Fight the Good Fight

[0:00] Talking about the fight that we're in. Fight the good fight. 1 Timothy 6 verse 12.

[0:10] And has professed a good profession before many witnesses.

[0:35] Paul says fight the good fight of faith. Friends, if you're a Christian, you are in a battle right now.

[0:47] You are in a cosmic, supernatural, spiritual battle. It's been said that Christian life is a battleground, not a playground. It's a battle.

[0:59] Life is a battle. And for us as believers, more so really than the world would reckon life is a battle because we have spiritual forces that are arrayed against us, committed to be opposed to us and to undermine and attack us.

[1:21] The fight is on. And this fight is relentless. It is ongoing. A fight for our lives.

[1:33] Life is a battle. And we don't always understand the spiritual nature of these things, of this battle that we're engaged in. It's something we can sometimes pay little regard to.

[1:45] When we go about our day by day, we don't always reckon it, do we? That this is actually the reality. That day by day, life is a battle. And it's good for us to take stock, to check our status, if you like, our battle status.

[1:59] What state are we in? Are we ready for battle? Perhaps some are battle-weary. Battle-weary. You know, it's a reality for soldiers and veterans to have post-traumatic stress disorder and to have a kind of battle fatigue.

[2:18] And we can all get battle-weary in our Christian walk too, I put to you. Have we lost our fight? If so, then let's regain it. These are days that call for a heart of no compromise.

[2:32] We should be strong and steadfast and fight the good fight of the faith. We're called to fight. This is God's plan for the church, for every believer, to fight the good fight of the faith.

[2:46] So the church really, I put to you, the church should be a fighting unit, a fighting fit unit. The church is meant to be, as the word of God tells us, it should be as an advancing army.

[3:01] As we see where our Lord says that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church of God. It's not that the church should be having a fortress mentality, retreating and hiding, as it were, as the wagons of the cowboy days and just getting attacked.

[3:22] But we should actually be advancing, reaching, going forward, going out and on the onslaught, on the offensive.

[3:33] The question is, are we battle-weary? We need to refresh our fighting spirit. Sometimes soldiers can get that spirit of being, having battle fatigue, of flagging, of our strength flagging, of our fervency failing.

[3:53] We have something to fight for, something that really matters. In Jude 1, verse 3, we read of this contending for the faith. Jude, just the last book before Revelation.

[4:08] And verse 3, it tells us, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend, earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

[4:29] Again, there's that picture there of a contention, of a contending, of a fighting, of a combat. And the battle, by and large, starts in the mind, in the heart.

[4:43] It's a battle that rages on the inside of all of us. A battle that's going on for our will. Who will we serve? Who will we, whose side are we on? And we have to get ready for a fight.

[4:55] Now is not the time to flag, but to fight. To press the fight. Because the battle is getting more intense. Perhaps morale is flagging.

[5:09] In a military unit, the morale can be lacking. It can suffer. People can get wounded, battle-weary, broken.

[5:21] Many are battle-scarred. And we all know that sometimes we do suffer injury. We suffer wounding and damage.

[5:32] How can we overcome this battle-weariness? A big question I put to you is how does this happen? How do we get battle-weary? A lot of it is to do with attacks that we sustain.

[5:47] When we're attacked, and it might be we may have given place to the devil. It tells us that in Ephesians 4, 27. Paul tells the Ephesians in chapter 4, verse 27, neither give place to the devil.

[6:03] In other words, don't yield any ground. If we put ourselves in a place, if we occupy ourselves with something that is putting our soul at risk of the devil's attacks, if we're unduly giving him an inroad in any capacity in our lives, it's giving place to the devil.

[6:23] And Paul urges us that we are not to give place to the devil. Don't give him an inch. Don't give him an inroad. Also, as far as becoming battle-weary, I believe we could do well to ask ourselves, what is it that we tune into?

[6:41] We know the Bible calls the enemy, the devil, the prince of the power of the air. Of course, there's lots of sound waves and TV, video waves, flying through the atmosphere all around us, internet signals.

[6:56] You wonder who's pulling the strings of some of those signals that we can tune into. There's all kinds of signals, all kinds of voices, all kinds of messages that we can tune into.

[7:07] And it's interesting, back in wartime, that the Allies and the Nazis and the Japanese, they all used different kinds of psychological warfare to try to undermine the other side.

[7:23] Using psychological warfare as a kind of enemy propaganda. And we could maybe draw some parallels from that as to what's happening for us. Because we're under attack just as in wartime, we are in wartime too.

[7:40] And so the similar aspects to what happened in wartime that is happening, I'll put to you in our time of war with our enemy. And it's a fact that the Germans were masters of fake news.

[7:53] That's kind of a modern term, fake news, but the Germans were masters of it in World War II and World War I. They used English-speaking men and women to broadcast their messages, messages of despair and disappointment and defeat.

[8:10] And the forces would tune in to these signals and listen to the music, but also the messages. And it would be a morale-draining effect.

[8:26] And the Allies also, they used disheartening pamphlets themselves. They would drop them behind enemy lines. They would use these disheartening messages in these pamphlets to defeat the Germans by undermining their morale.

[8:40] And the USA, apparently, they produced propaganda specifically for the enemy and made it look like the propaganda was actually coming from inside the enemy's country.

[8:51] So it was so slickly done that people would not be able to discern it as being actually the propaganda of the enemy forces. And you wonder, I'm just really suggesting there could be some parallels there in terms of some of the messaging that we get.

[9:10] And it could be messages from behind pulpits as well, but from behind religious organisations, from behind recognised ministries even, that it could be that the enemy is using such means to draw people into deception or to discourage and to attack God's people.

[9:31] Because the enemy would love to attack our morale in every way that he can. And so it can be easy, I put to you, as you could potentially identify, yeah, I can identify with that, that it's easy to be weary in well-doing and to think sometimes it's easier to not be an out-and-out Christian, just to be quiet.

[9:54] I know someone, a brother this morning was sharing with me how he was witnessing to a work colleague. And good on him. Good on you for doing that. Because sometimes it can be hard in a work setting.

[10:05] Because it can draw attacks against you if someone grumbles and moans and says, oh, so-and-so's talking about Jesus.

[10:16] And then it can make you a target. So we know that it's great to be brave and to be bold. And also just to sort of gauge things too. We don't want to unduly draw attention that then they can unduly attack us.

[10:32] Because it's easy to get weary in well-doing and to be a subject to attacks. And it's about finding how can we be a strong witness for Christ.

[10:43] And I was quite surprised, there was a recent video over YouTube where some New Zealander got a knock on the door and the police were there, the New Zealand police.

[10:56] And the police came and said, you've been identified following these attacks in New Zealand, of course, which we condemn such attacks against people. But this person, because he had something on his YouTube channel that was kind of pro-Christian and against some of the false religion of the day, that the New Zealand police came knocking on his door and saying that they're watching this man.

[11:22] And that can happen to us today. In this day, especially with social media, we see what's happened with a man who's quoted a Bible verse. He's lost his position on his sports team.

[11:33] And you think, what's going on? But Christians are under attack. Those who would dare to quote the Bible, those who would dare to stand up and be counted. And sometimes it can be easier for us to just kind of just hide as a Christian and not to be a strong, outspoken believer.

[11:49] But let's not hold back. Let's not be discouraged from that. It's a fact that Satan will look and go after the weakest link. So let's look out for others.

[12:02] There could be some amongst us who might be more under the devil's barrage, under the enemy fire. Let's come alongside one another.

[12:13] When we see that happening, when we see, oh, there's someone who's not here and someone came to me this morning and said, oh, such and such a brother has not seen him in church. I said, give him a phone call.

[12:25] Give him a phone call. Of course, I've got to protect people's confidentialities. Not that I really know anything anyway, but there's such where if you notice a brother, a sister is not here, let's look after one another.

[12:40] Amen? Let's do that. Because it's even better that way when it's not just the pastor making a contact, but it's his or her brothers and sisters making that contact. It's showing that we're looking after each other because there's some weak links out there and the devil just wants to take us out one by one.

[12:59] And like, as it were, we see it with packs of animals that the predator goes after the one that's straggling, the one that's weaker.

[13:10] We need to come alongside and spur one another on. Let's look out for others. Let's help the fallen, the wounded. Don't shoot them. They might need our encouragement.

[13:23] Let's be like the good Samaritan and lend our efforts to save the wounded, put ourselves out to restore them. That's even in the context of church discipline where the emphasis is restoration.

[13:39] That's the emphasis. It's healing. It's reaching out. We don't condone false doctrine or false practice or people failing in moral ways, but our object is to restore because the enemy is looking for the weak link and we need to lift the fallen, lift the wounded, put ourselves out to do that.

[14:06] Let's not turn on ourselves. The devil is the accuser of the brethren. That's his job. Our job is to lift them and encourage. And when we check our status, we see we can get battle weary.

[14:18] It's the nature of battle, battle fatigue. So let's look out for one another and look after ourselves too and check in with the Lord and try to get refreshed, try to get a refreshing, try to get a replenishing.

[14:31] Let's renew the supply lines, as it were. The enemy wants to cut us off from the supply lines, as it were, as we could think spiritually of the word of God. He wants to take away our devotional life.

[14:43] He wants to take us away from prayer and we can get battle weary. And secondly, we need to check our status and realise our great need to be battle ready. To be battle ready.

[14:54] It's important that we're ready for battle because this battle that we're on about, it's not some theoretical battle. This is not just some principle, some airy fairy concept that we're in a spiritual battle.

[15:08] It is the reality. Again, we've got to check in and realise this is happening here and now where we live. It's happening in our families. It's happening in our homes.

[15:18] It's happening in our community, in our city of Adelaide and the region, the nation. A surprise attack can come out of nowhere.

[15:31] So we need to be battle ready. Think about what happened at Pearl Harbour, for example, just as an illustration of how a surprise attack can happen. We don't know what's going to hit us next week.

[15:43] Now, God forbid, but you wonder, oh no, and when I say something like that, I think, oh no, what's going to hit me Monday. Because sometimes it can happen. Some disaster, some difficulty, some affliction, some awful challenge and test and a trial of your faith.

[16:02] It can happen, brother. It can happen, sister. And we need to steel ourselves for what attack may happen next. As it happened at Pearl Harbour, the attack came out of the sky on Sunday morning, December 7, 1941.

[16:19] This surprise attack came and it caught the US completely off guard. It had been launched some 200 miles north of Pearl Harbour from the decks of six aircraft carriers belonging to the Japanese Imperial Navy under the command of Admiral Yamamoto.

[16:35] 200 miles north, six vessels, aircraft carriers. Suddenly the aircraft were taking off in barrages of flights of these kamikaze planes.

[16:51] And in less than two hours, Japanese airmen destroyed US battleships and badly damaged six others. Only six US planes managed to scramble to get in the air to defend against the Japanese attackers.

[17:06] Only six planes of the whole fleet of aircraft that were there. And this assault took 2,330 American lives. It left 1,145 wounded, a surprise attack.

[17:21] And it was a humiliating defeat that really was a tremendous humiliation. And why?

[17:31] Because they were not prepared. They were not prepared. They weren't convinced that Japan would dare such an attack. And likewise for us, brothers and sisters, let's be battle ready.

[17:46] Ready, ready for anything. Ready for whatever faces us. And not to be caught off guard. There's an expression, fighting fit. And when you think about it, it does relate to military readiness too.

[18:01] Fighting fit. There's a degree of fitness that's called for such that we are ready, that we are prepared. It's part of our readiness. And so we have to get back into condition.

[18:12] You know, in times of peacetime or maybe when we're not feeling like we're facing much threat or it's relatively calm and quiet and life's fairly easy, we can get casual.

[18:28] We can get out of condition. When a soldier gets out of condition, they're not able to fight well. And again, it's hard for them to sustain morale. We have something worth fighting for.

[18:40] And so keeping fit, fighting fit, is something important for us because the enemy would try to wear us down and wear us out. You know, in the Bible it talks about of the devil's intent to wear down the saints.

[18:54] Wear us down. Gradually wear us down. And there's a war on. And yet it seems in some ways some have capitulated and surrendered. It's like they're acting like there's not really a spiritual war going on so they've given up the fight.

[19:12] And this can happen where a whole people can lose the fight as happens, of course, in times of war too. And thankfully as a nation, I believe we've been granted a reprieve from ungodly laws being foisted on us of late.

[19:28] We've had a small sign, a glimmer of hope and of gladness. But the battle rages on. There's forces, political and spiritual, that want to see our nation adopt ungodly laws that righteousness will not prevail and that sin will be a reproach in our land.

[19:51] There is no let up. This is just a momentary positive light. But there are forces arrayed against us. And of course I'm not meaning to get political here because it's in any and every political party there's often much lacking.

[20:09] So we have need of real vigilance to keep up the resistance, to not let down our guard. What are we told in 1 Peter 5, those familiar verses? 1 Peter 5 from verse 8.

[20:20] We're told, Be sober. Be vigilant. Why? Because your adversary, he's our adversary, he's opposed to us, your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

[20:46] It tells us, Be sober, be vigilant, because we've got an adversary and he's on the prowl. And resist him steadfast in the faith, it says. Now I put to you there, our enemy often acts undercover.

[20:59] It's like he doesn't show his true colours. He's hidden. He's under a disguise, as it were. But our Lord has given us the battle plan to resist him, resist steadfast in the faith.

[21:11] We have a fight on. And it's against spiritual forces, spiritual wickedness in high places. In Ephesians 6, verse 12, we read, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.

[21:23] It's not about particular politicians necessarily, about human beings that we wrestle, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[21:37] There's spiritual forces that are in high places. There's demonic dark forces, the rulers of the darkness of this world.

[21:49] Now the puppet masters that pull some of these politicians, as it were, and other world leaders, we can see the demonic influence on nations, on governments.

[22:03] And it's real. And dark forces are pitted against us too, against each one of you. Every one of us is in the target sites, in the crosshairs, as it were.

[22:16] And the devil's always looking. Who can he pick out? Who can he take out? Spiritual wickedness in high places. It talks about the rulers of the darkness of this world.

[22:30] Can we see that sometimes darkness prevails? It's like it's intrinsic. It's spreading. The shadows are lengthening across media, music, movies.

[22:46] The darkness is prevailing. And we need to be shining the light. We need to be standing up and being forthright, and being a real soldier for Christ.

[22:59] This is real combat. This is no simulation. This is no war games. This is the real fight that we're in. And we know that we have real power. We have the real spirit of God.

[23:12] And we're told some things to do. Of course, there's that passage in Ephesians 6. Excuse me. You might like to turn there. Ephesians 6.

[23:23] I'm sure many would be familiar with this passage here. Telling us of the different items of the armour. And I'm talking about preparedness here for battle.

[23:37] Being battle ready. For us to be prepared, to be battle ready, we need to put our uniform on.

[23:50] Put your armour on. Show whose side you're on. And make sure you're wearing the right armour. We see in the word where it talks about armour, there's times where the armour was not appropriate.

[24:04] Saul's armour did not fit David. Goliath's armour was useless against David's stone. And we see Ahab wore armour, but a stray arrow found where he was not covered.

[24:22] It found the gap in his armour, the chink in his armour. But friends, today, the armour that we carry, the armour that we're called to wear, is unfailing.

[24:33] The armour of God. It's unfailing. We see that in Ephesians 6 from verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

[24:46] Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

[25:04] Wherefore, take unto you the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod, with the preparation of the gospel of peace, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, 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, and watching thereunto, with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

[25:48] The whole armour of God, the whole armour, be clothed with God's armour, that's part of our being battle ready, being prepared for battle at all times. And we could think, we could miss some of that armour.

[26:03] We might have the large part of it, but we might miss one or two pieces here and there. And that could be to our detriment. It could be a danger for us.

[26:20] You know, imagine a soccer player, all kitted out with the, you know, his bright new tunic and shorts, and his socks on, but he leaves his footy boots in the locker room, and he runs out onto the pitch.

[26:35] He's not going to be much of a player on the field, is he? And likewise too, as a soldier, imagine a soldier going out without his combat boots on, and what hope would he have on the battlefield?

[26:51] He has to be clothed with the whole armour, the whole armour. So let's, you know, check that off through. I know some people like to use this as a bit of a checklist, as it were, as they enter their day to think, have I got the armour on?

[27:04] The whole armour. It's a good practice to have. And I put to you that God's armour is unfailing. Now, there was a time where Napoleon Bonaparte ordered a bulletproof coat to be made.

[27:21] The famous political military leader, Napoleon Bonaparte, he ordered a bulletproof coat, and the workman completed such a coat, and he kind of proudly delivered the coat to the emperor personally.

[27:37] And upon taking the coat from the workman, Napoleon immediately ordered him to put it on. And then he fired six shots into the coat, and the workman was glad to know that the coat repelled the shots.

[27:50] His workmanship was satisfactory. And Napoleon congratulated the workman and gave him a generous award, a reward. We need to have God's armour on, don't we?

[28:03] And know that God's armour is unfailing. It will not fail us. So many are battle-weary. It's the world we're living in. We must be battle-ready.

[28:15] And lastly, we have need to man the battle stations. There's a military command, battle stations! When the soldiers, the military, the navy, air force, whatever, hear this command, battle stations, everyone knows that this is the command to get to his post, to lock and load, to make sure the safety is off, the trigger is pulled back, and that he is ready to fire, ready to fight.

[28:46] Battle stations. I put to you tonight that we are called to battle stations, to be ready for the fight, to fight the good fight of the faith.

[28:58] The world is at war. And it seems to me, even just in the last five or ten years, how it's ramping up.

[29:09] It's just ramping up, isn't it? It's just more and more signs. And it's astonishing to me to see, even the daily newspaper, the daily news feeds, you see more and more signs.

[29:22] Israel's always in the news, isn't it? Jerusalem. We see the radical left is just constantly pushing their agenda on nations worldwide.

[29:34] And we're seeing politicians caving in and just letting this madness prevail, as well as diverse religions that are just being given kind of favouritesism over Christians.

[29:49] You know, you wonder if there had been another religion that had quoted from their holy book that how they would have treated such a man had it been from another religion.

[30:01] But because he was a Christian, he was fair game. And, you know, Christians are kind of fair game. But other religions seem to be treated differently.

[30:13] And so I put to you, there's a real fight and it's a real struggle that is going on right now. What are we to do? Man the battle stations. We are under attack. We have to mobilise.

[30:24] We have to realise the real fight that we're in and the pressing battle conditions that are all around us and realise, yes, we are outnumbered. There's not many here right now.

[30:36] There's meetings where there's not many. We are outnumbered. We are outnumbered. But so was Gideon's 300. Gideon's 300 was absolutely outnumbered.

[30:48] It was just so clearly, they were clearly outnumbered. May we all be prepared and ready to take action to man the battle stations.

[31:03] May we be loyal to stick together in this time of battle. The enemy would love to divide and conquer to wage war against, so that we wage war against ourselves and other good churches.

[31:16] We don't want to do that. We're in the same campaign and we're all on the same side.

[31:27] And so let's encourage one another. Let's encourage other good godly churches, good godly preachers. Let's keep rank. Let's maintain our position. Keep marching forward.

[31:39] Man the battle stations. There's no time to be distracted, to be diverted. We're meant to get ready for the defence of the gospel, to be set for the defence of the gospel.

[31:52] So let's man up and be prepared for battle conditions that we might have to face some privation. We might have to face some suffering. We might have to go into the front line.

[32:04] We might have to go out of our comfortable, as it were, trench and go over the top, as it were. I'm using kind of military analogies here, but I'm hoping that we can grasp the spiritual reality of this.

[32:19] I'm not meaning to just talk in picturesque language or of theoretical things, but that we realise this is a real fight that we're in and that we are ready to endure hardness.

[32:32] You wonder, if things were to get tougher, how many of us would be left? Don't you think? If it really got hard, how many would still be sticking by the stuff?

[32:46] How many would stick in that military mind that we have a fight on our hands? If it was to get harder. We see in some nations it does get harder.

[32:59] I just saw a video clip of churches getting burnt down in some places and apparently through France. There's been multiple churches. We've just seen Notre Dame.

[33:11] There's just one. There's hundreds. I've seen a map populated with actually hundreds or certainly a hundred or more. I haven't actually reckoned them all up, but Notre Dame was just one that the media picked up on.

[33:27] But there's multiplied churches in France getting burnt down. There's some very clear attacks going on in some African nations against Christians.

[33:42] in some in Pakistan I believe it was in other lands around the world Christians are getting slaughtered. They're actually getting killed in the hundreds.

[33:56] And yet for us we don't have hardness like that do we? You wonder as some would reckon what's the hardest thing that can happen to an Aussie Christian?

[34:06] It's pretty much insignificant really isn't it in comparison. But the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2 verse 3 Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

[34:18] No man that woreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. We're enlisted. We're signed up.

[34:30] And there's no it's not for a term it's for an eternity. Our enlistment is forever in this army.

[34:41] And what are we to do? Please him who has chosen us to be a soldier. Let's please our commanding officer and have that that rock solid devotion unto him.

[34:58] Our commanding officer yes sir. There's no question of an other answer. There's no question of saying other than yes sir to our lord our master our commanding officer our commander in chief you know to say otherwise would be to face court martial as it were.

[35:20] Not that we have such a system but I'm just saying how in comparative terms there's that sense where our loyalty to our commanding officer should be absolute.

[35:33] And not through compulsion not because there's there's some obligation that man would make but because of our love he's chosen us to be a soldier.

[35:46] That's a blessing isn't it? That he would choose us. It makes you think back to schoolyard days when when someone picks members for the team and you just pick me pick me and finally you get picked.

[35:59] Well he's picked us our captain has picked us he's chosen us to be a soldier. There's that sense where wow he wants us on his side. He wants us to be in his military cause and yet we see morale flagging all around us when we see the hardness that seems to be more present.

[36:20] We have need of courage. We have need of perseverance. Endure hardness. There's a need of endurance. An endurance of hardness. Some people would think oh as a Christian it's all easy breezy a bed of roses you know your best life now but no the Bible says endure hardness.

[36:40] Endure hardness. So let's keep in training and realise not to neglect the parade ground as it were the drill the building up of our strength as we keep training.

[36:53] I know Julie and I passed a CFS station on one cold night of late and the CFS guys were all there all kitted out in their uniforms doing some kind of drill and they were out there getting ready for action and you think if the CFS can do it or the ambulance service or the surf lifesavers or some soccer team playing in the rain what about us as God's people we should have that same mind because what we're doing is eternal it's essential it's God's work so let us prepare for war as we see war games are used in nations preparing their troops to maintain a readiness we need to be battle ready to be well disciplined to keep rank under the captain of our salvation and again this is not to put anyone under a yoke here but just to really lift you up to see the cause that we're in is there not a cause there's no greater cause no greater allegiance no greater flag to fly no greater commander to own as our master and captain and let us maintain our order and strength and observe battle orders you know these are the general orders these are the battle orders at the military outpost they have necessary instructions for the troops and these are the battle orders let's get familiar with them let's try to understand them and grasp them and realise what action they lead us to they call us to the battle orders we're living in a society that thinks the only sin is condemning sin that was a good quote I saw lately it's quite true isn't it a society that thinks the only sin is condemning sin oh you don't condemn whatever it is you don't condemn this don't condemn that because that's being politically incorrect that's being insensitive that's being intolerant the bible says sin is sin it talks about righteousness it urges us to seek after

[39:06] God and to get right with him so friends tonight we're vastly outnumbered and that will always be the case it always has been the case we are in the minority we are the ultimate minority group and the ultimate persecuted minority group and we face much spiritual opposition yet we are not outgunned we might be outnumbered but we're not outgunned because the battle is the Lord's isn't it he is our Lord and he is the one who will lead us he will guide us he will strengthen us and he will enable us it tells us in 1 John 4 verse 4 So we can be encouraged even in times where we're feeling battle weary where we're feeling like the battle is getting a bit hard we're feeling like the battle conditions are pretty tough and we're feeling like we're maybe not battle ready as well as we should be and we maybe realise we need to be manning the battle stations but sometimes we're not always on our game in that regard but we can know this we can win this battle because the battle is the

[40:28] Lord's the battle is the Lord's and we have sure victory this is the victory that overcomes the world even our faith and like the old song goes we shall overcome we shall overcome one day because the Bible says we are overcomers we're called to that truth so friends tonight I hope I've left you with some thoughts to think and maybe some actions to contemplate to wage a good warfare to fight a good fight the good fight of the faith and be not battle weary be steeled for the fight be battle prepared for the battle that lies ahead because friends I can't assure you that it's going to get any easier it might get harder so what are we to do man the battle stations and seek after God put on the whole armor of God seek after God day by day to strengthen your faith to be a soldier a good soldier of Jesus

[41:38] Christ and endure hardness because we want to please him who has called us he's chosen us you've been selected into God's army there's a there's a sense of that of course not meaning to stray into questionable doctrines but there is the sense that he has chosen us to be a soldier and that's what a privilege isn't it that's a privilege not everyone gets gets that same blessing that you have tonight to be chosen to be a soldier let's pray Lord God we thank you Lord we say this reverently Lord that you are our great and high chief commanding officer and Lord we want to be soldiers under your command reporting for duty ready for battle help us Lord to be steeled to face the fight whatever lies ahead to fight the good fight of the faith to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints

[42:42] Lord help us to be prepared and Lord equip us empower us fill us with your spirit clothe us with your special armour the armour of light that we might be clothed even with your righteousness that we might be armed for this spiritual battle so we can see others saved from the enemy's camp as it were as we go behind enemy lines as it were and reach out to those that are still in darkness and Lord by your grace we might point them to the light and lead others to know you to sign up and to be enlisted into this great army of God Lord help us to be a people that love one another and walk in your spirit and to be soldiers that you will be pleased with Lord that will please you our commanding officer that will please you the great captain of our salvation we pray if there's any here or listening that know you're not that they will say yes Lord

[43:50] I want to follow you I want to receive your gift of eternal life I want to know you as my Lord and master that that might be their decision tonight too in Jesus name we pray amen