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So, our sermon this morning comes
from Ephesians 6, verses 18 to 24. I'll go ahead and read the
sermon text. God's Word says, Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for 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, and therein I may speak boldly as I ought
to speak." Amen. So, The context of these verses
come right after the Apostle Paul had just written on the
armor of God that we are to put on in order to combat Satan,
the world, the flesh, and spiritual warfare. He exhorts us that we
are to gird our loins with the belt of truth, which holds all
of the other pieces of armor together. or to have on the breastplate
of righteousness, because if you don't have godliness in the
Christian life, you will not have the integrity and the conviction
that you need to fight the fight. We are to have our feet shod
with the preparation that comes from the gospel of peace, that
we may be ready for any situation. When the Lord says, move, we
would be ready to move. When he says, do this, we would
be ready to do it. When he says, get rid of this,
we would be ready to do it. We are to take on the shield
of faith, trusting in the Lord always to be able to extinguish
the fiery darts of the wicked. And we are to have the helmet
of salvation. We are to know who we are in
Christ, where we stand before him as forgiven, as righteous. We are to know the gospel and
be sure of our salvation. And finally, we are to take the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, because we are
not just to be on the defensive, but we are to be on the offensive
against Satan and his schemes. We are to take every thought
captive in obedience to Christ, in obedience to his word. It
is the sword of the word which faithfully wounds the people
of God to sanctify us in our life. And today, we are going
to take a look at another indispensable part of the Christian life. And though it is not mentioned
as part of the armor of God, well, perhaps we can call it
the secret weapon of the Christian. It is the weapon of prayer. The
weapon of prayer, and it's one that Paul says we are to use
always. where to use it always and in
various ways says praying always with all prayer and supplication
in the spirit now if you are using if you're always using
something that it must be something that is indispensable and irreplaceable. We can't do without it. Think
of those things which you use all the time. Perhaps some of
you are on your cell phone all the time. You use it to make
calls, you use it to send text messages, for social media, for
your calculator, your calendar, for voice notes, you name it,
even to read the scriptures. Perhaps some of you are reading
the scriptures on it this morning. And in like manner, prayer is
something that we should be using all the time in every circumstance
and context and for various things. Now, if we're going to be praying
all the time and using it in various kinds of ways, then we
should define it. We should define what is prayer.
And some of you might say, well, we know what it is. But really,
do we? Do we know what it is? Because for some people, prayer is not
what you think it is. For some people, it's repeating
words that are written in a book. Anglicans, for example, they
have the Book of Common Prayer that they use for various circumstances. Catholics, they also have prescribed
prayers that they repeat. over and over to achieve a specific
result. In Jesus's day, there were people
who babbled and lifted up incoherent words to God. Perhaps you see
that in the charismatic movement with speaking in tongues. For
some, it's heaping up a plethora of nice-sounding biblical words
to God, hoping that if you do that well enough, Jesus might
have mercy on you. But no, he warns us, against
us, as we read in Matthew 6. He says, but when we pray, or
when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking. So if everyone
knew what prayer was, Jesus would not feel the need to instruct
us on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, correct? The Westminster
Larger Catechism says this about prayer. It says, prayer is an
offering up of our desires unto God in the name of Christ by
the help of his spirit with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgement
of his mercies. Okay, so with that said, let's
focus our attention. I apologize. I got my notes double-sided
this morning. It's all good. The Lord is merciful.
Prayer expresses our need for God, saints. It recognizes that
he is the source of every good thing that we have. Prayer comes to God in faith
through the Lord Jesus Christ. I like what John Calvin said,
he said, to call upon God is the chief exercise of faith and
hope. And it is in this way that we
obtain from God every blessing. Wow, we obtain every blessing
from God through prayer. And if prayer is in part, us
petitioning the Lord for things and the way in which we obtain
every blessing from God, then we cannot afford not to pray,
can we, saints? We cannot afford to go without
it. If we don't pray, then surely we must be missing out on something. If prayer is the way we receive
all kinds of good things from God, then, saints, we better
be praying. And in this sermon, I want us
to look at what it means when Paul says in Ephesians 6 that
we are to pray always in the Spirit. And number two, I want
us to see what he means when he says lift up all kinds of
prayers and supplications. And third, I want us to see what
it means to be watchful and persevere for all the saints in prayer.
So with that said, let's focus our attention on the first part
of verse 18, which says, Praying always. Praying always with all
prayer and supplication in the Spirit. The Apostle Paul, Saints,
was a man who emphasized the importance of constant prayer
in all situations. It's not just this passage. He
tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. He told them
elsewhere, night and day, I pray exceedingly that we might see
your face. So he said, I'm praying night
and I'm praying in the day. He says, we give thanks to God,
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. He says elsewhere, for this cause,
we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for
you. And another place he says, cease,
I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers. But when is it that most of us
pray, saints? Is it always and all the time? Or is it when we are in a really
bad spot and we really need something? Is that when we go to the Lord
in prayer? For some of us it is, unfortunately, but the Bible
teaches us that we are to be people of prayer. Our lives are
to be saturated with prayer. We are always to be praising
and exalting God for who he is. We are always to be thanking
God for the abundant blessings that he pours on us daily, right? We are also always to be petitioning
God for a need of some kind, either for our own, or for our
family, or for the saints, or even for the lost. And we are
always to be confessing our sins before him as the Psalms and
other parts of scriptures teach us. We are to be praying without
ceasing. Now, does this mean that we should
just, you know, every second of the day, should I become a
monk, you know, quit my job? and maybe move somewhere quiet,
separated from everyone so I can just devote myself to prayer.
No, of course not. But it does mean that we should
be very busy with prayer. Now, one challenge to this exhortation
is that prayer can be hard. Why? Why is prayer hard? Because
it's something that you have to be intentional about and you
have to be disciplined with. And now, this is crazy because
we think of other things that we need and we don't say, those
things are hard, right? Do we forget to eat? No, I did
not walk out of Elder Nick's house today without breakfast.
I would not be standing here before you right now. We don't
forget to brush our teeth, right? We don't forget to drink coffee,
at least I don't. If I do, I have a bad day. We don't forget to
look at our phone and check our messages in the morning. But
if we are going to be people that pray always, we must recognize
that it is something that we cannot survive without. We cannot. It is indispensable. We have
to understand its importance. Sometimes when Christians tell
me that they're struggling spiritually, they're in a rut, you know, my
affections for God just aren't there. I feel apathetic. I inquire
about their prayer life. and ask them how that's going,
because someone who makes prayer a non-negotiable part of their
day, they don't have time for that kind of attitude. They recognize,
I need the Lord. I need to go to Him. And if they're
going to overcome any obstacle in their life, it's not gonna
be without God's help. We have to recognize that. Psalm 62, six through seven,
He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I shall not
be moved. In God is my salvation and my
glory, the rock of my strength, and my refuge is in God. Do you know that about God, saints?
Is God your rock? Is He your defense? You know,
you might read it on the page, but do you know it in your heart?
Is this your heart's cry? Because if we did know that,
if we did know it inwardly, then we would pray more, right? Now
getting back to the discipline of prayer, scripture teaches
us and gives us the example of starting our day with prayer. Starting our day with prayer,
Psalm 5.3. David says, My voice shalt thou hear in the morning,
O Lord. In the morning will I direct
my prayer unto thee, and I will look up. And in the morning is
mentioned twice in this verse. Why the morning? Well, prayer
in the morning before you do just about anything else will
help ingrain in your mind that you need to depend on God entirely
for everything. If you can remember to do that,
you will feel weird when you don't pray in the morning. You'll
be like, man, I forgot. I forgot to pray this morning.
I better do it right now. It'll bother you until you do it. In
the morning, we should pray for everything we need, right? Jesus
said, give us this day our daily bread. Now, when are we gonna
pray that? Are we gonna pray it at 2 p.m.?
The day's already gone. I've already had my daily bread,
at least most of it. No, we should probably pray that
in the morning, right? We should be praying in the morning
for everything that could potentially happen that day. The Lord taught
us to pray, lead us not into temptation and deliver us from
evil. Are you going to pray that at
the end of the day or are you going to pray that at the beginning
of the day when all the temptations are before you and all of the
evil is potentially before you? It sounds like I want to start
my day like that. We are to pray in the morning
for strength for that day. God is the rock of my strength,
David says. The rock of my strength. The
Lord is my strength and song. We should pray in the morning
to set the tone for our day. Get your mind and your heart
in the right place and on the right things. And when that's
right, you'll be able to deal with other things rightly. We
should pray in the morning to give glory to God and humble
ourselves before his mighty hand. Think about it. When we thank
God in the morning, we are acknowledging that he is the reason why we
are alive that day. We did not get up and have life
another day because we willed ourselves to do that. No, God
holds our life in his hands. In Hebrews, it says that Jesus
is keeping the world going. He's holding all things together
by the power of his word. We are acknowledging that he
has been merciful to us and granting us another day. We're acknowledging
that he is in control. And saints, can we really, can
we do anything apart from God? No, the answer is no, we cannot.
Therefore, what better time to pray than in the morning? In
John 15, five, Jesus reminds us of this. He says, I am the
vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in
him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye
can do nothing. Nothing. Do you believe that?
Do you believe that, Saints? Do we believe that we need God
as much as He says that we need Him? And if we do, then we should
be praying always. And I want to challenge you,
Saints, this morning, that if praying is not part of your morning
routine, start. Start tomorrow. Start as soon
as possible, whether you feel like it or not. Some people say,
well, I'm not going to pray. I don't feel like praying. Therefore,
their feelings dictate what they do. Now, God didn't say, come
to me when you feel like it, or when you get that urge, or
else it's legalism. No. We go to the Lord every morning
because we need Him. We need to go to Him, not because
our feelings tell us yea or nay. Make it part of your routine.
Psalm 86 3 says, Be merciful unto me, O Lord, for I cry unto
thee daily. Daily, saints. Now, not only do I challenge
you to pray daily and regularly, but I challenge you to pray expectantly. Anticipating an answer from God
to your prayer. Expect him to answer Psalm 62
5 my soul Wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from
him Wow, you mean we're actually to expect
that something's gonna happen after we pray Yeah, the Bible
teaches that Psalm 5 3 again says my voice shouts out here
in the morning Oh Lord in the morning. Will I direct my prayer
unto thee and I will look up Look up. Yeah, I'm gonna pray
and And I'm gonna look and wait for God to hear and answer and
respond to my prayer. We should not only be praying
always with our mouths, but we should be sending those prayers
up to God through Jesus Christ with an expectation to be blessed. Look up, saints. Psalm 53 in
the Psalter, in the 1650 Psalter, reads this way. I love that.
I love how that reads. Christians should be the most
hopeful people because we have this secret weapon of prayer. We have bold access to the throne
of God through our Lord Jesus Christ saints. We have his ear. Why would we not expect an answer?
Ephesians 3.12 says that in Christ, we have
boldness and access with confidence by faith in him. Wow, that's
a good string of words to encourage you to pray. Boldness, access,
confidence, faith. We should approach God that way.
This verse shows us the importance of the helmet of salvation. We
need to pray in light of our armor, correct? We need to take
up the shield of faith and believe verses like John 14, 13 and 14. And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in
the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my
name, I will do it. And if this is true, brothers
and sisters, children, then let us pray always. Let us pray always. Let us take advantage of this
access that we have to God as children of God. Scriptures say that the sacrifice
of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of
the upright is his delight. He wants you to do it. He delights
in your prayers if you are in Christ. If you're struggling
against sin, saints, pray. Pray. God delights in your prayer.
He says, I am your strength. Come to me. I will help you. And an answer expects things.
If you're struggling financially, yes, you can pray for that, too.
You can pray for that, too. He hath given meat unto them
that fear him, the scriptures say. Psalm 111, five. He will never, or he will ever
be mindful of his covenant. Saints, if you're struggling
with your health, yes, the Bible teaches that you should pray
for that as well. James 5, 13. Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. And the prayer
of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him
up. And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven
him. Confess your faults one to another
and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." You can bring down a lot of blessings
if you are a righteous person praying because God delights
in those prayers and he tells us we have bold access to him
through Christ. Now, something else that can
be said about praying always is the different contexts in
which we are to pray. Right? Scriptures say that we
should be praying alone and in private. That's one of the ways
and one of the contexts in which we are to pray. We're not just
to pray when we show up on Sundays. We're not just to pray when somebody
says, hey, let's pray together or for our meal with our family.
No, we should be praying privately. Matthew 6, 6 says, But thou,
when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast
shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father
which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. So, saints, let
me ask you, do you have a private prayer time? Do you have one? Again, I challenge you to make
this a part of your life if you do not. Christianity is more
than just absorbing information. Right? More than just gaining
knowledge, getting a big head. No, it is reliance on and surrender
to God. And the Bible also teaches us
that we shouldn't just pray privately, we should pray with our families.
We should pray with our families if you have one. Thomas Brooks
said, a family without prayer is like a house without a roof,
open and exposed to all the storms of heaven. We should be praying
at home. your wife, with your husband,
with your children. We are to worship together at
home. And this can be seen in scriptures
like Genesis 18. Abraham was to command his children in his
household after them that they may keep the way of the Lord.
Surely, saints, that included praying. is unthinkable to think
that it did not. Deuteronomy 6 teaches, when thou
shalt teach them diligently, speaking of the law of God, unto
thy children, and shalt talk of them, when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down,
and when thou risest up. Joshua 24, as for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord. So we, as a house, we worship
God together, we serve the Lord together, we pray together. If all you're doing is reading
together or doing, you know, catechism together, you're missing
out big time on blessings from the Lord. come together. Thomas Doolittle says, you that
are masters of family, so speaking of you, if you are a husband,
if you are a father, if you're a master of a family, he said,
would you have your children and your servants know these
things and be affected with them? Would you have impressions made
upon their minds and hearts of the great concernments of their
souls and therefore you do instruct them? But can you reach their
hearts? Can you awaken their consciences? No, you cannot. Fathers, we can't
do it by ourselves. There's no way we can raise a
godly house by ourselves. And just by giving them catechism
or even just reading the words of it, we must pray with them,
we must pray for them. And we must be an example of
prayer for our families. Thomas Doolittle continues, he
says, yet doth it not become you to pray to God with them
that he would do it. While you are praying jointly
with them, God may be secretly disposing and powerfully preparing
their hearts to receive his word and your instructions from it. Saints, again, God is the one
who is going to convert your children. You cannot do it by
yourself. You cannot. It's only the Holy
Spirit that can open their hearts and illuminate their minds. God
is the one who's going to soften your husband's hearts and wives
if your husband is someone who is perhaps not a believer. God
is the one that is going to guide and lead your family in paths
of righteousness for his name's sake. I have seen in my family,
personally, the Lord obviously working in response to prayer
as I see my kids growing in the faith, as myself and my wife
are growing in the Lord. There's been times where I pray,
and maybe the same day or the same week, I see the Lord softening
hearts or causing someone in our house to understand something
that they did not before. The Lord is real. God is real,
and He hears what you say to Him. Therefore, we should pray
to Him. Make it a part of your day to
pray together as a family during family worship time, before meals
in the morning, before bed. Just do it. Do it. We should also be praying with
our church. We should be praying with our church. This is one
of the instructions that Paul gave to Timothy about the church.
He says in 1 Timothy 2, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications
prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead
a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. Corporate prayer, saints, has
always been something that is vital to the church. A church
must pray together. must in Acts 2 42 we see this
example and they continued steadfastly in the apostles apostles doctrine
and fellowship and in breaking of bread in bread and in prayers
and prayers you know what's maybe not so
obvious to people is that the Lord's prayer teaches that we
should be praying together. Because when you say, our Father,
which art in heaven, you know, that says you're praying with
someone. You're praying with and for other people. You're
not just saying, he didn't just say, just pray my Father. He
said, pray our Father, which art in heaven. He says, give
us our daily bread, not just me. I'm not just praying by myself
and for myself. I'm remembering others and doing
it with others. Forgive our debts. So we pray
corporately for the forgiveness of our sins, perhaps the sins
that we commit together as a congregation. We have Old Testament examples
of this as well. In 2 Chronicles chapter 20, when
a great multitude was coming against the people of God, the
scripture says that Judah gathered themselves together to ask help
of the Lord. Even out of all the cities of
Judah, they came to seek the Lord. That's something that they
did together. And Jehoshaphat stood in the congregation of
Judah and Jerusalem in the house of the Lord before the new court
and he prayed. And in verse 13 it says, And
all Judah stood before the Lord with the little ones and their
wives and their children. were all to come together and
pray. And guess what? The Lord heard
their prayer. Look what it says in verse 15.
It says, and he said, hearken ye all Judah and ye inhabitants
of Jerusalem and thou King Jehoshaphat. Thus saith the Lord unto you,
be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude
for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow, go ye down against
them. Behold, they come up by the cliff
of Ziz, and ye shall find them at the end of the brook before
the wilderness of Jerul. Ye shall not, you shall, excuse
me, ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves,
stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah
and Jerusalem. Fear not, nor be dismayed. Tomorrow,
go out against them, for the Lord will be with you. and Jehoshaphat
bowed his head with his face to the ground and all Judah and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshiping
the Lord. Saints, if God before us, who
should be against us? Is not Jesus the one who said,
I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it? The church has no reason to feel
defeated. we have a mighty God who fights
our battles. The church has no reason to have
a negative outlook. Even on outreach, on perhaps
growing a church, we go to the Lord together and we depend on
him to do the work. The battle is the Lord's and
we must go to him together that we may have his blessing. Now,
Another aspect of praying always is that we are to pray in all
circumstances. We are to pray when we are prospering,
when everything's all good, and we are to pray when we are struggling. John Calvin said, when everything
flows on prosperously, when we are easy and cheerful, we seldom
feel any strong excitement to prayer. Or rather, we never flee
to God. But when we are driven by some
kind of distress, Paul therefore desires us to allow no opportunity
to pass, on no occasion to neglect So that praying always is the
same thing as praying both in prosperity and in adversity. We cannot let our guards down.
We can't. Are we doing well? Well, you
know what? Pray to God that you continue
to do well, saints. Pray that your heart would not
cease to see the need of God. Continue to thank God in your
prosperity. Continue to acknowledge Him in
all your ways in humility, right? And little needs to be said about
praying in adverse times. We all almost instinctively know
to do that. Although, unfortunately, that
might not be true even for some of us. Some of us might not even
pray then. So instead of going to the Lord
in prayer when afflictions come, we get in our head and we start
coming up with solutions by ourselves before we even go to the Lord.
You know, a situation hits us and we automatically start thinking,
how am I going to fix this? How am I going to do this? I'm going to start
getting anxious. I start, you know, my mind goes a million
miles a minute. No, go to the Lord first before
you start planning and going crazy. We fail to do the first
and foremost important thing, and that is to bring the situation
to Him. Peter tells us to cast all our
cares upon Him. Why? Because He careth for us. In Philippians, Paul says, Be
careful, or anxious, for nothing but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known
unto God, and the peace of God, which is the path, is all which
passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through
Christ Jesus. Bring it before the Lord, saints,
in the good and the bad. Now, notice that Paul says in
our main text, praying with all prayer and supplication in the
spirit. in the spirit that's a that's
a funny phrase there at least funny for some of us because
if you're like me you come out of the charismatic movement and
you see something like that and it sounds it doesn't sound reforms
to some of us right we're not accustomed some of us to hearing
things like that we hear this type of language and we you know
our guard goes up but believe it or not god wants us to be
sensitive to the holy spirit's leading in prayer and the Spirit
helps us in our prayers. Listen to the larger catechism.
It actually has something to say about this very thing. In
question 182, how doth the Spirit help us to pray? The answer is,
we not knowing what to pray for as we ought, the Spirit helpeth
our infirmities by enabling us to understand both for whom and
what and how prayer is to be made. and working and quickening
in our hearts, although not in all persons, nor at all times,
in the same measure, those apprehensions, affections, and graces which
are requisite for the right performance of that duty." So, in other words,
the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ works in us to know who
and what to pray for. Now, this could be in those times
when you're just, you know, feeling the urge to pray for a certain
matter. Maybe, you know, somebody comes
to your mind that you haven't thought about for a really long
time. You know, that's happened to me. I've heard of people praying,
like, I don't know why I'm praying for this person, I just thought
about them, and then you hear something, maybe later that week,
oh, this person was going through this, and, you know, God blessed
them, or something like that. The Spirit helps us. And the Spirit also works in
us to grasp the truth of Scripture, like the ones that we're reading
today, to spur us on to pray, right? We cannot even understand
the Scripture without the Spirit's help, and that includes the Scriptures
on prayer. And the Holy Spirit uses the
Scripture to teach us how to pray rightly. So we should be
seeking the Spirit's help in our prayers as with anything
else. Holy Spirit, help me to be more
dedicated to prayer. Maybe that's what some of us
need this morning. Holy Spirit, help me. Help me to know who
I can be praying for. You know, maybe some of you think,
you know, I don't pray a lot because I can't think of a lot
of things to pray for. Holy Spirit, please help me be aware of things
that I can be praying for. Show me those things. May I be
sensitive to your prompting and to your leading. In Zechariah
12, 10, the scripture says, So we are used to hearing that
text and say, yeah, you see the grace, God applies grace to us
by the Holy Spirit, but it's not just the spirit of grace,
the spirit of supplications, the Holy Spirit drives you to
pray. It is by the Holy Spirit that we cry out, Abba, Father.
He gives us that desire to pray as well. And Romans 8, 26 says, Likewise,
the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should
pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself 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, I wanna give a disclaimer
here. Not everything that you feel
or think to pray for is the spirit of God, right? Especially those
things which are contrary to the written word of God. Matthew
Henry put it nicely, he said, the spirit in the heart never
contradicts the spirit in the word. Those desires that are
contrary to the will of God do not come from the Spirit. The Spirit interceding in us
evermore melts our wills into the will of God. So, you know,
don't, if you are a wife struggling with a husband, you know, you
guys can't get along, don't think because I'm thinking about a
divorce that that's the Spirit telling me to pray for a divorce. Clearly it is not, right? We know the Spirit's voice because
it aligns with Scripture. Now, we have seen that we're
to pray always in the Spirit. But Paul adds something else,
he says, with all prayer and supplication. With all prayer
and supplication. We've touched on it a little
bit already, but we should be praying all kinds of prayers. Okay, there's different kinds.
Matthew, Henry, again, he says, we must pray with all parts of
prayer. Confession of sin, petitions
for mercy, and thanksgivings for favors received. When you
pray at home, uh privately or with your family do you remember
to confess your sins before the lord and indeed is part of prayer
we're to remember that we are still sinners in need of a savior
i don't care if you've been saved for 20 years you still need christ
and you need to acknowledge your sin before him that's exemplified
in psalms like psalm 51 david says i acknowledge my transgressions
unto you and he comes to the lord uh confessing He says, my
sins are ever before me. And then he asked God, hide not
your face from me and created me a clean heart. And we see
it all over scripture. And saints, those scriptures
that we read in the Psalms, they're written by David and he went
through certain things, but they're examples for us. The Psalms are
written for our instruction. We can go to them and know this
is how I'm to pray as well. Therefore, I should be confessing
my sins. 1 John 1, 8-9 says, If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, Thanksgiving, this is another
thing that we cannot be reminded of enough. You know, some of
us don't pray much, and when we do, it's always asking for
stuff. We're always, you know, we got that part down. Asking
for things, we got that. How many times you receive a
blessing from God, and the first thing you do is call your wife,
or call your mom, or you call somebody, but you forget to thank
God. That's first and foremost, isn't
it? We should not be forgetting to
thank God, but that is indeed a part of prayer that we are
to remember. We're to be abounding in prayers
and thanksgiving to God. Thanking God for our redemption
in Christ. Thanking God for his mercy and
thanking God for his justice. We should be thanking God for
all that he has done for us and all that he continues to do for
us and all that he will do for us. Psalm 30 and four says, sing
unto the Lord, O ye saints of his, and give thanks at the remembrance
of his holiness. We give thanks to God for who
he is. Psalm 35, 18, I will give thee thanks in the congregation,
I will praise thee among much people. Psalm 104, enter into
his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise.
Be thankful unto him and bless his name. Thanksgiving is a big
part of prayer. And now notice what Paul says
at the end of verse 18. He says, for all the saints,
for all the saints we are to pray. This teaches us that we're
not only to pray for ourselves, but we're to pray for others
as well. Some of us think that when we
go to God, we should always be the focus, and we're all wrapped
up. I gotta pray about this thing that's happening with my job.
I gotta pray about if I'm gonna be able to pay the bills. I'm
praying for my health. I'm praying for this and that.
You gotta think outside of yourself, and Paul reminds us to pray for
other Christians. pray for other Christians. God
hears those prayers. He wants you to pray. Why should I do that? He's praying.
God hears his prayer, but yeah, but God asks you to do it too.
So you should probably do it, right? And this is loving to our brothers
and sisters in Christ. We should be mindful of the needs
of our brethren in the church. We should ask our brethren, how
can I pray for you? We should be mindful of their
spiritual needs, their physical needs. things related to their
family. You know, if somebody comes up
to you, saints, and says, hey, how can I pray for you? It doesn't
mean that they're being nosy, or they just want to know everything
about you, or they want to take and spread it some, you know,
they want to care for you. At least, I hope. You need to
repent if that's not the case. We should be praying for the
saints. We should be praying for the
saints even that don't belong to this church. You know there's a body, the
body of Christ outside of this church? There is a body outside
of the Presbyterian Church. There's a body outside of the
Reformed world. There is the universal, visible body of Christ,
and we are to pray. In our denomination, I hear a
lot of people, especially zealous young men, they are always complaining
about what's wrong with our denomination. And, you know, they're not wrong.
But a question for us is, are we praying for our Presbytery? Are we praying for those other
churches? Are we praying for ministers in our denomination? Many of us are good at complaining,
but we don't remember them before the Lord. Matthew Henry in his book, Method
of Prayer, which serves as a guide for effective prayer, he teaches
that we are to pray for the health, purity, and holiness of the church. The health, the purity, and the
holiness. He says, for the amending of
everything that is amiss in the church, the reviving of primitive
Christianity, and the power of godliness, and in order thereunto
the pouring out the Spirit. Now, if we believe, saints, if
we believe that God hears us, if we believe that we are to
look expectantly, then we should pray for everything that is amiss
in the visible church, should we not? You know what? God is
opening the eyes of many people across the body of Christ. And
surely that is in response to many prayers that have been lifted
up by the saints. May God have mercy and grace
and pour out his spirit and reform the greater church. What about
the persecuted church? We pray for the persecuted church.
There's saints in Africa getting their heads cut off. Even the
Westminster Directory of Worship says that when we're gathered
together for corporate worship, we are to pray for the persecuted
church. It says, for the deliverance
of the distressed churches abroad from the tyranny of the anti-Christian
faction and from the cruel oppressions and blasphemies of the Turk,
or, you know, aka the Muslims. And for the blessing of God upon
the reformed churches, especially upon the churches, he says. The
Psalms with their examples of prayer for judgment on the wicked
and vindication and salvation of the righteous they serve as
great guides to help us to know how we can pray for these persecuted
churches. And you know who else you're
supposed to be praying for Saints. And it's somebody that does not
get as many prayers as they should, perhaps, is for ministers. You
all do not have a pastor now, but please pray for me. Ministers
need prayer. Look at what he says in Ephesians
6, 19. It says, and for me. Pray for all the saints and for
me. He's an apostle. You're telling me the apostle
needed prayer? I thought God got him. Yes, he does. He still acknowledges his need. Pray for 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. Preachers
need a lot of prayer. Preachers need a lot of prayer.
We should be praying that God would use preachers and teachers
of the word for his glory, for the edification of his people.
You know, pastors are constantly tempted to compromise when preaching
in the pulpit. If I say this, this person's
gonna get mad. If I say this, they're gonna
think I'm extreme. You know, they're gonna want
me out of here. I'm gonna face all kinds of problems if I preach
this or that. Pray that your preacher would
be bold. Pray that your preacher would
be faithful to the Lord, that he would fear only the Lord.
Pray that he would know how to communicate truth lovingly without
compromise. Pray that he would have the wisdom
to know how to shepherd the flock in his preaching, in his teaching,
in his counseling. Notice he says that, pray that
I may open my mouth boldly as I ought to speak. Pray that your pastors will be
good evangelists, making known the mystery of the gospel to
even the lost in the streets when they're street preaching. Don't be the Christian that's
always talking about your session, but never praying for them. I
can't believe elder Andrew or elder Nick did this this way.
Go to the Lord in prayer for them instead of talking to your
neighbor about them. You know, we elders, pastors,
we need a lot of prayer. Like we're expected to know everything
about everything, aren't we? We are put in so many different
situations. Counseling situations where people
are telling you things that you've never heard of before. Things
that you cannot believe that people are doing. You know, seeking
wisdom. And you are expected to know
as a pastor. You know, they might do exactly
what you say. Or they might not. And that requires a lot of prayer
and dependence on God and the Holy Spirit and his word. So
remember, pastors, elders, and prayer. And finally, I would
like to bring out two important words from verse 18. Watching and perseverance. Watching and perseverance. We
need to be watching. We need to be on the lookout
for things to pray for. We need to stay awake, saints. Don't be sleepy. Keep your heart
and your mind ready. to pray. Everything that you
do as a Christian, as I mentioned earlier, requires prayer. Lord,
help me by your word and your spirit to be the husband that
you have called me to be. Help me be the wife that you've
called me to be. Lord, help me to navigate this situation with
my kids. My kids are doing X, Y, Z. Maybe
your kids are in public school. You're like, God, I need you
to protect them or show me how I could perhaps educate them
better. Lord, help me to work before
my supervisor, respecting him even though he's not the most
respectable person. Help me to know how I can honor
my boss. Help me be the friend that this
person needs me to be right now. Everything that we do requires
prayer, so don't fall asleep. Don't fall asleep, watch and
pray. Another reason you should be
watching in prayer is because the devil is surely not sleeping
on you. The devil is watching you. 1
Peter 5, 8 says that he prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking
whom to devour. And we are to pray deliver us
from evil, aren't we? If the devil is watchful for
you, then we better be watchful and on the lookout for him. The devil wants to destroy you,
your family, and Guess what? Your church, too. He wants to
destroy your church. So don't be like the disciples
who were sleepy in prayer. In Matthew 26, 40, it says, He
cometh unto his disciples and findeth them sleeping, or asleep,
and saith unto Peter, What could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter
not into temptation. We are to watch and to pray regarding
temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak, the Lord Jesus said. Watch. And with all perseverance, with
all perseverance, Matthew Henry, again, he says, this we must
do with all perseverance. We must abide by the duty of
prayer, whatever change there may be in our outward circumstances,
and we must continue in it as long as we live in the world.
We must persevere in a particular prayer, not cutting it short,
when our hearts are disposed to enlarge, and there is time
for it, and our occasion calls for it. We must likewise persevere
in particular requests, notwithstanding some present discouragement and
repulses. So we have to keep on praying,
Saints. We have to persevere. We have
to be unshakable in our constancy. I think of Saint Augustine. who,
he was a heathen, but his mom was a Christian, and she didn't
stop praying. And eventually, guess what? The
Lord brought him to faith, and he's one of the most influential
theologians in church history. because his mom prayed. Surely
not only because of that, but that's a factor. It's gotta be.
She persevered in prayer. And likewise, the Lord Jesus
teaches us that we ought always to pray and not to faint. Don't give up your petitions
before the Lord sins. Don't give up on praying for
that family member that you desire to come to the Lord. Don't give
up on praying for your kids. Don't give up on praying for
your spouse or for any petition that you have. So to wrap up, Saints. and just kinda bring everything
together. We are to pray always. We are
to discipline ourselves to do it. We gotta do it in every circumstance,
in every setting, praying for all kinds of things, throwing
up all kinds of prayers, petitions, confessions, thanksgivings, praying
for you, praying for the saints, praying for even the lost, and
we must be on the lookout and persevere in prayer. Let me pray
for you saints. And please stand as we pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for
this great reminder that we need you. Thank you for this great
encouragement and reminder that you want us to come to you and
that we should look expectantly to you with faith, Lord. Lord
Jesus, increase our faith. Help our unbelief. God, I pray
that each person here, including myself, that we would purpose
in our hearts to pray, that we would be diligent and disciplined
in it, watchful and persevering, Lord, just as you taught, Lord
Jesus. God, we pray that you would help
us to always be aware of the different things that we can
pray for. Help us to always be thankful. Help us, Lord, to always
be praising you for who you are and what you do and what you
have done and will do. Lord, we thank you for that bold
and confident access that we have through our Lord Jesus Christ,
our great high priest, and it is in his name that we pray.
How to Pray
Series Guest Preachers
I. Pray Always
II. Pray with All Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit
III. Pray Watching with all Perseverance and Supplication
| Sermon ID | 332534356380 |
| Duration | 55:25 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Ephesians 6:18-20 |
| Language | English |
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