Ephesians 6:10-13 Part 2

Thank you Music Ministry.

You have your Bibles turned with me or you can

look upon the screen.

Ephesians chapter 6 verse number 10.

As I said earlier, this is actually going to

be part two of the same text that we looked

at last week.

If you weren't here for that message, I

recommend that you go watch it online or

listen to it

because it will help you with the context of

what we're going to study today.

I don't like to try to repeat or try to make

too big of an in-depth review.

But one thing that should be clear from what

we learned last week is the fact that this

whole world is a battleground.

The whole universe, in fact, is at war.

There is a war that is occurring right now

between God and Satan, between good and evil.

Now make sure you understand that Satan is not

equal with God.

We understand that.

God allows there to be this war.

In fact, he has ordained that there be this

war.

We see this warfare in many places in

Scripture, maybe most clearly defined in the

book of

Job, where we find it's so fascinating God and

Satan are actually in a back and forth

verbally.

If you haven't read that account, please go

read that.

You will find it so interesting and for sure

throughout the history of man and definitely

in the revelation of God and his word, this

conflict between God and Satan is so clearly

seen.

It's just really wild to me and fantastic to

think about the conflict between God and

Satan, it includes this vast number of holy

angels and fallen evil angels.

It's happening right now and they too are at

war with one another in the unseen realm

and then a step down from that, we have men,

men and women on the earth and there's only

two types of people in the world.

There's the regenerate and there's the unre

generate and then amongst the unregenerate, you

have

quote unquote good people according to man

standard of goodness and you definitely have

evil people and they are at war with one

another too.

So since the fall of man, since the curse

entered into our world, we have been in a

serious

state of warfare.

Look at verse 12 here in Ephesians 6, the

Christian life is described there by the

apostle Paul

at the start of the verse as our struggle.

That's a strong word right there in the Greek,

our struggle and we really, really do exist

in a life and death struggle in this war and I

really don't think very many people even

in the church understand this, understand the

intensity of it, especially here in America.

Hear me talk about this all the time for all

our boning and groaning about how hard our

life is.

We really don't even grasp how easy we have it

compared to much of this world and especially

to the most of history in different time

periods.

I can prove that with air conditioning and

grocery stores alone.

Think about that for a minute.

So today, I at least want to help you to

understand better what I have learned in my

study about

this war that we are all of us in as believers

because it's so easy, especially because we

also have this struggle going on with our

flesh, not to mention with what we're going

to talk about today, it's so easy to get so

wrapped up in the things of this world because

our jobs distract us and of course the busy

ness of everyday life and the necessary things

that need to be done that we forget, we forget

that there is this intense warfare going on

all the time, every day, on average, around

150,000 people die every day on planet Earth.

Every 24 hours, 150,000 people die on this

planet.

That's 365 days a year.

That never stops.

And so many of them breathe their very last

breath of air in the death grip of Satan and

they step out of this world straight into

eternal darkness.

It's a staggering thought to think about.

But as a Christian, you mustn't run from that

thought just because it's such an overwhelming

thought.

In fact, you have to run to it and you have to

realize that it's part of the war that

we're in.

And maybe Satan's greatest attack on

Christians is the very subtle way that he lull

s us into

lethargy, apple, spiritual, busyness.

Just show up for Sunday's church, punch your

card and that's good enough.

That's my Christian life.

That's you.

You are like a soldier who just stays in your

tent while outside the battle is raging.

Your brothers and sisters are out there

fighting the battle, but you're indifferent,

or you're

taking a nap and you don't even realize the

war that's being waged right outside your

door.

This Christian is when Satan has you right

where he wants you to be, one less soldier

involved in the battle, because this warfare

is not just defensive only.

It's not just dealing with the attacks that

come at you on a regular basis from the

adversary.

It is that you're being attacked whether you

stay in that tent or not.

But in this great battle, what you need to do

is evaluate your life.

And there are questions that you can ask

yourself that will reveal to you what kind

of soldier for the king you really are, like

where and in what do you invest the most of

your time outside of necessary work that needs

to be done?

Where do you invest your money?

Where do you invest the most of your talent

and your abilities and your energy?

If it's all in the things that are going to

burn up like wood, hay, and stubble at the

judgment seat of Christ, then guess what?

You really don't even understand the warfare

that we're in right now.

You're just sitting in the tent.

You're losing the battle on the regular when

you're just sitting in the tent.

Or maybe you're sitting in your cot in the

tent watching Netflix or scrolling on your

phone on your cot through an endless timeline

of useless posts that have no eternal value

while just outside the tent, the most intense

war in human history is being waged at a

cosmic

level and Satan, like a roaring lion, is dev

ouring as many souls as he possibly can and

making

sure that they literally go to hell when they

die.

I'm not saying it's a sin to watch TV.

I watch TV.

I'm not saying it's a sin to scroll on your

phone.

I scroll on my phone, but it sure can get out

of hand, can it?

Sure can consume your time with things that

are of no eternal value, and it sure can turn

into sin.

I don't know about you, but I can't sit in the

tent.

I cannot.

I love being a soldier.

I do.

Not only a soldier on the front line as a

pastor, but as a bivocational path.

I used to be like, man, what would be best for

me and best for the church?

I need to be full-time, so I can invest more

time in study and invest more time being able

to minister to the people.

But now 25 years in ministry this year, I've

embraced my bivocationalness.

This is what God has for me, and many times I

have heard to us the bivocational pastors

referred to by the full-time pastors as the

Navy Seals of Pastry, not in terms of ability,

but in terms of the effort that's required to

be a bivocational pastor.

And I'm here to tell you that's not a boast.

That's the truth.

My only boast is to boast in my kingdom, who

took me from being a felon to being a soldier.

What do I have to boast in?

What do I have that I didn't first receive?

I don't deserve this great privilege to be

able to be a soldier, no matter how small

our church is.

I'm still doing the work of a soldier on the

front lines, and I love it.

When I'm preparing sermons, when I'm preaching

the Word, when I'm going to the library to

stand up for children to get pornography out

of the library, when I work behind the scenes

in politics to come against transgenderism and

to try to make sure that non-Marxists

get elected to office, I am acting as a

soldier of the King in the heat of the battle.

And guess what?

I love every single minute of it.

I love what I do.

What a privilege it is to be a soldier of the

King of Kings.

And guess what?

If you're a Christian here today, you're a

soldier too.

All Christians are soldiers, not just pastors.

The question is, are you on the battlefield,

or are you sitting in the tent?

Those of you who go to Mary's house of bread

to serve, you're on the battlefield at that

moment.

Defenders of the line, both here in Central

and Walker, you're on the battlefield.

When you come to church, this is the place

where you get your sword sharpened for battle.

That's why it's important to come to church,

and then you go back out to war.

Same thing when you come to Sunday school.

Same thing when you come to the men's meeting

or the ladies' prayer meeting.

When you come to Wednesday night prayer

meeting, you're on the battlefield interceding

for

your fellow soldiers, and for those that the

adversary wants to bring with him, to join

him in his ending in outer darkness,

especially your family members, that he wants

right now.

This is not a game, folks.

This is real life.

You know C.T.

Studs quote, "Only one life will soon be

passed, only what's done for Christ will laugh

."

Are you on the battlefield, or are you in the

tent?

You're in the tent.

This means you're still breathing, at least,

and I'm telling you today, pull back the flap,

pull out your sword, and join the battle,

serving your king, who died for you.

That's what I'm telling you.

Do it today.

Start today.

John MacArthur said, "If you don't know there

is a war, you just lost a battle."

Now, I'll talk for a minute about where do we

turn as soldiers for resources in this war?

Isaac Watts wrote this, "From thee the over

flowing spring our souls shall drink a fresh

supply,

while such as trust their native strength

shall melt away and droop and die."

So we learned last time we cannot trust in

ourselves in this war.

Look at verse 10.

Remember this from last week?

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the

strength of His might.

That's God's part.

His strength is the issue here.

God is our strength.

From thee the overflowing spring our souls

shall drink a fresh supply.

He is the resource.

But we have a part too.

Look at verse 11.

We saw it last time as well.

Put on, Christian, the full armor of God so

that you will be able to stand firm against

the schemes of the devil.

And here we come once again to that same

divine paradox that we find so often in

Scripture.

The strength is God's.

Yes, but at the same exact time, the

commitment and the carrying out of the

commitment has

to be ours, sovereignty and responsibility.

We've constantly run into this in our study of

Scripture.

We see it in the Christian life as a whole.

What did Paul say?

"I am crucified with Christ, and it is no

longer I who live, but Christ who lives in

me."

Well, which one is it?

It's both.

How does that work, Pastor?

I don't know.

I just know that it does.

It's the great divine paradox.

Same thing with Scripture.

Who wrote Ephesians?

Ephesians was written by Paul, and yet it was

written by the Holy Spirit.

You were saved by God's sovereign grace alone,

yet you committed yourself to Christ.

You acted in saving faith.

You and I have to live out our lives with

diligence and commitment, and yet Jesus is

the author and finisher of our faith.

It's God's power alone seeing us through to

the end as we live it out this boat.

Just like all of that, here with this subject,

we see both sides too.

We are strong in the Lord, and it is the power

of His might, and yet we have to appropriate

His resources down here in Responsibility Land

at the same time.

You feel me?

The English military leader, Oliver Cromwell,

had it right.

He had solid theology, and he didn't even know

it when he said this.

"Trust in God, and keep your powder dry."

See?

John McArthur tells the story of watching a

boxing match on television when he was

a kid with his dad.

You ever watch boxing, you know, right before

the fight starts, and the announcer comes

out there, the boxers are going through their

rituals, right, they're kicking their legs,

and they're kind of stretching, and doing a

little shadow boxing, and they're watching

TV, and one of them knelt down and did the old

up and down side to side, and crossed

himself.

And John McArthur asked his dad, "Does that

help?"

And his dad said, "It does, if he can punch."

The reality is, if he can't punch, that there

ain't going to help him a bit, and that's

exactly how it is in the Christian life.

The strength is God's, the power is God's, and

does it help?

It does if we can punch, if we get out of the

tent, if we put the armor on and join

the battle.

It's a question of, on our part, availability

and appropriation.

So we know first we're in a war, we know

second the power is there, and we know third

you've

got to appropriate the power, and so Paul is

saying, "Yes, we are in a war, and know

well that our enemy is a formidable enemy.

You can't see him.

You can't touch him.

You cannot outwit him."

And it's an enemy in the unseen supernatural

realm, and it's literally maybe, maybe

millions

of demons.

We don't know exactly how many engulfed in a

system that is totally beyond our

comprehension.

There is no way that you can deal with that

system with your human intellect alone.

But hear this clearly.

God's power is available if you're trusting in

his power alone and if you put your armor

on, then and only then can you achieve victory

in the battles that I hate to tell you we're

going to face until the day we die.

It's really an incredible thought.

Creator God is our strength, but that strength

can only be appropriated in obedience.

In obedience takes action.

Now, I hope you know by now, theology is full

of nuance and making distinctions.

And so let's take a big picture view, okay?

Big picture.

All Christians are secure in God's power.

Look with me at John 10, 29.

You remember this?

Jesus is talking about his sheep and how

secure they are.

And look what he says, "My father who has

given them to me, the sheep, is greater than

all and no one is able to snatch them out of

the Father's hand."

Notice it doesn't say no man is able to snatch

them out of the Father's hand.

Some people try to make that argument.

No, it says no one.

This means if I'm a believer, I'm in the

Father's hand and no being, man or angel, has

the power

to snatch me out of his hand because he is

greater than all.

So big picture, you need to get that straight.

No power in existence can overtake us, can

snatch us, which means ultimately we win in

the end, guaranteed.

Can you get some of that down in your blood

stream for me, please?

So as far as the war is concerned, we can't

lose.

But the reality is, God has ordained many

battles for us along the way in this life.

And even though ultimately, yes, we win the

war, we can lose many battles along the way.

Why?

Because we're stubbornly not willing to do

things God's way in the battle.

We're not willing to follow Paul's instruction

here.

We're not willing to put on the armor.

Look at verse 12, "For our struggle is not

against flesh and blood."

That means our struggle is not against human

beings.

In the big picture, man is not really our

enemy.

Although man is used by the enemy, right, to

assault us in many different ways.

That's why we're not supposed to hate people

made in the image of God.

Jesus wept over sinners for one reason because

he knew they were duped.

Look at 2 Corinthians 4-4, "In whose case the

little G, God of this world, has blinded

the minds of the unbelieving, so that they

might not see the light of the gospel of the

glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

It's a double blindness.

Your own blindness of your depravity, your

total depravity, and it's also the blindness

of Satan as unbelievers walk through this

world, totally blind to the light of the

gospel.

They want nothing to do with it.

And yes I know, at the top of the list here,

it's hard, it's hard.

When we see leftist Karen's out there

protesting against the enforcement of the law

to not

get immediately angry when you see that on

television.

It's hard.

I have a rough time.

But then I have to stop and think, ultimately.

They are just pawns.

They're just being used by the unseen forces

of darkness to accomplish this chaos that

we see on our television sets.

What we really should feel toward them is pity

.

What sad, miserable lives.

I read one report where the lady you've all

seen that got shot in Minneapolis.

I can't verify this, but it seemed to be

pretty credible that the reality is one of her

children

was taken because the wife there, that was

making all the noise with the guy before she

got in the car, used to abuse and beat up her

kids and put cigarettes out on their arms.

That's the kind of people we're dealing with

here.

That makes me angry to watch that.

And guess what?

We as soldiers of the King, we hold the only

hope for them to escape the kingdom of

darkness

that they are in, the gospel.

Can God redeem them?

Yes, He can.

Jesus, if He could redeem me, He could redeem

anybody.

So as I've said before, there's a sense in

which they're not the enemy, they're the

mission field.

If you're going to hate righteously, hate the

real enemy, not the poor people being used

by Him to accomplish His evil schemes.

Now, don't get me wrong, we have to fight

against what they're used by Satan to do.

We have to fight against that.

We have to go to the library and stop what

they're doing with transgenderism.

We have to be involved in politics and culture

in the community.

No doubt about that.

But ultimately, you just read it.

Ultimately, it's not flesh and blood humans

that our struggle is against.

Look next in verse 12, you'll find out who it

is, but against the rulers, against the

powers, against the world forces of this

darkness, against the spiritual forces of

wickedness

in heavenly places.

None of those phrases is describing a flesh

and blood human being, not one of them.

Because it's the contrast of what was just

said, we don't fight against human beings,

flesh and blood.

But against, you see that.

All of those phrases right there are

describing the demonic realm, every one of

them.

This reality is why Paul is so strongly

emphasizing here in Ephesians that we cannot

do this on

our own.

Our enemy is not human.

It's ultimately not a human battle.

We as human beings are fighting against a

supernatural superhuman force, and it's not

just one of

them.

It's beyond our ability to know exactly how

many, but it's a whole, a number so vast,

they are able to terrorize every corner of

this globe all the time.

Look at verse 12 again, notice the word

against.

It comes right before each of these phrases

describing demons, fallen angels, look,

against

the rulers, against the powers, against the

world forces of this darkness, against the

spiritual forces of wickedness.

This is so fascinating.

These are actually categories of different

kinds of fallen angels.

Now, you should know by now, our God is a God

of order, not a God of chaos, and when

God created angels, he had them organized to

be in different categories.

It appears best we can tell that they were all

created at one time.

They don't procreate with one another, and

they were all created at some point in

eternity

past, and we'll let the smart guys argue about

all that nuance when the angels came to be

and all that.

But just like people are different, angels are

different.

There are all different kinds of angels.

For example, we read about archangels, right,

in Scripture, and we read about cherubim,

and we read about seraphim.

We even know some names, Michael, Gabriel

earlier in Ephesians chapter one, verse 21,

where it's describing God's power over all the

heavenly beings that exist.

Look what it says, "Far above all rule and

authority and power and dominion."

All those words right there are describing

categorical differences between angels.

They all have different functions and

different capacities, and the point at that

versus God

is over them all.

Let me give you an example.

I don't have time to go all through it, but go

home and read for yourself tonight Daniel

chapters nine and ten.

You will find there that there is an angel on

his way to assist Daniel, and a fallen

angel confronts him and holds him up from

being able to get to Daniel to assist Daniel,

and Michael, the archangel, has to be disp

atched to handle this demon, which he does,

which

makes clear right there in that text that one

angel has greater abilities in dealing

with this fallen angel than this other holy

angel does.

So this other holy angel couldn't handle him,

so Michael had to come down.

So there you have that in the book of Jude,

you find Michael disputing and arguing with

Satan about the body of Moses, and that's all

you get, in no detail what was that

conversation

about?

How'd that work out?

Well, we know Satan didn't get to use Moses'

body, we know that.

I think Scripture would have let us know about

that.

And also, this makes clear that holy angels

and fallen angels battle with one another.

In the unseen realm, it's pure wildness to me,

when you get these little glimpses in

Scripture and you don't get any more, but you

know it's there, it's there enough for

you to understand it's there, go back to Ephes

ians 6-12, and I want you to see the

distinctions between these fallen angels.

Most conservative commentators of the Bible

come down on the same type of distinctions,

and I think about this, really, I mean, we can

only understand these in general because

there's no details.

And don't forget, I mean, God gives us what He

wants us to know, and that one was pretty

clear, you don't go any further than that,

which I wholeheartedly agree with, because

then we just start making stuff up in our

brains.

But verse 12, we see rulers and powers, okay?

This seems to be at the top end of the pecking

order of these fallen angels in, like, higher

level operations.

Think of it like managerial, right, just as a

human term, but then look next at particularly

world forces of this darkness, and most

commentators would agree that this would be

demons that

have infiltrated the political structure of

this world, the world forces of this darkness.

Now let me ask you, looking at the geopolit

ical situation in our world, this one is not

too

hard for us to believe, right?

In fact, you will find in Daniel chapter 10,

the demon giving the trouble is called the

prince of Persia, like he was a demon over

that land, Persia.

And the phrase darkness, now multiple places

in the New Testament, 1st Colossians 1, Coloss

ians

113, it refers to all believers as being

rescued from the domain of darkness.

And Jesus himself refers to hell as outer

darkness.

When Jesus is arrested, he said to the Jewish

leaders in Luke, but this hour and the power

of darkness are yours, the demonic realm of

the darkness from which they come, and its

satanic power, we're working behind the scenes

through flesh and blood humans to arrest the

Lord Jesus and the Guardian.

Now back to verse 12, and the world forces of

this darkness, now the internet is full

of conspiracy theories, you have to be careful

with this, and there are many of them that

have some type of a version of a worldwide

conspiracy of a small group of people who

run the world, and it's referred to in many

different ways, the Illuminati, the Masons,

the World Economic Forum, and there's many

others, they can't all be true at the same

time.

And while, listen to me, there is no possible

way that us commoners down here on Hooper

Road could ever verify any of those conspir

acies on the internet, there's no way that you

can, I love it here, people say I did my

research, all you did was read all those

conspiracy

theories, you don't have, you didn't do no

research, you just read a bunch of stuff and

you think that's research, but it's not.

I believe one thing we can be sure of, no

matter what's going on with all of that, is

that demons are involved in high political and

governmental places shaping geo and national

politics to their own ends.

That's what we're talking about here with the

world forces of this darkness.

In Deuteronomy and Psalms it says the gods of

the nations are demons.

In 1st Corinthians Paul says the idols that

the Gentiles sacrifice to are demons, behind

those idols, behind those gods, and you know

what they do, all through history this has

been true.

The demons act out the part of the imagined

gods.

All through history they've done this.

Christy can tell you, I've watched enough

Hitler documentaries to be convinced that

he was being guided and controlled by demons.

No question in my mind, and of course there's

a long list of world leaders that we could

easily see being in the same situation, I mean

Stalin, Pol Pot, you just go down the

list.

Too interesting to me, John 1231, what does

Satan call there?

By Jesus himself, the ruler of this world.

Jesus called Satan the ruler of this world.

Yes, he's on God's leash, but ruler of this

world, prince of the power of the air.

That's a whole lot of leash, wouldn't you say?

He is running this evil world system, can't

you tell?

For now, but his time is going to come to an

intense and eternal end one day, and all

you have to do is just sit back and observe

our world, and nobody should have to twist

your arm to convince you about who's running

things right now down here in Responsibility

Land.

And he's allowing it in his all part of his

plan, but effectively he is running the world

system.

So this warfare that we're in, it is something

else.

This warfare can get down in the dirt with the

chicken blood and Haiti, all the way up

to the halls of the United Nations and every

social strata in between.

That's how clever they are.

Lastly, look in verse 12, it says, "Lastly in

verse 12, not nicely in the sermon, the

spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly

places."

John MacArthur Study Bible says, "This

possibly refers to the demons who are over the

most

as depraved abominations, wickedness,

including extreme sexual perversions, occult

ism and

Satan worship."

This is the worst of the worst.

And you go on the internet right now, and you

can find witchcraft, cultism, and outright

satanic content that will give you nightmares

for the rest of your life.

You don't even have to go to the dark web.

If you go to the dark web, it's 10,000 times

worse.

Now I'm just here to tell you, and I've been

telling you, get ready for the role that AI

is fixing to play, artificial intelligence in

our culture.

We're fixing to enter into a real paradigm

shift.

I believe we're just in the beginning stages

of what I have no doubt that the enemy is

going to use in this artificial intelligence.

I believe he's going to use it in ways that we

can't even imagine.

This enemy, again, that we can't touch, we can

't see, we can't outthink, we can't outwit

is so beyond us, so powerful, and so

supernatural, it's just mind numbingly stupid

that anybody

can fall for the charade that a preacher can

command a demon to go to the pit.

How dumb is that?

How dumb do you have to be?

Do that.

Go on the internet and see that, too.

There is an intense war being raised, is it

right now?

And again, folks, while this war is happening,

150,000 people a day are dying and stepping

out into eternity every day, and most of them

get there to that point on the broad way that

leads to destruction, which is found in the

kingdom of darkness.

Most of that 150,000 a day are dying and going

to hell.

Are you in the battle, or are you in the tent?

You can change that today if you're in that

tent.

Now, what are we supposed to do if we get out

the tent and we join the battle?

Well, think about what we've already learned.

We have to be strong in the Lord and in the

power of his might.

We have to put on the full armor of God so

that we will be able to stand firm against

the schemes of the devil.

And then look, starting in verse 13, we begin

to get into what is this armor.

He goes on therefore, take up the full armor

of God so that you will be able to resist

in the evil day and having done everything to

stand firm.

This is serious.

If this armor is so necessary and this enemy

is so formidable, we better learn how to get

the armor on, right?

And when is the evil day?

Well, I told you last time the evil day is

today and every day, until Jesus returns as

the evil day.

What's going on with all these nationally

known pastors falling into sin and being dis

qualified

and doing anything but finishing well, I can

tell you what's going on, trying to be in

the ministry without their armor on?

This war has us both on offense and defense,

as I said before.

When we get to studying about the armor, look

down in verse 16, we're going to get there,

talks about the shield of faith, with which

you will be able to extinguish all the flaming

arrows of the evil one.

The enemy is always shooting, is shooting

flaming arrows of temptation and all manner

of deceptions at the Christian.

That's when we're on defense and there is no

human being who can ever get anywhere close

to being as cunning and deceptive and

intelligent as our enemy in this war.

But if you've got the armor on, when the

flaming arrows are coming, all manner of those

flaming

arrows will be extinguished, guaranteed.

That's what this book is promising.

And I'm telling you, even as a believer, if

you don't keep your armor on, you are in

danger of falling one day yourself.

Look at 2 John verse 8, watch yourselves, that

you do not lose what we have accomplished,

but that you may receive a full reward.

Imagine decades of faithful service in the

ministry and then right near the end, falling

in the deep grievous sin and just ruining your

reward and heaven.

As I said, this year marks 25 years,

incredibly, I can't even believe it, in the

ministry

for me.

I'm telling you, I want more than anything to

finish with.

I want to finish like R.C.

I want to finish like John MacArthur, I want

to finish like Ed Lacy, and Boaty, and Brother

Moeke, and David Miller.

I remember being in Brother Moeke right near

the end of his ministry, he kept preaching

about finishing well, finishing well.

You want to pray something for me?

Add to your list, pray that I finish well.

We all need to pray that for one another.

In fact, here in Ephesians 6, 10, we learn the

Lord is the strength.

Verse 11, we put the armor on because verse 12

says the enemy is so strong.

And then verses 13 to 17 go on and we're going

to see to define the armor and even when we're

trusting in God's strength.

Even when we've got the armor on, look what

Paul says next in verse 18 with all prayer

and petition.

Pray at all times in the Spirit.

That's folks, that's how dependent on God we

have to be.

He says next, look, be on the alert with all

perseverance and petition for all the saints.

We need to be praying for one another on a

regular basis while we are engaged in this

warfare.

It's critical.

We only get one shot to fight this war.

One life.

We have no idea at all when our number is

going to be called.

We go home to headquarters.

And when we are, it's over.

It's done.

And what you did and how you fought as a

soldier in the timespan that God gave you, it

's down

in the record book at that point, no changing

it.

We will all be called to account for every day

that we live through the war from the moment

of salvation to our very last breath on the

earth.

What will the record say about your time, val

iant warrior fighting and resisting and

standing firm in the strength of God, a tent d

weller, no fighting, no armor on.

And the record reflects beat down by the enemy

on a regular basis.

Now, we're going to have a whole lot more to

say about this armor that we have to have.

But I want you to think about the things that

I have said today.

You're going to get the tools coming up.

You're going to get the definition of what the

armor is and exactly how you have to put

it on and exactly what you do with it and

exactly what it means.

But it doesn't mean anything for you if you

don't get out of the tent and put it on.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this day deeply,

deeply convicting passage.

I'm convicted most of all.

So easily we get distracted.

We forget about this war that's raging.

Thank you for your word.

Let's put us back on track to understanding

these monumental, massive realities that we

don't fight against flesh and blood, but the

spiritual forces of darkness and wickedness.

But in your strength and with your armor, we

can have victory in these battles.

Help us as Christians to understand how

important this is, to make application of it

in our

lives as we go back out into the war today.

We pray that everything we've done here today

and done in such a way as to bring you all

the glory.

Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

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