1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:26,860 Prayer, as we started looking at last week, we're going to continue here, and we started to discuss this, but it is a posture of dependence that is appropriate to those who understand, and this is why we spent the last several weeks looking at these verses that we are in a battle that we cannot win through our own strength. 2 00:00:26,860 --> 00:00:34,120 And so as we continue to look at this, I want to consider three kind of questions this morning as we look through this text. 3 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:36,900 First of all, how should we pray? 4 00:00:38,620 --> 00:00:41,380 We're going to see that we should pray comprehensively. 5 00:00:42,040 --> 00:00:43,200 Why must we pray? 6 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:46,400 Because we are in a battle that we cannot fight alone. 7 00:00:47,340 --> 00:00:49,220 And then why don't we pray? 8 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:56,160 Because we have believed lies about God, about ourselves, about our own competence. 9 00:00:56,160 --> 00:00:59,280 and we'll consider that a little bit more this morning. 10 00:01:00,300 --> 00:01:02,500 And our title this morning is Watch and Pray, 11 00:01:03,280 --> 00:01:05,300 because that's kind of what he tells us here. 12 00:01:05,600 --> 00:01:06,940 Pray and Bealer. 13 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:07,980 Watch and Pray. 14 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:09,260 We've been thinking about warfare. 15 00:01:09,420 --> 00:01:12,080 We've been thinking about the armor and the soldier. 16 00:01:12,320 --> 00:01:14,220 And this isn't moving on. 17 00:01:14,260 --> 00:01:16,380 This is still a part of the armor and the soldier. 18 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:18,820 The soldier stands watch. 19 00:01:19,100 --> 00:01:20,000 He is alert. 20 00:01:20,300 --> 00:01:22,600 He looks out for the enemy. 21 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:24,440 And that's what we see happening here. 22 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:32,080 So the first thing this morning, we watch and pray comprehensively and Paul piles up in this 23 00:01:32,080 --> 00:01:39,320 verse, these words at all times with all prayer and supplication. 24 00:01:39,760 --> 00:01:45,960 He's not just saying with all prayer, with all prayer and supplication, keeping alert with 25 00:01:45,960 --> 00:01:48,820 all perseverance for all the saints. 26 00:01:50,200 --> 00:01:54,820 All of the language here is comprehensive in nature. 27 00:01:55,580 --> 00:02:01,220 There is a deliberate redundancy that Paul uses. 28 00:02:01,440 --> 00:02:02,580 He does this in other passages. 29 00:02:02,700 --> 00:02:07,580 He loves to say things in two different ways or three different ways or to say words over 30 00:02:07,580 --> 00:02:08,240 and over again. 31 00:02:08,640 --> 00:02:10,420 He didn't come up with this on his own. 32 00:02:10,500 --> 00:02:15,560 He no doubt learned in his education rhetoric and oratory, but he didn't learn that there. 33 00:02:15,900 --> 00:02:17,480 He just had to read the Old Testament. 34 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:23,180 and you see the Old Testament doing this again and again you'll kind of understand often 35 00:02:23,180 --> 00:02:26,980 in many Old Testament passages what the point is because there's a word that gets repeated 36 00:02:26,980 --> 00:02:32,020 eight or nine times and then when that passage ends it stops being repeated so you wonder which 37 00:02:32,020 --> 00:02:35,440 portion of my supposed to read together will the portion where that word keeps getting repeated you 38 00:02:35,440 --> 00:02:43,080 know that's how you you tell what the point was being made he says here pray at all times 39 00:02:44,140 --> 00:02:53,240 And he doesn't literally mean that we're speaking words to God every second of every day. 40 00:02:53,840 --> 00:02:59,320 He's talking, we talk last week about the fact that there is never a time when prayer is inappropriate, 41 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:08,480 or unnecessary, that we are a people who live in a posture or a lifestyle of relation with God. 42 00:03:09,620 --> 00:03:16,360 It's, you know, maybe a sort of illustration is you may be married and you may have a good 43 00:03:16,360 --> 00:03:21,060 friend that you talk with with some regularity, but probably not as much as your spouse, 44 00:03:21,220 --> 00:03:24,480 who is just always there, they're there in the morning, they're there in the evening. 45 00:03:24,720 --> 00:03:25,000 They're there. 46 00:03:25,000 --> 00:03:30,400 It's still not quite the same as what we see here, but it's the lifestyle constantly lived 47 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:35,740 in fellowship and relationship talking to God about everything that is going on sharing 48 00:03:35,740 --> 00:03:41,100 that with him and in relationship with him. So, you know, the Scriptures give us these pictures 49 00:03:41,100 --> 00:03:46,420 read through the Psalms, and you see this. In the morning, Psalm 5-3, a Lord in the morning, 50 00:03:46,520 --> 00:03:52,400 well, I direct my prayer unto thee and we'll look up. You know, we pray in the morning. There's 51 00:03:52,400 --> 00:04:00,580 a series of prayers that different churches throughout history have called different things. 52 00:04:00,580 --> 00:04:05,520 A lot of ministers will do, which takes all of the Psalms that tell you the different times 53 00:04:05,520 --> 00:04:08,160 during the prayer day that you're supposed to pray, 54 00:04:08,660 --> 00:04:11,760 something like eight or nine times during the day 55 00:04:11,760 --> 00:04:14,640 that we were told to pray and they will have prayers 56 00:04:14,640 --> 00:04:17,220 for all of those times of day. 57 00:04:18,340 --> 00:04:20,160 And it's always, when you're tempted, 58 00:04:20,460 --> 00:04:22,900 not just at times of the day, when you're tempted, pray. 59 00:04:23,480 --> 00:04:25,080 We just pray that in the Lord's prayer this morning, 60 00:04:25,440 --> 00:04:27,120 after our prayer of confession. 61 00:04:28,520 --> 00:04:30,380 We talked last week about Psalm 56 62 00:04:30,380 --> 00:04:33,440 and when I'm afraid, I look unto thee. 63 00:04:33,440 --> 00:04:35,460 When you're afraid, you pray to the Lord. 64 00:04:38,060 --> 00:04:42,880 When you need wisdom, when you're making decisions, when you read James 1, 5 last week, 65 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:49,220 but Psalm 143, or again, the Lord's prayer, this daily provision looked to him for how you 66 00:04:49,220 --> 00:04:51,180 lived, for how His will is to be done. 67 00:04:52,060 --> 00:04:55,580 When you're angry, the Bible even tells you to pray. 68 00:04:55,860 --> 00:05:00,120 When you're angry, Ephesians 4 actually tells us that. 69 00:05:00,300 --> 00:05:02,100 When you're joyful, you're supposed to pray. 70 00:05:02,880 --> 00:05:08,560 When you're exhausted, you're supposed to pray, and when you don't know what to do, or what 71 00:05:08,560 --> 00:05:12,100 don't know what to say, or don't know what to pray, Romans 8 gives you this help that 72 00:05:12,100 --> 00:05:16,140 when we don't even know what to say, the Spirit is there with us, interceding for us, with 73 00:05:16,140 --> 00:05:19,660 things even beyond the words that we're able to say, understanding what we're able to do. 74 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,800 So even when you don't know what to pray, pray, and the Spirit is there to help you even 75 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:28,120 if you feel like, well, I just completely bungled that, thankfully the Spirit did not. 76 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:30,780 He sanctified even your prayers. 77 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:37,500 The command assumes something that we're going to be looking at through the rest of this 78 00:05:37,500 --> 00:05:42,000 morning, which is that our need for God is not something that comes and goes. 79 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:44,320 And really, that's the way that we look at life. 80 00:05:44,360 --> 00:05:47,240 There's times when we need God more, and there's times when we need God less. 81 00:05:47,980 --> 00:05:52,600 And Paul, in this verse, and we're not just thinking about verse 18, in this whole passage. 82 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:55,740 Remember, this is a continuance of the spiritual armor. 83 00:05:55,740 --> 00:05:58,300 We're always to be putting this on. 84 00:05:58,380 --> 00:06:01,580 We're not supposed to be caught in battle without our armor on. 85 00:06:01,660 --> 00:06:03,380 It's something we're supposed to be putting on, 86 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,720 taking up regularly and consistently, constantly wearing 87 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:08,700 and prayer is part of that. 88 00:06:09,160 --> 00:06:12,360 We don't have times when we need God less, 89 00:06:12,380 --> 00:06:14,800 even though sometimes we think we do. 90 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:19,400 And Paul is telling the Ephesians you always are in need, 91 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:21,940 and so you always need to be praying. 92 00:06:22,700 --> 00:06:24,260 And you're not just supposed to be always praying, 93 00:06:24,260 --> 00:06:29,680 you're supposed to be praying with all prayer and supplications, and there's two words here. 94 00:06:29,700 --> 00:06:35,880 First of all, the prayer word is a very broad, very generic word for prayer of all sorts. 95 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:43,160 It's a word that can be used very broadly, but the supplication emphasizes specific requests. 96 00:06:44,680 --> 00:06:48,100 So you're supposed to be praying all the time, you're supposed to be praying about everything, 97 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,360 and when you pray about everything, you're supposed to pray with specific requests. 98 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:56,680 So this doesn't mean that several times a lot of times a day we just say, 99 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:57,800 God, I pray about everything. 100 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:06,540 Our confession picks up on this when it's talking about confession of sin. 101 00:07:06,800 --> 00:07:11,560 And it says, you should confess your particular sins, particularly. 102 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:16,300 That's true of all the other sections of prayer as well. 103 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:22,440 Don't merely say, Lord, bless my family, pray for your wife's particular burdens. 104 00:07:22,440 --> 00:07:25,700 this might improve your marriage. You may actually have to figure out what your wise 105 00:07:25,700 --> 00:07:29,780 particular burdens are. Pray for your children. 106 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:35,720 This is particular temptations. You can't do that if you don't know what your children's particular temptations are. 107 00:07:36,700 --> 00:07:44,480 Pray for your church's particular needs. You need to be involved enough in your church that you know what your church's particular needs are. 108 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:50,760 And actually, you know, the reality is that some of you might have very different understandings of what our particular needs are than I do. 109 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:56,940 And that's wonderful, because all of those various particular needs that some of us may see and some of us may not see are good. 110 00:07:56,940 --> 00:08:02,200 I probably have some very particular needs that I'm totally unaware of, and I need you to be praying for them. 111 00:08:04,470 --> 00:08:10,870 Pray for your unbelieving neighbors by name, if you know their names. 112 00:08:10,990 --> 00:08:12,810 If you don't find out what their names are. 113 00:08:13,770 --> 00:08:18,450 God did not, you know, he does everything in your lives or purpose. 114 00:08:18,810 --> 00:08:25,150 He did not put you in the neighborhood next to the person you're living next to by chance. 115 00:08:25,150 --> 00:08:35,230 It wasn't a whim, he didn't, if you're a Christian with un-Christian or with non-believing people in your family, he didn't put a Christian in your family for no reason. 116 00:08:35,730 --> 00:08:40,310 Don't abandon your non-Christian family, pray for them, minister to them. 117 00:08:40,930 --> 00:08:50,250 That's hard sometimes, because a lot of times if you're the Christian in a non-Christian family, the way that you can be treated or mocked or just disregarded, it doesn't make it feel good. 118 00:08:50,250 --> 00:08:55,870 It's not easy, it's hard to hold your testimony in the middle of that, but you need it. 119 00:08:56,130 --> 00:09:01,990 As I already said, pray for your particular sins, pray for your pastor's sermon preparation. 120 00:09:04,320 --> 00:09:06,360 Pray for, we're going to get into that more next week. 121 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:08,220 Pray for our missionaries. 122 00:09:09,480 --> 00:09:10,380 Get to know our missionaries. 123 00:09:10,560 --> 00:09:15,160 There's a reason I told us several weeks ago and I told our Sunday school class, I sent 124 00:09:15,160 --> 00:09:20,420 out a message this morning, this week, rather reminding our Sunday school class, the Sunday 125 00:09:20,420 --> 00:09:24,420 school directors I think with a lot of wisdom this year have kind of split up our missionaries 126 00:09:24,420 --> 00:09:29,200 into different classes so that each class is hopefully praying for different missionaries 127 00:09:29,200 --> 00:09:34,280 of our church and so we're getting to know them hopefully will be getting to know what they're 128 00:09:34,280 --> 00:09:39,040 going on and who they are more than their names. I've sent out the links to our Sunday School 129 00:09:39,040 --> 00:09:45,240 class I can sign up for prayer letter updates or things like that and or at least some of them 130 00:09:45,980 --> 00:09:49,840 and so if you're not in a Sunday School class that's a good way to get to know our missionaries 131 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,300 is to start going to a Sunday school class. 132 00:09:53,240 --> 00:09:57,140 Prayer becomes more comprehensive when we bring the details 133 00:09:57,140 --> 00:09:58,960 of life before the Lord. 134 00:09:59,620 --> 00:10:01,780 You think, I don't know what to pray for all the time. 135 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,740 Well, once you start being particular, it's easier. 136 00:10:05,740 --> 00:10:08,860 And then not only pray with all prayer and supplication 137 00:10:08,860 --> 00:10:12,480 all the time, but pray with all perseverance, he says. 138 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:24,680 And we can treat prayer, like, a vending machine where we, you know, put the money in and then nothing happens and we go away. 139 00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:31,480 And that's not what prayer is meant to be like. We pray once and then nothing happens and we say, well, I guess I'm not supposed to keep praying about that. 140 00:10:33,040 --> 00:10:37,460 Paul says, pray with all perseverance. If God has an answer to you yet, keep praying. 141 00:10:38,820 --> 00:10:40,500 You're not certain if God has answered you yet. 142 00:10:40,660 --> 00:10:41,640 Maybe you gave you a no. 143 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:43,360 Well, if you're not certain, keep praying. 144 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,900 Paul gave us that example in himself, in himself, didn't he, in second Corinthians, he had 145 00:10:47,900 --> 00:10:51,400 this, this burden, and he wanted it to be taken away. 146 00:10:51,420 --> 00:10:55,100 He didn't know if it was the intention that he should have it or not, and he wanted it to 147 00:10:55,100 --> 00:11:00,300 be taken away, and so he kept praying, Lord until he knew that the Lord wasn't taking it away. 148 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:08,280 Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days, because he didn't know the answer. 149 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:13,520 He didn't know how he should communicate the reality of what God was speaking to him. 150 00:11:13,580 --> 00:11:15,300 And so he prayed and fasted for 21 days. 151 00:11:15,680 --> 00:11:20,180 And I don't know if you ever noticed this when you read the beginning of 1 Samuel and the story of Hannah and Samuel. 152 00:11:20,420 --> 00:11:25,460 And how should you think maybe about her going into the temple praying and Eli seeing her praying? 153 00:11:25,540 --> 00:11:27,660 You know that she was very emotional. There was a lot of grief. 154 00:11:27,660 --> 00:11:30,040 that her grief was so great that she was praying, 155 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:32,660 but she was moving her lips, but sounds weren't coming out. 156 00:11:32,940 --> 00:11:34,760 But maybe you've never noticed in that text 157 00:11:34,760 --> 00:11:39,740 that it actually says that she had been praying for years. 158 00:11:40,900 --> 00:11:43,220 Every time she went to Jerusalem, 159 00:11:43,220 --> 00:11:45,240 she was going up to the temple praying for this. 160 00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:48,040 She had been praying for years for a child. 161 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:50,000 And finally, that prayer was answered. 162 00:11:51,460 --> 00:11:55,220 Elijah was told to pray that rain would come after three years 163 00:11:55,220 --> 00:11:57,140 of drought and he knew that it was gonna be given 164 00:11:57,140 --> 00:11:59,260 And yet God said, keep praying until it comes. 165 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,560 He knew it was going to be answered, but he didn't know when, and so he prayed, and then 166 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:05,880 he sent his servant up to see if rain was coming, and then wasn't, so he prayed again, 167 00:12:05,900 --> 00:12:09,700 and sent his servant up to see if rain was coming, and it wasn't, so he kept praying. 168 00:12:10,960 --> 00:12:16,580 Jesus gave us this picture of the persistent widow who, you know, when she's got an unjust 169 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:27,120 judge, she's still going to keep asking and keep asking until he finally does what he, what 170 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:31,340 much more, when you have a loving God who loves to give you good gifts, who isn't ever 171 00:12:31,340 --> 00:12:35,840 going to get tired of you asking, when you have a need, would you not just keep bringing 172 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:36,860 it to Him? 173 00:12:37,420 --> 00:12:44,200 Luke 2 tells us that the prophetess Anna prayed day and night for years, waiting for the coming 174 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:45,260 of the Lord Jesus Christ. 175 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:55,860 We don't pray consistently and persistently because God is reluctant to give, but because 176 00:12:55,860 --> 00:13:03,560 That is using even prayer to form us into, James calls us steadfastness, is being created, perseverance 177 00:13:03,560 --> 00:13:11,740 is being created, we're becoming children who are being taught to endure but also taught 178 00:13:11,740 --> 00:13:14,640 to trust him in everything. 179 00:13:15,600 --> 00:13:17,920 And then he adds to 180 00:13:21,440 --> 00:13:25,460 this comprehensiveness by saying pray for all the saints. 181 00:13:27,260 --> 00:13:29,280 A lot of these pieces of armor have been very personal. 182 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:32,400 We've been thinking about our helmets and our breastplate and our armor. 183 00:13:32,720 --> 00:13:35,780 And we've talked about how we need to use our armor together. 184 00:13:35,780 --> 00:13:36,900 Because we're a part of an army. 185 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:39,880 We're not just a single person going out to fight a duel. 186 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:42,180 We are a part of an army. 187 00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:44,560 But here he makes it explicit. 188 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:47,600 Pray for all the saints. 189 00:13:48,420 --> 00:13:49,240 Pray for yourself. 190 00:13:49,900 --> 00:13:51,720 But also pray for all the saints. 191 00:13:51,940 --> 00:13:54,680 The Christian is a part of a body. 192 00:13:54,680 --> 00:14:05,680 an army, a host that is engaged in a common war, and so your brothers battle matters to 193 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:06,160 you. 194 00:14:06,520 --> 00:14:13,360 Your sister's temptation matters to you, your pastor's ministry matters to you, your missionaries 195 00:14:13,360 --> 00:14:18,080 faithfulness matters to you, and this isn't a new idea, it's in the Bible, it's the church 196 00:14:18,080 --> 00:14:19,560 just thought about this for a long time. 197 00:14:20,220 --> 00:14:28,640 It's that great Christian poet and author, John Dunn, saying, you know, when one man dies, 198 00:14:28,660 --> 00:14:33,980 I am diminished for I am a part of all men, asked not for whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls 199 00:14:33,980 --> 00:14:34,620 for thee. 200 00:14:38,300 --> 00:14:46,040 The teenager in your congregation struggling with temptation or discouragement, adults who 201 00:14:46,040 --> 00:14:49,080 don't have teenagers yourself matters to you. 202 00:14:49,860 --> 00:14:58,260 The husband and wife struggling with marriage or with the inability to have children, teenagers, even though you're not really thinking about that old time. 203 00:14:58,300 --> 00:14:59,240 It matters to you. 204 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:09,980 Prayer ought to turn us outward, especially if we're trying to pray at all times and be comprehensive. 205 00:15:10,700 --> 00:15:19,200 And then the second thing we see in this text is not just the comprehensiveness, but we watch and pray, because we are in a battle. 206 00:15:19,400 --> 00:15:27,300 I was talking about to somebody this week about how last week we just kind of touched on the spiritual warfare element of this and didn't then go further. 207 00:15:27,300 --> 00:15:32,980 and I said we're going to be doing this next week. Paul has just told us we do not wrestle against 208 00:15:32,980 --> 00:15:40,560 flesh and blood. But against the rulers, the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this 209 00:15:40,560 --> 00:15:44,880 present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 210 00:15:47,800 --> 00:15:48,680 There are spiritual 211 00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:54,420 forces of evil in the heavenly places. You probably have friends and neighbors that don't believe that 212 00:15:54,420 --> 00:16:00,880 And sometimes you struggle to remember and think about that and they are battling you. 213 00:16:01,900 --> 00:16:07,220 And so he tells us then pray, praying at all times. 214 00:16:07,940 --> 00:16:14,020 It's not an incidental transition, as I said, prayer belongs inside the armor of God. 215 00:16:18,110 --> 00:16:22,190 And so then to that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making simplification for all the saints. 216 00:16:22,190 --> 00:16:24,870 The Christian life is war. 217 00:16:25,490 --> 00:16:30,390 The prayer is one of the principal ways that God gives us to fight. 218 00:16:30,970 --> 00:16:33,650 And there's this thing we've been talking about all the way through this text. 219 00:16:34,010 --> 00:16:36,250 It's this sometimes it's a conundrum. 220 00:16:36,410 --> 00:16:39,290 It's kind of hard to think through exactly the victory has already been won. 221 00:16:39,530 --> 00:16:41,110 Christ is the victor. 222 00:16:41,850 --> 00:16:46,250 He has defeated the enemy and yet we're still in battle. 223 00:16:46,410 --> 00:16:47,990 Why is that the case? 224 00:16:47,990 --> 00:16:52,870 It seems hard to imagine sometimes. 225 00:16:53,190 --> 00:16:59,310 And a lot of this pictures we might think of in terms of illustration don't quite reach to the truth of it. 226 00:16:59,650 --> 00:17:04,590 This decisive victory has been accomplished through Christ's death, resurrection, ascension and reign. 227 00:17:05,070 --> 00:17:07,850 We aren't praying in order to make Christ victorious. 228 00:17:07,850 --> 00:17:09,410 We're praying because Christ is victorious. 229 00:17:11,290 --> 00:17:15,450 And if you're here today and you're not a Christian and I'm talking about this warfare 230 00:17:15,450 --> 00:17:23,430 And these spiritual forces of evil, and you don't know that there's a victory, then that is actually something that's important for you to hear. 231 00:17:23,510 --> 00:17:30,550 There is a victory, Christ died and rose again, defeating death and sin and these spiritual forces. 232 00:17:31,530 --> 00:17:38,250 And you can, in coming to Christ, experience and be a part of the experience of His victory. 233 00:17:38,250 --> 00:17:42,330 And yet, the Christian life is still continuing to fight. 234 00:17:42,450 --> 00:17:46,610 And the New Testament gives us sometimes these pictures 235 00:17:46,610 --> 00:17:50,250 that we will describe as already and not yet pictures. 236 00:17:50,470 --> 00:17:51,790 And actually, not just the New Testament, 237 00:17:51,990 --> 00:17:54,110 but Ephesians gives us a lot of these. 238 00:17:54,130 --> 00:17:55,230 What do I mean by that? 239 00:17:55,750 --> 00:17:57,130 Well, Satan is defeated. 240 00:17:58,170 --> 00:18:01,890 And yet, for a time, he is still active. 241 00:18:03,450 --> 00:18:05,350 He's maybe in his death throws. 242 00:18:05,350 --> 00:18:12,050 If any of you have ever had to kill a rattlesnake before, but they keep moving around even after they are dead. 243 00:18:13,490 --> 00:18:15,110 Satan still has his death threats. 244 00:18:15,670 --> 00:18:19,750 Christ is raining, but the enemy is still attacking. 245 00:18:21,610 --> 00:18:23,530 We belong to Christ. 246 00:18:24,350 --> 00:18:30,110 We've actually been declared just and righteous, and yet we're still battling sin, 247 00:18:30,990 --> 00:18:33,290 even though we've been saved from sin. 248 00:18:33,790 --> 00:18:40,670 Christ's kingdom has come and yet what did we pray this morning as Jesus taught us to your kingdom come and 249 00:18:40,670 --> 00:18:42,910 And we're dealing with all of these and we know 250 00:18:43,470 --> 00:18:48,870 We are Paul has told us an Ephesians seated in the heavenlies with him and 251 00:18:48,870 --> 00:18:54,330 Yet we look around and say well, I'm seated in a pew in a church not in the heavenlies and we know that there's this one day 252 00:18:54,330 --> 00:18:58,990 Now we see dimly, but then we will see face to face there's there's this reality that you know 253 00:18:58,990 --> 00:19:03,930 the Sabbath in the Old Testament that was such a picture of the rest, God gives his people 254 00:19:03,930 --> 00:19:10,890 Christ has come, giving rest from sin and death to his people and yet Hebrews tells us there 255 00:19:10,890 --> 00:19:15,730 remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God and so we still have this Christian Sabbath 256 00:19:15,730 --> 00:19:19,430 day on the first day of the week, looking forward to that day when we're finally going to have 257 00:19:19,430 --> 00:19:27,650 all of the rest, some of it we don't have yet and so we keep fighting and so Paul goes on 258 00:19:27,650 --> 00:19:33,470 after this in this warfare, saying in verses 19 and 20, which I said, we'll get into next 259 00:19:33,470 --> 00:19:39,370 week, but he says, and also for me, words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly 260 00:19:39,370 --> 00:19:41,150 to proclaim the mystery of the gospel. 261 00:19:42,310 --> 00:19:47,430 When Paul is thinking about spiritual armor, and this is why it's important for us to 262 00:19:47,430 --> 00:19:52,450 situate this command to prayer in the midst of a part of the spiritual armor, when Paul 263 00:19:52,450 --> 00:19:58,390 thinking of the spiritual armor and the spiritual warfare, he's not thinking about, you know, 264 00:19:59,990 --> 00:20:05,710 Aunt Louise who's got a sore arm. And it's not that it's wrong to pray for those things. 265 00:20:05,970 --> 00:20:11,430 It's part of, that may actually be for Aunt Louise something that is really causing her struggle 266 00:20:11,430 --> 00:20:14,850 in her own walk with the Lord. You know, that may be something really significant. I'm not saying 267 00:20:14,850 --> 00:20:18,710 that that's not significant. I don't have an Aunt Louise. I just made her up. And if one of you has 268 00:20:18,710 --> 00:20:21,530 I'm sorry, 269 00:20:24,740 --> 00:20:34,680 but he says, pray for the gospel ministry, when God's word is proclaimed, there 270 00:20:34,680 --> 00:20:44,740 are sinners who don't have hope, who are headed to hell, who one day die and never have 271 00:20:44,740 --> 00:20:51,380 life separated from God, and they can't be saved unless the Spirit applies that gospel 272 00:20:51,380 --> 00:20:55,520 message and transforms their heart, because they are dead in their trespasses and sins, 273 00:20:55,960 --> 00:20:59,080 and nobody can take the dead and raise them to life except God himself. 274 00:21:00,680 --> 00:21:05,520 And so he pray for those who are preaching the message of God, and then also when the message 275 00:21:05,520 --> 00:21:09,960 of God is being preached, there are believers sometimes in front of the preaching of the 276 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:10,400 Word of God. 277 00:21:10,440 --> 00:21:14,320 I hope all every week in front of the preaching of the Word of God, hearing that who are struggling 278 00:21:14,320 --> 00:21:20,280 with sin, who have sin in their lives that seems to be winning the battle, who have discouragement, 279 00:21:20,280 --> 00:21:27,200 who have anxiety, who have all sorts of struggles, and there is nothing, they're doing what Paul 280 00:21:27,860 --> 00:21:31,560 says, working out their salvation with fear and trembling, and yet they feel like they're 281 00:21:31,560 --> 00:21:35,900 losing, and there is nothing except the next verse, which says that it is God who is at work 282 00:21:35,900 --> 00:21:41,100 within you, both the will, and to do, and how does God do that way, sanctifies us with the truth, 283 00:21:41,500 --> 00:21:49,460 his word is truth, he uses his spirit, and there is supernatural miraculous work happening 284 00:21:49,460 --> 00:21:55,740 When Paul is preaching, when God's word is being read, when you're in your homes, dads and moms, 285 00:21:56,040 --> 00:22:00,840 reading your words, God's word to your children each day, when you are in your bedroom, 286 00:22:01,040 --> 00:22:05,760 reading the Bible and praying, there is miraculous, supernatural, it's pray for that. 287 00:22:08,140 --> 00:22:10,100 He doesn't say pray that I won't have problems. 288 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:13,620 In fact, he tells me you're going to have problems, that's why you're putting the armor on. 289 00:22:13,620 --> 00:22:29,120 He says, pray that I will preach Christ faithfully and boldly, the enemy doesn't merely want individual Christians to fall into sin. 290 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:37,940 This is the advance of the gospel. So we pray for preaching. We pray for evangelism. We pray for missionaries. 291 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:42,660 We pray for discipleship. We pray that it would be there. And then we pray that it would be effective. 292 00:22:43,880 --> 00:22:52,700 We pray for conversations for Christian parents, for elders and pastors, for churches, for boldness, for opportunities, for faithfulness, under opposition. 293 00:22:52,700 --> 00:23:02,300 And I have seven or eight or nine, maybe pastors here in Southeast Texas, and at least on a monthly 294 00:23:02,300 --> 00:23:05,820 basis, sometimes on a weekly basis, we're texting each other on Saturday and not on Sunday 295 00:23:05,820 --> 00:23:11,240 morning asking what we're preaching on and praying for each other's sermons and praying 296 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,380 for each other's ministry and the people in those churches and we're praying that there 297 00:23:14,380 --> 00:23:17,880 would be nonbelievers sitting under the preaching of the word and each of those congregations 298 00:23:17,880 --> 00:23:19,300 on Sunday morning. 299 00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:21,080 And we shouldn't be the only ones doing it. 300 00:23:21,080 --> 00:23:23,240 you guys should be praying for that too. 301 00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:28,420 And then we watch and pray because we are not what we think we are. 302 00:23:28,660 --> 00:23:31,180 That's the third thing I think we need to see in this text. 303 00:23:33,140 --> 00:23:35,320 We, I told you I was going to ask why don't we pray? 304 00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:37,880 Now this is where we answer that question. 305 00:23:37,900 --> 00:23:38,760 Why don't we pray? 306 00:23:38,900 --> 00:23:40,660 And I've got several reasons. 307 00:23:40,980 --> 00:23:43,180 I think there's three overarching reasons 308 00:23:43,180 --> 00:23:47,880 and then several kind of smaller ones here I want to consider. 309 00:23:48,440 --> 00:23:54,380 First of all, as we watch and pray because we're not what we think we are, we don't really 310 00:23:54,380 --> 00:23:56,560 believe God is as good as he says he is. 311 00:23:57,240 --> 00:24:01,280 That's one of those things I think that keeps us from praying all the time, not just 312 00:24:01,280 --> 00:24:03,580 as he says he is, but as he actually is. 313 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:06,240 And this is ultimately a faith issue for us. 314 00:24:06,440 --> 00:24:09,260 And it's going to be a faith issue that we're going to keep fighting until we actually 315 00:24:09,260 --> 00:24:10,140 see him face to face. 316 00:24:10,260 --> 00:24:12,120 We're never going to think he's as good as he actually is. 317 00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:17,820 We're going to be constantly learning about his goodness for the rest of our lives. 318 00:24:19,200 --> 00:24:22,200 Prayer requires us to entrust ourselves to God. 319 00:24:22,400 --> 00:24:34,080 And if deep down we think, if I pray and I ask him to do something and then he does something 320 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:37,420 and it's not actually what I think is best for me. 321 00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:41,220 And that is a worry we have a lot of times. 322 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:43,020 Then we won't pray. 323 00:24:43,860 --> 00:24:48,640 We see it throughout the Scripture that God is communicating to His people, His goodness. 324 00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,600 You know, next at us 33 and 34, I know you've heard me say this before, but it's such a pivotal passage. 325 00:24:54,320 --> 00:24:56,580 Moses asks God, I want to see you. 326 00:24:56,620 --> 00:25:01,280 I want to see your glory, and God says, I will make my goodness pass before you. 327 00:25:01,300 --> 00:25:05,460 I'll say my name twice, and then I'll make my goodness pass before you. 328 00:25:05,460 --> 00:25:10,700 And so he says, the Lord, the Lord, a God in merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding 329 00:25:10,700 --> 00:25:11,880 instead, fast love. 330 00:25:12,780 --> 00:25:15,040 That is who our God is. 331 00:25:15,740 --> 00:25:20,600 He is merciful, he's gracious, he is abounding, and steadfast love. 332 00:25:20,840 --> 00:25:24,260 He goes on to say that he relents from judgment. 333 00:25:26,790 --> 00:25:28,290 So who is God? 334 00:25:28,350 --> 00:25:29,210 He's a saving God. 335 00:25:29,330 --> 00:25:29,710 That's who he is. 336 00:25:29,730 --> 00:25:30,430 He's a good God. 337 00:25:30,790 --> 00:25:31,410 That's his goodness. 338 00:25:31,830 --> 00:25:32,190 He saves. 339 00:25:32,190 --> 00:25:33,090 He saves enemies. 340 00:25:33,090 --> 00:25:41,750 he saves sinners. He answers Moses request by revealing the goodness and character that he has 341 00:25:41,750 --> 00:25:48,470 in Jonah four. Jonah tells us that he actually knows God's character. He hates what God's 342 00:25:48,470 --> 00:25:52,550 goodness means for Nineveh. He knew God was good and he doesn't like Nineveh so he doesn't 343 00:25:52,550 --> 00:25:58,750 want God to be good and that's sometimes why we don't want to pray because we don't think God is 344 00:25:58,750 --> 00:26:01,590 really good, or if we do, think he's good, we don't want his goodness. 345 00:26:03,470 --> 00:26:05,930 That's kind of what we deal with. 346 00:26:06,610 --> 00:26:13,350 But really, it is that we don't really think that what God is going to do in our understanding 347 00:26:13,350 --> 00:26:14,110 is good. 348 00:26:14,210 --> 00:26:18,790 I prayed and He did this and I didn't like that, so I'm not going to pray again. 349 00:26:20,570 --> 00:26:25,650 Next week, we're going to read together as we're reading through the Psalms Psalm 136, and 350 00:26:25,650 --> 00:26:28,570 I think we're going to read it back and forth, because that's actually how it was intended 351 00:26:28,570 --> 00:26:34,950 to read and the whole Psalm talks about who God is and what he has done and saving his people 352 00:26:34,950 --> 00:26:40,110 and every single verse it says something about God or something he's done and then the congregation 353 00:26:40,110 --> 00:26:45,530 responds his steadfast love is in doers forever. His steadfast love in doers forever. His steadfast 354 00:26:45,530 --> 00:26:47,310 love in doers forever. 355 00:26:51,170 --> 00:26:55,010 And Romans 828 is such a picture. It tells us for those who love God, 356 00:26:55,610 --> 00:27:00,170 all things work together for good. It's kind of the the New Testament version of Joseph's 357 00:27:00,170 --> 00:27:05,010 statement to his brothers in Genesis 45 in Genesis 50 20, 358 00:27:05,010 --> 00:27:09,930 you minute for evil, but God minute for good to bring about the salvation of many who are alive. 359 00:27:10,330 --> 00:27:16,630 But then he goes on, he doesn't just say, all things work together for good for his people. 360 00:27:17,890 --> 00:27:22,950 But he goes on to tell us what that is, what is the good? Well, it's to be conformed to the image of 361 00:27:22,950 --> 00:27:29,370 his son and to be glorified. God's goodness isn't proven to you when you pray and he gives you 362 00:27:29,370 --> 00:27:34,990 everything you want. In fact, he wouldn't be good. Parents, you know, you wouldn't be good if 363 00:27:34,990 --> 00:27:38,190 you gave your kids everything they wanted or asked for. I mean, that's not a surprising 364 00:27:39,150 --> 00:27:46,850 reality to us. God's goodness is proven by his determination that if you are his son, 365 00:27:47,130 --> 00:27:52,030 he is going to make you more and more like Christ and he is going to get you to heaven. 366 00:27:53,190 --> 00:27:58,610 And he's going to do whatever it takes in your life to make you more like Christ and to get 367 00:27:58,610 --> 00:28:06,270 to heaven. Everything that he gives and everything that he withholds is governed by his commitment 368 00:28:06,810 --> 00:28:13,850 to you being more like Christ and you getting to heaven. And that's not, he's nothing is going to 369 00:28:13,850 --> 00:28:19,150 keep him from doing that. Nothing. It doesn't matter what you want. The other reason we often don't 370 00:28:19,150 --> 00:28:25,630 pray is because we don't actually think we're needy. That's part of the problem. I told you sometimes 371 00:28:25,630 --> 00:28:30,970 we think we need him more than others. The Bible's diagnosis of us is radically different than 372 00:28:30,970 --> 00:28:36,210 our own kind of self-perception of ourselves. We think, okay, okay, basically I need a little 373 00:28:36,210 --> 00:28:41,990 help every now and then. And Scripture says you are utterly dependent on God every minute of 374 00:28:41,990 --> 00:28:49,250 every day. Look back in your bulltons at what we pray today. How does Jesus teach us to pray? 375 00:28:49,250 --> 00:28:59,590 Your will be done on earth as it is and haven't given us this day our daily bread for give us our debts for give us our sin even as we're for giving those your sin 376 00:28:59,590 --> 00:29:03,930 Against us we may need to actually pray God. I'm not forgiving those who sent against me. I need to start there 377 00:29:04,590 --> 00:29:06,610 lead us not into temptation today 378 00:29:07,690 --> 00:29:10,530 every day always we need him 379 00:29:12,050 --> 00:29:15,010 Jesus says a part from me you can do nothing 380 00:29:16,290 --> 00:29:17,930 Paul says 381 00:29:18,850 --> 00:29:23,750 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves, as I already said, Jesus teaches us to pray. 382 00:29:23,790 --> 00:29:29,450 Give us this day, our daily bread, our physical existence is something we receive from God, 383 00:29:29,790 --> 00:29:33,670 but even spiritually, especially spiritually, because that's what this passage is talking about. 384 00:29:33,770 --> 00:29:36,910 We can't resist temptation in our own strength. 385 00:29:39,130 --> 00:29:44,930 We will not and certainly cannot persevere without the help of God. 386 00:29:44,930 --> 00:29:51,170 We pray before we read God's Word all the time and you should do this in your homes and you should 387 00:29:51,170 --> 00:29:58,510 do it in your private worship because you can't understand and comprehend God's Word rightly without him 388 00:29:58,510 --> 00:29:59,770 illuminating His Word. 389 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:18,300 Aye, his spirit for you. The Bible tells us there's no spiritual fruit that you will bear apart from Christ, from your union or Christ, or what works your union with Christ. It's the Holy Spirit who unites you to Him. You can't save anyone. You can't even sanctify yourselves. 390 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:27,740 You can't protect yourself from spiritual deception. You can't accomplish gospel ministry through your own power. 391 00:30:27,740 --> 00:30:36,740 So our prayer ought to essentially be saying all day about all things in particular prayers I need you. 392 00:30:37,880 --> 00:30:39,280 That's what prayer is. 393 00:30:39,880 --> 00:30:45,240 Third, I think under this idea, we think we are competent to face our problems. 394 00:30:45,280 --> 00:30:47,840 It's connected to this previous one, but that's another problem. 395 00:30:48,160 --> 00:30:51,920 Prayer is effectively an assault on our own sense of self-sufficiency. 396 00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:59,920 When someone does something that bothers us or when something goes wrong, what do we instinctively 397 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:00,220 do? 398 00:31:00,360 --> 00:31:01,180 We make a plan. 399 00:31:01,980 --> 00:31:08,140 I mean, how often are we told by our wives that I didn't want you to fix it? 400 00:31:08,740 --> 00:31:12,740 Like this is our natural, like we hear a problem, we try to fix it, we come up with a plan, 401 00:31:12,900 --> 00:31:16,320 we try to do something, not just men, we all do this. 402 00:31:16,540 --> 00:31:20,740 There's nothing wrong with planning, but there's a difference between I have a plan, but I 403 00:31:20,740 --> 00:31:22,100 and actually worked this out on my own. 404 00:31:22,140 --> 00:31:25,580 I need God's help to lead here and actually my plan 405 00:31:25,580 --> 00:31:26,320 may not be good. 406 00:31:26,460 --> 00:31:27,580 So I need God to be in control. 407 00:31:28,160 --> 00:31:30,060 I've got to hold this loosely because maybe that came up 408 00:31:30,060 --> 00:31:32,520 with a terrible plan and I need God to be leading 409 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,380 because I need to be ready to go in a better direction 410 00:31:35,380 --> 00:31:36,500 if my plan was bad. 411 00:31:36,940 --> 00:31:38,720 That's very different for saying, I've got this, 412 00:31:38,820 --> 00:31:40,860 which is what we do a lot of the time 413 00:31:40,860 --> 00:31:44,720 with a lot of things every day, little things all the time. 414 00:31:47,420 --> 00:31:50,920 Sometimes God's allows circumstances we cannot fix, 415 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:54,760 precisely because he's trying to teach us that we can't live with him. 416 00:31:54,900 --> 00:31:59,060 I feel like in my life I've ever few months or years there be something that comes 417 00:31:59,060 --> 00:32:02,620 up that I can't handle this and it reminds me, oh I should have been praying more than 418 00:32:02,620 --> 00:32:03,120 I am praying. 419 00:32:03,760 --> 00:32:07,020 I wasn't doing this as well as I am. 420 00:32:07,060 --> 00:32:13,440 Paul says, as I already talked about it in 2 Corinthians, that he was burdened beyond strength 421 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:19,320 because he couldn't rely on himself but he wanted to rely on God who raises the dead. 422 00:32:19,320 --> 00:32:27,160 So when there's something you can't handle, isn't it good, you're going to the one who not can raise the dead, you're going to the one who does raise the dead. 423 00:32:28,380 --> 00:32:32,260 That's the power we have access to, and yet we think I've got this. 424 00:32:36,400 --> 00:32:41,100 God puts us in situations where our competence runs out so that we depend on him. 425 00:32:41,100 --> 00:32:44,500 We also, there's other reasons, other, as I said, 426 00:32:44,620 --> 00:32:47,360 more minor reasons that are probably connected to these, 427 00:32:47,740 --> 00:32:50,700 that flow out of these, we sometimes don't pray, 428 00:32:50,780 --> 00:32:52,840 because we don't have enough time. 429 00:32:55,700 --> 00:32:58,320 Which usually means I have time for the things that I think are important, 430 00:32:58,380 --> 00:32:59,840 but not time for that. 431 00:33:00,340 --> 00:33:02,760 We, it's true of our Bible reading too, I don't have time. 432 00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:05,640 Well, we spend a lot of time on a lot of things, 433 00:33:06,420 --> 00:33:09,380 and some of them might be important, but are we really ready to go through 434 00:33:09,380 --> 00:33:13,760 catalog every minute and every hour of every day and say that was more important than 435 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:14,660 praying and reading the Bible. 436 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:20,660 We don't generally lack time for our phones or 437 00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:26,460 entertainment, sports, conversations, and even if you do, some of you are very busy. 438 00:33:26,780 --> 00:33:30,420 You're about very important things and you're not wasting a lot of time by the world's 439 00:33:30,420 --> 00:33:35,720 standards, but as you work, more important than prayer and reading God's work. 440 00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:40,180 Really, are you ready to say that is the case? 441 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:47,240 So do I have the time isn't really the question to ask, 442 00:33:47,340 --> 00:33:50,160 but like what's my time worth or what is this thing 443 00:33:50,160 --> 00:33:53,300 that I'm doing worth in comparison to God? 444 00:33:53,700 --> 00:33:55,960 Also, I think, well, sometimes we want instant gratification 445 00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:58,420 and so we don't want to wait and be patient. 446 00:33:58,540 --> 00:34:01,040 We want to request and then have the answer right away. 447 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,720 We don't want to request and wait and request again and wait 448 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:10,660 and depend on God and wait some more and persevere and then finally get an answer and we 449 00:34:10,660 --> 00:34:14,700 don't want to ask and spend time doing that if the answer is going to be no. And we don't 450 00:34:14,700 --> 00:34:20,440 want to put all that effort in if the answer is different than we want and we don't want to 451 00:34:20,440 --> 00:34:24,820 wait years for an answer and sometimes we get there and we'll like, well, I'm past that. I don't 452 00:34:24,820 --> 00:34:31,120 need it. But we need to pray. Sometimes we don't pray because it's not our routine. 453 00:34:33,780 --> 00:34:34,320 And this is 454 00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:43,400 is a real practical problem. Our lives are shaped by our habits. There are things we do and 455 00:34:43,400 --> 00:34:50,100 they are habits. They are the way we do things. They are routine. And if prayer is dependent 456 00:34:50,100 --> 00:34:54,940 on whether we happen to feel like it or not, it's not going to happen. It needs to be our 457 00:34:54,940 --> 00:35:02,500 routine and our lifestyle and our pattern. Not some elaborate system, just making it ordinary. 458 00:35:03,900 --> 00:35:09,340 because it is the ordinary means of grace, it's the way that I got or nearly communicates his grace to us. 459 00:35:10,060 --> 00:35:12,940 We're not grateful, so we don't give thanks. 460 00:35:13,480 --> 00:35:16,720 We don't look at things and say, how many good things do we experience every day? 461 00:35:16,760 --> 00:35:18,300 We don't say, thank you. 462 00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:23,860 We notice, thank you to other people, but maybe we don't say thank you to God on a consistent basis. 463 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:31,460 Or we doubt, just prayer actually work, the word and prayer is the answer to that. 464 00:35:31,980 --> 00:35:33,600 or past disappointment. 465 00:35:34,780 --> 00:35:37,180 There's so much, I think that I have a few others, 466 00:35:37,380 --> 00:35:39,560 but I want to move past, I think also sometimes shame 467 00:35:39,560 --> 00:35:43,520 or I'm confessing, can cause us not to pray. 468 00:35:44,100 --> 00:35:45,620 I think I know that that's the case. 469 00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,860 And that is not where we want to be, confess your sin, 470 00:35:51,380 --> 00:35:55,860 flee to Christ, give up what you love more than Him 471 00:35:55,860 --> 00:35:58,300 and if it's something that is not something 472 00:35:58,300 --> 00:35:59,440 that you're loving more than Christ, 473 00:35:59,440 --> 00:36:05,580 But you just carrying shame and guilt and a burden and maybe feeling like I can't beat this. 474 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:10,200 You may not be able to, but the one who is in you is more powerful than the one who is in the world. 475 00:36:10,740 --> 00:36:12,560 He does kill sin. 476 00:36:12,760 --> 00:36:17,300 His death was powerful enough to defeat sin and his resurrection made you just. 477 00:36:17,780 --> 00:36:26,460 And there is real victory over sin no matter how powerful and impossible to defeat it feels like in your life. 478 00:36:26,460 --> 00:36:33,040 the things that you love so much and you feel like you can't get rid of, God has the power 479 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:35,400 to eradicate them to put them to death. 480 00:36:35,960 --> 00:36:43,080 And so keep going to the one who can defeat your sin, who has defeated sin, and who 481 00:36:43,080 --> 00:36:44,340 work these things in you. 482 00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:56,440 So as we close, as we pray, as we think about prayer some in the coming weeks, we want to 483 00:36:56,440 --> 00:37:02,880 Prayer shouldn't be the you know the staples commercials where there's a button you push and all sudden stuff shows up 484 00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:08,180 Prayer isn't like the emergency button the staples button. We push and all the sudden something shows up prayer should be 485 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:12,300 This pattern of the Christian life every day all day 486 00:37:13,060 --> 00:37:18,420 We should even though it's a pattern. We should be praying urgently because we are in war 487 00:37:18,420 --> 00:37:25,280 We are in danger and those we are connected to our endanger and so we need to pray like it's really needed and 488 00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:29,980 And then we need to pray independently because we need him. 489 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:53,640 More than we think we do. He is really good. We are really incompetent and we really don't have the power to do the things that we need to have done. And so we should be those who are praying all the time. In this spirit, with all prayer and supplication, keeping alert with all perseverance and making supplication for all the saints. Let's close and prayer. 490 00:37:54,900 --> 00:38:01,440 Heavenly Father, I do pray that you teach us in our hearts the need of prayer, that you give 491 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:06,640 us a desire for prayer, that you'd make us a church that prays, that we would exhort and 492 00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:13,140 encourage and build one another up in this area, that we would maybe even get to the point 493 00:38:13,140 --> 00:38:17,440 where we feel like this is actually a strength in this congregation and in our lives. 494 00:38:17,440 --> 00:38:19,520 You have developed us in this way. 495 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:27,120 We know your goodness and we know your power and we trust in you and Lord, we pray that 496 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:35,580 you'd protect us, guard us against temptation, deliver us removal, protect us in the face 497 00:38:35,580 --> 00:38:37,060 of the onslaughts of the devil. 498 00:38:38,420 --> 00:38:43,700 I pray that Lord our lives and our church would see and know that God is good, that He is seated 499 00:38:43,700 --> 00:38:52,100 on the throne that He reigns and that His life is everlasting, He killed death, He is risen 500 00:38:52,100 --> 00:38:57,800 and sin no longer has power, and Jesus name. Amen.