Equipping the Family For Battle

Scripture Texts: Ephesians 6:10-18; I Peter 5:8-9

Introduction.

This sermon was originally planned for the first Sunday of the new year.  It was meant as a call to arms, a call to start the new year with a fresh commitment to prayer and Scripture.

But in the sovereign providence of God, He had a different plan.  And you should be convinced in your mind and heart God’s sovereign providence is always good, always best.  Never doubt God’s ways and purposes are higher and better than ours, always for His glory and our good.

I have already seen the hand of God in what transpired in my going to the ER and Pastor Zac preaching on the first Sunday.  I believe God wants this word preached on this day.

Who thinks about life the way Paul has described it?  Who thinks we are in a war?  Who thinks we are in a firestorm far worse than LA?  What would I have to say to convince you we are under attack?  Would it help if there were rockets’ red glare and bombs bursting in air?  Who thinks they are in any danger of being devoured by a roaring lion?

Do you think you or your marriage, home, family, children, grandchildren, are under attack?  Or do you dismisses what Paul says as exaggeration, gross overstatement?  If you don’t think it is a big deal, then that is yet another way in which Satan is attacking, by making us blind, deaf, inattentive, complacent, to busy to notice.