Praying for God's Mission in Conflict | Dr. John Ewart

Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood

Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.

Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.

You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word

about important issues facing your life that can guide you

according to the Bible. Thank you for joining us live.

Those listening online right now, you missed a whole bunch of

info commercials. Maybe, maybe they were recorded.

But thanks for joining us as believers.

We really do have a mission to fulfill.

I know I talk about that a lot. I use that word a lot.

I mean to, but and we also have an enemy who wants to stop us

from doing that. And I want to revisit a passage

that I preached about in the Seven Essential series.

But we're going to look at it from a very different angle

tonight, as well as some other things.

So how do we deal with this mission and conflict?

Mission and conflict are a part of our existence as believers.

Especially if you're a believer who's trying to be the best

believer you can be. You're constantly going to

hopefully be trying to pursue what God wants you to do.

At the same time, you're constantly in conflict because

of sin and because you live in a fallen world, etcetera.

So how do we fulfill His plan when we're just kind of

struggling to get through sometimes?

How do we become disciples when we're just trying to survive?

So we we recognize first of all, that we're not in this alone.

So understand that that you may have a lot of struggles in your

life right now. And I'm sorry and I'm sure

they're real and painful, but you also need to take some hope

and joy in the fact that you're not alone in these spiritual

battles. The whole world is struggling

and, and you really do need to remember that this whole entire

world is struggling. All of creation is fallen and

this world is groaning until the redemption of its and the

restoration at the end of time. And so first John 519 says we

know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the

power of the evil. 1 And so in God's grace and God's love, he

has a permissive will that allows us to have choice.

And I've talked to you before about the problem of evil.

And the problem of evil in his simplest summary, which is

oversimplification, is that it's the result of our choice to a

large degree. We make bad choices, other

people make bad choices, and we have an enemy who helps us do

those things. And so because of that, we're

surrounded by sin and we live in this fallen creation, but also

recognize that other Christians struggle.

Peter wrote about it in First Peter 5.

Be sober minded, be watchful, your adversary, the devil prowls

around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour,

resisting firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of

suffering or be experienced by your brotherhood throughout the

world. And you can sit there and say

well that's a 1st century writing and you're right.

But last year over 300,000 Christians were persecuted that

we know of, were persecuted for their faith.

Every year thousands of Christians die because of their

faith. And so we don't often recognize

that here thousands more are imprisoned and 10s of thousands,

hundreds of thousands are persecuted.

So there are brothers and sisters all around the world who

suffer for their faith. And it scares me some time

because it's awfully easy to be content here.

It's awfully easy to be comfortable here, to think that

that doesn't affect us and touch us, but it does me because I

have friends. I have friends who've died.

I have friends in prison. I have friends who are who have

lost their homes. I have friends who've lost their

churches and lost body parts. I mean, every gruesome thing you

can think of. And so this is a real thing.

And so our enemy wants us overwhelmed.

He wants us overwhelmed by the burden of life.

I mean, you need to, you need to hear his voice and think about

what he's saying in the sense he's going to tell you to focus

on your problems. He's going to tell you to try to

do this by your own strength, lift your own load by yourself,

fix your own problems. He's going to try to convince

you that you can do this alone. You can do this by yourself.

And so sometimes we can be so focused, or he's going to want

us to be so focused upon the fears that surround us in this

fallenness that we're too distracted to commune and to

communicate with the Creator who's sovereign and who who

seeks to strengthen and to guide us.

And that's the whole point of prayer.

But he says, don't abide in prayer.

Satan is terrified of prayer. And so he doesn't want you to

abide in prayer. He doesn't want you to pray

continually with a sense of dependence and anticipation.

These are words of the enemy. These are not words of the Lord.

So I want you to listen to a passage we've visited before.

It's a common passage. But again, we're going to take

pieces of this, perhaps differently than what we've done

before. This Ephesians 6 Finally, be

strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.

Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand

against the schemes of the devil.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the

rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers, over

this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. So even though here and here we

are at Easter, so here at Easter we're celebrating Christ's

victory. And we should, we should do it

loudly, we should do it proudly, we should do it with a sense of

great joy and appreciation. And so, but here we are at

Easter, celebrating that perfect victory that he accomplishes

through the cross, his death, burial, resurrection.

But at the same time, we recognize that the fight isn't

over, that the battle continues. And so Satan and I really need

to, I've said this to this part to you before, but I really want

you to grab a hold of this because it's going to be

important in a minute. The word here and your different

translations will have different words.

But to stand against this translation, ESV has schemes of

the devil. You might have Wiles or you

might have strategies. All those words are great.

The word methodia here is an orderly.

You can understand how technical this is.

This is an orderly, technical, deliberate, ambushing scheme or

plan or method. This is not some haphazard

temptation attack. This is a plan for your life

that the enemy has. It's an orderly plan.

He has an ambush strategy for you and your family and this

church. And so we need to understand

that and we need to have a strategy to stay strong and to

fulfil the mission of God. So Ephesians 6 tells us our

source of strength and, and defense.

And I talked about that when I talked about the seven

essentials. So we're not going to spend time

there. But what we also recognize is,

and I mentioned this before, we got to put on the whole armor

and you have to put on the armor.

It doesn't, it doesn't fly on you.

This is not Iron Man to where you can push a button and

suddenly the Iron Man suit comes on.

You OK, You, you have to put. And some of you understood that,

some of you have no idea what I just said, but but you, you've

got to put on the armor all of it, not some of it.

You don't just put one of the pieces on, You got to put it all

on. And you have to do that.

It's written in an imperative. You must put on the armor of

God. It's not autopilot.

And so we recognize that. But I want us to focus on one

aspect of this missional conflict in which we find

ourselves. And an additional passage really

is helpful, and that's the one in 2nd Corinthians 10.

And so if you want to turn to something in your Bibles, I

would turn to 2nd Corinthians 10.

And so you know, this passage probably, but I want us to

really talk about a couple of things here because it's very,

very important for us. I want to talk about conflict

and what that means and how it affects us and how we relate to

it or not. 2nd Corinthians 10 three says For though we walk in

the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have

divine power to destroy strongholds.

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the

knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

Sometimes when I've listened to people teach this passage and

I've probably been guilty of it myself, we'll emphasize certain

parts. And I feel like we don't

probably emphasize sometimes the most important parts.

And I want to do that tonight, and I'll make that make sense in

a second. So it says we need to destroy

sinful patterns. We we need to destroy sinful

habits, we need to destroy sinful tendencies, we need to

destroy things that become a stronghold for Satan.

So most of these are going to be led by some misdirected fear,

misdirected love, misdirected faith.

We love the wrong things, we're afraid of the wrong things or we

believe in the wrong things. And that's where, that's where

most of our sins going to come from.

It's this misaligned, misdirected fear, love, faith,

etcetera. And so this gives Satan this

opportunity and a, and a place for him to tempt us because he

has a, he has an orderly scheme. So he, so he's testing the wall

and he's going to find the chink.

And once he finds that chink, he's going to focus on that hole

and he's going to drill in that hole and drill in that hole and

drill in that hole because he won't sleep.

He won't give up, he won't relent.

He hates us. He hates Christ, He hates all of

this, and he wants it to be destroyed.

You got to understand what the Bible says.

He wants to destroy us. And so he's going to find that

little niche and he's going to work it and work it.

And so we got to be careful not to allow him an opportunity

time, not to allow the weak spot, not to give him a

stronghold it there may be a moment where we stumble and fail

and we realize, wow, that wasn't good.

And I, he's a, he's tempted me here and I fell prey to that.

I need to confess that, get rid of that.

But then I need to reinforce the wall.

Don't let him come back to that spot again, because the idea of

a stronghold means that he's actually dug in.

He he's able to dig in and to build and even to divide.

So the passage says, and you got to think about the Corinthian

people who are hearing this for the first time.

They come from such a Pagan background.

And he's saying, listen, you got to take every thought captive,

but you got to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised

against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to

obey Christ. And I want to talk about how do

we do that? How are we going to destroy

these arguments, these lofty human opinions, satanic opinions

that surround us in this world today that they're raised

against the knowledge of God? And then I'm going to take every

one of my thoughts captive. I'm going to I'm going to

control my mind and my thought life so that I can obey Christ.

So, so let's talk about this for a minute.

How, how are we going to do that now?

Now follow me. I promise I'm going to circle

you back, but follow me for a few minutes because I want I

want to talk about conflict for a minute.

So when we face the conflicts of this world that compete with

that distract from, I was in a conversation earlier today where

I believe with all of my heart there's a Satan satanic

distraction attempt taking place.

I said that out loud and I believe it with all my heart.

So when we face these conflicts that compete with, distract

from, and are seeking to tempt us away from God's orderly plan

for us, His strategy, His mission, and, and they seek to

move us toward the strategy, this technical, ambushing,

orderly planned by the enemy, how do we respond?

So I want to talk about conflict for a minute and, and what that

means. Conflicts with the, with truths

of this world that seem to be contrasting or arguing are

against the truth of God's word, truths of this world that that

it seems everybody else thinks is OK.

I talked about this Sunday. What used to be wrong not long

ago is now normal. Listen, Teresa and I, or maybe

it's me because Teresa doesn't do this because she's sweet and

kind and Christ like. I sit in front of my TV and I

gripe. I talk to my TV and I gripe

about it because I I, I may be watching what, what is an OK TV

program, but then these stinking, ungodly commercials

pop up and I'm about tired. I don't need to see the drag

queen competition when I'm trying to watch Andy Griffith.

You understand what I'm saying? But it's OK.

It's OK now. In fact, it's so OK.

I was reading an article today about a young a young lady who's

a student at Boyce College at Southern Seminary in Louisville,

KY. It's the undergrad program at

Southern Seminary. You just got fired as a barista

in a coffee house because one of the employees that she worked

with knew she was a Christian and a student at that college

asked her questions about what she thought about sexuality,

gender, and some of the issues of the world today.

She responds with biblical responses and her faith and they

fire her because she's being oppressive in sharing and

forcing her faith upon this other employee.

Now there are legal people who are trying to remedy that

situation because you can't do that.

But it's just amazing. It didn't used to be that way,

but I promise you it's not going to get better.

Read the book. It does not get better and so

we've got to learn how how am I going to deal with these

conflicts with the the truth of this world seem to believe that

contrast with the word of God and and and that everybody else

seems to be think it's OK. They even think it's right.

But you know in your heart, you know in God's word that it's not

right. This is not right.

And so these conflicts that are caused by the brokenness of

humanity and, and our poor choices, frankly, our free will,

whether they be our choices or those of others that have a

direct impact upon us, these things happen.

So the conflict of sin, the lives of the devil, the

devaluation of life that are that's often a part of this and

even just basic misunderstandings.

So in other words, the daily life on this planet right now,

right? This is where we live.

I teach a lot about conflict. That was not a goal.

I I teach everything over the years I've taught everything

from certificate level to I just taught APHD seminar on conflict.

And so I'm kind of known as the conflict guy.

That ought to say something about next former member of

Inglewood needs to be careful. I'm going to push that button to

somebody gets mad at me. Just cracks me up.

I mean, they run all the way. She'll tell you.

I mean, I'm, you know how you know Lowe's, you know, Lowe's

the store. You know how big that is?

And I'm like down there against that wall.

The guy comes running from the other side of the store just to

tell me that. Well, thank you.

I'm you're welcome back anytime. Maybe might be a good reason

you're a former member need to be careful.

Maybe maybe revival happens by attrition as well as addition.

So you know, anyway, I'll, I'll try to stop, but I teach a lot

about conflict. So I, so I've, you know, I've

read a lot about it and had to and all that kind of stuff.

And here's what I know. People respond to conflict in

different ways. Churches do this too.

So over the years, the reason I'm known for this is because of

what I did in church life, consultation life, not 'cause

conflict, but try to sell solve it.

Although who knows? But people respond to conflict,

especially in their personal relationships in very different

ways. Let's see which one of these you

relate to. Some people flee.

They just can't stand to be in conflict.

I mean, they will physically leave the room.

They just can't, they just can't take it.

They can't stand it. They can't stand to be there.

Same thing happens in church life.

But people flee conflict. They just withdraw.

They can't do it. They, they, they may not know

how to fight fairly or they're just afraid to, or frankly just

worn out and they don't want to fight anymore.

But what they don't understand is their absence actually allows

the conflict to continue. So it's still a problem.

Others seek to win in a conflict.

Kind of the opposite. These people get hysterical and

historical, but they wanted that.

Their goal is to win the debate. Their goal is to actually win

the argument, regardless sometimes of even the cost.

And in the end they might win the battle, but they often lose

the war. They can end up in damaging,

abusive, overbearing, often loud positions seeking to have their

own way rather than God's way. And this can be true in a

marriage, can be true in a church, can be true out in the

world. Others yield, they stick around,

but they give in to get along, often to one of those who seeks

to win. They don't believe in what

they've done necessarily, but they just want to end the

conflict, have peace, and so they surrender, but they don't

necessarily leave. Still others seek to compromise.

And we often talk about compromise is a good word, but

in conflict it's not always a good word.

It might, it might be a good first step, it might stop the

yelling, it might stop the bleeding, But in the end, it can

simply be two sides giving in, two sides yielding.

Neither party's happy. Neither party's satisfied with

what they agreed to. And the long term outcome will

be that they just wanted to get out of the immediate conflict

and they're going to repeat it. They'll repeat it and they'll

repeat it because it's not resolved.

And these responses are very common.

Perhaps you relate to, have experienced or you are guilty of

one or more of these. We all are probably.

But but where our ultimate going conflict is resolution.

And this is what I want to get to, and this is going to tie

back into our passage because we want to get to this idea of

resolution. And, and and I want to talk

about the fact that true long term resolution requires

diagnosing the actual source of the conflict, the disease, and

not simply to treat the symptoms.

And so many people just treat symptoms, they don't deal with

the disease, right. And so it's interesting because

I've said it before, I'll say it a billion more times, and I'll

refer to the same passage over and over and over and over

again. But resolution requires

replacement. And so our ability to deal with

2nd Corinthians 10 does too. Resolution requires a change,

not just stopping something, but also starting something.

And you got to recognize that. Stopping something, stopping

your sinful habits, stopping the area where you gave Satan a

stronghold is only a temporary short term fix.

If you don't replace the thing that created the hole in the 1st

place, he's just going to come back and with his pickaxe and

he's going to get right back in. This is the cycle of addiction.

I'm going to quit, I'm going to quit.

I feel bad. I'm going to quit and then two

weeks later I haven't quit because something has to change.

A physical disease is going to result in a diagnosis that

requires medicine. It requires treatment.

It might perhaps even require a change in lifestyle habits.

We got to think physical health like that.

I've got to do something different.

I can't, you know, as a diabetic, I can pretend like I

can eat all the cake I want, but I can't.

I just can't. Something had to change.

So now I have a sugar monitor. I get slivers of things.

So I'm talking about Colossians 3 again.

Don't turn there. But this is that whole passage

again, and I've shared it with you enough.

I preached on it when I first got here.

But Paul says you got to take off.

This stuff has a whole list of things, and then you got to put

on this whole list of things. And these are imperatives.

You have to do this, you have to put on the armor, you have to

put on these things in your life.

So we recognize that the real cause of the conflict, often

wrapped up in our misplaced loves and fears, must be

replaced by the positive resources of the Lord.

Now let's go back to 2nd Corinthians 10.

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according

to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare

are not of the flesh, but have divine power.

And often we don't focus on those two words, we focus on the

stronghold word. They have the divine power to

destroy strongholds. So that's how we destroy

arguments. That's how we destroy every

lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and that's how

we take every thought captive to obey Christ.

We have access to the proper spiritual equipment with which

to equip ourselves to put on the armor of God, to take off the

junk that needs to get taken off, and to put on the good

stuff that needs to be put on. We have divine power to destroy

strongholds. You have access to that.

Are you living that way though? Do you engage God that way?

Do you believe that? So we have the armor of God.

But but, but, and these are not verses to just read and

castaway. These are instructions.

This is the guidebook for how you implement A discipled life

on this. But we destroy, we take every

thought captive. But you don't do that on your

own. You're not good enough.

Neither am I. I may be an expert on conflict,

but that doesn't mean I know how to handle it.

Listen, we have to access the divine weaponry.

Now that this really needs to sink in.

You have to access this divine. You have divine power.

We walk in the flesh. We're humans.

We're in this mixed up fallen crazy world and we're not going

to be able to deal with it by my own strength.

I don't care how good you are, how good looking, how smart you

think you are, how self-sufficient you think you

are, what all you've read, what all you know, it's not going to

be enough. Satan's stronger than you are.

He's a fallen Angel. Don't make him more than that.

That's all he is. And the heaven, hell and the

hereafter. We're going to talk about Satan

and demons and angels and all kinds of stuff and don't make

them more than they are, but also don't let them be less than

they are. He's not a mini God.

He's not omnipresent, He's not omniscient.

He's a fallen Angel, but an Angel stronger than I am.

And so I need to access what's stronger than he is.

Carnal weapons are not going to get the victory done.

Human ideas, human strategy, human methods are not enough.

This whole adage, you pull yourself up by your own

bootstraps, you don't even know where that where that comes

from. Pull yourself up by your own

bootstraps. You know you can't do that.

You can't do it. It's actually a joke.

It's satirical. You cannot pull yourself up by

your own bootstraps. And yet it gets used as this

term of my self-sufficiency and my ability to do my own thing by

myself. You can't.

You sit down sometime and pull on those bootstraps and see if

you can stand up. You can't.

Your brain and your will alone are just not enough.

So there has to be divine weaponry that undergirds and

empowers us. So, so we recognize what some of

these pieces are. We've been talking about them.

There's a reason why I'm talking about what I'm talking about.

Everything connects. We've been, we, we started the

year by talking about abiding in the word.

That's a sword. That's the sword of the spirit.

So one of my divine weapons is is the word of God Responding in

worship can be a weapon. These seven essentials are

weapons. These 7 essentials are not ideas

created out of thin air so that we can make cool artwork on the

wall here at Inglewood. These were driven in in days of

prayer and searching the Scriptures.

They're driven. This is how the early church

obeyed and exploded with mission fulfillment.

But there's one essential that we've been discussing in these

sessions that we're going to finish tonight, Ephesians 618,

praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and

supplication. To that end, keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints.

So we're finishing our series on abiding in prayer with

dependence and anticipation. But that has to be more than

just words. Dependence.

These words were chosen very carefully.

Dependence, anticipation. Do you live that way?

Is that how you pray? Is that, Is that what you're

doing? Are you recognizing his

authority? Are you recognizing his ability?

Are you recognizing his divine weaponry?

And then you have this assured hope that that he listens and he

acts. It's called faith.

So we connect to God's divine power in prayer.

We understand that as we pray, we're allowing Him.

We're allowing him, asking him, begging him.

I pray to align our thoughts with his we're We're asking and

allowing Him to transform my mind so that we can destroy

arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the

knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.

God can empower us through to a personal prayer strategy, just

just like Satan's got a strategy he's got, he's got a technical,

orderly ambush plan for you. He's waiting to trip you up.

He's looking for that, looking for that little hole, prodding,

poking, probing. We better have a strategy for

protection as well as not just defense, but offense.

So how do I develop a personal prayer strategy?

Let's talk about that for a minute.

Let's just talk about this verse for a few minutes.

So we developed this personal private prayer plan by

incorporating a few of the things that we've discussed in

this whole series. We go back to verse 18, praying

at all times in the Spirit. So the first thing we see is we

pray continually. Nothing new here, nothing

radical. These are things you've probably

heard before, but we got to recognize, and Chuck Lawless

told you this a few weeks ago, prayer needs to be proactive and

not simply reactive. This is an offensive effort, not

just a defensive effort. We pray for protection, great.

We pray for the protection of others, great.

But I'm just, I'm not only going to pray for protection, I'm

going to pray that they are empowered and possessed by the

Holy Spirit to go out and move. See, go on the offensive.

Don't just sit back and allow this world and our enemy to beat

you into submission and recognize that prayer.

I said this last time, prayer is, is more than something you

do. Prayer must be who you are.

This is this is a part of your being.

God answers you, not necessarily your ritualistic words.

He's answering you. So live in that constant

communication, that constant communion with the source, the

owner of divine power. I mean, it's really amazing to

me when I think about that, if I could really wrap my brain

around that and recognize that I have access to the greatest

power in the universe at my disposal, who wants me to come,

wants me to access it, wants to give it to me.

And you know, I'm too busy. I don't have time to pray.

I wish I prayed more. Those kinds of things.

First Thessalonians 5, you know this passage, Pray without

ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the

will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Now often we just talk about the praying without ceasing and

giving thanks in all circumstances and how hard that

second part is, but we need to recognize that this is the will

of God. There's no debate.

I don't have to wonder. This is not some Gray area.

This is not some brownie, this is black and white.

This is the will of God in Christ Jesus that I pray this

way. Do not quench the Spirit.

Verse 19 says, so we have to be, we must be, we're commanded to

be in this continuing prayer mindset, this continuing prayer,

heart set, always going to the Father, first, second, third,

fourth and last, always going to the Father.

So when a thought occurs, when a sight is seen, when an attack is

experienced, when a person's encountered who runs all the way

across Lowe's pray. My wife's laughing.

She was there when a thought occurs.

You got to take a captive. So ask God to fill our day, to

fill us with divinely empowered prayer prompts and thoughts.

See that's what I need. I need, I need, I need that

replaced. You got to replace this.

God help me to replace this. I'm going to share my testimony

and a couple of weeks and I'm going to talk about replacement,

a miraculous divine replacement that took place in my own life.

People can argue with me all day long about whether there's a

God. I know there's a God.

He saved me, changed me. And so that thought is locked

up. That one's secure.

But we're also supposed to pray in the Spirit.

That's what that that passage says, praying at all times in

the Spirit. So we, we pray prayers both

again, this communion and this communication with the commander

for the conflict. And we've got to stay in touch

with him. We abide in prayer with this

sense of dependence. We, we, we, we live there, we

dwell there, we pitch our tent there, we rest there in the

Spirit. So you have to ask yourself, am

I truly dependent upon the Holy Spirit's power, or am I trying

to handle most of life on my own?

And then I only really reach out to him reactively when there's a

crisis. There's a real problem now it's

time to talk to God. I don't proactively talk to God.

I reactively talk to God when there's a big crisis that all of

a sudden I realize I can't handle.

It's too much for me. So we got to recognize that that

that misses the whole point of prayer.

Prayer. Prayer is not some spiritual

911. I mean, it can be that I I

certainly am not saying don't cry out to God in Christ.

It's certainly you do that, but that's not all it is.

That's not even the the most of what it is.

It's a constant abiding walk and talk with God.

We're dependent upon the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what we

ought to pray and to convict us about those things.

How do I know how to pray according to God's will?

He gives us the proper words to understand God's Word and will.

How do I know that I'm going to get a guaranteed positive

reception from God? Well, God's Word and God's

Spirit are here to help us with that, to help us pray the right

things. So the Creator God of the

universe calls us to come. God the Son paves the way.

The Holy Spirit intercedes and allows to know how it's an

amazing trinitarian, wonderful thing.

And by the way, that's unique to biblical Christianity.

So we engage in relationship with him and you know that a

relationship can't remain healthy or grow without close

proximity and communication. You have to talk and and here he

is giving us all the time we need undivided attention.

I mean, prayer really is amazing.

Prayer really is a privilege and we need to enjoy the privilege.

He'll help us to enjoy it if we seek him.

But there's more that verse 18 says we we pray at all times in

the spirit and then it it the second part says to that end,

keep alert with all perseverance.

So, so we need to pray with alertness and perseverance too.

So there's, there's still this battle plan involved, there's

still this, this defensive protection involved.

It's not just offensive, it is defensive as well.

We have both. And so we recognize this isn't

just about frequency, although we're supposed to pray at all

times. It's not just about frequency.

This is also about intensity. So you can stand on the street.

Corner like Jesus would condemn and chant prayers all day long

and they they don't mean anything but but when prayers

done with a sense of intensity and a sense of communion and a

sense of, of abiding, it will heighten your spiritual senses.

That's why I'm such an advocate about praying for lost people by

name. This is why in our reach

ministries and our connect groups, we need to not just pray

for one another and people in the church.

We've got to be reaching out into the community and praying

for lost people by name. What happens is our spiritual

senses. Get heightened and we're more

aware of God, but we're also more aware of the enemy.

You can see him and. Smell him.

You're not getting you. You're not getting away with it.

This time I I fell for. That last time.

But no more sucker, you don't. Get it this time.

God gets it this time, because, because.

I I I can sense. You abiding in prayer, We're

more discerning about truth. We're more discerning about

lies. We see the deception.

Of this world more clearly. Just because the world says

something is cool and right and has and has a bunch of followers

doesn't mean it's right. I follow Jesus and my.

Wife and I don't. Need any other followers?

Following me, I hope they follow Jesus, but I find this whole

phenomenon. And I'm around it a lot.

I mean, I'm a guy who's developed massive

technologically driven platforms for training and education used

all around the world, so I'm not out of tune of technology, but

the narcissism of social media I find fascinating.

I want to be an influencer, just think.

About what you just said, be careful about what you mean by

that. You mean an influence for Jesus?

Knock yourself out if you mean an influencer so you can get

your own followers. You're a cult leader.

But it makes us more aware to discern.

We see the deceptions. We we also become more burdened

for the lost. It's like a fog that gets

lifted. And so we abide in prayer with a

sense of anticipation. Show me God, show me God, let me

see God. And so I expect and I'm alert

enough to be aware of how and where God is working as well as

where Satan, what he's up to slinking around.

And I I say this is where God's working, and I have the

sensitivity and the drive to join God in what he cares about.

So will you persevere in? Prayer or not.

I've shared this with you before, but not.

All of you have ever heard this story?

I was asked this just the other day.

Why do I like bears? If you go to my inner office,

which very few people go in there, it's a little scary in

there, a little messy, lots of bears in there.

The whole room is decorated in bears.

But but it comes from this quote from William Carey.

Believe it or not, it's not about bears really.

It's about perseverance, about strength and endurance.

It's about not giving up. The American grizzly bear can

smell you miles away, and he's just going to keep coming and

keep coming and keep coming and keep coming.

That's where that imagery comes from.

William Carey was asked after 40 years on the mission field with

very little quantitative result, how did you survive that?

And one, a part of his answer is, I can persevere through any

definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.

He just. Kept on coming and.

Kept on coming and never quit. Do we grow too weary?

Do we grow too bored? Do we grow too frustrated?

Do we grow too pessimistic to keep praying and going to God?

Remember the story of Luke chapter 18.

Luke 18 · chapter mention

And he told them a parable. And notice it's a 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, saying, Give me justice against

my adversary. For a while he refused, but

afterwards 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

continually coming and the Lord. Said Hear what the unrighteous.

Judge says and will not. God give justice to his A.

Leg to cry to him day and night will he delay over 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?

God answers prayer in his way. And his time.

But he seeks faith. It's what Jesus did too, in his

earthly. Ministry Throughout His

ministry, if you pay close attention to Jesus, often times

you'll see Him working or healing on behalf of others who

demonstrated a belief in Him. Your faith has made you what

well they believed. Will He find us faithful when He

comes again? Praying.

Communion. Communing.

With him, communicating with him, expecting from him,

anticipating from him, depending upon him, still pursuing.

Will he find us that way when he takes us?

Home, either through our death or through his second coming.

So one of these days, remain faithful, remain thankful no

matter what. And when his answer comes,

remember His motive is always going to be the best end result

for us, regardless of whether we agree with him or liked it or

not. You got to trust in Him.

You don't get to have your way. We need to find His way.

Believe in him. So again.

This passage goes. On in Ephesians 6 that he also

says to in the middle. To that end, keep alert with all

perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints

and also for me, verse 19, that words may be given to me, and

opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the

Gospel. So we pray with supplication.

How are you praying for one another?

Not just some generic prayer. For all the Christians in the

world, but specifically for them, one of the reasons you saw

the video tonight wasn't just because we didn't have time to

show it on Sunday. We're going to show the UUPG

video every Sunday night again because I have a fear.

We talk about it as a staff because we worry about it

amongst ourselves. Do I even remember the name of

the people group by the end of the worship service on Sunday

morning? And so.

We want to reinforce that. And here you are, the prayer

people, the prayer team. And so every Wednesday night,

we're going to reshow the video that we show on Sunday morning

most weeks. How are you praying for your

connect group? I harp on it.

I know I won't stop either. Next time, a former member of

Inglewood. I'm just going to ask him if

they were ever in the Connect group anyway.

I'll be no sure. Yeah, I'm going to let it go.

It'll happen again tomorrow, though.

I'm not. Kidding.

They doesn't go by I. Don't hear something about a

former member of Inglewood. It's amazing y'all could have

10,000 people in this church. How are you praying for your

connect? Group your leaders, your

neighbors, your family. How are you praying for the

people who ought to be here for Easter?

How are you praying for the city?

Pray for alertness. Pray for perseverance.

Pray that you would abide in prayer, and then it would it

would be in the prayer of one another, of each other as you

join together, praying for one another's dependence and

anticipation. Praying that you grow as

disciples. Praying that that that that

struggling, straying church member would come back.

Teresa met. A member who didn't claim former

but who hadn't been here in a long time says he'll be here

Sunday. I don't I.

Don't know, we'll see. If he does, I'll hug him hard.

Do you pray for me? Do you pray for my preaching and

teaching? If you don't like it, pray

harder. Do you pray for your Connect

group leaders teaching for their facilitation of the group that

they're working with? What about the leaders of our

students? You know, one of the things

we're focusing upon every week now is a ministry area.

Do you pray for our children? Do you pray for our

preschoolers? We need the undergirding of

divine weaponry. And as we pray for one another,

we can. Help and then.

Ephesians 619. And 20 again it says, and also

for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my mouth

boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I'm an

ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to

speak. Chuck Lawless mentioned this

passage. We need to pray for bold

witness. When people intercede for one.

Another and they begin to intercede for the unchurched.

Their hearts can become more sensitive to God's desire to see

people saved. Burden is developed and and, and

and we don't just interpret this as simply praying for lost

people, though we we must do that.

This is also a prayer for fellow believers.

This is a. Prayer that the fellow.

Believers would step up and testify that they do boldly,

that we'd accept the responsibility of being his

ambassadors, to speak out there like we ought to.

And so are we doing that? Are you in a connect group that

does that? There's an opportunity over

these next few weeks, like very few times in the year people

come to. Church on Easter.

Who don't even want to come to church on Easter, but they come

to church on Easter because grandma wants them to come, or

Mama wants them to come, or somebody wants them to come and

they'll be here and they're going to hear about Jesus, the

gospel, and the resurrection. Some of them probably think it's

the only sermon that ever gets preached in church because it's

the only one they ever hear once a year.

But but what a, what a? Prayer, that would be.

What an opportunity we have. Grab these cards, invite

everybody. You know, we're going to go door

to door in our neighborhood and invite everybody.

And I'm praying for something more.

I'm praying that Easter becomes a catalyst for so much more.

I'm praying that Easter at Inglewood becomes a powerful

movement of the Spirit not only in our midst, but that overflows

into this community. It's time for this church to be

the United spiritual force in this community that it's

intended to be. We're to be the church.

That prays for the. Souls of this community and

loves them as ourselves. And so the power of prayer and

the power of the Gospel combined as allies in this war against

the present darkness, pray in such a way that Satan and his

demons know our names. Let's 'cause him concern.

Let's cause him to worry. Instead of falling, sitting back

and falling prey to him, letting us worry and causing us to

worry, let's give it to him dependent, anticipating, abiding

prayer. So very practically then

everything that we've talked about in in our series together.

Here's some application. Let's create a personal prayer

plan you should know most of. This, but let me just put.

It together for you. First you got to make a

commitment and that's the biggest part probably.

Are you committed to actually doing this?

Ask the Holy Spirit to help and convict you.

Ask him to give you the strength.

Ask him to give you the focus that you need so that when you

prayer you're not drifting off everywhere in the world.

Ask him to place on your heart a burden.

Ask him to give you a specific prayer.

Request things that you care about to pray for.

You got to budget and make time. It's not going to happen by

accident. There must be great

intentionality and a passage that gets misinterpreted

greatly, especially in the prosperity.

Gospel. Movement is Psalm 37.

You know these verses. Delight yourself in the Lord and

He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act.

Here's what this this passage does not mean and has never

meant and will never mean. It doesn't mean I can get

whatever I want. That is not.

What this passage is? Talking about it means that if I

abide with him and I commit my way to Him closely, love Him

more than anything else, God will provide what my heart and

my mind should seek. He will give me that desire.

He will put that in me. That's not my wish list.

That's the things I ought to be thinking about and praying for.

And so He's going to make my heart's desire the same as his.

And so that means engaging His word, abiding in prayer, and

growing in all the other five essentials that we need to in

order to be a disciple. So we need to fall in love with

Jesus on an even deeper level, and prayer can guide us to that.

So covenant with God, pursue him in this commit your way, your

daily life. That's what it would mean to

him. Commit your faith, trust fully

in him. Commit your prayer life to him.

Dedicate yourself to spend time alone with him every single day.

So then we need to come up with a plan.

So you. Need to develop a practical.

Schedule plan you need to make a daily appointment with God that

you honestly seek to keep that you're committed to now for me

right now and and it is very because of my travelling life

usually because sometimes morning and night we're all over

the place. But right now for me this is.

Early in the morning when I'm alone and I I can have my daily

Bible study as well as when I'm exercising.

I have my Bible study and then I go and I exercise.

That's almost every single morning.

I know I don't look like it, but if I didn't do this you would be

shocked at how I would look. So I go to bed earlier than.

I probably ever have in my entire life.

I think that's true. I probably go to bed earlier

right now than I ever have in order to get up early so I can

do this, you know, Gee, and I'm not saying morning's the only

time to do it. That's often suggested.

But you know, Jesus rose very early in the morning and mark

one while it was still dark and he departed and went out to a

desolate place and there he prayed.

But for you. And in this morning and our

staff devotions, John Rosal was sharing.

And because of the little kids in his house, he has to have his

time at night after they're in bed.

So life. Might.

Dictate this for you. They're up early in the morning

jumping all over him so he can't it's hard for him to have prayer

time and so he puts them to bed and he loves his kids.

In fact, one of his kids came up to him this morning, says,

Daddy, why are you always reading the Bible when what a

what a thing, what a thing. But.

You may have to wait until your hat you.

Have the house to yourself in peace and quiet.

But you need to schedule a normal set aside time.

You have to make time, not try to take time.

You got to make it. You got to set this.

Something else is always going to come up.

I promise you. You got an enemy, He'll

distract, he's going to interfere, he's going to do

everything he can. And so keep this time like you

would your most important appointment.

If you really need to go see a doctor, you try to keep that

appointment. Now, you may sit in the waiting

room for an hour and a half, but you got to.

You go sit right and see the doctor.

Or you go see the dentist. Or whoever it is, keep this

appointment, calendar it, outlook it, set an alarm for

whatever it takes. So if we do that, if it's

humans, you, you don't, you know, heaven forbid I missed

that lunch date or I missed that appointment with the boss or

whatever I've got to go to. I wouldn't miss that for

anything. What are we doing with God?

And then I recommend you organize the.

Place. Maybe this is just me.

I I need things to be in a certain place for me, but I want

to organize the place that's going to help me to pray.

I need to be quiet and conducive for focus, but I need my Bible.

Maybe you need some music. Maybe you need a journal.

Whatever tools you need ready to go.

I have a little book light that I.

Use almost every morning that my wonderful wife bought me because

I don't turn on all the lights early in the morning necessarily

and it helps me then you need. To follow up.

A personalized system or method for prayer that that works for

you if it. I know this is a great

statement. I think I wrote this down for

you. If it doesn't work for you, it

will not work for you. So you can.

Try other people's methods and maybe you'll figure it out, but

you're going to have to find one that really is good for you.

Now, there's all kinds of things I've listed here that might be

helpful to you. And so you, these are pretty

standard things that you can read, but then commit and you

think I'm going to leave it alone because I believe so

strongly and I don't just believe in this.

This is based on studies and statistical evidence and 4000

hours of whatever her consulting I've done, you know, whatever it

is more than that probably, but you got to commit to being in a

connect group that prays for and with one another.

You need the accountability of being together in being helpful

to help other people in discipleship.

So you need to pray through our Reach ministry.

You need to experience the prayer support of an intimate

church family group where you can share burdens.

And they're going to pray for you, and they're really going to

pray for you, and you're going to pray for them because it

matters. You're going to be much more in.

Tune and you're going to want to know about their answers to

prayer. You know, tell me about we last

week we prayed for John. Tell me about you're going to be

engaged in that. You're going to be thinking

about that. It helps you and it's going to

help you in your personal prayer time by doing that.

And so you agree with one another to.

Pray and and to help one another and then you share with each

other about the way God answers prayer.

And then I think you ought to attend midweek, which is a

little ironic to share with you also for those you listening

online. But each week we're going to

pray together for reach requests.

We're going to pray for UUPGS. We're going to pray for

missionaries. We're going to pay for mission

trips. We're going to pray for our core

church ministries and we're going to pray for upcoming

church events. And we're going to study the

word of God and seek his seek the access that we need to his

divine weaponry. We're going to do that together.

But God doesn't answer prayer. Simply for us to hide His

Amazing Grace and power. Prayer ought to lead to

testimony. Prayer ought to lead to US

sharing with others about what He's done.

Got to put it into action. I didn't know it.

When I share my testimony with you and I'm not going to say too

much right now, but my testimony is really fairly embarrassing to

me in many parts now The end result is great glory to Christ.

I pray it's the way I want to share it, but but there's

there's a massive prodigal thing in there embarrassing for me.

I failed miserably and when God got me back, so to speak,

dramatically. I didn't know it at the time,

but sometimes even. Years later, some just a few

days and weeks later, I I. I found out that.

There was a whole lot of people praying for me.

I didn't know it, and I might not have even appreciated it in

the frame that I was in at the time.

But I look back at it now and I. Think back to my Christian life.

When I was first saved. I had two senior adult men.

I don't know why they did this. I'll be honest with you.

I stand here right now and I can't.

I can see their faces. I can't remember their names,

which is horrible. That's horrible of me.

But. They met with me every single

week. And prayed over me.

Because they knew I was alone. That my family wasn't a part of

the journey and every single week they had me come and meet

them and they laid hands on me and prayed for me every single

week. And then I rejected everything

and I'll. Talk about this when I share my

testimony and came back. And I realized that those.

Two men, much older, much older, were still praying for me.

They came up to. Me and they.

Still met together every week just to pray for me.

Don't ever underestimate divine. Weaponry.

We need to, we need to seek it. We need to embrace it.

We need to appreciate it greatly, Father.

Thank you that you don't leave us alone, Father.

It would have been. Better just to save.

Us kill us and take us home. But but that's not the plan.

You leave us. Here for a reason.

And there there are multiple reasons you leave us here so we

can bring you glory, We can worship you, we can walk with

you, we can we can know you. You also leave us here so we can

tell other people about that. And Father, I pray that.

We won't take lightly the access that we have to you.

It's so easy in our comfort. So easy in our contentment,

perhaps even our laziness, for us to just take spiritual

disciplines and church for granted.

Little. Father, I just wish people.

Understood that all around the world right now, brothers and

sisters in Christ are hurting, desperate, desperate for you,

seeking you, wishing they had access to tools and resources.

So, Father, I pray that we will. We will take.

The mantle of. Responsibility of the

stewardship of where we live and how we live and the mantle of

the the stewardship. Responsibility of discipleship

that we have to grow so that we can we can share with others and

we can send people to those brothers and sisters in Christ

to encourage them. Lord, we need your divine

weaponry. We need to be able to take every

thought captive that is not according to your will.

Lord, I pray, I pray. For the movement of.

Your spirit that I'm begging you for every day, begging you for

it. God that Easter becomes a

catalyst that Easter. Begins a movement.

Like that we've never seen a movement of your spirit of

revival and spiritual awakening, not only in this church, but in

this community, this entire area that Father, not only would you

bring people here who you will save the Father, we will take

seriously our growth and our responsibility to serve.

Father, help us forgive us. Lord, we want to abide with you

in prayer, independence and with great anticipation.

Thank you for. That in Christ's name.

Amen. God bless you all.

Thank you so much for listening today.

And I also hope that you'll go to

[email protected] as well as our app and find many

other resources that will bless you and your families.

Thank you once again.