 So I'm really excited to be here with you today even as we've heard our brother John share his heart Men's ministry has a special place in my heart. I started in men's ministry And I think you could all affirm this that the only way that we can be successful in living out the kingdom life That God has called us to live is when we have a network of like-minded men there to support us as we run The race for our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot do this on our own men And if you're not plugged into a men's ministry, I highly encourage you to get plugged in here or at your local church and I also just want to say thank you to our beloved pastor David and To all the men's leaders because this this men's ministry has helped me grow and mature as a man And I'm so grateful. I don't know if you've been at other fellowships a lot of churches don't have what we have here This is something special that we have here. There's this brotherhood and this camaraderie is something that we don't take for granted so as As my brother was sharing I was thinking about, you know My past and the time when I first stepped into an evangelical church and when I came to church I was all jacked up When I came to church, I was strung out on drugs. I was a criminal the last two years of my addiction I was slamming dope and I remember that I would sit in that church and I was nodding off and I was wondering is this the place where I'm gonna finally find what I need in my life to be free from this addiction and I say that to you men to tell you that that is where the Lord met me He didn't meet me when my life was all together and perfect and spotless He met me when my life was all jacked up and in the same way for many of us here today I don't know if today you've come out of a broken home You've come out of a divorce. You've come out of an alcoholic addiction or a drug addiction or abuse Or you have prodigal children. Maybe you've come out of that or maybe you're still living in that right now But either way one thing that we know is that our Lord is faithful to meet us in our place of need And so the God we worship doesn't come to meet us when everything is perfect. He meets us in our mess And that's where he begins to do a work in our life. What does he do? He begins to correct He begins to tear down. He begins to rebuild and he begins to restore and men This is something that God is doing in every single person's life in this room myself included and it is through the instruction and the application of the scripture the word of God that the Lord begins to Change the way that we think that the Lord begins to change the way that we act and That our God begins to change the way that we live our lives So let's open up with a word of prayer Father, I just thank you God that you have provided this opportunity that we as men can be here to be Instructed to be corrected to be built up Lord God because our greatest desire is to know you Lord our Greatest desire is to walk in holiness in the fear of you and our greatest desire God is that you would equip us through the preaching and teaching of your word so that we can be faithful to our families and to the Responsibilities that you have entrusted to us And so God would you continue to open our ears and our heart that we would receive with meekness the word that is able To save our soul that we would have a clear mind and a focus that we would not just be hearers of the word But that we would be doers of the word. Oh God. We need you Holy Spirit and God I ask that you would grant me the words Lord God that I could deliver the message that you have put on my heart with Conviction and compassion and that you King Jesus would be glorified in all things in Jesus name. We pray amen All right, so continuing on the same Theme our theme being thoroughly equipped for every good work The message that I'm going to share with you guys today. If you have your Bible, it's going to be out of Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 through 18 and The title that I've given this message is the fight Now one of the ways that the scripture Describes the life of a believer is it describes it as a fight And so as we look at this portion of the scripture men What we understand is that each part of the armor of God Represent something that we must believe and that we must apply daily We'll start with verse 10 Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 it says Finally my brothers be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might So as men as men I know that we can hold our own and as I look around this room I know that we have some dangerous men in this house But we understand men that that is not what God is calling us to do here The scripture says that we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and what that means My brothers is the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives and not our own strength So everything that we're gonna look at this morning everything in this passage has to do with two things The work of God and the presence of God in our lives So the way that we have victory in our walk is by staying connected to God So we should be dangerous men But let us be men that are dangerous Spiritually because the power of God rests upon our lives amen Let's look at verse 11 It says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds or the schemes of the devil So the key word here is stand what it's saying right here is that we are to stand firm against The schemes of the devil and what that means for us is men is that what we say is I know what I believe I Know who I am in Christ. You are not moving me from here So as men we are called to stand our ground. We're called to stand our ground in our faith and in our convictions Dr. David Jeremiah says this Notice that Paul didn't say that God would give us the armor He told us to arm ourselves So it is your responsibility to appropriate the armor of God It is your personal and paramount duty to put on the armor of God Which will protect you from whatever the enemy wants to do for you Now I also want to say this men as we're looking at this portion of the passage I know that we've all heard many messages on Spiritual armor and putting on the full armor of God. I only have 40 minutes So what I'm trying to do here today is my prayer is that we could leave this place Instructed by a very practical message My prayer as we go through this is that as we go through our week We would understand what it really means to put on the armor of God each part of the armor And we would understand not only what the scripture is teaching us But what God is requiring from us daily so that we as men can experience a consistent pattern of victory in our life So he says in verse 12 that we do not wrestle Against flesh and blood but against principalities Against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age and against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places So what is he saying there? What he's saying is that it's not just your wife Even though we like to blame the wife Sometimes it's the wife It's not just your kids. It's not just your co-workers There's an invisible satanic spiritual influence in everything we see around us And we know from studying the scriptures that the Bible teaches us that as men God holds each one of us responsible for the spiritual climate in our home And so as men as our brothers have shared we are responsible for setting that temperature in our family And even if today you would say well, I don't have a family and I don't have kids Whatever your situation is this morning. There are people in your life that you have influence over and men This is a great responsibility This is not something that we take for granted and that is why the kingdom of God of darkness Understanding the importance of a man's role in our society will do everything he can to destroy our ability To lead spiritually and to provide a spiritual covering for those that God is entrusted into our care Now let me ask you guys this question What would you do if someone tried to come into your house to hurt your wife and your kids? hands-on ministry Nehemiah, right? And we're just being honest as men God designed us in this way We protect what God has entrusted to us no matter the cost. No one's gonna lay hands on my wife or my children But what about spiritually as an application point? Are we as men providing a spiritual covering for those that God has entrusted into our care? Because the reality men is that we know that when the enemy comes to tempt us His temptations are tailor-made for us The Bible speaks of Satan and the kingdom of darkness in military terms and it says that he's always observing and watching us So he knows exactly what you like. He knows what you struggle with He knows how to push your buttons and he knows how to get to you and the reality men is that if we Grant him access to our life through unrepentant sin He will keep you in that place of flesh and of rebellion And it's in that place of flesh and rebellion where the enemy has access to directly Influence your life and your family's life And we understand that we're engaged in this war and men we see what's going on in the world around us And if there's ever been a time for us to focus it's now It's time for us to be about our father's business So so with that in mind, let's look at verse 13 It says 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 again notice the key over and over in this portion of the scripture So again what that means for us this morning men is that we're to stand firm in our face We're to stand firm in our convictions. We are men. We do not retreat from the kingdom of darkness Look at what John MacArthur wrote He says we know from the word of God that Satan and his invisible demons are continually at work in the world And in all that surrounds us, but we don't have the wisdom to discern exactly when they are present How many there are what kind there are or what they are doing? We must put on the armor of God and report to him. We must dress appropriately and dress well We must not neglect a part of God's provision for us verse 14 So he says again stand therefore having girded your waist with truth Having put on the breastplate of righteousness So I would ask you this morning men Do you believe that this book is the word of God and has absolute authority in our life? Amen. Amen. We understand that and having the belt of truth on is Reflected in our speech and in our conduct notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 4 verse 13 the scripture tells us That no creature is hidden from his sight but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him To whom we must give an account All things are naked and open before his eyes what that means men and I know you understand this It means that nothing is hidden from God Absolutely nothing and I don't know about you, but that's a very liberating scripture for me Because I know that I'm saved. I know that I'm born again. I know that I belong to Jesus Christ And I know that my God will not reject me and I know that he will not condemn me and what my God requires for me is that I be Absolutely honest in my relationship with him. It's that I call sin sin in my life It's that I cleave to him through all of my struggles and it's not only that we keep it real in our relationship with God But that we also keep it real in our relationship with others It's like what King David said in Psalm 51 you guys remember when he sinned his sexual sin with Bathsheba And then he repented in Psalm 51 verse 6 and he said behold you desire truth in the inward parts So what God is looking for within us is this integrity that comes from within our soul in our heart now What does that mean? What does that look like in prayer? How do I put on this belt of truth in prayer? We say to the Lord. I know who I am. I know that I am a new creation I know who I belong to and I believe that the Bible is my code of conduct So help me God and that leads us right into the next part, which is the breastplate of righteousness okay, so breastplate of righteousness, so the breastplate of righteousness is reflected in our obedience Now I don't want you guys to answer this out loud, but I want you guys to think about this for a moment What is it that we hunger and thirst for? What is the greatest desire this morning in the depths of our soul? Well, the scripture says blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness For they shall be filled Now we know when the Bible speaks of righteousness We have what we call the imputed righteousness the moment we put our faith in Jesus Christ alone apart from our performance Apart from any good works for what Jesus has done the Bible says that God credits the perfect life of Jesus Christ to our account And that is what allows men sinful men like us Imperfect men to come before a holy and righteous God to receive mercy and grace in time of need But that's not what he's talking about here And he's not talking about the righteousness that we produce on our own strength because Isaiah the prophet tells us in chapter 64 that all of our righteous acts are as a filthy rag In and of our own strength. We cannot come before a holy and righteous God so the breastplate of righteousness is What God produces in our lives as we are yielding to the Holy Spirit the imparted righteousness of Jesus Christ Us understanding that the only way we can obey the word of God is if we are yielding to the Spirit of God So it's not a perfect obedience Because if it was none of us would be able to do this But what it is is it's a pattern of obedience in our life So someone might say this morning. Well, what does that look like? Because I struggle with sinful thoughts and desires. I don't do the things That I want to do so often. I do the things I do not want to do just like Paul Men the reality is that that is a description of every single one of us myself included Because we all live in a body of flesh and Until we see the Lord face-to-face there will always be a struggle in this body an internal War that we are waging against the flesh But the reality is that we are all called to grow We're all called to bear fruit and we're all called to bring glory to God So how do we do this? How do I do this? Well what God is asking from us as men is he's asking us to be quick to repent He's asking us to keep a short account of our sins with God He's asking us to develop a hatred for the sin in our lives to where we say God I don't want this in my life anymore God I want to be delivered from this pattern of sin in my life because I know this is not what you desire and I see the Righteous standard that you have called me to live in according to your word and I cannot meet that standard God And I need the power of your Holy Spirit And it is in that place that we start putting on the breastplate of Righteousness it is in that place where we understand that it is not our own strength But the strength of God that we as men can say here. I am God Here I am this morning, and that's what we should be saying this morning Here I am God is jacked up as I am I want my life to be useful in your hands the Bible says that God is the Potter and that we are the clay The Bible doesn't call perfect man into the kingdom of God The Bible didn't call you and me because we're equipped and we're the right man for the job The Bible calls men that are common like you and me and when we're willing and we're available and we say here I am I have nothing to offer you But you have everything God and you have called me to live this life You have called me to be a father in my home You have called me to minister to my children you have called me to be an ambassador of a ministry of Reconciliation in the workplace. I can't do this on my own strength. So God I'm trusting and depending that according to your word You will supply what I need so that I can fulfill what you're calling me to do And you know what happens the king of glory shares his glory with no man So when God begins to use our lives, we give God all the glory And what God does is he chooses men in the Bible calls it jars of clay that means that we're flawed that means that we're flawed and If you study the Bible and you study the life of every biblical character all the way from Abraham all the way to the end You see that these men were not perfect men. They were men that were willing They were men that were available for the work that God had called them to do So the question this morning men that I would ask is are you available and willing to be used by the kingdom of God? Because God wants to use your life right where you are So that brings us to a source of our peace and I'm running out of time Oh, no, I got 18 minutes that clock is wrong in the back, okay Okay, verse 15 it says having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace All right So what is he saying here? He's saying to us that we have those combat boots laced up tight and we're ready for action Now the solid foundation of the Christian life is the gospel of Jesus Christ But man, that's not only the way that we get saved by someone preaching the gospel The gospel of Jesus Christ is how we live our faith out daily So what is this gospel message? The gospel message is that the king of glory the king of glory himself came down and he wrapped himself in a body of flesh in the person of Jesus Christ That Jesus lived the perfect life that none of us could ever live in complete obedience to every requirement of God's holy law That Jesus died on across the death that we deserve for our sins that we committed yesterday today And we will commit in the future and that if we will look to Jesus Christ the one who was tortured on that Roman cross They God will credit to our account the perfect life of Jesus Christ and God will put the punishment for our sins upon the person of Jesus Christ And so if we understand that that's how we began our life I don't know about you but when I became a believer I was desperate for God if you will free me from this addiction where I was slamming dope multiple times a day I don't want to be a drug addict. It didn't start like that. I thought I was cool I was living the criminal lifestyle was making money. I had women but pretty soon the addiction took over But I know that God did that in my life allowed that in my life to bring me to that place where I was desperate for Jesus Because I would have never come to the Lord if I wasn't in that place So many of you remember who you were you remember who you were before Jesus Christ came into your life and men Even though we don't look back and we're moving forward. It's important that we remember where we came from Because that keeps us humble and that keeps us in that place Understanding that if we're gonna make it through another day, we have to do it the same way we did at the beginning I don't deserve anything that you give me God. I cannot earn anything that you have for me It's all a gift from God and That's how we have peace with God today and the scripture tells us that we're ambassadors of a ministry of reconciliation Not one of you not two of you But that each man in this room is an ambassador of a ministry of reconciliation that God is pleading through us that people would be reconciled to Jesus Christ and Regarding this gospel message Paul said I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ For it is the power of God into salvation for all who believe So the power of the message even though yes our life needs to reflect the gospel message Understand that when you're sharing this message God will use you if you're crying out to the Lord and you're saying I am willing I want to share the gospel message God the people in my work. They don't know you God My family doesn't know you God. They're going straight to hell God I want to share this gospel message and all of a sudden because you're crying out to the Lord in desperation What begins to happen the Lord begins to open doors for you to share So that is why we pray the most important thing in the life of a disciple of Jesus Christ It's not the words that we speak and share with others The most important thing in the life of a kingdom man is his prayer life Because when we pray God moves mountains Because when we pray God prepares the heart of those that we will encounter Because when we pray God gives us a sensitivity so that as we're walking through our day We hear the Holy Spirit saying this person needs to know about me This person needs to encounter the love and the grace of God This person needs to understand that I love them and I want you to share this with them And that is why we are men of prayer and another way that we Live out this gospel truth practically practically because we're not always going to share it with our words We live it out practically when we bless people who have not earned our blessing When we forgive people that don't deserve to be forgiven When we make a choice to love the unlovable Why because that's the same way that Jesus deals with every single one of us, isn't it? So God is calling us as men to represent him to a fallen world And we understand that we understand that most people that we interact with will never read the Bible But they're reading us They're looking at our life What are they seeing as they're watching our life men? What are they seeing? Ephesians 6 16 it continues to tell us above all taking the shield of faith With which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one So this word faith speaks of trust Proverbs 30 verse 5 tells us that Every word of God is pure that he is a shield to those who put their trust in him So we understand this as men that everything in our walk is about having faith everything in the relationship of a believer You got to have faith and what faith means is believing what God says in his word So trusting even if we can't feel it or see it right away Hebrews 11 1 Regarding this faith or this trust it says faith is the substance of things That we hope for and the evidence of things not seen and men We understand this here because we're a part of cavalry chapel This is why we teach the word of God here because our faith is not rooted in the traditions of men Our faith is rooted in a living relationship with the creator of the universe So as we're going through our battle, how do we how do I take up this shield of faith through prayer and through the word of God? And then he says in verse 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit Which is the word of God Brothers, we understand that that with the enemy satan And it's not satan himself, but it's the kingdom of darkness What they want to do is they want to capture and they want to confuse our minds That is the objective. Look at what dr. David Jeremiah said Satan is in the business of waging a battle for possession and control of your mind And its purpose is to corrupt or confuse you either through false teaching Or the world's value system Why so that it will be impossible for you to think clearly about God and his purposes So if the enemy can get to us here in our mind The enemy will be able to influence our emotions and our actions And this is why most of what we would call spiritual warfare today Is the battle to believe the truth of God's word over the lies of the enemy And that is why Paul said in second Corinthians chapter 10 that we are to bring Every thought captive in obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ Because whatever we allow to take root into our mind will bear fruit Either fruit unto holiness and righteousness or it will be fruit unto the flesh Now just to say this for a moment our flesh, we all understand that we're called to crucify the flesh daily That's why Paul said I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who lives But it is Christ who lives in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the Son of God who loves me and gave himself up for me So apart from crucifying the flesh daily, what is it that God requires? Well Understanding that our struggle with sin The struggle with sin in every single man's life it always starts in our mind The battlefield is in our mind And we understand that the scriptures teach us in this passage That we have an organized structure of demons who daily assault our thoughts With the intent to destroy the way that we think And the reality men is that we all know this that if we lose the battle in our thought life Eventually, we're going to lose the battle in our actions And so in order to experience any type of victory in our walk with the Lord We need to have victory in what we call the private life The private life is when no one's around The private life is what we do with our phones when no one is watching And let me make this very practical One area that we all are tempted in as men is the area of sexual sin And the scriptures would inform us that many strong men Spiritual men have fallen in this area. We have king Solomon the wisest man Whoever lived yet. He did some really foolish things And we have king david a man after god's own heart And we see what happened with sexual sin in their lives And men if we're honest it usually starts innocently right It starts on our instagram or on our facebook feed Where all of a sudden her picture popped up and all of a sudden you're looking at it And it's it is satisfying something that we have within us and I just have to look at more And pretty soon it progresses from just being instagram and facebook To where now we're watching hardcore porn every day And I understand this personally because before I came to Jesus christ in my life of addiction I was addicted to pornography for 10 years of my life So I understand what that does to the heart it defiles the heart it defiles the mind to where anytime you look at anyone You have a corrupted point of view And we understand that the scripture is not calling us as men To be enslaved by pornography By lust by lust Or or bisexual immorality And the truth is that in this type of life men when we struggle in these areas it will never satisfy you Your eyes will never have enough no matter what you're always going to want more And when we've opened the door to sexual sin because we started on social media We're watching pornography now. We've set ourselves up And the moment that opportunity presents itself and the moment some girl gives you attention That's where you jump right in And all of a sudden you're asking yourself how did I get here? Well, it didn't happen overnight It all started in the mind And if we lose the battle in the mind eventually we will lose the battle in our actions And the truth man is that in this room right now some of you are probably living in bondage to sin Some of you in this room may be struggling with lust pornography or sexual immorality And I want to remind you this morning my brothers that this is not the will of god for your life And we would ask ourselves this question this morning Have I made peace with my sin? Have I made peace with these things in my life? Have I said this is just the way that it is? Because it is not until we call sin sin in our life that things start to change And men we understand that we cannot be spiritual leaders if we're dominated by sexual sin We cannot be the fathers. We cannot be the husbands. We cannot be the brothers and the sons We cannot be the kingdom men that God has called us to be We cannot have spiritual victory over the kingdom of darkness if we're living in any pattern of sin And we're unwilling to repent And men this is a real fight that we are all living in today every single one of us We're living in a fight for our minds So if we if we put on the full armor of god This brings us to the last piece of our armor, which is our offensive weapon The sword of the spirit Or the reima word of god Now it's important to understand my brothers that we need to have the rest of the armor on first If we want to use the sword of the spirit Now we know all the stats of our favorite players and our favorite teams by memory Why why is it that we know all the stats? Because it's important to us And because it's important to us we invested time energy and dedication We did whatever it takes And the reality men is that when we understand the value of scripture memorization, we will do the same thing So let me illustrate as americans. We love our guns. Amen. Okay. I'm in the right place AR 15 you got the red dot just in case somebody comes into your house. You got the nine millimeter For concealed carry Now, what would you say to a man who's walking around with a gun with no bullets? What would you say? Somebody said he's a fool. He said it not me. Amen, brother personally Personally i'm a one in the chamber kind of guy. Amen Now here's the reality When temptation comes your way I'm struggling with lust. I'm struggling with sin. Do you really think you're gonna open up your bible and start reading your bible? You need to have one in the chamber You need to have one in the chamber It's not the written word of god That sets us free It's the word of god that we understand and apply into our lives So whatever the struggle is that you're having this morning My exhortation to you my brothers would be Memorize that portion of scripture if it's lust look at all the scriptures about lust And what happens is when we start to memorize these portions of scripture We can do what the psalmist said when he said selah When he's saying you start you start thinking about the scripture as you're going through your day And you're talking to the lord and you're saying god. What does this mean? What does this look like in my life? How do I live this out practically and then the lord begins to give you understanding of a specific portion of scripture So now it is no longer just the written word But now the living word is inside of you You've internalized it and you have this deep rooted conviction that what god says is true And that what god says is true. He's going to equip you to live out your life in light of that truth And so when we have that that word of god within our hearts with that conviction It is there that we can use the word of god in prayer It is there that we can do what jesus did what did jesus do when he was tempted three times It is written and he used the word of god So when we have this deeply rooted conviction god has not given me a spirit of fear but a power loving a sound mind No weapon formed against me shall prosper because greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world When you have this deeply rooted conviction You use the word of god in prayer and against temptation and against every demonic assault upon your mind and upon your family's mind You stand your ground because that is what we do as men and so the enemy Loses this power when we identify the deception or the lies that we have believed and we replace it with the truth of scripture amen We'll finish in verse 18. It says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit Being watchful to descend with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints What it's saying there men is that the way that all of this comes together in our daily walk How do I do all this? How do I put on this armor daily? It's prayer We start with prayer and we need the power of the holy spirit So in closing in closing We are not victims None of us are victims We are men And as men we are called to fight the good fight And none of us will live a perfect life There's not one of us in here that will have a perfect wife Or have perfect children But on that day when we see our savior, we should all be able to say Lord, I ran my race well Lord, I live my life under the authority of your word Lord, I can say that because of your grace and your presence in my life My life made an impact for the kingdom of god And so i'll leave you with this I put on this armor Every single day in prayer and I teach this to my wife and my kids And maybe you've never done this and you're saying I don't do that in prayer And i'm not saying you have to do it in prayer But what i'm saying to you is that paul as a master illustrator has given us a pattern in the armor of god Of what god requires from us in order to see a consistent pattern of victory in our lives And it is a powerful way in prayer To remind me daily. This is what god is calling me to do And then I ask the lord to help me apply these things in my life