Given the dangers about which Paul warned the Ephesian church, it's no wonder that he emphasizes the importance of prayer here at the end of his letter. He warned them of the danger of the thinking and philosophy and ethics of the society in which they lived. We read that before in chapter four where he gave them that imperative, no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, but put on Christ. He had warned them of the sinfulness that they continued to wrestle with. We saw that in chapter four as well, in verses 25 and on, where he rebuked lying and sinful anger and evil speech and sexual immorality and impurity of all sorts and foolishness and drunkenness and rebellion. and then laid out the positive side of each one of those in speaking the truth, in controlling one's anger, in having speech that imparted grace, sexual purity, walking in love and in wisdom. And then lastly, he warned them of the opposition of the evil one and of his wicked conspirators. We saw that first in chapter 2, where he referred to the evil one as the prince of the power of the air and the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. And we saw it again the last couple of weeks as we've looked at that section where he mentioned in chapter 6 and verse 11 and 12, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for we wrestle We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against these principalities and against powers and against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. So the world and the flesh and the devil. That's a theme you're familiar with. He mentions these because against these, they had no natural or native power. And they must rely upon Jesus, who has all power, so that even these enemies serve His purposes and accomplish His ordained will. So they needed knowledge of Christ and an active faith in Christ, much as He mentions there in chapter 6 and verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. The devil and his band of wicked warriors assailed all those in Ephesus who believed the doctrines that we have read and studied through. Those who labored to implement the practices that were taught by their Redeemer King in this epistle. These were implacable, untiring enemies, and so Paul called the members of this church to battle these enemies with all their might and with all the means the Lord gave them. Now, I really believe that the means are more obvious than the enemies, and so that's naturally his concentration focus throughout the whole book. But he laid out before them the things that we have just read. And then in verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." They have enemies who want them to fall, who work to make them fall, who work to destroy them. And so here is Paul's call to the church to persevere in the things that he had taught them, to living out the faith together as disciples, of Jesus Christ, the great Savior. And on that basis, then, to engage in the spiritual combat that spiritual growth and spiritual faithfulness always, always involve. Well, this brought us then to these next verses that we looked at last week. Paul's description of the Christian's armor, the church's armor, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." All this accoutrement that was necessary if they would wage war in this battle and stay facing their enemies And as they went through one combat, they were still standing ready to go into the next. Now to this, Paul added another essential means of grace. Pray. Praying. Prayer. We pick it up in verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Let's pray that God might help us understand this better. Our Father in Heaven, we bow before you this morning, as has already been mentioned, aware of our sacred obligation and yet seeing it as our greatest privilege to gather together as your people, to come before you in prayer, with worship and thanksgiving, with repentance and confession, with all of our supplications for those who are in authority over us, for those of our membership who are ill and struggling with sometimes unknown difficulties, supplications for the blessing of the preaching and teaching of Your Word today, that the hymns and the praying and the reading of the Scriptures would encourage Your people. We come together, Father. We want to mention those who cannot be with us today, that You might especially strengthen them. if they are holding out from us with sinful reasons that you would rebuke them, that they might look upon their Savior and His great love, His shed blood, His wonderful work might move them in obedience, that we here who have gathered might be strengthened. Father, we make it our prayer this morning, as we do week in and week out, that You would hinder the evil one, that You would make us alert to the lusts of the flesh that war against us even now as we've gathered at this time to worship You together, that You would overcome the things of this world that attract us and influence us Deceive us. Father, help us to do what the Apostle commanded the Ephesian church so long ago. To right now, not walk as the Gentiles walk. For we have not so learned Christ. But to put our Savior on. To walk in His ways. To be moved by the preaching of the Word, to renew it in the spirit of the mind, to put on the new man which is created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Father, we pray, asking that You would do the work. You sent Your Son, Your apostles and prophets, the evangelists, And now the pastors and teachers of the church, to accomplish Christ's Word might move swiftly with effectiveness and power. Building up the saints in the faith and calling those who are still in rebellion to repentance and faith in our great Savior. In His name we seek your face. In His name we make our thanksgiving and praises known. We bring our supplications before you knowing that we are received because He is so great and He is so thorough in His salvation because He is so acceptable and welcome to you that we are welcomed as He is. Hear our prayers now. Teach us. Bring us to confession and repentance. Cause us to rejoice in our dear Savior. In His name we pray, Amen. The order of thought here as we look at Ephesians 6 laid out, I think E.D. in his commentary gave us a good brief explanation. The order of thought is make preparation. Take the armor. Stand, fight, and all the while, pray. Now, that's kind of a good summary of what we're going to look at today. Here's the flow of Paul's instruction. Having taken the doctrine and commandments that I've laid out in this letter, prepare to be opposed. It's required that you learn to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might, because you face formidable enemies, scheming, deceptive enemies who oppose God and oppose God's people. And of course, then we know by the Spirit they oppose you. They oppose me. They oppose us as a congregation. It's as if Paul goes on then to say, do not turn your back on them, but face them with your full outfit of the doctrine of Christ that's been given to you. Know and embrace His doctrine, His promises, His commands as your provision, personally and corporately. Make sure that every member understands and believes these things. Take care to notice the needs of those next to you and with you. Be ready to immediately go to your fellow members' aid. For only in this way will your church be successful in spiritual combat. Now, having said these things, Paul's then next imperative that he laid out was the essential to this successful waging of spiritual warfare. And that essential is praying. praying. Now, basically this morning, I have been three points to my message. First of all, biblical praying, I want to define that, talk about that, put it in its context, biblical praying. Secondly. That. Biblical praying is essential. To effective preaching of the gospel, If you want to put it in shorthand, just use the word essential. Biblical praying is essential to the preaching of the gospel. And then lastly, biblical praying is essential to perseverance against our enemies. So biblical praying defined, biblical praying essential to preaching, biblical praying essential to perseverance. That's the basic outline of what I want to cover today. Number one, Paul's final command to them was a distinctively Christian command, and that is that they are to practice biblical praying. As he says here. Verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Now, there's some things that are assumed there's an essential element here in and if we're going to persevere in pursuing personal holiness, the things that he's laid out in this book, if we're going to persevere in combating our enemies, there must be a discipline of mind. They must discipline their minds to constant praying to the Father with faith in His Word. Now, that's the idea of biblical praying. Biblical praying is not just repeating chants. It's not just rituals gone through. There's something more dynamic to it. The disciplining of their minds to constant praying to the Father with faith in His Word. And I don't know which of those I would say that I could emphasize over the other. They've all got to be part of this. The unwritten assumption at this point was their faith. Their faith in what? What they've already been taught in this epistle. Their faith in the eternal love of the Father for them. Who's going to pray? who does not know they're greatly loved. Their faith in the accomplishments of their Savior, Jesus, on their behalf. Who's going to pray? They don't know that they've been rescued and made fit to come before God in prayer. So then this must be a constant occupation with them. Knowledge of this that moves them to address Him. They prayed with faith in Christ, that He is by His justifying and reconciling and authoritative power presenting them and their prayers to the Father who before creation chose them to this salvation in Christ. You see, this praying, always with all prayers, not just an interjection at this point, it brings with it And I'm trying to use this in a positive way. It brings with it some baggage. The baggage goes all the way back to chapter 1. Blessed with all spiritual blessings. What? That the Father chose us in Christ. That Christ redeemed us in all those things that we've already studied. This praying was the constant recognition by faith of the presence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Again, chapter 1, right there at the beginning, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. The Father moved with them, present with them, constantly abiding with them in this Love that He's explaining to them in chapter 1. The Son redeeming. So if they are adopted, it says here, predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. His Son present with us. Present with them. There. The Spirit. He goes on to speak in verse 13 and 14, who sealed, they were sealed with the promise, with the Holy Spirit of promises, the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of His glory. This praying was in constant. There was a constant recognition of by faith of the presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It was very much based on what we had already studied and read in chapter 3. In verse 16, Paul says here, he bowed his knees and he prayed to the Father. What did he pray? That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man. The Spirit is there. The Spirit indwelling. The Spirit who could be grieved. He's constantly present. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that dwelling, that idea of Christ constantly there, His love constantly present with them and their need. What does he say here? That Christ should dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted in ground and love may be able to comprehend with all the saints was the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge and that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." These were not just something that were points in time, actions that once took place and that's it. They're gone, forgotten. No, there's an ongoing aspect of the presence of the triune God with each one of them that undergirded this imperative praying always. Faith in what God had revealed in the text. Although physically and empirically imperceptible, by faith in His Word, God was sensed by them. God was known to be present God was known to be listening. The triune God was very active in them personally and corporately. In love, planning, saving, including, instructing, motivating, reasoning, counseling, encouraging, rewarding. This is what's underlying this imperative that he gave them here at the end of this epistle, praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit. This is biblical praying. You can't have biblical praying without faith in God and what He has revealed about Himself. Paul called these believing members of the church to respond by prayer to God's activity. Praying always with all prayer and supplication. This is that instruction, that imperative of constant praying. Now, I'm going to say more about this before I finish today. Constant praying. He met informally, informally, privately and corporately, in every circumstance, at every occasion, regarding every relationship. members. He addressed the members of that church in chapter four, beginning there, especially in verse 17 through the end of that chapter four through chapter five and into verse 21 and how they were to submit to one another. How in the world? Would they do that if they weren't praying constantly? How would wives learn to submit to husbands and husbands leave their wives in a similar way that Christ leads his church if they weren't praying. So he meant these kind of things. It's constant praying. He included thanksgiving, praise. I think that's what he's talking about when he says praying always with all prayer. Praise, thanksgiving, adoration, recitation of promises and commands. And then with all various kinds of supplications, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. This meant that they were to discipline themselves. Now, that almost sounds contradictory, doesn't it? If you're in the spirit, what does that have to do with my discipline? It has everything to do with it. This is what the abiding presence of the Spirit does in the believer. There's not some kind of mystical magic going on. Certainly, there is grace moving. But by this, they were to discipline. He meant by this that they were to discipline themselves consciously to their need of the Holy Spirit and His abiding presence with them individually and as a congregation of disciples, aware that He had brought them to faith. He had resurrected them from the dead. That He had sealed them so that they would rely on Him in praying. Relying on the Spirit. In other words, active in prayer because He is active in them. Maintaining them in Christ. Keeping them alive in Christ and united to Christ. There's that constant thinking. I pray because I have the Holy Spirit of God. indwelling me, relying on Him in praying, because praying in submission to Christ's Word that had been revealed to them, the apostles' preaching and teaching, was essential to this praying. And only the Spirit could give that understanding and give grace to remember They were to rely on the Spirit in praying, that is, to make their prayers known and effective to the Father because of the merits of Christ. Almost every commentator at this point takes you right back to Romans 8, where Paul spoke to the Romans of the Spirit praying for them, interceding for them. praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful. Paul commanded them to remain alert by self-denial to continual prayer. There's an ongoing aspect to this watchfulness, this alertness to the practice of self-denial. Each believer and the whole church needed to pray always, recognizing that they lived in His loving and gracious presence and they lived in the face of constant, unrelenting opposition. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end. He impressed on them the ever-present and profound need for them to always pray. I'm going to say this, you have to work with me a little bit on this one, as a new way of occupying their thoughts as they went about their daily activities. In other words, in many ways, he's rocked their world. Let me see if I can illustrate this a moment. Let's imagine the married woman. She's heard the Gospel of Christ. She's come to faith in Christ. She's been born in, lived in, grown up in, all she knows is pagan Ephesus. And Paul has said, wives, submit yourselves to your husbands. as Christ does to the church. Do you think that rocked her world? I think it turned her world upside down. Me? Submit to this guy? Do you really know him? Can you imagine this just for a moment? She must take on an entirely new way of thinking. And part of it we have in this imperative right here, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance. You see, this whole issue, you can take every one of the imperatives, you can look at them Chapter 4, verse 17, do not walk like the Gentiles. Walk all the way through to put on the whole armor of God. All these imperatives, one after another, stacked one upon another. They are impossible without prayer. Without being bathed in prayer, without being repeated in prayer, without seeking God's grace in prayer, it's just not going to happen. And so this imperative then followed. The instruction he gave about the opposition they faced. This is biblical praying. Praying with that assumption of the work of God, that assumption of the presence of God, that assumption of the activity of God and the responding to that and these things that he says here that I've just covered. So they were commanded to practice biblical praying. Secondly, they must understand that biblical praying was essential to fulfilling the purpose of God in the preaching of the gospel. He says there, for all the saints and for me, persevere in supplication for all the saints and for me that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." I want to key in on that concern of his to make known the mystery of the gospel. Biblical praying is essential to fulfilling the purpose of God in the preaching of the gospel. Biblical praying was necessary to the effective preaching of Christ's Word in the church and in the world. If that Word was to freely run its intended course in saving elect sinners, they must pray. If that Word was to be obeyed unto sanctification to make disciples of Christ holy, They must pray. If that word was to be fulfilled in the unity and edification of the Ephesian church, they must pray. If that word was to have its divinely intended effectiveness in spite of their enemies, they must pray. There is no option here. It's not going to be done without their praying. Let's look at it from this direction of who he told them to pray for. He says here in verse 18, praying always with all prayer and supplication of the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Paul required them to pray regularly for fellow church members. for all the saints, for their pastors, for all the saints, for their sister churches. He's going to mention here in just a few minutes that Tychicus, my beloved brother and faithful minister of the Lord, will make things known to you. What's going on with Paul? What's going on in the other churches? In other words, As a member prayed for himself, he prayed for other saints. Each of these disciples needed perseverance to increase their understanding of the Lord's word of doctrine and practice. As Paul instructed in the epistle, each of these disciples needed courage to successfully oppose their enemies. If they were to persevere in sound doctrine and be courageous against their enemies, they must pray for one another for the word to have its effect. Without which they would not persevere and they would not be courageous and the word would not have its effect. And then he adds there, and for me. Even the apostle was vulnerable to spiritual and earthly opposition. Even the apostle needed the praying of God's people to see the preaching of the word made effective. Let me come at it backwards a little bit. Their need was more profound than they realized. Their need was unknown to them without the revelation of the Scripture. We would all agree with that. But Paul makes even another emphasis here. Even he needed Christ. Even he had no real strength against the enemies of the gospel. If that was true for the apostle, was it not true for every one of them? Is that not still true for us today? But with this, in this praying, there is inherent this concept that the Lord's provision was more thorough than their need. Pray. Pray always. Don't give up praying. Don't stop praying. No matter how you're opposed, pray. No matter how difficult perseverance is, pray. Because the Lord's provision was more thorough than their need. And it would not be had without prayer. And Paul puts himself in that context that he needed the Lord's people to pray for the Lord's provision if he was to be to see success in his preaching. If he was to retain boldness and clarity. Let's look at these phrases here just for moments, he says here in verse 19, that utterance may be given to me. That's the Spirit's aid in clearly communicating the saving and freeing Word of Christ. Some have wondered, because of that word, utterance, if what he is saying here is something similar to what Christ promised the apostles in Matthew 10. He told the apostles, don't worry about what you will say when they bring you before the magistrate. And so Paul prays, pray for me that utterance may be given to me. They may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Paul required their praying. Not because he was no meaning and like to put upon human beings the difficulty of praying because praying is difficult. Because the success of his entire ministry rested on people praying and the Spirit working as He preached and taught. He says that I might open my mouth boldly and speak boldly, as He says in verse 20, as I ought to speak, preaching and teaching Christ's Word with courage in spite of the immediate opposition, with no fear of man and no fear of the outcome of His trial. that regardless of where he's at in this whole appeal process, he'll be able to speak with courage. And he uses that phrase to make known the mystery of the Gospel. That he might make known the message of Christ. Christ and His work on the cross. Christ and His work in resurrection and ascension and present reign. That work that's only known by the revelation of Christ and His apostles. That message that must be received by faith. It looks like a mystery. It is a mystery to the flesh. But not to Paul, not to the Ephesian church and not to us who walk with Christ. We know there's a requirement of the work of the spirit here and we must pray to these ends. And for me, he says, pray for me. So they're commanded to practice biblical praying. Biblical praying is essential to the profitable preaching of the Word of Christ. And then thirdly, that biblical praying is essential to persevere. They needed to understand that every believer and every church member and every preacher needs God's people to practice biblical praying, to persevere against the opposition to Christ's Word. Now, here's the phrase I want you to key in here. Verse 20, for which I am an ambassador in chains. For which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray for me that I'll have courage, clarity of utterance in preaching and teaching, to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains." It is obvious that the organized earthly powers that opposed the preaching of the Gospel and the progress of Christ's church were more powerful than the Ephesian church. What they faced in the powers of this world was greater than their own power. At least, their fleshly power. their physical power. But that's really not a problem, is it? Because we do not war against flesh and blood. We must realize something, though. It's not so obvious that the spiritual opposition was even more powerful. That spiritual opposition deceived the earthly powers and moved them in their opposition to Paul and to the churches of Christ. E.D. explained the problem this way, the person of an ambassador is by international law sacred and inviolable. And yet Paul, a legate from the mightiest sovereignty, charged with an embassy of unparalleled nobleness and urgency, and bearing with him the credentials of unmistakable authenticity, is detained in captivity. He's an ambassador in chains. The earthly powers opposed him. The spiritual powers opposed him. And so what's Paul's solution to all this? Pray for me. Pray for me. If the ambassador of the King of Kings is in chains, what will happen to his message? It's not dependent upon his earthly freedom. Isn't that a wonderful message? Pray for me. How would the lesser citizens hope to fare in this world if the highest representative was jailed? Not a problem. Pray for me. Rather than despair, rather than ask for temporal relief, Paul asks that they pray for the progress of Christ's word through God's earthly minister. In this way, Paul assured them that the same power of God that sent him, that was Christ coming to them in Paul's preaching, as we read in chapter 2, that was exercised in raising them from the dead and uniting them to Christ, was working in them and would work in Paul. Pray for me. I'm an ambassador. I'm in chains. But pray that the Word will have its progress and we'll all persevere against this opposition. The power of Christ in the mystery of God's grace would make the apostles work effective even in the face of overpowering opposition. And that was of great assurance to the church. And great encouragement to the Ephesian members to pray for one another and to pray for Paul. So they were commanded to practice biblical praying. They were taught that prayer is essential, essential to profitable preaching of Christ's word. And they were taught that perseverance, praying excuse me, biblical praying was essential to perseverance against the opposition they face. Well, there's much to learn here. May God give you grace. But let me make a few applications out of this to us today. Number one, you and I need to pray to our Father in Heaven more than we realize. We need prayer, biblical prayer, persevering prayer more than we realize. We need to come before our Father more than we realize we need this. It's not naturally perceived. We need to pray to Him for salvation. We need to pray to Him to know Him. We need to pray to Him to profit from the ordinary means of grace, especially the preaching of the Word of Christ. We need to pray to understand our doctrine and to increase in holiness. We need to pray to maintain spiritual health, to oppose enemies, to keep from sin, to love our neighbors, fellow church members, family members, our boss and fellow employees. These are our closest neighbors, fellow students at school. We need to pray if any of this is to be done. We need to pray always. This is biblical praying. Praying with faith in what God revealed. Praying with confidence in electing love. Praying with confidence in gracious redemption. Praying with confidence and knowledge, active knowledge of the Spirit's indwelling. Not because you feel Him. Not because of any way He is tangible to you. But because of your faith in the Word of Christ preached and given to you. Praying as Christ taught. Because He loves and remains with us. We could spend a lot of time, couldn't we, going through the different prayers of the Scriptures from the Psalms to the Gospels and through the Epistles. These will give substance to your prayers. But the main issue is as you hear, as you read, as you meditate on the Scriptures, pray, pray, pray. that the Word will have progress and that you will persevere and we will persevere as a congregation. You need to pray to the Father more than you realize. Secondly, instead of behaving like unbelievers do, as if there is no God and as if they have no Savior, discipline yourself to pray all the time. all the time. You see, the unbelieving really don't have a reason to pray. So what do they do? They just kind of cry out when they're in danger. It doesn't mean anything to them. They really don't know who He is. They really don't know His wisdom and His goodness and His love and His care, do they? But you do pray all the time. There is no situation in which you may find yourself that it would be inappropriate to pray. Your Father in Heaven, your Savior ruling, and the Spirit indwelling are always with and active in you. You know that by faith in the text. I've said this before. I'll say it again, I'm sure. You don't look like you've been blessed with every heavenly and spiritual blessing. But I know for a fact that is true. Not because I want it to be. Not because you deserve it or earned it. Because the text says so to all believers in Christ. God is active. You need to pray all the time. Do not allow yourself the habit of wasting precious moments in idleness of thought or in constantly pursuing entertainment or the ends of your business without praying. You need to pray all the time. Make praying about everything a habit. Look what the text says, praying always. Should we pray on Sunday when we gather together? Yes, we should. Should we have a prayer meeting where we pray, especially for missionaries and pastors and fellow church members and all the different things we're concerned about and we pray for the preaching of the word? Yes, we should. Should we have a pastoral prayer when we gather together for worship? Yes, we should. But we ought to pray all the time. We ought to work at making a habit of our thinking. You make it a habit of your thinking to pray all the time about everything. Learn to speak to your Father in Christ's name as a habit of thought. When you read, when you watch, when you listen, when you talk, make praying an integral part of all of your thinking. This will take discipline. This will take practice. The text says praying always. I don't know how to get around this. I don't want to get around this. I've learned this is one of the great blessedness of being a Christian. is I have access to the Father all the time. And I can pray about everything all the time. The only thing I get sad about is when I realize I've been moving along and I haven't been praying. Because I have this great privilege. He's not intermittent in His activity and presence. Why would you be intermittent in your praying? Make it a part of your life. We need to pray in the morning when we wake, during the day as we work, play, eat, relax, study, when you go to bed, when you wake up in the night, when you're on vacation, when you attend a birth, a wedding or a funeral, all day, every day, pray. Learn to pray. We need to pray when we talk, when we text, when we email, when we message others, when we encourage or correct, when we instruct or discipline, when we reveal or conceal. In all communication, in all thoughts of love or hate, pray all the time in submission to the Word, based upon the Word, seeking what the Word teaches. Thirdly, You need to pray to the Father more than you realize. You need to pray all the time. Thirdly, quit believing you can live your life for Christ or we can prosper as a congregation without this. Quit believing you can live your life for Christ and we can prosper as a congregation without constantly praying. It's not going to happen. This is essential. Your need of God's presence, God's instruction, God's correction and God's gracious power is more constant than your need for oxygen or brain activity or a properly functioning circulatory, nervous and respiratory systems. You need God more than life itself. Pray. Pray. Your enjoyment of these depends largely on the constant atmosphere and activity of biblical praying, coming to God with faith in what He has revealed about Himself and all things. And praying, you'll grow to understand that better and better and better. Even the all-important need to understand and meditate on Christ's Word, the very bread of spiritual life, rests on prayer, and the Father's answers to your praying and our praying. If we're going to prosper and grow, folks, we've got to be praying people. The opposition is not easily dealt with. And you beware of the world you live in. You live in a world that is increasing and it's unbelief. Ignorance is not bliss. You see, you live in a world, it's almost like you think if it's not, it's not true if I don't see it. It's not there if I don't see it. It doesn't exist. Listen, that's not true about God. It's not true about his love and neither is it true about the evil one and all his conspirators. They hate you. They war against you. They want to destroy you and they want you to live in sin and dishonor your Savior. You must pray, you're going to have spiritual health and we're going to prosper as a congregation. Lastly, we all need prayer from each other. for all of these same things. You need me praying for you. I need you praying for me. And each one of you need each other praying for you. For all the saints, he said. And for me, he said. Make use of your church directory. Make use of the weekly prayer sheet. You get it mailed to you. It's right there. You've got it on your smart phone, on your computer, whatever. Use the Arbka email update. Use your Facebook friends list. Whatever. Pray for all the saints and for me. Pray for the Gospel as it goes forth. Pray for believers that they might grow. Pray for ministers that they might know how to preach. Pray for perseverance for all of us. We all need your prayers. Pray as an individual. Pray as a family. Do not neglect prayer as the church together for God's purpose in His preached Word. Pray. Pray for your pastors and teachers that without fear, we would clearly proclaim the truth with courage. It's not going to happen if we're not praying together. May God give us grace.