So Joshua 1, verses 1-9. After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them, the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses. From the wilderness, and this, Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left. that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage. Do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. And then also in the book of Ephesians in the New Testament, we'll turn to chapter 6. Ephesians 6, and we'll read verses 10 through 20. Again, this is God's Word. It's authoritative, and it's life-giving. Chapter 6, Ephesians 10-20. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness 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. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication, and the Spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Would you pray with me? Our Heavenly Father, we pray that you would bless this word to our hearts, that we would receive it, and that we would be encouraged, and that we would be strong, and that we would not be dismayed, so that we would stand in the strength of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is our warrior King. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. I struggled on what to name this sermon. In the bulletin, it says, this is war, people. This is war, people. But I also was thinking famous last words, which is because this is a text that many people know. If you know the book of Ephesians, you might know Ephesians chapter 2, by grace you are saved, and then also the armor of God. But both, I think, are helpful. These are Paul's last words, the last thing that he's going to say to this church in this letter, and maybe ever. And his exhortation is that they're at war. I was watching a movie, and in the movie I saw that there's a statistic given that in World War II, with new recruits, there was a very small percentage of new recruits that would actually fire to kill. So I looked it up online, and the statistic was true, that one of the problems they had regularly is that they would recruit some men through the draft, they would give them their basic training, put a helmet on their head, boots on their feet, gun in their hand, and send them off to war, and only maybe one out of five would actually shoot to kill. that the other ones would shoot, maybe, and intentionally miss. Paul's last words here are, in many ways, a battle cry, a calling to remember all that you did, all that you learned, all that you gained in boot camp. And I was thinking, when we think of the Church more broadly, or our Church particularly, If we think of ourselves as being thrown into a war, out of boot camp, what percentage of us are actually firing to kill? Not to kill men with the weapons of this world, but to actually fight spiritual battle against the evil one, against the prince of darkness, the evil powers that assail the church. Paul's last words here really summarize a lot of what he's been saying, and what he's calling his church to do is to be 100% ready to fire, to kill, when they engage in spiritual warfare against the evil one. Let me tell you this, brothers and sisters, the enemy, the devil, his demons, the kingdom of darkness, the enemy, Wants this little church plant to fail The devil would love it if we didn't meet next week The enemy wants this church to fail and we need to respond with strong spiritual warfare The devil wants to sift you like wheat And our response as a church, as we establish our church here, is to respond with strong spiritual warfare. And as we look at this, this text that talks a lot about warfare and armor and things like that, we're going to look at three sections. One, verses 10 through 3, so if you're taking notes, maybe you're at the top, it could say, respond to the attacks of the evil one with strong spiritual warfare. And point number one is going to be the warfare itself, that Paul tells us to be strong in, verses 10-13, then the weapons of our warfare, by which we stand firm, verses 14-17, and then the way of our warfare. So the warfare, the weapons of the warfare, and the way of the warfare. So first, the warfare itself. Paul wants us to have strength as we stand. He says, finally, summarizing his whole letter, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Be strong. He would say, saints at Redeemer, be strong. So then we have to ask ourselves, where does this strength come from? And he concludes it there, in the Lord, by the power of His might. And we recognize, if we've been reading our Bibles, that war is not a new thing for God's people. It's been going on all the way since the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 31, 21, it says this, Then He inaugurated Joshua the son of Nun, and said, Be strong and of good courage, for you shall bring the children of Israel into the land of which I swore them, and I will be with you. The sending of His church into a land and the promise of His presence. In Joel 3, 9 and 10, it says this, Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for war. Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. And then as we just read in Joshua 1, 6, Be strong and of good courage. For to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them." So God calls us to warfare. He calls us to be strong. And we see that the strength comes from the Lord. And maybe some of you, you're like me, and you don't always feel like you're ready for warfare. Maybe you're like, Eli, it was hard even just to get the kids in the car. I've changed 5,000 diapers this week. I'm struggling just to get to church, and you're calling me to war. Well, remember that the strength doesn't come from you. The strength is God's strength. In Isaiah 40, verse 29, it says, He gives power to the weak. So if you feel weak, go to God. And to those who have might, He increases strength. have no might, he increases strength. If you have no strength, go to God. If you have no might, go to God, because the strength comes from Him. So that's the first thing we see, that the source of the strength for this warfare is God. And second, the way to attain this strength, to appropriate it, to get that strength and bring it to your own person, is by putting on the armor of God. He says, go to war. Be strong. I give you strength. And you say, how do I do it? He says, put on the full armor of God. Look in verse 10, he says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. So what we could read out of that also is that if you don't put on the armor of God, you're not going to be able. You'll be like a soldier in the middle of battle without a helmet, without boots, and without a gun, and probably without a good future. So to put it simply, if you want to buy a burger, you go to McDonald's. If you want to get a Taco Bell, you might go to Taco Bell. Sorry, if you want to get a taco, you might go to Taco Bell. I would recommend not going to Taco Bell. There's better places to get tacos. But you get what I mean. If you want to get the armor of God, you've got to go to the God of the armor. You've got to go to Him and follow His ways on how you might this armor and then fight with it, because he is the source of the armor. And you need to have the fullness of the armor. You need all the pieces of the armor. So my mom's father, Jim Drinkward, he was drafted into World War II, but he never went. He was a pretty tall guy, and he had a really large head. So if you think I have a large head, that's probably where I get it from. His head was too big for the helmet and the hat that they had for their soldiers, but that's a big head. Because he didn't have the full outfit required, he could not go off to war. The same is true for Christians. If you don't have the full armor of God, you're not prepared. You're not ready. So get the full armor of God. And then third, there is a warrant for Paul's command here. Be strong, be ready, put on the full armor of God. Why? Because we are in warfare. Brothers and sisters, today you're in a battle. Tomorrow you'll still be in the battle, and you'll be in this battle until the day that you die. We are in warfare. And look what he says in verse 11. He says, put on the whole armor of God, and then he says, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle, verse 12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. What he's saying to the Ephesians is that as he's been unloading all of this doctrine into their hearts and onto their minds, that he's been preparing them for the reality they're already partaking in. That when they were brought out of Satan's kingdom into Christ's kingdom, they were made new recruits, and he was giving them this boot camp, this training, these basics of the Gospel on how to understand what God is and what God does for His people, how He brings us into Him by Jesus Christ to fellowship with Him, and then as we've seen throughout this a whole letter that he calls us to walk in wisdom, and walk in the light, to operate as families in a particular way, that husbands are to act with their wives in a certain way, and wives with their husbands, and parents with children, slaves, and masters, and that all of this, from one perspective, is spiritual warfare. Do you realize that? When you say to your spouse, honey, I was wrong, will you forgive me? You're actually fighting spiritual warfare against the evil. When you say to your child, you know, we need to understand that the ways of the people are not the same as the ways of the Lord, and even though the world is enticing, we'll say, as for me and my household, I will serve the Lord, that you're engaging in spiritual warfare, because the war is already at hand. So who's the enemy? Well, he brings up the enemies there. First, it's the devil, but then he talks about all these different categories. He says, not flesh and blood, so it's not any particular nation of this world, but rather against principalities, against powers, rulers of darkness, and he's talking about all these different categories to summarize this spiritual darkness that you and I are currently in a battle against. In 1 Peter 5, Peter says this, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour." He's saying be sober, because the devil is actively looking to see if he could devour you. The preacher Martin Lloyd-Jones says, the devil cannot take away your salvation, which is true. You're justified. You're saved. You have salvation. He can't take that away because it rests on the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, He can make you a miserable Christian. He seeks to disrupt your daily lives, to draw you away from God by the world, the flesh, and the powers of the devil. He seeks to disrupt and take a hold of you, Christian, And the odd thing about this warfare that you and I are currently in is that usually in warfare, the victory follows a series of battles. In one sense, that's true for the warfare that we find ourselves in. But in a greater sense, what we see is that the battles in this warfare follow the victory that already happened. that Christ accomplished victory over the powers of darkness on the cross, and that He has called people and is calling people into His kingdom, but the result is that you and I are brought into many battles with the world, the flesh, and the devil. So one writer says this, it is because of God's victory in His Son that believers are in the battle at all. So the fact that you're in this battle and you're not on the side of the kingdom of darkness, but you're fighting on the side of King Jesus, is because he's already gained the victory. Therefore, in verse 13, he says, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, to stand. In other words, if you're to fight a dragon, don't you need a sword? If you are to parachute and onto a field, into a battle in World War II, don't you want your boots and your helmet and your gun? If Paul is saying that you and I are currently in spiritual warfare, we need the full armor of God, do we not? Because he says you need the strength of God. How do you get the strength of God? By the full armor of God, so that we might fight and be strong. So then we have to ask ourselves the question, okay, we're in this warfare. We're fighting. We need the armor of God. What is the armor of God? What is Paul so urgent about? What are these things that he's calling us to put on? As he's talked about previously putting on Christ, now he's saying put on the full armor of God. Well, what are the weapons? Well, it's not the weapons that you might see in the U.S. Army or in the wars throughout the world. It's not tanks. It's not metal swords. It's not bazookas. But rather, he says, put on the belt of truth. You've got to remember that Paul is in the what we call the Greco-Roman world, where there might be Roman soldiers all around. And for the Roman soldier, he would wear this special belt that would do at least two things. One, it would protect his legs, because it has some armor on it. But also, it would hold the skirt or the robe that many of these people would wear, so they could tuck it into their belt and be ready to brawl. And he says, put on the belt of truth. So likewise, for the Christian, Paul sees truth as being essential in the warfare that they are fighting. You remember that God is a God of truth. The devil is the father of lies. Therefore, it makes total sense that the warrior under King Jesus would put on truth. He also says, put on the breastplate of righteousness. Roman soldiers would often wear a breastplate as well, which would be that breastplate on the front to protect against the attacks of the evil one. That if you had the breastplate on, when the arrows are flying at you, they would deflect off. They wouldn't pierce through to wound you. Likewise, for the Christian, if you have righteousness, you can use that as a way to deflect the attacks of the evil one. When Satan comes and he says to you, you've sinned, you deserve hell, you're going to get there, I'm going to make sure that you can say to him, you know, I do deserve these things, but I have the breastplate of righteousness. What does that mean? I have Christ's righteousness. Yeah, you're actually right. I have sinned. I broke God's law. But God already paid the penalty. He already poured His wrath upon His Son, my Lord and my Savior. And because of that, I have Christ's righteousness, and your darts are deflecting off me, not even leaving a scratch. Likewise, he says, to put on the gospel like a pair of shoes. Roman soldiers would wear these shoes where they were like sandals or sometimes boot-like shoes, and they'd go sometimes 20 miles, which is crazy that you'd be full of armor and you'd run 20 miles in a day. But maybe you've been hiking, especially here in Hawaii. Esme and I went hiking on Thursday. And the interesting thing about hiking in Hawaii is the sun is really strong. There's also a lot of rain. So the places where the sun is shining, the ground is brittle and it's falling apart, and you feel like you're going to fall the whole time. And then the place where the sun isn't shining, the clay is wet and slippery. And on both sides, as you're trying to make it up the mountain, you're slipping and you're falling. Thankfully, as they've built the trails, they put all sorts of little barriers to hold up the clay, to form steps that you might be able to put your foot down and not slip. You'd maybe even put it on a rock or a bush or something else. And Paul's saying, use the gospel that way in your life. When the gospel's gone, you will slip, you will fall. But when you stand on the gospel, you will have sure feet. And it's having a sure foot that is going to help all of us to be a warrior. Children, if you're in a battle, and you're knocked off your feet, it only takes a few steps of the enemy to come in and stab you, to get you. But rather, the Gospel, which is believing in the Lord Jesus Christ as your substitute, and in Him finding God's favor, having your sins paid for, You can have a sure foundation. And then also, it's the Gospel. It's giving you that defensive foundation, but now you're actually able to move forward, to take advantage over the enemy, to use the Gospel to advance the kingdom of God's grace. In Isaiah 52.7 it says this, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of Him who brings good news, who brings gospel. Which is, just hold on to that thought for a little bit, because Paul's going in that direction after he stops talking about the armor. But have the gospel as your sure foundation. Then he says also, continuing his analogy of the warrior, stand holding the shield of faith. The Roman soldiers would often have shields, and there are different kinds. The one that I think Paul is talking about here is not the little shield that maybe a brawler would use, but a very large shield that would shield most of the person, if not all of them. Likewise, by faith, we can appropriate Christ and all His benefits. By faith, we can say, I'm justified by faith. And on my justification, God has made me holy, and I'm increasing in my holiness. And I can look to, say, Hebrews 11, which we call the Hall of Faith, that talks about so many of Jesus' warrior children that have gone on before us. Yes, imperfect. Yes, winning some battles, losing others. But by faith, they carried on. By faith, they were saved. So likewise, Paul calls us, as warriors, to live by faith as a shield, where we could be those who can sing, not looking ultimately to our faith, but Jesus Christ, the object of our faith, be thou my battle shield, as the hymn says. Also, he adds two more, put on the helmet of salvation, worn on the heads of these soldiers. Salvation, I think, what Paul is doing, is he's summarizing all sorts of points that he's been going through. That salvation, when he talks about that, it's, yes, your justification, but it's also that God will continue through your life unto glorification, that He'll preserve you. And he says, wear that like a helmet, put Jesus across your forehead, on top of your head, that it might be a sign of your life. And then lastly, he says, use this. like a sword, the sword of the Spirit, use the Scriptures, use your Bible. Paul is saying, know your Bible. Memorize your Bible, be in it regularly, teach it to your children, because by that, you will be able to fight spiritual warfare. Again, I ask you, would you want to fight a dragon without a sword? You see, if you have a sword, even if you're swallowed by the dragon, you might be able to cut yourself out from the inside. But without a sword, where would you be? God, by His grace, has given you the scriptures that you would be able to fight against the evil one himself. So put it on. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." So there's the armor, but I also want you to remember that The importance isn't so much in the analogy that he's drawing, but what he's pointing to. In other words, I remember being at this chapel service, and there was this really captivating speaker, and he told me this great story about how he was a diplomat, and there was this woman with cancer, and they, like, teepeed someone's house, and the story went on. And I kind of remember the story. I have no idea what he's talking about. I don't remember. And so often, when we hear sermons, we can remember the illustrations given, but we forget the point. What I want us to do is to look at this and see Paul's illustration that he's drawing, but actually to take it to our lives. Actually to be those who think much of our faith, look to Jesus as the author of our faith, and in that way, understand the illustration. To remember salvation, that it's in Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. made known to us by the scriptures, as they're read and preached alone, and that it would be for our good. But then we also want to ask ourselves, well, what's the point? Well, the point is that our warfare is not carnal, but it's spiritual. But all along, as Paul has been teaching the Ephesians, he's been preparing them for battle. They didn't know it, but now they understand it. The same is for us, as we've been working through Ephesians this past year. The Lord has been preparing us, through these sermons, through this book, to engage in real, strong, steadfast spiritual warfare. And by that, we would assail the kingdom of darkness, that we would break down the gates of hell, by the gospel of Christ, by the way that we live, by our prayers, by our singing, and all these other things, and that we would expand Christ's kingdom through warfare, but not with swords loud clashing, but with deeds of love and mercy and the gospel of Christ. And it's utterly fitting, because Jesus himself is the warrior king. If you turn in your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 59, we'll read verse 16 to 20. We saw that Jesus in his life in Matthew 14, he was doing this, he was engaging in spirit, sorry, Matthew 4 verse 11, one through 11, he was engaging in this spiritual warfare The devil was tempting him, and remember he used the Word of God, and man shall not live by bread alone. And the devil fled from him. We saw that Jesus, and we see now that Jesus has been doing this all along. In Isaiah 59, verses 16 through 20, hear this. It might sound pretty familiar to what we've been reading in Ephesians. It says halfway through, Verse 15 then the Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor Therefore his own arm brought salvation for him and his own righteousness it sustained him for he put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. The coastlands he will fully repay. So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west and his glory from the rising of the sun when the enemy comes in like a flood. The spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. The Redeemer will come to Zion to those who turn from transgression, and Jacob says, The Lord. And then he also says, As for me, says the Lord, this is my covenant with them. My spirit who is upon you and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth. You see the person hearing all, in sending this letter to the Ephesians, they're hearing this call to war. to engage in real spiritual warfare, but maybe the more astute there in Ephesians would recognize, you know, Paul, he's drawing this picture of you and me as we engage in warfare. But what he's doing is he's talking about Jesus. He's talking about that warrior king. In other words, he's saying, brothers and sisters, you need to fight with prayers, with reading, with family worship, with all these spiritual things. putting on the full armor of God, but when you fight, you are following King Jesus, the warrior king, the one who's gone on before you and calls you into his army to bring about the kingdom here in Hawaii, to advance with prayers, with hymns, and with all these spiritual ways of our spiritual warfare. So then thirdly, he calls us, to be constant in the way. So there's the warfare itself, and then there's the weapons of our warfare, all these items that Paul calls the full armor of God, and then there's the way of our warfare, which is to be constant. And particularly, Paul narrows down on this. Be constant in prayer. Look at your Bibles. Look at verse 18. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. As it's been said time and time again, a warrior needs to sleep with one eye open. In other words, the warrior needs to always be prepared. The warrior can't be drifting off into sleep not ready, because he knows that he may be called any minute. His hand is always close to his sword, as it were. Notice he's focusing on this totality here, all prayer, all supplications, all perseverance, for all the saints. Prayer saturates the lives of Jesus' warriors. When he calls you to be a warrior of God, he's calling you to be a prayer warrior. You know, sometimes we talk about the different gifts that God gives to all of us, and your temperament's different than mine, your gifts are different than mine, but every single last one of us can pray. Every single last one of us is called here to pray for all the saints, and then also for the gospel. One writer says this, prayer should be constant. It is your duty to give yourself to prayer. It is like fire on the altar. It must never go out, day or night. A Christian's prayer may have intermission, but never cessation. The soldier always has his weapon ready, though he is not always at battle." You see what this Puritan, George Swinock, is saying. He's saying prayer is like two things. He brings up two illustrations. One, it's like a fire. Maybe you've been camping, and you've made a fire, And if everyone falls asleep, the fire usually dies out. He's saying, as a warrior in Jesus' kingdom, you need to be stoking that fire. Someone's got to stay up and keep it going. And when you get up in the morning, you've got to take those coals and stir them up and add more wood. Keep putting wood on the fire again and again and again. Stoke it. That's the way that you pray. For also, he says, be like a warrior. keeping your hand always on your sword, ready to fight. Because you don't know when the enemy's going to come in. But rather, be prepared. Well then, for who? Who do we pray for? Well, he gives two people, or two groups to pray for. First, it's a general prayer for all the saints, verse 18. praying always with all prayer, all supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. In Hebrews 3, it says, exhort one another daily as long as it's called today. Why? Because sin is deceitful. Likewise, Paul here is saying, pray for one another daily, Because your brother and sister sitting in this room, the devil wants to sift like wheat. This week, how many people in this room have you prayed for? I'm not going to make you say out loud, but shouldn't we? We're in warfare. We're together fighting the evil one, the principalities, the kingdom of darkness. You're in one troop here. Shouldn't your thoughts and your prayers be for one another? And then the other specific group that it gives is for the preacher of the gospel. Look at 19. Paul says, and as you're praying, pray for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to. Maybe Paul is thinking of his own nerve as a preacher, I don't know. Maybe he's realizing that he's been before Roman governors, and church leaders, and all sorts of people, in which he has been even having his life on line, and he knows that his job as an ambassador of Christ is to preach the gospel faithfully. And he probably knows that in the future, He'll do it again. And He's saying to the saints, pray for me. Pray for me. No shame in it. Pray for me, He says. And likewise, my request to you, brothers and sisters, is to pray for me. I know I'm not a great preacher. I'm not a perfect preacher. I need to grow. I'm new, right? I get those things. I need to grow. But it's the Spirit that works. And He works through your prayers. And one of the ways you can make the preacher better is to pray for him. And the Lord will increase in gifts, and he'll grow, just like he grows all of us, he'll, Lord willing, grow me. But then even more than that, on a greater, more magnificent level, it's the Spirit that works through the preaching, even through weak preaching. Paul knows that. Actually, someone can be the best speaker in the world if he doesn't have the Spirit of God. His sermon will do nothing. Therefore, I ask you, brothers and sisters, to pray for me that the Spirit would be wind in my sails when I get before you, and that all of us would hear the Word of God, and that it would enter into our minds clearly, that it would be memorable, but then also that we would lay it up in our hearts and practice it in our lives, that we might be those who are ready and who are equipped to do the work of advancing this kingdom that we've been brought into. We pray thy kingdom come, Lord. Remember what we learned? That when we pray that, we're praying that Christ's kingdom would advance, that Satan's kingdom would be destroyed, and that his kingdom of glory would come soon. So pray for me. So I want to ask us this question as we conclude, who here is a spiritual prayer warrior? Who here has put on the full armor of God? I hope all of us, if you haven't turned to Jesus, if you have turned to Jesus in faith, you are a warrior. You've been given this armor, therefore put it on and get to work. Learn how to use your sword. Maybe it's new to you, maybe you've been doing it for a while. All of us can sharpen our skills and strengthen our ability. You may not feel like a warrior. Remember that God gives strength. You may be living as if you're not in war. I would say, you're at war, people, wake up. The devil's trying to sift you like wheat, get ready. Here comes the enemy forces, don't be in your bed, unprepared, but put on the full armor of God. And then I want to ask ourselves this question, what's the firing rate here at Redeemer? Like if we're dropped into this battle, Which of us are firing to kill when we're firing at the enemy, the kingdom of darkness? Is it 15 to 20 percent, like those soldiers in World War II? Is it 40 or 50 percent? Is it 70 percent of us? What about us that are praying every day for one another? Is it 20 percent of us, 40 percent of us? What about those who are praying for me? Is it 10%, 20%, 30%? I don't know your hearts and I don't know your habits, but I would ask you that we would be all of those, that whatever percentage we're at, that we would do our duty to raise it up to 100% here. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Pray for me. And an opportunity that we have next week that we can all apply this sermon is we have a prayer meeting. The first Sunday of each month, at 2.30, we meet to pray. We meet to do spiritual battle against the kingdom of darkness. Be there. You've got 730 hours in a month. You can give one of them to prayer. With your brothers and sisters. Or else, if half of us are here, the rest of your troops fighting, where are you? And remember that God gives us the grace to do these things. So whether you are advanced as a spiritual warrior or just beginning, we can all go back to boot camp, we can all learn the basics, we can all grow, and by God's grace, we can advance this kingdom. We can fight the evil one, fight the good fight. And by God's grace, we can do very great things here in Hawaii in establishing this church. But it's got to start with prayer. It's got to start with realizing we are in warfare, people. Now, at this time in our service, we'll turn to pray. So I hope that this would motivate us some. But I hope that our prayers wouldn't stop here. You'd be praying throughout the week, individually, while you drive in the car or whatever, with your family. But as for now, why don't we pray together, pray for the needs of this church, that we would advance the kingdom even as we worship now. Wow! Can you believe that? Would you please pray with me? Our Father in heaven, we realize and recognize and even confess that so often our thoughts are too low. They're not heavenly. They're inaccurate. Lord, we're deceived by our senses. We're deceived by our routines. We're deceived by convention, Lord. But You call us even now to recognize that we are in warfare, that there is true battle going on even now. And we pray, Lord, that You would fill us with Your Spirit and Your Word, that we would put on the full armor of God. Lord, that this kingdom would be advanced in our hearts, in our church, in our community, And that we, Lord, as we fight the good fight, Lord, that you would bless our work. But then at the end of it, we would say, by grace go I. The Lord won the day, not us. So we pray, Lord, that you would be with our families, with the single people here, with the whole congregation, that there would be much worship throughout the week, that we would commit ourselves, Lord, to the Lord's day, the Sabbath day, the day that we come to be equipped for battle, that we would be made ready. Lord, that we would commit ourselves to getting to church an hour early, and doing the work of sharpening our swords in prayer, and also, Lord, in bringing attacks upon the kingdom of darkness. Lord, you're calling us to be offensive as well as defensive. that we would do it, Lord, not by the ways of the world, but by the spiritual ways that you have given us. We do pray, Lord, that you would be with our world. Lord, you created such a good and beautiful world, and we can see that so clearly here in Hawaii with all the beauty. But at the same time, Lord, we see the sin that has entered. As we even just drive down the street, we see all the sin and misery around us. And then, Lord, it doesn't stop there. It comes into our families, and we see, Lord, unbelief. We see lying. We see rebellion. We see a disruption of the little communities that we all have in our families, relationships strained or even broken. Lord, we see it even in our hearts. As we're downcast, as we are driven to despair, Lord, as we have anxiety and worries, And Lord, even though you've given us the promise of victory, and even more than that, Lord, you've commissioned us to bring the gospel to the nation. You promised that you would be with us always. Yet, Lord, we often forget that. Forgive us. But Lord, encourage us now to be those who commit ourselves again and again to you, to living for you. And we pray, Lord, that you would use this church, Lord, particularly to fight for the kingdom Over on the west side that you would open up this Seventh-day Adventist building that the contract would be finished In a timely way. We pray Lord that you would bless that church and that we would have a good relationship with them Lord, we know you open doors and you close doors More than that Lord you open doors that no man can close and you close doors that no man can open So we rest in you and your perfect providence in your timing We also pray, Lord, that you would help me as I prepare for ordination exams, that I would meditate on your word, that I would understand what your church has taught throughout the ages, different positions, ones that we agree about, also understanding the theology that we disagree with, and that I would be able to show myself able in this way. And then, Lord, that ordination would be around the corner. and that you would establish me here for a long time to preach the gospel. Lord, you could give me 30 or 40 years here, or just a few days. Lord, you're sovereign, so we turn to you asking for much blessing in this regard. We pray, Lord, that you would raise up elders and deacons to rule this church. Lord, as they rule under you, Christ, the head of the church, that you would give us faithful men filled with the Holy Spirit, knowledgeable, able to help equip the saints here to take care of widows and orphans or to guide those who need spiritual guidance to rule over them, to correct them and to encourage them that we might flourish as a congregation. Lord, so many things to pray for. As we look back on our lives, we remember that you have been faithful to us and that your faithfulness endures to every generation. So, Lord, we trust in you and we wait on you and we say that you are holy, holy, holy. We close, Lord, by praying the prayer that our warrior king, Jesus, taught us, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.