December 7 Armor of God Wk8

And then once again when I welcome each of you here as you join us here at Bethel this morning, is it good to be here? Amen it's good. That got God is here and so he is so good. Just a quick announcement will get into our message this morning real quickly if we are going to be doing a little kind of Journey daily journey together with those it would like to join in. So you'll see in your bulletin, there's a QR code on. We're going be doing the devotional called gift of Heaven. Are we going to be starting that on December 15th which is next Monday that you can find the devotional in the YouVersion? Bible app? And then like I said, if you, if you download that app and then you can click on that, follow that QR code and you can join the group. And we also will be doing the devotions daily about also it allows you to comment And and and encourage one another. And so so we can kind of just kind of interactively as a group Go through that that 9 days leading into Christmas and just kind of interactive devotional Series. So when I encourage you to go ahead and download the app sign into that. And like I said on the 15th which is next Monday, we will start on that journey and I look forward to it. It'll be a little different but we'll get to stay connected as we lead into Christmas. And so anyway, at this point, we're going to kind of just turn our attention to God's word. If if you will, I'm going to kind of tie a bow, in a sense to this whole series. We've we've been talkin about the armor of God and, and other so much, do it. Matter of fact, to be honest with you, this week, as I Was preparing, they're still about 3 more weeks that we could go with this. You might think we're done and let me tell you were not, but I'm going to kind of tie a boat to it. And and then we're going to Allow God to to give us another moment to get into the remainder Parts as we get into the to the beginning of the year. So if you will bow your heads with me real quick and and first will just turn to our verse will read that and then we'll pray. We've been in this verse. This has been our key verse for the past, 8 weeks now. And so

less than three fishing chapter six verses eight through 10 through 18. And this finally my brother's 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 schemes of the devil. For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities against Powers against the rulers, of the darkness of this world and against the spiritual forces of evil in Heavenly places, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to resist the devil, the evil day. And having done all to stand stand there for having your waist, girded with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness. Having your feet fitted with the Readiness of the gospel of peace, and above all, taking the shield of Faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the fiery arrows of the evil. One, take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Pray in the spirit, always with all kinds of prayers, and supplication, do that, and be alert with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Pray for me that the power of But that the power to speak may be given to me and that I may open my mouth boldly to make known The Mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in Chains and that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. And so, by your heads with me diligence 11. I thank you, but I thank you again for this day. I thank you for your word. And always, we turn to this. Lord, I pray that you would speak. Why I submit myself to you, I pray that you would speak through Me In This Moment. Holy spirit, that you would come. And just do your work in us. And God, I, I pray for every person in the sound of my voice that you would help us to open our ears. They would hear what you have to say. I got I also pray that is we go from here today that we'd also be doers of what we've heard. Let us be doers of your word as well as fellow. We just thank you and we praise you we give you our attention. What can speak? Amen. So I'm I'm going to kind of wrap up. I want to bring us back up to speed. I know some of us, it it's been a long series, you can go online and and, and you can I think and it says sermon player. If you click their, the sermons should be up, will double check all that this week and make sure it's all there and you can catch up later. And so I'm just going to give us a little synopsis to get us where we are. And so obviously we talked week one as he kind of shares. Just he says, first of all be prepared for battle, you know he spent a couple of verses they're just talking about the fact that we are in a battle that the battle where in is spiritual that there's forces. We can't see. And that there is an enemy and ranks that we can't see until we need to be prepared for that battle and so, Just a reminder, as we look at this, I know a lot of times it's easy as we go through life, that we forget that our battle is not against flesh and blood. We're not battling the people at work that are making things so difficult, do you know where battling a spirit? That is behind that we're not battling our family. How many times I have seen where in marriages were husband and wife all to be busy, all of a sudden become enemies to one another instead of recognizing that there is a spiritual warfare and it in a me who has wedged through bitterness through ever through a fence, has wedged things in between a family and we begin to fight each other instead of fighting him. Amen. And so recognize I just a reminder, recognize that the battles we are in our spiritual We're not battling one another and the church were battling an enemy. Amen. And that our weapons are not carnal but they are spiritual as well. And then also he challenged us to stand firm matter-of-factly. Says stand firm six times, which is the number of man and Man was created on the Six-Day many times when there's six things that is that is man's Challenge. And so we have a part we have to stand firm we we have to stand our ground

So stand is four times and against the six times and so the Battle Is Ours, the battle. And so, just a reminder, we have to stand firm, we have to stand our ground but we do. So being equipped for battle. And so we go through and we see the equipment that we've been given the armor that stands before us. And remember, as we looked at this verse Paul, as he's writing even as he says, they're thin and pray for me for I am in Chains, but pray for me. That I will be able to speak boldly. He was chained. Paul was in prison at this point. Riding to the Ephesus Church in Ephesus and as he's wrapping it up and we remember this is not his first time to be in prison. He's broken out a few times before. So this time is the Roman Romans have captured him. He's under you know it's like extreme you know my words are gone so not dressed but yeah it's a maximum-security. There we go. Inside the maximum-security was he was chained 24/7 to a prison guard or basically a Roman soldier. And so he had the case material right in front of him and so either way, as he's looking and he goes through and he shares with us. And so, just a reminder of each of the pieces as we come to a close, first of all, he says, make sure that you were George. I like the the King James or New King James Version as it says, gird your waist. With the Beltway, it with truth. Remember, that's the logos or the written word of God. So your Bible is your belt or girdle of Truth, just to remind it. There's four ways. God, God's Bible Gerdes us through doctrine. That teaches us, what is what God has done for us. All through reproof what others have done wrong or what we have done, a correction is is what we are doing wrong and instruction and how we are to do things correctly, right? And so it is the best way. I think I explained, we explained it was if anybody's ever done so weightlifting before, there's a big leather belt that you put on, whenever you're going to be lifting weights at 2 to strengthen your back. And anybody that's put that on nose, Manet it like horses your your posture at forces, your back to stay straight. And so just a reminder, God's word and the truth, the written word of God, the Bible Acts in the same way. It corrects it. Rebukes it approves it gives instruction and it helps us to know how to stand with correct posture. Amen. And gives us strength also has a breastplate of righteousness, which is where we find our confidence. Righteousness, is basically our right standing with God, we become in Christ. All that God requires us to bwe vine States. We put on an attitude of righteousness. Remember this with righteousness is not our righteousness but his amen. If we're trying to stand in our own righteousness and may not be so pretty all the time, right sometimes. Yeah, we can maybe do some good things but none of us can stand and be perfect. Be righteous in our own. And so God gives us the breastplate of righteousness which is his righteousness and so how that works. Remember, as we walk and live our lives before, God not hiding from God, a man And so God created us, God has the right to judge us. And if we allow him to judge us on this side of Eternity then he will make up the difference with his Mercy. Amen. And so we don't stand it in. Righteousness of our own, but of his. And so it's putting on that righteousness of Christ that allows us to stand. And then he said, you know what, to put on it, your two shots, your feet with the the boots of Peace. This is your grip, this is your Traction in life. Remember, we've looked at that at the sandals are what they would have shot themselves with and obviously, I mean, it covers the whole lot more than just the foot. It provides protection. They were studded. They had, they had cleats brass cleats slotlady to him so that they they had the traction. And either way into remember we are supposed to have peace weird that wifey should be shot it with peace and matter fact, I believe this kind of challenges us with the fact that everywhere we go, we should be the ones making peace where we go, a lot of religions and I've visited with the other symptom that teach that, hey, you know, that you find where a place of peace sells and that's where you stay and you stay away from place where peace, I have, you know, this gives us the picture and the guideline that hey, we as, as you know, soldiers for God, shouldn't be shying away from places where peace is not and where darkness is raining, but rather we should be the ones that when we walk into that place that we are the ones who can make peace happen. And then I remember it's making peace. Just keeping peace, you can keep your peace and still not be at peace. Amen. A peacemaker. Is someone who has the courage to both confront? A situation that is wrong. I but also find resolution for it and find your resolve to the situation. And so we should be little islands of Peace. We should be making peace everywhere we go. and so, you know, and yes.

I stopped here. I know I had And idea story I wanted to share their but it's gone. So I guess not for today. Remember to, he says that we have the helmet of salvation and it's interesting that of all the pieces that salvation would apply to its the head, not the not the Chester, the heart, you know, the soul, the heart, which we usually considered to be the chest is not initially covered by salvation, even though, we know the heart and chest are saved. But I think it's interesting and reason why? First of all, Romans chapter 10, says, when we believe in Christ and confessed, what their mouths were saved, your soul is saved, you don't have to get it saved a lie, it's not something you have to continue to put back on. When your soul is saved it, stay and we need to know that. I think for us the salvation of the head is is because a lot of times where the enemy attacks, is because he challenges us to think we've lost our Salvation when we haven't, and we lose All of our Focus, amen. And so you got to know your saved because you know you're saved because God said you're saved a man. And then number two is I have found. It's my thoughts that I have to save daily. Write my thoughts that I have to get into control. And so we walk with with it. And so we have to put on the helmet of salvation taken captive, every thought and replacing it with thoughts that are good and just and right, that, that we know are founded on his word and what he said, amen. Soap. And that kind of ends that the the protective gear or what we wear. And then he says, to put out the shield of faith above all, put out, the shield of Faith, write the shield of faith. And I don't want to spend a lot of time, but just a reminder this year that faith is our Shield. It is your guard that Faith acts as a doorway to our lives. And wait, we can close out fear with faith. It says that we will block all the fiery darts of the enemy were many times act like darts and Spirits can write on those words. And then when they hit us, what he tries to do, is engulf us. Its fiery darts, right? It's what you guys doing. Golf Us in or emotions like anger and One, little thing can be sad and we go up in flames. Angry over what was said door or wrapped up in fear of of what would take place, right? And and how those emotions can overtake us. And we have to put out the shield of Faith trust in God and in and block out and protect ourselves from being overtaken and engulfed in those darts. And so it's out in front of everything. That's like a doormat extinguishes, the darts, but also reminder, our faith, they had a hook and a loop on their belt so that they could hook their Shield to the belt. So that when they were marching, it took the weight of the shield off of the arm and shoulder, put it to the waist so that when they got to battle, they weren't worn out from trying to carry it. But also what I think spiritually that connotation is is you can't have faith without what? God's word. And so if you're struggling to have faith and stand in faith, get back into his word, and its by hearing his word. It's by knowing his word that we have faith, our faith gain strength from his word. And so, just a reminder to, to, you know, get back into his word then last week, we talked kind of what we talked about the spirit of the sword of the spirit, or the sort of his word when she is at the sword of the spirit, which is his word. And we talked about the difference there. We obviously, okay, if we understand the belt of Truth is the Bible, the written word of God, the truth of God, then then the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. What's the difference there? White that almost sounds. You know, I could work together and it would talk about two different Greek words logos for the belt. Rhema for the sword and Rhema is the utterance of God's word. And so whenever we honor God's word, then that works like a sword and so God's word as a belt gerds and guides us, but God's word has no work as a weapon until we speak it.

Matter fact, remember, Hebrews 4 to, where he says, for the word of God is living and active sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul, and of spirit of joints, and of marrow and Discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart, the Greek, their breaks that down to say, if we wait, we translate is two-edged. But the literal Greek translation would be to mouth or two tongue sword. And so, it's just a reminder that when God spoke it. That was one edge of the sword when we speak it. We put the other edge of the sword together. And so, learning to speak God's word into a situation and just a good challenge. Just a good, reminder. And this is why it's important that we also memorize it and know God's word because when you get in the situation, and if all the only word that the only verses of scripture you've memorized is that the shortest verse, Jesus wept Right or John 3:16 for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that all who believe in him shall not perish but have eternal life, but those are great versus but they may not always work towards the situation. You're in a man. and so sometimes when I'm dealing with healing, I need to know the scriptures that speak about healing and how he created my body and how its to work, a man and speak those things into being Just, I mean this is so powerful. And we've got to learn how to speak God's word, and I want to give you peace. Number one. I know when we talked about memorizing, scripture was probably one of the biggest things that gets anybody nervous about memorizing. Scripture is as maybe your in, and I'll just be the first to confess when it comes to memorizing chapter and verse numbers. I am the worst like a, my mind just doesn't do. I've got one over here said, no, no, I'm the worst but we'll have a challenge and I used to struggle with that, especially as a preacher. I used to struggle with that. I'd hit man out here. These other preachers that, man and Meghan, just on the flying start quoting. Hey, and Hebrews this and Matthew that, and whatever, and they can just tell you, chapter and verse, and then quote the scripture. And I'd be like, man. I want to be like that someday, you know, and I still listen to that and go, man, I want to be like that someday.

I was listening at one point to a pastor preacher as you was talking about memorizing scripture in order to be able to use and speak and and whatever scripture in one of the things he set a reminder and I knew this from Bible college but never really thought of it. Was a reminder that the chapter and verse headings were not added. When were added into scripture, Around the 1500 the 1600. They were added in the scripture in order for us to be able to go back and find things easier. But when scripture itself, even tells us that we should hide God's word in our heart and when scripture even tells us to memorize God's word that it made guide and direct your life, let me know. Even at the times when that was written, there were no chapter and verse So when God is telling you to memorize scripture, he's not telling you to memorize chapter and verse. He's just memory telling you to memorize the word that was written. Cuz the words that were written are, what have power. And so, just a reminder. So if you struggle like I do with that, that's okay. You know, we can get some flash cards and kind of work on that maybe somehow, but the real thing is is that I know what God's word says, and when I hit the situation in and sometimes I feel like being with a give me a minute. I think it's in this spot to go find it if I'm in a conversation with somebody. Let me know when I'm in a battle with the Enemy. Those those things don't matter. Just speaking his word and I didn't share this last time but my father-in-law got ill just moments at 2 couple years ago. 34 years ago it now yeah just a little bit before we moved here and and he got really ill, he was in the hospital to the point that

LOL, I had sepsis just I mean it was it was scary and he was in ICU, nobody could be in the room with him, not even my mother-in-law could be with him at that point and he's getting through the night by himself. And and he'll tell the story, he could tell it so much better than me. But, but as he tells a story there was he could tell. Something was taking place in the room that night he couldn't understand what, but he was up all night. His body was convulsing, but it was not seizure or any of that nature. But it and he could not stop himself from his eyes and his bought, his head and shoulders from tracking from one side of the room to the other. It it it, it it seemed like what many would call convulsions or whatever but there was no physical think nothing going off on the whatever and he said all night he could just see this going on. He was so sick. He couldn't, you know, he just But he didn't know what and towards that out. Early hours of the morning, he finally was able to get out of what he felt led and it took every ounce of strength to simply speak, no weapon formed against me shall prosper. At and it took everything to get those words out, but he said, the moment he spoke those words, there was a calm that can a piece that came into the room, his body and those convulsions settled. He was no longer tracking back and forth and he said he just there was a break in the room. Is that at that moment when he bounced it, God, what just happened? He said the answer in his prayer in his Spirit got told me that there was a battle. You your body was tracking it even though you couldn't see it. But there was a spiritual battle going on for your soul in your room. And for his life. And God told me said, once you spoke my word, the Angels were equipped, And were able to win the battle. And so, guys, it's important and if he didn't know those words, if he didn't notice speak, every that no weapon formed against me shall prosper, he would have never been able to give God's word to the angels, to be at work. And so be armed for battle. Use God's word, learn to speak God's word. It is a to tongue sword. God spoke it. But it does not go to work and your situation until we speak it a man. And soaps. And then I just want to kind of close out, we're going to kind of tie a bow on this, this next that, there's one more piece to the armor. How much you realize that? There's one more weapon. We kind of saw the armor, that's their word rest. Until I want to just kind of give a couple of more questions that I had two and a one, as I begin to study this, as everything is forward facing right that the breastplate that the shoes, a piece, the helmet, you know, the shield of Faith, all of its forward facing. And and so obviously we understand we have a charge to move forward And so we as the, the soldier should always be advancing the Kingdom of Heaven. I mean, oh God that I will build my church and the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against it if you stay at scripture Jesus. When he said that to his disciples they were camped in front of that what that damn time was perceived as the gates of hell. And he made that Proclamation, that the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against it. And so we are soldiers in, there is an advancement of the Kingdom that we are called to do. And so we can't just sit back is not just you that we are at Battle and we should be advancing. But I'll be honest with you, I looked at this and ask a question but God, what about the backside? What if the enemy flank says, you know what, if he comes around from behind and tries to get us as so many times, it feels like he does. And and I was like, seems to be left so like exposed. And I was reading through and Isaiah where Isaiah was also prophesying of the armor of God that he would wear. Any clothes is out by saying and the glory of the Lord closed behind him. Like a train. And I begin to look at the Roman soldier and and I left it in my office, but they had a robe. Especially when you got in the higher ranks, that the longer the road would get. But they had a rollover, a cape that they would wear that draped over the back side. Now, it's not maybe a piece of Clyde of iron or anything like that but got all send show me sad. When you go and every Victory you have my glory, all those behind you. And remember God's glory is so great that when Moses had his encounter with God and even Moses had the audacity to say, got I want to see you face to face and remember God's response. If you were to see me face to face by Glory would kill you, you would die in my presence. If you saw my full glory and so God hit him behind a rock, covered his face, walked by him and then said you can see my back, you can see the train of my glory and that'll be enough. And even that amount, how many of you remember Moses? When he came down from the mountain, they had to cover him with Zak cloth because he was glowing from the sight of God's glory. But they had that they were blinded by it State and can't reside in God's glory either. Hey man, no sin can and nothing evil can. And so here's the, the key and I'm going to give you this little nugget to close this out. But here's the key whenever we have Victor Victory, whenever we have successes whenever things work that way we have a choice. We can begin to attributed to something. We did. Or we can let God have the glory. If you let God have the glory, his glory flows behind you and there's no way for the enemy to come in and attack. But here's what we battle with is pride.

And many times and we've seen it in ministers who have fallen after great that week. We've seen Great Mighty ministers, right? Who have had Mega Ministries and yet they fall Because somewhere in there, they begin to think that their words and their preaching. Mater. The whole lot more than it did.

Or for us. Sometimes we can think. We'll I prayed for that and it happened and we begin to think our prayers matter. And they don't. Do they? It's all God's grace. We stand together and faith. We linked together and Faith. But it's so I would challenge Pride, always comes before the fall and pride kind of sneaks in from behind and kind of push his ass over. Until guard our hearts from Pride, allow God to receive the glory. And that's how the enemy can never flank from behind and then, and then, let me tie with one more that that's just a little tidbit extra. But then, can I share with you? There's one more weapon that the soldiers would carry and, and I'm going to close. I'm going to give you a teaser today. I wanted to teach on this but I'll just share with you. So, Paul, as he as we go, back to read.

And let's just jump in at verse 17 verse 18. 17 that take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God that we've continued to read each time very intentionally And then he says, pray in the spirit always with all kinds of prayer and supplication. Do that and be alert. And all perseverance and supplication. For all the saints.

Now it's easy and many times and study, we close out at verse 17, with the sword of the spirit and speaking God's word as power as a powerful weapon.

But there was another weapon, the Roman soldiers. Carried them. Paul doesn't necessarily make this link but I think it's left there for the readers and especially those that knew the Roman guard and Soldier to probably make this link. Also, if you were to count again, I like to come look at the meaning and in the count, and numbers on some things. So far to this point, there are six items in the armor, correct. And so if I proposed to you, one more, it would be the seventh item. One thing you've noticed, this is a rhythm within scripture whenever their settlement items it's always kind of presented in a 6 plus one type format. Does that make sense? If you look in Proverbs when he says there are six things God hates 7, he two tests, right? And if you look 7th item in that list is different from the other six. The other states have to do with lying cheating. You know bearing you know whatever then 270 says and one who Bears fault with that causes Strife amongst a community is different from the others, it requires gossip. Flying bearing for Twisted which were kind of in the other six but the 7th is greater because it happens within Believers. Anything within a church or within the nation of Israel. One who comes in and stirs up and causes strive in the midst of my community. And it's it's different, right? It's it said, apart from the others, it's not just playing lying. It has a different level and even in the statement and introducing, it says there are six things God, hate seventh. He detest. It said apart we look at creation, there are 7 Days in creation, right? But the seventh day is Holy is Sabbath. It's that apart from the others. And so I'm going to introduce to you that there, I believe is a seven piece to the armor. But it is set apart. It is different and has greater power when it's at work in our lives than any other piece that's presented to this point. And I'll show you why. And then we will come back in January to go even deeper in and so the 7th piece, what the armor what the soldier would have walked around with Would have been and what we would know today and what we would call a spear. And I've got kind of a, a toy one here. Just to kind of shows little bit, but you're all. Yeah, they would have had a spare, right? We don't think of it too much, but it was intrical part of the Roman soldier. Not only did they have a store that their hip but they had a spirit, they're at their hand and they had multiple times types of Spears. Four different types of situations or different depending on your role in the Army too to what their uses were in. So just the same as Paul says. And so he comes in and says still pray.

In the spirit, all types of supplications and prayers. Being alert and praying all kinds of prayers. Even for the Saints.

And so just as they were all kinds of Spears that they would carry him if you know, they're all kinds of prayers that we can pray. And we have not been taught so I'll just be honest we have not always been so it taught so well in the church how to use prayer as a weapon. Oh yeah. Well amen. That we know it's a weapon but have we ever really taken the time to teach? How do you use prayer as a weapon? We know prayer is powerful, but yet it's still a four-letter word in the church. If we call the prayer meeting, it's the most is the lowest attended meeting in the church. And if we understood the power, we had in prayer and had to pray in a, with as a weapon. But maybe with flip the script on that one. And I kind of said that light up like as a tease but not really it kind of bothers me that when we call prayer meeting or if I wanted to do something. I sometimes we've had to disguise it as other things and then have prayer meeting. And then people walk away, man. That was powerful. Yeah, but if I told you, that's what we're going to do. You want to come Couch, right. Love you, but this is, this is a call. This is Evan item. Is that is separate from the others, he introduces it differently than the others. Any other leads in that there are multiple types of Spears and so as we've done with rest of the series, let's just look a little bit at the Roman soldier, which was our our study, a case study. And what they would have carried. And so they had a couple of different sort of Spears, three in particular that were very popular. And first one, which would have resembled kind of what I would have what I'm holding here today and it would have been known as a pealim. I know what I asked Jimmy to kind of go to Google search for me too. So if you've got a picture of a pilum that you could put up and he's got to have a pill and the javelin until the peeling, which would be the number to sword. Many times could be anywhere from 6 to 8 ft in length.

God has had usually more of an arrow or or or leaf-shaped tip to the end of it. I'm usually about 8 in or so, in 8 to 10 in in length and this one was wielded by hand. It was many times. It would be there there, what would you almost call? A medium distance, a weapon. And so they would wield it by hand. They could you just still wield, their Shield had their sword at their hip. Remember, their sword was a lot shorter than most of the storage looked at, because it was more of a precise weapon. Almost like it a little bit longer than a dagger. This would have been their weapon, but they would have reached out with that. They could have come over topper out. They could slash with you and stab towards. And it was it like that alley for arrow-shaped position so that it could be retrieved easily. And so, this was their medium range in this was my critique of the show. I shared I watch. Of the great Deadliest Warrior for history. And when they put the Roman soldier against the Indian rajput warrior and they went sword for sword. In the Roman sword is only about 8 to 10 in long. Where is the rajput warrior? Sword is like this itself Beast. I mean, it is out there and then it's it flares at the end, all the wait, is there? And so they they kind of gave that one to the rajput soldier because the Roman soldier couldn't have gotten into that range and the whole time I'm watching and going but the spy gear. At that range. The Roman soldier would have been fighting with the spear. And his spear actually had another two feet on that sword. And then when that was lost and when they got even closer range is when the sword would have come out and going, they're not matching it up correctly. Right. But that's just me. Okay? So at me arrange, there's the spear The pealim wish they would have had for that. They also have the javelin, which I don't have an example here, but we can kind of look, do you have another close-up? Look at the javelin know if you found another one, but the javelin was and we still do it today even in the Olympics it's it's a javelin throw, right? So very much so the javelin was a a throwing spear. See if you can at least do Min on number one a little bit. If you can blow that up or something, you can kind of see there. Either way, there was very much still a club handle to the end but then it had this longer to up. It was fashioned out of medium-strength, iron. Then it had just a small arrowpoint kind of at the end that Medium had about two to three feet of medium strength metal. And then it at this big blunt head and that was it was intended for throwing and so they would throw it out towards their enemy with great precision and a practice regularly for accuracy. But it was a one-time use that this was intended, one of two things, it would either hit the enemy And and Pierce, and caused quite a bit of trauma as it broke in. Or if they had a shield, many times, they would Shield themselves. But that small tip many times could Pierce and it had enough weight behind it, that it would penetrate into their Shield. But then the metal was soft enough. That want it hit, it would bend on impact whenever it hit bit on impact. So, that way, first of all, if they missed the enemy, couldn't pick it back up and use it against them. It was a single-use number two. If the enemy did have a shield, this Pierce's then bends and breaks it and now they've got this big Club stuck to their Shield that they're forced. Most of the time do then render their Shield. And they have just been disregarded of their Shield. I don't want to just share with you and I know what comes your clothes here? But I want you to think of Prayer in the multiple kinds that there was one more and that they, that They Carried that was many times their Cavalry or their, their Chariot writers. That was a 16-foot spear that they would will to really reach out while they're coming across. But the spear was always something that reaches out Out Of Reach. And how many times is it, when we are fighting in battles, do we not recognize that prayer? Is what reaches out ahead of us. Something to give you a couple of points here and then I'm just going to share with your head. He says, pray and all kinds of prayers. I all I wanted almost to try to chat to go through this but I can tell you I wrote down in my preparation at least nine types of prayers and how to use them in Warfare. And I didn't want to keep you here today to go through all of that. So today, I just want to present to you The idea that prayer is a weapon. And I want to challenge you have your prayer life. Been threatening to the, to the darkness around, you has your prayer life, been a battle. Do you go to war When you pray? Or is the air is the enemy completely content with your prayer life? Does your prayer life, threaten the darkness and the kingdom of darkness? Or is your prayer life something. That has not been a weapon for you before.

Prayer is a weapon. And just like these three Spears that let me just share with you. It's something that reaches out further than we can. It's an extension of our reach like the Javelin in order for it to be effective, it has to be released. And so many times, if our prayers are not something that we're having to release to be at work, in God's hands and not just our own. Then it's not an effective. It's not effective. And like the javelin where they would really sit out at their enemy with a Target and a name and a projection, so should our prayers.

And so I just challenged you without sometimes. Our prayers should be for things that are well ahead of any detail. We know. And I just changed to Mom's and Dad's here and I don't know what age are. Children are, there's a day coming where it where my wife and I are going to be welcoming a daughter-in-law to do our home and I look forward to that day when I can look at her and say, I've been praying for you if I have been, I hate this idea. Got to me, even when I was a teenager. And I begin to pray for my future wife, when I was 15 years old.

I was challenged with those prayers and it's funny. We've talked, there were some nights where I was woken up as a teenager 16, 17 years old with a burden to pray for my future wife and I don't know who she is or what she's going through, but I can pray for her and she can tell me if times in her life at that age when she would have needed those prayers. And it's so cool when we got married and I can look at it. So I've been praying for you since I was 15 years old.

Not just a promise to start praying for you today.

It's okay. I just encourage you, what are some prayers? Your praying that maybe you don't know some detail, but like that Javelin, you're just putting them out there. For them to go ahead and begin to wreak havoc for the enemy. Amen. I said, I just want to challenge you to look at prayer. As a weapon in and let me just challenge me, says this it. So, I'm a challenge with two that I can give you today as we go from here. And then I'm just going to tell you, hey, in January, We're going to try. But one this we understand the Spear of prayer that prayers is spirit that it should be at work that it's a weapon. We're going to go into the holidays, and courage Jordan sign up. Now in January we're going to be doing a series on the Warfare of Prayer. And we will go through the different types of prayers and how to utilize them as weapons in your walk. And so I'm just going to whet your appetite a little bit today. So I was like okay can we fit the fast board? But let's get to January. I almost kind of trade. I was like honestly was thinking I'd share all this this morning maybe we can do a Sunday night in the Monday night and my wife lives that don't do that either way. And either way. Prayer is a weapon. Let me just share with you. This learn to pray scripture. We talked about speaking scripture, but I would encourage you learn how to pray scripture. How do you know you're praying? The will of God will, if you're praying scripture, you know, it's his will cuz everything he spoke as well. In the number to an end. Will go more in-depth on this too. But Paul says, pray in the spirit on All Occasions. So can I say, we can go through the different types of prayer, but all of it, if you're not praying in the spirit will be, it won't have the power behind it that it needs. And there is a difference between praying with the spirit and praying in the spirit.