20260429 Prayer Wednesday Bible Study Tim Dickmann

Ephesians 6 again tonight Okay, so Ephesians

6 beginning in verse 10. Finally, be strong in

the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put

on the full armor of God so that you will be

able to stand firm against the schemes of the

devil. For our struggle is not against flesh

and blood, but against the rulers, against the

powers, against the world forces of this darkness,

against the spiritual forces of wickedness in

the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full

armor of God so that you will be able to resist

in the evil day, and having done everything to

stand firm, stand firm therefore, having girded

your loins with truth, and having put on the

breastplate of righteousness, and having shod

your feet with the preparation of the gospel

of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield

of faith with which you will be able to extinguish

all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take

the helmet of salvation and the sword of the

spirit, Which is the word of God with all prayer

and petition pray at all times in the spirit

and with this in view Beyond the alert with all

perseverance and petition for all the saints

So we're just going to go to there Paul goes

on there To ask prayer for himself and for the

Expansion of the gospel the kingdom of God and

so on But we're just gonna we're just gonna talk

a little bit tonight about prayer so I Just want

to make sure that we all know that this is not

an exhaustive study and look at prayer this evening

You would all do well to do an exhaustive study

of prayer there is prayer mentioned all throughout

the Bible If we just limit it to the New Testament

We see it everywhere. We see Jesus teaching on

prayer, giving a number of parables. We see what

we call the Lord's Prayer, or the model prayer.

When His disciples ask the Lord to teach them

to pray, He says pray in this way, and He gives

them an example there in the Lord's Prayer. We

see just the example of Jesus praying. We see

Paul all over the place. Saying I'm praying for

you pray for me Okay, and so prayer is is everywhere

It is an important part of the Christian life.

It is a vital part of the Christian life It is

a vital part of the church Church with no prayer

meeting is not putting enough emphasis on prayer

Prayer in the church is central essential and

it's essential in our lives as well We need to

be devoted to prayer and we're given those commands

all throughout Scripture all throughout the New

Testament in particular We are commanded to pray

so I want us to I Just want to say that you know

again. This is not Exhausted this evening. We'll

look at a few things and Hopefully we'll be encouraged

to press on in prayer and to grow in prayer prayer

is an area that we, it doesn't just happen. So

we need to be diligent, mindful, some of the

things that we'll talk about tonight, but growing

in prayer is the same as everything else in the

Christian life. Growing in our sanctification,

growing in our knowledge, how do these things

happen? We put in work. Do we want to know who

God is? What do we do? Sit on the cowlicks and

say, well, I sure wish I knew more about God.

Maybe God will strike me with a lightning bolt

and all of a sudden I'll know all there is to

know. No, we get in the Word. We study. We want

to be sanctified. What does that look like? What

does that mean? Well, we get in the Word. And

then we have to apply those things. We have to

live them out. We have to say, okay. I don't

measure up here and here, I need to change. Here's

some clear commands of scripture, I've got to

change. The same with prayer. We examine our

lives and we say, I need to spend more time in

prayer. And so we devote the time and the energy

to that goal. To pray more. To pray more consistently.

To pray daily. To pray throughout the day. All

of those things. So prayer requires effort. And

I'm sure we all need to grow in that. I know

I do. You know, I don't pray enough. I know that.

For sure. I need to be more diligent in it. I

need to be more mindful of it. And so, I'm exhorting

and encouraging us all to be more prayerful.

So, what does Paul say here? He says, with all

prayer and petition, pray at all times in the

Spirit. Be on the alert. with perseverance and

petition for all the saints. There's a lot of

stuff there that we'll talk about. I've got six

things here that you could just, maybe some headings

that Paul says here that we should, hopefully

we'll hit them all here. The first thing here

he says, take time for prayer. That's the first

thing he says. Pray at all times so take time

for prayer Pray at all times the second thing

he says with all prayer and supplication So what

does he say there we could say all sorts of prayer

all kinds of prayer types of prayer The third

one there he says to pray in the spirit The fourth

he says to watch or to be alert unto prayer.

And so what I put down here is to guard our time

of prayer. To guard our time of prayer. The next

one is with all perseverance and supplication

or petition or to persevere to be constant in

prayer. Constancy. Perseverance in prayer and

then the sixth one there Who are we gonna pray

for? Who does he say he says for all the saints?

All right So we have six things there that we

can think about regarding prayer Six simple things

maybe not simple six basic things Why does Paul

tell us to pray? What's the point of prayer in

the context of what all we've just got done talking

about? Just got done talking about the armor

Probably all heard that song can't think of it,

but the line is each piece put on with prayer

It's all that's what's been coming to my mind

here so the goal here what What we want to think

about is using prayer as we use the armor. Each

one of these pieces that we've put on, put on

with prayer. We can pray with regard to each

one of these things. Praying with truth. Praying

in faith. Praying for faith. Praying... in light

of the hope of glory that awaits us. And so prayer

involves or should we say encompasses all of

these things that we've talked about. We can

pray for those things, we can pray for an increase

in these things, and we can pray for application

of these things in our lives. And again, daily

using these things as we walk through this world,

as we engage in this warfare that we're in. Okay.

What is prayer then? Let's just start there.

Just a basic understanding of prayer. What is

prayer? If I was to ask somebody, what's prayer?

What would you tell me? Okay, talking to God.

Communing with God. What do you mean by commune?

Have interaction with Him. Interaction, fellowship,

relationship. Anything else? What else could

we say prayer is if I was to ask? Make requests

is a big part of prayer. We could say prayer

is making requests. Absolutely. All of those

are good. All of those are true. All of those

are very relevant. And that is prayer. Those

are all parts of prayer. What else is prayer?

Prayer is worship. We're worshiping when we pray.

Okay? So, think of prayer in that way. that prayer

is also worship. When we gather here on Sunday

mornings to pray, the prayer meeting is not this

separate time and then once we're done with that,

now we're going to worship. The prayer meeting

is a time of worship. Because when we pray, what

all are we doing? We're asking for things. We're

telling God or praising God for who He is. thanking

Him for what He has done. Right? Just a simple

act of prayer is an acknowledgement of our need

and saying that, God, You're able to do. You're

able to meet my needs. I'm relying upon You.

Okay? So, think of prayer in those ways. So that

prayer is worship and adoration. And we see...

Again, we see all of those things in the model

prayer that Jesus gave us. Our Father, which

art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom

come, thy will be done, and so on. So, time for

prayer. The first thing here, pray always. Is

there a time that's inappropriate to pray? Is

there a time when we should say, well, now's

not the time to pray? No. Okay? So, Paul says,

at all times, with all prayer. Okay? And so,

we need to, hopefully, maybe I shouldn't say

it like that, hopefully we think like that. Hopefully

we think, prayer is a... is an all -day, anytime

activity. It's not just Sunday morning. It's

not just when I'm sitting in my study or in my

chair having some quiet time and reading my Bible

and that's when I spend time in prayer. Prayer

is a daily, moment -by -moment activity. It can

be. But it is certainly something that we should

engage in throughout the day. I think Martin

Lowe Jones used to say, if you ever feel the

urge or the need or the desire to pray, don't

ever quench that. Pray at that time. It doesn't

require us curling up in a corner somewhere to

be alone to pray. We can pray at all times and

in all situations. It doesn't have to be a long

and elaborate prayer. It can be a short prayer.

Lord, help me, whatever. Lord, I'm struggling

with my thoughts here. Help me here. I'm struggling

with my thoughts and so I'm gonna, rather than

dwell on that, I'm gonna pray for someone. I'm

gonna pray for this thing here. And I'm gonna

get my mind off of this and put it on someone

else, on the Lord. Whatever, whatever. All of

those opportunities are times for prayer when

we are engaged in those things. So think of prayer

as an all -day activity that we should be engaged

in. Of course, I'm not minimizing the time that

we should set aside to really devote ourselves

to prayer. I hope we understand that. I'm not

saying since we're going to pray all day, then

we don't need to set a time aside to pray. I'm

not saying that, obviously. But we need to broaden

our thinking regarding prayer and broaden the

times that we do pray It's an encouragement and

a help to us To sit to get our mind off of the

things of this world to get our mind off of the

struggles to get our mind Off of the problems

that we're in and to ask the Lord for help in

those times There's nothing wrong with that.

It's good. It's helpful so Always at all times

in prayer kinds and sorts of prayer With all

types of prayer, so I wrote down a few here Martin

Lowe Jones says be at it always and in endless

ways So types of prayer Public prayer right corporate

prayer when the Saints are gathered Wherever

that may be here on a Sunday morning Here on

a Wednesday night, maybe you've got a small group

in your home and you're having some fellowship

there. Nothing wrong with spending time in prayer.

So corporate prayer, public prayer, private prayer.

So prayer alone, where we can pour out our hearts,

our deepest darkest secrets, fears, concerns,

all of those things that weigh upon our mind.

Bring those to the Lord. in our private time

you can say secret prayer private prayer secret

prayer other types of prayer supplications all

right adoration telling god how much we love

him how much we're thankful for him adoring him

for who he is repentance Repentance should be

in our prayer lives, asking forgiveness for those

things that we've done that are wrong, sin in

our lives. Again, along the whole line of supplications

and all of that, asking, I mean that's broad,

that's a real broad, asking for all sorts of

things, right? You could ask for spiritual needs,

physical needs, asking for the needs in the church,

those prayer requests that are given on Sunday

mornings here. So that's a really broad category.

I've got down sudden prayer, or again, just those

times just through the day when something comes

to mind, I should pray for that. You get a text,

you're gonna pray for this thing. Thankfulness,

thanksgiving should be part of our prayer. Thanking

God for who He is, thanking God for what He's

done, thanking God for His promises, all of those

types of things. Those are a few that I have

written down here. Again, if you read other commentaries

they'll have... They'll have a whole list of

other things as well. But prayer is very broad.

It involves a lot. I know when I was younger,

it's like you'd sit down, I'm going to spend

some time in prayer. Five minutes goes by and

you're like, I got nothing. I got nothing left.

That's all I got. Five minutes worth. I mean,

that's immaturity. I was young. And so, again,

there's nothing wrong with that. That's fine,

but we should grow in that. And this list that

I gave you, my goal for you is to think all of

these other things that you can pray for. You're

not limited in your prayer life. So here's an

encouragement to you. If you find that it's difficult

to pray for, and again, I'm not saying that the

super spiritual prays super long. I'm not saying

those types of things. We grow in our prayers,

we grow in our maturity, absolutely. But if you

find yourself in that position where you got

nothing else to pray for, start taking the prayer

requests down on a Sunday morning and you'll

have plenty more than five minutes worth if you

go through your whole prayer list. If you go

through every individual in the church. Okay,

and you pray for them specifically I'm gonna

pray for Caleb for this I'm gonna pray for Makayla

for this grace for this Bryson and you just go

down Okay, you've got the families all the families

in the church written down in your in your prayer

book and you're like I Don't maybe I don't know

anything particular here, but I can pray for

Sanctification I can pray for resisting temptation

Can pray that he would be a good leader in his

home that she would be a good wife in her home

I can pray for their kids You understand what

I'm saying? There's plenty to pray for them And

Do it Spend time in prayer so all sorts of prayer

number Number I'm gonna skip here. I'm gonna

skip down to well. We'll just go to number three

So praying in the spirit, what does that mean?

I wrote down a couple things here. Three things

here. Praying with knowledge. praying with fervency

and praying with sincerity. What was two? Fervency.

So passionate, intense, fervently praying with

a real heart desire for these things that you're

praying for. Sincerity. Honest, genuine heart

for these things. And then knowledge, the knowledge

of God and who He is, the truth of scripture.

I think those are involved in praying in the

Spirit. Opposite of praying in the Spirit, we

could say, would be giving lip service. In other

words, just kind of, not really, we're just praying

to pray. And I really don't believe this. I really

don't care about this person, I'm just doing

this because it's what I'm supposed to do. And

I really don't have a heart for anything here.

So those are kind of two extremes, praying in

the spirit and then just giving lip service to

this time. With that, we don't want to pray like

that. We don't want to pray with hypocrisy or

giving lip service or those types of things.

At the same time, I don't want to give us an

out. That if our heart isn't in it, then oh,

we just shouldn't pray. No. Pray and ask the

Lord to give you a heart. Spend time in prayer

and ask the Lord, help me to pray in a way that

I should here. My heart's not right right now.

I need you to work in me. I need you to change

me. I need you to give me a heart for you. for

your church, for the lost. Give me a true desire

here. Change me. So just because we don't feel

like praying doesn't mean we shouldn't pray.

Our prayer may be different there. Rather than

just jumping in head first so to speak and just

delighting in our time of prayer, we've got to

deal with ourselves and our sin. And so on, okay?

So there's never an excuse not to pray. I want

to make sure we're clear on that. There's never

a reason that you can't pray. If you find yourself

in sin, what do you do? Clean yourself up first,

get out of it, get a few days down the road,

okay, now I'm better, I can pray. No. You pour

your heart out to the Lord in repentance. Then

and there. Don't wait. Okay, so there's never

a reason not to pray. Number four, guarding our

time of prayer. For years, my biggest struggle

This was one of my biggest struggles, guarding

my time. In other words, making sure that I took

the time to pray. So I could sit in my study

and I could read for hours. And I'd be content

and great and I'd be fine. And then next thing

I know, I'm up. And I didn't even spend time

to pray. So I did not guard that time. I did

not use my time well. Guard your time of prayer,

whatever that is. If that's in the morning, that's

when I'm wide awake. So I've got a window in

the morning, I get up, I'm one of those people

that when I get up, I get up early and I'm ready

to go. At night, I'm falling asleep. So eight

o 'clock rolls around, 8 .30, nine o 'clock.

If I go to pray then, I'm gonna be sleeping in

five minutes probably. It doesn't matter. It's

just the way I've always been. I'm very limited

there with staying awake at night. So I'm in

the morning. And so I need to guard that time.

I need to spend time, yes, in the word, studying,

reading, but I need to devote and guard that

I don't get carried away there. And before long,

I've got to get up and go to work because I've

been just reading for too long. So guard that

time, whatever that time is for you. that time

of secret prayer, being alone with the Lord,

guard that time. It's easy, at least it was for

me, to spend all sorts of time reading and studying.

And then the difficult thing was the prayer.

Guard that time, develop that time. Perseverance,

with all perseverance. What more do we need to

say there? Persevering in prayer. What is it

that we persevere in? Well, if somebody tells

you to persevere, what are they telling you?

Keep going, and why are they telling you that?

It's a good thing. It's going to get hard. Persevere

in it. Be constant in prayer. Persevere. Prayer

is not easy for most folks, for a lot of folks.

And that's fine. Persevere. Press on. It will

become easier as we press on, as we become diligent,

as we become disciplined. It will become just

like everything else in our lives that we're

diligent in. It will become a habit. It will

become easier. It will become more enjoyable.

It will be a time of fellowship, encouragement,

and communion with God. So persevere in it. Press

on. Don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged

that you missed a day. Determine not to do that.

Don't be discouraged that it was short. Press

on. Grow. Mature. Ask the Lord for help in all

of those things. And then the last thing that

I had here is who to pray for. And we've already

kind of dealt with this. Paul here, he's asking

him to pray for him. He's asking them to pray

for the expansion of the kingdom, the gospel,

and so on. But he says here, pray for all the

saints, all right? And so we've already said

that. All the saints. So we could say everybody

here in the church, right? But we could go further.

We could say all the saints that we know, okay?

So we know everybody here. We know some folks

in some other churches. So we know some folks

up in Columbia. We know some folks in Sedalia.

We know Jake's family up there in West Virginia.

We know Mac down in Texas. Matthew and Leah down

in Texas. I know I'm forgetting the other people

that we know. You know, we we know our whoever.

Three doors down who goes to some different church

that we're pretty confident they're believers.

They're saints. We can pray for them, right?

We can pray for all those saints in the Philippines

that we know of. Pray for Ray, for Kim, for Rem.

And the church is there. We can pray for the

Jebelos. Again, there's so much that we could

pray for. Those are the folks that we know. Can

we pray for the folks we don't know? We certainly

can, right? I mean, we can pray for the persecuted

church. Again, we can't pray specifically for

some individual necessarily, but we can certainly

pray for the persecuted church throughout the

world. Just the church throughout the world.

All of those things we can be in prayer for.

And we're called to pray for those things. We're

called to pray for all the saints. The list is

not limited. Okay. What time is it? I don't even

know what time it is. 7 .46. Okay. So, um...

I'm looking. I've got a bunch of verses down

here, but we're not going to go through them

all. I'm going to just encourage you. I'll give

you these. You can write them down here. This

is a couple. This is just a couple verses on

some broad topics. Acts 12, 5. Romans 1, 9 -10.

Colossians four, two through four. That passage

in Colossians there talks a lot about Thanksgiving.

If I'm remembering right. Thanksgiving should

fuel our prayer lives. It really should. There's

so much to be thankful for. That God has done.

That God has promised. Some of the parables that

Jesus talked up. gave us Matthew 6 6 Matthew

9 18 through 26 18 through 26 Matthew 15 21 through

28 so those are just a few just a broad array

of passages regarding prayer Get out your concordance

get out your topical Bible Get out your phone

and say verses on prayer and just go read all

these verses. It will be an encouragement to

you Okay Any questions any questions Before I

go any further questions or comments comments

are always welcome as well Okay, go ahead Chris

In what way were you thinking that? Well. When

we already have just if it's like you know an

urgent or emergency situation and it's time.

To do at that point, well we could do and pray

all the once. Prayer doesn't mean we've got to

stop what we're doing. I can be walking. I can

be and I have when I've been running to an emergency

situation literally. Praying Lord help me give

me wisdom here protection. I don't know what

I'm getting into And I'm my feet are moving so

Prayer doesn't mean we got to stop So I've got

all these books here and They can be a great

help, but they can also be a hindrance, okay

Just like I said, you can wind up spending your

time reading these books on prayer and not praying.

You've defeated the purpose. Okay? Now, these

are short books. These are just little booklets.

Okay? Just little booklets, each chapter, you

know, four, five, six pages, depending. What

I have found in my life is when I take one of

these books, and I read one chapter and I pray

whatever is in that chapter, whatever it's talking

about there. You can do that with this, with

these books. So Jake mentioned E .M. Bounds on

Prayer. E .M. Bounds on Prayer. And I don't remember

if he's got a few books or if this is all of

his books in one, I don't remember. But there's

so many helpful things in here that you can read

part of a chapter or one chapter and It will

fuel your prayer life. I Remember reading this

and just being encouraged to pray and spending

so much more time in prayer as I went through

this book Again one chapter or even just half

of a chapter at a time So EM bounds on prayer

is very good. It's very encouraging Again, you

don't necessarily need a book. You could go through

the Psalms and do the same thing. So many of

the Psalms, David's asking for things, or the

psalmist is asking for things, or he's, you know,

making some statement of who God is, or what

God has done, and so fuels our thanksgiving,

all of those things. So it's not like you can't

do that just reading the Bible. You can. I just

have found that these things are also helpful.

They can also be an aid. So E .M. Bounds on Prayer

is very good. Praying always. Franz Backe, another,

it's just a little booklet. It's helpful, it's

encouraging. You've got this little booklet here,

Come Down Lord. Okay, a great encouragement for

prayer. I remember right specifically that the

Lord would move in a mighty way in revival and

encouragement to pray The hidden life of prayer

by David McIntyre another little booklet short

Can be a great help and encouragement to prayer

How I know God how I know God always answers

prayer or God answers prayer Rosalind Goforth,

another small encouraging book. I think a lot

of testimonies in here of the Lord's answers

to prayer, okay? Encouraging, encouraging. Knowing

how the Lord has answered the saints of old is

an encouragement for us to pray. Again, it's

all through the Bible. Men prayed, the Lord answered.

The Lord moved. I haven't read these. I just

found them on my book, or on my bookshelf. But

there's a couple of the booklets here that I,

I guess I should read now that I found them.

I'll talk about this one later also, but asking

father, so all of you who have young children,

and anybody really, Smiths, you'd love this probably.

Anybody. This is a phenomenal book, okay? This

is... Miracles. I don't know what else to say.

Miracles of God working in the lives of people.

The first one, I read it this morning again.

It's just amazing to think what God does for

those who ask. And I think this is mostly children.

So this is children asking Father for help, for

protection, for guidance. and amazing answers

to prayer. That is a great encouragement. And

so if you have young children, or as your children

get old, this is a great book for family devotions,

to read what God has done that the kids could

see and hear. God does answer prayer. Again,

they should see that in other areas of their

life, but this is good. This is a really good

book. Like I said, all of these things can be

a help to us as we pray, but they can also be

a hindrance to prayer if we just read it and

we don't pray. So if you want those, get them.

I might let you borrow mine, as long as you give

it back. But you have to use them rightly. It's

just like everything. We don't just read books,

we read the Bible also. The Bible is integral.

It's essential. The act of prayer is essential.

We must be praying, not just reading about it.

Okay, so Like I said, that's just a very brief

Snippet here this evening on Some on prayer,

but let me encourage you press on in prayer grow

in prayer it will Have a great impact upon your

life and it will glorify God