Six Foundations for Spiritual Battle

Well, if you have a Bible and I hope you or somebody around you does that you can look on with, let me invite you to open with me to Ephesians 6. Feel free to use the Table of Contents if you need to. It’s near the back of the Bible.

Introductory Questions

I want to start today by asking you a couple of questions, and I want to encourage you to really think about the answer to them.

So first, how is Satan currently attacking you and others who are close to you? Now, this question presupposes that Satan is real and that he is currently attacking you and currently attacking others who are close to you. All of which I’m about to show you in the Bible is true. But I want to give you a moment to consider this question, knowing there are countless possible answers to it in light of Satan’s varied schemes.

How is Satan Currently Attacking You?

So if I could put those schemes or those strategies in general categories, How is Satan most tempting you to sin in your life right now in your thoughts, your desires, your words, your actions? How is Satan most enticing your flesh? Maybe one way to put it: What sins are besetting you? What sins do you find yourself continually struggling with? Statistics would say that lust and pornography would be on that list for a large percentage of people in this gathering; or maybe it’s pride or anger or greed or envy or gossip or any number of sins of omission. So things God is calling you to do, but Satan is tempting you to not do.

So here’s another category: How is Satan attacking you with doubt or discouragement or despair? I was reading 1 Kings 19 recently where Elijah, this prophet, this man mighty with God, was weary of life itself. And I am confident that amidst a gathering this size, and all these different places, some of you, maybe many of you, are either there or on the verge of being there—weary, wondering how or if you can go on; wondering why this is happening or when this will end. 1 Kings 19 is a reminder that not one of us is beyond being overwhelmed with disappointment, anxiety, worry, or fear that can lead us to despair of life itself; or how is Satan attacking your emotional or mental or physical well-being; or how is Satan attacking some of your closest relationships?

How is Satan Currently Attacking Others Who Are Close to You

Which then leads to the second part of this question: How is Satan attacking others who are close to you? Because he is not content just to come after you; particularly if he cannot get to you, he will come after those who are closest to you. So how is Satan currently attacking you and others who are close to you?

How is Satan Currently at Work in the World Around Us?

And then to broaden the question: How is Satan currently at work in the world around us? Knowing Satan is not just focused on you and me right now, but on the entire world. So what are some specific ways you see Satan at work in our nation, in other nations, in worldly ideologies and institutions and injustices and idolatry in various manifestations of evil in the world? And the reason I’m asking you these questions today is to help open your eyes to the spiritual war that we live in in this world.

So today we’re beginning a series that we’re calling “How to Fight in the Dark,” and the plan is for the next eight weeks to explore how all of us live every single day in the middle of spiritual battle. It’s raging in us and around us. And we’re specifically going to walk through one passage in the Bible, Ephesians 6:10–20, just verse by verse, phrase by phrase, to see how to fight this spiritual battle. So let me read it to you, the whole passage. You can follow along in your Bible, or I have it up here on the screen. God says to you and me starting in Ephesians 6:10 …

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:10–20)

There is so much here, but what I want to do today is show you just a few foundations in the first few verses of this passage that I believe are critical for us to realize, and I’m convinced many, if not most, Christians are completely missing on a daily basis.

Six Foundations for Spiritual Battle

So if you’re taking notes, I want to show you six truths that you need to know in light of the spiritual battle that is raging in and around you right now. And I want to encourage you to write these truths down so you can go back to them and look at them later and discuss them with others, whether it’s a family or friends or church group. So here we go. 

1. We Live in a Spiritual World.

Truth number one, we live in a spiritual world. So, grammatically, this truth is the ground of this entire passage. In just a minute we’ll get to these commands to be strong and stand firm. But notice that these commands exist because of what we read in verse 12. We must be strong [and] stand firm, because we live in a world that’s not just flesh and blood. Yes, it’s a physical world, and it’s a spiritual world filled with rulers and authorities and cosmic powers over darkness, and spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. Therefore, in light of all of that, do these things.

But here’s the problem: Most of us don’t see this world or our everyday lives in it this way, particularly here in Western culture. We have a glaring blind spot, an area that we don’t see. There’s a sense in which what was obvious when this was written in Ephesus 2000 years ago, and quite frankly what’s obvious to many people in many parts of the world today, is not obvious to us. We’re like Elisha’s servant in 2 Kings 6.

So you can turn to this. Mark it in your Bible, or I just put it up here on the screen. But at one point the entire Syrian army was surrounding the prophet Elisha and his servant, and the servant was panicking, saying, “What are we going to do?” Remember what Elisha said to him [in] 2 Kings 6:16: Elisha said to his servant, “Do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Now think about that. There were two guys in the house, Elisha and a servant, and an entire Syrian army with horses and chariots surrounding them. If you’re Elisha’s servant, you’re thinking the old guy has lost his mind. He may be a prophet, but he’s no mathematician. There’s two of us and a ton of them. But what happens? “Then Elisha prayed and said, “O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see” (2 Kings 6:17). So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha” (2 Kings 6:17).

So in this moment, Elisha’s servant got a glimpse of the spiritual world and realized that the Syrian army was indeed outnumbered—not physically, but spiritually. And in this moment, when the invisible became visible, everything changed. Listen to what happens next:

“And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed to the Lord and said, ‘Please strike this people with blindness. So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And Eisha said to them, “This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I’ll bring you to the man to whom you seek. And he led them to Samaria” (2 Kings 6:18–19).

He led them straight to Samaria to be captured by the king of Israel there. How did that happen? They saw the spiritual world, and they fought with a spiritual weapon. All he did was pray. Do we believe this? Do we believe that our prayers have power to affect the movement of armies in this world? That’s what the Bible’s saying right here. Why are we prayerless? Why do we struggle to pray when we have been invited to pray and God will work in accordance with the prayers we pray?

God, give us eyes to see. Help us to see that, right now at this moment, a spiritual invisible world exists around us that is just as real as the physical visible world we see— yet it’s far more powerful.

The Bible teaches that there are vast numbers of angels and rulers and authorities and cosmic powers and spiritual forces, both good and evil, that exist all around us. At every moment, right now, there are glorious beings that would take our breath away if we could see them. Just ask Daniel in the Bible. He saw one of them and he fell on his hands and his knees shaking, barely able to breathe. And he saw one of the good guys! Right now there are evil beings all around us that would immediately send the toughest of us terrified and trembling to the floor if we could just see them. And to most of our minds, that sounds crazy. We live with a worldview that explains everything about what we can see, touch, taste, smell here. To say that you believe in the existence of angels and demons and rulers and authorities and powers and spiritual forces is like saying you believe in dragons and elves, but God tells us from beginning to end in the Bible— and he’s shouting to us in the text, this text,—”You live in a spiritual world. Open your eyes.”

2. We Are Involved in a Spiritual War.

Which leads to truth number two: We are involved in a spiritual war. Look at the language here. Paul says we are wrestling against … he says this language five times … “against rulers, against authorities, against cosmic powers, against spiritual forces of evil.” What we’re reading here is not a command; it’s a statement of fact.

We are in a wrestling match. The word describes a fight with rulers and authorities and cosmic powers over darkness at work in this world—like, this is the water we’re swimming in every day. Right where you are sitting right now, you are in a wrestling match with spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. All of this is happening all the time, whether you realize it or not. You may not have realized it, but you woke up this morning in a wrestling match. That’s what the Bible is saying right now, that you’ll go to sleep tonight in a wrestling match. You’ll spend all day today in a wrestling match. This is happening in your homes; it’s happening in your work; it’s happening in this church; Everywhere you go—when you are alone; when you are with others. Every second you’re scrolling through your phone, there is a spiritual battle raging for your heart and mind.

And it’s not just algorithms that people in this world have created; it’s algorithms that spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms are working at every moment. And it’s not just in your life. The spiritual war involves everyone. There’s a war raging, not just for your soul but for the souls of every single person in your home and in your family; in this church, in this city, and in the entire world. All of the world and all of history is a story of spiritual war, going back to Genesis 3.

Now, I obviously want to be cautious in using this imagery of war because of how God’s Word has been misused and abused from crusades in the past to culture wars in the present. And obviously this doesn’t mean that there aren’t physical implications of this spiritual war, as flesh and blood are where this spiritual war plays out. But that’s just it: Underneath everything that’s happening in this flesh-and-blood physical world—let this soak in—there is a spiritual adversary who is actively working right now to destroy your life. He wants to wreck your family and your future. He wants to hold you captive to your past. He wants to tarnish your purity, to attack your integrity. He’s working on a global scale to distract and deceive and divide; to harm and to hurt through hatred and war and injustice and oppression. And he’s working at all costs to keep the good news of liberation through Jesus from spreading in the city and to all the nations. We are all involved daily in a spiritual war that we need to see underneath every news headline and underneath every detail that’s going on in our lives, and not be surprised by spiritual battle around us. 

I was talking with somebody this week who asked me, ‘Why is it so hard to do such simple things like read the Bible and pray? You’d think this would be easy.” I said, “No, it’s never going to be easy, because there is an adversary who really does not want you to do that. And he knows if he can keep you from doing that, he can affect everything else in your life. So he’s doing everything he can to keep you from doing that.” We live every moment in a spiritual war with an adversary who wants to destroy us and everybody around us, which leads to truth number three …

3. Our Adversary in this Spiritual War is Indescribably Strong.

Our adversary in this war is indescribably strong. So who’s our spiritual war against? The devil. Diablos in the Greek, from which we get “diabolical” here. His name means “the slanderer” elsewhere. He’s called the accuser, the liar, and the destroyer. God in his Word does not describe the devil as a wimp wanting to harm you, but as a lion looking to devour you and others. So let’s just believe God on this one. Let’s realize that if our adversary was a man, and if he possessed nothing but human strength, ingenuity, or craft, then we would be okay fighting with human means. But he is not human, and in our flesh we are no match for him. 

The reality is, if you or I were to face the devil on our own, we would be overpowered and outsmarted in a split second. Just look at the description of his minions. Here they are rulers, potentates, with authority to attack; cosmic worldwide powers over darkness; spiritual, supernatural forces. Are we hearing this? Are we hearing Jesus? He tells us the devil is “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31); God tells us he is the little g “god of this world” in 2 Corinthians 4:4. In 1 John 5:19, God tells us “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” The Bible doesn’t say that about you or me. God says this about the one who’s coming after you and me. See his stranglehold on this world in sin.

I think about wicked evil schemes like I saw in Southeast Asia recently, where women and children are being trafficked for incomprehensible sexual exploitation to meet the demand for pornography. And millions of people in countries like ours, including multitudes of professing Christians, who are gorging their flesh at their expense, as Satan has a hold on their minds; and that’s on top of millions of other evils.

4. Our Ally in This War is Infinitely Strong.

Our adversary in this spiritual war is indescribably strong, but truth number four, our ally in this war is infinitely strong. So now to the commands in verse 10. So we got the ground. So what is God saying to us? “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Ephesians 6:10). 

You cannot fight this war alone, and you don’t have to, thankfully. You can only fight it in the strength and the might of the Lord. So the language here is so amazing on a couple of different levels. So one, the verb here is actually passive, [which] means it’s literally “be strengthened” by someone else. So this is not strength you muster up from inside you, because you don’t have it. We’ve established that you’re weak. I’m weak. We don’t have this strength, which means we need to be strengthened by someone else, and the Lord is ready to strengthen us.

And now here’s the second place. This language is amazing. So Paul uses … if you’ll just follow with me for a minute, I’m going to nerd out with a little Greek, and I promise you it’s going to be worth it. It’s not just for fun … it’s just … follow me. There are three words in the original language of the New Testament here that Paul uses when he talks about “strong, strength, and might,”—that’s three different words. First time he uses it, it is dunamis. So it’s a word, it means “power.” It’s where we get dynamite from … so “strong in the Lord” and then the “strength.” So this is kratos … hang with me … of his “might.” This one is iscus.

So he uses three words to describe the strength that we’re supposed to have from the Lord. Now those same three words he used—Paul, who’s writing this letter to the church in Ephesus— used those same three words one other time in this book. The Holy Spirit inspired him to use it back in chapter 1. I want to show this to you. Turn back with me to Ephesians 1. You got to see this verse. We’ll start in Ephesians 1:17. Paul’s praying a prayer over these followers of Jesus in Ephesus, and he prays that …

“ … the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints [Now watch this … verse 19 … ], and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power—that’s dunamis—toward us who believe, according to the working of his great—that’s kratos—might—that’s iscus. Same three words he used back here in verse 19 when he was talking about, follow this, the supernatural power, strength, great might that he “worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places … [watch this] …  far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that’s named [Come up with the name—he’s above it], not only in this age [now] but also in the one to come [forever]. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:17–22).

Are you seeing this? Yes, our adversary in this spiritual war may be indescribably strong, but our ally in this war is infinitely stronger than him—than all of them. They’re all under his feet. That’s where they are. All these rulers, powers, authorities, cosmic powers, spiritual forces—under his feet. This is not some dualistic Star Wars battle between two equal but opposing forces [of] good and evil. This is not dualism. This is domination. And don’t miss it: The dominator is on your side, and not just on your side. he’s inside you. He fills you.

So let this soak in: Where you’re sitting right now—and whatever you find yourself in this spiritual war at this moment and your battles with temptation and sin, with doubt and discouragement in every attempt of the adversary to bring you down—Christian, you are not alone. You are never alone. The Christ who was raised from the dead—we saw this a couple months ago in Colossians 2—who “disarmed the rulers and authorities put them to open shame by triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15)—you have his fullness dwelling inside of you. So be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, the might of the One who has conquered sin and Satan and the grave dwells inside of you right now. 

So how do you do this? How do you do this? So I, practically, okay, what do I do? How do I get strengthened in the Lord? How do I fight in the strength of his might? Well look at the next command: “Put on the whole armor of God …” (Ephesians 6:11). So what we’re going to do over the next seven weeks, Lord willing, is unpack every piece of this armor. But here at the start, you’ve got to see this. Do not miss the significance of this phrase. It’s the armor of who? Now that’s like, okay, that’s obvious. But think about that for a minute. This is God’s armory, and it’s not the first time the Holy Spirit-inspired language like this. Hundreds of years before Paul wrote this, the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to write about this armor belonging to God himself. Look at this, Isaiah 59:17: “He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head …” You know who that song is about? That’s God. God has righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on his head. That’s amazing—God, putting on this armor. 

Isaiah 11:5: “Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins.” That’s talking about the Messiah, Jesus the Christ. Isaiah 49 says the same thing about the Messiah: “He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me” (Isaiah 49:2). Isaiah chapter 52:7, talking about the return of the Lord, says, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, [these feet] who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Don’t miss the point when we’re commanded to put on the armor of God. What we’re being commanded to do is put on the very life of Jesus himself. This is what Paul wrote just a couple of chapters before this in Ephesians 4, where he said, “ … put off your old self” [the flesh] (Ephesians 4:22), put on the new self (Ephesians 4:24), his Spirit dwelling in you. This is how you fight spiritual battle in the Lord, in your ally. By what? By taking his truth and filling your mind with his truth, combating the lies and deceptions of the devil. His righteousness guarding you against all the devil’s accusations against you; his gospel of peace, filling your feet, guiding your steps as you live by faith in him; extinguishing all the flaming darts of the evil one that he hurls your way with his helmet of salvation on your head as his child; his Word as the sword of his Spirit in you.

It’s his armor. He is your armor.

I want to tell you a quick story from a few years ago when we were walking through some challenges in our church family, spiritual attacks against our church family and leaders. Without going into all the details, there was one point that was just particularly traumatizing involving somebody coming at me physically with police coming after them. Thankfully, I was able to get out of that situation. But the next morning, Heather and I were in a small gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ outside our church, many of whom I didn’t personally know. And at one point, somebody I did know knew that we were walking through some hard days and asked the group to just pray over Heather and me. We got on our knees, and they were concluding this time praying for us, and a sister in Christ that I did not know—I’d never met—said, “I don’t know you guys. I don’t know anything about what you’re walking through. I don’t even know why we’re praying specifically for you.” And nothing—she had no context, and she definitely didn’t know what had happened the night before. But she said, “When you walked into the room today, the word that immediately came to my mind was direct attack. And I had a picture in my mind of something coming at you physically,” and these were her words, she said, “Jesus himself dressed in complete armor stood in the way to protect you. But it was traumatizing, and I just feel led to read to you from Isaiah 59.” She started reading from the exact verses we just looked at—how God with righteousness as a breastplate and salvation on his head is a defender for his people.

Now there’s a lot more I could say here and want to dive into there, especially when all kinds of people come up with all kinds of words that may or may not be from God. But that’s the point. This word was directly pointing to God’s Word, and this [is the] truth that I want to encourage every follower of Jesus with right now. So I do not know what attacks Satan is coming at you with right now in your life, but I do know this for all who are in Christ: God is saying to you in his Word right now, hear him speaking, saying, “I am your armor and you can trust in me. I will be no matter what you face. I will be your defender, your protector, your provider, your deliverer, your vindicator, and your savior. You can trust in me and the armor I provide to you. Your adversary is indescribably strong in this war, but your ally is infinitely stronger than everything in this world.

5. Our Aims in this Spiritual War Are Clear.

So truth number five: Our aims in the spiritual war, then, are clear. And they’re two-fold. First and foremost, stand firm in Jesus. Stand firm—four times—be strong in the strength of his might … put on the whole armor of God … “so that’ … this is a purpose clause … “so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). All these strategies … “therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand, therefore … (Ephesians 6:13–14). We get the point, Paul!—stand, stand, stand, stand. That’s what God in his Word is telling us to do. Stand firm in Jesus. Hold fast to Jesus. What we saw in Hebrews chapter 10:23 a couple of weeks ago: From the moment you wake up in the morning to the moment you lay your head on your pillow at night, keep your eyes fixed on him.

Trust in him. Walk with him. Meditate on his Word. Fill your mind with his Word, day and night. Pray at all times in his Spirit. Walk in his Spirit, alerted every moment in battle. And don’t say, “Yeah, put on the armor every morning.” No, why take it off when you go to bed? Sleep in it. Wake up wearing it all the time—close to Jesus, focused on Jesus, meditating on his Word, walking in step with his Spirit. The key to spiritual victory over Satan is spiritual intimacy with your Savior. Yes. Let me say that one more time: The key to spiritual victory over Satan is spiritual intimacy with your Savior. That’s [the first point], stand firm in Jesus.

And second, press forward with Jesus clearly. Paul’s goal in this passage is not to encourage believers just to stand still. We’re pressing forward in a battle for souls with feet that are spreading the gospel of peace, with prayer that God will help us. What does Paul say” To boldly proclaim “the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19). We have the greatest news in the world, and a world at war. We announce peace with God to all people, and all peoples everywhere.

So let’s live for this MBC family. Let’s engage in spiritual battle that is raging—for our friends and our family members and our neighbors and our coworkers and our classmates and billions of people around the world whom cosmic powers have kept in the dark from ever even hearing the gospel. Let’s battle in prayer, and let’s battle with our feet fitted with the gospel of peace, knowing we’re followers of the One who has all authority in heaven and on earth. So let’s go and make disciples of all the nations, knowing he is with us always, every step of the way; knowing the more we press forward, the harder it will get and the more attacks we will face.

Don’t you want your face on a wanted poster in hell? She makes trouble for the cosmic powers of darkness, proclaiming light and liberation, freeing souls from captivity [through] the proclamation of the grace of Jesus Christ. Press forward with the gospel, knowing the more you do that, the harder it will get; the more force you will face.

Remember, Paul is writing this in chains. He’s in prison because he is proclaiming the gospel. Mark it down: The more you press forward with Jesus in this world—don’t believe the lie. It’s not the easier it will get, no—the harder it will get in this world that is opposed to Jesus. When the “god” of this world does not want people standing firm in Jesus and pressing forward with the gospel … you can know when you are doing those things, you’re facing the force of hell.

6. The Outcome of this Spiritual War is Inevitable.

That leads to truth number six: The outcome of this spiritual war is inevitable. I have really good news. Thanos [death] is not inevitable. This is inevitable. Check out the very last verse of Ephesians 6:24: “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.” Yes! Is that a good way to end? Yes.

This whole Bible book ends with a picture of a people who love Jesus more than life itself, and a love relationship with him that is incorruptible, immortal, everlasting, never- failing. Which then leads us to Revelation 12:9–11. Listen to this. This is how the whole story is going to end.

“And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” (Revelation 12:9–11)

Ladies and gentlemen, this war has already been won. Amen. Jesus, our king, has conquered sin and Satan; he has risen from the dead; he is raining on high right now, and one day he is coming back. And Jesus is going to hurl the adversary and all his minions and deceptions and accusations into an abyss. And we are going to live in perfect, pure, eternal, incorruptible love relationship with God himself forever! So, brothers and sisters, stand firm and press forward amidst all the spiritual attacks of Satan against you and around the world, because you know how this story is going to end.

Concluding Personal Application

So here’s the deal. As we close today, I want to invite you … pardon me, [I want] to spend the next six hours just praying … but I want to invite you, if you are a follower of Jesus, especially here at the beginning of this series, I want to invite you to spend a couple of moments just asking Jesus for specific help to stand firm and press forward amidst specific spiritual battles in and around you right now. So identify a couple of those ways you see Satan attacking, and ask for his help. And identify a couple of steps you can take this week to engage intentionally in spiritual battle. They saw the spiritual world in 2 Kings 6 and they prayed. So how do you see Satan attacking? And then what’s your spiritual battle plan starting when it comes to your time alone with God and prayer and his Word? And then how that overflows into your life in this world. What’s your battle plan spiritually? Followers of Jesus, go ahead and start doing that now.

I want to urge you, if you are not a follower of Jesus today, to trust in Jesus to save you from the penalty and the power of sin … and to lead you for eternal life. It’s the greatest news in the world. God has made a way for you to be not only forgiven of all your sin against him, but free from its power and penalty forever … to be in relationship with him, the Author, the Giver of life forever. If you’ve never put your trust in Jesus, what is keeping you from trusting in the only one who can save you from sin, who can give you eternal life that transcends death itself?

So I want to invite you … just take a few moments between you and God … if you’re a follower of Jesus, in this first couple ways, and if you’re not a follower of Jesus, I invite you, put your trust in him—just in your heart right now. Say to God, “Yes, save me from my sin. I believe. I trust in what you did on the cross and your resurrection to make it possible for me to have eternal life.”