Ephesians: The Holy War - Preach The Word

THE HOLY WAR: THE ARMOUR OF GODPastor David Leggepray-ers; many singers, but few clingers; lots of pastors, but few wrestlers; many fears, but few tears; muchfashion, little passion; many interferers, and few intercessors; many writers, but few fighters' - and I've addedone of my own: a few less preachers on prophecy, and a few more prophets of prayer! We need to be in thebattle now!Bounds said: 'One of the crying evils of these times, maybe of all times, is little or no praying. Of these twoevils, perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying', he says, 'is a kind of make-believe, asalve for the conscience, a farce and a delusion. The little estimate we put on prayer is evident from the littletime we give to it'. Do we pray for a few moments before we run to the bus, or drive to the office, and thinkthat that is prayer? That is not prayer, certainly not the prayer that Paul's talking about here - 'alwayspraying'. There is a danger that the church can get occupied by peripheral things, by its mechanisms, by itsorganisations, even by its preaching - the Pastor can get so engrossed, losing himself in the sermon [somuch] that he loses God in the sermon. There is this great danger, and we must beware that we do not letanything orientate us but God! As one man quipped it: 'When the church paid the place was taken, but in thebook of Acts when they prayed the ground was shaken'.My friends tonight, as we close in this last seven or so minutes let me say this: Sodom's sin in the OldTestament was not the sin of sodomy, homosexuality, but we read in Ezekiel that their sin, 'their iniquity', Iquote, '[was] fullness of bread and abundance of idleness' - well-off and lazy. In the book of the Revelationthe Lord Jesus Christ Himself says to the church at Ephesus: 'Remember therefore from whence thou artfallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thycandlestick out of his place, except thou repent' - what a terrible thing! The hymnwriter put it like this, Ibelieve he was thinking of the same thing, and many of us could bring this from our hearts as a song to God:'What peaceful hours I once enjoyed,How sweet their memory still,But they have left an aching voidThe world can never fill'.Myers, the poet, put it like this, listen:'O stars of heaven that fade and flame,O whispering waves below,Was earth, or heaven, or I, the sameA year, a year ago?The stars have kept their home on high,The waves their wanted flow,But the love is lost that once was IA year, a year ago!'How is our prayer life? How is our love for God which is our prayer book, day by day in the daily life of theassembly, and the daily pilgrimage of the child of God that is in this place at this moment? How is it? Canyou remember the day when you were a fire of prayer? Like Lord Baron could you say:'I now have ashes where once I had fire,The soul in my body is dead.The thing I once loved I now merely admire,My heart is as grey as my head'.48