The Armor of God Pt 1

Would y'all stand? A little stretch before you sit. I want to welcome you this morning to Calvary Chapel and those online. If any of you are listening from first service again, I don't know that I welcomed you, but you definitely were. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning, on this moist morning, this cold morning.

We thank you for the moisture. We ask you to protect everybody as we move about in the weather. We come to you this morning to worship in song, to worship you, to study your word together. We ask for your blessing on this whole fellowship, this church, as the children's church teachers worship with the youngsters, as they teach them, anoint them, Lord, and just anoint the youngsters to hear and receive what you have for them, too, Lord.

We just thank you, Lord, the opportunity we have to worship and study your word together corporately, the blessing. Amen. As always, greater are you who is in us than he who is in the world, and we thank you for that, Lord.

Much better than too strong for everything. In a world that's upside down, in a world where they see wrong as right, we know what's right. And that comes through knowing you, Lord. In the strength, there's power in each day.

We're facing there's power in the name of Jesus, that authority of the name of Jesus. According to his will, that's where that power is. There's nothing we can just say, oh, Lord, do this, do that. No, it's always according to your will, Lord. We think that there's power in the name of Jesus, Lord. Father, that just wants us to want to praise you, Lord, more and more.

Hosanna. Save now, Lord. Help us look to you. Take us from our sins, Lord, as we yield to you, as we look to you. Would you all stand? Oh, Lord, as we desire to be what you want us to be, trust you in every area. We know it takes a commitment of abundance. Liding in you, Lord, to trusting you, to looking to you.

Oh, the Son, help us look to you.

Oh, don't be afraid to praise him this morning. Just love him for his good pleasure. And whatever he does is always for our best.

He's faithful.

Thank you, Jesus, for your love, your mercy.

Father, bless now as we continue our service, as we fellowship. As Orion comes up and teaches your word, anoint him by the power of your Holy Spirit. We lift all those on the other end of the hall that are teaching the youngsters. Bless them, Lord. Bless the youngsters. Oh, God, as long as we're on this earth, each of us, and those young children, as they're growing, keep going, Lord.

They're the future of our church until your rapture is out, Lord. Oh, do a strong work by your Holy Spirit, Lord. Let us let go and let you. Father, I'm just reminded of that, apparently, a statement that John Quincy Adams made. He said we should do our duties. But leave the results to God. Do what we're to do. Oh, but leave the results to God. Amen. God bless you all.

Let's have some fellowship.

If you could, begin the process of locating your seat. Grab your bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

For those of you that made it this morning, congratulations. You've done great. It's an extra little sticker next to your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. Over on the left-hand side of the bulletin are the things that are going on throughout the week. So, everything's back in action this week. So, please locate one of those spots to get plugged into. Over in the middle section of your bulletin, a few things to take note of.

This coming Saturday, December the 2nd, there is the Women's Conference over in Wellington. There is still a sign-up sheet in the lobby. They need to get a good idea of who all is going to be there. So, if you are going to go, if you can get signed up today, that'd be great. There is coming up next Monday, December the 4th, there's going to be a benefit. There's going to be a dinner for Luke Wise.

I don't know how many of you remember him. Luke was the pastor of the Nazarene Church here in Ark City for a long time. He taught at Ark City Christian Academy. And I think he helped coach wrestling over at the middle school. Luke is now back in his hometown pastoring. However, Luke has been diagnosed with brain cancer. And he's a pretty young guy. He's younger than I am.

And he's got two or three young kids. I can't remember which. So, we want to do something for him. The Ministerial Alliance is putting something on. We're going to do something for him. We're going to do something for him. It'll be a benefit chili dinner, like I said, from 5 to 7.30 at the Nazarene Church on December the 4th. I believe that Tim Durham and Donnie Huffman are going to be playing some music.

And so, come on out and support a guy who really impacted this community quite a bit. And then, just a reminder that the live nativity at Bible Christian is coming up December 8th and 9th. And I think we could still use a handful of people to help with that. And then, also, I'm looking to make sure I'm saying that right. I'm saying there's no choir practice today, right?

It'll be next week again at 5, next Sunday at 5. So, okay. And then, I need to have, oh, there she is. I need to have Mrs. Davis come up and share a quick announcement with us as well.

Okay. Like I said, at first service, here comes December. We planned a movie night, thinking getting in the Christmas spirit a long time ago. And guess what? It's Friday. It's the movie night. So, we thought 6 o'clock, if you want to bring Christmas cookies or snacks or something, then we'd start. We can fellowship from 6, 630. And then, at 630, we'll start the movie.

It's a sweet little story, the ultimate gift. And I am working on nursery child care for the youngers because it won't keep their interest, I'm pretty sure. So, love to see you guys. It'll be fun. Fun. Way to start the holiday. And then, also, just a reminder, next week is when the kiddos are singing. So, if you can come right at 1030, so Ms. Judy can work with the kids, get them all practiced up, and get ready for them to sing.

And they need a hat, scarf, and mittens or gloves for fun. So, it'll be good. Thanks. Okay. Very good. I think those are the things that are going on. So, if you would, make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And we're going to do a unison reading this morning because I don't have any of my friends with me. So, for our unison reading this morning, we're going to be in Psalm 56.

Looking at the New American Standards so we all say the same thing, roughly at the same time. If you need one, there should be one around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 56, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading. And we will read together. Psalm 56 for the choir director, according to Janath Alem Rehokim, a mictum of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.

Be gracious to me, O God, for man has trampled upon me. Fighting all day long, he oppresses me. My foes have trampled upon me all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me. When I am afraid, I am afraid. When I am afraid, I am afraid. I will put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can mere man do to me?

All day long, they distort my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil. They attack, they lurk, they watch my steps as they have waited to take my life. Because of wickedness, cast them forth. In anger, put down the peoples, O God. You have taken account of my wanderings, put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call.

This I know, that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise. In God, I have put my trust. I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? Your vows are binding upon me, O God. I will render thank offerings to you. For you have delivered my soul from death. Indeed, my feet from stumbling. So that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

And Father, we do praise you for your word. And we put our trust in your word. And Lord, when we are afraid, we truly can trust in you. And so, Father, I pray that as we spend time in your word this morning, that you would move by the power of your Holy Spirit. Lord, as we speak this morning on this subject of spiritual warfare, I know that there is an unseen battle going on right now.

Because there always is, any time your word goes out. And so, Lord, I just ask that your Holy Spirit would fight for us. That you would fight on our behalf. And Lord, would you speak to our hearts in the way that only your Holy Spirit can. Moving in the midst of this place. In Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your...

If you would open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians, chapter 6. Ephesians, chapter 6. The title of the message this morning is The Armor of God, part 1. Before I make any introductory comments, I would like to go ahead and read the text for us. So, starting in chapter 6, verse 10, it says this. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places. 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.

Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the bread, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit.

And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the same. And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So as we come to this message this morning, I originally intended to do this only in two parts. It is going to take three weeks for us to get through it.

Just as a bit of foreshadowing for you, we're going to finish up the book of Ephesians in these next few minutes. And then we will do a three-part series on the first coming of Christ, which will culminate on Christmas Eve night. So that's kind of the direction we're going with some things. But I really wanted to take some time to camp out on this theme of spiritual warfare and the armor of God.

There is a reality that we all face, but a reality that we're not always all aware of, and that is the spiritual battle that takes place all around us. I have found that most believers in the 21st century find themselves in one of two extremes. Either one, you find yourself at the end of the spectrum where you have no idea that there's any kind of a spiritual anything going on in the world. As long as I can live my life and enjoy myself and be happy that I'm saved, I'm content to not be a part of the battle.

And then at the other end are the people who find spiritual warfare in everything. I have a cold today. It must be spiritual warfare. My boss is mad at me. It must be spiritual warfare. I had a fight with my wife. It must be spiritual warfare, right? And there's a demon behind every corner. Those are the two extremes. Those are the two extremes that most people live in in the 21st century church.

But I find that once again in the Bible, there is a balance. A balance of the reality of the battle that we live in, but also the reality of the victory that we have. And so that's what I want to spend some time talking about these next few weeks. Now it's interesting when we look at Scripture that Scripture is full of stories of spiritual battles. Full of the understanding of the spiritual war that takes place all around us.

From the very beginning, it was a reality that we dealt with. When Eve and Adam were first tempted by Satan, we would call that spiritual warfare. Because the enemy, Satan, wanted to defeat humanity, wanted to destroy humanity, and he sought to do so through sin. And so spiritual warfare is something we have dealt with from the very fall of man. But it's interesting when you read through the Old Testament,

there's two or three very interesting stories that really display for us or put on display for us that true spiritual war that takes place. The first of those, comes to us out of the book of 2 Kings. You don't need to turn there. But in the margin of your Bible, you might write 2 Kings 6, verses 8 through 23. 2 Kings 6, verses 8 through 23. There's a story about a prophet in there,

and his name is Elisha. Elisha is the prophet that followed in the footsteps of Elijah. And he prophesied to the northern kingdom. Well, there was a king, the king of the people of Aram, that came against the children of Israel, in battle. And every time he would set up camp and seek to attack the children of Israel, the king would be told by Elisha exactly where the king of Aram was going to attack.

And so finally, the king said, how on earth does the nation of Israel always know where I'm going to attack? Is one of you feeding my plans to the king? And they said, no, sir, it's Elisha. There's a prophet in Israel named Elisha, and he knows what you're going to do before you even do it. He can hear you whisper in your bedroom. And God tells him, and he tells the king.

And he said, well, then we need to go get Elisha. And so he sends his army down to capture Elisha. And there Elisha is hanging out in his house alongside his assistant. And he looks out the window, his assistant does, and there is the entire army of the king of Aram surrounding the house. And his assistant goes, we're in really big trouble. We're surrounded by an enemy army.

And Elisha goes, we're not in trouble at all. Because those that are for us, are a whole lot more than those that are for them. And he says, what are you talking about? All I see are the soldiers of the king of Aram. And Elisha prays something. He prays, Lord, open up his eyes so that he can see the spiritual army that fights for us. And that's exactly what God did.

For just a moment, God pulled back reality, the, or excuse me, the material world so that he could see the spiritual world taking place behind him. And he saw the army of the Lord, and he saw the army of the king of Aram. And he saw the army of the king of Aram. And he knew at that point in time, we have nothing to worry about. Because there's more on our side than there is on theirs.

Now there's a second story, and it comes to us out of the book of Daniel. If you would, in the margin of your Bible, write Daniel 10, verses 10 through 14. Daniel chapter 10, verses 10 through 14. I think this is my favorite of the two. I think this is my favorite of the two stories. Because in Daniel chapter 10, at the beginning of chapter 10, Daniel is given a vision by the Lord.

And the vision just makes him sick. It just works him over. Because he can't figure out what it means. He can't really even figure out what it is. And so he begins to pray. He begins to pray that God would give him an understanding of the vision. And as he prays for God to give him an understanding of the vision, it takes three weeks for God to answer him. But finally, the angel of the Lord shows up.

The angel of the Lord shows up and says, Daniel, I left three weeks ago when you first started praying. But you see, I encountered the prince of Persia. And I did battle with the prince of Persia on my way here. But Michael the archangel came and stood with me and battled with me. And now I'm here three weeks later to tell you what you have sought from the Lord.

You see, we're given this little pulled back image of what takes place when you pray. You see, what takes place when you pray is sometimes the Lord immediately answers you. But what's held it up is that there is a spiritual enemy that's attacking. Now that reminds us of something. And it reminds us that when you pray, you do more than just pray. You go to war.

When you pray, you go to battle. And there is a spiritual battle that takes place the entire time that you're praying. You know what? Right now, as I'm giving you the word of God, there's a spiritual battle that's taking place. If it were to be peeled back, we would see that there are forces colliding right now because the enemy doesn't want me to teach you

about spiritual warfare and the things of God. And God absolutely wants me to teach you about it. You know how I know that the enemy doesn't want me to teach you about spiritual warfare right now? Do you know what happened yesterday? Our worship leader got sick. You may not know this. Dad wasn't supposed to do worship this morning. But our worship leader got sick.

And about four o'clock yesterday afternoon, I get a call from dad saying, hey, by the way, I'm leading worship tomorrow morning. Pray for me. And then it snowed. Listen, snow is always spiritual warfare. I don't care who you are. That is the enemy. It is the enemy at work. And when ice is involved, it's all his little demons, right? That's spiritual warfare

because the enemy does not want me to teach you what's going on. And there's a battle going on, right? Right now. And so I want us to understand the reality that we face. But not only do I want us to understand the reality of the battle that we face, I want us to understand that there's a real enemy that we face. Another little scripture I might want you to write down

is 1 Peter 5, verse 8. It says that our adversary, the devil, walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. That tells us, that there's a very real enemy that we face. And that very real enemy would really like to destroy you. He would really like to destroy everything about you. And sometimes he will use people around you. Or sometimes he will use spiritual things.

But it is a spiritual war that we're involved in. It's a very real battle. It's a very real enemy. But I need us to understand something because what we're told in the book of Ephesians is that there is very real victory. Because God has given us everything that we need for this spiritual battle. And so over these next three weeks, this is the layout of what we will talk about.

This discussion on the armor of God will take place in three parts. Number one, we will discuss the battle. Number two, we will discuss the armor. And then number three, we will discuss the prayer. This morning, we will simply discuss the battle. I would like to read for you again verses 10 through 12. Notice what it says. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the full armor, armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but our struggle is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. And so as we look at this battle, again, three things I want you to pay attention to. He's going to tell us to be strong.

He's going to tell us to stand firm. And he's going to tell us to fight the right battle. First thing he tells us is to be strong. And he starts off this way. He starts off by saying, finally. Now, Paul's a good preacher. I think this is at least the second time he's said finally in this letter, right? Because he's a good preacher and he knows how to warm his audience up

that I'm saying I'm almost done, but I'm really only halfway done, right? But this time he really means it. He's getting towards the end. And he says, finally. Finally. Now, there's two things we understand in this. We understand, first of all, that he's wrapping up the book. We understand, second of all, that he's coming to a different section. He is wrapping up everything

that he has talked to these Ephesian people and us about. It's interesting because different people have broken down the book of Ephesians because it can break down really nicely three ways, right? So these are some of the titles that people have given the book of Ephesians. He discusses the wealth. He discusses the walk. And he discusses the war. Another person put it like,

this, Ephesians can be broken down. Sit, walk, stand. Because that's kind of the idea of what's going on with the book of Ephesians. But remember, he has first talked to us about the wealth that we have in Christ, that we have been chosen, that we have been adopted, that we have been redeemed, that we have been forgiven, that we've been given the Holy Spirit as a down payment.

And all of us as Gentiles have been brought near because of the blood of Jesus Christ. And now he's broken down the middle wall of separation. And where there was at one point in time enmity, there's now peace, not only between us, not only between us and God, not only between us and the Jewish people, but all of us can experience peace with each other because of the cross of Jesus Christ. He then, of course, talked to us about how we should walk, that we should walk in love, that we should walk in light, that we should walk in purity, that we should walk according to the Holy Spirit, which had a vast number of things that we've been discussing the last few weeks.

But now it's time to get to the nitty gritty. Now it's time to discuss the war. And so he says, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, be strong. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

Now, when we read that, we as human beings, especially us as men, have a tendency to look at this a certain way. We look at it as a work that we're going to do. Okay, now I'm gonna, I'm gonna be strong, right? We think about a warrior trying to become strong. I actually went with the rocky thing, right? That's what I always think of when it's like, okay, it's time to,

it's time to be strong. So all of the rocky started playing, going through in my mind because rocky is just so awesome. Well, the first four were awesome. He still owes me money for number five, but the first four were just great, weren't they? The first four Rockies were amazing. Number four, of course, had the best training montage because he's in the woods and he's chopping wood.

He's climbing snowy hills. It was the sweetest training montage of all of them, but all of them have the same storyline, right? He gets knocked down in the beginning, but then he works hard. He becomes strong physically. He, he becomes strong mentally and has the heart of a strong man. And no matter how much comes at him, he can continue to battle. And sometimes as Christians,

we just think that's what I need to be. I just need to be rocky, right? I need to drink the eggs. I need to pound a side of beef. I just need to run a little bit more. I just need to be strong, but that's not the idea behind this phrase. It's actually a poor translation of the phrase. If we were to translate this phrase, literally what it would say is strengthen yourself.

Self in the Lord. You see, it's not about you being strong. It's about you drawing strength from God. It's about you drawing strength from the only place where you can actually have strength. I actually think the terminology Paul uses here is borrowed from a, another section of scripture out of the book of second Samuel. You see, David had this group of warriors.

They were called his mighty men and David and his mighty men had gone to battle one day. And when they came back, all of their families had been kidnapped. And they had been robbed by a foreign group of invaders. And so there David is the guy that led all these guys into battle. And all of their families have been kidnapped and all of David's mighty men look at him and they're blaming him.

Now, if you've never read anything about David's mighty men, imagine an entire army of Jason born, right? Like that's what his mighty men were or Maximus from, from, from gladiator, right? Those are David's mighty men. They could take out anybody. He's going, this is a really bad situation because I've got a whole lot of guys that can kill me that are really mad at me.

And then there's this verse that's the turning point of the chapter where it says, but David strengthened himself in the Lord. After he strengthened himself in the Lord, he had the wisdom to know what to do. That's the idea. Well, you know me, I'm not content just to read something. I want to know how that works. How do we strengthen ourselves in the Lord? Because I can tell you that phrase all day long,

but if I never tell you what it looks like, what good have I done? What does it mean? To strengthen ourselves in the Lord? I think it means two things. Number one, if we are to strengthen ourselves in the Lord, we need to have the realization of our own inadequacy. We're to have the realization of our own inadequacy. Listen, there is no wise general in the world that does not go to war without first determining their weak points.

Because when you determine your weakness, you know how to be strengthened so that you can stand in the battle. Well, as believers in Jesus Christ, you should take an assessment. You should have yourself and when you're done with your assessment, you should come up with one conclusion. I'm weak. I have nothing. I don't have what it takes in order to fight the battle that God wants for me to fight.

I have to have the realization of my own inadequacy because if I go into battle without the understanding of my own inadequacy, I will walk out beaten and bruised because I can't do it myself. Because remember, we face a very real enemy who is very much more powerful than you. And so we first of all come out with the understanding of our own inadequacy. But then the second thing that we do, and I'm borrowing this out of the Amplified Bible's translation, it says that we are to draw your strength from him through your union with him.

Let me read that to you again. We draw our strength from him through our union with him. What does that mean? It means the most important thing you can do. If you're a believer, you're going to be a believer. If you're to go into battle is to spend time with your savior, to be in union with him, because that is the only place of preparation that you have. I've been listening to a class or to a set of studies.

It's been pretty fascinating. It's by Bob Hoekstra. Bob Hoekstra was one of my teachers in Bible college. I affectionately refer to him as Bobbio. And Bob Hoekstra teaches this class called How to Counsel God's Way. And it's pretty interesting. I made it through the first, first couple of sessions of it. And it's been pretty, pretty fascinating to listen to because his philosophy is,

is that God through his word gives us everything that we need. There is a sufficiency in the word of God. And he's going all through the Psalms and all through the Psalms. He's looking at the fact that what we truly need to do is to draw our strength from God through his word and through waiting upon him. As a matter of fact, one of the Psalms says, I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined to me and he heard my cry.

You know what that tells me? It tells me that the most important thing you can do is spend time waiting on the Lord. After all, we're told in Isaiah chapter 40 that they that wait upon the Lord will, anybody know the song? Renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary. They will walk and not faint. Everybody now teach me,

Lord, teach me, Lord, to wait. There's a few classics in here. So we need, we need to learn to wait on the Lord. You know what that tells me? If I'm going to strengthen myself in the Lord, the most important thing I can do is spend time in his word because that's the greatest place to wait on the Lord. If I want to be strong in the Lord, the greatest thing I can do is wait on him in prayer.

If I want to be strong in the Lord, I wait on the Lord by just simply being in the presence of God. I would tell you that your strength is directly proportional to your time with the Lord. The question for you, how strong you feel today? What's your strength look like? Because if you're not spending any time with Jesus, I'm going to promise you something. You're going to get the tar kicked out of you because we're in a spiritual battle every day and we need to strengthen ourselves in the Lord.

And then he throws in this last part. And with his, I'm going to quote it wrong. I better read it. I don't want to screw up God's word. And in the strength of his might, in other words, the inherent power of his might that is available. To us be strong. Number two, he says to stand firm. Those we says in verse 11, he says, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

He says, put on the full armor of God. Now we will go into detail about the armor of God next week. It's kind of a fascinating study, but we'll go into detail about it next week. But I just want to reference the command that we're given about putting on the full armor of God right now. There's a word that you use and that word is full. That word literally means all of the weapons that are available to us.

We are to put on all of the armor and weaponry that is available to us. It's all available. We should put on the full armor of God. In other words, don't go to battle half dressed, right? If we go to battle half dressed, we come back half alive. It's just the way that there is to it. We're to put on the full armor of God. Now Paul draws this from his view of the Roman soldier.

Now again, in Rome, war was a reality. Soldiers were a reality. They were everywhere. Paul, growing up a Roman citizen, knew the reality of war that was around him all the time and knew the reality of the soldier that was around him all the time. And after all, while Paul is writing this, who's he chained to? He's chained to a Roman soldier. Now I can't prove this scripturally,

but I got to thinking about this. And knowing what I know about Paul, like from the book of Acts, dude loved to ask questions, right? He was always asking people questions. That was what the dialogue that he would take place in or take part in would always happen. I think personally that as he was chained to those Roman guards, he said, talk to me about your armor.

What else are you going to talk about all day, right? Talk to me about your armor. That's quite the helmet that you're wearing. Tell me about the breastplate. Why is that important? Tell me about the shoes that you wear. Why? Those seem pretty specific. Why do you wear those? Tell me about your shield. Tell me about your sword. And as they explained everything about the armor,

he saw that every part of the armor was important. Therefore, you should put on the full armor of God. We're told in first Corinthians chapter 10 that we fight a spiritual battle. We don't wage war according to the flesh. We wage a spiritual battle. Therefore, our weapons are spiritual and our weapons are spiritual, but they're also powerful. We're actually told in first Corinthians chapter 10 verse four,

that they are for the pulling down of strongholds. Now, if this spiritual armor is that important and that powerful, then we should put it on every day. As a matter of fact, we're told in Romans chapter eight, verse 37, that we are more than conquerors through him who has called us. But if we're to be more than conquerors, we should be armed like a conqueror.

He says, put on the full armor of God. Why? Because every day you're facing the schemes of the devil. Every day you're facing the schemes of the devil. That phrase schemes literally means the deceitfulness or the trickery of the devil, because he's always deceptive in the things that he does. He is the father of lies. Therefore, when we lie, who do we act like?

Satan. As a matter of fact, what did he do with Eve? He deceived her. We need to be able to put on the full armor of God so that we can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Well, again, I was thinking about what these schemes of the devil were, and I didn't come up with this list myself. I stole this list, but I'm telling you that in advance, so it's okay.

This is the list that somebody gave. I believe it was Believer's Bible Commentary, but I thought it was great. He gives this list of some of the schemes of the devil. I want to see if you can relate to any of these being used in your life. One of the schemes of the devil is discouragement. Man, he loves to keep up with the devil. He loves to keep up with the devil.

He loves to keep up with the devil. He loves to keep us discouraged. If we can think, man, what I'm doing isn't working. It's really kind of pointless. I'm pointless. The things I'm doing are pointless. It just doesn't matter, right? If he can discourage us, then we'll stop what we're doing, and we'll just live in that lethargy, right? We'll just live in that discouragement,

and that's what he's constantly doing. As a matter of fact, I think discouragement has been one of the things that's been sweeping the church in general pretty heavily the past couple of years. So many people that I talk to, myself included sometimes, are just discouraged about what's going on, and life, about what's going on in their family, about what's going on in their marriage, about what's going on in the world. And this discouragement is one of the schemes of the enemy.

It's something he uses to try to keep us from God. The second one that they mentioned was doubt. Doubt. What does the enemy cause us to doubt? Well, first of all, he causes us to doubt God's word. Because if he can get us to doubt God's word, he can get us to doubt, everything. What was the very first attack that the enemy came to Eve with? Did God say? Did God say?

You see, if he can get us to doubt that this is God's word, and it is the final authority on what God has to say to man, that God's word is God's final authority to us, then he can get us to doubt everything. And if he gets us to doubt all of those things, then I start making rules for myself. And if I start making rules for myself, things go, down hill really fast because I will always make myself the king of my universe. As a matter of fact, that's the problem with most people is they make themselves the king of their universe.

You know what we call making yourself the king of the universe? Narcissism, right? And so many people live with that today. And it starts with doubting God's word. But you know what the other thing that he'll cause us to doubt? He'll cause you to doubt whether or not you really belong to Jesus. He'll cause you to doubt whether or not you're really his. Brothers and sisters,

I went through this. I went through this so hardcore that I didn't think I was ever going to come out of it. And I didn't doubt whether or not God was real. I didn't doubt whether or not God's word was true. I doubted whether or not I was good enough to belong to him. And you know what I found out? I'm not good enough, but his grace is. And he'll get us to doubt that.

And if he can get you to live in that place, he can completely forward everything that you would ever do. The third one that he mentioned was confusion. Confusion. Confusion. And, oh, oh dear sweet Jesus, confusion in the world today. Like, sometimes I hear people talking. I'm like, huh? Right? Because the things of the world are just confusing. You ever heard somebody tell you what they believe?

That's not the Bible. And you're like, carry the one. Come again. Right? Because it's confusing. Listen, you need to understand something. If it's confusing, it's not from God. Because God is not, we're told this in scripture, direct quote, God is not the author of confusion. And I think about this sometimes when, when it's something I'm wanting to do or something I'm trying to figure out.

If I'm confused, I have to stop and say, this is not from God. That's why every morning when I get out of bed, you know what I am? I'm confused. And I say, this is not from God. And I go back to bed and it makes my whole day a whole lot better. Right? It's not true at all. I am confused, but it's my fault, not God's. The next thing that he does to, uh, the next scheme of the devil,

is doctrinal error. Doctrinal error. And you need to understand something about doctrinal error. It will never hit you in your face like a ton of bricks. It will never be like, hello, I'm false doctrine. Right? Like there's some things that you hear and you're like, that's false. And I know that's false because that's just, well, false, right? Everybody in the world,

you can spot it from a mile away. That's not typically how false doctrine works. False doctrine is usually 90 to 95% of everything that you're doing. You'll agree with and five to 10% of what you don't agree with. Let me put it better. It's usually 90 to 95% of what the Bible agrees with, but it's five to 10% of what the Bible does not agree with. And that's what makes it dangerous.

And that's why you, if you are to be strong in the Lord, you need to spend time with him to be strengthened with him so that you can begin to spot false doctrine so that you can begin to spot those doctrinal errors. Because one of the, one of the things that's sweeping the church right now is doctrinal error. We can just teach what we want to teach because you know, we understand more than they used to. We, we have a greater knowledge than they used to have.

And that doctrinal error is one of those things that, that he uses. The next one that this guy mentioned, which I thought was pretty interesting as moral failures. One of the greatest ways that the, one of the greatest schemes of the enemy is to get you to fall into sin, just to simply do what your flesh wants to do. And he will make it seem like it's just not that big, but deal until you commit the sin.

And then he goes, that was a big deal and he condemns you over it. But he uses those moral failures to pull us away from the Lord. That's why, that's why that little song that we all sang when we were kids is literally one of the most important songs you can know about doctrine. Oh, be careful little eyes. What you see will be careful little ears. What you hear will be careful little feet where you go because the father up

above is looking down in love, right? So be careful because those moral failures, the enemy will use them not only to discredit us, but to discredit God. Then the very last thing, and I added this one is depression and anxiety. Because if the enemy can get us so depressed, if he can get us so focused on our problems, if he can get us to look so inward, because that's what depression and anxiety is, is it's, it's a constant looking inward.

Depression is looking inward and finding no joy. Anxiety is looking inward and finding no peace. If he can get us to constantly look inward, then where do we never look? We never looked at Jesus. There's a Psalm and the Psalmist David says, my failures are so great. They're more than the hairs of my head and I cannot look up. He was looking so inwardly that he could no longer look up.

And when depression and anxiety rule you, the enemy is completely content with that because it means you're not serving anyone around you and you're not looking to your savior. These are the schemes of the devil. This is why you need to put on the full armor of God so that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil. I love that phrase. Stand firm. It literally means to successfully stand up against or to hold your ground.

I've been watching a lot of war movies here lately. I don't know why I'm just in that kind of a mood. And the other day I watched gladiator and I, I love that first battle scene. Listen, if you've not seen gladiator before, don't just go out and watch it now. It's a pretty violent movie, but it's a pretty great story. As a matter of fact, sidebar, if you want to know what's going on in our culture right now,

watch gladiator. It's just, I'll just leave it at that. Um, well, it's not okay. Cause when you put a bad King in charge, he distracts people by giving them things that they want so that he can slowly take away all their power. That's the entire premise of gladiator. I've never heard of that happening anywhere before, except in the United States. States today.

Well, anyway, so, so I love that opening scene of gladiator, right? Because what does he do? What is, what does Maximus just keep yelling to his guys? Hold the line. Why does he want them to hold the line? Because they need to stand firm because the enemy's coming and the tendency is going to be to run. But if you have the full armor of God on, you can stand firm.

Don't run from the battle. Don't pretend there's not a battle. Instead, put on the armor and stand firm in the battle. You, you, it's kind of interesting. One of the commentators I read pointed this out. You know, it's never at one point in time. Does he tell you to get in the battle? He just tells you that you are in a battle. You see, you don't have to get engaged in the war.

You are engaged in the war. The, the, the question is, are you winning? The question is, are you seeing victory? Because you're either seeing victory or seeing defeat because you're in the war. Stand firm. Then the last thing that he tells us is fight the raid battle. Notice what he says. He says, for our struggle, is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,

against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now, the new American standard, new American standard version translates that word struggle. I don't like that translation. I don't like that translation because I don't think it's accurate. And I don't like that translation because I was a wrestler.

What it really says is for we wrestle. Great. All right. Now we're talking a few of your ears perked up for we wrestle. It's interesting when you define the word wrestling. This, this is what it means. I love this. And perhaps I should tell this to the coach at arc city. It means to throw an opponent down and to hold your hand on the neck. That's literally what the word wrestle in the Greek means to throw your opponent down and to hold your hand on the neck.

Apparently in the Greek games, I did not know this until this time. If you lost a wrestling match, your eyes were gouged out, right? That's a whole other set of practices after you lose a match, right? That's a bummer. That's a pretty serious deal. But he says, we wrestle. Now I want you to understand something. I was a wrestler and I know that this sport is different than any other because in the sport of wrestling,

somebody asked me, I don't know. They said, I don't understand wrestling. I don't understand the scoring. I don't understand any of them. Like wrestling is the most simple sport in the world. Your goal is to dominate your opponent. And they're like, isn't that the goal of every sport? Not in the same way. In football, you dominate your opponent by putting a ball in an end zone more times than them.

In basketball, you dominate your opponent by putting a ball through a hoop more times than the other team. In baseball, your goal is to dominate your opponent by running across a plate more times than the other team. In wrestling, you want to dominate your opponent. You literally want to hold them down until the referee finally slaps the mat and says, you've held them down long enough.

That's the goal of wrestling. If you don't dominate your opponent, it doesn't matter what else happens. You're going to lose the match. And that's what it is in a wrestling match. That's what it is spiritually speaking. We are to dominate our opponent. Now, there's another interesting story in the Old Testament because what I have come to realize is, is that there's two spiritual wars that takes place in the life of every believer.

One before you're saved. The one that takes place after you're saved. Now, there's this great story in the Old Testament. It's about Jacob. And Jacob was the ultimate guy. The guy that battled with God, right? Like he was the hardest headed guy ever. And so he was always wrestling with God to see who was actually going to be in control of his life. Well, Jacob is on his way back to the promised land after he had to leave because he tricked his brother.

And when he's on his way back to the promised land, he's just about to cross the river Jabbok. But before he does that night, it says in scripture that an angel of the Lord showed up and wrestled with him and wrestled with him. And he was the hardest headed guy ever. And he wrestled with him all night. Now, the guy that taught my Genesis class in Bible college,

his name was Bill Holdridge. And Bill Holdridge had been a wrestler too. And it was kind of fascinating to hear him talk about this because he said, you know, I was a wrestler and I can't imagine wrestling that long. That would be the most intense amount of workouts you could ever have. It needs y'all to understand something. A high school match is six minutes long,

right? And I keep myself in decent shape. But if I were to go out to the high school right now and get on the mat, with somebody I'd last about a minute and a half. And then I'd be hitting the trash can and hitting the floor, right? Hitting the trash can because we all know what happens there and hitting the floor because I can't get up any longer because it's a grueling sport.

Jacob wrestled all night long. But why was Jacob wrestling? Because Jacob was wrestling about who was going to be in control of his life. Was it going to be Jacob, the dirty, rotten, sneaky thief, or was it going to be God? And they were struggling for control over their life. And before I don't know what happened there. And before you, before you came to Jesus Christ,

you were in the middle of that same battle. You were wrestling with God to try to figure out who was going to be in control of your life. As a matter of fact, I feel like there's someone in here wrestling with that today. You are wrestling with God to decide who is going to be in control of your life. And I have news for you. You will either surrender or he will put your hip out of socket because that's exactly what he did with Jacob.

As long as the struggle went, finally, God touched his hip. He put it out of socket and Jacob gave up and he said, bless me. He said, what's your name? I said, why do you want to know my name? He said, what's your name? Why was it important that he knew his name? Because what did Jacob's name mean? Dirty, rotten, sneaky thief. He needed to own up to who he was.

And once he owned up to who he was, he said, you're not going to be Jacob any longer. Now you're going to be Israel. The one who fights with God, and the one whom God fights for. You see, that's the first wrestling match that takes place in everybody's life. And then finally, when you're willing to surrender and say, I'm not going to be that guy anymore. Now you're in the real battle because the real battle is now who's going to control.

Is it going to be you or is it going to be the enemy? Only this time you've got the Holy Spirit on your side for we wrestle, but we don't, do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. What does that mean? Brothers and sisters, we got to realize something as a church. People are not our enemy. People aren't our enemy. People may act like the enemy.

They may look like the enemy, but that's not who the real enemy is. The real enemy is not who you can see in front of you. The real enemy is who sits behind them. The real enemy is the one who is in control. Okay, like I can't say all that. We'll get taken down. We have to figure out who the real enemy is that we're fighting, right? And we need to know who that is because too many of us have made the wrong people.

The enemy. I've got news for you. The Democratic Party is not our enemy. You're like, but Ryan, you don't understand. I do understand. I know. I pay attention to a lot of this stuff. They're not our enemy. They're people. They're people who have been deceived. They have been deceived by the enemy. And are now at work for him, right? The Democratic Party is not our enemy.

The LGBTQ community, not our enemy, but Ryan, they march against us. Well, of course they do. They hate everything you stand for, but they're not the enemy. They've been deceived by the enemy. The first part of a couple of articles by Patty height just came out, and I'm going to get both of them sent out when the other one comes out. If you don't know who Patty height is,

Patty height is the one who started out of, of Egypt ministries. She came out of the LGBTQ lifestyle and now she ministers to them and tells Christians stop treating them like the enemy because you know what she knew about the church before she got saved was those people hate me. They hate me because of what I do and they hate me because of my lifestyle and brothers and sisters, that's a major failure of the church because that is not our enemy. You see, she talks about the fact that she was deceived, deceived, from a very young age, deceived that she was in the wrong body, deceived that being a woman was not what she really wanted to be and deceived that she was actually attracted to the same sex.

She tells you all of that stuff. It was all the deception, but she points out the fact that there was a real enemy behind it and the real enemy behind it is who we need to deal with. The abortion industry is not our enemy. Ryan, you don't understand. They are deceived. Have you seen the movie unplanned? When you see that, you realize that the people working in those clinics have been deceived.

They've been deceived by the enemy to decide that that's not really a life, but we've made the wrong people, the enemy because we've made it people. You know what happens when you make people the enemy, you destroy people. He says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Who do we wrestle against? We wrestle against the power, the rulers, and the powers against the world forces of this darkness against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We wrestle against a spiritual enemy. We personally wrestle against a spiritual enemy. It be the enemy that wants to see us destroyed, but we wrestle globally against an enemy that wants to see the church destroyed and we need to know who the enemy is and we need to be able to identify. We need to understand that every world leader that's doing something evil right now.

You need to know there's something demonic going on behind that that Scripture and Daniel that I told you the Prince of Persia That tells us that there is demonic activity behind world leaders that are doing what they do I'm not saying we don't go to war sometimes. We need to go to war. Israel needs to wipe out Hamas. There's no two ways about it Because they are evil and they need to be dealt with because of the things that they've done But we also need to understand understand that there's a lot of people living in Gaza that are kids that have been deceived.

And I would love to see all of those terrorists lay down their arms and come to know Jesus as their Savior. Because believe it or not, Jesus loves them too. Because Jesus loves the people we hate. Jesus made it very simple for us. He said, love your enemies. Love your neighbor as yourself and love your enemies. That pretty well covers the full gamut of people. But Ryan,

what if they don't dress the way we think they should dress? Love them anyway. But Ryan, what if they talk about the things we don't want to talk about? Then love them anyway. But Ryan, what if they listen to country music? Borderline. Love them anyway, right? We just got to love people. Because people are our enemy. The enemy is the spiritual forces behind it.

And that's why we need to really know the battle that we fight. Because there are spiritual things behind all of the stuff that's going on. You think it's any surprise that there's an industry that wants to destroy life when God is the creator, author, and sustainer of life? Are we surprised that there's a pornography industry knowing that God intended for purity to be the thing that we stand for because he is pure? Are we surprised that there is a...

a perversion of sexuality when it comes to the LGBTQ community when marriage was God's institution? Are we surprised by these things? We shouldn't be because we face a real enemy who stands behind them because the enemy is not the people. It's the rulers, the forces, the spiritual darkness that we face every day. It's kind of interesting because Paul uses several different

words here. Did you notice? Let me read them to you again. Against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of the darkness. Against the spiritual forces of wickedness. If you're reading King James or New King James, it also uses the phrases principalities, powers, and rulers. Some have really gotten into this and they've said, now you need to understand these are three different rankings of demons

fit into the entire spiritual world. I love David Guzik's take on this. He goes, are they rankings of demons? I have no idea. We don't have enough information in scripture to know if that's the case. But here's what we do know. The New Testament has a lot to say about the victory that we have. Over the principalities, the powers, the rulers, the spiritual darkness that we face. Do you know

that? The New Testament addresses this quite a few times. Let me give you a handful of them. I want you to turn to these. Go first of all to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Go to your left. If you've hit Acts, you've gone too far. Romans chapter 8. I want you to look down at verse 37.

It says this in Romans chapter 8 verse 37. But in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, pay attention, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We wrestle against a spiritual enemy, but that spiritual enemy can do nothing to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Isn't that great? That spiritual

enemy, the one that is great that we face, has no power over me because it can't separate me from the love of God. Go to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. And I want you to start in verse, oh that's Galatians. No wonder it doesn't make sense. Don't go to Galatians chapter. I was like none of those words make sense to me. What's going on here? Start in verse 18. It says, I pray

that the eyes of your heart, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 18, may be enlightened so that you will know what is the hope of his calling, for the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might, which he brought about in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead, and he seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places. Pay attention. Far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come. We face a real enemy. That real enemy is a spiritual enemy,

but that real enemy can't keep us from the love of Christ, and that real enemy, Jesus, is enthroned above. Jesus is enthroned above all of the principalities, all of the powers, all of the rulers, all of the spiritual forces in this present age. That means that the Jesus that we serve is greater than the enemy that we face. Let me put it to you the way that Jesus did. Greater is he that's

in you than he that's in the world. Right? One more place. Colossians. Colossians chapter 2. And I want you to start. Let's just start in verse 9. It's way before we need, but for context, it's just a beautiful thing. Verse 9 of Colossians chapter 2, it says this,

In the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he also made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all of our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of the debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Pay attention to verse 15.

When he had disarmed the rulers and the authorities, he made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through him. You see, Jesus disarmed all of the spiritual forces. Where? At the cross. That means that the spiritual enemy that we face is powerless because of the cross. It has no power over you. Brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the place of victory

that we have is the same place of victory for spiritual warfare, is the same place of victory that we have for everything else at the cross of Jesus Christ. Where do we go back to? We always go back to the cross because where did he disarm rulers, authorities, and powers? At the cross. Brothers and sisters, we live in a very real world with a very real spiritual war going on.

But as we fight this battle, we need to understand, strengthen yourself in the Lord, stand firm against the schemes of the devil, and fight the right battle that finds its victory at the cross. Amen? Let's all stand. We're coming into a season where the entire world, whether they mean to or not, will mention the name of the Messiah constantly. They keep trying

not to by saying, happy holidays. But there are enough people who will still say, Merry Christmas. They will mention the Messiah every time they say it because Christ is the Messiah. Take advantage of the fact that we are in a season where the birth of Jesus will be magnified above all other things. Take advantage of it and use it as an opportunity to continue

to point people to Jesus Christ because, brothers and sisters, the end is coming. I want the whole world to be ready. We come before you and we thank you that you have given us victory. We thank you that we can rest in you. We thank you that you give us the strength that we need. And I pray that you would be with each one of us, that we would not allow ourselves to try to find strength in us, but that we would

be strengthened as we wait on you. Lord, that, as it says in Isaiah, that they that wait upon the Lord would renew their strength, mount up with wings like eagles. So Lord, help us to wait. Father, we thank you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Amen. Amen. You see, but he also promised before he went, as he prepared them, that he would not leave them as orphans, but he would send the Holy Spirit who would convince them of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Amen. So Father, by your Holy Spirit, move in our hearts. Help us trust you and look to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week.