Getting Battle Ready - Full Service

00:26:35

- Because I want to talk about a verse,

00:26:36

a chapter in the Bible, that's been

00:26:38

one of the most formative chapters for me.

00:26:40

When I was early in my Walk with Christ,

00:26:42

I went to a Bible study and got into this passage

00:26:45

on Ephesians 6, and we're going to look at it today.

00:26:49

And I've actually forged

00:26:51

one of the elements that we're going to use.

00:27:09

We're talking about the armor of God.

00:27:12

There's all kind of defensive things

00:27:14

that are in the armor of God in the book of Ephesians.

00:27:16

There's the helmet of salvation,

00:27:17

the breastplate of righteousness,

00:27:19

the belt of truth, all these things

00:27:20

that kind of protect in battle.

00:27:22

The only thing that is offensive

00:27:25

in all of these items is the sword.

00:27:29

It's the Sword of Spirit, it's prayer that can be offensive.

00:27:31

You know this, you know that.

00:27:34

I know you're a big sword guy.

00:27:35

You probably geeked out on this entirely

00:27:37

when we gave you this project.

00:27:39

You're a believer.

00:27:40

So I'm curious with all this,

00:27:41

what sword am I going to have

00:27:44

to be able to kill something if I wanted to?

00:27:45

What are we thinking here today?

00:27:47

- Absolutely. So I love blending history

00:27:50

and a bit of modern sensibilities and, you know,

00:27:52

my own original designs together.

00:27:53

And so I've kind of got a hybrid sword for us.

00:27:55

- Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

00:27:56

- Most people are familiar with

00:27:57

the more typical Crusader era sword,

00:28:00

that's kind of a T shape or a cross shape.

00:28:03

And that's all well and fine,

00:28:04

but I have a much deeper love

00:28:05

for ancient swords of biblical era, honestly.

00:28:09

And a lot of those were bronze.

00:28:11

We'll be forging steel today.

00:28:12

And so this is not

00:28:14

a 1 to 1 exact historical duplicate of anything,

00:28:16

but it has healthy nods to a lot of ancient swords

00:28:19

from the biblical era.

00:28:20

So, we've got a lot of work ahead of us to forge it out,

00:28:23

grind it to shape heat, treat it,

00:28:25

and you'll have a fully functional, razor sharp sword.

00:28:27

- Love it.

00:28:29

- All right. You ready to fire up the propane forge?

00:28:31

- Any time we're lighting things, I'm very happy.

00:28:33

Go ahead and light this.

00:28:34

- All right.

00:28:36

- Oh. Oh, now we're living.

00:28:40

- Yeah.

00:28:42

All right, So, we're going to forge.

00:28:44

- Love it.

00:28:46

- I'm going to let you put it in the fire.

00:28:47

- All righty. Let's do it.

00:28:58

Okay, here we go.

00:29:02

- Every hammer blow almost engrains memory in steel

00:29:05

of, you know, of a trauma that it's been through

00:29:07

in the forging process.

00:29:09

- Yeah, I know I should be holding it in the middle,

00:29:12

but it's too hot.

00:29:13

- It is. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:29:14

I think I've just burned all the nerve cells

00:29:16

out of my right hand, so.

00:29:23

- Concentrate on flattening it out on this.

00:29:25

- Flatten the end out?

00:29:26

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:29:36

You can hold on to it right about there

00:29:38

and bring it over and shape the handle.

00:29:47

Yup, Yup.

00:29:50

- It's hot. - Yes, it is.

00:29:52

- Wow. That's badassery.

00:29:54

- Yeah, isn't it?

00:30:09

- That's intimidating. - Yes, it is. Yes, it is.

00:30:31

- So, I'm going to check the straightness.

00:30:33

I see a little bit of a warp.

00:30:34

I'm going to gently correct that.

00:30:46

Perfect.

00:30:50

- Done.

00:30:51

Okay, out and back.

00:31:01

- Badassery right there.

00:31:04

- Very Conanesque.

00:31:05

- Oh, man. Let's go kill something.

00:31:07

- Yeah.

00:31:10

- Oh, man. I'll tell you what, this thing is not a prop.

00:31:14

This thing is for real, man.

00:31:16

I'm not -- Gosh, how close can I get to my hand?

00:31:19

I better stop right there.

00:31:20

And it's not just that.

00:31:21

It's, you know, other fun things

00:31:23

you can shop in half with this.

00:31:25

I wish someone would sit in the front row

00:31:27

here in Lexington.

00:31:28

I'll tell you that right now.

00:31:29

Let's see if I can get it out to the third row.

00:31:31

No, I can't. It's too sharp.

00:31:32

This is this --

00:31:34

that's actually pretty impressive

00:31:35

hand-eye coordination, isn't it?

00:31:37

Let's see how good I am.

00:31:38

Can I do a plumb?

00:31:41

Yes, I did it.

00:31:44

So I'm going to get to this in a moment.

00:31:45

But this passage that I'm going to talk about today

00:31:48

was very foundational in my personal spiritual formation

00:31:52

when I came to know Christ about 41 years or so ago.

00:31:56

I went to a Bible study and somebody's house.

00:31:58

And this was the passage that stuck with me ever since.

00:32:01

Let's read this out of the book of Ephesians.

00:32:03

Here's what it says. It says, Ephesians 6:10:

00:32:22

Now, a couple of interesting things here.

00:32:24

First of all, how many of us notice that life is hard?

00:32:28

Any of us notice that life is difficult?

00:32:31

Why is it hard? Why is it difficult?

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A critical way to understand this is to realize

00:32:37

that whether or not we like it or not,

00:32:39

you and I are in a battle.

00:32:41

We are in a fight.

00:32:42

We are in a war with an entity that wants to take us down.

00:32:47

This passage talks about the schemes of the devil,

00:32:53

that there is a person with a personality

00:32:55

who wants to take you and I down.

00:33:00

When people often times abandon the faith,

00:33:03

they decide I'm not going to be a Christian anymore,

00:33:05

I'm not going to follow God anymore.

00:33:06

It's normally always because

00:33:09

life has gotten very, very difficult for them.

00:33:12

And they had the delusion that if I came to faith

00:33:15

and I became a Christian, then life would be easy.

00:33:18

No, Jesus tells us in this life you will have trouble.

00:33:22

That's a promise from Jesus:

00:33:23

In this life you will have trouble.

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There is this illustration in the Book of Ephesians 6

00:33:28

of us being in a war, and we're in it together.

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When it says you, you, it's not in the personal,

00:33:36

it's in the plural.

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This means all of us are one,

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and all of us as one are in a battle.

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That's why groups are incredibly important at Crossroads.

00:33:45

That's why on our campuses

00:33:46

we're kicking off different group seasons.

00:33:48

We want to help you find a group that works for you.

00:33:52

We want to help you get in a band of brothers

00:33:54

and of sisters that can partner together

00:33:57

because long, long before there was COVID,

00:33:59

the worst virus, the worst pandemic in American history

00:34:04

has been the epidemic of loneliness.

00:34:06

We have been lonely and distracted

00:34:09

and distant from one another,

00:34:11

and our mental health is not good.

00:34:15

Part of what we have to understand

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for life to make sense, we have to make sense

00:34:20

that we are in a battle and you have an adversary

00:34:24

who knows you and is against you.

00:34:27

That passage says against the schemes of the devil.

00:34:30

Let me read it to you again.

00:34:36

In verse 12 it says:

00:34:54

Now, am I saying there's a literal Satan?

00:35:00

Yes, Yes. I'm saying that.

00:35:01

I'm saying yes, there is a literal Satan.

00:35:04

Sometimes it's referred to as the devil,

00:35:07

as Lucifer, as our adversary.

00:35:09

And I know I sound crazy.

00:35:12

I know that sounds really, really odd.

00:35:15

In fact, Psychology Today speaks really well

00:35:18

to the cynical attitude of there actually being

00:35:22

an evil one who's trying to take you out.

00:35:23

Just read Psychology Today, it says:

00:35:45

Hmm. Really? Really?

00:35:48

You know, there was no evidence for germs

00:35:52

until the microscope was invented.

00:35:55

There was no awareness of what's on

00:35:58

our outer reaches of space

00:36:00

until we launched the Hubble telescope. Right?

00:36:04

Maybe someday they'll come out with

00:36:06

some scientific instrument that will make us aware

00:36:09

of a spiritual realm that's in our midst.

00:36:11

I mean, more and more physicists and others

00:36:13

are talking about a realm that we don't know,

00:36:16

that we haven't seen.

00:36:17

Maybe someday there will be some scientific instrument

00:36:20

that will give empirical, physical evidence

00:36:22

or recording of the entity known as Satan

00:36:27

that could be why your life and my life is so hard.

00:36:31

In fact, this passage says there's not just

00:36:34

an entity, a singular person,

00:36:37

there's an actual structure in the spiritual realm

00:36:40

that's ordered to come against you.

00:36:44

It talks about powers and principalities.

00:36:47

So there's a hierarchy in this realm.

00:36:49

I like to picture it as maybe there's been

00:36:53

a brainstorming session with a bunch of demons

00:36:56

in this area, and they put my picture up on the wall,

00:36:59

put your picture on the wall, put your wife's picture,

00:37:01

put your boyfriend's picture on the wall and said,

00:37:03

"Okay, this person right here, how do we take this person down?

00:37:06

What is the specific scheme,

00:37:08

the plan to hurt this person?"

00:37:11

And by hurting us, it means

00:37:13

separate this person from their creator.

00:37:15

God doesn't really care if you're rich.

00:37:17

Excuse me.

00:37:18

The evil one doesn't really care if you're rich.

00:37:20

The evil one doesn't really care how many followers

00:37:22

you have on on Facebook or Instagram.

00:37:24

The Evil One wants you to be frustrated

00:37:26

and separated from your God.

00:37:28

That's what he wants, and he will do anything he can

00:37:31

to make sure you don't see that.

00:37:32

And there is evidence of this. There really is.

00:37:35

Now, this last hunting season,

00:37:37

I really went on a hunt to find and kill an elk.

00:37:41

I did two hunting trips in Idaho, one in Colorado,

00:37:46

not very successful.

00:37:48

In fact, I got an anonymous package at home

00:37:50

around Christmas and I opened it up

00:37:53

and it was a Christmas ornament

00:37:54

and had a picture of an elk on it and said,

00:37:56

"Maybe next year." [laughter]

00:38:00

It's funny now, in the moment it wasn't very funny.

00:38:03

[growls] It's actually very funny.

00:38:05

Very a very, very, very, very creative.

00:38:06

But you know what?

00:38:07

According to my experience, there is no evidence

00:38:10

that elk actually exists. No evidence.

00:38:13

And I worked hard for it.

00:38:15

Let me tell you, I worked hard.

00:38:17

This is a picture of me climbing a mountain,

00:38:19

which got so bad.

00:38:21

Me and a buddy I was with in Idaho, where we said,

00:38:23

"Okay, Brian, you go up over the mountain

00:38:24

so they can't see you on the opposite side.

00:38:26

Go down the ravine, and I'm going to walk up

00:38:28

the side of the ravine.

00:38:29

If there's anything there, I'm going to flush it to you

00:38:31

and you can kill it."

00:38:32

Can you find me on here? Where am I?

00:38:34

Here I am right here. That's me.

00:38:37

I burned, according to my watch, over 4000 calories that day.

00:38:41

It was brutal.

00:38:42

And I never saw an elk.

00:38:44

I saw signs of elk, but I never saw an elk.

00:38:47

Now, what is the evidence that elk exists?

00:38:49

What's the evidence that Satan exists?

00:38:52

You know what's interesting about elk?

00:38:54

There's never been an elk has ever committed suicide.

00:38:57

Nothing in the animal kingdom

00:38:59

has ever committed suicide.

00:39:00

Why is it that suicide continues to be on the rise with us?

00:39:05

I don't know if there's anything in the elk kingdom

00:39:07

or in the animal kingdom that's ever lonely.

00:39:10

I don't know that two elk have ever been

00:39:12

at odds with one another, unless it's a rut

00:39:14

and two males are fighting over

00:39:16

who gets to reproduce the female.

00:39:18

Why do we have all the wars we have?

00:39:20

Why do --

00:39:21

Why don't we go to war inside of our own species?

00:39:23

Why do we judge?

00:39:25

Dogs don't judge other dogs.

00:39:27

Hey, my tail is better than yours.

00:39:28

Dogs don't judge.

00:39:29

Why do we judge other people?

00:39:31

Why is it that we're always like this?

00:39:34

Why is it that we have a system that actually puts us to death?

00:39:37

That we eat things that aren't right?

00:39:38

We have temptations of things?

00:39:40

Why is it that we struggle with things like lust?

00:39:43

Because there's a specific scheme for some of us

00:39:45

to come after you with lust.

00:39:47

Animals don't have lust.

00:39:48

They don't have it.

00:39:49

They have a time procreate, they do.

00:39:51

Why is it that we struggle with materialism,

00:39:54

we go into debt, we have financial troubles?

00:39:57

Dogs don't have financial troubles.

00:39:58

They don't struggle with materialism.

00:40:00

There's all sorts of things

00:40:01

that are unique to the human condition

00:40:03

because there's unique temptations,

00:40:05

because there is a scheme that's trying to take you down.

00:40:11

You have to view this as personal.

00:40:13

Until you see that there's a personal plan

00:40:15

to take you down, you will never lean into God

00:40:17

because why do you need to lean into God?

00:40:19

You just need to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps.

00:40:21

No, you don't.

00:40:22

You ever try to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps?

00:40:25

It doesn't work because the force of pulling up

00:40:27

is equal by the force that's pushing down.

00:40:29

No one ever pulls themselves up by their own bootstraps.

00:40:33

There is a fight that's going on, you and I are in it.

00:40:37

It's a struggle in the heavenly places.

00:40:41

Why is it that we deify one another?

00:40:44

Elk don't deify one another, we deify one another.

00:40:47

I ran across this clip of

00:40:49

the coach of the Boston Celtics and a reaction he had.

00:40:51

I don't know if you've read it all.

00:40:53

I won't ask you to raise your hand.

00:40:54

But you know, I found out this last week

00:40:57

that the book that's on track to become

00:40:58

the greatest selling hardback in American history

00:41:01

is the book that Prince Harry wrote.

00:41:05

In America, in America.

00:41:07

He's not even American. He's English.

00:41:09

What caused us to be so into like somebody else's life

00:41:13

and enraptured with gossiping about somebody else?

00:41:17

Again, deer aren't interested in other people's lives.

00:41:20

Bear aren't interested in others?

00:41:21

What makes us judge ourselves or get really interested

00:41:25

in vicariously living through somebody else?

00:41:29

I loved how this coach of the Boston Celtics dealt with

00:41:33

this question that was at his postgame interview.

00:41:37

- A non basketball question.

00:41:39

Did you get a chance to meet with the royal family?

00:41:41

And if not, how was it, like,

00:41:43

having them there in the building?

00:41:45

- Jesus, Mary and Joseph?

00:41:49

- The Prince and Princess of Wales?

00:41:50

- Oh, no, I did not.

00:41:52

I'm only familiar with one royal family.

00:41:54

I don't know too much about that one. Thank you.

00:42:01

- That is awesome.

00:42:03

The royal family. No, they're just people.

00:42:05

It's all they are.

00:42:06

Jesus, Mary and Joseph?

00:42:07

That's -- That's his royal family. I love it.

00:42:09

That's a man --

00:42:10

That's a man who has his eyes focused on the prize.

00:42:15

That's what I want to do for us today is have us

00:42:17

see things that we haven't had to see.

00:42:20

There is a battle that's raging with us,

00:42:24

and we have to wage that battle with spiritual weapons.

00:42:29

Jesus says this, or excuse me, not Jesus.

00:42:31

The Apostle Paul says this, again, he talks about

00:42:34

our battle is against the cosmic powers

00:42:37

over this present darkness and

00:42:38

over the evil in the heavenly places.

00:42:42

Our enemy is never another person,

00:42:44

our enemy is never another political party.

00:42:47

If it breathes and it bleeds, it's not your enemy.

00:42:51

The reason we don't get along is because

00:42:53

there's an enemy that we all have as a foe

00:42:55

who's trying to divide us and crush us.

00:42:58

And as we're being crushed,

00:42:59

or perhaps feeling like it,

00:43:01

as the scheme is unrolling in your life,

00:43:04

God has been trying to help you.

00:43:07

You know, there's been a scheme that was put in place

00:43:10

maybe two decades ago.

00:43:12

It's been laying unique traps.

00:43:14

And maybe today isn't the day, but there's been

00:43:16

a series of dominos that the evil one is laid up

00:43:18

ready for you to fall in an area that's uniquely,

00:43:21

he knows you are weak in.

00:43:23

It could be a sexual thing.

00:43:25

It could be a financial thing.

00:43:28

It could be a relational thing.

00:43:29

It could be a physical thing.

00:43:30

But it's not by accident.

00:43:31

Now, the good news is, is we're not victims.

00:43:34

The good news is there is armor that God has given us.

00:43:38

These are linked to promises.

00:43:39

Let's look at this armor.

00:43:40

The first piece of armor that is talked about

00:43:44

by the Apostle Paul is the is the belt of truth.

00:43:49

Here's what it says.

00:43:51

It says, verse 14:

00:44:04

So, I have my belt of truth here.

00:44:06

I think there's a reason why

00:44:08

there are different things in different order.

00:44:12

He starts with the Belt of Truth.

00:44:14

They would have seen people in armor

00:44:16

to know what they look like and how they operate.

00:44:19

The belt is the most important thing because the belt

00:44:22

is where your sword hangs off of.

00:44:23

The belt is where the chest piece would clip into.

00:44:26

The belt is what you would gird your your loins with.

00:44:29

And if you run a long robe, you'd tuck it into your belt.

00:44:32

The belt kind of keeps everything secure.

00:44:34

This is what truth is.

00:44:36

The Belt of Truth.

00:44:37

God gives us a set of principles

00:44:39

and understanding of who He is.

00:44:41

It girds everything together.

00:44:44

When I follow Christ, when I follow the path

00:44:46

that God has for me, I'm not making things up.

00:44:49

I am trying to get locked in to the system

00:44:52

He's laid out in the Bible that simply makes life work.

00:44:57

When I step out of that system,

00:44:59

it doesn't work.

00:45:01

When I step out of that system.

00:45:04

I'll get to this in just a moment.

00:45:05

When I step out of that system, my heart gets hurt.

00:45:09

This is why, I think, the next thing that is given to us

00:45:13

is the breastplate, the Breastplate of Righteousness.

00:45:23

I feel so manly when I have this on.

00:45:25

Breastplate. [screams] Breastplate of Righteousness.

00:45:30

What does the breastplate do in any code of armor?

00:45:34

It protects the vital organs.

00:45:37

You know, you've got a gut shot, you're done.

00:45:39

In ancient world, you get stabbed in the stomach,

00:45:42

there's really no way.

00:45:43

It's going to be a low, long, and miserable death.

00:45:47

Go through the lungs. Go through the heart.

00:45:48

This protects all of your internals.

00:45:51

This is known as the Breastplate of Righteousness.

00:45:55

Now, what I'm going to say right now,

00:45:56

you've got to hear me in the right way.

00:45:59

If you hear this in the wrong way,

00:46:00

this actually can be very, very detrimental for you.

00:46:03

The Belt of Truth tells me to see things

00:46:07

the way God has defined them, because that is the truth.

00:46:11

The truth is that you and I cannot work our way to heaven.

00:46:16

You and I cannot pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps.

00:46:19

You and I do not define our eternity.

00:46:22

You and I, our level of obedience and morality today

00:46:25

is not the thing that manifests what our tomorrow is.

00:46:31

No, the obedience that manifests our tomorrow

00:46:34

is the obedience of Jesus.

00:46:36

Jesus gone to the Cross.

00:46:37

He spread out His arms and He took a beating for us

00:46:39

so that you and I would not have to take an eternal beating.

00:46:42

That's the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:46:44

Does anybody like that truth? I like that truth.

00:46:47

It's a wonderful truth.

00:46:48

So when I say I'm going to say right now,

00:46:50

you got to hear me,

00:46:51

I'm not being, like, judgmental preacher guy

00:46:53

who's going to start trying to get you all moral,

00:46:55

get all of us moral.

00:46:56

Because it's not about getting more moral so God likes you.

00:46:58

God already likes you. In fact, He loves you.

00:47:00

He's died for you.

00:47:03

But the Breastplate of Truth means there are things

00:47:07

that are in the Bible that are there

00:47:10

so that you and I obey them

00:47:13

so we bring less pain to our hearts.

00:47:17

Does that make sense?

00:47:18

And when we step outside of the will of God

00:47:23

and do things that are outside the truth,

00:47:25

we bring pain on our life and pain on our faith.

00:47:28

This isn't pain that the evil one is putting on us,

00:47:30

this pain that we've brought to ourselves

00:47:32

because we haven't put

00:47:33

the breastplate of Christ's righteousness on us.

00:47:36

That make sense?

00:47:38

When I went to this Bible study in high school,

00:47:41

they were really, really big.

00:47:42

And I learned early, early on that

00:47:44

the consistent teaching of the Bible through and through

00:47:46

and through is that sex is meant

00:47:48

for a man and a woman in marriage.

00:47:51

And for the most part, for the most part,

00:47:55

I honored that.

00:47:56

And I honor that for the most part, because,

00:47:58

you know, I've not been sexually pure.

00:48:00

I mean, especially younger,

00:48:02

I did have sex with myself quite a few times.

00:48:06

The reason why God has this as a necessary thing

00:48:11

isn't because He says, "Well, if you have sex,

00:48:13

don't have sex the way I want it,

00:48:14

or we have sex outside of that,

00:48:15

then I'm not happy with you.

00:48:17

You don't get to heaven."

00:48:18

No, it's not that. He wants to protect our heart.

00:48:20

Some of the most wounded people

00:48:22

who have a hard time trusting and have issues

00:48:24

are folks who have given themselves over

00:48:26

and their heart has been crushed by another.

00:48:28

And we pierce ourselves with transgressions.

00:48:31

Why does God tell us to tithe?

00:48:34

Is it I tithe because I want to get God love me more?

00:48:40

No. I tithe because it helps get my heart in line.

00:48:42

I end up actually making fewer financial mistakes

00:48:44

in my life when I do that

00:48:46

because I align my heart with Him and aligned --

00:48:49

Why do I tell the truth?

00:48:50

Do I tell the truth because if I lie

00:48:52

God is going to send me to hell?

00:48:54

No, I tell the truth because I bring fewer pain points.

00:48:57

I'm not living a double life when I actually tell the truth.

00:49:01

Why -- I go on and on and on.

00:49:03

These are things we do to protect our heart.

00:49:05

Many, many people have walked away

00:49:08

from the Christian faith, not because

00:49:11

the Christian faith doesn't make sense intellectually.

00:49:15

It's because they don't want to protect their hearts.

00:49:19

It's not that the Christian faith has become nonsensical.

00:49:22

It's that we've become unfaithful.

00:49:26

It's not that intellectual problems

00:49:28

with the Christian faith that have us

00:49:30

having a hard time with Christian faith,

00:49:32

it's I don't want to do what the Bible tells me to do.

00:49:36

I would rather find a way to justify

00:49:38

all the rebellious things I want to do

00:49:40

because it's about me.

00:49:42

And why is it about me?

00:49:43

Because I have somebody who's scheming

00:49:45

to make me think it's about me.

00:49:47

Who's making me think that the commandments

00:49:50

in the Bible are outdated, they're unrealistic.

00:49:52

And so I say, "No, that's ridiculous.

00:49:54

I don't like to live this way."

00:49:55

And I take off my breastplate.

00:49:56

I decide to live a different way than God would have me live.

00:49:59

And I get pierced and I get hurt

00:50:01

and my faith goes away, my heart for God goes away

00:50:04

because I stepped out

00:50:07

of the breastplate of righteousness.

00:50:09

So Paul says, this is a key thing,

00:50:13

seek to be right before Christ

00:50:14

as He's made you right before God.

00:50:18

Let's keep going. The next verse.

00:50:20

Next verse, verse 15:

00:50:32

C.S. Lewis said this, he said:

00:50:46

There is a battle that's raging in all the time

00:50:48

for every part of your mind, every part of your life.

00:50:51

Everything, always, everything.

00:50:54

And we're not just supposed to stay back in our holy huddle.

00:51:01

I think it's really important to to notice

00:51:04

and mention that all of this armor,

00:51:07

all of it assumes that I am out and about.

00:51:11

The Apostle Paul could have told us,

00:51:13

"Just go back to your holy huddle,

00:51:15

go back to your fortress.

00:51:16

Inside of your fortress you don't need

00:51:17

to have a Breastplate of Righteousness on.

00:51:19

You don't need a belt. Just go in your fortress."

00:51:21

Many Christians try to live that way.

00:51:23

We go to our fortress.

00:51:24

We go to our our holy huddles.

00:51:25

It's good to be in a holy huddle.

00:51:27

It's good to have a safe place to retreat to

00:51:28

where people who understand your faith

00:51:30

and want to build you up.

00:51:31

It's really, really good.

00:51:32

But ultimately, we're not meant to be behind gates

00:51:36

just with one another.

00:51:37

We're meant to be out in the midst of the world

00:51:40

loving people and doing hand-to-hand combat

00:51:43

with the evil one.

00:51:45

That's what the shoes are about.

00:51:46

I have these shoes.

00:51:48

They are the only full leather shoes that I have.

00:51:53

I'm just not flexible enough.

00:51:54

I need to have a -- I need to have a --

00:51:57

Honey -- my wife is here.

00:51:58

I need to have a resolution

00:52:00

about getting more flexible one of these years.

00:52:03

It's just gets worse.

00:52:04

Anybody else identify with that at all? Anybody?

00:52:06

Gosh, it's bad.

00:52:08

So these are these are the one piece of shoes

00:52:10

I have that are all leather,

00:52:11

the most like what warriors would have had

00:52:14

back in the first century

00:52:15

because they didn't have all the cushioning

00:52:17

on the shoes that we have.

00:52:20

I've heard people postulize

00:52:22

as to why it is we have shin splints.

00:52:25

Shin splints really weren't a thing in the ancient world.

00:52:28

At least we don't have any evidence of it.

00:52:30

Shin splints during World War II weren't a thing.

00:52:33

One of the theories that I've heard is that

00:52:37

when you're in a culture that only has leather,

00:52:39

like, hard leather shoes, it actually toughens up --

00:52:43

Gosh, I'm getting sticky.

00:52:45

All the juices on the bottom.

00:52:46

Can you hear me walking around up here?

00:52:48

Oh, that's wonderful. Oh, that's good.

00:52:51

God bless America. I love it.

00:52:52

Walking in sticky things as I preach.

00:52:55

Where was I? What was I talking about?

00:53:00

Boots, boots, thank you.

00:53:02

Boots, boots, boots, boots, boots.

00:53:04

One of the theories is that in World War II

00:53:07

they didn't have shin splints because everyone marched

00:53:10

in just leather boots

00:53:12

and it literally toughened up their bones.

00:53:14

And you and I have a shin splint problem

00:53:16

because everything is cushy, everything is easy for us.

00:53:19

And our bones aren't as tough. Fascinating theory.

00:53:23

In the ancient world, people walked a long way.

00:53:27

Standard practice for a Roman soldier

00:53:30

was to walk 20 miles a day.

00:53:32

Nero's legions, when they were making a march one time,

00:53:36

they marched two marathons a day

00:53:38

for three days straight, carrying a 100 pound pack

00:53:41

on basic leather shoes.

00:53:43

You and I operate way less than our physical capacity,

00:53:47

way less than our emotional capacity,

00:53:49

way less than our spiritual capacity.

00:53:50

Why is that?

00:53:52

Because there's a scheme to dumb us down

00:53:54

and to make us soft.

00:53:56

It's not by accident that we're this way.

00:53:59

There's a specific plan

00:54:00

to make you and I weaker than we need to be.

00:54:02

And these shoes are meant to come against it,

00:54:06

to go places, the gospel of peace.

00:54:10

Christianity is supposed to be a forward facing movement.

00:54:17

Our best days at Crossroads

00:54:18

is when we're going some place, we're pushing places.

00:54:20

Our worst day at Crossroads is when

00:54:22

we sit back and we try to just huddle up.

00:54:25

COVID was awful for our church.

00:54:26

A lot of things I would do different

00:54:28

if I had a chance to lead through COVID again.

00:54:30

One thing that was tough about COVID is,

00:54:32

you know, we took a defensive posture.

00:54:34

We just kind of stayed in

00:54:35

and did what people said we should do.

00:54:38

I made some mistakes during COVID.

00:54:41

We should be out pushing, blessing, loving people.

00:54:47

I think it's really sad,

00:54:48

the state of American Christianity.

00:54:49

I think it's really, really sad.

00:54:52

The biggest movements of Christianity

00:54:53

are all internal focus.

00:54:55

It's all worship albums.

00:54:57

It's all 6 million views on YouTube.

00:54:59

And I like worship.

00:55:00

I probably listen to worship more than the average person.

00:55:03

I like worship. It's important to worship.

00:55:05

But our best creativity

00:55:06

shouldn't be going towards internal things.

00:55:08

Our best creativity should be going to external things,

00:55:10

taking the battle externally.

00:55:13

The great movements of the past that grew

00:55:15

the cause of Christ were creative,

00:55:16

outreach orientated things.

00:55:19

Hudson Taylor taking the gospel to China

00:55:22

and growing his hair long like a person in China would

00:55:25

and binding it up came under withering criticism

00:55:28

by church people by looking Chinese,

00:55:30

when you should be looking your own,

00:55:32

the way you have been created as a white person.

00:55:35

I came to know Christ through a movement called Young Life.

00:55:38

Jim Rayburn had the vision to send busses

00:55:41

all over the country and pick high school kids up

00:55:44

and take them to an expensive camp experience

00:55:47

in Colorado to hear about the message of Jesus.

00:55:50

Anybody with us ever go to a Loung life camp?

00:55:52

Any of us? Crazy.

00:55:54

People like Bill Bright who said,

00:55:56

man, I'm going to have this thing

00:55:58

that goes across school campuses,

00:56:00

going to be called Campus Crusade for Christ,

00:56:02

not necessarily a good name.

00:56:03

We're not going to try to kill other people.

00:56:05

But this idea of helping people

00:56:08

and giving the four spiritual laws.

00:56:11

So many of the things in ancient Christianity

00:56:14

in the last few decades are just gone.

00:56:16

Who are the creative people who are thinking of something new?

00:56:18

Who's doing the things that are getting criticism

00:56:21

like all these people got criticism.

00:56:23

Crossroads' biggest criticism that comes towards us

00:56:25

is always the new things we're trying to do,

00:56:27

which are forward facing, how we want to organize,

00:56:30

how we want to organize a Super Bowl service,

00:56:34

camps, get people out pooping in the woods,

00:56:37

Go Trips, like, we need to get out.

00:56:40

And we just go back and retreat

00:56:42

and we huddle in our holy huddle.

00:56:45

When we're not vibrant we get soft,

00:56:47

our bones get brittle.

00:56:49

God doesn't just want to preserve our life

00:56:52

or preserve our faith, He wants to strengthen it.

00:56:54

To do that, we've got to be having our shoes on

00:56:56

to go where God wants us to go,

00:56:59

where new and unique things are.

00:57:02

The shoes of peace.

00:57:05

And we have the, oh, the Helmet of Salvation.

00:57:12

What does the Helmet of Salvation do?

00:57:14

Do I look like a dork right now?

00:57:16

Do I look like a dork, or do I look cool?

00:57:18

I'm not sure.

00:57:19

The Helmet of Salvation.

00:57:20

What's significant about the Helmet of Salvation?

00:57:22

This is having the right mindset,

00:57:26

thinking the right things at the right time,

00:57:30

protecting our mind.

00:57:33

When I hear believers say something, like,

00:57:37

"Well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace.

00:57:40

We're all just sinners. I'm just a sinner."

00:57:43

No, you're not. You're not a sinner.

00:57:45

No, no, you're not.

00:57:46

Now, you do sin. I sin.

00:57:48

I do things I shouldn't do. You do things you shouldn't do.

00:57:50

That's called sin.

00:57:52

So therefore, yes, in a light way,

00:57:54

small S sinner, we are a sinner.

00:57:56

But you recognize the New Testament over and over

00:57:58

and over and over again.

00:57:59

It doesn't call somebody who's come

00:58:02

into relationship with Jesus a sinner.

00:58:04

We're known as a saint.

00:58:06

In fact, in the very beginning of Ephesians.

00:58:09

No, let's go there. Let's actually read it.

00:58:10

The very beginning of Ephesians, like, first sentence,

00:58:14

to the saints who are in Ephesus,

00:58:16

and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

00:58:17

This to the saints.

00:58:18

This isn't somebody who died and has been elected

00:58:20

by an ecclesiastical court to be a saint.

00:58:23

This is a statement to anybody who has received Christ,

00:58:27

has the Belt of Truth,

00:58:28

has His protection over your heart,

00:58:30

you are known as a saint.

00:58:33

If you think your identity is you're just a sinner,

00:58:36

just a lowly sinner like me, who God's always upset with

00:58:39

you will never be victorious.

00:58:41

You'll just always trying to work your way to God

00:58:44

and have Him not flick you off the planet

00:58:45

because you feel like

00:58:46

a Whoa, whoa, whoa is you little nothingness.

00:58:49

No, you are a saint.

00:58:51

You are a treasured child of the most high God.

00:58:56

Do you recognize that?

00:58:57

You're not a little peon.

00:58:59

You're a treasure child of the most high God.

00:59:01

The Bible says that you are a more than a conqueror.

00:59:04

You're not a victim.

00:59:05

You are more than a conqueror.

00:59:08

You're a child of God.

00:59:09

You are a warrior. You are victorious.

00:59:12

You are love.

00:59:14

The Helmet of Salvation over our mind affirms that.

00:59:17

And when we think anything less of ourselves,

00:59:20

our thoughts will always take us to destruction.

00:59:24

Our thoughts will always cause us to go down

00:59:27

because the scheme of the evil one is to have

00:59:30

you think less of yourself when in reality

00:59:33

you're loved by God.

00:59:34

A self esteem problem isn't

00:59:37

a I think the wrong personal thoughts problem.

00:59:41

It's I'm thinking the wrong personal thoughts

00:59:43

because I'm believing a lie that the evil one's

00:59:46

planting in my mind where the lie that's in my mind

00:59:49

that needs to be protected by the Helmet of Salvation

00:59:53

is that I'm saved.

00:59:55

I'm never going to get punished for the sin I did yesterday.

00:59:58

I'm never going to be whacked by God

01:00:01

because Jesus was whacked for me.

01:00:03

God loves me. He believes me.

01:00:05

He's going to give me authority.

01:00:07

And the more that He sees that I'm walking

01:00:10

with the Breastplate of Righteousness

01:00:11

and girded in His truth,

01:00:13

the more powerful and greater things are going to be.

01:00:22

We have then the The Shield of Faith.

01:00:26

Let's read it. It says in verse 17:

01:00:29

And take the Helmet of Salvation,

01:00:30

and the Sword of the Spirit.

01:00:32

Oh, I forgot a verse 16. Excuse me.

01:00:42

I think that's interesting.

01:00:43

The Shield of Faith, flames of darts.

01:00:49

Darts, I get this intention of this picture

01:00:52

of a specific enemy firing a specific temptation,

01:00:57

a specific arrow to take you down.

01:00:59

It's our faith that comes against those things.

01:01:02

All of us are prone to unique things in here.

01:01:06

All of us are prone to unique temptations.

01:01:08

You've got some things that are thrown

01:01:10

in front of your face that are going to trip you up.

01:01:12

There's some things they're not going to trip me up.

01:01:14

There's some things that are thrown in front of my face

01:01:16

are going to trip me up,

01:01:17

but they're not going to trip you up.

01:01:19

The evil one isn't stupid.

01:01:20

There are certain places I could go

01:01:22

that are huge temptations to you that I'll never fall in.

01:01:26

I'm not saying I'll never fall,

01:01:28

but there are certain things that are aimed at me

01:01:31

that I have a real, real hard time with.

01:01:33

Man, I still to this day,

01:01:35

and I'm getting better at it,

01:01:37

but it's still a dart that hits me.

01:01:38

I still feel my worth is dictated by how well I perform.

01:01:42

I still judge myself on how well I'm doing in life

01:01:46

based on how others are doing in their life.

01:01:48

And if I see somebody who's further ahead in life,

01:01:50

or further ahead in their faith,

01:01:52

instead of celebrating that and feeling great about that,

01:01:55

I regularly go, "I'm a loser.

01:01:57

Why aren't I doing that?

01:01:58

How come I'm not thinking about that?"

01:02:00

That's a problem. That's a major, major problem.

01:02:02

Using the life of others to judge my personal worth.

01:02:06

I've been doing that for decades.

01:02:08

I'm getting better at it.

01:02:09

But it's still a fiery dart that comes my way.

01:02:12

What are the fiery darts that comes your way

01:02:14

that your faith has to extinguish?

01:02:17

There's a personal plan trying to take you down.

01:02:21

The evil one wants your head stuffed in his den.

01:02:26

He's working a system, a scheme to come against you,

01:02:30

and God doesn't want that to happen.

01:02:31

That's why we are armed with these things.

01:02:34

Now, the one part of our armor that is offensive

01:02:39

is this, the Sword of the Spirit.

01:02:44

Let's read exactly what the Sword of the Spirit is.

01:02:48

Verse 17.

01:02:59

The Sword of the Spirit is our prayer life,

01:03:02

which is informed by --

01:03:07

The Sword of the Spirit, which is informed by the Bible.

01:03:10

I don't know how to pray

01:03:12

unless I understand how to pray.

01:03:15

What is the heart of God on things?

01:03:16

I know that through the Bible.

01:03:17

It's His truth that girds me together

01:03:20

and helps me discern right and wrong.

01:03:23

Sometimes people ask me to pray for something

01:03:24

and I'll say, "I'm sorry, I can't pray for that."

01:03:27

And they're, like.

01:03:28

I say, "I can't pray for that because I don't --

01:03:30

I don't think that's what God wants for you.

01:03:32

I can't. I can't pray for that.

01:03:33

I mean, that seems to go against what's in the Bible.

01:03:36

I can't do that."

01:03:39

Sometimes I have to pray for somebody,

01:03:41

what they wouldn't ask me to pray for them,

01:03:43

because that's the thing that's in the Scripture

01:03:46

that could actually slice through the pain

01:03:48

that we have in our life,

01:03:49

the problems that we have in our life.

01:03:52

This is the Sword of the Spirit.

01:03:55

In the book of Isaiah we see linked to us

01:03:59

that Jesus modeled and did these things for us.

01:04:03

Isaiah 59:17, this is a prophecy of Him coming. It says:

01:04:20

This sword is for hand-to-hand combat.

01:04:23

Jesus did hand-to-hand combat on our behalf.

01:04:27

Apostle Paul could have talked about a spear

01:04:29

where you stood away from things.

01:04:31

He could have talked about a catapult,

01:04:34

where you just lob things at people.

01:04:36

But no, I've got to get up and close.

01:04:38

And I get close, and how do that?

01:04:39

I do that through prayer.

01:04:41

I want to pray for you right now

01:04:43

and the battles that you may be raging against,

01:04:46

the schemes that are unfolding for you,

01:04:48

whatever campus you are right now,

01:04:49

wherever you are, why don't you stand right now

01:04:51

and let me pray for you as we get ready

01:04:56

to embark on the battle that's going to wait for us

01:04:59

when we walk outside these walls.

01:05:01

So, God, I am thanking You, first of all,

01:05:04

for the victory You've done for us,

01:05:06

for how You have died for us.

01:05:07

The truth that we are loved.

01:05:10

The truth that You have not made us to be victims,

01:05:12

but You have equipped us to be more than conquerors.

01:05:17

And yet, despite, Lord,

01:05:18

we still feel the darts whizzing by our face.

01:05:22

We still feel the darts stuck in our flesh.

01:05:24

We still feel the sting. We still feel the failures.

01:05:30

We feel like we're a pawn

01:05:33

in somebody else's scheming against us.

01:05:35

So pray, Lord, I pray right now for those of us

01:05:38

who are wrestling with addiction.

01:05:41

I'm not talking just about alcohol addiction

01:05:46

or drug addiction, I'm also interacting

01:05:48

with more people who are dealing with gambling addiction.

01:05:50

As gambling is rising in our culture,

01:05:52

more of us are not able to just keep it at bay.

01:05:55

And I pray for victory in your reason

01:05:59

and those of us who just gotten in on over our heads.

01:06:02

Lord, pray for those of us who are dealing with

01:06:05

just an awful memory, things that happen in our past

01:06:07

we just can't get over.

01:06:08

We just keep thinking about it over and over.

01:06:10

But somebody maybe did to us a while ago,

01:06:13

and it's keeping us from moving on

01:06:15

because we can't get that image out of our mind.

01:06:17

God, through prayer, I pray you would slay that memory

01:06:20

and help us put it in the right place.

01:06:23

God, for loneliness that's sweeping our land.

01:06:26

Lord, I just see people coming together

01:06:28

and holding hands and locking arms with one another.

01:06:31

I pray against the spirit of loneliness

01:06:34

that is sweeping over our country like a locust,

01:06:38

a swarm of locusts.

01:06:40

God, I know this even happens in marriages.

01:06:42

We have marriages where people feel lonely

01:06:44

and they're at battle with one another,

01:06:46

they're competing with one another.

01:06:47

Lord, You enabled us to be in a marriage

01:06:49

because we are to be one, one before You.

01:06:50

I pray for oneness to happen.

01:06:53

The judgmentalism that sweeps across our country,

01:06:56

the way we just constantly look down on people

01:06:59

who think differently, vote differently,

01:07:00

look differently than us.

01:07:02

God, we want to stand against that, we want to stab it,

01:07:04

we want to slice it in half.

01:07:05

We don't want to be like that.

01:07:07

We ask Your forgiveness for being as judgmental,

01:07:09

as anybody who doesn't know You is judgmental.

01:07:12

We know better than this, yet we keep falling prey.

01:07:16

We trust in You.

01:07:18

We want to lift up the sword

01:07:19

and we want to stab those things

01:07:21

and feel Your protection around our heart.

01:07:24

God, will You do for us what we can't do on our own?

01:07:28

And I pray these things according to

01:07:31

the character, identity and name of Jesus. Amen.

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