Wednesday Night Service 7PM - Pastor Rick Hawkins

I'll have a seat for the next two if you'd like.

Just for giving us this opportunity just to put everything else, all of our busyness out of our life, God, and just sing praises to you, God, just to reconnect with you and what you have for us, Lord. I just pray that as Rick brings your word this evening, Lord, that you would just speak through him, Lord, that you would anoint him with your spirit, that you would soften our hearts to hear whatever we need to hear this evening, Lord. I just pray this in Jesus' name.

Can you hear me? I just heard that the parking lot at the high school is packed, which means there's hundreds of kids out there. So the first thing I want to do is pray for what's going on over there because last year there was hundreds of kids that came forward for prayer, and there's more there this year than last year. So we want to lift that up. Lord, we just lift those kids up to you at the high school right now,

and I just pray that as your word. goes forward, that your Holy Spirit would just touch those kids' lives and just draw them to yourself as only you can do, Lord, and that they would just find a real relationship, an abiding relationship with you. And I just pray that you would just move in a special way tonight and just be with us here, too, as we get into your word, just by your Holy Spirit, just draw us close to you also. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. And I think they're doing pictures after this service. Is that right? Back in here still? Okay. So if any of you got... Pictures still take... That'll be happening tonight. Have any of you ever prayed for patience? Can I see a show of hands? A few people. What happens when you pray for patience?

God tends to usually bring you some trials so that you can learn the patience is usually what happens. Well, a lot of people won't pray for patience for that reason, but it's the virtue that God wants you to have. And so don't be afraid to pray for it because God wants you to have all that he has for you. But a lot of times when you're preparing a study, the Lord will take you through some things that relate to your study as you're preparing it.

And tonight I'm teaching on Ephesians 6, 10 through 12, dealing with the armor of God and the schemes that Satan, how he attacks you. And for the past two or three weeks since I've been preparing this, he's been attacking me left and right. It's been one trial after another. And I haven't stood up very good on a lot of it either. And but I know that... that God's using it.

So we're going to be in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 through 20. But before we get to there, I've got... I want to look at a little bit of the letter to the Ephesians, kind of an overview, and let you kind of get a look at where the church at Ephesus was at. So you just kind of get the context of that, what we're going to be looking at. The first half of Ephesians,

the first three chapters, is just dealing with God pouring out his grace on us. All the things that God has done for us. For example, he's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. He's chosen us before the foundation of the world. He predestinated us for adoption. He's freely bestowed upon us his grace. He has freely bestowed upon us redemption through his blood,

forgiveness of our trespasses. We have obtained an inheritance. He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise. He has seated us with him in heavenly places. For through him, we have our access and one spirit to the Father. There's like 30 different blessings listed in the first three chapters of how God has just poured out his grace on our lives. And our response to that grace is dealt with in verses four through six.

I therefore, Paul says, a prisoner of the Lord entreats you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing forbearance to one another, and love being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Do not greet the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Be imitators of God.

Walk in love, just as Christ also loves you.

There's there's a story in the Bible where two people had debts. One had a lot of debt. One had a small amount of debt. They're both forgiven of their debts. But the one that was forgiven, the most debt tend to be more grateful. And I think a lot of times as Christians, the longer we're a Christian, the more God real lets us realize how sinful sin is in our lives and how far from him we were and how much he has done for us.

And grace teaches us to instruct us to deny and godliness worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in this present age. That's what grace does. Our response when God pours his grace on our lives is should be, we want to please God because of what he's done for us. There should be that desire in us to want to please him. And in Ephesians chapter two,

verse 10, it says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Good works are a result of grace, not a way to earn it. And in John 15, five, it says, I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from me. You can do nothing.

Now, the Ephesians got caught up. They're trying to do the good works without abiding in Christ. And the result of that is revealed in revelations. Chapter two, God wrote a letter to the, the Ephesians, the church at Ephesus in chapter two. And it says, I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance and that you cannot endure evil men. And you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not.

And you found them to be false. And you have, and you have perseverance and have endured for my namesake and have not grown weary. They've done a bunch of really neat things. They stand for the truth. They're guarding, they're doing ministry. From the outside, it looks like they're a perfect church, a very successful church. And they were, what they were doing had to do with what Paul said in Acts chapter 20.

Last time Paul saw him, he warned them that there would be wolves coming in among this blocks, that there would be false teachers rising them up among them. And they were to be alert. And so they were, I mean, they focused on that and they majored that on that to the point that they made it a priority. And so they were, they were to be alert. They were to be alert.

And so they were to be alert. And so they were to be alert. And so they were to be alert. And so they were to be alert. And so they were to be alert. And so they were to be alert. Verse four, it says, but I have this against you that you have left your first love. They didn't lose it. They left it. They ended up putting the work, the work of the ministry first,

instead of focusing on the relationship with Christ. Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first, or else I will come to you and we'll remove your lampstand out of this place. Unless you repent, removing your lampstand is talking about, uh, either there's not going to be a church anymore, or if they're going to be a church, the Holy Spirit is not going to be there. And there's just going to be a social club.

Um, there are 27 books in the new Testament. Paul wrote half of those. There's 13 or 14 letters that Paul wrote 14. If you want to count Hebrews, a lot of people don't know who wrote Hebrews. So they haven't made up their minds. So 13 or 14 books. And out of those books that Paul wrote, he wrote half of the new Testament. And out of those books that he wrote,

he wrote, he mentioned his love 19 times in the letter, 20, the Ephesians. That's the most that he mentioned in any book. I think in Philippians, he mentions love 16 times and second Corinthians, he mentions it 10 times and the rest fewer than that. But he mentions love to the Ephesians 19 times. And yet it was the love that they, they missed. They got ministry really good,

but they missed the love. Um, it's important to remember that our service under the Lord must grow out of our fellowship with him. Uh, if you've been involved in ministry, any, you'll know that it's, there's a tendency to get so involved in ministry that you don't spend the time with the Lord. Like you need to, you get so caught up in doing stuff for him that you're not spending time with him.

And it's really important that you keep the priorities, right? That you spend time with him first, and then he will open up doors for you to minister. However, but you want it to grow out of your fellowship with him. You don't want to just be doing stuff. You want it to be a result of your spending time, fellowshiping with him. And that's where this armor of God that we're going to talk about.

It comes in tonight. So starting in verse 10, it says in chapter six, finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. That word finally is not used like in Philippians. When it says finally, he's introducing either a new topic or he's about to get to the end of the letter. And grad granted, this is towards the end of the letter, but in the early manuscripts,

the word finally here actually means henceforth, uh, from, from henceforth on. In other words, after he spent the first three chapters revealing how God by his grace has poured out all these blessings on us as believers. And then in the second three chapters talks about how we're going to respond to that grace, how God teaches us and, and the things we're supposed to do in response to that grace. He then says, finally, henceforth from now on, uh, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

Because if you're not strong, in his might, you're not going to be able to do it. You can't live the Christian life. That's one of the things I've learned in the last two or three weeks going through my trials. Because when you, when you blow it and you're trying to do it on your own, you, you blow it big time. You just do. But you have to depend on his strength.

And he's saying, God's done so much for us by his grace. And we're to respond to that grace in a way that we're depending on his strength, not our own. In, uh, verse 11 and 12, it says, but on the, uh, put on the full armor of God that you might be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this world, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. You may not realize it, but right now Satan has access in heaven.

He's, he's the accuser of the brethren. He's in heaven for the simple reason. He's there to accuse us every time we do something wrong. And, and Christ is there as our advocate standing on our behalf, but he's there accusing, accusing us. And I think it's neat where it says that, uh, uh, that we're involved in a spiritual battle in heavenly places because it back in Ephesians chapter three,

verse 10, Paul says in order that the, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. God is using us to minister his manifold wisdom to those in heaven. It's hard for me to understand. How God in his wisdom is using us. But the angels at first Peter says the angels long to look into what's going on with us.

They're just, they're just amazed at what God is doing with us and the demons they're watching and they know that they blew it and they know that we've blown it. But when we humble ourselves and ask Christ to forgive us and Christ's blood covers all that sin for us, we have salvation. The demons don't have salvation. God hasn't offered them salvation. They know that.

At some point they're going to go to hell and they know that we're sinners saved by grace and that makes them mad and so they want to attack us for several reasons. One they're mad because we have salvation. They don't and two they want to stop us from saving anybody else. They want us to blow our testimony as much as we can so that nobody else will come to Christ.

Um, the symbolism of the armor, and now I just lost Ephesians. Let's see here. Uh, the art, the symbolism of the armor is is mentioned in Isaiah several times at all and it belongs to the Messiah in Isaiah 11 five it says the righteousness will be the belt of his loins and faithfulness the belt about his waist. It's 11 uh Isaiah 11 chapter verse five in Isaiah 49 two it says um that the Messiah's mouth is like a sharp sword.

Isaiah 52. Seven mentions the feet of him who brings good news and announces peace. Isaiah 59 17 says he puts on righteousness like a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head and I like the way Paul sums it up because because all these things that are aspects of the armor Christ had and in and in uh Romans chapter 13 verse 14 Paul says put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make to his vision for the flesh in regards to his lust. He tells us to put on Christ to dress ourselves.

He tells us to put on Christ to dress ourselves. With his armor to be to have on us his righteousness and live it like he's wanting us to. Uh now God won't force us to put his armor on. We're we're we as Christians are in the spiritual battle and if we don't want to put their armor on God's not going to force it on us. We have to be willing to apply it to our lives.

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman. The Holy Spirit never forces himself on anybody. He he won't do that. If you want the Holy Spirit to move in your life, you just ask him. And he'll start doing things in your life if you don't want it to he'll leave you alone. But I guarantee you sin has consequences. It it just does and and it's that's just the way the way it goes.

Um the earlier in verse 11 mentioned uh put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. All the schemes of the devil that he has. They all have one outcome and that is he mentions that Paul mentions in second reading. Chapter 11 verse 3 says but I am afraid lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.

Every scheme that Satan has whether it's to deceive you whether it's to tempt you whether it's to accuse you whether it's to persecute you whatever tactic he applies to your life. The whole whole purpose of the end is to distract you from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. He doesn't want you to have that devotion. Now I want to take a look at some of these methods that Satan likes to use against us.

First of all I want to look at how he deceives us. Uh John chapter 8 verse 44 says Satan is a liar the father of all lies. In the garden Adam and Eve God told him don't take of the forbidden fruit or you're going to die. What did Satan tell him? You're not going to die. Go ahead and take the fruit. Well we all know what happened. Everybody dies. It's just it's just the way it works.

James chapter 11 verse 13 through 15 says for such are false apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ and no wonder for even Satan disguising himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness whose end shall be according to their deeds. Satan likes to just mix just enough truth with his lies so that you don't really know what's going on. There's a lot of false religions probably the two bigger ones in our area.

Jehovah Witness Mormonism they teach a different Jesus. Jehovah Witness teach that Jesus is Michael the Archangel. The Mormons teach that Jesus and Satan were brothers in the pre-existent world and they were standing for the council of gods because Mormons believe in many gods. And Jesus' plan for salvation for people was that some people would have to go to hell.

Satan's plan was that everybody would get saved nobody would go to hell. And the council of the gods voted and they voted for Jesus' plan and Satan rebelled. And so he didn't get to have a body that's why demons try to possess everybody because you can't become a god yourself unless you have a body. That's basically the Mormon message in a nutshell. But all these false religions and what's sad is even in Christian churches you see a lot of emphasis almost on doing good deeds to earn God's grace.

And it's not that way God's grace is free you don't have to do anything to get God's grace. The good deeds come as a result of God's grace. But sadly a lot of churches aren't teaching that message anymore. Romans chapter 16 verse 17 and 18 says, Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eyes on those who cause dissensions and hindrances, contrary to the teaching which you learn, and turn away from them.

For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own appetites, and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. You know when you've got churches growing like this one is growing. One of the things I expect to see happen is for Satan to bring people in who want to cause dissension and cause hindrances. Somebody's going to stir up trouble.

And it's just to be expected Satan's going to do what he can to hinder what God's doing. And that's some of the areas of being a deceiver. Now the tempter in James 1 verse 15 through 14 it says, But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. When lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

Lust can be a strong desire for anything, but most often it relates to sexual sin. And Barna Group did a study, they released it last year, just one year ago, 2024, it was called Beyond the Porn Phenomenon. And in it they revealed that in the United States, 75% of professing Christian men watch porn on some kind of regular basis. 75% of professing Christian men watch porn on some kind of regular basis.

40% and some of the studies I looked at said 44% of the women watch porn on some kind of regular basis. And that's an 11% increase for among professing Christian men and 25% increase among professing Christian women since 2016, just in the last eight years. Because the last time I had taught about this, it was three out of five men that were caught up into pornography. But now it's three out of four men.

That's a lot of people watching porn that are Christians, or at least professing Christians. Despite the rising use of porn among professing Christians, 67% of pastors believe that pornography is only a minor problem or not a problem at all in their congregations. Because it's not a topic that anybody wants to deal with. It's one of those hidden sins that people just keep it hidden.

But it affects the church. It really does. It takes away the power. In John 10.10, it talks about the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have seen this tactic that Satan used on marriages more than anything else. If he can steal your affections away from your spouse, then he can kill the relationship. If he can kill the relationship, then he can destroy the marriage and destroy the family.

And I've seen him use that tactic over and over again. If he can steal your spouse's affections, then he can kill the relationship, and then he can destroy the marriage. And he does that a lot. I had a conversation with a guy one time, and he asked me, he goes, Why is God so down on sex? And I tried to explain to him, it's not that God is down on sex because God created sex.

It's just that God is really big on faithfulness. He wants you, first of all, to be faithful to him as a creator, to have sex the way he intended it to be had. And then he wants you to be faithful to your spouse.

Now let's look at examples of an accuser. In 2 Corinthians 2.10-11, it says, But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also. For indeed, what have I forgiven, if I have forgiven anything? I did it for your sake, in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage should be taken by Satan. For we are not ignorant of him. We are ignorant of his schemes. Satan loves it when somebody that's a Christian gets unforgiveness in their heart towards somebody.

Because if they have unforgiveness, then he could plant a seed where that unforgiveness turns into bitterness. And once it turns into bitterness, it grows like a cancer. And it's hard to get rid of. And so he loves to see when people can't forgive somebody. In James 3.14-16, it says, But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant or lie against the truth.

This wisdom is not for you. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but it is earthly, natural, and demonic. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder in every evil thing. We're getting ready to bring on some more elders and deacons onto the board. And it's always a sensitive time because there's always somebody that's not happy with who gets picked or how things get done.

But a lot of it stems from... People having selfish ambition. Where they want a position because they want to be recognized. Or they want to be in a position where they have power. Or they want to be able to say what happens with the money. They, you know, any kind of a reason, but it's all selfish motivated. And the people that we want as elders and deacons are people who want to promote Christ.

People who are servants that want to serve other people. People that are pointing people to Jesus. And not pointing people to themselves. People that aren't even really looking for anything. They just want to live for the Lord. And so it's very important that we avoid having that selfish ambition. In Romans 8 and 1 it says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

When the Holy Spirit convicts you, the outcome of the Holy Spirit convicting you is you're going to have a repentance. Because He convicts you and you want to turn in repentance to God and get things made right. That's the Holy Spirit doing conviction. Condemnation is when you beat yourself up because you've blown it. And God's forgiven you, but you can't seem to forgive yourself.

And you just keep beating yourself up over stuff. And Satan loves to beat you over the head if he can. Now as far as persecution, 1 Thessalonians 2 through 18, it says, For we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, more than once, and yet Satan hindered us. If you're involved in ministry, and God is using that ministry, you can expect God to attack. That's just the way it's going to be.

In Revelation 2.10 it says, Do not fear what you're about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested. And you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Satan loves to put fear into our lives. And wherever persecution takes place historically, revival usually ends up taking place.

Even though he's trying to stop the church, it just seems like when he uses persecution and comes against it, it actually has the opposite effect. It makes the church grow. For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power and love, and of a sound mind. In verse 13 it says, Therefore take up the full armor of God, that you might be able to resist in the evil day, having done everything to stand firm.

Twice now Paul has told us to take up the full armor of God and stand firm. This is not an offensive position. We are standing defensively against the Lord. We're not on the attack against Satan. We're just standing defensively. Throughout this Ephesians passage, we're just standing defensively. We're not attacking Satan. We're never told anywhere in the scriptures to attack Satan and the demonic forces.

In Jude 9 it says, But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil, and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare to pronounce against him railing judgment, but said, The Lord rebuke you. And we're told in James 4, 7, Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Our job is to submit to God and resist the devil. We're not, as Christians, called to go out and attack the devil.

I don't know if you've ever, in your younger years as a Christian, ever tried to do that, but it doesn't work. That's God's job. In verse 14 it says, Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. The word says stand firm therefore. It's an imperative. That means it's urgent that we do this. Remember, Paul's under house arrest right now when he's writing this.

He's in Rome. He's in prison for two years. While he's in prison he writes four letters. He writes one to the Ephesians, one to the Philippians, one to Colossians, and the letter to Philemon. He was chained to a soldier this whole time. So when he's talking about the armor, he's seeing that armor every day. These soldiers are right here with him every day. These soldiers are right here with him every day for two years.

And so when he talks about the belt of truth, the clothes that a Roman soldier wore was basically a robe. And when a soldier was preparing for a fight, he would put this belt on and tuck the robe up underneath this belt so that his legs were free to move and he could fight easier. And when we apply the truth of God's word to our lives, it holds everything together so we can move freely to stand ready whenever Satan attacks. In Luke 12, 35, we're reminded to be dressed in readiness and keep your lamp lit.

We're to always be dressed in readiness. And to do that, we have to have the belt of truth on. To be dressed in readiness and to apply God's word to our lives, it will develop integrity, truthfulness, and honesty in our lives. The breastplate of righteousness, we do not have any righteousness of our own. The breastplate is made up of the righteousness that belongs to Christ.

He is our righteousness. None of us have any righteousness. None of us have any righteousness to speak of. As we grow in our relationship with Christ, he begins to use us as ambassadors to represent him to others. In Matthew 5, 16, it says, Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. When we do righteous things,

we want it to be done in such a way that people are drawn towards what God is doing and not ourselves because we don't have any righteousness in ourselves. We really don't. In verse 15, it says, And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, to have your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the Roman soldiers would have nails and studs in the bottom of their shoes to help them have a firm grip. And because of our relationship with Christ, we too stand firmly when we're in difficult times.

In John 16, 33, it says, These things I have spoken unto you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. We as believers are, what gives us our ability to stand in the midst of battle is that God gives us his peace. In verse 16, it says, In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one.

The shield of faith is our second layer of defense. Our first layer of defense is to be clothed in Christ, to understand our position in him and apply that understanding to our daily lives. Our second layer of defense is not to have our faith in our faith. A lot of times we talk about the shield of faith, a lot of people think it's our faith that makes the big deal.

But it's the object that you're putting your faith in that gives quality to your faith. You don't have to have a lot of faith, but it's what you're putting your faith in. If you're putting in your faith in your faith, it's not going to work very good. It's like, for example, if I put my faith in this stand to give me eternal life, it's not going to give me eternal life, no matter how much faith.

You know, I roll my eyes back in my head and I breathe funny. It doesn't make any difference what I do. This stand is never going to give me eternal life. But if I put my faith in Christ, it's the object, it's what I'm putting my faith in that's going to give me that eternal life. A lot of times we tend to make our decisions based on our emotions and not by faith in God's word.

And I would say, this is just my personal opinion, that I would say that we probably make 90% of the decisions based on what our feelings are at the moment that we make a decision. It's not by faith in God's word. And that's why it's important when we're tempted to do something that we know that's not right, that we not go by our feelings, but we stand in the faith of God's word. That's what walking by faith means.

Not to give in to your emotions, but to stay by faith in what God tells you. And he talks about the helmet of salvation in verse 17. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. In 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, it says the helmet, he refers to the helmet as the hope of salvation. The helmet protects our mind. Christ should be the focus, it should be focused on,

when our mind is on Christ, it should be focused on God. Our focus should be on the eternal, not on the casual things of this life. In 2 Corinthians 10, 3-5, it says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing,

raising up against the knowledge of God. And we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Much of the battles that we as Christians face deal within our minds. That's where most of the battles take place. In Romans 12, 1-2, it says, I urge you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice,

acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good, acceptable, and perfect. The renewing of your mind takes place when you spend time in God's word. And most believers, don't spend time in God's word.

They really don't. They come to church, but the majority of Christians do not spend time in God's word. A lot of it's just because they don't like to read. But if you don't like to read, they also have those apps where you can listen to God's word. And when you're driving or something, I know a lot of Christians that have those apps, they play it when they're on the road driving.

They play these apps where they can just listen to God's word. They can listen better than read. But there's a multitude of ways, that we can get God's word in us. But one of the worst things that we can do, is just totally neglect it, and not spend time in it. In verse 17, it says, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

The word of God is, when it says the sword of the Spirit, that means the sword belongs to the Spirit. It's not our sword. The Bible is not ours, that we go club people over the heads with. If we just share God's word faithfully to other people, as clearly as we can, the Holy Spirit will use that to touch people's lives. One thing we're supposed to do, when we use the word of God,

is to use it against Satan. And the best example of that is in Matthew chapter four, where Satan attacked Jesus, when he'd been fasting for 40 days, and Satan came to him. Satan said, If you are the Son of God, command these stones be made to bread. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8.3, and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

Then Satan had Jesus stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, Psalms 91, 11 through 12, He will give his angels charge concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. Satan knows how to twist scriptures. Satan knows scripture. He can quote it real good.

But Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6.16, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Then Satan took Jesus to a high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and told him, All these things I will give to you, if you fall down and worship me. Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 6.13 and 10.20, saying, For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve him only. Then Satan left him until a more opportune time.

It's important to stand firm in the word of God, when Satan attacks. It's also important not to drop your guard. Now, I can't speak for anybody else, but one of the best times for Satan to attack me when my guard is dropped is after I've finished ministering. Because beforehand I'm praying, I'm studying, I'm preparing, but after the study's over, I relax. And when I relax,

that's usually when Satan tries to attack me, when I'm not paying attention. But I know a lot of people, it's just the opposite. A lot of people get attacked before they do the study. Now, I went through a lot of trials for the last two or three weeks, but that was just God helping me to realize what I'm like. But it's important that we use Scripture against Satan.

Verse 18, it says, With all prayers 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 saints. All prayers is referring to our just communion with God. The petitions are talking about specific prayer requests that we have. And he says not only for ourselves, but for all the other believers also.

We're supposed to be remembering those who are being persecuted, whether we know them or not. But one of the things I'd like for us to be praying for is for the other people in this body right here. There's a lot of people here, I don't know hardly any of you, to be realistically. I don't know anybody in the second service. I go to first service, second service,

I haven't got a clue who's in second service hardly. It's like there's like 400 people that go here, and I maybe know 20 people by name. I don't know everybody real good. And the older I get, it's not going to get any easier. But it doesn't keep me from praying for everybody here. And it doesn't keep you from praying for everybody here. Because believe me, the way God's moving right now,

Satan wants to stop us. He wants to stop it. And he would love to hinder anything that's going on here. And the best thing we can do is be praying for everybody that's here and looking for whatever we can to build this body up in Christ. In verse 19 and 20, it says, 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. Paul asked for prayer for himself. Did you notice what he prayed for, asked for? He didn't ask to be out of prison. He didn't ask to have the chains removed. He asked for boldness to be able to speak in the circumstance that he was in. Most of the time when we pray, we're praying,

God, get me out of the circumstance I'm in. I want to be in a better circumstance. But God wants us to learn to stand in him in the situation that he's put us in. And so tonight when we close, not time to melt, right? Tonight when we close, I want to pray that God will give us the boldness to proclaim the gospel in whatever situation we are facing, that we will major on having a simple

and undistracted devotion to the Lord, and that our serving God will grow out of our fellowship with him, not just doing something because you want to have a ministry, but it grows out of the fact that you have a growing relationship, and that we can serve in his power and strength and not in our own. So let's go ahead and pray. And those of you that have your pictures taken, don't leave yet. You still have to get pictures taken.

Lord, I thank you for your word. And I thank you, Lord, that you help us to realize that we're not as strong as we'd like to think we are, and that you want us to depend on you, and you want us to grow in you. And I pray, Lord, that you do give us the boldness to proclaim the gospel in whatever situation you have us facing right now. And I pray, Lord, that you will help us not to let Satan's schemes distract us from having a simple and undistracted devotion to you.

And I pray, Lord, that our serving you will grow out of our fellowship with you. I pray that our fellowship with you will be the number one thing in our life that we want to draw as close to you as we can. And I pray that what service we do to you, it will be by your strength and not by our own. I pray that your Holy Spirit would move in this body in a way that you would be glorified, that people would see Christ moving in a way that is nothing that anybody does.

It's just you moving. And I just pray that you would just draw people unto yourself and help us just to be willing vessels to glorify you. And we just give you the praise and the honor and all the glory. In Jesus' name, amen. If you want copies of the notes, Mr. Joe Burkle back in the corner has the copies of my notes if you want a copy of them to take home with you.

And I think that's it. You're free to have some fellowship.