 Dear God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, as we're about to learn the book of Philippians here, but you fill us with your knowledge and wisdom, though, and I pray for all of my classmates and friends and my brothers and sisters that they will grow strong and mature in your work, God, that they will learn to pray for me, that they will make a day and night and continue to live for you. And for the rest of their life, for that they will surrender everything they are to you, Jesus. Thank you for passing through the vehicle, God, that she's about to teach, God, that you pour out your spirit, God, and help our Lord, that she's teaching us, God. Thank you all for this opportunity to learn your truths and your word. And you may pray, Amen. Amen. Yes, thank you so much. Yeah. So just to touch upon this last portion of Ephesians six, you know, which we could not cover last time, which talks about the spiritual armor that we are supposed to wear. Now, most of us are very familiar with this because entire books have been written on this topic. So just to very quickly go through that and then, you know, we will get into the epistle to the Philippians. So in Ephesians chapter six was 14 onwards where you have the description of the spiritual armor that is given over there. It first starts off by talking about the belt of truth. It says, stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist. And, you know, like we are all familiar, the soldiers of that time, they would wear this lendy breastplate. It's called a breastplate, but it doesn't just cover the chest area. It's something which would hang literally, you know, it would be made of metal and leather and it would literally hang from their shoulders all the way down to their, you know, knee level. So that, you know, no arrow would be able to hit them and harm any vital organs. So this actually would, even though it's called a breastplate, it's not really a breastplate. It's more like a, it's like a more, more like a protective piece of equipment that hung all the way from the shoulders right down to your knees. And so when the soldier would be, you know, moving about running and, you know, fighting and all of that, it would be so easy for this thing, this breastplate to get displaced because it's just basically two pieces of that metal and leather combination. You know, the two pieces would be joined over here at the shoulders with some kind of clippings and all that. So you would have that hanging in the front and you would have it hanging in the back and it's just losing, you know, hanging loosely. So the belt, which this soldier would be wearing is what would keep it in place. So the belt would grip, you know, around the waist and make sure that this protective piece of equipment that the person is wearing would stay in place and not get, you know, displaced and expose him to arrows and all of that. So that was the main purpose of this belt of truth, you know. And so over here, we see that Paul is comparing this belt to the truth because when we as believers choose to believe in the word of God and we hold on to that truth and we refuse to believe in the lives of Satan, then you see the rest of the armor is kept in place. If you take away that one fundamental thing where we start, you know, doubting the word of God, where we start doubting the truth of what God has said, the entire, the rest of the armor starts getting displaced. It starts getting dismantled, which is what happened in the case of Eve. When Satan came and, you know, began to sew his lies in her head, he, she began to think, oh, did the Lord really give us the 100% truth? Maybe he was holding back information which we need for our good. And so she began to doubt him and that led to the displacement, the dismantling of everything else. So the belt of truth becomes very vital because that is what holds the rest of the armor together. So our belief and trust in the truth of God's word and also the belt of truth in the sense where we choose to live in integrity, where we choose to, you know, to speak truthfully, to be sincere in our actions towards others, where we are not cheating them or in some way deceiving them, but being very honest and transparent. So all of these things make sure that the rest of the armor stays in place, you know, because this belt of truth used to have clips. So they would, in fact, hang the sword also from that belt. You know, if a soldier wanted to carry a dagger, there would be a clip for that as well where he could just tuck in the dagger as well. So this belt was something which held the entire armor together. So it was so vital. So we believers, if we do not have integrity in our lives and also if we are not really 100% trusting in the truth of God's word and we doubt him, if these things are not in place, then the rest of the armor gets affected. So this is something very vital and that's probably why Paul mentions it very first in this list when he's describing the armor. Then he actually goes on to talk about this long piece of protective equipment that they used to wear, which in our English, they just call it as breastplate. So it's a covering made of metal and leather which hangs literally from your shoulder down to your knees. So this protection, you know, for all the vital organs. Now, of course, our righteousness would have to extend right from the head up down to our toes because when we choose to live in righteousness, which the God has given us, when we choose to live in that righteousness, when we choose not to live in sin, then Satan will not be able to attack us. We will be shielded, we will be protected. On the other hand, if a person has been living in sin, then Satan kind of gets hold over that person and can meddle in their life, can bring harm to them. So it becomes important to have this breastplate of righteousness where we choose to live in righteousness, in holiness, under the covering and protection of God. The third piece of armor that is discussed is, you know, it would be verse 15 where it says, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. So it's important to note that our feet are fitted with readiness. Our feet are not fitted with the gospel. Our feet are fitted with readiness. The readiness to be able to move swiftly. The readiness to act in a single moment, you know, in a time of crisis and to be able to act rightly in a way that, you know, God would honor or that God would be pleased with. So to be ready on every single occasion to handle life, to handle everything that, you know, the world throws at us, the devil throws at us. So to have feet that are literally fitted with readiness and how does this readiness come? It comes by our, you know, meditating on this gospel of peace, in our applying this gospel of peace to our air, to every aspect of our everyday life. So even as we meditate on this gospel, even as we absorb it into our lives, even as we, you know, practice what the gospel of peace teaches us, even as we live out in that way, we start becoming very ready to be able to handle, you know, the challenges of life and also the spiritual challenges which Satan brings. So the readiness comes from following the gospel of peace. And when we follow the gospel of peace, this is the promise that's made in Romans 16 verse 20, where it says, the God of peace, you know, the God who gave this gospel of peace, it says, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. So when we are, our feet are fitted with readiness, the readiness which comes by following the gospel of peace, then the very God of peace, he will see to it that Satan is crushed under our shoes, you know, under our shoes which are ready. So in that sense. And then it also talks about the shield of faith. Now this is something that's more familiar to us because a lot of sermons touch upon it. In those days, the shield was made of many layers of leather and then all the layers of leather would be held together by a metal frame. And so they would basically soak this leather shield in water so that it will be damp and wet because when the enemy would throw arrows fitted with flames, they would light up a wad of cotton or something cloth and they would, you know, shoot it with a bow and arrow at the soldiers. So the soldier has a wet, you know, a shield with him. When those flames come and hit, you know, because of the dampness and the wetness of the shield, those would be quenched, you know, the fire would go out and they would be safe, they would not be harmed. So in the same way, Satan is always trying to hit us with doubts, trying to distance us from God, trying to make us, you know, not stay near God. Where we would, you know, start thinking, okay, is the Lord really faithful? Does he really care? So Satan is always trying to make us increase the distance between us and God. And so when we have the shield of faith in place, may we choose to say, I believe in what the scriptures are saying about the Lord. And even those circumstances seem to be indicating that the Lord has abandoned. I know that he has not done that. I know that he is greatly faithful. So we choose to use the shield of faith and that is able to quench the, you know, the flaming pieces of, you know, cotton or whatever material, you know, which the enemy shoots with bow and arrow. Then we come to the helmet of salvation, which of course, you know, when we renew our minds, when we continue to protect our minds with what the scripture says is the right attitude, with what scripture says are the correct facts about our standing in Christ. You know, when we accept these truths and we align our minds with what God is saying about us, what God is saying about the finished work of the cross and how powerful it is. When we align our minds with these truths, then that becomes like a helmet. It shields and protects us, you know, from wrong thinking and from getting deceived by the evil one. And then of course, we have the sword of the spirit. And this of course is something that has been, you know, dealt with in great detail by a lot of preachers. So we use the word of God to fight against whatever Satan, you know, brings, whatever temptation Satan brings. So every single time that temptation comes, we choose to say just like Jesus did, you know, in the desert in the wilderness, we choose to stand and say, no, rather than doing what you are asking me to do, I choose to do what the scripture tells me to do. So in that sense, the word of God becomes a sword. You choose to do the scripture, which God is, you know, bringing to your mind in that moment and saying, no, I choose to stand on this scripture. I choose to do what the scripture is saying rather than what you are saying. So in that sense, you use that scripture as a sword, as your strength to stand upon that and to fight against Satan using that scripture, believing completely in the truth of that scripture and choosing to practice that, choosing to apply that to your life rather than, you know, given to whatever it is that Satan is asking you to do. So we would basically use the sword of the spirit in that manner. And then in verse 18 is generally considered as being part of the armor as well, even though Paul doesn't explicitly mention any piece of equipment over here in our verse 18, you know, they say that this too is a part of the armor because he says over here praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So over here, what are the prayers that are being offered? These prayers are being offered so that the body of Christ, the church is protected and shielded from all the tactics and schemes, you know, which Satan is trying to come up to divide the church, to destroy the church. So we anticipate beforehand that the evil one may attack and that he may use certain strategies to, you know, bring division and all kinds of sin among us. So we anticipate beforehand and we begin to pray against the strategies of the evil one. So even before the attack has come, we get down on our knees as a church in prayer and we pray that the Lord will strengthen us, prepare us in our spirits so that when the time of attack comes, you know, we will be able to come out victorious. And this is basically what even, you know, Jesus did for Peter. So the Lord says to Peter, a time will come when Satan will literally sift you like wheat, but don't worry because I'm going to be praying for you. So because of my prayers, you will come out victorious at the end of it all. Yes, you will betray me, but in spite of all of that, in the end you will come out victorious. Why? Because I have, you know, prayed for you. So they say that Paul was probably referring to the spear. So a soldier would have a sword, of course, but he would also on some occasions have a long spear with him, you know, which he can fling at the enemy. So they say that probably Paul had that long spear in mind when he talks about this point of prayer. So the prayer too becomes a part of the equipment, part of the spiritual armor and prayer is that long spear which we throw at Satan in advance, even before he has, you know, literally come to us. We throw it in advance. And so in that way, we are on the offensive through our prayers. We are on the offensive against him, attacking him in the spiritual realm. And so through our prayers, already, you know, we kind of guarantee our future victory. So in that sense. So those are all the pieces of armor, you know, which are talked about in our Ephesians chapter six. So we look at how these pieces of armor apply to our Christian walk. And we, you know, we would need to reflect on how we can use all of these things in staying in the Lord, in being strong in him, you know? So how can I use, you know, truth to really stay in the Lord? We would have to ask ourselves, okay, when it comes to prayer, how can we use prayer to really go on the offensive against Satan? So we kind of reflect on these pieces of armor and we ask ourselves, when it comes to applying this to the spiritual walk that we have, how do we apply each of these pieces of armor? I know to our Christian walk. So that's basically what would be involved, you know, in studying this particular passage and applying it to our lives. So, you know, I just didn't want to spend too much time on that, but I did want to touch upon it. So we are basically, you know, done with the book of Ephesians. And in fact, now we will move into Philippians. I will, you know, restart the recording so that Philippians can start off as a...