Pray in the Spirit
Notes
Transcript
Gathering
Call to Worship
7 My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident. I will sing; I will sing praises. 8 Wake up, my soul! Wake up, harp and lyre! I will wake up the dawn. 9 I will praise you, Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your faithful love is as high as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches the clouds. 11 God, be exalted above the heavens; let your glory be over the whole earth.
Corporate Prayer - Joy and Praise
Worship through Song
Worship through Song
Scripture Reading
31 What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He did not even spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. How will he not also with him grant us everything? 33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; he also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of you we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Worship through Song
Sermon
Prayer
Introduction
Introduction
We come this morning to what many believe is the climax of the epistle or letter of Paul to the church at Ephesus. In this very organized and well ordered book it is believed that this wasn’t a one and done writing, that Paul worked out these word in an organized and specific flow and cadence.
In the beginning of Ephesians he starts the letter with this thought:
3 Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
Throughout this writing he has developed what these blessings consists of and what it means to live a life that is immersed in all that God has blessed us with. Specifically every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.
We live in a physical world full of wonders that impact our senses each and every moment of every day. God has given us the ability to see, to touch, to taste, to hear, and to feel. Each of these provide the material that we use to experience life on this world.
When we loose one of these senses it dramatically changes the experience of life. I know many that experienced the loss of smell as a side effect of covid. If that was you, you know the experience that you had or continue to have. I have one friend that said that the effect on his ability to smell changed everything he ate into tasting like it was rotten. They came to a place that they could not trust the food that they had just bought or cooked because their smell betrayed them.
These senses are given to us to enjoy and to glorify God with but in our sinful nature we corrupt and corrode them into seeking the pleasure of the flesh. We see a world that pursues the pleasures of this world at any cost over any length just to feel that special feeling, or to see another wonderful view.
Paul brings our minds from the ream of the world. That is full of the schemes of the enemy of the devil and turns our attention to spiritual. In our physically driven world, have we failed to come to understand the spiritual blessing of the heavens that have been given to the children of God, to his adopted people.
Each piece of the armor of God that we have look at over the last 5 sermons are metaphors for the spiritual armor and spiritual blessing that God has provided by the Spirit to be taken up by true Christians.
Because our fight is not against the flesh:
12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Paul reveals these spiritual blessings: The ability to know the truth, a life of righteousness, the right standing with God, Faith in God, hope of salvation from God’s wrath, and the sword of the spirit, the word of God. Each of these are given to the believer by the spirit. We do not cultivate these in our own will and power.
We must fight against the desires of the flesh, the pleasures of this world which are in conflict with the Holy Spirit of God. Are we just having to much fun to care that our marriages, and families are what are sacrificed on the alter of our own selfish desires. As we create wounded individuals that do not want anything to do with God because we have made a mockery of Jesus.
The statistics that we looked at last week showed us that about 3-4% of professed Christians believe the holy spirit is real. If this is true you have to neglect at best and blaspheme at worst much of the new testament and all of Ephesians.
Could it be that Paul gives us the reason as he closes the teaching portion of this letter. Paul shifts gears to Prayer. Read with me Ephesians 6:18-20:
18 Pray at all times in the Spirit with every prayer and request, and stay alert with all perseverance and intercession for all the saints. 19 Pray also for me, that the message may be given to me when I open my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. 20 For this I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I might be bold enough to speak about it as I should.
The Greek is a little tricky here and theologians are split on whether this is a completely new topic or a continuation of the armor of God. You can see this in the difference between the CSB and the ESV
17 and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
So some translators have taken the interpretation to be that prayer is the high point of the armor of God and wraps it all together. Others take it that verse 18 starts the closing final over arching, climatic ending to the epistle.
Either way there is merit in both. The armor of God cannot be sustained without active prayer. on the other hand if this is the over arching ending to the epistle, one that focuses heavily on the work of the Spirit, then it still is over the armor of God and important for the believer to stand and fight in this world.
The spiritual blessings that Paul speaks of is fueled by prayer. By communication and communion with God.
A young man or woman looks across the room and sees this person across the room or has one of those movie type moments with some one and they just know that is some one that I want to know better. What is one of the first things they may do. They may see if they have any friends that know of this person or about this person. They ask question about what they do or are they in a relationship. What are they like. They may even go on social media and look for who they are on line. Maybe they do a google search to see if they pop up on anything. Seems pretty normal to this point right.
But what if this person came to you and said you won’t believe this. I am so in love with this person. They know all of this information about. They tell you about their family, where they went to school, what the last vacation they went on. You are like that is awesome.
What you do together? I never said that we have hung out. But you know all of this information about them? Ya. so. Have you ever met them? no Why would I do that?
Does this sound a little off? What would you say? Would you say that they are not in a relationship. That there is no way that they are in love.
Well is that a little like the state of the relationship between man and God today? I read a little, I may study a lot. I may read books about him, talk to people about him, meet with people who seem to know about him really well.
But do I know God? Have I taken all of my knowledge about him and come to the place to know him? This place is the place of prayer. Communication and communion with God.
Paul tells us to pray and gives three qualifiers to Prayer
He tells us the source of prayer. A believer is to pray in the Spirit.
He tells us when a believer is to pray. A believer is to pray at all times.
He tells us the scope of prayer. A believer is provide every prayer and request to God
Pray in the Spirit
Pray in the Spirit
Without the Spirit of God what is prayer?
As depraved and sinful people a lost person will never seek out God in prayer. A person may call out to the universe or may even yell out in God’s name but it is by the Spirit in us that we are able to pray to God.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps us in our weakness, because we do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Even when we are at a loss on what to say. When we struggle with how we feel and how we are confused and misdirected. The Spirit intercedes for us.
Earlier in the letter he writes:
11 So, then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh—called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So, then, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
We were all once enemies of God and far from him. But because of love we are brought near to God, reconciled, made at peace with him, through the death of Jesus. He reconciled both the believing Jews and the believing Gentiles through the cross.
Both groups have access to God through the Spirit to the Father. There is no access to the Father except through the death of Jesus and the indwelling of the Spirit. We are being built together in the Spirit.
It is though prayer and by the Spirit that we come to the father. I came across this quote by AW Tozer in my reading this week.
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
“Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.”
It is not my desire to tune you to me or to popular opinion or even unpopular opinion. It is my desire for each of us to be tuned to God.
We look around at division in the government, division in our schools, division in our churches, division in our families, and division in our marriages. I would argue that that is the consequence division from God. To be a united marriage we must tune our lives to Christ, To be united in the church, each and every person must tune their personal life to God and we do that by his word and pray. By the words of God and the words of the Spirit.
18 And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit: 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music with your heart to the Lord, 20 giving thanks always for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.
We cannot be in unity unless we are filled with the spirit which will lead to submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. We are to pray in the Spirit and we are to Pray at all times.
Pray at All Times
Pray at All Times
This is a spiritual act. It is what makes it so powerful.
Prayer does not depend on your health. Whether you are the fittest person on earth or frail and fighting for your life on your death bed, prayer is there.
Prayer does not depend on our intelligence, our prestige, our wealth, our popularity.
It does not depend on if we are in a season of plenty or a season of want.
It does not depend on your location, in church, at home, traveling, sitting at your desk at work.
The bible speaks of prayer from beginning to end. We see people in all positions, from prostrate on the ground to standing. We see it in many different places. Public and private. We are told that this is how we speak and seek God but there are no physical boundaries on it.
This is one of the true freedoms in Christ. That we have no barriers between us and God other than our own lives.
What does it mean to be in prayer continually. It means that we are living each and every day in communion with God. Seeing the world with the Goggles of Discernment. As the God speaks to us through the word we are speaking back through prayer to God.
This might bring to mind the parable of the persistent widow.
1 Now he told them a parable on the need for them to pray always and not give up. 2 “There was a judge in a certain town who didn’t fear God or respect people. 3 And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or respect people, 5 yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so that she doesn’t wear me out by her persistent coming.’ ” 6 Then the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 Will not God grant justice to his elect who cry out to him day and night? Will he delay helping them? 8 I tell you that he will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”
We are not only to pray constantly but we are to bring every prayer and request before God.
Prayers and Requests
Prayers and Requests
The Greek word for prayer here means general prayers and requests is a word for specific. Your translation may have prayer and petition. It is the idea that there is nothing that cannot be prayed about. Things that are general in life and things that are specific.
We have all probably heard different mnemonic devices to help us to recall the different forms of prayer.
ACTS
A - Adoration
C - Confession
T - Thanksgiving
S - Supplication
PRAY
P - Praise
R - Repent
A - Ask
Y - Yield
In general both of these and others are an aid to help to guide but the goal of a believer is to sit with God. But the various forms in scripture can be summarized as. Lexham survey of theology
PRAYERS OF REQUEST
PRAYERS OF WORSHIP
PRAYERS OF COMMUNION
PRAYERS OF REQUEST
Supplication
Petition / Intersession
Confession
Repentance
Imprecation
Supplication - What do I need from God?
Intersession - What do others need from God?
Confession - The acknowledgement of sin and offense against God due to our sin and the request of forgiveness for that sin and the change of mind to turn from that sin. Repentance.
Imprecation - We see this in the Psalms, these are righteous prays for God to deal with the wicked.
PRAYERS OF WORSHIP
Adoration / Praise / Admiration
Thanksgiving
PRAYERS OF COMMUNION
Fellowship
Grievance
Fellowship - Conversation and communion about anything
Grievance - Frustrations, doubts, wrestling, sometimes a “complaint” but not a groaning
What ever you use the point is to be in communion with God through prayer. To get to know God and who he is. To sit and listen to his words from the bible and to meditate on them and to hear God speak into our lives.
Nothing is off limits
7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
We cannot come to this point without the saving grace of God through Jesus.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We live by the Spirit, in the Spirit, and through the Spirit. We live in a physical world that promises every pleasure and desire of our heart but in the end it is all found to be fruitless.
If you look at what this world calls the elite they are not happy or content because the pursuit of this world is fleeting. It is never satisfying. Don’t take my word for it. Just look around.
We must come to that place where we are seeing the kingdom of heaven that God is building and putting aside the kingdom of man that we are building. Because we always do that naturally.
Where are you at today? Are you more focused on the pleasures of this world? Do you long to know that there is something different? Do you find yourself falling back into old routines and habits that do not satisfy?
Prayer
Communion
14 When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” 20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
Song
Sending
Call to Service or Discipleship
As you prepare to leave this place, hear now God’s invitation to a life of Christian discipleship.
Who is God?
20 But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting expectantly for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life.
Blessing/Benediction
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.