Father, we praise you for the grace that you give. We do thank you, Lord. It's been a good week. It's been a week of faith for our church as we stepped out. And I don't know if anyone else, how they felt, the congregation here felt about the bid, but I think there was confidence in everybody's heart. Yet there's an understanding that if you see fit to allow us to get this property, there are some big faith steps ahead of us. The biggest is not maybe purchasing the building. But we're excited to have been led thus far. And Lord, we look forward to seeing what you're gonna do with that. And maybe this week we'll find out. But there's been exciting things going on in our church. And last Sunday was a very special Sunday. And I said to many, it was good because I needed that kind of encouragement as we went into Monday that God, you're in us putting in a bid on that property. And so that was a blessing, but Lord, it's also a delight because Jesus Christ is worthy. He is worthy of the salvation of souls. He's worthy of families honoring God and being in the house of God on the Lord's day. And so we're excited, we're grateful, Father, for the conversations of this past week, Bill Meldrum, Dee, Jamie last Saturday, and others this week that John, Lord, there on Friday night, I just praise God for that. And I pray, Holy Spirit, would you open hearts and minds. Lord, we long to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ and understand the joy of what we've got. And Father, it's very sad to sit around eating something so wonderful, so good, such a blessing, so rich and so full and so satisfying. and to understand that there's people around us that are seeking satisfaction in sin, seeking satisfaction in a life outside of Christ, and it doesn't satisfy, it doesn't meet the need, because Father, you designed us to be in a relationship with God from the very beginning. Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden, walked with God. Sin separated man from God and father without God there is no purpose to life. There is no point to life There's there's some enjoyable things or some fun things for some blessed things But it's only because of God's goodness father your word says The rain falls on the just and the unjust the Sun shines on the just and the unjust and so father Even the major is a blessing that some would take for granted and not give glory to God not give. Thanks to God They're only because God is good And so, Father, but as believers, we understand why it is what it is, why it is good, why it works, why, Father, a strong marriage is a marriage based on the word of God. A strong family is a family based on the word of God. A strong life is a life based on the word of God. A strong community is a community based on the law of God. And even, Father, in society, we can look at nations that have a legal system based on the Bible, and they have the best legal system. Economies based on the Bible, they have the best economies. and laws that protect and are based on the Bible. They have the best set up there, and they have the blessing of God. And Father, the biggest nations in this world, or the strongest nations rather, are not the biggest nations, but they were Christian nations. And Father, that gives us pause to understand that there's a God in heaven. And Father, our desire is that, God, you'd work in our hearts. And this time, as we come to the word of God, we come to the word of God. And Father, there's a reason that you recorded these stories, and it is to speak to our hearts. And Father, I praise you that the spirit of God is the convictor of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. And Father, I ask that He would work in our hearts today. I ask that every heart, every person that takes time to be in this place, Father, they not walk away thinking they haven't been with God. They haven't been in the presence of God. But I pray that we'd walk out of this place and in our hearts we'd say, you know, truly God was there. Truly God was there. Maybe we'd have to say it like those men that didn't recognize Jesus but said, did not our hearts burn within us while he spoke with us? Truly God is in that place and I knew it not as Jacob said. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would give us grace to identify who God is and how God works. And Father, I pray for power. We need the power of God. Father, we live in a day where atheism is being taught and evolution is being taught and reprobate hearts against God is being taught by a world that says sin is not just okay, it's honorable. And Father, I pray against that. I pray for the light of the Lord Jesus Christ to shine. We know this, Father, the word of God is very clear. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Neither came they to the light, lest their deeds should be reproved. But Father, reprove, please. It's what we spoke about recently on a Wednesday night. I think a week ago, Wednesday, we looked at the word of God as a mirror. And as a mirror, it shows us what needs to change. And Father, I pray that we'd have the humility to look at our life and say, if it's my speech, my speech needs to change. If it's my viewing habits, my viewing habits need to change. If it's what I put into my body that needs to change, let it change. If it's where I go, or who I'm with, or what I wear, or anything like that, may the Spirit of God speak to our hearts, and I pray that we'd look at that and say that's gotta change. And Savior, I pray for the will of God to be done in this place as in heaven. I pray for yieldedness to God. I pray for the authority of God. And so Father, we just lift it up to you. And I can't speak without your enablement. I can't pray without your enablement. I can't preach without your enablement. And I pray that the spirit of God would guide me as I speak forth the words of truth from the word of God, that the spirit of God would give my lips liberty to declare it. I pray that you give us ears to hear it and to take it in. And Father, we want your blessing on our kids' class as well. Bless Mrs. Shore as she guides in that time. Mrs. Locksley, as she helps along with that. Lord, that'd be a rich time in the word of God in that class. And so God, we're grateful, very grateful to you, grateful for your grace to us. Thank you for the time we get to spend in the word of God now. May Jesus Christ be glorified. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen. And then, all right, 1 Samuel 19 is where we're at. And so we're in the middle of a story, so let me just give some background to the story. So it's a story of David and Goliath, kind of. It's more about the life of David, but that battle took place that brought David to the limelight there in Saul's kingdom. King Saul was the king. that area, but he was a king that rejected God. He was a king that turned his back on God. And because he did that, God anointed another man to become the king, and that's David. Before the story of David and Goliath, David's already been anointed by the prophet Samuel. So David already knows in his heart that he's going to be the next king. Well, that battle takes place. David, after 40 days of Goliath mocking the armies of Israel, David rises up as a champion for God, says, hey, I'll go out and I'll fight against him. David was just a shepherd boy. But he goes out, great victory takes place, and Saul rejoiced in it. Jonathan told us that his dad rejoiced in it, you know, in the previous text that we've just looked at. But he got excited about it, but he didn't get excited about the fact that David began to get more glory than himself. And so the king becomes envious of what is taking place there. He becomes murderous in his heart. He wants to kill David. And so he says, let him be killed, right? And last week we looked at Jonathan talking to his dad and arguing with his dad and saying, dad, why are you gonna kill David when David's only done ever good to you? And so Saul says, okay, okay, I'll take that bounty off David's head and I'll let him live. And then we talked about David went out last week, we looked at, went back into battle, focused on the things of God, even though he had a lot of problems in his life. But now we're looking at Saul. Our focus is kind of on Saul and what's going on in Saul's life. So Saul is envious against David, wants to kill David, but Saul refuses to kill his wicked flesh. Saul could have repented. I mean, we talk about this a lot, but Saul could have gotten right with God. He could have got on his knees and said, you know, God, forgive me for rebelling against you and doing these things that I said I had to do, but I didn't have to do them. I disregarded your law. I violated your law. Oh God, forgive me, right? We don't see that in the life of Saul. And so he refuses to take care of his sin. And because of that, he's an easy target. We were talking about this last week as well, for an evil spirit to get a hold of him. So verse nine says, the evil spirit from the Lord was upon Saul. And we've got to emphasize, God is not the cause of Saul's sin, though God allowed Saul to be tempted by that evil spirit because God took away, as it were, his restraining grace or his protection because of Saul's rebellion against him. James 1.13 says, let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. So somebody that's into sin, there's a lot of times the world says, well, he had a predisposed genetic condition that led him to that life of intoxication. He's an alcoholic because of some predisposition. Or he's that way in his perversion against God, violating the word of God, because he was predisposed that way. That's not what the word of God says. The word of God says that we have desires that if are unrestrained are gonna lead us into transgression, it's called lust. And I'll say this, without the grace of God, without the power of the Lord Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ, we can't get victory over that. There's no way that a man can look at his life and say, I am going to change my life. And from now on, I'm not going to sin. It's not going to happen. You can try, but they're going to fail. Because without the grace of God, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and the help of God, we can't get victory. So, but the thing is when lust conceived, it brings forth sin. When sin is finished, it brings forth death. Sin always leads to destruction. That's why in that text that I was reading in James, he says, do not err my beloved brethren. Don't go down that path of sin, of unrestrained lust. You need the grace of God, you need the help of God, get it. And Paul, I'm sorry, Saul should have gotten that, but sadly he made provision for his lust and he's living in defeat. You know, again, I warn us that Satan is actively at work. He's not somebody that was in the past in the stories in the Bible and he's not active in our day. There's no explanation for the deep unbelief that is in our society without an explanation that there is Satan, right? All the wickedness that a hundred years ago people would have been shocked if you would have said to them, this is what a hundred years from now, this is what society is going to believe. Listen, Even unbelieving society a hundred years ago understood that there was one day a week that you honored God. They understood that profanity was bad. They understood that you don't take God's name in vain. They understood that sexual perversion is sexual perversion, okay? So, and they used to get that. So how could it be today that there's such an exception that this lifestyle, and I'm talking about any lifestyle of sin, is okay without explaining that with a deep deception that is satanic, okay? And I can show it from scripture as well. Satan's all through the word of God in these kind of ideas. And so even at the betrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan's in that story. John 13 verse 21, they're in the upper room and the disciples are there and they're having the last supper and Jesus testifies to them. He's troubled in spirit and he testified and he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one to another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom, okay, leaning up against Jesus, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved. And again, John, we've talked about it before, is probably a younger disciple. So he's there, he's reclining on Christ. And he, Simon Peter beckons to him and he says, ask who it should be of whom he spake. And so he then lying on Jesus' breast said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, he it is to whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest do quickly. And okay, so he goes out and that's when he goes to the chief priest. He betrays Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver. Now think about this, he sold his soul for all eternity in hell for 30 pieces of silver. What a devaluation of life. Think about it today, there's a lot of people, they're living their life for the flesh. Gratification whatever that sin is that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. That's the price they're putting on their soul They're saying Satan give me that that's enough for me I'll take that in life and life is short and life is temporary and life in life You have the presence of God, but in hell for all eternity somebody separated from God and they willingly take and they barter their soul based on. I mean, it's just a sad thing, isn't it? Again, Satan is so deceptive in what he is doing. And turning your Bibles to Ephesians chapter six. And if somebody has a church Bible or can get a church Bible and give me the page number, that'd be helpful. All right, maybe Mr. Woods. If you get Ephesians chapter six, and once you find it, shout out the page number for me. A church Bible with the Ephesians six and then the page number. That'd be great. Ephesians chapter six. Maybe everybody will find it before we get it. But anyway, in verse 12 is what we're gonna look at. I just wanna look at the armor of God with us, okay? Ephesians chapter six. Jeopardy's a show in the United States and they've got a theme song. When somebody's thinking it's do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. I feel like we need a little music to come on as we're looking for this. Ephesians is in the New Testament. I'm not helping you, Tommy. Ephesians chapter six. Sorry, Cameron, I should pull these out ahead of time. I know. No, you're in the right spot. I can tell you're in the concordance looking. Yes, chapter six. Okay, just give us a page number if you're in Ephesians. 1, 2, 1, 5. Okay, 1, 2, 1, 5, and then look for chapter six. 1, 2, 1, 5. And then once you find the chapter, chapter six, and then look down to verse 12, okay? And we might be here for the bulk of the lesson, I don't know. I'm gonna try to go through this quick, but we might stick it here for a little while. Okay, so it says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Do you see it in verse 12? but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Do you ever have a conversation and it's like, why is this conversation so tough? Why is this relationship so tough? They are my adversary. They are a pain. They are a problem. But the Bible says this, what you see is not where the battle lies. The battle lies behind that. So that's just what we're aware of. But there's a realm behind that, and Satan's involved in that realm. The Bible speaks about spiritual darkness and high places and prince and powers of the air. And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, and I'm not trying to get us to get into conspiracy theory, but the fact is, there are things taking place on high levels that are behind the scenes that are going to set the stage for the Antichrist, going to set the stage for the beast and the false prophet of revelation. It's gonna happen. It's in the works and we can see it somewhat taking place. And again, we don't have to investigate that, but we understand that there is some power orchestrating that and organizing that. We can understand that. And so we need to be prepared to fight against that. How can we do that? Well, Paul gives us some good spiritual counsel for that spiritual battle. So you look at verse 13. He says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all stand. It's kind of like this. So the battle is great. And the Bible says in the last days, seducers are going to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And that it's going to be a very dark spiritual day. What is going to protect us from that? What is able to help us with that? Good morning, Tima. Did I get the name right? Yes, I think I did. Yes, it's great to have you here. And so what is gonna help us with that is the armor of God. We gotta be able to put on our armor. So what do we do? We put on truth, verse 14. It says, stand therefore, having your loins skirt about with truth. And we're in Ephesians chapter six and verse 14 is where we're at. Ephesians chapter six and verse 14. It says, put on truth. Now, is truth under attack in our day? Oh, it's in the media, isn't it? I mean, the media, you look around, you think, what can I really believe? Do you have unbiased media? No, we've got biased media, right? Everyone's trying to get their agenda across. By the way, just think about this. Those that are strong in their atheism, men like Dawkins and men like Attenborough, do they have a bias in their science? Yes. And so there's bias and truth is under attack, right? And so the Bible says, put on truth, put on truth. Proverbs 23 verse 23 says, buy the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding. Don't sell it. There's a lot of churches today that are selling truth. They're selling truth for popularity. They're selling truth for acceptance. They're selling truth for anything trinket that the world would offer to them. They're saying it's not important anymore about gender identity. It's not important anymore about sexual purity. It's not important anymore to stand with the creative works of a holy God. But the word of God says buy the truth and sell it not. You know there's people that haven't sold the truth even at the cost of their life. I'm gonna speak about that a little bit in my morning message. The world came and said if you don't sell the truth you're gonna pay with your life. We offer you your life for the truth. They died for the truth. Why? Because the truth is vital. The truth is vital. We've got to have the truth. The truth has to be declared. And for us in our life, if we want to fight against untruth, how do we do that with the truth? What is the truth, by the way? The truth is the word of God. There's a lot of people that disagree with this book, but they don't disprove this book. There's a lot of people that say that's not so, but that doesn't make it not so, because the people that often say this is not so are themselves like you and me, and what are we? Fallible, right? But God's given us a book that's authoritative beginning to end. It's one message written over 1,500 years by 44 human authors, 66 books, and it all agrees. Why? Because it's the truth. It's the truth. Buy the truth and sell it not. Put on the truth. Put on purity. It says, in having on the breastplate of what? Righteousness. All right, so you need the truth and then you gotta be clean. You gotta have your heart cleansed. You know, there's no such thing as purity in the world. Our world is very impure. And so if somebody gets cleansed, are they gonna, is it gonna be obvious? That's, hey, you know, you're just gonna kind of be like, hey, your life's different than my life. My life, I say this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, this is okay, but your life contradicts my life. You don't go to the pub. You don't go drink with the guys. You don't use profanity. You don't have that ungodly, immoral words that are coming out and telling filthy stories or things like that. There's a difference. If somebody's a righteous person, that's gonna be different. Righteousness is not defined by how I feel about something or if it bothers me, right? Righteousness is defined by what does God say in his word? What does he say about what I watch? What does he say about where I go? What does he say about my relationships? What does he say about my possessions, my life? And then another question would be, have I been cleansed by Jesus? You know, if I today decided, again, I'm gonna change my life. I wanna be righteous because Paul says put on righteousness. And so I'm gonna go do a bunch of good things. I'm gonna go help a lot of people. I'm gonna go join a church. I'm gonna go, you know, I'm gonna get in the Bible. I'm gonna read my Bible. I'm gonna maybe be baptized. I'm gonna do all these things and that's gonna make me righteous, guess what? The Bible says, by the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified, declared righteous in his sight. I could do good till now till I die, and maybe it's really goodness, but the Bible says about God looking at us, your righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Why? Because it doesn't matter how much good stuff I've got on this side of my suit, if this side is covered in filth, it's covered in filth. And God, when he looks at me, does not see this, he sees this. And this does not take this away, right? And so what I need, I need a blood offering. Jesus Christ died on the cross because the Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sins. Without the shedding of blood, there is no mercy, there is no grace, there is no atonement, there is no cleansing that is necessary to make me righteous. The Bible says about Jesus, he took the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, he nailed it to his cross. That means this, he took the crimes that we committed, liar, luster, covetor, materialistic, whatever there is of filth in this world, Jesus Christ died as if guilty of that. He became sin for us so that the Bible says we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Righteousness is not something I earn. Righteousness is not something I do to myself. Righteousness is something that's imputed, that God gives. Now if I'm gonna fight against what we're talking about, the powers of darkness and whatnot, I've gotta be righteous. I've gotta have my heart cleansed. I gotta think right about what God says. That's where victory is. We're defeated already. If I've got sin in my life that I don't repent of and I don't get victory over, I'm defeated. Satan's got me where he wants me. I'll never be the testimony God wants me to be. Nothing worse than a Christian that has the name of Christ and not a life to back it up. Satan loves that. And so we need to put on righteousness, purity. Put on evangelism. Verse 15 says, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. All right? There in verse 15, do you see it? Ephesians chapter six. You got to have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Feet are important in battle, all right? Benson was given by Nathan a pair of combat boots. I don't know, they got to talking and Nathan says, you want a pair? And he got him a pair of combat boots. Combat boots are important for a soldier, right? You don't run out in your slippers. You don't run out barefoot. Why? Because your feet are what is your motivation, right? Gets you to where you need to be. You can't advance without your feet right. God says that part of our armor as a believer, is to put on gospel feed. Take the truth of God to this world. We're investigating that beautiful building, and I think, Tommy, you might have asked the question, aren't you sad to leave this beautiful facility? And you know what she said? She said, yes, it's kind of sad, but it's just a building. But then she said, Jesus said, go and make disciples, and we didn't. You know, and that's the thing, we could, as a church, we could say, nobody's getting saved today, nobody's getting right with God, but who's telling them? How shall they hear without a preacher? How shall they preach except they be sent? There's people that need Christ, that their heart could be awakened by the grace of God, they could have eternity in heaven. People for whom Christ died, Jesus gave his life so that they could live, they're all over the place. but somebody has to tell them about Christ. Again, we got to put that on. We want to fight and stand for the Lord, be a good soldier. We got to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the best church growth movement this church will ever have. It's not some exceptional thing that we can do here as a church. It's just our faithfulness, getting the gospel out to those that need it. Put on evangelism. And then lift up faith. Lift up faith as you fight. You gotta lift up faith. It says in verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. It's been a very sad thing for us to watch the battles that are taking place in Ukraine. And there's some stuff you just can't watch. But you see tanks coming in, and you see that, I forget what it's called, that has all that, the rockets that it shoots off, and I mean, just decimating areas, and you see this armor. They didn't have that in Paul's day, and I think you understand that they didn't. But what they did have, they had arrows. And they had fiery arrows. And in Paul's day, that was a very dangerous weapon because here a fiery dart would come and if it alighted onto wood, then it would cause that to burn and it would destroy that structure. The Bible says that Satan is shooting fiery darts. He wants to destroy our lives. He wants to wreck our lives. And it's just one dart after another. And again, we look at that and think, what can I do? And there are darts of doubt, because why? Because God's truth is dependent upon my trust in it. Faith is what grabs ahold of the promises of God. See, out in the Firth of Forth, if there was a ship that is going down, and the coast guard responds, and they send out a helicopter, and the winchman comes down, he looks at the man on the stricken vessel, and he says to him, put this around your waist, and grab hold of me, and don't look down, but just look up, right? And if that person doubts and says, no, no, no, I don't believe it'll help me. I don't believe it'll hold me. The man just looks at him and says, look, faith is the answer. Faith is the answer. put on the belt, right? It's the same with us today. Somebody, the darts of doubt are flying by the devil. There is no God. There is no hope. There is no salvation. There is no victory. Satan is sending those. Somebody, all they have to do is grab hold of the word of God and say, no, Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins. He shed his blood. He is the way of salvation and by faith, right? This is how we got saved. By faith we grab hold. And we say, I put my trust in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And when you and I got saved, what did we do? We trusted in Jesus Christ. As soon as we did, what did we have? Everlasting life. The fire of doubt and that which was gonna damn us, because Satan had fired such an effective dart, was extinguished by faith. And that's what this text says, doesn't it? It says, take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Satan is shooting those darts, not just before he gets saved, he shoots them after he gets saved. You can't get victory over that sin. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that you're able, but will with the temptation also make way to escape that you may be able to bear it. And so praise God that there is an answer to those fiery darts. You know, when we're gonna fight effectively, we gotta know what the word of God says. Every time Jesus was tempted, do you remember what he said? He said, it is written. This is what God says. Somebody can be tempted with drink, but the Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse one, wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever has deceived their buy is not wise. Many people wasting their income, wasting their lives, wasting the peace in their home, wasting the strength of their marriage because they haven't picked up the word of God and said, no, God says that this leads to abuse, this leads to destruction. 1 John 2.15, about the world, love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. and to lift up the truth of the word of God, say not so Satan, I'm not going down that path, love not the world, I'm gonna love God. And so scripture memory must be a part of our defense or we're an easy prey. And then put on assurance of salvation. Assurance of salvation. It says in verse 17, and take the helmet of salvation. You know, a lot of times I'll ask people a question, and it's this, are you 100% sure that if you died, if you'd go to heaven? All right, 100%. And sometimes they'll say something, well, I want to go to heaven, or I hope to go to heaven, or I'd like to go to heaven, but they haven't personally put their faith in Jesus Christ. But somebody that, maybe somebody that is a believer, they've put their trust in Christ and they wonder, you know, am I saved or am I not saved? You know, there's some evidences of salvation and I would just want to give them briefly to us this morning. And this would answer the question, am I on my way to heaven or am I on my way to hell? And one would be the witness of God's spirit. Romans 8, 16. It says, the spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children of God. When somebody gets saved, God does a wonderful thing. God moves in. Jesus says this, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with me. When somebody gets saved, God moves in. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And so, there ought to be in our hearts, if we've accepted Christ as our Savior, and by the way, a lot of times people get saved and they put their trust in Jesus, and there is a feeling associated with it. It's like a burden was lifted. It's like a joy came inside that wasn't there before, and maybe they don't know how to express it, but what it is, it's the Spirit of God. moving into the heart of that person. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. An appetite for God's Word is another evidence of somebody's salvation. Jeremiah 15, 16. Says, thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart, for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts. Jeremiah said, when I got the word of God, it was like a feast to my soul. I like what missionary David O'Gorman, he's Irish, but got saved and went off to Bible college, came back and pastored his church, but he was an unsaved businessman. in his 20s and married and he and his wife recognized something was missing in their life. They started seeking after God and he said, before I got saved, it was like reading a phone book. But after I got saved, it was like reading a love letter. So all of a sudden, the word of God begins to speak. And some of you might think, you know, if they begin to doubt their salvation, am I saved or am I not? Do you have the witness of the spirit of God? Is there an appetite for the things of God? Can you understand the word of God? Does it make sense to you? 1 Corinthians 2.14 says, but the natural man, the man that's not saved, receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. And that means this, without the help of God, I can't understand it. Now, before I get saved, I got to have the spirit of God open my mind. Okay, I get enough to understand salvations by faith in Christ alone. I received Christ as my savior, but what happens gloriously after somebody gets saved is all of a sudden they begin to understand the scriptures. It begins to make sense. So it's not like listening to a foreign language or something that is totally abstract and that you can't relate to, but it's something that begins to impact every area of your life. And then as well, there's a love for God's people. John 13, 35 says, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. You know, that familial love that we spoke about recently, I think on Wednesday night, that would be in our hearts and lives. We go, wow, it's just great to get together as a family. because God's brought us in as a child of God into his family. And then lastly, and we'll end here this morning, is a changed life. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Somebody might look at their life and they think, how could I become a Christian? I mean, I know that in my life there is X, Y, Z of things that are against God. I don't feel like I can change that. I don't feel like I can make that change. But the thing is this, when somebody gets saved, they gotta be willing to identify those things and say, that's not right, that's against God, and I understand that's sin, and I repent of that and put my trust in Jesus Christ. But I can't, I don't feel like I have the power to change that. But when somebody gets saved, the spirit of God comes inside, and guess what? You get changed. Somebody doesn't have to reform themselves to get saved, but somebody that genuinely trusts Christ is gonna have a transformed life, not because they have somehow conformed. but because the Spirit of God working in their heart has transformed their life by the power of God. And so these things are vital that we have these in our life. Got to put on that helmet of salvation so that I can speak to others and say, you know, I just want to tell you about my God. I know I'm saved. I know I'm saved. I've got Jesus Christ as my Savior. And you can too. That helmet of salvation is vital. Or Satan will say, what side are you on? You don't even know if you're on God's side. But praise God, let's put on that helmet. So I look at these things because, and I'm sorry, the introduction to Saul, we never got to Saul, okay? But Saul didn't do that. Saul didn't put on the armor, and so he was a defeated Christian. Satan had his way in Saul's life, and God help us to stand with the victory that's ours through Christ. All right, let's pray and commit this to the Lord. Father, we thank you. for the time and the Word of God this morning. And Father, it's brief. Sunday school gets cut off sometimes, and we've got to move on to the morning service. But I pray, Father, would you water the truth that was shared in this time. And God, we're just thankful for each one that's here. It's great to see Tima able to come this morning with our granddaughter, and that's great. What a blessing. And thank you again that Cameron's here. But may the Spirit of God just bless the Word of God to our hearts and encourage us in you. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.