Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter six, the Lord willing, we'll finish
our study in the book of Ephesians this morning. I haven't received
final word on this yet, but I believe we'll begin a study in the gospel
of Mark next Sunday. Before we begin, let's look to
our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we come before you
this morning thankful. Thankful that you've given us
another opportunity to come together and worship your matchless name.
Father, we're thankful for the gospel that you've given us to
preach and to believe, the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Father, I pray you would, by the power of your spirit, cause
that gospel to run well this morning, to glorify your son,
magnify him as as high as a human tongue can magnify him. And father
that by the power of your spirit you give us faith to believe
to see and have your son revealed to our hearts this morning. Father
we're thankful for a place that you've given us that we can meet
together in peace and unity and father I pray that you would
protect this place that you give us the the wisdom and the heart
to protect the unity here, that the unity of worship, the unity
of purpose, that Christ be glorified, that this be a place where sinners
can come and hear the Savior, where your sheep can come and
be fed in the green pastures of your word. Father, we pray
you'd bless the gospel that's preached here, that you'd use
it to call out your sheep, that you would use it to continue
to feed and edify and comfort the hearts of your sheep as we
travel through this world beloved. Father, in what we pray for ourselves,
we pray for your people wherever they meet. Father, bless your
word. Bless your people for your great
namesake. Father, we pray you do this,
that your name be glorified. And Father, we dare not forget
to pray for those that you brought into the valley of trial and
trouble. Father, we pray you'd be with
them. We pray that you'd comfort their hearts with your presence.
And Father, we pray you'd deliver them as soon as it could be thy
will. All these things we ask, and we give thanks in that name
which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior, amen.
Now last week, you may recall, we looked at the armor of God.
And prayer is a very important part of the armor of God, but
I did not have time, I felt like, to do the subject justice last
week, so I wanna look at that this morning, lesson on prayer.
Now that lesson on prayer is very applicable to believers.
Because every believer prays. You know, there's a song I heard
once about believers ought to pray. Believers do pray. Believers do pray. But we do
often find it difficult to pray, don't we? We feel like we're
not doing it right. We feel like that maybe we're
not praying for the right things with the right attitude. Prayer
can be hard for that reason. But the Apostle Paul gives us
some very good instruction on on prayer this morning, part
of the armor of God's people. You don't ever leave prayer off. If you leave, if you leave prayer
off out of this armor, you're going to be woefully unprotected.
Your armor won't be complete. So Paul begins in verse 18. He
says, praying always with prayer and supplication in the spirit,
watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. Here's the first thing. I see
in this verse about prayer. When should we pray? When? Paul
says, always. Always. Remember in Luke 18,
our Lord spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought
always to pray. Always. And not to faint, they
ought always to pray and not quit. And notice this, I never
have seen this before until I was looking at this the other day.
The Lord said, men, all ways to pray. He didn't say
believers, he didn't say sheep, all men, all creatures of the
dust, we ought to be praying, shouldn't we? We ought to be
praying about all things all the time. When Paul wrote to
the church at Philippi, chapter four, verse six, he said, be
careful for nothing, but in everything, in everything, at all times,
by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, Let your requests
be known unto God. You know, whatever it is that's
on your heart, don't think, oh, that's a dumb thing, that's a
foolish thing, that's such a small thing. Whatever it is that's
on your heart, pray about it. When you think about God's blessings
to you, pray and give thanks. When you think about how great
our God is, praise his name, pray and praise him. When you're
in a time of trouble and you're hurting, You need to be delivered,
you need help. Pray for grace sufficient for
the trial. Pray that the Lord will deliver you. You know, he's
the one that sent it, didn't he? We didn't get some trial
coming, you know, and the Lord couldn't stop it. He's the one
that sent it. Well, he's the one that can deliver you, isn't
he? Pray and ask him. He's the one that can give you
grace sufficient to help it. Ask him, pray. Paul said in Romans
12, verse 12, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, Continuing,
continuing instant in prayer. He wrote to the church at Thessalonica,
he said, pray without ceasing. This is just all through scripture,
isn't it? When should we pray? Always. In every up and every
down. In every in and every out. Don't
ever stop praying. You know, if you're a believer,
you're a child of God. You think about it. Almighty
God has made you his child. Now I tell you when children
get in trouble, when they quit talking to their parents, prayer
is talking to our heavenly father. So pray always, that's when we
should pray. And the second thing I see here
is what should the content of our prayers be? Well, Paul says
prayer and supplication. That word prayer means prayer
to God. It's talking to God. Here's where
thanksgiving and praise comes in. Prayer to God. We never run out of reasons to
say thank you to God, do we? Never. Oh, how He's blessed us. Physically, how He's blessed
us. Materially. Spiritually, how He's given us
everything. We never run out of reasons to
say thank you. Every prayer should include Thanksgiving. And we never run out of reasons
to praise God for who He is. His greatness is unsearchable. His glory is past finding out. We never run out of reasons to
praise our God for what he's done. Because everything, everything
he does is perfect. Whether we understand it or not,
it's perfect. So we never run out of reasons to praise. All
of our prayers should include praise. There's no one else like
our God. But Paul also says our prayer
should include supplication. And that word means our need. It's our lack, our want. It means
begging. Now we can have prayers without
supplication and we probably should more often than we do
have prayers without asking for stuff. But we don't do that very
often, do we? You know why? Because we're poor
and needy. We seldom have prayer without
asking the Lord for something because we need so much. We need the Lord to do everything
for us. We need the Lord to supply everything
for us. That's the very reason our Lord
taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread. You know,
in the prayer, the disciples' prayer that the Lord taught them,
he taught them to us, he taught us, not them, he taught us to
pray for our daily physical needs and he taught us to pray that
the Lord forgive our sin. You don't have to feel bad when
in prayer and thinking, oh, I'm not very spiritual I'm making
supplication. The Lord taught us to pray that
way. We need daily forgiving, don't we? We need forgiving every
minute, every second. We need forgiveness. We can't
supply anything for ourselves. We need the Lord to supply for
us. You know, the fact of the matter is this flesh needs provisions
to live. I mean, it just does. Don't be
afraid to ask God for it. He's the one that owns it. All
belongs to him. Ask Him to supply, you know, what you need. I mean,
just think about the very basic needs that we have. We need food. The cattle on a thousand hills
are His. Why ask Him for it? Pray and ask Him for it. If the
Lord feeds the crows, I'm pretty sure He'll feed you too. We need
clothing. Well, the Lord's the one that
clothes the lilies. Ask Him to clothe you too. And
I know this, I know that we don't want, we wanna be careful not
to ask for too much. We don't want our prayers just
to always be asking for stuff. We don't want to spend our time
in prayer that we ask for so much stuff, we spend so much
time asking for stuff, we don't have time to thank the Lord for
what he has given us. But remember this too, when we
pray and we bring our needs before the Lord and we're begging him
for it, you know what we're doing? we're honoring him. We're acknowledging
we're nothing, we have nothing, we can't do anything, and we're
acknowledging him. That he's the Lord, he's the
one that can supply for us. And Paul tells us, here's one
thing for sure, we ought to be making supplication for him.
We ought to be begging for this. This is, out of our want, out
of our need, we should be begging God to bless the preaching of
the gospel. In verse 19, Paul says, when
you're making supplication for all saints, he said, and for
me, don't forget me. that utterance may be given unto
me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that
therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Now, Paul
asked him, when you think about this is the apostle Paul, and
he has to be the greatest preacher besides our Lord who ever lived,
wrote the lion's share of the New Testament. And he says, pray
for me, pray for me. that the Lord will enable me
to preach the gospel. I mean, I just wonder how many
times did Paul preach the gospel and he never felt like he was
sufficient to do it. He said, pray for me, pray for
me. So I feel like I'm in pretty good company when I often ask
you all to pray for me, pray as I study, pray for me as I
preach because no man is sufficient for these things. Pray that the
Lord be pleased to reveal his glory in our day. I know we think about, oftentimes,
about past preachers and dead preachers and revivals that happened
in the past, maybe that we've kind of been a part of or know
people that have been a part of, we read about it in history,
and we long for those times. Oh, I'd like, well, you know
what? Let's pray and ask the Lord he'd
be pleased to do that today. You know, I'm thankful for the
gospel being preached in the past, but that won't do us today. We need the Lord to bless his
word today. Pray that the Lord give the pastor
a message from God's heart to your heart. You know, when you're
in need, here's a good supplication to make. Lord, give the preacher
a message that's an answer to my heart. that'll bless my heart,
that'll feed my heart. Paul says, pray that the Lord
gives me utterance. That means the words to say.
Pray that the Lord give me the words to say. I believe Paul's talking there
about that God will give me his message for this hour. I don't want to just have words
to say that are true. You don't want to think, eh,
I don't want to stay this week. I'm just going to go find an
old message and I'm just going to re-preach that. Now, the words
of that would be true. It would be the gospel. It would
be true doctrine. But is it God's message for this
hour? I want God's message for this
hour. Janet tells me that's preacher talk. I don't know what you're
talking about, but maybe this will help you. I could preach a message two,
three years ago. Oh, it's a blessing. I mean,
it was a blessing. I think, yeah, I'm just going to re-preach that.
And I pull it out and look at it. I mean, there's nothing there. Nothing. Nothing. It's yesterday's
manna. That was a message for that hour,
not this hour. Pray that God give me utterance.
The words to say, the words of his message for this hour. And
Paul says, pray that the Lord enables me to preach boldly.
Now, boldly. It's not screaming and yelling. It's not preaching boldly. It's
not making these, you know, definitive statements. You know, I know
this is true. And especially I hear men do
this. They make a statement, I mean
boldly, just like, you know, there's no refuting this, except
it's their idea. It's not something I read out
of this book. Screaming and yelling and just, you know, being so
cocksure, that's not boldly. Preaching boldly, it means telling
the truth. It means telling the truth. It
means not holding back something that's true because it's going
to offend somebody's flesh. You know, if we take the edges
off of the gospel, and we preach the gospel in such a way that
it doesn't offend the flesh, it's not the gospel. Plain and
simple. If we preach the gospel, the
gospel will always offend the flesh. It'll offend the flesh
of the oldest, strongest, most mature believer. The gospel will
always offend the flesh. And if we take the offense of
the gospel away so that the flesh is not offended, we're not doing
anybody any good. We're not doing the lost any
good, because we're not pointing them to Christ alone. We're not
doing God's sheep any good, because they're not going to be fed if
we're not telling them the truth. And Paul says, especially in
his situation, he said, I'm an ambassador in bonds. I could say some things to get
out of these chains. I could tell a few lies. I could
promise I won't preach this gospel anymore. I could compromise the
gospel and get out of this prison. He said, pray for me that I'll
do that. that no matter what the consequences, I tell the
truth. That's preaching boldly. Let's
pray that the Lord give the preacher a message from him. God's message
for this hour and the Lord will enable him to preach it clearly
and simply in the power of the spirit. That's the only way God's
lambs are gonna be fed. That's the only way they're gonna
be taught and edified and comforted. Now that's good supplication.
asking the Lord to bless his word. All right, there's a third
thing. How should we pray? How should
we pray? What's in the spirit? Paul says,
make prayer and supplication in the spirit. You know, prayer
is not just a religious speech that we make. Prayer is not preaching. Prayer is talking to Almighty
God. Prayer is talking to Almighty
God. Now, for some of you that maybe don't pray publicly, maybe
you find it difficult to pray privately. You think, am I doing
this right? I don't feel like this is a good
prayer. Try praying publicly. Try that on for size. It's difficult. It's very, very difficult. You
know why it's difficult? It's a man in the flesh talking
to Almighty God through spirit. Now, the only way a sinner can
talk to God is in the Spirit, by the Holy Spirit of God. Now
I'll show you that, look back at Romans chapter eight. Again, the Apostle Paul wrote
this, and I have to believe that the
way he says this is something that he experienced too, and
it's so helpful. If the Apostle Paul experienced some difficulty
in prayer, I don't feel quite so bad when I do. Look at verse
26. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth
our infirmities. You notice Paul didn't say helps
your infirmities, he said help our, mine too, our infirmities.
For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the
spirit himself, now that word itself ought not be there, it's
himself, the spirit's not an it, the spirit's a him, a person.
The spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the spirit. because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. Now here's one reason
that believers find it so difficult to pray. Paul says, we don't
know what we should pray for like we should. We don't know
what we should be praying for. But as we pray, this is what
Paul's saying here, the Holy Spirit moves the hearts of God's
people to pray according to the will of God. See, the Holy Spirit
knows what God's will is because he is God. It's his will, he
knows what God's will is and he's the spirit that dwells in
the hearts of his people and he moves the hearts of God's
people to pray according to the will of God. Now the best way
I can explain that is this. This is how the Lord's pleased
to work. Now we all know this, God has an eternal will and purpose.
What God is doing now is exactly what he willed to do before he
created anything. Everyone of us knows that, right?
God knows what He's going to do, because He willed to do it.
But God puts it in the hearts of His people to pray for what
He's already willed to do. And when they pray for it, then
God does it. That's how God works. And you'll
say, do you have scripture for that, Frank? I do, look with
me to Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 36. Now the first part of Ezekiel
36, The Lord's telling his prophet how he's gonna deliver Israel
from bondage. He's gonna bring them back to
Israel. And he says, I'm gonna bless my people. I'm gonna bless
them so they don't have any more enemies. I'm gonna bless them
with food and flocks. I'm gonna bless them with peace
all around them. And even more, the Lord says,
I'm gonna forgive their sin. I'm gonna wash them clean. I'll
wash them from their iniquity. I'm gonna put a new heart in
them so that they don't worship idols anymore. God tells Ezekiel,
now Ezekiel, that's what I'm gonna do. Now look what he says
in verse 37. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it
for them. And I will increase them with
men like a flock. You see what the Lord's saying
here? I already know what I'm gonna do. This is what I purpose
to do. I'm telling you I'm gonna do it. But before I do it, I'm
gonna put it in the hearts of my people to pray for it. I'm
going to be inquired of it. They won't inquire of it. They
won't ask for this of their own free will. So I'm gonna put it
in their heart to pray for it. And when they pray for it, then
I'll do it. Now, how does that apply to you
and me today? Well, here's how we pray in the spirit today. If there's some matter that's
on your heart, tell you what to do. Pray about it. If there's
a matter that's on your heart, pray about it. It very well could
be it's on your heart because Holy Spirit put it on your heart.
Just pray about it. Don't try to figure out when
is this the Lord's will, sir. If it's on your heart, pray for
it, pray about it. You'll find out soon enough if
it's the Lord's will or not. But as long as it's on your heart,
pray about it. That's praying in the spirit.
All right. Now, fourthly, what's the manner
of our prayers? Well, first, It's watching. Paul says in prayer and supplication
of the Spirit, watching, watching there unto. Now what, when we
pray, watch for the Lord to answer prayer. You know the Lord answers
prayer. Now he does, he just said, I'm
gonna put it in the hearts of my people. They're gonna inquire
for it and then I'm gonna do it. Cornelius, think about Cornelius. Finally, one day, The Apostle
Peter shows up to that Gentiles house. He came there to preach
Christ to him. You know why? It was an answer
to Cornelius prayer. He was praying and the Lord sent
him a preacher. Rebecca went a long time without
any children. She one day gave birth to Jacob
and Esau. You know why? Because scripture
says Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife and the Lord was
entreated. The Lord always knew he was gonna
give her Jacob and Esau. He always knew this was gonna
be the picture of those two covenants. He always knew this was gonna
be a picture of his redeeming, electing love, but before he
caused those boys to be born, he was intrigued of. Their daddy
prayed for them. That widow woman in the Lord's
parable, she cried, didn't she? The Lord answered her prayer.
Hannah, oh, Hannah. Oh, how she wanted a child. She
wanted a child more than anything. She finally gave birth to Samuel
because an answer to prayer. For this child, I pray. I'm telling
you, the Lord's in the business of answering prayer. We should
watch for him to answer them, shouldn't we? Second, the manner
of our prayer is persevering, persistent, in prayer. Earlier
I mentioned that the Lord taught us the parable that men are always
to pray and not to faint. And he used the example of that
widow woman. She kept crying and crying and crying and crying
and crying and crying and crying and crying to that unjust judge.
And he finally gave her what she needed just so she'd shut
up. Now, the Lord's not saying he's like that unjust judge.
He's not saying that at all. He's not gonna give his people
something just to shut them up. But here's what he's saying.
If the unjust judge will answer a persistent prayer, if an unjust
judge will answer a prayer because somebody's persistent, persevering
in prayer, just think what the Lord will do. Just think what
He'll do. Remember this now. I told you
this earlier. If you're a child, if you're a believer, you're
a child of God. I like how when one of your children
have to cry for you, you give them what, you help them. You're
a child of God. Cry out to him and don't quit. Jacob was persistent in prayer,
wasn't he? He said, I will not let you go
except you bless me. You can touch the hollow of my
thigh and put my leg out of joint. I'm not letting go. Oh, I want that attitude. I'm not
letting go of Christ. I'm not gonna do it. I'll not
let you go except you bless me. The Lord blessed him, didn't
he? That's the manner of prayer is
persistent. And third, the manner of our prayer should not be selfish. Let's make sure we always pray
for others. Paul says with supplication for
all saints. Now make supplication for yourself,
but you make sure you make the same supplication for other believers
too. Pray that the Lord will provide
for his people. Pray that the Lord will save
his people. Pray that the Lord will bless his people. Pray the
Lord will keep them. Pray the Lord will deliver them
from trial. We've got brethren in other places. I mean, they're in deep, deep
waters. Let's remember to pray for them.
Pray that the Lord deliver them. I promise you this, the Lord
will answer a prayer like that. Our intercession, our prayer
for others. The apostle here told us to pray that way, and
he set the example. Philippians 1 verse 4, he said,
always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests
of joy. He said, it's a joy for me to
make requests for you, and I do it in all my prayers. Colossians
1 verse 3, he said, we give thanks to God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. He said, I'm always
praying for you. Let's make sure we pray for others. And then remember this, the gospel that's contained in
this whole book of Ephesians, we spent some time going through
it, and especially in this last couple chapters where it's talking
about the believer's wall. Remember this, this is real teaching,
it's real help, it's real salvation, it's real comfort, it's real
instruction, it's real daily instruction. for real people,
for real people. This is not pie-in-the-sky kind
of teaching and doctrine that we
think, well, it doesn't really apply to people like me. This
is just kind of like the way it should be, but it really isn't
this way in the world. This instruction was written
to real people with real needs, really and truly. pointing them
to Christ. Look what Paul says in verse
21. But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do, Tychicus,
a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make
known to you all things, whom I've sent unto you for the same
purpose, that ye might know our affairs and that he might comfort
your hearts. Peace be to the brethren, and
love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all thee. that
love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. These are real
folks. Real people living in the real
world. Here they were down there in
Ephesus, and they wondered, how's Paul doing? This is awful for
him. How's he doing down there in
that prison? I mean, what's he doing? Paul's sitting in prison,
thinking about those brethren down there in Ephesus. He wonders.
How are they doing? God sent me there to establish
that church, to preach the gospel to them. We've ordained elders
and a pastor, and false teachers are just running around everywhere.
Boy, especially now that they know I'm in prison, false teachers
are going everywhere trying to get everybody to look away from
Christ, to combine grace and law, and he's just wondering,
how are they? Are they compromising? Are they
staying faithful? Are they preaching Christ? Are
they looking to Christ? Whatever time maybe they met together
on Sunday morning at 10 o'clock, Paul's looking and said, well,
they're starting to preach now. They're gathering together to
worship. It's the Lord blessing them. So he sent Tychicus to
tell them how Paul's doing, what's going on. And he's going to come
back and tell Paul how they're doing there in the church. These
are real people. And Paul wrote this letter to
real people with real instruction. to point us to Christ. And we're
closing the epistle on prayer. What can be a more everyday instruction
to real people than prayer? Talking to our Father. All right,
well, God bless that too.