Not Today Satan Part 4

Welcome:

YouVersion

Genesis (look to the stars) next week

Recap:

We need to be aware of Spiritual warfare

We can’t hide from it or ignore it

We need to be prepared for it

By putting on the full armor of God so that we may stand on the ground Christ has already purchased for us

We need to learn how to protect ourselves

By depending on Christ and others

Remembering what Christ has done for us through salvation

And with the power of the Word of God

Flow:

This morning we will talk about perhaps our greatest and yet most neglected weapon that we have. PRAYER!

So I want to pick up where we left off last week, read and pray for us and then we will dive in.

Ephesians 6:18–20 NIV

18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

pray

If we remember Paul right before this told us

Ephesians 6:17 NIV

17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

And then goes right into v. 18

Since greek during this time had no punctuation or spaces Paul literally goes from telling us to put on the armor of God into praying in the Spirit without ever taking a breath

What this should signal to us is that we are to put on the full armor of God with all kinds of prayers and requests, praying in the Spirit.

We can’t miss this: the armor of God and our prayers are intertwined.

There is no separation here

It’s not as if we can either decide to put on the full armor of God or pray

Like just pick whichever one you think you are best at

No! Paul is saying, put on the full armor of God and pray like crazy!

My worry is that the thing missing in most Christian’s lives, and in most churches for that matter, is prayer

And I don’t mean a prayer over supper

Or a prayer as you get in the car for a long trip

I mean strong, biblical, faithful, bold, strategic prayers

Now, there’s always going to be elements of prayer we don’t understand

And today is not the day to talk about the theology of prayer

Today is the day to see how our prayer has an impact on our spiritual warfare

It’s a day to get us off of our butts and on to our knees

It’s a day to, because of what God’s Word says, begin taking prayer seriously

So, let’s talk about this somewhat practically.

Like, how do we pray, when do we pray, why do we pray? right?

First, why do we pray?

point blank: Because our commander, God, commands that we do so.

Everyone who reads the NT and Acts in particular will say, I want to be a part of a NT modeled church.

And that is a good desire to have

It’s a desire I have

But what we often miss is that the thing that marked the Acts church most was that it was a praying church

And you may not believe me and that’s fine because I’m going to show you anyways

When Jesus ascends and they are awaiting further instruction, what do they do?

Acts 1:14 NIV

14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

When described in

Acts 2:42 NIV

42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

Right before the first major miracle of the church

Acts 3:1 NIV

1 One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon.

After the first time persecution had afflicted the church Peter and John returned from their flogging. The church gathered around them and began to pray and this happened

Acts 4:31 NIV

31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

The Church expanded and much needed to be done and the apostles couldn’t do it all themselves. They found themselves doing things they weren’t called to so they appointed deacons over the church so that they could in

Acts 6:4 NIV

4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

When Peter has a vision that would change his ministry forever what was he doing?

He was praying.

A powerful church is a praying church

Where prayer exists the power of God is evident

I can’t explain all of it but what I know is that when it comes to spiritual warfare our prayers have a supernatural power

There’s a story in Mark 9 where the disciples are asked to cast out a demon but they are unable

the man then takes his son who was possessed and brings him to Jesus

Jesus commands that the impure spirit leaves and it does

And then we read in

Mark 9:28–29 NIV

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”

Our prayers have a certain and specific power to them

And if we desire to be disciples of Jesus then we will pray

So, what does this look like? What if I don’t know what to pray or how to pray?

Or what if I know about prayer but I’m just not very good at it?

Prayer is a discipline and one that takes practice

Just like you aren’t going to wake up one day and be a pro at anything

prayer takes discipline and practice

And remember this: posture is more important than perfection

The posture of your heart is more important than nailing every single word and step in your prayers

When we come before the throne of the King of kings, it is more important that we are posturing ourselves in a way to be heard.

You can look at the pharisees as an example of people who knew all the right things but had an atrocious prayer life because of their hearts

So, what are these things that we should be practicing?

Consistent prayers

Paul says here in eph 6 things like: “pray on all occasions.” “always keep on praying.”

We are to pray continuously with specific requests

There’s an acronym that may help

ACTS. When we pray, remember acts.

Adoration

We come before Him with praise and adoration. Giving honor and glory to the one deserving of it.

Confession

We need to be open and honest, confessing and throwing off everything that may hinder our prayers

Thanksgiving

Be slow to request and quick to rejoice. We need to look back on all that God has already done for us and come before Him with humble and grateful hearts

Supplication

Then we can, for ourselves and others, boldly ask God for what we need and desire.

If we use this acronym we will have well rounded prayer lives

But it must be done consistently

The Bible doesn’t tell us how many times a day to pray

It doesn’t say to get up in the morning and pray and then when you lay down at night and then you are good

The NT indicates to us that we should be people who’s lives are covered in prayer. At all times! on all occasions! Always keep on praying.

It is good to have set times of prayer. I think that is a healthy habit. But our prayer life should not just be confined to those moments

Intense prayers

It’s not enough to just be consistent, we must also be intense in our prayers

Paul tells us here to “be alert.” which translates to “be without sleep.”

If we only pray when we are falling asleep at night, something is wrong.

We are at war!

We need diligent and vigilant prayers!

The type of prayer that you are on!

Like 4 coffees in a shot of espresso ready to take on the world type of prayers

Elizabeth Elliot has a fantastic quote about this. She says:

People who ski, I suppose, are people who happen to like skiing, who have time for skiing, who can afford to ski, and who are good at skiing. Recently I found that I often treat prayer as though it were a sport like skiing–something you do if you like it, something you do in your spare time, something you do if you can afford the trouble, something you do if you’re good at it. Otherwise you do without it most of the time. When you get in a pinch you try it and then you call an expert. But prayer isn’t a sport. It’s work.

Prayer is the opposite of leisure. It’s something to be engaged in, not indulged in. It’s a job you give first priority to, performing not when you have energy left for nothing else. “Pray when you feel like praying,” somebody has said. “Pray when you don’t feel like praying. Pray until you do feel like praying.” If we pray only “at our leisure”–that is, at our own convenience–can we be true disciples? Jesus said, “Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences” (Luke 9:23 LB). The apostle Paul did use an analogy from sports to describe prayer. He said we “wrestle.” In the wrestling of a Christian in prayer, “our fight is not against any physical enemy: it is against organizations and powers that are spiritual. We are up against the unseen power that controls this dark world, and spiritual agents from the very headquarters of evil” (Eph. 6:12, Phillips). Seldom do we consider the nature of our opponent, and that is to his advantage. When we do recognize him for what he is, however, we have an inkling as to why prayer is never easy. It’s the weapon that Unseen Power dreads most, and if he can get us to treat it as casually as we treat a pair of skis or a tennis racquet he can keep his hold.

When we pray, we do not do it lightly.

It is not a religious ritual to perform

But a weapon to wield in the fight against spiritual forces.

Strategic prayers

Toward the end of v 18 and into v 19 Paul get’s very focused on his topic

He asks that the church of Ephesus yes pray on all occasion with all kinds of prayers and requests but also to pray specific prayers

He says here to

Pray for all the Lord’s people

and pray that he may make known the mystery of the gospel

Pointed, strategic prayers

in vv 19 and 20 we see words like “fearlessly” and “boldly”

The early church was not just a praying church but a church that would pray bold prayers, strategic prayers.

They understood the power that went with them so they had nothing to fear and so they prayed fearless prayers

They asked for bold things!

If we are to be kingdom minded people. If we want to make a kingdom impact.

We will start on our knees.

Continuously offering up intense and strategic prayers

S.D. Gordon: the great people of the earth today are people who pray. I do not mean people who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor yet those who can explain about prayer; but I mean those people who make time and pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. This something else is important. Very important, and pressing, but still less important and less pressing than prayer.

True disciples make time to pray.

When we pray there is a personal aspect and something we call intercessory prayer

It’s a picture of going to war on behalf of someone through your prayers

It’s what Paul is asking of the church of Ephesus here.

He says pray for all the Lord’s people

Intercede on their behalf

And pray (intercede) for me while I fearlessly make know the gospel.

So, we are called to both. Paul says here that we have all kinds of prayers and requests.

What do we see Jesus do right before He goes to the cross?

He gathers up His closest people and they pray

Now they failed to uphold their end of the bargain but this is what Jesus does.

He models this for us because it is important

So, what I want to do is assemble a prayer team.

This team will get regular updates on specific things to pray for, for Cornerstone and it’s people

Just like Paul asks his church

I’m asking you. To intercede regularly for us.

So, there’s really only one requirement to join.

That you will actually pray.

And listen, no hard feeling here.

If you say, this is kind of new to me, i’m not sure, or let me practice some more

That is fine. But if you sign up, all I’m asking is that you truly pray continuously, intensely, and strategically for the requests.

So, if you want to do this and be a part of that team, then go to

cornerstonecc.church/online and fill out a connection card and under comments write “prayer team”

We will add you to the team and will send out requests as they arise so that you can be strategically praying for the people of Cornerstone and it’s mission to preach the gospel

Now, I want to end with this.

sometimes the topic of spiritual warfare can be an overwhelming one

To be honest, there have been multiple times in the last few weeks that I have felt overwhelmed with spiritual warfare

So what I want to do is end this morning and this series with a powerful passage of Scripture

I want it to remind us of some truths and encourage us in our fight.

So, I’m just going to read it, I’m not going to explain it today, then I’ll pray and we will dismiss.

Romans 8:31–39 NIV

31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered 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 convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.