PROTECTING OURSELVES

Ephesians 6:10 – 20

OPEN: It was an early morning in Los Angeles, CA several years ago. A motorcycle policeman named Bob Vernon saw a red pickup truck speeding through a stop sign, and he turned on his siren and gave chase. When the pickup pulled over, and Vernon approached the driver’s side door to ask for ID. But what the police officer didn’t know was that driver had just engaged in an armed robbery at a convenience store and had a sack of stolen money on the seat beside him.

No sooner had Vernon approached the driver and said “Good morning, sir, may I see your ...” than the driver pulled his gun and fired into the policeman’s chest from just 4 inches away. The force of the blast pushed the policeman backwards 7 feet where he fell to the ground.

Believing that the officer was dead, the driver prepared to drive away... but then, Vernon stood up, pulled his service revolver, and fired twice. The 1st bullet went through the open window and smashed the windshield. The 2nd tore through the door and ripped into the driver’s leg. The driver began to scream “Don’t shoot!” and he threw his gun and the money out the pickup window and was placed under arrest.

But now, wait a minute! That robber had just shot Vernon in the chest from 4 inches away. There was no way that police officer should have been able to recover from that. Except that Vernon was wearing a Kevlar vest. It was only 3/8 of an inch thick... but strong enough to stop a bullet.

Bulletproof vests have saved countless lives of police officers in the line of duty. Here are some examples that I found. Just a few in 2015, a Union city police officer was shot in the chest by a suspect, but survived thanks to his bulletproof vest. In 2019, a Denver police officer was saved by his bulletproof vest in a shootout with a suspect. In 2023, a North Carolina state highway patrolman was shot in the chest, but his life was saved because of the bulletproof vest he was wearing.

The one I found interesting was, in 2014, the army presented back to Sergeant Timothy Gilbo the bulletproof vest he was wearing. They gave it back to him at a special ceremony because that bulletproof vest saved his life. While on duty in Afghanistan, he was shot at point blank range, but the bullet struck the bottom edge of his plate.

In our text today, Ephesians six, Paul tells us to put on. Each of us need to put on our own personal vest.
- Ephesians 6:10-11 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

In the examples I mentioned earlier, these particular men were able to stand up and stand firm because they had put on their own personal protective armor. The scripture says that each one of us have armor that allows us to stand up and stand firm.

The problem for a lot of church-goers, is that there’s kind of a “disconnect” going on. This passage seems to imply that there’s a fight going on - that we are engaged in something of a holy war - and that whether we win or lose may depend on how prepared we are. But many church-goers often don’t grasp the reality that we are to be on guard daily.

I don't know about you. I remember a while back when I was Cub Scout leader with my wife, we were at a Boy Scout camp, Beaumont, I believe it is.

There is a real cool Boy Scout fort there. When the twins were younger, the Boy Scouts challenged our scouts to a snowball fight. Well, the Boy scouts are, if you don't know, they're like age 7th grade to seniors. We were third grade to 6th grade. But we challenged, and they were all excited.

Well, I have to tell you that us leaders also got involved. When the first snowball that whacked off the wall above me, I realized they mean business! This isn't just a friendly game of snowball play. And then when you get pelted in the back, you realize, oh, my goodness, this is serious. I'm sure we've all been in that situation where you start to think that this is just for fun, and all of a sudden you realize, ooh, they mean business.

In the Bible study, we are in James, chapter five, and we were talking about job as an example of patience and perseverance. You think about all that he went through. He knew as he started to lose family members and wealth and so on, something was going on, and it was serious.

When we read all the examples in the Bible, God is saying there's a serious tone. When Jesus was speaking in Matthew, chapter five, as he started to speak to the individuals, blessed are you that do this and that. It was serious business. Now there was a warfare going on. And that's what we realize, that we are at war.

ILLUS: A mother told of calling her son – who was deployed to Iraq, to say hello one weekend. She asked if he had to work on Sundays and he replied: “Mom, we have to work every day... it’s a war.”

WE ARE AT WAR! We are called to be prepared to engage our enemy every day of the week – not just on Sundays, as some Christians do. We think that we are part of the secular world. Monday through Thursday, Saturday, Sunday is our day of making focus and time back to God. But we need to realize that in reverse. We're at war every day of our lives.

And - if ever WE forget that we are at war with our enemy - there will come a time when we’re not going to be wearing our armor and we are gonna get hurt! So, don’t forget – you are at war, and you have an enemy!

But, who is our enemy? Who are we fighting? In our day and age, many people would say the dreaded cold virus or the flu virus or the COVID virus or politics or the nuclear weapons that we read of nowadays.

We have all been personally, we're professional hand washers, aren't we? Since 2020, we can sing happy birthday to you. I know that they said the different songs that you sing. I watch my grandson as he's getting ready to be a nurse. I shouldn't pick on them, but I got to say this. My daughter's a nurse, and my grandson's going into nursing, and when they wash, they do a great job. But I have to take a paper towel or something and dry all the area around the sink afterward.

Listening to the news, or just reading comments written on various social media sites you can draw the conclusion that...
Many Christians may believe that their enemies are the folks in some “other” political party. Or that their enemies are folks who don’t dress or look like them. Or that the enemy are folks who don’t agree with them in a certain event like what is currently happening here in Chardon over the carrying of a thin blue line flag at a football game.

But in reality, God tells us that those OTHER FOLKS are not our enemies. These OTHER FOLK may be really annoying to us at times, but they are not our enemies.

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 “... we are NOT contending against FLESH AND BLOOD (mortal people), but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

You’re fighting “Spiritual hosts of wickedness!” You can’t even SEE who you’re fighting!!! But then – you can’t see this Covid virus thing either. You can see (and even experience) the damage and death it inflicts - but you can’t see the virus. There are medical teams across the world fighting and coming up with cures for these. It could even include cancer, heart attacks, heart disease. They're committed to coming up and fighting against that enemy until it is defeated.

That’s what Paul is telling us here. You can’t see the enemy, but you better believe it’s there. You may not be able to see Satan, but you can see the death, disaster and damage and he has inflicted on people’ lives. I like to read in one Peter five and eight, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking who may he may devour. We are assured in scripture that there is Satan. We mentioned the book of Job. It talks about Satan kind of walking around and having a conversation with God. “Well, he only serves you because he has it so well”. It's basically what Satan was saying, wasn't it? “Look, he has nothing to worry about. You treat him so well.”

We as Christians, sometimes we get too comfortable. Basically, I think he's saying, Job looks like he's comfortable. Let's put a little heat under him, as we would say Christians today, we have a little heat put under us. It might be for a reason, a testing. Sometimes people turn away from God.

I had a roommate way back in Ohio state, back in the 70s, early seventy’s, that said he lost a brother. Way back. He prayed to God and his brother died anyhow. He turned from God and thought, why would God do that to him? Therefore he was mad at God. Well, I'm thinking there's somebody I want on my side.

I don't know if I want to stand face to face against God. It was bad enough when David stood against Goliath. I don't think any of us want to stand personally face to face with God.

We all will. We know. We're told. But I would rather have God on my side when I have to stand face to face with Him than to oppose Him. So we look at this, and we look at what Job was facing and the times of trials.

Jesus talks about how there's certain things, the silver and gold, have to be refined to be pure at the end and compared it to our lives. The trials and tribulations we go through. So that brings us to verse 13 of our text. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand, withstand the evil day, and having done all to stand firm. That brings us, of course, to our armor.

So you MUST make up your mind to not give up the fight until he is defeated. And you do that by being prepared to fight ... with the proper armor.
That brings us, of course, to our armor.

The first 5 pieces of armor are these:
Belt of Truth. Someone has noted that this “belt” was a sash that designed to keep every part of the armor in its place.
One commentary believes that what Paul’s telling us that it is our honesty and sincerity and TRUTHfulness that holds our armor together. Thus, if we’re faking our faith, all the rest of armor will fall apart. If we’re hypocrites, our armor will be useless.
Think about that belt, gentlemen, Ladies probably, too, but I know, gentlemen. If you ever get a pair of pants and they're a little bit big on you and you don't put the belt in, how embarrassing it is when you're trying to walk and your pants are sagging and you're trying to hold your pants up and just things have a little bit of trouble.
I deliberately did not wear a belt today. You probably noticed I keep doing this number just to kind of remind myself of that example, how uncomfortable it is because the belt holds things in place. I remember that song years ago. There was a guy, American idol or something, that says, “looking like a fool with the pants on the floor. Pants on the floor or pants on the ground or floor or whatever, looking like a fool.”
I can picture that because I grew up and some kids liked to do that. In high school, we always had to tell the kids to pull the pants up, and they did look kind of silly, when they start to try to run. Got to hold their pants on and so on.

Breastplate of Righteousness. Not our righteousness, but Christ’s. This is the ultimate in Kevlar vests. Christ’s righteousness protects our breast area - that’s where you heart is, and thus the righteousness of Jesus protects your heart.

Sandals of Peace. It literally says “as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.” (Ephesians 6:15)
There is a story about two friends who were walking through the desert.
Halfway through the journey they had an argument and one friend slapped the other in the face. The one who was slapped felt hurt, but without saying anything he wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped began to drown and his friend saved him.

When he recovered from the ordeal, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life." His friend asked him, "Why, after I hurt you, did you write in the sand and now you write on a stone?"

The man, smiling, replied: "When a friend hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. And when something great happens, we should engrave it on the stone of the memory of our heart, where no wind can erase it."

As Christians we need to take our stand on the Gospel. Nothing else matters if we don’t do that.
Romans 1:16 declares: “I am not ashamed of the GOSPEL (I will proudly proclaim the death, burial and the resurrection of Christ), because it is the power of God unto salvation ...”

Shield of Faith. Your FAITH in Christ is your shield. Verse 16 of our text says, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

Flaming darts. I don't think many of us, unless reading this verse, think of being attacked on a daily basis, symbolically by flaming darts of the Satan. If you don’t TRUST Jesus - if you don’t rely on Him – if you don’t have a shield, and really think of Jesus and focus in our lives having a prayer service and having time dedicated to God in Christ daily, I don't think we'll stand a chance because Satan will take us out.

Helmet of Salvation. It always amazed me how many policemen wear that vest, but they don't wear headgear. And I always wondered about that, because if you ever watched a SWAT squad go in, they're all they got the helmet, the shields and everything.

When you look at that group, sadly enough, when I was a kid growing up, we actually opportunity to see that. The individual across the street, the mom was smart enough to throw the little kid who we used to babysit, out the window onto a fuel oil tank. He slid down, came running over. And to hear this kid who was about seven years old, to say, my dad's got a gun on my mom and is threatening to shoot her.

The police were called and we got to watch, I mean, little Newbury, Ohio, and watch an entire SWAT team surround that house. And they all had the helmet, all the gear on. We think about how we protect. A helmet protects your head. That’s where your brain is located and your brain controls how you think. This helmet protects my thinking because now I’m a forgiven man, I am a changed man, I am a saved man. That’s the helmet of my salvation!!! His salvation is reflected in my life because I now know that his salvation now defines WHO I am.

Some have noted that most of this armor is “defensive.” The belt, the breastplate, the sandals, the shield and the helmet - they’re all designed to “PROTECT me.” But, not just me. This armor is also designed to protect those around me. Back in the days of Rome, other armies had swords and shields and helmets and such. But the Roman legions had an advantage – they fought as a unit and they protected each other. Their shields would interlock, and they marched as ONE BODY into battle.

I remember in football, sometimes the kickoff return team, when I was at Berkshire, we used to ask the kids, the front line, to join arms real quick. The front five would quickly join arms and just run, just like a bulldozer, straight ahead. They would try to bend over and so on and take out the opposition. And sometimes the kickoff team running down would see that group coming, running at them, and they would try to go round them. Well, that's what we wanted.

We tell the running back to get as close as he could right behind them. Now, that was way back years ago. I think there's a lot more finesse and strategy to football nowadays. But back in the late 70s, early 80s, it was kind of effective. We call them the hammerheads.

And you and they just kind of join together and go right on out there. We know today, though, that we need each other. That’s why Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us “24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

We NEED each other if we’re going to fight against Satan. We NEED to have each other’s backs. We NEED to fight as ONE BODY if we’re going to defeat our enemy.

Some people may get defensive if you come up and say, hey, I noticed that you could do this a little bit better, or I wanted to encourage you. I take it as a total compliment, and that I know that somebody's looking out for me. And that's what I tried to say last week with Penn and Teller. Penn is an atheist, big guy. But he said, “it is a shame if you know Christ and you don't share it.”

Like, what would you have against somebody for not sharing the saving power of Christ with them? You must not like them very well if you don't share that knowledge that you have. We need each other. We need each other to bond together against Satan. We all need each other to have each other's backs, as we would say, we need to fight as one body if we're going to defeat our enemy.

And that brings us to our weapons... because you can’t fight without a weapon. And Paul describes our weapons in this way:
The 1st weapon is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) You just gotta have a sword, but this isn’t just any old sword. This is the Word of God – the Bible!
This is your weapon. Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

There’s power in this book, and that’s because it’s the sword of the SPIRIT. The power comes from the words the Spirit has infused into your Bible. God even says “my word that goes out from my mouth... will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)

Every time you quote Scripture... you unleash the power of God’s Spirit in a conversation. Just a little tidbit. I'm not sure where they stand, but if you follow a little bit the Athletics, CJ Stroud always gives praise to God anytime they interview him at the end of the game. They interviewed him after a good victory. He gave thanks and glory to God. The channel, the news network, cut that part out of the interview, did not have it.

Yesterday Baltimore played them. Baltimore won. I've never heard John Harbaugh say he was a Christian or whatever, but he deliberately, in response to stick up for Stroud, who he just beat, took a Bible and read a Bible verse as they came in to praise him for his victory. And it was almost like, you got a lot of flak. Let’s see them cut this out this week.

And it basically was saying almost when Shroud said that you give all power and glory to God, and I forget the verse I should remember, but it was basically all power and glory comes through God our savior and so on. And I found that interesting, that even in sports they're starting to catch on, people dropping that out. So may we use God's word in all situations. Every time we quote scripture, we unleash that power.

2nd weapon: “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” (Ephesians 6:18-19)

There are people who don’t think of prayer as a weapon, but Paul believed it was. He said “pray that words may be given to me.” He believed their prayers had power to give him an edge in what he was doing.

ILLUS: Think about it this way. In the US military, there’s someone called a “forward observer.” Basically he calls in the location of a target for artillery or airstrikes. This is a powerful weapon, because he’s calling in the big guns. Think of prayer as calling in an airstrike. When you pray, you’re calling in the big guns. You’re not just doing what you can do; you’re unleashing the power of heaven to do what God can do.

ONE LAST THING: Notice that Paul asked the church PRAY that “words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel”

Paul wrote: “Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him (the devil) to do his will.” II Timothy 2:23-26

Did you catch that? We’re not to get into arguments and controversies with other folks. Our goal is NOT to win arguments about politics.
Our goal is not to share insulting memes about folks with disagree with. Our goal is not to win arguments, our goal is to win souls for Jesus Christ!

We’re told that when Paul was arrested and jailed in Rome he converted a number of the Praetorian Guard. How could he do that? He was chained to those prisoners every day and held inside a prison day after day. But that’s not the way Paul thought about the situation. He didn’t see himself chained to guards... he saw the guards chained to HIM and they couldn’t get away, as day after day he witnessed to them about Jesus. They weren’t his enemies – they were his audience, and he worked at winning them to Christ.

Sermon Contributor: Jeff Strite