This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day four of our look through Ephesians chapter 6 verses
10 to 17 today. Let me begin today by reading for you Ephesians 6, 10 to 13.
"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've done everything, to stand.

" For many people, these are the most familiar verses in the book of Ephesians.
This picture of the armor of God. It's interesting that Paul, who was imprisoned
at this time and very likely chained to a Roman soldier, is talking about how we
can have spiritual victory in our lives.

He's looking in his mind for an illustration of how you and I can have victory.
He's chained to a Roman soldier and pretty soon he looks at that soldier and he
recognizes, "Oh, in that uniform, there's an armor of God that we need to put
on. We're going to get to that in just a moment, this armor of God that makes it
different in our daily lives.

" But I just remind you, even before we talk about the armor of God, it's not
enough to just know about the armor of God. You have to choose to put on the
armor of God. Armor that's left back at the barracks is worth nothing.

You have to put it on and take it out into battle. These verses, verses 10 to
13, talk to us, even before talking about what the armor is and how to put it
on, they talk to us about why it is so important. These verses remind us that
battles in life are guaranteed.

If you're looking for some kind of life as a Christian where you're not going to
have any spiritual battles, give up on that. That's just a lie from Satan that
there's such a thing in this world. That's heaven.

I'm looking forward to that. It's going to happen someday. But on this world,
our struggle is not against flesh and blood.

We tend to blame other people for all our spiritual struggles because they're
the closest so we can point a finger at them. Paul reminds us the real struggle
is against the liar, Satan, the spiritual forces of evil. That's where the
struggle is.

Until he is taken away, which will happen at the end of time, those struggles
are going to be there. The Bible says you need to put on the armor of God
because there's going to be a day of evil. The idea that some people have of
this is that means the end of time.

Here we're talking about armor that I need in daily life. The truth is there's
days of evil that come. There's temptations to evil that come day by day
throughout our lives.

There's no if. There's a when. When the day of evil comes.

Battles are guaranteed. There's no doubt about it. Because we live in a world
where there is evil.

Battles are guaranteed. But God also wants us to know about this armor because
victory is possible. And did you notice in these verses God's definition of
victory?

It's in a single word. The word stand. That you might be able to stand your
ground.

And after you've done everything, to stand. God's definition of victory is
standing at the end. Standing on your faith.

It's sort of like a marathon. In a marathon, the victory is just finishing the
race. If I finish a marathon, I feel like I have accomplished.

I have a great victory. Some might be in front of others. Some might be behind
others.

But for most people running a marathon, the victory is I just ran and finished
the race. I did it. One of the great dreams of my life.

My great dreams for your life as a follower of Christ is that we would finish
well. Whenever I see an older person who's still growing in their faith, who's
still being stretched, who's still being used of God, I want to learn from them.
Because that's what I want to be like.

I've discovered that anyone can start strong in faith. But only by depending on
God's grace can we finish strong. Can we finish standing.

And God says it is possible. You can stand. How do we do that?

We do that by putting on the armor of God. Listen to what verses 14 to 17 have
to say about this. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your
waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 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. And take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. You can just
imagine Paul looking at this Roman guard and just thinking, "Well, yeah, faith
is something we need.

" And I'll remember it by looking at that helmet. And righteousness is something
that we need. Let me go back and do that again.

You can just imagine Paul looking at this Roman guard and thinking through,
"Yes, faith is something that we need, and I'll remember it by reminding myself
of that shield, and readiness is something that I need, and I'll remember it by
looking at those shoes, and righteousness is something that we need, and I'll
remember it by looking at that breastplate. " You see, sometimes when we study
this passage, we get so caught up in the Roman guard and what a breastplate
looked like, and what the shoes looked like, and what they did, that we miss the
whole point. The whole point is remember these six things, truth, righteousness,
the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God.

That's the armor. What the Roman soldier wore was just a memory tool for Paul,
saying, "I want you to remember these things, truth, righteousness, the gospel
of peace, faith, salvation, and the word of God. " That's what you put on.

Just like they put on a helmet, you need to put on these things. The focus is
not on the armor that the guard was wearing. It's on these six things.

So what I'd like to do the next few minutes is just walk through these six
things, putting them on right now, prayerfully putting them on right now. Stand
firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Truth is what God
says.

Satan is the father of lies. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Before
you and I become believers, we choose to believe the lie, and that determines
our eternal destiny.

But once you become a believer, you trust in the truth, and that determines your
everyday victory as you trust in that truth. And truth today can protect you in
the battle, the spiritual battle. Truth keeps us from being tripped up by our
temptations.

You're going to be tempted today. Jesus was tempted. Temptation does not mean
you've done something wrong.

Temptation just means there is evil in this world. So as long as we're in this
world, we're going to be tempted. But am I going to choose to follow that
temptation?

The only place I can find strength and not follow it ultimately is in the truth.
So you put on the truth. Do it right now.

God, help me to carry your truth into my day today. And you also put on the
breastplate of righteousness. You put on righteousness.

The first question is, what is righteousness if I'm going to put it on? Well,
it's being right. It's being right before God in your relationship with Him, and
because of that, you become right with others in your relationship with them,
and you act right before others.

How does this righteousness protect me? How is it armor? Well, my right standing
before God keeps me standing in the face of Satan's accusations.

One of the names for Satan in the Bible is accuser. He loves to accuse us in our
own hearts of the things we've done wrong. What do I do when that happens?

I realize I have a righteousness that's been given by God, and I can stand in
God's presence because of what He's given me. That's protection. Now, the
warning here is, don't try to make your own righteousness, to get right with God
on your own energy or strength or power.

Righteousness is not earned by us. It is credited to us. So you put on
righteousness right now, the righteousness of Christ.

That's armor. The gospel of peace is the third piece of armor. This is not peace
between nations.

It's better than that. It's peace between you and God. And that results in peace
of mind and peace of heart.

If you're in turmoil right now and anxiety, say, God, put your peace into my
heart. Jesus Christ, you're the prince of peace. And that good news can protect
me in the battle.

You see, the gospel of peace, the good news of peace, is not only something to
bring into my heart, but if you really want to be protected in the battle, you
also share it with other people. There's something amazingly powerful about
readiness to share this gospel of peace, to take it into daily life and let
somebody else know they can have peace with God and peace in their hearts
because of God. So share with unbelievers.

You can have peace with God. Share with those who are already believers. You can
have peace because of God.

Share that today. And watch what God does in your heart. That's putting on the
armor.

Part of the armor is also the shield of faith, faith, trusting God above all
else. Put it on right now. The opposite of faith, the opposite of faith is not
not trusting God.

The opposite of faith is trusting someone or something else besides God. Who are
you trusting today, yourself? We're all trusting someone.

Trust Him. The Bible says that faith extinguishes Satan's darts. I might be able
to duck a few of Satan's arrows on my own, but they're fiery arrows.

They fall in. They create fires. They're going to fall close, create a bigger
problem.

Don't get caught up in a game of dodgeball with Satan, playing with sin, as if I
want to see how close I can get to it without really sinning. No, have faith.
Apply your faith.

Extinguish those darts. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around
your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 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. Paul looks at this Roman guard that's beside him, and he uses the things
that he is wearing as a memory tool of what is the armor that we need in
everyday life. Sometimes we get so caught up in thinking about what the Roman
guard was wearing that we miss the six things that he talks about here.

Truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of
God. Those six things are your spiritual armor every day. The focus isn't on the
armor that the Roman guard was wearing, that's just a memory tool.

The focus is on these six things. So I'd like to focus on these six things for a
few moments, and just prayerfully walk through them, putting on the armor of God
right now, beginning with truth. Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist.

Satan's the father of lies, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. The truth
is, I'm going to be tempted today. We all get tempted.

Jesus was tempted. Satan's evil and he's a tempter. As long as we're in this
evil world, we're going to be tempted.

How do I resist temptation? I need truth. But instead of waiting until the
temptations come, put on truth right now.

Say God, help me to carry your truth into my life today. Put it on as armor. You
don't wait until the battle begins to put the armor on.

That's the idea here. You put the armor on at the beginning of the day. You put
it on right now, wherever you are in the day.

Put on truth. Carry it in your life. Put on righteousness, the breastplate of
righteousness.

Now, what is righteousness? It's being right before God, right in my
relationship with God. How does this righteousness protect me of spiritual
armor?

Listen, my right standing before God keeps me standing in the face of Satan's
attacks. Satan is an accuser and he's attacking you within, telling you what a
terrible Christian you are, what a terrible job you've done. God has given you
his righteousness.

Don't try to make your own righteousness. You can't. It's not earned by us.

It's credited to us. And God has given you his righteousness, a right
relationship with him. That's part of your armor.

Put it on right now. God, I have a right relationship with you because of what
you've done. Put on the gospel of peace.

And this good news of peace isn't about peace between nations. It's about peace
between us and God and our relationship with God. And that is good news.

So you put it on in your own life and you realize I have the good news of a
peace instead of an anxiety in my heart that I can depend on, but you also put
it on in other people's lives. Readiness to share the gospel of peace. You share
it with other people.

You let other people know there's good news. It has amazing power when it comes
to spiritual armor. The good news of peace.

Part of our spiritual armor is also faith. Faith is trusting God. And faith, the
verses here tell us that faith extinguishes Satan's darts.

I might be able to duck a few of Satan's arrows on my own, but they're fiery
arrows. They just fall in close and they start a bigger fire. Don't get caught
up in a game of dodgeball with Satan, seeing how close you can get to sin
without really sinning.

That's sinning in and of itself. You apply your faith. You put on the armor at
the beginning of the day and that extinguishes those darts.

That's where victory is found. The helmet of salvation. Salvation is being
rescued.

Salvation is the fact that he loved you enough to save you to die on the cross
for you. That is a weapon, an armor that Satan cannot penetrate. My mind is
protected from Satan's attacks when I choose to think about the cross.

How much Jesus loves me. And you also take up the sword of the Spirit, the one
offensive weapon in this whole armor, and that's the Word of God. That's the
Bible.

How does this sword protect me? When Jesus was tempted by Satan, he quoted God's
Word back to Satan, realizing that's where the power is. It protects me against
Satan's attacks.

You know God's Word and you bring it into your life. You read God's Word and you
use it in your life. You see, these are the pieces of armor that I need that you
need today.

So once again, just put on this armor. Truth. God, I put it on.

Righteousness. The gospel of peace. Faith.

Salvation. The Word of God. I put all of these on, God.

I want to trust in you. Let's walk through the day with that spiritual armor.
Every time we're tempted to take it off, put it back on.

You'll be tempted a lot of times to take off the armor. You put it back on
because you realize you're going to face real battles today. Spiritual battles.

You need real protection. God has provided this armor, so you put it on.
Tomorrow, we talk about what God wants to do in our daily lives.

We're going to talk about another piece of daily victory. We're going to talk
together about how to revolutionize your prayer life.