Spiritual Armor

At first glance, Rolf Klasson, a gray-haired Swede who hobbles around on his walker, looked like an easy target. At least that's what two would-be robbers thought as they accosted him at a cash machine.

One of the thugs waved a knife while the other thug told Klasson to turn over his wallet. They didn't know that their victim was also the former European light-middleweight boxing champ.

Klasson warned them, "This isn't going to go well." When the men scoffed at his warning, he knocked one of them to the floor with a sharp right hook before laying the other out with a left jab. A police officer later said, "They came after the wrong guy."

Possible Preaching Angle:

This is a great little story to open up a sermon on the victory of the cross or spiritual warfare.

The job of painting the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is never-ending. I heard once that they paint it end-to-end, but by the time they get to the end—however many years that may take—it is time to start over. In reality though, sections and portions of the bridge are prioritized according to need.

Regardless of strategy, the bridge is never not being painted. It is one of the primary maintenance jobs. Why? Why is the seemingly mundane and monotonous act of painting, in fact, a task of utmost importance to sustaining the structure? Because the air coming in from the Pacific Ocean is incredibly high in salt content and will wreak havoc on the structure if it is not properly sealed with paint. Exposed segments can lead to corrosion, which can lead to structural failure, which can lead to disaster.

A team of thirty-four people make it their life’s purpose to paint the Golden Gate its trademark “international orange” color. They climb ladders hundreds of feet in the air, hang from harnesses and baskets suspended over the vast waters, and risk their lives to put paint to steel. Year after year. Every bolt, every rivet, every beam, every crevice, every cable gets covered. The safety of the bridge depends upon it.

Possible Preaching Angle:

As the workers paint the Golden Gate Bridge stroke by stroke, similarly I paint my heart with the Word of God verse by verse. It is a never-ending process. Just when I think I have finished, it is time to start over. What I painted a year ago or two years ago or ten years ago now needs a fresh coat of God’s Word. I can’t afford to not have God’s Holy Word painted on the walls of my heart. I am in desperate need of protection from the constant corrosion of the world which threatens the safety of my spiritual infrastructure.

A new study is giving new meaning to the phrase “this city would eat you alive.” Scientists from the University of Miami say sharks are not avoiding the local shoreline. Instead, these predators are spending plenty of time quite close to the sights and sounds of the city.

On a global scale, the world’s coastlines are urbanizing at a rapid rate. So how is that impacting local aquatic life? Researchers decided to investigate by tracking the movements of sharks around the Miami shoreline. Considering the loud noises, chemicals, and bright lights, the research team fully expected the sharks to avoid South Beach like a bad habit. That’s not what they saw.

Researcher Neil Hammerschlag said, “Since other studies have shown that land predators are urban avoiders, we expected sharks to be too. We were surprised to find that the sharks spent so much time near the lights and sounds of the busy city, often close to shore, no matter the time of day.”

Plenty of animals, like pigeons or raccoons, thrive in cities. Meanwhile, “urban adaptors” spend some time in urban areas, but still largely rely on the great outdoors. On the other end of the spectrum, we find most land-based predators like wolves. These animals, called “urban avoiders,” want nothing to do with civilization.

Study authors once thought that sharks are urban avoiders, but ultimately concluded they act much more like urban adaptors. Sharks are closer to the beach than you might think.

Possible Preaching Angle:

Satan, the roaring lion, is also closer than you might think. He constantly prowls looking for the unwary to devour (1 Pet. 5:8) and we need to be aware of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11).

In his book, Creatures of Habit, Pastor Steve Poe writes:

When I was in grade school several of the kids in the neighborhood walked to and from school each day. We walked down a street where a man had a large dog, a boxer. It had a very intimidating bark and was tethered to a long chain in the backyard. When we would walk past this house that dog would start barking and come running after us. Of course, the chain would eventually stop him, but we are were always worried that one day he would break loose and attack us. I would start worrying about that dog blocks before I ever reached the house.

One day the owner of the dog was in the yard and watched this entire scene unfold. The next day, as we walked by the house, the man was once again outside, only this time he had the dog on a leash. When he saw us, he began to motion for us to come over to him. We didn't know if we were in trouble or if he was going to let his dog bite us, but either way we were not walking over to him.

Then he started walking over to us. The entire time the man kept saying to us, "You don't need to be afraid of my dog." Then he knelt down and pulled back the dog's upper lip to reveal he had no teeth! Seriously, there was not a tooth in that dog's mouth. The man said, "Even if this dog were to ever get loose and try to bite you, it wouldn't hurt." All of us started to laugh. And we were never afraid of that dog again. When that man told us the truth, all of the fears and worries we had about that dog were instantly gone.

Possible Preaching Angle:

The most common tool in Satan's toolbox is to lie to us. Satan wants to bring worry and fear on you by whispering into your ear a whole lot of what-ifs about things that may not even be true. But what you will find is, like that dog, the devil has no teeth, and his bark is worse than his bite (John 8:44).

Like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Fowler has tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and “scare-coyotes.” She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night, herded them during the day. But the southern Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs--fifty last year alone.

Then she discovered the llama--the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama. Fowler said, “Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything. When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won’t have anything to do with that. Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that opportunity away.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The author of temptation is much like the coyote--he is an opportunist. But if we are firm in our faith in God to give us the strength we need to resist temptation, then he can be beaten. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7-8).

Car thieves have been around forever, and used to just smash out a window to steal vehicles of choice. Unfortunately, they have been able to up their game recently and have gone high-tech. It’s not just cars that criminals are after, but also the valuables left inside. That’s why any time we have something of value with us, we hide it under the seat when we run errands.

Sadly, that simple technique no longer works. If you have electronics in your car, thieves can track them. A new phenomenon has made its way to car theft. Instead of randomly breaking into a car, hoping it has expensive laptops, tablets, or smartphones hiding in them, they are using Bluetooth scanners to remove the guesswork. Here’s how it works: Most devices are constantly sending Bluetooth signals so they can potentially pair with other devices. There are now Bluetooth scanning apps that make these signals easier to find.

Merritt Baer, a Security Architect with Amazon Web Services, recently shared an unfortunate situation like this on Twitter. “Colleagues had a car broken into and laptops stolen in downtown Mountain View last night while we were at dinner. We wondered how they knew to break into the hatchback when it is not see-through. They turn on Bluetooth scanners and follow the beacon to find electronics.”

You don’t have to be a victim. Here are a few simple ways to avoid falling victim:

Be on guard. Thieves are clever and are always on the prowl. Plan ahead. If you will be away from your car, don’t take a bunch of tech gear with you. Close vulnerabilities. Turn off Bluetooth or put your device in airplane mode

Possible Preaching Angles:

The same is true in our spiritual life. We are always being examined for vulnerabilities by our enemy and much more can be lost than tech gear. 1) Be on guard. Satan is always prowling looking for an opportunity to harm us (Eph. 4:27; 1 Pet. 5:8). 2) Be on the defensive. Protect yourself by using the security measures God has provided for you (Matt 4:4; Gal. 5:16; Eph. 6:11; Eph. 6:17).

When 82-year-old Willie Murphy heard the sound of an intruder breaking into her home, she felt bad. Bad for the intruder, that is. Murphy said to reporters, “He picked the wrong house to break into.”

That’s because Murphy was already a critically acclaimed bodybuilder, having won the World Natural Powerlifting Upstate New York Championship in 2018. After calling police, Murphy used the darkness to lie in wait for the assailant. Then when the moment was right, she struck with all the strength and agility she could muster. Murphy said, “I picked up the table and I went to work on him.” After breaking the table, Murphy briefly poured a bottle of shampoo on his face before continuing to whale on him with a broom handle.

The police who responded were so impressed, said Murphy, that they “wanted to go on my front porch and take selfies with me … I really did a number on that man.”

Potential Preaching Angles: 1) God can sustain us in tough times if we endure and do not lose heart. We don’t have to live in fear, but in distress we can turn to the gifts that God has given us. 2) We have the power to defeat Satan’s attacks through the strength of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

The story has a semi-biblical tone: A man and woman together in a garden come across a serpent. The serpent awakens them to their own mortality and their lives are changed forever.But that's where the similarities end, because in this story, the man grabbed a shovel to decapitate the snake—a 4-foot-long Western diamondback rattlesnake—after it spooked his wife. And when he went to pick up the severed head, it sank its fangs into his flesh and released a near deadly dose of venom.

About two miles into the drive to the hospital her husband began having seizures, lost his vision and, unknown to them, began bleeding internally. So she met up with an ambulance and then a helicopter, which flew the 40-year-old to the hospital as his organs were already shutting down.

"A severed viper head certainly can deliver a dangerous bite, as can the unsecured head of a recently 'killed' snake," Harry Greene, a biology professor at Cornell University, told NPR.Greene suspects he was injected with a powerful dose of venom. Living snakes typically strike quickly and rear back from whatever threat they perceive, but because the one in this instance was dead, it most likely latched on until someone forcibly removed it.

Possible Preaching Angles: Temptation—dangers of; Satan—He is like a snake with a severed head. The cross has stripped him of life but he still has limited power to hurt and destroy.

When farmer Bruce Grubb saw what he perceived to be a potential threat to the people and animals on his farm, he acted decisively. Only in hindsight did he realize his fears were unfounded.

Police in the area received a frantic call from Grubbs, explaining that there was a tiger on the loose on his property, which he noticed on his way to check on his pregnant cows. "I got the fright of my life," Bruce Grubb said, adding later: "I was worried it was going to eat all my cows before police managed to shoot it."

Grubbs call prompted authorities to send armed officers, also checking in with a local wildlife agency to ensure there had been no recent tiger escapes. After a 45-minute standoff, officers realized that the life-size tiger was, in fact, stuffed. They later returned with the tiger in tow, to be used as a workplace mascot.

Besides enduring some teasing on social media, the farmer took the episode in stride. "I drove up to it with my truck, and that's when I knew it was a toy," said Grubbs. "I feel a bit silly for calling the police, but I thought it was a real emergency."

Police inspector George Gordiner gave a gracious final word: "Our ultimate aim is to protect the public and keep our officers safe when faced with uncertain situations. Until you know exactly what you are dealing with, every option has to be considered … we appreciate that it was a false call made with genuine good intent."

Potential Preaching Angles: Don't be fooled about who or what your true enemy is. The enemy of our souls has no power over us. Don't be fooled by false teachers with illusions of authority.

Watching YouTube videos can teach you a lot of things. For British doctor Charlie Fry, it taught him how to survive a life-threatening shark attack. A beginner surfer, Fry found himself blindsided by a shark on a vacation to Australia and did exactly what he saw pro surfer Mick Fanning teach in a YouTube video-punch the shark square on the nose. "I thought it was a friend goofing around. I turned and I saw this shark come out of the water and breach its head," he said. "So I just punched it in the face with my left hand and then managed to scramble back on my board, shout at my friends and luckily a wave came, so I just sort of surfed the wave in."

Fry said afterwards that he didn't even notice until he got to shore that his arm was punctured and bleeding. "I didn't really notice it at the time because when you're surfing, all I'm thinking was: 'I'm about to die. I'm literally about to die,'" he said. Luckily, thanks to quick thinking and a productive YouTube search, the new surfer's injuries were not serious and he'll live to surf another wave.

Potential Preaching Angles: James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." 1 Peter 5:8 says that "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." Imagining Satan as a lion (or shark) to be avoided might be easy, but we must also view our daily temptations on equal ground: flee from them, before they devour you.

On August 11, 2014, the actor Robin Williams took his own life. The 63-year-old actor, who was loved by many fans and fellow actors, was an admitted abuser of cocaine—which he also referred to as "Peruvian marching power" and "the devil's dandruff." In 2006, he checked himself into a rehab center to be treated for an addiction to alcohol, having fallen off the wagon after some 20 years of sobriety.

He later explained in an interview with ABC's Diane Sawyer that this addiction had not been "caused by anything, it's just there." Williams continued, "It waits. It lays in wait for the time when you think, 'It's fine now, I'm O.K.' Then, the next thing you know, it's not O.K. Then you realize, 'Where am I? I didn't realize I was in Cleveland.'"

In Ephesians 6:14-18, Paul writes:

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. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

Sadly, there are a lot of Christians who wish Paul had written the following words instead:

Lay back and relax, then, with the belt of evasion buckled loosely around your waist, with the breastplate of defensiveness in place, and with your feet fitted with the pluralism that offends no one. In addition to all this, take up the shield of grudges, with which you can hold on tightly to hurts and slights. Take the helmet of entitlement and the bludgeon of the flesh, which is the word of anger. And air what's been done to you on all occasions, with all kinds of criticisms and complaints.

The nuclear submarine Thresher had heavy steel bulkheads and heavy steel armor, so it could dive deep and withstand the pressure of the ocean. Unfortunately, on a test run in 1963, the Thresher's nuclear engine quit, and it could not get back to the surface. It sank deeper and deeper into the ocean. The pressure became immense. The heavy steel bulkheads buckled; the Thresher was crushed with 129 people inside.

The Navy searched for the Thresher with a research craft that was much stronger than submarines. It was shaped like a steel ball and was lowered into the ocean on a cable. They finally located the Thresher at a depth of 8,400 feet: one and a half miles down. It was crushed like an egg shell. That was not a surprise, for the pressure at that depth is tremendous—3,600 pounds per square inch.

What was surprising to the searchers was that they saw fish at that great depth. And these fish did not have inches of steel to protect them. They appeared to have normal skin, a fraction of an inch thick. How can these fish survive under all that pressure? How come they are not crushed by the weight of the water? They have a secret. Their secret is that they have the same pressure inside themselves as they have on the outside. Survival under pressure.

John assures us, "The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." We will be victorious in the battle against Satan because Jesus poured his Spirit into our hearts. "You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

On December 8th, 2004, a single question from a young soldier touched off a media firestorm. U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld had come to deliver a pep talk to the troops at Camp Buehring in Kuwait. But the usually unflappable Secretary found himself blindsided by a bold query. As news cameras rolled, Army Specialist Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team asked Rumsfeld, "Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to up-armor our vehicles?"

Specialist Wilson clearly felt vulnerable, as if he were being sent into battle without proper protection. As Christians, however, we shouldn't have that fear. Our Supreme Commander generously equips with the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.

But it's up to us to put them on and put them to use.

In today's NFL, the players grabbing the most headlines are quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers. But according to Michael Lewis' book The Blind Side, the ones who grab the second highest paychecks are left tackles.

In the book, Lewis tries to explain the importance of these anonymous, but essential, offensive linemen. He traces their emerging importance back to the career-ending injury of star quarterback Joe Theismann on Monday Night Football in 1985. More than 17 million people watched as an incredibly athletic linebacker named Lawrence Taylor blindsided Theismann, breaking his leg.

Since most quarterbacks are right-handed, the left tackle's main role is to prevent his quarterback from being hit from behind, unseen. And with the next generation of athletic linebackers and defensive ends, it takes a special person to do it. Left tackles must weigh more than 300 pounds and have long arms to block, but they must also be quick on their feet. Today, teams are willing to pay for such a player. By 2004, the average salary of a left tackle in the NFL was $5.5 million a year. Only starting quarterbacks earned more.

The role of the left tackle is literally to be his "brother's keeper." This is the role that God plays on our behalf, and this should be the role of every player in God's church.

The top single superpower adults would most like to have:

To read minds: 28 percent
To fly: 15 percent
To be invisible: 11 percent
To possess super strength: 9 percent
To walk through walls: 1 percent

While many cities and villages along the Indian Ocean suffered catastrophic losses from the December 2004 tsunami, the port city of Pondicherry, India, and its 300,000 inhabitants were spared. Just beyond city limits, 600 people were killed by the devastating tidal wave, but Pondicherry withstood the tsunami. Why were they protected ?

The answer began 250 years ago when France colonized the city. The French built a massive stone seawall. Year after year, the French continued to strengthen the wall, piling huge boulders along its 1.25-mile length.

The French stopped building Pondicherry's seawall in 1957, but their work prepared them for a disaster that would occur five decades into the future.

British admiral Lord David Beatty commanded a flotilla at the Battle of Jutland during World War I. As the battle began, British and German ships engaged each other long-range. A heavy cruiser, the Lion, was hit by an artillery barrage and quickly sunk. Next the Indefatigable was hit in its powder magazine and blown to pieces. Then the Queen Mary was sunk, taking a crew of 1,200 sailors straight to the bottom.

A flaw in the design of the British ships was soon recognized. Though their hulls were heavily armored, their wooden decks offered almost no protection against enemy artillery shells dropped from above. Only after the British began to armor their ships on top as well as on the sides did they stop losing ships to German long-range artillery.

Effective armor is a crucial element in spiritual warfare too. If you leave anything unprotected, the enemy will find a way to exploit that chink in your armor.