to Ephesians chapter 6. We are going to close out our study here of this incredible book. Again, if you can stand. I could have named, I named this, The Battle is the Lord's. You'll find out why, but I very easily could have named this, the sermon, Stand, because I'm going to ask you to stand once again, and we're going to be talking about standing. So Ephesians chapter 6 beginning in verse 10, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in change that it may be, I'm sorry, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. but that you also may know my affairs and how I am doing. Titius, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things known to you, whom I have sent to you for this very purpose, that you may know our affairs and that he may comfort your hearts. And we will close our service with verses 23 and 24. You can be seated. Father, I pray that you would open our hearts and minds to what you have here for us. Father, these words are not just simply suggestions. These are commands that you have given Paul to instruct us with. Father, these are necessary instructions. Father, I pray that you would have us all take these things to heart and to know what they mean and what is behind all of these pieces of the armor in which you have supplied us with. Father, I just again ask that you would just speak to our hearts and that I may be faithful to your text here. In Jesus' name, amen. The pastor is really good about opening up the service with an analogy, if you will, of what he's going to be talking about. I don't necessarily do that, but what comes to mind for me is we look in the news today and we see that since October of last year, Israel has been locked in kind of a death struggle here because they are up against an enemy that seeks the destruction of Israel. And Prime Minister Netanyahu has even vowed and said that we cannot back down. We are in a life and death struggle here. The enemy is after us and there is no way that we can end this until the enemy is wiped out, annihilated, eliminated. Okay? Israel has been in a battle, you know, ever since their inception, going back into the book of Genesis. Always, always in trouble and always at war. we too are in a battle. And that battle began for us the moment that we accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior. I titled this This message, the battle is the Lord's, because if you go back, I'm not going to take you there for the sake of time, but if you go back to 1 Samuel chapter 17, and if you're familiar with that chapter, that is the chapter where we see David, we encounter David and Goliath. And if you were to go there, you would see that David is up against this incredible foe standing nearly 10 feet tall. It talks about his spear, I'm sorry, his armor. The armor of Goliath alone weighed 125 pounds. The metal spearhead that was attached to what was called a weaver's beam of a staff weighed 15 pounds. So David is, you know, this little 12 year old runt, shorter than me, up against a foe who seemed invincible. But David did not go out there thinking that, you know, he had some masterful way of of showing his strength in going up against a giant. What he said is the battle is the Lord, so the Lord is going to fight this battle. And that's what we find here in Ephesians. We find that the Lord actually fights the battle. Not only does he fight the battle, but we are also instructed to just stand while he also provides us with all the equipment that we need to do so. So this is all the work of the Lord here, and we need to see this. So we face a bitter enemy here. 1 Peter 5.8 says that, you know, be sober and be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, is out to devour. He's seeking to whom he can devour. That is not a kind thing to say. He is actively coming at us with our death, our destruction in mind. But in Ephesians 6 here, we're going to find out how we can deal with this. So when we opened up the book of Ephesians, we started off with the fact that you have six chapters and it's nicely divided in half. You've got three chapters which are doctrine, very critical teachings, and then you have three chapters that are what I call duty, or your application of what you learned as far as the teaching, applying all these truths. Some people will take it a little bit further, and I like what they do here. They will divide it into three sections. You have the doctrinal part, and then you have the duty part up until verse 10 of chapter 6. So they would divide the first part as doctrine, what they would call wealth, and I like that. The second part, they would have this application part, the duty part, they would call it the walk, which is what we see in Ephesians, the walk. And then this section that we're dealing with here, they would call warfare. And others will take the same three sections and title it, Sit, Walk, and Stand, because we're going to be talking about standing here this morning. So I read part of chapter one, just a slight refresher, because actually you need to read all those three chapters, the first three chapters, to get the richness of what we have in Christ. And we saw that we have the body of Christ, we have all this spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we have our election, the fact that we have a position here in Christ. We discovered how Christ established the church and gave it everything that it needs to be effective. all these wonderful things that we have. And then Paul told us, now in light of all these things, here's how you walk. And he went through this whole walking section and really addressed us as families. He didn't necessarily say, this is what you take out on the street when you're walking and doing your work, even though that comes out of what we do in the home. But he addressed the home. And he said, husbands and wives, as a new creation, this is what God intended, and now that you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you, you can live this way. Then he goes on to children and talks about how children should be now with the power of the Holy Spirit, and then masters and slaves as well. So he addressed this whole household of God, attacking and addressing the family first. We have all these wonderful things, and then we come to chapter or verse 10 here, and it's kind of like a hard smack. It's like, whoa, wait a minute. We were just talking about all these wonderful blessings, and now we're in a bloody war. We are in a battle that we are powerless to win on our own. Paul opens up in verse 10, he says, finally. So with all the instruction that he has given us, as far as how we are to walk, he's actually continuing, this is how you need to walk, okay? It's not just this way in the home, and it's not just this way with the children and masters and slaves, but when you walk your daily life, this is what you're going to encounter, and you have to be aware. He says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord, not in yourselves. He says, be strong in the Lord. There's a battle that's being waged and we're going to see in these verses here that the Lord is going to give us all the equipment as well as all the counsel necessary to go into this battle and be prepared to how to walk through this battle. And we will be guaranteed a victory. In verse 11, he says, So it's God's armor. You have to put it on, however. So just like all of our salvation is of God, God did everything in terms of our salvation, God also does everything in terms of preparing us and equipping us for this battle. So our lives here are subjected to this evil battle that's happening in this world. And we'll continue to kind of flush that out. But while we live here, we need to be fully dependent on God in order to survive this battle. So we put on God's armor and we are strong in Him. So we're dependent on the Lord for victory, and that's actually the message that we had in all the last three chapters that we've been looking at. So when Paul says, put on the armor of God, okay, so now you've all put on the armor of God, does that mean that you're going to go out there and fight? I don't see anywhere in here where Paul tells us to fight, but he tells us to stand several times. In verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. And then he says in verse 14, stand therefore. So, we We are not on the offensive here. Jesus Christ already won the victory at the cross. So having won that victory, he has claimed territory. We now stand and hold this territory. So how do we do that? We put on his armor and we put on all of the armor. It says that you may be able, I'm sorry, put on the whole armor of God. Paul is very, very good here in expressing the completeness, okay? In Acts 20, he always talks about the whole counsel of God. We don't leave any portion of that out. Whenever we share the gospel, we declare everything about God, okay? And Paul tells us here, you need to put on the whole armor of God. You don't leave out any piece because one of those pieces that's missing will leave that particular area vulnerable. So we don't forget to dress with every piece of armor. So how do we hold that ground? Ephesians taught us how to live in the family, and that's going to flow over into the church, and then of course into society. And our walk will declare and display the power of God, and we proclaim Him in that. That's our testimony as we live in this world. But wearing the armor of God, in verse 11 here, tells us that that will enable us to stand against the wiles of the devil. Now, I love looking up a lot of words that we don't use very often. I think it adds some depth to understanding. What does that word, wiles, mean? When was the last time you used the word wiles besides Wile E. Coyote? So, wiles means devious or cunning. We're off to a really good start here. This is what the devil does. This is how he operates. Devious or cunning stratagems. Now, there's another word. What's a stratagem? Okay, let me get to that. Devious or cunning stratagems employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants. Okay, so what's a stratagem? A stratagem is a plan or a scheme to outwit an opponent. So you have the devil who is devious and cunning and is planning every which way and method where he can defeat and destroy us, manipulate us. Okay. A quick look at Ezekiel 28. If you want to turn there for a second, sometimes you wonder, you know, we don't want to give him too much credit, but we do have to understand that he is a very incredible being, the devil. But in Ezekiel 28, reading in verse 12, I'm going to start in the middle of the verse here. You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. I'll stop right there for a minute. Full of wisdom. Here is a highly intelligent being, okay? A lot more intelligent and crafty and smart than we are as human beings. Verse 13, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, the stardust, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold, the workmanship of your timbrels and pipes. was prepared for you on the day that you were created. These timbrels and pipes were the sound of, it would be like our vocal chords. He would sing amazing songs, make incredible music with his voice. 14. You were the anointed cherub who covers. Let me come back to that. You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you, you were on the holy mountain of God, you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones, you were perfect in your ways from the day you were created till iniquity was found in you. Verse 16, by the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within and you sinned. Ezekiel tells us that the devil started off as a cherub, a highly anointed cherub, the anointed cherub. So he was probably one of the highest of all the creatures that God had created. Now, if you go through scripture, you'll encounter cherubim, you'll encounter seraphim, and other angels. But cherubim, whenever you encounter a cherub, you see that there's purpose behind their existence, and that is to guard, to protect, and to proclaim the glory of God. Now, if you want to guard and protect and also proclaim someone, you have to know what it is that you're proclaiming. You have to know who it is that you're guarding. You have to know who it is that you're protecting, right? There was a movie out, Boy, I forgot what it was called now. With Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, and he was supposed to protect her. Well, in order, pardon? The bodyguard, okay. In order to protect her, he had to find out everything about her so that he could protect and guard. Okay, Lucifer is the name that he's given in scripture here, but he was a cherub, the highest anointed cherub, who was to proclaim and guard and protect the glory of God. He knew God, but he took that and he basically, he was a crafty marketer And he used that against God. He took all this knowledge that he had and turned it against God and his people. So by the abundance of your trading, his trade, his craft, was this incredible marketing person. So now when it comes to being crafty and devious and wanting to deceive us, understand that we are up against the greatest marketing genius, if I can say that, that the universe has ever seen. And it is by this, with all that knowledge that he has, that he has perverted, he seeks to devour us, destroy us, to derail us, to actually destroy God's people. And one of the ways that he does this, I mean, so between his wiling and his schemes and deceit, 2 Corinthians 11.14, you can turn there if you want, but it talks about the fact that he can even transform himself as an angel of light, and so can his demon followers. Now that is striking because When I think about that, 20 years ago, I was very heavy into spiritual warfare, and I was kind of cutting my teeth on this for the last couple of decades, if you will. But it all began with a woman in Florida. I was on a forum, a Christian forum that was, you know, apologetics, if you will. And there was a Roman Catholic lady in Florida who asked about the apparitions of Mary. And I replied back saying, well, those are demons. Well, I know that they're demons, but I couldn't exactly tell her how I know that. How can I share with you that they're demons? And there was a full year that we were going back and forth. A lot of research went into that, and she did understand that these apparitions are demonic in nature. you have apparitions of Mary that appear all around the world to different people, and the Roman Catholic Church elevates her. And in these apparitions, the message, we were talking about the message last week, you know, from pastor's notes, but the message that this Mary brings is, I have all the graces sufficient for your salvation. She declares herself as God. And this is a demon or the devil who has transformed himself into an angel of light and deceives millions of people. So we are up against a foe that is just incredible. Another trick of the devil, he doesn't want you to think that he actually exists. Now, why in the world would he want to have you believe that he's not really here? Well, If he's not the one who's behind all the pain and all the suffering and all the sorrow and all the offenses that are directed at me, well then, who is the problem? Well, I'm going to be looking around at everyone who causes me angst, or disagrees with me, or argues with me, or offends me, or causes me pain, and it is not the devil who blinded these people. I'm going to think that it is the people standing in front of me who are harming me. And what does that do to my testimony now? Because these very people who the devil has blinded are the very people who need to hear the gospel. But if I'm thinking that they're the source of all my problems, I am not willing to share the gospel because they don't deserve it. The devil wants to fool you and think that he's not the person behind all this, okay? He wants you to think it's people and you will not spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in doing so because people are your enemy now. So Paul tells us very clearly in verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. That means that these people who cause me all these things, all this agita, are not my problem. They are in need of a savior as much as I was. Paul says we're not wrestling against these people. We wrestle against principalities, powers, rulers of darkness of this age, spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenlies. So we are wrestling against principalities, powers, wicked rulers of darkness. This suggests a hierarchy. There's order in God's creation and Satan mocks everything that God does. He comes out with his own thing. But there is a hierarchy of angels here in Satan's demonic followers. But one thing we need to pick up here So you have these rulers of darkness in this age, and we're also fighting against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. That word hosts is a military term. You better believe we're at war. We are in a war against a militant band of rebellious demonic angels. But one thing that I want you to catch here too, so we're up against these spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now if you go back to chapter 1 verse 3, it talks about we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. And we read some of that, you know, right before the Lord's Supper this morning. So all these spiritual blessings that we think about, oh, well, we have our salvation, we have forgiveness of sins, we have redemption, we have the fact that I was chosen of God, right? All these wonderful things. But what else is one of the spiritual blessings that we have in the heavenlies? We're seated there with Christ in the heavenlies spiritually. We also have the power of the Holy Spirit in us. That is one of the weapons that we have here. So, we have to rely on God and His power to fight these angels in their realm. These demons, if you will. Now, Satan can't be everywhere. We know that he's not omnipresent. Of course, he's not God. A lot of times we'll say, oh, the devil made me do it, or that we feel like we're being attacked by the devil. I highly question if any one of us have ever been tempted by the devil. I think that he has bigger foes or bigger targets than us. But surely, I mean, in Revelation, we talk about the myriads and myriads and myriads of angels. I mean, tens of thousands. It's like the largest number. And that's what's left. We know that Satan, when he fell, marketed himself to a third of those angels and drew a third of the angels down. So we don't know how many angels in total, nor do we know how many demons, but it's far more than we can even number. But we know that, you know, Paul tells us that it's not the person who's standing in front of us who's confronting us. The real enemy is the person who has blinded those people. And we know that that's the devil, the god of this world. So verse 13, he tells us, here's how you do it. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth. Four times between verses 11 and 14, Paul tells us to stand. In verse 11, it's the armor that allows us to stand. Verse 13, it's the armor that allows us to withstand. And in verse 13 again, we have armor so that we can stand wearing it. And 14, we are told to stand therefore. And Paul tells us he starts going into all of these pieces of armor, all these pieces of equipment. You have the belt. You have the breastplate of righteousness. You have the shoes of the gospel of peace. You have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which we're going to tackle just kind of briefly here. But to gird your waist and loins, that's your core. And what a soldier would do is he would have this belt that would tighten everything up and hold his core secure. Every movement that you do stems from your core. That's like the power base right there. And the soldier would also take his long tunic and tuck it up into his belt so that he now has mobility. He's not going to trip and fall while he's clashing or marching. To this belt that he would tighten around his waist, he also kept his sword tethered to it. So you want to have a core that is going to be strengthened here, and this core is truth. Now if you've been with us in our study of Ephesians, you see that Paul has attacked lying and said that the church of God cannot tolerate lying because it has to have truth. So the number one weapon in our arsenal here, in the armor of God, is truth. In John 17, 17, Jesus said, sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. Now this morning it was interesting because Pierre took the Sunday morning Bible study into all these categories of different worldviews. and how they perceive truth or non-truth, if you will. It is very good, very interesting, but the bottom line is all these other views or religions have a worldview that is based not in scripture, but either on themselves or what they're told or what they experience, we have to have a biblical worldview. In other words, everything that we see has to be through the lenses of scripture, okay. And again, so a good example of that is going to be this understanding that the people in front of us are not our foes. They're not our enemies. They need the gospel. That's our biblical worldview. So when we encounter These difficult people, we want to share the gospel rather than take our sword and chop their heads off, right? So that's seeing things with a biblical worldview. We understand that the devil has blinded them. They need a savior. The second piece of equipment here is the breastplate of righteousness. Now your breastplate would protect all your vital organs and it would guard those vital organs, including your heart. So you want to guard and protect your heart. How are you going to do it? You're going to be clothing yourself with the righteousness of God. In chapter 4 of Ephesians, verses 20 through 24, you can go back there when you have a minute, but it talks about the fact that having been justified now, our justification through Jesus Christ, we are to put off the old man and put on the new man, and this new man is a new creation. That means we have been re-created now in Christ in righteousness and holiness. And we are told to put this on, put on the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are accepted. I read that right before the Lord's Supper, but in chapter one, it talks about the fact that we are accepted before God. By being in Christ, we are accepted in the beloved through Jesus Christ. We are not condemned. We can stand boldly before God, and this is a result of wearing the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is only how we can do that. In Romans 8, there's a lot of information in your notes. We're skimming them, but if you want to turn to Romans chapter 8 pretty quick here, Romans 8 beginning in verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? What does that sound familiar? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for all of us, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Now verse 33, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Who can bring a charge against us? We're worrying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Who can bring a charge against us? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are all killed all day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Verse 38, for I am persuaded, I'm sure you've heard this, for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So we are clothed in the righteousness of God and that guards our hearts and keeps us safe from the devil's tactics. Shoes. And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Now there's a word you use every day, shod. When was the last time you shod your feet? I looked it up and it means to shoe. So put on your shoes. It means put the shoes on your feet. Shoe your feet. So you're going to shoe your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You need to arm yourself and be prepared with the gospel message. You know what the gospel message is. It's Christ died in our place. is pretty, it's rather simple, but we also have a testimony of a changed life that goes with it. We are to take our shooed feet and take that gospel message out to those people that we thought we were wrestling with, or were wrestling with us. We are to take that gospel message out. Now, these shoes, by the way, that the Roman soldiers would wear were leather shoes, and they would wrap around your ankles, and it'd be very tight and very secure. But also, now, on the bottom, the soles were either nails or some kind of cleats, or spikes, if you will. Reason being, when you're in a battle, You don't want to be pushed or slide backwards or slip and fall on your face while your foe is on top of your back. Those cleats, just like a football player knows and understands, will keep you grounded and you're almost immovable. So we are to prepare ourselves with this gospel of peace And we learned earlier that Jesus is our peace and he gives us peace, he established peace. So we need to have this gospel message ready and prepared for those who would be our foes, our adversaries. But the gospel message is critical because In the Men's and Women's Fellowship, I think the women looked at this book first. It's called The Gospel Primer. And then the men did what the women did. We looked at this book called The Gospel Primer. And really everything that we have, all these spiritual blessings that we have, are all based on this gospel. And this book would explain to us over and over that we need to continually be preaching the gospel to ourselves. It's not just a one-time message. It's a confidence builder that we take with us and everything that we have is based on that gospel. So we need to understand that and we need to be prepared and take that out. Isaiah 52, 7 is a parallel passage to Romans chapter 10. If you want to turn there real quick. I've been there before, but in Romans 10, If you go to verses 14 through 17, it says, You're all preachers, by the way. How beautiful are the feet! of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. And I've said this before, I know I've said it up here, but if you want to have good looking feet, bring the gospel with you, okay? The next thing that we have in verse 16 is the shield of faith. The devil can't do anything against this shield. Now this shield would be like a full body shield. I think it was like four feet tall. Pierre is fantastic with all these armor pieces, but the shield was about four feet tall and it was curved and I've read a number of different ways it could be laminated plywoods and then linen and leather, all kinds of, you know, the composition was such that If a dart or an arrow which was dipped in pitch and lit on fire was shot at them, it would hit the shield and it would kind of self-extinguish. But it was also curved and when you had the Roman army all lined up, you know, the foot soldiers, they can all have their shields in front of them, and it's essentially like a wall coming at you. And then the people from the second and third rows back would take their shields and hold it over their heads, so any darts or arrows or spears coming in from above, they'd be protected in front and on top. Very large shields, so you couldn't penetrate that. So this is the shield of faith, You gotta ask yourself, it's kind of a simple question or a silly question, what is faith? Faith is simply believing and trusting everything that God has said. I can believe that I'm standing on a podium here, but I also have to trust that it's gonna hold my weight. Not like I'm a big, large player here, but you have to have knowledge of something, you have to believe it, but then you have to be dependent on that. You have to trust in it. That's what our faith is. Our faith is in Jesus Christ. Next piece of armor that we encounter is verse 17, the helmet, the helmet of salvation. You had a metal helmet that had some kind of a soft fabric lining that would kind of soften the heaviness of this metal helmet. And it was very strong. It would take either an axe or a hammer to penetrate this helmet. But we first see the Helmet of Salvation in Isaiah chapter 59, verse 7. And when you read it, it says, He, and if you have like the New King James, you know, it takes these personal pronouns, and if it's talking about deity or God here, It's going to capitalize the word he, the H in the word he. So you see in Isaiah 59 verse 17 that the God is putting on righteousness, a sustaining righteousness, by the way, as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. So Isaiah tells us what God did. We get to Ephesians here and we see what God gives us. He gives us every piece of equipment here. We simply put it on. The armor is His. The salvation is His. It's all His. And this helmet of salvation gives us confidence. I don't know if I'd want to be on a football field without a helmet. But if you wear a helmet, you have a lot of confidence out there in the game. So you want to put on this helmet of salvation. And it makes us bold, OK? It's going to give us confidence. And we'll be bold in the victory here. We'll be bold in his salvation. We're going to be bold in his peace. in the gospel declaration, we're going to be bold in his righteousness, and we're going to be bold in his truth. So we are going to share the entire counsel of God. Next piece of equipment still in verse 17 is the sword, the sword of the Spirit. So up until now, every piece of armor we've seen is a defensive piece. Now the sword can also be used as a defensive piece, but it's also an offensive weapon. The sword is double-edged when you turn to Revelation in chapter 1. John gives us this vision of the risen Jesus Christ. And in verse 16, he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp two-edged sword. When you get to Revelation 19, verse 15, we see that the sword is wielded against God's enemies and the enemies of God's people. And in 2 Peter 1, verse 20, Peter tells us that the word of God came through his Holy Spirit moving in men. Scripture, the word of God came through his Holy Spirit. So we have the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Even Jesus wielded the word of God when he was tempted in the gospels by the devil. Three times Jesus quoted scripture. He repeated the word of God and the devil fled. So the Word of God is our defense. It's our defensive weapon, but we also wield it offensively. We stand on it. We stand behind it. Isn't that what we sung this morning? Standing on the promises. We have to know the Word of God. We have to study it, and we have to believe it, and we have to trust and be dependent on it. Psalm 1-3 tells us to meditate on the Word of God. You know what the world tells us about meditation? I know I've shared this before. They say, oh, clear your mind. Get rid of everything that's in your mind and meditate. If you're clear in your mind, I guarantee you, somebody's going to fill it, and that's going to be our adversary. He's going to fill that empty void between your ears. Psalm 1-3 tells us how to meditate. You meditate on the Word of God. So you meditate on His Word. You fill your mind with His Word. That's what we have to do. So we have to meditate on it, and we have to know it, and we have to believe it. And then we're going to use it, too. Verse 18. So now we're all dressed for battle. Paul brings one more thing to mind, and I think Maia did a wonderful job here on your bulletin. I don't have my copy in front, but she put right front and center on the top portion there the next thing that we have to have besides all of our equipment, and that is prayer. The power of prayer. Prayer is to be used regarding every piece of armor that we put on. And we have to understand that prayer is an expression of our complete dependence on God. So when we pray to God, we are trusting in his protection, as well as the fact that he's going to be there providing us with everything that we need to withstand this adversary. So we're to pray always. How do you pray always? I mean, you're not praying right now, are you? You're not praying while you're eating your sandwiches for lunch, but this praying always is more of a mindset and a heart attitude so that we're constantly giving glory to God. That's what this prayer is. And so it's more of an attitude and it's the walk that we have where our hearts are always joyful to God. We're praying with all the requests being made known to, supplication, which is an earnest ask, an earnest asking. And so when we pray, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints, how do we pray then? Well, Paul tells us how he would have us pray for him in verse 19. So pray for me. that utterance may be given to me." You know, verse 20 says, I'm an ambassador in chains. And Paul says, pray for me that I may get out of these chains. No. He's not even concerned about his own predicament here. He's in jail for being an ambassador for Jesus Christ, for sharing the whole counsel of God to the people who need it, to the people who beat him. I mean, when you read the book of Acts and see what Paul had to endure, it's amazing, but he always presented the gospel to them. So Paul says, Out of all these things, praying for everyone constantly, here's how you can pray for me. Pray for me that I can be bold in my declaration of the glory of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That I may open my mouth boldly to make known He would put up a podium and a loudspeaker out here in the parking lot and just make it known. That I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. That in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Do you pray for people in the church? Do you pray that we can be bold in our declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ? We get to verse 21 and Paul would dictate letters and they would be written by somebody but then here in verse 21 you can see that he grabbed a pencil himself and wrote, but that you may also know my affairs and how I'm doing. Titius, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make things known to you. Titius, was sent by Paul with this letter to the Ephesians, probably the letter to the Colossians, and there's a letter that is mentioned in Colossians that talks about another letter possibly to Laodicea. All these letters were probably taken by Paul's brother in here, his brother in Christ. These letters were taken to these churches. And he also said that Titius would make known for you all my affairs, everything that I'm, you know, just so you know I'm okay. Titius is going to share all these things with you so that he may comfort your hearts. It's wonderful, wonderful how we have a brother in Christ here to Paul, who's going to share Paul's predicament, but also the fact that he's just glorying in Jesus Christ. And he's giving all this encouragement to us and all this instruction to us so that we can be prepared in our lives here, in our walk, knowing that we have an adversary, but we also have people who the devil would have us not share the gospel with, but we know that we need to. I'm going to close there and our benediction will actually be verses 23 and 24. So let's open or let's close with the word of prayer here. Father, I pray that you would open our mouths boldly With the glory of your son, Jesus Christ, Father, I pray that you would give us the strength and power, Lord, that we would also be dependent on your strength and your power to live in this world which is ruled by the spirits of darkness. Father, we know that we have a noble, not a noble, but we have a huge adversary, Lord, who seeks to devour us. and wants to throw seeds of discord in the church and break up the unity, to have the church battle one another, to cause divisions and strife. Lord, we've seen it. We've seen it here at Bethel Baptist and other churches have seen it. We've seen how pastors have been taken down from temptations and all kinds of things. Father, we pray that we would be dependent on your strength and on your power so that we can withstand the schemes of the devil. Father, I pray that we would also share, that we would also share the gospel of your son, Jesus Christ, to those who we believe to be threatening us, because that's not our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are in need of the gospel. So Father, make us ambassadors of Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that you would cause us all to stand on your promises and in your strength, in Jesus name, amen.