Ephesians 6. We’re going to wrap up Ephesians today. We’ve been wrestling with two questions. What is a Christian? And what is Church? And these are the Holy Spirit’s concluding statements from the book of Ephesians.
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13 Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14 Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15 and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints… (Ephesians 6:10-18, ESV)
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we just thank you that your presence is with us where two or three are gathered. We acknowledge your presence, your authority, your kingship, your lordship. We bow down before you. We worship you.
We pray that you would wrap up this service and receive all the glory. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
What is a Christian and what is Church? Two summary statements from this section that we read, which I think will wrap up what the Lord has been revealing to us step by step through his word.
First, a Christian is someone who puts on the whole and the full armor of God and prays in order to stand firm to the very end. And what is Church? Church is where the saints pray for one another also to that end, that all of us would stand firm to the end.
2 Timothy 1:7.
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7, NKJV)
The theme of fear has come up. And as I look at my heart, from time to time, I see there are fears there. Just take a moment. Are there fears in your heart? What are you afraid of? What are you afraid of? Are you afraid of looking like a fool?
I praise the Lord for Jeremiah’s testimony. As an earthly father, I did my best, but I knew I fell short. And so when he went off to college, my prayer for all of my boys is, Heavenly Father, here are my boys. They’re your children. Now you take over.
And now you see the Heavenly Father, how much a greater father he is than earthly fathers, and what God can do as we surrender children to Him as they’re growing up to become young men and young women of the faith. God does far better than us earthly parents. So I praise God for that testimony.
We have a lot of fears. If I were to boil down, like before I was a Christian, I had fears of heights. I had a recurring nightmare that I was descending into the abyss. I would feel myself being pulled through my bed. And I think that was not just a random dream, but I think it was a spiritual dream. I was headed to hell. Even though my parents brought me to church, I didn’t know Jesus. I was descending into the abyss. It was a recurring nightmare.
Fear of public speaking, I had that growing up as well. Now as an older man approaching 50, I have different set of fears, like, what if I don’t amount to anything? What if I don’t fulfill my assignment to the Lord?
I think the real fears that I have is, what if I mess up? What if I lose the respect of Jackie and the boys like to me, that would crushing. What if my Heavenly Father, I disgrace his name? What if Jesus doesn’t say to me, well done, good and faithful servant. These are actual fears of mine.
How do we overcome these fears? Because that is not the spirit that we are given. the spirit of fear makes you timid. That’s what it says in God’s word. It makes you hold back.
Like, even as we pass out flyers out there, there’s a part of me that thinks, ah, there’s dogs. They’re going to bark, and they might attack me, and someone might curse me and say, why are you trespassing?
We can open up our mouth, and someone gets so offended and says, why are you pushing religion down my throat?
There’s just a lot of fears even as we seek to be a light and salt in this world. But we don’t have a spirit of fear or of timidity. We are not supposed to shrink and get smaller. We’re supposed to have power and love and a sound mind.
Where does Satan attack? He attacks in the mind. Sometimes it’s our own fear that comes from ourselves. A lot of times it’s Satan’s attacks. It’s like a fiery dart, and it hits you, and it starts burning in the wrong way. We start fearing, we start shrinking, we start becoming timid. It’s an attack from the enemy.
So today I want to teach us all how to pray for ourselves and how to pray for one another.
It says in Ephesians 6:10, finally, be strong “in the Lord” and “in the strength of His might.”
We actually have no strength in ourselves if we’re going to go out there and face the world by ourselves, we actually can’t accomplish much and we’re supposed to charge the gates of Hades. But Satan, if we come in our own might, Satan will say, who are you? you’re no match for me. So we go not in our own strength. We go in the strength of His might. We go in the Lord.
This is the recurring theme throughout the book of Ephesians, that apart from Christ, we can do nothing. But that’s not our reality. We are in Christ, we are in the Lord, we’re in the strength of His might.
That is what it means to be a Christian. We are fellowshiping with Christ, we are united with Christ. We can’t do anything apart from Christ. Apart from him, we’re like a branch that is cut off from the vine. We’re withering away and dying.
And so Jesus’ invitation is, don’t go out in your own strength. Make sure you’re in me and I’m in you. And the whole point of this is stand.
Verse 11, verse 13. Stand, withstand. And having done all to stand.
Satan wants to topple us all over. He doesn’t mind that you’re doing well today or even tomorrow. He wants to topple you on your last day because we need to persevere to the end.
And there’s no guarantee unless we hold on to Jesus to the end. He’s playing the long game. He’s watching us. He’s prowling around like a roaring lion.
He’s looking for an opportune time to pounce. You might thrive in this season spiritually, but he is watching us. He is waiting to pounce. And his goal is, on our last day, will we deny the Name of Jesus? Let go of Jesus, distrust Jesus, not put our faith in Jesus, and be a vulnerable prey to this lion that has no teeth?
Because it says in verse 18, we need to be watchful to this end, with all perseverance.
We need to hold on to Jesus to the end, to be in His strength to the end. That is what matters.
And the key question I want to ask, and this will be short. Who is doing the fighting for us? I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago, do we need a strong offense or a strong defense? Who’s fighting for us?
When you read these verses, it almost sounds like we are ones doing the fighting. We’re putting on the armor and we’re going out by ourselves. That’s what it sounds like.
We put on the helmet, the breastplate, the shoes. We do it on our own with. With this spiritual armor on. Is that what he’s saying?
We have to piece it together through all of Scripture. And I just want to read a couple.
Exodus 14:13-14.
13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.” (Exodus 14:13-14, ESV)
The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. This is when the Israelites were running away from Pharaoh. The Egyptians in their chariots are in hot pursuit behind them. They see this Red Sea on the other side. They are cornered.
And what does the Lord say? Does he say to the Israelites, fight the Egyptians? No. He says, watch me fight. You just need to stand and be still in my presence, and I will fight for you. Hold that thought.
Isaiah 59:15.
15 Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. 16 He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede; then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. 17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. 18 According to their deeds, so will he repay, wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies; to the coastlands he will render repayment. (Isaiah 59:15-18, ESV)
19 So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives. (Isaiah 59:19, ESV)
20 “And a Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,” declares the Lord. (Isaiah 59:20, ESV)
And to those who turn from transgression in Jacob says to the Lord, this is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. And who is doing the fighting? Is it the Israelites?
They tried to fight in their own strength many times. They lost. Who’s doing the fighting for us? If we connect the dots with Ephesians 6, Jesus is saying, I will fight for you. I will fight for you. We cannot fight. We cannot win on our own. We stand in Jesus. We stand in the Lord. We stand in the power of His might, and Jesus fights for us. That’s how we win. That’s how we stand firm to the end. You can’t do it on your own.
I can’t fight on my own. I will lose day one. But in Jesus, if he fights for me, I will win. And we will all win. Praise the Lord.
And that’s why it says the one offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit in verse 17. And it says, sword of the Spirit is the “word of the Lord.” And there’s two different words in the Greek for word. One is logos, which is the word, the written word, the principles of God, everything we find in Scripture.
And then there is the rhema of God, the spoken word which comes. The Shepherd speaks and the sheep, we hear his voice. And so we bring those two together. How do we wield the sword of the Spirit? We must speak aloud, pray aloud. That’s how you wield the sword of the Spirit.
There’s a place for meditative prayer, for silent prayer. When I’m out in public, I’m not shouting as I’m walking down the street; people will think I’m a crazy person. So there’s a place for just quietly praying in your spirit.
But if you want to fight, like with Jesus leading the charge, if you want to fight in the Lord and you want to fight with the Lord, we have to wield the sword of the Spirit and pray aloud. There’s power in praying aloud.
And so I want to do that in a moment. Pray aloud. Ephesians 6:15. The shield of faith. That’s Jesus. We put our faith in him. He is our shield. He is going before us. We are following after him. And he is our shield.
So let’s turn this now into a prayer. We don’t go out and face Satan and all the principalities in Bellflower and Cerritos and Artesia. We go out in the strength of the Lord.
And we pray, Lord Jesus, shield and protect me as I go out. That’s now wielding the sword of the Spirit. We acknowledge that we’re not fighting on our own. Jesus, fight for me. Jesus, protect me. Jesus, shield me. That’s hiding behind the shield of faith and wielding the sword of the Spirit.
How do we overcome this fear that we’ve been talking about and people have been sharing about and that I find in myself at times? How do we overcome that?
1 John 4:18.
18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. (1 John 4:18, ESV)
So if you’re afraid, that means we need to go back to Jesus. Jesus demonstrates the fullness of God’s love. We need to be rooted, established. This is in a book of Ephesians 3. Be rooted and established in his love. Grow into this love.
Be encompassed by this love. Be surrounded by the love of God in Christ. And when you are in this love, when you’re surrounded by this love, when you’re shielded by the love of God in Christ, all the fear in us cannot remain. It’s the truth of God’s word. In that moment, all the fears that you had are gone because you know you’re loved.
Now we turn it to the church, and I just want to give a few final verses as just an education of how we should pray for one another as we close this service.
Jesus says in Matthew 21 that the church of God is a house of prayer, and let’s now pray for one another. But I want to give a little bit of guidance.
If we are not dealing with flesh and blood, but principalities and evil spirits that could be in this room, right outside this room, as we go out into the neighborhood, back to our home, we could be surrounded by evil powers.
That’s what he’s saying in God’s word. Satan has done a masterful job of limiting evil to horror movies. And that’s all it is. It’s all Hollywood. It’s all special effects. It’s all make believe.
No, it’s not true. Don’t let Satan deceive you. Evil is real. It’s lurking everywhere. And so in light of the truth that evil is everywhere, how do we deal with evil as we’re shielded by God and we go in in the power of his might?
Matthew 12:29. It speaks of a strong man in his house and how can you plunder his goods?
29 Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. (Matthew 12:29, ESV)
And this is a metaphor for Satan. Satan is the strong man. The world is his house. And we were all bound by him from birth. How does Jesus, who is stronger than the strong man, overcome the strong man and plunder his house?
He binds him up. So that’s the first thing, the first clue. Jesus. We need to bind in Jesus’ Name evil spirits. That’s from Matthew 12:29.
Luke 4:35.
Jesus is speaking in a synagogue and a demon possessed man is interrupting him. And Jesus rebukes him and says, be silent. That’s the second thing that we do. Not only do we bind unclean spirits, we rebuke unclean spirits.
Third, Luke 8:31.
A demon possessed man in the Gerasenes, and there’s a legion of demons in him. They know Jesus, they fear Jesus, and the last place they want to go is the abyss. So that gives us a clue.
So when we bind and rebuke an unclean spirit, do we cast them out of the person so that they’re floating around? And then they might call their buddies and bring seven more unclean spirits right back to the person?
No, we don’t just cast them out and then they’re going to wait for a time to come back in. We bind and rebuke them in the name and the power of Jesus Christ.
And then we cast them where they do not want to go, where they cannot leave — the abyss.
And why do I say all this? Because Jesus, this is how he dealt with the evil forces in his day. And in Matthew 28, the Great Commission, verses 18 to 20, Jesus says, Now I have all authority in heaven, now I’m giving it to the church.
And we don’t say these prayers in our own power and our own authority, because we have none. But we come in the power and authority of Jesus Christ and we bind and rebuke unclean spirits. And where do we cast them? Into the abyss.
Okay, let’s pray first.
I want to pray for anyone who has fears? If that’s you, just raise your hands or come forward. We’d love to pray for you as a church. If you have any fears, please come forward. We can all kneel together.
Let’s pray for all the people who are coming forward with fears.
It could be a fear of failure, fear of looking like a fool, fear of running out of money, fear of what people will think of you and say of you because of your devotion to Jesus Christ.
Whatever the fears are, as a body of Christ, as saints, let’s pray for all these brothers and sisters. Let’s pray for the perfect love of God to surround them, to envelop them.
And in the presence of God’s full love demonstrated in Christ, let’s pray that all fears would leave these brothers and sisters.
Okay, let’s pray.
Father, I pray for myself and all the brothers and sisters in this room, especially those who have come forward.
We pray, O Lord Jesus, that you would come and meet us. Meet all of us. We pray that the perfect love of God demonstrated in Christ would manifest in the hearts of every believer here.
We pray that in your presence all fears would leave. It’s the promise of your word that if we’re rooted and grounded in your love, if we really believe that we’re a beloved child of God, that all fears must leave. They cannot coexist with the perfect love of God.
We pray, O Lord, that you would replace a spirit of fear and timidity with a spirit of power and love and a sound mind. We pray that you renew our minds. We pray that you would give us confidence as beloved children of God, that you’ve done everything for us. you’ve proven your love for us. You don’t owe us a thing, Lord. We have ample evidence that we’re beloved children of God. And we’ve done nothing to earn it. you’ve done it all on your own. And we receive it now, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
Now, if you have any specific prayer request, any needs, health needs, if you like to receive prayer for that, come forward. We love to pray for you. Health needs, provisions. Come forward for whatever. Whatever your needs are. We love to pray for you.
If you could pray for brother Dan. He’s been having a sciatic back pain. So let’s come around just and lay hands. It’s a L2 herniated disc. So if you can extend your hand and pray for him, or you can lay your hands and let’s pray for God to demonstrate his power.
Father, thank you for teaching us about the armor of God. Thank you for clarifying that we do not fight on our own. If we do, we will certainly lose. Satan is too powerful for us, but in Christ, we are victors. In Christ, we are untouchable. In Christ, we have authority over Satan and all of his unclean spirits. Thank you for shielding and protecting us all the days of our lives.
We thank you for teaching us how to pray against the principalities and the evil forces in our day. We come in the power and authority of Jesus Christ. We cleanse and deliver our surroundings, people, and our families. We pray that you deliver them, Lord Jesus. We bind and rebuke all unclean spirits that are deceiving us, that are blinding us, all our loved ones.
We pray, O Lord Jesus, that you would deliver them. We bind and rebuke all unclean spirits. We cast them into the abyss.
Thank you for teaching us how to wield the sword of the Spirit by uttering these prayers with our mouth. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. We give you all the glory.
Thank you Jesus, that this is possible because of what you did at Calvary. Thank you for Your Body that was broken for us and Your Blood shed.
We pray that you minister to us and meet us as we partake in the Lord’s Supper. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.