Sermon Title- “Spiritual Warfare- Prayer”
Sermon Subject: “Prayer is essential for victory”
Scripture- “Ephesians 6:10-18”
Date- 27 June, 2004, Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

I hope in the last 8 weeks we have learned at least the following eight things:
1. Spiritual warfare is a reality and is fought over our souls or our witness. If we have accepted Jesus and committed our soul to Him so Satan can not take us to Hell with him, the battle will be over destroying our witness for Christ so that others are not saved.
2. Spiritual warfare is between God and His ancient foe, Satan who is a real being, not a symbol. The angels who followed him when God expelled him from Heaven lead Satan’s army under his direction. Jesus Christ leads God’s army and God expects you and I to be a part of that army since he provides for us all the armor we need to join the battle.
3. The truth for our belt is from Jesus who said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” We need to not only know His truth from God’s Word and from how He lived His life, but we need to make that truth part of our day to day living so our lives reflect that truth.
4. The righteousness for our breastplate is the righteousness of Jesus that God gives to us by Grace when we profess our belief in Jesus. Our sins are forgiven and removed from God’s sight and we are credited with the righteousness of Christ. But like truth, the righteousness of Jesus must be reflected in how we live so our life has wholeness, has integrity. If we are not what we say we are or what we seem to be, we are vulnerable to Satan.
5. Without the Peace of Christ on our feet as our firm foundation we are too easily swayed and distracted and we will be wounded.
6. The Wisdom of God that Jesus gives to us protects our minds where the lies and deception of Satan are aimed.
7. The Shield of Faith is able to stop ALL the fiery darts that come my way. It is the faith of Jesus that is a gift to us. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (King James- see pew Bible)
8. Our only offensive piece of armor is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God, but not the whole word of God, the logos, but specific sayings of God for specific situations, the rhema. As Jesus did in Matthew 4, we can stop the Devil cold with the right rhema every time if we have God’s sayings handy.
It should be obvious by now that the whole armor of God that we are to put on is none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We are to put on and wear as our defense Jesus Christ- His Truth, His Righteousness, His Peace, His Wisdom and His faith- God provides all of this to us by Grace through faith. Christ is our armor and we must put on all of Him, not just a part of Him, if He is to protect us from the skillful, forceful and recurring attacks of Satan. Then we take the rhema or swords from the logos and use them when we go on the offense.

Church born in persecution and violence. Jesus and Disciples killed. even today in Africa, China, Korea USA
In Matthew 5 Jesus says we are blessed when we are etc.
How can we stand- Ephesians 6:10-18

Prayer
No Commander-in-Chief sends troops into battle without first establishing communications so he can keep track of the battle and position his troops to the best advantage. God gives us a walkie-talkie so we can stay in touch. That walkie-talkie is better known as prayer. Prayer allows us to call in help and reinforcements when we need them and prayer allows God to guide and direct us, to support and protect us and to sustain and nourish.

Turn in your pew Bibles to Ephesians 6:18 and read along as we take the verse apart. This one verse gives us a mini-theology of prayer. “Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints.”
1. Pray how?- In the Spirit. Our spirit talks to God who is Spirit. Our prayers are to God in the name of Jesus led by the Holy Spirit- the trinity of prayer. Romans 8:26&27.
2. Pray when?- At all times. Everywhere. At any place. All the time until our life becomes a prayer.
3. Pray for what?- Every supplication. Supplication=ask. Charles Spurgeon, the great British preacher, said that asking is the absolute rule of the kingdom. Nothing will happen until we ask for it. Jesus asked so why shouldn’t we. God’s Word tells us we have not because we ask not. Which of you, if a child of yours came to you and asked for something that was both good for them and within your power to grant, would refuse the asking. Bring all your needs large and small.
4. Stay alert as you pray. Especially if we wait until bedtime to pray, how often do we find ourselves slipping into dreamland as the Disciples did in the Garden when Jesus asked them to stay alert and pray with Him. At other times even if we are alert we find all sorts of thoughts and ideas intruding and our mind wanders. Try praying standing up or walking or pacing. Do what it takes to keep the walkie-talkie free of static.
5. Supplications for all the saints- for all believers. Notice God in His Word doesn’t refer to lone ranger Christians. It is always pleural as saints, never saint. What to pray for for others:
A Read Paul’s letters; not for things of the flesh, but of the Spirit as Love, Joy, Peace, Discernment, Faith, etc.
B. Job 42:10- “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before”.
The way it works is we don’t really need to worry about praying for self. We pray for others, but they are praying for us and God delights in answering our prayers for others as He does in answering the prayers of us for others. I would add that we be sure on our walkie-talkie we are careful to give the receive button at least equal time with the send button.
To see the practical application to this I suggest we turn to the book of Nehemiah in your pew Bibles, Nehemiah 1:4.
ACTS= Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and finally supplication. Nehemiah is a great book for studying prayer and Spirit led leadership. Who Nehemiah was and what he wanted from God. Now turn over to Chapter 3, verse 4. Seven more times Nehemiah prays spontaneously on the fly. He prays while people are talking to him, while he is talking to other people, in all situations, places and time.

As we come to the end of this series let me suggest to you where the real battle is waged for most of us. Not many of us take on Satan at the level our guest speaker does. Comment on the churches today. For most of us the battle is fought as described in Galatians 5:16 & 17, “Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want.” This is where the battle rages for most Christians, within ourselves. As we try to do what we know we should do, Satan starts pitching darts. Examples. This is where we need the whole armor of God to live as God intends us to live, to begin to live more like Jesus and to preserve our witness so that other might be saved. Warren Wiersby who has authored a wonderful verse by verse commentary on the whole Bible prays on the whole armor of God every morning using a prayer similar to the Warrior’s Prayer in your bulletins so he is prepared for a day of victory. I challenge you to begin to do that each morning so that you might stand victorious and not become a casualty.
Amen