Let us go to our Bibles, or you can use your bulletins as we read from Ephesians chapter 6. Today we're focusing on verses 18 through 20. This is gonna be our conclusion of the study on the Book of Ephesians. Next week, Reverend John will be preaching, and in two weeks, the following week, we will start a study, a new study on the Book of Galatians as we continue our studies on Pauline letters. So let us read God's Word. I'd like to invite you all to stand up in reverence before our God as we read from 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 change. that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Let us pray. Dear God, we thank you that you are so gracious to give us your word and also give us the gift of being able to pray to you through our Lord Jesus Christ. And as we come together, we also understand, Lord, that you have given us the Holy Spirit to have understanding of your word. May you help us, Lord, as we consider these verses to grow in our understanding of how we pray and how we should pray. And help us, Lord, to grow in our prayer life as well through the study of your word. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So, as I said, we're finishing today Ephesians, and I'm taking a little portion of what we covered last week from the armor of God to do assuming to take a close look at these verses because they are very important in terms of our prayer life. Some scholar who wrote a book of about, I think, 700 pages on the armor of God, focused 300 pages of this book on just prayer. And you will find a lot of books on prayer, because prayer is essential for the Christian life. In fact, when we look at this book, verses, previous verses from the armor of God, you realize that we were talking about the armor of God as we going back to the gospel all the time in order to be strengthened to face our spiritual battle in this world. Well, God has given us two tools, two important tools as we take up the armor of God. Basically, that's the way we take up the armor of God. We take up the armor of God, and they are back to back. By the end of verse 17, you see that the word of God is the sword, and then you continue in verse 18 praying at all time is because these are the two ways you take up the armor of God. The armor of God is taken by you every time you go back to the gospel, to the word of God, and you do that through the meditation of God's word and also as you pray. Therefore, this is essential for us as we face our spiritual battle in this world. Now, there is something common in all these verses. that will help you to come up with an outline or to break the passage in parts. And it's the word all, all, all time, at all time, with all prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. And that helps you to see that this probably is the outline that you can have for you, and basically the outline that I have for us in this afternoon, which is at the first point is at all time, then we continue with all prayer and supplication. Afterwards, we will do with all perseverance, then for all the saints, and at the end for the minister of ministers of the gospel. And I will add the word, all the ministers of the gospel. Not that I'm trying to add something to the word of God, but But Paul represent those who spread the word of God. Now today we're going to do something a little bit different to what we usually do at some point through the sermon. We're going to use the Bible a lot. And I think that there is nothing wrong with doing that. And basically what I want us to do is keep your Bible there ready, because we're gonna go through a lot of verses and passages from the scripture that help you to see how Paul prays, because this is gonna help us to pray as one pastor says in his book, pray big, to pray big, to pray big. This is what we want to do, to pray big. All right, so let's start with the first point, which is at all time. Paul says praying at all times in the Spirit. This can be also understood praying in all occasions, in any occasion. There is a natural way for us to go to pray to the Lord When things are difficult in our lives, when things are difficult in our lives, nobody has to tell you, well, yes, sometimes somebody has to remind us that we should pray, but it comes from our hearts right away to pray. And even atheists said, my God, when they don't believe in God, because we look up and we ask for help. And I particularly experienced that these past three years as our family went through my father's illness. I found myself praying more than ever, praying for him, but praying for all the circumstances that were around him. And the same thing happened with members of his church, members of our family, that we were all praying a lot. So, we go naturally to pray to God when we are going through hard and difficult times. But Paul's exhortation here and encouragement is not to pray only when we are going through difficult times, but praying in all occasions. And there are some moments in our life when it is not so natural for us to go to pray, but it's exactly when we need it the most. For example, when we are facing temptation. It is natural for us, as you see characters in the scripture, to go and hide from the presence of God. But it is in these very moments when we need to seek God's face and to ask God for spiritual strength to face the challenges and the temptations that we are facing. Also, one of the moments when sometimes the prayer life of Christians go low is when things are going well. Things are going fine in your life, in many areas of your life. And yes, you might be thankful at times, but you don't feel that pressure to pray as you feel when you are going through difficult moments in your life. But Paul, again, is telling you to pray. at all times in the spirit. Now remember what is the context of these verses. The context is that he's talking about the spiritual battle that we all Christians are facing. The enemy does not take vacation. The enemy does not have a Sabbath day to go and rest. The enemy is at work 24-7. Therefore, it is in those moments when we are praying less, when things might be going well in our life, when we might get distracted with sometimes even the blessings that God is giving us, that we have forgotten the God of the blessings, that the enemy take these opportunities to take us away from God, and is there where we need to pray the most. Again, Paul's exhortation is to pray at all times, is to pray in all occasions, and it's something that we need to remind ourselves, especially when it doesn't come natural to us. When, again, we face temptation, we need to preach to us that we need to go and pray. And it might not be natural to us to do that, but we need to tell ourselves that we need to go and pray. And when you are celebrating, when you are enjoying the blessings of God, then you have to remind yourself that you need to pray in all occasions. Now Paul tells us, as he continues, the second point which is, with all prayer and supplications. With all prayer and supplications. And when you see those words, sometimes we're tempted to think that they are redundant. Like prayers and supplications means the same, and they don't. Because in prayers you can include supplications, but in supplications you don't include all the prayers because there is a difference between one and the other. Supplications are the kind of things that we bring before our God because our needs that we are bringing before him. But when we talk about prayers is in reference to there are different kinds of prayers. For example, Dr. Boyce, in his commentary of Ephesians, he summarized them or give us an example in these famous acrostic ads, ads, that some of you might be familiar with it, which is A for adoration, C for confession, C for Thanksgiving, and S for supplication. We come before God, worshiping God in our prayer, based on the understanding or what we know about Him, who He is, His character, His essence. And we need to say that to God. We need to recognize that. We need to acknowledge that. But as we come before God and His throne, we also need to come confessing that we are sinners, that even though we have been justified by faith and we have been declared as just already, we are Christians who need to confess our sins before God. Therefore, that should be part of our prayer as well. Then we come also thanking Him for all the blessings that we have received, and many times in our life we take a lot of the things that we have for granted. We have experienced a season where we were not able to gather together for worship and have the kind of fellowship that we used to have, and therefore we realize how wonderful this was and how special and how privileged we are as Christians to be able to worship together in community. And then we bring before the Lord our supplications, our needs. Now, I would say that a complete prayer should include all these parts, but there are moments in your life when you come before the Lord and all you are doing is confessing to the Lord, for example, that there is some brokenness in you and you need of His grace. There are moments in your life, I remember again talking with my father and praying with him, and I pray and then he pray, and when he was praying he was always thanking God for this person, and for this person, and for this person, and for this person. And I was wondering, all my dad does is pray, thinking, and thinking, and thinking, and thinking, what about the other elements? And I feel like at those moments he was feeling thankful for those he had around. And there are moments when we are pleading to God, we are asking God to help us, to rescue us, But all these are elements of our prayer. Now when we think about, and that goes to what I wanted us to do through the scriptures today, about praying big, or praying based on the big picture of God, something that is helpful, or at least has been very helpful for me, is to go through Paul's prayers. If you go through all Paul's letters, you realize that there are moments when Paul is praying for his brothers and sisters in these churches where he's sending these letters. There are moments when he's thanking God for them, and there are moments also when he's asking them to pray for him. And sometimes our prayers are limited to doing supplication, to bringing before God our needs, but we forget about the big picture of God's plan. Now here I have for you a proposal of 10 items. This is why the title of the sermon is Prayer List. Now, there was one word that was missing in this prayer list. It's actually a prayer list. Why? Because this is not the only one. This is not that prayer list. This is actually not that prayer list of Paul. If you go through Paul's prayer lists, I only have 10 items for you, but you could get 20 or 30 or even more from all his prayers for these brothers and sisters. But I believe that incorporating these elements, the things that he's praying about, that are part of the big picture of God's redemptive plan, will help to step up your prayer lives. That will not limit your prayer lives only to your supplications, bringing them before the Lord. So I'm gonna be listing some of these, or some of, no, 10 items for you, and we will read some of these passages that support these items. from the Scripture. So keep your Bible open, and it's going to be easier for me because I have all the passages printed. You have to go through the Scripture, so I'm going to try to give you some time. So first of all, the first item is praying for spiritual growth. Praying for spiritual growth. Sometimes, again, we pray for our physical needs, and sometimes, so often, we forget to pray that we grow spiritually. And that's something that was at the very heart of Paul. You'll find this in various passages or various portions of scripture, but I just want to read to you Romans chapter 1, verses 8 through 12. By the way, I have these four pages. If you want to have them at the end of the sermon, where I have the 10 items with the passages, we can make copies and you can take them home too. So Romans 1 through 12. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his son, that without ceasing I mention you. always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God's will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you. That is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." So you see, The essential thing that Paul is asking here is to be able to go and visit them, visit the Romans. But his desire is to go there to help them to grow in their faith, to help them to grow in their spiritual life, but also for him to be built up through seeing their faith. So here we go, that's the first item that we should have in our prayer life, spiritual growth. Second, praying for the unity of the church and how much we have seen that this is so necessary, especially during this season in our life. Romans 15, five and six says like this, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such a harmony with one another in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Also Philippians chapter 1 verses 9 through 11. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. You can right now ask yourself how often do you pray for the unity of the church? I'm not saying that it is not important to bring before our God our supplications. In the Lord's Prayer, the Lord taught us to pray for our daily bread. Our supplications and our needs are important. But let us not forget the big picture. And in the big picture, we have the spiritual growth of the body of Christ, but we also have the unity of the body of Christ. Now, third, praying for joy and peace. Praying for joy and peace. Romans 15, 13. May the God of our hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests remain known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts. and your minds in Christ Jesus. Second Thessalonians 3.16, now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way that the Lord be with you all. Many times again when we bring our supplications, we're just expecting God to answer our prayers right away or to answer the prayer that we're bringing before God the way we want. But let us not forget that we need to ask sometimes to pray that God grant us peace, to wait, and also to be ready to understand that God's answer might be different to the answer that we expect. Fourth, praying for persecuted Christians, praying for persecuted Christians. 2 Thessalonians 3, 1 and 3. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as it happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For no all have faith, but the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one." In this case, it's Paul himself who is asking his brothers and sisters in Thessalonica to pray that he will be guarded and delivered from evil people. Sometimes our prayers are so self-centered that we forget about the body of Christ. Again, if we pray big picture, if we pray considering the universal church, we have to remember that there are brothers and sisters who are being persecuted. So praying for the persecuted Christians. Five, praying for God's encouragement through His spiritual blessings. 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 through 7. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comfort us in all our afflictions so that we might be able to comfort those who are in any affliction which with the comfort which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's suffering, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and our salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. And Paul here is talking about this theology of comfort between brothers and sisters, but if you see the beginning of this passage, he starts by praising God for what he's doing through him in their lives and through them in his life. Now, Ephesians chapter one, verses three through 10. 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, even as he chooses in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestines us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will. to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness and trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavishes upon us. in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven, and things on earth. And as we saw going through Ephesians, these were the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ. Remember, we are praying for God's encouragement based on God's spiritual blessings. Therefore, these things should be part of our prayer life. Six, praying for the Word of God to speed ahead and God's people to be built up. And here is again another example where we are called to focus less on ourselves and focus more on the expansion of God's kingdom as well. Ephesians 6, 19 through 20. 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 ambassador in change. that I may declare boldly as I ought to speak. This is the passage that we are reading today. Then Colossians 4, verses 2 through 4. Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us that God may open to us a door for the world. to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear which is how I ought to speak." 1 Thessalonians 3, verses 9 to 10. And you're going to see several passages on this. You see, Paul was very interested that Christians pray for the expansion of God's kingdom. For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly, night and day, that we may see you face to face to supply what is lacking in your faith? 2 Thessalonians 3 3. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored as it happens among you. And Philemon 1 4-7 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus Christ for all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ. Our call, brothers and sisters, is to pray that the Word of God goes out, that the Gospel doesn't stay within these walls, but the Gospel is out on the streets, not just here, but around the world. Now, seven, praying for wisdom and the knowledge of God in His redemptive plan. Ephesians 1, 15-23. For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and your love toward 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 a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope for which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards all who believe according to the working of his great might, that he may work in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rules and authorities and powers and dominions, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. to pray that God give us understanding and the wisdom of God. Now, one important one, praying for our sanctification. Praying for our sanctification. How often do we pray for our sanctification? Colossians chapter one, verses nine through 12. And so from the day we hear, We have no cease to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding." And here it's important that Paul prays that they are filled with the knowledge and wisdom of God. Verse 10, sold us to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. The real purpose why we get to God's Word is to understand His will, to understand Him, and that will end having an effect in the way we live. Bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. Being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. For all endurance and patience with joy. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23, 24. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. This is Paul praying for them that they will be sanctified completely. And may your Holy Spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who calls you his faithful. He will surely do it. The assurance is that God is at work in our sanctification, and he will surely do it. 2 Thessalonians 1, 11 through 12. To this end, we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good. and every work of faith by his power so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you. So through our sanctification Christ's name is also glorified, God's name is glorified and you in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here are two important ones. Two. Pray for grace and mercy. Pray for grace and mercy. A short one. 1 Thessalonians 5, 28. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. You can pray that for your brothers and sisters. You can pray that for yourself. 2 Timothy 1, 16 through 18. May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesimus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. But when he arrived in Rome, he searched for me earnestly and found me. May the Lord grant him to find mercy from the Lord on that day, and you will know all the service he rendered in Ephesus. And the last one. that is also important for us is praying for our earthly authorities. First Timothy 2, 1 through 4. First of all, then I urge you, I urge that supplications, prayers, interceptions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God, our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now brothers and sisters, what do we do with this prayer list? We incorporate this prayer list into our prayer lives. Just by doing that, your prayer lives will step up. You will start to see that there are so many things that you have to pray for. Sometimes we just go through our prayer list that might be very short, those we love and their needs, and we bring supplications before God. But if we want to pray based on God's big plan, we have to incorporate God's Word into our prayers. Now we continue with praying with all perseverance, praying with all perseverance. You see, praying at all times, which is in all occasions in the spirit, with all prayer and supplications to that and keep alert with all perseverance. It might look like praying with all perseverance is similar to praying in all occasions, but occasions, as I mentioned before, refers to those moments in our life that are kind of different from each other. But with perseverance, actually means praying at all time. Praying at all time. Means that the life of a Christian should be a life of prayer. It doesn't mean that Paul, the only thing that he did was just stop and pray, because he was always on the move. He was always going places, doing God's ministry, God's work. But everything that he was doing, he was doing it in prayer. And this is why our understanding of who God is influence our prayer life. Just the fact that we know that God is omnipresent, that He is everywhere, that He is wherever we go, He is there with us. Imagine that you have a friend that is hanging out with you throughout the day, but you don't talk to him at all throughout the day. You just say hi in the morning, say thank you for what you did this, this, and the other day, and I ask you please do this and that for me, and then you hang out with him throughout the day. And then at the night, say thank you for hanging out with me today. but you didn't talk to him throughout the day. Well, that's why it is important that our life, prayer life, is not limited to those special moments that we designate to pray before God, but goes throughout the day in everything that we do. Now, praying for all the saints. Paul says, to that Enki, Paler, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. And you can think, wow, all the saints means it's big. Well, we're talking about big prayers, right? But we have to start somewhere, right? So there is a place where we start. Maybe we start with our small group. We are praying for the members of our small group. And then we continue to pray for the members of our parish. And we pray, Lord, we pray also for the members of our congregation. But if we are praying for all the saints, the saints are not only here at 10th, but there are many churches in the city. So we pray for the city. We pray for our brothers and sisters in other churches. And we pray for our brothers and sisters, the saints in the nation. And we pray for our brothers and sisters in the world. I remember that that was a very, wonderful time when we used to gather together for the prayer dinners. And one thing that we used to do is that we would pray for the church, we would pray for the city, and we would pray for the world. We should not limit that to prayer meetings. That should be part of our prayer life. And then finally, Paul asked them to pray for him. He says, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel." I think that there is something remarkable here. Paul, who is by this moment a well-known preacher who has been going through all these places proclaiming God's word, who learned under wonderful teachers and knew very well the Old Testament and the Scripture, he is asking his brothers and sisters to pray for him, that words may be given to him. He understood that the power of the Word of God didn't rely on his own strength or his ability to be eloquent, using words of wisdom in the world, but his power or the power of his preaching relied on the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, using him as his instrument. This is why when we gather together, we have a leader, a group on Wednesdays, and we have some of us who know each other so well that when we go around and ask, what's your prayer request? And somebody say, people usually say, the usual. The usual is like you guys already know what is my prayer request. So I end in doing this thing. I'm asking the usual is please pray that God help me as I go through His Word to proclaim God's Word. Therefore, brothers and sisters, we should be praying for our pastors, those who are working through God's Word to proclaim God's Word. You should be praying right now as I am preaching, and you should be praying for the speaker in the evening service as well, which is Gavin. But you should be praying also for those that are proclaiming the Word around the city. If you want to see a revival in the city, that's what needs to happen, that God uses those ministers to proclaim God's word, and he prepares the hearts of Christians to receive and welcome and be transformed by the message. Therefore, brothers and sisters, this is the prayer list. This is a prayer list, but my hope is that we include us praying with Paul, joining Paul in praying for God's big picture plan, that you can continue to bring your supplications before the Lord. But may we pray through God's word for God's plan. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you that you are a gracious and a merciful God who love us before the foundation of the world, who gave us his spirit to transform our lives. We praise your name because you are the only one worthy, and though we were your enemies at some point, you brought us near, and now we are your people. that we can come even together to participate of the Lord's supper. We thank you that we as a church can worship you, that we have this freedom to come before your presence. And we pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ. from our church, but in our city, our brothers and sisters around the world who are proclaiming your word as well. We pray for those who are being persecuted, that you will be with them, that you will strengthen them, that you will use them to continue spreading the good news to those that still don't know you. We pray, Lord, for our sanctification as well. We pray that you will help us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel. We thank you for all the spiritual blessings that are ours in Christ. We pray all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.