The Greatest War Campaign of All Time — James Jennings

To preach to people who've been redeemed by the blood of Christ is a serious thing. When you think of God's love for the saints, for Christians, you realize this is not a light matter. The King's saying, go over there and give those people a message.

And when He says, I bought them with the blood of My Son, you realize this is a weighty thing. So even the kids, I'm glad to have you guys here. When I was a kid, I wasn't too interested in the sermon aspect.

But maybe something I say could be considered by you guys. Well, I'm giving two messages today, and I've still struggled with which one to give right now. I'm just being honest with you guys. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 10.

You know, transparency is a beautiful thing in a church. Transparent, you know, you can see through. It's good. There's some level of being seen through in our hearts that we need if we're really going to have a unified church.

The Greatest War Campaign: Paul’s Apostolic Ministry

So 2 Corinthians 10. The title of this message is, It's the greatest war campaign of all time. The greatest war campaign of all time. Meaning there's no greater campaign of war that has ever existed. And that's what I want to look at this morning.

And let's pray. Father, I just pray, Lord, help this to hit the spot. Own it. Give these brothers and sisters some bread this morning. Even some crumbs. Lord, something here that would stick with them, that would be applicable to their lives and to this church.

And so Lord, we need Your help in the midst of the battle front that we are on. And so Lord, would You give some grace right now, some help. In Jesus' name, Amen. So 2 Corinthians 10 starts with Paul defending his ministry.

And it goes all the way to chapter 13, verse 10. It ends right around 13 .10. If you read that, we're not going to read that entire section. But Paul is defending his apostolic ministry. Now that's interesting.

Because when someone defends their ministry, they also then reveal what their ministry looks like. And that matters to us. Even you all, as a church, it matters. This Apostle Paul, when he was here on earth and laboring for the souls of men and laboring to establish churches, what did his ministry look like?

I mean, any person, any soldier, looks at the greatest generals in military history to glean from their tactics. To understand the war better and to understand how to fight in the war. So let's read verses 1 just to 6.

I, Paul, myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away. They were kind of saying that about Paul. Verse 2.

I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. So they were suspecting Paul of doing that.

And then he says this. For though we walk in the flesh, meaning the human body, we are not waging war according to the flesh. Verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.

You guys see where I get the idea of a war campaign, right? We hear warfare in there. We hear destroy. We hear captives. He's using that type of terminology. That word warfare right there could be rendered campaign.

The idea is a military expedition of campaign. Paul the Apostle, he looked at planting churches and he looked at Corinth as he was waging war. He had a military campaign going in there seeking to establish a biblical church.

That's what we're doing in Maine. You guys are part of a war campaign. You guys are part of an expedition into this territory waging war for people's souls. Did you know that? Now Paul puts it that way.

That's helpful. One, because we need to remember that. So, that's what we're going to look at today. So, I was going to say something about they're suspecting us of walking according to the flesh. Just for the sake of time, I'll be brief on that.

They were suspecting that Paul was doing things in a fleshly way. What does that mean? Well, there's certain verses here where they were accusing him of kind of being humble when he was around them, but his letters were really bold and severe.

So it's kind of like the idea, like Paul's like the little tiny chihuahua behind the fence. And he's barking at us, but then when we see him in person, he runs and he scurries away. I mean, they were leveling accusations at Paul.

They were accusing him, if you look at 10 .8, he says, for even if I boast a little too much of our authority, so they were maybe saying he was boasting too much about authority, but what does he say authority is given for?

For building you up. So Paul's domineering. That man is just high-handed domineering over the church. And he's saying, no, no, I'm building you guys up with my authority. So the list goes on. If you read these chapters, you're going to find different things.

They were suspecting Paul of ministering according to the flesh, in a fleshly way, using human tactics. He comes in there and he's showing them, no, no, no, no. We don't use human tactics. We use heavenly tactics that have divine power to tear down strongholds.

Taking Thoughts Captive in Context

Now here's something is with this passage. How many of you guys know that verse, taking every thought captive? You know what I understood that verse to mean for the first seven years of my Christian life?

I thought it was about a command for me to take every one of my own thoughts captive. I just took it like that. I mean, as a new Christian here, I'd come out of a background of lust and things, and so when I read, take every thought captive, I thought, that's great.

I need that. I need to be taking all my thoughts captive. But that's not Paul's point here. He's not giving us a command to take every thought captive. Paul isn't dealing with defending his personal holiness.

Paul is dealing with defending the way and the means by which he ministered. And so Paul's point is, the way he ministered among the church was by seeing strongholds arise and lofty opinions arise, and Paul himself would tear those strongholds down and take every one of their thoughts captive.

So the idea is not you guys take your thoughts captive. The idea is Paul in his apostolic ministry was taking men's thoughts captive. Other people's thoughts captive with truth. So that's important we understand the context.

And if you even look 13 .4, this is the same flow. He says right there, but in dealing with you. Again, if someone said, well, what's Paul dealing with in all these verses? He's talking about how he dealt with them.

I dealt with you all by seeing lofty opinions in your minds and tearing those down. So that was part of Paul's ministry. That's something that's involved in planning this church. Some of you have thoughts that are not according to the knowledge of God.

And you don't know it. I'm not saying I know what those thoughts are. But that happens. And Paul comes in there and he gets a sense of that. Interesting, do you see that stronghold in so-and-so's mind?

And he's seeking to tear that down. So that's the idea here. So we're going to look at six things. One, we're in a war campaign. Two, among what people is this war taking place? Three, where is the battlefield of this war?

Four, who are the enemies in this war? Five, how is victory in this war achieved? And sixth, what are the weapons we fight with? Those things matter for you all. You're not an apostle. But Paul, these principles here, how he waged war, that's not just for Paul.

Every Christian, as it even says in Ephesians, we are battling against principalities and powers and things that are not of this world. I mean, I was telling some of you all, I was just at the airport in Newark, and I had a conversation with a guy who's part of the Baha 'i religion.

And there was no hope of that man ever being saved unless there was divine power involved. I mean, I felt it. I could have been the cleverest evangelist who's ever lived. Could have had the most gimmicky tracks that have ever existed.

I could have had the most wisdom, and it wouldn't have done anything unless God came in with power and opened His eyes. And I felt it. I thought, here I'm going to speak on this, and here I feel it, talking to this guy in the Baha 'i religion, and I just felt powerless to do anything.

Christians Are Enlisted in a Spiritual War

So, first point, we are in a war campaign. As I mentioned, that word right there, if you look at the text, he says, verse 4, the weapons of our warfare. So the warfare is the weapons of this active army campaign that is going on.

That's what's going on. This expedition into uncharted territory in Portland, Maine, and uncharted people and enemies of the Gospel that you guys don't even know exist yet, but as you seek to wage war, you're going to have them popping up.

You're going to be in a battle. You're in a war. You think about David. It says, in a time when kings go to war. What did David do? He remained, he fell into adultery. Well, for Christians, this is the time we're in war.

When you're saved, you enter into a war. A good soldier. The violent take the kingdom of heaven by force, Jesus said. The Christian life is a life of waging war. We read it in Psalms 18. What did David do to his enemies?

He pursued them until what? Yeah, until they're unable to rise. And you know what I'm called to do? There's that lofty argument, I pursue that thing until it's unable to rise, and then I take that man and bring him as a captive to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I tear down the strongholds in his life, in his mind, just like that Baha 'i guy. I mean, I went to the website he gave me. I read their thing. I went back down and talked to him again. I said, on the website, there's nothing about how your sins can be taken care of.

You believe in this lofty argument that everyone's going to come together and Buddha's from God the Father and Muhammad's from God the Father and Jesus is from God the Father. I had to try to tear that down.

Now, nothing happened. There wasn't any tearing down that I could see. I needed more power. I needed God to move. But we don't want to be like David. We don't want to be like David. When the kings go to war, we remain.

As Christians, we're in a war against sin in our own life, against the lies in other people's lives, against the lies in your children's minds. What arguments do your children think and have? You've got to tear those down.

You think about some of the greatest military campaigns that have existed. What comes to your mind? Not in the spiritual realm. In the physical. Who's in history? Normandy. Gettysburg. People think about Napoleon.

Napoleon. I mean, one list said Hitler had the greatest military campaign when they took out France that had the greatest military power in the world. It was one of the most unexpected victories when they wiped out the French army.

Yeah, seven days. Israel, the six-day war. You know what? We can kind of look at that and we can go, wow, that's amazing. But I'll tell you guys, the campaign you all are a part of, it is so much more amazing than that.

It's of eternal value. We're waging war for souls. We need a fresh glimpse of that as Christians. I recently did a study called Epaphroditus Receives the Medal of Honor. And the Medal of Honor is the greatest medal of valor in the military.

And a lot of young guys, they think I want to grow up and win a Medal of Honor. Who cares about a medal that your country gives? What about that honor which like Epaphroditus had, the Christian can have in serving the Lord Jesus Christ?

We want that to grip us with that is amazing, that is incredible. And like Romans 2 says, seek for glory and honor. Not in some proud way, but the Christian is seeking for heavenly glory. They're seeking for honor.

They want to do that which is acceptable for the Lord. We need to be gripped with that. We need to feel the heat. We're in a war. And this is the greatest campaign we could ever be a part of. Paul, he says, no soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.

And whether you're a young Timothy and in the ministry or not, there's still this idea of the Christian being vigilant because our enemy prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to whom he may devour.

The War in the Church and in Evangelism

Now, second question, among whom is the war taking place? And you say, what do you mean? Whom? Think Paul here. Who's Paul writing to? Is Paul dealing with the lost people out in the world? No. He's dealing with those in the church.

So in the immediate context, when you think about this idea of taking thoughts captive, it's not necessarily the Baha 'i guy in the airport. Though that could apply to that man that I want a war with him like that, the biggest context is the church.

The church at Corinth, they had lofty arguments. They had false teaching there. We'll look at some of that in a moment. But Paul was seeking to take their thoughts captive and to destroy strongholds in those in the church.

Why does that matter? Well, one, it helps us to realize we can expect that. You guys as a new church can expect that there are going to be people and it could be yourself, so you've got to make sure you get the log out, that have opinions, that have arguments that are not according to the knowledge of God.

And when we see that, we don't just do nothing about it. We seek to deal with it. We seek to destroy it with these divine weapons that we'll look at. So the war, first off, is taking place in the local church.

Then secondly, I would say, it's taking place evangelistically with those out there who are lost. Isn't that what happens? You evangelize to a guy, maybe he comes and visits the church, and then you start seeing problems and problems.

There's problems happening right there. There's problems happening all the time. And you deal with them. So, first point was this. We're in a war campaign. Paul says here, warfare. You Christian have warfare going on.

Secondly, among whom is the war taking place? First, it's in this church where opinions try to rise up. Secondly, it's with those in the lost world. They are full of thoughts that are not according to Christ.

The Mind as the Battlefield

Third thing is this, where is the battlefield of this war? Where's the battlefield taking place? Look what Paul says right here. Verse 5, we destroy arguments. Where do those happen? They start in the mind.

Every lofty opinion in the mind raised against the knowledge of God. Well, that's the mind of God. It's things in the mind of man against the mind of God. And we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

And so the battle is taking place in people's minds. Now that's interesting because the mind, you can't look at someone and know what's in the mind. Meaning there are things you've got to get out of the person's mind before you can deal with them.

There are things buried in the mind that you don't even know exist. There's wrong thinking that's not according to Christ that some of us at times don't even know that is there and that we have to deal with.

So the mind is where the battlefield is taking place. You think about repentance. What does repentance mean? The Greek word people say, metanoia, a change of mind, and that's true. Part of repentance is a change of mind.

So when we're waging war, what are we wanting people to do? We're wanting people's thoughts to be changed where they repent, they change their mind on that certain thought and that stronghold is destroyed.

And now they come as a captive to Jesus Christ to obey Him. And in this case, the apostolic teaching that Paul had to the church there. So, fourthly, who are the enemies in this war? Who are the enemies?

We see right here, verse 4 says what? Strongholds. Verse 5, arguments, lofty opinions, and they're all raised against the knowledge of God. So let's think about these enemies for a moment. Let's turn one chapter over.

False Jesus, False Spirit, and False Gospel

Chapter 11. This is in the context of Paul defending his ministry. This is in the context of that. Look at verse 1. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me, for I have the divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Led astray how? Look at verse 4. For if someone comes, proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel.

So Satan in his cunning, he comes in and in men's thoughts, he's trying to present to them a different Jesus, a different spirit, and a different message of the Gospel. And Paul, he says, I'm afraid for you that your thoughts are being led astray.

So one thing we need to know about our enemy, we can find right here, our enemy the devil is cunning just like he duped Eve in the garden and deceived her. Satan still to this day is saying little slanders and changing things subtly to lead men's minds away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

And so there Paul is saying that to them. The very thing he says in chapter 10 about taking every thought captive, here he's dealing with them and saying your thoughts led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

But let's think briefly about those words there. Our enemies, these strongholds, arguments, and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. What are some strongholds? It's interesting even that he uses that word.

I mean, a stronghold. That's not small. And you feel it. I mean, when you're talking to a guy from the Baha 'i religion, you feel it. That guy has a stronghold. And initially, we can go in naively dealing with people's souls and we think, oh, they'll just bow to Christ.

They'll see it so clearly. And what happens? You find out they're blind. It's so hard for them to respond. They don't want to hear you. Strongholds. One, we just read it. Proclaiming a false Jesus. Receiving a different spirit.

Satan disguising himself as an angel of light. We read in Colossians, people will try to take you captive by philosophy, empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

For in Him, the whole fullness of God, the fullness of deity dwells bodily. So philosophy, empty deceit, human traditions. According to human traditions. Not according to Christ. There's a lot there. We could take a long time to go into what every one of those sayings means.

Some other strongholds. Think of this. A stronghold of a false profession. Imagine people in a church who have a profession and are not a true Christian. That's a stronghold. I mean, that's a stronghold.

They do not want to give it up. You may not know for certain, but there's some sense of are they really a brother or sister? It's a stronghold. Strongholds. Here one is that I ran into. That I can be a Christian even though I'm living in sin.

So what if I'm viewing filth on the Internet? I'm a Christian. John, he says no. If you say you know Him, but you walk into darkness, you're a liar. And the truth isn't in you. If you continue to practice sin, you're of your father the devil.

But I'm a deacon in the church. That can be a stronghold. It's got to get torn down by the Word of God through the power of the Holy Spirit. Strongholds. People thinking they're saved because they're baptized.

The stronghold of indifference. Think of that. That's one of the biggest strongholds in children. It's like they're indifferent. It's like something happens and it doesn't move them. And you're thinking that totally should move them.

Their dog died. They should have woken up and seen death is real. Or their friend died. They should wake up and see death is real. Indifference is a stronghold. Strongholds out there of Jesus not being God.

I mean, you've got so many cults that want to say that. And deny the Trinity, deny the deity of Christ. Any stronghold that isn't Christ as your tower of refuge needs to get torn down. Any emphasis that isn't on Christ needs to get torn down.

Some of you all I know have dealt with the cult in Texas, the church of Wells. There are strongholds there. I mean, there are strongholds that group has. And it's strong. I mean, it's sad. You know, you feel like I've got a biblical argument, they're going to listen to me, and it's just so slippery, and they don't.

And you're just sitting there waging war. Here they have a different spirit. And just like these people had a different spirit, and you're saying to them, I'm afraid for you that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts are led astray from a simple and pure devotion to Christ.

And you're getting this emphasis on works, not Christ. And you sit there just afraid for them. This stuff happens. You think about arguments. Our enemy, one of them is arguments. Arguments are used to rationalize sin and unbelief and delay repentance.

And Paul says in Colossians, people come with what type of arguments? Plausible arguments. There are arguments that seem reasonable. They seem probable. They seem believable. For the majority, they hear it.

And like Peter, they start to think it's true until Paul comes and rebukes in Galatians. And it's so easy. It seems right because this is in the Mosaic Law. And maybe we should be doing this. And maybe we should be going back to the old and reading the old into the new.

Arguments. False teachers argue all the time to take your thoughts away from Christ. They want it on laws. They want it on rules. They've got it bent towards legalism. And you've got to notice that. That's a stronghold.

That's got to get torn down in someone's life. They need to be set free from that bondage. Another enemy right there is lofty opinions. Lofty opinions. In Colossians 2 .8, turn there real quick. Colossians 2.

Right after Philippians. Lofty opinions. Let no one disqualify you. Colossians 2 .18. Insisting on asceticism, worship of angels, going on in detail about visions. Puffed up without reason by a sensuous mind and not holding fast to the head from whom the whole body nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments grows with a growth that is from God.

Again, Paul is showing Christ is the center. But here, lofty opinions of visions. You know what's going to happen to you guys? You will have people come and visit this church. And you know what they're going to want to talk about to you?

Their vision. Their experience. And you know what the approach is? I shouldn't despise prophecy. I shouldn't just say all this is false. But let's test it. But you know what happens so often? There's such an emphasis on that and you realize that's a stronghold.

This person has this lofty opinion of some vision of something they had and they're just going on and on in detail about that vision. And you've got to tear that down. Because that thing is making them not a captive to Jesus Christ, they're captive to an experience.

It's like when you ask someone their testimony, when did the Lord save you? And right away, they go to an experience. Nothing about Christ. Nothing about the cross. It's like I was in my room and I saw Christ.

He appeared to me. And so I know I'm a Christian. Or the whole thing of I got in a car wreck and I didn't die, so God must be on my side and I must be a Christian. Those are strongholds. Those are lofty opinions.

Those are arguments that may seem plausible. God must be on my side. If you got in a car wreck and didn't die, God is on your side and that He didn't let you die yet in order to lead you to repent. Not to think you're a Christian because He spared your life.

So these are the enemies. These are big guys. Strongholds, lofty opinions, arguments, philosophies out there. All of them have one thing in common. Their emphasis is not on the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

Christ is not the emphasis. And notice here, verse 5, what we're to do is take captives to obey Christ. So we're getting them away from whatever it is that is not about the Christ of the Bible. And we're bringing them to the Christ of the Scriptures.

Victory Through Captive Minds and a True Knowledge of Christ

Fifth question, point. How is victory in this war achieved? Okay, here I am in a war campaign. It's like what's the end goal? Where are we going with this battle? How do I know when there's been a victory in this battle?

Well, it's when the person's thoughts and understanding of Christ are purified. It's when they have a right understanding of Christ. Look at the text, verse 5. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

Why are we doing this? We don't just destroy the stronghold. Once you take a stronghold, you know what they did in the Old Testament? Sometimes they'd take captives. And so we knock all these strongholds down, and then they come and they see the foolishness of all the strongholds.

They've all crumbled. All their strongholds in their mind have crumbled. And the false professor realizes, I'm lost. I'm not a Christian. I understand what it means to be born again. I've never been born again.

I've been a slave of sexual sin for this many years. There's no way I'm a Christian. And the young child realizes, there's no way I was a Christian. I've been so self-righteous. Everything I do is based on getting people's approval.

And that stronghold crumbles, and they don't just stand there. You take them as a captive to Christ. They come to Christ. They have a pure understanding of Christ. They realize that Christ is not, I don't get His favor by my works.

I get it by what He has accomplished. So victory is achieved when these arguments are destroyed, and then we take the person's mind captive to Christ. John Trapp said this, the king of Perithea was so subdued by the Romans that he made a law that none of his successors should ever wage war with them again.

They were so beaten by the Romans, they made a law, don't ever wage war with them again. You know what we want to happen to people's lofty arguments and opinions that are not according to Christ? We want them to have all of that so destroyed where they realize, I'm never going to war against Christ and His people again.

He is Lord. I'm not going to bow the knee then in force. I'm going to bow the knee now willingly and say that Jesus Christ is Lord. That's victory. Man's greatest need is to be obedient in how they think about Christ.

I mean, how do you think about Christ? Do you think of Christ in a biblical way? That's the most important thing. Not how you think about homeschooling, not how you think about even the order in the church and how things are done.

How do you think about Christ? It's not your job, it's Christ. When you set your mind on things above where He is seated, what are you thinking of? Who is Jesus Christ? Well, look at that in the end, because that's the big thing.

If I need to bring captives to Christ, who is Christ? Do I have the Christ of the Bible? Do I know Jesus Christ? So that's men's greatest need. Sixthly, what are our weapons to fight them with? What are the weapons?

Holy Living, Scripture, and the Spirit’s Power

Now, let's look at the text. V. 4, 2 Corinthians 10, 4, For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. Now, Paul does not specifically say there what they are directly.

He doesn't give it as clear as you'd like, you could say. When he says right there, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, I don't necessarily think his idea is it's not swords and things like that.

What were they suspecting Paul of doing? Ministering in a way according to the flesh. They weren't suspecting Paul as running around with a sword. They were expecting he was dealing with people in the church.

They were accusing him of dealing with the people in the church in a way of human tactics. You know, being too severe and doing this and doing that. So when Paul comes down here in v. 4 and says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, I don't think he means we don't use swords and spears and trebuchets.

His point is all those human tactics, we're not doing that. That's not what we do. We are using weapons that have divine power. Power so strong, it can destroy strongholds. That's an encouragement. But what are these weapons?

What are they? He doesn't directly say it there. Turn a couple pages back. We can maybe get part of this idea in 2 Corinthians 6 -7. Verse 6, he talks about purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love by truthful speech and the power of God with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.

So here he uses this same idea of weapons and he says of righteousness. And he just talked about knowledge, patience, kindness, purity. So first, this matters. If I'm in a war, what are my weapons? This is how I want to say it.

First that I get from there is it's a holy life. That's the first thing. Do you have a holy life? Paul says weapons of righteousness. He just talked about genuine love. Paul lived a life. What did he say in 1 Corinthians 4?

He didn't know of anything against himself. This man realized, I am in a war campaign that is so serious that I better make sure I've got no compromise going into war because it could cost me my life.

Or it could cost the war. And so Paul says, I don't know of anything against myself in 1 Corinthians 4. So first thing, you could say is a holy life. Second thing is preaching the Holy Word. The Word that is set apart.

What did Paul say in Ephesians 6 when he was talking about the full armor of God? He says we use the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. And we read in Hebrews 4 .12 that the Word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword and is able to pierce into the heart.

It's able to pierce to the deepest places. And that's what we need to do when people have strongholds. We've got to get to the deepest place because where are our enemies? Where's the battlefield? In the mind.

How are we going to get in there? We need something that can penetrate it. We need some sword that the Spirit, when that sword stabs, the Spirit will empower it to make it really count. And that is the Word of God.

1 Peter, he says we're born again by the living, abiding Word of God. So a holy life, preaching the Holy Word, aided by the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. If we don't have the Holy Spirit, you can be stabbing that Word all day long.

Nothing's going to happen. People are born again. People are changed when the Spirit of God opens their eyes. As the wind blows where it wishes, you hear it sound. You don't even know where it comes from.

It's like one day you're out in battle with that Baha guy who you think is a hopeless cause. You start to believe that lie. And you're out there trying to destroy an argument. And you know what happens?

You say the truth you said ten times and all of a sudden, he looks at you and he says, you're right! I'm wrong! And you're thinking, what happened? What did I do differently? Well, the Spirit of God empowered it.

Turn to Romans 15. So, a holy life, preaching the Holy Word, aided by the Holy Spirit in our delivery of the Word. And then ultimately, the Holy Spirit just saving men, making it real. The next thing, all accomplished through the Holy One, Jesus Christ.

Romans 15, verse 18,. For I will not venture, Paul says, to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me. To do what, Paul? To bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed. By the power of signs and wonders.

By the power of the Spirit of God. So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Eccles. I have fulfilled the ministry of the Gospel of Christ. That same idea of obedience. Taking every thought captive to obey Christ.

Paul says these Romans have been brought to the obedience of the faith. And how did it happen? All through Christ has accomplished through me. It's something Christ does. What does Paul say in Philippians 2?

It is Him who works in me to will and to work for His good pleasure. We need the Lord. Just like that psalm we read. We're equipped by Him. The power is supplied by Him. The worst thing you ever want to do is go out and evangelize without relying on the Lord.

I did that as a new Christian. I got so used to evangelizing and I kind of got overconfident and I went out one day. No real prayer. No real, Lord, give me strength. And it was a bunch of powerlessness and God let me see.