Unseen Realities: Our Battle Plan - Ephesians 6:18-24

We are in the series unseen realities and we are talking about the battle plan in this spiritual war and Paul he's going to give us three directions for prayer we've talked about armor we've talked about the sword of the spirit and now we are going to look at the intercontinental ballistic missile of prayer and so if you would stand with me in honor of God's word as we read Ephesians chapter 6 verses 18 through 24. God's word says this 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 so that you may know how I am and what I am doing tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are

And that he may encourage your hearts peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible let's pray and so God we do thank you we thank you for your mercy and your kindness we thank you for baptisms we thank you for worship we thank you for your bride being assembled right here right now and I just ask that you would just speak to us clearly our hearts are open just have your will in our lives in Jesus name amen we're kind of picking up mid-sentence in this passage obviously because Paul he has just given out this command for believers to take up the sword of the spirit which is the word of God but he does not include prayer as a part of the armor of God and william gurnell he was that puritan I was telling you about that he wrote like 1200 pages or so on just this passage right here versus 10 through 20. He literally 1200 pages it's a stack of books it's an amazing read he explains why and he says this he says that we must not hide ourselves in the armor of God but in the God of this armor because all our armor and weapons are only mighty through his strength and that's why we have to be focused on prayer and this greek word that opens up our passage praying it's that greek word prose yukomai which is a call to action it is a verb it is something that we are to do so instruction number one Paul is giving us the command to pray write that down you see we have this helmet of salvation we have the word of God we've got the shield of faith the breastplate of righteousness the shoes of the Gospel of peace the belt of truth we've got all

These different things that the Lord has gifted to us but now Paul is going to be addressing the attitude with which we are to direct our warfare you see we do not wage this war in our own strength and in our own power it is not a pride issue it's a humility issue when we get before the knees get before God on our knees it is an attitude of humility it is a mattitude attitude of meekness because it is when we have that attitude of prayer that's going to determine our success against our spiritual foe and remember that our spiritual foe the devil and his other demons they seek your destruction they seek to deceive you they seek to devour you they don't like you they don't want you to succeed they don't want the blessings of God in your life the enemy he blinds he fires these missiles at you intensely these fiery darts of the evil one he does that and how are we to keep up our strength is it just by buckling down more and saying I'm just gonna keep digging deeper digging deeper you're not a bottomless well of strength you need Jesus I need Jesus every moment of every day to give me that strength because I don't have the strength enough to stand in my own power we need Jesus Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 it tells us finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and so verse 18 it tells us how we are to do that how we are to remain in the power and into the strength of God and it's by being in his presence now that's been hijacked in recent decades or so kind of be this mystical abstract thing filled with signs and wonders and all that kind of stuff

It's merely just abiding in his presence thinking on his word praying to him interceding before the throne of grace it's not a mystical thing but it is a powerful thing but Paul he's going to instruct us here he's going to give us a couple of different instructions on how we are to pray he's given us that command how are we to how are we to do this the first thing is if you're taking notes to do it persistently that's why he says praying at all times you remember the parable that Jesus told of the persistent widow if you have your Bible you can turn over there Luke 18 but it will be up here on the screen as well Luke 18 chapter verses one through eight it tells this story it says that and he Jesus told them parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart and he said in a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man and there was a widow in that city who 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 cried 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 if an unjust judge is exasperated because of persistence for justice how much more will the good and righteous king of heaven answer our prayers in a timely fashion

I don't mean that you know you just get to pray and ding it's done we don't have microwave Christianity we've got crockpot Christianity right it just takes a while [Music] sometimes we have to wait on the Lord if an unjust judge does that how much more will the Lord respond to us one of the evidences of our salvation is answered prayers we pray and we expect the Lord to respond I mean how many times has God worked out an impossible situation for you or you just didn't see God how on earth am I going to get through this how on earth is my family going to make it we're not instructed to pray in the flesh are we the Scripture says in the spirit is how we're to pray this shows us the practice of prayer the next point how we are to do this the practice of prayer we're called to pray in the spirit the Biblical formula is to the father through the son in the spirit and when we pray in the spirit it means that he is interceding for us this is one of the primary things that the Holy Spirit does for you and I as believers is that the Holy Spirit prays on our behalf before the father when we don't know how we ought to pray turn with me to the left in your Bible a little couple of pages over to romans chapter eight in romans chapter eight verses 29 and 30 you'll see the golden chain of redemption that's you know the process of salvation or as the as it says in the latin the ordo salutus and then in romans 8 28 before that you see that great verse of confidence for the believer that God is working all things out to the good of those who love God and are called

According to his purpose but before that right before that it teaches us what the Holy Spirit is actually doing right now on our behalf through the ministry of intercession look at verses 26 and 27 likewise the spirit helps us in our weakness for we do not know what to pray for as we ought but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God it's exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing right now he is interceding before the throne of grace on your behalf if you're a Christian he is right there right now with groanings too deep for words knowing exactly how we ought to pray interceding for us he intercedes for us continually so that we might pray in the spirit that prayer listen that prayer for healing may not be according to God's plan for you it might not but his peace might be his endurance might be that prayer for abundant finances may not be a part of his plan for you but your contentment might be I want you to also notice the place of prayer when we look here at verse 18 going back over to Ephesians chapter six it says praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer it's kind of wonky in the in the english but it's prose yuko maya is the first word but proceed uk is talking about the location of prayer so that points us to our next direction the place of prayer passage here says with all prayer and this fulfills a Biblical command for

You and I to always be in a constant state of prayer so when we when we work where we live where we play when we're out with our neighbors when we're out with our friends we're constantly in a state of prayer asking the Lord to work and to move and to provide opportunities to share the Gospel in every aspect of our lives and every season of our life this is the call for a believer and it's hard like it's hard to remain in the constant state of prayer that's why it's called a spiritual discipline and this is why Paul has instructed us in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 20 to be filled with the spirit that way that we may be able to pray in the spirit and there's different kinds of prayer for Christians right there's confession of sin there's adoration there's thanksgiving there's humility there's song and Christians are called to pray in all of these different forms at different times in their lives and throughout the day but notice also please in prayer write that down please in prayer this is what's called supplication here with all prayer and supplication it means begging it's there's this idea in this context when we talk about supplication about urgency and remember the context here remember the context is that there is an enemy that seeks to destroy you there's an enemy that seeks to devour he wants to deceive he wants to blind he wants you to be deaf to God's word he wants to do whatever he can that way you are not walking in his way those demonic forces they want you to fail they want you to fall they desire your eternal destruction and if they can't get that then they are going to do whatever they can to make you

Ineffective augustine he said pray as though everything depended upon God and work as though everything depended upon you see we are to take up the armor of God we are to wield the sword of the spirit and yet we can only do this with the power and the strength of God we don't have that in ourselves and so we must pray in the spirit and to that end keep alert with all perseverance and Paul gives us a second direction the second instruction of continuance in prayer continuance and prayer why do we wage war it's not so that way we can get victory because the victory already belongs to Jesus amen it's already his so why do we wage war that God might be most glorified in our lives that's why we wage war and why do we pray that we might wage war by standing and so this phrase of keeping alert to that end keep alert it's a it's a Biblical idea Jesus himself said in Luke chapter 21 verse 36 but stay awake at all times praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the son of man how many times have we been tr driven to prayer because of the wounds of the enemy if you're like many Christians and like myself probably more times than I care to admit then you could probably say that you aren't as serious as you ought to be about prayer until problems begin to arise until you start feeling the heat of battle that's when we start to actually get serious about prayer

But that's the way that we're always supposed to pray as though we are in the heat of battle because we are and we are to pray with all perseverance who are we to pray for we're to pray for firstly others that's why he says for all the saints making supplication for all the saints in our bulletin if you follow along each week you might see a weekly prayer guide that's in there and you might see that we pray for other churches because we believe that our community needs good healthy churches in addition to first baptist church right we have people that serve we want to give glory to God for those people that serve we got mission group like lost people groups that you can pray for it's got like a little bitly link on there so that way you and your family y'all can read about them and pray for them and know how to pray for them we are called to pray for others we got national leaders and local leaders because we believe that prayer is vitally important and we believe that God he can actually change situations in people's lives that's why we have that sick list on there where we're praying God heal this person's knee God heal this person's cancer God heal this situation because we believe that God actually can and that word supplication as I said before it means like to beg but it also carries with it this idea of humility and that's supposed to be our attitude not that we are oh look at me I'm praying so much but that Lord God I need you to meet this need because I don't have it in myself and it's part of our role as believers and it's our privilege to pray to the God of the universe on behalf of others now Paul also he invites these Ephesians

To pray for him as well it says pray for others and pray for me also in verse 19. Paul he constantly asks his audience his people that he's writing to for prayer because he knew that he needed it and you and I we should be at that stage in our lives where we're comfortable asking people for prayer where we're comfortable asking our brothers and sisters in Christ who are in our community groups who are in our core groups that are willing to hey can you pray for me about this because I have this in my life now I want you to do something I want you to look at your neighbor and I want you to tell them hey you can pray for me like this so go ahead and look at your neighbor say hey can you pray for me like this can you do that real quick just look at your neighbor someone around you say hey can you pray for me like this and we're going to look at six things six ways that you can pray okay that Paul is going to outline here and the first thing that Paul is going to pray for and remember the context here remember the context Paul he is he is looking out a little bitty sliver through a stone cold wall because he is imprisoned and you might think when he's going to ask for prayer the first thing that he's going to pray for is what freedom yeah you know that's top of the list for us right we're like I need to get out of this cell I need to get me some good food and we're going to just have a good time okay I need out of here but what does Paul pray for look at what he says

That words may be given to me and opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel he's not worried about the shackles digging into his wrists or his ankles he's not worried about being in a cold dank room he's not worried about being away from friends and neighbors and being locked up for hours and hours and days and months on end he's worried about the Gospel ministry I mean so many times we don't realize that God he has put us in situations he's put us into circumstances not so that way we might just learn more dependence and more patience which is true he does do that but also so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ might go into a world that desperately needs to see the light of Christ Paul he prays number one if you're taking notes unction for preaching satan he wants to keep you and I silent about the Gospel he's going to use every single nasty little trick that he can to get you to shut up about Jesus and remember that every time that satan opens his mouth to mouth to roar is an opportunity for you shove the word of God down his throat and so I was talking to a friend of mine earlier this week and I hope that you make it a practice to share the Gospel we were talking about that in our community group today I love my community group it's just a great group of people great conversation constantly if you're not a part of community group try one out because they're awesome but anyways I was talking to a friend of mine he's a he's a layperson in virginia where I grew up and I call him about once a month and I was talking to him and he was sick and he got sick because he was out

Fishing it was about 36 degrees and he had forgotten his jacket and so he was sick and he's proceeded to tell me a story about how he had reconnected with a friend of his from high school and when he had done that his friend said hey can you come out fishing with me sure absolutely a friend asked him a question while he was out there he knew that he was a solid believer loves the Lord and what happened was he said what happened to Jesus on the cross did God like turn his back on Jesus on the cross or what happened there which was a great question right that's a good question and I think oftentimes for us as believers we get scared of tough questions like I don't know the answer to that but my friend chris he said you know that's a really great question I don't know what the answer is right now but I tell you what when we get back I'll hop online and I'll do some research I'll be praying and I'll write you as soon as I get an answer stay up until midnight that night okay this is saturday night writing sent a response gets an email back at 5 00 a.m the next morning wow that was that's such a great answer that was so good hey do you think that I could go to church with you today yeah I know right like God is good you know and I say that to you to encourage you don't have to have all the answers right away you are going to have tough questions but I am praying for you to have unction that means is like an old term which means like anointing like a special anointing that you would be comfortable to go out and share the Gospel with people when the

Opportunity arises or to create opportunities to share the Gospel because remember no one will ever be saved unless they hear the Gospel no one will I wasn't saved by not hearing the Gospel I was saved through the preaching of the Gospel I heard a preacher preach and that's how I was saved no one's going to be saved by your good works you couldn't even save yourself by your own good works you no one's going to be saved by your positive influence by your kind demeanor as a Christian all those things should happen like you should be kind Christians should be known for baking cookies and being nice no one's going to be known you should be known for a positive influence you should be known for doing good works but remember that you weren't saved just for your salvation alone you were saved to make disciples you were saved to go out and tell people about the change that is real in your life that God might do that work in others as well Paul also he prays for endurance and persecution for which I am an ambassador in chains he says right now in our world one out of every eight Christian in persecution in persecuted countries whether they're imprisoned or not that's 340 million Christians in our world that's more than the entire population of the united states that live under persecution and we should be praying for them in north korea right now there's 400 000 Christians and about 50 to 70 000 of them are in labor and tournament camps what I want you to do is I want you to take out your

Phone right now I want you to pull up your camera and I'm gonna ask you guys to scan this qr code that's up on the screen now the great thing about this is that this is for open doors international it's a missions organization they specialize in helping minister to Christians that are in foreign countries you want to know what's happening in the world you want to know what's happening in the church around the world go through these guys they're associated with a voice of the martyrs it's great organization but what this will do is it will help you to pray strategically for people that are right now in the trenches that are suffering persecution they're in the sudan and they're just trying to survive and so yeah so make that a daily habit Paul also prays for a boldness look how many times he uses that word bold or boldly in that passage when we think boldness we think of courageousness we mean honest we mean fearless Paul knew that even he might be tempted to shut himself down to quiet himself down if he remained in his own strength you ever had the opportunity to share Jesus with someone you clammed up you weren't sure how they would receive it yeah so we pray for boldness look at your neighbor say pray for me to be bold remember that the most victorious Christian is witnessing Christian and if you're not witnessing you're not making disciples the next commission of prayer is to encourage the family of God that's why he says to pray for brothers and sisters peace be to the brothers

He says Paul he was not only sending a letter to this beloved congregation in ephesus but he also sent it through a guy named tychus now tychicus he was a regular companion of Paul's actually he was with him all the way to the end if you look in second Timothy he's writing it to Timothy who is an elder at ephesus and so there's a lot of things are happening here with the book of Ephesians and first Timothy and second Timothy and things like that but he's mentioned in second Timothy that he might encourage people's hearts there's so many people that God has gifted with that gift of encouragement and I thank the Lord for you it is so awesome to be around someone that's encouraging they always have the right thing to say I remember one time it was my first time playing guitar in public and they came up to me the person they said you know I've never heard anyone play guitar quite like that I received it like it was intended but I want you to notice this though that Paul he never fought alone constantly he is he was not like the superhero guy lone wolfing it out there just winning people for Jesus constantly by himself that's not who what Paul was I mean he had guys like tychicus he had Timothy he had Barnabas he had Titus and so my question is who is with you or who are you with are you trying to do the whole Christianity thing by yourself because that's not the way that was intended to be it's not intended for you to walk this straight and narrow path all by yourself you are called to walk step and step with brothers and sisters united in the

Lord Jesus Christ waging war on the very gates of hell we're not vigilantes we're not Christian batmans right even batman had robin come on that'll preach brother but listen we pray for peace for brothers and sisters every single person in this world wants peace don't they want peace they desire peace but we will not see peace until Jesus comes again and establishes his kingdom that's why we sing that song that we want him to come back and establish his rule and reign because we so long for Jesus to bring peace because he is our peace and so we pray for peace and why do we pray for peace because we are at war we don't get victory through defeat and we don't get victory by hiding behind others but rather by standing empowered with the armor of God wielding the sword of the spirit finally if you're right taking notes write this down love incorruptable now this is the last thing that prayer accomplishes a greater more affectionate love for the Lord and three times it's mentioned here love with faith from God the father and the Lord Jesus Christ grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love and corruptable and this is that agape love it's that selfless affectionate sacrificial love and Paul he prays for the Ephesians to know this love and for it to be joined with faith and we love the Lord Jesus Christ if you're a believer you love the Lord because he first loved you because he revealed himself to you in a powerful way and so we wholeheartedly love him in return and so let's wrap all this up okay as we're kind of bringing all this

To a close if the word of God is our only means of attack and prayer is our only means of communication that means like to stay in tune with the Lord not miss his leading then communication prayer is of the utmost importance and let me illustrate this for you anybody ever heard of the battle of trenton in the revolutionary war okay how about the crossing of the delaware you guys know that picture all right you know george washington standing there looking so heroic that when washington crossed the delaware it was on december 25th 1776 and of course that's christmas day and the guy that was held in charge of holding trenton his name was johann rawl he was a hussian he was a german mercenary and he was celebrating christmas and having a good old time if you know what I'm saying okay and so johann rawl he received a note from a spy who said washington is crossing the delaware we better get ready because we think that he's attacking trenton well johann rawl he's feeling pretty good and instead of reading the note that he had just received he tucks it into his shirt pocket and he continues celebrating well the very next day the americans launched an attack on trenton five americans died in that battle and 900 british soldiers died that day over 900 actually and johann rawl was found still with the unopened letter in his pocket have you ever thought that maybe God is trying to get through to you and yet we're constantly changing our chasing our tales and instead of sitting quietly before the Lord and asking him what his will is we're just trying to do our own thing

Trying to fix situations ourselves when he's just saying you need to rest in me you need to take some time and talk with many times we try to do this whole Christianity thing in our own power and we can't we must read God's word so that he can speak to us we must pray that way we can get a sense of God's direction and talk to him and so together Christians let's commit to praying more and praying better for his leading and for each other and this might mean joining our prayer group that meets on wednesdays that is a power house of prayer with prayer warriors it might mean finding a friend maybe it's another person other than your spouse that you're saying hey can you pray for me about this or joining a community group and building those relationships so you can feel comfortable asking for prayer I promise you that as we intercede and we see God's hand at work through prayer we are going to see God do some incredible things head hand heart head write this down I want you to know that we are to remain in a state of prayer ask yourself that question what would it look like for me to remain in this state of prayer throughout the day I promise you it's not as distracting as it sounds but it is a spiritual habit that's why it's tough a spiritual discipline and I want you to find a friend somewhere around here I want you to ask them how you can pray for them I want you to find someone look around the sanctuary and however the Lord prompts you ask that person how can I pray for you maybe get their phone number that way you can text them later on this week and

Say hey I'm praying for you about this heart I want you to believe that God actually answers prayers like he changes situations and he's powerful enough to handle whatever it is that you might be going through right now [Music] maybe it's bad news about your health maybe it's financial burdens maybe it's a child walking in disobedience maybe it's just outright spiritual warfare listen God promises to hear his children in answer and sometimes he's just waiting for us to pray so with that let's stand and let's pray Lord we just asked Lord that you would just do what only you can do in moving [Music] to intercede on behalf of others but mostly to come before you and say God what is your will for us what's your will for me God help us to discern that and as we worship together may we worship you in spirit and in truth that we might be ambassadors for Christ soldiers in the army of the Lord that we might be able to stand with all the strength that you have given us by the power of your spirit that we might take up the whole armor of God that we might declare the mysteries of God in Christ that we might stand on our salvation knowing that you have called us you have chosen us that you have filled us with your spirit God to go and make disciples help us to do that Lord in Jesus name amen [Music] water you turned into wine

Open the eyes of the blind there's no one like you none like you [Music] into the darkness you shine out of the ashes we rise there's no one like you none like you our God is greater our God is stronger God you are higher than any other our God is healer awesome in power our God let's sing that again our God is greater our God is stronger God you are higher than any other our goddess healer awesome in power our God [Music] and God is at work and got one thing that I want to tell y'all before we leave today y'all can remain standing it's not gonna take long we are going to celebrate being debt-free amen yeah and it's gonna be amazing thing thank you so much I know so many of you that have sacrificially given and praise the Lord for that and I thank the Lord for you if you want to give in addition all right the last chance that you're going to be able to do it in online is november 18th okay so if you have if you want to do that you can but I want to invite you and I want you to invite others to come and celebrate that on december 12th we're going to have a big old shin dig we're going to have one service 10 a.m that day it's going to be huge it's going to be amazing we're going to celebrate and then we got a big dinner that we're going to have together and it's going to be awesome let's do it up right okay church I love you let's go in peace father thank you so much for this day we love you help us to

Walk according to your spirit in Jesus name amen