In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of knowing and understanding the Word of God. He encourages the audience to spend time reading and studying the Bible, so they can be equipped to defend their faith. The preacher also highlights the significance of being filled with the Holy Spirit and knowing what God would say in different situations. He reminds the listeners that they are engaged in spiritual warfare and need to be aware of the battle they are in. The sermon concludes with the preacher emphasizing the need to have the mind of Christ and see the world and ourselves as God sees them.

He says, the weapons of our warfare, now I've said this to you before, and I'll say it to you again. If you're unaware of the spiritual warfare we're in, that's unfortunate. Because we're in battle, we're in war. And every time I turn on the TV, I kind of feel like I'm losing it. So I thank God for, where'd my missionary go? Where is she? Oh, she's right here. He says, we're in a battle. I said to you a year ago, I said to you about a year ago, I was under such darkness. And under such a, see we don't think Christians can be, you know, and, oh, now the theologic is correct. But to be honest with you, when you have no control over your thoughts, when you cannot focus on anything, I couldn't focus on the word of God to save my soul. And so, I said this to you, I'm going to say it to you again, it's important. I would not have, it gave me a whole, I could not, someone said, tell us how you got out of that. I didn't get out of it. I did not get out of it. It was, it was the part, do you have any idea how important you are to each other? Satan does. He has a vested interest in destroying the body. I came away from that with a whole new appreciation for my sisters and brothers in Christ, that actually are on praying ground. You know how I'm talking about, I don't believe that, that are on praying ground, that actually pray, and that God actually hears. So, you're on praying ground, I need you. So, I haven't said that, he says the weapons of our war for me. Exhausted itself against the knowledge of God. I said, well, who are these weapons? It's to win. I'm in this to win. Period. I hope you are. So, I want to know, what are these weapons that I, I'm going to win. I can't stand losing. It kills me. I have given you this week, several things that work every single time for me. And I'm not going to go back over them. Prayers that God has answered every single time. All based on scripture, all based on the word of God. Things that always worked for me, they'll work for you. So, having said that, what are these weapons that bring us success, that are so powerful that every preacher just, you know, he wants everybody sitting on the edge of his seat, just spellbound. You know, just, I want to get you on the edge of your seat. I want you to be spellbound. I want to bring into chapter, everyone your thoughts. That's how, I want that. So, what is this stuff that, what, what? Can you get on with it? We're waiting. To start with, what I just spoke was the truth. So, I'm going to give you two things that I think, well, three things that I think God's talking about there. And he says, these are your weapons. Number one, the obvious Holy Spirit. We all got that. But you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you. And you should be with the seven people who do, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and under the other most parts of the earth. You're all holy persons. He says, you're going to need power. You are going to need that. Stay right where you're at. Don't move until Stay right here. Don't move until you have received power from my spirit. You're going to need it. Trust me, in this battle, you ain't going to win without it. You need the filling and the fullness of God's spirit in this battle. You will not win this battle. The flesh cannot win this battle. And all of us preachers, at some point in time, have tried that. We're going to fake it until we make it. Right? Boy, do you know how quick that gets you in this business? Guys, bring me back. Would you guys bring me back? This pulpit keeps me accountable. I don't have enough discipline. I hate to confess that. I lack the discipline. So I have deliberately put my in accountability place. It's this pulpit right here. Ministry will put you in a place of accountability. You know, plastic won't cut this. Plastic won't get it. Put yourself someplace. You don't have the discipline. Stupid. You make me a blasphemy. I really don't care. I don't have enough discipline. So I put myself someplace where I have to have discipline. I know that sounds like the chicken's way out. But it works for me. You do whatever you want with it. I wish I was a more disciplined person. I just am not. So to compensate for that, here I am. And guess what I had to do this afternoon? Study and pray and pray for you. I had to do that because I have to do that. Never mind. I got to move on. That's not my message. If you're having problems, put yourself someplace where you're accountable. Some people say, well, I joined a ministry group where I'm accountable. Hang on. Go get ministry. Go do something positive. I'm going to sit around and be accountable. Now, which one of these did you just lie about? My son went to that. You want to go to that the rest of your life? Put yourself in a place where you're of some positive use for God that makes you accountable. It works. Trust me. Did I say that? It works for me. Why not work for you? It works for me. I know self-righteousness has work for. So I can't say this will work. I'm just telling you what works for me. Number two. The weapons of our warfare are not carceral. The first one is just Holy Spirit. And when I came to you, I was with you in weakness and fear and in much trembling. That doesn't sound like a powerful man. Weakness and fear and much trembling. I declare nothing on anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And my speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and the power that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, get this, but in the power of God. That's all I care about. I don't want you to get all huffed up. All of us preachers realize, revved-up preachers, I can get these kids going. It won't last long without the Holy Spirit. I can sell ice to an Eskimo. I can. If I thought he needed ice, I can get it to him. That isn't what we're talking about. Amen? We're talking about something. I want your life to be so full of the Spirit that it touches somebody. For eternity. Amen? Okay, having said that, I've got to move on. He says, okay, first of all, you're going to need my spirit to do this. Paul says, he acknowledges that your faith in God's hand is in the power of God, the Spirit of God. You're not a flesh, but in the Spirit. So be the Spirit of God. Dwell in you, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Are you with me? So, listen. Okay. Number two. How does the Holy Spirit work? He does not work in a vacuum. I wish, I wish this was call down fire from heaven kind of stuff. Wouldn't that be nice? That's what Satan's going to do. He's going to say, you mock me and fire is going to fall from heaven. He has the power to call fire down from heaven. Read it. I wish I had that. Some kid steps out here and he smocks him. Yeah. Oh, go up there, bonehead. Oh, go up there, bonehead. And here comes the lion skin. Here comes the bear skin. We're not doing this. Put the bears on now. I'll tell you what. I was smart in the whole workshop. I'll make believers out of all of them. That ain't how this works. That's not how it works. We have something better now. We have this little book right here. I know I've hit this a couple times, but I felt very first today to hit it one more time. How much of this book have you hidden in your heart? How much time have you spent in it? Able to defend. Can you defend this? How much of this do you know? How much of it have you hid in your heart? Now, stay with me. Please just stay with me. I'm going to try to communicate this to you. I said this to you this morning, and I'll try to say it to you again. You do not forget the things you've learned. If you've forgotten them, you did not learn them. So, if you have forgotten them, you did not learn them. But the Comforter who is the Holy Spirit, quote, shall come in my name. So that He will teach you all things. And one of the things, He will bring to your remembrance what sort of things I have taught you. Amen. Please put the Holy Spirit to work in this. He wants to help you with this. And you say, well, this is just a phrases reading. How many times, how many times have you said, man, I wish I knew what the... I wish I had at my fingertips what God has to say about that. Never mind. I just have to trust God with this. I decided one day... I walked into a parts store. And this is a junkyard. Oh, no, they call it auto recycling now. I want a part. And this 19, 20-year-old kid in a junkyard, they have to go every part for every vehicle. It's not just Ford, it's not just Chevy, it's a Jeep, it's everything. And this kid, by heart, says, that's a 3708 standing back there on the left. And I said, boy, this kid knows his stuff. I'll bet he just sold one of them. I talked to his boss. He used to be my board chairman. He said, that kid knows every part in this building. He knows the number of every part in this building. And I don't know my Bible. I can walk in there and that kid, that kid, he knows the business he's in. He doesn't have to go... Now these kids don't have to go to computers. They ain't got the clues. It ain't the computer they can't find before it drives me nuts. That young, that drives me nuts. And if they're computers now, I can't help you. I've been to places you wouldn't even believe. It's set right there, kid. Sorry about the young folks, but it drives me nuts. That's the truth. It does happen to all of you. You've got the eyes in your hands. I don't know how it works. It's not in the computer, really. This is wrong. This should not be asked when it comes to God. Don't you know what he says about that? Don't you know what he thinks about that? You're supposed to know what he says. You're supposed to know what he thinks. You're supposed to... No. Doesn't know. I said this to you. I'll say it to you one more time. What is wisdom? Now somebody said the fear of the Lord. Well, that's the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom... See, the reason it's the beginning of wisdom is because the man that fears God is listening. If you don't fear God, you won't listen. I've had to take my kids to blackmail a few times and say, Are you listening? Did you hear me? And if you don't, I'll help your hearing, son. If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear, but let him take heed what he hears. For he that hath ears to hear... I can't go so fast, my mouth goes faster than my brain. You know how important hearing is? If any man hath ears to hear, let him hear, but let him take heed what he hears. For what measure he measure is to be measured on the end, and on the end I'll hear him more. I'll keep talking if you keep listening. That's what God says. And I'll shut up if you quit. That's how important hearing is. Why? Bringing into captivity every thought to the means of what? The mind. See, this has to do with our thinking. This has to do with our mind. God says, I want control of your thoughts. Are you listening? Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my words... Heareth what? My words. And believeth in him as ever he hath ever acted like, and shall not commit a judgment but his past will death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, in which the dead shall hear the voice of God, and they that hear shall live. Do you have any idea how important it is that you're hearing? And what is it that you're hearing? The voice of the Son of God. Listen, I don't want just the mind of Christ. I don't want just the power of Christ. I want the words of Christ. Are you with me? As it is written, The eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath the ear been to the heart of man, as the face of God is present and beloved. But God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit serves with all things in, the deep things of God. The natural man receiveth not the things in the Spirit of God, for they are foolish as others, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually served. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. Is that right? I can think. I can see. I can see you as God sees you. I can see the world around me. Now I'm wise. Now I need one more thing. I can see you as God sees you. I can see the world around me as God sees it. I can see my own heart as God sees it. I need one more thing. I need to be able to communicate with these people. The gospel is... You know, I don't agree with Francis Schaefer. I know he's... Further holy walks on holy water. First I think if Francis was here, he'd say amen to this. He's the one, and some of you guys quoted him, you said, well, Francis Schaefer said there's a lot of good sermons and some of them are preached. You know what the church has done with that? Something Francis Schaefer, I don't think he ever attended a church, he was, well, I don't really have to tell him, but I just have to live it. Really? Yeah, I'm just going to live it. Well, that's good. Go and live it. Yes. But your neighbor ain't going to say why you're just living it. That's right. There is power in the gospel, or this book is not true. He has to hear it. Faith comes by hearing it, hearing my heart. The word of God. I'm not going to be late with this, because this is going to be short. I'm going to leave this with you. I'm going to say it again. See, see, see, I want to be able to, I want the world to know what God has to say about this. Now, what Gary has to say, it ain't worth five cents, but what God has to say, is eternal. We are born again, not of corruptibles. He could have been corruptible. How? By the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Put it in your heart so you can share it with somebody. Of His own will be God. He hath put the word of truth, that we should be a kinder person unto His creatures. Wherefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflowing worthiness, and receive what becometh things, which is able to save your soul. Amen? I got a shout out. You ain't got the point, but now there's no point for you, the rest of the New Testament. Because that's about 20 verses right there, all in a row. Spirit, hear me. Okay, I said this, the weapons obviously are His Holy Spirit. You better be spirit filled. You better have the fullness of the Spirit of God in your heart, in your life. It'd be kind of handy if you knew what to say. It'd just be kind of handy if you... People are always saying, what would Jesus do? I said, what would Jesus say? It's good to know what Jesus would do. It's really good to know what Jesus would say. Are we all on the same page? Last of my three points. Let's consider one another for both unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another in so much more that you see the day approaching. Now the assemblies have figured out how to assemble. You all are real good at that. Don't you guys ever see those parallels in Scripture? Take it off. I... I'm sorry, but I... Anyway, you see... Oh, I know something I forgot. Thank you, Lord. What did He tell us? He said, These words which I command this heart to read in a book somewhere, on the wall of your desk somewhere, to read in heart. And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children and shall speak to them. When you sit in the house and are walking by when the light is down and the light is up, He said, And put them as a sign upon your hand and as a promise between your eyes. Write them upon your doors or your doorposts and educate, He says, and if you look at it, you go to Israel today, any Orthodox Jew you see, they take that quite literally. They wrap their hands up, they put the philosophy in. Every hotel room in Israel has a little... What is it called? What's it called? What is it called? Where are you, they keep the scripture in. And you know, here's what's sad, they think that's what God meant. Don't get me wrong here, I just think God said, you know, I think He's trying to say, Hey guys, I want this to be everywhere you look. I want to be everywhere you look. I want to be a part of every single solitary thing. You can't teach your kids, wait a minute kid, wait a minute kid, I got to run home and get my Bible and open this up. these words which I have commanded to say shall be in your heart. Put them in your heart. I'll leave that with you. See, these are not just for preachers. These are for everybody. And you have a hard time learning, employ the Holy Spirit. He said, I'm going to help you with this. I'll leave that with you. And as I said, I don't learn scripture. I'm just reading. I'm just looking out for things back here. I know right where that line is. If I put it in your mind, I shouldn't become so familiar with it. It's that, you just know where that's at. Hey, don't tell me you can't do that. I say to my wife, where's that? And she says, she hollers, it's three rows down and right on the corner and it's on her too. She knows right where it's at. Three. She walks out of my shop, she says, where on earth are your Biscuits? I said, they're right over there behind that pile of junk on the street. So, don't tell me you can't do that. I'm going to go back to this love thing because I want to close that. Scripture says, you know what? See, all that stuff I've been telling you about, all that reconciliation stuff, all that going out and sharing Jesus, everything, everything has got to be based on love. It will not work. You know, the other day I had two phone calls in the same day, which I think, I said, I'm starting to hear you, God. You know, two phone calls the same day, I'm getting. A boy called me up and said, do you remember me? I said, you know, honestly, I don't. What's your name again? So, he told me his name again. I said, why should I remember you? He said, well, I said, I remember you, I'll never forget you. Well, I don't mean his dog or his cat. I don't know. Break your leg off my road here either. Why would you not forget me? He said, you know, I was, at first, when he started off, I started a couple Christian schools and then I was a principal and you come and I started thinking, I'm going to tell you you did last week. Yeah, he told me that last week. He says, you're the first person never told me that. He said, I don't remember anybody telling me that since. He said, I'm going to get married. And the girl I'm going to marry, somebody needs to tell her. He said, I know in my heart. He said, she doesn't. She argues with me every day, but he said, if you would tell her, Jesus loves her, if you would tell her, she might believe you. And a couple of days later, a lady called and she said, you know what I love about your husband? She said, he dominates me every week. I mean, he just loves me. And I started thinking about that. And my wife said to me, she said, you know, I don't know. He's five minutes in my time. And these are all adults now. In fact, these are all people getting married in their thirties. This is all when they were in the first, second grade. Two people, two different places, two different times, but they both said the same thing about, oh, you're a good looking old preacher. You know, man, you fire right up there. You're a fired up preacher. I remember you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You love Jesus. And you love me. Sometimes we get this all wrong. Sometimes we think that, you know, I'll tell you what makes a difference. I told you the other night, I'm getting to be a real Calvinist. I just think that irresistible love of God, I know grace about that. You know, I would say the irresistible love of God. Love each other, would you? We can't fight. Guys, we can't fight. We can't do that. Satan's got us fighting each other and hating each other and not praying to each other and not loving each other. Let's not fight this. Let's love each other. Let's let it go. Satan's going to lose if we love each other. He knows that. He has a vested interest in that. Everyone, everyone that loveth him that begot, loveth him also that is begotten of God. I'd like to say, John, this can't be true. Everyone that loveth him that begot, loveth him also that is begotten of God. John, that can't be true. I know these people. Let's do better than that. My boss would say, if you love God, you love me. That might be kind of a stretch some days. But if I love God, I love you. I'll love you because I love God. Because His Spirit and His love is shed upon my heart by His Spirit. I'm going to leave that with you.