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At Sandals Church, our vision is to be real with ourselves, God and others. This channel features sermons and teaching from Pastor Matt Brown and other members of the Sandals Church preaching team. You can find sermon notes, videos and more content at http://sandalschurch.com/watch
Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here and we hope you enjoy this message.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:For so many people, life feels like a constant struggle. When we're at work, we struggle to feel like what we're doing is of value, that we're good at it or that we even like it. When we get home, we struggle to feel like we're in a place where we can actually rest. It's clean. It's tidy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's a moment for us to actually refill. Even in our relationships, we struggle to just have time to be face to face, to feel like we're cultivating and growing something that matters. Shoot. Even during holidays, like right now, we just had Thanksgiving. Christmas is around the corner, and and we struggle to feel like we can make the most out of our holiday time.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Even when you and I vacation, man, we struggle to actually experience the sensation of a vacation on a vacation. We find ourselves working through these kinds of conflicts. And it's natural for us in life to almost kinda paint it as this whole thing as just this large big struggle. But we would be missing something deeply important because it's not just physical issues, relational issues that we work through, or even emotional ones. But behind those things, the bible says there are spiritual forces at work that keep us in the midst of this struggle.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The spiritual forces. And it's important for us to realize that it's not just an emotional thing that we're working through, but there are evil forces at work that want to see us emotionally distraught and not well. Paul in our passage today is gonna help us understand this different struggle from his perspective because he knows and ultimately God knows that we don't have enough in ourselves to handle the kinds of powers that are coming against us on an everyday basis. Whether you realize it or not, we we find ourselves in the midst of this struggle, in the midst of this battle. And Ephesians 6 is going to lead us out and show us how to find a life in which we can, man, breathe in joy, breathe in freedom, and find a sense of hope in the midst of working through really hard and challenging things.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so, wherever you are, would you join me as we read God's word and and just kind of pause, maybe you slow down, and just out of reverence for the the reading of God's word that you would stand, with us if you are willing and able. Our passage today comes from Ephesians 6 and Paul writes this there in the beginning of verse 10. He says, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. This is God's word. Let's pray together. Heavenly father, as we find ourselves in the midst of this, cosmic struggle, we pray that you would equip us with the armor of God. You have given us what we need and so would we be humble enough to receive what you have for us today.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Would you open up our ears and our eyes to see, what you want us to see? And would You make us what You call us to be in Jesus. We pray these things in His name. Amen. Amen.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And you might notice man, in this, really well known familiar passage, especially to a lot of Christians, Ephesians 6 is all about spiritual warfare. And if you notice there's a particular phrase that's repeated at least three times. It's this verb to stand, to stand firm, to stand against, to stand. This is something that we actually have seen Paul doing since the beginning of this letter to the church in Ephesus. He'll use simple verbs to communicate deeply, profound spiritual truths.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In the beginning of the letter, he talks about being seated with Christ. Imagine that for a second. Seated with Christ, full of his grace, full of his life, with a secure stamp of the spirit on you so that all that God has for you is available. We have been blessed with everything as we sit with Christ. Then later on, he talks about, this verb of walking.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:In Ephesians 4, he talks about walking in the way of Christ. And now we get to Ephesians 6 where he uses this verb to stand, to stand firm. And I find that so fitting, to sit, to walk, to stand. These these are good verbs for us in our Christian life because they remind us that there is a time as we follow Jesus in a real way, there's a time for us to sit. There's a time for us to walk, and there's a time for us to stand.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And Paul, as he unpacks this picture of what a different struggle looks like, he wants us to stand. But what does that actually mean though? What does it mean to stand? Because you say that today, and people will give you all kinds of different reactions. Right?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Especially when we talk about standing on a particular issue. People wanna know where do you stand on this, doctrinal issue, this biblical issue? They want to know what you believe about the Christian faith. Or people want to know where you stand politically. Where do you stand as it relates to this person or that person?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Where do you stand when it comes to this ethical dilemma that we as a society might be facing? Right? We wanna know where you stand so that we can decide whether or not we're gonna like you or not. But this kind of standing that Paul is offering to us, it's a different kind of stand. This is a different kind of struggle.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He tells us to stand, not to retaliate, to stand, not to, do as they do, not to act out in anger, not to pick sides and blame shift. No. He says, to stand. It's interesting that in a picture of a battle and of warfare and of armor, Paul says, we are not fighting, listen now, but standing. We're standing.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Just think all that for a second. Most of your fighting is not done by actual fighting. Not with your hands, with your feet, but simply by standing. This is a different kind of struggle. And a different struggle listen now if you're taking note, a different struggle requires a different kind of armor.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What I mean by that is this, it's probably the case that we meet a lot of Christians who feel like they're spiritually ready for battle, they're ready for warfare, but their life doesn't look anything like the life of Jesus. You see that that's a problem. That's a contradiction. It's not possible for you and I to be equipped with the armor of God and not have our lives look like Jesus. Why do I say that?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because when you look at these 6 different pieces of armor, and we'll get into in a second, they are, when you really think about it, a reflection of the character of Jesus. And so if we really are armed with the armor of God, our lives look like the life of Jesus. But that's not often the case when we get into spiritual conflict or spiritual warfare. We find ourselves picking sides. We find ourselves doing the exact thing that Paul says not to when he says, we wage this struggle and and, conflict not against flesh and blood.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Notice that, not against flesh and blood, which is to remind us man that that when we fight God's battles, we often do so with Satan's weapons. Alright. We we wanna try to do what we think God wants us to do, but against the wrong people and and with the wrong things. And so I think for us as a church, man, one healthy way forward is for us to acknowledge that as we actually engage in spiritual warfare, that we look at one another and we say, I'm not your enemy. That we might have conflict, though we might struggle against each other on particular real issues that are affecting our lives, we need to be able to come to the table and say, I'm not your enemy.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We are not each other's enemies. As Paul points out, man, we are attempting to stand firm against the devil's schemes. Now what are the devil's schemes? I think real simply what he's trying to say is the devil wants to do 2 things when it comes to spiritual warfare. The first is to break our union with Jesus, and then secondly to break our union with each other.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:That's what he's after. That's what he's attempting to do. And so if we're going to really embrace spiritual warfare, it's gonna look like you and I wearing a different kind of armor. Paul alludes to this same thing when he talked about in, second Corinthians 10. He says, for though we live in the world notice the phrase.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. We do not handle conflict as the world does. He goes on to say, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. So there is a kind of battle, but it's not with the same kinds of weapons. He says, on the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Demolish strongholds. He says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. Man, if we're going to embrace a different armor, I think it first looks like you and I realizing that we cannot fight God's battles with Satan's weapons. We need a different kind of armor. And these 6 parts as I said ultimately are a reflection of Jesus.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so let us together in our time today put on the armor. Let's put it on together 1 at a time 1 piece at a time because this is the way forward for us. And this first thought that we have, when it comes to the armor, Paul talks about the belt of truth. Now belt of truth, I don't know about you, but when we think about going to battle, I don't know if anyone thinks I'm gonna get my belt first unless you had an English German mom like me and a Hispanic dad like me, then I could totally get why a belt would be the first thing you go after. Because man, I've seen that some days and some battles.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But why a belt first? Wouldn't make that much sense. But you'll notice what he says there. The the belt there in verse 14, he talks about it's it's buckled around the waist. In other words, what he's communicating to us is this, the belt of truth holds together holds us together when falsehood tears us apart.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The belt of truth holds us together when falsehood tears us apart. As he said there in verse 14, stand firm then with the belt of truth, notice ever, buckled around your waist. This is a picture now when you think of Paul sitting in prison, he's got the perfect metaphor in front of him. He's in jail. He's got a roman soldier probably right outside of his gate, and it's helping him put this picture together.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And what Paul is saying to us is that first of all, as we engage in this this different struggle, truth is something that should cling to our bodies. Truth should cling to our bodies. Now there's 2 levels to this. Right? Because for some of us, we think, man, well, yeah.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Truth is about believing and stating the right thing today. I gotta speak the truth. I gotta speak the right christian truth. And sure that's that's one level, but I think there's a deeper level that Paul is actually getting at here. And that's the level of truth in which we actually live with a kind of integrity.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You see, putting on the belt of truth is saying that I will live with integrity. My life will be a true reflection of the things I say I believe about God, what I believe about Jesus. And when we're tempted to put forth a a version of ourselves that isn't reality, that isn't in line with the truth, we're tempted to give way to the dark forces and powers that are at work in our life. But the pelt of truth, man, when we put that on every day we're saying, god, you're you're giving me permission and freedom to be honest with you about where I'm at, honest about how I I feel, honest about how I'm actually doing. And so what would it look like if before you got up to post, got up to check this, got up to do that, you just said, God help me to put on the belt of truth today and to live with integrity.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:To live with integrity. That's where I wanna be. The second piece though, because you can't just fight war with a belt, he talks about this breastplate of righteousness. Now this breastplate allows us to stand in Jesus's perfection and not off our our own failures. That's what I want us to think about.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:This word, righteousness in the New Testament is one of the most important words we have in the entire new testament, and I'll explain that in just a moment. But here's what I think Paul is getting at. You see one of the great tactics of the enemy is to pull out your inadequacy in my own sense of just not being enough. We're not enough. And I think part of the spiritual and internal battle we all wrestle with every day is this sense that you and I are just not enough, which is why the book of Revelation calls the evil one the great accuser of the brothers and sisters of the church.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He realizes some of those insecurities that lie deep within us and his desire is to pull those things out. And so this breastplate of righteousness to protect our our organs, that which is most precious to us is that one of righteousness. But listen now, this this idea, this word is a word that conveys more about a status than a behavior. So this is not just your right behavior. This is a kind of status that we are given by faith.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Because imagine if just for a second, if your armor was only as strong as your best efforts, we would all be toast. We wouldn't stand a chance. But the good news for us today is that the strength of our armor isn't dependent on the strength of our performance. The breastplate of righteousness is something that is given to us. Righteousness in the new testament means that God gives you and I a status, not because of the good things we have done nor in spite of the wrong things we have done.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He gives us a status that is only given to us because of what Jesus has done on our behalf. Paul says it like this in Philippians 3, and being found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ. The righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. And so to put on this breastplate is every day to say, God, as I stand in the midst of this struggle would You help me to stand on Jesus' perfection? In the midst of what I'm working through, would You help me to be reminded that I am fully accepted by You today, not because of anything I've done or haven't done, but simply on the basis of what Jesus has done for me.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Man, if we really got this, it would change the way we prayed. It would change the way that we dealt with conflict. I think it would change the experience of anxiety we have from day to day as we work through our own insecurities, the things that make us feel inadequate. If we actually got what it meant to be fully accepted in God, there would be kind of courage, a kind of confidence that would allow us to stand, and the freedom to admit where we're wrong. Because again, we're not accepted on the basis of what we couldn't do, and so we're free to confess and acknowledge those things, and and we're free to acknowledge the places of our lives where we need growth.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And what hope for us as we wage spiritual war and as we stand firm in this armor to know that we're fully accepted by God, some of us need to be reminded of that today. Before you engage in what you're working through and what you've been struggling with, you need to be reminded that you, because of what Jesus has done for you, you're already accepted. You're accepted. And the strength of your arm or your ability to to fight against satan is not dependent on your own performance, but on you standing in what Jesus has already achieved for you. Which leads us perfectly to this 3rd piece that Paul mentions, the helmet of salvation.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You see the helmet of salvation reminds us that we're already we've already been rescued from these powers. I think of what Colossians 1 says where Paul writes, for he has rescued us listen now. He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son that he loves. Right? So to put on the helmet of salvation is a way for you to remember that you have been delivered.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And and you can't stand against the the forces of darkness if you have not been delivered from the darkness in the first place. And so this piece of armor is one in which you either receive or don't receive on the basis of you saying yes or no to Jesus. And so say yes to him today because some of you, you can't fight against the darkness that you're still trapped in. You need to be delivered. You need to be brought out.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And the helmet is a way for you and I to be reminded every day of who I belong to. Who I belong to. It's like this. A few months ago, I took my son to a, a baseball game. We went to see the Padres versus the Dodgers.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It was a playoff game and it was in San Diego. My parents have recently become, San Diego natives, and so they it was a big deal for the San Diego Padres to finally get a playoff game. My goodness. It's been it's been a 1000 years. But they finally got a game.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It was a home game, and Eli was so excited, but then he realized we're Dodger fans. And he realized that I wanted to wear my Dodger jersey to this game, and so we were going in into Padre Stadium for a playoff game to watch the Dodgers of all teams play against them. He was nervous to wear his jersey. He felt like, man, they're gonna look at me. What if they what if they boo me?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:What if they say mean things? What if they stare at me? And I said, Son, put put your jersey on. You've been delivered from the domain of Padre's kingdom into the the glorious light of Dodger Life, so put the jersey on. Well I'm and guess what, son?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I'm gonna wear mine too. And I told him, as we walk in, you'll probably feel the tension. People might say something. They might tease you because it's a playoff game. Emotions are gonna be high.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:But I said, remember who you belong to, and remember I'm also in the jersey too. I'm with you. And I think what made such a difference in that moment was not just so much that Eli remembered that he was a Dodger fan even when they were getting smacked and their season ended that night in the rain of all things, but he was standing next to his dad who also had the jersey on too. You see the helmet of salvation is a reminder of who you belong to and listen now, who you're standing next to. Who you're standing next to.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You've not only been delivered out of darkness but you're standing next to the one who's walking with you. And then he gets into shoes. Oh man. You gotta understand as a sneakerhead, it feels good to know that the armor of God includes a good pair of shoes. Paul talks about the shoes of gospel peace and here's what these do.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The shoes of gospel peace allow us to stand in the midst of the struggle. They they they're the actual thing that allow us to continue to stay firmly planted where we're at in our life. Paul at the end of Romans made this massive declaration, and I think it's so powerful, where he said the God of peace listen now. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. Think about that.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:The God of peace is gonna crush Satan, the enemy of this world. He's gonna crush him under whose feet? Our feet. How does that happen? How does that happen?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It happens as you and I every day remember the shoes that we're wearing. Man, as, as I mentioned a second ago, I'm a sneakerhead and and I know what it's like to put on a good pair of shoes. You might know this too man. The right pair of shoes can change your entire day. And ladies, you know this too.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:If you're in the wrong pair of shoes for the wrong setting, you're not as ruined. The right pair of shoes can save your whole moment and experience. And more so than that, so much of just the simple act of standing is completely dependent upon what our feet are actually standing in. And so I wanna ask you, what kind of shoes are you spiritually wearing today? Have have you put on the the shoes of gospel peace?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Here here's 2 questions for you to help you understand whether or not you've put these on. The first is this. Do you have regular union with Jesus? In other words, to wear the shoes of gospel peace is to first recognize that the good news is for you and you are with Christ. The second test to help you understand whether or not you are wearing these shoes is to ask yourself, are your relationships marked more by reconciliation or more by gossip?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Are the conversations you have with people, are the attitudes that you have with people or towards people, are they marked more by a desire for restoration, for peace, for love, or for gossip, for competition, for a kind of suppressing. You see the way that you relate to people is a healthy indicator as to what kind of shoes you're wearing that day, And the invitation that Paul offers us is that we would put on a great pair of shoes that are full of peace gospel peace that he invites us to wear. When we're able to do that, we're able to stand and withstand the amount of time we spend on our feet in a life that is marked primarily by hostility, gossip, hate towards one another. You see the gospel of peace shoes give you the ability to stand for an entire lifetime because you know what you're standing on. You're standing on good news.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You're standing on the good news that the God of peace is going to make this whole world a playground of peace after satan's crushed under your feet and my feet. That's good news. That should give us courage and hope today. He moves there now to the the shield. We're almost through it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He talks about the shield of faith. The shield of faith is that which guards us against what is unexpected in our lives. Remember in this day as Paul is painting this metaphor using a Roman soldier probably right in front of him, arrows in that day would have been something that would have been hurled at quick speeds that you were not ready for. And so on the battlefield, a shield of faith, a shield would have just given you natural protection against what you were not expecting to hit you. And Paul says that this will extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:All of the flaming arrows. Now not only were arrows unexpected in the battle, you and I sometimes know maybe you are familiar with this, that arrows were designed in a way that if you tried to pull them out of your body after being hit with 1, the the exiting of the arrow could be worse than when it first penetrated into you. In other words, arrows know how to leave a wound. And today, the the flaming arrows of the enemy can come in all kinds of ways. It can come in a conversation, an email, a tweet, a post, a personal encounter, a work event, and it's even more dangerous to try to remove those arrows that have hit us unexpectedly.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's more dangerous. Why? Because pulling them out, it might leave a wound. In fact, you guys know what this is like. Some of you have been hit with an unexpected arrow at work.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You failed. Maybe you didn't do what you could have done. It didn't go what how the the way you thought it was gonna go, and you've been hit with this arrow. And when you try to pull that arrow out, it it left a wound and it said, you will always be this kind of person at work. This will always be the kind of performance you offer.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Maybe you were hit with an arrow at church, of all places, and in pulling that one out, what you've been left with is this sense that you can't trust people. You can't trust the church. Maybe because of your own sense of insecurity someone tried to just lovingly give you some correction, and as you try to pull that one out what what you heard and what that wound continues to say to you is that you can't even trust the people in your life who actually love you. You see, the the the hard thing about these arrows is that they are so lasting. Yes, they're unexpected.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Yes, they they come at us at quick speeds that we weren't ready for, but man, they leave a mark. And it's almost worse that we've tried to pull them out and move forward. But the good news for us right now in this moment is that as Paul said, this shield extinguishes all of the flaming arrows. In other words, everything that's been hurled at you and me can, because of the shield of faith, be extinguished from our lives. It can.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:We can find healing from the wounds that these arrows have left us. Maybe some of you right now are sitting in a situation because of a relationship, because of a work experience, and that wound feels so real. My hope for you is that you would, as you say, God help me to to to put on this shield, that you would have, notice he says, the shield of faith, that you would have just enough faith to say, God help me to believe more of what you say about me than what this wound has said about me. Would you help me to have faith, just enough faith to experience Your words over these wounds so that I can experience this shield extinguishing all of the flames that the enemy has thrown at me, all the arrows that the enemy has thrown. That can be a beautiful thing for us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And this last one that he talks about, the 6th and final pieces, we finally get to the sword. All you guys have been ready to fight, now you finally get your sword. You see the sword in our hands is exactly the scripture that has been placed in our hearts. I think of Psalm 119 where the psalmist says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Later on in the same exact psalm, he says, your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. In other words, God's word is meant to actually illuminate the situation. It's actually meant to lead us forward. It's actually meant to do something. Right?
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You don't want to be on a dark path just staring at how cool the light is. You actually want to utilize the light. Utilize the light in order to give you direction on your path. That's the goal. And I say that because when Paul talks about the sword of the spirit, you know, now me as a Star Wars fan, I'm thinking a lightsaber, but that's probably not the case.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's most likely a short, short sided sword that would have been used for closer, man to man or really close contact. Right? So this is at a point where you're not, like, using arrows. You're not rolling around. Like, you're literally in tight quarters using a sword, using a small dagger.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now the good news about fighting the enemy is that he cannot defeat us, but what he can do is disarm us. The enemy has ways to disarm us of our sword. And one of the most natural ways for that to happen is for you and I to not have God's word hidden in our hearts. And here's why I say this. There will be times in your life there's times in my life even currently right now, even as a pastor where it's hard to open my bible and to read.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It just is for whatever reason. And so when I hear the psalmist say, I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you. What he's saying is there are times in life where I don't have the ability, desire to read the word, but I will have to have the word in my heart. And so if, if we want to keep ourselves from being disarmed by the enemy, we gotta engage in the practice of learning and memorizing scripture. Maybe just small chunks at a time for some of you.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Maybe you just start with that verse right there Psalm 11911. Or maybe you go to Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom should I fear? The Lord is my stronghold of life.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Of whom should I dread? When enemies encamped against me, my heart will not be afraid. David goes on to say, the one thing that I have asked is that I would dwell in the house of Lord all the days of my life gazing upon the beauty of the Lord. You guys there are days where we have got to have scripture in our hearts so that it can just come out of us in that moment of desperation. In that moment of temptation you have to have scripture hidden, tucked away, because even when you won't want to say it, the spirit will help find a way out with that word and you'll need to receive it.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:You'll need to receive it. My other caution is when I think about this sword, as I talked about it being a light for our path, is a danger that I see amongst christians today. And so if you're a christian listening to this message right now, I want you to hear me on this word as we close. The sword of the spirit is not to be used as a weapon against other people. In fact, at our current moment today in America, I think that's a real risk and a problem we face even in the church where we have weaponized God's word against people.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And we've seen it even historically where scripture has been used not as a form of liberation, but as a form of oppression. We've we've seen people use scripture as a way to justify and propagate further evil acts. Let that not be said of us anymore. The sword of the spirit is not meant for you and I to cut down our enemies. It's meant for you to stand firm against the devil's schemes.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Not against the schemes of culture. Not against the people who you think you're fighting this war with because they don't believe like you. Scripture was never meant to be used in that kind of way. It was meant to give you and I life as we experienced the God who was calling us to life from scripture. That's how it's meant to serve us.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:It's meant to transform our lives and to be a witness, to be an invitation to the world. And so please, let's set down this desire to weaponize God's word and once again return to this place where the word is a light to my path and it illuminates and gives my feet a sense of direction. That's what we need it for. And as we close, I want us to be thinking about man how how is all this going to work? That's a lot.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Y'all have made it through. All 6. How is this going to actually stay on us though? The answer I think is as Paul continues in the rest of this passage is through prayer. Prayer is what keeps you and I clothed in the armor of God.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Prayer is how you and I get dressed. And when I think about someone who struggled, you know, in the beginning I talk about life just feels like a constant struggle. I think about the prophet Elisha who at one point of his life felt like the world was coming against him. And and he has a moment of desperation where he's before God. He sees the enemies encamped around him just as David said in Psalm 27, and he needs to pray.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And that's what he does. And it says there that Elisha prayed. He prayed. Open his eyes Lord so that he may see. The text says then the Lord opened the servant's eyes and he looked and saw the hills full of horses, chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Now what happened in this moment is that prayer became a moment to unlock Elijah's eyes and the servant's eyes so that he might understand who is actually with him this whole time. You see prayer is how you and I get dressed. Prayer is what allows the armor to go on. Prayer is what opens up our eyes to see what is actually happening in the world. Prayer is what brings us into reality and into the presence of God like nothing else so that we might be fully aware that like Elisha, our hills are covered with the chariots of God's armies.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And we're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. As I mentioned man, one of the great schemes of the enemy is to convince you that God is not near you. It's one of his greatest tactics. And prayer is a way to push back those powers and to once again experience through having your eyes opened to realizing man that God's been here the whole time.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:He's been here the whole entire time. And so as we think about this different struggle, this invitation at the end is one to pray. 1 to pray through, God, how how can I add these different pieces of armor to my life? How can I each day take a moment to, be aware that You're with me to put on the helmet of salvation, to put these shoes on, to grab my sword? And I think it begins with just one one small thing and I would just I would just end with this.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:I want you to imagine your your day to day struggle, it's gonna sound so bizarre, but I want you to imagine your day to day struggle as an invitation from God to relax into His presence. One of the great spiritual authors described prayer as a way to relax into God's goodness. Imagine for a second that instead of imagining a soldier rushing to battle putting armor on, freaking out, not feeling like he's enough or she's enough, imagine putting armor on as a form of relaxation. As you relax into God's goodness and God's presence. Because as Paul mentioned at the end of Ephesians, man, he said we need all kinds of prayers.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Prayers before meals, prayers in the car, prayers at work, prayer in between meetings, prayer before you fight with your spouse, prayer after you fight, prayer when you feel good, prayer when you feel bad, pray whenever you can, and as you do, relax into the fact that God is with you. And this struggle is simply just that. This wrestle is not eternal. This struggle is not forever. It will have an end date.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:And so we don't get ready with anxiety. We don't get ready as if we're running late. We get ready as if we're right on time. Cause God is present. And you can relax into his goodness and say, God help me get dressed today as I put on armor, as I get ready to face the battle, and would you help me to open myself to you because I know one day you are the God of peace and you're gonna crush satan under our feet.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Let's pray together. God, I pray that you would help us all to embrace this different struggle and to arm ourselves with the same armor that you wear. You've given us this armor because this is the armor that you wear Jesus, and we want our lives to reflect you. And so would you help us by your Holy Spirit now to receive this invitation to draw close to you and to be ready to engage in the struggle. We pray this in Jesus' name.
Pastor Fredo Ramos:Amen.
Morgan Teruel:Thanks for listening to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision here is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. At Sandals Church, we wanna see a movement of authenticity take place all over the world, and donating to the work of Sandals Church helps make that happen. If you want to support this movement here at Sandals Church, I want to invite you to visit donate. Sc.
Morgan Teruel:Thanks again for listening and God bless.