Spiritual Warfare: Part 6 - The Helmet of Salvation

0:24 Today, I'm in my series, part six of spiritual warfare, part six. I know somebody's saying, Lord, when will this thing ever end? Part six from Ephesians chapter six. I'm going to talk about, we'll just read Ephesians six, beginning at verse 10.

0:50 Ephesians six, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. Somebody say a whole armor. that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Stand therefore having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation.

1:49 That's where we are today. Somebody say, the helmet of salvation. Look at your neighbor and say, we need to put the helmet of salvation on. No, no, I'm sorry. You need to put the helmet of salvation on for your big head. Go ahead and tell them for your head, your big head. We want to put on the helmet of salvation. We talked about all of these various armor that Paul the apostle talks to the church in Ephesus about. And among them he says, take the helmet of salvation. Go ahead, put that picture up there real quick of what a helmet looks like. It's to protect the head. Somebody says, it's to protect your big old head. There's a picture of what a Roman soldier would wear is this helmet. And it's important to protect your head because your brain makes the determination of what the rest of your body does. Your head, your brain, your thought processes is what this is dealing with, how you think.

2:54 I hope you understand that it's your thinking that makes the determination of what you do and how you act. Your thinking, how you think, how you think. This is a message about the way you think. Has anybody here ever made a decision to do something and realized later on how afflicted that decision was, and you said to yourself, what was I thinking? Yeah, this is what this message is about. He said, put the helmet on. Protect your head. Protect your big old head. Yeah, I grew up. My father took me to the barbershop, me and my brother to the barbershop. every two weeks. It didn't matter what the style of hair was. Every two weeks we had to go to the barbershop. And I tried to beg my father to let me let my hair grow. But he, you know, and that was during the bush era.

3:51 Everybody was wearing bushes. But my father would never let me wear a bush. matter of fact some of y'all remember the bush because you go to school one day and you have a little bitty teeny weeny TWA we call it teeny weeny afro then you would go to the store and get the come on y'all know what I'm talking about the afro sheen blowout kit Let me see how many of y'all are old enough to remember that. Some of y'all young people, y'all don't know what it's like to have the Afro-Sheen blowout kid. Boy, you come back to school and your hair be shaking. You shake your head and your hair be still shaking. We wanted to be like Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5. They had the big bush.

4:45 But my father would let me, he would not let me grow that. But finally one day he let me grow my hair long, longer than normal, longer than two weeks. And as my hair grew, I realized why he would not let me have a bush. Because along with having a bush comes the responsibility of caring for the bush. I can't get with this look today where you just let your hair grow and it's just all over the place. I know that's the style today, but I'm not with that. as you can tell. You let your hair grow. You had the Afro-Sheen blowout kit, and you comb your hair and do all that stuff and look good, but my father wouldn't let me have it. And I realized, because when I let it grow, my hair was crazy.

5:38 I didn't have a bush-style type texture of hair. So I let my hair grow. It looked like some of my hair was bent over. Some of it was standing up straight. It was horrible. So I went back to the two weeks, every two weeks. I had the crew cut long before the crew cut came back in style. Some of y'all don't know about that. But my discussion is not about hair. I want to talk about what's underneath your hair, the way you think. This is a message about thinking. Look at your neighbor and say, how do you think? look at the person on the other side say I wonder how you think really God is concerned about your thinking because your thinking detects your behavior your brain tells your your body what to do your brain tells your feet where to move and your hands where to move your thinking does that and Paul is talking to the church in Ephesus and trying to give them and understanding that you have to wear a helmet so you can have salvation.

6:48 It's called the helmet of salvation. And here's what that means. That word salvation means so that you can be delivered, so that you don't have to be in bondage. Some of you all are still in bondage because of the way you think. Your thinking keeps you in bondage. Your processes of how you believe and what you think helps keep you in a status of bondage. And Paul is telling us in Ephesians here how important it is to gather some weapons so that your thinking can be right. So you can think right. That's what I want to talk to you about right here for just a few moments so your thinking can be right. So I want to give you two points here today. I want to talk about two things here. I want to, because here's what the scripture says. Jack, this is verse down. I'm not going to turn to it. But Proverbs 23 and 7 says, Proverbs 23 and 7 says, has a man thinks, so is he. the way you think determines who you are and what you become if you think failure you'll be a failure if you think defeat you'll be defeated your thinking determines how you behave and what your actions are and so he tells us that we need to have the helmet on and I want to teach you right quick what the scripture teaches us about how we will win turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 Paul gives us again to the church in Corinth some important elements of how we control and how we are to defeat and win in this spiritual battle.

8:23 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4 says, For the weapons of our warfare, put that up on the screen, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Here's what that means. That means you don't fight a spiritual battle. And by the way, your battles are spiritual top priority. number one is we are in a spiritual battle. You don't fight with carnal weapons. That means you don't fight scratching people's cards, busting out their windows. You don't fight, amen, pastor. You don't want to say nothing. You don't fight cussing people out. That's not how you win. Giving people a piece of your mind, you need to hold on to the little bit of mind that you have. you don't fight that's not how christians are called to fight we don't fight using carnal weapons cussing people out that's not going to help you to win uh giving people a piece of your mind no no no that's not going to help you win uh fussing hurting people putting um what do i say scratching their car up uh uh lying on them those are carnal weapons And some of us think that that's how we're going to win.

9:28 But he says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. But here's what he says about them. Verse chapter 4, 2 Corinthians 10. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God. God says, I'm going to give you some weapons in me, God says, that are mighty. Here's what you do. He says, number one, you have to learn to pull down strongholds. Now, what is a stronghold? I'm glad you asked the question. A stronghold is a territory in your life, in your thought life, that the enemy erects a fortress. That's the best word I know to use. It's a territory that he does not easily give up. Some of you are in the middle of a battle with your thought life because you believe something that you cannot easily give up. And he says, here's what you got to do. You got to learn to pull it down. Somebody say, pull it down. Say, pull it down. Tell the person next to you, you got to learn to pull it down. That means destroy it. You got to learn to destroy thoughts that you have that are not going to help you to win.

10:26 Amen. Praise the Lord. I don't know why I feel so much tension in this room. Because I know that you have thoughts that you know are not from God. And the devil has a stronghold and he will not easily let them go. He will not let you easily walk away from them. He might not easily let you surrender them. He wants you to believe a certain way and live a certain way. And if he can keep you thinking the way you're thinking, the devil will keep you in bondage all of your life. But the scripture tells us the way we win this battle is we pull them down. Somebody say, pull them down, pull them down. That means to destroy them. Somebody say, destroy them. He says, destroy them. You got to pull them down. You got to get rid of them. He said, casting down. Look at it. Here it is. Go right here. Verse 5, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. You got to take a look at the thoughts that you have and the arguments and the imaginations and the way that you think and every high thing.

11:29 That word high thing means it wants to elevate itself into a high position in your life, that it has dominance in your life. That's what it means. It wants to rise up to a place that is controlling you and controlling the way you think and the way you act. It's a high thing. It wants to have preeminence in your life. It wants to take control of where you are, how you live, how you decide, how you act, what your junk shards. And some of you right now, you got something that's trying to elevate itself even right now while I'm talking to you. Don't listen to what he's telling you. He don't know what he's talking about. I'm telling you, I know what it's like to be in bondage. And I'm giving God the praise that I know. I used to suffer from depression. but I thanks be to God he taught me how to cast down and pull down that devil taught me I wasn't loved nobody cared for me that I was nothing I was never going to be anything never become anything never achieve anything that devil used to have control of me making me think I was nothing and nobody but baby look at me now Somebody tell your neighbor, you got to cast it down.

12:40 You got to tell them on the other side, you got to pull it down, cast it down. You got to cast down arguments and everything that wants to take a high place in your life. And then it says this, bringing every thought captive. Verse 5, bringing every thought. Whatever thoughts come into your life, you got to arrest it and you have to take it captive. I used to think a certain way. I was, and I stayed depressed, suicidal. I was a suicidal person. Felt unloved, unwanted, unimportant. That's how I felt. That's how, and the devil kept, I used to could not walk into a high-rise building and go over to the window or to a balcony because the devil would say, jump.

13:23 Can you imagine me jumping off of a high-rise building, but the devil was trying to tell me that that's what I needed to do? And guess what? Y'all looking at me strange, but some of y'all have been down the same street and thought the same way. And you know why the devil did that? Because he knew that if I ever got to the place that I'm in, that I would reap havoc on his kingdom. And he wanted to kill me before I got there. But you lost, devil. You lost. I'm here. Matter of fact, I'm still here. as I'm going to do that. The devil wants you to think all kinds of things that are contrary to God. You're ugly, you're too tall, you're too short, you're too dark, you're too light, you're too fat, you're too skinny, you're too this, you're too that. He wants you to think, he wants you to think, you ain't got to listen to what nobody tell you, you ain't got to listen to your boss, you ain't got to listen to your pastor, you ain't got to listen to the laws of the land, you ain't got to do this, you ain't got to do that, he wants to tell you all kinds of stuff.

14:21 He, you know I lifted the pastor. He put his pants on one leg at a time just like you. He ain't nobody. What is he? Who is he to tell you? That's what the devil wants you to think. But I come to try to cast that thought processes down. That's what he, that's how we win. It's casting these thoughts down, rebuking these thoughts that are contrary to God. That's how we win. Look at your neighbor and say, we can win this thing. You don't have to be depressed. You don't have to live frustrated. You don't have to be defeated. You just have to learn to discipline yourself. So controlling this does not come by virtue. This does not come by virtue of, it does not come by virtue of you, somebody laying hands on you.

15:16 This is something you got to do. You have to do it. I double tell you, you ugly. Guess what? God, you're not ugly. Most of y'all are not ugly. I gave way and let the devil let her thought stick in. I got to pull it. Come back in. Come back in, Pastor. Come back in. I was doing so well there for just a few moments, and then I strayed. I let that devil put some thoughts in my mind. Yeah.

16:09 Yeah. I had to learn to accept myself the way God made me and be grateful for the way God made me. Amen. I had to learn to accept how he created me. No, I'm not Danzel. Because God knew if I looked like Danzel, y'all couldn't listen to me preach. The women would be over here lusting all over there. They already having trouble lusting after me just the way I am right now. So God had to push me down a couple notches so y'all can hear what I'm trying to say. I'm trying to tell you. You hear what I'm saying to you? Y'all not getting this. I need to illustrate this for y'all.

17:03 I'm going to use you again, pastor, a deacon. I call you a pastor. This is Deacon Mark Ryan. Sometimes he thinks crazy. like he thought this year the cowboys was going to the super ball we got close pastor y'all did not get close digger ryan's you're a delusional young man you're delusional so let's just imagine this platform is your mind and these thoughts will come in your mind and they'll just wander around in your mind and every now and then they'll pop up with something crazy. Nobody cares about you. You're ugly. You're unloved. You ain't got to listen to nobody. You're your own boss. All these contrary things to Scriptures. And they'll roam around in your mind, roll around in your head. And some of y'all let them stay there. You don't do anything with them. You don't rebuke them. You don't reject them. You give them a place to stay. You welcome them in. You offer them a meal. You let these wayward thoughts just roll around in your mind. Come on, look at your neighbor. Say, don't you do that. Yes, you do.

18:13 You know you do. You let these wicked thoughts roll around in your mind. Here, this is a way with thinking thought in the platform of your thinking, just rolling around. An unfortunate thing is controlling your choices and decisions. He had a way with thought that the Cowboys were going to the Super Bowl. Next year. You just said next year. He's still delusional, so we'll just... Some thoughts you can let just stay around, but some thoughts, most thoughts you can't. You can go ahead and keep thinking that. In case you haven't learned, it's a great possibility that the commanders are going to the Super Bowl.

19:10 up. What a new day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your day, your That's another way we thought, jealous of how God blesses other people. You don't want to celebrate nobody else. Listen, my team didn't make it to the playoffs. They got kicked out. The Ravens got kicked out. I'm jumping on the commander's board right now. Come on commanders, let's do something to the eagles. I'm not playing hating on the commanders. I'm pulling up for them.

20:14 Yeah. So somebody look at you and you've got to think right. You've got to think the right way. You my man today, brother. You were away with thought. here's another way with thought thinking just rolling around in your mind thinking a certain way a certain thing and the sadness is you let these thoughts stay in your mind when you have control to get rid of them that's what Paul is telling the church in Corinthians 2nd Corinthians you got to learn to cast down those thoughts that don't come from God I want you to think about what are the thoughts that roll around in your mind that you know didn't come from heaven, God didn't put them there, and you entertain them, you give them value, you let them have status, you let them have a space in your life, and you let them just roll around just talking, and they be talking to you. They just be talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, talking. Somebody say talking, talking, talking, talking.

21:12 Yeah. How you doing? Good, Pastor. How are you? I'm doing great. How you feeling? Women have wayward thinking thoughts, too. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They be thinking crazy things. You hear him say that? He said, amen. Praise the Lord. She just told me, I don't know him. That's her husband right there. She said, I don't know him.

21:59 So here... Lord, please don't let this turn into a fight when they get home. So here they are walking around with these crazy thoughts. Women think crazy thoughts too. What are crazy things that women think sometimes? You better not answer that.

22:19 Okay, let me ask a woman. What's crazy thoughts that we think? That a woman thinks, yeah. That that's my man. That somebody else's husband is your man. There you go. That's a good deal. I know not you, but there's some other ladies here, not you. Y'all heard her say, that's my man right there. Yeah, she got you thinking that somehow there's going to be a possibility that he's going to divorce her and marry you. Ooh, y'all getting quiet on me. I can tell when I hit y'all square in the face because y'all get real quiet. So here she is walking around dreaming about it, dreaming about the divorce, dreaming about getting married. The man already married to somebody else, but here you are dreaming about what it's like to be living with him and so forth and so on. Here you are rolling around here thinking ungodly thoughts. Y'all ain't hearing me. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. I prayed for that one. Yeah, you prayed for him?

23:11 I prayed for him. I kissed dating goodbye. You prayed for him. Okay, all right. God answered your prayers. How long y'all been married? You don't know how long y'all been married? I have to do the math. So it seems like, you know, dog years. Okay, all right, okay. 2016, so eight years. Eight years, y'all been married, eight years. Okay, all right. Anyway, she talking, she just talking to me, just talking. She answering questions I didn't even ask her. That's what women do. I ain't ask you about that. I ask a simple question. I didn't ask for the details. I didn't want you to go all the way back 15 years and stuff like that.

24:05 I just want to know what's for dinner. And you go ahead and talk about all this other stuff. I'm just trying. These thoughts are rolling around in your mind. You've got to learn to have control. Somebody look at you and they say, you've got to learn to have control. Keep on going, baby. Keep on walking. She talking. 14. I got a calculator in my mind. 14.

24:33 That's what she was saying to me. I'm trying to preach a sermon. And she's up there. 14, 15 years. Are y'all with me? You understand what I'm saying? But here's the thing I want y'all to see, this is what's going on in your head. You have control over what you think. Hallelujah.

25:20 You have control. And you got to learn to ask yourself the question, is this thought that I am entertaining? As a matter of fact, here's what happens. These thoughts come here for a minute. Here, stop for just a second. Let me just wait till your man come back around. Then you'll keep going. So yeah. So then, you know, y'all get married. These thoughts start getting married. Then they start having babies. baby thoughts and now these baby thoughts start having they multiply and they grow and now you're depressed now you're down now you're fearful now you're struggling but you entertain it the devil introduced it but you let it stay you let it stay and I'm telling you what I know I know what I'm talking about right here because I know how the devil tried to torment me and make me think I was unloved and I didn't have a life worth living and I was nothing, that I would never become anything.

26:28 He kept telling me these things. And I'm trying to help you understand. Don't let the devil confuse you, frustrate you, defeat you. Don't let him do it. And so the text says the text says you got to pull it down got to pull that joker down good

26:50 Don't let it stay up there. Don't let it wander around. Don't let it keep frustrating you. Don't let it keep holding you back. Don't let it keep you from becoming everything that God designed for you to come and keep you down. You got to grab it. You got to cast that joker down. Don't play with it. I don't even know why I let you even. Get out of here. Go sit yourself down somewhere. Somebody say cast it down. Pull it down. Bring every thought into captivity. Every thought, somebody say every thought.

27:48 Say it loud, every thought. Give consideration that every thought that comes in your mind, you need to evaluate it. Did that thought come from God or did it come from the enemy? And if it didn't come from God, cast it down. Let me give you this final thought. It's 11 o'clock. I got it finished. Here's what you got to do. You got to learn to develop godly thoughts. Say develop godly thoughts.

28:20 Jot that down. You got to learn to replace your wicked thinking with godly thinking. I don't know who I'm preaching to today, but you need to get this. You need to get this. develop godly thoughts. Philippians 4.8, put that up there. Philippians 4.8. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, that word noble means honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. that's what you got to do meditate on the right things all of these things pure true and and honest and just and pure and lovely and good report and virtuous there's anything worthy of being praised meditate on those things the word meditate means it's a word that means to re-chew to regurgitate to re-ponder it re-think about it it's a word used that reflects how a cow has two stomachs when you first eat it goes in the first stomach then it leaves the first stomach and goes into the second stomach because it's trying to pour every piece of juice out every nutrient out that it can and that's what we got to do is we have to replace our thinking with biblical thinking.

29:53 Amen. And squeeze every ounce of truth you can out like God loves me. God has a destiny for me. I haven't gotten there yet right now, but I'm on my way. I'm headed in that direction. You got to think of things that I am fearfully and wonderfully made. You got to think no weapon formed against me shall prosper. You got to think I am more than a conqueror. You got to think I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Y'all not hearing what I'm saying today. You got to think positively. Think about the fact that God has forgiven me of my sins. God has washed the slate clean. God has given me the ability to come boldly. Here's what I love about the scripture. The scripture says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Y'all missed a great spot right there. That devil tells us, oh, you can't go to God because you done did this, you done done that.

30:50 You can't talk to God. But the scripture says, come boldly to the throne of grace, that I might find grace to help in the time of need. Y'all not hearing what I'm saying to you today. Somebody look at your neighbor and say, you got to think differently than the way you're thinking. You got to think the way God wants you to think. I wish I had more time. I got to stop. I got to bring it to a close. I got to pull my plane in, park my plane. I got to bring this in. But I want you to think differently. Some of you are under the control of the influence of the enemy because he's filled your mind with unrighteous thoughts.

31:29 And I want to tell you today, learn. How do I do that? Here's how I did it. Here's how I defeated it in my life. I started memorizing chapters of scriptures. Don't tell me you can't do it. I hear these young people quoting these hip-hop songs, and they got every word, every nuance, every pause for three or four minutes. And if you can remember the hip-hop song, you can remember Scriptures. I got sunshine on a cloudy day. When it's cold outside I've got the month of May Well, I guess you say what can make me feel this way?

32:35 My girl, my girl, talking about my girl, my girl. Oh Don't don't don't don't I don't need no money, fortune or fame.

33:04 I've got all the riches, baby One man can claim Yes, how can you say what can make me feel this way, my girl, my girl? Oh my, my God.

33:37 That song is over 50 years old. And y'all were singing it like you came out yesterday. Right? Hello? If you remember the words to that song, what you might need to do is put scriptures to or whatever you need to do so you can remember it because you do have the capacity y'all was singing with me y'all was clapping your fingers and snapping your fingers oh yeah you can remember scriptures you can do whatever you choose to do you can replace the wicked thoughts