Today, on The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, we talk about a message on our armor. We'll dive into Ephesians Chapter 6 in just a minute, but no, we're here for you 24-7 at 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673 or TEWonline.org. And now, Dr. Don Wilton. Ephesians Chapter 6 and verse 14. Stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness it comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all of this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. May the Lord add this reading to our hearts today and bless us accordingly. And here in this passage, it's an enormous passage.
It's deep. I beg your pardon today because what I do is so insufficient. I invite you to study this. I want to present this to you today. And what the Lord has put into my heart very simply is I'm going to give to each item of clothing, so to speak, each thing that God tells us to put on, to be clothed in every day. And I'm going to give you just two very simple consequences, what this does for you and for me in the reality of this world in which we live. Listen carefully, my friends.
This is fantastic. And yet it's the greatest source of our greatest challenge because this is a daily habitation. This requires self-discipline, a determination within our hearts and in our lives to meet with the Lord every day and to be dressed and clothed in the very armor that he's made available to us. He tells us when we do what he tells us to do, that when the devil comes, we're going to be able to stand up straight. We're going to be able to stand firm. We're going to make it through.
We're going to get to the other side. We're going to be encouraged and fortified in our hearts and in our lives. Listen, fellow believers, to what God has to say to us. What must we put on? Number one, the belt of truth, the belt of truth.
That's what he tells us here in verse 14. Stand firm with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. The belt of truth, the very content of that which is true. It's a beautiful thing that God tells us to do, that every day we need to strap on that which will hold all our clothing together. If you don't put on a belt, something's going to come apart and buckle it up, the belt of God's truth. And that little word there buckle means to be wrapped up in it, fastened together, one end to the other so that it cannot come apart.
Put it on every day. What does it do for us? Number one, it readies us for the battlefield. God's truth readies us for the battlefield. It prepares us for what lies ahead.
God's truth. Number two, it steadies us in the battlefield. Not only readies us for the battlefield, but steadies us in the battlefield.
Symbolically speaking, when we get up every day and we put on the belt of God's truth, we're getting ready to go out into our world. But once we're out and we're in the battlefield, it steadies us because it's our foundation. As a Christian person, you and I will find ourselves constantly going back to our solid foundation. It holds us up. It's our firm foundation.
What must we put on? Number one, the belt of truth. Number two, the breastplate of righteousness. Back in the time at which Paul was speaking, these people had a very clear understanding of this.
You and I have seen many pictures of Roman soldiers and others with this massive piece of armor that they would wear as they would enter the battlefield. The breastplate of God's righteousness. This here is not just simply the imputed righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. It speaks more definitively to who God is.
The righteousness of God encompasses the very heart and holiness of God. It's putting on God. It's holding God to our hearts because essentially a breastplate is designed to cover and to protect the heart.
So what is the breastplate of God's righteousness do? Number one, it protects what is in the heart. It protects what is in the heart. And number two, it protects what can infiltrate the heart.
It protects what's in the heart. I've heard people make statements. Man, I'll tell you that boy, he grew up there and he was so faithful and he went off to that college and he changed. What changed? What got a hold of him? What got a hold of her?
What happened? Their hearts become infiltrated. And you and I, every time we leave home, sitting in that office, the devil's trying to infiltrate your heart.
Amy's dart at your heart. You're talking to someone, aren't you? You're listening to gossip. You're paying too much attention to the news.
You're caught up in everything else. You're not focused on Jesus Christ and him crucified. And God's word says, I tell you what to do. Put on the breastplate of God's righteousness. And when you do, God, because he is righteous and he is holy, will protect that which is in your heart. And he will protect that which endeavors to infiltrate your heart. Third, put on the shoes of peace. You know, I love this verse 15. It's a very interesting verse.
Paul speaking to these Ephesian believers and he says, and with your feet fitted, with your feet fitted with the readiness that is accompanied by or brought to fruition by the gospel of peace, fitted with the readiness. One of the things Karen and I have loved doing, and I know many of you do, we love to hike. I love to walk.
Most days I see great brothers of mine like brother Joel Sellers and many others that we often pass each other and motor cars and, you know, pass and we wave and almost every day. I wish I could tell you every day, but most days I'll go out and I'll walk. I walk for an hour and a half.
I walk five, four miles, five miles, six miles. It just does something for me. It clears my mind. It gets the cobwebs out and it's a discipline and it's helping me. It's helping me to balance my health and my diet and how I feel.
And it just does something for me. By the way, I recommend it. Just move, just move, get up and move. And even during COVID, we're all stuck. Move. There's nothing to stop you going out and just walking. But folks, the important thing about hiking is to put on the right shoes. I don't recommend you go walking in flip flops. When I last went down to the beach some weeks ago and I said to my duckling, I said, I'm going walking and off I went because I just loved the beach and out the door and out this way and out that way. By the time I got back, I was walking like this and I didn't realize how old I was. And I had forgotten because I used to be able to just go everywhere barefoot. And for about three days I could, I was doing this all over the place.
I become a real softie. I'm just telling you that. It's just awful. It's awful. It's embarrassing. I have to put on shoes when I walk on the beach.
Isn't that ridiculous? It's not even Christian. Do you know the problem that we have, folks? We're not wearing God's shoes. We're not ready for the hike. We're just going out here and walking all over the place, and we're giving no thought to the preparation of being properly shod the shoes. Look what he says, the shoes of God's peace. This is a God thing.
It's beautiful. It takes effort and thought and put on the right shoes before you walk out the door. What does it do for us? Number one, it enables maximum connectedness. It enables maximum connectedness because it has God's tread on the underside. If you are correctly connected into the message of the cross, of the gospel, of God's peace, it gives you the right traction.
We believe there's a slip sliding all over America right now. We can't stand in one place because we've got no solid footing. We're not putting on God's shoes.
It enables maximum connectedness and it enables, secondly, maximum readiness. When you put on God's shoes, you're ready to go anywhere. You're not governed by the ground you're walking on.
You're not governed by the person that comes and talks to you that's got an opinion that God doesn't mean what he says. You've got on the right shoes. You've got traction.
You're ready. You can go anywhere. You can tackle a mountain path. You can go downhill.
You can go uphill. You can stand on stones and rocks and thorny thistles because you're undergirded with the gospel of God's peace. Number four, put on the shield of faith. Hold it. Take hold that little word there in verse 16. He says, take up the shield of faith. And we know this. All of us know this. We know this from our days in Sunday school. This shield of which he was talking with jolly heavy.
It was a jolly heavy instrument was made out of steel and metal. Many times when we read the history books, we wonder how any individual person had the strength to be able to hold on to that and fight the battle at the same time. But our strength doesn't come from us.
That's the work of the spirit. We'll be back with the rest of today's message on our armor with Dr. Don Wilton in just a moment. But he wants me to remind you we're here for you connecting right now at TEWonline.org. I hope you'll consider contacting us and getting the daily Encouraging Word Bible Guide. It's a resource that we have both in hard copy, kind of a brochure that we put out every three months, but also as an email you can sign up for Dr. Don right now at TEWonline.org. It's a wonderful bit of encouragement, scripture, application from Dr. Don of how God's word can change us and encourage us every day. It's online at TEWonline.org, or if you'd like to order a copy to place in your Bible and study every day out of the hard copy, call us at 866-899-WORD.
That's 866-899-9673. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don Wilton. God gives us the strength.
It's not about the weight, it's about the substance. He's talking about our faith, our trust in God. We take hold of the shield of faith that does two things.
Number one, it protects the holder. That which I believe in, this faith of which Paul speaks is where we put our trust. I put my trust in God. America's greatest challenge today is we say that in God we trust. We need to put our trust in God. That's the activity and the focus of our faith. It's in God we trust.
Take up the in God we trust. This is our shield of faith and it protects the one who trusts. But secondly, it neutralizes the shooter. The Bible says that Satan is firing arrows at us. They like flaming darts and it neutralizes him.
He can fire everything he wants. You've got the shield of faith. Not one of those darts is going to hit you.
They're going to fall to the wayside and deflect them away. It's going to stop you from being wounded. Stop you from being killed perhaps.
Stopped you from catching fire. You know what Satan wants to do? He wants to fire a flaming dart at you and get you so worked up and so infuriated. Have you ever seen a believer who gets infuriated?
Just so rantingly mad. That's the last thing God wants you to do. You've been struck with a flaming dart and you've caught fire in the wrong way. In the wrong way. Not in a spiritual way. We've got to ask God to give us a boldness of our conviction that we are fired up with our conviction about who God is. Not get burned up by the fiery darts of the devil. And we are all vulnerable right now. And Satan knows our vulnerability.
He's got so many instruments at his hand. If nothing else, discomfort. Growing weary of COVID. Getting mad because somebody else didn't wear a mask.
Getting upset over small things. We are so ripe for that in America today. We're falling over one another.
We're becoming consumed. What does God say to us? Take up the shield of faith. Number five, the helmet of salvation. Look at verse 17 with me, take the helmet of salvation.
You know, I look at that and I think about this covering over the head and how important the head is. Just think about this. All it takes is one shot to the head and you're dead. One shot.
One dart. Why does the Lord give us such wonderful word here? As we look at our world and in the midst of our struggle. This armor put on the helmet of salvation, number one, because it removes our doubt. It removes our doubt. It keeps that which we know to be true, fully intact within. One of the greatest weapons of the devil is to cause you and me to doubt God.
Just to doubt him. You know, that's as old as the Bible itself. You know that God put two beautiful people in his garden and everything was magnificent. And that old devil came and said, why don't you have that apple over there? To which they said, no. God said, we can eat everything, but not that. And what did the devil say? Come on. You need to get a life. You telling me, God, you know him, he's loving, he made everything.
He's not going to mind. This is one apple. Go ahead. And they did. And we still live with that decision today. Put on the helmet of salvation, removes our doubts and it reinforces our resolve. You know, when your head is held together in the hands of God, get your head right.
Where's your head? What are some of you thinking when it comes to God and the helmet of salvation holds our heads together? Keep steady. The greatest battalion commanders on the battlefields of the world are those who in the midst of the greatest adversaries and the greatest challenges kept their heads.
They remained the same under fire. And great battles were won. And finally, he says, right there in this verse, verse 17, take the sword of the Spirit. Take the sword of the Spirit.
Word of God. We didn't have to try and figure that out because he tells us the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I'm holding the sword of the Spirit.
We're reading from the sword of the Spirit. People sometimes ask, what is preaching? What is preaching? Christian preaching. It's the power of God through the word of God, via the man of God, by the Spirit of God, to the people of God. That's what preaching is. The power of God, by the word of God, through the man of God, by the Spirit of God, to the people of God. And what Jesus is saying to us is, your arm is not complete until you take up the sword of the Spirit. This is the word we share, the word we share, and second, it's the truth we stand on. Indeed, it's the word and together, that's the key, together we stand on it. I pray that you know that you're not alone. We would love to be a part of your support system.
As Dr. Don would say, a 2 a.m. friend. You can contact us anytime at 866-899-WORD or meet us online at TEWONLINE.ORG. That's TEWONLINE.ORG. And before we get away, our pastor and chief encourager, Dr. Don Wilton, has a closing thought. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner, and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today, I repent of my sin, and by faith, I receive you into my heart. In Jesus' name, my friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.
This is exciting news. Perhaps you prayed along with the pastor moments ago, and as Dr. Don was praying, you said yes. We would love to put some resources in your hands that will grow you into the next steps of being the woman of God, the man of God that you know you were born to be. Please contact us at 866-899-9673 or meet us online at TEWONLINE.ORG.
That's TEWONLINE.ORG. As you reflect upon your life this season, think about your friends and family members outside of Christ or those who are drifting away from God. Could this be you? This Christmas, Dr. Wilton wants to encourage you to make a commitment to meet Jesus every day so you can learn more about him and be able to live a life of trust and not fear. With your gift of $30 and support to the encouraging word this month, you will receive the Spirit of God within you, a beautiful 52-week leather-bound devotional written by 52 trusted pastors and leaders, including Dr. Wilton. You will find blessings upon blessings as you read uplifting Scripture verses, daily devotions and prayers. Plus, you will receive psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, instrumental music CD by gifted pianist and Louisiana College President, Dr. Rick Brewer. Call us today at 866-899-WORD to request the new devotional and music CD.
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Whisper: medium.en / 2024-01-12 22:51:00 / 2024-01-12 22:59:28 / 8