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.