Well, I'd like you to open your Bible over to Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6, we are continuing in our study, the invisible war. This is part 3. Ephesians chapter 6, we're going to begin at verse 10 in just a moment. But let me say in way of introduction, we've been looking at the invisible war that's going on in the world for the last couple of weeks. We will continue in that study. in this service. The spiritual war is being fought around the world. Of course, we know that Satan is fighting the will of God. Satan is opposed to God. He wants to be like the Most High. He'll never be like the Most High. He is a defeated foe, but he is on his way, if I could say it. And I don't mean this in a vulgar way, but on his way to hell, all right? Because he does not live there, contrary to the far side. Satan does not live in hell. He runs to and fro throughout the whole earth, doing his dastardly deeds. He is a defeated foe, but while he is a defeated foe, he is still trying to keep people from trusting Jesus Christ as their Savior. That is what the battle is all about. That is what it is. No one knows this better than a Christian who witnesses, who shares their faith. Because when you share your faith, you see the war, the battle, being played out right before your eyes. You see amazing things. I have visited people before, and you'll go to their house, and you'll go in, and you'll start talking to them, and everything is just great. You're talking about the weather. You're talking about the twins. That doesn't take very long. Anyways, you know, and the Vikings are worse, and I don't even remember the name of the hockey team, but I know the North Stars left town. They had to go to Texas to, isn't it Texas that they went to? And so they started another one here. It's the Wild, right? Yeah. Anyways, just joking about that. But you can talk about everything. But it is amazing. It is amazing. When you start sharing the gospel, all of a sudden the phone starts ringing, the dogs start barking, the kids start interrupting. You know, everything starts going crazy. Why? Well, because Satan wants to distract. He wants to distract. We've seen this in our programs that we have here. We can have a music program, such as a Christmas celebration, and things can go really well. And sometimes it's not until you get to the gospel that the babies start crying when the gospel starts. That's when the babies start. That's why we have a nursery. But people don't always want to put their kids in there, and I understand that if they're not used to the people. But anyways, that being what it is, there's still a battle going on and God has called us as believers, as his children, to be part of the battle. When we got saved, we were drafted into the army, okay? You know, we'll sing the song, I'm in the Lord's army. Well, we really are. There's some good soldiers and there's some bad soldiers. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians want to go AWOL. but you can't get out of the service of God. You can be a very poor soldier, but there's no getting out of it, so to speak, until we go on to be with the Lord. We as believers need to see it this way. We are drafted into God's army, and we have a job to do. And to ignore it doesn't do away with its reality. To say, well, you know what? I don't want to think about that. I'm just going to spend my life doing this. you know, doing this hobby, or watching TV, or playing video games, or physically working out 24 hours a day to where I look like Charles Atlas, or something like this. You know, sailing, I mean, golfing, nothing wrong with hobbies, nothing wrong with them. But what the problem is, is when we, what do we use that for? We're to use that for a time to unwind a little bit to where we can get back into the fight, all right? Even soldiers need the rest. Nothing wrong with rest. Nothing wrong with refreshment. Nothing wrong with vacation. But when we live in a spiritual vacation between our ears, okay, when we're not living the way we should as believers, we're living in a fantasy world of just simply worldliness and comfort, there's a lot of problems with that. A lot of problems. And it doesn't work well, okay? And Satan continues to have victories in people's lives. Now in Ephesians 6 and verse 10 it says, of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the strategies, the schemes 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 armor of God," that's said twice, isn't it? That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. You see, when the word of God, as we saw last time, when the word of God speaks of putting on the whole armor, I believe that the Lord is saying that we need to be living a life that is yielded and surrender to the Lord and not withholding any area because whatever area we're withholding, that is the area that's going to be a weakness. Let me say this, and you've heard me say it many times in church, the one area of your life or my life that I will not give up to God is the one area that Satan has a foothold. That is the area where he is defeating us. That is the area where he's winning the battle in our lives. That is the area where the fiery darts are getting through. When we talk about putting on the whole armor of God, I don't think God necessarily expects us every morning to get up and have the checklist of the armor on the wall and say, okay, number one, let's see, what was the first thing I was supposed to, oh, I'm supposed to have my loins gird about with truth. And so you go searching around your house for something that looks like a belt. you know, then the breastplate of righteousness. And where's my breastplate? Honey, what'd you do with my breastplate, you know? No, that's not what it's about. The idea is taking all of these things. And the idea is applying the word of God in every area of the word of God to our lives, to where we can be effective for the Lord and serve him as he has called us to do. And a Christian who is surrendered and committed, who says to the Lord, Lord, take my life and let it be. Lord, Lord, I want to live for you. I give you my life, and I want you to have first place in every area of my life. And we yield that to him, all right? And then we obey his word. That is the Christian who's going to be effective. That's the Christian who's going to have victory in his or her life. And so when we are surrendered, not withholding any area, we are completely covered, and we are then controlled by scripture. Because the armor, what is it? They're scriptural principles, right? They're scriptural truths. So when we put on the whole armor, we are covering ourselves in biblical truth. That is what the armor is all about. Now let's look at carefully at the armor and very quickly in the ones we've already covered. Loins or the waist gird about with truth. Truth is the foundation we stand on. Everything hangs on the truth, all right? Now it's not only talking about doctrinal truth, it's talking about being a truthful person, a person who is controlled by the truth, who has integrity, who has consistency. In other words, you don't live a different life outside of church than you do at church. Why? Because living a lie is what that is. That's living a lie. And by the way, if you have children, nothing will turn them off more to the Lord than that, nothing, all right? When they see the hypocrisy in your life and in my life as parents, if that's what they see, they see hypocrisy, they're gonna say, you know what? They're always talking about the Lord and always putting on the front of church and all these kinds of things. They're phonies, it's not real with them. Why should it be real with me? So listen, parents, if you don't want your kids to turn out to be rebels, let's be sure that we're not rebels, that we're being obedient. Secondly, the breastplate of righteousness. Now this is a practical righteousness in our thinking and lifestyle based on our positional righteousness we received when we believed in Christ as our Savior. Now notice how he says, put on the breastplate of righteousness. You notice it's something we put on? It's something we put on. God puts on the righteousness we receive when we believe. God gave that to us as a gift, all right? Verse 15, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's number three. The feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. The preparation here means the readiness. That comes from the gospel of peace or that is of the gospel of peace All right, the readiness that should be there if we've trusted Christ the Savior. We ought to be excited to share I'm saved don't I care don't I you might say? Oh, I'm so glad I'm if I was asked you tonight Are you glad you're saved every hand would go up if you're a believer? Yes. I'm glad I'm saved All right. Let me ask you this Would you like, would I like my friends, my neighbors, my coworkers to be saved? I know where you're going with that. I'm not sure. Now wait a minute. Wait a minute. You're not sure? What you're saying is we think too highly of ourselves to run the risk of rejection. That's what we're saying. we're too selfish but do we understand listen folks we need to get this in our minds do we understand that for an unbeliever to end up in hell he doesn't have to do anything he's already condemned the wrath of god already present tense abides on him john three thirty six And he doesn't have to do one thing to end up in hell, because he's on his way. Life for the unbeliever is a funeral procession. It's what it is. And I need to care enough about the people I meet to be willing to share the gospel with them. And by the way, I like what one man said. He says, never witness to a stranger. Do you know what he was saying? He wasn't saying, unless you're really familiar with people, don't talk to them. No, what he was saying was this. Make a person your friend before you witness to them, OK? In other words, gain favorable attention with that individual. Pay him a compliment. Pay him a compliment. You know, you see a mom in a store with her kids in tow or whatever. Boy, you've got your hands full though. Those are beautiful children you've got. I'll tell you what. Now you might say, well, aren't you manipulating? No. Did you tell the truth? Yes. So you're not manipulating. You told the truth. You're giving somebody a compliment. There's nothing wrong with that. See, we're in a war, folks. Now, if you're trying to get money out of them, that's another story. But what we're trying to do is get them open to receive the gospel. That's what we're trying to do. And again, don't lie. She's got a little Johnny Monster and little Susie Demon with her. Don't say, boy, you've got such cute, wonderful kids. Well, they're not, okay? Try to find something good to say. Don't lie about it, but if you can say something good, say something good. My wife is excellent at that. Feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. Now let's go on. Now we come to one of the most fascinating aspects of our armor. We find it in verse 16. It says, above all, wow, I think God wants us to listen up. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." The word wicked there is masculine, singular. It's talking about the wicked one. I don't think there's any question it's talking about Satan himself. All right. You notice it says, above all, the shield of faith, the shield of faith. Now, the physical shield was about two and a half feet wide and about four feet long. It was a big shield that the Roman soldiers had. And I think this is what Paul had in mind when he wrote it. And you notice it's not the shield of the faith, it's the shield of faith. All right? When we walk by faith, it protects us from the wicked one and quenches all the fiery darts. Now, when I say walk by faith, I mean to live trusting in the Lord and obedient to his word. That's what it means to walk by faith, trusting in the Lord, obedient to his word. and taking up the shield of faith. I am putting my trust in the Lord and I'm going to be obedient to his word. All right? That is going to protect me. That will protect me from all the fiery darts of the wicked one. In Psalm 115, verse 11, it says, ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. So the shield of faith, it's not faith and faith, like the word of faith movement, you know, faith and faith, if it's, you know, you speak it and it becomes reality and all this, no, no, no, no, no. It's faith, trust, reliance upon, but faith is not the object, I'm not the object, God and his word is the object, okay? And you can't divorce God from his word, because the word came from God himself. Now, I've got several wonderful truths I want you to consider about this verse 16 in the shield of faith. The first one is this. Notice that it says above all, above all. Why? Because if we don't have faith, we will not use any of the other pieces of armor. If you don't have faith, why would you? Okay? We will be discouraged. Why use them if we don't believe they'll help us in the first place? Put on the armor of God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard that. How many times have I heard that preached on? You know, I know it's in my Bible. You know, that's not one of my favorite paths. I don't even understand those verses. Well, shame on you. You should have been coming on Wednesday nights. All right. See, folks. These things will help. God says, now listen, God's integrity is on the line here. God's character is on the line. He says, if we will put on the whole armor of God and apply ourselves, surrender ourselves to the Lord, yield ourselves to him, and then step out trusting in the Lord, trusting in his word, obedient to it, we will see victory. in our lives, okay? We'll see success. God is gonna use us for his glory. So the first thing, notice again, above all, above all, this is of utmost importance. But secondly, why do we need the shield? Well, because there will be fiery darts, flaming darts, or arrows, shot our way. This is not a possibility. This is a certainty. Satan wants to bring you and me down. He wants to bring us down, and he wants to keep us down. If you are living for the Lord, there will be fiery darts, okay? Satan wants to stop you from sharing the gospel with the lost because if he can keep your mouth and my mouth shut, more people will remain lost." This takes us back to our first week on this. His goal is to keep the world blind. How is he going to keep the world blind? They're already blind. They're already lost. They're already condemned. So how is he going to keep them in that condition? The way he keeps the lost in their lost condition is by stopping Christians from sharing the gospel. because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If they never hear the gospel, they'll never be saved. If they're never saved, they won't go to heaven. If they don't go to heaven, they'll spend forever separated from God in hell. battle is to stop you and to stop me from sharing Christ. And we talked about many ways he does that, through false gospels, through false interests, through false priorities, okay, many different ways. By Christians living careless, carnal lives to where they're too ashamed to open their mouth because they know their life is a disaster. Many ways. So why do we need the shield? Because of the fiery darts, okay? If this is true, then we must have something to deflect the darts and protect us. If we are saying, I'm going to serve the Lord, I'm going to share the gospel, you better have the shield of faith, because you are going to get blasted. Listen, when we say, I will do this, I will share Christ. What you're doing is you're going from the back of the regiment of soldiers to the front line. Why? Well, because most of the soldiers don't want to be up front. They don't want to get shot at. They would rather live in comfort. But when we say, Lord, you can count on me, all of a sudden, okay, you're promoted right up to the front. And you know what? There's a lot more action in the front. Years ago, James Dobson put out the book, Parenting Isn't for Cowards, right? Well, that's true, but I'll tell you what, discipleship isn't for cowards. Biblical discipleship isn't for cowards, because if we truly follow Christ, we're gonna be fishing for men. That's what Jesus said, follow me, I'll make you fish your men. When the darts come, you put up the shield and you stop them from penetrating your person. Darts, what can they be? Well, they come many ways. Darts can be evil, sinful, or wrong thoughts. I think usually the darts are wrong thoughts. I think they're thoughts of discouragement. Maybe they'll come out of people's mouths sometimes. You know, it's amazing sometimes. Now, I don't usually get discouraged by what people say, all right? But sometimes I do. And the wrong thing at the wrong time can knock me for a loop. And Satan can use that. And you know, when those things penetrate, at the times those things penetrate, my shield has been moved to where the dart can get through to me. and it registered, and it made it, all right? And of course, it hurts. It hurts. They can be false accusations or persecution against us. Anything that Satan can do to stop us and discourage us, he will shoot our way. And remember, He and his minions, demons, all right, they are looking. They are watching you and me. Let me tell you something, okay? I'm 61 years old. We've got some young teenagers in here. Hey, young guys and ladies, let me tell you something. The devil's after you. Oh, wait, I thought he only goes after adults. No, no. He's after you. He would like to destroy your life before you ever get off the aircraft carrier, so to speak, before you ever start flying. He wants to destroy your life. You say, ooh, that's kind of scary. It is kind of scary. It's real scary. And he never stops. Age is not an issue. Third, I want to mention this, the shield of faith quenches all the darts Satan fires at us, okay? Now if that doesn't show the importance of it, I don't know what does. It quenches all the darts. all the fiery darts of the wicked, not some, all of them. So what is the challenge? Just like we have talked about, taking, putting on the armor of God is where our protection and victory is. And we are to live that way each and every day and not let up. First John 5.4 says, whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, even our faith. Now, it's not, again, it's not faith in faith. It's faith in the Lord and His word. But this is what overcomes the world. The word overcome there, nekeo, OK, overcomer, gains the victory over. Some of you wear Nike apparel, the swish, Nike. That comes from the same Greek word, the overcomer, the conqueror, the one who prevails, the one who wins. See, faith in the Lord and His word is the victory. Now, let me say this. How does faith grow? You might say, wait a minute. It's the shield of faith. I've never heard of a growing shield before. Well, you may have never heard of it, but you'll hear it from me because I'm convinced it's true. What do you mean grow? How can your shield grow? Well, If your shield is the shield of faith, according to the Bible, your faith can grow. So if your faith can grow and the shield is your faith, then your shield can grow. Do we get it? If A equals B and B equals C, then A equals C. Here you go. The more we hear, learn, and apply the word of God, the greater our faith becomes, the stronger it becomes. And as it grows, we have more cover when the darts are fired at us. All right? Let me give you an example. See, here's the way most Christians are. This is the truth of it. Their shield of faith is about this big. And so they get out there, and the devil starts shooting at them. And they're there, oh, please, please, you know, please protect me, God. Please protect me, God. Well, I don't know if he will or not. But I kind of, yeah, I believe the Bible. I think I believe the Bible. Well, maybe not every verse. Please God, please protect me, please protect me. And you know what? I don't think there's a lot of protection there, do you? Why? It's because they haven't been living for Christ the way they should. They haven't been applying the Word of God. They haven't been in the Word of God. Listen. I believe this is your experience. I know it's my experience, folks. When you get troubled, when you get down, when you get discouraged, when you start worrying about this thing and that thing, and you know what? You're losing the joy of the Lord in your life, you know what you need to do? You need to make a beeline to your Bible. and you need to get in some quality time to where you're there and you start reading it. And I'm not talking about reading a verse, I'm talking about getting there and immersing yourself in the Word of God and letting the Bible, listen, not only cleanse your mind of the impurities, that Satan has been trying to put in there, okay? But you know what this'll do? This'll re-energize you. This'll recharge you. This'll get you motivated. This'll get you pumped up again in a right way. This'll get you excited again. The psalmist said, thy word, it revives us. The scriptures revive us. What is happening when that happens? And all of a sudden you're encouraged, why? Well, your faith is growing again, that's why. And you start saying, you know what, I forgot. God's still on the throne. My God is God. I don't have a little God, I have a big God. And if I have a big God, I have small problems. If you have a little God, you've got big problems. But we have a gigantic God. Why? Because he is God. He's the one true God. But sometimes we need to be reminded. He needs to remind us through the scriptures. That's why we've got to be in the word of God. This should not be optional for the believer. This should be an absolute Necessity of life. Most of us in this room wouldn't think of going a day without food. But I dare say some of us will be glad to go days, maybe weeks, without scripture. Big mistake. The battle is spiritual, folks, not physical. All right? Truth of it is, most of us could probably stand to go a couple days without food. All right? Maybe we ought to take a vow like those guys who said, you know, about Paul, we're not going to eat until we're done with him. Those 40 guys who made a vow, I call them the 40 thinnest men of Scripture. I don't know what happened there. Listen, you might say, well, So then if I'm really, really, if my faith is really strong, that means it's gonna be two and a half by four feet, right? No, you know what? We're dealing in a spiritual realm. I think it could be a wall. Our faith could be the size of a wall. It could be gigantic. The problem is, folks, it grows and shrinks, it grows and shrinks. I'd say, I've never heard this before. Well, this is the way it is. Our shield of faith grows as we grow in God's word. Our faith increases. Let me show you a couple of verses on this. Hold your place here. Look at Romans chapter 10. Now I know, I know, you don't have to tell me, Pastor, don't you know the context of this verse of salvation? Yes, I got it. I get it. But there's a biblical principle here that is true. It rings true in scripture, Romans 10, 17. So then faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. That is true for the unbeliever. But don't say, well, that's true for the unbeliever. Is that not true for the believer? Of course it's true for the believer. If it's true for the unbeliever, it's certainly going to be true for us who are believers. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Look at Luke chapter 17, growing faith, growing faith. Luke 17 verse five, and the apostle said unto the Lord, look what they said, increase our faith. Are they not talking about grow our faith? Of course he tried to do that. with them on many occasions. Look with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. See, if our faith can be increased, it can grow, right? It's not either, well, it's either full faith or no faith. Full faith or no faith. No. Remember when Jesus talked about, why do you doubt, O ye of what? Little faith, little faith. That's why they were doubting, because they had little faith. Now they had faith, but it was little. 2 Thessalonians 1, 3, we are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet or fitting, because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth." The reason so many Christians are ineffective and discouraged today is because they have tiny shields and the devil can keep blasting at them and there's not a thing they can do about it until they say, Okay, I'm getting back to the Word of God. I'm gonna get back in fellowship with God. I'm gonna start walking with the Lord once again. Things aren't gonna change for the better until then. Listen, Christians with tiny shields, you know what it's like? It's like a defenseless boxer in the ring who is getting beaten to a pulp. Have you ever seen boxing? Now, I'm not a big boxing fan, but have you ever seen it? My dad loved boxing. I can remember watching it as a kid. You know, these guys are boxing, and they're boxing, and it's going, you know, and oh, you know, it seems like an even match. And all of a sudden, one of the boxers really lays one on the guy. And the guy is stunned, and you can see it. And his legs are getting wobbly, all right? And then the guy closes in on him and just really starts in on him. And what happens? Well, in that situation, the referee steps in. But you know what? Not in the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm, Satan knocks us down, and you know what he does? He starts kicking us and beating us as long as he can, or as long as God allows him to do it. The time to get prepared is before the darts fly. Remember, anything Satan can do to keep us from sharing the gospel and living for Christ, he will do. All right? One last one here, and take the helmet of salvation. We'll get to the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God next time. But take the helmet of salvation. What is this? Well, the helmet, of course, protected the head. It protects, can I say it this way? It is protecting your mind with the truth that comes from having eternal salvation and eternal security. That protects our thinking. It is a mindset of being saved and secure because of God's grace. It's having that mindset, no worries about this. Whether I have a day of living for Christ or I have a day of when I blow it or I do things I shouldn't do and I'm very discouraged about my failures that day. You know what? None of that affects where I'm going when I die. That is safe and secure because of the blood of Christ. which took care of it when I trusted Christ the Savior. It is the God-given confidence that no matter what, I am saved forever, I am secure in the love of Christ. It is the glory of resting on the promise that the Lord will never leave me nor forsake me. No matter what no matter what no matter what yes, no matter what there's nothing I can do to lose my salvation because if I do something bad it's sin and all my sin was taken care of when Jesus died and paid for it and when I trusted him that payment was put to my account So in that there is peace, there's freedom, there's love, there's joy, there's confidence, all right? It gives us courage to go to battle because we have a message to share like no other. That's why it's called good news. Somebody says, why? I've got a different message than you do. I can say this, you don't have good news. If your message is different than mine, it's not good news. My message is better than yours because it's the one that God gave, okay? Mormons come knocking at your door. We want to share the gospel with you. Years ago I had that happen. We're here to share with you the gospel of Jesus Christ. Two of them were at their front door. I said, oh? I said, go ahead. And they started sharing it. And they got somewhat into it. And I said, as soon as they were explaining works for salvation, they believe in works, I said, now wait a minute. I happen to know the gospel that's in the Bible. And what you're telling me is a different gospel than that. And so I started sharing the gospel with them. And so after a while, they decided that this was futile. And they went on from there. Listen, the truth is the truth. And I want to share something with you that came to me today. I got an email from, I think it's England or Scotland or somewhere. And the person said this, and I won't say their name. It says, I am writing to let you know in 2013, I had read your book, Secure Forever, and it has been a real asset to my faith. I found it while browsing Amazon during a time where I felt the Christian life was impossible. I remember reading this, quote, the condition is to believe and the promise from God the Son is that if you believe you will receive everlasting life. Jesus either told Nicodemus the truth or he did not. There can be no in between. He says, I felt blessed and I understood for the first time that all we had to do was simply believe Jesus' promise. Now listen to this. See, this is the result of having the helmet of salvation. I continue to quote, God's love for me is much more believable under the lens of grace. And the purpose of Jesus' death and resurrection has been made clear to me. Isn't that beautiful? I wrote immediately, I wrote back, I said, you have made my day. I said, thank you for the words of encouragement on this. Folks, listen, isn't that a beautiful term, the lens of grace? Wow, that's articulate, isn't it? That is beautiful. 1 Thessalonians 5, 8 says, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and for enhelment the hope, the anticipation of salvation. Now, how does a person receive salvation or eternal life? You might say, can a person be sure of going to heaven? The answer to that is yes. How? It's very simple. Here it is. We are all sinners. We cannot save ourselves. Heaven is a perfect place. No sin can enter heaven. It's perfect there. We are sinners. We're the ones with the sin. Therefore, we cannot enter heaven. with our sin. God says our sin has to be paid for. And if we pay for our sin, we are going to spend forever separated from God in hell. God doesn't want that for any of us. The Bible says for God so loved the world. All right. Most people think our good works will get us to heaven. some sort of merit, going to church, ordinances, sacraments, good deeds, forsaking sin, a reformation of life, quote-unquote repenting of sin, misuse of the word. None of those things will save you, none of those things. This is why, because there's nothing we could do, this is why God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the world. God the Son went to the cross, and when He died on the cross, He took all of my sin and all of your sin upon Him, and He personally paid the sin debt that we owe. He did it as a substitute for you and me. He shed His blood, He came back from the dead. And he says, if you will put your faith in me, this is what he says, Jesus says, if you will believe in me, if you'll put your trust in me, I will give you as a gift everlasting life. I'll never lose you, I'll never cast you out. Let's close over in John chapter six. I wanna show you this. John chapter six, you can be sure of going to heaven. And you know what? Once you start seeing through the lens of grace, you have put on the helmet of salvation, and that protects your mind, and it protects your thinking, and it keeps things right. And you know what it'll give you? It'll give you a confidence when you share the gospel, because how can you share the gospel if you don't know yourself you're saved? Well, I think this is right. Here you go. I'm believing this right now. I'm not sure it's right, though. I hope I go to heaven when I die. Maybe this sharing this with you will help me get to heaven. No, friend. No, no. Salvation is a gift. When you put your trust in Christ, he gives you the gift of eternal life. And he says in John 6, 37, Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Listen, when you trust Christ, you can be as sure of heaven as if you're already there. Because God said it, and he can't lie. So if you haven't trusted Christ, would you do that? Well, friends, that concludes this edition of Voice of Assurance. Thanks so much for listening. And would you share this ministry with a friend? To contact us or learn more about our ministry, please visit www.northlandchurch.com. Your prayers and support for this ministry are greatly appreciated. Thank you so much, and God bless you.