Pray on Guard - Ephesians 6:18-23

In 1965, a platoon of American soldiers found themselves surrounded at what came to be known as the Battle of Ledrain, Sergeant Ernie Savage, who wasn't commanding the platoon, but eventually found himself in that position, realized there is no way we can survive. We are surrounded. And so we got on the radio. And he called back to base, and he told him the situation, and he says, I need you to send in artillery, and keep sending it in closer and closer, and he stayed on the radio, constantly calling back to base to what they needed to do because he understood. He didn't have the power. He didn't have the artillery he needed. He didn't have the ammunition that he needed to win the battle that he was in. And eventually, because of staying on the radio, staying in contact with base, he was able to save his platoon. Maybe you found yourself in life in a similar situation. Well, you think, I'm surrounded. Nothing's working. I can't win this on my own. Paul found himself in that kind of situation. We've been working through the book of Ephesians for the last several months. Today's our last day in Ephesians. Next week we start Malachi. Paul found himself going, I can't win this battle. In fact, he tells us in the passage we're looking at. We're looking at the very end of Romans 6, that we don't even wrestle with flesh and blood. He's not talking about an earthly opponent that he's having problems with. He says, we wrestle with the spiritual forces of darkness. And much like Ernie Savage, who said, I was on the radio calling in support. Paul's going to tell us today how do we find ourselves able to sustain in the midst of the battle against the spiritual forces of darkness. And he says it's by staying in contact with base. It's by prayer. If you found yourself in a place in life where you're thinking, I can't do this on my own. Paul's answer is prayer. Just so you know, if you find yourself in a place where you think, I can do this on my own, the answer is, you can't, and prayer is the answer. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 6, and we're going to see Paul saying this in verse 10, we've looked at these the last 2 weeks, but I want to kind of give a lead in to verses 18 to the end. It says, it's finally be strong in the Lord. And then the strength of his might, not our own strength. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. It's not humans that are the problem. It says, 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, therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all, to stand firm, stand, therefore, he says. We're going to see, as we look at what he says in verse 18, that we need to stay in constant contact with God who supplies us with all we need. Stay in constant contact with God who supplies us with all that we need. Paul goes on in verse 14 to say this. Stand, therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, in all circumstances. Take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The last 2 weeks. That was working us through these passages, talking about the armor of God. Paul took the imagery of a Roman soldier, and he applies it to his readers in Ephesus, the Christians in that church. And he says, put on this whole armor so that you're ready to stand, not in your own strength, but in the strength that God is supplying. But he doesn't in there. We see in verse 18 and going forward this that we are to stay on guard by praying in the Spirit. Look at verse 18. praying at all times. So you've put on the armor of God. You're standing in the Lord's strength. He says, 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. Paul says, pray at all times. In fact, he wants us to know how important prayer is because in one verse he mentions prayer 4 times. He says, I need you to be praying. How do I want you to be praying with prayer? And supplication. So just pray with prayer. That's not complicated, right? Just do the thing and do the thing. He says, and then give supplication. And then he finishes that back up at the end of the verse. He wants us to be praying at all times. Not just in bad times. But in good times. Not just when you're facing defeat and sorrow, but when you feel like I've won and I'm happy on a regular Tuesday. And on that Friday before the biggest thing in your life, he says, pray at all times. And when he says this, we don't need to be pedantic and think Paul is saying, hey, 247, 365. You never take a break from praying. There's nothing about what he's saying that says that. He is telling us, though, that prayer should be such a part of what we do. That it's a constant thing in our life. Like Ernie Savage calling in air support. He didn't just do it once. He was constantly on the radio because he realized that's where my help's going to come from. This is where I need to be in contact with to survive. Paul and other places in scripture uses this same type of language. You can see the verses on the screen. First Thessalonians 5,17 to the church in Thessalonica. He says, pray without ceasing. In Colossians 42, continue steadfastly in prayer. Being watchful in it with Thanksgiving. Romans 12, 12, 12, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. To a regular theme for Paul. And at the end of the letter to the Ephesians, after he's unpacked in the 1st part of this letter, who we are in Christ, who Jesus is, God's son, who came to the earth, became human, died on a cross, rose again, has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, who has sent his Holy Spirit into our life. He has brought us together as a church. Paul says, this is who we are in chapters one to three. Then in chapter four. He turns, and he says, because of who we are, walk in a manner worthy, and then he unpacks how we walk that way. What that looks like. And he's ending with this. Put on the armor of God. And then he says, pray at all times. But he doesn't just say pray at all times. He says, pray at all times, in the spirit. And this is important because Paul is going to tell us in this letter, in his other letters, that the only way we live the Christian life, a life of being a follower of Jesus is by the power of the Spirit. We don't save ourselves, none of you, myself, and no one can live good enough to go, hey, I've met God's holy standard of perfection. of us. But God loves us. And he says, I want you with me. So he sends his son to die for our sins. And then he doesn't go, hey, I die for your sins. Now, get busy living the way I want you to live on your own. Says that he sends his spirit to us. to empower us so that we can live the way he wants. Look back in Ephesians to chapter 5. Because Paul's going to do something here that I think he picks up in chapter 6. If you start in verse 18 of chapter 5. He says this. And do not get drunk with wine. For that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit. This is allowing the Spirit to live in your life to say, God have access to who I am, empower me to live faithfully for you. And then he says this, addressing one another. He mentions 4 things that the Spirit is going to help us do in this passage, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another, out of reverence for Christ. He says, be filled. And when you're filled with the Spirit, you can give thanks, you can speak to each other the words that Christ wants you to speak, you can sing songs of praise. We can submit to each other and care for each other. And then all the way down in chapter 6, verse 18. He says, praying at all times. In the spirit. It's a spirit who empowers our prayers. I imagine if you're like me. There's been times in your life when you said, I'm going to pray. And you go to pray. And the picture in your head is, you're down here praying, and God's way up there somewhere. He's distant, he's far away, and you're going, I don't know if the signal can make it that far. I don't know if he hears me. I don't know if he's here. I don't know if he's around. We don't have at our house anymore. We don't have like local channels, like through our streaming service anymore. And so we had to buy old school rabbit ears. So if we want to watch Chiefs games, It's like, okay, put on the rabbit ears, turn it just right. But there are times it's like, eh, that channel signals too weak. It's not going to make it. You know, Fox can't make it. ABC, can't make it. CBS can't make it. I'm just out of luck. And we think our prayers are like that. Like God's out there. And that imagery isn't wrong, by the way. The Bible speaks constantly of God being high and lifted up far above the earth. That the heavens are where he dwells. God became human. Jesus came to the earth, lived among us. John said, we've seen his glory. We've touched him. And the last night of his life, he told his closest followers, hey, guys, I'm leaving. And it's better if I go away. And I can't imagine that Peter and James and John said, yeah, that makes sense. You go away. That'll be better for us. God was dwelling among them. And he says, I'm about to leave. But if I go away, I'll send a spirit to be with you always. And so God the son goes back to God the Father. And we think, when I pray, they're way up there. And my prayers just can't get to them. They seem so far away. And yet God, the Spirit is dwelling among us. Paul says this in Romans chapter 8. Verses 26 and 27. Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Here's what Paul's saying. He's saying, when we go to pray, we're not alone. that the spirit is interceding for us, that the spirit who dwells in us, who is the spirit of the Father, sent by the Father and the Son to this earth, is with us, and as we pray, he sends those prayers to the Father through the Son's mediating role. This is the spirit that we have. And Paul even tells us, there are times when we don't even know what to pray. Maybe you found yourself there. When you go, life has collapsed in on me so much. I don't even know what to pray, or the challenge seems so great. I don't even know what to pray. I don't even know how to pray this. It says that the spirit is present with us. Paul tells the Ephesians, praying at all times in the spirit. It's just in the reality of the spirit living in our lives. In the power that he gives us. We should be praying at all times in the spirit. But he doesn't leave it there. He says, to that end, stay alert with all perseverance. To stay alert. Jesus, the last night of his life, had gone to a garden called Gethsemane. And he was in deep anguish because he knew the next day the cross was coming. And he was praying to the Father, if there's some other way to redeem the world to deal with sin and death, let's do that. But not my will, Father, your will be done. And we record these words in Matthew 26, verses 40 and 41. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, so could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Paul writes to the Ephesians. He says, keep alert. That language is, stay awake. Imagine a soldier who's put on his armor. And then he falls asleep. Not much use, right? If you're a well equipped soldier who's sleeping, you're not much use. And Paula said, put on the armor of God. And then he says, make sure that you stay awake. That you stay alert that you're on guard. And you're watching. And he says this idea of stay alert with all perseverance. Now the weather has changed. And I don't like to get ahead of my holidays, but we know it's going to happen soon, parents, especially if you have young kids. They're going to start thinking of a certain holiday coming up in December, and they're going to think of the gift that they want. And then they're going to make sure you know what that gift is. Come December, I'll be able to watch my favorite Christmas movie, which is a Christmas story. And Ralphie knows what he wants. He wants a Red Rider BB gun. And he makes sure his parents knows exactly what it was. He didn't go once, he says, hey, dad, I would like this gift. Take it easy, if you remember, that's good. It's over and over and over. If you grew up in my time, We didn't have Amazon. We can just put on the wish list. It was a series and robot catalog, and you would rip pages out and hide them and say, hey, this would be a great gift. Don't you think this would make a kid happy, dad? Over and over? They persevered. Kids will persevere in asking for the thing they would like from you. Paul is telling the Christians in Ephesus, as we pray, stay alert. The enemy is present. It's not humans. It's the forces of darkness, Satan and his fallen angels. He says, stay alert and persevere in your prayers. Like Ernie Savage, you didn't go, hey, I need some help. Could you help me? Send some support. He constantly stayed on the radio, asking for the support that he needed. Paul saying the same thing. We need to have perseverance as we pray. Jesus gave a parable about this in Luke chapter 18. He said there was a widow in a city, and there was this unjust judge who didn't fear God at all. And the widow had been wronged. And every day she came to the judge, and she would say, hey, judge, I've been wronged, you need to fix it. And the judge would ignore, and every day she would come back day after day after day. And eventually the judge said, I'm so sick of this woman showing up. I'm just going to give her what she wants so she'll leave me alone. And then Jesus says, that's how humans work. An unjust judge who doesn't fear God will eventually just cave because you bugged him enough. He said, what do you think your father in heaven who loves you? is gonna do. When we go in that. And we have Paul saying, persevere, we have Jesus telling his disciples in Gethsemite. Be alert, stay in prayer. It's not a one off prayer and everything, solve. God has other purposes. But he says, stay alert. And look what he says, though. Making supplication for who? For all the saints. He says, be praying for each other. It's not Paul saying, hey, just pray for yourself, for your own situation. He's saying, be praying in supplication. That supplication is calling in the supplies, saying, hey, we need things from you, God. But he's saying praying for all the saints, all those who are in Ephesus. He has each person in the church praying for other people. There is a scene in the Lord of the Rings, the book, the fellowship of the ring. If you haven't read them, you should go, read them. I a huge fan of the hobbits. Bilbo was having his 111th birthday. And Tolkien tells us that the Hobbits had a certain tradition that on your birthday, you gave gifts to everyone else. So we just get gifts on our birthday, right? That's how it works. So it's your birthday. Everyone gives you gifts. Ken's birthday. Oh, your birthday was just Shirley's birthday just happened. Everyone gives you gift. If you were a hobbit, you'd be much shorter and have bigger feet Shirley. They were hairy. But you would give gifts on your birthday. And what Tolkien said was, this is a great arrangement, because you usually got a gift about once a week from somebody whose birthday it was. That gifts were being given. I don't think this is what Paul wants us to pray like. It's like be praying for everyone else. If we're all just praying for ourselves, like, okay, I'm just praying for me. I'm praying for what I have, but he says, pray for all the saints. And so that this week you're going, hey, this prayer is going up all over the place. You're getting way more prayers from other people, then you're praying for yourself. If everyone's praying for everyone. That's what Paul says, stay on guard by praying in the Spirit. Now look at verses 19 and 20. He says, we need to stay on guard, be alert by praying for boldness and evangelism. Look what he says here. 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 am an ambassador and change, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Paul's not saying that we can't pray for ourselves. In fact, what he says here is something that we have a hard time often doing, which is, he says, could you pray for me? If you're like me, it's probably easier for you to pray for someone else. Then to have them pray for you. for you to go, hey, I need your prayer for this thing that's happening. I got this thing, God, wants me to go do, and I'm kind of nervous about it. Could you pray for me for that? Or I'm struggling with this issue. Could you pray for me for that? Because we open ourselves up and we become vulnerable because we're asking for something. But Paul, here he is. He's saying, look, pray for the saints and also for me. Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, is saying, pray for me. And what is he asking for? He says, give me the words. When I open my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, what does he mean by this? Paul, who wrote the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians, a large part of the New Testament. He fully understood who Jesus was and what the gospel was, that he had died for our sins. He rose again, that he's a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies. Paul knew this. So he's not praying, God, help me to say something I don't know. I think what he's asking is, God, help me to say the thing I know. in the way that fits the situation that I'm in. Jesus did this when he was on the earth. He would meet people, and he didn't just have the same answer in the same way to every person. His message was consistent, but his delivery was different. He meets Nicodemus, who's a Jewish rabbi, a guy who studies a lot, and they enter into kind of a theological conversation, and he's challenging him in that area. He meets this Samaritan woman. Who's been married 5 times, currently living with a man that's not her husband, who's outcast from her society. She comes to the well and he talks to her in a different way. He meets a rich young ruler who is really kind of into his own money. And with him he says, hey, if you want to follow me, sell everything you have. He doesn't tell that to everybody, but he recognizes for this young man, your wealth is your God. Sell that and come follow me and work on true treasure, and the guy goes, yep, I'm not doing that. He meets a thief on a cross who says, remember me when you come into your kingdom and he says, you'll be with me today in paradise. He kind of structured his message to the situation. I think that's what Paul saying. He's saying, pray that I can have the right words to say. He wrote a letter to the church at Colossee at the same time he wrote the Ephesian letter. Here's what he says in Colossians 4, 5, and 6. He says, walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious. Seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. Make your speech be gracious, seasoned with salt. So you'll know how to answer each person. There's a sense of, as we share the good news of who Jesus is, when we share them with people. People need different approaches. And Paul's saying, just give me wisdom, pray that I would have wisdom. But look what he also praised for. He says, pray that I'll have boldness when I do this. Paul was not a guy who lacked boldness when we read his life. He was type A, hard driving. He was going to go do his thing. When he came to Ephesus, who he's writing the letter to, They a riot started over his teaching, his preaching, people were accepting Christ, and the economy was hurting at the temple of Artemis, and the people who worked in that industry got really mad and said, hey, we need to stop this. And a riot ensues, and 20,000 people. That's the T-Mobile Center downtown. Pour into the theater in Ephesus, and they are angry. at the Christian idea of who Jesus is. And Paul, witnesses this, and what does he do? He says, I'm going to go hide out in the back room. He says, hey, I think I need to go in there and talk to those people. And his companion said, you probably don't want to do that, Paul. You're the reason, really, they're in there fighting right now. So how about you not go in there? When Paul was in Jerusalem? And he was being accused of having brought a Gentile into the temple. And there was a group that was hostile to him. He had seen one of those groups before at the very beginning of the book of Acts. Paul stood with a group of men who killed Stephen. And he held their coats. He's seen that group and he's looking at another one. And he doesn't go, hey guys, you misunderstand. No problems, the only thing? He just says, here's who Jesus is. And then they lose their mind and the Romans have to save them. Paul is bold. And yet here he is praying for boldness. That should encourage us because I imagine if you're going, hey, God wants me to go talk to someone this week. I need to go, do this thing that God wants me to do, and I'm nervous about it. You know what? Paul was too. And he says, pray for me to have boldness that I will say the things that I need to say, that I can proclaim this mystery. And he says, because this is what I'm doing. I'm an ambassador in chains. What a interesting kind of turn of phrase. An ambassador is someone who speaks for someone else. So the United States has ambassadors all over the world in different countries, and that ambassador represents the United States. Now imagine, for a moment, if, say, the ambassador to China was arrested, for just being the ambassador. and put in prison, and was chained. How long do you think the United States would just calmly sit by and go, that's okay, don't worry about it? They would come in immediately. We'd go, this is not going to stand. This is the type of thing that can start wars. Paul finds himself as an ambassador in chains, chained in the Roman Empire for proclaiming Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. And yet he's not praying to be let go. He's saying, God's got me where he wants me. I'm in this difficult, hard situation. And I may be tempted to shrink back a bit. Every day he wakes up and realizes I'm under the control of the Roman Empire, and he says, pray for me to have boldness to keep doing what God has me doing, because he's placed me in this place, at this time, in these chains, so I can proclaim the gospel to these people. Maybe that's your life right now. You're going, I'm not where I want to be. Life's hard. Life's difficult. God may have you there in those chains so that you can proclaim the gospel to people who are going to be around you in that situation. There were days when Paul was free and he was wandering across the Mediterranean. He said, I've lived with plenty and I've lived with little. I've lived with freedom and I've lived in chains and all of those. I'm serving Christ. stay on guard by praying for boldness and evangelism. Ernie Savage found himself at LeDreng in a situation where he had to call out to his home base, to send in support. We find ourselves in the exact same situation. An enemy occupied territory. Jesus has already defeated Satan, but he hasn't returned yet, and we are fighting the forces of darkness, Paul says. And he calls us to call out, to stay in constant contact with God, who supplies all of our needs. So how can we do that this coming week? Very simple. This is not shocking things. Again, most of our application is already given to you when we explain the passage, but here's some things I think we can do in the coming weeks. Pray regularly and often. How do I do that? Maybe many of you already have kind of a regular prayer time. I think it's helpful. I don't think the Bible demands, hey, that you pray every day at the same time. I think Paul probably had this as a Jewish man. He would have had regular prayer times that would just work into his life, that was part of the rhythm of that culture. And maybe you have that. If you don't, I would encourage you to try it. If you're going, hey, I struggle to have consistent prayer, set a time every day and say, this is when I'm going to pray. Most humans are creatures of habit. And if we want to start a new habit, if we do it the same time, the same place, eventually we go, this is what I do at this time. And our brains get in line with what our spirit is wanting to do. So if someone says, hey, I want to start exercising, same time, same place, it's easier than if you just go, I'll get to it when I can get to it. Hopefully I'll make it. Set a time. And say, hey, 5 minutes today. I'm going to pray. This is my fixed prayer time that I'm going to do. And say, how can I do that this week? Put it on your calendar. Mark it in your to-do list, say, I'm going to pray. during this time. But then throughout the day, Pray. When we get together with family, right? If you're meeting with your husband or wife, maybe good friends, or your kids, there are times when you sit down and you just have talks, and you go, man, we just talked for an hour. My brother lives in Mexico and whenever he comes back here, we can just sit down and talk for hours. Have these amazing talks. But when he's not here, And I'm just running through my day, he'll get a quick text message. And then he'll send me a text message back. I'm sure you've all done that with people. You have people in your text chain that during the day, you just kind of go, you send off a text. Maybe you see something that's funny or someone says something, go, hey, I'm going to send this to you. And you're texting back and forth all day. You can do this with God in prayer. Maybe you're driving home and you see a sunset that's beautiful and you go, ah. Thank you, God. You're amazing. I just saw this beautiful thing and you acknowledge him. I have a friend that whenever he's in the car with me. He's has a lot of health issues, and if he hears an ambulance or a fire truck, he just immediately goes, hey, let's pray for that person. Because he's just tuned into people who are dealing with health issues. And so he's just immediately going, sirens go off and his thought is, how do we pray for the people? Don't know who they are, don't know what's going on, and he just prays, sends a prayer up. in that moment. Pray. All the time. And that's just that kind of constantly recognizing God's there. You can send up text message prayers throughout the day. And then you have your fixed times. Okay, God, I'm here to talk with you. I'm giving you my attention. I'm turning off all the other devices, and it's just you and me. Pray regularly and often, and then pray for each other. Not just for ourselves. How do you do this? Easy. ask people. Ask the close people up, hey, how can I pray for you? How can I be praying for you today? And when someone asks, let them know, hey, you can pray for me this way. We have a gentleman in our church that I meet with on a regular basis. And each year he buys a new red book, notebook, and in it, he just writes prayers of all the people he's meeting with. And so we'll get together and he'll flip it through his book. All the way back to the U's and they go, all right, here's what we're praying for today. How's it going? What's going on with that? So he's asking me, how can I pray for you? And then he's writing it down so he can remember. And then he's bringing it back up like, hey, how's that going? I said I was praying for you. How's it going? And he's following up. That's a way, I think, if we go, how can we pray for each other? Just ask. write it down. Take a note and say, I'm praying for you and then follow up and say, how can I be helping you? Pray for boldness when you pray for each other. A good thing your life groups this week is going to be to ask, hey, who are you trying to reach with the gospel with the good news that Jesus loves them and died for them? Who are you trying to reach, and let's pray for boldness? Pray for boldness and for the right words. Right? I need to be bold in doing it, but I also need to say it the right way. The gospel is going to be true, the content's there, but it's how do I say it? Does this person need a soft hand or maybe a firm hand? Maybe this is someone who needs it. You know, they're a straight shooter, and they want it shot straight, and here's someone else who is been hurt, and they need someone gently to tell them about Christ. Pray for boldness for that person. And for the right words for that person to share. that, We are called to be constantly in contact with our Savior, to be constantly in contact with our support. If you're here and you've never encountered Christ as your personal savior. We always want to encourage you to do that. The 1st step to be right with God is to accept his son. and trust him for your salvation. Let his spirit come into your life and then begin to grow in who you are in Christ. We have some of our deacons are in the back in our prayer corner. What a great time, if you want to talk about following Christ, when our worship team comes up to lead us in this next song, you can head right back here to the back corner, and they can pray with you. Or maybe you just need prayer for yourself. You can go back there and they will pray with you and talk with you about whatever situation you're in. George, we're not wrestling with flesh and blood. But we are surrounded by an enemy. And we have to constantly stay in contact with our Savior. with our God, who supplies all of our needs. We do that so that we will grow in Christ, so we can then share him with others so that they too can be rescued from darkness, from the powers of darkness and come into the light of Jesus Christ and know him. And so as our worship team comes up. I leave you with these words, which is the main idea of the message. Stay in constant contact with God this week, for he will supply all of your needs. Will you join me in prayer? Father, we gather in this place each week to worship you, for you are worthy of our worship. Father, I pray this week, that I would be more in tuned with you in prayer. Give me moments throughout the day just to thank you, to recognize you, Father, help me to be concerned and praying for the saints, for the others who are in the battle. Father, for boldness, for clarity, and the words we say for faithfulness as we stand firm, Father, that you would be glorified, and that people would come to know you and the love and the joy and the hope that you give us. and the eternal life that you offer us. Father, we pray this week, we would be faithful to you. It's in the name of Jesus Christ we ask all of this. Amen.

Romans 8 · chapter mention Matthew 26:40 Luke 18 · chapter mention