For the first probably seven years of my Christian walk somewhere around there. I don't know maybe ten or so Keith Green Was my man Has anyone ever heard? From Keith Green well if you've listened to Mark Schindler you have listened to Keith Green And so each time Mark puts his lips on that microphone and begins to unfold God's precious gospel to us through song. I'm catapulted into grace, into God's arms through Keith Schindler. And one of the ways that we get more sensitized to the gospel, one of the ways that we understand and appreciate His grace in our life is through prayer. We study, yes. We read much. We talk about life, truth, Jesus, and so forth. And then we pray and pray and pray some more. And it's supernatural. We heard that in Mark, in Robin's life. Christianity is supernatural, is it not? And so we pray and we pray and we pray. We develop that. through difficult and delightful times. And so in September of last year, I think it was, we put together a series on prayer and we asked the 10 elders plus one speaker, that would be Zach Hedges. Is Zach here? Thanks, brother. He's gonna be coming up next week as well. And so you've had 11 speakers preaching on the topic of prayer. And our aim here is to fortify us and establish us in the priority of prayer. Not necessarily give you a pattern, per se, or principles, whatnot, but a priority that God will use in our lives as the months and years roll on that will establish our prayers, that will frame our prayers, that will fuel our prayer life. And so we have set out to put before you, week in and week out, these topics of prayers. Now, prayer, when you read in the Bible, there's just a lot of different types of prayers and reasons for prayer and so forth. And so a lot of these topics had to do with God, give me more grace, give me his peace. Lord, help so and so. Give me the strength and energy, fortify me so that I will endure to the end. God, grace me with your providential direction in my life that I will walk in your ways. Help me to understand your love found in Jesus so that I will truly Recognize it and relish it and be overwhelmed with your grace and love in my life those types of prayers Well tonight I offer you another type of prayer This this type of prayer we will find in Ephesians 6 verses 10 through 20 So if you'd like to open your Bibles, that's where we're going but this type of prayer is needs to be placed within this type of circumstances that we will find it in in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 20. And this type of prayer strengthens us for a type of activity within this type of setting or circumstances that we will look at in Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 through 20. And so I tried to capture the message in two sentences. And in these two sentences, hopefully you'll see the context, the specific context in which a specific type of activity needs to be performed by us. And the only way that we'll carry out this specific activity is through God's enabling grace through this specific prayer. If you could bring that up, Andy, we'll just take a quick look at it. Yeah, I can't read that one. Pray always for divine strength. So when you leave tonight and you ask the question, what was presented as the type of prayer for this series, there it is. Pray always for divine strength. And here are the activities. To stand firm and to speak fearlessly. That's why we need to pray for one another, this particular prayer, in order to stand firm and speak fearlessly. And the context in which this occurs is in the second sentence. In this way, we will engage in spiritual warfare with the powers of evil for the prisoners of war. Now, I fear at times that we can become so almost like a naturalist where we're getting the right answers and whatnot, but we're living horizontal merely. And we just think that life is what we see. And it's not that way in the Bible. It's not that way here. We live in a context. And so tonight, my hope is, as a result of going into Ephesians 6, verses 10 and following, we'll come away going, so this is the context in which we live. Therefore, this is the type of prayer we must always be lifting up for one another so that we will have these type of activities. Stand firm. Speak fearlessly. Now, a week ago, Russ preached from Mark chapter eight, and he was helping us to see Jesus' identity, his mission, and his calling on our life. And Pastor Mark brought that in in chapter nine this morning, and it dovetailed beautifully that there is a call on our lives, and he is ushering us into a certain context. Well, there was a lot of conversation, I think, over where is Jesus leading us? Because we saw in Mark chapter eight and in chapter nine this morning that Jesus is the Christ. There's his identity. And his mission is he died a death on our behalf, slaughtered, killed on the cross, and three days later was raised from the dead. And then He calls out to us and he says, if anyone will come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Now it stands to reason, doesn't it? That if he calls us to follow him, he's going to a certain place, isn't he? And so when we look at his identity and we look at his mission and we hear him say, pick up your cross, where are we going? That's part of the message for tonight. Tonight we want to see that to follow Jesus is to move out into a combat zone. It is to engage in spiritual warfare. And this battlefield in which we are to follow Jesus is the American culture. That's where we live. And though our surroundings may not resemble or feel like Benghazi, the flaming missiles of the enemy are more deadly and the stakes are higher than what we witnessed in Libya. The powers of evil on this battlefield manifest in different ways and at times they're very subtle and it's hard to pick up. For example, Some years back, 2005, a prominent professor, Peter Enns, lobbed new challenges to biblical authority. His sophisticated nuance on hermeneutics continue to this day to raise questions in the minds of students and pastors over biblical inerrancy. Can we really trust the Bible in all areas? I mean, come on. How are we to understand this book? Or, June of 2015, the US Supreme Court redefined marriage. They noticeably disregarded biblical teaching in preference for a more popular basis on which to cast new categories, and frame new definitions. Are we really supposed to take the Bible at face value? I mean, come on. Today is a different day. When it comes to my personal life, I lean upon other sources of authority to determine what is good for me. Well, maybe one more example. will suffice to understand the battlefield, understand a little bit of American culture, understand that sometimes it's real clear that we're in a battle, and sometimes it's just kind of fuzzy, like, what's wrong with that? Like the ethical, sweetheart, pop star Taylor Swift in her Out of the Woods music video. Proclaiming a self discovery and self actualization as key to life I Don't have a huge problem with Taylor Swift She goes down to 13 year olds and talks to them about purity virginity and Ethical uprightness But About a week ago, bringing in the new year, perhaps you saw it on ABC, the Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve celebration. And her video came out. And if you want to see it, it's a great video. Extremely quality and engaging and powerful. Her message is nothing new. It echoes throughout our culture. Anything that will help you find and express your true self, it will all be worth it in the end. You know, the Bible is somewhat irrelevant when it comes to the bigger issues of life, isn't it? Knowing self is far more valuable than knowing Christ, you see. whether it's coming out of Westminster or coming out of the closet or coming out of the woods. American culture is a war zone of ideologies and worldviews that vie for our attention and imagination of those living in the United States. They hold sway over desires and shape resolutions. They lead humans into conclusions and lifestyles that view the Bible as Well, just kind of an old book. Left unchecked, they lead unbelievers to hell. Following Jesus on a mission leads us into a battlefield. In Ephesians 6, verses 10 through 20, we find a certain context in which we discover a certain activity that needs a certain type of prayer that God will grace us and grant us divine strength necessary to carry out these activities amid a battlefield. Let's pray. Look carefully at 10 verses and ask God for much. Father, I want to thank you so much for this moment. I want to pray for Protection I Want to pray that the Word of God and the Spirit of God will go forth Into our ears and into our hearts That you will not allow Satan to snatch any seed that's thrown out That our minds will be held to your word that our imagination will be quickened by your spirit that we will see what Paul says, we will enter into it wholeheartedly and carry out our lives to the praise of your glory and the salvation of those around us. So here we are, bless our time and we ask it in Christ's name, amen. Are you there, Ephesians 6? Starting up in verse 10, we read, finally, 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 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. And to this end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. The first purpose for praying always for divine strength in the midst of the war is noticed in verses 10 through 17. We must pray always for divine strength for each other so that we will stand firm. To see this clearly, note the structure of this paragraph. Verse 11, we come to the command. You see it in there? Put on the armor. And this command is followed up by the reason Paul gives the command, that. you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Now he wants his reader to appreciate both the command and the reason for it by giving an explanation for both of them found in verse 12. Or we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. And now in verse 13, keep your eyes in the text, It circles back around to the original command. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God. And now watch what he does. He follows this up with a reason for that command, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. Then in verses 14 through 17, he simply reverses that pattern to say, that we are to stand firm by putting on the armor. Well, in other words, he says we are to put on the armor so that we will stand firm, and then he says that we are to stand firm by putting on the armor. So in these seven verses, 70% of the passage that we're looking at tonight, they're saying essentially one thing. Engaging spiritual warfare biblically means that we are to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. We are to pray always for divine strength for each other because the temptations are great in this battleground. Satan wants to destroy us. He hates us. He desires to assail us by means of deception. Paul teaches that we are to stand firm, resisting demonic temptation by means of putting on the whole armor of God. So to understand the command, stand firm, we need to pay attention to the pieces of the armor found in this passage. They are belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes for your feet, the readiness given by the gospel of peace, a shield of faith, a helmet of salvation, and a sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Now most of this imagery Paul uses comes straight out of the book of Isaiah and provides us the meaning of putting on this armor. The words he uses, belt, breastplate, shoes, shield, helmet, sword, with the possible exception of the sword, these pieces are all for protection. They are to defend us in war. Defending us with the truth that will expose the lies of Satan. Defending us with his righteousness that is ours in Christ so that we can withstand the accusations of Satan and that can be deflected from us. Defending us with the gospel of peace that gave us and reminds us of reconciliation with the holy God and reconciliation with God. One another in his body Defending us with the faith to overcome flaming darts of doubt from the evil one that casts us into This type of doubting Defending us with salvation that is eternally ours and will never ever be taken away from us. Defending us with the word of God as the only source of truth by which we can interpret all of life and powerfully build one another up in the most holy faith. Yes, to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, we must have protection. And we notice that He is our protection. is our security. These pieces of armor are not what we have done or what we will do. These pieces all point to what God has done for us. These pieces are sketching out God's provision on our behalf. We stand firm in what God has done for us in Jesus as we believe all that he has already done for us in and through Christ. In other words, beloved, all these words are synonyms of one reality. It's the gospel. The armor is the gospel. He is telling us to put on the gospel. He's telling us to rehearse the gospel. He is telling us in the church to renew her affections for the gospel, to remember the gospel, to relive the gospel, and to do all of this Daily the command to put on is a command to believe The gospel daily to trust in the work and the worth of Jesus Christ on our behalf Daily, and we are to do all of this in community This was one of the surprises for me as I worked through this passage The you throughout verses 10 and 20 is plural, every one of them. This standing against the schemes of the devil is done together. It's a corporate act. We are not called to be rugged Roman soldiers who individually take on Satan with a sword. No, no, we are called to believe the gospel and to live within gospel-centered community, lovingly, humbly, sacrificially and prayerfully. Beloved, we are to be praying always for divine strength for one another so that we will stand firm against the deceptions of Satan. This is a battlefield. Many times we believe it's peacetime. And it's not. And there's casualties all around. Pray for one another. Don't gossip about each other. Perhaps, sometimes, when a fellow believer falls into temptation, they're really just not prayed a whole lot for. As we make our way to the last three verses of this text, we notice this shift in the emphasis. This movement of the text is from standing firm, verses 10 through 17, and speaking fearlessly, verses 19 and 20. These are the two lifestyle activities to which the church is called as we engage together in spiritual warfare. But notice something. Notice what holds these two activities together. Sandwiched between the activities is verse 18. It tells us to pray always for divine strength. This is the type of prayer that is featured tonight for the prayer series. This is the type of prayer that I want you to remember and go home with. A lifestyle of prayer for strength, for self, and for one another. Well, what does this type of prayer look like? Paul gives a fourfold emphasis to tell us that. At all times, with all prayer, in all perseverance, for all his people. Now here's the test. What word in that four-fold description of our activity was repeated four times? Did you catch it? All. This tells us the importance of sensing God always, living before the very face of God 24-7, 365, of believing that everything somehow, someway is about God, of a routine that does not get monotonous. If we believe that we live in battleground and He is right there, to where we can pray and speak to Him and receive all that we need in Christ Jesus and pray for one another to stand firm and speak fearlessly, nothing is monotonous in this world. To engage spiritual warfare biblically, we are to see prayer woven throughout our entire life. We are never out of prayer. the battle. We therefore should never go without praying for each other. We must pray regularly that each of us will stand firm and speak fearlessly. John Stott got it right. Quote, most Christians pray sometimes with some prayers and some degree of perseverance and or some of God's people. But to replace some by all in each of these expressions would be to introduce us to a new dimension of prayer, end quote. Perhaps this is one thing God is delivering to us tonight. Engaging spiritual warfare biblically requires a new dimension of prayer. No, not some kind of mystic understanding and thus going into seclusion and separation away from people, but rather by so believing the gospel, we desire to talk with God continuously for the strength of one another. This priority of prayer leads us to the end of the text and the end of the message. We come to verses 19 and 20 to notice a lifestyle activity that we've been alluding to throughout the message, speak fearlessly. One piece of the armor we have not discussed, it's not defensive, it's active, it's aggressive, it's the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, verse 17. The movement of this paragraph from standing to speaking now gives way to speaking to people about God, verse 19. In other words, we all are to evangelize. In light of verse 15, we are to have a readiness to walk into the lives of unbelievers with the gospel. Now, I understand something. We may not be able to preach like John Piper. We may not understand the nuances of theology like Dr. Carson, but this passage only uses the plural you to tell the church that the church together is to be engaged in spiritual warfare with the powers of evil for the prisoners of war. We are to be readied in order with the good news of great joy to readily walk into lives with the wonder of the gospel deep in our lives and steadily upon our lips. With God's word in our hearts and mouths in all boldness we are to speak to people about God and his good news. We are to pray for preachers Your preachers, you got 10 of them, make a list and start praying for them. Who are charged by God to herald the truth fearlessly, verse 19, but we are also to pray for each other for the necessary strength to wield the sword to free the captives. The apostle Paul, wrote to an overseer at Ephesus, an overseer of the church at Ephesus. This letter was written to the Ephesians, people in Ephesus. And so this letter to one of the overseers, Timothy, we hear something about this warfare. something that he needed to do, something that he needed to believe, something that he needed to express to the community of the faithful there in Ephesus. And he said this in 2 Timothy 2, verses 24 and following. And the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome. He must be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wrong, with gentleness, correcting those in opposition, if perhaps God will grant repentance, leading them to the knowledge of the truth that they may escape the snare of the devil, having been held captive to do his will." End quote. We are in a battle. This is conflict zone. No amount of TV, no amount of radio, no amount of slick magazines can take us out of this context. We are to engage in spiritual warfare against the powers of evil for the prisoners of war, and we are to do that in two activities. Stand firm. Speak fearlessly. And oh, beloved, we need strength for both those two. We are like a feather in the wind if we try to live a pure, holy life together in our own strength. Pray continuously for one another. Temptations are everywhere. And secondly, if you are a wimp like me, You need a lot of prayer. Pray for one another that we will speak with clarity and conviction and compassion. That's a nice summation of what it means to speak boldly. Well, to attempt to summarize this and send you off with reminders of this message, here's the conclusion. Number one. Remember, we cannot succeed in this war on our own. Those plural pronouns are everywhere. And I wish that translators would take us into, I don't know, the South and call it y'all. It would really stop us and think, huh. Y'all, we cannot do this on our own. Number two, we must not count on life to be smooth. It's not. It's war. Don't be surprised. Flaming missiles of the evil one. We cannot think that life ought to be smooth. Number three, remember who we are in Jesus Christ. Put on the whole armor of God. Get to know the gospel regularly, relationally, ongoingly. In the lobby tonight, there are some tools for that. If you want to go out there at the literature stand and pick one up and look at it, remember who we are in Christ. Prepare ourselves for sharing the gospel at any time. Any time. With preparation. The gospel of peace, shodding those feet with shoes that are sturdy and move into people's lives with the gospel. Do not, number five, doubt the gospel. When you are doubting the gospel, please get with someone that you love and who loves you and say, I'm doubting the gospel. You won't find condemnation there, you'll find help there. It is not wise, it is not healthy, it is dangerous to say, I don't doubt, and just have little seeds of doubt growing deep in the imagination. They will flourish back there. So come out with that and get help over that. Do not doubt the gospel. Number six, devote ourselves to purity. There are so many Christians who are doubting and tempted and are falling right and left. Let us devote ourselves to holiness and purity in the midst of this battlefield. Devote ourselves to spreading the gospel. It's not just one or a band of few It's all of us collectively in the body of Christ called the local church So let's devote ourselves to the spreading of that and the bottom line of all of this beloved is pray always ask God to strengthen you to resist temptation and share the gospel and And secondly, ask God to strengthen your fellow believers to resist temptation and share the gospel. The end. Let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your patience and your mercy with us, with me. I just love you for that, and I just ask that this will be a renewed interest in you, in the gospel, in the potential of your divine strength working in and around and through our lives that we will do two things. Stand firm and speak fearlessly. So help us, we pray. for the sake of your reputation and the sake of those who are caught as POWs. We pray in Christ's name.