The Jeff Cavins Show (Your Catholic Bible Study Podcast) - Weapons of Warfare (Part 1)

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

We are in the midst of battle: but have we forgotten that the battle has already been won? In this episode Jeff walks us through Ephesians 6:10-17, where St. Paul invites us to "put on the armor of God", that we may walk in the victory Jesus has gained for us. Snippet from the Show Stand firm, and hold your ground. Email us with comments or questions at [e-mail]. Text “jeffcavins” to 33-777 to subscribe and get Jeff’s shownotes delivered straight to your email! Or visit ascensionpress.com/thejeffcavinsshow for full shownotes!

Welcome to the Jeff Kaven Show, where we talk about the Bible, discipleship, and evangelization, putting it all together in living as activated disciples. This is Show 292 Weapons of Warfare. And here we are again joining each other to talk about all the good things the Lord has given us. has equipped us with and we are ready for battle. No doubt the topic of today's show got your attention. It is a popular topic, weapons of warfare. And we're going to talk about that today. We're going to talk about the battle that we are facing. There's no doubt that many people feel that there is a battle going on. All you got to do is turn the news on. You got to look at world politics and politics in this country and the social setting and the battles taking place.

Wow. We see this. We hear it on television, but behind the scenes, there is a tremendous battle going on. And I've been wanting to talk about this for a number of weeks, and I thought, you know what, today's the day. I'm going to share some things with you from Ephesians on the weapons of our warfare, the clothing that Jesus has given us, to fight the battle that we are in right now. You can feel so helpless sometimes, right? You can feel helpless like, what do we do?

How do we respond to everything that we're hearing in our culture these days? And the answer is, number one, you've got to recognize that it's a battle that's going on. And number two, you are equipped with a heavenly outfit to fight in the battle today. So we're going to get specific. And I will say that if you want the show notes for this show and all the other shows up ahead, then all you've got to do is text my name, Jeff Kaven's one word, and text it to the number 3-3777. And we'll get all the show notes for you, and I can tell you there's a lot of show notes today. A lot of scriptures I'm going to be pouring out through this mic over into your

ears, just you and me talking together today. And I do hope that it's of some benefit for you. I really do. I pray that it's a benefit for not only you, but your. children, if you have children, if you have teenagers. My, we've heard so much lately about confused teenagers all the way from gender fluidity, sort of speak, what they're talking about today. And the fentanyl and the southern border, lots of things going on. And it's important for you to know as a parent that there's a battle going on for their soul. It's a winner take all here, and the enemy is not afraid to fight this battle. But, praise God, we have overcome. Jesus has gained the victory. We are with him now walking in that victory, and what we're

supposed to do is act like it. Act like we have that victory. You know so many times we act like we don't have the victory. You know what I mean? We know that. In fact, I have my Bible here, my trusty, well-worn Bible, and I can look at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation. I find out, we won. We won. And the battle is over. For the most part, it's over, and Jesus has come out successful, the victor. But I told this story one time quite a while ago, and I'll share it with you again, to illustrate the situation that we're in and why we need to act victorious and not act like we're a bunch of defeated individuals. My wife and I typically go to Mass at 11 o'clock on Sunday. And in the wintertime, we like to watch the Vikings, you know, like everybody else that kind of

pick their local team, Yarray, you know, and, uh, or Raya, rather. And, well, in our case, it's, it's, is Yaw Ray. But we, we, uh, enjoy doing that. But we go to church at 11 o'clock. Game starts at noon. And when we get home, we typically like to have lunch. you know. When the kids were growing up, we'd have lunch before we'd watch football. And so we DVR it. We record it. And there was one day when we came home from Mass, and the Vikings were playing the Minnesota, or the Vikings were playing the Green Bay Packers. And that's a huge rivalry. It really is, an over-the-border rivalry. And so I'm watching it, but the game has been going on now for, I don't know, an hour or so. And so I started watching it.

from what I can remember, it was kind of a close game, and it was like, you know, 7-7-14-14-17-14-17-14-21-14. You know, it just kind of went into that whole thing, that whole range. And then my wife left. She had to do something with our family somewhere. I can't remember what it was, actually. But anyway, I stayed and I continued to watch the game. And then everything went south, and the Vikings were losing. And I was getting upset.

I'm like, no, we had a lead. and now we've lost that lead. I can't believe it. We always do this. And I'm standing up in front of the television and kind of preaching, you know, come on, you guys. I can't believe you're doing it. And it got to the point where we were down like by two touchdowns, I think,

something like that. And I was so discouraged, so discouraged. And then all of a sudden Emily comes in through the garage door, in her door. She comes in and I'm watching this game. looks like we're going to be defeated, she comes in and she yells out, that was the most amazing comeback ever. And I looked at her and I had two emotions. One, you just ruined my game. And number two, yay, I'm glad we won, but there was something about taking that victory from me and watching it that was, it just didn't fit right. You know what I mean? But here's what I'm my takeaway from

that is that here I am. I'm all discouraged and I'm all, you know, mad and discouraged and angry about, oh, we're losing again. But here's the deal. The game was over. We already won. And so I was discouraged about a game that was already won. Now, we do this in our walk with the Lord, don't we? We have times where we get so discouraged, and yet the battle's been won. Jesus was crucified. He was put in the grave and he overcame. He rose from the dead, defeating death hell in the grave. He defeated the enemy. And so we have the victory here. Let's stop living as though we are defeated. Now, there is a battle going on. No doubt there's a battle going on in the world today. And it is a battle that we have to learn about and we have to be offensive. We have to not only be defensive, but we have to be offensive in this particular battle. Now, Paul stated that he was a prisoner at the time that he wrote Ephesians, which is what I'm going to draw from. Ephesians chapter 6 here, and I'll put this in the show notes, but he stated that he was

a prisoner at the time that he wrote the epistle to the Ephesians, and he stated that in Ephesians chapter 3-1 and 4-1 and 620, three different times in there. And theologians think that he may have written this in about 60 to 62 AD. Now, it's important to realize that the battle that we face is not with flesh and blood. When you turn the television on, you hear about politics and Russia and Ukraine, and you hear about the southern border and so forth, it's important to realize that this is not a battle with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers, world rulers of this present darkness with evil spirits. That's what Paul writes about. And this is something that we

don't, at least as Catholics, I think, we don't typically study this or talk about it a whole lot. But I can tell you that years ago, when I was a Protestant minister for 12 years, seven years in Minnesota, five in Dayton, Ohio, non-denominational Christians talk a lot about spiritual warfare. And they're very keen on that. They prepare them. for it. And what's interesting for us as Catholics is that we are supplied with all kinds of teaching about spiritual warfare, not only in the catechism, but, you know, in some of the saints in the past who are involved with St. Benedict and others involved with spiritual warfare. And we have exorcists who do battle most of the movies about exorcisms. It's not a Protestant minister.

it's not a non-denom minister. What is it? It's a Catholic priest. So this is right down our wheelhouse, in our wheelhouse here. But you and I, we got to talk about it a little bit more. So it's important to realize that it's not flesh and blood. It is principalities, powers, world rulers of this present darkness. So let me read this from Ephesians chapter six to kind of set the stage for you. And then we're going to dive into the weapons of our warfare. This may end up being a two-part series. We'll see how. how deep we get into this. I'm sure you won't mind because the topic has been requested an awful lot, an awful lot.

It's like every year when I say, what book do you want to study in the Bible? Guess what it is? You got that right? Revelation, every time. Revelation. By the way, at the time of this particular recording, in the Twin Cities at the Catechetical Institute, I'm going to be teaching the book of Revelation. If you know of anybody, you can go to c.is student.com.

and get that. Okay, now listen to Ephesians chapter 6. Paul says, from prison, finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power, put on the armor of God so that you may be able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil. For our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens. Therefore, put on the armor of God that you may be able to resist on the evil day and having done everything to hold your ground. Hold your ground. So stand fast with your loins girded in truth, clothed with righteousness as a breastplate, and your feet shot in readiness for the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, hold faith.

as a shield, to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. Now, I love this because while you and I are in a spiritual battle, we're not fighting it with just our bare hands or our education or our wit and cleverness. No, Jesus is giving us. He's giving us the outfit. He's giving us the weapons so that we can withstand the attack of the enemy and be successful to be victorious, which, remember, that battle has been won, and we're cleaning up now. We have to act like that. So we have God issued battle attire, if you want to put it that way, and we need the whole

armor of God. Why? Well, we need the armor of God so that we would be imbued with the, with the, with the Lord's strength. That we would have the Lord's strength to fight in this battle. And number two, to prevail and be steadfast against the enemy, against Satan. And number three, to contend not with each other, which is what happens so often as we end up fighting each other. In the home, in the parish, in our own country, we fight each other. And my friend, that's the wrong tact. And if you're in a battle and a fight with your own family, because you're so frustrated about the things that are going on, I want to encourage you today, stop that.

And take note that this is a battle with rulers and principalities of darkness. That's really what we're contending with. And number four, to do battle with entrenched evil on earth. That's why we need the whole armor because we're in battle here on earth. And so in this reading in Ephesians chapter 6, there are three imperatives that Paul gives you. And the first one is, my friend, be strong, be strong, okay? You're fighting for your kids. You're fighting for your soul.

Be strong. Be strong. Take on that mindset of a strong warrior. Be strong. That's the first of three imperatives. Be strong. the second, put on the full armor of God. Every bit of it, which we're going to be going over here, put on every bit of the armor of God. And number three, stand. Stand. Don't give up.

Don't turn around. Don't say, that's all I got to do right now. You stand. And if you've done everything to stand, stand therefore. Continue to stand. And so that's really, really important. be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. And you've got a means of achieving the goal. And that is putting on the full armor of God. And the purpose is so you can stand against the devil's schemes in your life and in your children's life. And for our struggle is not against each other.

It is spiritual, spiritual forces. Now, I'm going to take a break when I come back. We'll start with the very first of this duty-issued. warfare clothing that Jesus is giving us, and that will be the belt of truth. You're listening to The Jeff Kaven Show. Are you ready to know St. Joseph in a personal way? Father Mark Tubbs, adjunct faculty member for the Institute for Priestly Formation, and presenter of Rejoice and Oramus, brings you in St. Joseph's footsteps, 30 days of meditations.

It may be daunting or challenging to get to know St. Joseph, but through in St. Joseph's footsteps, you will not only get to know St. Joseph, but the Holy Family as well. Walk with St. Joseph through 30 days of meditations using St. Ignatius of Loyola's imaginative prayer. From the betrothal of St. Joseph to Mary to the presentation and more, you will walk through major moments in St. Joseph's life. To learn more about in St. Joseph's footsteps, 30 days of meditations, go to ascensionpress.com forward slash Joseph. All right, we're talking today about the weapons of our warfare, the weapons of warfare that Paul talks about in Ephesians chapter 6

are parts of a soldier's outfit to protect every aspect of his life. And the first one that I want to, you know, draw attention to is the belt of truth. It is the belt of truth. And on the armor of a soldier back then, and no doubt this is a Roman soldier, and Paul is in prison. So this is on his mind, and he's got a lot of visuals going on and props in front of him. And that belt caught his attention. Now that's taken from Isaiah chapter 11 in verse 5. and it describes the branch, the Davidic deliverer, the son of Jesse, who has righteousness

as a belt and truth as a sash. And this speaks of keeping faith in the covenant promises, the covenant promises, the belt of truth. Girding, when you gird your loins and you put a belt on, this idea of girding in the ancient world was associated with tying up long robes, and that designated that you were ready for action. So when you wear a belt, you would gird your loins, you would take that long coat, that long garment, that robe. You would pull it up and you would be ready for battle. So the question is, do we belt on truth or practice the truth both?

The passages are an appeal for action. Now, the person who does not gird themselves is too relaxed, and they are not ready for warfare. And they will trip over themselves. Now, I, you know, in the modern era, I can't remember the last time I fought with a robe on, but maybe you ought to try that sometime. You know, go get your bathrobe and see what, see how nimble you are for warfare. you're not. And it really does speak of being relaxed. In your own home, you would not have your loins girded. You would not have the bottom part of your robe pulled up and tucked in. You'd be relaxed.

My friend, we've got to give up the relaxed state. And we have to be willing to go to war for our families and fight for our grandchildren. Pursuing a life of pleasure is not what we need right now. we have to be vigilant, gird your loins. And when we need to fight, we don't want to be sloppy and we don't want to be taken off guard. So the very first thing that we need to do is put on that belt of truth, gird your loins, get ready for action. And I mentioned this just a moment ago, Isaiah 11.5, and it says justice shall be the band around his waist and faithfulness is a belt upon his hips. And I love what Psalm 91-4 says. And I'll put all these in the show notes for you. Absolutely free. It says, God will shelter you with pinions, spread wings that you may take refuge. God's

faithfulness is a protecting shield. It's a protecting shield. And that's what we're going to be looking at just a little bit, a little bit later here. So this belt of truth, it guards and protects, it protects the will, the mind, the loins, and it is very important. And more than anything else, it sends a message, I'm ready for warfare, I'm ready for battle. I'm not relaxed and sloppy. I'm not going to be taken off guard. And that is very, very important. So I want you to think for a moment here about your own life and your own household, whether you're single, married, a priest, a deacon, or religious, I want you to think about your state right now, your mental and spiritual posture. Are you just hanging out? Are you just

relaxed? Now, there's a time to be relaxed. Don't get me wrong. And that's, we have those times where we enter into contemplatio, you know, we enter into contemplation and just enjoy the the presence of the Lord. But overall, I'm asking, what is your posture? Are you ready? Or if there was an onslaught on your family right now, or even more on our culture right now, would it completely take you off guard? That's something only you can answer, but it's something that I've had to take a look at in my own life and answer that question. And for Emily and myself, what's at stake here is not just our own souls and our marriage, and it's not just our own children either. But we've got three grandchildren. And we're on a fight there as well for them. You know, they're very young right now.

They're only 11 and 7 and 4 years old. And so those who are mature like ourselves, we need to think about them and fight for their hearts and their souls. So think about that, the belt, the belt of truth here now the second thing that paul mentions in the outfit that he's describing in ephesians chapter six is the breastplate of righteousness it is the breastplate of righteousness now one of the things that's really really taken off in our culture on uh you've got YouTube and HBO and Amazon, and you've got all these companies now that are also movie houses. They're producing movies. And isn't there a flooding of the market of these history-based series that are dealing with warfare and Europe and make-believe lands and so forth?

And in almost every one of them, you'll see that the warriors have this breastplate on. and that breastplate that protects the heart it protects the heart it protects the torso the vital organs they need to wear that breastplate and that is really really important and so Isaiah in the Old Testament talks about in Isaiah 59 17 to put on justice as his breastplate salvation as the helmet on his head and and he clothed himself with garments of vengeance wrapped himself in a mantle of zeal. And so we have this description, even back in Isaiah, of getting ready for warfare. And you and I are to put on the breastplate of righteousness. Why? To reflect the righteous character of God in our actions. And so we're walking in righteousness. Now, what does that mean? Does that just mean that I'm right and you're not? No. when we talk about righteousness in Hebrew, the Lord our zikainu, our banner, you know, we're talking about being in right standing with God.

We're being in right standing with God. And our righteousness is in Jesus Christ, not in our own works and not in ourself, but through grace. In Jesus Christ, we are righteous. and when you are in battle, listen to this, this is really good. When you are in battle in spiritual warfare is going on all around you, you need to make sure that you are upright and that you are walking in righteousness, not unrighteousness, but righteousness.

And the writer to the Hebrews talks about how we need to put off all those things. that easily encumber us and run the race. Run the race. So I want to share with you this thought. I'll start with a question. Is there anything in your life right now that would weigh you down in this spiritual warfare? Is there anything that would speak of unrighteousness instead of righteousness? If so, I've got something for you to do. And I'll it myself too, and that is, hightail it to confession. Seriously, you want to be in spiritual battle and you want to walk in

unrighteousness? Oh, man, that's like going into a real battle here, a physical battle, and whether it's in Iraq or Afghanistan or back in Vietnam or World War I or two, going into a battle drunk. That's not a good idea. You're not on your A game when you're walking in unrighteousness. And so one of the best things that you can do is to make sure that you are right with God and you stay right with God because you want to be quick and nimble.

You want to be alert and you want to protect your heart. And don't give any place to the devil. That's one of the ways that we fall in these battles that we give place to the devil. And giving place to the devil means that we're toying with sin. We're involved in sin. And that's an in point. that's a crack in the armor for him to get in and affect your heart. Remember, your kids, your grandkids, your coworkers, your spouse, there's lives on the line here. You can't afford to be

relaxed. Now, Psalm 132 says that the priest will be clothed with justice and faithfulness and will shout for joy. Now, we need to put that breastplate of righteousness on. So let me conclude this second article of clothing for spiritual warfare and ask you a similar question to the first one, and that is this. Is there sin in your life right now? Now, there's two different kinds. There's venial sin and mortal sin. Vinyl sin is weakening your relationship with the Lord. Enough said there, right? You don't need that. You don't need to be going into the spiritual battle weak, wounded, broken, hobbling. You don't need it.

Be fair to yourself. Be fair to your family. And get right with God. And strengthen the areas where you have been falling so that you can fight the good fight. You can do that. Now, I just ask you to think a little bit with me. Think about your life, where you're at right now. What has been going on?

what needs to be dealt with and then do it. So these are the first two, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness. How important are these? Very important. Now what I'm going to do, I'm going to pray for you right now. And next week, I'm going to give you the rest of the weapons of our warfare. I'm going to give you the rest of the clothing. And there's an offensive weapon here that is so powerful that it can change the trajectory of your entire family if you will walk in it and you will use it. We're going to talk about that next week. Will you pray with me? And I just let's pray that God will really open up our eyes and see the warfare that we're in for our families and not be scared, not be timid, not pull back and say, oh, this is above my head.

No, the victory's been won. We're going to walk in that now. In order to do it. do it, you've got to have the right armor. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Lord, I lift up my friend to you right now, driving in the car, running, having a cup of coffee, taking a walk, Lord, I pray that you would stir their heart up and fan into a flame the gifts that are within them. May they be vigilant and may they be sensitive to what is happening in their life and their family's life. And may they take responsibility and walk as sons and daughters as mature believers. We thank you, Lord, for equipping us and giving us what we need to get the job done. We pray this in the mighty name of Jesus, and we ask for the intercession of our lady, our mother,

our intercessor, this great gift given to us. Our mother, hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women and blessed is the fruit. thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death, amen. Our Father, Lord, Lord, Lord, you would walk with us. Our Father, thank you. The name of the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. Have a great week. Thank you.