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The Warrior's Heart: Are You Prepared for Battle?
September 9, 2025 · 36 min
Pastor John Mark reveals how true spiritual warriors are prepared in obscurity and rely on God's strength rather than their own.
Series "Men's Breakfast" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
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The Warrior's Heart: Called to the Battle 0:01 Welcome to pastor talks with John Mark Caton. As a devoted father, passionate sports enthusiast, and seasoned pastor, he brings a unique blend of wisdom, compassion, and encouragement to every0:13 conversation. Today's talk will encourage you in your faith, hope, and transformation journey. This is pastor talks with your host, John Mark Hayden.0:25 Last week, we, we started a series entitled the Warrior's Heart. We looked at the idea, last week, that we have to have heart, first of all. And we looked at the idea that that god looks at the0:37 heart. Man looks on the outside, but god looks at the heart. And it doesn't matter what you might look like on the outside, god can use you. And we looked at first Samuel chapter 16 and then ultimately0:49 17 where God, called David to ultimately be, be the king in Israel when no 1 even in his own family thought he was the guy. He didn't look the part. He didn't act the part. He was a1:01 shepherd. He wasn't, 1 that looked like royalty, but I love what God said in first Samuel chapter 16. Listen, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. And if you missed it, go back. You can listen1:12 to it on the podcast. I talked a couple of things about the heart. Number 1, a warrior's heart is always rooted in faith. If you miss this, you can go get it. Number 2, a warrior's heart is focused and disciplined. We've1:23 gotta have focus. We gotta know what to look at. We've got to be disciplined to continue to look at the right things. Number 3, I said a warrior's heart is prepared in obscurity. Remember, David didn't prepare for his1:35 battle against Goliath when he was on the battlefield. He did that while he was tending the sheep, while he was preparing and and and and and basically, caring for the sheep and keeping them safe and secure1:47 against the bear and the lion. That's when he prepared to face face Goliath, not on the battlefield. And so you and I need to understand through our reading of God's word and worship and being with God's men, we are1:59 preparing for the next battle that shows up in our lives. And we didn't get to this very much but the fourth idea is the warrior's heart relies on God's strength, not his own. There are always gonna be those times in our2:09 lives, guys, when we just we don't seem to have it. It it it just doesn't seem to be there for us and that's when I say, god, get me through this. Let me make it through,2:20 but god, I'm gonna trust your strength and not my strength. And so that's the idea of the heart of the battle. Now today, I wanna talk to you about this. We're all called to the battle. We're all called to the battle.2:32 We can all remember, some major call outs, maybe in sports or in other places in the world. How many remember a call out? You you remember Jimmy Johnson years ago? You can print that in 3 inch headlines. You know,2:44 cowboys win. Other things for those of you who are other generations, Muhammad Ali, calling out Sonny Liston. How many of you remember Mike Tyson, calling out Lennox Lewis?2:56 Remember how he said I'm gonna eat his kids? Y'all remember that? I don't know if you've ever been in 1 of those places, but, you know, I think Mike would have done that. Right? His kids showed up and been too close to3:06 the ring. I'm pretty sure Mike would have done that. But I will promise you in your journey, in my journey, in your life, in my life, man, Satan is gonna call you out at3:18 some point, guys. He's gonna call you out. And when he calls us out for the battle, we're either gonna tuck, tail, and run. We're gonna fold and we're gonna cave, or we're gonna have been prepared3:31 by trusting God to show up to the fight. And I truly believe that we're in a place and a stage in in our country, in an area that we need to be men that3:43 are willing to show up to the fight. And we're willing to show up for our family. We're willing to show up for the battle. And so here we are, first verse, second Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. If we think about being called3:54 to the fight, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power, love, and of sound mind or discipline. Listen, guys. When you are called to the fight, your first and natural4:05 response is gonna be fear. Your your first and natural response is gonna be, to fade. Your your your first and and and natural response is gonna be to falter a little bit. That man, I'm4:17 not ready for this. I I need someone else to take over this. But I want you to know if you're gonna lead a family, if you're gonna lead an organization, if you're gonna lead your kids, that we need to be willing to be4:27 no. To stand up for the faith when we are called out and Satan is going to call you out. Not only will Satan sometimes call you out, sometimes he'll trip you up. He'll trip you up and then call you4:39 out. And here's how that hap this happens, guys. Maybe maybe you look back over your wife or or your history or your season and there's been some major failure in your life where you faltered. And all of a sudden4:51 now someone around you is going through something similar and you don't think you can fight for your family or fight for them because you failed in a similar situation in the past, I want you to know that's not5:03 God's way. God's way is, man, let's own it in the past so I can fight in the future. Does that make sense? We wanna own what we've done in the past. Say, listen, you're exactly right.5:15 I don't claim to be perfect. I failed in so many ways, but in this fight, I'm on God's side. I'm gonna do it God's way and with God's help, God's gonna give me the win. And so we wanna think, when I begin to get5:27 fearful, regardless of what happens, that you and I need to understand we need to fight. If you go all the way back, if you're much of a history buff, in World War 2, It looked like the allied forces were,5:39 going to advance and ultimately going to win but the the the Germans had a plan and the plan was the Battle of the Bulge. How many of you remember that? Is is they kinda did a little sneak in to round and they decided5:50 we're gonna bust through the allied lines deep in the heart of winter. Everybody thought everybody had stopped fighting for the winter. All the allied forces, let's just build fires and get6:02 warm. I can only imagine what it must have been like out in that season and that time. But here we are, all they thought they were gonna do is just stay warm until the snow and ice begins to thaw. But the6:14 enemy had a different plan and the enemy just all of a sudden attacked in a powerful way. And if it wasn't for a few good men, at Bastogne, then then then that whole war could have changed. And here's what you gotta6:26 understand guys, there are gonna be times in your life and my life that you think this isn't gonna be a time that Satan attacks me. This isn't gonna be the place or the area that Satan attacks me. If Satan's gonna6:38 attack me, he's gonna attack me. Maybe he's gonna attack me over here and then all of a sudden he attacks me here. If Satan's going to attack me, it's gonna be later in life or earlier in life, but you might want to6:46 understand Satan will attack you anytime, any season in your life. And when he does, remember God doesn't give us a spirit of fear or timidity6:59 but a power and love and of a sound mind. I love what first Timothy chapter 6 verse 12 says. This is Paul talking to young Timothy, as Timothy's beginning to,7:11 develop, his, spiritual legs as pastoral leader in the church in Ephesus. And and Paul just reminds him. He says, Timothy, listen to this. He says, you gotta be ready to fight the good fight of7:23 faith. Now let me just stop you with that phrase, fight the good fight of faith. So what does it mean to fight the good fight before you even get to faith? What's a good fight in our lives?7:35 Man, a good fight is fighting for our family. A good fight is fighting for our country. A good fight is fighting for your city, your culture, your schools, or those are all good fights, guys,7:46 and we need to be in them. If we back away and leave the fight to other people who don't have a faith, guess where they're going to win the battle? Not for the faith, but against the faith. Where7:58 they're gonna turn the tide, not towards family, not towards faith, not towards God, not towards the church, but away from it. And so I love what Paul says. He says, fight the good fight. In other words, there are some8:10 good fights. But notice he also says, fight the good fight of faith. Say, pastor, what does that mean? That man, when we had when we encounter an8:22 increasingly, atheistic or secular culture that you and I need to stand our ground. We need to stay firm in our faith that, man, if it's happening8:34 in our school districts or our cities or our city council or even in the White House or, in in the judge's house somewhere, Mate, you and I need to stand up and fight the good fight for faith.8:46 Why is that? Well, I mean, just look look over the history of our country right now. 1 of the greatest problems that we have are fatherless children. How many of you know that? That's not something that's easily fixed.8:58 That's not something that's easily fixed. And what what happened is we got rid of the idea that the family needs to be a man and a woman together with a son or a daughter. That's where true family health comes from. That9:10 is a distinctly Christian mindset, and it is absolutely worth us fighting for. And for you fighting for that we want parents and families to be present9:22 in the lives of their kids as well as involved in the lives of their Let me tell you what, as good as a school district is, they can't raise a child. They can't. As good as a court system is,9:34 they can't raise a child. As good as the policing system is, they can't raise a child. And so we need to understand that you and I, we need to, if we're gonna be called to the battle, we have to be9:45 willing to fight the good fight, but certainly fight the good fight of the faith. That we need to put a standard high. Understand we don't even meet the standard. See, we don't want to be Pharisees walking around9:57 talking to people going, you know, yeah, you're never gonna measure up. You're not gonna do this. I go to church. Listen, that's a Pharisee. We're not Pharisees, we're humbly, servants of God who have been saved by10:08 grace, who have many failures in our past. And so Paul's looking at Timothy, he's gone, listen, fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you are called to when you were listen,10:19 you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. He says, listen, if you ever begin to, to falter, you ever begin to worry about your faith, he says, don't ever forget the confession that you made in10:31 front in front of or in the presence of many witnesses. Guys, maybe there's some here today. The the your next step, in your faith is to confess it to10:43 others. Not your sin, your faith. Is that you wanna step up and you go, guys listen, I'm certainly not who I was in the past and I'm certainly not who I'm gonna be, but this is who I am.10:55 And I'm I'm I'm gonna draw a line in the sand right now And I'm gonna tell you guys, come back in a year because of my disciplines of I'm gonna be in from worship, I'm gonna I'm gonna read God's word, I'm gonna get in a11:06 group, I'm gonna I'm gonna serve in God's house, I'm gonna be a good steward. Man, a year from now I'm gonna be much more spiritually advanced than I am today, man. That's what he's saying. Remember your confession. So11:17 there'll be seasons for all of us when we feel isolated alone. And the best thing we can do is we can remember those others who are around us. And part of that is mean I think he's also telling, don't forget, there are11:28 guys you can call. Man, if you begin to struggle, if you begin to fall back into a temptation of your past, there there are others that you can call. There are others that you can say, hey, hey, help me through this.11:39 Man, I'm going through a struggle. Or or you can tell someone close to you. Remember what I used to go through? Remember what we talked about a couple of years ago? Man, it seems to be creeping back into my life. And so11:49 I love that. That's exactly what Paul is saying. He say, Man, the focus is not on my fear. It's not on my past failure. The focus is on the fight. Man, you've gotta have your head in the game. We're12:01 right. And that what we always say, gotta have your head in the game. You you ever just There have been times that we look and whether it's in the world series or super bowl or something, you'll just look out there and12:12 somebody clearly doesn't have their head in the game. Let me tell you what, Satan is looking for you not to have your head in the game. He's looking for an opportunity, to do an end around on you and say, listen, if12:23 you're not focused on the fight, guess what? This is where the fight's going to happen. That's what, that's what a good opponent does. What does he do? He looks for your weaknesses. He battles you at your12:35 weaknesses. And so we need to focus on the fight, say, man, where in the world do I need to get stronger at? And guys, you say, well, what happens if I just don't wanna fight?12:47 It gets worse. It gets worse. You ever been in a game? I'm I wasn't ever a great coach with my kids, but I love to12:59 coach my kids. I love to play them up and push them farther. And every once in a while, I'd get them in a game where this team is so much better than we were and, you know, you can have your you can have your kids come13:10 over crying, right? All of a sudden, they're seeing a press that they've never seen and they turn the ball over 3 times in a row and you got your kid coming over, you call a timeout, you've already, you know, you're 313:20 minutes into the game, already used all your timeouts. And your kid's come over crying. And here, here was my best advice for my kids, my sons. I said, Listen, let me tell you what. If you quit, it13:32 only gets worse. If you walk back out there believing they're gonna steal every ball, guess what? They're gonna steal every ball. And, and, and that's the same way for you guys. Man, if you feel like in, in the recesses13:44 of your mind or on the battlefield that no 1 knows about, if you feel like, man, I'm just gonna quit because I'm getting beat every time, let me tell you, it only gets worse. And that's why I think Paul says, listen,13:55 Timothy, men of Cottonwood, fight the good fight. Don't quit. Because let me tell you what, if you quit, if you think Satan's gonna quit, he's not gonna quit.14:07 Once he's done with you, he's gonna go after your wife, then he's gonna go after your kids, then he's gonna go after your friends, he's gonna go after everybody. And what Paul is saying is Timothy, do not back14:18 away from the fight. We are called to the fight. So let me give you a couple of thoughts. If we're called to the fight, number 1, we have to understand the battle. We have to understand the battle. Write that down. If14:29 you're gonna know about the fight, if you're gonna be in the fight, you have to understand the battle. Who are we fighting against? Look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12. Here it is. He says, for our struggle is14:41 not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, authorities, and powers of this dark world and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. He said, listen, you're fighting a14:53 fight whether you know it or not. Satan's conniving against you. Satan and the rulers of this world, they are planning to take you out. I mean, there are if you go back in the old15:04 testament, you you might feel inadequate for the fight. If you go back in the old testament, there was a guy named Gideon. How many how many of you remember a guy named Gideon? Man, a guy named Gideon, the Midianites15:13 every couple of years would wait until it was time for the harvest. They would come in. They would steal everything. And so, Gideon, and his little family, he had, he had his little his little crop of grain that he15:25 pulled up. He went over in the wine press and he's pressing it out. He's not over, on top of the mountain doing what they typically do when they, separate the wheat and the chaff and stuff like that. He's hiding out15:37 the wine press and the angel of the Lord shows up to Gideon. Says mighty warrior. And Gideon says, yeah that's anything but me. I'm not a mighty warrior. He says, I feel15:48 inadequate. And then he starts doing the fleece deal back and forth and back and forth. Said, all right. Now listen, if if I'm supposed to go to the battle man make it make it wet on the fleece and dry on the ground.16:00 Alright well let's switch that around make it dry on the ground wet on You know and here's the deal, Gideon felt inadequate for the battle. And maybe that's you right now. Maybe you're hiding from the battle or16:11 you're you're hiding out and you're still inadequate. I want you to know God is calling you a mighty warrior. That he wants you to stand up and no longer be afraid.16:23 Because the enemy is going to show up whether you fight or not. See, that's basically what the angel told, told Didion. Said, Didion, listen. You're you're in here hiding out in the wine press when you should be out16:35 there, threshing grain in the grain place and and you're hiding out and guess what, if you don't stand up and lead the children of Israel to fight, they're gonna keep doing it. And so guys, don't ever16:47 think if Satan is attacking you, if you choose not to fight, that he's gonna stop. He's gonna keep coming. And finally Gideon said, Man, all right, I'm gonna do it. And guess where Gideon started first? Go read that,16:59 with his home. He cleaned the idols out of his home. Didn't make his dad very happy. Didn't make his family and friends very happy, but that was what God said, start17:11 in your home and then go to the enemy. So guys, maybe you feel a little bit like Gideon today. You feel inadequate for the battle. Let me just encourage you. God's calling you to the17:22 battle. Or maybe fast forward from the old testament to the new testament, another guy that God called in the battle. Remember the guy named Saul, who became the apostle Paul? Man, he was a17:34 murderer of Christians. He put them in prison. And then all of a sudden in Acts chapter 9, God shows up to Paul and says, I've got a different fight for you. And it's a fight17:46 for the gospel, not against the gospel. It's a fight for the church and not against the church. It's a fight for God and not against God. And man, I want you to know guys, there are some in the room that maybe because of17:57 who you are or where you're headed or what you've been through, You wonder, can God use me? If you wanna know the ultimate answer to that question is absolutely. If God could use18:09 Saul, he can use you. If God can use Gideon, he can use you. You just have to understand the battle. That there is a war that is going on. And I love what Paul says.18:21 He says, our struggle is not just against flesh and blood. Yeah. We struggle against flesh and blood, but it's spiritual forces. It's evil forces that are constantly going to be moving. They're always18:33 present just like gravity is. Somebody show me gravity. You can. You can show me the effects of gravity. Right? Show me Satan or show me evil or the evil forces. You really18:44 can't, but I can show you the effects of it. And we see it all around us. We see it every night on the news. And the only response is that good men, God's men need to have18:56 a heart for the battle and understand they're called to the battle. And we have to understand the battle. Here's another verse for you. Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 30 37. Sometimes it's it's gonna look like19:08 we're going to lose. If you go look at Romans chapter 8, it's Paul there. He starts at Romans chapter 8 with there is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We love that. We high 5 that.19:20 Then we come down a little further. Talks about being called according to his purpose, chosen, man, we're ultimately gonna be sanctified and glorified. But then right after that he goes, but we're gonna19:32 be delivered to the sword. We're gonna be beat up. We're gonna be hungry. We're gonna be thrown in prison. We're gonna be doing all this stuff. And Paul answers the question, well, when all of that stuff happens, does19:42 that make us a loser? Good. See, a lot of times we think, well, if things don't go well for me, God's hand must not be for me. And I love what Paul says in Romans19:54 chapter 8 verse 37, he says, know in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. Man, if you're going through some stuff, guys,20:08 that to others and perhaps even you looks like failures, you need to understand that oftentimes is God's pathway to victory for you. Some of my greatest victories20:20 have come when it looked like I was heading toward a failure. Sometimes I've seen God's grace in my life show up way more20:32 after some massive mistake. And so, guys, whatever you're going through today, maybe you feel like, man, I'm a failure, I'm gonna lose this 1. Can I tell you what? Paul's promise is regardless of what you're going20:44 through, in all those things, you could still be more than conquerors. I love that word. It's only used here in all of God's word that more than conquerors. It's a20:56 combination of 2 Greek words, who pair in a KO. You hear the latter part of it in the KO. How many of you have heard of a company called Nike? The big swoosh.21:08 That's the Greek word. You wanna know what that word means? It means to rule over. It means to dominate in the KO. So listen, when Nike chose that for the shoe, they wanted to be the most dominant21:20 shoe company in the world. Now that means to rule over. Then you add Huper, which means above and beyond. So to put them together, that's why translations are21:32 overwhelmingly conquerors or more than conquerors. See, nikayo means you conquer. But adding to to it means that you more than conquer. In other words, that means we are gonna be super successful21:44 with success to spare. It's exactly what he's saying. And it will happen and can happen even after some of your most difficult moments. So guys, understand the battle. It's always gonna21:56 be there. If you quit, it only gets worse. If you quit, Satan will just beat you more. But, if we will stand up and fight in all these things, we can be more than conquerors.22:08 Look at this next 1, second Peter chapter 1 verse 10 says, therefore my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. That means we've got to get in the game.22:20 See, we don't we don't put in effort for our salvation. We have to put in effort to prepare for the battle. Does that make sense? Man, nobody wants to walk into the ring or walk into the octagon22:32 or walk on the football field having not trained well, having not been in the weight room, have not been in the film room, have not been on practice field. Why? That's all getting ready for that 122:44 moment, that 1 season, that 1 game. So notice what he's saying, make every effort to confirm your calling. How do we confirm our calling? It is being in bible study, being with other godly men, being in22:55 groups, man putting yourself in a place so when you're out there and the battle is happening you are ready. Why? Because you put in the work. As you think back over your last year, have you put23:07 in the work to grow yourself spiritually? Have you put in the work, to be stronger spiritually today than you were a year ago? Have I put in the work as your pastor? And I want you to23:19 know this isn't just for you, this is for me. Because here's what I know, God is blessing our church in powerful and amazing ways. But you ask some of us who have been on staff or been in members here for a23:31 while, and you can look back over some seasons when all of a sudden we looked up and we were in a fight for our lives. And here, as good as it is now, can I tell you I don't know23:43 when, I don't know where, but Satan is gonna show up and wanna fight us? How many of you know that? As a church, it's going to happen. We're all of a sudden gonna look up someday in some23:55 way and go, man, what is going on? What happened to that sweet smell of victory we had a year ago or 2 years ago or 4 years ago or 5 years ago and we're gonna feel like as a church we're in a fight for our lives. Guys,24:07 the time to get ready to fight that fight is not in 5 years when we're in the fight, it's today. Does that make sense? And that's why he says, make every effort. Let's put it in. Guys, let's let's be God's24:19 men starting today. So when that fight shows up for our church or for our city or in your home, you have done the work. You are ready to go. You24:31 say, I didn't choose the time. I didn't choose the place for this fight, but I'm ready for this fight. And that's exactly what he's saying. Hey, we have to be ready for the fight. So thought number 1 is this, if we're24:41 gonna be called to the battle we have to understand the battle. Number 2, we have to be equipped for the fight. You say, how do I get equipped? Well, it starts with our mind. I love what Paul said in second Corinthians24:52 chapter 10 verse 4 and 5. He says, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Look at verse 5, he25:04 says, we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. So here,25:16 it it starts with our mind. That if all of a sudden I'm gonna find myself in a battle, the first thing I have to do is understand that my mind matters. Alright? What you focus on, what you25:28 think about will ultimately control your life because your mind matters. I love what he says. He says, we wanna be prepared to demolish every argument and every pretension. And, we've25:40 seen this very clearly in the last couple of years. Argument over is the bible right? Are there 2 genders or 72? I We've gotta stand up and fight that fight,25:52 guys. Is it okay for men to play in women's sports? We've got to stand up and be willing to fight that fight. There's some things that we've seen happen in our country in the last couple of years that you're26:03 like, no 1 thinks that's right. Right? I mean you're looking around. We know the end of that story and it's losing. Like it doesn't even make sense. But that's the way26:15 Satan works. He deceives people into understanding or thinking things that just aren't right. That's why it's important for us to stand up. By the way, this is not a political message. It it is an26:27 honest religious biblical message for us. You say if you ever looked up and said, how could they make that decision? It makes 0 sense. Not to Satan. Makes perfect26:39 sense to Satan. If Satan wants to destroy families, if Satan wants to destroy young men, if Satan wants to destroy our country, if Satan wants to destroy your family, it makes perfect sense.26:51 Makes perfect sense. And so you and I need to be ready to tear those things down. That's why in a couple of weeks, we're having reality conference. It's already sold out in the main room, but you could get a get a ticket27:03 and go in the overflow rooms, which are gonna be great and then go to all the breakout sessions. I will tell you guys, if you're a father or even a grandfather, you need to come to this reality conference.27:15 Why? Because we are gonna deal with everything that your kids and grandkids are hearing right now and how to respond. We're gonna talk about progressive Christianity. We're we're gonna talk about the gender27:27 thing. We're gonna talk about a lot of things biblical. We're gonna talk about all the questions that I guarantee your kids and grandkids have. Questions you and I didn't have. You say, why do they have so many questions27:37 about their faith today? Well, because they go into the room, they shut the door, they open their phone, right? Man, we remember most of us grew up in a day when we didn't have that advantage. So, the only doubts that27:47 showed up were ones in my mind. I didn't have other people putting them in my mind. And they're just pouring into our kids' minds so I'm gonna encourage you. You need to be ready to deal with these arguments. So, if27:57 you're driving your grandkid around and you're going out for an ice cream or a snow cone or whatever you like to do with your grand, go go into a movie and and they go, grandpa, what about this or they said this at28:08 school, then you're ready to give an answer to protect your grandkids. We need to be ready. We need to be prepared. I wanna encourage you, show up. You're gonna appreciate it. But then notice what he says, we wanna28:20 demolish every argument and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Then we wanna look at our thoughts and think about our28:31 thoughts. Man, is there ever a season in time that you're looking to quit? You're looking to bail out of the fight? You're looking to walk away from the fight? Man, take that cap take that thought captive. Say, man, I'm28:43 not gonna do it. I'm saying end the fight. I am going to show up to the fight. Man, we have to be equipped for the fight. What does that equipping look like? Look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10.28:55 He says finally, this is talking about the the weapons of our warfare. He says finally be strong in the lord if we're gonna be equipped. And in his mighty mighty, mighty power, he says put on the full armor of God so29:07 that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. He says for our struggle, back to this word, is not against flesh and blood but against rulers, against authorities, against powers of this dark29:19 world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. Look at verse 13, therefore, what do we do? How do we equip ourselves? We put on the full armor of God. Not some of it.29:31 Not certain pieces. Not selected pieces. But, the full armor of God. And what does that look like? So that when the day of evil comes you'll be able to stand your ground29:43 and after having done everything, you'll stand. So verse 14, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Let's stop right there. What does it mean, the belt of truth? Well, first of29:55 all, the truth is how do how does a man get saved? Not by being good enough, but because God loved you so much, he sent his 1 and only son to die on the cross to you. Jesus died, was buried, rose again the third30:07 day, that whoever believes in him would not perish but would have everlasting life. You've got to settle that in your mind. But the second thing is stand firm on the truth. The truth is God's word. That's why we always30:18 encourage you to read God's word, hear God's word, study God's word. So when false, lies show up, you'll immediately spot them. E even if it's a person that's pretended to be a preacher or30:30 a teacher or a bible study, leader and they say something false, you need to immediately know that's not the truth. But he doesn't stop there. You have to have to have the belt of truth around your waist. The30:42 breastplate of righteousness, what does that mean? That's not Pharisee, it's just, man, we need to learn more and more as men just to live in a godly fashion. Ultimately, all of our true righteousness comes from God. How30:53 many of you know that? See, that's part of what salvation is. God took our unrighteousness and replaced it with Christ righteousness. Spiritually speaking, that's how we're saved. Is all31:05 our filth, all our unrighteousness taken away? Instead, God sees Christ's righteousness in me when he looks at me. That But at the same time, I need to follow it up with learning to live a life that31:17 is righteous and pure and more right in what I say and what I do and how I live. Man, that's part of being ready for the battle. So when someone31:29 sees you all of a sudden in a battle, they'll look at you and say, man that guy has a history of wanting to live out righteously. So if he's in a battle, it must be for a good cause. But it doesn't stop there. Stand firm31:39 with the belt of truth, then he says the brush plate of righteous. Notice, with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes with the gospel of peace. Then we gotta have our shoes on. We31:51 gotta be ready. What is that? It's the gospel. What is the gospel? It's the good news. That you and I stand firm on the good news that God loves everyone so much.32:04 That he offers salvation to anyone. Man, you've got to have your shoes, your boots on if you're gonna ultimately win the win the battle. Look at verse 16. In addition to all that, take up the shield of faith. In32:16 other words, man when things don't look good, I'm gonna trust God, I'm gonna believe God that he's gonna get me through the battle move on. With which you can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil 1. What does that32:28 mean? Guys, Satan's gonna take a shot at you. It's not an if, it's a when. I will promise you guys, do not roll out of here today32:40 and think that Satan is not gonna take a shot at you today, Because he's going to. Do not roll out of here today and think he's not gonna take a shot at your wife or your kids or or somebody else you love or your32:52 fam because he will. That's why we better have that that breast plate of righteousness, our feet shod ready for the fight each and every day. Then he says that shield of faith because the arrows are coming33:04 your way. Let me just tell you, Satan would love nothing more than before this day is over to take 1 of you guys out. Talking about with the sin or some33:16 habit or some difficulty or something you say or something you do, and and let me tell you what, Satan won't mourn for you 1 bit. Nor will he mourn for me or33:28 this church. Now continue to read only verse 17. Take on the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Man, we want our helmet on. We're gonna have our mind right. We wanna think33:40 right. Man, when I begin to have doubts or I'd be anxious about something or worry about something, I wanna get my head right. I'm gonna call my buddies and say, hey, listen. I'm taking this through. Help me out. I wanna33:49 get back into God's word and say, man, listen. This is a lie straight from Satan and I want to have the helmet on, but also I love that. He says, I want to have that sword of the spirit ready to go. That's your word of34:00 God, that's the word of God. That's where we're always driving, to the word of God, because that's where truth can foul, can be found, and that's ultimately where the battle can be won. So guys, we need a34:12 heart. Somebody might look at you and go, I don't think God can use him at all. That's what people are saying about you, don't ever forget David. Man looks on the outward34:24 appearance, but God looks at the heart. But then we also have to understand, guys, not only do we have to have a heart of a warrior, we have to understand our call is to fight,34:36 and I can only fight well if I prepare well. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for this day. God, my prayer for every guy in this room and those that are online through34:48 Zoom that we would all prepare now for the battle that's gonna come. God, I pray your grace and your love in the lives of each and every 1 of us, but also understand, God, you've called us to34:59 be men, that we are to stand far. We are to be ready to fight the good fight, and the good fight is a fight for the faith. In Jesus' name we pray.35:11 Amen and amen. You guys have a great day and a great week. God bless.35:15 Thank you for tuning in to pastor talks with John Mark Cayton. For more information on John Mark's resources and ministry, please visit john mark hayton dot com. Until next time, remember, we're on this35:27 journey of life together.In this video 0:00 The Warrior's Heart: Called to the Battle
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