Ephesians 6:18-24 | ALL Prayer

Prayer as a Gift of Grace

Lord, we come to you this morning, first of all, recognizing the relationship that we have with you is not something that we have earned. We can't reach up high enough and reach to you. We have a relationship because you have reached down and grabbed us, and you've given us the grace to respond to you.

And then you give us this gift of prayer, where we can come to you, we can give you what you already know, and we can acknowledge what you already know in prayer and speaking and calling on you. So as we consider this concept of prayer, this privilege and this gift of prayer, we ask, Lord, that you would encourage us in it in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

George was quite a scoundrel as a young man. He, as a teenager, loved to travel, and he would always divide schemes to get money from his friends or his parents to go about the European continent. As far as Switzerland, he was from Prussia, ended up living in England, but in his young days, he would always swindle his way through.

He'd go stay at an inn for a week, promising to pay at the end, and then just take off on the last day until finally he ended up in jail.

Who's George?

George, I'm going to tell you in a minute, because you'll know which George I'm talking.

About.

I don't feel like it.

That's how I like to set things up.

Now, did you have a clue who Jack was a couple of weeks ago?

I had no clue.

That was C .S. Lewis. Yes.

But George went to jail. His dad came and bailed him out because he had been staying in an inn. Eventually, he kind of got his act together, but not from the heart. He was studying to become clergy. He was going to seminary, but he was never believing and trusting.

He was doing it because a clergyman would have a very regulated salary, and it was a high position of honor. What do you do if you're a clergy in Prussia in the day? You read, and he loved to read, and you know, you do your weekly service.

It sounded like a good deal.

In fact, here's what they would do. They would rent out a pew. So your family, the Thompsons, would pay a certain amount of money, and that would be your pew every week. Nobody could sit in it, and the salary of the pastor was based on the pew rentals.

Well, gloriously, he encountered a young man who knew the Lord, and through the conviction of the Holy Spirit, George came to saving faith. And within a short period of time, he was reading the Word incessantly, loved the Word, began to, from the heart, know God.

Rather than just go to school to know God, he knew God. Everything changed when he met Christ and was regenerate, not just doing religion, but was knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. In his first pastoring, the Lord laid a conviction upon him that these pew rental things were not of God.

And he said, how about this, we put a box in the back, and people give freewill offerings however they choose, which was really a major idea in England at the time. That's not how things were done. But George Mueller had that idea because he wanted to please the Lord.

Now George Mueller, from that time on, learned to trust God for provision, rather than trust in the flesh. And he would pray for whatever would be given into the box. And because that was not really done, that would often just be a few pounds for a week.

You know, and he would rely on a ham that was given to him. He and his wife were very reliant on the Lord, and they would pray together for the provision that they needed. They learned that together when it was just the two of them whom they were relying on the Lord for.

One morning he writes in his journal, June 26th, this is well into his second pastorate as he's moved to Bristol, and the Lord is blessing the work. They've seen the church grow by about a hundred people in a few years, and he's very pleased.

By this.

June 26th, he says, I rose, this is autobiography, George Mueller's autobiography. I rose early this morning and spent nearly two hours in prayer before breakfast. I now feel more comfortable. Now as you're reading his journal entries, you find that when he didn't have that time, he realized the drifting of his own soul.

He realized that he was backsliding. Even if he was engaged in ministry, if he was traveling from place to place, preaching and then fellowshipping till late in the night, but he didn't have time alone with the Lord, he sensed that drain on his soul that he wasn't communing with God.

So a two hour morning prayer time would be normal for him, just alone with the Lord. And he needed that to feel more comfortable. He then was looking for a director for his new Institute on Scriptural Knowledge.

And on July 11th, an answer to prayer came, the Lord gave us a brother who will begin.

The work.

A few months later, October 9th, our institution established in dependence upon the Lord has now been operating for seven months. Many have benefited with instruction. In the Sunday school, we have about 120 children.

In the adult school, about 40 adults. In the day school, 209 children. We circulated 482 Bibles and 520 New Testaments. Lastly, a sizable amount has been spent to aid missionary work. This is early George Mueller.

They've started a Bible school, essentially, for families that could bring their kids to learn the Bible during the day, and then Sunday school programs as well. The church is flourishing, many have come to Saving Faith.

They spend the money that they get to print Bibles and give them out around Bristol, working class community, and to send money to the mission field. That's where their heart is. October 28th, we heard a moving account of a poor little orphan boy who for some time attended one of our schools.

He was recently taken to the poor house some miles outside of Bristol. He expressed great sorrow that he could no longer attend our school and minister. May this lead me to do something to supply the temporal needs of poor children, the pressure of which has caused this poor boy to be taken away from our school.

George Mueller was confronted with the need. One of his little boys in the school got taken to the poor house as an orphan, and that meant he would no longer hear the instruction, and he saw how sad that little boy was.

So what do you think George Mueller began to do?

Pray. Pray!

The mark of his life, he began to pray. And before too long, the Lord laid on his heart the opening of an orphanage. And a few kids came, and before long more, and over the course of George Mueller's ministry, the orphanages grew to thousands of orphans that were cared for in Bristol, trained in the Word, raised up in the Lord.

In all of that, he never raised money. He spent his time praying, seeking the Lord. And the Lord so blessed the work that the orphanages were established. If you haven't revisited the life of George Mueller, you can read online.

There's short accounts, long accounts.

You can buy an autobiography.

Be reminded of the power of prayer. The work that we're doing here at Cornerstone is not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of hosts. All those who have come to faith, the planting of the rock church, the acquisition of land, the desire to build, all of these things cannot be done in the flesh.

It is all dependent on the Lord. It's all by prayer. So today, let's open to Ephesians 6, verses 18 to 24, which is the last section as we've been studying through Ephesians, and let us set our hearts and our minds back on the one most needful thing, which is prayer, that we would be a praying church.

Yeah, Rick.

Parenthetically, do you know whether there was an effort to place the orphans into homes of adoption?

I don't know about that.

Did they do that in America?

I think the Bristol Orphanage was raising the children. I don't think it was the same system as in America. Here, we don't really have orphanages like that. We try to place the children in foster care, but I think they were raising them there in the home and bringing house parents and others into the ministry.

John, would you read for us Ephesians 6, 18 to 24?

Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all prayer and 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 might declare it boldly as I ought to speak, so that you may also know how I am and what I am doing.

Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the 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.

Peace be to you, brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.

Praying at All Times in the Spirit

Awesome. So, the context here leading into verse 18 is the armor of God, right? We are to be armed with the full armor of God, being ready, there's a readiness there, taking the spiritual war seriously, because our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and authorities of this present darkness.

We are in a spiritual war and we've got to gird up our loins and be ready for battle.

And yes.

I gotta tell you, this morning I woke up and I heard pray prayer bullets.

Pray?

Pray prayer bullets.

Prayer bullets.

All day.

Wow.

Pray prayer bullets.

And that reminds me of the Nehemiah prayer dart, as John calls it. When you don't have time to stop and go in your prayer closet.

Just keep praying.

Just shoot a prayer like Nehemiah did before going in to see the king and God granted favor.

With the king.

Yeah, that's unceasing prayer. It doesn't mean that we're not occupied by anything else. It means that as a pattern throughout the day, regularly talking to God, talking to.

God.

So, out of this spiritual warfare, it culminates with this phrase, praying at all times in the spirit. Verse 18. Praying at all times. Notice the word all. And I've titled this sermon teaching all prayer.

Capital all. Because we all pray. I mean, what Christian doesn't pray? It's the defining characteristic of the Christian life. When Paul was converted. And who was it that laid hands on him to receive his sight?

Ananias.

Ananias, right. He was scared to go see Paul. And God said to Ananias, behold, he prays. And that set Ananias' heart at ease. Because prayer is a defining characteristic, maybe the defining characteristic of a Christian.

If you don't relate to God in prayer, then you don't know him. And he doesn't know you.

There's no relationship.

Prayer is an all day kind of thing. It's also time set apart. But that word all, well, yeah, all Christians pray. But do we pray with all prayer all the time? Look at the word all in verse 18. Praying at all times.

With all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance. Making supplication for all the saints. What do you think Paul is seeking to emphasize here with the repetition of that word all?

Being constant.

Constant.

Yeah, constancy. That's one thing. Well, by the expressions of verse 18. Frequency, variety, perseverance, and subjects. It needs to be frequently, all frequency. So you don't set apart just a two minute prayer in the morning.

You set apart a prayer time in the morning. But as Carol said, it's all day long.

All day long.

As you're falling asleep at night, you're talking to God. As you're waking in the morning, you're talking to him again. And it's just an all, as to frequency, it's all the time. Secondly, as to variety.

Can I interject for just one minute?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm going to put on my best Rick Thompson hat right now. Because you could diagram that first phrase two different ways.

Yeah.

You're praying at all times. Or you're praying at all times in the spirit.

Ah, yes.

How do you take that one?

I took it at pray at all times in the spirit.

Ah.

So prayer is not a casual thing that people do. Prayer needs to have the Holy Spirit to be actually communing with God.

Amen.

Amen, that's true.

Yeah.

In the spirit as a prepositional phrase can modify times. Or the other way around, as Rick would point out. It's praying at all times in the spirit.

Yeah.

But both are true, certainly. And I think the larger concept is just that it's always there, always genuine. It's spirit, it's not just your own flesh. Okay, with all prayer, what are different kinds of prayer?

You've got prayer bullets, prayer darts. What are some other kinds of prayer?

Is praise a form of prayer alone?

I think so.

Yeah.

Philippians 4 gives a list of different things. With supplication, with thanksgiving, Philippians 4 .4. There's different kinds of prayer. Sometimes the acts model can be helpful. Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication.

There was a time when a young man that I knew because of the dream fund. Which was kind of like make a wish where a boy is dying of cancer. Has a final wish. I was a youth pastor in St. Petersburg and I would go visit some of these young men.

One of them didn't have much time to live. But he wanted to live. And everybody that came in would pray for peace over him as he dies. And he looked at me one day and this group of guys from our church that came to see him.

He said, pray for real.

Pray for real.

What do you think he meant? Pray for real.

God's will be done.

That is a kind of prayer. And George Mueller talks about in his early days in his 20s. He was very sick and they didn't think he'd recover. And his prayer was, Lord, your will be done. I am so ready to go to heaven.

He wasn't even praying to be healed. And he took this medicine from the doctor. And he said, if this is pretty much nothing more than water, I think. It might be used of God to heal me or I could just go into glory.

And he was so resigned to the will of God. But he says other times in his life. He would pray very fervently for healing and see physical healings. In his own body. And in the people that he prayed for.

When this young man. His name was Jerry. Jerry Tejines. He was saying, pray for me to be healed. I still want to live. And so we said, okay, that's a kind of prayer. We can ask that. It is okay to pray for healing.

And to hope that God will answer that. And to really intercede and beg God, save this boy's life.

You can do it, God.

Speak a word and your servant would be healed. Prayers for healing are a part of the Christian life. Now, has he promised that he would always do as we ask?

No.

Thy will be done, not ours.

But we are to pray with expectancy. And believing he still does this kind of thing. He may choose to heal. And Jerry was not healed. We did pray for real.

We were begging God to heal him.

And a few weeks later, he passed and went to be with the Lord. But he was asking for prayer for healing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But what I'm seeing here is all kinds of prayer. Sometimes, maybe in those last hours of entering, you know, finishing this life and entering into heaven, maybe you do start praying for peace only.

And just praying for God's will to be done. But while there's still hope, I think a prayer of faith, hoping that God will heal, is right and good. And we should have faith that he still does it. So what I'm seeing here, with all prayer and supplication, is that there's a variety of prayer.

And the Spirit helps us when we don't know what to pray anymore. He's our teacher. And sometimes you'll pray things you didn't even expect to pray in the presence of others. So this is how the prayer life develops.

That we have kind of different arrows. We have bullets. We have arrows. We have swords. We have all different weaponry in our prayer arsenal. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance. What does Paul mean by adding that all to the equation?

Persistence.

Yeah.

Remember the persistent window? I think it's Luke 18, where she doesn't get an answer to her pleading of the judge. But she keeps coming back to his door so many times that even an unjust judge says, because I don't want to be bothered anymore, I'm going to give her what she asks.

He gave justice.

Now, how much more?

This is an argument from the lesser to the greater. How much more a just judge, our God in heaven, if we persistently come to him, will he answer the prayer of his children?

Yeah.

That incident with the widow is a contrast, not a comparison.

How do you mean?

Well, let's see if I can figure it out again. If we pray, it's not like we're bothering God. Right. He wants us to go to him. And I guess maybe it's up to him to decipher if we're really persevering or if we're real.

Well said. So by point of comparison, the persistency is the same. You want to keep coming, keep coming. But by contrast, one judge is unjust, the other judge is just. One judge keeps feeling bothered because he's unjust.

And he's worn out.

The other judge actually delights by how often you keep coming to him. He wants to be, he wants to hear you. He doesn't wear out. He's not, he doesn't grow weary like an idol. You know, you know, idols grow weary or false gods and people get worn out.

You know, when, when Isaiah is mocking the false gods, he says, maybe he's gone to the bathroom. Maybe he's tired. Maybe he's gone to take a nap because he got worn out. But our God is not that way. So your point is right.

Yeah, that, that is a contrast there. But the comparison point of similarity is you've got to persist and keep asking, keep coming.

Okay.

Lastly, making some supplication for all the saints. Why the word all there? There are a lot of prayer needs. John, how many people do we pray for every Wednesday morning? You know, the list just grows longer and longer and we keep praying until the answer comes, right?

Right.

And there's health needs, but it's not all, you know, bruises and knees and cancers.

Being able to pray for all the saints also requires that you're, you're so in tune with the needs of the saints that you're willing to pray for them. You're able to pray for them.

You're connected.

Yeah.

You know what the needs are.

Yeah.

So you're in the body and you're interacting with them.

Yes.

So good. All right.

So this is the kind of prayer that he's calling us to. Not just like as, yeah, you pray a little here and there, a couple of prayer darts a day. This is the emphasis of the word all again and again is telling you this has to be central to your life.

Set apart times of prayer and pray all day long for everyone in all different ways and perseveringly like again and again and again.

Don't give up.

Don't wear out.

God's not getting worn out. He's delighting.

Yeah.

How long should our prayer list be?

I don't know that there's a, there's an answer to that. I think that's a little subjective.

Yeah. Yeah.

I think it's saying pray for all the saints. He's referring to all the people who believe in Christ all over the world.

Right. Yeah.

And I don't think it's obviously. You need to get a phone book and you need to identify everyone who's a saint.

Yes.

But we will actually get to that and this will answer that question a bit in the verses 21 to 22. My title of that section is God expects prayer where there is proximity.

God Expects Prayer Where There Is Proximity

Proximity.

Proximity.

Do we still have a directory for this church?

I usually go through the directory.

Yeah, we have it on the app and I can print one for you if you don't use the app.

Yeah.

Which is true for anybody out there too.

Let me know.

Well, I thought what was interesting, I remember we went to visit, I think it was during COVID, the Evans and they had a basket in their kitchen that had all Christmas cards in it that people had sent them.

Yes.

And she said, I said, oh, what are those for? And she said, oh, every day we pick out, you know.

Well, they take the top card, pray for that family, put it underneath and they just cycle through the card.

That's an amazing way. It's highly incentivizing to send the Evans a Christmas card. You get prayed for if you do that.

In fact, you send one, John send one.

That's an idea. I want my kids to send one.

All right, Sandy, would you read for us Ephesians 6, 19 and 20.

Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should.

Okay, Rick, if you could find 1 Thessalonians 5, 25, three major points out of this part that I think are very important. You need to ask prayer for yourself. Paul's not shy to do that. Secondly, boldness and clarity with the gospel needs to be a primary focus of your prayers.

We should not only pray for health needs all the time. It shouldn't be that a prayer meeting is a list of infirmities.

Who has what?

That should be important. We do because we love each other and we want to pray for health needs. But it shouldn't devolve into that being the focus.

What is the focus?

First and foremost, clarity and boldness with the gospel. And then third, ministers need prayer in a special way. So pray for us, brothers. Rick, what does it say?

Brothers, pray for us.

All right, let's memorize the verse right now. Paul says in four words, brothers, pray for us. What's he doing there? He's acknowledging his own need for prayer. Now, if there ever was a man who had courage, is it not the Apostle Paul?

And yet he asked for prayer for courage. If ever there was a man who was well-spoken, what did they call him when he was in Lystra and then subsequently stoned and left for dead? At first, they thought he was Mercury.

You know, depending on the King James translation. Yeah, the speaker. One they called Hermes and the other Zeus. Zeus Barnabas because he was like this powerful figure and Hermes, he was the speaker. Paul was such an eloquent speaker or so knowledgeable in how he was able to communicate that they almost worshipped him as a god in Lystra.

And yet he's asking for prayer for him to have clarity. If Paul can ask for prayer for himself, do you have someone in your life that you can shoot a text message or an email or make a phone call and say, pray for me, I'm struggling.

I'm feeling tempted. Pray for me. Pray for me, I'm depressed. You don't have to carry your burdens alone. One of the beautiful things about the body of Christ and the saints of which we belong is you're one of them.

And it's okay to ask for prayer. It's not selfish to ask for prayer. Most people don't ask for prayer for themselves because they don't want to be a bother to somebody else. But Paul says, pray for me.

Christians don't feel bothered when other people ask them to pray for them. In fact, it spurs them on to love and good deeds. You're helping them by asking them to pray. They'll start praying for you and guess what they'll do a few minutes later?

They'll keep praying for other people and for their other needs. You'll just spur them on to prayer. By asking people to pray for you, you are helping them as well as yourself. You need the prayer. You can't do this alone.

And you're helping them. So don't be shy to ask for prayer.

Amen?

Yeah, great.

In that passage above in 1 Thessalonians 5, we often think of Jesus' wept being the shortest verse in the Bible. But also, there are a number of very short two-word sentences there. Rejoice always, that's one.

Pray without ceasing. And there are other admonitions there. But brothers, pray for us, of course, has four words. But we have a two-word, three-word, and a four-word in that one passage.

And if you remember, when we taught through Thessalonians, what did we say about the Greek of kerate? That's rejoice always. Pontate, kerate, pontate. It's actually shorter than Jesus wept.

In the Greek.

That's the shortest verse in the Bible.

Matthew 6, part of the Sermon on the Mount, on the exhortations with regard to giving prayer and fasting, part of that says, don't keep on babbling, as the pagans do, because they think, well, they'll be hurt because of their many words.

It'll be short and concise.

Okay, so the second thing from that section is the kind of things we ought to be praying for preeminently. And that is that we would be bold with the Gospel and clear with the Gospel. Yes, health concerns are important.

But this is something more important because this has eternal, this makes an eternal difference. If you share the Gospel, now, boldness doesn't come natural. You're not just gonna go knock on your neighbor's door and share the Gospel because you won't naturally have the courage or the boldness to do that.

Where would that come from? That will come from the Lord. And that's why you should pray.

Look at Paul here.

He says that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel. Two things he wants to say. One is the actual words, so that's clarity, to know what to say. But the boldness, to boldly proclaim the mystery of the Gospel.

Now, there is an office in the church which is commissioned to stand before men and proclaim the mystery of the Gospel. It's what I do in the pulpit. It's also what John does when he introduces the worship service with the word of exhortation, a Gospel word about the sovereignty of God.

We need your prayer. And when I'm on sabbatical, John's gonna have the pulpit for summer months. He needs your prayer. Every teacher, Rick, you teach on Wednesday nights.

Do you need?

I need a prayer for tonight.

For tonight?

Going through the book of Proverbs and the chapter tonight is on sex.

Pray for Rick.

Pray for Rick. Let's just read the qualifications real quickly. Why don't somebody else read? Titus 1, 5 -9.

I've got it in the notes.

And I want to ask, how important is it to pray for your elders of the local church? If this is the qualification list, is this something we can live up to apart from the grace of God in our lives? Maybe, John, would you mind reading yourself a paper?

Titus 1, 5 -9. This is qualifications for an elder.

This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might cook what remains of your water and appoint elders in every town as I directed you. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife and his children, I believe, is not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.

For an overseer, as God steward, must be above reproach, must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or drunkard or vile or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.

He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in sound doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.

And every one of those disqualifying characteristics are a potential pitfall. Sexual immorality, greediness, self-promotion, inhospitality, lacking in discipline, having to rebuke someone, that's not necessarily going to go well in a church situation.

If there is a need to refute false doctrine that comes in, the one teaching that will not go quietly into that dark night, as we've discovered with refuting social justice in our denomination. These require warfare, as Paul discusses in Ephesians 6.

We are in a spiritual war, and the entire church is a part of that war. It's not just the spokesperson, the one who has the pulpit, or will speak to the EFCA, that kind of thing. Anything that I do, I have to do in the strength of the Lord, and that doesn't come from me.

It comes from the Lord, but he answers the prayers of God's people.

To empower the minister.

So I'm asking you, church, to pray for me. Pray for John. Pray for all the teachers and elders in the church, that God would be our strength, and that we would become faithful to the task that we've been called to do.

Amen?

Prayer, Proximity, and Ministry Support

So, John, would you read Ephesians 6, 21 and 22?

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