Missions, Warfare and Prayer

Again. Good morning. Oh, let's try it again. Good morning. It's getting towards the end of the week. It's getting more and more difficult to get up in the morning and have the same amount of energy. But we still have a ways to go yet. As an athlete, I spent a lot of my life as an athlete, and. I'm still at this point in my life. I compete as an athlete. I compete in martial arts, and I compete in Brazilian jiu jitsu. And in Brazilian jiu jitsu, there are a number of ways to win a match. You can win a match by points, you get points for certain things that you do. Or you can also win a match by what's called the submission. In other words, you can get an opponent in a hole, a lock of his arm, or a lock of his leg, or in a joke of some kind where he knows that he's defeated and he has to acknowledge his defeat, and you can win that way. It's always interesting because there's a time limit to the matches, and sometimes you can be ahead on points, and when you're ahead on points and there's someone over on the side who screams, you know, one minute left or thirty seconds left. When you're ahead on points, you know that your opponent is going to be desperate and will immediately try to do something to win the match in the next minute, in the next thirty seconds, because no one fights harder than a foe who knows he's about to be defeated. Folks, this is exactly true for us in our mission. We are at war against the foe who knows that his doom is sure, and who knows not when the final bell will, but he knows that he's behind on points, and he is acting like a desperate thim And we must be aware of this fact so that when we are engaged in mission, we are also. Engaged in warfare. There is an inexorable link between missions and warfare, and so in this session, I want us to look at mission, warfare and prayer. Because if we're engaged in mission and we're engaged in warfare, then we must be engaged in prayer. Amen, So let's examine this. Why is it important? First of all, it's important because prayer is a part of our mission. Prayer is a part of our mission. And then secondly, because all of our life is warfare, prayer as a part of our mission. Listen to this and John fifteen sixteen, Jesus says, you did not choose me, but I chose you, and to point it and this, this. Is one of those. This is one of those verses. Brother, this is it. It's almost it can't get clearer than this. You did not choose me, Jesus says, you did not choose me. You're a dead man. You were a dead man. You didn't choose anything. You did not choose me. But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide. So whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. It's amazing that you know we take this this second part. You know that this, whatever you ask the Father in my name will give it to you. And again again you take this over into the word of faith movement, and man becomes the center of it. Whatever I asked the Father in his name, So whatever I want, I just asked him for. And if I use the right formula, I can force God to give me what I want. And ultimately that's what it becomes. It basically, it becomes witchcraft. If you learn the right incantation, and if you learn the right formula, and if you're fervent enough in your use of the incantation and of the formula, then God will be forced to open his hand and give you whatever it is that you are demanding of him. But that's not what we see here. So that whenever you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. So that so that so that what comes before that. You didn't choose me, but I chose you. You're not the center of this thing. I chose you. Why did I choose you? I chose you so that you would bear fruit. Folks, you need to understand that missions is not our idea, It's God's idea. We need to understand that Jesus was in essence a missionary from the Godhead to us. Let me say that again. Jesus was, in essence a missionary from the Godhead to us. Jesus in his incarnation comes to us at the behest of the Father to carry out a mission that he has been given, and in doing so he now calls us and we are in him continuing his mission. This is Christ's mission that we're on. It's not our mission. We are ambassadors as Paul says, we're ambassadors, which means we're on a mission that was given to us by another and it is a mission that we are continuing that Christ initiated. And so when he says that we are to go and we are to bear fruit, we have to understand that in. The context of his mission. And it is only then that we understand the nature of prayer and the relationship of prayer and missions, because our asking God and receiving from God that for which we ask is related directly to the mission and what we need for the mission. So Jesus is not saying, hey, you know, whatever it is that sort of crosses your mind that you think he'd like to have go to the Father and you'll give it to you. No, you are on mission, and whatever you need to accomplish and achieve the mission. God will supply. Amen. And if he doesn't supply it, guess what. You didn't need it for the mission. By the way, he knows that you don't. How many times have we cried out to God asking God because we know I need this? How many times do our children come to us? My children need everything. There's nothing that's just a want, you know, Hey, Daddy, you know I saw this thing and I really want it. No, it's Teddy, I need it. You don't understand I need it. Really, How have you lived this long without it? I don't know, because I need it, and if I. Don't have it, I just won't serve I need it. This is how we treat everything. The fact of the matter is we don't need most things for the mission. But those things that we do need for the mission, God will supply. Why because it's His mission. Amen. This this, by the way, changes our focus in prayer, so that when we are praying, instead of us praying based upon what it is that we desire, we pray based upon what it is that we need for the mission. Secondly, we are in a war Second Corinthians, chapter ten. The Givers. Too, For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments, every lofty. Opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey. Christ, being ready to punish. Every disobedience when your obedience is complete. This is our life the Christian life is warfare, and it's warfare because of the mission that we are on. It's warfare first and foremost, because we are a byproduct of the mission. Amen, somehow we came to face through Christ. How do we come to faith in Christ? Because of this mission that was undertaken, this mission that included us, this mission that came to us. So there's warfare there. And then secondly, when we become parts of the Body of Christ, we take on this mission ourselves and we are advancing this mission, so we are engaging in the warfare. Now, there are two mistakes that we make when we talk about spiritual warfare. I've talked about some of these things here before, but not in this context. The one mistake that we make is an overestimation of spiritual warfare, that everything becomes spiritual warfare. You know, if we had been in certain circles last night when the power went out, there would have been people who said, that was a demon and we need to pray that demon out, you know. Or there are people who would have said, ah, that's because Satan knows that something is about to happen. Now all of a sudden, let's look at both of those instances. First of all, there's a demon in the wiring and the electricity. That hugely problematic. This is not demonic. We know how wiring and electricity works. Amen, They're not wiring demons. But secondly, the idea that Satan knows the future, he knows what's about to happen, therefore he came in. First of all, Satan doesn't know the future. Secondly, you're not that big a threat to him. Amen. I know you like to think more of yourself. I know that we all like to think that when we wake up in the morning that the demons begin to shudder. He's don again. No, he's seen you in thousands more like you, time and time and time again. In fact, Satan doesn't need to worry about you because you can't even conquer your own flesh. Amen, Why send the big guns if the little ones will do. You can't even conquer your own flesh. So we overestimate spiritual warfare. Everything becomes a demon, everything becomes demonic. This is a problem. Secondly, we underestimate spiritual warfare. This is the other problem that we have. We act as though we do not have a real spiritual full and that we are not in a real spiritual battle. Both of those are mistakes. Well, if we're going to look at spiritual warfare, we need to look at the quintessential Passage and the New Testament that deals with spiritual warfare. And in this quintessential passage dealing with spiritual warfare, we also have a picture of the connection of the link between spiritual warfare, prayer, and mission, and that passage is found in the Ephesis chapter six. As you're going to Ephesians chapter six. A couple of things about this book. The book is divided into two halves. It's divided right there between chapters three and four. At the end of chapter three you have a doxology and an amen, and at the beginning of chapter four you have a therefore flows. So Paul is letting us know that he has finished something in the first three chapters and that he has begun something anew in the last three chapters. The first half of the book is about orthodoxy or our calling, or indicatives or right believing. In the second half, we go from porthodoxy to orthopraxy, from our calling to our conduct, from indicatives to imperatives, and from right believing to right behaving. It's important to understand this distinction between the two halves of the book. In the first half of Ephesians, the first three chapters, we get a proper understanding of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf to the Father's glory through the Cross. And this is critical when we begin to talk about spiritual warfare. Let me say that again. In the first half, we get a proper understanding of what Christ has accomplished on our behalf to the Father's glory through the Cross, we said at one time, and think about this in light of spiritual warfare and the way we think about spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare, I've got to go and I've got to fight against the demons, and I've got to say the right thing, and I've got to do the right thing, and I've got to a proper understanding of what Christ accomplished. On our behalf. So whatever we think about spiritual warfare, we have to think about it in light of what Christ accomplished on our behalf to the Father's glory and through the Cross. Spiritual warfare is not one in or by your strength and resources. It was one at the cross. And so that's what we call on. In the second half, we get a picture of proper living in light of and as a direct result of, Christ's active and passive obedience. Now this has been alluded to, but let me specify here. When we talk about Christ's active and passive obedience, these are essential ideas. Theology matters. Amen. Christ's active obedience. This means that Rights actively obeyed God's law, that he was actually righteous and completely righteous. This is important because this is the only way that he can impute righteousness to us. In order for righteousness to be imputed to us, it has to be a real and actual righteousness. What he imputes to us is a righteousness that keeps all of God's commands. And in order to do this, he had to keep all of God's commands. He was taken at every point and yet without sin. In the Catechism for Boys and Girls, the question is did our Lord Jesus Christ ever sin? The answer is no, He was wholly, blameless and undefiled. Amen, He was completely and utterly without sin. If he wasn't, he would not be able to righteousness to us because he would not have actual righteousness. So his active obedience is important so that he might impute actual righteousness to us. Well, in his passive obedience, he accepts in himself the penalty that is due for our sin. So in his passive obedience, our sinfulness is imputed to him, and he suffers the penalty that was due to us. So in his active obedience he achieves righteousness, and that righteousness is imputed to us. In his passive obedience. God has made him who knew no sin, to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So our sinfulness is imputed to him. Because both of those things are necessary. First of all, I am guilty before God. I need to be made righteous. Secondly, I am guilty before God. My guilt needs to be taken away. And it is active and passive obedience. Christ does both of these things. And it is because of this active and passive obedience that we have actual righteousness and we can live in actual holiness without which no man Chelsea God, Amen. We can do this because of the Cross. We can do this because of Christ. This is critical. Next, the idea of indicatives and imperatives and indicative indicates what something is that is a microphone that's an indicative an imperative tells you what to do, speak into the microphone. We need to understand the difference between indicatives and imperatives. Indicatives goes back to the first half of the second half of the book. What God has done and produced in us and for us through Christ's work on the Cross. This is who we are in Christ. This is what is true about us because of what Christ has done. Secondly, imperatives, this is what God requires and enables us to do as a direct result of Christ's work on the Cross. So in the indicatives we see what we've become, and the imperatives we see what we can do and what we must do because of what we've become. We must not confuse these things. Here's an example of indicatives in imperatives Philippians two twelve. Therefore, beloved, as you have always obeyed. So now, not only as in my presence, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trimbling that there's an imperative for you. That's something you're told to do. Work out in your own salvation with fear and fribular that's just you know, that's a scary I believe that's the scariest imperative in the Bible. It's so scary it has fear and trembling right in it. Amen. But there's an indicative right after it four verse thirteen. It is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So how is it that I can do this? I have been empowered to do this because of what Christ has accomplished and because of who I am in Christ. As a direct result of that, it is God who is working in me to will and to do, to will and to work for his good pleasure. Apart from Christ, I don't even have a will for righteousness, let alone the ability to work out that righteousness. So we need the indicatives and the imperatives together. There are three overarching indicatives in the of Ephesians. When you understand these three overarching indicatives, they become the key to unlock the second half of the letter. We see them in the chapter endings first Chapter one, verses twenty two and twenty three. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of Him who fills. All in all. We might want to underline that phrase who fills all in all, because ultimately that phrase has everything to do with missions. This is who Christ is, This is what he does. He fills all in all. And the mission that we have is that we might work toward Christ filling. All in all. So this first overarching indicative is about Christ's headship over his bodies and ultimately his headship over all things. Christ headship over his body. At the end of the second chapter, verses nineteen to twenty two, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on a foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ, Jesus himself. Being a cornerstone. And when the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord in him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Notice the mission there being carried out as well. This is missions. This is what happens to spiritually in missions. This is what we're doing. The first is Christ saidship over his body. The second is unity in Christ's body, all things being called together under Christ's headshift unity in Christ's body. And then third three verses twenty and twenty one. Now to him who was able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever man. So this third one is about the glory that the body gives to its head. When you understand these three things, it literally it unlocks the second half of this letter. Christ had shape over his body, unity in Christ's body, and the glory that the body gives to his hand. Let's take this and look at chapter six, and here's what you find in chapter six. First of all, everything in chapter six, beginning of verse ten, this picture spiritual warfare. Everything that we have has already been communicated and alluded to in the first few chapters of Ephesians. There's nothing new in the spiritual warfare passage, which means we have to be familiar with the rest of Ephesians in order to understand Ephesians Chapter six. In order to grasp spiritual warfare. There are two halves to this. First, there is the field that's in verses ten to thirteen. And after we look at the field and verses ten to thirteen, we look at the fight and verses fourteen through twenty. As we put these two things together, we'll see our resources, our adversary, and our goals. This is the field and in our uniform, our weapons, our partners, and our victory. That's the fight, first, our resources. Look at verse ten. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. Notice that we have alien might, alien power, and alien armor. Alien meaning is not our own. He's strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Spirit. World warfare is fought in the Lord's might and not our own. Put on the armor of God. It is not our armor, it is God's armor, and so our resources. Again, the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, Amen, But these weapons are mighty. When we take these weapons up, they are alien to us. Now we look at our adversary. Who's our adversary? For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Now this hearkens back to chapter two. In chapter two, verse one and two. And you were dead in your freshtressed decens and what you want walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the suns of disobedience. And then here in verse twelve, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Now, there are a lot of books out there about spiritual warfare, A lot of people who have read you know that these are different classes of spiritual beings and so on and so forth. And you know, and we read all this sort of stuff and can't go to sleep at night. But I want you to notice something. This phrase heavenly places has been used several times in Ephesians. So our adversaries are where. Where come on all together our adversaries are? Where together our adversaries are? Where our adversaries are in heavenly places? Chapter one, verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing. Where So our adversary is the heavenly places, and we've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Okay, but wait, there's more Chapter two, verses four through seven. But God, being rich and mercy, because of the Greek love with which he loved, he loved us even when we were dead, and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saying, and raised us up with Him and seated us with him. Where the heavenly places in Christ, Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us. In Christ, Jesus. So where's our adversary? Where is Christ? Where are we blessed with every spiritual blessing? And where are we seated? Beginning to see a pattern here, maybe you need more Jians Chapter three. Notice every chapter chapter one, and in chapter two, and now in chapter three, beginning in verse eight. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, sold that through the Church, the menaphod wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the wow. This was according to the eternal purpose that He has. Realized in Christ Jesus, our Lord, in whom we have boldness and accessed with confidence through our faith in Him. So again, where is our adversary? Where is Christ? Where are we blessed with every spiritual blessing? Where are we seated? Where is God's wisdom being revealed? Folks, Paul does not mention heavenly places in chapter six so that you could be scared of demons. In the first half of the letter, he shows you that's our territory. Amen, where's the battle taking place? The battle is taking. Place where we're seeded, where we've been blessed, where God is demonstrating his manifold wisdom, where God is showing off his glorious grace, where Christ is seated. That's his realm. Do you think for a moment that the battle is going on there and it's a threat to us. It's the ultimate home field advantage. Amen. Thirdly, our goal, our goal is really simply therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to bind the devil? Was that not what jord says? Because isn't that what we're supposed to do? Right? Isn't that what spiritual warfare is all about? Satan? We bind you from the beginning, right in that, in that, in that what I'm. Supposed to do. By the way, I'm always amazed by that Number one. The Bible makes it very clear. You know that Satan is bound, but it's not by us. And secondly, that the devil is not omnipresent, He's not everywhere. So I've just always wondered, you know, when churches, you know, bind the devil, do you call the rest of the churches and let him know we got him this week? And if he's bound, he has to be loose. Now does he understand that after the service is over he's automatically loosed? Or when you bind him at the beginning of the service, at the end of the service, do you have to let him go again? If not, why do you have to do it again and again? If you bound him? This is ridiculous. It's ridiculous, and yet it's so common, is it not. Theology matters, doctrine matters. I remember my family. Now we're looking for a church, and believe it or not, where we come from, that can be difficult, you know, as one poet has said, water water everywhere, and not a drop to drink. That's that's church life where we come from. And so we're trying to find a church. And we visited churches around nearby our home, and we came in and we kind of sat in the back of this one church and we had no idea it was, you know, the name of it. The name of it didn't give it away. You know, there's certain names that we would know, yeah, we're not going to that place, you know, but this one was just, you know, some typical Baptist church. And we went in, we sat down the back of the church and they all of a sudden they had a problem with the microphone. And when they were having a problem with the microphone, you know, the lady, I guess it was the passage's wife, she got up and she was going to. Lead everybody to pray, and then they started, you. Know, we're gonna pray, just deemon out of the microphone, and I'm looking at my family in the back of the church, and I'm like, yeah, we're not long for this place. We're gonna, you know. And then they started doing all this other stuff and praying, and then all of a sudden she said, open up the back doors. Truth to open up the back doors. And everybody, everybody, I want you to say, Satan, we bind you, get out. Satan, we bind you, get out. And I looked to Bridget and I said, baby, come on, we're going with the Delphi. We we need not here. Okay, let's keep it right. And we did. You know. I don't know if the microphones came back on up to we left or what, but but we got out of there. But that's the way we understand spiritual warfare. It is. It's comic book. But there are people whose lives are tied up in nuts because of this. Having done all to stand firm, having done all to stand firm, Chapter four, beginning of verse seven, think about this. You probably never thought about this from a standpoint of missions, But think about this from the standpoint of what I shared earlier, Christ the Missionary. Because Jesus in essence was a missionary from the Godhead to us. Okay, he came here on mission. He accomplished his mission, which by the way, led to our mission carrying out in fulfillment of it. But listen to this beginning verse seven. Because grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he had descended into the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the one who also us send it far above the heavens. There's that phrase that he might fill all things. This is the second time that we see that phrase. This is the mission that Christ might fill all things. That's why he came. That's why we're left. That he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers. This is a progression of the mission. We don't have these all these offices today. The apostles and profits we've already read were the foundation upon which the church was built. Amen, when the foundation is built, you're done. When the foundation is built, you're done. You don't build another foundation. Amen, the apostles and profits of the foundation. So we have no apostles in profits today. We don't have these offices today. Somebody introduces you as apostible so and so or profit so and so. Look at him and say, then you should be dead. Now, evangelists, there's some who would argue that we still have this office. Some would argue that we don't. Not here to settle that I don't believe that we have this as an office anymore. But again not to test a fellowship and then a shepherd and teachers. This is a progression of the mission. This is a progression of the mission. Christ left these gifts in order for the mission to have what it needed to move forward, to equipt the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up on the body of Christ. This is the purpose. And then until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunningness of cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. This is this is the mission. This is teaching them to observe all the things that I've taught. You. Notice the progression from Christ descending and then ascending and then giving gifts, gifts for what, so that He might continue to fill all things, so that his mission might continue. So he gives the apostles and the prophets, the evangelists and the pastward teachers so that the mission might continue, so that the work might continue, so that Christ might fill all and all. This is mission in action, and that's our goal. This is what it means to stand firm. Notice that we won't be tossed to and fro and then we won't be carried about by every wind of doctrine. What's the opposite of being tossed to and frov standing firm? What's the opposite of being carried about? Standing firm? There you have. This is the mission and this is the warfare. So that's our goal. Well, we've looked at our field. Now let's look at our fight. First, the uniform stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, go to four fifteen, because again. This is not new. Rather speaking the truth and love. We are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head and to Christ. This is that truth, and this is what that truth does. There's the first part of our uniform. Back to six fourteen. And having put on the breastplate of righteousness, have we seen this before Chapter four, beginning of verse twenty two. To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God, in true righteousness and holiness. Of course we've seen it before. And as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the Gospel of peace. Have we seen this part of the uniform before several times? Chapter one, verse two, Grace to you and peace from God, our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And then again in chapter two, beginning of verse thirteen. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by the brother of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who was made who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preaching peace to you who are far off, and peace to those who are near. This is our uniform. This is how we're known. This is how we're identified in the fight. By the way, what have we put on. We have put on truth, we have put on righteousness, and we have put on peace. In other words, we've put on Christ. Amen. We've put on Christ our weapons. Our weapons in addition to our uniform, the things that we that identify us and that we were all the time. There are things that we take up in the battle for sixteen chapter six 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. And here's that critical peace. We often don't think about this as part of our weaponry. But this is how we activate our weaponry. Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. Amen, praying at all times in the spirit. By the way, notice that this is not a reference to tongues. We've been told that praying in the spirit is praying in tongues. That's a lie from the pit as though you're only you're only being led by the Spirit in prayer. If you can't understand what you're praying, think about that for a moment. What are you doing? I'm praying? What are you praying about? I'm praying about the mission and Christ filling all in all, And I'm praying about this weaponry that we have. I'm praying about this armor that we have. I'm praying about this, I'm praying about that. I'm praying about these things that the Lord has taught us to pray about. Oh, okay, well, when you get really mature, you can join me in praying the spirit. Oh really, what are you praying about? I don't know. Okay, our pastors that we've already looked at in Second Venus, chapter ten, we walk in the flesh. We're not waging war. According to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but they are spiritual weapons. And each of these weapons is essential to our success in the mission. Our shield of faith that guards us, the helmet of salvation. The protects of minds, the sword of the spirit, the only offensive weapon that we have, which is the Word of God, and finally, prayer and supplication. These are our weapons in this warfare, not incantations and so on and so forth, but these are our weapons. And then there's another thing. And I just I don't know how I've missed this, but I've missed this most of my Christian life. I missed this first several times through Effesians. But our partners, and this is crucial. This is really where we begin to connect it too. Missions. You say to a person spiritual warfare, and the immediate thought process goes like this, spiritual warfare is about me fighting the devil. We always think about spiritual warfare as individual. Wars are not fought by individuals. If two people get into a fight out on the street corner, you don't come back in and say I just saw war. You come back in and say I just saw a fighter. Warfare is corporate and never individual. Even if there is individual combat within a war, the individual combat is part of something larger than just the individual combat. But we are in the midst of spiritual war fair. There are armies involved in warfare. And it's ironic because when our adversary is identified, there's an army that's identified. And then when we think about our place and this warfare, we think about me against an army. No notice the last part of verse eighteen to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Why because warfare is corporate, we are engaged in spiritual warfare. We are engaged in a spiritual battle. Finally, there is our victory. Still talking about prayer. Notice the other things he just mentions and mentions and mentions and mentioned, But he lingers here on prayer and also for me. Still talk about prayer and also prayer for me. Now watch think he's going to describe our victory. Here he's talking about spiritual warfare. He talks about you know, our adversary. He talks about our uniform, he talks about our weapons, he talks about our goals, all of these things in this war. Think about everything that we've known about spiritual warfare. And when we talk about spiritual warfare and we're talking about the guy whom God used. To communicate to us the essence of spiritual warfare. When he says, pray for me, don't look at the text. Don't look at the text. Don't look at look look look, look, look look a look at love here. So we'll look at that. Look up here, look him here, look up here. If we take our understanding of spiritual warfare, and Paul understands that he's engaged in spiritual warfare, and he says, pray for me, as I'm engaged in spiritual warfare the way we've always understood spiritual warfare, you would think that he would say, pray for me, that I might defeat Satan, bind the devil, you know, whatever else. But that's not what he says. Now you can look at him and for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the miss of the Gospel for which I am an ambassador in change, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. The greatest act of spiritual warfare is missions, the proclamation of the Gospel to those who have not heard is the greatest act of spiritual warfare. Why go back to chapter two again and look at this phrase. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Children of wrath. Is warfare language. So watch. Dead men walking. Amen, we were under the influence of the Prince of the power of the air. He was not our spiritual adversary. In fact, we loved him, and we believed he loved us. Amen. Why because our flesh wanted things, and he said to us, here they are the world in which we lived. So the world, the flesh and the devil, we were part of that. We were not vattled by that. We were part of that. We enjoyed that. We loved our master and did not even know we were slaves. And we were under the wrath of God, which means the war was against us. And then God, by the Gospel, walks into enemy territory and says that one is mine, takes us out of darkness into his marvelous light. We've gone from that camp to this one. There is no greater active warfare. When we preach the Gospel to the lost, we are walking into enemy territory, and we're at war. Where at war with the world, with the flesh, and with the devil. This is what happens when we preach the Gospel. This is what happens when the Gospel moves forward into places that it has not been This is territory that the enemy has claimed. These are people who are at war with God, who hate God and don't even know that they hate God. In fact, here's the great irony. When you go into places that don't have the Gospel, that's not where you find the atheists. Do you ever notice that when. You go to places where the Gospel has not been preached, you don't find people who call themselves e selves atheists. You find people who are worshiping it. They're worshiping false gods, but they're worshiping. You only find atheists in places where the Gospel has borne fruit for a long time. And now the rebellion takes another form. You see, atheism is a rebellion against the truths that has been revealed. Atheism is not the normal stance of man. The normal stance of man is idolatry, because we were created to worship, and we're always going to find something to worship. When you meet an atheist, when you've met is someone who's been Christianized and they're trying and they're trying to rebel against him. So we need to understand this. So when you go into enemy territory, here's the great irony. You walk into enemy territory and you proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These are people who are at war with God. But not only do they not know they're at war with God, they're actually trying to please God in their fight against him. So here are people and they're saying, you know, we know that there's a God, and so we're gonna sacrifice these animals so that we can appease this God. We know that there's a God, so we're gonna build this idol so that we can appease this God. We know that there's a God. So not only are we gonna build this unim, but we're gonna get food to this idol. Hindus and Buddhists, many Buddhists, you know, you go into their places of business and they'll have this shrine and they'll have Buddha and they'll have food up there for him. These are people who are trying to please God, but they are completely blinded by the prince of the power of the air and have no idea that what they are actually. Doing is engaging in war against God. This is why in Acts chapter seventeen, Paul walks in and he says, I can see that you're very religious in every respect because I'm walking around and I see all these statues, and there's one that said to an unknown God. Because they just wanted to make sure, you know, here are the gods that we know of. Here's God that we don't know, and we don't want to mad at us, so here's a statue to the unknown God. Their idea there in Athens was that if one of the gods came and was angry because they didn't see a statue, that there would be this statue here that said, no, no, no, this one was for you when you didn't know your name. And what does Paul say that which you worship with in ignorance? Now, I will proclaim to you you're ignorant, You're wrong. That's the ultimate act of spiritual warfare. Missions it's the ultimate act of spiritual warfare. And how do you engage in spiritual warfare through prayer? This is why you cann't. This is why, this is why you cannot and must not separate missions and prayer. Well, here are the questions that come. What about demonic possession? What about demonic oppression? What about animism, familiar spirits and these sorts of things. It's like, I hear what you're saying. I hear all of this stuff. That's great, that's wonderful, you know, But there are people out there who are possessed by demons. There are people out there who are oppressed by demons. There are people out there who are engaging themselves and the type of worship that really is putting them in a very dark spiritual place. And there are some of you who have been and maybe have gone regularly, and some of you may be ministering in some of those places where when you walk into that territory you feel the oppression. It's real, by the way, it's real. So what about that? Is this preaching of the gospel enough? Don't we need in those instances to come in and cast out the devils? Don't we need to come. In with our oil and our holy water and do something to cast out the devils. Two things. First of all, somebody rebuked that. Okay, two things. First of all, let's let Jesus speak to that idea that in spiritual warfare, what we really need to do is we need to go and we need to do exorcisms and cast out devils from people, And that's what we need to do. Jesus speaks about that, and Matthew chapter twelve, beginning a verse forty three. When the uncleaning spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits, more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first. This is what Jesus says about exorcism. So we go somewhere and we cast out the demons. What happens? It comes back with seven more and the person is worse off than they were before the exorcism. Why because greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. What do they need? They need the Gospel, They need Christ, they need the. Holy Spirit to fill them. And that doesn't happen through your incantations casting out demons. We need to preach the gospel. There's a second problem. So we have people and again just just think here, I love the screwtape letters. You're familiar with the screwtape letters by C. S. Lewis. If you're not, you need to get a hold of the Screwtape Letters. It is he writes it as there's these demons, you know, it's demon called Wormwood, and there are these other demons, and they're having these meetings about what they're doing as demons and how they're going to be successful as demons. So in in, in in the uh, in the vein of C. S. Lewis, let us for a moment think about this from the standpoint of the demons. And and and here's the meeting. And the meeting is, you know, I'm sir, there are people who are coming in and there and they're and they're trying to and they're trying to and they're trying to. Cast us out. And we don't know what to do, because you know, the people that we have control of are now sort of having some allegiance. To these people, and so on and so forth. So what do we do? Okay, fine, let's ask ourselves how we respond to this in our devon hosts. What kind of religion are these people practicing? Now? Well, they're worshiping the spirits of the ancestors, okay, And they have allegiance to people who are witch doctors, who are spiritual men, who are powerful men, and in their allegiance to these powerful men, they'll do whatever these powerful men tell them to do in order to appease the spirits. Okay, great, So who are these people who are coming to try to cast us out? Well, they are people who come with spiritual powerful men and incantations so that they will teach these people how to appease the spiritual world and the spiritual realm. And are they preaching the true gospel? Well, no they're not. So the people are out getting saved, No they're not. Then let them cast you out? Why because they're still hours this way. They think that they've got the true religion because they're no longer bowing before this spiritual powerful man. But they're now buying before that spiritual powerful man. Neither one of them has the Gospel. But if they bow before that spiritual powerful man, they'll be deceived into thinking that they're actual Christians, and they'll be inoculated against the true Gospel. Let them cast you out and then come back. That's what I do, Amen. And the Devil's been around much longer than me. I don't think he has any problem with these ministries that are all hopped up on spiritual warfare and no gospel. I don't think he's worried about it in the least because the fact of the matter is, you know exactly what the result is. Because you've tried to talk to some of these same people about Jesus. They're convinced that they're already Christians. They do not know the Gospel, they do not know the Lord. Their worship looks exactly like it used to before they came to faith. It's the same pagan expressions and outbursts that they used to be before they came to faith. They've just changed their focus in a different direction, and they just have a different witch doctor that they're going to. Folks, our resource are sufficient, Our adversary is spiritual and powerful. Our goal is simple, our uniform is supplied, our weapons are supernatural, our partners are substantial, and our victory is secure. This is spiritual warfare, and this is what we engage in as we push forward, run forward in the mission, and remember the way that we engage in this spiritual warfare, far and above all else, is through the. Power of communion with God and prayer. Let's pray follow. Thank you for reminding us today of the truth of this warfare in which we are engaged, and more significantly, of the. Truth of Christ's victory, Christ's glory, of the truth where this warfare is taking place, of the truth of us being seated there in Christ, of the truth of us being blessed in Christ, of the truth of You demonstrating your wisdom there through the Church. Grant by your grace, that we may neither overestimate nor underestimate the reality of spiritual warfare, but that in faith we might walk in a manner worthy of calling with which we've been called, that we. Might be clothed in Your armor, that we might be empowered with alien strength, strength not our own, and that we might advance so that Christ might. Fill all, and all and again, that he might have the fullness of the reward for which he died. This is our prayer. We offer it in his name. Almen.