Successful Spiritual Battle // Ephesians 6:10-20

Welcome to the Movement Church podcast. We want you to know that God is

for you and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from one

of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your faith

is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as you

engage the Word of God. Stay tuned. That's the message for ways to

get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. Good

morning, Movement Church. It's good to see everybody. Thanks for coming out

on a snowy, snowy day. You guys are the real Christians. I'm

proud of each of you. Way to go. Just a little public service

announcement. We are starting our Christmas series next week and it's a series called

This Is Christmas. If you are a Spotify person or an Apple person,

I would encourage you to go download the song this Is Christmas. It's a

song I wrote with a friend of mine named Travis Ryan, and he just

released it last week, so you can look up Travis Ryan This is Christmas.

That song is going to serve as kind of our theme throughout this month

as we work through kind of the idea of that song, the theme of

that song, the heart of that song, this is Christmas. But today

we are finishing our Ephesians series with one final word, and so to do

that, I want to have Christine Wilson come up and she's gonna read for

us from Ephesian six. We're gonna be in the NLT today. This is

Ephesian six. Grab this mic right here, Christine six, ten through twenty.

Now, this is cool for some of you who weren't here for our

vision, which we entitled Moving Forward. I introduced that night the idea of

what we're calling our Wisdom Table, which is that's kind of how we're doing

leadership here at the Movement Church. Before we were the Movement Church, we

were an extension campus of another church, and so we had a strategic leadership

team and that allowed for us to have females on that team because it wasn't

ruled by all of the rules of the elder governance. Now that we are

a church, we need to live by kind of the standards set out for

us in scripture, and so we have an elder team and we still have

maintained a strategic leadership team. And what I love about the way we're approaching

this is that at the highest level of governance in our church, we are

still pursuing and looking to hear from the female voice in our church. Christine

Wilson serves as one of those females on our strategic leadership team that meets with

us at what we call our Wisdom Table. We meet twice a month's it's

kind of our elder and strategic leadership team gathering. And so Christine has just

come on the team and I'm so pumped that she's with us. Can we

give it up for Christine? It's a high level of leadership. So here

we go Ephesian six ten through twenty. Read it for us. This is

on a final word. Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's armor, so that you will be able to

stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against

flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,

against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits and the

heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor, so that

you will be able to resist the enemy. In the time of evil.

Then after the battle, you will still be standing firm, stand your ground,

putting on the belt of truth and the body of armor in God's righteousness

for shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good News, so

that you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold

up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put

on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which

is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on

every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.

And pray for me too. Ask God to give me the right word

so that I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the good News is for

Jews and gentiles alike. I am in chains now, still preaching this message

as God's ambassador. So pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him

as I should. This is the word of the Lord, all right.

So we've been in this book Ephesians now for some months. We've worked through

this dodible text. It's it's such a rich theological text, and now here

at the end of it, Paul says I've got one final word, one

final word. Dana does this thing to me every time she calls me on

the phone. You know, Dana does this thing every time she gets in

her car. You know, our cars have radios, our cars, you

know, we can listen to music, we can listen to podcasts. Dana

as soon as she realized that her car could serve as a bluetooth for her

phone, that's all she used. Her car is basically a twenty thousand dollars

bluetooth headphone set. That's all it is. As soon as she gets in

her car, she immediately makes phone calls. I don't she doesn't get on

the phone and any other time of the day, but as soon as she

gets in the car, she makes phone calls. And when she calls me

from the car, usually from the grocery store back to the house, she's

she's just kind of keeping me captive. This is what she does. She's

keeping me captive. And here's how I know I'm a captive. It's because

at the end end of every phone call, Dana says this, look,

I'm gonna let you go. You ever have somebody said look, okay,

I'm gonna ahead and let you go now. Oh you're gonna let me go.

That's what's happening. You're gonna let me go now. So that lets

me know that this whole time, I was a captive, right, I

was. I was in chains in this phone call. Right. But she

always says, but one more thing before I let you go. That's what

she always does, and it's usually something silly like don't forget to do this,

don't forget to do that, and then she'll say I love you.

I say I love you too. But every time that she gets on the

phone, it's I'm gonna let you go, but one more thing before I

go. And that's kind of what Paul is doing here. He's got one

more thing he wants to tell us before he lets us go. He's written

written this letter to the church at Ephesus, these people that he loves deeply,

and he's got one final word, and his final word is suit up,

get dressed for battle. But why we've covered all of this incredible material

in the Book of Ephesians. We've covered a lot and if you have missed

any of the sermons, get on the podcast and check it all out.

We've covered our identity in Christ, who God says we are. Ephesians two

says you were dead in your transgressions, you were the walking dead. And

then there's this beautiful two word phrase, but God, it's beautiful. God

likes big butts, and he cannot lie. And he says, but God,

being rich in love and true in mercy, he gives us grace.

And now we are alive in Christ. That's our identity in Christ. We've

talked about God's job description. What is God doing on the earth? What's

he up to, what's he busy doing? Where's he doing it right here?

We've talked about the only strength that matters, the strength that we get

from the Lord. We talked about the trade table. You remember this,

who won the trade? Come on, we won the trade. Tell the

person next to you you won the trade. Tell him right now. We

talked about what the gospel requires and what the Gospel produces. We talked about

Christian relationships. John Wilson did a wonderful job last week. If you missed

it, go check out the pot. It was beautiful, great job.

He Paul talks to us about the idea that Christian relationships should set the standard

across the world for what relationships should look like we should outdo one another in

serving each other, in getting as low as possible to serve the other person.

Christian relationships, and Paul makes the point all throughout the entire book that

the number one most important thing that we can learn is that it's all about

grace. Is that, from the very beginning, the source of all of

it, all of this good stuff that we get, it's all from grace.

Every bit of good that can be seen in any of us, it's

all a result of the grace of Jesus Christ. Now, if I were

finishing as a former worship leader, if I were finishing the Book of Ephesians,

after hearing all of that, I probably would go right into the doxology.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him out creatures here below.

I mean, it's just a moment where you just want to praise.

By the way, this is a funny story. This is a true story

about my dad. My dad. Who's This is my dad. This is

his resting, silly goofy face. This is my dad. I love my

dad. They came up for Thanksgiving. They drove twenty hours for Thanksgiving,

and they were like four hours away and I tested positive for COVID on Wednesday,

the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, so they came up. They had Thanksgiving.

I was in the basement in like the spare bedroom in the basement, like

sequestered, and there was Thanksgiving was happening all upstairs during Thanksgiving, and I

was downstairs like catching up on Netflix. But anyway, my dad and my

mom came and there's this one day we were leading worship at the chapel on

campus in bat Rouge, and we were leading the song Doxology, Praise God

from whom my blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below. And I

just happened to know I noticed my dad had this really perplexed look on his

face, just kind of it's perplexed. And he came up to me after

when he said, Hey, rich look, I don't want to tell you

how to do your job. Okay, I know you're a worship leader,

you've been doing this a while. But seemed to me like there was a

typo on the screen during the song. I said, oh, what was

the song? What was the typo? He said, well, during the

praise the doxology song, Uh, this is how he talks by the way

during the doxology song, it said praise Him all creatures here below. That's

not what it is. And I said, uh, yeah, Dad,

that's what it is. He goes, no, no, no, no

no. I said, well, what do you what do you think it

is that? He said, Well, my whole life, I've been singing,

praise Him all creatures, hear me ho. I said, I said,

what did you just say that? He said, yeah, like hear

me ho. And I was like, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet

dad, sweetheart, that's that's not it at all. And so anyway,

so if my dad were finishing the Book of Ephesians, this is how he

would finish it. Praise Him all creatures, hear me ho. But that's

not at all how Paul finishes it. He's got one final word. And

wouldn't you think that, after all this grace and all this incredible identity and

theology, that this would be a moment where Paul would say, Okay,

so now guys, get out there and go fight the good fight. What

would be a better moment to send us onto the mission field than this one?

In response to this rich, powerful grace that's given to us, this

purpose and this passion that he's laid out for us. But when I read

Ephesian six, it doesn't read to me like a locker room scene. It

doesn't read to me like that moment right before we go out onto the field

and we take charge. It doesn't read to me like William Wallace, you

know, they may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom.

It doesn't read to me like that. He's writing from prison. He's

writing as an old, feeble weak man. He's very human, he's very

fallible, he's very fragile, he's very humble, and he's become very aware

of the darkness that he's up against. He has made a choice, this

guy, the apostle Paul, has made a choice to live his life out

on the bleeding edge of faith. And he's telling us, guys, if

you're going to do this, it's going to cost you something. If you're

going to decide to live your life the way I've chosen to live mine in

light in response of all this rich theology, it's going to cost you something.

He wants you to know that your declaration of faith is a declaration of

war, whether you knew it or not. The moment that you say I'm

in. I'm in. I'm going to follow after Jesus. I have decided

to follow Jesus. No turning back, though none go with me. I

will follow that moment right there is a declaration of war and the enemy is

coming. It reads to me when I read this like the pep talk I

gave Justice before he went into middle school. I don't know if you know

this, but there's nothing scarier than the first day of middle school. Does

anybody remember the first day of middle school? Middle Schoolers are terrifying. Look

at them, They're terrifying. But this is what I told Justice, And

this is what's true about middle schoolers. And if you're heading into middle school,

or if you're in middle school, I have a word of counsel for

you. Are you ready? Middle Schoolers are like animals in the wild.

They're more afraid of you than you are of them. So if you walk

into middle school confident in who you are, unflappable, if you're just like

I don't care what anyone thinks about me. I like who I am.

Everybody else is going to go, what's your deal? How do I get

on board with you? That's kind of the vibe and the tone that I

get like, there is a way to approach middle school and win, right,

And I think Paul is saying, there's a way to approach the fight

that is ahead of you, and there's a way to approach it and win.

The fight is real, it's really intense, and there are some secrets

to success. So today I'm going to give you what I think Paul is

giving us is seven secrets to successful spiritual battle. Seven secrets to successful spiritual

battle. Are you ready? You're good? Everybody good with this? Okay?

So look, he says right off about a final word. A final

word, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Be strong

how in the Lord and in my mighty power. No, in his mighty

power. Paul's not saying that your strength is unimportant, but he is saying

that for the battle that's coming your way, your season tickets to the gun

show are not gonna do you any good. Okay. If you're walking around

trying to live off of your own power, your own strength, your own

confidence, your own knowledge, your own whatever. If you're trying to live

off of you, it's not gonna fly, it's not gonna work. A

final word, be strong in the Lord, and in his mighty power.

So here's the first secret. Forget about your strength and lean into God's strength.

Forget about your strength and lean into God's strength. So here's a question.

I would ask you, what is the source of your strength? What

is the source of your confidence? Is it your bank account? Is it

the amount of people that are following you on social media? Is it?

Your position at the office? Is it? I don't know how many friends

you have, how much wealth you have. What is it? What's the

source of your confidence? What's the source of your strength? Paul saying,

there is a battle coming for your soul, and if your strength is in

anything other than your God, you lose. Nobody wants to say, Amen,

come on, this is that's right. Thank you brother. Amen.

So forget about your strength and lean into God's strength. This week, I

would ask you, I would encourage you. Think about that as you go

throughout your day. Think about that, as you go throughout the course of

your day. What is it that you're actually relying upon. We can fool

ourselves into thinking that we're relying upon God, when really what we're relying upon

is our own knowledge, our own understanding, our own charisma, our own

personality, our own power. And he's saying, look, man, if

you're going to fight this fight, if you're going to win this fight,

it's got to be about you leaning in to God. Let's keep going.

I love this. In verse eleven, say the word all with me.

Every time we see it. You're ready put on all of God's armor so

that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil.

So we see it twice, put on all of God's armor to stand firm

against all strategies of the devil. Let me ask you a simple question.

How much of the considerable strategies of the enemy are going to be coming up

against you? All of it? Think about that. It's twenty twenty three.

Whether you're a Young Earth or an Old Earth believer, the Devil's been

around a lot longer than you have. He's seen a lot of human beings,

all these new creative ideas you have on how to live your life.

He's hurt it all. He's seen it all. The devil is cunning,

The devil is experienced. The devil's older than you. He knows more than

you do. Okay, how much of the considerable strategies of the enemy are

going to be coming up against you, all of them. So how much

it says, put on all of God's armor? So how much of the

armor of God are you going to need to succeed in spiritual battle? All

of it, not just a little bit of it, All of it.

So seven Secrets to successful spiritual battle Number two. You're going to need it

all to beat it all. You're going to need it all to beat it

all. And you're gonna, let me tell you something. He's coming for

you with all of it. He's not coming for you with just a little

bit of it. And when some of it doesn't work, he's going to

try something else. When that doesn't work, he's gonna try something else.

There is a crack somewhere in your armor, and he's gonna try to find

it. That's the way the spiritual battle works. Paul's writing this to tell

you it's coming. Get Ready, get ready, get ready. So you're

gonna need it all to beat it all. One of the worst things that

we've done in our culture, and this is me sounding like an old man,

get off my lawn. I understand that. But one of the worst

things that we've done in our culture is participation trophies. Okay, the idea,

the idea that we have said to young people, it's okay to not

be good at things. Just show up and be on the team, and

we'll give you a trophy at the end of the year. No, no,

no, I'm sorry, that's not how it works. When I when

Justice was eight years old, I coached his basketball team. By the way,

I found this meme. I think this is funny. It says I'm

a trophy husband, but like a participation trophy. Okay, so this is

this is what's happened to our culture, right, Okay, so what it's

a sweet little Justice. Yeah. So I coached his team and this is

for I nine sports and it was a volunteer deal. They didn't pay me.

And I told the other parents, I said, look, because they

said, we're not gonna keep score. There's gonna be a participant pation the

trophy at the end of the year. And I said, I hear you.

So look, here's what's gonna happen. We're gonna keep score and we're

gonna know whether we won or lost. I'm also gonna have a statistician.

I had another dad who kept stats on how many rebounds, how many points

and all that stuff like, we took it. I took it very seriously

because these kids had to learn, Okay, it matters. You're gonna need

it all to beat it all. Okay. So so anyway, I told

our kids, basically, all that matters to me is that you get rebounds.

That's what matters, because when you're eight years old, nobody rebounds.

The ball bounces in. I'll look at it and I go, guys,

if we get more rebounds, we get more shots. If we get more

shots, we get more points. We win. So that's all we ever

did in practice was we did rebound drills for two hours. The kids hated

it. I didn't care. We won every game. They didn't ask me

back to coach the next year. I don't care. We won every game

that year by like twenty five points. Why because you inspect what you expect.

That's right. So put on all of God's armor. Put on all

of God's armors so that you will be able to stand firm against all the

strategies of the devil. There are no participation trophies in the Kingdom of God.

You don't just get to sit the bench. You are in the game

friends. Okay, And if you're going to come up against the enemy who

is seeking to devour you, you're going to need it all to beat it

all. Okay, let's keep reading. This is so important. Look at

verse twelve, for we are not everybody say not, We are not fighting

against flesh and blood enemies. I want to repeat that we are not fighting

against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen

world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in

the heavenly place. Is therefore put on every piece of God's armors, so

you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then

after the battle, you will still be standing firm. Now, this is

so important. In our culture. Christianity is becoming less and less the majority

opinion. Are you aware of this? Are you feeling this? Are you

feeling this as you're walking around? We are more and more becoming less and

less Christian as a culture. Okay, So what we tend to do as

Christians as we tend to mistakingly confuse people who oppose Christianity as our opposition.

We tend to mistakingly confuse people who oppose Christianity as our opposition. Now.

Listen, I grew up listening to hip hop. I love rap music even

still sorry, I love it. I'm actually this is the truth. I'm

actually putting out a rap album in twenty twenty four. You're gonna hear more

about it. It's not a joke. It's really happening. I expect you,

all of you to download it, even if you don't like rap music.

I want you to get it. I got to get the numbers up.

Okay. But there's a term in hip hop that is very popular these

days. It started to happen in the last couple of years, and this

is the term ops. You know about ops, No you don't. You

don't have ops. You do, but not who you think they are?

Okay, So ops. Now hip hop people, rappers and producers, they

love to talk about ops. Okay. Ops is short for opposition. Okay,

It's short for the people that are opposing you now in hip hop,

very often these rappers they actually do have ops. They have people that don't

like them, that are talking smack about them. They have disc tracks and

so I got to come back at you with my you know you're my ops

and So here's what I'm gonna do for my ops. Anyway, that's the

way they talk about it, right. I just want to say to you

that Paul wants you to know that every Christian very much has ops. Tell

the person next to you you have ops, you have ops. But guess

what. People are not your ops. People are not your ops. Let

me give you this third point seven secrets are successful spiritual battle. People are

not the opposition. They are the mission. People are not the opposition.

They are the mission. Did you hear what he said? He said,

we wrestle not against flesh and blood, that's people, but we wrestle against

spirits and principalities. People are not your ops. Now, what the devil

does, what the enemy does. He basically has two jobs. He walks

around the earth and he's seeking who to devour. He has two really kind

of basic ways that he does this. He works to confuse and to accuse.

This is what the devil does. He just confuses and he accuses.

You don't have to look hard at our culture to see the confusion that's all

around our culture. Right? Am I wrong about this? Sexual confusion,

identity confusion, gender confusion, racial confusion? He is working hard to sew

division and to sew confusion into the minds of the people of our world.

It is no wonder that at this moment in human history, may mental health

is at an all time low. It is no wonder because the enemy is

having a field day confusing people about what truth is. And then he has

the nerve and the temerity to come alongside the brethren, the Christians. He

is the accuser of the brethren to come alongside of us and accuse us.

He confuses us, and then he accuses us. This is what he does

all day, every day. He's sowing division into every one of us.

This is what spiritual battle looks like. And what he makes happen is we

start to look at people in our world and instead of wrestling against the principalities,

we start fighting people. When Jesus said, go into all the world

and make disciples of people, instead we are making enemies of people. Just

because someone disagrees with you, that doesn't mean that they're your enemy. Just

because someone sees the world differently than you, that doesn't make them your enemy.

It makes them your mission. It's your mission to speak love, to

show them a different way. So when people oppose what God hasn't called you

to do. Don't fight against them, fight for them. Fight for them.

People are not the opposition, They're the mission. Can I hear it?

Amen? Okay, let's keep going. Stand your ground, he says,

putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness for

shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news, so that

you will be fully prepared. In addition to all of these, hold up

the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil. Put on

salvation as your helmet. Okay, Presley, where are you? I need

your help. Come on up here, Presley and your sweet mom. We

are going to have a model for us today. You guys just come right

down here, you go. Take all the stuff. You guys, go

ahead and put on all the gear. Just put it on. Let's start

with the well, we don't have it. There's not a belt in there.

So I'm gonna talk about the belt. But let's talk about this belt

of truth. This word truth is a word that is a low commodity in

our culture. You know what's happened to the word truth is we've put the

word my in front of truth. In our culture, we've put the word

your in front of the word truth. We've gotten rid of the word the

in front of the word truth. We just talk about truth in relation to

relativity. My truth, your truth, his truth, their truth. God

says, I want you to put on the belt of the truth, the

truth of God. The truth will set you free. Right. I love

the breastplate of righteousness. Can we put the breastplate on? Let's put that

one on. Go ahead, Presley. Now here's what it's not. It's

not the breastplate of self righteousness. She looks good, right, It's not

the breastplate of self righteousness. It's not the breastplate of how good I am,

how strong I am, how powerful I am, how moral I am.

It's the breastplate of His righteousness. I don't walk into the world carrying

my own morality, my own ability to keep up with the rules. I

walk into the world chest first with His righteousness. Do you see that.

I walk into the world chest first, protecting what my heart? What does

the Bible say, guard your heart above all else, for it determines the

course of your life. So you walk into the world protecting your heart with

the breastplate, not of your righteousness, but of His righteousness. I love

that it says that we're supposed to wear for shoes the peace that comes from

the good news, so that you will be fully prepared. This thing didn't

come with shoes. It came with these little shin plates down there. I

found these shoes online. Now these are called air Gospels, and you can

put your name on them. And this is faith over fear. Please nobody

buy these for me for Christmas. Okay, I will not wear them,

but you may know this about me. Yeah, you know, you probably

know that I love shoes, right, I love shoes. Man, Wearing

a nice pair of shoes, it just makes me feel confident, It makes

me feel good. When I was a kid, my mom and dad couldn't

really They were both school teachers that couldn't really afford to buy me shoes.

So when I went to school at an all black high school, I got

clowned for my shoes because I wore pay less shoes to school, and so

they clowned me. And so I'm still wearing the scars of that. That's

why I wear nice shoes all the time. But it gives me peace to

wear nice shoes. Look what he says, how beautiful upon the mountains are

the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings

good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says, design on your

God reigns. He says, put on the shoes of peace of the good

news. Why, because there's peace that comes from the good news. What

is the good news? Here's what the good news isn't. The good news

isn't that you can earn your salvation. The good news isn't that you were

worthy of the cross. The good news isn't that you are moral and righteous

and perfect. The good news isn't that you deserve for everybody's accolades to be

upon you. Know, the good news is that Jesus Christ saw the great,

vast distance that stood between your sinfulness and God's holiness, and he sent

Jesus to bridge that distance. The good news is that Jesus died for your

sins. And there's nothing that could bring you more peace than to know that

your savior gave his life for you, and you ought to say so.

Wear the shoes of the good news. The only way to overcome bad religion

is with good news. If you are the kind of person that grew up

in a very, very preachy, very earn your religion or earn your salvation

a very do do do kind of religion. Man, listen, the good

news is that you cannot, should not, will not earn your salvation.

All you need to do is receive it. Jesus has given it. It's

a free gift. Now the helmet of salvation, where is it. Let's

put this helmet on. Come on, Presley, get this helmet on for

us, the helmet of salvation. What does a helmet protect? Helmet protects

your mind. Helm it protects your brain. Now we've learned from the Walking

Dad the only way to kill a zombie is to take out their brain.

Right, So, because what happens if your brain dies, your body dies.

We're going to talk about this in the month of May. We're going

to do a sermons here is called your Brain in your Bible. We're going

to talk about mental health and how mental health professionals are finally praise God,

catching up with what the Bible has to say about your mind and about how

important your mind is to him. God wants you to have a sound mind.

He wants you to take every thought captive. The Bible says that we

are renewed by the transforming of our mind. Fascinating the helmet of salvation.

So what protects our mind the idea that we are saved. I'm forgiven.

You can say whatever you want to say about me. Dog, you can

say whatever you want to say about who you think I am and what you

think about my reputation. Guess what. I'm saved not because of anything I

did, but because of everything He did. I put on this salvation and

my mind is secure in that, the helmet of salvation. I love this

formula. The Gospel plus anything equals nothing. The Gospel plus nothing equals everything.

That's the helmet of salvation. Now here's what's cool. Give me that

sword back. You don't get that sword yet. Okay, she's got a

shield, she's got a breastplate of righteousness. She's got a helmet, she's

got shin pads. You look great. By the way, every single one

of these components so far is defensive. Do you see that all of this

is to protect her. All of this is to defend. None of it

is to attack. So secret number four to spiritual battle success, defense wins

championships come on Broncos defense wins championships. None of my hope is in Russell

Wilson Defense wins championships. Right that we've seen this defense wins championships. What's

he's saying. You've got to protect your mind, your heart, your feet.

You've got to protect yourself against the way that he's going to come up

and attack you. Knowing how the enemy often attacks, will set you up

to defend yourself, and that's what he wants us to do. So every

single one of these components, the shield, the helmet, the breastplate,

the shoes, the belt, they all serve just to secure a strong defense

against the attack of a very predictable enemy. That's the thing I want you

to really think about. There's this famous it's apocryphal, but there's this famous

quote about Martin Luther. There's this one night where he's in bed, he's

sleeping, the famous church Father, and he wakes up in a cold sweat,

and he looks over and Satan is in bed with him. And he

looks over and he goes, oh, it's just you, and he goes

back to sleep. That's the whole story. The idea of it is he's

so accustomed to this predictable knucklehead always coming after him, that he's not surprised

by it anymore. Helmet of truth or helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness,

shield of faith, shoes of peace. Right, he's got a defense

against all that, and you're going to need it all to beat it all.

Defense wins championship. Aha. But there's this one piece that I've left

out. It's this piece right here. Take Presley, Take the sword of

the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So here's the point I

want to make. Your only offense is the living Word of God. The

only way that you can attack the enemy, the only way that you can

fight back against what he's going to do, how he's going to come at

you, is with that sword. Look what the Word says in Hebrews.

It says the Word of God is alive and active. It's sharper than any

double edged sword. It penetrates. I love that word. It penetrates even

to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and

the attitudes of the heart. That's what the Word of God does. It

penetrates, it's active, it is a weapon. It is offensive. The

Word of God is what's doing, by the way, the dividing and the

judging and the penetrating. Not you, Okay, you're not the one that

divides. You're not the one that judges. You're not the one that penetrates.

Let's let the Word do that. We live in a culture where,

man, there's a lot of Christians that use the Bible as a weapon to

hurt people. Right, they use the Bible to hurt people. They're called

Bible thumpers. Wow. Why because they're thumping people across the head with the

Bible. Old fashioned, judgmental, culturally insensitive. These are the things that

we get accused of. But remember, people are not the opposition, they're

the mission. And so the prayer that I would ask you to pray as

you're thinking about how you process the Word of God is pray this prayer.

Lord, I pray that you would let the Word do its work in me,

through me for me. Let the Word do its work. Don't attack

people with the Bible, attack the enemy with the Bible. Don't attack people

with the Bible. Attack the enemy with the Bible. And I think about

this, Jesus fasted for forty days. Remember the story. He fasted in

the wilderness for forty days. Anybody ever fasted for forty days? Anybody here?

I'm intermittent fasting right now, so I only eat from like ten to

four pm, and at seven point thirty I'm grumpy. Okay, he fasted

for forty days, all right? And what did the enemy use to attack

Jesus with scripture? He came to Jesus and twisted scripture. Can you imagine

using the word of God against the word of God. That's what the enemy

did. And so what we had better do, What you had better do

for yourself is to know the Word of God for yourself. Know that sword.

Understand that sword, know how to swing it, know how to use

it. Get to know the weight of it, get to know the way

it feels in your hand, the way it operates in your life. Know

the Word of God for yourself. I can't know the word of God for

you, Okay, your dad, your mom can't know the word of God

for you. You've got to know the word of God for yourself because the

enemy is going to come up against you. So your only offense is the

living word of God. Can we give it up? For Presley? You

look amazing, great job. Thank you, you're done. Thank you all

right, last two and then we're done. I love this. In verse

eighteen, he says, pray in the spirit. Everybody say in the spirit.

Pray in the spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert

and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. I'm going to give

you the point. Then we'll unpack it secret number six. Keep interconnected through

prayer. Now, that phrase in the spirit. In the spirit could be

a very divisive phrase. Some people use this phrase as a way to say

that the only proper way to pray is if you pray in tongues because you're

praying in the spirit. That's not what Paul's saying. What he's trying to

tell you is when you're praying in the spirit connected to the Lord. Here's

how you know you're praying in the spirit. You stop only praying about yourself.

You stop only thinking about yourself when you pray in the spirit. He

starts to share with you the broader picture of what's happening in the Kingdom of

God. Pray in the spirit and what's gonna happen. You're gonna stay alert

and be persistent in your prayers for who all believers everywhere? So ask yourself

in your prayer life, how much time are you are you spending praying for

other people versus just obsessing about yourself, obsessing about what you need, what

you want, what you think? Paul say, Man, when you pray

in the spirit, the Holy Spirit, when you interact with him and cooperate

with him, he begins to share with you. Here's who you ought to

be praying for. Here's who you ought to be thinking about. And I

think Jesus modeled for that, modeled this for us and acts one the disciples

wanted to understand. This is right before Jesus teleported into heaven that the disciples

wanted to understand. So wait, okay, before you go, just tell

us real quick, what's going to happen. Look at this, it says.

Then they gathered around him and asked him, Lord, are you at

this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? And he said to them,

it's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set

by his own authority. But look at this, But you will receive power

when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And I love this picture. This

is what power looks like. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem.

So that's their very present, their very close present place in Jerusalem. In

Judea and Samaria, that's a little further out and to the ends of the

earth. So what he's saying to them is, if you're going to stay

connected to the Holy Spirit, what's going to happen is you're going to have

a broader picture of the world around you. I just want to say to

you as a church, this is our responsibility as a church. Every church

has to decide who is our Jerusalem. For the Movement Church, our Jerusalem

is the Trial Likes Area. We feel like the Lord has said, go

and reach the trilcs area for Jesus Christ. Go and bless them, Go

before them, let them know that God is for you, and so are

we. Go and earn the right to share the Gospel by loving and serving

them. Well, that's our Jerusalem. What's our Judea and Samaria. We're

not sure yet. We're praying about that. We're asking the Lord to show

us what's the next sort of layer out for us. Because we're connected to

the Southern Baptist Convention, We're going to be giving money to the state convention

so that they can support other church plants in our state. And so that's

kind of our Judea and Samaria and for us to the ends of the Earth.

Right now, we're partnering with site dot org. Some of you were

here a few weeks ago when Lewis Swan, the president of site dot org,

was here with us. I was in Tyler last week, Tyler,

Texas for their end of year board meeting. I'm on the board for site

dot org and man, it is unbelievable what God is doing through that ministry

in Togo, Africa. People are coming to know Jesus because they are first

coming to have their site restored by this incredible ministry that's happening. So that's

kind of how we're defining for a church. Who are Jerusalem, Judas are

and the ends of the earth is now let me ask you what about you.

I think every person and I think every family should think about this.

Who's our Judea or sorry, who's our Jerusalem? Your neighborhood? Who are

the people in your neighborhood? Who are the people next door to you,

across from you? Do you know their names? Do you know the names

of the people on your street. Don't answer some of us don't. Some

of us don't know the names of the people in our neighborhood. Get to

know the names of the people in your Jerusalem. Who's your Judaea and Samaria?

Do you know the people in your community? And who's your ends of

the earth. Find a way to make an impact beyond yourself. I think

that's what Paul's saying. Praying in the spirit means that you're connected not just

to your own little private world, but to the world that's bigger than you.

Amen. So keep interconnected through prayer, and this one. I've probably

never felt more connected to anything Paul has ever written me. Two. Amen,

Can I just say, would you please add Richie Fike somewhere in the

top five list of the people that you pray for? I would really appreciate

it. Pray for me too. Ask God to give me the right words

so I can boldly explain God's preaching this message as God's ambassador. So pray

that I will keep on speaking boldly for him as I should. As I

should. Let me give you the point secret number seven. Pray for your

leader to lead like he should. Now you can make this plural. If

you want pray for your leaders to lead like they should, that's fine too,

because we are led as a church by Like I said the Wisdom Table,

We're led by four elders and me and three strategic leaders on our strategic

leadership team. Pray for them. Put them on a list. We have

big decisions to make in the next three to six months. God has given

us some credible hills to take. We're so pumped and excited about what God's

doing behind the scenes at the Movement Church. I can't wait to tell you

about some of the stuff that's happening. I'm not allowed to tell you yet,

so don't ask me. But I'm so excited about what God's doing.

Pray for me. Would you pray for me? I'm serious? Like,

would you pray for Richie Fike? Would you pray for our elders? Would

you pray for our strategic leadership team. We want to lead this place with

humility. We want to lead this church with sincerity. We don't want to

lead from a place of ego, from a place of pride, from a

place of ownership. We want to lead with our hands held open before the

Lord. So pray for me too, just like he said. So that's

it. Seven secrets to successful spiritual battle Forget about your strength, lean into

God's strength. You're going to need it all to beat it all. People

are not your ops. Okay, people are not your ops. They're your

mission defense, wins, championships. Your only offense is the living word of

God. Keep interconnected through prayer and pray for your leader or leaders to lead

like they should. I think if we do this, I think if we

decide to soberly approach the fact that you have declared war on the enemy,

if you have said yes to Jesus, when you lifted your hand and said

yes, I will follow you, what that meant was you were saying,

yes, I will invade darkness with light. Yes, I will penetrate lies

with truth. Yes, I will bring hope into despair. Yes, where

there is confusion, I'm going to bring clarity. Yes, where there is

darkness, I'm going to bring hope and light and peace. The enemy is

like, oh really that's what you're gonna do. Well, then I'm going

to come up against you with how much all of it? And so you're

going to need it all to beat it all? So what's God lead you

to do next and how can we help? Would you send us an email

to info at Movementchurch dot co and tell us how we can pray for you

and help you take the next step in your spiritual journey. If you'd like

to contribute financially to our ministry, text the amount you like to give to

the number eight four three two one, or look us up online at Movementchurch

dot c. You can find the Movement Church on all social media platforms,

and we hope that you'll give us a follow God bless you, and remember

God is for you, and so are we.