“As a man thinks so he is”. The helmet protects the control center of the body the mind. The helmet of Salvation protects the control center of our lives our minds. And how it does this is it protects your thoughts. Satan wants your mind He wants to confuse you, confound you, distract you, satan wants the control center of your life to be offline – to be out of commission. If he can take over that, if he can get a head shot in if he can confuse your mind he can make you ineffective in this war. Romans 12 talks about renewing your mind. The renewing of your mind is not a one time thing but being transformed by the ongoing renewing of your mind. The renewing of your mind is regularly daily renewing your mind! Daily clothing your mind with Salvation. Daily remembering that Jesus died for you. That he loves you, that even though the world be against you Jesus is for you.

While the war has been won by Jesus, every day we have a battle to fight. And with that the shield of Faith is key. The roman army would use different types of Shields for different types of fighting. The shield of faith extinguishes all the arrows of the evil one. This is about temptation. The darts are temptations of satan. Our faith that God can be trusted to meet our needs, that His way is best, that he can and will fulfill us protects us from giving in to temptation which leads to destruction in our life. Gods promises are a shield that keeps us safe from the destruction of temptation.

The Gospel of Peace with God is what gives the follower of Jesus confidence. Confidence that If God is for me than who can be against me! Without the gospel of Peace we stand on uneven ground, we can get pushed around, satan can push and slide us wherever he wants but with the gospel of peace we can stand our ground with confidence that God is on our side. We can dig in and not be moved by the wind of personal opinion or such. Often times the romans would push nails through their boots to have more grip on the ground. To put on this piece of Armor and stand our ground we need the peace of the Gospel…Peace with God. Peace is a Person- Jesus Christ and a relationship with Him.

In this spiritual battle we have the second piece of Armor the breast plate of righteousness. The Breastplate of Righteousness, what protects our vital organs, is the righteousness of Christ when we believe that is freely given to us, and the protection of living righteously which protects us from destruction. This is not of our own. Our own righteousness does not protect us. Christ’s does. Good people are not protected, righteous people are.

WARFARE: The reality of our lives is spiritual warfare is not an option….we are in it! It doesn’t matter whether you want to or not – you’re neck deep in it! Some of us just don’t realize it. The bible talks of this huge battle going on in the spiritual realm and it then proceeds to lift up the veil between our physical world and the spiritual world. It outlines the war that is going on and the enemy is defined for us. For some people, the topic of spiritual warfare is a game. Comic books, cartoons, daily sitcoms, movies, and video games have popularized and trivialized the spiritual realm and spiritual warfare. In some ways it has become a children’s game or superstitious nonsense. But the reality is that most people believe that there is another realm around us. A spiritual reality that we cannot see, but we feel. This day will explore in detail this alternate reality happening just under the surface of our current one.

This election year is shaping up to be even more divisive and difficult than 2016. With both sides of the aisle digging in and continuing to place more and more distance between their side and the evil other side we have never felt more apart. Which side is God’s side? The answer is neither. God is on God’s side. And followers of Jesus are called to be on God’s side as well coming together and listening to each other and valuing People over Policy. Sunday, October 11th, we will focus in on ratcheting down the rhetoric and finger pointing leading people to being fully investing in “the party of the Lamb” where hope is found not in a political party, not in an ideology, not in a politician but in Jesus. God is in control even of politics.

Nothing divides like Politics because nothing divides like fear. Both sides of our political construct peddle fear. Republicans are trying to take away your vote, Democrats are trying to take away your guns. In our church we have both sides of the aisle represented. And because of that we have the unprecedented opportunity to model for our community what it looks like to do 2 things. Disagree Politically and Love unconditionally. Jesus prayed for the church today. He prayed for those who would believe in Him because of the testimony of those before us. And he asked for something that none of us have ever prayed for. He prayed specifically for us to experience and intentionally cultivate UNITY so that THE WORLD may believe that Jesus was sent by God. He asked God to give us the strength to be unified together so that people may come to know Him. “ In essentials unity, non essentials liberty, in all things charity.”

This election year is shaping up to be even more divisive and difficult than 2016. With both sides of the aisle digging in and continuing to place more and more distance between their side and the evil other side we have never felt more apart. Which side is God’s side? The answer is neither. God is on God’s side. And followers of Jesus are called to be on God’s side as well coming together and listening to each other and valuing People over Policy. Sunday, October 11th, we will focus in on ratcheting down the rhetoric and finger pointing leading people to being fully investing in “the party of the Lamb” where hope is found not in a political party, not in an ideology, not in a politician but in Jesus. God is in control even of politics.

With a forced stop in the action for many of us as we go back to a new future, is there a rhythm we can set up in our lives that will lead to the kind of future we want to have? Is there a guide or a formula that can help set us up for success? Enter the Sabbath. From the very beginning of creation God set up a rhythm to live by. On 6 off 1. Jesus taught about abiding and resting in Him. During this day we will explore the Sabbath as a sustainable rhythm and what it looks like to abide in Jesus through bible study and prayer.

Through the pandemic we have seen firsthand the difficulty of being isolated. God created us to thrive inside of deep human connection. Study after study continues to point us in the direction of our relationships being the key to leading a richer, fuller, more joy-filled life. In this message we will be taking our cues from Jesus at how to simplify, order, and organize our friendships in a way that helps us and those close to us thrive.