Have your Bibles one more time.
Let's turn to the book of Ephesians
chapter 6.
Verse number 18.
We finally come to the last message.
This verse by verse study of Paul's epistle.
We started this journey.
Back on February the 25th
of 2024.
So it took
us a little over two years and three months
to finish our exposition
of this book, but I want to remind you that
not straight through, because simultaneously,
we've also been working our way through the Gospel of John
when I didn't have time to finish the Ephesians.
So I didn't really take over 2 years to preach Ephesians.
I'm getting a little better at condensing things, I hope.
But as always, when we come to the
end of a book, I'm
kind of sad to see it go, because
it's hard for me to describe to you, how,
the weekly preparation is
such a major part of the fabric of my life.
Like, literally, everything revolves
around me, doing everything I
can to get time to get to the desk,
to prepare at the nights, in the early mornings,
until finally, I get to Saturday night,
and the final edits are made, and then
I get up here and preach it.
And then sun, Monday morning, I
start at the bottom of the mountain again.
And whether I've got to cut the grass and
do this and do that and do this and do that to get to the
preparation time, and then it's all about Ephesians.
It's all about Ephesians for 2 years.
And then it comes to an end.
And Ephesians is over with.
So that's why I say it's kind of sad, in a way, to see it go.
But even with all the help I get from
Dr. John MacArthur, I'm telling you, we just cannot really
plumb the total depth of
the riches that we find here in
this epistle to the Ephesians.
But I hope that
you have learned as much as I have.
from this study, and I hope and
pray that you have experienced spiritual
growth in your walk with
the Lord, as we have studied this tremendous book together.
And so, if you can believe this,
we are going to study from verse 18
all the way to the end.
We're going to get all these verses, 18 to 24, every
one of them in today.
And so let's start by reading our
final text in verses 18 to
24.
The Apostle Paul writes with all prayer
and petition.
Pray at all times in the spirit,
and with this in view, be on the alert.
With all perseverance and petition
for all the saints.
and pray on my behalf.
That utterance may be given to me in
the opening of my mouth, to make known
with boldness, the mystery
of the gospel, for which I am
an ambassador in chains, that
in proclaiming it, I may speak boldly
as I ought to speak.
But that you also may know about
my circumstances, how I am doing Tychicus,
my beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord,
will make everything known to you.
I have sent him to you for this very purpose so
that you may know about us, and that he may comfort your hearts.
Peace be to the brethren, in
love with faith, from God, the Father, and
the Lord Jesus Christ, grace be with
all those who love our Lord, Jesus Christ,
with incorruptible love.
Now, after an
extensive section on spiritual
warfare that we went through and
the study of all
of these resources that we have.
in the spiritual war that we're engaged in
every day, including the armor of God, Paul
gives us, here in this last text, one
final critical resource.
And there's really nothing more important than
Paul's last exhortation both to the church at
Ephesus and think about it, to the church for all the
rest of time, that read this letter.
As we read in this text, but the last
theme, Paul turns to the
subject of prayer.
Look again at verse 18 with me.
With all prayer and petition,
pray, at all time.
Now I want you to notice, in the broader
text, prayer is not a part of the armor.
We've moved on, but
it's also not in addition to the armor.
He's not saying, in addition
to the armor and prayer.
It's more like, woven
into all this that I've just told you, is prayer.
And so while we're at war, as we've
spoken about for the last number of months,
While we have all the elements of the
armor on that he's taught us.
We are to be at the same time
praying at all times on a daily basis.
Whether we're in the heat of the war,
Or whether, as we all sometimes get that
low in the battle, we are always
to be engaged in prayer.
Prayer is the only way.
that we can make it.
While we're living in this evil, fallen
world system, it
should be like breathing air for us as Christians.
Not to pray, is
like holding your breath spiritually.
Do that for too long, physically,
you're going to pass out, or worse.
Every day, you're living the Christian life.
as we've learned, and
you're battling, and you're struggling.
It all has to be happening
in this atmosphere
of prayer, as I said, it's so
much more than just an additional weapon.
It is to be pervasive.
in our daily experience.
There is a reason planned
by God that this right here is
the climactic finale here in
the book of Ephesians.
In Luke chapter 18, look
at verse number one, it's speaking of Jesus.
It says now he was telling them a parable.
to show that at all times.
They ought to pray and not
to lose heart.
Because you see, Jesus knows that in a battle,
especially when things get hot, we can lose heart.
We can get weary.
We can get discouraged.
We can give up the fight.
If we don't pray.
You really only have two possible
options in that situation.
You can either pray, or you can lose heart.
And there's no middle ground of that.
The reason prayer comes right
here in these last verses is
because it fits the total ending of
this whole book.
It's kind of like a great crescendo
at the end of a classical music composition with this topic.
If you think back to all that we've
studied over the last two years, this
book, probably more than any other book in the New Testament, presents
the resources that all believers have to
live the Christian life because we are,
as it says, in Christ.
Remember from Ephesians one, blessed with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in Christ.
So this book, if you remember, all the way back.
It started us out in the heavenlies.
But it ends with us on our knees.
as Paul calls
God's people to a life of prayer.
Now, you might wonder, well, if we have
all these tremendous resources that
Paul just lays out one after another,
we've got them at our disposal, well, why would we need to pray?
For example, starting in chapter one?
You move on through the middle of the book.
I just wanna remind you of some of these great things.
We've looked at over the last two years.
All Christians are described in this book as being blessed.
Forgiven, loved,
redeemed,
We are given wisdom.
We are made rich, we are secure.
We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of
promise, which is the down payment, right?
We are made alive with new life.
We are objects of eternal grace, unmerited favor.
We are God's masterpiece called
to a life of good works.
We are saved by grace through faith alone.
We are adopted as members into God's family.
We are the very habitation of
the Holy Spirit of God.
Just one after another after another of these incredible
realities.
is true of all blood-bought,
genuine Christian believers.
And then, after we
went through, months and months and months of that, Paul
launches into the armor that we have at our disposal, which we study.
As we learn that we have to wage
war with the principalities and powers in the demonic realm.
It's all just a tremendous picture.
of what it is, to be a Christian.
Of what it is, what the Christian life looks like.
Now, that's a big general summary, right?
I mean, I could go into way more detail.
But with all this knowledge.
about all these incredible resources
that we have as Christians.
Let me tell you, church, we have to be careful.
that we don't run into what
is defined in 1st Corinthians 10 and verse number 12.
Look at it with me.
You see it on the screen or in your Bible if you want to turn there.
Therefore, let him
who thinks he stands, take
heed, that he does not fall.
We can have so much knowledge,
especially in this post internet age.
We can have so much information.
And we really do have all these resources
that we've been learning about, and especially
in a church like ours, where
there's a high premium on
sound doctrine and theology and verse by verse expositional
preaching to dig the truth out of these texts.
There is a danger that
we can fall into losing the
sense of our daily absolute
total complete dependence upon God.
One good prayer that I read this week, short
prayer in regard to this is this.
See if you can pray this prayer.
That God would give us enough success to
know he's there, and enough failure
to desperately need him.
Can you pray that prayer?
That's some wisdom right there, Saints.
It's kind of like a football team.
That's won the championship for several
years in a row, and at some point,
They always seem to lose that hunger.
to be a champion that they had in the beginning.
And as they do that, They
lose the discipline and the attitude
and the critical intangibles that
made them champions in the 1st place.
And what happens?
They get comfortable with their success.
And that is when they usually fall.
And I'm here to tell you this morning that that
can happen to us as Christians as well.
Things are growing great.
The marriage is working well.
The church is unified.
People are growing in the Lord.
And we can get comfortable.
in our success.
And we lose, deep,
intense, earnest kind of praying
that demonstrates a Christian who daily recognizes
how absolutely dependent we are upon
God, every single
day, whether things are going well or whether things are going bad.
And, of course,
If we carry in
that kind of comfortability, God
has a way, does he not?
of bringing about some uncomfortability into
our lives to get us back on track.
Anybody ever experience that here?
So, as
we have all these magnificent, incredible
spiritual resources that our disposal
as we live out our Christian lives, if we don't do things
as Brother Ed says, God's way,
when it comes to our prayer life, we
lose in a major number of ways.
And that is essentially, what
Paul is saying here in this text.
Don't ever get to thinking that just because we
have all these great resources, and things are going
well, that you don't desperately need
to depend upon God in a way that's reflected in
the intensity of your prayer life.
Listen, the armor is not magic.
Nothing in God's kingdom is magic.
Never forget, God
is in charge of the armor.
He is the one who gives the armor its power.
And if you've attained a certain level
of theological knowledge, and things are
going fairly well to the point that you are satisfied
and comfortable, and no longer feel
the need to be relentlessly earnest in your prayer
life, then you need to realize that all of the
resources, including the armor, are dependent
on your prayer line.
That's what Paul is wanting you to see here in
the way he's phrasing these words.
They work hand in hand.
As I said, prayer is not in
addition to, it's totally
woven into the fabric of our
spiritual resources as a critical necessity.
So, in general,
that's what Paul is getting at here, so now let's
just dig in with our shovels to our text.
First, we get some general instruction here in verse 18.
Look at it there.
I want you to notice first, there are four alls
in just this one verse.
With all prayer and petition.
Pray at all times in the spirit, and with this in view,
be on the alert, with all perseverance and petition, for all the saints.
These 4 alls, of
course, are so very intentionally
given by the Apostle Paul.
Each of these realities is to be put on with prayer.
This makes clear that prayer is to
be an all encompassing
element of our lives.
So let's take these alls one at a time.
First notice with me the frequency of prayer.
Verse 18.
With all prayer and petition, pray at
all times.
Now the Jews, back in Paul's day, had set
times of prayer.
And some of us have come out of backgrounds
where you pray out of a prayer book, or wrote
prayers with beads, or even at certain times, or special days.
But now, in the biblical new covenant
era, Paul is clear that we're to be praying at all times.
Jesus gave the disciples a hint that this was coming.
In Luke, look at it chapter 21, verse 36,
where he said, But keep on the alert.
At all times, you see the same word
phrasing, praying that
you may have the strength to escape all these things that
are about to take place and to stand before the Son of Man.
In Acts chapter 6, verse 4,
they say, But we will devote ourselves
to prayer.
In Romans 12:12.
It says, rejoicing in hope, persevering
in tribulation, devoted to prayer.
Colossians 4, 2.
Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping
alert in it an attitude of thanksgiving.
Philippians 4.6.
Be anxious in nothing, but in everything
by prayer.
And supplication, with thanksgiving, let your
request be known, made known to God.
And of course, 1 Thessalonians 517,
pray without ceasing.
You think he's trying to get a point across here?
Huh?
Paul demonstrated that principle to
Timothy, pray it all, pray
without ceasing in 2nd Timothy chapter 1, verse 3.
Look where he says, as I constantly
remember you in my prayers day
and night.
Now.
Listen carefully.
I want you to notice that
I said, Paul demonstrated that principle
to Timothy, okay?
Obviously, all right, with
all the things that we have to do all the day, whether
you're working, whether you're retired, we got a lot
of stuff that we do all day.
So you can't literally go around praying
every 2nd of every minute of every day, right?
So this is a principle of
living our lives.
With what we could call a
god consciousness.
I don't like to use the phrase, Christ consciousness,
because the new agers have co opted that phrase, and
I don't want anybody to be confused with that nonsense.
I like to often phrase it this way,
and you've heard me say it 100,000 times.
Eternal perspective.
It's living consciously,
daily, with eternal perspective.
It's the idea that your
whole life exists in
a continual flow of communion
with God in the sense that everything that
you deal with and experience is always
dealt with through the lens of
eternal perspective.
Okay?
Let me give you.
A simple example.
Right.
When I look at a sunset.
Or a starry night, or
a full moon, instantly
what comes to my mind when I look at that is the glory of God in creation.
That's what comes to my mind immediately.
And I think that just happens more and more as
we grow in sanctification, by the way.
Another example would be, let's
say you're going through your day and something really bad happens, whatever it is.
Some adverse circumstance.
Pretty quickly, you go right
to prayer to deal with it, right on the spot.
before you think of anything else.
I need to pray right now.
Maybe you're dealing with somebody who's clearly
manifesting the reality that they're an
unbeliever as you're talking with them.
And then silently in your mind.
You're right on the spot.
You just pray, God, I just pray you'd save that person.
I pray you draw that person effectually to yourself.
What I'm talking about is that you just
live in that kind of air.
All of the experience of life are
dealt with through this lens of eternal perspective,
and that, all of them get
constantly accompanied by prayer.
That's the principle here that he's trying to get across.
All of our thoughts, our deeds, our experiences, become
pauses or points of communication
with God in prayer.
That's what it means in Colossians 3,
chapter 2, where he says, set your mind
on things above.
That's where you're to keep your thoughts on
things above and how above is
working in whatever situation you're dealing with.
Understand this.
One of the reasons, one of the reasons, that
God saved us, is for fellowship with him.
That fellowship with him between God and
man was broken in the garden.
And the only way for that fellowship to
be restored is when a person comes to
Christ on his terms of repentance and faith, and
they're justified, and they enter into the process of
sanctification, and they're adopted into the family of God,
and that fellowship is then restored.
And prayer is
the highest point of that fellowship when
we commune with God.
And if you're a Christian, and
you don't commune with him, you are
denying him one of the purposes for
what he saved you.
For which Christ suffered and died for.
Again, back in Colossians 4, too.
Devote yourselves to prayer,
keeping alert.
In it.
Now, I want you to know.
The Greek word for alert.
We've seen that in a couple of these verses, right?
It carries with it the ideas of to
be steadfast, to be constant, to
be intense, to hang in there in
constant prayer.
And yes, all this does also include dedicated
set times of prayer.
Now, I'll tell you this before, I'll tell you again.
I like to use the acronym, acts.
Adoration, confession, thanksgiving,
supplication.
Now, listen, I'm not saying that you have to do that.
You have to do it my way.
I'm not saying that.
I'm just telling you, I do, because
it helps me cover all the major basis.
Then I'll just give you an example of what I do.
Every morning, before I get to 7 a.m.
I have read one chapter of scripture,
and I have gone through that axe acronym.
That's just the spiritual discipline that I
have developed over the years.
And Christie can tell you, I am very much an
OCD habit creature
sameness.
I have to have everything the same.
That's the only way I can function.
She likes to call, I line up things, you know?
I might be on the spectrum.
I like the line.
She calls it, there's the lineup method.
Phillips lined up the things.
That's just the way that I work.
So you combine that
spiritual discipline.
of set time of prayer every day.
And it can be different.
You don't have to be exactly like I do it.
But you pray at all times.
You include this discipline, and you understand that,
that, for the Christian, praying is
not some kind of, Easy going,
every once in a while you shoot a prayer up to God.
That's not how prayer works.
in the Christian life.
It's a way of life.
It's continual.
It's strong.
It's intense.
It's persevering.
It's struggling.
When you're going through something hard, have you
ever struggled with God in prayer?
Intentionally struggling over
deep issues that you're going through, and then
just also praising God and thanking God.
Earnest, persistent, recounting
to God his attributes in prayer.
That's part of the adoration part.
And praying for many things,
especially when you're praying for your lost loved ones.
Are you praying earnestly for them?
to be saved.
I will not let you go into,
you bless me kind of praying, right?
I will not let you go until I die.
They die, they get saved, or Jesus returns.
That's the only way it stops, right?
So that's the frequency of prayer.
Now let's look at next the variety of prayer.
Go back to verse 18.
With all prayer and petition.
Now, this is nuanced.
I want you to see this.
The Greek word for prayer in
this verse just generally means request.
That's prayer in general,
the word for petition, also,
in some translations, you'll see the word supplication means specific.
So, we are to pray, in a general way,
and we are to pray in a specific way.
And notice it also says, all prayer
and petition, supplication.
What does that mean?
That means all kinds.
There's all kind of, well, let's think about this.
There's all kind of different ways to pray.
You don't have to just be in a certain posture where
you're on your knees, with your hands folded, like this.
There's nothing wrong with that.
You can play like that.
That's fine.
But he's saying, pray all the time with all kinds of prayers.
And by the way, if you're going to be praying all the time, that's kind of necessary, right?
I mean, you're never going to be in the same position,
for example, you can pray in public.
You can pray in private.
You can pray verbally.
You can pray silently.
You can pray in a planned outweigh,
like I said, with the acronym, or you
can pray spontaneous prayers throughout the day, and you can do both.
And that's what I do.
I had that set time.
And then when things come to my mind as I'm working throughout my day or somebody comes
across my mind, I just shoot a prayer
up right there at that moment.
You can kneel, you can be walking, standing up, riding in your car.
That's where my prayer starts.
My prayer, my set prayer time starts
when I pull out the driveway, and then, and
by God's grace, I get 30 minutes
of alone time at work opening up all our warehouses.
I get there 30 minutes before everybody else, and I unlock everything.
And the sun's coming up at that moment.
And I pray through that whole time, and it's
wonderful way to start the day.
Paul is simply saying, pray all the time in all kinds of ways.
Just make it a major part of the
flow of your life, Christian.
There's a sense in which prayer
is actually more important than knowledge.
And there's a sense of that.
Let me tell you what Martin Lloyd Jones says, and what I mean by that.
He says, Our ultimate position as Christians is
tested by the character of your prayer life.
You know what that means is, you
may have a lot of know.
You may have a PhD from the seminar.
But your prayer life will
be a monitor on how really deep your
knowledge of God actually is, and
how really close your relationship to him is, because
that's where you build the relationship with God.
And why do I say that?
Well, think about the word theology.
The study of God, the knowledge
of God.
So the more proper theology,
I know, that means the more I know about God, right?
And the more I know about God, if
I'm knowing about him correctly, Well,
then the more I ought to be driven to follow in
close fellowship to him through prayer.
It should be the natural reaction of
understanding deeper, deeper ways of theology.
If I say I have all this theological knowledge,
and I'm not driven to him regularly in prayer.
And I would have to say it's questionable as
to the effect that that knowledge has had on my life.
Paul said this in Philippians 3.10
that I may know
him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings
being conformed to his death.
In his great prayer in John 17.
Jesus prayed in verse 3.
This is eternal life.
that they may know you,
the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sinned.
So the more we study, the more we
learn about God, the more we should know him.
And that should cause us to want to
be in prayer more often with him.
That's not your reaction than all your
theological learning has actually not had the
proper effect upon you that it should.
Now, I wanted you
to see next the manner of prayer, and for this, skip
ahead just a little bit in verse 18, where Paul
says, and with this in view, be on the alert
with all perseverance and petition for
all the saints.
Be on the alert, he says, with all perseverance.
Meaning, stick to it.
Hugh remote.
Stay by the stuff.
Stay at it.
Hang in there.
Persevere.
Pray at all times.
Be on the alert.
That means alert to the issues.
Be alert to what's happening in your world.
Many times, what did Jesus say?
He said, watch and pray.
Many times in the gospels, Watch, be alert.
Pay attention to what's going on.
You can't pray properly unless you see what's happening in your world.
And if you're running out things to pray for.
Just come get the Wednesday night prayer list.
That'll get a kick start for you.
That'll keep you pretty busy.
And again, springs
up something I talk about all the time.
I talked about it this morning at the beginning of the service.
Praying specifically.
You want to pray specifically
because then what happens?
When God answers that prayer,
He answers that prayer specifically, and
then we give him the rightful specific glory for it.
And he gets all the glory.
How many times in this church history of Providence
Baptist Church have we seen amazing answers to
prayer, and what do we always do?
We're always careful to give God all the glory
for the answered prayer.
He answers prayers to put his power on display.
And to receive glory.
And so we have to pray specifically for that to happen.
You know, they can't be, oh, God, just please bless the whole world.
Amen.
Now you can't pray like that.
Be alert.
Know what's going on around you.
That's what we do here on Wednesday night.
Intercessory prayer for others.
But we have to know what's going on with them in
order to pray specifically for them.
I'm praying for others on
a regular basis will
help your battle that you have with selfishness.
We all have to
battle selfishness.
As Voteebachm used to say, can't
say amen, you better say ouch.
All of us battle, selfishness.
Self centeredness is a beast
to deal with for every Christian.
Well, one way to battle
that beast, pray for other people.
Had a man tell me one time, you can't love somebody.
You can't pray for somebody unless you love them.
You see?
To a certain degree, certain sins.
There's no better way to fight the beast of selfishness,
than intercessory prayer for others.
And let me add, the
physical needs of others are absolutely important.
Okay?
We should pray for others'
physical needs.
But the prayer meeting and our
private prayers can't only be the
medical report of everybody's aches and pains.
It's important.
We need to pray for those things, but it can't only be that.
Far more important are the spiritual
needs of others, especially for the loss
that we pray for.
But guess what?
Also for our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are
struggling hard in sanctification, just like we are in
this warfare that we've been learning about that we're all engaged in.
Pray for the advancement of the kingdom.
Pray for revival starting in the pulpits
of the churches of our nation.
pray for that.
I want you to think about the Apostle Paul.
When he asked people to pray for him.
He never asked, Look, I'm in jail.
I've only had one piece of bread for the last
three days, and this chain on my ankle is rubbing
my skin raw.
Please pray for me to get some food and some relief from my right ankle.
Now.
He prayed for things like,
as we're fixing to see in a moment.
Boldness may be given unto me,
that I may have utterance to speak the mystery of the gospel.
That's what he asked for.
In other words, when I'm tempted to shut my mouth,
and go along to get along.
I'll be bold and herald the
truth when I get opportunity to do so.
Now next, I want you to see the
objects of our prayers.
Look in verse 18 again, for all the saints.
Now, this ties in and carries over with our last point, right?
We are to pray for each other.
There's no greater theme.
To hear with your ears.
than the saints praying out loud
for one another in a prayer meeting.
And let me put in a plug for Wednesday night prayer.
If you haven't been in a long time.
Every Wednesday night, you can come right here to this place and
experience this.
The saints praying for one another.
You can even participate in it if you want to.
I'm so glad.
to be a part of a church that
takes prayer seriously.
This is great evidence that this is a
church that takes their Christian faith in
general very seriously.
You know this.
We pray for one another here regularly,
not only on Wednesday night, man, when something happens, that text
line lights up, right?
And we go to praying.
It's a very natural part of
the culture of our church.
And one last thought in verse 18.
Go back to where he says, pray at
all times, in the spirit.
Now, this
does not have anything to do with speaking and talks.
I?
Please.
I don't have time to go into all that.
And you already know my position on that.
And if you don't know my position on that, let's go to lunch, and then you'll get my position.
We can talk about it at lunch.
We'll get you up to speed on that topic.
But to put it very simply, Praying
in the spirit is same as praying in the name of Christ.
It means praying
inconsistency with who Christ is and what his will is.
That's what it means to pray in the spirit.
Make your prayers be in concert
and consistency with the one
who ever lives to make intercession for you, Christian.
If we are filled with the Spirit and
walking in the Spirit, as we learned about earlier in Ephesians,
the Spirit of God will govern our thoughts so
that our prayers will be in harmony with the Spirit of God.
You want me to give you an example from the Bible?
Romans chapter 8, verse 26 to 27.
Look at it in the same way.
The spirit also helps our weaknesses,
for we do not know how to pray as we should, but
the spirit himself intercedes for us,
with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches the hearts knows what
the mind of the spirit is, because he intercedes
for the saints according to what?
The will of God.
He will govern our prayers in that way.
And that is also in conjunction with
the study of the Word of God.
When we study the Word of God, that's
where we learn where the will of God is, the
will of God doesn't come floating like some amoeba up
into our brain, we only learn where the will of
God, where the God speaks, and
God speaks to us in his word alone.
Now, I bet right now.
Somebody is out there thinking, well,
if he just took all this time on
this one verse, verse 18, oh,
in the world are we going to get, verse
24, he can't do that.
And to you, I say, wrong you are.
You're just gonna have to trust me.
that we're going to get to lunch on time.
Okay?
Because what happens next is that Paul ends
this section, and this great epistle with
a specific illustration, and
it's really very self explanatory.
He's basically saying, hey,
Ephesians, hey, church for all church history.
You want something to pray for, verse 19.
Here's the example.
And pray on my behalf.
that utterance may be given
to me in the opening of my mouth, to
make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel
for which I am an ambassador, in
change, that in proclaiming it,
I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
He's saying, I'm the illustration.
Pray for me.
But not for my physical needs, but
for this battle that I'm in.
My warfare that I'm in, God would
give me the utterance to be bold, to be
courageous, to be straightforward, and herald
his truth without compromise, without cutting
off some corners, and rounding off some edges.
Don't forget.
Paul is writing this letter
from prison.
As he writes this, he is in prison in
Rome.
He is on the absolute front line,
nose to nose, with the enemy.
Now I'm talking about the big enemy, the
little g god of this world.
As scripture describes him.
And with this prayer request.
You can feel the
weight of how tough the battle is right
now for him in this jail sale.
You can only imagine, yes, this is Apostle
Paul, but he's a man.
He's a human being, just like we are.
He's tempted to give up.
He's tempted to make things easier on
himself, and he couldn't have.
He feels like he's losing his courage.
And he's saying to the saints that this church prayed
for me, that God will give me utterance.
And let me tell you, if the Apostle Paul needed this kind of prayer
in the heat of battle,
How about us preachers?
No, you don't ever have to ask me,
do I need to pray for you?
The answer is always, yes.
And I know that you do.
And I love that.
And I can never get enough prayer.
Never, never, never enough.
As we talked about earlier.
We have to have information about people to
know what and how to pray for them.
So watch what Paul does next.
21.
But that you also may know about
my circumstances, how I am doing, Tychicus,
the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will
make everything known to you.
They need an information, to know what to
pray for Paul.
So he sends his good friend, Tychicus,
who, by the way, has mentioned 5 times in the New Testament, and he's
the one that delivered this letter to the Ephesians.
They didn't know all what was going on with Paul in that prison.
I mean, you know, everybody didn't have cell phones
and stuff, and there was miles and hundreds of miles apart.
And he wanted them to be able to pray intelligently
for them, specifically for him.
Verse 22, I am sent him to you
for this very purpose, so
that you may know about us, and he may comfort your hearts.
You're going to tell you everything you need to know.
You're going to know exactly how to pray, what
to pray, and he's going to comfort your hearts in all of this.
This is a lesson for us today, right?
As I said earlier.
The medical report is important, very
easy to communicate, but we also have to
pray for one another with the spiritual issues that
we have in the battles, in the
struggles, and in the rejoicing.
Oftentimes on Wednesday night.
Got a praise report.
And praise the Lord for this, praise the Lord for that.
And we're going to close this sermon.
And we're going to close this study of Ephesians.
With Paul's benediction, to
which, nothing needs to be added.
Verse 23.
Peace, be to
the brethren, and love, with faith,
God the Father, the
Lord Jesus Christ, grace be with
all those who love our Lord Jesus
Christ with incorruptible.
That is the book of Ephesians.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for taking
us yet through another entire book of the Bible.
Lord, I certainly don't deserve
to do this great work.
But you have to have somebody to preach.
Still, for reasons I
probably will only find out in heaven, you've chosen me to
do the most significant, greatest work in the world.
There's nothing higher.
There's no greater work than to open your
book and preach your word to your people on the day that
you have us to set aside to worship you corporately together.
Now thank you, Lord.
For the opportunity to do this weekend and week out.
And Lord, I pray, that
what we've learned and gained
by way of knowledge, from
the study of this book, would not just stay in our head, but
that it would get into our heart.
and into our bloodstream, and
that it would affect the way we live the Christian life in
a deeper and more meaningful way, and
that in which brings you the most glory.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.