Pray for the Church to Have Boldness

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The Old Testament reading is

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Jeremiah 1, 4 through 12. Now the word of the

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Lord came to me saying, before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you.

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I appointed you a prophet to the nations. Then I said, Lord God, behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.

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But the Lord said to me, do not say I am only a youth, for to all to whom

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I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the

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Lord. Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth, and the

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Lord said to me, behold, I have put my words into your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.

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And then the word of the Lord came to me saying, Jeremiah, what do you see? And I said,

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I see an almond branch, and the Lord said to me, you have seen well, for I am watching over the

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Word to perform it. The New Testament reading is

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Luke chapter 18, one through eight. In your pew Bibles, it's page 877.

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And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.

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He said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. There was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary.

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For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me,

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I will give her justice so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. The Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not

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God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?

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I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the

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Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? You may be seated. Good morning to all.

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Good morning. Open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter six. Ephesians chapter six, which if all goes well, it will very likely be the last message in this epistle.

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Ephesians chapter six, we'll read from 10 on for context, but we will focus our time in verses 18 and on.

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So Ephesians chapter six, verse 10. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

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Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

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For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil and the heavenly places.

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Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand firm.

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Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and as shoes for your feet, have put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

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In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.

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And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication.

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To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.

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And also for me, that words may be given to me in the opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which

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I, Paul, am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare the gospel boldly as I ought to speak.

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So that you may also know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the

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Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.

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Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

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Let us pray to our God. Oh Father in heaven, you have called us to a great salvation.

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In this world we live in which enemies abound from without and our flesh within, you have called us to a great calling.

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That is to deny the world, to deny the flesh and rely upon Jesus Christ in all things, namely to battle our sin.

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Oh Lord in heaven, help us not to be so, so short -sighted.

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Help us Father to know that there is a battle worldwide as the church is worldwide so the battle is worldwide.

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And as our battle within ourselves is difficult, within our own local assembly is hard, help us to know that the difficulty is just as much throughout the world for Satan surely never sleeps.

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So God help us to be a universal people in which we not only pray for ourselves and our local body but for the saints at large.

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Help us to care for them and love them and know that our prayers matter. You use them for their victory to encourage our hearts.

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God in heaven, help us to end this letter well. Let us consider it, meditate on it and be delighted in it.

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For you have given us this epistle to the Ephesians to help us to understand the excellencies of Jesus Christ our

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Lord and the blessings that have came forth from him through our faith in him. So let us be encouraged today to look and believe and trust upon Jesus and to follow him and to obey him by the strength he has provided in this covenant of grace.

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We thank you and praise you in his name, amen. There's a, if you're a student of history at all, there's a very famous group of soldiers in the

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Greek army called the Greek phalanx. And this way of doing battle for the

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Greeks in ancient times was that the people in your neighborhood, the people in your town would make up a division.

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And the way that your division would fight battles and formation would be a heavy reliance, not only of course on your own self and to be well supplied and well defended, but the phalanx, it depended upon your neighbor to be defending you as well as himself.

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And likewise, you need to defend your neighbor as well as yourself. The formation depended on a defense of each other so that if your neighbor fell, surely you would fall shortly after because the armor, the way the armor was is that it relied upon one another to create one cohesive armor piece.

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And so you would armor up with the people of your town and form a division. And the way you battled certainly had to do with your own protection, but the protection of your neighbor.

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You were only as strong as your neighbor next to you as your armor interlocked together.

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I think of my upbringing and the greatest camaraderie I had with my neighborhood friends was playing video games with one another.

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I cannot imagine the people you were growing up with knowing that one day we'll have to strap on armor together and defend our towns together, interlocked with one another, defending one another.

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So your unit would be those of your own town and you would defend against enemies. Thus, it wasn't just about you and even your direct neighbor, but the strength of your fellow countrymen down the line was vital.

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We have just been told here in Ephesians chapter six to grab the armor of Jesus Christ if you remember.

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We went through all the armor pieces that Christ gives us at the battle line and we finished with the need to be in prayer at all times that this armor set that Christ has given us by his blood and resurrection would fit us well so that we could defend against the schemes of the evil one.

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And Paul continues the same train of thought but kind of changes direction a little bit when he says in verse 18, to that end, if you see in your

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Bibles, to that end, he says pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplications that this armor would fit you well and you'd be ready for defense against the evil one.

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And he says within that same strain of thought there, within that thought process, he says keep alert with all perseverance making supplication for all the saints.

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Not just for you, that your armor would fit well, but you gotta be thinking of your direct neighbor and in fact, all the saints worldwide make supplications for their defense against the evil one.

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For as you battle Satan, as you battle his deceptions and schemes that wants to pull you unto death and you consider the difficulty of it yet the victory that's found in Christ Jesus your

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Lord, consider your neighbor. Consider the saint across the world who's facing the same enemy, the same ferocious enemy that wants to kill his soul.

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Consider just how important your prayer for them is.

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Notice he says keep alert with all perseverance as you make these supplications.

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Not only for yourself, but for all the saints. Notice how he says to keep alert with all perseverance.

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Be alert and persevere in your alertness. Have prayers of petition or supplication or asking for things from God for all the saints worldwide.

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And he says to be alert and persevere in that mode of existence. Maybe it'd be helpful for you to think of a watchman on the wall.

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A watchman on the wall eagerly looking for enemies to cry out to warn the city.

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The alertness, the perseverance in that duty was exemplified when the watchman knew that there was enemies afoot.

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That if he knew there's a great army out there somewhere and rumor has it they might come to our city, it fueled his desire to stay alert and persevere in alertness.

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I don't know if you ever kept watch at all, if you ever had to do that, stand guard duty, but it is increasingly difficult to keep the alertness up.

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But if you know the enemy is afoot, it's nearby, and you know this enemy is potent with its danger, and you know that your cry of the enemy is here, the enemy is here, it would ensure the defense of the city.

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In other words, it is vital that you cry out immediately for your parents to live, for your husband to live, for your wife to live, for your children to live, it will help you stay alert and persevere in that alertness.

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I remember in bootcamp having to stay, I've been doing a lot of bootcamp stories lately, I just now realized that.

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But I remember we had to do guard duty and patrol the barracks, and it wasn't really for anything important because it was just to prepare us for when we got out of bootcamp, when we were guarding nuclear sites and all that kind of stuff.

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In the barracks, there's nothing going on there. So it was really hard to stay alert, especially when you knew that the guy after you always slept in and you'd be left there stranded.

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I knew that, and it just really made it difficult for me to stay alert with perseverance because I knew there wasn't any imminent danger.

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This isn't the case here. Again, think of the guy on the wall knowing there's an army nearby that is the cry, the enemy's here is vital for the town's protection.

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And this is the same thing that we hear in Ephesians 6. We are engaged in a spiritual warfare that is very real.

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Your own battle with Satan and the temptations you've had to battle attests to that realness, doesn't it?

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You know the enemy is afoot. You know he's very near. You know he's ferocious. He wants to kill you and your fellow saints.

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It ought to cause us to know, I know the imminency, I know the danger, I know it's there and it'll fuel your alertness, your perseverance in that.

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And beyond that, God has ordained your prayers for your fellow saints to actually have an effect of change.

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Now I know we're all good Calvinists here. We all believe in God's complete sovereignty and so one of the pitfalls or the ditches that we can fall on is why does my prayers matter?

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God is in control, I'm not. Why do my prayers matter? And one of the most profound things about scripture is he says,

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I am sovereign, my plan will stand forever, amen, and your prayers affect change anyways.

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You must understand that your cry and prayer for your saints matter.

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God uses that for their victory. It can be difficult for us to fathom that because we have this church worldwide and what

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Paul is saying is I want you to be praying, alert in prayer for your saints across the world because God uses that for their good and for their victory.

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We see this throughout scripture. Just a couple just to put your mind on this important doctrine because this alerts you, this helps you to be alert and persevere in that alertness when you understand just how important your prayers for the saints are.

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But just listen to me, Hebrews 13, 18, and 19, the writer to the Hebrews, he says, pray for us.

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For we are sure that we have a clear conscience desiring to act honorably in all things and I urge you the more earnestly to do this, to pray for us in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

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You see what he's saying there? Through your prayers, I will be restored to you. I will be able to get to you and see you.

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So he's assuming their prayers actually matter, actually will change the circumstance to cause them to be able to go and see them.

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He's urging prayer so I can come and see you. Or Philemon, or if you're feeling extra pompous,

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Philemon, verse 22, at the same time, prepare a guest room for me, Paul says, for I am hoping that through your prayers

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I'll be graciously given to you. Paul says, your prayers will enable me to actually see you.

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The God who is sovereign, has a plan before time began, uses your prayers so I can come and see you.

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Or think of James 5, 16, the most famous one. Therefore, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another, that you may be healed for the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

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So you need to be the watchman on the wall, fully aware of the threat of the enemy and aware that God uses your prayer for your brothers and sisters worldwide for the victory.

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For the victory. But Paul, he doesn't just have in mind the saints in general here, but himself in specific as he was the apostle to the

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Gentile world. Do you notice that? He says in Ephesians 6, 19, as he goes on, he says, and also pray for me.

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He says, and also pray for me. How remarkable it is, first off, that the greatest

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Christian to ever live, I'm okay with saying that that's the apostle Paul, has prayers from this young Ephesian church.

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Just wrap your mind around that for a moment. The greatest Christian to ever walk the earth asked for prayers for this little

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Ephesian church because he was confident that God uses their prayers that much.

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He says, pray for me. Paul wants prayer for himself. So if the strongest

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Christian in the world, oh, debatably, okay, we'll say debatably, the strongest

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Christian in the world needed prayer. Our brothers and sisters worldwide certainly need prayer as they engage the dark world.

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I don't think our brothers and sisters worldwide are any stronger than Paul. We can at least surmise that.

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And Satan is just as desperate and vicious now as he's ever been. And God has ordained your prayers to be used for their victory over him.

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Now, moving on from this, we'll see the first general supplication that he says that he wants.

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And then we'll get to the need for specific supplication. When I say supplications, I mean prayer for asking

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God for things, right? This is the way that we help our saints worldwide is we pray to God for them, asking them that he would aid them, help them, strengthen them.

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So we'll see, and we'll get this teaching there, what he wants, the general supplication that Paul wants from the

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Ephesians, it's gonna be helpful for us to know how should we be praying for the saints. And then we'll see the need for a specific supplication as well.

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So let's look at the general supplication. This is, generally speaking, how we should be praying for the saints.

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Paul gives us that teaching by asking for prayer for himself from the Ephesians. He says in Ephesians 6, verse 19, and also for me, pray for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which

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I'm an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it, now when you see a word a couple times in a row, underline it and meditate on it for a while, boldly as I ought to speak.

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Now remember the context of this epistle, right? Paul is not living his high life, he's not in a mansion somewhere like Joel Olson.

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He is in prison in Rome. And he's asking for prayers from the

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Ephesians, he could ask for anything in this moment. And what he asks prayers for teaches us a big deal about what should be on our mind when we're praying for people, especially when they're suffering as Paul is.

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And what does Paul ask prayer for? Not for comfort, not for freedom, not for these things that would be typical in our minds and hearts, but he asks for the mystery of the gospel to be revealed in him.

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You see that word mystery, the word the mystery of the gospel, we talked about this already because he's used this before in this epistle.

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But the mystery denotes that it is hidden from a people, it is now revealed in the word and it must be proclaimed.

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You gotta imagine, there's the greatest word ever in Jesus Christ, the greatest message ever, it is hidden to the people and all we got to do is proclaim it.

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Let's do it today, let's do it now, Paul says pray for that for me as I'm in prison.

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That although I'm in prison, the word of God, the gospel, the mystery now revealed would not be in prison, he says.

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And it's a fascinating thing, surely Paul wanted to get out, surely Paul wanted his meals, he wanted comforts, obviously he wanted all those things.

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But the teaching he gives us here is above all, what he says here, the general supplication here is that the mystery of the gospel would be proclaimed in me.

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You see, you gotta understand that since the moment Adam sinned, there was no mystery in our absolute corruption and deadness and our conscience bearing witness to us that we are sinners.

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You don't need to convince anyone that they're a sinner, they know, now they might try to get around it in some way, but they know, when they go to bed at night, they lay their head down, their conscience is overcome with guilt before a

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God who has existed, who revealed himself as holy, righteous and good and he's revealed that they are not.

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There is no mystery in the corruption of humanity. You really don't need to prove that to anyone, we're all aware of that.

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That's why we're all, without Christ, so miserable, is because we're aware of just how much we are sinners in the eyes of an angry

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God. But the mystery that Paul has in mind here is the good news, the good news that through faith in Jesus, a people can be brought near to God.

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You remember what he says in Ephesians 3, 6? This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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So there are countless people around the world that are living with the weight of God's displeasure towards them and there is a great gospel message that brings freedom and forgiveness.

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And Paul's desire is for the people to pray that he would be faithful to that declaration of good news.

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Notice, with this supplication, that trains us how to pray for the saints worldwide, notice the supplication of Paul, his desire is not that he would be given the contents of the gospel message.

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Notice he's not concerned about the content of the gospel message. What I mean is he's sure of the content of the gospel message.

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Paul, he calls himself here, and as the church is, an ambassador of Christ. He says in verse 20,

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I am an ambassador in chains. He is a representative of God who has made the contents of the gospel sure.

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He's not concerned about what should I preach about the gospel, what is the gospel, what is the contents of it, I don't know.

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He's not concerned about that. The contents of the gospel are sure. He's an ambassador of Christ. He's a representative of him.

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It is sure as God is sure. The triune God has ordained the gospel before time began.

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The contents are sure found in his eternal nature of who he is. Now surely there's been imposters from the beginning of the age, the

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Gnostics, the Catholics, the liberals, they all have their different gospel message. But Paul is sure in the context of the gospel.

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The very, the true gospel content has been ordained in eternity past by the

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Father, codified in the blood of Christ, and energized in the washing of the spirit, and carried on by the preaching of its contents by the church who are ambassadors for Christ.

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What is Paul praying for here? What is he asking supplication for here? Is that he would give the gospel in a particular way.

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And what is that way? Well, look what he says again in verses 19 and 20. Pray for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth.

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There's that word again, boldly, boldly. That's the heart of his supplication here.

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I want to be bold with the mystery, the gospel of Christ. In fact, he says it again at the end of verse 20, that I may declare this gospel boldly as I ought to speak.

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You see, because the content of the gospel is rooted in God and therefore is sure, Paul wants boldness to proclaim the sure message of salvation.

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You gotta understand, if something is unsure, you're just not sure about it, it's kind of pompous and annoying to be very bold about it.

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Right, have you ever noticed that? If something's just not quite sure, but yet someone acts bold in it, it's very annoying.

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Like, it's kind of annoying at first, and then it became kind of fun afterwards, but like how many people were sure of Harris's victory in the election, right?

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It was annoying at the time, and now it's just kind of funny to look back at. But it's annoying to be bold for something that's not sure.

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And flip side, if something is sure and you're not bold for it, that's equally as annoying.

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So if I were to go up to you and I were to say, okay, listen, it appears that there are just two genders, male and female, it appears that way.

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You know, there's more data, who knows, science, we'll see what it discovers, but it appears that there's two genders.

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That is annoying. Yeah, I'm saying that there's two genders, but I'm not bold about it, I'm kind of wishy -washy.

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You get what I'm saying? When something is so sure, to not be bold about it is actually bad.

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And in fact, it probably points to later on, you're not gonna no longer be speaking that truth anymore.

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So here, what we have is Paul is sure in the contents of the gospel, the mystery revealed, and he's praying for boldness to declare the sure message with all boldness.

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And what's interesting, why the prayer for boldness for the gospel proclamation is so needed, if there's one thing the world hates is boldness for the truth.

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If there's one thing your neighbor hates is when you're bold for the truth. People will typically put up with your gospel message as long as you're not too bold about it.

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If you're kind of wishy -washy, I mean, I think this isn't true, this is what my truth is, they'll put up with it readily enough.

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But when you're bold with it, as if it is as clear as the sky is blue and the grass is green, that is whenever people get in trouble with the world.

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That's why if you look at movies, if you look at movies in my day at least, the pastors are always either not sure of anything or they're obnoxiously, just obnoxious.

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People would rather, the world would rather, you know, people, proclaimers of the word to be empathetic as I deliver or as you deliver the word, compassionate, not judgy.

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In fact, I heard a preacher one time say in the midst of his preaching, he didn't want to sound preachy while he was preaching.

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It was very strange. But you see, Paul is praying for, or he's asking for prayers and it's teaching us that when we're praying for saints worldwide, what should we most want for them?

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That despite the hatred of the world for boldness, they would be bold for what is sure, the context that is sure, the gospel of Jesus Christ that needs to be revealed to a world who needs it.

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Now, just in case you're concerned that such boldness can come across as very obnoxious, which indeed it can.

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It can produce arrogance and harshness to our neighbors, right? And when we highlight this need, we need to be bold with the gospel message.

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I know in some of our minds, it can just right away conjure up images of someone who is just very, very obnoxious, obtuse, and annoying.

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But you gotta understand what the nature of the context of the gospel, contents of the gospel is.

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What is it? It's love for neighbor. There is no greater love you can reveal to your neighbor that God has made a way for salvation for them.

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There is no greater love and compassion and gentleness and firmness and resoluteness, that's the word, that although you are a wicked sinner and you know it by your conscience bearing witness against you,

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God has made a way to be right with him through Jesus Christ the Lord. And so this boldness of the gospel is surely a, yes, this is true.

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There is no what ifs or maybe about this, but the boldness is directed towards love to your neighbor because there's a way for salvation for you.

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You no longer have to live in this corrupted state. You no longer have to live with a guilty conscience.

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You no longer have to try as you may, fall asleep at night, yet you are burdened with this conscience.

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You can be cleansed through the Lord Jesus Christ. So this boldness of the gospel message, when you're doing it central in the message, it actually, although you are bold and firm, it comes up, there is hope for you, oh sinner.

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Come to Christ, he's a comforter. Now why was

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Paul, again, this general supplication, why was he concerned with boldness for the gospel?

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Well, we've already kind of talked about how the world hates that kind of stuff. And notice what he says in verse 20, again, he says, pray that I would be bold for the gospel because I'm an ambassador in chains, he says.

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That's why he's praying for boldness for himself, or he's asking for prayers for boldness for himself because he's in chains.

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His faithfulness to the gospel has led him to the hatred of the world, so much so that he's a prisoner of Christ.

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And one thing that can happen as we receive hatred from the world, as they hate our message and they don't like us for it, and it even spills over to jail time and confiscating of our stuff and whatever it may be, there's always the temptation in that to perhaps not be as bold.

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Maybe I can just be a little bit more silent about this particular sin that the world really enjoys right now, when they need to hear that more than any of the other sins.

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I've heard that many times. Why do you talk so much about the Christian world today? Why do you talk so much about homosexuality and abortion?

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Because that's the sins that the world is doing this to. And so we as Christians are bold to say, that's a sin, there's salvation found in Christ.

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But nevertheless, it is very tempting that whenever we're facing a world that hates our message, so much so that they even put us in chains or want to kill us as Paul would eventually be killed, it is a temptation to maybe be a little bit less bold.

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And that less boldness, you know what's down the road of less boldness, right? It's complete rejection of the message.

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It starts with less boldness. It looks okay, okay, I just won't say that as much. But it ends, if you continue down that road, rejection of the message altogether.

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And you see that historically with people. You just see them acting a little bit less, especially the CRT, critical race theory stuff.

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You start seeing that in some people. Just not as bold with it. That is utter corruption and heresy.

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And it's like, they're just not really bold with it. And then all of a sudden you see later on, oh, it's because they're supporting that heresy.

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So I think it's important for us to see the reason why Paul is asking for prayer for boldness is because whenever we have the hatred of Satan and his minions on us, it is tempting to be less bold.

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That is a temptation before us. Remember the early church in Acts, chapter four, verse 29.

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Remember whenever they first started to get mistreated by the Jews. What did they pray for? Well, in verse 29, and now

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Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with what?

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Boldness. Because it is very easy to forego that in order to try to save your hide. Very easy.

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And you see, we live in a negative world today. It's no different. We live in a negative world against the gospel and the desire we need to have above all else is to be bold with the context of the contents of the message of God, even when hatred is imminent.

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When times pass, the enemy responded with jail time, death. Currently they respond with name calling and isolation.

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Those guys preach hate and intolerance. They are not loving or compassionate.

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And it can be tempting to be less bold. And what's ironic is in our own age too, is that these lesser attacks actually prove to be even more insidious.

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If you notice in church history, whenever the hatred of the enemy got its whole wish and it just started killing people for the gospel message, it actually always tends to produce boldness.

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But it's like those little insidious attacks, you know, those little isolation, those making you feel bad about the gospel, that tends to actually have a greater effect of making you a little bit less bold.

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So we live in an age in which, again, there is a great cry, as Paul is saying, a general supplication for the saints worldwide, including himself, to be bold with the gospel despite enemy attacks because of the gospel.

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So, if we're talking about the need to pray for the saints worldwide, if we're talking about the need, we can grab hold of this text here and say, yes,

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I need to be mindful of what's going on worldwide and what should I be praying for? Well, let the heartbeat of your prayer be that they'd be bold with the gospel despite any kind of enemy incursion upon it.

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Let that be the heartbeat of your prayer for them. Start with the boldness of the gospel. But notice here, moving on in verses 21 and 22, the need to be specific, or to know specifically what's going on for people so you can take that general supplication of boldness for the gospel and apply it specifically to their particular circumstance.

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You get what I'm saying? And that's what he says in verse 21 and 22 as we see the final greetings now. He says, so that you may know how

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I am and what I am doing. In other words, so that you know how to pray. Pray that I would have boldness and so you know exactly, specifically, in what ways

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I need it in my circumstance right now, Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the

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Lord will tell you everything. This was his coworker. He sent off the letters and he told them, okay, this is what's going on in the ministry of Paul right now.

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This is how you can specifically be praying for boldness for him to proclaim the gospel message boldly.

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He says in verse 22, I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and thus pray for us and that he may encourage your hearts as well.

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So this is specifically know how to pray for people so that they can be bold for the gospel. In light of the general supplication that I would be bold with the gospel, my coworker is going to tell you how to specifically pray for that in light of what

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I'm going through currently, he's saying. So you reveal your desire to pray and help the saints worldwide when you are desires to know about their specific situation.

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Why do you think we just spent time praying for our fire church in Roger City? That is a beloved brother, by the way.

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If you've never met him, he is a beloved brother up there. He hosts the regional often. He's a beloved brother who has gone through a lot this past few years.

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You show your desire to pray for the people at large as what we are really being taught by Paul here by wanting to know specifically what their situation is so you can take that general supplication and apply it to their lives.

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I think of publications like Voice of the Martyrs or the updates that missionaries will give. I certainly could do better with knowing worldwide what's going on.

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But a really great opportunity, I think the best way to do it is to know them personally and have a personal relationship with them which really draws your heart knitted together with them.

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And so what an opportunity fire conferences are. Not to put in too much of a advertisement here, but if you want to know how can

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I get to know saints more worldwide beyond my local context, go to fire conferences. Go to a fire fellowship.

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You will meet Christians from different areas. A couple years ago, I got to have lunch with a minister in Israel.

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And last time I got to have lunch with a minister in California, pretty much a different world as well. And you'll get to hear, you'll get to talk to people from different situations, what they're going through and how to pray for them to have boldness in light of their situation.

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We were called to pray for the saints worldwide since they are under attack of Satan and God uses our prayers for their victory.

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Avail yourself to the opportunity to get to know saints and their specific needs so you can ask the

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Lord for boldness for the gospel in their own ministry setting. What a great age we live in in which we can communicate so well with one another and travel so quickly so we can see people of different places in the world, times in which that is only recently available to us.

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But notice how it wasn't just for Paul, for Paul's benefit that they would pray for Paul, right?

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If you notice it, going back to the text, he says, so that you know how I am and how you can pray for me, right?

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Tychicus will tell you all these things, but notice at the end, there is something involved, a positive, for those he's asking for prayers from.

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He says in the end of verse 22, and that he may encourage your hearts also. He's gonna tell you about me so you can pray for me, but he's gonna encourage your hearts also.

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What I think is remarkable about how fellowshipping like this works is that you never will spend your life devoted to prayer for other saints and not, at the end of it all, be encouraged.

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There was like a billion different reasons why hearing Paul's story, isolation, like different isolated stories, it's discouraging.

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If you ever read his stories, like my goodness, Jesus wasn't kidding whenever he called him out and said, I'm gonna show him what trouble he's gonna be in.

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We have a list we could go into of all the different terrible things that happened to Paul, all the stuff that he suffered, but yet, you know, as you look at his story overall, you know how you can define it as?

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Victory, encouragement, a Christ victory through the war, through the battles. And I think a lot of times as Christians, we can kind of see things and we don't spend our times devoted in prayer to know what's going on, and so we don't see the whole picture, so we leave discouraged.

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But if we have a heart of I want to pray, I want to know, I want to invest, we will see that what comes forth from that is an overall story of victory for the saints and encouragement to our hearts.

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Now you read like Fox's book of martyrs, right? That book will depress you like no other, but there is something that's just kind of ringing through it, that just kind of goes through it.

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That is, is that Christ is victorious through the hardship. And the more you get to know it and pray and be in line with it, the more your hearts will be encouraged in it.

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The book of Revelation is the same thing, right? Book of Revelation will depress you in one setting, but in the other setting, you'll find yourself cheering out the victory of Christ.

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It's a rollercoaster ride, that book of Revelation is. And so it is, that when you are spending your life in fellowship with the saints, praying for them, you will find your hearts encouraged.

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So if you find yourself, and this is such a, I think, what I've seen in my ministry, this happens a lot, is that people are very discouraged as they look at the world.

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And you know what the answer is? Is to know more about the saints and their struggle, pray more for them, and you will find that Christ is victorious in those struggles.

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You will find your heart encouraged in that. So we need to be people who praise for spiritual strength, for boldness and light of the enemy, for ourselves and also for all our brothers and sisters worldwide.

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God uses our prayers for Jesus's victory in the saints, and thus we need to get to know about our brothers and sisters worldwide, their struggles, to know how to pray in a more particular way, and be encouraged as we see

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Jesus's victory unfold in their life and in life in general. Now as we go through the last couple verses quickly, it can be easy to see the final two verses and say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he always kind of talks like that, and just move on.

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But I think it's very much in line with what we have been talking about here. So notice in verse 23 he says, peace be to the brothers, and love with faith from God the

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Father and the Lord Jesus. Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're thinking to yourself right now, I don't have such a concern for the saints worldwide.

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If I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't have that much of a concern for them. I can't think of the last time I prayed for them.

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And to be honest with you, when we pray for the fire churches up here, I kind of just zone out. If you're thinking, I know there's people in here, it's like I struggle with that all the time.

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To have a concern for saints worldwide is a struggle indeed. And if you're thinking that way, if you're being honest with yourself and say, yeah, it's a struggle to really care more and more and to really engage myself in prayer, consider the faith that comes from God the

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Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. If you notice in that verse, it is a faith that produces peace and love for the brothers.

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You notice that? Peace be to the brothers. Brothers worldwide, pray for all the saints.

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Pray for the brothers. Peace be to the brothers. The peace we have with one another and love for one another that comes with faith that comes from God and Jesus Christ.

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God the Father and Jesus Christ. The faith that we have from the Father and the

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Son is a faith that produces peace with one another and love for one another. Yes, the simplicity of faith in Christ will produce in you peace and love for the brothers and sisters who share your faith worldwide.

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That is what faith in Christ does. As you grow in your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, as you meditate upon the promises of the

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Lord and rely upon him, he will grow your peace and love with the saints. I am always amazed how

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I can go, I love, absolutely love, I like being here, but I love going to just random churches.

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I love it. Because there's one thing that always remains is that when it's a true church, those people are actually saved in there, there is a certain peace and love and unity that just, boom, right away because of the faith in Jesus Christ.

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When I went to Florida to officiate a wedding, I went to a church my mother has been going down there.

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She's one of those snowbirds, which I'm not a big fan of, but that's a different discussion. And I went down there just to see what the church was like, lovely church, lovely fellowship.

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I met a guy who was on the ballot, this was right before the election, he was on the local ballot to be a judge.

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And he said, I got kicked out the last time because liberals came in with their dirty politics and brought up all sorts of false things about me and whatever.

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And you could tell it was really on his mind. And so it was a delightful time for us to pray for one another, for me to pray for him as he was going through that time.

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And there's that peace that is just instantly between me and him, a love for one another, a care for one another, as we were talking about our different ministries of the gospel.

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Yes, his ministry or his job as a judge in that local community is a ministry of the gospel, surely.

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By the way, he won the election, it was wonderful. But it's amazing how faith in Jesus Christ produces a peace and love for one another, which creates this environment of desire for one another.

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So if you are wondering, how can I grow in love for the saints to pray like this, as Paul is telling us to do?

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Oh, place your eyes upon Jesus, put your faith in him, delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you a delight for his people worldwide.

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To have boldness for his message of peace. Finally, look at verse 24.

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Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with a love that is incorruptible.

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It doesn't fade, it doesn't die, the love for the Lord, a one that is eternal.

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He says, grace be to all who have such love or faith. It's a fitting end that makes the letter come full circle.

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Grace, as he talks about here, grace be with all. It can mean many things, but here it's a general word for God's favor or blessing to us that is not earned by us, but rather comes through faith in Jesus Christ.

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Remember Ephesians one, verse three, we spent a lot of time on this verse and then everything that came forth from it. He said, blessed be

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God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessings and the heavenly places in Christ.

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The blessing us with every spiritual blessing is the grace that he gives to us. It's full circle, grace be with all.

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Spiritual blessings be with all of you, he's saying. It's full circle of those who have faith in Christ, love incorruptible in Christ.

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It is a faith that produces an eternal love in your heart to Jesus that provides all the spiritual blessings or grace from God, which is what this epistle was all about.

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It is your faith with incorruptible love to Jesus that will produce a love for saints worldwide and cause you to pray for them, which is used by God for their victory.

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It is your faith with incorruptible love to Jesus that will cause you to take his armor and fight

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Satan and his schemes. It is your faith with incorruptible love to Jesus that makes the family be full of life and no longer death.

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It is your faith with incorruptible love to Jesus that will cause you to walk in newness of life and put to death the old man and its wayward desires and passions.

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It is your faith working in love for Jesus that will cause you to walk in unity with the church.

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Jesus Christ has been offered by the father to be the power that brings you from darkness into life.

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Have you believed upon this savior of the world? Have you put your eyes upon him and expected good things, spiritual blessings, all things found in him?

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Or are you still messing around with unbelief, deciding that I will put a show that I believe in Jesus while I will not follow him at all with my life?

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Are you following this one with incorruptible love, with faith in him, expecting all the spiritual blessings that's found in God the father?

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With such a salvation at our disposal through the word of the gospel, how could we not be bold with it and declare it to ourselves, to each other, and pray that the world, the saints in the world would be so bold with the same message, the hope of eternal life.

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May we be those saints. May we be so strengthened by Christ Jesus our

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Lord. May we receive all the blessings that's found in him, that's found in this mysterious yet revealed gospel that strengthens people for salvation.

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Oh, praise God for his love for his people. Let us pray. Oh, Father, I thank you for your gospel.

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I thank you, Lord, that in the scriptures we get clear teaching. God, surely it is good for us to care about people and how their well -being is, their physical well -being, their sufferings, their hardships.

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We think of how many Christians worldwide that are truly starving or within governmental systems that are corrupted and they have so much poverty.

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Lord, it is good for us and fitting for us to pray that you would bring relief to them.

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But God in heaven, help us to know the heart of this general supplication from Paul rings true of all time.

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May it be above everything, all things, may our desires be that the saints of Christ would be bold with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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How easy it is, Lord, when we face the enemy, when we face Satan and his kingdom. How easy it is,

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Father, for us to want to wiggle out of some of that boldness. Lord, how easy it is for me to want to wiggle out of some of that boldness even behind the pulpits here.

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How easy it is for us as Christians in our own vocations to wiggle out of that boldness, to find a way to do so.

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Oh, Father, may we pray for boldness for ourselves and may our hearts and minds be knitted to the saints worldwide in which we pray the same supplication for them.

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May we want to know the circumstances of our brothers and sisters so we know specifically how to pray for that boldness in their life.

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And may we, Father, as we see the gospel proclaimed and believed upon and Satan thwarted, may our hearts be encouraged.

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We thank you for this Jesus Christ, the one who has defeated all things. No one can stand against him, no, not even the powers of hell.

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So I thank you that through our faith in him, all spiritual blessings are ours, all things are ours.

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So may we, Lord, be edified by this. May we be strengthened by the message of the gospel.

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May it encourage us to go forth and be bold for the message of Christ our