Ephesians 6. Let's start out, we'll read verse 10 and we're gonna go through verse 13 for our passage this morning. Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take into you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. We spent some time last week where we started in the Old Testament and we did a quick survey of the enemy. And I think as we get to this chapter, as we get to this portion, or tendencies to rust past it. I mean, armor's right there, right? I mean, it's like I'm the biggest kid. I'm gonna be like, ooh, something shiny and metal. I wanna go grab it. I wanna suit up. I wanna put it on. It's mine? Okay, I wanna get it. I wanna go right there. But these verses are vital too. And the more I meditate them on this week, the more I think they're just as crucial. It's a mindset. These verses are giving us a mindset for what we're about to receive. It's an attitude that we are to adopt. We're about ready to put on armor. We are about ready to be given armor to go out and face the wiles of the devil and all these other spiritual forces that we took time and we listed last week. We better know what we're doing. You better know how to use what we've got. So there's an attitude that we need to adopt, warfare. We need to put that on and not just think, oh, this is fun, this is cool, warfare. Like I said, we're talking warfare, so we need to remember that. You remember being little? Long before you could drive, I mean, you're a toddler. Remember begging your parents to go to the fair? They get those little sparkly cars that look like a bass boat, you know, going in a circle. And you'd be like, ooh, I want to drive a car. And you're like, ah, I want to drive that car. It's like, you know, you don't have that same desire right now. And you go to the fair, ooh, I can't wait for the little cars. Not after you've driven a real car, right? But when you're little, you can't wait and you get in and the parents, it's kind of like, we're trusting some guy over here that's probably not trustworthy to have the power switch and spinning you around in a circle as you drive this buggy or whatever it is. And you get behind the wheel and you're like, turning up for all it's worth. And you're going left and right and you're hitting every button and you're hitting buttons that aren't buttons. You know, the bolts that are in there, cause you're driving. You remember that? I remember crawling in there doing that. You're spinning the steering wheel. You're not controlling it. And even when you're a little older and you go to Holiday World and you get in the fun car, you know, it's on a rail, because you like tag it this way and you tag it that way, you tag it, because it's like, you don't have the skills. You don't understand everything that goes with driving, because you're little. What happens a few times when your parents would let you get behind the wheel in your car, ours would be a green station wagon with a bent seat, you know, and they'd let you stand there and you'd get that wheel and be, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, as much as you can, because you're driving that car, you know, you're really doing it. And it doesn't spin as easy as the one at the fair, You're trying, you're standing up and you're thinking, ooh, I'm driving this car. That's not driving a car, is it? That's what we thought was driving a car. You had no idea really what went into driving a car. When you're little, you just think it's turning the wheel and sitting in the seat, it's in that spot. You just thought it was all that, but it was so much more. Look with me real quick to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians. Chapter 13, verse 11. 1 Corinthians 13, 11. When I was a child, when I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part. but then I shall know even as I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, love, or charity. These three, but the greatest of these is charity. Fortunately for you, I don't drive like I did when I was a toddler. Maybe, I don't know. I see so much more when I get behind the wheel. There's things that go on and I've been driving for a long time. I'm checking my mirrors. I have three different sets of mirrors and making sure they're adjusted and they are there. Is the brake pressure right? Is it supposed to be? Is it too soft? Is there something going on with that? Is the gas pedal working like it should? Do I have gas? I'm looking at the gauges. I'm looking at the temperature gauge. I'm looking at the check engine light. No, I'm not. I'm letting the check engine light shine, shine, shine. I'm ignoring it like nothing there. And I'm doing all these different things. I'm watching for who's coming towards me, who's pulling out of the driveway, who's coming up behind me. You've got all these things. As a kid, you just thought you're just turning that wheel, but I do it a lot differently. And some of those things are super in tune. I'm looking at the road condition, how it is, how's the stop gonna be like? Is there sand? Is there no sand? Is it ice? Is it snow? Is it whatever? And you're applying all these things all at once. And some of it's consciously, and some of it you've done so many times, you're doing it unconsciously, but you're doing all these things. You're taking it and making sure because you practice that you can drive, that you can do that. You know, and then when the certain area of your driving skills need to be there, they come alive. You know, all of a sudden it's like, oh, I'm not stopping. I need to do something. I can put it on neutral. I can do all these different things to help your car. Yeah, I drive bad cars. I have to do crazy stuff sometimes. But that's kind of how our armor is. Back in Ephesians six, if you look at that. As a pastor for 22 years now, this Easter, And a Christian for 46 years, I see this passage differently than I've seen it in the past. Before it was like, whoa, a sword, a helmet, a shield. It's like, yeah, those things. And I'm still that way a little bit. That's for sure. I mean, guys like gear, right? It's gear, you know? And so we like it. And guys like weapons, it's weapons. And so we like it. And so it's kind of easy to run and rush towards it. But there's a reason that when Paul gives us this gear, it's in chapter six and not in chapter one. He's been trying to prep us for it. He's been trying to get us ready. We should have some respect for what he's about to give us. These are gifts that God is bequeathing to you and I. We're just gonna be like, yeah, I want a salvation. No, this is something that God has given us to use in warfare against who? The adversary, against the devil, against all these other spiritual forces, powers, and principalities and things in high places. I should reverence this a little bit. God has given me a weapon. There should be some reverence. I should have a deep appreciation for these tools because I'm gonna use them. But I think back, I'm thinking, have I used them? Have I used them rightly? Have I used them well? Have I left them at home? Do I even bother to bring them out? So I'm glad that God is patient. I'm glad we serve a patient God who's like, all right, Brian, 47 years, about time you get something. Kind of that way, yeah, so it's good. In chapter six, verse 10, this is the charge. I said, as we talked about some last week, frankly, Or finally, sorry, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. This is a command. It's not a request. It's not an ask. This is Him, I think, kind of like bequeathing in a ceremonial way, power upon us that we should be taking advantage of, that we should know. Be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. This is key to the armor's power. Now this is the thing that turns the engine on. It's what lights it up and makes it work. We gotta understand it's not by our might or not by our strength. It's by his power and his might that this works. If I'm wielding it as mine, I'm no better than David putting on Saul's armor saying, I don't know how to use this. I haven't tried it. No, this is God giving us armor. He says it's an extension. It's to be my power, but used upon you, with you, in concert with you, in your strength, to accentuate those things and to make them better. And so we need to realize it's not us when we do spiritual warfare, when we go to war, it's not you. And I think that's the, I think that's again, going back to David, that's why David could be like this Philistine. David doesn't look, I'm just a boy. He's like, God's with me. God's not gonna let him do that. We need to realize that and not be afraid of any Goliath. The God is the strength and the power, not us. The strength of the armor is God. It's not our ability to use it. It's him and our dependence upon him and understanding that letting him do the heavy lifting. It's strong and useful in the Lord. If we're trying to use it on our own or by our own power or by our own might, it's not gonna work. or it's not gonna work well. And he wants us to be victorious. He wants us to be good at using this armor. And so we need to understand it's by his strength, it's by his power, it's by his might. It has power. This gear that we're about to get has power. It has enemy defeating power. And we're talking about the enemy and his minions that we can go with them. It's power that comes from God because I can't defeat the devil. God can, he has, will and does. Verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Paul says, put it all on. Not just your favorite or the flashy parts. We all want to run to the sword. Woo, sword. Yeah, I got one hanging in my office. I got two in my office. It's a sword. It's the sword. It's the weapon. We want to go over and lift that shield. We want to feel it. Yeah, I want a shield. It's a big shield. I can hide behind it. I want to try on the helmet. And I did great adventure club at the school. I had my cardboard helmet that I'd made and all the kids want to take some turns trying it on. Woo, the helmet. We look right past the belt and the boots. If it was up to us, we'd be like, who wants a belt? Boots, that's a nominal piece of equipment until you're in a war. We need it all. And God gives it to us in order as well. And so we need it all and we need it in order. We need it God's way. It's God's strength. It's God's power. It's God's armor that'll help us stand against the wiles, the trickery of the devil. Because the devil, if he had his will, he would sift us like wheat. He made that request to God about Peter, right? Oh, let me sift him like wheat. I'll grind him down. We'll wear him out. I think the devil would want no less for us. The verse about him being a roaring lion, what's it? It's seeking whom he may devour. Who's weak? Who's not paying attention? Who's trusting in their strength and not in his strength? Ooh, I'll go after them. I'll knock them down a rung or two. We'll take them off the Christian shelf for a long time because a defeat will keep you down, you know, because then we'll blame God. Oh God didn't do what he's supposed to. Was it God or did we not suit up? Did we not do the things that we're supposed to? We need all the armor. because we're gonna be battling things that we can't see. And we don't understand how all that works. And God says, so I've got you covered, but you need to put it on. Verse 12 says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness and high places. Spiritual wickedness. These are created above us in God's family. So if you think of God's family, you know, there's angels. And we looked at all the classes, there's seraphs and there's cherubs. And we looked at the archangels and we had a whole list of them that we had last week that we went through. And then you get down to the demons and the non-corporeal spirits and the things that they have and in God's family. And then we're under that. David tells us, made a little lower than the angels. We're a, high created being that God has made to work in his family, to be over the earthly realm that he's made us. And if we wouldn't have fallen, we would still be in concert with him and see the heavenly realm. But our job was the earth and maintaining and taking care of it. But we gave it over to Satan. Jesus has purchased it back and he will claim it again one day. But it says we're made a little lower than the angels. And so we're above some classes, we're above animals. We're above fish and birds and reptiles and insects. So we got that, you know, but we're under the angels. And yet we're called to battle them. And he's getting ready to give us the armor. He's like, you have a whole class of beans that are higher than you. And you're gonna go to war with them. And we're like, I'm gonna what? You're gonna go to war with them. But I'm gonna give you my armor so that you'll be able to stand against them. See how vital this is? Because if it was in our flesh, we don't have anything. The devil is probably the highest created being that was ever made. Let alone now, he's got all these years of malice and study and learning to use against us. He's crafty. So yeah, we better suit up. We better be prepared because if it's just standing in ourselves, we'll be worse than the seven sons of Sceva running away naked, whipped and embarrassed. Let alone, not only is he stronger than us, not only does he have more time under his belt, not only does he have learning underneath him, he's evil. He will do things that you will not think of. You're like, well, who would do that? He would, he's evil. He will try to corrupt. He will try to pervert. He'll try to cast out. He'll try to destroy. Praise God, we're not evil. Praise God, we don't go there. But we need to come to awakening and hear that there is evil and that there are people who do things that you won't do and that do things that you cannot imagine. We need to understand that. We need to resist it. We need to hate it. We need to despise it. We need to be aware of it. If not, that's gonna disarm us. That's what gives us righteousness, right? So we understand wickedness. He goes, you stand in righteousness. Because righteousness stands and the wicked will flee. They'll call you names for, oh, holier than thou, and holy Joe, and hey, church lady. But you stand in it, in God's word, and watch the evil flee. We stand up for the innocent. We stand up for those that are hurting. We stand up for the weak. We're to do that. We're to be the mouthpiece. We're to be the soldiers. And we got some hard work. We gotta fight back because we've let it go too long and we've not been soldiering. So it's gonna be uncomfortable, but we need to. We need to. I kind of see this passage before us this morning, verse 10 through 13, as pregame in a locker room. I spent a lot of my life in sports and was able to play different kinds. None of them very well, but I could do all right. But I see Paul here as the coach. We're the team. And as I've gotten older, I can go back and see why I frustrated my coaches, because there's a lot of things I didn't understand until I was older. I'm like, oh, I just didn't get, I'm Brian playing Batman, you know? So I didn't get all the, so I'm sure I did, but Paul here's coaching us as the team. He is, this is, this is no silly sport. This is real. This is warfare. The thing is, it's like, it's a contact sport. You know, we are battling against an enemy here that, is out to kill, to maim, destroy, a murderer, a liar, one who wants to devastate your family, a country he wants to lay bare. He's one that will go after and kill innocents. I was listening to something there in comparison to October attack on Israel. And people compare it to Nazism up to a point. The Nazis hid what they did. They put it in a camp. They put it far away. The locals didn't know what was going on. That's why one of the first things as allies, when we came in and we took over a concentration camp, we made the townsfolk go march through it and say, this isn't what we're saying. This is what you did. This is what you allowed. This is what went on in your own country by your own countrymen. And they were shocked. If you've never seen that, as they go through, just weeping and crying, we did this? When Hamas went in, They filmed it. They showed you. Those in our government have watched the film. Some of them have it. But they filmed themselves as they choked babies till their eyes bulged and all these things, put them in ovens and baked them, horrible thing that they celebrated and their countrymen saw it. So is it like Holocaust? Yeah, it is, but it's not, it's worse. They celebrated it. Their country celebrated that they've been taught to celebrate it. So it is evil and it is dark. And that's the playing field that we have right now. But there are those that are not like us just because we would never do that. So what's the context for it? So my closest thing I can associate with is football. And pregame wasn't just a rousing speech. Come on, fellas. We're going to give it the old college try. I never had a coach like that. I had a coach with bad breath that would get up in your face and yell at you. And he was a rousing speech. There was a lot of yelling, spit yelling, like, rawr, in your face that way, before game, let alone before any. I hadn't had a chance to be bad yet. But just that kind of stuff, you know, it's in your face. It was contact yelling in the fact that he would go by and smack you on the helmet, you know, or he would hit you on the shoulder pads, thump you in the chest. with your shoulder pads on, you can grab it right there, shake you around that way, grab you by the face mat and pull it down, hit you on the side of the head. And I volunteered for this as an extracurricular sport. But we get all the, and then, you know, after he would do that with us, you turn to the other guy, you're like, yeah, why? And you smack your teammate against the head, and you're going down, you're punching each other in the back, and we're going down, smacking and hitting each other to get us ready for some contact. Cause we don't go out there like, I haven't hit in a while. Oh, I hope that hurts you. No, no, we go out there like, oh, we've ramped ourselves up and we're out there to go do some damage and hit them hard. And we kind of rally each other up and get back to the huddle. My brother's a quarterback. Come on, let's go. You'll get you all going. We're going to go out there. We're going to do it. You know, striving, pushing, working hard to do it. That's what Paul's doing here. But we're so used to easy church that we don't read it that way. That was all meant for the coach to wake us up. You're about ready to be engaged. Come on. You're no longer in fifth period on Friday. It's game time. Wake up. You've been on the bus. Let's go. You got to get out there and hit somebody. He's trying to stir you to battle as it was for football. Prepare you for contact. Show you your gear is working. See, I can hit you. It doesn't hurt. See, I can shake you. I can thump you on the shoulder pads. You're okay. Kind of all that. It's like designed to kind of like, oh, yeah, I can do that. Yeah. It wakes all that up in you again. That's what I see verse 13 as. Paul. Wherefore, taken to you the whole armor of God. The second time he's told us that. You got it all on? So first he's looking at it. You got it all on? Have you left something off? If you don't have a belt, he's gonna expose it pretty quick. If you forget your boots, he's gonna step on a toe. He's making sure like the coach thumping you in the helmet or hitting your shoulder pads. Doing all those things. Paul's looking. Make sure you got it all on. His eyes on you. He's inspecting your gear. He smacked your breastplate. You wearing it? Is it covering the front? Is it covering the back? Are you closed to his righteousness? Do you have that? You put on the whole armor of God, a fist against your helmet, boom, what could happen on this day? The worst you could do is kill you and send you home to be with our Lord, right? That's right. Boom, he inspects your shield, pushes against it. Is that shield standing? Is your face strong? Are you ready to go out and face the enemy that you may be able to withstand on the evil day, pushing against your shield? He does that. What's the evil day? It's every day. It's every day. Today's battle. Do you face evil every day? Yeah, I'd say we do. Sometimes we embrace it. Sometimes it shocks us. Sometimes we resist it, but it's there. The opportunity is there every day. Do we face that battle every day? Today's fight. That's what he's preparing us for here. We're to put on the whole armor of God every day to go forth and fight in this battle. If you remember in chapter five, verse 16, redeem the time, right? For the days are evil. The evil day. Every day is evil. Are we purchasing back the time? Are we buying it and claiming it for Him? Are we saying, I'm gonna serve God today, reporting for duty, sir. I'm going forth to stand forth and proclaim the good news of the gospel. Am I gonna resist evil? Am I gonna stand up? Or is it all gonna catch us off guard? Cause we haven't even thought about those things yet. I haven't had my coffee. I don't know what's going on. Are we gonna be in there and ready and prepared and ready to go? Today, the day of evil, the evil day. The days are evil. Let's claim it back for Him. There's coming a big day of evil. There's probably some big days in each of our lives that some of us face as individuals. We try to rally together as a church to help someone go through the evil day. You're not alone, we're with you, we're praying for you, we're fighting. There's a big evil day coming where evil's gonna come out and it's gonna be exposed. There's gonna be lies and deceptions that we have to fight against. We live in a day of deception. I mean, who here is confident in the news you heard this morning? Yeah, maybe. But we're confident in God's word, right? That's where we stand upon it. That's where we know it. When everything else is shifting sand, we build our rock, our house upon this firm foundation. That Jesus is the Christ, no matter what they say, it's who he is. I trust God at his word. Every word in the Bible is absolutely true. We stand upon it. You know, there's an evil day coming and we better be ready for evil days, let alone the evil days when there's a battle ahead and we come up and we're suited as warriors coming over the crest of heaven on our white horses, ready to do battle. Maybe we move up front if we fought some now, right? Follow them. but you gotta be ready for the big evil day, and you get ready for the big evil day by the little evil days that you're fighting. It's like in football, we had practice to get us ready for the other day. Only thing, this isn't practice, it's real life. So we fight for our family, you fight for your marriage, you fight for your fellowship with God, we fight for time, we have so many devices. My wife and I talk about this sometimes, about like, remember when we first got a microwave, remember, and then we all made pizza bagels, you know, 100 of them that week. Ooh, pizza bagel. We all stood there and watched it go around and get hot, you know, for popcorn in here. Oh my gosh, such a time saver. But back then, we'd visit my cousins. Back then, we'd visit aunts and uncles. Back then, we had time in the afternoon. Back then, we played shadow tag and everything else out in the yard. Now it's like, oh, I hope I can get a little bit of time to do something. We have all these conveniences. We have so many things and no time, right? This is war, because it's battling for our time. You have to carve out time to be with family and friends and to visit one another and to talk to them in person and not just on your phone. We have to fight for all this. Evil day, we had to fight for it all. Relationships, everything. Are we suiting up every day? I say I doubt it because I, no, I don't. Shame on me. This is what this is for. This is why Paul gives the speech. Come on, this is warfare, Brian. Suit up. He's gonna coast on through? Paul says here, the very end of verse 13, and having done all to stand, he checks my boots. Are they tight and secure? Can I step on your toes? Do you have a firm foundation? Do you know, are you ready for the reason of the hope that lies within you? Do you have all these things? Have I given my all truly at the end of the day? I gave you my all. I gave you my song. I gave you a little bit. Maybe tomorrow I'll give you something. What's our honest answer at the end of the day? What do we say? Here, He's expecting us. You're gonna go out there, you're gonna leave it all on the field. We're gonna go out there in the world on the evil day. We're gonna leave the sanctuary of our home church, being at home or here this morning, and we're gonna go out into the dark, evil world. And are you gonna stand? Are you gonna fight? Are you gonna give it your all to resist the devil and have him flee? Are you gonna fight for what is right and righteous? Have you done all? Can you leave at the end of the day? I did all I could. Tomorrow, Lord, maybe I'll be stronger. Maybe I'll be better. and you re-rehearse this replay on your way home, the things that you could have said and the things that you should have done and that's the review in your game film. What can I do better? What can I do better? Have I fought a good fight? Is my armor on? Do I need to go work on my shield of faith? Ooh, that guy had a good question. I don't know about that. I need to go home and do some studying and work on my shield so that I didn't have a hole in it. Have I pressed towards the mark? Do I keep pressing on or do I get tired and say, take me out coach. I want to sit on the bench for a while. Where you're like, oh, I'll rest in heaven. It's called a place of rest, right? I think he's assuming that we're gonna be working while we're here. I'll give you rest. Enter into my rest is what he tells us about heaven, eternity, work right now. Press towards the mark. Again, we're not working for our salvation, we're working for him. Have I done all to stand? That's a good question, Christians. I wanna be a battleship church. If I'm honest and sometimes I look at myself, it seems like I'm a cruise ship soldier, right? I'm sitting on the edge. I'm thinking about battle. Maybe I'm watching a movie about a war or reading a book about some battle, but I'm not engaged. I'm not engaging. I'm not quite stirred enough to fight. Maybe tomorrow, maybe if I read a little bit more, maybe if I have an answer for this, Pick a fight. Go out and witness for Christ. Say something. Do something. Invite the Jehovah Witness in. Tell the Mormons to come back. Fortunately, I don't watch network TV too much, but I can remember when they would run and they're like, hey, you can get this free Book of Mormon. I'm like, I wouldn't mind having a copy of that. I'd like to read it and see what they're saying. So I called them up, had them come over, and a few minutes into the meeting, they're like, are you a preacher or something? At that time, I wasn't. I'm a Sunday school teacher, but I was wanting a copy of the Book of Mormon so I could poke holes in it. But I had a chance to engage and to talk with them. It made me study and prepare to be ready. We met with Jehovah's Witnesses for a good while, trying to witness to them and trying to use it back to the point in time where this was when we were young. Fellowship told them not to meet with us anymore. And I'm like, yes. But I wanted to win them. And I went to their main headquarters downtown, asked for books that they had never gotten out before and paid to have them copied from their copier. And they're like, why are you doing this? I'm like, oh, just looking for an answer where it says here you're a prophet and you've been false and that is wrong. I didn't tell them exactly what I was doing, but I was finding the work, you know, before they hid it, which showed them to be false prophets. So I could show it to these people because we were trying to reach them. Man, that was war. That was too long ago. It's time to wake up. It's time to suit up. It's time to get our swords out and our weapons drawn. Let's go, sword drill, Romans 13, here we go. Let's do a lot of flipping, how's that? Flipping with our swords, Roman 13, I hope you have your Bible with you. If you're using your digital Bible, we'll count that this time. Romans 13, verse 12. Romans 13, 12. The night is far spent. I can see Paul telling us this. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the work of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. We have armor of light. Let's quit messing around with the darkness. Let's put on the armor of light. Verse 13, let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting or drunkenness, not in chambering or wantonness, not in strife or envy, but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. Let's put on Christ, let's live for him and make no provision for the flesh. Like, well, I'll take a break later. I'll take a little break from that and I'll only do so much. No, let's just make no provision for that. I'm yours today, Lord. Use me, move me, help me to do what I can for you. And if it's at work, you're saying, I'm at work. I don't have time to witness during that. That's great. You know, if you have a job for them, you have to do it. Do it as if you're working for him. That's what the Bible tells us. Do it as if you're working for the King. That gives you a testimony as well. That helps when you're worst plight of righteousness, but then you have lunch breaks and other times when maybe you can. Look at verse 11 of the same chapter. And that knowing that the time is now high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than we first believed. Come on, fellow soldiers, let's wake up. Let's suit up. It's later and the days are more evil than we can even think. The battle is real. We need to wake up. We need to stand up. We need to suit up and we need to engage the enemy. We need to resist the devil. We need to find things that are wrong and oppose it, get it out and be irate about it. Right now, I'm afraid we're so Laodicean that we're like, yeah, that's bad. Somebody should do something. Someone should say, yep, I'm just one person. Lieutenant Governor told us, he said, he goes, if you have one, if one person calls about something, they count that as equal to at least 1,000. Because if you were moved enough, so your call is actually 1,000 calls, let alone if a bunch of us call, then it's like a landslide. They said 13 calls on any given bill or topic or subject is a landslide. Well, that's 13,000 people, even though it might only have been 13 people. So we can say stuff. We can kind of steer the control of Indian Creek or Franklin or whatever it is by saying, no, we don't want that in here. We don't want that to go on. We want this to be decent and holy and right. We don't want those things. By being a voice and by standing up, I can remember being on a deacon board where they started having practices on Wednesdays. And we went to the school, this was a Franklin school, but we went to them and we're like, hey, we don't like you having practices on Wednesdays. It affects youth group, it affects times we have in church. And they're like, you're the only church in the community to complain. So practice as it is. Tell you what, we're even gonna have game on Sunday. Didn't used to, but the church was quiet. So we need to battle. We need to fight and get things back. And if they say, well, you never said nothing before, saying, well, shame on me, I'm saying something now. We're not doing that. Just lost my note, there we go. Let's look at some more. I think, look at 1 Thessalonians chapter five. Like I said, sword drills. We're practicing, we're seeing where it is in scripture to be stirred. First Thessalonians five, verse seven. For they that sleep, sleep in the night, and they that are drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, whoever the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. There, he reminded us, put your helmet, you know, put your equipment on. Verse nine, for God has not appointed us to wrath, but obtained salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't get God's wrath. We have salvation. And so what are they gonna do? The worst they could do is what? Nothing, kill us? We go on to be with him, but chances are we won't. Verse 10. who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore, comfort yourselves together and edify one another, even as also ye do. He says, so we're to encourage one another, we're to suit up, we're to battle up, we're to be going. Look at verse 14. Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, and be patient towards all men. This is how we treat one another. Some people you need to warn. Hey, you're kind of going down a bad path. Some people you need to support. Hey, I'm here with you. You're not standing on your own. I'll stand with you. Some that are weak, we need to strengthen their faith. We have classes. Can we have a Bible study together? And I can work on that with you. We're to do that. Verse 17, pray without ceasing. That's one of the weapons of armor that we usually forget about, but we're to be praying. We're to be lifting up, communicating with headquarters, with the heavenly father. Verse 21, prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. We're to test and examine everything. And we stand what is good and we call out what is not good. And we oppose it. Verse 22, abstain from all appearances of evil. We wanna be righteous. And we wanna abstain from those things. We wanna stand what is good. We wanna encourage what is good. And we need to resist the evil. Verse 23, and the very God of peace. Very God of peace, sanctify you holy. And I pray God, your Holy Spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's expecting us to be busy and active and doing this until the Lord Jesus comes to take us home. And he's like, ah, I gotta take them. And we're out there being a change agent in the world. Look at Psalm 91, Psalm 91, the warrior Psalm. Come on warriors, let's go read the warrior Psalm. This is one that our soldiers, I mean, as American soldiers read often that is brought before them. So yes, us as well. Psalm 91, the warrior Psalm. Now notice as a warrior poet here tells us some things. Notice what his confidence is in. He's not confident in his skills and his ability and his strength and his might and his experience as a soldier. Look and see where it is. Verse one of Psalm 91. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He's already saying that God is his protector, that we're under his shadow. He's the iron dome that we have. Verse two, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, and Him will I trust. He goes, I'm not trusting in myself, I'm trusting in the Lord. It's like being safe in a castle. It's like being behind a locked door. It's like being there, you know, tucked up in my room with an AK-47, whatever it is, it's like, God is my safety net, I'm trusting Him. Verse three, surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noisome and pestilence. If there's disease out there, we trust the Lord. If there's somebody laying traps for us, the noisome fowler, we trust the Lord. Verse four, he shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and thy buckler. We trust his truth, the Lord's truth. We stand behind it no matter what evidence, no matter what they pull up, no matter what they say. They fear about the great, that in the last days there'll be a falling away. And one of the theories is that they're gonna find something in the desert that they're gonna claim undermines the Bible. Oh, here's a new text that we didn't know we had before. And it says that Jesus was a charlatan and none of this is to be believed. It's old, it's in the desert, we must believe. It'll shake people's faith. Or do we trust what we have? Do we trust God's word that's been preserved in our laps, in our hands, that we can be reading, that when the Dead Sea Scrolls were found, Isaiah was not changed at all. Are we gonna take whatever's new and found? No, we're gonna trust in his word. It's gonna be a shield and a buckler, his truth, a shield and a buckler. Verse five, thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor by the arrow that flyeth by day. Can you see how a soldier would want this? I mean, when you don't know, those bullets flying around and you're like, I don't know where they're going, but to be resting in the Lord. Verse six, nor by the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor by the destruction that wastes at noonday, a thousand shall fall at thy side and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh unto thee. Only thine eyes that shall behold and see the reward of the wicked. The only destruction you're gonna see is falling on the enemy because you're standing in the midst of the Lord and who he is and what he is doing. Everything else is falling down around you. Verse nine, because thou has made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation. He lives in the Lord. That's where we dwell, in his presence. That's the secret of understanding the armor that we're given. Verse 10, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling, for he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in thy hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone. He's saying that angel protection around us. The devil tried to use this verse to trap Jesus, didn't he? He's like, oh, jump off the temple here. Lest you dash your foot against the stone, the angels will come and get you up. And he's like, don't you tempt and test the Lord your God. But know that there's more things going on than just us fighting. That there, yes, there are supernatural forces out there that are our enemy, but there's supernatural forces on our side as well. That's battling and fighting for us, that are shielding and guarding and protecting. We don't pray to them, but God has them there. And sometimes we have war stories and say, hey, I think, maybe, that might've been. Like with Elijah, I don't know that Elijah ever saw all those fiery chariots. I just think he knew that God had them there. And he's like, my servant needs to see it. Could you show him? Yep, there they are. They're there. They're there. And they're probably blushing right now saying, don't talk about us, talk about him. There's your strength, but we're not alone. Verse 13, thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder and the young lion and the dragon. Thou shalt trumple under the feet. That's what we teach him at camp. Stomp and truly stomp him underneath our feet. Verse 14, because he has set the love upon me, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he has known my name. He shall call upon me and I will answer him and I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation. That's the warrior Psalm. Look at Psalm 18. Psalm 18, verse two. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength, and whom I will trust, my buckler and my horn of my salvation, and my high tower, the horn of my power. That's the power, that's the strength of his salvation. Verse three, I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The sorrow of death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrow of hell compassed me about, and the snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of the temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled, and the foundations also of the hills moved, and were shaken because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, a fire out of the mouth, and devoured his coals, were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens, or he bowed the heavens also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet. He rode upon a cherub and did fly. Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness his secret place. His pavilion round about him were the dark waters of the thick clouds of the skies. at the brightness that was before him. As thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens and the heights. He gave his voice, hailstones and coals of fire. Yea, he sent out his arrows and scattered them. And he shot out lightnings and discomforted them. Then the channels of the waters were seen and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O Lord." At... at the blast of his breath of his nostrils. He sent from above, he took me and he drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from the strong enemy and from them that hated me, for they were too strong for me. They prevented me in the day of calamity, but the Lord was my stay. He's like, when I got desperate, I called on the Lord and he rescued me. And David was a soldier. There's so many more. Psalm 27, Psalm 33, Psalm 35, Psalm 138, Isaiah 54. No weapon has formed against you shall prosper. Job knew he had to suit up. First he started out with a relationship with God and then he sought to go out and he put on righteousness like a robe and he went out and he pursued the enemy and he fought against them. Now Isaiah 59 is almost a parallel of Ephesians 6 of putting on the same armor of God. So let's suit up. Let's stand up against evil, against the wiles of the devil, Psalms, like I said, are full of all these things, of a battle cry, of something that we are to read and to kind of get pumped up before you put on your armor for the day. Yeah, it's like him going and hitting your helmet, smacking your pads. You've got them on and it was trusting in the Lord. It's by his strength and by the power of his might. David knew it was the Lord's strength. It was the Lord's might. It was the Lord who gave him speed. It was the Lord who gave him cunning. It was the Lord who helped him to lead and to guide the children of Israel. It was him who helped him leap over a wall. The Bible tells us that he would have all these fall down beside him and he would come out unscathed. He trusted in the Lord. He trusted in God's power. And it's the same power that you and I have to be tapped into today. It's the same power that resurrected Jesus Christ, Ephesians chapter one told us. It's the same power that we have available to us, but we got to ask for it. We got to use it. We got to do it. We got to stand up. And so yeah, same access, same God, same thing. And if you don't have him, that's where you need to start. You need to repent of your sins and ask Jesus Christ to save you, join the team. He does all the saving, He does all the keeping, and then we can do a battle for Him. But if you do know Him, are we trusting Him? Are we getting up and ready to do battle each and every day? From this point forward, we go through and we look at each of these elements, and hopefully we gain a respect and a reverence for what they are. And we understand and we appreciate what it is He's telling us that we have to be able to use when it comes to the evil day, to be able to stand and to resist. that it's not by our might, it's not by our power, but it's His that we're able to stand and resist and to fight. I call you to fight with me as we resist.