THE ARMOR OF GOD & PRAYER

The Lord’s Day Gathering and the Church’s Prayer Life

I just went streaming

Y 'all think of that new song. Praise the Lord, you know, if we were fishing, I'd call that a keeper, but praise him. You know, it gives us such pleasure to see you here today. Each and every one of you, as we worship because of, as we pray to, as we learn about, as we come encouraged by, and as we rest in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

You know, it's hard to believe, but after today, we only have one more week with Paul in this remarkable letter he wrote to the Ephesians. And I'm telling you what, I don't know how it's affected y 'all.

Well, I think I do, because we're with y 'all all the time, but it sure has encouraged me and helped me to grow, as Paul says, in Christ. Can I get an amen to that? So anyways, it's hard to believe we started Ephesians in January of 2023.

So we've been in this over a year and a half, but it's soon coming to an end. So you might be wondering, where are we going next? Well, what are we gonna be in next? What book of the Bible? Well, the elders have gotten together, and we've talked to people, and we're going to the book of Acts next.

So we'll be studying what Luke wrote about what happened at the end of Christ's death, after his resurrection, and then end to the beginning of the new church. But that's a big word. We're gonna wait to the first of the year to start Acts.

We have several things that we want to cover, and of course, during that season is the Advent season, so that's four weeks there. But where we're gonna go next, right after this, is we are gonna go to the book of John, and we're gonna have a seven-week series studying and talking about the seven great I am statements that Jesus made in the book of John.

And we're hoping, one of the main reasons, and we're praying about this, is we want to be able to better answer the question Jesus asked of the Jews and his disciples when he said, who do you say that I am?

Who do you say that I am, Jesus asked. And we wanna have a better understanding of that from his own statement, from his own claims. And there's gonna be more coming out on the Band App about this series, so if you'll pay attention to that.

And also, if you do not have the Band App, if you're a member of the church and you don't have it, just get with Nathan, and he'll be able to get you set up on that. Well, if you were here last week, you heard me preach, and you heard me speak about how important it is to abide in Christ.

And when you do abide in Christ, the point I made is you can stand strong in Christ, as Paul exhorts us to do. But another aspect of abiding in Christ and standing strong in the Lord is it puts you in the best possible position of being alert to the works and manifestations of our adversary.

And that's what we're talking about. The evil one, being able to withstand and stand strong. Standing speaks of being alert. Standing guard, being on guard. And of course, abiding speaks of resting in.

Resting in Christ, being at peace. It's when we're the most busiest in our lives. Running to and fro, y 'all know what I'm talking about. Trying to cram 30 hours in a 24-hour day. Trying to meet a half a dozen deadlines in an eight-hour period.

Getting all the children to several places all at the same time. That we become distracted and we lose our focus. We don't keep the main thing, the main thing. And you know, it's no surprise that the main excuse that we hear for not abiding in, praying to, resting in, reading of, and being discipled in Jesus Christ is because we're busy.

We don't have time. And one of Paul's main points in what we've been covering in Ephesians is if you want all these blessings in your life that he talks about. The armor of God, a Christian family living for God.

It's imperative that you make time to abide in Him. Being, as Paul has said many times in this letter, in. And that's the goal of our lives, right? To abide in Him, to be in Him. So, as every week we pray for a local church, today we're gonna pray for Christ Redeemer Church in Jonesboro.

So if y 'all would please bow your heads in prayer. Father, we thank you for Christ Redeemer Church. We ask that you lead them and grow them in your truth and righteousness. We pray that in all they do, they would seek your will and direction and that it would bring honor and glory to your name.

We trust in you to supply all their needs as they go forward in spreading the gospel and discipling those you have called into your church.

Testimony of Repentance and Baptism

Madison coming to my life, too. My wife, Tori. We got another beautiful daughter, Kelly. So many things she moved in with us and it was supposed to be for her better. But at first, oh man, it's a young teenager, rebellious.

I mean, she did not wanna be there. But man, cops were called. We were infuriated. Cops said, nothing you can do. She was so rebellious. Years went on and it got to a point where she wanted to move out.

So she turned 18 and she moved out. Man, she was terrified then because now she has to do it. She was struggling, wanted to come back home. But no, you wanted to be an adult. So you have to be an adult.

To see God transform her into who she's claiming to be today is a father's prayer. Me and my wife, we pray every night for our kids. If anything else, that they come to the cross as Lord. And God has worked in her life.

She's been coming here and I'm very grateful for an answer to her. And she wants to tell you a little bit about that during everybody be seated.

I really struggled with what to say today because I'm not very good with my words. But I like getting my voice. When I was younger, we moved around a lot. My childhood wasn't the greatest and a lot of bad things happened.

And when I went to live with my parents, when I turned 14, I was very rebellious and I was angry, like I was angry at God. I was angry at my mom. I felt like the world owed me something. Like God owed me something.

And I just lashed out. I started wanting to party and doing things that were definitely not good for me. And in 2022, I actually had a close call with some stuff that almost killed me from a party. And after that, that kind of scared me.

And I was like, okay, I don't wanna do this anymore. Like, this is kind of scary. But I wasn't yet, I didn't yet feel the pull of Christ. And I just thought that I could do it on my own. Like I got this on my own, I don't need nobody.

And it wasn't until I met my husband and after we had our daughter. So November of last year is really when I started thinking more along, thinking more clearly. And I'm not sure where I started feeling that the life I was living was wrong.

I just kind of knew it was wrong. And at some point, I started coming here. And when I first started coming, it was just, I did not wanna come to church. I felt judged. There was even a time where my dad called me out in front of everybody, telling me not to take the communion.

And I did not come back to church for a year. But when I did start coming back this year, I came back pretty regularly. And I started to listen, I started to kind of open up and just really think about what was being preached, what was being said and taught to me.

And I realized that I wanted to be a better person. But still, I was like, I wanna be a better person for my kid, for my husband. I wanna be a daughter that my parents are proud of. And then I realized that it's not about that.

And it's not even about me, but about what I'm doing for Christ. To realize that is really something that you really have to, I don't wanna say you really have to think about it because really there's nothing to think about.

You, it just feels right now. And for me to put aside my selfish desires and the desire to like wanna please everybody around me, it was hard, but I did it. And well, Christ helped me do it. And because of him, I'm here today and I'm saved and I'm gonna be baptized.

Call to Worship from Psalm 145

Amen, what a wonderful picture, what a blessing. Well, this brings us to our call to worship, which is gonna be from Psalm 145 verses 13 through 20. Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. The Lord is faithful in all his words.

The Lord upholds all who are fallen. The eyes of all look to you. You open your hand. The Lord is righteous in all his ways. The Lord is near to all who call on him. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him.

The Lord preserves all who love him. And everyone said, amen. Please bow in a prayer of adoration. Lord God, heavenly father, our ways are ever before you. It is our desire to be knowledgeable and alert in your ways.

Asking that you show yourself merciful and shine your light on us as we live in this dark world. Your word proves true and you're a shield to all who take refuge and rest in you. You equip us with your strength.

You set us securely on the heights. You give us a wide place for our steps. And our feet do not slip from under us. It is you that is to be exalted as Lord of our salvation. You are the one true God who subdues all who come against us.

Lord almighty, you will not be moved. For this and the myriads of your promises and blessings, we praise your name. Lifting it above the nations for all to see. Amen. From Jude, verses 17 through 23. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions. Worldly people devoid of the spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying the Holy Spirit.

Keep yourselves in the love of God. Waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating, even the garment stained by the flesh.

Please bow your heads with me as we go through a prayer of confession and assurance. Father, we confess our sins and transgressions to you. Confident in the truth of your promise to forgive our iniquities as we lean on the completed work of your Son, Jesus Christ.

You declare that you are our hiding place, our strong tower, quick to preserve us in times of trouble and surrounding us with shouts of deliverance. We rest in your steadfast love, taking refuge in the hope you have given us.

Have this building, this space, this air conditioner, and just the comfort that we have to come and worship and pray.

Ephesians 6 and the Armor of God

God's word, if you've got one with you, to Ephesians chapter six. As Pastor Keith just said, we're getting close to the end here. We have today and next week, and then we will be saying our farewells to this amazing, rich, deep, wonderful epistle.

And I, like Pastor Keith, do pray that this has been of great benefit to the body. I've seen it. I've seen it in my own life. I've seen it in many of your lives. I've seen it in the life of the church as a whole for the unity, the sake that we, who have been brought into Christ, that have been sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, have been given that Holy Spirit.

And because of the dwelling of the Holy Spirit and the oneness we have with Christ, we are perfectly unified already as a people, as brothers, as sisters, as sons, as heirs of this inheritance that is most certainly ours, as the Holy Spirit guarantees, right?

That's encouraging, isn't it? And as we get near the end, we begin to see how the Apostle Paul starts to wrap up this letter, and it's interesting how he does so. So let us read the whole of this whole section on the armor of God as we're coming to the end of this portion of this study in Ephesians.

So there in Ephesians 6, look at your copy with me, starting in verse 10, we're gonna read the whole of this, where Paul says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, 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 in the heavenly places.

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

In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, 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, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

This is the reading of God's holy, perfect, inspired word. Please bow with me once again, as we seek the help of the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts and minds to this immensely eternal truth. Come before you again, and we ask, we ask in our frailty to be able to see spiritual realities.

I know that we, in and of ourselves, are not able to truly comprehend these wonderful, amazing, loving truths that you've given us, not in full, but we can comprehend what you have set out for us to comprehend.

And we ask that you would give us wisdom, that you give us discernment, that you would, through the power of the Holy Spirit that is within us, illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Oh, give us the ears to hear, give us the eyes to see, the hearts to love this truth.

We thank you for it. Guard my lips from error, that I may speak of it in a way that is representing you properly. In Christ's name, we ask all of this, amen. Well, as we've looked at each piece of this armor over the past, I believe it's seven weeks so far, we have seen the absolute, vital, non-negotiable nature of utilizing each piece of this armor, such as the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, the sword of the spirit, all of these pieces, these six pieces of armor.

However, here's the thing. If the Apostle Paul had left out verse 18 that we just read, or if we choose to overlook it, every piece of that armor that we have seen would be as useless as David fighting Goliath encumbered by King Saul's oversized armor.

You remember the story, don't you? Here's this shepherd boy that comes in and he's willing to fight this Philistine dog, this giant that everybody else is shaking in their boots about. And David comes in, he says, I'll fight him.

And what does Saul do? Saul says, well, okay, well, give the boy my armor. And he puts on the armor and it's oversized and it's clumsy and there's no way. And so David chooses not to do that. That armor would have fought against David because it wasn't the armor that was designed for him.

David's armor was not physical. David's armor was spiritual. God was his mighty force. And so when we avoid or ignore what Paul has to say here in verse 18, that armor that we think we're putting on, that we've been talking about for weeks is nothing more than some clumsy armor of our own that will do us no good whatsoever.

It will be of no value to us. Because this armor is not physical. This armor that we speak of is spiritual. And because it is spiritual, prayer is the key to its functionality. Prayer is the key. I posted this quote this week.

I thought this is a wonderful insight from Joel Beakey. He said it like this. He said, prayer is like oil. Just as every part of an engine is useless without oil, so every part of Christian warfare is vain without prayer.

When we try and put on the armor without the prayer, it's like trying to drive your vehicle without oil. It's not gonna work very long, is it? It's gonna be a problem. We often read passages like these here in this section, and we say, okay, Paul says, be strong in the Lord.

We gotta stand firm. And then what do we do? We think like Saul did. We think purely physical. In our theological circles, we love theology. That often means more theology, more books, more apologetics.

That's how you fight the enemy. That's how you do the spiritual armor. Just gotta read more, guys. You gotta take more classes, go to seminary. You gotta do all the things, and that's how you're gonna fight it.

Well, you got less theologically mature, big evangelical circles. They think more evangelism's gonna fix the problem, more programs, more events. That's how we fight this war. Our charismatic brothers and sisters, they think more emotion, more miracles, more, more, more, just more of everything, thinking that, oh, if we just rebuke the devil, then that's fighting this spiritual war.

You see the distortion. We always try and think in the physical. That's the spiritual war, and that's how we try and answer it because, unfortunately, that's all we can see at times is the physical. We don't think in the spiritual.

However, that is not standing firm. It's not how we combat the enemy. We combat him with the means that God has prescribed. That's the battle, and with the strength that he has given. As we read there in verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.

How do we do that?

How do we stand firm? How do we utilize this armor? At the beginning of verse 14, look there in your copy of God's Word. He gives us this command. He says, stand therefore. He tells us, hey, stand therefore, and then he goes on then to list off these pieces of armor only to wrap it up here in verse 18.

Look there.

He says, praying at all times in the spirit. In the Greek, these two phrases, stand therefore and praying at all times in the spirit.

Are connected.

Do you know that? You think, well, they're awfully far away from each other. How are they connected? These two are connected. Praying at all times in the spirit here. For example, stand therefore is a command, right?

It's a specific command. Stand therefore. It's like telling your child to go clean their room. Most of you parents know that that's pretty useless to just say, go clean your room. That's quite vague, and then they stand in the room crying, like I don't know what to do.

I don't know how to do this. But praying at all times in the spirit is like giving them the specifics of how to clean their room. Put the Legos into the Lego box. These clothes, put them on hangers, and then hang them in that closet.

Right, you have to give those specifics. Some of you aren't parents yet. You don't know what we're talking about, but trust me. You have to give the details. This is what Paul is doing here for us. How do we stand therefore?

Through praying at all times in the spirit. Those pieces of armor are also specific that he's telling us, and to stand therefore. Leading some to consider prayer, actually, as the seventh piece of armor in this, but notice we only listed six because that doesn't coincide with Paul's pattern of armor illustration here.

It doesn't seem to fit that mode that Paul's trying to speak of here. I think what Paul is doing is grounding all six of those pieces of armor that we just talked about being utilized through the means of praying at all times in the spirit.

That's why this is connected. This saturates and empowers all those pieces of armor. It's like oil for the armor. Makes them functional, makes them usable. Makes them fit for the battle at hand. And so I want us to see five things about this praying at all times in the spirit that Paul points out in this text.

I think this will help us better understand and to utilize these six points and the prayer that saturates these six pieces of armor. The first thing I want us to see is the persistence of prayer. The persistence of prayer.

Look there at verse 18 again. What does he say? He says, praying at all times. Praying at all times. What does this mean? Are we supposed to live out our lives in our prayer closet praying 24 hours, seven days a week?

That's obviously not the conclusion of this text. Even Jesus himself didn't do that. Even though Jesus prayed a lot more than any of you and I in this room, he still carried out his ministry day to day thing.

So that's obviously not what Paul's saying. He did tell us though, Jesus himself, said that there are times to do this and teaching us how to pray. You remember in the Sermon on the Mount, he taught us how to pray.

He says, go into your closet, be alone, but that's only part of prayer. Going and getting on your knees before God and finding a quiet place and praying before God. That's only one aspect of prayer. We must not neglect that type of prayer.

That type of prayer is absolutely essential and absolutely essential. The enemy has been quite successful in our day, in the church, at making us so busy that that form of prayer is rarely, if ever, practiced, even though that is a massive, important element of prayer.

You say, but pastor, I'm just so busy. I don't have time to sit quietly alone and just to pray every single day. So what I do is I actually pray in my truck on my way into work. I'm glad you do that. That's good, I'm glad you're praying in your truck on your way to work.

You should pray, but that's not enough, Saint. That's not enough. I love what Martin Luther had to say about this. Remember Martin Luther, the great reformer? He says, I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.

That's a little different than our way of thinking. We think, I have so much to do that I must spend the first 16 hours of my day doing the things, and then if I have any excess time or energy at the end of the day, then I'll give it to prayer.

But he understood the power of prayer. No wonder God used him so mightily, right? He said, I have so much to do today. I shall stop and spend the first three hours praying. You don't think like that. He knew to stand therefore in the strength of God's might, he must go be alone with him.

He must go to the source. He must spend time with him. It's like Jesus in Luke 18, the parable of the persistent widow too. He says, he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose hope.

Lose heart. Say, why do you seem to not be gaining victory over sin in your life? You ever wonder that sometimes? Why do I not see the victory over sin in my life that I wanna see? Why am I having trouble picking up the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming darts of the evil?

Why am I not wielding the sword of the spirit efficiently and consistently? You're not praying at all times in the spirit. You can't use those things without that. They empower that. Paul said in Romans 12, he says, rejoice in hope.

Be patient in tribulation. Be consistent in prayer. Consistent in prayer. You remember what he said over in Philippians 4, like be anxious for nothing, right? But with everything in prayer, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

Colossians 4 too. He says, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. This one's commonly misunderstood. It's just like the passage we're dealing with here in Ephesians, where Paul says, pray without ceasing.

This, of course, is similar to that text. So it can't just mean to only be in your closet praying and it can't mean that all you do all day is walk around and pray. And it says, pray without ceasing is just an ongoing prayer.

I just start praying and I just pray constantly. Is that what this is? We have jobs to do. We have responsibilities. I hope, I hope that if I ever have to have brain surgery, that the brain surgeon is focusing on the surgery and not an intentional prayer at the time.

But I also hope that he saturated the surgery in prayer. You get the point, you get the difference. This is what Paul's getting at. How are we to never cease from praying? It's about the persistence of our prayers.

You remember when Paul said in Colossians 3, to set your minds on the things above and not on the things of this world? You're actually doing that. If you're setting your mind on the things above, then you will be persistently communing with him.

They're all connected. It's all consistent. I bring up Joel Beeky again in his book, Fighting Satan. He speaks of a group of ministers in Scotland who had gathered to discuss what it meant to pray without ceasing.

They're in much deliberation. You've seen it at times here where a group of us men are sitting there really talking about a theological question. And we're trying to dive into the depths of it. This is what these men are doing.

And after much discussion and confusion, one of the ministers asked the maid girl that was serving them if she knew what it meant. And I'm sure some of the men probably smirked. But what is this maid girl gonna know?

This is her response.

She says, yes, sir.

You know what praying without ceasing means. As I arose this morning for bed, I prayed that the son of righteousness would arise with healing in his wings over me today. When I got dressed, I prayed that I might be clothed with Christ's righteousness.

As I dusted the furniture in this room before you arrived, I prayed that the Lord would wipe my heart clean through the blood of Jesus. When I made your refreshments ready, I prayed that Jesus Christ would be my food and drink.

Sir, I pray my way through each day. I pray for prayer is my breath, is my life. As I read that, I was struck to the heart. Oh, that I would have my mind set on the things above like that servant girl.

Where I could pray without ceasing. That I would be praying at all times.

Continually seeking and needing the Lord.

Because my mind is set on things above, not on this world. We get so distracted, don't we? We look at the physical and we think of everything in the physical. But oh, but she was looking at all the physical responsibilities that she had laid before her and she saw them in a spiritual manner because she had her mind set on things above.

And she knew, if I'm going to achieve this seemingly insignificant physical task, I need a spiritual help because it has eternal significance. Knowing what she knew, which is our second point. The power of prayer.

The power of prayer, look at verse 18 with me again. Praying at all times in the spirit. Notice that's capitalized, right? What does that mean? It's the Holy Spirit, praying in the Holy Spirit. Sometimes we just, we know what to pray, right?

Sometimes like a brother or sister's going through something we know exactly what to pray for. Sometimes we just pray God's words back to him. Kind of like we sang this morning, we were singing songs that were kind of derived from scripture, from the Psalms.

Yet there are times where we are at a loss for words. Y 'all know where I'm going with this, don't you? Turn with me over to Romans eight. I want you to get your eyes on it. Romans eight, verse 26. There's a time where we don't know what to say.

We don't know what to pray. We don't know what to do. You know that feeling where you're just struck. You're stuck in this moment and your heart is yearning, but you don't know what the will of God is.

You don't know what to do. You don't know how to pray. And you're saying, I gotta pray without ceasing, but I don't even have words to say. Paul says there in Romans eight, starting in verse 26, he says, likewise, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, helps us in our weakness.

For we do not know what to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. You know, sometimes when things are overwhelming, I've found myself sitting quietly and just weeping.

I'm going, God, I don't know.

I don't know.

My heart hurts.

I don't know. I have nothing to say. You ever felt that, Saint? And this is what Paul's talking about. But remember, the power's not in your words. Even our most feeble of prayers, the power of God is fueling them.

Praise God. Because it's not in some fancy prayer. We read the Valley of Vision, the Puritan prayers, and we think, man, why can't I pray like that? Maybe my prayers aren't very efficient. My prayers seem infantile.

Like, that's not even a prayer. Thank the Lord that the exact same power that was in that prayer, that was being prayed by that Puritan, is the same power that is in your feeble prayer where you can't even get words out.

You don't even know what to say because it's not you. Just like Paul, back in chapter five in verse 16, you remember when he told us to be filled with the Spirit? Remember we said to be being filled with the Spirit means to be dominated by the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit.

See, our prayers must also be dominated and led by the Spirit. Look at verse 27 there of Romans 8. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit. He knows. He's searching your heart.

Is your heart one that is being dominated, being led by the Spirit? Is your desire the things of the Lord or is it things of the earth? And he says, but because the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according to what?

According to the will of God. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that you're frail and you don't have the words, right? It's according to the will of God. We don't always know what the will of God is.

But God does. God is in you. If he is dominating you, if he is leading you, if you are walking in the Spirit, if you are being filled with the Spirit, if you are praying at all times in the Spirit, when our hearts are in a posture of desiring his will be done, the power of that Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will work in and through us to pray for that will.

And accomplish that will. It's not your power. It's like when I was a young boy and I wanted to drive the car. Any of you ever get a chance to do that? Your dad would put you on his lap and he'd get to a back road and set you on his lap and he's doing the pedals.

You don't know where the pedals go. You just know the car started going and you're steering and you think, I'm keeping our family alive. I'm driving. Dad, I'm the man of the house now. I've got this under control.

All the while, my dad's hands on the wheel taking us exactly where we're supposed to be and keeping us alive. That's the Christian life. We're like an infant sitting on our dad's lap thinking we're driving the car.

But in reality, it is him doing all of the work. Him taking us where we are to go. We're just being led. We're being taken there. This is what it means to pray at all times in the spirit. Back in chapter three of Ephesians, in verse 20, he says, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think.

According to what? According to the power at work with us. That's good news. It's his power that is in us. This gives us great confidence in our prayer. You know, prayer often feels like a last resort, doesn't it?

You ever notice that? Well, it's almost like when things are really bad and we're like, okay, we gotta pray now. It's almost like no one wants to say it, but everybody kind of feels, has it come to that?

Has it come to prayer? It's always a last resort, yet it is literally the most powerful tool at our disposal. It's the thing that's fueling that armor. It's the thing that is driving us into the spiritual war and giving us victory.

You know, I can see the look on people's faces when they come to me for counsel. I know people will come to me for counsel or help, and I can see the look on their face when I tell them, you know what, I'm gonna be praying for you.

Some of you have experienced that with me. And I've seen some of the looks on your faces. It's as if I've burst their bubble. And they're like, pastor, you know, I come to you for help, and all you're gonna do is pray for me?

That's all you're gonna do.

I'm like, oftentimes, I can't help you. I don't have the power. I can't fix your problems, but I know who can, and I have unfettered access to it, and so do you. It's not a last resort. It's an absolute necessity.

It's literally the most powerful, helpful, and productive thing that we could do for each other. You realize that, right? I'm not saying that you don't help in need, but I'm saying that your praying for them is first, primary, and your prayers for them is what will lead him to utilize those prayers to work.

And fulfilling the physical needs, or whatever that circumstance is. It's always prayer. The world makes fun of us. The world gets mad and says, oh, you Christians, you wanna send prayers and good thoughts our way.

Why don't you go do something? We're saying, well, how about we send prayers your way and watch God do something? How about that? Because prayer is literally the most vital thing for us. This leads us to the third thing we want us to see about prayer, which is the pattern of prayer.