2nd Corinthians chapter number 10. In 1896 there was a man by the name of Norman Kidd McCoy who was a welterweight boxing champion. In one of his fights he learned that his opponent was deaf. McCoy finally discovered this and as they were nearing the end of the third round McCoy stepped back and pointed to his opponent's corner indicating that the bell had rung. When his opponent turned his head, McCoy unloaded a powerful blow and knocked him out. It certainly wasn't fair, but it was certainly very effective against him. And you know, the devil works in similar ways. He fights dirty. He is such a a scoundrel. He does not play fair. And he takes advantage of us sometimes when we least expect it. Sometimes when we're not, I guess, having our spiritual antennas up. But God has provided the weapons necessary to combat his onslaught and stand against the wiles he throws at us. And today we're going to spend some time examining some of our weapons and and just kind of again just rehearsing them and getting them into our mind and reminding us how we need to use those things because we all confront Satan probably just about every day in some regards as he attacks our minds he frustrates our causes that we try to live for God and it can be very discouraging if we don't know how to combat that. Here in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 10 we saw this last time as we were dealing kind of with the same type of subject We'll look at verse 3 through verse 5. It says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Tonight I'd like to talk about the weapons of our warfare, the weapons of our warfare. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this great mercy you've given to us. We thank you for the weapons, the tools you've given us to be able to combat against the wiles of the devil. I pray, Father, as we rehearse these weapons once again, and as we review them and bring them to mind, that we would use them effectively. Help us, Lord God, to get a little training, if you will, so that as the satanic onslaught will come upon us at times that we be able to fight back and be victorious as you've promised. We pray this now in Jesus' name. Amen. Well last time I spoke about the fact that we are operating in a war zone while we live here on planet Earth. This is Satan's domain. Ephesians 2.2 mentions where in time past he walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air. Of course that is speaking of Satan. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Of course, another spot we'll see here in a moment where it talks about Him being the God of this world and all that kind of stuff. We are living in a war zone because we're living in Satan's domain, if you will. And Satan, of course, is a sworn enemy of God who hates everything God loves. And, of course, what God loves the most is mankind, us. John 3.16, we're very familiar with, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And the cross of Christ beyond the shadow of a doubt proves just how much God's compassion is towards us as people. If you don't believe God loves you, take some time to study out the crucifixion. Take some time to study out the trial of Jesus Christ. And after studying that, if you're not convinced that God does not love you, I don't know if there's anything that could convince you, because he went through so much because of sin and what he desired to do to win us back to himself. It's beyond a shadow of a doubt when you view it through the cross. But Satan knows that God loves mankind and since he can't get at God personally, Satan gets at God through us. by seeking to destroy the lives of mankind and to pull them to hell with him. John 10.10, the Bible says, the thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and destroy. And Satan's got our lives marked for destruction. He wants to take a Christian out. And Christians, if we're not careful, we can be taken out. We can be taken out because we don't know how to use our weapons. We don't know who we are in Christ. And we've got to be able to ward him off because the thief will kind of come and try to steal your joy. He'll seek to kill your Christianity. He'll seek to destroy your testimony. He'll go to all great lengths, if you will, to try to do everything he can to take us out. Because the devil is constantly on the prowl, if you will, in the lives of people. I think of the unsaved, those that do not know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, have never been born again. The devil is doing everything he can to keep them in that position. 2 Corinthians 4 verses 3-4 we're familiar with, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world, Satan, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. And let me tell you something, that blindness can be very thick sometimes, that blindness can be very dense, and we as God's people need to pray that God would lift the blindness off people, and that God would open up the eyes of the blind and unharden their hearts so that they may respond. Thank God that there was somebody, if you've been saved here today, who spent time on their knees praying for you specifically or praying for places you lived or whatever the case might have been. God was praying and God, or somebody was praying so that God would open your heart and unblind your eyes so that you might be saved. And the devil's doing everything he can to keep people in that position. That's why it's a warfare. That's why it's such a struggle sometimes as you work with people and reach out, and boy, they seem like they're open. It's like, what happened? They're not as open anymore. I'll guarantee you, the devil is at work in their life. And we as God's people must stay diligent in our prayers and in our witness and our consistency. It is a warfare. The devil has certainly got his arsenal out there that deceives people not to take spiritual things seriously. And we've got to ask God to work on our behalf. And God's weapons are much mightier than Satan's weapons. But we've got to employ them. Now, again, speaking of the saved, the devil is seeking to destroy your testimony as a saved person. First Peter 5.8 Be sober. This is Peter talking to born again Christians. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour. And Satan will devour a born again Christian. I've seen Christians get knocked out. And we don't want anybody to get knocked out. The goal is to bring as many people home with us safely as possible, if you will. I don't believe somebody can lose their salvation, but I do believe that the road to heaven is littered with fallouts. And it's not a good thing. It's surprising sometimes the people you see fall out. People you never imagined would have fallen out. People who have been faithful for decades. and fall out of the race, and the devil has gotten into their lives and messed everything up and forsaken, in some cases, decades worth of testimony because the devil got in. If we're not careful, we can easily forget who our real enemy is. And we've got to understand our enemy so we can fight him. Again, verse 3, it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Remember, our enemy is not flesh and blood. We saw that in Ephesians 6, 12, where we wrestled 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. It would do us good to remember that our battle is not with people. I know that's sometimes easier said than done. Because it's people that we see readily in front of us. It's people that oppose the work of God. It's people that are unfaithful. It's people that turn us away. It's people that say one thing and do another. And sometimes we think, oh, it's just people. It's just people. No, it's the devil. It's the devil. And it'd be wise for us to aim our efforts at the one behind the scenes versus at the person in front of us. Because we'll be much more effective. Again, how many times have we fought those flesh and blood battles? We're fighting people. As a result, we get very frustrated. Because we can't seem to win, we can't seem to make any headway. In fact, the more we fight flesh and blood, the more we seem to be losing ground. It's because we're fighting the wrong thing. We're fighting against the wrong enemy. And we're using the wrong weapons that are reaping wrong results. Our primary battles, though, I think are going to be fought not so much even with people, as much as it is on the battlefield of our mind. That's really the main place that these spiritual battles take place. God has revealed to us in his word, directive steps that must be obeyed, but Satan combats us with wrong thoughts that renders wrong emotions that lead to wrong decisions. And we must learn to combat Satan on this front or else we'll find ourselves making wrong choices. You know when people make wrong choices, you know why they've done it? It's because they have wrong thinking, oftentimes. You know, when somebody goes out and commits an act of immorality, it's not because they've, you know, just oftentimes just kind of spur of the moment. No, they've been thinking about that stuff for a while and they've allowed the garbage to spin their wheel in their mind. before you know it, they're doing it. Oftentimes, a lot of those types of sins aren't necessarily spur of the moment as much as they are something that the mind has been musing for quite some time. And they eventually cave into it. That's why we've got to win the battles in our minds. And we must use our weapons. It says here in verse four, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Verse 5 again is dealing primarily with the mind. Imaginations, high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, in other words, it's false knowledge, and trying to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. In other words, getting our thought life and our minds in line with God. And that's a constant battle. That's a constant struggle in some cases. But it ought to be the desire of our heart to be that way. But we're going to need the weapons of God to be able to combat those thoughts. Because sometimes those thoughts will torment us too. Those thoughts will trip us up. Those thoughts will get us making wrong decisions again. They usually just make us feel miserable. And it'll steal our joy, destroy our testimony, causes us to do things we regret. We've got to learn to employ the weapons. We've got to get better trained at doing that. You know, when somebody learns how to fight combat maybe with a weapon, I think of people that know different forms of martial arts weapons and so forth. And you know, it takes practice to use those things. I don't know if you've ever watched somebody use the nunchucks and they're whipping around like this, you know, back and forth. I can kind of do some of that. I wouldn't show it off, but, no, just kidding. But, you know, it's like, wow, how do they do that? Well, they've practiced. They've practiced for probably many, many hours. You know, in the same way, we've got to learn to practice our weapons. Sometimes people try to use the weapons and then they fail, like, oh, these don't work. No, it's just that you've got to learn to use them. And sometimes you're going to have failures when you use them. And sometimes you're going to be fighting, and it's just like, I just can't seem to make any progress. Well, honestly, just consider it practice. Because you'll find yourself, in some regards, winning. And you'll get better at using them, and so forth. Just don't get discouraged when you try and you fail. And it's just like, oh, I'll just throw them away. Well, let me tell you something. If you don't know how to employ them, you've got to learn how to employ them, or else you're going to be defeated. There's so much invading our minds in this day that we've got to learn how to ward that stuff off. And honestly, it'll prevent casualties. I am so into preventing casualties. I hate seeing people struggle spiritually. I hate seeing people fall out of the Christian race. I mean, there's so many of them. It's unbelievable. But it doesn't have to be that way. This is the only war that you can walk away without being a casualty. But oftentimes there are so many because they don't know how to use the weapons God's given them and they think that they can just kind of mosey through it. You can't mosey through this. We're walking through a minefield. I really want to stress that. We are walking through a spiritual minefield. If we're not careful, I mean, we'll step in the wrong spots. That's why we've got to allow God's word to be infused in here so that we can walk out there and and do the battles that we have to do with the devil. Tonight we're going to look at six weapons of our arsenal that can be used as we pray that can combat the fiery darts of the wicked one. First off, there's the weapon of faith. We have that song in our songbook, Faith is the Victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. That's a great song. Faith is the victory. And faith is really choosing to believe God regardless of how we think, what we see, or how we feel. It's taking God as a word on the basic sense. In other words, God said it, I believe it, that settles it, if you will. Hebrews 10.38 talks about how now the just shall live by faith, the saved are to live by faith. We are to live according to the dictates of God's word. And that does take some faith, in other words, because what we see, what we think, how we feel will tell us differently at times. But it's through prayer we take hold of faith. And we begin to, we take up that shield of faith that the Bible mentions in Ephesians 6.16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. We put on this shield, it is a weapon, but it protects us through the devil's fiery darts. He throws these fiery darts, he throws the dart of doubt. Have you doubted God lately? Have you doubted God? I'll guarantee you it's the devil. And that was a pretty powerful one sometimes. And if you start having these doubts in your life and doubting God's goodness and God's ability, what it is, you've got some holes in our shield. Maybe it's the dart of discouragement. Boy, that one can be strong, can't it? The devil can just discourage you so much. And you know what? He always has a means of being able to argue so well. He's an expert lawyer, if you will. And he'll throw those things at you and just discourage you. And he'll figure out ways that will just get under your skin and just pull you down. And how do you feel when you're discouraged? You don't feel like taking a whole lot of steps of faith, do you? You often feel like quitting. And there's those darts of discouragement. There's the darts of accusations. How many people today sit with accusations that come through their mind about how bad they are as people, and how God never accepts them, and God doesn't care about them, and God's not interested in their lives. God's interested in other people's lives, but God's not interested in yours, and you've messed up, you're over, you're done, you're through. You know, all these kind of accusational darts. Maybe you've felt that way, or maybe it's just negative thoughts about somebody else, or some situation that just kind of, plays over and over and over and over in your mind, or some lie that the devil... Let me tell you something, those are all darts that can be stopped with the shield of faith, with that weapon of faith. So how does that shield block those darts? God's truth always dispels Satan's lies. That's how it works. See, I don't have to believe, I don't have to doubt because God says he's a faithful, he's a reward of them that diligently seek him. When we exercise faith, I don't have to doubt. You know, we don't have to be discouraged because greater is he that is in us than he is in the world. We don't have to take these accusations. Why? Because I've been accepted in the beloved. I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. I am in God's eyes as if I were righteous. I have the righteousness of Christ upon me. I am a child of God. My identity is in Christ. What about those negative thoughts? Say, I don't have to think this way. I've been delivered from those. Sin shall not have dominion over me. The lies, of course, we know Satan is the father of lies. But God, every word of God is truth. And as we get those things within our heart, that faith within our heart, guess what? Those attacks can be squelched. Again, those attacks are designed to pull our hearts away from God. And when we doubt, when we have discouragement, when there's accusations, guess what? We are not on the top side spiritually, are we? We are usually feeling pretty low, pretty down, and we don't take steps of faith. We don't serve the Lord to the best of our capacity. And when we believe God's word over the lies of Satan, we're using that weapon of faith, that shield of faith to resist him. James 4.7 says, submit yourselves therefore to God. That's an exercise of faith. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. He will flee from you. When we are submitting to God's word, we can verbally declare it to Satan. We can verbally say, Satan, that's a lie. I don't have to believe that. God's word says this, whatever it might be. When doubts and discouragements take hold, again, we have holes in our shield, but we can patch those holes with faith by taking heed to God's word. Again, how do I increase my faith? Romans 10, 17, so that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. the exposure and intake of God's word. Think about those areas where you get the most doubt and discouragement and all that kind of stuff. Those are areas we probably need to learn some more scripture. We need to get more into our heart, truths that can combat that stuff. Think about those areas you struggle with. We've got to, we have to get the word of God into our heart. Of course, we talk about the hearing of preaching and the Bible says that It's the power of God to those that are saved, the preaching of God's word. But we also need to really work on getting the word of God into our hearts. As the Bible says in Psalm 119.11, that word have I hid my heart that I might not sin against thee. It probably would do us quite well to make more of an effort to put this word in here by memorization. To memorize. to practice that, to somehow be trying to get some of that word engrafted in here. The more we do that, the more that there will be readily available arsenal, if you will, to use when Satan's darts come. We need that weapon of faith because those darts come at us all the time. They will come at us very aggressively. And we have to combat Satan's attacks. So it doesn't sway our hearts to make this some decision that really would not please God and we would regret in life. Secondly, let's talk about the weapon of his name. The weapon of his name. The name of Jesus is a powerful weapon as well. John 14, 14, Jesus said, if you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it. I will do it. There's power and authority in the name of Jesus. Psalm 20 verse seven says, some trust in chariots and some in the horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord, our God. So what makes his name so important is the fact again, that it bears authority. It bears authority. We have no authority in our own merits. We have none whatsoever. Nothing rests, no power rests in our name. But in Christ's name, we are given authority. Why? Ephesians 2.6, and hath raised us up together to save and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We are seated in the heavenlies with Christ. In other words, we have been given authority through Christ's name over the demonic realm of this world. All things are subservient to Jesus Christ. And when we use this name, what we're doing is reminding Satan that we are coming on, not on our merits, but on the merits of Jesus Christ. If I can, if I can picture it, picture it this way. Say for instance, you send one of your children out to get some of your son or your daughter out to get one of their siblings. And they come out there and, and this, this, this child says to the sibling, say, Hey, that come inside and eat. And the other kid's like, why? Why should I listen to you? That probably has never happened before, right, in your family? And that sibling won't come, and the kid goes back to mom and dad and says, hey, where's so-and-so? Oh, they wouldn't come. Go back and tell them that dad said to come in here. Right. We'll use dad. The kid goes back out and says the same thing Dad says to come back in here. Well, you know, that bears a little bit more authority, doesn't it? That's kind of the same idea. You know, we don't have the power in our own personal flesh over anything. But with the name of Jesus back behind us, you know, we've got our Jesus badge in us, if you will. We come in the name of Christ, just like the police officers come in the name of the law. That's the kind of authority we have through Christ. And it's through that name. It bears authority and gives our prayers authority over the demonic realm. And we can claim in the name of Jesus that Satan doesn't have to bother us anymore and he has no jurisdiction here and that he has to let those people go who are unsaved. He has to give up his strongholds because we come with one bearing one's name upon our life who defeated Satan utterly at the cross of Calvary. There's the name of Jesus, the weapon of his name. Thirdly, there's the weapon of his blood, of his blood. Now, the blood of Christ is a total embarrassment to Satan. Satan, for some delusional reason, thought he had the son of God on the ropes on Calvary's cross. We talked about that earlier today. You know, Jesus there hanging, suspended between heaven and earth there. His body completely mutilated as it was, hanging there, dying in a horrific death. And we saw this morning earlier, at an earlier hour, how the chief priests and all these Roman soldiers and so forth came by and just mocked Jesus. And I can just about imagine who was behind that. Satan coming by there and staring up at the Son of God and thinking, who are you that could raise up this temple in three days? Who are you claiming to be the Son of God? Who are you just mocking Him, not realizing the complete, utter embarrassment he was about to receive at the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. When three days later he busts through the tomb and busts through death with the blood atonement necessary to pay for the sins of mankind. The Bible tells us that if Satan knew what was going on, he would have never crucified the Lord of Glory. But here he thought that he had the Son of God on the ropes. But God completely reversed it. and brought about a certain defeat that was absolute and was absolutely humiliating to Satan. I like Colossians 2 verses 14-15, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, speaking of the blotting out of our sins, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, speaking of the satanic army, He made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. In other words, He made them look so bad in front of the whole angelic realm. It was absolutely an embarrassment to the armies of Satan. Satan looked like a complete fool. And Satan hates that blood that was shed for man's sins that makes it possible for man to be right with God. Satan's goal is to pull every soul that he possibly can to hell with him. That blood atonement made possible for every man, woman, and child to go to heaven with God instead. And that blood is something that is very powerful against the satanic realm. We can plead the blood of Christ against Satan. because the blood is like nails on a chalkboard to him. Revelation 12 verses 10 through 11 says, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, speaking of Satan, which accused them before our God day and night, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. There is power in the blood of Christ. Plead the blood of Christ when you pray. Plead the blood of Christ as your protection as you go forth. Plead the blood of Christ upon somebody who is unsaved or somebody who is in spiritual bondage. Plead the blood of Christ against those things because Satan hates the blood. It reminds him of his humiliation at Calvary and how that blood sealed his doom forever. Fourthly, We see the weapon of our testimony, the weapon of our testimony. Revelation 12, 11 again says, and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, the word of their testimony. You notice these people overcame Satan through this word of their testimony. And what this is speaking of is the testimony we have being in Christ again. In other words, the fact that we've been rescued by Christ and salvation, we are no longer under the devil's jurisdiction, not one bit. The day we got saved is the day that we were taken out of the snare of Satan. 2 Timothy 2.26 mentions the snare, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. The unsaved are in the snare of Satan. They've been taken captive by him, but the day we get saved, Satan is no longer our jailer anymore because we've been set free. Colossians 1.13 says, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. Paul was told by God in Acts 26.18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith. That is in me." What we have here is that Satan has no more jurisdiction over our lives anymore, only if we allow him to have it. That's why the Bible says in the book of Ephesians, give not place, neither give place to the devil. We are free in Christ and we do not have to submit or listen to any of the devil's garbage anymore. Our lives are in Christ. In other words, we have a new master. We've been placed in a whole different position. And sadly, some of God's people are living in a less than desired position because they don't understand where they sit. with Christ. They're much more significant in Christ than they realize. And all that garbage that floats through their mind does not have to be there. All that negative thought, all that negative junk, all that stuff that's trying to pull them down and take them out, that doesn't have to be there anymore. No, we just have to tell Satan, hey look, I've been delivered from you. I have been delivered. I serve a new master, hit the road. I serve a new master, hit the road. Because of my testimony in Christ. It's the righteousness of Christ that we've got now. And we can use that testimony against Satan, reminding him that he doesn't have any power or jurisdiction in our lives anymore. Fifthly, the weapon of sacrifice. Revelation 12.11 again says, And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. These people were willing to sacrifice, if you will. It's the cross bearing life that Jesus mentioned. Matthew 16.24, Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. The cross is a picture of sacrifice. It's a person, if I can put it in these terms, it's a person who can't be bought. They'd rather do right and lose out on something versus doing wrong only to lose later. You can't buy them off. They're not going to fold because of what may come against them, whether or not they lose their job or they lose their friendship or they lose financial place or position or whatever. No, that stuff doesn't matter. That stuff doesn't matter. What matters to them the most is that Jesus Christ is magnified in their lives. The devil has a hard time with somebody who has surrendered their ambitions, their desires, their will, even their physical lives to God. Because one of Satan's key tactics is to use the threat of personal loss to deter people from living for God. That is one of the biggest weapons he uses. If you live for God, you won't be able to do this or that or whatever. And you know what? That starts rearing up in a person who has not surrendered their life completely to God. It's an open door. But when somebody is under complete surrender to God, willing to sacrifice whatever, Satan doesn't have that card to play. It's a hard time dealing with somebody like that. Because a sacrificial person, again, doesn't care what he or she loses as long as God is glorified. Knowing that all things work together for good, let them love God. The devil just doesn't know what to do with a person like that. Mark 8.35 says, for whosoever shall save his life shall lose it, but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. Have we come to a point where we've dyed the self completely? Where it's not my will but thine, O God. We've put to death our ambitions. We've put to death our desires. We want what Jesus wants and that alone. It doesn't matter what it costs us. I know that's challenging, isn't it? But it's a powerful weapon in our hand. Because Satan can't use those threats against us. They don't work. very problematic for him. It really shows a level of commitment that will only yield the greatest of results, both now and for eternity. Because the sacrificial person sees things through an eternal lens, that the only thing that matters is God. and that God has my best in mind, regardless. Well, sixthly and finally, let's talk about the weapon of praise, the weapon of praise. Now, praise is connected to worship. I wish I had more time to develop this. I made you a message at some point on worship. I've been thinking a lot about that here in the last few days and how important it is for us to worship. And I think in our day, because of all the craziness that goes on in other places, and the distortion of worship. We kind of get a little skittish about talking about that. In fact, the abuse of the teaching about the Holy Spirit has been abused too. And sometimes we don't like talking about the Holy Spirit, but of course there are important elements. And worship is too. Worship is simply adoring God for who He is. And we can speak it, we can sing it, we can lift up our voice, we can do whatever we need to do, but God absolutely loves our praises. He loves us. I like Psalm 22-3, But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. Where praise is, God is, and Satan is not. I'll say that again. Where praise is, God is, and Satan is not. And we as God's people probably need to work on our praising, if you will. So how can I praise God when I have all these problems and trials that are hitting me right now? And no doubt that's going on in people's lives right now. But praise during those times tells the devil that we have trust in God over what we are seeing and experiencing right now. And sometimes it can even bring about a reversal. Hebrews 13 15 it says by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually That is the fruit of our lips giving. Thanks to his name. You know when things aren't going well That's the time we need to start praising God When things are going well, we need to praise God, but things aren't going well. We really need to praise God Why because we know that all things work together for good? that God's using the negative to bring about a positive. And what we're doing when we're praising God, what we're saying is, God, I trust you in this situation. You're great. You're glorious. You're the God on the throne. We can't wait to see how you're going to bring this to good. And we just exalt you, God. You know what? That just is like, again, nails on a chalkboard to the devil. He hates that. Why? He wants all praise to go to him and he wants everyone talking negatively and badly about God. And sometimes during our problems and trials, guess what we start doing? Start doubting God. Whether we want to admit it or not, we start saying, God, what are you doing type thing. Praise is the opposite. Praise says, God, I can't wait to see what you're going to do. may not feel it, but by speaking it, it'll help. Not to mention, too, when we start praising God, we start remembering who He is. I think we have a hard time remembering exactly who He is. And we forget His omnipotence. We forget His omniscience. We forget His omnipresence. We forget who we're dealing with sometimes. And when we start praising God, I think, if anything, it brings joy and remembrance back to our hearts, which we need. during those times of difficulty and trial. Again, the praise itself, it shows and displays trust in God. But of course, when it's good too, boy, we should be praising as well. Why? Because the good was brought about because of God. Every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above, right? From the Father of lights, in whom there is no variance. Every gift we have, every good thing we got going on, that's a gift from God. We ought to praise Him for it. We ought to praise Him for it. Praise, again, is exalting God to His rightful position in our hearts, and the devil just hates hearing it. And when there's praise, there's God, and Satan wants to hit the road. I think of a story back in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, it was, we won't go there for the sake of time, but basically what happened was the kingdom of Judah was being invaded by three groups, the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Edomites. And Jehoshaphat was the king, and they were outmatched, outgunned, and out of everything, and they went to prayer and fasting. It's a great prayer recorded in the Bible there about what Jehoshaphat said. And God said, hey, don't worry about it. In answer to their prayers, there's going to be a great victory. You're not even going to have to fight in this. The battle is mine, not yours, and so forth. And they were just supposed to assemble and go out to the wilderness there and collect the spoil. Well, they hadn't seen this happen yet. But what they started doing as they marched their army out there, they said, the Jehoshaphat, the king said, lined up the Levites and so forth and said, look, you need to praise God. And they began to sing in the praise at a point in time. It was at that time when they began to do that. We see in 2 Chronicles 20, verse 22. And when they began to sing in the praise, the Lord said, ambushments against the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, which are the Edomites, which were come against Judah and they were smitten. They were smitten. God began to move when God's people began to praise. And maybe what we need in our life is a little bit more praise instead of maybe a little bit too much whining. And I'm sure you never whined in your life. I wish I could say I never whined in my life, but I've whined before. But maybe we'd get a little further with God if we would just use this weapon of praise a little bit more. Instead of being like the children out in the wilderness who were discouraged and murmured and complained everywhere they went. You know, sometimes we get that way, don't we? We look at the children of Israel, the Israelites, as they wandered, oh, those faithless people. But we're no different. We're made of the same dirt, aren't we? But maybe what we need to do is just get back to finding ways to praise God. Maybe your financial situation isn't doing so good right now. Can I encourage you to praise God about it? And just tell Him, I praise you, Lord, because I know that you've never left your seat begging bread. Maybe it's a health issue tonight. Maybe you could praise God that you've still got breath and air to breathe. You're still alive. and you still can be used. And whatever that health issue is, it can still be used for the glory of God. You know, maybe tonight you're discouraged because something hasn't come to pass. Why don't you start praising God that He is preparing you for a great blessing sometime down the road. I mean, just think about all those areas you struggle with and maybe complain a little bit to God about. Turn those complaints into praise. I'm not going to promise that God's going to change your situation, but you'll feel a lot better about it if you make that more the practice. Maybe God's just trying to get you to praise a little bit more. We must be people who learn to worship and praise Him appropriately because it has powerful effects. God is looking to be glorified. And those powerful effects can be instituted from a sincere heart. And Satan doesn't like to be around that. But God certainly does. These are some of the weapons we have at our disposal that we can institute as we pray. And we can use the weapon of faith. We can plead those Bible verses and say, Satan, I choose to believe those by faith over your lies. We can talk about the power of His name. We can claim the victory in the name of Jesus. There's the weapon of His blood. We can plead the blood of Christ. There's the weapon of our testimony. We can declare ourselves, declare our position in Christ. There's the weapon of sacrifice. We can let Satan know that we are surrendered and submitted to the will of God. And then there's the weapon of praise. We can exalt our Heavenly Father. And we can do all these things through prayer. As a result, it can help us battle against the fiery darts of the wicked one. God help us to use them, get better at them. so that we can walk in total victory and that we can help others as well because we have more of God working through us than Satan hindering us.