The Armor of God - Dan Matsuoka

Are you equipped for spiritual warfare?

Sermon from 2/11/2024
Passage: Ephesians 6:10-13

What is Chinese Church in Christ - South Valley?

Sunday Sermon Recordings from our English service at Chinese Church in Christ - South Valley, located in the Bay Area

Dan: 00:00

To Chinese Church in Christ, South Valley with the lights on this week. We were here in the dark. Before we get started, just I just want to say, so, for Daniel Dai, he's an 11th grader. That's the first time he's, led us in terms of constructing the worship set and leading, and he's like he's like, why are you talking about me right now, Dan? But, you know, one of the things we truly value in our church is discipleship, and so to see someone who's at a young age, it's not the only time we've had high schoolers lead us in worship before, but it's just super encouraging for me.

Dan: 00:33

So thank you, Daniel, for doing that for us today, so praise God. Alright. No no no no. I don't think he wants to do that. So, if you're joining us, we've been talking about our 2024 church theme, which is trust in God, and it comes from 1st Peter chapter 5.

Dan: 00:55

Last week, it took us, some of the context around this passage in 1st Peter chapter 5, took us into the topic of spiritual warfare. And it was ironic that we were doing this on a Sunday where there was no, like, electrical power and we were having our service here in the dark singing with just a guitar and no amplification and no lights. And so, at least from the from the visual quality, it was maybe like it was like kind of more depressing than you might be used to. But I was just very encouraged by how many people drove to church through a crazy storm to come and worship God here together last week. If you were trying to join us on Zoom, we certainly apologize, but circumstances were beyond our control, for that.

Dan: 01:39

So today, the lights are back on and we're gonna continue to talk about the topic of spiritual warfare, And we don't have darkness to freak us out, but we've got this super creepy, like, water heater in the kitchen that's boiling and sounds like a ghost, so it's keeping us kind of on, on brand for talking about spiritual warfare here this morning. So, if I can call our attention to our theme verse for this year that we've talked about over a couple weeks, it's from 1st Peter chapter 5. So I'm gonna reread, the verses we read for that and then the passage from last week, but then we'll get into our main passage for today. So our church theme about trusting in God comes from 1st Peter chapter 5 starting in verse 6, And Peter writes, 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. And the idea of trusting in God in this year and in our lives, because we know each year that we live has different circumstances, different challenges, different temptations not to trust in God and to trust in ourselves or other earthly things.

Dan: 02:46

And that's why this passage is such a good one for us to focus on this year, because if we truly believe that Jesus cares for us and He's demonstrated that to us on the cross, then we can trust Him with all of our anxieties. And so last week we looked at these verses, if we keep reading in that same section. And starting in verse 8, Peter then says, Be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him firm in your faith, knowing that same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

Dan: 03:24

And, last week, I feel like it was kind of like an introduction to the topic of spiritual warfare or just the fact that there is this being, the devil, that prowls around people in this world like a lion. And so, at the end, we read through one verse in the book of Ephesians, and I really wanna focus on that, this morning as our main passage. And what we said at the end was both Peter, as he's writing to a group that is experiencing lots of persecution at this time, and Paul who's writing to the Ephesians, we're gonna look at Ephesians, as the church was still being formed in the 1st century AD, they needed lots of encouragement for the both the persecution and also the spiritual warfare they might embark on. And so, I'll do a bit of review of what we talked about last week, but let's read our our main passage for today. And we said that both Paul and Peter, they are both biblical authors, both disciples, very well known disciples and apostles, and they both seem to agree on this topic of trusting in God to kind of assist us in a world that is actually far more spiritually scary than we might think it is.

Dan: 04:33

So, if you've got your Bibles, let's go to Ephesians chapter 6, and this is the famous passage about the armor of God. We read one verse in it last week to kind of conclude, but I wanna focus in on these 4 verses starting in verse 10. So Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, if you've got your Bibles, you can go there. This is gonna be our main passage for today, should also be up here on the screen, but let me read for us. And Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Dan: 05:02

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. This is God's word. Let's pray.

Dan: 05:32

God, we thank you that you have given us your word, to learn from. Lord, I pray that as we, can acknowledge the truth that, there are forces in our lives, in this world that we do not always see. Forces, that come from the evil one that are trying to drag us down. Lord, we know that can be a very scary thing. And so, Lord, I also, pray that we would be thankful, that you give us your wisdom to know how to stand firm, as the passage tells us here this morning.

Dan: 06:03

And so, Lord, if we're often oblivious to the presence of spiritual warfare in our world, Lord, we might think if if we're awakened to it that it's really scary, but Lord, I pray that we could see that you give us what we need to stand firm and to trust in you, and to experience experience victory over the powers of darkness that live in our world. So, god, would you open our minds and our hearts to your word this morning? We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dan: 06:30

Alright. So, if you know me, when I was trained in, seminary, my preaching professor was a very big believer in 3 point sermons, so I always have 3 points. I don't have 3 points today because I think there's just two main things that we're gonna try to get across in this passage. So, we're a little bit out of the ordinary, but this should help us understand, this passage today. So here's the two things we're gonna focus on from the verses we just read.

Dan: 06:56

We wanna know the true enemy, said a little bit about this last week, but we wanna go in more depth today, and then we wanna see how we can be prepared for battle. So those are the 2 things we're gonna focus on, from these words that Paul's given us, know the true enemy and be prepared for battle. So in verse 10, Paul says, finally, he's talked about so many things in the book of Ephesians. He's talked about what our lives are like before knowing Christ and after Christ. He's talked about how we live out our faith in chapter 4, how to walk worthy in a manner of the gospel.

Dan: 07:27

In chapter 5, he talks he starts to talk about, just the spiritual gifts that we have in the presence of the Holy Spirit, and how to relate with one another as husbands and wives, as fathers as children, as the church, and to Christ who is the head of the church. So there's so much that Paul's done, and when he gets to chapter 6, towards the very end, this is what he's starting, kind of the last section of his letter to the Ephesian church with. And he says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. And then in verse 11, he gives us a phrase that we're gonna see twice, and it kind of bookends the main sections I wanna focus on, but he says, put on the whole armor of God. The whole armor of God.

Dan: 08:07

And why? He says that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. So Paul, who's written a vast portion of the New Testament, someone who knows God and knows about, knows who God is personally, but knows about God and a lot of the ways we wanna live, and he's written it in so many different letters, he is acknowledging the presence of the devil. And so, as the early church is getting going, as, the believers in first Peter were experiencing lots of persecution, in both cases as the here in Ephesians as well, there is a need to remain strong in their faith as things are getting started. And so, Paul exhorts the Ephesian Christians to put on the whole armor of God.

Dan: 08:52

So, we have to ask ourselves then, why do you need armor? And Paul tells us very clearly the idea is to stand against the devil. And what this is doing is this is showing us in a different passage compared to what we read last week, that some of the faithful believers in the New Testament, they are very aware of the realness of Satan in our world. Right? And so, last week, I shared a, I shared a quote with you guys that I think resonates with a lot of us.

Dan: 09:23

It's the idea that ignorance is bliss. Right? The example I used is if you go in our church foyer, it's like, you probably don't want me to tell you this, but there are so many bugs and spiders that exist there. I said I might do some cleaning, none of that happened this week, full disclosure. So, anyway, but a lot of times, we can actually be comforted by what we don't know.

Dan: 09:44

And it it matters here in this passage because if we go about our lives and we think, God is good, he's loving, he's given us the church, he's given us the body of Christ, and we don't think about the devil at all, I wanna suggest to you that in this passage and in 1st Peter, perhaps that is exactly what Satan wants. And I shared a quote with you that comes from it's it was made famous in a movie, but it's the origin of it is kinda debated, it goes all the way back to, like, you know, poetry in like 19th century France and other authors as well. But the quote, I think it's up here. Is it the next one? Next slide.

Dan: 10:22

Yes. This is a quote that I think, kind of helps us think about this, but it's that, the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist. And there's this idea that if we are going through life and everything seems fine and and dandy, like, maybe that's a good thing temporarily, but when challenges and evil and conflict comes about in our world, we wanna know the true origin of them and where it's coming from. So, if we go back to the, oh, that's why the quote wasn't there yet. So, it's supposed to read the verse first.

Dan: 10:56

If we go to verse 12, there it is. Look at how Paul describes the influence of Satan in our world. He says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That is a huge description of lots of things that are powerful, but that we oftentimes cannot see. And why this passage has stuck out to me over so many years as I shared briefly at the end of last week's message, when Daniel was preaching on this at a conference we were at, he realized that as a youth counselor who was doing junior high ministry and having, lots of trouble engaging the attention of the guys in his small group.

Dan: 11:42

He could go home from youth group and think, oh, those junior high boys that don't pay attention and, like, you know, are just causing shenanigans, like, they're the enemy. But then when he was preaching on this and he's reading what the scripture says, it says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but, and then there's this long description of things that are often unseen. Right? And so, here's why this is so the idea of spiritual warfare and the disguises of the devil are so important for us. Oftentimes when we have conflict with people in our lives, whether it be significant other, family members, close friends, a lot of times in this course of an argument, we can think, oh, that person's the enemy.

Dan: 12:26

Like, I need to win this argument against that person, or how could they treat me in this way? But Paul is saying, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but there are other forces in play that are trying to drag us all down. And last week, I used the analogy from the movie The Matrix about the red pill and the blue pill. If you've watched the movie, I'm not going to go into all the details, but the idea is that, like, for Neo, the main character, he's being given the opportunity to see the world as it really is versus to continue to live in ignorance, not to see how kind of dark and depressing and, like, schematic, like, a lot of evil powers are. That's kind of the premise of the movie.

Dan: 13:04

I was encouraging us as the body of Christ, we want to see the world as it is. We actually want to acknowledge the reality that Satan is real, that he is trying to drag us down. You see it in multiple passage all throughout the New Testament. And that can sound very very scary. I know friends that I went to seminary with, youth pastors or just pastors in other areas who have talked about, like, very kind of scary, like, experiences with, like, demon possession of someone in their congregation where it's like, it it is a visible thing that they can see that, like, on on the appearance seems really scary.

Dan: 13:47

Or if you ever watch exorcism movies, there's a whole bunch of them. They're super scary. I can't get enough of those things. I don't know why. It's, like a weird, like, movie, like, preference for me.

Dan: 13:58

But the scary thing is when you read scripture and you acknowledge the truth of the devil, you start to see, hey, maybe those things are real. But when we see the way Paul is writing this verse, I don't actually think he's talking about, like, a very explicit, like, oh, my gosh. Like, someone is demon possessed. We need to, like, hold them down and pray for them, even though that's a real thing if you go to churches around the world. But if he's talking about powers that are invisible, that are of the air, that we cannot often see, Perhaps we are not aware of the ways that the influence of Satan subtly influences us in our conversations with someone that we love, or in moments of conflict.

Dan: 14:40

The the the challenge more for us is to be aware of the small ways that Satan might be trying to influence our lives. In last week's passage, we saw how Satan is described as a lion, a roaring lion that's prowling around stalking its prey. And if you think about that, if a lion is stalking its prey, it's usually behind you, it's usually trying to creep up on you and, like, to catch you off guard. And if we are not aware of the influences of Satan in our lives, we will not be aware of the small ways that he might be influencing us little by little, to try to, to try to, just tear us down and maybe subtly introduce areas of evil in our lives. And so, this is really what I think these verses are calling our attention to that I think is so helpful.

Dan: 15:26

When we are not aware of invisible powers, we often assign blame to visible beings. When we're not aware of invisible powers, we assign blame to physical or to physical or visible beings, other people that we see in front of us. And so when Daniel was preaching on this passage and he had to realize these junior high boys that are driving me crazy, that send me home like so frustrated every Friday night, Hey, they're not the enemy, but part of our world is the small subtle ways that Satan tries to tempt us to lose perspective and to maybe lash out in anger towards someone else. And we often fight against those that we have conflict with in our lives, but an an awareness of the spiritual powers at work in our world might give us more grace and patience and understanding with those that we wrestle with. And I think having this big perspective that Satan of who he is, the reality of who he is, and what he's doing in our world can really help us be gracious with those in our lives.

Dan: 16:31

This made me think of, there's a part of a very famous movie, Good Will Hunting. I've been on a movie, like, Example Kick and Sermons. You guys might think all I do is watch movies, which if you talk to, like, any of my friends, especially Jeremiah who's like our movie buff, you'll know that's absolutely not true. I'm like very movie illiterate. But anyway, and for for the purpose of this sermon, if you've seen the the movie Goodwill Hunting, there The main character is a very, like, bright, like, man, like, young man with, like, great, just math ability and potential and, like, the potential to do all kinds of jobs, but he's had such a troubled childhood in his family and his background, having an alcoholic father who would who would abuse him as a kid, to the point where he was not coming anywhere close to his potential.

Dan: 17:17

And one of the key scenes in the movie is when he's meeting with his therapist, played by the late, great Robin Williams, fantastic actor. Right? And so, when he's talking about all the things he's experiencing in his life, and all the ways that he's acting out, and all the ways that he's not kind of holding to his responsibilities, the as he's meeting with his counselor, the counselor says, it's not your fault. And he says, yeah, yeah, yeah, and he tries to laugh it off, and he says it again, it's not your fault. And over the course of I rewatched the clip this week, he probably says it like 8 or 9 times.

Dan: 17:47

And each time, he's still trying to, like, play it off as if he's okay, as if like nothing's happening. And after the 8th or 9th time where he says, it's not your fault, he just burst into tears. And you can see that he's been holding in all of this, like, stuff that's been going on, way more under the surface than we can see in people's lives. And I use that example just to say that when we can have the perspective that perhaps we are all being spiritually attacked in ways that the enemy wants to drag us down, I do think it can give us more grace and patience for those in our lives. Now, here's what this doesn't mean.

Dan: 18:24

Okay? Because I don't want anyone going home and like, if you're in some conflict with your parents, you're like, oh, it's this invisible spiritual powers that made me do it, like, you can't be mad at me. That's not the point here. Alright? Because I think trying to understand where your parents might be coming from in some conflict, there's great spiritual value in that as well.

Dan: 18:43

But if we all had the perspective that we live in a world where the evil one is trying to drag us down, I really believe that would change our relationships with one another and the ways that we love one another. And so that's, that's what we see here in being aware of the invisible in this description in verse 12. Not against flesh and blood, rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers over this present darkness, and what it says is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. There are multiple parts of the New Testament where you see Satan described as the prince of this world having some kind of influence over this world, and we wanna and so perhaps for us, our fight as Christians is not against, like, big, like, you know, cosmic events, but in the small ways that we might raise a hurtful tone of voice against someone, or in the less visible ways that we might be tempted in areas of wealth or lust or sowing seeds of conflict in our relationships. And, as Paul describes these invisible powers that exist in our world, There was a quote from one of my favorite preachers this week.

Dan: 19:57

I was listening to his sermon on this passage, the late, Reverend Tim Keller. You guys know I've quoted him many times, but as he was teaching on this passage, he talked about, an author during Puritan times who said this, I think it's a fantastic quote. Sit up here. Yes. It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully than to command a battalion of troops.

Dan: 20:23

Let me read that again. It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully, than to command a battalion of troops. And this is William Gurnau, who was an author back in, like, early early American, like, Christianity, some sometime after, you know, the church had begun here in America, many, many, many years back. And so, I think it's a fantastic quote because if we're aware of Satan's power and we can acknowledge it, I think the thing that Satan wants from us most is to think, oh, the devil's not real. It's not a big deal.

Dan: 20:57

But all these ways that I chase after money or greed or or like fame for myself, like, I don't know where that comes from. Like, if we were to just completely disregard his his presence or his existence, I think that's what he wants. So, we don't see where the areas of of evil come from in our lives. But what he's what this quote is saying is it takes it is he's essentially saying, it is not easy to be a disciple of Jesus. It's not easy to live in a way that honors God.

Dan: 21:27

He's saying, in fact, it's so difficult that it's harder to do it than to command, like, a battalion of troops. Now, I don't think he means this in a way of, like, well, it's easy to command people if you're just sending them off to, like, go fight or whatever. I don't think that's what he's talking about, especially because of how, kind of war torn early America was in its first, like, kind of half century of its existence. And so, what this is saying is it is to show us it is not easy to be a believer, to be aware of the evil in this world, and to fight against it. And it takes great courage and great prowess, great understanding of what's true and how to stand firm.

Dan: 22:07

And we're gonna get to the the armor of God part in a moment. If you I think if you were to ask any, like, general, because we're using, like, war and battle metaphors here. If you were to ask any military general, I think they would always say they would always want to fight an enemy they can see rather than one they can't see. Right? If you can't see who you're fighting, how do you have an effective plan or strategy?

Dan: 22:30

And that's what makes spiritual warfare so complicated because if we are if we are unaware of the influences of Satan in our lives, we don't know how to fight against it. And that's where I think this quote speaks, great wisdom for our lives about wanting to be aware of the truth, but how to stand firm and how to put on the armor of God. And, I think the challenge for us as believers here in Silicon Valley, and why I'm so encouraged by all of you week in week out, I think the the truth of this quote, I think is very accurate, that it is hard, just even, just, like, in a nutshell to be a believer in Jesus because of all the earthly ways of thinking. I feel like that's magnified here in Silicon Valley. I was listening to an Asian American podcast, this week of, it's made up of some certain actors that I like, and one who just moved here from the East Coast, to LA, because that's where the entertainment industry is.

Dan: 23:28

And as someone who kind of grew up going to church, and then coming here, and, kinda just going, like, kind of, head over heels into Hollywood, he said his his, people were asking him, what's your perception of California? And he said, people will believe in anything other than God. People will do anything other than go to church, and I think in a lot of ways, in the area we live in, that's often very true. Now, I grew up going to church. I've been around the church almost my entire life.

Dan: 23:59

There were bits and pieces of times where I didn't go. So I'm kind of in my own bubble on this and I'm not always aware of how challenging it is for people, especially in a successful area like Silicon Valley, to be committed to going to church. And that's why I'm so encouraged by seeing your faces week in and week out, especially on a week like last week where, like, it was borderline, like, like, kind of, like, very dangerous weather to drive on the roads last week, and yet we were here able to sing praises to our God together. And I think that's true because as this actor was going on, he was saying, people will believe in anything but God and that's why the idea of faith in God is so hard. Because people have faith in their vegan diets, or their social justice causes, or whatever political views they have.

Dan: 24:48

They put all of their faith in all of these different areas and that becomes their focus, and then there's no space for God in their lives. And for us, our challenges are often we fill our our lives with our careers, we fill our lives with getting good grades, going to the right prestigious school, all of these these things that can distract us from seeing how we can be truly following Jesus as our savior. And so if that's the challenge that we're up against, then how do we fight back? And I don't have time to go into all of the armor of God stuff, we might do that next week, we'll see. But the second and final point for this morning that we see from this passage is that Paul is encouraging us to be prepared for battle.

Dan: 25:28

How do we do that? So in verse 13, he says something for the second time that he's already said, Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. He said it back in verse 11, and he's saying it again here. He says, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Now, what is this armor of God?

Dan: 25:53

If we're saying this world is more spiritually dangerous than perhaps we may think, we might think, well, if it's that challenging, like, what hope do we even have? And that's why Paul goes to great lengths to talk about the armor of God. And so, like I said, I don't have I don't have a ton of time to talk about each piece here, but what I want to say I want to read a description of the armor of God just so we get a sense of what Paul is saying that we have at our disposal in order to fight the just an earthly way of thinking. So starting in verse 14, he says this. He says, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Dan: 27:01

So we have a list of what the armor of God is. Right? And like I said, there's a lot of depth to it, but just at first glance, what we see here, we see the there's the images of the armor, like pieces of things you would put on, like the belt, the breastplate, the helmet, etcetera, etcetera, but the armor that we have to fight against the invisible forces that want to try and drag us down are these things. It's truth. It's righteousness.

Dan: 27:30

It's peace. Faith. Our salvation, and the Holy Spirit, which also is tied in in the passage with the word of God. Right? Now, we can and we probably should do a deep dive on what all of these different things mean and how that can help us kind of individually in our lives, perhaps that that might be next week's message.

Dan: 27:56

But what this is telling us is God gives us all of these things that we can fight back with, that we're not victims to the fact that we live in a world that's often extremely dragged down by the presence of the evil one. But I think perhaps the most important aspect of the armor of God is not what it is, but when do you put it on. It's not what it is because we could study all of these things and you could do a deep kind of word study in the New Testament or a theological kind of survey of what all these things are, and we would do well-to-do that. But I think the most important part about living in a world where the evil one is constantly trying to drag us down is to know when to put on the armor. Because if you think about it, if you're in war, if you're going off to war, like, you never see this in a in a movie.

Dan: 28:43

Right? If if you're about to fight, it's not like you see the army coming charging towards you and you're like, oh, it's time to fight. Hold on. Let me go put on, like, my helmet and my breastplate, like, let me go change into, like, what I'm supposed to be wearing, and then I'll fight you. The idea is that you would be prepared and you would be putting on the armor of God long before you go into battle.

Dan: 29:07

Right? And I think the challenge we often have as believers is a lot of times we wait for the war to start before we fix our minds on all of these things. And it's one thing for if we are facing, like, really, like, just terrible conflict in our lives or something where we really need to trust God, it's amazing how we turn our attention and our devotion wholeheartedly to Him, say more about how I've experienced that in my life in a moment, but oftentimes, we wait until the conflict is there to try to scramble and rush to put on the armor. And I'm not saying this as if to say, hey, we got to, like, step it up and everyone put on your armor right now, like, why are we so unprepared for battle? That might be what some of us need to hear.

Dan: 29:54

But what this has shown me is perhaps the act of coming here and worshiping God week in and week out, perhaps going to youth group and singing songs, which by the way are grounded in truth and talking about righteousness and faith and all of these things. Perhaps, God is preparing us for this battle, for this fight way more than we think right now, even if we're not in that fight right at this second. And I think that's a change in perspective that would be really helpful for us to see. Hey, going to church every Sunday is not just to fulfill a religious kind of, obligation or to go see my friends or to go, but no. What if God is preparing us with everything that we need for the battles that we're gonna experience in our lives?

Dan: 30:37

The most important part of the armor of God is not what it is, though there's so much goodness here, it's when do we put it on. And I would say that if you are actively trying to grow as a Christian, the armor is going on as we speak, and I think that's something we wanna have an awareness of in our lives. And if we could see our time spent in the body of Christ, reading God's word on our own or with other brothers and sisters, praying for people, then we are developing this armor that Paul talks about that helps us be ready for when the evil one comes. Everything that we might be doing now is prepare it can be seen as preparation for the time when the evil one comes and hits us the most. I wanna close with kinda sharing this experience I think I've had in the area of spiritual warfare.

Dan: 31:27

I shared, like, bits and pieces of, like, what my thought life is like, like, during the week, last week, and hopefully, you know that if you have a crazy thought life, like, that you're not alone, and that's because of the the invisible powers that we see. But I think the time where my mind was a spiritual battlefield was the most was when we tragically lost our brother Michael a couple years back. Right? Some of you knew him, maybe not all of you did, but, Michael Huang was a college student in our church. He had taken a gap year to go and do, discipleship, stuff in Hawaii and around the world, grew up in our youth group, and tragically lost in a fishing accident at the age of 22.

Dan: 32:06

Right? And I was never, I I don't think my mind had ever been as affected by lies from the evil one as that week. And just like the time from when the accident happened up to, like, when it was time for his memorial service to happen, and thinking about that, like, my mind was definitely a battlefield. And here's the thing about the amazing, like, parts of what God gives us, I was amazed at all of the kind of really, really dark thoughts that I was having that week and how that did not crush me over the course of the week, but that I had this true sense that God was with me, fighting for me and with me. I shared with you last week, if you were here, about a friend who's, pastor, has been a pastor for close to 20 years now.

Dan: 32:58

He was a mentor for me when I was in college, and, he was on his way to being a professional, like, stunt man because he was really good at martial arts. And what he said when people asked him, why did you give up as what was gonna be martial arts movie career to go and become a pastor? He said, I found something that's far more dangerous, but also far more fulfilling. And in the moments where my mind has been the darkest, I've seen the truths of what it's like to actually wear the armor of God. And I would say that during that week and how difficult it was, it wasn't like I was, like, actively, like, oh, man, like, which verse is gonna, like, help encourage me in this moment, or how do I put on the helmet of salvation and remind myself, like, you know, I'm a believer and God's with me.

Dan: 33:40

It was far more subconscious than that in the challenges that I experienced, but also in the victories that were won. And if we are active in wanting to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we are forming the pieces of armor that will give us the strength when we experience the spiritual battles that inevitably will come in our lives. And that is why the armor of God is so important and why we can put it on right now at this moment. If we're gonna trust in God in the year 2024, let us not wait for the trials to come, but can we start to fill our minds with righteousness, with faith, with truth, with peace, all that we see here in the passage of the, of the armor of God. I see different people taking pictures of this list.

Dan: 34:31

It's a good list. You it's totally fine to take pictures, but it's also right there in Ephesians chapter 6, and it's a passage we can go back to over and over again, and that's where it's at. But I really believe we want to understand the realities of this world, the small ways that we are often influenced by the presence of the invisible evil one, but we wanna know that God has given us what we need to put on the armor and to overcome. Let's pray together. God, we thank you that in your great love for us, that you have given us your son, Jesus Christ, God, so that we could be forgiven, so that we could know who you are.

Dan: 35:13

God, I know many of us, whether we talk about it or not, god, I know many of us, often experience very dark, parts of our minds and experiences in our lives. God, I pray that we would see, that you give us the armor of God. And, God, I pray that we would, that we would start to put it on now, that we would have the perspective, that we wanna be prepared for when we experience the inevitable evil that happens to all of us as human beings, especially those in the family of God, as we will all experience persecution in different ways. Lord, I pray that we would see the goodness of following you and seeing how you are with us and helping us win battles that we might never think we could win. And, lord, we know that's all because of your goodness and all the ways, God, that we can put our faith and our trust in you.

Dan: 36:04

So, Lord, I pray for this year for each one of us, God, that we really would trust in you, god, that we would not be blind to the realities of the invisible powers of this world, but that we could see that you are greater and you are the one who is overcome. And, god, that we would trust you day in and day out, moment by moment, and following you through the presence of your spirit. So, god, as we sing this last song together, god, would you fill our minds and our hearts with your peace, with your truth, with your righteousness, all these words that we've read about this morning. We love you. We pray this in Jesus' name.

Dan: 36:38

Amen.