Ephesians 6:10-20 - Pastor Kyle Weeks - June 21st, 2026

Join us this week as Pastor Kyle Weeks continues our Sunday morning study through Paul's letter to the Ephesians. 

Transcript

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Morning, we're gonna look at Ephesians chapter six, and we're gonna finish out our book in Ephesians. And so if you have a Bible, go ahead and grab it. Turn to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six is where we're gonna be this morning. We'll finish up our book, uh study of uh the book of Ephesians, and so um again, if you have a copy of our God's word, grab it. Um, if you're able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's word? We're gonna look at chapter six, verses ten through twenty this morning. Ephesians chapter six, verse ten through twenty. This is the word of the Lord. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. May God add his blessings to his word. Let's pray. Father, we come before this before you this morning, and God, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see from your word. There's not there are few more chilling realities and bold callings that we see in Scripture outside of this passage. God, we see a chilling reality that there is a true enemy against us, but God, we also have bold confidence and call to action to stand firm in battle. Father, may we not dismiss this passage, but God, may we see clearly that we do have an enemy that does scheme against us. And Father, that we have a good heavenly Father that has equipped us with everything that we need to fight this spiritual battle that wages on around us and in us. Father, I pray for all of us in the room that we would take heed of your word here and that we would leave this place with a call to action that we are ready to take on ourselves. God, I pray that you would give me the words to say, that it would be your words and not mine. God, that you would keep me from saying anything that goes against your word, and that you would receive all honor and glory over the next few moments. And I pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We look at this passage and we see Paul, more than likely chained to a Roman soldier, looks at that soldier in all of his garb and all of his accessories, and he makes a quick connection that you and I are to operate in our life like a good soldier does. He's prepared, he's ready, and he is equipped for any battle that he faces. There's for some reason, especially men in the room, it's Father's Day, so let's talk about war, right? We are drawn to war. We are fascinated by this idea of a soldier. We think of someone uh back in the day, not today. Uh, this passage is not outdated. Uh, it continues to speak of a soldier that is equipped for hand-to-hand combat. Now, hand-to-hand combat does not typically happen anymore because we have things called drones, things called missiles, and things called guns, right? But hand-to-hand combat, um, even back when you see it more uh towards uh Vietnam War, post or pre-that, all the way back, we we think of soldiers that have this garb on and we're fascinated with them. I come from a long line of military service men and women in my family. I've had a service, I've had a member of my family serve in every branch of the military. But the the person that I think of that matches the most kind of soldier-like, even though he wasn't a soldier, he was marine, is my grandfather. My grandfather was a one-time Silver Star recipient and a three-time bronze star recipient in the Vietnam War. That man has stories that only he knows that he has never talked about, or did never talk about. He passed away a few years ago. But I could tell from his demeanor and how he spoke on those things that this this guy had seen some stuff. To receive a silver star and three bronze stars is evidence that he had seen a few things. We're fascinated by battle because there's nothing more intense than a battlefield. There's nothing more inspiring than hearing stories of bravery, soldiers sacrificing life and limb to serve their country. And no wonder Paul chose this analogy by and using it to describe the Christian life. You and I are soldiers locked in battle with an enemy that is ruthless and relentless. Now, as I say that, you might sit there and go, okay, that seems a little bit hyperbolic. It's not. The word of God tells you as much that your enemy is like a roaring lion prowling around seeking someone to devour. That this is the the enemy that attacks you spiritually, and that is Satan and his forces, or we could put it this way, Satan and his minions are the ones that are actively seeking to uh tear you down and to destroy you, to devour you. So the main thing that I want you to be reminded of this morning, that I want you to know this morning, and that I want you to think about this morning, is that followers of Jesus, and I'll I put in here, especially fathers. It's Father's Day. This is a message for everybody, but let's include fathers here as we go throughout. Especially fathers in the throes of spiritual warfare are to stand firm in God's strength, covered with God's armor, and continual in prayer. This is your calling as a follower of Jesus Christ, every single person in the room. As you are in the throes of spiritual warfare, is to stand firm in God's strength, to be covered with God's armor and be continual in prayer. This, these verses, 10 to 20, are one massive run-on sentence in the Greek. It's all one thought, and it's Paul's calling for all followers of Jesus to stand firm in battle because their battle is not physical, but it is very much ever-present and real. We are spirit-filled, and from being spirit-filled, we are then spirit-empowered, and from spirit-empowered to walk in new life, to walk in the calling that God has given us. We are then spirit-equipped. God has saved us, filled us with his spirit, empowered us by his spirit, and equipped us in his spirit to walk in this battle. Now, there is a difference though between being empowered, being equipped, and then actually walking in both of those things. H.B. Charles would say the whole armor of God equips the believer to stand firm in faith. However, wearing spiritual equipment does not win the battle when you need spiritual enablement. You have to do something. This is not a battle that you just kind of sit back and watch. This is not something that you are not actively a participant in. You have an enemy that seeks to steal, kill, and destroy you. And he does so through things like anxiety, through things like doubt, through things like depression, through things like idolatry, through things like pride, through things like sexual promiscuity. This is what the enemy seeks to do: to pull your attention, focus, and affection away from Christ Jesus and on to something else. The lie that you have been told is that you are your own worst enemy, false. You have an enemy that's much greater than you are. In fact, his greatest tool is making you believe that you're the problem, that you just need to muster up the energy to fix you, which takes your eyes completely off Jesus, which takes you completely away from dependency upon the Lord to independency, and leaves you like a lamb in the middle of a field with nobody else around, and the wolves are circling. You have an enemy that is cunning, deceptive, and really good at what he does. However, our hope is not in our ability to face that enemy. Our hope is in Christ who has victory over that enemy. Our hope is that while the enemy does come to steal, kill, and destroy John 10, Jesus says that he has come to give us life, and not only just life, but life abundantly. That he has come to give us life in the middle of chaos, in the middle of destruction, in the middle of this battle, you and I have hope because Christ Jesus is the one that has purchased our salvation and has secured our hope. The greatest battle that has happened so far in our in your life is one that happened 2,000 years ago on a cross and in a grave, and Christ Jesus won. The next great battle that will happen is when he comes back and he has already said that he will win that one. So victory is already yours in Christ Jesus. That does not mean then you sit back, but rather you join in the battle because who doesn't want to join the winning team? I mean, if you like professional basketball, isn't that what Kevin Durant did 10 years ago? He lost to a team in the finals and then joined the other team a year later so he could win again. Like, who doesn't want to join the winning team? Ask any kid in this room. Would you rather play for the worst team in the league or the best team? They're gonna say, I want to play for the best team. You want to play for the team that wins. God still calls you to be a part of the battle. He calls you to take up your cross and follow after him, to pick up your garb and to join in the fight against the enemy for your soul as you seek to become more like Jesus. This is where the Bible verse is applicable of Philippians 4 13. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right? This doesn't have to do with your physical ability. This has to do with fighting a battle that you are inequipped to fight on your own and not and have no power to fight on your own. Every follower of Jesus, as we see this passage, is called to stand against the schemes of the enemy and our own lives, knowing that the victory is already Christ's to have. We are still called to fight against the schemes of the enemy. The first thing that I want you to see this is a call, there is a call to activity within this passage. Passivity and apathy will end in defeat. You, if you desire to follow after Jesus, you actually have to follow after Jesus. You actually have to put on this full armor of God that we're gonna get into and actually join in the battle. Passivity, or just going, it's not that big a deal, uh, will end to defeat because your enemy, again, is cunning, he he's scheming constantly, and he knows exactly what he is doing. Any kind of um what's the word I'm looking for? Underestimating your enemy will lead into defeat. The let me let me put it to you this way. There are many theories of why or what happened when the Titanic was making its way through the the North Atlantic and dodging icebergs, um, trying to get there. Well, they they dodged most of them, missed one. Um they they got a warning about that that that there was a lot of danger and where they were going. And nobody knows what they did with that warning. There's two theories. The first theory is that they got that warning and thought, we're the Titanic, we were built to make this route. So there's no iceberg that could really mess with us. That's the that's the the person that just goes, uh, uh fine, we'll consider this, but um really it's not that big a deal. I I got it. I can take care of this. The second theory is that they never they never read it because they were too busy doing other things. Popping champagne, celebrating that they were on this maiden voyage that was super awesome, they were this great big ship. How did that end, by the way, for the Titanic? Yeah, it went down, a lot of people died. The same fate is for those that view this call that Paul is giving us with passivity or apathy. The ship's gonna go down, and it's gonna be major destruction, and you're gonna be sitting back going, I don't know what happened, while at the same time there's a there's a warning that you were given that you either uh disregarded or just didn't didn't believe altogether, or didn't even see. May it not be so of any of us in here this morning. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 15 and 16 to look carefully then how you walk, not as not as unwise, but as wise, making best use of the time because the days are evil, therefore don't be foolish. Since there is a real and imminent threat, we have a call to action from the Lord to be spirit-filled, spirit-empowered, and spirit-equipped to put on the armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 11. Let me put it to you in the negative to see if you understand this way. If you don't put on the armor of God, you will not be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Not that you might not be able to, or it's gonna be a little bit harder to. You cannot. It is impossible. Men and women in the room, this battle is not just a Sunday priority. It is your everyday priority. It is not your spouse's responsibility, it is yours. It is not your parents' job, it is yours. You will give a you will give account for your life, husbands, men in the room, you will give account for your family's life. This battle is not one that you can just avoid. No cowardly soldiers in here. Empowered soldiers who know that the battle is theirs to win, and who have been equipped with everything that they need to face that battle head on. We have confident soldiers, not in ourselves, but confidence in the Lord. Not only is do we have confidence in the Lord, but we have a command from the Lord. Look at look at the whole verse really quick. I'll walk through it. Verse 10. Look at these commands. Verse 10, be strong. Verse 11, put on the full armor of God. Verse 13, take up the full armor of God. Verse 14, stand. Verse 16, take up the shield of faith. Verse 17, take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit. Verse 18, pray at all times. It's expressed as a participle, but functioning as an ongoing imperative. And then verse 19, Paul even says, Hey, uh, uh, pray for me. All of these are commands, we would say they're verbs that could require action. Fathers in the room, let this be a wake-up call for you this morning. If you think that you don't have an enemy that is scheming on how to bring destruction and spiritual enslavement to you, your spouse, or your family, you are gravely mistaken. The second thing that I want you to get from this passage is defending your home, fathers. This will be specifically for you. Defending your home begins with understanding what your opponent's objective is. Your battle, as Paul tells us in verse 12, is not against flesh and blood. The greatest threat to your home is not the intruder that comes in at midnight. The greatest threat to your home is the intruder that has already made his way in your house and is scheming how to destroy you, your spouse, and your family. A father's biggest battle within his home is not physical, relational, or financial. It is spiritual. Let me say that again. A father's biggest battle within his home is not physical, relational, financial, it is spiritual. Your enemy, while invisible, is very real, and his schemes have visible ramifications. Remember? The enemy comes to steal, to kill, and destroy. Those are physical things that will happen. Though they might occur spiritually, they will have physical ramifications. The undermining of God's sovereignty and and his uh call to obedience within your home that the enemy will do will lead to prodigal children. The erosion of the calling uh to honor the Lord and all that's done will lead to moral decay. All of this is the scheme of the enemy within your home to to pull your children, your spouse, and you away from Christ and to point them to anything else, because anything else other than Jesus will just lead to destruction. There's some of you in this room that love to hunt. So let's understand the scheme of our enemy. The same trophy animals that you have in your home or at your office, and the same reason why you got them so that you can mount them as a trophy, your enemy seeks to mount you as a trophy for for his mission. You are a, I heard a pastor put it this way every the birthmark of every Christian is a bullseye. You are a target. Your enemy is not omniscient, he's not omnipotent, and he's not omnipresent. But that brother does have some game film on you. He knows you. He knows how to frustrate you, he knows how to make you angry, he knows how to how to bring you to a place of depression and despair. He knows what your vices are, he knows what you are tempted with, and his desire is to overwhelm you with all of those things so that you would no longer look like Jesus, but look like one of his children, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2, a a children, a child of wrath. That's that's his desire. That is the objective of your enemy. That is your opponent's objective, is to completely bring you away from Christ. And he does so with many different methods. The the word for schemes there is methodia in the Greek, and it and it carries the idea of craftiness, cunning, and deception. The term is used to describe an animal who stalks their prey, then pounces on it unexpectedly. That's why when you say, Man, I don't know what came over me, this it just came out of nowhere. I just made this decision, I don't even know how it happened. That's because that you're Enemy is really good at luring you in. Right? The deer would say the same thing. I don't know what happened. I just went to go eat the corn one day, and then all of a sudden, loud shot, now I'm here. I don't know what's going on. Your enemy seeks to steal, kill, and destroy. And his schemes of doing that, while they might be different from from you than other people, they are very real and they are very effective if you do not wake up and take this call to action that Paul is giving us here. All throughout scripture, we've seen the work of the enemy to deceive the Lord's children, chosen or sorry, to deceive the Lord's chosen people, seducing them into idolatry, rebellion, self-righteousness, and ultimately the rejection of Christ. Immortality, worldliness, pride, self-reliance, self-satisfaction are but a few ways that the enemy seeks to take your eyes off of Christ. And so what Paul is telling us is to take up the word of God, to be spirit-filled, and to put off the old self as we seek to walk in all the spiritual blessings that Christ has blessed us with in him, in this new self, and to put on the armor of God. That's the third thing that I want you to see. The armor of God is the best offensive weapon you have to enable you to stand firm. It is the best thing that you have. And here's the thing: the way Paul describes this, let's not be silly like we sometimes do with the fruit of the Spirit. This is a total encompassing package of what we are to put on. And we can think about it this way: no soldier runs into battle without a helmet, without uh his girdle, without his shoes, without his sword, but but just has a shield. You know what we call that dude? Dead. That's what we call him. Like that dude's not gonna make it. To just say, well, I'm gonna I'll put on some of these and not put on some of these, or I'm really good at this one, this one's I struggle with, so I'm gonna focus more on this. Is it's to not really put on the armor of God as he intends it. All of these are meant to be put on all together. You'll see that over the next few moments. To put on mean carries the idea of once and for all, permanent, not something that can be taken off occasionally whenever you don't feel like it. The armor of God is the living, is the um the obedient, I'm sorry, the armor of God is living the obedient, scripture-dominated, spirit-empowered life that enables us to stand firm. John MacArthur. It is God's, it is God provided, and He bestows on us as we seek to stand firm. So let's walk through these as we go through. The first one, fastened with the belt of truth. Think like a girdle. A Roman soldier would cinch up their tunics by fastening their belts tightly. A loose tunic gets in the way. Have you ever tried having a really heavy shirt on, or a I'm sorry, an oversized shirt on, and to do things with them? The fabric just kind of gets in the way. Imagine being in battle and having this oversized tunic on, and you're trying to do all this stuff while getting caught up and all that. You're gonna look silly. So the belt or the girdle was meant to kind of fasten these things up. A loose tunic gets in the way. In this analogy, it is the believer's commitment to the truth of the word of God and the living out of that truth, that the belt of truth is to take all of these things that hinders the soldier, that gets in the way, that that is not truth, and just puts it away, gets it, gets it out of the way. The same way a runner in Hebrews 12, 1 is to throw off every weight and encumbrance that so easily entangles them and to run the race with endurance. This is the same way that the belt is to be used. It is to get rid of all of the things that have nothing to do with the truth that you claim, uh the things that that get in the way rather than help you in battle that stand in the way, whether that's sleep, whether that's your phone, whether that's social media, things that have nothing that is spirit promo or truth promoting, but things that are just um extra baggage that have no use whatsoever. This belt was meant, this belt, this belt of truth fastens those down to where, hey, um, I might have a phone, but that phone doesn't have me. Do you get what I'm saying? Like I might have social media, but but I don't serve social media. I I might have a job, but that job doesn't have me. This belt of truth is for you to take what is true and and and allow it to rein in everything else within your life. It is a commitment to truth. Your lack of commitment is what it's like to have a soldier that doesn't have a belt. Everything's flailing around you, fabric everywhere, easily defeated. The second thing that we see is the breastplate of righteousness, verse 14. Remember, not self-righteousness, and this also doesn't mean imputed righteousness. All of those or self-righteousness we completely denounce because we have no righteousness in ourselves, and the righteousness we do have has been imputed to us by Christ Jesus. That's already been given. This breastplate of righteousness is to continue to walk in obedience, to live in a daily, moment-by-moment obedience to your heavenly Father. This breastplate at that time would be made with leather and metal, and its purpose was to cover vital organs like the lungs, the hearts, the intestines, to name a few. The heart in Hebrew culture represented the mind. The intestines in Hebrew culture would represent the emotions. You would be so moved. Do you ever have such strong emotions that your stomach hurt? Yep, that's where the Hebrews would say, that's where the most intense feeling of emotion would come, is if it would tighten your stomach. The breastplate of righteousness covers your heart and your intestines, your mind and your emotions. Do you think it's important? What is the biggest attack from the enemy? For some of us, it is your mind and your emotions. This breastplate of righteousness, of living in obedience, is meant to be the defense against the attacks on your mind and emotions. This living righteous or living daily moment-to-moment obedience to the Father is to allow him to continue to redefine and to implant in us how we are to live. To neglect what we know as righteous action is to leave a gaping hole in our armor where we have no defense against the mind and emotion, because your mind and your emotions will cause you to do some really silly things. You ever done something super silly because at the time it just felt right? At the time it just felt like I was supposed to do. That, well, my emotions, I listen, listen to your heart is the dumbest song that's ever been created. Because your heart tells you a lot of silly things to do. Sins of passion happen when we do not have any self-control or any influence from the Word of God into our mind and our emotions. What soldier runs into battle with no breastplate? What does he think that will happen? That he will he just is able to stop everything on his own? No, he will succumb to his injuries. The benefit of obedient living, of righteous living, is joy, peace, and fruit. If you're in here this morning and say, Well, I have no joy, no peace, I have no fruit, I would imagine that you also have no obedience. And so it's no wonder that the scheme of the enemy that just feeds your emotions and your mind to do whatever you want has successfully won that battle. But God calls you to put that on, he offers that to you. We we read in his word the benefits of living in obedience to him. So part of our fighting against the enemy is just walking in obedience. The most basic thing that you've been called to do in Christ Jesus, which is to follow after him. Did you know that that is an element of offensive strategic battle within this spiritual battle that you fight is just to walk in obedience, and you'll put on that breastplate of righteousness that'll cover that mind and those emotions. Simple. Look at verse 15. And as for shoes, for your feet having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Shoes are vital in battle. That's why gangrene was so such a hard thing at Vietnam because it was messing with soldiers' feet. Like the the feet, shoes, that they are vitally important within warfare. Put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Peace, what peace? Not a state of feeling peace, but a spiritual peace. The peace that's talking about here is the same peace in 5-1. Therefore, therefore, because of what Christ Jesus has done in salvation, we have peace with God. Let me read it for you really quickly. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The saved person is reconciled to God through faith in Christ Jesus, and the gospel of peace is a marvelous truth that in Christ we are now at peace with God and are one with Him. Therefore, when our feet are ready in the gospel of peace, we stand in the confidence of God's love for us, his union with us, and his commitment to fight for us, as one commentator states. This gospel of peace, that I have peace with God, that we are in union, that he loves me, means that when I'm in battle, I don't have to really know who I'm fighting against. We can wrestle with the Lord. If you're a child of God, you don't fight the Lord. That's a good thing. It's a good thing. Your fight is not with him, he has given you peace in Christ Jesus. So uh understanding your enemy and knowing who your enemy is through this gospel of peace is what the Lord gives us to know. Hey, listen, I'm for you, not against you. I will work all things for good. That's what he tells us. We are reminded that this battle we fight is not our own as we put on these shoes of the gospel of peace. He fights for us and we fight with him and his strength. You are not alone in this battle. He is with you because you are his. He has made peace between you and him. Before we get to the next thing, I want you to notice the first three things that we looked at, the belt, the breastplate, and the shoes were always worn by the soldier. The last three that we're gonna look at are were kept in readiness for when the fight begins. Always on the soldier, but but you know, the sword is sheathed, the helmet is carried to the side. Uh, the the the um goodness, shield is is kind of in a calm position or maybe worn on the back. They are there always. So let's look at this. The shield of faith, verse 16. Shields back then would be a solid piece of wood covered in metal and soaked in leather. Soldiers who carried shields were in the front line of battle. If you remember the Roman phalanx, is what made this really effective. But look at what the Bible tells us in verse 16. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. What would happen is darts would go onto the shield, that water-soaked leather, it would hit it, and it would extinguish those darts. Those attacks for the enemy would be rendered ineffective because of the shield that the soldier carried. Proverbs 30, verse 5. Every word of God proves true. He is a shield to those who take refuge in him. Faith in Christ, as one commentator would say, a basic trust in God, a trust in him daily for provision and grace, that he will never fail, that he will continue to work in me and work all things for good in me. It is not a blind faith, it is not a whimsical faith, it is faith in God, and that is what is represented in this shield. Walking in faith. Walking in faith knowing that God is with me, walking in faith, knowing that I am His. Temptation to not walk in faith, temptation to walk away from the Lord, temptation to not trust Him. Those are those attacks. And what this shield of faith does, as I'm continually reminded in His Word of who God is, that He is for me, that He is with me, that He is trustworthy, that He is someone that I can put my faith in, and they will never fail me. I can walk with that confidence as I go throughout life, knowing that He is with me in battle. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 1, verse 6, and I'm sure of this that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. That's what I'm reminded with as I walk through life. He told me that what he started in me, he will bring to completion. And so that means that he's gonna carry me all the way through this, he will be with me. The fifth thing that I want you to see really quick, verse six, is that helmet of salvation. No Roman soldier would ever enter battle without his helmet. This helmet would be used against those broad double-edged swords that cavalry uh men would come through and you just swing around. This helmet was meant to protect against those massive attacks. The helmet of salvation, again, this salvation that Paul is referring to is the totality of salvation. Not once you receive salvation, that helmet is on, but no, no, no, the totality of salvation. What is the culmination of salvation is glorification. I have been justified, I am being sanctified, but there is coming the day where I will stand before the Lord and in a glorified body, and I will be in his presence forevermore. This helmet that that we put on is one that our hope of salvation is covering us. The hope of that salvation becoming sight on the day when the Lord Jesus calls us home. Romans chapter 8, verse 23 through 25 says, And not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the first fruit of the spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for the adoption as sons. The redemption of our bodies. This hope in salvation is our most important defense in battle, one that the enemy cannot penetrate. The last thing that we see is a sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Word used to describe the sword here is not a broad sword, it is a six to eighteen inch sword. It was meant for uh close combat and it would be sheathed as the soldiers would carry it. If you remember when Jesus cut off, or I'm sorry, Jesus, when Peter cut off Malchus's ear in the garden, he did it with a dagger. This is the same kind of sword that Paul is referring to here. It's a principal weapon in hand-to-hand combat. The word of God is a spiritual weapon given to us by the Spirit. That's why when he says, he says, and um take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The word is used by the Spirit to renew our minds and strengthen us for battle, a source of power that sanctifies us, encourages us, and equips us to stand firm. It is the one part of your garb as the armor of God that is actually meant to inflict damage. If you remember our Lord Jesus in Matthew chapter 4, when he faced the temptation of the enemy, what did he fight the enemy with? Scripture. He used the word of God. Even when he the enemy tried to manipulate that word to have it mean something that it doesn't, Jesus still understood what the word meant and used it back at the enemy. A general knowledge of the word of God does not help you in spiritual battle, but a specific one does. I know this scripture, I know this scripture, I know this scripture, I know what you said here, I know what the word says here. All of those are what we use to combat those temptations, to combat uh those those attacks of the enemy. In order to take up the sword of the spirit, you must know the word of God. All of this is pivotal for the spiritual soldier, but lastly, the mindset of the soldier is to approach everything through prayer. Really quickly, I want you to see that. Prayer needs to be standard operating procedure, not a last resort. Those in the military know what standard operating procedures are. It is always to happen. Every single day, it is standard operating procedure. If you're in a business, it's the same way. Our standard operating procedure is this. Your standard operating procedure is prayer. Everything then goes into prayer. Charles Spurgeon said, if I feel myself disinclined to pray, then it is time, then that is the time that I need to pray evermore. Everything we see and experience needs to take and be turned into a kind of prayer. Living in a deep understanding of our dependency upon our Heavenly Father. When we are tempted, we take it to Him in prayer. When He has been gracious and kind, we take it to Him as a prayer of thanksgiving. When we see evil, we do not panic, we do not fret, we do not throw our hands up, we take it to the Lord in prayer. When we see someone resistant to the gospel, we don't yell at them, we don't try to beat it into them, we take it to the Lord in prayer. Your strength for battle comes from the Lord who tells you to ask for it in prayer and he will give it. Your wisdom in protecting your home from the scheme of the enemy comes from the Lord who gives wisdom and understanding. He tells you to ask him for it, and we ask it him for it in prayer. C. S. Lewis wrote in the screw tape letters. Young error this elder demon writing to a younger one says, The best thing where it is possible. Is to keep the patient from the serious intention of praying altogether. When the patient is an adult recently reconverted to the enemy's party, remember who the enemy is? Again, this is the Lord, so reconverted to the Lord, an enemy of Satan, like your man. This is best done by encouraging him to remember or to think he remembers the parrot-like nature of his prayers in childhood. What this will actually mean to a beginner will be an effort to produce in himself a vaguely devotional mood in which real concentration of will and intelligence has no part. Your prayers to the Lord need to be more than God is good, God is great, whatever else. Needs to be more than our Father who is in heaven, which was not meant to us to be a prayer that we pray, but to be a model of how we should pray. This is the mindset of the soldier. This is the standard operating procedure of the soldier. Prayer keeps us a po keeps us uh close to the Lord in the fight. It sets our minds on things that are above and not on the things of the earth. In closing, let me encourage you with this. Stay in the fight and hold the line. Stay in the fight and hold the line. Let me tell you about my grandfather again. My grandfather again, major, Bob Weeks, at the age of 65, re-enlisted to fight in a battle. And that battle will be more significant than the one he fought in his physical life. I remember when I was 10 years old sitting in church and I watched him get up and go down to the front of the sanctuary because he realized at 65 years old that he was a sinner in need of a savior. That the battle that he had fought is not the one that he should be focused on now, but the spiritual one for his soul. And the Lord spoke to him and he surrendered his life to the Lord. I watched this adulterer, alcoholic man walk to the front and completely give his life to the Lord. And here's what I saw after: a man that has gone on more mission trips than I ever have. A man that desire was to go and spread the gospel in a Central American country, the gospel that saved him, he wanted to tell others about. It is a call on all of our lives that it does not matter if you are six or six f or ninety-five. The Lord has called you to follow after him, which is the first step in engaging in the battle, but also to take up the armor of God and to fight. So maybe today you're in here and you're pushing off surrendering to Christ. Would you let today be the day of salvation? And it doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter what stage of life you're in, and it doesn't matter what you have done. It is level at the foot of the cross, and Christ Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection is sufficient atonement to save you from your sin. Judgment for sin is coming, and Christ Jesus offers you forgiveness of sin and new life. If you're a follower of Jesus in this room this morning, would you join the fight? If you're a dad in this room, would you join the fight? The biggest struggle, the biggest hindrance, the biggest danger for your family is your children, your spouse, or you not following after Jesus the way that you know that you should or that you desire your children should. Your biggest danger is the spiritual battle within your home that is waging now. Would you stop looking at it and going, well, I guess we'll just have to do these other things or maybe try this routine, but would you actually fight against it with the weaponry that was created to fight it? Everybody in this room that is a follower of Jesus Christ is in a battle that is waging on, would you actually get up today and fight it? One of the ways that we fight that battle is we remember what Jesus has done for us on the cross and salvation, what he's purchased for us. All of these things that we have in the armor of God are given to us by Christ by Christ Jesus as his children. And we remember that we are his children because we remember his sacrifice.