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Our pastor has asked that you be with him now as he preaches your word. Please fill in with your Holy Spirit Just bless the rest of the service and continue to bless our church and Jesus then we pray. Amen All right, we're in Proverbs chapter 20 this morning look down at your Bibles at verse 18 of Proverbs chapter 20 The Bible says there in verse 18 every purpose is established by counsel and with good advice Make war with good advice make war I'm gonna reach you from Proverbs 24 verse 6 says for my wise counsel thou shalt make thy war and in multitude of counselors There is safety and what I want to preach on this morning is preparations for warfare Preparations for war fair now warfare is very much a biblical concept in the Bible You'll see it throughout the Word of God In fact, I would say you can't really read the Bible from cover to cover without finding God's people constantly warring Against an enemy, right? I mean the Bible even tells us in Exodus 15 verse 3 that the Lord is a man of war The Lord is his name the Bible says and it so it tells us that God he's a man of war Obviously, we know that he's a god of peace. Obviously, we understand that he wants peace with mankind But that reconciliation comes through his son Jesus Christ, but we also know that he wants war as well Okay, and this idea is carried out throughout the entire Bible whether you see the physical wars in the Old Testament You know where the children of Israel when they were under a theocracy they were constantly battling foreign nations for for land God would tell them hey go into this portion of the world and wipe out the Canaanites wipe out these Individuals because they're wicked you see those wars taking place or how about in the New Testament the spiritual battles that we see, right? Often Paul would use warlike Terminologies to describe the Christian life, but how about the world wars that we're gonna see in the book of Revelation I mean, obviously this is a spiritual battle, but when it comes to the book of Revelation There is literally a physical war that's going to take place. I mean the the inauguration of the millennial reign begins and ends with war Right you have revelation 19 when Jesus Christ comes on a white horse and he comes to destroy all the enemies of God To set up his millennial reign and at the end of that thousand year reign you have the Battle of Gog and Magog War once again, so what do we see? We see that there is no use in trying to escape the fact that war is an essential part of the Christian life Okay, it's an essential part you know the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3 verse 8 that there's a time to love and a time to hate a time of war and a time of Peace now, let me just say this is that obviously because we're saved we have the peace of God the past is understanding Amen, because we're saying we have peace with God. We've been reconciled because we're saved You know We can be in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them The world can be falling apart to the right and to the left Well, we know that we can have peace in our hearts, right? But the reality is this is that while we're here on this earth, it is a time of war right now is a time of War we know that we have to war against the flesh The Bible says for the spirit lusts against the the flesh the flesh lusts against the spirit These are contrary one to the other city. You cannot do the things that you would the Bible tells us to abstain from fleshly lusts Which war? Against the soul so we know that in the Christian life There's a constant battle raging within us on a day-to-day basis where we're fighting the flesh We're fighting the desires of our bodies We're fighting the desires of our minds that this carnality that we have within us. We're constantly fighting that so make no mistake about it Now is a time of war Psalm 18 verse 34 says he teaches my hands to war So that a bow of steel is broken in mine arms Psalms 120 verse 6 says this my soul hath long dwelt with him that hateth peace. I Mean wouldn't you say we live in a mix the midst of people who hate peace? Who want to make war with us right it goes on to say I am for peace Look what it goes on to say, but when I speak they are for war Isn't that interesting so the Bible says that we dwell with people who hate peace I am for peace But when I preach God's Word when I tell you what the Word of God says they're for war And you know what we're not the type of church or the type of Christians that when we preach the Word of God and someone Gets offended out there, and they don't like what we're saying and they come at us And they say all manner of evil against us. We're not going to kowtow and apologize Why because it'll be a shameful thing for a pastor to apologize for preaching God's Word It'll be a shameful thing for any individual to stand down on their biblical convictions because they're afraid or something Folks when I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war and you know what I say bring it on If that's what you want why because this is what we're made for we're made for war and There's plenty examples of the Bible in regards to this and the reason I want to I want to emphasize that is because Christianity today They're just like well. You know we shouldn't do that, and you know we need to be Peaceable or not hate and not be angry. What is this Star Wars and Jedi or something or what? I'm not a Jedi master. Go take that to Anakin Skywalker or something you know Folks this is Christianity Ye that love the Lord hate evil Paul said I have fought the good fight of faith. I finished my course So we see battles throughout the entire Bible I mean think about this some of the greatest battles in the Bible have inspired a spiritually have they not you think of Gideon's 300 high one against the enemies of God and with 300 men was able to Destroy them and overcome them and turn to flight the armies of the aliens the Bible says how about David and Goliath What child does not like the story of David and Goliath every Sunday or every week when I tell my wife? What do you think I should preach on my kids always come up and say dad? I know what you should preach on David and Goliath David and Goliath I'm like I'll preach on that one day one day But every week they tell me the same thing that preach on David and Goliath They know about David that inspires them what child does not love the fact that there's some kid who just completely Whoops a giant right chops off his head carries it with them everywhere. He goes. I mean pretty cool all right, but that's war We see war throughout the Word of God And it's very much biblical for us to recognize these things and to apply them spiritually now obviously in the New Testament We read those stories and in the New Testament. We're not for violence Okay So we're not here to violate anyone or to fight anyone to kick anyone's butt or we want to just conflict We want to confront people and fight them because this is not the Christian way But we take those wars of the Old Testament that which which was written a fourth time was written for our learning For our admonition, so we take those wars and we apply them Spiritually speaking okay? We Apply them in a spiritual way now you say well I want to go and fight these people you know they say these things I want to go and fight them folks the Bible says we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities powers against the rules of the darkness of this world and the Bible says that though we walk in the flesh We did not war after the flesh For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal mighty through God through the pulling down of strongholds Casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ So the Bible specifically telling us that the weapons that we use for warfare. They're not these Right they're not these They're not these or whatever you know they're not these And look I'm not saying that you shouldn't have guns because I think it's important to have guns I have a gun you know The you know Jesus said he that you know hath no sword let him sell a coat and buy one It's funny. I put that on my Instagram, and it literally got taken down for hate speech the verse All I did was put the verse the words of Jesus, and they took it down for hate speech oh It's gonna be it's gonna be a hot day for those at Instagram And help for them to say that that's hate speech and to take it down because they don't like folks God encourages people to have weapons God encourages people to have guns why to protect ourselves Protect ourselves our persons very much biblical. Oh, you're just trying to be violent by it to be violent means to violate someone You understand Defense self-defense is completely different when someone tries to violate you It's not oh you just take it down line You just let them rape your wife or your children and beat them up, and well you know we're Christians So we can't do anything about that nonsense that's why Jesus told Peter to buy another sword and Did Jesus stop Peter when he cut off Malchus's ear no? But that's not the sermon today What I'm saying is this is the weapons of our warfare are not carnal so we shouldn't be going out to look for a physical Fight you understand and I want to emphasize that because there's a fight coming to us next week And I don't think they're gonna be trying to get physical with us But let me just emphasize the fact that we're not trying to get physical with them But why because it's a spiritual battle that we are in now in warfare. There's always an enemy, okay? And I know a lot of Christians want to think well You know we don't really have enemies and love your enemies. Yeah, obviously we want to love those Enemies who basically have wronged us or have defrauded us in any way who may not like us But there's a great difference between our enemies and the enemies of God Okay, but let me say this who is our enemy well number one the devil obviously Satan that old serpent the accuser of the brethren this is our main enemy the Bible says to be sober be vigilant because your Adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may Devour you know for people to say well. God doesn't hate anyone does he hate the devil Obviously he does you know Satan is obviously the architect behind all the wickedness of this world He's the one who's fomenting all the false religions and false ideologies and in the philosophies of this world He is our main adversary. He is our main enemy. That's pretty obvious, but look people have this idea listen to me The devil is the only enemy that we have and this is kind of like a safe ground for Christians who don't want to fight You know when we start preaching against people we start preaching against organizations and and false prophets and the LGBTQ and all these things You're gonna have a Christian some soft snowflake Christian Come to you say oh, hey, we shouldn't do that. You know Satan is our enemy well duh I know this What they fail to realize is that Satan is like a general right of a celestial army And they use human instruments to foment their agenda So it's not when you say well. We need to fight against a ton What do you want me to like rebuke him or something or like? The devil is a celestial being Our warfare is not like you want me to pull out like a spiritual sword and just like Fight at the air beat the air or something What do you mean by that? Folks when we're supposed to go to war with Satan. It's with his minions We wrestle not against flesh and blood it says but against principalities against powers Against the rulers of the darkness of this world there are people in this world that have made themselves the enemies of God and have Allied themselves with Satan False religions you know the LGBTQ You know public school systems all these Institutions they hate the Word of God they hate the Lord they hate Christianity These are the enemies of God So look when we fight against Satan we have to fight against those institutions right because those are his institutions It's not enough to just say well I'm just gonna fight against the devil and you know I'm just gonna Rebuke him in my sleep and or my dreams or something like that and that's just it no folks the Bible says have no Fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them Oh them who's them oh the people who are part of these unfruitful works of darkness and The reason I say that is because people are like why are you fighting against the LGBTQ? Oh, I don't know because they say all men are of evil against our God Because they blaspheme our God because they slander our God and Christianity and they mock him Because they're trying to change our way of life here They're trying to educate my children to love sodomy I Want to fight against that? Because they're trying to silence the Word of God they're trying to silence the man of God That's a that's a cause is worthy of fight worthy of war and God doesn't want us to just stand down because there's more of them and less of us folks if God before us who can be against us Us and God we make the majority You can have the entire world on your side. It means nothing It means absolutely Nothing because in comparison to God himself. They are just but men and they'll vanish away as Doth a garment. They'll wax old as doth a garment. They'll vanish away as a chaff in the wind Look folks to think that well the only enemy is the devil yeah, obviously he's the devil and he's our enemy But there's people who work for Satan that we need to fight against as well if that weren't the case Why did Jesus tell the Pharisees ye are of your father the devil? The lust of your father will ye do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth for the truth is Not in him when he speaketh a lie speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it And what did he say in the beginning ye are of your father the devil? speaking to people Right So don't tell me oh will we fight it's only got to be against the devil We got to pray against the devil. We got to do this. Yeah, okay Good job. You want a cookie? Thanks for cracking that code for me. I didn't know that Folks we have to go after these institutions Be on the not just the defensive on the offensive look the Bible says you know thou are repeated upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell should not prevail against them the Bible says Gates are a defensive weapon that means we ought to charge hell with the with the with the Word of God Now go to Ephesians chapter 6 if you would Let me read you a couple verses here Philippians chapter 3 verse 2 says this beware of dogs Beware of evil workers Beware of the concision don't live in this fantasy world where evil people don't exist That's a fantasy world Well, I just want to think the good in everyone you know what I want to give people the benefit of the doubt too But the reality is the vast majority of people in this world They're bad people sometimes Okay, that there are workers of iniquity. There's evil workers. There's individuals who hate the Lord and they're wicked The Bible says in 2nd Corinthians 11 13 for such as our false apostles Deceitful workers Transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ and no Marvel for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers Also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness whose end shall be according to their works Look if Satan comes as an angel of light mark it down those who work for him will do the same exact thing How do they do it by trying to manipulate the narrative? Oh? Oh make El Monte friendly By getting rid of this church Make El Monte safe By getting rid of this church. Oh really what have we done within the last three years that we've been here That has destroyed El Monte in any which way right? Tell me We are keeping El Monte safe When we preach against pedophiles and wicked individuals who want to rape children and women guess what we're keeping It's safe We're making El Monte a righteous city Now I want to give you some advice this morning in order to make war and Make it make it succeed you like are you gonna rip face today? No you need to come on you need to come next Sunday Thank you for thank you for being here today But you need to be here next Sunday I'm laying it all out next Sunday Today I want to prepare you for war because remember the title of the sermon is preparations for war preparations for warfare We're gonna look at the armor of God today, and this is obviously a very basic Sermon in regards to the armor of God, but it's very important We need to be reminded of these things so when we go to war we need to make sure we have our armor on amen And God specifically says that we need to make sure we have the armor of God. This isn't a playground This isn't we're not we're not playing hockey. We're not playing football. This is the greatest war in history of mankind So number one when it comes to the armor of God, what do you have to do well number one never never never? break rank Never break rank, what does that mean hold the line you see when people go to war you have the soldiers in the front lines And they're backing each other up you never want to break that rank Well, how do people break the rank because they're afraid? They're holding the rank and they're going forward and they're coming to their enemy and the enemy starts looking a little fears a little scary And they break rank and they run Don't do that Never break rank in Spiritual warfare you stand with your brothers you stand with your pastor you stand with the Bible And you never break that look what the Bible says in Ephesians 6 verse 13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to To be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand he said well, I'm scared you stand I'm nervous you stand I Don't know what's gonna happen you stand your ground No matter what happens you no matter how reviling how wicked how disgusting they get no matter what they do you stand your ground And you don't move I shall not be moved Apologize no I shall not be moved I Want to scare those people and I don't I don't want them to come to church. I want them to leave no money We're not moving I'm standing my ground, and we're not breaking rank at all He says there Withstand in the evil day having done all to stand well pastor. I feel like I'm weak Yeah, that's why you need to be along your side your brothers and sisters in Christ who are strong Because when you're weak you're afraid you lack faith You doubt the person to the right hand until the left hand can strengthen you exhort you and say don't worry about man We're here for you. We're a family here. We're gonna stand God is with us. He's gonna. Give us the victory He's gonna deliver us. We've already won It instills confidence in the individual who may be afraid, but let me just say this don't break rank And wouldn't be ashamed wouldn't it be a shame for Christians who have the Word of God Who have the King James Bible? We have the Holy Spirit of God we have a church we have a pastor We have everything going for us and all of a sudden. We just tuck tail and run That'd be a shameful thing and in fact the Bible says in Psalm 78 verse 9 when speaking to the children of Ephraim It says the children of Ephraim being armed and carrying bows turned back in the day of battle shameful They were armed they had their bows they had their their weapons and yet when the battle came they tuck tail and they ran Hey, you better not be sick next week Don't call in sick next week. Oh, hey, I forgot I had my grandma's birthday's next week You know you think maybe we could push you to another day or something like that I got to work on something and no don't break rank Next week is a special day, man But don't fall out don't break rank now go to 1st Chronicles chapter 12 hold your place there in Ephesians Go to 1st Chronicles chapter 12 You see fighting a spiritual battle alone can be difficult It can be Because we're normal you know we're human beings We're just we're sinners and you know often the our thoughts can overwhelm us When we think of the possibilities of what can happen to us and our families so obviously we understand that you know by ourselves We can often become weak, but here's the thing when you're with your church You actually augment your strength your spiritual strength You know when you're amongst a group of bold people you become bold also but what it says in 1st Chronicles chapter 12 in verse 33 of Zebulun such as went forth to battle expert in war with all instruments of war 5450,000 look what it says which could keep rank what does that mean these guys were not disbanding They can keep rank You can bring the most fierce warriors. You can bring the most ugly barbarians. You can bring the most you know Inventive weapons against them they will not break rank look what it says which could keep rank They were not of a double heart Isn't that interesting What is the double heart? well think about this the Bible says a Double minded man is unstable in all his ways What does that mean you just you just kind of you're tossed to and fro? Carried about with every wave of doubt You know like oh, man. Maybe I should stand with them. Maybe I shouldn't or maybe I should go Maybe I shouldn't maybe I'll keep rank. Maybe I won't no be resolved Didn't we sing that this morning? I am resolved, right? Be have resolved within yourself and don't be of a double heart don't be Double-minded don't doubt because why well the Bible says let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord Did you know you're more? You're a candidate for God's blessing if you just resolved to make a decision You're a greater candidate for God's blessing if you just decide rather than just flip-flop God wants people who are just resolved God wants me look if you're afraid stay home That's what he's saying right if you're scared if you don't want to stand for the Word of God. Okay, then stay home God can still bless you because at least you're resolved to stay home, but you know what I'm not staying home I'm preaching next week I'm the pastor of the church I'm not double-minded about this I'm not gonna be double-hearted about this and here's the thing. This is what you do Okay to make sure that you're not double-hearted or double-minded This is what you do. You think of the worst possible outcome and then you make peace with that You think of the worst possible outcome that can happen in your life because of this situation and you make peace with it What's the worst possible outcome they kill us then what let me go to heaven we Go heaven like some geez. I Mean we'll forever be remembered as being that church Make peace with that. And by the way, it's not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen I'm just saying in order for you not to be double-minded Think of that worst possible outcome and make peace with it And here's the thing if you think of the worst possible outcome, don't you know that God already knows that already Here he knows the outcome That'll help you not to break rank That'll help you to say well, I'm just gonna be resolved. I'm just gonna do right. I'm just gonna stand with my brothers I'm gonna stand with my pastor. I'm gonna stand with my church and I'm not going to break rank I'm gonna keep I'm gonna stay my ground look at verse 38 It says all these men of war They can keep rank came with the perfect heart To Hebron to make David king over all Israel and all the rest also of Israel were of one heart to make David King so we see here that in verse 33 it says they were not of a double heart and then in verse 38 It says that they came with the perfect heart now This doesn't mean sinless because often we think of the word perfect as being you know without error, you know Just perfection, but this is actually referring to a complete heart Okay a heart that is fixed go to Psalm 57 Psalm 57 So they kept rank because they were not of a double heart But they had a perfect heart You know what? The Bible says that God is looking to show himself strong on the behalf of those whose heart is perfect with him You want God to do some great works in your life. You have a perfect heart before him not sinless Complete resolve fixed. Look what it says in verse 6 of Psalm 57 They have prepared a net for my steps My soul is bowed down. They have digged a pit before me into the mitzvah of they are fallen themselves Sheila My heart is fixed. Oh God, my heart is fixed I will sing and give praise go to Psalm 112 Psalm 112 It's important that you pray this morning Lord fix my heart Right Lord fix my heart because I can often be double-minded I doubt I flip-flop I go back and forth fix my heart and by fixing your heart We mean let it be stable established Unmovable look at Psalm 112 verse 6 as surely he shall not be moved forever The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance. He shall not be afraid of evil tidings His heart is fixed trusting the Lord So bring the evil tidings Send the death threats send the wicked messages Say all manner of evil the righteous man. His heart is fixed. Why because he trusts the Lord His heart verse 8 is established. He shall not be afraid until you see his desire upon his enemies He hath dispersed he hath given to the poor his righteousness endureth forever His horn shall be exalted with honor the wicked shall see enemy grieved and he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away the desire of the wicked shall perish and let me just say this is that When all this is said and done either way no matter what happens we always win because we know exactly what happens at the very end and Every single one of these perverts and wicked individual reprobates. They're all gonna get what's coming to them Not for me not from first-worth Baptist Church from Jesus Christ himself It's funny someone messaged me and they're like, oh he that is without sin among you let them first cast a stone That's what they told me and you know what I responded. Well, Jesus Christ is without sin. So I guess it's gonna be the first one Go back to Ephesians chapter 6 if you would So look stand your ground don't break rank stay in church become faithful not only that but tighten up your convictions Folks This is a great time to grow spiritually You know, cuz sometimes you get a you know, you put the Christianity on cruise control sometimes, you know Come to church read your Bible Sowing every once in a while or something, but times like this then you realize manny God's favor I need to make sure that I'm tightening up my convictions It says in verse 14 stand there for having your loins gird about with truth What is that talking about our loins is referring to our core values you better know what you believe You better know what you really believe according to the Bible and you better be reading the Bible every single day Tighten up those convictions if you're wondering man. Why do I believe what I believe don't ask me go to the Bible You know people try to make it seem oh you just got your bread your congregation brainwashed They read the Bible themselves they bring a Bible to church they can they can see if what I'm saying is true or not You go home you open up the Bible you read the verses and see if you come to the same conclusion as me and you will Tighten up your convictions, but not only that Examine yourselves and clean your heart look what it says in verse 14 stand therefore having your loins gird about with truth and having on the breastplate of Righteousness now obviously in a physical aspect The breastplate is that which protects the heart and the Bible says keep thine heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues Of life and what this is referring to is the fact that we need to make sure we have clean hearts guys This is a good time to clean up your life This is a good time to get sin out of your life if you have sin in your life This is a good time to examine your heart to see if there be any wicked way in you To confess forsake repent of that to clean yourself up take advantage of it Because you don't want to be a vessel unto dishonor You know a lot of times people have a double mind or maybe they doubt a little bit because of the fact that they have sin in their lives So they're like well, man The reason I'm double-minded is because I don't know if I have God's favor because I've been involved in sin I've been involved I've been in the world. I've been doing all these things Okay. Well, here's the solution clean up your life Confess forsake and join the war And then you won't have to worry about those things Because as soon as you get right with God you have God's hand on you As soon as you get right with God and you put away the sin you put away all filthiness and super super fluidy of wickedness And naughtiness at that point God's hand can be on you you receive with meekness the engrafted word at that point God's hand can be on you But you got to make sure you clean up your heart folks. Let's have a holy church. Amen Examine your heart examine your life Examine yourself to make sure there's no wicked way in you. Make sure you're not partaking of the accursed thing Psalm 26, you don't have to turn to verse 1 says judge me. Oh Lord for I have walked in mine integrity I have trusted also in the Lord. Therefore I shall not slide Examine me. Oh Lord improve me. Try my reins and my heart For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth. I have not sat with vain persons Neither will I go with the Semblers. I have hated the congregate the congregation of evildoers It will not sit with the wicked. I will wash my hands in innocency So will I come past thine altar O Lord that I may publish with the voice of Thanksgiving And tell of all thy wondrous works go to Psalm 15. Hold your place in Ephesians 6 Go to Psalm 15 because I do want to I want you to read this. I want you to see this for yourself You know in order for us to be effective in war in order for us to properly prepare for warfare We need to make sure we have a clean heart Okay, a clean heart clean hands clean mind clean soul. Look at Psalm 15 verse 1 Lord who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. So it's saying honest people Because God wants honesty Hey, don't go on social media and lie about these people You don't have to do that. Yeah, they do it themselves Speak the truth That's why I leave all my stuff up You know when they want to slam the slander and lie about me I just keep it up and tell them you go look for yourselves I'm not afraid of having my content up. Aren't you gonna put your stuff on private? Nope Aren't you gonna meet the comments? Nope Because I got nothing to hide I Speak the truth in my heart verse 3 he remember These are the things that qualify someone to be in his tabernacle in his holy hill verse 3 he that backed by did not with his tongue Nor doeth evil to his neighbor nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbor look at verse 4 in whose eyes a Vile person is condemned and that interesting Says you got to be honest you got to be upright Don't do evil to your neighbor. Oh By the way, you got to make sure you when you look at these wicked people. They're they're vile in your eyes You don't look at them. Oh, that's so cute Just I wish they would just come to Christ and all these things No, it says and whose eyes a vile person is condemned. That's the individual that God blesses God says you want my hand a blessing you hate evil That's right good then when you look upon that which is violent wicked you say this is disgusting This is evil. This is wicked and I hate this and Whose eyes a vile person is condemned But he honored them that fear the Lord Who do we honor those who fear God? He that swereth to his own hurt and changeth not Bob Gray jr He that putteth not out his money to usury nor taketh reward against the innocent He that doeth these things look what it says shall never be moved He says if you follow these things I will never move you you will not you'll be stable But it starts with having a clean heart clean hands, okay go back to Ephesians 6 I Talk about preparations for warfare stand your ground Make sure that your Lauren's are good about with the truth. Make sure you're reading the Bible this week Spend time quality time in the Word of God. Hey, I would even encourage you memorize scripture. Why not? Saturate your mind and your heart with scripture turn off the television Turn off the social media turn off whatever distractions are there and focus on the Bible Memorize some scripture Memorize the Word of God get it saturated into your heart now that but clean your clean your heart and Then number four, how about this recover the captives? Remember all these things are to be done simultaneously Look at verse 15 and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace folks I don't know if you realize this but just because there's a war going on here doesn't mean that there's still you know There's no lost souls out there We still need to go preach the gospel to people out there There's still people out there who have not been duped by this LGBTQ agenda That actually hate that they're open to the gospel. They want to be saved They just require for an individual couldn't to come and show them So part of warfare is making sure that we are rescuing the captives Preaching the gospel to those who are in prison so to speak Those who have been captive by Satan We're supposed to go out there and preach the Word of God and look the Bible says that beautiful are the feet of them Who preached the glad tidings? Okay Some Christians out there they got some ugly feet They got spiritual corns and all these things and ingrown toenails on their things and Fungus and I'm not talking about physically because some of you guys looking at me kind of weird there. Okay? You're all nudging your wife, why'd you tell Have beautiful feet How do you beautify your feet by going out by using your feet to take you to a lost? Individual to preach the gospel unto them and look a lot of times people, you know, they have all these other things down But there's just this one thing sometimes that they lack one thing that that lack is It's preaching the gospel This is important to God here this is a war for the souls of men So recover the captives Looking for a 16 Above all Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked now What is this referring to because I've heard a lot of interpretations of this and people say man It says above all so it's saying that it's a pretty important piece of equipment apparently Taking the shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked now What are the fiery darts of the wicked? Well, if you think about it These can be likened unto doubts Fear things that Satan tries to throw at you To try to get you out of the battle and when you think of arrows coming at you I mean, it's like overwhelming right coming from above and what what do you do? Well, the Bible says you got to take up the shield of faith Now what is what does it mean when it says take up the shield of faith? It's referring to the fact that when things get rough When it looks like it's not going our way your way you take up the shield of faith and you trust That God will work it out together for good That God will deliver you that God will give us deliverance that he'll give us success and victory. That's what it's referring to Now you say about hold on a second this is saying to take up the shield of faith to quench those darts Yeah, so that you can still stand Obviously at this point you're not fighting back. You're just kind of holding your ground and As those darts of well, who are you? You used to be involved in the world you watch television You were a drunkard. You were a fornicator. You were an adulteress. You were an adulterer. You're a whoremonger You were doing this used to be in drugs you were a loser and all these darts start coming at you Trying to discourage you from the battle Who are you? You know, you haven't even read the Bible all the way through You're not a great Christian All these darts start hitting you you just take up the shield of faith And you quench them And you cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God The Bible says in Psalm 28 verse 7 the Lord is my strength and my shield My heart trusteth in him and I am helped Therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth and will and with my song will I praise him Psalm 119 verse 114 says thou are my hiding place and my shield I Hope in thy word So look when you become helpless or you become afraid All you have to do is lift up that shield of faith and trust in the Lord no matter what happens He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a reward of them to diligently seek him That's what the Bible says Knowing full well that God will deliver us no matter what happens And look if it gets to a point where it's just like we're done well Then we need to be like Shadrach Meshach and Abednego and when they say bow down and they say our God is able to deliver Us but if not, we still won't bow down You Know it gets to a point where maybe God chooses not to deliver us, you know what we say? All right We're still not gonna bounce out I'm still not apologizing We're getting you guys out of here. Okay, you're still filthy and disgusting and I I still hate you and I'm still gonna preach against You what's changed? Throw me into the furnace. Go ahead I'm still not gonna bow down Still not gonna change we'll do this and we're gonna destroy you burn down your church, okay Still not Still not bound down Throw whatever you want It's not gonna happen. You know, the only thing this whole situation is is really done for me in a negative way is I want to eat more. You know what I mean? Just kind of like stressed out And I haven't I've controlled myself okay, I'm like I want some raising canes so bad right now You know cuz the cortisol is up, you know, so you're just kind of like you that's the only thing though That's like the only thing You know But that's it. None this whole situation. I don't think anyone in our church is not me but for sure no one in our church has been like no one's ever come to me and say hey pastor have you really considered you know, maybe Apologizing to them and just kind of no one has folks the people in our church are like, yeah This is awesome people out there think that I'm though I'm just this crazy pastor up here. No, my people are crazy, too You guys are all crazy But When the going gets tough and you feel like you're weak you're tired you're in doubt just lift up the shield of faith Let God quench all the fiery darts of the wicked Let him just handle all those things and once those darts stop falling you stand up and you fight again Verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God The Helmet of salvation I've dealt with that in previous sermons just talking about being vigilant You know looking forward to the second coming of Christ But of course the sword of the Spirit is basically telling us Hey as we're fighting we need to make sure that I keep preaching the Word of God We're still preaching God's Word. We're instructing our church. We're still going to battle. We're still exposing false doctrines We're still exhorting the brethren or preaching Rebuke reprove exhort with all long-suffering in doctrine. We're still doing those things. We're taking the sword of the Spirit preach against them look at verse 18 and Here's here's the really important one right here praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and Watching their unto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints So you know what you really need at the end of the day aside from all these we need all these But to cap it off. What do you need prayer? You need to pray I Hope this increased your prayer life. I hope you're not just depending on my prayers Well, I'm not gonna break as I know the pastor praise I'm not gonna break as I knows a lot of people in church that pray no you need to pray you need to get on your knees and Cry out to God to give you boldness To give to fill you with his spirit to use you that he may be glorified You need to pray those imprecatory prayers You need to pray and I guarantee you I guarantee you this probably someone in our church that does not have the discipline of prayer To pray every single day But I promise you after today they will begin to Because let me just emphasize this If we if we don't pray unto the Lord, we're not gonna get blessed We need to depend on him Because prayer is an act of faith It's saying I can't do this myself. I need the Lord. I need your hand Lord. I need your deliverance I need your strength. I need your boldness. I need your power in my life That's you going to God for those things. Hey men pray with your wives Pray with your children Pray with one another and pray this Friday. Amen Show up to pray Show up to be here so that God can bless our church. We need prayer Yeah, because you guys are all scared. You guys need to pray. No because we we need God is what it is And God has commanded us to pray without ceasing Not at the exclusion of these other things but in tandem with them To cap it off to say Lord We've done everything that we can We are Lord's are good about we have the breastplate of righteousness, we're not gonna break rank We have the sword of the Spirit. We have the helmet of salvation. We have the shield of faith now, Lord. We ask you to do the rest Because look let's just be honest we can only go so far under our own power Our talents our abilities can only take us so far You know what God does when we reach our capacity our limit he makes up the difference But it only happens when you pray So pray amen I'm looking forward to what a great start to the year I'm excited. I know that God is for us and look this is gonna go down in history Throughout eternity and look folks you stand next week. You will be heavily rewarded by God For your stance, amen, let's prepare for war. Let's pray father We thank you so much for your your word Lord And thank you for father for the teachings of war in the Bible for the armor of God I pray God that you'd help us Lord to implement all of these Pieces of equipment spiritually speaking to our lives Lord that we may do all we can to stand and Lord May you show yourself strong on our behalf God. We're not perfect. We're not sinless, but I pray that you would You would delight to not only deliver us But also to show yourself strong on the behalf on our behalf and before the city of El Monte May everyone here know that there is a God in El Monte who's doing great works Lord you you did great miracles with 300 men I know that you can do the same with 100 you can do the same with one I just pray God that you'd help us Lord and We know that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much and I pray that that would be the case This week we love you so much Lord, and we thank you. We pray these things in Jesus name Amen