January 28, 2018

Sunday School
The Whole Armor of God - Part 1

References: Priscilla Shirer (LifeWay), Bible Hub; Got Questions.org

ü  Note: We as Christians do not want to be in the category of spiritual malnutrition for not taking advantage of God’s Word which is easily at our disposal.

Ephesians 6:10-19

10.  Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

11.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

12.  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13.  Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.

14.  Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. 

15.  and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

16.  in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

17.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

18.  With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints,

19.  and pray….

Wrestle also means to struggle against; tussle or grapple with.  Looking back at v12 what are the four obstacles we wrestle against. 

So we see that our enemy is a spiritual one not a physical one. So our armor needs to be a spiritual one but Satan wants our attention on people; money; anger; malice; lies; adultery; hopelessness; etc. This way he can easily sneaks into our lives waging war against our minds and bodies.

At the end of the day if you’re feeling strained, emotional unstable, mentally fatigued, your body is exhausted, weighed down with fear, anger, unforgiveness, pride, insecurity, fate, gossip, plotting against another…..guess what……Satan is winning and we, as Christians, with the tools at our disposal, need to fight back using those tools. And remember v10…Be strong in the Lord and the strength of His might.

As believers in God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean that we are exempt from being battered by Satan every single day, hour, minute.

Do You Have The Vision?

Read 2 Kings 6:1-19 concentrating on verses 15-18.

Summarize what happened. 

In order to protect ourselves against Satan’s wiles, we must be able to identify what is going on around us and the first way to do that is to see, look at, or visualize our surroundings and what is happening daily, remembering that even though we wrestle against a spirit, recognizing the beginning signs of the devil attacks, gives us a starting point of the spiritual armor we will need to fight with.

And above all…….PRAY!

Satan’s deviltry unmasked……

Read Acts 19:11-41

Satan uses human weakness to stir up trouble for others as we’ve read from Acts with Demetrius the silversmith. And we see that crowds of people get in an uproar, some, not even knowing why.

This leads us to the present and how Satan can infiltrate our daily lives. But we tend to miscalculate and misjudge our abilities the wart off the attacks through Jesus Christ.

We get laden with fear and anxiety and tend to look at what we can see over what we cannot.

We need to remember that we are sealed in God’s protective arms and we need to call on that ARMOR we’re wearing.

Have we become unaware of the enemy’s craftiness? Have we not discerned his ability to quietly sneak under our defenses, cleverly distracting us from our heavenly goals?

We must be able to uncover the enemy. We must name him as this reveals his true character.

We must visualize and understand who the real enemy is underneath the surface. 

We wrestle with (1) rulers; (2) against the authorities; (3) against the powers of this dark world; (4) against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

What is the common denominator of the enemy & where are they located?  2 Corinthians 4:4 – The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.  John 8:44 – You belong to your father, the devil. And you want to carry out your father’s desires.  He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.  Revelation 20:10 – And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.  They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Where are we in all of this???

o   From Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

 Spiritual Blessings: Why are they called Spiritual blessings?? Because they are imparted to the waiting spirit by that Divine Spirit who communicates to us, all the most precious things of God. They are spiritual because the Holy Spirit is the medium of communication by which they reach man’s spirit.
Blessed by God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places!!!  To get the gift we must go up!!!  They are in the heavenly  places and they cannot live anywhere else.

Blessing in Greek means “benefit.”

1 Chosen Before the Foundation of the World.  To know you’ve been chosen before the foundation of the world is to know that your life matters, that your existence isn’t an accident.  God was thinking of our destiny all along.2 Holy and Blameless.   Meaning we are fit to serve Him and worship Him despite our human nature. Through our righteousness in Christ, God gladly moves through us to touch others.3 In His Love.  In Christ we stand in agape love….that unconditional love.  We didn’t earn it.4 Predestined to Adoption.  God has made us His own. We are a part of God’s family.5 Accepted in the Beloved.  We aren’t rejected nor are we outcast.  We are pleasing to God through Jesus Christ.6 Redemption through His Blood. Without the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ, we would still be slaves to sin and eternal death.  Jesus paid for our freedom from sin and spiritual death.7. Forgiveness of Sins. In Christ, we are forgiven from sin-nature.8. Riches of His Grace Abound to You.  Grace means unmerited favor – abound means to have in abundance so in Christ we have an abundant measure of unmerited favor flowing into our lives like a mighty river that flows forever.

Sermon

  Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 - There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to harvest, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to  speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

Also read Habakkuk all three chapters

Subject: Faith For Every Season Of Life

We have a blessed assurance in God.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  Genesis 1:1  And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good. Genesis 1:3-4
We have spiritual seasons when everything seems to go wrong or all is right. The season of exercising, planting, Christmas gifting, 4th of July celebration, etc.
We face time of joy and of sorrow.
God uses these seasons to teach us who He is.
Good and bad times allows us to grow closer to God.
We have Immanuel - God with us!!!
I am a living testimony.
We need God to get through the seasons of our lives.
How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, "Violence!" but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted  Habakkuk 1:1-4
There is nothing new under the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:9
How often do you speak with God?
Cast all you cares on Him because He cares for you.  1 Peter 5:7
As you pray, are you in transmit mode? Meaning your finger is pressed on the transmit button and as soon as you've said what you want to say, you cut the connection.
Do you take time to listen to God? Have a dialogue with God not a monologue.
In verse 3-7 of Habakkuk, God said that He is doing something wonderful.
We do not understand God's way. God is God all by Himself.
In our humanity, we expect God to act one way but He has a plan that no one understands.  
We need to pray constantly.
In the end, God's plan will be fully revealed.
The righteous shall by faith.  Hebrews 10:38
We need to TRUST in the Lord in good times and in bad.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for the good, for those who are called according to His purpose.  Romans 8:28