In this sermon, the speaker shares his experiences as a missionary in a foreign culture. He describes the challenges of communicating the gospel to people who have different beliefs and ways of thinking. The speaker emphasizes the importance of using spiritual weapons to tear down strongholds and destroy deceptions in order to reach people with the truth of Christ. He also highlights the need for cultural understanding and adaptation in order to effectively share the gospel in different contexts.

I would like to read the verse from, the verse from 2nd Corinthians 10 4 and this is on the weapons of our warfare. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds and and casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now you notice there are three parts to that that the weapons do. They tear down strongholds and they destroy the deceptions and human philosophies and that that second area is all that you take all false religion and all the things that captivate people's minds and and they bring the thought control control of our thoughts. But you know that second area you try to talk to people about Christ and sometimes they're on a totally different wavelength. They don't even know what you're talking about or they can't reason it out or they can't believe it and so on. Now especially on the mission field that's where we were. We had these people just so different. The culture shock, the people were totally, while they were controlled by Satan, they were totally different wavelength and as you've heard my stories you know how we prayed and try to search out what what to do, how to get to these people, how to have them understand. They're equally puzzled with our ways. I heard of an African chief and his family came to New York and can you imagine that out of a jungle sitting into a department store and he stands there looking at an elevator wondering what this little room is. He at the time saw an old shriveled up lady walk into that elevator, wonders what's going to happen to her and the door closes and he wonders and he stands there and after a while this door opens and this really young, trim, pretty young girl comes walking out of the elevator and he says to his boy, go get your mama, you know and so we're puzzled how to handle it. You know on the mission field there, our people had never invented a wheel. Can you imagine that? So we were building an airstrip and they were carrying dirt on rice sacks and now I'm, I show them a wheelbarrow. Can you believe it? And they loaded the thing up and four guys hoisted it to their shoulder and off they went and never, I said I could have done that myself. Oh John, you couldn't. That was too heavy for just one man and I said I'll load it up again, I'll do it and I wheeled it away. They said, oh John, you're lying again. You're not carrying that. I had the wrong word for carry. Yeah, that thing's walking along the ground. So they had me in the church, you know, confessing that I had lied because that's what they have to do. I'm confessing all kinds of things that I didn't do because of these cultures. One man was also building an airstrip, a colleague of ours and you know when I leave to go to breakfast, they all quit working no matter what I say or threaten or what I say to them. And this man had a distinct advantage over me. He had a glass eye and he would take his eye and set it on the stump and he says now I'm going to be watching while I'm gone and my eye will tell you and tell me who has worked. So work hard and boy they wouldn't get anywhere near that eye, anywhere near that stump. And so he'd come back and so on. Another fellow came, visited our station and he had false teeth and he put on a real act this fellow, a big guy. He stood there, you know, yanking on his teeth and then he had him and those natives couldn't believe it. So they have problems with us just like we have problems with them. I remember one day this one native pulled his trick on me. He had, our native still didn't have any clothing, not much clothing, but he, this fellow, wherever he got him, this big pair of army boots, way too big for him, came right, waited till I got started preaching, came right down the center aisle plopping up and down and everybody's grinning and laughing and he sits down on this side and I try to get the place back under control to preach again and I just started and here came his brother with a pair of boots too. I couldn't believe it, two pair of boots in one jungle village when they didn't even have clothes yet. They hadn't stolen from me. I don't know where they got them and and this, all the whole place is roared and and he sits down on the front here and I thought, brother, I try to, I mean they were all laughing. It was out of control and the joke was on me and here came, I got started again and the third brother had boots too. This is impossible. What is going on? They laughed and I never got started again. They said, Tuan, what are you waiting for? Come on, get it over. If you're going to say anything, get it over with. We've got other things to do and I said, I'm waiting for Mayim, the fourth brother. Isn't he going to come in with boots on? Let him come before I get started. Ah, Tuan, Mayim is in the jungle. You know what they had done? They passed the boots through that leaf wall and the next brother wore the same pair and there was no three pair of boots. Well, this fella, Kohobe, that initiated that and ruined that church service for me, worked in our house and one day I had this little Electrolux refrigerator just made about a couple of trays of ice cube. I knew these people had never seen ice. All of a sudden that hit me. I said, hold this for me while I fix this. So I had him hold these ice cubes and he is starting. He says, Tuan, quick, quick, this is burning my hand. This is burning my hand. I said, well, hold it with the other hand and I'm taking extra and made him suffer a while after this boot trick. And so he says, oh, that's strange fire, Tuan. That's burning my hand, but it doesn't leave any blisters. He says, that's magic fire you got there. And he says, can I have one of those? I want to play a trick on my people, burn their hand and they won't know it isn't going to do. I said, okay, I gave him one. So after a while, it's very, very hot, you know, humid and hot. And after a while, he came and he says, Tuan, did you take that fire you gave me? I said, no, I didn't. What, did you lose it? I said, you're the most irresponsible. You shouldn't even have this job. I mean, what did you do? He says, Tuan, it's gone. I said, okay, I'll give you one more, but take care of it. So he went out and got some leaves and wrapped it up and with some vine around it. And I said it there, it won't get away this time. He said, okay. And so, but it did. And he said, Tuan, what's happening to that fire? I said, look, I got all kinds of them. You can't keep even one. What's the matter with you? You keep asking me for my stuff. I can't keep giving it away. And he says, Tuan, give me one more. I said, okay. I said, I'll tell you what, these things, I'll give you one right before you leave, okay? So you can keep hanging on to it and you won't, it won't get away. And so he went, I said, now go and tonight, when you come back, I'll ask you how you tricked them and how you played trick on them. He says, all right, I'll do it. So he had, it was 120 degrees in there, along the airstrip that he, no way he's going to get there with his ice cream. So that night he tried to avoid me and I said, I cornered him, I said, what happened? Tell me how you played a trick on him. And he just stood there. And I said, did you lose that thing on the way? He said, yeah. I said, oh, Kohlbe, you're just no good. I said, he said, Tuan, I can't handle those. It must be your color of your skin. I said, I said, I got all, I can keep, look at, I still got mine. And he said, Tuan, it just doesn't work. I said, okay, Kohlbe, I'm going to give you one more chance. I said, before, when you get your, all the stuff done here tonight and it's going to be a little cooler, I said, these, these fires cannot resist speed. I said, no, I'll give you one when you go and you run all the way. You run so fast like you've never run. And I guarantee you, when you go that fast, it can't get away. And he said, it won't. I said, okay. So he was ready to go. He, the door propped open. I gave him the thing he took off while he got to the village with his ice cube. He burned their hands. He said, oh, Tuan, this is the greatest. I burned their hands. They were all afraid. I made fun of them. You can't, you don't even. Finally, he says, Tuan, you know something? The only, the only smart ones in this village is you and me. That's what he said. And hey, you know, and you come unto a people like that. One day, you know, you try to get truth to them. You say, where are they in their thinking? And, and I read this verse, the weapons of our war, what, how can I use the weapons? I don't even know what they are at this time. And, but no, I, I came out one day with these mirrors. And, and I, I was hanging it up. I don't know. And they said, what you got there, Tuan? I said, oh, it's a, it's a gucci. He says, he looks at that. They'd never seen their own face. Can you believe such a thing? Yes, they're dirty. The water's always murky. And, and they, and he says, Tuan, what's his name? That's what he said, looking at, and he gives it to his buddy. He said, you know him? He said, no, I don't know him. He goes another day. They all want to see. Nobody knows, Tuan, what is the, what is this guy's name? And he said, well, it's hard to say. It changes all the time. I says, he says, let me see that again. He says, no, Tuan, he hasn't changed. Has he changed? No, he hasn't changed. And, and they, I said, but me saying it changes all the time, that gets it into the realm of the spirit world, you see. And finally, two of them look at, and they found out it was themselves. Can you, can you imagine? I had shown them pictures. I showed them a pig from America. I wanted to show off how big our pigs really were, that we had something going over here. And they're ready to shoot right through my screen. They took their bows and arrows, and I restrained them. My wife's cheek was about to go into pieces. Then, and then my son was standing beside the pig. He said, and the women shouted, don't shoot, don't shoot, you'll kill his son. You see, again, relating. They thought if that pig, if they shot it on the screen, they'd go out and find it. My son says, you should have let him go. They'd all been all over the place looking for that pig. But this, this kind of thing, they never knew what I did with a camera. Didn't even know what a camera was like. So, so all these kind of things, uh, I'm, I'm, I'm struggling at first. How can I get truth to them? How can I get these deceptions out of them? How can I, um, preach the gospel to them? But the weapons, you notice this weapons thing, it's plural. It's not just one weapon. It's not just prayer. There's more, because I had prayed my heart out how to win the people. And you, you've done that with people that you're trying to win. But there's more to it than just praying. And in this whole area of getting people to come to the seminar, there's more to it than just praying. And it's, it's a plural thing. Now, when I ask people, what do you think the weapons are? Usually they say, well, uh, that's, uh, uh, Ephesians six. Now Ephesians six, that's the armor folks. There is a difference, isn't there, between the armor put on the whole armor of God and the weapons of our warfare. Now the Ephesians six spells it out real clear. And I often wondered about this. God, why did you make the, the armor so clear? The helmet, the breastplate and the sword and the, and the shield and all these things. Well, because when a Christian person becomes a Christian, he's got to have the armor from day one. And so God gave us that very neat list there in scripture so that we would know exactly what, what we needed, right? But the weapons is something that we, well, do we need it right away? We've got to grow to the place where you see, it's the same thing. We don't give up a very automatic weapon to a child. It's too much for him. And you don't give this the kind of authority or responsibility to a novice. And God says, no, I can't, I've got to hide it. And so the weapons are hidden in the word of God. There's not a nice, neat list. Like here it says in, here in 2nd Corinthians 4, 10, 11. And so they're obscure. Now, why are you obscure? Because God wants you to find them. And he, we are not ready for them right away. And so that's the only reason, the thing I can think of. Now, talking about weapons, he compares it to physical weapons. The weapons are something that you can get hold of. You can take, you can determine to do. David and Goliath in the Bible was an amazing story. Many people say, well, David was a very courageous young man he was, but he had the courage to go face the giant. But really David wasn't, had nothing to worry about. As a matter of fact, those two men that squared off that day were not afraid of each other. Goliath, you can understand. He says, you come to beat me with a stick, you're going to treat me like a dog. And he's got armor on that stick David had, isn't going to touch him even if David got a good shot at him. He had a helmet on, there's no way David could, he didn't have anything to worry about. He had a great sword and a great spear. David on the other hand was not totally unafraid of the giant. Now, why was that? Because David saw what weapons the giant has. He's got a huge spear, he's a big man, but he says that thing comes lumbering towards me. I just duck out of the way and she'll go on by. He says that'll be one gone. He says the other weapon he's got is a sword, that's a short range weapon. He says as long as I stay out of reach of that sword, he can't touch me at all. But David knew that he had a long range weapon, that slingshot which apparently he hid from the giant because giant only refers to the stick he had. And so David slew Goliath with a long range weapon when the giant expected hand-to-hand combat. You see? And so it says that David ran towards the giant. You say, man, he was in a hurry to get beat up. No, David says I can, I'm going to run to that spot, out of range of that sword and still have enough time to see the spear coming and duck out of the way of it. And he says, there's no problem, I'm totally safe to that spot. He says then I'm going to wind up my sling and from that distance I'm right on. I mean he's killed the bear, he's done, he's practiced and he knows he's dead on from that distance. So he says no problem, all I do is run to that spot, wind it up, duck out of the way of the spear if it comes and wind it up and he's gone. So David, all right, using the right weapon at the right time is important, isn't it? Yes. You don't, if somebody's shooting a cannon at you, you don't stand there with your dagger. Sure the dagger is a weapon, but you can't, well I ought to update that as, when somebody shoots the missiles, right? You have to have a scud missile or whatever, you have to have the interceptor, whatever. But friends, when you stand waving your dagger around, hey, you're going to get blown out of the water. And so it's a matter of weapons and the spiritual weapons are the same way, you've got to use the right one at the right time. If you don't, you're just as miserable as, you know, same with, if the enemy's right at you, you don't light up your cannon. I mean he's not going to put his head in front of the turret. You need a dagger, then you need a sword, then it's hand-to-hand combat. And so, and you're laughing at me at it, but the thing is that's how ridiculous it is when we as Christians use the wrong weapon at the wrong time in our spiritual warfare. And that's why I was so interested in this, the fact that it's plural. Now what are these weapons? And here they are. And on the other tapes you have heard, I've got the different weapons there explained. Here's the weapon of resisting. That's what God first taught me. I was praying to reach these headhunters and cannibals. And I, hey, nothing was happening. And then when God showed me this thing, I'm resisting Satan, and he would flee from me, and binding the strong man, as it's written in Scripture, and so that the strong man cannot, you know, defend his turf. You've got, Satan was in control of these people. He had to be bound before I could even get to him. And finally, after a bunch of prayer, God showed me that I should resist him and command him not to interfere with the message this morning, and that no interference and activity in the church, and that eliminated all the pigs and everything that came into the church, remember, and so on, until finally the people said, we can hear you with our stomachs now, with our understanding. And that resisting weapon for me worked so good that I was using it all the time. And everywhere I went, I'd say, Satan, powers of darkness, no interference this morning. I resist you. I have authority over you because I'm seated with Christ in the heavenlies, far above all principalities and powers. It worked so good that every village, heathen villages, churches filled with demon-possessed people, and they couldn't, and they sat there quietly. And if I'd forget sometime, the noise and all the devastation was going again. And it was so real. This thing worked so well. And I had victory, and people turned to the Lord. And I, man, when I found something after eight long years of struggling and praying and fussing, I finally had something that worked. Well, I worked that weapon for all I could. I was using it all the time. I'm telling Satan in Jesus' name, leave us alone every time I meet a man. I mean, I'm talking to Satan more than I'm talking to Jesus Christ. And you know that's a weapon out of balance. But it worked. And when you failed so long, you finally found something that worked. But then I'm a pessimist at heart, and God showed me that I needed to learn to rejoice, and that's very true. And so then I got caught with the hornets, and you know the story. And so God says, Rejoice. I said, God, this is the wrong time to teach me this lesson. But finally I did it, and I learned to do it, not because I feel like it, but because I've got to obey God. And that's how love works. And so I start rejoicing, and I found out I didn't have to resist Satan nearly as much as when I learned the weapon of rejoicing. Rejoicing is faith in action. I can see your faith if I see you rejoice. Paul and Silas started to sing in prison in the war, and the whole thing shook down. But when, see, I can't rejoice and be discouraged. So I've got a whole thing, you know, Satan gets me through discouragement. Or depressed, I can rejoice and worry at the same time, or be angry, bitter, a whole lot of, wow, I'm well on the way. And so I don't have to resist Satan nearly as much for interfering with all, everything, because I'm rejoicing. And then in the weapon of love there, God took the two greatest enemies I have, and the guys I wanted, I wanted God to remove them, and God put them in a position where I actually had the opportunity to save their lives. I didn't even want to, but God says, love your enemies, and that's what I'm preaching, so I better do it myself. And so I learned that the weapon of love never fails. What an incredible situation that was. And then, so, one by one, but it was after praying and searching the Word of God, and I'm saying, now what am I supposed to be doing? And I find things that are hard for me that I'm not doing, and say, well, he told me, rejoice, give thanks for all things. And so I thought, I better start doing that. And then I better start loving his enemies, and showing special love to them, and so on. And I'm learning, and all of a sudden, when I start obeying the Word of God, I discover these weapons, and I know they're the weapons, because they tear down the strongholds, they do these things that the first Corinthians there tells us to do, they destroy deceptions, and human philosophy, and to bring thoughts, the weapon of meditation, thoughts, you know, captivate our thoughts to the obedience of Christ. Wow. Now, the weapon of meditation is interesting. It's more like a thing that you prepare ahead of time. You have to, ahead of time, memorize Scripture, and then learn to meditate on it, and it's kind of like we had to take the camoquin and the chloroquine to fight malaria, and so we had to take that ahead of time, so that when the malaria mosquitoes bite us, we have that in us. It's kind of like a prophylactic, and that's what this meditation weapon is. It's a powerful one. Everything he does will prosper. That's how holy these are, unique things, and when you use them, you'll have good success. And so, when you get hold of this package, now, I would like to say this, we like to fight with the wrong weapons. As a matter of fact, the church in America, and the church in most other places, really, you ask them what the weapons are, and they'll give you the sword of the Spirit, right, and the breastplate and all that. Now, what is the difference? Well, the difference is, the Ephesians, the armor is defense. We need that to protect us. And people say, well, no, not the sword, that's offense. The sword is an offense weapon. No, in the context of Ephesians 6, even the sword. What is the sword? The sword is the Word of God, isn't it? That's what it said, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, remember how he said, it is written, Satan, man shall not live by bread alone, or it is written, don't tempt the Lord your God. And he's using the Word of God as a sword to resist the enemy. So, even in the context of the armor, the sword, in that case, is the Word of God to quote truth to Satan, and so on, and it's even defense in there. But these things are offense. Now, the weapon of prayer is a fantastic weapon, but what we're doing today, and that's about the only one we're using. As I ask people, what are the weapons? They give us the armor, and most people do not really know what the weapons are. Now, you go back to your Sunday school class and find out, and you'll find that they have not gotten a hold of this. And that is the amazing thing that Satan has so blinded us, as a church, to do ministry without weapons. Isn't that incredible? Isn't that a way of shutting us down? No wonder we haven't got the Great Commission completed, and we haven't got the World One. The only weapon we use is prayer, and we don't use it as a weapon, we use it as part of an armor. It's defense. All right, the problem hits all, the church goes to fasting and prayer as a reaction to a problem. When we're hurting, that's when we pray best. When we're having problems, that's when we pray. But very few of us have any emotional energy left over for offense to get the World One, and the things that we should be doing with this weapon of prayer. And that's always, we pray for the sick, and we pray for the problems, and we pray for the needs, and we pray for all this kind of, just one big reaction. So Satan has us working only one weapon, and he's got us misusing that thing on our own selfish lust. The things that we pray for, the needs, and the problems, and the decisions, are things that we should be surrendering. You've heard my rites message, we should say, God, I surrender my needs to you. You've promised, and just claim the promise, you've promised to meet all our needs. And he said, I'll give you wisdom for your decisions, if you lack wisdom. And so we just claim the promises, and lay those things down, surrender our rites, say, God, I give my needs to you, and let God. And then we have time now to go use the weapon of prayer to reach the world, and to pray for the towns, and villages, and countries, and wherever churches are needed, which is all over the world. And that's what we ought to be doing. And same with the needs of others. We should give them to God, and say, God, you can handle my family, and I give them to you, and surrender these things. And that's so important, so that we get back into focus. Now, if you have given all the sick people to God, and said, God, would you take care of them? We pray, and in faith, believe in you, thank him for the answer. Whether you're going to get perfect healing, or something better, God will always give you the best. He'll give you more than you ask for. And so when you handle these things, then what are we going to pray for now? I've given my problems to God. I don't have to bring them to the church hardly. Well, you can, but they can pray for them, but then you're done. All right, now you get on the offense in prayer. Okay? So the thing is, Satan has us so shut down, God is focusing on one weapon, and we're using and misusing it most of the time. And so what an incredible situation. And so from now on, I trust that you will take up these weapons, and realize, now, when do you use which one? And that's so important. Okay, when, when, when circumstances, problems, which one do you use? I know which one you've been using, prayer. Wrong one. That's like holding the dagger up. You're supposed to be using rejoicing. You say, hey, just a minute. Yes, he says, rejoice always. Give thanks always for all things, in all situations. But think of that preposition there, for all things. All right, do you mean, you know, when the hornet's word got on me, I said, he says, I said, God, help me. And he puts this right in my mind, rejoice. Oh, brother, just a minute. And no, you pray. See, okay, when circumstances are bad, you always rejoice. Now, we want to rejoice when things are good. Hey, you don't have to be a Christian to do that. God didn't need to put that in the Bible, right? When things are good, people rejoice. But when things are good, and see, we go along with the world, right? When things are bad, we pray, and when things are good, we rejoice. All right, that's exactly opposite. When things are, are, are good, we ought to be praying. That shows God we have some love for him, and we're concerned with a lost world. And it's not, it's the emphasis of off our problems, and unselfishly saying, okay, God. But see, we always pray when things are bad, and we should be rejoicing, and so on. So we mess it all up, right? Wrong weapon, and I say again, it's like trying to intercept a cannonball with a sword. That's how ridiculous it is, because God says, when you have problems, you rejoice. And you notice that Jonah was in the belly of the fish, and first he's praying and begging and pleading like we all do, and then finally he runs out of pleading. And you, hey, you get so much more done rejoicing and surrendering than begging and pleading in your time of devotions. And so finally, at the end of that first chapter, he starts praising God. All right? And that's when God sends the fish to the shore, and spits them out, right? That's when the action comes. Rejoicing is faith in action. Okay? What's resisting? Resisting is authority in action. Authority over the evil one. Authority over Satan. Prayer is what? Prayer is dependence in action. All right? People can see your dependence. What is love? Love is forgiveness in action. Now again, there's the, you can love people that are nice to you, but God says, love your enemies. He says, love your wives. He says, love your wives. He says, love your neighbor. And He says, love your enemy. Okay? Some people say which is the hardest one. Well, you pick that one. Love your enemies. He doesn't have to tell us to love. It's just like that rejoicing thing. He doesn't have to tell us to love the guys that are nice to us. And these things are so hard, isn't it? And we say, man, He tells me all this hard stuff. Rejoice when things are bad. Love my enemies. That's just so unnatural for me. Yes, that shows our sinful nature. But we've got to make up to do it. All right. So, when people are your problem, what do you do? You resist them, right? You sue them, right? Wrong weapon, folks. Isn't it? If Satan is your problem, you don't love him. Well, I don't have to tell you that. All right. But this one here, when people are your problem, love is always the weapon in connection with prayer. But love is all... All right. When circumstances are bad, you don't meditate on them. You know what that'll do to you? You'll be in instant depression. I mean, you're suicidal. All right. So, learn to use the right weapons in your spiritual warfare. Now, when do you pray? It says, praying always. And so, you get a combination. All right, you're praying to God, but resisting Satan in the situation. But friends, remember, the Dutch... I'm always proud in this case that I'm Dutch by birth. We had these great... I hope there's no Spanish people here. They had these wars. Holland and Spain fought on the high seas back in the Middle Ages. The Spanish had these huge ships. I mean, they had cannons on them. They had... First, they had the stone throwers on them. The Dutch, I don't think they were smart enough to build those big ships. They had these little small boats, more like rowboats, something. But you know what? They got... In the nighttime, these big ships were out there on the sea, and they'd get their little rowboats right there, right underneath the overhang. They couldn't even see them down there. And they had sharp axes, and they were good woodsmen. And they're cutting holes in the big wooden ships. And while the Spanish were firing their cannons all over the sea, the boat was sinking. Weapons, right? The right weapon, distance, all this is important. And that's so important. And you know, when we get our weapons right, there's nothing to stop us. There's nothing to stop us. Friends, if we can learn to use the right weapons at the right time, you will see miracles. Rejoicing is so powerful. Faith in action. When you start rejoicing, there's miracles coming all the time. When you're in trouble and you rejoice, you'll have a miracle on your hand. When you show love to enemies, there is no... They can't stand that, because we become peculiar people now, don't we? And the peculiar people are used of God. And Satan has to flee from us. Everything we do will prosper and succeed. And I encourage you this morning, get hold of these weapons. Say, hey, it's hard. Okay, it's hard. Even if you don't feel like doing it, you don't feel like loving your enemy, do it anyway. And after a while, God will change your heart, and you'll get to love those people. And same with rejoicing. You just keep doing it, and say, God, I'm doing this because I want to please you. Start that way, and then God will show you. And hey, you get excited about your weapons. I preached this rejoicing message in one place, and this fellow came up to me, and he says, I can't wait for the next problem to happen. I'm ready to rejoice. I know what I'm going to do. I just wish it would come right now. Well, when you get to the place where you look forward to your problems, hey, you've got something exciting going. The other man said to me, I can't wait for a guy to do me wrong. I'm ready what I'm going to do. He had love projects worked out, how he was going to show love to the next guy that did him wrong. He says, I wish he'd come along right now. Man, he was excited. And then the fellow says, I can't wait till I'm tempted, and until, you know, Satan is interfering with my ministry, I'm going to resist him or watch him flee from me, like James 4, 7 says. Now, that is excitement. And then to think of memorizing, you're going to have to get rid of the books and all the reading material and everything else, and start memorizing Scripture, and get that so that you can work this meditation one. And when you get excited about your weapons, I mean, then life gets exciting. And I believe the church can be used to win the world. And I believe there's victory possible in our lives if we start doing things the way God wants them to be done. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what you've shown us. We thank you for the mighty. You've not left us just to battle Satan with our empty hands, like Gideon when he was, you know, fighting the Amalekites with a clay pot and a horn. You've given us mighty weapons that we can get hold of. All of us can do these things. We can determine in our hearts we're going to love them. We're going to rejoice. We're going to resist. We're going to meditate. We're going to pray. These are very real weapons that we can get hold of. So, Father, I pray for your people that they might be able to get hold of them, use them, get the excitement of our Christianity that we so desperately need, so that when these people come up to us with their philosophies and with their needs, God, that we'd be able to tear them down through the mighty weapons you've given us. So, bless us and excite us with your truth. In Jesus' name, Amen.