All right, well, welcome. Uh, if you're new here, my name is Ricky, as Alex said, and I am so excited to open up the book of Ephesians with you guys this morning. So if you have a Bible, open to the book of Ephesians chapter 6. If you don't have a Bible, that's totally fine. We've got one available on the back table for you. This is a great safe place to learn what the Bible says about all kinds of things, and we are just finishing our study of Paul's letter to the Ephesians.
And last weekend we talked about the armor of God. And maybe for you it felt like Paul has been doing this great sort of weekend seminar about grace throughout the letter to the Ephesians. He talks about all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ. He talks about how God's grace has come to us and reconciled us and made us alive. He's talked about unity in the church. He's even talked about marriage and parenting and work, and you're kind of ready for Paul to wrap up the seminar and say, 'Okay, this has been a great time,' and, you know, head back. We're gonna leave the mountains and this retreat and go back to normal life.
And instead, it's like he hits a button and all of a sudden the lights dim and maps begin to be unfolded and war plans begin to be unfolded. And Alec is all of a sudden going up and down the aisles, handing out flak jackets. And people are saying, 'I'm just here for the marriage seminar.' He's like, 'Yeah, yeah, I know. Here, take this.' And all of a sudden we're taking people, you know, we're handing out weaponry and you think, 'Okay, I signed up for the wrong seminar. How did I get here?' And yet this is exactly how God inspired Paul to end this letter to the Ephesians. He sums up the Christian life you've been learning about as a fight. And whether or not you wanna be involved in a fight, you are involved in a fight as a Christian. And so Paul gives us the armor of God for that fight. And yet there is one last piece of this spiritual battle that we did not cover last week that we will take up this week. One more weapon to put in our arsenal in the Christian life, perhaps the most important of all.
So Ephesians chapter 6, and as we read, let's remember this is God's Word. We'll pick it up in verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. That I might declare it boldly as I ought to speak. This is God's Word.
Well, there is a wonderful passage in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress that I want to read to you to open. If you never read the Pilgrim's Progress, it has some old language, but it is well worth reading. It turns the journey of a Christian in everyday life into this long journey of this man aptly named Christian, or Christian in El Paso. And he begins this long journey and he is equipped with armor and he has many battles to fight and he's headed toward this heavenly city. And along the way, he faces many dangers. And there's a particular passage that I think is relevant here as Christian walks past the very mouth of hell. It says, Bunyan writes this, 'Thus Christian went on and I heard him here sigh bitterly.' 'For besides the danger mentioned above,' meaning all the other dangers that he has just talked about, 'the pathway here was so dark that oftentimes when he lifted up his foot to go forward, he knew not where or upon what he should set it next. About the midst of this valley, I perceived the mouth of hell to be, and it stood also hard by the wayside.' And now, thought Christian, 'What shall I do?' And ever and anon the flame and smoke would come out in such abundance with sparks and hideous noises, things that cared not for the Christian's sword as did Apollyon, this demon he'd fought before, that he was forced to put up his sword and betake to himself another weapon called all prayer. Now, in the text, you can't see this, but in the text, Bunyan hyphenates the words all and prayer together to be one word, all prayer. He says even when the sword of the Spirit doesn't seem to be effective, he takes all prayer, this last weapon, up.
And often we don't think of prayer in the same category as weaponry. I don't know about you, but I grew up in kind of the Christian environment, and I grew up with Everybody's favorite Precious Moments figurines. Does anybody remember Precious Moments? These, I don't even know how to describe them. They're these little adorable, almost like cartoon-like characters in scenes like the nativity. And they had these big puppy dog eyes, you know, and everything was very precious. And they're made out of, weren't they made out of like, not porcelain, but some kind of ceramic of some kind? Yeah, ceramic, yeah. So they're made out of ceramic. So they're very fragile. So you don't play with them, you put them on a shelf. And I remember the one classic Precious Moments figurine was the little praying boy or girl, you know. And they had, I don't know, for some reason, if I remember right, they had not like normal pajamas, they had like 1920s, like dress pajamas that they used to put kids in. And the kid is, he has his little hands folded and his little eyes like this, oh, he's just praying. And you just think that's prayer, prayer is, It's a precious moment with the Lord and it's right there and it's very porcelain ceramic and it's beautiful. And yet Paul smashes that in a sense and he says, 'No, prayer is a weapon. Prayer is for the battlefield. Prayer is not for these quiet, beautiful, precious moments.' Although I'm sure if you have those moments with the Lord, that's wonderful. But Paul is talking about prayer here as a weapon, necessary for the battlefield.
6 · The sermon thesis is stated clearly and the two-part structure is outlined: how to fight with prayer and what to fight for with prayer
And so the main point today is simple, that the Christian is called to take up the weapon, all prayer for all life. We're called to take up this weapon of all prayer for all of life. Two sections today, the first one is just how to fight with prayer, and the second is what to fight for with prayer.
7 · This transition introduces the first major section and reiterates that prayer is not optional but essential to the Christian's spiritual warfare
First, how to fight with prayer. Paul underscores that this is a— that prayer is not simply a good but optional discipline that we should really get around to when we have a chance, but rather prayer is a vital, integral part of our life and our fight as a Christian.
8 · Piper's battlefield radio analogy is introduced to replace the Precious Moments image
John Piper, in a sermon on this text, uses prayer as a radio on the battlefield. So if you've ever seen one of those World War I, World War II era movies, maybe even a Vietnam era movie, the radio that a squad would have would be its probably other than maybe the bullets in their guns, the most important thing they carried with them to the battlefield. Without the radio, they were out of communication with HQ, with their commander. They were out of communication with the other squads. They could be outflanked, outmaneuvered. They could not call in artillery. They could not call in for help. They could not call in for a medevac. They were isolated, alone, couldn't see further than a few feet in front of them on the battlefield. And so Piper pictures, Prayer as that battlefield radio, not this kind of beautiful porcelain phone, no, but like a big rugged— I want you to have this image in your mind— a big rugged radio that is meant to take blows and meant to be used on the battlefield. That is a picture in our mind. So how do we use that radio?
9 · Introduces the first sub-point under 'how to fight with prayer': fighting with all our Bible
How to fight with prayer? First, we fight with all our Bible.
10 · Close grammatical observation of Ephesians 6:17-18 reveals that the sword of the Spirit (the Word) and prayer are syntactically joined, not separated
We fight with all our Bible. It says, notice this, 'Take up the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.' And notice the comma. Notice the comma. 'Which is the word of God, praying at all times.' Now, notice that it's not a period. I think the translators are accurately capturing these aren't two separate thoughts. He's not saying, 'Okay, take up the sword of the Spirit and then, okay, new topic, prayer.' No, he's tying them together. He's saying take up praying. You see the verbs there? Take it up while you're praying, tying these two things together.
11 · This unit diagnoses a common false dichotomy in the Christian life: Word-focused Christians vs
And for the Christian, often Christians can either be word Christians— if I could oversimplify for a second— Christians can either be word Christians or prayer Christians, meaning they're either kind of learning, love to read books, theology Christians, or the experiential, I love to listen to worship music kind of Christians. And you probably have some of these people in your life and you think, yeah, and you're whichever one of those you think the other— yeah, if you're thinking, yeah, I know people in my life, they should be praying more and listening to more worship music and experiencing the Lord, you're probably one of those, that kind of Christian. But if you're thinking, you know what, there are some people that could really use some more books in this church and I've got a few hundred to recommend, then you're on the other side. And yet Paul doesn't separate these two things. He doesn't separate the word from prayer, the knowledge, and from the experiential. He brings them together.
12 · The battlefield radio analogy is extended to illustrate the consequences of separating Word and prayer
So using our metaphor of the radio, if you read the Word without being prayerful, it's as though you are always listening to the radio but never speaking into the radio. You're just listening on the battlefield. 'Oh, it's very interesting things happening over the ridge there.' They're like, 'We're under fire. We need reinforcements.' 'Uh-huh.' Like, 'Oh, let me check on this other squad. Oh, they're describing it now.' Yep, yep. They're like, 'Call in for help.' Just a minute. You know, and you're just like, 'Oh, very interesting. Wow, these flanking maneuvers the enemy's using are fascinating.' Like, it's just, it's not gonna be helpful. But neither do you want to pray without the Word at all times, meaning that you never consult the Word, you just have this vibrant prayer life, that is like always talking into the battlefield radio but never listening. You're just narrating your day. Here's what's happening, here's what's going on, we're being outflanked really badly, 'And we're wondering what you would want us to do, but I don't know.' You know, and you're like, 'Say over and then listen.' You know, you can't just keep talking forever. You're never going to hear what command is saying. And so similarly, we need the Word and prayer together.
13 · Direct application to the congregation's practice: always pair Bible reading with prayer, whether in personal devotions, community groups, or discipleship relationships
And so let me encourage you, Christians, when you open the Bible, do you do it prayerfully? I mean, it's a simple moment, but that's why every Sunday morning we open with the Word and prayer in our preaching. We usually read the text, and you may even miss it, but we always pause to pray and ask for God's help. There should be a regular practice of tying the Word and prayer together. When you open the Bible at community group or across one another in a discipleship group, you want to be praying.
14 · A vulnerable personal story of the pastor's own failure to integrate Word and prayer, confessing his habit of fast-forwarding through Piper's prayers to get to the 'real content
I've been listening to— I've been watching watching the text breakdowns that John Piper has done online called Look at the Book. They're excellent, very in-depth. You can find them on Desiring God. And I've been looking at these for passages I'm preaching to watch him. He kind of circles words and underlines and draws connections and breaks down some of the grammar. And so I'm like, that's helpful to me at times. And so I've listened to a bunch of them, but Piper had this annoying habit, what I felt like was annoying, where out of the 10 or 11-minute video, he would read the text and then he would spend a minute praying and then he would start drawing and breaking it down. And so over time I'm like, I listened to the prayer once or twice. Lord, we pray that you would. As we open up this word. And I kind of got like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So what I started doing is fast forwarding the prayers, right? So he reads a text and I'm. And then, okay, now he starts circling things. Now we're breaking down the text, right? And this last week I looked at the sermon breakdown for this one. And during the. And I again fast forwarded the prayer. And then, okay, now we're breaking down the text. And he goes, 'And by the way, this text is why I was so insistent to include a prayer before we open the Word together, that we might take up the sword of the Spirit, praying at all times, because it's so important to tie them together.' And as he's saying this on the video, I'm just like, 'Oh, that's not good.' I just— conviction just set into me. How many prayers have I fast-forwarded from this precious man over the last number of months I think if I ever met Dr. Piper, I would have to confess immediately, 'I really appreciate your ministry. Also, I have to let you know something. I fast-forwarded a lot of your prayers. I'm wondering, should I go back and listen to them, or is the moment gone?' I don't know. You guys can counsel me after the service. But I think that's all of our tendency sometimes. We're like, 'Okay, let's get to the meat of this text,' without asking for the Lord's help that we might take it in and apply it rightly.
15 · Final application on the first point: always have the Bible and prayer open together
Whenever we have our Bibles open, church, let's have our line of prayer communication open. I love how Alec modeled this just this morning as we prayed the armor of God over our church. This is what we want to be doing. Okay, that's one, all the Bible.
16 · The second sub-point is introduced: praying at all times, in all of life
Second, all our life. We should be fighting with the weapon of all prayer in all our life. He says, 'Praying at all times in the Spirit.' Notice, all times, not some of the times, but as my toddler would sometimes say, every of the times. We are to be praying every of the times in the Spirit. Every single place, every single time. And you think, this isn't realistic, this is impossible. How could you be praying at all times?
17 · A personal courtship story illustrates how natural, ongoing communication can become woven into daily life
Well, I think about it this way. When Jen and I were— we had become friends. When I was in D.C. for an internship in D.C. I was in the middle of college, we kind of connected there, became friends, lost touch a bit when I moved back to El Paso to finish at UTEP, but this was the glorious early days of messaging online. And so you could see when you logged into your Gmail who else was online, and you're like, oh, look, there's a friend. And because it was novel, you would chat, be like, this is exciting, right? And all the people under 30 or 20 are like, man, what's wrong with you people? It's like the old days. And yes, it was the old days, and it was exciting, it was novel. So we would check in and be like, 'Hey, how are you doing today?' And so before I knew it, saying hi to Jen became a normal part of my day. I would get on it, you know, for work or in between classes, and she would be there, and I would check in. And before I knew it, checking in with her just became part of my day. And then before I knew it, throughout the day I was checking in with her. 'Oh, you had a big meeting. How did the meeting go?' This— and I realized that she just slowly, without even me realizing it, became part of my day that I didn't want to live without. And so it should be with prayer. We're not talking about every hour on the hour you have to do some kind of ritualized prayer, but rather throughout life you're to be prayerful about things. You're to be checking in with the Lord.
18 · The illustration is explicitly applied
I— Jen and I still text each other and message each other throughout the day, sometimes from from one, our first story to the second story, because I'm too lazy to go up and talk to her, I'm just like, I'll just message her. And so, I was looking back through all of our messaging, and this is the kind of stuff we messaged about throughout the day. We messaged about our kids, either something funny that happened or a concern we had. I had to ask her forgiveness for something. I had to ask her for help with something during the week. I was excited about something, or she was excited about something, and she communicated that to me, or we talked about, a health issue that was going on, or there was a— we had to decide whether to buy something. So we're discussing the purchase decision. And I thought, this is what our prayer life should look like with the Lord. Are you experiencing something with your kids? Talk to the Lord about it. Did you sin? Ask for forgiveness from the Lord about it. Do you need help? Ask the Lord for help. Are you excited or rejoicing about something? Speak that to the Lord. Is there a health issue that's weighing on you? Cast that burden, that care onto the Lord. Do you have to decide whether to spend money or not? Ask the Lord to give you wisdom. Just make it part of your day.
19 · The third sub-point is introduced: fight with all your attention
Okay, third, fight with all your attention using the weapon of all prayer. Fight with all your attention. This is a complement to the last point, meaning that we're supposed to have kind of little prayers sprinkled throughout life. This is kind of a different aspect of prayer that we Paul says, 'To that end, keep alert.' Now, I don't know how many battles have been lost because the watch was not alert, but I bet you could make a long list of historical defeats tied specifically to a dude falling asleep at the wrong time or zoning out at the wrong time, right? Similarly, we want to be alert in our prayer. You don't want to miss a message that the enemy is flanking you, or say, 'I'm seeing something weird,' and not report it to your commander. Similarly, you want to have some times during the day that is set aside where you are with all alertness focused in on prayer. So there should be times in between things you're just casting quick prayers up. 'Lord, help me with this meeting. Lord, help me to cast this burden on you. Lord, I'm—' 'Lord, I think I sinned against that guy in traffic. Please forgive me.' Like, that's— you should just have that ongoing dialogue. But then there should be times, and I'm not saying you have to set a certain length. I'm not saying you gotta do a 45-minute Greek New Testament Bible study followed by an hour and a half of spiritual warfare. Although if you do that, great. But I'm not saying the text requires that. Instead, the text calls us to alertness and intentness that we focus in specifically on prayer.
20 · A personal story of the pastor's mother exemplifies focused, intentional prayer
And this is where I was so grateful to grow up with the mom I've had, and I'm so grateful for her example of that. We would come out in the morning and almost however early we could wake up, it felt like she was already up early praying or reading her Bible with her coffee, with her Bible, with her eyes closed many times. And we all knew this is not the time that you go out and and just alert mom, 'Hey, we need some more cereal,' or, 'I don't like the cereal you bought,' or, 'This cereal tastes weird.' Does this cereal taste weird to you? No, not right now. She's in her moment with the Lord. You're gonna— we're all gonna wait. Similarly, we want to have those parts of our life that everything else waits, we're alert, we're intent, we're talking to the Lord in prayer.
21 · The fourth and final sub-point under 'how to fight with prayer' is introduced: all the way home, meaning perseverance
And then last, we want to wield the weapon with all the Bible throughout all our life, with all our attention, and last, all the way home. Paul says, 'Keep alert with all perseverance.' Now, this is often where we get discouraged.
22 · A parenting illustration contrasts two types of toddlers: those who persist until they open a door and those who give up after minimal effort
With my kids as toddlers, every kid hits that stage as a toddler where they learn to open doors, right? A terrifying stage, because all of a sudden you're like, 'Oh, no.' that everything is accessible to them. And so some of my kids, they were, you know, we were holding them back saying, don't open this, don't open that. But one of our kids in particular, I won't tell you which one, one of our kids in particular had a different problem. Their problem wasn't they opened too many doors. Their problem was they would go, I can't open that. Right, you're like, you barely tried. Try, I mean, use your wrist. Like, what is going on? And so they would just go up and go, It's too hard for me. Right? The other kids were just like, you know, like, I'm going to get this door open. And they just kept at it until they figured it out. The other kid was just— they just gave up. And I think too often in the Christian life we can do the same thing. It's like we go up and we try the door, we just jiggle it, we pray one prayer, 'Lord, please. Oh, well, I guess he'll never answer.' Right?
23 · The parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18 is cited to establish Jesus' teaching on perseverance in prayer
But yet the Lord calls us to be persevering in prayer. Jesus himself in the parable of the persistent widow gives us the example of this persistent widow that will not let the judge sleep until she gets justice. And finally, not even because he wants to do it, just so he can have some peace and quiet, he comes down and helps her. And Jesus ends the parable by saying, 'If even an evil judge would respond, how much more will your Father who loves you respond to you. And yet, it doesn't mean we simply ask once. Jesus calls us to persevere in prayer.
24 · Direct application: the pastor invites the congregation to pause and reflect on prayers they have abandoned
Are there— let me just encourage you to think about this right now. Are there any prayers that you have given up and just stopped praying for? And I don't mean like, 'I really hope the Lord gives me a Ferrari,' but I mean like good kingdom-focused prayers. Prayers for someone's salvation, prayers for perseverance, prayers that the Lord would use you at work, something you've given up on. Is there anything that you have tried to handle once or twice and that's been it, where maybe today the Lord would be calling you to pray with all perseverance?
25 · A testimony of a pastor and his wife who prayed for years for her mother's salvation without visible results
I remember one of our pastors years ago, he and his wife were praying for her mom. As long as I'd known them, they'd been praying for her mom's salvation and they prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and yet it seemed like there was no change in her mom's heart. And so eventually they had her mom come live with them and it was a difficult relational situation, but they continued to pray and they continued to try to share the gospel and try to help her and it seemed like there was no effect. And I remember this pastor, after about a year, just saying, 'It's discouraging because we—' probably wrongly, but we kind of assumed after a few months of of seeing how much we, you know, love each other and love the Lord, she would just get saved. You know, we just kind of assumed, yep, she just needs to be a little bit closer and then the Lord will work. And yet it doesn't seem like that's happened. But they persisted and prayed and served and loved and prayed and prayed. And finally, at the very end of her life, she came to know the Lord. And I think how many prayers, how many prayers for how many years were answered in that beautiful moment. We're called to persevere in prayer, to not give up quickly in prayer.
26 · A theological framework for understanding God's answers to prayer is presented: 'Yes, now,' 'Yes, soon,' or 'No, I have something better
And so Paul, in a sense, gives us this weapon, the weapon of all prayer, and says, 'Okay, I want you— do you see how to use it? When you read your Bible, take up the weapon of all prayer. In all of life, take up the weapon of all prayer. Have specific times in life that you focus in and wield this weapon. And then even if it doesn't seem like the prayer is being answered, continue to to ask, because here's the reality. When we take up the weapon of prayer, there's always one of three answers we get from the Lord. And I think drawing from all Scripture, we can say this. One of three answers. The Lord will either answer, 'Yes, now,' or, 'Yes, soon, but not now,' or third, 'No, because I have something better.' Those are the answers to prayer. There's no good godly answer, a godly prayer that will be prayed that the Lord will just say, 'Nah, I don't feel like it.' 'Or, 'Now I'm not going to do that.' No, we have a God who is inclined to us in reconciliation because we've been reconciled through Jesus. He's inclined to us, and so he is quick to either say, 'Yes, now I'll answer this,' or, 'Yes, soon I will answer this,' or, 'No, I have something better for you.' That's what the Lord will do. And so we wield the weapon knowing that. Day in and day out in all of life.
27 · This transition shifts from 'how to pray' to 'what to pray for
Second then, what should we pray for? I've mentioned a few times that this is not Paul praying in perseverance for a Ferrari. He has some very different prayer priorities. So, what is he praying for? Now, I want to first note what he is not praying for. Perhaps the most obvious thing. As we read the text, you may have noticed the reference to him saying he is an ambassador in chains. But these are not metaphorical chains, okay? You know, sometimes when people are like, 'I just feel like I'm chained at my job. I'm chained up.' No, these aren't like metaphorical job chains. These are literal chains. Paul is under house arrest, and either when he left the house to do anything, to appear in court, he would be in chains, or some would say that he was even chained to a guard under house arrest so that he's going to sleep chained up, he's going to the bathroom chained up, anything he does, he's pretty much chained up. So somebody comes to visit him, he's chained up, he can't leave the house. Now, I don't know about you, but if I was writing a letter to somebody and I was gonna sum up at the end what I would like prayer for, can you guess what I would ask for prayer for? Probably the chains, right? Probably being under house arrest. You know, like you go visit somebody and they're under house arrest and the chains are there and you say, 'Hey, brother, is there any way I can pray for you this week?' I would be like, 'Look at the chain!' Right? 'What do you think I want prayer for, man?' And yet Paul mentions it and does not ask for prayer about the chains. And I don't think it's because we should not bring our daily needs to the Lord. I'm sure Paul had prayed asking the Lord to be released from house arrest, but rather he models a prioritization in our prayer. He models almost like— If you can only pray for one thing, this is the one thing I want you to pray for. If you can only ask God for one thing, pray for this thing. Remember, the Lord says it's okay to ask for our daily bread. It's okay to ask for our daily needs. Jesus says that that's right for us to do. But Paul shows us the priority of what should be at the forefront of our prayers here.
28 · Piper's wartime walkie-talkie analogy is introduced and extended through a humorous but convicting battlefield illustration
And Piper again is very helpful here. He says this: What has become clear to me in recent days is that many of our problems with prayer and much of our weakness in prayer comes from the fact that we are not all on active duty, and yet we still try to use the transmitter. We have taken a wartime walkie-talkie and tried to turn it into a civilian intercom. I love that picture. But sometimes we forget in our prayers that we're on a battlefield, that bombs are falling all around us, that our armor is being tested constantly, And we get on the radio, and they're like, listen, you know, Unit So-and-So, please report in. And you're like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, good, I'm glad you called. Listen, I gotta talk to you about something, it's super important. You're like, okay, go ahead, over. And you're like, listen, the MREs last night were just atrocious. I mean, beef stroganoff, what is this? Like, this is just terrible. Cop, you know, over. And you're like, do you have anything else to report? Oh yes, actually, these boots are a little bit less comfortable than I was hoping for. I've got a great pair of Dr. Scholl's back home, and these are just, I mean, the plantar fasciitis here is just out of control. Over. Right, you're just thinking like, okay, that's not what the radio is for. Like, do you have anything relevant to the battle going on? Now listen, if you can't walk in your boots, absolutely bring that up, right? If you don't have any food, bring that up. But rather than trying to seek to be more and more comfortable, We're to remember that we are in a spiritual fight. Piper concludes, 'The power of prayer was not given to the church to win comforts, but to wield a weapon.' And so often I think we use it in the wrong way.
29 · The Lord's Prayer is expounded to show its priority structure: God's glory and kingdom advance come first, then personal needs ('daily bread') are placed under that umbrella
Again, the Lord's Prayer is so helpful as maybe an example of what we're talking about here. So, in the Lord's Prayer, we begin with 'Our Father who is in heaven,' remembering that we have a Father who loves us, that he is in heaven, that he can answer us, that he's powerful and sovereign. And what's the first thing being asked for in the Lord's Prayer? 'Our Father who art in heaven.' What is the next one? 'Hallowed be thy name.' Hallowed be your name, meaning— I used to think as a kid it was hallowed be your name. I was like, 'Why would you want to hollow out your name?' No, hallowed, meaning glorified, magnified. The first thing we ask for is, 'Lord, may your name be great. May you be magnified.' How? 'Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.' Meaning that we want God to be magnified through the advance of his kingdom. That's the first thing we pray for. And then under that we place the request, 'Give us today our daily bread.' I think that's what Paul is modeling for us here. He's saying these prayer requests are meant to be at the forefront of our minds.
30 · Introduces the first of three kingdom prayer priorities Paul models: prayer for all the saints
So, what are they? First, prayer for all the saints.
31 · The call to pray for 'all the saints' is explained as universal—every Christian is called to pray for every other Christian, not just a designated prayer team
For all the saints. He calls all the church to pray for all the saints. This isn't, 'Okay, we have a prayer team and they do the praying, and then we have the rest of the church, they are the prayer recipients. We have the prayer people and the prayer recipients.' And you're like, 'Which would you like to be? Well, I'd like to just be a prayer recipient.' No, you don't get to choose that. All the church is called to prayer for all the saints.
32 · A testimony of Sharon Withers, an older widow who came to the church building during the week to physically walk through it and pray for families, the children's ministry, and the neighborhood
I remember this, seeing this vividly, physically, when I was an intern at the church. I think in my late teens I started working part-time for the church. And I noticed sometimes I was the low man on the totem pole as the intern. So I would run down and open the door anytime somebody came to the door. So people would come to the door, they forgot something during the week, or they were here for a meeting, or, you know, you just got used to running down and running back up, running down and running back up. And there was this older widow in our church named Sharon Withers. I still vividly and beautifully remember her face. And she would come in and she would say hi, and she wouldn't really mention why she was here. She would just say hi and then kind of walk into the building. And so I was like, 'Okay, well, maybe she forgot something.' And then I noticed the next week she showed up again. I was like, 'Okay, well, did she forget something again?' And then I began to notice that she was— she would come in and she would just walk around the— the auditorium. And I thought, is she looking for something? Like, what— so I almost went down to help her find something, but it didn't seem like she was looking for something. And she would kind of walk over, and then she'd stop and pray, and then she'd kind of keep going. Then she'd go into the kids ministry and just walk around. And then I would— and then I finally noticed her walking up and down the street. And I just thought, what? Okay, I'm not— am I missing something here? What is she doing? So finally I asked one of the pastors. 'What— you know, Mrs. Withers, what is she doing?' And they just looked at me and smiled and said, 'Oh, she's praying. She comes and she prays for the saints during the week. She goes into the kids' ministry and prays over our kids. She goes to the neighborhood and prays over the neighborhood that the gospel might go to the neighborhood.' She— and at that time the church was kind of a very stable group of people. in those days get a ton of visitors, very many at all. And when we did get a visitor, we made them stand up and wave at everybody weirdly. And I don't know why we did that, but that was a thing we did. It's probably why we didn't have a ton of visitors. And so the— so mostly people had, like, their seat. This is my seat. This is where my family sits. This is where your family sits. And she remembered that, and she would pause and pray for families as she walked the auditorium. And I just remember thinking with sadness, it has— I'm at the building all the time, it has never occurred to me to walk this building and pray for the people of God. We are called to pray for all the saints.
33 · Concrete, actionable application to replace the empty promise 'I'll pray for you' with either immediate on-the-spot prayer or writing down the request to actually pray for it later
If I could just encourage you with one real specific thing here, I think often we will— and I say this all the time as well, so I'm not picking on anybody— but when somebody expresses a need, maybe in community group or after church or even when we see them during the week, we say, 'Okay, I will be praying for you at some point,' you know. And so it's kind of like a nice thing to say. But could I suggest we change that to one of two things? Instead of saying, 'I'll be praying for you,' do one of two things. One, stop and pray for them. I mean, how much more meaningful if somebody's describing a hard situation after community group and I'm like, 'Man, I just don't know what I'm going to do about my boss, but I know I'm supposed to try to be Christlike, and he's about to leave, or she's about to leave.' You could just pause and say, 'You know what? Let me just pray really briefly for you for that thing tomorrow, for that situation at work.' You just pray over them as they leave. That's one thing you could do. Second, whip out your phone or get a piece of paper and write down the name of the person and the thing to pray for so you don't have what I sometimes have, which is a sudden realization when you see the person again that you forgot to pray for the thing. Right? And you remember it and you realize, 'Oh, I didn't pray for their situation with the boss.' And they come over, and this is the absolute worst. This has happened to me a couple times, and they go, 'Oh, thanks for praying.' And you're like, 'Ugh.' You know, you don't— I think it's happened to all of us at some point. And so do one of those two things. In that moment, pray for the person. Or when the Lord brings them to mind, text them and say, 'I'm praying for you right now.' Text them a prayer that you're praying over them. Or write it down and pray for it during the week. Make it your goal today to leave here with one name and one thing to pray for.
34 · The second kingdom prayer priority is introduced: prayer for the task of gospel proclamation
Second, we pray for all the saints and then we pray for all the task, all the task. And Paul says, 'And also for me that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of Christ.' the gospel for which I am ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. Now, this is so helpful. It's so helpful because Paul has been talking a lot about how to live out the implications of the gospel in daily life with unity, with sexuality, with marriage, with parenting, with work. He's talking about the implications of the gospel. So surely he wants people to live different lives that point to the gospel, just the way husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, right? That lived out in front of the world is a picture of the gospel. So Paul cares about that, but he doesn't stop at the level of demonstration. There's a saying often attributed to St. Francis of Assisi that he supposedly said, which he didn't say, he supposedly said, 'Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words.' The only problem with that is that the word gospel literally means good news, and so it's essentially saying, Preach the good news. If necessary, use news. You're like, well, that is the good news. It's like being excited that World War II is over and your job is to bring that news into the streets of New York, but you don't give any news. You just are very happy and greet everyone warmly. You're like, what's he excited about? I don't know. Right? You don't want to do that with the gospel. You want to be happy, live a changed life, but then tell people why. Live out the implications of the good news of God, but also communicate the good news of Jesus.
35 · Paul's humility in requesting prayer for words and boldness is highlighted
And I love Paul's example here. I love his example. Notice this. He says, 'Pray that words be given to me in opening my mouth boldly.' Look, he's just written, like, a magnum opus. He's written a letter of the New Testament under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I mean, Paul was probably one of the greatest, other than Jesus, the greatest thinker of the first century. Even secular historians would agree with that. And he's saying, 'Listen, when it comes to communicating the gospel, oh man, do I need prayer. Oh man, pray that words be given to me.' And you're like, 'We've got an entire New Testament full of Paul's words. I think you're good on words.' He's like, 'No, no, no, no, no. Pray that words be given to me.' And then twice he asks for boldness. And you're like, 'Paul doesn't seem like a shy dude.' You know, it's like, 'Oh, I don't know.' You know, he's just like— he's showing up in town, rolling out a soapbox and preaching the gospel, and yet he knows deep down he needs God's help. He needs God's help to be bold with the gospel. If so with Paul, how much more with us? How much more with the situations in our lives where the Lord has given us opportunities to share the good news of Jesus?
36 · Paul's chains are reframed: they are not an obstacle to gospel proclamation but the context in which God intends for Paul to proclaim the gospel
And let me just encourage you with this as well, that Paul, in his chains, asks for boldness. And so, what you see there is he sees his chains not as an obstacle. Chained up to a guard is not the obstacle to his proclamation of the gospel. Instead, he sees that context as the context in which to proclaim the gospel. So, he doesn't ask to be removed from the situation, he asks that he might be faithful in it. And there may be situations in your life that even are hard or suffering, and yet it is in the context of those situations that God means for you to share the gospel. That's why we ask for help.
37 · This transition announces the upcoming summer series on Paul's first missionary journey and states the church's goal: by summer's end, every member should be able to share a 15-second testimony and articulate the gospel
And that's why once we finish Ephesians, we're going to be spending the entire summer with Paul on his first missionary journey. Because as we see that Paul has been rehearsing and glorying in and proclaiming the good news and the grace of God for for all these chapters, and then at the end here says, 'Okay, pray that I might be able to share the grace of God that I've experienced with others.' And we're going to watch him do that on his missionary journey so that we might better make that connection in our own Christian lives. One of our goals for the summer is to spend the summer with Paul on this missionary journey and then make sure by the end of the summer every member of our church is able to share a simple 15-second summation of how God's grace has met them and changed them and be able to articulate the basics of the gospel. That's one of our goals this summer. So if you're going to be here and you want to get out now, jump ship now. But my hope is this, that we might lean into it and say, listen, all of the grace of God that we've experienced for months in the book of Ephesians, man, let's learn to share that with the world around us.
38 · Introduces the third and final kingdom prayer priority: all the world
Alright, so we pray for all the saints, all the tasks, for all the world. Last thing here is Paul refers to himself as an ambassador in chains. That's a striking image, isn't it? The term ambassador.
39 · A contemporary illustration of a US embassy explains the ambassador metaphor
A number of years ago, we had a couple join the church and you ask people, 'What do you do for a living?' Right? And so we asked them and he said, 'Oh, I'm a consular officer.' And so he lived in Wadis, and he worked at the US consulate in Wadis, the US embassy in Wadis. And you're like, 'Wow, that's a job.' So I was fascinated by it, and I learned all kinds of things about US embassies. I learned, first of all, that when you have a US embassy, that embassy is US soil wherever it is around the world. So it means that if you attack a US embassy in some other country, you attack the United States of America. That's why, you know, if you're watching a spy movie and they have to, like, get to the embassy and, like, ah, then they get there and then they're safe and then there's, like, 2 Marines there, you're like, okay, I'm pretty sure, like, an entire army could take out those 2 Marines at the front of the embassy, but they don't because that attack would be an attack on the United States of America. Nobody wants that. Similarly, that little outpost is an outpost of the United States, and I learned that part of the job of the embassy is not to just hold up, kind of hole up and protect its citizens, but rather to tell people what the United States is like, to share the culture of this country with people around the world, which is why they open the doors and have events at times or go out and represent the United States in the city and then come back to the embassy.
40 · The embassy analogy is explicitly applied to the church
And in a similar way, this is the way Paul views himself. He says, 'Listen, I am an ambassador.' And if you could say it this way, every church is an embassy of the kingdom of God in the world around us. And we are a tiny expression, a tiny foretaste of that coming kingdom that will be here one day. We are a tiny expression of it where people changed by grace relate by grace, where Jews and Gentiles and slaves and free and men and women all come together around the gospel of Jesus and live different, joyful, changed lives that we then open the doors up. We don't lock the doors and say, 'Listen, El Paso people, sorry, you stay out there.' No, we open the doors and we say, Come on in, see the grace of God and how it's changed us. And then we go out and represent the kingdom of God wherever the Lord has placed us. Paul is saying that's our mission as Christians.
41 · Direct application of the embassy metaphor: do you pray for the local church and for your own role as an ambassador?
And so, so challenging. Let me ask you this: do you pray for this embassy? And do you pray for yourself as an ambassador?
42 · A pastoral aside on the spiritual state of El Paso
I was talking to a brother in Christ who I had not caught up with for a while and found out that he's working for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes here. Now in the city. And I was asking him, just what have you observed working with FCA over a number of years and being out in the schools of the city? And he just said, listen, one of the things I've observed is over the last 20, 30 years, we've gone from a city of, you know, more or less good Catholic boys and girls to the religion— like, kind of the religious affiliation of the city has dropped off a cliff and people have no religion now. And nobody's trying to be good anymore. Where it's almost like you have that kind of holding you back, like, 'I don't want to be— I don't want to get in trouble. I don't want to have to go to confession.' No, you don't have that anymore. It's just like, 'Man, I'm just going to live my life and get what I want out of it.' But he said, you know, sadly also, along with that, there's come more brokenness in families, more difficulty, more depression, more thoughts of suicide. Listen, this city I love. I've grown up in El Paso, I was born in El Paso, I love it. One of the things I love about it is it's friendly. But don't let our friendliness, church, fool you into thinking this city does not desperately need the grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are people walking the streets smiling and saying hi to you whose marriages are imploding, whose kids are rebelling, dealing with depression and anxiety and thoughts of suicide, dealing with lostness, dealing with hopelessness, living without a purpose, looking for something to believe in. That's why our longing is to see the gospel renew us that we might be ambassadors of it to the city around us. Amen.
43 · Direct application: pray for El Paso and for your own role as an ambassador in the specific places God has stationed you
Let me encourage you, pray for this city. Pray for where the Lord has placed you as an ambassador in this city, that the gospel might go throughout this city and throughout the world.
44 · Transition into the conclusion
Let me end with this.
45 · A vulnerable personal story of the pastor's exhaustion and emptiness before visiting his hospitalized father
A number of weeks ago, my dad was in the hospital, and he was in there for a number of days. And I was going to stop by to see him, and it had been a hard week. I mean, it's always hard to see somebody you love in the hospital struggling with a medical issue. And it was a hard week as well at the church. It was a number of just hard situations that had come up at the church. And I was tired and I showed up at the hospital and I remember walking up toward the room and I just felt empty. I felt like I had nothing, you know. I was trying to think of something encouraging to say to my parents when I got to the hospital room. But I don't know if you've had this experience where you just, there was nothing coming to mind. And I was worried, I'm going to go in that room and I'm just going to be like a little rain cloud. You know, just like, 'How are you doing in the hospital? I have a lot of problems too,' you know, and it's just, that's not going to be encouraging. And so just, I noticed as I was going up, there was a sign that said, 'The little chapel is this way.' And so I felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to, okay, you need to stop and pray. You need help. And so I go to the little chapel and I don't always do this. You don't have to always do this, but I felt led by the Lord to say, okay, I need to take 10 minutes and I need to get on my knees physically and I need to ask God for help. So I did. So I just, I got on my knees and I thought, this is so weird. I'm in a fake chapel inside a hospital asking God for help. Didn't know what to pray for but just began to pour out my heart, began to pour out the burdens of the week, began to pour out a longing for my, you know, my family, a longing for my wife, longing for my church, longing for my city. I began to wrestle with my own heart, realizing I was being given to anxiety in these things. I began to— the Lord began to bring truth to mind and I began to just— and I set a timer for 10 minutes and it went off, beep beep, and before I realized it. And I almost viscerally, I remember as I stood up, it was like I woke up. Where I'd felt in a fog before, all of a sudden, bam, it was like the Spirit of God opened my eyes, gave me energy and life. And I went in and hopefully was able to be somewhat encouraging or at least not a rain cloud and I think the Lord used it. Church, we need the weapon all prayer for all of life. There is no part of our life that we do not need this. And Paul is wise to remind us of it.
46 · Transition into the practical takeaway
And as we end, we're going to end in a particular way because I want us to— if I could ask you to do something for me, if you could take out a piece of paper or your phone, I want to give you a very short prayer to write down that I would love every member of the church to pray for just for this week. Who knows what the Lord could do? Because I thought, okay, as we're finishing Ephesians, I don't want us just to finish Ephesians, I want us to pray Ephesians as we end it. So I thought, okay, I'm going to condense Ephesians down to a page. And then I was like, that's too long. We're not going to remember to pray a page of Ephesians. So I was like, I'm going to get a paragraph of Ephesians. And that was too long too because, you know, I wanted to be even shorter, so I've tried to imperfectly get Ephesians down to 4 phrases, 1 sentence that I want to encourage you to pray this week. And this is what it is.
47 · A four-phrase prayer distilling the entire book of Ephesians is presented and explained
From Ephesians 1 and 2, first, 'Lord, thank you for your grace.' Just start there. That's where Paul starts in Ephesians. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing, comes to us through Christ. We've been showered with blessing, with grace after grace after grace. After grace, 'By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God so that no one can boast.' Right? We start there. 'Lord, thank you for your grace.' And let me just say, if you're not a Christian, this is the thing that separates Christian prayer from just daily ritualistic prayer in other religions. We are not praying a series of things or praying long enough or loud enough so that we win the hearing of God for us. So that we go through it enough and kind of earn our way into God's good graces so he listens to us. No, Christian prayer is utterly different. It is on the basis of the grace that God has shown us, that we were dead, that we were lost, but now we've been found and made alive and saved, that we were far from God, but we are brought near to God by the grace of God. That's where we start. We start rehearsing the grace of God in our lives. Lord, thank you for your grace. Second, help me feel the reality of your grace. Help me feel your grace is a simpler way to say it. Help me feel your grace. And I get that. You think, 'Well, I don't like that, it's touchy-feely.' That's what Paul prays in Ephesians 1 and 3. He prays in chapter 1 that you would know and experience and feel the hope to which God has called you to. And in chapter 3, he prays that the Spirit of God would strengthen you in your inmost being that you might grasp with the love of God for you. It's that prayer where we're asking, 'Lord, help me feel this grace. Help me to take this from my head to my heart this week.' Third phrase: 'Help me live in light of your grace.' Right? This is chapters 4, 5, 6. 'Help me live in light of your grace. Help my marriage to be different, my sexuality to be different, my relationship to other Christians to be different. Help me to be different in light of this grace.' And then last, right here, fourth, help me shine your grace. Help me shine your grace. Help me to speak this. Help me to be an ambassador. Help me to demonstrate and declare this to the people around us.
48 · A quote from Hames and Reeves on Isaiah 60 ties the sermon's conclusion to the biblical-theological theme of light shining
Let me end with a quick quote as we summarize Ephesians and then allow it to lead us into worship. Because as we are filled with the grace of God and the good news of God, it should spill over into being shown out to others. Hames and Reeves say this, 'When Isaiah called the people of God to arise and shine, it was because, quote, 'Your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.'' This was no— I lost my page. It was no what? What did it— in suspense. This was no— This was no frustrated outburst pushing them to get up and get on with it, but a promise that amidst the darkness covering the world, His glory may be seen upon you. And they say this, 'As God shines upon His beloved redeemed people, so He will shine out from us.'
49 · Transition into corporate prayer, inviting the congregation to stand and pray the four-phrase Ephesians summary together
So, would you stand and let's end with would you be okay with praying this over one another today?
50 · The closing prayer prays the four-phrase Ephesians summary over the congregation, moving from gratitude for grace to a request for experiential knowledge of grace, to transformation in light of grace, to shining grace to others
Lord, first, we rejoice in and thank you for your grace. Lord, thank you for the grace of God. Thank you that your undeserved favor is the foundation and basis of our entire Christian life. It is not that we will one day be good enough to gain your attention. No, Father, it's that you, while we were dead and lost, You made us alive and you saved us. And therefore, every good thing in our lives is a gift of grace. Lord, help us to feel this. Help us to experience this. Help this to go from our head to our hearts. May we know deep down in our bones the hope to which we've been called. May we know the love of God for us. And, Lord, help us to live out this grace. May our marriages be different, our parenting be different, our relationships be different, our relationship to our sexuality be different. Relationship to other Christians and our unity and conflict and forgiveness and reconciliation be different. I pray that we would be different. And Lord, last we ask, Lord, help us to shine your grace out to others. May you, as you shine upon your beloved redeemed people, shine out from us. And Lord, as we fill our hearts up with the gospel as we go, may your light shine in our hearts. May we be full to the brim of the grace of God that we might eagerly share it with others. Amen.