Armor of God

So what does your armor look like this morning, Ford 20? Is it sitting in the closet? Is it do you even need it because the kingdom of darkness could care less about you? Or have you decided, have you chosen to align your life with the purpose and the plans and the design that God has for you? Because when you do, there is gonna become a a wilderness time. There's gonna be a spiritual warfare time. And this armor that you need to put on and to take on and to take up, it's gonna sound a lot less like clanging metal on metal and more like it is written. [00:47:41] (47 seconds)  #PutOnYourArmor

And he pulls out a very similar weapon, and he starts hacking away at it. And he's so bad that he can't even kill anybody. He just chops off somebody's ear. That's you and me. Right? When we when we get to it, we we don't know how to sword fight. And Jesus says as he's putting the guy's ear back on, he says, those who live by the sword die by the sword. A very clear perspective on how we're called to live, not as members of some kind of battalion of physical sword fighters that are gonna go attacking people, but about people who have power under restraint, that have the spirit under restraint, that have the ability not to pick fights, but to finish them. [00:30:45] (51 seconds)  #PowerUnderRestraint

You might remember from history as a as a young person, he came up with this phrase that we still use oftentimes that you walk softly and carry a big stick. Right? It's this idea that your strength is not necessarily in what you're able to do or who you're able to hurt or who you were able to conquer, but your strength is found in, really this power restraint. We're not looking to pick a fight. We're not looking to start a fight, but we are ready if we need to to finish one. [00:20:58] (32 seconds)  #WalkSoftCarryBigStick

Nobody messed with these guys because they knew that they were trained to be able to use their sword. It it almost would be like a a death sentence, some kind of kamikaze mission to go up and challenge one of these Roman soldiers who are highly efficient in being able to use their sword. The the fear that they projected, the strength that they projected was not in their walking around swinging it, but it was in the knowledge that they're not picking fights, but they're ready to finish them. [00:27:27] (32 seconds)  #TrainedNotViolent