Pray All The Time
Notes
Transcript
These final three verses of this grand passage by Paul gives us the how for me to live everyday putting on the pieces of God’s armor.
20 Years ago the War on Terrorism began and the conflict in Afghanistan began. The final pieces of our military are just now being withdrawn.
68 years ago the armistice with North Korea was signed. Technically we are still at war in a conflict that began in 1950. Over 33,000 military members have died in that conflict.
76 Years ago, World War II ended with over 291 thousands military members killed. We are still in many of those nations, Germany, Japan, Korea, Italy, Turkey, and many others.
The United States has been involved in 93 armed conflicts since 1776. In the 245 years of the existence of the United States, our nation has been at war for 226 of those years. Only 19 of those years have we not been involved in a war, however many of those 19 years were just time to recuperate from one conflict in preparation for another.
War and conflict has been a part of humanity back to the very first members of the human race. The first human blood that was shed was between two brothers, Cain and Abel. It has not gotten any better since.
Here in the United States there have been 327 incidents of mass shootings through the end of May. 1,343 people have been wounded and 360 killed.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times “2,019 people have been shot in Chicago this year through July 4.” (1)
Some will argue that there needs to be a change in our culture regarding guns. I came across an organization called Prevention Institute. They have a listing of 14 proposals do deal with the violence our nation is experiencing. Those proposals are:
1. Sensible gun laws: Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons.
2. Establish a culture of gun safety.
3. Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem.
4. Comprehensive solutions: Support community planning and implementation of comprehensive community safety plans that include prevention and intervention.
5. Trauma, connection, and services: Expand access to high quality, culturally competent, coordinated, social, emotional, and mental health supports and address the impact of trauma.
6. Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance.
7. Health system: Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative.
8. Community healing: Prevent community trauma.
9. Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing.
10. Support healthy norms about masculinity: Explore the pathways between gun violence and harmful norms that have been about maintaining power and privilege.
11. Impulsive anger: Explore the linkages between anger and gun violence.
12. Economic development: Reduce concentrated disadvantage and invest in employment opportunities.
13. Law enforcement violence: Establish accountability for sworn officers and private security.
14. Technology: Advance gun safety and self-defense technology. (2)
Now there are some of those 14 ideas that sound reasonable, but none of them or even all of them put together is going to solve the violence that we face.
The reason that they will not solve the violence goes back to how what Paul said earlier in this chapter.
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength.
11 Put on God’s armor so that you can make a stand against the tricks of the devil.
12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.
As I said this violence has been going on since the first generation of humanity. Paul tells us we need God’s armor so that we can stand against the tricks of the devil. Satan is a liar and he wants to trick, to deceive people. What did Eve say when God asked her what she did?
13 The Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?!” And the woman said, “The snake tricked me, and I ate.”
He has been deceiving people since the very beginning and he continues to deceive and trick people today.
I am a firm believer that there is no political measure that is going to solve the violence in the world. You simply cannot legislate or regulate morality. In the church we have attempted in the past to regulate what people can and cannot do. It did not work, because it created a generation of Christians who walked away from the church because of the legalism.
The violence that we face is not a violence issue, it is not a gun issue. The violence that we face is a heart issue.
Paul wrote
12 We aren’t fighting against human enemies but against rulers, authorities, forces of cosmic darkness, and spiritual powers of evil in the heavens.
There is a spiritual war going on out there that we can not see, but we do see the evidence of it. This is a battle that we are involved in that we cannot conquer and come out victorious on our own strength.
Look at how Paul started this out:
Ephesians 6:10 (CEB)
10 Finally, be strengthened by the Lord and his powerful strength.
To stand against the forces of darkness and evil begins and ends with God. To live a Christian life begins and ends with what God has done for us.
Paul has laid it all out for us. He begins with the belt of truth, the truth of salvation. The breastplate of righteousness, holiness. New shoes on our feet ready to get to work carrying the message of the Gospel. The shield of faith in the power of God to protect us. The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, God’s word.
God has given all of that to us. We do not come up with those things. God has laid it all out there for us, he has provided us with absolutely everything that we need.
Remember what Paul wrote at the beginning of this great letter?
3 Bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
There is not one thing that God did not think of.
I think that I must sadden God and amuse him at the same time. When faced with a struggle or problem, I am prone to say “I’ve got this.” I think that I can figure it all out and solve it all on my own.
When the pandemic first hit and the church no longer had the funds to pay my salary I began to wonder how we were going to survive financially as a family. God worked it all. He had a plan all ready for what was happening. He was just waiting for me to trust him.
God has blessed more than I could have ever imagined or even conceived.
He has not only provided for us financially, but God has opened the door to share the Gospel with so many more people that I had been able to share. He has brought me out of my comfort zone and has given me the confidence to speak His truth in love to people that need to hear from God.
He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
Maxie Dunham wrote that these final verses can be
The Preacher’s Commentary Series, Volume 31: Galatians / Ephesians / Philippians / Colossians / Philemon Be Watchful in the Spirit
summed up in the phrase “be watchful in the Spirit.” All the armor will be of no avail in Christian warfare without the dynamic power that comes in this way.
How are we to be strengthened by the power of God and His powerful strength?
It is by being watchful or being alert in the Spirit.
Paul, Peter, and Jesus address the need to be watchful and to be alert.
13 Stay awake, stand firm in your faith, be brave, be strong.
2 Keep on praying and guard your prayers with thanksgiving.
6 So then, let’s not sleep like the others, but let’s stay awake and stay sober.
8 Be clearheaded. Keep alert. Your accuser, the devil, is on the prowl like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
2 Wake up and strengthen whatever you have left, teetering on the brink of death, for I’ve found that your works are far from complete in the eyes of my God.
15 (15 Look! I’m coming like a thief! Favored are those who stay awake and clothed so that they don’t go around naked and exposed to shame.)
It must be a very important point to make. We have to be alert and pay attention to what is happening around us. All of the armor of this world is worthless in the warfare we are involved with. All of our strength and intelligence is nothing. We must have the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit flowing through us.
There are several examples in the Book of Acts of the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit. The one that stands out to me is when Paul and Silas were arrested and thrown into prison for casting a demon out of woman who was possessed with a spirit that enabled her to predict the future.
It is interesting to note that when they were put into prison that Luke records that they weren’t just put in any cell, they were put into the very inmost cell and then their feet were put in stocks. They didn’t want these guys to get away. This was after they were severely beaten. Paul and Silas were not feeling up to a prison escape. The authorities recognized the power that was working through them.
Listen what happened next:
25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.
26 All at once there was such a violent earthquake that it shook the prison’s foundations. The doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.
I don’t know about you, but if I had just been beaten severely that singing and praying at midnight would not be high on my list of things to do. I would want some Tylenol, some bandages, and a soft bed.
Around midnight Paul and Silas are still awake. They must have been talking about their day. They started praying. Silas starts singing a hymn that Paul joins in. They may have started softly singing, but the more the prayed, the louder the sang.
The other prisoners were listening. Those others were hearing Paul and Silas talking to God and singing hymns of praise to Him.
In the middle of that praise service an earthquake hit. It was a violent earthquake that shook even the foundations of the prison.
That place shook by the power of the Holy Spirit to the very foundation of that building and the doors flew open and everyone’s chains came loose.
That is the dynamic power of the Holy Spirit.
Instead of having a pity party for themselves, Paul and Silas decided to have a praise party. They decided rather than focusing on what happened to them and what might happen to them next. They decided to pray and worship God.
Can I meddle just a little?
Everyone say Amen!
You are so cooperative!
What are we prone to do when stuff happens to us? What do we generally do when things get a little rough?
I know that a lot of us are prone to having pity parties. Zig Ziglar said that “The problem with Pity Parties is very few people come, and those that do don’t bring presents.”
That is a very astute observation. Take a look at this quote from John Gardner
Self-Pity is easily the most destructive of non-pharmaceutical narcotics. It is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality - John W Gardner
Here it is, when you have a pity party, you are playing the victim card. You are saying that you are a victim.
That is one of the tricks or lies of the devil. You are not a victim. Do not buy into that lie. Paul wrote
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
We are not just conquerors, we are more than conquerors. The CEB put it this way
37 But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us.
We win a sweeping victory.
Now I do want to tread carefully. I do not want to negate the bad things that happen to people, but why is it when something negative or something bad happens to we sit down and have a pity party.
Remember Job? He was a righteous man. He lost everything important to him. His his oxen and donkeys, his crops and sheep, his camels, and then all of his children. The man lost everything. If someone deserved to have a pity party, it was Job. But listen to what he did:
20 Job arose, tore his clothes, shaved his head, fell to the ground, and worshipped.
21 He said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb; naked I will return there. The Lord has given; the Lord has taken; bless the Lord’s name.”
22 In all this, Job didn’t sin or blame God.
I do not see a pity party there. In fact in the middle of his grief he worshipped God.
Over in the next chapter when Satan inflicted him with boils and his wife told him to just curse God and die. He said to her
10 Job said to her, “You’re talking like a foolish woman. Will we receive good from God but not also receive bad?” In all this, Job didn’t sin with his lips.
I’m not done meddling yet.
You cannot live at a pity party and expect the power of the Holy Spirit to move in your life.
Let me meddle some more.
Can I get another Amen?
What is the least attended service of the Church?
The answer is a prayer meeting.
The church was birthed in prayer. The former Jerome church was birthed in prayer by a lady who was bedridden who prayed for years for a Church of the Nazarene to be planted there. Several years it was planted and thrived for many years. In the early days of that church the pastor prayed with some lay people for a Church of the Nazarene to be planted in Boswell and in 1945 the church was organized.
Do you know how most churches die? They die when prayer ceases to be an important aspect of the church.
The church on the day of Pentecost arrived they disciples and other followers were gathered together. We can infer that they were gathered in prayer because of what Luke wrote in
14 all were united in their devotion to prayer, along with some women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
The Church was birthed in prayer. The world was set aflame by the power of the Holy Spirit as the Gospel quickly spread around the world.
This church was birthed in prayer. Thousands have been impacted by this church because of prayer. The Gospel has been taken to various places around the world as missionaries, pastors, and Christian laypeople have carried it.
Just as this church was birthed in prayer, it will die because of a lack of prayer.
Paul wrote
Ephesians 6:18 (CEB)
18 Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time.
Folks we need to be people of prayer. We must be empowered by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promised the Holy Spirit in John chapter 14. That promise was fulfilled in on the day of Pentecost. Jesus made another promise there in that chapter. Jesus said:
12 I assure you that whoever believes in me will do the works that I do. They will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father.
13 I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son.
14 When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it.
Do you believe that Jesus promise of the Holy Spirit was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost?
If you do, then why do we only give lip-service to this promise. Jesus promised greater works, he promised to give what we ask.
Do we really believe that? Remember Paul wrote that God has already blessed with every spiritual blessing that comes from heaven.
Paul tells us to
Ephesians 6:18 (CEB)
Stay alert by hanging in there and praying for all believers.
Stay alert and praying.
So, have I meddled enough?
The government often has programs for people to who live below the poverty line, this imaginary line between poverty and able to survive on your own.
I don’t know about you, but I do not want to live below the poverty line. I want to have enough to pay my bills and enjoy life and help others.
There is another poverty line, it is a real line and it is a spiritual poverty line. It is living below what God has for us. God has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing, yet many live with a hand out hoping for some token blessing from God.
God has already blessed us, it is all their just ready to take. It begins and ends with God. It is the power of the Holy Spirit moving within us. That movement of the Holy Spirit begins with prayer. Offer prayers and petitions in the Spirit all the time. Your life should be saturated with prayer.
Are you living below the poverty line of prayer? Why? Really, why? Why would you want to live there. Just stop it. Fall on your face before God, confessing your lack of prayer, of intimacy with Him.
Call on the Holy Spirit to strengthen you with His powerful strength. Wear the full armour of God everyday. Pray, live a life saturated by prayer.