Keys to Victory - Ephesians 6:10-17 Part 1

Over the past few days, a lot of our attention has been focused on the anniversary of the 911 attacks. You turn on the TV, lots of documentaries and news reports on that, coverage of that, lots of conversation about that. In the last three or 4 days, been in a ton of these conversations where everyone was sharing their where were you on that day story. Everybody has their story of where they were when they heard the news of that. It was interesting. I remember as a little boy, my grandparents talking about Pearl Harbor and where they were when they learned the news of Pearl Harbor. I remember my parents talking about the JFK assassination. And what that was like when that news broke. And then today, as we tell those stories, I realize there's a whole generation, that's their Pearl Harbor. That's their distant history thing, that they didn't live through, they didn't live through or weren't old enough to remember it. It was something from the history books that now is being relived. And I remember so much that day as we talked about it this week and watched old clips of things and so much came back about that. And just like you, probably, all those emotions kind of stirred that were part of that day, sadness of the lives that were lost, that anger that we'd been attacked in that way, the fear of what might be next. Is there another attack looming? And then kind of the dominant thing. I think for me and all that was the emotion of just shock that something like this could happen. I was watching some of those clips. And they were showing, for example, this week I saw an old clip of the Regis and Kelly show, where the 1st plate had hit the tower, and they were talking live on air about this, and what is this, was this an accident? What was it? And then the 2nd plane hit, and all of a sudden, room was shocked, what this was. And there was a clip of the Howard Stern show where he was alive on the air when the 1st plane hit. And then they talked about, was this an accident? And then the 2nd plane hit. I just remember when you suddenly realize the shock of our nation being under attack, kind of out of nowhere. And then you remember the days, the months, even the years that followed that attack, so much attention was placed on determining, how could this have happened? How did we miss it? What did we miss? What were the signs? What were the clues? How could we avoid it? How could we prevented it? And you have now this threat level system by Homeland Security where they raise lower based on the level of threat that we're facing. I was thinking about all that this week, as I was in the passage that we're going to dive into, that what this passage before us does today is it raises awareness of the threat level. It sounds an alarm. It tells us the reality of an attack, because the reality is, my grandparents had Pearl Harbor, my parents had their crises, We had our 911. The next generation will have their story, sadly, we live in a broken world, and there'll be another attack. There'll be another surprise. There'll be another thing that history will yet to see happen. We're under attack spiritually. The very real, the very real reality, I want you to see today, is the imminent threats that are all around us in the spiritual battles that we face, and the passage before us raises the warning. It sounds the alarm of the battle we're facing. Throughout this book. We're almost done with Ephesians. We've been in this for a while. I think after today, 3 more sermons, I believe, in Ephesians, before we move on to the book of Malachi's where we're headed next, if you want to read ahead, for next month. But we're getting to the end. And all throughout this book, the writer of this, the apostle Paul is writing this letter to the believers in Ephesus, he has been talking about the cosmic sphere that exists, the spiritual sphere outside of the realm in which we live. From the very beginning, he has drawn our attention to this unseen world. We live on this physical plane on this planet, but there's a whole spiritual realm to life that we don't see, and we don't think about a lot. It kind of like when you walk across your yard, You don't think much about it, but underneath your feet, there's a whole world down there. worms, and bugs, and termites, and ants. Millions of creatures. underneath your feet that you don't see, and you don't really think about. You could be on a ship in the middle of the ocean, and you're looking out at the sunset or the stars above, and you don't get much thought to underneath the surface of that water. There are millions of creatures under there, a coral and plankton and whales and fish and dolphins, the whole world down there. You know, the same thing's true. We live on this planet, in this kind of earthly physical realm. But there's a whole spiritual world that we can't see. They don't give a lot of thought to. And what we're going to see today is in that spiritual world, there is a battle wagey. And the battle that's waging in this spiritual realm has implications and impact on our life in this physical realm. We are under attack today. Everyone in this room is facing some kind of challenge today. Some kind of attack, some kind of threat, some kind of difficulty in your life today. It's quite possible that the challenge you're facing is a spiritual attack. that the threats that you're dealing with right now are, you feel them in this world, this present age, but they're rooted in a spiritual unseen realm. And so I want you to consider three questions as we jump into this passage. How am I being attacked right now? What's the attack that I'm under? Second, what are the threats that I might likely see in the future? What is the threats that are in the, they're gonna, if I'm not careful, going to take me totally by surprise? And then third, how would God want me to respond? How should I respond today to the attacks I'm facing or how should I respond today to prepare for the threats that lie ahead in the spiritual battle that's taking place? These closing words of Ephesians, closing words of the letter. Paul answers these questions for us. Today, we're going to look at the beginning of these closing words, verses 10 through 13, and see what God has to say about the keys to victory in the spiritual battle that's taking place in our life. Look at me, look with me, if you would. Ephesians chapter 6, if you have your Bible. near the back of the Bible. If you didn't bring a Bible, grab this Bible out from under the chair in front of you, turn to page 979, page 979, where you're going to find this passage we're in. Chapter 6, verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not 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. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Well, stop right there, next week, we're going to go a little further to talk about this armor of God more specifically. But the 4 things I want you to notice, just in these short verses right here, to prepare us, to equip us for the spiritual battle. We're facing, the 1st is this, we need to be on the alert. Be on the alert. Verse 10, he says, finally, in conclusion. He's gonna land the plane. I'm going to wrap this up. And the most important thing, he says, I want you to hear as I wrap up my words to you, I want you to hear that we are in a fight. We are to fight, a fight not against flesh and blood, but a fight against the forces of evil. Let's start at verse 12. verse 12. Look at this with me. For we do not 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. He calls our attention to what we cannot see, to what we often fail to consider, a struggle, not against flesh and blood, but a struggle against cosmic, spiritual, evil forces that are at work in this world. Now, we don't think about this a lot. But I believe that evil is a very real thing. It's not a philosophical idea. It's some concept. The Bible presents us with a very real enemy. The Bible calls him Satan or the devil. He's our adversary. He's our opponent, and he's at work in this fallen world in which we live. Today, we face a battle. From the very beginning, Paul has drawn our attention to this unseen world, and today, he tells us in this text that our struggle that we face today is not with human beings, but with evil, supernatural forces. Now, you may have a conflict right now that's with a human. Maybe you see, your biggest challenge right now is another person. But this text tells us our real challenge isn't with people who are flesh and blood. If your problem with someone that has flesh on their body or blood in their veins, He says, that's actually not the enemy. The enemy is something you can't see. There's an enemy at work in our relationships, in our world, all around us. We're gonna talk about some ways that plays out. We face a very real struggle. He says in verse 12, that we wrestle against these cosmic powers. This word wrestle was a word in the original language that referred to hand to hand combat. We are in a hand to hand, a conflict, a very real conflict, that every individual, every family, every church is engaged in with our adversary, the devil. And this conflict is real, and this conflict is going to touch every single area of your life, and every single person in one way, or another. I don't need to convince you today that struggles are real. All of you are facing them. What I want you to see today is it may not be what you think it is. What I'm suggesting today is your problem may not be what you think. The enemy may not be who you think it is. We are contending not with physical opponents, but with spiritual opponents in this world. We often use the phrase spiritual warfare to refer to this. What does that mean when we say spiritual warfare? What is that phrase? It's the unseen, the unseen, ongoing battle, between God and the forces of evil. There's a very real battle that's being waged today between God and the forces of evil. It's a conflict in the spiritual realm, but it has effects on the physical realm. It's the daily problems you and I face in this life that are rooted in the spiritual world. It's a battle that's taking place mostly in our minds and in our hearts that we face today because of the battle that's being taken place between God and the forces of our enemy. What are examples of that? I went through the scripture. I going to throw a lot at you here. I'm going to put these up on the screen. You can just wait till it's filled up and then take a picture of it. If you want to study this more later and jump into these paths. I'm just going to read a bunch of Bible verses, okay? We don't have time to unpack every single one of these, but I just kind of made a list of some examples. I went through the scriptures this week and tried to find every place that it said, Satan was at work or the enemy was at work, doing something in the lives of people. How could you categorize those? Here are a few things. Number one, spiritual blindness. Spiritual blind. The 2nd Corinthians 4.4. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. There is an adversary at work in this world, who has blinded the eyes of unbelievers, so they will not see the truth of God's word of the gospel. In Mark chapter 4, Jesus tells us a parable about a man who sowed seed, and that seed represented the word of God. And it says those fell in different places and had different outcomes. In chapter 4, verse 15 of Mark, It says, there's seed that fell along the path, and that is the word that Satan immediately came and snatched up what was sown in them. The word was shared, and the enemy stole it right away. So sometimes you'll meet people who are not followers of Jesus. And you'll try to tell them the gospel. And it's not an intellectual problem. It's not a matter of if I could explain it better, they would be believers. If I could make the gospel more attractive to them, they would become believers. They are under attack by the enemy, and their eyes have been blinded. Their hearts have been hardened by the work of the enemy. He is snatching up the seed that has been sown, Jesus told us in Mark chapter 4. Second, false teaching. False teachings, in Ephesians 4:14, the scripture said, Paul wrote, We may look that we would no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, and by craftiness, in deceitful schemes. We are falling victim to deceitful schemes when we follow false doctrine. We see in our text before today that those schemes are from the enemy. First Timothy 4:1, Now, the Spirit expressly says that in the latter times, some will depart from the faith, by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. Those people who left the faith to chase after something else, they were led astray by demons, the scripture says. In 2 Corinthians 11:13, For such men are false prophets, or false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He said, there'll be false teachers who come to the church. And they got to teach a false message. They're going to be disguised as someone telling the truth, but they're disguised just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So when people fall for false teachings, Make no mistake here. Every false doctrine. Every heresy, every religion counter to the truth of God's word we find in the Bible, has at its roots the demonic influence in the spiritual realm in this battle we're facing. Third, temptation. In Genesis 3, we see the temptation of Adam and E by the serpent. And then 2 Corinthians 11, 3, says, but I'm afraid that the serpent, who deceived Eve by his cunning, has deceived your thoughts and led you astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ, the same serpent who deceived Eve, has led you away from being devoted to Jesus, the temptations we face, are the work of the enemy. 1 Thessalonians 3.5. For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sit to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would be in vain. My fear is that the enemy has come, and pulled you away with his temptations. Now, we can't blame the devil for what we do wrong. We make our rebellious, sinful choices. When you say, The devil made me do it, but you better believe every temptation you face this week. It's a scheme of the devil against your life. Thought all about that a lot this week, because in this text so much that, when I face a temptation, I need to be reminded. That's a scheme of the devil. When I face temptation, I was like, oh, that thing looks appealing. No, the devil has thrown something in front of your eyes, he's put a thought in your head, he's put something in your heart as part of his plan, to destroy you, to destroy your family, to destroy this church. Don't fall for his schemes. See temptation this week for what it really is, a scheme of the enemy over your life. Fourth, he hinders ministry. 1st Thessalonians 218. We wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. The enemy is working to hinder the plans of God. And you better believe where the resistance is strongest, is where God is on the move. Whenever God is on move, there can be resistance. I was watching a football game one time with a person, and they were returning the kickoff, and they saw a couple of kickoff returns, and they said, I don't understand how this works. Why do they run right where all the people are? I said, what do you mean? Well, look at this side of the field. There's no people over there. They're running on this side of the field where all the people are, you're laughing. Do you have the same conversation, maybe? Okay. All right, it wasn't you, but you just called yourself out. It was my mom, but you say, what do they do? Well, you know why? The people are there because the ball's there. There wouldn't be people there if the ball wasn't there. Let me tell you, Satan works the same way. The resistance come where the ball is, right? When we're on the move, when we're advancing the gospel, Satan's going to come and try to thwart that. Wherever God is on the move, there's going to be resistance. There is an enemy who wants to hinder the work of God. Fifth, the moral fall of leaders. First Timothy 3, 6, and 7. 1st Timothy 3 gives us requirements or qualifications for those who would be pastors of churches. Listen to some of these. He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. If these two new of a convert, the devil can get them. And then verse 7, moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, that he might not fall into disgrace into a snare of the devil. They're snares that the devil has set for those who want to pastor churches. I was in seminary, years ago, a professor said that one in four will fall away from the ministry, leave the ministry because of an inappropriate relationship, the mishandling of money. He said, one in four of you will not make it to the end because you'll be tempted by a woman or by money. And that'll cause you to follow. That's why I'm so grateful those who pray for me for the pastors of our church. Jim Perry today said, who's preacher today? I said, I am. He said, oh, good, I prayed for you this morning. It is as I was afraid. I absolutely prayed for the wrong pastor. And I said, Jim, just pray for all of us every day and we'll be covered, all right? Pray for all of us. Pray for the pastors of your church. Because according to the scripture, there is an enemy who has plans for the destruction of this church, and one of those plans is the downfall of your pastors. It's a spiritual attack. Next, division, and strife. Ephesians 426, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger, give no opportunity to the devil. Your anger, he says, creates an opportunity for the devil to attack your relationships. Don't allow the devil to bring division and strife into your relationships, because he's on the attack. And then this last one, I'm not going to suggest that every physical ailment we have is of a spiritual nature. But there are some instances in the Bible where spiritual attack results in physical impact on people's physical body. Job 2.7, Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and struck Job with sores, from the soul of his feet to the crown of his head. Luke 13 talks about a woman who was bent over with a disabling spirit for 18 years. She couldn't fully straighten herself up, and it said, Satan had bound her. For 18 years, Satan had had control of her physical health. Acts 10:38, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. And he went about doing good and healing, all who were oppressed by the devil. He was healing those who had been oppressed by the devil. What's the point of all this? The point of this is, wake up. There a number of threats that come at us. First Peter 58, be sober minded, be watchful. Be watchful, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour our families, and our church, are under attack. It's a reality. When you wake up to that? There is an enemy. I say a lot of things up here that just will sound nuts. I'll never be able to run for political office because this stuff exists on the internet, but I believe there is a very real devil. There's a very real enemy. And that enemy hates you. And he hates your family. He hates your marriage, he hates your children, he hates this church, he hates everything God is doing. We need to wake up to the very real reality. The very present reality of the risk that we all face because the enemy, 1st Peter 5 says, is on the prowl. He's on the prowl. Your devotion to Christ is under attack. Your doctrinal convictions are under attack. The truth of God's word is under attack. Your relationships with other people is under attack. After 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security implemented the threat level system. The different colors of how serious the threat was, I'm going to put it today at the highest possible level for the spiritual threat in your life, in the life of your family, in the life of our church. I want to raise that level as high as we can raise it with this text today. We are under attack. Where are you vulnerable? So I had that list on the screen, which one of those, you say, it's my relationships are vulnerable right now. My, my, my, my trust in God's word is vulnerable. I'm tempted right now. What is it that's under attack in your life. We need to wake up. Stay alert. When our daughter, Caleb was very little, she had a hard time going to bed at night, if there were thunderstorms. And she wanted me to watch the weather radar, whenever there were storms out there, that there were no tornadoes coming our way. And I would say, sweetie, you need to go to bed. And she would say, Daddy, do you promise me you'll stay awake until the storms are gone? I would say, sweetie, I promise you, I won't go to bed unless I know our family is safe. What did she want to say? I can't lay down my head and close my eyes. If you're not watching that radar. She was afraid there'd be a threat. I'm gonna tell you, there's a threat on the horizon. We need to wake up. We need to stay awake. We need to keep our eyes looking out for the spiritual attack all around us. I don't know if this happened to you. But after 9-11, I bought into the see something, say something, keep your eyes open. I'm just observant, especially in the 1st few years after that. I went on a flight. I was looking around, everywhere. Is there anything that looks out of place? Anything looks suspicious, always on the look for that. I heard the story of Todd Beamer. I think it was his name, who took his crew that took the plane down in the field. And that's how I'm going out. If this goes south, I'm going to read about me in USA today. So I started, I didn't sit on the aisle from now on. I want to be ready. I don't travel in flip-flops. You can't fight Al Qaeda in flip-flops. You'd have some good footwear. You'd be on the aisle, you'd have your eyes open. You need to be ready. If something goes down. I tell you, that's what he's saying. You don't fight the enemy in flip flops. You don't fight the enemy asleep at the window seat. Open your eyes, get your head on a swivel. We're under attack, we're in a battle against the enemy. Second, don't underestimate the enemy. Don't underestimate the enemy. Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. We're going to talk about that next week. that you may be able to stand against notice verse 11, the schemes of the devil, the schemes of the devil. Some translate this strategies of the devil. Both words work. There's an enemy who has a strategy for your life. There's an enemy who has developed schemes for your destruction. This carries the idea of cleverness, of craftiness, of cunning, of deception. Don't underestimate the enemy. This is like an opposing team, football team, watching game film all week to prepare. What are the weaknesses of our opponent? How can we exploit the weaknesses of our opponent? You better believe there's an enemy that has game film on your life. And what that game film of your life has determined where you are weak and what the strategy or the scheme for your life would be, he's happy. The enemy is happy, this Halloween, when he's just a costume you can buy at the Spirit Halloween store. He's happy when there's cartoons of a little devil on one shoulder, a little angel on the other. Our enemy is happy when we've reduced him down to a cartoon character. Because that lowers our guard. It lowers our defenses. We don't see him as a very real adversary who has plans for our destruction. George Barna did research on this. He polled a group of people who classified themselves as born again Christians, and he posed this phrase, The devil or Satan is not a living being but a symbol of evil, not a real being, but just a symbol of evil. 48% of border again Christians said they agreed or didn't know whether that statement was true or not. I hope you'll walk away today 100% in this room, saying, The devil is a living being. who has plans for the destruction of my, the harm of my life, of my family in some way. Now this isn't a conspiracy theory. There is an enemy with schemes for our life. This football season, maybe even happened to you yesterday. Your team will be defeated by a weaker opponent. And the next day, when you turn on the radio, The talk is going to be, how could this weaker opponent beat your team, which is much stronger, and they're going to say this, we weren't prepared. We weren't prepared. We overlooked it. We overlooked this easy opponent. We were looking at it next week to the harder opponent, and we weren't paying attention. And that's what happens in our life. We were not prepared. We're not paying attention. We underestimating the power of the enemy. Don't be fooled. be vigilant, vigilant. Keep your eyes wide open. Third, rely on God's power. Here's the good news. The enemy has been defeated. and is in check by our Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse 10, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his mind. Look at that closely, verse 10. You know, there's different translations of the Bible. When these scholars are bringing the Greek language over in the English language, They word things just slightly different sometimes as they're trying to bring that over into English. This is one of those places. The version of the Bible I'm reading from says, be strong in the Lord. Look at your version. If you have something different than the ESV. It might say this, be strengthened in the Lord or be strengthened by the Lord. Now, is there a difference between saying, be strong in the Lord and be strengthened by the Lord. There is, it's subtle. I don't think that one's right and one's wrong. I think the translation that says, be strengthened is better. Here's why I think it's better. The language, the grammar, and the original language here. It's in the passive form of the verb, which indicates it's not something you do but it's something done to you. So, make that explain that here. What it's saying is, he doesn't say, you go out and get stronger. He says, you allow the Lord to make you stronger. If I say, be strengthened, That can mean, go out and just get strong. When I say, be strengthened by the Lord. That's the better translation here. The Lord does the strengthening. We can't do this in our own power. We can't fight this in our own power. We depend upon his strength in the battle that we face. I love the redundancy here. Be strong in the Lord, in the strength of his might. Strong strength might, let his mighty power strengthen you. One scholar wrote, Paul seems to exhaust his thesaurus of power words. How can I say it more clearly, more redundantly? Be strong in the strength of the Lord? That's where our hope is. That's how you became a Christian. When you began to follow Jesus, if you're a true follower of Jesus, what that means is, you got to a point in your life where you realized you were a sinner, you were separated from God, and that your only hope was Jesus. You recognize, I can't do this on my own. There's nothing I can do to save myself. My salvation rests in what Jesus did for me. Jesus died on the cross for my sins. He rose from the dead, and because of his death and his resurrection, I can put my faith in him and be saved by his power. So you started this whole journey with a recognition that you're powerless. Why would we not continue the journey with the same attitude? I'm powerless. My only hope for salvation was Jesus. Putting my faith in him? My only hope in this spiritual battle is Jesus. Human opponents aren't the real enemy, so they can't be beaten by human resources. Bad news and good news. Bad news is human effort is inadequate. Good news, God's power is invincible. Your power is inadequate. God's power working in you is invincible. Our strength is in the Lord. This is really cool. Paul opened the letter, chapter one, verse 19. He was talking about what he was praying for them. And he said, I pray that the immeasurable power, excuse me, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. I want to see the power of God at work in you, that God worked when he raised Jesus from the dead. That's what he prayed. What's he saying? The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power at work in you. We fight this battle in the power of the Lord. So here's the deal. Spiritual warfare is not about fighting the devil. Spiritual warfare is about smitting to the Lord. You don't win the battle by fighting Satan. You win the battle by submitting to Jesus, by trusting the power of the Lord in your life. That's where the battle is won. What we need is Jesus, and he's all we need. We're under attack, and our hope is in the power of Jesus at work in our lives. So we can stand firm with confidence. We can stand firm with confidence, verse 13. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand firm. You can stand firm. This military language is using. The verb was used in classical Greek to talk about resisting an enemy on the battlefield, holding the line, holding your position, standing firm. Paul is portraying Christians here, as not retreating from the enemy's charge. Why? Because victory is sure. God has empowered and equipped us to stand firm in the spiritual battles we encounter, because Satan has been overthrown by the power of Jesus. Let me reach you some passages real quick. I love this. Hebrews 2.14. Since therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things that through death, Jesus might destroy the one who has power of the power of death, and that is the devil. Through his death, he destroyed the work of the devil. First Peter 3.22, he has gone into heaven, is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. Colosses 2.15, Jesus disarmed the rulers and authorities, and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In Romans 6.20. I love this, the God of peace, will soon crush Satan under your feet. The god of peace will crush Satan. stand firm. Stand firm. Don't retreat, the victory has been won. I was walking up to a coffee shop Thursday. Uh, place in Parkville. They had a little front porch that I like to sit out and work from there sometimes and walking up there, not really paying attention. All of a sudden, there's this vicious, loud barking of a dog, scared me so much about fell off the steps of this coffee shop. I look up, there's this massive dog, just lunging at me, teeth showing, slobbering. I backed up, and then the guy says, yeah, yeah, sorry about that. Sorry about that. He pulled on the leash, and the dog sat back down. I went in and got a T, came back out, sat down. I'm sitting over here. He's over there. It's a sidewalk right here. Every time somebody would walk by, that dog would go nuts. That dog would leap up and begin to bark, begin to show his teeth. And every time it happened, I'd look up real quick. And I wouldn't look at the dog, I'd look at the leash. Did the man still have the leash? I wasn't worried about the dog if the man still held the leash. And so it is with Satan. The Bible says he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but the scripture also says he's on a leash. He's on a leash. And victory in our spiritual battle is when we keep our eyes on the man with the leash. Keep your eyes on the man with leash. How do we do that? What's the battle plan? So we got to be alert. We get to stay vigilant. We're going to know their schemes. Every temptation that comes at you this week is a plan of the devil, for the attack on your spiritual life, on your family, on this church. I wanna be ready. My strength is in the Lord. My hope is in the Lord, what do I do? Number one, get in the word. Get in the word, get in the word every day. Or talk more about this next week, every piece of armor. talk about next week, relates back somehow to the word of God. We need to be in the word of God daily. You don't just run and grab your Bible when a threat is on the horizon. We need to be in the Word every day so we're ready every day. I had a goal this year. I was going to run two half marathons. I did one in May and I'm going to do one in a couple of weeks. And last year, I ran a half marathon, and I said, a new personal best. It would be nothing to you. I am old and slow, and it's nothing impressive. It's just something I'm trying to check off a bucket list. And I said, why did I do so much better last week? Yesterday, I was running at English Standing Park, and I was just dying. I was trying to get to 9 miles and I was walking a lot of the time. I felt terrible. So what's wrong with me? You know what happened? I saw this event on the counter and thought, oh, dang, I got to hurry and get ready because this is coming up. Last year, my New Year's resolution was to run every day. When I was running every day, that half marathon wasn't as difficult. It's difficult when I go, oh, shoot, that's in 2 weeks. I better go to the park and run. It wasn't quite that bad, but almost that bad. You can't go, oh, oh, there's an attack. Let me go find my Bible and dust it off. We gotta be in the word daily. Get in the word of God every day. Because the attack's going to come at you every day. Second, get on your knees. Get on your knees before the Lord. The key to spiritual victory is intimacy with our Savior. The key to spiritual victory, is into me with the Savior. We're not fighting the devil. We're submitting to God. And we submit to God, there's victory over the attacks of the enemy. Before our twin sons were born at a baby shower, someone gave us this picture. It was a frame picture, actually, two of them, because we have two kids. And the picture was of a dad kneeling at the bedside of his son, with his hand on him praying over his son, as his son slept in his room. And we hung one of those pictures above Micah's bed in one of those pictures above Mason. And I don't know why I didn't see it at first. I suddenly noticed that there's a window behind the dad, and outside that window, there's this angelic being holding back the forces of evil in the midst of the clouds and the stars outside of that window. It's kind of creepy thing to hang above the bed of a toddler. I get that now. But it was a good reminder that when I kneel by the bed of my children, and I pray for the safety of my children, I am calling upon the spiritual forces of God to hold back the spiritual forces of evil that want to attack my family. We need to be on our knees in prayer. This is a spiritual battle. And then finally, getting community. Get in community. Don't fight this battle alone. When attack comes on your life, that's the time to lean in, not pull back. I say that so often, because I so often hear from people, I'll see someone hasn't been around for a while. They haven't been coming to their men's group or their life group or whatever. And I'll say, hey, we've missed you, and they'll say, yeah, we've been going through some difficult things, and so we decided to kind of take a break. That is a really bad plan. When things get tough, you don't pull back from community. You lean in evermore into community. That's why we focus so much on this Northline, life groups, and discipleship groups, and men's ministry, and women's ministry, and student ministry, and young adult ministry, to find community with other people, then the battle. Let me give you a commercial, men. Tomorrow night, we kick off Forge for the new season. 6:30 tomorrow night. You're gonna be here for that. I know there's another thing happening tomorrow night in Kansas City. That's why God gave us TiVo. What's it called now? DVR, right? God give us VHS tapes back in the day. He's always provided a way for us to catch up on the other things. In fact, don't tell my wife this. She'll be in the 3rd service. If you want, guys, I'll record it and as soon as Forge ends, we'll all go to my house. And we'll just watch it, okay? From the beginning, we'll probably catch up with everybody else by halftime. Don't let a game tomorrow night, keep you from what you desperately need, which is community with other men who are in this spiritual battle that we're all engaged in. Getting community. Get in the word, get on your knees. Let's pray together. Jesus, we thank you. that you've won the victory. You have triumphed over evil on the cross and in the grave. Satan prowls like a roaring lion, but he has been defeated, and he will one day ultimately and forever be crushed under your feet, but today we face his schemes and his strategies. So we pray that we would be vigilant. We pray that we'd be prayerful, that we'd be linking arms with one another. We'd be in your word daily, so it will recognize his schemes, recognize his plans, see them for what they are, that we would stand firm in confidence, that we have the victory in Eugene's. Thank you Jesus, for the victory. Open our eyes, strengthen our hearts, fix our eyes on you this week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention Mark 4 · chapter mention Mark 4 · chapter mention Ephesians 4:14 1 Timothy 4:1 2 Corinthians 11:13 Acts 10:38