back to indexEphesians Bible Study Lesson 23
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Hope you guys are having a great week in the Lord. 00:00:12.920 |
Our God, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:00:16.940 |
Lord, we're truly grateful that God in this life 00:00:20.800 |
where we are besieged with attacks, distractions, 00:00:30.300 |
where we also have our enemy trying to deceive us 00:00:38.160 |
God that you grant to us his power and strength, 00:01:05.580 |
We thank you it's in Christ name we pray, amen. 00:01:09.800 |
Well, as we continue on the study of the book of Ephesians, 00:01:28.540 |
we've talked about like family relationships, 00:01:36.140 |
we're talking about standing firm in the Lord, being strong. 00:01:47.720 |
and for the sake of getting the whole paragraph, 00:02:02.900 |
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, 00:02:16.020 |
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. 00:02:22.020 |
stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth 00:02:25.060 |
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness 00:02:27.900 |
and having shod your feet with the preparation 00:02:31.860 |
In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith 00:02:40.360 |
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. 00:02:43.540 |
With all prayer and petition, pray at all times 00:02:49.300 |
with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. 00:02:52.580 |
And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me 00:02:55.620 |
in the opening of my mouth to make known the boldness 00:03:27.240 |
And then there are commands that is just straightforward. 00:03:41.380 |
do I understand the kind of strength he wants me to have? 00:03:45.980 |
Do I have a picture of the kind of fortitude, right? 00:04:15.980 |
You should be able to hold your ground, so to speak. 00:04:28.460 |
a fight that is both defensive and offensive. 00:04:31.660 |
When you look at the various pieces of the army, 00:04:34.820 |
you'll notice that there are multiple elements to this. 00:04:39.100 |
He talks about a kind of strength that's full. 00:04:49.720 |
God wants you as an individual in Christ to be very strong. 00:05:01.420 |
"As a prayer for the church and every Christian," 00:05:06.020 |
"This I pray that your love may abound still more and more 00:05:12.980 |
so that you may approve the things that are excellent 00:05:21.460 |
having been filled with the fruit of righteousness, 00:05:33.340 |
but it talks about you growing all the way up to the end, 00:05:36.700 |
having sincerity and blamelessness and righteousness, 00:05:41.260 |
do you understand what it means to be strong, right? 00:06:04.100 |
and can you be so clear that you're sincere and blameless 00:06:21.180 |
and the means by which you're supposed to be strong, 00:06:32.420 |
but you guys remember the chapters one through three. 00:06:40.580 |
and His might that He accomplished redemption. 00:06:49.740 |
one of the highlights that I would like to say is 00:06:52.100 |
there is clearly a concept of dependency, okay? 00:07:06.020 |
I think that in meditation upon this idea of strength, 00:07:11.980 |
that right now there is this kind of sentiment and talk 00:07:15.820 |
that maybe is a little too accustomed to failure. 00:07:22.860 |
when I even look up people talking about leadership 00:07:33.940 |
And as a leader, you're not like way up there 00:07:40.580 |
and just encouraging them, let's just keep going, right? 00:07:43.860 |
Well, clearly the expectation for you is not, 00:07:48.420 |
but so long as you're in the Lord, it's okay. 00:08:05.180 |
that by stacking up as much Bible knowledge as you can, 00:08:09.860 |
that you don't need to daily rely on the Lord. 00:08:16.620 |
that because you did your devotion in the morning, 00:08:18.780 |
that through the day, you don't need to rely on Him. 00:08:24.540 |
There is this idea here, you're supposed to abide in Christ 00:08:27.660 |
and Christ has already told us, by yourself, completely lost. 00:08:55.380 |
what you need to do, this is so instructional, 00:08:58.340 |
is you need to put on the full armor of God, okay? 00:09:06.340 |
And again, such a straightforward command, right? 00:09:11.420 |
You need to make sure you're grabbing every single piece 00:09:14.060 |
that you can and put on the full armor of the Lord. 00:09:19.380 |
it highlights this idea of putting on the armor of God, 00:09:35.500 |
Now, I want you guys to think about this a little bit. 00:09:45.900 |
there's in this passage already a sentiment of the soldier. 00:09:54.500 |
recently I've been researching a lot about like home defense 00:10:04.860 |
My wife and I have been watching like preparedness 00:10:11.820 |
what are the vulnerable portions of your house? 00:10:17.060 |
don't get too caught up into some of those videos 00:10:19.220 |
because man, paranoia is like through the roof, okay? 00:10:27.700 |
or I asked Bia to order on Amazon some pepper spray, 00:10:30.180 |
one pepper spray, one for her, one for me, okay? 00:10:33.100 |
So we feel a little bit more ready for danger 00:10:37.740 |
Now, the thing about it is there's all these videos 00:10:45.420 |
And he said he is so in love with ready and preparedness 00:10:55.900 |
I looked it up and in his car, he had three pistols, 00:11:04.460 |
a rain jacket that has easy access to his pistols. 00:11:07.700 |
He had specialty umbrellas, tactical flashlights. 00:11:11.500 |
He had an ankle first aid kit, an ankle handcuff kit. 00:11:17.900 |
He had extra magazines and different doorwells of his car. 00:11:21.740 |
Underneath his kids, he had a kid's car seat. 00:11:26.660 |
And then at a certain moment, he kind of paused like, 00:11:37.220 |
He had a backpack in case he needed to go off into the woods 00:11:50.500 |
Now, that kind of made me think about it a little bit. 00:12:02.220 |
of bullets and ammunition all over your vehicle? 00:12:04.900 |
And the reason why that looks kind of silly is because, 00:12:11.420 |
take a moment to think about why is that silly 00:12:14.540 |
when a man drives around with essentially a fortified truck? 00:12:18.700 |
The reason why is 'cause it may or may not happen. 00:12:34.380 |
"It's not gonna be this, and it's not gonna be that." 00:12:40.140 |
So in my mind, it's like having a little bottle 00:12:42.780 |
sitting on the side of this or that or on my key chain. 00:12:46.620 |
That's no big deal to me, so I don't look like a fool. 00:12:49.940 |
But imagine the guy who has the tactical hat. 00:12:54.540 |
and he's walking around like he's ready for war, 00:12:56.540 |
and you're just laughing, like, "Come on, man. 00:13:06.460 |
If it was certain that something would happen, 00:13:11.740 |
How many times have you said you've gone out, 00:13:17.460 |
like, "I should probably put some sunblock on," right? 00:13:21.100 |
"Ah, I'm only gonna be out there for 30 minutes. 00:13:25.060 |
Like, you come back like, "Ah, I should've put 00:13:57.280 |
Didn't it look foolish to walk around the city? 00:13:59.360 |
Everything that God is sometimes asking us to do 00:14:08.880 |
and your brain power and all this kind of stuff 00:14:12.640 |
all this kind of stuff when you're already busy, 00:14:18.800 |
There is a foolishness when the world looks at us 00:14:24.100 |
Don't you know you'd be a lot more comfortable 00:14:30.500 |
Not walking around with antiquated stuff over your feet 00:14:57.740 |
There are enemies, there are forces attacking you. 00:15:13.940 |
It's probably because we're sitting here like 00:15:18.180 |
Do I really need to be ready with all those pieces? 00:15:21.820 |
But then he says, yes, the devil is scheming. 00:15:31.660 |
and you're the one who needs to be able to discern 00:15:38.020 |
that is of darkness or prove yes, this is of God. 00:15:42.980 |
but wait a minute, God, aren't you gonna protect me? 00:16:00.320 |
I've given all that is necessary for our life and godliness, 00:16:08.820 |
what he deemed as already good for his children 00:16:16.180 |
and part of me as I'm meditating, I was like, man, 00:16:18.820 |
just my own resistance to not want to do some things, 00:16:56.280 |
because Satan, he's going to use every wind of doctrine, 00:17:03.200 |
People will entice you with both allurements and lies, 00:17:19.220 |
You know, one of the things I was thinking about, 00:17:21.380 |
Satan is going to push every underlying button. 00:17:46.420 |
To me, that's just kind of like hard to wrap my mind around. 00:17:50.120 |
Like Satan knew this potentially could be the Messiah, 00:18:00.940 |
And then you started thinking like, how would I, 00:18:03.520 |
how would our modern 2020 young man react to all that? 00:18:15.900 |
How many people window shop through their phones 00:18:21.340 |
I'm not even really interested in actually buying it, 00:18:25.980 |
Maybe some of you are like, aha, this is great. 00:18:28.780 |
'Cause I've been already collecting some of that. 00:18:32.780 |
but it'd be great if I could have a big collection. 00:18:37.700 |
where people love collection of this, collection of that. 00:18:43.380 |
What do you, if in your heart, you're starting to think, 00:18:46.260 |
I need a bigger barn for my collection, right? 00:18:55.340 |
That's our Lord saying there was a man who was a fool 00:19:02.060 |
But he sat there building up his barn saying, 00:19:15.380 |
And some of us may initially be like, that looks great. 00:19:19.800 |
But remember, we have to exercise our strength, 00:19:28.140 |
It's not just all out there, it's right in here. 00:19:52.420 |
You know what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna add this piece 00:19:56.540 |
He says, we are fighting against, and check this out, 00:19:58.980 |
the observation we make is there are rulers and powers 00:20:06.340 |
spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies, 00:20:14.300 |
To me, there was like this phase I went through, you know, 00:20:19.420 |
where I was like, man, like this charismatic stuff 00:20:28.800 |
because my parents went to a really charismatic church. 00:20:37.100 |
everybody got together and let's cast this out, 00:20:39.740 |
That was my early, early first and second year 00:20:42.740 |
And then so there was a part of me that hated it. 00:20:48.740 |
and you realize like, there are demons, you know? 00:21:01.460 |
she recognized that even amongst some of the students 00:21:04.540 |
in high school, there are dark forces at play. 00:21:08.420 |
Suppressive, I mean, if you want to talk about oppression, 00:21:12.840 |
right now there's so much talk about oppression. 00:21:16.300 |
There are dark forces, even amongst the youth. 00:21:25.140 |
where the number three killer of all children, 00:21:30.220 |
There is a dark oppressive force that is lying, 00:21:54.220 |
there was a student who was engaged in satanic worship 00:22:00.380 |
Pastor Peter, my wife was talking about the student 00:22:05.420 |
And Pastor Peter's like, oh, let me tell you the stories. 00:22:08.620 |
I was hoping, I was looking for encouragement 00:22:10.740 |
that it wasn't existing or something like that, right? 00:22:17.500 |
The reason why I say that is because I do realize like, 00:22:31.420 |
And wow, we need to be praying then, shouldn't we? 00:22:34.460 |
And what's more, are you able to tell the differences 00:22:37.780 |
between the voice of God and the voice of Satan? 00:22:40.240 |
Remember, the voice of Satan is going to sound beautiful. 00:22:52.060 |
The image of Satan is like humanly and physically glorious, 00:23:04.860 |
And you think about that and there are so many things. 00:23:09.020 |
'cause I just took this moment to jot down some things 00:23:12.720 |
because I'm asking you this question right now, okay? 00:23:19.680 |
that are purely more demonic, earthly fleshly? 00:23:23.620 |
And again, there's so many things attacking us, okay? 00:23:29.020 |
You know what I hear a lot these days, mantras wise? 00:23:36.040 |
But in terms of the world, they say stuff like this. 00:24:01.460 |
and you've gotta do what is pleasing to the Father 00:24:13.420 |
because you're not gonna have any other time. 00:24:18.540 |
Every man is both destined to live only once, 00:24:21.760 |
but he's going to face judgment for eternity. 00:24:43.240 |
And I remember like feeling really tempted to want freebies 00:24:47.400 |
and then the part of me that just simply said, 00:24:53.400 |
Do you realize everyone's doing it is pretty satanic too? 00:24:56.440 |
I mean, and I think about that and I'm just like, 00:25:02.480 |
You're so easily duped by that little voice in your head 00:25:13.200 |
As if that was the barometer for the Christian. 00:25:16.000 |
I'm just talking about again, all the different deceptive. 00:25:35.640 |
so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. 00:25:40.960 |
stand firm therefore having girded your loins with truth 00:25:44.600 |
and having put on the breastplate of righteousness 00:25:47.440 |
and having shod your feet with the preparation 00:25:57.240 |
Now what it did not say is you need to go kill Satan 00:26:12.560 |
But then the other part of it is like victory is yours. 00:26:36.640 |
and then it continues to more specific pieces. 00:26:46.320 |
You got to be ready and you got to make sure everything 00:26:52.960 |
The other day, I've got a big bruise right here 00:27:00.200 |
I don't know why I didn't use a wireless one. 00:27:14.440 |
Let the truth create those parameters for you. 00:27:18.520 |
Truth by nature excludes falsehood and folly and foolishness. 00:27:26.040 |
the more the narrow your path will be straight to the Lord. 00:27:31.760 |
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness. 00:27:34.400 |
Remember the prayer that we read in Philippians chapter one? 00:27:39.040 |
Talking about your sincerity and your blamelessness. 00:27:44.280 |
you're going to be filled with the righteousness. 00:28:07.360 |
You know, like all of these are justification. 00:28:11.440 |
like we could actually prepare and prepare and prepare 00:28:17.720 |
but also hold fast to that truth in even greater ways. 00:28:23.180 |
And my challenge to every single one of us is remember 00:28:26.360 |
that the gospel is so simple and yet so profoundly deep. 00:28:31.800 |
And you could take, if the gospel, I'm trying to imagine it. 00:28:34.880 |
I mean, you could take the bird's eye perspective 00:28:45.560 |
It's like, look what the sacrifice he had to do. 00:28:49.600 |
It's like, look at the perspective of the father. 00:28:52.360 |
You're like, oh my gosh, look how deep we were. 00:28:56.880 |
in so many different angles and perspectives. 00:29:02.640 |
how profoundly majestic is the mind of God and his love. 00:29:10.720 |
and the question here is like, are you prepared with that? 00:29:14.520 |
Now I'm not going to go at length about every single piece 00:29:17.880 |
because that's something for you to just think through. 00:29:22.920 |
Am I continuing to grow in acts of righteousness 00:29:27.500 |
But one thing I do want to tell you is that notice 00:29:30.300 |
the text is capitalized, which means in your Bible, 00:29:44.620 |
I want to say, okay, it's from the book of Isaiah. 00:29:54.820 |
But what it's talking about, if I remember correctly, 00:30:00.460 |
What it's talking about is the nature of the root of Jesse 00:30:04.900 |
and the branch, the righteous one who is to come. 00:30:14.420 |
This picture of strength is talking about our Lord. 00:30:19.420 |
And remember the challenge is be strong in the Lord. 00:30:24.540 |
You do realize our Lord is the Lord of truth. 00:30:39.380 |
And I think to me, it's always been such a incredible 00:30:45.860 |
Like he's not a drill sergeant that doing this. 00:30:47.980 |
To me, it has always been such an incredible source 00:30:52.620 |
when God wants us to be like his glorious son, Jesus Christ. 00:30:57.340 |
There is such an incredible love of the father 00:31:06.740 |
of the perfections of Christ, including his strength. 00:31:15.620 |
I hope that even all the more than motivates you. 00:31:21.140 |
I really, really appreciate Paul's exhortation. 00:31:25.580 |
That is kind of embedded into his statements here. 00:31:35.220 |
And then he says, having done everything to stand firm. 00:31:41.180 |
Like it was supposed to be like this, like run on sentence. 00:31:49.660 |
there has to be this mentality where Apostle Paul is saying, 00:31:56.220 |
And that in and of itself is an incredible challenge 00:32:00.300 |
because I think a lot of us, there is always, 00:32:03.700 |
I don't know if it's a laziness, a comfort thing. 00:32:10.140 |
'Cause we are definitely an immediate generation 00:32:30.300 |
let's say you're getting something even more than that. 00:32:55.300 |
you yourself are going to be the greater threat 00:32:59.060 |
if you're just wielding something that dangerous. 00:33:02.220 |
Once you get into the fight, you need all of it. 00:33:05.580 |
And that's the exhortation I want to conclude with. 00:33:11.140 |
Because one of the things that I was meditating upon 00:33:21.980 |
Sometimes you could be super hard on yourself, 00:33:26.660 |
I think that I have caught myself saying this many times 00:33:57.180 |
Every single one of you who've been Christian 00:34:00.280 |
you have probably been at one point on Satan's hit list. 00:34:04.260 |
Because if you've been faithful for this long, 00:34:06.460 |
then he better make sure that he knocks you down, okay? 00:34:14.100 |
like aged at the Christian, more mature as a Christian? 00:34:28.680 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your love. 00:34:50.260 |
he desired to prepare his disciples for his departure. 00:35:01.180 |
And you're reminding us that you have granted power 00:35:08.900 |
that every believer experiences that power in their life 00:35:14.020 |
Not to think that that's only for a distant, distant future 00:35:20.140 |
but that we need to be walking with you steadily, 00:35:25.060 |
Lord, right now, there's so many things in the day, 00:35:33.060 |
and all these things are wearisome, grievous. 00:35:36.620 |
I pray, God, you'd grant to us sobriety of mind, 00:35:43.980 |
to be able to prove, approve what is godly in your sight, 00:35:48.300 |
so that, Lord, we would both be pleasing to you,