Lord that he gives us. Turn your Bibles if you will to Ephesians chapter 6, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18, Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18 and I got a multitude of blanks on the back of that bulletin there this evening, but we'll go through these things relatively quickly tonight. We're going to be looking here as you can see there in Ephesians chapter six and verse 18, those first two words are praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto or with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. You know, we read here, of course, we've been studying the whole armor of God and how we are told that we are in a battle. We're told that we battle not against flesh and blood, and it gives a whole list of things that we do battle against. And we've talked about a bunch of armor. We've talked about the shield. We've talked about the sword of the spirit. We've talked about many things. And here in verse 18, we see praying always. And let's go to Lord in prayer tonight, and we'll dig into these couple of words in this verse and just ask the Lord to help us in a great way tonight. Dear Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you, Lord, for the things that we've been able to learn through this series thus far. I thank you for dealing with my heart through this series. Lord, I pray that you would help each one of us, dear God, just to, Lord, just put on the whole armor of God every single day. Lord, that we would not allow ourselves to, Lord, just foolishly think that we're strong enough to do this without you. Lord, we need your help. Lord, we need your guidance. We need your strength. I pray to your God that you'd be with us throughout this message tonight, that you would help each and every one of us to draw closer to you, Lord, and to serve you as we leave here, Lord, in a way that glorifies you. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name, amen. Now just for context sake tonight, I want us to look here, starting there in verse 10 again, and we're going to just read through this passage down to verse 18 and kind of recap everything that we've said up to this point. So there in verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 6, the Bible says this, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, 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 wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." As we've been studying through the armor of God, we've looked at, of course, the loins girt about with truth that was speaking of our life and how it should revolve around truth. A believer should never be known to other believers or to this world as a liar or someone who cannot be trusted. God forbid, if we're known as that in our family or amongst a group of co-workers or even in this world, that we'd be known as a liar. Lord, help us. We shouldn't be known as that. Our life should revolve around truth. And then we look at the breastplate of righteousness. That was speaking of protecting our hearts, our feelings, and our emotions. And we know that this world is all about just doing what, do what you want to do. Do what makes you happy. Do what makes you feel fulfilled. But that's not what the Bible says. God says, I know the plans that I have for you. I know exactly what I want to do with your life. And we need that breastplate of righteousness because when those fiery darts of the wicked one, when they come at us, understand he's aiming for our weak points. We're all pride filled, every one of us. We need to have that breastplate of righteousness on. so that Satan cannot attack our heart, our feelings, and our emotions. Then we also looked at our feet, Shad, with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This taught us that we are to allow God to direct our steps in our direction. We are to follow God's path. Not our own path. What does the Bible say? It says that it is a light unto our path. We need to follow God's path and follow what God wants for us. Then we also look at the shield of faith. We're to have our faith settled in and growing in the Lord because the fiery darts of the wicked are coming. We're in a battle. The Bible says here in verse 12, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, He said, we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but I'll tell you exactly what we're wrestling against. Every one of us, we are in a battle, and those fiery darts of the wicked one are coming, and we need the shield of faith. We need to increase our faith so that we can withstand those darts of the wicked. It doesn't say that if you have the shield of faith, the darts won't come. That's not what it says. It says, have the shield of faith so that you can quench the fiery darts of the wicked. Those darts are coming. If you're striving to live for the Lord, you're in Satan's sights, I can guarantee you. He wants nothing more than to discourage you and to cause you to get down in the Christian life. He will be sending those darts though, but praise the Lord, we have that shield of faith. All we have to do is carry it. That's what we have to do. We also looked at the Helmet of Salvation. This is teaching us to have our mind fixed on Christ. And as the Bible says, be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. Which mind? Well, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, the Bible says. We need that helmet of salvation. We need our mind to be fixed on the things of God. Then we also look at the sword of the spirit. This was speaking of the word of God and its impact in our lives. This is the only weapon that's mentioned in this part of the armor. Up to this point, the sword is used for offense. But are we using the Word of God. Now many times when you look at different things that are talking about the armor of God, many times it will say the Ephesians chapter 6, some may say 10 through 17, some may say verse 11 through 17, and then you'll find some that also include verse 18 in that. Well, the reality is the armor of God is not the armor of God without verse 18. I want you to notice there at the end of verse 17, it doesn't end in a period. It doesn't start a whole nother thought there. No, as you're reading down through this, it says, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, colon, praying always. All of these things that you just heard, the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the loins girt about with truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, all of these things, and it says, praying always. Praying always. Heard a statement before, never place a question mark where God places a period. And that's true. But also we shouldn't cause the Bible to stop speaking just when we think it stops. No, we need to look at scripture for what it says. And praying always is just as much a part of the armor of God as these other pieces as well. So tonight, notice there at the top of the handout, or second line down there, it says praying always. The last thing that we see here that we need is prayer, and prayer is included in the armor of God. We need to pray for the Lord's protection, and He's going to get it. Many times, prayer is what we give the least amount of time to. You know, we're told multiple times in the Bible we are commanded to pray. I want to look at a few scriptures here this evening. Look over, if you will, at 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5. And then notice verse 17. Now, this is a command here. 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 17. The Bible says, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. Well, I know I don't pray as much as I should. None of us do. But can I ask you this question? Why not? The Bible says pray without ceasing. Yeah, we can pray throughout our whole day. The Lord brings somebody to your mind. You know, many times somebody's name will pop in our mind and the first thing we do is we think of the negative things about them. Think of the way that they treated us before, things that they said to us, ways that they hurt us. When's the last time somebody's name popped in your mind? And rather than allowing those thoughts to come, you said, Lord, bless them, whatever they're doing today. Lord, I pray that you would help them. And just went on about your day. Praying always. All throughout the day, we should be praying. A prayer life is not a prayer life if it's just a certain time of day that it's confined to. If we were to say, well, I live the Christian life on Sundays and Wednesdays, we'd say, no, you live the Christian Sunday and Wednesday. But yet we like to say, well, I have a prayer life because we pray for five minutes or 10 minutes. No, it's a life. And it's a weapon, if you will. It's the power of prayer. And we need to be asking the Lord to help us to increase our prayer. Look at Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18. in verse 1. Luke chapter 18 in verse 1 the Bible says, And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint. Turn over to the book of Romans if you will, Romans chapter 12, Romans 12 in verse 12. Romans chapter 12 in verse 12. The Bible says rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. I'll give you a few other ones if you want to write them down that also speak of how we are to be praying always and that's Colossians 4.2, Luke 21.36, in Philippians 4.6, Colossians 4.2, Luke 21.36, and Philippians 4.6. Prayer is simply this, it's simply asking, why is it that we go through life as believers with a lack of faith, with a lack of strength, with a lack of joy? Why is that? Why do we go through life without God's power in our lives. Well, James chapter four in verse two says this, ye have not because ye ask not. Speaking of prayer, asking the Lord, going to the Lord and asking him for these things. I want you to look over at the book of Matthew, if you will, Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six in verse eight. Matthew chapter six in verse eight. It says, be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of. Notice, before ye ask him. You know, God knows exactly what we need. We don't have to inform God of anything. One man said this, has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurs to God? And it's so true. God knows it all. I'm sure all of us know what it's like to have someone that we care about and we know that that person is need, is in need, but we don't know either what they need or we know what they need. We're just asking on, or we're just waiting on them to ask. Well, many times we as parents may be that way, especially once the children are grown and they're, out to have a family of their own and those types of things, you may see that there's a struggle somewhere. We may see that they may need some help in some area and you may not want to ask them because, well, I don't wanna get in their business and all those things, but you know there's a need there. All you're waiting for is for them to ask. Think about how true it is with God. He knows everything that we need. Doesn't matter how small it is or how large it is. God knows it. All he's waiting for is for us to ask. Many times we say, well, it's just something small. I'll go to God when it's something big. Well, everything is small to God, everything. Our biggest struggles are nothing for God to take care of. Why do we categorize those things? Church, we serve an all-knowing and all-powerful God, and He tells us exactly what to do, and He's just waiting for us to ask Him. So notice here, I want us to see these three things this evening. Notice number one, what God tells us. Notice, all prayer, this, what to pray. He tells us what to pray. Christians we should not be guilty of vain repetition either this doesn't mean that we shouldn't pray for the same things over and over again but what it does mean is that we should not pray for things just to say well I prayed for that you know somebody's going through a struggle and sometimes you may say well well I'll be praying for you And then the only reason we pray for them is because we told them that we would. We're not praying in faith believing. All we're doing is just mentioning their name. We're not praying that God would do anything specific. Understand, we should not be praying in vain repetition. We should pray in faith believing. We should pray for every item. Think about this. Everything that we pray for, we should pray for it in the faith as if this is the last time I'll ever have to pray for this because God's going to answer this prayer. Think about it. Many times we say, well, I'll be praying for such and such need, and I'll be praying for it over these days, and these weeks, and these months, and these years. What would happen in our prayer life if every time we beseech the throne of grace, we did it as if we would never have to ask God for that again, because we have the faith believing that He's going to answer it before it comes back in our mind? What would happen? Think about it. What do we pray for? Some types of prayer that we find, notice their letter A is this, prayers of supplication. Look at Acts chapter one, if you will. Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one in verse 14. Acts chapter one in verse 14, notice the Bible says this, these all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Over in the book of Psalm chapter six, Psalms chapter six, turn back there if you would. Psalm chapter six in verse nine, The Bible says this in Psalm chapter six in verse nine, the Lord hath heard my supplication, the Lord will receive my prayer. What we find is supplication, it means a petition. It means to entreat for. Different forms of the word supplication are found over 60 times in the Word of God. It has the idea of requesting something that's needed or something that's desired. And the psalmist said here, The Lord hath heard my supplication. The Lord will receive my prayer. He said, God heard everything that I needed. What I brought before him, God heard that. Not one time do we go before God and the line's busy. Not one time do we go before God and he doesn't hear our prayer. I like the account in scripture of Elijah and the prophets of Baal there when he was mocking their God and he said, well, maybe he's asleep. Maybe he's on a trip. These are my words, but this is the context, if you will. Maybe he's on vacation. Maybe he's out fighting a battle somewhere and he can't hear you. Elijah knew, though, as soon as he called on the God of Israel. the God of Israel was going to answer his call. Why is that? Because he knew that he hears the supplications of his children. God hears that. There's prayers of supplication. Notice, letter B there, we also see that there are prayers of worship. Now understand, every one of these things should be part of our prayer life, if you will. We see here in the book of Ephesians that we are to be praying always. This is something that we must do, so we must have prayers of supplication, we must have prayers of worship. Look at the book of Matthew, chapter six, if you will, Matthew chapter six, and notice verse nine through 13, The Bible says this, after this manner therefore pray ye our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. for if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you." Notice here we see a prayer that is speaking directly to God as we see in verse 9, our Father which art in heaven. There's a couple other references there, 1st Timothy 2.1 and 1st Peter 4.7 as well, but the word is of course often used to describe someone talking to God. And you know even the unsaved, even ones that may not know hardly anything about the Scriptures, anything about church, anything about religion, or anything about those types of things, even they will often times have jewelry, clothing, or wall decor that speaks of prayer, speaks of talking to God. Speaks of the Lord's prayer, many times have something like that hanging on their wall. But biblical prayer is a reference to divine honor and reverence to God. Our father, which art in heaven. What's he say? Hallowed be thy name. He's saying you deserve all the glory and all the honor and all the praise. When's the last time our prayer included worship? Not a wishlist, not, Lord, I need, God, I really want. Lord, this would make my life a whole lot easier. Lord, take this away from me. I'm not saying it's wrong to pray for things, but do we worship God in our prayers? Different forms of the word prayer is used over 500 times through the Bible. Over 500 times. We also see there, letter C, so not only prayers of supplication, not only prayers of worship, but also prayers of intercession. Prayers of intercession. Look at Exodus chapter 32. Exodus chapter 32. We're gonna look at verses 30 through verse 35. Exodus 32 verses 30 through 35, the Bible says this, and it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, you have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up unto the Lord per adventure. I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold yet. Now, if now we'll forgive their sin. And if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. And the Lord said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore, now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angels shall go before thee, nevertheless, in the day when I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf which Aaron made. Notice we see Moses here and he goes before the Lord and he's intercessing for people who had sinned. He wasn't even there. Remember him and Joshua, they were on the mountain. Remember as they were coming down the mountain and they said, what does that sound? It's like the sound of war. But yet Moses said, I'm going to go to the Lord for you. I'm going to, Go to the Lord, I'm going to have a prayer of intercession, if you will. Look at James chapter five. James chapter five and verse 16. James five and verse 16. The Bible says this, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Notice what it says there, pray one for another. That has the idea of interceding. Going to the Lord on behalf of someone else. Prayer of intercession. We see this through these passages that we just read. Also in Job 16, 21, you'll find that as well. But this is one who intercedes between parties, if you will. This is a mediator. We know that the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, he is the mediator between us and God. But when we pray for someone, understand we are intercessing for them. We're going to God on their behalf. You know what that causes? It causes us to set our own needs aside, our own selves aside. How many in here have needs? Yeah, every one of us, we all have needs. You know, when you're praying for someone else, you are preferring them over yourself. You're bringing them before God, intercessing. And also letter D, notice not only the prayers of intercession, but this, prayers of gratitude. Prayers of gratitude. When's the last time you went before God and you said, Lord, thank you. Thank you for all that you've done for me. Thank you for the blessings upon me. Look at Ephesians chapter five, if you will. Ephesians chapter five. Ephesians chapter five in verse 20. The Bible says this, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we see in Ephesians chapter six and verse 18, it says praying always with all prayer, but over in chapter five and verse 20, we see we should also be giving thanks always. for all things. You know what happens when we give thanks? We forget about the things that our mind wants to complain to God about. When we can thank God for the way that He sustained us, the way that He cares for us, when we can thank God for what we would consider the small things, when we can thank God for the air that we breathe, the health that we have, Boy, we forget awfully quickly about those other things that we would so quickly complain about in our life. Gratitude is an emotion of the heart. When's the last time we allowed ourselves to pray a prayer of gratitude? Look at Colossians, if you will. Colossians chapter three and verse 17. Colossians chapter three and verse 17. The Bible says, and whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Notice, giving thanks to God and the Father by him. So whatsoever you do, it says give thanks. Give thanks in it. It should bother us as much as it bothers me, to have to correct my children when someone gives them something or does something for them and they try to walk away, as much as it bothers me when they do that without saying thank you and I have to say, hey, what do you say? You say thank you, you say please, and all those types of things. It should bother me even more when I don't say thank you to God. How many times do we pray for something and God answers that prayer and we don't thank Him for it? I think many times we are so quick to ask the Lord for things and God gives it to us and, well, we're so happy we got it, but we never say, Lord, thank you. Thank you. Prayers of gratitude. For all that God has done for us, our prayers should be full of gratitude. Church, we're saved from hellfire. We deserve a place in hell. We should thank God that we don't have to go there. They sent his son to die on the cross for us. So first of all, we see all prayer and what to pray. And we said prayers of supplication and prayers of worship and prayers of intercession and prayers of gratitude. But notice, secondly here, all perseverance. Notice not only what to pray, but let's look at how to pray. How to pray. Church, as we studied through this chapter, we've seen over and over that we're in a battle, and this battle will continue until the Lord takes us home. But you know what prayer does? When we pray to the Lord, our Heavenly Father, it reminds us we're not in this battle alone. It reminds us that we don't have to fight this all alone. And the longer that I'm saved, the longer I realize I cannot do this without the Lord. I can't live this life without the Lord. I can't live the victorious Christian life without him. Children rarely see at a young age how much they need their parents, but as soon as they reach a more mature age, they realize just how much they needed mom and dad. Just how much mom and dad has done for him. Well, the same thing is true as we grow in the Christian life as well. We realize all the things that God has delivered us from and kept us from and saved us from and all of that. And we should be thanking him for that. You know, as we mentioned a little bit ago, the Lord knows exactly what we need. He knows that we need his help. And as we said, he's just waiting for us to ask. You know what that word perseverance means? It means this, persistence. Persistence. We all know that the most persistent human beings on this planet are little children. When a child wants something, boy, they're persistent about it. They want it. England's boy, Danny, when he's hungry, I guarantee you this, he'll let everybody know that he's hungry. And he'll ask, and then he'll ask again, and he'll ask again, and he'll eat a whole meal, and then he'll say, hungry again. He's persistent at that. But little children, when they have their heart or their mind set on something, they will ask and ask and ask. They will beg, they'll barter, and they'll plead for whatever it is that they desire. They are persistent. And it's easy for us to understand when that comes to the physical, but why is it different when it comes to the spiritual? Why is that? I wanna look at some examples of persistence in prayer here this evening. Look over at the book of Luke chapter 11, Luke chapter 11, and notice verses one through 10 of Luke chapter 11, verse one through 10. Notice we see, and it came to pass, that as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. give us day by day our daily bread and forgive us our sins as for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil and he said unto them which of you shall have a friend and shall go unto him at midnight and say unto him friend lend me three loaves For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed, I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find Knock and it shall be opened unto you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall Be open we see in this passage here We see that Jesus he heard their request when they said Lord teach us to pray. What did he do? he taught them how to pray why because because they asked him. But many times we would say, well, they were with him physically, and he saw that they wanted to know how to pray. Well, he's not gonna be with them all the time, so they wanted to know. So they asked him, and he just taught them. Well, it's no different when it comes to our prayer life either, and it doesn't matter how small it may seem. We need to go to the Lord for these things. We need to ask the Lord. We need to be persistent in our prayer life. We see there in verse eight, toward the end, it says, because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed. That word importunity, it means this, to bear on. It means to press, it means to urge by demand. The one friend we can see, of course, is God the Father, a picture of that, and we can go to him, and we need to be persistent in our prayer. We see the lowercase friend, is the believer. Are we persistent in our prayer? Look at verse 9 and 10. It says, and I say unto you, ask. There's the first step of prayer and it shall be given unto you. What's next? Seek. You know, seeking for something is a lot different than asking for something. If someone says, and of course I've done this many times, I'll ask my wife, where is such and such? Of course, normally she'll say, it's such and such shelf down over on this side, behind such and such, and right there. I have no idea how she knows those things, but she just does. She knows where the stuff is placed. It's a lot easier for me to ask where something is than for me to go look for it myself. It takes a little more work to go look for it, does it not? So we see asking, and we see there seeking. But then, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. We see one example of persistence in prayer there. Look over at Luke chapter 18. We'll see another example there in Luke chapter 18. And notice verses one through eight. The Bible says this. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, There was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith? He said there's an unjust judge, and he didn't care about this woman. And it says here in verse five, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her. He said, I don't want her to just have to just keep coming back and bothering me, so I'm going to do this. But then he says over in verse seven, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cried day and night unto him? Let's be persistent in our prayers. You know, we'll be persistent in prayer for the things that matter the most to us. We will be. We see this parable included those three people. Of course, we see the unjust judge. We see God as the righteous judge. We see the widow. Of course, the adversary would be the devil. And in order for us to get the victory, we must go to the Lord. We see it wasn't just one time. We see it's continual coming day and night. So we see what to pray with all prayer. We see all perseverance, how to pray. And then lastly tonight, I want us to notice this here. Notice it says all saints. This is for whom to pray. Who are we praying for? Of course, we know that we are to be praying for the Lord to save the lost I'm in no way saying that we should only pray for saved people tonight. That's not what I'm saying at all. But the reality is this, we should be praying for our church family a lot more than we do. We should be bringing them before the Lord. This is so important for us to understand tonight, church, because though we are to pray for the Lord's help in our own lives, we're also to be praying for others as well. And what I have found to be true in my life is when I'm going through a difficulty and dealing with something that seems like a major undertaking, when I begin to pray for someone else and their difficulty, not only do my problems not seem as large, but I, quickly forget about them. Because when you start praying for the things that some of the church families going through, some of the struggles, some of the battles, some of the difficulties, you start to realize, you know what? I'm so blessed. Lord, I don't, I don't have any right to complain. When you start seeing those things as they truly are, Church, each and every one of us, as a church, we're a family. We're an army. We should be praying for one another. You know, when a platoon goes out into battle, no matter how many it may be, if one soldier is lost in war, the whole platoon suffers. But too often in churches, what happens is When there's a Christian casualty, if you will, when Satan gets the victory in someone's life, what you hear many times is this, well, I saw that coming. Well, I knew they weren't going to last. Well, I knew that that there, they just weren't sold out for God. I knew that. That wouldn't be our attitude if we were praying for them the way that we should be praying for them. If we're beseeching God on their behalf, If we're praying always and praying for our church family. If Satan defeats one, he defeats us all. because we're all on the same team. We're all affected by Christian casualties. In James chapter five, verse 16, it says that we must pray for one another. Pray for your spouse, pray for your children, pray for your family, pray for me as the pastor of this church and for my family and for the church family and for the missionaries and others as well. Let's be praying for these people. God's people should hold a special place in our lives. Why do we have our prayer list laid out the way that we do with the church ministries and church families and those types of things? We have, of course, these columns here, and we have the recent prayer requests. We have those there, not because we're trying to fill a paper, but because we need to keep these things before us. We need to be praying for one another. We should pray for our church family. You know, through Scripture, we see that Jesus prayed for Simon. Abraham prayed for Lot, Moses prayed for Aaron, Job prayed for his friends. We should be praying one for another as well. Church prayer is not a piece of armor that you put on. It's the power and strength that we must have to carry that armor, to go into that battle. It's the spiritual strength that we need. We would say that it would be foolish for a soldier to go into battle malnourished, but yet believers try to do it all the time because we're not praying the way that we should be. I want you to look over at 1 Peter, if you will, 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. Bible says this, "'Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.'" Church, we're in a battle. There is an adversary. How long are we going to allow ourselves to think that Well, I'm strong enough today. How long are we going to allow ourselves to go through life without putting on the whole armor of God like we're told? God knows exactly what battles we're going to face. He knows what struggles we're going to go through. He knows what struggle the church family is going through. When are we going to take God's word for what it says, put on the whole armor of God because we're in a battle praying always, praying for one another. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 11, we read, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. As you study the armor of God and as we have learned these things about each and every piece of armor, may God help us to never forget that without prayer we're going into the battle malnourished. Without the power, without the blessing of God, we need to be praying always.