Episode 951: Stranger Things | Part 2

We're in this series about spiritual warfare. And as I look over the messages I've shared, and I've journaled about every message I've ever preached at Lakeside. And if my math is right, I'm around about 926 messages I've preached to you over the years. Now, that's not counting the three during the Sunday. That just counts as one. But I would say out of all of those, this is definitely one of the most foundational messages. And I just hope that it really resonates with your heart, that we understand that the supernatural world impacts us every single day. Now, you look at an intellect, and I love to quote, "C.S. Lewis." You look at an intellect like C.S. Lewis that went to Oxford and just and how God used him in so many ways. One of my favorite books that he ever wrote was Mir Christianity. He wrote that during World War II. And it really makes a case for God, and he intentionally didn't use Scripture at all. He wanted to make a case for the existence of God outside of Scripture. And it's a great bridge if you ever know someone who's seeking who is lost and really wants to know more about spiritual things. This is a good primer, I would say, or starter, and mirror Christianity. And so this is what he says in that book. One of the things that surprised me when I first read the New Testament seriously was that it talks so much about a dark power in the universe. A mighty evil spirit who was held to be the power behind death, disease, and sin. This is a universe at war. So this intellectual came to realize that if he was going to take the Bible seriously, he would have to come to understand that this evil force really exists in contradiction to God himself, that there are powerful beings in the universe that resist God and God's people at every turn. Now, the Bible assures us that we don't have to settle for defeat in this battle, but it really does begin with an acknowledgement that the enemy is real. He goes on to say, "There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch, every split second is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan." And Paul addresses this very conflict in Ephesians. We'll be in Ephesians chapter 6 today. That the main purpose of this book, the book of Ephesians, is to understand who we are in Christ Jesus. Its identity. Identity is so important in our Christian walk to know who we are in Christ. So the first three chapters of these six chapters are about this amazing new standing we have because we have been born again. He says, "Something amazing has occurred. You have been made new. You have been completely and totally accepted by God. You have been redeemed. You have an eternal inheritance. You have been bought with a price and the Holy Spirit has sealed you. All these great truths in those first three chapters. And then in the next three chapters, he shows you how to apply those very truths in all of our relationships, in our marriage, in our parenting, with our employers even. Can you imagine that? And this is what happened, he said, this is who you are. This is how it has manifested in your life. And then in chapter 6, where it would be today, Paul makes an announcement. Now please understand something. This amazing life that God has given to you is going to be lived out in a hostile environment. So we live in this broken world. And in this broken world, there is evil. And that evil wants to take you out. This evil wants to render you ineffective in this new life in Jesus so that the gospel will be discredited and that you are made miserable in Paul's. Don't let that happen. Don't let that happen to you. And so let's dive into our outline. We have to begin this battle with combat identification. Starting in verse 10. Jesus 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 schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, and against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. When my boys were a lot younger than they are now, I would play video games with them. And the one that we liked a lot, there was the game where you had to find these captives and you would have to lead these captives to rescue you. But along the way in this game, there are bad guys jumping out at every direction. Now eventually what happens in this game is you would get conditioned just to shoot everything that moves. And what happens is that someone jumps out and you start shooting and then all of a sudden you realize after you've been shooting that it's one of the prisoners that you were supposed to rescue and not shoot. We're not very good at this game. But you know that's exactly what happens in spiritual warfare, doesn't it? That we miss identify a victim for the enemy. So let me read that verse again, verse 12. So important. 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. He's describing a case of mistaken identity that before we go out and do battle, we have to know who the enemy is first. And sometimes we forget who we're fighting because sometimes can I just say in Jesus' name, sometimes people act like jerks don't they? They really do. And when people act that way, then we get confused. We find that it's easy to think that that person who has acted a fool is the enemy. But they are the victim. The Bible's telling us very clearly they are not the enemy, they are the victim that we are at war with the principalities that are holding that person captive. By the way, Paul is writing this letter from prison just like last month when we were going through the book of Philippians, same thing, same circumstance, the prison letters. This is what we call them. He's writing chain to a Roman guard. And if anybody could think that that's the enemy, it would be Paul to assume that the guard who he's chained to is the enemy. And it's not that people can't hurt you, they can. It's not that people can hinder the cause of Christ, they can. But the power behind those activities is greater than the ponds that we identify as the enemy. And if we don't understand that, Paul is saying right off the bat in this chapter, we're going to lose. Now the other thing we have to remember is that the strategy of the evil one is to make you forget who you are and who you are. Again, it's about identity. For example, most people, I would say, have a shallow view of temptation. Most think that temptation is more about the urge to do something that we shouldn't do. Now that's true, those are temptations, but that's not the great temptation. The great temptation is to be what you're not supposed to be. To lose your identity in Christ. And you think about it. The temptation that Christ experienced in the wilderness. The devil's not tempting Jesus to misbehave. The devil's not tempting Jesus to steal money or to cheat on his taxes. He's tempting Jesus to deny. His identity. That's why the devil and the wilderness kept saying to Jesus, if you're the son of God, if you are the son of God, it's who you are that's under attack. And again, as you break down those temptations and the wilderness is about what you have and what you can do and what people think of you, that's all wrapped up in identity. Ignition, make bread for yourself, egoism, throw these things off, materialism, all those things that Jesus was tempted by. It had to do with identity. And the enemy wants to change the script. And if he can get you to disqualify yourself, to not see yourself as one of God's children, then what's he do? He takes you out of the equation altogether. I heard this early on in my ministry. I know many of you have heard this saying as well, that you know, 20% of the people who 80% of the work in church work in the ministry. And whether that's true or not, I think the principle is the same. I believe that fewer people in the body of Christ are doing the ministry not because the pastor has a poor job of advertising. Well, pastor, if you just put it in the bulletin, we'd show up. It's that most people have put themselves on the sidelines. Most people that are followers of Jesus call themselves Christians have been born again. The devil has convinced you that you're disqualified. The devil has convinced you that you no longer have that identity. Well, maybe you're a child, but maybe you're just a stepchild. So let's dive into this. As we talk about the strategy, we're talking about the weapons of warfare as we continue to read in 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, 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. So in this passage, I want us this morning to move beyond a Sunday school perspective. Now, those of you who are Sunday school teachers don't think I'm dismissing your teaching ability. I'm talking about when you were kids and you went to Sunday school and you dressed up like the soldier, right? And there's nothing wrong with that either. I just want us to go deeper into what that really means that each part of the armor represents what Jesus did for us on the cross, that the armor is about being clothed in Jesus himself. And the first three represent Christ in us. Look at those first three. He is our source of truth, our source of righteousness, our source of peace. These three, by the way, are always there. And then the last three things are about how we deal with very specific situations, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. As St. Jerome said, "From what we read of the Savior throughout the scriptures, it is clear that the whole armor of Christ is the Savior Himself. It is He we are to put on." And then F.B. Meyer, there's only one way by which the Timter can be met. He laughs at our good resolutions and rudicules the pledges with which we fortify ourselves. Satan fears only one, He who in the hour of greatest weakness defeated Him. Now remember, Satan is not omniscient. And so when Satan saw Jesus on the cross, he was celebrating, not realizing it was celebrating his own death, that Jesus crushed the serpent's head in that moment as we said last week. So those first three are spoken of as past tense, their past participles, if you remember ninth grade English, right? Having put on the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having put on the shoes of the gospel of peace. See, as a Christian, we have these three things. They never leave us, those parts are already done in our life. And He's saying that when you're in battle, you have to remind yourself of these things, that you already have these things, the enemy wants you to forget what Christ has done in you. Again, it's identity. But then the next three are spoken in present tense, taking the shield of faith, taking the helmet of salvation, taking the sword of the Spirit. So we have to access those three things, so that we're in the midst of battle. Those are the three things we have to take up in that moment. So we have to always filter all six of these things as seeing Christ as our defense. Christ ultimately is our defense. So let's start with the belt. Having girded your loins with truth for 14. Before battle, every soldier would have to pull up their tunic and tuck their tunic into their belt so that they could run in battle. So the very first thing we have to do is to know and understand what. Truth, the truth about what? Well, the truth about God, the truth about our enemy, the truth about ourselves. Paul told us these truths in the first three chapters. See yourself the way God sees you. Not the way the devil sees you, not the way even yourself sometimes sees you. That's the truth. So spiritual warfare, as we said last week, always begins with spiritual welfare, doesn't it? Which is about truth. Why? Because the enemy always begins with lies, doesn't he? He's gonna make you think, well, you messed up today. Therefore, God rejects you. He's gonna make you think that God can't use you because you don't measure up. Those are the lies of the devil. See Satan's kind of like a top-ranking spy who has defected. He knows all the secret codes, doesn't he? He's got the lingo down. He knows the Bible and he misuses it all the time to get you to take it out of context, to get you to buy in to those lies. Martin Luther, the great reformer, who nailed the 95 thesis on the door of the Catholic cathedral that day. He was sinking in the deep depression and he felt like the devil was constantly attacking him and he sensed the devil saying, "Martin, do you feel as though your sins are forgiven?" And the love is honesty. He stood up and he said, "No, I don't feel like my sins are forgiven, but I know they are because God's Word, God says so in His Word." That's the truth. Sometimes we just need to be reminded of the truth that we are forgiven. Next is the breastplate, verse 14, again, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Back then, breastplates were made out of chainmail or bronze and they were called the heart protector. So again, what makes this righteous? Well, God declares this righteous, according to Romans four, when we trust Christ. It's the great exchange. As we've talked about over the years, the great exchange is we exchange our sinful life for Christ's righteous life. And when we are righteous, our heart, our emotions, the core of who we are is protected. And so the enemy will attack that. And again, try to make you feel guilt and shame. And I've met a lot of Christians over the years who are absolutely guilt-motivated rather than grace-motivated. You come to church because you feel guilty if you don't, or do you come because of the gratitude you have in your heart? That's the difference in guilt-motivation and grace-motivation. Do you give because you feel like God's gonna strike you down or make your business go out of business if you don't give or do you give at a gratitude? Do you give as a reflection of the grace that God has given you? That's protecting the heart of righteousness. See, it's not about your behavior anymore. It's about Christ's righteousness. We always quote Romans eight, don't we? There is therefore now know what? Condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So it protects our heart. Third, the sandals. Verse 14, "Still having shod your feet with a preparation of the gospel of peace." Imagine a soldier fighting a battle with no shoes. I can't even walk to the mailbox and get my mail without shoes. Well, who was the first general to fit soldiers with shoes? It was Alexander the Great, and he even put spikes on the bottom of the shoes, and then they began to be called the Soldiers Foundation because they gripped the ground. And he said, "Because we have fought from a firm foundation, we prevailed." Well, isn't, do you hear the spiritual language there? 'Cause Christ is our firm foundation. We fought from a firm foundation and we prevailed. He is our source of peace of our well-being. Now, think about the importance of even the order of those three things, the truth, the belt of truth, the ultimate source of our reality and the truth that we belong to Christ. And the next is the breastplate of righteousness, crisis made me righteous. And because of those two realities, I have peace. And the problem is that a lot of us get under attack and we want to feel peaceful, but you only get peace by listening to the truth and knowing our standing as being righteous. That's how peace comes to us. So you don't have to fight for those three things. You just have to be reminded of those three things. Now, these next three, we have to take up in battle. The next one is the shield, verse 16. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. There's a story that Seneca tells about the Roman soldier who comes in from battle and he's got 200 arrows stuck in his shield. And what's fascinating about the way they fought and have a rendition there is they would almost make like a human tank out of their shields. And so the arrows that would come would not pierce them, it would only pierce the shield. So we're okay if it pierces the shield as long as that doesn't pierce us. So this is faith. And we're not talking about saving faith. We're not talking about the faith that caused you to be born again. We're talking about the ongoing faith that it takes to be a believer. And it's about this confidence in God. It's a confidence in God's promises in his power. It's confidence in his plan for our life. So we have faith. We take up that faith in the midst of our battle so that the arrows don't pierce us, right? So faith. And then the helmet of salvation. You know, Satan loves to attack our mind, doesn't he? Our thought life. Well, Pastor, how's this different from the breastplate of righteousness? Well, I want you to think of salvation in three aspects. Salvation is our past. We were born again. There was a point in time. For me, it was November the 8th, 1980. Don't be too impressed with my memory. I wrote it down in my Bible. On November the 8th, 1980, I was saved. And that was past tense. But even now, today in 2026, today I'm being saved. We call this sanctification. Every day God is helping me to become more and more like Him. But there's also another sense of salvation being in the future and what do we call that? Well, we call that hope. Hope is about one day. God will make everything right. One day we'll be in the very presence of God and there will be no more sin, there will be no more disease, no more dying, no more enemy. We will finally and fully be free in Christ. Now the Bible uses hope much differently than we tend to use it in our culture today. We use it as wishful thinking. What do we see? What do we say? We hope the cowboys will be better this year. But we all know the truth, don't we? And I really apologize for taking that low blow with you this morning. Because I don't have much better chance with my saints, but that's okay. But it's wishful thinking. We wish, but hope is much different than that in the Bible. Hope is an assurance that what God promises He will do, that it will happen and we need this kind of hope in the midst of battle for this reason. I don't know if you're like me, but I'm confessing to you. I will lose a battle or two. That person cuts me off on the highway. I might lose a battle or two. I might think unpleasant thoughts about that person. And so because of that, I need hope. I need hope that even when I lose a battle, God has already won the war. We talked about this principle last week, but I want to share again the story of the thresher in 1963. It's a nuclear submarine that was traveling in the Atlantic Ocean, but it went too deep. And the water pressure became so great. So even though this nuclear submarine that took millions of dollars to create, the pressure was so great, this submarine made of thick steel collapse and killed all 129 sailors on board. And last week we talked about, but then how to fish and those same exact depths with no armament whatsoever, how do these fish survive? Well, they they have an equal and opposite pressure inside of them. And that's what we need. We need this equal and opposite pressure of Jesus in our life. Our hope has to equal each and every attack, doesn't it? And then finally the sword, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now there are two words in the Greek language that we translate into English word. So when we talk about the word of God, a lot of times we're talking about logos. Logos means the totality of God's revelation. But then there's another word, the word "Rama" also translated word, and this means God's specific word for you in this moment. And that's the word that's used here in verse 17, the word "Rama" that God has a specific word to help you to defeat the enemy in that moment. And that's the word. How do you know which part is for you in that moment? Well, you have to be a master of this book, don't you? You have to be a master of the logos to understand the "Rama." So when the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, remember it again, he's attacking his identity if you're the son of God. If you're the son of God, and what did Jesus do? Well, he quotes Scripture, doesn't he? He quotes five verses all from the book of, does anybody know what book Jesus quoted in the wilderness? Deuteronomy, thank you, yes. And I'm not saying this to be convicting, but if our knowledge of the book of Deuteronomy was the key to defeating the devil in our life, how well would we do? And I say that to myself. Paul wrote 13 books in the New Testament and he quotes 183 verses in the Old Testament. John wrote 404 verses in the book of Revelation, and there are 500 quotes from the Old Testament. What I'm saying is that is what helps us receive the "Rama." It's our knowledge and application of God's word in our everyday life, and by the way, it has to match up, doesn't it? The "Rama" has to match up with the "Logos," because if it doesn't match up with the "Logos," then all of a sudden, we're Joseph Smith creating a new religion, aren't we? Some of you know the story of Spartacus. He was this slave that led a rebellion against Rome, and Rome didn't fear Spartacus at all because they figured, well, he's just a slave. But Spartacus defeated Rome seven times in battle, and do you know what the key was to victory? Spartacus attacked early in the morning and late in the evening. You know why that is? Because he knew that's when the soldiers wouldn't have their armor on. And the enemy is always looking for unprepared believers. He's looking for easy targets, and so the purpose of being in God's word is not so that you can be smarter than everybody else. It's not so that you can win at Bible trivia. It's so that you can be prepared. So that you can have that armor always ready to go so that the devil will be defeated. So Paul gives us this incredible book, The Book of Ephesians, "Who we are in Christ, how it helps our relationships, how to have victory in battle, and then you kind of expect them after all those things that he shares in Ephesians, you kind of expect them to say, "Now, knowing all that, go out and charge, take the day." But he actually says the opposite is, we wrap up in number three in our outline. We have to understand this great principle as Christians that we fight from victory, not for victory. Do you see the difference in the two? That we're not trying to win in spiritual warfare. God has already won. So we don't fight for victory. We fight from victory because we're invincible. I quoted to you the last half of this verse last week, but here's the first half of it, in 1 John 4. Dear children, you are from God and have overcome them because the one who is greater than he who is in the world. And then the next chapter, everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world. Even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. So he guarantees victory. So don't just go out there and charge, stand, he says. He says it like this. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm. In other words, just hold on to what you already possess. The enemy's strategy is to encroach and encroach. And he wants the ground on which you stand. It's kind of like in football. We see a goal-line defense all the time. Don't we? To stand as a defensive action. And if you've heard probably that the best defense is a good offense, but the Bible is saying that the best defense is just to stand your ground. Now we are holding the ground that Jesus already took. And so you don't need to be on the offensive. Jesus does that. We don't have to fight to be saved or forgiven. Jesus has already done that for us. In December 1944, the Allied forces were making their way to Germany and Hitler believed that he had one last opportunity to divide the United States and British forces. He wanted to expose a weakness in the Arden forest. He amassed a huge force and on December the 16th he attacked. And the Americans quickly determined that it was this town called Bastone. That was the key to stopping Nazi Germany. Well, the 101st Airborne under General Anthony McCollough moved into Bastone just to hold that town. And they soon found themselves surrounded by the enemy. And then the fall came in and the fall was so thick that they couldn't even get supplies dropped down to them by air. And then they ran out of medical supplies. They couldn't even treat the wounded. Then propaganda leaflets began to be dropped by Germany. And it said this, hot, chow, and safety are awaiting you only 300 yards away. And then the top it off, it was the worst winter in Europe in 50 years. Then a group of German soldiers approached with a white flag, but guess what? They weren't approaching to surrender. They came to tell the United States the terms of surrender that they were offering. They basically said, give up or we'll turn our artillery on you and obliterate every one of you. So think about that. If you were General McCollough, what would you have said? Well, General McCollough's quote is actually the shortest quote in Bartlett's familiar quote of quotations. And he simply said this to the German commander nuts. He doesn't know the victory that we have. And so every time we experience the spiritual battle, these are the weapons of warfare. We've already been victorious. But as we lose a battle here or there, we recoup and we remind ourselves of these great truths that Paul gives us. It's almost like you want to have the book of Ephesians behind glass so that anytime you're in the midst of warfare, just break the glass and read those six chapters and be reminded of the great victory that we have in Jesus. Aren't you grateful? Let's stand together as we have our time of invitation as our inviteer pastors to join me at the front. I want to make sure as we go into this last song, the song of invitation that everybody that we have. that's listening right now, understands what that means to have victory, to have Christ in our life, to be able to understand the hope that we have in Jesus. It's expressing this very simple across. Does he utter this phrase? Is he uttered this phrase? It is finished. We understand from our study that it is finished phrase in accounting term. It means it is paid for. We paid for our sins on the cross. And then he didn't stay on the cross. He was resurrected. And the Bible calls his resurrection the first fruits. And that just reminds us that as Christians, we can join him in that resurrection. How does that happen? Well, to become a Christian, to become born again, we respond. We understand that every person who trusts in Christ alone is promised, guaranteed eternal life. And what's amazing about this experience of being born again is it's supernatural. He doesn't say, "Clean up your life on your own." He says, "Come as you are. Let me do the miracle," God says. Let me do the changing. It will be the greatest thing that's ever happened to you. This is the message we're going to share this week with these children. But maybe some of you have never trusted in that. This is your opportunity. Don't put it off. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. And so our pastor stands at the front to receive you. And for any other prayer request, any other desire that's on your heart that we might pray for you over. Because we sing this song, "Y'all come." Father, thank you for your goodness and the good news of the gospel. We pray for every lost soul, every person who is still seeking, every person who hasn't settled, who you are. Lord, we pray that the gospel would settle in their hearts today. Lord, we pray for all these Christians in our midst to struggle with the spiritual battle of life. Lord, that they may walk out of these doors, understanding the victory that's promised to them. Lord, that you would take them off the sidelines of ministry, that you would put them on the front lines of ministry so that we might see more and more people saved. Lord, thank you for your promises. Thank you that our hope is sure and everything you tell us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's sing.