Well, if we haven’t met yet, my name is JodI and uh so glad to be here today. I’m part of the teaching team here at Champion Center. My husband Ryan and I and our boys were usually up at our Belevue location, but we’re all excited to be here today in Tacoma. Um I’ve got a message on my heart that I think is going to take my full time on stage. So, I’m going to get into it really quickly. But um I wanted to start by just saying that we are in a battle in our world today. So we’re going to talk about being battle ready. And the truth is is that we are in a spiritual battle. Like we might not see it physically, but the spiritual realm and spiritual warfare is real. And I don’t want to say that to put fear in you. Although there’s a a good amount of healthy fear is not bad, but we’re in a spiritual battle. But God has not left us unarmed. And so we’re going to talk about that today. And we’re going to start here in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And this is the New Living Translation. So it might be a little different. If you’ve grown up in church, you might be like, “Oh, this sounds familiar.” And it’s a little bit different. But just stick with me on this. We are human, but we do not wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We could do a whole message series right there just on those two things. But we use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the human reasonings, to destroy false arguments, and we destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. This is the battle that we are in. We’re in a battle of good versus evil, of God versus Satan. Now, we know that God is all powerful, but we’re still in this battle of trying to win as many people over to God, to heaven, to Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior right now while we’re on this planet. We want to get as many people to heaven as we can. And that’s this battle that we’re in. So, we capture all the rebellious thoughts. We take every thought captive, right? And we make it obedient to Christ. The truth is that we live we live in a crazy world. I mean, headlines all over the place of rumors of wars and and crazy natural disasters or or man-made natural disasters. You know, we we live in all of these crazy things in this world, but if we forget what the real war is, and if we forget who the real enemy is, then we’re going to start swinging at all the wrong targets. And so today, today I want to help you be battle ready. I want to help you put on the full armor of God because if we want to be battle ready, if we want to win this spiritual war, this spiritual battle that we’re in, we need to know that God didn’t leave us unarmed. Okay? So, as we talk today, I want you to remember these three truths. That there is a battle. That’s the first truth. That’s what we’ve been talking about. We are not fighting powerless. You are not powerless in this battle. In fact, we have God’s mighty weapons in our arsenal. You have access to that as a child of God. You say yes to Jesus, you have access. Okay? So, you’re not fighting powerless. And then this is my favorite truth. Jesus wins. Like, we know the end of the story. Jesus wins, which means you and I also win. It’s like flipping to the back of the book, reading the end of the story. You know what the punchline is. You know what the end of the story is. Jesus wins. That doesn’t mean that every single battle is going to be won. But at the end of it, the war is going to be won. And we get to be a part of that victory. Okay. Okay. So then we need to look at John 10:10 because Jesus told his disciples, the people following him. The enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Okay. We need to know who the real enemy is so we know who we’re taking swings at, right? He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. But I have come. Jesus came. So what? So that we could have life and have it to the full. This is why Jesus came. And I I did a message on this a couple of weeks ago, months ago, I can’t remember. that Jesus came to bridge that gap so that you and I could have that promise of eternal life. But we don’t have to wait till heaven to live with heaven on earth. Okay? We can live this abundant life, this life to the full. We can live that as children of God, as the ones who say yes to Jesus. We can live that abundant life this side of heaven. Okay? Because God’s best for your life is not living in fear. God’s best for your life is not living in isolation. God’s best for your life is not relying on the government. It’s not living in poverty. God’s best for your life is not entitlement. It’s not living with pride. It’s it’s not living in division. God’s best for your life is accessible. And he wants you to live it this side of heaven. And one of the ways we can do that, I think, is by being battle ready. Knowing what we have in our arsenal. Knowing what we have that we are armed with, not only as defensive mechanisms, but also offensively that we can go to battle in this spiritual warfare and we can come out victorious. Are you ready to learn about it today? Okay. Because if you don’t know, if you don’t know you’re in a fight, you won’t gear up for it. So, now that you know that there’s a battle, I want to show you and teach you about the armor of God. We find this in Ephesians 6, and it’s eight verses. So, stick with me. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that, not if, it’s when, okay? So that when the day of evil comes, you will you may be able to stand. You will be able to stand your ground. And after you have done everything to stand, okay? This is the promise that we have. This is this is the fact that we have power in our arsenal. We’re not fighting powerless. Okay? Because we’re relying on the almighty God, the sovereign God, the one who is all powerful. Right? So we have this promise that we will be able to stand. Okay, so now we get into stand firm then with a belt of truth buckled around your waist with the breastplate of righteousness in place and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. They didn’t have shoes in the first century. Okay, so they didn’t know to say shoes, right? Your feet fitted. We’ll talk about that in a minute. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. This is our armor. This is the armor that we can put on. It’s not a physical armor necessarily, but it is an armor that we can put on daily to help us be victorious in this battle that we’re facing. Now, I mentioned the first century thing. Paul, the Apostle Paul, is writing this about the armor when he’s in prison. Okay? He’s writing to the early church in Ephesus about the the armor of God. It’s true for us today, but he would have been really familiar with the Roman first century soldier. Okay. So, as we look at this armor that he’s teaching us about, we’re going to look at some of the metaphors that he might have been implying to the early church that we can apply to ourselves today. Okay. So, as we go through this, this is the kind of armor that we’re going to be talking about. The first one is the belt of truth. the belt of truth. Now, the thing about first century soldiers and their armor is that the belt is actually the thing that held most of their armor in place. So, if their if their belt was fragile, then their armor would shift out of place. if their belt wasn’t put in the right place, if it wasn’t tight, if it didn’t have all of the things connected, it would it would hold the breastplate. It would hold a lot of their weapons. It would even hold some of their um you know, like their upper leg things because they didn’t wear pants necessarily at that point, right? So, they like had all of the other garb that they had and their and their belt would hold it all together fastened and sturdy. So for us, without the belt of truth, the rest of our armor kind of collapses. And that’s why we want to start with it because the belt of truth holds the rest of the armor together. When truth loosens around your life, everything shifts. If if your if your source of truth is negotiable, then your armor becomes more fragile because it’s not holding it in place. If culture defines your truth instead of God’s word, then your armor won’t hold in this spiritual battle that we’re in. And when we put on this belt of truth, it not only holds it all together, but it reminds us that all truth is God’s truth. Not just biblical truth. Of course, biblical truth is God’s truth, but any and all absolute truth belongs to God. That includes the truths that you find in mathematics, in natural law, in physics. Truths that maybe some would categorize outside of biblical theology truth. It all belongs to God. So when you put on your belt of truth, you’re reminding yourself, not only does it hold your armor together, but it actually reminds you that all truth, absolute truth exists and it belongs to God. Because he created it. You see, truth is not constructed, it’s not built, it’s revealed. And so when we look at John 8 and we see Jesus saying that you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. He’s talking about his word. He’s talking to his disciples. If you know my truth, it will set you free. But then we also see a couple chapters later in John 14 that he says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. So all truth belongs to God. And freedom is not found in redefining truth. It’s found in submitting to the truth. And I think I think if we could I think if we could get that as a church, if we could get that as a culture it would change a lot of things. Freedom isn’t found in redefining truth. It’s found in submitting to it. That’s our belt of truth. When you’re anchored in truth, the next thing we need to talk about is that righteousness protects you. Okay. So, the breastplate of righteousness is next on our list. And this breastplate of righteousness, it’s the thing that covers all of your internal organs, right? So, it’s the thing that protects your heart, your organs from fatal blows. Okay? So, that’s why it’s so important from a phys physical standpoint. that the word righteousness can it’s kind of a big word and I love to talk about it because I want to help you understand what righteousness is from a Bible a biblical standpoint. So if you’re if you haven’t heard this before this word righteousness the best way to think of it is that it’s right standing with God. Okay? So when we put on the breastplate of righteousness every day, we’re reminding oursel that we are in right standing with God. Okay? So when you say yes to Jesus and you make him the leader and the lord of your savior, you’re born again, you are now a new creation. You are in right standing with God in that moment. That’s what it means to be saved by grace. Okay? that you are instantly justified in right standing with God. Not because of anything that you’ve done. I mean, you said yes, but it’s not because you deserve it. It’s because of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Okay? That’s how we get that instant righteousness. But let me show you just kind of a a quick hit, a bite-size of righteousness theology. Okay? This is just like a bite-sized notes for you to think about. Justification is that instant like the verdict of a judge. You’re righteous because of Jesus. It’s done. You’re in right standing. You deser, you know, you are here and you are now have that promise of eternity. Okay? This is what justification is. Just as if I never sinned righteousness. All right? And it is positional like it positions you from out of the family to instantly in the family. That’s what justification is. Sorry cameraman. You had to just kind of go with me on that. Sanctification. This is another big church word. Okay. Sanctification is still connected to righteousness, but it’s an ongoing process. Okay. So, we are being sanctified daily. God is making us holy and blameless daily through a lifelong practice. Justification is something that you don’t you don’t contribute to. You just say yes and it happens. Sanctification is something that we cooperate with. Okay. So justification is something that it happens and it’s instant and it shapes your it changes your position. But sanctification is that lifelong transformation that shapes your practice. Okay? Do you get it? This is righteousness. This is just byite-size. We could have a whole series on this. Okay? I’m just trying to help you understand that there is righteousness that happens instantaneously. You say yes to Jesus. You are instantaneously in right standing with God because of Jesus. And then we have this sanctification process that you and I have the opportunity to be made more and more holy in an ongoing lifelong transformation process. When we get up every day, we say, “I want to be more like Jesus today.” And then you mess up because we all mess up. And then you say, “I I’m sorry.” And I repent and I want to be more like Jesus today. I want to be more like Jesus today. Oh, I took a couple steps back because I’m human and I messed up. In the grace of God, I’m going to wake up today and I want to be more like Jesus today. And it’s an ongoing lifelong transformation that you and I get to be a part of to be sanctified. Pastor Lonnie King says, you know, that we talk about getting people to heaven. God wants to also get heaven into people. And that’s what that’s what this is really about. Okay, I got to keep moving here. So, why do we put on our breastplate of righteousness every day? Because it marks us. It’s that positional righteousness. Okay, the breastplate of righteousness. You put it on, it marks you that you are in right standing with God. You belong here. It marks you. Okay, it also protects you. Just like Proverbs 4:20 says to guard your heart. The breastplate of righteous guards you from those fatal blows that the enemy wants to put your way. Okay? And then it reminds us, it reminds us to make those decisions daily to help us be more like Jesus. Why wouldn’t I want to be more like Jesus? Why wouldn’t I want to try because of what Jesus did for me? Why wouldn’t I want to? So putting on our breastplate of righteousness helps remind us that we get to be a part of the sanctification process of our own souls every single day. Okay, let’s go to the next one. Feet and peace. It could have been shoes of peace. It could have been shoes of the gospel of peace. I mean, they didn’t have they didn’t have shoes, right? So at the best they had sandals and these like greavves. I call them shinuards, but apparently they’re called greavves. But we’re just shining guards and sandals. If we look at Ephesians 6:15 in the amplified version, I feel like it helps us understand this what Paul was trying to tell us. Okay. So it says, “And having strapped on your feet the gospel of peace in preparation to face the enemy with firmfooted stability and the readiness produced by the good news. Now the gospel of peace and the good news is basically this hope that we have of salvation.” Okay? So it’s basically the same thing. But when we have our feet strapped in these sandals of the gospel of peace, when we put on our shoes of the gospel of peace, we’re actually standing on the firmst foundation that we can stand on. Okay? So, this is what we’re this is what we’re learning from the Apostle Paul, right? He did his best with what he had in the first century. But our goal in learning and applying this to our life is that when we put on these shoes of the gospel of peace, we’re putting our our firm foundation. We’re standing on the firm foundation that we have hope in our salvation. That the gospel of peace is the firmst place for us to stand. That Christ died to reconcile you and I to God. And peace with God produces peace within. And that is the promise of the gospel. Okay. So when we put our feet and we strap it with these, you know, these shoes or these sandals of the gospel of peace, it’s actually us making the mark on our heart and deciding that every step we take, we’re putting our faith in the good news of the gospel. that what Jesus did for us didn’t have anything to do with what you did. But when we have our foundation in the gospel, that gives us the greatest peace. Your your foundation’s not going to be firm if you’re stepping in fear all the time. Your foundation’s not going to be firm if you’re stepping in doubt all the time, anxiety all the time, anger all the time. Our feet are the firmst when we’re standing on the good news of the gospel of peace. when we stand on the hope of our salvation. Another way another way to think about it that I wrote down is that for us when Jesus is at the center of our hearts and our thoughts, that’s when we can feel the sense of peace no matter what we’re facing. So worry and fear can’t be the center when Jesus is at the center. And when Jesus is at the center, that’s where that feeling of peace originates. And so when our feet are planted in the hope of salvation, when our feet are planted in what Jesus did for us, it gives us the greatest amount of peace because we know that we are reconciled with the creator of the universe because of Jesus. And that is the message of the gospel. And so I believe Paul was helping us to understand that we need to stand firm on on Jesus on the gospel. And as we walk in that steadiness, as we walk in that stability, we’ll actually generate peace inside of us because when you’re reconciled with God, okay, you you find the most peace. And so you for us to know that this firm foundation trying to put it into words that peace is not the absence of trouble but it’s the presence of Jesus. The next thing we go to is the shield of faith. So, we have this armor that we put on. Okay, we’ve got the belt of truth. We got the breastplate of righteousness. We’ve got the shoes, the sandals. We also have to take up this shield. And it’s the shield of faith. And faith can be kind of this elusive thing, right? But if you’ve been around Champion Center for very long, you know that my dad, Pastor Kevin, put together a book called Mind Monsters. And there’s a whole few chapters on what is faith. And it’s this acronym, okay, to help us put language around what is faith to help us put handles on how we can apply faith to our life. So faith is focus on the positive. Affirm yourself. Imagine God doing something good in your situation. Trust God in everything and hope for the best. If you want to know what faith is, learn that acronym and apply it to your life. That’s what faith is in our life and how we can apply it to our life. So when we talk about what is the shield of faith, we also just need to consider what did the shields look like in that first century with Paul when he was pinning all of these words. Well, these shields were almost the size of a door. Okay? So they could they could protect one soldier basically from head to toe just by kind of crouching behind it. Okay. So it was definitely a form of protection for one soldier. But I want to show you today that when an army of soldiers would get together with these shields, it would actually create quite a barrier against the enemy, especially when they were advancing and the enemy had arrows that they were shooting. This barrier of shields altogether would would create a really protective force for this group of soldiers as they advanced towards the enemy. And I wanted to bring this up for us today because isolation actually makes you more vulnerable, especially in battle and community strengthens your protection. And that’s why you hear us talk about so much about you know being a part of the team and joining a team and and you know being a part of a small group and coming to leadership development program or being a part of rooted. You know we want you to be a part of the community. Not because we need you and we’re desperate but because we know that when you’re a part of a community your protection multiplies. We’re not created to to do life alone. We’re we’re created to participate in meaningful relationships with other Christ followers. And imagine if two families, imagine if a whole small group, imagine if a whole church was willing to put their shields of faith together and create a protective barrier around our children, around our community. Not just a protective barrier for yourself, but together as a community, we could pick up, we could take up our shields of faith and create this community level, multiplied protective barrier around the next generation to help them live out their best life, this side of heaven, according to God’s ways. What if we could do that? Okay, I gotta keep moving. There’s so much to say. I have to like I’m actively cutting as I go. Things not to say. Okay. Helmet of salvation. The helmet of salvation helps us win probably the fiercest battle that happens and it happens within the six inches between your ears because we can’t win spiritual battles with unguarded thoughts. Remember way at the beginning we read that you know in 2 Corinthians 10 that take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. This helmet of salvation helps remind us that I can’t just let my thoughts go unguarded. But I need to capture that thought and if it does not line up with the word of God I need to force it out or I need to make it obedient to Christ what the Bible says. becoming aware of what you think really can change your life. And if your thought process starts, you know, kind of moving in that downward spiral, revert back to the helmet of salvation and find your hope again in salvation that we can win this battle. We can take these thoughts captive, but we can make them obedient to Christ. Now, you need to know the word of God to make them obedient to Christ. Talk about that in a second. But if you don’t know how to make your thoughts obedient to Christ, look up Philippians 4:8 because that will help you know kind of some of the guard rails of how to make your thoughts obedient to Christ. Okay, I have to keep moving. The sword of the spirit. The sword of the spirit. Now, the sword of the spirit is our offensive weapon. Okay. So, so far we’ve been talking about the defense. Okay. But the sword of the spirit is our offensive weapon. And Ephesians 6:17 says that it is the word of God. So, I don’t know about you, I’ve never seen a sword fight in person. Okay? I’ve only seen him on, you know, TV or movies. I’ve read about them in books. But I imagine that the sharpness of the sword is pretty important. Like, I know how the sharpness of knives in the kitchen are important, right? because like a dull knife just makes cooking way harder than it should be. So, I’m assuming that the sharpness of a sword is is pretty important. Maybe we can agree on that. But there’s a catch though. You could have the sharpest sword on the battlefield, but if you don’t know how to fight with it, then you aren’t going to be very effective in the battle. So, we have access to a double-edged sword. Okay. In Hebrews 4, it tells us that the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. Sharper. It’s sharper than a double-edged sword. And it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marorrow, and it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Listen, we have access to the sharpest sword on the battlefield, but if we don’t know how to wield it, we’re not going to be very effective. The word of God is not decoration. It’s a weapon. And unfortunately, it won’t do us any good if we don’t know how to study it and apply it to our lives. Let me say it like this. A Bible on the shelf does not scare hell. It doesn’t scare hell. doesn’t scare Satan. If your Bible’s dusty on the shelf, doesn’t scare him. But the more we learn how to fight with the word of God, the more confident and powerful that we become with the word of God, the more victorious we’ll be in these spiritual battles. A sword only works if you swing it. The word of God only works if you use it in your life. At least it works in my life because I’m doing my best to use it. Doing my best to swing it. And usually in verse 18 from Ephesians 6, we don’t usually use it like I haven’t really ever used it as part of the armor honestly. But reading again this week and really studying it, Ephesians 6:18, it says, “And so it goes to the whole armor.” And then it says, “And and pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. And with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the Lord’s people.” So part of our armor is to pray in the spirit. That’s part of our offensive and defensive. It’s like a dualpurpose weapon. When we pray to God, pray like he’s listening because he is. Pray for yourself. Pray for your school. Pray for your workplace. Pray for your family. Pray for your church. Play Pray for our nation a lot. Pray for the government a lot. Pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. It says it says to pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests to be alert and always keep on praying. This is part of our defensive and offensive arsenal when it comes to being battle ready to putting on the armor of God. Yes, it’s about the pieces of the armor, but it’s also about remembering to pray. And I’ll I’ll finish with this and then I think we should just take a moment to worship God. And then I want to give you the opportunity to say yes to Jesus in whatever room that you’re in this morning. I want to give you the opportunity to say yes to him. If you don’t know him, maybe you’ve been away from him. I’m going to give you that opportunity in a moment. But let me just close with saying that you and I were not a victim of the culture and we’re not powerless in the chaos and you’re not fighting alone. You’re not in this by yourself. So I want to encourage you to be strong in the Lord. Not strong in your opinion. not strong in your outrage. I needed that reminder at my son’s basketball game last Thursday night. To be strong in the Lord, not in your fear, not in your doubt. Don’t be strong in your worry when you can be strong in the Lord. It says, you know, put on the armor. It says guard your heart to take every thought captive. And after you’ve done everything to stand. So I want to invite you to stand as we sing to God for a few moments. And I’ll be back because I want to pray that prayer of salvation with you. Oh, there’s just something about your name. Oh, there’s just something about your name that makes me call holy. There is no other name. There is no other name. Oh, there is no other name. Oh, Jesus, you’re there’s just something there’s just something about your name. There’s just something about your name. Oh, there’s just something about your name that makes me cry. Oh, there is no other There is no other name I know. There is no other name. Oh, there is no other name. Oh, Jesus. Come on, every voice. Can we lift the name of Jesus? Oh, there’s just something about your name of Jesus. There’s just something about your name. Oh, there’s just something about your name that makes me cry holy. There is no other name I know. There is no other name. Where there is no other name. Oh Jesus, you’re worthy. said, “I want to give you the opportunity to say yes to Jesus.” Whatever room that you’re in today, if you can hear the sound of my voice, this is your moment. I want to ask everyone to bow your heads and close your eyes. And if this is you, if you know that today is your day of new beginnings, you want to say yes to Jesus, make him the leader and the Lord of your life, maybe for the very first time, or maybe as a recommmitment, you want to draw a line in the sand today. and say, “I’m dedicating my life to Jesus.” Whatever room that you’re in, would you just raise up your hand? I can see you. If you’re in this room, your location pastors are are looking around in the room that you’re in today. But just let us know who we’re praying for. I see hands almost in every section here in Tacoma. I’m sure there’s hands in the room that you’re in as well. You can just keep those lift lifted for just a moment. We’re going to pray this prayer and it’s a simple prayer. I’m going to ask everyone in every room to just say this out loud as a sign of support. But this prayer, if your hands are lifted, as simple as this prayer is, it can be life transformational if you let it. Okay? So, let’s all pray this together. Lord Jesus, welcome to my world. I invite you into my life to be the leader and the Lord. Forgive me of all my sins. Make me a new person starting today. I declare that you are the son of God, that you died on the cross for me, and that you rose again. I’ll never be the same again. In Jesus name. Amen. Amen. I want to be the first to welcome you to the family of God. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome.