Standing Firm

The Christian life is a battle the devil attacks every day, and for this battle we've been given weapons known in the Bible as the armor of God. Today, a study in Ephesians chapter 6, as we conclude a long-running series from this great epistle. From Chicago, this is The Moody Church Hour, a weekly broadcast of worship and teaching with Pastor Philip Miller. Today, join us for another message on being Alive in Christ, a series of teachings from Ephesians.

Our focus will be on standing firm. Here now is Pastor Philip. Well, good morning, Moody Church.

It's good to see all of you. Are you ready to worship the Lord? We're going to look at what it means to put on the full armor of God today as we wrap up our series in Ephesians. So it's going to be a special morning. When you stand where you are, let's pray and let's give this service this morning to the Lord as we gather.

Let's pray. Father, we come here this morning vulnerable and weak, but made strong through Jesus Christ. We thank you that his life, his righteousness, his everything covers us. We are in him and he is in us, and that is why we gather to sing praise and glory to your name, for you are all in all. Father, we pray that as we live in your strength and your power, that we would shine to this dark world. Come and meet us this morning, fill this place, teach us, make us new, change us, conform us to the image of Christ.

We pray in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. Amen. Let's begin by praising the Lord for his blessings to us.

Let's sing. There's joy today in the house of the Lord. Let us pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

Amen. There's joy today in the house of the Lord. We worship the God who was. We worship the God who is. We worship the God who evermore will be. We open the prison doors.

He parted the raging sea. My God, he holds the victory. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. Our God is sure to be with us.

We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. We sing to the God who is. We sing to the God who is.

We sing to the God who always waits on prayer. As he humbles on that cross, and he roars up from that grave, my God, see the rolling storms away. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord. We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. Our God is sure to be with us.

We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. We were the beggars. Now we're royalty. We were the prisoners. Now we're running free. We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace.

Let the house of the Lord sing praise. We were the beggars. Now we're royalty.

We were the prisoners. Now we're running free. We are forgiven, accepted, redeemed by his grace. Let the house of the Lord sing praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. There's joy in the house of the Lord today. We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of the Lord. Our God is sure to be with us. We won't be blind. We shout out your praise. There's joy in the house of There's joy in the heart of your hand You don't give up You shout out your praise There's joy in the heart of your hand Oh God you're so near You don't give up You shout out your praise You shout out your praise You shout out your praise Christ the Lord, my robust Son He is my life, my strength, my song This cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest ground and stone What heights of love, what depths of peace When fears are still, when striving since My comforter, my beloved one Here in the hope of Christ, that's now In Christ alone, full of unfet In all that's to come, in heaven's name This gift of love, this righteousness Scorned by the wounds we came to see In all that comes, that eats us up The work of God was satisfied Till we see what is made Here in the hope of Christ, that's now Through the ground His body lay Light of hope, light of display In mercy, Lord, for this day Love can only rise again And as He stands in victory His first and foremost gift will come Here in the hope of Christ, that's now One with a vision, one with a heart One with a vision, one with a heart One with a vision, one with a heart This is the love I want to be Christ the shrine, light of life This is the love I want to be Oh, part of God must be born If ever brought me from His hands Here in the hope of Christ, that's now Here in the hope of Christ, that's now Oh, part of God must be born If ever brought me from His hands Here in the hope of Christ, that's now Here in the hope of Christ, that's now Here in the hope of Christ, that's now The letter to the Ephesians in this series we've been going through And in case you have forgotten, it is in fact a letter And like a lot of correspondence, it closes with words of warmth and pragmatics Paul wants to make sure the Ephesian church knows that he's alright That the people with him are doing well Even though he is in prison, he wants them He encourages them to direct their questions to the courier of the letter A guy named Tychicus, who is well informed and up to date And then Paul closes out with a brief but meaningful benediction Signing off with a prayer in his customary style But before Paul wraps everything up in this letter He gives one final charge to the Ephesian believers To stand firm in the faith And to do so he uses the imagery of a Roman soldier Armed for battle as an analogy of the spiritual protection That is ours in Jesus Christ In verse 11 he says, put on the whole armor of God Now growing up in church, this was one of my favorite all time Bible lessons Because this was flannel graph gold How many of you remember those flannel graphs?

How many of you have no idea what a flannel graph is? Oh you are missing out, this was a technological breakthrough Like you cannot even imagine A felt board with felt pieces on it You had all the layers with the different armor that was stacked on top And you could visualize the whole thing When I was in middle school, one of our youth leaders even dressed up in the full armament of God You know like a Roman centurion in total cosplay glory And it was amazing But this passage isn't just for kids It's for all of us And so let's jump in and discover what the armor of God is all about Grab your Bibles, we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 6 We're looking at verses 10 down to 24 As we finish out the book this morning This is page 979 in the pew Bible If you want to grab that and join us Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 down to 24 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might Put on the whole armor of God That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers Against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places Therefore take up the whole armor of God That you may be able to withstand in the evil day And having done all, to stand firm Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth Having put on the breastplate of righteousness And as shoes for your feet Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace In all circumstances take up the shield of faith With which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one And take the helmet of salvation And the sword of the Spirit Which is the word of God Praying at all times in the Spirit With all prayer and supplication To that end keep alert With all perseverance making supplication for all the saints And also for me The words may be given me in opening my mouth boldly To proclaim the mystery of the gospel For which I am an ambassador in chains That I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister of the Lord Will tell you everything I have sent him to you for this very purpose That you may know how we are And that he may encourage your hearts Peace be to the brothers and love with faith From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ With love incorruptible Thanks be to the Lord for the reading of his word So this morning I want to zero in on this armor of God And we're going to see the reason for the armor Why we need it The function of the armor How it works And the source of the armor Where it's from The reason, function and source of the armor In this passage So first of all the reason for the armor Before we jump in would you bow your heads Let's pray Let's give our time to the Lord Father we are vulnerable and weak And we need more than anything to know that you fight for us We need your strength We need your protection And so Father as we consider all that you have done for us in Jesus Christ To arm us against the enemy Help us to rest in and stand firm in what you've given us We pray this in Christ's name And all God's people said Amen, Amen So the reason for the armor Why we need it The reason for the armor Verse 10 Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might So Paul's final charge here is be strong Not in yourself, not in the strength of your own might But in the Lord In the strength of his might He's saying I want you to get ready Brace yourselves Courage He's readying us for battle Now you'll recall from our earlier studies in Ephesians chapter 2 That there are three deadly enemies That are coming against our souls The world, the flesh and the devil The world, the flesh and the devil And these three are conspiring always Against us, against God's people So the world is exerting pressure To make us go with the flow of ungodliness In the culture The flesh is our own sinful desires That are enslaving us And the devil and his minions Are supernatural powers Hell-bent on destroying God's children And in Ephesians chapter 2 Paul told us that when we were dead In our transgressions and sins We were at the mercy of those three enemies The world, the flesh and the devil But now that we are alive in Christ We've been set free, we're liberated Instead of the world We're now part of the family of God The church We've been brought into a new shaping environment Instead of the flesh We now have the spirit Alive and dwelling within us Filling us We have new inner desires Spiritual desires from him We're under the influence of the spirit So that takes care of the world and the flesh But what about the devil? What about the devil Paul? How does Christ set us free From the influence and oppression of the devil? Verse 11 Put on the whole armor of God That you may be able to stand Against the schemes of the devil So here you have the devil, the evil one Satan himself who is scheming Who is prowling Who is menacing and plotting against us And if you think the world you can see is full of peril The dangers of the unseen world are legion Verse 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood But against the rulers, against the authorities Against the cosmic powers over this present darkness Against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places So Satan and his minions are hell-bent On destroying all that God holds dear And most of all that means God's children They wield their power in this present darkness And it is against them that we are wrestling So the idea here is that we're actually under attack Did you know that?

Did you know there's a war on? And Paul's call is to hold our ground To stand firm To defend our position Now lest we think this is only a defensive stance Look down at verse 18b down to 20 Keep alert with all perseverance, Paul writes Making supplication for all the saints And also for me that words may be given to me In opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel For which I am an ambassador in chains That I might declare it boldly as I ought to speak Paul concludes this paragraph And he's on the offense, you see this? He's on the offense The gospel is going forth and it's taking ground And Paul says pray that I might be bold to proclaim the good news Even while I'm in chains I may be in chains but Satan is in tremors Because the gospel is going forth with power Christ will build his church as he promised And the gates of hell will not prevail against it So it is both defense and offense But the bottom line here is that the reason for the armor Is that we are embroiled in a spiritual battle We are embroiled in a spiritual battle That's why we need it, that's why we need the armor We're embroiled in a spiritual battle Now at this point we ought to take some advice from our good friend C.S.

Lewis In the Screwtape letters Listen to what he writes, it's a bit of a warning There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race, humans, can fall about the devils One is to disbelieve in their existence The other is to believe and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them They themselves are equally pleased with both errors And hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight Do you see the wisdom in Lewis' warning? There's real danger in seeing the demonic everywhere and being overwrought about it And there's equal danger in seeing it nowhere And being underprepared for it And the Bible tells us that supernatural evil does exist And its operations are far more subtle than sometimes we think I mean just look at the words that are used for Satan, the devil here The devil, it's the word diabolos It's the noun form of a verb which means to lie or to slander Satan, another word for satan It means the accuser Jesus calls him the father of lies in John chapter 8 In Revelation 12 he's called the deceiver Think back to when Satan took down Adam and Eve when the serpent tempted them in the garden How did he do it? With lies He lied to them, you won't surely die You'll be like God God's withholding from you Just give in to your desires It's good for you Be happy And all these years later he really hasn't changed his tactics He's a liar, he deals in lies He attacks with lies, lies and more lies Those are the flaming darts that he's hurling at us He's hurling lies As Tim Keller once said, Satan doesn't leave fang marks on the flesh but lies in the heart Satan doesn't leave fang marks on the flesh, he leaves lies in the heart And there's two basic lies that Satan attacks us with The first one is he lies to us to over inflate us He strokes our pride and our ego He tries to puff us up and make us arrogant and think the rules don't apply to us To give in to sin and after all we deserve to be happy To live life on our own He's tempting us, you see His lies of temptation The other set of lies he comes at us with are lies to deflate us Not to over inflate us but to deflate us He stokes our fears and our shame He tells us we're worthless and trash So that we try to cope and soothe ourselves and fall into sin and addiction And he accuses us, you see that He accuses us He tempts us, he accuses us He over inflates us and he deflates us And both sets of lies are serving the same common purpose They serve to drive us away from God Because pride makes us feel like we don't need God And fear makes us feel like we have to hide from God And either way we run away And Satan's lies drive a wedge between us and our father And that's what Satan's after He can't defeat God in a head to head combat So he's a terrorist He hijacks God's kids, holds them ransom And torments his soul as he destroys us And what could be more effective than destroying God's kids by turning them against God?

It's the ultimate play Do you recognize Satan's tactics? Like in your own life as you feel the temptations, the slander, the accusations, the lies that berate you Do you sense this? On the one hand Satan's always trying to over inflate us so we come crashing down And on the other hand he tries to deflate us so we can't get up off the floor And either way he's driving a wedge between us and God That's his plan of attack on your life So what defenses do we have? What do we have in Christ that would shield us and protect us and defend us against such effective lies Such penetrating lies How can we be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might?

How do we stand firm? Well that's the reason for the armor That's the reason for the armor We're embroiled in a spiritual battle That's why we need it Now let's talk about the function of the armor The function of the armor, how it works Verse 13 Take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm In the bloody hand-to-hand combat of the Roman world you had to keep your feet in battle You had to stand If you go down, you're dead, right? You're a goner So standing firm in the heat of the battle amidst the onslaught was vital Life or death And in that kind of a combat, every piece of armor you were wearing mattered Now remember, Paul's under house arrest And so he's under arrest, there's Roman guards everywhere And so he sees their armor up close and in person And it reminds them of all the spiritual protections that God has furnished for his children That are ours in Christ Jesus And so he's going to walk through piece by piece Six pieces of armor in total Let's look at them Verse 14a Stand therefore having fastened on the belt of truth Now this belt was not like a belt that you use to hold your pants up, okay? This is not a thin leather strap It is a leather sheath A sheath that covers the midriff and the thighs A big piece of leather that is wrapped around the core of your being It is the base layer of protection that is foundational to all the other pieces of armor that are strapped on top He says that truth is the base layer of protection that you have against the lies of the evil one Truth is your base layer protection Remember the truth of the gospel, friends That you are far more sinful than you ever dared realize And yet in Jesus Christ you are far more loved than you ever dared hope Amen? Do you realize that that gospel truth gives you humility and confidence at once Because we're humble because we know we're sinners And yet we're confident because we know we're loved And that base layer of humble confidence Is precisely what we need to ward off the attacks of Satan's lies When Satan tries to over inflate us to stroke our pride He says you know you're a good person You're better than most people You don't need a savior like those people Now you're pretty good on your own I bet God's impressed with who you are The truth of the gospel comes in and says no no no You're far more sinful than you ever dared realize It humbles you down All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God Our righteousness is but filthy rags Before the holiness of God And our only hope is salvation by grace Through faith in Christ, right? So then when Satan comes in and tries to deflate you And stoke your fears And says you're a bad person You're beyond forgiveness You've got to run and hide God would never love you The truth of the gospel comes in and reminds us No no no in Jesus Christ you're far more loved Than you ever dared hope Because this is love not that we love God But that he loved us and sent his son As an atoning sacrifice for our sins And there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus And don't you see the truth of the gospel Is a base layer of humble courage An identity that is foundational To the protection against Satan's lies When the devil says you're special and entitled And above the law the truth says no I'm a humble sinner whose only hope Lies in the finished work of Jesus Christ And when the devil says you're nobody You're worthless and a failure The truth says you're loved and accepted And treasured by the one person whose opinion matters In the end of the universe That is the belt of truth It is the base layer of your gospel protection You see that? How about the breastplate of righteousness 14b Having put on the breastplate of righteousness The breastplate was there to protect your vital organs The core of your being And Paul is saying at your core You are covered by the righteousness of Christ At your core you are covered by the righteousness of Christ When the devil says you're better off than most people You're more moral, more upstanding You deserve some credit Surely that will impress God A little self-righteousness doesn't hurt anybody True righteousness says there's only one who is righteous Jesus Christ And I am covered by the righteousness that only his grace can provide And when the devil says When the devil says you're a dirty rotten sinner Surely God won't forgive you now Righteousness says God made him who knew no sin To be sin for us So that in him we might become the righteousness of God And I stand in Christ and Christ alone That's the breastplate of righteousness At the core we are protected and covered by the righteousness of Christ Verse 15 And as shoes for your feet Having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace The gospel of peace What are these shoes? These are spiked cleats For grip and nimbleness in battle Remember if you go down you're dead You've got to keep your feet, your stance So the gospel of peace Helps us keep our grip And keep moving forward The gospel of peace helps us keep our grip And keep moving forward When the devil says peace is circumstantial Happiness means getting your own way Just look how hard the way of Jesus is Don't you want to follow your heart And find a little peace and happiness On your own terms in this life The gospel of peace says no The prince of peace denied himself And picked up his cross And in love gave himself up So that I might have peace with God So I will take up my cross And I will follow him I will follow my prince of peace Into the peace that passes all understanding For in my darkest moments His presence is mine And when the devil says you've blown it again God will never forgive you You've forfeited peace for the last time The gospel of peace says There is now no condemnation For those who are in Christ Jesus And if we will confess our sins Faithful and just to forgive us our sins And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness The gospel of peace reminds us That Jesus paid it all And that our sins are covered Past, present and future They are as far as the east is from the west So far have they been removed from us And he himself is our peace Now and forever You see the gospel of peace helps us keep our grip And keep moving forward Verse 16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith With which you can extinguish all the flaming darts Of the evil one So this shield, you've seen the Roman shields The big ones with the curved surfaces That they lock together in tortoise formations And all that stuff That's the shield here It was wood covered with leather stretched over the surface They soaked it in water Because enemies would fire flaming arrows and darts at them And it would extinguish The water would extinguish those flaming missiles And so as the evil one sends his flaming lies at us A fire with the blaze of hell That the shield of faith blocks and extinguishes those lies It is faith So when the devil says be your own person You're enough You do you Faith says my only hope lies in Christ alone My faith is in the faithful one And he alone is enough And when the devil says your faith is weak You don't really believe You're a fraud A fake Faith says it's not the amount of faith that matters But the object of faith that counts Jesus saves not because I'm trusting him completely But because he is completely trustworthy He is faithful when I am faithless It is the shield of faith Blocking and extinguishing Satan's fiery and far-flung lies 17a And take up the helmet of salvation Helmets protect the head and the face Paul's saying it is Christ's salvation That will enable you to keep your head It is Christ's salvation that will enable you to keep your head When the devil says save yourself Salvation says Christ alone is my saving grace When the devil says you're beyond saving Salvation says Christ alone is my saving grace It is the helmet of salvation It enables you to keep your head 17b And the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication This is not the long sword but the short handled double-sided sword That they used in close combat tucked in the tunic It is the sword of the Spirit The sword of the Spirit So the first thing we know about the sword is that it is empowered by the Holy Spirit The second thing he says is the sword of the Spirit is the Word of God The word of God So the Spirit, the spiritual sword, the Spirit empowered Sword is the word of God So we have word and Spirit And then we have prayer also Prayer, look at how the sentence flows into verse 18 Just think past the parenthesis When he says which is the word of God Just take that out for a second Take up the sword of the Spirit Praying at all times in the Spirit With all prayer and supplication So the sword of the Spirit is Spirit empowered prayer So you put all this together The sword is essentially Spirit empowered Praying of the word of God Spirit empowered praying of the word of God The word of God on your lips, in your heart Being offered in prayer so that you come to believe it And you know that it is true So when the devil lies and says He attacks you, you're to parry those blows Those jabs by Spirit empowered prayers Of the promises and truths of the word of God Because the word of God, friends, tells you Who you are in Christ And the Spirit of God is reminding you Who you are in Christ And in prayer you're confessing out loud Who you are in Christ So when Satan's lies stab in your direction Over inflating you or deflating you It is the Spirit empowered prayers of the word of God Who answer with the truths of who we are That although we are far more sinful than we ever dared realize In Jesus Christ we are far more loved than we ever dared Hope, humble and courage at once Buried in the dust and yet raised to the skies Friends, don't you see we are armored with a gospel identity We are armored with a gospel identity That's what all of these pieces of armor are about That's what all these pieces of armor are all about We are in Christ utterly and completely He is our truth He is our righteousness He is our peace He is the faithful one in whom our faith is placed He is our salvation He has sealed us with His Spirit He has given us His word and promises He invites us to pray in His name We are armored with a gospel identity Of being in Christ That is the function of the armor you see It's how it works You are in Christ So we've seen the reason for the armor, why we need it We're embroiled in a spiritual battle We've seen the function of the armor, how it works Our souls are armored with a gospel identity And now let's talk about the source of the armor Where it's from The source of the armor Twice in this passage, Paul tells us exactly Where this armor is from in verse 11 and 13 He says, put on the whole armor of God That you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil Verse 13, take up the whole armor of God That you may be able to withstand in the evil day And having done all to stand firm So this is the armor of God It's God's armor Did you know that God has armor? God has armor, He does If you go to the Old Testament, in a number of places God is depicted as what is called the divine warrior The divine warrior Who fights, goes into battle On behalf of His people For example, in Exodus, when the Hebrew people Are coming out of Egypt They go through the Red Sea, remember that big scene? As the waters come and flood out Pharaoh's chariots There's a song that Miriam, Moses' sister sings To the Lord on behalf of the people And she celebrates God, the divine warrior Who has strode out into battle and has been invincible And defeated Pharaoh and his armies and rescued The people of God brought them to safety on the other side The divine warrior has won our battle We see it again in a number of places But in Isaiah, Isaiah Isaiah picks up this theme of the divine warrior Who strides out as Israel needs God to once again Go into battle against their enemies They're looking forward to this Listen to how Isaiah describes God as the divine warrior Isaiah 11 verses 4 and 5 Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist And faithfulness the belt of His loins Isaiah 59 17 He put on righteousness as a breastplate And a helmet of salvation on His head Now isn't that fascinating?

Isn't that fascinating? When God strides out into battle To go against the forces of darkness To defend and to rescue His people How does He array Himself? What does He arm Himself with? Righteousness, faithfulness, salvation And what makes this divine warrior Invincible on the battlefield Is the imperviousness of His own divine character Satan cannot find a chink In God's flawless character There are no gaps to exploit That's why God wins all His battles And now, now watch this Paul says God has given you His own armor He has clad you, we are clad In the armament of God's own character We are clad in the armament of God's own character Which means the forces of darkness cannot touch you They cannot touch you You are covered by the flawless character of God Himself The divine warrior has clad his own people In his own very armor Which means Satan has no dominion over you He cannot pierce you He cannot stab you He cannot kill you Because, because as Jesus said Greater is he who is in you Than he who is in the world Friends you are perfectly safe Now and forever in Christ alone Your life is hidden in Him And now just think with me for a moment Think what it cost Christ To clothe you with this armor If this armor is so impenetrable How come Christ got pierced And stabbed And died on the cross He wasn't wearing it He was not wearing the armor On that day Rather than keeping that armor for himself So that evil couldn't touch him Jesus shed his armor He hung naked on the cross And he allowed evil to pierce him through So that you and I Might be clothed in the armor of God He became vulnerable and pierceable And stabable and killable So that you and I might be forever protected By his own flawless character and righteousness So that the schemes and lies of the evil one Might never penetrate us Christ disarmed himself before the enemy So that he might arm us forever against the enemy Amen He who knew no sin Became sin for us So that in him we might become the righteousness of God 2 Corinthians 5 21 Jesus hung naked so that you might wear his armor He became vulnerable so that you might become invulnerable He died so that you might live You see he's your substitute in every way So stand firm in your gospel identity friend Stand firm in your gospel identity Friends all this armor it's already yours in Jesus Christ He's your truth He's your righteousness He's your peace He's your faithfulness He's your salvation He's your spirit He's your word But you have to step into it You got to put it on It's all yours And yet it's another thing to step out into it To embrace it To make it your own Paul is saying stand firm in the gospel identity That is already yours in Jesus Christ Step out into who you are already in Jesus Christ I want you to walk in a manner that is worthy Of the calling that you've been called to I want you to be imitators of God because you're beloved children of God I want you to walk in love as Christ loved you And gave himself up for you A fragrant offering and sacrifice to the Lord I want you to put off your old ways Your old self I want you to be renewed by the spirit of your minds I want you to put on your new self in Jesus Christ I want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit Under his control and mastery I want you to put on the armor of God Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might Do you realize all those statements They're all just different ways of saying the same thing I want you to act like yourself The person you really are in Jesus Christ Not your old self, your new self And you have everything you need For life and godliness Jesus has given it all to you The Spirit indwells you Your Father is showing you the way You are in Christ and Christ is in you Don't you dare let the world tell you who you are Don't you dare let your flesh tell you who you are Don't you dare let the devil tell you who you are Let Christ and Christ alone tell you who you are The divine life of God has fallen like a seed Into the old decaying stump of our former lives And it is rooted there and it's sprouted and growing And it is slowly taking over everything And so Paul says, let that be your new life Act like yourself Stand firm in your gospel identity This new life that has come to life in you Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might You are alive in Christ Now live like it, live like it And then Paul says, peace be to you Brothers and sisters And love with faith From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ With love incorruptible Amen Let's pray Oh Father what you have done to secure us To reinforce us To protect us Is amazing That Christ would lay down his life to give us life Is beyond our imagination Who would have ever thought And yet it is so For the good news is that Jesus died in our place and for our sake That he bore all of our sin and shame That he rose again to make us right with you forever And so Father we admit that we are sinners far from you We believe that Christ has done everything To make us right with God that if we respond to him in faith We can be made alive in him forever And we commit our lives to him Saying here we are, be our savior Be our Lord, be our king Be our armor Be our everything We stand in Christ and Christ alone He is our only hope And so we stand firm In who we are In Jesus Christ Help us to act like ourselves We pray this for Jesus sake And all God's people said Amen On today's Moody Church Hour We heard Pastor Phillip Miller Conclude a long series of teachings From the book of Ephesians In part 13 of this series We learned about standing firm Learning to wield the weapons of the spirit In the daily battle of the Christian life The story of Jonah is more than a man swallowed by a great fish First and foremost It's a story about God's unrelenting grace For undeserving people And it's a story for people who run from God And need second chances Next time, don't miss a series Pastor Phillip is calling Relentless, The Book of Jonah The Moody Church Hour is a listener supported ministry We count on the ongoing financial support Of listeners like you Together we share 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