Helmet of Salvation

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:25] Speaker B: How are you guys doing? Y' all look great and awake. It's a great day to be in church. Amen. Yes, it's a great day to be in church. I was recently in the lobby talking with one of our fellow church members, Barb. And Barb has been through a really bad diagnosis cure. She's cancer free now, but it was a really rough cancer situation for her. She had one cancer, which was kind of a rare cancer, and. And while she was in the middle of getting chemo for that cancer, she actually got another cancer. Who does that, right? Only Barb. And she conquers it all. And she did great. And she is the most positive person that you have ever met in your life. And I always can't wait to talk to her to see what God is sharing with her. And this particular Sunday, she came in and she said, mary, it's a great day to be in church. And I said, it is. No, it is. It's always a great day to be in church. And she said, yes. And she said, you know, what a privilege. Well, we have that we get to come into church and we get to hear God's word, we get to sing praises to God, we get to leave the world behind, we get to leave all of our worries and our fears and our anxieties, all of that in the car, and we get to come in and we get to be with God. So perspective, right, does something for you. When you've been through a really hard time, and many of you have been through lots of hard times, I know you have too. And when you go through a hard time and you can't come to church or you don't know when you. And if you're gonna be able to go back to church, you have a new appreciation for church, for getting to come to get to be here, be with other believers, to get to be with God, it really does impact our lives, it impacts our week. And Barb's not the only one. For those of you at home watching, we love you, we're thinking about you, we're praying for you. We consistently get to stay in contact with you guys too. And you are on our hearts. So we are continuing to pray for you to be well and to get to come back and be with us soon. We have a special guest here today I want to introduce to you. If you've been around the Met for a while, you know Pastor Florence Dango. Pastor, will you stand up? Thank you. Everybody, this is Pastor Florence. She's here all the way from Uganda, Africa. And Dongo used to tell me, uganda, East Africa, Mary. Uganda, East Africa. So yes, it is. And we have been friends. Our church has been friends with the Dango family for about 15 years and they started God Care school and orphanage about 26 years ago. So they have been doing great work on the other side of the world and ministering to, to children who otherwise wouldn't have an opportunity for an education. Some of them live at the school because they're orphans and some of them just get education at the school and they feed about 1900 kids a day. Can you believe that? That's so awesome. So you might be saying, yes, that's wonderful. And you might be saying, how can I help? How can I personally help? And you can help by sponsoring a child. It's $40 a month to pay for them to get an education or $40 a month if they're boarding there as well. And I have a cute little three year old girl here. I'm not sure which camera. There you go, there you go. Can you see it? And she's absolutely darling. Her name is Roreen and it says I attend God Cares nursery and primary. And my family is unable to support my school feed. So they're gonna have a whole bunch of cards like that out there at the table. If you are interested in sponsoring somebody on the other side of the world, they would really appreciate your help. We know them personally. I know them personally. I have been there. Oh gosh, I think I've been ten times. Long time. We've done women's conferences, haven't we, Florence? We've done a lot of ministry together and gotten to see God work. There's something another thing about perspective, another thing that changes when you're somewhere where they don't have everything that we have. Food is a luxury and everybody doesn't have cars and phones and all of that kind of stuff. They're just trying to get an education. And Pastor Dango used to tell me that his dream was when he and Florence started the. Actually he was saying people just kept giving them children and he was like, okay, I guess we're supposed to start an Orphanage, Right. Because they knew that they were pastors and would take care of them, which, if you build it, they will come. So now there are so many children that they're responsible for and take care of. But he would tell me that his dream was to help educate these children, that to get an education. Number one, education is really important. It's not free in Africa. And we know an education gives you all kinds of opportunities. We're talking middle school, high school education. And then his dream was for them to be able to go on to university. And because they know Jesus, they're going to be able to change their. The government and the political world in Africa, because, like, here, there's a lot of unrest going on there. So God's hand has been on that ministry. And it's amazing to go and see all the lives that are changed and lives that are living for Jesus now. We've had a few kids. Don't we still over life there. Our Daisy graduated from university and she texted me she wants to go get her master's. So they have big dreams, just like our kids have big dreams. And it's an honor to get to live a little life with them and to get to know what's going on in that side of the world. So Florence will be at the table after service if you would like to go out there and meet with her. I know that she would be honored to meet you. And their prayers are always coveted. Always keep them in your mind. We take so much for granted. I'm remembering one time I was there and Donga was telling me about he wanted a farm. I'm like, why do you want a farm? Oh, my goodness. They got two campuses. And he said, because we need food. We need to grow our own food. I was like, oh. So we helped buy a farm, and we helped plant the farm and bananas and all kinds of things. We helped get a. Well, the church did. So we are vested with this ministry and we adore them. So thank you for being here, Florence. Thank you for coming and sharing your time while you're here in the US with us and the difference that you guys are making. So we're continuing our series today called Invisible War. And Pastor Bill has been taking us through the six pieces of armor that are in Ephesians 6. So if you wondered how many pieces of armor I love, things that help me remember Ephesians 6. Six pieces of armor. Now, we know there are six pieces, and we've been talking about those the last few weeks, and this week we're talking about the fifth piece of armor, and it is called the helmet of salvation. That's what we're gonna be talking about in Ephesians 6. So if you have your Bibles and you wanna go ahead and turn there, we'll get to that passage in just a few moments. Or in your Bible app, I know all the kids now. We got it on our Bible app. Yes, you can do that as well anywhere. The more God's word we can see. I'm all about that. So that's wonderful. Paul was speaking to the Ephesians into a people group that knew a lot about war. Roman occupation was huge then. They knew a lot of war. They knew all of the pieces that Bill's been talking about that they were putting on. They were very familiar with that. So Paul was saying, let me teach you something, you know, with something you don't know. And I'm gonna draw some correlations that you can see and understand more what we're talking about. On the spiritual realm, he knew, even though it was unfamiliar to them, as he began relating it to something familiar, it might click with them. But Paul tells them, just like a soldier would never go to war without their armor on, they would never, especially not put the helmet on right to save their head. He's saying, all the more reason we as believers in Christ and we need to be putting on the armor for our spiritual health. So he's telling them super important and do not neglect doing a really important thing. Sometimes we get lazy. Sometimes we don't wanna put on our armor. Sometimes even our physical helmet, the different things that we do, Sometimes it can be, oh, I don't need to put the seatbelt on. I'm just going, do you guys do this? My grandkid now goes, long trip, short trip, I don't care. Put the seatbelt on. We're always trying to figure out a way we don't have to do. Somebody's telling us that we have to do. I get that. But Paul's encouraging them that when they put on the helmet that they are going to be able to stand firm against the enemy, because that is who is really coming for our minds. All right, let's look at Ephesians 6. We'll read just a few verses here. If you haven't been here, I'm going to start at 13 so you can see the whole armor and catch you up. All right, Ephesians 6, 13 says, 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, stand firm. Then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the 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. So each piece of armor is representing something God gives us. When we put on the helmet of salvation and when we put on the armor, he's telling us, this is gonna be something that's going to really change your life. It's gonna change the way you think about the. The enemy. It's gonna change the way that you think about God as well. As we focus on the fifth piece, the helmet. It was actually the last piece that a soldier would put on. Why? Because a helmet's uncomfortable, let's be honest, right? You're gonna put it on. It's gonna be a little heavy. There's especially were really heavy. It covers a little bit of your eyes. You can't see everything that you wanna see. It might be hot, might give you a headache. There's all kinds of reasons that you might not want to put on a helmet. But he's saying it's really important that you learn to put on the helmet of salvation. Now, you have all probably at some point in your life, been told to put on a helmet. Whether you're riding a bicycle or a motorcycle or whatever it might be, you probably have put on a helmet in your life. And maybe one and two maybe didn't. My husband, Derek, is a cyclist, an avid cyclist, and he is really passionate about wearing a helmet. Thank goodness you guys have seen the packs of all the guys on the side of the road. And to be really honest, some people are not very nice to them, throw things out the window at them, all kinds of crazy things. He's like, I'm trying to get healthy. Why aren't people happy about this? I'm like, cause you're slowing them down on the road. But it's just the way that it is, right? Well, I got a phone call one afternoon. The dreaded phone call. Everybody who has somebody who cycles, right? I got the call from his riding buddy Jeff. And in case you didn't know, all cyclists wear a band on their wrist or their ankle that tells the number of the person to call in case they're in an accident. That's kind of morbid, isn't it? They're already planning ahead for it. They already have it on. It's called road id. It's a big thing. And so he had his on. So his friend Jeff called me. Luckily, I answered. We don't really answer much anymore, do we, with all the crazy numbers that we get. But his friend called me, and he said, hey, Mary, Derek's been in an accident. It's not the first accident. I'm like, oh, no. Okay, I have to come get him. He has a flat. You know what happened? And he said, well, the paramedics are here. And I said, oh, okay. He said, yeah, he's kind of bleeding a little bit. So the paramedics came, and I said, oh, okay. I said, well, hey, Jeff, listen, I've done this rodeo. Tell them to take him to Baylor Grapevine. That one's by my house. That would be much more convenient for me. So if you will go ahead and tell the paramedic, you know, to take him over there. And he said, okay, I'll tell him. And then he called me back and he said, well, the paramedic said, because he's unconscious and it's a head injury that they're gonna take him downtown. And I said, oh, my. Well, that changes the tune of all things, because you and I would know what that means now. This is serious. This is really serious. So I said, okay. So I got my car and I headed down there downtown and through this er. And it's crazy because they take people with a lot of blood to hospitals that are prepared to handle a lot of blood and trauma, if you know what I mean. So was it the best hospital walking in that I'm used to here in our little suburb, right? So. And there's curtains and people yelling, and I go in, and there's a curtain, and there's all these people around Derek. And this doctor's saying, he has a collapsed lung. I'm puncturing, and they're doing this, and I'm seeing all the blood. And his cycling jersey was cut up the middle and thrown off and blood everywhere. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. And Derek said. And I said, he's talking. And I said, hey, baby, you okay? And he said, yeah. Why am I here? And I said, well, you've been in a bicycle accident. And he said, oh, hey, Mary. Yeah, why am I here? I said, well, maybe you were in an accident. You fell. I'm thinking, does he want more details? 55 more times? And they finally said, he has a concussion. So then I just Started saying, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. But he was fine. It was a few days in the hospital. And as they were taking him up, actually, they were taking that bloody jersey, which I'm saying, throw in the trash. And he's saying, no, I'm saving it. That's my trophy. So he saved it for a while. I think it's in the trash. It could be hidden somewhere, I'm not really sure. But I saw that helmet and it was all banged up and I knew that helmet probably saved his life. Thank goodness he had that helmet on. So sometimes we do things and we put on things and we prepare ourselves for things to keep us safe, even if we don't want to, right? And that's what we're talking about with the helmet of salvation. Even though it's one minute thing, five minute thing, it could be something that, as we choose to do this, to put on the helmet, to change our mind, to think about God, it's going to impact the way that we live. The helmet of salvation refers to protection from the devil's schemes. And John 10:10 tells us that the thief came only to kill, steal and destroy. That's his plan. And you know who his target is, right? It's me and you. It's Christians. He is going to do everything he can to keep us off of our game, to keep us from sharing Jesus with other people. He is on a mission. So Paul's saying, hey, I know Satan is on a mission to take you out, but I'm gonna give you a tool that is gonna help you stay in the game and not just survive, but you're gonna really thrive. And if you'll do what I've called you to do when we talk about salvation, the helmet of salvation, it protects our minds through the assurance of our salvation in Christ. That's a big churchy word, right? Assurance of salvation. That means you know that you're saved. That means you made a decision to trust Jesus as your savior. You know, if you died tonight, you know you're gonna spend eternity in heaven with God because you have made a decision to ask Jesus to come into your life. So when we're talking about assurance of salvation, that's what we're talking about. And Scripture says once we make a decision to ask Jesus into our heart, that he never leaves us or forsakes us. Ephesians talks about, we're sealed until the day of redemption. There's nothing you or I could ever do that Jesus would turn around and walk away from us. We're his children. He loves us. He is gonna stay with us forever. And I will tell you right now, if you are a child of God, he. You may be far away from him. You may be mad at him. You may be just done with the church thing. Maybe you were hurt in church. Bill always says, if you haven't been hurt in church, you just haven't gone long enough. Because they're full of human people like us, who make mistakes. But God will never turn his back on you. And he is gonna keep wooing you. He is gonna keep loving you. He's gonna keep blessing you. And eventually you're gonna see it and say, okay, okay, I'm sorry. And you will come back to him, because that's what a dad does. A dad doesn't give up on his kids. He keeps encouraging them. He keeps loving them. He keeps looking for ways to help them and to bless them. And that's what God our Father, does. So when you put on the helmet of salvation when you're saved, what we just talked about, you can live in hope because you know that Jesus is who he said he was. You can reject the lies of the enemy because now you have the Holy Spirit living within you. That is discerning. And it's telling you, not a good idea. Hey, I don't think you should do that. That's what the Holy Spirit does. When we have it in us. It helps us decipher God's word from the enemy's lies. And it also protects our mind, [00:17:44] Speaker A: our [00:17:44] Speaker B: whole body, with the truth. Because when you know the truth, typically we know the truth. When you see the truth, you can pretty much know. Mm, yes. I'm not sure about that, but I'm pretty sure in today's world, I'm gonna be honest, it's a little difficult if you turn on social media, if you turn on the news, depending on which channel you're on, it's kind of like being in a courtroom, and you've got two people and you've got two attorneys who all are talking about the same thing, but they're totally different views. Do you guys know what I'm talking about? It gets difficult, doesn't it, to know what is the actual truth? I always told my kids growing up, they would come ask me something, and I would say, the only truth I know is. Is in the word of God. That is everything else. The truth will find you out. We say that, right? It will come out eventually, but we don't always know. But this is the benefit of putting on the helmet of salvation is it's gonna help you decipher God's truth and the enemy's lies. Cause he is out to lie to you. He's out to trick you. I believe once you know the benefits of the helmet, right? You better believe Derek puts on a helmet every time he gets on a bike. Now even to go down the street. Cause freak things happen. I believe like this, once you know the benefits of putting on the helmet, you're gonna take a couple of minutes out every morning to put this helmet on and get your mind set right with the Lord. I have an acrostic here for you. H E L M E T which I think will help us kind of quickly. When we think about it sometimes it's a whole lot of things the helmet does. I wanted to narrow it down to a few things to tell you the benefits. Number one. H, hope in Christ. So when we put on the helmet of salvation, it helps us see God for who he is. It helps change our trajectory. Because we know of the hope that we have in Christ. Number one. Number one. Number two. E. Eternal security. What I just talked about. Number three. The lies rejected. Number four. Our mind is protected. And then E stands for every thought captive. And T for truth believed. So every time we put on the helmet and we look for God's truth and security and love, the enemy retreats. When we start saying, I believe in Jesus, I believe in God. When we start saying all of these things, believe me, the enemy is going to run. He can't hear the name of Jesus, the holiness of who God is. He is going to leave. So that's a benefit, right? Then. We're not in the struggle there. So what I was thinking as I was preparing for this passage today, and Pastor Bill and I were talking about. He wanted me to talk about the helmet. And I started thinking about, okay, what's different about the helmet than all of the other armor, the other four that we've talked about? And something really interesting with the helmet is they put it on last, right? That because it was heavy when soldiers were going, it's the last thing they put on. And it really had to be imminent danger. We're not just putting it on. We're gonna wait till we think somebody's coming. So I thought, hey, what if we put on the helmet of salvation first? What if it's not the last thing after we've made some bad decisions or we've said some things we shouldn't said or done some things we shouldn't done. And then we're like, oh, let me get the helmet out. What if it was what we did first thing in the morning to help us walk with God? What if we put the helmet on and we asked God to be with us? So I thought of this declaration we could do or a prayer every single morning when we get up. Before you let your mind go crazy, right before, you're thinking about all the things that have to be done, all the places the kids have to be, all the chores you have to do, all the things. What if when you got out of bed, you sat on the end of your bed and you said this? Heavenly Father, I'm putting on the helmet of salvation. I reject lies and I receive truth. My mind is covered, my heart is secure, and I believe the promise of God over the lies of the enemy. Amen. That's it. Amen means and let it be so. And let it be so. We're gonna pray that every single day before we get out of bed, we're gonna start putting on the helmet of salvation and let God direct our path that day. So I thought, let's practice to get. Let's practice this together. You guys can repeat after me. I'm gonna put it on the Facebook page. A couple people already texted me and said, what are we saying? Again? It'll be on the Facebook page for today's message. So repeat after me. Heavenly Father, I am putting on the helmet of salvation. I reject lies and I receive truth. My mind is covered, my heart is secure. I believe the promises of God over the lies of the enemy. Amen. This would be a game changer for our lives. Spiritually. It's gonna change the way we look at God. It's gonna relationally with our family, with your workplace, with our communities, how different the world would be if we were going into it already, expecting God to do great things, rejecting the enemy, looking for God. What if that's how we started our day? Each and every day when we put on the helmet, we would think like somebody who is actually saved. And we would live with confidence because our identity is in Christ. It is not in the evil one. And we got our mind against the lies with the truth of the gospel. Here's what I know from experience. If the enemy can control your thoughts, he can control your life. It won't take long. If he can get you in this thing of depression or anxiety or frustration or anger or questioning who you are, whatever it might be. If he can get you there, he can take you out of doing the things that God wants you to do. There's a famous quote that says, watch your thoughts, for they will become your words. Watch your words, for they will become your actions. Watch your actions, they become your habits. And watch your habits, they become your character. And watch your character, because it becomes your destiny. So how do we keep our minds focused on God? That our destiny is not wrapped up following Satan as well? We're gonna do this by putting on the helmet and comparing the lives of Satan with the promises of God. Every lie of Satan can be combated by a promise of God. And we get to choose. Do we wanna focus on the promises of God? And sometimes it's hard, honestly, let's be real about this. If somebody's hurt you or betrayed you, whatever it might be, you guys know what that is for your life? It's a lot easier to kind of sit and be mad. My mama's over there today. She would be saying, are you stewing in this? Are we gonna sit and stew in something or are we gonna let it go? Let it go, right? But it's somehow within our human self. It feels good sometimes to just be mad, to know somebody should be punished. But you can't do both things at the same time. You cannot focus your time and energy on God's promises and on Satan's lies. It's impossible because they are in polar opposition to each other. So which do you choose today? Are you gonna choose to put your mind, your energy, your efforts, your life, everything that you have on God's promises? Are you gonna choose to drift into where Satan is? I know none of us wanna do that. You wouldn't be in church today. You're here because you wanna know God. Maybe somebody made you come, but most likely you're listening. So you're here because you wanna know God and you wanna be closer to God and you're looking for ways to do that. Have you ever worried about something? I mean, like, worried about something? You went to bed worrying about it. You fell asleep for a little while. You woke up, you worried about it. The life is gonna be over tomorrow. You didn't sleep. It was horrible. And you were so worried about something that was gonna happen. Maybe it was a meeting at work or lose your job or a fight with your mate, whatever it might be. And then the next day, nothing happened that you stayed up and sacrificed good sleep for all night. I've done that quite a bit. It's a battle for our minds. And we have to understand that we were at war. We have to know what the enemy is up against. We have to know his tactics and what he's like. If he can't destroy you, he will distract you. I think that's the biggest thing I could say that's going on right now with our phones. Right. I'm a little add. I'm a lot add. My family would say, so if you're not ADD and you don't have somebody in your house that's add, you probably do. I tell my mother it's her fault. It was stuff she fed me. We now know it was all diet related. They're saying the red dye, whatever we ate, I don't know if that's all true or not, but we tease about that. But when you're ADD and a noise happens, a phone goes off. My watch is off right now. Because if my watch were vibrating right now out of habit, I would look at it. And that's exactly what's happening with the phone. For me, I have to turn. When I'm working, I have to turn all the notifications off because I will go on. Oh, I got an email. Oh, pretty soon I'm like, now, what was I working on? So we have consistent distractions in our life. I was watching, I follow a guy, and he's an attorney, and he was talking about how bad the phones are for relationships. He's not even talking about her mind. And he said he had gone to dinner with his wife and they were sitting there and he said, I'm very important and I have a lot of people who need me. And so the phone was going off and he was telling his wife, hey, baby, hang on just a second. I have to answer this. And he said he looked over and she had a tear coming down her face. And he said, hey, what's up? I was just answering. And she said, I'm always last. I'm always last. That phone rules your life. And he said, what I learned is the phone is my pacifier. Like, if I don't have it with me, I don't feel like myself. I feel like an appendage is missing. I feel that way to you guys. What if somebody needs me? Well, guess what? I was telling Derek this the other day. Caroline said, I was trying to call you. I was at the grocery store and you didn't answer. I said, I was in a meeting. And she said, well, I needed to know a recipe. I said, okay, well, what do you need? She goes, never mind. I called Nana. I go, well, great, call Nana. I don't have to answer every question. That's Typically, what will happen if we don't answer every crisis? They're going to go on to somebody else or better yet, figure out how to do it right. So he was saying, he was sitting across from his wife, and he said, I'm so sorry. I'm going to turn the phone over. Do you feel better? And she said, not really, because you're still going to feel it vibe or you're going to know. And he said, oh, what if I put it under the chair? And she said, I'll take it. And he said, I noticed. Then I just felt off. I didn't have my phone with me. But sometimes we have to do things and make decisions that will help us be the people that we need to be, even if it's not comfortable for us and even if we don't want to do it. Because that's Satan's tactic, right? Let's attack a marriage. Hey, let's get him busy. Distracted with the telephone, he won't even notice that his wife is crying and was getting ready to share something really important in her life. It's just distraction. And I say, for girls, I'm the worst. Derek and I went walking last night. We live on some property, and across from us somebody had been burning. And so I said, let's go make sure you know that the burn's all out. I said, I'm not gonna take my phone. He said, well, fine. I'm taking my phone. I said, that's fine. But I was practicing on this, so I wanted to be sure that I did it really well. And I went down without my phone. And it was smoldering a little bit. I'm like, call 911. He's like, it's fine. I'm like, good thing I didn't have my phone. See, I would have had a reflex. Been calling 911. He's like, it can smolder. It's fine. But I'm really working on that with my phone, and I challenge you guys to do that. Leave it in your car. Some. When you go into the grocery store, you don't have to take it with you. Leave it in. Nobody's gonna panic. In five or ten minutes without you, try to start looking at people in the eye. Try to say hi to people. Maybe you're where you're supposed to be. Maybe in that store, in the line that you're sixth in line, wanting to be on your phone, maybe God's wanting to use you to encourage somebody. Maybe you would see something around you that you could help that God would call you to do because you're present, living in the world that you're living instead of looking at your phone. All right, that's my rant on phones. It's me too, y'. All. I'm not just saying it. I just think the relationships. And I talk to a lot of couples, and this is what they're saying. We go to bed together, but we're on our phone for 10 or 15 minutes till 1 of us falls asleep. Put the phone up. You've had the phone all day. You don't need the phone at night in bed when you're laying next to the most important person in the world to you. It's tough. It's tough, isn't it, for us to let go of the flesh and what we want to do, for us to minister to the most sacred people God has given us, to reach out to our families, right? And to care about them as much as we do other people. Every lie the enemy tells you can be counteracted with a promise, a promise of God. I have a few illustrations for you. Number one, the enemy says, you're not enough. Oh, we all hear that all the time, don't we? You're not enough. You're not good enough for that job. You're not a good enough daughter. You're not a good enough son. You're not a good enough wife or husband or whatever it might be. We have these things of. I really let people down. I don't think I'm enough. Well, guess what? That's the enemy. That's not what God is saying. God says, you are chosen and you are loved. I'm the God of the universe, and I created you in your mother's womb, and you are very, very important to me. First Peter 2. 9 says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Another one says, the enemy says, God won't forgive you whatever you've done that you think is the worst thing ever. Jesus, blood on the cross was not good enough for that one thing. And God is not going to forgive you. That is not true at all. God's truth is, you're fully forgiven if we confess our sins. He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Not just some from all unrighteousness. And that's 1 John 1:9. The enemy says, be afraid. Everything could fall apart now. This is bringing in tragedy when there is none. You know, when you go, everything's going so good right now. I'm thinking, this is too good to be true. Everything's gonna fall apart. And you get your mind worrying about things you don't even need to be worrying about. I'm guilty on this one. And here's what he says. He says, God is with you. Do not fear. So Isaiah 41:10. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God, and I will strengthen you and I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Nothing's too hard for God, and nothing is too hard for us when we have God next to us, holding us up with his right hand. When we feel like we can't stand on our own. You're not alone. God is with you. Maybe you're a single mom or a single dad feeling really alone right now. It's tough. Yeah. I had a sister who was a single mom. It's tough. All the things that have to be done, all the decisions that have to be made, but you are not alone. God is with you. God is in that house. God is giving you strength to love those kids, to give what you don't have because you're really tired. God is there to be with you. The enemy says, there is no hope for your future. And God, God's truth said, God has good plans for you. Jeremiah 29:11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope in the future. So the helmet of salvation guards our minds by anchoring our thoughts in the truth of what God is doing, what he's done, what he plans to do through Jesus Christ. The helmet is not just a symbol. It's a daily way of thinking that protects you in very real ways. I wish I could tell you reading God's word and putting on the helmet will make your life easy, not stressful. No problems, there's no anxiety. If you get up in the morning and sit on the side of your bed and you say that prayer, and you are ready to go, your kids are gonna get up, get themselves dressed, they're gonna fix their own breakfast. They're not gonna forget anything they need to take to school, whatever dream would be your dream. Like, I wish I could tell you that was gonna happen. It's probably not. It might. Might surprise you, but most likely you're still gonna struggle, but God's gonna be with you. And he's gonna help direct you in a different way. Just like having a physical helmet does not stop the battle, it doesn't. Or an accident, in Derek's case, it keeps a fatal blow from taking you out. The same is true with the helmet of salvation. It doesn't stop attacks, but it keeps your mind from being taken out by Satan. So I have four points here as we close today to talk about the four ways for sure that we know the helmet of salvation guards our minds and helps us keep our minds focused on God. Number one, the helmet anchors hope. And I have a scripture there that talks about. But since you were. Since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate and the hope of salvation as a helmet. The helmet guards our identity. First, Peter says you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. God's special possession. The helmet blocks lies from the enemy. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. John 8:32. And most importantly, I think the helmet filters thoughts. 2nd Corinthians 10:5 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. The helmet gives us the ability to take the thought captive and let it go. Not easy. I'm not saying it is. And I'm very passionate about reading God's promises, reading God's word every day. Something happens when you read God's word. If you guys are reading through the Bible with us, we started off in January. There's like 600 of us that are reading the Bible together every day. If you want to join us. We just finished our sixth book. We're starting in Joshua 1 tomorrow. You can start joining along with us. And something has happened as we're hearing all the stories of God. Some of it's not very good, honestly, right in the Old Testament. But you see how God is gracious. You see how God never abandoned the Israelites. You see how God provided for them even when they didn't deserve it. And somehow your heart starts getting knit with God's. I don't know how to describe it. Something happens when he's. The ongoing scroll that's going on in your brain that you've been hearing. Something happens. Bill says, read a proverb a day, get a devotional, read a chapter of John, whatever it might be. But start your day looking at God's word, seeing what he has for you, and it will change the way that you see God, the way you see the enemy, you're gonna start being able to decipher. Cause how can you know the truth if you don't really know God's word? How can you know if it's God's word or not? You can't. So this is what he's called us. To do as his people is to get to know him. Do that however you can, but I promise you, your life will change. You will see things just a little bit different. Even if it's like three minutes. You got a phone. Look on the Bible app, they've got so many great things you can read. It can give you a verse a day. It doesn't have to be a big thing, just something that helps you tune your mind towards God first. And as we looking forward to Easter, y', all, two weeks away, be sure and invite people. People come to church at Easter. They may not come at any time, but they all know they kind of want to come to church at Easter. So we have a service Saturday night and our normal two on Sunday. Please invite your friends and your neighbors. We would love for you to show up with a row full of people. We'll save a row for you. We'd love for you to come in with a group of people. And I know Amber talked about Journey to the Cross. That is next Sunday. We have two times still open. One is 3 o' clock and 4 o', clock, and you will come into this room and we have the last 24 hours of Jesus life on these signs that you will walk through. It's called the Stations of the Cross. And you will read the life that Jesus had right before he died. It will change how you see Easter. Last year was our first year, and everybody said, oh, my gosh, I've never experienced anything like this. This year we've added a seder mill that you'll get to look at what the Jewish people did, remembering what God had done for them. It's going to be a really special time. Bring your neighbors, bring your friends. That's it. Easy. It's free. You just have to register. So we have enough spaces for everybody. So I encourage you to do that. So let's pray you out, and you guys have a great rest of the day. Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that we get to be in church today. Lord, thank you for the opportunity to get to come, to get to sing songs about you, to get to sing songs about how much you love us and take care of us and hear a message about how much you love us, Lord. And if anyone here today has not prayed the prayer of salvation, trusted you as your Savior, I pray they'll do that today so they can have the helmet of salvation, Lord, and they can know what your word says, Lord, most of all that they could be with us in eternity in heaven one day, God. I also pray for everyone in this room and online that you will purge any thoughts of doubt and discouragement, fear and anger. Renew our minds, Lord. Equip us for the battlefield today. Help us to keep our eyes focused on you even in the midst of everything that's going on, Lord. Keep our eyes focused on the things of eternity and that will bring you glory. We love you. In the most precious name of Jesus, Amen. [00:40:57] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week.