It's been a sweet time for us.
It's been a hard time for us. It's not easy when the Word of
God is preached. It's not an easy endeavor to
deal with it. It's not an easy endeavor for
it to deal with you. And so I just pray that as we
close this letter out, I've said it a bunch, but I've noticed
in the last few weeks I haven't said it at all. I want you not
to forget about it. I want this letter to continue
to be an effect, an effectual power in your life. Because it
is the reason that the Lord opens Ephesians to us as we started
to plant grace through church is that it is, in some sense,
the blueprint of the body. It's what we are and what we
look like and how we are to think and act and speak and by what
and whose power we are enabled to do these things. We are in
the latter parts of this today. We will finish what is known
as the the armor of God. When we talk about prayer. And if you would just be patient
next week and maybe the next, as I close it out, those final
greetings, there's a lot there. for me to see in verse 21 through
24. And so I don't necessarily want
to give you all a road map, and then we're going to do this,
and then we're going to do that, but I just want you to be aware of that. So Ephesians
chapter 6, let's just read through verses 10 through 20 to get our
mind focused, because there's a thought here. And so let's
just refresh our minds as we prepare to hear about prayer
today. Finally, be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God
that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
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. Therefore, take up the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the day
of evil and having done all to stand firm. Stand, therefore,
having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate
of righteousness than a shoes for your feet, having put on
the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances,
take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all
the flaming darts of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation
and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying
at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.
To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication
for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given
to me, and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I might declare
it boldly as ought to speak." Now, I thought about taking that
last few verses, 18, 19, 20, and dividing it into three to
four things. In doing that, I think I would
be ill-effective in showing you the fullness of what Paul is
revealing to us here. When you think of prayer, just
like when you think of everything else, we have a very mistaken idea of prayer in some aspect
of our lives, the doctrine of prayer. Doctrine means teaching.
So what we've been taught about prayer and its purpose and its
power and its effectiveness, how to pray, all of these things
are easily just boiled up into this idea that this is prayer
and we rubber stamp it and we go about our way and we never
consider if what we believe about prayer is right or effective
or even biblical. And so in a way of sort of getting
us all thinking improperly, let me offer some suggestions. Sometimes
people teach as though prayer is sort of like magic. If you
pray, then God will do. If the prayer is right in its
wording, if it's right in its intentions, if it's right in
this, if it's right in that. There are some people would say,
well, if you pray and your heart is right, then God will always
answer your prayers. Some people say if you pray and
you have enough faith, God will answer your prayers. Well, without
going to an entire New Testament where the church is told how
to pray and what prayer is not the Old Testament, but the New
Testament. It would take too long to do that. So let's just
think a minute. What is it that is told to us
about prayer? The scriptures teach us that prayer is speaking
to God. Jesus says that we should pray
in this manner. Our Father in heaven, holy is
your name. Your kingdom come, your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread and forgive us our sins as we forgive those who
sin against us. Lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. And some versions have that,
some versions don't. So Jesus says pray in this manner. He wasn't praying to the Father.
He was giving a blueprint on how to pray. Now, see, some people
would take that and say, OK, so every time you pray, if you're
missing one of these elements, you're in trouble. So your prayers
are sort of devoid. Well, I don't necessarily agree
with that. I believe Jesus modeled forgiveness. Jesus modeled obedience. Jesus modeled worship. Jesus
modeled discipline. Jesus modeled all sorts of things.
And Jesus modeled prayer. Jesus modeled ministry. Jesus
modeled evangelism. But what He has commanded us
to do is that in our understanding of prayers, that we're talking
to the Father, Jesus modeled prayer, and then He gave a model
prayer. And so if we look at the prayers
of Jesus, and we look at the model that He gave us in the
Gospels, we see that Jesus at all times prayed in all ways
the way He had told us to pray. Not necessarily the words to
pray, but the heart to pray with, the mouth to pray with, the mind
to pray with, the attitude, if you will, of prayer. Oftentimes
we think about prayer. We think about magic. This this
idea of faith being a force. Some people think that and that
our words are the containers of the force. And so it's sort
of like this pen. If the pen has ink in it, let's
just say this is a little capsule. Some people think that that that
faith goes in the little capsule, which is our words. And our prayers
are effective words, and it carries the force of God into whatever
we want. So to say, God, I'm saying this
correctly, and my faith is in there, so my words are speaking
into being that which I want. And that's not the way it is
at all. The Scripture does not teach that. The Scripture does
teach, however, that those who are children of God can pray.
And those who pray, who are the children of God, are heard. And
those who are heard, God answers the prayers. James chapter four. The question is, so the reason
you do not have is because you do not ask. And the reason you
still do not have is because you ask wrongly so that you may
spend what you ask on your own passions. So what does that mean? But that doesn't mean that some
people say, well, you're just asking for material stuff. That's
not necessary. It's not necessarily the truth of that. James is talking
about the fact that if I pray selfishly, if I pray for myself
all the time, if I'm praying for what God can do for me, I'm
not praying effectively. I'm praying anti-biblically.
I'm praying anti-gospelly. Now, that's not a real word.
It's not an adverb, at least. And in that, It doesn't mean that we should
not pray for us. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive
us of our sins as we forgive others who sin against us. But
the focal point of prayer is who? It's the Father. The focal
point of prayer is first and foremost, and this is sort of
to get us in the right mindset. I want us to sort of lay it all
out, and you may believe some other stuff about prayer. Most
of what we believe about prayer that's not from the model prayer
and the practices of prayers in the New Testament is really
superstition, if you will. But as we pray, our prayers should
be unto God the Father. The Father grants. The Father
hears. The Father answers prayers. The
Father has all things and has given it into our hands. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given
us every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus in the heavenly
realms. Ephesians 1, verse 3. So, Jesus says, even in John
6, that I am the bread of life to come down. The Father gives
me. I give myself. But the Father
sent me. I come to do the will of the
Father. And so there's this mindset, this attitude we need to understand
about prayer. Effective prayer is not about the amount of faith.
For Jesus, in His extremely amazing statement, He says you don't
have to have any faith at all. Hardly at all. You've just got
to have a teeny tiny bit. The faith of a mustard seed,
which I could not see with my eyes because they're getting
bad. is all it takes to move mountains, to say to the stones
of the mountain, be thrown into the sea, and there it is. Now,
you need to understand literary genre. You need to understand
the process of what these devices are. That is hyperbole. Jesus
was not saying you have the authority to cast mountains into the sea.
He's saying that the fate of just a mustard seed is all it
takes to have that type of effectual power. Who cares if a mountain's
thrown in the ocean? That's just junk. How about,
God, can you save that sinner? God, can you give me joy in the
midst of death? God, can you show me your glory
in the face of Jesus Christ? He's done all these things. Can
you sustain me? Oh God, Paul prays, take away
the storm from my flesh. Three times I prayed and Christ
said, my grace is sufficient for you. So the focal point of prayer
is the Father, and the Father's character, and the Father's nature,
and the Father's glory, and the Father's name. Our Father, who
is in heaven. We recognize who He is, and His
role, and His authority, and that we are with our finite mouths
and hearts and minds. We are speaking to the listening
ears of the Creator of all things. Hear that, church. Do not take
for granted the reality of the privilege of prayer. That's part
of that spiritual blessings, if you will. We can pray and
God will listen and God will answer when we pray and knowing
that the focus of prayer is the Father. And we not only understand the
focus of prayer, but we understand the actual worth of prayer is
attached to and comes from the worth of the Father. Prayer in
itself is not valuable. It's who listens to the prayers.
Anybody could pray to a microphone. Anybody could pray with great
eloquence to a God on a table. But pray to the God of the universe
who is holy and worthy is powerful. Because what we're doing when
we pray is that we're acclaiming and ascribing and just exclaiming,
not giving what is due God, making note that we recognize who God
is. And in turn, out of our hearts
and mouths, we then pray to the name of His holy glory and grace. And so God as holy, our Father
in heaven, holy is your name. And then our desire. And see,
what is the first desire of prayer? Your kingdom come. Your will
be done. on earth as it is in heaven.
I don't want to exposit that, but in reality, your will be
done, your kingdom come. Is it our desire for the kingdom
of heaven? Seek first the kingdom of righteousness. Seek first the righteousness
of God and all these things will be added unto you. You see what
Jesus means when he says that? What does John mean when he says,
do not love the world or anything in the world? We love the kingdom
of light. We love the kingdom of heaven.
We love the kingdom of God. And therefore, our desires, foundationally,
as they flow even out of the necessity of our sustenance.
I need food. I need bread. I need life. I
need healing. It comes not out of our own kingdom. It comes out of our desire to
see God's kingdom. So, God, heal me if it is in
your kingdom. and in the plan for your kingdom
to come. Let your will on earth be as
it is in heaven, where He has perfect worship, and perfect
rule, and perfect glory, and constant obedience. And we know the other aspects
of those prayers. Give us to say that which we
need to live, Forgive us of our sins. You see
that? Help us to forgive those who
sin against us. Lead us not into temptation.
What does that say? Did Jesus say you need to just
sort of stand up and man up and quit being tempted? No, He says that you must pray
to the Father to help you walk away from it. to help you walk
not in the path of temptation, but as Psalm 1 so eloquently
pictures, the righteous man walking in righteousness. So now let's look at Paul. He
has said that there is a darkness and that we are at war with the
powers of this darkness. And the war is here. The players of that war are us
and the enemies of God in the supernatural realm. So. We are battling here. The war is now just a way of
reminder. And because of that, verse 13,
therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be
able to withstand in the evil day. If you are not taking up
the whole armor, you will not withstand. And we've seen that
armor, the belt of truth, the truth. Jesus says, I am the way
and the truth and the life. And no one comes to the Father
except through me. The belt holds down the breastplate, holds on
the sword. The belt ties it together, the
truth of God. Jesus says in John 17, this is
eternal life that they know you, the one true God and the Son,
Jesus, whom you have sent. Eternal life is knowing truth,
not just knowing the truth as it is cognitively, but knowing
the truth, who is Jesus Christ intimately. So the belt of truth. having put on the breastplate
of righteousness. God is our righteousness. Christ
is our righteousness. And then more so in this context,
as a way of reminder, the righteousness that is Christ's, that is ours,
it is ours. We put on the new man, we take
off the old man. We resist the wickedness of the
flesh as it riles up in the temptation of the enemy, as it hangs in
front of our face and dangles. We resist it and we do so in
the righteousness of Christ, which is the gospel. And that
is where we walk. And that is on which we stand.
We stand on our shoes and our shoes are given readiness by
the gospel of peace, which we stand before God ready. And then
in verse 16, in all circumstances, we take up the shield of faith. And I prayed hard about that
sermon and I preached hard in that sermon. And I want you to
know that faith alone and Christ alone is the only way to salvation. You cannot get faith if it has
not been exercised. And if it hasn't been exercised,
you haven't gotten it. We don't walk around going, yeah,
I've got faith. That's good. But why aren't you
living it by faith? The good news is, as if you kept
on reading in chapter 2 of 2 Timothy, when Paul says, Therefore be
strengthened by the strength, by the grace that is in Christ
Jesus. And the words that I've entrusted to you and trust a
reliable man who can teach others also. And he says, and then endure
and share in the suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ,
do not get tangled in civilian affairs for a soldier does not
aim to please that with who he has been enlisted by, not the
other way around. And so in that we know that the
shield of faith is indeed that which guards us. when we hold
fast to that which God has promised us, because God is faithful.
And later on there, in 1 Timothy, Paul says, if we die with Him,
we shall surely live. And if we deny Him, He will surely
deny us. And if we are faithless, He remains
faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. So it's not the strength
of our faith, it's the strength of the faithfulness of God, who
is the faithful one in Christ Jesus. And then our faith is
that we trust fully in His faithfulness. And take the helmet of salvation.
Friends, I honestly believe that most If not all, yes, there are
physical things that happen to us. There are persecutions that
happen to us. There are emotions that happen
to us. And I'm proving my point now.
But I believe most of the war against the body of Christ by
the enemy is in the mind. It's what we think, it's what
we say to ourselves, it's what we think other people are thinking
about, what we think we're saying or they're saying. It's about
what we say we think, that we think they're saying about what
we think they're saying and say we think. And then we're so confused
we don't even know what's going on. You ever had a what if in your
mind and got mad? That's spiritual warfare. Well,
I know if I say this to him, he'll say that to me, and then
I'll say this to him, and I'll tell him where to put it. I'll tell him where to
go. He can go to the grocery store.
I don't care where he goes, he's got to stay in here. And we walk through
it, and then we're mad with the brother. And we not even talk
to him because of what his little voice in our head said. How do you know that about me?
Because I'm the same way. And it's not like we go, and
I'll say this and he'll say that. It just happens. It just sort
of plays out in our head like this little commercial coming
up next in James Tipton's life. His conversation with so-and-so.
And it plays off. And we're driving down the road
and I tell him, let me call him now. What's up? And you've got
it. You're ready. You're charged.
The flesh is up. And he goes, man, I'm so sorry.
I repent. I felt like Jonah for a minute, you know. No, no, I
had it worked out what I was going to say. And you took it
away. The hell of salvation. It guards
the mind. Renewing the mind helps us to
worship. We worship in the mind. We worship
in spirit and in truth. And yes, our actions are worship.
Our physical bodies, we worship with them prayerfully and hopefully
forever. But our hearts are tuned by the
sufficiency of God's grace through His Word as we renew our minds
on the glory of His grace every moment. We forever and always
remember the freshness of His mercy now, not yesterday. Today, His mercy is new. Today
is the day of salvation. Today is the time. Now is the
time to be faithful. Now is the time to be renewed
in our minds. And by being renewed, we are transformed by that. We meditate on that which is
full and glorious and eternal and holy. That's why Paul so
clearly has already told us, don't even think about the things
that people do in darkness. Don't speak of them. Don't let
them tell you about them. But to call them out and say,
no, no, no, this is not fitting and should not even be named
among the saints. Because it affects our worship.
The helmet of salvation protects us with that. And then the only
offensive weapon that we're given to take charge against these
things is the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Sola
Spiritura. We only have the Word of God
that is our battlefield weapon. Everything else is a defense
line. And so God did not enable us to just stand there and take
it, though we can because Christ is victorious. God then said,
fight back with the sword of my Spirit, which is the Word
of God. So then it all boils together. How do we do that? We talked
about it last week. And now we see Paul in verse
18. And he's given us this verb that's
present and working. And the word is pray. Pray. Spurgeon calls this passage the
all things verse. He said this is the all things.
When he writes about the all things in quotes, he's talking
about Ephesians 6, 18. All things. Praying. Listen to
the alls there. At all times, in the Spirit,
with all prayer and supplication to that end, keep alert with
all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. That's why
he says it's the all verses. It's got four alls in there. Ask yourself, why all of a sudden
pray? So I'm to put on the belt, put
on the breastplate, put on my shoes, put on my helmet, hold
my shield, wave my sword, read the Bible, and pray at the same
time. Like a one man band. That's what we ought to do. We ought to walk down the grocery
store aisles, And we ought to be sweeping our hands and praying
with our eyes closed. Just walk down there. Lord, don't
let me see anything tempting. Those donuts are right down there.
I don't want to take them. And we act like fools sometimes.
We think, well, how am I going to do all this? Paul's saying
now how it works. Where does the battle fall? I hate to sound cliché, church,
but the battle has fallen on our knees. How many years in the Almost
two decades I have been in ministry. I have counseled numerous people and they want all the answers,
but they will not pray. They will not pray. They will
not pray. And I remember one such person
years ago dealing with issues of abuse and substances. And
they could not overcome the lust of those things. And as long
as we were together in counseling, they were fine. But if something
came up and we skipped the week, they would literally fall off
the wagon and go back to alcohol. One week. I just can't do it,
Pastor, I can't do it, I can't do it. Well, at least you're
at the starting line. Because you can't do it. Yes,
and I'm not taking away the reality that addiction is real and sometimes
needs interference by the grace of God through His power with
medicine. I know that. It's like sickness. If my hand starts to catch on
fire and burn, I'm going to go to the hospital to find out why
I'm burning. And we're going to have it dealt with. I'm not
just going, oh well, and just catch the grapes on fire and catch
the microbes. We're going to deal with it. I'm going to trust
in the Lord that through what He has provided that He would
help heal that, but for His will to be done and His glory to be
upheld. And so then, as we see prayer,
and as we're talking about this one person, God, what can I do? What am I going to do? I feel
so guilty. Well, you need to pray. You need to pray when you feel that
urge. You need to pray when you feel
temptation. You need to pray when you doubt
that you can do it. You need to pray! You need to
have your Word in your mind and in your heart and in your eyes
and in your ears. You need to hear the Word of
God through the Spirit of God at all times and in all ways.
You need to be praying at all times and you need to be on guard. You see that? So let's look at
it. Why do we not want to pray? Because
we think prayer is a shopping list. It's not a shopping list,
church. It's not a shopping list. Prayer. It's a perfect position
of worship. I'm thinking this through. That perfectly establishes our
insufficiency and places it absolutely in God's sufficiency. And I can't
repeat that, so you'll have to write it down. That's what prayer is. It's we
can't, you can, and I trust you can, and I trust you will. God,
do this. Your name and your glory be praised. How often we go through life
and we say, if the Lord wills, I'll do this, and I'll go here
and I'll accomplish that, and we never entrust it to God. And
don't be surprised when the people who pray least are the pastors
who lead their churches. Last week I looked up just Looked
up the reality of what a 2010 survey showed of evangelical
churches in North America, and less than 2% of pastors pray
more than 10 minutes a week. And we sit here, and I sat there,
and I still sit here sometimes, and I go, why are those people
so... Why is that pastor so depressed? Why is that church so depleted
of its joy? Because you can spread mayonnaise
on bread all day long. If you don't put any meat in there,
there's no sandwich. It's just mayonnaise bread. It's nasty. For some of us. Some of you might
like that. Where's that analogy going? But doing the actions of ministry
and doing the actions of faithfulness and doing the actions of Bible
study and doing the actions of worship without prayer is just
like a mayonnaise sandwich. You put in your mouth, you can
chew on it, but it's really sort of gross. It's just weird. It makes no sense. But yet we all are guilty of
it. And if not now, we have been, and if we haven't, we will be.
We're guilty of not praying as much as we should. We don't have
time. We don't know how. I prayed enough. I got to go to work. So let's
look at it. And what is Paul specifically
dealing with here? Will. To go to the doctor and the doctor
says, hey, you've got a you've got a small little bacterial
infection in your in your throat. No big deal. Take this pill for
the next five days, twice a day. Stay out of the sun. Stay cool.
You take the pill. I think it's hard to swallow.
You throw it down the toilet and a month from later, you're
hurting real bad. Oh, you've got a bacterial infection
in your lungs now. You're a mess. Take this steroid
and puff it every six hours for a week and you'll be healed.
It's no big deal. We thought that other stuff would
take care of it, and you go home and you're like, this tastes
bad. God is going to heal me, and
I'm going to be OK, and I don't need this mess. And then you
die from a bacterial infection that was easily cured because
of your lack of disobedience, or lack of obedience and lack
of discipline. saying that we are preparing to deal with the
temptation that comes from the enemy of God in our hearts and
minds and life, a temptation that is not necessarily persecution. If someone busts in here today
and puts us under arrest for being Christians, it's not the
war. The war is how we deal with it
when we're arrested. The battle is how we're going
to feel when we're locked up. The battle is when we think about
how our civil liberties have been violated. The war is going
to be what we think about those people when God saves them and
they become siblings in Christ. The war is going to be when we're
wrongly persecuted and wrongly accused and wrongly put to death. The war is going to be how we
deal with it when later those very people come and want to
join us in ministry. Hell, Barnabas and the rest of
them fell when they heard the knock on the door in Damascus,
and they look out there, and oh, heavens to Betsy, it's our
enemy! What is he doing? Why is he knocking?
Where's his entourage? Where are the swords? Where are
the chains? Why is he knocking? There was some spiritual warfare
going on in that house that day. I'm not going to let this man
in. He's my enemy. I got noticed recently, there's
a sex offender moving into the neighborhood. And it's amazing
what people say about it. Oh, did you hear? Did you hear? I think there's probably a sex
offender in every house. If you look lustfully at a woman,
you've committed adultery in your heart. I'm not making light of the reality
of sexual crime, the same. How do we know God hasn't saved
this man? How do we know God won't use this man? We're going
to be scared of him? It's just a thought. Spiritual
warfare goes on. You hear stuff like that. Spiritual warfare
goes on. We see the news. We see all the
debauchery in the bigger cities. Oh God, I'm glad I don't live
down there. Louise, you've got to move from
down there. They're going to kill you. I've
lived down here 91 years and I'm not leaving now. Where are
you going to die? Well, I'm 91. I'm closer to death than I was
before I moved down here. What's the point? Well, they're
going to hurt you. Spiritual warfare. A gentleman shared with me yesterday. I'm trying to remember who it
was, that one of the greatest fears of people who are elderly is that they worry about their
children after they die. What's going to happen to them?
What's going to happen to my children? The spiritual warfare. It's in the mind. How do we apply
this stuff to our lives? as we recognize and see and understand
and believe and trust in that which God has provided for us
by His power. These are divine elements. They're
not physical elements of the world. They're not created things
that God has made for us to use, like knives and bread boards
and pans. These are divine, supernatural,
empowered extensions of God's grace. And here's how they're effective,
and listen. praying at all times in the Spirit. So the first thing
we need to see is that we are praying at all times. How? See, that's one of the misnomers
of prayer. We think that prayer has to be
this long, dragged out, exposed, proper, continual thesis of ideas
to impress God on our absolute knowledge of His promises. And evangelists from the 80s
called them the King James prayers. The O dear Lord of goddess, thou
best thou goddess from heaven and all that kind of stuff. And yes, some people's vocabulary
does well when they pray or when they preach or when they speak,
but ultimately prayer is resting continually in the mind and often
with the mouth for those who pray audibly. in the power and
the presence of God. So praying at all times, not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit. In Romans 8, in our weakness,
the Spirit intercedes for us, for we do not know how we ought
to pray. Uttering words beyond comprehension
from the depths, and I'm paraphrasing, of our soul. For the Spirit knows
the mind of God. So therefore the Spirit prays
and that which we pray, not even recognizing sometimes that it's
the Spirit, is the will of God and it is done. And it is the
will of God that His Church walk sufficiently protected in offensively
and defensively against the powers of darkness that have already
been defeated at the cross of Calvary. Praying in the Spirit. What's the difference? Well,
let me give you, just without giving a theological or doctrinal
explanation, let me give you a practical reality. I believe that praying in the
flesh is the opposite of praying in the spirit. And praying in
the flesh is this, Oh God, I need you to help me do what I need
to do. Oh God, I need to do better. Oh God, I'm going to be stronger. Oh God, I'm Praying the Spirit
is, Oh God, your name be praised. Your glory beyond all things
is what I desire. Your love and your warmth and
your power and your glory and your affection for me, it overwhelms
me. And in the depths of my soul,
in the darkness of this world that is destroying me and swallowing
me, I rejoice and I thank you for it all. For you alone are
my glory. You must affect in me power. You must affect in me prayer.
You must affect in me a desire to see holiness in the Word of
God. You must affect in me affection
for my brothers and sisters in Christ. You, O God, put it in
me that I may be a light to your name. You see that? There's a
difference. And we can talk about it academically
if you want to, Tuesday. But there's a difference in those
two prayers. And you know what we do? We pray the first one
all the time. You know why we can't pray without
ceasing? Because we get tired of hearing about ourselves. And
what we can't do, it's better just to forget about it. I'm
tired of praying, I'm tired of reminding myself how bad I am,
how worthless I am, how sorry I am, how aggravating I am, how
frustrated I am. And then pray and explain to
God how awesome He is, trusting in Him fully to do all that which
He said He has already done in Christ. Praying at all times
in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. All prayer and supplication.
Supplication is that we stand in the gap. So we're not just
praying for us, but we're most specifically praying for others
because we're not alone in this war. And as we pray for us, we pray
for you, and you pray for us, and you pray for you. And everybody's
praying for each other. Because I can pray for you easier
than I can pray for me. Because when I pray for me, believe
it or not, after a minute, I have to then test my prayer, think
about it, evaluate it, throw it away, start over, because
it's usually got some selfish hint of intrinsic bigotry or
prejudice or selfishness or something in it. So I'd rather pray for
you. So you need to pray for me. Selfishly,
I need you to pray for me. And then you can be selfish and
I'll pray for you and vice versa. To that end, he says, as we are
praying in the spirit at all times, In all types of praying
for everything, supplicating for others at all times, we are
praying to that end. Keep alert. Friends, prayer in
Paul's life is persistent. It's always there. And prayer
in Paul's life is powerful. He is saying, To that end, to
what end? To the end of always praying,
you will keep alert. You ought to keep a mind that
is sharp, focused on the feelings, the thoughts, the voices, the
ideas, the philosophies, the worldviews, the temptations.
You see it. You're to think about it. You
go, wait, this isn't of God. This is not of God. It's not
mine. It's something else. And I don't
want it. God, your stuff needs to come
here. So where do you go to get it?
You go to the Word of God. So you put God in and then God comes
out. If you don't put God in, the
world will take over. In praying, you must keep alert
with all perseverance. That means we stand firm. We stand fast. We stand our ground. We hold to the end. We don't
give up. We don't have to give up. We
don't say to God, God, I quit. You can't help me. We say, God,
I've already quit and you're helping me. We hold fast to the end. All
who come to me, I will never cast away. No one can snatch
you out of the hand of Jesus Christ. No one comes to me, Jesus says,
except the Father draw them, and all that the Father draws
comes, and all that comes the Father gives, and all that the
Father gives I keep, and all that I keep I will hold, and
all that I hold I have justified, and all that I justify I am sanctifying,
and all that I sanctify I will glorify. You are mine. No part of the body of Christ
will die. No part of the body of Christ
will be decayed. No part of the body of Christ
will be condemned. All of the body of Christ, every
piece, every ounce, every fiber, every hair, every molecule, every
electron of the body of Christ will be redeemed. Keep alert, church. with all
perseverance, not only perseverance in your faith, perseverance in
your prayer and in your alertness, making supplication for all the
saints. And then look at verse 19. And Paul says also for me. I see it would be very easy for
us if power to send us a little email and say, oh, pray for me.
And we'd send back a text to Paul or whatever. Paul, what's
going on? And he'd say, oh man, I'm in
prison. I was preaching and they came around nowhere and they
snatched me up and they locked me up because I was preaching.
And Jesse got away, but I got caught. Head behind a George Southern
flag. He got away. And I got caught. And now I might
die here. And I need your prayers. And
if we stop there, what would happen is that we'd start to
pray for Paul. We'd start to pray for Paul out
of the flesh, not the Spirit. We'd forget about what Jesus
said. Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. Your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this
day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those
who sin against us. And lead us not into temptation. which
delivers from evil for thine is the power and the kingdom
of the Lord forever. Amen. We forget about that. We forget
about the prayers of Jesus and we start to pray out of the flesh
and say, Oh God, would you get Paul out of prison? Oh God, would
you destroy that wicked place that put him in prison. Oh, God,
would you burn down the city who put him in prison? Oh, God,
would you change the laws that he would not be put in prison?
Oh, God. And we pray politically and fleshly and we pray for all
these things. So thankfully, Paul, not only
did he record his prayers, but he told these people how to pray.
And and also for me. And there's there's something
to be talked about, the humility there of what Paul, how Paul
asked. He asked, lastly, And then also
what he asked for. And this blows my mind and it
gives me joy. Pray for me, and I'm going to
fill in the blank, because I'm suffering in chains for the gospel. Because I have been shipwrecked.
Because I have been stoned. Because I have been beaten with
the meat torn off of my body. And I am just crushed. I'm struck down. 2 Corinthians
4. And I need your prayers. So pray that words may be given to me
in opening my mouth. He's got a lot of needs. And
Paul doesn't waste prayers of saints on those needs. He prays
specifically. Pray that I may be given words
in opening my mouth boldly. Now, let's stop for a minute
and let's just put that shoe on for a second. I'm not saying
it's wrong to pray for other things. It's not wrong to pray
for freedom. It's not wrong to pray for change.
It's not wrong to pray for healing. It's not wrong to pray for food.
That's there. Jesus shows us that. It's okay. But what we're showing and what
Paul is showing is that the spiritual battle that has ensued is not
that he's scared of dying or being killed or being in prison
the rest of his life. Paul's spiritual battle is that
he needs to make sure that under the pressure of his frustration
and imprisonment, he doesn't stop preaching the gospel. That's
the spiritual battle that's going on in Paul's mind. And Paul says,
all these things are mine. I stand in the presence of God
and with His armor affixed and with the sword of the Spirit
in my hand, and I ask you to seal it and secure it in all
perseverance for me, that you pray that words may be given
me in my mouth, that I may open it and preach and proclaim boldly
to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador
in chains. And then he gives us how he wants
to preach it, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Paul shows us that it is prayer
that affects such things. It is prayer that gives resolve
in the midst of trial. It is prayer that affects the
Word of God in our hearts to make us want it. It is prayer
that affects God's Word as it is established to be used in
our soul. It is prayer that protects us
from wickedness and from destruction and from temptation. It is prayer
that affects the reality of God's divine power. It is prayer that
gives us the glorious joy of the righteousness of God. It
is prayer that strengthens our faith because prayer in its essence
is trusting by faith in the faithfulness of God. It is prayer that allows
us to be obedient to the call of God. It is prayer that takes
away every excuse and every fear and every trial and it puts it
on a scale of nothingness where Paul can say this right momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comprehension. And Paul prays. Because I've heard of your faith
in the Lord Jesus and your love for the saints, I do not cease
to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. And he says
that the God of our Lord Jesus, the Father of glory, may give
you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. having
the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope to which He calls you, what are the riches of His glorious
inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness
of His power toward us, you believe, according to the working of His
great might, that He walked in Christ when He raised Him from
the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places,
far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above
every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the
one to come. And it's Paul who says, and I
bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven
and earth is named, that according to the riches of His glory, He
may grant you to be strengthened with power through His Spirit
in your inner being. so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in
love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God. It's not the teaching
of Paul that fills you, it's the Paul's teaching through his
prayers that you are filled with the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do
far more abundantly than all that we ask for or think of,
according to the power at work within us, to Him be the glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever
and ever. Paul prays. And we should pray. Church, we
don't pray enough. We can't pray enough. We should
never feel guilty about not praying enough because we never can.
We should just pray. Why do we have to feel guilty? When there's no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus, there's no guilt. We're justified
before and we're not even guilty of the sin that we've committed
because Christ has taken our guilt. Yes, we're guilty of practicing
the sin, but we're found innocent of it. Christ took it. That's
the good news. You know what's never part of
the good news? Bad news. The bad news is the reason the
good news came. The bad news is you're a sinner,
you have no hope, and you're dead. And you're going to stand
before God and He's going to judge you forever. That's the
bad news. Nanny nanny boo boo, goodbye.
The good news is, is that same God that should judge you and
condemn you forever has loved you with great mercy. And because
of the great love with which he loved you, he gave Christ
to die in your place, that he would justify you before him
and put all your guilt and all your wickedness on Christ, who
had no guilt or wickedness of his own. And then he killed him.
And he brought him back to life and he's going to bring you back
to life. That's good news. You don't have
to be a slave to sin. That's good news. You don't have
to be bound to spiritual battles that defeat you. That's good
news. You don't have to be guilty because Christ took your guilt.
That's good news. The word gospel means God speaks. It's the story of Jesus who redeems
all the people of God. So preach that to the world.
And charge them all to come to faith today in Christ Jesus.
Could it be because you have not trusted in Christ fully?
You have not received? You have not believed? You have
not seen? Is there a reason you don't pray? Today is the day of salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
See that what He has done is for you. By faith. He took his body and it was crushed for your iniquities.
His blood spilled out and paid for your sin. So, church, as we close our service
today, preparing for the Lord's Table, don't ever forget the
seriousness of sin and the awesomeness of God's mercy. Let's take a moment. Let's just
be quiet before God for a few minutes.