Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. This is not heaven down here, and the fact that you're a Christian does not mean that you're alienated and isolated, cocooned and protected from the blows of the devil.

Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. This is not heaven down here, and the fact that you're a Christian does not mean that you're alienated and isolated, cocooned and protected from the blows of the devil.

Quite the contrary.

Quite the contrary.

This is living a legacy featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Crawford Lawrence. Hope you had a meaningful Christmas celebration. And here we are once again, watching the lights begin to dim on a passing year. Well, great to be with you again in a few moments. Crawford challenges us to anticipate and prepare for the challenges of a new year, not just in a general way, but in a spiritual way. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians to be ready for battle. To anticipate the various ways Satan will attempt to divert us from the path of righteousness and holiness. He seeks our destruction, especially if our lives are directing others to Christ. Now, we don't know what we'll encounter on that path in the next several months, but we're to prepare our minds for a response, a response fueled by the strength and power of God. The messages we feature each week here on Living a Legacy come from Crawford's 15 years serving as senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church of Roswell, Georgia. Now, these are but a few of the over 50 years Crawford has invested in Christian ministry. He now heads the leadership mentoring program called Beyond Our Generation. His books include leadership as an Identity Your Marriage Today and Tomorrow, and unshaken. Crawford will take us to Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 18, to reacquaint us with the spiritual armor we're to wear each day. His message is titled Dressed and Ready to Go. At the end of our broadcast, I'll have details about how to hear this and recent messages again. Here's Crawford Lawrence on Living a legacy.

This is living a legacy featuring the Bible teaching ministry of Doctor Crawford Lawrence. Hope you had a meaningful Christmas celebration. And here we are once again, watching the lights begin to dim on a passing year. Well, great to be with you again in a few moments. Crawford challenges us to anticipate and prepare for the challenges of a new year, not just in a general way, but in a spiritual way. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians to be ready for battle. To anticipate the various ways Satan will attempt to divert us from the path of righteousness and holiness. He seeks our destruction, especially if our lives are directing others to Christ. Now, we don't know what we'll encounter on that path in the next several months, but we're to prepare our minds for a response, a response fueled by the strength and power of God. The messages we feature each week here on Living a Legacy come from Crawford's 15 years serving as senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church of Roswell, Georgia. Now, these are but a few of the over 50 years Crawford has invested in Christian ministry. He now heads the leadership mentoring program called Beyond Our Generation. His books include leadership as an Identity Your Marriage Today and Tomorrow, and unshaken. Crawford will take us to Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 18, to reacquaint us with the spiritual armor we're to wear each day. His message is titled Dressed and Ready to Go. At the end of our broadcast, I'll have details about how to hear this and recent messages again. Here's Crawford Lawrence on Living a legacy.

Let me just read the text. Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through the first part of verse 18. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. I've entitled my message today dressed and ready to go. I. You might think this is a little bit of a strange message to give at the end of the year, but not really. Paul strikes the reality of the spiritual conflict in which we live. He wrote this book to a group of Christians in Ephesus. And it's interesting how he ends the book as he described their position in Christ. He described the fact of their glorious salvation. And he talks about this thing called the church and its impact on the world. He talks about family relationships. And he said, wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. I'll tell you one thing. None of this stuff takes place in a neutral environment. This is not heaven down here. And the fact that you're a Christian does not mean that you're alienated and isolated, cocooned and protected from the blows of the devil. Quite the contrary. In the South Pacific at the end of World War two. Um. In this remote island, there, there was a some soldiers, the Japanese soldiers who had not gotten word that the war was over and that they lost. They hadn't gotten the word. And so they were still fighting and the bullets were real. Satan has been defeated at the cross. He's been defeated at the cross. And he's a guerrilla warfare right now. But he's been defeated at the cross. Um, Jesus died and rose again, and he crushed the devil at the cross, breaking his power. And he has a death sentence. However, he's still roaming about and he is manic, coming after believers. Satan is coming after you, and he's coming after me. And the truth of the matter that we're in the midst of warfare. Now, this text is not to scare us. It's quite contrary, quite to the contrary as you walk through the text. This is not to scare us, not to frighten us and not to make us cower. As you read the text, this is just the opposite. It's to give us confidence. But it's also to tell us, hey, look, just because you're in Christ does not mean that you're not. That you're cocooned from the attacks of the wicked one. A few years ago, someone in our church gave me a coin. I carry this thing with me everywhere I go when I play golf. It's a it's a ball marker. Actually, it's illegal because it's too big, but it draws attention and also stops the ball if it goes too. Never mind. Uh, a little strategy involved. But this coin is a great reminder. It says put on the whole armor of God. On one side. And on the other side, it outlines what that armor is. Now, I'm not into superstition or anything. It's not anything superstitious about this. But I often will feel this coin in my pocket. And I'm reminded, Crawford, there's a real enemy. There's a real devil. You can go to bank on this whenever God is at work and whenever there are new ventures, and whenever there is clarity given by the Holy Spirit to a group of people, all hell will break loose. The enemy does not want the work of God to go forward. I want to walk through this passage, and I just want to say three things, because I think Paul organizes his thoughts around these three things, and you'll see the progression in the text. And I want us to pay attention to this. He talks about the warrior. He talks about the war, and then he talks about the wardrobe, the warrior, the nature of the warrior, the nature of the war and the nature of the wardrobe. First of all, he talks about the nature of the warrior. Three observations. Verse ten says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. I think what he's saying basically in this one verse, actually three things, two things in this verse and the third one in verse 11, he's saying acquire his strength. Lay hold of the divine resources available to you. Notice the line, he says, finally, be strong in the Lord. Acquire his strength. Acquire his strength. Listen to me. Listen to me, listen to me. Stay away from these believers who are always saying stuff. Like when they're speaking to Satan. They're saying, I stand against you. Really? You don't stand against anything. Our strength is not our strength to fight. You don't have the strength and neither do I to come. Do you know who Satan is? It's the highest of all the angels supernatural power. Our strength is an acquired strength. It's not some spiritual bragging. It's an acquired strength. And so he begins this discussion by saying the warrior has to have an acquired strength. He needs to be strong in the Lord. And then secondly, he has to use his strength. Be strong in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord. This is a reference to our position in Christ. Paul began the whole book by talking about that first, I guess actually the second long paragraph there in Ephesians chapter one. He keeps saying, we're in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. It's his strength that we use to do anything in the Christian life. So at the very beginning, he's calling the warriors to be humble and dependent. You can't fight this in your. There's not enough seminars that can equip you to fight against the devil. So what? You know who you are. The strength comes from him. Our position in him. We are no longer under the control of the devil, is what he's saying. But we are in Christ, and we don't draw our source of strength from ourselves, but from him. And the third thing he's saying about the warrior is that we stand in his strength. Now Paul is being redundant. Did you notice how many times he uses the word stand or derivations of that word? Verse 11, he says stand. Verse 13 withstand. Verse 13 again stand firm. Verse 14 stand therefore. I think he wants us to stand. Stand. Well, you got to let the enemy know what he's saying is this. You must let the enemy know what he is up against. Now, again, it's an acquired strength. And again, we're using the strength that comes from the Lord. But it doesn't mean that we're not confident. It doesn't mean that we roll over. It means that that acquired strength, his strength, that acquired strength. His strength helps us to stand. To stand solid. And when the enemy comes up against us, he's coming up against something supernatural. You see in the Bible, James chapter four. In first Peter chapter five, James four seven says, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The best way of getting rid of the enemy is to resist him and not to run from him. You don't run from Satan. You resist him. You resist his his, his attacks. And and by the way, the text goes on to tell us how to resist him later on. But we resist the enemy. Why? Because we're standing in his strength. He says, resist him first. Peter five says, resist him. Firm in your faith. He's talking about confidence. We are in Christ. We don't have to be scared warriors. We don't have to cower in the corner. We don't have to let demons or devils or attacks or that kind of thing intimidate us. We are in him. That is the safest place in the world to be. And I want you to hear that today. Some of you have allowed fear to paralyze you. You can't move forward. You're panicky. And that's exactly where the devil wants you to be. Our humble dependence upon the great God of the universe, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross on the third day and rose again, who is seated at the right hand of God the Father. The Bible says that we are in him. And when the devil comes up against us, if we're covered in him, he's coming up against the Ancient of Days, and we have to stand with that degree of confidence, with confidence. And so we stand. Second Kings chapter six, verses 11 through 17 is an excellent illustration of this from the Bible. Elisha is chilling with his assistant, and the assistant is kind of like shaking like crazy. So like Barney Fife, I mean, he sees he sees the Assyrian army Surrounding Elisha. And he said, look, man, you know I don't mean no harm. I know God's used you in a great way. But I'm doing the math here, brother. There's two of us, and there are hundreds of them. And by the way, they have weapons. And Elijah said, God, open his eyes. And when God opens his servant's eyes, he looks on the hillside, and there he sees. Chariots of fire. The armies of the living God. Do you know? And I'm going to get into this in a second. Do you know that there are angels around you? Each one of us. Do you know that we are surrounded by celestial angelic beings? Do you know that all the protection of heaven is right there for you? And what the enemy wants you to think about is that you're isolated, you're alone. Nobody cares. This is an overwhelming set of circumstances. I cannot get through this. This is the end of me. This is the end of the road. Nothing. All this stuff is going to fall apart. What we need to say is, God, open our eyes. Open our eyes. Well, that's the nature of the warrior. Number two, let's look at the nature of the war, the nature of the war. I want you to notice in verse 11 and in verse 13 this statement he repeats himself. Paul says, put on the whole armor of God. And then down in verse 13 he says, therefore take up the whole armor of God. I want you to understand something. We're going to get into the wardrobe in a second, but listen to me. Two observations. Number one, he says, you do not pick and choose what part of the wardrobe you want to wear. Okay? This is not oh, I don't those shoes.

Let me just read the text. Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through the first part of verse 18. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. I've entitled my message today dressed and ready to go. I. You might think this is a little bit of a strange message to give at the end of the year, but not really. Paul strikes the reality of the spiritual conflict in which we live. He wrote this book to a group of Christians in Ephesus. And it's interesting how he ends the book as he described their position in Christ. He described the fact of their glorious salvation. And he talks about this thing called the church and its impact on the world. He talks about family relationships. And he said, wait, wait, wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait. I'll tell you one thing. None of this stuff takes place in a neutral environment. This is not heaven down here. And the fact that you're a Christian does not mean that you're alienated and isolated, cocooned and protected from the blows of the devil. Quite the contrary. In the South Pacific at the end of World War two. Um. In this remote island, there, there was a some soldiers, the Japanese soldiers who had not gotten word that the war was over and that they lost. They hadn't gotten the word. And so they were still fighting and the bullets were real. Satan has been defeated at the cross. He's been defeated at the cross. And he's a guerrilla warfare right now. But he's been defeated at the cross. Um, Jesus died and rose again, and he crushed the devil at the cross, breaking his power. And he has a death sentence. However, he's still roaming about and he is manic, coming after believers. Satan is coming after you, and he's coming after me. And the truth of the matter that we're in the midst of warfare. Now, this text is not to scare us. It's quite contrary, quite to the contrary as you walk through the text. This is not to scare us, not to frighten us and not to make us cower. As you read the text, this is just the opposite. It's to give us confidence. But it's also to tell us, hey, look, just because you're in Christ does not mean that you're not. That you're cocooned from the attacks of the wicked one. A few years ago, someone in our church gave me a coin. I carry this thing with me everywhere I go when I play golf. It's a it's a ball marker. Actually, it's illegal because it's too big, but it draws attention and also stops the ball if it goes too. Never mind. Uh, a little strategy involved. But this coin is a great reminder. It says put on the whole armor of God. On one side. And on the other side, it outlines what that armor is. Now, I'm not into superstition or anything. It's not anything superstitious about this. But I often will feel this coin in my pocket. And I'm reminded, Crawford, there's a real enemy. There's a real devil. You can go to bank on this whenever God is at work and whenever there are new ventures, and whenever there is clarity given by the Holy Spirit to a group of people, all hell will break loose. The enemy does not want the work of God to go forward. I want to walk through this passage, and I just want to say three things, because I think Paul organizes his thoughts around these three things, and you'll see the progression in the text. And I want us to pay attention to this. He talks about the warrior. He talks about the war, and then he talks about the wardrobe, the warrior, the nature of the warrior, the nature of the war and the nature of the wardrobe. First of all, he talks about the nature of the warrior. Three observations. Verse ten says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. I think what he's saying basically in this one verse, actually three things, two things in this verse and the third one in verse 11, he's saying acquire his strength. Lay hold of the divine resources available to you. Notice the line, he says, finally, be strong in the Lord. Acquire his strength. Acquire his strength. Listen to me. Listen to me, listen to me. Stay away from these believers who are always saying stuff. Like when they're speaking to Satan. They're saying, I stand against you. Really? You don't stand against anything. Our strength is not our strength to fight. You don't have the strength and neither do I to come. Do you know who Satan is? It's the highest of all the angels supernatural power. Our strength is an acquired strength. It's not some spiritual bragging. It's an acquired strength. And so he begins this discussion by saying the warrior has to have an acquired strength. He needs to be strong in the Lord. And then secondly, he has to use his strength. Be strong in the Lord, in the Lord, in the Lord. This is a reference to our position in Christ. Paul began the whole book by talking about that first, I guess actually the second long paragraph there in Ephesians chapter one. He keeps saying, we're in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. It's his strength that we use to do anything in the Christian life. So at the very beginning, he's calling the warriors to be humble and dependent. You can't fight this in your. There's not enough seminars that can equip you to fight against the devil. So what? You know who you are. The strength comes from him. Our position in him. We are no longer under the control of the devil, is what he's saying. But we are in Christ, and we don't draw our source of strength from ourselves, but from him. And the third thing he's saying about the warrior is that we stand in his strength. Now Paul is being redundant. Did you notice how many times he uses the word stand or derivations of that word? Verse 11, he says stand. Verse 13 withstand. Verse 13 again stand firm. Verse 14 stand therefore. I think he wants us to stand. Stand. Well, you got to let the enemy know what he's saying is this. You must let the enemy know what he is up against. Now, again, it's an acquired strength. And again, we're using the strength that comes from the Lord. But it doesn't mean that we're not confident. It doesn't mean that we roll over. It means that that acquired strength, his strength, that acquired strength. His strength helps us to stand. To stand solid. And when the enemy comes up against us, he's coming up against something supernatural. You see in the Bible, James chapter four. In first Peter chapter five, James four seven says, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The best way of getting rid of the enemy is to resist him and not to run from him. You don't run from Satan. You resist him. You resist his his, his attacks. And and by the way, the text goes on to tell us how to resist him later on. But we resist the enemy. Why? Because we're standing in his strength. He says, resist him first. Peter five says, resist him. Firm in your faith. He's talking about confidence. We are in Christ. We don't have to be scared warriors. We don't have to cower in the corner. We don't have to let demons or devils or attacks or that kind of thing intimidate us. We are in him. That is the safest place in the world to be. And I want you to hear that today. Some of you have allowed fear to paralyze you. You can't move forward. You're panicky. And that's exactly where the devil wants you to be. Our humble dependence upon the great God of the universe, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross on the third day and rose again, who is seated at the right hand of God the Father. The Bible says that we are in him. And when the devil comes up against us, if we're covered in him, he's coming up against the Ancient of Days, and we have to stand with that degree of confidence, with confidence. And so we stand. Second Kings chapter six, verses 11 through 17 is an excellent illustration of this from the Bible. Elisha is chilling with his assistant, and the assistant is kind of like shaking like crazy. So like Barney Fife, I mean, he sees he sees the Assyrian army Surrounding Elisha. And he said, look, man, you know I don't mean no harm. I know God's used you in a great way. But I'm doing the math here, brother. There's two of us, and there are hundreds of them. And by the way, they have weapons. And Elijah said, God, open his eyes. And when God opens his servant's eyes, he looks on the hillside, and there he sees. Chariots of fire. The armies of the living God. Do you know? And I'm going to get into this in a second. Do you know that there are angels around you? Each one of us. Do you know that we are surrounded by celestial angelic beings? Do you know that all the protection of heaven is right there for you? And what the enemy wants you to think about is that you're isolated, you're alone. Nobody cares. This is an overwhelming set of circumstances. I cannot get through this. This is the end of me. This is the end of the road. Nothing. All this stuff is going to fall apart. What we need to say is, God, open our eyes. Open our eyes. Well, that's the nature of the warrior. Number two, let's look at the nature of the war, the nature of the war. I want you to notice in verse 11 and in verse 13 this statement he repeats himself. Paul says, put on the whole armor of God. And then down in verse 13 he says, therefore take up the whole armor of God. I want you to understand something. We're going to get into the wardrobe in a second, but listen to me. Two observations. Number one, he says, you do not pick and choose what part of the wardrobe you want to wear. Okay? This is not oh, I don't those shoes.

Of the.

Of the.

Gospel.

Gospel.

They don't go with my belt.

They don't go with my belt.

You don't, you don't. You don't pick and choose. It is a whole armor of God. Any part that's left off means a deadly blow. Number two. Understand? It is the whole armor of God. It is God's armor and his way of fighting the enemy. And if you don't wear this stuff, you're not going to win the battle. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how resourceful you are. I don't care where you went to school. I don't care how many books you read about self-determination and making it through life and character development and all that nonsense. This is the only way that we're going to win this battle. It is the armor of God. And these seven things that I'm going to walk through in a second are prescribed by God himself. And so listen to me. Listen to me. We do not have the privilege of using our own armor. We use his armor. There's nothing supernatural about your armor or my armor. This is a supernatural armor that defeats the enemy every single time. Now, if we neglect to put on a piece of the armor, what we're really saying to God is this. Look, I don't want to be protected by you today. That's what we're saying. If we don't want to put on, on, on, on this armor, we don't want to put a piece of it on. We're saying to God, I don't want to be protected by you. I'll take my chances. It's it's kind of like driving without a seatbelt. Okay. I'll take my chances. You get T-boned. You might get killed or mangled, but you take your chances. And so that's what we're saying now. And I just want us to hear this. If you don't want to put on any piece of this armor, what you're really saying to God is, I don't want to be protected today. Now, getting back to this war here. Having said that, I wanted to emphasize that I'm going to get to the wardrobe in a second. I want to emphasize that because the nature of the war, there are two big things that we need to understand. Number one, that we have a cunning enemy, a cunning enemy. Verse 11, look at the word here. It says, uh, he says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes circle. The word schemes of the devil. The word schemes there means cunning, trickery. You see, one of the things I've learned all my years of walking with the Lord is this. I don't know a whole lot. But I learned this one. And that is that evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. Then you look back and you see how evil it is. You know, it looks attractive and and desirable and legitimate. And that's the way the devil, the devil doesn't come at you looking all ugly like some of those horror movies. And that's not Satan's strategy. He didn't come that. He comes looking. Looking almost like what? You really want to wear you down. Now, don't get mad at me. But I got to say this. As a pastor, you know, it's kind of like the young lady who's a believer that falls in love with a guy that is not a Christian. But boy, you know, he's nice. He really is. You know, he he is wonderful. He treats me nice. He does good things for me. You know, he's compatible with my personality and he's better than most of the Christians I know. And you know, and so he's so close. So close. And so you get into this evangelistic dating thing. And what ends up happening over time? The emotions get intertwined with each other. And you know, we're almost married, so we're moving together. I wish I could say that that was an out of the ballpark illustration I just used. You see, the enemy really comes with diametrically opposed things. He comes looking good. That's how sin entered the world. Its primary strategy is deception, its lies, its clothes. Isn't that what he told Adam and Eve? He told it. It was almost, almost the truth. But it wasn't the truth. It wasn't the truth. Satan is is is almost always indirect, almost always indirect. And the frontal attacks usually take place when we're too weak to resist. That's when he shows who he is. But by that time, we've gotten all worn down. We've compromised morally. We've compromised our integrity. He's he's he's eroded our strength. And before we it's too weak to resist. And we see him for who he is. But I gotta give in now. He's worn me down. So he uses this whole cunning thing there to. Hey, hey, hey, hey, wake up and smell the coffee. If it doesn't match up to what exactly is right? Stay away from it. Stay away from it. Don't. You don't have to compromise who you are. Don't settle. It's cunning enemy. Their strategic attacks. Number one. But number two, their seasonal attacks. I want you to look at verse 13. He says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, the evil day there. Now, some commentaries want to get a little bit more expansive than I think maybe Paul is talking about. They say, well, the evil day refers to maybe eschatology and that great day or points in history in which they. I don't think so. I think as you look at the text, Paul is speaking on a personal level to believers there. I don't think he's talking about some macro evil day. I think what he's talking about is seasonal attacks in our individual lives. And we, you know, if you've been a Christian longer than a year, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That there there there are points in your life where you man. I mean, you're not, you know, things are fine. Then all of a sudden you hadn't thought about those thoughts and I don't know how long. And all of a sudden, you hit this season where you're obsessed with a particular temptation. Evil day, evil day. And the severity of the evil day is in direct proportion to our spiritual negligence. The enemy wears us down and things are going along pretty good. And so we kind of like, you know, shorthand our time with God and shorthand our time in the word and shorthand our time in prayer, all the while being eroded, eroded, eroded, eroded. Now, evil day. He's weak. Go after him. Crawford's worn out. He said yes to too many things. Go after him. Evil day. And some of you are in an evil day right now. There have been seasons in my life in which I just think a couple of years ago. I mean, Karen and I went through a stretch where all hell was just breaking loose. Didn't know what in the world was going on. Driving around in my car, asking God for the strength to face the day, having to prepare messages and minister to people and that kind of thing. When I needed somebody to preach me a message. Evil day. And we all go through them. The multiples of breakdowns with stuff, family members going nuts and relationships breaking all over the place. And some of you have been through hell over Christmas and Thanksgiving. Evil day. Well, that's when he wants us to stand. That's the strength that he's affording to us. Given to us. Now that's a cunning enemy. But he also says we have an unseen enemy. But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Now, I know some people teach well what he's outlining. There are the four main realms of satanic activity. You know, please forgive me, but I don't think that's what he's doing at all. I don't think he's giving so much a an outline as he as he is trying to express that there are demonic forces at work that permeate virtually every area of our existence.

You don't, you don't. You don't pick and choose. It is a whole armor of God. Any part that's left off means a deadly blow. Number two. Understand? It is the whole armor of God. It is God's armor and his way of fighting the enemy. And if you don't wear this stuff, you're not going to win the battle. I don't care how smart you are. I don't care how resourceful you are. I don't care where you went to school. I don't care how many books you read about self-determination and making it through life and character development and all that nonsense. This is the only way that we're going to win this battle. It is the armor of God. And these seven things that I'm going to walk through in a second are prescribed by God himself. And so listen to me. Listen to me. We do not have the privilege of using our own armor. We use his armor. There's nothing supernatural about your armor or my armor. This is a supernatural armor that defeats the enemy every single time. Now, if we neglect to put on a piece of the armor, what we're really saying to God is this. Look, I don't want to be protected by you today. That's what we're saying. If we don't want to put on, on, on, on this armor, we don't want to put a piece of it on. We're saying to God, I don't want to be protected by you. I'll take my chances. It's it's kind of like driving without a seatbelt. Okay. I'll take my chances. You get T-boned. You might get killed or mangled, but you take your chances. And so that's what we're saying now. And I just want us to hear this. If you don't want to put on any piece of this armor, what you're really saying to God is, I don't want to be protected today. Now, getting back to this war here. Having said that, I wanted to emphasize that I'm going to get to the wardrobe in a second. I want to emphasize that because the nature of the war, there are two big things that we need to understand. Number one, that we have a cunning enemy, a cunning enemy. Verse 11, look at the word here. It says, uh, he says, put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes circle. The word schemes of the devil. The word schemes there means cunning, trickery. You see, one of the things I've learned all my years of walking with the Lord is this. I don't know a whole lot. But I learned this one. And that is that evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. Evil rarely looks evil until it accomplishes its goal. Then you look back and you see how evil it is. You know, it looks attractive and and desirable and legitimate. And that's the way the devil, the devil doesn't come at you looking all ugly like some of those horror movies. And that's not Satan's strategy. He didn't come that. He comes looking. Looking almost like what? You really want to wear you down. Now, don't get mad at me. But I got to say this. As a pastor, you know, it's kind of like the young lady who's a believer that falls in love with a guy that is not a Christian. But boy, you know, he's nice. He really is. You know, he he is wonderful. He treats me nice. He does good things for me. You know, he's compatible with my personality and he's better than most of the Christians I know. And you know, and so he's so close. So close. And so you get into this evangelistic dating thing. And what ends up happening over time? The emotions get intertwined with each other. And you know, we're almost married, so we're moving together. I wish I could say that that was an out of the ballpark illustration I just used. You see, the enemy really comes with diametrically opposed things. He comes looking good. That's how sin entered the world. Its primary strategy is deception, its lies, its clothes. Isn't that what he told Adam and Eve? He told it. It was almost, almost the truth. But it wasn't the truth. It wasn't the truth. Satan is is is almost always indirect, almost always indirect. And the frontal attacks usually take place when we're too weak to resist. That's when he shows who he is. But by that time, we've gotten all worn down. We've compromised morally. We've compromised our integrity. He's he's he's eroded our strength. And before we it's too weak to resist. And we see him for who he is. But I gotta give in now. He's worn me down. So he uses this whole cunning thing there to. Hey, hey, hey, hey, wake up and smell the coffee. If it doesn't match up to what exactly is right? Stay away from it. Stay away from it. Don't. You don't have to compromise who you are. Don't settle. It's cunning enemy. Their strategic attacks. Number one. But number two, their seasonal attacks. I want you to look at verse 13. He says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, the evil day there. Now, some commentaries want to get a little bit more expansive than I think maybe Paul is talking about. They say, well, the evil day refers to maybe eschatology and that great day or points in history in which they. I don't think so. I think as you look at the text, Paul is speaking on a personal level to believers there. I don't think he's talking about some macro evil day. I think what he's talking about is seasonal attacks in our individual lives. And we, you know, if you've been a Christian longer than a year, you know exactly what I'm talking about. That there there there are points in your life where you man. I mean, you're not, you know, things are fine. Then all of a sudden you hadn't thought about those thoughts and I don't know how long. And all of a sudden, you hit this season where you're obsessed with a particular temptation. Evil day, evil day. And the severity of the evil day is in direct proportion to our spiritual negligence. The enemy wears us down and things are going along pretty good. And so we kind of like, you know, shorthand our time with God and shorthand our time in the word and shorthand our time in prayer, all the while being eroded, eroded, eroded, eroded. Now, evil day. He's weak. Go after him. Crawford's worn out. He said yes to too many things. Go after him. Evil day. And some of you are in an evil day right now. There have been seasons in my life in which I just think a couple of years ago. I mean, Karen and I went through a stretch where all hell was just breaking loose. Didn't know what in the world was going on. Driving around in my car, asking God for the strength to face the day, having to prepare messages and minister to people and that kind of thing. When I needed somebody to preach me a message. Evil day. And we all go through them. The multiples of breakdowns with stuff, family members going nuts and relationships breaking all over the place. And some of you have been through hell over Christmas and Thanksgiving. Evil day. Well, that's when he wants us to stand. That's the strength that he's affording to us. Given to us. Now that's a cunning enemy. But he also says we have an unseen enemy. But we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Now, I know some people teach well what he's outlining. There are the four main realms of satanic activity. You know, please forgive me, but I don't think that's what he's doing at all. I don't think he's giving so much a an outline as he as he is trying to express that there are demonic forces at work that permeate virtually every area of our existence.

Doctor Crawford Loritts here on Living a Legacy. Our text Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 18. The Apostle Paul's thoughts about the nature of the warrior, the nature of the war and the nature of the wardrobe, and more about these last two next week. If you missed part of today's message, stop by our website to hear the complete broadcast. Go to Living a legacy.org. Living a legacy.org and look for the past programs. Link for a listing of recent messages as well. Living a legacy. Org. We're very grateful when you let us know how God is using this program each week. A quick email is all it takes. Look for the link contact at Living a Legacy org. And please consider a year end gift to help ensure that living a legacy continues to be heard each week right here. Coming up next time.

Doctor Crawford Loritts here on Living a Legacy. Our text Ephesians chapter six, verses ten through 18. The Apostle Paul's thoughts about the nature of the warrior, the nature of the war and the nature of the wardrobe, and more about these last two next week. If you missed part of today's message, stop by our website to hear the complete broadcast. Go to Living a legacy.org. Living a legacy.org and look for the past programs. Link for a listing of recent messages as well. Living a legacy. Org. We're very grateful when you let us know how God is using this program each week. A quick email is all it takes. Look for the link contact at Living a Legacy org. And please consider a year end gift to help ensure that living a legacy continues to be heard each week right here. Coming up next time.

Predators prey on the weak. And if you are mediocre in your walk with God floundering, you got a target on you. You're an easy prey. So don't be a sick soldier. The goal ought to be in your heart and life to be spiritually healthy and vibrant.

Predators prey on the weak. And if you are mediocre in your walk with God floundering, you got a target on you. You're an easy prey. So don't be a sick soldier. The goal ought to be in your heart and life to be spiritually healthy and vibrant.

It's part two of Dressed and Ready to Go from Ephesians chapter six. And we'll look for you again right here for Crawford Loritts, I'm Bill Davis. Thanks for listening and happy New Year. Living a legacy is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.

It's part two of Dressed and Ready to Go from Ephesians chapter six. And we'll look for you again right here for Crawford Loritts, I'm Bill Davis. Thanks for listening and happy New Year. Living a legacy is a production of Moody Radio, a ministry of Moody Bible Institute.