ARE YOU SLEEPING OR RESTING ?

INTRO:

As you are well aware by now, the theme of this retreat is “STAND” , taken from the Eph. 6 in describing what Paul says we as Christians should be doing in the midst of a battle we face

In this last section of the Book of Ephesians Paul addresses an important issue...... the spiritual battle we are all under. ....

There is a battle that we are all in (Eph. 6:12)

in this world there are two forces that are at play. There is the kingdom of light (which is God, his angels and his people) .

there is also the kingdom of darkness which is under the direction of Satan and his demons and the people under his control

these two forces are in a battle for your soul and mine. Now God has paid the ultimate price and has given His son to die on the cross for the whole world (Jn.3:16)

we already have the victory, yet...... as Satan has been defeated already, he wants to bring down as many people as he can with him and cause people to enter the kingdom of darkness rather than the kingdom of light.

2. The battle is a spiritual battle (EPh.12)

now as Eph. 6:12 has told us, that we in a spiritual battle not a pyshical battle. This is important to understand. A good solider has to know where he is fighting , where the battleground is and who he is fighting in order to engage in the fight. So Paul makes sure that he tells us that we are not facing an enemy that is pyshical. Therefore our pyshical abilities will not do anything.

We are to fight this battle by spiritual means.

3. God has given us the Power for the battle (Eph. 6:10-18)

now Paul makes sure to tell us that we have not been left alone in this battle, but God has given us power for this battle.

The power that comes from already winning

we have to remember that the battle has already be won by the work on the cross. We have been made right with God, we have been redeemed . So we don’t fight the spiritual battle in order to gain victory or in order to conquer .... but we fight from a place of victory .... and we fight so that we don’t lose ground in the fight.... which is why Paul calls believers to “stand” and not retreat, not to give up what God has already done for us..... he doesn’t tell us to go and conquer

2. The power in His might (v.10)

Paul tells us we fight this battle not on our own strength , but in the power of His strength. We have no ability on our own to fight against the forces of darkness and our flesh.... we need the super natural power of God and His Holy Spirit working in my life… And it is encouraging to see that we do not fight this battle alone..

3. The power of the armor of God.

part of what God has given us , is the ability to engage and stand in the battle. And what He has given us is the armor to put on to be able to face the battle, to stand in the midst of the battle

and this is what we have been looking at all week. Talking a lot about this armor that God has given us , that is meant to help us STAND in the midst of the battle.

we looked at the 6 different pieces of the armor God has called us to put on.

The waist belt of truth

The breastplate of righteousness

The shoes of the Gospel of peace

The shield of faith

The helmet of Salvation

The sword of the spirit

Transition

tonight we finish off the armor of God with the 7th piece of the armor. And some would say that it is the most important piece of the armor, for it is without this piece of the armor, that the rest of the armor will be render ineffective........

we are talking about prayer .......

prayer is the one piece of the armor that is both part of the defensive stradegy and is also a part of the offensive stradegy..... It is like when you are watching football....

you have an offense and defense on a team..... you really can’t win the game with just scoring alot of points.... if you don’t have a defense to stop the other team from scoring.... so both of these are important....

but on a team you also have a head coach who is in the middle of the team and he is at work both helping to call the offensive plays and the defensive plays.....

prayer is our spiritual head coach if you would who facilitates both the offensive attack and the defensive stand. Prayer is the key in standing in the midst of the battle and not losing ground..Prayer is the key to remaining victorious....

Read. Eph. 6:14-19

So as we look at this, the first thing that we want to talk about is “WHAT IS PRAYER”

I. THAT CHARGE TO PRAY

The thing that Paul addresses now in speaking about the armor of God..... is prayer. The Question has to be asked..... WHAT IS PRAYER

in a nutshell, prayer is talking to God. That is the simple answer. But there are a number of ways that the bible speaks about how we are to pray and what prayer does, and this gives us insight into what prayer is and is not.

A. HOW TO PRAY

PRAYER

as we mentioned before it is the talking with God. It is an individual like you and me having communication with a deity or a God. For the Christian, it is having communication with the God of the bible, the God who created all things, the God who sent His son to die on the cross for us.

This communication looks different at times. Sometimes it is vocal, sometimes it is speaking to God in my mind and heart quietly , other times it may be through praising Him in song or in the meditating of scripture.

So prayer is our communication with God. Now As we communicate with God , that communication turns in different directions depending on the situation, on the day, on the things i am going through

and there are a number of things that this turns into like thanksgiving and petition.... We are just going to look at few for the sake of time and in order to stay on topic.

one of the things that takes place as i communicate with God, is there may be “supplication”

2. SUPPLICATION

Supplication - means to be in a need or in want, and to be moved to communicate to God in prayer about that need or that desire. The desire in supplication is that God would answer our prayers, that he would grant us our wish

Luke 11:9–10 NKJV

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

John 14:13 NKJV

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

so does this mean that God is a magic gene who is here just to answer whatever i ask??? NO . But God answers our prayers that are according to His will ..

1 John 5:14–15 NKJV

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

Often times God uses prayer not just to accomplish His will in other people, like he can’t do things without us, or He needs us..... but often times God uses deep need in our lives that causes us to go to God in prayer and supplication in order to change our hearts, to do a work in us. Often it is my will that needs to be aligned with God’s will...

Transition

now getting back to what Paul is charging us to do...... He tells us to pray in supplication in the spirit. Or according to the spirit of God. (v.18)

in (v.19) Paul asks that the believers would pray for him that God would give him boldness to preach the word of God. This leads us to the next way to pray....

3. INTERCESSION

intercession is taking prayer and supplication and combining them. It is seeing the need in someone other than yourself and taking that need to God in prayer. This is what intercession prayer is.

so it is obvious that not only is prayer used as a tool to communicate between us and God, and how God uses prayer to align us to His will…but God uses prayer in our lives to affect the lives of others......

as we have mentioned already , these are just a few ways to pray, there are more.... Now staying within the context of our passage and our retreat theme...... lets look at how Prayer helps us in our spiritual battle.

B. How does Prayer help me in the battle ?

Prayer Helps Me to Put the Armor of God on

in the original greek manuscript when it says “praying always”........ actually says ..... “by means of prayer”....

or in other words Paul charges the believers to put on the armor of God.... to put on the belt of truth , the breastplate of righteousness , the helmet of salvation, and the other parts of the armor.....by means of prayer.

it is though prayer that we are able to put on the entire armor. We have to remember that the battle we are in is a spiritual battle and our weapons are spiritual....Therefore , the only way we can put on a spiritual armor is by spiritual means..... which is why Paul tells us to pray in the spirit.

As we spend time communicating with God, our heart gets knit to God’s...... we begin to see things the way God does...... Our eyes, our mind and our hearts become open to spiritual things.... it is here that we begin to see the reality of the battle.... and we see the necessity of putting on the armor.

Prayer helps us to be on the defensive strategy necessary to stand .

2. Prayer Helps me Engage in the Battle

it does you and i no good to put on the armor of God and do nothing..... Imagine a professional football player putting on all his pads.... then going out in the middle of the in the middle of a play and do nothing but stand there. ....

all the padding in the world would do nothing to stop him from getting hit and possibly hurt if he did nothing but stand there.

there is a lot more in taking a defensive stand on the football field … than just standing on the football field......

if we were watching the superbowl and we saw a football player just standing there getting hit and beat up and doing nothing, we would all agree that was weird or something is wrong with him.....

but the reality is that there are a lot of Christians who are just like that guy .... they learn about putting on the armor of God and they make efforts to out on the armor..... but they don’t understand the importance of prayer in the battle. and how Prayer is the supernatural energy that allows up to not only take up the armor of God.... but allows us to engage in the battle.

and they are walking around with some padding on , but are just getting rocked by a 350 pound demon again and again.... so at that point the armor of God has only helped out a bit.... what is needed is the energy to engage in the battle.

or using the war illustration that Paul uses here… it does no good for you and i to put on the armor as a solider, to walk out to the battleground and just stand there....

but with the armor there has to be the motivation and the energy to engage the enemy.

Transition

as we mentioned already… it is in prayer that we knit our hearts to God and we are able to have eyes , a mind and a heart to see spiritual things. It is here in prayer, that we will see the necessity to put on the armor of God..... and just as important we will be able to see the enemy directly in front of us attacking.

it will put an urgency in us to know that i have to engage in the battle. Lets say i heard that a bunch of youth were planning on tee peeing my house one day.

and for the next few days i get water balloons, my nerf gun etc… all ready for when the youth show up… but night after night nothing happens.. after a while i will lose interest in being up late night watching and being ready.....

but what if all of a sudden late night i get up to go to the bathroom and i hear something outside… and as i look out the window… i see a bunch of kids dressed in black with toliet paper.... all of a sudden the fact that i can see the enemy has motivated me and has given me energy even though its late to run out and defend my house and my honor..... this has litteraly happened to me… so come to my house at your own risk....

this is what prayer does, it pulls back the spiritual curtain.

Transition

now part of the battle is the offensive stand ... not only can I defend myself spiritually in the battle but i can help others as well. Remember with supplication and with intercession prayer....

2 Corinthians 10:3–5 NKJV

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Paul tells us that the weapons God has given us are not pyhsical but are spiritual and are mighty in God and are meant for pulling down strongholds.

Strongholds speak of bondage. the thought is that a person is in bondage , he is a slave to a master ....

for many people they are under a stronghold of sin, like drinking, porn, lust, drugs, eating disorders , whatever it is. But these strongholds are what satan uses in the life of people to keep them from giving their lives over to Jesus, or to keep God’s kids from being who God has called them to be, that is you and me as believers.

so what Paul is saying is that Prayer is a way of breaking the control the evil master has on people we know.... prayer has the power to break the chains that the evil master has on you and I...... this is why we are to pray....

This is why Paul says to pray without ceasing in ( 1 Thes. 5:17_)... there is such an important role that prayer plays in our spiritual life....

now not only does Paul address the importance of praying but he also gives us an exhortation to keep praying and tell us what keeps us from praying.

II. THE CHARGE TO BE WATCHFUL

A. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WATCHFUL ?

Paul tells us to be “watchful with perseverance”

to be watchful means to be alert on guard. Like a platoon walking in the enemy territory, it would be important for the soliders to be watchful of the enemy. To be alert for when the enemy comes.

1 Peter 5:8–9 NKJV

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

This is the very thing that Peter was thinking about. The word “vigilant and sober” has the same meaning as “be watchful with perseverance”

the picture is of a lion prowling slowing hiding watching his prey.... and in the moment the prey doesn’t expect it, then he pounces in for the kill. this is what satan does, he is always watching you and I looking for an opportunity that we lay our guard down so he can attack us.

this is why it is important to be watchful.

B. WHY IS BEING WATCHFUL AND PRAYER LINKED TOGETHER ?

turn with me to Matt. 26:35- 46

Here in this story Jesus is praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before His crucifixion. And he has with Him His disciples . And it tells us that Jesus left the disciples and told them to watch and to pray , then Jesus goes over by himself to another place.

now we see Jesus returns two more times and each time when he comes he finds that they disciples are not praying.... WHy? because they are resting and sleeping...

Matthew 26:45 NKJV

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

these two things are linked together because they both depend on each other and they influence each other.

you cannot be influenced to pray if you are not motivated by your watchfulness… and you won’t be able be watchful and see the enemy if you don’t gain spiritual insight through prayer.

C. WHEN DO I FAIL TO BE WATCHFUL? ( MATT. 26:45)

Jesus makes it really clear here why we fail to be watchful and when we fail to pray.....

Matthew 26:45 NKJV

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Jesus calls out the disciples.... the reason they didn’t pray and were not watchful of the enemy was that they were resting and sleeping......

this is the same problem that we deal with in our lives.... we may not be sleeping pyshically but spiritually we can be put to sleep.....

and what can do that to us is a false sense of security ...... in other words most people pray and seek God in the midst of hard times, when something really bad is happening in your life, you can find it really easy to pray…

but when things are going smoothly , we can get distracted by many other things… God takes a back seat and everything else becomes priority over God.

this happens when we let our guard down assuming that we have it all together. We are good christian kids, we are not as bad as other people..... so there really isnt a need to pray as much or to read the bible as much.....

Transition

2 Sam 11 tells us the story of King David.. as the chapter starts , it says that at the time when kings were out to battle, David stayed at home from the battle.

in other words David was normally in the battle with his army. He had conquered cities and armies and at this point he wanted to rest. He did not feel the need to be personally engaged in the battle.

this is what the enemy was waiting for. This is where David let his guard down and went out and saw Bathsheba… He would commit adultery with her and would start a downward path that would have great consequences......

but it all started by him not thinking he did not have to engage in the battle.

Jesus tells the disciples in the passage in Matt. to pray and be watchful because the spirit is willing but the flesh is week.

Jesus knew all too well that though our spirit may want to do what is right, the reality is that our flesh is weak and any door we leave open will be a stonghold of the enemy..... SO there is a daily need of being watchful and praying as a solder of God in order to put on the whole armor of God and to be constantly engaged in the battle.

QUESTION

ARE YOU WATCHING AND PRAYING OR SLEEPING AND RESTING?