Standing Ground: Spiritual Warfare

And if you haven't been here as we've gone through Ephesians, good news number one, each of these series kind of stands on its own.

Number two, you can read Ephesians in like 20 to 30 minutes.

But if I could sum up Ephesians so far, it's that Paul is talking about the ground that's been won for us.

He's talked about the fact that Jesus has won ground for us in terms of our relationship with God.

I have no right in and of myself to stand before Creator God.

Who am I?

Like, who am I to stand in front of God?

What can I do that could possibly impress God?

That could possibly make God go, wow, wow.

Like He created everything, He knows everything, He has all the power in the world.

There's nothing in my own self that has any right to stand in front of God except for the fact that He loves me.

Like He loves you, that He created me like He created you, and that Jesus took the sin and all the things that get in the way of our relationship with God.

He dealt with it, and now He has placed us in front of Father God and presented us to God as children.

The Bible says anyone who belongs to Christ has been adopted into the family of God.

That this isn't a religion for us, it's a relationship, it's a family.

He's one ground for us in our relationship with God, and now we can actually go to God and we can pray to God just as boldly as Jesus prayed.

Do you ever think about that?

The Bible says now we can approach the throne boldly.

We don't have to be timid.

I don't have to go up to God and say, uh, Creator, God, address him by his title.

I can do that, and it is good to show him reverence, but he's my dad.

Because Jesus made me made me family, so I can I can go to I can go to God and I can pray like a son.

You can pray like a daughter, you can pray like a son, you can pray like a child of God, because that's who you are, because Jesus won that for you.

He won that, he won ground for you.

Not just ground for you in terms of your relationship with God, but but ground in terms of our relationship with one another and this entire world that we live in.

Jesus changed everything.

He changed everything.

He won.

And he won ground for us.

And with that in mind, let's read how Paul begins the end of Ephesians.

A final word.

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil.

We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.

Then after the battle you will be standing firm, stand your ground, putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness.

For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news, so that you will be fully prepared.

In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.

Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

He goes on to say, Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.

Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere, and pray for me too.

Ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the good news is for Jews and Gentiles alike.

I'm in chains now, still preaching this message as God's ambassador, so pray that I will keep on speaking boldly for him as I should.

So Paul essentially says, Hey, Jesus has has one ground for you.

Now stand your ground.

He says, Hey, Jesus has has defeated the powers of sin and death.

And look what he's done for us.

Look how he's changed our lives.

He's one ground, he's put us in places we don't belong, we shouldn't be on our own.

We don't belong there.

But stand your ground.

Don't give an inch of the ground that's been won for you.

Stand firm.

That's how he closes.

Stand your ground.

And what is it that he says we need to stand up to?

What is it that he says we need to be alert about and be ready for?

Let's read it one more time.

Verses 10 and 12.

That was a lie, by the way.

We'll probably read this more than one more time.

A final word.

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against what?

All the strategies of the devil.

For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Now, this is where it gets frustrating to be a pastor.

Because I would never have planned for us to start this conversation after Easter.

That's not what you're supposed to do.

Because like Easter, you get a lot of people that come for the first time.

Maybe you were here for the first time at Easter, and you're like, that was really good.

I'm gonna go back.

And you want to do a series after Easter that's like five ways to have a slightly better life.

You want something like that, you know?

Like here's some life hacks, here's some little tricks in the Bible that make you a little bit happier, you know.

Warm fuzzies.

You want warm fuzzies after Easter.

Not the devil, not demons, you know.

But I am a poor planner, and uh, and maybe God's a better planner than me because we've just been going through Ephesians and this is where we're at, but I actually, at the end of the day, all joking aside, I'm really glad this is what we're talking about.

Because to be honest, this stuff doesn't get talked about enough, at least in our culture.

I think that there are those who who overfixate on some of this stuff and they hyperfixate and they're real weird and like real weird, and they make everybody else kind of like go like this, like eh, you know.

But that's that's silly if that's our response to someone who makes it weird.

Number one, we're talking about supernatural things.

Like I believe that God became a person, became a baby, and was inside of a woman who was a virgin, and then she gave birth, and then he died, and he got back up three days later.

And by the way, in the meantime, he healed people, miraculously, walked on water, that kind of stuff.

Like, that's weird.

That's weird.

If someone looked at me and said, that's weird, I would say yes, but there's another word for weird, and it's called supernatural.

And I believe in a supernatural God, and a supernatural God is gonna do things that to a natural person seem kind of weird.

But you shouldn't, you should never let, you should never let like someone who just takes something too far or gets too into one thing keep you from experiencing something that's really good and actually real, keep you from believing something that's true.

And that's actually where I want us to focus today.

It's really simple.

This is like the whole thing today is do you actually believe this is true?

Do we actually believe what Paul says here is true and to what extent?

And I'm gonna read one part again.

Verse 12.

We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

He's talking about Satan, the devil, demons, evil spirits, says that they're mighty, that they have authority.

Like, if that's not true, then there is no reason to even talk about this armor of God stuff.

If that's not true, if there are no spiritual forces against us, there's no reason for us even to study things like truth and salvation and faith and prayer and all these other things.

There's no there's no reason for armor if there is no war.

Do we believe in spiritual warfare?

Do we believe in a spiritual reality that's real, that affects us, that has influence in the world that we live in?

If we don't, then there's no reason to even study the rest of this.

It doesn't matter.

Like, like if you were at the beach and you saw someone walking in full body armor, you would think they were nuts, right?

You're at the beach.

Any beach people in the room, by the way?

You're a beach person?

Yeah?

There you go.

How about mountain people?

Not like you're from the mountains, you're like, okay, like I'm a mountain person, and the reason is really simple.

I do not enjoy taking my shirt off publicly.

Don't like it.

I feel like, you know, there's insecurities that come up, and I have the best, I have the best way to get out of that, by the way.

Like if I go on vacation, I'll wear like a swimming shirt, and people will be like, Why are you wearing a swimming shirt, Justin?

You're you're in okay shape, which is always a weird thing to tell someone, like you're not in good shape, but you're not in bad shape.

You're like okay, you know?

Like, thank you for that.

Um but because I'm a pastor, I can get out of it super fast because I can say, Oh, hey, did you ever go to church when you were a kid?

And if they say, Yeah, I'm like, remember how you always wanted to see your pastor with the shirt off?

And they're like, no, exactly.

Exactly.

You know?

Exactly.

So it's that's my that's my built-in excuse.

I'm not a beach person.

My wife is.

I personally don't think the beach is very fun.

This is a tangent that I didn't mean to go on.

I think the beach is just, it's hot, it's sandy.

You get in the ocean, but like kind of, like you sort of get in the water.

You get about this deep and you drop to your knees so you feel like you're deeper, and then you just sort of like let the waves push you around and hope you don't get stung by a jellyfish.

That's the ocean.

It sucks.

It's the worst.

Whoever has convinced us to pay a lot of money to be hot and go get in that dangerous thing full of creatures we can't see that are terrifying.

Like, have you seen some of the things that live in the ocean that are real?

They're real.

Let's get in so dumb.

Jesus walked on the water, Moses part of the water.

That's on purpose because the ocean stinks.

Okay?

It's the worst.

Jesus is like, I'm not getting in that.

I'll just go on top of it.

You know?

Moses gets to the Red Sea, and God's like, clearly, I don't expect you guys to swim through that.

That would be nuts.

Here, let me clear it.

And we pay money to go get in that.

All right.

Enough about the beach.

Sorry.

But if you were at the beach hanging out in your swim shirt, like me, or, you know, whatever, bathing suit, and you saw a person walk by in a full, like, full set of body armor, think modern day, like helmet, kevelar vest, all that, you would be like, what is wrong with that guy?

What an idiot.

We're at the beach.

Person looks just looks like a fool.

Well, the reality is, if this stuff isn't true, then there's no reason to suit up.

There's no reason for armor.

There's no reason for spiritual armor if there's no such thing as spiritual warfare.

But we really have to take stock and ask ourselves: do we actually believe that this is true or is this just a bunch of nonsense?

And that's something we all have to ask ourselves.

That's actually the takeaway today.

I'm gonna ask you to ask this question a lot.

Do I believe this and to what extent?

Because this really, really matters.

This really matters.

There's a reason that Paul closes with this.

The close is important.

There's a reason that he finishes with this.

Let's look at it this way.

Let's get visual a little bit.

Um, a lot of people see the world like this.

It's just physical.

100% physical.

So there's no purpose behind anything.

We're molecules and atoms and subatomic particles, and it's just a natural world, and there is no supernatural.

Means that when we die, we just die.

And there's no there's no greater purpose, no greater meaning.

There's the history's not going anywhere, there's no such thing as destiny, stuff just happens, we just live in this world.

And we've invented the idea of spiritual as a crutch or a way to cope with the hard parts of life.

But it's just this.

Some people have the opposite view.

They believe that it's all spiritual.

Everything is spiritual.

There's some forms, for example, of Buddhism.

They wouldn't use the word spiritual per se, but they would say that the physical world as we perceive it is just a mental projection.

It's not really real.

We've sort of just invented it.

And so it's all spiritual.

I think a lot of people see things this way, where there's spiritual and there's physical, but they're distinct and very, very separate.

And so this would be someone who's like, yeah, I believe in the spiritual, and you know, when we die, then we'll we'll go there or encounter that.

But on this side of the afterlife, it's just the real world.

And that's actually the language that you'll hear someone use to describe that.

This is the real world.

The spiritual isn't the real world.

That's not real, at least not yet.

They're distinct, they're separate.

I think a lot of believers, a lot of Christians, will probably draw something more like this: that you have physical and spiritual.

And we believe that occasionally, occasionally, they interact.

Not all the time, not all the time, but every once in a while, the spiritual and the physical intersect, and there's overlap.

And when that happens, stuff goes on that we can't explain.

Sometimes it's really good, sometimes someone's healed.

It's a miracle.

Something happens and it doesn't make any sense.

It doesn't make any sense at all.

And we look at that and we'll even say, wow, that's a miracle.

Clearly, something supernatural happened.

There's no natural explanation for what's occurred.

It could also be something negative.

It could be something that's so evil, something that's so horrible that we look at that and we say, that was not just some person that was off track in their thinking.

That is that is more than just some human being that's messed up.

There's something so pervasive and so dark and so evil there that it's clearly motivated by something greater.

And so we would say, hey, these interact, but the question is, to what degree?

Because if you want to slide them closer together, that that makes a big impact.

Like, what if it's more like this?

What if the spiritual and the physical interact and overlap greatly?

Often.

What if it's even greater?

What if it's even more?

As you slide them closer together or further apart, it really matters.

And so we have to ask the question like, do they interact?

Do I believe what Paul says?

And there's a spiritual reality, and in that spiritual reality, there's good, but there's also great evil that is intense and powerful and organized and against us.

And because the spiritual and the physical overlap so much, we have to be on guard all the time.

We've got to be ready for a fight, we've got to stand firm because we're going to experience something.

It's not a matter of if, it's not a matter of maybe.

We're going to experience something because there's great overlap.

What if it's like this or or even more?

And here's the thing, I can't tell you the percentage that they overlap in my mind.

Jesus did not write out that the spiritual and the physical overlap, but about 86% of the time.

Um, like he didn't do that.

And there are no Venn diagrams in the Bible.

I've looked.

They're just not in there.

They didn't draw those.

I don't think they'd invented them yet.

So I can't tell you exactly, but what we can do is we can look to scripture, we can look to Jesus, and we can ask the question, what is it really telling us?

You know, like I said earlier, I'm a Jesus follower, so I have a very simple theology.

What does Jesus say?

What does Jesus believe?

If someone says, I believe this, or even if I believe something, but but then I come across Jesus and his teaching, as a Jesus follower, when I when I think something but Jesus thinks something else, then I lay my thinking aside and I do everything I can to adopt his thinking.

Because I think he knows more than me.

That's why I'm following him and he's not following me.

Jesus is not a Justin follower.

You know, there's never a time that I give the message and God's taking notes.

Like, ooh, good point.

Never thought of that.

Wow, like that.

You know, it's never happened.

It's never happened.

But I'm a Jesus follower, so I want to know what he thinks, what he believes.

Does Jesus believe in the spiritual?

Does Jesus believe that the spiritual and the physical interact?

Yes.

Clearly.

He does.

So if you read the story of Jesus, some things that you're gonna read that'll answer this question for you.

Number one, early in the story, very early, Jesus gets baptized.

And right after that, he experiences temptation, which by the way is a normal thing.

We've had a lot of people here who have said, I've gone on with Jesus, I've gotten baptized, and like right after that, life got crazy.

Yeah.

Yeah, Jesus experienced that too.

And in that story, Jesus and Satan, the devil, have a conversation.

Like they hang out and talk.

And so if you want to say, hey, does Jesus believe in the devil?

Well, he talks to him.

I tend to believe in the people that I talk to.

Do you?

But Jesus has a conversation, a back and forth, and Satan tempts him, and then Jesus responds.

There's times where Jesus talks to demons.

There's this one story, we'll talk about a little bit later.

There's this one story where this man comes to Jesus and he's possessed, as the story tells it.

He's possessed by potentially thousands of demons.

And Jesus hangs out and talks to him.

He says, Hey, what's your name?

And the demon responds.

And then Jesus talks to the demon, there's a back and forth.

So does Jesus believe in demons?

Well, he talks to them.

He addresses them as if they're every bit as real as you and I.

So I do believe in the spiritual because I follow Jesus.

And he does.

And what we see in his story and in scripture is a tremendous amount of overlap between the two.

And if that's actually how it is, that that matters greatly to us.

We have a tendency in our culture to separate spiritual and practical.

We do that in church.

Well, that wasn't very practical for my life because it was spiritual.

If you're a spiritual person, if you have a spirit inside of you that lives forever, there is nothing more practical than the spiritual.

They're one and the same.

And so let's look at some stories of overlap.

And let's see what Jesus would tell us.

Let's see what Scripture says.

So for example, Matthew chapter 9, verses 27 through 33.

Matthew 9:27–33

It says, After Jesus left the girl's home, two blind men followed along behind him, shouting, Son of David, have mercy on us.

They went right into the house where he was staying, and Jesus asked them, Do you believe I can make you see?

Yes, Lord, they told him we do.

Then he touched their eyes and said, Because of your faith it will happen.

Then their eyes were opened and they could see.

Jesus sternly warned them, Don't tell anyone about this.

But instead, they went out and spread his fame all over the region.

When they left, a demon-possessed man who couldn't speak was brought to Jesus.

So Jesus cast out the demon, and then the man began to speak.

The crowds were amazed.

Nothing like this has ever happened in Israel, they exclaimed.

Really interesting story.

A lot happens in a very short amount of time in this story.

Because we have Jesus healing some blind guys, and a man who can't speak.

Now, the man who can't speak, scripture says he was possessed by a demon.

Doesn't explain how we know that.

It just explains it like it's a matter-of-fact.

Oh, and this demon-possessed guy showed up and he couldn't talk.

I was thinking about it this morning that if I didn't talk, that would be viewed by my family as a miracle from God.

Right?

It'd be like, God is moving.

Justin hasn't said a word all day.

It's a miracle.

Doesn't make any sense.

This guy, he's not talking, and it's it's a demon.

And what does Jesus do?

Jesus acknowledges that it's a demon by casting the demon out.

We don't see the interaction, we don't know exactly what's said, but but it says that this man was demon-possessed.

Apparently, Jesus recognized, discerned, that the physical thing this guy was dealing with was the result of something deeply spiritual, and so he cast out a demon, and the man could speak.

Problem solved.

Now, some people will read stories like this and they'll say, well, that's everything, that every single physical problem that someone has, every single problem in our world, all of it is the result of like a demon or the devil and all that.

And that can actually borderline on superstition.

And his culture, by the way, was prone to that.

That's really what they believed.

And so, for example, we see a story of a man who was born blind.

And the Pharisees, the religious leaders who think this way, they come to Jesus and they say, Well, why was he born blind?

Whose sin made him blind?

Was it his own sin, which is weird because he hadn't been born yet, or was it the sin of his parents?

Because they could not disconnect the idea of someone having a physical problem that did not have a very purposeful spiritual root.

Not just like we live in a fallen world spiritual root, but something specific.

They did believe that demons were behind everything.

In fact, some people have used that to try to explain when Jesus cast demons out, like they don't believe in demons.

And they'll say, well, because Jesus knew that everyone believed that demons were a thing and were the cause of all those problems, Jesus would just use that language and he would say, okay, I cast the demon out because he didn't want to take the time to explain to people that that's not real.

But that doesn't line up with the story at all.

Because we have these two men who are blind, and Jesus doesn't cast out a demon to heal them.

He doesn't talk about it in those terms at all.

These men were blind, they were blind, and he just heals them.

They apparently just have a physical problem that isn't connected to some spiritual force, and Jesus just says, hey, you're blind, now you're not.

You're healed.

But even in that we have overlap, right?

Because the healing isn't surgery, they're not getting LASIK from Jesus, you know?

It's spiritual, supernatural healing.

And it's their faith that Jesus has actually heals them.

There's still overlap there, but what I'm saying is that scripture doesn't necessarily support the idea that every single problem we face is a demon.

But at the same time, apparently some of them are.

Because then the deaf guy comes, or rather, the guy who can't speak, and Jesus says, be out, be gone.

So Jesus apparently has a perfect discernment on when it's something spiritual in nature or when it's just part of living in a fallen, broken world.

But he addresses both.

And clearly there's overlap.

Let's look at another story.

This one's great.

It's one of my favorites.

Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Verse 13.

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, Who do people say that the Son of Man is?

Well, they replied, some say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.

Then he asked them, but who do you say that I am?

Just a quick side note, at some point in time, all of us have to answer that question.

Who do you say that Jesus is?

So he puts them on the spot.

Simon Peter answered, You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

That's quite a leap.

The other people have said, You're a prophet, you're a great teacher.

He's like, I think you're God.

Jesus says, You are blessed, Simon, son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you.

You did not learn this from any human being.

Now I say that you are Peter, which means rock, and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it, and I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

And then he sternly warned the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

So Jesus says, Hey, Peter, you got this from God.

That's revelation.

God revealed this to you.

This didn't come about because of your own mind, or it's not something that someone else told you.

There's been an overlap moment where God has spoken to you, you've heard God.

And you're speaking from God's perspective, and you're right when you say that I'm the Messiah.

So it's a moment of overlap, and Peter gets a nickname, which is Peter, actually, Simon's his name, means the rock.

It's a pretty good nickname.

And then we go on.

Next story.

Immediately after this, from then on, Jesus began to tell his disciples plainly that it was necessary for him to go to Jerusalem and that he would suffer many terrible things at the hands of the elders, the leading priests, and the teachers of the religious law.

He would be killed.

But on the third day, he would be raised from the dead.

Peter took him aside, though, and began to reprimand him for saying such things.

Heaven forbid, Lord, he said, this will never happen to you.

And Jesus turned to Peter and said, Get away from me, Satan.

So Peter gets a new nickname.

Not as good as the first one.

Rather be called the rock than Satan, personally.

He says, Get away from me, Satan.

You are a dangerous trap to me.

You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God's.

The exact opposite of what just happened.

Just a minute ago, he's like, Hey, Peter, you're seeing things from God's perspective, not from people's.

So your reward is great, and I'm recognizing you, and upon this rock I will build my church.

And then the very next story, he's like, Peter, you're not seeing things from God's perspective.

This is just your human mind.

And in that moment, he's saying, Peter, you're acting on behalf of Satan himself.

You're tempting me not to go through with what I'm telling you that I have to go through with.

I'm saying it's the will of God that I die as a sacrifice for people, and you're saying, no, don't do that.

He says, Do not tempt me.

And Peter is unwittingly acting as an agent of the enemy in this moment.

He doesn't realize it.

He thinks he's encouraging Jesus.

He thinks he's doing the right thing.

Look, sometimes our worst mistakes lie behind really good motivation, right?

The best intentions can produce the worst results.

So Peter's intentions are good, but he unwittingly becomes an agent of Satan and he's actually tempting.

Why?

Because there's an overlap that's happening.

Peter doesn't recognize it, but Jesus does.

Jesus sees it for what it is: a spiritual attack.

He says, get behind me, Satan.

Do not tempt me.

Jesus has the ability just to see it and call it out.

And so in Peter's story, really short story right here, we have two moments of overlap.

One is good.

Ding, ding, ding.

Peter, you saw you, you heard from God.

You saw things from God's perspective.

You win.

And the very next story is Satan.

Stop using Peter.

Stop using Peter.

Stop letting Satan use you to tempt me.

And I can read that story and I can think of get behind me Satan moments in my life where someone has spoken something to me or over me, and I'm like, oh no, no, no, don't listen to that.

Usually, by the way, it's flattery.

You know, someone's like, you're great.

You don't know me very well.

Like oftentimes that's that's how Satan works.

He wants to speak to pride.

But I've also had moments in my life where I've been Peter in this story.

Where I've been the one unwittingly speaking discouragement, trying to get someone to do what I think they should do, maybe not what God thinks they should do.

It's really easy to step into that place.

You have to be humble enough to realize that.

But the spiritual and the physical, they overlap all the time.

You keep reading story after story after story of spiritual and physical just being there at the same time.

And so again, we go back to that statement.

One more time, verse 12.

Ephesians 6, 12.

We are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies.

That's why, by the way, Jesus did not say, get behind me, Peter.

Because he recognized that it's not the flesh that he's fighting.

He says, But against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Is that true?

Is that actually true?

Because again, if it's not, no reason to be here for the next six weeks.

None.

Sleep in.

Because we don't need to worry about spiritual armor if there's no spiritual warfare.

But if it is true, if it is true, then I wouldn't miss a moment of our discussion about this because if this is true and we have a fight on our hands, and Satan's trying to take back ground that he's lost in our lives, well then we we better suit up and be ready.

So let's go back to a few of our pictures.

Go back to that fourth one that we looked at.

If this is how it works, then you know you're probably only gonna need to armor up in specific moments of life.

Like every once in a while you're gonna be in a season where you recognize something really intense is happening, and I better be prepared for this.

Like when I get up and go to work, I don't put on a Kevlar vest.

Even though I know I live in a world where bullets fly from time to time, I don't think my odds of encountering a bullet are that high.

And so I don't go through the trouble of that because I just know that it's not the case.

Again, if someone was at the beach in a full suit of body armor, they'd look like a fool.

But you know who would look more like a fool than a person on a beach wearing body armor?

Is a person on a battlefield wearing a swimsuit.

That person looks way more dumb.

You know, like the body armor on the beach guy, I'm like, man, well, he's not gonna get a sunburn, so there's that.

He really needs to hydrate because you're gonna sweat a lot in body armor, you don't want to have a heat stroke.

Like this guy needs to be packing water, but you know, there you go.

He's prepared, over prepared, I would say, but prepared.

So the negative of that is is there, but what's the negative of wearing a swimsuit on a battlefield?

You're not gonna make it.

And I I want to say this excitement is not enough.

In fact, Jesus once taught that some receive the news of Jesus, and he said they're like a plant that at first grows with great enthusiasm, but does not have deep roots and it doesn't last.

And I think one of the tragedies of kind of American church culture, and I've been part of this, it's something I've really had to pray through and repent about and change, is that we're a lot better at getting people excited than we are at getting people equipped.

And so being excited is not enough to win the battle.

Being passionate is not enough to win the battle.

You need to be equipped.

So we have to ask this question Am I at the beach or am I on a battlefield?

The last picture that we looked at that's a battlefield.

And in that picture, what's the real world?

Is it the physical or the spiritual?

It's both.

It's both.

If that's the truth, if it's very enmeshed, maybe even more so than that, again, I can't tell you the percent.

But if I had to lean one way or the other, I'd make it more than less.

If that's true, then we better be prepared.

Because we have an enemy, and he's angry, and he wants you to lose ground.

Don't let him.

You don't have to let him because Jesus has won.

He's won.

1 Timothy 4, verse 8.

1 Timothy 4:8

It says physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.

That's what we're gonna be doing for the next few weeks.

Spiritual training.

Let's let's learn about the equipment that God's given us.

He's given us equipment.

Truth, righteousness, peace.

And that one's kind of interesting.

The shoes, it's the peace that comes from the readiness of preaching the good news.

That's a lot.

Very complicated shoes.

Faith, salvation, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, prayer, these are all parts of our equipment that are designed to help us live in victory.

Do you want to live in victory?

You're meant to.

Because Jesus has won and he's given you that victory.

As we wrap up, think about it this way.

I want to make sure we're clear on this.

Jesus' victory over Satan is certain.

It is certain.

It's not like he's winning, but maybe there's gonna be a comeback.

No, no, he's won.

It's over.

But the time hasn't run out yet, if that makes sense.

I hate to use a sports analogy because they're cliched, but they work.

I don't know what it is about sports analogies.

They just work.

And even people who don't like sports go, like, yeah, I hate that analogy because I don't like sports, but I get it.

It makes sense.

You know?

So like imagine a game where it's over.

Like it's over.

The game is over, there is no way the other team's gonna come back.

It is over.

You ever watch those games where it's not over, but it's it's over?

And I'm talking about like over, over, not like the Falcons winning in the Super Bowl a few years back, like it's actually over, you know?

Is that too soon for anybody, by the way?

A little bit?

That was a bad.

Remember that game?

We were up by so much at halftime.

What happened?

It's not like that.

Sometimes you'll watch a game and it's it's like really over and it's clear.

Like the other team knows that they've lost.

And they're not even really trying to win anymore.

They're just trying to mess with the other team.

Sometimes those are the most dangerous games to be in.

Like in those games, and I know I've got I've got some coaches in the room, some guys who coach, like Tab, you coach football.

Um, I don't know if this is true or not, but if you're in one of those games, I bet what you do is you pull all your good players out because you don't want them getting hurt.

You put all the players you don't care about in, right?

You put in all the guys where you're like, like, if one of these guys breaks his leg, that's fine, but not that guy, you know?

You don't risk it.

Um Tab probably wouldn't do that.

He's a good man.

But like maybe a little bit.

Yeah, okay.

Like those are the games.

Those are the moments in the games because in those moments where the other team knows that they've lost, they have no chance of winning, but there's still time left on the clock, that's when it gets chippy, that's when it gets dangerous because that team knows they've lost, they now have nothing to lose, and all they want to do is ruin your victory.

They just want to ruin your ability to enjoy the victory you've been given.

That's where we're at, guys.

Jesus has won, and nothing can change that.

Live in victory, live with excitement, live with enthusiasm and joy because you are on the winning side.

He has won, he is victorious.

He is.

But the clock is still running, and we're still in the game.

And we do have an enemy.

And and he knows what he's doing.

The language that Paul uses here, the authorities and all the all this, it's it's actually military language, and it it gives the impression anyone who would have read it at the time would have had the impression of great structure and organization, of levels of hierarchy.

Like our enemy is a strong force.

It says mighty powers.

And our enemy has authority in this world.

Why?

Because we give him authority.

We live in a world that's handed authority over to our enemy, but ultimately it belongs to God.

And one day he comes back and he reclaims it.

If you ever read the book of Revelation, you're like, man, this is intense.

It's like, yeah, because when Jesus comes back, he's gonna rip this world, rip it from the hands of Satan.

And it's gonna be awesome.

But that hasn't happened yet.

We're still in this moment.

The game's over, but the clock's still running.

And in the meantime, we have an enemy.

Let's be prepared.

Let's do what it says, let's be alert, let's stand our ground, let's stand firm, and that's only gonna happen if we're prepared and armored up.

So that's what we're gonna do for the next few weeks.

We're gonna we're gonna learn about our armor.

We're gonna put it on.

You have it, it's been given to you.

It's been given to you, but you've got to learn to wear it so that you'll be able to resist every lie, every discouragement, every accusation, every temptation that comes your way.

Let's stand our ground.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for winning the fight.

I just, Lord, I keep thinking about you like that star player on a team that the other team has no answer for.

And it's really fun to be on that guy's team.

Because he does all the work.

And that's how I feel about you, Jesus.

You're the you're the star player, and our enemy has to be so frustrated.

And he knows that he can't do anything to you, so he's gonna try to mess with us to get to you.

He's gonna try to mess with us to keep us from enjoying the victory that we have.

He doesn't want to see us dance and jump and celebrate our victory, he wants to see us limp across the finish line.

And we're praying in your name, Jesus, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, that this is a church, this is a group of people who learns to live in victory.

And as a as a church that's united together by love for one another and love for you, we're saying in your name, Jesus, that we're not gonna tolerate watching our brothers and sisters struggle, and we're not gonna tolerate watching our brothers and sisters bound up when they've been freed.

That we're gonna we're gonna help each other be equipped, we're gonna help each other stand our ground, we're gonna help each other fight the fight.

And together we're gonna win.

Because you've already won.

As we go about our week, I just pray that you give us the ability to keep asking that question.

Do I believe this is actually true?

Do I believe in spiritual warfare?

Do I really believe this?

And if it is true, if the answer to that question is we search our spirit, as we pray to you is yes, then I pray, Lord, that you help us live with no fear.

We don't have to live in fear, but at the same time, Lord, I pray that you help us take this seriously because it is serious.

We love you, Jesus.

And it's in your name we pray.

Amen.