unseen_world

I want to talk about the book of Ephesians for just a minute. It's small book, only 6 chapters, and Paul is giving this quick overview of what Christianity is.

ch 2 = "Alive in Christ" the Good News. Trading a stained life for a new life because of Christ.

ch 3 = "church" & this "marvelous plan" for us not just to be saved but to grow to full maturity in Christ, so that God working through you & methe church; we'll accomplish way more than we could imagine.

ch 4 = "unity in the body" teaching us that we have to work well together that His plan is through US TOGETHER, not through lone rangers

ch 5 = "Living in the light" live like Christ, not like the world, talks about wives & husband

And then when you think Paul's covered it all & he's ready for his "peace be with you" sign-off Paul says this:

"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 niv

Paul is saying, "There's more to this world than meets the eye. There's more to this world than just this world. He's saying, "In addition to this Invisible God who brings Good News, there's an invisible devil who brings BAD NEWS."

(timeout) So anytime you hear someone talking about invisible stuff, we tend to get a little suspect. We tend to think perhaps Morgan hasn't had his coffee today.

It's the mid 1800s (NOT a million years ago!), Pasteur says, "Look, I have this theory that there are these invisible things that are killing us." (Back in his day, the microscopes couldn't even see them.)

The truth that Pasteur discovered, was that things we CANNOT see have the ability to reek havoc on things we can see.

There were about 660,000 deaths in the American Civil War. 440,000 of those deaths were NOT on the battlefield, but happened as a result of infections and disease; 440,000 people died from germs; because things we CANNOT see have the ability to reek havoc on things we can see.

After Pasteur clued us in to the idea of sterilization and the concept that a doctor should wash up between patients, we changed our behavior. We haven't eliminated germs; but because we are AWERE & have changed our behavior, we've saved millions of lives.

In the same way, Paul says there's an invisible devil that's scheming against us and if we are AWARE that there IS a Satan and change our behavior; we won't eliminate him, but we will drastically reduce his effectiveness and we can grow to maturity in Christ and fully be the people God wants us to be.

Let me take one more shot in case there are still people who aren't sure that evil is a being and a real force in this world.

I think sometimes we just read or hear something and the only way we can rationally explain it is to say, "That's just evil." Sometimes things are so whacked that to say, "He just had a bad childhood," doesn't explain it.

** Just 50 years ago there's this thing called the Holocaust. One group of people systematically sets up camps to kill Jews. Not just ONE misguided person; but MANY PEOPLE participate in killing nearly SIX MILLION other people. (1,200 Kokomo's!!) Today Germans are so embarrassed because of this & can't figure out how this ever made sense.

** A group of people spend YEARS planning how to fly passenger jets into skyscrapers in New York City and other targets; all to bring honor to their god.

** Early in this country's history, our forefathers and distant relatives thought that going to Africa and putting dark-skinned people into brutal slavery was a good idea. We look back & wonder how this ever made sense.

** And early this month a 32 year old man takes his kids to the bus stop with his wife at 8:45. Later he somehow thinks it makes sense to walk into an Amish school house and tie up ten girls age 6-13 and shoot then all execution style and then kills himself.

Maybe these are all severely misguided people. Or maybe when we think of these unimaginable things we can better understand verses like:

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8

"That great dragon was hurled downthat ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him." Revelation 12:9 niv

Everything he does is made to look like someone else did it. The world says, "Hitler" and shake its head. We say "Taliban" and shake our head. But nobody says, "Satan." He's the "germ" in this world we too often fail to see or to blame.

In this series, we're exposing the fact that there's a somebody behind the scenes, working against everything God's working for.

"He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44

We mistakenly think this is God's world. For now, the earth is the devil's world. Christ followers are like legal aliens. We are citizens of heaven temporarily on work detail here on earth. We live in enemy territory.

"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 niv

Jesus always responds to Satan with Scriptural truth. And in this case Jesus does NOT say, "No, it's not yours to give," Jesus knew he was the god of this world.

(TIMEOUT) Before I get anyone freaked out, let me hit you with THE truth bout spiritual warfare:

(in your notes) "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." 1 John 4:4 niv

Satan is the god of this world, a murder and the father of all lies, the deceiver & accuser.

Everything you see at Oakbrook has a lot of strategy and horsepower behind it. Every week a team of people prays and strategizes in this room back there about how we can most effectively be a conduit for the Holy Spirit to use us and this place to help you grow closer with, and more like Jesus Christ.

Paul tells us that there is a "team" that strategies and plots how to trip-up you and me. Evil isn't some vague "blow with the wind" force. The devil and his cronies scheme & strategize against us.

"Our struggle isn't against flesh and bloodit's against the spiritual forces in the heavenly realm" means HERE on earth, not "out there" in the cosmos.

A "scheme" is a plan, a strategy, a very deliberate act. Evil isn't like "luck" or "chance",

If God's goal is to save us and bring us to full maturity in Christ, then Satan's goal is to try and keep that from happening.

In the extreme (Holocaust, 911), he'll try to kill people, in the everyday he'll try to keep people from accepting Christ and keep Christ followers from maturing in Christ.

Mark said that we as a church are going to become more like Christ this year through "5".

When we see these things, we WANT to do them. We KNOW they're good and good for us. But why is growing more like Christ seem more like climbing up a mountain than riding down a hill?

Perhaps there's more to this world than meets the eye. Maybe we haven't been exposed to the truth that a group of beings are working & scheming against our best effort. Maybe the reason maturing in Christ is hard isn't because we're just slackersmaybe we've been clueless that we live in enemy territory, and that our problem is an enemy that we didn't know was there.

6) Growing in Christ is hard because the devil is scheming against our best intentions. (and we're usually clueless)

We learned that Satan is the Father of all lies, the "tempter" and the "accuser." What do you think is the weapon of a liar, tempter and accuser?

We all have an inner dialogue of WORDS running most of the time. Every thought in our mind is not our own. Generally speaking, there's us. God. And the evil one. But all three are in our voice

(timeout) Some of you probably think this sounds totally insaneit sounds like hocus-pocus

"We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." 2 Corinthians 10:5 niv

If every thought were nothing more than a string of innocent words, why would Paul say that? Paul is saying we all hear voices. We need to be aware of them. We need to take them captive or control that dialogue.

A way to understand how Satan uses words is to imagine the evil one whispering into your ear. And he's whispering everything that's false, tempting and accusing. Whatever God says is true of us in His Word, the evil one will tell us the opposite. Stuff like:

"You've been down too many rough roads in your past, you'll never really fit in at a churchwho are you trying to kid?"

But if we're not aware that there's an evil one scheming against us, we'll begin to believe these things. We need to believe that every thought that comes to your mind is not always your own.

And do not be scared. Do not think that the devil is uncontrollably in your thoughts. Our thoughts are controlled by US. Philippians 4:8 says to "think excellent thoughts," or God-honoring thoughts. This is another verse where God says that WE control what's going through our minds. (sometimes I'll say "enough" out loud)

a.) That we wouldn't even be aware of what's going through our mind---he'd like us to think that our thoughts are HARMLESS. God says take them all captive--they're not harmless.

b.) that we believe every bad thought comes from US. Not only would he prefer you not be aware that HE's whispering to youhe wants you to think it's YOU. YOU are evil & twisted.

9) How do we know who's voice is who's? Know God's Word. Gotta read the Bible. God will never speak in a way that doesn't line up with the Bible. The better we know the Bible the better we know God and His nature. The better we know Him, the easier it is to recognize the liar, the tempter & the accuser.

People who are experts at detecting counterfeit money do not study counterfeir money--they study the real thing. Then they can easily recognize the fake. Likewise we should not leave here wanting to be experts on how Satan works, but desiring to be in close relationship with God. As we focus on God the easier it is to spot the forger--the tempter, accuser.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:4 niv

"He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets." Colossians 2:15 The Message

As Christ's blood on the cross gave us life; salvation, it also sealed us with Christ and Christ IN us gives us authority over evil.

"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." Ephesians 6:10-11 niv

I want to show HOW to put on the full armor of God so we can all be strong in the Lord (see example in handout):

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. Paul it's something we must doputting it on is action-oriented.

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. Satan's big weapon is the LIE & we battle that with TRUTH. We need to know 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 is what we sometimes do, it's not who we are.

As we put on the belt, pray that God will help us 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 become citizens of Heaven, who are temporarily here. 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,

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 make decisions that line-up with who we are in Christnot who we used to be as an unsaved person.

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.

Next Paul tells us to, "take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

The Roman shield was a life-saver. It was 4 feet tall and 2-3 feet wide. A soldier could hide his whole body behind it. Back then, the enemy often shot flaming arrows 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. So the shield of faith has the power to put out the evil one's flaming arrows too!

The shield of faith ---and "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.

Rehearse your day & AVOID things that tend to trip you up. REHEARSE YOUR DAY. Tell God about the deals that take you to bad places and pray to God, "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. The helmet also reminds us that we are His, that we belong to Him, He is our Father. It's also protection for the thoughts in our head. As we put this on, we need to thank Him for the gift of our salvation & ask Him to help us take every thought captive.

Last, Paul tells us to "take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The sword is the Bible. 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 whatever we struggle with: lust, anger, putting others first, obedience etc.

When we see Jesus tempted by Satan, his response was Scripture. Scripture beats back lies and temptations. The Bible is Truth and our enemy is a liar, deceiver and accuser who uses words against us. The Bible is how we beat back evil in our life. It's how we know who God is, who we are and what He's promised and planned for us. Can't know God without knowing His Word.

1.) We've exposed that there is a Satan & he his goons are WORKING behind the scenes to trip us up.