As we one more time take up our consideration of the full armor of God. Wouldn't it be helpful if I know how to use this? All right. Okay, good. Let's go toward God in prayer, shall we? We're glad, Father, that as we sit together this evening on your day, the day of your son's resurrection, how much you desire that we would come before you as a people and to take up this important theme of all prayer. We thank you for the numerous encouragements that we have in the Word of God to come near to you in prayer. May these words from your scriptures be an encouragement to each of us, O Lord, in exercising the tremendous privilege that we have in prayer. We ask this in our Savior Jesus' name. Amen. So let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 6 beginning at verse 10. One more time. 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. And 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 may extinguish, 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." So we're going to focus on that last verse on the screen, verse 18, this evening. Remember as well what Paul wrote to the Corinthians from 2 Corinthians 10, beginning at verse 4. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. It seems to be a picture of the spiritual warfare, isn't it? Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The Ephesian church knew something of this at a kind of in-your-face sort of level. If we were to take a moment and read through Acts chapter 19, you'd recall that there was issues dealing with demon possession at that place. There was witchcraft, there was sorcery, to the point where those that had repented piled up something of 10,000 silver pieces worth of those dark arts. And so they were very aware of what the spiritual warfare was about. So Paul focuses on the Roman foot soldiers' battle armor as a metaphor for the Christians' armor for protection and progress in spiritual warfare. He exhorted the Ephesians, the Ephesian believers, to put on the whole armor of God, as we just read, that we may win in the hand-to-hand onslaught of spiritual forces in this unseen conflict. And so by way of review, we've already looked at the Belt of Truth, that Apron of Truth, the Breastplate of Righteousness, the Gospel Shoes that we had seen previously, the Shield of Faith, the Helmet of Salvation, all of which are primarily defensive weapons. We also considered the Sword of the Spirit. as well, the word of God, which is the offensive weapon. And so now we've come to our final weapon in God's armory. And I didn't know whether I would have a picture for this weapon or not, but the best I could come up with was the, which is a trumpet that's used for primarily for parade marches. And yet the analogy is still fitting, I think you'll see that. No spiritual soldier would be found without his sword, but it's also true that he doesn't execute the battle by himself. The horn that I've pictured for you falls short of one likely used in a battle situation, but I hope you get the idea. Horns are used for signaling to the regiment any number of commands in the battle space. Our modern day soldiers are equipped with tactical headgear that I've pictured here for their vehicles, and their vehicles are also equipped with displays that connect them to all the other assets in the battle space. In short, this connectivity that we have here is what prayer is to every spiritual warrior. No, we don't hear the voice of God audibly as a select few did under the Old Covenant. Instead, we have the very mind of God in His Word revealed. wherein dwelt by His Spirit to illuminate our minds, to sensitize our consciences, and to assist us in our communion with God, and promised full and open access to Him in prayer. And so this is what we'll be looking at this evening. From Ephesians 2, verse 18, through Him, through Christ, we have both access in one Spirit to the Father. from Romans chapter 5 and verse 2. Remember what Paul says, through Christ. we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So the outline that you have before you will trace out this evening the elements of verse 18 in chapter 6, which has been provided by Pastor Mitch who opened this passage up to us back in August of 2009. So now let's go ahead and focus then on chapter, I'm sorry, verse 18 of chapter 6. Praying at all times in this spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end alert with all perseverance in making supplication for all the saints. So, Roman numeral one on your outline, first consider with me the variety of warfare prayer, the variety of warfare prayer. There are two key terms that are mentioned, A, on your outline, that are here concerning prayer. First, number one underneath that, the general term for prayer. Now, it's an old Greek term that simply means communication with the deities. One has written, it is the comprehensive word for prayer to the God of heaven and is the vehicle of believers to address their Heavenly Father in the name of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Consider with me going back to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 6, on the Sermon on the Mount, where our Lord taught about this subject of prayer that we considered in the past year. Verse 5 of Matthew, chapter 6. And when you pray, not if you pray, but when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners that they may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do. for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this, and so goes our Lord's prayer. So the general word for prayer we see throughout this passage. It's the common word for prayer frequently used as well by Paul in the book of Ephesians and other epistles as well. Secondly, under Part A is the specific word for petition. And we see this word that's used in 1 Timothy 2, beginning of that chapter, 1 Timothy 2, beginning at verse 1. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, deesis, which is the Greek word, prayers, which is the same word that we saw used in Matthew 5, or Matthew 6. Intercessions and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings, for all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceable and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. Now, if you drop down to verse 8 of that paragraph, I desire that in every place the men should pray, again the general word for prayer, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling. Another place where this more specific term is used is in Philippians chapter four and verse six. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer, which is the common term, and supplication, this specific term here, with thanksgiving, Let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. St. Clair Ferguson comments, To pray with all prayer and supplication may simply mean to offer prayers of all kinds, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and intercession, always made in the spirit of a servant approaching his or her master as a subject coming with his or her petitions to the great King. So prayer of this order is the expression of a full and disciplined life of communion with God. Let's consider some practical lessons here under Roman numeral one. First, we need to aim higher in our prayers than a grocery list. Now this morning, from this morning's message, we heard quite a bit about selfishness, didn't we? And we can't approach our prayer life and our relationship with God in that same spirit of selfishness. But we need to focus on kingdom concerns. And Paul is a good example for us in the book of Ephesians. If you were to turn to Ephesians chapter 1, consider how Paul opens up this epistle. He begins with words of blessing our triune God. From verse 3 of chapter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. He continues on with a brief summary of the Trinitarian plan of salvation through chapter 1. that began before time. And then he goes on and he breaks into prayer later on in that chapter. God absolutely wants us to come with our concerns, our cares. It's right on the surface of the text when you look at Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6. But also to come in a spirit of thanksgiving and confession and adoration, as we see Paul exemplified here. Now, if you're in Ephesians 1, drop down to verse 15. Consider Paul's prayer here. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you I lost my place. May give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he calls you. what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his great might which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand of the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he has put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." If you would turn over to chapter 3, again Paul prays. For this reason, beginning at verse 14 of chapter 3, for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant to you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." You see how Paul's prayer life here is certainly informed by his theology, his understanding of God. It makes you think of Paragraph 1 of Chapter 2 of the Confession as Mike opened up to us this morning, doesn't it? When we think of the attributes of God, the person of God, the triune God, those three persons in the Godhead. And you can see that all exemplified for us in Chapter 1 in Paul's prayer. And then we consider the end of this, the benediction which Pastor Steve opened up to our understanding last Lord's Day evening. Verse 20, now to him who is able to do more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen. So there should be a discernible distinction in our prayers. We have that general term for prayer. We have the term for making petition or intercession on the behalf of others. And all those are certainly appropriate. You have the prayer and the petition in 1 Timothy 2, we see those, that listing out of supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving. So four different terms are used there in the Philippians 4 passage. Or the First Sympathy passage, and again in Philippians 4. We see everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be made known to God. So four different terms here. And certainly there's going to be an overlap of meaning and application in some of those. So how will the various kinds of prayer assist me in a fight against the flesh that is not of flesh and blood? Well, confession. Is there an awareness that we just, that recently read, the God who sees all in secret from Matthew chapter 6. Is there an awareness of God knowing you? Our brother Bob mentioned in Sunday school this morning something to the effect that we don't know ourselves because of how deception, how deceitful our hearts are. And we need God to inform us about what really is in our hearts. Does that reality enter into your prayer life and to mine? Keeping short accounts and even clearing those accounts with our Holy Heavenly Father. Is there adoration as we can see expressed in Ephesians chapter 1? And of course that spills over into Paul's benediction in chapter 3 beginning of verse 20. The God that I petition in a day of trouble. Do I have a relationship of love with him? Is there an awareness of that? Supplication. Do we give some thoughtful consideration to the needs of our brothers and our sisters as we bring their concerns before the throne of grace? Are there going to be promises that would apply? that I could build my argument around as I go before God in prayer. Is there a spirit of thanksgiving as I go before God for the multitude of blessings that we've had? And you can see a lot of these elements here are going to spill out into our Wednesday night prayer meeting, aren't they? as we have a season of giving thanks and praise, to let your requests be made known to God, but out of the heart of Christian contentment and thankfulness. And then the word for intercession, or am I just focusing on what I want? Am I just focusing on, okay, me, me, me, me, me, me, all that we heard about this morning? Is our prayer life more like that than it is about concerns of the people of God and the kingdom of God? Is there awareness that people are praying for me? If my prayer life was the same as everybody in the church, where would we be spiritually? Or are we really praying for one another as we ought to be? So, when we've listed out those four areas, we'll go back and review that. Confession, adoration, supplication, thanksgiving, intercession. Can you identify areas of relative strength? Can you identify areas where, you know, I'm relatively deficient, frankly, in these areas? Maybe it's adoration. We could take a hint from Psalm 104 verse 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and O Lord my God. You are very great. You are clothed with splendor and majesty. When you went through some of the passages dealing with the person and character of God this morning in Sunday school. Does that echo in your heart as you go before God in prayer and thinking about the character of God, the God to whom you're, the God that you're addressing in your prayer? Well, consider that as well. We need to consider as well, Roman numera two, the frequency of our warfare prayer, the frequency of our warfare prayer. Paul writes, praying at all times, praying at all times. And so what is the, under A on this, what is the broader biblical witness? We're just going to look at a couple passages here. First, Psalm 55. Beginning at verse 17, evening and morning and at noon, I will utter my complaint and moan. We sung a hymn just a moment ago from Psalm 4 about ending the day in prayer. Psalm 5, immediately following that, is waking up in a spirit of prayer. at all times. Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. He redeems my soul in safety from the battle that I wage, for many are arrayed against me. God will give ear and humble them. He who is enthroned from of old, Selah, because they do not change and they do not fear God. So different times of the day, in Luke 18, our Lord gives a parable of the importance of prayer. And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said in a certain city, there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in the city that kept coming to him and saying, give me justice against my adversary. For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice. so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge says, and will not God give justice to his elect who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth? The Apostle Paul, and you know this, 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 and 17. Rejoice always, right? Rejoice when? Always. And then he follows that, pray without ceasing. So, at all times we are to pray. In every time, always. And this seems to have a particular reference to our spiritual warfare. Because are we not battling sometimes with every thought taking it captive? So I want to move on to part B here under this outline here, the precise wording that's used here. If you would turn back to Ephesians chapter 6, if you're not there already, to go back to a verse that I had read at the beginning of the message, verse 13. 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." So we are praying always, we are praying in every time, and Paul, you can see, talks about the evil day. He narrows it down, as Pastor Mitch has in his notes. In other words, your relationship with the Lord and mine must be such that you are ready, with your tactical headset on, in prayer, with that in place, along with your other armor, ready to call down what I would call close air support at a moment's notice. And this is more than just having clever answers for your assailant. You need the power of God to come down in that moment to stabilize your very soul. Wisdom from God, which the Lord Jesus promised at the point of every challenge. All prayer perfectly complements all your other armor. And just to illustrate this point, Paul Miller's experience one morning on his way to work, he writes, I was driving to work one day thinking about all the options for a new three-year plan at work. I think he was the administrator of a school at this point. in his life. The closer I got to the office, the more overwhelmed I became. I didn't have the wisdom to sort through the options. The scripture, lead me to the rock that is higher than I, from Psalm 61 verse 2 came to mind, and I turned it into a simple prayer. I needed a rock higher than myself. The momentary poverty of spirit Was evident I became overwhelmed and I did not have the wisdom to address the concerns at hand And he says that poverty of spirit that was in my heart that became the door to this prayer We don't need self-discipline so much as he says to pray continually we just need to be poor in spirit Think about that. Poverty of spirit makes room for God's spirit. A praying life isn't simply a morning prayer time, and he has that. He's not ignoring that. But a praying life is about slipping into prayer at odd hours of the day, not because we're so disciplined, but because we are in touch with our own poverty of spirit. Realizing that we can't even walk through a mall or a neighborhood without the help of the spirit of Jesus, where we won't get attacked by this or that ungodly thought or temptation. So what are some practical lessons here when we look at the terms for prayer? Praying at all time, or at all time, in every time, every situation, does not mean a monkish recitation of prayers. It's not standing for hours at a wailing wall. slipping little pieces of paper into the crevices of the stone. It's not lighting a bunch of candles. That's not how Jesus prayed, is it? When you think about him and how he prayed. From Luke chapter 6 beginning at verse 12. life-altering decisions for these 12 men that was preceded by an extended season of prayer. And that's shown in our lives as well. When you think about it, in the life of our church, we have seasons that we go through personally and corporately where there are these concentrated seasons of prayer where we really need to give ourselves to the work of prayer. But it goes beyond that, praying it every time or situation that requires an ongoing communion with God. John MacArthur comments, to obey this exhortation means that when we are tempted, we hold the temptation before God and ask for His help. When we experience something good or beautiful, we immediately thank the Lord for it. When we see evil around us, we pray that God will make it right and be willing to be used of Him to that end. When we meet someone who does not know Christ, we turn and pray for God to draw that person to Himself and to use us to be a faithful witness. When we encounter trouble, we turn to God as our deliverer. In other words, our life becomes a continually ascending prayer, a perpetual community with our Heavenly Father. Good words. We need to move on then to Roman numeral three. We've looked at the words for prayer. We've looked at when we are to pray. If we go back to verse 18, we're saying what prayer is. We're saying that it's at all times. And now Roman numeral three, the spiritual nature of warfare prayer. The spiritual nature of warfare prayer. You can see Paul adds this phrase, in the spirit, praying at all times in the spirit. Letter A under that. So we're going to be praying. There is prayer offered according to the Spirit's mind. According to the Spirit's mind. Just a couple of verses that would nail that down for us. Zechariah 12, beginning at verse 10, where God says, I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy. so that they look on me, on him whom they pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one who weeps over a firstborn." So it is a spirit of grace and supplication or pleas for mercy. From Romans 8.27, a familiar passage, And he who searches the hearts, referring to the Spirit, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So the Holy Spirit is praying for us, and for us to pray rightly is to pray as the Holy Spirit would pray. And so obviously for that to take place, our minds need to be informed, need to be suffused with the Word of God. The Holy Spirit prays for us. We must join our petitions to His petitions and join our will to His own. From 1 John 5, verse 14, where John writes, And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And so praying in the Spirit is going to obviously imply that we know the will of God, as much as we can discern from our understanding of Scripture. So we need to consider that prayer is to be offered according to the Spirit's mind. But part B under that, we're also to pray, our prayer is to be offered with the Spirit's enabling, with the Spirit's enabling. The Spirit of God grants us access to the Father. We looked at Ephesians 2.18, for through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. from Jude verse 20, but you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And so by this enabling, we're not referring to speaking some kind of mystical prayer language. That's not what praying in the Spirit is, that some people call tongues. But if you go back to Romans 8, verse 26, Paul says, likewise, the Spirit helps with our weakness. It is the point of our weakness that we need the Spirit's enabling that we're praying according to the will of God. And that with a measure of spiritual power, when we think of Elijah, for example, when we think of other godly men that exemplified this spiritual enabling in prayer. If it were not for the spirits prompting us in our prayers and illuminating our minds, our prayers would very likely be more focused on temporal desires and cares. We would pray and miss, as John mentions. We would not cultivate an attitude of reverence for God, nor a sufficient poverty of spirit. and be aware of a dryness and a dullness and hardness of our own hearts. And yet, we do have His Spirit that He's given to us. He does help us to feel our need for God and the sufficiency of His grace in abundance when we do pray. So we are directed by Paul in Ephesians 5.18 to continually be filled with God's spirit. Our Christian soldiering must be done in this measure of spiritual power. And so we've looked at what prayer is, when we are to pray, we are to pray in this spirit. Roman numeral four, we need to consider as well, the church-wide focus of warfare prayer. The church-wide focus of warfare prayer. Prayerfully, we need to have our heads on a swivel. Does that make sense? Because there's needs that are all around us that are perfectly legitimate subjects for our prayer. The required watching that leads to prayer. Consider the two participles of verse 18. Praying and watching. Praying and watching. Watching is a word that originally meant being sleepless. So I can't sleep because I'm concerned about an enemy that is prowling around the house. You would be wide awake, wouldn't you, if the outside lights were to flick on? Jesus and his disciples in Gethsemane, from Matthew 26 verse 41, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Or Mark chapter 13, where our Lord is speaking of His Second Advent, but concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard and keep awake, for you do not know when the time will come. So that is a continual watchfulness that we see. Verse 35, therefore stay awake for you do not know when the master of the house will come in the morning or at midnight or when the rooster crows or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, stay awake. So there is to be this alertness around us. We're not falling asleep on the spiritual battlefield. And, okay, so if we're keeping alert, there also needs to be a persevering that goes along with that, letter B. An intense perseverance attending the watching. Paul writes in verse 18, keeping alert with all perseverance. We recently considered Romans chapter 12. If we go back to that bullet list of exhortations that Paul gave in Romans chapter 12, go back to verse 11 there. Do not be slothful in spirit, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. So you see this connection again between persevering and our prayer life. Do you think you need to pray to persevere? Yeah, me too. Colossians 4, which is the sister epistle to the book of Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 2, continues steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. And when you see this lived out, consider the prophet Daniel. I'm going to read a passage from Daniel chapter 10 in a moment. You might turn there. But consider how this is illustrated in Daniel's life of persevering and watchful prayer. from Daniel 10 beginning at verse 11. And the angel, this angelic visitation, this angel came to Daniel while he was praying over the promises in Jeremiah's prophecy that there would be a fulfillment of those 70 years. of captivity. And so Daniel confessing the sins of the nation and praying through these promises, he gets this angelic visitation as he persevered in prayer, beginning at verse 11. And he said to me, O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you and stand upright. For now I have been sent to you. And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. And he said to me, fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard. And I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me 21 days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia. And so, like Daniel, and you get this sense that in a moment with this revelation of what was going on, God, through this angelic visitor, pulls back the curtain of what's going on in the spiritual realm. that there is a battle between angelic beings and demonic beings that was taking place in the very fulfillment of Daniel's petitions. Like Daniel, we need to embrace the warfare we ourselves are caught up in as we persevere in praying for kingdom concerns. And so as we pray for our friends in various parts of the world, as we pray for unsafe family members and friends, we engage in that same struggle. Consider with me part C on your outline, the intense petitioning that attends the watching, the intense petitioning. Paul uses the words, making supplication for all the saints. So our word for petitioning and prayer here are used four times in this paragraph. We see Paul's repeated emphasis on this intense petitioning. And so this is the means by which we as the people of God are made strong in the Lord, as he says in verses 10 and 11. So what is all supplication? It is regularly and constantly resorting to the language of, let's pray. There's a concern that you, perhaps one night after church, or at some point in time, you're talking with a friend, and there's this need that's a very urgent need. Well, it's perfectly appropriate to say, let's stop and pray about that. That needs to be the response that we give to God. How frequently do we pray? Consider the routines that we have in our prayer lives already, corporately and privately. Sunday services before and after prayer. That's good. You're praying when you come in. You're praying for God's blessing upon what you heard that evening. at the close of the message, engaging in prayer led by our pastor, meetings and planning outreach opportunities such as VBS, regular devotional times. Like David in Psalm 4, when you wake in the morning, sorry, in Psalm 4, at the close of the day, you find yourself praying and thanking God or confessing your sins. Upon waking, Psalm 5, you're there with the early awareness of, oh, I'd rather sleep, but here I am awake. Using that time for prayer. We're praying at mealtimes, Wednesday night prayer meeting. Would we, like so many churches, even consider canceling a regular prayer meeting to give place for some other worthwhile activity? No, that's a mistake. Because we are called to be a corporate family of prayer. Letter D on your outline. Particular objects of the watching. Particular objects. Paul uses the phrase, for all the saints. For all the saints. Paul opens his letter referring to the rank and file believers at Ephesus three times. as he opens up this epistle. They are the holy ones, the ones that are loved by God in Christ, and loving their brethren throughout the world. These are the ones that Paul is thinking about, the rank-and-file believers. So what evidence of other-oriented love it is to pray for other people regularly? You learn of a concern, you turn that into a petition before God. Brothers, that's love. It is. Keep doing it. Our prayers certainly ought to be about God's dealings with ourselves, but they also are to extend as broad as the spread of the gospel itself and beyond. May God give more grace to us to persevere in warfare on this spiritual battlefield. What a privilege we have, unlike the modern soldier who can only connect to his immediate commander in his headset. We have such a privilege to enter into the chambers of the God of the universe, who works all things, Paul says, after the counsel of his own will. And you think, what, how unlike Paul is to King Saul. When he was in trouble, and he abandoned God, and God abandoned him, he ends up turning to the witched end door to get some kind of insight for the following day. We have, through one spirit, through the blood of the Son of God, to enter into the Holy of Holies, to God's own throne room, to the throne of grace, to get help in time of need. May we ever continue to exercise that tremendous privilege. And so, in closing, all of this language about praying to God sounds very spiritual, doesn't it? Wow, Tim's preaching on prayer. He must be really spiritual to do that. Well, when we think about what prayer is, yet to a Christian it should be as natural as breathing, shouldn't it? When you think about Saul in Acts chapter 9, who later is this apostle that is writing about prayer. Notice the first thing that was happening when Paul was blind, being led by the hand to Damascus. At the same time, or close after that, Ananias, that believer there in Damascus, was told by God what Saul was doing. from Acts chapter 9 verse 11. And the Lord said to him, rise and go to the street called straight. And at the house of Judas, look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying. That is the reflex of a man who has just been born again. That's how natural it is. When you think of that baby's first cry when they're just out of the womb, when they're born, the reflex is to breathe and to cry out. That ought to be the same for us as well. So prayer is simply seeking God with your heart and asking God for what he has promised to do in his word. When we think of what faith is and how that's expressed, Hebrews 11.6, and without faith it is impossible to please Him. For whoever must draw near to God, and this means drawing near in prayer, must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. Is that your view of God this evening? He rewards those who seek him. And if you are here this evening and yet honestly have never really prayed before, as has been described here this evening, I urge you to get alone this evening and seek God. in prayer. He rewards those who seek him, God says. From Isaiah 55 verse 6, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord that he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. So we close with the verse that Pastor Mitch closed with this morning from John 3, 316, to pray the promises. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life. May God encourage us, both personally and corporately, by this brief look at prayer this evening. That's my prayer for you and for myself. Let's pray now, shall we? Lord, we would love to have the reality of our prayer life measure up to what we have just considered this evening in confession, of adoration, of petition, and supplication, and thanksgiving. What peace we often forfeit, the hymn says. Lord, help us to take advantage of our tremendous privilege that we have because of the blood of Jesus. as well as the indwelling Spirit who helps us, and help us to have more victories in our spiritual warfare, dear Lord. And we can look back and praise you as a church for what you are accomplishing in our midst, and even through our prayer meeting on Wednesday. We give you thanks, O Lord, because we can look back and see so many encouragements over the years of how you answered our prayer.