We are going to get right into our our lesson today continuing
on in our Ephesians 6 study on the armor of God.
And this week we are, we are taking a look at the same verse
that we were on last week, Ephesians 617.
But specifically, we're moving on to another item 617 says and
take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God. So let me just give a little
background on on the item in in question here.
The the Roman sword that we're talking about is called a
gladius. The gladius was at this time
when this was written in the 1st century.
This was a relatively new at least in, in Rome, it was
borrowed from the the Greek Zephos sword.
It was a relatively new design, at least in large scale
production for like the military and stuff, because it had a
double edge. Most swords would be on
one-on-one edge, while the other side was blunt.
And so tactically, this, this changed the way that the, that
this sword was wielded and defended against because it
would, you know, both, both sides of the blade were, were,
were lethal. And so people defending against
this had to change the way that they, they fought.
So this is a big deal that it was, you know, that it was a, a
new thing for them. It was, it was the, the gladius
was useful in a chopping and swinging motion, but it was also
very effective in a stabbing move like from the phalanx that
we, we talked about a couple weeks ago.
The, the formation that the soldiers would do with their,
with their Shields, they would, they'd hold the shield up and,
and stab the sword out. And this gladius sword was
usually only about 19 inches long, rarely longer than 27
inches, which was much shorter than previous swords of the
region. And this just the size of this
thing alone. The fact that it was a short
sword, it actually added to the reputation of the Roman
centurion because it suggested that he was extremely courageous
or or brave by by going into a battle with this short sword.
So all of this background, all of this stuff to say the double
edged sword was designed with maximum lethality in mind.
It was extremely dangerous and effective in the hands of a well
trained soldier. Now this sword was was worn
securely on the belt. In fact, the sword of the spirit
was directly linked to the belt of truth, reminding us that the
word of God is intimately and eternally connected and, and
absolutely inseparable from truth.
And you guys have probably watched, you know, movies with
sword fights and, and certainly you've noticed in every sword
fight that you've ever seen that the sword is used to block
attacks as well as to deliver them.
So the sword is really the only offensive and defensive weapon
in the armor of God arsenal that that we're looking at.
And that's a concept that's very important in our our study
today. So let's talk about it being a
defensive weapon first. So second Timothy 316 is a
package that we've all heard, you know, many times and it
testifies to the God breathed authority of the word of God.
It says all Scripture is breathed out by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for
training and righteousness. Now you might sword that way,
but I think if you know, if, if you can imagine like a, a horse
with a a riding crop, using that to, to correct and that horse,
it's a weapon, so to speak, right?
It's, it's, it's, you know, much the same way with with the idea
here of the sword. So in Luke 4, when Jesus was
tempted in the wilderness by Satan, the only responses that
are recorded from Jesus are to quote Scripture.
Now, Jesus is omnipotent, right? Jesus is, he's supremely
powerful and capable of destroying Satan.
But his method of defense was the word of God.
It was just it was to quote Scripture, which I think is is
is pretty, pretty interesting. In Revelation 116 we see this
this phrasing or this, you know, talking about the double edged
sword. We see it several places, but I
just want to pull a couple of these out real briefly.
Revelation 116, it says in his right hand he held seven stars
and coming out of his mouth was a sharp double edged sword.
Pretty specific there, right? And then in Revelation 212, I
got to use this cool font. I thought the the, the topic
here, I had a different 1 and I couldn't read it.
So I changed it so you guys can read it a little bit.
But now I can't read it back there because it's because it's
fancy. In Revelation 212, it says to
the Angel of the church in in Pergamum write these are the
words of him who has the sharp double edged sword.
So again here, that's another example of where we see this
phrase double edged sword. Now this is an interesting word
when you when you look at the Greek double edged means, it's
the word diestomos, diestomos in, in Greek and it's a, it's a
it's weird because it's a combination of these two words
die meaning to and stomos or stomos meaning mouth.
So it actually is the actual translation of this is a double
mouthed sword, which is pretty interesting.
We see indications of of something along this line
elsewhere to in in Isaiah 49, two says he made my mouth like a
sharp sword. And then again in Revelation,
there's several of them in Revelation, but in Revelation
19, it says from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to
strike down the nation's. Now those last two, the sharp
sword, it's not the same double edge, but it's still interesting
that it's that that imagery of a, of a, a sword associated with
the mouth. So even though it doesn't say
that double edge meaning double mouth, it's still both of them
are, are indicating and, and placing it coming out of, of the
mouth. So that's a, that's a, a pretty
interesting concept that that we have here.
Now the sharpened edge of the sword, this is this is a a very
specific description that we see that it's double edged this way.
And and so many commentaries as they as they work through this,
explain that that one sharpened edge of the sword came into
being when the word of God initially proceeded from the
mouth of God. The second edge of the sword is
is added when the word of God proceeds from your mouth.
So I'm not ascribing power to it supernaturally when when we
speak it, but but but figuratively when we are able to
speak God's word. There is power in that we we
know that because that's that's backed up in in Scripture, but
it must be properly wielded. If we again, if we go back and
we look at that passage in Luke 4 after Satan tried to attempt
Jesus the first two times, he comes back with his third
attempt to to tempt him and he uses Scripture against Jesus
improperly, right? That's why this is important.
It does The sword has to be wielded properly.
Satan used the same weapon, but he didn't use it properly.
And so this is how we know that the sword of the Spirit is
perfectly attached to the belt of truth because the misuse of
Scripture didn't have power, because Satan tried to swing it
untruthfully. We also see that the the sword
of the Spirit is an offensive weapon.
As we've already seen, the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 617
is in our, in our main passages identified as the as the word of
God. And the Bible identifies the
word of God as Scripture, right? God's as Scripture has God's
spoken Word and Jesus the Incarnate word we that laid out
clearly in in in John chapter 1. Then in Hebrews 4 verse 12 says
for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any 2
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. So the idea is that is that of
of of piercing and penetrating right the the word of God
reaches all the way to the heart, the very center of
action, and it lays open the motives and the and the feelings
of of of those that it touches. It discerns between what is good
and what is bad. Now we, we know that we all
develop our own opinions and our own beliefs, some of them very
strongly, right? We all, we all have some beliefs
that we hold onto very, very strongly.
And until we come to know Jesus rightly, many of those beliefs
that we hold onto so strongly are are simply wrong, right?
We we can all admit that, right? We've we've held onto things in
our life that we thought were absolute, but but when we when
we come to know Jesus, often times we come to opinion we and
we start believing something differently.
So God's word, this scalpel sharp blade can cut through the
joints in the marrow it and help us to separate our wrong,
sinful, selfish opinions and beliefs from the truth of God.
That's why in that passage from second Timothy where we read is
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for
training in, in righteousness. So certainly as you, as you
think about this idea of separating the, the, the, the
joint from the marrow, right or, or whatever.
For me anyways, I, I was going to put a picture of, you know,
prepping, you know, meat away from the steak.
But it'd be one thing if it was a steak, but if you didn't know
it was a steak, you might think it was some gross, gruesome, you
know, Wharf picture or something like that.
So I didn't, I didn't put it up here, but I think you can
imagine that, right? If you've ever cut the, the, the
meat away from a bone and, and you've tried to use a sharp
knife in order to, to do that and, and the sharper the knife,
the the better you can do that. Or, or hunters.
You guys have certainly done the same thing when you've prepped,
you know, game in the field to, to, you know, get the, the meat
to take home. And so the the sharp blade of
Scripture has the ability to separate those ugly things that
we cling to right in our hearts in our in our lives.
Second Corinthians 10 verses 4 through 5 says for weapons of
our welfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to
destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every
lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every
thought captive to obey Christ. Well, think about what those
strongholds are in our in our life, right?
A sin. So when we read the Bible, when
we study Scripture and hear the heart of God, we're enlightened
to it, right? And it, it shines a light into
those recesses of our lives where we ignore our sins or, or,
or really more to the point where we have where we have
hidden sin, right? It it brings them to light in
stark contrast to God's word and to and and in doing that it
those strongholds are destroyed, that safe and secure place where
our guilty treasures of of sin, where stash are now vulnerable.
Well, what about every lofty opinion raised against the
knowledge of God? Our society has some pretty
crazy opinions that go directly against the knowledge of God
right. And and in this passage in
Second Corinthians, Paul is talking about people who have in
this particular situation, people who have attacked his
ministry specific specifically suggesting that he's a coward
when he visits them. But he talks the in the, in the
letters that he writes. But our but, but we can use this
throughout, right, because our weapons to fight those lofty
opinions of, of people of of critics of culture of just our,
our sinful world, though they aren't weapons of the flesh.
And we need to understand that we don't, we don't, you know,
there's no fistfights or Glocks needed in order to, to defend
the faith, right? Our weapon to defeat those lofty
ideas is to share the word of God, and that's a very powerful
weapon. And just because the word of God
is a weapon doesn't mean that we need to hurt people with it.
Truth alone, truth. Truth does hurt, right?
We can all understand that. Sometimes people hear truth and
they think that it's hate speech, but it's not Truth can
can hurt us. It's it's supposed to, it is
supposed to cut us deep when our position on something goes
against it, goes against God's will.
In First Corinthians one, verse 18, it says for the word of the
cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who
are being saved, it is the power of God.
And so, no, sorry, I should have used the sword of the Spirit.
Yeah, there's a lot of foolishness and, and hurtful
truth in the Bible for those who choose sin, right?
I'm not saying it's foolishness, but the Bible says that it's it,
it comes across as foolishness to those who are perishing.
And so of course it's going to be hurtful.
But we got to, you know, we need to be aware of that.
We don't, we don't wield it in order to hurt, but we do wield
it knowing that it hurts. Does that make sense?
We're, we shouldn't be afraid to to share the gospel knowing that
that those who are perishing are going to find it foolishness and
and they're going to be sometimes bothered by that.
But we don't do it with the intention of but we want to
share with them and let the, the blade of, of Scripture do the
cutting right. And soon that cutting away of,
of cancerous sin brings about miraculous changes.
It, it does it in US, right? And then it also does it in the
people that we share the gospel with that sin that, that, that
that made us sick, that held us prisoner to choosing our own
sinful path. It, it loses its, its power over
us and something new and healthy emerges.
And Ezekiel 3627, it says, and I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey
my rules. And then just 4 verses later, I
think that's on that same screen.
Yeah, in verse, in verse 31, it says then you will remember your
evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will
loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your
abominations. So like this is where I think
that this imagery can be helpful to us to understand that, for
example, if you're, you know, the idea of surgery, the scalpel
has to do damage in order to cut out what's bad, right?
But but the sharper that scalpel is, the more accurate it can be
in cutting where it needs to cut, right.
And so if we that, the more that we know scripture and can wield
it in in a proper way, the sharper that that blade is and
the more that it's able to, to, to cut where it where it needs
to cut and not do additional damage.
And what I mean by that, I hope I'm explaining this way or hope
I'm explaining this clearly. But what I mean by that is that
we all know of times when people have used Scripture
intentionally too hurt. They, they, they misuse it,
right? They, they try to cherry pick a
verse or a passage or an idea from Scripture and they use it
to suggest something that, that it is something other than what
it is. And that can, that can do damage
to people who, who don't, you know, who don't understand.
And I think we hear about that kind of thing a lot from people
that are that are critical of Christianity is they think that
they think that the gospel is is more it is not a fine blade.
They think of it that people wield it like a big old club
that just smashes and does all kinds of all kinds of what do
you call that extra damage? What do you call that?
What's that word? Collateral damage, Right.
Yeah. So, but you know, in this, in
this passage, it's, it's referred to as the sword of the
spirit, right? We have to remember that the
purpose of the sword of the spirit, the Bible is, is to make
us strong and, and able to withstand the evil onslaughts of
our enemies of Satan and, and his demons.
Matthew 10 verses 19 through 20 is a passage that you know many
of us are probably familiar with regarding persecution.
Says when they deliver you over, do not be anxious how you are to
speak or what you are to say for what you are for.
For what you are to say will be given to you in that hour.
For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father
speaking through you. So the Word of God is to be
wielded like a sharp 2 edged sword in the mighty power of the
Holy Spirit, both defensively and offensively.
Swords were used to protect oneself from harm or attack the
enemy to overcome or or kill him.
And, and so and where we see Jesus uses the uses scripture to
defend against Satan's attack. And also where we see we that
the Word of God penetrates into us offensively and carves us,
carves us up. See how what I mean about it
being both offensive and defensive?
The Holy Spirit uses the power of the Word to save souls
through the conviction of sin and then regeneration into new
life, and then to give them spiritual strength to be a
mature, effective soldiers for the Lord in fighting this
corrupt and evil world that we live in.
In sharing the gospel with the lost.
Not because God needs us to to do that, but because He gives
opportunity to do that. Right.
In Romans 10 verses 14 and 15 it says, How then will they call on
him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in Him, believe in Him of whom they
have never heard? And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? And how are they to preach
unless they are sent as it is written?
How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news
and that preach to word. When we share the gospel with
people, it is powerful. Isaiah 55 verse 11 says, So
shall my word be that goes out from my mouth.
It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that
which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I
sent it. Now remember in that verse that
we read from First Corinthians chapter one said for the for the
word of the cross as foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.
So while we read Isaiah and know that God's Word does not return
empty or void in some of the translations, that same passage
says that it will accomplish God's purpose, not ours, right?
So, so think about this. We can struggle with our friends
and loved ones who don't seem to be responding to the gospel
where maybe, you know, we might think that God's word is
returning empty, but we need to remember that he does things
according to his will and purpose, not not according to
our plans or, or our calendars or our timelines or anything
like that. 1st Corinthians 211 and 12 says so also, no one
comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God that we might understand the things
freely given us by God. So the sword of the Spirit is
not just for defense, actively countering evil and resisting
temptation. It's it's used to to discern
right from wrong and to live in a way that is free from sin
might not always understand everything about it.
In fact, we will never fully understand, we'll never fully
understand everything about it, right?
But we can trust that though, the more that we read it, the
more that we study it, the more that we memorize it and that we
pray and, and, and share it and apply it, the more that we will
be surgically affected by it too.
It'll continue to cut into us and cut away those things.
And again, the more that we read and study and share that with
other people as well, the more that it will that they will be
surgically affected by it on God's timing.
Not and it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to hear
it and come to saving faith. We all know that, right?
But it might affect them in some ways that that the sort of that
Pebble effect that way, if that ripple effect might might reach
somebody, you know, down the line in a way that we can't even
understand it. So there's no coincidence that
Scripture uses this imagery of these weapons here in this way.
This double edged sword was designed with maximum lethality
in mind. It was it was extremely
dangerous and effective in the hands of a well trained soldier.
Well, the word of God also has maximum lethality to sin.
It is dangerous and effective in the hands of a well trained
soldier. So let's talk, Let's just let's
let's discuss a couple of things here.
Let me here's a here's a here's a couple of questions.
I just like to maybe chat with you guys about how can we, how
can we use the sword of the spirit effectively in our daily
life? Sure.
Our actions. How how, how do we use the word
of God, the sword of the spirit? How do we do that in our
actions? By living for God.
Yeah. To to to conduct ourselves like
what we see in Scripture, maybe. What else?
What else can we do in our daily life that we can use the sword
of Spirit? Yeah.
Did you guys hear that? Yeah.
That's that's absolutely right. We should always be.
I don't know who it was that said that God's word is the
anvil with which we smashed our our opinions against something
like that. Some somebody smarter than me.
Did you? It was Spurgeon.
OK, Yeah. So.
So that's the idea. If if and the anvil is true,
right, it doesn't, it doesn't change.
That's the whole point of it. Everything else is malleable
based off of that. And that's how God's word is.
So if like what Leanna's saying, if we, if we can do this and,
and apply it to ourselves as we read it on a daily basis and
whatever it is, whatever passage that we're in, if we go, what do
I learn in here that I can apply to my life?
How do I need to maybe reposition myself to be in line
with with Scripture, right? Were you going to say something
fighting the enemy with it? So, so like Jesus, right, like
speaking it, right. I mean, there's lots of
discussion that we could have about about that.
But years ago, when my, when my dad was in the hospital, I, I
told my mom, I said, you know, I, I, I don't know that there's
anything to this or not, but, but you know, let's get some
hymns going in his room while he's unconscious and just let
him soak in that. I don't know what that, you
know, necessarily just to, to hear it all the time and let it,
you know, penetrate into his heart and, and that kind of
thing. I think there is just something
wonderful about about hearing it in our life on our on a regular
basis. You know, if if you hear
somebody quoting scripture, you might not even know what the
whole context of it is that they're talking about.
But there's even something wonderful in hearing somebody
speak it. What else?
Yeah. Kevin, to give a defense in
Peter with Peter. Yeah, always be prepared to give
a defense. So that kind of goes to the same
thing about I think kind of what Toby's saying is as far as like
using it in conversations, right?
That's what we were talking about earlier with the lofty
opinions that the people have, these other these, these
unbiblical opinions that they might have.
And when, when, when it's it's helpful for us to go to
Scripture to be able to speak through that.
We don't have to have our our entire conversation or our
entire response be quoting Scripture, but that is a great
place for us to base ourselves. What else, anything else that we
can do to effectively utilize the the the sort of spirit in
our in our daily life. How about just teaching, right?
I mean, just just sharing it not, and I don't, I don't mean I
guess what we're all we're, you know, in defense, we're teaching
somebody. Maybe I was thinking more like a
conflictual kind of a kind of a dynamic.
But but what about our kids, right?
What about just sharing it with our with our kids or with our
spouse or with our neighbor and and just studying it with them
and proclaiming it, sharing it with them.
What are some practical steps for studying Scripture to be
prepared for spiritual attack? OK, Discipline as far as like
schedule, like regular, habitual.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
It's got to be like this. What the base of your day is.
What were you going to say, Steve?
Yeah, kind of the same thing, right?
Like be diligent about it, intentional about it.
And I'll tell you what, like if you can't be diligent about it,
if you're struggling with that, like if you can't impassionately
get involved in a, in a daily study, at least start with going
through the motions of it, right?
At least start with, OK, I'm going to read some.
Even if you're not in a place where you can devote ample time
to the study, at least start there.
Because it's, I think it's amazing how much we will, we
will read this, even if it's just something in passing or
whatever. And it'll be with us later on in
the day and we'll be like, oh man, you know, I, I didn't
really understand what that meant at the time, but you know,
Mallard said something in our study group and it, and that
passage I read this morning came back and, and it, and now I want
to know more about it. And it sparked something, right?
What else? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes,
yeah, it does. It needs to be intentional that
we do. And we put it on the schedule,
right? But let me just tell you, maybe
maybe like, you know, you want to start going for a walk every
every evening or whatever. And you, you tell somebody and
you say, you know, hey, Oscar, I, I want to go for a walk every
night. Don't let me chicken out.
Don't let me tell you my feet hurt.
Don't let me tell you I'm too busy.
Sometimes it's an accountability, you know, like
their accountability is a big part of our walk.
And so sometimes it's just a commitment to somebody that,
hey, we're going to, we're going to do this.
In fact, my son and I just this morning I was telling him, let's
start doing this Bible study together every day.
And I said, even if I for some reason come up with an excuse
not to, you need to do it. Well, come and talk to me and
let's do this together. We were just having this, you
know, this talk this morning. We're going to start a new
study. But, but that's that way on
those days when I'm a little busy or I'm not feeling or
whatever somebody else is going, Hey, I, I need this though,
right? I need to go read through this
because my day will start off improperly as well.
How are you practicing the use of God's Word so as to be
prepared when you face temptation?
Anybody utilizing scripture in a way to to help them when they're
struggling with with being tempted somehow in in whatever?
Together you try and memorize them together that way.
Is there a tactic or a or a method to where you put them?
Yeah. To memorize, Yeah.
Yeah. Anybody have any other
methodologies for dealing with using Scripture for to, to deal
with temptation? I'll tell you an example of.
Oh, go ahead. Yeah.
So you use it to help other people that way too?
Yeah. That's a yeah, right.
My mom was telling me the other day that in fact she just
reminded me of something that she's had at her house on her on
her fridge for since I was a little kid.
As a post it note that says says nothing tastes as good as being
thin feels right. She put that remember where her
temptation was at the fridge. Sometimes if if if we're dealing
with something that's like whatever it is that we're
worried about being tempted by scripture can work that way and
be more even more. Would love if a specific area
where I was struggling to be reminded of this, you know,
perhaps even in that moment, maybe maybe it's something at
work, maybe I'm a different person at work.
And I and I put up some reminders at work that way to
remind me that way. So when I'm tempted to, to drift
into being somebody else, I'm reminded through scripture
because I have those reminders there.
I think that's why we get some of these, you know, stitched
quilts and stuff like that. And it's a good right.
We they're a good reminder to have have this this passage that
reminds US of a of a biblical principle that we want to hold
on to. And it's nice to have them, you
know, at easy access in our in our lives.
And yeah, absolutely that's the idea.
And I mean, it's and it doesn't necessarily mean that we need to
go write it on our front gate. It's but the concept of having
the reminders of of God and and his word throughout our life, it
helps us to deal with with these things.
The way the reason why they they wore those frontlets was so that
it was in in front of them for that specific reason.
Yeah. It's that simple, huh?
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
And now let's just you know, you don't have to have the whole
book memorized in order to be effective, right.
But, but it is definitely, it is definitely to our benefit and to
our friends benefit. If when they come to me with
something, whether it's a critique or it's a complaint
about scripture or a genuine question about it, or if it's
just a life question about, hey, I'm thinking about doing this
thing in my life. You have any advice for me?
If we have the ability to come from a place of God's word in
that, that is an effective way of, of discipling people.
Because here's the thing, like sometimes when we see Jesus
quoting the Bible in the Bible, he's not quoting the Bible.
He's paraphrasing the Bible. He's not.
It's not necessarily a word for word quotation.
He's going and he's paraphrasing now.
He, he understands that. It's not like he it's not
because he didn't have it word for word.
But I think we can take something from that and not be
afraid to explain a point if we can't speak it verbatim, right?
There's a place where but we got to know this text in order to
have the spirit of it. Go ahead, Toby.
Yeah, yeah, because yeah, knowing it so that we can
recognize what's not scripture is what you're saying.
In our culture, we definitely have that right.
We definitely have, sometimes we have these, these theological
religion based conversations and, and we can sometimes be
presented with something and, and go is that the Bible is
being quoted or, or some other religious texts that I'm not
familiar with. And so I mean, that can happen.
There's a, you know, there's a lot of, there's a lot of words
and a lot of sentences in, you know, in, in scripture.
So we might not be able to to identify them immediately, but
the more we read Scripture, the more we're going to be able to
recognize something that is not actual scripture.
Right. And then we could do again,
similar to what Jesus did with Satan when he said that's not
scripture. I mean, he didn't say that, but
he, he countered it with truthful Scripture when when
Satan misused it. We got a couple of minutes.
But how could you lean on the Holy Spirit's help in doing
battle for the Kingdom of God each day?
Say that again. Pray.
Yeah. You ever pray the Bible?
Yeah. It's there's something beautiful
about praying Scripture, praying God's Word back to him.
That's a that's an aspect of it. What else can we do to lean on
the Holy Spirit's help? That's
yeah, that's straight back to the to the second Timothy 316
passage about all scripture being God breathed right.
That's that's there is where the authority of Scripture comes as
it is literally the breath of God-given to us and maintained
and and and passed down through the the generations for us to be
able to go and look at right like this.
The the same that the same Canon, the same word of God that
was available to, you know, the the 1st century Christians as
they were trying to figure out their way is the same thing that
we've got. We have them.
We get to we get to quote God Almighty and go straight to his
heart to understand how we then manipulate ourselves to align
with him and how we look at the the world.
What else? What else can we lean on the
holy? Or how else can we lean on the
Holy Spirit's help? Yeah, right.
Absolutely. The Great Commission is just as
in place for us as it was for the 1st century Christians,
right. And the amazing thing is that
they didn't, they didn't all have God's word in their in
their phones, right? Most of those guys 2000 years
ago didn't even carry phones, but but they didn't have that
but, but they, but they still relied on God's word as preached
to them and as as memorized and carried then to the to all the
all of the nations and tribes and tongues.
OK, anything else but it it's 10 next week we're going to do a
summation of this series and then we'll get into a another
series following that which we will get into the the attributes
of of God. But unless there's anything
else, let me just pray yes, out and into the rest of our day.
Lord God, I thank you. I thank you for the sword of the
spirit. I thank you that we have
something like this that defends us from the attacks because in
our humanity, attacks from from Satan can can seem daunting and
overwhelming. And yet, Lord, we know that
there is victory in your word. We know that you have ultimate
victory. And so it's, it's a, it's a joy
and it's a, it's a peace. And it gives us hope to have
your word that we can rely on, that we can lean on and then be
empowered through the Holy Spirit as that, as that same
word that defended us then is turned inward in US, Lord, in
our lives, in our hearts, and is used to surgically cut out those
things. They go against you that we know
all of us in this room know that we have that that we as much as
we don't want to admit it, there's places that sometimes we
try to hide. And Lord, I'm thankful that your
word cut so sharply into those recesses of our heart to get
those things out of there so that we can be more in line with
you. Because as much as we hold on to
those, those sins that we think that we, we, we like or even
love, Lord, we love you more. We want to, we want to be closer
to you than we are to that sin. And so we're grateful that we
have that to root out, to cut it out of our life.
And we, we just hope that today with the, as we continue on with
our service with the song word and the preached word, that it
will continue to, to cut that, that cancerous junk out of our
life, Lord, and, and help us to be more in line with you.
And we give the service to you in Jesus name, Amen.
Thanks guys.