How to Win the Battle You Can't See: Spiritual Warfare | Pastor Alex Himaya

You got me out that. And now I see your blessings, see your blessings every day. Thankful that your kingdom's on the way. Angels all around me and I'm saying like, oh. I'll never get used to this. I'll never get used to this. This is how I want to live. Whoever will be singing like, oh. What's the word? What's the word? The word is wreck is lit. Camp's still going. God is here. This is how I want to live. I'll never get used to this. Everybody in here is thirsty. And some of you try to quench it with success or popularity or a boyfriend or a girlfriend. But the person sitting next to you right now is thirsty. The issue is where do you go to get that thirst met? That determines whether your soul will ever be satisfied. The one who is living water became thirsty for me and for you. And here's the question tonight. What are you going to do with this water? The past year has been rough. And I've just been like spiritually and mentally. And I've just been like, well, I know I need God, but I don't want him. And then Pastor Alex was like, if you want to give your life to Jesus, do it. And so I stood up late because I was like, I don't know, I don't know. But I stood up in the end, and I don't want to do it. You've been out on your own, now it's time to come home.

I want to learn to be disciplined in my spiritual life so that nothing can pull me away from Jesus. I 100% am so happy that God has saved me. Come on, church. That is unbelievable what God is doing in our midst. And you're going to be glad you came to the 1130 service because the students are in here with us. And let me just say this. At all of our campuses, those of you who regularly attend the 1130 service, would you be happy to welcome the students into that service just like they are today? Would you just tell them, come on. Every week. And just be a part of it. We'll call this section the hoop section, hack off old people section, like you took their chair. And they'd be glad to give it to you. And we'll watch and see what the Lord does in our church. And the message I've written today is for the students, actually. And if you're a prayer, and you pray prayers, I want you to pray during this service. This will be my 12th time to teach this week. And I'm losing my voice, and I've got a cough that won't quit. The girls behind me just asked, are you wearing cough syrup? Because I've been sucking on cough drops all day. And so just pray that God would get me through this service. But today, I want to talk on the subject of spiritual warfare. And I know the moment that I say that, there's all kinds of reactions in the room. Because the people who talk the longest and the loudest about spiritual warfare are weird. And they're from those churches. You know what I'm talking about? Like on one side, you've got the women that churn their own butter in church. And wear no makeup in the name of Jesus. And on the other side, they wear so much makeup, they put it on with a putty knife. And in those churches, the men also wear makeup.

And so we don't want to be associated with either of those sections. Right? And so we get a little nervous when this subject comes up. But can I just declare to you today, I think that's part of the strategy of the devil. It's to make the Holy Spirit seem weird. And he's convinced us that the devil doesn't exist. Right? He's convinced many people that if he's invisible, then he must be fictional. Or this one, since he's a defeated foe. There's no way that he can hurt us as Christians. And even better yet, or more prevalent, is this one. If God loves us, and we are sons and daughters of the king. Then even if the devil is real, he's not really all that dangerous to us. And I just want to declare to you today. Listen, it is true that God loves you. He loves you as his children. In fact, 1 John 3 says he loves you so much that he calls you his children. And it's his very nature to love you. And because he loves you, he protects you. But that does not mean that he will keep you away from all danger all the days of your life. But I need you to hear me today and tell you that he will prepare you for all the days of danger in your life. And for all the fathers in the room, I missed you. last week on Father's Day and so let me just say it a week late happy Father's Day can we hear it for all the dads in the room today that come to church and bring their family to the house of God and look you know as a dad it's your job to love and protect your family and if you know that how much more does your heavenly father know that but you but listen all authority that he has given us over any spiritual darkness is not based on our own track record it's not based on anything we've earned it's based on one thing our relationship with God we are sons and daughters of the king and he has given us authority over

anything and everything that comes against us and it's not because of you but because of the Holy Spirit that lives within you and even if you are here and you don't believe all of the words this book says about you listen to me today your enemy believes every word of it he believes every word of it he knows it he knows that you've been forgiven he knows that there's therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus he knows that you have been made competent by the Holy Spirit of God and what a shame it would be for your enemy to believe more about your potential than you believe about your potential and because your enemy knows your potential that's where he will and why he will attack you he knows he cannot destroy you as a child of God and therefore he is hell-bent on discouraging you and distracting you but but hear me on this just because he is a scared foe does not mean he's not a dangerous foe sometimes it makes him more dangerous and here's a question I want to ask you today if you think this spiritual warfare thing is not all that important and all that legit why if he's no danger to us the enemy that is why would God give us armor think about that one for a minute put that in your thinker I don't know what it means but my dad used to say put that in your pipe and smoke it think through that for a moment that why if he's not dangerous to us why would he give us armor and tell us to put it on and he has given you everything you need for life and for holiness and holiness is a word we don't hear in church all that time but it's very much a Bible word and he does not just give you the keys or the authority and say good luck he hands us armor to use in the fight and unfortunately many of us who were raised in church particularly if we've been in church a long time we think when we think of armor of God we think of flannel graph Sunday School illustration how many of you know what flannel graph is like it was like cutting-edge technology in 1812 and we used it into the 80s right but where you would take flannel and stick it on flannel because it stuck to flannel right and we would put the pieces of armor on the flannel graph to describe it and that's what's in our mind when we think of spiritual warfare we think of the armor of God but

that's not at all what Paul had in his mind he was thinking of Roman soldiers who knew very well the severity of war he was thinking about the spiritual assaults that he had faced in his life and he knew we would encounter them as well the lies and the accusations that come like you're not good enough you're a failure you're not pretty enough you're not smart enough you never change you'll never get over that he knew in this world we would encounter injustice and racism and abuse and it is from this perspective that we read Ephesians chapter 6 if you got a Bible turn to Ephesians chapter 6 in verse 10 is where we will begin Paul says a final word what does that mean it means this is the end of the book it means after five chapters of telling you who you are in Jesus what you have in Jesus after a whole week of camp final word right Paul is saying after everything I've told you that you have and you are in Jesus and by the way I think it's interesting that chapter 5 is the family chapter this is how husbands relate to wives and wives relate to husbands and parents relate to children and children relate to parents after that chapter he says finally put on the armor of God how many of you know sometimes you got to put the armor on double in the house and with your family and with those that you live with a final word be strong in the Lord in his mighty power put on say put on put on all of God's armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all of the strategies of the devil now Paul is letting us into a couple of things right off the bat number one he believes in spiritual warfare number two that your enemy the devil has more than one strategy against you you don't use the word all when it's just one strategy in fact you don't use the word all when it's just two strategies he has a bunch of strategies and you need to be ready for all of them and look Satan is not all-knowing but he is observant and he watches you and he watches what discourages you and he watches what distracts you and he knows what makes you vulnerable and he knows what makes you anxious he knows what causes you to be isolated he knows what causes you to tend towards spiritual laziness this word in verse 11 for strategies is the word scheming his schemes he is planning and plotting

and scheming and strategizing against you he knows your weakness and if you don't believe that let me ask you this question how is it that that thing that tempts you the greatest always shows up when you're the most tired he's studying and he's scheming you and he's scheming against you and he's strategizing against you when I was a child in elementary school about first through sixth grade we lived around the corner from my best buddy whose name was Doug Johnson and Doug's birthday was on October the 31st so his birthday was on Halloween and so from first grade to sixth grade his birthday party was about a dozen boys from the neighborhood loading up in his grandmother's van and driving to the haunted houses in Shreveport Louisiana how many of you remember haunted house this is for we knew the devil was involved in all that look it was just fun and candy at that point but but we would show up but one of these dozen boys what was terrified I mean terrified of these haunted houses like he's crying like a baby in the car and that's okay in first grade but every year we thought he's gonna outgrow it this year we're in sixth grade he's still crying right and so we would pull up to the haunted house parking lot we would get out and stand in line Doug's mom would go up to buy the tickets for all of us and he's just snotting all over himself in terror of going into this and maybe he knew something we didn't know right but but and we should have all been afraid but but he is like terrified so Doug's mom in her compassion would go to the manager of the haunted house tell the guy what was going on and so every year first grade through sixth grade we got this VIP tour of the haunted house where we went all by ourselves with the lights on and all the curtains were pulled back and all the masks were held in the people's hands and all these boys who are people who were wearing masks normally are giving this kid high-fives and hugging him and telling him it's gonna be all right and handing him candy and the the curtains are pulled back they show you the chainsaw that it doesn't have a blade on it that it can't actually cut anybody and so all the things that are supposed to be scary are not scary because we're seeing them in the light and then we would go out the back door

and turn around and go do it again with the lights off it was never quite the same it was never quite the same why because we had turned the lights on and pulled the curtain back and here's what I want to tell you as a believer you got to pull the curtain back there's always something you can't see influencing what you can see and you cannot spend your whole life only fighting what you can see it's much smarter to pull the curtain back and to put the armor on and listen hell studies patterns heaven supplies power and armor and you are fully equipped and these pieces of armor we're gonna read about are already yours in Christ Jesus but you are according to Paul to put them on you can own the armor and still be exposed you can own the armor and it'd be hanging in your closet and you're still exposed but beginning in verse 14 Paul lists six seven depending on how you count them pieces of armor that we're supposed to put on let's walk through them together look at the first one stand your ground putting the belt of truth on now Roman soldiers would tighten this belt around their waist and the breastplate and other pieces of armor were actually all fastened to the belt of truth the sword of the spirit was certainly sheathed on the belt of truth and they would tighten this belt up for speed and for agility you ever tried to run with your pants falling down like you're not running very fast right you just call waddling not running how many of you grew up in the 90s raise your hand adults you know what I'm talking about you remember the kids in the 90s like they would wear their pants down here and the belt went right under that line that your butt cheek causes and that's where they would wear the belt now they would tuck their shirt in so you couldn't see everything but their pants were started right here and it was so freaky weird right and in the 90s I was a youth pastor in the 90s and I was always engaging kids everywhere we went the mall or wherever quick trip I'm engaging kids and anytime I would see a kid with his belt right around here first thing I would say to him is hey man you want a race and they would laugh because look I knew I could win that race because their legs were tied together at the thighs right they could not win a race and in the 90s they called it fashion the

Romans would have called it tactical failure. And it's not a valid point, but you should write it down maybe. You can't fight spiritual battles while you're holding your pants up. Listen, soldiers, they had to move quickly, forward, backward, front. They had to be able to jump the enemy, to jump obstacles, and it's the same idea we see elsewhere all over Scripture, where the Scripture says, gird up your loins. And when we gird ourselves with the truth around our waist, it's not our truth. It's not scientific truth. It's not moral truth. It's not ethical truth. It's God's truth. All truth is God's truth. In Isaiah 11, verse five, truth is explained as God's covenant with us. That's his faithfulness and his commitment to us. That's what we rely upon and we fasten around us. He adds to it, put on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. Question, what is righteousness? Righteousness is right standing before God. It's the part of our identity that is fashioned by God within us after we give our lives to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Why is that an important distinction?

Because on our own, we are not righteous, but Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became sin on our behalf so that we could stand blameless or righteous before God. That's our identity and it's who you are at the core. And it is where your enemy will attack you. Now, my neighborhood feels a little bit rural. And it's a little bit bigger lots and we have a lot of trees. And so, a lot of trees, a lot, a lot, a lot of trees. I used to like trees. In fact, I bought this house because of the trees. Trees, I kinda resent trees now. Because you gotta cut them and you gotta take care of them and you gotta, you're always picking up branches and burning them and it's a lot of work. It's like children, right? Like, you're excited about it, but then you realize it's a lot of work. And so, I'm taking care of trees all the time. Now, there's one request that my wife has made of me for years and the request is, can we leave the pool open all winter long? And the answer is never, ever, never, ever, never, never, never, never, as long as I'm alive. And the reason is is because we did this two times and I shoveled out of that pool six pickup truck loads of leaves. Smelly biology in those leaves. Like, it's like a science experiment happening.

And breaking nets and like, it's a non-starter for me. We're never doing that. In fact, September 1st, I'm thinking, when are we closing the pool? By October, you know, 30th, we closing the pool. When those leaves start falling, we closing the pool. And so, but here's what I know every spring when it's time to open the pool. When we pull that cover back every year, without exception, something is going to crawl out, hop out, and God forbid, slither out. And here's what I want you to know. Never once in the winter did I have to send an invitation into all the critters in the woods to invite them to come get under the pool cover. They just came on their own. The environment was invitation alone. We never went and got stationery and had it embossed and sealed it and sent it into the woods and said, y'all are invited, come get in the pool. The covered up, dark, damp existence of that pool invites all the critters there. Listen to me, righteous behavior is the uncovered in the light living that invites the sunlight of God's favor and blessing upon your life. Unrighteous behavior is the covered up, dark behavior, not befitting of a son and daughter of the king, and it means you don't have to invite the enemy into your life. The environment is invitation enough.

Just keep living in the dark, covered up, and that environment alone will leave you unprotected from the enhanced attacks of the enemy. And look, I know that when you live in the light, that does not mean the enemy does not attack you. He does attack you when you're living in the light, but he has to attack you in the light. And here's what I know. In the light, Jesus always wins, always wins. And when you fight in the dark, your enemy is gonna beat you like tom-toms all day and all night every day, every single day. And I don't care how many days you start your day on your knees in prayer, if you got sin scheduled on your calendar, it's not gonna work. And God's not just concerned about our righteousness. That's why we see, in the next verse, for shoes, say shoes. Put on the piece that comes from the good news or the gospel so that you will be fully. prepared, parents in the room. How many of you are kids? How many of you have ever shown up somewhere to realize you don't have shoes? Maybe church, maybe you brought your kids to church today and you're getting them out of the car and you realize you got one shoe, or no shoes, right, or the wrong shoes. We drove one time six hours to a soccer tournament only to realize we didn't bring cleats. And Meredith was like, hey, we'll run to Sports Authority

or Academy or whatever, I'll buy a new pair of cleats for the boy. I said, oh no, you won't. He will sit at the bench the whole weekend. And if you are the parent, specifically the mother, who goes to get your kid's shoes in that situation, you are not setting them up for success. In fact, every tournament after that, Ben slept with his cleats on the night before. But here's the deal with shoes, listen, imagine ladies, your kid is getting married and you found the dress, I mean the right dress, and all the tension about, you know, are you gonna upstage the bride, are you gonna upstage the bride's mom, or all of that, you figured it out. It's the perfect dress. And you got it fitted exactly the way you want it fitted, you did CrossFit for a year, you did everything you needed to do for that dress to be the dress that you completely wanted. But you can't find any shoes that will go with that dress. Imagine running a marathon in tap shoes. You're not advancing, you're just announcing yourself at every step along the way. And Paul is urging us to be prepared for what? For battle, for war. These soldiers wore specific shoes. They didn't pop out in their sandals or their Crocs. In fact, let me just say to all of you

in Broken Arrow and Coeda, if you still have Crocs, you should get rid of them. It's fashion tips from Pastor Alex. It's over, that day is over, all right? But they had boots with nails coming out of them and studs, why? Because when they were being attacked, they could stand their ground. And the armor, look, it's not just defensive, it's offensive. And the reason Paul is mentioning shoes for believers is because we're supposed to be on the move. Ephesians 52 says how beautiful, say beautiful. How lovely, say lovely. How beautiful and lovely are the feet who carry the good news. Meaning in the heavenlies where we can't see, in the eyes of Jesus, beautiful are the feet of people like Noah who are telling Dallas, his buddy, about Jesus. Beautiful are the feet like Dorothy slippers on your feet carrying the gospel to tell people about Jesus. And we need to go out and tell people about Jesus. That's our strategy, right? It isn't just about not giving up ground, it's actually about taking ground. Spiritual warfare is as much offensive as it is defensive. And listen, the good news of God's peace is offensive to Satan. Satan wants to live in you to live in disorder

and to live in disunity, but God wants you to walk in perfect peace, peace of mind and peace of heart. That comes only when you know Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior and you're on mission with him. Don't miss the second part. Listen, I hope you get therapy, I hope you do therapy, but you cannot replace the mission of God with therapy. Where fulfillment comes in your life is not in all the rest. I'm just telling you, that's not where it comes. You rest because you work hard and you work from the rest, but then fulfillment in your life comes from finding a job and doing the job and doing it well and doing it on mission with Jesus. That's where all fulfillment comes from. Read your Bible. And according to Revelation 12, 11, we overcome the enemy by two things. Do you remember what they are? The blood of the lamb, right, which is our salvation that comes only by Jesus and the word of our testimony. In other words, sharing our faith is engaging in the battle. Reaching lost people is how you and I get on the front line of the battle. Helping people come to know Jesus is an affront to the enemy's plans. And if you are not engaged in sharing the good news and helping somebody else come to know Jesus, just look, you're not involved in taking ground yet.

But you can be. That's why he continues in verse 16. Look at 16. In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith that will stop the fiery darts of the devil. Now, if what you're picturing in your mind is something the size of a Frisbee attached to the forearm of a Roman soldier, you've misunderstood this word. Now, I think there probably did exist a shield at that side for up-close contact, but this word, in fact, this Greek word in the Bible for shield, shield of faith, is the exact same Greek word as the word that we translate in English, door. And it was two feet across by four feet wide. So that that Roman soldier, they weren't big in that day, could get all the way behind this and hide completely behind it. Now, if you're an offensive lineman, you may be exposed on one side or the other, but in general, you could get behind it, right? You can get behind it, right? The shield was made of wood, and it was covered with oiled leather, but it wasn't enough. They would take that big shield and they would drop it in water. They would dunk the whole shield in water.

Why? Because the strategy of the enemy was to take all of their arrows and to dip them into oil or pitch, and then they would light it on fire, and they would shoot hundreds of those arrows at the enemy at the same time. And when those arrows would hit into the shield and plug into the shield, that burning oil would scatter, and the goal was to create panic. And so the soldiers would dip their shields in water. We talked about it this week. What does the water represent? It represents the water of the word of God, according to Ephesians, right? Chapter five. So why is Paul telling us this? And by the way, if Paul is telling us this, in his metaphor, what is a fiery arrow of the devil? What does that even mean? Well, Proverbs 26, verse 18 tells us, and it describes lies as flaming arrows, meaning lies and accusations are the main weapon of your enemy. And that's what he's shooting at you by the hundreds all of the time. And when Satan is hurling those flaming arrows of lies at you, we have to do what the Roman soldiers did.

We have to have the shield of faith that will catch those, and then the water of the word on it so that we can put them out and extinguish them only by knowing the word and knowing what the word of God says, right? You have faith in who you are because of what the word says. You have faith of who you are and whose you are, and you can catch those arrows and respond and say, no, no, no, no, no. The word of God actually says, and you know what it is, right? Now look at what he goes on to say. Put on the helmet of salvation. All right, here's an interesting thing. By the way, you've seen the pictures of Roman helmets, that they kind of come down over your ears and protect your temples, but they also have a thing that comes down in between your eyes to protect you here. And the whole illustration that Paul is using here is that we need a helmet of salvation to protect us from our own thought life. Paul says it this way in Romans. You are transformed by the renewing of your mind. And here's what's interesting. This Greek word translated put on right here in verse 17 is not the same at all, Greek word, as the word translated put on in verse 11 about all the other pieces of armor.

The one in verse 11 is an active Greek word, which means there's an action involved by you putting on the armor of God. But when it comes to salvation, this Greek word for put on is a passive word, meaning we don't do anything, we just receive it. That's a better translation of this Greek word. Receive the helmet of salvation, meaning it's God's action, not ours. We did nothing to get it, and we can't do anything to keep it. And again, this is all about God's mighty power working in us. Now look at the next verse. And take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. When the boys were little, Ben and Eli were little, they had a set of armor, Bible armor, like plastic toys. And all the pieces of armor spoke. You could push a button, and it would tell you that verse. And the one piece I remember is the sword. And it was this sword, and you would push the button on the handle, and in this creepy voice it would go, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I'll never forget it. Every time I read this verse, I think of that sword. And it was a bit confusing to the boys, because they kind of misunderstood what was going on,

because they would push that button and go, and the word of the Lord, or the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and then they would hit each other with it. Which is what some churches do with Bible, right? They use it as darts to fire at other believers, but that's not the point. The sword, by the way, this sword that Paul's talking about is not a long one, it's a short one. It's 18 inches long, so it's not really a sword as much as it is a long knife. The point is, it was for up close and personal combat. Think of the implications of that for a second. Here's what Paul's warning you today. This fight against your enemy, it's gonna be personal. He's gonna get up in your business, he's gonna come after what you care about. The most he's gonna attack what you what you are so emotionally attached to he'll come after your children He'll come up to your grandchildren. He'll come after your nest egg. He's gonna come He's gonna get up in your business and we don't have the privilege of firing a sniper rifle from a long way away at him We don't get to fire a cruise missile from the deck of a ship We don't get to launch a drone strike where we never have to be near the battle No We have to have the sword of the Spirit which means it's going to be up close and personal and I promise you this students Satan will not play fair. There is nothing off-limits with him and there are no rules of engagement with him He will get up in your business and it will be a personal fight and the sword of the Spirit Which is the Word of God is how you fight it His strategy From day one with Adam and Eve was to get us to doubt the Word of God. Do you remember what he said to Eve? Did God really say?

You Realize why it's so important to know the Word of God so that you can fight the lies that come he uses the Bible when he Attacks us. We got to know it. We got to have it on our tongues in our minds in our hearts We got to meditate on it and marinate ourselves in it So that it's on our lips at any time when Satan is coming with a lie or an accusation We can respond with no actually what God's Word says is and quote it And watch this he's equipped us with all of these things Isn't it interesting that he begins with the belt of truth Show of hands all campuses this morning. How many of you got out of the shower this morning? First thing you put on was a belt One Not an image I want actually I should not have asked that question It doesn't make any sense does it to put the belt on first You put your pants on and then you put your belt in the belt loops until you realize that truth Is not an it Is a he And his name is Jesus and he is the way the truth and the life And you put him on first and I just want to encourage you students You want to walk victoriously out of this camp all the days of this year into the next camp? Let me tell me tell you every morning before you get out of bed before your feet hit the floor Just put on the armor literally say it out loud God today. I'm putting on the helmet of salvation I'm putting on the breastplate of righteousness. I am wrapping myself in the belt of truth I'm putting on the shoes of the gospel of peace and preparation on one hand the shield of faith on the other hand the sword Of the Spirit which is the Word of God. He never promised there wouldn't be a battle In fact, he promised there would be a battle. He promised you would never face it alone and you You have his authority and you have his armor and you have his spirit and you have his word You are not abandoned You are not exposed and you are not defenseless and it's not a matter of if the battle will come it is when the battle Will come and without the authority and without the armor you will be exposed. That's the bad news The good news is you don't have to enlist. You don't have to take a class on all of this

You literally give your life to him and once you do you're transferred from one kingdom to another kingdom and then you have as Authority as his child and you have the armor given to you that you can put on on a daily basis and you can walk In that authority in every area of your life with the armor of God and not just stand your ground But actually take ground and push back the kingdom of darkness and today if you've never trusted Jesus as your Lord and Savior You're not walking in his authority and the armor is not available to you But I want to give you an opportunity to trust Christ and give your lives to Jesus Would you pray with me every head bowed every eye closed? And I want to ask you if you would If you want to trust Jesus and give your life to him I Want to lead you in a prayer helping you do that and I want you to pray it one phrase at a time after me And I'm gonna ask those who are already believers to pray it out loud as an encouragement to those who are praying it today on One of our campuses for the very first time But I want you to pray it to God and if that's you would you just say dear God? I know I'm a sinner Today I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin Jesus come into my life To be my Lord my Savior my forgiver in the best way that I know how I Turn my back on my sin, and I trust you alone Jesus to save me Before we look up before we say amen if you just prayed that prayer and you made and to congratulations. Wisest decision you could ever make. And let me just say this, in a church this size, in all of our campuses, in all of our rooms, if you're here today, and it feels like the battle you're facing is very intense, and the volume has been turned all the way to the right in the battle you're walking through today, I wanna pray over you. Would you just raise your hand if that's you, pastor?

I'm in a battle, and it feels hotter and harder than maybe it has in the past. Just hold your hand up at every campus. And Father, I pray for every hand that's raised under the sound of my voice today. I pray on each of them the helmet of salvation, that you would put that helmet on their head, and you would protect their thought life. You would renew their minds. Thank you that salvation comes from you, and you alone. It's nothing we do, we receive it from you. And on their chest, I pray the breastplate of righteousness that you would put this on their chest, protecting their heart, meaning what? What they care about. And if they care about it, you care about it. So I pray you'd meet them right there. And we thank you, God, that you're so caring that you say in your word that we can cast our cares on you because you care for us. Around their waist, the belt of truth. Help them run to the truth and away from lies. On their feet, the gospel and preparation and peace. On one arm, the shield of faith. Give them big, big, God-sized faith. In the other hand, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Give them not just a logos, a general word. Would you speak a specific word from your scripture to them today that would be useful in this battle?

In Jesus' name we pray, and together we all say, amen and amen. Let me show you something. Let me show you something here. This is a depiction of a Roman soldier in the armor, okay? When you look through the list of the armor, the backside is completely exposed. And I've heard pastors say that's because as a Christian, as a son of the king, or a daughter of the king, you're always supposed to be advancing. And you never turn your back on the enemy. And that's partially true. But it's not altogether right. Because there are some scriptures that say flee and run. Specifically, sexual immorality. It says you don't stand and fight, you run. Why? Because sexual immorality is always saying now, now, now, now, now, now. You don't stay and fight that, you run now, now, now. And you flee. So it's not altogether right. But here's what I found to be true. When it comes to my back, you're supposed to have mine, and I'm supposed to have yours. And this is what this thing is supposed to look like. And by the way, let me point this out to you. If she puts the armor on and he doesn't, she's still exposed. If he puts the armor on and she doesn't,

he's still exposed. Ecclesiastes says this. A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated. But two who stand back to back not only can conquer, but will never be defeated. And the point is, is when it comes to your back, you need somebody who has your back. It's not an individual fight. You put your armor on, right? And when you stand back to back, you watch it happen. But the Romans never fought all by themselves. They fought in squadrons. They fought in legions. They came in big groups to attack. And they would get in a formation like this. And as they would do that, the commander at some point, when he really wanted to take ground and push the enemy back, he would say this word, testudo, testudo, which literally means turtle or tortoise. And when he said that, they would end up in a formation that looks just like this. And when they got in that formation, they could push the enemy back and they could take all kinds of new ground. You know what that is and what that looks like? That's biblical community. And that's what our lives should look like. And it's not just about putting the armor of God on. It is about linking our shields of faith together as men and women of faith.

And let me just say this. If you don't have a group, your life doesn't look like that. And you will not be victorious. You will win periodically, but the enemy will take you out eventually. And let me just say this to all the students in the room. You need a small group. You need to be plugged into a small group. Let me say this to all the dads in the room. You need a small group. Dads are notorious for being willing to sit in rows but never sit in a circle. And without a circle, your life doesn't look like that. Need a group and by the way, if you can't find a group start a group You got a couple of buddies just get together over barbecue You say I don't know how to lead a Bible study We got videos that you can just pull up and just click the link and watch it on your phone Over a brisket and then we got questions that you can ask one another that will help you talk about real life and then say a prayer together and and finish with an apple pie and go play golf like Jesus would a A ride a motorcycle or whatever it is that you do, but start a group you got to have this in your life And at all of our campuses in the lobby today we have a booth that will help you find a group and On all of the chairs when you came in was a card that if you'll grab that QR code It will invite you to a process that will help you find a group and when you are in biblical community Then we can do what the Bible says Go out and take land and take new ground and push the spirit of darkness back with the kingdom of light Let me pray over you one more time father in this church today I pray the armor of God on the blood of Jesus all over them and that you would use this body to take new ground All over this city and around the world in Jesus name. We pray and together. We all say amen and amen