Spiritual warfare is real. I'm going to share
the most fearful frontal attack with demons that
I ever had. I don't mean to be dramatic. I'm
not trying to say anything beyond what's occurred,
but I've learned when I share this experience,
people line up and tell me, thank you, Chip,
that's happened to me. If you've ever had a scary
encounter with demonic forces, God has some answers.
Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. We are an international teaching
and discipleship ministry dedicated to helping
Christians worldwide live out their faith for
the glory of God and the good of all. Well, in
this program, Chip continues our series, The
Invisible War, based in Ephesians chapter 6.
Today, he'll talk about the reality of spiritual
battles happening all around us right now and
shares a few vivid examples he's witnessed personally.
His stories aren't meant to scare or intimidate
you, but open your eyes to Satan's influence
and remind you of the ultimate power and victory
Jesus has over evil. So if you're ready, go in
your Bible to Ephesians 6, verse 16, where Chip's
talk, How to Do Battle with the Enemy and Win.
I'm going to start off with two true stories.
I'm not intending to be dramatic. but we have
learned from Spiritual Warfare 101 that there
is an invisible world, that we're in a battle,
that we have a foe that's formidable. We know
that we respect him, that we're not afraid, and
we fight from victory, not for victory. And then
we understand that part of being protected is
God has given us armor, and he's commanded us
to pick up this armor and put it on, and he's
given us armor that will protect us in many ways.
And he's going to protect us from condemnation.
He'll protect us from doubt. He's going to keep
us from deception with just the normal walking
with God, being a man or a woman, renewing our
mind, being in the body and community. But sometimes
there's frontal attacks, and we'll talk about
when. This was now many years ago. It was our
first year in Santa Cruz, and Santa Cruz is a
place, very new age, a lot of demonic activity.
It's 2 a .m. in the morning. I don't know whether
I'm awake or I'm asleep. All I know is I can
look over and see my wife in the bed and I know
I can't move any part of my body. And I'm thinking,
I must have a rare disease because this is really,
really weird because I can't move my hands, I
can't move anything, but I can move my eyes and
I can see my wife. And then I'm looking around
the room as much as I can and a sense of evil,
you know, The night is dark, but if there's a
darkness that can come over the dark, it did.
And then it was like a 5 ,000 pound came on my
chest and started pushing down and pushing down
and pushing down, and I couldn't get my breath.
And then it was like someone grabbed my windpipe
and squeezing. And I don't know if you ever remember
as a kid when someone, when you were at a pool
and they were dunking you and they held you under,
and they held you under and you were sure, you
can't get your breath, you can't get your breath.
And that's what it felt like. And I literally
remember in my mind, help Jesus, help Jesus,
help, help, help. And I just thought, how can
you drown or die in your bed and not be able
to move your body? And then just at the last
minute before I kind of passed out from not getting
my breath. And then I sat up in bed and I was
literally soaking wet. And if you've ever seen
me play basketball, I mean, when I play, I mean,
I was drenched and the bed was drenched and my
wife was asleep over here. And there's like evil
in the room, like never in the hairs on the back
of my neck. And I'm wondering, what is happening?
And I'm terrified. And now just for context,
I went to seminary. And I was discipled by the
navigators. I know some verses, you know? I'm
scared to death and I don't know what to do.
And so I think this is evil. And I had some interaction,
but nothing like this. I mean, I think I'm inside
of a Frank Peretti novel and I don't know what
to do. And then the thought comes to me, you
need to command these demons or do something
to get them out of there. And then I had this
second thought. I'm sure it was my pride. I looked
over and I thought to myself, if I start talking
out loud in the middle of the night and my wife
wakes up and I'm speaking out loud in an empty
room, she's going to think I've gone over the
edge. And so I battled and then I did something,
which I'll share with you a little bit later
what I did and why. No, it's important. Second
story. I had a friend who he would call himself
a very nominal Christian, came to church now
and then, a little bit more often than maybe
Christmas and Easter, and was invited by a friend
and said, hey, I think you'll kind of like church.
It might be a little bit different than you're
used to. He came for a few weeks, and then someone
told him I play basketball, and this guy was
a diehard what we call gym rat. I mean, he loves
the game. And so he comes up after like his third
time at church. He goes, hey, how you doing?
I said, great. He goes, I hear you play ball.
I said, yeah, I do. I love it. He goes, I do
too. I said, what do you want to play sometime?
He said, yeah. I said, two o 'clock, my driveway
today. He goes, really? What's your address?
I gave it to him. He goes, I mean, it is our
tradition. I mean, I have three grown boys, a
couple of key friends. We go three on three and
it's almost to the death in a good spirit of
Christian love, of course. But I mean, it's so
great and it's intense. And we would go for a
couple hours and Dave shows up. And I mean, Dave's
a player. And we just, we bonded. We had a great
time, had fun. And so, you know, after you play
and you're sweating, you talk a little bit. And
then little by little, Dave started becoming
regularly. And then somehow Dave thought, you
know, I'm a Christian, but I've never read the
Bible. And he starts doing that. And pretty soon
his life starts to change. And fast forward about
two, two and a half years. Everybody didn't show
up. So Dave and I played like 5 ,000 games of
one -on -one. And then we're exhausted. And he
goes, hey, can I talk to you? And we're sitting
in the driveway, both in a pool of sweat. And
he said, man, something happened weird the other
night. I said, what do you mean? He goes, you
know. you know, if we put the kids to bed and
we put on this really, really old movie and,
you know, it's a chick flick and my wife really
loved it. And then, you know how it is, you know,
they want to watch one of those kind of movies
and they fall asleep. And so, you know, I had
my arm around her and she fell asleep. And I
had one of those moments that I just looked down
at her and I see our life has changed. My life
has changed. Our Mary's has changed. I looked
down, I thought, I love her so much. And then
this thought came to my mind. she's going to
die. It might be today. It might be tomorrow.
She's going to die. And he goes, I mean, it was
weird. I mean, but my emotions, he goes, man,
this was so weird. It was not like just a thought.
It was like a doctor handed me, she has terminal
cancer and has 48 hours to live. It was that
real. And then my next thought was, how could
a good God let that happen to my wife? And then
my next thought was, how could you trust a God
like that that would do that to my wife? And
then I realized, I mean, He goes, has anything
like that ever happened to you? I said, yeah.
He said, so what's going on? I said, Dave, that's
called spiritual warfare. He goes, well, what
do you do? That's what we're going to talk about.
Okay, what do you do? What do you do when some
very unusual things happen? First of all, you
need to understand there's four facts you need
to know. And this is the baseline. Fact number
one, God has objectively defeated Satan and his
agenda. He has delivered us from sin's penalty,
power, and ultimately will deliver us from sin's
presence. In the interim, we're involved in a
guerrilla warfare with demonic forces. Fact number
one. Fact number two, as believers, we have been
transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the
kingdom of light with all the rights, privileges,
and position of being a child of God and what
that entails. Fact number three, the spiritual
battle that we fight involves our responsibility
on our part to put on the spiritual protection
God has provided for us. We can and we will resist
the enemy's attempts to deceive, accuse, and
cast out when we stand firm by, number one, being
honest with God, ourselves, and others as a prerequisite
to spiritual battle. And we learned what? It's
the belt of truth. Number two, responding to
the truth that God shows us about his will for
our lives or living righteously, the breastplate
of righteousness. And number three, a clear understanding
and a readily sharing of the gospel, the message
of grace. Our feet shod with the gospel. Now
get this, and please, fact number four is very
important. The great majority of spiritual warfare
never need go beyond the regular practice. of
living out your position in Christ by faith.
Our practice of Paul's metaphor of the spiritual
armor protects us from Satan's ongoing attempts
to break our fellowship with Jesus, and as a
result, greatly minimizes any impact by the enemy.
And now, however, there are times when we must
move beyond standing firm, and here's the key
word, engage. the enemy in actual combat. There
are times that are very predictable when it will
go from you have a great defense, you're not
being deceived, you're walking with God, and
there's some times when frontal attack is likely
to happen. Five examples. Number one, when you're
taking significant steps of faith for spiritual
growth. Dave went from a nominal Christian who
intellectually believed in Jesus, who came to
a saving faith, who began to get into God's word,
found out he had the gift of evangelism, found
he began, he actually started a businessman's
group in our community that people would come
from. And because of his role and brothers in
the community, they had a big role at the Santa
Cruz boardwalk. Pretty soon God is using his
life. Then his marriage began to change. Then
I remember him telling me one day, you know what?
You know, I went to church and when you're a
kid, you put a quarter in. When you got to be
like in junior high, you put a dollar in. And
then, you know, when you're an adult, you gave
$5. And if you had like a really good sermon,
you maybe give 20. He goes, I've been in the
Bible now. He goes, I'm tithing. He goes, I've
got a good job. And he just looked at me like,
man, sometimes I look at the number that I write
down. I go, dude, are you kidding me? I'm giving
that money away. And then he says. and I've never
been happier, and it's just lighting me up, and
I see what it does, and God keeps giving me more.
And then he starts to talk about his life. And
this guy is, I mean, fast forward, I'll let you
in. It was about five years later, he came on
our staff. I mean, his life was having such an
impact, he couldn't squeeze it all in in his
day job. And at this particular window, Guess
what? The enemy was trying to take him out. Because
he was taking aggressive steps in spiritual growth.
He was making a real difference. And when that
happens, fear and some other things come at him.
And we'll talk about how he responded. Second,
when we're invading enemy territory. I remember
we would do major outreaches, especially in Santa
Cruz, because it was such a pagan town. And it
was in the day when musicals were really popular
and we had a very gifted church in that area.
We might do eight or nine of these and thousands
of people would come and hundreds of people would
come to Christ. I literally remember at times
having like three or four appliances break down
in one day right before that happens and my car
break down. I mean, you just can't do all that.
We have just crazy stuff. In one of them, a lady's
hair caught on fire, for real. I mean, it was
crazy stuff that was more than just coincidental.
The third time is when you're exposing him for
who he really is. We as a staff knew we were
going to teach on this. We started a few weeks
ago, and we really upped our prayer and intercession,
knowing this was going to happen. Fourth is when
we repent or make a clean break with the world
or a long -held sin pattern or unholy relationship.
Now, we were involved in a lot of celebrate recovery
ministries. When someone's coming off of cocaine
or a sex addiction or alcohol, or often I would
have a couple, and they'd come and love and grow,
and then they'd come up and say, you know, we're
living together, and God's shown us this really
is not His plan, and so we're going to move apart
for a season and get some counseling, and we're
going to get married. And the moment they did
that, I mean, everything could go wrong. I've
talked to countless men involved in either porn
or affairs, and when they break off the relationship,
just the battle, the enemy doesn't give up his
own easily. So I don't say this in any way to
make anyone fearful. It's just you need to put
your chin strap on. You just need to realize
when you take certain steps, there's going to
be opposition. And then finally, when God is
preparing us individually or corporately for
a great work for His glory. You know, you read
Nehemiah, and as Nehemiah begins to rebuild the
wall, and a revival is going to take place, and
Ezra's going to come in, and God's going to turn
all of history around with this business guy.
And, you know, chapters 1, 2, and 3 are pretty
exciting, but chapters 4, 5, and 6 are about
opposition. And he gets general opposition and
he gets personal opposition. Then there's an
assassination on him. Jesus is ready to launch
his ministry. He's ready to be the savior of
the world and begin his formal teaching ministry.
And what happens? He's led by the Holy Spirit
into the wilderness and he's tempted by the enemy,
right? So I had a professor, Norman Geisler,
and we built a relationship with him. And I had
one friend that he majored in that. we would
try and get him to sort of let us come over for
dinner and we'd ask him questions and stuff.
And I remember in the hallway one day, he was
talking about, hey, how's it going? You know,
this, this, this, this. He goes, I'm really getting
a lot of opposition in a lot of areas right now.
And then he kind of leaned back and said, I kind
of take it as a compliment. You know, I think
the invisible world knows a lot more than the
visible world. And I figure that if I'm getting
this kind of attention right now, must be some
good stuff ready to happen. And I thought, what
a great perspective. So those are times when
we can expect. The question is, once you're wearing
your spiritual armor, yet find yourself bombarded
by spiritual opposition, how do you engage the
enemy and win the battle? Well, we know that
our battle is not against flesh and blood, but
it's against the rulers, the powers, the world
forces, the spiritual darkness, right? Therefore,
stand firm in the Lord. Right? Put on the full
armor of God. And having what? Girded your loins
with truth. Having put on the breastplate of
righteousness. And having had your feet shod
with the gospel. In addition, verse 16, to all,
taking up the shield of faith, which you will
be able to extinguish all the flaming missiles
of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God. So how you engage that is I would like
to talk about these three armor pieces that we
have that will teach us how to engage in spiritual
battle and win. Taking up the shield of faith.
I alluded to this when I was addressing the breastplate
of righteousness. And so these are these like
two and a half foot shields from about here down
to here. They were made of iron. Then they would
have leather on the outside, linen inside, and
a gap like this. Seneca was an ancient writer.
And he wrote of one warrior who came in and had
actually 200 arrows in his shield. And the Roman
armies, they would hook them together and they
just kept moving forward. And so Paul gives us
this metaphor, and the faith here is the absolute
confidence in God, his promises, his power, and
his program for our lives. Although rooted in
the objective reality of the gospel and our new
standing with God, justification, in other words,
saving faith, this faith refers to our present
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for victory over
sin and a host of demonic activity. That's a
quote from Kenneth Wiest. Its purpose is to quench
the fiery missiles of the evil one, which kind
of raises the question, what exactly is a fiery
missile or a dart? Let me suggest it's the schemes,
the temptations, the lies, the deceptions, and
the attacks aimed at us, God's people, get this
down, to get us to shift our trust to something
or someone other than God. The goal, just the
goal is, don't trust God. It's impossible to
please him apart from faith. The number one agenda
of God in your life is this, will you trust me?
Will you believe in? When Jesus was asked, what
is the work of God? John chapter six, he said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on
him whom he has sent. There's only one time the
disciples are ever approved by Jesus that we
have in the New Testament. O you of little? He
wants us to believe. He's demonstrated his power.
He's given us his promises. In fact, here's a
question that in any situation, okay? Jot this
down. It's not in your notes. Maybe it's a challenge
in your marriage. Maybe it's a challenge in your
business. A challenge with one of your grown
kids. Maybe it's a physical situation. Ask this
question. What does it look like to trust God
in this situation? Lord, I don't know what to
do. What does it look like to trust you? That
changes the equation. Because here's what I know
is God's will. No matter what I'm going through,
an all -knowing, all -powerful, good and sovereign
God wants me to trust him. I may have a role
in it, I may not. But we tend to jump to how
do I fix this or how do I take control of it
or how do I manage it? Some examples of fiery
darts are blasphemous thoughts. My friend had
a demonic spirit create overwhelming fear that
he went in under 30 seconds from thankful for
this beautiful wife and his new life to wondering
if he could trust a God who was good or not.
And it came completely out of the blue. And I
mean, it shook him up. He was as fearful as I
was that night. Other things that can happen,
hateful thoughts, doubts, a burning desire to
sin, questioning others' motives, unexplained
waves of discouragement or depression, often
rooted in either questioning God's identity or
your new identity. You're listening to Living
on the Edge. And before we continue today's program,
let me quickly ask you, are you concerned about
the lies and temptations bombarding your kids
each and every day? Well, join us after the message
to hear about a valuable small group resource
that will help you as a parent equip your children
with the truth and the biblical armor they need
to stand victorious. Keep listening after this
message to learn more. But for now, here again
is Chip to continue our series, The Invisible
War. I shared, this would happen to me, I mean,
every Saturday afternoon for months and months
and months until I recognized what was happening.
The classic example, and let me encourage you
in this whole area of spiritual warfare, study
Genesis chapter 3 and study Matthew chapter 4.
The game plan hasn't changed. Did God really
say? There's always a doubt in his word. Notice
he doesn't come as Satan. He comes disguised.
So he comes disguised, almost always offering
you a good thing to solve a problem in your life.
But he's offering a shortcut or it's a good thing
in a bad way or at a bad time or in a way that
God has said this is not the way to do it. And
then after that, If you take a piece of the fruit,
whatever the fruit happens to be that he's shown
you and you know is wrong, then he will blow
over you with the condemnation for what you've
done and then convince you that you're unworthy
of any of God's mercy and any of God's grace,
and it's a downward spiral. As you would study
Matthew chapter 4, you'll find that Jesus is
tempted in three specific areas. And if you study
Genesis carefully, you'll find that they're tempted
in three specific areas. And those three areas
are found in 1 John. I want you all to open your
Bibles to 1 John, all the way at the end, 1 John
2. And in 1 John 2, he will identify the three
areas of temptation that faced our first parents.
The three areas of temptation. that Jesus faced,
and the three areas of temptation that you and
I will always face. These are like three verses
that would be of great profit to memorize. Verse
15 of 1 John 2. Do not love the world or the
things that are in the world. If anyone loves
the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
Okay, well what's the world? Is this the physical
world? No. This is the world as in the culture,
the society, and the values. And who's the prince
and the power and the governor of this world?
Satan. And so he creates culture and society
and norms and values to seduce. Here's his goal.
He's a seducer. He wants to seduce you. from
your love of Jesus and get you to love you, yourself.
And he tells you the way that you can have all
that you want. Remember what Eve, this will make
you like God. And we don't want to admit this,
but when we want to control our world and our
outcomes, we want to be little gods. And so notice
what he says. Well, what is the world? For all
that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride
of life is not from the Father, but is from the
world. And then the next verse is like perspective.
And the world is passing away, and also its lusts.
But the one who does the will of God abides forever.
And by the way here, this word for lust, lust
of the eyes. It's not necessarily a negative
word. Literally, it's the word desire. In this
passage and others, there's a little prefix they
put to it. It means an intensified desire. And
so three things. Jesus comes. An enemy says,
first questioning his identity. If you are the
son of God, he knew who he was. But it's prove
it. Prove it. Turn these stones into bread. Use
your supernatural power rather than trusting
God. You take control. And it's been 40 days,
and the text says he's hungry. He has a legitimate
need for food. And the enemy says, well, then
turn the stones and prove something, and you
can meet your legitimate physical need of the
flesh now, my way and my time. And what did Jesus
say? It is written, man shall not live by...
Bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. The test, lust of the
flesh. Then he took him up to the top of the
temple. He says, throw yourself off. And then
are you ready? He quotes scripture. He quotes
the Psalms and says, the angels will catch you.
Here's the temptation, the lust of the eyes.
You want to look good in front of people. People
will know you're the Messiah. You'll be hot stuff.
And then third, look at all these kingdoms. You
can have power. You can have fame. You can have
glory. And guess what? There's no cross involved.
All you have to do is bow down and worship me.
Be gone, Satan. And each time it is written,
it is written, it is written. Sometimes words
like lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the
pride of life, they sound a bit biblical because
they are. Can I give it to you in our nomenclature?
Lust of the flesh, sex. Lust of the eyes, status,
greed, possessions. Is it wrong to have appetite
for food, a desire for sex, a desire for significance,
a desire for security? Absolutely not. It's how
you go about getting it and believing that that
will satisfy you. God says, Sex inside marriage
is one of my most precious gifts. Food, we all
need food. But there's one thing to love food.
It's another thing to live to eat. And so he
says to us that these desires for the flesh,
I want to provide for you. These are legitimate
needs, but let me provide for you in my way and
in my time and in the right way. Lust to the
eyes is we see something and we all want to look
good. I mean, everyone, I'm guessing, looked
in the mirror today. Psychologists tell us if
we walk by a department store and there's glass,
every single person when you're walking by, what
do you do? You look at yourself. And usually,
right? In elevators, if you get into an elevator
by yourself, there's a mirror in the elevator,
what do you do? Ooh, wow. We are obsessed with
how we come off. And it's so interesting because
it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if you're
young. It doesn't matter if you're in a gang.
It always is funny to me because we're all human.
You can be in a gang and to be cool, man, I got
my bling. I got my stuff here. Get out your own
bad self. And you know, I got my hat like this.
Or if I'm a worship pastor, I get these skinny
jeans and I got holes in here. I do it here.
Or if I'm a member of the Atlanta Country Club,
I have these loafers, but I don't wear socks.
And I have an insignia right here, right? And
if you're, actually, I used to go to conferences
and I'd say, okay, let's name the pastor. Hush
puppies from Wisconsin, probably a Mennonite,
okay? You know, you got the guy, hair combed
over, khaki pants, blue shirt, one of the Bible
church guys. You know, and you know, we all,
We all dress and we have our groups and there's
nothing wrong in wanting to look good. But there
is something very wrong when we believe that
what we need to possess and how we come off and
that our bodies are who we are and that what
kind of house we have and what we see and the
desire. It's if and when I have that or if I
earn that. And then the final one is this whole
idea of control and power. The pride of life.
I'm a somebody. Christ says you're already a
somebody by whom I made you. You're already a
somebody because you're worth the death of my
son. And so what I want you to know is that every
temptation that will come your way or my way
and the darts will come will be around these
three things. It's classic methodology. He'll
disguise it. He'll cast doubt on God and his
word and your worthiness, and then he will provide
an immediate alternative rooted in the pride
of lice, the lust of the flesh, and the lust
of the eyes. And so the application here, when
darts of doubt and deception must be immediately
met with the shield of faith, your active, present
application of truth to your personal situation,
as soon as you recognize the dart. And now, I
hope you're thinking, okay, what's that look
like? I mean, practically. I mean, how does this
actually work? Let me give you three examples.
First, it's trusting in God's character. My friend
has an overwhelming fear that God's going to
kill his wife that he logically knows makes no
sense. In that moment, he says to me, what do
I do? I said, well, you've been reading the Bible
quite a bit. Dave, do you know Psalm 8411? Nope.
Okay, let's get it out. The Lord God, Lord Adonai
Yahweh, is a sun and a shield. Unlimited source,
unlimited protection. The Lord God is a sun and
a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No
good thing will he withhold from those who walk
uprightly. The moment that thought comes in,
it's a lie about God's character. On a card,
I have written the goodness of God, Psalm 8411.
And I've memorized that card. And then I have
a definition on the back of the card of the goodness
of God. Is that which aspect of my heavenly father
that longs and finds great happiness in his people?
And he wants to give me the very best. When God
revealed himself to Moses, Moses said, show me
your glory. Do you remember what he said? I'll
let all my goodness pass before you. The Hebrew
word for goodness there, the root of it is generosity.
The most generous, lavish, caring, loving, compassionate
person in the whole universe is God. He's got
your back and he's for you. But the moment that
thought comes, Oh, he's not good. If I stay sexually
pure, I'll never get married. God's not good.
If I give my all and surrender to him, he'll
send me to some foreign country where there's
snakes and I hate snakes. And, you know, all
those are rooted in a lie. And the moment your
mind starts that way, you stop and you out loud
say, the Lord, the Lord God is a son. and a shield.
He has unlimited source of ability and abundance.
He can protect me from anything. He gives grace.
What's grace? That's getting what you don't deserve.
He gives glory. He wants to exalt. He wants to
lift you up. He wants to help you. As you walk
with him by faith, no good thing will he withhold
from those who walk uprightly. So he prompts
you to make a special gift to someone or to help
someone out. And the first thought is, oh, if
you do that, there won't be enough money left
for you. And then you quote that out loud. God's
a God of abundance. And as you quote that out
loud, what you're doing is you're saying, I trust
in God's character. This is Living on the Edge
with Chip Ingram. And you've been listening to
part one of Chip's message. How to Do Battle
with the Enemy and Win, from our series, The
Invisible War. Chip will be back shortly to share
some helpful application for us to think about.
Right now, there's a spiritual battle happening
all around us. We can't see it, but it's an epic
struggle for our hearts and minds. So what are
we as believers supposed to do? Well, through
this eight -part study, Chip shares some insights
from Ephesians chapter 6 for how we're to think
about, prepare for, and respond to spiritual
warfare. Learn why we don't have to be afraid
because of the armor God's given us to fight
back and fight well. To learn more about this
series, visit livingontheedge .org or the Chip
Ingram app. Well, Chip's still with me in studio.
And Chip, we've received a ton of emails and
messages recently from young people who've been
motivated by your teaching or are using some
of our resources. And I know just how encouraging
that is to you. Well, Dave, you're right. I'm
always excited when high schoolers or college
students, you know, they'll write me and they'll...
Tell me that, you know, we've got a group at
college and we're listening to your messages
or we've done this small group or, you know,
I've got a couple questions or I read this book
and I get so excited because there are young
men and women that are making a difference, people
in their 20s, early 30s that love God that are
digging in. And if you're one of those people,
here's what I want you to know. Yes, it's very
challenging to be a godly young man or young
woman. in our current world, and you are in a
battle. And here's what I would encourage you
to do. If you've never done the small group series,
The Invisible War, what every believer needs
to know about Satan, demons, and spiritual warfare,
I want you to pause right now and think about...
Who's a bunch of guys or a bunch of gals or maybe
a college group or a Sunday school class or just
some people that you hang out with? And you say,
let's get together once a week and let's study
what the Bible says about spiritual warfare.
I want you to know you're being attacked probably
like no other group, especially digitally and
through social media. And the temptations and
the struggles are overwhelming. I want you to
know there's victory, there's power, but you
need to understand what the spiritual armor is
all about and how you can live and overcome the
very things that are coming at you. There's few
things that are more important than understanding
where the battle is that you've already won and
how to put into practice the weapons that God
has given you to win the battle each and every
day. To learn more about the Invisible War small
group, go to livingontheedge .org. Join Chip
in this vital study and uncover the biblical
weapons and armor we've been given to withstand
Satan's attacks and stand victorious over him.
Place your order for the Invisible War small
group by visiting livingontheedge .org. App listeners
tap special offers. Well, with that, here again
is Chip to share a few final words. As you listen
to today's program, what came to your mind? What
darts are coming at your life? And let me ask
you this question. Can you, like Jesus, reach
into the... passages of scripture, quote that
passage with authority, know your standing, and
put up the shield. If not, you're in big trouble.
I praise God that I've memorized some key passages.
And some of you may feel overwhelmed and like,
well, I'm glad Chip knows these verses and Jesus
obviously did. I don't know what to do. Go to
the website and download these notes for free.
It's livingontheedge .org, and I've given specific
passages with the promises so you can pull up
the shield of faith. God wants to help you, but
you need to dig in and get a grasp of God's Word
in the areas where you need it the most. Good
challenge to leave us with today, Chip. Thanks.
Well, be sure to join us next time as Chip continues
his series, The Invisible War. Until then, I'm
Dave Drury saying thanks for listening to this
edition of Living on the Edge.