“Sustained By Prayer”
Ephesians 6:18-24
OPEN: This morning we come again to the 6th chapter of Ephesians, and for the last time because we’re going to be finishing our study of this marvelous book this morning. This is I think the 37th message on the book of Ephesians – we began studying in Sept. of 08. Even though we’ve been well over a year studying this Book we haven’t really begun to plumb all of the riches and the depths that are here.
So as we end our study of this great book we are going to be talking about the topic of prayer. - of all the great themes that are included in this book – Paul chooses to close this wonderful letter on addressing the topic of prayer. Prayer becomes the closing theme in the Letter of Ephesians. It is not mentioned as apart of the Christians armor, because it’s more than that. Prayer is to be woven into the everything as the Christian prepares to do battle. As we are arming ourselves with the belt of truthfulness and the breastplate of righteousness and the shoes of the Gospel of peace and the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, all the while that we are engaged with those elements we are at the same time involved in prayer. “Praying always.” All through the procedure of arming ourselves, all through the demands of the battle, all through whether it’s the heat of the war or a lull we are engaged in prayer.
I think that if I asked the question, “Do you pray enough?” most of us would say no, right? I think that’s probably been the story for most of the ages – if we asked people in the church down through the ages, “Do you think you pray enough?” most people would say no. I think that most groups have a few – a few prayer warriors - who pray a lot and pray continuously – but generally I think the average person struggles with this issue of prayer and neglect this area.
You might think in a Book with such tremendous resources prayer wouldn’t be very necessary, what
would be to pray for? For example listen, according to chapter 1 verse 3, we are super blessed, accordÂing to chapter 1:4 - 6 we are super loved, according to1:7 we are forgiven and redeemed, 1:8 says we are given wisdom, 1:11 says we are made rich, 1:13 says we are secure, sealed with the Spirit, 2:4-6 we are alive with new life, 2:7 we are the obÂjects of eternal grace, 2:10 we are God’s masterpiece,
Again 2:10 we are called to a life of good works which God will do through us, 2:13-18 we are one with
God and with every other Christian, 2:19 we are members of God’s intimate family, 2:22 we are the very habitation of the Holy Spirit, 3:20 we are powerful beyond our own imagination, 3:21 able to glorify God.
And when you move from there into the 4th chapter it just keeps going, in 4:3 we are told we possess the
living Spirit of God in us, in chapter 4 verses 4 to 6 we are members of the body of Christ, in 4:11-13 we have received gifts and gifted men to perfect us to do the work of the ministry. In 4:20-24 we have Jesus Christ to teach us to walk a new life, in 5:1-2 we’ve received the love of God so that we can walk in love, in 5:8 we have received God’s very light so that we dwell in light, in 5:15-17 we have received the wisdom and the truth of God so that we can walk wisely in the world, in 5:18 we have received the power of the fullness of the Spirit of God, in 5:21 through 6:9 we have received the resources to make every human relationship all that God ever intended it to be. Finally in 6:10-17 we have received invulnerable, invincible, fantastic, powerful armor, against which Satan is hapless and helpless, if we use it. Climaxing itself in the sword of the Spirit, the magnificent weapon of the Word of God which is in the hand of every believer.
Our Victory Begins In The Heavenlies – But It Ends On Our Knees
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. (Eph. 1:3)
Realistically the entire book of Eph. is a recitation of all the blessings we have received through Christ. This is a victory book. - The book starts out with teaching us where our victory orginates – in ehaven – in the heart of God who wants to fill your life with blessing upon blessing – that’s where our victory begins – but it is completed on our knees in prayer. Not completed in the sense that we are adding something that is lacking –but completed in that we are accessing the power that is needed to see us to the end of the battle.
prayer then becomes the key to appropriating the resources.
They’re all there, and they are all ours in Christ, but we cannot simply float around in the glory as it were we have to come to the reality of being on our knees before God, so that these things can be implemented in our lives.
What Paul is saying is that the believer hasn’t even begun to fight until he learns to pray. Prayer is not simply an afterthought to the believer’s arsenal of spiritual weapons. Prayer is in fact the way that the believer implements his spiritual weapons against the enemy. You can have all the talent and all the resources and all the training and all of the innate ability, but if you don’t do it the way God directs it to be done you can still lose. That’s essentially what Paul is saying, don’t think that because you have all these resources and you have all this history of success and you have all of this in being in Christ that you can go alone. The armor is not mechanical and the armor is not magical, it needs God, God infuses into the armor and God infuses into our resources His power and His energy. So there is the latent danger that Christians who have knowledge of doctrine and some kind of a history of success and a fairly effective grip on practical spiritual principles can become satisfied and they don’t need a heart rending passionate constant prayer, - that’s a tragedy. And that’s why the Epistle that begins in the heavenlies ends on its knees, because all of that is dependent on prayer.
Prayer is Necessary to Defeat Spiritual Atheism.
Now that might seem like an oxymoron – a contradiction of terms. But it really isn’t. “having right doctrinal knowledge but living without total dependency upon God in our day-to-day lives” How many times do we see people who have all the head knowledge but still don’t see much happening in their lives spiritually? – they never really learned the most important lesson of all – dependency upon God. There is a great danger that we can fall in to – In spite of right teaching and right parenting – and right theology – and right doctrine – a person can still end up not seeing very much change in their life
– the power comes not just from knowing the right teachings – but also appropriating the right power –
that’s expressed through dependency in prayer. If you have right doctrinal knowledge – but live with total dependency upon God in your day to day life- you are living as an atheist, right? You say, “BBut I’m a spiritual person – I study the Bible.” I say “OK – well then you are a spiritual atheist.” I know a lot of people who have a belief in God, but they don’t express that belief in their day to day life in Christ. They know about God – but they live as if they don’t need him. They have adequate knowledge – so they think they have adequate power. Paul warned Timothy about people who are always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. The truth is victory cannot be experienced in our own strength and power. Ill – of talking to someone this week who said – “I know the Bible inside and out – but I’m still all over the map when it comes to religion.” Every time I tried to explain a bible verse – she was nodding her head trying to make it seem, “Yeah I already know that.” – trying to finish my sentence before I came to the end of it. “I know – I know – I’m a learned educated person. I already know all about your Bible.” I have no doubt that she did know some Bible verses – but it hadn’t resulted in any transformation in her life – it hadn’t resulted in her understanding how much she desperately needed to express her day to day dependence upon God. She readily admitted her confusion – but a believer who doesn’t understand this is just as confused – living as an atheist, but at the same time professing belief in God.
You see what Paul is trying to get us to get a handle on is that prayer is to be the very air we breathe. –
God’s Goal for our prayer life is that it becomes as natural as breathing. Nobody sitting here this morning is thinking about breathing. We’re all doing it, but none of us are exercising conscious thought to make ourselves breathe. It’s natural – that’s how our prayer life should be. As a believer not to pray is to hold your breath spiritually and the results are all bad. All the while you live the Christian life, all the time you put on the armor, all the time you fight, you are breathing and breathing and breathing as it were in prayer.
Do you want to know what normally drives people to pray? People pray in the midst of crisis – when they get the wind knocked out of them so to speak. Most of us never really get serious about prayer until something happens in our own lives that’s troublesome
- People pray when they come to an understanding that life is totally out of their control.
People call out for or offer prayer when they are reminded that life is totally out of their control. They will fight with everything they have to remove prayer from every arena of life – until there is a life that is lost – and then it’s “Our prayers are with you.” They will fight to remove prayer from our schools until there is a tragedy like a shooting or an earthquake – and then it’s “Please pray for us.” The problem is that the church sometimes falls into that same pattern – we pray when we are in crisis – we pray when thins fall apart. We pray because something happens – we lose a job or we loose a home – we pray because a child has gone wayward – some crisis happens that acts as a trigger – it reminds us that we can pray. – And that’s not bad – we should be reminded – but that shouldn’t be the only time we pray. Extreme circumstances can lead us to prayer – but there should not be any circumstances that leads us away from prayer.
Now I want you to catch this:
One of the primary reasons people don’t pray is we are afflicted with comfort
– That doesn’t necessarily mean that they are living in wealth and prosperity and we have a big mansion with a 7 figure income. People can get very comfortable in the worse of situations. When I talk about comfort I am talking about the mentality that says: “I can handle this” “I can deal with this” It doesn’t matter what the situation – once we say “I can handle this” “I am comfortable with whatever I can produce in my life on my own.” - we’ve started drifting away from prayer. It’s a spirit of independence – the exact opposite of what God’s wants to birth in our hearts. It’s exactly the opposite of the lifestyle God wants us to live – a lifestyle of communion and unity and daily fellowship with Him.
So Paul says: And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in
mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
(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, – NASB) When Paul says “Pray in the Spirit” He not talking about tongues and utterances that nobody else can understand. That’s totally foreign to the text and is a forced interpretation. This has nothing to do with speaking in tongues. Praying in the Spirit is simply lining up your own prayer consistent with the mind and the will of the Spirit – It’s praying in concert with the Spirit. - If we pray in the Spirit we know it is going to line up with God’s word – the Spirit will never do anything that is contrary to God’s Word. You can always check God’s Word to see if your prayers are lining up with what He has already revealed. I sometimes will have people say to me “Well I’ve been praying and it may not necessarily be what God’s Word says, but I feel that’s what God is saying to me. I know what the Bible says about this – but I really feel this is what God is saying something different to me.” That’s not of the Spirit – and you are not hearing from God no matter how deep your feelings. The Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God. If you are praying the Spirit – your prayers will always be centered on and focused on Jesus Christ. The Spirit is always focused on bringing glory and honor to Jesus. If you are praying in the Spirit –you will be focused on and responsive to the teachings of Jesus. You can’t say that you are being led by the Spirit of God while ignoring the Son of God.
Be alert – this is the part of this passage that ought to be most alarming to us. We are all too easily lulled into the idea that everything is fine – everything is OK – We need to be alert. We need to be ready. We need to be that soldier that is dressed and ready for battle – prayer is the battle stance. Standing firm.
Notice that Paul uses the word “all” four times in this verse. “on all occasions – in the Spirit” “With all kinds of prayers” “always keep on praying” “Pray for all the saints” Do you sense that he’s trying to get a big idea across? What is it? Pray without ceasing. Pray with perseverance. Pray for everyone in every circumstance. Pray on all occasions. Keep on praying no matter what. It’s hard to overstate how often this theme is repeated in Scripture.
Turn for a moment to Luke 18: 1-8
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He
said: "In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, 'Grant me justice against my adversary.' "For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!' " And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
We have here a judge who did not fear God or man, he had not concern for God or himself. He was an unjust judge. He had not concern for his conscience or his reputation. A man full of hate and rage. He was a bad man, with a bad reputation, and rather enjoyed being that way. And we have a persistent widow who had been wronged by someone and had no one in which she could turn to for help. Her cry to the judge was to “do justice of my adversary” Many poor elderly widows have people who take advantage of them. They steal from them, and commit fraudulent acts against them. This women did not want revenge, only justice. He would not for a while: This mean and cruel judge could care less what happened to this widow.. But the widow would not give up. The judge finally got tired of the widow troubling him, with her continual coming. She was wearing him out, getting on his nerves. So he decided not to put her off any longer, but to give her justice in order to get rid of her. This unrighteous judge just because he is being irritated decides to give in. Unlike the cruel and hateful judge, our Judge is a loving and caring Judge. Our Judge is our Heavenly Father. How much more would a Heavenly Father, full of love and mercy for His children answer His children’s prayer? With our continual coming, He will deal justly for us.
What’s the lesson here? This lady wouldn’t go away – she kept on pushing and pushing her point.
What Jesus is trying to teach us her is exactly the same thing. When it comes to prayer – we are to
P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens.
I realized God this week God has placed reminders of this principle everywhere we go. Almost everywhere you go, there are doors that say, PUSH HERE TO OPEN. Every time you walk through a door that says PUSH–let God remind you to Pray Until Something Happens! God has always honored persistence in prayer. One of the greatest men of faith in Christian history was the English preacher, George Mueller. He wrote these words about praying: “The great point is never to give up until the answer comes. I have been praying for 63 years and 8 months for one man’s conversion. He is not saved yet, but he will be. How can it be otherwise? I am praying.” George Mueller died and the man was still not saved. But as they lowered Muller’s casket into the ground, the man repented of his sins and trusted Jesus as his savior–that’s persistent praying! We are not to grow weary in praying. Just because our prayer is not answered right away doesn’t mean God isn’t going to answer it. Sometimes the spiritual resistance is greater – sometimes you have to push harder to get the door opened. It doesn’t mean that we should quit praying. Don’t give up! We are to persevere in faith. Persistence is a valuable commodity for every area of your Christian life, not just prayer. God blesses those who persist. If you’re ever tempted to give up, just remember the composer Brahms. It took him seven long years to write his famous Lullaby – maybe he kept falling asleep at the piano!
Luke 11:5-10 Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' "Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
So here’s a man who has a neighbor and goes to him at midnight. This is the worst time for a visit. I hate when people come to see me at midnight, I don’t care what they want. That’s not a good time to come. And by the way, there was no TV in those days so there was no late night show. When darkness came, you basically stayed around a little bit with the light of a candle then you went to sleep because you had to start work at 6 A.M. in the morning, that’s when the work day began. And so nobody’s awake at midnight. And it says here this man goes to his friend at midnight and he starts yelling his name. “Hey, hey...hey, it’s me.” And he's waking him up, obviously. “Friend, friend,” (it’s always good to call someone a friend when it’s midnight and you’re knocking on their door!) Now note this is not an emergency. He isn’t saying, “My wife is having a baby, my wife is dying, my kid broke his leg, we’ve got a fire at our house.” He’s in the middle of the night and he says, ‘I want these three loaves.” And the guy is probably thinking, “What in the world...he is waking me up for a midnight snack. This is ridiculous!” Practicing hospitality is one thing – but you’re knocking on my door at midnight because you want a snack?” He says, “My children and I are in bed.” Usually the same bed. They had a big mat, one-room house. So by now everyone in the house and the neighbors are probably awake. He tells him to go away. Guess what – the guy won’t quit – he keeps knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking. “The snack’s not for me – it’s for my guest who has just arrive – I know you got bread in there!” Jesus cuts to the bottom line of the story.
I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
The word boldness is the issue here – some translations say “importunity” – importunity is opportunity on steroids. Importunity means Troublesomely urgent, overly persistent – annoyingly relentless. That’s what this guy is. He is overly persistent – annoyingly persistent – shamelessly bold. Basically we would describe him as a guy who has a lot of nerve. He has a lot of gall.
Our Lord is teaching us how to be invasive in our prayers, how to be bold in our prayers. This man responded not for friendship, but for irritation. He is in contrast to God who, by the way, the Old Testament says, “Never sleeps and never slumbers.” So you’re not waking Him up. And if this man would give this man what he wanted not for friendship, but just because of his shameless boldness, what will God, who loves you perfectly, give you when you come into His presence? Now look at Jesus’ point in this story:
"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
– Then there is this very surprising thing that is added on to the end of this teaching. I would expect something like – “Now don’t you ever, ever, ever approach God that way. I would expect that the teaching would be something like: God is far too important, far too busy, for too grand for you to come and bother him with your petty little requests - Don’t you dare come banging on God’s door demanding him to address the little issues that preoccupy your mind. You’d better back off – don’t be like that guy. Make sure you got your ducks in a row before you come banging on his door.” That’s the kind of lesson I might expect at this point - He doesn’t say anything like that – in fact it’s just the opposite. “Feel free – to ask – and if asking doesn’t do it – seek – that means strive for something - and if seeking doesn’t do it knock – turn up the intensity - and the promise is the door will be opened.”
This is in answer to “teach us to pray”
Our God is generous – he wants you to come and approach him and he wants you to be persistent in it. God is saying “I’m telling you, come...come in the middle of the night, come for what might seem small to you, come and I will open the door.” God delights in persevering prayer. He issuing an invitation for us to be aggressive in prayer.
Many Christians pray, but they really don’t expect and answer. I heard about a Sunday School teacher who had her children write letters to a missionary they had been praying for. The teacher explained the missionary was very busy and wouldn’t have time to send a reply to every child, so they shouldn’t expect to hear back from him. One little boy wrote this letter: “Dear Mr. Smith, I am praying for you. I am not expecting an answer.” Are you like that? You pray, but you aren’t really expecting an answer? I’ve known people who have quit praying because they didn’t seem to get an answer. If I walk into a room and flip the light switch, I expect the light to come on. If it doesn’t, I don’t curse Thomas Edison and say electricity is a lie. I start looking for the problem. Maybe the light bulb is burned out, or a breaker has been thrown, or the power is out. If it seems your prayers aren’t answered, don’t quit praying–start looking for the reason. It may be the wrong request, or you may have unconfessed sin in your life, or the timing may not be right.
One of the fastest growing organizations in America is the Quitters Club. The reason you’ve never heard of the Quitters Club is because they never meet–the members quit coming. There are no dues – the members quit paying them. The Quitters Club is comprised of people who faced a tough job, a tough marriage, a tough sickness, or a tough failure–and they quit. When the going gets tough, the tough get going. But the going gets tough, the quitters get going...away. What we need in America and in the church are people who will exhibit good, old-fashioned “sticktoitiveness.” That’s probably not even a word, but it needs to be!
Let’s get back to Eph.
Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that
I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
- When Paul asks for prayer for himself – remember he is where? He is in prison. Here he is sitting in prison and he’s saying I need your prayers – not so that I might be more comfortable but that I might speak with boldness and effectiveness as I share the Gospel. What’s important is not that you pray for what you might consider my afflictions – but that you pray for me that I might be able to do that which God has God me to do while I remain on this earth. Paul is saying, ‘I don’t always know what to say in every situation and how to say it – So pray that whenever I open my mouth the Spirit of God gives me right things to say so that I don’t make a mess of things by spouting out my own ideas.” And he says, “I sometimes get a little afraid in the situations that God places me in and I don’t always feel as if I have the strength to deal with everything on my plate. So pray for me that I might be bold – that I might be fearless – that I can move beyond the fear that I am feeling inside of me. I don’t want fear to control me. I want Holy Spirit boldness. Pray that I declare the Word of God as I should.” That’s incredible. That’s how you need to pray for this church. That’s how you ought to pray for me and the leadership here. Paul is saying I want to see victory in spite of the weak areas I have in my life – so I need you to pray for me. I don’t want to loose – I want to win – Paul is saying, “brothers and sisters you play a part of that – in Paul’s mind the prayers of the saints who he ministered to was a major determining factor in the victory of his ministry. Listen to me – you all better be praying for the preacher. Paul was saying “I can’t do my ministry without prayer” I’m saying the same thing.
Close: Don’t Just Stand There, Pray Something
Ill – A kid who had old beat-up bicycle- so ugly it
didn’t even have handlebar grips. One day his dad took him to the hardware store. Near the front door there were some new handlebar grips for sale. They were plastic and had long streamers hanging from the ends. He said, “Daddy, daddy, I’ve just GOT to have these handlebar grips! His dad looked and him and said, “No son, you don’t need those grips. Now come with me to the back of the store.” As he followed under his breath he was muttering, “I never get ANYTHING. It’s just a lousy three dollars! My dad sure is mean!” When they got to the back of the store the owner wheeled out a shiny, brand new bicycle–complete with handlebar grips with plastic streamers. I couldn’t buy you any handlebar grips because I ordered you this new bicycle!” He was ecstatic! As he wheeled his new bike out the front door, he never even gave those handlebar grips a glance. Sometimes when you ask God for something, He has something better in store for you!But maybe you’ve been praying a long time, and you haven’t gotten anything better yet–in fact things seem to be getting worse–just wait. God always answers prayer in the way and at the time that it will give Him the greatest glory.
