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Today we’re going to finish our look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, but we’re going to have to back up a bit to do so. I know that after I finished last week several of you commented that you wished that we had gone more in depth with different pieces of the armor of God or the way in which all the pieces work together, but there just simply wasn’t time. I didn’t have time to really dive into things as deep as I could have or would have liked to. That’s one of the difficulties that comes with constructing a sermon without it having a one hour delivery time. Unfortunately, there are times (nearly every Sunday) when you simply have to gloss over something in the interest of time. Well, every now and then you get lucky and the way that the schedule falls affords you a chance to go back and revisit something. So, with that being said, we’re getting lucky today. We’re going to be backing up to verse 18 to begin this final reading from Ephesians, and there are some things that went largely unsaid last Sunday that we will see more fully today, specifically in the area of prayer. (Read Ephesians 6:18-24)
Now, we’ve been talking each week since around the beginning of August about the audience and the central message of this epistle. Essentially, it is a message to a church (a healthy one at that) about the Church and what the Church is to look like and how she ought to function. It’s a message about how a church that is rightly focused upon God and the keeping of His commands ought to look and the things that they ought to be concerned with. And I don’t think that it can be lost on us here that despite having just given us a good deal about loving one another, imitating God, submitting to Christ, and being prepared for the spiritual warfare that exists in the world, that Paul would choose to end his word to this church by talking about something quite unoriginal, yet foundational. Paul ends this letter by talking about prayer and the power of it.
Prayer is one of the most foundational elements of a person’s faith. It’s also one of the easiest spiritual disciplines for us to do and keep regularly. I mean, you don’t even have to be good at it for you do it. There’s a certain aptitude that must be present to preach. There’s a certain knowledge that needs to be had to teach. There are particular skills and characteristics that a person needs to have to do mercy ministries. If we were to comb through the entirety of the New Testament and pull out all of those things that we would consider to be spiritual gifts, we would end up with a pretty extensive list. Our list would be no shorter than 9 or 10 and possibly even as long as 20 gifts. Some would be things like teaching, preaching, and governing, that are still universally acknowledged as being active in the life of the Church today. Other things, like speaking in tongues and prophesying, would be on that list, but are not universally acknowledged to still take place today. However, do you know what wouldn’t be on that list anywhere? Prayer; prayer would be nowhere on the list of spiritual gifts. Do you know why that is? Well, the simple answer is that prayer isn’t a gift, but it is instead a responsibility or an obligation that falls upon all Christians; albeit an all-to-often neglected and forgotten responsibility.
Paul ends his letter to the Ephesians by telling them that they are to “pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.” Did you notice the repeated use of the word “all” in that one verse (v.18)? Pray at all times using all kinds of prayers, praying always for all the saints. It’s verses like this that cause us to have to take a good hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves about the state of our prayer lives. When do you pray? Do you pray in times of struggle or times of difficult decisions? Do you pray before enjoying a meal (even when you’re in a rush and just say a quick blessing)? Do you pray during your daily devotional time? Do/did you pray with your kids before they go to bed at night? Do you have a set amount of time that you try and pray each day? All of these things are wonderful rules, principles, and guidelines to have when it comes to prayer. However, the sad reality is that it’s never enough. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that it’s never enough to please God. I’m saying that it’s never enough to fully cover all the prayers of adoration for God, confession of sin, thanksgiving, and supplication that we have at any given moment on any given day.
Several years ago I was convicted by a friend of mine who was someone whom I viewed to have a rich prayer life. If we were having a conversation and anything in the conversation seemed to even need the slightest amount of prayer, he would want to stop the conversation and pray for it. I’m not talking about saying that he would be praying for it; I mean literally stopping everything and praying right there on the spot. When we would talk on the phone, he would want to end every conversation with a prayer. Now, I’m a fan of prayer, but in the sinful and shameful rushed and hurried pace to life that I was living at the time I didn’t think that I had time for all of that praying. I had things to do; I couldn’t “waste” all that time in prayer. I started sort of going out of my way to avoid him just so I wouldn’t get caught in that prayer/time vacuum that followed him. Finally, one day when I was in a huge hurry to go and get something done, I ran into him and after a rushed conversation, he asked me if I had time to pray with him. Stressed out as I was (I know it’s a poor excuse), I asked him if he prayed before getting the mail that he didn’t get hit by a car on the way to the mailbox, or if he got up in the middle of the night and prayed for safe travels to the bathroom and back. Now, as I said those words, the absurdity of what I had said hit me like a ton of bricks. He and I were able to laugh off what I had said, but the wrecking ball effect that it had upon my conscience and my soul was immeasurable.
I walked away from that conversation wondering how I could be so foolish and treat prayer as if it was some bothersome task that I was asked to undertake. How could I think such thoughts about a dear friend whose only goal was to help others bring their problems to the only One who can solve any problem? How foolish was I to have such a lowly view of prayer. In teaching our children what prayer is, the simplistic definition that Amy and I have gone with is that prayer in an opportunity to speak with God and to thank Him for all the wonderful things He has done for us, confessing all the ways in which we’ve failed Him (knowing that He forgives us), and asking Him for help in the areas where we need His help and guidance. How could I have let my life become so consumed with anything else that I could ever view prayer as anything other than the greatest privilege a person could ever imagine. It’s like me getting invited to the Super Bowl and passing up the opportunity because my yard needed to be cut. What kind of idiot would pass that up? Well, what kind of idiot would think that what he had to get done was more important than spending time with God? This idiot.
Prayer isn’t a burden, but a blessing. When we neglect our responsibility to pray, we’re not only neglecting something that God has called us to do, but we are not enjoying one of the greatest gifts that He has given us also. It is right to pray in seasons of struggle, but it’s just as right and necessary to pray in seasons of blessing and joy. It’s a good habit to pray at the beginning and end of each day, but don’t forget to sprinkle in some prayer throughout your day as well. Take everything to the Lord. Take everything to Him all the time. Don’t just pray for your friends and family, but for your enemies as well. Jesus, during the Sermon on the Mount, specifically calls us to pray for those who persecute us. I know that it can be a hard thing at times, but it’s what we’re commanded to do. No one ever said it was going to be easy being a Christian. In fact, as we’ve seen recently in our study of this epistle, Paul actually taught that the opposite is true; that it’s difficult to be a Christian. I’ll admit to you that I’ve struggled with how to pray over all of the acts of violence and terrorism lately. I’ve struggled with how to pray about the issue of American security vs. Christian compassion and empathy. These aren’t easy matters for us to deal with, and that’s because we’re feeble and finite. The only hope that we have of having any proper guidance when it comes to issues like this is to seek the One who is infinite and upholds all of creation by the power of His word. And thanks be to God that my seeking Him isn’t based upon the eloquence or effectiveness of my prayer, but on the sincerity of my heart and outworking of His wonderful and glorious plan for His creation.
So, why does Paul choose to end his letter to this thriving, vibrant, and healthy congregation by calling them to constant prayer and reminding them of the importance of prayer? So that the mystery of the gospel might be proclaimed. All of the application of Paul’s message about being called by God for the work that is at hand is nothing without prayer. Like we said last Sunday about having the armor of God on our bodies and having no idea how to use it ultimately leaves us nearly just as vulnerable as we would be without it, having all the answers and all the knowledge without spending time with God is useless. Do you know what point in my life that story I told you about earlier happened? It happened while I was in seminary. Yeah, while I was training to become a pastor I neglected prayer. The events that were so important to me, those were the long hours spent in the library trying to pound out final papers for a handful of classes during 10 hour days in the library. I was writing papers on the doctrines and gifts of God and missing the most fundamental one aside from Jesus. Let me tell you from personal experience that it is far too easy to miss the trees for the forest. It’s far too easy to set our focus so intently upon something else that we miss what is right in front of us.
I want you to think back to all the things that we’ve seen in this letter. Our being called by God to be His is revealed to us in prayer. Our understanding of God’s grace and the strengthening of our faith comes through prayer. Our union with one another in Christ is nurtured through prayer. The Church is strengthened in prayer. Our taking off of the old self and putting on the new is made possible and lasting only through the constant power of prayer. Our submission to one another in our earthly relationships and to God in our heavenly one is a work that comes about through prayer. And our right adorning of the armor of God is made possible by prayer. Praying to God is one of the most basic, fundamental, and foundational aspects of our faith. As I’ve said, it’s not something that you have to be particularly good at to do it. It’s something that we teach even the youngest and newest of Christians to do. The question that we must ask is if we’re doing it enough. Are you praying enough?
We’re going to end our look at Ephesians with a challenge. I want to challenge all of you in your prayer life. I know that the surveys that many of you turned in back a few months ago had a question about your prayer life. Almost everyone who turned it in said that they wanted to do more. Well, do it. What’s stopping you? Many said that they try and pray every day but forget. Well, don’t forget. We work at training ourselves to remember to eat, to take medicines, and all sorts of other things. Make prayer one of those things. Make prayer something that if you go hours without it then you start to hunger for it. Make prayer such a foundational part of your daily life and your faith that the desire for prayer begins to grow and grow within your heart. May your prayers be used to glorify God and to proclaim His name boldly. May our prayers as a church glorify God and give us the eyes to enjoy Him forever. That is why we exist, and that is our primary purpose in this life. That’s what Paul was trying to get across to the Ephesians; the Christian needs constant and regular prayer.
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