back to indexEphesians Bible Study Lesson 24
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Hello everyone, welcome to another session of our study through the book of Ephesians. 00:00:11.120 |
This is lesson 24 out of 25 lessons so we only have two weeks left. 00:00:17.040 |
After this session we will be taking a break in the month of August and the next session 00:00:25.620 |
We will be starting a new book and so we'll be reorganizing the groups as well. 00:00:30.840 |
Let's take a moment to pray as we jump into tonight's Bible study. 00:00:37.840 |
Lord when we think about our life, perhaps Lord we live with a lot of resources. 00:00:48.520 |
Perhaps Lord we've accomplished various things in our lives but nevertheless we confess God 00:00:55.080 |
we are always so dependent on you and God we are always so susceptible to various woes, 00:01:06.160 |
And so God we want to pray that through your word and spirit you strengthen us and God 00:01:11.520 |
that as we walk with you Lord you would guide our path and cause us Father Lord to stand 00:01:19.920 |
Would you cause us to be fruitful to our mind, our heart, and to our lives. 00:01:27.120 |
Let me take a moment to read to us the whole passage because the whole paragraph starting 00:01:40.960 |
But it begins by saying finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 00:01:44.760 |
Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes 00:01:51.280 |
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the 00:01:55.880 |
powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness 00:02:03.480 |
Therefore take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil 00:02:09.320 |
And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm therefore having girded your loins 00:02:14.040 |
with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with 00:02:22.040 |
In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish 00:02:29.800 |
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. 00:02:35.680 |
With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the spirit. 00:02:39.200 |
And with this in view be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the 00:02:44.640 |
And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to 00:02:50.160 |
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. 00:02:56.680 |
That in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. 00:03:00.400 |
As we take a moment to review and putting the paragraphs together we recall the significant 00:03:07.960 |
point of the entire section that we live in a fierce spiritual battle. 00:03:15.880 |
It is not as though hey there may be some difficulties that may or may not come but 00:03:23.240 |
rather we are fighting powerful forces constantly and what's more the schemes, the kind of attacks 00:03:30.360 |
that are coming our way are in fact incredibly dangerous. 00:03:34.880 |
And from the last passage we learn about who we are fighting. 00:03:40.280 |
And it's very clear scripture says we're not just specifically fighting one single 00:03:45.600 |
We're not just simply fighting flesh and blood as the passages say. 00:03:51.080 |
But rather we are fighting spiritual forces, authorities and rulers, powerful beings. 00:04:00.680 |
We're fighting the evil that exists not just simply out there but forces of darkness that 00:04:09.280 |
And what's more what we're trying to do is fight them, the ideologies, the false, perverted 00:04:19.880 |
And last time I half sarcastically joking and half in seriousness talked about how certain 00:04:27.760 |
mantras of our day even could be very dark, right? 00:04:32.480 |
Whatever we are, we're tempted to go against our conscience. 00:04:35.480 |
Now as just a caveat, obviously we're not trying to be word police. 00:04:42.760 |
It's not as though we have to in every moment and every circumstance that those words are 00:04:49.840 |
But nevertheless we should be able to identify what are some ways of thinking that exist 00:04:55.800 |
in and around us that are actually contrary to scripture and therefore yes it may be light, 00:05:02.880 |
yes it may seem innocent, but very dangerous into our decision making. 00:05:11.200 |
And we have to be actually thinking, "When was the last time I actually identified and 00:05:22.480 |
What's more, to all these kinds of spiritual battles and the attacks that are there, what 00:05:30.120 |
And last time we talked about really briefly, I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it, 00:05:34.160 |
but we talked about the starting pieces of the armor of God. 00:05:38.040 |
Now I want you to take a moment to check out this really cool graphic that I found on the 00:05:44.720 |
It's anime looking and I liked it because if you notice the gentleman is wearing a tie 00:06:00.000 |
But remember at the review that the last time we talked about essential pieces that were 00:06:08.920 |
So you have the breastplate, the belt, and the shoes. 00:06:16.320 |
Some commentators tried to distinguish and saw patterns that these were essential pieces 00:06:21.920 |
of defense or some of them more so just pretty much brought all these core things together. 00:06:28.200 |
Some of them were thinking these are objective pieces that you're supposed to have for a 00:06:36.800 |
A belt, shoes, breastplate, essential purposes. 00:06:40.080 |
Now there's actually a lot to be said in observation about all these pieces. 00:06:44.840 |
However, I would like to start off by just talking about the general feel and sentiment 00:06:49.640 |
that you're supposed to get when the picture very clearly uses imagery for us. 00:06:56.440 |
So I've actually as a heads up to you, lots of photos for today. 00:06:59.720 |
It's because Apostle Paul is using the imagery to get across to you this major point. 00:07:06.640 |
We are engaged in an incredible spiritual battle. 00:07:11.440 |
Whether you like it or not, if your company, if your institution, if your country is at 00:07:18.200 |
war, whether you like it or not, you're at war. 00:07:29.040 |
Do you have the pieces necessary to be prepared for that battle? 00:07:33.320 |
And a lot of times I think Christians, well intending, take a look at these photos and 00:07:38.480 |
talk about the armor of God, but there's this question. 00:07:47.600 |
Have you vested or invested into purchasing these elements? 00:07:52.280 |
Have you invested your time to make sure you can actually take it and then put it on? 00:08:00.360 |
He likes the idea, so he puts it on his t-shirt, but in the end, all he has going into war 00:08:11.320 |
This boy who has just a graphic on his shirt? 00:08:20.400 |
But let's take a look at some of the pieces that we can observe and notice today. 00:08:25.000 |
There's a lot to observe about some of these pieces and elements. 00:08:30.240 |
Now again, I made the point that it's not so much that you have to dissect every element 00:08:36.400 |
But nevertheless, he does give, when you observe this, description about what the piece is 00:08:46.240 |
First one, he says we're supposed to take up the shield of faith. 00:08:53.040 |
With this piece of armory, can you imagine if somebody came in and they had strapped 00:09:01.440 |
You know that individual is ready to do something and that individual is ready. 00:09:06.440 |
Now what's really interesting is that when you take a look at the word shield, commentators 00:09:12.920 |
have noticed that there are different words for a shield. 00:09:17.440 |
There are different kinds of shield based on what kind of battle you're going to engage 00:09:22.480 |
Are you going to be swiftly moving in hand-to-hand combat so you need something that allows you 00:09:31.760 |
And here, the word is thurios, and that is typically referring to a large shield, perhaps 00:09:41.440 |
A shield that is wide enough to cover your entire body. 00:09:45.560 |
Tall enough to cover the entire core of your body. 00:09:48.520 |
And if you have seen movies that depict military battles, you've seen in the long ago, they 00:09:54.520 |
have these formations where multiple shields are put together, creating a shell, so to 00:10:02.240 |
So we're thinking that when we're reading the imagery, clearly Apostle Paul is talking 00:10:18.120 |
And what's more, the passage specifically says that it's powerful to extinguish the 00:10:26.360 |
What kind of arrows do we recall, have we experienced, have we seen in the scriptures 00:10:33.680 |
And how is our faith supposed to defend against those things? 00:10:37.320 |
Well, number one, we know temptation is very clearly arrows coming at us to cause a man, 00:10:44.120 |
to cause a young lady to stumble because of temptation, for grief, for what? 00:10:50.120 |
But it's that faith, when we see through the lens of faith, that says, you know what, the 00:10:54.200 |
world, Satan is saying, look at this, look how beautiful and desirable, and yet through 00:10:59.520 |
faith we say, no, as pretty as it may be, that's trash. 00:11:05.200 |
It's oppressive to say, look and admire the accomplishment this man has made, don't you 00:11:11.520 |
And for us, by faith, to say, that's fleeting. 00:11:14.520 |
It's not worth much compared to what I believe. 00:11:18.280 |
It's our faith that's going to be able to stand against temptation. 00:11:22.160 |
And I think Satan is so deceiving, that Satan typically attacks us with fear. 00:11:31.080 |
You're incapable, you can't do it, even if you have the spirit of God, even if you claim 00:11:38.160 |
Satan is going to attack you and say, protect yourself. 00:11:45.880 |
Self-preservation, despair, discouragement, the list goes on until all the fiery darts 00:11:53.600 |
So I have this photo of a Smart Pin soldier, right? 00:12:02.000 |
But there's this question, like, when was the last time you felt like you were fighting 00:12:06.960 |
Like, as I was praying and thinking through this, like, when was the last time I was actively 00:12:13.720 |
engaged in a battle where I was like, you know, there's an arrow coming, I see it. 00:12:19.280 |
And then you have to exercise what you believe, you have to exercise what you committed to, 00:12:23.840 |
the doctrines of faith, but also, more importantly, your trust in God. 00:12:31.360 |
Yes, faith is belief in the unseen, but my faith is a trust in my Father. 00:12:38.960 |
Where although the world says, you are this, and you are that, and you're not worth this, 00:12:44.800 |
and you're not worth that, and you yourself may say that. 00:12:47.800 |
But it's our faith that says, no, I trust my God's heart. 00:12:53.440 |
I trust my God's value, as He works in my life. 00:13:01.240 |
The next piece of the armor is the helmet of salvation. 00:13:08.480 |
Now, when you think about the helmet of salvation, there are other descriptive words attached 00:13:14.200 |
to it telling you all that it's supposed to do, yet at the same time, again, remember, 00:13:18.520 |
we're talking about imagery, we're talking about battle, we're talking about the idea 00:13:23.800 |
that when you're putting on a helmet and going into battle, what are you doing? 00:13:27.200 |
Well, in order to think about that for a moment, I want you to think about this idea. 00:13:32.920 |
Now, for most of you guys, you don't use helmets. 00:13:36.560 |
I mean, the last time you probably used a helmet was when you rode your bike. 00:13:40.320 |
And even when you do ride your bike, some of you guys don't wear your helmets. 00:13:43.640 |
But as a matter of fact, if you engage in anything that is organized, organized sports, 00:13:50.040 |
I mean, think about it, baseball, football, hockey, helmets are battle, okay? 00:13:55.800 |
You engage in any kind of organized function that relates to first responders, you talk 00:14:00.840 |
about firemen, you talk about construction workers, anything, right? 00:14:06.440 |
You talk about even sports related to riding motorcycles. 00:14:10.100 |
You talk about just about anything you're doing. 00:14:17.280 |
It's protecting you, the vital of your life, okay? 00:14:28.400 |
I mentioned in a sermon not too long ago that I've been doing a research paper on suicidal 00:14:36.420 |
And what I've found is that not only in the statistics, but in my own observation of reading 00:14:42.960 |
people's testimonies, the increased prevalence of people finding that there is no hope in 00:14:50.220 |
this world, that perhaps they're failures, that perhaps their pain is way too large and 00:14:58.740 |
And the sad state of affairs is in so many people's testimonies, they have explicitly 00:15:05.480 |
disclosed that they have had suicidal thoughts. 00:15:10.360 |
Because in terms of the temptation that comes into our mind, sometimes the most dangerous 00:15:23.560 |
And so, if you think about some of the greatest threats to people, it is a thought like this. 00:15:28.720 |
"You are such a loser and there is no hope for you." 00:15:34.160 |
But it's in our salvation that says there is hope for us in Christ. 00:15:39.640 |
In our thoughts, things that are most hurtful and painful is that nobody loves you and no 00:15:44.480 |
And if you were to disappear, no one would know. 00:15:47.680 |
But our salvation says, "God loves me like he loves his perfect son." 00:15:53.440 |
And in our salvation, he says, "Like the lost coin, like the lost sheep, like the prodigal 00:16:06.880 |
We are taken from that which is vanity, empty, and lost to redeemed and precious." 00:16:14.880 |
The world may say to us, and Satan may say, "No one wants you." 00:16:18.320 |
It is our salvation in Christ that says, "No, God wants you in his home. 00:16:24.200 |
If you look at salvation from the different angles, you realize that salvation has such 00:16:39.600 |
And so, when you think about the summon of salvation, to hold onto our salvation is to 00:16:49.320 |
And Satan, in his schemes and attacks upon you, we know it's coming. 00:16:55.760 |
Why is it that those individuals who have been walking in the faith, sometimes leading 00:17:00.200 |
churches, sometimes pastoring and shepherding the flock, are having suicidal thoughts? 00:17:07.360 |
In recent history, it's a sad state of affairs that Christian leaders... 00:17:13.680 |
Do I believe Satan and the spiritual battle is active in our day? 00:17:19.280 |
What's more, the third element of the armor, the sword of the spirit, which is the word 00:17:30.160 |
And already, you can tell, when you think about the sword, what a powerful element. 00:17:36.920 |
You recall this section began with commanding and challenging every believer to be strong 00:17:45.440 |
And what's interesting here, though, is that with the sword, the sword has multiple angles. 00:17:53.840 |
I guess you could also talk about it as it's both defensive and offensive. 00:18:01.120 |
Now what I want to show you is that this is the Greek term for the sword that is used 00:18:09.120 |
And they are actually excavated artifacts of the kind of sword that existed in Christ's 00:18:17.600 |
It's like, take the sword and say, wait, hold on, take it out of your clip and use a little 00:18:25.200 |
For us in our day, I mean, who walks around with a machete, right? 00:18:33.640 |
So what I'm talking about, the reason why I wanted you to see these images is because 00:18:37.320 |
the way that the scripture is commanding us to be strong. 00:18:42.840 |
Because perhaps in our day, we're not accustomed to this talk of military form and we're not 00:18:47.160 |
accustomed to seeing armor and things like that. 00:18:50.120 |
We're not seeing some, we're not perhaps imagining the same thing, right? 00:18:54.760 |
But clearly the scripture is talking about a powerful force when it comes to the word 00:19:00.840 |
It is a serious, it is a weighty responsibility to hold the word of God. 00:19:06.560 |
And so scripture actually talks about if you are a pastor, or if you're speaking the words 00:19:11.080 |
of God, you better get serious and do it accurately. 00:19:15.280 |
It's kind of like having good discipline around dangerous tools. 00:19:18.120 |
It's like having good discipline around fire, or knives, or using anything that could potentially 00:19:32.080 |
Do you have that kind of mentality when it comes to the scriptures? 00:19:36.000 |
Because you realize, kind of like, well, you know, somewhere, sometime, I think the scripture 00:19:43.200 |
You realize then you won't be able to be strong. 00:19:46.360 |
And so we recognize that scripture has such an incredible power to both our defense and 00:19:54.120 |
also the offense of taking down strongholds and all the rest, okay? 00:19:59.840 |
So again, by way of review, just real briefly in terms of the armor of God, remember that 00:20:06.200 |
the idea of the armor of God is introduced with this commandment. 00:20:11.240 |
Be strong in the Lord in the strength of His might. 00:20:15.960 |
So therefore put on the full armor of God, okay? 00:20:20.520 |
And then the idea there is putting on the full armor of God, you will be able to stand 00:20:26.640 |
So I want to ask you this question, is that what you're thinking? 00:20:30.520 |
And here's another serious picture of this individual who is fully decked out from head 00:20:39.960 |
Because I want you to realize that the kind of imagery Apostle Paul is painting for us 00:20:45.520 |
here is that the battle is so fierce and the powers that we're fighting are so fierce and 00:20:50.280 |
what we're engaging, he has seen it, this battle, already laying many of his friends 00:20:58.000 |
I mean, you look at the end of many of the letters and he accounts for how many people 00:21:02.960 |
have deserted, how many people have left, how many people have fallen to temptation. 00:21:08.000 |
And sometimes he'll say, you know, all those in Asia completely deserted me. 00:21:14.880 |
And I wonder, is it because they completely undermined what kind of battle we're in? 00:21:20.680 |
And again, no one wants to look like this walking around. 00:21:23.840 |
How cumbersome, how uncomfortable, how hot and sweaty, right? 00:21:29.240 |
And so sometimes you think, perhaps I can just do with just the breastplate, but I don't 00:21:41.280 |
But that challenge again is we must do it all, take on the full armor of God. 00:21:47.520 |
So as you look at our section for today, we have verse 16 through 17, which is one section 00:21:54.120 |
And then it says with, and so there's a connection there, verse 18 through 20, clearly speaking 00:22:04.320 |
Young lady praying in front of her Bible, but the image in the mirror, she's got all 00:22:11.920 |
It says with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. 00:22:16.440 |
And with this in view, be on the other with all perseverance and petition for all the 00:22:20.840 |
saints and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth 00:22:26.880 |
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for with I am an ambassador in 00:22:31.480 |
change that in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. 00:22:37.800 |
So within this passage, very clearly he says with this prayer, be praying. 00:22:44.640 |
And what's really incredible as you observe the passage, remember, we're looking for emphasis 00:22:49.280 |
when we study, we're looking for repetition, we're looking for ideas that are given in 00:22:53.960 |
multiple angles, and here it's like pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, and pray, pray, pray. 00:23:02.800 |
Notice how it says with all kinds of prayer, with all prayer and petitions. 00:23:09.080 |
So with petitions, clearly it's like the request, prayers, this is with all of it. 00:23:14.960 |
What's more in terms of time, very clearly it says that you should be praying at all 00:23:20.400 |
And what's very interesting is although the passage reads like a command, with prayer 00:23:26.400 |
That word pray is in the active participle, which means it's a praying. 00:23:34.440 |
And remember he was saying that you need to be doing it all. 00:23:38.000 |
Having done all to stand, and this then includes it, in your standing firm and in your strength, 00:23:44.360 |
you have to be praying at all times, with all kinds of prayers and all kinds of petitions. 00:23:51.560 |
Notice also that he talks about your prayers should be in the spirit of God. 00:23:56.680 |
Your prayers are not mantras, your prayers are not just simply repetition of words as 00:24:01.840 |
though once you hit the full tank of 50 prayers or 100 prayers, and all of a sudden it's like 00:24:09.880 |
Like that is not the way God is responding to us. 00:24:13.000 |
Our prayers need to be sincere, our prayers need to be faithful, our prayers need to be 00:24:21.160 |
And in that way our prayers are incredibly powerful because God has said, "This is the 00:24:28.400 |
What's more, he says, "With alertness, with perseverance." 00:24:33.520 |
So understanding and seeing with spiritual eyes what is the current context beyond what 00:24:40.880 |
You're noticing that there are dog forces, you're noticing there are movements, you're 00:24:44.600 |
noticing that there are ideologies, you're noticing that there are trends, you're noticing 00:24:49.880 |
there are slaves, you're noticing there's flesh, like your own flesh having its passions 00:24:54.520 |
and lusts, you're noticing there's people, all this kind of stuff around you. 00:24:59.040 |
Being aware of all that, you need to be praying with alertness and perseverance. 00:25:05.120 |
To think that because you prayed in the morning, that you don't need to be praying tomorrow, 00:25:13.960 |
If you think that you did something in the morning and therefore the rest of the time 00:25:19.400 |
is all you, then you're kind of baking your trust on, "I got that done in the morning." 00:25:26.520 |
We have to be thinking, "No, no, no, there's a perseverance of prayer that is in the spirit 00:25:30.920 |
at all times in all kinds of prayers and petitions." 00:25:35.240 |
So, man, when you think about prayer, prayer really is the way by which once, not simply 00:25:44.640 |
once, but as we are armed, so to speak, that's the fight. 00:25:52.240 |
Because you can put on the armor and then go hide in the bunker. 00:25:56.360 |
You can put on armor and go hide behind all the rest of your friends. 00:26:02.720 |
There are those individuals who just simply talk a lot about, "Yeah, you know, I observed 00:26:11.480 |
They kind of just want to know, "What does that soldier think? 00:26:20.240 |
As I observed, people love reading blogs, which is totally fine. 00:26:24.960 |
People love asking for the opinions of popular Christian leaders, which is again also fine. 00:26:31.280 |
But sometimes I wonder, "But once you do that, it kind of begs the question. 00:26:43.640 |
But then, nevertheless, there's a lot of people who are just like, "Oh, yeah, I just read 00:26:49.080 |
There's this thought in my head, "You can sit there and try to garner all the different 00:26:55.600 |
opinions, but in the end, you don't have any stake in the game. 00:27:01.800 |
But prayer, that is you investing in the fight. 00:27:07.960 |
You being on your knees, you lifting up your petitions, you praying for strength, that's 00:27:26.160 |
And we have to be thinking, "If I do not pray, I lose. 00:27:33.600 |
Today, if I have not prayed, I've completely lost ground. 00:27:38.040 |
And perhaps they can have already put a foothold where you shouldn't be praying anything." 00:27:45.920 |
And truthfully, I think the vast majority of us has experienced it. 00:27:51.600 |
I mean, I've confessed to you that because I'm a pastor, I'm not susceptible to temptation 00:27:57.720 |
Because I'm a pastor, am I all of a sudden now just completely immune to greed? 00:28:24.480 |
You know very well, every single one of us, we are susceptible and we have weakness. 00:28:32.240 |
And I have found, and we have years of experience to tell us, when we do not pray, we're absolutely 00:28:42.760 |
And so, remember that prayer is absolutely powerful. 00:28:49.920 |
The Lord, Jesus Christ, said to Peter, Simon, Simon, "Behold, Satan has desired to haunt 00:29:01.280 |
There is a spiritual battle you do not understand. 00:29:04.360 |
Satan has his crosshairs on you and he is going to attack you. 00:29:15.080 |
That your faith may, that your faith shall fail not. 00:29:19.680 |
And when you are converted, strengthen your brothers. 00:29:24.640 |
Christ the Lord, telling Peter, there is a spiritual reality and Satan has his sights 00:29:33.640 |
on you and you suspect because Christ is so powerful, maybe Christ should have rebuked 00:29:48.520 |
And so, remember the scripture in the passage that we are reading says, "Our struggle is 00:29:52.560 |
It is against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, 00:30:08.080 |
In the latter half of that section, it says, "Pray on my behalf, that utterance may be 00:30:14.160 |
And notice my highlighting in blue, that Apostle Paul has one currently. 00:30:19.800 |
It's not so much that there is only one thing that you can pray for, but clearly here as 00:30:26.080 |
he's talking about your prayers, there is the topic of prayer that must be at the forefront 00:30:32.720 |
of the battle, which is that, "Utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, 00:30:37.560 |
to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in 00:30:42.160 |
chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." 00:30:46.320 |
And so the observation there is, Apostle Paul is focused on what we should pray for, is 00:30:51.920 |
the proclamation of the truth, and the boldness, the courage to proclaim that gospel. 00:31:00.760 |
And as we think about it, we think about, again, the battle and the fight, we think 00:31:07.320 |
about how to win, we think about what we can do to engage, and we realize the proclamation 00:31:18.800 |
In the dark, dark world, the power of the gospel of Christ is, is the glorious light. 00:31:26.160 |
And as I think about this and conclude, I want to point to an interesting passage. 00:31:31.520 |
In Romans chapter 10, verses 1-4, Apostle Paul describes his heart behind the agenda, 00:31:38.560 |
so to speak, the prayer topic, the heart motive, like that kind of thing. 00:31:44.720 |
And what he says in Romans chapter 10 is, "Brethren, my heart desire and my prayer to 00:31:48.960 |
God, prayer to God, is for them, is their salvation. 00:31:54.160 |
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 00:32:00.200 |
For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, they did 00:32:04.600 |
not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 00:32:07.520 |
For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone who believes." 00:32:14.480 |
And what you kind of garner from that is, clearly, Apostle Paul's heart reached for 00:32:19.440 |
his people, that ultimately they would be saved in Christ. 00:32:23.560 |
But what he desires for them is that right now, they have this desire and zeal, like, 00:32:30.800 |
But they don't even know how to obtain the righteousness you need to go to God. 00:32:36.200 |
And so this idea is, how does someone get righteous? 00:32:38.400 |
And Apostle Paul's saying, "It's the gospel in Christ. 00:32:41.680 |
Only through Christ and the salvation that's given can you obtain righteousness." 00:32:45.920 |
But what that means then, is that only through the gospel, only through the preaching of 00:33:06.160 |
There is an incredible burden and battle where darkness has covered the eyes of His people. 00:33:14.120 |
Where guilt and shame is heavily still burdening His people. 00:33:17.880 |
And the law is standing there accusing His people. 00:33:21.920 |
Apostle Paul appropriately recognizes that in this spiritual battle, there is only truly 00:33:29.400 |
one thing that is the agenda and mission that he must devote himself to. 00:33:54.880 |
With perseverance, with endurance and constant, non-stop, dedicated commitment. 00:34:10.480 |
So as I think about that, to me, that gives absolute clarity of how to be strong, doesn't 00:34:19.440 |
You don't have to be strong in some kind of man-made machismo way. 00:34:22.840 |
You don't have to be strong in some kind of like artificial fashion. 00:34:28.880 |
Or strong to make sure that you have a certain personality. 00:34:33.560 |
The agenda and objective of what it means to be strong, how and for what is clear to 00:34:43.240 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your grace. 00:34:48.400 |
Thank you for your teaching and admonishment. 00:34:50.760 |
And we pray that God, our hearts will be so engrossed in you, Lord. 00:35:00.840 |
So that God ultimately, God will be to our blessing. 00:35:11.720 |
So I pray, Father God, that especially now in very unsettling times, would you grant 00:35:26.280 |
Exalting and proclaiming Christ who is the light to all mankind. 00:35:31.200 |
And I pray, Father Lord, that to that end, we'd be ready. 00:35:37.760 |
Lord, we thank you so much in Christ's name we pray.