Hello everyone, welcome to another session of our study through the book of Ephesians. This is lesson 24 out of 25 lessons so we only have two weeks left. After this session we will be taking a break in the month of August and the next session will begin the first week of September.

So look out for signups. We will be starting a new book and so we'll be reorganizing the groups as well. Let's take a moment to pray as we jump into tonight's Bible study. Let's pray. Our God we thank you so much for your grace. Lord when we think about our life, perhaps Lord we live with a lot of resources.

Perhaps Lord we've accomplished various things in our lives but nevertheless we confess God we are always so dependent on you and God we are always so susceptible to various woes, to various failures and trials in our lives. And so God we want to pray that through your word and spirit you strengthen us and God that as we walk with you Lord you would guide our path and cause us Father Lord to stand firm in our faith.

We want to thank you for this Bible study. Would you cause us to be fruitful to our mind, our heart, and to our lives. In Christ we pray. Amen. Okay. Let me take a moment to read to us the whole passage because the whole paragraph starting from verse 10 is an entire section together.

And I split it up because of the length. But it begins by saying finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm therefore having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

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. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit.

And with this in view be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.

That in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. As we take a moment to review and putting the paragraphs together we recall the significant point of the entire section that we live in a fierce spiritual battle. It is not as though hey there may be some difficulties that may or may not come but rather we are fighting powerful forces constantly and what's more the schemes, the kind of attacks that are coming our way are in fact incredibly dangerous.

And from the last passage we learn about who we are fighting. What are we fighting? And it's very clear scripture says we're not just specifically fighting one single human individual. We're not just simply fighting flesh and blood as the passages say. But rather we are fighting spiritual forces, authorities and rulers, powerful beings.

We're fighting darkness. We're fighting Satan. We're fighting the evil that exists not just simply out there but forces of darkness that are hostile to God. And what's more what we're trying to do is fight them, the ideologies, the false, perverted ways of thinking, right? Whatever it may be. And last time I half sarcastically joking and half in seriousness talked about how certain mantras of our day even could be very dark, right?

Whatever we are, we're tempted to go against our conscience. Now as just a caveat, obviously we're not trying to be word police. If someone does say, "Hey, you know what? Yellow just do it," right? It's not as though we have to in every moment and every circumstance that those words are used correct it.

But nevertheless we should be able to identify what are some ways of thinking that exist in and around us that are actually contrary to scripture and therefore yes it may be light, yes it may seem innocent, but very dangerous into our decision making. Very dangerous to our faithfulness to God.

And we have to be actually thinking, "When was the last time I actually identified and guarded myself against such thinking?" Because we know they're all around us. What's more, to all these kinds of spiritual battles and the attacks that are there, what defense do we have? And last time we talked about really briefly, I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, but we talked about the starting pieces of the armor of God.

Now I want you to take a moment to check out this really cool graphic that I found on the internet. It's anime looking and I liked it because if you notice the gentleman is wearing a tie and a dress shirt and slacks. So I thought, "Wow, this is a good drawing." Now if you notice, all the pieces are there.

But remember at the review that the last time we talked about essential pieces that were close to the body. So you have the breastplate, the belt, and the shoes. So that's why I called it the starter pack. Some commentators tried to distinguish and saw patterns that these were essential pieces of defense or some of them more so just pretty much brought all these core things together.

Some of them were thinking these are objective pieces that you're supposed to have for a long period of time. You could wear them for essential purposes. A belt, shoes, breastplate, essential purposes. Now there's actually a lot to be said in observation about all these pieces. However, I would like to start off by just talking about the general feel and sentiment that you're supposed to get when the picture very clearly uses imagery for us.

And that's why I looked up these photos. So I've actually as a heads up to you, lots of photos for today. It's because Apostle Paul is using the imagery to get across to you this major point. We are engaged in an incredible spiritual battle. Whether you like it or not, if your company, if your institution, if your country is at war, whether you like it or not, you're at war.

And the question is, are you strong? Are you able to stand? Do you have the pieces necessary to be prepared for that battle? And a lot of times I think Christians, well intending, take a look at these photos and talk about the armor of God, but there's this question.

Are you actually prepared? Are you willing to look like this? Have you vested or invested into purchasing these elements? Have you invested your time to make sure you can actually take it and then put it on? Or are you like this guy? A little sad looking. He likes the idea, so he puts it on his t-shirt, but in the end, all he has going into war is a t-shirt.

Who looks strong to you? Who looks ready to you? This boy who has just a graphic on his shirt? Or the man who's put on armor? Okay, so that's the question at hand. But let's take a look at some of the pieces that we can observe and notice today.

There's a lot to observe about some of these pieces and elements. Now again, I made the point that it's not so much that you have to dissect every element because it's an imagery. But nevertheless, he does give, when you observe this, description about what the piece is and what it does in battle.

First one, he says we're supposed to take up the shield of faith. Shield of faith. With this piece of armory, can you imagine if somebody came in and they had strapped up to their arm a shield? You know that individual is ready to do something and that individual is ready.

He means business. Now what's really interesting is that when you take a look at the word shield, commentators have noticed that there are different words for a shield. There are different kinds of shield based on what kind of battle you're going to engage in. Are you going to be swiftly moving in hand-to-hand combat so you need something that allows you to be more agile?

So you have a small shield. There's a specific term for that. And here, the word is thurios, and that is typically referring to a large shield, perhaps more akin to what you see on the photo here. A shield that is wide enough to cover your entire body. Tall enough to cover the entire core of your body.

And if you have seen movies that depict military battles, you've seen in the long ago, they have these formations where multiple shields are put together, creating a shell, so to speak, in defense. So we're thinking that when we're reading the imagery, clearly Apostle Paul is talking about faith that is so powerful to defend.

So I want you to think about that question. How is your faith powerful to defend you? And what's more, the passage specifically says that it's powerful to extinguish the arrows of the evil one. What kind of arrows do we recall, have we experienced, have we seen in the scriptures that are thrown at us?

And how is our faith supposed to defend against those things? Well, number one, we know temptation is very clearly arrows coming at us to cause a man, to cause a young lady to stumble because of temptation, for grief, for what? But it's that faith, when we see through the lens of faith, that says, you know what, the world, Satan is saying, look at this, look how beautiful and desirable, and yet through faith we say, no, as pretty as it may be, that's trash.

Right? It's oppressive to say, look and admire the accomplishment this man has made, don't you want her life? And for us, by faith, to say, that's fleeting. It's not worth much compared to what I believe. It's our faith that's going to be able to stand against temptation. And I think Satan is so deceiving, that Satan typically attacks us with fear.

It's going to hurt so much. You're incapable, you can't do it, even if you have the spirit of God, even if you claim the name of Jesus, you can't do this. Satan is going to attack you and say, protect yourself. Only you, you alone can guard yourself. Self-preservation, despair, discouragement, the list goes on until all the fiery darts that come our way.

So I have this photo of a Smart Pin soldier, right? Guarding against the fiery arrows. But there's this question, like, when was the last time you felt like you were fighting that? Like, as I was praying and thinking through this, like, when was the last time I was actively engaged in a battle where I was like, you know, there's an arrow coming, I see it.

And then you have to exercise what you believe, you have to exercise what you committed to, the doctrines of faith, but also, more importantly, your trust in God. I mean, what is faith? Yes, faith is belief in the unseen, but my faith is a trust in my Father. Where although the world says, you are this, and you are that, and you're not worth this, and you're not worth that, and you yourself may say that.

But it's our faith that says, no, I trust my God's heart. I trust my God's love. I trust my God's value, as He works in my life. Next piece of the armor. The next piece of the armor is the helmet of salvation. Oops, sorry, let's go, sorry. Anyway, the helmet of salvation.

Now, when you think about the helmet of salvation, there are other descriptive words attached to it telling you all that it's supposed to do, yet at the same time, again, remember, we're talking about imagery, we're talking about battle, we're talking about the idea that when you're putting on a helmet and going into battle, what are you doing?

Well, in order to think about that for a moment, I want you to think about this idea. Do we use helmets? Now, for most of you guys, you don't use helmets. I mean, the last time you probably used a helmet was when you rode your bike. And even when you do ride your bike, some of you guys don't wear your helmets.

But as a matter of fact, if you engage in anything that is organized, organized sports, right? I mean, think about it, baseball, football, hockey, helmets are battle, okay? You engage in any kind of organized function that relates to first responders, you talk about firemen, you talk about construction workers, anything, right?

There are helmets involved. You talk about even sports related to riding motorcycles. You talk about just about anything you're doing. Helmets are so important. Why? It's protecting you, the vital of your life, okay? Protecting the vital portion of your life. And again, I want to go to this idea then.

I mentioned in a sermon not too long ago that I've been doing a research paper on suicidal thoughts. And what I've found is that not only in the statistics, but in my own observation of reading people's testimonies, the increased prevalence of people finding that there is no hope in this world, that perhaps they're failures, that perhaps their pain is way too large and too big to endure in this life.

And the sad state of affairs is in so many people's testimonies, they have explicitly disclosed that they have had suicidal thoughts. Why? Because in terms of the temptation that comes into our mind, sometimes the most dangerous is when we're thinking that all is lost. There's no more to be done.

And so, if you think about some of the greatest threats to people, it is a thought like this. "You are such a loser and there is no hope for you." But it's in our salvation that says there is hope for us in Christ. In our thoughts, things that are most hurtful and painful is that nobody loves you and no one cares.

And if you were to disappear, no one would know. But our salvation says, "God loves me like he loves his perfect son." And in our salvation, he says, "Like the lost coin, like the lost sheep, like the prodigal son, God has searched." And scripture says, "We are useless." Salvation says, "No, we are redeemed.

We are taken from that which is vanity, empty, and lost to redeemed and precious." The world may say to us, and Satan may say, "No one wants you." It is our salvation in Christ that says, "No, God wants you in his home. You have been adopted." If you look at salvation from the different angles, you realize that salvation has such powerful truths.

The gospel has such powerful truths. It will guard your vitals. Right? That's what we're talking about. And so, when you think about the summon of salvation, to hold onto our salvation is to hold onto our lives. And Satan, in his schemes and attacks upon you, we know it's coming.

Why is it that those individuals who have been walking in the faith, sometimes leading churches, sometimes pastoring and shepherding the flock, are having suicidal thoughts? In recent history, it's a sad state of affairs that Christian leaders... Do I believe Satan and the spiritual battle is active in our day?

Absolutely. What's more, the third element of the armor, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Okay? Which is the word of God. And already, you can tell, when you think about the sword, what a powerful element. You recall this section began with commanding and challenging every believer to be strong and be able to stand.

And what's interesting here, though, is that with the sword, the sword has multiple angles. I guess you could say it's double-edged. I guess you could also talk about it as it's both defensive and offensive. The sword of the spirit is powerful. Now what I want to show you is that this is the Greek term for the sword that is used here, is the word machaira.

And they are actually excavated artifacts of the kind of sword that existed in Christ's day in that area. And so you see these curved swords. They're not small little like pocket knives. It's like, take the sword and say, wait, hold on, take it out of your clip and use a little knife, right?

For us in our day, I mean, who walks around with a machete, right? But essentially, it's the size of a machete. So what I'm talking about, the reason why I wanted you to see these images is because the way that the scripture is commanding us to be strong. Because perhaps in our day, we're not accustomed to this talk of military form and we're not accustomed to seeing armor and things like that.

We're not seeing some, we're not perhaps imagining the same thing, right? But clearly the scripture is talking about a powerful force when it comes to the word of God. It is a serious, it is a weighty responsibility to hold the word of God. And so scripture actually talks about if you are a pastor, or if you're speaking the words of God, you better get serious and do it accurately.

It's kind of like having good discipline around dangerous tools. It's like having good discipline around fire, or knives, or using anything that could potentially cause harm. You need to cut that thing accurately. You need to handle it with care. You need to be accurate, okay? Do you have that kind of mentality when it comes to the scriptures?

Because you realize, kind of like, well, you know, somewhere, sometime, I think the scripture maybe has said, right? You realize then you won't be able to be strong. And so we recognize that scripture has such an incredible power to both our defense and also the offense of taking down strongholds and all the rest, okay?

So again, by way of review, just real briefly in terms of the armor of God, remember that the idea of the armor of God is introduced with this commandment. Be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might. So therefore put on the full armor of God, okay?

And then the idea there is putting on the full armor of God, you will be able to stand firm, okay? So I want to ask you this question, is that what you're thinking? And here's another serious picture of this individual who is fully decked out from head to toe, okay?

Because I want you to realize that the kind of imagery Apostle Paul is painting for us here is that the battle is so fierce and the powers that we're fighting are so fierce and what we're engaging, he has seen it, this battle, already laying many of his friends to waste.

I mean, you look at the end of many of the letters and he accounts for how many people have deserted, how many people have left, how many people have fallen to temptation. And sometimes he'll say, you know, all those in Asia completely deserted me. He's got a few that's left.

And I wonder, is it because they completely undermined what kind of battle we're in? And again, no one wants to look like this walking around. How cumbersome, how uncomfortable, how hot and sweaty, right? And so sometimes you think, perhaps I can just do with just the breastplate, but I don't want to look like a fool.

I don't want to have all this stuff. But that challenge again is we must do it all, take on the full armor of God. Next section of the scripture. So as you look at our section for today, we have verse 16 through 17, which is one section on the armor of God.

And then it says with, and so there's a connection there, verse 18 through 20, clearly speaking about our prayer fighting. I like this picture a lot. Young lady praying in front of her Bible, but the image in the mirror, she's got all the pieces of her armor. Let's take a look at that passage.

It says with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. And with this in view, be on the other with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for with I am an ambassador in change that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

So within this passage, very clearly he says with this prayer, be praying. And what's really incredible as you observe the passage, remember, we're looking for emphasis when we study, we're looking for repetition, we're looking for ideas that are given in multiple angles, and here it's like pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray, pray, pray.

That's how this passage reads to us. Notice how it says with all kinds of prayer, with all prayer and petitions. So with petitions, clearly it's like the request, prayers, this is with all of it. What's more in terms of time, very clearly it says that you should be praying at all times.

And what's very interesting is although the passage reads like a command, with prayer and petition, pray, right? That word pray is in the active participle, which means it's a praying. So it's like all prayer, petitions, praying. And remember he was saying that you need to be doing it all.

Having done all to stand, and this then includes it, in your standing firm and in your strength, you have to be praying at all times, with all kinds of prayers and all kinds of petitions. Notice also that he talks about your prayers should be in the spirit of God.

Your prayers are not mantras, your prayers are not just simply repetition of words as though once you hit the full tank of 50 prayers or 100 prayers, and all of a sudden it's like whoop, that guy just leveled up. Like that is not the way God is responding to us.

Our prayers need to be sincere, our prayers need to be faithful, our prayers need to be trusting in the presence of God. And in that way our prayers are incredibly powerful because God has said, "This is the way to fight." What's more, he says, "With alertness, with perseverance." He says this, "With all this imbued." So understanding and seeing with spiritual eyes what is the current context beyond what you can see with the physical eyeball.

You're noticing that there are dog forces, you're noticing there are movements, you're noticing that there are ideologies, you're noticing that there are trends, you're noticing there are slaves, you're noticing there's flesh, like your own flesh having its passions and lusts, you're noticing there's people, all this kind of stuff around you.

Being aware of all that, you need to be praying with alertness and perseverance. To think that because you prayed in the morning, that you don't need to be praying tomorrow, that's ultimately kind of pharisaical. If you think that you did something in the morning and therefore the rest of the time is all you, then you're kind of baking your trust on, "I got that done in the morning." We have to be thinking, "No, no, no, there's a perseverance of prayer that is in the spirit at all times in all kinds of prayers and petitions." So, man, when you think about prayer, prayer really is the way by which once, not simply once, but as we are armed, so to speak, that's the fight.

Prayer is the engagement in the battle. Because you can put on the armor and then go hide in the bunker. You can put on armor and go hide behind all the rest of your friends. There are those individuals who just simply talk a lot about, "Yeah, you know, I observed this stuff happens." But they're not engaged in the fight.

They kind of just want to know, "What does that soldier think? What does that soldier think?" I think that's so common in our day. As I observed, people love reading blogs, which is totally fine. People love asking for the opinions of popular Christian leaders, which is again also fine.

But sometimes I wonder, "But once you do that, it kind of begs the question. And you, what are your convictions? And you, what are you going to fight for? What are you standing for?" But then, nevertheless, there's a lot of people who are just like, "Oh, yeah, I just read up on a lot of it." There's this thought in my head, "You can sit there and try to garner all the different opinions, but in the end, you don't have any stake in the game.

You don't have any stake in the fight." But prayer, that is you investing in the fight. You being on your knees, you lifting up your petitions, you praying for strength, that's you engaging in the fight. And so therefore, prayer is the strategy. Again, prayer is the best strategy. Prayer is the most powerful means.

And we have to be thinking, "If I do not pray, I lose. Today, if I have not prayed, I lost. Today, if I have not prayed, I've completely lost ground. I've become weaker. And perhaps they can have already put a foothold where you shouldn't be praying anything." That's the way we need to be thinking.

And truthfully, I think the vast majority of us has experienced it. Because we know temptation about us. I mean, I've confessed to you that because I'm a pastor, I'm not susceptible to temptation of wanting the world. Because I'm a pastor, am I all of a sudden now just completely immune to greed?

Do I never get tempted with wanting more? More possessions? More time? More money? More houses? More whatever? All those are temptations. Am I immune to lust? Am I immune to fearness? Am I immune to hatred? You know very well, every single one of us, we are susceptible and we have weakness.

We're beset with weakness. And I have found, and we have years of experience to tell us, when we do not pray, we're absolutely weak. Desperately weak. And so, remember that prayer is absolutely powerful. And it is a fight. And this passage really is sobering. The Lord, Jesus Christ, said to Peter, Simon, Simon, "Behold, Satan has desired to haunt you, that he may sift you like wheat." There is a spiritual battle you do not understand.

Satan has his crosshairs on you and he is going to attack you. But look what Jesus said. I have prayed for you. What? That your faith may, that your faith shall fail not. And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers. Think about that. Christ the Lord, telling Peter, there is a spiritual reality and Satan has his sights on you and you suspect because Christ is so powerful, maybe Christ should have rebuked Satan and been like, "Oh, Jesus Christ!" Rather like, he could have.

But Jesus says, I have prayed for you. The power of God. And so, remember the scripture in the passage that we are reading says, "Our struggle is not flesh and blood." It is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness.

So we have to pray. We absolutely have to pray. Next. In the latter half of that section, it says, "Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth." And notice my highlighting in blue, that Apostle Paul has one currently. It's not so much that there is only one thing that you can pray for, but clearly here as he's talking about your prayers, there is the topic of prayer that must be at the forefront of the battle, which is that, "Utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." And so the observation there is, Apostle Paul is focused on what we should pray for, is the proclamation of the truth, and the boldness, the courage to proclaim that gospel.

And as we think about it, we think about, again, the battle and the fight, we think about how to win, we think about what we can do to engage, and we realize the proclamation of the gospel is the shining of light. In the dark, dark world, the power of the gospel of Christ is, is the glorious light.

And as I think about this and conclude, I want to point to an interesting passage. In Romans chapter 10, verses 1-4, Apostle Paul describes his heart behind the agenda, so to speak, the prayer topic, the heart motive, like that kind of thing. And what he says in Romans chapter 10 is, "Brethren, my heart desire and my prayer to God, prayer to God, is for them, is their salvation.

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes." And what you kind of garner from that is, clearly, Apostle Paul's heart reached for his people, that ultimately they would be saved in Christ.

But what he desires for them is that right now, they have this desire and zeal, like, "Yeah, God exists, and yes, God is holy." But they don't even know how to obtain the righteousness you need to go to God. And so this idea is, how does someone get righteous?

And Apostle Paul's saying, "It's the gospel in Christ. Only through Christ and the salvation that's given can you obtain righteousness." But what that means then, is that only through the gospel, only through the preaching of Christ, can one then be freed from the law. End of the burden. End of all the sin and wretchedness.

End of all the bluff. End of all the guilt and shame. Right? What am I talking about? There is an incredible burden and battle where darkness has covered the eyes of His people. Where guilt and shame is heavily still burdening His people. And the law is standing there accusing His people.

Apostle Paul appropriately recognizes that in this spiritual battle, there is only truly one thing that is the agenda and mission that he must devote himself to. And it's the preaching of the gospel. Christ is everything. Christ is victory. Christ is entrance into sainthood. Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my life.

Christ is everything. And so he says, pray your heart out. With perseverance, with endurance and constant, non-stop, dedicated commitment. Pray. Pray that people will be saved. Pray that people will come to Christ. So as I think about that, to me, that gives absolute clarity of how to be strong, doesn't it?

You don't have to be strong in some kind of man-made machismo way. You don't have to be strong in some kind of like artificial fashion. Like strong just simply at your work. Or strong to make sure that you have a certain personality. The agenda and objective of what it means to be strong, how and for what is clear to us as believers.

Let's take a moment to pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace. Thank you for your teaching and admonishment. And we pray that God, our hearts will be so engrossed in you, Lord. So saturated in you. So that God ultimately, God will be to our blessing.

Because that is for us our security. It's our strength. It's everything, Lord. So I pray, Father God, that especially now in very unsettling times, would you grant to us a prayerful heart, pattern of life. Would you grant to us clarity of focus. What are we doing here? Preaching the gospel.

Exalting and proclaiming Christ who is the light to all mankind. And I pray, Father Lord, that to that end, we'd be ready. We'd be prepared. And God, that would be our business. Lord, we thank you so much in Christ's name we pray. Amen. (music fades)