Let's pray together. Lord, I pray that You would make us strong today. Make Your people strong through our study of Your mighty Word that points us to Your mighty Son. Make us strong. For Jesus' glory we pray, Amen. Amen. I want to read a few passages of Scripture, two Old Testament passages, and then a few New Testament passages that show what Paul was thinking about as he wrote these verses that we just read. The two Old Testament passages show us what Paul was thinking about as he wrote these, and the other New Testament passages I'm going to read were all written by Paul, and they're similar to this that help us understand more of what Paul was getting at. The first passage I want us to turn to is Isaiah 11. Isaiah 11. If you're using the Pew Bible, it's page 489. This prophecy in Isaiah 11 was written about 800 years before Jesus came, and it is a prophecy that the Messiah is going to come and bring peace on earth. Isaiah 11, starting in verse 1. We'll read down to verse 9. Isaiah declares the Word of the Lord. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse. A little tree is going to spring out of an old stump. And who was Jesse? Jesse was King David's father. So, this shoot from the stump of Jesse is like saying there's coming a descendant of David. Right? This is the Davidic promise. That one day, one of David's children would reign on his throne forever. So a shoot is going to come from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots will bear fruit. Verse 2, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon that one. This is a messianic prophecy. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what his eye sees or decide disputes by what his ears hear. That's how all of us need to make judgment calls, right? But He will judge with righteousness the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth." So this King is going to be Spirit-filled. He is going to be wise. It says there in the middle of verse 4, "...and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth." And with the breath of His lips, He will kill the wicked. He is a mighty warrior who's coming to bring peace. Verse 5, Righteousness will be the belt of His waist. Sound familiar? Faithfulness will be the belt of His loins. And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat and the calf and the lion. The fattened calf together, the little child will lead these wild animals. The cow and the bear will graze together. Their young shall lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra. And the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." When will that happen? This is awaiting the son of Jesse, the son of David, who would be filled with the Spirit. Peace on earth will come when He comes. I want us to jump over now to Isaiah 59. If you're using the Pew Bible, it's page 524. Isaiah 59, and we're going to start a reading in verse 14. The same man is prophesying. Slightly different context. We'll pick up reading in verse 14 and then I'll explain the context. Isaiah says, justice is turned back and righteousness stands afar off. For truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness is not allowed there. cannot enter. Truth is lacking. And he who departs from evil..." That's a good thing to depart from evil. "...he who departs from evil makes himself a prey." In other words, this whole nation is wicked and wayward and rebellious. They love their sin. And they persecute people who repent and want to do what's right. So what was God's response to that situation? when he looked down and saw the wickedness of his people. It says there in the middle of v. 15, the Lord saw it and it displeased Him that there was no justice. V. 16, He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. There was no leader who would lead these people rightly. Then, His own arm brought Him salvation. And His righteousness upheld Him. So, the Lord decided that He was going to be the Rescuer, the Savior of His people. Verse 17, look what He did. And see if these verses sound familiar. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on His head. Sound familiar? And He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped Himself in zeal as a cloak according to their deeds so He will repay. wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies. To the close lands he will render repayment, so they shall fear the name of the Lord from the West and His glory from the rising of the sun. For He will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives, and a Redeemer will come to Zion and those in Jacob who turn from transgression. He will come to those who repent of their sins. That's what the Lord declares. My people are in trouble. They're full of sin. I'm going to go rescue them. So He came down and He executed judgment on His enemies and He rescued all who would repent of their sins. The Lord is the one putting on the armor. The Lord is the warrior who would rescue His people who were in danger. So can you start seeing the imagery that Paul's got when he says take on the whole armor of God? In some cases, he's quoting directly from these prophecies 800 years before. I hope you see that the armor of God in Ephesians 6, the descriptions of those six pieces of armor, is rich with biblical history and imagery. It's rich. I want us to further our understanding of it, so I'm kind of doing all of my teaching just by reading Scripture this morning. I want to further our understanding by reading a couple New Testament passages. The first one of those is 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. If you're using the Pew Bible, it's page 847. This is a letter that Paul wrote to a different church about 10 years before he wrote the letter to the church at Ephesus that we're studying. So this is about 10 years earlier than the letter to Ephesians. He's writing 1 Thessalonians 5, and we're going to read verses 6 through 8. And what Paul's doing here, he's warning the church about the end that's approaching and the persecution that's going to increase as the end approaches. He urges them, verse 6, First Thessalonians 5 6. So then let us not sleep. I prayed there in our prayer of adoration. Lord, help us not to be that slothful servant who says it's going to be a long time till the end comes. I'm just going to go live it up. I'm not going to care what what he instructs me to do. This is what Paul's thinking. He says, let's not sleep. Let's not get lazy as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But since we belong to the day..." We're children of light. "...since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation." So you can see, Paul's been thinking about this armor of God for a long time. When he writes to the church at Ephesus, he's been meditating on this armor for a decade at least. And it also helps you see that when we read the armor of God in Ephesians 6, we're not supposed to necessarily get hung up on which aspect of faith or which character quality like truth or righteousness goes with which piece of armor. They're kind of fluid, right? Here, it's the breastplate of faith and love. In Ephesians, it's the breastplate of righteousness. So for all of you who are like Adrian Monk and you're perfectionists, I'm sorry. You're going to have to live with it not being always exactly the same. The point is not That, you know, every quality goes with every piece. It's that all of these things together form our armor. The armor is an illustration and the character qualities and and the faith and the love. These things are somewhat interchangeable. The point is, be strong in faith, be strong in truth, be strong in righteousness, be strong in love and holiness. Live like a Christian, work out your salvation and it will arm you against the attacks of Satan. That's the point of the armor. Next passage is back a few pages. Romans 13 verses 11 to 14. It's page 812. If you're using the few Bible page 812. Paul wrote this about five years after his letter to the Thessalonians and about five years before his letter to the Ephesians. So this is kind of right in the middle. It's very similar to the passage we just read in 1 Thessalonians. Romans 13, verse 11. He says, besides this, he's just said love one another. Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Jesus coming is right around the corner. Verse 12 says, the night is far gone. The day is at hand. We sing, the sands of time are sinking. The dawn of heaven wakes. It's based on this verse. The first coming of Christ has happened. The second coming of Christ is right on the horizon. Believers, do you see the sunrise? That's what Paul's saying. The day is at hand. So then, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let's walk properly as in the daytime. Not in orgies and drunkenness. Not in sexual immorality and sensuality. Not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh. to gratify its desires." Wow! Did you just catch the put on, put on? He said, put on the armor of light. End of verse 12. And verse 14, he says the same thing with different words. The armor is the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on the armor is equivalent to putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, coming to a deeper faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a deeper knowledge of who He is, is equivalent to arming yourself for battle. 2 Corinthians 10 I'm going to skip over this one quickly. If you're jotting notes, just jot these references. 2 Corinthians 10 Verse four says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they have power to destroy strongholds and earlier in the letter in 2nd Corinthians six and verse seven. He said the weapons of righteousness are things that God's soldiers, God's servants take into their left hand and into their right. The weapons of righteousness. And what he means by that is God's servants. Paul is actually defending himself. He's saying righteousness is the thing that characterizes my life. and he uses that weapon imagery that 2nd Corinthians 10, 4, and 6, 7. Let's jump down to Colossians 4. In the Pew Bibles, this is page 845. Colossians chapter 4, verse 2. Now, I have to point this out, OK? If you look at Colossians 3, you'll see verses 16 and 17 say, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, and it will have these results that you'll admonish each other and sing to each other and submit to each other. Does that sound familiar? It's exactly the same as what's going on in Ephesians 5. And then if you jump down to Colossians 3.18, you'll see wives and then 19 husbands, 20 children, 21 fathers or parents. Fathers being primarily responsible. Verse 22. of Colossians 3 is servants and then chapter 4 verse 1 is masters. We've just been through all that territory in Ephesians. Ephesians and Colossians are sometimes called sister letters because they look so much alike. Now after servants and masters in Ephesians, think with me in Ephesians 6. Mark preached to us last week. It goes servants, then masters, then what comes next? The armor. Right? Finally, be strong. Put on the whole armor. And the armor wraps up with praying always, right? In Ephesians. In Colossians, it goes servants, masters, and then verse 2, continue steadfastly in prayer. Being watchful in it with thanksgiving. So, if you held these letters up together and you said, what section in Colossians is parallel with the armor of God? It would be Colossians 4.2. Continue steadfastly in prayer. If Paul could sum up the entire discussion of the armor in Ephesians 6, it would be, keep on praying. That's instructive. Here in Colossians 4, verses 3 and 4, he goes on and says, pray for me, just like he does at the end of Ephesians 6. It's interesting to see those parallels. Now, let's jump back to Ephesians chapter 6. And again, this is page 839. Now, with all of that background, I told you about half the message would be reading Scripture. I want to read through the first eight verses of our passage, OK? Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, church at Ephesus, or let's apply it to ourselves. Finally, Tri-County Bible Church, 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. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 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 on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the fiery, 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. praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And we'll end the reading there. So we've just read about 40 verses of Scripture. I'm ready to preach. Paul's teaching on the Christian armor in Ephesians six has three main points for us. Point number one, Tri County Bible Church. We need to stand strong. We need to stand strong versus 10 through 13. You actually see that injunction to stand, stand, stand. Let me read him again. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor so that you can stand. Down to verse 13. Take up the whole armor so that you might be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand firm. Verse 14 sums it up saying, stand therefore. You get the idea. Paul is saying, church, stand. Hold your ground. Be strong and firm. It's interesting that the verb is passive. Be strong. Be strengthened. Find strength in someone else. We are not going to find the strength to stand within ourselves, but it will be, at the end of verse 10, in the strength of His might. Or, you will be strong in His mighty power. That's the idea. We need God's strength. It reminds me of Psalm 29. started praying this morning, Psalm 29. The voice of the Lord is mighty. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord creates the flood that shatters the cedars of Lebanon, the tallest trees in the Middle East. The voice of the Lord is mighty. And it ends with, may the Lord give strength to His people. May this mighty God give might to his children. That's the idea. We get strength from him. It's interesting that we don't wait for God to zap us with this strength. We have a responsibility in the matter to put on armor. We actively pursue this strength. We get the strength to stand when we put on the armor. So We need to be strengthened, but we have an obligation to pursue it. Why do we need to be strengthened? Because we are being attacked. That is clear from these first few verses of the passage. Who is attacking us? It is headed up by none other than the devil himself. Satan is strategizing against God's people. People today think that it's crazy to believe in a personal devil. They think it's old. It's medieval to think about that little guy with the pitchfork, with pointy ears, with a red tail sitting on someone's shoulder. That's crazy. People used to believe that kind of superstition back in the old days, but we're modern. We don't believe that there is We believe that there's evil in the world, but not a devil. I mean, that's what those old prehistoric people believed. Why do we believe in a devil? We believe in a devil because God's Word reveals it to us. And God's Word reveals to us everything that is crucial for our life and our godliness. God thought it was important for our Christian lives to realize that we have a thinking, personal, active enemy. This is not some nebulous force. This is a person who hates God and hates his people, and he is active. He is on God's leash. But he is active and he is strategizing and scheming against us along with all of his demonic forces. Those people who rebelled against God with him, those angels that rebelled against God. It's not popular to believe this today, but it is crucial. And I would say, actually, based on this passage. Where Paul specifically says, watch out for the evil one. Withstand the schemes of the devil. Watch out for the spiritual forces of darkness. I would say that one of Satan's schemes today is to get people to not believe he's there. He is actually going to take us off our guard and make us spiritually lazy by saying, don't take me seriously. No. God tells us to take this enemy seriously. And we need to believe it because He ruined Adam and Eve in the garden. And He will keep warring and warring and warring against God's people until the very end when Jesus Christ Himself chains Him and consigns Him to the lake of fire. He is a real being and we really need to take him seriously. He hates Christ. He hates his people and the battle is not over yet. Right now, this devil, Peter says, is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Tri-County Bible Church. We need to stand against demonic powers. Let me clarify three aspects of this calling to stand strong. First of all, this is spiritual, not physical. Standing does not physically mean standing and fighting doesn't mean physically fighting. This is a spiritual call. Specifically, Paul says we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. Throughout the history of the church, Christians, and I use that term in its broadest sense, Christians have damaged the testimony of Jesus Christ by engaging in politics and in warfare. It is one of the greatest hindrances to thoughtful people, at least what they say on the surface. It is one of the greatest hindrances to people accepting Jesus Christ today, is the track record of the church going to war with other people. Our call to stand and to arm ourselves is not a physical fight that we're engaging in. Jesus told His disciples in the garden, put your swords down. If my kingdom were of this world, then my people would fight. My kingdom is not of this world and our war, our fight, is not physical. Second clarification, to stand, our call to stand, is defensive, not offensive. This is big as well. It's spiritual, not physical. And secondly, it's defensive, not offensive. We are called to stand. We're not called in this passage to charge. Our call is to defend a position that's already been won. It's primarily defensive. I think even the sword, which is an offensive weapon, is primarily defensive in hand-to-hand combat. Our call is to stand. The last thing I want to point out is that this call to stand is corporate, not individual. Paul is not issuing these commands to individual Christians, though it has application to every one of our individual lives. He's issuing these commands to an entire church saying, church, stand. It would be like talking to an entire arming. And you could imagine, some of you have seen the old recreations of ancient warfare where you have these gigantic shields and all of the soldiers put their shields together, locked together. And they form an entire wall with their shields. That's exactly the picture that's going on. It's not one lone Christian out in the middle of this barrage. It's an entire army of Christians ready to take on the enemy. It is a call to corporate warfare. We can't do this alone. And I'm reminded of the passage that Joe read for us this morning and Elisha. turns the light on spiritually to show the guy why Elisha is so encouraged when there's an army out to get him. It's because he's got a whole army of angels fighting against him. In Daniel 10, I was thinking of this earlier. Daniel 10. Daniel is praying for three weeks that God would hear and answer his prayer and deliver his people from their plight. And an angel finally comes to him after three weeks and says, I would have been here sooner. Your prayer was heard by God immediately. And I was given the charge to answer you, but I was detained, the angel says. I was detained for 21 days. The angel had to get himself involved in another skirmish, in another warfare with demons who were over another nation. So instead of us seeing ourselves as a lone soldier out in the middle of nowhere with this barrage of enemy fire coming on us, we need to see ourselves as an entire church army with angels who are going to warfare with us. We've got angels on our side as well, and we need to be realistic and we need to be encouraged about Our allies. So we're called to stand point number two. Tri County. We will stand strong. If we are armed. We will stand strong if we are armed. Our call here. Our responsibility is to stand by taking on the armor of God. Remember, Paul is quoting from Isaiah when he says the armor of God. So he doesn't just mean put on a godly life. Put on godly spiritual armor. The picture in his mind is actually that God the Messiah is wearing this armor and we are supposed to share in wearing it. It is the armor that God Himself wears. The inside spread in your bulletin. is actually going to help me be very efficient in working through the second point. We are called to take on the whole armor of God. And there are two different ways of looking at that armor. One is what does it mean that this is God's armor? And you go back to those passages, especially in Isaiah, and you realize that this is the armor that the Messiah himself would wear. And when you interpret those passages in Isaiah, you say, when did Jesus come to bring peace on earth? Well, He came to do it in one sense at His first coming, to make peace between God and men possible and to make peace between men and men possible. Jesus did bring peace on earth in His first coming. But is this world at peace? No. Far from it. We await His Second Coming for the world to be set at peace. So, in terms of Jesus coming, bringing peace, like the shoes of peace refer to, He came in one sense bringing it in His First Coming. In another sense, in His Second Coming. What does it mean that we put it on? Well, that's when you jump over to the church's armor. And you say, you have to come to an understanding of the Gospel. Because the Gospel is what makes you at peace with God and at peace with each other. And then, it's not just understanding the Gospel rightly, but it's living in light of the Gospel. That you are seeking to help others come into a relationship with God that is reconciled, that is at peace. You're ready with the gospel of peace in that sense. And you also realize that God has given us as a congregation peace together. He has made peace between us. So we should be ready to pursue peace with each other. Ready to forgive. Ready to let go of bitterness and grudges. Ready to move on and not hold those things. so that they stand between us. We are ready with the gospel of peace, both in understanding it and in giving it and ministering it in our lives. You see, this armor of God is a complex, beautiful thing that powerfully summarizes the whole book of Ephesians, because isn't the whole book of Ephesians really about peace, peace between God and peace between each other and what that looks like in the context of a church? It really is. So when Paul starts writing about the armor, he's not writing about something new. It's the same stuff he's been talking about, just illustrated in a way that should help us connect Scripture together. Some of you are saying, whoa, you just lost me. Just soaking it a little bit. Take maybe one day of the next week to focus on one piece of armor and think, the belt of truth. What does that mean? What did it mean for Jesus Christ to take on Himself the belt of truth? What does it look like for me to wear that? We are called to arm ourselves, to stand strong by arming ourselves. We understand that this is God's armor that we are to take on ourselves. And I'm just going to very quickly work through the first two. I just handled the piece. I'm going to work through very quickly the first two. Those are all I'm going to deal with this morning. And then I'm going to jump down to the practical. How? How do we do this? The first piece of armor were called to fasten on is the belt of truth. Jesus Christ himself said, I am the truth. He personally is the truth. When He returns, the rider on the white horse is called faithful and true. He is the truth. And Christians, when we heard the message of Jesus and we believed the Gospel, we both heard the truth and believed the truth. Jesus is the truth, and we come to hear it and believe it. That's how we put it on. How do we live it out? Well, throughout this whole letter, Paul has said things like, I want you to put on the new man that's characterized by truth. Speaking the truth. So what will be Satan's schemes against us? You see that empty box all the way out there at the right in the bulletin. What would you put in there? How is Satan going to scheme and strategize to attack us? Why do we need to put truth on? Believers, hear me and hear me well. Satan is going to get us to doubt the truth of the Gospel. How does he do that? Maybe simply by using the variety of world religions. Keep lots and lots and lots of people duped so that a lot of people think you can't really say that billions of people are wrong. How else does he do people and get even Christians to doubt? Well, he uses popular, blasphemous ideas like are promoted in the Da Vinci Code. Very entertaining book. You can't put it down. Awful ideas, totally historically unfounded. But a lot of people think it's true. Or he uses the seeming scholarly than this of all those Harvard professors on the History Channel documentaries. Now, the Jesus of the first century is very different than what the Bible describes him, and who could argue with one of these Ivy League professors? Satan uses all kinds of things to get us to doubt the truth of the gospel. If you want to talk about those things at some time, you know, the historical claims of the gospel and why we as Christians believe them. I would love to talk with you about them. A good starting place is a book that I've often handed out to different people called The Case for Christ. It's an excellent historical investigation of the truthfulness, the historicity of the gospel accounts. Satan is not only going to try to get us to doubt the truth of Jesus, but he's also going to try to get us to live a lie and to speak lies. And this is probably where we struggle more as believers. He's going to try to get us to live one way in private and live another way in public. Is there truth about you? that you have not been open about. I urge you today, be truthful about it. Be a true, authentic person. What you see is what you get. Don't hide things. Be open. I tell people this all the time. I said it recently. You don't have to be scared of the truth. If you're a humble person willing to admit and repent of your sin, you don't have to be scared. You can be strong in truth. The breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness means doing what's right. It says that the Messiah put on righteousness as a breastplate. What does it mean in His first coming? He came and He lived sinlessly. He did right all the time. He was righteous. That's why John in 1 John 2 can call Jesus Christ the Righteous One. And in His second coming, He will come again in righteousness. Those of us who have trusted in Him are declared righteous by God. God doesn't look at us as sinners anymore. He looks at us as righteous as Jesus Christ. And then we are called to live righteously. Not in order to earn favor with God, but because He has given us righteousness. We're called to live it out, to realize it. We are not perfect, but we are united with the perfect One, and we are called to grow in increasing righteousness. What schemes do you think Satan is going to use to attack us at the point of righteousness? What schemes is he going to use to cripple us? I think he's going to use doubts that sinners like us are actually righteous in God's sight. You're going to have that voice playing in the back of your head. saying. God doesn't think of you as righteous. Who are you trying to fool? You trust in Christ, that's just that's just a bunch of imagination to think that God, the righteous judge, would actually think of you as as holy. You really. You have doubts like that. I do. Satan is going to try to attack us in in whether or not God actually views us as righteous. How else is Satan going to attack us? He's going to try to get us to live unrighteous lives. He's going to get us to be lazy. God has called us to, husbands, to sacrifice for our wives. To lay down our lives for them. To lead our children in a disciplined, diligent, gentle way. You know what Satan's going to try to scheme to do? Put those responsibilities in which you should be righteous. Just put him on the back burner. Satan is going to try to distract you and tempt you to get you to live unrighteously. You get the idea of how rich these pieces of armor are. I'm not going to have time to go through the rest of them. The shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit. I wish very, very much that I could, but I'm going to jump to point three third. We will stand strong, Tri-County, on our knees. We will stand strong on our knees. This is verses 18-20. Notice the first word of verse 18. Praying. Where did that sentence start? The sentence started back up in verse 14. I'll read just the first word and then I'm going to connect the two ideas to show you how Paul's thinking worked. Verse 14 says, Stand. Verse 18 praying. Tri-County Bible Church stand praying. That's the idea. We stand on our knees. So how exactly do you put on this armor? You do it in prayer. That's why Paul in Colossians can sum up the entire armor discussion saying, pray steadfastly. Because if you pray, you'll put on the armor. Notice these for all statements there in verse 18. Pray at all times, with all kinds of prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. That's pretty comprehensive, huh? The church at Ephesus. Would fulfill this command when they gathered for prayer. And so I'm going to issue one application to us. This is where I conclude I issue one application to us. And. Some of you may not like that I address it like I do. I think. Every member at Tri County Bible Church. In fulfillment of this verse. Should gather for the half hour of prayer that we have on Sunday night. I think we should make that a crucial part of every Lord's Day. I know that not all of you can make it Sunday night. You've got work and other things. But if you're able to join us, And you simply don't. I would challenge you to come and pray with us. We pray for 30 minutes, half of the service every Sunday night. And and we try to pray comprehensively for all the saints, those who are needy. We try to pray for our missionaries. We try to pray for those who are trying to win to Christ. We're trying to pray for provision and all kinds of all kinds of needs and pray systematically We're trying to do this if you want to fulfill Ephesians 618 a great way to do it would be by coming on Sunday night Let me give you a couple outs Okay, if you say Sunday night is just not a possibility for me Let me give you a couple of ways that you can wiggle yourself out of it meet at other times with other believers throughout the week to pray. Might not be able to make it Sunday night? Have a regular habit where you meet with the same believer, maybe every other Friday night, and you spend a half hour in prayer together. I guarantee you, whether it's Sunday night or Friday night, you're going to be strong. You're going to arm yourself for battle. That's where it happens. Another way that you can get out of it is if you beat down my door. And you say, Pastor, I cannot get there on Sunday night, but let's make our Sunday morning service a half hour longer and devote ourselves to prayer. That's totally cool. Beat down my door and say, we need go to every one of the elders, everyone who might be involved in making that decision and say, we need to make prayer for each other, for all the saints, more a part of our Sunday morning gathering. I'm thrilled to rework our service schedule. Right now, the way we do it is that that prayer of confession and adoration saturate the morning service and prayer for one another saturates the evening service. That's how we do it now. Let's change that up. That's a way that you can get out. But if you would have joined us, and many of you have, if you would have joined us for 15 weeks, I think we've done it 15 times now, of prayer on Sunday night throughout 2013, you would have invested about 15, well, let's give drive time and fellowship time, maybe 30 hours Some of you are saying, I stay after for like an hour. Okay, 45 hours of 2013, you would have devoted to coming to prayer. And you would have invested about eight hours in prayer. You would have prayed numerous times for every one of our missionaries and the Gospels advanced through them. You would have prayed about a dozen times for people in our community and visitors in our congregation to get saved. You would have begged God to give wisdom and provision for numerous needs to help people going through surgery and sickness. You would have prayed numerous times already for all those who are getting married this year and those who got married last year. We pray regularly for all these things. And I say this with all seriousness. If you can spend your time more profitable for eternity than that. Don't come on Sunday night. Invest your time better for eternity somewhere else. I know we've got people seeking loss. They invite neighbors, coworkers into their home on Sunday night. They find that that is a crucial time for family discipleship. But if. If you're not investing your time, in a more profitable way for eternity. Pray with God's people. This is how we put the armor on. We stand praying. I do not urge this kind of committed prayer because it's easy. Paul actually says it's going to demand all perseverance. And with younger kids, it demands a lot of perseverance. It's not easy. I urge this kind of prayerfulness and commitment to prayer because it is the primary way for you and for us to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. We're powerful. On our knees together.