 Okay So Let's move on to the next piece of armor that he talks about so shield of faith and then I also talked about the helmet of salvation. Okay, so let's Okay, so helmet of salvation. Okay, so so let me say salvation talking about the Lord Saving work redeeming work on the cross and how it affected us as believers and So the knowledge of that right the understanding of that the knowledge of that Is is a is a protective piece of armor So it's it's something for every believer to be strong in the knowledge of salvation How did I Get saved right know what Christ did for us What Christ knowing what Christ did for me on the cross and how I am saved and what I'm saved from Right is is a very important revelation And that's why right in the first semester, you know, we we look at who we are in Christ and you know that that whole Topic of what we have become in Christ is a very important thing It's very fundamental and foundational thing for every believer, right because because the enemy can again You know in the spiritual battle if it's If we are not strong and that enemy can actually sowed out so unbelief You know put all that like a seed in our mind in our thoughts thinking, okay, you know, you're You're not born again. Look at your life, you know, you you look at the way you're living look at the way you're doing things and Not doing certain things and so I bring us to a place of saying, okay maybe it was it was just a you know some resolution just like a new year resolution something that I made and Maybe so nothing will come out of it, you know But we need to be strong in that you need to be strong in the fact that we are saved what has happened to us right and and walk in the Or live our lives daily according to the benefits of what we have received, okay, the the fact that we are justified the fact that we are sanctified that we are friends with God and Because we are born again, we have the ability to hear the voice of the shepherd and And we have the Holy Spirit residing in us all those, you know, the wonderful things That has happened to us now that understanding of salvation Needs to be strong. We need to we need to you know in a way. We need to Be comfortable or rest in it. Oh, this is who I am. This is what I've become and In another sense lay hold of it, you know, with a very strong firm grip Okay, so both need to do so that we don't lose that so the enemy brings in like a maybe, you know, like a lie like some kind of a thought some kind of You know some kind of an imagination even Challenging that very thing in our minds in our thinking, right? But this keeps us strong this keeps us going much like how the You know, if if a sword or if an axe of Soldier, you know, it comes and hits, you know, and we are not looking when we are not watching it This comes in maybe touches the the skull But because of the helmet because of the you know, the strong helmet which is covering the head and the face We escape The the actual effect which was actually intended was to kill but then we escape that okay So this understanding or revelation of salvation is that It protects the mind it protects us in the battlefield Okay Then so what does he say says above all Sorry over 17 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God now the sword of the spirit and You know, he Paul uses that specific word that he uses for the sword talks about a long sword It's not, you know a small one, but it's it was a Double-edged sword. Okay, so it is used as a as a weapon and it's sharp They have a pointed end and so on. So he uses this Greek word in order to describe the sword. Okay, so it's It says which is the word of God, which is the and the word used there is reyma cannot logo us reyma the quickened word the word that the Holy Spirit has You know has brought into our hearts Okay There was a Holy Spirit has highlighted That's the quickened word of God Now this quickened word of God is like the two-edged sword sharp two-edged sword maybe it's It's an understanding of scriptures. Maybe it's a verse itself Maybe it's a strategy. Maybe it's a prophetic word. Maybe it's a you know prompting of the Holy Spirit That's the sword of the spirit. It's it's a weapon. It's a weapon against the doubt of the enemy It's a weapon against the you know, whatever the enemy brings in challenges of the enemy. Okay, so So it also means that it's a word that is quickened by the Holy Spirit which we as believers we speak out in faith And we speak out in faith without any unbelief The word is spoken. The word is maybe even demonstrated and acted upon right, so this word is What is the sword of the spirit? and it Fights or it is used against what the enemy brings statements of Guilt and condemnation. Okay statements that are meant to discourage us statements that are meant to You know keep us in prison of guilt or shame or condemnation Statements that are you know meant to cripple us So that we cannot do anything Questions that are meant to bring doubt in our ability as believers of God as ministers of God Questions that are meant to doubt our closeness with God relationship with God all these kinds of Thoughts or questions or statements that the enemy brings We are able to counter that come against that With the quickened word of God the highlighted quickened the stirred up word of God Which is done by the Holy Spirit in our spirit. Okay, then we come to verse 18 So many times we stop this verse 17 When we talk about the armor, but verse 18 was also important because 18 talks about prayer praying with all praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplications for all the Saints okay, so though this piece of armor Is not really Mentioned, you know, he doesn't draw a paddle But since he's talking about the pieces of armor of the Roman soldier We can see that okay. This is also another piece Which the of another armor which the Roman soldier carries, which is the spear which is the lance Which is something that can be thrown at the enemy now he's talking about prayer And he's talking about you know something that Makes a difference even from a distance Right a weapon that makes a difference even if it's if you're not there is physically close You're even from a distance like this the spear was always thrown from a distance and The enemy when the enemy is there at a distance. So the parallel is that prayer Okay, similarly prayer prayer and supplication in the spirit and Being watchful with perseverance and supplication for all the same. So praying with perseverance Okay, meaning perseverance meaning you you keep at it. You keep going You know, no matter what you don't stop praying with Perseverance and supplication for all the saints Okay, and So he's talking about prayer and supplication in the spirit and praying always Which means all seasons all times and the only way we can do that is when we And we pray in tongues when we pray in the spirit. So the importance of praying in the spirit, right? Empowered by the spirit of God led by the spirit of God With all perseverance With endurance not stopping but keeping at it on going prayer and So he also talks about praying for others praying for oneself praying for, you know, when we are in spiritual conflict and otherwise, but praying also for others So So the question is, you know, do we If we are in spiritual conflict when we are in spiritual conflict to to walk intentionally with all this right to walk in truth to walk in faith to have the understanding and revelation of the of our salvation to walk with the readiness to share the gospel the gospel of peace to have the Presulate of righteousness that that is again a revelation and understanding of the kind of righteousness that has been that we are covered with right and to walk in with with the sword of the spirit taking the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit So these are things that we are as believers. We are asked to walk in and You know in Something that we can do corporately something that we can do individually as well All right, corporately the soldiers used to you know have a like walk together as a wall You know with all their shields up in formation You know some will hold their shields on top so the arrows don't hit and then some are holding it to the side So the arrows don't come from this side So it's like protective the soldiers are walking in formation So as a corporate body, you know as believers, maybe as a church as You know as a ministry as a small team Whatever, you know, we can walk in corporate prayer and that is a protection okay, so So that is added protection Right when we when we pray for one another when we move together in prayer. So So when we do that it's added protection and complete protection for the army of God, right? Then verse 19 says pray for me that utterance may be given to me that may open that I may open my mouth and speak boldly To make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains That in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak so that's verse 19 and 20 Okay, so Saying that that utterance may be given just pray for me You know intercede for me while we are on the topic of prayer is saying now pray for me That utterance may be given that I may be given that the message to share and speech or the message But I may be able to speak speak that out and I may be able to speak that out boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel to make known the The mystery of the gospel the secrets of the gospel things that are Revealed and which I need to reveal to others, right? So I may make known this revelation to others and Then he says for which I am an ambassador in prison or in chains in prison So saying this is who I am I'm an ambassador I am someone who is those are representative of the kingdom of God and But I'm a prisoner, you know, so And the thing is that, you know, you see the perspective you saying, okay I'm a representative of the kingdom of the king of the kingdom of God I am in chains, which means that physically Yeah, I am imprisoned But then he says that in it Even though I am imprisoned. I'm that in it. I may speak the speak boldly as I ought to speak that so that's his desire Even though I'm in chains even though I'm in prison. I'm imprisoned. I know that I'm in it I'm an ambassador that I'm a representative of the king And his prayer is that no prayer that I'm Even though I'm a prisoner as a prisoner. I might make known the gospel It's wonderful The perspective that he has as a prisoner. He's not saying that okay that I might be set free you know See he's just saying that as a prisoner. I want to make known the gospel as a prisoner I want to I want to Boldly proclaim the gospel Okay, it's amazing and then now it was a 21 to 24 some some greetings and you know Instructions so says but that you may also know my affairs and how I'm doing Taikik is a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will make all things known to you whom I have sent to you for this very Purpose that you may know your our affairs and that he may comfort your hearts Peace to the brethren and love with faith from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity Okay, so with that he closes the episode. So he's talking about how he's sending Taikik is Who's a faithful minister? I was part of Paul's ministry team And he's sending them to meet them and who will explain to them more about How ministry is happening or how they are all doing and also That he may comfort them encourage them Then says peace to you and love with faith from God and the Lord and grace be with you So It's pretty much like how he You know starts the letter Chapter one verse two we see that grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus. So He ends that as well. It's the letter with that Praise be with you who love our Lord Jesus in sincerity Okay, so with that we come to the end of Ephesians and So anything any doubts or questions, you know, you can look at that or Or anything that you felt was highlighted to you which you felt was Something that you notice this time when you were studying which you've not seen before in Ephesians Anything yeah, so you can take some time maybe put it in the chat. What is it that really made sense for you? You know as we studied Ephesians. What is it? What is it that really impacted you when you studied Ephesians? um Yeah, so each person can just say one thing one thing that you know that you noticed that was highlighted to you that Impacted you that you learned newly it could be anything Yeah, so Kiran, Kannan, Prince, Dev, Thomas and what is it that you can put it on the chat also So we can you know, just look at that. Okay, what about you Kiran? anything that you Learned that was emphasized from the study on Ephesians Yeah, please go ahead Righteousness, okay, that's right And the righteousness as something which is like a weapon which is like a armor. Yes Okay, Kannan Okay, Aaron says Gifts upon each believer okay, so The fact that we we see that Chapter four was seven that each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift okay, and Also, specifically you see the the five-fold gift five-fold ministry also given for some Not all but some right Okay So Prince would um, what do you think? Dave Thomas Yeah So as we are looking at the The the the the armor um, I just Not just but it Most of the armor that we have that as mentioned by Paul here is mostly it is It's a defensive except for the sword And the the thing is Um What we meant it reminded me that Jesus has already won the war and he's already And it's given us now Now we are to defend what Jesus has done on the first what he has done for for for each one of us Now it's our duty to to to defend that Uh, we we since Jesus has already won the one the and he's already been Chris And now it's our time you're making that Yeah, yeah, so yeah, it's true that we are fighting from The battle is from a place of victory. It's a battle is to Stand our ground Because you know, that's what he says, right? Having it was 13 if you see Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand so yes um Yes, a lot of it is defensive, but also, you know, it is to extend the kingdom of God, right? So it is to make inroads into Like maybe the territory of the enemy, right? So We have the sword we have the even the gospel of peace which is Which is Which in a way can be both defensive as well as offensive like you're making progress. You're moving forward And like we saw the shoes of the roman soldier Uh Can be offensive it protects the feet of the soldier But also it can inflict Right damage. So yeah, so we have most of it which is You know defensive, but it also helps us to move into the offensive like we saw You know the breastplate of righteousness it gives us the confidence to go forward Maybe to wield the sword of the spirit to use the sword of the spirit And also like we saw, you know, the prayer itself like a spear You know, there's no distance in the the spiritual realm. So we we are in one place and we are praying for the needs of You know fellow believers of the church in in another place, which is You know physically which is far away, but it's like a spear that is thrown which Destroys, you know the intimidation of the enemy which is over there in that place far away So you see that it is, you know, it helps in the offensive as well and we do it Being strong in all this, you know carrying all this And walking in all this, okay Gekanan our position in Christ, yes That is true Who we are in Christ our identity our position in Christ is something that again, you know over and above Comes comes through in this episode Yeah, so To be strong in that right Right Princes, you must know the will of God, okay, Ephesians 5 17 They understand what the will of the Lord is And find out what is acceptable and live according to it. Yes Yeah, so this is these are some things that You know that come through that that God wants us to you know, not be passive you know when it comes to When it comes to our Christian walk, right not to be passive not to be In the sense Not to just float along but but to live with intention Intentionally And which means to find out not to engage with God to find out You know and to expectantly Wait on him to reveal And what he wants done and then obediently Carrying that out no being that you know carrying out orders or carrying out his instruction Okay, so we see all these um in Ephesians. So we'll move on to philippians, right today Let's uh, let me just share the notes. So philippians Um, I think I've not put it on the Classwork on the stream yet, right? So I'll I'll put it after the class after today's class Okay, so philippians So we see that You know, it's it's a very Interesting personal letter. Um, it's divided into four chapters um We see that timothy is also with paul and Though paul was in prison paul writes this from prison Um And here, you know some of the things that we we seized standing out in this episode. It's a very personal letter And he is commending the philipp the people of philippi The church in philippi and he thanks them There is no If you see that there is no not much of a rebuke or anything Um to the believers that is there's a lot of encouragement um But there's no rebuke as such Like, you know, like the color like the galatian church, you know, or foolish galatians, you know, there's nothing like that. It's very It's very loving, uh, you know edifying Encouraging letter Um, there is only I think there was one Yeah, I think it's it's more of an encouraging thing Right and he shares a lot of his personal Uh Journey as well like thoughts about his what he sees what he has become What has happened to him his perspective about you know about the law about himself You know as he was trained as a Pharisee and and all that so he talks about that, right? So So when we move on to, um Uh, see some of the historical information we see that um, you know, it was a village called Crenadis in for in that region of Thres in Macedonia and now it's the northeastern part of Greece a fertile area And you know surrounded by mountains and hills and so on Um, so it was it was actually taken over by this king phillip The father of alexander Who conquered this place who brought in Uh, you know, there's silver mines gold mines. So he was attracted by that He brought in the culture of Greece into that region back into that area and uh There's several other You know, the armies which actually fought and later um, so The the the city itself became a roman colony Okay, uh because of that being conquered by roms. Um, so it had both these cultures there and it it was considered like a prestigious city in filipi to live in because Okay, there's a map Of filipi You know, you see that, uh It's close to thessalonica And you can see the you know, Ephesus Ephesus and and the distance from Ephesus to filipi Okay, some background about the letter. Okay, so in um In ax chapter 16 paul talks about, uh, he mentions, uh, filipi and something about Uh About his association there, you know, like we see in um In ax chapter 16 and verse 11 Right If you read he says therefore sailing from troas We ran a straight course to samothraeus and the next day came to neopolis From there to filipi, which is the foremost city of that part of macedonia A colony and we were staying in that city for some days And on the Sabbath day, we went out of this we went out of the city to the riverside where prayer was customarily made And we sat down and spoke to the women who met there Our certain woman named lydia heard us She was a seller of purple from the city of triatira who worshipped god The lord opened her heart to heed things spoken by paul and when she and the household were baptized She begged her saying if you have judged me to be faithful to the lord come to my house and stay so she persuaded Us So this is lydia who was a businesswoman who dealt in oh delton. Sorry textile Right and fine fabric like it says purple So she was a seller of that in from the city of triatira. Okay, so it's that I mentioned in the map Uh, okay, filipi Thyatira is not there right, so So so she and her family they accepted the lord Then we also see there was another instance Incidents that is mentioned there from verse 16 onwards, which talks about the the girl Who was possessed by an evil spirit and she was uh, it was a spirit of divination Right, so she would She would tell fortune. She was a slave girl and she was you know She would she would She was more like a fortune teller. She was possessed And because of that there was a lot of money that her owners actually made through her and Paul cast out the demon and And then they became very angry because now the source of income was gone and then they put paul and Silas in prison So they are in prison and then we know what happened, right? They were worshiping god The prison doors there was an earthquake the prisons opened and The jailer was you it being everyone was hearing them Um Sing and worship the lord through the night and then jailer was about to kill himself because You know, he thought everyone had escaped and then paul said no We're all here And then his life is transformed. He says what must I do to be saved? So we see lydia and her family We see the you know, philippine jailer and his family come to know the lord and all these things happen and then then The the authorities um They they came and they were Because they came to know from paul that they were roman citizens now. They were even more afraid And they come they let us They let them go they they release them And they asked them to please, you know go out of philippine. Don't trouble us and they Go out of prison and they go to the house of lydia And they encouraged Because they are new believers Lydia and her family and then from there they leave so so we Read about this in ax chapter 16 right and we see that From what we read We see that the believers there were poor Okay, but despite their poverty or lack Lack of you know, a lot of riches but despite that they they helped paul in his ministry Okay, we read that in second corinthians um We we read about that that they were This is the age area of macedonia and then you know, we they really helped in the ministry They have sent aid to paul because paul was not Taking any money from the corinthian church right Because of the kind of situation there they were in and they were all divided and all that so he he actually chose not to take any Support from them for the work of ministry, but then the believers from philippi even though they were they did not have much They were helping right and so you know, we read about that Um, so they also sent help Or sent aid financial aid to the believers in jerusalem Because some of them were going through a difficult time and as they were collecting um Financial help for the believers in jerusalem. They also contributed. So they were like Um, they were really partnering in the ministry that paul was doing in his travel. So helping him in the ministry Uh, and also contributing to so despite all their Uh challenges financially they were uh doing this. Okay, so we see that Uh, all we see all that being mentioned. So most likely You know, this all happened in the second missionary journey So paul also visited, um, philippi again during a third during his third missionary journey from Ephesus to corinth Okay, so So he might have passed through philippi and and met them Okay Okay, so about the author we see that uh paul is definitely the author Uh and the style of writing and everything he mentions He of course reveals this identity that he is the author right at the beginning and And so we we there's no one to challenge that authorship right so paul most likely Wrote this around ad 60 61 or 62 Approximate time Um, but definitely it was from a prison Because he writes about that as well or from here from a roman prison. Okay So it's similar to You know the the condition is similar to Efficiency because that was also from prison. So this is also from a prison um Like you we're going to look at colossians and we see that that is also a prison epistle Okay, so that's the background so paul writing to the philippians um To encourage them to thank them and to remind them About all that is happening in his own life right Okay, so let's look at chapter one um And this is how it starts paul and timothy born servants of jesus christ To all the saints in christ jesus who are in philippi with the bishops and deacons Grace to you and peace from uh god our father and the lord jesus christ I thank my god upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine making request for you with all joy For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now being confident of this very thing That he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of jesus christ Just as it is right for me to think this of you all because I have you in my heart In as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel You are all partakers with me of grace For god is so greatly I long for you all with the affection of jesus christ And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment That you may approve the things that are excellent And that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness Which are by jesus christ to the glory and praise of god Okay, so uh, so he just says hello and he says, you know, paul and timothy and We are born servants of jesus christ. You know, that's always the way He referred to most of the times, right? He says i'm a born servant of christ, which means i've surrendered my will to christ I To the will of christ, right? I'm a slave. I'm a born servant. Whatever he says. He's my master Whatever he says, that is what happens And it's addressed to the saints. It does to all the believers who are in Christ jesus also It is to the bishops or the overseers um, or people of people who are been appointed um to oversee The the church or Spiritual oversight, right? So the word bishop refers to that and also Deacons or people who are serving are taking care of the The The administrative side of things, you know serving in church to take care of you know, maybe the Yeah, uh, the the logistic side administrative side operational side of the church So these are the deacons a diaconia As we see in greek. So they are the deacons. So So to all of them the saints uh again made up of people who are overseers and also deacons and who are serving church Okay, so grace and peace from god Gay grace to you and peace from god of other and the lord jesus christ He says no, I thank my god upon every remembrance and every time i'm reminded I thank my god. I thank my god for you and and you also you know making Request for them he prays for them. No, he's thanking god uh for Every time he's reminded every time he's praise every time he's reminded he says I thank god for you all And in every prayer making request for you all with joy Okay, so You know, this is the first time he mentions the word joy in this episode But there are many other places also in the same episode that he talks about Joy and about rejoicing and so on. So we're going to see that Now, so what is he? thanking them Are you making requests for them? You know, he's thanking god Verse five says, you know for their fellowship for their partnership for For their partnership in the gospel And for their fellowship in the gospel in the work of the gospel in the ministry of paul They they partnered quite actively not only in praying but also in giving in supporting His financial needs in supporting the needs of others So he's saying you know for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now Okay, so which means from the day, uh, you know paul met Lydia the The jailer And their families. So so these were some of the families that were you know, a few families that are right from the beginning And others who supported the work of ministry paul's ministry. Okay, and so he says Paul goes on to say i'm confident of this thing that He who began a good work will bring it to completion and that's the That's the one that we You know, we we started with every class we started with This verse and we said, okay, let's let's pray that over our lives. So Um, so this is what he says that i'm confident of this. I'm sure of this One thing because many times we we lose our confidence right or it's taking such a long time or You know halfway through will it really happen? And we have all all those kinds of questions, but as long as We are yielded Right as long as we are giving to our posture our internal posture is to To be submitted to him and with the intent of obeying My god obeying his voice Then we can know for sure that he will the lord will bring that Work to completion He'll bring it to maturity. He'll bring it to fullness And he says until the day of Jesus christ All right, so either the lord returns It's until then or you know if that day is after our death so Whatever it is he will bring it to completion And then he says verse seven just as it right for me to thank Think this of you all because I have you in my heart In as much as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of gospel you are all partakers with me of grace, okay, so So he's saying, you know, I have you in my heart Okay Which means that he's thinking of them. He's dear to He's dear. I mean they are dear to him He's close to there He's close to his heart. Okay, so He has a special Concern for them special love for for these for this church for all these believers Okay So he says in as much as both in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel so you know that Despite the fact despite the fact that I'm in prison and You know, I I have you in my heart, you know, despite what is happening in the natural What is happening in the environment physical environment, you know, I have you in my heart um says In the defense and confirmation of the gospel and this is the He's specifically talking about his work or his ministry Okay, he's defense of the gospel and also the confirmation of the gospel He says you are all partakers with me of grace that You are along with me. You are partakers of this I have you in my heart and you are partakers of this grace Okay, verse eight for god is my witness How greatly I long for you with affection, you know, it's been a while since I've seen you so You know, I just long to meet you and and I have this so much of affection in my heart for you and And verse nine he says and this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment Verse 10 that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and without offense Till the day of christ being filled with the fruits of righteousness Which are by Jesus christ the glory and praise of god. So he's saying, you know, this is a prayer that he's praying This is his prayer for them and he says that may your love abound May the love of god in your heart may it abound Which means increase increase abundantly increase in a great measure okay, um, so He says that this is my prayer okay, uh, and the and the And the word used there is agape for love Which is the god kind of love and so he's saying this quality of love, which is agape made increase May it made abound. Okay. So, uh, which means It that word abound means both in terms of quality and also in terms of In terms of numerical capacity or quantity Right, so both in terms of quality and quantity, you know, let it increase let it abound how in knowledge and in in discernment Uh, that is that is what he says he says in in made abound in knowledge and And all discernment Okay, so in the knowledge, um, so it could mean that, you know As you receive the knowledge Of god as you increase in discernment may this love abound or may this love that, um That abound and and at the same time may it in cause an increase in your understanding And also in discernment, you know, whichever way you see it says, you know, let it abound right and So that you may come to a place of Uh Approving the things And that are because of the knowledge and because of the discernment that you may approve of things that are excellent right, so you Uh, that you come to a place of saying yes to those things that are Uh, excellent that you you may be sincere And you may be without offense Right till the end till the day of christ Okay, so you be sincere you be without offense till the day of christ And be filled with the fruit of fruits of righteousness Okay, so be effective be productive Uh In righteousness in walking living righteously be filled with that which comes by which comes through jesus christ and which causes The glory god to be glorified and which causes praise to be given to god and we see your lives Like that it might increase in fruits of righteousness, right? We are righteous life productive life which brings glory to god okay, so So that's the initial greeting and you know his prayer and his heart for the people Okay, okay, so we'll stop here and we'll continue In our next class With this, okay So thank you. I just wanted one one quick announcement that tomorrow we won't have our irp class, right? So just continue with the research. We will meet for irp the following wednesday So please focus on just like how we Discuss last class, you know, just work at it every day And you know, let there be a lot of improvement progress in the work research work We will meet Not tomorrow but the following wednesday and then we'll catch up on everyone's work how things are happening, right? Okay, thank you. God bless