Wednesday Night Bible Study

Thank you for your giving. Thank you musicians for leading us in worship. And praise the Lord everyone. >> Praise the Lord everyone. >> Praise the Lord. >> So good to see you in the house of the Lord on this Wednesday night for Wednesday night worship in the word. I join with the voice of those that have gone before me of saying welcome to this service. Especially glad to have pastor and sister Whitley East back home. All of you back home. I know this is a journey. Go ahead and give them a hand. Good to have them back. We miss all of our church family when you're unable to be here. And I know there are others that have been on a journey and there are others going on journeys and we're glad to have you home that are here. Those who are joining us online. Thank you for being in service with us. I also echo just uh in the affirmative to remind everyone again of that upcoming uh general ministry conference of the assemblies of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're excited about that opportunity and uh we'll talk more about that this coming Sunday. getting ready for guests uh who will be in town and we're excited about uh them being in our city and us having a great time of worship and praise uh at General Ministry Conference. It's Bible study night and uh tonight I would give you uh just a bit of a u a heads up if you will. Next week we begin a uh a new part of our curriculum. We've had to miss some weeks because of events going on. Tonight, I'm going to uh go stray just a bit from what the curriculum had before I have a a lesson that I'd like to teach you. Uh that uh we could study the word of the Lord together. And our uh main text tonight will be uh found in Ephesians the 6th chapter. But tonight, I brought a couple of friends that are going to help me illustrate my lesson. Now, for all of you, you folks who are uh in your uh early 60s, you'll probably know a couple of these guys I'm going to introduce to you tonight. Uh this this fella here is known as who knows GI Joe. Yeah. Uh when I was, let's see, six years old, G.I. Joe came on the scene in 1964. And this GI Joe that you see in front of you tonight was my G.I. Joe. Then now, in case you guys wonder, this is not a doll. This is an action figure. There's a big difference in a in a doll and action figure. I want you to understand, he's got an M60 machine gun. He's got a bulletproof vest and he's got a helmet on. He's got a 45 caliber pistol on his side and he's got an ammo belt that he's wearing. And I also have with me, this is GI Joe's foot locker and it has my name on it. Mark Anthony Mcool and my address. And and inside it has a a little uh picture that shows where you could store boots, helmets, uh an M1 rifle, uh a a carbine rifle, uh with u uh the bayonet, another ammo belt, a a shovel, a mess kit, a canteen, a fatigue cap, a field radio, And I want you to know he had most of those available to him if he needed them. But 1964 was when he came on the scene. So uh that makes this guy here what about 63 years old? Something like that. Uh but that was GI Joe. Now, I want to read you a passage of scripture, and I'll explain to you hopefully how this will be applicable to what we're going to study tonight. Ephesians 6:10 says, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the ws of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shaw with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for the saints. This is the passage we'll study tonight. And our lesson title is the whole armor of God. And I'll underscore that with spiritual warfare. Now understand God equips us to stand strong spiritually and he encourages us in this passage of scripture. In fact, Paul speaking to the Ephesians said, "We can be strong in the Lord in the power of his might." Not our might, but his might. But I want you to understand using my friend here as a example. This was an action figure that I played with. To confess to you, at my house, I'm no longer an active collector. I would be called a passive collector. I just got to a point and stop. But I do have a curio with several GI Joe's. I have one that's Army, one's Navy, one's Air Force, and one's Marines. Then after a couple of years, they made foreign GI Joe's. There was a Russian and a British and a German and Japanese and Australian and a British and and I have those in a curio home. Real cool to look at. And they're all armed to the max. I mean, they've got every kind of gun and uh according to they're they're really cool to look at. AND THAT WAS EXCITING AS A KID. AND I promise you uh mine had a lot of battle scars. I've got a medic, too. He's got red cross on his helmet. He was needed at times. I I've even got a a uh a crutch uh for an injured GI Joe. SO, I HAD ALL OF THOSE THINGS. But as the years passed, the society that we live in got to saying that we needed to be careful with allowing our children to play with toys. that encouraged aggressiveness and war. Oh, uh, the PC crowd started saying, uh, our toys were making our children too aggressive and warlike. So, something happened to G.I. Joe. They said, "GI Joe can no longer be a soldier if we're going to sell him. GI Joe has to become an action figure, part of the A team, the action team. They took away all of his weapons of war. They they didn't want him to look too cleancut, so they grew him a beard. You see, his dog tag turned into a a plastic tag. That's an AT. Stands for action team. He was no longer a soldier. There were no real ENEMIES ANYMORE. LIFE HAD JUST BECOME A SEASON of adventure. He's on the adventure team, the action team. HE HAD A LIFELIKE BEARD AND LIFELIKE HAIR. And that's what Joe turned into. He didn't have any of those fancy weapons anymore, no helmets, no bulletproof vests, no 45 caliber pistol, no more little grenades. He just had to be an action figure. And to our society at the time, it sounded real good that, oh, we're not going to be aggressive anymore. But sadly, no one ever took into account that our way of life would still be threatened by those who would be aggressive. Since then, our society has rediscovered that the only way that we can have true peace and safety in our society is to be strong and be ready for war and hopefully not have to go to war. Now, I realize I'm not being politically correct, but 911 would remind us all that on our own soil, if we were not careful and we did not prepare, that our peace and our way of life would be interrupted and could be destroyed. At the close of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul painted a picture of life in Christ in the terms of a battle between two opposing forces. The battle between humanity and Satan himself. Us knowing that Jesus won the ultimate victory over death at the cross and at the grave that we've been talking about for the past several weeks. We are assured that if we go to battle in a supernatural sense that we go not alone alone but Christ goes with us. We are not outmatched but instead he said we stand strong in the Lord and in the POWER OF HIS MIGHT. We can be strong in the might of Christ. >> Ephesians 6:10 said the battle will rage. THE ENEMY WOULD CHARGE AT US. BUT THE GROUND OF CHRIST, THE SCRIPTURE PROVIDES US THE PROTECTION and the ability. It said though we walk in the flesh, rather 2 Corinthians 10:3 says, THOUGH WE WALK in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. We're not speaking of bombs and guns. Now we're speaking of spiritual warfare. For the weapons our of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exaltth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We're talking about spiritual warfare now. We're talking about a battle going on that we must be equipped both defensively and if need be have the weapons of offense to battle the enemy himself. So tonight I want to examine this passage of scripture in Ephesians that we read in your hearing and let's look at the battle and how we should be ready and equipped to face the enemy himself. Joel 3:10, excuse me, Joel 3:9 says, "Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles. Prepare war. Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plow shears into swords, your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong." Let me tell every child of God in this place, we should be speaking victory, power, and authority in the name of Jesus over every part of our life. DEFEOUS ATTITUDES SHOULD NOT BE in the vocabulary of God's people. >> One lady got up and testified in church said, "The devil's been after me all day long. Bless his name." If we aren't careful, we will find ourselves with defeist attitudes, with defeist vocabulary, giving the enemy credit when we should be standing strong in the authority of the name of Jesus BY THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT. NOW, I warn you, you don't just proclaim the power of the name of Jesus without having a relationship with him. That'll get you in trouble. In Acts 19, we find some fellas that thought they could just invoke the name of Jesus without having a relationship with him. In Acts 19:13, we read, "Then certain of the Vagabond Jews, exorcists." Boy, they they had their own title. They were going to cast out evil spirits. took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying we adjure you BY JESUS WHOM PAUL preachth and there were seven sons of onekea a Jew the chief of the priests which did so they had heard Paul preach about Jesus they had heard of the fame of Jesus but they had never developed a relationship with Jesus themselves else. And the evil spirit answered and said, "Jesus, I know, Paul, I know, but who are you?" Let me ask everybody in the house, is your relationship with Jesus a personal one that you have power? or when you pray said, "Ah, Lord Jesus, I want to to I want your power like you had with my grandmother. I'm thankful for grandmother's experience. I'm thankful for your daddy's experience. I'm thankful for your family lineage." But let me tell you, everybody in the house, we must have a relationship with Christ for oursel if we're going to have power over the enemy. >> That evil spirit said, "I I KNOW WHO PAUL IS. I KNOW WHO JESUS IS, but who are you? YOU DON'T HAVE THE POWER. >> And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overcame them, prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Man, he wore them out. You must have a personal relationship with Jesus to be strong in the power of his might. Make sure that when you call on Jesus in a time of trouble that you've already established that power in your life. And then he said, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor," this is verse 13 of our text, "Take on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. and having done all to stand. Stand therefore scripture gives multiple references again against standing your ground taking a stand. 2 Thessalonians 2:14 says, "Wherein he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or by epistle." Now, some were some folks are scared to death of the word tradition. Not all traditions are bad. Traditions with a purpose. Traditions that have a reason are good. You know, something happened when they disarmed Joe. And sadly, I see a lot of church movements that have started disarming themselves from the traditions that brought us to where we are. Do you hear me tonight? I hear those that say, "Oh, we don't need a helmet anymore. We We don't need the protections. We don't need the standards. We don't need all of those weapons of war. We're a peaceful people now. We You see, there was a day in our own society. It was just compromise everything with everybody, make treaties. You cannot make treaties with the enemy. You cannot make treaties with Satan. Satan will not agree to the treaties. He won't stay in the line. He'll keep coming and keep coming. DON'T YOU DARE DISARM YOURSELF FROM THOSE PROTECTIONS. DON'T DISARM YOUR FAMILY BY CRITICIZING THE TRADITIONS OF THE PAST. OH, we don't need all of those standard ideas and we don't need all of those directions WE USED TO HAVE. IT'S A new day. It may be a new day, but he's the same devil and he's got the same attack on every life. You better hear me. Don't disarm yourself spiritually. DON'T DO AWAY with the things. He said, "STAND FORTH AND HOLD THE traditions which you've been taught, whether by word or our epistle." Galatians 5:1 says, "Stand fast, therefore, IN THE LIBERTY WHEREWITH CHRIST HATH MADE US FREE, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." I see too many church movements that want to take the church back to the world. The ideology and the direction of there being a separation between the church and the world. It's one thing when the world gets churchy. You check it out. Every once in a while, the world and their music and their presentation, they'll put everybody in a choir road and try to make everything sound religious. It's one thing when the world gets churchy, but it's something else when the church gets worldly. When the CHURCH STARTS GOING BACK TO THE VERY THINGS we've been delivered from and saying, "That's okay. That's all right. We're headed for trouble. WE'RE DISARMING OURSELVES. WE ARE NOT PUTTING ON THE WHOLE ARMOR of God. GOD HAS GIVEN US TOO MANY PROTECTIONS. GOD HAS GIVEN US TOO MANY WONDERFUL FREEDOMS. DON'T LOSE YOUR LIBERTY. THERE'S LIBERTY IN SERVING GOD, NOT BONDAGE. BONDAGE IS FOUND IN SIN. BUT THE SIN, THE BONDAGE OF SIN WILL AFFECT EVERY FACET OF YOUR LIFE. YOU'LL BE BOUND TO HABITS. YOU'LL BE BOUND to worldly destruction. He said, "Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free." You see, we must never forget who our enemy really is. Our enemy is spiritual. We would do well to mirror or come firm in the conviction and the reality that we do deal with a spiritual world and the presence of evil. Ephesians 1 and 21 tells us far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but also in the world to come. Paul was primarily trying to present God being sovereign, but he was simultaneously presenting the reality that there is a spiritual enemy that is at work trying to destroy God's purpose in our life. Let me tell us this. Our enemy is not other people. He said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and against rulers of this world, and against spiritual wickedness in high places." Please never mistake some of the things that we see take place that redirect the laws of this land. It is not by accident in our own nation that some in spiritual leadership would try to separate us from being able to worship according to the dictates of our heart. to condemn spiritual guidance as being folks that are kind of out there in the ozone out of their mind. That being religious in any way is less than intellectually sound. It's a trick of Satan himself. Our educational system has been ravaged by the plans of the enemy. Why do we have a Christian school? Why do we want to continue to educate our children in the ways of the the Lord? We're starting to see the fruits of multiple generations of education without Christ. How can folks tell anybody how to do anything if they can't even figure out what they are? Is is is that is there a little bit of logic there that by fad and fashion they try to come up with all kind of ideology that violates the word. The Bible says that God created male and female. Now I know this is a little uncomfortable when you talk like this is Bible study. I I I I hope we're mature enough to to be able to to understand and I hope you understand my spirit. Uh I I I I want I want us to realize we are in spiritual warfare, not with people, but with the enemy influencing people. We've got TO LOVE EVERYBODY, BUT we must disdain the enemy's attempts to change the way we think and accept sinful ideology. Paul clearly stated, "Believers should not consider other people as our enemies, but the devil himself influencing people." And then he said, "Put on the whole armor of God, the complete armor." Not don't just be selective. If you're going to be protected, you need to have the complete the whole armor of God. He said, "Having your loins girded about with truth." Now, many would in interpret it interpret this as what we call the truth or the knowledge of who Jesus is. But if you study this, Paul at this point was advocating that God's people be truthful people. That we would be guided by being a truthful, not a deceptive lying people having and and the example again of your loins girded. was as in the belt that held everything together. Having on the breastplate of righteousness, the vital organs being protected by living a righteous life. Having your feet shaw with the preparation of the gospel of peace. The Bible tells us to follow after peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That's the gospel of peace. Well, I thought you were talking about war. I am the best way to avoid war is to be strong in your peace. We know the peace speaker. We know the one who knows how to speak peace and let him be the peace speaker in our lives. And then he said, above all, taking on the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Faith is, you can quote it, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, that shield that would protect us against all of the things that the enemy would fire at us. And I hope you notice at this point, everything we've mentioned is basically a defensive implement. including take on the helmet of salvation. The helmet protects your thinking capacity, so will salvation spiritually. When you get to know the Lord, when you follow the salvation message, it'll make you think right. You'll you'll understand things better. You'll have direction. You will not be guided by false ideology. And then he mentions the offensive weapon, the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. You see, in times past, scripture lets us know that we walked according to the world. The prince of the air, the Bible calls him, the the spirit that now workketh in the children of disobedience. That's in Ephesians. You can read about that. Human sin is governed by the enemy and his spirit rules the powers of the spirit realm. And we as humans with spiritual insight have to be able to distinguish between and to understand. The enemy of our soul tries to use our own human weakness, our human nature against us. That's why we have to guard things like our character. This metaphor that Paul is using of these defensive not attacking weapons, the helmet, the shield, the breastplate, help us as humans protect our minds, our will, our emotions. the emotional, mental ideology that we all have to face in our in our our own being, the way we think, the way we respond, our emotions, uh our fleshly choices, our decision makingaking, all of this must be protected by these defensive implements he mentioned. truth and righteousness and peace. Um when Paul instructed to put on the belt of truth, he referred similarly as David wrote, "Behold, thou desireest truth in the inward parts." Now what that means is not only should we guard against being untruthful with others, we have to be honest with ourselves. This is one of the most difficult tasks in life is to be honest with yourself. Uh it invades every facet of our life. we uh we find ourselves uh telling ourselves that we're better than we really are. We're more accomplished than we really are. I mean, you get up and go look in the mirror and say, "Yes." Sometimes we have to be honor. We have to be honest with ourselves. I still need a a comb while there's something left to comb. You know, we have to find ways to not lie to ourselves, but to be honest in dealing with temptation. Oh, I can go here. I can do that and I will not be tempted. I remember Bishop many years ago establishing with our youth group that at a normal time was you needed to have a curfew to be in. If your parents said it earlier, but he said all of the young folks of First Apostolic Church, you ought to be in by a certain hour. And then I remember bishop saying some would say do you not trust us? BISHOP WOULD SAY ABSOLUTELY NOT. I DON'T. WHY? BECAUSE WE DON'T TRUST OURSELVES WITHOUT guidance and guard rails and protections. We think we have everything together. We've got it all under control. We've got to be truthful WITH US. HE SAID, DAVID SAID, DESIRES TRUTH IN the inward parts. The word of God should be a mirror. We must be honest with what it reveals about us. Sometimes the preacher gets up and preaches. I I'll go to a conference, I'm expecting to be encouraged, and sometimes I'm encouraged. And sometimes he puts a mirror right in my face. I say, "Man, I've got to pray some more. I got to do better. I've got to Sometimes the word will mirror us and tell us some truths that aren't always easy to accept. You mentioned faith, salvation, and God's word. Faith protects us when Satan fires darts of doubt, deception, and discouragement to be hindrances. The shield of faith teaches us to trust in God. And then I want to dwell just a minute on the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. If you'll recall Jesus was the example, the offensive weapon that Jesus used when Satan would tempt him in the wilderness wilderness after he had fasted 40 days. What did he do? Did Jesus call down fire? Did Jesus call angels? No. He said Satan. It is written. There was the sword. You see, he gave us and armed us with the ultimate attack weapon. Everything else to this point was defensive weapons. the helmet, the breastplate, THE FEET SHOT, ALL THIS WAS THEY were protections. But you see, when we start talking about an offensive weapon, this implement is to defeat false doctrine, unrighteousness, spiritual unrest, disbelief, and the the salvation message. God's word is our weapon that we ATTACK WITH. HEBREWS SAID IT this way in Hebrews 4:12. For the word of God is quick and POWERFUL AND SHARPER than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing the sun of soul and spirit and of the joints and mara and is a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart. That's why the preached word and sometimes just getting INTO THE WORD. THAT'S WHY IT WILL TOUCH YOU IN THE HEART if you'll allow it to. IT IT DEFEATS THE ATTACK of the enemy. It said, it went on to say in Hebrews 4, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. We must know how to use the word. If you don't know how to use the word properly, you'll cut yourself. Timothy said, second Timothy said, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase under more ungodliness." The word in the hands of the unskilled, untrained can lead to profane, trained babblings. You need revelation with the word to give you the skills to let the word cut where it should and attack where it should attack. And then he went on in verse 18 of our passage and that's where we will draw toward a close in Ephesians 6:18. It said, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." That term supplication means asking earnestly and humbly. Now, don't let that term supplication fly by without dwelling there a moment. I have sadly run into a few folks who felt like their prayer life was so powerful they could just order God around and tell what God what to do. I remember uh without casting dispersions on anybody that's ever been on television because we are and have been. But I remember one of those so-called television preachers in one of his presentations. He was making his spill about if you'll send in such and such and so and so, you're going to get this and so. and he he was really doing a a a bangup job of uh trying to get donations. And right in the middle of HIS PRESENTATION, HE STOPPED. HE SAID, "WAIT, LORD." He said, "I'm on the air right now. Are you kidding me?" He was trying to take the posture THAT HE HAD SO much authority with God that God had to wait when he was making his presentation. But let me tell you, you need to approach God in a spirit of supplication to ask earnestly >> and humbly. I I'VE GOT NEWS FOR YOU. GOD LOVES TO ANSWER YOUR PRAYERS. BUT GOD IS NOT A GOD TO be ordered around. HE IS OUR GOD. HE IS ALL POWERFUL and he loves meeting the NEED OF HIS PEOPLE. BUT WE SHOULD ASK APPROPRIATELY WHEN WE TALK TO God as well. PRAYING ALWAYS WITH ALL PRAYER AND SUPPLICATION IN THE SPIRIT. THERE ARE TIMES THAT we will get down and get in TOUCH WITH GOD THAT IT TAKES SOME EARNESTNESS IN OUR PRESENTATION. IT'S A TIME OF especially crying out and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication. To persevere means to be consistent with what we do. Every spiritual battle carries a foe that we must fight against and that's the enemy. God's spirit will search our hearts and we should guide our prayers according to his will. James 4:3 said, speaking of prayer, the reason some folks don't get their prayers answered said, "Ye ask a miss that you may consume it upon your lusts." Don't pray for God to fulfill your earthly lusts. That's not the prayers he fulfills. Oh God, let me get the lottery numbers this week. Doesn't work that way. Jesus encouraged Peter when he was in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, "Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak." Jesus was again identifying that constant conflict and battle between flesh and spirit that goes on in every one of us and was identifying it even in his own flesh. We talked about this the past couple of weeks the prayers that he prayed in the garden of Gethsemane that he prayed more earnestly. The Bible said that his sweat became as drops of blood great drops of blood that he uh uh prayed if it be thy will let this cup pass from me. There was a spiritual fleshly waring going on but Jesus gave the example but he said the spirit is ready but the flesh is weak. The enemy will try to use our human frailties to drive a wedge between us and God. That's why we must persevere. That term persevere means to continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty or with little or no prospect of success. I feel like when I'm praying, I'm just praying against a brick wall. Keep on hammering. Persevere. I just don't feel like my prayers are getting very far. KEEP ON PRAYING. KEEP ON TALKING TO GOD. PERSEVERE. PERSEVERE. YOU have an answer on its way. It may not be even the answer you want, but you DON'T NEED TO QUIT. YOU NEED TO BE STRONG. THAT'S AN OFFENSIVE WEAPON. Prayer >> in perseverance. So understanding tonight, stand with me. God has equipped us with the necessary defense against every opposition. Whether we are challenged by direct spiritual attack or the enemy is attempting to use our human frailties to destroy us, we are armed with the weapons of God's word, with the spirit, and with prayer, but we are also protected by the whole armor of God. No matter the attack, the enemy cannot defeat us if we will persevere and we'll be strong in the Lord. Let's pray. Savior, I love you. God, I thank you for your word and for the whole armor that you have given us now. God, I pray that as we go out every day to meet the foe, that we would once again be reminded that you have everything that we need to let us be victorious and live victorious in you. God, I thank you because you have armed us with your word. Let us commit your word to our hearts, to our thoughts, to our minds, to our reasoning, to our understanding. Lord, let it be the weapon that protects us against the enemy. Not a weapon against flesh, but a weapon against spiritual warfare. Lord, let us lead others to Christ by our example and be strong in you. For all this, we're grateful and thankful in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. And amen. Lord bless you. Would you greet your brothers and sisters in Jesus name? You are dismissed.