I was deeply touched this morning as I was walking over here. I think it's so neat that there are a lot of unsung heroes that have given their lives for the Lord and missionary service. I think it's wonderful that you have named buildings. After some of these people that are not known. Two people that they taught us about so much when I was in Bible college. I never dreamed that you would name a building after them. I was walking up the dirt road and it said apartment A and apartment B. In college they always said missionary A and missionary B. Now you guys named a building for them. That's encouraging. How do we help somebody that's losing? We're talking about winning. We're talking about being on the winning side. What happens when you're not winning? What happens when obviously somebody is losing? How can I help them? That's what this book is all about. These books are extremely excellent books. It is very reasonable and you'll find them. This is your position in Christ. This one is from that position. How do I deal with the forces of darkness when I'm losing or I sense a bondage in my life? It is Neil Anderson and they are on the back table. Victory over Darkness and The Bondage Breaker. Some other books if you want to read in this area. As I said I went back and re-studied. A little thin book. It answers a question that is going around and maybe we will deal with it one day. In a little detail. That is, what about Christians and the demonic world? Chuck Swindoll's little book. Demonism. It is real simple. It is a little pamphlet. He deals with the Christians that he removes spirits from. It's in there. Dr. Fred Dickinson, the head theologian at Moody Bible Institute, wrote a book this thick. Called, Demon Possession and the Christian A New Perspective. He didn't like the title. Moody made him use the title. But so many of the conservative churches wrote Moody about that book. Because of the title that Dickinson didn't want anyway. Now Cosway is printing the book and Moody isn't. If you want a real heavy theological explanation of every verse in the New Testament practically. All the Greek studies on it and exactly what it is saying about the Christian and the demonic world. That is one of the books. The book that has been the most helpful to me... Dr. Unger wrote my textbook in Bible school which was called Biblical Demonology. In that book he made a statement that Christians cannot have demonic problems. He wrote five books after that and said I made a terrible mistake. I made a terrible mistake when I wrote that. I was writing it from sitting in the office. The book he wrote that I think is the classic book in this whole area of demonology. Is, What Demons Do to Saints by Dr. Merle Unger. The theologian at Dallas Theological Seminary for years. That book was out of print because the conservative wrote Moody and said you shouldn't print this book and so on. Praise God a good friend of mine was just made the vice president. Moody Publications and Moody Radio Services and all of that. Guess what's coming out this spring? Dr. Unger's book, What Demons Do to Saints. That's probably the most classic. That man is brilliant. He did a super job. You will love that book. I know you'll love that book. It's just excellent. That's a few books. Any area of your life that you don't want God to take control of. Satan has the right to take control of it. You know there's only two forces isn't there? That's all there is. Either you're being influenced by the Spirit of God or you're being influenced by the enemy. We need to turn our life over to the Spirit of God and be influenced by Him. In all areas of our life. This morning I thought it would be nice if maybe we would look at the armor. When I started reading books... ...on spiritual warfare I got discouraged. Because as I read the armor, if you've done any reading... ...everybody says the armor means something else. I just want one book that tells it. Then I read someone else's and they say something else. I'm going, don't do that to me. Now you got me confused. I think it is because the armor is typical. That is why we are getting more different ideas. I would like to give you more general ideas. You can be specific, but the armor is significantly important. Warren Wiersbe and his wife put on the armor every single morning. We had a prayer. An armor prayer. I think we have Worsby's armor prayer in here. We have an armor prayer that we got from Charles Stanley. Charles Stanley says he puts the armor over his pajamas. Then he gets up. It is amazing as there are men and women of God. That are doing successful damage to the kingdom of darkness. These people are into warfare. They are into putting on the armor. They are into meeting the day with God's armor. If you are being defeated in your life, you have to ask yourself, am I putting on the armor? Do I understand what I am putting on? I mean, I will put on the helmet and all this. That is not what He is talking about. He is talking about what does this mean? It is truth that I am putting on. Because it says, having done all to stand. I haven't done all to stand if I don't put the armor on. That's exactly what Paul is teaching there. If you're not putting the armor on, you're not doing everything that you need to do to meet the day. And to meet the enemy of the day. And to meet all of the pressures and everything that happen in the day. God has given us His grace, which is the empowering. God has given us the armor, which protects us from the attacks of the enemy. Any piece of the armor that you don't put on, you're in trouble. Because you become vulnerable in that particular area of attack. Let's look at the armor. From my perspective, which I want you to know is the right one. Now you're going to get the truth finally. As I was studying the armor and teaching this... I was teaching it in our church. We went to a marvelous church in St. Louis. The best church I've ever been to in my whole life. Hope Church. I don't know if any of you have been to St. Louis. I've been to Hope Church. Our pastor was 70 years of age and retired. I said, that's wrong. I said, you're just now becoming credible. I can't believe you've been around long enough to say something. What a tragedy the church lost such a godly, godly man. It is a neatest church. In Ephesians chapter 6. He tells us to take on the whole armor of God. We are to stand against the attacks of the enemy. In the armor. As I was studying the armor, I began to realize I had... ...took the names of Satan. I told you to do that. Just take his names. Look up those names. What do they mean? Because it tells me something of what he does. Because names are... ...descriptive. In fact, everybody's name. Names visualize achievements. Do you realize that? When a man had a wrong name... ...for God's purpose, he changed the man's name. So, his name would fit God's purpose. That is why it is important to give kids meaningful names. A good name is rather to be chosen than wealth and riches. You want to have meaningful names and to know what your name means. If a child knows what their name means, every time you say that name it visualizes achievement. One child, if you've never done this, you should have done it years ago. It's because it's gotten popular now. The name Cynthia. Cynthia. A girl gets a baby book and looks up Cynthia and it says moon. She says that is neat. That is a lot of spiritual significance there. It is quite spiritually significant. What is a moon? A moon is a reflector of what? Light. Whose light does the moon reflect? The sun's light. So, Cynthia means a reflector of God's son's light. When a little girl knows that, and some kids say, Cynthia let's go in the bushes. She has been called into darkness. When you call Cynthia to go into darkness, what does her name mean? To be a reflector of God's light. It is neat to know. What is the meaning of your name? Give your children meaningful names and so on. I did Satan's name. It seemed to me that there was a piece of armor for every name of Satan. As I begin to put the armor down and look at what He does. Because it tells me what He does. God gave me armor to protect me from what He does. It is interesting even the order of the armor. I feel as Fred Dickinson and some of the others that the first three are... ...imputed truth. They are mine. I need to stand in that, but they are mine. The other three I have to take up. The Greek seems to indicate that. There is all this theological stuff. Basically the first three seem to be those are mine. The other three if I don't pick them up I don't have them. Let's look at them from that perspective. The first three is, stand there for having your loins skirt a bit with truth. It is amazing. The first thing we usually don't put on is the belt. Yet, it is the first piece that God says you need to put on is the belt. In fact, I think it is interesting for victory before you put the armor on. Warren Worsby says, the first step of victory is getting out of bed. It is amazing how many macho men are pinned by the sheets. If you can't get out of bed you are in trouble. I didn't say want to get out of bed. I said if you can't get out of bed. One of the battles is saying no to the flesh. I'm laying in bed losing the battle before the day started. Did I tell you my favorite people of all the missionaries? I told you that didn't I? The Gulf Force of China. I think we were sharing it. Did I share it with the group? See you are old like me. I can't remember what I said. But getting up in the morning and all that stuff. It is important. I am a night person that became a day person. Because I couldn't be both. In order for me to get to the office and begin to start ministering at five o'clock in the morning. I have to go to bed a little earlier at night. I can't do both ends or else I eat the bread of sorrows. I'm what the Word of God says is a vain person. Who stays up late and tries to rise up early. You may need to turn your clock around. You can do it. I never thought a night person could be a morning person. It took time, but it happened. It says, put on this belt. In the belt of truth. Isn't that interesting? It is the very first piece. If you study the armor, in fact the drawings you have are interesting. This was the result of a Sunday School class I was teaching. We had an artist in the class. He drew me the fellow with armor. He had the English shield and was the knight. I usually try to be real gracious and kind. It is real hard for me not to be. Even though I'm groaning on the inside, I smile on the outside. I'm going, oh no, I just can't. This isn't right. I just said, I'm sorry. I said, this isn't that. I said, this is an English armor. This has nothing to do with the Roman army. He said, okay. I said, I'll draw you the right one. He went to the library and got a three volume... set of color photos or color drawings... of what the Roman soldier wore... every few years it changed. We figured out when Ephesians was written he looked in the book... of the fellow that in the library and history... felt that this was the most close to what they would have... would have worn at Rome, and that's what you're looking at. Now, he put a couple crosses on it that were not there. Outside of that, that is pretty much what the Roman soldier wore at the time Paul wrote the book. So, you've got a pretty accurate picture of a Roman soldier with a belt. If you realize there are certain things that hook on to the belt. What is really significant here is that the thing we are to put on is what? Basically is what? Truth. Why is truth so significant? Who am I going to meet today? The father of what? The father of lies. God says you must put on the truth or you can be deceived. Have you ever been deceived? They tell me that the cereal box is just settled. Right? It says it's just settled. That's why you only got a half a box of this stuff. Isn't cereal exciting? Six dollars, you know. It's got one of those things in there that decodes. That's encouraging. You know, or whatever. To be deceived. There is something about... ...being deceived that really upsets you. Be careful. You have one... ...who is looking for ways to deceive you daily. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church. He says, be careful. I don't want you beguiled or deceived like he was. Then he says be careful that you don't receive a spirit of a different kind. This is the next verse. Don't be deceived. Be careful. If I was a fish and my son would obviously be a fish. I'm going to have a father to son fish talk. I'd say son, I want to tell you something. Every time you see a worm all scrunched up, don't go for it. Because there is a hook in it. In Satan's attack there will be a whole bunch of truth all scrunched up. But you know what is in it? Just a little hook of lie. A deception. It is just amazing. You are walking down the hall and you are going to get a cup of coffee if you know where they hide it. So the visitors don't get any. Drink up all the good coffee. You walk over to the thing and you see somebody and you say hi and they don't speak to you. You know what he is like anyway. You get all these thoughts. I wonder who he thinks he is. It is amazing what can go on up here. All this deception. I remember, and these are Wycliffe translators. Remember these gals spoke at one of the colleges I was teaching at. It was really neat. The girl was sharing how she was getting upset by her partner. It is hard to believe isn't it? They were out in the jungles some place somewhere. She got all her stuff unpacked first. She got the side of the place that didn't leak. She always went to the river first. As if she was going to run out of water. Always brushed her teeth and was always first. That was just eating her up. Of course the enemy was helping and fanning the fires a little bit. Boy, I'll tell you they almost came to blows over nothing. But just a lot of thinking here. Why is this not right? Why is she always first? Why? All this kind of stuff. Boy, be careful. Don't be deceived. Be careful. Put on the truth. Ask God to make you sensitive to truth. That you would not take the hook of deception. Of being deceived in any way. As you come against the father of lies. Talking about deception, we just told you of a young missionary. Overseas for less than a year. I didn't even tell you about him. I just talked to him last week. Went over to share the gospel. Came back. The head of the mission said, if you were in the Middle East and someone was shot and they were dying. You had 10 minutes to share the gospel, then what would you say? He said, I'm not sure. I don't know what I would tell him. He said, I really believe that... That we ought to love one another and keep the Beatitudes. This is a conservative Bible college graduate in less than one year. He came back extreme liberal. Unbelievable isn't it? I mean it's unbelievable. This guy was the most outstanding student that school has ever put out. Brilliant. He has been wiped out in less than a year. He doesn't know what he believes. He is not sure that salvation is real. He is sure that scripture is not inspired. In less than a year. The enemy did a number on him. He is terribly deceived. Now I know if this guy is going to get out of it. I am trusting God he is going to get out of it. But look at all the wasted years. He is struggling now. I don't know if I believe what I believe. Terrible, terrible thing. I've asked this, I want to ask you this, but I ask this in churches. This is the attack. What kind of attack? Can you have it in your notes? I'll ask, how many people here ever wondered if God's word is really true? Ever wondered that? Can you imagine translating it and wondering if it is true? I'm sorry I'm laughing. That's terrible. Can you imagine the conflicts? I'm translating this. I'm sure it's true. I am sure it's true, but those thoughts are coming. Is this really true? Did Jonah really get swallowed? Are you swallowing yet? Did it really rain? Was it really a whole flood? On and on and on. This is amazing. If I don't put on the truth and I begin to receive some of that deception. I'm headed for severe troubles. That is why he says, put on truth every day. Stand in the truth. Do you know that the belt of truth has four cords? Four cords. Remember a three-fold cord is hard to break. What about a four-fold cord? The belt of truth. First of all, there is the person of truth. Who is the person of truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. Then we have been given what? The word of truth. We have been indwelled by who? The Spirit of Truth. He says that we are to get together in the church. Which is called the Pillar of Truth. It's interesting isn't it? 4-4 Cold of Truth. Put on the truth every day. Stand in truth and you'll stand well. If you don't stand in truth you're not going to stand. I need to know what? Truth. I need to be in the Word of Truth. Not just for academia. Not just for my job, but for myself. For myself. Get into truth for yourself. So, be sure that the first thing you put on is truth. The second thing that we're told to put on. The belt of truth. The next one is the one that helped me. The most of all the armor. The breastplate of righteousness. Often the major attacks that we have as Christians follow tremendous victories. We see that with Elijah. I had gone through the Pacific and I never dreamed that the young people in Australia... ...would be so excited about the series I was doing. I had never been to Australia. I didn't know. We were doing how to develop the character of Christ. How to have the attitude of Christ. It was a series. The teenagers and the college students were pouring into the churches. Then they would say, well you only spoke an hour. Would you come to a house? I go to a house. There would be like 200 kids in a house. I would have to step over them. They couldn't see me. They would be in rooms sitting all over the floor. I couldn't believe it. It was just awesome. Have you ever had something like that? It's wonderful. God just allowed you to. It was such a blessing. Just all over Tasmania, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and just everywhere I went. God was the right time for me to be there. It was just beautiful. I came back and I didn't even need an airplane. I was flying. It was just so neat. I was so thrilled that God had used me in such a way. I just couldn't believe that God would use me like that. I got back. Our mission is a little different than this. We have a square mile of property with the mission I was with. As soon as my car went through the gates of the mission, I went into a depression. I mean you can't believe it. It was horrible. I thought I had been depressed before. I hadn't been. I think I mentioned it was like being in Australia. You get on these trains and all of a sudden you go in the tunnel. I was on the train and it was heading for the tunnel. I didn't want to go in that tunnel, but I didn't know how to get off. The thing was moving and the doors were shut. It was like I'm a victim. I went into that tunnel and it got deeper, and deeper, and deeper. I had irrational fears. I didn't tell anybody. They locked me up. I didn't want to be locked up. I was the most normal guy at that mission. My phone would ring and I would say, I can't answer that phone. If you ask me, why can't you answer the phone? I don't know why I can't answer the phone, but it is going to be awful. That is why. Was it ever awful? No, it was never awful. I had irrational fears. Every day got worse than the day before. The one thing I never thought about was maybe resisting the enemy. Isn't that smart? I never thought about that for three months. That possibly this could be the enemy. It never entered my mind. I would go to bed at night deeply depressed, and wake up the morning worse. Has that ever happened to you? I mean I was worse. I thought, what can I do? It was just getting worse. It was awful. I would sit and stare and everybody would be afraid of me. Some of the teachers said, you came in the office and sat and stared. We all one by one walked out. I didn't miss them. I was just staring at the wall. I was so depressed. The one thing that just thrilled me was the breastplate of righteousness. I felt so unworthy. I felt so awful. That I would weep every morning thinking that Christ... Was willing to give to me his righteousness. That would guard my heart. I was being attacked by the accuser. I was being attacked by all of this. But I knew I had the righteousness of Christ. You know that is so beautiful. Because when Satan came to Jesus in the gospel of John. Jesus said this, there was nothing in me he could lay his fingers on. Isn't that wonderful? Is that true of you? Can Satan find some things to lay his finger on in your life? In you he can. But if you put on the righteousness of Christ, guess what? There is nothing that he can lay his finger on when he points at you. Right? Because I am standing in Christ. I can't tell you. We are amazed at the amount of information the spirit world knows. I don't ask the spirit world for information. But this youth pastor we told you about that was just here two days ago that was so bad. The worst case of demonization we've ever had in our life. This young man was staying with a medical doctor. In another state. We were speaking in that major city as we were doing all the major cities in America. Teaching pastors on the spirit world. This year and we stayed in this doctor's home. This young man was there. That is 1,500 miles away from where I live. The young man said, you know there's so many things going on in my life. I'm sure there's some kind of demonic thing happening. Would you pray with me? I said, sure I'd be glad to. A missionary from Austria, this heart surgeon, and myself met with this young man. When we prayed he faded off and spirits were there. They spoke out of him and all of this. They said, Logan you're in trouble. That's interesting. I said, why am I in trouble? They said, we know what church you go to. They said the name of my church 1500 miles away. I said, why am I in trouble? It's a good church. They said, we know these men in the church. They named the men. One of them, I can't pronounce his name right, but the demons did. It's because it's a foreign name. He said, we know that these men are fighting with each other. One of them supports you. He has just gone almost bankrupt. I said, that is a lie. He doesn't support me. They said, we know. He gives money to the center. They know who my supporters are. I couldn't believe it. Bill Gothard was in the home. He couldn't believe it either. He was not there, but he knows the fellow. Bill was sharing with the pastor. He said, pastor you better start believing in demons. They know all about you. You better start knowing about them. I called this man on the phone. He hadn't yet told his wife. It was financial setback. The only person that knew was him. The spirit world and some financial people. 1500 miles away. They were talking out of a youth pastor that had never been... to Sioux City. About people there, in a church, in a trove. It is amazing. You know when you sit down, if you ever do this you have a fear. I have read these books. Demons in Many Lands was a book we had to read at Moody Press. It is about a hundred years old. You sit down and you are going to pray with somebody and they go, Aha! We know about you. Oh brother, everybody is here. I'm going to have my sins reeled off by this person, so forget it. I'm not going to get into this. You know when they do that. When we sit down and they're accused. They'll do that. They'll say, we know all about you Logan. I said, yeah I know all about me too. I said, I want you to know one thing. I'm not coming against you in my flesh. I'm coming against you in the righteousness of Christ. You can find no fault in that. We need to realize that. We meet the day in the righteous of Christ. The accuser of the brethren can find no fault with Christ's righteousness. Aren't you glad He has given it to you? Aren't you glad I can face the day not in my righteousness? Because all my righteousness is what? Filthy rags. But I stand not looking within trying to find something good. You know that was part of my depression. I really believe. I kept trying to find something good within me. I couldn't agree with God. There has got to be something good in me. I'm really not all that bad. I'm really quite a nice guy. Don't ask my kids. I kept thinking, I really am. It was a real battle. I just couldn't say, Lord I am. I think that was the problem. I don't know what was the problem. Three months it was terrible. I just kept grabbing the righteous. In those days if you got a wound in the chest or in the head. It was almost always fatal. I'll tell you, you start receiving wounds in your heart from the accuser of the brethren. It can almost be fatal. You need God's protection. You need to put on that protection every day. Thank God you are standing in Christ. The enemy can find no fault in Him or no fault with Him. The third piece of the armor that you want to put on is with our shoes. The gospel of peace. There are many applications for the gospel of peace. You can... Make your applications. You know in battle... ...one of the worst things that could happen was to lose your footing. You can imagine in a sword fight slipping. We need to stand firm. Now, I'll just make an application. It's interesting. Most of the people that come to us... ...feel, and if they're really severely demonized. They feel that they've committed the unpardonable sin. It is just like one of the symptoms. We have all kinds of check sheets and everything. They check off their problems. The kind of problems they are having. We can determine whether it is just a psychological problem. Whether it is just a physical problem. Or whether it is a combination problem. Where it is a demonic and a physical, demonic and a psychological. What is going on here? Try to determine the full extent of the whole thing. But it is so amazing how they feel that somehow God has cast them off. Or they have committed the unpardonable sin. Or maybe they were never saved in the first place. We are talking about missionaries and pastors. Evangelical missionaries and pastors. Men that have had good ministry. There are people that have come to us that if I said their names you would know who they were. They were having tremendous battles and losing. They knew it and they were crying out for help. They didn't know how to get the victory, or they just couldn't seem to get the victory. In these things in their life. You cannot always tell by looking. I share what I shared with before. He doesn't care I share. The area director for Campus Crusades. Over, I don't know how many states. Fourteen years. This fellow had a breakdown. Went to Minotaur clinic and spent a lot of money. Came out of there was on drugs and didn't seem to help. He had another breakdown. Had shock treatments at St. Luke's. They scrambled his brains and he couldn't remember anything. His wife said it was like living with a zombie. She could never go through that again until finally his brain came back. Here he is. High in Campus Crusade. High leadership. Yet something is radically wrong. All the treatment of either the Christian counseling didn't work. The secular counseling didn't work. Yet he is still struggling. I mean badly. He is about headed for another downfall. A couple of the campus leaders of some of the universities for Crusade called me. I hadn't started working with Crusade. They said, could we bring. .. This man here there's got to be something more wrong, because nothing's working. Obviously there's something wrong. I said, sure bring him in. I was at the mission. They came to the mission. One guy had been a football player at his university. Now he's over that university. This guy had been their boss. Now with these breakdowns he had to get out of the ministry. He just couldn't function. They brought him in and we're sitting there. We just prayed. We started praying. This fellow started sobbing uncontrollably. Well, I knew the demons were crying through his body. Here these guys don't know me. Here is a guy sobbing. I just said, Joe are you crying? They're saying, if this counselor can't tell crying we better leave. He's got some real problems. I didn't mean I don't hear crying. I'm saying, Joe are you the one that's crying in that body? He said, I don't think so. He's sobbing and tears are running. His nose is running. He's sobbing and crying. I hadn't done anything. I'm just praying. I'm going, oh no this is going to be one of those tough ones. Then I just started praying some more and Joe fell on the floor. He started crawling like a snake on his stomach. Area director for Campus Crusade. Just writhing. This football player and this other guy at the two campuses reached down to pull him up. They can't get him off the floor. Because you don't realize you don't deal with a demonized person with force. You deal with authority over the demons. They couldn't get him up. They couldn't get him off the floor. He was just a little guy. After we got through. I thought I'm not going to stop praying. This is just to try to get me to stop praying. I'm just going to keep praying. God's protection and all of that. We got through praying. As soon as I stopped he got up off the floor and sat down. He looked at me and said, do you think I have spirit problems? I said, do you usually crawl like a snake at a prayer meeting? He said it was the most unusual thing. He said, I knew I was on the floor. I don't know how I got there. I just felt myself being forced down. It was like I was taken over and I don't know what happened. That man is wonderfully free today. Wonderfully free. But his demonic problems came out of psychological. Now we do have psychologists in our clinic. We have medical doctors that are available and all of that. We want to treat the whole person, right? Not everything is demonic. Not everything is psychological. Not everything is medical. Sometimes it's all three. Sometimes it's only two of them. And we need to try to discern. Because once you lose your footing. Once a person begins to lose their footing they are in trouble. In the battle. So, the sandals of peace. I think literally that the sandals of peace have to do with me knowing that the battle has already been won. The most unbiblical thing I could say to you if we meet is say... Brother, do you have the peace? No, pardon me. Brother, do you have the victory? That's not biblical. Are you a Christian? You've got the victory, brother. What I need to ask you is, are you standing in it? The victory has already been won. We don't have to go out and get the victory. We need to stand in the victory that is already ours. Isn't that right? Who's the victor? The Lord Jesus Christ. If I am in Christ, I can stand in His victory. If I stand in His victory, I'll have peace. In the midst of the battle. Knowing that the battle has already been won. The war has been won. I'm just in a skirmish here. If I keep that in mind, I can have peace in the midst of the most fierce battle. Who do I meet? I meet my adversary. The one who is opposing me. Whenever you start out to do something for the Lord. You have an opposer who is going to oppose that. I need to realize that I already have the victory. The gal that I love is Corrie Ten Boom. I think I'm even going to hug her. I usually don't hug ladies, but I think I'll hug that lady in heaven. What a blessing she's been. You know her story. You know how she turned that Billy Graham film they did. She was doing that needle point and was all that tangled stuff. She turned it over Christ as victor. You know what's interesting? This is just a freebie. You know what's interesting about godly people? That I've seen? Is that godly people don't know they're godly. Did you ever notice that? If you ask Corrie Ten Boom who was godly, who was godly? Her sister. Right? It was her sister. It wasn't her. Because she said, you don't know me. It was my sister. Isn't that neat? As we get conformed into the image of Christ. The more we get conformed and the more we look at Him. The more we realize that God has an awful lot of work to do. In us individually doesn't He? We just say, well good Lord just keep going because we are changed. In that image. Let me share one other thing with you. That is in suffering. It says that don't be surprised when you suffer. All of us are going to suffer. Who likes to suffer? You say, well I've never suffered. Don't get discouraged brother, you will. It's all part of the program. Because without the fires there is no purifying. I have to go through the fires. I hate going through the fires. I don't even like the word fire. There is something about it I don't like. I don't like going through the fires. You know what is interesting? As you read in Peter. Where it says, don't be amazed that you are going through fiery trials. Don't shove it away, but rejoice. Remember when the three... Hebrew young men were thrown into the fiery furnace. What was burnt? Just the ropes that bound them. They were set free in that. Those on the outside looking in, what did they see? They saw the Lord Jesus Christ manifested in their sufferings. But you know I've looked and looked and looked and I see nowhere... that it said that the three young men saw the Lord Jesus Christ. But others watching them suffer saw Christ. Isn't that true? If we suffer and draw from God's grace... in the battle that people can see Christ... in our countenance. That's where He is seen. He is the health of our face. That's where you see Jesus. Is in the face of people. As we are suffering, if we draw from His grace, people will see Jesus. That is what we want them to see anyway, isn't it? We want them to see Jesus Christ in our life. But as we go through the sufferings, it is amazing what the enemy can tell you. As you are going through these things. You need those first three pieces. The first three pieces of armory that we looked at are positional truth. We have that don't we? We have the victory if we are Christians. We have the righteousness of Christ and we have been given truth. We have that. Now I need to stand in it. The next three pieces I have to pick them up. If I don't pick them up and I don't use them... I will be defeated in my battle. The enemy will pick an area... where I'm very vulnerable. We've talked about that. If I know my vulnerable areas. .. then that's the piece of the armor I may need to stress the most right now. This protection I need so much. Because that's the way I'm getting attacked. The next piece of the armor... Let me look here in my Bible. I'll turn the page. The next piece that we have is the taking up the shield of faith. What is faith? What is that? This is what I think faith is. Simply believing what God has said. The problem is it is not simple. That is all He wants me to do. To believe what He said. I like to give you an illustration of this. Jesus was at Tiberias. I was fortunate. I was in Bible college. The President called me up on Christmas time. He looked like he was going to fire me. I thought this is probably a big joke. He said, someone has given an anonymous gift to the college. To send you and your wife to Israel. I said, is there enough to get back? He said, yes. I'll tell you if you are ever traveling. Don't miss Israel. You don't want to miss Israel. It is such a blessing to walk through. The Scriptures just... come more alive. We were at Tiberias. Now we are down at the Sea of Galilee. You can look across. I thought you know here... so much went on here back and forth from Capernaum over to Tiberias and so on. We have to go back. I looked at these little Jewish fishermen. I thought, I wonder which one looks like Peter. Which one looks like... Because you get the pictures of these heroes. American heroes are all... All these little Jewish guys. Like I expected. These little fishermen. Jesus got to the boat. He said, Fellows, let's get in. We're going to the other side. They got in the boat. They started to cross. There was a terrible storm. Remember that? Terrible storm. Jesus was sound asleep in the boat. Just sound asleep. These were sailors. Now, when I flew here to speak to you. If the stewardess opened the door and leaped out. Then the... Radio man came through the parachute and jumped out. Then the co-pilot and the pilot. I think maybe we are in trouble. They left the plane. When you got sailors saying we're in trouble. Guess what? You're in trouble. You know it's not how much water the boat is in. It's how much water is in the boat that is the problem. They couldn't keep the water out of the boat. You know what they said? I know that you have said it if you have any age on you. They said, Lord wake up. Don't you care? That is what they said. Look at Mark. Don't you care? Have you ever said that? Has the Lord ever been to the Philippines? Or has he ever been out here where I am? Lord don't you care? He got up and he stilled the storm. He looked at the disciples. He rebuked them. He not only rebuked the waves, he rebuked the disciples. In fact some people feel, and there is some Greek theory that would indicate this. That he was rebuking demonic forces that were causing. Remember we saw that in Job. The spirit world can use the elements, natural elements to attack us in Job. They felt he was not only rebuking that, he was rebuking the forces behind that. Then he rebuked the disciples. You know what he said? Oh ye of little faith. That's not kind. Now how could he say that? What did he tell them? He said, fellows let's get in the boat and go where? Out into the middle and sink. That's not what he said. He said, fellows let's get in the boat and go where? To the other side. When Jesus says we are going to go to the other side. We are not going to sink in the middle friend. I don't care what your circumstances are. Get your eyes off what? Circumstances and back on the Lord Jesus. Raising support for new missionaries can be a sinking experience. After a couple years. You get your eyes on churches and who could give and if they are not. Get your eyes on the Lord. A real trick of the enemy in the battle. What do I need to do? I need to raise up the shield of what? Faith. Faith is believing what God has said. When those missiles come, raise up the shield. What will that shield of faith do? Quench them. Because I believe, not circumstances. I don't believe the thoughts I may be having. I don't believe what people are saying. I believe what God has told me. When those darts come, I'm going to quench them. Father, we are thankful that we can trust you. That you are worthy of our trust. That your word is true. When you tell us we are going to the other side, we are going to get to the other side. Father, I ask right now. We didn't cover all the armor, Father. You know that. We have to do the rest tonight. Lord, if there is a piece that we talked about that is significant to someone here. May they lay a hold on it. Just really make it theirs. Just rejoice and praise you for the sufficiency you have given us for today. The protection that we have so that we can stand against this enemy of our souls. The enemy that would like to slow down the work of evangelism. Taking light into darkness. Turning people from the ways of darkness to light. Rasking them out of the hands of the enemy into the hands of Christ. Father we pray that... The Spirit of God would just minister to us in such a way that when we read your word that we would have such confidence that we could not be shaken by the circumstances, the trials, and the sufferings of life. That we would hold on to the truth and keep holding on in spite of all that we see. That you will never leave us. You will never forsake us. Your love for us is so deep. Your concern for us that you know even. Our hairs. A sparrow doesn't hop but you don't see. You have promised that you would not allow us to go through any trial, any circumstance. That you would not equip us to have victory in. We thank you and we stand in that truth. Amen.