Well, thank you for having me. It was a joy to be with you a couple years ago and speaking about the local church and the importance of fellowship in the local church. And I appreciate every month when Dan and John and others are able to get together and have lunch. And we've added a monthly prayer time to that. And it's just wonderful to be spending time fellowshipping with other pastors and praying for each other. I know that they have been a great example to me and a great encouragement in my life and my ministry. And so I guess for those of us who are younger, it's such a privilege to have the wisdom of men who have been through many more battles than I have and to hear their wisdom and to hear their prayers. And it's a great privilege to be here and to stand in this pulpit that has been faithful to the Word of God for so long. And so thank you for having me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer as we get started and ask for His help in understanding His Word. Father, as we open Your Word together this morning, we recognize that even this is part of spiritual warfare. And that we are dependent upon Your grace and Your Spirit to open our minds to understand the truth. And not only to understand it, but to embrace it with joy, to love the truth. And so, Father, we ask that Your Spirit would be at work and that You would Give us hearts that are strong for the battle through Your grace that we would understand what we're supposed to be doing and how You would have us go about the task of fighting this war that You have already won. Grant to us mercy now as we open Your Word together, we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, in this session, I've been asked to speak on the objective of spiritual warfare from the book of 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-6. And so we'll spend pretty much all of our time in that passage. So if you have your Bible, you can turn to 2 Corinthians 10 3-6. And I'll read it here to get it fixed in your mind. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete." Over the past 60 years or so, a rather strange development has taken place in the arena of warfare. Namely, the lack of militaries having a clear objective when they go into another land or they go into warfare. It began, it seems, with the Vietnam War. The stated objective of the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War was simple on the surface, to stop the spread of communism. Sounds like a worthy objective. It sounds like a somewhat clear objective. And yet, as historians and military experts have analyzed the Vietnam War, one conclusion they have drawn again and again is that the US did not have a clear objective in this conflict. We had superlative tactics. We had advanced weaponry. We had elite soldiers. We had unmatched air power, unprecedented financial resources. But the vague objective to stop the spread of communism was too ambiguous to be meaningful. Would we achieve this objective by allowing communism to flourish where it already existed? When would this objective be achieved so that the spread of communism would be stopped once and for all? How would we know that we have stopped the spread of communism? Was the objective to stop the spread of communism once and for all in all places of the globe, or was the objective only to stop the spread of communism in one particular region? And if the latter, why that region? And not other regions, if communism is an evil that must be stopped. Writing in the book American Military History, Vincent Demme noted, tactics have often seemed to exist apart from larger issues, strategies, and objectives. Yet in Vietnam, the army experienced tactical success and strategic failure. Success rests not on military progress, but on correctly analyzing the nature of the particular conflict, understanding the enemy's strategy, and assessing the strengths and weaknesses of allies. To put it another way, we won numerous battles in the Vietnam War. But ultimately, we suffered strategic failure because we did not understand or have a clear and measurable objective. Our objective was unclear, ambiguous, vague, and therefore, ultimately, impossible to achieve. Now, we've seen these kinds of mistakes repeat themselves over and over again since the Vietnam War, as we have sent military into other countries with less than clear and measurable objectives. But the lesson seems to be lost on us politically. Today, I'm not here to debate with you just war theory, and when it is a worthy cause for a nation to send their army into another nation and to invade another nation. But it seems like there are some parallels here with how many of us engage in spiritual warfare. We often fail to understand the objective of spiritual warfare. And so we often fight spiritual battles in a fleshly manner. Or we don't fight spiritual battles at all. We might consider a number of possible objectives a believer or a church might have in spiritual warfare. Perhaps we might see spiritual warfare in terms of increasing church attendance or involvement. And if more people are coming to church, then clearly we are making a mark against the kingdom of Satan. Or if more people are involved in ministries on the church calendar, then there is progress being made in the spiritual war. Now, if this is the objective, then certain tactics will be employed that result in bringing more people through the doors. Or in getting people more excited for what is happening on the church calendar. And it is altogether likely that these tactics will not need to be in any sense connected to spiritual warfare at all. Because secular businesses excel at getting people through the door. With no spiritual component to it whatsoever. Perhaps a person might see spiritual warfare in terms of behavior modification. Changing our behaviors. And so moralistic means might be employed. The same kinds of means any unbeliever might use to stop smoking, for example. Or to break some other bad habit that has infiltrated their lives. A strict regimen of self-discipline. Anyone with enough fortitude can stand. could be helpful in behavior modification with zero progress in spiritual warfare. And then there are those who see spiritual warfare, and the objective of spiritual warfare is binding demons, chasing away Satan, exorcisms and other such activity that exists in the unseen realm. Now certainly there is a component of spiritual warfare that involves demonic forces and that involves battling against Satan. And we'll see that as we go through our passage. But here we enter into a realm of people who are consumed by the paranormal. They're often more focused on the demonic than the divine. And they see a demon behind every sneeze and every sniffle. The objective usually becomes worldly and temporal, chasing away the cold demons or the demons of poverty And the true warfare is never engaged, and so it is never won. Now, I'm sure there's other ways that people misunderstand the nature and objective of spiritual warfare. But these are sufficient to show that in many corners of Christendom, spiritual warfare is wrongly understood. The objective is unclear, or it is a wrong objective that we are chasing after. And so the real battles are never fought, or if they are fought, they're fought in the wrong way with the wrong weapons and the wrong means and the wrong goals. In 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3-6, Paul describes how he waged war as an apostle. To address this problem that we face, which is the problem that Corinthians faced, which is that we fail often to understand the objective in the spiritual war. The objective of spiritual warfare is not church growth. It is not behavior modification. It is not even binding demonic powers. The objective of spiritual warfare is raising the dead to life. Now hopefully, by the number of amens that we just received, it's obvious to you I don't mean going down to the cemetery and calling corpses. out of the grave. This is not Lazarus' type of physical bodily resurrections. I am speaking of regeneration. I am speaking of the new birth of God taking a sinner who is spiritually dead and captive to Satan and raising that sinner to newness of life and setting him free through the Gospel. Spiritual warfare then? The objective becomes at that point to live in this newness of life that we have received by the grace of God in Christ. Now, I want to show you this because it's not necessarily obvious from this short text that we're going to look at this morning, but it is the foundation of our text and it is surrounding everything that Paul writes in this text. And so we're just going to journey ahead a little bit here. Paul begins chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians as a new section with a very stern change of tone. He's just rejoiced in God's indescribable gift at the end of chapter 9, and now he is coming after the false apostles. And the tone goes from, praise God for His indescribable gift to, I'm getting ready to come and I'm going to thump some people when I get there. And so this is a radical shift in chapter 10. He is dealing with people who are threatening the spiritual lives of the Corinthians. And he must deal with them. He doesn't relish the conflict. He doesn't look forward to it. But he understands it must be done. We have been enlisted in God's military. And we may not relish pulling out the guns and shooting. But it must be done. We must fight the battle if we would be faithful soldiers. And so, the Apostle understands this. And he's going to deal with these false teachers and he's going to deal with them sternly. And he explains why in chapter 12, verse 15. He says, I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. He says, I'm going to fight this battle because I care about your souls. Because the salvation of your soul is at stake in this warfare. Your life is on the line. Eternal life is at stake. Then in v. 19, he says, all this time, you have been thinking... starting in chapter 10, all of this argumentation. All this time, you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. Actually, it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your up-building, beloved. We are waging this war to build you up so that you can walk in Christ, so that you can be good soldiers fighting the good fight of faith. There's an emphasis here not on destruction, but on building. Not on death, but on life. And throughout this entire section, Paul describes this spiritual warfare, and he denounces these charlatans, these so-called super-apostles, not because he wants to destroy, not because he wants to kill, but because he wants to build up and he wants life to flourish. These Corinthians are, in fact, according to 2 Corinthians 5.17, new creations, aren't they? They've been given new life. Life was the purpose of the apostolic ministry. Chapter 13, verse 10, For this reason I am writing these things while absent, so that when present I need not use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me, note this now, for building up and not for tearing down. The apostolic ministry, Paul says, against Satan, the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a ministry of building up. It's not primarily a ministry of tearing down. The goal of the war is life. And then in v. 4 of this same chapter, speaking of our Lord, for indeed He was crucified. because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you." Jesus died and He was raised so that in our weakness, we might live with Him. The point of the war that Jesus fought on the cross was not destruction and it wasn't death. The point of the death of Christ is the life of His people. And we see all these ideas brought together here. The weakness of Christ resulting in His death, but the power of God bringing about His resurrection. Our weakness in Christ as we go through this world and we battle the flesh and the world and the devil, but our life with Him because of God's power. And this is what the warfare is ultimately about. It's the war that Jesus won on the cross. It is the war of life coming through weakness. God's power in raising the dead. Now, we are engaged in a genuine warfare, but we must fight in such a way that when we have won the war, our opponents are not laying dead on the battlefield, but they're alive in Christ. And the question is how? How do we achieve this objective of seeing those who are our enemies come to life in Christ? How do we fight a war where it results not in the destruction of our foes, but in the resurrection of our foes? And Paul highlights four points in this section, verses 3-6 of 2 Corinthians 10, that help us understand how we fight toward this objective of life triumphing over death in spiritual warfare. Number one, spiritual warfare results in life rather than death when we resist fleshly tactics. We must resist fleshly tactics if we are to achieve the objective that Jesus aimed for and achieved on the cross, which is life from the dead. We must resist fleshly tactics. Spiritual warfare cannot be fought successfully through fleshly means. If our objective is life from the dead, for those dead in sin, fleshly weapon will be strong enough to give them life. If our objective is building up the body of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit so that we live life in the Spirit and not in the flesh, no fleshly weapon is able to overcome the flesh. So the question must be asked, what does the apostle mean when he talks about fleshly tactics? What are these fleshly tactics that we sometimes are tempted to employ in spiritual warfare? The interpretation hinges on the word flesh in verse 3. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. And the word flesh can mean a number of different things. It can simply mean human. Anything to do with humanity. The Word became flesh. It doesn't have a sinful connotation there. It just means the Word was incarnated. He became a human being. John 1.14 Romans 1.3 Jesus was born a descendant of David according to the flesh as a human being. The word flesh can also mean that part of us that is bent on sin. Romans 8, 5-7, those who live according to the flesh must die. It doesn't mean human beings must die. It means those who indulge the fleshly nature must be condemned. Those who indulge sin in their lives are not walking by the Spirit. Or Galatians 5.13, do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. For the sinful remnants that exist in your body. Don't indulge selfish and sinful desires. Now, there's a third meaning for the flesh, and it's not one that we commonly think of when we hear the word flesh, but it is the idea of humanity with an emphasis on the weakness of humanity. The weakness of humanity. It's not necessarily the fact of sin, but it is the weakness that we have inherent because we are fallen. And this is the meaning that Paul seems to give this term in other places in 2 Corinthians. So for example, if you go back to 2 Corinthians 4, verse 11, we see the word flesh there. And it seems to me not sinful and not merely human, but humanity in its frailty. If we go to verse 7 in 2 Corinthians, we see the lead up to this. We have this treasure in earthen vessels. So that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not despairing. Persecuted, but not forsaken. Struck down, but not destroyed. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus. So that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. Notice the theme of the objective of spiritual warfare again. The life of Jesus being manifested in our weakness. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh, in these jars of clay, in these weak vessels. All of these afflictions in the body, carrying around the dying of Jesus, being given over to death, being perplexed and persecuted and afflicted, All of this speaks to the frailty of our humanity. The weakness of it. The same theme comes up in 2 Corinthians 7. Verse 5, For even when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus, not only by his coming, but also by the report And he goes on and on to talk about this comfort and the sorrow that he caused by the letter and this repentance. And we see here this idea of the flesh again being the idea of weakness. It is depressed. It is downcast. It is subject to affliction. It has no rest. It is afraid. It is feeble and fatigued and fragile. Now this seems to be the meaning in 2 Corinthians 10 verse 2 as well. I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh." Paul is accused by the super-apostles not of being a horrific sinner. He's accused of being weak. He's accused of being impotent. He's accused of being useless and frail and afraid. He is accused of living a contemptible life. A powerless life. A foolish life. This is the condemnation of the opponents of the Apostle Paul. He's a weakling. He has no strength. He has no power. His ministry is ineffective. He lives according to the weak, afflicted, crushed flesh. He's perplexed. He's confused. We come to v. 3. Notice that Paul acknowledges this is the case. We do live in the flesh, he says. I live in weakness. I live carrying around the dying of Jesus in my body. I live in a persecuted condition. I live perplexed and afflicted and weak and downcast. And in my body, I am absolutely impotent for any spiritual work. Paul doesn't deny this. He embraces the reality, I am a person who lives in the flesh. I can't get away from that. But, he says, we do not war according to the flesh. We might seem powerless, Paul says, but our warfare is not feeble. And here we have a note of irony, because it is precisely the tactics that are according to the flesh that the opponents argue are strong in spiritual warfare. These tactics then are the tactics that appear to be powerful to all outward appearances. They're the tactics that are successful in the world. They're the tactics that draw the crowds, that get results, that increase the bottom line. Maybe these are the tactics that come from the world of business. From the marketing firms. Maybe these are the tactics that have arisen from the halls of the academy. They have the outward show of wisdom to this passing age. The world is impressed by these tactics. But Paul says these tactics, you think they're strong. But the reality is they're according to the flesh and they cannot give life to the dead. We must know our objective. And once we come to terms with the reality that our objective is nothing less than life from the dead, we will forsake tactics that, though they might impress the world, are utterly impotent to bring life to the dead. And we will see that what looks really weak and really foolish to the world is in reality the power of God for salvation. 2. Not only must we resist fleshly tactics, but spiritual warfare results in life rather than death when we crush demonic fortresses. Crush demonic fortresses. We see this in v. 4 and the first part of v. 5. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. Notice that Paul continues here the contrast between the strong and the weak. Our weapons are not of the flesh. They're not weak. But they are divinely powerful, Paul says. Our weapons are not humanly devised weapons. Such weapons of the flesh would be utterly powerless in the spiritual battle. But they are divinely powerful. Our weapons are energized by the omnipotence of God. They are devised and given by God Himself to us. Now I know what you're all saying right now is what are these weapons? Well, you're going to have to wait for Dr. Adams in the next session because that's what he's going to be talking about. And I don't want to step on his toes, wet your appetite a little bit. But when he's talking about these spiritual weapons in the next hour, I want you to remember that these weapons that he speaks of from God's Word were not invented by men. They are not invested with the power of man, but they are God's weapons to us to use as we battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And these weapons, the Apostle says, are effective in destroying fortresses. We have to understand before we can build up, we must tear down. Before God gives life, He puts to death. It says in the Scriptures, the Lord kills and makes alive. The Lord takes life so that He might give it. And so part of our objective is the tearing down, the leveling of fortresses. You say, well, what are these fortresses? Well, Paul spells it out in v. 5. Speculation. and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. The idea of speculations here is not so much the idea of people sitting around just pontificating about things that they feel unsure about. The word speculations is rendered by the ESV arguments. And the term means a conclusion drawn through the use of the cognitive or reasoning process. A conclusion that people come to after they've sat down and thought about something for a while. Not some haphazard guess. But what we might call now in our post-enlightenment day, rationalism. Rationalism. The deifying of reason. Our weapons are powerful to destroy these conclusions that unbelievers draw and build up in their minds against the truth of the gospel. And they are powerful to destroy every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God. This speaks of rebellious doctrines that reject or deny the authority of the living God. These fortresses then are the towers to which people flee to escape the reality of truth, the authority of God, the teaching of His Word, and the supremacy of His Son. They run into these towers to hide from the Lamb. And they are sophisticated arguments. They are sophisticated conclusions. And to the world, they appear rock solid in their contradiction of the Word of God. They are deceptions that convince the entire world that man is true and God has found a liar. Now, I call these demonic fortresses because Scripture tells us we're not smart enough on our own to come up with these kinds of sophisticated arguments. These come from demons. 1 Timothy 4.1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. You say, what are the doctrines of demons? Revelation 9. Verse 20, The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons. and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. And they did not repent of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their immorality, nor of their thefts." What are these doctrines of demons? These worship of demons? It is idolatry. idolatry, everything that is raised up, all of these arguments that are raised up against the knowledge of God that bring people into bondage to idols, to immorality, to sorcery, to murders, to hate, to theft. 1 Corinthians 10.20, the Corinthians would have been familiar with this verse. No, but I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to become sharers in demons. The false systems of the world were not invented by men. They are lies of the devil. These fortresses that human beings flee to to escape from Christ were built by Satan. They were built by demons. They are doctrines of demons. And when men run in there and offer their sacrifices to their idols, they are worshiping demons. As we consider our objective then, we realize we are not arguing with human beings over human systems of thought. We are not dealing with human contrivances, human arguments. When the Gospel is brought to bear on a person, it smashes against a demonic fortress. Will we go against spiritual strongholds built by the devil with slick marketing? Will we battle against demonic fortresses with self-help programs from the world? Will we engage lofty arguments that are raised up against the knowledge of God by imitating the world that hates God and loves these arguments? No. I tell you this morning, the only way we will tear down and demolish fortresses founded on doctrines of demons is with spiritual weapons. Weapons that are divinely powerful. Weapons that have been forged in the fires of God's holiness and grasped by the hands of men who will wield them in the power of the Spirit through faith in Christ. That is the only way. Third, spiritual warfare results in life rather than death when we become liberating captors. When we become liberating captors. Now, the phrase liberating captor is an oxymoron. We almost never think of a captor as somebody who is a liberator, right? Those are sort of opposite things. The very definition of the word captor is to take somebody captive, to imprison them, restrict their freedom. And yet here in verse 5, we see that we must become liberating captors. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Our objective is to capture. It is to capture. And I argue that only as we capture people, only as we become captors, can we be true liberators. Sinners are in these fortresses. They think they are there freely. And they have a lot of leisure time that Satan gives them while they're in these prisons of death. And there's games, and there's cable TV, and there's sports, and there's a weight room, and they have three square meals a day. And so they feel like they're doing okay in these fortresses. They feel free. They want to go work out? They can go work out. They want to go watch the ball game? They can watch the ball game. They want to go have rec time in the field? That's fine. They can go have rec time in the field. And they think that they're free? What they don't understand is they're awaiting a final judgment where condemnation is assured if they do not get rescued from these fortresses. And their freedom is only an illusion. It appears now, but it is only temporary. The passing pleasures of sin are passing. But the divine judgment on sin is eternal. And so our objective then is to set people free by taking them captive specifically here in reference to their thoughts, or perhaps a better translation, their minds. Their minds. The word translated thought there is used almost exclusively in 2 Corinthians in the New Testament. You don't find it almost anywhere else. The only other place is Philippians 4.7 where it's used in the New Testament. And any time it is used in 2 Corinthians in regard to a human being, one time it's used in reference to Satan, but the rest it's used in reference to human beings, and it always has to do with the mind. The mind. Not an individual thought, but the mind itself. And so the meaning is not what people commonly use this verse to mean, that we're to take these thoughts that sort of are flying through our heads, captive one by one, and get them to obey Christ. The meaning is we are to take our entire mind, not free-flowing individual thoughts, but the very source of our thoughts, captive to the obedience of Christ. This is not about specific thoughts. It's about your entire system of thinking coming under the obedience of Christ so that your individual thoughts honor Christ. It's not about grabbing bad thoughts that have got out and trying to drag them into obedience. It's about having a mind that is transformed by the Word of God so bad thoughts aren't coming out. And so this means it's not really about the mind exclusively at all. It's about the entire person coming under obedience to Christ. We use the mind in the Scriptures because the mind is the battlefield. We were enemies of God, it says in Colossians, in our minds. So the goal here is to take captive not just thoughts, but minds. and to set them free from their enslavement to sinful, evil thoughts that produce sinful, evil desires and actions, and set them free to slavery to Christ. There's almost a spatial sense here of leading people from one place to another, leading them out of a demonic fortress and into Jesus' camp. And by doing so, we are liberating them from sin and from death. And so our objective becomes ever clearer. It is to liberate captives by taking them captive. It is to destroy the fortresses where they hide to bring them out and to take them to Christ so that they will belong to Him. The imagery here reminds me of an epic battle in Lord of the Rings or some other movie where you have these vast fortresses that are built up and they seem to be impregnable. And you've got to break through those fortresses to win the battle. How are you going to do that? How are you going to break through demonic fortresses? Well, I'll tell you, you're not going to do it by putting Starbucks in the lobby of your church. Weapons of the flesh cannot fight this battle. Apple Computer might have an unassailable business model, but I assure you, they have not torn down one spiritual stronghold with all the billions of dollars they have made. We fail to understand our objective, we'll fail to fight. And then we'll obviously fail to win. And we'll waste a lot of time and a lot of money and we'll go through a lot of people fighting fleshly battles in a fleshly way. And the most devastating thing about all of it is that the world will pat us on the back. And they'll tell us we're good people. And we're doing a good work. And we're serving our community. But when it comes to spiritual warfare, we'll have not made one dent in the kingdom of Satan. Lastly, I've got two minutes left, so we'll try to run through this last one here in a hurry. Number four, spiritual warfare results in life rather than death when we reject unrepentant evildoers. Reject unrepentant evildoers. Verse 6, and we are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. I just want to say two things about that verse. Number one, we must take time. It requires patience. We must take time to assure that discipline falls only on those who are truly unrepentant. Paul was ready to punish the disobedient people in Corinth. But first, he wanted to give them time to pray and to think and to evaluate and to repent and to bear some fruit before he came in and started doing whatever it is he was going to do to discipline the unrepentant. And that's why he says whenever your obedience is complete, church, whenever you have recognized this and you are now walking according to the truth, then we'll come in and we'll clean house. Paul was ready to do it now. And we know from the Apostle's personality that he's a man of action, right? He gets things done. But he says, I'm going to forbear out of love. I'm going to wait. I'm going to let you think about this letter. I'm going to let you repent. I'm going to let you kick these guys out on your own. And then once you've done that, I'm coming. And that's the second thing I want to say is that after patience has been exercised, this must be done. It must. If you read through the rest of 2 Corinthians, you'll see what a cancer these false apostles are in the body of Christ. They have to be removed. They threaten the health and the vitality and the very life of the body itself. Some people think that Paul here, when he talks about this punishment, has an Ananias and Sapphira sort of striking dead of the false teachers in the church in mind. And he's an apostle, so he's got a realm of authority that nobody in this room has. But we know what we have, right? And that's called church discipline. Removing the wicked from our midst. Rejecting a factious man after a first and second warning, knowing that such a person is self-condemned and sinning. If our objective is nothing less than seeing those who are dead become alive and those who are alive walking in the Spirit, we must remove the spiritual terrorists from the church. They contradict everything in our mission. They seek to thwart our objective. They are deadly and dangerous and they cannot be tolerated. Spiritual warfare cannot result in life rather than death if we naively let wolves dance around the sheep. We must reject unrepentant evildoers. Well, do you know your objective in spiritual warfare? Do you know what you're trying to do? It's not about chasing demons. It's not about packing out the church building with massive numbers. That's not to say we wouldn't rejoice to see massive numbers of people come to know Christ and be made alive from the dead. Obviously, that would be a great joy to all of our hearts. being derogatory about numbers, but numbers are not the objective. It's not about making society more moral and preserving a Judeo-Christian ethic in the United States. Our objective is nothing less than resurrection from the dead, seeing those who are dead in sin come alive in Christ. We wage war, but unlike the world, we wage war not with the goal of killing our opponents, Because we understand our opponents are already dead. We wage war with the aim of bringing them life through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so to that end, we must reject fleshly tactics. We must crush demonic fortresses. We must become liberating captors. And we must reject unrepentant evildoers. This is our task. This is our objective. Our weapons are divinely powerful. for accomplishing it. Let's pray together. Father, thank You for these weapons. Lord, we look forward in a few minutes to learning more about them. And we thank You that You have given us an objective that is not to be fought on terms of the flesh, but it is an objective that only You by Your Spirit through Your Word can accomplish the giving of life to the dead. We thank You that that battle was victorious in our lives for those of us who know Christ. and that You have given us life. And we do ask that, Lord, if there's anyone in this room today who does not know You, that as they've heard this word and as they hear the other speakers this morning, that You would give life to their dead hearts. You would raise them from the dead. Father, equip us for the battle. May we be good soldiers. May we be faithful in this fight. And we pray it in Jesus' name,