Okay, so we are almost at the end. Am I too loud, by the way? We are almost at the end of our Sunday School series in Ephesians. All in all, I think we've kept a pretty good pace going through this book, through this letter. And personally, I know, at least speaking for myself, it's been a blessing to go through it, to teach it, to be so close to it again. I hope it's been very fruitful for you as well. Just as a brief recap, the first half of this letter, of this book, it focused on our new life in Christ and the new society or that the new people group that God has created through Christ. We learned a lot about that and how the mystery that was revealed really means the expansion of the church. It's not just the Jews. And the second half of this letter focuses on, has been focusing on the new standards that God expects of his new society. This unity and purity in his church and about these new relationships into which God has brought us, harmony in that body. And against, as we've been talking towards the end here, warring against the devil, our enemies in Christ. So in these final verses of instruction before Paul gives his final greetings, Paul, he concludes his teaching on the Christians spiritual battles. So if you'd like to join me in reading in chapter six of Ephesians verses 18 through 20, praying at all times in the spirit, And again, this is just him wrapping up that conversation about, or that instruction about the armor of God that we're to be equipped with. So verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. There's a word there that seems to stand out, right? Verse 19, and also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that I may declare boldly as I ought to speak. So looking closer, we can see that Paul, he begins the second half of this letter of Ephesians boasting of his humble circumstances. as a prisoner of the Lord. That's how he starts out in chapter 4, urging the church to live out its faith in a manner worthy of the calling to which they've been called. Everyone, including himself. And in Paul, he ends his instruction in the second half by giving credence to his right his right to address them as he has for regarding this good news, this mystery that he desires to preach so boldly because he claimed, he lets us know that he's an ambassador in chains for proclaiming this gospel. His final instruction is the call to engage in this spiritual battle with all prayer, all prayer and supplication. Now we are not supposed to understand this command to engage in battle prayer, if you could call it battle prayer. We're not supposed to understand it as a command, as it being a part of the armor of God, but we are to understand this life of battle prayer to be the manner in which the armor is to be put on and worn through prayer. as we battle in the heavenly places. Now regarding prayer's necessity in our lives, a Spurgeon, he had this to say. He's quote, we may be certain that whatever God has made prominent in his word, he intended to be conspicuous in our lives, obvious. If he has said much about prayer, it is because he knows we have much need of it. So deep are our necessities that until we are in heaven, we must not cease to pray. He goes on to say, dost thou want nothing? Do you want nothing? Then I fear thou dost not know thy poverty. If you don't want anything, then you don't really understand how impoverished you are. Now, when you're reading Paul's writing, Doesn't it feel like sometimes, especially in Ephesians, that's so rich with vivid imagery. Doesn't it feel like sometimes in his letters that his sheer wonder and amazement at the mystery of the gospel of Christ and our status as co-heirs with Christ, the amazing thing that it is, and our being made into a people of God, It seems like it's all too wonderful for him to know how to convey that with human words. I'm sure sometimes you feel that way sometimes when you're praying to him, to know how to express how you feel at that moment. Words appropriate to express such amazement. It seems like when you're reading his works, Paul's writings, that he's searching for just the right grouping of words to convey it all. to express it. Well, Ferguson notes out that he believes that we have that same case here regarding how we, the militant church, are to be praying. The word all. Paul says it four times in verse 18. Four times, praying at all times, with all prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. And so really do we grasp the allness, you know, the allness of that Paul is trying to convey here. It literally means that word translated of the word all the totality of the object that it's modifying. You know, it's, you know, we know what all means, but sometimes again, the word we're so familiar with, um, It's not so unique anymore, it's not so conspicuous for what he's trying to use to describe here with all prayer, all supplication, all perseverance for all the saints. It literally means in totality. He's trying to find the right way to describe this. It is true that we know that when you consider translating from the Greek to the English or any language for that matter that some of the tidiness of the Greek language is lost in that translation. But even then, you know, I'm sure there's instances like right here where he's trying to find a white way to convey how important it is that this is really encompassing all our life in terms of prayer. Ferguson had this to say about verse 18. He said, it is perhaps scripture's most comprehensive single verse on how we are to pray. And quoting John Stott, he says, most Christians pray sometimes with some prayers and some degree of perseverance for some of God's people. But to replace some with all in each of these expressions would be to introduce us to a new dimension of prayer entirely. So that's what we've been called here. That's what our challenge is. That's what we should be aspiring to. Something that we know we can't do in our own strength. I don't see Paul here trying to suggest that prayer is another unnamed weapon along with the sword of the spirit. that we read about regarding the armor of God. But prayer is to be engaged in all of our spiritual warfare. And we know that the armor of God that we discussed last week isn't some legalistic mechanical operation that we have to undergo. But being so equipped is indeed an expression of our dependence upon God manifested through the word and prayer. We absolutely are completely dependent upon God in this understanding of going to him in prayer like this. More than that, as he described it, it is prayer in the spirit. Prayer in the spirit. All right, so some lessons on prayer that we can find pulled out in the text that we're going through written by Ferguson. Lessons on prayer, well first, Paul tells us that we are to be praying at all times. And it's not just to happen, it's not only to happen in scheduled sessions of prayer. Although I would argue that if you are laying aside prayer closet time in your life on a daily or on a regular basis, then you're probably faithfully praying at all times. Okay, Paul, he's really pointing out a lifestyle choice here in regards to prayer, where we faithfully make it our daily practice of that face-to-face time with God. So Sinclair, he notes that it is a life that is marked by first companionship. You know, when you think about how Moses was coined, described as being a friend of God, You know, those conversations, that dialogue he had with him on the mountain and throughout his ministry, amazing dialogue, that companionship that was there. And then secondly, it is that dialogue with the Lord. And that's available to every single believer. God desires that of his children, of us, this companionship when manifesting in this dialogue and this dependence. Calvin, the way he framed it, um, being an overflow of how we live Coram Deo, uh, in the presence of God. Always in this believers heart is an ever present attitude of prayer where he is completely and unapologetically dependent upon God for answers and even and even the right questions. even know what questions to ask. It's an attitude also that our sin nature wants to resist. Um, this attitude that of a lifestyle choice of praying at all times. All right. Secondly, we are to pray at all times in the spirit. Um, and he is, Paul is not talking about speaking in tongues. Okay. We, He's not talking about speaking in tongues. Paul does, he does talk about praying in a tongue, praying in a tongue, and you can, we'll be going into that soon enough in our study and sermon series on 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 14, he talks about that, and what he's describing is where the spirit of a man prays, but the mind or understanding is unfruitful. But he goes on to say in that passage in Corinthians that he should pray in the spirit, but with his mind also never not engaging the mind, never not engaging the mind, which of course the mystics in the false religions that we are not only just prominent in our day to day, but even in history past where you're encouraged to empty the mind. and engage the spirit somehow. But no, we're not called to do that at all. We are supposed to engage our mind. We're supposed to be renewing our mind in Christ. So we definitely are engaging the mind in our prayer. Paul also says here in Ephesians that we are to be, of course, praying in the spirit. Now this type of prayer is a prayer of an alertfulness. and a prayer of alertfulness. Praying in the spirit implies the help of the Holy Spirit in the midst of our frailty, of our neediness, depending on him, leaning on his power and his wisdom and not on our own. that praying in the spirit, when you consider that often memorized verse in Proverbs where we are instructed to lean out on our own understanding but in all our ways acknowledge him, that also pertains to our pattern of prayer. It also pertains to our pattern of prayer. The parallel that we noticed earlier between being filled with the spirit and letting the word of Christ dwell in us ritually, it can help us understand here what it means to pray in the spirit. We talked about that in Ephesians not too long ago. To pray in the spirit is to be filled with the spirit when we pray, and we can accomplish this By God's grace, we can accomplish this by submitting our minds, our thoughts, and our wills, including our desires, to be influenced and controlled by God's word. So, clearly, our mind is engaged. It needs, it must, and it has to be instructed by God's word. This is where we may begin to think, you know, God's thoughts after him. developing instincts that are aligned to his will, and asking for those things that he has revealed please him and the promises that he gives. Knowing these things requires us to know our Bibles and his promises and what pleases him. You know what pleases him? Ferguson, he says, in essence, prayer of this sort involves bringing God's promises back to him in the context of all that he has told us about himself, his character and his will, and saying, basically, Father, you are all that you have revealed yourself to be. You will keep all the promises you have made. Therefore, I come to ask you for, you know, whatever. That's in accordance with God's will as revealed in his word. And if you wonder what that is, how can I be praying? How do I know if I'm praying God's word or his will? Well, it starts with being a student of God's word. You cannot escape that. We have the very word of God that he's revealed to us and we should treasure it in that way. We should treasure it in that way. That's what instructed David in his prayers. We're not always, I mean God's will is always going to be a mystery at some level. There's secret things that he has not revealed to us, right? But what he has revealed to us, we have a responsibility to try to understand it. And then we got to lean heavily on the Lord and the Spirit and the Holy Spirit to understand these things as we go in. But it will affect our prayer. That's the exciting part. Church, when we learn to pray in the Spirit, which is in accordance with his word, this praying in faith, Like how James instructs us, trusting and not doubting. Then we have the making of the prayer of a righteous person that has great power as it is working. All right. So we are to be praying at all times in the spirit and with all prayer and supplication. Quite simply, this could mean to offer up prayer of all kinds. Prayer of all kinds. Much like we do in our corporate time of prayer, which happens every Sunday at 2.15 in this room, with exception to that fourth Sunday where we do a Q&A. All right? Yes, I was pitching corporate prayer. Seriously, all prayer and supplication could mean like what we do in our corporate prayer time when we follow this ACTS model, A-C-T-S, prayer of adoration to the Father, prayer of confession to the Father, prayer of thanksgiving, prayer of supplication, or prayer for others, including ourselves. So following that model is a simple way to do it. And this all prayer that Paul's talking about is given in humility to God Almighty with petitions given to the high king of heaven. Don't think that when you read those passages and Psalms where David is seems to be very bold and coming to the Lord that he is being disrespectful to him. That is not what he's trying to do at all. He is coming to God with these concerns and these struggles that he has. He's coming to him face to face. What he's not doing is what Israel did in the wilderness and grumbled and talked about God behind his back. No. But it is done in reverence and humility. I would add that it is also prayer offered in confidence as a child is before his father. And we should always remember that. It is a learned order of prayer, learned through a disciplined life of communion with God, something that Paul, of course, had to learn for himself. In Ephesians, we can see Paul demonstrates this in chapter one, stating how he does not cease to give thanks for the Ephesians, remembering them in his prayers, then describing how he prays earnestly and knowledgeably for their sanctification. He desires to know about what's going on in their lives. And he's learning and he's praying for them about that and praying for their sanctification. And also praying knowledgeably because Paul, he's learned to pray God's will by his word and he knows what pleases God and honors him. He just prays for those things on behalf of the Ephesians. He's doing that on behalf of the Ephesians. And we can and should be doing the same as, well, you know, Paul talks about here at the end of verse 18, for all the saints. Now, you can see in Paul's own description how this prayer becomes kind of like a living doxology of worship. And if you've experienced that time, that closet time of prayer, where it often does end up in that beautiful time of worship, Adoring Christ, who is seated in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, as Paul kind of, those are his words, as he's finding himself all of a sudden, wrapping up a prayer to the Lord. Wrapping up such a doxology, such an honor of worship to him, you know. I'm sure you've experienced that for yourself, or at least I hope you have. Paul, he gives us more example of this all prayer and supplication in chapter three of Ephesians, where he says that he bows his knees before the Father, that the church may be strengthened and rooted and grounded in love, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge. That, my friends, is praying in a way that pleases and honors God and is according to his will as we understand it being revealed in scripture. It is this prayer that we are to trust in his faithful answers according to his time and perfect ways. This is just not instruction for us to do. His busy work, far from it. It is a source of life to us as a believer, this prayer, this dialogue, this communion with God. We cannot function without it. From a pastoral perspective, I would love to ask everyone to raise their hand that is committing themselves to closet time of prayer. But you know I'm not going to do that. If everyone to know who is striving for this caliber of prayer in their lives helps us to understand would help definitely understand the condition of the flock. But I'm not going to do that. But I do think honestly that most of us here would like to be able to humbly know that this describes our everyday prayer life. I believe that's probably the case for most of us in here. But we also understand it can be a struggle in the flesh to be faithful in prayer. Otherwise, why would he be commanding it? So often, commanding it. I really just want to encourage you to not be satisfied with being just slightly less than desirable in prayer, you know, this is where you want to be, they'll be satisfied with being slightly less than that. Where, you know, you think, you know, I'm really no different than the other believers around me. You know, look around you. None of us, ultimately, are our example in prayer. We are to imitate Christ in all things. At the very least, We are commanded to imitate Paul. I also wanna encourage you to not let that scheming devil, again, we're talking about the spiritual battles, that scheming devil to tell you how useless it is to devote yourself to such daily prayer. He wants to do that, trust me. He wants to do that. He wants you to believe that. Again, Paul wouldn't have to command an exhort us to such prayer if we weren't struggling and achieving it. The next time, the next time that devil is doing that, tell him he isn't telling you anything you don't already know about yourself. But tell him that as a child of God, the love of the Father isn't conditional, and he always desires you to come to him in earnest prayer. even if it's after a period of wandering. Don't let the devil win in discouraging your striving for repentance. He will tell you you are not worthy to come to God like that. If you are a child of God, Christ has made that possible for you. Starting out can be as simple as setting aside just five minutes of quiet, focused prayer time with the Lord and trying to keep that each day. Just five minutes starting out. We can find five minutes. And don't worry about how little five minutes can sound because God is faithful and he directs us. Just try to be faithful in that five minute time just to see where it goes from there. We will want to try to turn that into a mark of righteousness in our lives, like I've read in my Bible today. It's Christ that makes us righteous. But these disciplines, are given to us for a reason, or we're being challenged in these things for a reason. And there's practical ways to go about doing that. There's practical ways to doing it. All right, let's continue with Paul's lesson on what all prayer looks like. In verse 18, he commands to keep alert with all perseverance, with all perseverance. Now this goes back, if you think about it, to what Jesus had taught. He told us to be watchful. to be watchful for his return that will happen unexpectedly, and to be watchful against that onset of temptation. You can't help to think of that scene in Gethsemane when he wants his disciples to be watchful and on alert. Be watchful was the attitude that he wanted of his disciples. Why though? Why is that? It's because our adversary, the devil, is always on the prowl like a hungry lion. And there are false teachers out there that we know are disguised as sheep. But we also have a tendency to sleep when we should be praying. Again, that image that we have in Gethsemane. John Stott, he comments about this. He says, it was a failure to obey this order, which led the apostles into their disastrous disloyalty. And similar failure leads to similar disloyalty today, which is made evident in much of our sin. It is by prayer that we wait on the Lord and renew our strength. Now, Ferguson, he reminds us that Christ is building his church on territory that has been occupied by an enemy. Again, this is that section in Ephesians talking about spiritual battle and always alertfulness and being alert is an essential thing when living in a war zone. If you're living in a war zone, you've got your eyes open, you're being watchful. This alertfulness alertness that Paul further says it should be marked with a perseverance. The perseverance meaning basically a resolute determination to see that we keep alert and ready in prayer to the very end through the obstacles. And it's not that we have to say a prayer multiple times before God hears us. Again, for he knows what we need before we even ask, right? What doesn't God know? He is all knowing. But there is also, there's almost always a lag in time before our asking God and our recognizing his answer to the prayer. There's usually always a lag in time. And that, think that it's not there to also sanctify you, right? It does. Truth is there is much we may not be able to see in terms of God's answer to prayer until we get to heaven. But even then it's God's prerogative to reveal such things. But there is also much answer that we see by his grace that we see this side of heaven given time. that the lag in time, it speaks nothing about how God may value what it is we ask, but it speaks everything in terms of God's intentional ordering of things in answering prayer. We usually don't know what that is, the way he orders things and things work out over time. I mean, if we learn to pray what pleases God, then we should trust that God will answer that prayer. And thankfully, in the best ways, not necessarily in exactly the way that we're thinking, but in the best ways. Again, praying in this way is something you learn as you grow closer to him. And we wanna desire to do that, but there's these basics that we have to remind ourselves of, setting the time for it, knowing our Bibles, Again prayer engages us in this spiritual warfare and it's going to take some time by God's choosing to unfold events that gets to the answer that we're asking for if what we ask for is according to God's will according to his word. Ferguson he said rugged stick ability may well be required before it becomes clear to us that God heard our prayers the moment that we expressed them. But in our learning to be a person of prayer, I believe our confidence in praying will also increase. I believe it will. The final instruction that Paul gives on how we are to pray, besides his personal request that we'll cover here in a minute in verse 19, The final instruction is that our supplication be for all the saints, for all the saints. We should incorporate in our prayer from time to time, supplication for other believers in other areas of the world. You know, Paul had to remind the Corinthians very early on in his first letter, in first Corinthians, that they're not alone and they don't have this, this monopoly on God. There are believers throughout the world that belong to God. And we try to model that in our corporate prayer time when we pray for some other church, the church of the week that we are praying for. And we also model that in our worship time prayer when we pray in accordance to the Great Commission for an unreached people group. when we specifically pray for that small remnant within that people group that are believers. Usually there's some small percentage of reported professing believers and we pray for them. We are to remember that as Ferguson puts it, that those who live in small or remote spheres Discover that all the earth is the Lord's and all places are equidistant from his throne. No matter where you are on God's green earth, you are the same distance from the throne of God. Remembering our brothers and sisters abroad keeps us humble. and in the fight, keeps us in the fight, so to speak, as many of them face severe persecution. It is altogether right and fitting that we should be moved to pray for them in such great need and turmoil. They are our brothers and sisters and God's family. The last thing that Paul talks about in verses 19 and 20, after he gives these general principles for prayer, he adds a personal prayer request. No better witness to Paul's belief in the prayer than the fact that he's asking for them to pray for him. He believes in it that much that he's asking them to pray for him. And it's not something that he throws in at the end of his letter just because he doesn't know what to say when people ask him if he needs anything. And I think we're all can be guilty of that at times. And I use the word guilty loosely. It's not trying to bash on anyone because we can just you know like when you pass by someone say you know how you doing doing good you know. You may actually be doing pretty lousy at that moment, but often when people ask, what can I do for you? Just be praying for me. You know, that is truly a wonderful thing to be asking for. But I think sometimes we say it kind of reactionary, not really thinking how wonderful it is to have another believer praying for you. It's taking petitions on your behalf to the throne of God. Um, so it's a strong witness to Paul's belief in prayer to ask them to pray for him. Um, he knows God uses prayer to accomplish his means. We don't completely understand how that works or why, but he does. A few have been through what Paul has experienced in his life. Um, for he was no stranger to distress. He was even no stranger to despairing for life itself at times. But Paul's request for prayer is here in verses 19 and 20 to boldly proclaim the gospel. That's what he's specifically asking for. That one, words would be given to him. And also, secondly, that there would be boldness as he communicates this, as he proclaims it. Paul is desiring that the spirit of God give him words that penetrate not based on some form of eloquence or some precise vocabulary, but penetrating truth as if spoken by the Holy Spirit himself in accordance with the word of God. That's what he's asking for. Now it is a blessing to know that the truth of scripture never returns void, right? Um, it's actually an encouragement to us as we counsel other people. It shall accomplish God's purposes for it. But we should, like Paul, desire to speak that truth in wisdom and even in a winsome way that applies to the circumstance. Now much of this is accomplished by God's grace, everything really, right? By knowing your Bible well, but intellect alone Intellect alone will not accomplish what is required by the Spirit of God. Lots of churches are filled with teaching, if you will, speaking from the pulpit that is just based on human intellect. Paul, he desires to see his words to be God's words. What God has said, not just his words, not just his thoughts. He was a very learned man. But he wasn't leaning on his own understanding. Paul's desire for boldness is how he wished to be characterized. The intimidation that was sought by outsiders to intimidate Paul directly and even the false ways of those inside the church. That same intimidation, boldness to properly confront it and to deal with it. To deal with those who bring divisiveness into the church and false teaching into the church. It is absolutely necessary. And often, those troublesome insiders, what they have been able to do is garner a people base. They've been able to influence weaker sheep. And so to confront such persons is going to be perceived as a direct challenge to the power that they've come to relish. Now, you know, those those troublesome insiders, they may not have been seeking power in the church body, not at the outset. but as they may have been able to influence many people, they have come to need that power over them to hold their positions. And so boldness is needed to confront that. Ferguson, he states that, quote, there are few more dangerous things in the life of a Christian fellowship than those who are enraged when the truth about them is exposed by the word of God. They may well attack the messenger, and failing to destroy him will seek to destroy the entire fellowship rather than repent. Many of Paul's letters have indicated that he is no stranger to such persons, no stranger to such of eminence, such wickedness. What Paul had learned was the power of the word and the right ordered, and the word being rightly ordered by God to speak those words. He's described as a spiritual physician, Paul is, a skilled surgeon of the spirit. And we know that the sword of the spirit is the word of God, and the word of God, it cuts often. It usually, it often cuts to heal. The word of God often cuts to heel. And if it is the sword of the spirit against Satan, it is also the scalpel of the Lord for the physician of the soul to use in preaching. Ferguson said, and we, we want that. I can tell you that your pastors desire for that in the preaching and the teaching from the pulpit. Paul knew he needed the words ordered by God and his boldness to be effective in ministering to the lost and the hurting. So we're at the bottom of the hour. I want to close here really to humbly ask for such prayers for Aaron, for Aaron and myself. To ask that for Aaron and me for the sake of the honor and the glory of God. the reputation of the Church of Jesus Christ, and for you and your family's souls, you should want that Aaron and me should preach so boldly, and with the words that are given by God. So please remember us in your prayers, and our families as well, I would add. There's a quote captured in the book where Spurgeon was asked, what is the secret of his ministry? And if you know much about Spurgeon, he had a very vast and vibrant ministry. His reply that was recorded was very simple. He said, my people pray for me.