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We need to get tough because listen, we can be tough in Christ. It's His might, it's His

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strength, and we have been given the orders in the Bible to stand against the wilds of

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the devil. The reality is, Jesus said the devil is real, He's an actual entity. The

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awesome thing is we have been given the commission to stand against the wilds, the trickery,

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the schemes.

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You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibs.com slash podcast. Today, if this

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podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you

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leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating

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will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is

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Jackhibs.

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Whole armor of God. That's what's available to us and that's what we're going to do. We're going to

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do that very thing. The Bible tells us in Romans 13, verse 12, the night is far spent. I look at it

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this way. There's a healthy sense of anxiety. I don't mean bad anxiety. I mean the anxiety like, wow,

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this is an amazing time. I mean, I've got to go to college or I've got to do my job or I've

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got to do my thing. Yes, you do. And you keep doing that. But as you do that, be equipped to live a

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real Christian life. To get ready. And if you and I find ourselves starting to get stressed out

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and worried, then listen, we got some armor in the wrong place or we've left something off.

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We need to remember that. But the number one thing is that we see in Romans 13, verse 12,

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the night is far spent. The day is at hand, therefore, let us cast off the works of darkness.

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Think about all the stuff that we used to be involved in, that the Bible calls darkness.

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And let us put on the armor of light and let us walk properly, not as in the day, not in

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revelry or in drunkenness, not in ludeness or lust, not in strife and envy, verse 14 says,

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but put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And to do that, and I'm assuming I'm speaking in the positive,

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that you are going to get into your Bible and you're going to know that your Bible get all over

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you. And you're and you are going to be, as Paul said to the church at Ephesus, finally my brethren.

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That word finally is a powerful word because it actually means the remaining or this is what

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remains. It means from now on that word finally and Greek means from this time forward,

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looking into the future, the things that remain. Finally, my brethren, dedicate everything

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about your life to God. You need not carry this year on your own shoulders. It is his might,

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it is his strength. And you can trust him for that. He says to be strong in the Lord, the power

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of God, which is imparted. It's an empowerment that God gives. God has promised to give you his

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strength if you'll ask for it. Think about that. Well, with all the decisions that we're going to

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have to make as a people, what are we going to do? God knows. He says, don't worry about that.

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Just know my word. This is what's great about him. He's given us his answers right here and you and

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I are to be like miners with the light on and go find these great truths that are here for that very

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thing. And by doing that, you're putting on Christ. You're going to put them on and he's going to

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respond in your life by the Holy Spirit. He's promised to do that. When verse 11 says put on the

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whole armor of God, that this armor that we put on is something that is an armor that is

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all that we need. In other words, God says when I give you the whole armor, there's nothing lacking.

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Please listen to this. Are there things in life that's just beating you up? God says it doesn't have

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to be like that. I have given you all the armor that you need to fight the Christian fight and be

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successful in that. Against temptation, against thoughts. I don't know if we'll get to it tonight,

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but we'll certainly get to it by Sunday. The biggest thing that you and I need to be armored up for,

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I believe personally, at least this is my own experience. It's not so much things external.

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That doesn't happen so much to me. It's an external thing where somebody pulls the gun on me and

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they try to beat me up or stab me or whatever. That's big stuff, man. That's external stuff.

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It's not external temptation. It's not that somebody winks at me or says, hey, how you doing? You

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strong man, you? That doesn't happen. That doesn't happen for obvious reasons. Here's the thing.

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For me in this year ahead, I've noticed over the years that the temptations that come in attack,

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we need armor more than ever regarding our thought life. God's word will surround our thought life.

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And this is key. Just because of thought enters your mind. Does it mean you're supposed to go with it?

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You fight it and you need to know how to fight it. And I think the enemy because he's very smart and

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we're late, that he's going to throw the kitchen sink at us, so to speak, right? And the great

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thing is that we are going to have all the necessary armor regarding these things. You'll see a few

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of them or a couple of them tonight. But that whole armor means everything that we need.

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This is cute. Listen, I think it's awesome. The word means to be so armored up

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that it implies that every conceivable part of you has got weapon tree for battle.

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And from this term comes a word that you might, or a saying that you might remember from some

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good old like swashbuckler type of movie, maybe from Jack Sparrow, I don't know. But have you ever

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heard this term to be armed to the teeth? Do you know what that means? It's pretty cool. It means

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to have all of the armor that you have. You're going in the battle and you're going to, you're going

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to go into it to win. And this is how we as Christians need to approach this year. We're going to

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go in, walking with Jesus, putting on everything that he's given us. And I've got all of my armament.

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I've made myself already. Gosh. Oh, I still have a mouth. I can take this dagger or this sword and

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just put it in my mouth and I can carry it that way. Have you ever seen like pirate movies where

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the guys crawling under the ship and he's armed to the teeth? That's exactly what that word means.

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Is to have armament so at your ready that you'll, you'll even arm yourself to the teeth. You will

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get a knife or a dagger spiritually speaking and you'll bite it as you go into battle because

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you're going to need it. And I want you to think of yourself this year as a Christian like that

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against evil, darkness, the horrible things that are going on in our world and in our nation,

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in sanity, right, craziness, intimidation, violence, whatever it might be. Get arm to the teeth.

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It's all there. God says so. Number two is verses 11 to 12 and the great put on is that we would put

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on what is tough. We need to listen. We need to put on what's tough people. It says in verses 11

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and 12 that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. This is your Bible speaking.

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Listen to this. Put on what is tough that we might stand against the wiles of the devil. Verse 12

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for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers,

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against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the

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heavenly places. What does that mean? That believers fight against spiritual entities that are not

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human. That just should freak you out. The Bible teaches this throughout and we need to get tough.

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We need to toughen up. And what I mean by that is this. We need to get tough so that we don't

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sound like this. Why did this happen to me? My weeks been going really rough. I don't know what's

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going to happen. You need to get tough. You need to get tough to realize that we're in a war,

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we're in a fight. You could be just sailing down Newport Bay on the outside. Everything's perfect.

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And inside you can be engaged in a radical spiritual war. You think about that. I don't know if I

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shared this with you guys recently or I shared it with somebody else. I lose track of where I'm at

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all the time. Can't keep up with it all but have you ever noticed that there's places where you just

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feel that this is a dark area you want to leave? Many times and we thank God for this. People will

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pull onto the campus and they'll tell us, I don't know what's going on here but I just felt

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this incredible piece when we pulled into the parking lot. Well listen, in the reverse there's

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places where you can drive into or walk into or there's people that you can meet and you know

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something's wrong here. Now you don't go, ho! Put some garlic on but you sense something's wrong.

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You need to get tough to that. That's how we're going to be strong against deception when somebody

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offers us a contract or a statement or an opportunity. Watch out. We need to get tough against

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our own thoughts, tough against the thoughts of others and the words of others. I understand that.

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We're all human but we're living in a day now when we say that we're a follower of Jesus

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and it's going to cost you something and that's okay. I do believe that God is preparing this

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church and He has been for some time now but we need to get tough and I wrote some thoughts down

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about getting tough against the wiles of the devil and what that might mean. We need to get

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tough about what's going on in our lives. We need to get tough about what's going on in the

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lives of those that we live with. When I say get tough, I mean get into truth. Be filled with love

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and light and the armament. Fight for your families. Go to your kids' rooms. Get on your knees. Let

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them hear you. Train for them. Out loud, dad. Mom, do it. Well, I'm going to feel silly. Get tough.

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Go to war. Pray over those little souls. Pray for them. Fight for them. We need to get tough

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regarding what's called church these days. My goodness. I understand it. I get it. There's a

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massive exodus of people leaving California to greener pastures. I get that. If I wasn't

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anchored to this place, I'd probably be going to. I understand that. But here's what I'm listening.

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You know it too. People then call us back or they write us back. We can't find Bible teaching

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churches anywhere. So you got to pick something here. You got to have a lunatic for a governor

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and a church or go somewhere and not have a church. I don't know. It's tough out there.

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Here's the thing. We got to get tough. We got to get strong. And God's Word will strengthen us for that.

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First John says that we need to get tough against the spirit of this world.

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And all these things imply invisible wars. The believers involved in invisible wars.

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Regarding invisible wars. He media what comes to my mind. I don't know if you remember this guy's name.

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But you remember Elijah in the Bible. You got Elijah and Elijah. And Elijah with an S,

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he had a servant by the name of Gehezai. And funny guy, anyway, you can read about him. But

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Elijah's out like a light sleeping and Gehezai goes and looks and he sees just a massive military

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gathering of enemy forces that have assembled to destroy Israel and certainly Elijah and Gehezai's

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freaking out. And you could just see Elijah. I mean, this is awesome. You got to admit you are

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looking at absolute certain defeats. Because you can see these guys. And come on. We're talking

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about an era in a time. These are gnarly looking people. They've got blood painted on their faces.

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You know, they haven't been to a dentist because dentistry had not been invented. That's scary enough.

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They're stinky. They're killers. I mean, they are an army.

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Massive. And Gehezai goes, we're going to die. It's over. And you can see Elijah just kind of wiping

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sleep from his eyes. Lord, will you open his eyes to see what's really going on here? Okay.

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And can you imagine Gehezai? The Bible says that he could see, but he couldn't see what mattered.

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Could you imagine? So Elijah prays and Gehezai blinks and he opens his eyes. And the Bible tells us

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that he sees a massive, massive host of heavenly forces and jealous creatures that are in position

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to destroy that invading army against God's people. Think about that. So, man, I don't see it.

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Well, you know what? First of all, ask God to open your eyes. Now, you need to be careful,

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though. I mean, I don't know if I want to see it. I just want, how about this? God, I don't

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need to see it. Let's just get the victory. Let's just do this. You know, I don't know if I want

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to see this, but he saw it. And you need to remember that. We need to get tough because, listen,

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we can't be tough in Christ. It's his might, it's his strength. And we have been given the

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orders in the Bible to stand against the wiles of the devil, a real personal devil. You know,

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you may think that's a fairy tale silly thing. And that's sad because he's got you where he wants

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you. The reality is, Jesus said the devil's real. He's an actual entity. The awesome thing is we

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have been given the commission to stand against the wiles, the trickery, the schemes. The word

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wiles is where there is this secret clandestine plotting. In other words, the enemy of us is always

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trying to figure out how to get to you. That's why I'm a big fan of God's grace because if you

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and I knew what was pointing at us every day from the spirit realm, we'd probably pass out,

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but God's grace gets us through each day. You know, remember Bugs Bunny? Have you ever watched

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Bugs Bunny for those deep theological illustrations? Do you remember him Bugs Bunny's sleepwalking

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and he walks through the construction site? That's like us, man. He's sleeping, he's stepping

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off a beam. The crane's going up, fix him up, take some over there. He lands on the wheelbarrow,

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goes down the thing, goes over there and defend another. Oh my goodness, that's, we don't know what's

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going on. And God's got it. We need to remember that. And we're able to stand against the wiles.

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