Message 9 - Tailor Made - Draw Your Sword

Ephesians 6:17

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Good morning, family. Good to see you this morning. I don't know if this if you had this experience, but when I was young and I would attend Sunday school when I was a kid a lot of years ago, we used to do this thing called a sword drill. Ever, how many of you have done sword drill? Okay, a few of you. So for us, and it was always exciting when usually uh Sunday school one week, uh I think it's happened like one week a month, but the the week before, the the leaders would always remind us make sure, kids, you bring your Bibles next week because we're gonna do a sword drill, and and that was always uh an exciting thing for you. And the way a sword drill worked was uh uh the leader, the teacher, we would we'd bring our Bibles and they would say, everybody was there, and it was usually the opening group that we'd have, and they'd say, Draw your swords. And and somebody gets your Bible and you put it up like that. Now you had to put the binding in your hand. That way was cheating because you could get to it faster. So you had to do it that way, and they would check. And so all the kids we'd all we'd all we'd all raise our hand, our Bibles in our hands, and then they would do this. They would say something like Psalm 119, 105. And then we would have to repeat it, and all the kids would say, Psalm 119, 105, and then there'd be a pause, and we'd all hold our breath because we didn't want to miss it when they said it. And at some point, then the leader would say, Charge, and we'd all go grab our Bibles, and it was a race, and and there was always prizes, and and uh it was exciting. I mean, man, I we we would get really worked up, and so we'd we find that passage and we'd stand up and read, Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. And and uh that just was an exciting, exciting race for us, and and uh so uh but uh a lot a lot of fun. Uh and and it's not a bad verse for us to begin with this morning. Uh I want to talk about a little bit about this verse before we actually get into, we're heading towards Ephesians 6 again. We're continuing looking at the armor of God, and we'll look at verse 17. We'll get there in in a little bit, but let's start with this verse uh that I brought up and uh regarding this sword reel. What does it mean? Well, uh a few things as you look at it, and I think probably you fought through it, you would come to these conclusions on your own pretty easily. But for first of all, it says thy word is a lamp, your word is, I memorized it, you could tell, your word is a lamp for my feet. And that's referring to the fact that the word of God is a really great guidance for what's right in front of you. Daily, daily instances that come up and situations, questions you might have on a day-to-day basis, uh, decisions you have to make, conversations, uh reminders. It's real good for daily encouragement. It's referring to those things that are right now, right, that we're dealing with, and and so it shines a path, the light on our path for what we're going through right at this very moment. And and so he's saying the word of God is really good for that. Um a couple weeks ago, Mary Lou and I got some news that really set us back on our heels. Uh nothing to do with health for for me or for Mary Lou, but it just uh was a hard inform, hard, hard uh information uh and and kind of shook us up, both of us. And I remember that night I went to bed and honestly I was struggling. I you know, we have those, we all have those things happening sometimes. I'm laying there and I'm struggling and and I'm I'm wrestling with what we've just found out, and and I can't go to sleep. And it's kind of like that all night long. I I I snooze every once in a while, but uh I'd wake up and I'd be right back there wrestling with the information that we had. And and I woke up in the morning and I was tired. Uh but my routine on every morning is I get up and head to the coffee machine, fill up my coffee cup. In fact, uh I have one coffee cup I use, and and uh I you you know, when you with those that cup is important that it stays the way it is because that's why the coffee is good. And Honey and Christoph and their kids lived us on time. And I came home one night and I looked and my coffee cup had, I forget what was in it, but it was soap and water, and she was soaking things in my coffee cup. I said, Honey, what have you done? And she says, Dad, it was disgusting. And uh, but anyway, so I get my coffee cup and I go to the coffee machine and then I head down to to my my chair uh and I my routine is, my habit is to dig then into the word of God. But you know, that morning I didn't really feel like it. Honestly, I I didn't. I was to be honest with you, I was a little frustrated with God about what was going on and what I had found out. Uh and uh so I I really didn't feel like, but I've made a habit of that. And you know, it it one thing that's good about habits, especially good habits, especially, is you know, you get so you like, well, I need to do this because it's it's the habit I have. You know, we're uh you're we're really glad that uh that uh people have the habit of brushing their teeth and taking showers. So that's a good habit to have, and and uh, and so this is a habit I have, and so even though I didn't really feel like it, I thought, well, I need to do it. It's it's the habit and it's a good habit. And so so I did. And I've been working my way through the Gospel of John for a little bit now, and I came that morning to John chapter 14, and I opened my Bible, like I said, and there was no, I wasn't excited about this. I was just kind of like, let's get it done, because that's what I do every morning, and open my Bible to John chapter 14, and I'm using the message right now to read through the scripture. And as I open my Bible to John chapter 14, verse 1, here's what I read. Don't let this rattle you. You trust God, don't you? And it's like, all right, all right, I need it. That's exactly what I needed. I mean, it would have been there the next day if I skipped that day, but I needed it that day. And that's what the word of, that's what he's saying here. That's what the word of God does, is is if we allow it to, if we make it a habit on a daily basis, it will do that. Every day, it will shine the light on on things that we need to understand, maybe decisions we need to make. Uh uh just a reminder that God loves us, he cares about us, uh, and uh that we can trust him, whatever whatever the case may be. I needed God's word to shine the light on what was going on in my life at that very moment, and and and it did. Uh, but then God's word also, he goes on, he says, and a light for my path. What's going on there? Well, it's also an excellent guide for what's coming down the road for the future. Uh uh, you young people, uh look to the word of God. I mean, it's a great guide for your career choice. Now, I don't mean specifically what career you're gonna be involved in, perhaps, but but you can use the word of God to set up perimeters, you know, as I'm moving in that direction and for whatever career I'm gonna be in, I want to make sure I choose a career that uh doesn't put me in a compromising situation where I'm gonna be asked to do something that I know is uh morally not right, uh or particularly uh contrary to what I know God would want me to do. And so so it's a good guidance. That's even that's down the path, down the road away, as if you're young, or or you may even be in that situation right now where you're you you're trying to figure define what needs to happen next, and the word of God will help give guidelines for that. Uh it's it's a good, really good uh uh uh thing to use to uh as a young person to uh kind of set up some uh uh goals and uh uh words not coming to me, but when you're you're gonna be choosing a spouse. Uh watched my grandson get married last weekend, and uh it just reminded me uh of when I was young. And when I was young, uh one of the one of the uh things that from the word of God, and actually from my mother as well, but one of the things that uh that I knew that when it came time for me to choose a spouse, I wanted to make sure, one of the perimeters I said was I wanted to make sure that that person knew Jesus, that they had a relationship with Jesus. This started, and actually this started uh a while back. I got to to uh uh speak a little bit at my mother's funeral. And one of the things I shared was when I was a when I was a kid, I never, I will tell you right now, I I was never one of those boys that hated girls, ever. I always liked the girls. That just was it. I was five years old, I came from home from kindergarten one day, and I said to my mother, I have a girlfriend, and her name is Mardell Sanders. That was her name. And you know what? The first thing my mother said to me was, does she love Jesus? And I always heard that in high school. If I'd come home and say, you know, I have a girlfriend, it was like, does she love Jesus? In fact, there are a couple girlfriends I had that I didn't have mother about because I knew she was gonna ask me that question, and I didn't know, and I really didn't care at that particular moment. But uh, but but that was a something that was said. So when I when I first met uh Mary Lou, actually I came home from college one weekend, and when I'd come home, the the choir director would always stick me up in the choir because she always needed more people there. And so I was I was sitting on the choir and I was looking down at the congregation, turned around and looked down, and there was this really pretty girl there. And and uh so uh uh afterwards I introduced myself and and then later on I was talking to my mom and I had as a uh you know one of the things that when it came to uh a girl that I might potentially date and marry, was that they had to have a relationship with Jesus. And so I asked my mom, I said, Who's that new girl? She says, Oh, uh her name is Mary Lou. And uh and I said, uh, well, oh, does she know Jesus? And she says, Not yet. Well, I knew a lot of things. I knew I knew she was beautiful. I I just my short conversation with her. I thought she has a great personality and she was really nice. I I liked her, honestly, from the start, but she didn't know Jesus, and and so I didn't pursue the relationship any further. I went back to college and uh went through my freshman year. Came in the end of the year, I got came back and and uh was visiting with my mom uh and I asked the question, hey, what about that Mary Lou? Did did she ever come to know Jesus? And she says, Oh yeah, by the way, she did. In fact, uh I'm doing a Bible study right now. I'm helping her get you know kind of uh solidified in her faith. And uh so before that summer was over, I made sure that I took Mary Lou out. And then when I went back to college, for some reason that year, I just have found lots of weekends where I had a reason to make the trek back home, you know, uh to see Mary Lou. Well, no, to be with my family, but to really just see Mary Lou again. And uh it wasn't too long until I asked her to be my wife. So that's what the Word of God does. Uh I I I mention often that I find it is so practical. And so he's saying, the psalmist is saying, here's it is it's that it'll it'll daily help help you figure things out and understand things and give you direction, but also is great for for down the path to to uh help you uh set some set these standards or all kinds of things that might be coming. So so the word of God is extremely important, is is what I'm trying to say, and what the psalmist is obviously saying. Uh I meet people often out in the community, you do I'm sure you do as well, and and uh we get talking, and often uh the subject of a church will come up, like you know, what what church do you go to? And I'll say, Well, I it happened just uh this past week, and it was uh uh and the lady says, Well, what church do you go to? And we and I said, I go to True North. And she says, Well, where's that at? And I told her where it was at. And usually in that conversation, they'll ask the question, Well, what denomination is it? And and I'll say, Well, we aren't a denomination. Uh it actually we are for every denomination. We don't, whatever your background and whatever your denomination is, we want you to be welcome. We want you to come to church. I said, but here's what what we do here. Our our uh what we're really pursuing at True North Church is a relationship with God. That's really what we're about. Uh we're not about a denomination, not that there's anything wrong with denominations, but we are about how uh about helping each other grow closer to God. And the best way to do that is by studying the Bible. And so that's what we do. And I said we when we come together, uh, most of the times that whatever's going on, we are studying the Bible together because that's how we grow to know God and build our relationship with God. Uh, and that's what it's for. It's it's been called a love letter from God to us. You know, you ever maybe some of you had a long-term relationship uh with your spouse, and and so for a while it was about writing those letters back and forth. And honestly, it's not a bad way to get to know each other. And and so this is that love letter from God that helps us get to know him better, who he's about, what he's about, how how he feels about us, what his his heart is for us. And and so that was what we spend our time when we come together Sunday mornings, these services. Majority of the time is spent talking about the word of God. In between the services is the the class that uh Christoph's been teaching. And right now we're studying Genesis. I've mentioned that on several occasions. And if you haven't, if you haven't come and checked it out, you need to because but we we're we're studying the word of God, and it and uh Wednesday nights we study the word of God, and those are all opportunities. Not just we're not just trying to gain knowledge, we're trying to get to know God and develop that relationship. That's what the word of God is about, and it's a wonderful resource for exactly that. That is what it was created for by God for us. Honestly, uh a concern that I have nowadays uh is the reality that so many Christians, I uh I follow statistics and I'm in as a pastor, there's there's a lot of church statistics out there or Chris, you know, information. There's a guy named uh George Barnett who's every year does uh does a lot of research and then he puts the statistics out regarding it. And one of the ones regarding Christians and Bible, the knowledge of the Bible, for the last couple of decades has basically said that most Christians are are really illiterate when it comes to Scripture. We know very little about it. Uh and that's a concern to me, and you'll see why uh why part of it is just because I think it has so much to do with our relationship with God and growing in our trust of God, and and uh, but uh it'll fit into the passage in Ephesians in a moment that we'll look at. But you know, one concern I have, and this this is gonna this is gonna basically mark me as an old person, uh, maybe, but I I worry a little bit uh about uh the fact that uh we have we have grabbed on to our devices and our cell phones as our Bible. Now, don't before you jump too far ahead, I I love that fact that I've been able to do that. It's on my phone, and I love the fact it's right at my fingertips. Uh for years I had you know I could only carry the New Testament part, and and I had this little flat and I'd keep it in my back pocket because I wanted it there if I needed it, but now it's in my phone and it's so easy to use. And so this is not judgment here, but but I think there is something. Uh if we did a sword drill today and you use your devices, you'd wipe me out every time. There's no doubt about it. But but I think there is something to, and again, this may be the old old part, about having the actual paper in the pages and being able to underline and write in the margins. And I know you could do all that with the with the devices too, uh uh, but seeing where it is in the Bible. The sword drills uh taught me as a as a young child to be able to s know where I was and where it fit in the context and what was going on and what the other uh but anyway, but the main thing is is no, the devices are great. I'm glad we have them. The main thing is not what what you're using per se as much as are you in the Word of God. Is it is is it a part of your life? Is it a habit? Uh because it's more than just you know making sure you're uh eating your teeth or brushed. It has so much to do with your relationship with God, with your confidence in God, with uh your ability to trust God and and uh and really uh know him and value him in your life and in my life. And and so, and that's what the psalmist is saying uh to us. But now I want to get over Ephesians uh six. We've been working our way through Ephesians uh six, the armor of God, and today, so today we're working our way down, we come down to verse 17 where we read that the sword of the Spirit comes out to the sword which he defines, which is excuse me, the word of God. It's the word of God. That's that's why we started with that opening. The sword, the and and interesting, uh, as we've been talking through this, uh, this is the only offensive weapon as you look at the armor. Everything, everything else is for our defense, for our protection, and obviously the sword is too. But this is the the one offensive weapon, excuse me, that is part of this armor uh uh uh that we have been talking our way through. Uh like I say, I'm working my way right now in my own personal time in God's Word every day to the Gospel of John. And uh, and just and this is kind of review, but remember the gospel means good news. And this and John is John who walked and talked with Jesus. He it is his eyewitness account of what he saw, what he heard. Uh Matthew, Mark, and Luke are three other witnesses that then recorded for us what they saw, what they heard as they walked and talked with Jesus. And and it's called gospel because it's good news. It's good news. It identifies what Jesus did for us. And so, and and in John, and as I was working this week, and in John chapter 14, the same verse, same chapter I read from a moment ago this week, I I came across this statement. But the counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you. Now, Jesus is talking to his disciples. This is just a very short time before he is going to go to the cross. Uh, and he's trying to prepare his disciples for what uh is about to come. And and he's just said, he's he's given them some pretty rough information. They're a little bit shook about what they've just been told. And but he says, I want you to know when I'm gonna go, but when it's when I go, my father's gonna send this individual, God the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna come and he's gonna live within you, and he's gonna be a counselor to you, and he's gonna teach you uh all things. He's gonna help you understand the scripture. So when we get to the Ephesians 6 passage, he says that this is of the Spirit. This sword is the sword, it's of the Spirit, but it's specifically the Word of God. It's all wrapped up in God's Spirit in our lives in the Word of God. And we we've talked about this often, but I want to make sure we're tracking here. When you invite Jesus to apply what he did on the cross to your sins, remember, here's what sin is. Sin just the the easy definition is it's anything we do that is in uh in is that is different than what we would know God would want us to do. And and that's I mean, some there are big offenses, and obviously there in at least from a human perspective, there's there's small offenses. But every time I do something that I know, if I was standing before God and asked, he would say, No, no, son, I would I don't want you to do that, son. So anytime I do something that I know would be contrary to the will of God for me, that is sin. And sin, what we find in scripture, always has broken our relationship and and with God. Uh so and and there is a price for sin. And the price of sin is separation from God or death. That's what the word death means. Death means separation. Physical separation is body and the soul. Eternal separation is which is what sin does to us is separation from God for eternity. And so Jesus came and died in our place, took our place, and died for our sin, and then offered you. You and I, as a gift, we don't do anything. The price was paid by Jesus on the cross, forgiveness of sin. And the moment we accept that gift, the Bible says a number of things take place. First of all, our relationship with God is restored. And that's forever. It doesn't change because, secondly, we are adopted into his family as his child. And we're going to always be his child. There will be times we'll disappoint him. There will be times when the fellowship isn't as good as it could be, because, but but we're still his child. That is a forever thing. And then he also tells us that we're going to someday go with him to live with him forever. And that, what we're talking about here, that God the Spirit comes and lives within us. And he's always with us. And there's nowhere we can go where he isn't there. He is always with us. And one of the things he does, which we are talking about here, is he helps us understand the scriptures. He helps us know how to apply it to our lives. I don't know if you, I'm sure some of you have had this experience. Maybe you read the Bible before you ever came to know Jesus as your Savior. And for whatever reason, someone gave you a copy or, but and you read it and it's like, yeah, I don't get this. I don't understand this stuff, what it means. And then after you became a Christian, you read it again, and all of a sudden, you know, you have something just stands out to you, and it's like, oh, man, I get this that wow, that's a man, God, that really, I needed to hear that today. Well, what's the difference? The difference is God's Spirit lives in you now. And He, his part of His responsibility and His gift to us, honestly, is that He helps us understand the Word of God. But now we get to this, the sword, part of this armor, and He says that one of the things God has done for us through the Holy Spirit who lives within us is He's given us this sword to use in to go on the offense against an enemy who, as we've been talking about all the way through here, is bent on our destruction, is bent on discouraging us and as believers, causing us to head in directions that he knows will bring us harm. And so God's Spirit helps us through the Word of God know how to fight back when it comes to Satan. We looked a few weeks ago at uh the record of when Jesus was uh just getting ready to start his ministry. All the gospels, I think uh except maybe Mark record this. I may be wrong about that. But so so he's getting ready to start his ministry, and uh and right before he does, he goes out into the wilderness, led by the Holy Spirit, to the wilderness, and for 40 days he fasts and prays, getting ready for this ministry. And and we looked at it a few weeks ago through Matthew, and and uh this week I looked at it through Dr. Luke. So anyway, he heads out uh into the wilderness, fasted for 40 days. At the end of that 40 day days, when he's tired, I'm sure, hungry, weak, uh Satan decides now's time. Now it's time to attack. Because if if there's ever a time to get Jesus to fill his father in Satan's eyes, this is the time to do it. And so he goes on the attack. And you might look at it later this afternoon. Uh what I looked at this week was Luke chapter 4, and 1 through 13, he talks about it. Uh uh, so you might want to check that out uh later this week. As I said, let me get you all to stick it up there for a moment so you can check it out if you want to. But let me kind of paraphrase it and talk us through this. So Satan comes to Jesus, and thinking that this is a good time, uh Jesus is weak, he's uh susceptible to Satan's deception, and uh and so he comes to Jesus and he thinks, I'm gonna get him, get him this time, and he starts this conversation. And so every one you'll find is every time Satan approaches Jesus about something, Jesus responds with scripture, the sword. He picks up the sword like we're supposed to. So Satan comes and basically says, uh, my paraphrase, hungry? And Jesus says, Well, yes, I'm hungry. And so Satan says, Well then turn those stones into bread. Temptation, hungry. Does Jesus have the power? Yep, he could do it. Uh he's he's proved it. But Jesus responds with scripture, and the scripture he quotes back to Satan basically saying this, you know, I could, but that's not my job, and that's not why I'm here. My father will provide what I need, but I'm here to serve God. Sword of the Spirit. Puts Satan down. Well, Satan's not going to give up that easy. He never does. He won't with you either. So he comes back at him again, and he says, Okay, okay, all right, I get that. But uh how about this, Jesus? Right now, I have dominion over the earth. Satan is called the Prince of the Power of the Earth. He is. That you you want to know why, you know, we we often as Christians will say, Oh, God, why are all these things happening? And why is it you know, so much division and angry, and why do people hate Christians so much? Because we're living in the dominion of Satan right now. That's gonna change someday, but it's that's we are in his dominion right now, and Satan knows that. So here's the offer he makes. You can look at it yourself. He comes, he says, All right, let's do it. How about this, Jesus? I know prophecy, I know somewhere down the path, this you're gonna take over and you're gonna come become the king and all these things. I don't know that Satan believes that, but but but he re quoted scripture, actually did Jesus. So, how about this? How about let's let's jump in history, let's jump right up to where you become king. I will give you this dominion right now. I will give it. Let's skip the cross and and all that leads up to the cross. All you gotta do is this. Just one it'sy bitsy little thing. Just bow down to me. That's it. Bow down to me and I will hand it all over to you. And you can skip the cross and all that comes with it. And if you don't think, if you don't think that was appealing to Jesus, you haven't paid attention uh as we walk through the resurrection over the years. Remember, Jesus is in the garden and he is desperately praying to his father, and he begs God, if there's any other way, and in all this humanity, he knows what's coming, he knows what prophecy says. He begs God, is there another way we can do this? But there's not. And certainly bowing down to Satan, isn't it? So, what does Jesus do to this offer? He pulls out the sword of the Spirit and He says, Here's what the Word of God says worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Well, Satan's still not done. One more thing, memory takes him to the top of the temple. He says, Yeah, it's okay. That didn't work. Let's try this. I know your objective in these upcoming years, three years, is to get as many people as possible who will follow you and who will want to be a part of your kingdom. And uh so, but so let's jumpstart this. Jump off the temple. You see all those people down there? Jump off the temple, they're gonna see you falling, and then your angels, we know they've promised they're gonna take care of you, your angels will save you from falling, and everybody will get all worked up, and you'll have an instant crowd, instant popularity. They'll be ready to follow you into your kingdom, which is what you want. Come on, Jesus, just just jump and and see what happens. Uh and once again, Jesus pulls out the sword and says, You know, Satan, that that's not a godly way to do my father's work. It's not right to test my father in that way. And so in each instance, Satan tacks, and Jesus responds with the sword of the spirit, which we've been talking about. And that's what we're supposed to do. That's why he's given us that. Uh got ahead of myself, hang on, come to that verse. He pulls out the sword of the spirit. But this is this is what I found interesting. That's why I put that verse. It's interesting, Matthew's gospel, when he reports this same instance. At the end of Matthew's record, we read this Then the devil left him, and the angels came and attended him. So here's my question. So don't you think that the angels were there the whole time? Of course they were. The ladies are have been studying, doing a study of angels, and and I'm sure that in that study, one of the points has been made is that the angels are actively involved in watching over us and in protecting us, which is really cool to think about and to know. But not at our bidding. Angels serve God and they do his bidding. And even in this instance, although God the Father could have, could have any time sent them in for his son's protection, he didn't. He allowed his son to walk through that to demonstrate for us, I think, as a testimony and an example, that the way to do battle with Satan is to pick up the sword of the Spirit. Uh so uh this is very important that we understand what we have at our behest, at our use, and how important it is that we understand this sword and we get familiar with it. Uh and that's why I'm concerned. I shared a little bit ago. I'm concerned that the statistics say that so many of us who say we are followers of God, Christ followers, are so so illiterate when it comes to the Word of God. Uh, and then worse than that, my conversations sometimes demonstrate a laxadaisical, you know, well, it's not a not really a big deal. We somehow we're convinced that uh 40 minutes or so on Sunday, it's all I need. I'm good to go. Uh, you know, I gotta tell you, Satan doesn't hold off his attacks for 11 o'clock Sunday morning. He doesn't say, oh, uh, I'm I know it's not fair. I'm gonna be fair here. So I'm not gonna attack to your church on 11 at 11. And then when you're around other, no, that's not the way he works. He he is so unfair. Uh but here's the thing, I often here's the kind of things I hear. I often hear things like uh, I'm just not a reader. Well, what a wonderful day to live in. Because you don't you don't have to read it. That device you have that it's on, you can pull it up, an app, and you can listen to it. In fact, you want to hear it in a British accent, you can do it. Or a female accent, or or combine them. It can be a woman who's British accent, you know, you can do whatever you want. It's right there. You can just you can just listen to it. Uh and I've I and then sometimes I said that to the people and say, well, you know, I have a just a really, I just don't concentrate very well. Uh well, I'm not a betting man, but I would bet this one. I bet that if you were watching one of your favorite shows on TV, you would have no problem concentrate. And here's the thing: we we're again, we you can actually watch scripture played out in dramatic video nowadays. Pull it up, and you if you haven't, you gotta get start watching the chosen. What a wonderful thing there. And you're gonna get a lot of good scripture through that. Uh but the thing is, man, learn how to use the sword. You wonder, we wonder why we have so little success against the enemy. It's because we don't know, learn how to, we don't know how to use the one offensive weapon he gave us. We're really weak with this tool. And here's what's interesting, at least I find this interesting. Do you know uh if you that uh the early Christians uh they didn't have the Bible in their hands? They, if they wanted to hear the word of God, they had to go to the synagogue where every day a portion of it would be read. And you know what they did every day? They got off their ends and they went down because they did want to hear the word of God. It was so valuable to them. Not everybody, sure. There were there were individuals like some Christians today that it was no big deal and and they were in trouble because of it. They they did not how know how to fight the enemy, but they didn't have the word of God, they had to go somewhere to listen to it. Uh in fact, it wasn't until the 1500s until Christians started having the scriptures in their own hands. The printing press came into play and and they started making printed copies. Uh, even even on into before that, you would have to go and listen to a priest read it. And in fact, and early on, you listened to them read it in Latin, and a lot of people didn't even know the Latin, but they'd still go even just to hear the Latin and hear the priest, the religious leader, talk about it so they understood what we're in such a wonderful time where we have the Word of God at our hand with at our fingertips. Uh don't miss the opportunity. Don't forget to learn how to use this. Uh, it is so important in our protection and in our growth and in our understanding of what's going on in a day-to-day basis and and in our setting goals for the future and more than anything else in our relationship with with our God. So I don't do this very often, probably not often enough. But before I'm gonna close in prayer in just a moment, but in the meantime, I'm gonna give you a few moments. I'm just gonna we're gonna have quietness here, and and I want you to consider making a commitment. I want you to consider telling God that you will begin on a daily basis spending some time in his word. And I'm not talking hours. See, that's that's another trick of Satan sometimes. He you know, we we say, oh, we're convinced, convinced, and we look at this and we say, okay, God, starting tomorrow, I'm gonna spend an hour every day reading your word of God, we're reading the word of God. No, you won't. You won't. Uh you'll go a day, maybe two, and then you'll get discouraged and you won't live up to your commitment, and then you'll just put, I can't do it, and you put it aside. Now, now make it just a few minutes, honestly. But but I am going to get into your word every day. I'm gonna learn how, Lord, to use the sword, to get skilled at that, because I'm tired of the enemy pushing me around. Think about that, and just these take these few minutes, and and I'm asking you honestly to consider telling God that, making that commitment, and then I'm gonna close this in prayer. I'm ashamed to admit that it took me a lot of years. And to make this commitment in my own life, even as a preacher for years. I I would read your Bible, I studied the Bible, but I was always I was never studying for my own soul, for my own relationship with you. It's all about my next sermon or my next Bible study, or it took me a long time and really to to get into a very uh hard, difficult day when I finally realized, man, I I do not know your word personally for me. I don't have, I don't know, I am not skilled with your sword, and that's why the enemy is having such a heyday. And so, Lord, thank you for the least I eventually came to that understanding. And now it's such a precious thing to me, and I know that it will do exactly the same to every with every person in this room. In fact, a lot of these folks, your children already know this, it's already that kind of a part of their life. But if there's someone here, Lord, that really has never grabbed on and and and the enemy has fooled them to them to making excuses for why they can't or don't or won't. I pray, Lord, that they those things will be shoved out and and they will be for you and with your guidance uh make this a valuable part of their daily routine because it will make a difference. Thank you for Christ's example for us, and Lord, just uh let us help us follow that example. And and another reason why this is so important is because you told us that we are stepping out of the doors of this church in a few moments into a world that is so dark and the enemy is pushing people around and causing all kinds of destruction, and we are to not only do battle with the enemy, but we are to be a light to those people, and so Lord, we're gonna need everything we have to be able to do that right, and so uh Lord, for that reason also help us to make this a priority. And thanks for my church family and just being able to speak honestly with them, and Lord, just uh take the things that we've learned together this morning and help us to know how to apply it to our lives. Pray these things in your son's name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

As we close this morning, just a couple of quick things. Uh, don't forget the potluck right after this service. Stick around, break some bread together, and then if you need prayer this morning, our prayer team is gonna come up here as we sing and take advantage of that. Let them pray with you, pray over you. Any need you have this morning. Let's sing this together.