But right now let's turn in our Bibles if you will to Ephesians chapter 6 Ephesians chapter 6 We'll be looking at verse 11 of Ephesians chapter 6 And we are continuing on in this study here tonight of the armor of God and Notice there in Ephesians chapter 6 we read this verse last week. It was one of the two verses that we read and But notice here in Ephesians chapter six and verse 11, the Bible says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now, we're going to be looking here this evening, notice there on the top of the handout, you see the armor of God, then under that, the title of tonight's message, The Reason for the Armor. There is a battle that we are in, There is armor that we should be wearing. There's armor that's available to us. If we go through life and we leave ourselves vulnerable, it's not because God hasn't provided the armor, it's because we haven't put the armor on. And we're gonna be talking about some things here this evening. And it's important for us to see that there is a reason for this. And I praise the Lord that we serve a God in heaven who knows the battle that we're in. And he also knows how to protect us through that battle. He knows exactly what we need. and we just need to listen to Him. So I want to look at the reason for the armor tonight, and let's go to the Lord in prayer, and we'll get into this message here in just a moment. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before You tonight, and we thank You for who You are. Lord, we thank You that You care for us enough to Lord, to show us exactly what we are to put on. And Lord, I pray that as you speak to our hearts that each one of us, dear Lord, would allow the Holy Spirit to convict us. And Lord, that we'd allow the Holy Spirit to change things in our lives as well. And Lord, I pray that we would not be just comfortable in where we've been, but Lord, realize that you have a work that you'd like to do in our lives and we need to yield to you. Lord, I pray that you'd have your will and way in this service. And we ask all these things in Jesus name. Amen. As we study the Bible, we quickly find that there is an enemy. We quickly find that that enemy, his name is Satan. We know that, of course, that Satan is a created being and when God created all of the angels and even Satan himself, of course, Satan named Lucifer, that Lucifer said, I will be like the Most High. He allowed his pride to get the best of him. And he allowed himself to think that he was bigger than what he actually was. And because of that, of course, he had a third of the angels that was on his side. And so the Lord kicked him out of heaven and also kicked the one third of the angels out of heaven as well. And since then, he has been, what the Bible says, walking about seeking whom he may devour. We've got this enemy that's here on earth and he's coming after you and me. You know what Satan knows? Satan knows he cannot take our salvation. He knows that. Satan knows the Bible better than we do. Satan knows that that it is finished. And we talked about how Satan, he's not trying to steal a believer's salvation. He's just trying to make us inactive for the Lord. He's trying to make it to where we're not gonna tell someone else. Satan doesn't want us to go out and pass out tracts. He doesn't want us to lead our family members to the Lord and our neighbors and coworkers and ones like that. He doesn't want that. So what's he gonna do? He's gonna come at us. He's going to throw everything that he has at our lives. Satan knows he cannot take our salvation, but that does not stop him from trying to make us fall. Think about a soldier. Think about a soldier who's running into battle. You've got maybe a group of soldiers, a platoon if you will, and they're running into battle and maybe There are some of those soldiers, as they're running into this battle there, their feet get hung up on some things, and the soldier falls to the ground. What happens? Well, that soldier is left vulnerable until he stands back up. There's an awful lot of believers that have allowed Satan to attack them. They haven't trusted in the power of God. They haven't put on the armor of God like they should have, and therefore, they have fallen in battle, and they refuse to get back up. Shouldn't be that way. Not if we're putting on the armor of God. We can stand right back up. We're in God's strength. Now understand, there are going to be times in which we fall. There are going to be times in which we fail. There are times in which the Holy Spirit, he has to put us back on the right path and he's gotta keep us straight, if you will. We are sin-filled beings. That's exactly what we are. We're going to sin against God. but we can't allow ourselves to stay down because we're vulnerable to the devil. You know, when a soldier is running into battle and he's on his feet, he has speed and he has strength on his side. But if he, if he falls to the ground, he cannot do much fighting. And Satan knows that he knows he cannot take our salvation. He's just trying to take us out of the fight. God has provided some armor for us that we can stand with. And we as believers, we need to acknowledge the fact that God has provided the armor that we need. And when we realize that, when we say, you know what? God knows exactly what we need. God knows what battles we're going to go into. Therefore, he knows what is best for us. When we finally acknowledge that fact, you know what we'll do? We'll be quicker to lay aside our pride. because we won't think that we're something. Well, I've been saved for this amount of time. I think I can handle some spiritual battles. You can't, and I can't either. We can't do it without God. T.H. Spurgeon said it this way, as you take each piece of armor, look at it and say to yourself this, I cannot be proud for my need of this proves that I am a poor, weak creature. Think about that. Every time we take on the armor of God, we are acknowledging the fact, God, I cannot do this without you. I need your help. If we'd do that each and every day, I think we'd live some victorious Christian lives, don't you? I think we would spend a lot less time being defeated. I think we would spend a lot more time in the fight. As we look at the armor of God, as it's given here in Ephesians chapter six, Paul is encouraging the church in Ephesus here in the Lord and in the power of His might. We discussed that last week. Verse 10 of our passage said, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. In verse 12 it says, Notice here we are told it is not a physical battle. It doesn't matter how much you train. It doesn't matter how much you can lift with your physical body. You cannot stand in this battle that we are in as believers, as Christians, as the children of God. You cannot stand in that battle without God's help, without His strength, without being in the power of His might. We must understand that without the armor of God, we will all fall in battle. and we'll be useless. So as we look at the reason for the armor tonight, I want us to see three things here this evening. And notice first of all is this, every Christian is a soldier. Every Christian is a soldier. We don't get to choose whether or not we're a soldier. Now we'll choose whether or not we're going to fight, whether or not we're going to do the things that God wants us to do, whether or not we're going to be actively engaged in the battle. But when you trusted Christ as your personal savior, just as much as you became a child of God, you also became a soldier in God's army. Every Christian. It's a conversation that Paul is having with a young man in the faith there in 2nd Timothy. Turn over there if you will. 2nd Timothy chapter 2. 2nd Timothy chapter 2 in verse 3. 2nd Timothy 2.3. The Apostle Paul as he's talking to young Timothy, his son in the faith if you will. He tells him this, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Notice he calls him a soldier. You know, a soldier is not one who is just to do his own thing. Just one who just follows his own path or makes his own decisions. No, a soldier follows the commander. Notice he says a good soldier. Me and my boys, a couple of weeks ago, we were listening to, uh, brother Bill Barron's, uh, testimony, uh, online there. And of course, brother Bill Barron's is with the Lord now, but brother Barron's was a Marine. And, uh, he would come down to, uh, Capitol when we were attending down there and he would do men's conferences and those types of things. And of course, It was never a good thing to have a Marine come into a town that was an Air Force city, amen. It was just, you knew the jokes were going to be coming. I can remember him coming in there and talking about all the work that the Marines had to do and everything that, all the battle training and those types of things. And he said, and oftentimes we'd get back from having all this weight on our back and we're running circles around the base and all of those things. And when we got back, it was never a surprise to us to see the air forces out there playing soccer. And those are just the type of jokes that he would throw out there. He was a Marine of all Marines, amen. But he said this, he said in his testimony, he said he was a teenager. And he got tired of listening to what mom and dad wanted to say. He got tired of listening to authority in his life. And he said, you know what? I can do what I want. I don't want to listen to authority. I don't want to have rules. I'm going to join the Marines. Didn't work out very well for him, amen? But that's where he went. You know what he found out as soon as he joined the Marines? It wasn't so bad at mommy and daddy's house. It was awfully easy to live there, but the reality is this, there are rules everywhere. And every Christian is to be a soldier, but we're not only told to be a soldier. He says here in verse three of 2 Timothy chapter two, good soldier. Now understand a good soldier is one that's going to obey every command that his commanding officer gives to him. This is our commanding officer. This is the rule book. God's told us exactly what we are to do, but there are an awful lot of believers today that yes, they've been born again. Yes, they're a child of God. Yes, they are a soldier, but they are not a good soldier. What does a good soldier strive to do? He or she, they strive to please their captain by being obedient to the commands. You know, this world is full of people who think they are tough stuff because, well, I do my own thing. They don't obey their parents or their authority or their boss at work or their coach, and they think they're tough, but in reality, they are foolish, weak individuals who don't know how to be a good soldier. You know, it takes more guts, if you will, to follow the Word of God than it does to follow this world. Why? Because this world's all going the same direction. And it takes a stronger fish to swim upstream When you follow the Bible, when you are a good soldier, I can guarantee you will not regret it and you will be spiritually strong because it takes a man to stand up for what's right. If you're saved here tonight, I don't care how old you are or how young you are, if you don't obey and respect the God-given authority in your life, understand we cannot be good soldiers. You need to get your heart checked because we as believers, we're told to be good soldiers. We're told to follow the Word of God. We're told to do what God's Word tells us to do. Take a moment here and speak to our teenagers tonight. I think all the teenagers, well, except for one, teenagers are over here, amen? Teenagers, listen up. Don't try to paint the picture that you're living for the Lord when you're back talking to mom and dad at home. Don't do that. Don't try to paint a picture that you're super spiritual in God's house. when you don't care about what the Bible says. Now understand, I am older than you guys, but I'm not an old man. It wasn't that long ago I was exactly where you guys are. I was there, talking to Brother Nikolai before the service this evening about some things, some decisions that I made that I regret. that I treated my parents that I regret, absolutely regret. To this day, it hurts to think about those things. But you know what I was doing during the whole time? Everybody in church thought I was spiritual. Everybody. But God knew. God knew exactly what I was doing. I was doing. Don't try to put on a show when we're at church, but then partake of worldly activities outside of here. As the old saying goes, well, you got to put your money where your mouth is. If you say you're doing this, then you need to do that. If you're saying that this is who you are, then that's what you need to be all times. You cannot be a good Christian only at church and think that, well as long as I'm a good Christian at church that means I'm a good Christian at home. No, if you're not a good Christian at home you're not a good Christian at church, I can guarantee it. Each and every one of us we cannot serve two masters, what the Bible says. And understand the reality is that there are so many Christians out there that they say, well I'm a soldier for God, but they're not a good soldier. They're not fighting for what God wants them to do. You know when someone is a good soldier, if you truly are a man or a woman of God, you will not care what someone else is doing. Teenagers here, if you're a man or a woman of God, you won't care what the other teens are doing. You're going to serve the Lord. You're going to do what God wants you to do. You're going to stand for the Lord. You won't care where other teens are serving. You're going to serve. You will not look for every opportunity to get out of service. You'll look for every opportunity to get in. the service of the Lord, because that's what good soldiers do. But can I help us here tonight? That truth is not only true for teenagers, that's for us adults as well. If we are to be good soldiers of the Lord, understand that is being actively involved in the fight. Not backing down. Not saying, well, I think I've done enough. Well, I think I've fought enough. The battle's not over. How foolish would it be for a soldier to go into battle and the enemy is surrounding them, and there's all of these people, and all of their lives are at stake here, and they're fighting, and they're giving all they have. And for one soldier to say, you know what? I'm done fighting. I've fought long enough. I think it'll be all right if I just lay down my sword for a little bit. What's gonna happen? They're going to get killed. That's exactly what's going to happen there. They're going to go down in the battle, but that's where a lot of believers are today. We need to be in the fight. There's an awful lot of pew writers today, people who have just kind of whet their appetite with service, but are not all into the service of God. Let's serve in every area that we can, because we are called to be good soldiers. We shouldn't be telling and laughing at jokes that are off color. We shouldn't be acting as though we're all spiritual, but yet we have no respect for authority. Listen, every one of us, we need revival in our hearts. We need God to do a work in our hearts that only He can do. We need the Lord to shake us to the core is what we need. You know, just seeing the hard-heartedness in people's lives today, it should absolutely scare us to the point where we, when we think about when was the last time, when was the last time I heard the Lord speak to my heart? When's the last time I made a decision for the Lord? When's the last time God broke me as we talked about last week? When we think about that, it should scare us to death thinking, Lord, what's it going to take for you to break my heart of stone? Because there's an awful lot of people that their heart got so hardened, it took something that nobody would ever want to go through before it got their attention. Speaking to a gentleman this past week, and he was telling me how he was so far from God, running away from God. He said, I know I was saved as a teenager. You know what it took in his life? Later in life, you know what it took to get him back to God? A family member tragically dying. A close family member. That's what it took to shake him to the core. God had tried all different things, gave him all different opportunities, but that's what it finally came to. What's it going to have to come to to make us a good soldier of God? What's God gonna have to do in our lives? We are called to be Soldiers, good soldiers. Understand we need to be serving where God allows us to serve. We need to be involved. We as adults need to be involved in ministry and get our children and our grandchildren involved in ministry. We need to be the examples to them. Some would say, well, they just don't want to serve. Well, when did their opinion matter? You know, when I was growing up, it didn't matter if I wanted to serve the Lord. I lived in my parents' house. You know what I did? I had to serve the Lord. You know, there were some times where I didn't do it with the right heart attitude, but I was there. Why? And I'm so thankful that my parents made me do that. They were the authority. And some may say, well, if you force them to serve, then they're going to grow up despising it. Listen, the devil's attacking them at every angle. If I can have them serving the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, and I can keep them away from the devil, a little bit longer and I can be good stewards of the children that God has given me, then understand that's part of being a good soldier, that's obeying the command of God. And understand there's no better place for them to be than serving the Lord. No better place at all. But what do you want to raise? Good soldiers or ones that sit on the pew? Each one of us need to realize that Christians are called to be soldiers. Children cannot learn to be good soldiers if they're not following parents who are good soldiers. We need to be good soldiers. They cannot be good soldiers if at home we're constantly talking down other people. And if we are the one who's being a stick in the mud about things. That's not going to make your children want to serve the Lord. around you serve the Lord. You know what ignites me and makes hear about blessings. When I hear about people praising the Lord for things that they've done. Me and Brother Nicolai sharing praises before the service here this evening. I was able to lead a man to the Lord today, and it was just an amazing thing what God did there. But we were sharing blessings one with another. And each one of us left that talk that we were having encouraged. Why? Because we realized we're fighting, and we're on the same team, and we're serving the same God, and God still saves souls today. many times rather than sharing blessings around the dinner table we are complaining. Lord help us. Many times, rather than acting as a good soldier and saying, you know what, we're in the fight, and Satan would like nothing more than for us to complain about these things, but we're not gonna do that. We're gonna praise the Lord, and we're not going to sit here and talk about the things we don't like. We're not gonna talk about the things that we don't care about, or how this person does that, or how I disagree with those things. We're not gonna do that, because we're not willing to just sit by and watch our children go to the devil. We're gonna praise the Lord. Church, we need to be good soldiers. We need to be examples. Every Christian is a soldier. The question is, are you going to be a good soldier or not? Notice, secondly here, every Christian fights a battle. Every Christian fights a battle. I want you to look at 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6, and notice verse 12. Now, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. This is not that verse, I'm quoting a different verse here. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. So, if all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for us, then the command in this verse, though it was the Apostle Paul writing to young Timothy, the command in this verse was not just given to Timothy, it was given to Timothy because he was a Christian, not because he was Timothy. Because he had trusted Christ as his Savior, because he was actively engaged in the fight. Notice verse 12 of 1 Timothy chapter six and in verse 12, notice, fight the good fight of faith. Sounds like a command, doesn't it? I don't see a question there. It doesn't say, well, if you feel like it. On the days that are going good, no. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. What he's saying here is this. Look, you're saved. You need to tell people about it. You need to fight the good fight of faith. The apostle Paul, in writing this letter to Timothy, he encourages him to fight the good fight When a person is fighting, that means they are engaged in battle. A fight is not, well, I'm just sitting on the sideline and, well, the devil's battling my family. That's not a fight. You know what a fight is? Though the devil's battling your family, you're on your knees before the Lord, praying for God to give your family grace and comfort and strength through this battle. That's a fight. A fight is staying faithful to the Lord, even in the hard times. That's a fight. There's a fight and many people they say, well, I want to be part of that fight, but yet they're not willing to pick up the sword. The mindset of every believer should be, I want to be part of the fight. But though there's a battle going on, it's being fought by a faithful few. There's many who claim to be saved. There's many who claim to have trusted Christ, but yet they're not taking up their sword. They may say, well, I trusted Christ such and such amount of years ago, and I'm so glad He saved me. But the reality is this, you can't convince me that you're glad to be saved if you aren't willing to tell somebody else about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We talk about what we're excited about. Let's be excited about being saved. Let's be excited about what God's doing in our life. Let's be excited about those things. I'm glad that someone can say and they can point back to a time in which they trusted Christ and that's a great thing to do. But if we aren't willing to be soul winners, understand we are not in the battle. We're not in the fight. We're just sitting there while Satan is wreaking havoc through our churches. You know, I praise the Lord that All but, I believe, two days throughout the week, we've got different groups out soul winning. Different days, we've got bus visits going on, we've got ladies that go out, of course, we've got Saturday, we've got a men's group, a couple of men that go out as well, and we've got all of these things going on throughout the week. Understand, many times in our mind, we can find a soul winning time to only Saturday. No, Saturday is the structure time that we go out as a church. Soul winning is not a time, soul winning is a lifestyle. It's realizing Christ saved me, and I'm called to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Therefore, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to do that all of the time. But you know what the issue is in most independent fundamental Baptist churches today is this, that they'll have 15, 20, 30, even 40 men show up for a men's prayer breakfast, but two stay for soul winning. Lord, help us. Where they have all of these ladies show up for a ladies event, but not many are soul winning. Oh, you have a meal scheduled for the church, you have all kinds of people show up, but they rarely hand out tracts. Understand church, we're in a battle, we're in a fight. I love men's prayer breakfast. I love that our ladies can get together and they can fellowship one with another. I love being able to sit down and fellowship as the church body, but understand that's not why we're here. We're here to fight the good fight. We're in a battle. We're here to keep going for God. We need to have a lifestyle of soul winning, be fighting the fight every day. I'm talking about going into the community and reaching people for the cause of Christ. I'm talking about getting involved in the lives of people. That's what I'm talking about. Fighting that fight. Church, we as believers have got to see that we are to be actively reaching out, actively fighting. Let me ask you this question. If you were looking for someone to take into a literal war with you, based on the way that you fight for God, would you choose you to fight alongside you in a war? Think about it. It's convicting to me. Because there's an awful lot of days I just don't feel like fighting. Awful lot of days where I'm just, I'm just tired. I just, you know, there's just other things I've got to do. Who would you choose? If you were choosing someone to literally save your life on the battlefield, and it was based upon the way that they fight for God, would you choose you? Lord help us. You see, it's easy for us to think that we're good soldiers, to think that we're doing what we can, to think that we're giving our best, but look around us. Think about our lives. Think about your life individually. I'll think about mine individually. How many people have come to Christ because I've been fighting the good fight? How many people are sitting in church today because I was willing to go out of my way? Because I was willing to tell them? You ask yourself this question. I'm asking myself this. How many people are in heaven today because I gave them the gospel and they trusted Christ? How have we been fighting? I'm not saying those things to make us think that we're something. But the Bible talks an awful lot about fruit. There's a lot of us as believers that, well, we claim to be in the fight, but there's no fruit. We're quick to judge the lack of fruit in others lives, but we can't remember the last time we presented the gospel to someone. Can't remember the last time we led someone to the Lord. Can't remember the last time we went out of our way and allowed the battle to cost us something. Look around. That'll tell you whether you're in the fight. You know, I am a firm believer in serving the Lord and we should be in the battle, guns a blazing, in this battle for God. In all the ministries that we can be, pedal to the metal. ask yourself this, what ministries am I involved in? In all of these things that the Lord allows the Church to do, one of the things that we strive to do here is this, in all of these ministries and all of these things, okay, what part of the Great Commission is that? fulfilling? You know the Great Commission of course is preaching the Gospel, of course getting people saved, reaching the lost, discipling them, and then of course planting other churches. And of course we're doing that through different missionaries and those types of things right now until the Lord leads us for a more local church plan. But all of those ministries, that's what it strives to do, reach people, and disciple them and then try to multiply ourselves. So what ministries are we involved in? What are we doing? Are we... Involved in soul winning are we involved in encouraging others? Are we involved in in discipleship or visiting or or? Work days and cleaning and those types of things the music ministry. Maybe you play an instrument You can play it in the church for the Lord where we're starting a choir ask yourself Is that something that I could do? We need to be all in for these things. We need to be fighting this fight. But the saying goes like this, in most churches 90% of the work is done by 10% of the people. And most of the time what we'll do is we'll say to ourselves, well that's just talking about the physical labor. No, that's talking about even the ministries of the church. We want to be involved in an active church. But many times we're willing to just sit by and watch others do it. Let's not be that way. Let's not allow Satan to allow us to get comfortable in the fight. We're in a battle, and you know what God needs us as Grace Baptist Church to be? He needs us to be good soldiers who are fighting the good fight of faith. Realizing this battle's not over. As long as there's breath in my lungs, I'm still fighting. Realizing that God has great things in store. We are in a spiritual battle. What better place to be than in the house of God, serving alongside of your brothers and sisters in Christ. It's a great thing. We need to be serving the Lord alongside of our fellow soldiers. Look at John chapter 10, if you will. John chapter 10 and verse 10. John chapter 10 and verse 10. You want to know what the attack plan is of our enemy. Here it is. John 10, 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, that they might have it more abundantly. Satan doesn't care about you. The world doesn't care about you. They'll chew you up and spit you out. God tells us exactly what Satan's going to do. He says, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. Some of the happiest people, most joyful people you'll ever meet are ones that are all in for the Lord. Serving God with every fiber of their being. realizing they're in a fight. Church, we are to be soldiers. As the children of God, we are soldiers, but what kind of soldiers are we? We're in a battle. Let's ask ourselves, how are we fighting? And then notice lastly, and quickly here, notice every Christian needs spiritual weapons. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 in verse 4. Second Corinthians chapter 10, in verse four, notice the Bible says this, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. The weapons that we have in this battle that we're in, Notice it's a spiritual battle, therefore it cannot be fought with carnal weapons. Here in America we have what is called the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. And I praise the Lord for that right. I love guns, I love the outdoors and all those things. I will never forget when we were candidating here and doing the question and answer, the couple that sat in the back that moved to Louisiana, Anyway, she was the very first hand that went up for the question that she raised her hand when they were asking because coming to be the pastor and those things. She raised her hand and she said, Brother Combs do you support the Second Amendment? question and answer for being the pastor here. And I said, yes, I do. Absolutely. And I thought I'm going to fit in just fine around here. Amen. I love the outdoors. I love Second Amendment and all those types of things. And some people will say, well, you shouldn't have guns because guns kill people. No people kill people. And if somebody wants someone to die, they will use any weapon that they can. There's nothing wrong with a person being able to protect his family. Actually, you're supposed to protect their family. But many times we as Americans will pride ourselves in the fact that we can own firearms. And we would say, well, we own these so we can protect ourselves and we'll buy and trade and whatever else to get guns. And we'll say, well, I have this for defense. And that's great. That's your right as an American. But Lord, help us if we're willing to spend thousands of dollars to defend ourselves physically, but unwilling to lift a finger to defend ourselves spiritually. It doesn't matter what caliber of rifle or handgun you have. It's not going to protect you in this fight that we're in spiritually. going to help you. There in the book of Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 the Bible says this very plainly, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not human beings that we are fighting here. The weapons that God gives us, the Bible says, they are not carnal. They cannot be seen with physical eyes to the world. We're going to appear as weak. They may mock that we read the Bible. They may mock that we pray. They may say, well, you do that, but I'm okay. They'll mock that we serve the Lord through the local church, but the Bible says that our weapons of warfare, they're not carnal. But understand the Bible also says, but they are mighty enough for the pulling down of strongholds. You know what that strongholds is? It's painting a picture of a castle here, a defense, a place that is built to defend everyone that's inside. The weapons that we have, it's saying it can tear down any fortress that's out there. It doesn't matter what it is. It doesn't matter what Satan throws at you. It doesn't matter what this world throws at you. The weapons that we have as the children of God, as the good soldiers of Christ, they are to the pulling down of strongholds. When you are fighting with those weapons, understand you will never be defeated. But if you fight with your own strength, you'll be defeated every time. These weapons are powerful. Church, we are in a battle. This armor that God has given us that we'll be getting into very soon here, understand we need to realize its importance because a Christian is a soldier. The type of soldier is up to us. Are we going to put on that armor? If you get up in the morning and you say to yourself, you know what? I'm not going to put on the armor of God. And you may say, well, I would never say that verbally. Every time you leave the house without putting on the armor, that's exactly what you've done. But when we do that, understand you will be defeated. But if you're not willing to put on the armor of God, you know what that tells Satan? They're not gonna be in the fight today anyway. They're not planning on going into battle. They left their sword at home. They left the other breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation. They left those things at home. They're not going to be in the battle today. But as soon as you put those things on, understand Satan's coming after you. But the Bible says that the weapons that we have, the weapons of warfare, they're not carnal, but to the pulling down of strongholds. We're in a battle. How are we fighting? Are we going to allow all of God's people to fight around us while we sit on the sidelines? Or are we going to get involved in the fight? Every Christian needs spiritual weapons. We need to lean on God's strength and use the weapon and the armor that He provides. This battle that we're in is real. It may be, as the book of Ephesians says here, we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. It may not be something that we can see with our eye, but you can see the effects of it with your eye. You can see exactly what's happening. You can see how this world is manipulating people. You can see how Satan has confused people and has brought all of these people into this mindset that there is no God. Why? Because we're in a battle. But there's an awful lot of believers with their heads in the sand. It's time that we stand up and we realize we need God's help and we need to be good soldiers and we need these spiritual weapons. Amen.