Preparing Mentally for the Rigor of Battle

Good morning. Happy Sabbath. Thanks, sis, for that. I appreciate you sharing your talent with us. It's one that I have a difficulty doing is playing the piano, and so I'll let her handle that, and I'll take this part. I'm more comfortable up here than if I was behind that piano. Welcome to any visitors that we have here today. Glad to have you with us here in the morning. Okay, this Michael Phelps thing. Wow. I thought when he retired four years ago, things would start to kind of settle down a little bit, and then he comes back. So I don't have hope that in, like, only 16 years. I think it's going to be probably like 20... what is it? 24... what's the next one? 28 years. He's going to be doing this because... even though I share a name with him, it's impressive to watch him swim. The man's a machine.

Even though we disappoint people, now every place we go. We make a reservation for a restaurant. We walk in the door, and I say, Michael Phelps, and you just see this... oh, they were holding out hope that somebody else was coming in the door. So now we make reservations under Laura's name when we go places. That's the truth. Okay, here comes the gold. The following story is the first-person account of Leroy M's, a Marine serving in the South Pacific during World War II. And it begins like this. Shortly after we hit the beach, our armored amphibious tank took two artillery shells broadside. We immediately evacuated our disabled vehicle and darted from hole to hole towards the enemy airstrip, which we were to take. The sergeant began to check on us to make sure that we were okay. He crawled over to me and asked, you all right, M's? I answered, yeah, I'm okay, Sarge. He looked at me and asked, M's, where's your helmet? I felt the top of my head and answered, must be in the tank, Sarge. Where's your duty belt? Our duty belt carried ammunition for our rifles, a cantina water, and a bayonet. Must be in the tank, Sarge. As a matter of fact, M's, where's your rifle? He looked at me with disgust and pity, because in our hasty departure from the amphibious tank, I was dressed about the same way I would be dressed for a game of volleyball. And there I was, hopping hole to hole from tree to tree. At times in this life, we can lose sight that we are in the middle of a great battle being fought all around us. This is a spiritual battle against a great enemy who wants nothing else but to destroy every one of us. And not only that, but he wants to destroy all of humanity living today. But we are warriors for God's way. We are fighters for His truth. And as a soldier for God, we must be ready at all times to be called on for whatever duty God has for us. This isn't just an analogy. This is real life. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 12. I may rephrase that. 1 Chronicles 12. And look at an example of some men who were warriors for King David. Once again, 1 Chronicles 12. As we read through the account of these men and the description of these men, let's consider for a moment how these men were described.

1 Chronicles 12, verse 1. Now these were the men who came to David at Zillag while he was still a fugitive from Saul, the son of Kish. And they were among the mighty men, helpers in the war. And in verse 8, some Gadites joined David at the stronghold in the wilderness, mighty men of valor, men trained for battle, who could handle shield and spear, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as gazelles on the mountains. These men were described as hard workers and practiced in their talent, mentally tough and determined, physically in shape, and dedicated to serving both God and King David. Spiritually, this could be the same attributes used to describe you and me. Think about it for a moment. These men were described as hard workers and practiced in their talents, mentally tough and determined, physically in shape, dedicated to serving both God and David. Let's put ourselves in this description for a minute, because we are hard workers and practiced in our talents. We are mentally tough and determined. We are spiritually in shape, and we are dedicated to serving both God and man.

These were men who served a purpose for both God and David, and we too can be mighty men and mighty women of God. So let's turn to 2 Timothy. I'm really wanting to go to 2 Corinthians. Let's look at 2 Timothy 2.

And as we read through this account here, we will see that Paul encouraged Timothy in one of his letters to Timothy with a soldier, using a soldier analogy. This is 2 Timothy 2, verse 3.

A while back, we had a friend over for dinner at our house. And in the midst of the discussion, a topic among one of the people that we had there came up about a big difficulty, an upcoming battle that they were about to step into. It was a really difficult situation. Their faith was strong, and they knew that God would supply their every need to get through this difficult battle.

But out of kind of questioning and out of kind of curiosity, they decided to google at the table something to the point of how to prepare for battle, instructions for preparing for battle, something similar to that. And a weekihow.com article came up entitled, How to Mentally Prepare Soldiers for the Stress of Warfare. It's just an article out on the web. And as we read through those points, we couldn't help but kind of laughing at times, because some of them were funny. But there was an unkind of connection, spiritual connection to each one of these points. And this person didn't write it from a spiritual standpoint, but we could extract spiritual significance from each one of the points that they had listed here. And we laughed a little bit, but then we saw the depth to the importance of mentally preparing soldiers for the stress of warfare and the impact that it has on us spiritually. So the title and SPS of today's message is, Preparing Mentally for the Rigor of Battle. Preparing Mentally for the Rigor of Battle.

So I'm going to go through from this article the points that they listed out here, and we'll see the physical connection that they did. But we're going to dive deeper, of course, and look at the spiritual component as well. So the first point from this article is, once you know that you are heading into a battle zone, gather as much information as you can about the terrain, people, climatic conditions, as well as the political scenario and the cause of conflict. It's a long point, so I'll repeat it. Once you know that you are heading into a battle zone, gather as much information as you can. It's pretty much to the point. The Bible is full of example after example, describing our adversary, Satan the Devil. God wants us to know about the history of who Satan was, his rebellion against God, his hatred for mankind, and his desires that we all lose out on the kingdom of God. This is the enemy that we are up against. Our enemy is described as our adversary, also described as a roaring lion, the accuser of the brethren, a polyon, which is translated destroyer. He's also described as the deceiver and a liar, father of liars and a murderer. This is our enemy. We also have captured in the Bible the tools that Satan uses to do battle with us, and we are not ignorant of his ways. One of these is deception. Satan tries to deceive us every chance he gets. We see that there's good around us that's called bad, and we see that there's bad around us that's called good. In John 844, when speaking of Satan, he's referred to as a liar and the father of it. Another tool of Satan is doubt. From the beginning, Satan caused Eve to doubt God, and it's been one of his most powerful tools that he's used ever since. A friend posted a quote on Facebook this week. We contributed to Susie Kasem. The quote goes, doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will. Let's turn to Hebrews 11 verse 6.

Hebrews 11 verse 6. Because Satan wants us to doubt that we have a place with God. He wants us to doubt that God loves us. He wants us to doubt, and he wants us to doubt, and he wants us to doubt.

But in Hebrews 11 verse 6, we see what God asks us to do. 11 verse 6, But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is.

God says, don't worry about the doubt. Have faith. Believe in me. Because that will overcome any doubt that enters our mind. That will come over any doubt that Satan throws our way, is to believe. Have faith. And so we do. Another weapon of Satan is discouragement.

God can't really love us, can he? That might be the doubt, but then we take it further to say, he can't. And then we get down in the dumps. And then we get caught up in our sins and say, can God really forgive me of the sin again? And so that discouragement starts to build. It starts to get a hand on us. It's a tool that Satan loves to use against us. But we must remember that God's promises are true. He's not a liar. Satan is the liar. God's word is true. So we remember his promises, and we gain encouragement from those. And the last part of Hebrews 6, while we're still here, says, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. That's a promise that as we draw near to God, and we follow his ways, that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

These are just some of the tools that Satan uses. His tool belt is kind of like Batman's in the old series. He just has a gadget pulling out left and right. Too many to count. But these are some of them that just stick out to me as I worked on this message and as God inspired it this week. So we know who our enemy is, and we are aware of some of the weapons that he uses. To better understand what we are up against, we have captured in our Bibles the history of man and man's interactions with God. We read the examples of Satan working to destroy man's proper relationship with God, and we have examples of both good, and we have examples of bad. Man choosing right, man choosing right, and sometimes man choosing wrong. And all of this helps us to understand who and what we are up against. And this is one of the foundational things that we teach in our Sabbath school and also at pre-teen camp. That the Bible's examples are here for all of us to learn from. And our children get this. They see that there's been some good examples and that there's some bad examples. And so when life comes their way and they are tempted or they are having a problem, there are times that they can recount these scriptures, these examples, and they use them in their life today to try to make better choices. So if our children can get this, we of course can understand this as well. God's ways have been followed and not followed by men and women in the past. And if you are young or just starting your spiritual walk with God, God's word is where we study and start understanding what we are preparing to battle against. Our terrain is a physical world consisting of physical life, but there's also a spiritual component to it as well. The people we are interacting and possibly battling with are other humans, ourselves, demonic influences, and Satan himself. We can see the climatic conditions of world events, both past and present, all around us. And at times, these historic events seem to repeat themselves from mistakes made in the past. Man cannot learn from our own past mistakes. We can see the root cause of conflict that have existed from the beginning of time. Greed, selfishness, a desire for money, pride, lack of empathy or lack of compassion. All these things that will grow worse in the future. God says that in 2 Timothy 3, verse 2. These things will grow worse.

The Bible provides priceless information that outlines man's walk with and man's walk without God. And this is why we need to understand our battle zone and gather as much information as we can about it. The second point from the article is start taking your physical fitness seriously if you haven't up till now. Start taking your physical fitness seriously. A sub-point was, all the knowledge in the world is not going to save you if your body fails to deliver.

Speaking from a physical standpoint. But when God first started working with each one of us, we had decisions presented before us. One of the biggest was when we would accept the challenge to run the race set before us. We heard from Mr. Porter about when he referenced 1 Corinthians 9, verse 25. We're going to keep with the race analogy today. Just like a physical race, we didn't just wake up the day of the race and say, we're all set, run out in that course, and master it. Races aren't that way. We all understand it takes time to train, effort to remain focused and motivated, and our eyes constantly focused on the end goal.

Let's turn across the page to Hebrews 12, verse 1. Oh, this was already read. Let's read it again. You can never read these things too many times. Hebrews 12, verse 1. Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight in the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our spiritual race requires spiritual physical fitness, and this comes from the time we spend in prayer with God, the time that we spend studying His Word, and the times that we are able to fast as we need to. We must develop habits of connecting daily with God. Doing this just once a week won't cut it. Just like a race or a soldier preparing his body for action, we must spend more than adequate time, not just adequate, more than adequate time, preparing ourselves for the spiritual warfare that is before us. Is training always easy? No. We've ran races, some of us.

We've climbed mountains. We've taken on difficulties. It's not easy to train for something like this. Sometimes we slip up. Sometimes we fail. Sometimes we skin our hands and our knees in the process, but we don't quit. We never quit. We're not given an option to quit. So we get back up, we dust ourselves off, and we keep running the race set before us. By doing this, we develop perseverance. Perseverance is defined as continuing a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. We are told to run with endurance, to hold up under the pain and the fatigue of the race, to continue, to last. We develop perseverance by daily getting into God's Word and maintaining a focused prayer life.

There just isn't another way to train spiritually for this race. There is no other way other than spending time with God. There's no shortcuts. There are no other ways. We cannot and will not be prepared for the stresses of our spiritual battle without it. Point number three from the article is brush up on your basic soldiering skills. Brush up on your basic soldiering skills. And the sub point was, you may have been a hotshot during basic training, but that won't cut it if you are out of touch.

Might have been a hotshot at one point. God's teachings are simple enough for a child to understand, as I mentioned before, but yet so broad that we can study them for our entire life and still gain valuable knowledge. I refer to them as God's principles as simplistically complex. It's the best word I could come up for. Simplistically complex. Simple in that we have 10 commandments, but complex in how deep each one of those are and the meanings behind them. At times, we need to get back to the basics of God's word and his instructions for us. Maybe it's studying each of the 10 commandments one by one and doing a personal study on each one.

Maybe it's looking at the Holy Days and doing a personal study just on that Holy Day and what that represents in the plan and the purpose for God. Maybe it's each of the biblical foundation blocks that make up our fundamental statement of beliefs here at UCG.

These are things that appear to be basic, the foundational blocks of Christianity, but the items that we must understand and be able to explain to others.

And if you're anything like me, each time that I think I know this topic and I go back and I study it again, new things jump out to me. It's because I'm at a different place than I was last time I studied it, and that's the complexity, the depth that God intends for these 10 commandments, these fundamental building blocks for us to have. That no matter how many times we go back to them, there's always a new lesson to be learned, a new application, because we're growing, we're changing, we're encountering different difficulties in life. And like the point said, you may have been a hotshot in the past. You may have already studied all these fundamental beliefs. You may be able to explain them thoroughly to others, but we must never find contentment in our walk with God. We must never feel like we figured this all out. There's no coasting into the kingdom. There's just not. It's good that we continually go back to the basics of God and His teachings, and He has given us the perfect way to live our lives to achieve peace, happiness, hope, and joy. And when we really get down to things, we're not talking about trying to wrap our minds around advanced calculus or maybe the U.S. tax code. Those things are complex and overwhelming because they were created by man. But God's way has given us something very simple, very easy to understand, as I mentioned before, simplistically complex. Point number four in how to prepare mentally for the rigors of battle from the articles is to start meditating. Start meditating. The sub-point here says, when the bullets start flying, a cool head might just save your life. Just three to ten minutes to begin with are enough. Something that meditation is simply just a clearing of the mind. Just clear your mind, get all thoughts out. That's all that meditation is. But the Bible defines meditation a bit differently. Notice what the following scriptures say is the focus of meditation. Psalms 1 verse 2 says, but His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law He meditates day and night in His law. Psalms 119 verse 99 says, I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. And Philippians 4 verse 8, finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praise worthy, meditate on these things. So we can see spiritual meditation does involve an aspect of clearing our minds of the worldly things going on around us, pools from the world and distractions. But it also involves a replacement of those thoughts with spiritual thoughts that we have outlined in our Bibles and that God wants us to think about. A focus on godly thoughts and attributes allows us a chance to consider God and His workings in our lives. Maybe this is as you drive a car or maybe as you sit on a park bench. You can take the time to just simply think about how God is relating with you at this moment in your life. Maybe you're on your way to work and you recognize it's going to be a tough day and I'm going to have to deal with some tough people. And you can meditate on what does God say about how I should handle myself, mentally prepare, maybe visualize how am I going to handle this situation?

Am I going to be patient? Am I going to be kind? These are ways that we can meditate as we're going through life. Maybe as the kids play in the backyard and you're watching them while they enjoy playing, it's a time where you can meditate on the gifts of children, on the gifts that God has blessed our lives with, and the proper approach that He wants us to have with these gifts to take appreciation for our kids and things like that. That's what meditation is. It's pushing out the world and the cares of the world and replacing them with thoughts of God. It gives us a chance to allow the Holy Spirit room to prompt our thoughts and spark ideas that are wise for us to consider. It gives us a chance to remember that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. This is probably one of our biggest difficulties as we face as being humans, and as we desire to follow after God. God gave us the ability to connect with physical things all around us, and we can feel them, and they're enjoyable. God desires that we enjoy His creation, and He created all these things for the purpose of man interacting with it. But it was intended from the beginning to be perfect, and it was until sin entered in. And with sin came a desire for man to use the physical for his own gain. And this is where we find ourselves today, and in a world that focuses on the physical and all that they can get from it. Part of the world where physical life is the most important thing to most people. Because we are physical ourselves, this physical world can rub off on us, too, if we're not on guard against it. And this is how meditation can help bring our focus back to where it should be. Let's turn to Romans 12, verse 2. Romans 12, verse 2, as we consider meditation and the clearing of our mind of the desires of the things around us and replacing it with thoughts of God.

Romans 12, verse 2, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Not to be conformed to the world, but transformed is what we're on a path to achieve. Meditation gives us a break from a focus on the physical and allows us instead to focus on the spiritual, where we fill our minds with godly concepts and principles. Let's also turn forward to 1 John 2.

1 John 2, verse 15.

1 John 2, verse 15. 1 John 2, verse 15.

We recognize this physical world is going to pass away, and we will all recognize that our future is only with God. Yet at times, this world grabs a hold of us. It's grabbed a hold of me too many times to count. And so that's where using meditation separate from prayer and separate from Bible study can draw us back to God, can draw us our focus and our thoughts back to Him, and how He's working in our lives as we go through our day, how He's working in our families as we see Him work. Point number five from the article is to prepare yourself mentally for the period of separation from your loved ones. Prepare yourself mentally for the period of separation from your loved ones. The spiritual lesson from this point is there are some things that we have to give up when we commit our lives to God. When we accepted our calling and became baptized, we told God that He would always be more important to us than things we could physically achieve in this world. There are things that appeal to our human side but do not align with God's ways and His desires for us. This could be a career path for a young man or woman, that they desire to go to college and to obtain a degree and to enter a career, but yet maybe that career interacts and causes them to have to miss the Sabbath, and they have to make that tough decision. I can't do this. My heart wants to go into this path. I can't give up the Sabbath day, and I won't. That's a way that sometimes this happens. Or it could be that really great guy or that really great girl that someone's interested in wants to take out on a date, but then they recount the Scripture. It says that we need to be with people that believe the same that we do, that God is most important in His ways or most important in that person's life, and we have to make that tough decision to say, I can't date that person. These are some of the toughest decisions we will ever make in our lives, but God has to know that we will always put Him and His ways first in our lives. That means there isn't room for anything else to be more important. Let's turn to Luke 14 verse 25.

Luke 14 verse 25.

Here Jesus instructs us what must be the most important thing.

Luke 14, 25. Now a great multitude went with Him, and He turned and said to them, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Luke 14, 25. The word hate here denotes to love one less by comparison, not to hate in the modern sense of the word, but to love less by comparison. This doesn't contradict the commandment to honor your mother and your father, nor does it go against God's instructions to love your families and the importance of families in our lives, but it shows the length that we must be willing to go in order to follow God. Heading into battle, our focus must be on the job before us, not on the cares that distract us from our primary mission, not on our own personal cares either.

Point number six from the article is to start gradually reducing your alcohol intake.

This one is pretty worldly, but there's a spiritual connection to this as well. Start gradually reducing your alcohol intake. The subpoint says excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to fatal errors in judgment. The important takeaway from this point is the biblical principle of moderation. God desires that we enjoy food and drink and other things in this life and to do it in the proper and moderate way. In the New Living Translation, Proverbs 25 verse 26, actually it's 26 through 28 reads this way in the New Living Translation, if the godly give into the wicked it's like polluting a fountain or muddying a spring. It's not good to eat too much honey and it's not good to seek honor for yourself. A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. I like the physical or the visual analogy of this. A person without self-control is like a city with broken down walls. We can all visualize a city laid open for anybody who wants to come by to have their way with the city, to destroy, to steal, to do whatever they want. And so a person without self-control is like this.

And I'm not, of course, talking about drinking to excess. We know where God stands on being a drunk and drunkenness. We're not talking about that today. This is more about that second or third drink that starts to put you a little bit over the top, maybe. That might cause your personality to change a bit. Or to start thinking thoughts or getting into debates or arguments that you normally would avoid. This is making sure that at all times you are able to get into the car to help another person out or to pick up your children from a friend's house. Or to probably think through and to answer a person's biblical question. We don't know when we'll be called on to do something for God. And so we must be moderate in all things, ready to answer that call.

As Mr. Porter referenced 1 Corinthians 9.25, everyone who competes is temperate in all things. Temperate here is described as explained as showing moderation or self-restraint, going back to the race analogy. This ability to be moderate with alcohol is so important to God that he requires this to be a qualification of those who serve within the church.

Let's look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 2 as we read the qualifications of those who serve within the church. 1 Timothy 3, verse 2. And as we read through these, let's consider the aspects of moderation and self-control for each one of these. They all point back to self-control, and it's an expectation of not just elders or pastors, but of all God's people, because we're all to be His servants, and we're all to serve each other and to serve mankind. So as we read through these, put yourself in here and look at the aspects of self-control. 1 Timothy 3, verse 2. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, of good behavior, hospitable, able to teach, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not covetous. And then in 3, verse 8. Likewise, deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy for money.

And if necessary, we may need to separate ourselves from others who are not exhibiting these attributes, others who are not moderate in their lifestyles. In Proverbs 23, verse 19, we can read, My child, listen and be wise, keep your heart on the right course. Do not corrals with drunkards or feast with gluttons. There are times where we do have to separate ourselves, whether it's a bad influence or whether we're being encouraged to do something that we know we shouldn't, or whether the person is just not a good person to be around. And so, when we're in these examples and these encounters with people, think about that. And think about it in your own life, moderation and self-control. Point number 7 from the article is, you will never be constantly in battle. Once again, the subject of preparing mentally for the rigors of battle. Number 7, you will never be constantly in battle. The sub-point that they listed was, there will always be some downtime. Use it constructively. Basically, stay busy. Maybe you have been blessed with a law in your life from trials right now. Maybe things are going really well for you. And that's great. Maybe things are going well at work. And if so, how are you doing spiritually?

I'm not pointing the finger at all. This is a question I've had to ask myself when times are going well for me, and things are kind of easy. How am I doing? Maybe you're young, healthy, strong, and have a lot of things going for you right now. How are you doing spiritually? What is your focus at this time? For most people, there are times in our lives where things are going pretty well. During these times, it's very easy to neglect the things that we should be doing. It's part of our human nature at times. But during these times, it's very important that we continue our spiritual training and allow God to continue building our battle readiness.

We don't know when the next trial or spiritual battle will come, but it will come. No one has ever been immune to trials and difficulties in this life. Let's look at Acts 14 as a reminder of this.

Acts 14 verse 21.

Acts 14 verse 21.

It goes back to a sermon we heard a few weeks ago from Mr. McNeely about the watchman mentality that we are to have in the church. It's an important role that the watchman plays, being on an elevated position, looking out maybe over a field, looking for someone that's coming to do harm to the city and all the inhabitants within it. This watchman has to be sober-minded. He has to be ready. He has to be on guard. He can't be sleeping. Even if things are easy for him right now, kind of a slow night, as they say in work, that watchman has to be ready, has to be on guard. That watchman is not always constantly in battle. He's not always constantly sounding the alarm, but he is always ready, and so therefore we must always be ready ourselves. Point number eight. Last but not the least, believe in yourself. Believe in yourself. The subpoint says, you are a trained soldier. Remember the basics. Stick to them, and you will be just fine. Have faith in yourself. You are never alone. No matter what happens, you'll all face it together. Remember who God is making you into. His new creation. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17 as a reminder of this. 2 Corinthians... see, there's that 2 Corinthians I was wanting to go to early. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. We are a new creation to God. Soldiers who are trained and prepared for warfare are no longer the people they once were. They have been made into a new person with new advanced skills and abilities. They have been trained specifically with a purpose in mind. We are being transformed and changed as well. Our hearts are being replaced with that softer, gentler heart that will respond to God in his ways more quickly and more fully. We are adding characteristics that reflect God's Holy Spirit abiding in our hearts and in our minds. And through Christ living in us, we are being changed, and that change comes through God as we submit more to him daily. Philippians 1 verse 6 speaks to this, saying, Being confident in this very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. We must constantly recognize that we have the ability to change because God is changing us as we allow him to work in our lives. We can believe in ourselves that we can do better. We can believe in ourselves that we can make good choices because God is behind us and God is our support. Let's be encouraged and strengthened in the knowledge that we are being trained for the Kingdom by the soon-coming King himself. That's encouraging to me to realize that we are being trained by the Kingdom for the Kingdom by the soon-coming King himself.

So as we wrap up this morning, let's look at the armor of God and walk through the example that is recorded to us in Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 verse 10. Because like any trained soldier, they are equipped. They don't just send them out like the gentleman whose account at the beginning. He had to rush out of that armored vehicle so quickly that he left all of his weapons behind and all of his helmet and all those things. He was equipped, but they all fell off. So we are equipped with the armor of God, just like any soldier would be in the world today. And so let's read through this and consider this equipment and the importance it has in our life. Ephesians 6 verse 10.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wills of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness 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. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shodged your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, take the shield of faith, which you will be able to clinch all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always and with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. We've heard sermons before on the armor of God, and we don't have time to we could give a sermon again on that and keep going forever today. But we're not. But the aspects of this is what we need to fight off Satan. We know our territory. We know what we're going up against. It is Satan, as we looked at the very first point. But this armor gives us strength to be able to fight and to ward him off. As we look at this and consider, girded near waste with truth, Satan's a liar. He wants to blow us up left and right with lies. But if we gird ourselves with the belt of truth, that truth is solid and will not fade away. We could put on the breastplate of righteousness and protect Satan's darts from hitting our heart. He wants to get at our heart. He wants us to turn that softer heart that we've been working towards back to a hard heart. One that doesn't believe. One that just wants to quit. He wants our heart.

We must shout our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We must walk toward the kingdom of God. We must keep the good news of this kingdom in our heart. And be moving constantly, serving one another, working, walking everywhere we go with this as our belief. We must take the shield of faith, which can defend through our faith those darts that are thrown at us from Satan. And the helmet of salvation to protect our mind from Satan's attacks. He wants us to believe that our salvation is not secure. There is no hope for us. He wants to get in our mind. But that salvation is secure. That salvation is solid. That salvation is true. So we must put on this helmet of salvation to protect our mind and to constantly, constantly remember. And we must watch. And we must fight all the way to the very end. So let's remember to stick to the basics. Keep placing our faith in God and stand in His armor. Remember that we are never alone. We are warring alongside our fellow Christian soldiers and those entrusted to care for us. If we do these things, we can be mentally prepared for the rigors of battle. As Christian soldiers, no matter what the future brings, we will all face it together and be prepared.