Praying in the Spirit

SERMON: 2017-02-19--e0610--praying-in-the-spirit-part-1 SOURCE DURATION: 00:45:43.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording begins with exposition on Paul's armor and prayer (Sermon) and concludes with a communal prayer and final thanks (Prayer), both of which are integral parts of the main sermon content. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We've seen in recent weeks that the Apostle Paul goes to great detail here in Ephesians chapter 6 to describe the six pieces of armor that he says belong to the full armor of God to equip us for the spiritual battles of life. He has now completed that description of those six pieces and he now leads us into a call to prayer. We read the verses already but let's read them one more time. 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 Saints. Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Four things in those three verses that I want us to be looking at. I don't think we'll be able to cover them all today but let's see how far we can get. The first thing I want us to know to understand what Paul writes here is that there are many different kinds of prayers. There are many different kinds of prayers. Verse 18 again pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. All kinds of prayers and requests. I would distinguish I think between types of prayers and forms of prayer. Types of prayer I love the little acronym a lot of you will be familiar with it. A-C-T-S acts. A stands for adoration. C for confession. T for Thanksgiving. S for supplication. A good summary of the different kinds of prayers that God calls us to. Adoration is dwelling on his beauty and on his glory. It's what a wise husband does if he rejoices in his wife. He praises her not because he's looking for something but simply because he delights in who he is. Confession. The word confession comes from two Latin words means to agree with God. To agree with God about his take on our lives and that means his take on our sin. We acknowledge it before him we don't try to hide it. T for Thanksgiving of course giving thanks to God for the many good things that he pours out upon us and the S stands for supplication. We bring him our needs. We invite him into the needy places of our lives knowing that he is our God and our father and he loves us profoundly. Those are types of prayers but then there are different methods or forms of prayer. Think for example silent prayer versus spoken prayer. Private prayer versus public prayer. And then there are different postures in prayer. Standing, kneeling, prostate on the floor, eyes closed, hands clasped. Many different ways of praying. A lot of you've heard me tell the story. Three pastors were discussing their preferential posture in prayer. One of them said when I pray I like to stand up, raise my hands to the heavens and lift my eyes up because I I think the Lord really delights in in my praying that way. The next guy said well that's okay but when I pray I I feel humbled before God and so I I kneel on the floor and I I bow my head and I I close my eyes and I believe the Lord is really delights in in those prayers. And the third one said well when I pray I I like prostrate on the floor. My face in the dust, humility before God and I do my best praying that way. Well as I were having this conversation there was a telephone repairman who was with an ear shot. He overheard the conversation and he said well distinguished clergy I hope you don't mind my butting in in the conversation. He said but I seem to recall the best praying I ever did was the time I hung upside down from the telephone pole. And that describes what prayer is from a position of need. Now if you look at the context here of what Paul is talking about the focus is really on intercessory prayer. Listen again to what he says in verse 18 and 19. With this in mind be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. And then he says in verse 19 pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth words may be given me. Pray for all the saints pray also for me. That's intercession. Intercession is appealing to God on behalf of a third party. It incorporates adoration, confession, thanksgiving but particularly supplication. And it's rooted in the intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus himself. The Bible doesn't tell us a lot about what Jesus does in heaven besides running the whole universe. But it does tell us interestingly enough that one of the preoccupations of Jesus at the right hand of God is to intercede for you and me. Romans 834. Jesus is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. And in the book of Hebrews 725 concerning the Lord Jesus as our heavenly high priest he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them. The contrast here is to the Levitical priesthood. Those priests died they couldn't intercede eternally. Jesus lives forever and one of his jobs as the fulfillment of the Old Testament high priestly ministry is to intercede before God for you and me. And what that means is this. When you or I come up before God and Satan stands there so to speak as the accuser listing all the reasons why God should not love us, why God should not bless us, reminding God of our shame and our failures and all the bad things we've ever done. Jesus stands up as our advocate our lawyer he is the defense lawyer and he comes up to the father and he says father all of this may be true but I want you to know that I died for that man I died for that woman I died for that boy or for that girl their sins are forgiven by my blood they're joined with me in my death and in my resurrection and in me they are righteous before you and Satan get lost. That's intercession. That's what the father does that's what Jesus does before the father and he does this all the time which is why Hebrew says he is able to save forever another translation is save completely those that call upon his name. Now that's the ministry of intercession and as we'll see a little bit later that is the ministry that he shares with you and with me through the Holy Spirit and we'll come to that Lord willing in a few moments. So there's all kinds of prayers and there's all kinds of ways of praying and what God is after is after the heart. He's not interested in just reciting prayers he is not just interested in us going through the motions he's interested in us knowing what the needs are what his heart is what our heart is and porting that out because we have access to God the Father through faith in the Lord Jesus he hears the prayers of his children. Second thing to note in that passage then is that we are to pray on all occasions. Verse 18 again pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. Now it seems to me that all occasions means at least two things. It means first of all that we are to pray regardless of the situation or the circumstances in which we find ourselves that is to say we are to pray in good times and we are to pray in bad times. We are to use all of those as an opportunity to lift our needs before God. We've all heard the phrase there are no atheists and foxholes the reason for that is that when we are driven to our knees even the most hardened sinner knows that he needs help from outside himself and people begin to call upon the name of the Lord. I love what former president Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying years ago when there was a big discussion taking place where people in the public school allowed to offer prayers to God and he made I think a very wise observation he said as long as there are exams in school there will be prayers in schools. The Bible puts it this way Philippians 4 6 & 7 a familiar verse do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts hearts in your minds in Christ Jesus. Good times bad times they ought to be opportunity for adoration for confession for Thanksgiving and for supplication but it also means I think all occasions means that we need to be cultivating an attitude of prayer that is with us every moment of every day. Don't know how many of you here have ever heard of Brother Lawrence. Anybody here ever heard of Brother Lawrence? A number of you have. Brother Lawrence is famous for a little booklet that bears his name called the practice of the presence of God. He was a he was born in France in the 1600s early 1600s born of a very poor family so he joined the army was involved in the thirty years war got wounded rather seriously remained crippled to some degree for the rest of his life and a lot of pain but he went into a monastery and in the monastery for the next 40 years or so he spent most of his time in the kitchen he also did a little stint fixing shoes but his passion was to try to remain in unbroken fellowship with God and his big question was how can I be in the midst of clanging pots and pans doing my daily duties and yet be in an unbroken relationship and connection with God and he learned that the key to that was to do everything that he did out of love for God and his little booklet the practice of the presence of God has come down through the succeed the subsequent centuries as a testimony to to a man who wasn't very important or famous in his lifetime but is known for his incredible love for God and his ability to incorporate prayer as a relationship with God in every aspect of life and that's of course what scripture talks about in one Thessalonians 5 verse 17 when it tells us to pray continually the Greek unceasingly pray you'll recognize it in most Bible translations as pray without ceasing doesn't mean you can always be in your prayer closet but it does mean I think cultivating a walk with God and an intimacy with God where his involvement in our lives is of such a nature that the things that we are busy with every day that in fact more often than not draw us away from God become the instruments to lead us to God we were talking about this interestingly enough this past Wednesday at our council meeting and one of our deacons shared a devotional on trusting God and that led to quite a conversation and then some stories that people shared of how they had experienced the presence of God in rather unusual situations one of the brother shared the story of suddenly discovering that his credit card was gone what do you do Lord what about my credit card well believe it or not in his mind popped the thought check your recycling bin the recycling bin was at the curb covered under inches of snow walks out to his recycling bin goes through it half ways down the bin guess what he finds his credit card now a skeptic will say what it would have happened anyway it was just your imagination but we know all about skeptics and all of that kind of stuff and one of the other people one of the ladies shared the story of helping a number of young boys unlock a very rusty bicycle lock and try as they might they couldn't get it to open try as she might she couldn't get it to open she prayed to the Lord for the Lord to help and in one of those you know divine moments bingo the lock opens not only but on a cloudy day for the next 10 seconds the sun broke through and Sean on that bicycle now that's quite a story and it's not always that easy is it but there are those moments I think there are a lot more miracles that God wants to do for his children than you and I have faith for or are willing to step into and risk isn't that true pray without ceasing and one way to stay in tune with God in our daily work and in our daily activities is to use all of those situations to stay connected to the Lord and invite his input into the difficulties of life that's also true for when you're praying and your mind wanders a lot of us we cannot remain focused on the issue at hand because we worry about the job here we worry about the the fight at home we worry about the trouble with the children well one of the ways to defeat the devil at his own game is to make those the subject of our prayer and say Lord I'm anxious in this area I'm worried about this area don't know what to do or how to get through it will you please show me and will you help me that's cultivating intimacy with gone and brother Lawrence is famous to this day because he learned how to do it under the most menial and sometimes miserable conditions of working in the kitchen of his monastery we are to pray on all occasions not only in the good times not only in the bad times but we need to learn to cultivate an attitude of prayer well we're always looking over our shoulder knowing that God is present that he's interested in us and that he's interested in the affairs of our lives and we can say to him Lord what are you trying to show me here how can I call on you to help me do what needs to be done because I am your child you value me and I value you so there's all kinds of prayers we need to pray in all occasions but then to come to the crunch of the issue we must learn to pray in the spirit we must pray in the spirit pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests now there are those particularly of the Pentecostal or charismatic tradition who would say that the primary meaning of that passage is a call to pray in tongues or an unknown language and I'll talk about that in a little while because that can indeed be a sub component of the call to pray in the spirit but I don't believe it's limited only to that to pray in the spirit is to have our prayers directed and empowered by the Holy Spirit for the very simple reason that you and I do not know how to pray as we ought and the classic teaching on that comes to us by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 8 he's been talking about how the whole creation groans under under the travail of sin and we have been saved in hope and the Holy Spirit helps us to hope and then he goes on to say in the same way the spirit helps us in our weakness we do not know what we ought to pray for but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express and he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the Saints in accordance with God's will now think this through with me for a few moments why is prevailing prayer the kind of prayer that makes a difference that moves mountains that pushes the darkness back that ushers in the kingdom that helps people become Christians and leave it out and walk it out why is that kind of prayer so incredibly difficult for you and me well offhand I could tell you three reasons number one we don't feel much like prayer ever notice that there are no atheists and foxholes because it usually takes a foxhole to make you pray but remember we talked about the need to pray without ceasing to pray is to admit we don't know we don't have what it takes we need God's help the human default condition is to be proud and arrogant and to make us think well I can do this myself thank you very much I don't need anybody else to tell me so so that kind of prayer of which scripture speaks doesn't come very easily for you or for me so don't ever beat yourself up because you can't find time to pray or you find a different it's the default condition we need help second reason prayer is often difficult is because we don't know what the will of God is in a lot of situations and therefore we don't know how to pray so here's somebody who's sick now what's God's will should that person be immediately healed and raised up or does that person have things in his life that he needs to deal with what am I praying for and how can my relationship be maintained if I really tell that person what I think that person really needs or here's a person who faces financial ruin what do you pray for that he'll go to the lottery and gamble down the road at the local casino got to tell you a story don't really have permission to tell you this but it's a it's a scary story one of one of the kids associated with this community when the casino opened decided to go and try his luck with a ten dollar bill came away with over nine hundred dollars in earnings not good do not pray for your children to succeed at gambling pray that they will lose their shirts because that's love by the way there's nothing in the Bible that tells you you can't gamble did you know that at least that I know of but there's a lot in the Bible about greed and you can't tell me that people who gamble don't gamble for greed sake and the Bible says to watch greed because it's idolatry and it'll take you away from God and just for the record more than one person from here has been spotted at the casino by my spotters so watch out not a good thing we know your names how do you pray and then even when you know how to pray how do you find the words isn't it amazing that some people who never lack for words all of a sudden run out of words when it comes to praying particularly if you ask them to pray publicly it's been said some people are so nervous that they can't even lead in silent prayer that's real bad but that's the default condition we don't know says the Apostle Paul how to pray as we ought now remember we're not just talking about nothing a little prayer that we've learned you know by heart now I laid me down to sleep the world prayers are easy enough but we're talking here about prayer that moves mountains that changes lives that defeats the devil and that brings in the kingdom that kind of prayer is hard to come by and so what does Paul say the Holy Spirit is given to us to help us in our weakness he intercedes for us and understand the connection here between the intercessory ministry of Jesus and the intercessory ministry of the Holy Spirit Jesus at the right hand of God intercedes for us the Holy Spirit takes the intercessions of Jesus and he doesn't just pray out there in a vacuum like like you might imagine the Holy Spirit lives in the church he lives in believers and so the Holy Spirit in the church in individual believers and in believers collectively empowers us and teaches us how to pray that's why he says the spirit helps us in our weakness we do not know how we ought to pray for but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express he helps us in our weakness how does he do that well let me try to be quick on this but he does that in I believe four ways first of all he creates in us the desire to pray remember I said earlier the desire to pray does not come naturally to the human heart because the flesh is at enmity with God we're always on the opposite end of where God's going only in Christ our hearts changed and when the Holy Spirit comes to live in us the spirit within us cries out Abba father it wants intimacy with God it wants a relationship with God and so the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray he gives us that desire sometimes it's because the bottom falls out of our world and we're driven to our knees other times it's because he pours out his blessing upon us and in response to blessings we cannot but proclaim that God is good the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness not only that but he directs our prayers that is to say he will guide us in what to pray for and he does that in different ways one of the ways is simply to put situations or people in our path or on our mind and we have this urge to pray for them many of us have stories like that you're minding your business you're going about your day and your mind keeps going to this person or keeps going to that situation oftentimes we just sort of ignore it and go on with our day but we need to understand that not infrequently the Holy Spirit is calling us to pray and so when that happens with a measure of regularity don't just ignore those nudges say Lord is there something here that you want me to lift up before you their story upon your story even in a place like this of people who were led to pray for somebody only afterwards to discover that they were in a particularly difficult situation and God used your prayer to carry them through and to bring them into a greater area of freedom I believe the Holy Spirit speaks to us a whole lot more than we are prepared to hear because so often we can distinguish between our own thinking and our own feelings and the promptings of the Holy Spirit when in doubt pray around it sometimes when I pray I don't know what to pray for or who to pray for I have this certain gut instinct a feeling that says there's something here but I don't know what it is and what I do then is I just pray around in circles in the hopes and expectation that when I hit that place I will know what it is and what the Lord is inviting me to pray into that's the promise of the Holy Spirit now let me say in this context it's really important to know the scriptures because the scriptures are the revelation of God's heart as we have said before and the Holy Spirit isn't going to lead us in prayer in a direction that is opposite from where God in his word says things ought to go and the more we know the scriptures the more we know the heart of gone the more we will know intuitively what God's desire is in a given situation when our kids were young there were tons of things they knew better than to ask their parents because they knew their parents would say no similarly they also knew there were some things they could ask and the parents would say yes because it's all about relationship and prayer is about relationship it's about knowing God it's knowing what God values it's knowing what God's passionate about it's knowing what you can fully expect from God because that happens to be his heart the Holy Spirit has promised to guide and direct our prayer also promises to give us the gift of utterance that is he enables us to express that prayer and again many different ways sometimes he gives us words there are times when you and I pray and you know it's like pushing through thick molasses and it doesn't feel like it's going anywhere and all of a sudden along comes the Holy Spirit and words just come pouring out you receive the gift of faith you know what it is that you need to be praying for and you have a boldness that you've not known before in that particular situation that is the Holy Spirit giving you the gift of utterance notice in the passage that there's also an utterance that is without words because the passage talks about praying with groanings that we cannot express earlier on in Romans 8 it talks about the whole creation groaning in travail under the load of sin sometimes the Holy Spirit will come along and he will invite you and me into that intercession and we feel heavy we feel loaded down don't know why not necessarily because of anything that we find ourselves in but it is a burden of prayer entrusted to us by the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is groaning with the travail of God for the brokenness and the woundedness of life and what God is inviting us to do in those moments is not to give in to despair but to allow just to allow that groaning deep inside to take place knowing that the Holy Spirit is praying through us without words according to the will of God now it's in this context that the gift of speaking or praying in tongues is a very helpful tool in the ministry of prayer in the Bible there are in the New Testament as you know the gift of tongues is poured out upon the church first of all on the day of Pentecost and then on other occasions for other believers for other purposes in the day of Pentecost the gift of tongues was given primarily for the proclamation of the message people gathered from all these different nations heard the word of God proclaimed in their own language but in addition to that in the New Testament there is the gift of tongues as a prayer language whereby we echo to God the burden that is on the heart of God not because we understand it but because the Holy Spirit is praying through us and that's what Paul talks about I believe in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 when he says these words in the same way the spirit here's the reference 1 Corinthians 14 the verses 14 and 15 if I pray in a tongue my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful so what shall I do I will pray with my spirit but I will also pray with my mind I will sing with my spirit but I will also sing with my mind notice the contrast here the mind and the spirit the mind is that part of you that understands intellectually the burden on the heart of God and what his will is but there are those times when we don't know what his will is or what his burden is we have groans that cannot be expressed one of the ways the Lord helps us to express those groans is through praying in the spirit now there are many different interpretations and explanations of that verse but I believe what it means is this the Holy Spirit touches our spirit and through the gift of speaking in tongues we pray to God the will of God even while we don't fully understand ourselves what is happening and that helps us to engage in intercession before the face of God and if God stirs in you the desire for the gift of tongues feel free to pray for that it's not the highest of spiritual gifts but it's one of the spiritual gifts that God uses to help us in doing the work of God in the world and the context of 1 Corinthians 14 is that in the context of the worship service it's more important to speak words that are understood than it is to speak words that nobody understands but Paul says he prays in tongues more than anybody because he recognizes the value of that particular spiritual gift so the Holy Spirit equips us with the gift of utterance and then just one more he gives us the gift of perseverance pray at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication to that end keep alert this is a revised standard version translation with all perseverance with all perseverance why because remember I said stomping your foot the first time of the devil doesn't make him go away praying the will of God the first time doesn't necessarily mean that your prayer gets answered throughout scripture there is the need for perseverance laying hold of God until God does what needs to be done there's a beautiful image in the book of Revelation of the golden bowls of incense that are being filled with the prayers of God's people and when those bowls are finally full and the time has come God steps in the scales tip and the kingdom comes by his Holy Spirit God will help us to persist in things that we pray for until we know that we have received from the hand of God what God wants us to have and Paul brings up this subject of praying in the spirit at the end of his treatment of the of the full armor of God because he wants us to understand that the armor of God is not just something you casually put on piece by piece but as Liam says each piece put on with prayer it takes relationship with God to know how to stand firm in the battles of life how to not only not be bowled over by what comes at us but to remain standing and to push back so that God's kingdom comes that's the call on the church and that is the call on you and me young and old alike because God has given us his Holy Spirit now final comment when it comes to prayer the church is always much better talking about it than doing it so under Dave's leadership we're going to start this coming Wednesday and then each last Wednesday of the month for the next couple of months to invite you as a congregation to join together in a prayer meeting will be in the chapel run from about 730 to 9 o'clock we want to lay hold of what it is that God has for us not only individually but also collectively we live in troubling times it's not easy right now if you haven't noticed it to be a Christian it's like the abyss has opened it's like darkness the sins it shows up in a heaviness of spirit it shows up in a lack of joy sometimes it shows up in a lack of experiencing or sensing the presence of God the temptation and the tendency is to just sort of buckle under and say well that's just me I must be doing something wrong maybe you are but maybe aren't it's part of spiritual warfare the enemy does not want God's people to prosper or to see God's kingdom come and scripture invites us to take a proactive stance and say I'm going to put on the armor of God not only but I'm going to pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers because Jesus says we're two or three gathered together in my name and ask the father of anything he will do it for them and I'll tell you there's no better way to revitalize your Christian life than to stand with brothers and sisters in times of earnest prayer and intercession watch God move and watch his kingdom come so Wednesday night 7 o'clock in the 730 rather in the chapel if you can make it feel free to do so stand with me let's join in prayer father we're so grateful that we have a heavenly high priest who's walked our journey and who knows us better than we know ourselves and we're so glad that he is not left as orphaned but has granted us his Holy Spirit and that is Holy Spirit stirs up in our hearts the desire to pray and that that Holy Spirit stirs up in our hearts a knowledge of what you're passionate about and that that Holy Spirit gives us the words so that we can actually wrestle in prayer with you and with all the forces of darkness and that that Holy Spirit gives us the gift of perseverance because Lord the dark and the darkness deepens and our culture is increasingly hostile to you and the values of the world are increasingly closer to us than ever before and we so need you to help us to stand so Lord we pray for us individually we pray for us as a church that in all of life situations on all occasions we may pray all kinds of prayers and we might pray in the spirit knowing that in the Lord our prayers will not be in vain because the kingdom of God has come and one day will fully embrace the entire creation to the glory of God thank you that we can be part of [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:45:40.840; remove through 00:45:43.000] that thank you that you invite us to share in it in Jesus name amen [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:45:43.000; resume after this marked segment]