"Prayer is your Superpower" | Ephesians 6:18-20 | Sunday Morning Worship Service

Thank you, Bill and worship team.

Well, Emmanuel, we are blessed this morning to have Costi in, our brother here, bringing the word for us.

Costi is the teaching pastor at Shepherd's House Bible Church in Chandler, Arizona.

He's flown all the way over here and braved the time change and everything in order to be here this morning to shepherd us with the word.

Costi is an author as well as a pastor.

He speaks all over the place.

He writes a number of really helpful books.

We have one of them in particular in an on sale in our bookstore today for Keepers in Amazon.

If you can believe it, you don't even have to wait for it to show up in your door.

If you've ever had questions about it, actually, doing it by the line for what about the gifts of the free speaking that kind of thing is a lot of those questions.

Very helpfully, very balanced.

I think 5 p.m.

here in the workshop if we talk about a topic of another book of Needs Written on knowing God's will, deterning God's will in your life.

Afterwards, there will be ice cream.

I know, I know.

So you should totally come back.

5 p.m., 50 or Costhy again this evening.

And we are just so grateful for you, brother, that you would uh be willing to be here with us, and especially grateful to your family for lending you to us this morning.

Uh Costie is married to Christine.

They have six kids.

Uh he he confessed that they did buy a larger vehicle in order to fit all the children in it.

Uh and and they are um, I'm sure missing you this morning, but we're grateful to have you here, brother.

Would you bring the word, Emmanuel?

Would you welcome Costi in the Thank you so much for allowing me to come and serve you today and grateful to Pastor Jesse and and all of you, the elders here, for uh your kindness.

Uh Pastor Dan as well, thank you for your hospitality.

Uh the time change, yeah, it's a thing this morning.

I didn't know what day it was or what time it was.

Uh three hours is no joke, but it's been so fun.

I was landing and looking out the window like a kid.

I've not really been to Washington, D.C., uh, except for an hour, I think, once for a layover.

But this time, just looking at all the historical stuff.

I think the older I get, the more I appreciate too, our nation and its history.

And my oldest son is really patriotic, so he's obsessed.

He's reading all of this stuff, and they want me to bring them home gifts and all of this.

And I'm just like, guys, I carried on.

Okay, relax.

I'll take you back for some tourism another time.

But uh wonderful to get to be with you.

It's such a treasure, and I'm very much grateful.

Uh as I was thinking about what I could preach to encourage you and uh and really care for your soul.

I'm not your your primary pastor or preacher, but the duty of the man who takes the pulpit is the same everywhere you go.

I need to minister the word of God to you.

I was praying and thinking, what would I be able to bring that would be understandable, relatable, timely, appropriate, relevant?

I mean, all of God's word is timely and right, but a shepherd knows his sheep the way I certainly do back home.

And I began just thinking about how important prayer is, no matter where you are, and in any culture, any society, any nation, any state, any church, the importance of prayer for a Christian is paramount.

I've been studying the topic of spiritual warfare over this last, you know, year plus of another book coming out in the new year on the topic.

And the reason I dove into it is because a theology of spiritual warfare is vital because as Christians, we are constantly at war.

Amen.

I mean, that's just the reality.

But the war is not seen so much.

The results of it are, or the the manifestations, if you want to call them that are, but the war is spiritual.

And as you study the topic of spiritual warfare, you quickly find maybe this has been your experience as well.

There's a couple of extremes on either side of the aisle.

You have over here, uh, maybe you grew up like I did, kind of, we were over on this section of thinking where spiritual warfare is, you know, the devil is around every corner.

And there's like a demon in everything.

So you're casting the devil and demons out of the morning traffic.

That's just him attacking you, which I mean, you guys, Washington, D.C.

is apparently full of demons uh with traffic.

You know, and and the engine, the engine goes.

Your car won't start, and you're like, ah, it's the devil again.

We got to rebuke the devil.

He keeps, you know, messing with my car engine.

Um, and on this side, what you probably have is, you know, the devil being blamed for a lot of things he's just not doing, right?

I was sitting with one man uh a number of years ago in my church, offering some counsel to him.

You know, he said, Costa, you know, the devil really has it out for me.

He just keeps attacking me.

And he began to list all of these things that the devil is doing.

And on the list, uh, one of them was a speeding ticket.

And I remember just explaining it to him in a pastoral way, but just blunt and lovingly as a brother, my friend, uh, not only is everything on the list uh self-inflicted, but especially the speeding ticket, we can't blame the devil for things that he isn't doing.

It's not fair.

We need to blame him for what he actually does.

And there's kind of that mentality where there's an over-emphasis on it.

On the flip side, in circles perhaps like ours, where we highly and rightly value doctrine, theology, the train is on the tracks with what we teach and the way we teach it, we can become a little bit, dare I say, over-rationalistic, where everything has an answer, everything has a solution, things that we can't explain, we say, ah, you know, that's just made up, or that's, you know, not this.

And we we're so used to having clean and clear answers, which God's word has so many, that when something does have an element of mystery or you can't see it, well, we tend to try to explain it away because it might make us uncomfortable or we can't just put our finger on it.

But the reality is when it comes to spiritual warfare, the devil doesn't really care which side you land on, so long as you are off the tracks of what God's word calls you to.

Whether it's an over-emphasis on the sensationalistic side of spiritual warfare, or it's you know, rationalizing everything.

The enemy laughs and mocks at this group as he sees a group of people in sort of chaos, putting too much emphasis on things, and they're just confused anyway, so he doesn't care.

They're not a threat to him because they're all over the place.

And then this group, the enemy will laugh and mock because he sees a group that is really oblivious to what he's actually doing.

And so he and his demonic minions go on the prowl and do what they do, and this group is rationalizing and explaining things away, this group over-emphasizing the wrong things, and spiritual warfare continues.

What is the key to walking in balance and walking in victory and understanding the Christian source of power, or you want to call it the our ability or our level of power?

It's prayer.

Prayer is our weapon, prayer is our superpower, if you want to call it.

And I think it's important for us to understand what the Word of God says on this particular aspect of prayer.

There's so much that you could say about spiritual warfare and demonic activity and the spiritual realm and all of those things, and certainly on prayer.

But I think this will be a great starting point for us to just ask some bigger questions about our own prayer lives and how those relate to the spiritual war that the Christian is engaged in.

If you'll turn in your Bible to Ephesians chapter 6, I want to bring our attention to verses 18 to 20.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul has just finished explaining and outlining the armor of God, and I've always found it interesting that prayer is not a part of the armor.

It's just not.

When your kid dresses up in that little Christian bookstore, armor of God, anybody remember that when you were a kid?

You you get it special ordered now, everyone just uses Amazon and clicks buy now and it just arrives at your front door.

And so you have the armor of God.

You won't find prayer.

You'll find the word of God as the primary weapon, but you won't find prayer.

And so you end up wondering, you know, where is prayer in all of this?

Well, Paul, in verse 18, emphasizes prayer as the tie-off or the capstone, if you want to call it, to the armor of God to present what I believe to be a very clear picture that without prayer, the Christian is powerless in the battle.

You can put on the armor, but if you don't pray, you're missing out on one of God's greatest gifts to us.

Now, just to be consistent with the other services, I don't want to make you feel left out.

I had them all stand for the reading of God's word.

And so if you would stand for the reading of God's word, let's read verses 18 to 20 in Ephesians chapter 6, and then we'll pray and we'll jump right in here.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

Paul says, with all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.

And pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

That is the word of God to us today.

You may be seated.

Let's pray together.

Father, I pray that your word would penetrate our hearts today in a way that really makes us appreciate the gift of prayer, but also to see our immense need for it.

We recognize that without prayer we're powerless.

We recognize that there are a lot of assumptions we make or just weird teaching out there, and it can conflate and fog this amazing gift that you've given us.

I pray that today you'd help me to be a faithful servant to my brothers and my sisters here, to preach to them and preach to my own heart.

That we might walk out the doors today more motivated to pray, eager to pray, more confident to pray, because we know that you will work through prayer.

I pray in all of our strivings to serve you and to love you and to bring you glory and to fight the good fight of faith that we would not ever lay aside the effective weapon of a faithful prayer life.

Guide us, we pray.

In Christ's name.

Amen.

You know, whether you're facing trials in your life or sickness in your body, you might be facing anxiety, any level of challenge with your emotions.

Maybe you feel like you're under spiritual attack.

Could be challenges at work, could be children that you desire to be saved.

If you're in my life stage, you have children on a long span, a wide span of ages.

You want to see the younger ones come to faith.

Maybe you're an older uh parent here with adult children and you see that they've gone prodigal or they've walked away from the church and you long to see them saved.

You might be a person that's very driven, you got big goals you want God to accomplish and open doors, and you're asking him to do certain things.

The bottom line is prayer is your superpower.

That's the way I would describe it.

That's the title of the message, because I think we have to, we need to desperately recapture an emphasis on prayer and see it as the powerful weapon that it is.

We need to rightly emphasize doctrine, I think we do, theology, we do, fellowship within the church and discipleship, but prayer is really the power source for the church.

I think about a story from church history that became kind of widely circulated over the years.

These five young college students went to see the famous Charles Spurgeon back in the day.

They wanted to meet him and see him face to face.

They didn't know what he looked like, and so they show up to Metropolitan Tabernacle, where Spurgeon is the pastor, and they're waiting for the doors to open when a man comes up to them, and as the story goes, he says, you know, hi, how are you?

And doesn't really introduce himself, just says, you know, are you waiting for the service?

They say yes.

He says, Well, would you like me to show you around for a little bit until the service starts?

And they said, That would be wonderful.

And so they figure they'll get a free tour while they wait for the service to begin.

And one of the first things he says to them is, you know, gentlemen, would you like to see the boiler room of the church, the heating plant, the room that heats the place up?

And they thought that was weird and odd and not necessary, but not wanting to be rude, they obliged and joined him.

And then went down a stairwell.

And as they got closer and closer to this particular door, they could hear the rumbling of what seemed to be voices.

And the gentleman opened the door quietly, and the students saw several hundred people bowed in prayer, praying for the service that was to take place on the floor above them.

The gentleman softly closed the door and said, Gentlemen, that that is the heating plant.

That is the boiler room.

That is the power source of this church.

And then he introduced himself as, of course, none other than Charles Spurgeon himself.

You know, the greatest lesson he could teach those young men who wanted to meet Spurgeon and see the man behind the ministry, was that prayer is the power source of the church.

Spurgeon knew it.

There's another old historical anecdote that no one seems to be able to confirm whether true or not, but it's said that Spurgeon, if certain Sundays were not as effective or his sermons weren't as effective, that the first place he'd look was the prayer ministry.

Imagine that.

The pastor preaches an absolute dud, walks out the doors to the prayer room and says, What was wrong with you all today?

You know, stories like that remind me.

Not to break the prayer ministry, but just to appreciate the power of prayer.

It's our power source.

Prayer is the key to communicating with God, to confessing sin, to aligning your will with the will of God.

That's really what prayer is all about.

Lord, align my heart with yours.

Align my will with your will.

Not, oh God, do everything I want, do everything I need, please, God, help me, and more and more and more about me.

No.

It's about Him.

And people often ask, you know, if God is sovereign and He knows all things and He's just going to do everything anyway according to His will, then why pray?

It's a fair question.

We pray because He's commanded us to, so there's that.

That's kind of the because the Bible says so type of answer.

But there's more.

God's not only sovereign and decreeing His will and unfolding it, but He's also decreed that prayer would be a means by which He accomplishes His will.

He wants you to participate.

It's when you pray for the person to get saved and they do, and you're thinking, wait, what was that?

Was that me in my prayer?

Was that God?

Yes.

God saves, but He chooses to use the prayers of His people.

When a door opens that you've been praying for, was that you?

You made it open with your powerful prayer life?

Well, okay, but also God.

Had God ordained and willed that He would put you where you are today on this date, put you in the job you're in, the school you're in, the life stage you're in, and use you according to His glory?

Absolutely.

Are there prayers associated with that reality coming to pass?

Absolutely.

Prayer is communion with God, and if you want to say it this way, participating with God's sovereign plan.

What a joy.

What a gift.

If only we would see it that way.

And that's what Paul's entire point here is.

He wants the church to see that the key to winning spiritual warfare, the key to winning battles in your life, the key to walking in power, real supernatural power, is prayer.

Now there's an important grammatical aspect here that's really helpful for understanding what Paul is getting at, and it's that phrase, praying at all times in the spirit.

The verb there, you know, pray to pray.

It's not just a verb, that's a participle.

You know, praying at all times in the spirit is a participle.

How this all works is really simple if you just think about telling your kid to clean their room.

Sometimes Greek grammar is best understood through basic everyday stories.

You know, you picture you tell your child, clean your room.

That's the primary imperative command.

Clean your room.

A participle would be to say, with all diligence and uh miraculous obedience, picking up the dirty clothing and bringing order to the chaos, the child cleaned their room.

The participle is picking up the clothing.

The driving verb that started everything was what?

Clean your room.

In this section, even though prayer is not exactly a part of the armor of God, it flows, that participle, praying, the verb there, praying at all times in the spirit, is the outworking of stand firm.

The original statement in the armor of God.

When Paul says stand firm, having done everything to stand firm, standing firm to resist the enemy, that's the driving force of this section.

How do you stand firm then?

What's the outworking of standing firm?

Praying at all times in the Spirit.

So do you need prayer to win at spiritual war?

Absolutely.

Do you need prayer to be an effective Christian?

Absolutely.

Can you survive a day in the Christian life without prayer?

No.

Not fruitfully and effectively.

We need to pray.

Prayer is a gift.

And Paul wants the church to win.

Because you can't stand firm without prayer.

And so he says to pray.

I want to cover four approaches here.

That'll just help us apply the Word of God in this particular text.

The first is going to be to pray thoughtfully.

Number two, pray constantly.

Number three, pray stubbornly.

And number four, pray selflessly.

Let's look at the first one together.

Number one, pray thoughtfully.

He says, with all prayer and petition.

Two words.

A lot of people think, oh, it's just the same thing.

Like with all prayer and petition, okay.

Just pray.

He's being very specific.

And the idea here is spiritual warfare and living the victorious Christian life, having a victorious prayer life, will include a variety of prayers.

The term prayer is more general, the term petition is more specific.

Paul basically urging a well-rounded prayer life in public and in private.

You're confessing sin.

You're asking God to meet needs, offering thanksgiving, intercession, all of it.

And this really is what the prayer life of Paul looked like.

One time for a seminary assignment, I had to put together all of Paul's New Testament prayers.

And I ended up counting 41.

There could be more, there could be a few less.

But overall, I took every statement.

I made a cute little chart.

I was really proud of myself.

And in there was all of these different statements.

You know, I thank God for you in my prayers.

You know, I'd include that one.

I pray that you, I'd include that one.

And I made this chart, I still have it.

There's 41 prayers in there.

And I remember as I was doing the study, I was so convicted because the way Paul prayed didn't look much like the way I prayed and the way that the church at the time that I was a part of, the way we prayed.

We were younger in the Lord.

And and prayer meetings and prayer times, they just tended to be full of things that I think God cares about.

He does.

He God is not ignoring, you know, grandma's knee surgery.

But like that, the primary prayer.

It's like so-and-so has cancer, grandma's getting a knee replacement, uh, grandpa's getting a hip replacement, little Johnny or Jimmy has a presentation tomorrow, and we hope that little Nikki, you know, hits a home run in the tournament this weekend so we can win.

You know, it's like, that's great.

I don't think God's God's disinterested in those things, but that's not what Paul prayed for.

In the New Testament, what you will find is Paul not praying for a happier, healthier, more prosperous life.

He's not praying for comfort and strength.

Safety per se.

He's not even praying for escape from prison.

By the way, this is part of the prison epistles.

Paul is in chains.

He's not praying for everything to go really awesome for a bunch of physical earthly needs.

Again, God is not against those.

You can offer him supplications, but the priority of Paul's prayer life is seen in the way he offers gratitude for the faith of the church, prayers for wisdom, open doors for the gospel, the unity of the church, the love of the church, the provision of the church, and the peace of the church.

The idea being that in your prayer life and prayer list, in your prayers and petitions, we want to be thoughtful.

We don't offer God up, you know, oh God, help me have a good day, bless me, uh, heal me, take care of me and my family, and bless everyone in Jesus' name.

Amen.

A lot of new believers may pray that way.

I'm not meaning to shame you if that's you.

I just want you to know to pray that way ongoing and not to learn and study and then take what we study today and apply it, is to be, you know, saying, I'm thirsty, I want to drink, and you're standing right near a gorgeous waterfall flowing into a pure, unadulterated water source that you could drink from, and you take an eyedropper and you just kind of drip little drops onto your tongue.

There's so much more available for you.

So much that God has given that He wants you to enjoy.

A powerful prayer life is not for the spiritually elite, it's for everybody in the church.

We just have to be more thoughtful.

You know, some people have a boring prayer life.

And it's not because they're a boring person.

We just don't put the same level of thoughtfulness into our prayer life as we do with other things.

And so Paul's words become an immediate encouragement, maybe a jolt to your system and to mind to put thoughtfulness into our prayer life.

If you want to say, pray intentionally.

That's another great way to say it.

I don't doubt your love for God.

I would hope you don't doubt my love for God.

We all love God.

You want to enjoy Him.

It's not like you have a simple prayer life because you don't love Him.

We just need to be more intentional.

You say, what do we look to?

How do we do this?

I think Matthew chapter 6 and the Lord's Prayer is a great model for this.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

Where Jesus begins with, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

You can praise God in your prayers.

You say, that's it?

Like, yes.

Just praise him.

Offer up praise to God, adoration to him.

Jesus also says, Your kingdom come, your will be done.

What is that?

It's submission to the will of God.

What a joy and what a release for all your anxiety, your pressures, that the weight on you to perform and kind of make it all happen in whatever God has called you to do.

What a joy to say, Lord, in all of my strivings and labors today.

You can do this tomorrow morning on the way into work, wherever you're going.

Lord, in all of my strivings today and the pressures I carry, your will be done.

Whatever you want today, do it.

It's your day.

I'm your servant doing your work, your will be done.

And now you can take whatever comes your way and say, it's clearly God's will.

And you say, Well, what if I encounter something bad?

God is the author of evil?

No.

But it's clearly God's will that you be sanctified by a trial.

Clearly God's will that you encounter that trial or challenge and be sanctified in your heart and be the right person that God has called you to be, even though someone else isn't being the person that God would have them be.

Whatever you're facing, it was the will of God today that was a hard day.

And he was testing me.

And I'm passing the test.

Like gold being refined by fire, whatever it is.

Give us this day our daily bread.

You can pray for provision.

God's not angry or mad at you for praying for a job promotion or advancement in your work or more money to provide.

You just have to double-check the motive.

Give us this day our daily bread.

You know, James has a lot to say about praying with impure motives.

Remember, he rebukes the church and says, you know, you ask and you don't receive because all you do is ask with selfish motives.

You just want a bunch of stuff for yourself.

But to ask for our daily bread is to depend on God for provision.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

If you ever say, I just think I would run out of things to pray.

I don't really pray that long.

Just camp there.

All the things that I've done to sin against other people and all the things people have done to sin against me, it'd probably take five to ten minutes to deal with either your need to confess sin or your need to release people who have hurt you.

Bitterness is tough.

It plagues all of us.

You know how you deal with it?

Prayer It's hard to hate people that you're praying for, isn't it?

It's really hard.

You should try it sometime.

It'll help.

That's why Jesus says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

He's not validating what the sinner has done, he's just making sure that his disciples have the right heart while they're dealing with very difficult people.

Deliver us from evil, protection, and purity.

Maybe you want to keep a prayer journal or write some of these things down.

I think that's been helpful for me over the years.

Just jotting down prayers, writing down times God has answered prayers.

Remember Paul Washer saying, pray specific prayers, you'll get specific answers.

And that was really helpful for me.

Number two, Paul says, pray constantly.

Pray at all times in the spirit.

At all times means at every opportunity.

And what he's describing here is a life of continual communion with God.

Now there's a phrase there, in the spirit.

Sometimes trips people up, they look and think, okay, is that is that speaking in tongues?

Is that something mystical?

Is that like a private prayer language thing?

Like, what do I have to do to pray in the spirit?

Because if I if I can't pray in the spirit, I can't even do what this text says to do, so then I'm a sitting duck in spiritual warfare.

It's an important question.

To pray in something or in the name of something or in line with something, in this case, someone, the spirit is not an it, he is a person, is the same idea as praying in Jesus' name.

Anytime you see that in the Bible, you know, in the name of or in something or in someone, what it's describing is something historically and and culturally they would have had a clear handle on, is to pray in the name or to be in the name of.

It's like if you name your son after your father, you name someone after someone.

You're you're aligning them with the character and reputation of that individual.

To pray in Jesus' name is not a magic phrase you slap on the end of like all of your requests, and if you say in Jesus' name, like, well, he'll do it.

No, to pray in in Jesus' name is to pray in the name of, aligned with the character, reputation, and consistent action of Christ.

So now you think, oh, to pray in Jesus' name is to pray for things aligned with the way Jesus thinks and who he is.

To pray in the Spirit is to pray in submission to the Spirit, in alignment with the Spirit.

And when you think about the Holy Spirit's job description in John 16, Jesus is telling the disciples what he's going to do, what does Jesus say?

He says, He will glorify me.

Jesus talking about himself.

And so if the Holy Spirit's job description is to put the spotlight on Jesus and bring glory to Jesus, to pray in the Spirit is to pray submitted to the Spirit of God in a way that will glorify Jesus.

And so now all of a sudden we begin to ask is what I'm praying for going to bring glory to Christ?

How can I glorify Christ with the answer God gives me?

Is what I'm asking for going to be useful in the hand of my King.

There's another aspect of here that aligns with the Holy Spirit in our prayer life.

And it's paralleled in Romans chapter 8, in particular, Romans 8, 26 and 27, where Paul is describing, by the way, just the greatest chapter on Christian assurance and what God has done and what he's going to do.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

If you struggle at all, by the way, with assurance of salvation, does God love you?

Is he going to hold on to you?

Can anything steal you from him?

You know, what about this and what about that?

The love of God and his pursuit of his people, just go read Romans 8 tonight and you're going to sleep better than you ever have.

Great chapter.

In the midst of it, there's this statement that Paul makes.

And he says that the Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And that he can discern the will of God.

He can see into the hearts of men.

It's kind of this whole picture of the way God is operating.

The Spirit intercedes with groanings too deep for words.

What does that mean?

It means that you don't understand it.

You don't even know what's going on.

You're at a loss for words.

And you don't ever have to worry about what to pray and how to say everything perfectly and how to impress God with your prayer life.

The Bible says that the Spirit is interceding for you.

So sometimes, brother or sister, to just pray constantly doesn't mean to have a lot of words and to be eloquent and be such a powerful prayer warrior because you sound so good.

It can even be the humble Christian, weak and frail, simply saying, God, I don't even have the words right now.

But I thank you that the Spirit of the Living God is interceding for me and praying for me with the words I don't have.

That the Spirit of the Living God is standing in the gap for me and filling it in.

Bridging heaven and earth.

Looking out for me, caring for me, ministering to me.

It's a beautiful promise from God.

You know, we should pray constantly because Satan takes no days off.

Why would we ever take a day off prayer?

We don't take vacations from it.

We need it.

The Ephesians did.

They lived in a pagan world full of idolatry, immorality, indulgence, no different than our day.

Every day was a spiritual battle, so every day Paul calls them to pray.

We need prayer.

Prayer is a lifeline.

And that's what pray without ceasing is all about.

It's a lifestyle.

I think we often say, you know, I don't pray enough.

I think a lot of us would say that, you know, I don't pray enough.

I could always pray more.

Even even the prayer warriors in the room go, I could always pray more.

I can always pray longer.

Okay, that's the what.

You talk about the why, though.

Why?

Why don't we pray?

Why don't we pray enough?

Why don't we pray at all?

It's not for lack of time.

I believe it's a lack of focus.

We know this to be true in business, life, with your health, your fitness, the body, education.

What you focus on, what you love, what you kind of imprint on, you say, I'm gonna accomplish that, you will do.

Amen?

You set your mind to it, you're gonna do it.

You begin to look at your life.

I do the same thing in my own life.

I go, I don't think I have a focus problem.

I I focus real fine when I want something.

You know, recently uh I enjoy golf.

It's something I do with my sons and our kids, and I my sons are starting to get so good at golf that they're nipping on my heels a little too much for my liking, and so I had to get better at golf.

And I always get concerned.

Like, if I'm too good at golf as a pastor, we know I'm not shepherding.

So I always need to, you know.

That's my excuse.

I always tell my boys when they're like, oh dad, we almost beat you.

I'm like, yeah, I pay for you to go golf, fellas.

I'm pastoring a church.

So when I'm still beating you, what's your excuse, you know?

Pastors don't need to be, you don't want me breaking into the 70s.

This is not good for soul care.

But I needed to figure out some things with my putting.

So I got on YouTube, and the same way that I apply myself to theology, to study, to curiosity, to become a better theologian, a better preacher, and a better pastor to serve the souls of my people, I sought to become a better putter.

And recently, on a family vacation, my wife and children happened to be just off of a green.

I was golfing with a few uh church members, and I, on a par three, it's no boast of my own.

I just, it happened to be I put the ball right on the green about 12 feet from the hole, and they were all, my family was watching.

And I get up to the green, and my sons are like doing this to me, and I go to putting.

And I find out after, in that very moment, that my wife had said to my son, What is he doing?

I changed my grip, and it looks a little weird, but it works for me.

And I found a guy on YouTube who does this, and it worked for him.

And I started draining putts left and right.

And so I thought, I don't care if I look like, you know, a hockey player or whatever, you know, you think I'm hunched over.

I'm gonna, I'm bearing putts.

And so sure enough, without knowing, apparently my wife had said, it looks so odd.

And my oldest son said, Mom, trust me, dad's been nailing his putts lately.

I know it looks weird.

And right at that moment, my son said, Right when you hit the birdie putt, Dad, I looked at mom and said, Told you.

And she said, I don't care.

He still looks really weird.

And you know, I think of that.

I think of the hours we put into, you know, helping your kid with his poster board for his project.

Some of you ladies, you know, or men, but it it can it often is the ladies, you know, you you scroll deals with the best of them.

You're a bargain gal.

Some of you, you're you're building a business.

And right now you're on all those websites and the coaching things, you're gonna 10x everything.

And you're like, I'm gonna build my business and this and that.

Some of you, it's politics, of course.

We're in DC, you know, all of it.

We don't have a problem focusing, do we?

We know what we want, we go and get it, we figure it out, and we do it.

I think we need to have a reworking of our mindset when it comes to prayer, and we start seeing prayer as more essential than all of the things we're trying to grow in in our life, because it is the most essential gift we've been given by God besides salvation.

That I can talk to Him, that I can pour my heart, that I can receive empowerment from Him.

I don't need a better golf game, we don't need more money.

I don't need to become better at doing this or that or the other, so much as we need to have communion with our God.

You want the secret to a healthier marriage?

Pray.

With one another, for one another.

You want to know the secret to overcoming the sin that you're in war against?

Prayer.

The secret to unity in the church?

Prayer.

The secret to overcoming all of life's greatest challenges and facing the trials that God does allow in your life?

Prayer.

John Piper said this: one of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook, he was talking about social media, will be to prove at the last day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.

I didn't like when he said that.

It's too convicting.

How often we just we scroll.

We focus on all sorts of things.

And so today's just a great opportunity for you and I to take inventory of how we discipline our time for the purpose of prayer.

It doesn't mean you don't need to become better at all those other things.

It just means that before you reach for the phone in the morning and check the stock market tomorrow and how things are kicking off, we pray.

Before we open up the email app to see what we got waiting for us, we pray.

Before we answer the text messages or turn on the news or try to listen to it, we pray.

And I notice some of you that seems crazy.

You say, Costin, you don't understand.

I wake up and I gotta go.

There's pressure on me.

Listen, the words of Martin Luther are so helpful here.

He said one time so counterintuitively, I have so much to do today.

I'll need to pray for three hours to get it all done.

Isn't that interesting?

The busier you are, the busier I am, the more we need to pray.

Third, pray stubbornly.

He says, with this in view, be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition, pray stubbornly.

This is to be obstinate in prayer.

In other words, I am giving you permission to be stubborn.

Obstinate.

No, I will not stop praying.

No, I won't move my prayer life.

No, I won't push this off till later.

The time to pray is now.

I set an appointment with God.

Daniel modeled this in Babylon.

Respectful, meek, but he refused to stop praying, even if it meant a lion's den.

I don't think anyone's gonna kill you tomorrow morning for praying.

Make it your habit.

That kind of resolve is what Paul's urging here.

He understands.

You know, if you're gonna stand firm in spiritual warfare, you gotta kneel often in prayer before the Lord.

And so we are stubborn about our prayer lives.

And we don't give up quickly.

I know sometimes you don't feel like praying.

Remember a preacher one time saying, pray until you can pray, and then pray until you have prayed.

Just stay.

If you feel spiritually cold, you say, I don't feel very, very hot right now, spiritually, Costi.

Pray that the Holy Spirit would set your heart ablaze.

Isn't that amazing?

I don't think we think about that often enough.

God has ordained and allowed that you come to him and even ask him for the things you need and you don't have.

I don't feel like it.

Pray and ask him to give you a hunger.

I'm not thirsty for it.

Pray and ask him to give you a thirst.

That can only be quenched by time with him.

He'll do it.

If you feel weak, pray.

You think about that beautiful song we sing?

Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe.

Sin had left it a crimson stain.

He washed it white as snow.

You remember that line in that particular song?

Child of weakness, watch and pray.

You remember that line?

What does the great hymn say after that?

It's a God declaring, child of weakness, watch and pray.

Find in me, capital M, thine all in all.

You're weak?

Oh, you're the perfect candidate for a powerful, needy prayer life.

God will meet you right where you are.

Find in him your strength.

Find in him your resolve.

Find in him your hunger.

And so we need to be watchful and stubborn in prayer.

And finally, number four, we pray selflessly.

For all the saints, pray on my behalf that utterance will be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

What does Paul pray for?

Not comfort, not protection, not even release, and he's probably going to go before Nero pretty soon.

He prays that God would make him bold where he is.

Some of you need to stop praying for God to get you out of your circumstances, and you begin to pray that he'll keep you faithful in the midst of them.

That you speak the truth.

You got a difficult boss?

Good.

God put you there.

You got trials in your life?

Yeah.

God put them there.

You in a certain position where just being a Christian is going to be a little abrasive, gonna cause some friction.

Yeah, you are literally the only sermon that that unbeliever might hear.

They won't come through a church door.

And so God puts you in front of them to live on mission for his glory.

Don't pray to get out of everything.

Pray that God would keep you faithful in it.

And he says for all the saints, why?

Because the church stands firm in prayer together.

Our unity is linked to prayer.

So I want you to think about your prayer life no longer as something individual and private.

It is, on one hand, private with you and God, but you know what else?

It's a corporate thing.

I need your prayer life.

You need my prayer life.

We need each other's prayer lives.

Prayer is something everybody needs.

It's something we want to hold one another accountable with and teach on and talk about and participate in.

Because when persecution assaults the church, we pray for one another.

When sin is at the door, we pray for one another.

When we're tempted to be a coward, we pray for one another.

When we're bearing the weight of suffering together, we pray for one another.

When we're crippled by fear or distracted by the things of this world, we pray for one another.

Paul understands prayer is the power source behind the weapons of our warfare.

And walking in victory together.

And so we want to normalize dependency and consistency in prayer.

You know, uh a lot of people don't always understand what's going on behind the scenes with pastors, and I'm sure Pastor Jesse would affirm this.

Prayer is the not-so-secret weapon, the not-so-secret sauce for effectiveness in ministry.

You know, one of my favorite things to share with people of just how much it's God that builds the church is to talk about how those weeks when you really study a lot.

I have found, at least in on this side of ministry in these first, you know, 12 years, that the weeks I have lots of study time and I set up my hymns and I have all my books and everything is just perfect, and everybody leaves me alone, they're very dangerous weeks.

Because I go into the pulpit thinking, man, I've really studied, like this thing's gonna be a home run.

Those historically are the worst sermons I've preached.

And there becomes this overconfidence, almost an over-reliance.

I'm not saying don't study.

Believe me, we study.

But this relishing in it all, where you really feel like, man, I really like I went deep.

I'm about to take these people into the holy of holies and teach them stuff they'd never heard.

You know, the young preacher, you get a little high on all your study.

And those are always the ones I can I can count them.

But on one hand, thank God, but more to come, young.

And usually one of those will result in I get home and I'm like, I don't know.

I if it went the way I wanted it.

And usually my wife kind of gives me one of those really sweet but blunt, you know, my wife is that way.

She'll go, hey, uh, what what what happened there?

What's going on?

It's like, yeah, I I had that going differently in my mind.

Didn't she say, You had a good study week?

I'm like, oh yeah, tons of hours.

I mean, no one, I no interruptions, no problems, no counseling, no shepherding, 911s, nothing.

Just like clean.

Like I got to study.

You know, I got the classic, like John MacArthur says, lock him in there for three days.

And I'm like, where in the world do you find three days where you don't have to pastor anything else?

I just leave me alone with my books.

Well, he was older.

I'm not John MacArthur.

Like, I got that.

I was like in there for three days.

Let's do this every week.

And the sermon was terrible.

What happened?

Well, compare that with other weeks where you know you don't get to study.

It's not three days in the Holy of Holies, nobody bothered you, Pastor.

You had a funeral, a wedding, a marriage counseling 911, an interruption.

A staff member has a tough week.

Somebody else has a miscarriage, and just constantly things interrupting study, and you start thinking, I'm going to preach a terrible sermon on Sunday.

And you have those moments where you go to the Lord privately and you say, Lord, here's what I got.

These are the hours, these are the days, these are the time slots, and I'm begging you, I'm pleading with you.

It's like you bring your five loaves and your two fish because you're you're really worried it won't be enough to feed the people.

I can tell you, like clockwork, not ever is an excuse to not study at all.

Don't mean that.

But those weeks when you think, I don't think I'm bringing much to the table here.

Like clockwork.

People will walk up and say, Man, Pastor, you must had a great study this week.

That was a phenomenal sermon.

And you go, if they only knew.

Your wife tells you, you know, I pulled that one off.

What was it?

It's not that you study a lot or you study a little and it's some formula to preach better sermons.

No, it's simple.

You can study a lot and not be dependent.

Amen.

And you can be faithful about the Father's business and not feel like you bring much to the table this week, Christian.

But you're dependent and you're humble in prayer.

And what does God do?

He shows off his power.

So you get the credit, I do?

No way.

He gets all the glory and all the credit, and you just say, Oh, that is all the Lord.

That's all his grace, all his goodness.

And you go right back to the same mentality of dependency.

Because the bottom line is the soldier can possess every piece of equipment imaginable, like modern-day warfare, the helmet, the body armor, the rifle, the ammunition, all the training.

But if he's cut off from communicating with his commanding officer, eventually what happens?

You're going to lose the battle.

You don't know anything that's going on.

You're cut off from the source.

You're not dependent.

And so the greatest problem doesn't become, you know, I've got a lack of knowledge and a lack of this and a lack of talent.

No, no.

It's a lack of communication with God.

And the reason why Paul spends several verses unpacking the armor, but then goes, pray at all times in the Spirit is because the armor was never intended to function independently of dependence on God through prayer.

So, doctrine is essential, yes.

Study is essential.

Discipleship, maturity, absolutely.

You're not living the Christian life on cruise control and then go, I'm going to throw one up to the big guy upstairs and we'll pull this out of.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's not how it works.

You're not pulling stuff out of a hat.

You are faithful.

You are working diligently at whatever God has called you to do.

But remembering that without prayer, you and I are a shell of righteous works with no power, like a car full of gas, but with no engine in the hood.

We're going nowhere without prayer.

But with it, oh, we have all the power that God intends us to have to live victoriously for his glory.

Amen.

Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you so much for your word and the reminder that when we're really impressed with ourselves and all that we can do and all that we know, if we neglect prayer, we've come to the table without that which we need the most.

But with prayer.

Oh, the weak is strong.

The hungry are fed.

The thirsty are quenched.

Help us to depend on you more than ever through prayer this week.

Help us to align our will with yours.

And to see it not as a task of legalism, but as a joyful communion with you, our God, not because we have to, but because we get to.

What a joy to love you and enjoy you through prayer.

I pray that as we go forth, we would prioritize it and relish in the gift that it is.

We pray in Christ's name.

Amen.

And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibt.church.

If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to tf.edu.

Now, if you're not a member of the local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.

area, we'd love to have you worship with the Spirit of Manual.

I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.

But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you speak use constantly.

Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel both.