In Christ, But Still in a Battle: Standing Firm in the Armour of God

Here is a clean, roughly half-length version, keeping the flow and theology tight while cutting repetition and trimming illustrations.

The book of Ephesians begins by grounding us in who God is and who we are because of Him. God is the all-powerful Creator who made a good and perfect world. Humanity now lives in a world broken by sin, yet out of grace, mercy, and peace, God sent Jesus so that we could be restored into His family.

Throughout the first three chapters of Ephesians, one phrase is repeated again and again: “in Christ.” Because of Jesus, we are no longer captive to sin. We now live in freedom, wholeness, and God’s power.

From chapter four onward, Paul shows us how to live out this new identity. We are called to put off the old self and put on the new. Our emotions, thinking, speech, and relationships are transformed. This is who we are now because of what Jesus has done.

Yet living this out is harder than it sounds. We leave church inspired, ready to love better and live faithfully, but Monday comes. Relationships feel strained. Old habits resurface. Life feels heavier than expected. Eventually, we realise there is more going on than simply “life is hard.”

As Paul reaches chapter six, he makes something clear: we are in a spiritual battle. Whether we recognise it or not, we wake up each day in the middle of it.

Paul writes, “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.” Following Jesus brings opposition, but we are not asked to be strong in our own strength. Many of us feel spiritually worn down and exhausted. That’s okay. God’s strength is what carries us, not ours.

Paul reminds us that our struggle is not against flesh and blood. This matters. If we get this wrong, we end up fighting the wrong battles. We wound people who are actually on our side. People are not the enemy—even those who oppose us may be captives themselves. There are no non-combatants in this battle. We are either captive or standing as soldiers in Christ.

Because of this, Paul urges us to put on the full armour of God so that we can stand firm. He repeats the word “stand” again and again. This is not about charging forward or running away. It is about holding the ground Christ has already won. The victory belongs to Jesus. Our role is to remain planted in that victory.

This armour is not ours. It is God’s armour—perfect, complete, and already victorious. Isaiah describes God as a divine warrior who brings justice when no one else can. Jesus fulfilled this by taking injustice upon Himself at the cross and securing victory once and for all. Now, in Christ, we step into His armour and His mission.

The belt of truth holds everything together. The enemy attacks with lies about God, ourselves, and others. Truth keeps us grounded.
The breastplate of righteousness protects our hearts, especially when relationships come under pressure.
The gospel of peace keeps us ready and focused on the good news that peace with God has been won.
The shield of faith extinguishes doubt, fear, and discouragement.
The helmet of salvation guards our minds and identity.
The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, is living and powerful, cutting through darkness with truth.

Paul finishes by reminding us how this battle is fought: through prayer. Prayer is not optional. Prayer is warfare. We pray on all occasions, for all God’s people. Even Paul, writing from prison, asks for prayer.

Prayer takes ground, protects others, and brings breakthrough. It is how we stand together.

Paul ends Ephesians where he began—with grace and peace. This peace is wholeness: nothing missing, nothing broken. The victory has already been won. Our call is simple and strong: stand firm in Christ, together.

Transcript

 So our first three chapters in the book of Ephesians about who this incredible God is, and it almost starts the very beginning of creation. How God is the creator who has created this perfect, amazing world. He's all powerful over it. And then he has brought Jesus as an act of grace and peace and mercy so that you and I may encounter this God.

This God has come into a world that we have been born into, though that has been corrupted by sin. So it is through his grace and mercy, through what Jesus has done on our behalf, that we can then stand before God as part of his family. What's the one phrase that continues to repeat over and over and over?

It starts with in.

In him close. In Christ. In Christ. Are we ready? Look at them. Okay, so you can sit doing seven prep instead of throwing. So that's.

We are no longer captive, held, captive to sin. Instead, we are now in Christ. We live in freedom. We live in wholeness. We live in His power, which is magnificent and wonderful. And then the book transitions mid book into chapter four, where we learn how, then we walk this out. And there's some absolutely great advice that talks about how now that we are in Christ, we take off our old self and we put on our new self.

It talks about our emotions, our thoughts, the way that we speak to one another, and how amazing that is. Talks about how our relationships with one another are changed now that we are in Christ. So good. It is absolute goal. This is who we are now because of what Jesus has done for us and as we come to the end of the book of Ephesians, I'm really hoping that for many of us, we've heard and been convicted and we've had our minds changed about the way the world works.

And so we've then gone into the world in our daily life to go and, and walk in love as Jesus has walked. And we've heard what's, what God has been saying about who we are and how we are now to live. And we've gone out in the world and we've gone to implement that. But I wonder for how many of you, this has been the reality we've heard Andy preach from how we are to love one another in our married lives.

And so you go in on Monday going, all right, here I go. And then you go five minutes in maybe. Okay. This would be so much easier if I weren't married to the most annoying person on the face of the earth. Have they always been like this and you always done, or maybe you, you'd been convicted about how we as the body of Christ are to work together and how you are to bring the gifts that God has given you to then contribute to the whole and you've gone, yes, I'm in.

And Sunday morning rolls around and you're like, oh, the last thing I feel like going to is church is going, maybe I just, when I get there, man, these people are annoying. Why are they doing that? I don't like this song, but what's going on? And their head is in all sorts of places. Maybe you've heard about how your old self was being put off and you're like, yep, I've got this thing, this habit that I've just been letting hold me captive and I'm no longer.

Submitting to that, but then Monday comes and that thing is just there in your face all the time and you're finding it really hard. And then no matter what your thing is, you come to a place where you go, this seems like, yeah, we live in a broken world, and hard things happen, but there seems to be a whole nother level of what is going on here.

Well, the news I have for you today is that the Bible says yes. There is a whole lot going on there, and so as we go into chapter six or finish out chapter six, Paul writes and endorses a way of living in this world. That kind of sums up everything that's been written in Ephesians, but he says, you know, we need to be really purposeful about this.

Because whether or not you recognized that when you woke up this morning, you woke up in war, we are in a spiritual battle and we need to be aware and we need to be prepared. And so if you have your Bibles with you, turn to Ephesians chapter six with me and we are in verse 10.

And verse 10 starts with finally he's like in, because of everything else that's been said already, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. This living in Christ is not going to be easy. Being a Christian is not going to be easy. You are going to have opposition when you get up in the morning, when you walk out your door, when you come to church, you are in a battlefield, and so we need to be strong, but how good is this?

That we don't need to be strong in our own strength because I'm sure many of us have come here this morning and you feel war torn. You feel like you have arrows sticking out of you. Like in the spirit, if you could see your spiritual body, you would be like bleeding and bruised and broken and limping in the door going, mommy, and you hear, be strong.

You go, I've got nothing left. Good. That is okay because we are not strong in our own strength. We are strong in the Lord and in whose power His. And remember how the first three chapters of Ephesians, we talking about the power of God, how amazing and mighty that power is, that is the strength that we are gonna be walking in.

We need that. So on verse 11. 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 word, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm.

In other words, if there is any kind of spiritual power out there, you know, that is evil. It's all summed up here. Nothing is missing. It is out to stop the church from advancing in the way that God has made us to walk in love. In unity. In peace the devil hates. It. You have a target on your back. And the thing is, you don't get to choose that.

There are no non-combatants in the spiritual battle. You can't be Switzerland. You can't say, sorry guys. I'm not a fighter. I'm a love and not a fighter. I'm just gonna stand over here, let it pass me by. You are part of this battle, whether you like it or not. And so we need to take on the armor and be prepared.

Yeah. And we need to recognize that our struggle is not against flesh and blood if we don't get these concepts right. These are a couple of things that happen. The first one is, is that we can misguidedly begin to wound the people who are on our side because they're doing things that we don't like. And we can actually do the devil's job for him.

So Don, if you can pull up the next, the picture,

that's the first thing. If we don't recognize that behind people's actions, often when they're just those, you know, that someone's just so out of character does stuff, or maybe someone's got something that just goes on and you are like, what is the deal with this? What is the deal with you? How is this happening?

You need to recognize this is not always just that person that doesn't negate their responsibility, that's still going along with it, but at the same time, there is something behind that. And so you do not fight that person. That's the person you're set to love. It's the thing operating behind it. We don't want to wound each other.

And on the other hand, the next thing, we don't wanna wound the captives that we are made to go and set free in Jesus' name.

These are people who don't yet know Christ, who aren't gonna be living in this freedom, and they're gonna be staying in doing stuff that is gonna come against you. Now we live in a country which is, is pretty easy to be a Christian, relatively speaking, but not everyone has that experience. For many people, this could be legitimately someone coming to drag you out of your home.

Take your life, take your children's life. And you never know what's happening around the corner. In many places in the world right now, Christian persecution is outta control. Millions of people being killed every year for their faith, and yet we need to recognize the person holding the sword against us is not the person who we should be fighting.

It is the spiritual hell behind that.

Another problem if we don't recognize what's going on here is that we can be sitting there thinking, well, this is nothing really to do with me. I'm just going to relax and chill. Jesus was so chill. I'm just gonna be so chill too. And then you're walking around going, what on earth is happening? This is going on.

And you're taking these arrows and you don't know where they're going coming from, and life is just not making sense and it's hard, and you're just, what? We need to recognize there actually is a spiritual battle going on. The very last thing that can happen, and maybe you're like, well, I don't feel very much spiritual attack.

Maybe you look at the person next to you who might be taking all the hits on your behalf.

We don't wanna leave the battle up to everyone else to fight you. Were a soldier in this battle. You are either captive from the enemy or you're a soldier in the battle. Those are the options. There is no InBetween.

So verse 13, therefore, put on the full armor of God. So when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Now, then you might have read this passage many times. It is a favorite. I know we've done it in kids church recently. We made armor out cardboard, and then we had all the kids throw balls at each other and you had to defend yourself.

It was so much fun. It's one of the fun passages to look at, but there's actually so much more that's deeper within this. And if we look in, in not just the context of Ephesians in the New Testament, but the whole Bible, you'll see. How God is calling us to this, and it's bigger than what you might think.

So within Ephesians, we are called to live in Christ. Whose armor are we putting on?

It's God's armor. It's actually not even our armor. It's his armor is perfect. Armor ready to do the job that he has created it for, and we are just stepping into. And because we are now in Christ, we are stepping into the role that he has done. From a biblical context, this is not the first time that armor of God has been spoken about.

Some of these very elements that you will read up when they're describing the armor of God are actually talked about in Isaiah. So in Isaiah in 11, it talks about the shoot that comes from Jesse who's going to come up and be this ruler. Of peace. And it is one of the passages that describes who Jesus is gonna be and what he's going to accomplish.

And some of the things there are some of the things you'll read in the Armor of God. In Isaiah 59, 7, 1 of my favorite verses in the whole Bible will give not my favorite. How lovely on the mountain are the feet of him who bring good news, proclaiming peace, declaring our glory. Right? The same kind of language is then used in this armor, and then in Isaiah 59, which really is something that pulls it all together.

The people of God are sitting there looking around at this world that is filled with injustice. It's filled with people being harmed. It's filled with unrighteousness and wickedness everywhere, and everyone's going, what do we do about it? There is no one who can come and save us. And so then there is this prophecy of this divine warrior coming then on behalf of the people because no one can of the people themselves come and fight for justice.

This divine warrior who is clothed in this armor then comes and brings about God's justice on the earth so that righteousness can rain.

That divine warrior is Jesus, and he didn't come and bring justice in a way that many expected. We restored, but instead he came and took all the injustice upon himself and took our place on the cross, and he won the victory that day, so that under him, then everything can be brought in Christ. So the victory has been won.

The battle is just establishing, putting it there. So then now that we are in Christ, how cool is this? We are now walking in his power and his authority in his armor for his mission, which is this same mission that was even spoken about in Isaiah. And so who gets the glory? God. You have been created to make a difference on this earth, to bring truth and justice and love and hope, and God has empowered you to do so.

And it's not a new mission. It's the mission that is been on since the very day. And he has given you the ability to do this, but we need to be prepared that we are going to have some opposition in doing this. And it's interesting, isn't it, that God doesn't say Put on your armor and run. He doesn't say, put on your armor and walking.

He says, put on your armor and stand firm.

Can we just do a little activity, just especially for those of you who've been sitting for ages. Okay. Every time it says stand, I want everyone to stand. Okay. Let's go from verse 11. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's feet. Alright, you gotta go back down again.

You're gonna be up now. What else? Struggle. He is not against flesh life, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of the stark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly crown. Therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to send you a grant.

And after you have done everything, two stands, stand firm. Okay, sit down. You think he's trying to make a point? He keeps using this same word over and over again. Stand firm, stand against, stand with. Sometimes it's not necessarily even about taking ground. It's about standing the ground and the victory that Christ has already won, and you are going to have the push against you, and if you give in, that's when the ground is lost.

All your asks are very stand firm. So stand firm then with the Belt of Truth buckled around your waist. Now modern translations don't quite get this. Okay. I love this thing. And we don't use it and I think it should come back because it's kind of funny. It's actually gird or loins. So what kind of outfits would they have worn back then?

It wouldn't have been like Dave's and his jeans and his shirt. It would've been like mine. And so they would've said, I've got these. I could unt. But basically you can't run very fast wearing a skirt. It's not very dignified. It gets caught chi ripped. Trying to be in a battle with that going on does not work.

So what you need to do is you need to get the bits of the belt, tie up your skirt so that it's kind of like shorts, and then it's also a bit of extra support for the male. People who are going up to battle, not my problem as much. You know what I mean? Okay. But it's truth. And then it wraps around. And so you've got both the Old Testament context of this, where it's this belt of truth that's holding everything together, this righteousness, but it's also this, as Paul's writing, he's got all these Roman.

Guards and soldiers everywhere around him all the time, and he's seeing these belts. They're also, there are different kinds of belts that they would wear and they would carry an authority. Like there's whatever insignia was on them, how elaborate they were. You could see that this is a person of authority depending on what bells and also what breast plate they wore and what different signs were on there.

So you are carrying this truth. You've got the breastplate of righteousness, protecting your vital organs with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes with the gospel of peace. In addition to this, take up the shield of faith, 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. Now there's this really cool part of this verse 17. So I've been doing Greek on Wednesdays with Joel. It's been amazing, and we've been lately doing prepositions, which I had to be reminded of. Where all the in to above, under all those sorts of things.

There's a really cool thing that happens here in this passage. But up to verse 17, you are taking up these things and putting them on yourself. But in verse 17, it's a receiving of these things and the imagery is Jesus. 'cause you can't take up your own salvation, right? Jesus is handing you his comfort of salvation.

That's the imagery that's being put here and in the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Which in the Old Testament we read comes with great power to demolish evil. Okay? So we can look at this and for many of us, we come with so much familiarity to this. So I thought what we might have a look at today is we look at this quickly, is just see where the opposite of these things come.

Okay? For example, you've got a belt of truth. So how will the enemy try and undo your belt

with lies? Right. Mistruth, slightly deviating from the truth. Leaving you with your pants down. Yes. Sorry. I see that's smack. Okay,

so you. You've got this mistruth that's going to be coming at you time and time again. And we've already looked at this earlier in Ephesians that the devil, he's one who's gonna be twisting words, he's gonna be trying to make you think things about God, about yourself, about others that just aren't true.

So you are going to need to be very purposeful going forward and taking what is actually truth and holding on and letting that hold everything else. Together and with righteousness, that's a right relationship with God and others. That's going to be coming under attack. How many of you know that when God is doing something great, all of a sudden your relationships with other people and even your relationship with God, things start coming into question or maybe you get anxious or maybe.

You start noticing things about people you're getting especially irritated or whatever it might be for you. Everyone's got the weak spots on their armor, okay? And it's different for different people, but your righteousness is going to be attacked. Your readiness to spread the gospel and to live out the gospel is going to be attacked.

You are going to be tempted, you are going to be attacked with the idea of distraction, of changing your focus instead of sharing the gospel, spreading gossip, or even just talking about the weather. And as great as you know, straight through the team is, you'd be sharing about that instead of Jesus. We need to be ready each and every day to share this gospel of peace because it is good news.

One thing I love about that verse in desire is how good is it when you are just having a really rough go of it and it's so hard and it seems there is no relief in sight. And suddenly someone comes with good news that brings the breakthrough and says, you are going to be relieved of this in the future.

That yes, this is what the good news does. It is the good news of Jesus. Guess what? He's won the victory. We can have peace with God. We need to be ready and be aware that that readiness. Is going to come under attack too. The shield of faith. Our faith is going to be attacked. Our faith is gonna try and be undermined, be prepared, and the salvation that we have, we need to understand it and allow it to protect our minds, lines

and the word of God, which is not only. Our one piece of armor that's not defensive, but also offensive. This is the word of God. That's not just the Bible. It is the living word of God. Through our testimony, through our life, life, we need to know the word of God. We need to cover our mind. Who this God is who He's created us to be.

What His truth is, how we should see the world, how we see others, because it is powerful. Alright, moving on to verse 18. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people. And then Paul, you think this God Paul, he's been one of the greatest evangelists of his time.

He's sitting in jail and he's still sharing the gospel. He's writing letters that God is using him to write that are gonna live on thousands of years later. We are reading. This is Paul and he is saying, guys, I need prayer. If he needs prayer, how much do we need prayer? Pray also for me that whenever I speak, words may be given me that I will fearlessly make moment mystery as the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.

Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. This is how we fight. We don't do it on the physical realm, we do it on the spiritual realm. If your prayer life has been waning, questioning, let this be a reminder to you. Today, the prayer is battle. Prayer is taking ground. It is standing ground, not just for you.

For all the other people around you. You know, I have some days when I wake up and I know someone's pureing for me, there are some days when I'm just like, okay, there's this peace, there's this joy, there's this breakthrough, and I know this is not something I've done, but I know someone's been. And sometimes someone will be like, I really hate my heart.

I was really pain for you that day. No, no, it is making a difference. Let's pray for one another. Let's take ground for one another. Let's surround one another with protection. Let's see what God can do as he makes a path on the day ahead for each one of us. Let's keep praying. I have been concerned for quite a few years.

The older generations, they know how to battle in prayer. And so much of the time the church goes well. The older people are praying it's good. Oh, they're praying. They're so good with their prayer lives. They're so good with their prayer lives. 'cause they know the effectiveness of it. And yes, if you've got more time, pray more epic.

But I'm saying let us all. Stand stronger the Lord, and reach out in prayer together. And finally, the very end of the book, I don't know how to say his name.

You thinking of baby names, is he.

The dear brother and faithful servant in the law will tell you everything so that you may also know how I am and what I'm doing. I'm sending him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he will encourage you. And then he finishes the letter here, the same where he starts it, piece to the brothers.

It's, remember that piece is like completion and wholeness without cracks, without the breaking apart little bits and pieces. Peace to us and love with faith from God, the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to all who love our Lord Jesus with an undying. That's an eternal love. So looking now, not only.

Where he started at the beginning where this God from the very beginning of creation had this plan, but now he's looking now as the people of God into eternity that we may be walking with him and living with him internally. Grace and peace

I wanted to finish today, um, asking there to lead us in a song. Called Surrounded. I think it's a pretty good song as a reminder that we are in a battle. Yes, but a reminder that we fight in the spirit. We fight with prayer, we fight with praise. We fight with righteousness and truth in ourself. Walking in our salvation, we walk with readiness.

That is all given to us by the Lord already. So that maybe you walked in here today feeling a bit like, oh, I'm a be, how's it going? But that you walked out of here today with purpose, knowing that you were created to stand your ground, that you were created to be ambassadors for righteousness justice on the Earth in Christ, and not only as individual, but together.