Living Right

[00:00:01] Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the Met Church podcast. Here at the Met, we are all about connecting people to God and one another. If you have any questions or want more information about what's happening here at the church, then head to our [email protected] we would love to stay connected with you throughout the week through social media, so be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Now. Enjoy the message. [00:00:24] Speaker B: Well, good morning everybody. I wanted to mention before I get into my message, that this is the last weekend one of our ministry team members are going to be with us. He's moving he and his wife down to San Marcos and Asher, he runs front of house back there. He's the reason you hear everything. Would you thank Asher for his time here with us? He and his wife, We appreciate that. We have such an amazing group of people that serve behind the scenes. You never really see them, but they do such a fabulous job working in production and all the things that help make the services so wonderful. And Asher's been a huge part of that and we're gonna miss him and his wife. They're going down to serve the heathens in San Marcos, so pray for them. No, I don't know what they're gonna have a great time, but it's great to see all of you. We're in a new series, as you know, called Invisible War and we're really tackling the topic of spiritual warfare. The reality that everyone faces and that is there is an evil presence in this world. We see it all the time. You see it in the news. It is a reality of the presence of evil in our world. There is a real personality called the devil that is alive and well and he has demonic spirits and influences on this earth. And so many people are being defeated and living defeated lives. So many Christians, I should say, are being defeated and living defeated lives because they don't know how to combat this spiritual war, this invisible war. So this series is really a biblical series where we are exploring what the Bible has to say about the enemy and what the Bible has to say about our defense against this enemy. We have a defense against him. God did not save us in order for us to live in defeat. He said in John 10:10 he said, I came that you might have life and have life abundantly. It is the will of God for you and I to have an abundant life, a joy filled life. Not a problem free life, but a joy fil. But I want to remind you in that same verse, if you Keep reading John 10:10, he said but there is an enemy who comes to kill, steal, and destroy. So you see that contrast. Here's God's will, abundant life. Yay, God over here. Hey. But the enemy still kill and destroy. Boo, enemy. So you have this contrast where it is the best of times, it is the worst of times, and it's going on at the same time. And so there's no reason in this world for you to live a despondent or defeated life. So I hope the series will enable you and equip you and inspire you to put on these pieces of armor each and every day so that you can live on the victory side of your life. We started the series by just talking about the common enemy, the reality of that evil presence in our world. And then we move from that last weekend right into the armor where the Apostle Paul is talking about our defense against him. And look with me again in our text in Ephesians, chapter 6. Look at verse 13, therefore. Now, when you read that in context, and I didn't put all of that in there because it's a lot of reading, but if you want to read it, it's there in Genesis, Ephesians 6. He's talking about the enemy. He's describing the fact that our fight is not against flesh and blood, though that's where the enemy tries to couch it. He tries to turn brothers against brothers, and sisters against sisters, and families against families. And Paul is saying, look, recognize who your enemy is. It is a spiritual enemy that works in that environment, spiritual wickedness in high places. And then he says, verse 13, therefore, because that's true, take up the whole armor of God, not just a piece of it or a part of it. Take up the whole armor of God. Why? That you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand. And notice we talked about that last week, to withstand is a different idea than to stand. To withstand has the idea of being on the offensive, being able to take the fight to the enemy. I can withstand anything he throws at me. To stand means I can endure. I can be strong. I don't have to be defeated by everything he throws against me. I can stand firm in what I believe and where I believe. So these are two aspects of spiritual warfare. God said that is available to his kids if we'll just gear up, if we'll put on the right armor. And then he talks about. Look at verse 14, stand, therefore. And last week, here's the first piece of the armor. It's the belt girded your waist with truth the belt was that piece of that Roman guard that pulled all of his uniform together. That belt was the thing that held everything together. And he describes the belt for the Christ follower as being truth. And we talked about the reality that all of our truth should be based upon God's word. We have to have a basis for our values. We have to have a basis for our morals. We have to have a basis for everything we believe, even our church. Anything I teach, it has to be based upon God's word or otherwise. You're just following a man with a bunch of opinions. And I don't believe everything I've ever said, so I don't know if I'd do that. I'm just suggesting there is truth. And the truth that we find is in God's word. Someone is. Well said. If God said it, that settles it. And you're not gonna talk him out of it. So I just try to base everything I say and do and believe on God's word. And I challenge you, as you hear the messages as they're taught, square what you hear me saying with God's word. And if that doesn't square, trust God's word and doubt me. Because there is a belt of truth that holds everything in our lives together, and that is God's word. Now here's the second piece of armor, and it's equally as important. And this is where we're gonna spend a little time this morning, having put on note now the breastplate of righteousness. Now, the belt pulled everything together, but the breastplate went on. And the breastplate covered the vital organs of the warrior, plus his back in the event that somebody tried to attack him from the back. And so the vest would protect the heart. The breastplate was so essential and so important. And the heart, as we know, is the seat of all emotions. Now, in this case, the breastplate obviously affected the physical heart of the warrior, but the Bible here is not talking about that. In this idea of putting on the breastplate of righteousness, he's not talking about a physical sense. He's talking about a spiritual sense. Because we too have a heart that needs protected. The Bible says out of the heart flow all of the issues of life. Everything you and I think and believe and everything we do comes out of our heart. Now, when I talk about the heart again, I'm speaking of the heart as being not the muscle pumping blood through your chest. So that is heart. But when the Bible speaks of this heart that's protected by this breastplate, he's talking about your Intellect, how you think. He's talking about your will, what you do. He's talking about your emotions, how you feel. I mean, the heart pretty much comprises all that we are. The Bible says, as a man or a woman thinks in their heart, so will they be. Someone said, you're not what you think you are, but what you think you are. So it's important that we protect our mind. It's important that we protect our will. It's important that we protect our emotions. That's why when you tell somebody you love them, you say, I love you with all my heart. Cause what you're saying when you say that is, with my mind, with my will, with my emotions, with everything that I am. I love all that you are. That is to love someone with all your heart. We had Valentine's Day, and how many of you probably gave a card to someone you know, or you had a child draw a heart on that card? Well, they are communicating to you something that is so true, and that is they're saying, with all that I am, I love all that you are. You didn't give them a card with a brain on it. I love you with all my brain. No, you say, I love you with all my heart. And so this is so important. And Paul knew that. And we know that today. And so we have to protect our heart. That's why Jesus said to his apostles in John 14, let not your hearts be troubled. And I've told you before, you can have a troubled life and an untroubled heart. These soldiers could go into war and have their heart protected. You can have difficulty in your life right now and your heart be protected. If you got the right breastplate on, you can have difficulty in your home and your heart. Be protective. If your breastplate is protected, you can have trouble on the job. You can have financial issues. You can have all kinds of things. You can have a troubled life with an untroubled heart. But Paul is teaching us the value. You gotta protect it. It's up to us to protect our heart. And he calls it the breastplate of righteousness. Think about that word, righteousness. What does that mean? Well, the idea of righteousness means. It means right thinking, right living, doing the right thing. It carries with the idea of having good values in your life, this type of righteousness. And he's saying it's so important that we live lives of integrity. That'd be part of it. Because someone as well said that the best argument for a Christian is a Christian. And conversely, the best argument against a Christianity is a Christian. And so it's important that as a Christ follower, we protect our heart because it has to do how we treat other people, has a lot to do with how they view us and how they hear us. What was it that Mahatma Gandhi was once credited by saying? I might have become a Christian had I ever seen one. And so we have to realize that in Acts 1:8, we are called upon by God to be witnesses. And some of the things that invalidate the witness of a Christ follower is how they live their lives and how they treat other people. I mean, again, you know, if I'm gonna protect my heart and the heart is gonna be the basis by which I treat other people, then I have to be proactive in how I go about that. So again, what all does this word righteousness entail when I have to put on righteousness in my life? Each life? Well, number one, it's not necessarily personal righteousness. Now there's a place for personal righteousness. We want to make right decisions. But an atheist can embrace personal righteousness, right? Somebody that doesn't even claim to know God can make good decisions, can do right things. It's not exclusive, just for people who know God to have personal righteousness. I mean, we teach our children, even before they decide to trust Christ as their own personal savior, to do the right thing. Make your bed, obey, mind your mommy, mind your dad. We teach them to do the right thing. And we teach our kids to do the right thing because they were born with our nature, which is a sinful nature. Have you ever noticed you don't have to teach kids how to lie, you gotta teach them how to tell the truth. So that's a good parent. We teach them to do the right thing. But if all that ever is in our life is personal righteousness, and it never gets beyond what we're able to do within our own will and within our own ability, then at some point that righteousness is going to be challenged with a temptation greater than our personal ability to withstand it. The devil will see to it you are tempted great greater than your ability to withstand it. If all you have working for you is your personal righteousness. And besides that, you've got to base that righteousness on something. And if you don't base it on God's word, you just base it on your personal principles, then somebody may challenge you at some point and just say, well, that's your personal conviction. Those are not mine. So again, you're back to truth. If you're not basing it on Something other than your own person, then at some point you'll be challenged. This is how that plays out religiously. If you never go beyond your own personal righteousness and that's all that ever ends up being, then that will lead you into Phariseeism. Because before long you're thinking, well, I can be good enough to get myself into heaven. I'm the best person that I know. And you begin to compare yourselves among other people and you say, well, next to this person's life, I think I'm doing pretty good. And all of a sudden, because it's nothing beyond your own personal righteousness as the measure for the righteousness that you have in your life, then that gets into Phariseeism, where you begin to think that I'm again good enough to get into heaven. I've got enough righteousness to merit the favor of God. When Isaiah 64 Isaiah wrote, All of our self righteousnesses are just filthy rags in the sight of God, meaning we can't be good enough to get into heaven. I'm saying at some point personal righteousness won't cut it. And if you don't rely on the righteousness of Christ that I'll get to in just a moment, then your personal righteousness will fail you. Because at some point you're not gonna be able to withstand the onslaught of the enemy. Someone put it this way, unless you have within you that which is above you, eventually you succumb to what is around you and you'll fall into what is beneath you. So personal righteousness is important, but what it will lead you, once you connect that as an adult and you grow a little more, it will lead you into self righteousness. So now all of a sudden you feel like you're superior to other people. You have higher values and higher morals than they have. They're not really based on anything other than your personal principles. And it will cause you to become judgmental of other people. That's why I called it Phariseeism. One of the things Jesus ran into in his earthly ministry were people who had a personal righteousness, but not based on their faith in God, they were self righteous. In fact, in Luke chapter seven, he's at the going away party of a tax collector. Now you have to understand, tax collectors in that day were not nearly as beloved as they are today. I don't get on anybody's radar here, so I'm. But back in that day, they were very dishonest. The Roman government would hire Jewish people to excise taxes from Jewish people. And so the Jewish people looked on them as traitors. They betrayed their people. And the Romans looked at them as they're the best people to go after their people because they know how they think and they know where the money is. And so we're going to incentivize them to be tax collectors. And here's how that would work. Those tax collectors would go to the Jewish people and they'd say, look, for example, you owe $10,000. You pay me a couple thousand under the table and I'll make the rest of this bill go away. Or I'll pay the government a little bit and then the rest of it will go away. Well, so the Jewish people hated them because they were dishonest. The Roman government despised them because they had no integrity. But the Roman government let them operate because they thought, well, a little of something is better than all of nothing. And so I'm just saying the tax collector in that day were like the mafia, right? They were these very dishonest people. And I just want you to understand, Jesus is at the going away party of a tax collector. You get to setting now, I mean, it'd be like an episode of the Sopranos with Jesus sitting there with all the guys. Now let me quickly say he didn't become sinful to reach sinful people. However, he did relate to them and he did spend time with them and he built redemptive relationships over to them to the point read Matthew 11. In Matthew 11 they called him a friend of sinners, which was the greatest compliment I think they could have paid him. They didn't mean that as a compliment. They were trying to disparage his credibility and his integrity. And my point is when Jesus encountered these people, he came because he said, look, I came to reach, these are my, these people. I came to reach the Son of man. Luke 19:10 seeks and save those who are lost. Okay, let's go back to the going away party of the tax collector sitting at the table. Jesus is there with those people. This man had just made a connection with Christ and he knew, I gotta get out of this life. I can't continue to live the life that I've lived I and have integrity and be a Christ follower. So I got to resign. And so they're throwing a going away party. He had turned away from his old past. He had turned away from the life and they were rewarding him for the time that he had been with them. And outside of the door looking into that scene were the Pharisees, right, The self righteous ones. And they see what Jesus is doing in the room and they're critical of what he's doing in the room. The story's in Luke 5, and all of a sudden, Jesus perceives being God. He perceives their thoughts. So he goes out to where these Pharisees are and he confronts them. And in this exchange with the Pharisee, he says, I did not come into this world to call, here's our word, righteous people to repentance. I came into this world to call sinners to repentance. Now let me tell you what he wasn't saying. He wasn't saying that they're righteous in the sense that I'm gonna explain having a righteousness that you find only in Christ. He was saying, you are self righteous. You see the difference? He was saying, you are pharisaical, you are hypocritical. You have a righteousness that's only the righteousness that you can find within your own strength. And you're hypocritical. Cause you're not even living up to the standards that you wanna measure other people by. You're not even following the rules you set for other people. And so he calls them out and he says, look, I came to call people who are sinful and they know they're sinful. They're not trying to put off ears and they're not being pharisaical and they're not being critical. They're saying, man, I messed up. I'm messed up, Jesus, I need help. He said, I can help them. He said, but I can't help somebody that looks at you and says, I got it. I don't need any help. My righteousness exceeds yours. I'm better than you. I'm better than most people. You can't do anything for somebody like that. I've often thought I can do more. I can do more as a pastor for a drunk in a bar than I can for a pious person in the pew. You know why? Cause I don't have to convince the drunk in the bar that he needs Jesus, man, I gotta have something. Brother needs help. I'm trying, but I have to. But there are people that sit in the pew or sat in the chair and they don't think they need a savior. They don't think they're lost. They constantly compare themselves by themselves with other people. And then, you know, in the eyes of that, well, hey, I'm doing pretty good. I'm better than that person. And so I'm just suggesting to you that that is not the righteousness. We are to put on. That's self righteousness. What then is this righteousness? Well, it starts with what I would call a positional righteousness. It's the righteousness you find which when you are now in Christ. And when you read First Corinthians, chapter one in verse 30, he says, when a Christian receives Jesus, you are now in Christ and you receive. Watch this now. The righteousness of God. It's not your righteousness anymore. Cause you have none. There's none that does good. No, not one. All of sin come short of the glory of God. Isaiah. All of our righteousnesses are filthy rags. So what is his righteousness? It is the righteousness we find not within ourselves, but we find it in a relationship with Jesus. Are you tracking in fact, in Romans, chapter four, Paul really fleshes this out. He said, what did Abraham discover? What was it? Our Father, our forefather, Abraham. What did he discover? And then he goes on to say, I'll kind of paraphrase for you. He said, if Abraham could follow the law and do works of righteousness and that merited his salvation, then God would owe it to him. He would. That make sense. He said, however, that's not how Abraham became righteous in the eyes of God. It said, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him. One translation has it, it was imputed unto him the righteousness of God. Let me explain it. That word counted or imputed in the Greek is a mathematical word. It means literally to put on one's account. You go to the cross. At the cross, Jesus, who was righteous and holy, who never sinned. He never had a thought he shouldn't have had, never said a word, he shouldn't have spoken. He never did a thing he should not have done. Pilate looked at him and said, I can't find anything wrong with this man. He was the God man. Just as much God as though we were never man. Just as much man as though we were never God. But he's dying in my place and in your place at the cross. And listen, I. On the cross. On the cross the sins of the world were placed on his account. On his account was righteousness and holy and godliness and goodness and all the great things that was on Jesus ledger. But on that ledger God placed my sin and your sin and the sins of the world. And he who knew no sin became sin that we might be made here. It is the. The righteousness of God in him. So at the cross God imputed our sins to Jesus. That's why at the cross there Became that moment when it became as dark at noon as it were midnight. And you hear this voice crying out from the darkness as Jesus cries, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? In that moment, Jesus, who had taken on the sins of the world, His Heavenly Father, who was looking down on that scene. God, who is holy and righteous. And the Bible says concerning God that he cannot look upon sin. And when Jesus so completely became sin on the cross, the Father had to turn his back on the Son. And the earth grew dark. And Jesus cries out of the darkness, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus paid the penalty for my sin and yours. And when he stepped out of the grave victorious, now he had the power to take on all of that righteousness that he had, and he had paid for the sin. And now he has the power to impute, to put on our ledger holiness, goodness, graciousness, forgiveness. He took our sins on himself, imputed the unrighteousness of us on him, and he imputed the righteousness of God onto us. Do you see how that works? So you and I have the imputed righteousness of God, meaning that we are positionally in Christ. So whatever good that I do, I do because of the power of God living within me. It's my reliance upon him which leads me to the third type, which is a practical righteousness. Now I can live out my faith. I can be the person God has called me to be. Because greater is he now that's within me than he that is in the world. Now, because of the righteousness of Christ that's living within me, I can overcome temptation. I don't have to be subject to the winds of this world and the storms. I can stand strong and withstand the assault of the enemy. Because I'm in Christ, I have the power of God that will help me withstand anything that could affect my heart. It's not my righteousness, it's his. And because I have his righteousness living within me, I. It affects how I treat you. I now have the power to treat you differently. It's interesting because in Ephesians he said it this way. He said, jesus, or God rather, has made us accepted in the beloved. Meaning, because of the work of Jesus, God has accepted us. Think about it this way. God has accepted you. And because you have been accepted by God, you can accept yourself. You can know that God has forgiven me of my sin. God has accepted me at the cross. Whosoever will let them come. And so I said yes to Jesus, and now he's accepted me I've accepted him. And because he's accepted me, and I've accepted him. Watch this. I can accept myself. I don't have to beat myself up anymore because of the sins of my mistake, because they're covered under the blood. He accepted me. I've accepted him. I. I can accept myself. And notice what this opens me up to do now. I can accept you. I'm not insecure anymore. I'm not judging you. I'm not looking down at you. I'm simply saying, God accepted me. I accepted his acceptance of me. I accepted myself, and now I've accepted you. All of that is he has made us accepted in the blood. So you and I have a power now within us to overcome any of the pressure that we may feel around us. So let me give this to you, and we'll go home. How then does this work? Well, first of all, it begins with a desire. You have to put this on every day. You have to appropriate God's forgiveness in your life, his righteousness in your life. In other words, you wake up every day and say, God, I wanna live right and I wanna do right. I wanna make good decisions. I wanna think clearly. I wanna walk with discernment. So, God, I need your help in order to do that. So I'm gonna rely on your power to give me the power that I need to be the person that you're calling me to be. I need your righteousness in my life. It begins with a desire. When Jesus taught in the Beatitudes in Matthew chapter five, he said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. We have this natural appetite for food and for water. And Jesus is saying, look, I'll meet that appetite. If you have an appetite for living right and doing the right thing, I. I'm gonna fulfill that appetite in your life. That's why I'm saying, man, when you wake up in the morning to say, God, you've given me life for a reason, and I'm gonna have an opportunity to make a difference in someone else's life. So, Lord, I have a desire. And the desire that I have is to do the right thing today and to treat people in the right way. So it starts with a desire. Second word I'll give you is not only does it deal with a desire, but it also deals with a discipline. I wish I could tell you this was a one and done thing, but it's not. It's something that you have to do every day. It's a discipline. I have to put on the armor of God. Our law enforcement officers that are here today are wearing these bulletproof vests. And they would tell you that when they get home, they're gonna take that off where they can relax and rest. But when they get back out on the job tomorrow, to protect themselves, they're putting that back on. Well, that's kinda like the breastplate of righteousness. Every day you put that on, because you're going out into a world where the enemy is real and he's after a. The things that you love, and he's after your own life. And so you gotta protect your heart. So there is a dedication or a discipline rather, that comes with that, that leads you to a dedication. So it becomes muscle memory. And you're saying, lord, I'm doing this every day now. I am walking with you. I am absolutely guarding my heart because I believe with all of my heart you've got a plan and a purpose for my life. And the closer I get to you, the more the arrows of the enemy are gonna be trained on me. There's a great passage in Galatians where Paul said, I bear in my body this stigmata are the marks of the Lord Jesus. And it was a battlefield idea that Paul had in mind, because in that ancient warfare, kings would go out into battle with their military, with their soldiers. And oftentimes the kings would ride in the forefront in order to set the example and set the standard for the battle. So the enemy would train all of their arrows on the king. And the thought was, if we can take the king out, we can discourage the troops and turn the war in our favor. So if you were fighting in that army and you were fighting close to the king, you were more likely to get shot than somebody that was back in the back of the pack. And Paul was saying, because when they had those triumphant entries into the city, once the battle was won, and the king would ride in in his chariot, and everybod is cheering, and the troops would walk behind him. There would be soldiers who were limping and walking, and they were proud because the wounds that they were bearing in their body were proof that they fought closest to the king. I stood with my king. I was loyal to my king, and as a result, I was wounded because I was fighting close to the king. Now, when you carry that forward to what Paul was, the analogy that he's making, the analogy he's making is the closer to Jesus you get, the more you're gonna get shot. So you really better be sold on him. And what he wants you to do because you are a threat to the enemy, because you are walking with Christ. So you can just expect it to happen. I mean, I've had people tell me, man, I didn't seem like I had half the problems I've got until I got my family in church, until I got my life straightened out. And he said, man, all hell's come against me since I did that. And I said, well, that's by design. That's by design. Before you were walking close to God, you were no threat to the enemy. You were no threat. And everybody in your circle that you could influence, perhaps, and lead them to Jesus as a witness, or you could bring them to church with you and let them experience God in this place that wasn't on your radar. You weren't thinking about that. But the day you started thinking about that, I want my life to matter. I want God's will to be done. Now you're a threat to the enemy. So guess what? You're gonna bear in your body, the stigmata. You're gonna carry some marks. So you just have to understand that's just how this spiritual warfare works. As you propose a threat to the enemy, you need to be wearing the breastplate because the arrows are going to fly. So it requires a desire, and it requires some discipline and it requires some dedication. But here's the last one. We'll go. It also brings about a defense. A defense. You know, the best advice I could give you on making sure that you do right and you live right and your life ends right is in Galatians 5, where in Galatians 5, Paul describes the works of the flesh. He said, the works of the flesh are manifest. And he talks about all the negative things that Christians can get into works of the flesh. And then he contrasts that with the fruit of the Spirit. And he contrasts that. And then he says this. And this is the point I wanted to make to you. I want you to hear this. He said, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the works of the flesh. What's the guarantee we have that we're not gonna treat somebody the wrong way? What's the proof we have that our heart's not going to be troubled because we're making bad decisions? We're not wearing the armor. How do we do that? Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh? Well, what does that mean? That means to live every moment conscious of the fact that you are in the presence of God. I'm in the presence of God. It affects how I Think what I say. The teacher's in the room. Notice how the kids act different. I mean, when you realize I'm in the presence of God and he's in my life. And it kind of. It kind of helps me make good decisions. It kind of affects how I treat you and how you treat me. Because love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul and mind. Then you'll love your neighbor as yourself. So as I'm close to God, it affects how I treat other people. It's a defense for me. It's a defense for my heart. Walk in the spirit and you'll not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Some of you have heard me say this before, but people who do the wrong thing started doing the wrong thing because they stopped doing the right thing. The best advice I could give you to keep you from doing the wrong thing is consistently do the right thing. Because you cannot do the wrong thing while you're doing the right thing. So if you find yourself doing something that's wrong, it's because you stopped doing something that was right. So I'm just focused every day. I want to do the right thing. I want to make the right call. I want to have wisdom. I want to have discernment. I really want. I. I wanna do it right. That's not to say you're gonna be mistake free and you're not gonna mess up from time to time. But I'm talking about consistent. And if you're gonna be consistent in your life, then be a person that is determined every day you live to live out the righteousness of God, to make the right call, to treat people the right way, to do the right thing. And if you walk in the spirit in that way, you cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh. Those two things won't happen at the same time. So it's a great defense. So as a Christian, I don't have to walk out of here worried that I'm gonna get shot full of hoes by the enemy because I got a breastplate on. It's the righteousness of Christ, and I'm partnering with him to do the right thing and live the right way and make the right call. And God has promised me that that's going to protect me from the things coming into my life that could damage me. So the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, is essential to withstanding and standing against the attack of the enemy. All right, that's enough of that. Let's pray together and we'll go to the house. Lord, thank you for your word. And, Father, when we study your word, one of the things that we always see is how personal it is. We can look in it and we'll see something that actually affects our life. And I pray that for my friends and those watching online that something may have been said, maybe it was a moment in worship, but something hit them in a way that was personal, that might help them or encourage them or direct them, but in some way, your word is speaking to them in a personal way. So your word is personal. And not only is your word personal, your word is very practical. It's possible for us to do the things that you've instructed us to do. We actually can put on this breastplate and we actually can gird ourselves with truth each and every day. We can do that. It's practical. And then, Father, the third thing I think of when I think of your word is it's powerful. It protects us from the attack of the enemy. It helps us to be prepared as we walk out of this room and go back out into the world. So thank you for the power of your word. And Lord, as I close, I think about many families in the room and many in our church. Three different families who've lost loved ones this past week. I lift them up in prayer to you. I pray for the Spencer family and the service that will be held this week. For the Smith family and that service that'll be held this week and the Van Newkirk family. That service will be held in the coming days. I pray for your comfort that you would bless each of those families. I pray today for our nation, for our troops, for our leadership. Father, I pray for protection and for wisdom, for guidance. I pray, Father, for every soul in this room. Many of them know you, but some in the room and some watching may have never trusted you. I pray this would be the moment, Father, when they humble their heart right where they are and say, lord Jesus, come into my heart, forgive my sin. With all that I know about you, I now trust everything I know about me. And I just give that all to you, Father. I pray that'll be their prayer. And Lord, we'll give you thanks and we'll give you praise because you're worthy. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. [00:35:59] Speaker A: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you have any questions or prayer requests, please contact us by visiting metchurch.com so that we can follow up with you this week. We look forward to seeing you next week. [00:36:12] Speaker B: Sat.