The God Filter Mountain Life Church/Life Pack/August 24-25, 2013
I. Armor of God The God Filter Sermon Notes August 24-25, 2013 A. Shield and Helmet Ephesians 6:16-17 1. Defensive in nature. 2. Protect our head and our body. a. Flaming arrows b. Distract and destroy B. Sword Ephesians 6:17 - God s word, memorize it, have your sword ready. C. Prayer, The God Filter Ephesians 6:18 1. All times 2. All prayer and supplication 3. All perseverance 4. All the saints II. Fellowship of the Saints Ephesians 6:21-24 A. Tychicus - the beloved brother and faithful minister B. How are we? C. Do we fellowship? 2 19
Table Talk Teens You can take more notes on this page! Read Ephesians 6:15-20 Question One: Describe how faith and salvation relates to one another. Question Two: The helmet of salvation: Having one s head guarded by a helmet gives a sense of safety. How can we safeguard our head against the devil s attacks? Question Three: The sword of the Spirit is the only offensive weapon in the believer s armor. This weapon is not necessarily the Bible as a whole, but the specific word that needs to be spoken in a specific situation. To have the precise word ready, a person must know the Bible intimately. Why is it important to know God s word intimately? Question Four: Without prayer, all the armor in the world would be of no use. Describe the importance of a good prayer life. Question Five: Share the two things that Paul believes are essential in a believer s prayer life. 18 3
Life Group Questions for August 24-25, 2013 Message =The God Filter Ice Breaker: Tell about a person who was blind or deaf and how they impressed you with their ability to overcome their handicap. Read Ephesians 6: 10-24. 1. What do you observe about this passage? 2. Is Bible memorization a part of your life? Please explain. 3. Have the group verbally tell whatever comes to their mind when they think of what Jesus did for them on the cross and through the resurrection. 4. What would you say is a common and regular lie that the enemy says to you? How do you deal with it? 5. Have someone read Hebrews 4: 12-13. How does this passage affect your Bible reading and meditation? 6. At the end of the passage about the armor, Paul encourages the people to pray at all times in the Spirit. Define what you think in the Spirit means. 7. Do you think of prayer as part of the armor? Do you think of prayer as part of warfare? 8. How does the enemy try to discourage you from praying? 9. Pray for one another. Topic Faith Table Talk Elementary Day 1 - Do you believe in Jesus? Why? How can others tell that you believe in Him? If you don t believe in Him, or have never invited Him to live within you, talk to your parents or a trusted adult about this. Day 2 To have faith in something or someone means that we trust in them and we can always count on them being there for us. Read Hebrews 13:5. In this passage it tells us that God will never you nor forsake you. Have you ever felt alone? When? Was God there with you during this time? (Of course He was His Word tells us that He will never leave us!) Day 3 Lesson: Start outside when the sun is very bright. Stand so you are receiving the most and brightest sun available. Then move to a spot that is not so bright, but that you can clearly see the sun is still shining maybe in the shade of a tree. Next, move indoors but to a room with a window so you can still have the effects of the sunlight but less. Finally move to a closet or room where it can be entirely dark. If it is a warm time of year you know the sun is still shining because the building is still warm inside even though you are in the dark. Application: It is our actions that take us out of the light. God s love is always there and always the same and always available. My actions make it so I feel God s love less. I move, not God. We started out in the light. That is where we all came from God s presence. Ask God to remind you that He is always there and to remember that light and God s love when we are feeling discouraged and in the dark! 4 17
Table Talk Preschool & Nursery Ephesians 6:16-18 Day 1: Read Ephesians 6:16-18 As a family, discuss what a shield is and what it does. The Shield of Faith in the armor of God helps us deal with doubts and struggles. The more faith we have in the Lord, the stronger we are in dealing with our enemy. The Shield of Faith is also a reflection of our belief that God is always faithful to us. Share some ideas on how God can help you be strong. Day 2: Read Ephesians 6:16-18 Ask what a helmet might do to help protect you. The Helmet of Salvation in the armor of God helps us protect our mind from the devil s lies. When we accept and believe that Jesus died for our sins, we can be confident that we are His forever and we can tell the devil to go away. Pray together as a family and thank Him for His protection over you through His son Jesus. Memory Verse: I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. - Philippians 4:13 Day 3: Read Ephesians 6:16-18 and Hebrews 4:12 Share some ideas on what the Sword of the Spirit might be. The Sword of the Spirit in the armor of God is the word of God, the Bible. It helps us to cut through the devil s lies and ideas and prepares us with God s truth. We can use The Sword of the Spirit to fight off the enemy. We must keep our sword skills sharp by reading God s word and even memorizing scripture. Practice your sword skills by reciting the verse from the last two weeks, Ephesians 6:11 and then work on this week s verse, Philippians 4:13. Activity: Play a good old-fashioned round of telephone. Have everyone sit in a circle, and then whisper a silly phrase into the first person s ear, then have them whisper it to the next, on and on until it reaches the last person. The last person will say out loud what they heard. Share the original phrase, and laugh at how it changed. After a few rounds, discuss how the message got mixed up from one person to the next, but when we talk with God, he always knows and understands exactly what we say or even want to say, even if we don t say it out loud. Personal Devotion Pages The following pages are designed to help you enjoy a regular time alone with God. We have divided up the curriculum to help us grow wherever we are at in our relationship with God and in our knowledge of His Kingdom. LEVELS: Since we are a Colorado church, we use skiing imagery to communicate the different levels of intensity and time involved in relating to God. BEGINNER: If you are new in your relationship with God, we encourage you to try the exercises under this symbol: INTERMEDIATE: If you have walked with God for some time and would like a little more challenge and more time involvement, try the exercises under this symbol: ADVANCED: These exercises are for people who have walked with God for some time and display maturity in their relationship with Him. These exercises provide a practical way to encounter God and His truth on a regular basis. There are no rules here. Please don t hurry through the process. Slow meditation and memorization seems to soak in better than cramming. Enjoy! 16 5
Day One 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on Ephesians 6: 10-15. 3. Jesus told His disciples, the ruler of the world is coming, and he has nothing in Me (John 14: 30)... Does Satan have any ownership in you? What can He claim as His in your life? Memorize Psalm 9: 6 Memorize Psalm 9: 6 and Psalm 41: 11 Memorize Psalm 9: 6 and Psalm 41: 11-12 Day Five With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. ~Ephesians 6:18-20, NAS Paul s invitation for people to enter into aggressive, passionate prayer progresses to show us what happens when people enter into warfare - they get persecuted. Paul writes the Letter to the Ephesians while in prison for sharing his faith. The injunction calls people to alert prayer, persevering prayer, and prayer for those in authority, like Paul himself. This is serious stuff. Paul seems to think that the battle is won while the saints are on their knees. Paul s prayer request is interesting - he asks the people to pray for him to be bold to open his mouth and share openly about the Gospel. That s like the pope asking people to pray for him to be Catholic. It s like Taylor Swift asking for prayer that people would like her music; like Barak Obama asking people to pray that he would be president. All kidding aside, Paul s request tells us one major thing - opening our mouth for the sake of the Kingdom IS WARFARE! When I open my mouth, I am entering into the fray, and all HELL will be released when I openly share who Jesus is and what He has done for me. Father, I pray for myself and for our whole church that we would be consumed with boldness! 6 15
Day Five 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Pray for God to illumine any hidden sin in your life that you are unaware of. 3. Pray for people you love for a few minutes. Ask the Lord to lead you as you pray, teaching you to pray in the Spirit. 4. Finish your Bible memorization today. Day One in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. ~Ephesians 6:16, NAS In addition to all is not telling us that this is the most important part of the armor, it is simply something that is absolutely essential. The shield of the ancient Roman was four feet long and two and a half feet wide. It provided total body cover from offensive projectiles flung by the enemy. Charles Hodge describes the shield of faith like this: He showers arrows of fire on the soul of the believer; who, if unprotected by the shield of faith, would soon perish. It is a common experience of the people of God that at times horrible thoughts, unholy, blasphemous, skeptical, malignant, crowd upon the mind, which cannot be accounted for on any ordinary law of mental action, and which cannot be dislodged. They stick like burning arrows; and fill the soul with agony. They can be quenched only by faith; by calling on Christ for help. These, however, are not the only kind of fiery darts; nor are they the most dangerous. There are others which enkindle passion, inflame ambition, excite cupidity, pride, discontent, or vanity; producing a flame which our deceitful heart is not so prompt to extinguish, and which is often allowed to burn until it produces great injury and even destruction. Against these most dangerous weapons of the evil one, the only protection is faith. It is only by looking to Christ and earnestly invoking his interposition in our behalf that we can resist these insidious assaults, which inflame evil without the warning of pain. The reference of the passage, however, is not to be confined to any particular forms of temptation. The allusion is general to all those attacks of Satan, by which the peace and safety of the believer are specially endangered. Father, I acknowledge that Your Word is true and I stand on it s promises today. 14 7
Day Two 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Meditate on Psalm 91. 3. Take a few minutes to rehearse what Jesus did for you on the cross. Tell Him how grateful you are for the work of the cross. 4. Write down any lies that you have heard in the last two weeks that cause you to question what Jesus did for you on the cross. Day Four With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, ~Ephesians 6:18, NAS Most definitions of the Armor of God stop at the previous verse. However, any fighting man would tell you that prayer is a huge part of warfare. There are no atheists in foxholes, they will tell you. I ve heard many men say that they ve never prayed as fervently as they did when they were being bombarded by artillery and strafed by machine guns. Lying there just below the surface of the ground, with all hell breaking loose above you, the natural thing to do is talk to the Creator. Talking is a relaxed word that is probably inadequate here. In warfare, you communicate with all prayer and petition at all times. There s nothing like real warfare that brings a person face to face with eternity. The lie we hear is, Spiritual warfare is NOT real warfare, and if it is, it s for those spiritual types that get into all that kind of weird stuff. Let s be honest, if I tell others that I m not into prayer, then I ve believed the lie that says spiritual warfare is not real warfare. At that point, the enemy has me where he wants me, and I m a POW and I don t even know it. 5. Continue memorizing and meditating on the scriptures for this week. Prayer, real prayer, is life giving and joyful. The key to the whole thing is found in the three words - in the Spirit. Praying along with, led by, and in unity with the Holy Spirit inside me puts wind in my sails like nothing else. This requires practice. This requires listening more than speaking. It means lots of time alone and my mouth as quiet as a church mouse. It s times of meditation. It takes discipline and frankly, times of pushing into God when things are hard... Or maybe not. Maybe it s easier to be a prisoner of war. 8 13
Day Four Day Two 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. And take THE HELMET OF SALVATION... ~ Ephesians 6:17, NAS 2. Enjoy several minutes of prayer for your family and friends. Pray also for your pastor and other people who lead you spiritually. 3. Pray family members who are under the rule of Satan. The helmet covers the control center of the believer - the brain. The mind is where spiritual battles clash and if a believer does not comprehend what happened through grace at salvation, they will be decimated by the onslaught of lies flung at them by the enemy of our souls. The helmet of salvation reminds me that I am IN CHRIST. It stands as a metaphor for what Paul speaks of in chapter 4 - reminding us that we must continually be renewed in the spirit of the mind. We must take off our old definition of ourself daily and put on the new definition. Without it, we are toast. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Paul also told the Thessalonians, But let us who live in the light be clearheaded, protected by the armor of faith and love, and wearing as our helmet the confidence of our salvation (I Thessalonians 5: 8). There is sure confidence in knowing that we know that we are God s children. Without that confidence, Satan will continually tell us the lie that we are not truly saved, have lost our salvation, or that we have sinned so horribly that God s grace cannot truly save us. Father, thank You that I am IN CHRIST. My past is IN CHRIST and my slate is clean! 12 9
Day Three 1. Take some time to praise the Lord for who He is and enjoy thanking Him for what He has done in your life lately. 2. Read Psalm 34. Think about spiritual warfare as you read. 3. Bring at least three friends or loved ones to the Lord and ask Him to bring them to repentance and faith. Ask Him to show you how you can boldly love them and speak the words of Jesus into their lives. 4. Continue meditating on and memorizing the scripture for this week. Day Three... and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ~Ephesians 6:17, NAS Think about it - the sword is the only offensive weapon listed. The rest of the armor is there to protect us from the onslaught of lies hurled at us from the enemy. The sword is for cutting, slicing, poking, and stabbing. It works well as a defensive weapon, if deftly wielded against a wily foe, but it does it finest work in dealing out death with its sharp edges, its fine point, and its hardness of steel. All of the qualities of the sword are wrought through fire and grinding. A fine sword must first be put through the furnace of affliction and the miserable grinding of tribulation. I may have the word of God in my head, but without the discipline of meditation and self awareness, my sword will be soft and dull. The writer of Hebrews tells us, For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes, and he is the one to whom we are accountable (Hebrews 4: 12-13, emphasis mine). If I don t first allow the Word to speak to the deepest issues in my heart, my sword will be a sword of soft metal and dull edges. Father, I give You full permission to search my heart and make me clean. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. 10 11