The Armor of God Pt 3

All right, good morning. It's good to see you all. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with me, we'll pray and we'll get started. Father, we thank you for the day. Lord, we offer you praise, Lord, and we want to glorify you this morning, God. Help us to lift a joyful noise to you, Lord, and just position our hearts rightly before you this morning. We ask your blessing upon this time and on the word as it goes out, Lord, and just let it not return to you void,

but accomplish the purpose for which you sent it, God. Let your word permeate our hearts this morning, God. Let it change our lives. Let it change us from the inside out, Lord. We love you and we praise you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You guys, if you want to have a seat, if you like, and we'll continue on.

We're ready. Let's do this. Yes, Lord God, you are faithful, God. And every day, you are faithful, God. And every day, you are faithful, God. And every season, and every generation, God. You are faithful always, Lord, even when we're not. God, you are the rock on which we can stand. You are our firm foundation. Amen. Lord, this morning, God, we just invite your Holy Spirit just to come and do its mighty work in our hearts, Lord.

Lord God, we just invite your Holy Spirit to hear this morning. To come and do its mighty work in our hearts.

Lord, if there are any of you out there, if there are any of you out there, if there are any of you out there, if there are any of you here this morning that are still struggling, Lord, that are just, their hearts are heavy with burdens, I pray that your Holy Spirit would come and just do its mighty work, and that they would just surrender everything to you this morning to come and do something awesome in this place, Lord. God, you're a mighty guy. You do mighty things. Lord, you're so good to us.

Holy Spirit, come flood this place and fill us with fear. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for. It is in you that our hope is found. Lord, you are our only hope, God, for a new life. God, for a life apart from this world. God, for a life, God, just for a new life, period. God, you are our only hope.

You're our only hope for freedom from sin. Our only hope for freedom from death, Lord.

God, so help us just to stand on you this morning. Christ alone, hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song. Water, stone, and solid. Firm through the fiercest drought. And so, lights of sin, fears in striving see.

Lord, this morning, let's pray that as Pastor Ryan comes, Lord, that you would just do your mighty work. Lord, just speak mightily. Lord, just speak mightily through him. Lord, speak directly to our hearts the word that you prepared for us this morning, God. We love you and we praise you and we thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's have some fellowship.

If you could begin the process of locating your seat.

Feels echoey. Okay. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you've joined us this morning. A few things to take note of. As always, over on the left side are the things that go on. Throughout the week. So, please find a spot to get yourself plugged in. Over in the middle section, the biggest thing. Two big things to take note of. First of all, fellas, there's going to be no men's breakfast this month because it's December.

And nothing else can happen in December other than December. So, it's just pointless. But also, Christmas Eve service. We'll be doing a candlelight service. And December 24th at 6 o'clock p.m. here. So, plan on joining us the day of Christmas Eve. All services will happen as usual. We'll still do a first and second. That service will just also do a candlelight at 6 o'clock that evening.

So, I'll just won't go home that day. And it'll be a busy day. But it'll be fun. Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days. And one of my favorite services. So, looking forward to that. Those are the things that are going on. If you could, make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And then, for our responsive reading, we're going to be in Psalm 130.

Psalm 130. Looking at the New American Standard for this part. Just so that we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 130, if you are able, please stand with us. In the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Jared. And the even verses. Psalm 130, a song of ascents. Out of the depths I have cried to you. Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord.

My soul does wait. And in his word do I hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than the watchman for the morning. Indeed, more than the watchman for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is lovingkindness. And with him is abundant redemption. And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Father, we do wait on you and hope in your word.

Lord, I thank you for the precious promises that you give us in your word. I thank you for the instruction that you give us in your word. And Father, as we spend time in your word this morning, I just ask that you would move through it by the power of your Holy Spirit. Draw us near to you and teach us what you would have us do. Let us learn this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. Today we not only come to the end of our series on the armor of God, but we come to the end of the book of Ephesians. We've spent a good amount of time here and it's been a lot of fun. I think I really enjoy the book of Ephesians. I know I've talked to several of you and when I got ready to start Ephesians,

you said, well, shoot, I'm out of room in my Bible for notes. Which usually is true because Ephesians is a great book. But today we wrap up the book of Ephesians and we wrap up the series on the armor of God. When we started the series on the armor of God, we said that there were three things that Paul was going to teach us about the armor of God. Number one, he would talk to us about the spiritual battle.

Number two, he would tell us about the armor. But then number three, he would teach us about prayer. And that's what we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at prayer. Because that really is one of the keys of our spiritual armor. And so as we look at verse 18 of Ephesians chapter 6, it says this. You know what? Let's stop real quick. Let's go back to verse 10.

Because I think for the context sake, the best thing we can do is read through this entire section. So look at Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10. He says, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the full armor of God, that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day. And having done everything to stand firm, stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit. And with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the same.

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. So, we come now to this last section on prayer. And it's kind of interesting because if you look throughout Scripture, you'll find that prayer is actually one of the keys that's given to us throughout all of Scripture. As a matter of fact, the very first thing that God did to me, that God did with humanity after He created Adam and Eve, is every day He would walk with them in the garden.

If you will, they would pray. It's just that their prayers took place face-to-face with God Himself, because prayer is just simply communication with God. As you move into the New Testament, you find that Jesus, one of the things that we all take note of about Jesus, is that Jesus was always escaping to pray. There's multiple places throughout the Gospels that says that Jesus would go away by Himself to pray.

And in His humanity, because He was fully man and fully God, in His humanity, He knew the best thing that He could do was to seek His Father for all of the strength and everything that He needed to be who He was to be as the Messiah. And so, we find that it's a really important key. As a matter of fact, the one thing that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them is that He would teach them how to pray. It's kind of interesting.

They didn't ask Him to teach them how to heal anyone. They didn't ask Him... They didn't ask Him to teach them how to preach a message. They didn't ask Him to teach them how to cast out demons. They asked Him, teach us to pray. You know why? Because I think they witnessed the prayer life of Jesus. And they saw that if it was that important for the guy that was leading them,

that it was important for them to know as well. This aspect of prayer, Paul tells us, is one of the keys to accessing and properly using all of the armor of God that we have been given. And yet, to the shame of all of us as Western culture Christians, we find that it's one of the most neglected portions of our lives. Unfortunately, because of the instantaneous world that we live in, because of the material world that we live in, because of the social world that we live in, taking time to get alone with the Lord to pray seems to be one of the least natural things to us.

Which is why you can get lots of people to show up to an event, but very few people to show up to a prayer meeting. Because it's one of the things that we neglect. And I have found, for me personally, that I can gauge how much I'm trusting God by how much I'm resting in the Lord by how many things I'm taking to Him in prayer. Because if I'm not taking things to God in prayer, it usually means that I think that I can handle it myself, which I often prove to be false.

Because I can't handle things myself. And so Paul, as he wraps up this section, in on the armor, lest that we think that this is some spiritual battle that we just have to gird ourselves up and try really hard to win, he takes us back to the place of strength. He takes us back to the place where we can find hope. He takes us back to the place where we can find peace.

And that's in the presence of Jesus Christ as we seek Him through prayer. It's interesting because throughout the book of Ephesians, there are two prayers of Paul that are written out, actual prayers that he prayed for the people of Ephesus. And then, he gives us instructions on prayer. It should tell us something about how important this should be in our lives.

And so as we fight this battle, he tells us that we need to pray. And so as we look at this, he's going to give us, first of all, instructions. And then he's going to give us his own personal prayer request. And so the first thing that we look at is the instructions. And I would point you, first of all, to verse 18. He says, Now, before we look at any of the other words,

I want you to single out that one singular word that's given to us because we are told to pray. That is the instruction. That's the main instruction is to pray. The word prayer literally, the word pray here literally means to offer prayers, to worship, or to make requests. That's what the word literally in the Greek is defined as, to pray, to offer our prayers to God.

And so as he gives us this command, this instruction, this instruction to pray, there are six things that he's going to, it's so easy to go five and then put my hand in my pocket, but there's six things that he's going to teach us about prayer. Number one, we are to pray with all prayer and petition. With all prayer and petition. Ryan, you just said to pray.

What's the difference? Well, there actually is a different tense of the Greek word here. This word for prayer, and there's two different things that are given to us here, prayer and petition. This word for prayer speaks of general prayer. But the word specifically in the Greek speaks of a place of prayer. It speaks of having a place of prayer, but the word can also have the idea of earnest prayer

or fervent type of prayer. In other words, something that you dedicate your whole self to. But it speaks of our prayer life in general, that there should be a place in our life for prayer. And it should take a very high priority in the lives of each and every one of us. He tells us to live our lives of prayer with prayer at all times. Did you notice that? Or all types of prayer.

He tells us all types of prayer. So what does he mean by all types of prayer? Well, there's lots of different types of prayer that you can offer. There's prayers of petition, which we'll talk about in just a minute. There's prayers of praise. There's prayers of thanks. And there's prayers that are more groaning, where you don't really know what to say, and you just simply groan.

And that's kind of a prayer. There's prayers of joy, and there's prayers of grief and sadness. There's prayers that you offer very quickly. And there's prayers where you take a great deal of time to lay out all of your requests before the Lord. There's prayers when you're on the go, and prayers when you're sitting still. Whatever it is, we are to offer to God all types of prayer.

But the second thing that he tells us with this prayer and petition is that we're to offer petitions. Well, what does the word petition mean? The word petition in some of your translations is the word supplication, which to me is a much more fun word to say. But the same idea is given in both words. It is asking specific requests of God. This is usually what we initially go to,

although our prayers should be made up of much more than just supplication. But it's where we get down to the business of actually asking God to do things. It's where we get really specific with God. And listen, I want us to understand something. There's nothing wrong with getting really specific with God about our prayers. To get... Real specific with God about what's going on

and what I am asking God to do as long as we understand that there is surrender as I seek Him and make petition of Him or make request of Him. Because after all, the goal of prayer is not to accomplish my will in heaven. The purpose of prayer is to accomplish God's will on earth. And so prayer aligns us with God's will. But we get very specific with God as we offer Him our requests,

as we make requests, as we make petitions of Him. And so the first command or the first instruction that He gives us to pray is that we are to offer all prayer and petition. Number two, we are to pray at all times. We are to pray at all times. Literally, if you look at this, it says, on every occasion and in every season. Now, you know as well as I do that there are some occasions where we go,

all I've got left to do, is pray, right? It's come to that. It's come to the fact that all we have left to do is pray. And sometimes we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that at this point in time, it's time to get serious and pray, right? You know, with what my dad is battling right now, we know that it's serious. And we need to offer prayer. It's time to pray.

And it's easy in situations like that when something's very dire to go, okay, now we've got to get serious in prayer. But do you know that even in really good, good times, you can get serious still in your prayer? As a matter of fact, I would almost say that in the good times when nothing's going wrong in your life, it's almost more important for you to pray at that point in time because you know when you tend to drift from the Lord the most, when everything's going really well, right? You get overconfident.

Oh, everything's going pretty good in my life right now. Lord, I'll call you when I need you. But we're to pray at all times. And we're to pray on every occasion because there's nothing too big for God to handle, right? There is nothing outside of the realm of God's ability. Every now and then when something comes up, I'm like, oh man, what am I going to do?

And I'm like, oh, I should pray about that. I know it's really hard. I know it seems really impossible, but I believe in a God that does impossible things, right? I have a question for you. What in your mind sometimes is impossible for God to do, right? I don't think anything's impossible for God. Yes, you do because you're human. And because you're human, you still put your limitations on God.

You still put your own personal limitations on God. And you have that one thing that you think God can't do. You have that one person that you think God can't save. You have that one heart that you think God can't change. You have that one situation that you think God can't handle. And you would never admit it out loud, but in your heart, it's how you feel.

You know how I know? Because you stopped praying about it. Because you don't take it to God anymore. You're like, well, I'm just going to give up because God can't do this one. And so sometimes we think there are things that are too big for God. But you know what else? Sometimes we think there are things that are too small for God. We think, oh, God doesn't need to be bothered with that.

I don't need to bother with God with that particular little situation. Man, there's nothing too small for God. If it concerns you, it concerns God. I always remember my mom telling me about when I was in high school, my mom and dad moved to Kansas City. And my mom had grown up her whole life living in small town, Arkansas City, Kansas, right? And a traffic jam in Arkansas City, Kansas

is right after 4th of July, after the fireworks. And you had to wait in the middle school parking lot because you had to get home. And quite frankly, all the rest of the town was there too, right? That's the only time there was a traffic jam in Arkansas City, Kansas. Well, she moved to Kansas City and she had to take my dad to work in downtown Kansas City. And that was a stressful thing for a girl

that had grown up her entire life living in Ark City. And every day she had to get on I-35 in the middle of rush hour traffic. And it stressed her out. And so you know what? She told me every day she would pray, Lord, give me an opening to get on the highway. And God always did. And she said, I felt dumb praying it, but I just figured if it's important to me,

it's important to God. And that has always stuck out to me because there are things that we think nobody else in the world cares about that. Why would God care about that? Because if it's important to you, it's important to God. And so we are to pray at all times on every occasion, and in every season of life. Number three, we are to pray in the spirit. We are to pray in the spirit.

Literally what that says is in the realm of or in the presence of the spirit. And so we ask ourselves, what does it mean to pray in the spirit? Now, if you have any kind of a Pentecostal background in here at all, the first thing that comes to your mind about praying in the spirit is praying in tongues. Now, if you have any kind of a Pentecostal background in here at all, I have no problem with that.

And I do think that that's an aspect of what's being discussed here. But I think it goes even farther than just praying in tongues because I think praying in the spirit encapsulates every aspect of our life. After all, if you read that literally, it means praying in the presence of the spirit. So what does he mean when he says pray in the spirit? Well, first of all,

it means that our prayers are to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. They're to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. Let me tell you what I mean by that. They are not to be wrote formal prayers. Don't get me wrong. Praying the scripture is a really good thing, but you should still make it your own. I have a real problem when somebody says, will you give me a prayer to pray for this?

I'm like, no, I won't give you a prayer to pray for that. You go and tell God about it and let the Holy Spirit start to lead you. Let the Holy Spirit start to inspire you because what you'll find is as you start to pour your heart out before the Lord, if you're praying in the presence of the Holy Spirit, sometimes God's spirit is going to inspire you. Sometimes God's spirit is going to inspire you.

And that just sort of takes over. And it's nothing weird. It's nothing crazy. It's nothing phenomenal. It's just you can just sense the Holy Spirit inspiring you as you pray, continuing to give you the words to pray, continuing to pour into you as you pour out to Him. We're to be inspired by the Holy Spirit as we pray. And that's why I have a real problem with those formal prayers that people offer.

If you go to the Christian bookstore, you'll find that there's a book of common prayer or prayers to pray for these things. And even sometimes on social media, somebody will send around the thing. It's like, if you're distressed, pray this. If you're depressed, pray this. And it's like, I mean, that's great. I'm not going to condemn you for that. But are you really praying in the spirit

at that point in time? Because we're to be inspired by the spirit as we pray. You know what God really wants to hear? He really wants to hear from you. And the Holy Spirit's so good to inspire us to continue on with our prayer. But not only are we to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, but we're to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, but we are to be led by the Holy Spirit.

Now, God is so faithful in that if you will sit down and begin to get into a time of prayer and you will say, Lord, lead me as I pray, he'll do exactly that. He'll begin to lead you. And for some reason, you'll spend 10, 15 minutes praying for this one situation. You're like, wow, why did I spend so much time praying for that? Well, it's because the Holy Spirit led you to.

On the first Sunday of the month, we gather back in the church. We sit here in the back room with a handful of people and we have our intercessory prayer time. And it's such a wonderful time. We do it for an hour. And I'm going to be honest, you don't even notice that the hour goes by. And that's just my own personal experience. And everybody says the same thing

because some people go sit and pray with a group of people for an hour. Yeah, but listen, if you're inspired by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit's leading that thing, you don't even notice the time go by because you're kind of caught up with what everybody's doing. And what's kind of fascinating is, we always start off the time just by praying, Lord, we just offer this time to you. Lord, you lead us in the way that you see fit.

And sometimes one person's name, I take the list of things that go through flock note and different things that I know are going on in people's lives and we just make a list of it. And sometimes one person's name will come up and everybody in the group will just spend a lot of time praying for different aspects of what's going on in that person's life with that person's sickness. You know why? Because we are being led by the Holy Spirit.

And the Holy Spirit says, this is where you need to do battle because make no bones about it. Prayer is battle, right? And that's where we needed to do battle that day is we needed to do battle in that particular arena because there's a lot going on in that person's life. And so we're to be led by the Holy Spirit. But not only that, the Holy Spirit is so faithful to give us everything

that we need to pray. Hold your finger here and go over to the book of Romans. Why don't you look at Romans chapter eight,

verses 26 and 27. Romans eight, verses 26 and 27. This is what it says. In the same way, the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know how to pray as we should. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings that are too deep for words. And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints

according to the word of God. And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the word of God. And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the word of God. And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the word of God.

And he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the Spirit is according to the will of God. Isn't that great? You ever found yourself in a place where you don't know how to pray? Somebody lays something very heavy on you. Maybe you have something heavy going on in your own life and you have no idea what to say. And all you can do is just go, oh Lord.

And that's all you know how to say at that particular point in time, right? Like somebody asked me this morning, hey, have you talked to any of Nash's family? Not for a while, I haven't. Not very closely, especially JL. But as I pray for them, I don't know what to say. I'm just gonna be real honest. I know I'm a pastor. I should know the words to say, but man, that's one, I don't know what to say.

I genuinely don't. And sometimes when I'm praying for that family, all I can just do is just kind of groan a little bit and just kind of sigh a little bit. And the Holy Spirit goes, I got you, boo, right? And totally interprets it for me, right? Like that's exactly, I know exactly what, this is what he's saying. This is what he's trying to get across. Because it's so deep that I can't utter what's going on.

And so all I can do is just groan in the Spirit. Now, there are times, I've not experienced this myself, but I know that there are people that have, that have that prayer language, that gift of tongues. And at that point in time, sometimes the Holy Spirit takes over and they pray in tongues. And I have no issue with that because that's a prayer language between them and the Father.

And sometimes that's how the Holy Spirit intercedes. I haven't been given that. I've been given the gift of emotions, right? I just cry. That's all I can do. Like, I don't know what to do, right? And I'm just groaning before Jesus, right? I went through this in my own life personally. After I graduated Bible college, I don't tell this story very much. There was a girl that I thought I was gonna marry.

And we were engaged and we broke up. And it's the worst pain I've ever been through in my entire life. And on top of that, I went through everything else that I was going through with questioning my salvation. And I'm here to tell you right now, it's the hardest time I ever went through in my entire life. I'd like to say that that's why I started losing my hair, but it's not.

Didn't help, but it's not the reason. I thought it was. Doctor said, you've got male pattern baldness. Good luck, right? But all I knew how to do at that point in time was just go.

I just called it sighing in the Spirit. That's the only words I knew how to say. And you know what? The Holy Spirit was always there. The Holy Spirit was always there. The Holy Spirit was always there. And I was always so faithful, always so faithful to interpret everything that I needed. And I knew at that point in time I'd prayed the best that I knew how.

So he tells us to pray not only at all times, but to pray in the Spirit. Go back to Romans, or go back to Ephesians chapter six. Number four, we are to be on the alert. We are to be on the alert. Notice what, I want to tell you what alert means here. The word alert means to be sleepless, or to keep awake, or to watch, right? Now, there's a certain number of you

that sometimes need to be on the alert in church, but that's a whole other story all of itself. It's to be sleepless, to keep watch. It's kind of interesting because Jesus, in that last prayer that he offered, the prayer in the garden, right? When he was in the garden, what did he tell his disciples to do? He told them to watch. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

Remember that? And do you remember what happens to his disciples? Jesus goes off to pray, and Jesus is in like the deepest, most heartfelt, in the Spirit, groaning in the Spirit sort of prayer that he could possibly be, groaning in the Spirit, praying so intensely that capillaries are bursting and drops of blood are coming out of his forehead like sweat because he's praying so intensely. And how intensely were his disciples praying?

Hmm. Right? Y'all know how it started. It started with, Dear God, and then turned into, or a really heavy, deep, I never used to snore. I do now, apparently. I blame allergies or the fact that I'm getting old and fat. Either way, I snore now. But I didn't use to snore. When I'd fall asleep, I just did that really deep, heavy breathing. And so at our old house that we used to live in,

there were two different living rooms. And so on Saturday nights, when I'd be prepping the message for here, I'd sit in the back living room because there was no TV in there. And I'd sit down on the couch, get my laptop, my Bible out and everything. And my wife would be in the other room watching TV while I'm getting my study ready. And she always knew it was time to tell me to go to bed

when she'd hear me going, she's like, she's texting me, go to bed, you're asleep, right? That's what the disciples did. They totally fell asleep, right? They did not stay alert to keep sleepless. It's interesting because this word alert is the exact same word that Jesus uses at the end. Of the Olivet discourse in both Luke and Mark, when he says, therefore watch,

because you do not know the hour in which the son of man is coming. It's the same word to be sleepless, to keep awake, to be watchful. That's the idea. Well, of course I start thinking about, well, what causes us to fail to be alert? What causes us to fail to be watchful in our lives? Because there's gotta be something that keeps us, especially in a prayerful way,

from being alert like we should be. So I wrote down a handful of things here. Then I started thinking about, well, what causes me to not be able to stay awake? Well, there's a handful of things I wrote down. Lack of rest, right? I don't always get enough sleep. And when I don't get enough sleep, as a matter of fact, one of my daughter's friends takes pictures of me

every time I fall asleep on the couch while they're all over there. I sit back, I get that whole Bart's, or Homer Simpson thing going on where I sit back and, next thing I know, the phone's out and I look over and, right? And they land on social media, right? So lack of rest ends up causing us to be kind of sleepy and to not always be alert. Lack of focus. I worked a couple of overnight shifts at a job one time,

and one of the most important things I learned is that if you are gonna work overnight, if you're gonna do anything where you stay up all night long, the most important thing you can do is stay focused. Because if you focus on something, then it gives you an ability to stay awake. But if you're just kind of off in dreamland, well, you end up falling off into dreamland, right? So lack of focus.

But you know what else can sometimes cause us an inability to stay awake? It's lack of proper nutrition, right? Which is why on the afternoon of Thanksgiving, you fall asleep. I actually read an article about this. And everybody always blames the, I think like tryptophan or something like that that's in Turkey. Everybody always blames that. Well, dieticians have now realized

that tryptophan has absolutely nothing to do with you falling asleep. It's because you eat way too many carbs, right? Like the turkey has nothing to do with it. There's probably the pie and the rolls and the mashed potatoes and all of the other things that you shoved in your face. And that's why you fall asleep on Thanksgiving afternoon. And so that happens to us as well.

Lack of proper nutrition. Well, if we apply all of those spiritually speaking, what does it mean? Well, if I'm not resting in Jesus, then usually I'm living a spiritually stressed out life. And you know what that causes me to not be? Alert. Because I'm always stressed. I'm always anxious. And I can't be alert in my prayers because I'm thinking about too many other things.

Well, if I have a lack of focus on Jesus, then I slip into apathy in my prayer life and in every aspect of my walk with Jesus Christ because that lack of being focused causes that apathy and a little bit of a sleepiness in my life spiritually. And if I'm not taking in the proper nutrition, if I'm not feasting on the word of God, but instead I'm feasting on all of the carbs of the world, then I become very sleepy in my walk with Jesus Christ. And I get lulled into a sense of complacency. So what am I saying?

What causes us to fail to be alert in our prayer lives? Ultimately, it comes down to one three-letter word, sin. Sin's what always ends up causing us to lose our alertness in prayer. So you know what the first thing that you need to do when you pray is? Confess those sins to the Lord. Confession is actually one of the most important parts of our prayer lives

because confession, it brings us back in line with the Lord. I was just reading in the book of Isaiah this last week. I think it was Isaiah chapter 60, if I remember correctly. It says, the arm of the Lord is not short that it cannot save. It is your sins that have separated you from me. That's what oftentimes causes a lack of alertness in our lives. So friends,

the same grace of God that saved us is the grace of God that keeps us saved. So go to him and confess those sins. And be on the alert. And so he's told us so far that we are to pray first of all with prayer and petition. We are to pray at all times. We are to pray in the spirit. We are to be on the alert. Number five, there is to be perseverance. Perseverance.

Literally, as defined, the word perseverance can mean stick to it and not quit. Stick to it and not quit. Again, how many of us have found ourselves praying for something for quite some time and we don't see God move? And so we begin to think, well, I'll just stop praying. How many of us do that? I do it all the time. To my own shame, I will tell you that sometimes I do this.

And this little study has been a good reminder for me to maintain perseverance in my prayer life. As a matter of fact, Jesus told a parable to his disciples. And literally, the way that the parable starts out is it says, Jesus told this parable that all men ought to continue to seek God and not lose heart. Remember the parable? There was a woman who was seeking justice

in a suit. And so she kept going to the judge's house to knock on the door. And he was an evil judge who feared neither God nor man and had no intention on ruling on her case. But because she persistently persevered and just kept pounding on his door, he finally answered. And Jesus said, if that unjust judge answered her because of her perseverance, how much more will your father,

who longs to answer your prayers, answer you if you will persevere in prayer? I'll remind you of the story I told when we started this entire study two weeks ago. Do you remember? Remember there's that story about Daniel. And Daniel received a vision from the Lord. We're not told what the vision was in the beginning. But he received a vision from the Lord. And it caused him mass stress.

It made him sick. And so he started praying. He prayed for three weeks for God to answer, to give him the wisdom that he needed in this vision. And finally, an angel shows up and says, I was sent the minute that you started praying to answer you. But I was sent. I was stopped by the prince of Persia because he did battle with me. Michael, the archangel, even had to come help.

But now I'm here to answer your request. Now that's kind of crazy to think about, right? Because Daniel wanted to know what the vision meant. And God sent an angel to answer him the moment that he prayed. But spiritual warfare slowed down the answer. And all Daniel could do was continue to persevere in prayer. Brothers and sisters, you don't know what God is doing sometimes

because of your prayer. You don't know the battle that's being waged as you pray. You don't know what is holding up God's answer to your prayer. And so the best thing that you can do is pray until you receive an answer. And somebody asked me one time, they said, they were asking about an update on somebody that they were praying for. And they said, so how long should I keep

praying for these things? And this is my answer. And I feel like I'm praying for these things. And I feel like I'm praying for these things. Do you feel like it's a biblical answer? Pray until God releases you from the burden. Pray until God releases you from the burden. Because when God releases you from the burden, that means that he's answered. We know that God always answers

in one of three ways. Yes, no, or wait. So maybe God's just telling you to wait and continue to persevere because what you don't know is what God is doing not only in you, but in the life of someone else as you pray. And so we are to, to persevere because you never know how close to an answer you are. A few years ago, we had a little bit of a termite problem

in this building. And so we, the bug guy shows up, my good friend Brent, he goes, you got termites. I'm like, that's a bummer. He says, yep, I need to drill through this floor to know just, basically do some exploratory things so I know what I'm doing. So we're back in that back room back there. And this up here is wood. But after you get past that, the floor is all concrete, right?

It's pretty thick concrete too. So he gets this great big hammer drill and he starts drilling. He's going, he's going, he's going. He's drilling forever. He's like, oh my gosh, this is like the thickest floor ever. Pulls his drill up and he just stops. He's like, I can't believe how long this has taken. I got to take a little break. So he takes a break for a second,

goes back to it. And no sooner does he go back to it, and he punched right through. He was that close to being all the way through the floor. Here's my question for you. How many times, have you been that close to persevering and you give up? How many people have drilled that deeply in prayer to know that there's only a quarter of an inch left and you go, nevermind.

God's not going to answer this one. There's to be perseverance in our prayer. Perseverance in our prayer. And then the last thing he tells us, number six, is that we are to pray for all the saints. To pray for all the saints. For all the saints. Now, this is a good reminder to us because it's easy for us to pray for the things that we have going on in our own lives, right?

It's pretty natural because I live with me all the time. And so I know what's going on with me. And I know what's happening in my life. And I know how to ask God for the things that are going on in my life. Sometimes it's easy for me to pray for the people in my household because I'm around them a lot. And I know what's going on in their lives. And I know how to pray for them

because I can see what's happening in their daily lives. But we're not just to pray for the things that are going on in our own lives and the things that are going on in just the people that live in our house. We're to pray for all the saints. That should start there. It should start in your household. You should be praying for everybody that lives in your home.

Moms and dads, you should be praying for your kids all the time. Kids, you should be praying for your parents all the time because your parents don't know what they're doing either and they need the grace of God, right? And so you need to be praying for each other. You need to be praying within your own household. But then that prayer, it should extend out to your church body.

And one of the things that we do here at Calvary, at least I try, I sometimes fail, is I try to get prayer requests out through Flocknote, which is a really good time for me to plug Flocknote, right? If you don't get our prayer requests, you can go to flocknote.com slash CCAC and you can sign up to receive prayer requests from us. And when somebody in the body has something going on, I send that out and then you can pray for all of the saints. Now, I want you to know something though.

Sometimes I can't get all the requests, and sometimes I'm a loser and I forget to send requests out. It's not on purpose. It's because I get busy and I have ADHD, right? And so sometimes I don't get those requests out. But you know what you can do? You can do this great thing. It's called talking to each other. And when you talk to each other, you can find out what's going on

in all of the other saints' lives. Do you know that everybody in here that's a believer in Jesus Christ is a saint? Like old J. Vernon McGee used to say, you're either a saint or an ain't, right? You're one of the two. And if you belong to Jesus, you're a saint. And so you could get real wild and you can start talking to everybody in the church. Ryan, I don't know very many people in this church.

You can start today. You can go look for somebody you've never talked to before, somebody you don't know their name, and you can go up to them and say, hi, I'm, insert name here. And you are, and they'll insert their name here. And then you can shake hands. You can bro hug. You can serious hug. You can high five. You can fist bump. Whatever you want to do. Turkey if necessary.

And then you know them. And then you say, what can I pray for you about? And then they'll tell you. And then you guys are praying for all the saints. But all too often we use this excuse. I don't know anybody in the church. The only reason people don't know people in the church is because they don't talk to people in the church. You leave too fast. You shoot out the door the minute that I say, be blessed.

Or Jared says, amen, out the door. Son of a gun. Blew my beard off when they went by so fast, right? We're to pray for all the saints. But you know what else? Do you know that you can be in ministry, everywhere in the world today? Because if you start praying for the boxes from Operation Christmas Child that go into all the world, you're going to start doing ministry everywhere in the world.

If you start praying for the missionaries that we support throughout the world, the missionaries that you know of throughout the world, you can be in ministry in places of the world that you can never go to. You can actually be at war in Israel with the people there by starting to pray for the people that are in Israel facing this war. You see, we're not, we're not interconnected through social media. We've been interconnected as a world since the beginning of time.

Because spiritually speaking, you can be at war spiritually anywhere in the world if you will just simply pray for the saints. And so brothers and sisters, this gift of prayer that God has given to us is important because it's a part of our warfare. And so he gives us these instructions, but it's great because not only does he give us instructions, but the second thing that he gives us is that he gives us his own personal request, his own personal request. I want you to look at verse 19.

He says, 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. Paul, Paul gives us his own personal prayer request. He says, pray on my behalf. Now I want to point out something to you about the fact that he says, pray on my behalf.

The first thing I want to point out is that this requires a great deal of transparency and humility on the part of Paul who started the church in Ephesus. Paul did. Who is, who's the pastor in the church in Ephesus for a really long time. It was Paul. Who do they, who do they respect maybe more than any other human on earth? It was Paul. And yet Paul, as he is addressing this church that he started,

that he pastored for a time that they respect greatly. He says, pray for me. It takes a lot of transparency and it takes a lot of humility. Sometimes it's hard for us as human beings to say, pray for me because it's hard for us to admit that we might need prayer for something in our lives. We are never too strong to ask for prayer. You never reach a point in your life where you are so spiritual that you

never need to ask other people for prayer. Now there are points in time. There are things that you may have to just personally ask somebody that you trust a great deal about an area where you have a prayer request in your life. You may have to be mildly guarded about that, but you're never too strong or too spiritual or too much. You're never too mature to ask other people to pray for you.

But I want you to notice the requests that Paul has. Really, there's two of them. He requests utterance and he requests boldness. The first thing he says is that I may have utterance to, that I may be given to, or that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known the mystery of the gospel with boldness. What does he pray for? He asked them that they would pray for,

that they would pray that he would be able to have the right words to give out the gospel. Now I want to remind you where Paul is right now. Paul is in prison. He's under house arrest, chained to a Roman guard as he is either writing or dictating this. Now, if I was in prison and I was asking someone for prayer and I was in prison wrongfully, you know what I would ask them to do?

Pray that I get set free from prison, right? That's number one on the top of my list. What do you want prayer for? Freedom from prison. That this Roman guard wouldn't smell so bad, right? That I have better food in prison, that they would treat me better, right? Those are the things that I would ask for. That's not what Paul asked for. I don't want to elevate Paul.

I threw my, what would Paul do bracelet away, but I do think that there's some maturity that he shows us here because what does he pray for? I want to give out the gospel. I want to give out the gospel and I want to do it in the most effective way possible. So pray for me that I would have every, everything that I need to give out the gospel brothers and sisters.

I don't know that we can fully appreciate a heart like that until we begin to have a heart like that. See in the book of Romans, Paul wrote that he was a, um, a bond servant of Jesus Christ for the gospel for the sake of the gospel. It was the reason why he lived every aspect of his life and it wasn't just him. All of the disciples, live their lives for that aspect and all of us are to live our lives for that aspect.

All of us are to live our lives for the giving out of the gospel of Jesus Christ because that's what we have been called to do as believers in Jesus Christ. You, if you have put your faith in Jesus, have been set free by the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, right? And so if it has set me free, if I know freedom in my life because of the gospel of Jesus, Christ, then how can I make any aspect of my life, anything except giving out the gospel to the people that are around me and having the right words to give out the gospel to the people that are around me? I have a question for you.

What do you live for? What do you live for? What's the most important thing in your life? Is it the job that you have? Is it the money that you make? Is it the bank account that you're filling up? Is it the things that you own? Is it your kids and their sports? Is it, is it the car that you drive? What is it? What do you live for? What's the most important thing to you?

I would tell you that the most important thing to a disciple of Jesus Christ should be giving out the gospel of Jesus Christ because you remember when Jesus was living on earth and his disciple, he was getting up early again and he went and prayed and he said, they said, Jesus, we've been looking for you. And he says, well, I've been in prayer and they said, we'll come and eat and rest. And he said, now let's go to the next city. I can teach the word because for this reason I came friends.

We have a short time on this earth, right? In the big scheme of things, 70, 80, 90 years. If you're my grandma, 104, right? It's still a short time on this earth.

I mean, one thing that will matter is what you've done for Jesus. Because when you stand before the father, it won't be about how much money you made or how good your bank account was, or whether your kid was a star athlete or you named the thing. It's going to be what did you do for Jesus? How did you live your life? Were you faithful? So he prays. First of all,

he says, first of all, pray that all have all of the right words to say to all of the people. But the second thing that he prays for is boldness. He actually says it twice. Verse 19 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. It's interesting because in that statement were reminded why he needed boldness because he was an ambassador in chains because he wrote this from prison. And just because the dude was focused on the gospel and had a strong desire to give out the gospel of Jesus Christ didn't mean that sometimes he didn't get scared. Didn't mean that sometimes the temptation wasn't to shrink back a little bit because after all, life might just be easier if he'd quit sharing this gospel thing.

If he would just sometimes shut it down. His mouth but he wasn't very good at that and so he needed boldness. Do you know there's at least three times that we're told that an angel shows up to Paul to tell him do not be afraid. You know why an angel would show up to tell someone not to be afraid. It's because they're wait for it afraid. Why does he pray for boldness because he struggled with boldness.

You like that guy went everywhere and preached the gospel didn't mean he didn't struggle with it. It meant that that week area of his life is where the Holy Spirit gave him everything that he needed. And so he pray he said pray that the Holy Spirit will give me everything that I need for boldness to give out the gospel. So brothers and sisters if we're to utilize the armor of the way that we're supposed to.

It will require prayer. Well now we come to the conclusion of the book of Ephesians. Notice what it says in verse 21. Also know about my circumstances how I am doing Tychicus the 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 and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all. Those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. So there's a couple things he does in wrapping up in conclusion. He tells him who's coming. Probably the guy that delivered the letter. But it's if you will a seal of approval on the guy that brought the letter.

He said I'm sending I'm sending you Tychicus. And it's interesting. Because he refers to him in two ways. Beloved and faithful. Now this guy who we know very little about other than he's mentioned about five different times in the New Testament usually as someone who will bring word carries a letter does something along those lines other than that we don't read anything else about this fellow this believer in Jesus Christ we know very little about him but in the small amount that we know about this man I think it's fascinating that the two things that we know for sure that he was beloved and that he was faithful.

Other than that unknown to history. And apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ unknown to the world. But in the economy of Jesus Christ this unknown man was beloved and faithful. Friends as we look sometimes at the Christian landscape today we make a big deal about names. It's a weakness that we have as a church. It's a weakness that we have to elevate people to a place that they don't belong.

It's a weakness that we have to elevate people to a place that they don't belong. And sometimes that makes a lot of people want to want to make themselves know we live we live in a culture that everybody wants to be a celebrity. But I'm here to tell you right now as believers in Jesus Christ the two things that we should be known as is beloved and faithful. Because other than that it doesn't matter if anybody knows our names.

It doesn't matter if anybody knows anything about us. What matters are those two things. The love that Jesus has for us. The love that you have. And the faithfulness of the way that you minister. He says I'm sending this guy to you. He's going to tell you what's going on with us. Because they were probably worried about Paul. And anybody that was with him. And he's going to bring comfort to your hearts.

You're going to know we're doing okay here. And then he gives his final greeting. And his final greeting is similar to the way that he opened up the book. Grace and peace. Notice what he says. Verse 23. Peace be to the brethren. With love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace be to the brethren. And where does that peace come from? It comes from the love and faith of our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Peace to you. That's the Jewish greeting. And then in verse 24 he says. And grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ. With an incorruptible love. Grace. That unmerited favor of God. That beautiful word that remains uncorrupted. Because of who God is. Because of what he's given to us. And that greeting that was given. By all of the Gentiles of the world at that point in time.

And so he says whoever you are. Jew or Gentile. Remember. The words that I've just spoken. They transcend race. They transcend culture. They're for anybody. Who loves the Lord. Peace and grace to you. And brothers and sisters. That's the way we end our time here. In the book of Ephesians. And so. Just so you know kind of what's coming. Again next week. And the week after we're going to do a three part series.

On the first coming of Christ. Next week will be part one. Christmas Eve morning will be part two. And then Christmas Eve evening. Will be part three. And then we'll round out the year. With a study on the importance of knowing. God's word for yourself. So that you will be prepared for the reading plan. That I'm going to give you every Sunday. In 2024. So that we can all be reading God's word.

Together. Amen. Would you guys stand with me.

And if you'd bow. Father we come to you. And Lord I want to praise you for who you are. Praise you for how you bless us. Praise you for your word. And Lord may our lives be marked. By prayer. Lord prayer that is. Alert and that perseveres. And that is moved. In and through the Holy Spirit. Lord. A life of prayer that finds our rest in you. And so Lord be with us as we go out from here.

Help us to stay focused. Help us to stay strong. And Lord in this Christmas season. May we make sure that you stay at the center of everything that we do. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed. Is the. Best thing.

It's all.

We praise you. We offer. We lift praise to you this morning. Lord God. You are worthy. Of all of our praise. Lord you are king of kings. And Lord of lords. Or we praise you. And we thank you. And Lord we as we leave here today I just pray that your Holy Spirit. Go with us to continue to minister to our hearts Lord. We love you and we thank you in Jesus name.

Amen. You guys have a wonderful week. God bless you.