Please open your Bibles to Ephesians 6. We're getting there. We have three more sermons formal to finish this book. And I hope you've been as thoroughly encouraged and blessed and strengthened through the book of Ephesians as I've been. It's amazing how things just begin to come to the fore of your mind. It's unbelievable how I've been living through the book of Ephesians. Not just preaching it, but literally living through it for the last two years. And God in His goodness just continues to unpack how rich His Word is for us. Let me read our text, verses 10 to 20. We're focusing specifically on verse 18. And next week we'll finish off Paul's set of the armor, verses 19 and 20, and then finish the book of Ephesians with his final greetings. But let's read this morning's text, verses 10 through 20, focusing specifically on verse 18. This is God's word. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Let's pray. Father, we just pray for a blessing this morning. We pray, Lord, that you would open up our understanding and, Lord, that you would give us, as it were, new affections for who you are. Help us to see You in all Your glory and all of Your grandeur. Help us to see and to savor, not just talk about. but to see and to savour and to experience and to taste your grace. Lord, help us to get past our petty clichés and help us, Lord, to know you, the true and the living God. Lord, would you show us how vitally important, how necessary it is for us as Christians, not just to wage war, but also to live and move and have our being. Lord, show us how important and essential it is that we can only do so in union with Christ. And we can only do what you have called us to do in the strength that you have given us, which we access through Christ. Father, I just pray that your will would be done, even this morning. Father, I pray that if there are any here who are not truly converted, who maybe have snuck in under the auspice of a Christian title, under the pretense of a convert who carries a Bible. Lord, I pray that you would do business with their hearts. I pray that the Spirit would convict them of their sin, show them that being religious or even reformed is not sufficient. It will not give us the grade necessary to stand before you on that great and awful day. May you show all of us that we must be found in Christ, robed in His righteousness alone. Lord, for those of us who have tasted and seen Christ in days past, would you refresh the savour of Christ? May we taste Him afresh this morning. God, I don't want, and I don't want anyone here to be content with leftovers from yesterday. Lord, would we seek You, would we come to You daily for the living man, and would we commune with You in spirit and in truth, and would we worship You that way? Father, would you melt away the coldness and the ice that encases our hearts? Would you fan into flame by your Spirit, Lord, old passions we used to have for Christ? Would you give us a relish of Christ's sweetness this morning? Lord, otherwise we're just going to leave here unchanged, maybe smarter, with a larger vocabulary, and having checked off that the pastor did an expositional message, But Lord, we don't want to leave here just smarter. We want to leave here holier. We want to leave here hating sin more, loving Christ more. So come Spirit, we sang it. Give us strength. Give me strength. Help me to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. And Lord, that's not just for conversion. Help me to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ for the believer. This Sunday morning, encased in battle, fighting sin, fighting the flesh, fighting the world, fighting the devil. Show us the unsearchable riches of Christ that are at our disposal, that we can access freely through faith. Help, God. I can't do this. Work spiritually, I pray. Have mercy, God, on us as your people, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. All is fair in love and war. Perhaps you've heard that famous Maxim quote, aphorism, all is fair in love and war. The premise of this pithy proverb, whose source was 450 years ago, is that in some areas of life, things are so overwhelmingly important that we cannot blame someone for breaking the rules to act in their own interest. In other words, when it comes to things like love, or war, rules of fair play do not apply. Though this famous aphorism is historically traced back to a man named John Lilly in 1578, its employment goes back to the dawn of time and creation. Indeed, throughout the age of humanity and the course of history, this maxim has worked itself out in every age and in almost every war ever fought. As Christians, we should not be surprised that as Satan wages war against us, he employs this maxim. All is fair in love and war. Satan hits below the belt. He doesn't play according to the rules of fairness. He is ruthless, and he does not care what it takes to take us out. Satan is our adversary, and there are no depths to which he will stoop to inflict a mighty blow against us who are called the hosts of the Lord. In this cosmic battle, we must remember that this fallen archangel called Lucifer does not fight fairly. He does not keep boundaries and he does not play by the rules. As Christians, we must also realize that Satan's battle against God's people is not relegated to the New Testament. I hope that as you're reading the Old Testament, you will realize there is a great cosmic conflict taking place, and that the chess pieces as it were, say the armies of Babylon, or Assyria, or the Philistines, all those pagans, please understand that the Bible conveys for us that these are merely pawns. Yes, willing and depraved, sin-loving pawns, but nevertheless they are being wielded, as it were, by higher powers. That there is really a battle in the heavenlies, even though it is waged on an earthly battlefield, ultimately it's taking place in the heavenlies. And so when you read, say, In the book of Judges, it comes to mind after Sisera, the great and mighty general is, as it were, pegged to the ground by jail. When you read about Beric's Song of Deliverance, he's not so much praising God for the battle that was waged on an earthly sphere, but rather he's talking about this cosmic battle. wherein Yahweh is fighting through his people against all the false hosts and fallen angels of Satan fighting through his people. Genesis 3.15. Remember, there's two seeds at war. So we must remember that as we're reading the Old Testament, these aren't just battles to keep our boys entertained at dinnertime, but we must see through them into the spiritual realm. And as I was meditating this week, I thought of two famous battles of the Old Testament Wherewith, the strategies, or the schemes we could say, employed by the enemies of God's people, are still being employed today by the enemies, or the enemy of God's people. And the two that came to mind are found firstly in 1 Samuel, chapter 13, please don't turn there. And the second is found in 2 Kings 25, and for you diligent keeners, feel free to go home and read these after lunch. They're interesting when you see them through a spiritual lens, in light of the New Covenant, who we are as God's people, this side of the cross, and yet still engulfed and embroiled in a war against foes that seek to inhibit the progress of the Kingdom of God. Throughout the Old Testament, we see Satan as the angelic commander of the armies of the world, fighting against Yahweh, the ultimate commander of the armies of Israel. Whether you are in the patriarchal section of Genesis, or you move into Israel in Egypt, or you move past that into the people of Egypt entering into the promised land in Joshua and Judges, or whether it's through the monarchy of David, etc., in 1st and 2nd Kings. It seems that the whole Old Testament, we find God's people are in a perpetual war. They are perpetually fighting, continually in battle. And it's no different for us. Though we're not fighting against blood and flesh, literally, we are still fighting nonetheless. And we understand maybe more fully through the eyes of grace that our enemy is not merely a Philistine who is uncircumcised, but rather the one who epitomizes the uncircumcised Philistine. In 1 Samuel 13, we read of a story of how the Philistines have, as it were, put into bondage and slavery the people of Israel. And this is when Israel was under King Saul. And the author of 1 Samuel goes on to say, in verses 19 and following, that Israel was in such bondage to the Philistines that they weren't even able to have their own weaponry. And so we could say that the enemy of Israel or the enemies of God's people were seeking, as it were, to inhibit their march through the deprivation of weaponry. You can't fight if you don't have good weapons. But when you contrast that in 2 Kings 25 with another kind of deprivation, We see that being deprived of weaponry is actually not as strategically wise for the enemy as a deprivation of power, energy, willingness. You see that in 2 Kings 25 when the city of Jerusalem is besieged as it were. It's encircled and engulfed by its enemies and they begin to starve the people of Israel out. And if you understand the people of Israel are well equipped within the walls of Jerusalem. They have their helmets and they have their shields. They have their swords, their shoes. They have their belts and breastplates on. They're not lacking armor like they were in first Samuel 13. They're not lacking the things that they can use to fight. They're lacking strength. They're lacking energy. They're lacking will. And I thought that was a Very nice picture of what Paul is trying to convey for us in Ephesians 6. Yes, Satan wants to deprive you of spiritual armor. He wants you to forget about your righteousness in Christ. And he wants you to forget about the truth of the Word of God and the peace that has been procured for you through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He wants you to forget all of those armaments, but he knows that actually he can get all those armaments off in one fell swoop. I was thinking, so often we have another proverb is killing two birds with one stone. Well, like the king of Babylon, You can take out six birds with one stone. You can render ineffective all those armaments if you can render those people wearing them weak and helpless and powerless and no will to fight. If I can take away your will to fight, all the armor in the world means nothing. If I can take away your strength, you can't wield that sword. If I can take away your strength, you can't stand firm. If I can take away your strength, you can't hold up your shield of faith. If I can empty you of strength, all the armor in the world is useless. That's exactly what the grammar, not just a fancy sermon, the grammar of Ephesians 6 is saying us this morning. All the armor Paul has outlined for us in the previous six weeks is useless apart from prayer. No prayer, you can have all the armor in the world. It doesn't mean a thing. There's an old hymn we used to sing, I couldn't find it, but it says that you put on the armor by prayer. He's a good theologian. He probably knew Greek. Because that's exactly what Paul is saying. Paul is telling us that it's not enough just to have the armor. It's not enough just to even put it on. We must be able to use it. We need power to stand in the armor. Power to swing the sword. Power to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand firm. In the first battle, the people were deprived of weapons, and yet you still see that in the power of God, Jonathan was able to do some killing. And in the power of the Lord, eventually the Philistines were defeated. But we see in the second instance, in 2 Kings 25, there was no power of God. They had all the weapons needed for battle, but there was no God, no power, and they were defeated, exiled. The Kingdom of God, in a sense, was severely crippled because the people within Jerusalem had no strength. If Satan cannot keep God's people away from the Gospel, from the armor, we'll say, he will do whatever he can to keep them away from power through prayer. I know I say this every sermon, but I really feel that's a fear in Reformed circles. We got like eight swords sometimes, five belts, we're like commando. But we have no power to wield them. The one that comes to mind is in Acts 8, when you have the sons of Sceva, they've got all the right words. We know who Jesus is, and we know who Paul is. Who do you think you are? And then they were beat and ran out of town naked and ashamed. I was thinking, I don't have it in my notes, but I was reading the sermon by Lloyd-Jones. And he says this, that all the knowledge in the world accounts for nothing if we have no relationship with our God. A living, daily, moment-by-moment communion with God. What good is it if I can tell you what the belt of truth is, but if I can't use it in the heat of the battle? And I will forget to use that belt or that sword or that breastplate in the heat of battle. If I'm not already girding myself as it were with my mind state upon Christ. Why Jones is right. He's not against knowledge. You need knowledge, but knowledge in and of itself is not sufficient. This is eternal life. He quotes John 17, three to know. To know who Christ is, to know the Living God and the Messiah whom He has sent. And so I want to focus this morning on the necessity of prayer, or if you like titles, we'll call it wartime prayer. Like many Christians, Satan actually understands what Paul is saying in Ephesians 6. Satan understands what Paul is teaching us this morning about spiritual warfare. The premise, the principle of this sermon, of this passage, we could say simply this. All the armor in the world is not sufficient if we are powerless to use it effectively. Paul is telling us the strength by which believers both put on and put into practice the armor of God comes through prayer. He's basically saying what he said in verse 10. The language in the original is unbelievably reminiscent. Finally, be strong in the Lord. Be strengthened in the Lord. How are we strengthened in the Lord? By praying in the spirit. How are we filled in the spirit of chapter 518? It's identical in the Greek. We are filled in the spirit, which is equated to being strengthened in the Lord, which is equated to praying in the spirit. You can check that out after if you want. Talk with some of the Greek nerds who study with us on Thursdays. Hopefully they can show you, or at least fudge through it. 518, 610, 618. Look at the language. How are you filled in the Spirit? How are you strengthened in the Lord? By praying in the Spirit. It's very simple. Paul's repeating in verse 18 what he said in verse 10. It is through prayer that we become strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Prayer acknowledges that we are utterly dependent upon God, and thus we must realize that if we do not remain in constant contact and communion with Him, whatever we may have done by way of putting on the armor will avail us nothing. The illustration that comes to mind is Jake with his new truck. We were talking yesterday. So he bought a new, was it a fuel pump or water pump? new fuel pump, and he's lamenting that he spent 200 bucks, you know, they put it in and that wasn't a problem. And you know what it was? Frank found out what the problem was. It was a wire that wasn't connected. You have all the stuff in the world, you can have all the ingredients for that truck, but you need to have that connection, that communion, as it were, that link. And that's what Paul's saying. How are you strengthened in the Lord? We all want to do things, this and this and this. But being in communion with him, and how are you in communion with him? by prayer. We must ever maintain this essential, intimate relationship with God. Oh, that's my prayer, and has been my prayer all week. Now that you leave here flattered, or that you leave here with some pithy quotes that I'm going to give you from Spurgeon and Bunyan on prayer, I pray to God that you will realize how powerless you are, unless you are linked to God by faith through prayer. Oh, that we might realize this. I'm reading Lloyd-Jones on revival. He says all the church loves to do is plan and we like to hold campaigns and have fundraisers and those aren't bad. He says we never pray. We never seek God. We never knock. We never importunate. We seek revival on man's terms when God says, seek me. We must ever maintain this essential, intimate relationship with God. If we ever want to not only walk in a manner worthy of the calling to what you've been called, but also fight the good fight, wage the good warfare, we need an intimate communion with God through prayer. Please pray for me. This is my weakness. I could read books till the cows come home. Come into my... Kristen Julie came by last week. She's like, oh, it's like a library. I was like, yeah, that's right. All of my learning, all of my quoting, all of my Greek means nothing. That wire is not connected. There's no move of the Spirit. I always love how Spurgeon would come up when he's preaching and every time he would step up, he would say, I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe in the Holy Spirit. And I was thinking this morning, I need the Holy Spirit. Yes, I believe in him. I need him. I need him. I need him. Otherwise, I'm just wasting 45 minutes, 65 minutes of your time. Grammatically, this passage is nicely broken up into two halves. Okay, so I've gotten passionate, but I need to make sure that what I'm passionately saying has come from the text, and it does. Okay, so let me read verse 18. It's broken up into two sections. The first is this. Praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. That's our first half. Okay, in our first half, we've got a present participle praying with two alls. Praying at all times in the Spirit, And then the second, with all prayer and supplication. Praying all, all. Okay, that's the first point, or the first half of this message. The second half also has a present participle, and two alls. Literally it is, to that end, keeping alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. So you've got praying all, all, keeping alert all, all. Those are the two halves that we're going to look through in this text. Please note that by using the word all four times in this one verse, Paul is reminding us, he's emphatically showing us of the necessity and foundation of prayer to successful spiritual warfare. When are you to pray? At all times. How are you to pray? In every way. How are you to keep watch? Always in every way. Who are you to pray for? All the saints. Your life is to be a continual, perpetual relationship with God through prayer. Or in the language of 1 Thessalonians 5.17, pray without ceasing. And it's possible. It really is. I don't mean every second, but I mean in every instance we can be praying. Trust me, I'm praying right now as I'm preaching to you. Prayer must be, must be, not should be. Prayer must be the all-encompassing duty and privilege for us as Christians. Please don't sever those two. It's a duty, but it's a great privilege. The God who raised Christ from the dead bids us to come to him through Christ. Christ entered into the presence of God that we might enter into the presence of God. That's a great benefit of the atonement, not just your sins forgiven. Clinton Arnold, probably my favorite commentator in Ephesians, says this, prayer is the essence of spiritual warfare and the most important means by which believers are strengthened in God. I'm going to say that again, because if you're anything like me, you need this reminder. Prayer is the essence of spiritual warfare and the most important means by which believers are strengthened by God. Paul concludes his presentation of the armor by commending prayer. He gives it a lot more real estate. Even just look in the English Bible, Helmet of Salvation, Breastplate of Righteousness. He spends two verses on prayer. He's showing us that prayer is essential to fighting victoriously as valiant Christians in this battle. First point, literally, through all prayer and petition, praying in all times in the Spirit. Okay, I know it says it differently, but I'm just working from how I see it. So we might paraphrase that in light of verse 6. Stand therefore, having put on the armor, by prayer. How do you put on the armor? It's nothing magical or mystical. You're being tempted. God, help! Show me Christ! That's putting on the armor. It's not like, OK. It's just crying out, God, show me I have peace. Despite what Satan is saying, despite my falling, my sin, remind me, God, show me, open the eyes of my heart that I might know the gospel now. You put on the armor of God by praying. Unfortunately, to make our English Bibles a little more fluent, the order is reversed, and I think empties the power of what Paul is saying. So he says, stand therefore, verse 10, and verse 18 literally says this, through all prayer and supplication praying. Stand through all prayer and supplication praying. You stand through, not with prayer, you stand through prayer, you stand through supplication. Furthermore, we have in our English Bibles, with all prayer, but literally it's through all prayer. You stand through praying prayers. That is, prayer is not merely supplemental, it's not the seventh piece. Prayer is not supplemental to the armor of God, it is instrumental. It is the means by which the armor is actuated and appropriated. Prayer is the means by which the armor of God is energized and employed. It must not just be realized, it must be actuated. It must not just be employed, it must be energized. As MacArthur says, prayer, as it were, is woven through the very fabric of every piece of armor and, as it were, it strengthens or gives life to that armor. In the words of Puritan John Trapp, he says this, prayer is putting the promises into suit. In other words, you're taking the promises and you're asking God to say, okay, Romans 5.1, Romans 10.17, he's saying basically prayer is clothing the promises of God upon yourself. So he says here that we are strengthened through all prayer and supplication. What does all prayer mean? All prayer is in the singular, and you could translate it this way then, through every kind of prayer. Brothers and sisters, there's no one specific kind of prayer by which we can find strength in the Lord to put on the armor of God. There's all kinds of prayers. Throughout the panoply of scripture, we find therein the panoply of prayers offered up to God by his people. Whether it's the prayer of thanksgiving or supplication, in the prayer of confession or contrition, whether a prayer offered up in song or in silence, in tears or in joy. Whether a prayer of solitude, or a prayer offered up in public, put on the armor of God, praying all kinds of prayers. Long prayers, short prayers, inaudible prayers, pleading prayers, weeping prayers, joyful prayers, thanksgiving prayers, all kinds of prayers. Not just the ones in front of a mic, the ones in there, the ones you're praying in your heart right now. The ones that you can barely lisp out a syllable, pray those. Put on the armor with every kind of prayer. Spurgeon says this, as many are the flowers of summer, so many are the varieties of prayer. Beautiful tulips always listed first, beautiful roses, beautiful, all kinds of flowers, and they're all fragrant and lovely in the sight of God. Don't just limit yourself to supplication, but have times of intercession, times of thanksgiving, times of contrition, times of repentance. Maybe next week we need to have that in our service, a prayer of God, forgive us of our sin, a corporate prayer like Daniel 9. And we're going to see that these all kinds of prayers are linked to all kinds of seasons. God directs our lives. And so don't just have one kind of prayer, have all kinds of prayers as God leads you through life. But not only through all prayer, but through all supplication, or petition if you want to keep the peas going. The first Greek word, prosuche, is referring to prayer generally, all kinds of prayer. But Paul says that you must add to all kinds of prayer, all kinds of supplications. Just like he says exactly in Philippians 4.6. Do not be anxious for anything, but rather in everything with. Prayer and supplication, let your request be known to God. Exact same thing saying here. I want to say this, especially for the Wednesday prayer meeting people who come out. There's nothing unspiritual about being specific in prayer. It's not unspiritual to ask for specific things. We always have these vague, you know, undefinable big prayers. God, glorify yourself in me. God, give me a job. That's praying all supplication and it's not unspiritual. Think of your kids. I'm not impressed by their fancy language. Tell me what you want and I'd like to give it to you. I'm not going to rank it from one to ten if it's spiritual enough for me. Right? I was thinking of the song we're going to sing. God bids us to approach his throne. Make all my what? Wants and wishes known. Not some, not this. Make all your wants and wishes known. Since he bids you seek his face, believe his word and trust his grace. I'll cast on him my every care. That's what he's saying. All kinds of prayers filled with all kinds of petitions. This is something Uh, don't, don't take this as showing off, but I, I always lament how little time I pray. And by the time I'm done praying, I say, Oh God, there's so much to pray for. Why don't I pray for more? There's so much I can be praying for. I don't pray for all of you the way I should. And so pray that I would. When I was with the guys, I want to find out specific things I can pray for. Not just some vague, undefinable Lord bless Jake. Yes, bless him. But how? Offer up all kinds and every supplication. Be like a child and ask for specific things because you know your dad loves you and delights to meet all of your needs, not just the big ones. He delights to meet all of your needs. God, I'm lonely. Help. I couldn't say that on Wednesday. That sounds very carnal. It's not carnal. It's not carnal to ask. for things like a different job. It's not carnal to ask for a thing like a wife. It's not carnal to ask for healing. You have to want to focus on Christ and His glory. But Christ can be glorified and His kingdom expanded through those apparently carnal prayers. I just want to challenge you that. I sometimes feel that on Wednesdays. I'm just being, oh no, I can't ask for something too specific. I got to have those lofty prayers in Latin. That's not what impresses God. Ask. Ask Him for anything, as we're going to see, of accordance with God's rule, of course. But you know what I'm saying. Part of the Lord's prayer is not just, your kingdom come. Yes, that's the first. God, give me my daily bread. Don't let me fall into the wiles of Satan. Keep me from temptation and deliver me from it. Those are just as inspired. And they also roll off the lips of Jesus. It's not unspiritual to ask for your daily bread. All kinds. And if we actually began asking for all kinds of things, we would probably pray more. So often we feel that only the big issues are worth taking before God, who for some reason is too busy or disinterested in our small and petty affairs. He's not. It comes to mind in Paul Miller's book, A Praying Life. I love it. He gives the illustration of his little girl who loses a contact and she's having a moment, which I'm sure I'll be acquainted with when my girls get older. He prayed for it. No, no. You need to pray for the salvation of the world, Dad. Who cares about my stupid contact lens? We'll just buy another one. Let's pray to God. Doesn't he say that we can pray with all kinds of prayer? This is something we need. And they found it, and God was honored. I don't find that unspiritual. Piper gives the analogy of prayer to being a wartime walkie-talkie. I like that. If you read it in his book, Don't Waste Your Life, he says, so often we relegate prayer to some kind of an intercom. God, I need this. But he says that when we realize we're in battle, it's like those people on the ground who are crying out, I need ammo! That's very vague. You've got to be specific. I need some bazookas. I'm not a war expert, but I'm just imagining. I need some these kinds of bullets, this kind. Be specific. David, not just some nebulous prayer that sounds lofty. Be specific. God, I'm being tempted. Help! Help! Ask Him! God, I'm struggling with lust. Help! Not, let your will be done. His will is that you cry out for help in that temptation. So we're to pray with or through literally all kinds of prayer with all kinds of supplication or every supplication is a good translation, not just some, but every supplication. And then we come to the parts of all praying, praying at all times, praying at all times corresponds to praying with all kinds of prayer. That is certain kinds of prayer are more fitting for certain times of seasons. That's the Greek word Kairos, not Kronos, which is time seconds. OK, certain kinds of prayers are more fitting. Are you being tempted? It's not a time to give Thanksgiving. It's a time to cry out for help. Has God just blessed you? Cry out with thanksgiving. That's what we have in our order of service. There should be a time of worship through a prayer of thanksgiving. Or, in the words of Solomon, he says there's a kairos in the LXX, a season for everything. He says that right at the beginning, chapter 3, verse 1 of Ecclesiastes. There's a time, there's a season for everything. Likewise, there's a prayer for everything. So we should be arming ourselves with all kinds of prayers for all kinds of seasons. James 5 says this. Is anyone among you suffering? Let him give Thanksgiving. This is let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? He doesn't say let him intercede. He says, let him give thanks. Is anyone among you sick? He doesn't say repent. He says, let him call for the elders and they will pray over him. So we're to pray all times, no matter what happens, good or bad. We're to pray at all times. Paul or Paul, Psalm 50, 15. I thought this was good in the day of trouble. We are to call upon God for deliverance. Don't get all pious and start getting. I need help. Deliver me. Read the Psalms. I love David's earthiness. It rebukes all of us and our Gnosticism. David's an earthly guy, and he definitely needs to be delivered now. He doesn't get pious. He just says what he needs. Think of the illustration. I didn't get much sleep, so there's going to be a lot of this this morning, probably. When Charles Swindoll was preaching through the Lord's Prayer, and he was talking about it at a prayer meeting, and there was probably a pastor, most likely a pastor, who was using all this lofty and eloquent and grandiose language, and all these awesome adjectives for the supremacy of God, and he was just waxing eloquent. A little old lady said, why don't you call him father and ask what you really want? There's something to be said about that. Who's being more spiritual? Elisha, who's waxing eloquent and showing off her vocabulary, or Abby, in the need of her moment, crying out for her daddy for help. I hope this humbles me immensely as to what is an effectual prayer of a righteous person. In the day of trouble, cry out for deliverance. If we don't, God won't deliver you, and God won't be glorified through that deliverance. Listener, when you are being assaulted with doubts, pray. When Satan is hurling his flaming arrows of lust at you, pray, don't read, pray, don't do anything else, pray. When you are being tempted to bitterness and unforgiveness, pray. When you're struggling with thoughts of arrogance and pride, pray. When you're having a pity party, pray. Beloved, when you are needing anything at any time, pray. And keep praying, as the present tense of the participle says. The sermon that I would encourage you to read, and I'm not going to quote it, but I remember reading this a couple of years ago from John MacArthur on this passage. He says we need to cultivate this perpetual presence with the Lord, this intimate communion that is never ceasing. That's exactly what he's saying. If you're in this direct communion, you will pray at all times for everything. The same word, as I said, for time, Kairos is used in Ephesians 5, 16, where he says, make the best use of your time or of your opportunities. God is on his throne. And Psalm 139 says all things are happening according to a sovereign decree. So God sends something into your life. He sends you into a season. Redeem that season. How? By praying. Okay, there's other ways, but I think, maybe I'm reading wrong in some of the commentators, but the best way you are to redeem, buy back, make the best use of that kairos, that time, that season, is to pray. Dear listener, when God, in his sovereign providence, places you in a specific season, redeem that season by praying. Some of you are depressed. Redeem that time by crying out to God. that he would help you through that. Some of you are going through all kinds of things. Redeem the time by praying to God first and foremost. But we're not just to pray at all times. He says that be strengthened in the Lord through all prayer and supplication, praying always. But that's not what he says. He says, praying always in the spirit. What in the world does that mean? You could say, well, I don't know. It says it in Jude 20. That still doesn't help. What does Jude mean by praying in the spirit? I'm going to ask you to be a little patient with me as I unpack what this is, because I think this is the most important part of the message. Because if you're praying with all kinds of prayers and all kinds of seasons, and you're just praying, but you're not praying in the spirit, you're just like Jake's truck. You're not connected. We must pray in the Spirit. Okay? I want to tell you, first of all, this is not praying in tongues. I don't know. Gordon Feeley, I love him as a scholar. I have no idea where he got that from. He linked it to Romans 8, 26, which is not talking about tongues either. And then maybe 1 Corinthians. Paul's not talking about tongues here. He could have easily said that. So praying in the Spirit is not praying in tongues. But that's not enough. It's not enough to not know, what does it mean? What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? And so what we need to do is say, how does Paul use this in Ephesians and elsewhere? This is just what good theology is. It's taking Paul and then slowly working out to say, how does Paul talk about prayer in and by and through the Spirit? The first one we look at, go to Ephesians 2.18. The Greek's identical. En-to-nu-mati. I can do that now. That's one of the reasons of having the Greek study. It's because there's 7 or 8 guys in the church now that I can get away with trying to show off. You thought I was doing it so you guys could be better preachers. It's not. Verse 18. For through Christ, we both have access in one spirit. It's the exact same phraseology. For through Christ, we both, Jew and Gentile, we both have access in one Spirit to who? To the Father. So let me say what praying in the Spirit is in light of Ephesians 2.18. Prayer in the Spirit reaches the ear of God for it goes through Christ. We are robustly Trinitarian. Whereas prayer that is not in the Spirit Neither reaches the ear of God nor goes through Christ or you could say does not reach the ear of God because it does not go through Christ First of all therefore praying in the spirit means listen Seeking claiming and making use of our access to God through Christ. It's exactly what he says later on For in Christ, we have boldness and access to the Father through our faith in Jesus. I So what does it mean to pray in the spirit? It means to realize that God is my father and I can come to him as my father through the spirit or in the spirit through Christ. OK. Which leads to the second prayer in the spirit is inseparably yoked to a deep awareness of the fatherhood of God. Notice how Paul prays in chapter three. And for this reason, I bow my knees before not just God, Romans 8, 16, it's through the Spirit we cry out what? Abba. What does that mean? Please don't say Daddy or I'll laugh at you. It means Father. The Pentecostals love to say Papa and Daddy. It just irks me because that's not what it means. It's Father, which is an intimate. Galatians 4.6, we who have received the Spirit, we can come to God as our Father. Ephesians 1, it comes to mind, that through Christ we have been adopted as sons. And we are sons of who? Sons of our Father who is in Heaven. And that's the Spirit's work. The Spirit takes us and He unites us in Christ and gives us access to the Father. That's what it means to pray in the Spirit. It's not falling on the ground or flopping around or speaking in a different language. It's having this deep awareness. God is my Father and my Father cares for me. I will go to Him. I know He accepts me. Why? Because of Christ. That's what it means to pray in the Spirit. Christ-centered. Come into your Father. We can come to our Father with freedom and reverent familiarity because of the Spirit. Third, in relation, praying in the spirit is inseparable from praying according to the word of God, or we could say the will of God. Okay, so I go back to Ephesians 5, don't turn there, but he says, take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So he links spirit and word. Very next verse he links spirit and prayer. And we've seen this a whole bunch of times when I preach through Ephesians 5.18. To be filled with the Spirit requires to be filled with the message of Christ, Colossians 3.16. So to pray in the Spirit is to come to the Father through Christ. It's to have this intimate relationship with God as our Father. But thirdly, it means also praying in accordance with the will of God, which is delineated for us in the Word of God. means this, making your own prayers consistent with the mind and will of the Spirit. It's exactly how he ends 1 Corinthians 2. The Spirit reveals to us all the deep things of God, and then he says at the very end, and we have the mind of Christ. So through the Spirit, taking his word that he's inspired, we're able to pray in a manner that is worthy and consistent with who we are as God's children. This is what he does in Romans 8, 26 and 27. When you're going through especially persecution or suffering, Romans 8, 18 and following, the spirit intercedes for us. When we pray in the spirit, he intercedes for us with groanings which are too deep to even be uttered according to the will of God. That's how we pray in the spirit. How do you pray in concert with the Spirit? By being filled with the Spirit which requires being filled with the Gospel of Christ. Praying in the Spirit is this, allowing God's Word to infuse every part of your being. That's how the Holy Spirit harmonizes your will and prayers with God's will. Okay, so praying in the Spirit. is understanding that we come to God through Christ in the Spirit. The Spirit is the one who allows us to say that God is our Father. But praying in the Spirit is not apart from the Word of God. Praying in tongues could be completely unbiblical. I've heard of stories where a guy's praying in tongues and a guy came and he's like, actually, he's cursing God. Praying in the Spirit means praying in accordance with God's Word. Or as Spurgeon says, praying in the Spirit takes God's Word and it inverts it back up to God. Fourth, and this is my last point of what it means to pray in the spirit. I know you're getting sleepy. That's okay. You have to wait till it warms up so you can drive home safely. Prayer in the spirit is prayer that the spirit empowers and directs. This is from Michael Haken, my principal, when I went to seminary. He wrote this in his book called The Empire of the Holy Spirit, and I thought this was excellent. He says this, for most of us, regular, private prayer is the most difficult aspect of our lives as Christians. I check that. I can read, you give me 20 chapters to read, I'll read it. You want me to read Institutes? I'll read it. You want me to read Edwards? I'll grunt through it. Ask me to pray for five hours. That's tough. I need the Spirit to enable me. Are you struggling with prayer? You need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You need to be empowered to do what is contrary to your old nature. You need to have the Spirit renew your minds, Ephesians 4.23. He says this, the reason why we struggle in prayer is simply that our fallen nature is actually allergic to God and never wants to get too close to Him. Thus our fallen nature constantly pulls away from prayer. Specifically, prayer reveals the believer's innate poverty as well as his dependence upon another, capital A. You know what you're doing when you're praying? You're confessing to God you're needy. You know why we don't pray? Because the old man doesn't like to confess that he's needy. You know why people go to hell? Because they don't want to bow their knee to Jesus Christ. They might know He's the Savior of the world, but they will not confess that Jesus is Lord. That's what prayer is, confessing. I'm a worm. You are Lord. I can do nothing in You. I can do all things. I can do nothing apart from You, Christ. Abiding in you I can bear much fruit. That's why we don't want to pray. Yes, we're lazy and slothful and busy doing everything but I think underneath all of that is we just don't want to confess that and that needs to be killed by the spirit Romans 8 13 Prayer reveals the believers innate poverty as well as his dependence upon another More than anything else prayer makes us conscious of our limitations and weaknesses. When do you cry out the most? I Noni, when did you pray the most? When things were going well? No, when you were in impossible circumstances that only God could get you out of. Prayer reminds us of that. That's why we don't like to pray. And so in God's grace, you're to count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various kinds of trials. James 1, linking it with prayer. Naturally, we tend to shy away from this revelation. So it is that we need, need, We need the Holy Spirit's empowerment in prayer, both to pray and to persevere. John Owen says this left to ourselves, we are adverse from any converse and intercourse with God, as there is a secret alienation working in us from all duties and immediate communion with God. We need we don't just pray. We need the spirit to pray, to really pray. How many times I've prayed and not prayed. In other words, it is the spirit who stirs up believers to pray. If he did not, the remnants of our sinful nature would keep us from communing with God. Hence, the Puritans love to cry out for the spirit of grace and supplications, Zechariah 12, 10. A time is coming when God will pour out a spirit of grace and in his grace, he will cause his people to pray. This is part of the application. We're going to have a prayer week, not this week, but the week after. I haven't talked with anyone, but I really want to focus on revival. God, pour down your spirit. Otherwise, nothing happens. Let me summarize all those four points in one nicely packaged paragraph. For you who fell asleep, you can get it in 30 seconds. Thus, praying in the Holy Spirit means nothing less than to experience true prayer as we are brought by the Holy Spirit into the presence of God, our father, to hear his voice, address us through the spirit of his son, and to boldly and reverently converse with God in accordance with his revealed character and will as seen in the Bible. You just have to listen to that if you want to write it down. Are you praying in the spirit? I don't have any secrets other than God. Give me the spirit. God, enable me to pray in the spirit. That's a good request, by the way. You don't need to get too lofty. I need this, God. My prayer life is dead. My prayer life is so empty and powerless. It's bankrupt. It's nonexistent. God, thank you for this sermon. Thank you for your word. Give me the prayer of the spirit of grace and supplication even now. Are you praying that? I hope so. So that's our first section. I promise it speeds up significantly. So the first is our possible praying with our two walls through all prayer and supplication. Praying at all times. Now let's move to our second point, or the second half of the verse. Keeping alert with all perseverance and making supplication for all the saints. So the verb is keeping alert. And it's a conjunctive participle, which means you can't pray unless you're keeping alert. Okay, fancy language. How do you keep praying? By keeping alert. Why do you not pray? Because you're not keeping alert. Because prayer is so essential and important for the Christian battle. No Satan knows this Right member two birds with one stone He's thinking six armaments with one stone if I can get that believer to stop praying all six pieces of armor are useless So he knows this Because prayer is so essential and foundational and important for us as Christians in battle, we must be diligent to maintain a constant communion with our God. Because the Christian is powerless without prayer, we must be vigilant in our efforts to make praying in the Spirit the most important thing we do. So Paul says to this end, to what end? To praying always in the Spirit. So to make sure you're always praying in the Spirit, stay awake. Keep alert. Don't get groggy. This is exactly what Jesus taught in Mark 14.38. You can go there after, but it's when He goes into Gethsemane, He takes the three with Him, and He says, Oh, the hour is upon Me. And He falls down headlong, and He prays three times, and even one of them sweating as there were drops of blood. And He gives them a three-fold commandment. to watch, to keep alert. Why? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. And each of the three times he comes back and he finds the disciples not praying, but sleeping. It's easy to throw rocks and point fingers, but I confess that's me. Ryan, you're in a spiritual war. You have unsaved family members and neighbors who are unsaved. You're one of the shepherds of this church that Satan is bombarding. Pray! And Satan is doing everything he can to give me melatonin, spiritually, to make me groggy and fall asleep. You can't put the armor on, or you can't even use it if you're sleeping. That's the Lazarus sitting here, front row. He's got his whole armor on. He's sleeping. Then he just tiptoes around him, robs the house. It's like the Americans at Pearl Harbor. They were a massive superpower. They fell asleep. They saw on the radar that there were planes coming. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands. All of a sudden, the enemy comes upon them like an armed robber. Daniel McIntyre, this is a good book, I think it's free maybe now on Kindle. It's called The Hidden Life of Prayer. And he says this, just as the king of Syria commanded his captains to fight neither with small nor great, you remember the story, kill Ahab only, but only with the king of Israel, so the prince of the power of the air seems to bend all the force of his attack against the spirit of prayer. If he should prove victorious there, he has won the day. So how can Satan get Christians to stop praying? By getting them to stop being sober-minded. Alert. Awake. He will dull you through the world. YouTube's not bad. No. But if you're not alert, soon you're watching all kinds of garbage. Entertainment's not bad. It's not bad, but if it dulls your senses, It can come very dangerous. We're basically sleeping in the light, Keith Green says. And because we're sleeping, we're not praying. And the present tense shows us the necessity of keeping alert is a continuous struggle. You have to fight to stay awake. You're like me when I drive. Once I get past Tabor on a long drive, like it looks like I'm just having like just fits, like slapping myself in the face, opening up the window, Like seriously, I got to fight to stay awake. Why? Because if I fall asleep, I die. Same thing happens here spiritually. You got to fight, you know, fight to stay awake. It's a struggle. You can't be like the slumbering watchman on the tower who's awake for part of the night and then when he falls asleep, all the crooks sneak in and they siege the city. No, we must be the watchman in Psalm 130 that is awake the entire night and we're waiting and we're watching for the Lord. We're commuting with the Lord. When everyone else is sleeping, we're commuting with the Lord. More than the watchman waits for the morning. More than the watchman waits for the morning, the psalmist says. As Andrew Bonner once said, Horatius Bonner's brother, he says this, I see that unless I keep up short prayer every day throughout the whole day at intervals, I lose the spirit of prayer. You've got to fight to stay awake, to pray and maintain the spirit of prayer. Some of us don't even have that spirit of prayer. And I want to encourage you, stay awake. I want to encourage you, start praying if you're not praying. So the first thing he says in the second half of the verse is to that end or to the end of praying at all times, stay awake, keep alert at all times with all perseverance. I don't need to get into it. The word perseverance means you got to persevere. OK, the second half, he says this making supplication for all the saints. In closing with this point, I want to remind you that this battle is not a maverick battle. You're not Iron Man or Thor or whoever the cool guy is fighting all the enemies by yourself. That is not the picture of the Christian fight. You're in a corporate battle. Satan is fighting against the church, not just you. This is what Paul has done. Sometimes we're so weak to put on our armor, we need others to put it on for us. It's like if you got kids. Come on kids, get your stuff on, we gotta go to church. And they got their pants on their arms, or they're backwards, they just don't know what they're doing. So what does the parent do? The stronger parent helps the kid put on his clothes, or his armor we'll say. That's exactly how we should be living as a church. I'm having a bad week, you come alongside and you pray for me. You're having a bad week? May those of us who are strong pray for you. Are you in a community group? You just come to church on Sunday, know nobody, go home and live in isolation. You're in a very precarious and dangerous situation, Christian. I'm not trying to up the numbers for community group. We're trying to be biblical here. I mean it. You are in a very precarious situation if you are neglecting fellowship from other brothers and sisters in Christ who know nothing about you or your struggles. How can they pray for you if they don't know you? You want to go home and watch a movie? Fine. But understand how important this is for the Christian faith. And understand this, in your selfishness, when Satan cripples you, you cripple the church. First Corinthians 12, we're a body. If I start hurting big time because I don't care about anyone else, that's OK. I'm just hurting myself. Oh, no, you're not selfish, Ryan. I'm hurting Lazar and Mark and Marvin and every single one of you. So you need to pray for me, for your own good and for the good of others. As each member works together, Ephesians 416, the body grows, but as each member begins to isolate, the body deteriorates and crumbles. This is what Paul does. Chapter one, he doesn't pray for himself. He prays for others. He prays for those who aren't as strong in chapter one and chapter three. They might not even know how to pray for each other. Mature Christians, are you praying for new converts? Are you getting into the life of neophyte Christians and asking how you can pray for them? I hope so. We who are strong, Paul says, I think in Romans 15, we need to bear the burdens, the infirmities of the weak. This is what David needed. Of course, I'm reading 2 Samuel. He was too weak near the end of his life to go and fight against the Philistines. And they saw that David was weak. And you know what happened? Abishai. God, I love those sons of Zaria. He comes alongside and he destroys the Philistine giant. Why? Because David wasn't strong enough to. There are people in this church who are struggling with all kinds of things. They are not able to fight by themselves. Why do we live isolated Christian lives? Satan knows that. I want to encourage you to make it a habit to get into some kind of fellowship, whether community group, maybe the ladies study where you can open up and say I'm struggling here. Maybe the prayer meeting. You got to get to know some Christians. Know them. Not just shake their hand and say, what's up, buddy? It wasn't in my notes, but I prayed that God would speak this morning as he saw fit. I hope that's encouraging or rebuking or both to some people here who don't think it's important to be part of this church or a church as we fight together. Are you praying for all the saints? Maybe you can't pray for all the saints, but you should start praying for some. Husbands, are you praying for your wives? The beauty of being a pastor is I was convicted I needed to start praying more for Christina during the day. God help her. I know how this world loves to belittle mums who stay at home. That her significance needs to be in her figure, how much she weighs, how smart her kids are, the grades her kids are getting. If you're in the church, how many verses the kids know. The world's trying to tell my wife all these things are what makes someone important. Oh God, clothe her, give her the helmet of salvation. I was praying this for you this Sunday. I really was. God, show my wife, show her her beauty is in Christ. Husbands, are you praying that for your wives? Wives, are you praying for your husbands at work as they're bombarded with all these images? Are you praying for your husbands? You praying for your husbands, your kids? Praying for all the saints. I want to encourage you to write down somebody, find someone out, email me, email somebody and ask for prayer and then you pray for that person. So me and Jake and Henry and Chance got together yesterday and we did this. I said, Jake, I'm praying for you every morning. Jake was, I forgot who was praying for each. I'm praying for Jake. And I want Jake to know that. We can't pray for every single saint, but as a church we can. No one should be unprayed for in this church. Let me, in passing, give you another consequent blessing of praying for others, of considering others more important than yourself. So often, I remember Matt at a prayer meeting said, it's hard, we're just so consumed with ourselves, praying for ourselves, always ourselves, ourselves, ourselves. Martin Lloyd-Jones says this. Before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War there were psychological clinics with large numbers of neurotics undergoing drug treatment and other Attending regularly for psychoanalysis and such like he's just super smart and he's a doctor. Don't worry about that yet. There's messed up They had their personal problems their worries their anxieties their temptation having to go back week after week month after month to the clinics Then came the Civil War And one of the first and most striking effects of that war was that it virtually emptied the psychological and psychiatric clinics. These neurotic people were suddenly cured by a greater anxiety. The anxiety about their whole position, whether their homes would still be there, whether their husbands would be alive, whether their kids would be killed. See what the problem was? They were so busy thinking about themselves that they dug themselves into a pit. Yes, pray for yourself, but pray for others. It's freeing, it's liberating. Praying for others is one of the ways that God crucifies your selfishness. Do you want to be a spiritually healthy person? Then lose yourself in the things that matter, especially in the things of others. Lose yourself in consuming prayer for the kingdom of God. that you wouldn't be troubled by lesser anxieties. Lloyd-Jones says this, is when we get down on our knees and pray for others, that you will soon get up finding you have forgotten yourself. You will find that in praying for them, you are solving your own problems and obtaining release. It's a story Harry told me of the woman Lloyd-Jones was counseling. He said, let's pray about this. And so she prayed. And right after she prayed, he said, stop praying. Because her prayer was continually reinforcing her unbelief. It was focusing on herself and her selfish inclination, and it was all about her. And Lord John says, stop praying about that! Maybe we should begin praying for others. It's very freeing. Let me conclude. It's been a long, yelly sermon. I told Kathy to try not to yell. She has a headache again. Let's pray for her. She's been having crippling headaches for a month. So we'll pray for you after. Some of you should pray now. Conclusion. Christina gave me this illustration last night. I told her I'm not good with illustrations and she helped. And since she's an American, the first thing she thought of was the Civil War. And she talked about how the Civil War was ultimately won. I remember we borrowed some DVDs from Mark and Sharon. We were watching this with Lincoln, and he was in real dire straits. And it wasn't through arming himself with more artillery and more men. Yes, they had all those things, but you know what won the war for the Yanks? The telegraph. Morse code. It wasn't so much a whole bunch of armaments, but rather a communication. The soldiers could communicate, as it were, with their commander. And I thought, you nailed it, honey. That's exactly what we need as a church. Yes, theology is great. But I think this church needs more than theology now. I think we need to move on, you know what I mean, not move on, but I think we need to actually understand that our lack of power is not through armament deficiencies, but rather through a communication deficiency. And we're not just talking with good old Abe, we're talking with the king of the universe who says, seek my face and I will be found. I will give you everything you need for life and godliness. Pray with faith and I will give you grace to get through that temptation, that trial. Pray and I will cause that word in 2 Thessalonians 3 to go ahead, to speed forth readily and be glorified. Pray, seek me in the day of trouble and I will be found. I will deliver you and you will glorify me. The problem is that we have a broken wire, as it were, that needs to be restored. That's what they began to do in the Civil War. They realized what they were doing. They began to cut down all the towers or the wires. Satan's doing that in your life. He understands all the power that is yours as you appropriate it in Christ through prayer. Don't be surprised if you don't pray much this week or if you're tempted to not pray much this week. If you don't pray much, all those other temptations open a floodgate. I'll say this. When I'm in more constant, intimate communion with my God, sin loses its appeal. Remember when I said, how can you look at porn when you're looking at Christ? That's high and lofty. Most of us aren't looking at Christ. That's great to put on a bumper sticker. Look at Christ on your face. And then porn loses all of its lure and all of its lies. John Bunyan said this, you can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you've prayed. First thing you should do every day is pray. You can do lots more after prayer. Prayer is not the only thing. But if you don't do prayer, nothing else matters. You can quote to me as much creeds, you can quote to me Calvin all you want. Satan laughs at that. Spurgeon says this, if you should ask me for the epitome of Christian religion, this is the prince of preachers, I should say it is in that one word, prayer. Spurgeon says this, neglect of private prayer is the locust which devours the strength of the church. McShane says this, I'm just quoting all of my heroes, they're all men of prayer. In Lloyd-Jones' biography, his wife said, yes, he was an awesome preacher and he's brilliant, but no one remembers that he was first a man of prayer and second an evangelist. McShane says this, a man is and no more than what he is on his knees. If I don't pray, who cares if I know Greek and Hebrew? Luther says this, I have so much to do today that I shall never get through it with less than three hours of prayer. Finally, John Bunyan, when he lied a dying in August of 1688, verbalized a whole bunch of pithy quotes that they actually took down and published. And one of the last things he ever said was this, the spirit of prayer is more precious than treasures of gold and silver. That's a dying man's final thoughts. If this is so, let me ask you this morning, dear listener, what is the place that prayer has in your life? I want to encourage you to pray five minutes more a day than what you did last week. And then I want you to increase it. It's not that much. Another quote from this person that comes to mind, he says, many hours with the face of man, how many with the face of your maker? McShane, as I've quoted many times, said before I seek the face of man, let me see the face of my father. I encourage you to pray. Come out on prayer week if you can. Come out on Wednesdays if you can. Yes, it's an hour. But every action strengthens the habit for good or for ill. I want you to find someone to pray for. Whether it's your husband or your wife. What we're going to do next week, it came to my mind, is we're going to put a little bag. It's not going to be money. You're going to put your name on it. And then we're going to give it around and someone's going to pick it out. And your name and your email or your text is going to be there. And then you can contact each other and begin praying for each other. But that's for next week, because I forgot. Okay? Where is prayer in your life? This church... This church is growing. But we need to be a church of prayer. Father, I ask... God, I ask, help us. Father, please, don't let me... fake emotions now, but speak to us by your Spirit. Teach us what it means to pray in the Spirit, O God. Help us to know what it means to seek your face, to speak with you the way Moses did as a friend, face to face. Help us to recapture that intimate relationship we had with Christ, love we had at the beginning. Oh, Father, if there's anything that is inhibiting or impeding this, help us to cast it away, whether it's bad or even good. Help us to lay aside every weight, every snare, every sin which clings so closely, which keeps us from praying. God, that's my prayer. I don't want us to be a whole bunch of smart, reformed people. That's great, but ultimately, Lord, I want us to be a church that has known for one that is always praying in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. And to that end, keeping alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. Oh God, would you make us a church like that? Would you send down your Spirit? Mercy drops round us are falling. Oh Lord, we want more than that. We want a torrent. Help us, O God, we pray. Convert the lost, even in the midst this morning. Not through a man, but through the gospel and the power of the Spirit. God, work. Please don't snuff out your lampstand from this church, we pray in Jesus' name.