Walk in Wisdom -- Battle

Yes, I know last week was Easter. But it's very important for us to remember every Sunday, especially in preparation for today's message from Ephesians, that Christ is risen. He's risen as the victor. One of the most important themes we see throughout the Bible. is that Christ rose from the dead to give us a sure and absolute victory. Now, in order to appreciate a victory, you have to realize you were actually in battle. In order to actually appreciate that there's a victory, that you were losing this battle needs to be understood. He has conquered our enemies, sin, death, and the devil. The last one is what we're looking at today in detail because this is where we are in Ephesians. This is our last week as we finish this book. Judges will be the next one we study together. I want you to see that he's concluding this with a clear exhortation, verse 10, finally. My last thing, now this is unlike most of my sermons where I'm gonna say finally 10 times, just prepare yourself. You know, when I start saying finally, you know, it's starting to wind down, but it's not really the final one, most likely. But here Paul's honest, he's saying finally, be strong in the Lord and the strength of his mind. This is the final of many exhortations. If you flip back over to Ephesians chapter four, this is where the exhortations began. Walk worthy of the calling. Put on the new man that Christ has died and risen to give you, that new creation that He's made you. Walk in love for one another as Christ has loved you. Walk in wisdom, loving one another in the different relationships. We've been studying the marriage, the parent-child, the employer-employee or master-slave. All of these have been exhortations and now we get to this final exhortation Really be strengthened. Receive and take on a strength that is foreign to you. Because there's a battle that we must continue to fight. Yes, Christ has had a clear victory. The victory is sure, but the battle continues and we need strength to fight it. So as Christians, we're going to see that there's an expectation that we battle on. with confidence, with assurance, that Christ in his death and resurrection and ascension to the right hand of God, where he now continues to empower us, we can win. Apart from Christ, we lose. But in Christ, we win if we live by faith. If you're not a Christian, I wanna step aside from the text just for a moment and make it very clear We're gonna be talking about how the Christian battles temptation, deception, and accusation of the devil. That may seem strange to you. It's probably difficult. I acknowledge that it's difficult for us to think about in this world that we understand, that we've tried to master with our own minds. There's much more to this world and this creation and what God has done than what we realize. What I want you to focus on is actually what Paul says about the devil elsewhere in chapter two. Verse one. And this is speaking of how all humanity, how we all were. And we, Paul says, you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. That is referring to you actively living out a sinful life. Following the course of the world. It's, it's, it's the way of, of the natural man. It's the way that, that the world functions. And it's a, it's re-ignoring God and rebelling God, against God. And notice this next phrase. Following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit, not an earthly creature, a spiritual creature, that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Verse 4. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. So the first thing we have to realize before we can actually engage in the battle against the temptation of spiritual beings, before we even start getting there, we need to realize that our biggest problem is that we have followed the deceptive desires in our own hearts. We've chosen to walk in the sinful pattern that ignores God and rejects God. It is the way of the devil who led the rebellion. Until we recognize that our sin, our own sin that comes from our own hearts and expressed from our own lips and our own actions is our biggest problem, you can't actually do the battle that Paul's talking about. Because the scariest thing about our sin, we have Ephesians 2 being read. Your sin is dangerous, not only because it leads you to destruction, sin is destructive, but that God is a just and holy God. He's going to punish that sin. One way or the other, God has to, because He's a righteous God, punish all sin. So He either will punish you and your sin when you die and see Him face to face, Or you can believe in Jesus Christ and that when he died on the cross, he took on the punishment. He took the wrath of God away from us. You see that's in verse three, we're children of wrath. But God, he sent his son so that he would suffer the wrath so that we would receive mercy and love. This morning as you hear about sin and how we're gonna talk about the devil, Keep coming back to the reminder that your sin is your sin. It's your action. It's your offense against God and the only hope you have is to believe in Jesus so that you can be forgiven of that sin and freed from it. And then you can fight that battle. Christian, we're here to be reminded as we need regular reminders. He's risen. He's victorious. We don't have to live in fear. We don't have to live in shame. We don't have to live in weakness. He's victorious. He's risen from the grave. He's at the right hand of the Father to empower us to fight the battle that we, if we live out in our natural strength, will lose. This is what the first thing we want to look at this morning is that clear exhortation Verse 10, be strong in the Lord. This exhortation controls everything else that's gonna be said for the rest of the morning in this passage. Be strong in Christ. It's be strengthened with the strength of His might. Now, notice what's supposed to happen in the Christian life We're supposed to show off how able Christ is. If we only live according to our strength, we're only showing off how strong we think we are, or pretending to be. But what Paul's saying is, receive strength from outside of you. Don't just do what you think you're naturally capable of. Don't just live within your own competence and ability. No, it's be made strong to live outside of yourself. Now, we need to remember, with God, all things are possible. This is a declaration at the birth of Christ, when Mary's wondering how can this be, a virgin give birth to a child, or even more so, God himself coming inside the womb of a woman. With God, all things are possible. Over here, God allows Himself and the cross to be murdered. And then He rose again. All things are possible. We're to seek to be made strong so that we might do what feels and appears to be impossible. He's risen to give us this power. Now here's the amazing thing about God's strength. And this is the awkward thing and the counterintuitive thing about God's strength. It shows up in our weakness. That's the uncomfortable part. God's strength shows up in our weakness. We see this very clearly in 2 Corinthians 13, you can look there later. Paul's talking about how he has a thorn and he's pled for this thorn to be removed and we don't know exactly what that is, but the clear teaching is when God says, my strength is sufficient for you, in your weakness. It's actually in your weakness that I will demonstrate and proclaim to you and manifest how strong I am. That's uncomfortable because that means at some level God's strength is revealed and manifested when we feel most vulnerable. When we stop pretending to have control, When we stop pretending to have it all together, when we actually realize we need help, that's when God's strength is most evident and clear for us. Being strong in the Lord means we don't find strength elsewhere. We don't look for other coping mechanisms in the midst of trouble and trial. Well, one of the ways we could see that, that we saw someone in scripture looking for strength elsewhere, remember Genesis 12, Abraham gets that first call. Abraham, I'm going to make you a great father of many nations, I'm gonna give you great land, I'm gonna do all these things for you, you're gonna have many children. Abraham receives that promise, and then a famine happens. And that famine is a moment of weakness and vulnerability. What should Abraham do in that moment of weakness and vulnerability? What should he do? He should look up to God and ask for strength and clarity for how he's going to feed himself and his family. But what does he do instead? He goes to Egypt. He doesn't look to God for strength. He goes to a strong nation and depends upon them. That is an example of how not to be strong in the Lord, but to, in your own wisdom, find strength and security. Or King Saul. After he saw his army destroyed, he goes and he consults a witch. He's been given access to God Almighty, the Creator. The one who raises up kings and takes down kings, and he decides, in a moment of despair, in the moment of his weakness, He'll consult a witch. What do we do in our difficulties? Where do we seek comfort, strength, and wisdom? This is the amazing thing about the God who has revealed himself in the Bible. He who is most able is most willing to be with you and for you. He is most able. And how can He demonstrate any more that He is willing to be with you and for you than He's given His own Son? So as we look at this and what it means to be strong in the Lord, it's counterintuitive because it means I'm strong when I don't feel strong. I'm strong in the Lord when I don't have it all together. The strength, it comes when I actually say, I need help. Strength comes to the believer at that moment when we say, God, will you help me? That's where we're strengthened. God, help me have self-control. God, help me control and have a pattern that is more glorified to you in the way I think, where I let my mind go. God, help me protect my eyes. God, help me keep my mouth shut. God, help me say kind words that are encouraging. God, give me the strength to respond with grace. God, help me be a blessing to someone I see today. God, help me encourage a fellow believer at church today. God, help me be a witness to my neighbor. God, help me have the strength to always have hope and not despair. You know what you don't need help with, or what I don't need help with? I don't need help being selfish, insecure, or mean. I never have to actually ask God for help in any of those areas. But to be gracious, to be kind, to be gentle, to have hope, we all need help. But because we all face difficulties, either in our own lives, in our own temptation, in our families, in our situation, our circumstances, we need help. Asking for help. Christian, this is strength. It's the strong one who says and recognizes I need help. And you're asking help from the one who is most able to help you. Now I want you also notice here that be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might. We're going to go on and we're going to see in verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you might stand against the schemes of the devil. Or verse 13, therefore take up the whole armor of God that you might be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand firm. Verse 14, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Strength is connected to putting on the armor and standing firm. Remaining steadfast. This is the mark of the mature Christian who recognizes I need help and asks for help. A mature Christian who's reliable, dependable, who doesn't get rocked by every different difficulty and circumstance or temptation. One who counts it all joy in every trial. This is what Paul's exhortation is to the church. Be strong. so that you can stand firm as a testimony of Jesus Christ. Now the second thing we need to see is why Paul specifically is saying we need to stand strong. Let's jump down to verse 12. He gives a reason. We'll get into the how more in a moment with the putting on the whole armor and the standing firm, but verse 12 really gives us the why. Be strong because we're in a battle. Be strong because we are in a battle. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So there's a reason here. Verse 12, we need to be strong, putting on the whole armor to stand firm, because there is a battle. And it's a battle that's different than any other battle we know of. We're earthly creatures in a battle with heavenly creatures. We're spiritual material beings in a battle against purely spiritual beings. Here we're studying the topic of angelology. Probably one of the most important and most ignored topics in scripture. The understanding and idea of angels and demons. Now, on one level, I think we ignore it because we live in a Western world where we've adopted a very materialistic view of things, and so it seems a little odd. On another level, we probably ignore it because there's a lot of superstition and odd things out there, and it's hard to understand what's real and what's right and what's true. What we need to realize is one of the greatest dangers is ignoring the devil altogether. He's kind of got you at that point, right? When you actually aren't aware of Him, when we don't assume and are aware and are watchful, He's most able to attack. Now, I was once at a, years ago, at an academic evangelical conference, and if I named the professor, many of you would know who he is, but I'm not gonna name him. But this very well-known and respected academic evangelical professor of philosophy presented a paper at this conference. And the argument he was making is that the Bible is not the only source we have for divine knowledge. He argued that you can pin demons down and force them to tell you other things about God and the spiritual realm. Therefore, the Bible is not the only source. for spiritual things. My response to this paper is more so now than it was then, but why? Really? You're wanting to undermine that God in his wisdom has given us all of these words that we can't completely understand and submit to as it is? We've got to go find something more? What more could He say than to you He has already said, we sing sometimes? The foundation we have for our faith is His word. Why do you think that's something that we need? And this is the kind of thing that I think is an example of seeking ungodly speculations. or superstitions about the demonic world, which, yes, is different than the way we normally think, and it's odd, but in Scripture, it's very clear. And I believe what God's word gives us is everything we need to know about Satan, demons, our sin, and most importantly, our Savior who gives us the victory. So as we begin here, I understand there's a lot of superstitious things out there. There's a lot of things that might be a little odd. What we want to do is say God's word is sufficient. It speaks of angels and demons more than we talk about them. God's word speaks of angels and demons more than I think we normally talk about them. So we need to be careful. So let's begin with some questions. What is a demon? Who is Satan? Well, demons and Satan, they're all angels, so let's kind of back up and just do kind of a broader theology of angels. Because angels are all those spiritual beings. There is a clear order of being. There's God the creator. Then angels, that are purely spiritual beings. Then man, who is a spiritual and material being. Yes, the order of being, we are beneath angels. Hebrews makes this very clear. Now, man is different than angels, not only because we have a material body and angels do not. We're also made in the image of God. That isn't something that's ever said of angels. There's a unique relationship and responsibility that God gives to human beings that angels do not have. Something else that makes angels and human beings different, there are sinful angels and non-sinful angels. There are sinful humans and redeemed humans. All humans have sinned against God, not all angels have sinned against God. We know of no redemptive plan for angels. We only know that God sent his son to die for sinful humans. So there are great differences. We see the similarity that angels are created immaterial. They're heavenly creatures. I've often heard this as an example of how theology goes wrong, but there's a theological question out there from years ago. How many angels can dance on the head of a pen? Now that might seem like unhelpful speculation. That's a brilliant question. because it's actually trying to get at how does the spiritual realm relate to the material realm? How do those beings and creatures that are merely immaterial and spiritual, how do they relate to the physical world that we only know presence? They're immaterial and spiritual. Another thing we know about angels is there's a hierarchy. There's archangels, there's cherubim and seraphim. We're not sure there's guardian angels. That seems like something that isn't so clear in scripture. But there seems to be different jobs and a hierarchy of jobs. The angels' jobs, primarily, they're worshipers and messengers. They're angels whose job solely is to surround God Almighty and do what all creatures are called to do, and that is to praise Him always. Holy, holy, holy. There are some messengers. Remember Christmas. How did we discover, how was it revealed from God that his own son would come and be born of a virgin? An angel appeared. Angels appeared. How was it that the first women who showed up at the grave knew that he was risen? An angel came and delivered that message. He is not Now, demons are simply angels that rebel. They decided, and we don't know exactly when or how, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 may give us some insight into this. But at some point, the spiritual beings led by Satan decided that some of them were going to rebel against God and live for their own glory and not man. And they're not God's glory. And one of the clearest ways they attack God is by attacking the chief creation of this world, and that is us. We can see this in Genesis 3. Satan appears to have led a rebellion against God. He wanted glory for himself. Jesus describes Satan as the father of lies. He's a murderer from the beginning. That's John 8, 44. He also describes him in John 10 He's the one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Peter describes him in 1 Peter 5, he's a roaring lion, seeking to devour. Demons tempt, they deceive, they accuse, they afflict, they destroy. As we consider the work of demons, Genesis 3 and Matthew 4 are just very helpful insights. Genesis 3 especially. Because when Satan went to Eve, remember what he asked, did God really say? And of course God didn't say what Satan said. You can't eat of any tree. What they did, what Satan was doing was taking one attribute of God, his rule and authority, and making it sound like he was not a good God. Would he really say you can't have any fruit from any tree? Would a God who's good be like that? See, if you're wanting to know the schemes and the wiles of Satan as we look at it in this passage, realize that the top two things he wants you to do is question, is God able? And is God good? That's what he's seeking to attack. He's wanting to undermine our trust in God, that he's a good God, and he's an evil God. And I also want you to hear that demons are clearly defeated. 1 John 3.8, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. Hebrews 2.14, Christ himself likewise partook of the same things that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. Colossians 2.15, God disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by trumping over them in him, that is Christ. Christ has come to win the battle that we could not win. Now as we go back to chapter six, verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. It's not a good old-fashioned physical fight, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers. There's a spiritual battle going on that we fight differently. And the word here is wrestle. That is what it sounds like. It's close, and it's personal. It's not distant or abstract, as we oftentimes think, that Satan must be out there somewhere, but not here. No, it's wrestling. It's a close, personal match. He's unseen. If you're wanting to think about these things, there's some resources we have that would hopefully encourage you. One of them is the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. It's a fictional book. He doesn't intend on making it clear that this is really happening. But it's a way that he's pondering, this is how demons might work. And one of the scariest chapters in there, one of the scariest sections. The book is a master demon writing to another demon on how to trick the believer he's in charge of into not following Christ. There's a point there where he says, well, you know what you want to do is just have them so wrapped up in their own deception and sin and guilt that they're on cruise control. You can just sit back and watch them self-implode and be self-destructive. That is a scary point in which many of us, when we're not actually involved and aware of the attack and wrestling, we might actually be so deceived and so entangled we're already beaten. As we look at the passage, Satan is the ruler of the world. Christ has come to undo that rule so that we can now submit to him. Now what we wanna do is, how do we recognize where a demon is involved? How do we recognize when there's demonic activity? I want to assert we should assume that demons are involved in any temptation or confusion in the midst of sin. If you're in a moment of feeling weakness, of feeling like there's a compulsion to do what you know you should not do, assume there's something extra going on beyond just your sin. It's actually amazing how, I believe, ideas that excuse our sin or excuse us from doing the things we know we ought to do, those are oftentimes Satan giving us lies. I believe demons are often involved in the burden of guilt when someone has an irrational sense of guilt and shame. I wanna be very clear. Demons are not the source of your sin. You're not relieved by naming the demon of anger and casting it out. No, it's your anger that the devil gets to use against you. You're not relieved by casting out the demon of lust. No, it's your lust that Satan is taking the opportunity to use against you. Satan looks for those opportunities in our sin. to further deceive and accuse us. There's two instances that I think we can look at in scripture. 2 Corinthians 5, it speaks of a young man who we believe from 1 Corinthians 5, actually I'm sorry, it's 2 Corinthians 4. 1 Corinthians 5, Paul says to take the young man who's sleeping with his father's wife and excommunicate him, cast out the evil. 2 Corinthians 4, it actually exhorts the church. You need to restore. You need to forgive so that the devil doesn't have the opportunity. Paul says to make sure that you don't give the devil the opportunity there by not receiving the man back. Or another instance where Paul makes this very clear is 1 Corinthians 7. Remember this is where Paul says for different moments of praying throughout the evening and setting aside sexual relations for a season to commit yourselves to prayer, don't keep yourselves from each other. Because in that moment of lacking self-control, the devil seizes the opportunity That's why it's important to realize how God has designed us and to keep ourselves in that self-control and pursuing godliness because Satan looks for those seasons where we're lacking self-control. It's important to see this is where he's looking for those weaknesses. It's in those weaknesses where we should be praying, God, help me. So how do we know when something's demonic? Here's a couple examples that I think are pretty easy. In a brothel. Are demons involved when we would see what's taking place in a brothel? Yeah. Women giving themselves over to men and this kind of impurity? Men pursuing women in that way? Without a doubt. There's something clearly demonic going on there. A casino. Yeah. The kind of greed, the laziness looking for easy money in a meth house. People trying to numb themselves from the pains of this world. Is there something demonic going on there? Absolutely. How about a church divided, fighting against each other? Absolutely. Believers given over to jealousy, which leads to quarrels. Is Satan involved there? Absolutely. In a home where there's unfaithfulness, a lack of love and commitment, is Satan involved there? Absolutely. But we have to realize in each one of these situations, it's the person who's responsible for living according to their own sin and not trusting God. Satan is just taking the opportunities to further the sin. We need to look at Paul's next exhortation here. So we see that we're to be strong in the Lord because there's a spiritual battle, one we do not see, one we're not always aware of, but we do see that the schemes of the devil, they're related to him taking opportunities in our sin. Let's look at verse 11. And again, this repeated formula. Put on the armor so that you can stand firm. It's in verse 11, 13, and 14. You want to be strong, you do so by putting on the armor of Christ. And what's interesting here is, after this great declaration in verse 12, this is the kind of enemy we have. He's a spiritual enemy. He's unseen. He's very powerful. He's overcome the whole world. He's ruling the world, except for when Christ has crushed him. but he's a very powerful enemy. And what I almost expect is this grand declaration of a spiritual plan. Paul's exhortation is pretty simple. It basically comes down to stand firm and pray. Paul's basic instruction for how to endure, how to be strong in the midst of the battle is to stand firm pray. We could actually look at other passages that say basically the same thing. James 4 verse 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord. he will exalt you. Notice there with the devil, it's resistant. He flees drawn near to God. Or 1 Peter 5.8. Humble yourselves. Again, notice the similarity in James and 1 Peter. Humility is required. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you. casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be super-minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Verse nine, resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever, amen. Many ways we fight by standing firm. We fight by resisting Satan and refusing to believe his lies, given to his temptation, Be foiled by his accusations. The most basic prescription in Scripture is resist and stand firm. Being strong in the Lord means we stand firm. We don't retreat. We don't quit. We don't surrender. We march on faithfully in the midst of whatever trial or difficulty. You trust Christ. You don't let Satan make you ask, is God really good or is he really able in the midst of the difficulty? No, you trust God, you stand firm. Now, the other real action here is verse 11, verse 13, verse 14, put on the whole armor of God. We're to put on the the blessings of what Christ has accomplished for us We're to go back here chapter 4 verse 25 Or verse 24 put on the new self created of the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness If we go back to chapter four, there was constantly the putting off of the old self and putting on the new self. I don't believe what's going on here with the armor of God is that different than putting on that new self, because that new self is knowing you're saved, the helmet of salvation. Putting on the breastplate of righteousness, knowing that God has declared you righteous and that cannot be removed. Putting on the belt of truth, seizing it up tightly. Being firm, so that you can stand firm in what God has said and what He has done. The most effective way to battle is to pursue Christ, who He is and what He's done. Put on the whole armor. Take on the breastplate, the shoes, the belt, the helmet, the shield. Now notice, most of this is defensive, and all of it's on the front, so that you stand firm. Because if you retreat, the backside is open. The helmet of salvation, it's the assurance of salvation, the righteousness of God. Now I also want to focus here on verse 13. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, having done all. To learn how to stand firm, to learn Christ in a way that it makes you a faithful soldier, it's a lot of work. It's recognizing by God's grace I can do this, by asking for God's help I can do this. It's not just one day I'm gonna decide, you know what, I'm gonna put on some armor. I could go over here, I could pick up this guitar and I could say I'm a musician, but that would make me a liar. Holding the instrument doesn't make me a musician. It's the discipline, the practice, the ongoing work of actually learning what these weapons are, what this armor is, that makes you a soldier. It's not just something you put on one day casually. No, it's, it's, it's a life of commitment to practicing God's disciplines, so that when it got, when Satan attacks, I'm ready and I stand firm. In order to do this, we have to be convinced of something. That's hard for us. We have to be convinced this world is not a playground. It's a battlefield. exercise, and discipline, and practice the way we need to in order to be ready to stand firm, we first have to be convinced this world is not a personal playground to pursue pleasure. It's a battlefield for our souls and our loved one's souls. Until we're convinced of the battle, we'll play. We'll be defeated. But if we're convinced, as God's word says, it's a battle. If we see how easily we're entangled, as we see how easily we're defeated, we cry out for help. And God gives us the help to be disciplined, to practice these things, to do all that he's requiring. In many ways, what we're looking at is how to have solid footing. How to stand firm in a world of confusing lies and accusations. If you look specifically at the shield of faith, notice here, so that you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. One of the most destructive things Satan's going to do is to accuse you of sins you've actually accomplished. He actually doesn't have to lie to accuse us, does he? He just has to make us feel condemned. He just has to lie about the judgment, and that's why we sing, let all condemnation cease. We have to know his lies are that will still be judged. We have to realize that his temptations are lies that can't be fulfilled, or promises that can't be fulfilled. Notice the one offensive weapon is the sword. Stand therefore, having put on the belt of truth, taking up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, Verse 17, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This is the one offensive weapon. If you go back and you look at the passage Andrew read earlier, Matthew 4, we see a model of what it means to take the Word of God and actually defeat Satan with it. It's knowing God's Word better than Satan does. It's being assured of what God says. It's being able to see when there's a false teacher who's misrepresenting God's Word. Now, I assume most of us don't let our children play with dangerous weapons. I hope not. Our own government thinks that, and I believe rightly so, that training and license is required for dangerous weapons to be handled. We don't want to just hand out automatic weapons and just say anyone can just figure these things out because they're dangerous. We believe training is required depending on how dangerous the weapon is. I want to assure you of something. The word of God is the most dangerous weapon this world has ever known. It brings life to dead. It heals the sickness of sin. It restores and reconciles enemies. The Word of God, the Spirit is empowering it. It can do things that we cannot imagine. It is the most powerful weapon the world has ever known, and it takes training to know how to properly wield it. This is why we gather. to study God's word together, to train each other, to equip each other, to better wield this word. Because Christ has given us a victory. He's given us his word so that we have the powerful weapon we need to defeat Satan, to live the victorious life in him. He also realized it's very dangerous. It's very powerful. Notice what else he prescribes here. taking the Word of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Notice it's prayer and supplication, there's prayers of praise, prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of confession, prayers of supplication, praying for one another. What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? I believe that the best way we can see what it means to pray in the Spirit is to pray God's Word according to God's Word. So we can go to Ephesians 3, and we can see this is what Paul's prayer is for the church, or we can go to Ephesians 1, verse 15, this is Paul's prayer for the church. To pray in the Spirit, I believe, is to actually pray according to what the Spirit has led us to in prayer. Pray the Psalms. Praying in the Spirit isn't some extra super spiritual prayer. It's recognizing the Spirit that indwells us and seals us has also given us these breathed out words and we can pray the very will of God for ourselves and for one another. Pray for alertness. Notice Paul exhorts, keep alert in prayer. Pray for the saints. Pray that Paul would be bone evangelism. We should be praying that the word of God would go forth from our mouths, from each other's mouths, from this church and other churches around the world. The victory of Christ will be known so sinners will be given new life. You see, if we're dormant, we're satisfied, We're not praying for a kingdom that's moving. We're not praying for a mission that must go forward. And that puts us right where Satan would like us. As we go back and we're concluding in Ephesians, I encourage you, something to pray for yourself is verses three to 14 of chapter one. Be constantly reminded of all the many blessings we have in Christ. We're adopted, chosen, beloved, forgiven, redeemed. We've been given knowledge that the angels learned to look into here. And that blessing isn't just so we could be a sponge, but no, it's so that we can actually enjoy God. That is the greatest blessing you can receive is to believe in Christ so that these spiritual blessings of yours so that you can know God and enjoy Him. The way to enjoy him is to walk worthy of his call, which requires asking for help to be strengthened. Will you pray with me? Father, we praise you and we thank you that you have not left us alone in this battle that we're too often just not even aware of. Lord, give us wisdom as we wrestle with sin in our own hearts, in our own mouths, in our own actions. Give us wisdom as we wrestle in the temptation and the accusation of the evil one to recognize it, to resist it. Lord, help us to stand firm as soldiers committed to Christ, as soldiers sure of the victory that He's accomplished for us. In his name we pray, amen.