God’s Soldiers

Introduction

Good morning, brethren. I invite you to take out a Bible and turn with me to the book of Ephesians in the sixth chapter. Ephesians chapter 6 for our Bible class together this morning. I want to thank Brother Ken and thank the leadership of the congregation for the invitation to come and be with you these days. I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. And this is a precious opportunity that we can encourage one another in the scriptures and in love for the Lord, and to uh have an opportunity to let our friends and neighbors know that we are Christians, and there are spiritual realities that many people are unaware of about the devil, about uh his wiles. And I’m very excited about the series, The Devil You Don’t Know.

Now, this morning in our Bible class, and when we are preaching in the worship hour, these two lessons are going to be preparatory for those for that series. Uh and so we’re going to look at Ephesians 6 together this morning. I hope that you will follow along with the notes, the interactive outlines. I really appreciate Ken and others making those available. And certainly thank you to Brother Ken for his friendship, for his kind words. You are so blessed to have him working with you. I have known him for a number of years. And you don’t often find a brother who has that wonderful mix of just keen insight at the scriptures, but also a wonderful kindness and way with people. And that is a precious, precious mix.

And he is a good example and a good friend to me. Have you found Ephesians 6 in your Bible? Ephesians chapter 6. We’re going to be uh preaching through this rather stirring paragraph of scripture this morning. It is the Christian’s call to war. And we find it at the conclusion of this epistle to the Ephesians, and that epistle is all about the body of Christ, which is the church of Christ. And isn’t it peculiar that a letter which is all about the church should have anything to say about war? I mean, those things almost don’t go together, do they? War is chaos, but church is orderly, and war is hate, but church is love. War is destruction. Church is about building up. War is violence. Church is peace.

Unless we’ve been missing something about the church, unless we have forgotten or neglected something about the church. And I think it’s possible that we have. Notice with me, Ephesians 6 and verse number 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Several commentaries that I read in preparation for this lesson introduced our text in a similar vein by talking about carnal warfare.

Talking about how awful war is, how devastating war is, talking about the terrible cost and the toll that war takes, and then from the devastation of war, proceeding to go from there to say, and Christians are involved in spiritual warfare. And I will tell you that I’m sure all these commentators are quite honest, but you do not raise up an army by talking about the carnage and the devastation of warfare. You raise up an army, and you call an army to go and fight by talking about victory, by talking about a worthy cause. And I want us to appreciate this morning that that’s what the Apostle Paul is doing in these verses. He is calling Christians to the fight. He is calling us to take up spiritual arms and go to war against the devil and against spiritual forces.

And you don’t raise an army by talking about how awfully all that can turn out. I remember when I was in high school, and then again when I was in college, there were certain days that the recruiters of the different military services would come to our school. And they would set up booths and they would set up displays. And they would have pictures of aircraft carriers and Apache helicopters. They would have video clips of guys running in soldiers, you know, with all the equipment and the fatigues. And I mean, they were recruiting. And they were communicating to us that I’ll tell you what, if you come into this military service, we’re gonna win. There is absolute victory in our army. We are dominant. Again, look at the pictures.

Look at the helicopters and look at the machine guns. You’re gonna go to war. And not only would they talk to us about how dominant the service was, and no military is gonna beat our military, but they say you would ought to sign up because this is worthy. They didn’t talk about loss. What did they talk about? They talked about honor. And they talked about duty. And they talked about citizenship and liberating other places. That you really ought to come and join this army. And the third thing they would talk about is they would talk about a personal benefit for anyone that enlisted in the service, whatever branch of service it was. Young man, you’re gonna walk out of this army one day. Young lady, you’re gonna walk out of this Navy one day, and you are going to be trained, and you are gonna be strong, and you are gonna be a leader.

You are going to be better for having been a part of this army. Now that’s how you recruit. And I want us to appreciate this morning that it is the Apostle Paul in these verses who is emphasizing the victory, emphasizing the cause, emphasizing the benefit of all those who are in God’s army, of all those who are God’s soldiers. And he calls God’s soldiers to go to war with the devil and with the devil’s forces. Now I’m not suggesting for a moment that the New Testament sugarcoats the cost of discipleship. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who taught those that would follow him, count the cost. Alright? There are passages about sacrifice and what we may give up in order to be faithful to the Lord.

And I’m not discounting any of those things. That’s all part of it. What I’m emphasizing to you is that all of that cost and pain is not really in Ephesians 6 at all. It’s about the victory. It’s about the power and the strength. It’s about the worthy cause, and it’s about raise up an army and go fight. I would tell you that the simple statement that I would boil this paragraph down to is this. And it’s a powerful message. God’s soldiers win as they fight and pray. God’s soldiers win as they fight and pray. And it is a message that the church needs to take to heart. I need this message. I need it in my heart. We need to take it to heart that we are God’s soldiers.

1. God’s Soldiers Win

From head to toe, we are God’s soldiers. And so let us hear this battle cry in Ephesians 6. Let’s learn to be God’s soldiers. Alright, so going to the notes. Number one, God’s soldiers win. Number one, in your notes, God’s soldiers win. And we’re going to focus on verses 10 through 13. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

The apostle assures us that those who are in God’s army, those who are God’s soldiers will know victory, and they’ll know victory for three reasons. First, three reasons for victory. First, because union with the Lord grants his strength. We read it in verse 10. We know union with the Lord in the Lord means that we will have a fellowship with the Lord. And if we have union with the Lord, union as Christians, then the Lord grants us strength. I will tell you that there are plenty of times that I feel weak. You might be able to hear it in my voice this morning. It is a little bit weak. Been struggling with a cold and some issues this last uh few days. But it’s not about my strength.

And it’s not about your strength. We know that the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. But I tell you, when we are united with Christ, we gain his strength for resisting the devil, for resisting temptation, for these spiritual battles. It’s not my strength. I’m united with the Lord, and I rely on His strength, and no one’s stronger than the Lord. The second reason we are encouraged that there will be victory when we are God’s soldiers, is that union with the Lord grants his power, grants his power.

Again, in verse 10, be strong in the Lord, in the power of his might. Who is more powerful than the Lord? We are joined to the Lord who has inexhaustible power. He is omnipotent. And that means victory. The third reason that we are encouraged, there is victory when you are God’s soldiers, when you’re in the Lord’s army, is because you are issued the whole armor of God. It is his strength, it is his power, and it is his armor that he gives. And this is really the call to arms in verse 11, when he says, put on the whole armor of God. We’re going to look at this armor in more detail in just a moment, but suffice it to say that if I have the strength God supplies, I have the power God supplies, and I’m wearing the armor God supplies, I’m going to win.

This is victory. This is victory in the Lord. This is a spiritual equivalent of those ROTC recruiters holding up the pictures of the helicopters and of the aircraft carriers. Nothing beats this armament. Here is victory.

God’s strength, God’s power, God’s armor. Now, not only does it call us to be his soldiers, with the assurance that there is victory coming in the Lord, but he encourages us that there is a worthy cause that we enlist in when we serve the Lord. This cause becomes very clear to us. This worthy cause becomes very clear to us when we take a view at our enemy. If you’re going to recruit an army, if you’re going to call people to enlist as your soldiers, you better tell them what they are fighting for. And explain to them this is what it’s all about. And we gain a sense of this cause looking at our enemy. Why the enemy is identified in verse 11 in part as the wiles of the devil, his crafty schemes, his expert methods and ways.

As we read about the devil in scriptures, truly he is a terrifying adversary. You know he’s only ever given a title in the scriptures. He’s the devil, he’s the Satan. And what does the devil mean? It means the accuser.

We’re told that he’s a murderer and a liar. He’s the father of lies. He is this roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he wants to devour Christians, God’s soldiers. It would be enough to realize that we must deal with him. But this picture gets broader in Ephesians because it goes on in verse 12 and says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies or in the heavenly places. Wow. That is a list. A spiritual darkness and powers and wickedness. We read in the Bible about demons and angels, fallen angels, devils, angels. There are these spiritual beings. And while these beings and forces may well influence and corrupt men, our flesh and blood, what we’re talking about here is not just a wrestling match when he says that you must go contend with them, but he’s talking about the life and death struggle.

And I believe this should stir us to the cause. To each of us who are sitting in a pew here this morning or even watching online, it should stir us to the cause. How so? Anyone ever watch the History Channel still? A few history channel buffs? All right, well, actually, there’s several of you. I appreciate your honesty. Watching the History Channel, now, nowadays it’s an awful lot about kind of brickabrac and antiques. But for the longest time, most of the programs of the History Channel were teaching us particularly about histories of wars and World War II. And I remember watching the newsreels being played again there in various programs. Newsreels of what? Of how Adolf Hitler had raised up this Nazi army, and there would be these parades in front of Hitler, and all the thousands of soldiers goose stepping and all of the tanks lined up and they carried their banners in the parades.

And what was the purpose of those newsreels? Well, I’m sure from the German perspective, the idea of that propaganda was we’re going to encourage our own people that we can’t lose, and we’re going to strike some type of fear in the hearts of our enemies over across the oceans. But I will tell you that a very different effect was achieved by those propaganda reels in the United States and Great Britain. Because the people there saw those newsreels and they come to realize. If we don’t take up arms, if we don’t go to fight, that’s what’s coming here. That’s what’s coming to our home. Evil is going to be winning. And it galvanized, it served to galvanize people that this is a worthy cause. We need to go and to fight in World War II.

And likewise, I would encourage each of us, brethren, to take a good look there at verse 12. Because if we choose to surrender, if we choose to quit, if we choose to run in cower when God is calling us to spiritual warfare, that’s what’s going to be winning, and that’s what’s coming home. Coming home to my heart and my life, coming home to my family to wreak havoc, coming home to the local church with the brothers and sisters in Christ that I love and I worship with to try to rend it apart. That’s what’s coming. Those spiritual forces are at work. And their desire is to capture enslave or oppress your soul. Their desire is to destroy your life and those that you hold dear with sin, and their desire is ultimately to drag us all to hell with them because hell is where they’re going to go.

And they know it. And so it is good for us to pause at the prospect of taking this enemy army on.

Because when you look at that, you are outnumbered and you are outgunned. Except, except for the armor of God. Except for the strength and the might of God, what He provides. And then we win. And we win this war. The real victory word in this paragraph is the word stand. That victory is assured because God’s soldiers stand in the whole armor of God. Now, verse 11. Verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, his schemes, his expert methods. Okay? Put it on so that you can stand. What sort of standing do you think that is? You put it on so that you can stand at attention. You put it on so that you can stand with a chip on your shoulder and dare somebody to knock it off.

Put it on so you can stand and stick your jaw out and say, hey, devil, give me your best shot. Is that what stand means? I think verse 13 helps us to understand what stand means, because verse 13 says this. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand. Withstand, stand. You see the connection there? The standing is predicated on wearing the whole armor of God. There is an urgency. Take up this water, put it on. This armor, put it on. The battle, the battle is going to be on the evil day. And on that evil day it will test your armor at every point. And after you have done all that you can with the armor that God has provided you, he says, you will stand.

2. God’s Soldiers Win as They Fight

Victorious. That is, after the battle has been waged, and after the dust has settled, God’s soldier stands. The enemy has fallen, or the enemy has fled. God’s soldier stands. That’s victory. God’s soldiers win. God’s soldiers win as they fight and as they pray. Well, let’s talk about this spiritual warfare, this spiritual fight as we go on to number two in the notes. The next three verses in Ephesians 6 is where we’re looking in our Bibles. Ephesians 6 and verses 14 through 17. And Ephesians 6 and verse 14. Here we have enumerated for us this list of the armor of God. The full armor of God.

Righteousness, faith, salvation. Don’t they sound like church words? Don’t we always talk about this at church? Isn’t church just a peaceful thing and very orderly? And what does church have to do with war? Yeah, that’s probably how a lot of us read those words. So, how’s the Holy Spirit going to teach us just how powerful these things are? He chooses a metaphor. He chooses a metaphor, seven figures of the Roman soldier. These figures of military armament and weapons that symbolize power, and these things are truly powerful. It’s a picture again of power and of victory. There was not a more fearsome fighting force in the world than the Roman soldiers, the Roman military in the days of the first century. The Apostle Paul is actually imprisoned writing this letter to the Ephesians, chained to a Roman soldier.

That guy’s making sure he doesn’t go anywhere. Roman soldiers were seen all over the empire keeping peace.

The way Romans understood peace wasn’t, well, we make a bunch of treaties and we’ll have fair trade. The way Romans understood peace was when all of our enemies are subjected, there is peace. When Rome has their foot on the neck of their enemies, there is peace. And that’s how we make peace. And that’s really the way it was for about 200 years. It was a time of expansion of land and economic prosperity. It was a good time for the Roman Empire. But what made all of that happen and kept it running was these Roman soldiers, this Roman military. And so, no, there was nothing tougher on earth than to see those Roman soldiers coming around together and a whole bunch of them. So looking then at the figure, well, he talks about it’s the belt of truth, the belt that was a part of that uniform.

Righteousness is a breastplate of righteousness. Shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And the Roman soldiers had figured out how to prepare sandals that were actually cleats. Kind of emphasizes you don’t always know when the battle’s going to happen. You don’t always get to choose the ground of the battle. So how are you going to be able to dig your feet in and stand and fight? They had the right kind of shoes for that. Take the shield of faith. The Roman shield, of course, was a four-foot shield. And those shields could be interlinked with soldiers around them. They could even form a wall for their own protection. Take a helmet of salvation, a sword, but it’s the sword of the Spirit. It is the word of God.

And then he mentions prayer. He doesn’t press the picture of the Roman soldiers’ outfit to include prayer, but prayer is nevertheless to be included. And I will tell you why. Two reasons. Number one, communication is essential between soldiers and leaders in their warfare. You’ve got the God’s soldier, and he needs to go communicate with his Lord and his general, God, Christ. That’s through prayer. And the truth is that soldiers pray. People don’t go off to war without praying to their God or to their gods. And that’s been true through the centuries. And even in a secular 20th century, the phrase was coined there are no atheists in foxholes. Okay? Soldiers pray. Soldiers pray. Let me make a couple of observations here before we move on. First observation I want to make about the facts of the armor of God, what he’s given us for this spiritual warfare.

I want us to understand that I’m highlighting here for you. Oh, that’s a great screen. You can see that well. The truth, gospel of peace, the faith, the word of God. I want us to appreciate that these are all the same in substance. They have different effects in this war, so they’re given different images. In other words, we shouldn’t think that truth is not the gospel, or that the faith is different from the word of God. And I believe when we’re talking about the faith, we are talking about the faith, the faith, objective faith, the body of revelation given by God, as well as faith subjective faith, which is my personal trust and obedience to this word of God. And I think it really has to be both.

Because if you have complete trust in a lie in something that’s not from God, then that is no shield. That’s like the Emperor’s new shield. That’s not gonna, that’s not gonna do you any good. It’s gotta be the faith given by God that you trust and that you will obey. The truth, the gospel of peace, the faith, the word of God. And I bring this to your attention because, and I’ve done it too. Sometimes I’ll be reading through this passage, and I only think about the word of God when it says the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And we say things like, get your sword, and you got your sword with you, and I got my Bible, you know, and and that’s good.

We ought to make that connection, but I will tell you, we need to appreciate that actually, this whole spiritual armament that we fight with, from the beginning of the list, really to the end of the list, that’s all about the word of God. That’s all about the truth. It’s not just one part of it, it. It’s the beginning and the middle and the end of it.

And so, God’s soldiers, we have to be people of the book. We have to be people of the book. Christians who are ignorant of the Bible, or who are indifferent to the Bible, or who are tired of the Bible, or who are antagonistic towards the Bible, are Christians who have not put on the whole armor of God. And they have not answered God’s call to spiritual war. We need to love the word of God. We need to know the word of God in practicing the word of God. And that’s how you are putting on the whole armor of God. That’s how you’re putting it on. Second observation I want to make is all right. There’s a couple other things on the list, though, that are a little different.

You’ve got left righteousness and salvation. But I will tell you that all of this is the armor of God. All of this is what God has given. And just as God gives truth and the gospel and the faith and the word of God, he gives righteousness. How so? In union with Christ, that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 1, 21, rather, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, in him, in Christ, we become the righteousness of God. Well, how is it that God gives righteousness? He gives righteousness by forgiving our sins, by forgiving our unrighteousness through the gospel. Jesus became flesh and he dwelt among us, and he paid for our sins at the cross. That is, he made propitiation for our sins at the cross.

And because Jesus paid for our sins, God can justify us or declare us righteous in Christ if we are in him, if we are united in Him. And so then the question becomes, God’s soldier, Christian, what will we do with this righteousness? Provided us by the precious blood of Christ. What will we do with that righteousness? Are we going to take off this breastplate of righteousness and cast it aside? Are we going to toss it aside so that we can return to the world? Are we going to cast off the righteousness of God so that we can continue on with our willful sin? Will we cast off the righteousness of God that we might protect a habitual sin or an error or a corruption? You see, our willful sin, our secret sins, our pet sin, that habitual sin, that sin disarms us.

It disarms us because sin always alienates us from God. And God’s soldiers need to repent of sin. God’s soldiers need to pursue purity and holiness, that we are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and only God can fill that.

Or a helmet of salvation. A helmet of salvation. When I read Acts 2 and verse 47, in that beautiful verse, it says that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. The Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. The church is composed of the saved. We don’t go to church in order to be saved. We are part of the church because we have been saved when we converted to Christ. And since we’re part of the church, of course we assemble for worship. And we want to be together to build up one another and to be taught the good word of God. But I wonder, in a struggle, in a battle, can a soldier lose his helmet? Well, we know in carnal warfare, yeah.

And that’s a terrible thing to happen. No soldier would want that. Why? Because that helmet protects his head. That’s the last thing you want to do is lose a helmet. It’s the last thing a soldier would do is take off his helmet in the middle of a conflict, but it can happen. That wonderful helmet of salvation, a confidence in our salvation, a hope in our salvation. It is a guide to us. It is a protection for us when we are wrestling with evil. When we are wrestling with temptation. We need hope in our salvation. Because sin is so deceitful. Because it is so enticing. But salvation, salvation is greater. Salvation is of a greater value than anything else. And God wants us all to be saved.

That’s his desire that all men should be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Then what can I tell you about our God? I can tell you that our God doesn’t lie. I can tell you that our God doesn’t double-cross people. I can tell that our God doesn’t trick people. And so he really grants salvation. But there are people, there are people who will have that wonderful salvation. And in a time of temptation, they’re willing to cast that off. That men can fall from grace. That men can sin in such a way so as to lose their salvation. Again, a soldier needs to repent of sin and pursue purity and holiness to value our salvation above any temptation. We’re given righteousness. We’re given salvation.

We’re given the whole armor of God. I’m telling you this: that God’s soldiers win as God’s soldiers fight. And we’re considering just briefly the tools, the equipment of this warfare. But we are victorious when we put the whole armor of God and we go fight. I want to encourage you this morning. And I want to challenge all of us this morning. We really do have to make the fight. We have to go to this war. And we cannot win if by our own apathy or our worldliness or our hard hearts or secret sin in our lives or just faithlessness. We are stripping off the armor of God every time the enemy comes around. God’s soldiers win as they fight. Putting on the armor of God, resisting the devil, resisting temptation, and aiding the brothers and sisters in Christ to do that.

3. God’s Soldiers Win as They Pray

And it may very well be this morning. It may very well be this week that we as God’s soldiers begin to repent and to put on the armor of God to appreciate where victory is in his strength in his mind and in his armor upon us. God’s soldiers win, as God’s soldiers fight, and then as God’s soldiers pray. God’s soldiers win as God’s soldiers fight and as God’s soldiers pray. When I look at again in Ephesians 6 and verse 18, Ephesians 6 and verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador, in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

How important in all this is prayer.

So now I go do this, and I don’t think about God anymore. We’ve had a Bible study. The last thing we’re taught about this is and be praying all the time and be praying all the way. He says prayer must be constant. Praying always with all prayer and supplication. Praying always with all prayer and with all supplication. I don’t know many more verses that people like to talk about from time to time than that. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? What does that mean? There’s kind of a beautiful Greek word study you can do there, the idea about breathing in and breathing out, bringing out your prayers, and that may be. But I think people would struggle a lot less with the idea if the Bible had said, text without ceasing.

Because nobody has a problem with that. Text all the time. When you text someone, when it hits you to text someone. When you text someone, they just texted me. I think we pretty well text without ceasing. I could apply that to prayer and begin to appreciate that it is a good time and it is a good place and it is a good situation to pray. What time and place and situation? When you need to pray. Always. And with supplication. I’m not taking away from the importance of having a prayer habit at all or a quiet place that you go and pray. I’m all about that. But my point is that there’s always, or it is always the right time when there is the need for prayer.

And again, when we think about this term, the spiritual battle, those you don’t always get to pick your battleground. You always get to decide when the enemy attacks. But you can pray. So he says, prayer must be constant. Praying always. With all prayer and supplication. What are supplications? Requests. In all honesty, maybe the best part of prayer, excuse me, that might be what I’m the best at when it comes to prayer. Pretty good at asking, right? There’s other parts to prayer. We have to learn that we’re not just praying then when we are in trouble, but regularly, early, often, all the time. Communicating with our Lord. He is our general, our leader, God in prayer. So it must be constant. Notice then, it needs to be intense.

When it says in Ephesians 6 in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Watchful. Vigilance, perseverance. This is a question for you to consider, and also for me. I mean, when you’re studying about battle or going back to watching those history channel videos, you never even doubted intensity watching those things, did you? I mean, it’s hard to imagine what soldiers are going through in the fog of war. And maybe there are some veterans even here this morning, and I thank you for your service. But when we think about prayer, we don’t often think about intensity. Though it is modeled for us in the scriptures. On the night of Jesus’ betrayal, he prayed so fervently.

What happens? Blood begins to come out. Wow, that’s intense prayer. But again, prayer is that’s that church thing. It’s so orderly and peaceful in church. We don’t think about intensity in prayer. This is what the apostle’s talking about. And when we appreciate the link of prayer to spiritual warfare in this armor of God, there must be that kind of fervency, intensity, and perseverance in it. We’re calling out to God, and we’re calling out to God in the midst of a battle. What would we pray about? What will we be watchful for? Our warfare. We pray for the strength and we pray for the power. And we thank God for his armor. We pray against our enemy and that he falls. That the devil falls, the temptation falls, that these spiritual forces of darkness, that they fall.

And we know in one sense that they have. Because Jesus Christ has won the greatest victory in his death and his resurrection. We are waiting for his return. And we believe in his return. But until then, there’s a struggle continuing on. And our powerful weapon, one of our powerful weapons is prayer, and against these enemies. In our prayer, we pray about God’s prevailing in the hearts of our friends, and the gospel prevailing in the hearts of our neighbors, and the gospel coming and being seen in our families and in our marriages. And why do we want that? Because God’s way is best. Well, God’s way is best. But we want that, my friends. We want that, my friends, because that is the evidence of Christ living in us.

And that we are in Him because it is for victory. We want their soul saved. We want their soul saved. Third, then, and lastly, here, we pray, not lastly, thirdly, prayer must be unselfish. When he talks about the supplication, he says, for who? For all the saints. We’re going to talk more about this idea in our next lesson. But friends, we are in this together. Brothers and sisters in Christ, we’re in this together. And we’re the family of God. We’re the flock. We are the army of God. And we’re going to help each other in this. And so we pray for one another, about our brethren and about their battles, confessing our trespasses to one another, that we might pray for one another, that there might be healing.

We need to pray for preachers and for elders, for leaders in congregations. What did the apostle Paul say? He said, pray for me. And if the Apostle Paul wants the church praying for him, I know the Brother Ken. I know that the leadership of the congregation, I know Brother Andrew. We want you praying for us. Pray for me. What for? For boldness. He mentions boldness twice. Isn’t that something? Man chained up in a prison cell. He doesn’t pray, make it stop. He doesn’t pray, send an angel to spring me out of here like he did for Peter. He says, pray for boldness. My boldness. The boldness of the brethren. What do God’s soldiers need? We need boldness. We need boldness to be faithfully fighting as his soldiers until the Lord returns.

Conclusion

God’s soldiers win as God’s soldiers fight and as they pray. We’re going to take a break here in just a moment, but before we do, imagine this. Can you imagine with me? Peering through the window into the cell where the Apostle Paul was held captive, writing this letter to the church at Ephesus. And as you peered into that cell, you would see two men. The Apostle Paul, probably bent over, trying to write, and a Roman soldier standing there in his full armor, chained to him. That Roman soldier’s job was to make sure Paul did not escape his shackles. But you know, when you look through the same window with spiritual eyes, it is a complete reversal. There’s two souls in that room. God’s soldier is in that jail, chained to a sinner.

And God’s soldier is doing all he can to free that soul from the bondage of sin and death. And there is a spiritual battle raging in that room, and God’s soldier will win as he fights and as he prays. And so let us be encouraged today and to this week. Whatever room you find yourself in, in whatever situation you find yourself in, you be God’s soldier. Involved in the spiritual fight, full of prayer and with boldness, trusting the Lord and his victory. God’s soldiers win as they fight and as they pray. Thank you for your good attention, brethren. God bless you. We’re going to take a break now.