Cosmic War | The Unseen World (Part Two)

Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and

live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this

message. Welcome to church, everybody.

We OK? Doing OK, Mr. I haven't been

called Mr. I don't know. You just hear him call me Mr.

Jared Kegel. I'm like, not old enough for

mystery, am I? I mean, I got three kids, my

oldest is 10, but I need, I need probably 10 more years before

they could call me Mr. Maybe. So don't feel like you have to

do that. Hey, I'm grateful to be here.

Honored that I've been invited back for those of you, I don't

know, I was here a couple of years ago for about 8 months, I

guess, and honored to, to be back with you.

So excited to see all that God is doing and has done.

I mean, we, we're basically a movie theater now with the

screen behind me. I walked in.

I'm like, what is happening? I can't there used to be a choir

back there last time I was here. Now we got now we got a big

scream, but no it it's it's really incredible to see see

what God is doing and I'm honored to to get to open up the

word with you today as we're in this series called the unseen

world. Mark told me right here at the

hot corner. He's like you're a brave 1

coming up here talking about spiritual warfare, jumping into

a series and I said I wasn't given much of A choice.

So here, here we are. We're just being obedient to the

call. But as we as we do dig into this

series, I think it's an important topic for the days

that we're in to consider the unseen world.

And Pastor Ben did a great job of kind of kicking us off last

week and giving us a fly over of what we're going to see over the

next several weeks. And the reason I think it's

important to talk about this topic is because if you're like

me, you kind of sit back and you watch the news or you, you watch

social media or you go to dinner with friends and you're

listening to what's happening in the world around us.

And it's like, what in the world is going on?

How in the world did we get here to where we are?

And my task today is to kind of go all the way back to where it

all started and, and where it all went wrong.

And, and talk about the war that happened in, in, in heaven with

Satan and his angels against Michael and his angels.

And how this cosmic war began and how it's going to come back

to fruition as well with Jesus ultimately victorious.

Spoiler alert. But we're going to talk about

the fact that there is a war behind every war.

We don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

Remember our verse that kind of encapsulates our series, right?

Ephesians chapter 6. Maybe we'll, we'll throw that on

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

the screen really quickly here. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 12

Ephesians 6:12

for we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. Our fight is not against one

another. Our fight is a deeper fight that

there's a war behind every war. And that's what I want to talk

about today. I wonder if you've ever had a

autocorrect moment that went wrong, like you know what I'm

talking about on your phone where you're you're trying to

send a text and what you meant to send isn't what actually

sent. Anybody know what autocorrect

is? I'm looking for some nods.

OK, let let. I've looked up a few I wanted to

show you today. The first one's kind of between

a boss and his employee. That's Tony and me apparently,

because Coach Chris Guthrie has a sense of humor.

So this this, you know, just pretend that I work for Tony for

a second. And I sent Tony a text and I

said, hey, I'll be re signing this Friday the project

agreement. But the autocorrect changed my

words and said, hey, I'll be resigning this Friday.

Do we have agreement? And this is the kind of thing

that you really don't want to just miss by this much.

You know what I'm saying? We so close yet so far.

There's another one here. I think this one is between

friends. I really appreciate your help

today. Auto corrected to.

I barely appreciate your help today.

That's a tough one as well. What about one between husband

and wife? No, I'm not married to Tony.

I believe Lynn is so no worries there.

Hey Hun, just picked up dinner. You're amazing.

Auto corrected to Hey honey, just picked up dinner and you're

annoying. That's and not what you want,

certainly not what you want. Sometimes I think that Satan's

the one who invented autocorrect.

You know, he's, he's manipulating it all behind the

scenes. And when we think about this,

you know, Satan, his mission is to divide.

It's to steal, kill, and destroy as Jesus said it.

It's it's to ultimately destroy the people who follow God.

Why? Because Satan wants to be God.

He, he wants everyone that follows God to be destroyed so

that everyone will follow him instead of God and he can be the

one that ultimately everyone follows.

His mission is to destroy everyone who serves God because

his ultimate goal is to rule instead of God.

We see this in Isaiah chapter 14 where we see Satan's original

Isaiah 14 · chapter mention

rebellion starting in verse 12. How are how you are falling from

heaven, O day star son of dawn. This is talking about Satan

here, how you're cut down to the ground.

You're you, you who are laid the nation's low you you said in

your heart, I will ascend to heaven above the stars of God.

I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of

assembly in the far reaches of the north and look at this verse

14. I will ascend above the heights

of in the clouds. I will make myself like the Most

High. This is what the Bible says was

in Satan's heart from the beginning, that that I would be

like the Most High. But you're brought down to

Sheol, to the far reaches, the pit.

Isaiah 14 goes on to talk about the casting down of Satan

because in the original rebellion he was created as one

of the angels, but he rebelled because he wanted to be like the

Most High and therefore he was cast down.

But I don't want you to miss this thread because it's a very

similar thread to what we see in Genesis chapter 3 when Satan LED

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

humankind into rebellion right in the beginning, right here in

Genesis 3 verse one. Now the serpent who is Satan was

more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God

had made. And he said to the woman, did

God actually say, did God really say?

Are you sure that that's what he said?

Just just a little bit of a seed of doubt that he plants right?

And we'll come back to that as we go today.

But I think it's important for us to see this seed that Satan

continues to use. Does did God actually say that?

Did he actually say you shouldn't eat from that tree in

the garden? And the woman said to the

serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but

God said that you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the

midst of the garden. That's the tree we can't touch.

If we do we will die. But the serpent said to the

woman, you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat

of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing

good and evil. Isaiah 14 Satan was cast down

because he in his heart he wanted to be like the most high

God. Genesis 3, he led mankind into

rebellion by saying you can be like God to be like him, to be

like the Most High. That was at the root of Satan's

rebellion. It was at the root of mankind's

rebellion, and I believe it's still at the root of our

rebellion today, that this is the highest form of idolatry to

be God. Little G We're in a period of

history now where we have more access to information, more

access to resources, more access to knowledge, more access to

power, more access to comfort than ever before.

And I think we're most well positioned now to actually be

our own God, independent without him.

This is a dangerous reality that you don't have to leave your

house. You can get anything and

everything you want from your house.

Uber Eats, Kroger, Kroger, Dash, I don't know what it's called,

but you, you just order it. Amazon.

I saw a commercial the other day on Amazon's got medical now.

Like you could just talk to a medical professional on Amazon.

They send you the medicine you need.

We have so much access. We have the ability to, to be so

independent. We, we have the ability to be

our own provider. And I think Satan knows that

very, very well. And he's working as hard as he

can to ruin us. Remember, the bottom line for

our whole series over the next several weeks is that the unseen

world that's around us is it is just as real as the one I can

see. And it's shaping my life every

single day. And if we sit in this for just a

moment, it gets a little bit hopeless.

It gets a little bit scary. It's, it's like, what do we do

with that? But, but I want to come today

with some hope. I want to come with a victorious

path because I believe that the Bible shows us a victorious path

and ultimately A victorious model in Jesus to follow.

So let's walk slowly through Revelation 12 together.

If you have your Bible, I want to invite you to go ahead and

turn there. If you don't have your Bible,

that's OK. It'll be on the screen and we're

going to go all the way to the end, almost Revelation 12, the

last book of the Bible. And about halfway through that

book, remember, the apostle John is the one who wrote the Book of

Revelation, and he wrote it from an island called Patmos where he

was exiled there to spend the rest of his days.

And while he was there by himself, God was giving him

vision and the in these visions, he was then writing the letter

in the Book of Revelation so that we could see today visions

of heaven and, and what's coming.

And, and, and there's so much here and some of it's really

hard to interpret. So we're just going to spend

some time in just a few verses as we're looking at this war

that's taking place and that ultimately will take place and

ultimately will be won by Jesus. Revelation 12, verses 7 through

Revelation 12:7–12

12 really shows us this epic prophecy about the tribulation

that's to come. Let's pick it up in verse 7.

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against

the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he

was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in

heaven. And the great dragon was thrown

down, and that ancient serpent who is called the devil and

Satan, the deceiver of the whole world, he was thrown down to the

earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

And then I heard John says with a loud voice in heaven, saying,

Now the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and

the authority of his Christ have come.

For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down.

He who accuses them day and night before God, he's been

thrown down, and they have conquered him.

Don't miss this by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of

their testimony. For they, they love not their

lives, even unto death. That's a beautiful verse of

Scripture. Revelation 12/11.

I don't have a tattoo, but that might be a good one.

I don't know, maybe not. Wow, never mind on that one.

I mean, I'm trying not to mention Georgia and Auburn up

here, but you guys, soon as I say tattoos, it's quieter than a

church mouse, OK? They love not their lives, even

unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens,

and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea,

for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he

knows that his time is short. I want to leave this up just for

a moment right here, Taylor, because this is important.

I want you to see three quick things from this part of

Scripture. The first one I want you to see

is right there in verse 12 at the end.

It's the urgency of Satan that he knows his time is short.

He knows his time is running out and so he is in a hurry.

He is looking at the Bible says in first Peter 5 that he's

prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to

devour. He's not patient in that

posture. He is aggressive in that posture

because he knows that his time is short.

The second thing I want you to see right here is the victory

that we have in Jesus that's found in verse 11.

Because they who conquered, conquered by the blood of the

Lamb and the word of their testimony, the blood of the

Lamb, the blood of the spotless perfect Lamb, the sacrifice that

was final and complete, we can stake our hope always in this

truth, which becomes the word of our testimony.

And we know from Romans chapter 10 that faith comes through

Romans 10 · chapter mention

hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

So this is how we conquer. We remember and we rest in the

blood of the Lamb and we share the word of our testimony.

And then the third thing I want you to see right here really

quick is that this is not our home.

And that's the promise of paradise right there in verse

11. That's how they could love not

their lives, even unto death, because they knew that this was

not their home. They knew that there's a greater

place being prepared for them. Jesus said, I'm going to prepare

a place for you in perfection in heaven.

We can never forget these three things.

That time is running out. If Satan's going to be urgent,

we better be urgent. The second thing we can't forget

is that the end is already written.

Victory has been accomplished by the blood of the Lamb and the

word of our testimony. And the third thing right there

that we need to remember that is that this is not our home.

We can't treat this like it's our home.

And I know I'm preaching to myself right here because that's

hard. It's never been easier to be

comfortable. It's never been easier to make

this place our home. We got to hold on like this.

There's power right there in verse 11, because what would it

look like if we truly loved God more than we loved our life?

What would it look like if we truly love not our lives, even

unto death? I know that's some interesting

English language right there, but I just take that to mean

like they, they didn't love their life more than they love

the promise of heaven. What would it look like?

What would it change the way we live?

Would it change the way we talk? Would it change the way we obey?

Would we be a little more bold? Would we be a little less

afraid? Would we be worried about less?

If we love not our lives even unto death, wouldn't it change

it? Like what would it look like?

And the beautiful thing is that God gives us a model of what it

would look like, because Jesus is that model.

He He loved not his life, even unto death.

Philippians chapter 2 tells us that he was in the form of God,

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

but did not find equality with God a thing to be grasped.

So he humbled himself and took on the form of a servant.

And being found in human form, in the likeness of men, fully

God and fully man, he humbled himself and became obedient to

the point of death, even death on a cross.

And in that sacrifice, as he rose again on the third day, God

highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every

name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every

tongue will confess in heaven, under heaven, and on earth, that

Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

And we see in this model what it looks like to walk through life,

holding it loosely, loving it, loving it not even unto death.

I want to look at, like I said earlier, this there's a war

behind every war. And I just want to look at four

of those wars today. 4 There's I think there's four really

important wars that we're fighting and there's a war

behind each of those wars. And so I want to look at them

kind of one at a time for the rest of our time together.

The first one is the war in your home.

There's a war in your home. This is an important war in your

home, maybe one of the most important wars that you're

fighting. We can't forget that we don't

wrestle against flesh and blood. I have this ritual at night

where I've got I, I y'all going to make fun of me after this.

So just, I'm just going to be OK with that.

But like I, I have this neck warmer, you know that you put in

the microwave and you put it around your neck and I don't

know what's in it. It's crazy, but it gets hot and

it warms my neck up. I think it's rice or something.

But I'm like, how does rice get that hot?

I don't know, maybe something else is in there.

Anybody have one of those? Anybody know?

I'm talking about? OK, a few of them.

I got my tea, I got my comfy sweats.

I'm going to bed. I'm just, I'm not going to sleep

yet, but I'm just winding down. All right?

This is kind of my routine. And I know when I've done that

way too early, When I hear the plates and the dishes clanging

in the other room in the sink, you know what I'm talking about.

And it never fails. I'm sitting back and I'm like,

Oh no, you've done it now. And if she's really on edge,

she'll kind of fire off a shot from the other room.

You know, like, nice if you could help me tonight with the

dishes, Like, oh, but I got my neck warmer and I got my tea.

This is my moment, you know? And if I'm in the flesh, I kind

of get up out of bed slowly. I go in there with a bad

attitude and I start helping. And then that bad attitude steam

rolls into more cutting remarks from her.

And we're in this moment. And it's like all of a sudden

one thing leads to another and the fight is now like a mile

down the road from where it started.

Like, we, we were talk. We, we, it was just simply that

I wasn't helping with the dishes at first, but now we're fighting

about like, something that happened four years ago, you

know, and I'm so disoriented in this moment.

And so now I'm fighting with her about how she didn't forgive me.

Like she told me she forgave me four years ago.

So now the argument is about forgiveness, which means she's

not following God closely. And now it becomes a real big

thing because I'm preaching to her.

And that never works, OK? Never but the the fight, like,

do you think there's probably 100 other examples we could use?

But you know how it just it just stacks and compounds and

compounds and all of a sudden this thing is way blown out of

proportion. But it was never a fight about

dishes, right? And the war, the fight that's

really underneath that fight, is the devil trying to distract us,

trying to take us and pull us apart, trying to get us to think

about all the bad negative things about each other.

And before long, we can't handle the snowball effect in the

kitchen. Because if he can get us to

fight each other, we'll stop fighting him.

And if he's urgent with the times, we better be urgent with

the time. And so often we lose sight of

the fact that there's a war behind every war.

The enemy is not your spouse. The enemy is the darkness that

wants to destroy your unity, that wants to pull you apart.

The second war that I want to look at today is the war in your

mind. This is an important war too.

One of the only things that we can control is our mind what,

what's going on inside of us. And, and, and this is, this is a

big topic and I'm not going to get into medical conversations

with this because I know for, for some of us, when it comes to

needing to be regulated with medication.

And I, I understand that this is a much bigger topic and I'm not

going to stand up here like a psychologist today.

I'm just going to really get to the top of the waves about what

it looks like day-to-day to have a thought life that is managed

because the war in your mind if if the devil can't make you sin,

I think he'll start by making you distracted and getting you

thinking about all the other things and getting you getting

you confused and with a lack of clarity that that he'll make you

distracted, that he'll make you worry, that he'll make you

fearful, which leads to anxiousness and, and he just, he

just wants you to spiral in distraction.

How prevalent is depression and anxiety in our day?

How easy is it to spiral out of control and fear and self doubt

and hopelessness? And how often does Satan whisper

to us you're not enough or what's the point of praying God?

God's not even listening. How could God be worried about

you? He's got way bigger things going

on. He's not listening, he's not

near or his favorite. Did did, did he really say that?

Did God really say that? These are the things that the

devil whispers into our ear to try to get us distracted from

the truth. But in these moments, you have

to remember you're not fighting against your emotions.

You're fighting an enemy who manipulates your emotions.

And that's very important because it's not that we need to

have less emotions, but sometimes we think that we have

to push them back or we have to fight against them.

When in reality, what's going on is Satan is really crafty at

manipulating our emotions and getting us consumed and

distracted by them when God has given us truth to stand on and

he's given us how to fight. 2nd Corinthians 10 is a beautiful

part of Scripture where Paul teaches us this.

He says we don't wrestle, Sorry, He says we don't.

We walk in the flesh, but we're not waging war according to the

flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,

but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

And then Second Corinthians 10, verse 5 says this.

2 Corinthians 10:5

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the

knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Take every thought captive. When I was younger, my mom used

to say that Jared, take every thought captive today.

Take every thought captive today.

I'm like, what are you talking about?

I don't know what that means. What does that mean to take

every thought captive? Take every thought captive.

She never explained it. Take every thought captive

today, Jared, Take every thought captive.

And over time, the more I grew up, the more I realized, like,

that's one of the most important truths I could ever have

day-to-day. Take every thought captive.

And so I was thinking about what's a picture I could give

you of what that looks like? And, and for whatever reason, my

crazy mind went back to the full Nelson.

Anybody remember the full Nelson?

Anybody know? I'm talking about the move, the

wrestling move where they put your arms behind and they get

you like this and your arms are out like this.

Just put them things in a full Nelson.

All right, I know it's corny, but just get, just go with me

for a second. Take every thought captive.

When it comes in, take it captive.

OK. Is that true?

Before you let it run wild in your mind, is that true?

Is that good? Is that pure?

Is that right? Is that Holy Scripture says

whatever is true, whatever is right, whatever is pure,

whatever is worthy of praise. Think about these things.

Take it captive, and if it is true, let it go.

And if it's not true, throw it out.

And how you throw it out is by focusing on something better,

focusing on something greater, focusing on truth that you could

stand on. Take every thought captive.

There's a war going on in our minds.

We have to be ready to fight. It's one of the hardest ones to

fight. The third war I want to talk

about today is the war on your screens, phone, iPad, not really

TV as much anymore because we got ATV right here.

Now, you know, we got full control of what we see, what we

hear. But then as we're controlling

that, it's like, oh wow, it's controlling me.

It's telling me what to like. It's telling me what I like.

I would like to have those shoes.

I would like to own that house. I would like to remodel my

kitchen. And the devil is so savvy with

that algorithm. There's a war going on, on your

screens. And we could talk about the

temptation that's happening on your screens.

We could talk about the way that you're getting not only

misinformation, but just inappropriate material if you're

not careful on those screens. We could talk about that.

But what I really want to talk about today as it relates to the

war on your screens is the fact that the devil is trying to get

us to be against each other on those screens.

There is nothing like the anonymity of a screen that

causes people and even Christians to start throwing

stones against other Christians and against other people.

I've never seen anything like it.

Comment sections just going off. I remember back in COVID,

remember when we shut, like we had to shut everything down for

a little bit and then churches started opening back up.

And the churches that didn't open back up, we're all mad at

the ones that we're opening back up.

And the ones that we're opening back up, we're all mad because

they were mad that they were opening back up.

And everybody's mad. And we're just aggressively

attacking each other. And I'm like, guys, the world is

watching us. And you got to remember, we

don't wrestle against people with different opinions.

That's that's on the surface. But what's behind that, the war

behind that war is that we wrestle against powers that

profit from our division. Kohl's is on your feed because

they profit from you. Satan wants you to look at

certain things because he profits from your disunity.

And when we're feeding into this war, when we're feeding into

this battle and letting it consume us, we're letting him

weaponize the algorithm against US, turning up the volume of

outrage and pride, because if he can't possess us, then he's just

going to settle for dividing us. Sometimes the best thing that he

can do is keep us offended. Just keep us offended and

offendable, easily offendable. The 4th war that I want to look

at, this is the final one for today.

We could talk about so many, but the 4th 1's a very important one

as well. It's the war for your kids, kids

of all ages too. Like I know there's grandparents

in here, there's new parents in here.

There's everything in between and there's a war for the next

generation and that that war for the next generation.

What, what is our place in this war?

How, how do we contend for our kids and for the next

generation? They're under attack.

They don't have to go far before they start falling down a

slippery slope of temptation and misinformation and confusion

about what is true. Confusion about identity,

confusion about purpose of life. It there's it's confusion, it

still really does all begin with that same line that the serpent

used in the garden. Did God really say God is not

the author of confusion? Satan is the author of

confusion. God has given us his word, and

the word of God says about itself that it's living and

active, that it's profitable for teaching, for reproof.

Everything you need to live a life of godliness is found in

the living Word of God. That that what that means to me

is we have clarity in a world full of confusion, where the

author of confusion, the deceiver himself, our adversary,

is trying to get us confused. We know where to go for clarity.

We know where to go for truth. But are we filling ourselves up

with truth, the bread of life, the fountain of living water?

Jesus described himself as these things.

And remember, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was

with God, and the Word was God. The Word is Jesus.

And now we have the Word of God showing us Jesus and bringing to

our attention everything that is true and right and holy for

godly living. Are we filling ourselves up with

this daily or, or, or do we find ourselves empty?

And, and when the urgency of Satan comes against you and your

family, if you're found empty, it's going to be very hard to

fight against his lies and his deceptions.

And if he can't make you and your kids evil, he'll settle for

making you empty. Empty.

There's a war behind every war. We don't wrestle against flesh

and blood. Every act of evil on earth is a

ripple from this unseen war around us.

But the beautiful news is that we don't fight for victory.

We fight from victory because Jesus has already won.

The enemy is still fighting even though he's already lost.

The Scripture that we started with this morning in Ephesians

Ephesians 6:12

6, verse 12, that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against this spiritual darkness and the evil forces,

this cosmic war that we're talking about.

That's right in the middle of a broader passage of Scripture

that talks about the whole armor of God and how we fight in this

battle. I want to look at it on the

screen right here. This is Ephesians 6, starting in

verse 13. Therefore, take up the whole

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

day. We are in the evil day.

We need spiritual armor to withstand, to stand firm, and

the Bible says stand. Therefore, having fastened on

the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of

righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the

readiness given by the gospel of peace.

And in all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which

you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil. 1 And

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

is the word of God. Six elements of the armor that

Paul gives us right here, all defensive except for one

offensive, which is the word of God, because we conquer by the

blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony, because we

conquer him when he says, did God really say that?

We conquer him the same way Jesus did in the wilderness by

pouring out a fountain of truth, the word of God.

We can't, we can't be empty in this battle and God's given us

spiritual armor for us to wear every day in this fight.

Perfect example of this is Job from the Old Testament and Job

if you know the story. Job lost everything.

Job was a man of God, an honourable man and and God

allowed Satan to attack him and he lost everything.

He lost his wealth, he lost his ten children, he lost his

health, he started to get some awful things happening to him

and his health. And right after all this

happened, he he just this awful scenario that is unbelievable

circumstances with Satan attacking him.

He says in in Job 120 and 21, he says the Lord gives and the Lord

takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Blessed be the name of the Lord. In that moment, what poured out

of him was truth and praise. It is well with my soul,

whatever my lot you you've taught me to say, it's well with

my soul that that you give you take away.

But but blessed be the name of the Lord.

This has to be our posture. This has to be our expectation.

This has to be what our heart is full of.

And in just a moment, I'm going to pray, we're going to worship

with another song and I want to open up this altar kind of like

last week when we had this altar full of people just contending

for the faith. Just just coming down here as a

church family asking God to to cover you with his armor because

the days we're numbered and our time is short.

And the only way to go through this battle and fight is to

follow Jesus through it with his armor on us.

And I want to encourage you with everything I have in me to come

to this altar this morning and cry out to him to give you what

you need for the, for the fight that you're in, to give you what

you need so that you can withstand the war in your home,

the war in your mind, the war on your screens, the war for your

kids that these wars that you're in, there's a war behind that.

We got to be prepared for it. And as we're praying in just a

moment, I want to put the list of the, of the spiritual armor,

the whole armor of God right here on the screen and maybe

just jot them down. Maybe, maybe just look at them

as you're praying. I don't know.

But remember what God has given us.

To fight in this battle, if you need prayer from a pastor today,

if you want to talk about something, if you have

questions, maybe if you're coming today and you're hearing

the truth about Jesus and you're hearing about how we're in a

fight and, and you need the whole armor of God, but you

don't even have a relationship with Jesus yet.

I want to tell you that this is the this is the perfect day for

you to be saved. And I want to talk to you about

that. If you have questions about

that, come find me, Come find Pastor Todd.

Someone will be up here to pray with you as we, as we do

continue to worship. And for the rest of us, let's

come down here and fight this morning.

Let's get in the fight. Let's ask God to cover us with

his armor. Father God in heaven, we're here

for you. God, we thank you that you've

given us truth to stand on. We thank you that you've given

us hope to trust in. We thank you that you are enough

for us. God, I pray that you would fill

us with that hope today. You, you would fill us with

that, that reminder that you have prepared a place for us

that's far greater than anything that we can imagine.

Praise you and we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.

Want to invite you to come forward today and pray as we

prepare to worship together. Praise be to God.

Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.

Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow

generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.

We hope that you enjoy this message.