Grace for Victory | Grace to & Through | Pastor Rob Koke | Shoreline Church | Message

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Good morning everybody. So great to have you. Welcome to Shoreline. I want to give a very warm welcome to all of you who are watching online from around the community, the state, the nation, even in some cases around the world. So honored and privileged that you joined us here today. And of course, one of the greatest things that we do is we join our Shoreline South congregation at this time. Would you give it up for Shoreline South? And let's welcome them into our joint time together here today. You know, today is one of those days that we reflect, right? This whole weekend is all about remembering those who made that ultimate sacrifice. And I hope tomorrow on Memorial Day that you'll carve out some time to recognize that over 1.3 million men and women laid down their lives throughout the course of our history to preserve and to create the freedoms that we enjoy. One of the greatest freedoms that we get to gather together here as a church family and worship the Lord. And we just recognize here this weekend that that didn't come without an incredible cost. And we do want to honor and pause and remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. I sometimes just think, you know, that there were some young people who never made it out of their 20s, even some out of their teens, because they believed in what our country stands for and they made that sacrifice.

And so let's be reflective and honoring of that. Today, we're going to be sharing a message that concludes our series. But next week, we're going to kick off a whole new collection of talks on fighting the good fight of faith. And I'm very, very excited about that. It's going to be a wonderful time together just talking about the importance of our faith. But before we get to our creed today, I wanted to take a moment to do something personal. This isn't something that happens very often, but today, 40 years ago today, Laura and I got married. 40 years ago today on May 24th. And I want to give you something, babe. There's 40 flowers there. She said, you got lipstick on your... Is it all off? Is it good? I don't want people joining our service mid saying, what the heck? And she actually said that this morning. She said, 40 years. We woke up this morning. The alarm clock went off. I said, 40 years of marriage. And she said, it's been 40 years of bliss interrupted by a few. What the hecks? All right, let's all of us stand to our feet. We're going to do what we do at the start of every single service. We're going to recite our shoreline creed. You guys down south, you guys watching online, we say this with some enthusiasm and passion,

remembering that Christianity at its core is all about God's amazing grace. You guys ready? Here we go. I am loved by God. I cannot earn it. I cannot lose it. I am forgiven and made brand new. In Christ, I live with passion and purpose. I am empowered by the spirit to be the church in the world and to live this love revolution. Come on, let's give God praise for that. Okay, so when our kids were young, they were involved in all the sports, basketball, football, baseball. But my favorite is baseball. And, you know, baseball is a sport that I grew up playing. So I know the intricacies of the game and the strategy. And spring ball in Texas is... the best because the weather is just perfect. But spring ball happens to also lead to summer ball. And my son, Caleb, was really good at baseball. And so he would play in the summer leagues. He'd be recruited for those traveling teams. And so, you know, the summer, it's just so hot. And the way that these tournaments roll out is that they start sometimes on Thursday, also sometimes on Friday, but they last all the way through the weekend. And the more you win, the more you play. And sometimes it would be so hot. And Luke, my oldest son, you know,

he's told me this probably a thousand times, I wanna kill the sun. And I would tell him, listen, if you kill the sun, there would be no life on earth, we would all perish. I still wanna kill the sun. That's how hot it would be. I may or may not have prayed for our team to lose so we could go home. On one of those weekends, we were, you know, we were pausing, we had a couple of hours between the games. We went to a restaurant where they had some air conditioning. And then we made our way back to the field. And, you know, Caleb was with some friends and he was laughing, he was jovial. And then he walked by a team that was sitting underneath a tree. And he realized that that was the team that had beat them earlier in the season. And his countenance kind of changed. I could see it, I was walking behind him. And while we were walking by the team, two of the players were whispering to each other. They probably thought they were just, you know, talking at a volume that they only could hear. But they actually were talking loud enough for me to hear and for Caleb to hear. And this is how the conversation went. It went something like this. That's the guy who hit the home run

the last time we played him. That's the guy who stretched out at first base and made that unbelievable play. And the other one said, you mean that's Caleb Coke? And when I heard Caleb Coke's name, my chest went back, that's my boy. That is my boy. And I remember that home run. And I remember that time when he stretched out and almost did a split to catch that ball at first base. We couldn't believe it in the stands. We all stood up to our feet and high-fived each other. Did you just see that? But you know what? When Caleb heard his name, when Caleb heard his name on the lips of the opposing team, on the lips of the adversary, oh my gosh, his chin went up. He already was pretty cocky, but his swag went to a whole nother level. And I could tell his whole countenance changed. And you know what? I want you to realize that your countenance would change if you understood what your adversary thinks about you. Your countenance would change if you heard off of the lips of your adversary things like this. Oh no, here comes that blood-bought son. Here comes that blood-bought daughter of the living God. Here comes that person who makes my day a living nightmare.

That person gives me headaches. I love what, you know, I heard one old gentleman say, he said, well, if the rapture comes, I'm going up feet first, biting demons all the way. The attitude and mindset changes when you realize what the enemy really thinks about you. He knows who you are. He knows what weapons you've been given. He knows what damage you can do to his kingdom, to his realm. And wouldn't it be a shame if the devil has stronger belief in you than you do? It's time for us to throw our shoulders back, to lift up our chin, to get a little spiritual swag in our step. You have no idea just how powerful you are. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The Apostle Paul is closing out this letter in the book of Ephesians, and the Holy Spirit is leading him to close it out strong. In the first three chapters, we discussed, you know, the whole revelation of grace and how we are forgiven and made brand new and how we live in this relationship, this life-giving relationship with the living God. But here towards the end, he wants us to recognize that we're gonna face some struggles,

we're gonna face some battles, and they will come in the form of relationships, perhaps physical challenges in our bodies, financial, emotional, and life is not always easy. But he wants you to live with the full protection and the weapons that he's made available to you. There is a battle, but victory is not only possible, victory is a sure thing. Victory is a certainty. And Ephesians chapter six kind of pulls back the curtain, and we can read along together, starting here in verse 10. It says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. And then here it's verse 11, the next verse. And you know what? We could spend the whole morning right here at verse 11. It says, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. There's so much richness just in that passage alone. Put, that means there's something for us to do. God has made the armor available to you by grace, but you gotta put it on. Put on the full armor. Don't just take one piece or two pieces, get the whole kit. Put on the full armor of God. Whose armor is it? In Isaiah chapter 59, it talks about the helmet of salvation and the breastplate of righteousness belonging to God. This is the armor of God. This is the armor that God uses.

And he's saying, it'll work for you as well. And then it says, take your stand. That word stand is repeated four times in the passage that we're going to read here this morning. And in the original language, it does not mean that we take our stand in order to fight to win. It's taking our stand on ground that is already ours. The victory has already been won. It's not about taking our stand to produce a victory. It's maintaining the victory that was already given to us by grace through what Jesus has done for us. And then we would be able to take our stand against the devil's schemes. And that word schemes is kind of an important word for us to understand because his strategy might be different depending on the person, but he studies our life. He evaluates our vulnerabilities and he will dangle in front of you something that he might not dangle in front of your spouse or your friend or some other believer. He knows what trips you up. So here this passage says, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, put on the full armor of God that you'll be able to stand. And then it goes on to say for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities and powers and authorities of this dark world against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

We face an adversary, we face an enemy. Jesus said in the gospel of John that the thief comes to kill, steal and destroy, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Clearly outlining the fact that we have an adversary that wants to kill, steal and destroy. And the devil brings fear, perhaps depression, failure, poverty, marriage, trouble, attitude issues, temper, addictions and habits, persecutions and pressure and stress. And we just think that it's a normal part of life. We settle and we live tolerating these negative circumstances. And the apostle Paul is saying that there is a spiritual force at work. There is a spiritual source behind the challenges we face. And we're not going to win these spiritual battles with natural weaponry. It's not our intellect. It's not our financial capacity. It's not how much weight we can push in the gym that's gonna get us the victory. It's not our relational savvy or emotional intelligence or our stunning good looks. We need spiritual weapons for spiritual attacks. And I declare with you this morning that God absolutely wants you to win the victory. Can I hear a good amen? So he gives us some armor.

Says put on the full armor of God so that when that evil day comes, you'll be able to stand your ground. Having done everything to stand, if we approach life with the right understanding and perspective, we can live with absolute victory. And Paul then begins to challenge us to dress up in the full armor of God. 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 of this, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And praying with all kinds of prayers and requests. Seven pieces of armor that we need to put on every single day. You ask, well, how do I do that? Well, I think sometimes we can actually do that as a part of our quiet time or our personal devotions in the morning when we first get up. Many years I've done that, and I still do from time to time. I will literally go through the seven pieces of the armor of God,

and I will just apply them prayerfully in my devotional life. Father, I thank you that I've got the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the spirit, and so on. But I think the broader application of this particular passage, I think what the apostle Paul really had in mind, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is that we would actively embrace all that God has given to us by grace. And that we would realize that all of this armor is ours to walk with and to walk out every single day. And so we're going to go through the armor together here this morning, and I'm gonna briefly describe, I think, what each one of these might be and the implications that they have in our life. So we'll start here with the belt of truth. And I think what God wants us to do is live in the truth. The truth holds everything together, everything together. And it's not an accident that it starts with the belt of truth, because it holds all of the other armor in place. And it was Jesus himself who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the truth. And maybe it's important to recognize that Jesus is first and center in our lives,

and he holds everything else together. Getting dressed in the morning might look something like this. I'm in a relationship with the creator of the universe. He loves me so much that he took my place on the cross. There is lots of things in life that is true, but the truth is I am more than a conqueror through Christ who gives me strength. And every single day, I actually write in my journal, I'm in a relationship of love with the creator of the universe. It's my belt of truth. But it's not just that Jesus is the truth. He also speaks the truth. His way of thinking and his way of acting and living is the best way. It's better to forgive than to hold a grudge. It's better to love than to hate. It's better to be generous than to be stingy. And every single commandment, principle, or idea that Jesus shared is the truth. And our lives are better off when we live in his truth. Amen? Second part, remember and live up to God. to who you are. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. It's one of the most powerful things that you can do every single day of your life. In Romans chapter five, in verse 17, it says, for by the trespasses of one man,

death reigned through that one man. How much more will those receive God's abundant provision of grace and the gift, everyone shout out gift. The gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. The righteousness that we have as believers is given to us as a gift. It's one of the most stunning and powerful and beautiful revelations in the Bible. That Jesus, in the greatest divine exchange, took our sin upon himself. He who knew no sin became sin so that we who knew no righteousness would become righteous. We are made right with God by the gift of God's grace. If I was to ask you here this morning, if I was gonna ask you, how many of you are as right with God as I am? Now, before you answer that question, just remember I'm the El Pastor of Shoreline. I'm, you know, I'm one of God's favorites. And if you would say I'm as right with God as you are, Pastor, you know, you would be right. But if I raised the stakes a little bit and said how many of you would say that you're as right with God as let's say Billy Graham or Mother Teresa? Now, before you're quick to say, yeah, I am,

just realize that Billy Graham preached to more people on planet Earth than any other person. Mother Teresa was known as one of the most sacrificial, generous people ever in the history of mankind. But if you answered yes to that, you would be right. If I was to ask you, how many of you are as right with God as the Apostle Paul? Now, before you respond, realize that he wrote 2 3rds of the New Testament. He was shipwrecked for his faith. He was beaten many times and he ultimately died a martyr's death proclaiming the good news of the gospel. But if you answered yes, you're as right with God as the Apostle Paul, you would be correct. Now, let me raise it one more level. How many of you would have the audacity to believe that you're as right with God as Jesus himself is right with God? And if you had the ability to say yes to that, you too would be correct. Not that we feel that way a lot of times, not that we feel like we earned it, we didn't earn it, but that's what the grace message of the gospel is all about. He who knew no sin took on our sin that we who knew no righteousness would be the righteousness of God. And so when the Apostle Paul was talking about

the weapons of our warfare, we get that belt of truth and then we put on the breastplate of righteousness, we didn't earn it, we don't deserve it, it was given to us as a gift, but he wants us to live up to that righteousness, walk in righteousness because we are righteous as a gift of God's grace. And then it goes on to say, have your feet fitted or shod with a gospel of peace, walk in your purpose. It's time to pick up and pick out the right shoes. What Paul is saying is wherever you go today, be ready to bring the good news. Romans chapter 10 and verse 15, as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. Do you know what, you are good news carriers. That's what being fitted with the full armor of God is all about, you've got the belt of truth, you've got the breastplate of righteousness, but then you put on your feet, the good news of the gospel and you're carriers of that good news wherever you go. You know, when I'm at my best, I'll start my day and I'll pray a prayer like this. And many times I get it right, sometimes I forget, but I'm at my best when I start my day and I say, Lord, I am available to you for you to use me to share your good news wherever I possibly can. Make me aware of those divine opportunities that you're bringing to me today. Help me to see them and help me to obey and walk in it.

I wanna be a carrier of the good news today. The other day, and this is like two weeks ago, I was playing golf with a young man. And I got to tell you, we kind of pulled into the parking lot at the same time. He got out of a very, very expensive, you know, sports car. And I didn't know that he was going to be playing with me. I just kind of signed up. And so whoever I played with, it was kind of like the luck of the draw. It turned out that he was my cart partner for the next four hours. He was really good looking. And he just hopped out of that fancy car. And we get into the cart together and he's a super nice guy. I mean, a really, really nice guy. And he's got the most beautiful golf swing I had ever seen in my life. And when he showed me that golf swing on the first tee, he wasn't showing me, he was just, you know, teeing off. Something inside of me, I don't like him. I mean, I was okay up to that point, but that swing was so beautiful. And it gets worse because over the first couple of holes, as we're kind of talking with each other, I find out that he's played golf right-handed for almost all of his life. And a few months earlier, he decided to switch to left-handed because he's a natural left-hander.

And he's driving the ball 330 yards. And I know some of you have no idea what that's like, but that's like what the pros do. And his swing is so sweet, and he's only been doing it for two months. And now I'm really mad. I liked him, but I don't like him anymore. He's good looking. He tells me what he does for a living. He owns a very prosperous company in town. And he's not only a member at the club we were playing at together, but he is also a member of another club. He's a member of two different golf clubs. And he's got a simulator at his house and a simulator at the office. This guy lives and breathes golf. And honestly, I shut down. I didn't even wanna talk to him anymore. He's got a beautiful wife, 2.5 kids. He's like the picture of perfection. Somewhere around the ninth hole, he turns to me and says, well, what do you do? And I didn't wanna tell him. I said, well, I'm a pastor of a church here in town. His next words were, you know what? My wife and I have never been to church since we've been married. And there's something missing in our lives. And I would like to come to church.

And I invited him to church. I texted my assistant. I said, text me that invite, shoreline.net slash invite. Text me that and I'll invite him. And I invited him to church. And it was like in an instant, it went from me not liking him very much to him being my new best friend. I just want you to know that God wants you to be a vessel of sharing the good news. And you might be surprised just how open people are to hearing the good news. You might think that they've got it all together, but I'm telling you, there is a void in every single human heart that only Jesus can fill. And we are carriers of that good news. Put on that belt of truth. Remember who you are. Walk in your purpose. Keep your faith strong. Put on the shield of faith. We will not be able in the natural to defeat all of the attacks of the enemy. We need our faith in the supernatural. And I love how this passage says that when you lift up the shield of faith, you'll be able to extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the enemy. Not some, not a few, but every single one.

Now, I understand you guys tracking with me on this. Sometimes your shield is filled with so many arrows. that you feel like you're gonna fall over from the weight of it all, but I'm here to tell you that your shield of faith lifted high will extinguish all of the fiery darts of the enemy, every single one of them. Now, your faith is so critical and it's so important that we're actually gonna devote a whole collection of talks to it starting next week, and so I won't belabor the point here this morning. Then it says, take up the helmet of salvation, which is to renew your mind. We gotta do something to protect our minds. Isaiah says that God's thoughts are much higher than our thoughts, his ways are much higher than our ways, and our thoughts always lead us somewhere. Our thoughts are like a train. How you think influences how you feel, and how you feel influences how you behave. Happens all the time. What you think about determines how you feel, and how you feel determines how you live. I know this is true, and you know it's true too. You can be perfectly at peace, and then you take your spouse, your husband, your wife, or a date to the movies, and the movies create a theme, and that theme, if it's a romance,

you might inspire love thoughts. If it's a horrific flick, all kinds of fear. If it's kind of an adventure thriller, you're on the edge of your seat, and what you see is influencing how you think, and how you think is influencing how you feel, and how you feel determines how you live. Laura and I, we went to the movies just the other day. It was that Hail Mary movie, Innerspace kind of thing, and Laura likes having a blanket with her when we go, so we take the blanket. She may or may not bring in her own stash of food. We don't know, but we're in the theater, and the movie is playing out, and there's this one scene in that movie where there's an alien, and you don't know what the alien looks like, and the music is getting more and more intense, and you're hearing the noise on the spaceship, and I could tell that Laura was getting a little bit nervous, so I put my arm around her, and I held her in close, and then that cataclysmic moment, and the lights burst on, and your heart is pumping, and your adrenaline is flowing, and I take her, and I squeeze her towards me. I just want to protect her, and then she looks over at me and whispers real sweetly, can you please take your fingers out from digging into my arm? The big bad alien is gone.

What you see creates thoughts in your mind and how you think determines how you feel, and how you feel determines how you behave, and the Apostle Paul knows this. The Holy Spirit knows it, and it says, you gotta take up, when you wake up in the morning, first thing before you leave, you don't leave the house without getting dressed, so get that belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. Get your feet shod with the good news of the gospel. Take up your shield of faith, and then you gotta renew your mind. You gotta guard about what you think about. Your ways are not God's ways. Your thoughts are not God's thoughts, but you know what they can be if you renew your mind. You don on your head the helmet of salvation. Romans chapter 12, do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed, how? By the renewing of your mind, and you'll be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, and pleasing, and perfect will, and then use the word of God. Take up the sword of the Spirit. Really, in the original language, it's not so much a sword as it is a dagger. When the enemy comes in up close and personal, you've got a dagger in your hand.

You've got the word of God. The church that Laura and I attended when we were in college, and we'll never forget, the pastor would often say, hide the word of God in your heart when you don't need it so it's there. when you do hide that word of God in your heart when you don't need it so you've got it when you do the word of God Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12 says is living and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword your spiritual life is dry I rejoiced when they said to me let us go to the house of the Lord you're feeling the fear he will keep you in perfect peace your family is in chaos Psalm 144 your sons and daughters will grow up to be pillars in the temple of God your finances are in disarray my God shall supply your health needs a miracle by his stripes you are healed get out the sword and fight with the word sometimes we complain to God about how big our mountains are we need to shout at our mountains how big our God is we've got promises in his word but you can't declare what you don't know you got to know this book it's become a little bit you know optional for some people I think I you know I just come to church and that's enough for me now you got you got to get this word in your heart because what you don't know impacts your life I remember the story of the guy who got a ticket to leave Europe and travel by boat to the United States and he had just enough money to buy that ticket he had no money for food had no money for entertainment just enough for that ticket so he gets on the boat and he has a little bit of change and so he buys some cheese and crackers and that's what he eats every single day for breakfast lunch and and dinner cheese and crackers he sees everybody else on the ship going into those great big banquet halls with all the food and and the fruit and the bread and the muffins and the dessert and the steaks and all of that and he's hiding in the corner with his cheese and crackers right towards the end of the trip third

weekend they can see the coast of the United States this man he goes up to one of the stewards and says you know what I didn't have enough money to buy any of the food I just had my cheese and crackers and and can I just once you know have one meal in the great banquet hall and the steward looked at the man and said didn't you realize that when you bought your ticket on the boat it included all of the food how many of us when we get to heaven are gonna realize that there was so much that we didn't take advantage of we were eating cheese and crackers when God has a banquet in store for us and then number seven don't forget to pray you wouldn't feel dressed going to work without your shirt on leaving your shoes at home and how many times have we left our homes not connecting with God and prayer is not complicated it's simply a conversation share your heart your dreams your frustrations your hopes your concerns and this passage says all kinds of prayers that means prayer closet prayers short prayers shout out help me Lord prayers long prayers prayers that you pray with your friends in agreement corporate prayer that you pray in larger groups all kinds of different prayers just do it all seven of these pieces your spiritual armor kit all seven of them if you weren't taking notes fast enough there's a link that you can go to it shows all of these different armors and the way that it works out in your life you can just go to shoreline.net slash armor and you can get a picture of it just take that picture on your phone and read through it when you get a chance Paul closes this letter talking about the encouragement and the peace that comes from being in a relationship with other brothers and sisters Paul used the armor and God was his example but he also looked at the Roman soldier to illustrate how this actually works and there's something really interesting about that armor every piece of hardware was designed to protect them from the front There was a striking vulnerability, no protection in the back, and this wasn't a design flaw or a tactical decision to encourage the soldiers not to run. The Roman soldiers, they had a much deeper secret to their success.

They didn't fight as individuals. They fought as a group, as a unified wall of shields and swords. Roman soldiers were encouraged to lock shields and to lock arms. And when they faced the adversary, they did it together. And when the battle raged all around them, they would form a circle. My front protecting your back and your front protecting my back. And they didn't need armor on their backs because they had something far better. They had each other. And so do we. So do we. So Father, I just thank you so much for this incredible description of what you've given to us by grace, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and all manner of prayer. Father, I thank you for all of it. With it, we can stand on the victory that you've already made possible for us. In Jesus' name. You know what we're going to do this morning with nobody leaving early or moving about? Let's just all of us stand to our feet and let's celebrate the beauty of what God has given to us by singing together as brothers and sisters in Christ this wonderful song.