Fighting on Our Knees

Well, if you've ever been an athlete or you watch athletes before a big game, you know there's a lot of pre-game preparation that goes into playing about any sport. You know, an athlete will get his uniform on, he'll get all of his equipment ready, he'll get the warm-ups done so he can loosen up physically. But an athlete knows there's a lot more to getting ready for an athletic contest than all of that stuff. An athlete also recognizes that there's a mental and emotional preparation for whatever sport they're involved in. And so for that reason, a lot of athletes just see him go through these pre-game rituals. You know, baseball player will check his helmet and adjust his wristband and batting glove and knock the mud off his cleats before he steps into the batter's box for the first pitch. He's getting himself ready mentally for that first pitch. Basketball players will do chest bumps and high fives and low fives as they're introduced because they're getting themselves ready for that game, the tip off to start. Football players will pound on each other's shoulder pads and slap each other's helmets before the game, getting themselves psyched up for the kickoff. And the same thing is true in warfare. It's not enough to have the right armor. It's not enough to have everything in place. There's some heart and mind preparation that must take place for us to do battle as Christian soldiers. Now our last time in Ephesians we saw that we have been given the equipment we need to fight our enemy. We've been given battle armaments. We've been given equipment that we need, the armor that we need. While the Bible says we have a helmet of salvation and a breastplate of righteousness and a belt of truth and shoes of the preparation of the gospel of peace and a shield of faith and a sword of the spirit we've got the armor. But it is not enough to know that you're thinking right thoughts and that your heart is covered with righteousness and that you have honesty and integrity that's girding up your life and you have the firm foundation of the sure footing of the assurance that you have peace with God through the gospel. It's not enough to have the shield of faith and quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. It's not enough to know how to use the sword of the spirit. When a Christian soldier gets ready for battle, he does something very unusual. She does something that might be unexpected. Here she will fall to their knees before the battle begins. Like the picture of the soldier you see on the screen. With all decked out, with all the armor, with all of the battle gear necessary, it will be of no avail if there is no prayer that is offered to God. Now Paul talks about our spiritual battle in Ephesians chapter 6 and in verses 18 to 20, we're going to see today how he teaches us that before we go into battle, while we are in battle, after we've done battle, we must be fighting on our knees. We must be fighting in prayer. You remember the old story back at the Old Testament? I think it's in Exodus 17 where the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness come up against an enemy, the Amalekites. And as Joshua is sent into battle with the army, Moses goes upon a nearby hillside and begins to pray for the people of Israel as they do battle. And he lifts his hands up to the Lord as a childwood to a father asking for his people to be victorious in battle. And as long as he keeps his hands up in praise, the battle goes this way. Joshua and the troops are victorious. But as soon as his arms go weary and they begin to sag, the battle goes against the Israelites and so Aaron and her help him hold up his hands so that he can pray effectively for the battle. For you see, not only are forces in the field necessary to win battles, but prayer is necessary to win battles. That is so true spiritually. We may have all the armor and yet not win spiritual victories because we are not fighting on our knees. How do we do that? How do we fight on our knees? Paul tells us in these verses three ways to fight on our knees. First of all, in verse 18, he says, pray spiritually. Pray spiritually. You see it there at the beginning of verse 18? And pray in the spirit. Stop right there. That one expression, pray in the spirit means to pray spiritually. What does that mean? What does it mean to pray in the spirit? This is not the only time this expression is found in the New Testament. Jude also uses it in the 20th verse of his little epistle. But you dear friends, he says, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to pray in the spirit? Well, I want to say right off the bat, it does not have anything to do with speaking in tongues. There are some folks who think praying in the spirit means to speak in tongues. That's not what he's talking about. What does it mean to pray in the spirit? I think it means at least three things. First of all, to pray in the spirit means to pray in dependence on the spirit. Paul tells us something very interesting about how the Holy Spirit actually enters into our prayer time with us in Romans chapter 8. Look at these verses on the screen, verse 26, he says, in the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. But the spirit himself intercedes with us, or with us, for us, with groans that words cannot express. And he says in verse 27, and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. The Holy Spirit, when we are praying, prays with us in times as Paul says when we don't know what to say. Maybe the burden is so heavy, things are so overwhelming in your life, you can't even express what's on your heart. Maybe you simply don't know what's right to pray. You don't know what is the right thing to pray in a certain given situation. Or maybe you just can't get the words right and they just come tumbling out in ways that you feel confident or not the right way. In those times, the Bible says, the Holy Spirit takes our thoughts in the intent of our hearts because he knows what's on our hearts. And he puts it in the right words and presents it before the throne of grace to our Father. You see, you don't have to pray perfectly to get your prayers heard and answered by God. You don't have to pray with perfect expressions and every word to be just right because when we are overwhelmed or unable to think of the right way to pray or know what's right to pray in a certain situation, the Holy Spirit words our prayer to God and we need to acknowledge that dependence upon Him to help us as we pray. We need to acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is there to help us pray. In 1987, a woman by the name of Vera Reader, lived in Fort Worth, Texas, received an interesting get-well card from her six-year-old granddaughter, Melissa. She had been feeling kind of bad for a few days and little Melissa decided she was going to send her grandma a get-well card. She did one of those cards that kids often made it up on her own. She drew a picture and she wrote out little words to her grandma and she went into the kitchen where her mother was and she said, Mommy, how do you spell Watson? Sorry, mother, told her. And she went on a little while later. She came back into the kitchen. Her mother is real busy still and she says, Mommy, can I have a stamp? And her mother thought she was just playing with her stuff and coloring with her crayons and that kind of thing. So she said, I don't want to waste a good stamp. Oh, I remember in this drawer over here, there's some old SNH green stamp. They're no good anymore. You can't use them anymore. She pulled one of those out and gave them to Melissa. Gave it to Melissa. Melissa went off and her mother didn't think anything more about it. Couple days later, Melissa's grandma received a letter in the mail. It was entitled Nana, the envelope said Nana, 1712 Watson, seven was backwards. The only return address was Melissa and it had an SNH green stamp up in the right hand corner. And you know what? Some alert postal employee figured out what was happening there. They saw the name of a little girl. They saw the name Nana and they just figured something specials happened in here. So she went ahead and post marked it and made sure it got delivered. Your prayers don't have to be perfect to be delivered because when you don't know what to say, when you do not know how to pray and when you cannot even express the burden of your heart, that is when the Holy Spirit takes over. And he words your prayer, puts it in the right form so it will be acceptable at the throne of grace in heaven and it gets delivered. Praying in the Spirit means to pray with dependence, with the acknowledgement that we need his help as we pray. But secondly, praying in the Spirit means to pray with sensitivity to the Spirit. That as we pray, our hearts are sensitive to what he's telling us, how he's leading and impressing our hearts sometimes as you're reading your Bible. God will impress something from what you're reading on your heart in such a very strong way that you know that needs to direct your prayers at that moment. The other morning I was reading in 2 Chronicles chapter 1. It's a story where Solomon was allowed by God as he's being instituted as the King of Israel. He's allowed by God to ask whatever he wants. It's that wonderful story of where Solomon asks not for fame or glory or riches, but he asks for wisdom. And God was so honored and glorified by that request that it was not self-centered. He wanted wisdom to lead God's people. God granted him that wisdom and gave him riches and glory and fame beyond that. When I read that, I can't express to you the strength of the impression on my heart. That is what you need to pray today. That needs to be the focus of your prayers today. I got to thinking about the things that we're facing as a church right now. In replacing an associate pastor and replacing a secretary and thinking about a possible building program and just a lot of big issues right now. And I got to thinking, Lord, what we need more than anything, what I need more than anything, is wisdom, wisdom to lead your people. And Lord just really impressed that on my heart through His Word. But sometimes it's even not as you're reading your Bible. Sometimes the Lord just impresses somebody or something on your heart. And that impression is so strong. You can't get away from it. And you know, that's what I need to be praying about today. That's who I need to be praying for right now. In 1934, well known Southern Evangelist Mordekai Ham was holding a crusade in Charlotte, North Carolina. And the meeting was being wonderfully blessed by God. People were getting saved. There was a farmer outside of Charlotte who had special burden for that series of meetings going on. And so he called some of his friends together for a day of prayer and they met on his farm and they began to pray for the success and for the spirit of God to move in those meetings. And part of the way through the day, several of them just sensed a very strong impression from the Holy Spirit to pray that God would call someone out from their city, from their area to take the gospel across the world. And so they shared that with each other as they were talking about their prayer times. And then they began to focus on that particular prayer request. They went back to the meetings that night for several more nights and the meetings ended. A few more people got saved. Nobody came forward to give themselves to missions or to the ministry of preaching the Word or anything like that. So they thought, well, you know, we prayed what we felt the Lord was laying on our hearts and God will do it with whatever He sees fit. But He was already answering their prayer in a way they didn't yet realize. Because one of the young men, a teenager that was saved that day was that farmer's son. His name was Billy Graham. And God answered their prayers as He impressed on their hearts what to pray for. It's exactly what God was working to do. So praying in the Spirit means to pray with dependence on the Spirit, to pray with sensitivity to the Spirit. But thirdly, it means to pray energized by the Spirit. You know, sometimes our bodies are tired. Our minds are weary. And it's simply hard to pray, isn't it? I mean, if you really do earnest praying, it's not easy. It's hard work. If you really engage in enemy and spiritual battle and really pray earnestly, diligently, there are times when you just don't feel like it. Your body is weak, your mind is tired, and it is in those times when we need to depend upon the Spirit to give us the energy that we need to keep praying and to pray as we should and not quit, not give up, not slight that time of prayer. So pray energized by the Spirit. I'm sure that you've experienced times when you just didn't feel like praying in a particular day and yet you asked God to help you give you the strength and you had maybe one of the best prayer times you'd had in weeks. That's praying in the Spirit. That's praying energized by the Spirit. So as we do spiritual warfare day in and day out, we must have not only the armor, but we must have prayer. We must be praying and praying spiritually, praying independence on the Spirit with sensitivity to the Spirit, energized by the Spirit so that we pray effectively and in the will of God. That's part of winning spiritual battles and spiritual victories is praying spiritually. But Paul goes on. He says not only pray spiritually, he encourages us, challenges us to pray diligently, to pray diligently. Look at it in verse 18. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Now I used to read that verse when I was younger and I used to think Paul just kind of piling it on here, pray all kinds of prayer, all times, all saints, all these alls and he's just kind of emphasizing his point. But I don't think that's what Paul was doing here. I don't think Paul was being redundant or just piling similar expressions on top of each other to drive home his point. I think Paul was actually giving us different elements of what it means to be diligent in prayer. To pray diligently, first of all means continual prayer. continual prayer, you see it there in verse 18, he says pray in the Spirit on all occasions. All prayer, it's not the only time he said this in verse Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 17, he says pray continually. You may have memorized this verse out of the King James because it's quite frankly one of the easier verses in the Bible to memorize. Pray without ceasing. It's like Jesus wept, somebody gets us on a scripture memory program without those verses I'm going to memorize Jesus wept and pray without ceasing. You've got two verses down. Well I hope you have memorized that verse but not only memorize it really taking it into your heart. Pray continually. Paul says here pray on all occasions. Is it really possible to do that? Is it really possible to have continual prayer? How is it possible to pray without ceasing? To pray continually to pray on all occasions? Well obviously Paul is not talking about carrying on a running verbal dialogue with God all day long. It's not possible to do that. We have other obligations. We need to talk to things. We need to take care of business to do. You can't carry on a verbal dialogue with God all day long. I don't think that's what he means. I think what Paul is talking about is that our mind and heart can be constantly in communion with God throughout the day. The old Puritan writer Thomas Kelly said it this way in his book Testament of Devotion. He said there is a way of ordering our mental life on more than one level at a time. On one level we can be thinking, discussing, seeing, calculating, meeting all the demands of external affairs but deep within, behind the scenes at a profounder level. We may also be in prayer and adoration, song and worship. I love the way he says this. And a gentle receptiveness to divine breathings. It is possible, I believe, throughout the course of a day to have your mind and heart constantly engaged with God. Continually focused upon Him, recognizing and living with the continual awareness that God is vitally interested in everything you're facing, everything you're feeling, everything you're going through in that day. It is possible to have that mental and heart focus through the day. People that as you go through a day and you're tempted immediately, your heart cries out to God. I need your help. Deliver me, keep me on the path of righteousness. You may not be saying those words out loud. You may be in the middle of a phone conversation. You may be in the middle of some very important business, but your heart is crying out to God in that way. It means that when you're going through a day's time and you experience good that immediately your heart wells up with praise to God and you thank Him for all the good things and blessings He's given you in your life. It means that when you go through a day and you see evil that you ask God that He will overcome evil with His righteousness and somehow He could use you to make a difference in this world to that end. It means that when you're going through your day and you see someone in need, you breathe up a quick prayer to God to help that person and to use you if possible as an instrument to reach out to that person and help them in their time of need. It means that when you encounter a problem in your own life, immediately your heart and your mind cries out to God, your need of Him and your dependence upon Him to help you with that need. It's just a constant heart-mind awareness of the presence of God and of His interest in everything you're experiencing through that day. I really believe this. I don't practice it as well as I should. I must admit. But I really believe that life must be prayed and not just lived. I really believe that everything that happens to us is caused for prayer and a constant awareness and interaction with God all day long. Life must be prayed, not just lived. That's what Paul means when he says, pray on all occasions, it's continual prayer. And secondly, Paul also says, our prayer to be diligent must be varied prayer. In other words, different kinds of prayer. And he says that in verse 18, he says, pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Varyed prayer, a variety of kinds of prayer and kinds of requests. But obviously if what we have just said is true, if we're to have a constant awareness of God's presence and of His interest in all we're facing, if that's true, then obviously we'll be praying different kinds of prayers all through the day. Sometimes you will find yourself praying a prayer of confession. Sometimes you'll find yourself uttering a thought of Thanksgiving to God. Sometimes it will be an intercession for someone you see or someone that comes to mind. Sometimes it will just be an adoration of God. And all of his wonder as you see what he's doing or you see the beauty of creation. Sometimes it will just be a heart meditation on the goodness and grace of God. Sometimes it will be humbly submitting yourself to his plan even though you don't understand what he's allowing at this particular moment in your life. Sometimes it will be a cry for help. Sometimes it will be a request for wisdom. Sometimes it will be a prayer that needs or met. Sometimes it will be dependence upon the Lord. There will be all kinds of prayers that will be offered in a day's time if you're really living in prayer. But not just all kinds of prayers, all forms of prayer as well. Sometimes as you pray in a day's time your prayer will be public. Sometimes it will be private. Sometimes it will be a loud cry to God. Sometimes it will be a soft whisper. Sometimes it will be a silent expression of your mind and heart. Sometimes as you pray it will be planned. Sometimes it will be spontaneous. Sometimes during the day you'll pray as you're sitting. Sometimes as you're standing. Sometimes as you're walking. Sometimes as you're lying down. It will be all forms of prayer. Sometimes you will pray at home. Sometimes you'll pray at church. Sometimes you'll pray at work. Sometimes you'll pray when you're lying down the rest. your hands will be folded, sometimes they'll be lifted, sometimes they'll just be in your pockets. Sometimes your head will be raised high to heaven, sometimes it will be bowed low. There'll be all forms of prayer, all kinds of prayer, and all kinds of requests. And please, please understand, God is concerned about all your needs and every request you make. There is nothing too small for God to notice and be concerned about. And there is nothing too big in your life for him to handle. God's concerned about it all. I read this true story of a pastor in Texas. This really happened to this pastor. He had a cat, little kitten, they'd just gotten recently. And as little kittens often do, it climbed up a small tree in the backyard, got all the way to the top and then got scared and wouldn't come down. And this pastor tried everything he knew to try. You know, bowl of milk, cat food, coaxing the cat down, calling kitty-kitty, all those things. Nothing, nothing would work. Cat was scared of that, just frozen in the top of that little sattling. And so the guy's trying to figure out, okay, what do I need to, and hit on an idea. It's a fairly young tree. It's still pretty nimble. He said, I think I could tie a rope on the bumper of my car, tie the rope around the tree, and I could probably inch my car forward enough to bend the tree over to where I could reach the cat. And so that's what he did. Sure enough, he inched the car forward and you guessed it, didn't you? The rope broke and the tree shot back up and the cat took off through the air like a fly ball hit out in the outfield. I mean, the cat just went out of sight. The pastor was mortified. You know, what have I done to this poor cat? So he's walking around the neighborhood trying to find a little kitten, and he couldn't. He walked around a couple of blocks, could not find the kitten. He thought, I've splattered it into somebody's windshield or something. You know, we're under a car or something. The cat has gone. And so he just gave up. Well, later that evening, he was in the grocery store, not too far away, and he saw a neighbor of his. And this neighbor was known for hating cats, but she was buying cat food. And so the pastor asked her, if you changed your mind about cats, and she said, pastor, you will never believe what happened today. My daughter has been asking me for a cat for weeks, and I keep telling her, there's no way we're going to have a cat in this house. And finally, I got so tired of her asking, I said, well, sweetie, why don't you just pray? And ask God, and if he sends a cat, you can have it. She said, I watched, as my little girl went out on the back porch, got on the steps, leading down into our backyard. And no sooner had she bowed her head than a cat fell out of heaven. You know what? He let her keep the cat too. Pray for a cat, and it comes like that. You keep it. Well, I'm not suggesting that God will answer all your prayers as dramatically or as immediately or even as positively as that one got answered. But I am saying this, even if it's a request of a little girl for a cat, God takes it seriously. There's nothing too small for him to be concerned about, and there's nothing too big that he cannot meet in your life. So pray varied prayers, all kinds of requests and prayers. That's part of what it means to pray diligently. But Paul moves on to describe more of what it means to pray diligently. Not only is it praying with continual prayer and varied prayer, it's praying with alert prayer. You see it there in verse 18? Middle part of the verse, with this in mind, be alert. Be alert. What does it mean to pray alert prayers? Well, obviously, I think it means to pray with alertness to the strategies and schemes of Satan to be on the lookout. Remember, we saw last time that Satan is a very wise and experienced enemy. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He's had a lot of time to examine. He's had a lot of experience watching the human race. And we must be on the alert for his schemes, for his strategies against us. Peter tells us that very thing in 1 Peter chapter 5 when he says, is be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking for someone to devour. Our enemy is always on the prowl, looking for us, wanting to devour us, wanting to ruin our lives, wanting to trap us in his snares. And the Bible says, we need to be alert. We need to be under control and alert at all times. So praying alertly means to pray with an alertness to Satan's schemes, being aware of his strategies. I think it also means to be alert to the needs of folks around us. So many times, I become aware after the fact that there was something that I missed. I missed a need that somebody had. And I ask God to help me be more alert next time, to be sensitive to what's going on. The next day, it's something else or someone else. And it's a constant battle, isn't it? To stay alert to what's going on around you, to know how to pray for people and how to reach out and help people. Alert prayer is being alert to the needs around us. And then alert prayer is being alert to the promptings and movings of the Holy Spirit, as I mentioned earlier. When the Holy Spirit is putting something on your heart, if you're walking with God and you're seeking what God wants you to do, you'll be aware of when something is pressing on you in kind of an unusual fashion. And when that happens, you'd be sure and pray about that person or about that issue. Don't let that go by. That's the Holy Spirit. Be alert to that. You remember in the Old Testament the story of Nehemiah when he built the wall in the city of Jerusalem? People of Judah had gone back many of them, thousands of them to the land, but the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and the city was open pray to the enemies. And so Nehemiah had a real burden on his heart to go back and lead an expedition of workers to rebuild that wall. And he did. But the Bible says in Nehemiah chapter 4, when they got about halfway done with the work, the enemies began to see, this thing just may be successful. They may accomplish this and so they began to really attack and a lot of intrigue, a lot of threats against them and so forth. And that kind of thing, petty criticism of the wall, you know, telling Nehemiah even a fox could knock down your wall and that kind of thing. And Nehemiah, the Bible says, did two things. A very interesting way it's expressed in Nehemiah chapter 4. He says, we prayed unto our God and we set a watch on the walls night and day. We prayed but we stayed on the alert too, praying with alertness. Now there's a new testament character who found out what could happen if you don't pray. If you're not alert, Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane. When Jesus is in soul agony, pouring out his heart to his father the evening before he will be crucified for our sins. And he asks the three men if he's taken with him into the depths of the garden. He's asked them to watch and pray. And then you'll go a little further and you'll pray. He comes back three times. He comes back and Peter is asleep. The other apostles are asleep and you remember what Jesus said to them, could you not watch and pray with me for one hour? Couldn't you stay alert and pray for one hour? You remember the sequence to that, don't you? The sequel to that, it was that Peter failed the very next morning. Within hours, Peter is groveling in denial of his Lord because he has not taken advantage of the opportunity to pray for strength against the enemy's attacks. When you're not alert, you fall. Pray with alertness, pray alert prayers. And then Paul goes on to say part of praying diligently is to pray persistent prayer. Notice the end of verse 18 again, with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Always keep on praying. Don't give up. Praying diligently means that we pray persistent prayers. There is an amazing power in persistent praying in just a dog and reluctance to give up. There's power in that. God delights to honor persistent prayers. Now please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not saying that God is reluctant or hesitant to answer and so we must wear him down with our persistence so he finally gives in. I'm not saying that. That's not true. And I'm not saying that prayer is a gimmick or kind of like a merit badge in scouts. You know, you add up enough points and you get the reward. It's not prayers not like that. It's not like you add up enough prayers. God's counting when you reach a certain amount. Okay, now I'll answer. It's not like that. Prayer is not a meritorious work that gains us favor with God. But somehow in a way that we can't fully understand. God in His sovereign plan chooses to encourage persistence in prayer on our part. Maybe it's to develop patience and character in our lives. But He encourages persistence in prayer and He honors persistent prayer. I mean Jesus talked about this a lot in the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 7. Jesus would say this, ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find knock and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds to him who knocks the door will be opened. You see that emphasis? The different verbs that are used there ask seek knock because if you do those three things you'll receive the door will be open and those are present tense verbs which literally could be translated keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Don't give up. Jesus is saying. Jesus told a couple of stories, a couple of parables to drive home that point even further. He told one story about a guy who's who's got friends that show up at his house one night and he doesn't have enough food to feed them and so he goes over to a friend's house. He starts knocking on the door and the friend hollers out from his bedroom. Hey, who is that? This is King John translation a little bit here. But hey, who is that? And the guy says it's me your friend your neighbor and so the neighbor says I'm in bed already. I don't want to get out of bed get my feet dirty on the floor or a whole household's in bed. What do you want? He says I need some bread. I don't have enough to feed a guy who's come to visit me and the Bible says in that story that even though he might not respond because it's a friend at the door because of his friend's persistence he'll get up and answer. Another story Jesus told that illustrates prayers a woman, a widow who has no legal means, no financial means to press her just case and so what she does she camps out on the doorstep of the judge. You read about it Luke 18 when that when that guy goes to work in the morning she's sitting there and she follows him to work. Hey, I want you to hear what I got to say. I got this problem and it needs to be addressed and you're the only one to do anything about it. He hears this all the way to work when he gets off work and leaves the courtroom. There she is sitting out on the sidewalk and she follows him home. I've got this need you're the only one can do something about it and the Bible says that even though he was unjust and didn't care about justice in that case because of her many pleadings because of her earnest persistence he gave her what she needed. Now the point of those two parables is not that God is like that neighbor or God is like that unjust judge. If you just wear him down with persistence he'll finally give in. That's not the point. The point is a contrast. If even a good friend will sometimes be hesitant think about a God who loves you even though he may ask you to continue in prayer he wants to answer your prayer and he is not like the unjust judge. He is a just holy and loving God who wants to answer your prayer and if even an unjust judge can be persuaded by persistence he just think how much a holy and loving God will be persuaded by persistence. Now for whatever reason God loves to see us persist in prayer and not give up and again I don't know all the reasons why it may be for us maybe to develop character, patience, long suffering. It may be to purify our motives to determine whether or not we're really praying for the right reasons because persistence has a way of sifting out the wrong motives in your prayers. You finally get down to really praying why you should pray. There may be a lot of reasons why God does that but he honors persistence. We have a group of men who meet every Friday morning at 630 to pray. We've been doing that for I guess 14 or 15 years. There's a list of names that we go through we go through a lot of requests every Friday. There's a list of almost 30 names of people most of them men who as far as we know are unsaid. Most of those people have been on that list for the whole time we've been praying 14, 15 years. We've seen some names taken off of that list and we've seen others put on but a lot of names have been on that list for a long time and I know that when those men pray sometimes the feeling is just repeating these names again. I have a fight with that sometimes. Here goes these same six names I've been praying for for 15 years. Is it worth it? I want to encourage you if you've been praying for someone that long or longer don't give up keep praying. George Muleer the great British preacher 1800s who founded a couple of orphanages and prayed millions of dollars into those orphanages had a burden to pray for two of his friends. He prayed for them for 50 years that they would come to know Christ and still they had not gotten saved. Somebody asked him one day George do you really think God wants you to keep praying for those men? His answer was would God still put a burden on my heart if he didn't intend to save those men? And sure enough one of them got saved just a week or so before George Muleer died the other one got saved shortly after George Muleer died. You may never even live to see the answer to your prayer. Don't give up keep praying. Diligent prayer is persistent prayer that will not give up. So pray diligently and then finally Paul says pray unselfishfully verse 1920. In verse 18 actually is the first one he says with this in mind be alert and always keep on praying notice for all the saints, for all the saints. So that would be the first way to pray unselfishly. Pray for all saints, all believers. Now there are lots of many, there are lots of worthy requests. Many worthwhile requests we should pray but here Paul's focus is on praying for other saints. I just want to ask you how much of your prayer time is for you and how much of your prayer time is for others. It's not wrong to pray for yourself that's legitimate praying Jesus taught his disciples to pray. Give us this day or daily bread you know there are some needs we have we lay in before you God didn't know nothing wrong with that but what Jesus or what Paul is saying here is there's also a need to pray for other saints to pray for other people. If you're not doing a lot of that let me give you a couple of ideas as to how to do it. We give you some instruments here at this church to enable you to do that really. On Wednesday nights we have a prayer list pretty extensive prayer list and and if you're in adult ministries on Wednesday night you get one of those. I would encourage you to take it home use it to pray for church members for people who are sick people have spiritual needs people who are unsafe workers in our church all of those things on that list missionaries pray pray for others. The last Sunday of every month we put a church calendar in your bulletin on the back of that calendar is a prayer calendar and it will list missionaries and staff members and ministries of our church pray for others. You know if you just use one of those lists you'll be praying for sick people you'll be praying for unsafe people you'll be praying for missionaries you'll be praying for others and I would encourage it even go beyond that pray for believers in other countries many places in the world where they face severe persecution pray for them take your church directory take a column of names every day pray for people in this church I mean there are lots of ways to pray for a pray per saint's Paul encourages us to do that but secondly in praying unselfishly he asks us to pray for those who minister the word you see it there in verse 19 pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador and change pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should twice in these two verses he asks the Ephesian believers pray that I will preach the gospel fearlessly the word fearlessly is a word which literally means openly without any hindrance so to be bold and fearless and open about presenting the gospel you say what Paul need that kind of prayer I mean I when I think of Paul I think I've been before Felix I think I've been before Festus I think I've been before Agrippa I think I've been in Rome you know fearlessly proclaiming the gospel have you ever thought that maybe the reason he was able to do that is he had some churches praying for him do you know he made the same request to the church at Rome he made the same request to the church at Thessalonica and he made the same request to the church at Colossi for churches he asked to be praying for him for boldness to preach the gospel is that the reason why he could do it before kings and empires I think so and I want to tell you something if Paul was not hesitant to ask for prayer then I will not be either I would ask for prayer for those who minister the word for me for your other pastors for your Bible fellowship teachers for those who teach your children pray for them pray for us I have here this morning a letter it's not for many one in this church it's not for many one in this town it's a letter from John Alexander who in 1978 was the president of Intervarcity Christian Fellowship a wonderful campus ministry across our country he wrote this letter to Kent Hughes who is a pastor in Wheaton Illinois and he said I want you to know I'm praying for you Kent every Saturday night and every Sunday morning I pray for you and he said I'm sending you a copy of what I shared with my staff at Intervarcity here's the reason why he says while a leader must be careful about talking about his prayer life less he appeared to be parading spirituality there is one aspect I'd like to mention and hope some of you will join in it this is John Alexander challenging the staff at Intervarcity here it is he says every Saturday night I pray through a list of pastors thanking God for them for their ministry for their personal friendship I then intercede that on this eve of another Lord's day the spirit of Christ will give them a good night's rest and anoint them with wisdom power and joy for the Morrow on Sunday morning I go through the list again interceding as they step to their pulpits that their proclamation of the whole council of God will be simple clear tender where it should be gentle bold where it should be courageous that it will be straight and true to the minds and hearts of listeners who say sir we would see Jesus I pray that the Lord will bind Satan from attacking pastor and layman especially through loveless criticism and that Christ will touch the congregation to hear see understand and obey God's proclaimed truth I invite you staff to join me in this Sunday Saturday night and Sunday morning discipline of intercession ask God to indicate those pastors he wants on your list I hope that IVCF staff will train our chapter leaders in this ministry of prayer so that as students today and church leaders tomorrow they'll help lay a deepening prayer foundation beneath the shepherds of our nation's churches the goal is an undergirding of prayer for pastors Sunday mornings any volunteers and I would just ask you any volunteers John MacArthur and his commentary on Ephesians says it this way Paul also needed the prayers of fellow believers because he was a leader our enemy knows that when he strikes the shepherd the sheep will scatter Matthew 2631 and church leaders even as the Lord himself are Satan's special targets the more faithful and fruitful a pastor is the more his people need to pray for his strength and protection he is more subject to the devil's schemes to make him discouraged or self satisfied hopeless or superficially optimistic cowardly or overconfident Satan uses every situation favorable or unfavorable successful or unsuccessful to try to weaken distract and discredit God's gifted men in their work of equipping the saints for the work of service I would plead with you if God would lay on some of your hearts to do like Paul said to the Ephesian church pray for me that I might be able to preach boldly fearlessly the word of God as I ought I believe my friend that if we learn how to pray as Paul instructs us here to pray spiritually to pray diligently to pray unselfishly that we will see spiritual victories like we've never seen before but we cannot do battle against the enemy unless we fight on our knees it's a prayer Father we have just a little bit of insight into how important this is so little understanding really of the need and the power of prayer of spiritual diligent unselfish prayer though God help us to be in the school of prayer to learn what it means to fight on our knees would you strengthen us for that battle we need your spirits help in Jesus name we pray amen