Dressed for Warfare (Part 1)

You know, there was a story told of a chess champion taking a tour for his competitions.

And because he loved art, during his tournaments, his competitions, he would also go and view different art galleries.

In one particular art gallery, he came across an art piece which really intrigued him.

It was one with a painting of a chess board.

On one side of the chess board was the devil laughing hysterically.

On the other side of the chess board was a young man, sweat on his brow, jittery fingers in his clashing teeth and he looked up at the title of the painting and it said, Chat Mate.

As if to portray that the devil had won the soul of the young man.

He kept looking at the chessboard, the pieces and the pawns on the board.

He found something amiss.

And so he goes to the art gallery staff and he asked for a chess board with the pieces.

Now he placed the pieces on his chess board, accordingly to what the picture is portraying.

He looks at his chess board, he looks at the painting.

He looks at his chessboard, he looks at his painting.

Now remember, he's a chess champion.

And he starts to laugh to himself.

And he says to the young man in that picture, he says, boy, I sure wish you could hear me right now because I've got good news.

It only looks like the devil is winning, but there's only one move left on the board and you get to make it.

Your enemy has miscalculated something.

I'm a chess champion.

I know this game.

You can dry the sweat off your forehead, get your finger out of that mouth because you, not he, gets to make the final move.

And I love that story because it's like we've been duped into thinking that the devil is winning.

We've been deceived into thinking that he, not us, get to make the final move.

We've been duped into thinking that he's running the show, he's calling the shots, and we're just puppets on his strings.

Well, church, I come with some good news for you today.