 and I want to obey. I'm willing and I'm yielded. I'm surrendered. You begin a good work. Lord, bring it to completion. Bring it to maturity. Bring it to its fullness. What you intend. I don't want to drop off halfway. I don't want to get off the train somewhere before the destination. Lord, I want to travel with you, journey with you all the way. You said you will make it happen. And so, God, I'm just trusting. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you, Lord. This is your desire, Lord, that what the work that you've started in us, that you will bring into completion, God. That you will bring it to fullness and to maturity, God. And Lord, we thank you, God, for we are connected with you. Your spirit is at work in us. Your word is at work in us, Lord. And we thank you, Lord, that you promise that you will never let go of us, Lord. And, Father God, you are looking to us, Lord, with all the Lord potential and everything that you've placed in us, Father God. And your desire is at the gifts that you've placed in us, the call that you've placed upon us, the vision that you've given us, God, and everything, all the desires that you've put in us, God, that we will walk in it, Father God, that we will obey, that we will, Lord, fully walk in it enthusiastically, God, and you will bring it to completion, Father. Thank you. Thank you for the various stages that we are in, Lord, that we are all works of progress and works in progress. And Lord, we thank you that today can be a better day than yesterday, that today can be an even mature day than yesterday, that today can be something, Lord, added to our lives than yesterday, God, because of your work in us, God. And we trust that you're doing this, and we yield ourselves to you, surrender ourselves to you. We give you all the praise at this time, and we give you the glory. In Jesus' matchless name, we pray. Amen. Okay, so let's start. I think we are nearing the end of Ephesians, right? This is the last chapter, chapter six. And I think we came to, I think, verse 10, verse 11. So we'll just quickly review verse 10 and 11. So chapter six starts with the instructions to, Ephesians chapter six starts with the instructions to to masters, instructions to bond servants, instructions, you know, about how to do the word, work, sorry, you know, not half-heartedly, not just when people are watching, but to do it wholeheartedly. And so, and also instructions to the masters, you know, don't threaten, don't understand that you yourself have a heavenly master who's looking over you. So with all these words, he instructs these different people. Ephesians five, there's instructions for husband, wives, and so on. And Ephesians six also about parenting, fathers, how to bring, and also to children, how to bring up, fathers, how to bring up, how not to do, how not to exasperate or cause them to, you know, provoke the children and also children, you know, this is how you respond to your parents. This is how you relate to your parents, right? So, yeah, so in, in chapter six and verse 10, we see this, let's read that verse again. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Okay, so he's saying be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And, and that's, you know, it's like a final, you know, he's almost about to close the letter. And he says, you know, here's an important thing, you know, normally in an epistle, of course, every, every word, every section is important. There are important, you know, instructions, important commandments throughout, right? But we also do notice that, you know, the what we start out with, you know, is of priority. This is the first thing that I want to tell you, because that's the thing that is upon his heart. Okay, so we can, we can derive at that saying, okay, you know, this is the first thing that's on his heart, and this is the first thing that he's actually putting up, putting out there. And also the last thing, finally, I know, I want you to remember this, I don't want you to forget this, I want you to remember this. So that is what he says, you know, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Like we saw last time, we saw that, you know, he's using three words, which three different Greek words, their strong power might three different words, which are used there, which talk about something that is powerful, the power of God, especially, you know, let's, let's say, for example, if you look at the word strong, talks about the explosive power, like how when an explosive or explosive material like a dynamite, maybe it explodes. And there's so much of power, energy that is released in that explosion, it causes a lot of, you know, if you, in a quarry, right, if we if we actually plug in that dynamite, it breaks the rock, huge sections of the rock are come dislodged. And that's why they use explosives in the quarry. It just brings becomes pieces, small pieces, right. So it's, it's like that, be strong in the Lord. So it is saying, you know, this is the kind of strength that you need to be having in yourself, the explosive power of God, be strong in the Lord. And in the power, so that word used there is Kratos, which means something that is tangible, visibly demonstrated power. Okay, it's not doesn't talk about influential power or authority. So it's talking about raw, demonstrated power, strength. So he's saying, now be strong in that, you need to be strong, which means that it is available for the believer, it's available for you and I, right. So be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So that word is schools, which means a force or ability or strength, right. So three very strongly interlinked words, interconnected words in meaning is using that to say, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So this is something which is available for the believer. Okay, now you might look at your whole life and say, you know, your like your own life, say, I'm not strong, I'm not strong enough, spiritually, I feel that I'm weak, spiritually, I feel that, you know, I'm lacking something. Well, the instruction from scripture is be strong, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might be strong. And it's something which means that it is something which is available for the believer, right. So it's available for the believer all times to be put on display all the time. And it is something that we need to be intentionally strong in. We need to be walking in. It's something that every believer young and old needs to walk in. So it's something amazing. This is for us, right, as much as Christ likeness or the character of God is something that God would want us to walk in to, you know, to display into the world, you know, his wisdom, his revelation, his love, his compassion, his forgiveness. He wants that to be seen in us through the Holy Spirit, right. Galatians, we saw the fruit of the spirit is this, like the end result of the work of the Holy Spirit is this love and joy and peace and faithfulness and goodness and all these wonderful things the Holy Spirit brings about in the same way, the same Holy Spirit who works in us is a resurrection power of Christ. God who resurrected brought about Jesus from the dead. He brought about Jesus resurrected power Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit through the creative explosive power or strength or ability of the Holy Spirit. And it's the same Holy Spirit who resides in us, who's at work in us. Okay. And that is why Paul says, be strong in the Lord. I tap in, receive from, walk in, and put on display or demonstrate this power. Okay. So as the instruction that we see in 1 Corinthians and verse 14 and verse one, purse you love and desire spiritual gifts, desire the work of the work of the Holy Spirit. The display of the Holy Spirit is through the gifts of the Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God is put on display, is expressed through one way, is through the gifts of the Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are expressions of the power of God in a believer and through a believer. So desire that, purse you love, desire spiritual gifts, desire the anointing of God, desire to be filled with the power of God. Okay. So he says this and then the verse 11, put on the whole armor of God. Okay. So we need to put on the same verse, same word is used in Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4, you know, this is what he says. Ephesians 4 and verse 22, put off the old man and put on the new, be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Verse 24 says that you put on the new man, which was created according to God, the true right in true righteousness and holiness. So this word put on, which means that we need to be responsible for walking in this. We need to be intentional about walking in this. He's saying put on the new man, the same way he's saying put on the whole armor of God. Okay. That what is the, what is the objective of, why does he want us to put on? So that you might be able to stand against the vials of the devil. Okay. So to stand up against the vials of the devil, we need the armor of God. Okay. And it has been something that has been provided for the believer, which is available for the believer, which has been provided for the believer. And now the believer needs to, the disciple of the believer needs to walk in it intentionally, walk in it, put on the new man or put on the armor of God in order to stand against the vials of the devil. So the word vials means schemes. Okay. So he's always scheming or doing something strategizing to bring down the believer, to bring down, to, to cause the believer to fall down, to bring destruction upon the believer. So it says against the vials of the enemy. Sorry. So all the tricks of the enemy, all the strategies of the enemy. So whatever the enemy is, you know, in his cunningness and deceitfulness and trickery, he wants to bring down, he wants to make the believer fall. Now you be strong, put on the whole armor of God and stand against us, withstand the, the works of the enemy. Okay. So, so, so this shows us that the armor of God is strong enough, is well able to stand against the works of the enemy. And another thing that we learn is that the armor of God is required to stand against the works of the enemy. Like we cannot do it in our strength. We have to do it with the resources and the abilities that God provides. Okay. But we need to do it. We need to stand against it. We need to be intentional. Okay. Yes, we can pray and say, Lord, protect us. The Lord says, would say, I've given you the resources. Use it. Right. Okay. So, like last class, we saw the, all the pieces of the armor. So Paul uses the armor that the Roman soldier would use, all the pieces of the the Roman soldier would use. We looked at, you know, the starting from the, the, the belt and how the belt actually holds all the pieces together, it securely, so that nothing is loose. Nothing is, you know, nothing is hanging, nothing is loose. It's all tight and snug and comfortable. And so the, the, the person can engage in, you know, in a battle. Right. So, you know, I'm sure, you know, if you're an athlete, if you're in any sports, you'll make sure that, you know, you're, you're the, whatever you're wearing, the shoe is tight. Right. The, the, the, you know, if you're wearing a tracks or if you're wearing shorts or whatever that it's, it's fastened on properly, like the socks and shoes and everything. And, and whatever, you know, if you're playing a, let's say cricket, you'll make sure that the pads are on tight, right. Your gloves are on tight, your helmet and everything is on tight. So, you know, so you won't be uncomfortable playing the game. Right. You won't be in any form of discomfort. You want to be at your best. You want to give your best. You want to run fast. You want to play well, you want to concentrate. So the same thing this belt would do. Okay. So we saw each and every piece, the breastplate, which is protecting both forward and, I mean, both in front and at the back. And it's how it's a heavy piece. It's a piece of metal, two pieces of metal connected with brass rings. And we also saw the shoes, the kind of shoes. It's again, a piece of metal, which has spikes at the end, you know, at the bottom of the sole. And which is again used for attack and protection and so on. Then we looked at the shield, which is like four to five pieces of, you know, the big shield, which is used in battle is actually as, as big as a door, as big as tall as the soldier himself. And it's a, it could be a full length metal, which has several layers of leather on it. Right. And it could be sometimes dipped in water so that it can, you know, when the arrows are fired, which are arrows are, you know, fired upon the soldier. Sometimes the arrows are set on fire. It's lit up and then so that, you know, it brings even more destruction. It burns. Right. But this shield is able to put out the fire. It is, the leather is wet because it's been dipped in water and it's huge. It's strong and it's able to put out. Then we looked at the helmet, which is protecting the head, the protecting the face. And even if one is looking the other way, you know, it protects the soldier. Then we looked at the sword, the sword, which is sharp, the sword, which has both the edges, edges, which are sharp. So it is, it is meant to inflict damage and upon the enemy and also a long spear, a lance, a long spear, which can be thrown like a javelin. And from a distance, it can, you know, hurt the enemy. Okay. So, so what is the parallel that we see? What is the parallel that we see in scripture? So he says that, you know, this you need to put on that you may be able to stand up. And he goes on to explain in verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. These are not natural human enemies. Okay. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Okay. So, so he's talking about a hierarchy here is also making a difference between what is the enemy is actually spiritual in nature and not flesh and blood. The human being is not your enemy. The battle is spiritual. The enemy is actually spiritual in nature. Right. So it's talking about literally a hierarchy, four levels, like one is principalities, powers, rulers of, you know, rulers of the darkness of this age and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places, spiritual hosts of wickedness. So all these kinds of, you know, these, these make up our spiritual enemies. Right. So, but what is able to stop the enemy? It's the armor of God, but all against all this, the armor of God is enough. Right. And so goes on to explain. You, I mean, he says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God was 13. Right. So this is the enemy. The enemy is spiritual. The enemy is, is wicked, is crafty, is deceitful, is, is lying. But when you put on the armor, you will be able to withstand and having done all, you will be able to stand against the enemy. You'll be able to stand up to the attacks of the enemy. Okay. So, so here are some things that we, we need to conclude, or we need to, you know, come to a place of decision and tell ourselves, this is it, that the armor of God, what God has provided us, he has slowed this with is enough, is more than enough to defeat, to withstand any form of spiritual attack, any form of spiritual attack, to stand against and to overcome, to come out victorious. Right. So, that is, that is enough. So he says, there stand, therefore, was 14, having girded your waist with truth. So the, so the, the armor first piece that we see the belt, it's actually the belt of truth. It's a, it's a belt which actually undergirds the soldier. It actually goes around the waist and it's the belt of truth. Okay. So truth, this belt, just like how the belt was holding all the other pieces together, even the sheet, sheet in which the sword is kept and, and, you know, other pieces of armor are fastened to the belt. Now, this belt is the belt of truth. Okay. So it's the truth itself. It's not deception. It is not compromise. It is not lie, but it's the truth. So this truth is something which is very, very important for the believer. Okay. Very important for the believer. Truth as defined by the Lord Jesus. Sometimes people say, okay, this is true for me. This is true for you. What is your truth? You know, sometimes people talk about truth as if it's very, very relative, relative meaning. Okay. You know, it's changing. Truth is changing. You know, that's what people sometimes say. Okay. This is true for me. This is what works for me. So this is true for me. And, you know, what you believe and what works for you, you know, you take that and that's, that could be true for you. You know, but the thing is truth as defined by the Lord. Okay. Because the Lord, John chapter 14 and verse 6, the Lord Jesus says, I am the way, the truth. I am the way, the truth. John chapter 14 verse 6. And when we look at John 17 and verse 17, in this, John 17 and verse 17, the Lord Jesus says, sanctify them. He's praying to the Father and he's saying, sanctify them, the disciples, by your truth. Your word is truth. Okay. So he's giving a definition, explanation of what is truth. The Father's word, the words is truth. Okay. So it's eternal. John chapter one starts that way. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. So here I'm saying that your word is truth. So Jesus himself, the living word, he says, I am the way, the truth. So whatever, you know, instructions or whatever definitions of reality that God brings out, that is truth. And that is true. It's not like it may be truth, but it is truth. Okay. And this is what will hold everything else together. It's so important to have the belt of truth, to know the truth. So how do I know the truth when I grow in my relationship with Jesus, when I grow in my relationship with the truth? As I grow in my understanding of the truth, Jesus himself, then all the lies and all the, you know, the deception of the enemy just keeps falling off our lives. Okay. Because sometimes we think, okay, we believe something to be true. And it could be very well be a lie of the enemy, the enemy whispers certain lies. And these whispers, you know, we catch on to it. We hold on to it. It could be some form of a fear. Okay. You can indulge in sin or it could be, you can never be this, you can never walk in righteousness, you can never walk in truth, some lie of the enemy. I remember, you know, once at a youth camp, when we were all young, when we were all youth, then I attended the youth camp with my relative, who was also young, you know, and a cousin, we were all same age. And we were all teenagers then. So after one particular session, we were praying, and he and I were in the same, you know, we were supposed to pray for each other. So then I asked him, you know, how was it? How are things? So he said, you know, I keep hearing a voice saying that if you make a decision to follow Jesus, you will never be able to keep that decision. I keep hearing that voice. I keep, I feel as if someone is telling me, I'll never be able to keep that decision. I will fall, I will, and I don't, so I don't want to make a decision that I don't, I won't be able to keep. So in other words, this voice was instructing him to compromise. This voice was instructing him not to follow the truth. But then when we know the truth, when we understand what the truth is, when we grow in our understanding of the truth, then we will be able to discern that, hey, this is a voice of lie. It is not of the truth. This instruction is not from truth. It's not true. Or this explanation of what will happen or this description of my life of what could happen and what will be is not true because it's a lie. So these are some ways by which lies come to us, but we need to know the truth. When we know the truth, the Lord Jesus says the Holy Spirit will lead us into all the truth and the truth will set us free. Now that's the ability that truth has. The truth will set us free, set us free from bondage, set us free from lies, set us free from intimidation of the enemy, set us free. The truth is what the Word of God is, what Jesus says, who Jesus is and also we see that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And that's another expression of the Spirit of God. He brings freedom. Truth always brings freedom or liberty, liberates the person from all kinds of bondages, from all kinds of things holding that person back. Truth liberates. And true freedom is not being able to do whatever you want to do, but to be able to walk in righteousness. That's true freedom. So know the truth, believe the truth, think the truth. So that's a very important part. I need to think my thoughts need to be true. My thoughts need to be true. Only then my speech and action will be true because thoughts influence our imagination and thoughts influence the words we speak and what we speak about others, what we speak about ourselves. So we need to have thoughts that are true. And we need to speak the truth and we need to live the truth. So we can know and believe and think and speak and live the truth. And since the Lord Jesus says, Thy Word is truth. When we take time to read the Word of God, stay in the Word of God, meditate on the Word of God, we will be saturated with the truth, be filled with the truth. And this truth is very, very important because it's like a belt. It's the belt of truth which holds all the other areas or other aspects of the armor, other pieces of the armor together to be able to function well. Without truth, everything else falls apart. Just think about it. The shield, we're not able to use it. The sword, we're not able to use it. Any other thing that you can think about, the breastplate, it's shaky because it is not fastened to the truth. It's not attached to the truth. So truth is very important. Otherwise, for the believer, everything else falls apart to be true to oneself, to be true to God, to be true to others. That's why truth is very important. And Paul over and over again in instructions he says, let each one stop speaking lies to its neighbor. So that is why he says that because truth is important. And truth is a very character nature of God himself. So, yeah, Ephesians 4 and verse 25, you know, therefore, putting away lying, putting away lying. He's talking about put on the new man. Verse 24 says Ephesians 4 verse 24, put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Put on the new man and then in verse 25, put away lying, which is the opposite of putting on the new man. Put away lying. Okay, so we move on to the next one, which is breastplate of righteousness. So breastplate of righteousness, which is a piece of armor which protects the believer in right in front and also, you know, behind. Okay, well, let me just share the screen. Sorry, I thought I was doing that. Okay, okay, so we see the, you see the breastplate, it's protecting, it's right at the front and the back. So without this righteousness, we will make ourselves vulnerable. So this, it's a defensive piece. And it can be an offensive piece as well. Okay, this part, because we can fearlessly, we can walk fearlessly, run into attack of the enemy because of this righteousness. Because to inflict any kind of, to make progress in the battle, you need to run into the battle. And to be able to run into the battle, what gives us confidence, it will be the breastplate because it's protecting you from front and behind and the back. So the righteousness of, when we say righteousness, we're talking about the righteousness of God, it's not self righteousness or self being self righteous, but it's the righteousness that comes from God. Okay, so when we look at righteousness, we see several other references also, which talk about this second Corinthians six, which talk about righteousness second Corinthians six, and verse, verse seven, and says by the word of truth, probably from verse four. Okay, but in all things, we commend ourselves as ministers of God. Okay, we commend ourselves in all things as ministers of God. And he goes on to explain a lot of things. Okay, what are those things? Okay, so he writes about all that. And then one of the things that he writes about in verse seven is by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand on the left. So he's talking about, you know, righteousness as an armor. Okay, so in efficiency, he talks about righteousness as a, you know, as specifically as a, as a breastplate. So there he talks about on the left hand and on the right hand, righteousness as an armor. So we see that righteousness, when you look at righteousness, we need to see, okay, this right standing with God, first and foremost. Okay, are we in right standing with God? Okay, because we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Second Corinthians five, verse 21, right, it says that we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ because he took, let me just read that verse. Second Corinthians five, verse 21, for he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Okay, so in Christ, that we might become the righteousness of God. So we have in Christ, we have been made the righteousness of God because he carried our sin, who knew no sin, he was made sin for us. So in Christ, we become the opposite of that, which is we become the righteousness of God in Christ. Okay, so, so the thing is this, to be strong in that, to have that all the time, the armor of righteousness, to have that understanding, to be strong in that understanding that we've been washed by the blood of Jesus, that we've been made right by the blood of Jesus, that we have that right standing with God. Okay, only then can we go into battle with all confidence, right, because otherwise, we might take a few steps and then you might have this thought, oh, but will God really be with me because I did this, this, this, and this, or in the past, you know, I behaved like this, or I said this, you know, all those things of the past coming back to our memories at times, of intense spiritual battle, you know, and the enemy seems to whisper, you know, you did that so many years back, or you did that, you know, as recently as yesterday. So, you know, how can you fight the battle? And Satan seems to say, you know, how can you have authority? How can you have authority? How can you, you know, do anything against me, Satan seems to say, because you're one of mine, you did this. But that is when we need to be strong and say, no, no, I've been washed by the blood of Jesus, and I have been clothed with the righteousness of God himself. I've been made the righteousness of God in Christ. Yes, we might have fallen, but the scripture says, though a righteous man might fall, seven times the Lord will lift him up. Okay, so the immediate thing is to get back to God in repentance, right? One John, one mind says that he, you know, we, if he contrasts our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us, to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. So, the Lord Jesus is well able to do that. And he wants to, you know, he has done that. So you want to restore any, anyone who has fallen, he wants to restore. So we don't lose our righteousness when we fall, but we, we definitely lose our, you know, our sense of our understanding of righteousness. And we, we do, we don't have that confidence, right? So we need to definitely get back to fellowship with God. You know, there is a breach in fellowship, right? There seems to be fear. There seems to be that lack of confidence. But when we get back to God, when we restore that relationship with the Lord, you know, we, we are, we are walking confidently again in the righteousness that he has provided us. Okay. So we need to do that. We, we need to refuse to accept the prompting of the enemy when he prompts us to the things of the past. When he prompts us about the, maybe failures of the past or regrets of the past. And to be very adamant about that, to be very stubborn about that, to say, no, I'm, this is what is, this is the truth. This is what has happened. So I will hold on to the truth. And we'll notice that the, the pull of the enemy or the prompting of the enemy becomes weaker and weaker and weaker as we become stronger and stronger in holding on, like in being strong or in standing strong in the righteousness that God has clothed us with. Okay. So that does not mean that I go and do anything and say, I still say, no, I'm clothed in righteousness. No, this clothing in righteousness too, should give us the confidence to walk righteously, right? To indulge in righteous acts, to, to be confident and, and to walk in righteousness. Right. Okay. The other thing that we see is the gospel. So it says, let me just go back, says, put on, you know, having guarded your waste with truth, put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shot your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, this gospel of peace, you know, this, the gospel, the good news brings us to a place of peace with God, peace with man, peace within oneself, oneself, right? So this, so the context here is to sharing of the good news, the good news, the message of salvation. So when we, you know, that is when that readiness to do that, to share this gospel of peace is also something that protects us, protects our walk, our walk as we, you know, as we walk with God, as we walk, which means to, as we live out our life, this readiness to share the gospel protects our feet. Okay. So as we have experienced this peace, when we share, when we have the readiness to share this message of peace, we, we walk in peace with God, we walk in peace with one another. And this peace, the supernatural peace of God, it, Philippians 4 talks about how it guards our hearts and mind. Okay, this peace of God, how it guards our hearts and mind through Christ Jesus. So it is also something that gives us discernment, something that reigns, as believers, we are called to reign in it. Okay. And this peace is like an umpire, it gives us the discernment to make wise choices. Right. So we are called to walk in this peace. And it also, you know, it protects us as we walk. It stabilizes us as we walk. Just like what shoes will do protects us. And, and even as we look at the, sorry, as we look at the shoes of the Roman soldier with those spikes and, you know, like long nails at the, at the bottom of it, it walks, causes us to walk in different kinds of environments. Okay. Different kinds of terrain, like maybe the environment changes. We are in one place. We go to another place. The environment is different. Challenges are different. Challenges maybe are many, but we are, we are able to walk. And it's because of our readiness to share this gospel of peace, which, which, which, you know, that the peace that we have within the peace that we are called to walk in is, is also part of that. And it gives us the confidence and which gives us the ability to walk no matter what kind of challenges there are. Right. Okay. Then we come to the shield of faith verse 16. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which we will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. Okay. So says above all, meaning, you know, after all this, you know, don't forget to take up the shield, the shake, always carry with you the shield of faith. And, you know, it's a, it's a large piece of armor, which covers the entire soldier from top to bottom, from the head to the feet. It covers the soul, soldier. So it's this faith is something that shields us and also puts off the fiery arrows, arrows of fire, which come from the enemy. Okay. So he says, which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, all the fiery darts, everything that the enemy shoots at you, you will be able to quench or put out. Now it could be, you know, what possibly could the enemy throw at us or possibly, you know, what are those fiery or arrows of fire that the enemy can shoot at us. It could be accusation about us. It could be lies about us. It could be arrows of fear. It could be arrows of unbelief, unbelief in the words of God. Just like in the garden, you know, did God really say that, you know, causing unbelief, causing us to question the truth of God, the plans of God, right? Did God really say that is what Satan asked Eve, right? And sometimes the statement, you know, surely you will not die, right? Again, a statement of the evil one, statement of the devil, surely you will not die, surely. If you indulge in it, if you do this, if you come at this act against God, surely nothing will happen. Nothing will happen. Don't worry, just go ahead. You'll be fine. And also in the temptation of the Lord Jesus, you see what he does, you know, if you are, if you're really the Son of God, why don't you do this, right? Causing almost, you know, inviting Jesus to follow his word rather than the words of the Lord. If you are truly this, in other words, challenging our identity. Are you really this? Are you really the Son of God? Are you really a child of God? Then, you know, why don't you do this? Why don't you try this? Enabling, or bringing us to a place of, you know, even questioning that, right? Are you really this? So, identity, challenging our identity. And the enemy also, you know, we see that challenges our, you know, our worship of the Lord, the place that we have for God. Then he says, as he told Jesus, said, if you, I will, I'll give you all this. I'll give you everything. You know, it belongs to me. I'll give you this, but you just need to follow me. You just need to worship me. The place that you have for God, you know, let that be second place. And you let something else be first place. But if you do that, then I'll give you, I'll promise this. I'll give you all this, right? Makes an offer like that. So, these are, you know, and on and on, right? You know, why don't you test God in this? And why don't you, you know, bringing us to a place of assumption or presumption, right? So, we need to continue on in faith. And for that, we need the shield of faith. And, you know, the shield of faith, faith we know comes from God, comes from hearing the words of God. That's why the Lord Jesus said, Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So, this reama, quickened word of God, you know, is required for the believer. It nourishes, strengthens the believer. And we also see that faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God in Romans chapter 10. So, faith is something spiritual that is produced by another spiritual, you know, material, which is the word of God. And so, faith is produced by the word of God in our hearts. And we are made strong by the word of God. So, this shield of faith is really something that we carry, which puts out the, all the accusation lies, you know, temptations of the enemy. And it is the word of God, which is able to put this out, word of God, which is direct opposite or direct contrast to the lies accusation, and so on, every statement of the enemy. Okay, so we'll stop here and we'll come back a little after 10 and continue. Okay.