Living a Christian Behind Enemy Lines Pt 5
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We are going to finish our mini-series on Living as a Christian Behind Enemy Lines. I’ve really enjoyed digging deep into this classic text on spiritual warfare. I’ve never preached through the entirety of this text with this kind of depth. In a lot of ways it was challenging to study. We will have done 5 sermons on 11 verses. There was a lot in these verses. Congratulations, if you were here for all 5, you’ve almost survived. But, what has been harder is embracing the reality of its truth. You might ask, “What is hard about learning about the weapons that God has given us in Christ to fight the devil?” That’s not hard. That’s encouraging. I think what is difficult is the realization of just how poorly I’m using them. Has anybody been on the struggle bus with me in that?
A.W. Tozer once wrote,
“Many Christians view this world as a playground rather than a battleground.” -A.W. Tozer
“Many Christians view this world as a playground rather than a battleground.” -A.W. Tozer
We don’t like to face the reality that we are at war with the devil and with our own depravity. A lot of time the devil doesn’t have to do anything. Our own fallen flesh is so corrupt that it just leads us into sin without any prompting.
It is not hard to sin. It is not hard to disobey God. We our born fallen. Our default is to sin.
I can hear you know though, “Wait a minute, Bradley. I thought that you taught us over the last 4 sermons about our new nature in Christ? We have been born again. In our new birth and our new identity, we have the spiritual weapons of the attributes of Christ.”
Sure we do. And thank goodness that we do.
We still struggle with the residue of our old flesh. That residue keeps us from naturally using those weapons. Or we might say, “Living out who we are in Christ.”
A.W. Tozer once wrote,
“Many Christians view this world as a playground rather than a battleground.” -A.W. Tozer
“Many Christians view this world as a playground rather than a battleground.” -A.W. Tozer
Most people that I know would rather play than fight. So, we have got to set ourselves every morning to the reality of the spiritual fight ahead of us and employ the weapons that we have to fight with: truth, righteousness, readiness, faith, salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
Last week we had an interesting discovery about “the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.” (v.17) Of course, we know that the sword is an offensive weapon. We are told in Hebrews that that sword is sharp and effective for battle.
12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
But the question that I asked that I got the most comments about after the message is “What gives the sword of the Word it’s edge?” The answer given by the text is the, God does. It is the Sword of the Spirit. It is the Spirit of God that gives God’s word it’s power. The Word of God has immense power, because God is all powerful. Several of you mentioned that you approached your Bibles differently this week.
This brings us the issue of where we find the power to where the armor and fight the war. Paul says that we find the power to fight with the attributes of Christ that we are clothed with through prayer.
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,
We pray because we are at war, and most of the time we don’t really want to fight. We’d rather play, and that is a very dangerous place to be. When we do pray we often use it for the wrong reason.
John Piper once described the problem like this:
Sermons from John Piper (2000–2014) Missions Exists Because Worship Doesn’t: A Bethlehem Legacy, Inherited and Bequeathed
One of the reasons our prayer malfunction is that we try to treat it like a domestic intercom for calling the butler for another pillow in the den rather than treating it like a wartime walkie-talkie for calling down the power of the Holy Spirit in the battle for souls.
Notice that he says, “We are to pray at all times, ‘in the Spirit.” That speaks to where the power of prayer comes from. If there is power in the Word of God because of who God is (the word is the sword of the Spirit), then there is also power in the presence of God because of who God is (we pray in the Spirit). Prayer has power because the person we are talking to has all power.
Think about this, you can’t pray and actually communicate with God without being in the presence of God.
If you did our Sunday night, men’s and women’s Matthew study, you will remember that Jesus said concerning prayer:
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
When we read the Bible, we see God; we hear God. When we pray God sees us. God hears us. That’s why we combine Bible reading and prayer. As we pray, we often hear more God more clearly in his word.
*I want to take a few minutes and talk about how to combine the word and prayer. When I was in seminary I learned to pray and have my prayers directed by the word. This is very helpful because my prayers can feel very repetitive. Like I’m having the same conversation with a friend every day.
*Before my grandmother died 11 years ago, see started struggling with demensia. I would go see her in the nursing home and we would have the same conversation about 4 times in 20 minutes. I love her and I understood the problem. I sometimes wonder if God feels the same way about me. I know he loves me and understands. But, still most of my prayers feel like a laundry list of the same things that I need from God, over and over day after day.
However, learning to pray through the word allows me to present the same needs in a deer way directed by the concerns of God.
John Piper wrote an article on this back in the 80’s that I read in the late 90’s that help me understand this:
1. Realize that there is a direct connection between the degree to which our minds are shaped by Scripture and the degree to which our prayers are answered.
7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
Jesus said, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you” ().
2. Remember that, as D. M. M’Intyre says, God only answers petitions that his Son has had a hand in formulating.
14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
“If we ask anything according to his will he hears us” ().
3. Note that the early church prayed Scripture. For example, the prayer of quotes . Also Old Testament prayers like Ezra’s prayer in are rehearsals of biblical history and biblical texts.
Also Old Testament prayers like Ezra’s prayer in are rehearsals of biblical history and biblical texts.
4. Praying the Word means reading (or reciting) Scripture in a spirit of prayer and letting the meaning of the verses become our prayer and inspire our thoughts.
5. There are many possible ways to do it, not just one. It can be done alone or in groups. You can pause after each phrase, or each sentence, or each paragraph, or each chapter.
6. I would suggest the following procedure as a starter:
Find a quiet time and place.Begin with a brief prayer like,
“O Lord, I need you, I come seeking you and needing help. Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of the word” ().
Read a chapter of an epistle quickly to get the gist of it. The reason for this is that the meaning of the individual sentences is controlled by their context. We must not make a verse mean anything we like.
If anything has “jumped out” as especially relevant to you, dwell on it and let it inspire and shape your prayer even before you go back to read a sentence at a time.
If you bump into difficulties you can’t understand, make a mental note of it for later thought and research. Be honest. But then move on to what does seem clear.
Now go back to the first sentence and read it with the question: If this sentence were to become a prayer about my life, what would it sound like? It may convict you and lead you to a prayer of confession and repentance. It may inspire you to pursue a new act of obedience and lead to a prayer for power and enablement.
It may inspire you to pursue a new act of obedience and lead to a prayer for power and enablement.Try running the verse through your day and seeing its relation to breakfast and work and leisure plans. Try seeing it in relation to different people at home, work, and church. You will find one verse can produce a half hour of prayer when viewed from a dozen different situations and relationships.Try to build biblical ways of speaking into your head and heart. Especially important here is the need to enrich our vocabulary of praise. The psalms are great for this.If this all seems difficult, try the simplest form of praying Scripture first; namely, praying Scripture prayers, like ; ; ; ; ; ; ; , ; , , etc. All you need to do here is pretend that you are the biblical author and then read it as your own, perhaps changing some pronouns.If you have a list of concerns that you want to pray for, read the chapter a third time for clues as to how these things should be prayed for.
Try running the verse through your day and seeing its relation to breakfast and work and leisure plans. Try seeing it in relation to different people at home, work, and church. You will find one verse can produce a half hour of prayer when viewed from a dozen different situations and relationships.
Try to build biblical ways of speaking into your head and heart. Especially important here is the need to enrich our vocabulary of praise. The psalms are great for this.If this all seems difficult, try the simplest form of praying Scripture first; namely, praying Scripture prayers, like ; ; ; ; ; ; ; , ; , , etc. All you need to do here is pretend that you are the biblical author and then read it as your own, perhaps changing some pronouns.If you have a list of concerns that you want to pray for, read the chapter a third time for clues as to how these things should be prayed for.
A Psalm of David.
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
3 He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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,
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,
19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,
20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
Eph. 6:18-20Missionaries don’t just need money. They do need money. People took care of Paul many places as he traveled building churches and sharing the gospel. They need power. That means they need prayer.
Two truths that I see here:
I. Evangelism needs prayer. Paul said for us to pray for all the saints and for him. What was he doing? He was sharing the gospel.
He understands that he can’t simply use logic to reason a person into heaven. Sure, he can appeal to the mind, but that won’t change the heart. Only God can change the heart. Only God can bring the heart to repentance and faith.
And, so as believers, we need to pray for missionaries as they share the gospel. And, we need to pray that God will convert the lost by his power.
*The following is part of Puritan prayer that highlighted in Tim Challis’s email just this morning.
O Lord, how insufficient I am for this work. With what will I pierce the scales of Leviathan—or make my heart, hard as a millstone, feel what you desire it to feel?
Will I go and speak to the grave, and expect the dead to obey me and come forth?
Will I make a speech to the rocks, or lecture the mountains, and move them with arguments?
Will I make the blind see?
From the beginning of the world no one has ever heard of opening the eyes of a person born blind. But, Lord, you can pierce the heart of the sinner....
My heart would melt to see their houses on fire when they were fast asleep in their beds. So is my soul moved within me to see them endlessly lost?
Lord, have compassion, and save them out of the burning. Put forth your divine power, and the work will be done.
Slay the sin, and save the soul of the sinner. Amen.
II. Paul is afraid that he won’t be faithful to share.
Biblical Christians were very thoughtful about asking God for boldness in evangelism because they were afraid that they wouldn’t be.
23 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them.
24 And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them,
25 who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, “ ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed’—
27 for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,
28 to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness,
Let’s not be concerned that we might be asked to share the gospel. Let’s be concerned that their will be opportunities that we won’t take because of fear. Prayer prepares us for that moment.
Missionaries don’t just need money. They do need money. People took care of Paul many places as he traveled building churches and sharing the gospel. They need power. That means they need prayer.
1028Let me have your prayers, and I can do anything! Let me be without my people’s prayers, and I can do nothing.—11.236
Those faithful to share must be believers faithful in prayer.