Ephesians chapter number six. Ephesians chapter number six. We're looking at the armor of God. If you've been in church at any time at all, it's not a subject that you're probably unfamiliar with, but certainly one that's important nonetheless. couple times throughout scripture and the writings of Paul he alludes or he speaks of this armor here in Ephesians also the book of Colossians and it's vital in our Christian walk that we come to understand what this armor is now of course we're doing this study as a part of just studying the whole book of Ephesians and you know what I intended to finish last year sort of crept into 2016 which is fine But as we come to the end of Ephesians, Paul ends his letter to the church in Ephesus with this. And if you look in verse number 10, he starts with this word. Finally, my brethren. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Verses 10-13 introduce to us the spiritual warfare that we are engaged in. I tell you, if you haven't come to understand that you are in a daily battle, a supernatural battle that goes beyond the weapons of warfare, the carnal weapons of warfare, I pray that you will be introduced. I believe any Christian seeking to live for the Lord will face this battle day in and day out. Our enemy, of course, we know him to be who? Verse 11. Who's our enemy? Look at it. Look at verse 11. What word is used there? The devil. The devil. He's our enemy. In verse number 11 as well, the Bible says he uses and employs tricks, wiles. The word wiles refers to tricks or schemes, methods to undermine the faith of the saints of God, to attack the glory of God. And there are three times that we are told to do what? Verse 11 verse 13 verse number 14. What are we told to do in this battle? We are told to what anybody see it Stand, right? Stand, v. 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to what? Stand, v. 13. Take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to what? Withstand in the evil day and have me done all to stand, v. 14. Stand therefore. So I think the point that is trying to be made is what? That we are expected to stand. To not retreat. To not back down. But to stand engaged in this battle to hold the position during a time of attack. It's the picture of a soldier refusing to yield even an inch of ground. Refusing to let the enemy take any of that hard-fought ground away from him. Not of someone on the offensive, but rather of someone on the defensive protecting rather the ground that has already been won. But what wonderful possessions we have through the Lord Jesus Christ. What wonderful gifts He has given us. Salvation, the truth, His word, grace, the church, blessings. The devil, he wants all of it. We must stand. But to stand, what do we have to do? If you're going to stand, what do you have to do? What's that? Very good. Verse number 14. Stand therefore. And then he says, having your loins girt about with truth. And having on the breastplate of righteousness. We looked at both of those last week. We looked at the breastplate of righteousness. We looked as well as having our loins gird about with truth and being secure in what we know being real. Right? Not being hypocritical. You're nothing but an easy target if you're living a hypocritical life. But your loins girt about with truth. Being through and through truthful. Truthful with oneself. Truthful with others. You know, every Christian fails. Every Christian struggles at times in their Christian walk. But we have to be careful to not become hypocritical. Not to become a fake when it comes to our Christian walk. I think you'll notice that if you've come to church here at all. I've tried to be very transparent with who I am. I'm no super Christian. There are days I really struggle to do what I ought to do. And you know every Christian I think at some point in time struggles. We're in a battle and we need to be truthful. We know not to be hypocritical. We looked at verse number 14 as well where it says having on the what breastplate of righteousness. This is the power of a holy life. Living for God. We have been clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Now we are commanded to live a sanctified, a holy life. for him not a self-righteous life not a life where you know we we walk around thinking we're all high and mighty but rather recognizing who we are in Christ and that we are expected to live for him what a holy life that God calls us to live when we allow sin to dwell in our lives we give Satan a beachhead in which he can attack us look at chapter 4 turn turn back to a couple couple chapters look at chapter 4 verse number 27 We're instructed to what? Neither give place to whom? The devil. Neither give place to the devil. You know what allows you to make sure the devil doesn't get a foothold in your life? Live a holy life. Live a life pleasing to God. We're going to look today at the third piece of armor. Look at chapter 6 and verse number 15. He says, "...in your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Father, thank You for an opportunity to teach Your Word tonight. I pray that it would be a help and an encouragement to all of us. Lord, we would walk away saying, you know, I learned something. I got something from the Word tonight. I thank You for the worship so far, for the singing, for the testimonies, the fellowship, and the sweet Spirit, Lord, that You blessed with today. I thank You for bringing those young men, I don't believe are Christians. I thank You for bringing them out to church this morning, for allowing us to share with them the Gospel, to show them Christian love and kindness. And I pray for the one young man that raised his hand, and even those that didn't, that they would come to know Jesus, that, Father, You would give Charlie and Sarah wisdom and strength to stand for You, to be a witness to those young men, and that they might see the love of Jesus Christ in both Charlie and Sarah and every Christian that they meet. Father I thank you for allowing us an opportunity to come back tonight Lord and as long as you tear your coming I pray that we would be faithful to meet together as a church that we would grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ that we would strive to be more like him each and every day by your grace and I pray as we embark on this lesson tonight that would help us to be equipped with the armor we need to stand against Satan to not give any Father, I need your help to preach and teach. I cannot do this in my own strength. And if it is done that way, I know it will certainly be a failure. So I pray that you would use this message, use your word. Father, in spite of my failings, in spite of my weaknesses as a preacher, that Father, your Holy Spirit would be front and center in our hearts. We ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. Aren't you glad you have shoes? Now, some of the young'uns don't like to wear shoes. I always laugh. You know, Coleman, first thing he did when he came in this morning, he took his shoes off. And then he took his socks off. And, you know, that old boy, he ain't wearing no shoes. Doesn't like shoes. And I know, his feet hurt him sometimes and, you know, he's got those arch problems and all that, right? But, you know, I'm thankful that I have shoes. My wife is giving me a hard time because she says I have more shoes than she does. I don't think that's true. But that's what she says. Anyway, I like to wear shoes. I was never one growing up, you know, maybe you were didn't wear shoes all summer long, you know, and you know, you get feet like, you know, get that hard callus foot and you could walk on gravel and weeds and That wasn't me. I appreciated the value of good shoes. And it's an important part of our apparel, isn't it? I remember growing up, shoes even had a big part in your identity, right, as a teenager. You remember that? Oh, I remember those Air Jordans coming out, you know. And I wanted a pair of Air Jordans. Now, my parents being the sensible and middle class folks they were, they weren't buying me no Air Jordans. And I'd be like, but Dad, you know, all the other cool kids, they had Air Jordans. I remember your dad's taking me to the family dollar and we bought family dollar shoes talk about humiliating you know they weren't quite Air Jordans they were high tops but they weren't quite Air Jordans You know, you think about shoes, all manner of shoes, right? You got dress shoes, you got casual shoes, you got tennis shoes, you got sandals. Indeed, I do like a nice pair of shoes, so as much as my wife would like to make fun of me, she'd probably just hide them away. I just can't see them. She probably does have more than I do. Anyway, if you work in certain professions, it's important to have the right kind of shoes, isn't it? But DJ, you gotta wear, what kind of shoes you gotta wear at your work? You gotta wear steel, why? Because what happens? That's right, you know, you're working around those rail cars, boy, you're cutting a piece of metal off a rail car and it accidentally drops on your toe, what happens? Goodbye toe, right? I remember I had a buddy growing up in high school and we had a weight weight room, and so we wrestled, and I know it's hard to believe that I did that now, but we did. And I was fit and trim, and my wife, she saw a picture of me when I was 16, I don't know how old I was, 15, 16 years old, man, I was a little buff. She's like, wow! I said, baby, it's just hidden in there, you just can't see it, it's still there. But this friend of mine, we had these weights, and he was probably, I don't know, doing some sort of, I think it was a military press, and he probably had 50, 60 pound weights, and boy, he was pulling it up, pushing it up, and one of the weights slipped. And they were those weights that had the metal, they were the octagon shape, and it fell down and smashed right into his foot. Shoes didn't do him much good then, those little tennis shoes. So if you're working in a profession like Brother DJ, Brother Robert, you get the wheelchair toes? Yeah, I mean, you know, you guys working, you know, me and Brother Matt, we got soft jobs. We sit at desks all day. You know, we just wear our Birkenstocks and, you know. But hey, shoes are important, right, Brother John? Brother John's out there on the tarmac, right? Gotta have the right kind of shoes. Constructing workers, they wear those shoes. If you don't have the proper footwear, could you imagine a football player walking onto the field without cleats? He's not going to have a very good game, is he? See a baseball player doing that? Well, no. As important as shoes are to an athlete or construction worker, businessman, a housewife, they're even more important to a soldier. Some of our men have fought in here, and I appreciate your service. I don't know that there's, you know, aside from your gear, right, your armor plating, is there really any piece of equipment? Having the right shoes is pretty important, I'd imagine, right? Did you say, Brother Matt, sitting out there in the desert? Do you have to have good shoes? That's right. And they had to be comfortable. They had to be broken in. They had to be ready. You know, I remember my brother-in-law, you know, he served as a chaplain in the army and, you know, he had, you know, served a couple duties overseas and what do you have? Boy, you have the right kind of shoes. You got, they're not cheap shoes. You know, they're important to the fight. Oftentimes, soldiers are required to march long distances, fight battles in all types of environments, walk through jungles and through rivers and slog through snow and cross across deserts. You could imagine having the right shoes is key. If you don't have the right shoes you may not be able to stand and fight. You may not be able to march. You may not be able to handle your weapon. You certainly could not advance on the enemy. A Roman soldier would wear shoes and they would call it a Caliga. And a Caliga was sort of a half boot that protected both the feet and the ankle. They were leather boots. And they would allow, the boot was such as it was very quiet so they could sneak up undetected behind an enemy soldier. These boots often times had hobnailed soles where they had nailed the soles of the boots onto the bottom. And boy that would give them, often times the nails would be sticking out so it would give them traction as they climbed hills or fought on uneven terrain. I'll tell you this, if we're going to fight against Satan, we have to have the proper footwear. We can be girt about with truth, we can have on the breastplate of righteousness, but if we neglect to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, we will stumble and fall. Well, what do these boots depict? Look at verse number 15. Let me ask you, what is it saying? You know, right, each of the pieces of these armor depicts something in our spiritual walk. The belt of truth has to do with knowing the truth of God's Word, being certain of the truth of God's Word, being loyal, being not hypocritical. The breastplate of righteousness is living a what? Holy life. So what does it mean when it says our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace? I want you to key in on some words there. What do you think it means when it says preparation? What does it mean to be prepared, Elizabeth? To be ready. Very good, right? I say, hey, get prepared. It means to be ready. It's the same word as used in Titus 3, verse 1 where it says, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. A soldier's boots allow you to be ready. To be prepared. Ready to march, to stand, to climb, to fight, whatever else that he may be called to do. I'll tell you this, and here's the first lesson I want you to draw from this. Really, it speaks to me that the child of God must always be ready. There's never a point, there's never a time where we are to take a vacation from serving the Lord. Where we are to take a vacation from being spiritually sober and vigilant. It's easy to get that way, isn't it? No, even you say, well, Pastor, how do you stay at a state of readiness constantly? I mean, even professional soldiers, right? They have to come off the line and take a little break. So we're expected to always be ready? Yes. We ought to always be ready. Brother Wade, it's good to have you. He was sharing a story about here he is driving a truck and one day the Lord brought a guy and he gave him a Gospel track and the next day he's working around and the guy came up and says, I think I need what we talked about. What? Right? Be ready. You know those divine appointments God has for us all the time. And how many times are we not prepared or unwilling to be prepared to what? Speak for the Lord. To share our faith with others. We ought to be ready at any moment to share the Gospel with a lost world. We ought to move at the Lord's command, preaching the Gospel from place to place, telling the lost about the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to be actively engaged in evangelism. 1 Peter 3.15 says, "...but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks of you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." Mark 16.15 Go there if you would with me. Mark 16.15 A companion passage to the Great Commission in Matthew 28. Mark 16, 15, the Bible says, Jesus said to His disciples, and He said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. It's interesting that in this day and age that the act and the idea of preaching has fallen out of favor. Right? Most people are just wanting to share. Most people are just wanting to try to share the Gospel with some sort of lifestyle. That's going to make the difference. And I think it's important you have the right lifestyle, that you live a holy life. As I've been preaching on Sunday mornings, how do people know that we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ? Because of what? Our love. The love of God should be shown and seen in every one of us. But that does not dismiss the responsibility we have to preach. You say, but I'm a woman, Pastor. I can't preach. The word preach is simply proclaim. Each and every one of us can be proclaimers of the Gospel. I appreciate the opportunity to proclaim the Gospel, to speak of the Gospel. We ought to always be ready. He's given us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit has equipped us to do the work of an evangelism. Or the work of an evangelist, rather. We are to go and tell. That is the Great Commission. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Sharing the Gospel, witnessing, advances the Kingdom of God. And as a church, we ought to be doing that. Can I challenge you tonight? What's the last time you shared the Gospel? What's the last time you proclaimed the truth of God's Word to someone who was lost? It's a shame, and really we ought to hang our heads in shame. Many times as Christians, weeks, even months can go by where we've not shared the Gospel with anyone. We're not ready. What do these boots deliver, though? What do these shoes do? Again, I think that Paul's primary concern was not necessarily with going, but rather with standing. And this is really a fight against Satan, isn't it? Right? Isn't that what he's saying? We're in a battle! A fight for our spiritual lives against the devil! So I don't know that Paul's really referring to the fact of going out and witnessing more as standing and fighting. Battling. The Gospel of peace, of course, refers to the news that through our relationship with Jesus Christ, we are at peace with God. Do you realize before you became a Christian, you were God's enemy? I wouldn't want to be the enemy of God, would you? David, are you listening? You need to hear what I'm saying. David, before someone gets saved, they were the enemy of God. But because of Jesus Christ, you know what took place, David? God allowed there to be Jesus. Through Jesus Christ, there is now peace between God and man. Right? When the angels came to proclaim the birth of our Savior, what did they say to the shepherds? You remember? Glory to God in the highest. Right? Peace on earth. good will toward man. The gospel of Jesus Christ has always been about bringing peace between God and man. Jesus being, as we talked about this morning, the propitiation. What does that mean? It's the idea of assuaging the anger of a holy God. Jesus did that. You say, God is angry? What was God angry about? What angers God? The Bible says that God is angry with the wicked every day. And He has every right to be angry, doesn't He? Here He is, our Creator, right? Lord of heaven and earth. He's given the body that you have, the life that you have is given by God. The air that you breathe is given by God. And yet man, what? Wants nothing to do with it. In fact, they're rebellious against God. They go the other way. If God's going this way, they're going that way. A holy God has every right to be angry at sin, and Jesus Christ was made our peace. He reconciled us to God through His death and shedding of His blood. Romans 5, verse 1 says, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, verses 21 and 22 says, And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and reprovable in his sight. So while we ought always to be ready to share the gospel, and I think that's one lesson we can draw from this, I really believe the primary focus of Paul's admonition is to stand against Satan. To fight. So if that is the case, how do the shoes help us stand? How do the shoes help us fight? Christian, if you don't have a full understanding of where you stand with God, are you going to be able to stand for Him? If you're uncertain of your relationship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're uncertain of where you stand with the commander-in-chief, are you going to be willing to stand there and take arrows and bullets and whatever else the devil may throw at you? No? Maybe not. It may be just easier to turn around and duck and hide. So the feet being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace I think gives this idea. that we stand in the absolute confidence that God loves us and we are at peace with Him. We stand knowing where we are with God. Do you realize this? that when you become a Christian, there is absolutely nothing you can do that would destroy or hinder your relationship with God. You are a child of God. Now, I've had people say to me, well, Pastor, what about those people that turn their back on God? They make a profession. I'll tell you, there's a lot of folks that can't backslide because they never slid in in the first place. A lot of folks make false professions. I'm just going to be real honest with you. That's why I'm real careful in our church. I appreciate all the children that God has blessed us with in our church. I'm real careful. Real careful with my home kids. Not to have them make false professions for any reason. Now, it happens. Amongst the wheat, are there some weeds? Yes. But I'll tell you this. Someone truly gets born again, their life is changed. They are a new creature. The desire to love and to serve and to live for God is present. It bothers me a whole lot when someone says they get saved and they don't want to be baptized, they don't want to be in church. It troubles my heart when you've got churches going out and they're seeing 200 people saved on a day, but they can't get one or two of them in to baptize them and to grow them and to see them walk with God and serve God in the church. Why is that? I'll tell you why it is. Because they really lack the preaching on repentance. We've got this salvation today and we don't deal with the fact of sin. No one wants to hear about sin. Those young men that came this morning, you think they want to hear about sin? No one does. I don't like to hear about sin. I don't like to hear about preaching on hell. I remember before I became a Christian, I was a good boy. I was self-righteous. You said to me, hey, you're a sinner. Well, isn't everybody? You don't get all defensive? Get your neck hardened and you're back up in the air? My point is this, that when you get saved, you come to understand and what God wants you to understand is where you stand with Him. And when you get saved, your standing with God is all because of Jesus Christ. You are at peace with God. He indeed and truly is your Father. I'm thankful, David. Are you listening? Cadence, just made a profession of faith last week. You know where you stand with God, Cadence? You are His child and He loves you to the end. And it ain't never going to change. I know it's bad English, but bear with me. And as a soldier for the Lord Jesus Christ, stand against the wiles of the devil. Boy, you better know where you stand. You better have it settled in your heart and mind that where I stand and where I am with God is He is my Father and I am at peace with Him because of Jesus Christ. Confident that God loves us. Confident that He has forgiven us. That we are united with Him. That He fights for us. That all is well with our souls. Confident that you're saved. Are you confident that you're saved? He said, are you trying to get me to doubt? I'm trying to shake your foundation. I want you to know. You say, well, that's not real nice. Hey, you know what? I'd rather shake you up a little here on this earth before you stand before God on that Day of Judgment and He says to you, I never knew you. Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity. You better know where you are with the Lord. You better know that you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and that He alone is your peace with God. When you've got that confidence, you're going to be able to stand. Now, I don't mean to be political, but I'll tell you this. There's a lot of times we send our men out to fight battles, and you know what? They don't know whether or not we're behind them because of our clowns that are politicians. That irritates me to no end. We're putting men, they're putting their lives, and women at this point, putting lives on the line. And these dummies in Washington don't know what they're doing. And you know what? Well, you know, don't don't shoot the bad guys unless they're they're throwing grenades at you. I don't know what it now. I never had an opportunity. I shouldn't say I had an opportunity. The Lord didn't mean for me to serve. And I don't know why he had a different different thoughts for me. But I couldn't imagine, we've got, let's see here, four men that I know. By the way, did you serve as well? Five men. Served with distinction in the armed forces. I don't know about you, it had to be something to know that when you were out fighting, or when you were out, right, in combat, on that ship, in that desert, that you know you had something backing you. There was a confidence, I'm fighting for the right, I'm doing the right thing, I'm fighting for our liberty, for our nation, for our family, right? It's no different when you stand for the Lord. You better know where you stand. You better know that God's there, and you're standing for Him, and your relationship with Him is right, and you're at peace with God, and you're certain of His love for you. That confidence brings great victories. You know, I think about that time when Gideon led the nation of Israel to battle. He went from what? 32,000 men to how many? How many were in Gideon's army? You remember? 300, right? I don't know about you, but if I'm going to go fight tens of thousands of enemies, I want to have a little more than 300. Don't you? Unless I had some sort of nuclear weapon, boom, and it's all over. But Gideon, here he is, and God says, I want you to go fight those Omidianites. And Gideon says, alright, Lord. Alright, armies of Israel, let's go. And boy, he's ready, they're prepared. And the Lord says, hang on, not so fast, Gideon. And we know the story, right? Through the process of winnowing, and God said, ok, now Gideon, I want you to do a few things. And finally, they got down to where all that was left was how many? Those 300. Oh, what do you think, Brother Matt? You think that would take in some guts? Right? Tens of thousands of Midianites. And you got Gideon. He says, hey, guys. This is it. What do you mean, Gideon? Yeah. Hang on, Gideon. 1, 2, 3. There's only 300 of us, Gideon. What do you mean, this is it? Yep. This is the army of Israel. Go Israel. Well, get in. Okay. Those men had to have confidence in something. They weren't stupid men. They weren't ignorant. Why did they go and fight? Why did they go and put their lives on the line which at that point would have to seem to be a fool's errand? Right? 300 versus tens of thousands? Why would I do that? That's stupid. I mean, a little off balance here. I love you Gideon, but man, I think you need to go back to West Point and learn proper battle techniques. Why did they go with Gideon? Why did they follow Gideon? Did anybody know? Bingo! They knew that God was with them and God was with Gideon and they said Gideon will go because we know God is with him. How were they able to go and stand? And not only that, but you know what? They went and they fought with the Midianite army without a single weapon. They simply had what? Do you remember what they brought to the battlefield? Jar of clay, right? Remember? They lit the light in a jar of clay and they had a horn. And here they are, 300 men surrounding the Midianites. All they did was break those jars of clay, allow the light to shine out, blow a trumpet and cry out these words, the sword of the Lord and of Gideon." Now that's guts. Right? What do you mean Gideon? You don't have the M1 Abrams? Do we have air support? Here guys, here's your weapons, a jar of clay and a trumpet. Gideon, I don't know about you, we're not going to a party, we're not playing a concert. Hey, God is with us and this is how He says we're going to win. I pray that I can be that kind of leader. That people look at my life and say, you know what? God is with that man. I pray you're that kind of leader, guys. Could you be? Yes. By the grace of God, you can be that kind of leader in your home. in our church. Confidence! Confidence! Those men knew God is with us and when we break these jars of clay and when we roll that trumpet and when we cry out the sword of the Lord in the Gideon, He will give us the battle. And He did, didn't He? 2 Chronicles 20 The people of Judah were about to be invaded not only by the the Ammonites but also the Moabites they were afraid In 2nd Chronicles 20 verse 15 the Lord said to King Jehoshaphat. He said be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of the great multitude For the battle is not yours but God's now listen, I want to read this passage to you listen to what happens and Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem befell before the Lord, worshiping the Lord. And the Levites and the children of the Korthites stood up to praise the Lord God of Israel with a loud voice on high. They rose up early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Believe in the Lord your God. So shall you be established. Believe His prophets. So shall you prosper. And when He had consulted with the people, He appointed singers unto the Lord that should praise the beauty of His holiness as they went out before the army and to say, Praise the Lord for His mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise..." So here's Jehoshaphat's method of battle. Alright now. Jehoshaphat, what do we do? Do we send out the scouts? Do we send out the praise team? Whoa. And they're gonna go out there and they're gonna sing about Jesus and about the Lord. Okay. He just exhorted them what? Trust God. Believe in God. And they began to sing, praise the Lord for his mercy, endureth forever. And listen to this. And when they began to sing into praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, utterly to dislay and to destroy them. And when they had made an end to the inhabitants of Seir, everyone helped to destroy another. Judah experienced a great victory because they took God at his word and they were what? confident where in him Are you getting what I'm saying tonight? Are you hearing what I'm saying? What what do we need to have? We need to have confidence in the Lord Confidence on which we stand with the Lord We say to you this brother and sister and I'm done You want to stand against God boy you better get You better get on solid ground with him. You want to stand against the devil? Get on solid ground with God. Have confidence. Learn to trust the Lord. When you stand in the Lord's power and the full assurance of His grace and His salvation, you do not have to fear any enemy. We stand on the ground of the gospel of grace, the same gospel that converted us from sinners to saints the same Gospel that changed God from our enemy to our protector. We who were on the outside are now the sons of God. He's our Heavenly Father. We are His children. Everything we need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might is at our disposal. Your confidence is not because you're somebody. You and I are nobodies. Are you never going to hold Joel Osteen? Preach that. You and I, we're nothings. We're nobodies. The only reason we have any standing with God is because of Jesus. What confidence that brings. Let me give you one last Scripture here. Romans 8.31-39 Listen to this and you can turn there if you'd like, but listen now. What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercessor for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. What's the thing to take away tonight? What's this armor have to do? We better have on these shoes. And the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace help us to understand the confidence we can have in God. To be able to stand, certain, without fear, without question, The truth is, listen to me now, we are loved by God. And that gives us the confidence to stand. The truth is that we are saved by His grace giving us confidence to stand. The truth that we are His children gives us confidence to stand. The truth that we are in His tender care and that He has promised to stand with us, to protect us, to keep us, defend us, gives us confidence to stand. The devil comes up, you know what he wants to do? He wants to whisper in your ear. You're not a child of God. God doesn't love you. Just give up. It's okay. And boy, he'll whisper those sweet nothings in your ear. You know what you ought to say to the devil? You're a liar. I got my shoes on, the shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace, and God loves me? And you can just shut up devil because I know where I stand with him You're not getting any of the ground that Jesus paid for It's precious ground He paid for it with his blood. You're not robbing my joy. You're not destroying my family You're not destroying my church because you know what I am God's and he is mine He loves me. He cares for me and guess what? He fights my battles Submit yourselves therefore unto God. Resist the devil and he will what? Flee from you. You say, Pastor, boy, I wish I had that confidence. You can't have it. Do you know? Are you certain? Don't let the devil whisper lies to you. Be confident in who you are with God because of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father it's a blessing to be able to proclaim the truth of your word to my dear brothers and sisters Because father that's what makes the difference is your word and the work of your Holy Spirit in our hearts Lord it it just thrills my heart to be able to think of the confidence we have because of Jesus Christ That there is nothing that will separate us from your love that father If you're for us, who can be against us? It's just a silly question. What truth there is in that? I pray that you would give us the confidence, the understanding, the strength to stand, to not retreat. to not give in to the lies of Satan, where he tries to whisper, Lord, just wicked, evil lies into our ears about our relationship with you and who you are and what you mean to us. Nothing can separate us from your love. And Lord, it's thrilling to know that. I pray that within our church, that we would have men and women and even our children, the confidence through the Lord Jesus Christ to stand against Satan and his attacks. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for saving our souls, for making of us new creatures and Lord having us to be your children. What a blessing it is. I ask that you would bless us now as we go our separate ways Lord made the truths of your word not quickly leave our hearts and minds But father give us the the strength and the ability to meditate upon them even as we leave this place and throughout this week And if you tarry Lord, I pray you'd bring us back together again on Wednesday night. We ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen All right anything before we leave tonight Amen weight is good to have you and uh... good friend of kathy and john's from their church down and redmond and uh... so make sure you say hello and uh... but beyond that uh... nothing else really uh... will meet together with that seven o'clock for bible study and prayer let's be dismissed or blessing