invisible

When I was a kid I can remember going to Duncan Donuts down on Markland Ave. across from Hutto's Drugstore. We always got a box of "assorted" donuts, which meant we got to choose which ones went home with us. To this day I can remember seeing the lady in the pink polyester skirted uniform pick up a piece of crinkly thin wax paper to snatch the donuts of our choosing out of the bins.

I bring that up because if we're not careful, you and I may have a tendency to believe the Bible as if we're standing at the counter at Dunkin Donuts; picking and choosing the things that we're comfortable with and that we like to hear about. But the Bible was never meant to be taken in a-la-carte.

And some of us this morning as we watched that drama thought, "Oh c'mon! Are you telling me arguments with my wife are a result from the devil?! Are you telling me that life works like those cartoons where there's a little devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other? Dude, get a life!"

In the spirit that the Bible does NOT work like Duncan Donuts and we're not supposed to pick what we want to believe, let me read this passage:

"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." Ephesians 6:10-12

Alright. A lot of you are saying, "I knew it. All churches are freaky weird; this passage is spooky, it's a little X-Files, it's a little Lord of the Rings, it's a little too much NOT reality for me." If that's where you're at, that's fine. Take a pill. Chill. Just give me to the end of the hour.

Important stuff here. The author, Paul, tells us that there is a devil, this fallen Angel named Lucifer, who was created by God and was cast out of Heaven because we was too pride-filled; AND he has these nasty evil helpers; AND they're scheming against us. It tells us that there's an evil battle going on against us, all around us, that we cannot see; that's what it means when it says in the "heavenly realms".

One of the big things we need to know this morning is this simple truth: There's more to this world than this world. Even if you don't believe it yet, say that with me_____________.

God's Word is telling us that all around us there's an invisible world; He's telling us that's there's more to this world than meet's the eye; there's spiritual hoo-ha going on all around us and against us that we cannot see.

Right now, some of you are really struggling with the concept of invisible evil stuff working against us. Let me help us try to comprehend this.

In the mid 1800s, Pasteur discovered these teeny-weenie-tiny-winy-so-small-you can't-even-see-'em things called GERMS! Pasteur said, "Look, I have this theory that there are these things that are so small you can't even see them and they're killing you." (Back in his day, the microscopes couldn't even see them.)

There were roughly 660,000 deaths in the American Civil War. TWO THIRDS of those deaths were NOT on the battlefield, but happened as a result of infections and disease; 440,000 people died from germs. 440,000 people died because there's more to this world than meets the eye.

After Pasteur hipped us to the idea of sterilization and the concept that a Dr. should wash up between patients, we have changed our behavior. We haven't eliminated germs; but how we've learned to deal with them has saved millions of lives. Pasteur exposed us to the reality and nature of germs and disease and the result has been life-changing and life-saving.

In the same way, Paul exposes the truth that there's a something and a somebody at work in our world that we can't see. And if we're not aware of it, it will keep on doing its thing and keep on wreaking havoc in our lives.

The older I get, the simpler things become. And to me the basis of Christianity is relationships. It's relationships between us and God (up & down), and it's relationships horizontally between people. (illustrated by the cross)

The long & the short of our faith is that some Christ followers who were in a relationship this way (up), started working with us in a relationship this way (horizontal), to get us into this (up) relationship with God. And now we do the same with other people; & so on & so on So the cross to me is not only a reminder of what Jesus did on it, but it's a reminder of what my life is all about; my relationship with Him & with others.

So since Christianity is all about relationships, Satan and his helpers are scheming to mess them up and work big-time in them. They are scheming to confuse us about our relationships this way (up) & this way. Mess up relationships & you mess up the work of God.

Think about this: You want to know how well you're doing in life right now? Check your relational barometer. How close do you feel with God today? How aware of Him are you in the 24-7-365 of your life?

For every Christ follower who would say they feel "close" who would say their relationship with Him is strong, I'll bet you a box of Dunkin Donuts that they feel good about life.

And the same bet to those Christ followers who feel disconnected with God; who struggle to sense His presence in the Mon.-Tues.-Wed-ness of their lives. If we don't feel like our relationship with God is solid, our life doesn't feel solid.

The same deal plays out with our earthly relationships. If they're going great, we're going great. If there's a tough relational struggle beating us up, we feel like a mess.

And if we're struggling with God, we put it all on ourselves, "I just don't have any will power. I am such a loser, I tell myself I'm gonna pray every morning and I don't."

But this passage says our struggles aren't "flesh and blood" nuts & bolts problems. It says there's more to this world than meets the eye and there's spiritual hoo-ha scheming to mess up these relationships.

This is my point. We know there are spiritual truths, invisible realities, playing out in the lives of people you know, people in this room. When Christ comes into our lives, we become different.

This week at SFD's at Oakbrook Valley, I saw adults playing, jumping, and singing groovy God-songs with little kids. One night I stood in the back of the room and stopped and thought about where some of those people used to be

Some used to be in bars every chance they could get. Some were in destructive relationships, or addictive behaviors. Some were as far from God and as far from a Christian walk as anyone could imagine. But we know the truth; and the truth is, this invisible God, working in an invisible world all around us, changed their lifechanged my life.

That invisible world that we know God works in, has a devil and helpers in it that are all about tripping us up. That are all about wrecking our marriage. Wrecking relationships between kids and their parents. Keeping bosses and employees in hot debate. Keeping Christ followers confused, second guessing things, and doubting themselves.

The primary power of satan and his thugs is words. Like we sang earlier, he's known as "The father of all lies." He's also known as "the accuser" and "the tempter."

Before anyone gets freaked, let me be crystal clear: 1 John 4:4 tells us, "You dear children, are from God and have overcome them (evil ones), because the One (Jesus) who is in you is greater than the one (satan) who is in the world."

The devil tries to use words to deceive us. A good analogy is to imagine the evil one whispering into your ear, very much like what we saw in the drama. And he's whispering everything that's false and that contributes to the breakdown of relationships. Whatever God says is true of us in His Word, the evil one will tell us the opposite. Stuff like:

These are lies. We are not forced to believe them, but if we're not aware that there's a something and a somebody at work trying to throw this kind of garbage at us, we'll begin to believe these things. Every thought that comes to your mind is not always your own.

Let me explain something about how this world works. Satan is the authority of this world we live in, and he is our enemy. And if we're a Christ follower, at the moment we come into a relationship with Christ, we are now citizens of Heaven living in a foreign land. (Uh oooh, it's getting strange in here again.)

In Luke, when Jesus is being tempted a 2nd time by Satan it says, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to Him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Luke 4:5-7

Did Jesus say? "Oh no can't--it's NOT yours to give!" No, because Jesus knew this world is his. One of the names of Satan is "God of this world." (II Cor. 4:4)

We need to understand this, because this is why the world operates the way it does. We're tempted to say, "Life isn't messed up because of spiritual warfare, or some invisible devil, it's messed up because that's just the way it is!"

I'm telling you today that this is NOT nature taking its course. Look at nature---nature is generally self-PRESERVING. People are self-DESTRUCTIVE.

Think about that for a minute. These geese we often see outside these windows on Sun. mornings: Have you ever seen them flying NORTH for the winter, wearing wrap-around sunglasses, skull & crossbones dew rags on their little heads, singing "Life in the Fast Lane", quacking stuff like, "Man, we're gonna do things DIFFERENT! We're gonna live on the edge! Live hard, die young, wooo-hooo yeah!!!"

It's not the nature of geese to do these kinds of things---But we do this kind of stuff or see people do this kind of stuff every day!

We all do this---I'm not picking on single people here, we all have these destructive habits. Food, our health, our spouse, our kids, all these things are where we have our "There we go again" episodes of repetitive destructive behavior and temptations.

We sit here on Sun. morning and get a clear idea of something we need to change in our life and Monday comes around and "WHAMM-O!" Like we're on a bobsled track, just shooting down the same old path at 70 mph AGAIN!

Why? Because we're stupid? No. Because there's more to this world than this world; there's more to this world than meets the eye. And the god of this world, satan, is all about scheming to mess us up.

Maybe this is all too weird. Maybe you have Christian friends that all they talk about at their church is "spiritual warfare; it's warfare this & warfare that." And you're like, "I'm not really into that warfare stuff, at my church we have some cool music, do a funny drama, see a groovy video & go to lunch ;-)

Whatever it is, it's because there's more to this world than this world and there is a force at work scheming to trip us up and sell us lies and twist our thoughts day in and day out.

Maybe you don't have a battle. But I bet you know someone who does. Do you know any couple that their marriage never seems to fire on all cylinders? There's just always a tension therethis struggle and everyone who knows them knows this about them, but

Have you ever met someone who struggles with conceit. They just think they're all that and a bag of chips! And they don't have a clue? I've never met a conceited person yet who knew they were conceited, have you?

Have you ever seen a single person just struggling with their self-worth and they throw themselves into one bad relationship after another? And if you asked them if they were struggling with their self-worth that tell you to go fly to the moon because they're not battling that issue?

My point here is: We are very often clueless about spiritual warfare because in some cases we're clueless to the battles in our lives. Even many Christ followers are clueless on this stuff. If you're here as a visitor today and thinking this is really weird, odds are there's a bunch of Christ followers in the same boat. But in this battle that's how the enemy likes it; he likes to work in stealth mode.

But the evil one is a lot like germs. Once we're aware of their existence we can deal with them, reduce their affect on us and move on. We know that germs are all around us: in the air, in the water, in our food, in us, in other people. But do we live in fear of catching diseases? No. Maintain a certain level of cleanliness, get your rest, eat right and our immune system will do its job.

The same is true in this invisible world. In all the Bible, we are NEVER told to be afraid of the dark forces, but are to be AWARE of them.

To make sure none of us leave here freaked out by the reality of the devil, I want to walk us through this last passage of Scripture that picks up where are initial verse left off.

"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. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests..." Ephesians 6:13-18

I'm going to walk us through this passage, then teach us to pray through it. This is an incredibly effective way to help us be aware and deal with the invisible world every day.

Kind of interesting, Paul wrote this from jail in Rome and was in jail many times, so he was very aware of what a Roman soldier looked like. It's very important to see that Paul told us that the armor of God needs to be PUT ON. It's action-oriented, it's something we must do. He didn't say, "Remember now, you've got your armor on." He said, PUT IT ON.

Alright, the first thing he says is, "Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist." The belt was the first thing a roman soldier put on and it held his sword. When a soldier's belt was cinched up, that meant he was ready for battle. He would loosen it only when he went off duty.

So Paul says the first thing we need is to ground our self in God's truth; in what the Bible says about God and what the Bible says about us. Those are two areas the evil one will try to deceive us, with ideas like: "If you mess up too bad, God's not going to be there for you again." Wrong, truth is we cannot be separated from the love of God.

He'll try to tell you, you are such a sinner because you sin. Wrong, truth is, we are saints, God made us righteous, but we sin. Sin may be what we do, it's not who we are. As we put on the belt, pray that God will help you know the difference between truth and lies as the day unfolds.

Next, he says to put on the breastplate of righteousness. The breastplate covered the soldier from his neck to his thigh, usually made of bronze. Righteousness is a really "Christiany" word that means "in a right relationship with God." When we come into a relationship with Christ, we are given the gift of righteousness. Righteousness allows us to be citizens of Heaven. As we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we're realizing that no matter what situations come our way, no matter what voices try to tell us, we are in a right relationship with God.

And we should remember as a righteous person as the day unfolds, we need to strive to always do the right thing, even when it's difficult; We'll be tempted to fudge, to cut corners, not tell the whole truth etc. But as Forrest Gump's momma would say, "Righteous is as righteous does."

If we engage in activities that we know are un-cool, that's like driving directly into the evil ones' neighborhood. We need to pray that God will help us to do right even when it's difficult today.

The next thing Paul says is make sure our feet are "fitted with the readiness that comes from the Gospel of peace." Footwear was hugely important back in this day. Military success of Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar were attributed to their armies having solid footwear that allowed them to march long distances.

As we put on our shoes of readiness, it reminds us that we stand on the Gospel, that God is the foundation of our life. And because He is our foundation, that in itself brings us peace. And as we put on these shoes, we must be ready to go and do whatever God urges us to today. As we put on these shoes, pray for His will and not our own will as this day unfolds. If we stay obedient to His will, we'll steer clear of the evil one.

The Roman shield was a true life-saver. It was 4 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide. As the picture shows, a soldier could hide his whole body behind it. Back in the day, the enemy often shot arrows dipped in pitch and were flaming so that when they landed the fire would burn and spread.

The Roman shield was made of wood and covered in leather that was wetted and stretched over it. The wet leather extinguished flaming arrows. The shield of faith is the power to put out the evil one's flaming arrows too!

The shield of faith is HUGE (could talk all day!). Faith is the key to victory over sin. I John 5:4 says "For everyone born of God overcomes the world." We overcome the world, or sin, through our faith in God. As we pick up our shield of faith, we need to rehearse our day.

What I mean is, go through the temptations you know you will face. And we all know themdon't we?! Heck a NEW temptation would be pretty refreshing wouldn't it?

Think through your day, you'll be tempted to be moody, greedy, selfish, lustful, full of yourself, tempted to talk about things you shouldn't talk about, look at things you shouldn't look at, be lazy, lie. Ladies, you'll be tempted to go shopping and tell your husband about only HALF the stuff you bought;

You don't need to walk by so-n-so's desk tomorrowtake the other way around. REHEARSE YOUR DAY. Tell God about the deals that will trip you up and then say, "I pick up this shield of faith and claim victory of these things, based on Your word and Your power in me."

Next, Paul says put on the helmet of salvation. As we put on the helmet we remember that salvation, God forgiving our sins and adopting us into His family eternally, is a monumental gift God. The helmet also reminds us that we are His, that we belong to Him, He is our Father. We are not of this world, but we are His. As we put this on, we need to thank Him for the gift of our salvation.

Last, Paul tells us to "take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." As we pick up the sword we're reminded that we need to have the word of God memorized. Everyone needs a memory verse on: lust, anger, putting others first, obedience etc.

When we see Jesus tempted by Satan, his response was Scripture. Scripture beats back lies and temptations. A tool that's really cool to help you know what God says about certain deals in your life is the Promise Bible (ppt). This little paperback dude has a list of everything God promises us on about every subject imaginable and it has an index of them. And every promise God makes to us is highlighted with blue text. Great tool for learning God's promises to us.

Friends, as we as a church are ramping up to build a new church to reach more people and as we're becoming more committed to bringing Christ followers to maturity, we're making an even bigger dent in this world for the Kingdom. How do you think the evil one is responding to this? Do you suppose he's just taking it in stride?-----No, I don't think he is either.

I have a teenage friend, who's been an integral part of student ministry for several years. But in the last couple months, there's been ripples in his relational world; some situations in his life aren't going how he hoped they'd be going at this point, they're a little funky.

This is a strong young Christ follower with a lot of heart and great character; but in the midst of these circumstances, he's been confused, disillusioned, bummed, feeling less-than-close with God. The reason for all that stuff isn't "that's just the way it is." The reason is there's more to this world than this world. There's an invisible world with a something & a somebody stirring things up.

A close friend of mine who I led to Christ and I've done ministry with for the last several years, all of a sudden, doesn't come here any more. All of a sudden, he doesn't go to any church. All of a sudden he's confused about a lot of things and he doesn't know how to make sense of things that are bugging him. And that too, is not "just the way it is." There is more to this world than meets the eye, and as a result this once heavy-hitting Christ follower isn't even on the sidelineshe's not even coming to the game anymore.

I talked with a lady in our church who had a bad experience a while back. She was in the hospital with a serious illness. The long & short of it is, somehowdon't know how, we as a pastoral staff didn't visit her. Thank God she called me. Thank God she told me how that made her feel. I felt horrible. I apologized & apologized and told her on behalf of the church we had no good excuse. I wish we could get a "do-over" but we blew it.

What she felt in the days and weeks before she called me was things like: "That church doesn't care about you. You're not worth their time, heck they're busy with more important things than you!"

Don't misunderstand me: We blew it. Unfortunately God's church is inhabited by humans and once in a while we blow it. So it was our fault. But I'm sure the evil one took that opportunity to add fuel tipped arrows to that fire. I'm sure he took delight in fanning those flames.

Let's not think that a church is perfect or because we come to a church everything is going to always work smoothly and our emotions are never going to be hurt. The church is full of humans and there's more to this world than this world, and there's a something & a somebody trying to make us a church body more ineffective, more separated and more confused.

People, it's because of this invisible world that we need to pray our faces off. Pray for our relationships this way (up) & this way (side). And I'm asking all of us to take this handout and to daily pray through and put on the armor of God. (handout)

Praying through this passage reminds that there's more to this world than meets the eye and it equips us to deal with it. Start doing this spiritual discipline every day and see what happens as a result. Read through the passage in your Bible , then simply pray through thisit's just a guide, make it your own and learn how to pray through the armor of God without any notes.

If this topic has made some of you uneasy and you have questions about what it means to be in a relationship with Christ, we have great easy-to talk-with men & women in the bullpen, so just come on down after I dismiss.