Stand Alert - Pray in the Spirit

Introduction: The Armour of God and Prayer

We've come to the end of a series on the armour of God, and today we look at Ephesians 6:18. Let's start by reading verse 10:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

The Apostle Paul is saying that Christians are in a battle. The devil is real. He doesn't have horns, but he's real. He hates God, he hates God's people, and he hates the good news of Jesus. He's our enemy and he will try to trip us up.

If you become a truster in Jesus, he can never stop you being a truster in Jesus in the end. But he'll try to tempt you, to get you to fall into sin. And if you're not yet trusting Jesus, he'll do what he can to stop you — putting other things in your life that seem more important than Jesus.

We're in a spiritual battle, all of us, which is why the armour of God matters. But now the list of armour pieces stops, and this verse is all about prayer — because all the armour needs to be put on with prayer.

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. (Ephesians 6:18)

This is a difficult sermon to preach and a difficult one to listen to. The easy route would be to make everyone feel guilty about their prayer lives. But that's not why Paul wrote this. He wants to encourage us to pray. If in the last few weeks or months we've stopped praying, this is an invitation from God to start again.

1. Pray in the Spirit

What does it mean to pray in the spirit? It means praying while trusting the Holy Spirit to help us. He wants to help us.

The New Testament pattern for Christians is that we pray to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. If Jesus hadn't died on the cross and paid the price for our sins, we couldn't have access to God at all. So we pray to the Father through the Son, trusting the Spirit to help us along the way.

If you think your prayer life could do with some help — and I guess all of us do — open yourself up now to the Holy Spirit. Say in your heart: please help me to pray.

Verse 18 also says we should pray "with all kinds of prayers and requests." Here are four examples:

• Worship — praising God for who he is
• Confession — admitting our sins to him
• Thanksgiving — thanking God for what he's done
• Requests — asking God for things, for ourselves and others

A Moment to Practise

Let's try it now.

Worship — Think of something about God: his holiness, his justice, his compassion, his love. Choose a quality of God and worship him now in the stillness.

Confession — If you're a truster in Jesus, you've already confessed you're a sinner. But we've sinned this past week, and even today. The greatest command is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength — and none of us has fully done that today. Let's confess our sins in the silence.

Thanksgiving — There is so much to thank God for: our lives, our food, our friends, our church family, and above all, Jesus, who died on the cross for our sins. Let's thank God in the silence.

Requests for others and ourselves — Think of one other person to pray for — someone in your family, someone from the news, or simply the person sitting next to you. Ask God to bless them, or to help them love Jesus more. Then think of something to pray for yourself — perhaps a struggle from this past week, or simply that your love for Jesus will grow.

When you came here this morning, you didn't think you were coming to a prayer meeting — but that's what we've just done. Praying in the spirit means praying to the Father through the Son with the Spirit's help: worship, confession, thanksgiving, and requests for others and ourselves.

2. Look for God's Answers

The verse continues: "With this in mind, be alert…" To be alert means to keep your eyes open, to stay watchful.

Jesus said to the disciples in Gethsemane, "Watch and pray, so that you don't enter into temptation." There's a spiritual battle going on, and we need to watch for when the devil is attacking us. But we also need to watch for God's answers when we pray.

I sometimes get discouraged in prayer, thinking God isn't really listening. I hear of someone else receiving a wonderful answer to prayer, and I think, that never happens to me. But we need to keep our eyes open and look for God's answers — because God always answers prayer.

There are, in fact, five possible answers to prayer:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Wait
4. Do it yourself
5. Mind your own business

Even if the answer isn't always the one we want, knowing that God will answer motivates me to keep praying.

Sometimes it's hard to know which answer we're receiving. Some of us have prayed for the same thing for years without a clear "yes." I prayed for my mother to come to faith in Jesus for fifty years. I nearly gave up more than once — but when she was 80, she came to faith in Jesus. Extraordinary.

But I also have prayers I've prayed for years that remain unanswered, or that now feel too late to be answered. It's not always easy to know what God is saying. This is where we need the Holy Spirit's leading — whether to keep persevering in prayer, or to recognise it's time to let something go. Either way, we pray in the Spirit, and we look for God's answers, because God always answers prayer.

3. Don't Give Up

The verse ends: "…and always keep on praying for all the Lord's people."

Paul wouldn't need to say "always keep on praying" unless he knew that sometimes we stop. Jesus told a parable recorded in Luke's Gospel for exactly this reason:

Jesus told a parable to his disciples so that they would pray and not give up. (Luke 18:1)

Jesus understands that we sometimes give up praying, or feel tempted to. So Jesus says: don't give up. Paul says: don't give up. The Holy Spirit says: don't give up.

If you've given up praying, or you're barely praying, or you've never really enjoyed prayer, this morning is an opportunity to start again. The Holy Spirit lives in you if you're trusting in Jesus, and he wants to help you pray.

Maybe you pray often for yourself but rarely for others, or for other countries. Maybe you pray requests but never pause to worship, confess, or give thanks. Whatever it is, this is an invitation to start again.

Praying for All the Lord's People

Notice the surprising phrase at the end of verse 18: "keep on praying for all the Lord's people." Not just for people in our own church, but for every Christian on the planet.

Let's do that now — in silence, pray for every believer everywhere: that they'll love Jesus more, grow in prayer, share their faith. Now let's pray specifically for believers in Iran, whether they're there or scattered elsewhere in the world. And now, once more, let's pray for Above Bar Church as a whole family.

Closing

The disciples once said to Jesus, "Teach us to pray." What a wonderful prayer that is. The Holy Spirit lives inside us and wants to teach us to pray, to help us take the next step.

Would you like to grow in your praying? I hope the answer is yes.

Let's go into this week trusting Jesus:

• Pray in the Spirit.
• Look for God's answers.
• Don't give up.

Take a moment of silence now. Perhaps one thing struck you in these last few minutes. Just talk to the Lord about that one thing.