[0:00] If the Lord enables us, I'd like to look at verses you'll find in that chapter that we read, Ephesians chapter 6, and we can read again at the 10th verse. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 10.
[0:21] Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, or the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
[0:39] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
[0:57] Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand for him.
[1:09] Especially these words in the 10th verse. Yes, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength or in the power of his might.
[1:20] Now, I believe that statement is full of significance to the Christian.
[1:30] And it also ought to be, for the Christian, a great help in these days of great uncertainty. As we look at the state of the nation, as we look at the state of our churches, and as we see, as many would tell us, that there are less and less people coming under the sound of the gospel than for many years.
[1:56] When we look at these things, sometimes as Christians, we can very often be confused. And very often, we can feel very dissatisfied.
[2:13] And we lose heart sometimes. Now, there was a time when, I suppose you could also say, that living in these days as Christians, it is possibly more difficult than it has been before, or for many generations before.
[2:34] I remember growing up as a young lad, going to Bernadette, to my grandfather's, and to Point, and our own home, in fact. And really, these homes seem to be very safe places.
[2:48] The world didn't seem to be in our homes. But as we look at our homes today, we're invaded by the media. We have radio, television, the internet, and other media coming into our homes.
[3:05] And that, I believe, makes the fight of faith for the Christian very difficult in these days. And what the apostle is calling us to in these days is to battle.
[3:20] We are in a warfare as the Lord's people. We're not told in scripture that being a Christian, life is easy.
[3:31] Now, you might watch the television and watch the God channels, and there may well be some of these channels which give a false gospel and say, come to Jesus, and things will be all right. That is not the truth of the Bible.
[3:45] And sometimes we get depressed when we think of these things. As we read chapters like this, we see that life for the Christian is a life of struggle where we have to wrestle and where we have to fight.
[4:00] And as the Bible tells us here, we are fighting against terrible powers, against terrible principalities and powers.
[4:11] Now, who is sufficient for these things? Well, let us today as Christians thank the Lord that the Bible never hides the truth from us.
[4:24] When we have the Bible in our hands, we have the truth of God's word. And the Bible never ever gives us a false impression of what life is going to be about.
[4:42] The Bible is realistic. And we ought to thank God for that. We are not, as Christians, promised a life of ease. But the Lord shows us clearly in his word that as the Lord's people, we can triumph.
[4:58] Not only can we be conquerors, but we can be more than conquerors. That's what the Bible says. So the apostle here in this chapter just tells us, gives us some idea of what the enemy is about here.
[5:16] And you know, as a soldier, it is important when we're going into battle to get as much information about the enemy as we can. And we know the more information we get, the more able we are to defeat that enemy.
[5:30] But we always remember that that information is only half the battle. And the apostle here has given us information about the enemy. And it's important that we gather that information.
[5:43] But remember, it is only half the battle. To be forewarned is important. But let us remember it is only half the battle. And if we left it at that, we'd soon get depressed.
[5:56] But the apostle here is showing us in his own characteristic manner what the problem is and what the answer to that problem is. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
[6:08] Put on the whole armor of God. In order that, then he tells us the problem. And that we should thank God for. Christian people can rejoice in the midst of the difficulties because victory for the Christian is assured.
[6:27] We can face this struggle, this warfare, with the two things that are mentioned here in the text before us. First of all, we are told that we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
[6:42] And secondly, we are told that we are to put on the whole armor of God. Now the two of these issues are important. But let us remember that we are not to put the cart before the horse.
[6:55] Sometimes we are guilty of doing that by putting on the armor first and then being strong. I believe there is a significance in the way the apostle lays this out. Not the armor first and then be strong.
[7:07] But the other way around. We need to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And that is what I really want to look at very briefly this morning. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.
[7:19] I mean as a soldier every day, every day soldiers are given what is called part one orders or routine orders. I know there are a few soldiers here. And every day you read these orders because these are the orders from the commanding officer to the soldier.
[7:36] And disobey these orders at your peril. And here in a sense or looks to me in a way that the apostle Paul the great leader of the church is here. He is giving out an order of the day.
[7:49] And he is telling the churches take care. He is saying hold on to this principle. This is an important principle. Don't lose sight of it. Here is a great guiding controlling principle for you as you live your Christian life from day to day.
[8:03] But what does it mean? What does this mean in practice? What is the true application we have here? Well I think the first thing we need to realize as Christians is that out there there is a great power.
[8:17] The enemy is a powerful enemy. And we need to realize that. And we are never to underestimate the power of the enemy that is out there. Our enemy as the apostle tells us is very powerful.
[8:30] He is full of wiles. He is subtle. In fact he can transform himself into an angel of light. And my friends we are living in evil days. These are evil days.
[8:42] The Lord has chosen us to be his representatives. And we must be able to fight against this evil that is so prevalent in our lives.
[8:53] There is much confusion around. But let us thank God that the truth is here for us in the Bible to direct us as how we are able to fight against the wiles of the devil.
[9:03] We need not stand alone. We are a mighty army. And united we can be a powerful force against the evil one because he is already defeated.
[9:17] Sometimes we are concerned because of personal failure. But my friends that is not why we should be concerned. We need to be concerned because as Christians the world are looking onto us.
[9:31] And they are looking to see what we are doing. And we need to be faithful to God. It is an alarming thought my friends that as Christians the reputation of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit rests upon us in a way and failure to live a holy life is to let our Lord down.
[9:51] We will bring his name into disrepute. We are not isolated individuals either. We are an army who are marching forward with banners.
[10:03] In fact we are told here that we are ambassadors for Christ. Here we are strangers in this country. This is not our home. Our home is heaven as Christians. And we are ambassadors while we are here.
[10:14] Or we ought to be ambassadors while we are in this world. Showing forth Christ's name. Shining as a bright light. People should see in our lives that we are indeed Christians.
[10:26] Christians. People should notice us. And they should see us as we live our lives from day to day. We are surrounded my friends by the world looking on.
[10:40] I remember when I was a soldier in Northern Ireland. Foolishly some of these young men would want to be in my section. Because when we were out in the streets they thought they would be protected.
[10:52] And the Lord's people should be there as a light for the world to see. And we are as I said a great army with banners.
[11:03] I was very encouraged a number of years ago at a conference in Edinburgh where Errol House a preacher from England was giving a lecture.
[11:14] He had been given a sabbatical to go around the southern hemisphere and to bring back a report on how the churches were growing in that area.
[11:26] He had been to South America, to Africa, to Singapore, to Korea, to China. And how excited he was. He says I've been to prayer meetings where 6,000 plus had been gathering to pray in the morning.
[11:39] I've been to a church in Buenos Aires where there were 1,000 Roman Catholics two years ago and they are now believers in Jesus and they are not going for froth, they are going for the doctrines of grace.
[11:52] What encouragement there was in the report that he brought back from China and Korea. The Lord is working and as we look out we are not isolated individuals in this world. We are members of a mighty, mighty army and we are victors in this army.
[12:12] My friends, these are reasons why we need to be strong in the Lord. In the second place we need to realize our weakness and our need of help.
[12:22] we as individuals are very weak. And I think that's the preposition that the apostle is telling us here. He's not only concerned about the power of the enemy but he's also concerned to remind us that we as individuals are also weak creatures.
[12:38] And there is ample evidence of that surely in scripture. All we need to do is go back to Genesis and to the garden of Eden and there we see in that garden Adam in perfect fellowship with God.
[12:50] Not knowing what sin was. In perfect fellowship and communion with God. And yet when we read the story he fell so easily.
[13:03] Oh my friend when the devil launches an attack what is man? Even perfect man in fellowship and communion with God in that garden.
[13:16] And all we have to do of course is look in the Old Testament and see the many examples there of kings, of prophets, of priests who themselves fell. Who were unable to stand against the onslaughts of the evil one.
[13:32] My friends the universal testimony as we read biographies and autobiographies is that the greatest saints throughout the centuries always spoke of the difficulty of their Christian walk.
[13:46] one of the hallmarks of true saints is that they never ever give the impression that the Christian life is easy. The greatest saints testify of the fierceness of the battle.
[14:00] So if you're a Christian here today who feels that you are strong in the Lord, can I ask you why do you continue to fail? Why do you continue to fail?
[14:12] Why are you so often in the place of repentance? Why are you so often attacked? Why do you feel so utterly hopeless? Why are you sometimes in almost despair? Surely it's due to the fact that you're insufficient.
[14:24] That you're fallible as an individual. Perhaps one of the reasons is that we fail to study and analyze texts like we have here.
[14:35] It is important that we examine ourselves and we examine ourselves in the light of God's word. But we've got to be careful. when we are examining ourselves that it is in the light of God's word that we're examining ourselves.
[14:48] Because by looking inwards and looking inwards to ourselves we see the filth and the dirt that is there. But when we look to Christ and what Christ has done for us then that lifts us out of that darkness.
[15:01] My friends we're fighting a battle and of ourselves we're incapable of winning but we are able to win in Christ. Christ. The arm of flesh will fail you and we dare not stand alone.
[15:17] We need to be in fellowship and communion with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And that brings us to the third principle that is here before us. And that is to realize that the name of God, the name of Christ, the name of the Lord is a strong tower.
[15:31] His very name is strong. What a privilege it is for you and I to be called Christians. To have the name of Christ upon us.
[15:46] If you're a born again Christian today, if you're a Christian you need to be born again. Because that is the term, that is what a Christian is. He is a new creation in Christ Jesus. And if he's a new creation in Christ Jesus, he is in an amazing position of union with Christ.
[16:06] Listen to the words of the text. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Being strong in the Lord is realizing where that strength really is.
[16:23] And as we read the Bible, we read these words, in him, in Christ, dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
[16:34] In him, God has hid the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They're all there in Christ. And for us to be strong in the Lord, my friends, is to meditate upon our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
[16:50] And remind ourselves of all the things that are true of Christ. we should read the scriptures.
[17:01] And we should read the scriptures in order to learn as much as we can about our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Are you, sometimes like me, guilty when coming to read the Bible, perhaps hopefully in the morning and in the evening, and in any other time of the day we get the opportunity?
[17:25] Do we read it just to pacify our conscience? Do we read it because that's the practice that we've had over the years? Or do we prayerfully read it, meditating upon it, and asking questions prayerfully as to what God is saying to us in his word?
[17:45] My friends, that's what reading the Bible means. It's not a case of opening the Bible and reading the words that are there in front of us, and then pacifying your conscience to rush to the bus.
[18:00] No. We must stop and think and pray and ask God to speak to us to his word. Oh, my friends, we all know as the Lord's people how precious it is when the Bible really speaks to you.
[18:16] And your heart melts in wonder, in awe, at the majesty of our God. I believe it's important that we read the Gospels often.
[18:30] Why do I say that? Well, by reading the Gospels often, we're reading about Jesus in our nature, in this world, where he had to suffer in this world.
[18:43] He knew tiredness, he knew disappointment, he knew hunger, he knew where it was to be let down by his own people. He's gone through it all on our behalf, never failing, never faltering.
[18:57] He stood with the world and the devil, and things were against him, yet he stood. And when we read his miracles especially, how encouraging that can be to us when we see how he defeated the devil.
[19:12] These evil spirits came to him and said to him, we know that you are the holy one of God. But we must go further because we also see our Savior in the wilderness.
[19:26] They are not tempted by some emissary from the devil, but tempted by the devil himself. For 40 days and 40 nights. And what advice is there for you and I as Christians?
[19:38] When he defeats the devil, where does he take them? To God's word. word. And that's where we must be. And we must have a passion for the word of God. James reminds us of the power that's available to us as the Lord's people.
[19:57] Resist the devil and what? He will flee from you. That's the way it works out. In him, in Christ, dwells the fullness of the Godhead body.
[20:10] He is both God and man in two distinct natures and he cannot fail. And he demonstrates his power again on the cross and in his resurrection.
[20:23] The devil thought he had his day when Jesus was on the cross. But as we read in Colossians 2.15, he put them to open shame, triumphing over them in it. He appears to be dying in weakness.
[20:37] But what do we see? We see the inherent strength. of the Lord. The Godhead vanquishing the devil and setting his people free.
[20:48] What salvation is ours, my friends? Then as we look at the resurrection, where Jesus bursts out of that grave and triumphs and ascends up to the right hand of the majesty on high, where he is at this very moment, as we worship here this morning, making continual intercession for us.
[21:07] God's love for us. He is in heaven, leading captivity, captive. What a savior. What a message we have as the Lord's people to tell others of the glorious good news of the gospel.
[21:20] And we can know this power in our lives, but we cannot know it until we know Jesus himself and until we have that close relationship with our savior.
[21:32] Oh, my friend, as a Christian, is your passion to read the word of God prayerfully? Is it your passion to tell people about Jesus?
[21:48] Or are you reluctant to do so? Is the prayer meeting a burden for you? Is the prayer meeting the place where you long to be? My friends, it is little wonder that we see little blessing in our churches in these days.
[22:05] When the prayer meeting in our churches is the worst attended meeting. I have a privilege working for the organization that I work for, of going into many denominations and different churches.
[22:21] And it saddens me when the minister turns around and tells me, listen, I cannot invite you during the week because there are so few coming to our prayer meeting. How sad. There should be as many in the prayer meeting as there is in church on Sabbath morning and Sabbath evening.
[22:38] Because, as Spurgeon said, it is the engine room that drives the church of Christ. Oh, my friends, it is little wonder that our churches are empty.
[22:50] When you go to the southern, when Errol Hulse came back, he says, I've never met prayer, I've never seen prayer like that. It is little wonder that the southern hemisphere are reaping the benefits of their prayer meetings.
[23:04] And I can assure you that one of the things that humbles me in this work that I'm involved in is the fact that I meet many people up and down the country who are praying fervently for us as an organization.
[23:18] And that encourages me greatly. They know us by name although we've never met them before. And I would cover today your prayers for this amazing work that we are involved in.
[23:30] We have the ability today, we have the freedom to go into all the army and RAF stations, virtually all of them, to tell people in our armed services the most important message there is to tell anybody.
[23:48] And that is that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners such as we are. My friend, are you a Christian here today? Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ? My friends, that is the most important relationship that you need to have today.
[24:04] You need to know Jesus. If you want to spend eternity with Christ, you need to know now. And now is the day of salvation. And I would urge you, as I urge our soldiers, to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.
[24:19] He is willing. Not only is he willing to save, he is able to save to the uttermost. And I plead with you to flee to Christ. That's our message. As evangelists to our forces.
[24:31] But not only are we evangelists to our forces, we're also there to build them up in their faith. And that is also an important aspect of their ministry. And I'm thankful because I spent 30 years as a Christian in the forces.
[24:43] And I'm thankful to Sazra for the many blessings that I received in the forces through the scripture readers over the years because we held services on many stations where there was no other gospel message.
[24:57] Tremendous opportunities. I want to tell you some of the things that I would value prayer for today. We are able to do our work in Sazra because we have been given a charter by the government to do the work.
[25:14] Now that charter should have been renewed two years ago. And I was here asking you to pray for that charter two years ago. I ask you again today to pray for it because we still haven't got it.
[25:26] We're living in difficult times in this nation of ours. We have chaplains in the armed services today who are telling us that we are not to say that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation.
[25:42] They are telling us that there are many ways to God. My friend, the Bible is clear. There is one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. And the Muslims, the Hindus and various other organizations are saying to us, you are not to proselytize our people.
[25:59] You are not to tell them that Jesus is the only way of salvation. My friends, there is no other way. And we need to continue to proclaim the gospel and we are not going to compromise. We haven't got our charter.
[26:11] But thankfully, and I believe it's through the prayers of God's people, we still have the opportunity to preach Christ Jesus and him crucified in our camps today. And we need your prayers that that may continue and that our charter would be renewed.
[26:26] It is supposed to be renewed every five years. But our government, sadly, are submitting themselves to political correctness on too many issues. And this is one of them.
[26:37] I would value prayer too for many of our scripture readers. These days are difficult. We've got two scripture readers who are off ill at the moment, one with depression and one with serious illness.
[26:53] And we would value prayer for them. Steve Carter, who's an area representative in the south of England. And also Bob Elliott, who's been put off for three months with depression.
[27:05] He has had a tremendous effect of ministry in this past two years. He's opened up nine camps that had previously been closed to us. And on each of these camps, they are holding meetings.
[27:18] And these meetings are self-sufficient. And he goes and visits them on a regular basis. But sadly, he's overworked himself. And he now is suffering from a depression that's in his family.
[27:31] And we need to be praying for people like Bob Elliott and Steve Carter. So please pray for the scripture readers, because we are under attack from every corner, as many of the Lord's people in the front line or in the coal face are facing difficulties in these days.
[27:48] I would value prayer for the Edinburgh military to two. For the month of August, I have the privilege of running a cafe, a, I suppose you could call it, a way shop, post office.
[28:03] And it's a room probably nearly as big as the church here. And I have four evangelists with me. And what I do is I get home baking from some of our own churches.
[28:16] And I've got a couple of Christians who actually bake for me every day and bring in fresh baking. And that attracts the young men and the young women into this room, where we sit down with them and tell them about Jesus.
[28:27] many have been converted through the mission at the Edinburgh military to two. It's been going on for 29 years. They tried to stop it two years ago by refusing to give me a room.
[28:41] Well, I asked for prayer as I went around the churches. And not only did I get a new room, but I also got a complete building with a big hall and a place where we can have a Bible study and a place where we can have interviews with individuals on a much more personal basis.
[28:59] And the Lord has done that for us. I want to tell you what happened last year at the tattoo so that you can focus your prayers on this year. There are over 1,200 people who come to the tattoo on an annual basis from all over the world.
[29:15] And we have the opportunity of speaking to them and telling them about Jesus. Two years ago, young Danny was converted in the room. He was an obnoxious wee guy who used to annoy Davey Murray, our scripture reader in Edinburgh.
[29:28] Whenever Davey got a few guys around him and started telling him about Jesus, he would come in and he would say, he would try and break up the meeting by really attacking Davey. Well, two years ago he came into our scripture, to our cafe, and he sat down with Davey and he said, Davey, why do you continue to come even though I give you a hard time and tell me about Jesus?
[29:49] You must have an awful great love for your Jesus. Can you tell me a wee bit about him? Well, that afternoon, Davey spent telling Danny about Jesus. Danny came back the following day, I want to know more Davey.
[30:02] That was interesting what you told me yesterday. I want to know more. So he spent the whole afternoon with him the next day. The next morning, he came into the room. And you could see there was a change in Davey's life.
[30:13] He said that last night, Davey, I had to go on my knees and I had to take, I asked the Lord to be my savior. And you know, I feel as if all my burdens have gone. And I wanted to thank you.
[30:25] Well, you know what happened last year? The first person that came into the room was Danny. He says, I want to work with you this year when I'm free. Do you mind if I help you out? I said, Danny, you come and help us out.
[30:37] And we praise the Lord for opportunities like that. I want to tell you two stories about the, about Bibles. Before I go to the Edinburgh Village Tattoo, I spent two weeks at Keswick.
[30:49] I've still got two rooms free at a house party if anybody would like to come. But at the, every Wednesday we have a meeting in Keswick in a congregational church at half past one.
[31:00] And I have four scripture readers again who come and speak and give their testimony. And whilst I was there, I was mentioning at that meeting that we are now responsible for giving Bibles to all our soldiers.
[31:10] Every soldier who joins the army now and the Air Force, we will offer them a Bible. And the take up is about 99.9%. And they're taking Bibles. Please pray that they would read these Bibles and that the word would speak powerfully to them.
[31:25] But during that meeting, there was a man in the audience who phoned me up the following day and he said, Ian, you mentioned that you now give out Bibles. The government no longer supply Bibles. How do you finance that?
[31:36] I said, well, with great difficulty, but the Lord has applied at the moment. He's still supplying your need. He said, well, how many Bibles would you like? Well, I didn't like to be greedy. I didn't know what to say. I said, it's 250, too many.
[31:49] Oh, he says, leave it with me. Anyway, the following week I was up at the tattoo and I got a phone call from the guard room. And they said, the guard commander said, are you Major McDonald?
[31:59] And I said, yes. But, well, there's six boxes here for you. But there must be another Major McDonald in this camp somewhere. No, no. It says, Major McDonald, Sazra. I says, well, I'm not expecting any boxes.
[32:10] Anyway, they're there for you. Come and collect them. They're actually large boxes. So I went down and picked them up with another couple of guys, took them back up and we opened them. And there was a thousand plus Bibles. Not just New Testaments, but Bibles.
[32:24] The Holy Bible, NIVs. So we were able to give out 500 of these Bibles at the tattoo. Tian de Klerk, one of our scripture readers, had been witnessing to the Chinese boys and girls who were there.
[32:39] There was 93 of them. And he said to me, look, I've actually promised these guys Bibles because I thought, you know, you might have Bibles to give them, but they want Chinese Bibles.
[32:50] And I said, well, I haven't got Chinese Bibles. So that night we prayed that the Lord would enable us to get Chinese Bibles somewhere. Anyway, we prayed and I phoned down the man who gave me the Bibles and he said, I'll see what I can do.
[33:02] I can't promise you. Well, he phoned me the next day and he says, I can supply you with 89 Bibles that we have here and they're bilingual. So I was delighted.
[33:14] I did it 93. But anyway, 89 is better than none at all. So the 89 arrived and we prayed that night. Lord, we need 93. You know our needs. Davey Murray went home to the garage that evening and in the garage where he was looking for tracts to take in different languages to the other folk.
[33:34] He found, yep, four Bibles. Chinese Bibles. Not only were the 93 Chinese Bibles Chinese, but there were English and Chinese.
[33:45] You know the way the Gaelic Bibles got English on one side, Gaelic on the other. Chinese on one side, Gaelic on the other. The interpreters were delighted. We can learn English from the Bible.
[33:56] Well, I was hoping they learned more than English from the Bible. That they would learn about Jesus from the Bible. But that wasn't, that's not the end of the story because there was also 60 other guys there from Tobago.
[34:07] A band from Tobago and they said, look, we don't really like the NIV. Do you think you get authorized versions for us? I don't know. I'll try. So I phoned down the Trinitarian Bible Society and I asked them if they had any camouflage because they actually asked for the camouflage Bibles that we received from the other folk.
[34:27] Could we have camouflaged Bibles in the AV? I said, well, I don't know. I'll find out. So when I phoned down, the lady there said to me, well, I can hardly believe what I'm hearing here because we just did a stock check yesterday and lo and behold, we found 500 camouflaged AV Holy Bibles in our store.
[34:48] They've been there for quite some time. Can you use them? Can I use them? You better can use them. So they sent them up and we were able to give these ads 60 of these camouflaged Bibles.
[34:58] But the interesting thing that's happening is that these young men who are coming from the Commonwealth company, we were having difficult recruiting three or four years ago and many of the soldiers who came in were from the Commonwealth.
[35:11] Many of them were Christians and had a huge impact, a sanctifying influence really on our own folk. And we've seen fellowships established in Germany and various other places where they worship in their own style.
[35:26] As you can imagine, the Africans are much more vibrant than we are in our worship and they like to worship in their own style. But in the morning they come to the Garrison Church, then they have their own worship in the afternoon. And that is normally governed by the scripture reader.
[35:38] And it's amazing the blessing that has brought amongst our troops. So please pray for the word as it goes out. The Lord hears and answers prayers.
[35:49] There's no doubt about it. We prayed for these Bibles. The Lord supplied. Please pray for the chaplains who are in Afghanistan at the moment. Remember Colin McLeod. Colin is with the Scots guards at the moment.
[36:02] And we need to be praying for Colin because it's a difficult task. But Colin's doing a great work out there. They're running Christianity Explored. And let me tell you, I know of three young girls who have been converted, not this time around, but in the last tour, who were witnessed to by Meg Atkinson and who are now back from Afghanistan.
[36:21] And as she says herself, you know, they're better witnesses than I am. Praise the Lord for that. One last thing that I would value prayer for, and I promise I'll finish on this. And that is, we've seen all these coffins coming into World Ambassador.
[36:36] And that's hard to see all these young men who are being killed in the line of duty. But rarely do we hear of the many who are injured in Afghanistan. We had the privilege of having General Sir Richard Dannet, before he retired, come to a room in Edinburgh, where he spoke to Ella and I.
[36:57] And he told us about, they had just gone to Sedbe Court and to Hedley Court, to the two military hospitals. And as Pippa, his wife, was saying, I can hardly believe some of the injuries that I saw there.
[37:10] Young men, 19, 20, and up to 40 years of age, with limbs missing. Some with two limbs, some with three limbs missing. But I mean, that was bad enough.
[37:20] But what was worse was the number of people with head injuries. The number of people who had lost their memory. The number of people who had lost their sight. And it was just horrifying to see.
[37:33] And a lot of these young men feel as if they have no hope. And they want to commit suicide. And we need to be able to go in there to tell them that there is hope.
[37:44] Hope's in Christ. She was telling us of one instance where she went into this room, a side ward, and there was a young man there and his mother.
[37:55] Mother in tears. And she recognized them as this young man who was lying on the bed was the best friend of General Sir Richard Dannet's son, who's also an officer in the army.
[38:06] He had just been flown back from Afghanistan. He was unconscious lying on that bed. He had no legs. He had no scrotum. Now the interesting thing is that these young men who are coming back from Afghanistan and women who are so badly injured would not have survived previous conflicts.
[38:25] But those of you who saw the program on television where the surgeons, they are so skilled and there are so many people coming back now with horrendous injuries from the battlefield and they need our prayers.
[38:37] I want you to pray for Paul Leonard who's going into Selby Court or who's hoping to go into Selby Court. The National Health Service at the moment are hindering us from going in because we're an evangelistic group.
[38:50] But he is trained for that kind of ministry. Paul Leonard. And we need Paul to be going in there to give these young men and young women hope. Rodney McLeod from Balallon.
[39:02] He is in Pilbry. And he at the moment is hoping to get into Hedley Court where he hopes to minister twice a week to give these young men and women hope.
[39:17] Now we're more hopeful of getting in there. In fact, Rodney has already been in once. And the likelihood is that he will be allowed to go in. But we need to pray for him because that's a huge responsibility. And we've got to be very careful how we approach these young men and young women.
[39:32] You know, one of the sad statistics that I read recently, that more young men and young women have taken their own lives than were killed in the Falklands conflict who had been in the Falklands.
[39:44] That is a sad, sad statistic. We don't want the same statistic for those who are coming back from Afghanistan. So please pray that Paul Leonard and Rodney McLeod would be given access.
[39:56] Because some of the chaplains who are actually going into these places are not converted men and women, sadly. And we need to pray that they go in there with a message of hope.
[40:07] And the hope we have is in the finished work of Christ. Oh, my friends, if you're not a Christian today, I plead with you to come to Christ. Without Christ, we have no hope.
[40:23] And I would urge you from the very bottom of my heart that you flee to Christ while there is still hope. You see, tomorrow is never promised.
[40:35] Today is the day of salvation. And we need to flee to Christ. And you're never too young to come to Christ and never too old. This is the day of opportunity.
[40:45] Don't let it pass. For Christ's sake. Amen. Our closing psalm is psalm number 84.
[41:01] I apologize for going over the time. Psalm 84. And at verse 8, we can stand to sing the last four verses of this psalm.
[41:15] Psalm 84, page 339. Lord God of hosts, my prayer here. O Jacob's God, give ear. See God, our shield.
[41:27] Look on the face of thine anointed dear. For in thy courts one day excels a thousand. Rather than my God's house will I keep a door. Than dwell in tents of sin.
[41:40] Oh, may that be our prayer as we sing these words this morning. Let us sing to God's praise. Psalm 84 from verse 8. Lord God of hosts, my prayer here.
[41:50] O God of hosts, my prayer here.
[42:04] O take us away. O God of hosts, my prayer here. O God of hosts, my prayer here.
[42:15] O God of hosts, my prayer here.
[42:29] O God of hosts, my prayer here. O God of hosts, my prayer here. O God of hosts, my prayer here.
[42:42] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS
[43:47] CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGS CHOIR SINGSthen you for this opportunity again on your own day to gather together collectively to worship you lord we thank you for being reminded that we are in a battle and that that battle is a raging battle but we thank you that your word is so full of encouragement to us in that battle and we pray that we might be those who would constantly seek strength and help to enable us to be faithful in that battle from your word lord help us to draw near to you for we are promised that if we draw near to you you will draw near to us and we pray that that would be our passion and our longing to be like you lord to shine brightly in a dark world so that people might see that we've been with jesus and that we've been given opportunities to tell people about jesus lord the day is short the time is limited help us to use the time for your glory so bless us now and take away from our memories anything that was not glorifying to you for our desire above everything else is the glory of your name so bless us as we part one from the other now prepare us for the evening worship and we pray that the grace of the lord jesus christ the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all amen