Well, you've heard me sometimes speak about, oh, I'm sorry. just so people are just yeah, it's not time yet but just so people aren't worried. Pastor and Charles went to a wedding down in Arkansas this weekend. Oh, okay. And they left Saturday morning. So, it probably was a Saturday evening wedding. That's probably. I didn't want people to worry about. Um I don't remember but I I just wanted you to know so you won't be worried about me. That's good. Thank you. The subtle. Yeah. But you've heard me mention a couple of times, you know, as the pastor's been talking about the topics that he's been talking about, having the honor of God that is so important. And so there's a couple of things. Anybody besides, I know there's a couple of you that have been in the service. John, I know you have. Were any of you ever involved with the infantry at all? No? Well, I was in the infantry for eight years when I first got into the Marine Corps. Now, I went in open contract, long story behind that, but I had tested to be able to go and do just about anything. But it ended up I went in as infantry. And when I got there, I also became that you had to have a little higher score to, and they were looking for people who had higher scores and stuff. And I became an anti-tank assault. And that meant basically I blew up tanks for a living with an anti-tank guided missile system called the Dragon. It was a shoulder-fired weapon. And there were times I'm like, okay, why did I have to do this? This weapon was an additional 15 pounds to everything else we had. We had everything that the normal rifleman had, which was the normal infantryman. We had all that. We had a rifle. We had, you know, everything. But we also had... Now, in peacetime, in training, we only carried one missile. Now, there was a team of two, and one person carried two missiles. The other person carried a missile and a tracker. And so what would happen is you get down into a position, you mount the tracker on, and then you would have to engage the, optically engage the target. Typically it would be a tank. And I was a little like, okay, so why did I have to be a little extra smart and get all the extra weight when all the infantrymen only had to carry the rifle, you know? So, I did that for 8 years and what's really interesting is, you know, the training that you get and I wanna take a look real quickly at 2 Timothy 2, 1 through 4. It says, you therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things that you have heard from me among the witnesses commit to the faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship, and this was kind of the key I wanted to key into, as a good soldier of Christ, Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. Now, you know, back when Paul was writing this, and back in, you know, Jesus' day, Rome, you know, was the supreme power at that point. And unlike today, the Roman soldiers were not just the military, they were also the policemen. And so they were the guards in the jails and, you know, that sort of stuff. So the people of the day truly understand, stood, who a Roman soldier was, how they were dressed, and all those affairs. And so, in this particular case, Paul, speaking to Timothy, makes the allusion of, you know, people being a soldier for Christ. And I thought that was kind of important. And then I wanna, and I just wanna kinda get you in the mindset that, I've said this many times to a lot of different people, we're in a state of warfare. We are in a state of warfare, and a lot of people just don't get that. They live their lives as if they're living their life on a playground, you know, and all the things that happen on a playground, you know, the interactions socially and all of that, but we're not on a playground. We're in a war that there is truly an enemy who's out for our souls and the souls of every human being on this planet. And we just continue to live our lives a lot of times without this recognition. And I confess I do as well, even though I was a Marine for 22 and a half years. Like I said, I was in the infantry for eight years. And then I went into the computer field for an additional 17 years. So I was able to kind of get away from the mentality of always being in that war mindset. You know what I'm saying? But still recognized that my role was to support those who were in that role. But when we're in this warfare, we're always called for some purpose, right? And let's take a look at Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Matthew 5, 14 through 16. And we'll look at also Luke because he also has something very, very similar to say. But this is the idea of as we are called, we are called to be liked. Matthew 5, 14 through 16. Would anybody like to read that? Sure, go ahead. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Amen. Luke 8, 16. So now imagine this I'm just I'm not Pastor's much better at artistry than I am. This is just going to simply represent a hill. That's my hill. Now, when you're in the infantry, the big thing they always tell you to do, or should I say tell you to never do, is skyline yourself. Why? What does that mean? Skyline okay, this is the skyline right here the top of the hill and what they say is you're never to be on the On the top of the hill where the enemy can see you Okay That's you on the skyline In the Marine Corps, you're taught, well any infantry, you're taught to never go to the top of the hill and say, hello, here I am. Right? You know, you sneak up to the top of the hill and you kind of peek up over it, you know, that sort of thing. And what's really interesting about this, we had a We had a couple of officers that were vying in competition. And I had my sleeves rolled up, and I had my camouflage uniform on. And one of these officers came up. What? You know, we're in a... So I'm like, okay. I rolled down my sleeves because everybody else got their sleeves rolled down. You know, that sort of thing. It was a hot day. I think we were, in fact, I know we were in Korea at the time. And, but yet this very same guy got to the top of the hill and did kind of a patent pose with a cigar. You know, here's a guy telling me one thing, you know, he's the enforcer of the rules, and yet he goes to the top of the hill with that cigar, almost really doing a Patton pose, you know. And I was, there's a long story associated with that, but I was not happy, and I'm not one to usually keep my mouth shut, which usually gets me in trouble, you know. My grandmother used to have that fish on the wall that said even a fish wouldn't get in trouble if he kept his mouth shut. But there's this idea of you don't go out and skyline yourself. I used to always get in trouble because I'd be marching along. Stop me! Shut up! Well, that's because a whistle goes a long way and can be heard. It was just habit for me to just start whistling. I've always got a tune in my mind that's going and it just comes out usually in a whistle. So there's things that you want to do that you don't let the enemy get your position. You don't build a fire at night so they can see your smoke and smell the smoke. You don't wear perfumes and cologne out there because they can smell it. So there's a lot of things as an infantryman that you just don't do to let the enemy know that you're there, because one, we're there to survive, as well as take out the enemy, right? But the scriptures is completely different. Imagine we are called soldiers of Christ. We just saw that, he's telling Timothy, we're soldiers of Christ, right? But yet, in Matthew and Luke, what does he say? That's right. That's right. We're not only supposed to be up there. We're supposed to have our flames and here we are, you know, that's playing by the way. I don't have a red one. So here's the idea. We are called to be light. We are called to be seen, but yet we're soldiers. And how do we mix that into what we're talking about? Well, this is why it's so important to understand Ephesians 6 that talks about the armor of God. That's what we're going to focus on. And I do want to if so, if you'll turn it to Ephesians 6, we're going to start with verse 10. And the thing is, this is I tell you, with the pastors teaching about the principalities, about the rulers, and I gotta say, that always, I kind of understood, you know, we've got spiritual beings, you know, in this world amongst us, you know, angels, demons, all that stuff. But I really never recognized that in the 12th, Let's read 10 through 14. Somebody would like to read that and then we'll kind of get back to discussing that just a bit. Ephesians 6, 10 through 14. All right, so I'll read it. Oh, go ahead. By me, my brothers, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, but on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers and darkness of the age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness and the heavenly forces. Therefore, take up a full armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in an evil day, and having done all, to stand. Standing therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Yeah, that's a little further, yeah. No, in verse 12, the last part of that is something that the pastor's been talking about and teaching that I never truly give recognition to. spiritual forces of evil, where? Yeah, it didn't say on Earth. You know, we have this vision. We were taught that the this horde of evil was cast down to the Earth. Right. Did anybody ever get that? Yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, that's what I'm thinking. They are. They're here. But where does that say they are? Heavenly realms. right? Which is the pastor has been talking about how those connect and stuff. So I think I'm like, I've been learning some, you know, and they're 60 years old and I'm like, what? So understanding that there are principalities. Um, now it's interesting. I was looking through the different, uh, versions and translations, and I even went back, you know, to some of, you know, when King James and some of the earlier translations in the King James, you know, in the New King James here, I think it says rulers. Yeah. Well, no, it does say principalities, but in some of the, the NIV says rulers against rulers. Yeah. Right. But going into 12, it says, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world. So different translations kind of give a little bit different word for it. I thought, well, that's, it's helpful to kind of get a wider range of what the understanding of those words are, unless you go back and the pastor's been really good about helping us understand the original language and what it was talking about. But, Coming to understand, especially the principalities area, is that having been in politics, I always had this kind of idea that, you know, there's evil around us, right? But I don't know that I recognize them as their authority. This is important here, that the pastor's been teaching us is about the authorities, about the principalities, about some of what they do. You know, in terms of the authority that they have been given over us. And I mentioned the last couple of Sundays that there's been something I've been dealing with kind of on the national level with the political party that I've been dealing with. And to see how that has unfolded. And it's been hard for me to keep in my mind that I'm wrestling against principalities, rulers, these authorities. I'm not wrestling against flesh and blood. And it's hard because I'm dealing with flesh and blood. It's hard to not recognize that we have all of these other influences. And, you know, and to somehow put that in perspective of a lot of these people that I've been dealing with call themselves Christian. And I'm like, but boy, it sure seems like you're being used of evil. And sometimes that's just, it was in this period of time, I was actually a little more stressed out than I've ever been. I just let it hit me pretty hard. And so it's important that as we are, we have to understand this illusion that Paul has made that we are soldiers of Christ. And that here in Ephesians, he talks about you know, putting on the full armor of God in this. And we can stand against the wiles of the evil one because of the armor. Absolutely. That's why we have to understand we're not called to just simply peek up over the edge, you know, and not be skyline as, as a, you know, soldier, a Marine, you know, as these folks would have understood, You don't put yourself on the skyline and say, here I am, taking your best shot, baby. But that's exactly what we're called to do. We are to be the light. And we know that there's gonna be these fiery darts, these arrows, the swords, all these kind of attacks because the light. And of course, we are not, quote unquote, the light. We are reflections of the light. And so certainly, the enemy does not want the light to be seen. And there's only one way we can stand. It says, stand therefore. Stand therefore, knowing that If we're being that light, if we are standing on the hill, we can trust that we are protected. But I think it's really cool about how Paul went into this, again, knowing that the military, as it were, was all around them. The Roman soldiers were not only the military, they were also the police force of the day. And so they were always intermingling you know, there and understood this and stand therefore, you know, stand firm then number one in verse fourteen with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Now, some of the versions said having your waist girded about with the truth. So, in the modern soldiers day, we do have belts. We called them cartridge belts. And we have it wrapped around us. And a lot of times, because we would have so much stuff attached to these cartridge belts, we'd also have to have a harness go around to hold the belt up. And, you know, back in the soldier's days, the Romans, you know, the belt was usually carrying the sword, maybe a couple of swords. Maybe they would have some form of a canteen for water associated with that as well. And so, what, now the truth, I was thinking about that. Well, we always had at least two ammo pouches that had three magazines, of rounds each and usually of 20 rounds per magazine. So we had 60, 120 rounds usually on our belt now. Usually, hopefully there's an ammo supply where if we need to we can get more. But I started thinking about what this meant, the belt of truth having it girded around your waist. Anybody have any thoughts? I was thinking of it, and I thought, this is the lack for today of people who claim to be believers. They don't know the truth. That's where, without a weapon, we don't have the ability to defend ourselves. If you don't have the ability to defend yourself, you're lost already. You're martyred one way or another. So really, we should, just learn as much as we can the truth of God. Absolutely, absolutely. If we have the truth, if we put it on, if we have it right, then we're going to have the wisdom and the understanding of what to do. Right. We're not going to be just out there laboring. Right. Yeah, absolutely. Well, we don't know what to say, but we need to say it. We won't have to wonder, well, what shall I say? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So the, yes. In Isaiah 11, they have a picture of Christ. In verse five, it says, righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness, the sash around his waist. Yeah. And but in this particular illusion, the faith issue is the shield, as we'll see here in just a second. So there's different ways of taking a look at this picture. You know, Paul was trying to get this one. And I was thinking maybe it would have been better if. this was more of the illusion of that particular principle. And so, yeah, it's absolutely having that armor, being outfitted as a soldier, understanding that these are number one for our survival, but also, you know, there's a offensive weapon. This is our thing for Vacation Bible School this year, is the armor of God and the different ways in the Bible.