Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 20, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, and therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." So thank you, and we may be seated. So we already started with the prayer, and any mistakes are totally mine. All right, so it's, no soldier will go into battle in a strange land without being properly equipped. And this is a living spiritual battle that we are in, and we must likewise make sure we are properly equipped, protected, able to stand against the spiritual attacks. that will come daily that seek to undermine God's people. The first verse, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So we're not strong in our own might. It's Jesus Christ's strength we need. It's Jesus Christ's power we need. It's not a physical battle. It's not a carnal battle. It's a spiritual battle. And it's one that we lose without fail if we do not rely on His strength. In 2 Corinthians 12, 10, He says, for when I am weak, then I am strong. So when we realize that, when we realize there's absolutely nothing I can do about it, then that's when we actually have God's strength because we're in humility, realizing He's the one that gives us that strength. In order, right, so in John 15 it says, for without me you can do nothing, Jesus told them. So he even told his disciples to abide in me, because again, the phrase, for without me you can do nothing. And that is very much true spiritually, in a faith aspect, in a spiritual walk aspect, we can do nothing without him. So we need to make sure we're fully realizing any strength and power we need comes from God, from Jesus Christ, not from ourselves, and we need to humbly realize this. Those who are saved have this attitude that needs to be cultivated as, you know, Matthew 5, blessed are the poor in spirit, that we realize we need His strength. So the fruit of our lives is produced by the Spirit of God in our lives, as the Bible says, the fruit of the Spirit. And so really, He's the one producing the fruit in us. We just have to cooperate with it to not frustrate the grace of God, to not grieve the Holy Spirit, and so on. And He's the one producing the fruit in our lives. Verse 11, it says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. God does offer defensive power. and strength to live this temporary life here for him to be able to stand through those spiritual battles, if you will. And it's offered in the whole armor of God. Take note of the whole, not just part of it, which God lays out for us what each piece of that armor is. Typically, armor comes as a helmet, a shield, a breastplate, boots, even a sword that can be used to parry incoming attacks, and God lays out each piece. Armor is not really used for offense. I mean, armor is to defend you against the attacks that will come. And then, you know, so, I mean, that's pretty much what armor helps us do. We need to put on the whole armor of God that there are no weaknesses exposed, which will be used against us. I often hear, like, You know, they say, well, that particular armor has a weakness here. Or, oh, look, they don't have a helmet. So, you know, take advantage of that. We really need the whole armor of God because if we're not fully armored, whatever weakness we left exposed, you can be sure it's going to be used against us. So we want to be aware of every piece and make sure we have each piece in place. And this armor is not ours. God, it's God's. He offers it to us, and he says, you need to use the whole armor of God. So again, it's not of us that we're able to do these things. We put it on daily, just like soldiers every day will put on their armor before they go to battle. They don't just go, well, I didn't feel like it today, and I'm gonna go to battle. Nobody would do that. And yet we know we're going to battle every day. There's gonna be a battle. We may not even know how it's gonna come, but we need to make sure that we're armored each and every day. What would be the consequences of not doing so? We'd stumble and fall, kind of like Peter walking on water. So is our, and I mentioned that before, so is our walk in life. There's no way Peter can walk on water. He can't do it. It's totally a miracle provided by God, that kind of ability, that kind of, if you will, walking above the water of life. And as long as he kept his eyes on him, he would keep doing it, well really, to put it another way, God, Jesus Christ, would keep doing it in him. But then as soon as he starts looking at circumstances around him, well, then he's now weak in that regard, and then he starts to sink, he cries out, and then Jesus would say, wherefore didst thou doubt? Like, do we doubt that God can't keep us, if you will, afloat moment by moment, day by day? Because he can. And I think if we think, oh, he can't keep, I mean, I took a few steps, but I don't think I'm gonna be able to take enough steps to get there. Well, if we think that, we're already not having faith in God that does that. So that's something that crosses my mind, where it's just like, I need to assume he totally has the power, and if I'm the one that falters, then that's why I don't have his power to do what I need to do. God's power lets us live a victorious life. And the fun thing about verse 12, I don't know, for years I thought there was an extra word in there, and this is the danger of reading, I guess. I don't know if I ever read a version that had the extra word, I don't think I did. But I assumed it said, for we wrestle not just against flesh and blood. I always thought just was in there. Because I'm thinking, well, we wrestle against our flesh, but the word just isn't in there. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, the rules of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It's easy for us to think our challenges come from other people in the world, and God points out that's not necessarily the source. The real source is the principalities, the powers. I mean, yes, in this world, there are rulers of the darkness of the world, but I mean, there's so much else, spiritual wickedness in high places. The Christian's greatest enemy is unseen, and it assaults us before we have any visual warning. It's not like we see it coming. It's there. Who knows what form it's going to take? We don't need to know. We definitely need to keep our eyes upon him. It's dangerous, the devil and all the power of darkness. It's not just our own flesh that we have to contend with. That's, I think, one of their tools they use against us. So there's a lot going on there. We are assaulted in many ways we can't even understand, and not that we need to. I mean, it'd be nice to know. But God is aware of it, and he gives us protection that we must avail ourselves of. So he tells us the whole armor of God, he gives us the different pieces, and then, all right, well, now I'm aware of those pieces, and now I need to make sure that each day I'm not falling short on any of those pieces and having a weakness that the devil will use. We seek to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and these assaults, no doubt, seek to rob God of those things he's seeking to produce in us, the fruit that he produces in us, through us. The wiles of the devil is no trivial thing. He has thousands of years of experience tempting and deceiving and has supernatural ways of carrying out that deception. But greater is he that than he that is in the world, greater is Christ than that. This spiritual wickedness in high places provokes Christians. Romans 7.15, for that which I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. So he's elucidating it there. The law of sin. It's like the law of gravity. We cannot defeat the law of gravity. That's a lose. You're not walking on water. And likewise, with the law of sin, without Christ in us, we're losing that battle. There's no way. It's impossible. And even as a Christian, the only reason it's possible is if we focus on Him and let Him win that battle, because we're busy being led by the Spirit. Verse 13, wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, even to stand. It's not a suggestion to put on the whole armor of God, it's a command. And required, if we are to do what God has in mind for us, to withstand an evil day, and having done everything, it is our duty to do, to stand. A huge part of what we do in life is even just to be able to stand in Christ and not stumble by the wiles of the devil to produce less fruit than God would have us produce, and it is our duty to produce. It's our duty to go along with it. It's our duty to allow God free reign to produce in our lives the fruit he intends to. intends to produce. Just as those going to battle were intentional about making sure to armor up, I guarantee you they were very careful about that. Every piece in place, whatever they were given, they're like, all right, this is what I got. Everything, they wouldn't leave half armored, and neither should we. But yet, if we're not intentional about it, that could happen without us realizing it. And then the next thing we know, we get injured in whatever weakness was exposed. So they were very intentional and so should we in first Chronicles 21 verse 1 and Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number Israel So we remember when for some reason David decided that well I want to count how big our army was and what that means is he's trusting in the size of his army instead of trusting in God among other things and that would be sin and he was even warned about it God tried to counter that by saying hey, you know, they tried to warn him and he did it anyway, but it was Satan provoked him. So there must have been a weakness, he got provoked by Satan, and then he ended up doing this sin. So I mean, make no mistake, Satan is there seeking to undermine us, to try to get us off course, to try to have us not focus on Christ, look at our circumstances around us, how can I do this? And then we start to sink. That's a perfect example of the wiles of the devil. Can God not defeat Israel's enemies with no men? I tried to find this, maybe somebody can tell me. I was searching online, for some reason I couldn't find this. There was a time when I believe a huge army was coming, how are we gonna defeat them? And God said, go out and look, I already delivered them. And then they went out and they were all dead across the field. Does anybody happen to remember that? Because I was looking that up and I was like, I found different places where God delivered them and I couldn't find that one place. But I mean, they were all wiped out. How is that even possible? If God chooses to, He does what His will is, there's nothing stopping Him. So with things like that, we're kidding ourselves if we think He can't have other victories that are far smaller in magnitude than that. Or a paltry 300. He defeated countless and He brought 300. Well, obviously, God delivered them. He just used the 300 as a token, but He made them realize it wasn't you that did it. God's like, I did it. And just like when we have that walk in Him, we have a successful day in Him, it wasn't us that did it, it was He that did it through us. So the only thing we can, I suppose, be grateful for is that we managed to stay out of His way and kind of go with it, heed the call of God, heed His leading in our lives. And otherwise, that can be another thing that holds us back. God tells us it's our duty to prevent it, walk in the Spirit, mortify the deeds by the Spirit, walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit, put on the whole armor of God, which again is another version of all this. In James chapter 4, James chapter four, he said, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now that was interesting because I remember a pastor brought up the, I think it was you that mentions some guy where he said, you know what, every day I'm going to pray for an hour. And at first his flesh was like raging against him. And he was just like, his flesh just doesn't want him to do it. And his flesh would try to distract him, and he's like, no, I'm gonna keep doing it. But then after several weeks, I think pastor said that he had said that at the end of one of my prayer sessions, his flesh finally said along with him, amen. And that caught my attention because in a sense, the Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. And I'm thinking that kind of sounds like the devil fled from him and now the flesh was free to get on his side and say amen when he prayed yet again to God for an hour. So I thought that was pretty telling. I think that's something we forget that there is a case where the devil flees from us, but it comes after we resist him. And how do we resist him? Walk in the spirit. Oh, he's right there distracting. I'm keeping my eyes there. Oh, look at the waves. Yeah, that's great. I'm keeping my eyes there. Like, if that's what we're doing, and we do that enough, then eventually the Bible says, God says, he shall flee from us. We're called to repentance, to walk after the Spirit. That means victory over the wiles of the devil. That means, again, the whole armor of God. And again, I've said this before, but it's God's armor, it's not ours, we just get the blessing of putting it on. In Romans 13, verse 12, kind of mentioning the armor, he says, the night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. So really, following Him in and of itself is an armor. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 7, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left. So the Bible does mention in other places about God's armor. Verse 14, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. In Isaiah it says, and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his wing. You know, girdle being a belt, and belt typically being needed to kind of hold everything together. So it's what cleaves unto us, what we fasten to us, truth. He wants having your loins girt about with truth. Where do we get truth? Yeah, God's Word. If it's not in here, then I mean, I even tell people, look, it doesn't matter what I tell you. If what I tell you is not in here, then you should be listening to this and not anything that I say or anything anyone else says. In Jeremiah, For as the girdle cleaveth to the loins of a man, so have I caused to cleave unto me the whole house of Israel. So it's just an example of, like, the belt, again, how we fasten it to us. I guess people that are carpenters or whatever, or plumbers, they fasten the belt and it has all their tools with them. And we want to fasten to us the truth of God as best as we can. How often could the Pharisees also not take hold of Christ's Word? Speaking of truth, that's what's amazing about it. For example, is it lawful for us to tithe unto Caesar? And he's like, why tempt ye me? He's like, show me a penny. And they gave it to him. He says, whose image is on this coin? And they're like, well, Caesar. And then he says, then render unto Caesars what is Caesar's, and render unto God what is God's. And they're just like, It amazed even them because they're like, we can't take hold of his words. That's the thing about truth. You hear people say, well, you're just repeating yourself. And I'm like, if something's true, I mean, you just need only repeat it. Because if it's not true, well, then by all means, show me how it's not true. But they can't. And they don't like that you're repeating the truth. So whenever they repeat something that's not true, it's like, well, we need to be careful. Consider this. And then we say that. And the truth wins. I often thought it'd be interesting to be a lawyer, because I guess if you're assuming your person is innocent, if you're on the side of truth, then they have to be saying something that's not entirely accurate. And the only thing you have to do is find the hole, per se. So I guess it's that way with God's Word. His Word is truth. And whenever people try to bring up other things, well, I think God, you know, He did it over, you know, millions of years. It's like, all right, well, let's go back to here. For in six days, He made the heavens and the earth and all that in them is, and then a little bit further on. So in six days, you do all your work and rest on the seventh. So really, you can't get any clearer than that. They try to act like, well, a day could mean a long period of time. It's like, look, in the very same verse, six days He created everything, six days we work. And that's just me quoting the Bible. So somebody who is saved and they're going to listen to God's Word, they're going to be like, yeah, that's what God's Word says. So really, instead of looking at mankind's philosophies, just go to truth and have the girdle on what is true. And having the breastplate of righteousness. Breastplate, what is the breastplate to guard? Yeah, it guards our heart. And we guard our heart with righteousness, and this righteousness comes from God, from Jesus Christ. We're made righteous not by our own works, but by Jesus Christ. Whosoever hath the Son hath life. Whoever hath not the Son shall not see life. So really, we get righteousness by, it's imputed, And by the indwelling Holy Spirit, God saves us, and we now have righteousness. And without that, I mean, everything we do, we're not yet saved, so we don't have even the breastplate of God. So our heart is totally exposed, so we don't have that. The word righteousness was translated from the Greek word dikoyone, I probably butchered that, which means specifically like justification, righteousness. So that's kind of where that comes from. 1 John 5, 11 through 12, life is in his Son, and he that hath the Son hath life. In Romans 8, 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So Romans 8, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. So that's what we would be trying to do. We may not be, obviously, 100% perfect, but that's definitely what we're trying to do when we're saved, which we're trying to just walk after the Spirit. Don't worry about the fleshly things. Don't worry about your circumstances. You'll start to sink. Just focus on keeping your eyes on Christ, trying to walk after the Spirit, and that's part of the whole armor of God. So verse 15, "...and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Our feet, of course, is how we move. That's part of God's armor. And what about the feet? The gospel of peace, like salvation. So we all have opportunities to share the gospel, and he's saying that's part of the armor. All right, well, I do everything, and I never once give a track. I never once do any of that. Well, then again, we have part of that exposed. He calls that part of the armor that defends us against the wiles of the devil, against the fiery darts that will quench those, which I don't want to get ahead of myself. So really, we need to find ways. I'm at a gas station, and I'm pumping up. Pull that out. Find some way to stick one somewhere, like, you know, put one on top. You know what I mean? You're walking from your car to a store and have 15 tracks and just go car by car and put a note. And hopefully somebody doesn't think you hit their car and you're leaving your number. But yeah, just put them on the cars, like even on the way in. And a couple of times I got caught witnessing to somebody and I didn't have one on me. I hate that. Because then, you know, one time I said, can you like come with me to my car? And I went to my car and got it. But I'm just like, you've got to have one in your pocket. You never know when you're going to run into somebody that you can witness to. And that is part of the armor of God, which we wouldn't think that, you know what I mean? But he's like, that is part of the armor of God. And you are commanded to wear the whole armor of God that you may stand. How often do we hear someone, or across the world, Christians who knew us, but then eventually are like, oh, I didn't know you were a Christian. You know what I mean? They should know we are. Maybe they see us sometimes reading the Bible. Maybe they hear us sometimes giving out a track or preaching Christ or whatever. So, I mean, that again is part of the armor of God and something we can think of in ourselves. It also helps us, I think, to see others how we ought to see them. If we're preaching the gospel, it starts to become more evident they need the gospel. Everywhere you go, you start to see people lost in the same loop of, I'm just following the feel-like-it-don't-feel-like-it of my heart. I'm assuming I'm going to the biggest deception of the devil, I think, in modern days. I don't know when this started. Rest in peace. And I'm thinking, that's huge deception, because everybody now thinks when it's over, they're going to rest and be in peace. And I'm thinking, that's not the case. So it helps us see others how God sees them. Somebody said a week or two ago, maybe it was in a song that we sang. Right, yeah, I think it was in a lady's song, what they did, help us to see others as Christ sees them, lost souls needing to be saved. So I think the more you give out gospel tracts, talk to people you start to see others how you need to see them they're lost and somebody's got to tell them just like somebody told us you know we're grateful for who told us and wow we want to return the favor and tell other people that they may be grateful as well. And that helps us have that piece of armor on. And we didn't necessarily realize, I wouldn't have, that that's a piece of the armor of God. That's part of what you should be doing, and it's another armor against leaving a weakness exposed. Verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil, of the wicked. Unlike armor that is in place covering what's vulnerable, a shield is actively used to block an actual attack. So in a sense, I suppose if an attack comes and you see it, then the shield of faith. Well, I think God created over millions of years, it's like, well, shield of faith, I believe God did this. And Jesus says, have you not read that he who made him at the beginning, male and female, God said he made them at the beginning. He didn't say he made them towards the end. After billions of years, Things like that, so sometimes we do see those attacks, and that's where we can use the shield of faith to counter them. Faith is our shield, especially in hours of temptation. In Genesis, there is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. And how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So that's him having faith when the jailer's wife was trying to tempt Joseph. And then he had great faith. He was like, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? So in a sense, he had faith to defend himself against the attack that he saw coming. He saw the attack. He used the shield of faith to guard him against that attack. So we need to be fully convinced of all of God's promises and warnings, like Joseph was there, and this is faith. Now, faith is a substance, Hebrews 11.1, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Like, what is Joseph talking about? He doesn't see any of that, but he has faith. Every word of it is true, and he's not going to do this wickedness before God. The darts are called fiery, which seems to allude to a poison. The Bible refers to fiery serpents as well. And the shield of faith quenches them, perhaps nullifies their poisons if they were to still hit, or blocks them altogether. The word quench, I looked that up. It's translated from the Greek word that means, the Greek word spennomi, it means to extinguish, literally or figuratively, to go out, to quench. So if we hold the faith to that which is unseen rather to in our own strength, the fiery darts that the wicked will use, they'll be quenched. And that's a good thing because we're promised that those darts will come. Verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. What does the helmet protect? Yeah, it protects the head, I guess our brain even, as well. 1 Thessalonians, it talks about for an helmet, the hope of salvation, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. This knowledge comforts us and dispels troubling thoughts. It's the helmet of salvation. I hear all the time online, whatever, people, I guess, sometimes question their salvation. I mean, that's going to happen, I think, when people fall. I mean, look at King David with what he did. I suppose maybe he's like, oh, maybe God has cast me out. Maybe God is done with me and so on. So we may have those doubts, but he's like, no, you need to protect your head. And how do you protect that? With the idea of salvation. you're his, he's got you. He will chastise you. He may start to judge you, consequences for what you do, but that doesn't mean he's going to toss you out. I guess we all notice when you have kids, kid steals $5 off the table, and it's like, oh, wow, okay, son, anything you want to tell me? He's like, no, dad. You know, next day he comes home, he's like, son, anything you want to tell me? And he's like, And, no. I was like, all right. Third day, he's like, anything you want to tell me? He's like, no. I was like, well, why don't you go to your room? He's like, well, why? What's up? He's like, you can think of anything, let me know. Finally, he comes downstairs. He's like, Dad, I took the $5 off the table. He's like, well, I knew you did, but I just needed you to confess that because our fellowship was broken a bit. It needed to be restored. But if the neighbor comes in and takes $5, it's like, Yeah, hello, police? Yeah, I got a robber in my house. You know, because that's not your kid. You're not going to disown your kid, but you are going to convict them. You're going to chastise them until they...to make the relationship right with you again. And that's the hope that we have with God. So, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 2 Corinthians, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. The word of God's power cannot be overstated, especially to Christians. Matthew 4.4, interesting that most modern Bibles remove this, but he answered and said, it is written, mankind shall not live by bread alone. That's all that's in a lot of the modern Bibles, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So really, we want that power, and you're going to get that power if you have what he preserved in the manuscripts that we have in English in the King James Version. It's no wonder corrupted manuscripts in most modern Bibles are translated from today have also removed that phrase. We need to live by every word of God. Hebrews 4.12, for the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Psalm 12.6.7, the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times, thou shalt keep them, O Lord, thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever." So we want all those words. I remember when I first got saved, nobody ever mentioned different Bibles. I was reading one, and then somebody was reading KJV, so I was like, oh, well, that says something different than this. But I still kind of like this, and then the more I was just like... This doesn't say kind of what this does. I'm done with this. The words don't matter. I want as accurately as possible, word for word, if possible, what God said originally. So it's just something to consider. I don't want to get off on that separate message. And scripture is the most powerful way to combat temptations. If we have a specific temptation that we deal with, then get a verse ready to then fall back on and meditate on whenever that attack comes at us again. So it might be somebody cuts me off in traffic and I get all, you know, prideful or whatever, and then there's a verse that says, esteem everyone else better than yourselves. It's not so much that you're bad at whatever, everybody's better than me. This person cuts me off, who am I? Like, you know what I mean? So how do I deal with that? Not myself. I go back to God's word to deal with that, because left to myself, I will not deal with that. I will deal with that poorly. Believing worldly things gives, let's say we think that believing worldly things gives us strength, and when we seem to having a bad day, and it's like, all right, well then he's, 2 Corinthians 12, nine, he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness, most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities. So if I'm having a bad day, then you know what, don't resort to other things to fix that. Just keep your eyes on him, go to his word, maybe I need to pray, and I just thought of this, so I'm gonna say it. I don't know why I had this thought a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago. I was thinking how weird it would be if we weren't ever hungry, meaning we need food, but there was no mechanism that, oh, I feel hungry, I need to go eat, right? So we'd have to, well, then I better remember three times a day to eat food or I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna get weaker. And I suppose if I got weaker, that would be the second, the backup form of being hungry. So I'm thinking, so when are we spiritually hungry? And then I started thinking, maybe when I'm feeling edgy, maybe that's spiritual hunger, and I need to stop what I'm doing and read the Bible, pray, or feed. Like, we mankind shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds forth out of the mouth of God. We get it with food. I don't care what I'm doing. If I'm hungry, I can't stand being hungry. I always hated the breakfast, lunch, dinner thing, because in the middle of the afternoon, I'm dying. Like, I need something. Can I have half my dinner now, and I'll eat the other half at like 5 or 6 o'clock? So I'm always eating, but I don't eat a lot in one sitting, because once I'm not hungry, then I just don't care. But I can't stand being hungry. But we get it. When we're hungry, we need food. And I don't care what I'm doing. I'll be eating a candy bar if I have to, because I'm hungry, right? So, we get it. When we're hungry, we definitely do something about it. So, maybe consider, maybe if, unless it's when we're edgy, we need to plan on eating spiritual food multiple times a day so that we don't starve spiritually either, which I think is, again, one of those deceptions. So, personally, I'm thinking if I get edgy, I'm going to consider that I'm spiritually hungry. So, just throwing that out there as a little extra. So Jesus Christ showed us a perfect example of using God's Word to combat the wiles of the devil for the sake of time when he said, it is written, mankind shall not live by bread alone, or later, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Later on, it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. So he was being tempted and he, God, showed us just quoting God's Word as a method of combating that. So it's another part of the whole armor of God. Hiding God's Word in our heart is also something else that we're told to do. So something else to consider. He says, I will hide His Word in my heart that I may not sin against Him. So really memorizing Scripture like we're doing, it's another way as the armor of God. Verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. So praying is another part of God's armor. We need to pray daily, multiple times a day. But not only that, the set times are obvious. I mean, even on a moment's notice, a quick two-second prayer. Sometimes I'll see a motorcycle flying down a road, and I'm thinking he is asking for serious trouble, and I'm saying, Lord, protect him, slow him down, get a police to pull him over. And any time something crosses your mind, I would just pray about it. If it crossed your mind, take advantage of it, and then I just turn it into a quick prayer. And also something to consider, do we pray for exactly what we want? Think about it. Specific. Like, example, God, make me perfect in thought, word, and deed today. Like, at some point I was thinking about it, it's like, wow, do we really often pray for exactly that? Do we not pray for those things because we don't believe it's possible? Do we not pray for it because we're almost afraid it would be answered? That crossed my mind. Like, when I was thinking that, you know, ages ago, I'm thinking, wow, well, you know, what if he does that? Then I'll, good. Like, so it's interesting, the deception that hits you. Do we not pray because we assume God already gave it to us and this is as good as it's gonna get in our own lives? Do we not pray for that because we already have asked and it hasn't been answered yet or so we think? That means no. It's like, keep praying every day, just like the man who said, the unjust king or something, I'm totally paraphrasing here, but hear what he did. He doesn't regard God, he doesn't regard man, but this woman came back daily and wearied him. He's like, you know what, I'm just gonna do for her, lest she weary me. And God says, how much more will God, you know, if we go back to him? The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So, and Jesus often asks, what would you have me do unto you? He knew the blind man wanted his sight, but he wanted him to ask for it. And likewise with God, it's easy for us to assume, well, God knows I want that. Well, he probably does, but he also wants you to ask fervently, daily, you know? So it's just, again, that's the deception, I think, that hits us that keeps us from doing these things. So we're commanded to pray always with all perseverance, pray without ceasing in 1 Thessalonians. Every moment there can be an opportunity to pray, and so we always want to look for that. And for the sake of time, and we're commanded to Luke to pray and to not to faint because it's easy to just like stop asking. Just like the woman, she didn't stop asking. That king did not care. She's like, I'm going back again. Please avenge my son. Please avenge my son. She's like, I don't care. He's ignoring me. I don't care. I'm going back. But we're talking about God now, not an unjust king. And we're commanded to pray for all saints, so we should also pray for each other. Armor of God, pray for us, but pray for others to protect them. And that's also our armor, that we pray for others. So it's really easy to underestimate what the whole armor of God is, but we definitely should consider that. So in conclusion, the belts, God's truth, make sure you have his truth, that's what you guard, you fasten to yourself. The breastplate, obviously salvation and the fact, knowledge of that salvation, which is the, like the shield of, hold on, the helmet, salvation and security in it, not being made to doubt it just because of circumstances, but instead being determined to just rebound and do what you need to do. Breastplate, said that, to feed the gospel, share it with others, that's part of the armor, the sword of the spirit, the word of the God, reading it daily, using it to combat deception in our own lives, sharing it with others, finding and having ready verses to combat specific things, and may we be even more mindful of the whole armor of God as we seek to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and having done all, to stand. As God said, King David was a man after God's own heart, and that's, what a praise that is. That's a man after my own heart." But then look what he did, but yet, Helmet of Salvation, he knows he needs to repent, but he didn't doubt that, well, now God's done with me and it's over. And we need to use the whole armor of God as he has provided. And something to consider about King David that helps me realize, the difference between King David and Saul, Saul, he went to Saul, what meaneth the bleeding of the sheep in my ears? He's like, well, we kept all but the sheep. And he's like, well, you're supposed to kill everything. Well, we kept it for, in order to do sacrifice before the Lord. He's like, obedience is better than sacrifice. He's like, well, I feared the man. He's like, you need to obey God. Finally, and he's like, the kingdom is rent for me. And he's like, I have sinned before the Lord. He didn't repent until finally there was no escape from the fact that all his excuses didn't work. But when the guy went to King David, and he says about the sheep, and he says, that man shall surely die. And he says, you're the man. He didn't have to mention Bathsheba or the Hittite. What was his name again? Uriah. Uriah the Hittite. He didn't have to mention that. He knew. And he immediately is like, I've sinned. And he repented in sackcloth and ashes. So that was the difference. Somebody who's saved who does something, even in that case, horrific, they're going to immediately repent and I need to get right. They're going to care. I'll end with this. I saw a video which I was like, that's interesting. There's a difference between a sheep and a goat, not a goat, a sheep and a pig. A sheep might get to dirt, get dirty, and it'll like, whoa, and they go away from it, and they hate it, and they try to get themselves cleaned off. But a pig will like, oh, I love this, and it'll roll around in it, and it doesn't care. So I thought that was an interesting take. So may God be praised.