Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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 ..

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