All Armored Up, And Then?

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You know, in the world where I used to operate, everything you did was channeling in to the closing argument.

So today, after nine weeks of the Armored Up series, I get the privilege of presenting the closing argument for this series.

So everything that we have studied is still relevant, and we're going to talk about a lot of it today, but this is the last thing you're going to hear right here, right now, about armored up.

And it's the last words that Paul told the church at Ephesus.

And before we talk too much about what those words are, I want to just give you a little bit of foundation that the church at Ephesus was kind of a special church to Paul.

If you read Acts, you see that most of Paul's missionary journeys had this pattern.

He would go to town, he would go to the synagogue, he would tell the people about Jesus and tell them that they needed to repent, and then the church people would run him out of town.

That ain't what happened at Ephesus.

The Bible tells us at Ephesus that he went to the church and he talked to them and they wanted him to stay longer.

But as things go, Paul had taken a vow that required him to go to Jerusalem for a feast.

But as soon as he got done with the feast, he came back to the church at Ephesus.

And he was pastor in the church, and it wasn't the church people that ran him out.

In Acts chapter 19, we see that there was a revolt of the silver union led by a guy named Demetrius.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

And the reason that happened was Demetrius, a silversmith, made little images out of silver of a god named Diana.

And that's who they worshipped in Ephesus.

But Paul's ministry was working so good, Demetrius was a little worried that his money might get cut.

So they had a big riot, and Paul again got ran out of town.

But it wasn't by the church.

They were very fond of him.

In Acts chapter 20, we see Paul not go to Ephesus.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

And I think the reason he doesn't go to Ephesus is because he was scared he was going to get stuck.

Do you guys have any of those friends that you go to their house for dinner at 6 and all of a sudden it's 8:30, 9 o'clock, and you're still going strong, and then it's about 10, 11, maybe going on to midnight, and you're like, oh my, like I love it, but I just gotta go home.

So what do you do?

Sometimes you control that situation by maybe you ask them, why don't we just go out to dinner?

And then we have just a couple of hours, and then it has to end.

So what Paul does, he's in a place called Miletus, and it's about a four-day journey to Ephesus.

There's no good reason why he didn't just walk there, but he doesn't.

He sends a group of people and they bring the people back from Ephesus.

So he takes a four-day journey and turns it into eight, so he doesn't have to go there because he doesn't want to get stuck.

And they have a big meeting, the Ephesian elders and Paul, and Paul tells them, among other things, he says, You will see my face no more.

And the Bible says that they wept freely.

And there's crying and embracing.

There's speculation, this is where the song Kumbaya was originally recorded.

The church at Ephesus, like you don't have a favorite child.

Paul didn't have a favorite church, but they were very special people to him.

And so what we're going to talk about is the last words that Paul gave to this very special church and how that happens seven or eight years later, the church gets a letter, and the preacher probably says, Hey guys, we got a letter from the Apostle Paul, gathers everybody around, and they read what we're just have gone through, and they get through all six chapters, and then they get down to the very end.

And the last thought that Paul wants to leave with this special people is what we've been studying.

Stand strong, take up the armor of God, the breastplate of righteousness, the feet shod with preparation of the gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, the belt of truth.

And the people hear this, and if you hear this and you're me, stand strong, take up your armor.

I have to say, what then?

Because I need an action verb.

I don't do real well just standing and being.

And that's kind of what Paul told him to do.

My fear of standing and being goes way back to a cold fall night in the mid-1980s, somewhere in the woods of West Jefferson County, where a young Dave Roper, paper sack in hand, learned the dangers of just standing and waiting while everybody told me I was hunting for a snipe.

So standing and waiting is not something that I do well.

And thankfully, Paul tells us what we're supposed to do when we get all armored up.

And that comes from Ephesians chapter 6, verses 18 through 20.

Ephesians 6:18–20

Paul says this, praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all saints, and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.

The very last thing Paul tells this church that's so special to him to do is pray.

Let's do that now, and we'll look at this a little more in depth.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for the privilege to be here today to share your word with your people.

And God, I pray that you will prepare all of our hearts and minds so that if we need to be encouraged, we will be.

And if we need to be convicted, we will be.

If we need to be comforted, we will be.

And if we need to leave here in all of you, God, that we will.

In Jesus' name, amen.

On April 7th, when Pastor Rick started this series, he mentioned a word called conduit.

Conduit is piping that you run wire through that transmits power from one place to another.

Pastor Rick told us that we're power carriers and that we should be clean and make ready a place so that we can carry power.

He told us this verse, 2 Timothy 2, 21.

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

Make ready a place to be a transmitter of power, Pastor Rick told us.

I've thought a lot about this since April, and here's what I believe that I know.

We can run conduit all over the place, and it can be clean, and we can have wire in it, and it can go from here to wherever.

But there ain't no power getting nowhere if it's not connected to the source.

And that's what prayer does.

Prayer is what connects the transmitter to the source.

Ephesians 6.10, Paul tells us to be strong.

That's point one.

We may get a little funny on the points, I'm not sure where they all are, but Paul tells us to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might.

And to be strong, you have to be connected to the source of the power.

The Almighty Father, our Creator, the all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God of all eternity.

We are allowed to connect with him through prayer.

It seems like about every other time I preach, I have to preach on prayer.

It's almost like God is hitting me where I'm not that good, making me play out of my uh weak suit.

I don't feel like I'm that good at praying, and I know that I don't pray as much as I should.

I can quote you a bunch of verses and preach you a lot of sermons about why you should.

And still I walk around a lot of the time with my power cut off.

Paul tells us in this verse not just to pray, but to pray always.

And that means being in a constant conversation, talking some, listening more.

If I did that, I probably wouldn't have to ask quite so much forgiveness.

Because I do know this, most of the dumb and mean and ugly and stupid things I say aren't right after I finish praying.

Usually it's when I've forgotten God is there, or even worse, that I just disregard that He's watching and listening to everything I'm saying and doing.

If I was in a constant conversation with God, I think I would probably act more righteously on a day-to-day basis.

So knowing this, I really thought about why I don't pray more.

And I think I'm ashamed.

And let me tell you why I say that.

I think I don't pray more because when I do pray, it's almost always supplication.

Ask God to supply the need.

And it's usually a physical need.

I dare say that three-quarters or more of the prayers that I offer are prayers of supplication.

God help the illness, God be with the one who's lost the loved one, God be with the job, lost be with the wayward child, help the doomed relationship.

Give me this and this and this and this.

There's some people who call me sometimes.

Nobody here, I don't want you to think that.

These are people I haven't seen in ten years sometimes.

And when the phone rings, I know that something's up.

They don't ask what I've been up to.

They don't know how old the kids are.

They know very little about where I live or what I'm doing or anything, no idea about me.

But when the phone rings, after a quick, hey, how have you been?

They ask if I have a couple minutes, half hour, for a quick question to discuss some complicated mess they've gotten themselves into.

And I try to help a lot of times when I can, but sometimes I feel like I need to send them a bill.

Sometimes Amanda gets mad at me because I don't send them a bill.

It's a transactional relationship.

They don't care anything in the world about me.

They only care about what I can provide, how I can help, and what I can do for them.

And I think I don't pray more because when I do, I think I'm treating God like that.

After a brief thank you for this day, I just get into my list of things that I need God to do for me without ever really thinking about who he is, only what he can do.

And I'm ashamed.

And that means I only call on him when I reach the end of what human effort can do for me.

And I don't pray as much as I should.

I don't want to do that to God.

So Paul tells us to pray with all prayer and supplication.

So if prayer is more than supplication, what even is prayer?

How am I supposed to pray if it's not asking God for stuff?

You know who else asked this question?

The disciples in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

They said, Jesus, how do we pray?

And in response, Jesus repeated something that he had already told everybody in Matthew 6 at the Sermon on the Mount.

Maybe the disciples forgot how Jesus told them to pray.

And you know, maybe I did too.

You see, when I was a kid, there were two prayers.

I know there are some modern new age prayers, but when I was a kid in the late 70s leading into the early years of the Reagan administration, there were the originals.

Before we ate, we said God is great.

I don't know who I learned it from.

It's probably my mom, but it was reinforced everywhere I went.

My grandmother's house, preschool, church Sunday school snacks.

The way we determined if a new kid at Sunday school was heathen or not was whether or not they knew God is great.

If they could say the prayer, we probably accepted them.

If they didn't know it, it's likely they would be playing over in the corner by themselves.

My granddad was a wonderful man of God.

He coached the church softball team when he was in his 70s.

He was a deacon.

He sang in the choir.

He ran the food pantry.

He taught the men Sunday school when they needed a teacher.

And we would go to his house for lunch or dinner sometimes, and he would offer a tremendous prayer over all the people and families there and all the food.

Most beautiful thing you've ever heard.

And almost invariably, when he finished, I would demand to say, God is great.

And they would let me.

And that might be why I turned out like I did.

I've got brothers who are a lot older than me, and I had a little nephew who was like three years younger than me.

He called me Uncle Dave.

And we got to stay together and have the sibling rivalry thing.

And there was one day that we got in a pretty heated argument that only turned just a very little bit violent over who was gonna say God is great before we ate lunch.

And my grandmother came in and said, You're not gonna fight over who says the blessing.

So we had to say it together.

Like tying a football game, you know.

It was an honor and privilege to say the prayer before you ate.

God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.

By his hands we are fed.

Thank you, Lord, for daily bread.

Three meals a day, but snacks were free, except at Sunday school.

Little buttering cookies that you put on your finger and the apple juice.

We said the blessing over those.

Now, I didn't grow up in a ritzy neighborhood, so we didn't ever go to any heavy hors d'oeuvre parties, and I didn't have any brunches to figure out whether or not we had to say the blessing.

Now, before I went to bed at night, that was the other time that we really prayed.

And of course, by the age of two, I had learned, now I lay me.

Now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

And this is where some parents went a little bit soft.

They came up with something like, the angels keep me through the night and wake me in the morning light.

But that's not how the prayer goes.

When Ella was a baby, Amanda and I had a conversation about what prayer we were going to speak over her.

And I was advocating, for now I lay me down to sleep.

I pray the Lord my soul to keep.

If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.

That's just what you said.

That's what made everything alright.

And then you went right to sleep.

I never considered that I was pleading with God to please take my soul in case I didn't make it out of the night of life at three years old.

That was tattooed on my brain long before kindergarten.

And then one night my dad came in and he taught me a new prayer.

And it was longer and it didn't really rhyme, so I wasn't really sure about it too much.

But it mesmerized me that my father could spout out so many words, and I wanted to learn it.

He called it the Lord's Prayer.

Some people call it our Father.

What is it?

It's the prayer Jesus told the disciples in response to their question in Luke chapter 11.

Luke 11 · chapter mention

It's the prayer Jesus taught at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

I was a smart kid and I was pretty dedicated, and so line by line, night by night, I repeated after my dad, I repeated after my mom, and in a couple of months I had this prayer memorized, and it was right there in my prayer arsenal with Now I Lay Me and God is great.

Now we're gonna read this prayer in a minute, but before we do, I just want to ask you a couple of questions.

When is the last time that you heard this in church?

Not just here.

When is the last time you said it yourself?

Have you taught it to your kids?

If you did, was it just memorization?

Or did you talk about the meaning of the words?

Do you know anything at all about the context of this prayer?

Matthew chapter 6, starting at verse 5, says this.

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

When you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.

Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father, who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they'll be heard for their many words.

Therefore do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him.

In this manner, therefore, pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen.

It's hard to do without thy's and thines if you're me, because it's just in my brain.

What the devil did to me with this prayer, this perfect prayer, that Jesus our Savior told us to pray, is he convinced me that this was just a vain repetition.

Kind of like those other prayers I learned when I was a kid.

And when I got to be a teenager and went on into adulthood, I quit praying it.

And I quit praying those others.

I mean, it sounded like a Hallmark song or something.

And then I didn't know how to pray.

And the answer was right there before my eyes all of the time.

If you explore the words and clauses and phrases of this prayer, you can pray this all day, every day, about just about everything, and it doesn't have to feel like you're in some transactional relationship with God.

Don't just pray it though, understand it.

It's either going to be a model prayer or a vain repetition.

That's one of your points.

What's it gonna be for you?

Model prayer or a vain repetition?

Now we don't have time to completely break it down, but I want to do, I want to talk about a couple of the words.

Let's start with father.

What does it mean when we acknowledge God as Father?

What are the characteristics of a father that we're saying when we say father?

How does your relationship with your earthly father impact the way you view God?

Do you have some misconceptions about what God may be like because of your relationship with your earthly father?

Do you need to ask our Father to help you with that?

That's just the word Father.

Now, what about the word right before that, our?

See, Jesus didn't say pray to the Father, and he didn't say pray to my father, and he didn't say just pray Father.

He said, I want you to pray our Father.

Well, what does that mean?

That means you and me and those people over there, and the people way in the back, and the people who aren't here today, and the people who used to go here but don't anymore, and the people you used to go to church with but don't anymore, and it means the people you think are stupid, and it means the people who think you're stupid, and it means the people who think you're stupid and have told you, God is our Father, but not just that.

He's also Jesus' Father.

Jesus didn't say pray to your father, he said pray to our father.

And I'm here to tell you today, you don't get two words in to the prayer Jesus taught us to pray without having all those things come to your mind if you think about it.

No wonder the devil doesn't want us to pray that.

Hear me well, church.

Everyone that's a Christian is a child of God.

We have rights to be brothers and sisters with Christ, and it's not an exclusive club.

God sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whoever believes in him, that he died on the cross and rose again on the third day, whoever believes that can be saved and become a child of the Father and not perish and have everlasting life.

We say all that when we say our Father.

In heaven, that could take the rest of the day to go through.

And we don't have time to do that because we're still in Ephesians 6.18.

But starting later this summer, and we'll let you know when, we're going to do a Bible study on Wednesday nights, breaking down this prayer and really exploring what these words that Jesus told us to pray mean.

Next, Paul says, supplication in the spirit.

And many of you are wondering, man, we've got a long way to go, but I'm going to tell you it gets faster.

So, Jesus uh Paul tells us to pray supplication in the spirit.

So when we do ask for supplication, it's supposed to be in the spirit.

Now, I want to make sure my supplications line up with God's will.

And I know that God has a perfect will that he's working in this world.

And I don't want to get caught up praying against the will of God.

But I believe that if I pray in the Spirit, in the Holy Spirit, that I will be praying in the will of God.

So there's a lot of different ideas about maybe what praying in the Spirit means, but for me today, there's three blanks on your paper.

I believe if I pray like Jesus taught us to pray, and I believe if I pray like Jesus Himself prayed, and I believe if I pray the word of God at times, that I have a very good chance of my supplications matching God's will and being praying, be praying in the Spirit.

A perfect example of this, I think, comes from Luke chapter 22, verse 42.

Luke 22:42

Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died for the sins of all mankind, and he made a supplication request coupled with submission.

He said, Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

Jesus had something he hoped, but he didn't want to pray opposing God.

And do you know what happened when he prayed that prayer?

Luke 22, 43.

Then an angel appeared from heaven, strengthening him.

Way back in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10, at the beginning of this, Paul says, be strong.

Ephesians 6:10

And here we see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane praying a supplication request in submission to the will of God.

And even Jesus got strength from heaven.

You can't be strong if you don't pray.

You're not going to be connected to the source, and you're not going to have the power.

The next blank you have says, be watchful to this end.

The blanks are easy.

God says, pray and see what happens.

Check out how God responds to what you're doing.

Have the things you asked God for last week been provided or answered?

Do you keep tabs?

Is there something you're waiting on?

Are you watching, following up, checking in?

Are your eyes peeled?

Are you on the lookout?

Have you taken heed?

That's a biblical word.

Have you taken any heed?

And not just about the physical need, mind you, also about the other parts of the prayer.

Like lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.

All right, we ask God to lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil, but it's our job to keep a lookout.

God promises us this in 1 Corinthians 10.13.

Many of you know the concept.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you were able, but with the temptation will also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it.

So God makes a way of escape, and we ask God to lead us not into temptation, and then I blow right by the door that will get me out of there.

Sometimes unintentionally, other times a little more maliciously.

But if you pray, you've got to watch out for how God is answering your prayers.

The verse right before that one I just read to you about temptation says this.

Now, Paul tells us the beginning of all of this armor of God, that we're supposed to stand and be strong.

And we see Jesus only being strengthened through prayer, and we see a warning here that if we're gonna stand, we better take heed and watch out.

You gotta pray and watch.

You gotta pray and watch.

What do I do when I get my armor on?

You gotta pray and watch.

You gotta pray and watch.

And I said it over and over because the next point is you gotta do it with all perseverance.

Here we are, armored up, standing strong, praying and watching and praying and watching, and nothing's happening.

We're not getting any traction.

Sometimes it even feels like we're going backwards.

You're getting very sleepy, just like Peter and James and John did when Jesus told them to pray and watch.

Jesus says, keep praying and keep watching with all perseverance.

It's actually Paul, keep praying, keep watching with all perseverance.

Perseverance, according to the Websters, persistence in doing something despite delay or difficulty in succeeding.

Being persistent when you do something despite delay or difficulty in succeeding.

We're supposed to keep praying and keep praying and keep praying, and it feels like we're getting nowhere.

We're supposed to pick up our armor and stand up and keep praying and keep watching, earnestly, boldly, relentlessly, stubbornly, persevere, watching expectantly for something to happen.

We've talked some about the Lord's prayer in Luke 11, but in or in Matthew 6, but in Luke 11, I think it's interesting that right after Jesus tells the disciples how they're supposed to pray, he immediately follows it up with the parable of the persistent friend.

The way that parable goes is a friend comes to his other friend's house at midnight, he's asking for not one but three loaves of bread, and it's not to feed himself, it's to feed his other friend.

And the man inside says, Go away, we're in bed, I can't help you, I'm not gonna open the door.

And Jesus tells us at the end of this parable, he says, This, I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

You see, the things that feel like they would get on our nerves, that don't bother God.

That's what he's told us we're supposed to do.

Pray and pray and pray persistently.

Right after that, just to keep hammering the point in, after the parable of the persistent friend, Jesus tells us to ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find, knock and the door will be open to you.

That's one of those concepts that I've really had to decide whether or not I believe.

James tells us that the fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Fervent means hot, burning, glowing.

And if I have a hot, burning prayer, it's likely persistent, and I'm probably not gonna quit, and I'm gonna ask and seek and knock, and ask and seek and knock.

I thought some about this ask and seek and knock too, and here's the way that it made sense to me.

If I ask, it will be given to me.

Yes, you will get an answer.

God answers prayers.

If I seek, I will find.

Yes, and it may take time, but if you seek, you will find how the answer fits into God's perfect will.

Knock and the door will be open to me.

Yes.

If you ask and seek and knock, the door will be opened so you can understand how there is an all-knowing, almighty creator who's working good and perfect will, not just here on earth, but also through all of eternity, not just for you too.

Ask, seek, and knock.

Now I had that, and I thought that was pretty good.

And actually, I went over this sermon in Sunday school before I left, and I told the people in Sunday school, look, you guys can go work children's on June 9th now.

Because you've already heard the sermon.

And a couple of them said, nah, we're not gonna go work children's.

Because something's gonna happen on your trip that's gonna change the sermon.

And I said, it's gonna take something pretty monumental to happen on this trip to make any changes to this sermon.

And I said all that confidently because I didn't yet know about the pool deck disaster of May 30th that was headed my way.

I don't know how many of you have been on a cruise ship, but on a cruise ship, it has many floors and it's like a floating city on the sea.

And you can do just about what you want to do.

You can go to a buffet for Mexican food, pizza till four in the morning.

They got a buffet with Chinese food, they've got like a regular buffet, they've got a little salad bar way in the back that nobody ever goes to.

You can go and you can hear violin music, piano music, you can go hear band music, they have trivia, they have bingo, they have a casino for those people, they have three pools, hot tubs, a gym, a spa.

You can get hot rocks put on your face.

We didn't do that.

But um, you have all these things on the on the ship, and on the ninth floor on the boat we were on is the Lido deck.

That's where they have the three pools on one half, and then on the other half, they've got this huge restaurant with all the buffets that probably seeks like 1,200 people.

Now, I tell you that, to tell you that where we were, the sun comes up at 3.30 in the morning and goes down about 9.30 at night.

And it's cold up in the Pacific Northwest.

So when you get on the boat, they give you this little card.

And your one job is to keep up with the card.

Like you, it's what you use to get on the boat, it's your room key, it's how you go and buy something, you just keep up, it's cooked to your credit card, and they give you this little card, and everything else is taken care of.

Like, you don't have to clean nothing, you don't have to cook nothing.

You have to go get your food, but then they come take it away.

Sometimes you may have to fight them, right?

But your job is to keep up with this one little card.

And now I'm getting to be a little older.

I can no longer in September say that I'm in my early 40s.

And we've got things reduced to where when I leave the house in the morning, I have to keep up with four things.

I have to have my keys, my cell phone, my wallet, and my book bag.

And that's that's about capacity.

Like anything else needs to go in the book bag.

And if I have five things, something's getting left, and it may not be the thing I added in.

It might be one of those other things.

Right?

So I get up on May 30th, and I'm going to go over my sermon just to kind of get ready, and I go up to this restaurant on the ninth floor, and with me I have my sweatshirt, my water bottle, my notes, my pen, my cell phone, my glasses, and my little card.

And I get some coffee.

I don't know if you're counting, but we're up to eight things I have possession of right then.

And I go and sit down, and it's pretty quiet at five in the morning on the cruise ship.

So I sit down in this restaurant that seats 1200, and I'm start digging in.

I'm on page one.

These two dudes come and sit right beside me.

And I talked to them a little bit, and then they started talking about some really weird ways to take out the death penalty executions, and I was, I said, I said, I can't do this.

So I went and got some more coffee, and I went and got me another seat.

And then I needed to go over to the washroom.

So I went to the bathroom that was out by the pool deck, and then I come back in and then I get one more.

I drink a lot of coffee.

I had a third cup of coffee.

We're not 6 o'clock in the morning yet working on my sermon.

And about 6 30, I say, I'm gonna be a good husband, and I'm gonna take Amanda some coffee way down to our room.

So I go to the fourth coffee station thing that I've been at, and I get a cup, and the boat rocks, so I'm rocking and sloshing and rocking, and I got my water bottle and my notes are under my arm, and I get down to the room with about three-quarters of a cup of coffee, and I sit everything down and I go to unlock the room, and I unlock the room with my key card, and I get in and I sit everything down and I start feeling like something's missing.

And I don't have my phone.

There are 2,400 people on this boat, plus about 600 workers.

I don't have my phone, so what do I do?

I ask.

Where have you been?

And I run through, I've sat in three places, I've been to four coffee stations, I've been to the bathroom.

And that asking's not enough, though.

What I want you to hear is there's escalating levels of commitment with this.

After I ask, I seek.

I go to all the places that I've been and look hard to see if I can find this.

And I tell Amanda I've lost the phone.

I come back down to the room, and she is very good at commiserating.

We go back up and she helps me search through all of the places that we've been to look for the phone, and it's not anywhere.

And at this point, I'm not even flipping out.

I'm more like resigned.

I'm like, I'm not gonna let this ruin my trip.

I don't think.

So finally, there's a little man at this time, and he's standing at a place like this, and he's kind of the manager of the buffet, and I was too embarrassed to go and do it.

But Amanda goes up and asks the man, says, uh, we've lost a phone, what should we do?

And he says, Well, go down to guest services on the second floor, and they will have the phone if anybody has it.

So we go down to the second floor on the elevator.

While we're on the elevator ride, I just looked at her and I said, What are the chances?

And she's honest, she said, pretty slim.

We get up to the lady and I ask her, you know, have you found a phone?

I think it was Amanda because I was still embarrassed.

But she goes to the back and she pulls out this long, slim silver phone, and I was like, that's not my phone.

She goes back to the back again.

She pulls out a phone that kind of looks like mine.

It's black case, about the right size.

It's got a little note wrapped around it.

And she says, This one is dead, so you'll have to go get your charger and plug it in to prove it's yours.

And I said, Where was it found?

And she said, Well, it was found on the washroom in the ninth floor.

And on the way to the room, we weren't running, but we were close.

And I asked Amanda, what are the chances that two were lost that look like mine in the washroom on the ninth floor?

And she said, Pretty slim.

So I got my charger and we go back to the desk at guest services, and I have my charger, and I say, ma'am, I've got my charger, but could you just push the button on that phone?

And she pushed it, and this picture of me and my family showed up, and I said, I started crying.

I said, Listen, I've been preparing a sermon about asking and seeking and knocking.

And Jesus said, Ask, it'll be given to you, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open to you.

And you guys have proved that to me right here, right now.

Amanda said, We're gonna go get a cup of coffee that I can enjoy.

And we went up to the pool deck and we get the coffee and we sit down and she says, You know, that just goes to show you how on top of things they are here.

Listen to me, church.

If you'll do what Jesus said and ask and seek and knock, you might be surprised how on top of things our Father is with what's going on around here.

The next thing Paul says is to ask for supplication for all the saints.

All means all.

Just keep writing all on that blank.

Even the mean girl and the guy who stabs you in the back, and even the person who's not acting like a Christian, and the people you don't even know, you can pray for them too.

You can default by just praying the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.

God give us this day, not me, and give us our daily bread.

I mean, even the worst guy, you still want him to eat, right?

And I've heard some people say sometimes, well, I'm just not ready to forgive him yet.

Jesus covered that too.

Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

It's all right there in this prayer that the devil told me wasn't worth saying.

Jesus taught us all that we need to know.

Finally, we come towards the end.

Paul asked his friends at Ephesus to pray for him.

Paul is in prison, and he's been unjustly deprived of his freedom.

He's waiting on charges, and he throws in a little prayer request for himself right at the end.

I've had the opportunity to meet and talk with a lot of people who are in prison, and almost without exception, the number one prayer of people in prison is to get out of prison.

They just kind of seem to be preoccupied with it, rightfully so.

Paul hasn't even been convicted, he hasn't even really been charged yet, and he's been in prison for years, and it would make good sense for him to ask the Ephesians to pray that he gets out of prison.

But he doesn't ask for that.

Instead, he asks this he says, pray that utterance may be given to me.

Utterance, Paul says, pray that I may have the words.

This is the Apostle Paul who seen Jesus Christ risen.

He went blind and then he got his sight back.

He escaped Jerusalem in a basket, cast a spirit out of a slave girl, was released from prison already by an earthquake, but he didn't leave.

He lived through riots and mobs and tempest at sea and a shipwreck, and he got bit by a snake on hand, and he shook it off and saved or healed a whole island full of Maltese people.

If this apostle Paul, with all that he's seen, needs utterance, I do too.

So God, give me utterance.

If you're praying for me this week, pray that I'll have the words to say utterance.

The next thing Paul says he wants, pray that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.

Now, I'm not gonna read all the things that Paul has gone through again, but he has been before the Sanhedrin, he's been before a Roman commander named Lysias, he's been before Governor Felix, Governor Festus, King Agrippa has questioned him.

Now he's in the emperor's jail, Caesar himself.

And despite all this, Paul is still living and still talking, and he says, I need to be bold.

If he needs boldness, I do too.

Christians in the room, the last words that Paul told his church at Ephesus that he held so dearly was to stand and be strong.

But to do that, we got to be connected to the source.

And I don't want you guys to miss this part.

The book of Ephesians wasn't the last letter that the church at Ephesus got.

Many years later, they got another letter.

This time it was from John, and it was dictated to him by Jesus while he was on Patmos.

And we get to read that letter in Revelation chapter 2.

Revelation 2 · chapter mention

Let me tell you what Jesus told John to tell the church at Ephesus, Revelation 2, 2.

I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil.

You've tested those who say they're apostles and are not, and you found them to be liars, and you've persevered and have patience, and you've labored for my name's sake, and you have not become weary.

Man, these Ephesians were armored up.

They had righteousness, salvation, faith, the belt of truth, shoes of peace, the sword of the spirit.

They were warriors, morally pure, dedicated, tireless servants, zealous.

But Jesus says, I have this against you that you have left your first love.

Remember, therefore, from where you have fallen, repent and do the first works.

You know what I think happened to the people in Ephesus?

I think they were a lot like me.

And they couldn't bear just to stand there all armored up with no place to go.

So what did they do?

They went out and they got busy working and serving and singing, enduring, testing spirits, opposing evil, persevering, and they forgot what Paul told them to do in the first place.

Just pray.

Just pray.

I wonder if there's anybody here.

Tireless servant, work hard, doing all the things all the time.

Do you need to get back to the first works?

What you're just loving God and talking to Him?

Because that's really what God wants.

You guys stand your feet.

Christian, here, are you a dedicated servant, a weary laborer?

Are you zealous for the truth, morally righteous, and you're just so busy doing so many things here in the kingdom that you've just gotten your power cut off?

And you just need to get plugged in so you can get recharged.

And you just need to talk to God, but you just don't know how to pray, and you've forgotten, and you don't have time, and that's the last thing you do.

I gotta wonder as we open the altar, if anybody would just come and say, God, I just want to talk to you.

I don't have to do anything special, nothing's I just want to see what's up.

You can come down here to this altar for that too.

Just to pray.

God, show me how to pray.

You need to repent and go back to your first love.

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