So, I did some research on goals this week and by “research”, I
mean I googled it, right? Here’s a couple of quotes that I found
about goals. “Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your
eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No
one can hit their target with their eyes closed.” ― Paulo
Coelho “If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather
courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it
a reality.” ― Roopleen “Reach
high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the
goal.” ― Rabindranath
Tagore
Now, what I learned from my “research” was that there are a lot
more people who are good at coming up with quotes than there are at achieving
goals. Do you know what the goal of our church is? It is
not something we voted on. The Leadership Team didn’t come up with
it. The goal of our church is to further the
Kingdom. That’s our goal because we are a church. If any
church has something else as their main goal then they are churching
wrong. We are not to try to further our church or ourselves but to
do whatever it takes to promote the Kingdom of God. That is the
Biblical model of the goal of the church and we continue to strive for that.
If that is our goal, then what do you think is the goal of the
enemy? In our series the last few weeks we have been seeing that our
battle to reach that goal is not against flesh and blood but against Satan and
his demons and all the dark forces of evil. What do you think their
goal is? Their overall goal is to hinder the
Kingdom. They want to kill it, make it go away, distract it,
whatever they can do to hinder the progress and the promotion of the Kingdom of
God, and they should. That’s a good plan for them.
Fortunately for us, we have the playbook of the
enemy. We have a powerful force in the canon of scripture and
especially in this passage we have been looking at over the past few weeks
in Ephesians 6:10-18. This helps us to understand the
schemes of Satan so we know not only what he has done in the past but we see
how to expect him to attack in the future and I will say again that I believe
that is one of the reasons why our church has been put to the test so often and
so hard lately is because Satan has had to up his game and he is ticked off
about us focusing on how to defeat him.
There are a lot of classic books on the art of war. Sun
Tzu wrote a book by that very name that is popular with military
strategists. Almost all other big names in military strategy have
written books on how to be successful in battle. Hitler had
Mein Kaumpf. Napolean, Ghengis Khan, Alexander the Great and
Hannibal all had notes or writings explaining the best ways to be
victorious over the enemy. And do you know what they all considered
to be one of the most vital parts of military strategy? In fact, it
is part of the strategy used even in the latest wars the United States has
fought. It is the strategy of deception.
Deception. It is important to have the latest
technology and the largest force possible and to be well trained with an
excellent chain of command who communicate well but all these being equal, if
you can make your enemy think you are going to do one thing and you do another,
you can be victorious. If you can deceive them into thinking they
don’t have all the equipment they need or that you have more than you have; if
you can deceive them into thinking there is no way they can win; if you can
deceive them into thinking you are about to give up or that you are going to
the left and then you go right; whatever you can do to deceive your enemy will
benefit you, especially when you are overpowered.
Now, cue Satan. That is exactly where he
is. He is vastly overpowered and will resort to doing whatever he
can do to deceive us into thinking things that will give him an
edge. He knows that while he is more powerful than we are that we
are protected by and provided for by the Almighty God Himself. He
knows he is doomed. He has heard enough preaching over the years to
know how all of this is going to play out for him but he won’t go down without
a fight. He wants very much to do his worst in your life as a
Christian. He can’t stand you and would kill you in a second if God
removed His hand of grace from you. We have several ways to protect
ourselves from Satan, though, as we will continue to look at the armor of God
in Ephesians 6:10-18. Turn there now and read along.
10Finally, be strong in the LORD and in his mighty
power. 11Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand
against the devil's schemes. 12For our struggle is not against flesh and
blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of
this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly
realms. 13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of
evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done
everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and
with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of
peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which
you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the
helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of
God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers
and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all
the LORD's people.
We will be focusing on the first part of verse 17 this
morning. We have looked previously at how to put on the belt, the
breastplate, the shoes and the shield. Today we are told to “take”
the helmet of salvation and I want us to look at 3 things as we study this
passage. I want to first look at what the helmet of salvation is
and then how to put it on and then what it protects us from.
For the typical Roman soldier that Paul was envisioning here, the
helmet was made of a leather inner liner with an outer shell made of brass or
other metal and for the officers it often had a plume or row of feathers on top
for show. Now, I guess if I was an officer I would have to follow
orders and wear a row of feathers on top of my helmet but for me that just
seems kind of silly. I’m too proud to wear something like that on my
head. When I wear a helmet, I want to look tough and
manly. I don’t want silly feathers on my motorcycle helmet, I can
assure you. So, that’s why when I wanted to dress up my helmet I
went for the natural look. What do you think? Yep, nothing
says, “Don’t mess with me” like a real skunk
skin. It actually did save my life one time. I fell
asleep on a long motorcycle trip and when I woke up in the hospital the front
of the helmet was mashed together and there was rocks and gravel all in the
front of the pelt. There are also some scratches on the
side. Good helmet and pretty much one of a kind as far as I
know. And the skunk smell is almost gone so that’s good.
But for us today in our battle against Satan, what does it mean to
put on the helmet of salvation. I think we can get a little better
view of what Paul was talking about by reading another of his references to the
helmet of salvation in I Thessalonians 5:8 where he
says, “But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on
faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a
helmet.” You see here he says it is the hope of salvation but he
is not talking about hoping that we are saved. It is what is alluded
to in Romans 13:11, when he says, "now is our
salvation nearer than when we first believed." It is, says 1
Peter 1:5, "a salvation ready to be revealed in the last
time.”
Note that this salvation is a hope. Paul says in Romans
8:24-25, "if we see what we hope for, then it is not really
hope. For who of us hopes for something we see?" In other words,
hope looks to something we do not see or have rather than for something we
already see and have. This is not the same kind of hope as hoping that it
doesn’t rain or hoping something good will come on TV. This is a
confident hope.
So, the salvation of our helmet is something yet future, something as yet not
possessed or not fully entered into. It is referring to a salvation that is to
be ours when Christ comes again. Hebrews 9:28, "Christ…shall
appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who
eagerly await Him." In short, we can say that the salvation that
we hope to receive when Jesus comes again is, as it is stated in Titus
1:2, "the hope of eternal life, which God, Who cannot lie,
promised long ages ago."
So, we have seen what the helmet of salvation is. We
have seen that we will be victorious through Jesus. We have seen
that we have a lot to look forward to. We have seen that salvation
is ours to come. Now let’s look at how to put it on. When
I put on that skunk helmet I always fasten the chin strap tight so the helmet
doesn’t fall off. You can test it by pulling on it and see that it
won’t come loose. It is the same with the helmet of
salvation. We are told about it in the Bible and you all told me
last week that you believe the Bible and it has been tested throughout all of
history and has proven itself to be true and faithful.
Now the option is to rely on what you think or feel which may well
be corrupted by the great deceiver, Satan. How many times have you
felt something that turned out to be false? Sometimes you may have a
gut feeling that helps you but oftentimes our feelings get us into
trouble. Have the prophesies of your feelings come true since the
beginning of time? The Bible’s prophecies have. Have your
feelings proved themselves reliable in every way every time? The
Bible has.
Satan loves for us to act based on our feelings. We’ve seen that
the weapons that he aims at us are intended to attack our minds and our
emotions and to try to get us to be discouraged and to doubt. And since our
feelings are certainly impacted by the circumstances of life, they change all
the time as our circumstances change. But God’s Word never changes. So, if we
base our hope on His Word, our hope will be consistent and we won’t be tossed
around by our feelings. In fact, one of the reasons God has given us His
written Word is so that we can know without a doubt that our salvation is
secure.
1 John 5:13 says, “I write these things to
you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you
have eternal life.” John was writing to followers of Jesus so
that they could know without any doubt whatsoever that they have eternal
life. That’s how you put the helmet on, by knowing, through that shield
of faith, that you, as a believer have eternal life in heaven with Jesus.
If you’re like me, it might help to have some examples of people
who have shown us in the past how to put on the helmet of salvation; how we
actually do it and what it looks like. If we are to take the helmet
of salvation as Paul says with the expectant hope of our future salvation, I
want to see how to do it. Those are real pretty words but until we
can apply them to our lives in action then that is all they are.
First stop is Psalm 28. Most of you know
that David is one of my favorite biblical characters. I love David
because while he was king and a man after God’s own heart, he was also very
human and had terrible heartbreaks in his life and we can all learn from his example
how to survive difficult times. He was going through one of those
difficult times when he wrote Psalm 28. Read 1-2 and 7-8.
To you, Lord, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a
deaf ear to me.
For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit.
2 Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift up my hands
toward your Most Holy Place. In these first two verses he calls out to God
and says, “If you don’t answer and solve this problem, I will
die.” But then in verses 7-8 (before God answers his
prayer) he says, 7. The Lord is my strength and
my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and
with my song I praise him. 8 The Lord is the strength of his people, a fortress
of salvation for his anointed one.
David had every reason to be depressed and
discouraged. And he doesn’t try to cover over his hurt with fake
smiles and plastic platitudes but at the same time he knows that God and God
alone is his salvation. He doesn’t know when it will come. He
knows it may get darker yet, but ultimately he knows, because he has a
relationship with the Lord, that he will be saved and that brings him joy and
strength.
I have another example of how to put on the helmet of salvation
and I think this one is pretty good as well. It should be pretty
good since it is shown to us by the words and actions of Jesus as recalled
in Hebrews 12:2. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author
and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning
its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” How
is that possible?! How could Jesus, being God but at the same time
being all man, endure the outrageous, off the charts physical pain and the
emotional distress of taking on all of our sins and endure it with
joy? Because He knew what salvation was like! He knew
what heaven was like. He knew the rewards and the benefits of being
obedient even when your feelings say otherwise. He could look
forward to His own salvation but He also knew that He was our salvation
and that through Him we could spend eternity in Heaven. That should bring joy
and praise like it did for David instead of discouragement and doubt that Satan
wants to deceive us with and that brings me to my last point. What
the helmet of salvation protects us from is that doubt and discouragement that
Satan uses in our lives every day to keep us from having joy and peace; that
keeps us from living an abundant life as it says in John 10:10.
The thing that makes doubt and discouragement such powerful
weapons for Satan is two-fold: it keeps us out of the fight, sitting
in our foxholes feeling sorry for ourselves instead of waging war but it is
also similar to a virus in that whatever attitude we have is contagious. When
we feel down and discouraged because we have taken off the helmet of salvation
and have relied on the view we have of our circumstances and how we feel about
that then the other people around us tend to be dragged down into that as well.
The good news is that when people see us putting on our helmets and looking
past our circumstances and feelings and looking forward to the salvation that
is to come then they start buckling up their helmets as well and pretty soon we
start to look like an army to be reckoned with. People in the
community will see us and see that we are going through difficult times but we
don’t cave in. We don’t start self-medicating. We don’t
start complaining and worrying. Who wants to be around
that? There is enough of that in this world. People don’t
want to see it in the church.
Some of you may hear this sermon and think I am preaching a
feel-good gospel where if we just believe and have goals then everything will
be ok in this world. You would be mistaken. I wish I
could preach something like that but I have to tell you that in all
probability, as bad as it is in your life right now, things are probably going
to get worse. I promise you this world is not going to get any
better. As long as we live on this nasty, ugly, self-serving, every
man for himself planet then things are going to get worse and
worse. There is not much to look forward to as far as the morality
and standards of this world go.
But let me
encourage you with one last thought from I Thessalonians 4:13-18: 13
Brothers, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death,
so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. 14 For we
believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring
with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s
word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of
the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord
himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the
archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise
first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up
together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we
will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with
these words.
There is our salvation! There is our
helmet! Put it on and don’t be deceived! We know what is
truth and we have that buckled around our waist. We know that we
have imputed righteousness that comes from God and imparted righteousness that
comes flows out of us and it is protecting our heart like a
breastplate. We have peace that comes from knowing the
Gospel. When doubts and fears come, we just take up our shield of
faith and keep moving and now we have the helmet of salvation – that hope of
Heaven - to protect our minds from being deceived about this life.
We will still go through difficult times but as Christians we have
all this armor and more that is not available to a
non-Christian. The good news is that everybody can have this armor
and God wants us to have it. But first, you have to make Jesus Lord
of your life, not just a part of your life. You have to commit your
life to Him, believing that He is in control and He loves us and wants to
forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. Repent of that sin today. Put all that
down and start taking up His armor. Don’t be deceived any longer. Ask
God to be Lord of your life right now as the music plays.
Invitation / Prayer
“Christian, meditate much on heaven; it will help you to press on
and to forget the difficulty of the journey.” –C.H. Spurgeon - Paul said
in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about
such things.”
I say think about Heaven this week. Think about what
you are going to do, who you are going to see, and how, though we don’t deserve
it, we are co-heirs with Jesus to all the good things Heaven has to offer!
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