All right, welcome to church, everybody. Welcome to the midweek pit stop. And before I jump right into my sermon, I want to welcome all the guests here today. A little hot in the mic. Thank you. I want to welcome all the guests here. If this is your first time visiting today, which I'm looking around, and I think everybody here is a regular, but if it's your first time here today, or if you haven't filled one out before, grab a connection card from the seat back in front of you. Fill it out and get to me by the end of the service. That would be great. And you also can use those connection cards for prayer requests. So if you have a prayer request, fill it out. You also can get that to me as well, and I'll make sure it gets to the pastor. He specifically uses those cards for membership to make sure that you specifically are prayed for, so that's always a good route to go. And then, of course, we have our prayer time at the end of the service. So still a little hot on the lapel mic, just a little bit. And then before we begin, we got two things to cover. One, hi, Trent. Hey. How you doing, brother? It's glad to have you. All right, everybody ready to sing one more song? We're going to sing happy birthday to Miss Emma. Are we ready? 1, 2, 3. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Emma. Happy birthday to you. Emma, thank you for being with us. We love having you here. Everybody round of applause for Emma's birthday. All right, let's go ahead and open up in prayer, everybody, and we'll get rockin' and rollin'. My sermon is only two hours tonight. Oof, good, good, there we go. All right, Father, thank you so much for this time together. I pray, Lord, that you bless this time together as a church. Lord, help us to feel renewed and filled up to attack the rest of the week, Lord God, to be spiritually filled with something only your word can do, and that is a complete washing, Lord. Thank you for this time together. I pray you bless the youth of Pastor Scottie, Lord God. I thank you for the great things you've done for our church, and even more beyond what we can imagine. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, good evening, everybody. As we get ready to wrap up the book of 1 Peter, I know what you're thinking. We haven't seen this guy preach before. This is my first time on the rotation, so it's my first time, and it might be my last time on the rotation, because Pastor Scottie is returning soon to the pulpit. So we are scheduled out through the end of June per second, Peter, though. So if that does continue, that may be what happens, but we have been texting today with Pastor. He doesn't have any plans to share yet, but the discussions about when he will return to the pulpit here on Wednesday nights are happening right now. So if you could turn to 1 Peter chapter five, We will get started tonight starting in verse 7, 1 Peter 5, verse 7. And as I prepared for this message, Brother Aaron, I completely in agreement with you. You were cut short, my friend. You were cut short in such a way that my sermon doesn't really cover verse 7. It goes straight to verse 8. But we'll talk about verse 7 briefly. So tonight we're going to be focusing on four major topics when it comes to verses 7 through 14, and we're going to be spending most of our time on verses 8 through 11 tonight, verses 8 through 11. Verses 12, 13, and 14 do not lack importance in terms of the Word of God. There's quite a few nuggets tucked away in verses 12 through 14, but it is a semi-standard closing of one of the epistles, so we'll be focusing mostly on verses 8 through 11 tonight. Please pray for me. This is my first time in the pulpit in probably about three or four months. In fact, the last time I preached, was with you, Brother Holt, when we were merging churches. So, it's been a little while. So, just please pray for me. Pray that I have wisdom and that the Lord will keep my words where they need to be. I'm already blessed because we have a good attendance for a Wednesday night. So, just pray for me that I have wisdom. So, let's go ahead and read the scripture. Pray one more time, and then we'll get going. Starting in verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, or mature, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluted you, and so doth Marcus, my son, greet you one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus, amen. Father, thank you for this time to preach your word once more. I come to you in prayer as we start. Give me your wisdom, Lord God, and take the words right out of my mouth that are not from the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. So what we're going to focus on is we're going to jump straight into it, and I want to start right in verse 8. I have a little bit about verse 7, but I want to jump right into verse 8. That is where my sermon begins. And it's a follow-on imperative to what verse 7 says, casting all your cares upon him, for he careth for you. We'll follow up more with verse 7 as we continue this sermon, because it pairs really well with submitting yourself unto God and resisting the devil, which is detailed out in the book of James, and we'll talk about that later on in the message tonight. But starting in verse 8 and going on through 11, we see some major themes that I want to cover, and that is the devil, his schemes, and who he is, our command to resist the devil, and that the Lord will confirm you and will establish you. And then, of course, we have the closing of the letter. As I preach to you today, I consider it a great privilege to be here before you. One of my passions is teaching the Word of God, and one of my greater passions is discipleship of the saints. I love to teach the Bible. I love to help others grow in the Lord. And one of the things I always have to preface everything that I teach with is a very, very important concept, and that is context is king. Context is king. Always understand the context of the scripture that you are reading or being taught. Open up that Bible, look at the surrounding verses, and determine if what you are being taught is true. This is testified of our brothers and sisters from the Bereans in Acts 17 and 11. They received the word with all readiness of mind, but they searched the scriptures daily to prove whether those things be so. Always, always be aware of the context and always check out whoever is teaching you anything in the Bible to ensure that it is correct. I like to give the benefit of the doubt and say that most people aren't leading you astray, but sometimes, sometimes folks are in error in what they were preaching or teaching. And this lines up directly with some of the things that we're going to be talking about later on in the sermon. I find it wonderful that I'm able to close out the book of 1 Peter with everyone tonight. I find it to be just a great passage that I've been assigned, and I am greatly appreciative of Brother Luke who's been managing the schedule the whole time the pastor's been out teaching the youth. And if we do get to go into 2 Peter, I'm super excited about the scriptures that I've been assigned in 2 Peter. I get the passage all about false teachers and how crazy they are. So I hope we get to go into 2 Peter. I think that'd be wonderful. But if we don't, that's okay. And what I want to do is spend a little bit of time, before we go directly into the scripture, and step back a little bit and just look at an overview of Peter, the book of Peter, the epistle, and the actual person of Peter, and you will see how this lines up with the importance of these verses. It talks about the state in which we must be and how we must resist the devil. And I'm going to link that to some scriptures and how we do that through most of this message. And then it talks about how the Lord will establish us. And I think it's very important that you understand who is writing this particular passage. Let's take a moment and pause and talk about who is writing this book. It is the Word of God, the Lord wrote it, it's inspired scripture, but he selected a specific person to write this scripture, and sometimes we make the mistake of looking at a passage in the Bible, looking at a book of the Bible, and we divorce who wrote it, the circumstances in which they wrote it, and therefore we lose a little bit of focus on the camera shot of that particular passage of scripture, and we lose a little bit of the context. So in speaking about Peter, I want us to spend a little bit of time talking about the most conspicuous Christian I think that ever existed next to Paul. He's one of the most infamous Christians that we have that's part of the church, I think aside from Paul. I want to highlight something that's very, very interesting about Peter, and I want you to take this in context with these passages coming up. As we talk about resisting the devil, as we talk about how we have to be patient and wait, and how we have to remember that there are other Christians who are joining us in our suffering, I want you to remember and keep in mind who it is that wrote this and some of the things that he went through. Peter is a very unique character because you get to see two stages of Peter's life, and he has a double name, Simon Peter, which is very interesting. You get to see Peter and his engagement in ministry with the Messiah, with the Anointed One, before the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and you get to see Peter and how he acts after the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It's a very interesting way to approach the Gospels. And we all should cut Brother Peter some slack for every mishap he had before he was indwelled with the Holy Spirit. Because anything that he did is incredible, and Christ testifies to that when he says, this is only revealed from the Father that you could confess that I was the Christ. That he was able to do that without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And of course, that's a whole other topic, the indwelling and the resting of the Holy Spirit. The resting of the Holy Spirit was something that happened in the Old Testament, but now we are indwelled, we are sealed forever. So keep that in mind as we move forward with the message tonight, that Peter, we're able to see his pre-regenerated life and how he worked, and we're able to see his post-regenerated life and how he worked. And let me tell you, there are successes and failures in both. And I think it's very important to understand that when we read a passage, when someone preaches to you about how you need to resist the devil, how you need to stand firm, how you need to hang in there, I think it's important to remember It's important to remember that we have successes and failures even though we are involved with the Holy Spirit. Some examples of this from Peter's life. You have the great confession at Caesarea Philippi where he declared that Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God, Matthew 15, 13-20 and Mark 8, 27-30. In Matthew, on the heels of probably one of the greatest confessions in the Bible, he's condemned by Christ and rebuked for being under the influence of Satan. Peter, he defied the laws of reality and walked on water. Yet in that same story, he sunk downward because he took his eyes off Christ in Matthew 14, 22 through 33. Peter, he was a witness to Christ's glory at the transfiguration. And this is a major theme throughout these two books. If you look right here, where it says in chapter 5, verse 1, and also, a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed, that's referring to the transfiguration that he witnessed. And then also, in 2 Peter, when speaking about the importance of prophecy in the Word of God, he says that prophecy in the Word of God is greater than witnessing the transfiguration. He saw one of the greatest things possibly that any human ever could have seen. I'd even say it's greater than the crucifixion, greater than the resurrection, the transfiguration of Christ, him in his glory. He saw it, Isaiah saw it, a handful of other prophets saw it, very few people saw it. Yet, witnessing Christ in his glory, he denied even knowing him during his trials. Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22, and John 18. He preached a sermon that saw 3,000 converts. He was given a vision to release or preach the gospel to the Gentiles. And he was a key speaker at the Council of Jerusalem, which established the Gentiles as part of the church and removed the burden formally of keeping the law, Acts 2 and Acts 15. But then in Galatians 2, Paul details about how he called him out as a hypocrite for treating the Gentiles differently and behaving differently in front of the Gentiles than he did in front of his Jewish brothers. I share all this to show you that Peter is our brother, and he's writing you a letter to encourage you. He's writing you to stand firm against the devil and has the testimony of great success in ministry and great failure in ministry, which all of us have. And if you haven't had it yet, you will have it. So as we go to the scripture, keep that in mind that Peter, although is, I think, sometimes ragged on pretty hard, Thomas is ragged on pretty hard, David is ragged on pretty hard, all of these great men of faith still cry out to you through the scripture to hang in there and to resist the devil and the Lord will establish you. So let's jump in and let's read verse eight again. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. I think it's very important to know your enemy. That's being borrowed from a non-inspired text. It's a common phrase, know thy enemy. Nothing wrong with that statement, it's true, but to know your enemy. And that's kind of my sub-points for this particular part of my sermon today, and that is to recognize who he is or who they are, to recognize the goals of Satan, And then I deleted the other R because, well, it didn't make any sense when I was writing the sermon, so we've got two R's tonight. So recognize the goals and recognize who he is. This particular description of the devil and his minions, which, by the way, the devil is this individual created being. And I'm a big believer in making sure you position yourself correctly under the truth of the word of God. It's likely the devil himself is not tempting you. It's likely it's your flesh. And it's likely it's one of his many minions that's tempting you. So, the Bible is very correct when it says devils throughout the whole scripture. Devils. Because it's likely not him himself. He's not that powerful. He's very powerful, but he's not that powerful. But it says that he is a roaring lion walking about seeking who he may devour. In a very brief overview study of the devil, I came across 27 different titles referring directly to him and his creatures or the minions that are underneath him. I'm not going to list all of those today, but some of these you're probably very familiar with. The devil is referred to as the accuser, the tempter, the prince of the power of the air, the accuser of the brethren. He stands before the throne of God day and night, accusing us to our advocate, who puts him down no problem. The evil one. The minions that are underneath his control, willingly or unwillingly, we don't really know, are referred to as evil spirits, as demons, and as devils. They are real beings, they exist, and they are the true enemy. And as we continue this particular message, I'm gonna highlight that when we take a look over at Ephesians 6 here in a few minutes. You need to recognize the goals that they have. He walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Along with these titles that I read to you before, there's one specific title that really, really is one that you can hold onto to help you in your spiritual combat. and that is the thief, the thief. John chapter 10 is where Christ is talking about how he is the great shepherd. And in this particular time, this particular example that Christ gives, he refers to the enemy as the thief. John 10.10, the thief cometh not but to steal, to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. You're given three specific things that the devil comes to do, And it's very important that we identify these three things as we are told in verse 8 to resist him, or verse 9, we are told to resist him, and also in James, we're told to resist him. So it's good to know his objectives, it's good to know his goals. He is here to steal, to kill, and to destroy. What does he steal? What does he steal? Brothers and sisters, sit down and just hold on to your seats for a little bit, because I'm going to talk about some stuff that can fix me and can fix you, I'm sure it will. What does he steal? He steals resources. The devil steals resources. He steals health. He steals health. Keep that in mind. One thing that's very, very important in this world where they're always quick to say, how could a God? How could a God allow this? How could a God do that? God has nothing to do with it. It's the devil doing it. It's not God. Keep that in mind. That was one of the best, very simple apologetics to that argument. How could a God allow an orphan XYZ? How could a God allow blah, blah, blah? It's the devil who's doing it. Right now, scripture says that this is the devil's time. It is his authority right now. It's the devil who's doing it. One day we'll stand and look at him and say, is this the man who made the nations tremble? We will look at him and say that one day. I think it says man, I can't remember. Is this the one who made the nations tremble? It's the devil that's doing it. He steals your health. This is detailed in the book of Job. What was one of the things that he did? When God was using Job as an example of a righteous person, the second stage of trials was for the devil to steal Job's health. He steals your money. The devil steals your money. And I'm speaking about money specifically because this is one that is very difficult to master. It is one that is specifically called out by Christ about you cannot serve God and you cannot serve Mammon, the God of money. You cannot serve those two things. I'm specifically talking about him stealing money from you as part of the resources group because it is one of the tools we've been given that can be used to serve and accomplish great things for the kingdom. And by the way, providing for your family is a great thing for the kingdom. I'm not talking about just like giving a ton of money to church or propping up ministry. Faithfully providing for your family is a wonderful way to advance the kingdom. But I digress. He steals money through irresponsible spending, through a lack of budgeting, and through covetousness. get a mastery of your money. It will be a great blessing to you. It is one of those things that God puts before you and says, be a good steward of this. And he gives you the tools throughout the Bible, and he will give you tools and other resources to master your money, and you will find peace in your life by being responsible for something that God has already given you to be responsible over. I will specifically say right now, I encourage everyone, get out of debt. get out of debt, do what it takes, sell what you need to sell, stop spending, and get out of debt, and you will find that peace that Christ promises you. Now, can you have peace while you're in the midst of debt? Absolutely, you have to, to be able to get out of debt. But it's almost like Christ will give you that peace, and I'm a big believer in this, Christ will give you the peace, he will give you a comfort, and then he'll give you the next step, and usually that involves work. Usually that involves work. Use the resources that you have, especially when it comes to money. Don't let the devil steal it from you. And seek the wisdom of God from the Proverbs. The Proverbs are very clear about how we should handle our money. And then also seek the wisdom of those throughout the church who can help you, who will come walk alongside you and will help you get through this. They can counsel, they can give you resources, the whole nine yards. Specifically, come talk to my wife and I. We've made a big thing of that, being debt-free. We'd love to help you. Dave Ramsey. All right, so moving forward, what is the other thing that he steals? This is the biggest one that I saved for last, and this is the one that is the most convicting to me by far. He steals your time. He steals your time. What is the one resource that is not flexible, that you cannot get back, and it doesn't matter, you did what you did with that one resource, and now it's gone. He steals your time. Boy, he loves stealing that one. He loves it. And keep in mind, when it comes to the devil, this is not in my notes, stealing time, he wants that way more than stealing your health. He wants that way more than stealing your money. He wants that way more than stealing your friends. And that's not even on my list, but anything the devil steals, he wants your time. Because the road to hell is a soft, slow path that is soft underfoot, with no quick turns, no sharp right to the left, no sudden movements. It is a slow path of time." And that's C.S. Lewis. I didn't write that myself. So that was a wonderful thing in the Screwtape Letters. You should check that book out. It's great. But it is very true. That is the path he wants you on. And one of the best ways to do that is to steal time. Moving on, what else does he steal? He steals truth. He steals truth. And before I go any further on the theft of truth, I want to confirm that this is absolutely scriptural. Matthew 13, one through 23, specifically verses four and 19, the parable of the sower. What happened? The seed was sown and the birds of the air came and plucked up the seed. That was the truth of the word of God. He steals the truth. If you allow him to do it, how does he do it? How does he steal the truth? He steals the truth through false teaching He steals truth through poor Bible study habits, he steals truth through lazy Christians, and he steals truth by you clinging on to something that you believe to be true, but you didn't search it out yourself, you didn't challenge it yourself through scripture, and you didn't confirm it to be the truth. And I'm pointing that finger directly at all of us who listen to teachers throughout our whole life, we build our lives around these teachings, and then one day you discover that wasn't actually scriptural. Search it up, look it up. Everything I say today, look it up, search it out. If you sit in a service and you only receive and don't follow up with searching it out, you have failed the test. Search it out, find it out. Receive it with a readiness of mind and then search the scriptures daily to prove whether those are so. If God gives you a twinge that something doesn't sound right, even tonight, go home and search it out. If God gives you a twinge that something doesn't sound right when Pastor Scottie's preaching, go home, search it out. Pastor Scotty and the rest of the men here work very hard to make sure that we're truthful, but we make mistakes. And that's the Holy Spirit telling you to go search it out. And if you do find that it's true, then you just have reinforced that teaching even more in your life, and that's a good thing. Search the Scriptures for yourself. I kind of emphasized that enough. Read your Bible. And I can tell you right now, pray that God will help you read the Bible. Pray that he will help you read the Bible. Pray that he will give you the desire to seek after truth. Ask God to do that, and he will do it. What is the next thing that the devil steals? He steals blessings. He steals blessings. A lot of things I've listed tonight are kind of related, but there's a specific flair that I wanted to give to each of them. And stealing blessings, this is one that's near and dear to my heart that I received from a mentor of mine that I think would be very helpful to everyone here tonight. And for those who have heard me preach a couple times, which I think is most of you. My main goal when I come to teach is to leave you encouraged. I'll have a couple things where I'll specifically exhort and call out, and I just did a couple of them, but for the most part, I like to leave you encouraged, I like to leave you built up. And this one particular thing I'm gonna cover right now was a huge, huge blessing in my life, and it's something I want you to really listen to very carefully. James 1, verse 17, let's run over there really quick. James 1, verse 17, when it comes to the devil stealing blessings. Keep in mind, in context of Scripture, we're talking about the devil, how he's a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Remember that we visited John 10, where he's referred to as the thief, who wants to steal, kill, and destroy. So jogging over to James. If you're in Awana, you know Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 1, 2, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation. Wonderful. Thank you, my wife. Okay. Search it out. I did thoroughly make sure this was in context, but search it out. 117, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. If you ever hear me, shadow of change, or any of those switcheroos like that, you will know that I was once ESV positive, so you know, I kind of have some memorization a little bit backwards, but hey, I'm the King James, that's what matters, right? So, no shadow of change, I think is what it was when I memorized it when I was a kid, but anywho. He steals blessings, and what's the point of this? The point of me bringing this up is that the devil doesn't create, the devil doesn't orchestrate in a good, positive way. He doesn't set things in order, and he definitely does not give you good things or blessings. If you have a good thing in your life, he wants to take it from you. And I do believe this to be true. If you have something that's good, that is not wicked or not evil, it is pure, it is of good rapport, remember from Philippians? He wants to steal it from you in a way that's very sneaky. He wants to try to convince you that that particular good thing is idolatry. He wants to convince you that thing that you love, that God gave you, is idolatry. He wants you to feel guilty about it. I was in college, I was really into weightlifting. I was in the best shape of my life, Trent. And I've gained some weight since you were here last time. But hey, you'll be a dad someday. And working out was a major thing for me. And actually, I've got a big praise report. I've really got my shoulder fixed. None of you really knew about that except for my wife, but that's a huge praise report right now. Herosity, they're great. But anyway, I used to love working out. I used to work out twice a day. I probably put in three to four hours a day in the gym. I absolutely loved it. It was awesome. And I went to my spiritual mentor at that time and I said to him, I need to be careful with working out in the gym because it's becoming an idol in my life. And he rebuked me. He said, no, you don't. He said, did the devil cause you to work out? Did the devil teach you how to take good care of your body? Did the devil give you that joy? And I said, no. He said, Christ gave you that joy. Christ gave you that ability. He said, take Christ with you when you go to the gym and praise him and pray to him while you're engaging in that hobby because he's the only one that gives good things. He's the only one that gives good things. And that had a huge impact on my life. It helps you sort through a lot of the things you occupy your time with, which is what we just said about the devil steals your time. He would rather have you sit there and be worried about being an idolater than to go enjoy the good thing that God gave you. He would rather have you do that. He does not care whether you collect stamps, or whether you play cards, or whether you play music, or whether you spend time with your friends. He wants you to waste your time doing nothing. Because God gives you friends, God gives you hobbies, God gives you talents. Now the best part is when you take those talents and you work them for the gospel. That's the best part. That's the absolute best part. For me with my guitar playing, boy, I never got better at guitar until I started doing specials for church. Taking that hobby and plugging it into church was a wonderful thing for me, and my skills improved, and I play for the Lord, and it's a wonderful thing. So the devil comes to steal your resources, to steal truth, and to steal blessings, and I'm sure there's a lot more things he tries to steal. And I'm sure you could write some really good teachings off of just going through that list of knowing your enemy. He comes to kill. He comes to kill. What does he kill? Well, there's really only two things that he kills. He kills people, and he kills God's creation. He kills people when he kills God's creation. Let's start with the easy one first, God's creation. Because people typically die as a result of the destruction caused throughout creation. And this really is just an appendix to what I was saying before about folks that get so concerned about God allowing a hurricane to happen and killing so many people in some other place. It's the devil that does that. It's the devil that does that. It's his time right now. His time's coming to an end now. Unfortunately, right now the devil does have the power and he is given the authority sometimes to kill people. This is testified in the book of Job. Boy, man, read the book of Job. The devil was ruthless. As soon as Job was allowed to be tested, what's one of the first things that he did? Job wiped out all of his family, except for his wife, and he killed all of his workers, his employees, people he probably was friends with. One of the first things that happened was, and I spelled Abel wrong, I spelled it A-B-L-E, He had Cain tempted to kill his own brother. That's unbelievable, being a father of two sons. Did you know I had a second son, Trent? We've got two boys now. Yeah, George and Harvey. So that's mind-blowing to me. And then the nation of Israel to kill the prophets, yikes. And then Judas to betray and ultimately have Jesus killed. Unbelievable. John 8, 44, the devil was a murderer from the beginning. And then finally, the thing that he murdered that was the greatest murder of all, aside from Christ, is that he murdered mankind. He murdered Adam through sin. That's what he comes to kill. And he tries every day to do it. He tries every day to do it. And then what does he destroy? The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. What does he destroy? What's different from killing and destroying? To the best of my knowledge, when I was doing some research, killing is more of an individual focus. It's kind of what I was coming to a conclusion of. It's a little ambiguous. It's kind of like one of those words that I felt like was an emphasis on what he was doing. You know how the Bible sometimes uses words that are similar to emphasize? But I did think about destruction versus killing. Into the conclusion, through the Holy Spirit, I hope that destruction typically has to do with units, with groups, destruction. So what does he come to destroy? He destroys families and friends. He destroys families and friends. What else does he come to destroy? He comes to destroy churches. He comes to destroy churches. And specifically, let's jump over to Galatians chapter five really quick to talk about the destruction of families and friends. Galatians chapter five. Anybody here know General Electric Power Company? Did anybody learn that? Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians? All right, got a couple hands, I love it, yeah. Is that like a northeastern thing, Brother John, General Electric Power Company? Yeah, like knowing that acronym for those books of the Bible, it's more of a Northeastern thing? No? It's not? Okay, anyway. Galatians, let's go to Galatians chapter 5. This is one that really helped my marriage a lot, and my wife can testify to this, as a wonderful coaching opportunity for you and your wife, and for your wife and your husband. Let's read verse 13. Chapter 5 of Galatians, verse 13. For brethren, you have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. for all the laws fulfilled in one word. Even this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. And here is the verse that really advanced our marriage and our relationship. And she probably remembers when this happened. We were reading at the kitchen table in our house. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. Wow. I thought this was an incredible verse, especially for close relationships, because if you are not using your liberty properly, if you are not loving your neighbor as you should, as you love yourself, if you are not fulfilling the whole law through love for your neighbor, through love for your church, through church members, if you hold unforgiveness in your heart towards others, you are biting and devouring one another, and you will consume your own self. And this could walk into something that I don't have in my notes, but this could walk into the battle of the flesh. We have to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. And the flesh does so much work all on its own. It truly does. The devil just kind of gives you that little push. The devils do. They give you that little push. Maybe they don't even do that. I'm convinced that the flesh does a whole lot of his work. And it's unfortunate that we have to battle with that, but the Lord knows that struggle. He's been tempted in all things as we have been tempted. And that really blew my mind that whenever I'm standing on my own opinion, whenever I want to be right, especially in my marriage, whenever I feel like I'm the person that has all the answers and I'm mistreating other people, I am consuming them and consuming myself with my own opinion, with my own preferences. And when you consume yourself, you just become nothing. And the devil didn't even really do anything. He just tempted you, maybe. And then another thing that he does is he destroys churches. And this one was really quite mind-blowing to me. For those that are in still Sunday school class, you'll remember that I taught a couple weeks ago about the devotional method. And I discovered this while I was studying 2 Corinthians. And it was one of those things where you've read this book several times throughout your life, and then you read it again, and you're like, wow, I didn't even know that was in there. But did you know that unforgiveness specifically is the foothold that the devil uses to destroy churches? And it's explicitly laid out in 2 Corinthians. Did you know that? Unforgiveness? It's not just a message on unforgiveness. You should be forgiving. Go to your brother tonight and forgive them. And that's a great thing. That's a great call to the altar. But in terms of strategy, in terms of knowing what he's going to destroy, Unforgiveness. Let's look at verse 5 of 2 Corinthians chapter 2. If I didn't tell you to turn there, I apologize. Go ahead and turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 2. I apologize for the allergenic coughing here. If you've ever heard one of my sermons, you know it's a good one that I really like a lot when I got you going through a lot of scripture because I'm terrible at illustrations. And I'd like you to exercise your Bibles a little bit. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 2. Verses 5 through 11. Let's just go through this whole passage. We've got time, we're doing good. Starting in verse 5, now keep in mind, for context, the first Corinthian letter is known as the harsh letter, where Paul sent a letter to the Corinthian church correcting them for many things. The second Corinthian letter is a follow-up on that, and Paul talks a lot about restoration, and he talks a lot about wishing he wouldn't have been harsh, because he felt bad and just wanted to love on them instead of being harsh, but being harsh was necessary. So we're talking about the restoration of one of the members of the Corinthian church that was causing issues. Starting in verse five, but if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part that I might not overcharge you all, sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrary wise, you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him, the one they're forgiving. I lost my spot, verse nine. For to this end also did I write that I might know the proof of you, whether you be obedient in all things. To whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave it, I it, in the person of Christ. And here's the key. Lest Satan should get an advantage on us, for you're not ignorant of his devices. When it comes to ministry, when it comes to advancing the church's objectives, which is the Great Commission, and the vision the Lord has given the people through the word, that is the word, he gains an advantage on us, a specific advantage over us when we are unforgiving towards one another. And I was really quite impressed by the Holy Spirit when I read this, because I was like, wow, that's an easy formula to follow to help our church to be successful, to help us to be successful as a church, to be unified, especially after coming off of last year where our theme was unity. Forgiveness. We must forgive one another. We cannot be ignorant of this. That specific thing gives the devil an advantage, so he can destroy us. All right, back to 1 Peter, everybody. Back to 1 Peter chapter 5. So we briefly talked about the enemy and knowing who he is. He is the accuser, the tempter, the prince of the power of the air. He is the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Now Peter, the Christian who we know so much about, we've seen successes and failures in his life. He tells us in verse nine, the devil who walks about as a roaring lion, he says, speaking of the devil, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. He tells us to resist steadfast in the faith. One of the wonderful things about the Bible is you can get little tidbits like this where you're given a direct instruction to resist the devil. And then I encourage you to look in the Bible where it talks about how to resist him, how to resist the devil. And we're going to cover that briefly tonight. Let's jog over to Ephesians chapter 6, and we're going to get the lesson on how to resist the devil. Ephesians chapter 6. For those who are veterans of the Bible, you know exactly where we're going. You know exactly where we're going. Ephesians chapter 6, in resisting the devil. Starting in verse 10. Resist means to take a stand or to stand up against. To not waver. 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. The battle is not against flesh and blood. That's a whole other topic, but keep that in mind. Take that for face value and study it on your own. The battle is not against flesh and blood, and consider all the trials and all the folks that maybe you have challenges with. The battle is against spiritual wickedness. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand, resist, resist in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth. Remember when Aaron told us how to girt our loins? Girt your loins with truth. and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, for with ye are able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, 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, and watching thereunto with all perseverance, resist, and supplication for all saints." Perseverance and supplication for all saints. Understand the battle is not against flesh and blood, but you've been given the tools to withstand and resist. Girt your loins with truth. This includes knowing the truth and acting in the truth. This links directly to the next piece, cover your vital organs with righteousness. We can be completely disabled in character and witness when our actions and our words do not match. When our actions and our words do not match, we are disabled in character and in witness. We are disabled as people when our actions do not match our word. And as Pilate asked Christ, what is truth? A great explanation that I heard once was, truth is when the word and the deed become one. Think about that, meditate on it. It's a wonderful phrase that I did not come up with that, but it's a wonderful phrase. When the word and the deed become one, that is the truth. And didn't the ultimate word and deed become one when he died on the cross for us and rose from the grave? when he preached the word and he lived it out. Be prepared to walk with the shoes of the gospel of peace. Ensure you know the gospel, ensure you're able to share it. Ensure you have an efficiency about what it is. What's one of the one ways you can really be attacked in your faith? When you encounter someone who's going after Christians and picks an easy thing to go after, and all it really takes is just a little bit of equipping of the gospel, and you could have easily defended off that attack. I'm thinking of the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses right now. Boy, if you're not prepared to listen to what they have to say, you could be thrown all for a loop. And I'm giving you a hint right there that a thorough understanding of the gospel will help you defuse that. Take up the shield of faith. The shield of faith is an assurance and a use of your faith. Having an assurance of having that shield to quench the fiery darts, and they all link together, all these pieces paired together, they build off the other one. What is a shield of use if there's holes in that shield and the darts can't get through? And isn't that when you find your moments of discouragement, when a dart gets through that hole, because your faith is shaken or your faith is not secured? What did they do in between battles whenever they used to use shields? In between battles, they would repair their swords and they would repair their shields because you cannot use them in a battle unless you do those things. Make sure there are no holes or weak spots in your faith and take advantage of having the church, of having those around you who can help teach you and disciple you and grow you. And don't be embarrassed by something you don't understand. If there's something in the scripture you don't understand, write it down, pray, put a date by it so you can come back because the Holy Spirit will reveal the truth to you, and then you can write a testimony of how he revealed the truth to you. That walks hand-in-hand with the devotional method, Sills Sunday School attendees. So, take up the helmet of salvation. The breastplate covers your vital organs, and also the helmet covers your vital organs. I'm going to keep going for sake of time. The sword of the spirit. How useful is a sword if you don't know how to use it? The sword of the spirit is the word of God. I can tell you right now, if you gave me a sword right now, I'd probably hurt myself. If you gave me a gun, I'd do a little bit better. If you gave Ronnie a gun, he'd do really good. But the equivalent of that would probably be a gun or something like that today, but the sword is something you have to practice with and you have to use to be able to know how to use that sword. So read your Bible, practice with the sword, but then use it, participate in ministry. Go out and outreach. Get involved in Awana. Get involved in Awana. All right. Looking for volunteers for Awana. Anyway, moving on. And then the piece that is often ignored when it comes to the suit of armor that we've been given is what I visualize as the leather straps that hold all the pieces together. Anyone want to take a guess at what that is? Prayer. The piece of the armor of God that often gets ignored is prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. It's kind of the final piece that sometimes gets missed when there's a review of the armor of God. So to resist the devil, you must put on the full armor. You must have an understanding of truth and you must live a righteous life. Be prepared to walk in the shoes of the gospel. Have your shield repaired and ready to go. Have a stout understanding of your faith. Put on the helmet of salvation. Know how to use your sword. and then make sure you always keep all these pieces held together through prayer. Jogging back over to 1 Peter, chapter 5, and taking up these pieces of armor and being able to withstand and resist the devil, be encouraged by knowing that the same afflictions that you are experiencing are being experienced by all your brothers and sisters throughout the world. The persecution of your faith, the endurance to be faithful, Let's pick some stuff that's really, really, really important, and it's a really, really relatable target. Single folks that aren't married. There are single folks in the church that are also not married, and they're resisting the devil right now, the temptations that come with that. I didn't get married until I was about 28, right? I wanted to get married when I was like 16. I was ready to be married. 29? I was 29. That was a long time. But I met the most wonderful woman in the world, and it's been great. And then I think Brother Steve also has a testimony, too, that it took him a little while. He's up there waving. It took him a little while to find the right woman. But it was the right woman, right, Brother Steve? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Our good thing, right, brother? All right, so that's one thing, experiencing that suffering. This is one that's near and dear to my heart, is those who are on the job search. There are people in this church right now, and it's mostly men, but it's people in this church right now that are suffering through that trial right now, and there are others who are suffering alongside you. Know that God will give you relief and peace from that particular thing. And then, of course, the persecution of our faith. Don't be surprised when you receive persecution for your faith. All of us are receiving it across the whole world. Back to the scriptures in verse 10. These trials that we go through, these things that we're resisting, the devil whom we're resisting, it's for our maturity, it's for our growth. And it says after you have suffered for a little while, you will suffer, you will go through this trial, because it's for your maturity, it's for your perfection. It's to strengthen you. It's to settle you. Think about being settled in your faith. When you come through a trial, boys, usually when you come through on the other end of a trial, you are settled even more in your faith and that particular thing that the Lord helped you through. My latest episode with my job, which now I have a wonderful job, I mean, testimony out to those who helped us through that, specifically Melissa and Ronnie. My job is wonderful. I've never had a job this good before. And it was through the prayers of the church, through the ministry of the saints, and through a trust in the Lord. And if I face that same trial again of getting laid off, I will be even more established and secure in knowing that God will provide that for me. And then also, I didn't write this in my notes, but just take a reference to Hebrews, the back end of Hebrews, I want to say chapter 12-ish. Trent words it in Hebrews about being a child of God and the suffering you'll go through. Anyway, you know what I'm talking about. how if you don't go through the trials of a father, you are not a legitimate son, about how he puts his children through trials. So check out Hebrews in your spare time. It's a really great passage about how you're illegitimate if you don't go through these trials in the discipline of the father. It's a gift from the father to sanctify us further. And then I was gonna go into James 4 to do a little bit of work there, but we are coming up on time, so I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Remember, to be sober, starting in verse eight, be vigilant, resist steadfastly in the faith. Be sober means to be alert, to be circumspect, to look around yourself. Be sober. When the Bible says to be sober, it typically means be on an alert, be circumspect, look around. And there's actually other places in the Bible, I didn't write it in my notes tonight, but I studied it out, is there's actually the word circumspect is specifically in scripture, I believe. Looking around all the time, be alert, be on the lookout for the devil's schemes. God will, has, he will, and he will continue to establish you through the resistance that you put up against the world, the flesh, and the devil. This is our call as Christians to become more like Christ as we walk in sanctification. And then in closing, in verse 12 through 14, by Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. I think that's a wonderful closing, and of course, peace be with you that are in Christ Jesus, amen. I think it's a wonderful closing right there, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. I love that wording that the Holy Spirit inspired Peter with, because I feel the true Peter coming through that, of a true Christian who had some incredible spiritual victories, but also had some of the most known spiritual failures. And he's saying, this resistance, these things that Brother Paul has been teaching you, which I believe he testifies in 2 Peter, but that Brother Paul has been teaching you and the rest of the apostles have been teaching you, it is the truth that Christ taught us. It is the truth. It is the true grace of God, and we are to stand.