Standing Firm: Put On the Whole Armor of God

Irreducibly complex And there's reasons why You've got to have all the pieces So there's some things That humans do One of them is this It's called the halo effect The halo effect is this It's if something is If someone is good at something Let's say they're good at business Or finances Or construction Or teaching Or leading Or communication Or parenting Or they've got great style The halo effect is You're so good at this one thing You must be good at everything But it's not true [00:46:20] (36 seconds)  #HaloEffectTruth

So it's very important to realize I need help I need every piece Because I've got blind spots Might be good at some stuff But they're somewhere that I need help So David Incredible warrior Incredible poet Writes the majority of the Psalms Passionate for the Lord Had a blind spot And that blind spot Was for women [00:48:04] (27 seconds)  #OwnYourBlindSpots

Men Man of courage He's the only guy That steps out of the boat And walks on water When Jesus is betrayed He's the only one That pulls out A sword And defends Jesus But he's got a blind spot Called his pride And it's his failing Abraham Amazing man of faith God just tells him Leave this land Or the Chaldees And go somewhere I'm going to tell you about Abraham packs everything up And follows God To a place he had never heard of Never seen before Man that is faith [00:48:33] (33 seconds)  #FaithfulButFlawed

Emotions have taken over the steering wheel In most people's lives When it should be reason and truth But feeling is dominant So the rest of this text is going to Require this of you and me To be an ancient faith kind of person That says the way that God has laid out the world With principalities and powers The way that the world really is With a kingdom of darkness And a kingdom of light The way that the world really is This text is going to require you and me to say That's the way things really are I have an ancient faith in God And in scripture It's going to require that It's the whole armor of God Belongs to him And it says something about this armor It says when you're wearing it You can You will be able You may be able to withstand [00:56:17] (54 seconds)  #ArmorUpInFaith

An armored saint Can withstand the attack of the enemy The temptations of the flesh And the stuff the world throws at us And I believe that Not just because of this text I believe it because the Bible teaches it Over and over That a believer can withstand So listen to these chapters These verses 1 Corinthians 10 13 [00:57:11] (28 seconds)  #ArmoredSaint

In the forgiveness of sins And we should It is brilliant It is amazing The modern church rejoices That the prodigal son Can be taken from the pigsty And welcomed home by the father And a gigantic party thrown from him That is unbelievable The modern church rejoices Rightfully so That Jesus leaves the 99 And goes after the one It is awesome We love the fact that Jesus is called The friend of sinners Wonderful [00:59:37] (29 seconds)  #FriendOfSinners

But the modern church Should equally rejoice That a believer Has been set free from sin And an armored up believer Can withstand So I am a new covenant Christian It means this When you believe in Jesus The moment you believe in Jesus Your old heart is taken away And you are given a new heart And the power of God's spirit [01:00:06] (29 seconds)  #NewCovenantLife

That we have an enemy That knows If he can get us To get all caught up In cheap thrills We'll forfeit The new wanter That God has given to us And the deep joy That comes from it I'll give you some examples So With your new heart What you actually want Is what the Bible wants You want to get married You want one man Plus one wife Plus one life You want to be fruitful And multiply That's your deepest desire [01:01:50] (34 seconds)  #GodSizedDesire

But the enemy will tempt you With a cheap thrill And that cheap thrill Sits on phones And TVs And computers It's called pornography And it does not bring you deep joy I bet I've talked to a hundred men That struggle with pornography And I've asked a bunch of them Probably half of them Does it make you happy I have yet to have one man say Yeah it makes me happy I get the opposite [01:02:24] (28 seconds)  #RejectPorn

Every person wants to be known Deeply and to know people deeply It's how we're designed We're designed for community Not good for Adam to be alone You can get that in church But it takes work There's accountability People will call you On the carpet on things It's iron sharpening iron You ever seen iron sharpening iron There are sparks It's hot But that's good community But the enemy will tempt you With a cheap thrill You can go to the bar And get it Over a couple drinks [01:03:25] (31 seconds)  #DeepCommunityMatters

But guess what happens in a bar You never have deep community You have the same conversation With the same dude It's Groundhog's Day Over and over and over No one's asking you hard questions No one's calling you accountability No one's sharpening you in life That's not happening in the bar It's keeping nice and surface level We're all happy here It's a cheap thrill [01:03:56] (21 seconds)  #SeekRealCommunity

This is what I tell young men When you're being tempted Stop, pray Think deeply about what you most want Especially in community Meaning sometimes you pick up your phone And you call one of your buddies And say help me right now I'm struggling Pray for me Remind me of who I am Remind me of my identity In Christ Remind me of the deep joy That I actually want Remind me If you'll do that Stop Pray Think deeply What makes you most joyful In community If you'll do that As a new covenant Christian 99.99% of the time You're going to make wise decisions [01:04:19] (39 seconds)  #StopPrayCallFriends

Solomon picks up this same idea It's Ecclesiastes chapter 12 He calls it evil days there And what evil days there are In Ecclesiastes 12 Is the rhythm of life Day upon day Week upon week Month upon month Year upon year And it just glides past you And all of a sudden You wake up one day And you're old and feeble And ready to die That's literally what Solomon says there Read it [01:05:41] (30 seconds)  #SeizeTheDays

Days can do that to you Get you in a rut Get you just kind of Forgetting what matters I think Paul's using evil day For each one of us That there's an evil day Coming for each one of us David had an evil day And he failed [01:06:11] (20 seconds)  #PrepareForEvilDays

Moses had an evil day And he failed Cain had an evil day And he failed Jacob had an evil day And he failed Peter had an evil day And he failed Judas had an evil day And he failed It's a time Of intense Spiritual attack [01:06:31] (22 seconds)  #EvenTheGreatFall

Within the first Three months of Edgewater My mom who had been Healthy as a horse Ate well Exercise Thought well Did life well She is diagnosed With terminal cancer Given a year to live She lived three weeks That happened Five months after that My older brother Was in an automobile accident And he died [01:07:04] (27 seconds)  #SeasonsOfLoss

And I felt like I can't talk to anybody About this What I'm going through Right now I can't talk to anybody I can't do it And so What it really was Was a reviving Of something that I had gone through In college I had this professor Named Marcus Borg He taught this Class on Jesus I took it And he systematically Destroyed my faith In the Bible And Jesus And I was plagued By real doubt Back then Thought I had Kind of gotten over it It came back With a vengeance [01:08:12] (32 seconds)  #DoubtToRevival

At Edgewater And I didn't know Like who do I talk to Who do I mention this to What And I didn't I had one guy Didn't live here Wasn't around here One guy that I would talk to And that was it And if you remember The mid 2000s Late 2010s Like right in there Atheism It was new atheism They were strong They're like It's the end of the church You had guys like Dawkins Richard Dawkins Who was called The high priest of atheism Sam Harris Daniel Dennett Christopher Hitchens And I was reading Some of their stuff And then I'm just Starting to believe You know what Maybe this is all Fake [01:08:44] (43 seconds)  #FaithUnderFire

It doesn't say run a marathon It doesn't say Go do some Feet of strength Festivus It doesn't say Go be a missionary In Siberia What does it say Just stand firm Just stand firm That's all I did Just stand firm That's all I did All I did was just Okay I'm going to keep praying I'm going to keep Reading my bible I'm going to keep Teaching at Edgewater I'm going to keep Pastoring I'm going to keep Loving my wife I'm going to keep Loving my kids That's what I'm going To do [01:10:02] (41 seconds)  #StandFirmDaily

All I could do Was stand I could not do Anything else And then one day I can't even tell you The day One day I woke up And it was gone The doubt Was gone I had withstood it Just standing Not doing anything else In fact right after That had gone I went back I went to seminary Because I felt like Now I can move forward Now I can begin To advance All I could do Was stand for a while But now I can go forward [01:10:43] (34 seconds)  #StandThroughDoubt