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Newington Three Angels Church

Prepared

Eric Walsh

01 Is Your Armor On

We're going to get right into God's Word.

We're going to go to Ephesians chapter 6, and I'm going to read verses 10 and 11.

10 says, Finally, my brethren, Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Our message is entitled, Prepared Is Your Armor On?

And this is the first of a three-part series called Prepared that we'll be doing through the middle of January.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

And once again, Lord, I just ask that you make me a nail upon the wall, and that Lord, you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ on that nail.

Eric Walsh does not need to be seen or heard here today.

So Lord, speak now that we might be strengthened as we leave 2024 and enter 2025.

This is our prayer in Jesus' precious and holy name.

We're going to the book of Acts chapter 19 and we're going to set up a message that Paul gave to the Ephesians.

His final message or the final part of his letter to the Ephesians is an appropriate place for us to end the year in Ephesians chapter 6.

So we're gonna start in Acts 19, talking about Paul.

This is, Paul first establishes the church at Ephesus in his second missionary journey.

He stops and sets up the church in Ephesus.

But in his third missionary journey, Paul stops and spends, some say 2 years, I believe it's 3 years, he spends in Ephesus preaching the Word of God.

They actually rented out a place, they preach regularly, and the gospel not only went far and wide in Ephesus, it went beyond, because Ephesus was a major point of trade.

There are interesting stories that will hit every time we do 1 of the messages in the series.

And to show you where Ephesus was, we go to Acts 19 and verse 11.

The Bible says, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.

Now, to give you the background, Ephesus is steeped in witchcraft and the occult.

And the spirit of prophecy tells us that the reason God allowed Paul to do these special miracles is because that is kind of what it took to shake the people so they'd pay attention to Paul.

In fact, by the time Paul's time in Ephesus ends, he is viewed as the strongest of all of the people that could work supernatural things.

The Bible says he wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul.

And let me submit to you that when the latter rain falls, and by God's grace it's beginning to fall already, when the latter rain falls, The people of God will be able to do special things as well.

Verse 12, so that, and look at the kind of things Paul was able to do, so that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons and the diseases departed from them and the evil spirits went out of them.

Just a piece of cloth that Paul had would touch someone and miracles would happen.

Now, I don't want you going online and buying magical prayer cloths from Reverend Ike or whoever is doing it nowadays.

Paul was a man of faith and when people understood that something was connected to him, the faith of Paul, the strength of Christ, worked.

These were nothing that they'd ever seen.

Verse 13, The story and plot thickens, Acts 19.13, then certain of the vagabond Jews, these people were exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus saying, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

So these exorcists saw how effective Paul was.

Now remember it's a town steeped in mysticism and the occult, so demon possession was rampant.

In order for demons to possess, a door to the soul must be opened.

And in a town like this, the regular everyday practices open those doors in the minds of people.

Interesting factoid, do you know which country in the world today has the most exorcisms?

Somebody said England, that's rough, but you're probably not far off.

Not England, it's not America, even though, boy, you drive around here, you think some folk driving under the influence of demons.

Italy has the most exorcisms in the world today.

So when people think that this stuff isn't real, I've been to places in the Caribbean, in Africa, even in Australia, I've been to places and I've seen demon possession firsthand.

Part of the reason the church here is as lax as it is in my opinion, is that we are not seeing the manifestation of spiritual warfare like they see in other parts of the world.

When you live in a place like Haiti, or even in Jamaica, where my family's from, you don't play around with this stuff.

That's why I tell you, the reason Haiti gets it so hard is because when I was in Haiti, I was in a place called Ponsonnes-des, out in the provinces, I can tell you some of the purest Christians I've met anywhere in the world, and I've been all over the world, are in Haiti.

You can't, they take God seriously because they see these things firsthand.

We see them on television and think it's not real.

So Satan dupes us into believing we can do these things.

Now these exorcists, they took upon them to call over to them, over them which had evil spirits in the name of the Lord Jesus.

They said, listen, we adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.

You cannot do God's work in the name of somebody else's Jesus.

You can't do it in the name of your grandmother's Jesus or in your mother's Jesus or your father's Jesus.

You must have a relationship with him yourself.

Verse 14, and there were 7 sons of 1 Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.

They'd grown up in the quote-unquote church.

Their father was a chief of the priests, and here they are playing with the devil like this.

The Bible says, and the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, But wait a minute, mister, who are you?

And look at this, Verse 16 says, and the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.

This is 1 of the best beat downs in the whole Bible.

I mean, 1 man whoop 7 and he didn't just beat him, he beat the clothes off of these brothers.

Can you imagine them screaming, running out of house undressed into the streets?

Verse 17 says, and this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus.

And fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

So when the news got out that these guys got this beat down and ran out into the street naked.

These pre-mare exorcists, you know, they had a business card that said, pre-mare exorcists, we will handle all of your demonic problems.

Now when they found out that 1 of the demons whooped them And they ran out, but the demon, this is what's important, the demon said, Jesus, I know.

They found out the name of Jesus was magnified.

The exorcists were charlatans, but Jesus is real.

Verse 18, and many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds.

And what the Spirit of Prophecy tells us is that in Ephesus, there were folk who were in the church, but they still in the superstition of the world.

They were 1 foot in the church, but they had another foot still, you know, counting chicken bones and doing superstitious things and playing with astrology.

I had Adventist come up to me, what's your sign?

The people of God don't play with these things.

And because they played with it, that's why they realized how much danger it is.

This is why in verse 18 it says, many that believe came and confessed and showed their deeds.

They began to say, listen, I've been playing with the occult.

Verse 19, many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men.

And they counted the price of them and founded 50, 000 pieces of silver.

02 Facing False Prophets

We is the second part of a three-part series on called prepared.

As we enter into the new year, we want to go into this year prepared, and we want to be ready for when Jesus returns.

All around us in the world now, as I said earlier, we see chaos and confusion.

I'd have to say that 1 of the, in just the last few days, we've seen bizarre acts of terror on U.S.

The incident in New Orleans was very frightening.

I remember being a college student and standing on Bourbon Street myself, and thinking about what it would be like to have been in a crowd when that happens.

A bomb exploded in front of a hotel in Las Vegas, And it seems as if we become numb to these things.

But what is really important is that we understand as Christians what is going on in the world.

And we begin to align ourselves with scripture.

And what I'm going to preach today is not easy.

But as we are told, spiritual things are spiritually discerned.

Our scripture comes from Matthew chapter 24.

The Bible says, For there shall arise false Christs and false prophets, And shall show great signs and wonders, In so much, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Then Jesus says this in verse 25, "'Behold, I have told you before.'" "'Behold, I have told you before.'" Our message this Sabbath is entitled, Facing False Prophets from our prepared series part 2.

Father God, we thank you for this opportunity to study your Word.

And Lord, I thank you for the truth that is in your Word.

I thank you again, Lord, for getting us through 2024 and into 2025, 1 calendar year closer to your return.

But Father God, now I ask that you just once again make me a nail on the wall and upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

There's no reason for me to be seen today, Lord.

And I pray a special prayer now, Lord, that you bind Satan and cast him far from here And that Lord you lock up distraction That every mind would be focused on your word and that your Holy Spirit would be able to put an imprint on every soul.

This is our prayer in Jesus's name, amen.

So we're gonna start in the book of Acts again.

Last week we were talking about Paul's second missionary journey.

We're gonna start with his first 1 this time, a little earlier in the book of Acts.

It's a very interesting story in the Bible.

Now you have to remember, I have to give you context, the Apostle Paul is not a typical Bible hero.

Just a few chapters earlier, the Apostle Paul was the primary prosecutor and persecutor of the faith.

It was this same Paul, then called Saul, and we'll see his name change actually in this story Who went around and made sure that he could catch Christians and when he did They were put in jail or sometimes they were tortured or killed It was Paul who held the coats of the men who stoned Stephen.

But the Apostle Paul's story is a powerful 1.

On the road to Damascus, he is visited by Jesus, and in that interaction, the Apostle Paul is converted to Christianity.

The other apostles and other believers did not want to believe he had made the change.

It was just too far of a swing to go from chief persecutor to now servant and disciple.

But here Paul is about to go out on his first missionary journey.

Acts 13 and verse 1 says, Now there were in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, as Barnabas and Simeon, that was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Menaion, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch, and Saul.

As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

So as these men are gathered together, it's like a school of the prophets.

It's time for them to go and do God's work.

The Bible says that the Holy Spirit separates Paul and Barnabas, Saul at this still name, and Barnabas apart.

And for those who question the role of the Holy Spirit, you got to look at how he's mentioned here.

This is not some abstract of force like Star Wars.

Not only did the Holy Ghost speak, separately Barnabas and Saul, he says, I have called them.

The Bible says in verse 3, And when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

They fasted, they prayed, and they sent them away on this journey.

Verse 4, So they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus.

And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John to their minister." Which most scholars would believe is John Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark.

And here is a map of Paul's journey, just to give you a little bit of it.

So we start off at Antioch here, where the Christians are first called Christians, and they leave from there, and they go to Cyprus.

And this is where Paul begins to preach with Barnabas on his own.

And they first go to Salamis, and they end up in Paphos before heading on the rest of their journey.

Verse 6 says, and when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, that's that last stop, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus.

Bar-Jesus means the son of Joshua, which as you know is Yahshua in the Hebrew, and it was the name of Jesus.

So here it says his name means son of Jesus.

That's what his name means, son of Joshua.

The Bible doesn't just say he was a sorcerer, It also says he was a false prophet.

And last week we talked a bit about the rise of magic in society today and how popular it is, especially among young people.

Here he is, a sorcerer and a false prophet, and look at his end.

Verse 7 says, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul.

And why did this leader in the town call for Saul and Barnabas?

They haven't switched over his name yet, they will in a second.

Sergius Paulus calls for them because he wanted to hear the word of God.

My work as a physician, the 1 thing that is stunning to me at times, how many people are dealing with pain in their life, disappointment, sometimes neglect, even abuse.

And when you sit and talk to them, Many times they are in a place of hopelessness that often is beyond understanding for many of us.

And when you are able to introduce those individuals to the promises of the word of God, and most specifically, introduce them to the Jesus of the Word of God.

When they finally get to know who Christ is, everything begins to change.

Because what the devil wants you to believe is that you are suffering all alone.

He wants you to believe that God has forgotten you, but when you start to read the story of Christ, His birth in the manger, His sinless life, His death on the cross, The torment he went through to get there and his resurrection from the grave.

You realize there's nothing you're going through he has not experienced and worse.

I told you this Wednesday night and I'm gonna say it again, this month should not just be January for you, let it be January.

Meaning that you go through the gospel of John in the Bible for yourself.

I wanna tell you that the reason so many people do not like church and do not like Christ and are having such a struggle is because they have actually never become acquainted with the character of God.

They think of God like Thanos in the Avengers.

They think about him as some tyrant God looking for you to mess up so he can strike you down.

I am telling you that many more are like Sergius Paulus.

John 1 and verse 1 says, "'In the beginning was the word, "'and the word was with God, and the word was God.'" Verse 14 says, "'And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.'" We've got to introduce the world to the loving Jesus.

So I challenge you, if you do not, have not read the gospel of John, And if you want, I can give you a book to go along with that called The Desire of Ages.

If someone's interested, do not leave the building without it and read those 2 books in the next 2 months.

03 Weapons of our Warfare

Our message this Sabbath is entitled, Prepared, the Weapons of Our Warfare.

And this is the third part, last part in this series.

We thank you Lord for your goodness and for your grace.

And once again, Lord, I just ask that you make me a nail on the wall, a rusty, sorry nail, Lord, but upon that nail I ask that you hang a portrait of Jesus Christ.

There really is no point in me being seen or heard, Lord.

Instead, we want to hear a word from the throne room of grace.

Humble me, Lord, that I would do your will and remove the distractions from this place.

Bind the devil now, Lord, that we might study your word in earnest.

We've been coming from the book of Acts and the travels of Paul for these messages.

1 interesting story about Paul, Acts 28 and verse 1 says, and when they were escaped, Then they knew that the island was called Melita.

And some think that this is actually the island of Malta where they actually crash landed.

If you go back to chapter 27, Paul warned them not to leave from where they were.

They should stay where they were, because if they left, they would lose the ship and that they would lose much of it's much of what the ship was carrying they didn't listen to Paul and they took off anyway and as you read that chapter the storm comes they get into trouble but God visits Paul and says don't worry I'm going to deliver you from this storm you will stand before the emperor in Rome.

With that confidence, Paul goes into chapter 28 and God even says, and I'm going to save everyone on the ship.

In fact, he says, I'm going to give everyone in the ship to you as well.

So Paul knew that they were going to be safe.

So they crashed land on Malta, verse 2 says, and the barbarous people showed us no little kindness.

Now in these days they would call them barbarous if they didn't speak Latin.

If they weren't Roman citizens by default they were called barbarians.

Doesn't seem fair by our modern American, especially, way of looking at the word, but that's what they meant.

The barbarous people showed us no little kindness.

In other words, they were very kind to them.

For they kindled a fire and received us, everyone, because of the present rain and because of the colds.

It was cold, it was raining, the indigenous people started a fire, started looking after Paul and the others from the boat.

And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened onto his hand.

This would be catastrophic for me, I don't like snakes.

But Paul, when you read the commentary, when they say it was cold, the snake was probably hibernating.

And when the heat of the fire hit the snake, the snake was probably shook in fear and latched on to the first thing it could bite.

The Bible says in verse 4, and when the barbarian saw the venomous beast hang on his hand they said among themselves no doubt this man is a murderer whom though he has escaped the sea yet vengeance suffereth not to live.

This is kind of like the idea of karma, right?

They think, well, he must have done something bad the snake bit him and didn't bite nobody else.

They say, he must be a murderer, he must be the worst prisoner on the ship and they didn't know that in a sense they were right but he wasn't the worst prisoner because of evil he had done he was the devil's top enemy because of the good Paul was doing and hence Paul was hoping to wipe the devil was hoping to wipe Paul out before he could get to the emperor.

It, to me, is as if the devil knew that if Paul ever stood before Nero, the entire empire would shake under the power of the gospel.

Verse 5 says, and Paul shook off the beast into the fire, and then look what it says, and he felt no harm.

Let me tell you something church, some of you this year, the devil's gonna try and get you with a terrible beast.

But there's some folk in your life that are that venomous beast.

There's some folk in 2025 that some of y'all need to shake off in the fire.

Some people you need to leave behind in 2025, especially some of you young people, if you are with folk who are not leading you towards Christ, shake them off in the fire.

He shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm.

Verse 6, how be it they looked when he had should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly, but after they had looked a great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a god.

You see what happened when you're superstitious?

He went from being a murderer to a god in all of like 40 minutes.

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Prepared

03 Weapons of our Warfare

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Parent Series

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Parts

01 Is Your Armor On

54m

02 Facing False Prophets

56m

03 Weapons of our Warfare

54m

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