Season 1 · Episode 14
PLAN: God's Purpose is Dangerous (Palm Sunday)
Redemption Hill Boise Podcast · Info
April 11, 202248m 35s
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Show Notes
"The week of easter is the spiritual battle played out right in front of us. Either we can fight it or we can pretend like it doesn't exist, but we're going to be on the battlefield either way...but there's hope because God has given us the spirit and he's given us each other and he's given us his presence." In episode 14 of our series PLAN: God's Purpose in a Fractured World, Robert speaks on the spiritual battles we face in our lives, God's dangerous purpose for his people, and where we can find hope.
Find more from Redemption Hill at redemptionboise.org, or follow us on Instagram @redemptionboise, and Facebook at Redemption Hill Boise.
All right, come on over. We are. It's palm sunday. But you know, I know you guys are excited to hear a sermon about a donkey. You're not getting it. Today. We are going to uh we're gonna finish up Ephesians because we're just so close And we love it. Love a fresh start after Easter. So we're in Ephesians chapter six palms. Okay, well I'm gonna switch the sermon and he wants me to hit palm sunday. Uh No, we're gonna, Yeah, every, every pastor who's honest will tell you the holidays are the hardest things to preach because every instance of christmas and easter, you've hit a million times. So we're gonna jump in Ephesians six if you get your bibles Ephesians six verse 10, A final word paul says, Alright, this is it. He's he's he's hitting the the final stretch here, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, but on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you'll be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. And then after the battle, you'll be standing firm, stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness for shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news that you'll be fully prepared. In addition to all these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion, stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere and pray for me to also ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the good news is for the jews and the gentiles alike. I'm in chains now and still preaching this message as God's ambassador. So pray that I'll keep on speaking boldly for him as I should to bring you up to date. Take a kiss, we'll give you a full report about what I'm doing and how I'm getting along. He's a beloved brother and faithful helper in the Lord's work. I've sent him to you for this very purpose to let you know how we're doing and to encourage you peace. Be with you dear brothers and sisters and May the God the father and the Lord jesus christ. Give you love with faithfulness. May God's grace be eternally upon all those who love our Lord, jesus christ. This is the word of the Lord. Do you guys have those movies that you watch over and over again? It drives me crazy. But I probably watch like I watched basically every baseball movie every spring, you know, to get ready for the season, you gotta get gotta get amped up. Um, and one of those ones that I watch pretty regularly um, is saving private Ryan and it's a, it's just a phenomenal film and obviously won like a million Oscars and all that. But I think for anybody who lives Or who lived in the 20th century, understanding the Second World War is vital to understanding our modern world. It shapes so much of who we are and what we do. Um, D day, the story of Saint Croix Ryan is about D day in the aftermath of Um the Allied forces coming across the English channel and taking the beaches in northern France and then moving towards Berlin over the summer of 44 D. Day was a culmination of six years of war across Europe and around the world. But I don't know if you if you've done the math, but the americans had only been a part of the war for a little over 2.5 years at that point, The war had been raging for six years And the Americans have been part of the war for just 2.5 years. From December 1941 forward, our country was sitting on the sidelines that we were supporting the allies, some with the lend lease act and pretending that the mode of the oceans around us would protect us from the war that was raging across three continents. But pretending that the battle wasn't happening, it didn't change the reality on the ground. If you lived in London you were experiencing nightly bombings at the hands of german fighter pilots France had been lost. Italy was no longer independent Germany was taking over a massive portion of the world and we wanted to pretend that the world war didn't affect us until the Japanese foolishly woke up what Admiral Yamamoto called the Sleeping Giant. And if that's not a great metaphor for spiritual warfare, I don't know what is, most of us are living in a world as if there's not a war raging around us. Most of us are pretending like we live in a world that is without conflict. But every once in a while like moments like 2022 2020 to come along and we are jolted by something like a pearl harbor in our lives to remember that this world is that war. There are distinctly two realms. There is what is seen which is the experience of humanity with our all of our five senses. We experience the world and we create some sort of image of what the world is by how we experience it, that is what is seen. But we know that there is this vast amount of all created order that is completely unseen. We know it through science, but we also know it, But because the physicists are saying that there's all these anomalies in the experience of the world that can't be explained by normal physics and what they call it is the metaverse, or they call it this um this multiverse where these all these they say up to 12 different dimensions that are existing simultaneously and they have no way of describing what it is or where it comes from. But what they're talking about is the unseen the reality that there's something much beyond what we experience and what we as humans are able to describe. But we live in a really material world, built on the scientific method of experimentation. And this is the great tactic of our enemy in the post enlightenment Western world. It keeps us on the sideline by using rationalism to keep us in our heads and using our eyes and our hands so that we ignore our bodies. We ignore our emotions. We ignore our spirits and use our eyes and our rationale is the only way of knowing something when all of us know that this world has much more going on than what we can see what we can touch. There's this other reality that we walk through every day, but we don't see it because we're like fish and water. It's all around us. It's moving every part of this world. But we can't even talk about it because it's just so primal to existence. It's the spiritual reality of the south and this spiritual world that is alongside our world. It's a lot like our world in that it's not neutral, It's not at peace. The spiritual realm itself is at war. It's raging alongside this reality that we face. It's why in our quiet moments we feel all of the anxious nous. It's why when we quiet our hearts and we look at what's happening inside of us, we feel all of this battle raging. But here's what happens. And I think what paul is pointing to here is that satan sometimes overplays his hand in the spiritual realm and we see it really clearly in our present realm, in this physical world and he repeats so much destruction that God's people actually notice the battle that's raging around us. That's what's happening right now. Ukraine in the battle, there is a spillover from the spiritual realm, our world is at war because the spiritual realm is at war first. Peter five Verse eight says, stay alert, watch out for the great enemy. The devil he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to develop. Excuse me to devour a lion circles its prey. It waits until it's weak or it's slow where it's not paying attention. Cats. I don't know if you if you've been around cats, but they're pretty lazy. They're opportunistic. I like that. That's the way Peter wants to describe the enemy. He's lazy and opportunistic. Even satan has bad character in how he's trying to run this war against us. Okay, God's like throwing shade on him. He's like a lion, he waits around and when there's an opportunity he pounces, he's looking for opportunities. And this passage is about how do we fight? How do we fight spiritual battles in this physical reality that we live in. Um well, most of the bible is a very um, it's a very material document. It's talking about what's happening with people. There's a lot of history, there's a lot of stories, but woven throughout all these stories is this spiritual reality that's happening, that we don't always have access to a greater picture of were victims of the spiritual war this waging. But we can't see what's going on. But a few times in the bible, we get a real clear glimpse at what's happening in the spiritual realm and I don't know about you, but I always like really want to pay attention in those moments In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel had this vision in a dream of this man across the river and he, he was perturbed by it. He didn't know what to do with it. And so he started to pray and fast so that God would tell him what was happening in the spiritual realm. And he waited 21 days and Daniel was getting frustrated and then an angel shows up, An angel shows up actually, it knocks him over, knocks him out. And he has this vision of this angel before him in the spiritual realm. And it says in chapter 10 verse 12 then he said, don't be afraid, Daniel since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before God, Your request had been heard in heaven. So 21 days before God heard Daniel's request and he says, I've come to answer your prayer. But For 21 days, the spirit prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way. There's a lot in that one sentence. First of all, there's a Spirit Prince of a country, like a guy who is in charge spiritually of a whole place of of Persia. This is the kingdom that had taken over the Northern kingdom. They were living exist exiles there. And Daniel is Daniel is trying to see what's happening and there's a, there's a fight happening in the spiritual realm. The Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels came to help me and I left there, I left him there with the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia. And I just love this picture of like, Michael comes along and like puts him in a headlock and he's like, go for it and he's like the angel then bolts to get to Daniel because he couldn't handle it on its own. Like the picture of what's happening in the heavenly realm is that there's some, some spiritual distance between where Michael and the angels who are a part of God's kingdom are away from this world and this place, why? Because this world has been given over to the Kingdom of Darkness. You and I, Most of the humans on this planet have pledged loyalty with our lives to the kingdom of this world. We're living in his reality. And God, when his kingdom comes, it breaks into this kingdom, it has to fight its way in to ransom and rescue humans from this kingdom of Darkness. And he says, now I'm here to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for this vision concerns a time yet to come. While he was speaking to me, I looked down on the ground, unable to say a word. And then the one who looked like a man touched my lips and I opened my mouth and began to speak and I said to the one standing in front of me. I'm filled with anguish because of the vision I've seen. My Lord. I am very weak. How can someone like me or servant talk to you, my Lord. This is Little L Lord, not big L Lord, my strength is gone and I can hardly breathe. And then the one who looked like a man touched me again and I felt my strength returning. Don't be afraid, he said. For you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged. Be strong. Daniel had been waiting around for 21 days. Can you imagine how discouraged he felt? Waiting for God's voice. He'd been fasting for three weeks hoping and praying that God would bring him insight. And then this angel comes and gives him courage. Don't be afraid you are precious to God. Daniel had believed a lie that God had left him, that God had left him on his own and that his people, we're living as exiles and that God himself didn't care about them. But God sends a messenger and says, you are very precious to God. Remember that we're gonna come back to this And he speaks These spoke these words to me. I suddenly felt stronger. Said to him. Please speak to me, Lord, for you have strengthened me! He replied. Do you know why I've come soon. I will return to fight against the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia. And after that the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Greece is going to come Obviously like this has written 500 years, 400 years before Alexander, the Macedonian is going to take over. Like that's a crazy thing. It's right here in the text. Meanwhile, I'll tell you what's written in the Book of Truth. No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prints. I have been standing beside Michael to support and strengthen him since the first beginning of the reign of Darius the Mead. This is a picture of the spiritual battle that's raging around us in this multiverse, that we can't see. The stakes are really high. All the marbles are on this planet being redeemed and restored into the Kingdom of God. And we're acting like there's not a battle waging. I love this passage from Daniel because it it tells us something about how satan works. He works against the king's army. He works against the angels that want to work alongside of us because he wants to keep us imprisoned by a few lies. The first is this daniel believed that he didn't matter that God didn't care about him because God had to battle through the powers of Darkness to get to him. He believed the lie that he's on his own. That Daniel doesn't have God with him in the battle? He believed that God's silence was natural. Have you ever believed that? Like you've had those days where you're like, I haven't heard God's voice in a while, that just must be the way it is. That just must be the way that it is in this reality. But what we see in this passage and Daniel is that there's a spiritual reality where God wants to speak and he's held back by the forces of darkness in this world, Daniel was starting to believe that God's silence was natural. It wasn't natural. There was a dark force keeping him from hearing from God. He wants us to believe that there's no help coming. That confusion is normal. Daniel was looking for clarity and insight from the father and what he got was confusion because there was darkness that was fighting instant. There's an enemy that's silencing and blocking God's messengers. And even in the kingdom age, when the spirit of God has come, that's still happening today. There's an enemy that is working with our flesh, the powers of darkness and the systems of our world that keep us away from God's voice today. The enemy is using our flesh against us. He's using distraction to keep us from thinking of God. He's using business to keep us distracted from listening to God. He's using pleasure to keep us distracted from listening to God. He's having us fight the wrong fights against the wrong enemies to keep us distracted from God's presence, fortunately we learn that we have a secret weapon, that what's going to happen in seven weeks or eight weeks when we celebrate Pentecost, is that at the beginning of the church, God broke into this world in a way that had never been seen before, Something Daniel didn't have access to, which was the very presence of God implanted into human hearts that had been redeemed by the blood of jesus. The Holy Spirit, God's presence was making itself known and real to the exiles living in this world. And all of a sudden what happened was the light of God started to live in people. We have this secret weapon. The Holy Spirit has come to be our constant helpmate. He's called the Paraclete, which is like someone who gets under your arm and lifts you up and walks with you. The Holy Spirit is literally giving us protection. What we see in this passage in Ephesians is that this armor that paul is. I think paul was just getting a little cute with his metaphor. He started with like the belt of truth things like, well let's just keep rolling with this. And then all of a sudden he's got the whole room and get up because he's like that was a nice, he's a he's a preacher. He found a good metaphor and he just, he worked it into his little sermon to Ephesians. Um, but I think that like the armor is all about the spirit, literally God's presence giving protection to his people. It says in verse 14, stand your ground, let's walk through it, stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. So how do we battle against this, the dark enemy of this world? Um, if I were to call, if I were to name this a class, this would be defense against the dark arts. That's what we're doing today. Defense against the dark arts. Our first, our first tool in the defense against the dark arts is truth. Truth penetrates darkness because it is itself the very presence of God in lightness, truth holds us together, lies tear us apart. Truth holds us together just like a belt is the thing that brings the outfit together. You're not put together to get the accessories. The belt is the accessory that holds everything together. And truth is the center of what God's kingdom is like. Truth is the thing that holds our weapons. We don't have any weapons. If we don't have the belt and truth is the thing that makes the battle worth it. We must be people who speak truth. We must be people who believe truth and we must be people who must be constantly broken of our self delusion and the lies that we believe that are so convenient that keep us away from God. And so we have to be people that are confronted by truth constantly in our discipleship groups. We talk a lot about uh the constant work of repentance and belief, we repent of the lives that have owned us and are shaping our lives in our world and we grab hold of the truth by believing what God has told us. This is the constant work of learning that we do as followers of jesus. This is one of the key defense against the dark world. Number two verse 15 for shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared like you, he doesn't really, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help paul out because he doesn't quite get the metaphor altogether here, I'm just going to add on to a little bit um what our shoes shoes, our freedom shoes are, how you get from one place to another. There. The only way that your body is able to traverse through difficulty, otherwise your feet are the weakest point on your body because the world itself will stop you Shoes protect us from the darkness in this world. And the way that we do that in the spiritual realm is that we grab hold of the good news and paul's not using good news metaphorically, he's not saying, hey pull out your four spiritual laws and make sure you...
Find more from Redemption Hill at redemptionboise.org, or follow us on Instagram @redemptionboise, and Facebook at Redemption Hill Boise.
All right, come on over. We are. It's palm sunday. But you know, I know you guys are excited to hear a sermon about a donkey. You're not getting it. Today. We are going to uh we're gonna finish up Ephesians because we're just so close And we love it. Love a fresh start after Easter. So we're in Ephesians chapter six palms. Okay, well I'm gonna switch the sermon and he wants me to hit palm sunday. Uh No, we're gonna, Yeah, every, every pastor who's honest will tell you the holidays are the hardest things to preach because every instance of christmas and easter, you've hit a million times. So we're gonna jump in Ephesians six if you get your bibles Ephesians six verse 10, A final word paul says, Alright, this is it. He's he's he's hitting the the final stretch here, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power, but on all of God's armor so that you'll be able to stand firm against all the strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor so that you'll be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. And then after the battle, you'll be standing firm, stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness for shoes. Put on the peace that comes from the good news that you'll be fully prepared. In addition to all these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil, put on salvation as your helmet and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion, stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere and pray for me to also ask God to give me the right words so I can boldly explain God's mysterious plan that the good news is for the jews and the gentiles alike. I'm in chains now and still preaching this message as God's ambassador. So pray that I'll keep on speaking boldly for him as I should to bring you up to date. Take a kiss, we'll give you a full report about what I'm doing and how I'm getting along. He's a beloved brother and faithful helper in the Lord's work. I've sent him to you for this very purpose to let you know how we're doing and to encourage you peace. Be with you dear brothers and sisters and May the God the father and the Lord jesus christ. Give you love with faithfulness. May God's grace be eternally upon all those who love our Lord, jesus christ. This is the word of the Lord. Do you guys have those movies that you watch over and over again? It drives me crazy. But I probably watch like I watched basically every baseball movie every spring, you know, to get ready for the season, you gotta get gotta get amped up. Um, and one of those ones that I watch pretty regularly um, is saving private Ryan and it's a, it's just a phenomenal film and obviously won like a million Oscars and all that. But I think for anybody who lives Or who lived in the 20th century, understanding the Second World War is vital to understanding our modern world. It shapes so much of who we are and what we do. Um, D day, the story of Saint Croix Ryan is about D day in the aftermath of Um the Allied forces coming across the English channel and taking the beaches in northern France and then moving towards Berlin over the summer of 44 D. Day was a culmination of six years of war across Europe and around the world. But I don't know if you if you've done the math, but the americans had only been a part of the war for a little over 2.5 years at that point, The war had been raging for six years And the Americans have been part of the war for just 2.5 years. From December 1941 forward, our country was sitting on the sidelines that we were supporting the allies, some with the lend lease act and pretending that the mode of the oceans around us would protect us from the war that was raging across three continents. But pretending that the battle wasn't happening, it didn't change the reality on the ground. If you lived in London you were experiencing nightly bombings at the hands of german fighter pilots France had been lost. Italy was no longer independent Germany was taking over a massive portion of the world and we wanted to pretend that the world war didn't affect us until the Japanese foolishly woke up what Admiral Yamamoto called the Sleeping Giant. And if that's not a great metaphor for spiritual warfare, I don't know what is, most of us are living in a world as if there's not a war raging around us. Most of us are pretending like we live in a world that is without conflict. But every once in a while like moments like 2022 2020 to come along and we are jolted by something like a pearl harbor in our lives to remember that this world is that war. There are distinctly two realms. There is what is seen which is the experience of humanity with our all of our five senses. We experience the world and we create some sort of image of what the world is by how we experience it, that is what is seen. But we know that there is this vast amount of all created order that is completely unseen. We know it through science, but we also know it, But because the physicists are saying that there's all these anomalies in the experience of the world that can't be explained by normal physics and what they call it is the metaverse, or they call it this um this multiverse where these all these they say up to 12 different dimensions that are existing simultaneously and they have no way of describing what it is or where it comes from. But what they're talking about is the unseen the reality that there's something much beyond what we experience and what we as humans are able to describe. But we live in a really material world, built on the scientific method of experimentation. And this is the great tactic of our enemy in the post enlightenment Western world. It keeps us on the sideline by using rationalism to keep us in our heads and using our eyes and our hands so that we ignore our bodies. We ignore our emotions. We ignore our spirits and use our eyes and our rationale is the only way of knowing something when all of us know that this world has much more going on than what we can see what we can touch. There's this other reality that we walk through every day, but we don't see it because we're like fish and water. It's all around us. It's moving every part of this world. But we can't even talk about it because it's just so primal to existence. It's the spiritual reality of the south and this spiritual world that is alongside our world. It's a lot like our world in that it's not neutral, It's not at peace. The spiritual realm itself is at war. It's raging alongside this reality that we face. It's why in our quiet moments we feel all of the anxious nous. It's why when we quiet our hearts and we look at what's happening inside of us, we feel all of this battle raging. But here's what happens. And I think what paul is pointing to here is that satan sometimes overplays his hand in the spiritual realm and we see it really clearly in our present realm, in this physical world and he repeats so much destruction that God's people actually notice the battle that's raging around us. That's what's happening right now. Ukraine in the battle, there is a spillover from the spiritual realm, our world is at war because the spiritual realm is at war first. Peter five Verse eight says, stay alert, watch out for the great enemy. The devil he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to develop. Excuse me to devour a lion circles its prey. It waits until it's weak or it's slow where it's not paying attention. Cats. I don't know if you if you've been around cats, but they're pretty lazy. They're opportunistic. I like that. That's the way Peter wants to describe the enemy. He's lazy and opportunistic. Even satan has bad character in how he's trying to run this war against us. Okay, God's like throwing shade on him. He's like a lion, he waits around and when there's an opportunity he pounces, he's looking for opportunities. And this passage is about how do we fight? How do we fight spiritual battles in this physical reality that we live in. Um well, most of the bible is a very um, it's a very material document. It's talking about what's happening with people. There's a lot of history, there's a lot of stories, but woven throughout all these stories is this spiritual reality that's happening, that we don't always have access to a greater picture of were victims of the spiritual war this waging. But we can't see what's going on. But a few times in the bible, we get a real clear glimpse at what's happening in the spiritual realm and I don't know about you, but I always like really want to pay attention in those moments In Daniel chapter 10, Daniel had this vision in a dream of this man across the river and he, he was perturbed by it. He didn't know what to do with it. And so he started to pray and fast so that God would tell him what was happening in the spiritual realm. And he waited 21 days and Daniel was getting frustrated and then an angel shows up, An angel shows up actually, it knocks him over, knocks him out. And he has this vision of this angel before him in the spiritual realm. And it says in chapter 10 verse 12 then he said, don't be afraid, Daniel since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before God, Your request had been heard in heaven. So 21 days before God heard Daniel's request and he says, I've come to answer your prayer. But For 21 days, the spirit prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way. There's a lot in that one sentence. First of all, there's a Spirit Prince of a country, like a guy who is in charge spiritually of a whole place of of Persia. This is the kingdom that had taken over the Northern kingdom. They were living exist exiles there. And Daniel is Daniel is trying to see what's happening and there's a, there's a fight happening in the spiritual realm. The Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels came to help me and I left there, I left him there with the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia. And I just love this picture of like, Michael comes along and like puts him in a headlock and he's like, go for it and he's like the angel then bolts to get to Daniel because he couldn't handle it on its own. Like the picture of what's happening in the heavenly realm is that there's some, some spiritual distance between where Michael and the angels who are a part of God's kingdom are away from this world and this place, why? Because this world has been given over to the Kingdom of Darkness. You and I, Most of the humans on this planet have pledged loyalty with our lives to the kingdom of this world. We're living in his reality. And God, when his kingdom comes, it breaks into this kingdom, it has to fight its way in to ransom and rescue humans from this kingdom of Darkness. And he says, now I'm here to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future for this vision concerns a time yet to come. While he was speaking to me, I looked down on the ground, unable to say a word. And then the one who looked like a man touched my lips and I opened my mouth and began to speak and I said to the one standing in front of me. I'm filled with anguish because of the vision I've seen. My Lord. I am very weak. How can someone like me or servant talk to you, my Lord. This is Little L Lord, not big L Lord, my strength is gone and I can hardly breathe. And then the one who looked like a man touched me again and I felt my strength returning. Don't be afraid, he said. For you are very precious to God. Peace! Be encouraged. Be strong. Daniel had been waiting around for 21 days. Can you imagine how discouraged he felt? Waiting for God's voice. He'd been fasting for three weeks hoping and praying that God would bring him insight. And then this angel comes and gives him courage. Don't be afraid you are precious to God. Daniel had believed a lie that God had left him, that God had left him on his own and that his people, we're living as exiles and that God himself didn't care about them. But God sends a messenger and says, you are very precious to God. Remember that we're gonna come back to this And he speaks These spoke these words to me. I suddenly felt stronger. Said to him. Please speak to me, Lord, for you have strengthened me! He replied. Do you know why I've come soon. I will return to fight against the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Persia. And after that the Spirit Prince of the Kingdom of Greece is going to come Obviously like this has written 500 years, 400 years before Alexander, the Macedonian is going to take over. Like that's a crazy thing. It's right here in the text. Meanwhile, I'll tell you what's written in the Book of Truth. No one helps me against these spirit princes except Michael, your spirit prints. I have been standing beside Michael to support and strengthen him since the first beginning of the reign of Darius the Mead. This is a picture of the spiritual battle that's raging around us in this multiverse, that we can't see. The stakes are really high. All the marbles are on this planet being redeemed and restored into the Kingdom of God. And we're acting like there's not a battle waging. I love this passage from Daniel because it it tells us something about how satan works. He works against the king's army. He works against the angels that want to work alongside of us because he wants to keep us imprisoned by a few lies. The first is this daniel believed that he didn't matter that God didn't care about him because God had to battle through the powers of Darkness to get to him. He believed the lie that he's on his own. That Daniel doesn't have God with him in the battle? He believed that God's silence was natural. Have you ever believed that? Like you've had those days where you're like, I haven't heard God's voice in a while, that just must be the way it is. That just must be the way that it is in this reality. But what we see in this passage and Daniel is that there's a spiritual reality where God wants to speak and he's held back by the forces of darkness in this world, Daniel was starting to believe that God's silence was natural. It wasn't natural. There was a dark force keeping him from hearing from God. He wants us to believe that there's no help coming. That confusion is normal. Daniel was looking for clarity and insight from the father and what he got was confusion because there was darkness that was fighting instant. There's an enemy that's silencing and blocking God's messengers. And even in the kingdom age, when the spirit of God has come, that's still happening today. There's an enemy that is working with our flesh, the powers of darkness and the systems of our world that keep us away from God's voice today. The enemy is using our flesh against us. He's using distraction to keep us from thinking of God. He's using business to keep us distracted from listening to God. He's using pleasure to keep us distracted from listening to God. He's having us fight the wrong fights against the wrong enemies to keep us distracted from God's presence, fortunately we learn that we have a secret weapon, that what's going to happen in seven weeks or eight weeks when we celebrate Pentecost, is that at the beginning of the church, God broke into this world in a way that had never been seen before, Something Daniel didn't have access to, which was the very presence of God implanted into human hearts that had been redeemed by the blood of jesus. The Holy Spirit, God's presence was making itself known and real to the exiles living in this world. And all of a sudden what happened was the light of God started to live in people. We have this secret weapon. The Holy Spirit has come to be our constant helpmate. He's called the Paraclete, which is like someone who gets under your arm and lifts you up and walks with you. The Holy Spirit is literally giving us protection. What we see in this passage in Ephesians is that this armor that paul is. I think paul was just getting a little cute with his metaphor. He started with like the belt of truth things like, well let's just keep rolling with this. And then all of a sudden he's got the whole room and get up because he's like that was a nice, he's a he's a preacher. He found a good metaphor and he just, he worked it into his little sermon to Ephesians. Um, but I think that like the armor is all about the spirit, literally God's presence giving protection to his people. It says in verse 14, stand your ground, let's walk through it, stand your ground putting on the belt of truth and the body armor of God's righteousness. So how do we battle against this, the dark enemy of this world? Um, if I were to call, if I were to name this a class, this would be defense against the dark arts. That's what we're doing today. Defense against the dark arts. Our first, our first tool in the defense against the dark arts is truth. Truth penetrates darkness because it is itself the very presence of God in lightness, truth holds us together, lies tear us apart. Truth holds us together just like a belt is the thing that brings the outfit together. You're not put together to get the accessories. The belt is the accessory that holds everything together. And truth is the center of what God's kingdom is like. Truth is the thing that holds our weapons. We don't have any weapons. If we don't have the belt and truth is the thing that makes the battle worth it. We must be people who speak truth. We must be people who believe truth and we must be people who must be constantly broken of our self delusion and the lies that we believe that are so convenient that keep us away from God. And so we have to be people that are confronted by truth constantly in our discipleship groups. We talk a lot about uh the constant work of repentance and belief, we repent of the lives that have owned us and are shaping our lives in our world and we grab hold of the truth by believing what God has told us. This is the constant work of learning that we do as followers of jesus. This is one of the key defense against the dark world. Number two verse 15 for shoes, put on the peace that comes from the good news so that you will be fully prepared like you, he doesn't really, I'm gonna, I'm gonna help paul out because he doesn't quite get the metaphor altogether here, I'm just going to add on to a little bit um what our shoes shoes, our freedom shoes are, how you get from one place to another. There. The only way that your body is able to traverse through difficulty, otherwise your feet are the weakest point on your body because the world itself will stop you Shoes protect us from the darkness in this world. And the way that we do that in the spiritual realm is that we grab hold of the good news and paul's not using good news metaphorically, he's not saying, hey pull out your four spiritual laws and make sure you...