Latest / The Salt Company Denver / The Basics | Ephesians 6 | You have a powerful ally | Colin Provart

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The Basics | Ephesians 6 | You have a powerful ally | Colin Provart · The Salt Company Denver

0:00
SPEAKER_00: What's up, Stall Company?
0:02
SPEAKER_00: How are we doing tonight?
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I'm glad that you guys are here.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: If I don't know you, my name's Colin.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: I get to work here at Salt Company, so I'm glad that you guys are joining us.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you're new to Stall Company, if this is your first time in the room, I want to say thanks for being here.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: We're so glad that you'd uh choose to spend your Tuesday with us.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And we'd love to meet you.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: Get to know your name, not just invite you to an event on Tuesday, but invite you into what God's doing here.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And so uh as you leave those doors in the back, if you head to the right, uh you'll get to our uh kind of welcome area.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: We'd love to give you a gift if you're interested in that.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I also want to invite you back next week.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Next week, we're starting a new series, uh new series we're calling lead.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: We think you guys are gonna change the world.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: We think you guys are gonna be leaders, uh, and we want to help you lead the way.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: We think the Bible talks about leading.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: We think that Jesus would lead.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: So we want to invite you back next week uh to our new series.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: But tonight, we're wrapping up our series called The Basics through the book of Ephesians.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: And so whether you've been with us or not, I want to recap for you what we've talked about.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Because we've talked about basic questions, foundational questions that'll help you know who you are, who God is, and what that means for your life.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: We've seen in Ephesians 1 that God has revealed himself to us as a Trinitarian God, and that that is good news.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: We've seen in Ephesians 2 that he has shown us abundant and immeasurable grace.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 3, we've seen that he's invited us into this world-changing mission that we now get to be a part of in Ephesians 4.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: He said that you now no longer have to live the way you used to live, but can put on the new clothes that I've purchased for you in Ephesians 5.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: We've looked at this mutual respect in going low in marriage, but in going low more generally in our lives as we aim our lives at the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: And now we're in Ephesians 6.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Because all these things sound great, but the question we're gonna look at tonight, and I hope the question that you're asking yourself is this.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: If that's the good news of the gospel, Ephesians 6 is gonna ask us this question: what's gonna stop me from living into that good news?
2:16
SPEAKER_00: What's gonna stop me?
2:19
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6 is where we're gonna be tonight.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible, I'd love for you to follow along.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh, as you turn there, I've got a question for you.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Have you guys ever thought about what it would be like to live in a different era of history?
2:32
SPEAKER_00: Like at a totally different time.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want you to uh share with the person next to you what era you'd choose and why.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Go ahead.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: All right.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, shout a few out.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: Shout a shout a few out.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: What era would you choose?
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Eighties?
3:13
SPEAKER_00: Nineties?
3:14
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are like your era.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: You're so old.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm not that old, but okay.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh what?
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh anyway, uh I feel like uh I've been thinking about this question a little bit, and you guys are like, you're so old, you grew up in a different era, and I didn't.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: I feel like our childhoods were a lot the same.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: But you don't actually have to go that far to think about a life that was totally different.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, have you guys thought about how your grandparents grew up?
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Your grandparents grew up in a totally different world.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: Like I think about um I think about the 50s from time to time.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Probably because Pastor JT calls talks about like 1950s Pleasantville um most of the time, and I don't really understand why.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: But you think of like the era in which your grandparents grew up no cell phones, no internet, no GPS, no credit cards, no fast food, no fast fashion, and no online dating.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: I know a tragedy.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And you think like, I don't know, maybe this is just me.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I find myself thinking like life was simpler then.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Like it almost life would be easier.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if any of you have ever seen the Truman show, the movie.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh I like kind of picture my life like that, not that I'm not that I'm being like filmed, but more just like he's like so happy all the time and he's like mowing his life, he's like, hey, and you like read the you like read the newspaper and you like get to know your neighbors, and you just like live this joy-filled life where you go to the town square and like get to know people that way.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think of like the joy potentially that would happen in the 1950s.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: America's pastime is baseball, the Yankees are the team to beat.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Life was a little slower, life was a little simpler.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: In some ways, life might look a little bit better until you realize that the 1950s, though characterized by a lot of good things, was also characterized by Americans living in constant fear of Soviet nuclear attack.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: Like if you look up what characterized the 1950s, you'll you'd see that America's Americans lived in fear.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Like, how many of you guys growing up in elementary school did like uh lockdown drills, fire drills, things like that?
5:16
SPEAKER_00: Okay, in the 1950s, elementary schoolers did like nuclear attack drills.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: Which I'm just like imagining how this would have gone.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: All right, guys, like we practiced, a nuclear bomb is headed straight for us, so hide under your IKEA desks.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: I think that'll go well for you.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh like I'm just like, yeah, the blast radius is headed for us.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: It's like, I don't know, maybe the drill helps people feel better about it, but the 1950s can look good, can look simple until you realize that the 1950s were lived in a time characterized by war.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see tonight is I think a lot of us are living our life like, man, my life's pretty good, my life's pretty simple, I got a lot of things going, all while we live in the midst of war.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Here's the idea I want you to see tonight that we're gonna come back to again and again and again is that you are in a war.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: You are in a spiritual war, and here's my fear is I think a lot of us are aware of this term spiritual warfare, spiritual war, and we think that the spiritual warfare exists out there, it exists on the other side of the world, it exists in those weird, crazy, super spiritual people, it exists in really niche situations, it exists everywhere but my life, and as soon as you begin to think that your soul begins to be vulnerable to attack.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: The war is not on the other side of the world, but in our lives, and the moment you're convinced that the war won't affect you is when you're most susceptible to losing it.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: You need to realize that there is a war happening all around you.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: And you need to get ready to fight.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna start in verse 11.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: This is what it says.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes or the methods of the devil.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil spiritual forces in the heavens.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Friends, if you're in a war, that means you have an enemy.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: And let me show you how your enemy is described.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: He's described as described as rulers, authorities, powers, and forces, which means your enemy is not weak and your enemy is not physical.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: If you're in a war, you should know who your enemy is, and it's your enemy's not weak and not physical.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: And here's the goal of your enemy: your destruction.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: In verse 11, we see that Paul describes uh the enemy uh put on the full armor of God so you can stand against the schemes or the methods of the devil.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: The devil has a playbook that's especially designed for your destruction, and he's a pretty good play caller.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: The devil has a playbook that's designed for your destruction, and he's a pretty good play caller.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: Let me do my best to maybe open up the devil's playbook for you.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you'll relate to some of the things I'm about to say.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: I think the devil's work is to convince you.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: This is his play that he's running right now, for most of you in the room, is to convince you that he's not active.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: And the only spiritual things that happen in your life happen on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: And that the devil, like real, I mean, we don't we live in a naturalistic world.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: The devil really only exists when you explicitly worship him or when exorcisms are performed, which aren't don't happen very regularly today.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Because really, what the devil wants is for you to worship him.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: So if you're you aren't worshiping him, maybe you're distracted from time to time, you like stumble in your life.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, the devil's not seeing any victory in your life.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: Like, you're not worshiping him, you just get distracted.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: Like things things kind of blind you from the things of God.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, friend, the moment you think that, I think the devil's winning because the goal of the devil is not that you worship him, but that you worship anyone or anything, living or not, that is not Jesus Christ.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: It's actually part of the devil's plan for you to believe that he wants you to worship him because that's a distraction from you worshiping anything that's not Jesus Christ.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: I asked Chat GPT to describe this.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: And it is freaky.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read it to you.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: It spit this out.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: If Satan had a LinkedIn profile, this maybe is what it would look like.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Name, the devil, title, director of strategic deception, skills, identity confusion, delayed obedience, spiritual distraction, comparison, lust optimization, pride amplification, and subtle discouragement.
10:36
SPEAKER_00: With endorsements coming to the devil's LinkedIn profile saying something like this.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: He helped me waste my freshman year.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: He convinced me I had more time.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: He told me I was fine spiritually.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: That's at least my chat GPT, so there you go.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: So maybe you're in here and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: Come on, I get it.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: I I maybe I care a little too much about school.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: A little too much about my grades.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I care a little too much about my sports.
11:06
SPEAKER_00: Every once in a while I struggle from time to time with my security in Christ.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: Friends, what I want you to open your eyes to is that you are in a spiritual battle and the stake is your soul.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you are like gonna go back to your professor tomorrow morning and you're like, I went to church last night, and my the guy on stage told me that you are the devil.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Though I think some of you want me to say that.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh guys, spiritual warfare.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's not primarily demonspotting, blaming everything on Satan, or over-spiritualizing normal hardship.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: It may be some of those things, but I think day to day it's believing lies instead of truth.
11:52
SPEAKER_00: It's subtle distraction.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: And what I'm trying to do is get you to wake up to the war that you're in.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Let me when I was studying this, let me read you a quote by a guy named John Bloom on spiritual warfare that opened my eyes to this.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Spiritual warfare is not a metaphor.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: It would be more accurate to say that human warfare is a metaphor and an expression of the even more real and pervasive spiritual war being waged all around us.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: And unless we engage it seriously, we will not be serious players in it and may be swept away by it.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Wars happening on the other side of the country are meant to be a picture to you of what's happening all around you in terms of the spiritual world around you.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: You are in a war, and the war's not out there.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: The wars out there are an illustration of the war that you're in.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: You're not in a friendly competition where you're gonna shake hands at the end.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: You are in a war, which means point one, you have a deadly enemy.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is your first time at Salt.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: What a week! Welcome.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're like, man, this is a lot.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: Like, I I don't know about the whole spiritual world, let alone a spiritual evil.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: Like that, that feels like a lot.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: And so let me just give you a quick apologetic for a spiritual evil.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: If you believe in a transcendent supernatural good, which I think if as we look at the world and see its beauty and see its order and see the ways that it's so intricately designed, it it shouldn't be that hard for us to say there's a uh transcendent supernatural good.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: But if we look at the world, we should also say the world is not as it should be.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: And so if there is a transcendent supernatural good, it shouldn't be hard to believe that there is a powerful supernatural evil.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Because the darkness of the world is either evolutionary instinct of humans or evidence of a real supernatural evil.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And if you pressed me on it, I would take the latter a hundred times out of a hundred.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Because we live in a dark world with real evil happening.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And so this real enemy is out for your destruction, wanting to ruin your soul.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And he's so good, he might just lull you to sleep so you don't believe you're gonna battle it all.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys uh are you guys more mountain vacation, beach vacation, or museum vacation people?
14:32
SPEAKER_00: Where where are my museum vacation people?
14:34
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh my gosh.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: That's one way to vacation.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, for everyone else that likes to have a good time on vacation, where are my mountain people?
14:47
SPEAKER_00: You live in the right place?
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Where am I like I like looking at the mountains, but I want a vacation on the beach, people.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I'm uh you guys, you guys are more my speed, actually.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh though I love the mountains, the mountains are beautiful.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm great, I'm grateful to live in Colorado.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm more of a beach vacation uh guy myself.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: I love reading a book.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: I love enjoying the sun.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Though I love enjoying the sun, my skin does not love when I enjoy the sun.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: That's just how God has designed me.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: But uh man, I love a good just like laying in the ocean and floating.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else?
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Anyone else like that is a good time?
15:24
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm laying in the ocean, I'm floating, the water's calm, the sun, like I'm just soaking in the sun.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, this is the first time I feel like I've ever rested in my entire life.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: This feels so good.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: I should do this weekly.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh I love a good ocean vacation.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Now I want you to own up.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: How many of you are like a little bit afraid of the ocean?
15:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm not, but I'm glad you are.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: Uh regardless, regardless, I want you to imagine you're floating in the ocean because the ocean is lovely and all good things are like realized when you're floating in the ocean in the sun.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you're floating in the ocean all while the time you're enjoying yourself, thinking life as it should be, there's a shark swimming beneath you.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm validating all the fears of the people that feel like the ocean is a terrifying place.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: A shark is swimming beneath you.
16:24
SPEAKER_00: I've been in the ocean and have seen a shark.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: And when you see the shark, it's not all that scary because you just walk away, you just get out of the ocean.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: It's like not that big of a deal.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: It's scary when you're in the middle of the ocean if there was a shark 20 feet below you and you didn't see it.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: And here's the point of the shark.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: The point of the shark isn't to be loud, it isn't to be noticed.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: It's actually the exact opposite.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: It's to be silent, patient, and go unnoticed until it's too late.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the work of the devil.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: Swimming beneath you 20 feet, silent, unnoticed, with you not thinking anything of it until it's too late?
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Friends, what if the biggest battles in your life aren't circumstantial but spiritual?
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if the greatest hardships in your life aren't school?
17:22
SPEAKER_00: Aren't you kind of self-diagnosed, like day to day, week to week, cases of small anxiety?
17:32
SPEAKER_00: What if the greatest problem in your life was that you had an enemy that wanted to utterly destroy you?
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Where are you susceptible to that enemy's attacks?
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, where do you have some blind spots in your life?
17:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the spiritual warfare out there.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking the spiritual warfare that you might be facing in the next hour, in the next day, in the next week.
17:58
SPEAKER_00: Friends, your soul is at stake.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: So for you, where are you susceptible to the work of the enemy?
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Is it secret sin?
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Like the things that you do that you're not proud of, but that you don't want anyone else to know because it might ruin your reputation.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Are you susceptible to the work of the enemy through your cynicism?
18:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm just it would be better if it was my way.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: It's my way or the highway.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: And anything that's not my way, I'm gonna poke holes in, I'm gonna see the worst in.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: Is it your sin?
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Is it your cynicism?
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Is it the lies that you're tempted to believe about yourself or about others?
18:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, where are you susceptible to the work of the enemy that you maybe you need to confess something to your city group?
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to bring something to the light, maybe you need to start fighting against something that you've just accepted for a long time.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: You're in a war and you have a deadly enemy.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's keep going in verse 13.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: For for this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be may be able to resist in the evil day.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: And having prepared everything to take your stand.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: If you like an like underlining your Bible or uh circling things in your Bible, I would underline stand.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: To take your stand, because then verse 14 starts the same way, stand.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: Have you guys ever noticed that one of the greatest commands in the New Testament is to stand?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: It's an active standing, it's making your feet firm to the ground to the point that you become immovable.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: Stand, therefore, with truth, like a belt around your waist, waist, righteousness like armor on your chest, and your feet sandal with the readiness for the gospel of peace.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: In every situation, take up the shield of faith with which you can distinguish all flaming arrows of the evil one.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna come back to the armor at the beginning, but I but I just want to say one quick thing.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: The word sword there uh in the original language is like a is like a small blade.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: Think more, think more knife than sword.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: Like, like it's not uh a long sword that you just kind of throw around hoping to hit something.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: It's short and and precise.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: And the enemy has flaming darts.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: So uh something probably most of you don't know about me, probably none of you actually know about me, is I'm notoriously bad at first-person shooter games.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's like to the point where it's not like, oh, uh I should play you so I beat you.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Like, I just like it, I'm an incredibly competitive person and do not feel competitive whatsoever about a game of Call of Duty.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm just like, yes, you're gonna beat me.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Like my friends growing up were like, you can have any gun you want, and I won't use a gun, and I'll just use knives, and they still beat me.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm just like so bad.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm like the guy that like goes to the settings or gal that goes to the settings and like bumps up the uh whatever you call it, you guys know what I'm talking about?
21:14
SPEAKER_00: The sensitivity.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: The sensitivity, I'm just like, I am, I am cooked.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Like, it's game over for me.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: But that's that's a little bit what's happening.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Like, like the enemy is just gonna like lob some darts at you and try to keep his distance, try to go unnoticed.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: But for you to see victory over him, you gotta get up close and personal.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the type of sword that's talked about.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: You gotta get up close and personal with the enemy, but you just might win if you do.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, let's go back.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: The primary length of the passage talks about the armor against the enemy.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: So let's go through it really quickly.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: Truth, like a belt around your waist, righteousness worn on your chest as a breastplate, your feet sandal with the readiness of the gospel of peace.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: A shield.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: A shield of faith, a helmet of salvation, and the word of God, which is a sword.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Here's what I want you to see.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: It's actually like an incredibly anticlimactic vision for the armor of God.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: It's the Christian life.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: The Christian life has victory when you live as a Christian.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me show this to you.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not the call that only some people can answer, or only some people have access to.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: This isn't a call to live in a different realm.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: This is the call of an everyday faithful Christian witness.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Now don't hear me.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: I called it ordinary.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: I called it ordinary, but I did not say ordinary meant lack of effort.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Don't hear as though the ordinary Christian faithful witness doesn't require work.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: He says, put on truth, put on righteousness, ready yourself as one for battle with salvation.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: He's saying the ordinary Christian life requires an incredible amount of effort.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: So if you have a real, if you're in a war and you have a real deadly enemy that's throwing lies, flaming darts, that's trying to destroy your soul, let me just show you how this armor might be put to use.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: You probably hear something like this often.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: You are what you achieve.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Have high grades, have a great relationship, have your spot on the team.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, friends, remember the armor of the Christian is the belt of truth.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: It's not what I have done, it's not who I am, but it's Christ in me.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: That's what's true.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so some of you feel shame.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: It's my past sin, it's my past struggle, it's who I used to be.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: It's the sin I'm still struggling with that I said I wouldn't go back to, but I'm actually going back to you quite frequently.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: Take up the breastplate of righteousness.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: You don't stand on your righteousness, but that of Christ.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Maybe for you it's thinking about the future, like you have become a slave to your five-year plan.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Thinking that you have to get that internship to get that job, to get that income, to get that car, to get that lifestyle, to get that status.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: But he says, don't ready yourself for your five-year plan.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Ready yourself, sandal your feet with the gospel of peace that's a reminder that everything you need, you have in Christ Jesus.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: And that you can give an answer for the hope that you have within you when someone asks.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe for you, you're you just feel so susceptible to doubt.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Like a professor pokes a hole in your faith, your friends start questioning what you do on Tuesday nights.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Friends, take up the shield of faith.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Faith is the assurance of that which is hoped for and the certainty of the unseen.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of you.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: You probably don't talk about it a lot, but you live with this fear that you're not good enough.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: You don't know enough, you don't achieve enough, you're not pretty enough, you're not strong enough, you don't do enough.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, your biggest fear is that you're not enough.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: Put on the helmet of salvation, that sin has lost its penalty, sin is losing its power, and one day you will be completely free from sin's presence.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: He who began a good work and you will carry it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus, put on the helmet of salvation.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, as one armored with the Christian life, take up the sword, not one that we swing aimlessly, but one that we cut with precisely.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Because you live in a world that feeds you lies.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Lie after lie after lie.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: And if the sword is the word of God, take it to culture's lies and stick it in its chest and twist it and pull it out.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: So when you're tempted with sexual sin, 1 Corinthians 6, you are not your own, but you were bought with a price.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: So when you're tempted with anxiety, 1 Peter 5, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: When you're told to compare yourself to everyone and anyone around you to see if you measure up, those who measure themselves by themselves are without understanding, 2 Corinthians 10.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe most importantly, oh friends, I've lived so much of my life feeling condemned by my own sin.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: And what is Paul's cry in the book of Romans?
27:19
SPEAKER_00: He says, Those of you who were born in Adam have received a new inheritance in Christ Jesus.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in light of all Christ has done for you, there is when, now, how much no condemnation for those of us that are in Christ Jesus?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: I think we hear some of these things is like, yeah, that's cool.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's good for someone else.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll work on that later in life, but for now, I need to focus my life on my career, on my income, on my grades, on my status on the team, on my status in the social group.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: Like I need to work hard at something that's going to be celebrated.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And what I would just plea with you is what you're celebrated, like what you want to be celebrated in isn't the thing that's going to protect you from the person that's trying to kill you.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: Your social status won't stand.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: Your relationship won't stand.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Your grades won't stand.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: Your righteousness will.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Your salvation that you have received will.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you are in a war, you have a deadly enemy, but the second thing I want you to see is that God has given you the armor that is required.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: You are armed for the battle.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: You are armed so that when Satan tries to push you back, you can hold your ground and take a stand.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh you guys know who uh receives the best Christmas gifts?
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, if your goal in life is to receive the best Christmas gifts possible, most of you need to make a career change.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: And this is the career you need to pursue if you want the best Christmas gifts imaginable.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: That of an NFL offensive lineman.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what your social media feed is.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Mine is these like grown men getting gifted cars, and these guys are already making millions of dollars.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, you could have given me that car, and that would have gone like that would have changed my life, but sure, you can give grown men uh that make millions of dollars cars.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: But if you've never seen this, look it up.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh but offensive like quarterbacks give offensive linemen the craziest Christmas gifts.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: They get Rolexes, they get souped-up golf carts, they get cars, they get flat screen TVs, they get like all sorts of these crazy things.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Why?
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Because a good quarterback knows he's only as good as his offensive line.
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Right?
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Do you have any offensive line?
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, any offensive linemen in the room, come on.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh though you are not seen, you are valued.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: No, let me make this point.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: Let me make this point.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: I I'm gonna I'm gonna Jackson, I'm gonna make you feel like the most awesome guy in the room in just a second.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh okay, we all want our victory over the enemy to look like quarterback play, to throw a 50-yard dot down the field to get celebrated and to win MVP trophies for our performance against the enemy.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you how you actually will win against the enemy.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: It's by living your life like an offensive lineman, unseen, unappreciated, and unwilling to give up a yard of territory to the defense.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: There you go, Jackson.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I love you, bro.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: Friends, refuse to give up ground.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Just refuse to get pushed back.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: The greatest command of the New Testament is to stand.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: To remain unmoved, to be unwilling to give up ground that you don't give yourself and give Satan no ground.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: And here's how you do that: by putting on the armor God has given to you.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: So what do you need to put on?
30:58
SPEAKER_00: See, I think so much of us, when you're like, you're gonna talk about the armor of God, I'm like, yeah, I am, and here's what it looks like: knowing and defending truth, living righteous lives, knowing the gospel, having an immovable and unshakable faith, understanding the depth of the salvation that has been purchased for you.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Knowing, believing, and trusting God's word above everything else.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Here's so much of the armor of God is based in knowing, believing what God says to be true about you.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you're in a war.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: You have armor and a weapon, and I'm gonna be really honest.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: We're in a war, maybe you're realizing that tonight.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: You have access to armor and a weapon, and I think most of the weapons in this room collect dust on our bedside stand.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: And we're not wearing out the leather of the sword that's gonna save us in the evil day.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh I say this a lot.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe you're new.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Um maybe you're like totally out on the Christianity thing, especially when I'm talking about warfare, you're like, this guy is so weird.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me just say this.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: Let me just make like one last plea for you.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Just turn me, like, give me 30 seconds, then you can tune me out for the rest of the time.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh I say this a lot, so you've maybe heard me say this.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an educated and influential person in the Western world, which I'm guessing all of you do.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an influential and educated person in the Western world, there's nothing you can commit yourself to more than reading the entire narrative of scripture cover to cover, because there's no book and no words in the entire history of the world that has shaped the Western world more than those words that are in the Bibles that are sitting in the seat in front of you.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: So feel free to take that Bible.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be an influential person in the Western world, read it cover to cover before you graduate college.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of you.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh some of you need to start reading your Bible five minutes a day.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: You need to realize that the thing that is gonna save your soul when you need it most is collecting dust, and you need to take it out and start sharpening it.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Because if you really believed you were in a war, you would test your sword every day and make sure it's sharp.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so some of you need to start reading five minutes a day.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the listen to the Bible app, listen to dwell, read a psalm before you go to bed.
33:26
SPEAKER_00: But can I just like can I can I raise the bar of the room a little bit?
33:30
SPEAKER_00: Some of you have been content reading a psalm of the day for two years.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, these are the words that are gonna save your soul.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Start spending hours of your week in God's word.
33:46
SPEAKER_00: I want the pages of your Bible to fall out because of your use of it, and I promise you I'll buy you a new one.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Wear out the leather of your Bible.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: Because you're in a war, and that's your weapon.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Memorize it.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: Not little verses at a time, but chapters at a time.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the weapon that God has given you that you need to stand against the work of the enemy, to know who you are in Christ, to know what's true, to know how to live righteously, to know how your righteousness is received.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: You need to commit to knowing, loving, and believing every word that is in scripture.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you guys, I know it can be hard.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm in a Bible reading plan, I'm in the middle of the book of Leviticus.
34:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just like it's a little dry.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm I'm I'm reading about spiritual cleansing, and you know what it's reminding me of?
34:44
SPEAKER_00: That God is incredibly holy, and the fact that I get to walk into his presence is the greatest honor of my life.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: Friends, open up God's word.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Maybe some of you need to circle January 1st, 2027 is the day you're gonna finish the entire Bible, cover to cover, every word in it.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: Buy a CSV study Bible and read every word of it.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Do not skip or skim a single word.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: That will make you the type of person that's ready to stand against the work of the enemy.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: All right, I got I gotta keep going.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: All right, last point, quickly.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Notice how verse 17 is describes the sword, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: So the Spirit is active in revealing the Word of God.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18, pray at all times in the Spirit, with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and with intercession for all the saints.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me.
35:37
SPEAKER_00: When I open my mouth to make known the boldness of the mystery of the gospel, for I'm an ambassador in chains.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Pray, pray, pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: In such an in one of the most epic chapters in the book of the Bible, here's how he ends this section.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: Pray.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, I know you guys are like, yeah, prayer is powerful, but if you're honest, I know most of you are like, that is such an anticlimactic ending to like a section of warfare.
36:06
SPEAKER_00: But before I answer that question, why he ends in prayer, notice how he describes prayer.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: Verse 18.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: Pray at all times, for all things, for all the saints.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so prayer is comprehensive.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Why?
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, the armor you wear is only as effective as the ally that you have.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say that again.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, the armor you wear is only as effective as the ally you have.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: You don't pray because the armor you've been given is weak.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: You pray because the person wearing the armor is weak.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: So here's the third thing I want you to see.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: If you're in a war, you have a deadly enemy, you've been armed, you, friends, you have a more powerful ally.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Verse or 1 John 4, verses 1 through 4 talks about the spiritual world, that there are false prophets teaching you false things, and that the real spirit puts a spotlight on Jesus Christ.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: And verse 4 says this you are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, you didn't hear what I said, otherwise, someone would have said amen.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh I saw Caden stand up in the back.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the key was pumped up about it.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, one more time.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: That's good news, my friends.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Verse 13, for this reason, take up the full armor of God.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: The way the Greek talks about this is the complete armor, not characterized by all six pieces of it, but by the completeness because of its divine nature, because of the one who it belongs to.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me end by being as clear as I can.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: You're in a war.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: You're in a war, the stake is your soul, the soul, the stake of your soul isn't an implication for tomorrow, though it is, or it's not just an implication for tomorrow, it's an implication for all of eternity.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: You are in a cosm, you're in the midst of this spiritual battle for your soul, but there has been a decisive victory that's already been decided.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: You see, Isaiah 59 is this really cool and unique passage.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you can you can throw it up.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna read everything that's on the screen.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: But verse uh Isaiah 59 starts in verse 16, says this.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: He saw that there was no man.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: He was amazed that there was no one interceding.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: There's no one worthy enough to go to war to see victory over darkness.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: So his own arm brought salvation, and his own righteousness supported him.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 17.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: He put on righteousness out as a body armor and a helmet of salvation on his head.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and he wrapped himself in the z in zeal as in a cloak.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: Friends, you're in a war, but the greatest battle is not the one that will happen tomorrow.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: It's the battle that happened 2,000 years ago at a place called Calvary, where Jesus Christ actually put on the armor that he's asked you to wear.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: You don't actually wear your own armor, you wear used armor that Jesus Christ wore himself when he went to the cross at Calvary, where he took the helmet of salvation that your head could never carry.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: And he went to a cross that your sin deserved and my sin deserved, and he put on righteousness as a breastplate.
39:33
SPEAKER_00: And he went toe-to-toe with the enemy, and the enemy took his best swipe at him.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: And for about three days it looked like the enemy's best swipe had beaten Jesus Christ because the enemy's best weapon is death, and death took Jesus.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was laying in a tomb.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: Real historical fact.
39:52
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ was put in a tomb outside of Jerusalem.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: And three days later, Jesus Christ left his linens and his garments folded and walked out of a tomb because the enemy's best shot had no shot against Jesus Christ.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
40:09
SPEAKER_00: Guys, you need to see that uh the thing I want to protect you from is a dualistic view of the world where there's supernatural evil and supernatural good, and the whole world is this like battle of the two because they're fighting equal and it might go into overtime, and we're not so sure who's gonna win.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: And you need to be confident that like USA hockey was always gonna beat Canada.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm just messing with you.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: It's like a little league team going up against the Yankees, and even that is too close, is too too close of a comparison in terms of skill level.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: Friends, Satan, all Satan is doing is calling timeouts and making the game go on longer, but just because the game goes on longer doesn't mean he has a better shot of winning.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: It's not a fair fight.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Satan knows the inevitable is coming because Jesus Christ has won decisive victory at the greatest battle ever won at Calvary 2,000 years ago.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: So now all who place their faith in him can receive this salvation, can put on the helmet of salvation, can put on righteousness on their chest, can stand against the work of the enemy because, friends, we have a powerful ally in Jesus Christ.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: So, what do you do when you realize you have a powerful ally?
41:23
SPEAKER_00: Let me say two things really quickly and I'll end with the story.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll go quick.
41:27
SPEAKER_00: Two things really quickly.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: When you realize that you're in a battle, that the that the ultimate battle is already won, though we still fight today, that the ultimate battle is decisive, that Jesus Christ is winning, that you wake up to this idea of you're living in a spiritual world with spiritual warfare all around you.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: You want to be on the right side of the battle, you're like, I'm giving my life to Jesus, which if you haven't done, I would just plead with you, like, yes, that's what you should do.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Give your life to Jesus because he's gonna be victorious.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: But if you've already done that, let me just tell you what you do.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: You proclaim that Jesus has has won decisive victory over your own soul, that you are dead to your own way of living, that you are raised to walk in newness of life by way of baptism.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, if you've give if if Jesus has captured your heart, he's one, he's Lord, then let me just ask you: would you consider getting baptized here at Storyline?
42:21
SPEAKER_00: We want to talk to you about it, and let me just say this.
42:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm not trying to be manipulative, but I am trying to be clear.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: I think the enemy's greatest uh weapon he's using right now is I'll do that tomorrow.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: What if you talk to someone about it today?
42:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, what if you're just like, I'm not gonna let the enemy win anymore?
42:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna display courage, I'm gonna walk out those doors, I'm gonna find a staff member, and I'm gonna just ask the question what does it look like for me to take my next step of baptism at storyline?
42:47
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let me give you a second application for some of you.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: For some of you, both need to be done.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe one for one, uh maybe baptism for some of you, maybe this one for others.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that you need to consider applying for salt company leadership.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's fun.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: It's fun.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Look, I talked to our staff team about this today.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm just gonna be really honest with you guys.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: This whole night has been about how you're in a war.
43:09
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying salt company leadership is the only way to win the war, but I think it's a really darn good one.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Because there are so many things that are after your soul, so many lies that are after your heart and mind.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: So many things that the world is trying to convince you are most important and most true of you.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: And I just wish I got more time with you.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, is that should I should we make a petition to do Salt Company every night of the week?
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Like, let's just let it rip, baby.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh just unfiltered Colin.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, like we're just like, we're just going, you know?
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh you're like, this isn't unfiltered, Colin?
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh no, this is actually kind of prepared, Colin.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh I wish I got more time with you, but our leaders do get more time, not necessarily with me, but with our staff and with people we love, people we trust.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: If you want to see Victory in your life, I would just encourage you that maybe the next step is leadership.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Maybe the next step is just applying for leadership.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: I think it's a really good one.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Let me end with the story.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: How many of you have ever heard of a guy by the name of Jim Elliott?
44:16
SPEAKER_00: I want to give you a vision of what it might look like to wage war against the enemy.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: Jim Elliott, born in 1927 in Portland, Oregon.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: Jesus captured his heart at an early age, and so he went to a Bible college, a little Bible college just outside of Chicago, Illinois, by the name of Wheaton.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: Our very own Katie Thornton is a graduate of Wheaton College.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: He went to Wheaton, and there uh Jesus just began to stir his heart even more.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: And so while his friends were pursuing careers and income, he said, I'll give up anything I need to in order to follow Jesus to the ends of the earth and proclaim.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna ready my feet with the gospel of Jesus Christ that's gonna be true for me and true for the people I'm gonna bring it to.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: And so he decided with four other friends he was gonna take the gospel to Ecuador to a group, uh to a tribe, small tribe, known for isolation from the rest of society, and known for being some of the most violent people in the world.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: He's like, they're violent, but they don't know the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm gonna pour out my life so that they know it.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: So what they did is for months they couldn't, they didn't know how to make contact.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: So they'd fly over the village and they would just drop things to them to try to win goodwill.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: To try to say, like, hey, we're for you.
45:39
SPEAKER_00: We want to see you flourish, we don't know you, but we love you.
45:43
SPEAKER_00: And in January of 1956, they landed at the sandbar and faced the tribe face to face.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: And over the course of just a few days, all five men, Jim Elliott included, died.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: Killed by this tribe.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: A while later, when Jim Elliott died, he died at the age of 28.
46:07
SPEAKER_00: Talk about a life that counts in a short period of time.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Left behind his wife Elizabeth and his 10-month-old daughter.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: And he married a woman, speaking of last week, that was just so set on the gospel of Jesus Christ that she's like, I'm not gonna give up the mission my husband started.
46:25
SPEAKER_00: And a while later, Elizabeth Elliott landed on the shores, and some of the people that ended up killing her husband came to know Christ.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: Gave themselves to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: While at Wheaton, Jim Elliott writes this in his journal.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Memorize this.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Memorize scripture, but memorize this.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: He's no fool who gives what he cannot keep.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: To gain what he cannot lose, friends, Jim Elliott is a picture of spiritual warfare done well.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: He might have lost his battle, the battle of his life in Ecuador, but friends, there's no mystery that he won the war for his soul.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: I want that to be said of you.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: You might lose battles from time to time and you might spill your blood for the sake of the gospel, but I want you to give to your kids, grandkids, your relatives, your mom, your dad, your brothers and sisters a sure, an assurance that you're not going to lose the battle for your soul because you'll put on the armor of God and you'll go to war with the in the darkest places of this world.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: Which starts with your own sin and your own soul.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me pray that that be true of you.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: God, I ask that you do a work in this room, that you'd pour out your spirit in a unique way.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: God, that you would so aliven the hearts of the people in this room, God.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: If there's anyone who doesn't know you, oh, Spirit of God, would you fall?