Episode 71 - The Armor of God - Pt1

Tim: Hello, welcome. This is the Unveiling. Today is episode 71 and we're titling this one, the Armor of God. Ajai, good to have you back despite anything you may have heard on the last episode. We're glad you're here. Mark: Absolutely. Ajai: Me too. Tim. Tim: So we are, like I said, gonna be talking about the Armor of God today. And this , comes from a passage in Ephesians chapter six 10 through 18. And I'm gonna start reading that, but I'm not gonna read the whole thing up front. But just so you know where we are again, as usual, I'm reading out of the N I V starting at verse 10.Finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God's 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 when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand. Very interesting. And before we start, I'd like to point out there are not a lot of references. This might be the only one to the quote Armor of God unquote. So Ajai, this was a topic that you picked out for us. Discuss. Why don't I pass this over to you and you can get us started. Ajai: Thank you, Tim, and good to see you again. So yeah, Tim like you said, the armor, I think it's not mentioned in other places, but the context of the armor is a battle. It says, you know, we struggle or wrestle, not against flesh and blood, you know, but it says, you know, against powers and against the. Spiritual host of wickedness in heaven places. So I want to actually go to a different chapter real quick. Returned by Paul, in fact, in a different book, and to get a better context and understanding of what he's talking about. You know, when we talk about normally, you know, in the, in, in the church and Christian circles, we use the word spiritual battle. Right? You know, we are battling sometimes they Make it sound like, we are actually directly fighting the demons or even in a casting or demons or, you know, it seems, you know, sometimes, , some people started this thing, they're going up in helicopters and then trying to speak against these spiritual forces of ness, but that's not what Paul is talking about. To get a little bit of clear picture in second Corinth in chapter 10 starting from verse three. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strong holes, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exiles itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. So as you can see, you know, in both the. Scriptures, we see one thing common is a battle. We are fighting against these forces of thickness, the unseen forces. And then in second Corinthians, it also gives you a clue as to where this battle is happening. You know, many say the mind is a battlefield, you know, that came from this scripture because we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but we are casting down arguments. Every high thing that exhalts itself, againsts the knowledge of God against the knowledge of God's truth. And then our part is to bring every thought capture to the obedience of Christ. We will come back to this again, but I think to set the context, we are actually talking about a battle. That is happening in our minds against the lies of the enemy and this armor of God protects us and gives us the armor again to stand against these lies that are coming against us. Tim: So that's an interesting point. Couple of points AJ. Where is the battle? It's in our hearts and minds. It's not an external battle, so this whole imagery of armor isn't to go out and actively fight something outside of us. It's really. To help ourselves put ourselves together in Christ. And it's as much a mental exercise as a spiritual one in some respects, because a lot of people will say that, like Mark said, the, the mind is the battlefield. And that's, that's where the doubt comes from. It doesn't come from our spirits. It doesn't come from our hearts. We read the word, we believe the word. We should be able to be solid in that. But you know, our minds never stop. And we keep turning things over and we know the worst of ourselves, so we would think the worst of ourselves. That kind of stuff just keeps creeping in. So very interesting point there. You know, the other thing I wanna say about this whole armor idea, if you don't mind me throwing this in really quickly, is I said, we don't put on this armor to go out and actually fight, but this is how it has always been presented to me is we are actively fighting the devil, the Satan, the demons. So I think this only be a completely different look at what it actually is. Mark: Yeah. I, I love that. Tim and my old pastor used to always say, just because things have been mistaught for years and decades and centuries, doesn't mean that he wasn't going to address it. Because now the, as we look at the word of God in different doctrines, we look through the gospel in the light of the gospel, and that brings us toll to the full measure of truth on that point. So that's why I'm glad we're tackling what has been mistaught for so many years. Ajai: Yeah. So Tim like you mentioned some, I think most of the teaching is. About, okay, now you put on the armor and do something. They make it about something we do. But if as we will see more today, if you look into it, each of the armor, each of the peace in the armor is actually a truth of the gospel of grace. it will basically help us , go even have a , stronger foundation in the gospel so that, , we can be confident in who we are in Christ. , like you said, you know, it's not something we do, but it's something, , we realize what we have in Christ. Tim: Well, these are kind of allegories. They're not meant to really represent physical fighting or , it's meant to be a little bit about. This is something that the people we're used to seeing all the time, the Romans cent centurians, and all war armor and all these pieces. You know, some, many of these pieces can be translated back to that armor, it's just trying to help you understand how these things will help you. Mark: Yep. . And, and that's something Paul did a lot of. He probably learned it from Christ who was constantly. Making the truths, heavenly truths what's the word? Comprehensive. Helping people to understand them. . And Paul was great at that. He was a genius at that. I mean, he talked, he would use marriage as a picture. He would use child, a child's inheritance as he aged and came of age. He would use Sarah and Hagar and Abraham. So he was constantly finding ways of helping people own, and I'll say, put on the truths of the gospel, which is just another way of saying put on the full armor of God, put on the full truths of everything we have in Christ. And that's what I love about this. Amen. So Tim, before we dive into the actual armor, I would like to bring our attention to a few things in the passages that you already read. So Paul is talking about why the armor right before he goes on to talk about what the armor is, he is saying, why the why is he's saying put on the whole armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So the devil is constantly trying to attack us because devil hates us. And he's saying, put on the whole armor of God so that you may stand against it. And he goes on to say, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Basically not with human beings. I think it actually serves us if we realize this right when we. Are actually having an argument or anything, you know, with a human being or some kind of fight or whatever it is, right? It's not necessarily the person in front of us, it's actually we are fighting with the enemy behind that person. In fact, you know, enemy might be shooting thoughts in both the people that are arguing, right? So actually enemy is causing that. But, you know, sometimes we feel like, okay, I'm. Fighting arguing against a human. But in most of the time, it is actually not with flesh and blood, not with humans, but principalities against powers against rulers of darkness, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. So the devil and enemy has the ability to influence our thoughts and influence our heart. In fact, you know, when Judas went out to betray before. He went out to betray the Bible says, Satan and enter his heart. So the enemy has the ability to inject thoughts into our minds and hearts. We need to be cognizant of that. And he says in verse thirteen, therefore take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to withstand the evil day. And having done all to stand. So what you're saying is, , if you have this armor on us, Even if the enemy attacks us, right, we'll be able to stand. We won't be, we won't be falling. So that's why Paul is talking about this armor. Tim: Well, , I might pick a little bit of a argument here, and I'm not trying to, but in the verse 13, it ends with why do we do all this to stand not to fight? We're not fighting. It's not our fight. It's like as if we were Jehosaphat the Lord said. You know, prepare, go out against the enemy, but understand that the fight is mine. And by the time Jehosaphat and his army got there, , all their enemies, Moab and Amon were dead. , it was all over. No one fought. And I don't think we fight in the way that it might sound classically that we fight. We just stand. In the knowledge of all these things , of the armor that we have on Mark: Tim, I completely agree with what you said, but I don't think there's a difference because the way we fight is by standing on what we already have in Christ. So , you're right. It's not like you're going out actively swinging something at the devil. . The way we fight is by standing. And how do we stand on it? By understanding, by receiving it, by contemplating, reflecting. It's a battle of faith. ? Ajai: Yeah, I agree. Mark: I don't think there is an argument between the two of you. , . Is my point. Ajai: Yeah. I don't think there's an argument. In fact, you know, in the scripture that I read, Paul specifically used that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. So enemy is trying to attack us and we are standing and in verse 13, he uses it again withstand the evil day and then having done all to stand. Again, we are not talking about some work we do, but. The faith we stand in. I think that's what I think we'll see that more and more as we go into the next scriptures. Tim: Yeah. in fact. Verse 14 which is where we would pick up if you're ready says, stand firm, then with the Belt of Truth, buckled around your waist. Now there's more to that verse, but I think we're gonna try, probably discuss these one at a time. And , if we're looking at the Roman armor Illustration. , this belt isn't what you might think of a belt today, which holds up your pants. This is more like a weightlifter's belt. , it's the foundation for many pieces that we're gonna be discussing of the armor , in that lots of things hang off of it and lowers the center of gravity to take weight on the hips instead of just shoulders and backs and stuff like that. So it is a. Fundamental foundation piece to the entire armor. The armor wouldn't work without this. Ajai: Yeah, that's a great point, Tim. Like you're saying, you know, the truth is the one that the belt is the one that holds everything together. And here it says the waste with truth. Again, when we talk about truth, right? What are we talking about in the new Testament? The gospel is called the word of truth in more than one instance. And in fact Peter says the word of God, that endures forever. , , we say this Sometimes, , we say that, oh, the word of God, that endures forever, but nobody talks about what is that word of God that endures forever. And if you go to Peter, it says, the word of God that endures forever is a gospel of our salvation. So when we are talking about the truth here, , it is a gospel. So have the gospel as your firm foundation of the belt that holds everything else together. So we are talking about a gospel of grace. Mark: And to add to that, Ajai, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, and we know the gospel is Jesus Christ. So it's like saying stand firm then with the Belt of Christ buckled around your waist. Just another way of saying, our feet are firmly planted on the rock of our salvation. It's just the core. It's the core. I love that. That's a great word that kind of goes along with what you said, Tim, the foundation that everything else stands upon is Christ. Ajai: Yeah, we always say, , the gospel is Christ and him crucified. , so , those are the two things. So the two truths, the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified for us. That is a, that is a belt, you know, that holds everything together. Tim: Interesting points on that cuz the next piece it mentioned still in verse 14 is with the breast plate of righteousness in place. Now hearkening back to just a moment ago talking about the belt. Now when they put the breast plate on, it would literally go over their shoulders. So, you know, it looks like they're basically carrying all that weight on their shoulders, but they're not. Cause it also attaches to that belt, which helps hold it up, take some of that weight off your back and, and your neck and it would cover the shoulders and you know, all the entire front of the body so they're integral to each other. So righteousness. ?We don't understand our righteousness if we don't understand the truth. Truth is in the though one true gospel, Jesus Christ died, resurrected to cleanse us from sins. Just give us salvation and that in turn gives us righteousness. If you don't understand the truth, you don't have the righteousness. Ajai: So the breastplate of righteousness. You know, the gospel at the core. In fact, the whole gospel message is righteousness by faith. Paul says, I'm not ashamed that the gospel of Jesus Christ for there in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. So at the core, the gospel is basically simply the gift of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ. And I want to look at the other part, right on a breastplate. What does it do? It covers your heart. And why is our heart covered with righteousness? Why do we need to do that? Because if we don't cover our heart with righteousness, then the enemy shoots us with the weapon of condemnation. So one of the biggest things or biggest problems of everybody, the whole humanity, is this condemnation. Condemnation comes from several places because we all sinned. We know that we sinned, and that's why our Lord Jesus Christ died for us. To cleanse us from our sins and give us this gift of righteousness. So when a sinner is born again through faith in Jesus Christ, he transitions from being from a sinner to a righteous man, a righteous woman. And that is a forever one sin for all. Irreversible transaction that happens will become righteous. And what Paul is saying here is, , once you become righteous, you wear that. Righteousness is a breastplate to protect your heart from condemnation. So there are several places we get this condemnation. The first one is enemy is trying to condemn us. So even though we are born again, even though we are children of God, because we are still in this world and in this body that is still fallen, we tend to do things that are. Sin. Right? So when we sin, the enemy is right there to condemn us here. Look, you've done this, so you don't deserve any blessings from God, how do you call yourself , a child of God? So the enemy is there to condemn you. , and then our heart is condemned and then there is self condemnation. We keep on beating ourselves up. Oh my God, I did that again. So we go in that, , guilt trip and finally, People are condemning us. Hey, you call yourself a Christian. Look at what you did. So there are three places. This condemnation is constantly attacking our heart, and if your heart is not protected, then we will go into this mode of condemnation. And the condemnation cannot result in anything good. We'll go deeper and deeper into, you know, this condemnation, doing things that are not good. So Lord doesn't want to have that condemnation. That's why he gives us a best plate of righteousness. So it is extremely important to understand that in Christ Jesus, we are made the righteousness of God in Christ. So when our heart is condemned, what do we do? We simply say, I am the righteousness of God in Christ and I am my righteous, not by what I do, but based on what Lord Jesus Christ did for me by his precious blood. Mark: Ajai, that's a great picture. And to add to that, I think of that condemnation is like an arrow that's being fired at us. Sometimes it's fired by the enemy. Sometimes we fire it ourself trying to shoot ourselves, but that righteousness protects us from that condemnation. It's that understanding and standing on what we have, the truth that Christ has given us, his righteousness. That extinguishes, that arrow as Paul put somewhere else, just bounces right off. If you don't know that you're the righteousness of God, and then condemnation is gonna come and take a root in you, it's gonna sink into you just like an arrow would. So that's why we need to know that, to receive that, own it, understand it so that condemnation can just bounce right off. Ajai: In fact, Romans five 17 says that receive the gift of righteousness will reign in life. So the way to live a victorious Christian life, reigning is basically reigning like kings and reigning in life is through the gift of righteousness. So when we allow ourselves to condemn ourselves, nothing but bad behavior comes. You know, we get all angry. We are angry at ourselves, we are angry at others. Nothing good comes out of condemning ourselves. So, Nothing good comes out of a guilty consciousness. So the righteousness takes care of both things, you know, gives us a confidence that we are not condemned anymore. There's no punishment for us, and it also takes over the guilty consciousness.We might feel guilty, but God is not seeing us as sinners. He's seeing even when we sin, God is seeing us as righteous. That's why the Bible says blessed is a man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So when we have this understanding, even when I sin, God is seeing me as righteous, that will cause us to bounce back and reign in life. Tim: If I can put one snow cap on this mountain I would add this and that is this righteousness when Christ died for us and resurrected for us, he said that when we were saved, that he would give us the Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit. Well, we've been taught our whole lives God cannot abide sins, so the Holy Spirit couldn't live within us. If we weren't righteous. And that does not mean that we have a revolving heart or revolving door that the spirit goes in and out of. Because one minute I've forgiven, you know, I'm forgiven all my sins. The next minute I sin and I'm not righteous again till I forget, you know, ask for forgiveness again. And he comes back cuz you know, that would be more like a ceiling fan than a revolving door, the way we humans act. So that righteousness is a gift and it's given to us and it's a done deal , if we. Put on that belt of truth. With that in mind, we have that Holy Spirit and we know we're righteous. Mark: Just to add one thought to that, Tim, that is that when we come to Christ, we are no longer under the law, and where there is no law, there is no transgression. So as far as the Holy Spirit goes within us, we don't transgress anymore. You see what I'm saying? We may still sin, but , it's on the horizontal against other people. Against ourself. So why would the spirit leave us? We we're no longer under that old covenant system of, , like you said, a revolving door, a roller coaster man. That's what my life was before before I understood the gospel. To the peaks when I was doing well on that straight down when I was doing bad. That's not the way the spirit sees it anymore. We are now the righteousness of God always, and as far as God is concerned, we never sin again. So he has no reason to leave us even when we sin on the horizontal, because that's no longer a transgression against God because Christ took all that. Tim: That's a good point, mark. And one we often try to iterate throughout our programs because it is an important part for people to understand. Thank you very much. Ajai: I just want to clarify one thing. You know, Les listeners think that, you know, as a believer nothing happened. We are still old, miserable sinners and, and God, somehow he treats us as not sinners. , I want to track back a little bit. , when Adam sin, the whole humanity fell and we all became sinners. Sin was upon us in the wages of sinner's death. We all deserved death, and the Lord Jesus Christ took our death upon himself. And then when he rose again, he rose without our sins. The Bible says his resurrection is the. Proof that we are made righteous because of our righteousness. He was resurrected. So like Tim said, you know, holy Spirit cannot dwell with sin. So if there is sin upon us, holy Spirit cannot dwell with us. So before, when Adam fell, our spirits were dead right in a Holy Spirit, cannot dwell in a dead spirit.So what happens during our salvation is when we. Believe on, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says we receive a new spirit, so the old dead Spirit is gone and the old evil heart is gone. Ezekiel Chapter 36 and 26 says, I'll give you a new heart and I'll give you a new spirit, and I'll put my spirit within you. So when we are born again, three things happen. We received a new heart that is a righteous heart. The heart with laws of God written upon it. And then we receive a new spirit that is a righteous spirit, and then the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our spirit. So even though we have these bodies that are fallen, and we have these thoughts and minds that are still old, but our spirit is made perfect and righteous, so we have real righteousness. It's not just God treating us as righteous, but our spirits are made righteous when we are born again. I just wanted to clarify that. Mark: Ajay. I love the way you started that out. I can't fail to point this out. You said I wanna track back a little bit. When Adam sinned, you can't track back much further. In that case, that's not a little bit of a backtrack. That's all the way to the beginning. Thousands of years ago. We gotta really watch out when he says, I want to go way back this time. Ajai: Yeah. I went, let's track back our conversation. But yeah. Okay. Just not a funny, Tim: AJ is our master of understatement. Well listen, let's, let's hit one more of these here, and the next verse says, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Now, that one always seemed like a little bit of an outlier to me. He's talking about in The New King or in the King James, it calls them the sandals of peace. They don't sound like much of a warrior's weapon, like many or, or defensive tool, much like the rest of the armor does. Ajai: Yeah. So in in one of the translations, you know, when we talk about feet, I think it talks about the foundation. So again, you know I think some people interpret this as, oh yeah, I need to go preach the gospel. That is how, you know, are the sandals are preaching the gospel. But if you look at this verse, it says the preparation of the gospel, it is a gospel that is preparing us, you know, it's not an act of preaching the gospel. Which is actually the preparation that comes through the gospel. And again, you know, when we talk about feet, we are talking about the foundation. So the idea here is, , we stand firm on the gospel, on the gospel of peace here again, especially that he is using this word gospel of peace, right? , it's not a gospel of fear, it's not a gospel of condemnation. It's not a gospel of punishment, but it's a gospel of peace. So through the gospel, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. So we have peace with God and we have peace of God, and we have the peace of Lord Jesus Christ himself. So again, I think when we do things, we don't just go and do things out of fear. We don't do things out of guilt. And it's not even just about doing so again to fight or the withstand the battle of the enemy. We need to be strong on the foundation of the gospel of grace. In other words, , to be strong and in the understanding of the gospel, that the gospel is a gospel of grace. You know, it's not a gospel of works. Mark: Yeah. I love the word foundation you use, Ajai, and it reminds me of Hebrews six one, where Paul tells us that the foundation of the gospel is repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Those two things right there. I l I love that cuz so many get that. We just did a whole show on how people get that wrong. They think that we're called to turn from sin, that that's the main focus and everything. But that's the foundation of the gospel. No, it's not. Turning from the works mentality, turning from the law, earning our own righteousness, however you wanna put that, that's the foundation of the gospel that. Everything we have is by grace. It's not by us turning in like Tim likes to say, pulling up our own bootstraps. That's not our focus. And one, one little add-on to that is. In the NIV. That last line is that our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. When we have peace with God and we are filled with the peace of God through faith, we are ready for anything. Come on world. Come on, devil. Bring your best. I am ready. I am fitted with the peace of the gospel. The good news, Tim: , I look at that very similarly with a slight angle. And that is the other translation calls these the Sandals of Peace and, it says, like you said your feet are fitted and you're ready. But it doesn't say and go marching. It doesn't say and go kick the living heck out of something. It's standing. You're not in shoes that will protect you from. . Having your feet cut up or whatnot. Mark: I agree 100%, Tim. And this whole thing started with Apostle Paul saying, be strong of the Lord and in his mighty power. And now he's gonna tell you how he says put on. That's where the, that's where standing is. That's how you put on. You put it on. And what is, what does putting on mean? It means receiving it. It means understanding it. Focusing on it, contemplating that. When I think about the armor of God, that's exactly what the unveiling is doing. Every week we get together to understand, so that we can receive, to contemplate, , to go deeper. To me, that's putting on the armor of God. That's what we do here every week. Ajai: , that is true. Mark before we go on to the next one, you know, you mentioned foundation and repentance from Dead worksI think it's extremely important because when we are talking about foundations, many people do not realize that gospel is all about grace and about faith, and it's not about works. Many people , make this whole passage about doing something right. You, you take each of these pieces and they make it about something we do. I think Tim is strongly resisting that, right? He's saying, no, no. It's not about we going and doing something, it's. Actually about standing in the truth standing firm in the truth. So one of the foundations of the gospel is, this is my favorite words, I always come go back to this is Romans 11 six s. If it is by grace, it is no longer by works otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So if you mix even a little bit of works with grace, then grace is no longer grace, and then gospel is no longer gospel and you are perverting the gospel. Mark: I was just gonna paraphrase what you just said, if I might, and that it's putting on the armor is not about us doing something, it's about us standing on what Christ has already done for Exactly, exactly. Ajai: And I want to go back to defining the gospel in the clearest terms in Romans chapter four, verse five. But to him, actually, Romans chapter four from verse verse four and five. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. But to him who does not work but believe on him, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is countered for righteousness. So there are two things here explicitly. The Bible is saying you should not work but believe. Because sometimes people redefine faith as I've seen that faith they have redefined as believing, plus doing something if you believe, okay, you have to show your faith by doing something or believe plus obedience. But the Bible is clear here. It says who does not work, but believe that means all works are excluded except for believing in the grace of God. That is a strong foundation of the gospel. Tim: Well, I know AJ just said that he wanted to get those words in before we went on to the next item on the list, but I was always taught that you need to leave him wanting more. So I hope you're enjoying this episode and are getting something out of it, and we're gonna leave you wanting more and we will probably, but I won't guarantee it. Finish this subject in our next episode. But as always, gentlemen, I want to give you the opportunity to wrap up our discussion thus far this evening. So, Ajay, since this was your topic, why don't you go ahead and go first. Ajai: Yeah, so the point I want to make is when we talk about the armor of God, as you have already seen, each piece in the armor is a truth about the gospel and about the finished work. Lord Jesus Christ. And when we are strong, when our foundation is strong in these truths, we will be able to withstand the wiles of the enemy. If you go back to the garden again, go all the way now, not attract a little bit, but go all the way. You know, the first thing, how was Eve and Adam attacked? Right? God told them, if you eat of this tree, you will die. And the enemy came and told exactly the opposite. If you eat of it, you'll surely not die. So that's all the enemy is doing to us. Even till this day, you know, the gospel says, Lord, Jesus crush, finish the work. And the enemy says, no, he did not finish the work. You have to do something. And the gospel says, you know the cross, everything is done for you. And the enemy says you have to do something for yourself. So the idea here is we just stand firm in the finished work of our Lord Christ, and we stand firm. In the gospel of grace of Christ. So every, every element or every piece of the weapon is about the gospel of Lord Christ. Mark: I like to finish up by telling just the, sharing a little story from my life. When I was about 20 years old, I was very close to my grandparents and my grandfather passed away when I was 20. And it was really hard on me. And that night we had his wake. And I remember telling my dad, I'm like, dad, I don't know how I'm gonna do this. I don't think I can take this. I don't think I, I'm just thinking I'm gonna be a basket case at this wake. And as we're talking, my dad asked me, do you have , a sport jacket or a suit you can wear when you go there? You should dress up a little, you know, out of respect. And I said, no, I don't. So my dad gave me, one of his sport jackets to wear. And when I went to the wake, I can't tell you the comfort and strength he gave me to be wearing my dad's my, because it was his. Picture here, Paul paints of putting on the armor of God. We've spent a whole episode really focusing on the armor, but to me, those two words of God, everything here is of God. That breastplate of righteousness is God's righteousness. That belt of truth is God's truth. The gospel, the peace is God's . Peace. When we put those things on, we're putting the love of God on. We're receiving it, owning it, letting it get into every. Little strand of dna, hopefully. And to me that's where the, the power of this whole thing is when you, you know, it's really cool and interesting to look at the different aspects of the different pieces of armor, but as I zoom out, I just see this whole metaphor that Paul's using as the love of God. We're putting on the love of God. When we do that, nobody can touch us. It gives us strength in comfort in whatever we do. So I'll just end with that. Tim: Great wrap, guys. I will add one last piece myself tonight, and that is that even though we're talking about belts and breast plates and sandals, as Ajai pointed out at the very beginning of this, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. Whats, it's a stronghold. It's not really. A building, , it's a thing in your mind that you've built up as a belief or an idea that stands against the word of God. And where do we get those from? The enemy, cuz the enemy's only weapons are deception. Misrepresentation lies. So the fight isn't outside, it's inside. And it's mostly in our minds. And in our hearts. And with that, I wanna say, guys, it's been a great evening. I've enjoyed it tremendously. I look forward to the next week. I hope y'all will come back and listen. We appreciate you having come and. Look forward to talking to you again,