Today is the day that the Lord has made. So let us rejoice and be glad in it. And everyone everywhere said with all their hearts, Amen.

Did you know that the ancient Roman Empire, before it was an empire, it was a republic? Full of problems, yes it was, but before it became an empire, it was a republic. Until 27 BC when Caesar Augustus deemed himself the first emperor. Now you can debate whether or not Augustus made

improvements to Rome and beyond, but the truth is that Rome went from being a republic to an empire. From the people having power to one person having power. And when commenting on this, the satirical writer juvenile made this statement. He said the people who used to grant power high office the legions everything now curtails its desires and Reveals its anxiety for only two things bread and circuses. He was saying the people lost their power, but they didn't care as long as they were fed and entertained. Here's a history lesson.

And what's true about society is even more true when it comes to the spiritual. When faithful people are distracted, the devil is most effective. And with this sermon and sermon series, Withstand, this is about seeing how the Bible gives us the perspective and the eyes to see and reminding us that the culture war and the things that are going on around us ultimately find their root in the spiritual. That the people, the people around us are not our enemy. The devil and his schemes are our enemy The world around us is our neighbor and Christ calls us to love our neighbor as we recognize the devil is having massive influence in this world and in response to this God has given us not just the beauty and the power of the Gospel, but God has given us spiritual armor and with that a call to stand a call to stand strong.

We started this series last week, but as we continue it from here on out, we're gonna look at each piece of the armor and what it means and how we might wear it as we stand and face the battles of our time. But before we talk about what's going on out there, we gotta make sure that we're addressing the battles in here. So that's where we're gonna start as we look at the notion of our personal distractions versus the truth and righteousness that's given to us. If you have your Bibles, please turn to Ephesians chapter 6. If you were with us last week, you should already have a bookmark in that page, because this is where we're going to be for this entire sermon series. Ephesians chapter 6.

Now, as you turn in there, if you weren't with us last week, let me remind you, Ephesians is a letter that the Apostle Paul wrote from prison to the church in Ephesus, and in it he writes about certain doctrines of the Christian faith and how do we live out certain ethics of the Christian life. But then he closes this letter by talking about the spiritual reality around us, the spiritual battle and how God has dressed us with a special suit of armor to be able to face the battles that are around us. And so, hopefully you are to Ephesians chapter 6. We're going to read simply and only verse 14 today. And so with that, would you hear God's word?

Ephesians 6:14

Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness.

Amen. This is God's word. Let's pray. Let's continue. Let's pray. Father, Lord, we ask that you would help us find our rest, our assurance and our strength in you. Protect us from the evil one. During this series and in our lives, please continue to pour out your Holy Spirit. In Holy Spirit, we pray that you will fill us, guide us, fuel us for the lives you're calling us to live, that we might know the truth,

that we'd be able to take our stand. We pray these things in the precious and perfect and powerful name of Jesus. And everyone said, Amen. Amen.

So, church, I hear a lot of talk these days about how people are frustrated and angry with all that's going on in our world and in our country. And a lot of this frustration gets pointed towards Christians, that Christians are not stepping up. In fact, many of us are asleep, distracted when the call on our lives is so great. The devil, it appears, is having so much sway in this world while Christians just sit idly by, not engaging, and we won't engage as long as we are entertained and have food. We're going to confront this today. And that's what this series is all about. But before, again, I said it before, I'll say it again, before we can turn our attention to the brokenness that's out there, we must first address it in here, in our own hearts, in our own lives. Before we can talk about being awake for the battle out there, we need to make sure that we are aware that we are dressed for the battle that we face on a daily basis. And so, main point for today, as we get going, is this.

Main Point:

We are most vulnerable when we are most distracted.

We are most vulnerable when we are most distracted. And as we look at this one verse, we're gonna look at three key ideas that come from this one verse. And here's what we're gonna be looking at here this morning. First thing we'll see is that attention is the antidote for distraction. We're then going to see how truth is the antidote for deception. And we'll close it up by looking at how righteousness is the antidote for dishonor.

1. Attention is the antidote for distraction

2. Truth is the antidote for deception

3. Righteousness is the antidote for dishonor

1. Attention is the antidote for distraction

And so let's look at this first one here. Let's get going. Attention is the antidote for distraction. Our passage starts out very simply. Have your Bibles open. The very first two words here, stand therefore. This is what God calls us to do. This is the opposite of what the devil wants us to do. The devil wants us to fall. Now we use phrases like, you maybe even heard me use a phrase something like this, the devil's trying to trip you up. What we're trying to do in this series is help us to understand the gravity of the situation. The devil is not trying to trip you up. The devil is trying to destroy you. He's trying to devour you. He's trying to keep you from God. He's trying to make you fall. What does that mean? It means to fall into the pattern of this world rather than stand for the kingdom of God. Stand, therefore. What's it mean to stand? It means to be established. It means to be steadfast. It means to hold your ground when evil advances.

And let me just make one observation. I'm going to speak directly to the American church here. Unless if you're not American, number one, thank you for being here. Welcome. Welcome to the family. But I want to speak to the American church here for a second.

You literally have a 24-hour distraction device in your pocket, and we let it distract us rather than using it as a tool to help sharpen us. The devil has everything he needs. He has a powerful church that's satisfied and pacified, happy to stay in the corner as long as they have food and entertainment. Now, let me remind you, attention is the antidote for distraction.

Now if you know me at a personal level, you know that it was probably only a matter of time before I brought up chess as an illustration in the sermon. I love to play chess. Does anyone else in here like to play chess? Okay, like five of us? Okay. My wife and I play chess all the time. My wife and I, we played six games yesterday. That's how we know we're getting old. Now, if you want to know who the better chess player is between my wife and I, you're gonna have to ask her. But I can tell you this, when we play chess, we typically play at our kitchen table, and if you sit right at our kitchen table, you can see into the living room, and like many people, we have a TV in our living room. Now, if I sit playing chess with my wife where I can see the TV. And if the kids are watching a show, I am most always going to lose. Even if they're watching a show that I would never personally choose to watch, just the fact that there's something on the TV is a distraction enough for me to lose the game every single time. Why? Because I'm distracted. And when you're distracted, your attention is divided. And you can't win a battle if you are entertained elsewhere. So here's the question. Where are you entertained to the point where you are distracted?

Maybe it's entertainment, maybe it's sports, maybe it's money. Where are you entertained to the point where you're no longer effective for the kingdom of God? Distraction is how the enemy divides your attention. He may not be able to get all of your attention, but if he can distract you and divide you, then he's already won.

Now, we talk about this notion of divide and conquer is an ancient military strategy to control or to win against an opposing army or nation? I think it's evolved into this notion that when we talk about divide and conquer, like we're a group of people, so we're going to split up so we can attack more. That's not the genesis of divide and conquer. Divide and conquer was about an army holding together, breaking through a rank so that that army was divided, and then you'd fight and win. Divide and conquer is a strategy of the enemy. It should not be one for the church. The church needs to be unified. I'll remind you, Jesus says in Matthew 12, he said, no city or house divided against itself will stand. The enemy's tactic is to divide and conquer, to divide us and so conquer us,

to divide our attention and so conquer us. Divide and conquer is the enemy's tactic, not ours.

Church, I'm gonna say something here that's gonna ruffle some feathers and will probably fill my inbox tomorrow. So here's what I'm gonna say. Bring this sermon series full circle before you come at me. You're happy to do what you want, you're an adult, you want to email me, go ahead. But I'm just going to ask you, bring this sermon series full circle, but I'm going to say something here that I know might ruffle some feathers here. Church, let me say one more qualifier. Again, this is about giving us the right perspective, elevating the seriousness of the battle that's around us, because I'm afraid that many of us, we're fighting the wrong battles. So, here's what I'm gonna say.

Now, do I believe the Christian moral ethic is the best and right ethic out there for humans? Yes, I think it's the best for everybody. We most flourish when we follow God's design. Not saying that, but I am saying many of us, we're just trying to win the cultural battle rather than winning the hearts of the people to the gospel. We have to stand for the kingdom. We'll never win people to the gospel if they think that we just see them as an enemy to be defeated, rather than our neighbor to be won over. We're not trying to defeat anyone. We're trying to save them. We're trying to bring them from a lost and broken world into God's good and glorious kingdom. And until they see that in our hearts, the culture war will rage on, fueled by an enemy who is happy to see us fight the wrong battles. So when we stand, what we've got to do, and this is the extra effort on our part, we have to make sure that the world knows that we don't stand against them, we stand against the enemy.

But here's the reality of the situation. The world has so tied up their identity with the brokenness of the world that when we attack the lies of the enemy They will feel like it's an attack on them because they've so tied their identity to the falsehood of the enemy And so that's why we constantly have to have the extra burden constantly repeat ourselves. We're not against you We're against the forces of evil in this world. We're trying to show you a better, more kingdom gospel way. It's the extra burden on us. It's our burden to bear.

The world and the enemy will fight at whatever base tactics they want, but we're the ones that have to constantly rise above, holding the mantle of truth and love with every interaction. It is tiresome. But you've got the Spirit. You've got the Holy Spirit within you to fill you when the world drains you. And so, before we can have a battle of morals, we need to realize we're in a battle for truth. And the reason that we're in a battle for truth is because we're distracted rather than paying attention.

And let me just, you can write this down, two of the primary ways that we are distracted, two of the primary ways that our attention is divided is because one, we've given ourselves to the lies of the world, empowered by the enemy, but also we've given ourselves to the desires of our heart, which has been broken by sin. And what's interesting is that the first two pieces of armor mentioned address both of those realities.

Two primary ways that we are distracted:

1. We've given ourselves to the lies of the world, empowered by the enemy

2. We've given ourselves to the desires of our heart, which has been broken by sin

2. Truth is the antidote for deception

And so let's look at the first one, the belt of truth, as we look at how truth is the antidote for deception. So Paul writes to the Ephesians and by the extension and by extension the Holy

Spirit still says to us, having fastened on the belt of truth. The belt of truth helps us to recognize the lies of the world. Now it should be noted that when Paul, again writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, when Paul was talking about armor, the image that came to his mind and the people of Ephesus, their mind, was not that of an American soldier, it was a Roman soldier. Rome had occupied most of the world at that point, so they saw Roman soldiers all the time. They would have thought of a Roman soldier.

And so, what's interesting to know is that when it came to a belt, a Roman soldier wore that underneath his armor. He wore that underneath his armor to hold all things together and to hold up his pants. So when we talk about the belt of truth, I've often heard people say, well, that means that a belt encircles you so that truth should encircle your life. Yeah, and that's a fine way to understand. I think that's one implication, but I think what you need to understand is that truth is the thing that holds it all together. We cannot lose truth. Our battle first is to make sure we're talking about the same thing, and that's a battle for truth. And so, this world at large is entrapped by the lies of the evil one. They're in a prison cell of lies, and do you know what the key is to break them out of that cell? It's truth. It's truth.

One of the most famous sayings of Jesus, one of the most well-loved sayings of Jesus Christ is when he said, the truth will set you free. Now even a recent Marvel movie quoted that line.

If you go to secular college campuses across the nation, you'll see that phrase engraved in stone on secular college campus buildings, the truth will set you free. But what these places fail to realize is that phrase comes at the end of a much larger thought and sentence from Jesus. Let's put it in context. Here's what Jesus actually said. He said, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

It's not just knowing the truth. It's being a disciple of Jesus. And who is Jesus? He told us in John 14 verse 6 when Jesus said, I am the way and the truth. Jesus is the truth. In a world of opinions and preferences, in a world of popularity and progressivism, to have the belt of truth means that we look to Jesus as our firm foundation to who he is, to what he taught, and what he's done. Truth may not be fashionable because it confronts what's popular in our culture and it pushes back what's trending online, but truth is eternal. It predates us and it will outlast us. And to put on the belt of truth, here's what it actually means.

We weigh the so-called wisdom of the world against the words of Christ. That's what it means to wear the belt of truth. We're constantly filtering the message of this world. And this is why we must know the scriptures so well. This is why we must be in God's Word every single day, seeking it deep into our hearts, getting solid biblical teaching. So here's a question. How often should you do this? Well, I'm going to blow your hair back. Every single day. Why? Because you're being lied to every single day. And if you're not constantly equipping yourself with the truth, you're gonna fall prey to the lies of the world and the enemy, which are so pretty. And they're so attractive and they seem so right. But they're insidious.

Every day the world buys more and more into the lies of the enemy and tries to regurgitate it to people. So every day we must be equipped with the truth. Psalm 1, verse 2 says this, says, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord What? Day and night. So not just every day. Every day and all night long. We are immersed in the truth so that we will know what the lies are. Every day we must find at least a few moments to be saturated in God's truth.

And if you think you don't have time, let me see your phone. I'll show you your screen time. I'll show you you've got time for this. I talked to a person after first service and they were talking about, maybe I just need to set my alarm to read God's word. And I'm like, do you need to set your alarm to check your social media? Hmm, someone needed to hear that. Every day, every day, just a few moments, a few moments in God's eternal truth will have an internal impact on you. So use your phones to promote truth rather than keep you distracted. Because truth is the antidote for deception. It's available to you through God's word, open to the teachings of Jesus. And knowing the truth, that's how we pursue righteousness. That's how we know what righteousness is, which is our second piece of armor, third point here today.

3. Righteousness is the antidote for dishonor

Righteousness, righteousness is the antidote for dishonor. Our verse continues, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Now the imagery here should be painfully obvious to you. Physically speaking, a breastplate protects your heart. Spiritually speaking, that's what righteousness does. It's about protecting our hearts. It's about keeping us focused on godly things that fill us up rather than worldly things that empty us and drain us and defeat us. We are distracted by the lies of the enemy. We said that. That's why we need to know truth, so that we know the lies of the enemy. But righteousness helps us to battle against the brokenness of our hearts. As we looked at, let me remind you what Jeremiah 17 verse 9 It says that the heart is deceitful above all things and is desperately sick.

Jeremiah 17:9

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

The Bible is saying you don't follow your heart because your heart will lead you astray. You are to follow Jesus and he will lead you into the ancient ways full of life. The enemy is after our heart and our heart's already broken. That's why we're so prone to fail and to fall because our hearts are already broken and the devil feeds lies and their broken heart wants to believe. And so we need to have eyes open to the message of the world. We need to keep our eyes open with the truth we're given and the righteousness that we wear. These lies are all around us, such as when you see billboards like this, when they say "Life is short, get a divorce".

There are messages like this that the enemy uses to prick our hearts, to tease us. It's the enemy saying to us, is your marriage hard? Yes, your marriage is hard, isn't it? You shouldn't waste your life with someone who doesn't make you happy. Life's too short for that. This is a lie. It's a lie the enemy is using against people who are struggling in their marriage, speaking to the broken parts of their hearts and the broken parts of their marriage, which is why we need the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness. You know why this is a lie? Because it doesn't tell you everything. What it doesn't tell you is that on the other side of divorce, it doesn't make you happier.

Now listen, let me just say this real quickly. The Bible does provide a path for divorce in certain instances, and God can grant new life after a failed marriage. I've seen it happen, but I'll tell you now, I've had proximity to far too many divorces in my time as a pastor. And more often than not, you're just trading in one level of brokenness for another. Rather than sticking it out for the long haul and seeing what God can do over time, people take the quick route, because life's too short and they want to be happy, so they take the path of divorce and they destroy their life and they destroy their kids, they destroy their families.

Again, I'm not saying God can't grant new life, but I'm saying His plan is for unity. If God can save our souls, He can save our marriages. Life is short, get a divorce, and messages like this, this is not just a cultural message, this is a spiritual message. And so we, as people wearing the armor of God, you need to have your eyes always open to see the messages of the world. I challenge you, look at some billboards and ask yourself, what's the spiritual message behind that? Filter that through the belt of truth to see what the world is trying to sell you, how the devil is trying to lie to you. This is why we need to be dressed with the belt of truth and the breastplate. That's a defensive mechanism. But righteousness is life-protecting, yes, but it's also life-giving. Christians in the house, pop quiz, what is righteousness? I'll give you the answer.

There's your simple Sunday School answer. Righteousness is what is right before God, and if it's right before God, then it's good for our souls, it's good for our families, it's good for our culture. And righteousness is the pursuit we have in our lives towards God, but it's also a defense. And so, men and women, many of us are not engaging the fight. We've given ourselves to the folly of the world.

But here's what I want to say to you, that's not who we are in Christ. We are people equipped with righteousness. So let me just speak to the husbands and dads for a moment here. Men, you are the defender, you are the protector. Now, I know that in many ways I'm a stereotypical dad. I can't help it. I like to be in the garage just because it's the garage. I listen to dad rock. I can't help it. And the other day, I was quote unquote helping, I was helping quote unquote get the kids ready the other day. And my wife yells from the bedroom, hey, can you grab Georgia's, and by the way, Georgia's my six year old. She said, hey, can you grab Georgia's white tights and her white dress with the headband and the flower on it? I'm like, babe, I don't know where any of that is. I'm thinking it's in the house, you're not telling me to go buy it, so, and she's like, oh, for Pete's sake, I'll just do it myself.

Like, I get it, but dads, hear me. You may not be the one getting your kids dressed for the day, but you need to be the ones getting them dressed for battle. You need to be the one making sure that they are wearing the armor of God. Men, do you want to protect your families? You won't always be there. It's the way you protect them when you're not there is making sure that they are wearing the armor of God. That's how you protect your families when you're not there. And when you equip them with the armor of God, you're helping them to be able to both understand and withstand the evil and the pressures of the world that are around us.

Men, if you want to protect your family, I'm telling you now, it's not just by having you know what in that locked box, ready to go at a moment's notice. It's making sure that your family, your kids, are dressed with the armor of God. And how do you do that? You talk to them. You help them process the world. You disciple them. Helping them to see how the lies of the enemy speak to the brokenness of our hearts. And the thing about armor and really any uniform is that when I see a soldier dressed in armor, dressed for battle, there's a sense of duty and honor that comes with that, isn't there? It's kind of a majestic, powerful thing. That's how Christians are to be all the time. Because what does sin do? Sin dishonors God. And so when we walk in righteousness before God, that's the antidote for dishonor. But here's the hard truth. Here's the hard truth about righteousness.

That's why it's the armor of God, meaning the armor from God. It's His. And we wear this armor when we place in Jesus. Psalm 31 tells us, in you, O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame, in your righteousness deliver me. I'm gonna say something that's gonna go against the grain of our American culture, but I need to say it because it's biblical truth. Righteousness is not earned, it's imputed to you from God. That's an important term here. And so, I need to wade into some deeper theological waters for a second here, because you need to understand the power and the beauty of righteousness, and when you do, it will change the way you go to work tomorrow, it'll change the way you go to school tomorrow, it'll change your entire outlook on life when you truly understand righteousness. And to do that, you kind of have to understand it theologically. And so Romans chapter 4 tells us that when we believe in Christ, His righteousness is counted towards

us.

The term here is imputed, not imparted. Imputed is an accounting term. So it's like when you become a Christian, you open a checking account and God deposits your right, His righteousness in your account. That's imputation versus impartation where God writes you a check and you have to go and cash it and find it from within. We're not talking about impartation, we're talking about imputation. That it's counted towards you, it's not yours, it's not given to you, it's His that He ascribes to your account. So when you wear the breastplate of righteousness, you're wearing something that's not yours, that you did not earn, that you did not deserve, yet God gives it to you anyway.

This is why we wear the breastplate of righteousness, not in pride, but in gratitude. Because it does not come from us, but yet we wear it. We wear it and we stand as God's righteous own. And it's a powerful and it's a beautiful thing. And we get this when we believe in what Jesus has done and what has he done? He took our place on the cross, dying for our sins and rising again on the third day. But why did Jesus do this? Well, 2 Corinthians chapter five, in one of the most powerful gospel verses tells us why. It says, for our sake, for our sake, he, meaning God the Father, He made Him, His own Son, Jesus. For our sake, He made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Here's what happened. Meaning God placed on Jesus Christ the weight of all of our sin, all of our shame, all of our guilt, He took all of that, placed it on the shoulders of His Son, and then nailed His Son to a cross and watched him die. And when he died, so did your sin. So did your guilt. So did your past. So did your shame. It died with Christ and it stayed dead. Although Jesus did not. Jesus rose on the third day and when he rose, he left your sin and shame in the grave, but he rose to a new life that he now gives to you that we live eternally with as we wear the righteousness not from ourselves but from Him. So wear it on your chest. Let it protect your heart and let it remind you of who you are that when God looks at you, He does not see the sin of a sinner. He sees the righteousness of His Son. That's the power of the breastplate of righteousness and that's why we wear it, not out of pride but out of immense gratitude because we stand counted as righteousness in God's sight.

So don't leave here distracted by bread and circus. You're made for more than that. You're made for much more than that. Don't be distracted by the routine life and mindless entertainment that's so available to us. Through it all, you got to remember Christ has won the war. He has secured the victory, but the battle rages from now until the last day. And that's why we are dressed for battle because we are in a battle for the until the last day and the last days I'm telling you you got to be prepared for them be prepared for them We need to be reminded that life and faith can be hard can be really hard Which is why we really need spiritual armor so that we can stand ready and stand at attention Because we are most vulnerable when we are most distracted so stand stand at attention.

And by all means, at least once a week, sit down and relax and unwind. This is a good and godly thing. God calls us to rest. We can have rest, and we can take a day of rest. It's a godly thing to do, but you must remember the devil doesn't take a day off like that. Never forget the devil is waiting for you to take your eyes off the prize. He wants you to be distracted. He wants you to forget there's a spiritual battle all around you.

This past week I had someone contact me and they said, Pastor, are you going to actually talk about what it means to actually wear the armor, not just describe the armor, but what does it mean to actually wear the armor? And I said, certainly am, sir. So let me boil it down for you. As I said, I'll say it again.

That's what it means to wear the belt of truth, that you are surrounded by truth, that truth undergirds your life, and you are constantly weighing the message of the world against the message of Christ. That's what it means to wear the belt of truth.

And this is all empowered by the one and only Holy Spirit, who fills us, fuels us, and guides us, calling us to live into the life that God has called before us. And so, to wear this armor means to be attentive to the spiritual battle that's all around us.

So now that we are taking a self-assessment, looking in the mirror, making sure that we're dressed for battle, making sure that we are aware, from here on out we can look at the battles going on out there and how Christians can present something that can literally change the world. To wear the armor means to be attentive, awake to who the true enemy is, not our neighbor, but the enemy, the devil. So don't be entertained to the point where you're no longer effective. Don't be pacified to the point where you've surrendered all of your influence. Rather, stand. Stand at attention because we are most vulnerable when we are most distracted, distracted by the lies of the devil and distracted by the desires of our broken hearts. So put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand. Amen.

So let's stand at attention right now and give our attention to God in worship. Let's stand.

Would you bow your heads? Would you consider the armor of God and the fact that you are dressed in it right now? Would you raise one hand in the air? With your heads down, arm one hand in the air, preparing to give your full attention to God and what He's done for us in the Gospels we celebrate now.

So Father, we come before you asking God that you would again fill this place, fill this people with the power and presence of your spirits and with the knowledge of the Gospel for your glory, God. Unite us that we may be able to give our attention to you here now in praise and adoration and worship. Help us to be people standing, singing loudly for your namesake. We pray these things in Jesus' powerful name. And everyone said, amen. And everyone said, amen.

Let's worship, everyone.