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[0:00] And because the enemy is not put away yet, right? He's still there. He's still around. If he was destroyed and we were a Christian, I don't believe there would be a battle anymore.

[0:13] And that's what heaven's going to be, by the way. No more war. No more battle. He has been defeated. And we know that.

[0:24] And through that defeat, through the blood of Christ, we too can overcome. But we are no match for our enemy, personally.

[0:34] Let's never underestimate Satan's power over humanity or over flesh. When he says to put on the whole armor of God, the next verse says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[1:02] I believe that in this verse, he's telling us what our battle is not. It's not flesh and blood. It's not each other. It's not our fellow man.

[1:18] Sometimes it seems like that, maybe. And we look at it the wrong way. But it's not humanity. It's spiritual powers and spiritual wickedness. Are we fighting the right battle this morning?

[1:32] Do we see that? Do we see that in our little children when we nurture them? What is the battle you're fighting? Is it? Are we fighting our children? Sometimes it feels like that, doesn't it?

[1:44] But we're fighting spiritual darkness, spiritual things, the flesh. Are we fighting for them or against them?

[1:57] That's a big difference. Fighting for them. How about our brothers and sisters? Do we fight for each other or do we fight against each other?

[2:10] There's a big difference. One brings victory, the other brings death. Let's fight for each other. So much of Christianity is fighting each other instead of recognizing the spiritual war that we're in.

[2:28] And fighting who our enemy, I mean, recognizing who our enemy is. The war for the souls of men. The souls of mankind.

[2:41] Verse 13 says, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God. There's that word again. The whole armor. Don't just take one or two.

[2:52] But, you know, he's not saying have your pick. He's saying if you're going to fight this battle, you need the whole armor. You need all of it. That ye may be able to withstand in the evil day.

[3:04] And having done all to stand. The whole armor. So if that's the whole armor, we better look at it and see what it is.

[3:15] Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth. And having the breastplate of righteousness. So we have our loins covered with truth.

[3:30] We have righteousness. Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel. How prepared are we? Like ready to share the gospel.

[3:40] Ready to turn to the gospel. Ready to speak of the gospel. Not just to share it, but ready to live it. Are we prepared?

[3:53] So often maybe we don't share the gospel because we're not prepared. We're just sidetracked in other things. And I know that's what happens many times.

[4:05] But having our feet shod, it's a way of saying, you know, ready to walk it out. Ready to live it. Ready to preach it. Whatever. At a moment's notice.

[4:17] Above all, taking the shield of faith. Having faith. Wherewith you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the devil or of the wicked.

[4:30] Doesn't say just some of them, you know. Just, I know over in Israel they have the thing called Iron Dome, right? The thing that destroys the missiles as they come in.

[4:42] And thankfully so, or they wouldn't be a nation anymore with all the missiles that have been fired. But, you know, it's not guaranteed that they'll get them all.

[4:54] And they probably don't. But here, I'm not saying that's a physical thing. I'm not trying to say that's a spiritual thing even. But, although Israel is spiritual.

[5:08] But here we're talking about all the fiery darts of it. You're able to. If you have the shield of faith. We are able. The shield of faith.

[5:19] And to take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And then he says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit and watching thereunto.

[5:31] With all perseverance and supplication for all saints. There is that supplication for all saints. But I just want to just take our focus for a minute on this armor.

[5:54] Believe that verse in Romans that I read about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ so often speaks to me personally. And here we have the armor.

[6:10] What's the connection? This putting on the whole armor. And then in Romans where it says, Put on the Lord Jesus.

[6:22] It's the same. It's Jesus. These all point to Jesus. The faith. The truth. It's all Him. It's all Him. You know, if it was faith, we could say, well, faith in what?

[6:38] Truth. What truth? Love. What love? What word of God?

[6:50] What helmet of salvation? It's all Jesus. The Christ. That's why we have power to overcome. We put Him on.

[7:02] I know Ray Comfort uses that illustration of putting on the Lord Jesus as when they go skydiving, they jump out of a plane, which is just beyond me how people do that.

[7:18] But it's fun to watch, I guess. I have a son-in-law that has done that. And to me, it's too scary.

[7:30] But Ray Comfort uses that in putting on a parachute. You know, if they put their faith in that thing, that's why they jump.

[7:41] They're not jumping without something to save them. And he says how absurd it is to go through life and coming to the end of life without anything on, anything to save us and put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[7:58] Have we put Him on? What if this is our last day and we don't have our parachute? Or we have our hope in something that won't open up and save us like a parachute?

[8:12] It's a great illustration, really. But I'll take Jesus over parachute. Right, Chuck?

[8:27] I thought I heard you say amen. Amen. In prayer always, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching thereunto, with all perseverance and supplication for the saints.

[8:46] There is so much wrapped up in that verse. You know, this is a challenge to me, but I'm going to just say it for all of us.

[8:56] But most Christians are too lazy to pray much. I didn't copy this. This is my own words just because I feel like the Lord gave it to me.

[9:09] But most Christians are too lazy to pray much. And certainly are too busy to watch and persevere and have supplication, which is to pray and petition with earnest request, according to Webster.

[9:29] To pray with earnestness, with a request. This is the last armor, but it may be the most neglected weapon in our life.

[9:42] Satan has brought many distractions into our world. So many that we even forget to really pray.

[9:55] Or we just don't have time. And we forget that most battles are fought through praying. Maybe they're lost because we don't pray.

[10:09] I know battles right here that were won because, well, God wins them. But we prayed. We prayed a lot for certain things and God answered. But how many are lost because we don't really pray?

[10:25] It's one of the weapons. Prayer. Prayer. Like faith. Like the other things. And, you know, our enemy knows that.

[10:36] I think that's why we have all the distractions. That's why, you know, I'm talking about distractions that just take all our time. Might not be bad.

[10:50] He doesn't care if they're bad. Just don't pray. Just don't pray. Don't pray for your brother and your sister in the church and for the kingdom.

[11:04] And he also, Paul also says, and for me, pray for me that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

[11:24] Amazing. He didn't just say, I want to speak boldly. There's a lot of people in this world that speak boldly, but they don't speak as they ought to speak.

[11:36] He clarified that. I'm glad he did. Not just boldness, but that I say what needs to be said. Right? And not say things I shouldn't say.

[11:50] Verse 21. But that I may know, I'm sorry, but that ye also may know my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts.

[12:18] Paul is sending this man. He wants to give an update. He wants the church to know how he's doing. Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God, the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

[12:38] Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. That would include us. Grace be to them that love we love Jesus.

[12:51] Right? That was Paul's wish. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.

[13:09] So how is it with us? Yes, we are at a war like we mentioned earlier. We are in war. We will either win or lose. Someone will be the winner, and someone the loser.

[13:24] Depends whose side we are on, right? It depends who our captain is, who our leader is. Is it Jesus, the Christ? Is he the one we're living for?

[13:37] I believe we would all say, yeah, that's me. I want to live for Jesus. Are we willing to fight in this kingdom?

[13:54] In God's kingdom, it takes surrender to win. It's not how the world fights. They don't surrender. We'll never surrender, right?

[14:06] That's how they fight. But in God's kingdom, it takes surrender to win. It takes humility. It takes all the fruits of the Spirit to win.

[14:17] It takes the whole armor of God, not just those things that come easy for us. It takes the whole armor. Now let's just go back a little bit, and as we conclude here, just talk about what we read about, yeah, the whole armor.

[14:41] Mothers, are you living with this whole armor that God has provided for you, doing battle for your children, for your husband?

[14:55] Always in prayer, having the shield of faith, believing God's promises for your children and surrendering them to the Lord. We need this armor as we raise our families.

[15:11] Is there any wonder that Paul wrote this right after he instructs the wives, the husbands in chapter 5, and then the children in this chapter, and then he says this?

[15:26] I don't know. Is that just a coincidence? I'm not sure, but I think it all flows. It all goes together. Fathers, are we taking this war seriously like we should?

[15:43] Have we put on the Lord Jesus and walk in faith? Are we still walking in the grips of fear and unbelief? You know, the Bible says that if we fear, sometimes we look at the war and we're afraid.

[15:58] We're just scared a little bit. Like, this world is so evil. It's so terrible and overwhelming. When you think of the technology and where this world has gone with the evil, not just saying technology.

[16:15] Mike showed me something last night about technology that is just mind-blowing. The AI stuff and the robot stuff that's coming out, and I just made the comment, how will it be in 100 years from now, or 50, or even five years?

[16:36] What are we going to face? We don't know for sure, but it's a crazy world with this stuff. But God's grace is sufficient.

[16:49] That's how I always come back to that no matter what we face, fathers, fathers. Perfect love casts out fear, John tells us. Walk in faith and know that our God reigns.

[17:02] It doesn't matter. It's just stuff, and we're going to make it. We're going to make it if we stay focused on Him, if He is our all.

[17:12] Young men, young ladies too, that are adults, have you put on the Lord Jesus Christ? Is He your Lord? And you too can become, you can be overcomers.

[17:27] I believe that many of you are, hopefully all, but we can be overcomers. A surrendered life is an overcoming life.

[17:40] Let's make Jesus our all. Take heed to His word, and it will keep you and make you victorious. I love that song that we sang, that trust Him.

[17:51] Was that like the first or second song? I think. And I was thinking of that song in relation to this. To only trust Him. Trust Him with your whole life, your whole future.

[18:05] Study. Read the Word. Study the Word. Memorize it when you're young. Children. We have a lot of children, but respect your parents and obey them like we read earlier.

[18:17] Learn while you're young. Pray for your mom and dad. We're not perfect. We do make mistakes. We do need...

[18:28] That's why we need your forgiveness and your grace. But if you want a really good mom and dad, pray for them. Jesus hears your prayers. That we could be strong and godly.

[18:43] Will we pray more? Will we seek more? Will we care and love more? Will we surrender more? Talking now to all of us. Will we surrender more? Why don't we stand together?

[19:04] Why don't we stand together? We're... You know, we often talk about our flesh and how annoying it is. Our flesh is such a hindrance in this Christian battle, the war we're in.

[19:24] But putting down our flesh and saying no to the flesh is still not where the strength comes from. It only puts us in the right position to receive the strength.

[19:39] It only puts us to where God can bless us with his strength, the power of God, to where we can put on that whole armor of God.

[19:53] The whole. I just have it all capitalized through my notes. Whole. All of it. And I just believe we need all of it. We need the whole armor.

[20:05] Yes, even the prayer. And this world is set up so much to make Christians fail. To make us fall and to fail and to be miserable.

[20:17] To be doubting and to be all those things. But... But this word is as powerful today as if he said it today. And he did.

[20:29] He says it every day. And his grace is sufficient. The question is will we... Are we willing to take up our cross and follow him?

[20:42] Let's pray. Father, we just thank you so much for your word. Thank you, God, that it's alive. That's why it's real because it's a living word. And Father, we thank you for that.

[20:53] Thank you for giving us the words from our dear brother Paul that he wrote so many years ago. The words that we need to hear today.

[21:06] We need the whole armor of God on our lives. I pray, Lord, that you would just bless us with that and help us to have, if we lack anything, that we should ask you.

[21:19] If we lack faith or we lack trust, we lack assurance of salvation, Lord, that we would have salvation and we'd understand what the blood of Jesus means to us.

[21:34] And Father, that you would just give us those things. Lord, more of your spirit, less of us and more of you, that we can be overcomers in this battle, in this journey called life.

[21:50] Lord, we need you. We ask, Lord, for your power and your strength in this wicked time that we're in, Lord, that we wouldn't just shout at the darkness, but that we'd have a life that is life-giving to others, a life that produces more life.

[22:12] Lord, we need that. We want your life to be in us and that we would be empowered and know your will for our families and that we would be dedicated moms and dads to teach, to nurture, and to encourage our children to walk right and to discipline when needed and all those things because of your word and because of you, God, because you want a godly seed in this world to promote life and to where you can live, Lord, in the future, that you can continue, Lord, to live in your people and guide them and that your name be glorified.

[22:58] Father, it's all about you. It's all about you, Lord Jesus, and that you would be glorified through our life, through the words that we speak. And Lord, like we heard this morning, that when you seem far away or distant, Lord, that we would seek you with all our heart and that we would, at those times that seem dark, that we would just cast ourselves before you, Lord, and allow you to speak into our lives.

[23:26] Lord, to change us more and more into your image. For your glory, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. God bless you all and bless your week.