Auto Generated Transcript
Don’t miss when you start this, the word: finally, Paul opens his passage with the word finally. And it’s not. I’m trying to hurry and wrap this letter up because it’s getting long. What he’s saying is that what I’ve been teaching you so far is packed with rich theology, practical application. And now Paul says, finally, sort of as this climax, this crescendo that he’s been building up to. And if you look at the book of Ephesians, it’s broken into three parts sit, walk, stand. It’s a title of a book by Watchman Nee. What I mean by sit is its reflection on Christ’s finished work, where he’s seated in the heavenly places. Chapter one, verse 20. He fulfilled the the will of the father, and God raised him, and sat him in the heavenly places at the father’s right hand. We’re also told that we’re seated with Christ in the heavenly places. We’ve seen the wonderful truth that the Trinity works together. Uh, in chapter one, verse four, the father chose us before the foundation of the world. Verse seven, The Son redeems us through his blood. Verse 14, The Spirit guarantees our inheritance. Chapter two Paul writes my testimony. He says that I was once a rebel, but God made me alive by grace, through faith and out of the Jews and Gentile, he made one new humanity, one new holy nation. The church now becomes the household of God. We no longer go to this mountain or that building to worship, but the spirit dwells within us.
We are now the temple of God. Then we move on to the next two and a half chapters walk. This is now because of the truth that we’ve learned how we’re now to live, and how we’re to walk in the Christian life. Theology, as you see in many of Paul’s letters, is practically important. Don’t ever let anybody pit the two against each other. We need good theology, practical application. The two live in harmony together. Chapter four. We’re told to grow up in unity and maturity. Chapter five Imitators of Christ and out of the spirit filled life. We’re taught how to live godly relationships in the home, the church, and the workplace. So this context of the book of Ephesians is super important for us. When we get to the chapter six, Armor of God that we’re going to be talking about here. And when we get there, you’ll notice that there’s a theme word that’s repeated and it stand, we’re told as a church to stand. Um, the language that we just read is that of warfare. The Christian church right now is in a war, and we’re commanded. God wants at the end of the age for him to have standing soldiers at the end of the battle. But I want to pull back today. And just that immediate context is important, but I want to pull back and look at the even broader context, because I think it’s going to help shape what we’re looking at in the spiritual warfare.
There’s an ongoing battle, and it’s been going on long before you and I were ever born. It’s a cosmic conflict between God and Satan, Christ and Antichrist, and we are able to see glimpses of this battle as it unfolds throughout history. When you look at the Bible, it was written over a period of time, and it’s an unfolding story of God’s redemption. It’s a story about adoption, God pursuing his elect. When we understand this larger story, we gain a proper perspective. And perhaps, maybe today, some of us might gain even a new perspective. And so what I want to talk to you about today is to get swept up. If you take one thing out of this sermon today, get swept up in God’s bigger story. Don’t make God a supporting character in your own story. We don’t always understand how God is working in certain situations. We go through dark times and we go through good times. But we can understand and we can be rest assured that God is in fact working in those situations. He’s working in all situations. Earlier in this epistle, we read that he works all things according to the counsel of his will. One example, if we were to go back to Genesis 37, and if you remember the story of Joseph Joseph when he was sold into slavery by his brothers, and then in Genesis 50, after rising to power under Pharaoh, uh, he reveals himself to his brothers and he says to them, what you meant for evil.
God meant for good. This is the proper perspective. Out of all circumstances, God is bringing about his purpose and it unfolds. He has a plan for everything that’s happening. The battle goes back to Genesis three. And if you go back there with me and think it’s man’s darkest hour, it’s right after the fall. They had taken the fruit and they were covering themselves with fig leaves, and they’re standing before God. They tried to hide themselves, and God declares to them the gospel. He gives to them a promised Messiah. He says he will send forth a messiah from the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent. But Satan would be allowed to bruise his heel. Satan’s goal then turns on intercepting this Messiah. God made a promise. And Satan wants to intercept the Messiah. That’s to come. God keeps dropping clues all along the way throughout the Old Testament of who this Messiah would be. And Satan, like a spy, is trying to figure out how to thwart this, this plan, how to end this covenant seed that’s going to come. And so we see examples from the very beginning, right after this gospel message was preached. Satan tries to end the seed line right there.
Cain rises up, kills Abel, but God raises up Seth to continue the seed line. The sons of God taking the daughters of man and wives to corrupt the covenant line. Human hearts become so evil at one point that God destroys the whole world with a flood, but he rescues Noah and brings him through the waters. There was a mass massacre of all the firstborn in Egypt. What does God do? He spares Moses and he brings him through. Delivers Moses to raise up his people. Bell worship at one point gets so bad that it threatens to bring the covenant line to a complete end. And Elijah is sitting up there on the hill and he says, God, everybody’s turned from you, and all that’s left is me. But God tells him, no. I’ve kept for myself 7000 that haven’t vowed the need to bail. We see Satan’s schemes and God’s faithfulness playing over and over throughout the the Bible. And perhaps one of the most dramatic scenes, if you turn to Ephesians six, just keep your place there. Flip over to Isaiah 59. You may want to mark some of these, but the prophet Isaiah writes that because the people are, are are pointing their finger at God and they’re, they’re, they’re saying that you’re the one that’s unfaithful God. And Isaiah now exposes something that they need to hear, like all the good prophets do.
They tell us the hard things. The prophet Isaiah. He starts out by saying, behold. The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull that he cannot hear. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden your face from you, so that he does not hear you. And then in the following ten verses, we see that the people begin to see how jacked up they really are. Isaiah says that their feet run to evil. Paul in the New Testament uses the same language to describe the overall human condition. He puts us right there with the people of Israel standing condemned before God. Isaiah takes his people away from blaming God and focuses on their selves that it’s not God that’s the problem. It’s us. We’ve made a separation and they realize their hopelessness. But God, the faithful one, the most wonderful words that you read in the God, whenever you see that a situation becomes so hopeless and then you read, but God. And he’s about to do something great here in Isaiah. The judge. The earth stands before the people that are condemn. He takes off his robe and he puts on battle armor. And it goes on to say that the Lord saw, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede.
Then his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. The vengeance of the Lord that comes down brings condemnation to his enemies, but it also brings justification for his people as two sides of the same coin. Then, at the end of the chapter, we read this great announcement by Yahweh. He says, and a Redeemer will come to Zion. To those in Jacob who turned from transgressions, declares the Lord. This. My brothers and sisters should give us goosebumps. Just when everything was hopeless, and just when we’ve turned to everything within ourselves and we have nowhere else to go, God comes down. The faithful one takes off his robe, puts on armor, delivers his people. And he says that his own arm brought him salvation, and a Redeemer will come to Zion. Satan’s mission to intercept the Messiah ultimately fails and Jesus comes to the earth. And so now Satan’s goal, because he couldn’t intercept the Messiah, turns on Jesus himself. We see that Jesus, when he was born under the rule of Herod, sends out a decree to kill all young male children in the area of Bethlehem, but God rescues him and delivers him in protection. Then later on, when Jesus first starts his ministry, he’s led by the spirit to be tempted by Satan.
Three times he uses Deuteronomy, the sword of the spirit, to do battle with Satan in the wilderness. And then at the end of his ministry, Colossians two tells us. That the charges that were held against us, held against Israel, are nailed to the cross. God makes a public spectacle of the charges that were held against us. Jesus became victorious. He overcame sin, Satan and death. Satan couldn’t intercept the Messiah. He couldn’t deceive the Messiah. And so now Satan turns on us. Satan’s goal is to deceive the church. And this is where the conflict, the true heart of the conflict comes in. Understanding the reason for Satan’s attack on the church is critical before we ever get to Ephesians six, this is the backdrop of everything that’s happening. Satan wants for the church to disarm the power of the gospel. He wants to silence the proclamation of it, and he wants to weaken our confidence in it. That’s why in verse 12 Paul writes, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of this evil in the heavenly places. You know, as I’ve been studying this. I sort of noticed two extremes. There’s the camp that, see, that’s really heavy on the spiritual warfare, and they see a demon behind every bush. And and then there’s the other camp that sort of just tucks all of the spiritual warfare aside, and they focus on the physical.
What I want to suggest to you today is that it’s somewhere in between these two extremes, and it’s a both end, both are going on. And here’s what I mean. The letter to the Ephesians. We’ve already saw how, uh, good theology, what we believe affects the way that we live. We’re told to walk in the spirit, the spirit of truth. We’re told to be led by the spirit. For instance, it says it in Galatians, if we are led by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. We are also told that we were once slaves to sin. We were once held captive by the enemy, but Jesus set us free. In Luke four it says that he had been sent to proclaim liberty to the captives. And it also says in John eight, so if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed. But just the opposite is true, isn’t it? If we have been set free. We were once taken captive by the enemy. The logical conclusion of that is that for unbelievers, they’ve been taken captive. They’ve been taken captive by the enemy, the spirit of deception. In Second Corinthians four. It says, the God of this world has blinded the mind of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Think about that. The God of this world. Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them. From what? Seeing the light of the gospel. Seeing the light of the gospel, the glory of Christ. This is the heart of the battle that’s raging all around us. And to keep people away from the true gospel, or by distorting the gospel, or by undermining our confidence in the gospel. So there is, in fact, a spiritual war that’s going on in this present evil age. That’s why trusting in good feelings, trusting in spiritual experiences, uh, is not necessarily a good idea. In fact, it can be a very bad thing. The Bible gives a strong warning against doing such things. In John. Uh, first John four it says beloved. Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. The enemy has taken many captive. The proper way to view the people around us are as POWs, as they become prisoners of war. You see, our enemies are not the P.o.w.s there. They’ve been taken captive by the enemy. This is so important as we talk to unbelieving friends, family, neighbors. Who you’re talking with is not the enemy. They’ve been taken captive by the enemy’s schemes. It says in Second Corinthians ten. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not the flesh, but have divine powers to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. You know the people of Ephesus that Paul was writing this letter to would have been keenly aware of what’s going on. For those of you who are familiar, the city of Ephesus was a very, uh, religious, spiritual place that was fascinated with the magic, the occult, and these people had their own priesthood in place. They had their own ceremonies, their own ordinances. They had a tremendous amount of money, power, influence over the community. They even had their own temple. It’s called the Temple of Artemis. And around this temple was a grand theater. This theater was said to have hold an estimated 20,000 people or more would gather for worship in this town. Paul’s writing to encourage this Ephesian church in the midst of all of this, to stand firm in a city that’s dominated by a single religious belief system, to stand firm. The church command is to stand in the midst of this. The church is at war, were in hostile enemy territory. It was in the day of Paul, in the city of Ephesus, and it’s right here in Lehi, Utah. The mission of the church is to announce the gospel. It’s to set POWs free.
Romans 116. One of my favorites, for I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is a power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Romans 1015. How beautiful are the feet who preach the good news, who preach the gospel? And so it is with the spiritual battle as it rages all around us. I want to take you quickly to a story in Second Kings, where. God lifts the veil of the spiritual realm, and we get to see this sort of overlapping of the two happen simultaneously. It’s a glorious scene. And second Kings, and if you’re familiar, it’s the king of Syria is sending an army to seize Elisha. And it starts with so he, the Syrian king, sent their horses and chariots and great army, that they came by night and surrounded the city. When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city. And the servant said, alas, master, what shall we do? He said, do not be afraid, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elijah prayed and he said, oh Lord, please open his eyes so that he can see. So the Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elijah. Guys, this is the backdrop of everything that Paul’s been writing.
This is the history of God that’s been leading up. God has an army. God is more powerful than the situations, the evil, the present darkness that we’re in. More importantly, Paul gets wrapped up in a much bigger story. He understands that his momentary struggles are but a part of God’s overall arching story. Paul’s letter is from the, uh, from a Roman prison, and he understands that this is just a footnote. Paul’s been caught up in God’s story of redemption. Paul has the proper perspective. Christianity is warfare against Satan. We are the army of God to this world. And again, the goal of the church is to remain standing. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. You might be thinking, what are the schemes of the devil? It’s simple. His tactics are deception, their false religion, their world systems, their heresies and schisms within the church. Second Corinthians 11 says, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. The world is full of counterfeits. It can look holy, it can feel good, and it can be totally fueled by demonic influence, deception, temptation, a moral decay will increase, the Bible tells us, and we see that if we look around the everything around us, don’t we? The closer that we get to the final generation, the generation before Jesus returns.
The Bible tells us that the persecution and deception is going to increase and become so intense that in Matthew 24 it says, for false Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. It’s a strong warning by Jesus. In revelation 12 it says, the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that he has a short time. Brothers and sisters, we’re all going to come to the end with some battle scars. When you become a Christian, the world is going to turn on you. Satan is going to turn on you. The attacks are going to come from all fronts. Some of us have lost or will lose friends, family, relationships. Some of us. May die. Martyrs. Deaths. Some of us may face doubts or question God’s goodness along the way. We’re going to face attacks on all fronts. So these words that Paul are writing are meant to be an encouragement to us. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. It’s not to be strong on our own efforts.
It’s not to be strong on our own skills. It’s not to be strong on our own governments. It’s not to be strong in our own knowledge. It’s not to be strong in our own good looks. What we’re told to be strong in is the Lord and in the strength of his might. That’s how we are going to stand in this battle. If we try to stand on our own, we’re going to fall, and we’re going to fall every time. We’re going to fall hard. Our strength comes from the Lord and in the strength of his might. Did I already use? It was my favorite verse because I’m changing that. This is my favorite Isaiah 4031. But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not grow faint. We are told that God is not only equipped us with his power, his power, but he’s also given us his armor. We’ve been given the armour of God. The Old Testament is spattered with the description of Yahweh’s armor in battle. Do you remember when we talked about Isaiah 59, when Yahweh comes down into battle and he says that he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. Two descriptions of two pieces of the armor that were given here in Ephesians six. God has equipped us with all that we need.
But don’t miss this. We’re commanded to put it on. We’ve been given all the power from God. Our rest is in God. He’s given us all the equipment that we need. We’ve got to put it on. How often do we leave the house without putting on the armor of God, and then try to go face the world and the schemes of the devil? It’s not going to work. Paul describes this soldier’s equipment in detail. He says, therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm, stand therefore, having fastened the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on readiness given by the gospel of peace in all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. That brings us to the covering of the Christian soldier. We’re given all this equipment, and he identifies for us six pieces of armor that we are to put on as Christian soldiers. First one, the belt of Truth. Nothing is more important than truth. Where to clothe ourselves in the truth. We find that truth in the scriptures. God has been gracious enough to reveal his truth to us.
Jesus says in John 1837, for the for this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth will listen to my voice. John 1717 then goes on to say that the Word of God is truth. The Bible, the 66 books that we have in the Bible are the Word of God, the truth of God. The scriptures in second Timothy 316 says, it’s all that we need. We’ve been thoroughly equipped as saints. Paul’s concern to his friend, the religious system that he left when God called him. His concern for them in Romans ten was that his that his friends that he left behind had a zeal for God. But it wasn’t, according to what the truth. They were running for God, but that wasn’t grounded in truth. Satan’s good at distorting and presenting a counterfeit. He’s really good at not giving you a choice between truth and error. He’s good at giving you a choice between an almost truth and another almost truth. Truth needs to be gathered in and held close. The next piece of armor is the breastplate of righteousness. Remember, it’s the righteousness of God that’s the source of source of our strength. If Satan could somehow get us to focus on our own selves, our own works, he’ll rip us to shreds as we’re going to fall.
Put on Christ. When you go to battle, put Jesus on. Take him to battle. Don’t look to yourself. Don’t look to your own righteousness. Understand that we stand right now. Everyone that’s put their faith in Christ. We stand before God. Holy, justified, righteous. Satan can’t use those attacks against you that you’re falling short because you’re not putting your confidence in your good works, your righteousness. It’s Christ. Satan will continue to accuse. And it’s important for us to understand that it’s Christ’s righteousness in Isaiah 59. I encourage you to read that passage. But the people of God, when they go, when they go before him, they start by saying, well, look at us. And in the end, Isaiah exposes that it’s cobwebs that they’re taking before God, but that’s what they have to offer is cobwebs in the garden. Fig leaves is what they use to cover themselves with. The Bible tells us that the best that we have to offer when it comes to justification becoming right before God is filthy rags. That’s the best we have to offer. The gospel is our confidence. We put our trust in Christ. The great reformers would call this the Great Exchange. The theological term is double imputation. Jesus gets all of our junk. We get Jesus’s righteousness. There’s an amputation that happens both ways. We look back to the religious people in Romans ten that Paul left behind. Not only did they have a zeal without truth, but it goes on to say that they were ignorant of the righteousness of God.
And we’re what? Seeking to establish their own. These are two marks that I want to put out there for you to just test. Um, they’re the two marks that you’ll find in every false religion. Zeal without truth. Seeking to establish righteousness on their own, apart from God. Okay. Two marks. Deception tactics that have been used by Satan and many have fallen victim to that. The next one. Feet with the gospel of peace. Be prepared. Be ready. If the commission of the church is to take out the gospel to the nations, to put our confidence in it. And that’s the primary attack of Satan. We’ve got to be ready. We’ve got to be ready with the gospel to take it out. First Peter 315 says, always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks for the reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect. Our feet are mobile. That means we’re going to get the message out. 1015 we read this when how beautiful are the feet who preach the good news, who preach the gospel. We have a gospel of peace. Our confidence is in Christ. The gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. It’s the work that he did. The next one is the shield of faith. The fourth piece of armor that we’re we’re given.
Our faith is only as strong as what or who we put our faith in. For Christians, we put our faith in the promises of God. We put our faith in the promised Messiah that God said would come, did come, and did what God said he would do. Faith looks away from ourselves. It looks to Christ. If you read in Hebrews 11, it gives us great list of of by faith starts out by faith. All these great men of God did wonderful things for the Lord, and it was all by faith. The fifth one, the Helmet of Salvation. First Thessalonians says that it’s the hope of salvation. Our full expectation and saving power is a major defense against Satan and the schemes that he puts forth. It protects our head, which is the most vulnerable part in battle. Saints cannot lose their salvation as we do this battle. It says that nothing can separate us from the love of God. It’s our identity and it’s not just our protection. And what I mean by that is the Roman soldier, which is in the time that this was written, they had a very distinctive helmet. And you knew right then that it was a Roman soldier just like today, like a football helmet. You would know what team they’re on, or even our own military. You would know who they belong to, what army they’re from. It’s an identifier.
We are children of God. If you put your faith in Christ. The last one, the sixth item that we’re given, and it’s the only offensive weapon that we’re given in this armor. It’s the sword of the spirit. It’s the Word of God. Hebrews 412 says that it’s sharper than any two edged sword, which means that we don’t need any gimmicks. That’s why we as Christians, and that’s why we’ve looked at so many scriptures together today. We believe that in God’s Word there’s power. We believe that God speaks to us through His Word. The Word of God can be used when we’re tempted. It can be used in our evangelism. Again, it’s God’s armor, six pieces that he’s given us, but we’ve got to put it on. All right. The last point is the communication. Not only has God equipped us with his power and his strength given us his armor, but he’s left us with an open line of communication with the Commander in Chief. This is a tremendous blessing that he’s given to us. It says, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me, and open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
There’s a great quote by John Piper concerning prayer, and he says, until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. As we put on the armor of God, we should always do it with continual prayer. Prayer helps prepare our hearts. It helps get us in the right mindset in going into battle. Wonderful gift that God has given to us to be in constant contact with the Commander in Chief. Prayer is also used not just for ourself. But did you notice in here that it’s used for other believers? It’s to equip other believers. We’re told to pray at all times with all kinds of prayer. Are we doing this, my friends? Are we doing this? I feel like this message was written for me because how often do I leave without the armour of God? How often do I not utilize the tools that God’s given me to prayer for the saints to pray for myself. One of the most helpful. And I have this in your bulletin, and I’m not going to spend a lot of time in here, but you can take it with you. Uh, there’s a sermon by John Piper called Be Devoted to Prayer. And it gives you this helpful acronym called fades. F the first one is free and formed. What he means by this is it’s the content of our prayers, what we are to do when we pray by form.
It would be things like praying from the Bible, the Psalms, or we pray from lists. We do this all the time as a church. If people have needs or whatever, we’ll go down a list and we’ll pray for them. How about from a book? There’s devotions where you read something, and at the end it has something to pray and reflect on. Patterns. This could be like the Lord’s Prayer. So these are examples of of formed prayer. Free is just the opposite. You pray to God whatever is on your heart, you bring to him whatever your felt need is. The next one a alone and assembled spend time. Spend quality time with God alone, but also spend time together collectively like we do as a church family. Desperate and delighted. Pray for. Pray to God in times of lows and times of highs. Pray when you’re going through struggles. Pray when you’re going through celebrations explosive and extended for E, or in other words, long and short. This is the length of our prayers. Sometimes it’s just a quick prayer before we’re going into a job interview. We’ve heard news. We’re running into this situation or or we’re in the car, or we just want to quickly give God thanks for something. Short prayers, but also spend time at length with God. He’s giving you that communication. Um, take time. Just just be with God. Spend time with him.
Extend your prayers before him. The last one spontaneous and scheduled. And this is when we pray. Pray in the morning. Pray at night. Pray before meals. Um, pray is a family schedule. Time to pray and do it. Be spontaneous too. Don’t just pray at those times. Pray away. Uh, when God puts something on your heart, be spontaneous with your prayers. All right. And I have those in there, just as a reminder. Try that at the very end. And I want to leave you with this. Paul reminds us of the heart of the battle. Paul is in chains. He’s being held captive by Roman soldiers, but he tells the saints to pray for him. He tells the saints to pray that he’ll be able to do what? To proclaim the gospel boldly. Paul understood that he was an ambassador for Christ. He understood that he was part of a much larger story. And most importantly, Paul understood that his king would be victorious, that anything that Satan or the powers of darkness would throw his way. That Jesus was much greater than that. Let’s pray. God, thank you for, uh, promising us a messiah, bringing him and, uh, delivering us from evil and, God. We’re grateful that we can come before you. And confidence that you’ve overcome all that you’ve already won the battle. And God that we can have confidence in that. That we don’t have to look to ourselves to win this battle. But we can look to you, and you’ve equipped us with all that we need.