The Full Armour of God 4

well we've been seeing together in
recent weeks if you've been here for
some of these messages on Ephesians
chapter 6 that when Paul talks about
having your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of
peace he is talking about the provisions
that God has made in Christ so that we
could walk first of all faithfully
before him when the battle rages because
our feet are protected also he has made
provisions in Christ so that when the
battle rages we can stand firm against
the spirit of the age and then we have
seen still a third implication of having
a feet shod with a readiness that comes
from the gospel of peace and that is
that we need to be limber on our feet
and that's what we want to come back to
again this morning because important as
it is for a soldier to stand firm and
hold his ground it is equally important
that he be nimble on his feet and able
to change positions as the battle
changes because the nature of battle is
that one moment the enemy strategy is
over here the next moment his strategy
changes one moment the enemy is coming
from here the next moment he's coming
from an unexpected quarter and the
ability to shift your posture as the
attacks change is incredibly important
failure to do that is to be overrun two
quick illustrations one from World War
one and one from World War two leading
up to World War one battles were
generally fought by cavalry and you see
the old pictures of soldiers storming
into battle on the back of
of horses think of the charge of the
Light Brigade of the Korean War and so
on the generals the British generals
particularly and the leaders in world
war one could not get their head around
the fact that times had changed
strategies had changed and so they stuck
to the old way of doing warfare when
actually the horses were being replaced
by machinery and you had an incredible
bloodshed in world war one you had the
passion dale's where thousands of
soldiers got killed because the generals
couldn't adapt to the changing battle
same thing happened in World War two in
France prior to World War two and France
General de Gaulle who later became
president of France wrote a book
indicating that the traditional position
of lining your troops up to hold the
enemy back as they had traditionally
done with no longer work things needed
to change because of heavy machinery and
the nature of changing warfare he got
laughed out of court by the military
powers that were in his day sadly was
proven right when the Germans came to
attack France the line of defense that
friends had established in their
traditional way was blown out of the
water france fell to the advancing
german troops in no time flat and his
position was vindicated the same thing
happens in spiritual warfare if you've
ever met up with the devil then you will
know that he is full of changing wiles
one moment he's coming in through the
front door you think you've got it
figured out you got the door locked and
while you're busy keeping that front
door locked he's coming in through the
back door and then when you go running
to the back door and you close off the
back door he's sneaking in through the
window one moment he is attacking you
through your friends the next moment
he's attacking you through your spouse
the next moment everything goes wrong
with your
car the next moment you are depressed
and discouraged and you say what in the
world is happening I can tell you what's
happening you are facing spiritual
warfare and because you're facing
spiritual warfare what worked yesterday
doesn't necessarily work today it's not
good enough to take your stand and say
I'm not going to move when the battle
moves your posture needs to move and
even if that is true on an individual
basis that is equally true on a societal
basis and two weeks ago I shared with
you two major areas in which our culture
has been changing necessitating a change
of posture in how the church deals with
the world let me quickly review them
number one we talked about our view and
understanding of the authority of our
view and their understanding of
authority no longer is God's Authority
recognized no longer is the authority of
Scripture recognized no longer is the
authority of institutions or leadership
typically recognized or yielded to
instead everybody as in the days of
judges in the Old Testament everybody
does what is right in his own eyes and
everybody thinks he is an expert on
every subject so appealing to authority
in the way that we used to appeal to
Authority doesn't work any longer the
devil loves it because now he can pick
people off one after the other because
nobody has lived long enough to know
what the outcome will be of the choices
that they make you see that's the
importance of leaning on tradition
tradition itself can be a bad thing but
it can be a good thing because it
represents the collective wisdom of the
generations this is how life works when
you reject how life works you better be
sure that the new way that you think
lifeworks actually works because by the
time you find out 25 years have gone by
and the damage is incalculable so the
nature of authority and our
understanding of authority is
drastically changed and then so has our
view of family and gender no longer do
we believe that the human race consists
of male and female who are meant to come
together in family to produce the
nuclear family and thus generate the
next generation don't know if you're
aware of this but just this past week
the Ontario legislature passed bill 28
anybody hear about that bill 28 is
called the families all families are
equal Act our families are equal and
without spending a lot of time on it
this means that every form of family
that we now recognize as family is said
to be equal and you extend equal rights
and without getting into a lot of detail
it means that a child can have up to
four parents no longer are the words
father and mother part of family law
it's now all areas of partnership we are
legalizing fundamental understanding of
what family is and most of us about you
aren't even aware of it and it's put
into law that's the reality likewise
about two weeks ago and I've referenced
this bill before bill c16 was passed by
the federal parliament and that grants
transgender rights in the sense that
you're no longer allowed to discriminate
again which practically speaking means
if I self-identify as a woman
I want you to call me Norma took me a
long time to figure out good named call
myself if i call myself Norma and you
refuse to address me that way or by the
personal pronoun that I have chosen to
identify with I can take you to the
Human Rights Commission did you know
that and the Human Rights Commission can
take me to the cleaners if they so
decide and so on that's the world we
live in we've always had brokenness
we've always we've never normalized
brokenness that's the big difference so
these are changing times and we need to
be aware of changing times and that
brings me this morning than to still a
third area in our culture that is really
changing and I'll be brief about this
but that is our emphasis on individual
human rights our emphasis on individual
human rights why is it that these
movements of redefining gender
redefining family redefining how we do
life has gotten so far so fast have you
even pondered that I mean these are
incredible changes in the last couple of
years well it's rooted in our
understanding of equal rights whenever
you listen to the motivation for these
changes to come about it's always
everybody has a right so I have a right
to identify myself in whatever fashion
that I want to and there are now up to
72 gender specifications in on facebook
in parts of the world if I 12
live in a polyamorous relationship then
increasingly we're moving in that
direction that's going to be my right
now the problem with that is that after
a while everybody's rights clash with
each other if in an orchestra everybody
has the right to play their own
instrument and their own music and
ignore the conductor guess what happens
goes crazy you can only have harmony you
can only have symphony if we read off
the same score play our own part
properly and all listen to the conductor
and so now this past week of course we
had the federal government approving to
oil pipelines out west and you know
that's heading for major confrontation
because of the clashes in our culture
between the oil industry and the
Aboriginal community among others if
you're following the news they got this
whole protest where is it in North
Dakota trying to put a pipeline through
the Missouri River the problem is when
you take God out of the equation and you
no longer allow God to define what is
normal and God to define what your
rights are and it becomes all about my
experience in your experience then in
the end truth doesn't matter and it
becomes all about feelings and if you
hurt my feelings then you're
discriminating against me and if you're
discriminating against me I want you to
be punished and so now at universities
we have these trigger free zones where
students can go hide because they don't
want to be triggered by something that
is not compatible with their belief or
their experience at a lot of
universities protests are held to keep
speakers out of the university because
there are some students who are offended
by what that speakers position is going
to be and the irony is that in the
Western world where universities were
supposed to be the bastion of free
speech we now increasingly have to toe
the line because somebody is going to be
offended Jordan Peterson I mentioned him
the other day he's the University of
Toronto professor who refuses to bow to
the politically correct the
gender-bending kind of stuff so is a
licensed psychologist he's afraid is
going to lose license and I bet you he
will if the pressure keeps up so here's
an interesting little tidbit of
information oxford dictionary every year
comes out with what they call the word
of the year and that is a word that they
believe characterizes the spirit of the
age don't know how many of you are aware
of this but this past year the word they
chose was the word post truth relating
to or denoting circumstances in which
objective facts are less influential in
shaping public opinion that appeals to
emotion and personal belief
uninteresting truth doesn't matter what
matters is can I appeal to your emotions
and if I can appeal to your emotions by
exaggeration by falsehood or by other
twisting of the facts then I will use
that to accomplish my purposes don't
know how many of you have seen this
picture I don't know if you can see
these guys their names are Paris laid
and bailed Goldman Goldman as of last
May they were both unemployed wondering
how they're going to make their living
and well the heat upon was creating what
is known as fake news
so they hear his story and they create
an attention-grabbing headline and they
write it up on their blog and they
spread it among their followers and
everybody goes crazy and the truth
doesn't matter you know I don't want to
get into politics and but mr. Trump
bless him 560 false statements that he
made during the campaign by an objective
check his record was 37 in one day and
I'm not saying if he's going to be a
good president or a bad president or
that people should vote for the one or
the other that's not my point at all my
point is that a population wins an
election on the basis of post truth as
opposed to the real thing that is a
dangerous departure in society because
now the loudest voice that noisiest
person runs the show and the freedom of
the gospel is provided for us gets lost
ironically in a generation that gets rid
of God's Authority that redefines
reality according to its own feel and in
the end you lose your freedom to the
politically correct people why do I
believe her then because people those
are the days in which we live and that
affects both how we live the Christian
life and how we respond to our culture
so the battle changes our stance has to
change what do we do well I said last
time first of all we have to understand
the changes in a culture that's why I
have been elaborating on them
but then beyond that we need to get to
the next point and that is that we need
to find new ways of engaging our culture
we have to find ways of bypassing the
objections so that the truth of the
gospel can nevertheless still penetrate
beyond where people find themselves
quick example may not be the best one
but back in the 1930s when Bill Wilson
first founded a the third a a step
Alcoholics Anonymous was the step where
by let me read it to you here I made a
decision to turn or we made a decision
to turn our will and our lives over to
the call of God that was the original
wording now as you can imagine that put
up hackles to people who didn't believe
in God or whose understanding of God was
very different and so as time went on
they changed it to the understanding of
our to God as we understood him and the
original idea was people are in
different places of growth their
understanding of God is different the
point was let's not let prejudices get
in the way of turning our lives over to
a higher power and the idea was to be
all things to all people so that way all
means they might gain some now as the
years have gone by that definition of
God as we understood him has drastically
changed so that I remember being
attending an a a meeting as part of my
schooling many years ago and had it
explained to me that you could make your
higher power anything that you wanted it
to be and if you wanted it to be a light
bulb or if you wanted to be a fried egg
hanging from a telephone pole that was
your business whatever you believe
help you so you know it gets off base
real fast but I love the way the Apostle
Paul approaches his mission to the
Gentiles in these verses that you have
often heard me quote I've become all
things to all men so that by all
possible means I might save some I do
this for the sake of the gospel that I
may share its blessings so in a changing
world holding on to the essence of the
gospel that we cannot compromise how do
we change our posture how do we change
our position how do we stay nimble on
our feet so that we can actually have a
hearing in the world because that of
course is where the challenge lies three
practical suggestions as we move along
this morning the first of all I would
recommend that if you are interfacing
with the world around you pick your
battles carefully i love second Timothy
223 don't have anything to do with
foolish and stupid arguments because you
know they produce quarrels ever since
the dawn of the Internet and ever since
the dawn of blogs everybody has an
opinion and if you want to see the
nastiest streak of human nature then you
read the conversations that flow out of
responses to articles or two blogs madra
it brings out the worst in people now it
is a forum where by good conversation
can take place but typically human
nature being what it is it's extremely
difficult not to get sucked in to the
negativity of somebody's position
so don't do it don't exceed your
knowledge don't give in to fighting fire
with fire there is no way that you can
win the battle because if you throw mud
when people throw mud at you you're all
going to end up being slimed scripture
puts it this way be wise in the way that
you act towards outsiders make the most
of every opportunity let your
conversation we always follow a grace
seasoned with salt so that you may know
how to answer everyone and then 1 Peter
3 15 and 16 always be prepared to give
an answer to everyone who asks you to
give the reason for the hope that you
have but do this with gentleness and
respect stay out of arguments that don't
go anywhere and before you step into
them ask yourself the question is the
Holy Spirit calling me to respond to
this or should I just shut up and if i
do respond to it what is my purpose what
am i trying to accomplish will this be
helpful years ago alan redpath the
british pastor put it this way he says
before you speak think t meaning um let
me think of it here it'll come to me in
this is bad this is bad I didn't write
this down either true well of course
it's true thank you I this is a
collective Enterprise here the H stands
for honest the I stands for
inspirational the instance for necessary
and the case stands for think simple
little formula but boy we'd avoid a lot
of needless hassles if we just ask
ourselves those questions before we step
into a given situation truth matters
truth matters before God and truth
matters in the Christian life I could go
on about that for a long time but I will
refrain second thing step into the lives
of people around you step into the lines
of people around you I love what Paul
says in 1 Corinthians 5 9 and 10 he says
I have written to you in my letter not
to associate with sexually immoral
people not at all meaning the people of
this world who are immoral or the greedy
and swindlers or idolaters in that case
you would have to leave the world I've
talked about this before but it bears
repeating God's people historically are
always caught in the tension of two
conflicting missions that God has for
the church one mission for the church is
to be separate from the world to be holy
to be a distinct people who marched to
the beat of heaven the other mission
that the church has is to leave the
safety of that collective community and
step out into the world to reach the
world now you can see how those two
conflict but they are so at odds with
each other and the temptation is to lean
to one extreme or another and so there
are a lot of Christians who say I don't
want anything to do with the world
dirty they're sinners their immoral the
wrong they cuss a lot I don't want to be
part of that and and so they retreated
their holy huddle but the result of that
is they have no connections with the
rest of the world and nobody that can
ever lead to Christ and no ability to
communicate because they speak at
entirely different language they become
irrelevant to the world and then there
are those to say if it's really
important for us to read to reach the
world so we got to make friends with
them and they become so much like the
world if they lose their salt and they
lose their light and they lose their
witness and the balance of course is the
Lord Jesus who left the glories of
heaven came into our world as a human
being was able to interface with the
worst of sinners and yet remain
unpolluted by their sin and his advice
to you and to me he's calling to you and
to me is that as the father has sent me
I am sending you if Jesus lives in us
and were walking by his spirit he will
help us both to remain wholly and yet
have an ability to live in the world so
that what we have to say can be heard by
them and their will Lee at least be some
who respond to the gospel and who come
to salvation the fact that we're going
to be doing six adult baptisms in two
weeks time or to tell you the Spirit of
God is still at work seeking and saving
so avoid stupid battles and stupid
conversations just don't do it step into
the lives of people around you and then
live me just give you some practical
pointers in how to do that first of all
identify people in your sphere of
influence here's a little chart that you
might find extremely helpful a good
exercise as we move towards Christmas I
won't take a lot of time with this if
you can't remember this you might want
to write this down but start with here
you are now who are the people in your
sphere of influence that God puts in
your heart so you start with family
members write down their names how many
family members can I think of for some
it's an info for others it's an army
depends on a lot of factors same thing
with your neighbors who are your
neighbors who are your friends who are
the people that you work with or go to
school with who are the people that are
a church with you and who are the people
that you hang around with in free time
30 40 50 60 names no problem at all now
when you name all of those names then
ask yourself and ask the Lord the
question who in this list are you
placing on my heart is there a person
here that you want me to specifically be
praying for you may already have such a
person is there another person who do
you want me to invest my time and energy
in jail who should i invite over for a
cup of coffee who should I share my
heart with
whose story do you want me to hear
because you see even while the world is
falling apart and changes are happening
at an unprecedented rate it is an
incredible opportunity for the gospel
because the rest of the world is just as
confused as you and I are sometimes
except they have no answer and so all
you have to do is show some
consideration to family friends or
neighbors that God puts in your life be
open to their story and I don't know if
you have ever noticed this but people
are more than ready to spill their guts
I mean part of the culture of the day is
there is no shame so everybody lets it
all hang out what's a great chance to
hear to show empathy to show that you
care a lot of people have nobody that
cares about them nobody that will cry
with them nobody that will hold her hand
nobody that will hear their stories
without shaming them or trying to advise
them on how to fix it and would you
please not try to fix people I know the
temptation is always overwhelming every
time somebody shares a problem whether
it's an illness or a difficulty with a
child especially Christians our full of
good advice don't do it don't do it
because most of the time it means you're
not really hearing what's being said so
who in that whole chart let's put it
back up again for a minute who in your
circle of acquaintances does God put in
your life that you can speak into prey
into or go somewhere cultivate love in
those relationships pour yourself into
them and then third step it all of that
is find ways when we find it here
it's not there find ways of connecting
the gospel with the issues that people
are addressing many years ago I told you
the story years back in one of the
churches that I I served a young man in
our congregation was working in a
grocery store with a young married woman
our marriage was a mess her life was a
mess the two of them began to develop
quite a relationship and he understood
that this was going in the wrong
direction so he came to see me and said
what do I do and I said well let me talk
with her and so he arranged the meeting
with herself and myself and I believe my
wife was with me in a restaurant she
told us some of her story the the
tragedy of a lost baby and the tensions
in her marriage and how hard or how
hardened her heart had become and I
remember asking near the question do you
ever cry my tried to know where that
came from it was just there and she
promptly burst out into tears it just
came like a river it was so bottled up
and out of that came a number of
meetings at our house where Michelle and
I had the opportunity to share the
gospel with her and she gave her life to
Jesus because she told us later she had
no reason not to believe that I had her
best interests at heart because nothing
else that she had tried worked that's
many many years ago now that marriage
survived more children were born and she
continues to be vibrant Christian to
this day don't underestimate the
opportunities that you have with the
people in your circle of acquaintances
that you can share Jesus with now that's
very threatening because we have all our
own religious notions of what that ought
to look like I'm going to finish with
just three very practical suggestions to
help you do that the first
is learn a very simple way of presenting
Jesus in the context of the needs people
face now you know my favorite method is
this brilliant I have I have to tell you
these circles are brilliant and I'm
constantly amazed there are still some
of you that come to me and you tell me
after all these years I don't know what
they mean well that's you you better
come see me and I'll walk you through
them in great detail and knock you over
the head or pray for you to receive
Jesus so that you can get it in your
heart what I love about these and I'll
be very brief with this is you can use
this in any situation with just about
anybody and they will get it if we don't
get it that's our problem but they'll
get it because really all you're saying
is listen there's a God made the whole
world made it good wanted us to trust
him and obey Him we rejected him we sold
out to the devil God is outside of our
lives and because we sold out to the
devil we're all selfish and we're in
conflict and the world is an awful mess
now you don't have to be very brilliant
understand that and most people
understand that real fast and then you
say because the world is a mass we all
have a desire to get back to what we
have lost we all want to be happy we all
want life to make sense we all want
success and so the message of the Bible
is that there are two methods by which
we try to get back to the Garden of Eden
one is by our own efforts I try harder I
get educated I follow the benefits of
science and modern medicine and you know
making money whatever it is and yes that
seems to work but it doesn't solve the
problem of sin and ultimately leaves us
hanging relationships alone
God's answer is what God's answer is
Jesus who came into the world to bring
us back to God by dealing with her seen
issues he gives us the Holy Spirit God
renews us and everything changes not
that complicated you can do it and you
can do it with your friends and you can
draw it on a napkin amazing things can
happen when you draw on napkins there's
special power in napkins secondly be
prepared to tell your own story remember
Dave referred to it last week we have
the trees up before he prayed over that
bowl full of leaves and the leaves
represented places where God had met you
over the years in your life free moved
on well those are stories those are
stories those are the Word made flesh
those are places where god comes into
your world and gives you insight and
gives you hope and gives you what's
things and so now you're sitting down
with your neighbor and she's telling you
about how miserable her marriage is or
how difficult a time she has raised in
her children or how she just lost her
job or his car won't run whatever else
and you've just got the story a story
that demonstrates the power of God hears
the story I've told you many years ago a
friend of my out west of the first
church that we pastored was trying to
witness to his neighbor wasn't getting
anywhere I was trying to teach the
neighbor that actually God cares about
the little things in life and that he
should be praying for the things that he
couldn't solve so this guy rolled the
clock forward he was out in the field in
harvest time and his machine broke down
and he had to get the bearing off the
shaft I know if you ever tried to get a
bearing off a shaft it's not always an
easy thing he's pounding away this
stupid thing and it just wasn't going
anywhere and the words of his friend
came back to him he said how about I
pray about it so this guy for the first
time in his life appealed to a higher
power
whose name happened to be Jesus not a
Friday hanging from telephone pole and
in the simplicity of faith said lord if
you're there please help me with this
and not a word of a lie he tapped that
bearing with his hammer and off it
popped now the skeptic will say well it
would happen anyway but the child of God
knows that regardless of how it happened
that was a moment of revelation that was
a moment when God became real in that
man's life you got stories like that and
if the opportunity presents itself share
those stories in humility and with power
and authority and God's Holy Spirit will
take those stories and he will make them
come to life in people's lives sometimes
years and years later and then of course
third thing you can do is invite them to
a church event and that's why the
holiday season is particularly a fertile
time for you to do that go through that
list pray about all the people that are
there and ask yourself the question Lord
who is there that you want me to invite
you Christmas Eve or the Christmas Day
to the profession of faith service you
know the invitations that were referred
to earlier they make it easy for you to
hand them out offer to meet people
somewhere it's very intimidating to walk
into places that you don't know offer to
pick them up offer to meet them here and
I know a lot of us worry if I invite my
friend to church and it isn't going to
go the way that I think it ought to be
going they're never going to want to
come back and I'll be embarrassed I've
learned not to worry about that a long
time ago because I'll tell you why the
elect of God will know the truth when
they hear it and it doesn't matter how
it comes or how it is presented there
will be something inside them that
registers
this past Wednesday at council we met
with all the candidates for profession
of faith those are always great meetings
but what stood out for me in this one
and you'll hear some of those stories
when they make profession of faith is
how many of them came to this place
because they were sovereignly led here
by the Holy Spirit they drive past on
the road they see the sign and they said
something tells me this is where I need
to go and eventually they do and when
they do guess what happens they meet up
with Jesus that's why prayer is such an
important part of this you see because
the Holy Spirit is already at work he's
preparing the ground you and I are part
of the harvesters our job is just to do
our part in facilitating the invitation
and then trusting that the Lord will do
what he needs to do to bring people to
life
you