Pray At All Times

Transcript

GR 163
1/04/1976
Pray At All Times
Ephesians 6:18-24
Gil Rugh

We have come to the concluding section of this book that we have spent the last several months studying on Sunday mornings. We are looking at the closing verses centering primarily on the ones that focus our attention upon prayer in verses 18 and 19, verse 20 wherein a section dealing with the armor of the Christian. The section began really in verse 10 down through verse 13, the necessity of putting on the full armor of God. This ties to the foe and enemy against whom we do battle who is the Devil. The Devil being perhaps the highest of the created beings who lost his position before God because of rebellion against God, exalted in his own heart, lifted up with pride, rebelled against God. A host of angels followed him in his rebellion and in his fall. And now there is that opposition between God and Satan, and Satan is opposed to those all those who belong to God. So we are in a battle with the forces not human in their character but Spiritual in verse 12.

The powers were forces of darkness, Spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. This being the case, we must be properly equipped to do battle. We noted two extremes need to be guarded against. One regarding the Devil lightly and offhandedly, and that gives us a false security and it becomes a distortion. I realized that the victory is mine in Christ, but that victory will be realized in my practice only as I avail of myself of the provision that God has made in the armor that is here noted. So to take the devil lightly and flippantly because of my victory in Christ is not to handle it biblically. So I have to have a proper respect for the power of the enemy. Secondly, I want to avoid the extreme where I have too much respect for the Devil. It becomes an unhealthy fear of his power and his influence and so on. I do have the victory in Christ. I am victorious in him. He has accomplished the victory. Now simply as I clothe myself with the armory he has provided, that victory is realized in my practice and experience. I have nothing to fear from the Devil because I am invincible soldier as long as I am equipped with what God has provided for me.

We note that the various pieces of armor and you will note how they emphasized and stressed our practice and conduct as believers. We think of The Book of Ephesians as the positional truth and it is. But you cannot divorce positional truth with your conduct in practice. I think that is important to realize. Again there are two dangers. One, people talk about your practice all the time and never teach you positional truth. The result is you try to conduct yourself without realizing who and what you are, that is an impossibility. The other extreme and other danger just as unbiblical is I stress position truth divorced from practicing conduct. That is unbiblical, that is heresy. You cannot talk about positional truth apart from practice and conduct. And to do that is to distort the word. So we need to be careful that we have the balance of the word. My position in Christ is foundational to everything. If I don’t understand my position, I don’t know how I should function and what I should do. But it is not enough to study positional in a vacuum. As soon as I do I have just as much a heresy, just as much a distortion of the Scripture.

My position in Christ must find its expression in my practice and my conduct, and this is displayed in the armor that we are talking. Verse 14, “the loins girded with truth” and we know that was truthfulness, sincerity. A believer’s life is to be characterized by truthfulness in all that he does. The breastplate of righteousness is righteousness in my conduct. Now of course I am righteous in Christ and his righteousness is mine, but that righteousness of Christ imputed to me is to be displayed in all that I do so that my conduct is characterized by righteousness.

Verse 15, your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, the idea of being firmly planted on the gospel and the peace that it provides to prepare me for the battle. Verse 16 the shield of faith, again not my initial saving faith but that continual reliance upon God; a dependence upon Him. I am not saved by faith and kept by works; I am saved by faith and I live by faith. So that is to be the characteristic of my life, a dependence upon God and a reliance upon Him in every situation. The helmet of salvation in verse 17 was not our initial salvation of course, but these are all inseparably linked in our position. That’s practice and position go hand in hand and are inseparable. But the salvation here has to do with the assurance or hope of our salvation. He is talking about security. Paul titles helmet in his letter to the Thessalonians, the helmet of the hope of salvation, and being fitted with the security that I have in Christ.

The eternal security of the believer is the doctrine that we would talking about. The sword of the Spirit is the word of God being adept in handling the word, handling the word of God as I should. In its context and according to the needs of the situation, we look at Matthew Chapter 4. How in combating the Devil three occasions Christ goes to The Book of Deuteronomy and uses the Scripture to answer the temptation of the Devil. We know that the Devil used Scripture in his attack. So it’s not enough to be able to quote a verse you must be able to use the Scripture in the context of the Scripture. And thus, it necessitates us growing in our knowledge and understanding of the word of God so that we can use it properly. Many Christians are running around using the Scripture improperly today. And without realizing it they are promoting the cause of the Devil, not the cause of Christ, because just quoting a verse of Scripture does not validate my position as a Spiritual person. But using the Scripture in the context that God gave it, that is essential.

Now, that brings us to the section before us, here is the concluding aspect to our armor, and that is prayer. In Pilgrims’ Progress, we all prayer as one of the provisions for Christian and he takes from this section with all prayer and petition. And in sense as you read in the American Standard, they made a new sentence just to make it more readable, but it is one continuing sentence. Its importance you realize that to see that there is a continuing flow of thought. We might translate it by means of all prayer and petition, praying at all time. So the thought in the sentence has continued. So prayer is an inseparable part of the armor of the Christian and we can see this. Prayer involving talking to God as we will see in a moment. And if you took a soldier and perfectly equip him and outfitted him with every piece of equipment he needed to be a soldier but he was not in communication with his commander, he would be at a loss in the battle. He would not be functioning in coordination with the rest of the troops. He would not be function with the realization of the attacks and onslaughts of the enemy. So in spite of all these equipment it would be an ineffective soldier if he did not have proper communication with the person who was in command and that’s what we are talking about here.

If you have all the equipment, all the armor of God and you are not in communication, talking with the one who is in charge, you will be ineffective in the battle with the Devil. We come here perhaps to the most difficult area, the area of prayer for the believer. Before we go on to prayer I just want to make a couple of comments. Prayer is simply is man addressing God. That is basically what prayer is, man talking to God. It’s just that simple. We need to be careful though. Scripture limits prayer to believer. I am not saying by this that that means that there is never occasion where the prayer of an unbeliever is not heard. God acts according to suit his purposes and sometimes it may suit his purposes to respond to what an unbeliever has said. But prayer basically is limited to believers. And going beyond that prayer addressed to God by one who is not a believer is something that God hates and is repulsive to him. Now today we have people who talk about prayer in a broad sense and you talk about the average religion person -- if you ever talk to the average religious person in church, he will talking about praying to God and talking to God in prayer and how real that is to him. The Scripture is clear that he is not a believer in Jesus Christ and thus coming to God in the way that God has prescribed that prayer is unacceptable. It is an abomination to God.

Just two passages back in The Book of Proverbs backed by The Book of Psalm, the next book after Psalm is Proverbs page 914, Proverb Chapter 15, the Old Testament page 914. Proverbs in the fifteenth chapter and I suggest that perhaps you read through The Book of Proverbs beginning the New Year. Some of you have indicated that you are doing that. Read one chapter of Proverbs a day, you will read through the book in a month and read it through 12 times this year, you will be amazed that you will go back to this little book. How much of it is practical and important in your life. The more you read it the more it stands out. In Proverbs 15, look at verse 29, “The Lord is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous.” You will note in the context he is far from the wicked and he hears the righteous and the occasion being he is so far from the wicked he doesn’t hear them. He is out of range and obviously not in the physical realm. God can hear at all time. The idea of their wickedness has removed them and cause the separation so that God does not hear them but he hears the righteous. Even more clearly put over in Chapter 28 of Proverbs and verse 9.

Proverbs in the twentieth chapter, verse 9, “He who turns away his hear from listening to the law,” the law would be the Scripture as they would have had it, the revelation of God, “he who turns away his ear from listening to the law even his prayer is an abomination.” You will note what it said there very clearly. The person who does not respond to the revelation God has given in His word when he addressed God in prayer, that is an abomination to God. So it comes to down to it, if you are not going to come to God in the way He is prescribed in His word it’s better you don’t pray at all. And this is true in every religious aspect. We sometimes think it is better at least a person is religious. You can read the Prophets and find out about God’s view on that. Read the opening chapter of Isaiah. Better that the Jews didn’t sacrifice than their sacrifice coming out of a wrong relationship to God. Better you have no religion than you have a false religion. Better you never pray than you pray not based upon the directions God has given in his word. Now that may seem a little bit harsh. We say here is a sincere earnest person coming to God pouring out his heart in prayer and God says that’s an abomination. I hate it. I can’t stand it. Abominable before him. That is the same in the human realm. If you are going to come before an important you are going to have an audience with the president of the United States, there would be certain things required of you if you were to have that audience. And if you chose not to follow the prescribed instructions you won’t have the audience. If I barge up to the door of the White House and said to the man, get out of the way please I am on my way to see the president. He will say who are you? I said that’s none of your business, I am on my way to see the president, get out of the way. Little chance that I would see him. Why? Because there are certain prescribed orders.

Now we allow human beings that right. We take that right to ourselves. We don’t let just someone barge through the door of our house without even knocking because they wanted to talk to us. We would say well that would be ignorance. Right. Well the God of heaven and Earth has the same prerogative if he is taking to himself. He says I will commend to come and talk to me. But they must come in the way that I have prescribed. Now men choose not to come the way that he is prescribed then it is just a manifestation of how wicked and self-righteous they really are. That they are saying they are going to talk to a God who is perfectly holy, perfectly righteous, but they are going it on their terms and in their way. What does that prayer manifest? Submission to the God they are addressing? No, it manifests a wickedness and a self-righteousness that I will come and I will come my way. Well, God is not about to be put in that position. So very simply, if you want to pray, if you want to talk to God, you come God’s way. If you don’t come God’s way, it’s just a demonstration of how wicked you really are, and thus that is an abomination before God because you have perverted what really is to be a true relationship with him. It is distortion and distortions in the religious realm are viewed as the worse.

Hebrews Chapter 4 gives the proper balance, I just mention that because it’s foundational to what we are doing and we need to get into Ephesians 6. Hebrews Chapter 4 page 336 in the New Testament, page 336, Hebrews Chapter 4. “All foundations for talking to God is first being cleansed from your sin.” You are coming into the presence of a holy and righteous God. Having being cleansed from your sin declared righteous by him then you have access. And to do this you need a high priest. Hebrews Chapter 4, we are talking about the Jews of the Old Testament. As because of unbelief some of them did not enter into the Promised Land. The danger some of these Jews would not respond in faith to Christ and a warning against that, verse 7 and 8, he talks about hardening their hearts and refusing to believe. But those who do respond in faith, what happens? Verse 14, “Since then we have a great high priest Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession.” In other words, the moment I believe I have a high priest, One who represents me before God. He has provided a sacrifice which totally cleanses me from my sins. Read over in Hebrews 9, Hebrews 10, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself, he offered himself as the one sacrifice for all time.

So, when I responded in faith to him, his sacrifice is viewed as being credited to me as cleansing me, brings me into a personal relationship with God. Now Christ as high priest has provided access into the presence of God. I come by the way God has prescribed through his son. Therefore verse 16, “Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the thorn of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So prayer is encouraged; men to come and talk to God but it is an encouragement to those who are the children of God and thus come in God’s prescribed way. So when we talked in Ephesians Chapter 6, we are talking about believers of course. It is important we understand prayer in the biblical context.

All right getting back to Ephesians 6 verse 18, the connection of verse 18 is with verse 14. Verse 14 started out stand firm and you could read right into verse 18, stand firm by means of all prayer and supplication. So one of the provisions for our standing firm in the battle with the Devil is praying and giving our petitions to God. By means of all prayer and petition praying at all time. Prayer and petition basically words that mean the same thing, if you want to draw distinction prayer is the broad word for talking to God, petition has more of the idea of our request and what we seek from him. You generally hear of encompassing prayer of every kind, all prayer and petition. Prayer of all kind, and this is one provision of God that we can come and talk with him in order that we might stand against the onslaughts of the Devil. He elaborates it by saying praying at all time. So we have all kinds of prayer and petition and you are praying at all time. Now it is important we see this as parallel to what he wrote to the Thessalonians in First Thessalonians 5:17 where he says pray without ceasing, pray at all time. Now again this can become a trap. We as believers excuse the fact that we don’t have regular times of prayer by saying well we pray at all time. I am afraid what that often comes to mean is we don’t pray at all. I don’t have to have an appointed time of prayer; I can pray whenever I want. I am to be in an attitude of prayer all the time. The result being I never do get around to praying except you know at the table of grace, even when I get in bed at night or when something comes up through the day, but prayer really is very limited and sparse. We need to be careful that prayer without ceasing or prayer at all time doesn’t become an excuse for praying less. It is really an encouragement to be praying more and if you are not disciplined to spend time with God in prayer, you probably don’t spend very much time with him through the day as the occasions arise because prayer is going to take discipline as we are going to see as we move through this section.

He says prayer at all time. We need to be also be reminded that does not just mean in times of difficulty and conflict. Isn’t it amazing how busy we are and I just can’t spend time in prayer? I don’t say that because you know it wouldn’t sound Spiritual. But my day is so busy I never do get a time where I set aside and just talk with God. But let’s some difficulty come into my life, let some tragedy confront me and what happens, all of a sudden I just have oodles and oodles of time to spend in prayer. Boy, I just found out I can prayer this morning and I can pray this afternoon and I pray this evening, I wake up at night and I can spend time in prayer, the conflict the difficulty resolved the passage and what happens, I slide back all of a sudden. I am so busy again, I don’t have any time for prayer. We need to be careful. You know we encourage God to have to do it. Keep the pressure on. Turn the heat on those people, why? They pray when they are under pressure. When we get under pressure we say oh Lord handle this. So we pray about the details of it and we pray about this and that. The Lord takes the pressure off and we quit praying.

Now, if you were God and want to do what was best for your children, what would you think you had to do? Keep the pressure on. If you analyze your life and you look at it as I analyze, if we are honest I think we have to admit the times of greatest prayer in our life had been the times of greatest difficulty because we are driven to the end of ourselves. But we ought to be praying at all time. Just as much in prayer, just as much it is essential that I talk with God as it is when great tragedy or conflict looms before me. I am to be praying at all time.

Moving on pray at all time in the Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the sphere in which prayer is offered. That’s why the unbeliever has no basis to operate from. You move into a new realm. Now when you operate in this new realm prayer is one of the privileges. But the unbeliever is not in the Spirit, I am talking about the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. He who is not in the Spirit, he is not even in the sphere in which he can operate. So naturally he has no basis for direction to God. He is outside. If any man does not have the Spirit of God, he does not belong to him with the Spirit of Christ in Romans Chapter 8. So we pray in the Spirit.

Look over in Chapter of Galatians, that’s the book before Ephesians, The Book of Galatians just before Ephesians and the fourth chapter. We are talking about becoming the children of God in Chapter 4 and God provided his son in verse 4 at the proper time. In verse 5, “In order that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And verse 6, and because You are Son God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying Abba, Father, Father.” So the Spirit of God comes and takes up residence in our life and it cries out, the Spirit himself cries out to God, father. And now because of this new relationship as God’s son, I address him with my desires, my petitions in my prayers.

And again it is a personal relationship, no it’s not a stranger coming and telling God what he wants but its God’s Son coming with the request to Him as Father. We operate that way on the human level. One of the neighborhood kids come walking down the street and walks up to me and says give me ten dollars to go to K-Mart and buy something, what do I think? Well, didn’t that kid have any upbringing? Didn’t he learn anything at home? What is he asking ten dollars for? The nerve, perfectly stranger and yet people think they do that all the time with God. I’d just barge in and tell him what I want and he would give it to me. Well, no, not unless his son come with a request. Now, that’s different. So when those who are not children come he has got a deaf hear, he doesn’t hear them at all because they don’t belong to him. People have a wrong idea of God as you know the big sugar daddy type of idea, just waiting there to give whatever somebody wants. No, that’s true only in a limited sense. He is waiting there to bestow every blessing and every good thing upon his children but he has nothing but wrath and condemnation for those who are not his children, for those who don’t have the Spirit of God who cries out within us Abba, Father.

Look over in Romans Chapter 8, the same type of context, page 242, Romans 8 verse 26, again talking about the Spirit’s ministry in prayer. We find out that prayer is not just my talking to God but it involves the work of the Spirit in my life. It involves the work of the son in my life. And so in Romans Chapter 8 verse 26, we read in the same way the Spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words and he who searches the heart what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So in my prayer there are things that cannot even be expressed through me, and the Spirit intercedes directly before God and God knows what the mind of the Spirit is because the mind of the Spirit is the mind of the Father, as First Corinthians Chapter 2 instructs. We are not in the context of tongues or any such things in Romans Chapter 8. We are talking about the ministry of the Spirit on behalf of every believer.

So in my prayer life, it goes beyond even when I express to God because the Spirit who searches the deep things of God intercedes in God’s presence for me. In The Book of Hebrews Chapters 9 and 10 again we are told that Jesus Christ himself intercedes at the right hand of the Father for us. He ever lives to make intercessions for us. In First John Chapter 2, we are told that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So in the presence of God the son himself is involved in interceding for me as the Spirit is. So my prayer is just one part of a divine aspect and purpose going on in my life. You can see what is the part that the unbeliever have in the flesh with no Spiritual enablement from the Spirit of God or the son of God he is going to address God, an impossibility. So prayer is a very vital aspect of the Spirit and of the Son in my life as the child of God.

Back to Ephesians 6, you can jot down Jude verse 20 we won’t turn there, it says basically the same thing to be praying in the Spirit. This is the Spirit in which I operate. Now it is important we as believers realize that I had to be praying in the Spirit. That does not mean that I run and tell God something and he necessarily jumps. I can pray in the flesh and James talked about this when we pray we don’t get our prayers answered and we don’t get what we asked for it’s because we have asked amiss. We have asked in the flesh because we want to consume it upon our lives. So I need to be careful I am to pray in the Spirit as the Spirit motivates me and controls me. When I get into flesh I am just talking to the ceiling, I am not talking to God at all. I am afraid a lot of our prayers degenerate to this. We pray for other people in public meetings. We pray for other people when we are there. We pray for them in the sense we pray because we think they are listening. And so we don’t talk to God. We you know flower with good Scripture verses and one more concern on making a doctrinal when we are talking to God. I don’t know who we are trying to impress. We put all that good theology in there as though God needed to be taught theology when we pray.

He just wants me to come as his son and talk to him. I don’t have to elaborate on all the intricacies of the human relationship of father and son when I talk to my father. Oh father you who fathered me 25 years ago on such and such a day as I was conceived and on and on and on and could you give me a quarter. Oh that I just talked to him. I think the other balance for this is we developed a flippancy in the day we live, you know, it is popular for men to write their prayers in books and then you can read and they almost flip as they try to put the slang and jargon of the day into the prayer to show just how free I am. Again I think there is a proper respect, there is certain ways I would not address I would not address my father. I came with a certain honor and respect and when I come to my heavenly father, he is my father but there is to be a certain honor and respect that is to be manifest. I don’t demonstrate anything by being flipped and offhand in my talking with him. That doesn’t demonstrate how intimate we are that I can be loose because I never had that kind of intimacy. So there has to be that balance with the healthy fear and honor and reverence for him. But that openness, I am coming with confidence, he is my father and I am addressing him as such. So I am not afraid to come but I come with a proper reverence for him in his position as my heavenly father.

All right in Ephesians 6 verse 18, “Praying at all times in the Spirit with this in view beyond the alert with all perseverance.” Put an element of prayer and here we are wadding directly into the conflict. Since you are in a conflict you must beyond the alert, be watchful with perseverance. Now here we are getting into an area that makes clear that prayer is not going to be easy. It is not going to be the natural out flowing of the flesh activity. Prayer is perhaps the hardest work that you and I as believers are called upon to do. I think that manifest itself by how little prayer goes with our life as believers; beyond the alert with perseverance and petition.

Look over in Mark Chapter 14, this is perhaps clearly illustrated in this situation with Christ and the disciples, Mark 14 second book in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark Chapter 14. Here we see a very clear illustration again in the life of Christ, of preparation for conflict with the Devil, preparation in prayer or lack of preparation. And this points out one of the areas where we have a problem. We as Christians often fail to pray until the conflict is upon us. The time to pray is before the conflict. You know in the middle of a war when the battle starts then you don’t turn around and look for your commander and talk with him, you talk with him beforehand so that when the war breaks out, you are ready where the battle breaks out. In Mark 14, we are at the last night before the crucifixion. We are in the garden of Gethsemane. Christ has revealed that he is going to be denied and Peter is going to deny him in particular three times. Verse 31, Mark 14, “Peter kept denying insistently.” Even if I have to die with you I won’t deny you, a note. And they all were saying the same thing, amen Peter, we won’t deny him either. Verse 33, “They came to a place named Gethsemane. He said to his disciples, sit here while I pray and he goes on further taking three disciples with him, Peter, James and John. He began to be very distressed and troubled. He knows the battle that is coming. The disciples don’t. He said to them my soul is deeply grieved to the point of death, remain here and keep watch.” Now remember that keep watch. In the context it does not mean to keep your eyes up and watch around, but it is going to mean to be in prayer. verse 35, “He went on and fell to the ground praying if it were possible the hour might pass him by, he was saying, “Abba Father all things are possible for you remove this cup from me and yet not what I will but what you will”.” Verse 37, “He came and found them sleeping and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep. Could you not keep watch for one hour?” Now one hour may mean just for a brief period of time or it may be for an hour, I wonder. Could you keep watch for one hour? I wonder how we would be embarrassed that we ask everybody who has ever spent a solid hour in prayer to stand. It is easy to look down on Peter here. Here it is late at night, a busy day, a hectic evening, a big meal, now in the middle of the night you want me to spend an hour in prayer. Verse 38, you ought to mark that verse in your Bible, memorize it in your mind. “Keep watching and praying”, note how the two are put together again. Keep on the alert with perseverance and petition. Six, here we are keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation, you note, you pray that you not come into temptation. It doesn’t say keep praying after temptation has come upon you, pray ahead of time. Note the warning, the Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. The Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. He went away and pray saying the same words, verse 39. Again he came, found them sleeping for their eyes were very heavy. It doesn’t say they were lazy. It says they were really tired. Their eyes were heavy. They were sleeping. They didn’t know what to answer him. They had failed to carry out his instructions, keep watching. And a soldier who goes to sleep on the watch, that’s a serious offence.

“He came the third time,” verse 41, “and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough, the hour has come, behold the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinner. Arise let us be going, the one who betrays me is at hand.” So here you see the disciples were to watch and pray in order that they not enter into temptation there is a battle coming of tremendous proportions and the son of God himself is evolved in the intense prayer and the rest of the soldiers are asleep, not because they have not been warned that there is going to be a battle because the weariness of their body governs what they do. Now you note Solomon said there is nothing new under the sun and in verse 38 Jesus said the Spirit is willing, the flesh is weak. And how many of us on side just have that intense burning desire to be prayer warrior?

If you read a book like EM Bounds’ book On Power Through Prayer, and boy, are we just going to spend the rest of our lives day after day, after hour, after hour in prayer? Now we get about seven minutes along and something distracts us. We say well some people are cut out to be great prayer warriors. There is George Mueller and then there is Gil Rugh. I mean just different people with different positions. They are just different, I get tired. I mean I get up in the morning to pray, you know what, I am tired. I pray in the afternoon you know what I am tired. I pray in the evening I am tired. Anytime I come to pray I am tired. Now not to begin to catch on that perhaps the flesh just doesn’t want to pray. And there is not a person in this room, there has never been a person born whose flesh wanted to do anything Spiritual. Remember when Paul says in my flesh there doesn’t dwell any good thing and if you wait until your body wants to pray you will never spend any time in prayer because the flesh is weak. Remember what Paul said in First Corinthians 9, “I beat my body black and blue and bring it into subjection.” What does he say? My body doesn’t want to do what I know God wants me to do. So what do I do? I just pound my body into subjection. I know God wants me to pray so I pray but I am tired. Who cares if you are tired? The disciples were tired too. What does Jesus say they ought to be doing? They ought to be praying. If you are sleeping when you ought to be praying then you are not on the guard. And you are as just as open to be crushed to the Devil as the disciples were.

You note what their claim in verse 31 of Mark 14, all were saying the same thing, we won’t deny even if we have to die with you. They had a confidence and their attachment to Christ but it was a fleshly confidence manifested by the fact that that confidence was not supported by prayer. So read verse 50 of Mark 14, the conflict comes now, they were sleeping when they ought to be praying. Satan doesn’t lay the battle until you get prayed up. And often we find ourselves in the midst of the battle when we haven’t been in prayer. So what happens in verse 50, “They all left him and fled.” Very simple, Lord we would never leave you. No, I would never do that as a believer. A few verses later you read they are gone why? They were resting the body but they were not strengthening the Spirit by talking to their father. You and I as believers can do the same thing. Oh, no, that would never happen to me. I would never do that. The Lord can count me on of all things; I would never get into that. And lo and behold, a little bit down the road we find out that there we are, why? Because we are resting the flesh when we should have been disciplining the flesh in strengthening the Spirit.

A strong prayer life is not an easy thing to maintain. It’s perhaps the most difficult thing as well as the most, greatest blessing that you will ever get by having a time with God. But it is very difficult, the flesh just never wants to. I have shared with you something that was a help to me. I used to find that if I want to pray, I’d get a part in my room, get down on my knees, usually at the chair put my head down on my arm, and 20 minutes later I would wake up. That was frustrating. I am like God here I am, I got so many things I should talk with you about, we got to get down to business, help keep me awake. I put my head down and another 20 minutes would go by. So I would be ready to go but I wouldn’t have had any prayer life. All rested up, no prayer though. You know what I read a lot of track by Oswald J Smith from the People’s Church in Toronto and he had a little admonition. He says when I pray I walk. Now I say hmm, there have only been a few times when I have fallen asleep when I was walking.

So Gil, are you serious? Are you really trying to sneak a little extra time of rest or do you mean business with God? So now when I pray I close the door and I walk and I talk out loud. I used to walk back and forth and talk to God just like I was talking to someone else sitting there. You know I find it easier to keep my mind on what I am talking to God about, I don’t find any problem going to sleep. So who says I have to kneel down and get all comfortable. Oh, we get all cozy in our bed and our pillow, we are going to sleep at night, now we are going to -- we have all these things we want to talk to God about and we don’t know what we said after Lord. And we think that’s great. Isn’t that good the goodnight sleep the Lord gave me? I think the Devil gave you that sleep personally. He is just glad for you to sleep away. We got to be praying.

You think it was the Lord giving the disciples in Mark Chapter 14 that needed rest. The Devil was there just crooning away, lullaby, sleep away. Why? They ought to be praying. If you don’t discipline yourself and determine, I got to spend time with God. Do I think I have to talk to him about? There is too many important things coming up in the day. You know Martin Luther used to say that my day is too busy to start it with any less than three hours in prayer. And I say my day is too busy maybe I can squeeze in 10 minutes. What am I going to do through that day? The busier it is the more I have got to talk to God about as the day begin. So I must discipline myself. Now the flesh isn’t going to want it. This is hard work and it is reflection on the power of the Devil and the manifestation of his power. How he has accomplished victory in this area in us as believers, and even in evangelical circles who pride themselves in Bible believing. It becomes a cliché that prayer meetings are time when the ladies get together to pray.

Now we praise for every woman who is powerful in prayer. But it is a reflection on us as men that we have left the real Spiritual work to the ladies. And who are those who would lead in prayer, the ladies. Who are those who pray? The ladies. Again we praise the Lord for that, we are not putting them down, but we as men need to realize we have left the real Spiritual work and battle to the ladies and that’s not what the Lord has left it. We say yeah but I work all day, so what? That must mean that you need to get up early in prayer, or stay up late and pray. I wonder if we took a poll, how many here would have spent more time television this week than they spent in prayer. We will say I pray all the time, I know. That probably means you pray not at all.

I mean how many have gotten aside with the Lord and spent an hour in prayer one day this week? Most of us can sit down and spend an hour or two in front of television. When we come home we are just shocked, we are so tired. We got to prop up and relax. Why don’t I prop and relax and talk to the Lord. Well it’s not to say we need a little bit of discipline, a little bit of discipline, a great deal of discipline. If you don’t spend time in prayer, it’s not because you are any different than anyone else. It’s because you haven’t disciplined the flesh in your life, and if you don’t discipline the flesh in your life, the Spirit that control so that you are in communication with God spending time with him in prayer, then you can be sure your defeats are just as real as the defeat we read about of the disciplines in Mark Chapter 14. When Satan came they ran in disarray, why? They hadn’t spent time with the Lord.

Back in Ephesians Chapter 6, just to tie this chapter together, some of the closing remarks here, if you don’t know what to pray for or who to pray, the end of verse 18 says it very simply, pray for all the saints. So if you run out of people to pray for well something is wrong. You know that’s part of the problem. That why you ought to keep a list of some kind. We are not very familiar with God. We don’t talk to him very much so when we get a part with him we don’t know what to say. Just like being a room with a stranger after you have talked about the weather and the football, you are at a loss for words. And we don’t know what to talk about with God after we thanked for the good day and all his blessings and asked him to guide us through the rest of the day, we are sort of at a loss for things to talk about. Well, here pray for all the saints. There are nine hundred or so people here on a Sunday morning, that will take you a little while. Pray for each one. You say I don’t know they names. We live the registration cards on the counter in the front room. You can go in and take 20 or 30 and just copy down the names and take them and make them part of your prayer and next week add a few more. Make list of the things you ought to be praying of, people you ought to be praying for. When you pray for all nine hundred or so people at Indian Hills, then pray for the believers in other churches in Lincoln. When you pray for Lincoln, pray for the United States, then pray for the world. And if you have run out of praying for the saints you pray for what I need to talk about or talk to and get some instructions from.

We need to be praying for all the saints. Some of the problems we have ourselves as believers is we are not praying for each other. If I spent half as much time praying for you as I do complaining about you, you would probably be a different person, and the same with me. We spent more time finding what’s wrong with one another, complaining about each other than we do praying for each other. So take it as from the Lord when the Lord somebody to your mind pray for them. Don’t think about what’s with them, pray for them. Be careful you don’t get selfish in your prayer. Lord change him, I can’t stand him any longer. That’s not a prayer motivated by the Spirit necessarily. Lord, give me the grace to stand him and help him to be the person that ought to be. We need to be careful about selfish prayer. Paul elaborates on this and pray on my behalf. First pray for all the saints and particularly pray for me.

Now Paul pray for the Ephesians is right so that he could ask the Ephesians to pray for him. He is not just being selfish. Chapter 1 verse 15, we don’t have time to read this, just drawing to your attention and you can read it at home. Chapter 1 verse 15, Paul said since I have heard of your faith, your love for all the saints, verse 16, I do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayer. Very simply, I pray for you and while you pray for them read it. You don’t know what to pray for about other believers read what Paul pray and pray that for me.

Look over in Chapter 3 verse 14, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” Verse 16, “That he would grant you.” What does he pray? For other believers, read it. You don’t know what to pray for other Christians. You say I don’t know him well enough to pray for him. Well, read what Paul pray. You can pray that God’s strength would abound on him so that Christian would be enriched in his relationship with Christ even though you don’t all the details of all his problems. You can still pray for him. There is no reason that we could not pray for one another totally here even though we don’t know one another on a personal and intimate level.

Back in Ephesians Chapter 6, Paul says you pray on my behalf that utterance may be given to me. Very simply, that I may speak boldly the mystery of the gospel. Mystery here he has talked about in Chapter 3 that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself. That men are sinners. Jesus Christ died for their sin. All who believe in Jesus Christ placed their faith in him as personal savior or brought in to the body of Christ made one before God as his children. Pray to God that he might give me boldness to speak. As you see Paul needed that prayer, I mean I can imagine him coming into Lincoln and taking it by storm or can you? Paul said pray for me that I might have the boldness and I trust that we get to point out that you ought to pray for those who are teaching the word, who are preaching the word.

Sometimes we get disappointed in the lessons we hear and in the sermons we hear. We need to back up and analyze that if I really prayed for them. That doesn’t excuse poor sermons and poor lessons. But we need to realize that we have a part in that. If I hadn’t really prayed for him, I don’t have any reason to expect anything but a poor message. If I hadn’t prayed to the Spirit of God to motivate him, I expect he is going to prepare in the flesh and you should hear some of the fleshly messages I have got. You probably already have and they are really something else and you need to pray. Pray that I might have boldness to present the word of God so that every teacher here might have boldness to present the word of God and so on. That I might speak as I ought to speak, at the end of verse 20. It is easy to speak. It is not easy to speak as you ought to speak. One thing Paul notes here I am an ambassador in chains. You note how Paul never lose sight of who he was in his position in Christ. He didn’t say I am a poor, wretched, deprived Christian here in chains, he said I am an ambassador in a chain. My position in Christ hasn’t changed. I am still an ambassador except that he just put a chain on me. Well, that’s not too bad. What do you think of being chained by a Roman soldier 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on, on and on. The Roman soldiers chains off every four hours. Paul never got any time to himself. I am not emphasizing that.

I am an ambassador. I happen to be in a chain but my position is ambassador, representative of Jesus Christ, beseeching men to be reconciled to God. Where God is the circumstance, you and I ought to have the same attitude. I never lose sight of who I am in Christ. So circumstances don’t get me down because my position in Christ doesn’t change. So I am an ambassador of Christ in prison or I am an ambassador of Christ free in Lincoln, what’s the difference? My position in Christ hasn’t been altered one day. I serve as an ambassador wherever and however he chooses to use me.

One person I just want to mention and you can follow him through in the cross references in your Bible and that’s Tychicus whereas he would be called in the Greek Tuchikos, Tychicus. One of those faithful men around the Apostle Paul, one of those we don’t know much about. We just get a glimpse into his character. Galatians 4 Paul mentions him again. In Second Timothy Chapter 4 verse 12, he is sent to replace Timothy at Ephesus. Acts Chapter 20 tells us that he was from Asia perhaps from the city of Ephesus. Here he is to be the bearer of the letter to the Ephesians as well as the letter to the Galatians and the letter to Philemon, evidently entrusted with seeing that # got back to Philemon. Very trusted man.

Again you see some of the insight here. We don’t know much about Tychicus but here a faithful man used of God to encourage and strengthen the Apostle Paul. We might call one of the lesser lights around Paul as he is sometimes termed. And yet his ministry is of crucial importance because he shared in a very direct way because he was an encouragement and a strength to the Apostle Paul. In Galatians Paul calls him a fellow slave. Only Tychicus and Epaphras are called by Paul as fellow slaves, and a great encouragement evidently to Paul, one he could trust on and rely. One he could the messages of these letters. You know that might have seemed like a mundane task. You put on your sandals and go paddling, walking partway around the around to deliver a few letters that a man in prison has written. That doesn’t seem like he is very glorious or very important. You know we read back and say wouldn’t that have been something. We lose sight of the drudgery it would have been. But how important was that looking back that Tychicus could carry the inspired word of God to the Ephesians because of his faithfulness in that little task you and I can study the letter to the Ephesians this morning.

I realize God was sovereign in it but Tychicus was an instrument that God used. Now Tychicus may not realized the great part that he played. But when we look back we can see how an important ingredient he was in Paul’s life and the getting out of the gospel of Jesus Christ. You and I ought to have that same perspective on ourselves. Some of us have more glorious ministries than others. Some of us are more in the spotlight than others. There is not one of us who is more important than the other as God accomplishes his purpose. He gets the glory for all that is done. We ought to be rejoicing in whatever part we can play. They may seem minor and insignificant. There is no such thing as a minor insignificant part of the body of Christ. It is all crucial to the ministry of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So some of us may be like Tychicus. Some of us may be like Paul in the matter of the splendor of the ministry or its public character but it doesn’t matter on the importance. Tychicus has its own place of importance. I imagine as we stand in glory and look back, many of us will look back and say my I didn’t realize I had such an important part. What if I had known that what I was doing was so important in the work of Jesus Christ I would have done with more enthusiasm, with more excitement because I would doing it for him and all of us ought to keep sight of that. No, there is no such thing as insignificance in the body of Jesus Christ. There are things that is prominent but prominence does not determine significance. So if you are Tychicus praise the Lord for it. If you function more like Paul praise the Lord for it. But there is the balance in the body.

So you analyze yourself are you fully equipped with the armor of God to do battle with the Devil in particular what kind of paralysis do you have. What kind of paralysis did you have this week? Analyze each day, jot down in a piece of paper. How much time you think you spent before the Lord in prayer? The time to start is today. We are going to make it a discipline matter and you get into the pattern and the routine of functioning as God intends you to function with the full armor of God.

Let’s pray together. Father, we thank you for your provision again amazing that in Christ we have everything necessary for life and godliness. Lord we pray that in our conduct we might be conformed to him what we are positionally. This area of prayer Father, it is such a great privilege that even now we pause and address you as the God of glory, one who is our father. Lord with the openness and confidence that you are hearing, that you will respond. Lord we thank you for this provision made for us in Jesus Christ, for the Spirit who motivates us in prayer and directs us in our prayers, who prays for us. Lord we pray that each of us as believers might discipline the flesh but allow the Spirit to control us so we can take advantage of the great privilege of talking with you, of communing with you in the fellowship of prayer and study of the word that we might be equipped with the battles that Devil and Satan will confront us with, that we might be the victors in our practice as we have been in our position. We pray Lord that we might be willing to function as even Tychicus did, carrying out the responsibilities that you have given to us in the presentation of the gospel in whatever way that you see fit to use us. We pray Lord we ought to be rejoicing that we are part of the body and that we are essential to the program that you are accomplishing in this world for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ and him alone. We pray in his name, Amen.