Wednesday Night Bible Study

Thank you for your giving. Thank you musicians for leading us in worship. Thank you Pastor Anthony for getting my visual aid ready to go. We greet you tonight in the wonderful name of Jesus. So good to see everyone back in the house of the Lord. And I would concur with Pastor Anthony. What a marvelous uh series of services uh we had this past weekend. our uh back to school uh revival. Uh Pastor Thompson, what a marvelous job he did of preaching. What a mighty move of God we experienced. And also uh I'm also excited to tell you that uh Apostolic Christian School and Apostolic Kitty Academy is uh up running and in full force. Uh we're uh beginning a new school year and our uh uh students have been assembling and uh getting uh all of the uh uh preparations and u uh pre- a new year uh instructions and uh getting ready and school is underway. We have a wonderful number of fabulous students and staff and so thankful and I'm asking First Apostolic Church to continue praying for Apostolic Kitty Academy and Apostolic Christian School. Uh this is truly a uh front and battleground uh that we battle for the minds of another generation. the enemy would uh uh attempt to uh destroy the thinking and the direction through education. And I'm thankful that God has given us the uh vehicle and has given us the uh uh opportunity to educate our children in a Christian school. And so, thank you for your prayers and your support. Uh and uh I know God's going to give us the best year we have had yet. Uh we're continuing in our Bible studies uh and with our curriculum. If I uh have uh checked our curriculum properly, uh we have just a couple of more uh lessons uh ready uh through the month of August and then we'll get into a new uh curriculum. But we have continued to study uh many of the words and teachings of Paul uh to the churches. And uh tonight is no exception. Tonight is a uh a a very special lesson. Uh and I know that uh uh any of you have who have been attending church for very long. Uh you have heard many lessons on our subject matter tonight. I hope to revisit again and I hope the Lord can uh give us uh something new and fresh uh from this passage. Calling your attention tonight for our key verses found in the book of Ephesians the 6th chapter. And I'll give you a moment. Turn in your Bible or in uh your uh uh tablet, however you're going. And and let me say amen as well to the announcement Pastor Anthony made uh celebrating our anniversary and Bishop Mcool's 90th birthday. I'm excited about that weekend service and uh I know that you will be participating in that and God's going to give us a special weekend that weekend as well. Ephesians the 6th chapter, we're going to start by reading two verses uh beginning with verse number 10. Ephesians 6:10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the ws of the devil. Our study tonight is simply entitled the armor of God. The armor of God. Let's pray. Savior, I love you. I thank you that you've afforded us the opportunity together with your people here in this house tonight. Lord, I thank you that we can study your word and your word can minister to us. Give us fresh direction and Lord be the same word that leads us to salvation. The Lord be with us in all that we do. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. the armor of God. From the moment that the serpent approached Eve in the garden and convinced her to be disobedient to God, he established himself as humanity's enemy. And he had clear goals to lead all of humanity away from God and to follow him. Uh John 10:10 tells us that this enemy, his goal is to kill, steal, and destroy. Now, that's that's a pretty clear objective. He wants to kill you. He wants to steal from you. And he wants to destroy you. And the Bible declares that we are indeed in spiritual warfare and we have a spiritual battlefield. Now, I know some nowadays think that uh to refer to our conflicts with the enemy. Oh, that we're being uh a little bit too aggressive to call it warfare. Well, I've got news for you. Whether you realize it or not, we are at war with the enemy. uh you may think it's a police action or just a little bit of a conflict, but we are at war. And if we don't approach it as such uh that when it comes to Satan himself, he wants to kill, steal, and destroy you, your family, your children, your marriage, your grandbabies, everything he can do. The enemy wants to destroy everything you've got with no reservations about doing it. Paul clarified that the enemy that we're fighting against is not flesh and blood. But he he said in Ephesians 6:12, the next verse from our text, he said, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Never mistake the tentacles of the enemy himself has reached to high places to humanity in authority. And there is a sinister plan that the enemy has to destroy the Christian way of life. First Peter 5:8 gives us a warning of how we should approach it. For it says to be sober, to be vigilant. Don't take this lightly. Don't take our battlefield lightly and our conflict with the enemy just because today may be a a good day and things may be going smoothly. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in faith. We need to have a resistance movement. It's our responsibility to resist the devil, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. We're all facing it. We know him in a lot of different names. The devil, Satan, Lucifer, Belzeub, the prince of the air, the prince of darkness, the dragon, the lion. The Bible gives a lot of different names referring to the enemy. I heard one preacher say, I've repeated it before, I'll say it again, but he's just the same old nag in a new dress. Or hag, was it? Nag's a horse, isn't it? Same old hag in a new dress. He may have new plans, but his objectives have not changed to steal, kill, and destroy. But Paul began teaching the church, the Ephesians in particular, he said, just like I was on the wrong side of this conflict in humanity against the enemy and I changed sides, he said, you once were that way as well. Every one of us in this house had to find salvation. And if you haven't found salvation, you need to find salvation tonight. But every one of us who know the Lord and have turned our life over to the Lord and we're serving him. We came from sinful humanity. He told the Ephesians in Ephesians 2:2, he said, "Wherein in times pa in time past ye walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air." You were following the direction and the directive of the enemy. And you have to understand when we say that the enemy comes to steal, kill and destroy that includes he wants to make you destroy yourself. He wants to make you kill yourself. He wants you to rob from your own self the happiness that life has for you. the relationships, the godly relationships of of of marriage and having children and grandchildren and having friends that are godly friends and enjoying the pleasures, the true pleasures of life and not the lust of the flesh. He wants to steal that from every one of us. So he told the Ephesians, he said, "In times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power there, the spirit that now workketh in the children of disobedience." A great sign to tell who's on the Lord's side versus who's on the enemy's side is whether you're obedient or disobedient. A spirit of disobedience signifies that the enemy is working in one's life. Verse three, he said, "Among whom also we all had our conversations in time past in the lust of the flesh." Look, some of us used to have a pretty foul mouth. Some of us used to talk about things we ought not to be talking about. He said, "When you got the spirit of disobedience and you were following the prince of the power of the air, you didn't talk right. You talked wrong. Your conversations were wrong. But not only was your conversation in times past the lust of our flesh, you fulfilled the desire of the flesh and of the mind." There's a battle not just for what you say and what you do, but the way you think. What is your mind dwelling on? What do we put ourselves in the way of? The enemy wants your mind. He wants your tongue. He wants everything about you, what you do, what you say, and who you are. He said, among whom also we had our conversations in time past, the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We walked around wrathful, angry. Didn't even know what we're ma mad about. Just angry at the world. Those who do not know the Lord find themselves children of wrath. But you see, when we entered into a covenant with Christ, we changed our allegiance. We changed the army that we served in. We left the kingdom of darkness and we joined the army of the kingdom of light. Colossians said it this way in Colossians 1:12, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meat to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness." We're not walking in darkness, operating in darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even through forgiveness of sin. You see, when you repented of your sins, when you were baptized in his name, when you were filled with his spirit, you have forgiveness of sin, and now you're walking in light, and you're on a new team. But you see, if we're going to understand Paul's analogy of spiritual warfare, we are responsible to learn more about our enemy. If you know your enemy, you're more readily able to defeat your enemy. We need to know who the true enemy is and how we can fight every threat he poses. For you see, Paul gave a simple battle plan. It's unique, but it was simple for the believers. Paul called every one of us in his Ephesians address. He said, "Get up and get dressed and then take a stand." Well, that's pretty simple. He said in verse 13, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand." Verse 14, therefore, and he begins to list the attributes of the whole armor of God. One of the things that I would remind us to do as we review what the whole armor of God identifies as is he made it distinct not to just say put on the armor of God. He said put on the whole armor. Sadly, some want to pick and choose what they wear in among this armor. And if you're not completely equipped, you find yourself vulnerable. to the attack of the enemy. >> And we'll we'll talk a bit more about that because he begins naming it and I'll read it and then we'll we'll we'll dwell on a couple of these things. He said, "Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, your feet shaw with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God." What does it mean to stand? Take a stand. The word stand in this instant paints a picture of a person being set, being fixed. The key to winning this battle is to get up, put on your armor because you know the enem is about to attack and then to stand in the face of adversity and of attack. This whole armor business is important. You got to be able to stand your ground. In in some states in the United States, they have what's called stand your ground laws that you have the right to defend yourself. If you're attacked, you don't necessarily have to retreat. He said, when you've done all you can to stand, stand you therefore. You see, too many of us find ourselves retreating from the enemy. And Paul's directive is you got to stand. The saying is if you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. We have to take a stand. Not only that, we use the term to resist. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God and resist the devil and he will flee from you." Let me just say it just as simple as I know how. It's real hard to resist something you're embracing. >> If we embrace sin, you can't resist it. If we em embrace wrong, if we make friends of of worldly things and and lust of the flesh, you can't resist when you're embracing something. In our text, he said, "Stand against the ws of the devil." That term ws has an interesting definition. And this identifies even more the enemy's plan. The term ws defined is devious or cunning strategims employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what what one wants. The enemy is very manipulative. We frankly give Satan himself too much of a reputation that he makes people do things. Again, I date myself and I occasionally will bring this up and to anyone that's much younger than me, you won't have a clue what I'm about to talk about. So, thank the Lord you're not as old as me. But there was a a comedian many years ago named Flip Wilson. See, I heard a few amens, some of you getting old, too. And his favorite line was, "Woo, the devil made me do it." Anybody remember that? The devil made me do it. I got news for it. There's a lot of things the devil didn't make you do. You did it yourself. He manipulated you. He fooled you. and you falling along because you were embracing the wrong thing. And come to find out, you made yourself do something. The devil was just being cunning with strategimms employed to manipulate and persuade you to do something to yourself. You made decisions without praying about it. You made decisions that you knew were contrary to the word of God. And you do things to yourself. Now, when I point that spiritual finger at you, I got three pointed back at me. If we don't stay vigilant, the enemy will manipulate every one of us. I'm talking about good Holy Ghost fil folks been serving the Lord. If we lay our armor down and we stop being aware of what's going on, we'll find ourselves being manipulated by the enemy >> for trouble and destruction. So, we got to stand and we got to resist. For you see, there was an urgency in Paul's statement when he said, "Put on the whole armor of God." This is that daily dressing ourselves in spiritual armor so we can face the attack of a new day. And once we're dressed, we're ready to take a stand against anything that's plotted against us. You see, he began again with his analogy of different pieces of armor. In that day, Paul was familiar with the ruling military force, the Roman army. So most and properly so do relate his statements to the way Roman soldiers in that day the greatest army and the most powerful army in the world the way their warriors dressed. Now I would remind us of this. Most of the things that he named in putting on the whole armor of God were defensive weapons to protect you. They were not what you attack with, but it was what kept us together to withstand an attack. We'll talk about the offense or the offensive weapons later, but he was likely writing this as he was imprisoned in Rome around AD60. And it makes perfect sense that he would relate the armor of God to what a Roman soldier wore. It gave that soldier his identity of who he was. It protected him in battle and it provided him the ability to win every day and survive and go home. And he began by mentioning having your loins girded with truth. In other words, the belt of truth. The first thing he mentioned was truth. Listen folk, if we don't know the truth of who Jesus is, you can't hold together. That belt that the Roman soldier wore was likely a leather strap wrapped around his waist. It had metal leather pieces that had then had metal attached to them that protected his upper thighs and uh it perfor it uh performed or became a protective instrument. But truth is what must protect us first of all. You can't have truth if you don't know truth. You're not going to know truth if you don't put truth on and study it. The Bible tells us to study to show thyself approved. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing what? The word of truth. You need to know truth. What is truth? The simplest thing I can tell you. You need to know the apostles doctrine. You need to understand the the baptism message, the repentance message and being filled with and filled with the Holy Ghost evidenced with speaking with tongues. That's simple truth. The idea of living a holy life separated from the world. That's truth. This is what protects us. It holds everything together. Without that belt, nothing would hold together. It it it was what bind would bind that soldier together. make him prepared. >> But then he went he goes on when he talks about this armor. He mentions the breastplate of righteousness. In the natural, the breastplate obviously protected the heart and the lungs and the vital organs in the chest. Similarly, righteousness toward God protects the vital organs spiritually that the enemy would like to destroy our understanding our heart, our soul, living a righteous, godly life. If we have on righteousness, it protects us. Righteousness helps you make decisions that will be good or bad. It helps you have proper intellect. It helps you take care of your heart. that that thing beating in your chest in the natural is also many times signified by the intuitions you have and the feelings the emotions that we have doing what your heart says to do is the way we talk about and I your heart can deceive you if you don't keep it covered with righteousness if you don't have the love of God in your heart in that spiritual blood pumping organ. If you don't have the love of God, it'll deceive you. You'll be manipulated as we talked about earlier. Then he went on to say, "Feet Chad with the preparation of the gospel of peace." Now, a barefooted soldier is going to get in trouble. is all I can tell you. Now, when we talk about peace, doesn't seem to make sense. We're talking about warfare and then we're talking about peace. You see, too many times if you walk around without the whole armor on, if you walking around barefoot spiritually, you will injure yourself and there won't be peace in your natural. I hope you can understand the analogy that we're getting here. We we need to have protection that keeps us going where we ought to go. keeps us directed where we should be directed. The psalmist said in Psalms 91:13 and 14, "Doubt shall tread upon the line." Now, that means you got to walk on them. If you going to walk on a line and a and a snake, you better have your feet protected. And how do you have you have it protected with the gospel of peace? Scripture lets us know that no man shall see the Lord without what? Holiness and peace. We should desire to be a peaceful people with everyone else. Our enemy is the devil. We're not here to fight with other folk. We're here to love everybody. And the Bible says, "As much as lith within you, live peaceibly with all men." That includes your neighbor. That includes those folks that sometime play their their music too loud that's next door to you in your apartment complex. Try to make peace with them. You may be able to witness to them. Have your feet shaw with preparation of peace. He said, "Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder. The young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon you, therefore will I deliver him. I will set him on high because he hath known my name." >> I want to be peaceful as much as possible. Again, a an example that we've given before, but I would remind us of it. For we talked about identifying who the enemy is. Said you're going to have power to tread on the lion and the adder. We we know him as the as the adder or serpent in the garden. We read the passage of scripture earlier that Satan is as a roaring lion. We know him as the lion, the young lion. And then he mentions the dragon. And I know I've given you this example as well before, but let this sink in one more time. If I gave everyone an opportunity for five minutes or if I gave everybody five minutes, we'd be here a while. But hope you'll get the example. If I gave you the opportunity to write down and describe to me what a dragon looks like and then we all read it, I submit to you that everyone in the place would have just a little bit different definition of what a dragon looks like. Some would say he's breathing fire. Others would say he flies. And some would say he has a a a pointed tail. And some would say he's got scales. and and and but the real truth is none of us have really seen a dragon because it's a mythological creature that's created in the mind. What does the enemy want to deceive the most? He wants to deceive your mind. He He wants to get a hold of your mind, make you imagine everything that's bad every morning when you get up. Uh the preacher this weekend, he said, "I'm rebuking spirits of depression, spirits of confusion. You need to do that every day. Yes, there's going to be trials and tests, but the enemy will inordinately try to affect your mind. And if we let our mind feast on things that we shouldn't, if we enter entertain things that we shouldn't, we're letting the old dragon get right in our head. He said, I'm going to give you power not just to walk on the serpent and the lion. He said, but you've got power over your own mind in Jesus' name. When those things start troubling your mind, you need to step up and say, enemy, I rebuke you. I resist you. Get behind me, Satan. give me peace. That's why I want my feet shaw with the preparation of peace. Then he mentioned the shield of faith. Now understanding the shield, we view it primarily as a defensive instrument and rightfully so. But if you do a little bit of studying about the shield of the Roman soldiers, they were taught to fight with a sword and shield and to use it as a battering ram. Many times when they would close ranks and raise their shield and and charge forward, they all would use it offensively to push a foe back or for crowd control. And some of the studies say that one of the PS that the Roman soldiers would do as well that they would coat their shields because many times a shield contrary to what some folks think of them being just made out of metal. Some it was many layers of of leather and it was it was developed uh to absorb some types of attack. But they would also coat their shields with olive oil. So when the enemy would fire weapons, fiery darts that when they would penetrate that shield, olive oil was known for burning slowly. And that olive oil gave them time to quench the fire and not let it become destructive to them. Now, that was in the natural and some of the historic writings about how the Roman soldier used the shield. But you see, that scripture told us that we would have the shield of faith to quench the fiery darts of the enemy. How strong is your faith tonight? You see, when the enemy starts throwing things our way and shooting things our way, I don't need my shield all the time. But when he starts specifically attacking, I need to have my faith strong in him. As your faith, so be it unto you. We must be people of faith that believe and trust in the power of the Lord according to his will. Never mistake our faith is always according to God's will. We must pray whatever we pray for. If I'm praying for healing, if I'm praying for provision, if I'm praying for increase, you need to pray, I pray for this in the name of Jesus according to your will. For sometimes we don't know how to pray the will of God. Sometimes our prayer is my will, not his will. So we need to find a way to say Lord I pray according to your will because I know your will will be the perfect will that I need and that's what the shield of faith would provide. And then he mentioned the helmet of salvation. Pastor Anthony picked this helmet up. I wanted to put it on but it's just way too big. I wouldn't be able to see my notes the rest of the night. So, we just we he we I hadn't got the big head, I'll guarantee you. Uh but that helmet obviously protects and is meant to protect the brain, the eyes, the nose, the mouth. That seat of communication and understanding and one understanding then spiritually we must protect our salvation. It is sad when one has once turned their life over to the Lord, but because they didn't have the whole armor of God on I this helmet's too heavy. I mean, it it's just not a good fashion statement. It covers up my pretty face. You know, I I got on my righteousness. I know my truth. I got my peace on my feet and I got my shield on my hand. But I just look too good to wear this helmet. The enemy wants to attack your salvation. He wants to make you doubt your salvation. He wants to attack your intellect, the way you think, the the the way you reason spiritually. But you see now when we're dressed up in this armor and we are primarily clothed to stand in a defensive posture. The last thing he said he gave us an offensive weapon. He said the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. God's word is that powerful offensive tool that we've been given to defeat and destroy the enemy. Jesus gave the example when he had fasted 40 days and was tempted in the wilderness. Jesus had all power but he gave us the example when the enemy would tempt him. He said, "Satan, it is written." He He pulled out his sword. That's the offensive weapon against the ws of the enemy. We must wear our armor, but we almost we most certainly must have the sword of the word of the Lord. You know, see, the problem is a lot of times we have all of this armor on and we forget the word of the Lord. We want it to be our word. But you see the problem with our word versus God's word. Our word is deceitful. James 3 tells us about what our tongue will do. James 3:5 says, "Even so the tongue is a little member and boasteth great thing." And boy, your tongue can get you in trouble in a hurry when you start bragging on yourself and what you can accomplish and what I can do. The tongue is a little member and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth, and the tongue is a fire, a word of iniquity. So is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setth on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beast and a bird and serpent of things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind. But the tongue can no man tame. It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison. You see, if I put on the whole armor of God, but I want it to be my words versus his word, I'll find myself poisoned within. I'll fi find the fire of the enemy burning inside me instead of being victorious with the word. If I depend on my tongue and what I'm going to say, I'll get burned. You see, scripture tells us that the word of God is actually powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Now, we need to equip ourselves and then we must come proficient with the sword. It's not intended to cut people down. It's intended to defend us against the enemy and to attack the enemy. Please, from time to time as a pastor, I will have folks who they will get in controversies at work with someone over some scriptural difference. That's usually a denominational doctrine. and I'll get a call or a text, pastor, how do I answer thus and so and I would submit to you I'm I'm more than happy to help someone with those kind of things. But I I'm here to tell you debate over the word very rarely accomplishes anything. but study of the word and letting the word speak to us rather than us trying to beat somebody over the head with it. The sword of the word is not intended to cut people down and to wound other individuals. It's intended to make us able to fight the enemy and his attack. If you'll keep the word in your heart, if you'll hide it in your heart, if you'll commit yourself to studying the word, it becomes a weapon against anything the enemy can place in your way. He goes on in verse 18 to give us some additional weapons. He said, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, watching where there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." And for me, Paul said, "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Notice he's very intent on saying, "I'm going to be bold, but I'm bold presenting the gospel." Not being ugly, not being aggressive, borish, brutish, and bullyish to this world, but instead being bold to tell the word of God in its beauty. You see, prayer becomes one of our weapons that is so important to keep it fresh and stay armed with prayer. And as we use this analogy of spiritual warfare and my folks upstairs, I didn't give you this passage of scripture, but it it occurred to me in 2 Coronicles, we find a strategy of warfare that the Lord ordained for Jehoshaphat and the children of Judah. In 2 Chronicles 20, we read, "And they rose up early in the morning. The Ammonites and the Moabites were attacking God's people." They were they were attacking Jehoshaphat and the kingdom of Judah. The scripture says they rose up early in the morning and went forth into the wilderness of Takcoa. And as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established. Believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper." And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and they should praise the beauty of holiness as they went out before the army to say, "Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever." We've got the armor, we've got the weapon, we've got the sword, and we've got prayer. We've got supplication. Now, here's the strategy. He said, "Let's praise a little bit. If you want to win the war against the enemy, you got to be a praiser." He said, "Put the singers out front that they will praise the Lord." Oh, hallelujah. You notice no matter the situation, you can praise your way out of a lot of stuff. I maybe all of you are 24/7 jolly folk, but there's sometimes you can come into the house of God at midweek on Wednesday night for Bible study or or even Sunday morning. You've had a rough Sunday. You've had a difficult week and man, you did everything you could get here and you just feel like I if I could just get in and sit down in my pew and I'll let everybody else take care of business today. But you see, the power of the Lord starts moving and someone has prepared a song and it just seems like something happens and nobody else is around. like there's this big magnifying glass and every lyric of that song is just zeroing in on me and you know I I start feeling a little bit better. I start saying, you know, I believe I I'm ready to fight the enemy and before long I start clapping my hands. I start moving my feet. Uh preacher, you're talking emotionalism. You caught and chopping right? I am. Cuz we're creatures of emotion. God put emotions in us. Too many of us don't care to use the emotion of anger. Heaven help us when we can get mad and be more viferous in our emotions out in the world than we can in the house of God. But you see, we start coming together and we start worshiping together. And those battles that seemed so impossible, the attack of the world's Ammonites and Moabites, suddenly the singers and the praisers and the worshippers start making a way for there to be victory. >> Cuz here's what happened. For the children of rather, let me go back to verse 22. And when they begin to sing and to praise the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, which were come against Judah, and they were swi smitten. When you start praising and worship, the Lord says, "I'm going to take care of this battle." Well, watch what I'm going to do to the Moabites. Now, check this out. Let me tell you, if you'll be a praiser, you'll be a worshipper unashamed to give God glory and praise. That name Judah meant now will I praise the Lord. Sister Kelly's pastor, he, you know, he's been here several times. Brother Jerry Dean, he here a few years back. He wasn't satisfied with the way folks were worshiping in church. So he went to one of those novelty stores and he bought one of those great big blow up things that kind of does like this and he set it right up on the platform and he named it Judah. Am I right? Didn't he name it Judah? And if he didn't feel like church was going good enough, he'd he'd turn Judah on. Judah' rise up and start doing like this. I wonder if we don't need you to show up every once in a while. If we'll learn how to praise God, if I and no matter the attack that the enemy's placing in our way, if we'll learn how to I'm going to praise. I want to be on the front line. I'm going to sing. I may not can sing on key. Don't give me a mic, but I'm still going to sing. I'm going to praise. I'm going to worship. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Stand with me. You see, the Lord brought ambushments. If we'll put on the whole armor, if we'll arm ourselves, then he'll give us the strategy against the attack of the enemy. I want to close tonight. And again uh when I start studying this curriculum, if some of you have your curriculum book, you know that I have uh strayed greatly from what they have cuz I get excited and I I just I the Lord starts directing me in paths that I I just feel like I I need to display. But I would tell you this. He said he was equipping us or preparing us for the evil day. I'd ask you when is the evil day? Well, let me read to you what's happening nowadays. There is an agenda of hell displayed. He's pushing everywhere in our schools. our entertainment, our politics. Everywhere we see a lack of sanctity for life and godly living, we hear and see attacks against anyone who would worship God or even mention God daily. Listen, whether we would all recognize it or not, we are in the middle of a great battle for the minds of humanity. It's imperative that we daily prepare ourselves. So I submit to you today, the evil day is today. >> The evil day is tomorrow. The evil day is every morning when we get up. We need to be prepared. Get the word in your heart. Read the word. Study the word. Hone your skills as a prayer warrior. You see, being on your knees or having your arms up does not mean surrender or loss. That's the posture of a victor when it comes to spiritual warfare. You see, after all that Paul said, then he made this statement in verse 20. He said, "For which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." After all that, he said, "Prepare for war." But what does an ambassador do? An ambassador seeks peace. You know, an ambassador is the one who negotiates when it looks like uh things are about to go south and a war is about to start. He said, "I'm an ambassador in bonds." He said, "I'm in prison, but I'm an ambassador for Christ." We've got to know who we're trying to make peace with. We're wanting to love this world with peace and bring them into our side. The enemy is our enemy. We will never be able to make friends treaty with Satan, but we need to be ambassadors for Christ, preaching the gospel message. I close with reading to you the Psalmist's promise of the way when we're in warfare that we will be protected. In Psalms 91, I read part of it earlier. It says, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge and my fortress, my God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowl, and from noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers. Under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and thy buckler. Oh, hear it tonight. Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and 10,000 at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. This world may be falling in destruction. We have protection that hallelujah. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. You're going to see what happens to those who do not serve him. Because thou has made the Lord which is my refuge, even the most high thy habitation. You're living in the Lord. There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh. out of thy dwelling. For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Man, I'm in an army of angels. Hallelujah. What an army to be a part of. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone. We read it before. Thou shalt tread upon the lion, and the add of the young lion, and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet, because he had set his love upon me. Therefore will I deliver him. I shall set him on high because he hath known my name. He shall call upon me. I will answer him. I will be with him in trouble. I will deliver him and honor him. Oh, what a pledge that we have. And finally, it states, "With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." What a promise we have. Would you lift your hands and love the Lord? Savior, I love you. I thank you for your word, Lord. Let us equip ourselves intentionally with all of the tools to protect us that you've given us so freely. Lord, then in turn, let us arm ourselves with your word, with prayer, with worship, with all of those things that allows us to not be attacked, but to attack the enemy that would come against us. Lord, give us wisdom and strength, power and authority because of your precious name, the name of Jesus. For all this we ask and are grateful. The name of Jesus we pray. Amen and amen. Greet your brothers and sisters in Jesus name. You are dismissed.