Sunday Morning Worship Service September 27, 2020

I trust you can look at some examples of the way that the Lord has answered prayer, He's worked in your life, He's taught you something. If you get into the scriptures every day, and I hope the Lord shows you something from the pages of His word, and that you respond to those things.

One little practice I like to do is in my devotions, if I'm reading something along, I have a little notebook that at the top of it, I write the passages that I read, I'm reading that morning, and then as I read along, if there's something in particular that strikes in me a response, I'll often write it out, and sometimes, most of the time, even in the form of a prayer.

Thanking the Lord, thank you for this, or Lord, I really need this, I need you to do in my life this, or whatever. But just a very helpful thing. I hope that you find that experience, even if you don't go through that same process on your day-to-day basis.

Well, a couple of things I want to share with you from your bulletin. Tonight in the evening service, going back to the Psalms for the songs in the night series, been looking at different Psalms, and tonight, Psalm 46, favorite Psalm of many people, the one at the end of that Psalm where the Lord says, be still and know that I am God, and we'll be looking at that Psalm tonight, calling it the song of the peace-filled soul.

So I encourage you to be back tonight for that. On the other side of your bulletin, a few things to point out. As I mentioned last week, Chris and I are going to be going for a nice extended getaway. So for the month of October, you see the gentlemen that are going to be filling in the pulpit.

They're familiar to you. They've been here before and always appreciated their ministry to us. So I encourage you to be faithful and to enjoy those messages coming from a different voice, and I know there'll be a blessing to you.

Now, Gordon Taylor, who will be here on next two Sundays, has also agreed to come and bring the Bible study message on Wednesday nights. So he'll be here on Wednesday through that time, and as well, the next two Sundays.

I appreciate Gordon. I hope he doesn't mind my saying this. He says, I'll come, but I don't want you to give me any money. I said, well, we're at least going to pay your travel expenses. He says, well, okay, but I don't need the money.

I enjoy ministering. So we're so thankful for that spirit and glad for his willingness to come. One thing to point out regarding this, I've been doing these daily devotionals every day, every weekday since what, end of March or April sometime, and I do those ahead of time.

Like on Monday, I'll do the weeks things. Well, there's no way I could get four weeks of these done ahead of time. So those are going to resume in November. So actually, it should be November 2nd, I think it is, is the first Monday of November.

So those will resume then. Then this other thing regarding the missionaries, is there's a line in there that says, during the month of November, we'll be collecting a special Thanksgiving offering for the missionaries.

The reason we're doing that is we have, for the last several years, had the practice of using our Sunday school offering as accumulate that through the year, and then whatever comes in in those Sunday school offerings, just divide that equally among our missionaries.

That's always been a great blessing. It's usually been $1 ,800 or something like that, that we divide up for them at the end of the year. But then when COVID came and the lockdown didn't have Sunday school for what, five months or something like that.

So that Sunday school offering income is just tanked. So we still want to be a great blessing to the missionaries at Christmas time. So we'll work it this way in November, just give an opportunity to give a little extra that will go as a Christmas gift to our missionaries.

The Lord Hears Prayer and the Church's Worship

So just so you know that's coming, and we'll of course emphasize more of that in the month of November. Opening in Psalm 38, the focus of our message and service today is on the matter of prayer, and you will understand why when we get to Ephesians Chapter 6.

But Psalm 38 verse 15, Psalmist writes, for in thee, O Lord, do I hope thou wilt hear, O Lord God. So as we've come together to worship today, it's a blessing to know that in our singing, and in our praying, and in our preaching, and in our responding, our Lord hears.

So Jim, would you please come and lead us in our opening hymn?

Thank you, pastor. And let him hear us together as we lift up our voices, and let's lift ourselves up. Let's all stand together, please, as we sing number one, number one in your blue books, a triune prayer, the supplement books, all four verses together.

Let's stand together. Let's sing together. Blessed Father, cast us in, but not last night, not forever.

We thank you. We praise you for your grace and your mercy this past week. And Father, as we sing these songs of praise, may we lift our voices to you, thanking you, praising you for whatever's happened in our lives this past week.

And Father, as we hear your word, be with pastor as he brings from the word of God the truths that you set forth that are eternal and forever. Help us, Father, as we hear your word, apply it to our hearts and our lives.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Psalm reading this morning is on the back of your bulletin, Psalm 18, verse nine verses. The Lord hears when we pray. He hears when we plead. He hears when we read his word.

He takes great delight in that. So let's read, follow along on your bulletin there, Psalm 18, verse nine verses. Psalmist writes, I will love thee, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my strength in whom I will trust, my buckler and the horn of my salvation and my high tower.

I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised. So shall I be saved from my enemies. The sorrows of death compassed me and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about.

The snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Lord and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of his temple and my cry came before him, even into his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled.

The foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils and fire out of his mouth devoured. Coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also and came down.

Darkness was under his feet. Lord, add his blessing to the reading of this, his word.

Take your hymnals, turn to page 429, 429. Take time to be holy. Let's sing all three verses together. Take time to be holy. Let's be, let's chill.

Lord, our songs of praise and thanksgiving from our lips. We also offer to him our prayers. Another way we offer to him is through our financial giving to the work of the ministry. Just as a reminder, some may not be familiar with this process, but there is on the table in the foyer right outside, right outside the main, as you leave, there's a little offering box.

And if you want to give, that's where you would contribute. Just as a reminder of that. As we pray together today, our missionary of the week this week is the Heinecks. The Heinecks serve in Costa Rica.

And they are in the process of a church planting situation. They're meeting with a group of people every Lord's day, somewhat limited in what they can do because of continuing restrictions, COVID-related restrictions there in Costa Rica.

But nevertheless, that work is progressing. And Mark is providing weekly messages as well as some ongoing online stuff to those folks. So pray for the work of the ministry of the Heinecks in Costa Rica.

We also want to continue to pray for Bob Klein. Bob has his next chemo treatment this week, as well as a PET scan, I believe it is. All a part of the process of treating the cancer. Continue to pray for the recovery of Kathy and Harold in their rehab and treatments.

Also, we want to pray for Kevin Hemons' dad, who may have had a slight heart attack yesterday. And just pray that God would be gracious in his life and find any source of a problem that might have caused that.

Let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? So our Father and our God, we are mindful of the exhortation that we have just sung to one another to take time to be holy. This world does rush on, and it will rush on, whether or not we stop for a few minutes each day to open your word and to meditate on it, to spend some time in prayer, praying for the burdens, the needs of people, of the world, of our missionaries, of our nation, and praying even in response to the things that we read.

Praying and offering unto you even our groans that we can't articulate the burden that we're even feeling and experiencing, and how best to pray regarding that burden. We thank you for that privilege of prayer.

And I pray, Father, that we would indeed accept that exhortation as we have exhorted one another in this song today to take time to be holy. Father, we do thank you today for your mercy and your grace that is exhibited in our lives every day.

We are a needy people. There's not a person in this room who is free from the need of forgiveness. We are sinful people. We have indwelling sin within us. We're so grateful, those of us who know Christ and are following him, so grateful that in his death on the cross, he paid the penalty for all of our sins.

He took the curse of sin upon himself in his body on the tree. And Father, we thank you for the salvation from that penalty of sin, and for the sanctification work of the Spirit as he grows us in Christ and frees us from the power of sin on a daily basis, and the hope that we have of complete eradication of sin in the future.

But in the meantime, Father, every one of us who is sensitive to your Spirit is very well aware that on every day, every day, we need to pray as the Lord instructed us to pray, to forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And so we confess that need to you today, and we are grateful for your gracious forgiveness. We do pray for the Heinecks this morning, for Mark and Lynette and their family. Thank you for their faithfulness in Costa Rica through some difficult ministry times and experiences, and yet the excitement that they have now as they're beginning a new work, and I pray that you would bless and prosper it.

I pray that the interest and the desire for sound gospel teaching and ministry of the Word and preaching, that that interest, that it would only expand that very strongly Roman Catholic country where there's so many in bondage and in darkness to a salvation by works.

So bless the Heinecks as they proclaim the glorious gospel of Christ, the justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And we pray that you would prosper them. We do pray for our people who are restricted in their health and in need today, for Bob and for Kathy and for Harold, and we pray that you would be gracious to them and meet their physical needs in this time.

I think especially of Kathy and Harold as they recover from surgery and go through physical therapy and need alleviation from pain and effectiveness of that therapy. Grant it, we pray. For Kevin's dad, Richard, we pray for him today and ask that this experience yesterday will not be a serious thing but can be remedied quickly and the source of it can be discovered readily.

Lord, there are other requests that have been mentioned in this place today and I pray for each of those and pray that you would meet those needs and give grace and comfort to hearts that are hurting and burdened.

Father, there are some here today even who are weighed down, whose hearts are heavy and they need the encouragement of your word, the comfort of the scriptures. I pray that by grace, your grace, you would meet those needs today.

So we commit these things to you and ask your blessing upon each one and we ask it in Jesus' name.

Take your hymnals once again and turn to page 576, 576, and I'd be hypocrite if I didn't ask you to stand up. When we're singing, stand up, stand up for Jesus, so let's all stand together. Oops, I guess it's actually 575.

There's only one, no, I guess it is. That's just a different one, isn't it? It's 575, all four verses together.

The Whole Armor of God and Prayer in Ephesians 6

Take your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter six. I'm gonna read verses 18 through 24. And after many, many months, we finally come to the end of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Ephesians chapter six. Follow along in your copy of scriptures that read beginning in verse 18.

Actually, I'm sorry, I wanna read beginning in verse 14. The message will be from verses 18 and following. Verse 14, to stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.

And for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

But that ye also may know my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that you might know our affairs and that he might comfort your hearts.

Peace be to the brethren and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, amen. Brief prayer. Our Father, impress upon our hearts the importance of the kind of air that we, as soldiers of Christ, need to breathe.

And this we pray in Jesus' name, amen. So I finally, finally finished Churnow's book on Ulysses Grant. Completed that 970 pages or whatever it was the other day. And I was fascinated to reflect on all that I read about President Grant in his growing up and then his years as the General of the Northern Army in the Civil War.

Following the Civil War, of course, elected to the President two different times. After he completed that second term as President, he went on a worldwide tour. And that lasted quite a long time. And when he got back from that, there was actually an effort to get him to take the nomination for a third term as the President.

That was before there was the term limits for President. He did lose that bid for another term. He didn't get the confirmation for the Republican Party. But nevertheless, I was struck by, on the one hand, how brilliant of a General he was in military endeavors.

I mean, he led that Northern Army to victory in the Civil War. And he had this uncanny ability to see the big picture of all of the Northern forces, no matter where they were scattered abroad in the South, in the battlefields of the South, and he could get the whole picture.

And he could see how different regiments needed to move at different times and to be in different places at the right time, and so on and so forth. He was just very effective as a military strategist.

And as the President of the United States, of course, he was the Commander-in-Chief. And he was, generally, a very effective Commander-in-Chief. He had some significant challenges in trying to enact reconstruction in the South and get all of that passed and so forth.

He was pretty effective as a Commander-in-Chief. However, his administration, in both of his terms, was marked by individuals that were less than stellar in their loyalty to him and in their carrying out of their responsibilities.

And he just didn't see it until it was too late and they caused him some political damage. And after he left the presidency and was in these years of now what do I do, one of the things that ended up really almost totally devastating him, in fact, it did devastate him, was that he listened to a guy who really buttered him up well and convinced him that what assets Grant had left, Grant should invest them with this guy.

And this guy, at the time, was considered to be a Warren Buffett of his day, if you will, a whiz of Wall Street. And to go into a partnership with him and form like a financial advisor and investment company.

And Grant did that. And he basically left all the operation of that company with this other guy, totally not realizing that it was just a giant Ponzi scheme and eventually, as those things tend to do, the whole thing collapsed and Grant literally lost everything, he lost everything.

So when it comes to being a military leader fighting the physical battles against flesh and blood, Grant was very, very effective. But when it came to the battlefield of the soul, the battlefield of the soul, when it came to spiritual warfare, this famed general was found lacking.

And perhaps that's most evident in his dying days. Grant was an avid cigar smoker, just a chained cigar smoker and that caught up to him. He eventually developed throat cancer and he would die of that throat cancer.

But while he was dying of that cancer, during that season of time, the minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D .C., or in New York, I guess it was, he attended to Grant and ministered to him from a spiritual standpoint.

And he told the sick former president that God wanted to employ him on some great spiritual mission. And Grant cynically replied, can he cure cancer? Gives you a little insight into his soul. But even more telling is that even though Grant was a lifelong Methodist, he found Dr. Newmans, the pastor of that church, he found his evening prayers with the family, quote, a bit trying, a bit trying.

Grant's son, Fred, said that, quote, his father was a good Christian, but not a praying man. And one of his close relatives said, General Grant does not believe that Dr. Newman's prayers will save him.

He just allows the doctor to pray simply because he doesn't want to hurt his feelings. So how ironic it is that this man who is so brilliant in terms of fighting flesh and blood on the battlefields of this earth was really radically deficient in waging war against the wiles of the devil.

Now here in Ephesians chapter six, Paul has been exhorting us to put on the whole armor of God. He says it a couple of different times in verse 11 and then in verse 13. And he tells us to put on this whole panoply, the whole armor of God, that we might stand against our spiritual foe.

And then in verses 14 through 17, he walks us through each piece that we need to put on in that spiritual armor. But he ends this section declaring to us that we need to pray. Prayer, Paul suggests, is the warrior's very breath.

It's his very breath. Now notice in verse 18 how prayer is as vital to us as breathing. We can look at verse 18 as an exhortation to pray. He says, praying always with all prayer and supplication and so forth.

This is an exhortation to prayer. Ian Hamilton in his commentary on this passage, he says, quote, prayer is what makes the pieces of armor effective in our lives. Prayer gives them breath. Prayer gives them life.

Prayer is what makes the pieces of armor effective. Or that hymn that we just sang, the song we just sang a minute ago, put on the gospel armor, each piece put on with prayer. Now the importance of prayer in our spiritual warfare is seen in the four alls that show up in verse 18.

Did you notice that when you were reading them? There's three that are very clearly all. The fourth all is wrapped up in the word always. And that's the first one I want you to notice. We are to pray at all times.

He says in our King James translation, praying always. But that could literally be translated at all times or in all circumstances. Focusing in, zeroing in on that word all. We need to pray at all times.

We need to pray in all circumstances. Now compare that with back in verse 16. In verse 16, again, our King James translates verse 16 with the beginning of the verse saying, above all taking the shield of faith.

But literally that should be in all circumstances. The same idea. In all circumstances, take the shield, the helmet, the sword. So it's like in all circumstances, you need to take the shield, the helmet, and the sword.

And in those same circumstances, that is in all of them, you need to pray. Pray at all times. Why do we need to be exhorted this way? I think the songwriter in our hymnal number 430, you don't need to turn there, but it's the song, Lord, I Need You.

It's a song that affirms our need for the Lord in all circumstances. And the song says, I think it begins this way, sometimes, sometimes when life is gentle and blessings flood my way, what do you do?

I turn my gaze away from you and soon forget to pray. Soon forget to pray. Oh, listen, that's when we need to pray. That's why Paul says in all circumstances, even in those circumstances when life seems to be gentle and the blessings are just flooding your way, it's so easy to turn my gaze away from you, so I better stop and pray instead of forgetting to pray.

And it is this praying at all times, in all circumstances, that is actually following Jesus' teaching when he says to us in Luke 18, one, men or people ought always to pray and not to faint. Or as he told, as Paul told us in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 and here's the idea of this verse, pray without ceasing.

And as you very well know, just by way of common sense, that cannot mean that you are constantly walking around verbalizing prayer. Paul is talking about this same idea in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 that he's talking about here.

In all circumstances, be praying. It is the very breath of your fighting as a warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ. So you need to pray at all times. The second all is you need to pray with all kinds of prayer.

You see this in verse 18, he says praying always with all prayer and supplication, with all prayer and supplication. So that means that our praying needs to be varied. It needs to be varied. Praying with all prayer.

Well, how so? Well, think of it in terms of the model prayer that Jesus modeled for us. We call it the Lord's Prayer, right? You know that, you probably know it from heart. You're by heart, right? Okay, so say it with me, all right?

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Now in that prayer, there is a wide variety of prayers, of things to pray.

There is praise and adoration. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Praise and adoration. There is a prayer of submission. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

That's a request that I myself and you yourselves, that we ourselves are submitted to the authority and the rule of our king. There is a prayer, a petition of dependence. Give us this day our daily bread.

Even though your cupboard may be full and your refrigerator has plenty in it, you still pray that prayer realizing that I'm dependent upon my God even for my meal today. A prayer of dependence. And there's the prayer of confession.

Forgive us our trespasses as even as we forgive those who trespass against us. There's the prayer of deliverance. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil or from the evil one. And then the affirmation of faith.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. So in the Lord's prayer, you see how varied it is and the scope of, if we can use the term this way, material that there is to pray for.

And Paul is exhorting us here that we need to pray with a varied prayer life, with all kinds of praying. At the same time, there needs to be in our praying some specific passionate prayer, praying with all prayer and supplication.

The significance of that word supplication is that you are carrying a burden to the cross. You are bearing a burden and bringing that to the cross. There's a real concern and heaviness of heart. There's a longing in your heart or something of that nature, but you're passionate about it and you bring it, you keep bringing it to the cross, whether it's a need in your own life or in that of someone else, but that's a specific passionate prayer.

But that prayer and supplication, all prayer and supplication, notice how he says it is to be in the spirit, pray in the spirit. Now, what that does not mean is what some of our charismatic acquaintances might refer to as a spirit language, some kind of spirit language, where you're sitting there and you're not even really knowing what you're praying, but you're just, something's going on and there's this spirit language.

That's not what this is talking about. What it is talking about is that in your praying, you're dependent upon the spirit to perfect your prayers. What do I mean by that? Well, Paul says in Romans 8, 26 and seven, he says, likewise, the spirit helps us in our weaknesses.

For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So for example, we prayed this morning for Bob.

What would you like to see God do in Bob's life as he's battling this stage four cancer? Right, what would you like to see God do? How would you pray? Do you pray for God and his grace, his mercy to heal him of that cancer?

There's certainly nothing wrong with that as long as you qualify it with if that is your will and purpose at this stage in Bob's life. But here's the thing. Even though you and I may not know exactly how to pray in that situation, we express our burden and our concern of heart to the Lord in our prayer as best we know how to formulate it, as best we know how to express what we would like to see or what we think that we would like God to do in this situation.

But the spirit of God who knows the mind of God, the will of God, he also takes our imperfect prayer and he reforms it to conform perfectly to the will of our Heavenly Father who hears that prayer. This is praying in the spirit where you are depending upon him to perfect your prayer even if you express that dependence in the words according to your will.

But it also means that you conform your desires in praying to his desires, to the desires of the spirit. So James, for example, in teaching on this idea, he says in verse three of chapter four, James 4 verse three, he says, you ask, oh, you're praying, you ask and you don't receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

Now, what are you praying for? Why are you praying for it? Is your prayer in conformity to the desires that the spirit of God would have for your life as a growing believer in Christ? Praying in the spirit also, I think, means to pray with your mind and your heart engaged, with mind and heart engaged.

So, for example, what I mean by that is what Jesus addresses in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter six, he addressed this particular problem that the Pharisees had. They loved to pray, they had their forms of praying.

You remember the parable that Jesus told about the Pharisee and the publican that went to the temple to pray. And there's the Pharisee standing up there and he's got his little prayer, that he prays all the time, God, I thank you I'm not like all these wretched people.

I thank you I'm not like them. He lifts his eyes up to heaven. I thank you, I'm such a good person. And he's making his prayer to be known to all around him. In contrast, here's the sinful publican that the Pharisee is disdaining.

And that poor guy, he just stands there with his head bowed, beating on his chest and says, God, be merciful to me a sinner. No pretense, no rhetoric, no vain repetition, but just expressing the prayer, the burden of his heart, coming from his heart.

His mind and his heart is engaged. His mind knows what he needs and his heart is burdened down with a passionate plea for God to be merciful to him a sinner. And Jesus addresses the former guy, the Pharisee, in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew six, when he says in verse seven, but when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Having the same repeated prayer over and over and over again, just coming from rote where your mind is somewhere else while you're saying the words. Now, having said that, by the way, there's nothing wrong with praying the same prayer multiple times, even in the same words.

There are a couple of different prayers that I pray just about every day. One of them is, Father, please teach me to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom that this day would count for something worthwhile.

Now, that could descend into vain repetition. It could just be something I say every day. But I try to gear my heart to be praying in the spirit so that that prayer doesn't come just from a mindless repetition of words, but actually has my heart and my mind engaged in it.

This is what Paul is talking about when he says that these prayers and supplications need to be made in the spirit. So you need to pray at all times. You need to pray all kinds of prayer. And then back in our text in Ephesians six, verse 18, you need to pray with all vigilance.

It says, praying with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance. With all perseverance, praying with vigilance. Because here's the thing, there's never a time, never a time when you're not in danger.

So watch. Never a time when you're not in danger. Remember what Jesus told his disciples, and what seemed to them like a relatively peaceful evening, Jesus goes with his disciples out to the garden of Gethsemane, and he's gonna go into the garden a little ways to pray, but he tells them, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now, they had no idea what was coming. To them, they just had a good meal together. They had the Passover meal together, and they enjoyed this rather strange, emblematic time when Jesus took a loaf of bread in the cup and so forth, but this was a time, and a lot of teaching, there was a lot of good teaching that Jesus gave them that night.

What a great evening that they had together. And they could just be basking in the warmth of the fellowship. Jesus says, watch and pray. At this particular time, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

There's never a time when you're not in danger, so pray. There's never a time when you can neglect prayer, so persevere. Watch unto with all perseverance. So you need to pray at all times. You need to pray with all kinds of prayer.

You need to pray with all diligence. And then the fourth all, at the end of verse 18, is that you need to pray with all believers in mind, with all believers in mind. Admittedly, it's easy to become very selfish in prayer, where all we're doing is thinking about ourselves and our problems and our needs and so on and so forth.