Sermon Tone Analysis
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55 year old Phillip Cantos hated wearing a helmet when he rode his Harley.
11 years ago he joined a group in his native New York called ABATE: American Bikers Aimed Toward Education.
ABATE is out to prove that helmet laws are unnecessary infringements on our freedom.
They demand their repeal in all 20 states where they exist—including New York and Alabama.
Every year ABATE has sponsors a protest ride, in which their members defy the law by riding their cycles down a stretch of highway without helmets.
Phillip Cantos never missed this event.
On Sunday, July 3, 2011 he and 550 other bikers revved their way out of Onondaga, NY.
At some point, Cantos’ bike fishtailed and he was thrown over his handlebars and he hit the pavement without a helmet.
Shortly afterward, Phillip Cantos was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Trooper Jack Kelley told the media, "The medical expert…who pronounced him deceased stated that he would've no doubt survived the accident had he been wearing a helmet."
Now I don’t ride motorcycles, so I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t understand about why you should/should not wear a helmet.
I know the few times I’ve worn a helmet it was extremely uncomfortable and just a little claustrophobic.
But I also know if I even faintly suspect I’m going to get in a wreck, I’d wear a helmet in my car!
Helmets are good protection for lots of activities.
Football helmets, baseball helmets, hard hats at construction sites are all meant to protect you from this vital part of your body.
Because let’s face it: if you lose your head the rest of your body isn’t a lot of use to you.
I neglected to mention another group that uses helmets for protection: soldiers.
Since ancient times helmets have been an essential part of a soldier’s defense.
Even today, most soldiers never go into battle without their protective headgear.
So it’s no surprise as the Holy Spirit inspires Paul to write about the armor of God, He commands us to always wear the helmet of salvation mentioned in Ephesians 6:17.
Let’s talk tonight about putting that helmet on, and keeping it on.
PRAYER
If you’ve seen movies about Roman soldiers, you probably remember the helmets with brightly colored horsehair like a shop broom on top.
Those colors indicated the rank of the warrior.
The helmet itself was one piece forged from iron and lined with leather.
Plates hung down along the cheeks, with another plate protecting the back of the neck and shoulders.
The helmet of salvation is not so flashy but it is just as important because it protects not your head, but your mind.
The salvation we have in Christ protects our minds like a helmet from the attacks of the devil.
Putting on and keeping on that helmet involves 3 things:
*1.
Knowing you are saved.
(1 John 5:13)*
One of the first things I was taught as a new Christian was never, ever doubt your salvation.
Doubt was the enemy of faith, the tool of the devil that can sabotage my relationship with Christ.
To doubt my salvation, I was told, was to doubt the Lord.
I had to keep telling myself I was saved, no matter how I felt.
I had to just keep telling myself I was until I felt saved again.
But in the 34 years since I first asked Jesus to save me, there have been many days of doubt.
I haven’t always been able to deny them.
The little engine that could made it by repeating over and over again I think I can I think I can I think I can.
But that didn’t work for me: I know I’m saved I know I’m saved I know I’m saved…wasn’t enough.
I needed some way to know in my own mind that I was saved.
Fortunately, God provides a double assurance for all of us of our salvation which does not depend on our feelings.
I know I am saved first and foremost because of the Word of God.
1 John 5:13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.
These words specifically apply to the John’s first epistle, but they also expand to cover all of Scripture.
The Gospel is a call to repentance and faith, but it is also a promise that if we believe it, we are forgiven and accepted by God.
John 5:24 Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
Romans 10:9 …if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
These two verses sum up many others that help you know you are saved.
Our salvation is not based on our feelings, but on the promises of God that cannot fail.
As long as I believe the Gospel, I know I am saved.
But there is another issue I need to confirm: how do I know I truly believe in Christ?
James 2:19 You believe that there is one God.
You do well.
Even the demons believe—and tremble!
In other words, we need not only the Word of God but some evidence that we truly believe the Word of God if we want to know we are saved.
Which brings us to another verse:
2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves.
Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
This verse is not encouraging us to doubt, but to examine our lives to see if there’s any fruit on the tree.
You see, if you and I truly believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there are fruits of righteousness that can be seen in our lives.
There is a growing love for God and for others, a growing desire to be holy along with a growing hatred of sin.
The fruit of the Spirit can clearly be seen in us: …love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… (Galatians 5:22–23).
They may be tiny sprouts, but they are there.
They will continually ripen until the time of harvest, when we die.
They are the unmistakable evidence that we truly trust Christ as Savior and Lord.
Suppose for a moment I became a spokesperson for Weight Watchers.
I’ve read all the literature, I tell you, and I’m convinced the program will help anybody who wants to lose weight.
I could get excited and urge you to try it out.
But anybody who can see me judges quite correctly whether I truly believe in Weight Watchers by my own weight.
No matter how true the principles of weight watchers are, no matter how much I say I believe in them, what I truly believe can be seen by the difference it makes in my life.
Putting on the helmet of salvation means knowing you are saved because of the Word of God and because of the fruit of righteousness in your life.
When the devil attacks your mind, tempting you to doubt your salvation, you point Him not to yourself or your own feelings, to God’s Word and how He has changed your life.
Putting on the helmet of salvation means knowing you are saved.
It also means
*2.
Taking your thoughts captive for Christ.
(2 Cor.
10:4-5)*
If you ever come by for a visit to my home (and I hope you will—the door is always open!)
you will probably meet the family dog, Suzy Q. Beagle.
Though she will bark at you like a raging Doberman, she’s really a friendly pooch who has never attacked a soul (unless you count squirrels.)
We love her like part of the family.
She has only one fatal flaw: she’s constantly trying to escape.
I sometimes wonder what a stranger who walks by when we first come home thinks when they see us open the door and hear us yelling back!
Back! Get back!
What in the world do they have in there?
We have a very spacious backyard which, the envy of any dog cooped up in a smaller area.
Suzy has plenty of room to roam, plenty of freedom to do her business, plenty of room to sniff until her nose gets numb.
The fence is there to give her space and keep her safe from the dangers outside the yard.
But it’s not enough.
She keeps finding ways to escape and roam the streets.
We’ve given up chasing her, because it seems that just makes the whole thing more fun for her.
We wait until she’s run her course, comes home and scratches on the door to be let in and face the consequences of her foolish actions.
My crazy beagle reminds me how wild our minds sometimes run.
Your thoughts can run wild with anger.
When somebody insults us or mistreats us, our minds run wild with thoughts of revenge, how we can pay them back for what they did to us.
If you let them, your thoughts will dream up violent scenarios of vengeance that you would never act on.
Your thoughts can run wild with worry.
If you’re the kind who always pictures the worst-case scenario, you’ll see visions of losing all the people you love, all the things you have, even your own livelihood or life.
You’ll lie awake at night, dreaming of all the dreary deadly possibilities your mind can conceive.
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