"Armed for Battle: Words that Win" Ephesians 6:18-20 Sunday Morning Worship Service

Verses 18 through 20, Paul commands us to be praying at all times in the spirit with all prayers 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.

These verses really bring the book of Ephesians to a close.

As I mentioned tonight, we'll look at the instructions of Tychicus, who's really just delivering it.

So the passage I just read, verses 18 through 20, that really is the conclusion of the book.

It should strike you how different the book ends than where it began.

Ephesians began up in the sky.

Ephesians begin in heaven with the triune counsel of God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, together designing salvation.

That's how the book began.

Before the worlds were created, in the triune infinite glory of God, they decreed all that would happen.

They designed salvation.

The Father decreed to send the Son.

The Son would be the Redeemer.

The Spirit would come and save us.

This is the triune council of God that is perfect and covers all of redemptive history.

That's Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

You don't get any higher than that.

That's the deep end of the swimming pool.

There's no deeper part to go than Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

The stretches of what our mind can comprehend, it stretched the limits in Ephesians chapter 1.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

So we're up as high as we go in chapter 1.

The book ends not up in heaven, but the book ends down on earth with the sinner on his knees praying.

The book begins with your mind in the clouds and ends with your knees on the ground.

This should put to death any idea that there's a dichotomy or a war or a tension between faith and practice, between theology and prayer.

It's often been said that theology is the enemy of prayer.

The people that talk about theology or doctrine too much pray little.

The book of Ephesians, I submitted to you as exhibit A that that's not true.

You don't get any deeper theology than you find in Ephesians, and yet it ends with a command to pray.

I don't think Paul was being, you know, anticipating the Enlightenment era or the 1900s liberalism era of the idea that theology and knowledge dilute prayer life.

And so he's like, you know what, I'm going to get ahead of the Enlightenment, and I'm going to write a book that starts with theology and ends with prayer.

That'll teach him.

This is just the reality.

This is just the world.

This is how Paul operates.

He's telling you, I want you to pray more.

And the best way to get you to pray more is to take you up to heaven to see what God is doing there in designing salvation.

I mean, just see the difference between God and you, and that should motivate prayer.

Here's the difference between God and you.

This book begins with the infinite counsel of God, where he decrees all that would happen, and it ends with us.

I mean, you we don't decree anything, do we?

Some of you might have plans of what you're going to do for lunch in an hour, and most of them aren't going to come true.

You know that, right?

And yet before time, God decreed all things.

There's a huge delta between the divine glory and ourselves.

And the result of understanding that delta should be prayer.

The result of us seeing the great gap between God and ourselves should be a dependence upon the Lord in prayer.

That's why the book ends this way.

The amazing thing about this book, I know we've been in it for so long, you can see the trees and maybe lose sight of the forest here.

I just want to remind you, Paul, this book is expertly put together by Paul where he's layering themes on top of each other.

It's like the Encanto soundtrack.

You know, it's one thing here and then it appears again here, and it appears again there, and appears again there, and it's over and over and over again these themes, he's weaving them together all book long, and they kind of crescendo here in the call for prayer.

As I mentioned earlier, you see the divine council of election, and that plays itself out as the spirit seals a person's heart.

And then in chapter two, the spirit causes you to go from death to life, and the spirit brings unity in the church.

And then in chapter three, the spirit is causing you to walk in a newness of life as you live, Jew and Gentile, together in the temple that God Himself is building, as He designed it.

In chapter four, the Spirit gives you gifts to fill out life in the temple.

In chapter five, there's this spirit-filled life.

Don't be drunk, but fill with the spirit that produces this spirit-filled sanctification.

And then in chapter six, the spirit is working in you to put on the spiritual armor.

So you can stand against the devil and stand against the temptation.

It's the one who rules the world in chapter two.

The devil, the prince of this world, in chapter six is fighting against you, and the spirit who brought you out of the devil's hand in chapter two now protects you against him in chapter six.

This whole thing is layered on top of each other.

There's no falling words in the book of Ephesians.

Every word is captured and recycled and funneled back into it.

Until the end.

While pleads with you to pray.

I mean, wouldn't you know it?

We've gone through this whole book of Ephesians, and at the end of it, it turns out to be a prayer letter.

You didn't see that coming six chapters or five and a half chapters into it.

At the end of it, it's an appeal for you to pray for him.

As an outline this morning, I want to give you four reasons to pray always.

I use the word always there because it's the most frequently used word in this passage, four times.

Four times really in verse 18 by itself.

Praying at all times, with all prayer, all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, four times.

All, all, all, all.

Your life should be marked by prayer.

You need to pray.

And the first reason you should pray always is that you need to pray.

This is the picture of circular logic.

I fully embrace it.

Why do you need to pray always?

Because you need prayer.

Why do you need prayer?

Because you need to pray always.

That's the bottom line.

You are a dependent creature and you need prayer.

Now, verse 18, you'll notice it doesn't begin with a capital letter, it's the middle of a sentence.

The sentence really begins up in verse 14 where Paul's describing the spiritual armor, and as the spiritual armor is described, it goes through it and it ends with prayer.

You would be forgiven if you thought prayer was a piece of the spiritual armor.

It's in the same sentence.

Paul's listing the things you need to put on, going through the belt and the breastplate and the shield and the shoes and the helmet and the sword and prayer.

It's a little bit like the Sesame Street song.

Which one of these is not like the other, you know?

Your belt, your breastplate, your shoes, your helmet, your shield, your sword, and prayer.

But in fact, prayer is receives more attention than any of the other pieces of armor.

I mean, the sword and the helmet, they share a verse.

Prayer gets three verses to itself.

And that's because prayer is not a piece of the armor.

Prayer is the energy behind the armor.

You know, the armor here is like the, to shift the metaphor here, armor here is like the force shield.

And the energy of the force shield is prayer.

Prayer is what activates your protection.

So the devil's attacking you.

There's temptations out there.

The temptations make it into your heart as you're lured away into sin.

You're drawn away into sin as the devil shoots his arrows at you, and you are supposed to put on the spiritual armor to protect yourself, gird yourself in truth so that all you do is truthful.

Put the breastplate on so you're living out a righteous life.

Have your shoes on, you're ready to stand against the devil and to share the gospel.

Lift the shield up so you're kind of uh hiding behind faith in here.

Faith is gonna be the shield that blocks everything.

The helmet is on.

You know you're not gonna lose your salvation.

The devil's not gonna land a leaf below.

Anything that hits you in the head, you're gonna bounce back up from.

You got your sword to parry away the devil's thrust, but also to loose the captives and free the captives and set people free from the chains of sin.

So all that's going on and fueling all of that is prayer.

If you believe the truth, you're gonna pray to God.

I mean, that's the idea here, because God is a God of truth.

He reveals his truth through his word.

You're receiving that truth, and you receive it spiritually, Paul says in chapter two, you have to be, the Spirit has to energize you and give you eyes to see.

And so you need to pray to have the belt of truth on.

This is how the analogy functions.

You know, all the spiritual armor here, remember the first half of it you're just kind of wearing.

You have the belt, you have the breastplate, you've got the shoes on.

The second half you're supposed to actively put them on, take them up, lift up the shield, put on the helmet, take out the sword.

Well, you'd be forgiven if you were asked, like, how am I supposed to put on the belt?

How am I supposed to take out the sword?

Just, you know, have the Bible with me at all times?

The Bible's not a magic book.

It doesn't do any good just to have with you all the time.

You know, you bring it to church and you put it in the backseat of your car, and then you get it out of the backseat of your car next Sunday morning.

Doesn't do a lot of good back there.

It's not going to protect you in a car accident.

It might hit you in the back of the head.

Now, how do you take out the sword?

Well, you're praying that the Lord would give you opportunity to stand and take the gospel out.

You're praying the Lord would bring scripture to mind.

You're reading the Bible, you're taking it in, and you're sending it up in prayer.

How do you lift up the shield of faith?

You lift it up by prayer.

I mean, the shield's an obvious one.

Do you believe that God will defend you through faith?

Well, what's your faith in?

The object of your faith is Christ.

And so you pray to him.

The person who doesn't pray much likely is not behind his shield.

If you want to be behind the shield, that's going to be evident in a life that is filled with prayer.

Without prayer, you're like David wearing Saul's armor.

You got all the spiritual armor, it's all laid out there, you put it on, that's real nice, it doesn't work.

You know, nice armor.

Should I be able to move my arms in this thing?

That's the person trying to wear the spiritual armor without prayer.

It just doesn't work.

So that's why Paul ends the description of spiritual armor with the appeal for you to pray, and you're supposed to pray always and at all times.

And we can get sidetracked by the always or all times and think, you know, how do I what does it mean all times?

Does that mean like I'm supposed to pray while I'm eating, that I'm supposed to pray while I'm sleeping?

I can't pray while I'm sleeping.

The idea behind all here means in all seasons.

In fact, some of your translations even say all seasons.

It means no matter what's going on in your life.

In all seasons.

It's like the wedding vow.

Are you sick?

Then pray.

Are you healthy?

Then pray.

In riches or poverty.

Are you making money?

Pray.

Are you losing money?

Pray.

For better or worse.

Are things going well?

Great.

Pray.

Are they going poorly?

Great.

Pray.

And you can pray anytime, too.

You don't get there's no secret to prayer, like, oh, if I pray at this time of day, then my prayer is more effective.

There's no secret to prayer.

You know, the psalmist, Psalm 5, says, early in the morning I pray to you.

Does that mean you should only pray in the morning?

No.

Because Psalm 55 says, I pray to you in the morning, noon, and night.

So there.

Psalm 55, three times as powerful as Psalm 5.

The psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 164, says, I pray seven times a day.

Psalms 119:164

In fact, a few verses earlier, I think 162, he says one of those seven times is at midnight.

Jesus prayed all night long, Mark 1, verse 35.

Mark 1:35

Paul prayed day and night, 1 Thessalonians 3, verse 10.

1 Thessalonians 3:10

Jesus got up and prayed early one morning before daybreak.

Jesus then stayed up again all night in Luke 6, verse 12, to pray before he chose the disciples, one of whom was a devil and betrayed him.

Luke 6:12

Daniel in Daniel 10 took a special three-week period aside for prayer.

The apostles in Acts 1 took a 10-day period and set it aside for prayer.

Does that mean if you want to pray in the Daniel way, you should pray for three weeks?

Or the Apostles' way, you should pray for 10 days.

And remember that 10 days ended when Pentecost came and they all spoke in tongues.

I mean, are any of those the secret for healthy prayer?

No.

They're just making the point.

Pray in every circumstance.

Pray in the morning, pray in the evening.

There's no wrong time to pray.

Pray always.

The secret of a good prayer life is not what time of the day you pray.

You want to know the secret of a good prayer life?

Here it is.

Pencil's ready.

Secret to a good prayer life?

Pray.

That's it.

You can write a best-selling book right there.

Pray.

That's the secret to a good prayer life.

Pray at all times, all postures, all frequency.

There's no secrets to this.

Just pray.

Now what motivates a person to pray?

What makes somebody who prays faithfully?

I think what makes somebody who prays faithfully is the recognition of their own dependence.

When a person realizes they are dependent on God, they are going to be prone to pray.

I think sometimes we give too much credit to the idea of discipline when it comes to prayer.

And that might be owing to the Washington, D.C.

area, the military mindset.

We think what makes a strong prayer life is discipline, personal discipline.

A person who's disciplined to pray.

But discipline is drawing from an internal personal strength.

I think desperation is a better motivator.

When you're desperate, you pray.

When you realize how weak you are, you're prone to pray more.

He's shooting arrows at you earlier in Ephesians 1.

Arrows are coming at you.

And so, you know, you're not fighting the neighbor kid next door.

You're not fighting the bully at school.

You're fighting the actual devil.

That should make you pray.

Remember Jesus told Peter?

The devil asked if he could assist you?

What do you think Peter's response is going to be to that?

The actual devil asked about me?

Knowing Peter, you'd probably say, great, the devil knows my name.

The right response to that would be desperation.

The devil's after me?

Oh Lord, you better help.

You better help.

I can't take the devil on.

Now Paul is taking that example in Ephesians 6 and saying, the devil's shooting arrows at you, and so you should pray.

So you don't get hit.

Pray.

That's desperation.

Desperation.

Oftentimes we excuse our lack of prayer because we're so busy.

Busy, busy, busy.

There's so much to do.

Just pause though for a second and think of what you had time to do this week.

You had time to watch videos on YouTube.

You had time to watch movies.

You had time to do social media.

You had time to look out your back window and stare at the birds.

You had time for that.

You had time to go on a walk with your kids.

You had time to do those things.

So why don't you have time to pray to pray?

And I'm not, I'm really not asking that question to guilt you or to be like, think of all the time that you had this week.

You know?

I remember when the uh Apple released the screen time reminder, you know, mine would pop up Sunday morning, eight o'clock Sunday morning.

That's just a great time to remind me how much time I spent on the screen this week.

I'd get I was angry at it.

For like the first two years of that little feature, I would be so angry at it.

You spent X number of time on average a day on the screen, like, mind your own business.

Some of that was navigation, okay?

I was driving, back off.

I don't mean to like guilt you with that question.

I just mean like really ask yourself, why do you think you don't have time to pray, but you have time to watch a movie with your wife?

Like what is it, what's actually going on there?

Why do you not have time to pray, but you have time to be on social media?

And I mean the answer I think is very simple.

Your flesh likes those things and your flesh doesn't like praying.

You're not gonna watch a movie and end being convicted of your sin, you know?

You're not gonna look out your back window at the birds for 20 minutes and then be like, oh, I'm such a sinner.

You have time to go to the gym.

Because your flesh likes that.

Your flesh has no problem running in the treadmill.

Eh, you know, you get tired, but you know, it makes you feel good about yourself, but you don't have time to pray.

Your flesh isn't gonna get confronted by watching videos.

It might sin.

It might even feed the indulgences of the flesh.

Your flesh likes those kind of things.

Your flesh likes laying in bed, your flesh likes those kind of things.

So that's why you're like, oh, I don't feel like praying right now.

I don't have time to pray right now.

I just want to unwind and watch a movie, and you think that's just what I gotta do.

Well, that's because your flesh is driving your car at that point.

So the key is realizing desperation, that you're desperate.

You're desperate for God, you're dependent upon God, you really are desperate.

I mean, your house is on fire, okay?

Your house is on fire, the devil's shooting arrows at you, the arrows have hit your house, your house is burning down.

You go home, you're walking around in the kitchen making lunch after church, and the house is on fire, okay?

The smoke alarms are going off, you see flames coming out of the wall, one kid is still upstairs, the cat's running around crazy, everything's going crazy because your house is on fire.

At that moment, are you gonna say, hmm?

What's on social media right now?

You know, now's a good time to unwind and watch a movie.

I just I think I want to go for a walk right now.

No, you're there's a moment of desperation where it's gonna spur you into action.

So that's I think the point of understanding that you need prayer.

You will pray more when you realize that your house is on fire.

You're not gonna be distracted by things that make your flesh happy.

You're gonna be motivated to pray because you're gonna remember that you need prayer.

Not just you need prayer, but Christians need prayer.

All Christians need prayer.

Praying at all times in the Spirit.

We'll get back to the Spirit in a second.

With all prayer and supplication, to that end, keep alert with all perseverance.

You're on the lookout here.

Your eyes are open, you're praying with perseverance, you're not growing weak in your prayer, making supplication for all the saints.

So you're praying for all the saints, all the Christians.

Notice that praying is put in parallel here with keeping alert, which is put in parallel here with making supplication.

So praying and staying alert and supplication are all synonyms here.

They're all used in the same way.

You want to be alert.

What does being alert spiritually look like?

Praying.

What does praying look like?

Making supplication.

Supplication is one of those words it's almost in Christian knees, so that we've forgotten what it actually means.

What the word means is that there's a deficiency, and you're meeting that deficiency.

It's like the word supplement.

We use That one.

You're not getting enough iron or whatever.

Here's an iron supplement.

Prayer is a form of supplication.

So there's somebody over here that's missing something.

They're deficient in some area.

You're praying for them in that area.

That's supplication.

Prayer is meeting somebody where their need is, making supplication for them.

So pray at all times.

For all Christians, all saints.

Saints here, not in the Catholic sense, not idols, you know, not people that are dead.

Saints here is living believers, living Christians.

You're supposed to pray for all Christians at all times.

In all seasons.

But you're not supposed to pray for all things.

That's getting back to what it means, pray in the spirit.

Praying in the spirit means you're praying in accordance with the will of God.

This is all a spiritual endeavor.

You're a Christian, the Spirit has sealed you.

Chapter 1, verse 14.

The Spirit has sealed you.

The Spirit has given you life in chapter 2.

Spirit's given you unity in chapter 3 in the body.

The Spirit has given you gifts in chapter 4.

In chapter 5, the Spirit is giving you sanctification.

In chapter 6, the Spirit is giving you armor.

So you're supposed to pray in accordance with those things.

You're supposed to pray according to the will of God.

You're also supposed to pray specifically here, because you're making supplication for something somebody needs, so not generically.

Now let me explain to you what I mean by this.

With a couple extreme examples.

Okay?

Is it right to pray for all people in the world?

You know, or think of the five-year-old that prays, Lord Jesus, I want you to save everyone in the whole world.

That's the five-year-old's prayer.

Is that a good prayer?

For a five-year-old, that's a good prayer, right?

That's great.

You want your five-year-old to want everybody to know Jesus.

That's great, five-year-old.

Everybody know Jesus.

I encourage that prayer.

I'll pray it with you and I'll say amen.

For an eight-year-old, though?

No.

For an eight-year-old, the eight-year-old prays, Lord, want the whole world to be saved.

Well, for the eight-year-old, uh, you know, Jesus says the way to salvation is narrow and there's few that find it, and most people aren't going to find it.

Ephesians 1, God predestines people for salvation.

So when you're five, that's great.

Pray for the whole world to be saved.

But when you're eight, let's just get our mind around this basic fact that most of the world, according to God's will, is not going to be saved.

So you don't want to pray against God's will.

You want to pray in accordance with God's will.

So an eight-year-old says, Lord, I pray the whole world be saved, I would come alongside this eight-year-old and say, you know what?

The Bible does say most people in the world aren't going to be saved.

Why are you praying that?

Is there a specific person you're thinking of?

And the answer is going to be yes, right?

You're thinking of this neighbor or this aunt or this relative or this friend.

Great.

Let's pray that the Lord would use you to bring the gospel to that person.

Let's pray for that person's salvation.

Let's do that.

Now you're starting to pray in the spirit.

Or how about this prayer?

Another extreme example.

Lord, we pray for world peace.

We pray there'll be no more wars.

You're like, oh, but it's only praying for all the Christians, all the saints.

Alright, Lord, we pray there'd be no wars where there's Christians.

There's a Christian there, no more wars, Lord, please.

Well, same problem.

Jesus says there's going to be wars and rumors of wars and wars will increase, and nations will rise up against nation and check nation.

This is how God designed governments.

That's wars have a function in the providence of God to check nations.

What's a better way to pray?

You want to pray for Christians in a war area?

What are you praying for?

You can pray for their physical safety.

You might want to pray for the gospel to go forward through the conflict, for people to have boldness to stand.

You think of those churches, the church that we prayed for a few weeks ago in Ukraine that opened up their basement as a bomb shelter, and they had bring in all kinds of people, kids from the community.

Parents would drop off their kids and they'd stay in the bomb shelter.

You know, that church got obliterated.

A few weeks after we, or maybe 10 days or so after we prayed for it, it got totally decimated.

Nobody was hurt.

It was empty at the time.

They've been using it as a bomb shelter.

There's a powerful, powerful gospel testimony to the community.

There were some missionaries that didn't leave the country, they stayed there.

That's what you're praying for.

The gospel would go forward with boldness through that kind of conflict.

But you have to know what is deficient in order to know what to pray for, in order to make supplication.

So they're going through a trial, there's a sense they might be lacking boldness.

I want to pray for boldness.

They might be lacking courage, I want to pray for courage.

They might be lacking faith.

They might be wondering, is God really good because of this trial?

So I'm going to pray for them to have a real understanding of God's goodness.

They wouldn't waver in their faith.

That's what it means to pray in accordance with God's will.

Is you pray wanting God's will to be done.

If you think of it this way if a child asks, one of my kids might ask Deedre for something, and she might say no.

Can I have MMs for dinner?

And Deidre says no.

So they move over to me.

Dad, can we have MMs for dinner?

And I'm like, huh, I'm kind of busy.

MMs, that's great.

Protein, everything.

So the request to me, though, is against the will of my wife.

It was already revealed that she said no.

And so by praying to me for something contrary to her revealed will, it's putting us at odds together.

The Trinity is not at odds with each other.

And so when Paul says pray in the spirit, he's saying, pray for things that don't go against the will of God.

Pray for things that don't go against the will of Jesus Christ.

Who knows the will of a man except the spirit that dwells in the man?

And so when you pray in the spirit, you're saying the Holy Spirit resides in me, convicts me of my sin, provokes spiritual growth in me, opens my eyes to behold wonderful things from the law, to bring me into conformity with the image of Jesus Christ.

And now I want to pray for others that are going through trials and difficulties, that they too would be strengthened in their faith.

That's how you pray in the Spirit.

How does that prayer get answered?

But by the Holy Spirit.

You're praying for somebody who's suffering right now, that they would be comforted, encouraged, bold, strengthened.

The Holy Spirit is the person who will answer that prayer.

You're praying for a believer in Ukraine.

You pray the Spirit would comfort them, it will be the Spirit who answers that prayer.

You pray for boldness for the gospel, it will be the Spirit who answers that prayer.

You pray for strength, endurance, faith, it will be the Spirit who answers that prayer.

That's praying in the Spirit.

You think of people around you at church?

How do you pray for them around you?

You know what they're going through, you know their difficulty, their trial.

And you pray that their difficulty or trial, what is lacking in them, would be met by the spirit.

So you pray for strength, boldness, faith, lack of wavering.

Somebody told me after first service they just had a surgery recently and they were so thankful for answered prayer.

The Lord answered her prayers for her surgery because she was not afraid.

Her faith didn't waver through the entire surgery.

And at the end of the conversation, she gave me a hug and walked away.

I still don't know how the surgery turned out.

But our prayers were answered for her.

Now James describes somebody sick among you.

Bring them the elders, the elders anoint them with oil and they pray.

You can pray for somebody's healing, that's great.

But when you start looking at James very carefully, you understand what's deficient in that person there was their faith.

They were weak in their faith.

They weren't sick because they were weak.

That's not how sickness works.

You get that, right?

If you're sick, it's not because you have a lack of faith.

Amen.

But if you are weak in your faith, have people pray for you.

Not to take the sickness away, although they're certainly welcome to pray for that, but that you would be strong in your faith.

It was a few years ago, maybe you remember this video, it was a few years ago where there was a, I think it was a United 777, big airplane.

Just took off from Denver, and its engine just like obliterated on takeoff.

Uh totally disintegrated.

Uh sometimes you hear of a plane losing an engine, it's like a bird got sucked in and they just shut the engine down, or maybe it's on fire and they, you know, little fire extinguishers put it out.

I don't know what they do, but this one, that didn't happen.

This one, the engine disintegrated.

And there's all kinds of videos.

The plane was filled with passengers, you know, it's a huge airplane.

The plane was filled with passengers, uh, about half of which were filming this out their window.

And when you hear of a plane losing an engine, sometimes you think, oh, it's just flying on one engine.

No, this plane, like the casing disintegrated, just this little metal thing is hanging off the wing and it's had a little fan spinning around and everything else in smoke, and it was it was horrible.

And if you talk to a pilot, they're like, oh, those things are designed to fly on one engine, they fly on one engine all the time.

And you talk to Tom Joyce and he's like, yeah, we would blow out those engines intentionally just for the fun of it, you know.

There's no actual danger, those things, you know.

But if you're on that plane, you watch these videos, and you're all the people that are on the plane, they're like praying.

Oh Lord Jesus, we claimed this engine, bring us back to Denver.

We're trying to get out of Denver, or we went back to Denver right now.

So what changed?

On a normal flight, people aren't praying.

Yeah, normal flight takes off, reaches the cruising altitude, ding.

And you don't hear, Lord Jesus, we claim the laws of aerodynamics for this flight.

Keep this plane afloat.

Because you're not desperate at that point.

You're not desperate.

The laws of aerodynamics work.

The plane flies.

But the engine blows up and disintegrates, suddenly you feel desperate, and so you pray.

Now, my point here is not that you should pray on like a normal flight.

Set aerodynamics aside for a second.

My point here is that you need to realize your desperation.

You need to realize your dependency on the Lord at all times.

At all times you should be dependent upon the Lord, not just when the engine goes out.

And if it takes the engine going out to get you to realize your desperation for the Lord, the wrong thing to pray for is that the engine would reconstruct.

Because the point of the engine deconstructing was to get you to see your perpetual desperation.

That's why you need to pray at all times.

You need an awareness of your dependency.

You think your need is getting the trial removed, your need is not getting the trial removed.

You need to see your dependency on the Lord at all times.

Thirdly, pastors need prayer.

You need prayer, Christians need prayer.

Pastors need prayer.

And I know Paul says, and also for me, and his me here is he's an apostle, his me here is that he is an ambassador in verse 20.

But I mean, I can't read verse 19 and not think of pastors.

Maybe that's because I am one.

Pray also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.

Remember, all everything in Ephesians is layered here.

These are all phrases he's used before.

The mystery of the gospel is back in chapter 1, that before time God predestined, elected, designated Christ as a Savior, sent the Spirit to save.

The mystery is revealed further in chapter 2, that you'll be resurrected in new life, further again in chapter 2 and chapter 3, that Jew and Gentile would be in the same body together.

I mean, that's the mystery.

There'll be spiritual gifts, that's the mystery.

Mystery is hidden in the Old Testament, revealed in the New.

Everything about the church is the mystery.

But remember in chapter 3 that God is building his church through pastors and teachers.

That's how the church is being built.

Now you know the church is going to be built because Matthew 16, Jesus says, I'm going to build it, so it's going to be built.

However, he is using pastors and teachers to do the building.

It's the Holy Spirit who builds.

You learned that in Ephesians 3.

I'm under no illusions that it's my personal labor as a pastor that causes the church to grow.

I think we all get that.

Emmanuel's been blessed by growth over the last few years.

It is not because of the personal labor of labor of pastors.

If anything, it's despite it.

Our church grows because of the love the congregation has for each other and the health of our congregation.

There's so many things that are at play.

But here in verse 19, Paul specifically prays that when he opens his mouth, he's functioning here as a pastor from Ephesians 3, pastors and teachers building the church.

When he opens his mouth, Jesus would give him words to say for the building of the church and the unveiling of the mystery.

So that's what's going on.

And he wants prayer for it.

It's an awkward description in English.

Pray that words might be given to me at the opening of my mouth.

You don't speak like that.

It's awkward in Greek, too.

I mean, he's using a very strange word structure.

You don't say, I pray the words would be given to me in the opening of my mouth.

It's like double passive.

But he's driving the point home here that I need divine help to see the church built.

I'm going to open my mouth, and there better be words there.

And the words that are there better be from Jesus.

And the way for Jesus to put those words there is for you to pray to Jesus and ask him to do that.

You see the triangle there?

You pray to Jesus to give the pastor words so those words come out of his mouth when he speaks, and so the church is built up.

I think a mark of a healthy church is good preaching.

It's essential, but it's not sufficient.

There's all kinds of good preaching in churches that don't grow, honestly.

I think what's missing oftentimes is prayer.

Prayer to match the preaching that fuels the growth of the church.

So that's what Paul asked for.

I just want prayer for preaching.

And so if you think of me or the other pastors here, pray for us to that end that when we open our mouths, we would speak truth.

People often ask me how to pray for me, and that's my answer.

Pray for my faithfulness in study, pray for my faithfulness with my time, pray for my faithfulness in my life and my marriage.

Pray for words of truth to come out of my mouth when I open them.

That's what you pray for.

And then fourthly, God uses trials to provoke prayer.

God uses trials to provoke prayer.

Paul says in verse 20, something completely outlandish, for which I am an ambassador in chains.

But before we talk about what that expression means, you understand Paul's in jail when he's writing this, right?

He's under arrest, he's in custody, chained to guards, the soldiers are parading by him.

He described them just a few verses earlier.

I mean, he's in custody.

If you were asked to make supplication for Paul, what do you think his need is that you want to meet through prayer?

I mean, it's pretty obvious, right?

If I were to be asked to pray for Paul in this circumstance, oh, what is it?

It's on the tip of my tongue.

Freedom from jail.

That's what he needs.

You get an urgent email from one of your missionaries across the world.

I was just arrested and put in jail.

Everybody pray.

You would pray that they would get out of jail.

It's remarkable, to my knowledge, in none of Paul's letters, which are filled with prayer, in none of Paul's letters, does he ever pray that the Lord would change somebody's circumstance?

He never prays that the trial would go away.

He never prays that the circumstance would change.

With one exception, 2 Corinthians 11.

He does pray that this demonically inspired false teacher, this false teacher is taking up roots in the church.

He does pray that that guy would be taken away.

Blessed subtraction right there.

Lord, get him out of here.

And the Lord tells him, No.

Three times he prays for it.

Three times the Lord says no.

Paul deduces what I should be praying for is humility in the face of this opposition.

And the Lord says, that's right, yes to that one.

So the New Testament is not filled with people praying that their circumstances would be changed.

The New Testament is filled with people praying for strength, power, humility, and boldness in the midst of those circumstances.

And this is no exception.

Paul's in custody.

He's writing the whole book of Ephesians to get you to pray for him, but he's not asking for prayer that he would be released.

I kind of meant it jokingly earlier, but I mean it seriously now.

The whole book of Ephesians is functioning as a prayer letter for the Apostle Paul in custody for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, arrested by the Romans, put in jail by the Romans.

And now he's praying, asking you to pray for him for boldness in verse 20, that he would be, he would preach more boldly.

Like, dude, just make bail.

Keep your mouth shut until you make bail.

And do you remember earlier the king was going to release him too?

That's the crazy part of this.

The king was like, this guy did nothing wrong.

Let me out of here.

Let's let him go.

And Paul says, I appeal to Caesar.

Can you appeal a not guilty verdict?

Yes.

I appeal to Caesar.

Alright, to Caesar, you'll go.

He writes Philippians, by the way, during the same imprisonment.

And remember what he tells the Philippians, praise God, that I'm in jail because I think some of Caesar's own guards might hear the gospel now.

I mean, this guy is like second level.

That's the point with trials, though.

The Lord sends you trials to provoke your prayer.

The phrase an ambassador in chains, I said that's outlandish.

That is outlandish.

Ambassadors don't get arrested.

There's a little something called diplomatic immunity.

Which is a real thing, by the way.

I read this week so that you wouldn't have to.

A document titled Diplomatic and Consular Immunity, Guidance for Law Enforcement by the U.S.

Department of State.

But no, it exists.

The U.S.

Department of State encourages American law enforcement to not prosecute or cite uh foreign diplomats on American soil, even for things like traffic tickets and parking violations, because they're guests in our country, and we don't want our diplomats around the world subject to legal proceedings in other countries where they maybe don't have enough uh protections.

In fact, the document goes on to say if you've got a diplomat that is acting unruly and causing actual problems, let us know, and we'll get him expelled.

That's how you deal with it, you throw them out of the country, but you don't give them a parking ticket, you don't arrest them.

If you want them gone, kick him out.

Otherwise, show them a little courtesy.

Alright, so I read this this week.

This is a current day thing, but there's a very interesting line in there that stuck out to me.

It said, diplomatic immunity is one of the oldest diplomatic privileges in world history.

And it goes on to describe it back to the days with, you know, the knights with the white flag.

The dude rides up with the white flag, you don't shoot him.

An ambassador comes over to you to negotiate peace, you don't arrest him.

Remember what ambassadors did in the Roman Empire?

They would go before the army to the city before the army attacked, and you knock on the door and say, Hi, I'm the ambassador sent from Rome.

You guys should make peace with them, because if you don't, they're gonna burn your city down.

But think about it.

If you need me, I'll be over here.

That's an ambassador in the Roman Empire.

Very prestigious position.

It's at the same level as a king or a governor.

Very prestigious.

They're honored everywhere.

Imagine the ambassador knocks on the door and says, hey, the Romans are coming, you guys should take this advantage to negotiate for peace.

And they arrest the dude and throw him in prison.

What's gonna happen to him?

What's gonna happen to them?

I mean, they're going down.

You don't abuse an ambassador.

You've got to be kidding me.

And yet, here, Paul described himself as an ambassador in chains.

He's not an ambassador for the Romans, he's an ambassador sent from heaven to earth to beg people to be reconciled to God before God comes in judgment.

And what did the Gentiles do with him when they got the ambassador from heaven?

They arrested him and threw him in the clink.

And Paul from jail says, Don't they know who I am?

Oh, wait until they hear from my boss.

No, he says, you know what?

I just pray that the Lord would give me boldness to speak the gospel to them.

He knows he's gonna stand in front of his own king.

He's not afraid of the Romans, who will eventually put him to death, by the way.

He's not afraid of them.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 20.

2 Corinthians 5:20

Therefore, we're ambassadors for Christ, making his appeal through us.

We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.

And at the end of the day, Ephesians boils down to that.

A letter that begs you to look to Christ and be reconciled to him.

Lord, we pray that the truth that we see in this book would fuel our own prayer life.

We don't want to be negligent.

We don't want to let our flesh boss us around.

We want to have control over our own bodies and our own desires, our own lust.

So, Lord, we pray that you would make us men and women of prayer.

Help us lift our shield up for battle.

Help us unsheath the sword.

Help us have our feet on, ready to be evangelists, our shoes on, ready to be evangelists.

Behind all of that, let there be prayer.

Lord, I pray that this congregation would be marked by people who pray, that are dependent upon you, that see their own desperation, their own need for you.

Unless the Lord builds the house, the laborers work in vain.

We don't want to work in vain here, Lord.

We spend time in this church.

We love this church.

Love the people we're sitting next to.

We love our pastors and elders.

We love our children growing up in this church.

We love we love this church.

We don't want our work here to be in vain.

So we need you to energize it.

We beg you, Lord.

We give you thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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

Thanks for joining us.

If you're in the Washington, D.C.

area, I would love to see you at Emmanuel Bible Church.

For more information on our church or our current service times, go to IBC.church.

For more information about the Master Seminary and their Washington, D.C.

location, go to TMS.edu.

I hope this resource has been a blessing to you and it helps you seek the Lord daily, serve others around you, and share the gospel with fullness.