Be Prepared

What this episode covers

Bible Verses Ephesians 6:10-15 Ephesians 6:13-17 Today, we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of our republic. Over those years, we have had some good times, and we have had some bad times. One of the worst times our nation ever experienced was on December 7, 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would declare it a day that would live in infamy, marking the moment when the naval forces of the Japanese Empire launched a surprise attack on our naval base at Pearl Harbor. That single attack sank or damaged 21 of our ships and killed over 2,400 of our people. Countless books and articles have been written analyzing why we were so completely surprised, debating who failed to do their job or who failed to pass along critical intelligence. But when you look at it closely, the crux of the entire tragedy comes down to one simple fact: we did not know we were at war. That was our biggest problem. We did not know we were at war, and the Japanese military did not officially declare war until after the attack had already begun due to transmission delays from Japan. Not knowing you are in a battle changes everything. I had a friend who was a phenomenal teacher in Waukesha—truly one of the best educators I have ever heard. Before his teaching career, he served as a Marine during the Vietnam War. He told me that after completing his initial training, most men were immediately deployed, but he and a few others had to wait for their official orders. With very little to do while waiting, they decided to attend evening classes on jungle survival and combat tactics in Vietnam. These classes were entirely voluntary, so they went simply to pass the time. Because they had no immediate skin in the game, they sat in the back, cracked jokes, cut up, and treated the instructions as entertainment. That all changed the moment he received his physical orders. His paperwork arrived stating that in exactly one week, he was deploying to Vietnam. The very next night, those survival classes took on a completely different meaning. When the other guys tried to make jokes, he turned to them and said, “Be quiet. I need to hear this.” Why the sudden shift? Because he finally realized he was going to war. As believers, we must realize the exact same thing: if you are a follower of Christ, you are actively in a war. The Apostle Paul uses military terminology constantly throughout his letters. In 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 and 2 Timothy 2:4, he instructs us to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. In Philippians 2:25, he refers to Epaphroditus as a fellow soldier, and in 1 Timothy 1:18, he charges us to wage the good warfare. We are in a war, but it is not fought in the physical realm—it is fought in the spiritual. We see this pattern all throughout the Old Testament. When Joshua led the Israelites, victory did not come through conventional military strategy. The priests had to step into the Jordan River at flood stage before the waters divided. At Jericho, they marched around the walls for seven days, and the walls collapsed through obedience and faith. When fighting the Amalekites, Israel prevailed only as long as Moses kept his hands raised in prayer. Keeping your hands up has nothing to do with physical combat; it was a clear sign that a spiritual battle was taking place. Later, God told Gideon that his army of 32,000 men was far too large, eventually whittling them down to just 300 men against 135,000 Midianites. God did this to prove that spiritual battles are never won by human might. This truth remains identical in the New Testament. When the Apostle Paul writes to encourage believers to be good soldiers, he always establishes the root before he focuses on the fruit. In his epistles, like Ephesians, he begins by anchoring us in what we have in Christ—our righteousness and our secure place in eternity. He ensures our roots are firmly planted in spiritual truth before telling us how to live. Spiritually, a believer exists in two place

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