0:00 All right, since we didn't do the memory verse yet, let's bring that up and maybe we'll start there. We can say it together. All right, let's say it together. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the 0:18 schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6 verse 11. You can keep it up. So, I'm going to start with this verse. Um, we're encouraged to put on the full armor of God. And who do we fight? We fight, we don't fight. The next verse 0:36 says, we don't fight. Ephesians 6:12, the very next verse says, we don't fight against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the devil himself, against the schemes of the devil. So, we don't wage war against 0:48 people. We don't pass judgment on people. That's not whom we put this armor against. It's against the devil. But it's also I was sharing this in the Friday group. We take this sword and we actually have a different enemy to fight 1:01 as well. I'll just briefly mention that which is what it says in Hebrews 4:12. You don't need to turn there. Which says the sword of the spirit, the living word of God is sharper than a double-edged sword and is meant to attack who? Is 1:14 meant to attack me. It's meant to attack me to separate within me the soloulish from the spiritual. And that's a little bit of what we heard from brother Jeremy last week is that there are things that come into our mind. Feelings, attitudes 1:30 of judgment, um attitudes of self-pity, uh outbursts of anger, all all of these things. These are just emotional highs and lows, mood swings. This is where the double-edged sword of God needs to come in and pierce me. And that's the second 1:46 enemy that I need to fight is the one inside me. And I need to use the sword of the spirit uh against that as well. But I want to talk today uh about something a little bit different. I want to this memory verse was a reference by Paul to an Old 2:03 Testament passage. Many of you may not know it. There's actually an armor of God in the Old Testament that talks about and it talks about a person who put on this armor of God. And so I want to turn there to look at that first, 2:15 which is Isaiah chapter 59, which is where Paul is referring that uh this to. And you can bring the memory vers down. The first person whom it prophesies about putting on the armor of God was Jesus Christ. That's who it 2:31 prophetically talked about. But it's not the reason you think that he put on the armor of God that he was asked to put on the armor of God. If you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 59 and I'll start in verse 10 where it says 2:43 this is the state that we many of us might see ourselves in in our lives. Verse 10 says, "We grope along the walls like blind blind men. We grope like those who have no eyes. We stumble at midday." That means there's a bright light, but we're blind. 3:01 As in the twilight among those who are vigorous, we are like dead men. And then it talks more about how we are stuck in our own sin. In verse 16, if we move on to verse 16, it says, "And he saw that there was," this is God saying 3:18 there was no man and he was astonished that there was no one to intercede and then his own arm. This is a picture of Jesus Christ. God sent his own son. His own arm brought salvation to him and his righteousness upheld him. And here's 3:35 the picture of the the Jesus putting on the armor. He put on his righteousness like a breastplate. Verse 17, and a helmet of salvation on his head. Isn't that the same thing we read in Ephesians 6, the helmet of salvation, the 3:48 breastplate of righteousness? And the picture here is like the previous verse says in verse 16, it's he could find no one to intercede. And so we see here that Jesus took on this armor to intercede for us. And I want to talk about that a little 4:08 bit today. We we are called to follow Jesus's example to have the same interceding love for our brothers and sisters as he did. And in a way, we're called to put on the armor. In a way, we're called to be armor bearers. In the 4:22 days of old, they had this concept of armor bearers, right? The king uh or the prince or the man of war would have like his caddy on the side. Doesn't get much credit, but all he's doing is is carrying the armor. for the man of God, for for the king, 4:40 for the prince, for the warrior, and equipping him and interceding for him, equipping him in the time of war. We can think about this as husbands and wives. We have many of us struggling in our relationship with our spouse, 4:56 struggling in our relationship with children, struggling in our relationships with others brothers and sisters in the church, or seeing other brothers and sisters fighting battles. What must be our what what must be our response to that? It's 5:10 meant to be one of interceding love. It's meant to be one of being an armor bearer for our spouse. Of being an armor bearer interceding for our brother and sister that's struggling for being an armor bearer for our child who's 5:25 struggling. And that's what it says about Jesus. Hebrews 7:25 says he lives to make intercession for us. That's all he does. He lives to always make intercession for us. Is that the purpose of your life today? that you live. The 5:36 reason you live, the reason you live is not to make a lot of money, not to uh be gifted, not even to just overcome a bunch of sins, but to live to make intercession for others. That's the calling that Jesus Christ had. That's 5:50 the calling that we must have. And this is Jesus's calling to husbands and wives as well. It says in Ephesians 5 that husbands must love their wives and lay down their wives as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the 6:05 church? Christ loved the church by being an intercessor by taking being an armor bearer as we read in Isaiah 59. To lay down his life for the church so you may sanctify her. That's what it says in Ephesians 5. And present her 6:21 without spot and blemish. Do you have that desire today as you intercede for your spouse? as do you intercede for your brother and sister that not only is there no sin there is no spiritual spot or blemish cancer of course intolerable 6:38 you know or some kind of lung disease intolerable but spot or blemish the Lord does not even want that he wants you to intercede on behalf of the spiritual spot and blemish that your children might have that your wife might have 6:50 that your husband might have so I want to share today about three marks of interceding love that we can have for the ones we're interceding for. The first one is, and this is our response. I'll speak it as if I'm responding to 7:06 the one I'm interceding for. The first one is, I will be committed to you 100%. Your battle is my battle. Your weakness is my weakness. I will be committed to you 100%. Your battle is my battle. Your weakness is my weakness. And I want to 7:21 turn to a story in 1st Samuel chapter 14. It's a beautiful story of a warrior and an armor bearer. It's an interesting story about an armor bearer. Many of you may not have ever seen the story before. So, we'll read through a little bit of 7:38 it. 1st Samuel chapter 14. Now the day came that Jonathan the son of Saul first verse said to the young man who was carrying his armor, his armor bearer, come and let us cross over to the Philistines garrison that is on the 7:51 other side. But he did not tell his father. And then if you proceed down to verse four, Jonathan's here going with his armor bearer and uh trying to attack the Philistine camp. Between the passes, verse four, between the passes by which 8:06 Jonathan sought to cross over to the Philistines garrison, there was a sharp crag on one side and a sharp crag on the other side. And then Jonathan said to the young man who was carrying his armor, "Come and let us cross over to the garrison of 8:21 these uncircumcised. Perhaps the Lord will be with us." And you can see there's a difficult journey over here. It's not just just walking into the Philistine camp. He's literally I want to picture it of two rocks sticking out 8:32 and a cliff in between. And he's carrying with all of this heavy armor. He and his armor bearer are jumping over from one side to the other side. That itself is a challenge all for the purpose of attacking this enemy. And he says here verse 6, "Perhaps the 8:48 Lord will be with us. For the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few." Well, stop there and just meditate on that. Whatever battle you're going through today, the Lord is not restrained to save you by the strength 9:05 or the the strength you have or the friends you have, the number of brothers and sisters in the church, the size of this church, whether your husband is on your side or whether your children are on your side. He is not restrained by 9:15 that. The Lord can win a victory even with a few. And here's the part which I want to talk about which is the alma bearer's response. And I'll read it from the New Living Translation. This is what the armor bearer responds to in verse 7. He 9:29 says, "Do what you think is best. I am with you completely whatever you decide." It's a great picture for us as intercessors. Wives, think about this. Is this your response to your husband? When you see a husband going through a battle, not not 9:48 going not walking into sin, but he's going into a spiritual battle. Are you sewing a seed of doubt? Or do you have the response of this harm bearer that says, "Do what you think is best. I'm with you completely. Whatever 10:01 you decide, brothers and sisters, as you look at the spiritual authority in your church, the elders going into battle in a particular area, do you have this response of the armor bearer, of the one that's interceding on in prayer on behalf and 10:17 this is a mark of an intercessor, the armor bearer interceding, putting on the armor on behalf of your elders to say, "Do what you think is best. I'm with you completely, whatever you decide. Verse 13 and 14. Jonathan climbed up on his hands and feet with 10:34 his armor bearer behind him. You can see this picture of this armor bearer just no name. His name is not even mentioned in the Bible, but he's just behind him. He's like, I'm here. I'm here to fight your battle with you. You can get the 10:44 glory for the b battle, but I'm here right here behind you to fight your battle with you. And they fell before Jonathan and his armor bearer put some to death. That first slaughter which Jonathan h and his armor bearer made was 10:56 about 20 men. It says first slaughter because it it's an indication that there were many more after that. But it just tells you it was a small victory. We read many stories of thousands being killed by Gideon and others. But here's 11:07 Jonathan and one man crossing over and taking care of a small battle, taking care of 20 people. And this is the attitude we must have as we see the small battles that our brothers and sisters are going through. as you might 11:20 see what your husband is going through or what your wife is going through rather than having a spirit of accusation or a spirit of doubt or a spirit of suspicion or a spirit of like fear. That's too dangerous a situation 11:31 for me. No, let's not go there. That's that's I don't feel comfortable with that. That's a that's that's too that's taking too much of a risk for us to go down that path or to make that decision. But if you have this spirit of 11:47 submission that the yama bear has which says I trust you. My trust is in you. I will I see this battle that you're in. I know it's a difficult battle and I am completely with you. You decide what what is best and I'm going to be 12:01 nameless and I'm going to fight this battle with you. And it's a beautiful picture of one that intercedes that says, "Your battle is my battle and I am going to fight this battle alongside with you." We read in Matthew 7 about 12:18 uh how Jesus talks about how we're not supposed to judge others. We're not supposed to look judge not others lest we be judged. And he uses this parable of a log and a speck. You look at the speck in your brother's eye or in your wife's eye or in your 12:33 husband's eye and you want to take it out, but you have a log in your own eye. That log is a picture of a spirit of accusation that some of us might have towards our spouses, towards our children, towards our parents, towards 12:48 another brother in the church, towards an elder in the church, towards somebody who's no longer in the church. Again, a spirit of accusation. And the Lord is saying, I want to remove that log. Remove that log. I will help you remove 13:00 that log. Don't have that spirit of accusation anymore. But is that the end of the parable? No, it's not. And many of us think that's the end of the parable. We stop there and say, I don't want to have a spirit of accusation 13:13 towards my wife. I don't want to have a spirit of accusation towards my brother and sister. No. It goes on to say, then you will see clearly to take out the speck from your brother's eye. So the goal is not to leave the speck in your 13:27 wife's eye, in your wife's eye, or in your husband's eye or in your brothers and sister's eye. The goal is once I am rid of the log of accusation and I don't have an accusatory attitude towards my brother and sister that I embrace their 13:41 speck like it is my speck. Their speck in their eye is bothering me like it's a speck in my eye. Their weakness is my weakness. Their battle is my battle. And I'm going to say, "Hey, I'm 100% with you on this. I see that you are battling 13:55 this. I'm united with you in this. And I it's our weakness. Let us lay off this encumbrance and let us run together." The word us, not you. I'm not pointing the finger at you. Let us I share in this weakness with you. We're a team. 14:12 Let's lay off this encumbrance. Let's get rid of our speck or our log, whatever it might be. We're in it together. And that's the picture that the Lord has of intercession. The first mark of intercession. We often hear this 14:29 verse which is often sometimes misqued which say in 1 Peter 4:8 which says love covers a multitude of sins. And it sounds very you know sounds very uh beneficial to the person whose sin is just being ignored. Love covers a 14:44 multitude of sins. Let's just ignore the sin. But it's actually a misquing of that scripture. And the way the Lord spoke to me was with another passage which talks about covering a multitude of sins. And that's in James 5:20. James 14:57 5:20 talks about covering a multitude of sins. And this is what it says there. Let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. So now if I took take 15:16 these two verses together love covers a multitude of sins. What is the evidence of that love? It's not an earthly definition of love. Yes, I love in one Corinthians 13 he says I don't take account of any wrong that's done to 15:29 me. I don't take account of it. I don't get offended at it. But true love brother Jeremy has often defined love as a longing of values eternal. L O V E. It's a great definition. I long for an eternal value in you. It's not a human 15:47 love that's feel-good and is a pity party for you. I long for the eternal value in you. And what is the sign of that love? How will my love cover a multitude of sins? I'm not going to publish your fault. I'm not going to 15:59 humili I'm not going to humiliate you. I'm not going to let the world know uh about your faults. But I am going to turn I am going to urgently be in the battle with you to turn you from the error of your way. Turn us because it's my fault too if it's your 16:15 fault. So that I can cover a multitude of sins. And that's a picture we have. Share one other verse in this context which was in in Jude chapter Jude chap uh Jude Jude verse 20. Jude just has one chapter. Jude uh verse I'll 16:32 start in verse 20. Jude 20 says, "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting actually for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ." So we pray waiting anxiously 16:46 for the Lord's mercy and in response to the Lord having mercy to us. Verse 22, have mercy on some who are doubting. If you see a brother or sister doubting, if you see your wife doubting, if you see your husband doubting, have mercy first. 16:58 Let your mercy triumph over judgment. save others. Verse 23, snatching them out of the fire and and some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the by the flesh. Or as the NLT says it in verse 23, rescue others 17:16 by snatching them from the flames of judgment. Show mercy to still others, but do so with great caution, hating the sin that contaminates that flesh. And that's the attitude we must have is a merciful attitude but at the 17:30 same time say Lord I want to be cautious that spending time with that person that that if that person has an accusatory or accusatory attitude uh or a complaining attitude or a gossiping attitude or I don't want to that to pervert me or to 17:47 corrupt me but I will intercede and I will have mercy. I will never stop having mercy and I the desire of my heart is to save that person out of the fire. The second mark of interceding love is I will talk less and I will cry out in 18:06 prayer earnestly for the person I'm interceding for. I will talk less and I'll cry out to the Lord earnestly. Do you know that there's a verse in 1 Peter chapter 3:1 which says, "Wives ought to submit to their husbands." And 18:22 this is about unbelieving husbands, but this could be about husbands who are sinning in some way. Wives, submit to your husbands, and let them see your chasteed and respectful behavior and without even a word, they will be saved. Your disobedient 18:39 husbands will be saved. That's a powerful verse, which means there is a submissive, silent evangelism that is more powerful than me trying to convince you that you're wrong. That you can watch my life. And this verse is not just for wives, by the way. 18:58 The reason I say that is the first verse says, "Therefore, wives be submissive to husbands." Which means in the same manner, it says in the same manner. Who's it talking about? A few verses earlier, it talks about Jesus, who's a 19:08 man, not a wife. Jesus who uttered no threats when he was reviled but kept entrusting himself to the father. That's what it says at the end of one one Peter 2. So this is an example for me as a brother or for me as a husband as well 19:21 that I through my silent evangelism through my chasteed behavior can impact my wife, impact my brother and sister and they will be turned to the Lord just by watching me. It's a powerful verse 19:38 and just going back to Ephesians 6 for a second. This passage which talks about putting on the full armor of God. It's interesting to see we won't turn there for a second. I'll just share this verse with you. Right after you put on the 19:50 full armor of God, the very next verse says if and one of the brothers was sharing this in the Friday meeting which I thought was really powerful. Ephesians 6:18. Right after you put on the full armor of God, it says with all prayer 20:01 and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. Which means I need right after put on the full armor of God, I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit for what purpose? To pray and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for 20:14 all the saints. So which means one of the biggest callings for me to put on this armor of Christ is actually to pray and petition for all the saints. Saints sounds like a glorious word. The first saint I need to pray for is the one in 20:28 my own home or the five in my own home that the Lord is called to be saints. Those are the ones I need to petition for. And then the brothers and sisters in the church, turn with me to Isaiah chapter 62 where I show you this picture of 20:45 interceding in prayer for your spouse, for your children, for your brother or sister in the church that's struggling. Isaiah 62:1 says, "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent." Replace. Think about just 21:03 putting Zion. Isaiah is talking here about Zion, but you can think of this as put in your wife's name here or your husband's name here or your children's name here or the brother and sister that you're interceding for. For this 21:15 person's name, for their sake, I will not keep silent. And for their sake, I will not keep quiet until her righteousness or his righteousness goes forth like brightness and her salvation like a torch that is burning. That's the 21:30 attitude that we must have in interceding love that I am not going to keep silent. I'm going to I'm not going to talk as much, but I'm going to talk to the Lord and I'm not going to keep silent and say, "Lord, I am praying 21:42 constantly for this person's righteousness to go forth like brightness, regardless of the situation they're in right now, regardless of how defeated they may be right now, that their salvation would be like a torch that is burning." And verse six, 21:56 on your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen all day and all night. Think of this. If you're a father or a mother or a brother in the church, all of you can be watchmen for this church. All of you can be watchmen for 22:08 your family. On your walls, I have appointed watchmen. God has appointed you as a watchman if you so take choose to take on that responsibility. What is the responsibility of the watchman? Not very glamorous, no credit, nameless like 22:23 Jonathan's armor bearer. All day and night. This is your job as if you want to have a great ministry in this church, be a the ministry of a watchman or great ministry in your family as a ministry of your watchman. Here's your 22:33 responsibility all day and all night. Never keep silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves until give God no rest. Take no rest for yourselves and give God no rest until he establishes the person you're interceding for 22:50 as a praise on the earth until their righteousness goes forth in glory. And this is the attitude all of us can be called to be watchmen intercessors in prayer. Pray without ceasing without um it says about Samuel that when the 23:08 people appointed wanted to have a king and then Samuel pointed out their sin that they wanted to have a king. And he said to them, and they asked him, "Would you please pray for us?" And Samuel says something powerful to them. And he says 23:19 to them, "Far be it from me that I should ever stop praying for you, lest I sin against God." What a perspective to say that the moment I stop praying for you, I'm sinning against God. Cuz God has commanded me to be a watchman for 23:33 you. Commanded me to be a prayer warrior for you. So the moment I stop doing that and I am sinning against God, that's the attitude Samuel had. old covenant person, prophet without the Holy Spirit had that perspective of how he wanted 23:48 and he continued that all the way to the end of his life. It says that when Saul rebelled and when Saul had pride creep in and God removed the anointing from Saul, it says that Samuel grieved for him. And it says one thing at the end of 24:04 1 Samuel 15, I believe it is, uh uh where the anointing has left Saul. It says the last verse of that says Samuel never saw Saul again but he never stopped grieving for him. He never stopped grieving for him. And that's the 24:19 attitude of a watchman or an intercessor regardless of even whether you're meeting the person. Maybe you be scared to meet because you don't want your you don't want to be corrupted like I mentioned earlier but never stop 24:30 interceding. Never stop grieving. Never stop having mercy. Let your mercy triumph over judgment. The last mark of interceding love is I will declare the promise of righteousness over you. I will declare the promise of righteousness over you at the first sign 24:49 of your repentance. And I want to read this great uh illustration from Zechariah chapter 3, which is a picture of Zachariah interceding on behalf of his brother. Zechariah 3 25:12 verse one says he he showed me he showed Zechariah Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And it's clear that Joshua was in some kind of sin over here. This 25:21 is a man of God, high priest of God was in some kind of sin. The Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you." Satan was right there accusing. Satan was there putting logs in people's eyes to accuse. And the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord 25:34 rebuke you. Satan indeed the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand pluck from the fire? This person who's burning up in the fire?" Just like that verse we read in Jude 23. I intend to snatch them out of the fire 25:46 and take them out and res rescue them. Is this not a brand plucked out of the fire? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy filthy garments. This is a picture of his own righteousness or his own sin that's corrupting him standing before 25:59 the angel. And he spoke to those who were standing before him saying remove the filthy garments from him. This is God's promise of righteousness. And he said again, he said to him, "See, I've taken your iniquity away from you and 26:11 will clothe you with festal robes." This is what the prodigal father did to the prodigal son. The moment he saw a sign of repentance, he ran out to meet him. The moment he saw that first sign of repentance, he ran out to meet him and 26:21 said, "I'm going to clothe you with my robes. Put up put my ring on you. Put my sandals on you." And then I said, this is Zachariah saying verse five, not only put a robe on him, put a crown on his head, put a clean turban on his head. 26:35 And that's the attitude that I must have as an intercessor to say as I see the Lord promising righteousness at the first sign of repentance of my brother. I don't want to say okay that's a start. Okay. Now you've got a long way to go 26:48 from here. No. The Lord has said you are declared you righteous. I'm going to add to that righteousness and I'm going to put a crown on you. And that's the attitude of the intercessor. Let me show you really quick in closing 27:02 God's definition of a righteous person. I'll just read two verses. We don't need to turn there. Uh this is how would you define a righteous person? If you would ask, what is the definition of a righteous person? Is a righteous person 27:16 somebody who's walked with God 10 years without sinning, 20 years, maybe 30 years. At what point do you get called righteous? This is the Lord's definition of righteous. Just a couple of examples. Proverbs 24:16, "The righteous man falls seven times and 27:33 rises again." How does the Lord define righteous? Not how many times you fell. The sign that you rose up, how many times you rise up, how fast you rise up. And if the Lord, if you're looking, if you're a brother or sister who's 27:49 condemned about how many times you you're defeated, falling into the same sin, and again and again, rise up, bounce back up. and the Lord declares you righteous. But now as a spouse or as a brother or sister looking at somebody 28:02 who's in the church who's falling again and again in the same area, what do I do when I see them repent? Even they may have fallen seven times. I'm going to have the attitude of the Lord and say, "Lord, you've called them righteous. I'm 28:14 declaring them righteous too." Put a terminal on their head. The second verse Psalms 34:17 which says the righteous cry and the Lord hears and delivers them. So what is the two marks of a righteous 28:28 person? It's not sinless streak. It is bouncing back up when they sin and the next day crying out to the Lord to save them from falling into that same sin again or to save them so that they can be an overcomer. 28:47 So if the Lord measures righteousness just by me bouncing up today and me crying out tomorrow, if you see that same attitude in your brother or sister or in your spouse that is saying, "I want to bounce back up and I want to 28:59 cry." Declare righteousness over them. This is the mark of interceding love. So I pray that all of us may take on this great responsibility to be watchmen to be armor bearers to take on the fight to share in the battle with our brothers 29:15 and sisters with our spouses with our children to be ones that declare righteousness when we see the first shrine of repentance. May this be true about our families. May this be true about our marriages. May this be true 29:28 about our church. Amen.
