SPEAKER_01: You're listening to audio from the Via.
SPEAKER_01: If you'd like information on how to get connected, tap the link to our website in the show notes.
SPEAKER_00: Via, how are we doing?
SPEAKER_00: Let's go.
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, it is so good to see all of you here in the Bonnie Oaks Sanctuary on a Thursday night at 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody in this place say amen.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: Well, man, if it is your first time with us, first off, I just want to say welcome and that we are so glad that you are here.
SPEAKER_00: If we haven't had the chance to meet or we didn't get to meet out front, my name is Chris, and I get to serve as a part of our team here at Via uh with Silverdale Young Adults.
SPEAKER_00: Um but we are in week three of a series on spiritual warfare.
SPEAKER_00: Um and if you missed the first two weeks, uh in week one, Clayton kind of laid out the battle that we find ourselves in.
SPEAKER_00: He he wanted us to know that that we are at war, but he also wanted us to know that the war has already been won.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't fight for victory, we fight from it.
SPEAKER_00: When we place our faith and trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then last week we we talked about what it's like to know our enemy, to know ourselves, and to know our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And this week, we're gonna get real practical.
SPEAKER_00: What we are looking at tonight is how we fight the battle.
SPEAKER_00: How do we fight?
SPEAKER_00: And in 2 Corinthians 10, Paul kind of lays this out for us.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't where we'll be tonight, but it's gonna lead us into it.
SPEAKER_00: He he says this: he says, For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
SPEAKER_00: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
SPEAKER_00: On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see here is that the weapons of the world, fighting how the world fights, does not have the power to demolish strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: But on the contrary, the weapons that we get to fight with in Christ, they have the divine power to demolish strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: And so if you've got your Bibles tonight, I want to invite you to open up to Ephesians chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be spending the next two weeks talking about the armor of God, about how we practically stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: And tonight we're gonna look at the first part, the first three pieces of that armor.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout this passage that we're gonna read, the word stand comes up four times.
SPEAKER_00: And so, kind of in honor of that, what I would like for us to do in this room tonight is I would like for us to stand for the reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: You can follow along in your Bibles or on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I'll be reading from the NIV.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
SPEAKER_00: Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
SPEAKER_00: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.
SPEAKER_00: And after you've done everything, you'll be able to stand.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Father God, God, we thank you for your word.
SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for a space where we get to gather as a body of believers.
SPEAKER_00: God, as your word is opened up, I pray that your spirit would already be at work in the hearts and the minds of all of us in this room tonight.
SPEAKER_00: God, what a joy it is to get to gather together and to hear you speak to us.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, would you do it?
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, we all said, Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what we're gonna do.
SPEAKER_00: We are gonna kind of walk through this thing verse by verse, starting in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: And there's a couple words that I want to pull out, a couple truths that I want us to see, and then we're gonna see how this fits into our lives, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And so we're gonna start in verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what it says it says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to underline in your Bible is be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Because what I want you to know is that in the Greek, this word is less of be strong, and it's more of be strengthened, be made strong.
SPEAKER_00: And so before we even start tonight, we have got to lay the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: Your strength to stand firm and to fight is not on your own.
SPEAKER_00: The foundation is the finished work of Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul is encouraging us to take action while also realizing that our power, our strength, it comes from the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from a genuine relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And it's through this union between us, this fellowship between us, that we find the power to fight and stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_00: We've got to lay that foundation before we take off.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 11 then says, put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see first here are the words put on.
SPEAKER_00: Put on.
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul uses this, this phrase, all throughout Scripture to encourage us to make our faith offensive and not just defensive.
SPEAKER_00: But before we put on the armor of God, we have got to take off the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just the taking off of the things of the world.
SPEAKER_00: We have got to remove and replace in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we strip ourselves of the sin that so easily entangles, as Hebrews 12 would say it, as we take those things off, we then put something on to take its place.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: We have got to armor up.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what we've been talking about the last couple of weeks.
SPEAKER_00: That the enemy is scheming against you.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: We've done that sermon already.
SPEAKER_00: But listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy is not messing with what God is not blessing.
SPEAKER_00: If you do not feel the attacks of the enemy in your life, you should start to question the life that you claim to be living for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying that you're not a Christian just because you don't feel the attacks of the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that so many of us are caught in a spiritual slumber, and the enemy is playing, don't wake the baby.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to mess with you because he doesn't want you to wake up and see that you are at war.
SPEAKER_00: But let me tell you something.
SPEAKER_00: Tonight is the night that you wake up.
SPEAKER_00: But if you do, if you do feel the attacks of the enemy in your life, I want you to listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Good.
SPEAKER_00: Let it motivate you.
SPEAKER_00: Some of you, you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself when Satan starts to mess with you, and you need to get a little holy chip on your shoulder.
SPEAKER_00: You need to recognize that if the enemy is messing with you, then he must be getting scared.
SPEAKER_00: He must be getting a little bit squirmy.
SPEAKER_00: And so when the enemy starts to mess with you, you don't let up, you stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: You keep going, you put on more steam, and that is what we are going to talk about tonight.
SPEAKER_00: And so, verse 13, he says, Therefore, in light of everything I've just said, therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.
SPEAKER_00: And after you have done everything that you would be able to stand.
SPEAKER_00: To stand, to stand your ground.
SPEAKER_00: What I want you to see is that we are not urged to win the victory, but to stand firm, to stand our ground, because the victory has already been won by Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to see that the word stand here is not just about standing one's ground and not retreating.
SPEAKER_00: The word is both offensive and it implies this: a forceful offensive stance against an opponent.
SPEAKER_00: A forceful offensive stance against an opponent.
SPEAKER_00: Standing firm is not just about defense.
SPEAKER_00: We are armoring up so that we can go on offense and be protected.
SPEAKER_00: Do you hear me?
SPEAKER_00: We are armoring up, but not so that we can just stay back and try not to retreat, but we are throwing on the armor of God so that we can march into battle.
SPEAKER_00: The enemy's goal is to make us retreat, but we have been called to take ground, to move forward.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have got to move from defense to offense in our walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: You were meant to put on the armor of God, not so that you could stand back and let the fight come to you, but instead so that while you were going on offense, you would be protected against all the enemy's schemes.
SPEAKER_00: You were meant for offense.
SPEAKER_00: And if you spend your whole life playing defense, you are never going to see the victory that Jesus died to give you and the people around you.
SPEAKER_00: And so listen, I think most young Christians, young adult Christians, like high school Christians, they wake up in the morning and the biggest thought that's in their head is how do I just not watch porn today?
SPEAKER_00: How do I just not fall into the comparison trap today?
SPEAKER_00: How do I just not feel depressed?
SPEAKER_00: How do I just survive another day?
SPEAKER_00: But listen to me, God has not saved you so that you would struggle mediocrely through life trying not to sin.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, the promise of God is that as you grow in relationship with Him, those things begin to fall off of you.
SPEAKER_00: But you were called to set your mind on Christ, to put on the armor of God.
SPEAKER_00: You were called to walk in victory and to be compelled by the love of God to show others that they can experience the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: What if you replace those thoughts with the things that you do want to do?
SPEAKER_00: What if you went from defense to offense?
SPEAKER_00: What if you said, instead of this, I want to spend my time with God?
SPEAKER_00: I want to spend my time praying on behalf of my friends.
SPEAKER_00: I want to spend my time sharing the gospel with the people at my school and my work, encouraging other believers with what God is teaching me and what I see that God is doing in them, and loving the people that God has placed around me so that they might be drawn towards the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What if you got so fixated on looking for what God is doing in every place that you walked into that you didn't have time to think about all the things that you think are wrong with you?
SPEAKER_00: We have got to stop playing defense and we have got to get on offense.
SPEAKER_00: And it starts by being strengthened by the Lord, getting armored up, and getting ready to stand and move forward.
SPEAKER_00: Then what?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: Stand firm then.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is giving us is the result of what we're about to put on.
SPEAKER_00: We can stand firm when we have this armor on.
SPEAKER_00: Not just stand firm on defense, but stand ready to move, ready to advance the kingdom of God into the kingdom of darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And so the first piece of armor the belt of truth.
SPEAKER_00: The belt of truth.
SPEAKER_00: It says, stand firm then with what?
SPEAKER_00: The belt of truth buckled around your waist.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to know.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's writing this uh letter from prison in Rome, and so he's likely looking at a Roman soldier as he's writing this.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Roman military, the belt was important for two reasons.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it would hold all the other pieces of the armor together, and it protected your core.
SPEAKER_00: Paul knew this, and he calls it the belt of truth very specifically.
SPEAKER_00: Because the belt of truth is what is gonna hold all of your other pieces of armor together.
SPEAKER_00: What you believe to be true about God, about yourself, about other people, about who He's called you to be and what He's called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: The belt of truth is gonna be instrumental in how you put on the other pieces of the armor and how you walk into and fight in the battle.
SPEAKER_00: It is gonna hold your armor together and it is gonna protect you where you're vulnerable.
SPEAKER_00: Now, let me put this together for you.
SPEAKER_00: Because back in this time, when you were in a sword fight, if you wanted the killing blow, you you would go for the chest or for the head.
SPEAKER_00: But the enemy would know that.
SPEAKER_00: They would know that.
SPEAKER_00: And so they were armored up against attacks to the chest and to the head.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't gonna let you get there.
SPEAKER_00: But what you would do is you would look for your enemy to have a lapse in judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And when he did, you would try to cut him, slice him in his core.
SPEAKER_00: And as you would fight, as you were looking for the killing blow, you you would try to keep slicing the core as much as you could, and what would happen is that eventually, without getting struck in the heart or the head, your opponent would bleed out.
SPEAKER_00: What's the point?
SPEAKER_00: Well, for all of my Swifty fans in here, you know there's an old Taylor Swift song called Death by a Thousand Cuts.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is trying to tell us is that we have got to protect ourselves from death by a thousand lies.
SPEAKER_00: Death by a thousand falsehoods.
SPEAKER_00: It is not the striking truth blow that is gonna take us out.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is too smart for that.
SPEAKER_00: But what's gonna get us is these little lapses in truth that we allow to seep into our hearts and into our minds, and they slowly turn us away from God.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little lie here and a little lie there, and then slowly we bleed out.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God doesn't really love you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe God didn't really forgive all of your sin.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll never really overcome that sin in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So why even try?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that sin is not even that bad.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I don't actually have to share the gospel with the people around me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I can just live my life how I want to live it, and it's all gonna work out in the end.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, every time that you neglect the truth of God in your life, you are giving the enemy a foothold.
SPEAKER_00: You are giving the enemy a foot in the door of your life, and slowly over time, he will take you out with death by a thousand cuts.
SPEAKER_00: But what do we know about the belt of truth?
SPEAKER_00: This is why I told you last week that you have got to know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you know the truth, the truth sets you free.
SPEAKER_00: And it sets you free from the lies and the schemes of the enemy, it sets you free from thinking that God doesn't really love you, it sets you free from thinking that you did something to achieve your salvation, it sets you free from believing that it's just up to you to overcome the sin in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe what Jesus did for you was not enough on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Because when you know the truth of Scripture, you can say, get out of here, Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Because Ephesians 1 tells me that God has chosen me and that he loved me before the foundation of the world, and I am holy and blameless in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 2 tells me that it is by grace through faith that I have been saved.
SPEAKER_00: It's not of my own doing, it is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: And Romans 8 tells me that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and I am more than a conqueror through him who loved me.
SPEAKER_00: That is what it looks like to put on the belt of truth in your life.
SPEAKER_00: But to put on the belt of truth, you've got to know the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And to know the truth, you have got to know the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so let's be real practical, real quick.
SPEAKER_00: This might be a point for the rest of sermons throughout via history forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: You have got to get in the word of God, you have got to get in the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Tony has told us so many times.
SPEAKER_00: We said it last week, that your level of experience, victory in your life is directly tied to how much time you are spending in God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And so make a plan.
SPEAKER_00: Start in the gospels, do it with other people.
SPEAKER_00: Try a Bible study, read and then find a sermon that goes along with what you're reading.
SPEAKER_00: Ask somebody that you know who knows more about the Bible than you do to help you walk through it.
SPEAKER_00: But remember, you are as close to God as you choose to be.
SPEAKER_00: You have all the tools at your disposal to grow in your relationship with the Lord, but nobody is going to do it for you.
SPEAKER_00: You have got to put it on, put on the belt of truth yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But the promise of God is that when you seek Him, you find Him.
SPEAKER_00: My favorite promise in the Bible comes from James chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it looks like to put on the belt of truth in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The second piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Stand firm then, from earlier, with the breastplate of righteousness in place.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to think about what a breastplate protects.
SPEAKER_00: It protects your vital organs, it protects your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Proverbs 4 23, 423 is the Chattanooga Proverb.
SPEAKER_00: Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do.
SPEAKER_00: Flows from it.
SPEAKER_00: The breastplate of righteousness is essential to guarding your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when we talk about righteousness in the Bible, we can be talking about two different things.
SPEAKER_00: There's this righteousness that makes us right, like in right relationship with God, and then there's righteousness like aligning my actions and my lifestyle with God's character, with his holiness, his nature, his commands.
SPEAKER_00: And so that first one, like theologians, they'll call it imputed righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And so what happens, what we're talking about there, is that Jesus on the cross, he took all of our sin, past, present, and future, and he placed his righteousness on us.
SPEAKER_00: So that now when God looks at you and me, he no longer sees us as a dirty, filthy sinner.
SPEAKER_00: He just sees a son or a daughter who is holy and blameless in his sight.
SPEAKER_00: That is what Jesus did on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_00: This is 2 Corinthians 5.
SPEAKER_00: It says, God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want you to know is that this is righteousness that you don't put on yourself because you couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has already placed this righteousness on you.
SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus has placed it on you, then no one can take it off of you.
SPEAKER_00: It is what restores your relationship with God, puts you in right standing with God, so that, like Clayton said earlier, that we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence.
SPEAKER_00: But now the other kind of righteousness, practical righteousness, living out the holiness that we are called to live in.
SPEAKER_00: This is the breastplate of righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: It is living your life in light of who Jesus is, what he has done for you, and who he's called you to be.
SPEAKER_00: It is working out your salvation, taking off the old and putting on the new.
SPEAKER_00: It is hearing Jesus' words throughout the Gospel of John and throughout 1 John that if you love me, you will keep my commandments, and my commandments are not burdensome.
SPEAKER_00: The commands of Christ, they are not just a set of rules.
SPEAKER_00: That they are not Him trying to keep you from something good, but Him trying to lead you into the life that He has for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you come across these commands in Scripture of how you're supposed to live as a follower of Jesus, and they're contrary to what you want to do, or what you think that you should do, or what you think is best, then you need to think about what Jesus might be trying to lead you into instead.
SPEAKER_00: Because if we think about it from this passage, from Proverbs chapter 4, it's likely that Jesus is trying to protect your heart.
SPEAKER_00: Because everything you do will flow from it.
SPEAKER_00: And so again, let's be let's be really practical.
SPEAKER_00: So if the practical application for us with the belt of truth is to get in the word of God, to know the truth, then the application for us here is obedience to it.
SPEAKER_00: To be doers of the word and not just hearers only.
SPEAKER_00: I think this applies to so many of us in this room.
SPEAKER_00: I think that you know scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I think you can quote verses.
SPEAKER_00: So many of you, you've grown up in church, but you feel like you aren't experiencing the life that Jesus promises.
SPEAKER_00: And my question for you tonight is have you become someone who hears the word without putting it into practice?
SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me everything that I need to know about the breastplate of righteousness, but it's still sitting on the ground because you haven't actually picked it up and put it on?
SPEAKER_00: And so, where in your life have you been hearing God speak but not walking in obedience?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's likely that when you have heard God speak and you've responded in disobedience, you feel like he's not speaking anymore.
SPEAKER_00: And so, if that's you in this room tonight, I just want to give you the encouragement.
SPEAKER_00: Go back and do the last thing that he told you to do.
SPEAKER_00: One of the best pieces of scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I would tattoo it on my arm if I wasn't so terrified of needles.
SPEAKER_00: It's John chapter 2, verse 5.
SPEAKER_00: Do whatever he tells you to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then the third piece of armor the shoes of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We're standing firm then with what?
SPEAKER_00: With our feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we are going to land tonight.
SPEAKER_00: This is where we really start to move from defense to offense.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel prepares us to stand firm and to take ground for the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: It is from the foundation of knowing and experiencing the gospel of peace that we can stand firm, knowing that Christ has already won the victory, and that we are moved to action on behalf of others to help them experience the same peace in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is telling us that we are armoring up so that we can take ground.
SPEAKER_00: So that we can move into enemy territory, that we can push back darkness and establish light.
SPEAKER_00: The shoes of the gospel were meant for walking.
SPEAKER_00: They were meant to run your race with endurance that God has set before you for charging ahead against the enemy and pounding down the gates of hell for the sake of the gospel and the people who don't yet know it.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me show you this in scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get fired up.
SPEAKER_00: Say Matthew 16.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus asked his disciples, he says, Hey, who do other people say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: They say, Oh, like John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others say that you're one of the prophets.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus asked them the most important question that we are all gonna have to wrestle with one day.
SPEAKER_00: But what about you?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you say that I am?
SPEAKER_00: Peter steps up and he confesses.
SPEAKER_00: He says, You're the Messiah, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus responds to Peter this way: He says, Blessed are you, Simon, son of son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my father in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And I tell you that you are Peter.
SPEAKER_00: And on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Upon this rock he will build his church, and the gates of hell will not prevail.
SPEAKER_00: Well, gates are a defense measure.
SPEAKER_00: They keep things out.
SPEAKER_00: And so who is doing the attacking here?
SPEAKER_00: Is Satan the one who is attacking, or is the church supposed to be on offense?
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 3, Jesus says, no one can enter a strong man's house without first tying him up, and then he can plunder the strongman's house.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: Satan is the strong man, but Jesus is the stronger man.
SPEAKER_00: And he has tied him up so that we can plunder his house.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 2 tells us that he disarmed the powers and authorities, making a public spectacle of them and triumphing over them by the cross.
SPEAKER_00: In Revelation 1, he says, I hold the keys to death and Hades.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has marched into hell.
SPEAKER_00: He's tied up the strong man in charge, and he says, I have the keys to death and hell.
SPEAKER_00: And when you have the keys to something, you own it.
SPEAKER_00: You have the authority.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus passes that authority on to us because in Matthew chapter 28, he gives the great commission.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in light of that, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded.
SPEAKER_00: And behold, I am with you even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: And then in Acts 1, verse 8, he says, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is giving us the authority by the power of the Holy Spirit to bust down the gates of hell and steal back what the enemy has taken away.
SPEAKER_00: To take lost people, to bring them back to the Lord by the power of the gospel, to be witnesses in the lives of others so that they might hear and believe the good news that they can experience life and life to the fullest through a relationship with Christ Jesus, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: So you are armoring up so that you can go into battle.
SPEAKER_00: And you have been uniquely placed and uniquely wired and uniquely gifted for this exact moment in history.
SPEAKER_00: If God wanted you somewhere else doing something else, he would have put you in that time and place.
SPEAKER_00: But he has you right here, right now.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: So that you can bust down the gates of hell and take back what rightfully belongs to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you, where do you want to push back darkness and establish light?
SPEAKER_00: Where do you want to take back ground for the kingdom of God?
SPEAKER_00: What is it gonna take for you to be the church, pound down the gates of hell and rob Satan of the people that he thinks that he is taking with him?
SPEAKER_00: What would it look like for you to charge headfirst, dressed in the armor of God, with the gospel of Jesus Christ on your hands and on your tongue and on your feet?
SPEAKER_00: What would it look like for you to take back ground for the kingdom of God in the places that God has you right now?
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: It is time for us to stop playing defense and start playing offense, to stop waiting for the fight to come to us and to charge ahead full steam straight through the gates of hell and punch the devil in the freaking teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Because listen to me, the eternities of the people around you are counting on it.
SPEAKER_00: You are God's plan to reach this generation, and so it is time for you to step up.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Father God.
SPEAKER_00: So that we can plunder his home.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you empower us by your Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: Would you strengthen us to do the work that you have called us to do?
SPEAKER_00: Would you show us that the authority that you have, you have passed on to us in order to do the work that you have called us to do?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you bring to our minds people and places and areas in our life that we can take back for your kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: God, would you bring to mind someone who is close to us that if they were to die today, they would spend eternity separated from God.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you motivate us and empower us by your Holy Spirit to throw on the armor of God, to throw on the shoes of the gospel of peace, to go and get them back.
SPEAKER_00: God, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: God, we praise you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: We gather on Thursday nights at 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: in Chattanooga, Tennessee.