I invite you to take God's Word this morning and turn with me to the book of Ephesians chapter 6. I'll begin reading with verse 13. Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Since the beginning of chapter 4, Paul has been describing the essence of the Christian life. It's a transforming work of God. It's a miraculous work of God, and it demands great diligence. And so Paul began this section in chapter 4, verse 1, �Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. And so Paul has been systematically describing the Christian life, and we've taken it verse by verse by verse as Paul describes the nature of the Christian life. And now as he's bringing the book of Ephesians to a close, He describes another aspect of the Christian life, and that is the Christian warfare. It is absolutely consistent with the experience of every single Christian. We are all in a spiritual war. And in verse 10, where he introduces this section, he describes the Christian approach to the spiritual war. He says in verse 10, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. There are these unseen forces that are at war against us. We cannot see them, but we can surely see the expression of their existence. Paul describes the enemy in verse 11 as the devil. He says, put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. But it's not merely a human war. It's not fought in the flesh. It's not fought in our own strength or our own power or by our own ability. Paul says in verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. And this same God has equipped us with some powerful armor that we put on, that Paul describes in verse 13, therefore take up the full armor, it's not human armor, the armor of God. so that you will be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Now over the last several weeks we've been looking at the armor, taking it one piece at a time and making sure we have a clear understanding of what Paul is trying to teach us. So we've seen that we have truth which is able to equip us to march into battle, that we have righteousness as our breastplate, we have the gospel to prepare our feet to enter into the field of duty, we have faith for our great shield that is able to ward off Satan's fiery arrows, we have the hope of glory, which is the helmet of our salvation to help guard our mind And then finally, we have this mighty, powerful, two-edged sword that is our only weapon that we use mightily as we go to war. Well, none of the armor is of any use without the power of God. Again, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. And so, none of the armor is of any use without the power of God behind it. And so, Paul continues with this thought by telling us, pray. We must pray. Prayer is essential in the Christian life and in the Christian warfare. There are two things that are absolutely essential to the Christian life, and you hear me say it over and over and over. I must I would be at fault as a pastor and a preacher of the Word of God if I left these two elements out. I must continually hold them before you." And you know right away what I'm about to say. We must give ourselves to the Word of God, and we must give ourselves to prayer, continually in prayer. wrote a wonderful exposition on this passage. He says, quote, But take heed, thou, that thou forget'st not to engage the God of this armor by humble prayer for your assistance. Lest for all this you be worsted in the fight, he that gives you the arms can only teach you to use them and enable you to overcome by their use." And then he says, the Christian armor will rust except it be furnished and scoured with the oil of prayers. Are you a prayer warrior? And we all want to be able to answer yes on that. Again, since chapter 4, he's talking about the nature of biblical Christianity. He's talking about the Christian life. And warfare is a part of the Christian life. But as he's described this armor, we understand that every piece of the armor has something to do with the Word of God. Christians are people of the book. We are continually in the Word of God. And Christians, by our very nature, are people of prayer. We live and breathe prayer. In all kinds of ways, in every situation, we are people of prayer. Now, Paul is not technically describing another piece of armor here. We've gone through the armor, as I read this morning, Verse 13 begins to speak of it. He says, take up the full armor of God. And then he talks about each piece of armor. And then finally, when we get to verse 18, he speaks of prayer. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. Well, he's not technically adding another piece of armor here. He's not saying that prayer is a part of the Christian armor. Nor is he necessarily saying that prayer is another weapon. He says that we take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. On the other hand, The way that he connects verse 18 to it, he's basically describing prayer as an absolute essential aspect of every piece of the Christian armor, including the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. In fact, along with the Word of God, now the Word of God is described as a weapon, a mighty two-edged sword, which is a, it was a fearful weapon. You can imagine a skillful soldier with this sword that's sharpened on both sides, so he's cutting you coming and going, and it's fearful, and it was powerful, and it brought many to the end of their days. Prayer is also a powerful weapon. In fact, the two most powerful weapons of the Christian, preaching and prayer. Not so with the Islam faith or the Muslim faith. They go forth with physical weapons. They go with fear and intimidation. They go with a knife and cut off heads. They threaten you with death if you do not receive their ways. Christians, on the other hand, we go forth with a mighty, powerful weapon. the gospel, and it goes forth with the power of the Word of God, which is the substance of the gospel, and prayer, which provides the meat behind the gospel. Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, it is the power of God and the salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Without prayer, the gospel is then rendered without effect. And I'm not diminishing the sovereignty of God in the gospel. It will never be without effect. All I'm saying is that in the work of the Christian in evangelism, We go forth preaching the truth of the Word of God, the truth of the gospel, never swaying, never changing, never altering, though it will always be offensive, we never alter it or we never change it to make it more pleasing to the human ear. And we go forth with prayer, always with prayer. because we recognize just how essential it is. Well, as we look at verse 18, the exact translation of it is difficult. The New American Standard doesn't really give us the essence of this word prayer grammatically, because it's a participle, which is reflected in the ESV translation, which says, praying at all times in the spirit. But even still, it doesn't give us the exact point of connection. Presumably, as a participle, we can take it back to verse 14. Where Paul says, stand firm therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, then you can get to verse 18, and having or praying at all times in the Spirit. And so, taking it back to verse 14, you can see the participial form. On the other hand, there are many times that the participle is used with the force of an imperative, which is the way the New American Standard is using it. And I think Paul is using it just in that way. It's a participle, but he's using it with imperative force because it is an absolutely essential aspect of the Christian armor. So the imperative seems to fit well with Paul's emphasis here. Again, if we understand anything about the Christian warfare, we understand just how essential prayer is. I mentioned William Gurnall a moment ago. I quoted from William Gurnall. He wrote an amazing work on the Christian warfare. Based on these 11 verses in Ephesians chapter 6, it was entitled, The Christian in Complete Armor. It was almost 1,300 pages in length. I've got a copy in my office. It's a big, thick book. 1,300 pages on these 11 verses. The Puritans knew how to get to the meat of a passage. The reason I mention Girdle here, that of these 1,300 pages, 300 of them dealt with the subject of prayer, almost a fourth of the book. dealt with the subject of prayer. He's talking about the Christian in complete armor, the spiritual warfare. He spends a fourth of the book talking on the subject of prayer, which is basically these two verses, verses 18 and 19. Well, prayer is essential. So this morning, I want to begin looking at this important topic of prayer. I'm actually going to bring four sermons on the topic of prayer, skipping next week since I'll be out of town. But, four sermons on the topic of prayer. Two, from verse 18 here, we're simply going to let the text guide us this morning. If you'll notice in verse 18, Paul uses the word all four times. We must pray with all prayer at all times with all perseverance for all the saints. So we'll take two of those this morning and focus on the fact that we must pray with all prayer at all times, and then next time we'll focus on with all perseverance for all the saints. But if you notice in verse 18 also, he says, "...will all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit." What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? So I'll preach a sermon on praying in the Spirit. And then finally, in verse 19, Paul is saying, "...and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel." So I'll bring a sermon on prayer and the gospel, how prayer is absolutely essential in the proclamation of the gospel. And so that'll be the four sermons beginning with this morning. So first of all, we're going to begin this morning by looking at this first all where he says that we must pray always with all prayer. what he means here with all kinds, all types of prayer. Now, he says here, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. The word here for petition is most often translated supplication. And we know that with prayers and supplications, with Thanksgiving. For some reason, the New American Standard here translates it petition, which is OK. It's accurate. or to translate a petition. A supplication is a petition. The reason I'm puzzled, because the New American Standard also translates the very same word, supplication, in Philippians 6. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, through prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving. They translated supplication there. I do think translations should seek to be consistent in how they translate words. But again, petition is okay. Some hold that prayer and supplication is the same thing. Prayer and supplication. Paul's using two different words to describe the very same thing, and he's doing so simply to stress it, to give emphasis to what he is saying. So he's using the word interchangeably, prayer and petitioner, prayer and supplication. Well, it is true that sometimes the words do seem to be interchangeable. For example, Psalm 86.6, David says, give ear, O Lord, to my prayer and give heed to the voice of my supplications. It seems that he's just simply using it interchangeably. But on the other hand, they're not exactly the same. So we should see here in verse 18, with all prayer and supplication or petition, referring to two completely different things. All supplication, because a supplication is basically a request or an entreaty before God. We're praying for ourselves and we're praying for others. That's a supplication. We are giving an entreaty to God, a petition to God, giving a request to God for a particular need. And so we're sending forth a supplication for ourselves or for someone else. When Paul says in verse 19, and pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me, he's asking them to send forth a supplication or a petition or an entreaty or a request before God. But where all supplication is prayer, All prayer is not necessarily supplication. What Paul is saying here is, I want you to pray all kinds of prayers and supplications. I really like the, the acts acrostic, A-C-T-S. Acrostics are helpful because they help us to remember. A-C-T-S. A, adoration. We praise God in our prayer. Are there times that you simply pray to praise God? No particular supplication. There's something faulty in our prayer. If all we ever do is come before God with supplication, Oh God, I need, I require, I request, I entreat you, I petition you, I need, I need, I need, I need. Examine your prayer life. Is this the focus of your prayer life, simply supplications, as if God is simply a genie. You know, you rub the bottle, and out comes a genie, and he says, what can I do for you? Oh, God, I need, I need, I need, I need. The Acts model provides the model for us that helps us to remember that there are all kinds of prayers that we must offer, in particular, A, Adoration, C, Confession, T, Thanksgiving, S, Supplication. I really like the order that it's given because I truly think that supplication should come only after these other forms of prayer are offered up before God. So Paul says that we should give these prayers of praise of adoration. Remember, we're talking about spiritual warfare here. And it is true that only by drawing near to God is Satan forced to flee from us. And one of the chief ways we draw near to God is through prayer. particularly prayers of praise and adoration of him. James says, James 4 verses 7 and 8, "...submit therefore to God, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded." And so your prayer life should be a continual focus of praise. If you need help on that, read the Psalms. The Psalms were really Israel's, it was Israel's prayer book and praise book. It was their worship book. Just go to the Psalms. The Psalms are a continued display of prayers of praise. For example, Psalm 3, and it's a prayer. But to you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the one who lifts my head is simply a prayer of praise to God. Psalm 8, verse 1. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth, who have displayed your splendor above the heavens." It's just simply a wonderful expression of praise before God. Psalm 18. I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from all my enemies." Prayers of praise, adoration. Are there times that you simply go before God with no other agenda than to extol Him, to praise Him, to exalt His holy name, and that's your only agenda. It's not I'm coming with a need, a request, and I'm not diminishing supplication. There is a place for supplication. But that must not be the entirety of our prayer life. Paul says here, with all prayer and petition, second of all, prayers of confession. Christians sometimes struggle with that. They never confess because of a faulty theology. Their theology is something like this. God has saved me. I'm forgiven of all my sins. What's left to confess? Why should a Christian ever confess? Because after all, we've been cleansed and forgiven. Jesus Christ took all of our sins upon Himself and went to the cross and delivered me from all of my iniquity. What is left to confess? Well, what they're confusing is the distinction between justification, whereby we are declared not guilty, it is a positional holiness, it is a holiness wrought upon the work of Christ upon the cross. The difference in distinction between justification and sanctification. In other words, as long as we live this life, though we are forgiven of sin, the law can no longer condemn us, we still sin. What do we do when we still sin? Is the Christian life a one-time repentance so that we repent and we go, oh, well, that's done, and we go along our way? Or is the Christian life a life of continual repentance? We have turned from our sin, we continue to turn from our sin. It is an ongoing life. If repentance was a one-time act, then my goodness, and you're cleansed, and you're forgiven, and you never sin again. We really don't need this. You know, the New Testament is largely, or particularly the epistles, It is based upon a presupposition that we sin, and so we need instruction from God, and so the epistles provide us the instruction. Well, the point is this, when we sin, now we have been forgiven, we have been justified, we have been reconciled, we have been brought into communion with God, and this is wonderful and glorious. But the Christian life is a relationship. That's why we go to God in prayer. It's a relationship. We pray to Him, we commune with Him. And prayer affects the communion. Prayer affects our prayer life. I'm not sorry, sin affects our prayer life. It does. And so we confess. I love the way we find it in 1 John. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all iniquity. Well, we confess our sins. David, Psalm 52 says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. your prayer life must include confession all the time, because we sin continually. And it's amazing how when you read the Word of God, and God, the Spirit of God who dwells in you, who illuminates His Word, He continually brings to mind sin, and we confess. You know, we'll be reading in the midst of the Old Testament, and all of a sudden, we come to the understanding, God, how far short I come from your glory. Forgive me of my iniquity. Forgive me of my foolishness. Forgive me of my pride. Forgive me of my sloth. Forgive me, Father, for being unfaithful. Forgive me and it goes on and on. I don't have to tell you. You know exactly what I'm talking about. And then finally, prayers of thanksgiving. Simply thanking God for all, not just simply continually asking God But thanking Him for the endless things that He does, Paul says, in everything give thanks. The thankful heart is a heart inflamed with the glory of Christ. in everything give thanks." In other words, not just during the good times, but we recognize that even in times of adversity, God is bringing that for our good to teach us and instruct us and to increase our faith and to make us more dependent upon Him, to squash our pride and to humble ourselves before Him. So in the midst of our trial, we say, oh God, thank you for your promise that you will never leave me nor forsake me. Thank you, oh God, for teaching my heart that there is nothing that comes in this life that isn't by your divine design. And that you love me with an everlasting love that will never falter and never fail. So, oh God, what I'm going through is from your hand as a token of love. Thank you, Father, for your kindness to your dear child this day. Every time we murmur, we all do it. Every time we murmur and complain, it is a fist thrust to the sky saying, oh God, you are not dealing with me as I deserve, as you ought to deal with me, and I am mad and I'm complaining. Even during the times when we say, it's hot, or it's raining and I didn't want it to rain, or, and it just goes on and on and on. It comes from the hand of God. And so Paul says, in everything give thanks. And so again, the Psalms. Psalms are continual praise, but continual thanksgiving. Yadah, it's the same word. Praise, thanksgiving, it's the same word. And so, Psalm 9 verses 1 and 2. I will give thanks to the Lord. With all my heart I will tell of your wonders. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to your name, O Most High." Or Psalm 69 verse 30, I will praise the name of God with song and magnify Him with thanksgiving. You see how the praise and the thanksgiving go hand in hand. We could go on and on and on. Psalm 100, the old 100. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him and bless His name. For the Lord is good and His lovingkindness is everlasting, His faithfulness to all generations." Prayers of thanksgiving crush, I'm telling you, crush Satan's temptation to discontent. We are prone to discontent. We're always unhappy about something. And nothing is more poisonous to a church than for the spirit of discontent to begin to filter in. And you want to know what crushes it? Prayers of Thanksgiving, prayers of praise. There's no place left for discontent when we offer up prayers of praise and prayers of thanksgiving. When we praise God for everything, we complain about nothing. And so you go get you a bite to eat and the food's cold and we want to complain. Now, granted, when you go to a restaurant and you pay for food, you do have an expectation of a degree of quality. We often tend to complain even when complaints are not due. And Thanksgiving, oh God, thank you for my daily bread. God, you should have given me a piece of hard toast today. You've given me rich things, rich bounty to enjoy. God, thank you for your goodness." So, A-C-T-S, adoration, confession, thank-giving, and then supplication. And we continually go before God, and with all of our requests. We're in times of anxiety and struggle, and Paul says, well, you know, be anxious, be careful for nothing and everything through prayer and supplication. So he's using these two words, and I think even here he's using them separate. Through prayer, in other words, with adoration and confession and thanksgiving, and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to the Lord, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Satan knows this. He hates it when we pray. And so he does everything possible to try to keep us from prayer. Well, Paul says, with all prayer, All kinds of prayer. And then he adds to that, at all times, verse 18 again, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit. All times. What's he mean by this? I think he's merely saying on every occasion, in every circumstance. And I think there's certain areas that we must give particular attention on this. One, during all of life's situations, because our daily circumstances are continually changing. And because they are continually changing, we must remain fluid in our prayer life. Otherwise, the changing circumstance will keep you from prayer. So we must seek to maintain prayer on every occasion. That means we pray when we're at home and when we're away from home. And that means we pray at vacations. Vacations are a particular challenge because your routine has been disruptive. Your sleep pattern is different. There are many distractions and you must seek to maintain prayer. in every circumstance. It means we pray at mealtime. It means we pray at mealtime when eating at work and eating at home, when we're at parties and we're at social events, when we're with friends and with strangers, and on and on and on. Do you pray at a restaurant? You know, or are you of the type that would dare put a morsel of food in your mouth and not give thanks to your Creator who provided it for you? Or do you presume that you are somehow worthy of the food, or that you are due the food, or that you just don't give regard to Him at all? We are people of prayer, and Paul says, pray at all times. Prayer is truly, and this is a soul-searching time, prayer is one of the sure signs of God's grace within us. It really is. One of the first things that happens when God saves us is we begin to pray. It is the first act, and I don't hold to a prayer for salvation. In other words, pray this prayer to be saved, because the danger is we begin to equate our salvation with the prayer. No one's ever been saved apart from praying. I mean, I can't imagine. Can you trust Christ and receive Christ and rest in Christ without a word to Christ? It wouldn't happen, could not happen. So prayer is the first sign of grace within the human heart. Upon being saved, we're now reconciled unto God and our hearts are immediately turned to Him and we converse with him. It is the mark of grace in the human heart. Robert Murray McShane says, what a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more. It marks you, it declares what you are. Martin Lloyd-Jones says, quote, there's nothing that tells the truth about us as Christians so much as our prayer life. If you never give yourself to prayer, as Paul says here, all kinds of prayers at all times because it's at the heart of the Christian life, then there's something wrong. Again, Satan knows this all too well. And so he will seek to hinder you from prayer using every circumstance that comes up in life. And there's, again, there's endless circumstances that he can use. He's got a bag deep. with occasions and circumstances that can keep you from prayer. I'm too busy today. I love what Luther says. He says, this day is to be so busy I must begin it with, I think he said, three hours of prayer. In other words, he understood that his busyness simply meant he had to spend more time in prayer, not less. So we pray in every circumstances and pray during difficult times and good times. It must be our first response in adversity. Sadly, many times it is our last. Now, granted, sudden adversity strikes our minds and we often don't think clearly. And so our minds begin spinning and we're thinking here and there. But our first thought should be, oh God, oh God, how should I respond to this? And trusting Him in it. And too often, rather than going to God, we begin to look to human reasoning We begin to look at remedies of our own making, remedies of a carnal sort, remedies that are not necessarily from the teaching of Scripture, because that's what we've been taught. We've been taught our whole life. you know, human reasoning, human remedies, human strength, human desires, and we immediately begin working our minds towards a carnal solution, rather than stopping and saying, oh God, this is from your hand. What will you have with this? How might I honor you with this? How might I trust you in this, O God?" And so we continually go to God in prayer, humbling ourselves before Him. Or as Peter says, therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. The one thing we need to recognize is that during the fiery trial, we must seek him. But just because we are not in a fiery trial doesn't mean we are not in equal danger at any time. Job came to understand this. Everything was wonderful in Job's life. Everything. He had wonderful children. They seemed to be pious, but in case they weren't, he prayed for them continually, offering sacrifices for them. He had countless livestock. He was a wealthy man. He had everything that a human heart could desire, but even in the midst of his great abundance, right around the corner, was the most fiery trial that he had ever faced in his life. I sometimes think about this, you know, especially when I'm going through a trial and anxiety is rising. I say, you know, oh, why are you anxious, oh my soul? The only difference between yesterday and now is that I know it. I know the trial now. It was still present yesterday. God had already decreed it. He had already designed it and now it's here today. But the only difference between yesterday and today is now I know it. The point is this, if God is pleased to give you another 50 years of life, how many trials and how many difficulties are you going to go through? Some of them terrible. Death is a horrible ordeal. And we will all experience the loss of loved ones and friends. If God gives us life, we will experience loss of health. You may experience loss of job and loss of wealth. And there's an endless number of adversities that can come. And the only difference right now is you don't know about them yet. But the point is, but God does. Why are we so worried when they come, when You're not worried about them now." He said, well, I don't know about them now. I said, exactly. You don't know about them now, but the truth is you can trust God now and you can trust Him then. We must pray on every circumstance in difficult times, in good times. We must pray in public. And in private, we must give ourselves to corporate prayer. It's amazing that as we have, you know, we alternate our Wednesday nights, preaching one week, prayer the next week, preaching one week, prayer the next week, and inevitably we get better attendance on the preaching night than we do the prayer night. I've actually heard people say, I can pray at home. Why should I drive across town to pray when I can pray at home? The point is, we need corporate prayer. Do you remember when I described the shield? And I wasn't, you know, Paul's not talking about the small round shield that's strapped to the arm. He's talking about the two-foot by four-foot large shield. And the troops, the advancing army, would crouch, and the shields would be lined up side by side, making a wall that these fiery arrows could not penetrate. It was a corporate effort. We need corporate prayer. We must give ourselves to corporate prayer. We must be a praying church. One of our distinctives is Christ-centered. And you might ask yourself, how come we don't have prayer as one of our distinctives? Because Christ-centered presupposes prayer. We are continually going to Him. We are continually seeking Him. It encourages me, by the way, I don't know if you know that I notice, You know, when I'm here, the few moments before coming to the pulpit, and I glance out among the congregation, there are times I'll see heads bowed, praying. It tells me they're praying for the preaching, for themselves, that they might be able to hear and understand and comprehend that the Spirit of God would apply it to them, but I presume for others in the congregation, which tells me they were probably praying last night, too. and during the week as well, for their brethren, for the strength of the congregation, for the edification of the congregation. That encourages me, but it should encourage you as well, because you know that you've got brothers and sisters praying for you. that the preaching of the Word of God, which is a supernatural endeavor, that the Spirit of God makes it powerful to the very depth of the soul. And so we understand this, but we know how essential prayer is on it. So we pray. So we pray in public. and in private, times of private prayer that you allow nothing to interfere with. Paul is charging them, please, my brothers, pray. Pray at all times, and he says, with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Praying in public and private. And then another time, and I'm going to wrap it up quickly, another time when prayer is absolutely essential, but often neglected. Now, remember I said that every piece of the armor has something to do with the Word of God, from start to finish. Your waist with a belt, which Paul calls truth, which is none other than the word of God that equips you to be able to march forth into battle. So we have our loins girded about with truth and our feet shod with the gospel, which is really nothing else than the word of God. and the breastplate of righteousness, which includes both justification and sanctification. But at the heart of sanctification is the Word of God. Jesus says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth, so you've got the word of God there, and then you've got the helmet of salvation, which is the hope of glory, which is, in essence, the word of God that affirms this hope for us. And then Paul says, and in case you don't know, oh, on the shield of faith, but our faith is fixed upon the objective truths of the word of God. And then the Word of God itself, sort of the Spirit. Well, one of the areas that we are sometimes so negligent on is incorporating prayer with our reading of the Word of God. When you pick up your Bible to read, and again, the Word of God and prayer are both essential to the Christian life. Before you pick up the Word of God to pray, I mean to read it, do you pray? Do you pray in every circumstance where you're about to receive the Word of God? Do you pray for Pastor Chad for Sunday school? And are you praying as you're studying it? And do you pray before? But during your private devotion time, do you pray, oh God, help me to know you more. as I read Your Word this morning. Help me to know You more. Help me to love You more. Help me to understand more of Your love for me. Help me to understand, Father, the richness of Your redemptive purpose as I read Your Word this morning. God, convict me of my sin. May Your Word work powerfully with Your Spirit this morning in convicting me of my own foolishness. And God, give me greater understanding. We're going to be starting 1 Samuel. And we all know the passage where Samuel's sleeping and he hears, Samuel, Samuel. He thinks it's Eli. And he goes, here I am. Eli says, why don't you go back to bed? But finally, Eli says, how do you put it? Here I am. Lord, your servant is listening. Well, do you do that when you go to the Word of God? God, here am I. Your servant is listening this morning. How does God speak to us? Is it an audible voice? No, He doesn't do that. Not going to be an audible voice, but does God speak to us? He surely does. How does He speak? Through His Word. God, teach me and instruct me. Illuminate my heart and mind this morning. Fill my mind with the richness of Your truth this morning as I read Your Word. Well, we must continually do that. Satan is continually sowing in heresies, and his heresies are threatening continually, subtle beyond measure. And so we pray continually, God, teach me your Word this morning and protect me from error, protect me from false understanding, protect me, Father, from interpreting this in a wrong way. And so we pray. And again, you should never ever enter into a preaching service that you haven't pre-prayed before it. Otherwise, you're coming in assuming, I got this, that's clear, I got it, and I, you know, no problem. But we don't have it, so we must need the continual illumination of the Spirit of God. Colossians 1.9, Paul writes, for this reason also since the day we heard of it, we have ceased not to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. He's praying for them. We must have our minds continually renewed, and we need to continually pray. This is the final place that we need to pray. And we need to continually pray, God, I am so gullible. We don't like to pray that because we all think that we're pretty good. We need to confess, God, I am so gullible, and Satan's temptations are so subtle, and there are too many times, oh God, that I swallow them hook, line, and sinker. And so as Christ is teaching His disciples to pray, and if you notice all the elements are there, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Just, oh God, I praise you, I recognize you as high and lifted up, and it includes supplication, such as, you know, give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, that's supplication. But then we have this, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. First of all, literally, it says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. And Jesus is saying, look, let me give you a model prayer. And it must include praying for deliverance from temptation. What does that mean? It means, God, by your providence, keep me from paths this day that might lead me to sin. God doesn't tempt to sin. When we say, lead us not into temptation, we're not saying, oh God, don't tempt me today. No, that's Satan's work. But there are many paths that our day takes us through. That's why as Christians we know our weaknesses and we guard our steps. If we struggle with Gluttony, we're careful with regard to food. If you have to have that afternoon candy bar, don't put candy bars within the reach in the afternoon. It's that simple. If you have a struggle with pornography, well, we know where that comes from, so don't turn on the computer screen or don't go to the side. We know the weaknesses of the human heart, but oh God, Would you help me this day? I am gullible and I am weak, so don't even put before my path any opportunity that I might send against you. And when Satan tempts me sore, Father, lead me away. Give me the strength and the ability to turn away and run. And the scripture tells us, resist the devil, and what's he do? He flees from you. And so we continually do so, continually pray. continually seeking God's power to make us holy. Well, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, and now, may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely and make your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete. Without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, O God, preserve me, keep me, protect me, strengthen me, O God, as I seek to honor you and please you with every breath that I take. Paul's point here is simply this. Prayer must be a priority. We must be a praying people every day, at every circumstance, every occasion. Don't think that the only time you can pray is when you get down on your knees in a closet. Man, you can pray when you're driving down the road, you can pray all the time. Look, and I think I've shared this before, one of you come to me and you say, Pastor, can I ask you a question? You don't even know, prayers begin immediately. God, give me the wisdom to answer this correctly, soundly, biblically. Father, I need your help on this. And so you pray all the time, all the time. Someone says something that, you know, the telephone call comes and, you know, would you like to take this survey? You would have the grace to say, no, not right now, but have a nice day, rather than, are you kidding? Click. which is what we are inclined to do, just to be gracious. That takes much prayer. all the time. Paul is saying prayer must consume your life. Luther says this, as it is the business of tailors to make clothes and cobblers to mend shoes, he's a little dated there, and cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of the Christian to pray. And we have to understand, prayer and the Word of God That's it. That's the duty of pastors. He says, you know, the apostles in Acts 6 say, look, we need to enlist some deacons so that we can give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and prayer. Preaching and prayer. That's what God's people have always done. And it's powerful. And one more quote and I'll close. In response to John Knox's imprecatory prayers, you know what an imprecatory prayer is. It's a prayer for God's judgment to come down upon wickedness, imprecatory. They're in the Psalms. Queen Mary Mary Queen of Scots is reputed to have said, quote, �I fear the prayers of John Knox more than all the assembled armies of Europe.� Wow! What kind of life could we live before our day, our culture, when they simply see us as people of prayer, and they know that our prayers are effectual, and they will listen to us because we are praying to the God of the universe. May we be people of prayer all the time, on every occasion. May we strive to be a praying church. And then again, and may each of us find comfort in knowing that your brothers and sisters are praying for you. Let's pray. Father, I pray, oh God, that we would hear this this morning, that we would pray on every occasion, that we would pray with every kind of prayer. That we would be people of prayer that always give ourselves to falling before your throne, crying out unto you, praising you for your goodness, exalting you for your greatness, confessing our sins, Father, for our weakness, and continually looking to you for all of our needs as we bring forth our supplications before your throne. Bless us, Father, as we consider these things this morning. In Jesus' name, amen. For just a moment, Pat will play on the piano and give us just a moment to bow our heads and consider the things that we've heard.