all the work that's going on here. And we have a heart for Scotland too. Because of the addictions ministry in our church, we have lots of Scottish people coming through. And I love the Scottish people. And grief to my heart, though, is this. I'm in Scotland with many similarities. I've got a lot of roots that will go back to the same. Except in this. Scotland has such a strong Christian heritage. There was a day not too long ago, a hundred years ago, when Scotland was a hotbed, if you like, for missions and for all things Christian. Ireland never really has been. Ireland's had a different kind of a history, but it's just a grief to me that so much of that has just drifted away. But look at Ephesians chapter 6 tonight. You just find it there in your Bibles. It'll take a while to get to it, but Ephesians chapter 6. I am now 32 years saved. 32 years ago, I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour. I was a 26-year-old man, my wife had just gotten saved, and he changed my life completely. Sometimes I think, where would I be if he hadn't? Where would I be if somebody hadn't come with a gospel and explained to me how to be saved? Where would I be if I'd said no to him? I dread to think. He's changed everything about my life. My wife Valerie, most of you met Valerie last time. She sends her her commiseration. She's sorry she wouldn't love to be here. And she wanted to be here, particularly this morning. She was really regretful because I was going off and she was going about her daily business and she would love to be here, but she just can't. She's got too many things. We have a mom living with us. We thank her mom. Her mom is still not safe. She will be 91 in a few weeks and she is still not saved. I honestly believe the Lord is keeping her alive just so she can get saved. and get that sorted out. We have four children, all of them love the Lord, and we have 10 grandchildren now, and we're excited what the Lord's gonna do with their lives. Now, I have to say this though, because I'm really blessed, absolutely blessed to have a family that love the Lord and want to walk with the Lord. That is just a joy and a delight to me. But I have to be honest with you, if I have to tell you how I did it, I'd have to say I didn't. Because I made enough mistakes, I have to blow the whole thing out of the water, but God's merciful. God is good. There are no perfect parents. There are no perfect families. All of our families have problems and issues and difficulties. But God's in the business of endeming things. that are not the way they should be. God's in the business of stepping into our lives. God works in the economy of mercy. You always got to keep that in your mind. God doesn't work in the economy of merit. Merit is me getting from God what I deserve. And if I'm going to get from God what I deserve, that's hell. Right? But when I come to God saying, Lord, I don't deserve it. But you're good, and you love me, and I know you died for me, and I know you want to help me, and God sucks into my life and he helps me. And you've got to stay in that place where you're looking to God for mercy. And he'll bring mercy into your life. God will work in your life and He will change things and He will do things. And really, as believers, His plan is never to save you and give you an insurance policy, a fire insurance policy, so you don't go to hell and that's it. No, His plan is to step into your life. Jesus died so that you could be reunited with God, reconciled, is the Bible word, with God. Salvation is a byproduct. All that. It's not all, it's just a byproduct of it. God wants you to be saved and he wants you to have a life like no one can have a life like I can have a life and you allow it. It's amazing what he can do in your life. And it's amazing what God can do in your life. We're gonna cover three topics this week. I'm gonna tell you off the top, right? Now, we're gonna talk about the family, but it's not gonna be all about the family, okay? I mean, we've got a lot of young people tonight here. There's gonna be lots of stuff for you in what we're looking about. This is not just talking about families. But we will look at family as well. But tonight we're gonna talk about the enemy of the family. the enemy of the believer, the one that wants to hinder you in everything that you do. And tomorrow night, we're gonna look at God's plan for the family. And then on Thursday night, we're gonna look at God's plan for victory in each one of our lives. You know, God plans for us to be victorious. God plans for us to live lives that lost people look at and they're astounded. How are they doing that? When we first got saved, all our family were kind of down on us, because my family was Catholic, my wife's family was Protestant, and they thought we'd gotten joined up with a cult. Right? But you know, it's 32 years ago now, and now they see the evidence in our lives. Now they see the reality of what God has done in our lives, and we're following God's plan that's done in our lives, and they can no longer just All right, so Ephesians chapter six, we'll read it in a second. Did you know that we are in a war? Did you know that we're in a war? Not sure. All right, well, we are, we're in a war. Now, in a war, you gotta be ready for the war. You see, if you go into war and you're not ready for the war, you're going to get hurt. In fact, you're very likely to get killed. I read a story this week about a man called Leroy Eames. And he trained in the Second World War to fight in the Pacific, right? So he trained and trained and trained. He was ready for it, and he went. And so finally, the day they were going to land on the beach on the island he was landing on, And they got their amphibious crafts out of the ship, and they went in their tanks in the amphibious crafts, and they were going onto the beach to start shooting and start firing and everything else. But as they were going up the beach, what happened was they got hit by a shell, and their craft was disabled. It couldn't go any further. So they all jumped out of the tanks, jumped out and walked up the beach. And they were going from hole to hole and from tree to tree and hiding from the enemy so they wouldn't get shot. And the sergeant comes over to this man here wearing Ames, and he says, well, you're okay, Ames, he's just checking on all the guys. And he says, yeah, I'm fine, Sergeant, I'm fine. And he says, where's your helmet? And he says, oh, oh, it's in the tank. Okay, he says, where's your duty belt? The duty belt had, it had your ammunition on it, it had your canteen of water, it had a knife on it, and all those things on it. And he says, oh, it's in the tank. He was, where's your rifle? And he says, it's in the tank too. So just think about it, this guy's been training and training and training for months and months and months to go fight a battle and he finally gets to fight his battle and he's on the beach and he said he was on the beach just like he was going to a baseball game. He had nothing to fight with. He had nothing to protect himself with. Now, he obviously made it out, because we're telling the story tonight, which was a miracle all by itself, the fact that he made it out. But he was in danger of being killed. Do you know a lot of believers are in dreadful danger? We're in a battle, we're in a war, and we're not really taking account of it. We've forgotten that the Christian life is not a playground. We've got this impression that the Christian life is all about me being happy and having fun and, you know, me enjoying life. And we fail to remember we have an enemy out there that is roaming about like a roaring lion and he's looking for somebody to eat. And you know what I think has happened in Scotland? How Scotland has changed in the last 100 years? I think what's happened is the Roaring Lion did a good job, and he destroyed what was once a power It's amazing how many books are written by Scottish people from years back, and they were the cutting edge of Christianity in that day. I think the Roaring Lion has done his work. He has actually taken and destroyed much of what God had planned and God intended to do in Scotland. Now, we need to reckon on the fact that we've got an enemy. And that's what we're gonna do, we're gonna look at tonight. But before we even look into that, I wanna tell you this. We have a stronger one than our enemy on our side. Jesus said this, he said in Luke 11, he said in 21 through 23, when a strong man keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace. But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him, he taketh from them all his armor when he trusteth, and he divideth his spoils. He's talking about Jesus as a stronger one than the enemy. I was saying this, it says, greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So we have an enemy that's powerful. He's not omniscient. Omniscient means he doesn't know everything. He's not omnipotent, he doesn't have all power. Sometimes we feel like he's all powerful, but he doesn't have all power. We have an enemy that's a created being that wants to destroy you, but we have a stronger man on our side. We have the Lord Jesus Christ. And because we have him on our side, not only can we win the battle, but we can be victorious in life and victorious in our families. And we need to understand that and get a picture of that, but we're never going to be victorious unless we actually understand we have an enemy. See, one of the things he likes to do is he likes to, you'd think he's not there. He's not involved. Just carry on regardless. But He's there. And God has given us armor to use. And if we'll use the armor God has given us, we're going to find that we can be victorious over the enemy. But we don't want to be like our friend Eames. We don't want to be on the beach with the guns blazing and the bullets flying and we're on the beach and we've got no gun, no helmet and no duty pack. We want to be ready for the battle that we're involved in. That's what we need to look at tonight, getting ready for the battle, being ready for the battle that we're in. All right, so that's a word of prayer. Father, would you bless us tonight, Lord? Lord, we do desperately need you. Lord, we know the enemy would like to hinder and stop us from hearing and stop us from actually dealing with the issues that we're looking at tonight. But blessed spirit of the living God, you again are stronger and greater and more powerful than he. And Lord, would you put him to flight this night? Would you give us peace from you, Lord? Give us, Lord, a time when we can hear from you. And Lord, would you let your people make decisions, Lord? Even these young people, may we stand against him. And Lord, may we win. And may we know what it is to have victory in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Alright, so Ephesians chapter 6. And we're starting in verse 10. Now, Paul is saying finally, at the end of the epistle, he's written a long letter. He's written some wonderful spiritual truth in the first part of the epistle. He's talked to us about our position in Christ. He's talked to us about the fact of how much God loves us. And then he's given us some real practical things to do. And then in Ephesians chapter 5, we actually spent our time in Ephesians chapter 5 last time when we were looking at the family, because there's so much there for the family. But then in Ephesians chapter 6, He comes to the end of it and he says, finally. Now he's not just giving you the conclusion, he's telling you there's something important I've got to say to you here, something you need to get on board, something you need to understand, something you need that's going to be really helpful to you. So he says, finally, my brethren. We'll read it and then we'll come back and we'll go through it piece by piece. So verse 10, finally, my brethren. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye 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 the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and have him done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take in the shield of faith, for which ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the hamlet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. All right, back in verse 10 again. He says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. The first thing we need to understand is that we're no match for Satan in ourselves. We can't win this war in ourselves. We can't stand up against him in ourselves. There's no strength in us that can move up against this being, because he's pretty powerful. He can do a whole lot in your life. The Bible says that we are to be strong It's in the Lord, it's walking with him. In Acts chapter 19, you don't need to turn there. In Acts chapter 19, there's a group of sons of Sheba, right? And he's a priest, and they are exorcists. That's what they do. They go around casting out demons and so on. And they hear about Paul casting out demons in Jesus' name. And they see it works. Because, you know, Paul can go and he can cast out a demon in Jesus' name. So these guys decide, you know, we're going to do that too. We're going to use this guy's name, right? So they're casting out demons, and they come to this demon, and the demon looks at them, and he says to them, he says, Okay, Paul, I know. Jesus, I know. And Paul, I know. But who are you? And instead of being cast out, he actually tore them. He went after them and tore them apart. Now, why are we saying that? Because they were pretending. But they didn't know Jesus. And they weren't being strong in the Lord, they were being strong in their own ways, being strong doing their own thing. They didn't have the power that they thought they had. You and I need to be strong in the Lord. Now what does that mean to us? What does it mean to us to be strong in the Lord? Well, I've gotta be walking close to Him. All the time. You know, the enemy loves to do something in my life that puts between me and God for a while. He loves to get me offside. And you know, you can sin and it doesn't mean you're gonna go to heaven. You can sin and it doesn't mean God's gonna reach down from heaven with a big stick and bash you. But you know what, when you sin and you don't deal with it, you know what separates you from God? And do you know that the enemy knows that that's your weak moment? Do you ever see the pictures of the lions on the nature programs? Sometimes a lion will just run into the middle of a herd, roaring, to see who can run the slowest. And he goes after that one and gets on it. He tries to separate one out from the herd so that he can go after him. Do you realize that he tries to do that in your life too? He tries to get you away from the horn. He knows he can't get you when you're with the horn. He knows he can't get you when you're walking with God. He knows he can't get you when you're having your devotions and you're spiritually full and you're walking with God and enjoying his presence. So he waits and he watches and he tries to separate you from God so he can get you on your own, because then he can do his damage. And it's amazing how many stories people will tell you of something that happened in their lives when they weren't walking with God Do you know what? I'm 59. I'll be 60 this year. How will that happen, right? I'll be 60 this year. Do you know that I can't afford to spend one day this year separated from God? I can't afford it. It's not, I don't think it's a good idea. It's not, it's because I can't afford it. Because I don't want to make sure of the enemy. And he's waiting for the opportunity. And you might come to these meetings, and there might be sin between you and God, and you're saying, yeah, well, nobody's perfect, and that's the way it is, and you know, nothing I can do about it. Listen, your problem is the enemy knows. And he'll go after you on that. You see, young people, do you think the enemy, do you think Satan's interested in young people? Do you think he'd like to go after some young people in this room, and get you, and tear you away from God? and do things in your life, and maybe get you to make decisions, and maybe get you into relationships, and maybe get you to walk away from your parents and walk away from their guidance. Do you think he'd like to do that in your life? Do you think he might look at you and he might think, you know what, that one's your Nintendo, I might get that one. Again, who does the lion go after? Does he go after the head of the herd? No, he goes after the weakest, he goes after the young. And you see, it's very easy when we're young to think, I've got all the time in the world to get everything sorted out. I've got all the time in the world to walk with God. No, you don't. You see, where you are and what's going on in your life right now, Satan's just looking for an opportunity to get in. Do you know what we need to do? We need to keep playing before God. Maybe a lot of that's seen in Torahs. We need to walk with God. We need to have fellowship with God and spend time with God. It's not just for older people. That can be the whole wrong thinking for us. I need God. I need His protection. I need God's protection in my life every day, and so does everybody in this room. And if the enemy can come between you and God for a while, oh, listen, he will play havoc in your life and try and do things in your life that you won't easily overcome. So be warm, understand that, that we're only strong when we're in the Lord. We're not strong in our own strength. We're not strong in ourselves. We never can be. We're only strong when we're in the Lord. Do you realize that Satan wants to go after your family? Let's talk to fathers for a second. Satan wants to go after your family, and Dad, very often, if he can, he'll use you. He'll go in through you, because you're the priest in your family, you're the one that leads your family. And what he'll do is he'll take you and try and draw you into sin, and he'll use you as the avenue into your family, and he'll use you to destroy your family if he possibly can. And you know, sometimes men, we can be so foolish. Sometimes, you know, we're hurting, and life's not working out for us, and we maybe get bitter, and we get bent out of shape, and we get involved in some sin, and then he says, Greg, and he goes out and uses it to do damage to your family. Do you realize the position, the precious position that we have as fathers in our home? Don't let the enemy in. Understand this. You need to walk with the Lord every day. Your kids need to leave your home. They need to leave your home. And know this. My dad loved God. And he walked with God. That needs to be the benchmark in their lives if they look back on it. Dad loved God and he walked with God. Or they need it from Mom too. but they need to know a dad that loved God and that walked with God. The second thing, though, we see here is our protection. Look at this. Put on the whole armor of God. You're to put on all the armor of God. You see, it's easy for us to play with Christianity in this sense, right? There are certain things we're like, we might go to church in the summer. We get that one down. That's important when you get down and you're like, go to church in the summer, right? That's important for you to get down. But maybe there's something else in our lives, as far as the armour is concerned, that we don't do. So we do some things, and some things we don't, and we leave holes in our armour. Another story is a First World War story. British Admiral Lord David Beatty commanded a flotilla at the Battle of Jutland during World War I. As the battle began, British and German ships engaged each other in a long-range artillery battle. So what they were doing is they were firing shells, long-range, at each other. They weren't up close now at this point during the battle. And the British ships found they had a problem. Because within a matter of minutes, at the beginning of the battle, three of their best ships went down. And they were trying to work out what was wrong. Well, you see, they had created armor around the hulls of their ship so that something would bounce off the armor, but their decks were made of wood. So that when you fired in a shell, the shell would come straight down and it would go straight through the wooden deck and explode the ship. And they didn't have very good success with their ships until they learned, you know what? We need to have our ship fully armored. We need to have steel covering the deck so that the enemy can't drop shells into it. Do you know the part of your life that you leave the armor off is the part the enemy's gonna go for? Isn't that mean? Yeah, wouldn't you think he'd give you a break? He won't give you a break. He has no intention of giving you a break. He will exploit every weakness he can find in you. Just imagine you're in a battle zone, right? And it's hot. And you think, you know that ham? That ham looks all sweaty. Makes my head... I don't think I'm gonna wear that ham. And you've got a jack and a bulletproof deal that stops you from getting hurt by blood. And you say, man, it's too hot here to wear that. And you take it off, and you go on patrol. How daft is that? You know, listen, somebody's going to shoot you in the head, aren't they? Because you haven't got a helmet on. Do you know that the enemy is as mean as mean can be? Do you know that God has loved the enemy as hatred? And he just waits for the moment when you let your guard down. So that he can go after you and do as much damage as he possibly can. And the Bible says, put on the whole armor of God. You've got to put on all the armor of God. You've got to put on everything that God gives you to put on. You need to put on the whole armor. So we'll look at it tonight. We'll look at it briefly. We're not going to spend a long time on each of these pieces of the armor. But you've got to put on the whole armor. You see, we're not playing a game here. Satan's not playing a game. You might think you're playing a game, but he's playing for keeps. And he'll do everything he can to tear you down, and God says, put on the whole armor. You see, our strong man hasn't left us unprotected. He's given us armor that works. And he says, where's the armor? Put it on. Don't go out without it. But on the whole, I'm about 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 the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, we're wrestling, we're fighting not against flesh and blood. Now that's, we've gotta catch that first part of it better. It is not flesh and blood, it's not people we're fighting against. Don't we so often feel like somebody in our life is messing things up, and if they would just quit messing things up, everything would be fine. Don't husbands think that about their wives? If my wife would just be the right kind of wife, my life would go easy and smooth, and everything would work out. Don't wives sometimes think that about their husbands? Don't children sometimes think that about their parents? My parents are just so footy-duddy. They won't let me do anything. They're hindering me from having all the fun I could have, and they're just ruining my life. Don't parents sometimes think that it's the kids that's wrecking their lives? You see, here's the thing. We get caught up in this idea that it's flesh and blood we're fighting against. Now, as long as you keep your eyes on the flesh and blood, on the people in your life that are causing you problems, you're never going to focus on the real enemy. And until you focus on the real enemy, you'll have no success in defeating him and getting out of your life. Until you focus on who it is that you're actually going after, it's Satan. He works hard in our lives to tear things up and to destroy things. In between married couples. Look, I realize, what you get with a married couple is you get two sinners coming together and you're gonna have trouble. Because we're both selfish. But you know what, that's part of the course and we know that. Marriage is one of those great areas where God doesn't work on us and He begins to take layers of selfishness out of our lives. But you know, sometimes couples get to loggerheads And they're just duking it out and fighting it out and going after each other. And they're not realizing the enemy's in the middle of this. How would you go about destroying Christianity? Just think about it for a second. What would you do? Would you pass laws to destroy Christianity? That wouldn't work. You know, the more you pass laws, against Christianity, the stronger Christianity gets. But you know what you can do? You can get involved in the marriages and, you know, hurt the marriages and hurt the families. You could do pretty devastating work. And he knows that. And he goes after them. What he does is he sets moms and dads against each other. He sets kids against their parents. Have you ever noticed this? That kids rebel? Who do teenagers rebel against? Talk to me. Tell me, who do teenagers normally rebel against? Mom and Dad. Now why Mom and Dad? Who's the other person that teenagers normally rebel against? Their teachers. I don't think they hate their teachers very often. Now, you know what's just amazing? Yet nobody in the whole world is more interested in the teenager than their parents. These people have paid money, lived lives, poured time, effort, energy into you. Why would you rebel again? That doesn't make sense. School teachers get paid to actually benefit young people and help them to grow and learn and grow. Why would young people rebel against the people that are most interested in them? Isn't that draft? Well, why do you think? Because there's an enemy involved. There's an enemy involved. You know, if you have these thoughts about your parents, you think, man, my parents just, they don't let me have fun. They just hate me. They just want to stop me from having fun. They're against me. My mom, she's just always looking for problems and looking for something to get out to me about it. You start thinking that, you know what you're doing? You're letting the enemy get in. You're letting Satan get in. That's what you're doing. Listen, and he's not coming in for your good. He's coming in to hurt you. He's coming in to do you damage. He's coming in to tear your life apart, if he possibly can. And we gotta be wise, we gotta understand, you know what, that's not against my parents. If God's giving you parents to put some rules in your life and say, no, you can't do this, and yeah, you're gonna have to do this, you know what, there's gonna come a day in your life where you're going to say, thank you, Lord, for giving me a mom and dad like that. There's gonna come that day in your life when you will say, thank you, Lord. It came to me... I was a teenager when this came on. It's kind of hard to imagine that I was a teenager, but I was a teenager. I can still remember being a teenager. It's not fun. It is not fun being a teenager. There's so much going on, and so much you're not ready for. But I remember being all bent out of shape with my parents, because of the rules and regulations they put in my life. I'm like, Dad, listen, he didn't know nothing. And I've never known as much as I did when I was a teenager. I've never gotten to know as much as I did then. But I remember being all bent out of shape with them. And then I went away to college. I'm 26, and I've got three kids of my own. Somebody preached a message in college, and they preached a message about honoring your parents. And the whole thing came crumbling, tumbling in on me, and I realized, my dad was dead right. He was dead. I was way off. He was dead right. I'm 26 years old, and I'm writing a letter. Dear Dad, I'm so sorry for being such a rebellious, arrogant, difficult, Save yourself from doing that. Because what's going to happen is one day you'll realize your parents, first of all, were on your side. They were looking out for you. And secondly, they know. How do they know? Because they've been around a time or two. And they know. And listen to them. Now, is it hard to listen to them when you're a teenager and you've got everything sorted out and you think you know where you're going? Yeah, it's kind of hard. But you know what? God will bless your life, and if you don't, and the enemy gets you, he wants to destroy you. Here's the thing. How many teens do you know are ready to go out there in the big bold world and live life all by themselves and be normal? I don't know any. Teens got so much to learn. I don't know, but I felt like I lost my routine. I felt like I could handle it. I felt like I had the world by the tail. You know what? I needed the protection and the nurture and the care of my family. And so do you. Don't let the enemy come between you and your family and drive a wedge and use it to destroy your life. God's got great plans for you, but you know what? If he can take, the enemy is a destroyer. He loves to destroy. Every time somebody commits suicide here, the enemy is right slumped back in the middle of it. Absolutely convinced of that. Every time. Because somebody committing suicide is always dealing with a temporary problem in a permanent way. I feel so bad. I just can't go on. I might as well just end it. We've all felt bad and moved on from it and gotten over it. Do you know that? All of us in this room. Everybody here? You know what the enemy does? The enemy gets in, he says, go out, do it, go out, go out. Me and myself, come on, what's the point? It's never gonna matter, just go out, do it. And he's probably gonna poke him and push him, because he's a destroyer. He loves to destroy. He loves to take a fresh young life that God's got a great plan for, and he loves to just take it and put it in the muck and stomp on it. And you know how he starts, do you know how he starts? Put it between you and your friends. He starts having you think, you know what, my parents, they don't know anything, they're mean, they're trying to stop me from having fun, and he starts coming up to me and telling me what I'm doing. Telling me he's a liar, get lost. He's a liar, because he's about to have a special look. We've got to realize that. And parents, even when you're dealing with some of the stuff in your children, the problem is the enemy's up to his tonsils in the whole situation. And you need to, instead of going to battle with your kids, you need to be going to battle with God. And learning to rebuke the enemy in your family, because that's not against what you want. And we've got to identify that. We've got to understand that. You see, it's a spiritual warfare that's going on. It's an organized, world-dominating power that you're dealing with. And he uses wiles. You know the word wiles means tricks. He's tricky. He's pretty clever, and he's pretty tricky. You know, when the Bible says in Genesis chapter 3, and the serpent was more suckered, that means he's tricky. He knows how to get you. He's a deceiver. Imagine Adam and Eve in the garden. They have everything. And God comes and walks with them every day. It's just perfect. Do you know what Satan succeeded in doing for Eve? He succeeded in making the one fruit in the garden the only fruit in the garden. Yes, you've got 50,000 other trees that you can eat from, Eve, but this one? And all Eve could see was the one. And you know what else he did? He said, and you know why God doesn't let you have it? Because he just wants to hold it up, and he doesn't care about you. And that's what the enemy does. He always takes and makes us neglect all the good things God's doing in our lives, and He has us focus on the one thing that we don't have, He's tricky. He'll allow you to deceive Him. And by the way, if you think you can't be deceived, you're deceived already. He will deceive you if you possibly... Let me give you some of the things that He'll do. He'll accuse you before God. He'll go in before God, and He'll bring all your sins up before God. Because He's the accuser of the brethren. But you know who stands up for you when He does? Jesus does. He says, He's mine. I pay for all that. It's all sorted. It's all fixed. I pay for all that. He can fill the heart of the believer to do evil. You can say, hang on a minute. That's Acts chapter 5. Peter says to Sapphira, why hath Satan felled thine heart to lie unto the Holy Spirit? Saved people. Do you know that Satan can put stuff in your heart? Satan can actually take and put stuff in your heart. Now listen, what you do with the stuff he puts in your heart is up to you. He doesn't have power there. But He can put stuff in your heart. He can have thoughts come into your mind. He can put things in your heart. And you've got to say, no, no, I don't want this. You've got to reject it. You've got to learn to understand what people want to say. It's amazing the thoughts that come into your head in a prayer meeting. Have you ever noticed that? I mean, you can be going along and everything's fine, and then you come into a prayer meeting, and all of a sudden your mind has things going on, and you say, where did that come from? That's where I came from. Now, you don't have to dwell on it. You can reject it, you can say no, you can kick it out. But He will do that, He will put thoughts into your life. He tempts the believer to immorality, 1 Corinthians 7 verse 5. He wants to tempt you and to bring you into immorality. He hinders the believer in the work of the gospel. You set yourself to witness to something, then He'll do everything He can to hinder you and stop you from doing it. He seeks whom He may devour, which means He's looking in the bushes, looking to see who's the easiest prey all the time. Now catch that. Understand that. He's out there seeking whom He may devour, so you can't afford to be that weak one. You just can't afford to be that weak one. He snares the believer in sin, 1 Timothy 3 verse 7, He desires to sift the believer, to test you, push you, press you. He becomes a thorn in the flesh to believers. 2 Corinthians 11 verse 14. He resists the removal of the filthy rags thought of as flesh in Zechariah 3 verse 1. And then he uses others to tempt us from the way of the cross. Here's something. In Matthew chapter 16, Peter makes that great statement. Jesus says, who do you say that I am? And Peter says, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And you almost get the feeling when he says it that the earth kind of stops moving for a moment. Because it's a huge moment. Then a few verses later, Jesus is telling Peter and the disciples, saying, now listen guys, I'm going to Jerusalem. I'm going to be taken to the priest and I'm going to be crucified and I'm going to die. But three days later, I'll rise again. And Peter says this, never. That will not happen to you. We will not let it happen, effectively, is what he's saying to them. Do you know what Jesus says to Peter? He says, Get thee behind me, Satan. He's just said it to him. He's just commended him for saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And now he's saying, Get thee behind me, Satan. Who put it in Peter's mind to say, Jesus, don't go to the cross? Satan took him in that moment and he wanted action. Do you know that Satan can put things in your mind? That's an awesome one when I see it. Some of the things you say to each other are not true at all. It's actually things the enemy puts in your mind to say. There are times between a couple when it can get pretty nasty. And people can say awful things to each other. And the enemy likes to use those moments to put between couples. The enemy likes to take and drive a wedge between couples and understand the plan is if he can drive a wedge between the couple, he can destroy the family. How many families are destroyed? Because mom and dad fell out and they couldn't get it together and they walked away from each other and the family gets destroyed and Satan knows that. And so what he'll do is he'll have you say the worst possible things to each other. Listen, understand what's going on there. The enemy is trying to destroy something that God's trying to build up, and you don't let him. Don't let him, don't give in to him. Don't let him have his way. And listen, when you do say things that are wrong to each other, go back and say, I should never have said that, that was wrong. Forgive me, I should never have said that. Remove those things, because some of those things, Listen, they don't come from you at all. That's the enemy just throwing that into the pot. And you see, God hates divorce. Well, you can be guaranteed everything God hates, hates and loves. And listen, he's all for it. He's all for divorce. Yeah, just give it up. Go your own way. Do your own thing. He's not good enough for you. He's just caused you trouble. She's not a good wife. She's just gonna make your life painful for the rest of your life. Just give it up. Go your own way. You shouldn't have to endure this. You deserve to be happy. Listen, has he told you all those things at some point in your life? Listen, you gotta reject that junk. That's the enemy. He's looking to take and he's looking to destroy you. Now, number four. Our objective is to stay standing. Look what it says in verse 13. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Do you know there's an evil day that comes into everybody's life? It comes in from time to time. There's an evil day. There's a time when the enemy just goes after you. I had one of those last night. I went to bed last night at 11 o'clock, and I was awake at 1 o'clock in the morning, and I was just worrying. Now, looking back at stupid stuff that I was worrying about, but it wasn't just casual worrying that you put them aside. It just kept me awake all through the night, and it was there. This is just the enemy. He's going after me in this. And I mean, it's horrible. I've seen that happen before. And he goes after you. Now, why is he going after you? He goes after you because he wants to push you to do something wrong. And just taking a push and a push. By the way, he couldn't do it if God didn't allow him. So God's actually got a good plan. The enemy's got a plan to push you. And there's an evil day there, those hard days. Now listen, God is good, they don't last long. But you know what, in those days you've got to resist, you've got to say no, you've got to stand against. You just can't let the enemy have his way in those days. You just can't go with him in those days. And all too often, Believers find some way to fix their problem that they know God doesn't want them doing. And you let the enemy, you give the enemy space in your life. He's taken and he's looking to do damage in your life, and you give in to him. And those are the days you need to learn to dig in and say, no, no way, I am not doing what you want me to do. 2 Samuel 23 tells a fascinating story about a man called Shana. And Shema is one of David's mighty men. I'll read it to you, you don't need to look it up. And after him was Shema the son of Agi the Harite, and the Philistines were gathered together into a troop, where it was a piece of ground full of lentils, and the people fled from the Philistines. But he stood in the midst of the ground and defended it, and slew the Philistines, and the Lord won a great victory. This is an interesting story, because it's a lentil patch, it's a bean patch. And, you know, the Fellowshines come, and everybody runs away, and Seamus says, I'm not getting it. They're our lentils, and I don't care. They're not getting it. I'm just not giving up. I'm not giving in. They're not getting the lentils. And so he stands in the midst of this lentil patch, and he defeats the Fellowshines. Why? Because he won't quit. He just won't give up. He just gets that knock in his gut, that decision, I am not quitting, I am not giving up. And you see what it says, it says, the Lord wrought a great victory. Because he wouldn't quit. Do you know what I think the children of God quit on too? He said, I think we give in. I think when Satan puts enough pressure on us, we go, oh, okay, it's too much. I can't cope with this. I deserve an easier life than this. Nobody should have to endure all these things. And we give up on our marriages, we give up on our kids, we give up on Christianity, we give up on all kinds of things. And the enemy just puts enough pressure on us, we would say, no, you're not getting at Satan. You're not getting my marriage. You're not getting my family. You're not getting my church. No, you're not getting that. I am just digging in. I am going to fight you tooth and nail here, and the Lord's going to win a great victory. We would see amazing things happen. We would see amazing things happen. Watch the film. It was a Christian film. Courageous. Some of you might have watched Courageous, right? Great film. There's one picture in Courageous that has stuck in my mind. It's the opening scene in the film. And the opening scene in the film is this man, he's pulling in to get petrol in his truck, he's in America, and he pulls in to get petrol in his truck, and he's there, and he goes in to pay for his petrol in his truck. Somebody jumps into his truck and drives off in his truck. When he sees what's happening, He comes tearing under the garage. He jumps on the sideboard of the truck and the window's opening. He's wrestling with the guy who's actually stealing his truck. He's wrestling with him, trying to get the steering wheel off him. And he said, listen, it's really dangerous. They're flying along the road. The guy's trying to bash off things to get rid of him, get him off the truck, but he just won't quit. He won't let go of the steering wheel. Eventually, he succeeds in getting the guy off the road. The truck goes shooting off the road. He falls off the truck in a pile on the ground. And the truck comes to rest. It hits off a tree and comes to rest. And immediately, everybody's there trying to help him. And he's jumping up to go to the truck. And somebody says to him, look, it's just a truck. Just leave it alone. It's fine. There's nothing wrong with you. But he said, I'm not worried about the truck. And he walks over to his truck, and in the back seat of his truck is his baby. And you see, here's the thing. He wouldn't let go of the steering wheel, because what was in the truck was way too important to him. Kind of like Shaman. He just wasn't going to let go. Do you know, I think that children of God need to get some grip in their guts and decide, no, Satan's not having it all his way. No, he's not going to destroy my marriage. No, he's not going to destroy my family. No, he's not going to ruin my church. The children of God need to come to a place where they decide, no, don't let God destroy you. coupled together for a huge number of reasons, but you know, one of the main reasons the book of Malachi tells us is this, that he might have a godly seed. So he brings a couple together for the purpose of raising a seed for him. You children are not yours, they're his, actually. And he brings you together, and you know, and we come to the place where we say, well, it's too much pain, and it's not, I can't bear it, and we give up, And here's what I've seen. I've seen it in 25 years, 26 years this year. And here's what I've seen with families. I think all couples have their times when they sooner walk their own way and do their own thing. I think all couples sooner or later come to that day where they say, what did I marry him for? Why did I marry her? I think all couples come to that place at some stage. But I've seen this. Couples who have really been in a bad way, and have stayed together, and stuck it out. And then you come, and you come to realize, hang on a minute, they're actually getting on pretty well. They may not have all their problems sorted and dusted and everything else, but they learn to live well with each other. After a while, it's amazing. If you're digging in your heels, and you won't let go of the wheel, and you won't give them the lampposts, give the enemy the ground, it's amazing what can happen in your marriage. And you know what happens then? There's blessing in the children of that marriage. Do you know one of the best things you can do for your kids? I was talking to my son earlier about this the other day. Let's give them a stable background. Now look, no family is perfect. No family gets it all right. It might look like that from the outside, but no family gets it all right. But you know what? When you decide what I'm going to do is, I'm going to give my children a stable upbringing, and I'm going to work it out, and I'm going to deal with the issues, and I'm going to do the best I can, get help where I need it, but I'm going to give my children a stable background. Do you know God does something like that? You let go of the wheel and you give up. And you know what happens? There's carnage. There's carnage. And you always have couples that don't stay out. They normally go off into another relationship. Because that's going to be the relationship. And you know what happens? The relationship is no better than the first relationship. Often times it's actually worse than the first relationship. And you know why? Because you bring your own problems into the next relationship. Because you go into the next relationship and you don't have anyone working you to change you. And when we let God work on us and change us, it's amazing what he can do. But you gotta understand that. Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't let the enemy do the work of destroying marriages. He's good at it. Don't let him do it. There's way too much on the line in your relationship, much more than you feeling good or you getting what you think you deserve. Don't let the enemy destroy your relationship. Don't let him do it. All right, and then we've got the armor. We've got the armor. I'm going to go quickly through the armor here, right? "...wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evening day, and having done all to stand." If you wear the armor, God says you will be able to stand, and when it's over, You'll still be standing. It's kind of like a battle. You know, listen, in a battle, there's all the smoke and there's all the dust and all the problems and guns and shells flying. But at the end of it all, you're still standing. You know, if you're still standing, you win. If you're still standing, you win, right? Okay, so he says, stand therefore, handing your loins girt about with truth. Listen, you have got to live your life on the basis of truth. Not on the basis of pop psychology, not on the basis of what people are thinking today, not on the basis of what our culture is saying today. You've got to build your life based on truth. Jesus said this, he said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Only the truth can make you free. Now, where do you find truth? That's where you find truth. You won't find truth outside of this. Now, look, we all have a hard time, because we look at the truth sometimes and we say, no, that's not going to work. I can't do that. No, listen, that's truth. You know, listen, there are lots of people in your life that will give you an easier way. There are people that will tell you you deserve better. There are people that will... you know, pat you on the back and tell you you're okay. Now that's truth. God says that it's true. Build your life on the truth of the word. The enemy's a liar and a deceiver. Do you know the antidote to the lies and deceptions of the enemy? Truth. You know they say that when you want somebody to know currency, like you want somebody to be able to recognize a five-pound note that's not a forgery. Do you know what you do? You just keep giving them real five-pound notes from a guy. You never give them a forgery. You don't point out the errors in the forgery. You just give them the real five-pound note. And you give them lots of those five-pound notes to look at. And they look at that five-pound note, and they feel that five-pound note, and they know that five-pound note. And then, one day, when you slip into them a forgery, they say, that's all right. Something wrong with that. Because they know the truth. And they'll, listen, you know how you'll know the enemy's lies? Immerse yourself in truth. Truth that's not just known academically, truth that you live. Now, that means for all of us, for you young people too. You take the word of God and you live it. Does the word of God say some things to you that you say, no, I don't do that. Honor your mom and your dad. Well, that's okay, except when they're telling you to clean your room and you want to go and play a game. Why would you honor them then? What you have there is you have a conflict between truth and a lie. Because you're telling yourself, my life would be better off if I just did my own thing. That's a lie. You need to obey truth. And when you obey truth, what you find is you find your faith. But we need to let the truth, the truth needs to speak to us, the truth needs to be that which grips our souls and we live our lives on. You have your loins girt with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, we have got to live righteous lives. Now why? Because there's an enemy out there rolling about, looking for who we may devour. You know, he gets you in sin, and you give in to sin, and you go that way, and you do that thing, and listen, he is going to get you. 2 Corinthians 2 11 says, that Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. I think all too often we are ignorant of his devices. But when I let sin into my life, what happens is, I give the enemy an advantage over me. I can't let him tie one hand behind my back, so I can only fight with one hand. I don't wanna do that. I can go out in the football field with 10 players and he's got 11. Or seven and he's got 11. When I let sin into my life, you see, I think we've got an upside down thought about sin. All my sin is paid for. All my sin, past, present, and future, everything I do is paid for. No sin I've been committed is gonna send me to hell, because I'm saved. I'm born again by faith in Jesus Christ, right? But do you know what happens when I sin? I break fellowship with God. I break fellowship with God. And do you know what the enemy says? Great. Great. I'll go in there and I'll cause as much trouble and mayhem in his life as I possibly can. And I've seen people where their whole lives were destroyed. And it doesn't have to be some great, terrible thing like murder that you do. It's just some sin that you make accommodation You're actually fine with the enemy. When he's tempting you to sin, he'll always say to you, oh, you might as well. It's just once. Come on. Go for it. It's just once. And then when you do it once, when he says to you, well, you've done it once, you might as well just keep on doing it. Because he's a liar and a deceiver, and he wants to use it against you. You see, sin is not your friend. Listen, is there a pleasure in sin for a season? Yes. Sin is always my enemy. Sin is always going to hurt me. Sin is always going to cost me more than I wanted to pay. It's going to keep me longer than I wanted to stay. And it's going to take me further than I wanted to go. Always. You know? So, look, here's the deal. You know when you deal with sin? Immediately. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all our righteousness. Deal with it. Don't let it go. Don't let the enemy use it to give you grief. Don't enjoy the fun that there is in sin. Isn't it amazing that when the enemy talks to you about sin, he only talks to you about fun? But every time you go beyond the fun, every time you open the curtain and you see that, yeah, there's a pleasure in sin for a season, but sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The price is always way more than I want to pay. Learn to be somebody who looks behind the curtain. Learn to be somebody who reckons on the cost of sin when you're thinking about it. Because if you don't, what he'll do is he'll suck you in, and he'll chew you up, and he'll spit you out. That's his game. That's what he loves. And he will do it. He'll have on the breastplate of righteousness. and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Listen, the gospel is great, it is powerful and it is mighty, but you know what very often happens to the believer? The believer kind of sidelines the gospel in their eyes. You need to be actively going forward with the gospel in your life. That's not for missionaries and pastors, that's for all of us. There's nothing quite puts you on puts you in the battlefield and gives you powers when you open your mouth and begin to speak forth the gospel. It's amazing what it does to you. It's amazing when you actually speak forth in his name, because you're an ambassador of peace. That's what you're made for. God didn't leave you on this planet just to enjoy life. God left you on this planet to do work. He left you on this planet to tell people about Jesus, to be involved in the gospel. And then, verse 16, and above all, now above all is important in this, taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. You know, fiery darts are a great picture. A fiery dart, have you ever seen the films, those arrows that they set on fire, and they put them in the bow, at those straw huts. And they don't just kind of cause a fire in the corner and go splat. And they set the whole thing on fire. Do you know the enemy likes to send fiery darts into your life and my life? Lies. Lies about God. Lies about others that explode in your heart. And you know what you're implying to do? You're implying to try and reason them out. No, you can't reason with that. It's the shield of faith. No, my God loves me. He cares for me. He would never hurt me for fun. And you gotta hold up the shield of faith. You gotta be in the place where you're actually trusting God. You know, the faith is a wonderful thing. You must believe that God is, and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. The enemy's gonna come to you, young people, and he's gonna say to you, if you go God's way, you'll be a fool. You'll just waste your life, you'll have no fun, you'll just live a dreary, dull, boring life. That's a lie, right? But if you let that lie ride in your life, it will eat through your life The opposite is true. If you walk with God and live for God, He will bless you and give you the best life possible. Because I've regretted a lot of things in my life. I mean, I was 26 when I got saved. Let's read this stuff before I get saved. I have never regretted giving my life to God. Not for one moment. Not for one moment. Because you know what? The blessings He's brought into my life, are just multiplied. Listen, God is love. And He wants to bless me. Satan has hatred, and he wants to take from me. But he always comes into me and tells me he's the giver. And that's what he does in your life, too. He tells you he's the giver. He wants to give you a life. And he's a liar. Call him out on it. Tell him he's a liar. And tell him your heavenly father loves you and he's doing great things in your life and he's got good plans for you and reject him. Put him to flight. Don't reason with him. Don't reason with him, just reject him. Call him out on him because he has no good plan for your life at all. Take the fiery darts and listen. You are trusting the fact that your heavenly father loves you and he will take care of you no matter what. You know, I love Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the Bible. And here's why I love them, right? These three boys, they're told to worship the king. Worship the image, he said, and they said, no, we're not going to worship. And, well, if you don't, we'll throw you in the fire. And you know what they said to the king? Nebuchadnezzar listened. Oh, we're not really worried about you. Our God, whom we serve, is able to deliver us from your burning fire before us. I think he owns him, delivers from you anyway, so we're not worried about him. He's bigger and more important than you, and we're going to trust him. And you know what happened? He got so mad, he heated up the fire seven times hotter than normal. And the men, his best men, that he sent to throw these three boys into the burning fire in front of us, they died when they got close to the fire. The heat was that great. And then when he looked into the fire, He saw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego talking to somebody else. And he said, he looks like a son of God to me. Do you know that God met them in the fire? Do you know that your God will take care of you? Always. He will never fail you. He will never let you down. He will take care of you. And He won't always take care of you the way you demand to be taken care of. I don't know. But He will always take care of you. And you can trust that God will take care of you. Listen, take your sheet of faith and tell the enemy, get lost. My God loves me. He's gonna take care of me. I'm gonna be fine. You just get lost. Take the shield of faith and tell him to get lost, right? And then take the helmet of salvation. Do you know what you need to be sure that you're saved? It's not enough for you to say, well, I hope I am. That doesn't matter. 1 John 5, 13 says, these things have been written unto you, believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. Do you know what God wants you to know, that you have eternal life? He wants you to be sure. Do you know, the enemy will play hopscotch in your head, and you're not sure you're safe. I mean, I've spoken with some people, and I tell them they have eternal insecurity. They don't know. They're not sure. They think they might be, but they're not sure they can keep it themselves. Listen, if 1% of salvation is up to you, you're not saved. I'm saved and going to heaven, I'm absolutely sure of it. Not because I'm good, not because I'm a pastor, because I'm not good, not for any of those reasons. No, I'm saved and going to heaven because one day, and I knew very little, I was convinced by the Spirit of God that I was a sinner on my way to heaven. And I knelt by my bed and I said, Jesus, I deserve heaven. But you said you'd save me if I asked you what I'm asking. And I woke up the next morning a different person. Because he did it. And I've never doubted it since then. Because he did. I didn't do anything of it. I don't preach so I can get to heaven. I preach because I'm going to heaven. I don't do any of the things I do because, so I can get, listen, I'm not that good. I know I'm going to heaven. Because Jesus paid me. Listen, you need to have that separate in your heart. I'll tell you what, though. Sin will play hopscotch in your head, and the enemy will try and dislodge that for you. Get rid of the sin, and that will give you peace to know that you're saved, you won't die. All right, let me move quickly here. And there's the sword of the spirit. What's the sword of the spirit? the ramess, the short sword of God's truth. The truth that you can take and you can throw at the enemy. Because you need to fight them sometimes. The enemy is always going to go after you, in one way or another, God doesn't love you. Isn't that amazing? God loves everybody else, but he doesn't love me. Because if he loved me, he wouldn't have done this in my life. And there's no person in this room that's seriously trying to walk with God that hasn't had that thought at some point. Somebody said that Satan doesn't have many tricks that he uses because he doesn't need them. The ones he uses are so good. How do I know Jesus loves me? God's love was manifested, was shown, occurred in my life, and that God sent His Son to die for me when I was still a sinner. I need to get that in your head. There is no chance under heaven that God could ever stop loving me. We have an addictions ministry, and the problem with addiction is that it gets into a bad balance, and they do stupid things, and oftentimes they go back. And I will purposefully tell them this, because I want them to know this. I'll tell them, first of all, listen, if you go back to your addiction, it's going to be worse than it was before, because it always is. Right? But I also say this to them, no matter how bad it gets, God will not stop loving you, and will not stop wanting you. You've got to dig in on that one, you've got to understand, because you want them to understand that when they put themselves back in the pit, which they very often do, when they put themselves back in the pit, they've got to understand, no, God loves me. Because that's how you get out of the pit again. Listen, God loves you. There are other truths, lots of other truths. You maybe need to take some of them and underline them and remind yourself of them. I'm a dad so I've got to look after family and look after all these things and you know, you dads know this, you know, meeting the bills and paying for everything and so on, that gets to be a problem and a burden in your life from time to time. You know, sometimes it just doesn't work. How's it all going to work out? And the enemy wants to come in and say, yeah, see, you're a preacher. You've given your life to this. If you'd given your life to making money, you could do a whole lot better than you're doing now. And you know what the verses that I was given me? And I've used them since I was in college? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Lord, as best I know how, I'm seeking you, and you promise to take care of it. And he does. He does. But you've got to find those ringments, that when the enemy comes after you, you've got the word of God to stick in his face and say, no, go get lost. You've got to fight him. And then, look at verse 18. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, and watching thereunto, with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. You know, one of the pieces of the armor that we so often forget is we're supposed to pray for each other. Do you know that everybody in this room has an enemy? And that enemy is going after everybody in this room in different ways. We need to pray for each other. We need to pray for ourselves. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. We need to pray for each other. The part of the armor is praying for each other. Do you know that we can have victory? That we can win? that we're not intended to be losers in this thing. We're not intended to go, oh, I'll never get it done. I'm not able. No, we're not going to. Greater sin is in you than it is in the world. We're supposed to win. Let me close with a verse. I'll give it to you, and you can look it up later on. But James, chapter 4, verse 6, 7, Submit yourselves, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee. Does that sound like a promise to you? That he will flee? It sounds like an altruistic promise to me. It is a promise. And what does it mean? Submit yourself to God. Lord, I am yours. I belong to you. Lord, I'll do whatever you want me to do. Something I need to deal with, Lord, I'm dealing with. I don't want to have anything that makes me at odds with you. Lord, I'm dealing with it. Lord, I'm yours. I belong to you. Lord, you have your way in my life, because that's what I want. Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. What does that mean? Satan, get lost. You have no hand back to your partner. I belong to him. I'm looking for him. I'm serving him. Sometimes I'll tell him I love him. Get lost. He has no hand to act apart in my life because I belong to him and I'm living for him. And you know what the Bible says? He will flee. It doesn't say he'll even slink off. It says that when you and I submit to God and resist him, he's no option. He's no match for you then. He's no match for you when you submit yourself to God, resist him, tell him to get lost. God says, you're the winner. Because he's no match for Jesus and that's when Jesus takes over. So you don't have to lose. You say, well, hang on, so far I've been losing. Yeah, I'm sure you've made some bad choices. I'm sure you've gone in the wrong direction. I'm sure maybe there's some things in your life that you need to deal with. Deal with them. How do you deal with sin? We confess our sin. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You can have a doubtful before you leave her tonight. Right? And so make yourself a God, not a nurse. Resist the devil and he will flee. Listen, because of Jesus, we're winners. Satan got his head crushed when Jesus went to the cross. You're a winner. You don't have to surrender your family to him. You don't have to surrender your marriage to him. You don't have to surrender your life to him. You don't have to give in as a child and go his way. You're a winner. Lord, I'm yours, whatever you want. Give yourself to him. Resist the devil, and he's gone. Isn't God good the way he lays it all out for us? That's the word for it. Father, thank you for this evening, thank you for this people, and Lord, would you help us, because Lord, we desperately need your help, Lord. Even though we see truth, and Lord, it can be so clear, Lord, our minds get fuzzy in the application of God, but there's someone that needs to deal with sin, Lord. May they do it right now, before we're even finished praying. May they just confess it to you immediately. And Lord, if there's somebody who's been deceived by the enemy, Lord, may they Reject it right now, and resist it, and say no to it. And oh, may he flee many lives and hurts, and may we be victorious, because that's what you've called us to be. In Jesus' precious name, amen. You know, Satan is a consumer. I've met a lot of people whose lives have been wrecked by sin, but one man in particular stayed on my mind at Princess Street Gardens. There's a witness named T. Kennedy once back. You know, he's got a worn out form. He's in his 50s. He looks like he's in his 70s. He's missing his teeth. He's lost his wife. He's lost his family. Because he started as a kid, as a teenager, sniffing glue. You know, and you look at that and think, Satan totally deceived him. If Satan said, you know, to teens, hey, if you do this, it's going to be great. You're going to lose your teeth. Your life's going to be wasted. You're going to lose your marriage. You're going to lose your kids. How many kids are going to go, oh, hey, that's great, I want to try that. What does Satan say? Oh, it's going to be a lot of fun. Everybody's doing it. He lies, he's a deceiver. You know, we live in a society of those that are losing to Satan. Now, Pastor O'Connor mentioned he meets Scots, where, because of addictions, he wasn't trying to put down Scotland the same, and Ireland has its own problem with addictions. But we have a society that's being destroyed. Look around. I mean, recently, in a flat, We saw, on a Saturday morning, people that were wasted. Their life was wasted. Why? Because it's sacred. You know, tonight, if you think about it, it's what he preached tonight, if you don't take Jesus in his armor, you'll be destroyed by the enemy. You're not an exception. Don't think, well, I can get rid of that Bible stuff, I can get rid of Jesus Christ, I don't have to obey that, and I'm going to be the exception that my life is going to flourish outside Christ. It's not going to happen. And so tonight, the decision that would defeat the enemy would be to say, you know what? I'll take Jesus Christ. You know what? I'll take His Word. You know what? I'll take His righteousness. You know what? I'll take those precious truths of the Word of God and I'll do bad. Why? Because it's worth it for myself, it's worth it for my family, it's worth it for my neighbors, it's worth it for my community. Why is society content to just continue in a downward spiral to hell? What's going to stop it? It's going to stop by God's grace by people taking a stand. You know, it's our little patch here. Lone F. Scott, Free Baptist Church. It's our community. Are we content tonight to say, well, it's no big deal? You know, if it was just... It's kind of two things, isn't it? It's for Christ and it's glory. And it's because there's people on their way to hell. And it's for our families. You know, let's take to heart what's been said tonight. We're gonna stand up and count it for Jesus. And so let's think about it. Let's stand and say, in 392, who's on the Lord's side?