Stand and Fight - Ben Stuart - Breakaway Ministries

howdy welcome to the breakaway podcast thanks for listening breakaway is a Bible study recorded on the campus of Texas A&M for more information visit breakaway ministries org we hope you enjoy the talk and stick around for more at the end tonight's scripture is Ephesians 6:10 through 20 finally be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might put on the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in Chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak well I've mentioned it in here before but I think it's been a while but as many of you know I've had the opportunity in life to spend a fair amount of time with some Navy SEALs which is very cool because most of them when they're at home training in the States do what I imagine many of the dudes in this room would love to do on a daily basis so while you're studying physics they're studying kitchen bomb school right I remember visiting with one when both of us were in the middle of finals and I was like man I got this big test in seminary over Greek participles and he said yeah I got a big test in Sniper school I got a stalk a guy for the final and I was like what does that mean like you sneak up to him in the jungle and grab him like yeah basically it's kind of a pass/fail thing but I remember I went with some of them one time to an assault training exercise where they were going to traverse across this field and take down a house that had enemy combatants in it with hostages and it was a simulation training exercise so they were using simunition rounds paintballs but they fly fast and hard and hurt in my understanding when I got there was that I would be watching from the safety of an observation deck but when I got there they linked me up with their commanding officer and as I was standing there with him and we watched them approach the door to this building he hit me in the chest and said let's go and we just started walking towards the house we got about halfway there he stopped me and he goes I wouldn't get any closer if I were you and that they blow that door sometimes a handle comes off like a bullet I wouldn't get closer I was like okay like I wasn't really planning on being this close you know and sure enough they blow off the door and they go racing into the building and as soon as they do he hits me and goes let's go and he goes running into the door and so I go running in after him in jeans and a t-shirt and two things struck me as soon as I went in the door metaphorically speaking the first thing was the chaos of the situation I mean shots fired smoke everywhere flashbangs going off people yelling it was crazy right second thing that struck me was the beauty of their strategy that when they stepped into that room there was no hesitation there was no guessing as to where they were meant to go it was immediate it was fast it was precise down to the particular percentage of what angle of the room I cover and what angle you cover they moved into spaces they would get to open hallways and two of them would stack up on the door and barely nod to each other and in a second both move out in unison to cover each other's backs therefore never being open as a target for more than a seconds and within instant they had neutralized all enemies freed all hostages and turned a very hostile situation into a place of victory and a place and I just remember standing in the middle of that and being in awe and then it struck me this is meant to be the Christian life and you go what do you mean by that well you don't have to be a Christian for very long before you realize that the pursuit of intimacy with Jesus is done in the context of adversity it is that when you come to Jesus and go man I want to know I want to walk with me save me he loves me and when you step out to do that suddenly it just gets hard and it's confusing you're like I love him and one of me with them and some of you know what it's like like I want to read the Bible but as soon as I sit down all manner of competing thoughts and rival affections just come to the surface and you go what is going on why can't I do something simple like think about God or you tried to go out and live a good life and you just find yourself living in Romans 7 where you say the good I want to do I'm not doing that but the evil I don't want to do I keep doing that and you're like I just don't understand how I live my life right and some of you just know that feeling of you go god I'm just trying to walk with God and why is this so hard and for many of you there's just become a frustration with the situation that you wake up and there's just this constant hum of a low-grade guilt in the background of your story and it's drowning out the promises of God and you just don't live in them you don't live in the joy of God and the victory of God you just sort of live with this wet damp blanket of failure just smothering your passion and affections for the Lord and you live there and some of you are just disillusioned by the situation you go I just can't win here you hear the testimonies of people they get on stages like this and just tell these amazing stories of oh yeah man I was on heroin and living crazy and killing people and then when I gave my life to Jesus never even tempted by drugs again and you listen to that you go that was it you just faith in Jesus and all your temptations and struggles were gone just up rooted out of your soul and cast away man when I came to Jesus he didn't even mildly prune my temptations they're like his robust as ever and you just go what is going on here and for others of you you go I know that like I know the situation's hard like I've gotten on board with that fact you go Ben I know it I just I need a strategy because what I've been doing isn't working and maybe some of you came out of the rhythm in high school and junior high where you would just live crazy and feel guilty and feel horrible but do it anyway and then you would go to a retreat or some kind of camp or some big moment and you would just be like I'm gonna get my whole life to Jesus I'm never gonna sin again I'm Yours God Foley this time I mean it in the next week is uh and just plummeting back and every sin and every injuries go I'm just fail to just gonna sit here and failure until next year you know and you just kind of wallow in shame until somebody hits the right note for you to give your life to Jesus again right and you go man I'm on this rollercoaster that never seems to be moving up and forward and how do I do this and I just think it's awesome before we all scatter for the summer is just to come around what Paul is giving us at the end of this book and he saves us the reality is this this whole book has been talking about the glories of what Jesus has done but you don't earn a relationship with Jesus you don't earn a relationship with God that we are so far from who we were meant to be in God were prisoners to our brokenness and our corruptions but God who is rich in mercy is making us alive of Jesus that the Son of God came for us and while we were dead made us alive by His grace we've been saved and he raised us with him and seated us with him right he made us his workmanship that we would walk with him the whole book of Ephesians is about the mighty amazing things God has done to take people who were children of Wrath and make them sons and daughters of God that we've been adopted by God we're family and then what's beautiful is he's been talking to us about that that you went from child of Wrath to son of God and now he's going to move into this text and say son it's time to be a soldier that the truth is as we walk with God we pursue intimacy with him in the context of adversity we're in a fight and so he says son it's time to learn how to fight let's go to training school right and so he begins to move us into this text and he tells us in 10 through 13 the reality that we're in a war and so in verse 10 he says finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might that's your command in this text be strong so many of us when we wrestle with sin we're like I'm tempted today I guess I'm a failure and we just kind of like this wilting flower and Paul saying hey man be strong God's not raising up an army of weenies he wants kids that are tough he wants kids that have power and yet look at the kind of power he's talking about he says be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his mind that command be strong is in the passive in the original language it's literally be strengthened in the Lord he's saying I want you to be strong but not dialing up your own energy of I'll do it God I'll beat my sin the reality is we go no I'm gonna be strong to the degree that I'm in him resting in him and I'm accessing his strength and his power the strength of the Christian is in the Lord the strength we fight with is his strength I was thinking about it today that's a goofy illustration but I just been in my head all day is Batman and Robin man I remember little Dick Grayson I mean he was an orphan right little orphan kid and gets adopted by a billionaire right and he's got a new dad he's got a new home his dad's a billionaire all your needs are cared for man you are loved cherished valued supplied and then in the middle of that space you find out oh yeah your dad is also Batman and he fights crime and if you want to be his kid you got to get in the game son because the world's a dark place and he's like let's roll right but who is Robin without Batman he's a kid running around in his underwear they just a victim out there right I mean you sent him out on his own I remember growing up for me watching Batman and Robin Robin would always try to launch out on his own I got this and just sleep out there and I don't know all right and he was just like kid hostage here we go you know the boy victim has to be saved again and you realize he's strong two-degree that what he gets his training from Batman the belt from Batman I mean everything you got all your strength is going to be in your proximity to that guy your daddy right and the truth is for us he says be strong but God's not launching you out to do something for God he's saying be strong in God be strong with God but we need to do that because we're in a fight verse 11 put on the whole armor of God we'll talk about that in a second that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil something's coming at you he says what's coming are the schemes of the devil for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against rulers against authorities against the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Christians don't fight people we don't load up guns to go to war for our religion but we are in a fight and he says we're in a spiritual fight against the devil and this whole unseen spiritual world that's very dark and I know as I soon as I say that some people go oh here we go you're just taking a hard left into crazy town like spiritual dark like demons around every corner right that's the Bible fairy tales like if anything goes wrong it's the wood fairies that did it like haven't we gotten past that in life what's interesting you'll hear detractors of Christianity talk about that sometimes I though you just want to blame everything on the supernatural where we've learned that there are physical causations you know when you get sick it's not all the sickness demons got you you know and the reality is the Bible's not so simplistic that it blames everything on some unseen evil forces when you see people get sick physically you see in the Bible Jesus will say things like hey you need to rest for a while you see the Apostle Paul who wrote this tell Timothy you should drink wine to settle your stomach right some of you may be like that verse too much it was just that's a different sermon but he gives them practical advice anoint them with oil that was a healing remedy that the Bible will give physical cures to some physical problems it doesn't blame every physical problem on demons it doesn't blame every emotional problem on demons I'm just sad that's the sadness demons it doesn't do that it says hey encourage one another as long as it's called today speak the truth and love that the Bible gives emotional remedy sometimes to your emotional pain and yet what happens a lot of times in our world today is we take every problem and say it's either physical or emotional either you need to just deal with some emotional issues or you need to take a pill oh you're sad there's a drug for that oh you're too excited there's a drug for that and we just make everything biological the Bible's more robust than most of our modern thinking because it says there are physical problems there are emotional ones and there's a spiritual component there are some things in this world that you come around them and you go biological answers just don't give you sufficient answers for what's happening out there I looked at the pictures again recently of the stacks of human bones and churches after the big genocide of Hutu and Tutsi where they would pile people into churches and light them on fire and you look at that you can't just say well it's because they lacked education at that moment you know there's something really dark about that it's not really sinister about that I read a book a couple years ago called beautiful boy the dad whose son got hooked on meth and the dad trying to process it just started researching meth and found out this drug is finely tuned to increase aggression lower compassion and he looked out and do you look at all these horrible crimes in the United States where people kill babies and it's almost always driven by this drug and this dad who was an atheist believed in the spiritual world not because he started with God but because the more he studied meth and how horribly dehumanizing it was he wrote in his book I don't believe in God yet only the devil could create a drug like this and the more he just kind of investigated some of the dark and horrible things in our country he realized biological answers don't solve it all there's something spiritually dark here and in your life the Bible is telling you we move in a world where there is a spiritual world and you can freak out about it and get super weird about it and think there's a demon behind every bush or something crazy or you can go to the opposite extreme and say there's no such thing and that would be equally wrong CS Lewis wrote that wonderful book the Screwtape Letters where he wrote it as one demon coaching a younger demon on how to mess with your head and this is what he said the older demon as he teaches the younger the fact that Devils are predominantly comic figures in the modern imagination will help you if you if there's a faint suspicion of your existence begins to arise in his mind that is the person he's tempting suggest to him a picture of something in red tights and persuade to him that since he cannot believe in that this is an old textbook method of confusing them then he cannot therefore believe in you he says make spiritual battles seem like a joke and he won't believe in them but as the usual suspect said the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing you he didn't exist there's something dark in the world and some of you your deep struggles they might be emotional there might be a physical component but there's something spiritually dark here and we have to learn how to fight and what Paul will say about this fight is it's not just spiritual it's deeply personal notice he called them the schemes of the devil that word schemes means it's wily trickery it means it doesn't come straight at you it's deceptive and he called them the devil that's the name for the evil one that means accuser that they'll be slippery confusing ways of coming at you accusations coming at you and then he says for we wrestle not with flesh and blood and what's interesting is he could have said we fight not with flesh and blood but he ain't say fight he said wrestle that's the word for close-quarter combat literally locking arms like greco-roman wrestling he says that when you battle spiritually he's talking about something that's deeply personal and deceptive it will be right in your grill very deeply personal for you and it'll be deceptive and mess with your head because here's the reality the spiritual battles that we deal with however you conceive of spirituality it's primarily a battle in your mind what you think about and the truth is that's how the enemy will get to us let me mess with your thinking to discourage you to make you combat and effective and the kingdom of God to make you forget all the blessings of Ephesians one through five let me just mess with your head you know what it reminds me of it's the movie The Lion King you remember that movie did you all see that one Disney some Lions singing okay it's confusing for a second you all made me nervous I'm like you remember that one oh yeah right all that bad guy lying scarve does he come straight at you he never comes straight at you how does he give to little Simba me today how he does he encourages him right encourages him to go places he was never meant to go right if you were really tough you would go to this place defy the will of your father and go keeps encouraging him you really want to be free you really want to be strong you take part in this and then what's happens as soon as he doesn't accusation how dare you how could you I can't believe he would do that you'd better run you'd better hide you'd better not show your face around here you can't really be the son of the King if you're into that you'd best get out of this place you'd best abandon these responsibilities because you're not worthy of them any more enticement and accusation and I make you ineffective do I have to make you a demon now I just have to make you running around in the wilderness wasting your time right combat ineffective for the things of God and many of you can I be honest with you you live here this is where you live that lust has gotten you so beat so much shame over your inability to conquer your sexual urges that he says you're a loser you can't beat this you never will so be a good guy pay your taxes what but don't get real serious about the Bible or serious about pursuing God or serious about worshiping God and you just you can't man that's not you some of you he's just got to get you spun up with anger you got some unforgiveness in your heart and just the right song will come on the right stuff and you just you sort of stew and I'm a victim and people wronged me and you just live and unforgiveness and anger and that's great I don't have to make you a killer I just have to make you not thinking about the things of God or forgiveness or beauty or holiness let me just take you out of that game right some of you shame it's where you live where you live and he just whispers enticement then whispers accusation and makes you ineffective right now the good news is this battle our King is already one the only way you can fight this the only sin you can fight is a forgiving sin that Jesus beat our enemy down right and now we rise up as the children of God and are meant to fight it and that's what you get in verse 13 it says therefore take up the whole armour of God that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all to stand firm in the midst of all these voices of accusation and condemnation Paul says four times stand stand stand stand and I think he says it because when accusation and all kinds of discouragement comes we sort of wilt and fall and curl up and he says stand up son stand up daughter plant your feet and resist these voices that come to your mind and the condemnation that associates it with it but how do I do it he says take up the armor of God stand there for and then he starts rolling through all this armor and let me just give you the basic mentality of all these little armor pieces of what he's saying here he's going to talk about a belt of truth and a breastplate of righteousness and a helmet of salvation here's basically what he's saying he's saying I want the voice of God to be the closest thing to you that when you step out into the world your pursuit of intimacy with God is in a context of adversity and so when you step out there I want things closest to your body to be the voice of God the words of God and no other voice so he said stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth that was a leather apron kind of thing that they would wear that would be the closest thing to your body and he's saying get the truth of God word closer to you than any lie that may try to come bind truth around you that's how you fight right that the voice of God is near to me so I've told the story here before when I was in college my sister came here we became buddies in college and I remember one time just jogging with her and just telling her like I just can't get this right in my life and I'm so sick of this and I just feel like there's never going to be an answer to that just like really negative thoughts about myself and about the prospects of me ever seeing God show up in some area of my life and I was saying it to my sister because like a lot of guys I thought you say to a girl come on come for you right and I just remember my sister in that moment was like Ben that's not from God that was like the end of it and I'm like well I know that but I'm just saying what just feels really real to me with him she's like no it's like we're not that's it not from God end of story right like that was it just no compassion I might we'll forget you that right but did as I thought about it I'm like no what what I was doing was I was letting lies about who Ben really is and lies about God's ability to show up in my life get in deeper than the truth I was letting to get in deep on me and she was like don't let it underneath it man let the truth be the closest thing to eat so some of us meant you struggle with pornography so real in our generation I hate on you for that it's all over the place you got a war against it right but what happens when temptation comes the lie start coming in of hey man you should look at this it's not going to hurt anybody even though you know factually put the Bible down just look at stats you know it's addictive it's bad for marriages damages your ability to enjoy real sex with real human being it's incredibly negative experience it's horribly abusive to the women involved in this industry it's a fake and a lie and it's painful for them and so this whole thing is this bad bad bad bad bad you know that objectively true this is a horrible thing but in that moment this voice is like yeah but just if you look at it right now it's fine well it's not I mean you're not hurting anybody like sure institutionally it's horrible but you're just looking at it like right now like don't worry about that or it's not gonna we're not talking about addiction we're just talking about right now and it's just telling you these things that you're like okay I guess right and then when you do it what happens I've been the voice of shame comes how can you do that and then the voice that's encouraging you to do it says how dare could you do that you're never going to be someone that gets out of this you might as well just keep doing it because you can never get out of and that voice is so real and for some of us we believe it and we let it get in true closer to us in the truth of God of no I have the ability to fight sin to cast off the old I have brothers that can gather around me to pursue righteousness and peace that God loves me I don't have to go to this for comfort I know the comforter and we don't let truth get it we let it get in on us or some of us even in the work of ministry I was singing with modern-day slavery I know some of us we talking about making a difference in the world of seeing God move in power in places like Africa but it's like Nepal where there's hurting and I know for some of us we go yeah but how much of a difference we gonna make really you know I mean so much corruption like all that money probably went to some guy it's driving a new car with a new watch like how much money am I really going to give away like can i really make a difference in the world like i need to get a job and I can't worry about saving the world like that's kind of crazy that's something that young people think I got to get responsible now and buy a bunch of things for me you know and I we just sort of get this mindset of man all you got to do is just take you out of the game we start to believe things like God can't really use you to make a difference but God couldn't really use you to change the world and the reality is we let lies get in underneath the truth and he says don't do that man fight fight it's interesting Martin lloyd-jones the great preacher of a generation ago said this he was teaching on psalm 42 where the psalmist says why are you down cast o my soul why are you so disturbed within me and listen to what Martin lloyd-jones said he says have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you're listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself take the thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning you've not originated them but they start talking to you they bring back the problems of yesterday etc somebody's talking who's talking to you your self is talking to you now the psalmist's treatment was this instead of allowing this self to talk to him he starts talking back to himself why are you down cast o my soul he asks his soul's been depressing him crushing him so he stands up and says self listen for a moment I will speak to you why are you cast down what is your business of being disquieted and then you must go on to remind yourself of God of who God is of what God is and what God has done and what God has promised to do then having done all that and on this great note defy yourself defy other people defy the devil and the whole world and say with this man I will praise God for the help of his countenance I love that he says when your voice starts pressing into you tell itself wait a second what are you thinking about why are you thinking that and I started to do that in my life I remember in college when I would wake up in the mornings I would always wake up feeling a little depressed just sad and I would usually get my car and put on music that wasn't you know people talk about secular music as the devil's music I was like no I would just put on music that just sort of supported Ben's sad victimized thinking in life right and I just sort of felt like this is my lot in life until God chooses to make me happy so I'd be like God I just want to be happy and I don't know why you're not and I remember one day just driving down George Bush Drive in thinking I don't have to be sad today like there's no one saying Ben what day is it today you're supposed to be sad today like like there's nobody telling me I have to be like I don't have to be here it was the first time that I started like talking back to that voice of why are you so downcast O my soul it's like well because I'm tired well you can take a nap later well cuz I got a lot to do are you gonna fail your classes what if even if you did it'll be okay like life's gonna go on like well I may never get married you you don't even want to be married right now you're only 20 and then I just don't talking I'm like I realize this voice isn't making sense and so for the first time in my life I certainly I'm not gonna believe that I'm not going to own that I'm not going to buy that I'm not going to take that he'd be depressed no I'm not going to be depressed today and just going to war against that that's what he's saying to do fight in your mind fight it having put on the breastplate of righteousness then I fight with the idea that I've been made righteous in Jesus that he's made me righteous and God because of the finished work of Jesus I remember that landed on me in college I was a the parking lot attendant at the airport Easterwood not a real busy airport a lot of free time out there and I remember I sat out there and I was reading the biography of Martin Luther and I'm reading about Martin Luther and Martin Luther used to struggle with doubt and depression and discouragement and he said finally at one point he would just feel the devil just condemning him with his sin he's messed up here you did this again how dare you do that all that sin and condemnation and he said what he started to do was when that voice would press into him about you looked at that again you touched that again you said that again you did that again what he started to do is go you know what you're right you're right and then you would say and you know what you actually missed a few and then he would start listing off more sins that hadn't come to mind immediately in that moment and he would make this long list of all his sins MEAC I did all that and just look at how horrible it is and then he would say but there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus for the law the Spirit has set me free from the law of sin and death and he fought with justification he fought with the righteousness that had been given to him by God he fought back right that's been something that's been so helpful in me in life I remember seeing it on a t-shirt I've told you this for don't believe everything that you think and that's been great for me how does that play out practically for me in my devotional life I did it again this morning I woke up and I just write brutal honesty and my devotional to the Lord of what I'm thinking I don't want to study today I don't want to pray today I don't want to read my Bible today I want to sit maybe lay down and I started asking myself why what's your problem and then I looked and was like well it's because you haven't taken a day off in like a month like that was a mistake Lord I don't want to do that in the future and then I looked at May and was like but we're almost done and I get time off in May and then you know what I started doing I started listing all the awesome things that God had done in my life this year I like never do that and someone asked me once why do you ever like think about gratitude and I'm like not enough actually and so I just started listing all the awesome things God had done in my life over this past year that's about to come to the close this school year and the more I thought about how much God had showed up in the spring 2014 I realized like spring 2014 was pretty freakin amazing I got done and I was like god you're amazing and life's amazing and I love my life and I love the Bible I love these kids and I love breakaway and I should tell somebody I want to tweeted it buddy you guys are great right I'm just like and I realized you fight you fight with truth of who God isn't what he's done right I put on the gospel of peace I take up the shield of faith which which I can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one back then you would light the end of an arrow on fire coat it and pitch light it up and shoot it at somebody what was the goal is that when it would Lodge it would Lodge and burn so it wouldn't just stick you it would cauterize your insides right and some of you that's what pornography or that's what sexual failure is done in your life you got into it early in life and in your dating life or the opposite sex and your personal life it has lodged and burned deep in you and you believe right now sitting here you'll never get free and the truth is you need to lift up a shield of faith what does that mean it means that you need to start believing God is bigger than your sin you don't need to it's not the shield of work harder it's not the shield of get your crap together it's the shield of my god can my God can put a stop to this my God can heal me my God can help me now it's a help that involves fighting but it's a help that I can get victory over there were sins in my life when I was a young man in college I thought I'd never be free from that I found freedom in it's been a struggle and a battle but the struggles made me strong God has redeemed even that and you need to rise up and say do I believe my god conquered death and hell then I believe he can conquer this issue in my life and you need to start believing it tonight pick up this armor pick up the helmet of salvation that God has saved me that I have a future in him and just to move on in verse 18 and following in this middle section he's been saying put on this armor I let the voice of God be the closest thing to me and some of you what does that look like listen to podcasts I'm gonna show I listen to podcasts yes should I read a devotional book yes should I study a book the Bible yes should I study in on my own yes should I study it in groups yes none of this is either/or get the Bible all around you get the words of God in your car for me my first semester out of college I would always dip into sadness go into work you know because suddenly around all these old people only 20-year olds are gone now I would get in my car and I would put on a Robby see CD or a David Crowder CD and it was there early stuff that always started kind of depressing it was like this is all that I can save yeah this is all that I can give and I was just like oh god its but by the end of it they would always turn the corner into praising God and music music was a balm to my soul on the way to work some of you need to just get God exalting music in your car get great podcast in your car get a great devotional book I'm reading right now Sally Sally lloyd-jones book thoughts that make your heart sing it's a devotional written for children all the entries are about this long accompanied by beautiful pictures and I've been reading through the whole Bible this year I'm in Ezekiel I'm loving Ezekiel but some mornings you wake up and you're like I'm just I'm not ready for another chapter of the destruction of Jerusalem I've just I'm not feeling today and so I pick up Sally lloyd-jones book and the beautiful thing she's right into these kids and I'm like moved to tears I love this book I've been taking pictures of it to tweet out I haven't tweeted one yet but I'm just I took pictures of this book because it's blessing my soul get the Jesus story but Bible get thoughts to make your heart sing because you know what it's actually a good title it's done that for me and as I'm reading these things my affections are stirred I get his words near me I get his voice closest to me and then I send my voice up to him and that's the rest of this praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints he says pray at all times with all prayer with all perseverance for all saints so he's like I want to constantly be talking to the Lord I remember a friend telling me he got to ride in a car went with Billy Graham Billy Graham started the largest college ministry on the planet Campus Crusade for Christ and Billy excuse me uh I keep saying Billy Graham it's bill bright at least I'm thinking Billy Graham I don't know it's been a long month but he said he picked bill bright up from the airport and as soon as he gets in the car Bill's asking him about his life ask him about things he's struggling with and he's like well I'm trying to figure out this deal in my life and he said as soon as he would stay stuff do bill he said bill would never say things like hey why don't we pray about that or oh man I'll pray for you he said he would just be sitting there car and go Lord we just want to lift that up to you right now and say we trust you with that he said he was driving his life like most folks boy what like he was used to like a very formal split between we're talking and now we're talking to the Lord and it was a weird for him to be with bill the bill was like that's a good point Tom lord I just ask you about what Tom just said and he was like whoa like God gods in this conversation the truth is yes God is in this conversation you may not want to do that with your boss if he's not a believer or likes a co-worker you make kind of weird amount you know to me like if you're like how you doing today I'm not doing well Lord I just cast out those like you know like you decide but in your life start attaching prayer to every part of your life all prayer with all perseverance for all the saints for me I've just tried to think about when I walk into this I have rooms in my house when I walk into this room I stop to pray when I sit down with my kids to eat we pray when we put him to bed I pray when I get in my car before we go somewhere I pray when I get on stage Paul said this and pray for me that words may be given to me in the opening of my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel that's why I ask you to pray for me because I need it too and so he says I want the voice of God closest to me you find the creative ways to get it there find the books find the people find the church fund the music get the voice of God close to you so that when a lie comes you keep it on the outside and then you send your voice up to God talking to him whispering to him praying to him being alert to what God is doing and you watch what God will do Paul is writing this from prison and nowhere in the book of Ephesians do you see him whining and crying and pining away about what a victim he is because he's in prison what does he ask for at the end here pray for boldness and the right words because I'm in prison to preach the gospel he was alert and he could see where God had put him some of us were spiritually asleep it's never even crossed your mind that God may have divine purposes for where he's put you this summer or the classroom you're sitting in right now Paul was in prison and said God put me here for the gospel pray for the right words and boldness because I'm rolling for it it's time for you to stand it's time for you to fight your forgiving Son of God so rise up and fight against the darkness because the only sin you fight is a forgiving sin and here's where we'll close at the end I don't have time to read them all but all this armor of God language Paul didn't come up with this wasn't Paul's idea some people say well he was looking at the Roman soldier next to him it was like it's kind of like a breastplate of righteousness right Paul had in his mind Isaiah chapter 11 Isaiah 11 was talking about the devastation of sin in your life and it says but a spring will ride out rise up from the root of Jesse and the Spirit of the Lord will be in him a son of David will be king he will rise up with the Spirit of God in him and he'll fight for us Isaiah was talking about Jesus and it says he will put on righteousness as a belt around his waist and faithfulness and Isaiah 59 he talks about the fact that evil and darkness and sadness is ruling over the world and it says the Lord saw it it displeased him there was no justice he saw that there was no man and no one to intercede so through his own arm he brought salvation and his righteousness upheld him he put on righteousness as a breastplate a helmet of salvation on his head and put on a garment of vengeance for his clone Isaiah says when we were lost in our sin God rose up the Messiah rose up he put on his armor and he fought for us and he rescued us and he redeemed us right Ephesians chapter one says it that Christ I he said I hope you know that what Christ has bought you the immeasurable power that same power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him far above all rule and power and authority that same power is accessible to you the armor of God in Ephesians 6 is not just the armor God gives you it's the armor of God that metaphorically what God wore when he fought the devil and bought you and so God was successful at beating death and hell and the devil you can have victory over whatever problems assail in your life not because you're so strong but because he is the only sin you can fight is a forgiving sin and if you are in Christ your sins have been forgiven God beat death for you there's no condemnation those in Christ so rise up in hope because the fight you're dealing with is a fight you can win by his strength for his glory because he bought you and he wins you howdy and welcome to the breakaway podcast my name is Brent and I'm with Ben Stewart Ben we just finished up the book of Ephesians we did it man great semester awesome time studying Ephesians and and you wrapped it up with Ephesians 6:10 through 20 the armour of God there it is it was a yeah man it's one of those things you could do a whole series on Ephesians six man yeah you know so it's hard to look down at my notes and go whoops we're gonna have to skim past some of this but I think we hit some good things so I thought it was great yeah man I feel good about it and I hope people walk out and couraged that we've been liberated to fight you know so that's my hope you know I thought it was great Jeff was back with us leading worship I thought he did an incredible job tonight just tying it in at the end Oh mutants a moment to respond if you want the full experience listen to Jeff Johnson's it is finished yeah after you listen to the sermon because that's where we went and it was really I mean the lyrics just boom tied totally into where we needed to be in perfect man yeah so good well in this moment Ben do you have any closing thoughts for the book or specifically to this text that you'd like to share with our podcast listeners yeah totally uh I won't reteach at all or whatever you know but I would say a couple things one I would say if even six comes after Ephesians one two three four and five and then it's not rocket science but here's what I mean by that is there are people who think I can't come to God if I'm struggling with this and there's particular sins in people's lives that they just feel like if I'm struggling with this and oftentimes it's sexual sins then I then I can't come to God and how could he love me and whatever and you just have to see that the fight against sin and Ephesians 6 comes because of the freedom in Christ of Ephesians one and two and three and the love of Christ and the redemption of Christ and so you're not fighting to get into a relationship with God you're fighting because you are in a relationship with God and I think sometimes if we feel like we're struggling with sin that must mean we're not really his and you go note he's writing this to Christians that Ephesians one two three four and five is all about and even after all that wonderful stuff God has done you're going to struggle because of that wonderful stuff God's done you're going to struggle if God hadn't put his spirit inside of you you would struggle with sin you would just do it I mean the fact that you're wanting it gone and begging God to change it it is a good sign of assurance that you're actually his now it's just a matter of struggling well against sin and that's a fusion six oh I just think it's important to point out this isn't Ephesians 1 this isn't fight and beat all your sin and then God will love you this is Ephesians 6 the love of God comes in first so you have to come at it knowing that my good friend Jimmy need him just recorded a video for desiring God you can go to their website and see it where he was talking about how he beat his addiction to pornography and the key for him to start that successful battle was embracing that he is loved that he's forgiven by God and loved by God that he's not fighting to earn the love of God he has the love of God and in the context of being loved by the Father he can turn loose of this lesser thing and that was really a key for him and overcoming that struggle and so if that's your struggle I highly commend that to you only other thing I would mention that I really didn't hammer in this is you know Paul says did a lot of things I didn't hammer in this but you know he says make supplication for all the saints this is this is not an individualistic endeavor spirituality is a community sport and so we didn't we didn't nail in the community piece so much this time but I would just stress that over and over and over again if you're battling sin on your own it's not going to be a very successful endeavor there are things you need to do on your own but if Jeavons for we are members of one another that he built us into a body of Christ that we all fight together and we all pray together and so if you want any kind of substantive victory over sin it's going to have to be with us you know that we come together and we encourage each other so that none of us will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin how do I keep from being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin us us the body of Christ and so get some people around you that can speak the truth to you they can love you that can support you that can make you laugh that you can love them you can serve them and you can just get in deep with the people of God and so if you're listening to this we love that you're tracking with us wherever you are in the world but we would beg you while you do it be in a church be within a small group of believers that know your name and know your story and you know theirs and you're praying for each other and you just like they say in a you're only as sick as your secrets and if you're battling your sin on your own and secret that's not helpful I read a powerful testimony from a guy the other day that struggled with a particular sin and he was just trying so hard to fight it with all these techniques and white-knuckle it and finally he said I realized what I was doing was a misuse of willpower and I thought that was such a weird sentence to say a misuse of willpower and what he meant was he said I was using all my willpower to just try to make myself overcome it by myself and he said and I realized the willpower I needed was the courage and humility in the middle of my struggle to call somebody that was the right thing to do that in the middle of my struggle with my sin I needed to use my willpower to force myself to dial the phone and say I need you to pray for me I need you to come around and he said when I began to use my willpower to press me deeper into the community of God I found the grace of God there waiting for me and he found victory over an addictive sin and so that's what you need use the power of God to press you into the community of God to be in prayer with all the saints for each other Paul wasn't above needing the Saints to pray for him you're not above needing the Saints to pray for you so get around the people of God and and you'll find yourself stronger and blessed because of it absolutely well thank you been very helpful and I think I speak for a lot of people thank you for being so faithful to spend time in this book in this text and teach us this semester it's been helpful for me personally yeah and we hope it's been helpful for people listening VMA into the podcast so fun so if you are a podcast listener we've we've got one more break away coming up it's our all worship break away so we probably won't have a talk that comes out of that but if you're not we're going to take a couple weeks to kind of break from the end of the semester but we will be producing and coming out with some summer podcasts we'll let you know as those are coming closer on our social media which is Twitter and Facebook check our website all of them will be available there if you haven't checked at our website yet this is a little website plug check it out we've just put a lot of different video content some stuff that you've done with desiring God been yeah several talks our parents weekend talks on there go check those out if you haven't if you need some stuff to get you to the summer podcast there's stuff on there yeah check it out that interview with Ravi that's right those and and for those of you don't know maybe you lepton with us this year you know breakaway Bible study on the campus of am we don't meet during the summer the summer affords us a time as the staff to do some different things and prepare for the fall but we just felt like we don't like the idea of just disappearing for months and so it's a little different format in the summer Brett and I will be sitting around in our office and pull these mics out and talk and but we just thought it's a great way to kind of come a different angle and approach the Scriptures together pray together and encourage each other and so we love doing the summer podcast so we're not going away it'll just be a little different you won't be hearing a recording from live in front of thousands of college students that'll come actually the first week of September this year but we'll have this summer to put some stuff out for you and just love what we get to do so thanks for tracking along with breakaway and man we're just excited about connecting with you in the future too absolutely well have a great week or a couple weeks here and we'll see you over the summer so yeah you

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Published: Sat May 17 2014