what? The devil's schemes. He names it right there. The schemes of the devil. The word in Greek there means craftiness. It means that the devil, number one, is real. Amen? It means, number two, that he's prowling around like a roaring lion, as it says in the other letters just beyond this, that he's seeking for a soul to devour. If the devil is after you and you are not prepared, you will be devoured.
And you'll be devoured also because you get tricked. He's the father of lies. He's the originator of it all. God is truth. The devil tells lies. He takes the truth. He twists it. And so what he wants is to scheme and to manipulate and to deceive. He wants to wiggle in. We'll get to that in just a minute. But there are schemes afoot. There is something that is happening. And if we are not careful and if we cannot take our stand and have the armor, full armor of God, we will fall prey to the craftiness and to the schemes of the devil.
Man, I got excited, didn't I? The next one's, I don't know why, the next one's hard for some people. Verse 12, look at it if you've got your Bible, your Bible app, look at verse 12 for a minute. That one's hard for people. Because we don't know what to do with this one. And we really should, based off everything I just said, we actually really should, if you're following. But verse 12 is difficult. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. Wait, what? You mean my job is not to look at somebody different than me and demonize them?
You mean my job is not to judge somebody for what I think's right and, wait, you mean my struggle's not against my brother? No, it's not. Jesus died to save the person you've been spending all your time judging. Jesus redeemed someone that you have demonized. We struggle when we hear that Jesus died for Billy Graham and Adolf Hitler. Why? He died for you. Now what you do with the cross, what Billy did with the cross, what Hitler didn't do with the cross, that matters. But demonizing each other is not what's going to get us anywhere.
That's exactly what the devil would love for us to do, is to put all the problems on the person in front of us. When Jesus is simply trying to get us to take the burdens off the person in front of us. What if we went around trying to alleviate suffering rather than cause it? Jeff Terry's in the room. He's a doctor. You don't walk into a doctor's office and him be looking for a way to hurt you. He wouldn't be a doctor. His job is to facilitate healing.
His job is to help find a cure to make you whole, to get you better. That is what it is. The Christian should be a physician in the way they love. It's the call. What does the cross do? It takes away sin. It heals brokenness. It takes what's upside down and turns it right side up. I mean, this takes us back to a question like, well, what does it mean to be Christian? It means to be a healer. And so, how we see this matters. Verse 12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
Then what's it about? Here's the real struggle. See, we want to sit here and blame, you know, well, we've been demonizing people and that's just not right. You're right, preacher. Everybody in here nodded their head in some way. Either that or you look down and we need to have a conversation later. I ain't scared. But, but, hear me, but. You all nodded in some way. Because you can agree with that. Nobody wants to disagree with that first part of 12. Nobody wants to disagree with, well, our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
That's right, preacher. That's good. Thank you for saying that. Here's the next part. It's actually against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the cosmic, in the heavenly realms. You have to come to terms with the fact that there is a world that is going on around us, in front of us, many times inside of us, that we try to explain away or pretend doesn't exist. You keep doing that. You keep holding the hand of the devil.
There's nothing the devil wants to do more than to make sure that you do not believe in him or his minions or evil that is running rampant. Now, when we demonize our brothers and sisters, when we demonize other people, the devil puts his feet up on his desk and says, my goodness, they're just doing my work for me. Stop doing the devil's work. And then turn around and put the impetus, put the blame right where it belongs, on the devil himself, the father of lies, the one who manipulates, the one who twists, the one who wants us to take this and just tweak it just a little bit so it means something else.
We have to understand that when Jesus, in the Gospels, we see this immediately, the demons love to hide everywhere that they are. They love, especially in the Gospels, we see it the most, they love to have their way with people, with entire systems at times, right? As they influence governments and groups and individuals and Jesus, the King, steps onto the scene and every time Jesus steps in to where a group of spiritual forces have been doing what they're doing, they scream, they shout, He calls them forward just by being present among them and they shout out, what do you want to do with us, Son of God?
And He sits there, some of y'all go, well, why does He do that? And He sits there and He goes, shh, shh, I got work to do. And casts them out and prolongs His time before people turn around and try to demonize Jesus and put Him on the cross that He willingly went to because He knew it was the payment. But until that time, until that time, He took one step closer to darkness, being the incarnation of the glory of God and light itself, He took a step closer and He took a step closer and every time He did, darkness backed up, darkness backed up.
What would it look like if we who are part of the light took a step forward, fully armored with God's armor and stepped into those situations, recognizing that the devil is the problem and watch either the demons scream or back up. Light is breaking out everywhere when Christians are armored from the top of their head to the soles of their feet. The devil is the problem. His forces are the problem. Verse 13, 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.
To truly stand. Some of us want to stand today. We're tired. We've been hunched over the weight of the world, the brokenness in our own bodies, the brokenness in our minds, in our hearts. We've been suffering. We're exhausted. We simply want to stand. God wants you to stand too. But the only way to stand and to stand upright is to stand in Him with His strength. You stand on your own, you'll fall flat on your face. But if you'll stand in Him, just as it finally there in verse 10, be strong in the Lord, it says, in His mighty power.
Stand according to His power. Stand in Him. Full armor. Head to toe. Standing with Him. Not dividing people amongst each other. Not pushing back against our brothers and sisters. Every time we do that, we either hurt the body of Christ because we've gone after a brother or a sister. Or every potential believer who may have said yes to Jesus will now say no because we have been ugly and mean and divisive in such a way. What we have to do is recognize where evil comes from.
This does not mean that people have not made decisions that they have chosen evil. And at the same time, we can be angry, but we cannot sin, as the Bible tells us. We can be upset with people for choosing the evil, but the only way to combat that is to be fully armored ourselves and to be armored up, to be soldiers of light, and to try to drive the darkness back from that person. So we have to stand and stand the ground and stand for Jesus in order for them to either make a decision to continue to fight, which we will be prepared for, or for them to lay down their weapons and realize they've been fighting on the wrong side the whole time.
It's about being on the Lord's side. It's about being a soldier for Christ. It's about being on march for Him. We have to put Him first. So with the full armor of God, and there is evil that comes, we have to be able to stand our ground. A couple of points, and I'll close this morning. The devil and demons are real, and we must act like it. We have to stop pretending like there's no such thing as spiritual warfare. And spiritual warfare is real, and it is much different than mind games and struggling in your mind.
It's more than that. You come down to the Unity Project with us, and you can see where the devil's playground is. When Michael Giddens, the head of North Georgia Works and the organizer and director for Unity Project, came to me in August of last year, he looked at me, and he said, I need you to understand something, and from what I understand, we had literally just met for the first time. He said, from what others have told me, you'll understand this sentence with. He said, I understand that the moment I open the doors of this shelter and I take an entire 300-person camp filled with sex trafficking and drugs and abuse, the moment I open the doors, that I am literally opening the doors of that building to every demon and every evil, that the devil will come screaming into that place.
And he said, but I have to believe, I have to believe that standing for Jesus Christ and claiming his name and recognizing the power of the cross, that this has to be done in order for these people to be saved. And when he meant saved, he meant comprehensive. He meant from the heart out, from the soul out. He wants to see them in a relationship with Jesus. He wants to see them fed and no longer hungry. He wants to see them clean and no longer held down.
He wants to see them healed and no longer abused. This only happens when you armor up. This only happens when you are light in a dark place and you must stand firm in order to do such a thing. The devil and demons are real and we must live like it, act like it, understand it. The second thing is a spiritual evil will use anything it can to divide and distract. I'm making points that I've already made. I'm just boiling them down as we close. The spiritual evils will use anything they can in order to divide or distract.
They'll try to divide the body of Christ and make it a little bit about something that it's not or they will completely distract and make you think that that's not even what this is. When you leave this room today, it could be happening right now under the sound of my voice. You may be trying to justify that all that stuff's not quite real. Boy, it sure is convenient that Witt's talking about spiritual warfare and we're a week away from Halloween and all that kind of stuff.
Let me tell you something. Get with it quickly or else you fall prey to what darkness wants to do to your heart and your mind. And here's the third thing. I hope this fits, this last point. I'm not just trying to get something in here. I hope this fits. The devil's playground is oftentimes religions and belief systems that either attract and appeal or they tear down and destroy. Did you catch that? See, we're living in a time right now and I don't know what it's like for you when you read the news, when you watch it or you listen to the radio.
Maybe some of you are on social media and you're reading posts and you're seeing graphics and you're listening to reels and podcasts and I don't know how you get your news and I don't know what it's like for you. I don't know what the conversation is at the biscuit place or where you get your coffee or what your friend is saying on the phone when you're calling and talking about what's happening in our world and stuff. But it seems to me like we're living in a time of definition where things are being, there's a war on what things mean and people are trying to define them.
People are trying to say, well, no, no, no, it means, and no, no, no, this is, well, no, what really is and everybody's arguing over what this means and what that means. And I'll tell you here and now, there's the attraction and appeal movement and then there's the tear down and destroy movement. The attraction and appeal movement typically manifests itself in false religions and philosophies that will make God look like us and not like the divine. We end up trying to make God into our own image and we start blessing sin and saying that, well, this is okay.
We start justifying certain things, whether it be orientations or political views and we try, we just start justifying stuff, don't we? We're just looking for why. Well, it's okay. Well, no, it's okay. Well, no, no, y'all, don't be mean. It's okay. Armor up from the head to the toes recognizing the truth and stand your ground when things try to redefine and, well, that's, I don't think that's what that means. Oh, careful, church. Careful, careful, careful. Please be wise. Please be discerning. Please be girded with truth so that you know what the will of God is so that you know what it all means.
Then there's the tear down and destroy. And we see this in fundamentalist movements across the board. We're seeing it right now in Islam, which is probably one of the biggest issues in our world right now. traditional Islam denies Jesus and the power of the word of God. There is nothing okay with Islam when it comes to being a Christian. Radical Islam seeks to infiltrate and destroy Christians for good. hear that pin drop? We must armor up. And y'all, I'll close now by saying this. The warfare, though, I mean, we have to be faithful to the text.
Do we not all, anything that gets said from that sacred desk has to be in line with the text. Amen? Has to be. If I'm wrong, the Lord will get me and I will deserve it. And I will, I will, what's the word, accept full responsibility for all of that. But we must be girded. I'm going to say the phrase again. I got it from Bob Tuttle at Asbury Theological Seminary 20 years ago. From the top of my head to the soles of my feet. I must be armored in the armor of God.
And the biggest issue that we have right now is those that want to dumb down the word of God and act like that's not what it means. And we move away from the truth, which means we will move away from God's self-revelation of himself. The scriptures. The other side of it wants to tear down and destroy. There are political parties that want to destroy Christianity. There are other denominations that want to tear down what Christianity is. There are other religions that want to see Christianity wiped off the face of the earth.
And I'll say it one more time. Traditional Islam denies the lordship of Jesus Christ. It rejects the word of God as it stands. That's not okay. Not for the Christian. Radical Islam wants that book burned and all of us dead. But our struggle, here's where we're faithful to the text. I don't want you to see me as violent. I want you to understand the danger that is real. Our struggle is against flesh and blood. Who is it that is using religions like a shell in order to fill that shell with its power and its influence and its deception?
It's the devil. It is the devil. And there are those who are allowing the devil to use them. And it is terrible. And we must plead with them. We must, with a sense of urgency, plead with them. And show them what is right and what the word says and be convinced ourselves so that we can convince and persuade and let them know that Jesus died on the cross and calls them to a repentance which means turning away from where you were going and going in the way that is Jesus because Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
And no one comes to the Father except through me, he says, Jesus. Not me, Jesus. Always weird quoting that text. And so if Jesus is the way, he provides forgiveness for sins, he covers your past, he rids you of your ghosts, and he protects you from evil, then that is what I want. And I will gird myself from the top of my head to the soles of my feet with the truth of God. I won't let a single arrow, a fiery dart, make its way. I will armor up to make sure that I am protected so that I can stand for truth and even be found standing when it's all said and done.
So we have to, and here's where I really do close now, all right? Go up there. Here it is. Listen. I'm going to treat y'all like youth when I did this 20 years ago. Everybody lean in just a little bit. All right. That means, all right. It's a liminal place. That means thin. It's a thin place, okay, between struggling with the actual person who's standing in front of you and purporting certain things and recognizing that the devil is using this and that he's in it. That's hard.
I know that. I'm agreeing. I'm in solidarity with you. This is difficult. You didn't show up and think your pastor would say what he said today. I get that. It's the reason for the silence and the little jokey chuckles. I get it. I get it. But I would be unfaithful but I would be unfaithful as a proclaimer of his word if I did not speak the truth of what's happening in our world over you today. You have to be aware that there is a thin line.
I know it's hard but there's a thin line but it is there and the devil wants to keep it thin because what he wants is to just sneeze, blow just a little bit and we fall over the line and we demonize somebody who is not like us. Don't do it. When you see flesh and bone, you better think about the cross dying for that flesh just like he died for you. Amen? But you better recognize what might be behind it and you better be prayerful and you better be armored up because what's behind that is the same thing that wants to find a chink in your armor.
It wants to get inside just a little bit and make it harder for you. Do not fall to that temptation. Stand firm with the full armor of God. Stand for his truth and recognize the devil is the enemy. Let's pray.
