We are continuing our series focusing on Ephesians. We are just a couple of messages from the end line here, but last week we spoke about spiritual warfare out of Ephesians 6, and I started with a story that is a familiar story in history. The prime minster in Britain 1938 was Neville Chamberlain, and Neville Chamberlain made a pact with Adolf Hitler, the German ruler, at that time in hope that war would not come to Europe. It was a non-aggression pact, and basically, what they were hoping was that Hitler was not as bad as they had heard. That he had no other ambitions than just to annex a little piece of Czechoslovakia and everything would be okay. Not only did Chamberlain underestimate Hitler, but he was living in a false hope that there would always be peace and there wouldn’t have to be a battle.
Well, you guys know the story well and Chamberlain was wrong. He was deeply wrong; literally millions of people’s lives were devastated because people didn’t stand up, against a very real enemy. Well, the tide turned as the allies got it together and they began to stand firm so that the German takeover was stopping and the Allied takeover began to advance and it became apparent that they had to get a beach head in the Europe. Europe had been controlled by the Germans. The Allies had to get a beachhead in Europe to take back the land and ultimately have victory. So, on June 6, 1944, the troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. What is known as D-day with blood, sweat, tears and sacrifice of many they got that beachhead.
Everyone knew at that point the war was going to be over. Because once there was a firm place to stand, we knew we had the weaponry, the arsenal. We knew that once we had a firm place to stand we had everything we needed then to march to Berlin and ultimately see victory and freedom for millions. It is the same way in spiritual warfare. Throughout Ephesians 6 we are admonished over and over again to stand firm, to have a place to stand in the Lord. A place where we can stand firm and access all the weapons of warfare in the spiritual war that we are in. That was a natural battle that had huge spiritual implications. I understand that we are consistently in a battle that God intends for us to win, but without standing firm we have no strength to learn from. So this morning we are going to unpack a little about standing firm and the weapons He has given us out of Ephesians 6:13-17.
“Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and have done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, with the belt of truth around your waist with the breast plate of righteousness in place, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel. In additional to all of this take up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” So let’s unpack it. That first group of thoughts frames the actual weapons of our warfare. It starts in Ephesians 6:13 where it says, “Therefore, take up the full armor of God.” Not just some of what God has made available, but take it all up because you will need it all because this battle is real. When our oldest daughter Abbey was praying about her future after graduating from high school, we all felt she was to go and be a part of a church that we planted in San Diego, to start her studies there in college. So, the University that they were reaching out to and where she started her studies was San Diego State.
San Diego State is a beautiful place, but it was also listed as the number one party school in California, and also it had some other views that were not the views that she grew up with related to life and how it works. We needed to prepare her for this challenge and so first I listed a few things: you are going to hear some things you have never heard before, you are going to hear some viewpoints that you never heard before. Let’s agree that we will talk about anything that you are confronted with, anything that you have questions about, that you do not understand the terminology of. I remember her calling me and telling me, “Dad my professor says that there are eight different genders.” Well that's interesting, honey. Your professor is wrong, so let’s work that through that. We agreed to dialogue in the midst of opposing thoughts and viewpoints, and make sure that she really understood about boys.
Non-Christian boys? Not even in the ballpark. Christian boys? Watch every move they make. So, we made sure that she was equipped on how to handle when they make unwanted initiatives and how to handle that whole realm of life. She likes to jog and run, so we made sure she understands, you do not run after dark, you do not run by yourself. We reviewed how you take care of any crisis that happens with your car, and everything else. Then we got to the biggies. I went out and bought her mace, and I told her “Do not hesitate to use this on any dude that makes any unwanted advances or dogs, if need be.” Then, I actually went one step further and we said, “You need to take a self-defense class.” I know what you are saying, “You are a little over the top, Dad.” No I’m not. I’m not at all. My daughter was going thousands of miles away, and I had no control and ultimately she was being led by God. Whatever came, if challenges, difficulties, which they did, we trusted God.
My job was to prepare her, and what I could not live with is if something happened that I didn’t prepare her for. God loves us so much, He has prepared us for every valley through His word, everything that we need to be victorious. That does not mean that there will not be battles, you cannot have victory if there is not a challenge. It does not mean that our lives are perfect because they are not. What it does mean, is God has sufficiently provided the weapons for the war that we are in. He will help us. That is frame work number one. Take up the full armor of God, because God had given everything we need.
The second key term in that first passage in verse 13 says “resist in the evil day.” Resist. There has got to be commitment to resist the unwanted advances of the enemy, or the lies of the enemy. What I find in a lot of us is a passivity towards life in general. We are hoping that there is not a battle. We are hoping that life would just be easy, and we are hoping that we could leave everything alone that causes problems, and it won’t affect us. Nothing can be further from the truth. Passivity is how the enemy runs over you. Diluting you to thinking that there is not a battle is one of the biggest classic lies of all times. “That is just not my personality to resist.” You know what, if I cornered you on an issue long enough you would resist me. I promise you I’ve seen some of the nicest people in the world, when they are cornered like the little sheep they will jump up and hit you with all their hooves in the chest. We all have a will made in the image of God and we are called to exercise that will. We got trained a few years back, because we work in a lot of war-torn countries from some guys who were with the Department of Defense. In their training they trained us for how to escape captivity or basically if you were being kidnapped or captured, how you escape. Their key issue was that all their studies throughout hundreds of people lives that have been in captivity is that if you do not try to escape in those first few minutes the chances of your never escaping are 80-90%. Their deal is if your do not resist now when someone is going against you in negative way, if you do not run, if you do not take off when you are in public you are being taken into the enemy’s camp and they have all kinds of fortresses to keep you there. In the spiritual realm and in our lives when we do not resist the enemy in the small things, he has a whole line of bondages that he can takes us into. It takes a long time to get out. Resist him in the small things, resist him in the big things. There has to be an exercising of the will, basically a submission to God, so that He can be victorious through our lives. So, our framework is that we have to take it all up, not some of it, all of it. We need to be those that resist evil and wrong initiations from the enemy, lies that we know not to be true.
The last phrase in verse 13 is “Stand firm. Stand firm in the Lord. Again, I say stand firm.” And that literally means to stand on the rock of Jesus. I love it when it says “Stand firm in the Lord.” Now, all of us have weakness. We are just vessels, right? We understand that, but God says we can stand firm not in our strength, but in His strength. That is why Jesus came to live inside of us by the Holy Spirit, so that when we need to stand firm, we can say, “Yes, Jesus, You are firm. Yes, Jesus, You rule and reign. I submit to you. Jesus, thank You. I feel weak by myself, but thank You that You cannot be thwarted, and You live in me by the Holy Spirit. Reign Lord Jesus, reign.” Well, that’s called standing on the Rock.
Jesus said this about the whole symbolism of standing on the rock, related to Truth in Matthew 7:24-27: “Therefore, if anyone hears the words of Mine, and acts on them, [exercises their will, submits to them] he may be compared to a wise man who builds his house on the rock. And the rain fell and the wind came and the wind blew and slammed against that house and yet it did not fall for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand. The rain fell, the winds came, and blew and slammed against that house and it fell, and great was its fall.” Standing firm, this idea is not just for the super Christians, or someone that really cares about their faith. If you do not stand, you are falling. If you do not stand on the rock of Jesus and His truth and apply it to your life, then those are the places where the enemy is taking up ground. I wish I could give you a nicer story, I wish I could say it was easier than this, but we are in a battle my friends and there is great victory and great joy and great delight when Jesus is central. When Jesus is not central, we are kidding ourselves that we are able to stand firm, let alone take up any issues of life. But Jesus Christ offers himself as the Solid Rock of the Ages. We do not have to be moved or shaken, and we can have the strength that we need in all things – Jesus, the Rock of Revelation.
Alright, then we go on to the armor, putting on the armor of God. I have a friend to help me here. Jady is going to help me with a friend of mine’s gear. There is a guy in our midst whose name is Nolan Shaffer. Nolan is a great man of God, he’s got a great family. Nolan is on the Woodway Police force. He is also trained to be a part of the SWAT team. This is the SWAT team gear; I didn’t just choose the little gear I chose the SWAT team gear. So, Nolan is letting us borrow this today, he got permission from the Chief of Police. The deal is this: this is his gear, and it fits him. So the bottom line is if something happens, and he is needed, he will need his gear and I will lose this illustration in a moment. This is a kind of picture in our minds to help us break down the weapons of our warfare. What are those things and what is the armor of God? First of all, it says we put on the belt of truth. The belt is what holds everything together. What I like about this particular vest is the belt is built into this, and on the belt are the extra magazines for your weapons. A gun normally goes here. We’ve got a flashlight a knife, a communication piece blocks that goes into here. You have got everything on this belt to hold everything together. The Belt of Truth.
Now, a theme that you will hear on each piece of the armor will be the Truth, that Jesus and his Word are the center piece of everything. I am going to try to highlight a unique piece to hopefully apply it to our lives. When I think about the belt of truth, it is not just the Word of God, but it means living in the Truth. What holds all things together is me living in the light. Now, I grew up in Beaumont, Texas and in Beaumont, Texas there were real roaches. Some of you guys gets scared of these little guys. No, we had the guys that would fly around, pick up things, and take them off. I mean big roaches, you could have the roaches plague. Our house was fairly neat, but you could not keep those suckers out. So, many times you would walk in late at night or early morning and you would turn the light on. You could see how many roaches were actually in the house, but they would flee when the light was on, because roaches don’t do light. They do darkness.
It is like that with our own lives. When we turn the light on darkness flees, but if the light is not on darkness is reigning. When we talk about the belt of truth, we are talking about living open lives. “Your Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” We have the light through the Truth, and through the person of Jesus, but we have to turn it on. How does that happen? It happens by us living open and vulnerable lives. David said this in Psalms 51:6, “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part you will make me know wisdom.” Basically, what that means is we can say, “God, there is nothing in me that is not brought to the light. There is nothing, God, that You cannot speak to. There is nothing hidden. Everything is open. I lay bare to who I must give account so when I put on the belt of truth in the morning, I am going to tell the truth today. I am not going to exaggerate. I am not going to lie. I am going to live in the light. I am also going to live a vulnerable and accountable life. If dark thoughts come in, or behaviors or attitudes come in, somebody’s going to know about it by the end of the day. I am not going to allow darkness to have a way of trafficking in my life, and if I feel myself drifting towards darkness, I am going to be honest with somebody and communicate with somebody.”
Then, the other deal about the belt of truth is that I will not have secrets that someone does not know. Basically, the way I have set it in my commitment to you as a congregation is there is nothing I am doing in private that you cannot know about. You may not like it, we may disagree on things, but I am not hiding anything. That gives me extreme liberty in conversation with you, to speak the Truth to one another. If you want authority in the spiritual realm and with people, there has to be integrity in integrated life and there has to be openness and humility, not a perfection. Somebody said, “who do you trust? Do you just trust people who are perfect?” Absolutely not. I trust broken people that are honest. It’s when somebody is honest with me about darkness that I trust them more, not less. In the same way, I have vulnerability, and temptations, but I am honest with people so that the enemy has no foothold in my life. The belt of truth is what we put on daily, and we are honest with our lives, and the Scriptures are true, “The Truth will set us free.”
The next piece is the breast plate of righteousness, which this vest really shows that very clearly. When I initially got this from Nolan on Thursday, I put it on and it weighed well over 60 pounds. He was telling me that in order to train, to be on the SWAT team, he had to run every day for two miles with this on, plus several other apparatus. I said, “Nolan, I have not trained and three days is not enough, so if you could give me a break with these steel plates.” But these have steel plates that can take a rifle shot with a direct hit. They said it has taken up to 21 hits on one individual, and it did not break through them. There is an armored plate inside of this breastplate, if you will, this vest. Even more so in the spiritual realm, we are not only made in the image of God, but when we come to know Jesus the Bible says we become the righteousness of God. That breast plate of righteous is His righteousness. It’s His protection. It’s His strength, and it’s His power. In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “He made Him who knew no sin, to become sin on our behalf, that we may become the righteous of God in Christ Jesus.” “Well, I have no protection, I have no covering.” Absolutely you do, in Jesus, in the righteousness of God. He protects you from every scheme of the enemy.
But the breastplate of righteousness not only speaks of our judicial righteousness or covering, but it also speaks about the covering of the most precious thing in our lives and that is our heart. Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life.” New American Standard says “Watch over your heart with all diligence, for from it flows the very springs of life.” The Bible says we are to love God with all of our hearts. That is the center of our being, the well-spring of our lives, our emotions, our attention, and our affections, and Jesus puts Himself up, He gives us a breastplate of righteousness, so that we do not have to run after others loves anymore. He has saved you, and the Throne Room is open by His doing. We can have our affections be wholly His, and be satisfied in Him. So, when I put on the breast plate of righteousness, I do judicially say I am righteousness. Not by my own doing, but by God’s doing. Therefore, I am not only loved, but my heart is wholly His. And, “God you will protect my heart as long as I stay in you.” But you see, if your heat goes outside of this protection and goes after other loves, you are a set up for the enemy. Remember what I said last week, anything not submitted to God is where the enemy is trafficking in your life. He only has access to those things that are not submitted to Jesus. So, the breast plate of righteousness, we carry day-by-day.
The next one is the readiness of the gospel of peace, the shoes of peace, and sorry guys I didn’t wear boots, but get it in your minds here. The shoes of peace are the gospel of peace, and this one is one of our offense weapons. “The gospel,” Romans says, “is the power of God unto salvation.” The greatest hope of the enemy is that you will never share your faith. His hope is that you will never share the gospel, because the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Listen, when we think in our minds “Don’t share with them, that will come off wrong,” or “Don’t share with them, that will be embarrassing, they will think you are weird,” “They will think you are religious.” All of those are lies from the enemy trying to keep you from giving them the power that they so desperately need. Everyone is made in the image of God. Everyone is born into sin. Everyone has a built-in space in their soul that is reserved only for God. Because of sin, we can only be fulfilled by reuniting with God through Jesus Christ. Therefore everybody wants to know Jesus.They just do not know it yet.
How will they hear without a messenger? Why are we admonished over and over again to share the gospel? It is that power that is reuniting the person with the way God created them with their Creator in unity. When I ask people why we do not share the gospel, the top three answers after years of communicating this message, are fear, fear, and fear. None of that is God. God does not speak through fear. What do we do with that? One of our dear friends, Dan Philips, is the regional overseer for the US Marshals. When he was based in Waco, and was a part of our church here, he was on the fugitive team. Basically they would hunt down fugitives and it was a very dangerous job. I had him come talk to a group of 6th grade boys about manhood, and he brought all this gear. It was really cool. As he is describing his story, he was very honest and vulnerable with the kids. He said “Really, I struggled in my early days in fear of death. I thought to myself ‘I’ve got this armor, I’ve got this gear; but once I go kick this door in, there is no telling what is on the other side.’ I really wrestled through that, but I found God’s grace. But, God has called me to this: to administer justice rightly, and God will have to keep me and I will trust him with my life. I really drove that fear out and now stand at peace with God.”
He said, “We were on a particular raid, and it went bad. My friend, who I had gotten to know over the past few months, was shot, fatally shot.” He said, “It was devastating. I was reviewing our conversations throughout the months. I was reviewing in my mind, and I had a fear in my mind. I was fearful to share the gospel with him because I didn’t want him to think that I was religious. I didn’t want him to feel awkward. I wanted him to think that I was cool.” He is telling these sixth grade boys this and tears running down his face. He said, “I came to realize that the fear of man was greater than the fear of death. I said I have been on a war path to not allow the fear of man to keep me from wholly proclaiming the name of Jesus.” Now next week, we will talk more about sharing the gospel; but let me just say, don’t let anyone keep you from sharing Jesus with others in love. Nothing is more powerful than the gospel being realized in somebody’s life. That is what we are made for, and so, the gospel of peace, the shoes, are ready to share. That is an offensive weapon that breaks down the work of the enemy. Not only in the lives of others, but also in our lives.
Alright! Next up we have the shield of faith. Now, I just want to tell you that this a little heavier than it looks. If it’s able to take on bullets, it’s got some reinforcement. This is a kind of a shield and it has a little window in here so I can see what you jokers are doing while we are doing this message. The Bible calls our shield a shield of faith, and then it goes on to say, for which we will be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one, not just some, but all. But what is that faith? Romans 6:17, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.” It is that revelation from God, through the Scripture, to address an issue in our lives, and in somebody else’s life so that lies do not break through, they get defended. We do not just passively let the enemy have our lives. When we talk about the shield of faith, the way I describe it is this: what lies are perpetually coming at you? What are the issues that you continue to deal with? What are the places that it seems the enemy is having victory instead of God? Then you go through the Word of God and you say, “Lord, what does your Word say?” and you write that down. You say, “I am not good at memorizing,” then you laminate it on a little card, and you carry it around. You use that the Word of God to consistently stand against that lie, when it comes your way. Let me just give you an example. One of the things that are obvious for many is temptation. You can put that in a broad scope, but when I was in college specifically, I sent it’s an all-out war on lust. I am not okay with lust ruling my heart, my life, my emotions. I want Jesus. I want to be in, and I do not want to have this slay me. I asked, “God, give me some scriptures. This seems overwhelming.” Well, two of them came to mind, one of them was 1st Corinthians 10, where it says, “No temptation has over taken us, but that which is common to man. But God will plan a way of escape, so there is nothing that will overtake us.” Secondly, I thought my issue was just in my mind. I had cleaned up my behavior, but now it was just in my mind. In 1 Peter 1:14, “Therefore gird your minds for actions. Keep sober in spirit, and fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” When a thought would come to me, immediately I would throw this back by faith that God had put in my heart, and through the reading of the Scripture. I had something to block off these crazy thoughts that I did not want. Now, I could go on for hours on every issue, but that is going to be your responsibility to take up the shield of faith.
The only thing that this illustration does not necessarily clarify is that during the time that this book was written their shields were much larger. Literally their shields were head-to-toe, so that they could get behind them. When arrows were begin shot they couldn’t get to them so a real shield of faith protects every area of the body. It’s not just a little thing you are putting up. It protects everything. That’s what a shield of faith does, when we trust God and His word. One little thought we say “Well gah-lee I am not sure the Word of God is real.” You know what faith is? The trust in something other than yourself, you have to decide what you are going to have faith in. Billy Graham when he was in his late 20’s he was struggling with his own faith. He was preaching the gospel and seeing people saved but some different thoughts were coming at him theologically. He went out into a place got on his knees with the Bible and said “You know what God, I do not know everything about this Bible and sometimes I feel like I do not understand it all; but I choose to trust it over me.” A billion people later being preached to, a life well lived of integrity, people influenced all over the world is how the power of God shows up when someone chooses to trust in God and not in themself. So, decide where you are going to land, but you are going to have to do it by faith. And, when you do, there is power there to back you up.
We have the shield of faith, and now the helmet of salvation. This particular helmet, once again has a little more reinforcement than you would think. You would probably get a headache wearing this thing. But I was talking to Nolan and he said that thing about this, the way that it is shaped, it is made in such a way that this helmet not only protects the head, but deflects those bullets that come your way. When it says the helmet of salvation, it is another place of security, where we stand in God. So, here it is: I’m saved through grace, by faith, not by any works that any man should boast. I am saved. I cannot be taken out of the hand of the Lord. I am saved because of what Jesus has done. Not because of what I do. I know that heaven is real, and that I will be there with Him, forever. Therefore, I have great confidence that no matter what happens today I will be with Jesus. If I die, or if my greatest fear is having a car accident - big deal! I can already look past that car accident, I will be with Jesus. Challenge in some particular area? We will work it through, because Jesus is present. My salvation and my hope is in a Savior that has already done the deal.
I have great confidence that I have a destination, and that I have a Savior that has already gone there on my behalf. On top of that, the helmet of salvation to me means not only am I saved for that day, the end of life, but I am continually being renewed by His great love. His initiative of love has saved me, and His initiative of love will keep me. If I am secured and have no fear of death, and am secure of love by His choosing, not by mine, if I am fully loved, then I can run to the battle with no fear. But until you are clear that you are saved by grace through faith, and you are clear that you are loved because He cannot be anything but love, there is no power to take on the onslaught of the enemy, let alone take back ground in our spheres of influence in business, in politics, students. There has to be confidence in God, to take back the challenges of the world and that’s why we have these spiritual pieces of armor articulated and why it says put them on every day because they are there for us. By the grace of God.
You ready to land this things? Alright! Come Lord. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. This little guy acts like sword, it looks like a baton and it seems kind of small. A lot of times when we think of the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, if we have not used the Word of God before, we think it’s a little sword. “Stop that, in Jesus’ name.” There is not a whole lot of power, and we kind of look like this. Well, if I was an enemy I would walk up and say, “Well, you do not have that big of a sword, that is not that big of a deal, and you could get really close because the sword is not very long.” However, when you the wield the sword, at least in this piece of gear, it kind of looks like that and this thing is rock solid. You do not want to be hit by this thing, this is the sword of the Spirit. So, when we use the word of God against the lies of the enemy, we are able to keep him off the perimeter that God has set up as a space for Himself in our lives. We address the enemy aggressively. Here is a common one: I fear that my kids are not going to make it. The Bible says, “If I fear the Lord, righteousness will extend generation after generation, if I fear the Lord and delight in his commands, my children will be mighty on the earth. If I fear the Lord, my children will find refuge in the presence of the living God. If I fear the Lord all the children will be taught of the Lord and my children will be great.” That does not mean there won’t be challenges, but I have got a weapon. I have something to stand on beyond myself that God can work with. I can beat back the lies of the enemy I do not have to worry all day if they are going to make it.
I listen to God and submit to God. I trust Him with my life, my marriage. “My marriage is not going to make it,” the Bible says “a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall be one flesh,” Jesus made this covenant therefore he keeps it. The Covenant Keeper, Covenant Maker I submit to Jesus to know how to redeem, and how to rely on Him. I cannot tear apart the covenant of Jesus. Lord, I pray the spirit of Jesus, Your bond of peace, Your Word is true God. Lord we humble ourselves to you. We resist the devil. Command the devil to flee off our marriage and our life.” You stand like that, and you will start acting different. It starts with the Word of God. What about fear? In innumerable ways God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and sound mind. If the enemy has come with fear, say, “Power, love and a sound mind.” Just keep banging his head with “Power, love and a sound mind,” until you have been convinced that the Spirit of the one that is in you is more powerful than he that is in the world. Again, there are so many things that you could use Scripture wise but there has to be an offense so that you keep him out of your space, because once he lands he goes for the kill. And there has to be both the stand firm, then addressing him appropriately by the Word of God.
Well, last scripture, Ephesians 6:18, after it lists the armor of God, “with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view, be on alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” It ends with this idea of prayer and prayer is two things: it’s the communing with God. This is a war, but we have got a Warrior right in our midst who is greater than anything we could ever imagine, and His love for us to come close to him, and literally ride on His back as He rides victoriously. Then He asks us then to rescue others even while we are attending to our own lives, because here is one of the keys that I want to make sure you got in warfare and that is this: even if your attention is all to yourself for the right reasons, that ultimately will not keep you fully engaged in God’s purpose for your life. There has to be others involved too, and part of warfare is getting eyes off self and serving somebody else. So we are to be in communion with God in prayer for others and taking victories for God. They both happen together.
Last little phrase, my son-in-law is in the Air Force, and he was talking about small team tactics or warfare tactics, what are some of the things they do for small warfare tactics. See most of us are not concerned about the huge principalities and powers over the nation of United States and Israel. We are just trying to live life. We are a kind of a small tactic unit group. Well here is how the phrase goes, “if you are not shooting you are reloading. If you are not reloading you are moving, and if you are not moving you are dead.” Let me say that again, if you are not shooting, taking it to the enemy, you are reloading to take it to the enemy, if you are not reloading then you are moving, you are moving forward, you are not standing still and if you are not moving you are dead. Guys, we live in a very real battle and a very real world and God has called us to take back ground from the enemy. As we see ourselves as that and as we stand in the armor of God we have got everything we need. We started with this story of D-day, well I hope you know the end of this story. They did make it to Berlin, a little over a year’s time, and they had battles along the way, people sacrificed their lives along the way. But there was never a lack of confidence that they would win the war. May today’s message rebuild confidence in you that we have a winnable war, because we have a Savior that has already won. Let’s stand together.
