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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to Colossians chapter 4. And when we read, we're going to read verses 2 through 4, so just a few verses today. And the title, as I mentioned earlier, is The Christian's Prayer Life.
This is not the first time that the Apostle Paul has discussed the subject of prayer in this letter to the church at Colossae. He has in fact mentioned it at the beginning, which we're going to look at in a moment, as well as here at the end.
So sort of bookending this letter, we have this subject of prayer. And I find that preaching a sermon on prayer is a lot like telling people that they need to eat healthy and exercise. We all know that we should, and yet so many of us fail to follow through.
My notes say pause for an amen, but apparently not. But isn't that the way? We know there are things that we should do. We have grand plans, and often life gets in the way. We all know that we should pray.
In fact, we know that we must pray, yet so often our prayer lives are weak. Because while we know of the necessity of prayer and the value of prayer, we often fail to live according to what we know is true.
Can anyone honestly stand up today and say, my prayer life is all that it should be? Well, Paul is going to challenge us today on our prayer life. Very short section, but with powerful words. So I want to invite you to stand, and we're going to read just these verses in chapter 4.
Beginning at verse 2, it says, continue steadfastly in prayer. Being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the word. To declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison.
That I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Father, I thank you again for your word. And now as we seek to open it up and understand it, I pray again that you be with us. And may your word be what teaches us today.
Through the power of your spirit, mixed with faith, in Christ's name, amen. This final portion of Colossians, beginning at chapter 4, verse 2. And this is the beginning of the end, for those of you who have been part of this series.
And know that we began back, I think, in September of last year. This is beginning the end of the book. We are now coming to the last, not only the last chapter, but the last thoughts of the Apostle Paul.
And he is finishing this book in a way that is extremely practical. And I want to admit, you all know we are a reformed church. And reformed churches are not always good at the practical. We're very good at the theological.
We're very good at the philosophical. We're very good at what does the text say and what does the text mean. But oftentimes, we miss out on the application. We get so caught up in the meaning that we miss how it should be applied.
In fact, I've said this before, so many of you know this. Preaching is not difficult if you break it down to its very basic parts. Preaching only has three parts. And it is outlined for us in Scripture that we are to read the text.
The Bible actually tells us to make the public reading of Scripture something that we do. So we do. So you read the text. You interpret or explain the text. That's primarily what I spend the time doing all week is interpreting and studying the language and looking at what it means and how words connect to other words.
And you explain the text. So we read the text. We explain the text. And then the third is the application. Now, what's interesting about that is some pastors, even some very well-known pastors, have really downplayed the application because they say it is not the job of the preacher to apply the message, it's the job of the Spirit to apply the message.
And while there is some truth to that, the Spirit is who applies the message, if we look at the Scripture itself, Paul himself brings us application. And so if we are to follow simply the model of the messenger who was the Apostle Paul, his model almost in all of his letters, given with just a few exceptions, is that he gives us the doctrinal to believe in and then he gives us the practical in how to live out that doctrine.
And before our break, or before my break, I say our break, you guys still had church, but I wasn't here. Before my break, my vacation, I had finished chapter 3. And we had seen the practical nature of the way the Apostle Paul outlines the Christian family in chapter 3.
And wasn't it practical when he talked about how wives are to relate to their husbands and husbands to their wives? That's very practical, especially for those of us who are married. And then he gave the practical admonition on how children are to obey their parents and fathers are not to provoke their children.
And that is very practical. And then we finished our last sermon on the relationship between masters and servants and we talked about how the servant is to serve as unto the Lord and the master is to always lead knowing that he has a master who is in heaven who is above him.
And that again is very practical. Wherever you are in life, whatever stage you're at in life, if you're parent or child, if you're husband or wife, if you are in a position of authority or in a position of submission, you do everything as unto the Lord.
Very practical. And that's Paul's point. Is to make the Christian faith more than just words. But to make our faith alive. What does James tell us in James chapter 2? He tells us that if our faith does not produce works, then it is dead.
Now often so we hear that and we want to argue justification and how we're justified by grace through faith alone and not of works. But let us for a moment just consider what James is saying. He's saying that faith produces a changed life.
And therefore, we should apply the scriptures. And if we're not applying the scriptures, then we are, then what good is it? He says it's dead. If all it is, if all it is is like a person who believes, but it doesn't change how they behave, he says you're like a demon.
He says even demons believe and shudder. So if our faith doesn't change our behavior, then what good is it? So in this final chapter, the Apostle Paul outlines three areas for us to consider by way of application.
The first is today. It is the Christian's prayer life. And that's what we're going to look at. Next week we're going to look at the Christian's public witness. And that's verses 5 and 6. So we're going real slow here at the end.
But then we're going to ramp it up a bit, and we're going to look at several verses in the third week when we look at the Christian's private relationships. Paul talks about all these people in his life who have affected him.
I love John MacArthur, I look at John MacArthur's commentary on the verses, I'm always studying ahead, and his title of that sermon is, I get by on a little help with my friends. Which, of course, if you're old like me, you know that's a song.
Get by on a little help with my friends. So anyhow, that's the next three weeks. We're going to look today at the Christian's prayer life. Next week we're going to look at the Christian's public witness.
And finally, the Christian's private relationships. And then, Lord willing, we're going to do one last final sermon in Colossians as what have we learned. So four more weeks in this study, and we will conclude.
So Paul begins this final chapter, and again, I know we're starting in verse two, you might say, wait a minute, he didn't begin the chapter. No, as I said last time, verse one actually should be, verse one belongs in chapter three.
Because verse one is part of chapter three, and those verse markings and those little numbers in your Bible, those are not inspired. Those were put there hundreds of years later. So don't be too tied to those numbers.
This chapter, I would say, actually begins in verse two. And Paul begins this section by talking about the subject of prayer, which as I said earlier, is how he began the letter. If you'll turn over to chapter one, just for a moment, you'll notice that he has already talked about the subject of prayer, and in chapter one, verse nine.
In chapter one, verse nine, he says, and so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you. This is Paul talking about the Colossians, and talking about how he has prayed for them, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of saints in light.
So that's the apostle Paul's prayer for the Colossians. Chapter one, verses nine to twelve, is Paul's prayer for them. He prays that they would walk worthy. He prays that they would bear fruit. He prays that they would increase in knowledge.
He prays that they would be strengthened, and he prays that they would give thanks. That is Paul's prayer for them. But now he ends the letter with how they ought to pray. He began with himself as an example of prayer for them, and he ends with how they ought to pray.
And he calls them to two types of prayer. The first thing he calls them to is watchful prayer, and we're going to break that down. And the second he calls them to intercessory prayer. So that is our outline today, it's a two-point sermon.
And we're going to look at watchful prayer and intercessory prayer. So let's look first at watchful prayer. Colossians chapter four, verse two says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
Notice in this sentence, in chapter four, verse two, that he says to continue steadfastly in prayer. Now I want to break this down from a linguistic perspective, because I think it's important to understand sometimes, even though I think sometimes when my sermons nerd out on language, there's only a few people who really get into that, I know Mike's one of them, we always joke about language.
But hopefully this doesn't bore anyone, but this is important, because understanding, when you open your Bible, and you really want to dive into a text, one of the first things you do is you actually identify the verbs, because verbs show action.
Verbs show what's happening, or whether it's a verb of something that is or something that should be, whether it's a command or whether it's indicative or imperative, those things. So you identify the verbs.
What's the verb in this sentence? It's not prayer. Prayer is a noun. This sentence actually begins in the ESV with the verb, and the verb is continue steadfastly. That's the verb, and it is an imperative verb.
That means it is in the sense of a command. So the ESV begins continue steadfastly. The King James says continue in prayer. The New American Standard Version gets it better, as I know some of you will be excited about because you like the NAS better.
The New American Standard says devote yourselves to prayer, and the reason why I say it gets it better, because the idea here in this word, in this verb, is the idea of a devotion, being devoted to something.
I'll show you a few verses. You don't have to turn there, but if you do want to turn there, you can. In Acts chapter 1, in verse 14, it says, all these, this is talking about those who were in the upper room, all these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers.
All these were devoted to prayer. It's the same word that Paul uses here in Colossians chapter 4. It's the word for devotion. In Acts 2, 42, it says, and they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship and to the breaking of bread and the prayers.
The word devoted is the same word that's used here that the ESV translates continue steadfastly. It's the word for devoted. In fact, let me just stop for a moment. If you're unfamiliar, Acts 2, 42 is one of those little verses that's good to memorize because, as I mentioned it earlier when I was talking about prayer in our pastoral prayer, Acts 2, 42 actually gives us the earliest example of what we might call a church liturgy.
Do you guys know what a liturgy is? A liturgy is the outline of the worship that we follow. All churches have a liturgy. By the way, we talk about liturgical churches and non-liturgical. All churches have a liturgy because all churches have an order.
Even if your church just comes in, sings, prays, and preaches, that's still a liturgy. It's just four parts, right? It's simple. But then you have a high church liturgy, which is stand up, sit down, repeat this, say this.
That's a high church liturgy. Those are good, right? There's a lot. I'm not teasing. I'm just saying you have high church liturgy. Those are usually called liturgical churches, but every church has a liturgy.
This is the earliest form of the liturgy that we have. It says, they devoted themselves to four things. The apostles' teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread. That's not just that they ate together, even though they did eat together in the Gape Feast.
They did eat together. They broke the bread of the communion bread. That's the reference here. They devoted themselves to doctrine, the apostles' teaching, to fellowship, which is the By the way, fellowship doesn't mean just getting together.
Fellowship is when you gather intentionally for the purpose of growing together in Christ. We get together for a reason. To grow in our love for one another, our care for one another, and our commitment to Christ and to one another.
They gathered together. They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. That was the doctrine. They devoted themselves to fellowship, intentional gathering together for growth in Christ, to the breaking of bread, which was the sacramental remembrance of the body and blood of Christ, and then the prayers.
Notice it also says, the prayers. That definite article is in the Greek. It's the prayers, which means they had specific prayers that they prayed when they gathered together. You say, well, what were they?
It doesn't tell us what they were, but we can assume certain things. Prayers of confession, prayers of repentance, prayers of supplication, prayers of adoration. All of those things are things that we are called to pray.
It says they were devoted to them. Same word the apostle Paul uses in Colossians 4 when he says, be devoted to prayer. One more time in the book of Acts, again in chapter 6, verse 4, when the first deacons were chosen.
I know there's some debate about whether they were deacons or proto-deacons or whatever. When the first men were chosen to support the apostles in their ministry, they were chosen for what reason? So that the apostles could devote themselves to prayer and the teaching of the word.
The devotion, same word. So we see through the book of Acts, this word is used for the idea of being devoted to something, being committed to something. So we go back to Colossians chapter 4 and we see this.
We see the apostle Paul say, be devoted to or devote yourselves to or continue steadfastly in prayer. And then he gives a participle. Oh, don't we love some participles. Just a few. It's okay. The participle modifies the main verb.
The main verb is what? Devote yourselves. Continue steadfastly. Prayer is a noun. We're devoting ourselves to prayer. Prayer is a noun. And then the participle is, in the ESV, it is being watchful. Being watchful.
The New American Standard, again, I like this translation, keeping alert. Keeping alert. And the opposite of that, in case you're wondering, is the idea of drifting off. And I want to ask, have you ever drifted off in prayer?
You had a hands up, right? Amen. Have you ever allowed yourself to drift off while I or Mike or Andy are praying? I've seen some of you sleep in the sermons. I know you've drifted off during prayer. This word here, being watchful, is often used by Jesus when he is warning people of coming judgment.
I'll give you an example. In Matthew 24, verse 42, he says, therefore stay awake, for you do not know the day that the Lord is coming. That word stay awake is the same word here for being watchful. So Jesus commands us to be watchful.
What? Because the Lord is returning. Because he will return. Because judgment is coming. We are to be watchful. Paul tells us that we are to be watchful in prayer. And perhaps another example might be even better.
You remember the night that Jesus was with his disciples before he went to the cross and he said, I'm going to go over there a little ways and pray and you sit here and you pray. And he went and prayed and he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood and he prayed to the Father, if it be thy will, take this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thy will be done.
And then he went back and he found his disciples sleeping. What did he say to them? Could you not watch with me for even one hour? That word watch is the same word Paul uses here when he says that we are to devote ourselves to prayer, being watchful, being alert, having our minds set on the act of prayer.
Not sleeping, but not only sleeping in the physical, but sleeping in the mental. You know that you can sleep in the mental. How many of you have ever left this church, driven home, gotten home and realized you don't know how you got there?
Because you went on autopilot halfway between here and the house and somehow you safely arrived in your driveway and you don't remember anything between here and there because your mind has gone on autopilot.
How many of us pray our prayers on autopilot? We don't pray with a watchfulness, but rather we pray with a, for lack of a better term, with a sleepiness. We pray with our minds disconnected. You actually think about your prayers when you pray them?
Or do you just rattle off your tongue and run through your mind just ticking off, oh yeah, God bless them, God keep them, God remember them. I mean, you know what I'm saying, right? People do. And let me say, I do.
I fail. I'm not, what's it say, point one finger, three of them pointed back at you. I'm not here to say that I'm perfect. I'm saying this is an area that Paul is calling us to work on. Paul is calling us to repent of these sleepy prayers.
He's calling us to an alertness in prayer, a devotion to actually thinking about our prayer when we pray. I want to remind you of one of Jesus' warnings about prayer. This is in Matthew chapter six. Again, you don't have to turn there unless you just want to.
Matthew chapter six is in the middle of what is called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is giving the greatest sermon that's ever been preached by any pastor ever. Jesus Christ, the greatest of all preachers, preached the greatest sermon that's ever been preached and is recorded for us in Matthew chapter five through Matthew chapter seven.
And in Matthew chapter six, he's talking about the subject of prayer. And this is what he says in verse seven. He says, when you pray, notice he doesn't say if you pray, because prayer is not optional for the believer.
Prayer is expected of the believer when you pray. He says, when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Now, I want to say this.
I have no problem with prayer memorization, especially for children. I think it's very useful. I teach my children the Lord's Prayer. I teach them the Ten Commandments. I think it's useful. And Martin Luther, when he was asked by his barber, which is an interesting story, Martin Luther's barber, there's a story about him, asked him to teach him to pray.
And Martin Luther, there's a book on this that Martin Luther wrote on the subject of prayer where he tells the story. And he says he taught him to pray the Ten Commandments, taught him to pray the Lord's Prayer, and I think the Apostles' Creed as part of his prayers.
Because having those things memorized were good for his soul to remember God's law and to remember his commandments and remember his promises and those things. So I'm not saying that memorized prayer is bad, but I will say this.
Many people commit themselves to prayer without thought because of something they've memorized. And I'm not here today to just kick Rome in the shins, even though as a Reformed church we do that quite a bit.
But you see the person holding the rosary, and what do they do? They go from bead to bead with memorized prayers. But do they have meaning? That's the question. Or is it just repeating words? There is the danger.
Jesus said, he said, when you pray, don't heap up empty phrases. Well what would be an empty phrase? An empty phrase would be something that you've memorized but have not considered with your mind. And that you have not internalized with your soul's DNA.
So ultimately you become then a repeater of something that doesn't matter. Beloved, when we teach our children to pray, we teach our children these memorized things, but then we teach them to use them for prayer.
You understand the Lord's prayer is simply a structured model for prayer. It's not intended necessarily to be repeated, though repeating it is not bad. But what does the Lord's prayer teach us? Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That teaches us about prayer beginning with God. So often do our prayers begin with us. But Jesus said, when you pray, pray like this, our Father who is in heaven, hallowed, holy is thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is teaching us about how our prayers are to begin focused on God and in focus on God, right? For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.
And then he talks about asking God for things, supplication, all those things. The prayer is teaching structure. So it's good, again, please don't think I'm saying don't teach your kids these prayers.
It's wonderful. But do not allow prayer in your life or in your children's life to simply become an action of repetition. You are going before the throne of God. You are meeting with the creator of the universe.
If you were going to meet someone of import in this world, you would be alert. So why are we not alert when we meet with he who keeps our very hearts pumping in our chest? Paul is calling the Colossians to be devoted to prayer, but not just any kind of prayer, a prayer that is alert, watchful, focused.
Some people think that the best prayer is the prayer you lose yourself in, like a meditative trance. And again, I'm not necessarily just trying to pick on anything, but we've seen a lot of in contemporary churches where it's all about setting an emotional mood and a feeling.
And it's shut off the mind and feel the feeling. The apostle Paul says, I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also. First Corinthians 14. He says, I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also.
The two go together. The Eastern religions will tell you to meditate like this. Clear your mind, take everything, find your nirvana, which means absolute nothingness. That's what nirvana is. And that's the hope of Buddhists, is to arrive at a place where you become nothing, great.
And so they clear their minds for this focus on this nirvanic experience. Christ never calls us to that. The Bible, Paul never calls us to Eastern meditation. We are called to meditate, but what does meditate mean?
What does it mean in the opening of the Psalm when it says, blessed is the man who does not stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers or walk in the way of sinners. But he meditates on the law of the Lord and on it.
He meditates all day long, right? That's his focus. I know I messed that up, so for those of you who just realized I messed up Psalm 1, you can read it for yourself. But he says meditate all day on this.
So yes, do Christians meditate? Yes, but it's a focused meditation. It's not a clearing of the mind. So Paul says, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert, and then he says, in thanksgiving or with thanksgiving.
The preposition here is a little, can be translated in or with, and it says thanksgiving. And I always like to remind us that the word for thanksgiving here is the Greek word Eucharistia. Eucharistia is the word that the church would later begin to use for the Lord's Supper, the word Eucharist.
Now I realize Rome has grabbed that word and run with it and used it for something that the table doesn't represent, which is the doctrine of transubstantiation, which is not true. But the idea of the table being a Eucharist is good because Eucharist simply means thanksgiving.
Eucharist, good gift. When you put a prefix EU in the Greek at the beginning of a word, it means you, like a eulogy is a good word. Eucharist. Eucharist is grace or gift. Eucharista, good gift. Something that we are to be thankful for.
And you know what the Bible says? The Bible says we are to give thanks in all things. But I want to clarify something. And this may cause a fight and it's okay if it does. It doesn't say we give thanks for all things.
There are certain things in life that are evil and terrible and hurtful and painful. But in the midst of that, in that, we can give thanks. Not for it. I don't give thanks for abortion. I don't. Because abortion is one of the greatest, heinous evils of our day and it murders 3 ,000 children every day in America, even since Roe vs. Wade was struck down, still murdering 3 ,000 babies a day.
I don't give thanks for that, but I can give thanks in that because I know that God is working out His will in all of this and He will bring justice. And He will bring about an end that will glorify Himself.
So I'm called in my prayers to give thanks in all things. So that's how I pray. Watchful prayer. Thankful prayer. Devoted prayer. That's what Paul calls me to pray. And now we see him in verse 3 and 4 give what to pray for.
And Paul actually tells them, pray for me. He says us, and we're going to see who the us is in a few weeks when we look at verses 7 to 17 where he lists off an entire litany of people that are with him.
But he says this, look at verse 3 with me. He says at the same time, meaning when you are praying, when you're doing this devoted prayer, when you're doing this watchful prayer, when you're praying in thanksgiving, with thanksgiving, when you're doing this at the same time pray also for us.
Interesting, that use of prayer is verbal. But it's a participial verb, or a participle. It's connected to the main verb. And here's how it works. Paul says devote yourselves to watchful prayer. That's the first participle.
Praying for us. That's the second participle. So what is the devote yourselves? It's connected to both. You're to be devoted to watchful prayers, but you're also to be devoted to intercessory prayers.
You're also to be devoted to prayers for us. And Paul says what? He says pray also for us that God may open a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ. Paul has already prayed for them. Now he wants them to pray for him and his own.
And the content of the prayer is simple. He wants them to pray for two things. He wants them to pray for access and clarity. Notice what he says. He says I want you to pray that a door would be opened for the word to declare the mystery of Christ.
That's access. I want you to pray that a door would be opened. But then he prays for clarity. And this, I want to tell you, when I read things sometimes they surprise me in scripture. And this is one of those times where I was somewhat surprised.
Because at the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4, Paul prays for clarity. Notice he says pray also for us that God may open a door for the word to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I am in prison.
That I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak. And I'm going to actually quote from a different translation. It says pray that I will proclaim this message as clearly as I should. That's a more contemporary translation.
But that is what he's saying. Paul is asking them to pray for two things. One that I'll have access to preach the gospel. And when I get that access that I will preach it with clarity. And again I say that bothers me a little bit.
Because if there's any man who knew the gospel it was the Apostle Paul, amen? If there's any man in the world who knew how to proclaim the gospel with clarity it was the Apostle Paul. But yet he still asked for prayer.
That when I stand before princes, that when I stand before kings, or that when I stand before the Jewish leaders, or that when I stand before anyone. When I proclaim that gospel, that that gospel message, that mystery of Christ is clear.
Even while I'm in prison. And by the way this reminds us that he's in prison now. Even while I'm here and I'm proclaiming it to the prison guard that I proclaim the gospel with clarity. I ask you, beloved, do you pray that when the elder stands up here to preach that the message is given with clarity?
Do you pray that when brother Mike goes out and preaches on the street that his message is with clarity? Do you pray that when Scott Phillips makes his way into, and that for those who don't know, I know visitors among us, Scott Phillips is the missionary we support and he lives among a tribe in Indonesia in the very deepest, darkest of jungles.
And he goes there with his family. He's got like 11 ,000 kids. And he takes all of his kids with him. And they all go into the jungle together. And do you pray, beloved, do you really pray that when Scott and Jenny are there, and Jenny's a translator, so Jenny's translating the gospel for them.
Do you pray that it's clear? That's what Paul is asking them to do. Say, I want you to pray that God will open doors. And that term open doors is actually used throughout the Bible. Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 16 for a wide door of effective work that's been opened.
And he talks about in 2 Corinthians that a door was opened for him. And so that term simply means avenues for the gospel. Paul says, I want you to pray that avenues for the gospel would be given. And when they are given, that we're able to preach that message clearly.
You know, I got to thinking this as I was writing the sermon. And I was writing my notes down. I got to thinking about things that you may not think about praying about. But to be honest with you, I mean, and this may, I don't know if this will make sense or not.
I hope it does. You know, we actually have a fairly small church, you know. But our church is actually making an impact. We are reaching out beyond our walls. And currently, if you were to look at our sermon audio, which is our, that's one of the ways that we put sermons out into the world.
We have over 1 ,500 sermons, actually coming up on 2 ,000 sermons. Almost every subject of theology and doctrine and several books of the Bible have been taught through either by me or Andy or Mike. They're all on our website.
And if you look, we have had over 188 ,000 people have downloaded those messages. Or I'm sorry, let me just say 188 ,000 downloads. This camera, it doesn't look like much. But it's actually reaching people.
Do you pray that it would reach people with the gospel? That's the kind of thing that we ought to be praying for. We ought to pray that when the Sunday school is being taught here, when the messages are being preached here, that these would actually reach out and share the gospel.
I don't want to call you out, brother, but I'm going to. Brother Matt, you got saved because somebody shared the gospel with you online. Is that right? I don't go too far into the story, but that's right, right?
You came to Christ because somebody put the gospel online and you heard it. Do we pray for that? That's part of why we do this. That's part of why I do some of the things that I do. I put things out. I want people to hear Christ and hear of him.
And so when Paul says, pray that a door would be open, I would say to you, pray that a door would be open. That the next time we go downtown and we stand in front of the veterans arena and we're handing out gospel tracts and Mike's hollering through the hailer.
That's his little speaker. It goes two miles or half mile. It's a half mile hailer. That somebody would hear that and be saved. That God would open a door for us for that message to go out. That's what Paul prays or asks for prayer.
Pray that doors be opened and pray that when we preach, the message is clear. Beloved, I would ask that prayer for us. I would ask that prayer for us. It has been said, unfortunately so, that Calvinists don't pray well.
Some say we shouldn't pray because we believe that God is sovereign, but I will say this. If you're a Calvinist and you believe in the sovereignty of God, you above all men have a reason to pray because you actually have access to a God who has power.
We believe God's actually in charge. We believe God can change the hearts of men. We believe that the king does sit on his throne right now. When Jesus said, all authority on heaven and earth has been given to me, therefore go into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have given you.
That's our command. That's our commission. That's what we're called to do, and we do so by the power of prayer. George Whitfield and John Wesley were contemporaries. You probably heard at least one of those names from church history.
John Wesley was a pastor and a preacher and a hymn writer. Many hymns that we sing actually have Wesley's wrote them. George Whitfield was a powerful preacher, one of the most powerful preachers to ever live.
George Whitfield was Calvinistic, and John Wesley was Arminian. If you don't know what those words mean, we'll talk about it later. It's not a big deal right now, but the point is they had differing views on the sovereignty of God.
At one point, they were staying in the same place. They were sharing a room together, and there were two beds in the room. Thank God. Sorry. I shouldn't have had to explain that, but they were staying in the same apartment.
They come back from a day of witnessing, and as they come back from the day of witnessing, Whitfield, who was the committed Calvinist, he praised this prayer. Lord, we thank thee for all of those with whom we spoke today, and we rejoice that their lives and destinies are entirely in thy hand.
Honor our efforts according to thy perfect will. Amen, and he went to sleep. Wesley, who had already gotten down on his knees and was wringing his hands, he looked at Whitfield with some disgust, and his disgust was to say, Mr. Whitfield, has your Calvinism led you to such a short prayer?
And he dug his face into the pillow, and he began to pray more earnestly. Well, Whitfield was unmoved, and he fell asleep. A few hours later, he woke up, and he sees that Wesley still has his head buried in the pillow, and somewhat impressed by his continued prayer, he stands up and walks across the room, and he notices that Whitfield has fallen asleep, or Wesley has fallen asleep.
And he says, Mr. Wesley, is this where your Arminianism has led you? And I've always liked that story, because it does show us somewhat of the pitfall of both sides. It can be that if we're so committed to the sovereignty of God that we allow our prayer lives to become somewhat anemic, but it can also be that if we go the other way, we end up falling into the pit of sleepy prayers, where we just pray and pray and pray all the time, and it just tends to become rote repetition.
Paul says, be alert, be focused, be watchful in your prayer, be considerate in your prayer, be devotional in your prayer, think about what you're praying, pray with thankfulness, pray with watchfulness, and pray with intercession, intercede on behalf of those who preach the gospel, intercede on behalf of those who take the message out, intercede for your brothers and sisters who have needs, intercede for your family who needs Christ.
Pray watchfully and with intercession. Let us be a people who are the most earnest in prayer, alert, gospel-saturated, and intercessory prayer. Lord, make that our desire. Let us pray. Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank you for this opportunity to, again, having heard your word, have the opportunity to apply it. And I do pray, Lord, that we have heard a call to application, not just a call to pray, but a call to pray with watchfulness, to pray with thankfulness, and to pray intercessory prayers for our church, for our leaders, for our government, for all around us.
Lord, it is easy to get discouraged in this world. And sometimes it's hard to pray because we feel like the face of the Lord is far from us. Lord, let us remember the words of the hymn, which says, When darkness seems to hide his face, I rest on his unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. In Jesus' name, amen.
