Spiritual Warfare

Welcome to this week's message from the church at Chelsea Westover.

Our core values are vibrant worship, intimate fellowship, fulfilling service, and clear biblical truth.

We pray that this message changes your life.

Let's tune in to today's message and see what God has in store for you.

Break every chain.

Break every chain.

My wife that was dressed in fatigue, she said, break every chain.

Amen.

So it means.

Break every chain.

Good morning.

Good morning.

It is definitely a blessing to be here.

She just sung that song.

A lot of you want to know about my uniform.

We'll talk about it.

But she just got through talking about the chainbreaker.

I believe the chain breaker is here this morning.

The chain breaker is here.

And God wants every chain broken.

He wants every chain broken.

Now I'm a little excited this morning.

I got my uniform on.

It was all tough.

In fact, we came up Wednesday and um we was getting everything set up.

Jeremy and Benjamin, we're very thankful for everything that he's done for us, making sure everything was set up.

And they was messing with me about my uniform.

I am retired military.

I served for 25 years for those of you that don't know it.

But uh, I've been out now eight years.

Yeah, I've been out eight years now.

So Jeremy, Jeremy Cowan said, well, he said, Well, what are you wearing, Sunday?

I said, I'm gonna wear my uniform.

Jeremy said, Well, I hope they fit.

So I'm glad and thankful that they it's fitting today.

It's okay, it's not the best fit, but we'll be able to make it for the service.

Let me have a prayer before I get too excited and acknowledge some people.

Heavenly Father, we just end your gates with Thanksgiving, Lord God.

We praise you, Lord, for the opportunity to speak to your people, God.

God, we ask that I decrease God and you increase God.

God, we pray that you break every chain today, Lord God.

And God, just expose them to spiritual warfare, God.

Because Satan, our enemy, is designed to sip us like wheat, God.

We just praise and magnify you.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

So, first of all, like I said, I give honor to God to being up here.

And let's get the choir a good uh hand clapped to do an outstanding job.

Good job, Quire.

Good job.

Good job, choir.

And y'all notice my wife, she was dressed in fatigues too.

We're in the combat mode.

Combat mode.

And want to acknowledge our pastor and first lady, they still on vacation.

Let's give them a round of applause.

They still enjoying themselves.

Praise God for them.

A great man of God, great man of God, a wonderful teacher, actually a professor.

And he's not a CEO either, as a shepherd.

He loves the sheep.

He loves the sheep.

He and the first lady.

And we're just thankful for them.

Now, it's like I was telling you, let's talk back about my uniform again.

Several people asked me, what you doing in uniform?

I was saying, well, it has to do with what I'm preaching on, my topic, spiritual warfare.

And a lot of people don't like to fight.

And I understand.

Some people, I mean, everybody has a different personality.

But I don't know.

I was probably about in 11th grade, 10th, 11th grade, and I was pondering whether not to whether not to go straight to college or join the military.

So basically at the end, I kind of decided, well, I'm gonna try the military.

I've always been fascinated with traveling, so I got in and got in with the basic training.

Like, wow, that's pretty tough.

It was trying to break me down.

But anyway, I ended up enjoying the military, so I ended up staying for 25 years.

And during that time, I rededicated my life to the Lord.

But what I didn't have an idea about the military, once I really started reading the Bible, and I told you this before, it's a lot of parallels.

Actually, the military model after the Bible.

So my wife was asking me when I found I had to preach a couple weeks ago.

She said, What are you preaching about?

And I said, Uh, well, I'm gonna preach about spiritual warfare.

Now, I sweat a lot, but this uniform is hot, so pray for me.

She told me that before I got up, I said it's gonna be hot with that uniform on.

But I said, I'm gonna wear my uniform.

But anyway, I said, I'm gonna preach about spiritual warfare.

That is what God is dealing with me now on.

And I was just looking around.

If you listen to the news, if you read uh the newspaper, search the internet, you'll see we're in the warfare.

Now, some people don't believe in it, but we're in the warfare.

So let's start talking about this spiritual warfare.

Now, to understand the battle, we need to begin with acknowledging that we're in a war, first of all.

Battles make up smaller components of the bigger picture.

By definition, battles involve combat between two persons, between the armies, and they consist of any type of extended struggle or controversy.

As Christians, we are in a spiritual battle.

In some sort, every day we're in a spiritual battle.

Not some days, every day.

Then you have people say, Well, we're in a spiritual battle.

A lot of people, to include Christians, and they said to say, they don't really believe in the spiritual realm.

They they heard of it, but they said, It's a little spooky.

It's a little spooky.

So, how can I believe in something that I can't see?

How can you believe in it?

Now, just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it don't exist.

If we choose to ignore the spiritual realm, we would find ourselves confused, frustrated, and quenching the peace of God.

Now, this is what Hebrews 11, chapter in the third verse says about this.

Through faith we understand that the world refrained by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made by the things which do appear.

So I want that last part again.

So, so that the things which are seen are not made by the things that appear.

So everything we see now is not made by somebody that we can see.

Now, Paul talked about the invisible too.

He talked about it in 2 Corinthians chapter, um, the fourth chapter, 2 Corinthians 4 and 18.

He said, Everything we see now is temporal.

Everything you see, look around, look around.

Everything you see is temporal.

But he came back and said, What we can't see is eternal.

So, like I said, regardless we choose to believe it or not, it exists.

Let me ask you a question.

As Christians, has anyone seen Jesus?

What about on this side?

Over here.

Do we believe he is this?

Really?

How do you know?

You feel it?

The book says so.

Faith, what's another answer?

How do you know he's real?

You haven't seen him, right?

But I'm like you, I believe too.

I believe he died on that cross, and in three days he got up with all power to transform us, to save those that would accept him as his savior.

I believe too.

I've never seen him, but I believe, and I believe I have eternal salvation.

Eternal salvation, it can't be taken away, it can't be taken away.

Eternal salvation.

That's what I believe.

Now, do you believe that?

That's what I believe in.

I've never seen him before, but I believe that.

And he is the only way.

Because one thing about a lot of Christians, we want to be friends with everybody.

I don't know what everybody believes in, but I know if you don't believe like I do, you're wrong.

It's simple, it's one way.

That's what I believe in.

John 14, 6.

That's it.

Only one way.

Now, to be a soldier, now you gotta know who you're serving.

Now, in the army, you know, we call it the commander in chief.

That's why you wear this old American flag over here.

But in the army that we in, oh my goodness.

Uh oh no, not a commander in chief.

It's not even on the level.

We serve the Almighty Christ, Jesus the Christ.

That's who we serve, the Almighty God.

That's who we serve.

The invisible God.

You go Colossians 1, the first chapter and the 15th verse.

It said, Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn?

He's the invisible God, but he's real.

He's real.

Now, some people say, Well, he's doing a lot of talk.

I need some Bible on this.

I need some Bible.

I agree with you.

Let's go to 2 Kings, the 6th chapter, 11 through the 17th verse.

I'm not gonna read it, but I'm gonna tell you about it.

In 2 Kings, the 6th chapter, 11 through the 17th verse, you have a prophet by the name of Elijah.

Now, I told you there, I told you before there's different spiritual gifts.

One of the gifts is called the gift of prophecy, and that's what people really have the ability to get in the supernatural.

Elijah was so anointed that a king was making a plan to go to combat, basically.

And he had his service when he had all his military officials with him.

So he knew what the plan was, and they had to go to a certain destination.

But when they got there, they was gonna try to ambush the people.

The people knew about it.

So the king was worried.

Like, well, how did they know?

How did they know my plan?

I'm the king.

How did they know?

And the morning servants said, It's a prophet down there by the name Elijah.

He even can listen to you in his bedchamber.

Now you don't believe me, read the Bible now.

Read the book.

I didn't make it up.

He can listen to you in your bedchambers when you talk to your wife.

Come on now.

That's what the Bible says.

So the king said, Well, we're gonna go get him.

I want him.

Yes.

We are I want this Elijah.

So he sent his servants.

In fact, he sent his army to go and get Elijah.

And Elijah had a servant with him.

And they stayed all night.

And so the servant went out early in the morning, like a lot of people do.

He looked out.

He saw this big army just surrounding him.

He's like, oh my God.

He went back in.

He said, Elijah, Elijah, we're surrounded.

He said, We're surrounded.

He said, We are surrounded everywhere.

All I see is soldiers, soldiers.

I see them everywhere.

Elijah looked up, looked out.

And this is the word Elijah told him.

He said, Fear not.

Fear not.

I'm telling whoever you face today, fear not.

What type of trial it is, fear not.

For they that be with us are more than they that be with them.

And Elijah prayed and said, Lord, I pray thee, open the eyes.

Now we're not talking about the physical eyes now.

He said, open the eyes.

It's angels in this room now.

There are angels in here now.

They said the angels ain't cap around them that love the Lord.

It's angels in here.

I got them, and you got them too.

They are garden angels.

But he said, open the eyes.

And he opened his eyes.

And then he saw around him.

All those angels.

He saw around him like, wow.

It was a whole army.

A soldiers, angels, just ready.

And what Elijah did, he didn't have them kill him, but he happened to blind him.

He was able to get away.

He was able to get away.

Now I'm old.

I remember when I I'm 51 years old when I turn 51 next month.

It was just, I couldn't think of the name of the show.

Maybe some of you guys can help me.

Have y'all ever seen an animal talk?

Has anyone ever seen an animal talk?

Mr.

Ed.

Mr.

Ed, that's what I was trying to.

I couldn't think of it.

Thank you, brother.

I had to give me a drop of water on that.

I could not think of Mr.

Ed for nothing in the world.

But now I'm gonna tell you about what Mr.

Ed really started at.

Let's go to the Bible.

Uh-oh, here we go.

Let's go to the Bible because we're talking about the spiritual realm.

Because see, I got to show you that the spiritual realm exists because some of us don't believe.

Some of us do not believe.

Let's go to Numbers.

The 22nd chapter, and it's the 21st to the 28th verse.

Again, you had one of God's servants, his name was Balaam.

And Balaam had a mission.

Well, he was kind of disobedient.

That's what God, that's how he upset God, because he was disobedient.

So Balaam was riding a horse.

They call him an ass in the Bible.

He was riding a horse.

And he was determined, like we are sometimes, even though God tells us to go a different direction, he was determined to do his own thing.

So he did, so he was riding his horse.

And so the horse stopped because he saw an angel standing with a sword.

The horse saw the so evidently now, the Bible, evidently that the animal could see in the spirit realm.

So because he stopped, Balaam hit him.

Bam! And the horse got to look at him, but he ain't saying anything.

So he switched direction.

So he started back again.

Balaam hit him again because he was going the wrong direction.

Then it happened again on the third time.

Something supernatural happened.

That's when the horse started talking.

And the horse said, And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass.

And she said unto Balaam, What have I done to thee that thou should smitten me three times?

What?

What have I done?

Tell me.

A horse is talking.

Now, I've been to combat, I got PTSD, so uh you don't need to scare me, but I just could imagine you riding, I'm riding a horse, and the horse starts talking, but then the guard did open Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel too.

But that would be a frightening experience for me.

The horse started talking.

I probably ran out, I probably wouldn't even see the angel.

I'd have been running so fast.

And that's some serious stuff though.

That is serious.

So now that we established that the unseen is real, let's go to our text, which is 2 Corinthians the 10th chapter, first through the fifth verse.

We stand and we'll read the first five verses together.

Yes, 10 1 through 5.

King James Version.

Ready?

Now I Paul.

I'll let y'all read it.

Present abase and you.

Absolutely.

You.

But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I'm present with the confidence.

Wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us if we walk according to the flesh.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wal after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but through God, the pulling down of strongholds.

Down, down, as nation.

All right, praise the Lord.

Y'all can have a seat.

Oh sorry.

Thank you.

Okay, like I said, so today we're gonna talk about some spiritual principles for warfare.

And like I said earlier, regardless if you want to knowledge, they exist, they exist.

It's a war going on, even as we speak now.

At your home, at my house, at school, at work, it's all over.

And you're not gonna escape until you leave this earth.

It's a constant battle.

And the battle started the first day when you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal savior, and the Holy Spirit came on inside of you.

That's when the battle started.

And it's real.

It's real.

Now I have my uniform on.

I think I got, I won't say a tactical advantage, but I think for God trained me in this area because I was in the military 25 years.

I know a little bit about fighting.

I've been to combat.

You know, 2 Timothy, um, the second chapter 3 through 4 to say, you therefore must endure hardness as a good soldier.

You must endure hardness as a good soldier.

And the thing about being a soldier now, especially in the military, I know a little bit about being a soldier.

It's like an all-volunteer army.

That's why I have a recruiting badge on.

I was a recruiter for 16 years.

Now, the army that people join now is an all-volunteer army.

But now, according to the word of God in Ephesians, the first chapter, the fourth verse, we were chosen before the foundation of the earth.

We were chosen.

So look at your neighbor and say, You were chosen.

You were chosen?

Say it again.

You ain't say it.

Put some enthusiasm in it.

Say you were chosen.

You are special.

Yes, you are special.

Now let's we let's dissect this third verse.

It said, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

Okay, I want to say it again.

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

And we don't fight against the flesh.

Now, you think of the flesh, you know this is what we see now.

So we gotta think about, even though I was in the army, and now this is the part that works against me.

Now, here's the flesh, so when I fight, I want to fight flesh with bullets, words, because that's what I've been taught.

I've been trained that way.

But that's a ground war, that's what infantry do.

We're not dealing with a ground war.

No.

Now see, that's what Peter thought.

Remember when they came to get Jesus?

What did Peter do?

He chopped his ear off.

Peter thought it was a ground war too.

He attacked.

Now, a lot of us attack too.

Do we have anybody out there ever attacked before?

When somebody snaps at you, you snap back.

You go in the store, they rude, you get rude back with them.

Has that ever happened to anybody?

Sometimes your spouse gets uh make you upset, you'll retaliate.

Because we'll fight flesh against flesh.

But that's not the kind of fight we're involved in.

See now, we're being attacked by Satan Air Force.

It's an air attack.

It's an air attack.

It's not a ground assault, it's an area attack coming from the air.

So he dispatched them demons.

In Ephesians 6, chapter 12, verse it says, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

In high places.

And let's talk about some of the stuff that happened here recently for his current events.

I mean, I think it was back in March.

You had a pilot, they say he shouldn't have been flying.

He was actually the co-pilot.

This was in Germany.

Anyway, the Ashley Pilot had to go use the restroom.

So the co-pilot was put in charge.

He was next in in line.

So when he went to the restroom, he locked it, he locked the pilot out.

And you know the story.

150 plus people died.

Okay.

Last month, a young man goes to church.

Doesn't include the pastor, they have a prayer service.

They was praying, they invited him in.

At the end of prayer service, he said, I got a surprise.

He killed them all.

Shortly after they finished praying.

Then on Thursday, and and God blessed the families, the service member, we we had four service members.

This was in, I think, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Oh, it's five, okay.

Five, God bless them.

We definitely want to lift them up in prayer.

Well, this girlman goes in and he kills them.

Now I was looking at that.

I'm like, wow, a lot of stuff happening.

And I tell people all the time, now is not the time to play church.

Now is not the time to play church.

Don't come out of duty.

Well, I know mom told me to come home.

Sunday, that's what I need to do.

You're not, you can't win this battle if you're gonna play church now.

It is too much going on.

It is too much going on.

Now, let me tell you the type of guy I am.

Now, this is person, this ain't the Bible.

Now, before I rededicated my life to the Lord, I used to love to party.

I mean, I was good at it.

I was like a professional.

As soon as I got from work, this is when I was in the army.

I was stationed in West Germany, my first duty assignment.

At 18 years old, I go straight to West Germany.

I'm 3,000 miles away from my mom and dad.

They had all these rules.

Yeah, I had to go to church growing up.

So I was like, bye, mama, hello sin.

And I was doing it.

I mean, I parted and I parted and I parted until God arrested my spirit back in 1987.

I rededicated my life to Christ.

I became an alcoholic and God cleaned me up.

But my point is, if I was gonna come to church on a Sunday, I would actually be in the arm of the Lord.

I wouldn't play church.

See, some people come out of religion, they follow a bunch of rules.

See, you can't be on the front line now with God, following a bunch of rules.

You gotta have a relationship with God.

This ain't no time to be playing no church.

You know how sometimes now, you know, like if you if you get your back against the wall, oh, we're gonna call on God.

Lord help me.

Oh, I need you.

But now most of us, this Bible here, we come Sunday, we listen to the scripture, and Dr.

Love it, he's a professor, he breaks it down, dissect it, bisect it, any kind of sect that you want.

But that's his word.

For you to have a relationship with God, you're gonna have to spend some time with him every day.

Every day you have to set up a devotion time.

You will have to spend some quality time with your Savior because he is the commander in chief, because you need to know what's going on, you need to know what's going on.

Because let me show you where our enemy works.

I look at all three of these incidents.

Satan hates us.

He hates us, he hates you, you, and you and me.

He wants to take us out.

Look at the people he killed.

One old lady, 89 years old.

My mom back to 89, she barely can move.

He catches when you're vulnerable.

He's not gonna come putting you face to face.

To me, just like the palo on the airplane, he waited till the captain left.

If you're gonna be a man, just go and shoot the captain and then take over the airplane.

Now that's what a man will do, but he's a coward.

That's why Satan, he's the selfist.

Same thing.

I was looking at my Marines.

Kelly and I was together when we heard about the Marine incident.

But what I think it was Friday when they released some of the evidence.

Well, they released the names.

But I'll tell you one thing that really stood out to me.

And I told Kell about this.

I know three of them, you just told me it's five now.

Three of the five that got killed have been to combat.

Three, now I want you to hear what I'm saying.

Three of the five that got killed have been to combat.

So then when you're in combat, you're alert.

Believe me, I know.

All day, every day, you are very alert.

When you go to bed, even in your sleep, you're alert.

But I would just imagine, because I know when I went to combat, I was real alert and it was something.

But when I got back to the United States, it's like, I'm at home now.

I can relax.

So I'm thinking I was looking at those Marines, and two of them had actually they had been on multiple uh deployments, not just one.

I'm saying I know they just relaxed, just left their wives.

Thinking they come in for a normal day, and then they get attacked like that.

But I'm here to tell you, Satan is doing the same thing in our life.

When you least expect it, when you least expect it, he's there.

He's there.

He's crafty, he's subtle.

And let me tell you something about Satan, too.

I remember I grew up church and garden in Christ.

Uh, that was when I rededicated my life back to Christ in my 20s, and I had this bishop, and he said, You got 12 disciples, you got all these different spirits.

He said, Well, it's one spirit I gotta caution you about, and I want to tell you guys about it too.

That's why I got this camouflage on.

And camouflage is designed to do just what it's supposed to do.

Now, on this background, I'm I you can see me, but where camouflage is designed, you you could be in position and people don't even see you.

Because, like when I went to Desert Storm, we had a lot of camouflage.

And so we blend in with the terrain.

So somebody could come from the aircraft, they could come from a high up and they could look down, they won't see us.

So you don't want to be seen when you're in camouflage.

But now, let me tell you a spirit, you need to be very cognizant of.

And you need to pray to God give you a spirit of discernment that you discern.

That's why I told you you need to reach your word daily.

You need to have a relationship with God.

It's called a camouflage spirit, it's a Judah spirit.

Let me tell you what a Judas spirit is.

It's just like what happened with Jesus.

Jesus handpicked 12 disciples, and Judas betrayed him.

But why was he able to betray him?

Because he got close to him.

He was in this inner circle.

He was trusted.

They believed in him.

And he had done some great things, and the way it works in the world, the camouflage spirit, they're gonna be real nice to you.

Extremely nice.

Then that's why you want you you you might want to that's why I say you need to talk to God daily and be connected to your spirit on the inside.

Now, why is this person being so nice?

Why?

What is the motive?

Because, see, Satan persuade him because it's it's about deception.

That's how Satan works.

He deceived people, and so they're your best friend.

Now, some of the younger people might have said, Well, I haven't got exposed.

Just live.

It's gonna happen.

You said, Well, that you said that old army guy told me that.

It's gonna happen.

It ain't if it's when.

Just live.

So just be connoissant of that.

Because our enemy is something else.

And speaking of our enemy, our enemy, he has a name.

In the Greek, they call him Diablos.

They first called him Lucifer.

And some might wonder, well, who created Lucifer?

God did.

God created Lucifer.

Lucifer was a beautiful angel, not just an angel.

He actually was the prettiest angel they had.

But what happened though?

He messed around and saw himself.

Pride looked at looked as ooh, I looked good.

Tell me, y'all is exalting God up.

I don't want you to exalt God up.

Forget about God, lift me up.

Oh no, nothing's gonna be before our God.

Nothing.

So he got kicked out of heaven.

That's where the first war started.

It was in heaven.

Michael and the angels, they kicked them out.

Now Lucifer was very talented now, very talented.

Because Ashley was in charge of the praise and worship, the choir.

So that's why you see a lot of commotion in the choirs now to this day.

Well, thank God we have a good church, we're not having that problem.

But in a lot of churches, you see a lot of problems when it comes to that.

But he got kicked out, and a third of his angels, a third of his angels with him.

Now they something else.

Just like soldiers in the Army of the Lord, we have a mission.

And our mission is go and spread the gospel.

Tell people that Jesus saved.

Our mission is to do what Matthew 28, 19 said.

Go ye therefore.

That's why we go on the mission trips.

We're all in Africa.

Where y'all just come from?

Mobile.

Mobile, but what's the other place y'all went to?

Honduras.

Honduras.

We spreading the good word.

That's our mission.

But Satan has a mission too.

He has a mission too.

And he takes his mission serious.

It's in John 10.

John 10, 10.

Preach to me, brother.

Preach to me.

His mission is to kill.

Steal and destroy.

Now listen what I said now.

You know, that's one of the first scripts I kind of memorized, but listen to what he's saying.

Kill.

Steal and destroy.

He is trying to destroy you.

He is trying to destroy me.

He wants your relationships, your marriage, your finances, your health.

Your mind.

He wants everything.

And he likes it when you don't put up a fight.

Hosea says in the fourth chapter in the sixth verse, my people perish because of lack of knowledge.

So he don't want you to.

He's like, that stuff don't mean nothing to me.

I ain't got to do that.

That don't mean nothing to me.

He wants you to.

That's what he wants.

I can go to sleep on this.

Pastor Dan ain't here.

I ain't go to sleep.

But I'm telling the enemy I'm talking about now.

He's real.

Yes, sir.

He's real.

He is real.

Now let's talk a little bit more about Satan.

Now with every war that's been fought, there's always upgrade.

Like in the Civil War, for example, we used rifles and muskets.

World War II we upgrade.

We went to bayonets and bombs at the end of the rifles and machine guns.

World War II, we had they had jets and aircraft.

Vietnam, they upgrade again to mortars and stuff.

Anti-aircraft artillery.

And the one I fought in Iraq in these other wars, everything now is by technology, technology, technology.

They got cruise missiles.

But the sailors they ask me to stay on the ship and it just shh shh bam.

Nobody, no soldiers use anything.

So it's always about upgrading your arsenal.

Now Satan is upgrading his too.

Because see, the enemy, he's got a counterattack.

It's a war.

So he done upgraded too.

Television.

We let our kids sit there and watch TV hours and hours.

Hours and hours.

They're TV entertaining.

But some of that stuff that's going through those kids coming from the eye gates and ear gates, it is distorting their spirit.

Same thing with these little video games we be buying.

Oh, this is a new game come out.

You get it, Jim?

You get it, Tom?

And he's sitting there.

Then you wonder why they go and shoot these people up.

He's been sitting there playing it every day.

And you bought it for him.

You bought it for him.

You bought it for him.

Satan like that.

And like social media, how many Facebook people we got out here?

It's okay to be on Facebook.

I'm on Facebook.

Ain't nothing wrong with Facebook.

But let me tell you how Hussein wants you to do now.

He wants you to get on Facebook, because you know, like like the young people, now I don't do this, I'm an old school.

They they'll tell you I'm in I'm in this restaurant, I spent$15.

I'm not gonna do that.

If you want to, some of the young people, they even tell you when you can rob the house.

Well, I'm going on vacation for five weeks and I'm coming back.

I'm not doing that.

That is too much information.

I'm not gonna tell you that.

Now I do make different posts and stuff and compliment people on their birthdays and stuff like that.

That's what I use.

But Satan wants you to do it.

Because guess what?

You're away from you're away from the word.

You're busy.

You're busy.

Now, as a soldier, let me tell you something about me when I went to war.

When I say upgrade, I joined the army in 1982.

I didn't go to war in 1991.

But one thing we did, and I tell people, this is what a lot of people don't understand about people that serve in the military.

This is all military.

We train the kill every day, just like I know he's an engineer.

We have other people out here with various different professions and gifts and talents.

But that's what we trained to kill every day.

To destroy our enemy.

That's what we gotta do.

That's why Satan lets you do all this stuff.

He don't even care about you coming to church.

You can come to church, you can be a preacher, teacher, usher.

He don't care.

He keeps us busy, he keeps us busy.

Busy.

But now you're with the word of God?

You really studying?

You really in tune to the spirit?

Are you training every day?

Are you looking for that opportunity every time you see somebody out there that's an unbeliever to tell them about Jesus?

Because now everybody's standing up now.

Everybody out the closet now, except Christians.

Everybody out the closet.

Everybody out the closet.

I saw something called when I was watching TV, that was like three weeks ago.

I don't know what to call them.

The gay and lesbian, LB, I can't say all that.

But anyway, you should have seen the way they was jumping up and down.

It's a historic day.

That's why the Christians, we got to stand up and be accounted for.

We got to stand up and be accounted for.

Just like, just like they believe in what they believe in.

So that's all right, bro.

But this is what I believe in.

That's what I believe in.

Now that's your opinion, but that's not mine.

And I'm entitled to an opinion, too.

Because they try to tell you like you're not entitled to opinion.

And then you show them the word.

Well, this is what I read in the word.

Now you might not receive it, but that's okay too.

That's okay too.

Because I read in John, they hated Jesus, so if they hated Jesus, they gonna hate us.

They gonna hate us.

So what we gotta do, since we upgrade and Satan upgrade, we gotta be like some warriors that was in the Bible that believed in spiritual arsenal.

See, they had a spiritual arsenal, a guy by the name of Paul and Silas.

See, they had a spiritual arsenal and they knew how to work that thing.

They knew how to work it, they knew how to work that thing.

They went to this city and Paul had healed somebody, had a demon, and was casting out demons and doing stuff on a Sunday, and the people came and said, Oh no, we don't do that.

You're not you you're not observing the Roman customs.

That is illegal, that's unlawful.

Anyway, they beat them.

They got so mad with Paul and they was talking about Jesus, they beat them.

They beat Paul and Silas, they beat them.

They beat them.

I mean they beat them.

Then they put him in jail.

And Paul and Silas.

Now, now you're just doing something for the Lord.

Got beat down.

Beat down.

They go in and they praying and singing.

At midnight, an earthquake came.

Earthquake came and it shook the ground.

And the chain of all the prisoners was loose.

Not just one, the chains were broken.

What kind of chains need to be broken here today?

The chains were broken.

I told you the chain breaker's here.

He's still here.

The chains were broken.

And the God woke up like, uh, they gonna kill me.

And he was shaking.

He was shaking.

Paul said, we still here.

And it was so convincing that God said, What must I do to be saved?

Now, now that's what you call me believing in your spiritual arsenal.

But why we don't believe in it?

Because we haven't invested in it.

Like when I went to combat, I was ready.

I was like for my older people, Rambo, Sylvester Salone.

My first name is Sylvester.

I always like Sylvester Salone.

I was ready.

I had everything.

I had an M16, an M60, a law, I had everything, I was ready.

But that's the same way we gotta be ready with our spiritual arsenal.

I was ready.

Will you be ready for your next battle?

Because it's coming.

It's coming.

You internet, some of you in the night, you just don't see it.

It's coming.

Then I think about old King Jehoshaphat.

Talking about somebody believing a spiritual arsenal.

Now this is a little crazy what he did in the logical, you know, in the natural realm.

Jehoshaphat out there.

Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah.

And his messengers came and told him, Well, two countries getting ready to attack him.

So they getting ready to attack him.

Jehoshaphat is worried.

In fact, the Bible used the word he feared.

He was in fear, and that's one of the tools Satan used too.

Fear.

So he feared.

He came together, he put him on a fast.

He told everybody to fast.

Now they had a fierce army, so they fasted.

Once they fasted, he gave them a plan.

And the plan was to put the preachers and the singles up front.

Now to me, that don't make sense.

Against a trained army, you're gonna put some preachers up front, preachers, and the singles up front?

That's not logical, as Dr.

Spark would say.

That is not logical.

But he did it.

And the result was they end up winning.

They end up killing themselves.

They end up killing themselves.

Praise the Lord.

Now let's talk a little bit about these strongholds now.

And we'll move on.

Now, a stronghold.

Now, stronghold is one of the same most effective weapons in distracting and influencing us in manipulation.

To manipulate is to manage people or circumstances in order to gain an advantage.

And that's what Satan wants to do.

He wants to manipulate you so he can gain an advantage.

Now, what a stronghold is, is usually like a half truth, it's a partial truth.

And it's fortified.

He built it up in your mind.

He put it up in your mind.

And he have you he have you thinking, well, I can't help it.

I just gotta do it.

I can't help it.

Let me give you a good example one.

Let's say, for example, you got a bad temple.

And you lose your temple.

You say, but that's just the way I am.

You gotta work.

I know I'm saved.

Then some people, like premarital sex is another one.

We said, well, you we human.

Even the preacher ain't prepared, we justify.

He gives you that stronghold and you put it and you continue to do that sin over and over and over.

Same thing might be dealing with alcohol.

When I was alcoholic.

At that point, I ain't thinking it was wrong.

You just keep doing it and you do it over and over and over.

And then it becomes a part of it, and you just justify.

That's just the way I am.

Again, but the way to fight that is with the word of God.

With the word of God.

It's not a stronghold out there that you can't fight with the word of God.

It's not one.

You can fight it with the word of God.

You just got to go get your word and deal with it.

And with the strongholds, what he does too, though, he looks for weakness, weakness.

Where you're weak at.

It's all about weakness.

A weak spot.

A weak spot.

So he's looking for that.

Okay, let's move on to.

Okay, let's go to Ephesians, the um the sixth chapter, sixteen verse, it talks about where Satan he shoots fiery dots at us.

Well he shoots the fiery dots because of uh dealing with the strongholds in the same place, and you do it over and over and over.

And the last one I'm gonna move to be uh 1 Corinthians, the fifth chapter.

Yeah, let's go to the fifth chapter, I'm sorry.

Casting down imagination, every high thing that exalted itself.

Go to the fifth.

2 Corinthians 10 and 5.

Okay, so casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing in captivity every thought to obedience of Christ.

Now, again, dealing with this battle.

This battle is in the mind.

It's in the mind.

Satan is always attacking the mind.

Always attacking the mind.

I remember George Myers, she wrote a book probably about 10, 15 years ago, The Battlefield of the Mind.

That's where it's at.

Your thought life.

It's what you're feeding yourself.

That's why I say you gotta watch what you're doing on the internet, what you're reading, all that.

But the Bible said, in order to deal with keeping your mind straight, you see, that I will keep in perfect peace who mine is stayed on me if you trust in God.

Now that's something this is why I want you to think about.

Now you're in warfare.

Most of the time you're in warfare, you're not at perfect peace.

I know it's been some times I haven't been in perfect peace, not even when I'm in warfare.

Because what we have the proclivity of doing is looking at what's going on.

Yes.

But what God is saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, keep your mind on Him.

And He'll keep you in perfect peace in the midst of all the commotion is going on.

Because see, what he wants to do, what Satan wants to do is get in your emotions.

Once he gets in your emotion, it starts cut motion.

And then it shows about your devotion.

So I think I ought to say it again.

I said, Once he gets in your emotion, it starts cut motion.

You know what I'm talking about?

Well, you know what I'm gonna do if you do it again?

That's what he wants.

But that shows the lack of your devotion.

It happens every day.

Every day.

And then we tell ourselves, I'm not gonna do it again.

Satan pull you, he pull you right on in.

He pull you right on in.

He pull you right on in.

He pulls you right on in.

Then he said, I will meditate also on thy works and talk of thy doings.

So the whole key is you gotta be just have a spirit of thanksgiving.

That's how you keep your mind in perfect peace.

Regenerate with the word, like Pastor Danny, you know, he's just a walking bottle.

I don't have that mind like that.

But memorize as much words you can remember, that's how you keep your mind straight.

You gotta keep your mind straight.

Because Satan is, he's he's throwing these dots at us.

He's throwing them left and right.

He's throwing at us many weapons.

Now, one of the things we gotta do, one of the things we did in the military, we always did weapon training.

We always did weapon training.

And today I'm just gonna talk to you about a couple weapons that we have.

Just a couple weapons.

And then y'all can go eat.

Okay.

The first weapon I'm gonna talk about is the sword.

It's in Ephesians, the sixth chapter, 17th verse.

And say, and take the helmet of salvation, which is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

The Greek translated word is rhema.

The rhema of God is the spirit activated and spirit inspired.

It's declaration of the scriptures is to address specific situations and obstacles.

Basically, what I'm saying, it doesn't matter what you need, what you're facing, the answer is in his word.

Marriage, relationship, finances, who to date, how to save money, how not to sleep too late.

You're laughing, but uh if some of my dad you say I was raised by an older guy, dad you said, but the bed make you lazy.

I was reading Proverbs, and Proverbs said, The dead do what?

It'll make you lazy.

It's in the book.

So, but this is very dear here, the word of God is.

And Isaiah said like this, and he had made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shell of his hands, they hid me and polished me.

And then we always know about it says, for the word of God is quick and it's powerful, sharp than a two-headed sword.

Now, the Bible is very vital to us.

And see, it tells us to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

But let me tell you something about the words.

The reason I brought it up first, this is a major, major, major weapon.

Remember, my enemy is all about counterattacks, counterattacks.

So in Mark the fourth chapter, now I advise uh, I have uh one of my spiritual friends, who actually is a pastor, and uh he's a great man of God.

Now, after salvation, his beliefs is Mark the fourth chapter.

I would advise you go home and read it.

Go mark the whole chapter, Mark the fourth chapter, and I'm gonna tell you why.

We go to Mark the fourth chapter, go to the 14th to the 15th verse.

Okay, the sower sowed the word.

And these are dated by the wayside where the word is sown.

But when they have heard Satan come immediately and take away the word that was sown in his heart.

Now, this is what you gotta be mindful of, just like now, you're in church, not just with me, Pastor Danny.

You can listen to some on the radio, television.

As soon as the word comes, as soon as the word comes, he comes immediately.

And what immediately means he's next in line.

He's waiting.

He's waiting.

That's why we gotta study, show ourselves approved.

That's why we gotta meditate on his word day and night.

Because Satan is trying to steal the word.

Satan is trying to steal the word.

So if he steal the word, guess what?

You might be saved, but you're powerless.

You are powerless without the word of God.

You have no power.

And he knows then.

And he's trying to knock us out.

And then when he attacked and he's gonna attack, you can't you can't defend yourself.

You can't defend yourself, you cannot defend yourself, and that's what it talks about.

His mission, kill, steal, and destroy.

Steal the word.

He wants the word.

Everything about us is about the word.

He wants the word, he wants your word.

That's the only way you can function is with the word.

That's the only way you can be used in the kingdom of God.

Now you can be in the army of God, but you're not gonna do anything.

People talking about they want boldness.

I read in Acts, it said, once the Holy Spirit came in, you're bold.

You gotta step out, you gotta use your faith.

It's all in the word.

All the promises is in the word.

Identity is in the word.

It's in the word.

Then we talk about the shield of faith.

That's in Ephesians the 6th, chapter, 16 verse.

Above all, taking a shield of faith wherein you be able to quench the darts or the wicked.

Because, like I tell you, with the warfare, he's coming after you.

Now, Paul, he's using a Roman metaphor.

They had a big old shield, and that's what they used to fight back in the old days.

But what we have to do as men and women of God, when the enemy attack, we got to use our shield.

Because he's throwing those dots.

Oh, he's gonna throw the dots.

I mean, he throw them, I mean, he's dirty.

Look how he did those people on the plane.

He catches when you're down, when you're vulnerable.

He's throwing those dots.

He's throwing those dots.

So when he throw them, though, we gotta be able to put that word on him.

We got to block them with the word.

He'll throw divorce at you, block them with the word.

He'll throw illness with you, got depression, all that.

You gotta block them with the word.

You got to block them with the word.

That's the only way we can do it, is blocking with the word.

And then the last one I'm gonna go in, Ephesians 6, chapter 18, verse dealing with prayer.

Praying always with all prayer supplication in the spirit and watching down to all the perseverance and the supplication of all saints.

So we got to pray without ceasing.

We gotta be praying now.

That's why I say ain't no time just becoming no religious thing.

Well, I'm coming on a Sunday.

No, we need to be saved.

Because in Matthew, the 24th chapter, and you had to watch this too.

You know, it talks about the end time.

I remember back in 2000, you had these people talking, oh, well, the world's gonna come to the end because it's 2000, everybody was concerned, why 2K?

And they was prophesizing about this then.

Now, when you read the book, you just look at them.

I didn't pay it, I didn't pay that any attention because I had read the book.

It said, No man knows the time he's coming back.

Nobody knows when he's coming back.

So when somebody says something like that, you just keep just keep it moving.

But you need to know this.

Because all these tools are so important because in the last days they talk about even in the church, prophets are gonna be false prophets.

So when people come, they might do great works and prophecy, but this is the key.

Do they acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Savior?

Do they lift him up?

Do they give him the glory?

Because, see, I don't care how talented they are, how good they can speak, if they're not giving the glory to him, yes.

They have to give the glory to God.

If they're not giving the glory to God.

So we need to be constant to that.

That's why we gotta pray, pray, and pray.

And then we gotta have that discerning spirit.

We gotta have that spirit of discernment.

So we know who's real and who's not.

Matthew 21 and 13 said, and it said unto them, it is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer.

So we should pray.

We should pray, pray, and pray.

And being that we're talking about spiritual warfare, you gotta have some spiritual warfare scriptures ready too.

One of my favorite ones is in Luke the 10th, chapter 19, verse.

It said, Behold, I give unto you power to shred on serpents and scorpions, and over the power of the enemy, and nothing should by any means hurt you.

Now that means a lot to me.

So basically, no matter what you're facing, no matter what you're facing, bad relationship, finances, sickness, you got the power of the enemy.

You got the power.

And a lot of times a lot of people are sick.

Now, all sickness does not come from Satan.

But if you look through the gospel, a lot of the sicknesses and the illness is from Satan.

So you got the power to speak to that.

We got so much power we just don't know, we don't even know about it.

And Satan wants us to be ignorant to it.

And then I like this last one in Romans the 8, chapter 37 through the 39th verse.

It said, Now in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that love us.

For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present or things to come should separate me from Christ.

That's what it's about.

That's what it's about.

Now, when I was in the military, you you got all four branches.

And we were very competitive, very competitive.

And so we said, well, who's the best branch?

And Paul actually addressed the people by the spiritual gifts in the Bible, that's in Corinthians.

But when you combine our spiritual arsenal together, like I just talked about the word, I talked about prayer, but you take them all fast, it's somebody called fasting.

It's a bunch of different spiritual gifts that make up the arsenal, and you put it together and combine it, you're virtually unstoppable.

You are unstoppable.

And see, what I desire to be like, and I pray to you, I always try to be like the best.

So the best person with spiritual warfare that we have a witnesses is Paul.

Paul was the man when it comes to spiritual warfare.

He was a champion, he was the valedictorian of spiritual warfare.

You know why I know he was a valedictorian?

Because I want you to have the same attitude, and I do too.

He said, I have fought a good fight.

I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Hencefore is laid upon me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge should give me that day, and not to me only, but to them that love his appearance.

So I want to fight a good faith.

I want to fight a good fight of faith.

How many people out there want to fight a good fight of faith?

How many people want to fight a good fight of faith?

All right.

Well, praise the Lord.

Stand to your feet.

I got one more thing to tell you.

Now, you look around me, I have dog tags.

My my wife's wife have dog tags.

Now, for those of you been to combat, what you didn't want to do when you go to combat was to bring your friend dog tag back.

Because if you bring your friend's dog tag back, that means he was a casualty.

Now, I look around.

I see people to the left and I see people to the right.

You're all in spiritual warfare.

But guess what?

You're not a casualty.

You're a survivor.

You're a survivor.

Some of you didn't survive divorces, bankruptcy.

We have survived everything.

People talking about us.

We were suicidal, but we survived.

We survive.

Tell your neighbor, you're a survivor.

You are a survivor.

Now, what I want you to do now, since you know this word, go out and let's make a difference.

Let's start with our families.

Let's make a difference.

Start with our families.

Take it to another level with the word of God.

Take it to another level with the word of God.

Satan coming, but use the word.

Start on your job.

Stop talking with my boss, this kind of way.

You ain't fighting your boss.

Talk to him.

It's an aerosol.

And then everybody talking about the country messed up.

He told us what to do if my people that are called by my name.

Stop talking about the country.

Get on your knees.

Get on your knees.

He said, pray.

Pray.

That's what he wants from us.

Let's take advantage of our spiritual arsenal.

Let's go on the offense.

You are a survivor.

You are a survivor.

You're somebody special when Christ chosen from the beginning of time before the foundation of earth was established.

Praise the Lord.

Let's give the Lord a hand clap.

Thanks again for tuning into this week's message.

We pray that your life has been changed.

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We hope you have a wonderful day and again, God bless you.