Practical Helps for Spiritual Warfare (Part 1) | December 21, 2025 PM

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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist

Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

So we are in Ephesians chapter #6 you'll remember that last

week we looked at First Timothy chapter #1 and in that message

we looked at the reality of war. We saw that there is a war.

It's not a question of whether a war could come to you

spiritually, that it just is a matter of the Christian faith

that there is going to be a clash between the flesh and the

spirit. There's going to be a clash

between God and Satan. Now, listen, we already know who

has the victory, Amen. But yet there are still battles.

And we'll talk about that in just a moment.

The reality of warfare. We saw the quality of war that

we were to war. What type of warfare?

A good warfare that we were to make sure that we were to fight

what we could even call a beautiful warfare.

Not that it's not a very difficult thing, and not that

there can't be some very difficult moments in it, but the

fact of the clash between the good and the evil and that good

overcomes, there's a beautiful quality to that.

And that we need to fight that good fight that we need to war

that good warfare. And then we saw the tools of

warfare and we saw the very basic ones that were given to us

in first Timothy chapter #1 that we were to fight the war with

faith. I mean, how are you going to

fight against the spiritual darkness that's in this world

without faith? I mean, faith is the substance

of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen by

it of those of the Old Testament.

It says in Hebrews Chapter 11 obtained a good report, and by

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

it today we are saved just as they were saved of the Old

Testament. So we've all saw faith, but then

also have a good conscience as well.

To be able to have a good warfare, you got to fight with a

good conscience. That you can't fight pretty,

could we put it that way? But that you have to fight with

some spiritual tools. And we're going to be looking at

that tonight. That we saw that the stakes of

the war were this, that there were two men who were named

there in First Corinthians, or rather First Timothy chapter #1

who had gone shipwreck. They'd gone off the rails

because they did not war that warfare.

That they ought to. They didn't lose their

salvation. But could we put it this way?

They lost everything else. They were saved as by fire, but

yet we wouldn't look back at their life and see that there

was a lot that was there to be meaningful.

And if we don't fight that fight, sure, your salvation will

not be taken away, but your peace, your joy, your

effectiveness, your testimony. We go on and on and on.

All of it could be taken away in a moment.

Why? Because you were not willing to

fight the good fight of faith, as we were told in First Timothy

chapter #1 Well, we're. Going to look.

At some principles this evening of warring that good warfare and

listen, it is is real. It is important for us to fight.

You know, my mind goes back to the War of 1812 and there's a

very decisive battle in the War of 1812 called the Battle of New

Orleans. And if you ever done some study

on it, Andrew Jackson was the general that was in charge of

the American troops. And those British troops at that

time, you know, they they still had a lot of thinking about

warfare in the well, not the colonies anymore, but in the

United States wilderness and those kind of things.

They were so different than warfare in Europe.

You know, on Europe, they would have warfare by like, going out

to the square in the middle of town and they, you know, shoot

at each other for a few minutes and probably, you know, go to

the pub afterwards and grab something to drink.

That's the kind of way that they would have warfare over there.

Of course, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but you

understand. But here in the wilderness of

America, it was a lot different, wasn't it?

Well, they would be in the Battle of New Orleans.

They were still war for the British, were still warring in a

way that was, well, very European in a lot of ways.

They would line up in beautiful rows.

They would walk forward together, even if the terrain

wouldn't really allow them to do so.

And it was said that they had these red coats on that also had

red stripes across going just like this.

Well, it looked like a real big target right in the middle of

the chest. And so Andrew Jackson would tell

them with their muskets, he'd say, hold your fire, hold your

fire. Wait until they come close.

In fact, he said this. Wait until you can see the

whites of their eyes. And as they did so, they

unloaded everything that they had.

And the Battle of New Orleans was won very decisively by the

Americans. Now, many people know that, but

here's a footnote of history that's very interesting about

the Battle of New Orleans that not a lot of people know.

The War of 1812 was already done. 18 days earlier, the peace

treaty had been signed between the United States and Great

Britain and the battle the war was over.

But guess what? The word hadn't gone from the

peace treaty that was signed to New Orleans.

And they were fighting and the war was already done.

I guess nobody looked online to know what was going on.

You know, nobody checked Facebook or X or Twitter or

whatever it is called nowadays. They didn't know.

What I'm saying is this is they, the fight was already, oh,

listen, the battle had already been won.

Victory had already been secured.

And I kind of think about the Christian life kind of like

that. Listen, understand, this victory

has already been secured through Jesus Christ.

The victory was done. You say, when was that taken

care of? Well on the cross?

And it was authenticated at the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

First Corinthians chapter 15 talks about that at length, that

1 Corinthians 15 · chapter mention

the, the, the resurrection of Christ authenticated upon that

upon which Jesus Christ did on the cross.

But that's not to say that there aren't still battles and

skirmishes. They're going to take place.

Listen, the victory's already been secured.

We live in a place of victory, not as defeat.

As Christians, everybody ought to say Amen to that.

We live in a place nobody did, but that's OK.

Everybody ought to because we live in a place of victory as

Christians, because Jesus Christ has wrought the victory.

But there are still battles and skirmishes that have to take

place just like, well, the battle of New Orleans, well, had

to happen. And in the same way, we have to

make sure that we are going to fight that good fight of faith

because the adversary, even though he's lost, will not give

up. He's in his death throes like

some animals. You know, snakes can be cut in

half and still will be alive for a period of time.

That's why I believe they're all from the devil, every one of

them, because they could still latch on to you even though

they're in the midst of dying and even though they're cut in

half. And Satan, listen, that old

serpent, his back has been broken already.

Genesis 315 talks about the fact that his head has been crushed.

But at the same time, we know that he's in these death pangs

that will take place for a little while, and he can still

cause great destruction to your soul.

So what we need to war this good warfare, what we're in.

Ephesians chapter #6 Why don't you stand with me?

If you will. We're going to read Ephesians

chapter #6 beginning in verse #10.

And tonight, I want to give you 12 principles for fighting the

spiritual fight. Now, as soon as you heard that

number 12, your mind just went, whoa, like, this isn't good.

Pastor, how long are we going to be here tonight?

No, no, it's going to be a normal.

Ish type of message, all right, but I do want to give you some

very basic, some very helpful principles to fight the fight

that God has called us to fight when it comes to spiritual

warfare. Now look with me in Ephesians 6

Ephesians 6:10

verse 10. It says this.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his

might. Put on the whole armor of God

that you may be able to stand against the Wiles of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against

principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the

darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high

places. Wherefore take unto you the

whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil

day, and having done all to stand.

Stand therefore, having your loins gird about with truth,

having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet

shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be

able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take

the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is

the Word of God. Praying always with all prayer

and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all

perseverance and supplication for All Saints.

In this text we see the armor of God.

And listen, we can preach a whole series on the armor of

God. We had a Sunday school series

years ago that went over the armor of God in very great

detail. We're not going to do that here

tonight, but I wanted this to be a launching pad for us this

evening to look at some of the realities of spiritual warfare

and how you can win through the victory that's already been

secured by Jesus Christ. So why don't you sit down this

evening and we'll pray together? Heavenly Father, we do thank you

for this night and we thank you for your word and what it

teaches us, how it helps us. I pray that was received here

this evening will be helpful to each and every believer.

Lord, I know it's been helpful to me.

Or help us not to just hear these things, but help us to put

them into action. Help us to make sure that we

prepare the armor of God within our own life.

We thank you for what we have here tonight in front of us.

Let us learn from it and we do ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Tells us here in our text that we are to be strong in the Lord

and the power of his might and this is really where it starts

isn't it? Are we to be strong in our own

power You know we're to be strong in his might.

We're to be strong in the Lord and in my Bible I have in the

Lord circled and his might circle Why because the reminder

that if you are going to fight within your own power and your

own name you are going to lose in the name of Adam, I lose in

the power of Adam I lose but in the name of the Lord and the

power of his might. Listen, you can't lose when you

avail yourself to the power of God, which is greater than any

of the power that Satan can muster up.

Even having the knowledge and the understanding of what the

Book of Revelation says that he will do and what God will do,

Satan will still try to usurp Jesus Christ at the end times.

And Jesus will just utter words and Satan will collapse and he

will be defeated and all of his in minions and all of his

armies, even God telling him what's going to happen.

He can't avoid it. God explaining to him how he

will try to fight, he can't get around it.

Satan has no power. That's why we need to fight in

the Lord's power and in the Lord's might.

And it says just put on the whole armor of God.

That word hole in the Greek means this hole.

Yeah, you said that's why I came to Liberty Baptist Church for

tonight. Yes, that's what you came to

Liberty for. Hole meaning this, the whole

armor of God is necessary. Each piece is.

Important. Just like someone who was about

to go out to the battle if they forgot a piece of their armor.

Listen, that could be very devastating.

You could have devastating consequences.

You don't say, well, at least I've got the majority of my

armor on. I must be doing pretty well, no?

So each of these pieces that are mentioned here are important in

their own way, and each of them are things that we need not in

our weekly or our monthly or in our yearly spiritual life.

Each of these we need every day to be able to wrestle against

the flesh, and not the flesh and blood, but the principalities,

powers, the rulers of darkness of this world against spiritual

wickedness in high places. And so that we can withstand the

devil and having done all to stand in verse #13 but then it

gives us what this armor of God actually really is.

The next verses. And if you have the opportunity,

your Bible, I would circle these just so that you know, it starts

with having your loins girt about.

With what? With truth.

Listen, everything starts with the truth.

Being able to understand the truth of God's Word.

Listen, you must equip yourself and outfit yourself in your

loins, meaning this in the very most intimate parts of yourself.

You must be acquainted with the truth.

Why do we talk about, and we'll talk about this more in just a

moment, why it's so important to be in the Word of God.

Listen, you have to know the truth.

You have to understand the truth.

And by the way, you don't just know the truth because the

pastor gives you the truth on Sunday morning, Sunday night,

and Wednesday night. Although I try to endeavor to

give you the truth and everything that I say from this

pulpit, but you need to know the truth for yourself because you

are in the Word of God yourself. I can't give you enough on a

Sunday morning and a Sunday night and a Wednesday night to

equip you with the truth for the entire week.

Listen, it's a daily fight. I can't prop you up every day.

And by the way, it shouldn't just be me digging up things in

the Word of God for you. You ought to allow the Holy

Spirit to teach you things in the Word of God for yourself so

that you know, here's the thing, you have the same Holy Spirit

that I do. You say, well, pastor, you went

to Bible college. Sure I did.

Pastor, you commit your life to studying the Word of God and you

have books and all these different things.

Sure I do. But I'll tell you the most

important part of all of that is the Holy Spirit.

And it's that same Holy Spirit that you have and He can teach

you. Your loins must be girt about

with that truth, and it continues with the breastplate

of righteousness. Listen, holy living is important

of being able to live a life that eschews sin and says this

no, I don't want to do right. And I don't want to let the

wicked one within the camp even of my own life.

And that I need to make sure that every place where he can

worm his evil head in is able to be stopped up.

Because I need to live a life of righteousness.

I need to be able to think righteously.

I need to be able to speak righteously.

I need to be able to act righteously.

Everything within me should be dealing with righteousness.

And again, this is not our own righteousness because we have

none. So what are we equipping

ourselves with? The very righteousness of God?

Because this is what will make the difference.

The blessed, the breastplate of the righteousness, covering the

heart, making sure the very heart is covered by the Lord's

righteousness. The feet shod with the

preparation of the gospel of peace, that it's not just about

ourselves. What are we doing?

We're protecting our feet as our feet are going to do what?

Give the gospel to other people. How beautiful are the feet of

those that preach the gospel. Romans chapter #10 Now listen.

When it comes to people's feet, listen, I don't want to talk

about that anymore. Actually, let's move on.

All right, But the idea of this, the feed of someone who is going

to give the gospel, that's a beautiful thing in the eyes of

the Lord. You cover your feet.

Why are you covering your feet? Because you ought to be going

out and giving the gospel to other people as well.

We'll be talking more about that over the next weeks and months

here at the church as well. And says above all, taking the

shield of faith, you say, why is that?

Above all, because without faith, where are we?

We just saw that last week. Faith in a good conscience.

This is what we need in the battle.

Above all, faith. Why?

To quench the fiery darts of the wicked.

And this is what they would do in warfare.

At those times they would take darts of the arrows, and they

would try to take them and try to fling them towards the

Shields of those who were on the opposing.

Side and a lot of times. During those days, Shields we

made of something like wood. Metal Shields were a thing, but

they weren't always something that everybody would be able to

carry. We see metal Shields in the Word

of God, and when they we do see them, often times they were

precious, like the metal Shields that Solomon had in front of the

temple. And so by and large soldiers

would have wooden Shields because, well, that would be

enough to be able to prevent the darts and the arrows to be able

to hit them. But what happens when they were

firing darts? Well, you've lost your shield.

But what do we see that we have a shield that is not a

precarious shield like others would have that are field of

faith is able to withstand the darts of the wicked that the

Lord's when he when the faith that we have in our life is

strong and it's what he is. Remember through the spirit,

it's it's a a a spiritual gift. You know the faith that we have

that we see through the Holy Spirit.

What do we find that he is the one that will help us through

those things to quench the fiery darts of the wicked because

here's the thing he's going to attack you.

Satan will every day he is going to send those darts towards you

every single day and that's why we find the fruit of the spirit.

Faith is part of the fruit of the spirit.

Why because the spirit strengthens our faith as we

commit ourselves to Christ as we choose faith.

What does he do? He will strengthen our faith if

we allow him to be able to do so.

And then it says and take the helmet of salvation and the

sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, Your head, your

mind protected with what salvation?

That decision that you have made to accept Jesus Christ, your

behavior and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of

God. Ironically, this is the only

offensive piece of weaponry we see here.

Everything else is defensive, but the offensive weapon.

What offensive weapon do we have?

Listen, all you need is the Word of God.

That's what Jesus used against Satan.

That's what Jesus used when he was talking against him, not

because he needed to speak the Word of God to Vanquish Satan,

but because he was showing us, as I've said before, the pattern

of which we are able to conquer Satan not with our own words,

but with the Word of God. And so if I was to give you some

practical preparations here tonight for spiritual warfare #1

is this prepare yourselves for battle?

Well, we see the preparations right here that we are to take

each of these pieces and that we are to put them on.

Well, how do we know we put them on properly?

How do we know we're doing and what we're supposed to be doing?

Well, verse 18 says praying always with all prayer and

supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all

perseverance and supplication for All Saints.

Pray and supplication. Supplication means praying on

behalf of others as well, not just praying for yourself, but

as we pray for one another, as we pray for the Saints, as we do

so and we persevere. Meaning this, don't give up.

Don't give up because you had a bad day.

Don't give up because you made a bad decision.

Don't give up because you fell. Get up, dust yourself off the,

the, the man who is, is righteous may fall down, but

seven times he will get back up and do that.

What you should do. What should we do?

Prepare ourselves for the battle.

That's number one. And we see that here in

Ephesians chapter #6 #2 how are we to fight this spiritual

fight? And again, these are very

practical things that I want to give you tonight #2 is this

guard your heart? Guard your heart.

Proverbs chapter 4, verse 23 says this.

Proverbs 4:23

Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the

issues of life. The greatest possession of which

God has given you is not your money, it's not your home, it's

not your car, it's not anything else.

It's the heart that he has given you, the heart that we have that

we are to keep with all diligence.

On its own, it's evil, it's desperately wicked.

Who can know it but yeah, when the Holy Spirit cleanses the

heart, listen, we still in our flesh need to make sure that we

are keeping it with all diligence, like a gardener who

has a beautiful. Garden.

I don't. Understand anything about

gardens. We've been lifelong renters, all

right? I don't understand anything

about it. The best we can do with the

garden is have like a few potted plants on the porch and we kill

those two, all right? So we don't even do so well with

those. But I do know this way from

watching people that have gardens listen.

They're very meticulous about them.

They take great care of them. In fact, if you ask somebody

about their garden, get ready because you're about to start a

30 minute conversation. With them, because they're going

to tell you everything about that garden, they can tell you

everything they planted, they're going to tell you exactly what

they're. Used in the soil, how often they

water it, what the yield will be from what they're getting,

they'll tell you about their tomatoes.

And by the way, there's like a tomato coming from a garden, you

know what I'm saying? Compared to the store.

But still, you'll have these conversations.

Nothing wrong with it, but people are proud of their

gardens and it takes a lot of work.

In fact, if you want to get cheap tomatoes, here's what you

do. Don't start a garden, all right,

because you have to get cheap tomatoes.

It's going to cost you a lot to take care of it.

They'll be better than what you find in the store.

But you say, why would you say that, pastor?

Because there's a lot of tilling and tending of that soil that's

necessary to get a good yield. You're going to have to make

sure you pull out those weeds. Why are you going to pull out

those weeds? Well, because those weeds will

steal the water and the nutrients that the good we'll

receive, they won't get it if you make sure that if you leave

them there. So you're constantly tending the

soil, you're tilling the soil, you're making sure that you're

watering, you're checking for pests, you're doing all these

different things. If you don't do it, your garden

is not going to be what it ought to be.

If that's true for a garden, how much more true is that for the

heart that we constantly need be tending?

The heart listen, because out of it flows everything in our life.

Proverbs 2826 says he that trusted in his own heart is a

fool, but he that walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.

The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the

mouth. Speak it, listen if you are

having. Trouble with your words.

If you have trouble with the words that come out of your

mouth, that they are not good and healthful and that which is

edifying to other people, listen.

That means there's a problem deeper in your heart.

Listen, things don't just come out of your mouth that you don't

know where they came from. You ever heard somebody say

that? Well, I don't know where that

came from. Well, I got an idea where it

came from. It came from your heart.

This is where it comes. This is why it's so important

that Christians use good sound speech.

This is why we don't curse. This is why we don't take God's

name in vain. This is why we don't laugh at

dirty jokes or tell dirty jokes. Why is that?

One of the reasons why is because if we do, it's a sign of

a heart that's really not exactly where the Lord wants us

to be. So we want to make sure that

we're using speech that's healthful and that's right.

Which means this. We don't just change the speech.

We go all the way down to the heart and check where's the

heart problem and go from there. So #2 Guard your heart number.

Or three, don't ignore the battlefield of the mind.

Don't ignore the battlefield of the mind.

Listen, you want to know where a lot of spiritual warfare takes

place? Are you ready for this between

your two ears? Almost all the spiritual warfare

that takes place comes right between these two ears.

I'll tell you I found this to be my observation as a pastor from

pastoring for 12 years and of course being a youth director

for seven years before that. Particular as a pastor,

especially in the digital age we live in with the podcast, we

have music. I mean, you realize on your

phone you have pretty much all the music that has ever been

created for all time within like two or three clicks on your

phone at any given time. You have Spotify, Apple Music,

Amazon Music, whatever you might have on your phone.

We have all of these things. We have Audible, we have

YouTube, we have all these different things of not even

counting the television and streaming and all these things.

I have found that a lot of people have these noisemakers on

all the time. You know why?

Because they don't want to think about what's going on between

their ears. I've counseled people before

that say something like this, so I rule out a bed about. 6:00 or

7:00 Pastor. As soon as I do, I turn on the

television and I'll just kind of have it on the background during

the morning. And then when I start going to

work, you know, I turn on the podcast or I turn on the.

The the, the audio book and then I go to work and then of course

you have things going on at work.

And then I go home and I go to the gym and I'm listening.

I'm not saying there's anything wrong listening to music.

I'm not saying there's anything anything wrong with a good

podcast or a good audio book. In fact, I happen to enjoy all

of those if they are things that are honoring and edifying to the

Lord. But I will say this, if you are

constantly. Listening to noise, it could

very well be because you don't actually want to pay attention

to what's going on between your ears and Satan has lulled you to

sleep. One of the things that we often

don't talk about as believers is this meditation.

And no, I'm not talking about crossing your legs and wearing

some kind of weird outfit and going on for a while.

I'm talking about meditating on the Word of God.

Listen, having your devotions is great.

I hope you have your devotions in the morning whenever you

happen to have them during the day.

We're going to look more at that in just a moment.

But I will say this, if you are not regularly just taking time

to not just read your Bible, but think about what you just read

for a while, you've got a problem.

Lord has been convicting me about this and I'm trying to

work on this and I feel like I go in cycles with this where I

will be on my phone not even constantly but just more than I

need to be and I'm reading about stuff I don't even care about.

I'm reading about stuff like. Why?

Why am I reading about what's going on?

You know, with, with, you know the harvest in Rwanda, you say?

Well, what does that have to do? With things I don't know, I just

pulled it up right here, so I'm going to read about it for about

5 or 10 minutes. What do I care about what,

what's going on? You know, with the Russian ruble

in contrast with the euro, in contrast with the American

dollar. I never even thought about it

till it came up on my phone. But now I'm really interested in

it. I'm going to scroll for 10 or 15

minutes and reading something that has nothing to do with

anything that deals with my life.

But I haven't thought about the Bible all day.

Well, how are we going to win a spiritual warfare if we're not

even really paying attention to the fact it's going on in our

mind? What is Satan try to do?

He tries to build up strongholds within our mind.

That's why it says in 2nd Corinthians 10 versus 4 and 5,

for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

But mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,

casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted

itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity

every thought, every thought to the obedience of Christ, that is

a sobering verse that we're to bring every thought into

captivity. That lustful thought has to be

brought into captivity. That angry thought has to be

gotten to captivity. That bitter thought has to be

gotten to captivity. That selfish thought has to be

brought into captivity. Every single thought has to be

brought into captivity. We're not to allow our minds to

just run away with themselves. Now listen, I understand that

there are times when that does happen, but what does the Bible

say when it starts to happen? What do you do?

You got to bring it back in. In fact, first Peter chapter one

verse 13 says this. Wherefore gird up the loins of

your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that is to

be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ

girding up the loins of your mind.

You may understand that during this time that that men would

have wore robes, and those robes were long and flowing, but if

they had to run and they get somewhere quickly, they had to.

Gird their loins, meaning this again, the loins, that

midsection, they would take that belt that they have around them

and they would wrap that long flowing robe around them.

In such a way that they would cinch it up and all of a sudden

they could run and there was nothing that was encumbering

them. There was nothing that was

flowing freely. And all of a sudden, same

outfit. But now that it's been cinched

up, now that they've been girded up, he can run and nothings in

his way. And what do we need to do when

our minds get a little bit that things are flapping?

In the wind, what do we need to do?

Gird up the loins of our mind and cinch things up and ask the

Lord to help us. Lord, my mind is going out of

control. I've got these thoughts of fear.

I've got these thoughts of anxiety.

I've got these thoughts of anger.

And I I can't get rid of him and listen.

Sometimes the thoughts, even of themselves, are not sinful

because they're temptations from Satan.

He's putting those in your mind. He's putting them in your mind.

He wants you to be able to dwell on this.

In fact, sometimes maybe even say where did that thought come

from? Why do I feel angry all of a

sudden? I was just sitting here and now

I'm angry. Listen, that thought that came

into your mind in and of itself is not sinful.

Here's the question. What you do with it is going to

be sinful if you dwell on it. Just as if there was a an

immodest woman that was to walk past me and I happened to see

her in my line of sight. Just seeing her wouldn't be lust

because, well, I wasn't looking for.

But if I turned my head and looked again, what I do with it

would end up being lustful. It's the same thought with those

emotions that bubble up. Listen as it bubbles up in and

of itself. You don't even know where they

come from. Now, we know the originator

comes from Satan, but you don't know from left field how it came

into your mind. But here's the question.

What are you going to do with it when it gets there?

You know, dwell on it for a while, like a like a tooth that

sore that you just kind of bite on a little bit just to make

sure it still hurts like that don't make a lot of sense.

You know, people do stuff like that all the time.

Does this still hurt? Yep, it still hurts.

Satan loves to have you do that and dwell on things that hurt

and things that aren't good. Cast them down.

You say, well, how? How do I do that?

Well, it seems like we have some tools here in Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

6 that will help you look committed to prayer.

Give it to the Lord every single time it comes into your mind.

Stop what you're doing. If you're driving, keep driving.

But I'm just saying stop what you're doing and say I'm not

thinking about anything else until I give this to the Lord.

You know, you could have two or three days where you feel like

you're not doing anything because you keep praying on it

over and over again. But do you trust that God can

give you the victory if he promises he can in his word?

Yeah. That you're able to take those

mental ruts that you have and to fill those ruts in and replace

them with trenches of truth to. We'll look at this in a moment.

Memorize Scripture that can help you with those issues.

Praise God for that. Don't, don't ignore the

battlefield of the mind #3 #4 know the rules of engagement.

Know the rules of engagement. Now, again, not understanding

about warfare, not understanding about the military.

I do understand that the rules of engagement are the guidance

that is given for warfare. It's the way that you know you

can wage a good fight. It's the way you go to war.

A good warfare. If we're to war a good warfare

listen, then we got to know the. Rules.

We got to know how to fight fairly.

We have to know how to fight with a good conscience.

I heard it said before that you could take the word Bible if you

could make it as do an acronym and look at it as basic

instructions before leaving Earth Bible.

And there's a lot of truth to that, isn't it?

And that's why knowing the rules of engagement, going back to

what's said here in Ephesians chapter 6, you need to know the

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

word of God. You need to understand what is

in the word of God. A Christian who is negligent in

their study of the Bible will not be able to properly really

engage in spiritual warfare. I just want to put this to you

at the most basic level I possibly can.

You cannot wage spiritual warfare.

You cannot win against the forces of evil that try to

prevail against you if you're not in your Bible every day.

I don't know a plainer way to say that to you tonight than to

say that you must be in your Bible every single day.

Say well, tell me what I should read, pastor.

Tell me where I should read. Tell me how many chapters I

should read. Listen, Start somewhere, but be

in the Word of God. Listen.

Start small as I've said before, so that you can at least start

the habit and grow longer later, but you would be better.

To at least. Just start the habit.

But if you're not in your Bible every day, then you're not able

to have the word of God be able to penetrate your mind as you

want to. Now listen, I understand that

there are times when things are hard, there's difficulties,

you're sick, you got up late, you're going to work and those

kind of different things and and you're not able to read your

Bible like you ought to. But I'll tell you, here's a

temptation and many of you are probably like me.

I have my Bible reading time in the morning.

That's what I find. To be the best time to be able

to read my Bible. Because as the day goes on, at

least in our home, it seems like the responsibilities of the

home, the family increase. So by the night, it's very much

more difficult to read the Bible than it is in the morning when

it's quiet and you got a cup of coffee and the world just feels

quiet. Nobody's texting you, nobody's

calling you, nothing like that. It's a really good time and I'm

not saying you have to. I've heard people from this

pulpit say that the Bible says you have to read your Bible in

the morning. The Bible talks about people

meeting with the Lord in the morning, but there's no command

in the Bible to read the Bible in the morning.

Listen, whenever you read it, praise God for it.

But I will say for many of us who do read our Bible in the

morning, I do know this and Satan gets us here.

You get up late, something goes goes wrong and you don't read

your Bible. And then just for the rest of

the day, you don't read it, but you watch 3 episodes of a show.

If you listen to a podcast to and from work, listen.

Wouldn't it be better for you at least to listen to your Bible

reading on your on the road than to not have the Bible at all?

Now, I much prefer to read my Bible with the Bible in front of

me, but I would rather hear it being read to me on my phone

than I would by than to not have it at all.

Because here's the thing, I have 30 minutes.

I could have an hour in the car. I could listen to an hour of

podcast, well, because they say, well, I got to read my Bible.

I've got to have it in front of me.

No, what you need to do is you need to have the word of God

penetrate your heart. And that means that it's such a

priority that you say this, if I miss in the morning, something

else has got to go later in the day so I can read it later.

And again, I know that things happen.

And listen, if you miss your Bible reading for a day, I'm not

saying that you're a failure. I'm not saying that all of a

sudden your spiritual life is going to collapse like a House

of Cards if you miss it for one day.

What I am saying is this is it that much of A priority in your

life that is a priority that Trump's almost every other

priority? I mean, what other priority

could be? I mean, we know there's some

things of the physical that sometimes have to take place

sometimes if you're so I'll that.

You can't even read. The Bible, I understand that

those things that happen, but under normal circumstances it

should be your highest priority. Why?

Because it is the rules of engagement.

It tells us how we are to wage the war.

Listen, if you are tempted in a certain area and you have

difficulties in certain areas, which by the way, you know who

I'm talking to, everybody, as I've mentioned you before, all

of our temptations can be different, but we all are

tempted in different areas and Satan knows what buttons to

push. Have you ever even tried to

memorize Scripture that deals with your area of temptation?

Do you have them on note cards? Do you have them written down?

Do you, do you have it on an app on your phone?

You know, there are Bible apps that can actually help you with

Scripture memorization, that can help you on a daily basis to be

able to learn and memorize Scripture.

And oftentimes I hear people say things like this to me.

Pastor, I have trouble memorizing things and I want to

help you with something. I don't want to be unkind.

Well, I want to be a little bit unkind.

All right, no, I don't want to be unkind, but I do want to be

very clear about this. Everyone can memorize what they

want to memorize, OK, Unless you are very elderly and have issues

that are mentally like Alzheimer's, dementia, those

kind of things. What I'm saying is a lot of us

can memorize a lot more than we want or that we think we can

memorize. You memorize the way to work.

You memorize. You don't.

The things that we memorize, it's the things that we do often

and a lot of times say, well, I can't memorize this Bible.

Well, you read it three times in a week.

Well, you're not going to memorize it.

Why don't you take one verse and say three times a day I'm having

an alarm go off on my phone and I'm going to study that for two

or three minutes. You know what you'd say?

I'll memorize one verse a week. You might find you could

memorize more than one verse a week that way.

You know why? Because you're around it.

And it's amazing that people can tell me all the stats of

baseball teams. They can tell me about how many

episodes of their favorite television show there were and

what characters were written on and died in the show and what

seasons and what episode. And they can tell me about the

dialogue and different things like that.

What do you ask about the Bible? You got a deer in the

headlights. Look, listen, if you want to

memorize the Bible, you can memorize the Bible.

I don't know another easier way to say it than that.

Take time to memorize. Write it on note cards, put them

around your house. Do different things like that.

Say I struggle with certain sins.

Well, it seems like God's given us the answer for those things.

Everything that pertains to life and godliness is in this book.

And so will you take the Word of God and use it?

It is the rules of engagement. Well, how do I fight against the

lust? What does the Bible say?

How do I fight against the bitterness in my heart?

What does the Bible say? How do I fight with this angry

spirit I deal with all the time? What does the Bible say?

How do I deal with the the fact that I'm more motivated by self

than by anything else? What?

What does the Bible say? And if you don't know what it

says, find it. And once you find it, commit it

to memory. That's what it comes down to.

Know the rules of engagement #5 cling tightly.

To the truth. This is a combination of #3 and

4 three is don't ignore the battlefield of mine #4 know the

rules of engagement. Cling tightly to the truth.

You know the fog of war. You ever hear of that?

The fog of war. The fog of war leads to a lot of

mistakes. You know, sometimes we don't

even see that necessarily warfare.

We see it in sometimes very difficult circumstances,

tragedies. I think of the Boston bombing,

the Boston Marathon bombing, you know, several years ago, some of

the reporting that came out the first few hours afterwards was

completely false. No.

Why? Because they're reporters and

they're the media. No, no, that wasn't reason why,

although that doesn't help but. Because in the fog of war, if

you will, those first couple hours.

People are hearing people swap stories and tell stories, and

some of them are not true or some of them is what maybe what

people perceive to happen and not what actually happened.

And so it takes a while to understand exactly what happens.

And I've heard that in warfare that can be even more so the

case, the fog of war, you think you know what's going on, but

you don't exactly know what goes on.

And because of that, there can be grave mistakes if you're not

careful. In our battle with Satan, he'll

attempt to divert your attention with many half.

Truths. And sometimes outright

falsehoods. That's why it says this casting

down imaginations. There are often times I've had

difficulties with other people and that I have got riled up in

my heart and I'll have to go to that person and say, listen, I

want to talk to you about the situation.

I'm not even saying this is about you, but the Bible says

casting down imaginations. I'm afraid that maybe I have

thought something about you that's not right.

Can we just talk about the situation?

You know what I've found nine times out of 10 when I do

something like that, I found out there really was no issue in the

1st place and it was just something that Satan had built

up in my mind. And by talking to that person,

you know what I've done? I've casted that down, an

imagination that I built up in my mind.

You say, well, that would be awkward to do.

Well, that's why we don't do that, because it's awkward.

We don't feel good about that. But I would tell you this, the

peaceable fruit of righteousness that comes afterwards when your

mind is cleared of that which Satan has built up in your mind

is such a wonderful thing. Listen, Revelations chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Revelation chapter 12, verse 10. He is the accuser.

Revelation 12:10

Of the brethren, he will lie to your face.

He creates this fog of war in the midst of the spiritual

battle that we're in. John 844 We just read this this

morning. Year of your father, the devil,

the lusts of your father. He will do.

He was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the

truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a

liar and the father of it. Listen, don't trust what Satan

is trying to whisper in your ear.

He's trying to cause confusion. This is why you need to be in

the Word of God. And one of the greatest

deceivers are your emotions. One of your greatest deceivers

are your feelings. Your emotions and your feelings

will often lie to you. Now, are we thankful for

emotions? We are.

Are we thankful for feelings? We are.

Listen, God is the one who gave us emotions and feelings.

I'm glad that when I deal with people that I'm not dealing

with, you know, like AI, like I'm dealing with real people

with real emotions. You understand what I'm saying?

I'm thankful for that. It's what makes life worth

living in a lot of ways, these emotions that God has given us.

But listen, you are to govern emotions and emotions are not to

govern you. That's why when you might feel

on a Sunday morning, I don't feel like going to church.

Well, who said your feelings had any control over that?

Well, there's a lot of times I don't, you know, I would say a

lot of times. There are times I don't feel

like going to church. Be careful, I say.

I've never. Feel like going to church?

No, There are times that even as a pastor, it's a Sunday morning.

I think, oh boy, you say, well, that's not very spiritual.

I know that's what we're talking about.

I know it's not. But I'm talking about the fact

that I'm a real person and I deal with this and listen, my

feelings don't really have any say in it.

I'm going. I better get it right with the

Lord before I go. That's why I tell parents, you

know, don't ask your children if they feel like going to church

or not. Listen, they need to be in the

House of God. That's why we made a decision

even before we were full time in the ministry.

Our kids were going to be in the church Sunday morning, Sunday

night, and Wednesday night. Why?

Because I want them to get more of this and they're getting

anywhere else in the world. I'm going to give them as much

of this as I possibly can. I don't want the school

downloading into them. I don't want the.

Television. Downloading into them.

I want the Word of God to be in them more than anything else,

but Satan doesn't like that. And our emotions get to this

place where I'm. Like I don't.

Feel like doing this or I don't know if I'm Listen, what does

the word of God tell you to do? That's what you need to do #6 be

willing to train. Be willing to train.

I think we're going to stop here tonight in just a few moments

because I got six more and we're not going to make it.

But that's not the point is The point is to get what we need to

be, not to necessarily get through the list that I have

here tonight. I want, I want to be a help to

you tonight. I hope this is a help, but be

willing to train again. There's so many things about

this that go with warfare, but I've heard this said before.

The more you sweat in boot camp, the less you bleed in war.

The more you sweat in boot camp, the less you bleed in war, the

more that you get when the stakes are low.

The better you will do. When the stakes are high, and

listen. Why do we have?

Sunday school and Sunday morning and Sunday night.

And Wednesday night and then last month we had a missions

conference, which is also a Thursday night.

And a Friday night. And then we have outreach on a

Saturday and don't, don't you? Don't you think we have lives,

pastor? And now listen.

I want to be careful about this because there was a time in our

independent Baptist movement where I feel like the thought

was that you need to be in church 7 nights out of the week,

4 weeks out of the month. And if you weren't seven nights

out of the week and four weeks out of the month, then you

weren't even a spiritual person. And what ended up happening,

there was a generation, if not more, of people who were in

church a lot, but they lost their families when their kids

got older because they're never even around their families.

So I want to. Be careful at Liberty Baptist

Church so we don't over program here.

I try to be very careful about that.

Try to be sensitive about that in the very best of way to know

that we're not here so much that you don't have, that you block

out the life that you have and the other responsibilities that

God has. Listen, even if you don't have a

family, God has responsibilities for you that you need to take

care of. You want to be careful about

that. But I will say this church is a

boot camp, and the reason we're here so much is this, and the

reason we want you to be here so much is this.

Because the more you sweat in boot camp, the less you believe

in war. Why do I do want our family to

be here every time the doors are open?

It's a sacrifice, absolutely. It's a sacrifice, but it's a

sacrifice that is worthy of the time and the effort.

Because I know this, when I come in contact with all the forces

of evil outside of this building, I know that I'm better

prepared because of what I've learned while I'm here.

I want my children to be here because I want them to grow up

in the nurture, the admonition of the Lord to hear those

things. I'm thankful that I have two

adult children who love the Lord, who love Jesus Christ, who

love souls. And listen, I understand when

children become adults, all bets are off.

Listen, everyone has to come to the Lord their own way.

But I do know this, I want to do everything that I could.

My wife and I, it was a conscious decision by both of us

that we want to do everything that we could to make sure that

they had as much of the Bible in them so they could make the best

choices possible. And I would tell you this, it's

not convenient to bring your kids to church.

It's not easy to bring your kids to church, especially like when

the kids start throwing their shoes at people.

I won't mention what his name is.

It's not convenient. It's not easy.

But I look at two daughters that I have and I say this every

minute of every hour of every day was worth it.

It was worth it. And listen, the glory goes to

the Lord because we've got a lot of things in our life that we

said, you know what, we would love to have started over again

with what we know now. Actually, let me be clear, we

don't want to start over again. But I'm just saying, like you

said, you want another child. No, I'm not saying that.

I'm just saying if I could with them again.

Anyway, what I'm saying is I've learned a lot since then.

We have learned a lot. And I wish we could, you know,

correct the mistakes that we made, and God and His

graciousness filled in the gaps where we missed.

But I'll say this. Listen, you want to be in the

House of God. It's not well, the pastor wants

the attendance to be really high for who nobody cares.

And I mean, this is the very without being weird, it's all I

can go around saying. You know how many people we had

at church? We had 60 people at church.

Nobody cares out there. There's not a person on earth

that cares. I don't go call another

passenger of the week. How many people do you have at

church? I went to how many people?

We had church. So if I did that, somebody said

we had 200 say well, well, we had 60.

Never mind. It doesn't matter.

You know why I want you here? Not so I can brag to the town or

brag to other pastors. I want you here because I know

what church will do for you and your family when church is done

right as I believe it is here at Liberty Baptist Church.

Not just because of me, but because of the great Spirit

that's here. It's a great fellowship that's

here. When it's done right, it ought

to strengthen each and every one of us.

You don't want to miss that. All the other things that people

make priority of. Listen, make the House of God a

priority. Last Sunday, about 70,000 people

gathered at Gillette Stadium. There were three inches of snow.

It was just three inches. Us Hardy New Englanders, we

don't mind 3 inches. But I will say it's amazing that

3 inches people still get to work 3 inches, 70,000 people and

all the employees will make it to Gillette.

But there's a lot of people and I'm talking generally speaking,

not specifically will say this. I don't want to go to church

now. Thank the Lord at liberty.

We had a great attendance last week despite it.

So that's a wonderful thing. What I'm saying is this, don't

allow anything other than the things that God prevents you

from being in the House of God to be in the House of God.

I say this with people at home tonight and I'm not looking at

you. This isn't romper room.

I'm not calling you out looking at you tonight, but say some of

you, you have illness, you have difficult things in your life

and you can't help not being here tonight.

I understand that the Lord understands that because the

Lord has brought these things into your life for a particular

time, a particular purpose. But I will say, unless you're

providentially hindered, this is the word that we use often, be

in the House of God. Why?

Because there's a real fight out there and you got to train and

this is our training ground. There's so much more I want to

talk to you about, but we're just going to stop here and

we'll pick it up again next week.

Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of

Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing

to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us

know by contacting us at [email protected].

Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,

MA. May the Lord bless you as you

grow in His Word.