Pray For God's Protection- Brendan Hurley - 29th March 2026

I reckon. I mean, it's a bit like Cairns in many

ways, but it just has a bit more surf, doesn't

it? Now, Hawaii was also like that early in World

War II. It was a great place for US Navy men

to take some shore leave, great bars, nightlife,

fishing, beaches. It was peaceful and refreshing.

If you got to go to Hawaii, that was a real treat.

Especially because at that point, America hadn't

entered World War II. No one was on high alert.

So many were there and taking it easy, having

a blast. But on December 7th, 1941, everything

changed. That was the Pearl Harbour attack. And

it was so brutal. These people in Hawaii suddenly

are at war. I mean, war was coming with Japan.

They just didn't know it. And all of a sudden,

bang, bang, bang, bombs are raining down on them.

A sleepy Sunday morning. And America, and especially

those in Pearl Harbor, were caught off guard.

Many aircraft and battleships were destroyed.

2 ,400 people were killed. Nearly 1 ,200 people

were wounded. And if only, if only they'd seen

that they were at war, it wouldn't have been

a bloodbath, would it? They would have been ready.

They would have been prepared. They could have

taken precautions. Now, why do I tell you this?

Well, you may not realise it, but every day when

you wake up in Cairns, it's like Pearl Harbour.

Things look calm. Things look relaxing. Things

look peaceful. There's no enemy on the horizon.

Bombs, they're not dropping over your head. There's

no bullets whizzing past you. Maybe, you know,

airsoft rifles and things if you're into that,

but there's no bullets. Just normal everyday

life. Actually, normal everyday life is better

than most, isn't it? And yet, we're living in

a war zone. And if we're not alert or ready to

it, we're vulnerable. Now, what are you talking

about, Brendan? What war zone are we in? Well,

we're at spiritual war. We're in a war for our

souls. A war with a satanic enemy telling lies

to us, trying to tempt us into sin, trying to

draw us away from God. Now you might be thinking,

well, is this war even real? I'm glad you're

here if you are. And you might be thinking, how

do I stay safe in this war? Well, I'm glad you're

here if you are. See, that's what the last petition

of the Lord's Prayer is all about. And that's

what we're going to look at today. Here's the

big thing we see today. We live in a spiritual

war zone, so keep praying for God's protection.

If there's one thing you remember, I hope it's

this today. We live in a spiritual war zone,

so keep praying for God's protection. There's

two things we're going to look at that feed into

that. Firstly, sin leads to eternal death. It's

hard to hear, but it's true. Sin leads to eternal

death. And that's why we need to pray for God's

protection. So let's start by seeing the danger.

Let's look at the first one. to eternal death.

Have a look on the screen at Matthew 18, 7 to

8. It says, Woe to the world for temptations

to sin, for it's necessary that temptations come.

But woe to the one by whom the temptation comes.

And if your hand or your foot causes you to sin,

cut it off and throw it away. It's better for

you to end a life crippled or lame than with

two hands or two feet to be thrown into the eternal

fire. Now talk about graphic, hey? Jesus is saying

you're better off amputating limbs than falling

into sin. Why? Because sin can stop you entering

eternal life. It does stop you entering eternal

life. gets you thrown into the eternal fire,

into God's judgment, into hell. My great -grandfather

won the military medal for bravery in World War

I. He ran messages across the different trenches

and bunkers, and as he was running a message,

he was hit by a shell. His arm was wounded, but

he kept running. and ran this message where it

needed to go. When they finally got to operating

on him, they were looking at his arm and they

said, we're going to have to amputate to save

your life. Well, luckily enough, he happened

to have, his dad was a surgeon, and the surgeon

who was about to operate him was friends with

his dad. And so he was able to save his arm.

Now, in that situation, if you can save your

arm, awesome. But if you can't, it's worth losing

your arm to save your life, isn't it? What about

losing something to save your soul? That little

piece of you that lives on for eternity, the

bit of us that lives on for eternity, to save

that, that's worth losing anything for, isn't

it? Now, before anyone reaches for a chainsaw,

Jesus is not suggesting to literally chop off

limbs. This is a metaphor. And he's showing to

us what's at stake with sin. He's saying sin

is so serious, you need to get radical with it.

You need to guard against it. You need to cut

it out of your life, no matter what the cost.

Jesus is saying, cut out anger. Lust, lies, hypocrisy,

any pride, any idolatry, any greed, any slander,

any theft, any porn, any sleeping around, any

judgmental spirit that you have. Sin is Satan's

lies. It's like gangrene. If you don't cut it

out, it will kill you. And if you don't believe

that, look at the cross. Yes, the cross. is the

place we look to where we see God's glorious

salvation, but it is also a window into hell.

For at the cross, we see how serious and real

sin is. It is so serious and real that Jesus

had to experience God's full wrath on the cross

so that we could be forgiven. You want to see

how serious and horrible sin is? Just take a

look at the cross. But you might be thinking,

well, hang on, especially if you're a Christian,

why do I need to take sin so seriously? I mean,

I believe Jesus died for my sins and I'm forgiven

all of my sins. You know, I believe that Jesus'

death is like a blank check. It pays for all

my sins. No matter how many I've done, I am fully

forgiven. I can't out -sin the saviour. Brent,

I heard you say that like a couple of weeks ago.

But you know what? Sin also hardens our hearts

against God. If you keep sinning, you'll rip

up that blank cheque. Have a look what it says

in Hebrews 3. It says, take care, brothers. lest

there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart,

leading you to fall away from the living God.

But exhort one another every day, as long as

it is called today. Is today called today still?

Yeah, okay, cool. Then I need to take care and

exhort you that none of you may be hardened by

the deceitfulness of sin. Every day, sin has

the potential to harden Christians. to slowly

and subtly corrupt and erode their faith. A little

while ago, we had an oil leak in our car engine.

And you know how bad that can be. It was dripping

away after we came from Broken Hill. And the

car was still working, but we worked out that

there was some oil leaking, and so we got it

sorted straight away. But imagine if we hadn't

have addressed it straight away. Imagine if it

hadn't have been patched up. You know, we'd be

driving around thinking everything's all good,

all gravy, and then all of a sudden, boom! I'll

tell you again later, Craig. You can give me

your impression of how that goes. Because the

engine will blow, won't it? It'll be an absolute

disaster. And every time we sin, it's like a

little faith leak, isn't it? And if we don't

address that, if we don't patch that up and get

our tanks full of faith again, eventually it's

going to lead to disaster, isn't it? Take care

is what God's word says. Beware. Be on the lookout.

The day before the attack in Pearl Harbour, the

US intercepted a Japanese message. And it was

after the weekend. They didn't really sort of

pay much attention to it. And on the day of the

attack, well, a radar spotted a group of planes

and they thought, oh, that's just some B -17s,

some US planes doing a training run. There were

signs everywhere that things were really dangerous,

that a war was brewing. But they weren't alert

to it. They didn't take care. And they paid the

price for it. We don't want to be like that.

We need to take care. How do we take care? How

do we be careful? We exhort and encourage each

other, don't we? Exhort each other to listen

to God's word, to his gospel. See, God's word

is like a radar. It alerts us to sin. It shows

us where sin is trying to ambush us. This is

an invisible war with eternal dangers. We need

to be on guard. Our world is a propaganda machine

that's trying to say to us, a lie as old as Adam

and Eve. Oh, you'll not surely die. There's no

hell. There's no judgment. Don't worry about

it. But it's not true. Sin leads to eternal death.

And that's why Sundays here at church, that's

why growth groups, that's why one -to -ones,

they're such key times for us because that's

where we get reminded again and again, there's

a war zone going on. And you're not alone in

it, but you are in a war zone. You need to keep

on guard against sin. Now, here's what it can

look like if you get that sort of encouragement,

that exhortation. I mean, this is what I hope

happens each week here at church. You come to

church and, hey, I get it. It's a battle, right,

to even just get to church, the busyness, the

tiredness, and that's if it's not even raining,

right? You work hard to be here. But then you

come in and you're greeted warmly and, You chat

with a few people. You take your seat. And the

service starts. And there's the first song. And

it lifts your eyes. Oh, hang on. God, God's real.

That's right, yeah. And there's spiritual realities

I need to be aware of. I'm in a war zone, aren't

I? And wow, God is such a good God. He loves

me and cares for me. And then the Bible's read.

Wow, there's. And the preacher starts preaching

and you get the, oh, that hurt. Oh, wow, how

good is God? Oh, yes, and praise God. And a whole

bunch of things start going on inside you because

you're connecting again with truth and reality.

And we sing more and we pray and we talk after

church and we swap details with each other so

we can connect throughout the week and encourage

each other. And you walk out that door and hopefully

you leave with a new outlook. I need to be ready

again for this week. There's a spiritual dimension

I must not ignore. Sin leads to eternal death.

Trusting Jesus leads to eternal life. I need

to stay on guard. That's what we're trying to

do here at church every single week. We need

those times in our week and our lives to remind

us of reality. Don't miss them. Don't treat them

lightly. They're a key lifeline as we live in

this war zone. But it's not the only lifeline.

Secondly, we must also pray. Pray for God's protection.

Pray for God's protection. When Jesus teaches

us to pray, lead us not into temptation, but

deliver us from evil or from the evil one. What

he's telling us to pray for is to pray that we'd

avoid and be alert to Satan's lies. Now, why

do we need to pray that? Well, if we're alert

to sin's danger, I mean, surely we can just fight

it. Why do we need to pray about it? Well, it's

because we often overestimate our resources,

don't we? Years ago, I ran a kids' club after

schools for a church I worked at, and each week

we'd play soccer. And we'd try and make the teams

really even, have a few leaders on one team and

a few other leaders on the other team mixed with

the kids. But some weeks the kids would ask for

a leaders versus kids game. They were so sure

of themselves. What a mistake. 20 goals to one.

It was going well. It's one of the few times

where I get to feel like Ronaldo and Messi in

my life. But see, sin's like that. It's an opponent

that's too strong for us. We're like those little

kids with these big, mighty, muscly leaders.

Well, maybe not as muscly as I'd like to be,

but compared to sin, we're small and we're weak,

aren't we? And if you think your own willpower

will suffice, you're kidding yourself. Try this

experiment. Lying is a sin. Try not to lie for

a week. Just one week, see how you go. No white

lies, no lies of any kind to spare feelings.

Be completely truthful even if it lands you in

hot water. Then you'll start to see the hold

that sin really has on you. But when we pray

for God to protect us spiritually, we're not

just relying on our own resources. We're getting

God involved. And he's infinitely stronger than

sin. That'd be like getting Messi and Ronaldo

to play against those kids. When we're regularly,

genuinely praying that God would keep us from

wandering into tempting situations, that he'd

save us from Satan's lies, when we do that, God

often honours our prayers by sovereignly protecting

us. But also the very act of praying such prayers

changes our hearts so that we flee from sin and

when we can't, we fight it. Our willpower gets

strengthened by the Spirit. We hate our sin.

We don't want to do it anymore. And we don't

flirt with it. Yeah, I might just do a bit of

sin there. No, we run. Christian, when was the

last time you prayed about those things? Where

you searched your heart, where you went, where

do I feel the pull of sin in my life? Where you

looked at your life and went, yeah, where has

sin been deceiving me recently? Where you've

cried out for God's help, that he'd keep you

away from situations where you're tempted to

sin and where you'd say no, even if you're in

them. When did you last pray for your brothers

and sisters with this? People in your growth

group, people at church. Imagine how godly our

church would become if every day, individually,

every one -to -one, every growth group, we prayed

like that. Maybe we don't pray much about it.

Or as much as we should. Because sin doesn't

feel like that much of a threat. Maybe we forget

that we're at war. And if we do, that's actually

Satan's lie. Or maybe we actually love our sin

more than we care to admit. And we want to be

rid of it, but we kind of don't as well. If that's

the case, we need to wake up. We need to see

that we're in a war zone. And we need to start

praying fervently. All right, let's recap. We

started by asking, where are we at? Are we in

a spiritual war with sin? And I hope you've seen

today that the answer is yes. Even if you're

forgiven, even if you love Jesus, sin is at war

with you to destroy your faith. And we need to

be alert to that danger and actively protecting

ourselves against it by meeting together, encouraging

each other, but especially by prayer. As we saw

today, we live in a spiritual war zone, so keep

praying for God's protection. This is something

we can't stop praying about. You might be here

today and you're the sceptic. You're going, yeah,

I mean, Brendan, there's some interesting points

there, but I don't think that there is a spiritual

war zone going on. You know, you're maybe overstating

things a little bit. Well, I hope you've seen

some good reasons as to why there might be. I'd

want to ask you, are you sceptical of your scepticism?

Doubt your doubts. Maybe there's something there

you need to think about. But, I mean, ponder

this. If there's no sin or war, why haven't we

built a utopian world yet? I mean, Cairns is

a pretty good little slice of paradise, but there's

still crime, there's still hurt, there's still

domestic violence, there's still all sorts of

horrible things, isn't there? Why haven't we

built a utopia yet? There's got to be something

within us stopping us. What's going on? If there's

no war zone contrary to Jesus' claims, well,

what should we be fighting? Well, what should

you be living for? What should you be making

the purpose of your life? Here's the big one.

Why did Jesus die and rise again if it wasn't

to rescue people and free them from sin? What

do you think of Jesus? Why do you think he did

all that? Maybe your scepticism is a sign that

you're actually a POW, a prisoner of war, that

Satan has you right where he wants you. In that

movie, The Usual Suspects, there's a line in

it that says, the greatest trick the devil ever

pulled was convincing the world he doesn't exist.

Is there even a small possibility that you could

be wrong? If you think there is, come chat with

me. Let's grab a coffee or we'll find someone

better looking that you can have a coffee with.

It's up to you. But let's have a chat. Let's

talk it through. But if you're a Christian, well,

the danger is that we're like the disciples that

we looked at in our passage earlier. Jesus tells

them to watch and pray, but what do they do?

They fall asleep. They didn't see the spiritual

battle happening as Jesus went to the cross.

But thankfully, Jesus drank the cup of God's

wrath down to the dregs so that sin's penalty

can't touch us. In one respect, if you trust

Jesus, you are bulletproof to sin. It can't get

you anymore. You will never be punished. Yet

as forgiven people, we still need to see that

sin is dangerous. As long as you have faith,

you're safe. But sin is trying to erode your

faith. It's trying to shipwreck your faith. Satan

is trying to destroy your faith by luring you

into sin's grip. In one sense, you're bulletproof.

In another sense, you're in a dangerous war zone.

Are you readying yourself every day for the fight?

One of my favourite quotes that sums this up

well is by John Owen, the theologian from many

years ago. He says, if you're not killing sin,

sin is killing you. If you're not killing sin,

Sin is killing you. I mean, that's how war zones

work, isn't it? If your enemy is attacking you

and hitting you, you're in danger. You're not

protected. You need to take your enemy out. How

do we protect ourselves? We put sin to death.

We get along to church and to growth group. We

start our day drawing on God's strength. We be

proactive, praying that God would protect us.

As we hear scripture at church, individually,

in growth group, we're alerted to sins that weren't

on our radar before. And we don't stop there.

When we're tempted, you know, when you're there

and you're facing that temptation, what do you

do? You pray. You're in that argument. Your anger

is rising by the second. What do you do? You

breathe. Lord, help me to calm down, to just

be loving in this situation. You're home alone.

And the pull to go on the computer and watch

something you shouldn't is strong. What do you

do? Go for a walk and pray. Lord, help me. Help

me to be pure. Help me to be godly. Help me to

see that I have better things in Jesus than what

sin can offer me. Or you catch yourself lying.

What do you do? You ask Jesus to forgive you.

Lord, I'm sorry. But then you ask for help. Please

help me next time to tell the truth. Help me

to be honest. Even when it's hard. Make it a

priority to pray like this both proactively and

reactively when you're in those tempting moments.

But the thing is, don't let your guard down.

We must, we must, we must take care and be on

guard. Because we're in an unseen war. Life in

Cairns is just like Pearl Harbour. Before the

attacks, it appears safe and calm, yet we really

are in a war zone. But we'll stay safe if we're

on our knees to our loving Heavenly Father, asking

for his protection. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly

Father, we want to thank you that you are so

kind to us. We thank you that in Jesus you have

forgiven all our sins. But help us, Father, to

keep trusting you, to not lose the safety and

security that we have in Christ by falling away.

Help us to persevere in our faith. Help us to

trust you. Help us to see that sin is dangerous

because it's trying to lead us into unbelief.

Please, Father, help us to take care. Give us

the strength we need to fight sin and to run

from it when it's tempting us. And help us, not

just us individually, but help us to encourage

each other, to exhort each other, to flee from

and fight sin. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.