Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 13 to 20. You can find that on page 979 in the Pew Bibles. Last week we looked at verses 10 through 12 of this chapter, and those verses urge us to be strong in the Lord and to stand firm against the devil's schemes. And to do so, we're commanded to put on the whole armor of God. Last week we focused on, in general terms, on our resources that are available to us and our responsibility to use those resources. This week we're going to look more closely at the armor that God has given to us and how we are to put that armor on. So please follow along as I read from God's holy word beginning in verse 13 of Ephesians 6. 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. To that 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 grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of our God will stand forever. Let's pray and ask for his blessing on it this evening. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, which is breathed out by you and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. We ask for it to further equip us as we study it this evening, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Well, having the right equipment is necessary for pretty much everything we do in life. To use the metaphors of Ephesians 6, it's necessary in athletics and in conflict, military conflict. So last week I asked you to imagine a wrestler showing up to his wrestling match in boxing gloves. If he's hoping to win that match, unless he is vastly superior to his opponent, if he's hoping to win, he should take those gloves off. They'll be a great hindrance to him. He's not dressed appropriately. And Paul uses that metaphor of wrestling in verse 12 of Ephesians 6. But the predominant metaphor he uses in verses 10 to 17 is that of warfare. And to engage in battle, you also need to dress appropriately, at least to engage in battle well, we should say. And in Paul's day, that meant putting on armor. putting on a helmet, putting on a breastplate, bringing a shield to battle, taking a sword in your hand, a sword so you could also go on the offensive. Today we might think more of a bulletproof vest and a little bit sturdier helmet than they would have had back then, maybe night vision goggles and a really powerful kind of gun. You need to march out fit for the occasion if you hope to succeed. And the point of the metaphor is that we are engaged in spiritual warfare, and we're fighting a powerful enemy who has great schemes and really wants to bring us down. And therefore, it is of the utmost importance that we prepare ourselves to do battle with him. If instead of relying on God's armor, we rely on man-made armor, we're doomed to fail. We're not going to be prepared for this battle, and we will be easily defeated. And so instead, as we saw last week, we must rely on God's strength and use the resources He's given to us. But how do we do that? Tonight's text calls you to prayerfully put on God's armor, prayerfully put on God's armor, and we'll look at how we are to do that together in two parts. First, the call to put on God's armor and what that armor is, and second, how we are to pray in the spirit. So let's look at verses 13 to 17 first, which urge you to put on God's armor. I look at verse 13, it begins, therefore take up the whole armor of God. This is a repetition to the command that has already been given in verse 11. And after giving that command the first time, Paul went on to explain our adversary, how he's real, how he's powerful, how he's crafty. And after that meditation on who our enemy is, we see the word, therefore, considering who this enemy is, we must take up God's armor. We can't defeat him on our own. Verse 13 also gives us the purpose of putting on that armor, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm. So we put on armor not to impress people, but to stand against Satan's attacks. This leads to a second related command in verse 14. Paul says, stand therefore. Now he puts that in command terms, in an imperative verb. Since we have these evil forces arrayed against us, and since we have God's gospel armor on us, we are able and we must stand firm against these adversaries. And verses 14 to 17 then explain exactly what this armor looks like and we'll look at that in detail here now. There are six pieces of armor, six pieces of armor that we must put on if we are to win our spiritual battles. Now the first is in verse 14, having fastened on the belt of truth. A belt is useful. It's important, actually. It's necessary to hold the other pieces of clothing up. Without the belt, you could say it all falls apart. And really, without truth, everything falls apart. The truth is necessary for our faith, for us to withstand the devil. Thinking about truth, it could refer to one of two things. It could refer to our truthfulness, being people of the truth, or it could refer to the truth in Christ. Think about how it refers to Jesus himself. Jesus says in John 14, 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And Ephesians 1, 13 also refers to the gospel as the word of truth. And so when we think of putting on the belt of truth, that is believing in Jesus, believing that what he says is true, believing that the gospel is true. But since this is something we're called to put on, it surely also has implications for our own lives. First in believing it, but also in applying it. So look at Ephesians 4.15. Ephesians 4.15 calls you to speak the truth in love. And then chapter four, verse 25 tells us to put away falsehood and to speak truth to our neighbors. And so that's a habit that we must establish as Christians. People need to know that your word can be counted on. You don't need to swear by it. You don't need to promise up and down. You just need to say, if you say you're going to do something, people need to know that your word is truth. And if they ask you a question and you give an answer, they need to be able to rely on that being a truthful answer. That's what the Bible calls us to do. And so we put on this belt of truth, we believe in Jesus who is the truth, and then we ourselves also become truthful people. Well, after the belt of truth, we see a second piece here in verse 14, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness. A breastplate was really essential to protect a soldier's vital organs. Without it, his heart or his lungs, for example, would be very vulnerable to being pierced, and he'd be much less likely to be able to stand in battle. Now, just as there are two interpretive options for truth, we see the same thing here for righteousness. This could be referring to what we could say is our righteousness or to Christ's righteousness, and I'll explain that here. If we think about Christ's righteousness, that's Christ's righteousness imputed to us. So certainly that's what we need to put on first when we hope in Christ, right? So Ephesians, or Philippians 3, 9, Paul speaks of being found in Christ, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but a righteousness that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. And so when Satan accuses us and wants to say, your sins have separated you from God, we put on the breastplate of righteousness, of Christ's righteousness, and we say, no, I am no longer condemned because Jesus Christ has died for me and he has imputed his righteousness to me as I believe in him. And indeed, that really is the only righteousness that will do us any good. We can never be saved by our own good works or by our own righteousness. However, it's a little more complicated than that because this letter is addressed to Christians, those who have already professed their faith in Christ, those who therefore have already been clothed in Christ's righteousness by nature of who they are in Christ. And therefore, this may also refer to the righteous living that believing the gospel brings. So, Ephesians 4.24 urges you to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. And I think that that's the emphasis here in Ephesians 6 as well. As those who have been redeemed by Christ, we are to put on the new self in true righteousness and holiness. And so in other words, this is calling you again to live in accordance with who you are. And if you don't live righteously, if you don't act like who you are, you're opening yourself up to all sorts of trouble. Now take one example. Proverbs 6.27 says, can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? In the context of Proverbs, it's talking about the sin of adultery, but we could think about any number of sins where we're really playing with fire and rather than having the breastplate of righteousness on, we've discarded it and we've kind of put fire right next to our chest. When we do that, we're opening ourselves up to hurt, we're opening the gospel up to being mocked by others, and we find ourselves in very difficult circumstances. Well, a third piece of armor here is verse 15. And shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. Proper footwear is really important everywhere, right? Soldiers in battle, they may have to march a long time to get to war, so they need to have sandals that are gonna be comfortable. They also need sandals that are going to allow them to engage in combat. You don't want big clunky things that are going to make you immobile. You need to be swift on your feet, especially when you're doing hand-to-hand combat with swords. And so they need appropriate shoes here to protect them. Well, a common way to understand this metaphor here in Paul is the preaching of the gospel, right? So putting on the appropriate shoes is preaching the gospel. Romans 10 discusses the necessity of preaching to unbelievers, and here's what it says. How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news. And so we put on the proper shoes, we go and travel to spread the gospel to other people. We share it as often as we're able, we share it whenever we have the opportunity, and we also need to be intentional, sometimes even crossing long distances, as it were. You know, going out of our way to make opportunities to share the good news of Christ with others. There's also a bit of agility needed. Maybe you've been talking about your faith with someone, and they come back to you with some questions or doubts, and it can be confusing. And you need some agility to be able to answer their questions, to interact with them, to think on your feet, as it were, as you have conversations with them. Well, fourth piece of armor here is given in verse 16. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. Now the shield Paul has in mind here was about four feet long by two and a half feet wide. So this is an imposing kind of shield. And the shield would cover really a soldier's entire body, virtually his entire body, if he needed to. And likewise, as we think about that metaphor, faith is absolutely essential to protect us. It's absolutely essential. When we confess, we need to confess ourselves to be sinners, look to Jesus Christ in faith and for his mercy, and that is when we receive God's grace. That is when we receive protection from our sins. And it's necessary when we consider what is being shot at us. Let's return to the metaphor about the shield. The shield of faith, he says, is used to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one. And so in ancient warfare, some arrows would be set on fire often, and then the arrows would be shot at the opposing enemies. So when these fiery darts are coming, you really need a strong shield, a big shield, to put up to block this line of arrows that are flying at you. And likewise for us, Satan will be shooting spiritual arrows at us, accusing us. And if our faith is small, if our faith is weak, those arrows are going to get around, they're going to begin to pierce through our protection. We talked about some of these schemes in more detail last week. Really just briefly, these fiery darts include any accusation that he may bring against us, any doubt or despair that may pierce our minds. And so we need the shield of faith in Christ to have the assurance of the things we hope for and the conviction of the things that we have yet to see. These arrows come in the form of ambition. They come in the form of lust, greed, envy, pride, bitterness, anger, jealousy, selfishness, really many other forms. These fiery darts are shot at us. They come in the form of questioning God's goodness or the truthfulness of scripture. But whatever Satan is shooting at you, you can take protection from the shield of faith. That's what this verse is calling you to do. We can say one more thing about this shield. If you know something about Roman military history, you'll know that the soldiers marched out to battle, they didn't fight alone. That's true in pretty much any day, right? You don't fight, a soldier doesn't fight on his own unless maybe you're a superhero in a movie. So soldiers fight together, and what they would often do with these big shields is they would put them together. They would put them together and they would form this wall that you just couldn't penetrate. And by fighting together like that, the arrows would not have any inch to get in, and neither would the enemy if they were to charge. How that relates to us is our faith is not a shield to be taken up alone. We don't take up our shield of faith and try to extinguish the fiery darts by ourselves. If we do that, we're sometimes vulnerable. Our one shield can't protect us from all sides, and so we need each other. Remember, Satan is, as we said last week, a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. And what do predators do? I said this last week. Predators, they like to split their prey off from the herd and then they pick on a weak or isolated prey and they go for that on its own. Satan likes to do the same thing to believers. If he can pick you off, cut you off from fellowship with others, then you're much more vulnerable to his attack. And so to stand firm, you need to link shields, as it were, with your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ and stand firm together against the fiery darts that he is shooting at you. He is shooting them at you, so stand firm together. Well, a fifth piece is given here in verse 17. And take up the helmet of salvation. Again, we see the clear importance of a helmet in ancient warfare. You can't have your shield up forever if you're gonna go on the offensive. You need to kind of lower it so you can see and your head is going to need to be protected. And so we need to put this helmet on. But again, this protection lies not in ourselves, but in what Christ has done for us. It's the helmet of salvation, which is Jesus Christ coming to die for sinners. Jesus Christ laying down His life for those who were guilty. And so Jesus Christ reconciles God and man, not our own efforts. And like all these other pieces of armor, this is a free gift of God. Yes, we're called to put it on, but we put it on because God has given it to us. We don't earn it. We don't earn it. There are lots of things in life that we earn. You know, you look at the military today and you look at men and women in the military progressing through the ranks, they earn the those promotions, right? This is not something we earn. This is something that has been graciously given to us. You don't have to fight for this helmet. You don't have to pass a test for this helmet. You simply have to pick up and accept what God has given to you. Salvation in Christ through faith in Him. Well, a sixth and final piece of armor here is verse 17. And the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And as you probably notice, and it has been often observed by others, this is the only offensive weapon that is named here, the sword of the spirit, which is clearly identified as the Bible. And we use the Bible to put Satan to flight. And think about how our Lord Jesus fended him off. When Jesus was in the wilderness and Satan came and tempted him, Satan used Scripture. He quoted Scripture, and he misapplied it and tried to convince Jesus to sin. And what did Jesus do? Jesus quoted Scripture back, but he used it correctly, applied it appropriately, and fended off Satan by using the sword of the Spirit. Likewise, you need to use the same approach. Use the weapon God has given you. When tempted to sin, when tempted by false worldviews, we need to take up the sword of the Spirit. Personal experience shows that this is vitally important. Think back in your own life when you've been tempted. Really, what got you, what convinced you to do the right thing? Often it's, I imagine many of you can say, because I knew what God's word said, or God brought a particular, the Holy Spirit brought a particular passage of scripture to mind, and that eased my doubts, or that encouraged me to do what I knew I needed to do. Now this is true not only in personal experience, but in church history. Charles Hodge wrote that all the church's triumphs over sin and error have been affected by the word of God. So long as she uses this and relies on it alone, she goes on conquering. But when anything else, be it reason, science, tradition, or the commandments of men, is allowed to take its place or to share its office, then the church or the Christian is at the mercy of the adversary. You see, it's no wonder when churches begin to minimize the gospel or question the inerrancy of scripture, after a church begins to do that, a whole host of other theological errors flow naturally. Because if you cannot stand firmly on the word of God, if you begin relying on some other thing, man-made tradition, or science, or anything else, you're going to be very quickly led by the adversary into error. Well, there's a real clear application in this. It's a very common application, but important nonetheless. Know your Bible. Read your Bible. Study your Bible. Meditate on scripture. You can't use your sword if it's getting rust on the shelf or there's a lot of spider webs on it because it's never taken off. You need to use it. Be competent. Be trained in using scripture. And so that's an urgent call for all of us. We can't fight with the sword of the Spirit if we don't know it. So in sum here, as we look at these pieces of armor, we're called to put them on. We're called to put them on because we face a strong enemy, and we need them because we're not sufficient in ourselves. You are not strong enough to go into spiritual warfare in your own armor. Therefore, don't rely on yourself, but fight with the weapons that God has given to you. So we see that command in verses 13 to 17, to put on God's armor. Second, let's consider how verses 18 to 20 urge us to pray in God's spirit. And after telling us to put on the armor, verse 18 continues, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Now I think this call to pray is actually very closely related to what he's been saying about putting on God's armor. In fact, if you look at the text, it's not an imperative verb that's used, but another participle, just kind of showing how this is very closely related to what's being said. This is really another way we put on God's armor. We put on God's armor through prayer. The hymn we sang last week says, put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer. And that's what you need to do as a Christian. You don't just will yourself to having faith. You don't just will yourself to reading God's word and knowing how to apply it. You prayerfully read God's word. You prayerfully ask God to increase your faith. And so we put on the gospel armor with prayer. Well, as we do so, these verses show us how we are to be praying. And first, verse 18 makes clear that we are to pray at all times, at all times. Elsewhere in 1 Thessalonians 5.17, Paul writes, pray without ceasing. So the Christian life is to be one of perpetual, not occasional, prayer. We are to be prayer warriors, not just in our quiet times or devotions or whatever you want to call them. It's not just that time in the morning or time in the evening, but throughout the day that we are called to pray. Yes, those extended periods of prayer are great, are necessary for a healthy spiritual growth. But that's not it. Don't pray in the morning, check your box, and then pray the next morning. No, God calls you to be praying at all times. And that could include quick, sudden prayers. So someone asks you a question at work, and you think, uh, I don't know what I'm gonna say to this. You can just pray, right? Or someone at school is making fun of someone else, and they're kind of, you're feeling like, if I stand up and say something, I'm gonna be ostracized. What should I do? Pray, right? Pray right then and there. It doesn't have to only be, and it shouldn't only be in the morning or evening. Well, not only do we pray at all times, but we present all kinds of prayers and supplications to God, the text says. They can be prayers, they can be praises, I mean, they can be confessions of sin, they can be cries for help, for ourselves, for others, for wisdom, for spiritual growth, for the ability to do what God has called us to do, for sleep, maybe, if you're not sleeping well. A prayer at all times with all kinds of prayers and supplications. And at all times we do this praying, the text says, in the spirit. We pray with the spirit's help and in the spirit. Romans 8.26 says, likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And so the Christian prays in the spirit, with the spirit's help. We don't only offer such prayers for ourselves. As we think about prayer, and if I said, make a list of things you should pray for, Some of you are very others-oriented, I'm sure, and you would just think of others. Many of us would probably think immediately of our own schedule, and we would make a lot of prayer requests about ourselves, more patience maybe, wisdom with my coworkers, patience with my children, whatever it might be for you. We often think of ourselves when we pray, but Paul calls us here not only to think about how this applies to ourselves for putting on the gospel armor and fighting this fight, but also to pray for other people. So he says this, look at verse 18. He says, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Well, what do you pray for other people? Well, surely it's pretty much the same things you pray for yourself, probably. Verse 18, again, we could go back to there, with all prayer and supplication. Pray all those kind of things for others, not just for yourselves. We also have some models earlier in this very book. So we could look back at Ephesians chapter one, verses 15 to 23, and chapter three, verses 14 to 19. Those give you some great suggestions for prayer for each other. I'll just consider chapter three, verses 14 to 19. It says, and think about how this is a good prayer for someone else. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. What a great prayer for someone else, that they would know this love of Christ that really surpasses all knowledge, that they would know the dimensions of Christ's love that are immeasurable. That's a great prayer to pray for someone else. But you can pray that kind of prayer confidently because the next verse, Ephesians 3.20, tells us that God is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or imagine. So there's an invitation there. Pray good prayers. Pray big prayers for other people. Don't limit it. Don't think, well, God could never do that in their life. God could never heal them. God could never change them. God can do more than you ask or imagine. So pray these big prayers for someone else. Well, in order to pray these kind of prayers, we also need to stay alert and persevere, and the text tells us to do that. We can think of a negative example of this, with the disciples sleeping in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus goes off to pray, he comes back, he finds them sleeping, and he says to them, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And so we need to stay alert and persevere in our prayers. And of course, again, it helps to remember that Satan is a roaring lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. If every time you had to go to your car to leave for work, you knew that there was a lion out there and you had to make it to the car before the lion got you, you'd probably behave a little differently when you walked out the door, wouldn't you? Think about it like that with your fellow believers. There's a lion out there looking to eat them up, and so you need to be praying for them, and you need to be alert so that they won't fall into temptation, so that they won't and so that you won't. It really should drive us to our knees to pray for our brothers and sisters. And this isn't just our brothers and sisters in general, but also the text calls us to pray for our missionaries and our church leaders. Paul, in verse 19, asks the Ephesians not only to pray for each other, but to pray for him. He adds, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. Even someone as great as the Apostle Paul desperately needed prayer. He coveted, if we could say, the prayers of God's saints. He really wanted them, he earnestly wanted them to be praying for him. Really, any godly person recognizes this. Sinclair Ferguson tells the story of the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. And Charles Spurgeon was once asked, what is the secret to your ministry? Very successful ministry. People still read his sermons over 100 years later. Many people attended him. Many people were moved by his sermons. What is the secret to this? And you know what Spurgeon said? My people pray for me. That is what Spurgeon thought the secret was. My people pray for me. And so it's an urgent call to all congregations. Really, if you want the ministry of the word to have a success in your church, if you want to see it affecting the people, your fellow congregational members and whoever comes into our church, then pray for it. The main secret isn't hire a very witty or creative or compelling and powerful preacher. The real secret is to pray that God would use his word, that God would, through the power of his spirit, use his word to change people's lives. That's what Spurgeon saw as the great success to his ministry. which actually brings us to Paul's request for boldness. Notice what he says about himself in verse 20. He says, for which I am an ambassador in chains. If you're in chains, what's one of your first prayer requests? This is hypothetical. I think most of us, maybe none of us have been in chains, right? I'm thinking, please get me out of here, right? That is not what Paul is saying. Instead, he reinforces his request for boldness. He adds again that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. You see, Paul, for him to live was Christ and to die was gain. His only main concern was that Jesus Christ was glorified in him. If Christ was glorified, if the gospel was preached, Paul was happy. And so he wants to speak boldly, not to get out of jail, but to speak the gospel clearly. Now let me add here, when Paul speaks of the mystery of the gospel, what he's referring to is something that was hidden and is now revealed. I think we've talked about this in other weeks. And yet, until it is preached, until it is understood by an unbeliever, it remains a mystery to them. It remains veiled. And so Paul earnestly, desperately wants boldness in preaching this gospel. He needs to because these people, everyone needs to hear this message. And so he doesn't strap on the gospel armor only to protect himself. He's not really self-focused. Instead, he straps on the gospel armor so that he can advance the gospel, so he can advance the kingdom of God to go into the battlefield as a faithful soldier, spreading the good news of salvation in Christ. Really, that's where we should be praying for each other, and especially for our church leaders and our missionaries. And so if you want that kind of boldness from each other, from your pastors, from your elders, from your missionaries, pray for it. Pray for them that they would be bold as they ought to be. There is nothing to be ashamed of in the gospel, even though there are people in our culture who may Think that there is, even though there may be friends who mock you. Really, there's nothing to be ashamed of in the gospel. It is Jesus Christ laying down his life for unworthy sinners like us. It's the best news possible, and so we must never be ashamed. Instead, we should be bold in our proclamation of it. But remember again, as we come to a close here, these prayers aren't only for Christian leaders, but really for all the saints. All Christians are engaged in spiritual warfare and must be equipped for this battle. It's not only persecuted Christians throughout the world. but also children, even in America, who have spiritual warfare going around them and within their hearts all the time. Think of the child whose sister hits her and she has a temptation to punch back or to say mean words back. You know, when your brother or sister does something mean to you, do you get them back or do you turn the other cheek and forgive them? This battle starts young, it starts early, and it goes on your entire life. Also remember, we're called to prayerfully put on God's armor. So as we close, let's think about how we can do that if perhaps we're feeling defeated. We know we should put on the gospel armor, but... It doesn't seem like it's working for us. And maybe it's because we've gotten lazy, we've slacked off a bit. Maybe you've taken off your armor and now you notice that all these darts are piercing your chest and you kind of feel pinned up against the wall and just discouraged. What do you do to get back in the fight there? Well, remember that God is merciful and gracious. Think about all the cases in Scripture. Think about, for example, the prodigal son. What does God do? What does the father do when he sees his son coming from a distance? He doesn't lecture him. He doesn't scold him. He runs out to meet him. He embraces him. He welcomes him back. If you're a Christian, you're never really defeated. You can actually get up at any time in repentance, return to God, put the armor back on, and get back in that fight and start winning because God is greater than your enemy and because God is merciful and he would love to equip you again. So if you're discouraged, keep that in mind, take that to heart, and put the gospel armor back on. A similar application would be for anyone who wouldn't call themselves a Christian. Be encouraged that God is much stronger than Satan. He's much stronger than all your sin. His grace is far greater than your sin is. Satan would love you to believe that God doesn't really have room for a sinner like you, that your sins... Well, Jesus came to save most sinners, but not someone like you. But that's a lie. Jesus came to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, as Luke 1, which we read in this morning's service, says. He came to seek and save the lost. And so the call for you, if you want to call yourself a Christian, is to look to him in faith for the first time, to cry out for his mercy, and to receive the gospel armor and get out in that battle. Let's pray and ask God to help us do that and help equip others to do that as well. Our Lord and our God, we do thank you for the mercy that is found in our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that he came to seek and save the lost. We thank you that he came to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. We thank you that he also equips us with your armor to win our spiritual battles. We pray that you would help us to be strong in that gospel armor, to follow him faithfully. We also pray for the many who continue to sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. We pray that they would see the beauty of our Savior, that they would look to him in faith, and that you would equip them to join us in our battles. We pray this in Christ's name, amen.