"Rooted" 3 - Rooted In Prayer - Ephesians 6:18

[Music] your Bible to the book of Ephesians chapter six we're gonna take a look at just one verse this morning from Ephesians 6 Ephesians 6:18 these five weeks we're doing a little bit more of a topical study not so much as we normally do verse by verse through chapters in the Bible but we want to take a look at some basic things in the Christian life as we take a look at this series that we're calling roots basic things in the Cris life I hope that nobody in this room feels or believes that you're beyond

all this you know you're beyond learning something or be encouraged about reading the Bible about prayer about worship about community or going to church because of the four basic topics we're talking about this is something for every one of us and if especially this morning you think oh he's talking about prayer well I don't need to hear about that then you especially need to pray and as that God would speak to you here this morning because again this is something that I think touches every one of us in our walk with God so let's read

now from Ephesians chapter six verse eighteen the Apostle Paul writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints now that's a power-packed little verse having to do with prayer but it's good if we understand something of the context of the verse in the context in Ephesians chapter 6 Paul is writing to the Ephesians about what we call spiritual warfare or sometimes we call it the armor of God and what Paul did here was

to use the image of the armor that a Roman soldier at war you can picture that in your mind I mean after all you've seen gladiator movies and the rest of it there's the Roman soldier he has his helmet he has a breastplate on he has a sword he has special sandals on that helped him fight he has a shield and what Paul did was using this illustration or this metaphor he connected those different aspects of a Roman soldiers armor a spiritual principle that is a spiritual defense for a believer in Jesus Christ so the

helmet becomes the helmet of salvation the shield becomes the shield of faith the the sword becomes the sword of the Spirit the Word of God and by using this analogy he's telling Christians how they can be strengthened how they can be equipped to fight against spiritual enemies to make a stand in this world for Jesus Christ well at the end of all that he brings this verse that we're looking at today where he says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all

the saints and let me tell you what Paul means by bringing this verse at the end of the discussion of the armor of God in spiritual warfare what he means by this is simple prayer is the way that we actually fight the battle spiritually if you're not praying you're not fighting in other words a soldier could have all the armor on he could have the helmet the shield the sword the breastplate he could have all the armor but if he doesn't actually fight with it he's not much of a soldier it's not given for like

a military fashion show it's not given just to stand around the camp and look good in it's given to actually fight and prayer is how we put the armor of God into action praying in the spirit is how it's done and so a right belief of that spiritual armor and the understanding of it is useless without putting it into action and it can only be put into action through prayer ladies and gentlemen the spiritual foes we face the world the flesh and the devil they cannot be defeated with philosophy they can't be defeated with idealism

they can't be defeated with positive thinking they can't be defeated with the world psychology they can't be defeated with anything that comes just from man you can't even defeat the devil with the truth until it's put into action the truth that's hidden away and not enacted it does no good and so this is how we do it in the spiritual struggle we do it in and through prayer so in this verse I think we see several very important principles that talk to us about how we should pray and so let's take a look at it

hopefully very practically the first thing he tells us is that we should be rooted in prayer at all times that's how Ephesians 6:18 begins he begins praying always with all prayer praying always now if prayer is to be done always it means that prayer can be done very naturally and very plain spoken in other words it's talking with God yes you should talk with God reverently he's God you're not but you can talk with God honestly and openly you don't have to pray in King James English you don't have to pray as if you're reciting

a soliloquy from Shakespeare Oh God is too dwelleth in the highest.if heaviness you know on and on you don't have to be poetic you you don't have to be spiritually sounding you can talk with God very naturally in prayer God wants us to be praying always and we can talk with him very naturally and we can speak with him all through the day now I believe it is important even vital for every believer to have a time where they are focused only on prayer you shut out every other activity and say now I'm going to

pray that's important it's vital but in addition to having that time during the day shouldn't you be praying all through the day shouldn't your day just be a daily interaction with God about what you're doing and what you're thinking don't you need to cry out at work Oh God would you help me with this right now I need your help I can't figure this out shouldn't be a lord I don't know it's got old Lord I lost the dog would you help me find him Oh God this happens would you help me do this shouldn't

it just be a daily natural hourly even minute-by-minute communion with God it should not be like this okay God I met with you ten minutes this morning I'll come back to you in 24 hours that's no God intends you to live what do you say he said pray always at all times always be praying it should be a thing of communion with our soul and again I don't mean to take away from the idea that there should be a time where we only focus on prayer but we should have a heart and attitude of talking

with God and communion with him all through the day now one reason for that is because the spiritual battle that's around us that comes to us from the world the flesh and the devil it's raging all the time listen I'd like to give the devil credit for anything but I'll give him credit for this he's hardworking and he doesn't stop and the devil's always bring in the attack as well as the world in the flesh we need to be aware and we need to do what Jesus said in Matthew 26:41 watch and pray lest you

enter into temptation watch and pray that's how we stay on defense in additionally I would say this is that we should make the effort to realize that prayer is an amazing way to deal with stress people are stressed out today and it really doesn't matter really doesn't matter if you quote to them all these different statistics about health about community about crime about this it doesn't matter what you quote to them about statistics or Sciences you know life is better now than it's ever been people still feel stressed and they're very pessimistic about the future

some of you stress is eating you alive it's affecting your health it's affecting things in your life you're disturbed you're stressed out now listen I'm not saying that there's only one solution for the problem stress but I'll tell you a big one in my life it's prayer I can't tell you how many times it's been true for me when I think about my problems all I do is get anxious and stressed out about them that's how I think about it is I I get so just bound up when I pray about my problems something lifts

do you know what I mean about that feeling something lifts I mean really it's just a fulfillment of God's promise here in Philippians chapter 4 where he says this in verse 6 be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God don't worry about anything be anxious for nothing so every time the stress is rising every time the worry and the anxiety comes what should you do you should pray you pray and you leave it for God and say god this is stressing me out

God would you please help me with this give me wisdom give me insight I lay this before your throne I don't know what to do with it but you know what to do with it and I believe that when you do that you will feel it lift now you'll say but it comes back well then pray again I mean we should just be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication make our requests known to God because God doesn't want us to live these lives of stress and anxiety he wants to bless us

and one of the chief means he gives to us for that is through prayer that's number one be praying all the time always praying but then number two we should also be rooted in all prayer that is all kinds of prayer I mean that's what he says there in verse 18 praying always with all prayer that's interesting the original language the idea is prayer upon prayer praying praying just prayer just pray all different kinds of ways you see this is how we should be and we should be praying and private we should be praying in

public we should have church prayer we should have closet prayer we should have family prayer we've had speaking prayer we said wordless prayer was a kneeling prayer we should have closed eye prayer we said open eye prayer we said prayer when we're driving when you're driving through the open eye prayer not the closed eye prayer we should have sitting prayer we should have walking prayer which is a poetic prayer we should have groaning prayer we should have shouting prayer we said whispered prayer pray all kinds of prayer we're not trying to restrict prayer down to

one thing and just say well there's just one way to pray God says all kinds of prayer now any kind of prayer is good as long as it is made unto God not every kind of prayer is made unto God there are people who and listen sometimes it says sometimes we just get into bad habits please I hope nobody takes us here as condemnation it's just a little bit of corrective sometimes we get into bad habits and we don't pray unto God we pray unto ourselves what do I mean well Jesus kind of gave a

pattern for this look at what he said in Luke chapter 18 verse 11 he was telling a story and this is a man and it illustrates in the story he says the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself god I thank you that I am not like other men extortioners unjust adulterers or even as this tax collector but first of all the prey he prayer is interesting isn't it he's standing right next to another guy at the temple and he says lord I just thank you I thank you that I'm not a filthy sinner like

all those other people I thank you that I'm not extortion or I thank you that I'm not a adulterer I thank you that I'm not a wicked person I especially thank you that I'm not like this loser standing next to me now that's that's a weird prayer to pray at the temple but the content of his prayer was strange but did you see how Jesus described his prayer isn't that fascinating what does it say there he prayed thus with himself where was his prayer directed inward he was praying with himself don't pray with yourself pray

unto God put your focus on God in His Word you see the reason why I bring this up is that some people pray with themselves or they make prayer a thing of trying to feel holy they make prayer a thing of trying to pray into themselves certain spiritual feelings don't fall into that trap prayer is not a matter of emptying the MA and trying to enter into an altered state of consciousness the idea is simply connect with God in and through his word and with birth talk to him but it's not standing before God emptying

yourself of everything and just saying okay Lord I'm trying to feel some kind of spiritual feeling here later on that's not fair that's praying with yourself pray unto God and make him the focus of your prayer not some kind of feeling that you're trying to make yourself feel inside so be rooted in all kinds of prayer just make sure you're praying unto God and not unto yourself thirdly I'd say this from verse 18 that we should be rooted in persistent prayer notice how he repeats this idea in verse 18 he says praying always with all

prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints with all perseverance you know what that means it means don't give up in prayer keep on praying now first I think that means keep on praying even when you don't feel spiritual as I observed human nature over my years I've come to the observation that I believe that there's sort of this continuum among humans that some people are more inherently spiritual and some people are inherently less spiritual just some people more oriented to spiritual things and

some people less now when people become believers when they become followers of Jesus Christ it's easy to think that that instantly makes everybody more attuned to spiritual things they instantly go to one of the continuum that's not necessarily true and for those of you who say look I really love Jesus I'm just not so inclined to spiritual things I want you to know God loves you and God has a beautiful and powerful place in his kingdom for you you should not feel disqualified or second-class in his kingdom one bit you should just say I'm not

gonna try to come before the Lord when I read my Bible when I pray when I worship and try to feel spiritual feelings I'm just gonna do my duty unto God and know that it pleases and honors him and I'll find the great satisfaction in that this is something I think is very powerful we so often pray wanting to feel a feeling and when we don't feel it we say well I'll give up that's not the idea no keep praying even if you aren't naturally inclined to spiritual things keep praying even when the answer does

not come keep praying even when other people give up I know some of you you've lived with difficult things for a long time and you have prayed about them again and again and again and you've prayed you've prayed O Lord heal this in me or in someone else that you love you've prayed lord help my wayward son or daughter it breaks my heart you've prayed Lord I want to be married would you bring to me the husband or the wife that that I feel that that I just long for you've prayed you've prayed you've prayed

and you just feel like that's dead that's gone I give up I believe that in some things God will tell us child you don't need to pray for that anymore I'm doing something else if you feel God has told you stop praying for something fine otherwise keep praying until he does you say well David why why would a prayer not be answered a thousand times it's been prayed but then on the thousand and first time it's answered why and my answer to you is I don't have the slightest idea this is God we're dealing with

it's not a vending machine it's not if you put in enough coins and you're gonna get the answer you want this is God and could we understand can we agree on something together God knows things that we don't know God understands things that we don't understand so I don't know I can't explain to you all the reasons why a prayer might not be answered or might not be answered when and how we think it should but I can tell you this keep on praying until the Spirit of God tells you I release you from the

responsibility of that prayer so we need to pray with persistence but here's the next point we also need to be rooted in prayer that asks twice in verse 18 Paul uses the term supplication he says with all prayer and supplication and then at the end of the verse he says with all perseverance and supplication well what is supplication supplication just describes a kind of prayer that actually asks for something now please understand friends friends prayer is not only asking thanking God is prayer adoring God is prayer worship is prayer listening to God is prayer all

of those things are prayer but don't be ashamed or afraid to actually ask God for something many of us we want God to do something but we just kind of beat around the bush we're like we're nervous about our ask ask God he wants you to bring your needs and your requests before him but please understand this if there's any one principle about asking God for things I would say this when you ask plead the promises of God this Bible this book is filled with promises now some of those promises are made to specific people

or people's and it may or may not apply to you and I some of these promises have conditions and we shouldn't expect God to fulfill promised unless we fulfill the condition but keeping in mind who the promises are made to and keeping in mind the conditions that may be attached to promises God makes we can plead the promises of God and that's something that I think that generally speaking we don't do enough when we pray you've heard me say because it's true although I got to say it's been a few years since I've done it

but there's been times I've been in prayer and pleading the promises of God that I'm just trying to say and I I've held my Bible up to God so that he could see the verse himself you right here you wrote it I did I'm not making this up you said it God read it for yourself and that's the sense of pleading the promises of God we're realizing that we're just coming back on his word on his promise now let me give you a very practical five tool Swiss Army knife of promises and prayer I mean

I could go on and on I could preach a twenty part message a twenty part sermon series on the promise of God let's talk about five quick promises from the pages of Scripture first of all a promise that we can receive forgiveness first John chapter 1 verse 9 it says if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness now that's pretty great promise don't you think there's a condition to it what's the condition confess confess your sins but if you confess your sins

before God and by the way in that context confession implies repentance you confess and repent of your sins before God what he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from some of our unrighteousness did I just read that verse right what's he say to cleanse us from all in that beautiful promise all unrighteousness wouldn't you like to be cleansed from all unrighteousness this is the promise of God and so when my conscience is stained with guilt when the devil's hammering on me telling me what a sinner I am this

is a promise that I can run to I can go to God in prayer and say Lord you promised I'm not making this up God read it for yourself so I confess my sin I agree with you about it I repent and now Lord I receive your promise I know that I am cleansed and I am cleansed from all unrighteousness because of your promise see how powerful that is before him I'm not just casting wishes up to heaven I'm bringing his promises before him well here's another one from John chapter 14 verse 27 peace I

leave with you my peace I give to you not as the world gives do I give to you let not your heart be troubled neither let it be afraid you ever need peace here's your promise for peace Lord I need your promise for peace right now and you promised that you would give it Jesus you said in John 14:27 you said peace I leave with you my peace I give to you Jesus I received that peace right now in your name you're pleading the promises it's very powerful before God here's a third one um a

promise of guidance I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go I will guide you with my eye psalm 32 verse 8 the idea behind that is that we are so in tune with God that whenever we look at God in his eyes point away we follow after and we do what his eye instructs us to do now there's a condition inherent in that promise isn't it what's the condition you're looking at the face of gods that you could be guided by his eye but God says if you'll put your

attention on me if you'll give me your focus I'm gonna guide you Lord I need your guidance help me now to put my focus upon you and I will trust you that you will fulfill your promise God is faithful to do it okay two more quickly his promise for growth he says in philippians 1:6 he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of jesus christ don't we need that one you ever feel like you're not gonna make it no no Lord I stand on your promise you began a

good work in me you're gonna complete it I'm gonna keep growing and persevere to the end and then finally Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 where he says let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need we need grace to help you ever need help from God he promises is wide open right here come on in here's the throne of grace you could find help in your time of need that's his promise so when we ask for things we ask based on

the promise of God but again may I stress a point that I made a little earlier let me come back to it when we ask we ask with a surrendered heart one more time is there anybody in this Rome who knows the will of God perfectly if you do please come up after service and pray for me I'd love to be prayed for by person who knows the will of God perfectly we do not see everything God sees we do not know everything God knows and there are some times where in the best intention of

our heart we pray for something knowing yes God this is what you should do and we're wrong now what would a loving God do when even with the best of intentions we ask for something but it's not best for us what would a loving God do say no but lord I don't understand you that's the whole point you don't understand trust me you'll meet people from time to time who had a high school or a college sweetheart and they were the one Lord I know they're the one Lord that's going to be my husband that's

going to be my wife and they prayed and they played it claimed every promise in the book Lord that's the one and it never worked out God why didn't you do that and now they see that person 30 years later and they say thank you Jesus you knew what you were doing thank you Lord what's very possible isn't it God knows God knows but at the time at the time we may not see it how important for us to have a surrendered heart before God when we pray now what happens if in the best intention

of my heart I'm asking God for something he knows isn't the best for me God smiles upon me and says David bless you my son you're doing the best you can I'm gonna work this out for good even though I'm not going give you what you're asking for it cuz it actually be bad for you but I'm gonna do my good and perfect we'll just trust me along the way that's how we should pray with that surrendered heart before God because at the bottom line we want his will to be done in our life prayer

is not the way that I try to impose my will upon God okay God let me tell you how it's gonna work I'm gonna make you do this I'm gonna pose my will no no I don't want to manipulate God even if that were possible it's not but I'm not trying to impose my will upon God in prayer what am I trying to do I'm trying to pray in with cooperation with God and in partnership with his plan his will to be manifest all throughout my life I only want what is his will in my

life and that's why I pray I pray in faith but according and surrendered to his will alright two more quickly the first one here of the last two is we should also be rooted in prayer for others what does he say he says pray for all the saints matter of fact in the very next verse verse 19 Paul says and pray for me Paul says yes pray for your own needs but also pray for the needs of others when you pray pray for yourself don't be shy about praying for yourself and for your needs but

don't forget to pray for other people as well there is power when you pray for others and if you think of it the Apostle Paul himself asked for prayer as I said in the very next verse he says and pray for me that this utterance may be given to me this mighty man of God this great apostle what one of the greatest preachers pastors and evangelists the church had ever known Paul asked for he even begged God's people to pray for him now if the Apostle Paul so desperately needed prayer what does that say about

this poor man on the platform before you let me put it to you this way if you're stuck in prayer lord I don't know what to pray for sometimes we feel like that don't we isn't it strange I don't know what to pray for whenever you're stuck in prayer and you don't know what to pray for here you go pray for me remember poor Pastor David in your prayers Lord he needs your help he needs your strength he needs an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in his life he needs revival from above he needs to

be so in tune it's your spirit he needs strength he needs energy he needs wisdom he needs help Lord send Pastor David he'll listen I hope that you pray not only for me personally I hope you pray for a congregation don't we need more and more prayer just praying that God would do the work amongst us listen we need a lot of things as a church family but you could say that I don't know if we need anything greater than prayer itself I love something that Charles Spurgeon said he said this quote do not let

us become poor in prayer it is a bad thing to become poor in money because we need it for a thousand causes and cannot get on without it but we can do without money better than we can do without prayer we must have your prayers that's exactly how I feel listen what we need money to conduct the operations and do the business of this church but more important than money we need your prayers so I hope that you pray for this congregation because what we want to accomplish here God helping us is not something that

can just be done through clever human work or the best talents of man we want something supernatural from God to be gone going in our midst and that happens in response to prayer one last thing be rooted in what it means to pray in the spirit Paul writes here in verse 18 praying always with all prayer and supplications in the spirit what does it mean to pray in the spirit well means to pray and truth you know the Pharisees of Jesus's day they prayed a lot they they had the rituals they prayed four or five

times a day or they had their rich wasn't that but they never prayed in the spirit they never really prayed where the soul was in right connection with God and in flow with the Holy Spirit of God I guess what I'm saying is for us to pray as we should we need to be filled with the Spirit of God and we need to be walking in the spirit of God look one of the toughest things for me as a pastor when I put together a brief series on the basics of the Christian life you feel

like you're leaving out so many topics so if I'm going to talk to you about discipleship which is our first one being rooted in the Bible which was last week being rooted in prayer that's this week next week being rooted in worship and then our final one being rooted in community in the church I mean I think those are five essentials but by no means does that cover everything that's important or basic to the Christian life there's anything one thing that I would impress upon you now as part of this it's the active life in

the Spirit of God we do not want the Christian experience to be our best efforts given unto God we need to be filled with and walking in the spirit and so we need to say where it challenges here pray in the spirit that the idea is Lord we need to yield to the power and the presence of your spirit the vital element regarding prayer it's not the emotion that you feel it's not kneeling or standing it's not sitting or having your eyes opened or closed it's not praying audibly or knee and audibly the vital element

of Prayer the thing that makes it truly prayer and truly powerful before God is praying in the spirit what does it mean to pray in the spirit means to pray in faith it means to pray in conscious reliance upon the Holy Spirit it means to pray praying the scriptures because the Holy Spirit is the author of the scriptures it means avoiding mechanical prayers and as much as anything it means to pray that God would fill us with the Holy Spirit and keep us walking in the ladies gentlemen we need this we need this as individual

Christians and we desperately need it as a congregation that we would be not only praying but praying in the spirit animated energized informed inspired by the Holy Spirit of God himself so as I conclude right now I think appropriately with a prayer shall I not pray for God to fill us with the Holy Spirit Father in Heaven this is my prayer Lord and I stand before you hopefully God as a representation of this congregation Lord it's as if at least at this moment I'm coming Lord on all of our behalf and Lord we collectively together

say to you Lord teach us to pray and teach us what it means to pray in the spirit we need this Lord we need something beyond our own human ability we need something that will really live out the truth that we are filled with the Holy Spirit of God with his wisdom with his power with his love with his joy with his self-control with every aspect of the fruit of the Spirit evident in our life we need this Lord so father do that we don't want to live I mechanical Christian life we don't want to

lead just a Christian life built on traditions and routines but rather Lord something vital and true by the Holy Spirit Himself do it in our myths Lord we pray in Jesus name Amen you [Music]