In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of standing firm in the face of spiritual warfare. He highlights that the battles we face in the spiritual realm are more significant than any worldly conflicts. The preacher urges believers to take the warnings about spiritual warfare seriously, as it affects not only their own souls but also their families and future generations. He emphasizes the need to understand the gravity of the situation and not trivialize it with mere Christian slogans. The preacher then focuses on Ephesians 6:13, encouraging believers to put on the full armor of God and stand their ground, even after facing setbacks. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of prayer in spiritual warfare, urging believers to pray in the Spirit on all occasions.

On this Sunday after the storm, I'm praying that God is gonna give me words that are gonna have momentous effect on your life because the simple truth I'm gonna bring out is of a momentous nature. I began a series some weeks ago about spiritual warfare, but rather than I've done years ago, or most ministers do, and it's totally right to do it that way, you go to Ephesians 6, and you go through verse by verse, especially the pieces of armor put on the whole armor of God, and you go through the belt of truth and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, et cetera. And we've done one of those, the sword of the spirit. I've been praying and just felt led to come from a little different angle. So today what I wanna do is talk about one aspect of this spiritual warfare, probably the most overlooked of it all. So let's look at the passage that we've been just meditating on now for weeks. We're at Ephesians 6, verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's scheme. So what does that bring into play here? The inspired apostle giving us the New Testament here is saying that our enemy in spiritual warfare is invisible and he's called Satan or the devil, and that it isn't a brunt force frontal attack that we're dealing with, but most usually it's his schemes and strategies that he applies against every believer in Jesus Christ, whether you're 18 years old, 25 years old, 65, 85, 45, whatever age you are, there is a plan that Satan has for every single one of us. And that's the truth. Just like God has a plan for our lives to bless us and use us for his glory, Satan has a plan for every life in this room to destroy, separate us from God, discourage our faith. Otherwise, why would Paul call it wrestling and warfare? It is that and even more. And verse 13 says, for our struggle, notice he goes to the first person plural, and now he says, our struggle, not just your struggle, you Christians in Ephesus, I'm the apostle, I don't have to go through these things because I got to a place in God where I don't have to fight the devil. That is the most erroneous conception. Listen to me carefully. The more God puts his hand on your life to use you, the more you battle Satan, not the less. There is no one exempt from spiritual warfare. No one, no pastor, no minister, no baby Christian, and there's no mercy to it. As a predator, there is no mercy to this. There's no kindness among animals. You don't find a lion running down a giraffe, and the giraffe falls down and begins to cry out, and the lion goes, man, I didn't know it was like that with you, and I see you're not having a good day, so go on your way. No, it's dog eat dog. It's just predator. There's no feeling. Didn't care about your children, your grandchildren, your life, your future, your marriage. He could care less. There's no mercy. There's no thought of that. That's why Paul is giving us these warnings and preparatory remarks. For who are we fighting? Not against flesh and blood. It's not human beings, although the enemy can use human beings, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. So there are, as we've learned, invisible agents of Satan. Whether they're fallen angels or demonic spirits, what their origin is, it doesn't matter. We just know that there is a hierarchy of power. There are messengers that do his bidding, even as angels do God's bidding. There are emissaries of Satan who do not know everything, cannot do anything they want, because everything has to be permitted by God for our good, as we learned about last week. But they are real, and they suggest things to our mind. They plant thoughts in our minds. They try to distract us. They have to be resisted. They are looking for environments where they can grow in power and get a foothold. That's why the Bible says don't give place to the devil. So obviously Christians can give place to the devil. And this is what we're up against. And brothers and sisters, before I read the next little verse here, you gotta remember this. We've got to win this fight. Having done everything, we have to stand. This is more important than anything going on with Iraq, Iran, and weapons of mass destruction, and nuclear development over in Iran. That's all child's play. All that can do is kill the body. This is about people's souls, and their families, and their future, and children. So these are why the warnings are very real. And it takes a gravity of spirit and a seriousness to understand what's going on. Otherwise, you become frivolous, and you and I just laugh it off, and we just use what happens among a lot of Christians today, Christian sloganeering. Praise God, he's on the throne, and God is good all the time. And all of that is true. But there's other parts to the Bible, and the Bible says to ministers like me, make sure that you give the whole counsel of God. You don't cherry-pick some verses and just talk about the same thing all the time. You've gotta look at all of scripture, and where there's warnings, read the warnings. Where there's encouragements, read the encouragement. Promises, preach the promises. But preach the whole counsel of God. Now, jumping, really what happens after that is he starts mentioning the different parts of the armor. But putting on the armor is like, another verse says in the New Testament, put on the Lord Jesus Christ. And it gives us different aspects of what Christ means to us, and how every day of our lives, to be ready for this warfare, we have to put on the Lord Jesus Christ. We have to put on the helmet of salvation to protect our minds, et cetera. But that's not what we're talking about today. We jump to verse 13. Therefore, put on the full armor of God, so when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you've done everything, to stand. So he's calling them to encourage them, tell them, this is what you gotta remember, because when the battle is fought, you gotta be standing at the end of the day. You might get knocked down and lose a battle, but you gotta get up, so you win the war. The righteous man falls six times, but he gets up seven. How many have fallen down in your Christian walk since you were a Christian, but God helped pick you up, and you're still here today, right? So that's the way it is, it is what it is. So, but at the end, you gotta be standing. So now, then he starts to list all the pieces of the armor. But then at the end of that, he says this, verse 18. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Let's just look at that. And pray in the Spirit, that means led by the Spirit, energized by the Spirit, with faith in your heart that the Spirit will produce, with fervency that only the Spirit can give you. Pray in the Spirit on all occasions, every kind of different situation you meet in life, on all occasions. There's times for private prayer. There's times, I plead with you, join with me on Tuesday. After this sermon, I pray that you're gonna see the need for the prayer meeting and the act of prayer more than ever before in your life. Pray collectively, corporately, pray alone. Pray when you get alone in your house, and you're gonna say, I'm taking 15 minutes here to just be alone with God. Pray when you're on the subway. Pray when you're in the dollar van. Pray especially when you're in the dollar van, come to think of it. Pray, pray, pray when you're showering in the morning. Pray when you feel temptation coming. Pray when someone says something evil that hurts you. Just pray, talk, pray, pray on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Sometimes you just, you know, you can't even say it. You just sigh it. Sometimes you just say, Jesus, help me. Sometimes you have time to verbalize more and make sentences. But pray. And speaking of prayer, I wanna bring it to a different focus to us and redefine it if I could. So I wanna say it this way. Because we've all grown up differently and we all have different concepts of prayer, I wanna give you possibly a new concept of prayer. Because some of us have been brought up Catholic and we have an idea of prayer, the Stations of the Cross, Hail Mary Full of Grace, and Our Fathers and all of that. Others have grown up in a place where prayers are read by the ministers. The prayer has been written out. In a lot of public events, the prayer is written out. And it's kinda recited. Other people have been with more extemporaneous preaching. Other people have been brought up where if you're not screaming and yelling in the microphone, you're not praying. Shout glory, brother. And that's prayer. So what is prayer? Which prayer is it? What is really prayer? And I wanna share with you something that God has made so real to my heart in recent days. So real to my heart. I thank Him for it. And it's this. Matthew chapter 14, verse 12. John's, that's John the Baptist. John's disciples came and took his body and buried it. And then they went and told Jesus. John's disciples came and took his body, which was without a head, and buried it. And then they went and told Jesus. I wanna talk about something which is for the brand new believer and for a minister that's here or someone who's 40 years in the Lord, 20 years in the Lord. This truth ever has new application to our lives. It's about prayer, but in a way that I want you to kinda rethink it. John the Baptist was, according to Jesus, the greatest man ever born of a woman, excepting, obviously, himself, who was God and man at the same time. But Jesus said, no greater man is ever born of a woman than John the Baptist. He did no miracles. He called people to repentance and prepared the way for the coming of the Lord, for the appearance of Jesus Christ. He was related through his mother, Elizabeth, and then Jesus' mother, Mary. They were related, so he's a distant relative of Jesus. And he was the one, the second Elijah. The first Elijah came in the Old Testament. And isn't that interesting about how different the covenants are? The Old Testament covenant, when you read it, you have to be very careful that you make sure whatever truth you're getting to and whatever deduction you're making that is found in the New Testament, because the New Covenant is much different than the Old Covenant in so many ways. For example, the first Elijah came, and when he left the earth, he went up in a whirlwind of fire and a chariot of heaven. The second Elijah came, John the Baptist, and he was arrested by Herod, who had been offended by his preaching, and he had his head taken off because of a young woman dancing. If we suffer with him, we will reign with him. There's a whole different atmosphere in the New Covenant that we live in compared to the Old Covenant, the law of Moses. Much holds true today, but we have to find it in the New Testament also, reaffirm before we apply it to our lives. Otherwise, you can get into a lot of confusion. So John the Baptist began to preach and baptize people, and he began to baptize people, a baptism of repentance. He would put people under the water in the Jordan River, and that was their sign of, that was their outward sign of saying, my life is wrong, I'm turning toward God, I'm turning away from how I've been living, and I wanna turn toward God. And John the Baptist became wildly popular with the masses of the people. Even religious people knew that the authority that he had was extraordinary. And they knew he was sent from God, but he had his enemies. Because John the Baptist kept saying, there's one coming after me who's, I'm not worthy to be a servant, i.e., I'm not worthy to undo his sandal. And I baptize you with water, but when he comes, he's gonna baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. I'm doing an outward act. When he comes, he's gonna work from the inside out. As I mentioned, King Herod took exception to John the Baptist calling him out about an illicit, immoral marriage that he had. And John the Baptist ended up in prison. Now, he had disciples. All rabbis and teachers of that day had a following, had a posse. And John the Baptist had one. And I'm sure when he was arrested, they began to pray. Oh God, release John the Baptist from prison. Herod is a wicked dude, and John the Baptist only has been doing what's right. Please release our rabbi, release our leader. But alas, it didn't happen. And his head was cut off, and he was murdered. In a terrible way. And now the Bible says that these disciples, his followers, came and took his body, and they buried it. And then they came and told Jesus. They came and spoke to Jesus. That's about the greatest thing you and I can do every day, is to tell Jesus everything that's going on. It's simple, but there's a power in it that nothing else touches. You can even read the Bible and learn verses, but unless you learn to talk from your heart to Jesus, we're gonna be living in weakness, lose out on many victories God has for us, because there's something about telling Jesus what's going on that brings tremendous peace and power into our lives. How did those disciples feel when they went to Jesus? Well, first of all, they were heartbroken. They told Jesus how their hearts were broken. They told Jesus how crushed they were inside. John the Baptist was everything to them. John the Baptist was their leader. John the Baptist was their model. John the Baptist was their pastor. John the Baptist was their apostle before there were apostles. And now he had been taken from them. When you love someone and they're taken from you that way, that's pain. They told Jesus about their pain, their heartbrokenness, their sorrow, their grief. More than that, they were confused. They were very confused. If you have somebody as godly as John the Baptist who you're following, how does he get killed by a man as wicked as Herod, because a young girl does a dance? John the Baptist loses his life. Does that make any sense to anybody here? I thought in the end the good guys win, but there was no last second deliverance. So now they're very confused. On top of that, they not only tell Jesus about their confusion, they tell Jesus about the fact that they don't know what's gonna happen with the future because they belong to John the Baptist. They were his followers. They thought they had a mission. They thought they had a ministry. They thought they had a program that God had ordained, and now everything's gone, and they tell Jesus all of that, the confusion, the grief, the anxiety about the future, because really what they were telling Jesus was, we feel like we've been deserted by God and man. There's nobody that's for us. We had our leader, he's gone. What do we do? Where do we go? Has God deserted us? Doesn't God care about what's gonna happen to us? And all of these things, they spill out of their heart, and they tell it to Jesus of Nazareth. The Bible tells us, if you look at the corresponding parts in the other Gospels, that he probably gathered them up and took them away with him to rest with his own disciples, and that's where they were. They were with Jesus alone somewhere, following with his other disciples, and spending more time with him, just telling him what they felt, what was going on in their life. You know, look at his face, know that he's there, open your heart, speak it into his ears and his heart, and that's what they did. And that's what the Bible says prayer is really about, telling Jesus everything. The Bible never tells us how he answered them, because it doesn't matter. The blessing isn't in the answer, the main blessing is in telling him, just speaking your heart to him. And that's what God is saying to all of us, not just today, but as a godly habit in spiritual warfare, is to every day tell Jesus your confusion. Tell Jesus where you're being tempted. Tell Jesus who broke your heart. Tell Jesus where Satan is coming in like a flood. Tell Jesus your anxiety about the future. Tell Jesus about that daughter who's getting harder by the day. Tell Jesus everything, from your heart to his heart. Don't use King James English, you don't have to say thou or thee. You don't have to pray like Pastor Hammond, and in fact, never copy anyone praying. You never copy the way anyone prays. You don't have to be loud, you don't have to be quiet, you have to be natural. Because when they went to talk to Jesus, they didn't say, Jesus, I wanna tell you, Jesus. No, they didn't do that at all. Whatever came out of their heart, came out of their heart, and if it was loud and with tears, it was loud and with tears. And if it was quiet and like a whisper, it was quiet and like a whisper. But they told Jesus everything. What would happen today? Because real prayer is so rare. You know, James says, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available. And it says, using Elijah as an example, Elijah fervently prayed, and in the margin, the Greek actually means that Elijah prayed in his praying. I know a lot of times, I've prayed and I just said words. How about you? You know, even some of those bizarre prayers you learn as a kid. Now I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And should I die before I wake? No wonder we have a lot of neurotic people in church. You're a child already praying about you might die in your sleep. Oh Lord, I thank you for the food that we're about to have. And bless him. I wonder how much of that is really telling Jesus. There must be a real prayer that's escaping us because the state of the church and the state of our world would be different if people were really praying because the Bible says God answers prayer. And God brings benefits into our lives when we really pray that it's amazing. Some months ago, I was going through a difficult moment and I was struggling, wasn't feeling well. And someone who's like a prayer partner to me in the church, I called this person and they prayed for me on the phone. And what they really did was not just pray for me, they got me to pray. Because sometimes, prayer is the hardest thing in the whole world. Do I get an honest amen here? I mean, you would think it's simple, but Satan is trying to block telling Jesus anything. You open your heart even right now and tell him your pain, tell him your confusion, tell him where you're being tempted, tell him what's wrong, tell him where you're struggling. Are you kidding? Satan will throw up every roadblock he has to keep us from talking to Jesus like those disciples of John did. That, by the way, is a very wonderful habit to make on a daily basis. A very, very wise man who's influenced my life, although he's long dead, said this. Before you start any day, before you read the newspaper, before anything goes down in your life, this is life-changing, tell Jesus something about himself. Tell Jesus something about yourself and tell Jesus something about the day you're facing. Tell Jesus something about himself. From your heart, strip it of all religiosity. Don't do it mechanically, don't do it traditionally, don't do it by rote, don't do it because I have to have devotions today. Do it this way, just tell Jesus something about himself. Just tell him, as I told him coming to the church today, walking on Livingston Street, Jesus, you're the most wonderful savior anybody could ever have. Jesus, you've been so patient with me and you are so merciful. Jesus, I love you because your name is above every other name. From your heart, talk to Jesus. Don't talk to your consciousness, don't talk to the atmosphere, don't talk to the air, talk to Jesus. Look dead in his eyes and don't talk until you've secured his presence and you know that you're talking from your heart to Jesus' heart because sham and pretense is the death of all real prayer. Mechanically rushed prayers just kills the whole thing. Those disciples of John got along with Jesus and when they got along with him, they told him everything they were going through, what they felt, their struggles, their battles. So start the day, all of us, by just telling Jesus something about himself. Tell him he's great. Is he great, ladies and gentlemen? Do I get an amen? Is he great? Is he king of kings and lord of lords? Is he the lily of the valley? Is he the best friend we've ever had? Everyone who believes he's the best friend you've ever had, put your hands together. Just tell him that. Tell him that. Just every day, every day from your heart, tell Jesus something about himself. That's called praise. That's called worship. That's called thanksgiving. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Before you tell him anything about yourself, tell him something about who he is. It'll strengthen your soul. It'll just build your faith up. Then tell him something about yourself and be honest and just tell him, this is where I'm struggling. This is my secret thing that's out of control in my life. This is where I know I'm thinking wrong, but I can't change my thinking. Jesus, could you please help me with my thinking? Jesus, I got complexes that have so many layers, I can't count them. And I don't know how I develop. I don't need to shrink. I need you, Jesus, to help me with my complexes. I feel rejected all the time. Jesus, I'm afraid of being lonely. I'm not sure about this relationship. Jesus, I want a man or a woman to come in my life. Whatever it is, tell Jesus about it. How many times we bury that within ourselves or we tell it to people who are not trustworthy and then they go blab it to others. And the one that we should have gone to in the first, we never tell him. We complain, we murmur, we get depressed. And when you ask yourself the question, have I got along with Jesus and told him this? Have I opened my heart and spilled my guts? Excuse the expression. Have I really opened up and just told him, hey, the way it really is. In other words, keep it real. Just what you feel like he doesn't know. Your pain, your temptation, your confusion. Why we don't have those? Of course we do. Lately, I just like with fear and trembling, I counsel people because I have a new like awareness of the pain that people have. And the Lord has made this verse so real to me in recent weeks about the authority that I have as a pastor. Paul's talking about his authority as a pastor, as an apostle, and he says, the authority God has given me is to build you up, not to tear you down. And I say, oh God, please don't let my sermons tear anyone down. Don't let my counsel tear anyone down. Let me build them up, even if they have to be corrected, even if they're thinking wrong. Give me a way to do it so that I build them up. And there's nothing that builds you up like prayer. Nothing. If it's done the right way, just talking to Jesus. Forget prayer. Well, Heavenly Father, who dwells in the corridors of eternity, and you know, you could just, nobody talk to him like that. They just talk to him. Let's look at one other verse and close with this. The Bible says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but we have to stand against the devil and his schemes. I told you before that the Bible tells us it's the act of praying that's more important than the answer in many ways. Look at this verse, which happens to be one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, Philippians 4, 6, but I'm gonna add seven to it. Look at it. Do not be anxious about anything. That's a double negative in the Greek language, which means don't be anxious, not even about a single thing. Don't worry about a single thing. Just think of the sin that many of us live in daily by our worry, but we never count worry as sin. But here's a command from God. Don't worry even about a single thing. What's the cure to worry and anxiety? Talking to Jesus. But in everything by prayer, talking to Jesus, and petition, asking him things, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Now, what's the answer to those prayers? It doesn't give us the specific answers, but here's the big answer, here's the best answer. When you talk to Jesus, when I talk to Jesus the right way, here's what he's gonna give us, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Notice, his peace guards my heart and my mind. Why would he have to guard it? Because that's where Satan's trying to attack, your mind and your heart, my mind and my heart. And who's the great defender against that? The peace of God. Satan is Antichrist. He's opposite of all the things that God has for us. Now, God is called the God of peace. Jesus is called the Prince of what? Peace. So what do you think Satan works in? What kind of environment do you think he works in, in our hearts and minds? What do you think he's trying to stir up? Peace or chaos, confusion, lustings, agitation, out of control-ness. And God says, no, the way to defeat him is to let me fill you with my peace. It'll guard your mind, it'll guard your heart. That passage in the Bible means, actually, that the peace of God will act as sentries with weapons and will guard and watch you day and night. It'll just watch your mind, it'll just guard your mind and heart. No, keep out, keep out, I'm guarding this. You can't get in there because I'm guarding it. What's guarding us? The peace of God, and how does it come? By telling Jesus everything. What a powerful weapon against Satan, to just talk with Jesus. So about three and a half years ago, excuse the personal reference, but I'll close with it, I was going through a very, very, very, very difficult moment. Emotionally, mentally, just, I was under attack. Lot of pain. So I locked myself up in a room in the house I lived in then, and I spent about five, five hours, let's say, just alone with my Bible, alone with Jesus. If you would've been outside, you would've never heard one thing, hardly. Oh, maybe some cries, maybe some audible praises and whatnot, but nothing really loud. But as I just meditated on the word of God, and I just talked to God, and I told God, help me to do it more, I just told Jesus, I can't go on. I can't go on. Unless you come and help me, I can't go on. You ever feel that way? How many ever been under attack? Come on, lift your hand up. I'm trying to be transparent with you. And I just said, Lord, I'm here, but I'm not leaving here until you talk to me and help me. I told him everything. I didn't pray, I talked. Sometimes what we call saying prayers actually hurts us, because it's not real. And about three hours in, that little room got filled with the presence of God. I know God was with me when I started, but I'm telling you, there was something palpable, tangible, spiritually speaking. And something started flooding in my soul as God is my holy witness, that I said out loud in the room as if God was there talking to me, what is this? I've had experiences with the Lord, haven't you? But this was too much. It was so deep, it was so strong. And as I waited for God to tell me, or answer me, or just give me insight, it was so beautiful, it was so heavenly. It lifted me above all the pain, all the agitation, all the stuff. I could only hear the best I could, the Holy Spirit speak to me and say, that's the peace of God. And I never thought of peace that deep. I never thought of peace that will guard you and protect you. I never thought of peace lifting you above all the storms. And everything that had been, like was major in my life, with this peace that was guarding me now, I looked down, everything was like minuscule. Everything was like a little toy. There's nothing like talking to Jesus. Nothing in this world. So this is good teaching for all of us, amen? Amen. In our spiritual warfare, is to tell Jesus everything. Every day, not on important days, because you think the devil's waiting for important days to attack you? He's waiting for any day, any hour. Would you close your eyes with me? If you're here today, and you'd say, Pastor, I gotta have a talk with Jesus. You know, in life, you gotta know who to talk to. There's a lot of areas in my life I don't know anything about. I don't know anything about mechanical things, fixing things, carpentry, computers, cooking. You name a lot of things. But I've learned that you can get by and really be okay if you just know who to talk to. Get the right person. I'm telling you, for your loneliness, for your battle, for your temptation, for your whatever, you gotta talk to Jesus. You gotta talk to Jesus. Anybody here today say, Pastor, before I leave, I just wanna come forward, because what I'm saying to the Lord today with you, Pastor Simbala, is Jesus, give me the grace to every day talk to you, tell you everything. Tell you first about yourself. Tell you then about myself. Tell you then about my day. Like, here's what I'm facing today, Jesus. This is what I'm concerned about. This is what causes worry. Jesus, review the day with me, or at the end of the day, Jesus, this is where I messed up. I'm gonna tell it to you, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will help you. Anybody here just wanna talk to Jesus right now? You can't wait. I don't care if there's one of you or five of you. Get out of your seat and just say, Pastor, that was for me. Just say, I gotta talk to Jesus right now, casting all of our cares upon him. How do we cast our cares upon him? By talking to him. Come on, are you gonna carry it, or are you gonna give it to him? Tell him about it. Tell him about it. Jesus, thank you for your word today. Would this word, please, God, be planted deep in our hearts, starting with the speaker, and would you water it with your Holy Spirit? Would you give us a good day today? We need you all day long, Lord. Would you please help us that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart, nothing will be said, nothing will be held in our heart that would hurt you or grieve you, but that everything would be acceptable to you, Lord. I thank you so much for the body of Christ today. I love my brothers and sisters more today than I ever have in my whole life, and God, we need to love and encourage each other because we're all in the same fight against the same devil. And Jesus, I know you're with us, and we are more than conquerors through you, Jesus. Keep us close to you today, and bless us with your presence and your peace. Let the shalom of God guard our hearts and minds, and let your blessing be with us, for we pray it in Jesus' name, and everyone said. Amen. Turn around and hug somebody. Give someone a good word of encouragement.