[0:00] Amen. Please remain standing for the reading of God's word. Ephesians chapter 6, we're continuing our study and prayer cover, and we'll see if we can end our study today on this subject of spiritual warfare, but we will not end our living of spiritual warfare. But Ephesians chapter 6, I'm going to read a few verses in front of verses 18 and 20. Father, first of all, we ask your blessing. Before we read the word, before we think about praying, preaching, we must pray. We ask, O Lord, that you would bless the reading of your word and the preaching of it, that, Lord, it might benefit us, that we might hear, give us the proper attitude to hear your word, and give us the will to do it. May we see Jesus in it. May we see Jesus in all of his benefits. May we rejoice in him.
[1:03] May we hear the voice of God. And Father, we do want to remember to pray for the Ellis family, for their comfort. You haven't taken Mom Protho to be with yourself. We praise you that she is with you. To be absent from the body is to be with you, the Lord, and we know she's with you. Thank you for that woman of God. Thank you for her sweet spirit and kindness. And thank you for her spunk.
[1:27] Oh, Lord, will you bless the Ellis's, Carl and Karen, and the rest of their family as they grieve her loss. May we grieve with them. But thank you, Lord, that we can grieve as those who have hope.
[1:39] So bless them, and bless now the preaching of your word. Anoint your unworthy servant to preach this message of hope and access and power. In Jesus' name. Amen. Begin at verse 10, remembering the context.
[1:59] This is what Paul wants us to get. 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. That's the goal, to stand against the schemes of the devil. Verse 13, therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and have been done all to stand firm. Verse 14, stand therefore. Now verse 18, stand there for 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 pray for me, 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. Amen. That is the word of the Lord.
[3:02] Thanks be to God. You may be seated. You know, wartime communications tend to be a bit complicated.
[3:15] There are protocols for it. Code words and code names that need to be used. You don't just call up and say, hey, General Jones, this is Kevin Smith. Can you send some air cover over at Thurne and Kilmer?
[3:32] I mean, that's not how it's done. But in the spiritual war, which is even more serious, and I say this with respect for the sacrifices that our soldiers make. But in our spiritual war, we are not only dealing with time, but with eternity. You see, in this war, our communications often sound more like children asking help from their father, rather than soldiers calling HQ and their superior officers for an airstrike. Amen to that. We'll talk more about that in a minute. But still, make no mistake, this war is very serious. So my questions to you are, are you ready to engage the enemy on your knees? We're the only, we're the only army that fights on his knees. Are you willing to continuously call upon our mighty king for prayer cover?
[4:37] Keep in mind, prayer is God's welcome to us, purchased by the blood of Jesus. Think of it that way. It's God's welcome to you.
[4:57] Made the access, the door, the throne room being open to you by nothing less. And only the blood of Jesus, the sacrifice of Christ. You have access to God, to the throne room, at all times, in any place. It doesn't matter where you are. Child of God, you've been given access.
[5:26] Now, remember, to illustrate what Paul says about prayer in general, we turned last time to take a quick look at the Lord's instruction for us on prayer, the Lord's prayer.
[5:38] And in summary, we looked at the necessity of praying for the Lord's kingdom and for his glory in this spiritual war. By kingdom, someone's asked, what do you mean by kingdom? By kingdom. When he says, thy kingdom come, what does God mean by kingdom?
[5:57] We mean by kingdom. We mean the revealing of the reign of God in Christ over all creation, beginning in the lives of those who call Jesus Savior.
[6:08] God is reigning. Jesus is reigning over every inch of creation. It's all his. And what happens is we, when we pray, thy kingdom come, we're praying that that revelation will be revealed.
[6:27] We're praying that it will become more and more obvious through our lives that Jesus is real and reigning and in control.
[6:38] And we do this by living all of our life under his lordship. Every aspect of our lives, our work, which is important to God, our vocations, our callings, our marriages, our singleness, our recreations, our, where we live, who we live with, all of that is brought under the lordship of Jesus.
[7:03] And we say, Lord, help us to do these things in a way that honors you for your name, for your glory. That's our revealing the kingdom.
[7:14] And then we take those kingdom lives into the culture and we begin to bring God's mercy and justice and grace and love to people around us, to systems around us.
[7:27] We reveal. We are being used to reveal his presence and his lordship, his reigning. Man, that's glorious work.
[7:40] That's why Jesus said you got to pray because you can't do it by yourself. We can't do it. We get tired.
[7:50] We get upset. We get mad. And we just fail. So we pray thy kingdom come. And ultimately that means we pray for the coming of the king.
[8:03] Come, Lord Jesus, and reveal your kingdom completely. I love what Guy Waters says. No slides today.
[8:14] I love what Guy Waters says in his book on prayer. He says, praying for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as is in heaven is not simply an optional luxury when you are at war.
[8:27] It is absolute necessity. It is life itself. Amen. Amen. Amen. We have to pray this way. Thy kingdom come.
[8:38] Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Hallowed be thy name. We got, we must pray that way. For that is where the power of God is being revealed.
[8:51] And we've revealed in us and through us. That the world would see. I love, I think it's Ezekiel. The prophet constantly says, God says, God, and then they will know that I am the Lord.
[9:08] And then they will. That's, that rings in my mind. When God, when God's kingdom is being revealed in his people, then they will know. Ooh.
[9:18] Then they will know. And of course, the Lord's prayer reminds us that that kingdom prayer involves our lives. Give us this day our daily bread.
[9:31] Forgive us our debts. Deliver us from the evil one. It involves our lives too. It's not, God's not saying, just pray about me. He's saying, I've made access for you to have your needs fulfilled.
[9:44] For your needs. For your protection. For your enjoyment of my creation. For your ability. Your resourcing. But praying and bringing the needs of the people of God.
[9:59] Because it's a corporate prayer. You know. It's our Father. Give us this day our daily bread.
[10:11] Jesus meant for us to pray together. And pray a lot together. And to pray for our needs together. Here's the beautiful thing. We're not just soldiers of the cross.
[10:24] We are children of the King. And so our prayer represents that. It represents this intimacy and bringing my needs. And I don't know about you.
[10:36] But when children come in. If you've ever had children. And if you have children. Have you ever been a child? Have you noticed that when children come in from playing or from school or wherever.
[10:48] They tend to come in hungry. You have to feed them. And they come in hungry. And all they care about is getting the food in their mouths.
[11:02] Something they like hopefully. They don't care that mom or dad worked all day and is very tired. But still managed to cook a nice nutritious meal.
[11:14] With Brussels sprouts. And green beans. And meat. You know. Chicken. All these little beggars care about is feed me. All they care about is food.
[11:27] They might not even say thank you. They just say give me. But mom and dad still loved them. And might not chastise them for their callousness.
[11:40] Sometimes we'll say please. What are you going to say? Thank you. You know. We're training our children. Right? I was trained that way.
[11:51] I don't know about you. But you know. But you do. You feed them. You take care of them no matter what they say. Because they're your children. Because we know they're going to grow up.
[12:02] We know they're going to learn these things as we continue to teach them. We know. In the same way, we can do the same thing with God. In our spiritual immaturity. We run into prayer with our shopping list.
[12:14] And forget all about God's glory and goodness to us. Because we got needs. And we dive in. Why? Because we're children. That's what children do. It's okay.
[12:29] Aren't you glad that Father doesn't turn you away and say, Hold it. You didn't say, hallowed be my name. My king. You didn't say any of that stuff. Get out of here. I'm not giving you any. Aren't you glad God's not like that?
[12:40] He knows we're children. And sometimes, you know, sometimes we don't have time for. We think we don't have time. Well, sometimes we don't have time. Sometimes prayer got to be quick. You know.
[12:51] You got to get to the heart of it fast. Because stuff is happening. And Father doesn't fall off his throne. He grabs us and holds us and blesses us.
[13:04] He knows we'll grow up. He knows we're going to grow up. He knows we're going to learn how to pray. And by the way, the Lord's prayer is mature praying. He knows we're going to grow up.
[13:18] It's comprehensive prayer, right? It's what Paul was talking about here in chapter 6. That comprehensive prayer. There it is. And God gives it to us. Now, a couple of points.
[13:31] A few points real quick here in Paul's chapter 6 here. Paul says prayer support must have three major characteristics. And the first one is continuous.
[13:45] Praying at all times. Praying at all times. He said the same thing in 1 Thessalonians 5.17. Pray without ceasing. Our Lord Jesus taught the same thing in Luke chapter 18.
[13:58] We told the parable and he said we ought to pray and not give up. How do we pray without ceasing? It certainly suggests some kind of attitude of prayer as we go about our day.
[14:14] For Paul did not mean that you to spend all your day on your knees praying. He meant that we're to pray even as we are working. We can do so knowing God is with us.
[14:26] We can be conversing with him briefly as it were throughout the day. Again, God waters us helpful here. Praying without ceasing means that we live every day prayerfully.
[14:38] Or we might say in a Godward direction. In other words, we are to use every, listen to this, every detail of our lives. Every relationship.
[14:49] Every activity. Every responsibility to direct our attention and our prayers to the Lord. We're to pray about everything. During everything.
[15:02] After everything. What would that look like for you? I mean, maybe it could look like you're at work and you have a project that you need to finish. And maybe you would pray before you begin it.
[15:15] Lord, please help me to have wisdom here to make this thing clear. Please bless me in my research. Students and everyone else who's doing any kind of research. Lord, please guide me as I come to research in this project.
[15:26] Brief times of just, just like Nehemiah would do. If you go back and read Nehemiah, he would just pray. Lord, look at what they're doing. Look at what they're saying. Real brief times of prayer.
[15:38] It's realizing that you're not alone. That you're never out of the presence of God. And you're bringing him in naturally. It's a natural. When someone is with you, it is natural to talk to them.
[15:54] Try going out with friends, right? And you never say a word to them. And they're right next to you. And you never say a word. We forget the real presence of God.
[16:08] That Jesus said, I am Emmanuel. God with you. That he's poured out his spirit. And the spirit is God's presence in us at all times. When you lay me down to sleep, he is present.
[16:23] When you go to the doctor, he's present. When you go to work, he is present. When you're alone in your car, he is present. When you're in the bathroom watching, he's present. You can't get away from his presence.
[16:34] David's saying that, remember? Where can I go from your presence? Where can I flee from your spirit? When you remember that you're always in his presence, and his presence is a real presence, it makes it easier to just include him in everything.
[16:55] I'm playing with my dog. It's easy to say, Lord, look at Kobe. He's just like me. That must how you feel. You must be. That must how you feel when I do.
[17:06] I mean, Kobe's a great illustration for my Christian life, by the way. I mean, it's easy to bring him into everything. Amen. Amen. Amen. You see, the reason we don't turn to prayer immediately, or pray seriously with confidence when trials come, is because we're not used to praying every day.
[17:33] We're not used to praying in every way. We're not used to engaging the Lord's presence. So this is a good way to practice. You're ready for the trial.
[17:45] You're ready for the assault of the enemy. You're ready for him to come at you, because you're already living in the presence of your commanding officer. You're already living more in the presence of your father and your elder brother.
[17:58] Prayer becomes the air we breathe. When you think about what it means to pray without ceasing, because your heavenly father is always present with you to bless you, to hear you.
[18:13] The throne is always open. But don't lose the other idea here. And don't push it away. We are to set aside times for undistracted prayer.
[18:27] Amen. You see, some of us gravitate to the idea of praying on the move. We're Americans. We're always on the move.
[18:39] I mean, the world looks at us and says, will they ever slow down? You go to other countries, I'm telling you, you go to other countries, and you're trying to, I'm trying to be, I'm just being Kevin the American, and they went, slow down, son.
[18:52] Ease up. It's amazing how in so many other, not every, but so many other countries, they look at us as being frantic, very time conscious. And they're all chill.
[19:08] Come on. It'll get done, man. It's coming. Relax. Y'all don't travel much, do you? It's true. It's amazing how we're perceived around the world.
[19:21] We treat prayer like that, too. Our problem is, we don't want to stop and pray.
[19:34] And that's the very thing Jesus told us to do. Yeah, pray continuously. Amen. But in Matthew 6, 6, he said, when you pray, go into your room, shut the door, and pray to your father who is in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
[19:55] He says, there's times for the prayer closet. Or, like the movie says, the war room. There are times, brothers and sisters, we need to have frequent times of going into the war room.
[20:08] It's okay to be praying on the bus, on your way to do, or driving in the car. I just said that. Pray continually. That's what the Bible is talking about. Do that. Yes, yes, yes. But don't make that all.
[20:22] Set aside time when you and God are alone, and nobody's around, and you can focus on him, and you can really pray through the Lord's Prayer then, because you set aside time.
[20:38] The church has lost the ability and the will to set aside time for prayer. And that's hurting us.
[20:50] It's hurting churches around this country. It's hurting us. It's hurting us. It's killing us. Secondly, notice prayer must also be given in the Spirit.
[21:04] What does that mean? Some would say it means speaking in tongues, so that those who don't speak in tongues never get a chance to pray in the Spirit. So, you can see that's out the door.
[21:17] That's not going to work. Better way to understand it is where A.T. Lincoln, one commentator says, Paul is calling for prayer inspired, guided, and made effective through the Spirit.
[21:29] He's calling upon us as a school. What he's calling upon us is dependence on the Spirit and prayer. It's recognizing that I can only approach God and the power of the Spirit.
[21:42] It is recognizing I need the Spirit of God to inspire, to propel, to guide my prayers. It's coming to God even in prayer and dependence upon God to guide my prayer.
[21:58] It's saying, I can't even trust myself to pray right. You know, that's what I think Paul was getting at in Romans chapter 8, around verse 26.
[22:10] He says, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 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.
[22:28] You see, we don't, we think we know what to pray for all the time. Sometimes we do. Amen. But a lot of times, we don't see the big picture. We don't see what God is doing.
[22:40] So we come to God in dependence. Lord, Holy Spirit, guide me as I come. Guide my prayer. It's good to pray about your praying.
[22:54] It's good to come saying, Lord, I need you. Holy Spirit, fill me. Empower me. Guide my prayer. And again, if we're talking about the filling of the Spirit in prayer, that has to mean a submission to the Word of God.
[23:18] You can't depend upon God in prayer if you have no intention of submitting to His Word. You know, sometimes God is not stupid.
[23:31] He knows our hearts. And He knows when we come to Him in prayer, He knows where we are. Might as well confess it. Sometimes I come to God and say, listen, I am not in the right place.
[23:44] Help me. Lord, I'm afraid. I'm not sure I really want to do Your will, but help me. Come on.
[23:54] Is that right? Amen. It's okay to bring that to Father. To admit your weakness in prayer and dependence and the Spirit of God does what He does.
[24:07] He intercedes for us. He makes, He stands, as it were, He stands between us and the Father and He guides our prayers. Oh my goodness. With groanings, we don't even know what He's doing.
[24:21] With groanings too deep for words, as Dr. Boyce said years ago, He thinks that's the Spirit's groaning, not our groaning. the Spirit, as it were, comes up under us in our prayer and groans for us.
[24:35] Groans for us to the Father, as it were. He comes up, in other words, He comes up and gets into our emotion, into our feelings, into what's hurting and burdening us. He gets up under our hand.
[24:51] We can count on Him to fill us as we pray and His and as we are seeking to do the Lord's work and the Lord's work the Lord's way, we can count on Him to fill us and guide us.
[25:05] Now, here's a practical thing about praying in the Spirit. It has to also mean praying the Word of God. I mean, if you really want to pray the Word of God and pray in the Spirit, pray the Word of God.
[25:20] Pray trusting in the righteousness of Christ to be heard, not in your own righteousness, praying the Word, the promises, the will of God, going before God and saying, Lord, this is what you said.
[25:38] That would imply, then, that we actually have the sword of, or using the sword of the Spirit. We know the Word of God. It would imply that we understand the belt of truth, that we're saturated with truth from God.
[25:54] The prayers that are full of God's Word from our heart. Listen, from our heart that is submitted to God in Christ.
[26:06] Just praying a scripture ain't gonna do it, okay? All because we, that's why sometimes reciting, some churches have stopped reciting the Lord's Prayer because they found that the people were just mouthing words.
[26:18] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
[26:31] And so, people weren't praying, actually. Now, I'm not saying we should take that up. Sometimes we do, we should have the Lord's Prayer. But the idea here is just saying scripture is not praying in the Spirit.
[26:45] it's praying in humility and submission. It's praying in dependence. It's praying, Lord, I believe your promises and I'm calling upon you to keep your promises.
[26:59] When you, when you get around mature Christians, it's how often do you hear their, if you listen to their prayers, you'll hear biblical phrases throughout their prayers. They're not going, and Lord, in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 2, you said, they're not doing that.
[27:15] they're just praying it. They're just praying it. It just become, the word just comes out of you and you just pray the word and your phrases and your prayer pick up biblical terminology.
[27:34] When you're saturated with the word of God, it's natural to pray the word of God back to God. pray in the spirit.
[27:48] And third, we're to pray, we're to be alert in prayer. You know, that's part of, um, the reason for praying.
[28:01] To that end, keep alert with all perseverance. Keep alert. what's the, he said, pray like this to this end that you will be alert.
[28:14] Comprehensive, continuous, spirit-filled prayer is so that we might be alert, we might be on guard, we might be ready. Not be alert sometimes, but always.
[28:28] To be honest with you, prayer literally keeps us awake. It's what it really means to be woke. Christians are woke when we pray.
[28:47] We are asleep when we don't. Now again, it's funny that we are the only army that can see the enemy better with our eyes closed in prayer.
[29:08] That doesn't mean you can't pray with your eyes open. If we're praying continuously, you're doing a whole lot of prayer with your eyes open. And if you're driving, please pray with your eyes open.
[29:22] I mean, but, it's the idea. Why do we close our eyes in prayer anyway? Why do we close? Say it, say it, say it. Focus.
[29:33] Oh, thank you, man. Focus. Anything else? No distractions because we're visual and everything, you know, we, we, squirrel, you know, we all just get distracted by what we see.
[29:48] God gave us eyes so we could use them. Amen. And so closing our eyes helps us focus. It helps us be undistracted in prayer.
[29:58] prayer. That's why having those closet times of prayer is so important because I'm telling you is you're distracted. If your eyes are open, you are distracted.
[30:12] If your eyes are open, you're going to have a little trouble focusing in prayer. Amen. That's just part of the battle. That's just normal wear and tear. That's why it's so important that you do have those times when you're just saying you close out the world.
[30:28] Moms, if you got little preschoolers, if you got somebody who can just, if you can just slip away for a second, maybe they're eating something and you go in the bathroom and close the door. Santa used to do that sometimes.
[30:42] If you got an older child who's 12 or so who can keep an eye, just close the door. I heard of one woman who would take her apron. Wesley. Thank you. I'm about to thank you.
[30:52] And she would just put her apron over her head. And John and Charles Wesley knew, Mama's in the prayer room. Don't bother her. Thank you, Kathy. It's okay.
[31:05] But the idea is that we're on guard. The idea is that we're alert. The idea that we, our radar is up. Remember, we're in a war, right? We're in battle. We got to have radar.
[31:17] The enemy is coming and you can't see him. But when you go into prayer, you are ready. When he shows up, you're on guard.
[31:28] You're not caught napping. Isn't that what happened in Matthew 26 when Jesus calls his disciples to come with him to pray? Peter and John, come over here and pray with me.
[31:42] Peter, James, and John, come over here and watch with me. In 26, now here, in verse 40, here's what he says. He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour?
[31:56] Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He's saying, he's saying, listen, temptation is coming, children of God.
[32:08] Temptation is coming. Satan wants your hearts. When we mean by heart in the Bible, he wants that the heart encompasses the mind, the will, the emotions, the ambitions, the imaginations, all of that.
[32:20] See, they're not Western thinkers. We separate mind and emotions. The mind, the heart. The Bible don't do that. It's all connected in one big building called the heart.
[32:33] Your mind's there. How you think, your imaginations are there. Your emotions, everything's there in the heart. That's why the Bible says, above all things, guard your heart.
[32:45] Because whatever has your heart has you. And the devil's game plan is very simple. I can't take their souls. They belong to God, but I'm going after their hearts.
[32:59] I'm going to tweak their hearts. I'm going to turn their hearts. I'm going to influence their hearts. He can't even take your whole heart, but he can influence it in the wrong direction. Without prayer, we can fall for the enemy's subtle lies.
[33:13] And even those of us who know the word can still fall for the subtle lies of the enemy. Sometimes he'll use your own theology against you and twist it just a little bit.
[33:29] God is sovereign over all things. Well, I don't have to evangelize because he's going to call whoever he wants to call. Subtle slip with a horrible result.
[33:42] Because God is sovereign. He is calling who he will call. But he still calls us to be his hands and feet and to speak the word. We'll come.
[33:52] We'll end with that in a second. So again, prayer keeps us on sentry duty. I don't care how powerful your weapons are. If you fall asleep on sentry duty, they will do you no good.
[34:06] Amen. Because the fox is in the hen house while you were sleeping. Prayer says, I'm up.
[34:23] Prayer says, I'm watching. Prayer says, I don't trust me to always see things. It says, no, Lord, deliver me from hidden faults.
[34:35] Didn't David pray that way? Hidden. Hidden to who? Him. I got faults you don't know about, but you're not the issue. I got faults I don't know about.
[34:50] Lord, deliver me from hidden sins, from hidden faults. Lord, search me and know me. Try my heart. Know my anxious thoughts. Lead me in the way everlasting. Lord, look in here. Because the evil is in here.
[35:03] Out there is one thing that is out there, yes, but the real problem, saints, listen, the real problem is in you and your attitudes and our pride and our arrogance and our fear.
[35:17] is in here. And the enemy will try to pluck those strings. And the armor, you need the armor of God.
[35:28] God, depend on, you have it, depend on the armor, but also depend in prayer. If we're not praying, are we really depending on the armor if we're not praying? See?
[35:41] Our churches are suffering so much this year in the last couple years and I wonder, I wonder, I just have to wonder because we've given up on prayer.
[35:52] We give so little time to it. I just wonder if we have been more of churches committed to praying and calling upon God and recognizing our weakness, preaching the truth, continue, living, ministries, doing work, yes, do all of that, but in prayer.
[36:11] I wonder, I wonder if we, if our churches would have stood better during this time. I wonder. The last thing I want you to notice is that we're to pray for the ministry of the word.
[36:28] And that's it, that's how Paul ends this section, really, in verses 19 and 20. Pray that words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains that may declare it boldly.
[36:43] He says boldly twice, which means that boldness is the issue. Paul could preach now. He could preach, but he said, my issue is I need to proclaim it boldly.
[36:56] And I need words. Because remember, he didn't have the New Testament in front of him. He had the Old Testament, certainly, but he needed, he wanted God, he wanted to take the word of the gospel and apply it and preach it boldly, without fear, without, without, without holding back.
[37:15] It didn't mean he was being obnoxious, you know, tell him what you think. No, don't tell him what you think. Don't do that. Because what you think sometimes, well, no, it's not, that's kind of boldness he's talking about.
[37:28] He's talking about, speak of Christ with open mouth, freely. his great concern that the message of the gospel go forth so that the Lord of glory will be magnified in the conversion of sinners.
[37:48] That's the message, that's what the message does. It's so important that the message go forth and he's so concerned about it even when he's in prison. Paul's in jail here. He says, he says he's an ambassador in chains.
[38:00] In chapter four, verse one, he calls himself the prisoner of the Lord. He's, listen, what do you learn from this? What do we learn from that? Just that part right there. What do we learn? That even in our darkest moments, even in our greatest trials, we are still praying that Jesus would be magnified in us.
[38:22] Why? Because he's worthy. And Paul understood that he was even in this situation because of preaching the gospel and he's still praying, help me preach the gospel.
[38:36] Now, most of the time, we're not in our situation because of preaching the gospel. But whatever we're going through, whatever hardship we are struggling with, that is not a way of deterring us from the work.
[38:51] The enemy wants to deter you. He wants to keep your mouth shut. He wants to send stuff at you constantly so you are shut up about Jesus. and stop seeking to walk with him and get discouraged.
[39:04] That's what he wants to do. But here's the thing, trials that come our way are not meant to deter us but spur us. Paul said, listen, I'm an ambassador in chains.
[39:17] You don't usually put ambassadors in chains. That's an act of war. That's why we have something today called diplomatic immunity.
[39:28] You just can't arrest a foreign diplomat. That's in the form of aggression against that country. You have to have some very extenuating circumstances.
[39:39] I remember in D.C. there were so many diplomatic tags rolling by my street. I mean, all I saw was and embassies. I lived near several embassies. I could walk to, I mean, and they were just in the middle of the block.
[39:50] Embassies to the Congo, right there, boom. that's their territory and their ambassadors belong to them and when they come here, we treat them with respect even if they run a light.
[40:05] You can't just haul them off to jail. Diplomatic immunity. Paul is saying, it's ironic. I'm an ambassador in chains.
[40:17] It's ironic. But why is that so? Because the kingdoms of this world are at war with the kingdom of God. And brothers and sisters, you are part of the kingdom of God in Christ.
[40:30] And so the war is real. And you will be attacked. You will be shot at, as it were. You will be, they will, the world will squeeze in, the devil will do everything he can to squeeze in on you and cause you to suffer.
[40:44] And the idea is, shut them up. And so Paul prays for words. Give me words.
[40:55] Is anybody you, you're trying to witness to, somebody you want to share the gospel with, pray for words. Pray for words from the word. But pray for words.
[41:07] Lord, show me how to talk to him. Show me what this, give me what to say. And listen, it doesn't mean that you wait until you get it all right down. Okay, okay. I got it now. No.
[41:19] It means that you pray for words and when the opportunity comes, you open your mouth. It is said, it's not true probably, that St. Francis of Assisi said, preach the gospel, use words if necessary.
[41:35] Right? By the way, the Franciscans say he never said that. So, so much for that. But that concept has infected the church. And I say infected because it's deadly.
[41:49] I think it's not the devil actually. I really do. Because the gospel is a message. It's not understood unless it's spoken. Living the gospel is imperative, it's important.
[42:08] Yes, of course. but if you never speak the message, no one knows why you're living the way you're living. The gospel is good news.
[42:20] Good news. News that has to be spoken. if you do not speak it, you have not preached the gospel. You've lived the gospel but you haven't preached it.
[42:34] Pray for words. Don't fall for the devil's trick here. Pray for words so that you will speak the gospel to people so they will know why it is you are living this way.
[42:46] Why aren't you living with your boyfriend or your girlfriend when everyone else is doing this? This is just the way it is in America. Why aren't you? Well, we're just living for the Lord. Well, we're just living because this is what we want to do. Tell them the truth because Jesus is Lord of my sexuality.
[43:02] Jesus is Lord of my body. He's my creator. He knows how I'm supposed to use this body for his glory and he doesn't want me to throw my body away to anybody because I feel good because it feels good and I think they're cute.
[43:20] No. You tell them about sexual marriage and how God is God's gift for marriage and explain, talk to them about it. But if you never open your mouth, they just think you're just weird.
[43:35] They have no context. No way of knowing. And even if they know you go to church, they need to hear a specific message.
[43:47] Not a general message. They go to church. They go to church is not the gospel. Paul prayed for words.
[44:00] Pray for words. The battle is won and fought as the word goes out and converts, grabs hearts, reveals Jesus.
[44:15] don't be afraid of speaking words. The words of the gospel. Fight the good fight. Father, in Jesus' name, please help us to engage the enemy on our knees.
[44:32] Please forgive us, O Lord, for wanting to engage him in our own strength. Thank you for the armor of God that we have. May we teach us to rely upon the work of Christ more clearly each and every day and teach us to pray every day without ceasing.
[44:50] And in those moments in our closet, help us to pray. Help us to pray together. The Lord's prayer you showed us is for us to come together to pray. Help us to do it, Lord. Forgive us, Lord, for making excuses, all kinds of excuses, but help us to pray in our small groups.
[45:05] Help us to pray in our big groups. Help us to pray in our worship service. Help us to pray. Help us to pray because we know we have, we've been given access to you and we live in your presence and you are with us.
[45:18] Oh, give us the joy of prayer. Remind us how much we need you. In Jesus' name, amen.
[45:30] Amen.