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Whether you are aware of it or not, there is a spiritual realm with spiritual creatures that we know as angels and demons. In Ephesians, Paul says that we are engaged in spiritual warfare, whether we want to be or not. Join us as Reverend Titus II exhorts us to daily put on the full armor of God that we may stand against the attacks of the enemy.

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As you look at the slides for this morning, as I bring before you uh book of Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 10 to 18. Having ploughed through the book of Ephesians, you will realize that the Apostle Paul wrote this epistle to the Ephesians 6 chapters. And in it, he presented to us first of all our position in Christ, who we are as God's people, saved by the grace of Lord through faith in Jesus Christ. And that establishes our identity of who we are. And then he talked about your practice. Faith and practice must come together. In our practice, he talked about the life of the members of the of God's family. And he he listed about the different relationships. Relationship within the church, the members, interpersonal relationship, and then he talked about relationship in the marriage between husband and wife, between parents and children, and then the master and servant or workers together. And all these are part of the life that is in the family of God. Yet he said that even in all these relationships, Paul reminds us there will be conflicts. And he said that because there are conflicts, we must recognize that it's not a battle of flesh and blood, but there's something that is working in the enemy by the enemy over the atmosphere, affecting the individual lives. And so it's not a battle just physical, but it's also spiritual in every sense. And so he put together, having talked about all kinds of relationships, he now brings us to this passage of Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10 to 12. He says here, finally be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the power of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. We need to understand what this heavenly realm is all about. Even on this on this side of eternity, while we are living our earthly life, there's also a spiritual realm that we are engaged. So it's not just a physical, but it's also a very spiritual world. And so we can see that in the enemy strategy that Satan, the rival, enemy of God, establishes his own kingdom. Alright, we see here there's a kingdom of Antichrist, the kingdom of Jezebel, the kingdom of death and hell, and all other principalities that work. Example, we talk about the dragon in Revelation chapter 12, and then we talk about Behemoth and the Labatan in Job chapter 40 and 41. So he established his own structure and got on the earth to attack humanity. All humanity will get hit. But the good thing we have as God's people is that we ask for a canopy or a hedge of protection over the land, over the people of God. And therefore, while we are still on earth living our life daily, we have to fight this battle on throughout until the Lord returns. And so we see that the God of this world, Satan, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 4, continue to attack all humanity. And so Paul therefore tells us that you must put on this full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand firm then. Three times mentioned here in verse 13 and 14, stand, stand, stand. So actually, you cannot sit down. Can you all stand up? Stand up and say, stand together. Come on, let's stand up together. And tell your neighbor, right? Stand and let's fight the battle together. The spiritual battle. Please be seated. You know, you can't be standing, uh, you cannot be fighting battle seated, right? Every soldier who has gone through training in the army knows that you have to fight your on the battle alert. You have to stand with your rifle charged. You cannot sit down and lay back and have your rifle beside you. You're gone. The enemy will wipe you big time. So the same thing here, he says that you have to fight this battle, but you have to stand, stand on your ground, right? And that you are fighting against the forces of darkness altogether. So we must take our stand. Right? We must take our stand and that we have our spirit, we are involved in a spiritual warfare. Physical, we are living every day, life continues as it is, but it's a very highly charged spiritual warfare zone that we are in. And so the only way to hold this battle is to wear the full armor of God. That is our battle gear. And it cannot be worn only on Sunday. You go to church and you put on the full armor of God. You wore 24-7. You have to wear the armor 24-7. Every day, every minute of your life. That's why God gave us this gear. And what is this then we see here? Are the seven aspects or pieces of the armor. Alright? The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of spirit, and then finally praying in the spirit. You know, if there's a breach of any of this part of the armor, it will hinder the individual as well as the church from moving forward. Any of this weapon being let down, it will hinder the individuals and the church from moving forward. And Satan is all the thief that comes to kill, to steal, and destroy, and he wants to take any of these seven pieces of the armor of God. So I say that we cannot let go any of these seven. Yet the devil, Satan, wants to take us down and immobilize us of or or even steal us, steal our weapon, and even to a point of destroying us. But God is giving us the weapon, and Paul reminds us, wear it on at all times. And so, how does then each of these armor of God function in our lives? So we look at the first one, then the belt of truth, right? The belt of truth is girded at your waist here, the belt of truth, as opposed to the enemy that wants to implant in us lies, deception, doubts, and confusion. And so when we don't have truth, what happened before on the other side, and the devil comes in and put in these lies, deception, doubts, and confusion. Right? And we know that Jesus spoke in John chapter 8, 32, and you know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Many times we don't know the truth, we didn't apply the truth, we are locked and kept in captivity or in bondage by the enemy because we don't have truth to put on. So how? The devil has a big time. You know, I was uh with Esther during some weeks ago, we were at the market, so we happened to pass by this particular stall, and we saw this t-shirt that captured us. You know, the devil says, God's busy, then what I can help you. You know, many times we think that God is so busy and no time for us, right? And so we say we fall into the deception of the enemy. The enemy tells us, I have time for you. Yes, you have time for us, it's always working to confuse us and bring us into uh deception. And so we need to know that the voice lies and deception will bring us astray, and so do we hear the voice of the devil or the voice of God? They are just the same whispering, the voice of the devil, whispering into our ears and wanting to bring into us a lot of deception, lies, confusion, and doubt. But do we hear the voice of God? The voice of God that that is so quiet and still and prompting to us, right? And so the voice of the devil is divisive, but the voice of God builds up one another in the family of God, in home, between husband and wife, between parents and children, and between employer and worker. So, in it, so the word of God tells us Ephesians chapter 4, verse 3, make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace. And so when we know this is the injunction of God, how do we relate to one another? As Paul says, that instead of speaking the truth in love, we grow to become in every respect the mature body of Him who is the Head that is Christ. So we know that when we talk to each other, we want to build each other up, speaking to each other in the truth in love, so that we can grow together as one mature body of Christ who is the head. So that's the first we talk about the breast, the the first belt of truth. Secondly, we look at then the breastplate of righteousness as opposed to the enemy who uses accusations, guilt, condemnation, and fear. So this righteousness, the the breastplate is protecting the vital organs, our heart, our lungs, our all our inner abdomen, every part of us, the emotion is to protect us. From the counterattack of the enemy, uses condemnation, all right, accusation, guilt, and fear. So unless we have this breastplate of righteousness that covers us, we will fall into the trap of the enemy of trying to affect us. And so, what do we see here that we need? First of all, we need the righteousness of Christ imputed to us which was already done. We have the righteousness of not our own, but we have his holiness so that we can stand before God righteous. So in grace, right, we are having the righteousness of Jesus Christ ascribed to us, so we are positionally righteous. We are positionally righteous. As compared to what the enemy wants to do, are you still struggling with the accusation that hurls against you in guilt and condemnation, in fear and feeling unworthy? So it's a spiral.

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Right?

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Like this figure shows us, it spirals down to the bottomless pit, and we are in that state of loss, right? Self-condemn, feeling unworthy, subject to the accusation of the devil. Then Paul moved on to the third armor, which is the gospel of peace. Gospel of peace. And he says here, having your feet fitted with the readiness to speak forth the gospel of peace. So this readiness that God has given to us the truth, the gospel, and we are ready to speak. But yet there are two things that must be in place. Number one, we must have peace with God, reconcile to God. And we have peace with God, then we have peace with one another. So the vertical relationship of having peace with God, we come back to have peace with God. And then in our relation to each other, we live with peace with one another. And that brings back to the injunction of chapter 4 of Paul writing to them to maintain the unity of the spirit, so that you are one body, fighting as one unit of God's army. Then the fourth armor, piece of armor, is the shield of faith. The shield of faith and it quenches, it quenches the fiery dust of the devil. So the devil will be shooting many times, and they come that this arrow shoots at us, whether it be the enemy's deception, despair, fear, lies, or doubt, it comes and keeps on hitting at us, right? To withstand any shakeup in our confidence in God by such fiery darts that is shot at us. 24-7, non-stop. And we just shoot. But when we have this shield, it protects the whole entire body from the head to the toe, from the fiery darts that hit at us. So that's the shield of faith that we must not lose. Number five is the helmet of salvation. Helmet of salvation as opposed to the many doubts, unbelief, confusion, double-mindedness, and a toxic mindset. So this mind, we need the helmet of salvation, is not just only being a shirt of salvation, but it protects the mind from this attack of the enemy that causes doubts, unbelief, confusion, double-mindedness, as well as a toxic mindset. Right? Negative mindset. The mind that is always having negative reactions and thoughts and feelings. And so we have to wear this hammer of salvation to handle it. You know, the devil knows how to play the game. I wonder have you watched this long ago in the 1990s? The jungle book. How many of you know this story about the jungle book? Right? It's a very interesting story. This boy was in the jungle, and here come this big giant snake, was very quick to go after this boy because you want to swallow the boy. And so the snake one day came to the tree where the boy was seated and went curled around the boy. After that, it locked eyes and the eye rolled. And he said this word, trust me, trust me, trust me. And the boy gets mesmerized to the point where he was ready to swallow the boy. So the story is about how the devil mesmerizes us many times. Today we hear a lot of scammers going on. The scammers know how to mesmerize the person. So we have all kinds of job scam, love scam, money making scam, whatever scam they are there. And he uses way to mesmerize the person to then finally take over their money. Or take over the person's emotion. The devil is like, so he uses the way to mesmerize us. And so when we are lost, we don't know what to do. That's the time he takes over and leads us astray. So this is why the helmet of salvation is critical. The devil works, attacks the mind. That's why in Genesis chapter 3, verse 1, the devil asks Eve, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? And so that throw off her balance. On one hand, she heard God say that, and then she asked, Did God say so? It questions her perception, right? That she not she was not sure. So she became very uncertain. And many times when we see when our our when we are having an idle mind, this idle mind is an open play field for the devil's workshop. And so we have to let this mind not drift or dwell onto negative thoughts, thoughts of temptation, whatever may be, and it will create the enemy a big time to hold us down. So doubts and unbeliefs to confusion, and then people become double-minded. It means they are fickle-minded. Then we compromise our stand. Some may have a toxic mindset as well. A faulty belief system. Example, I'm not sure of my salvation because I'm not worthy. So very self-diminishing and feeling unworthy. I'm always an outsider in the group. I have trouble trusting people, everyone abandoned me. And so this whole toxic mindset will bring us to a downfall. And the enemy planted that thought and it just grow and grew. Then the next number six is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. We can see the two differences between the sword of the spirit and the word of the devil. Right? The word of the devil. The sword of the spirits, we see that when Jesus was tempted by the devil three times, he only said this statement. It is written. It is written. Jesus surrendered to the word of God. That is the sword of the spirit. We declare it is written, the word of God. And we know in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12, it says that the word of God is so sharp, it can penetrate the bone and marrow. It's a discerner of the thoughts and intent of the heart. So that's how powerful the sword of the spirit is, the word of God. And we need to have a good so the good thing as a church, we have been learning how to memorize scripture and exercising the sword of the spirit. As contrast, then the opposite, the enemy wants to bring in its own word. So, and it's it is here that said that in Genesis, did God really say? Question mark, it caused a shakeup, a loss of stability in understanding God and his word. And then we see here in the John chapter 8, 44, right? For there's no truth in him when he speaks, right? He speaks his native language because he's called the father of lies. The devil is a liar. So don't listen to the devil's voice because it is how the devil wants to bring about confusion. Last but not least, then we see the praying in the spirit. As opposed to praying soulish prayers. Praying in the spirit means what? Here is that we pray in step. Alright, in step. I use the word example, a soldier marching in formation. So we're praying in step with the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit helps us when we don't know how to pray. In the book of Romans, chapter 8, verse 26, he helps us to pray, and we pray, and some will be praying in tongues. And so that's how he helps us when we don't know how to pray. And we are praying according to the will of God. On the other flip side of the enemy wanting to use us into deception is to lead us to pray soulish prayers. James chapter 4, verse 3 says, When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, and that you may spend what you get for your own pleasure. So this is why when people make prayer, we know whether it's a soulish prayer, it is not a prayer according to The spirit. After seeing all these seven pieces of the armor, we ask, what does put on the armor of God mean to our lives? What does it mean to us? 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 4 to 5 says here, for weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they are divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. So the weapons that we have are therefore not earthly but spiritual. Their divine power to demolish strongholds. Then we ask the question: what is this stronghold then? A stronghold, as defined by one pastor years ago, he says these words. A stronghold is Satan's secret weapon, which he uses to control the behavior of the individual or church to bring damage to themselves or others with the intention to block the purposes of God. So we say a brother or sister has a stronghold, meaning that there have already been damages the enemy has worked in his life or her life. And it affects them. It has damaged them. It's not that affect them, hurt people, hurt others as well. So it has a dominant effect affecting the rest of the members in the body of Christ. And that's not the end in itself. Ultimately, the devil wants to win this battle is to block the purposes of God for the life of the individual and the church. So why the church is divisive? The Corinthian problem, disunity. Because it starts with the individual and then it will escalate to the whole entire boss. So the church becomes fragmented, split, divisive. And so the enemy knows there's a stronghold that is going to build. And we see that it builds a fortress, like a fortress, layer by layer over time, it builds up. So in our life, we are fighting a battle of our internal battle, not just external battle. External battle could be persecution, could be anything. But internal battle in our own life, we are building up a fortress. And we call it stronghold. And these are the things that I don't want to take time to elaborate, but for you to understand, layer by layer is building a fortress in order to affect us and block the purposes of God for us and for the church. And so it says here, how does the enemy construct this thing? A spiritual stronghold in our life, a wound we experience, a hurt or disappointment that makes our heart fertile ground for seed of lies to be planted. So just by a wound, it just continues to deteriorate. And then whether it be caused by disappointment and then the heart feeling, then became a fertile ground of soil for the seed to plant. And the enemy knows that he can build this whole wall layer by layer, step by step, that the enemy then begins to build bricks by bricks, a wall of lies, inaccurate ideas about the person of God, erroneous interpretation of scripture, prideful thoughts, and distorted perception of how God sees us and feels about us when we sin. So it block by block, it just builds up, build up, build up. And so we find ourselves in a siege. We are stranded. How are we to overcome our stronghold? How are we to overcome our stronghold? We start by tearing down our stronghold. In the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 26, Paul says that in your anger, do not sin. Right? Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. Do not give the devil a foothold. So whether the foothold, a stronghold, is still a hole. Right? It's still a hole. The devil wants to hold us down. Therefore, it says that when you are angry with your brother, sister in Christ or at home, your family, settle it before sunset. Don't carry into your sleep hours because you can't sleep. You'll be rocking on your bed. And the enemy is going to make it. So people get worked out. Right? So people start from an anger, it builds up a become historical. Then what happens? The next day it becomes hysterical. That means they yell and scream. So you see the the build-up. So don't give the devil a foothold for all that's happening, and that we can get out of this whole life cycle predicament. And so beware how the enemy works. Beware how the enemy works. The writer of the Art of War, Sun Tzu, once said these words, right? Know your enemy, know yourself. And victory is never in doubt, not in a hundred battles. A strategy of in war, he understood what it is. And we in short we say, know your enemy, know yourself. You know the enemy is coming after you, but do you know yourself? How weak, vulnerable are you? And can you get this weak self rise up by the strength of God to rise up? Because if you don't know yourself, the enemy knows his own way. 100 battles, 100 defeat. But if we know the enemy, know ourselves, 100 battles, 100 victory. So we need to know. And and the book of 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 6 says the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And that's what he's doing 24-7. So stand up. If you want to stand firm, let's stand. We stand before God, we're standing on holy ground, and we say, God, yes, as Apostle Paul, give us this injunction. Stand firm. Stand firm. Stand firm. Don't give in to the enemy. When we stand firm, we could have many more victories in many, many spiritual battles. Lord, this morning as we come, Lord, we stand before you. Just as we are, we don't want plea, Lord. We are just weak, but Jesus is strong. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. So we stand not before you today, Lord. We stand to fight the battle and enforce the victory of Christ. Not that we are helpless, but God you have given us the courage and strength. So we stand and we know that the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. But we stand in the security in our Lord Jesus Christ and the confidence in him and put on the full armor of God. Because the days are evil, as he says here. We are living in very evil times. But Lord, that you want us to stand firm and by you, Lord, you keep us strong, and that we are ready to fight all battles and win this battle for the Lord's namesake. I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.

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