Stand Your Ground Pt. 5 - Naked and Afraid

This series is all about reminding the saints that we’re in a battle and training them to put on the full armor of God so that they can stand firm. No piece should be missing.  What are we going to do with everything we’ve learned throughout this series? Use the story of the seven sons of Sceva to illustrate what can happen when we don’t put on the full armor of God. The seven sons were literally left naked and afraid. Without armor, we’re exposed and vulnerable too.   In this story, the townspeople burn up their scrolls used for sorcery out of their fear of the Lord. What doors to the enemy have we opened up? What might we need to burn up or give up in order to grow in godliness and freedom? Spirituality is often an invitation to evil spirits. Without the armor of God, we are naked and afraid. Acts 19:11-20 NIV 11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. 17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. Galatians 5:19-20 TLB  19 But when you follow your own wrong inclinations, your lives will produce these evil results: impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20 idolatry, spiritism (that is, encouraging the activity of demons), hatred and fighting, jealousy and anger, constant effort to get the best for yourself, complaints and criticisms, the feeling that everyone else is wrong except those in your own little group—and there will be wrong doctrine, What are you going to put on and burn up?