Well we’re there in Ephesians Chapter 6. And we have been going through the book of Ephesians on Wednesday nights, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. And I’m doing it tonight on Sunday night because I’d like to finish it before the Red-Hot Preaching Conference. We’ll have one sermon left before the conference so we’re going to do that and then we’re going to start a brand-new book of the Bible after the conference on Wednesday nights for our midweek service. And tonight, will be the 18th sermon that I have preached out of the book of Ephesians. This book has six chapters in it but there’s so much truth in it, especially these New Testament epistles, there’s so much in there that I don’t like to just take one chapter a week. We’ll do that with Ezekiel and we’ll probably do that with Job. But some of those bigger books, there’s so much truth here. We just try to go by subject and we have done a thorough verse-by-verse study of this book. And you can go on our website and our YouTube channel and find whatever section of this book you want. And we’ve not left any stone unturned. It feels like we’ve been in this book longer maybe than usual because of the fact that we actually started the book of Ephesians on November 27th 2019. And that doesn’t account for 18 weeks of sermons. But if you remember between March 12 and May 12, we took a break from the book of Ephesians because of the lockdowns & coronavirus and you know all of that.
So, we got back to church once we got back into church and we’re finishing it tonight. So, I want you to notice that there are two major themes, two major subjects in the few verses that we have left. We’ve already preached through Ephesians 6 verses 1 through 17. So, we’re going to start in verse 18 and move our way down. There are 2 major subjects. And they are two subjects that I feel like we’ve been talking a lot about in the last several weeks. And I feel like maybe it’s just what God wants us to talk about for now. But we’re going to be looking at this idea of prayer and soul-winning. Prayer and soul-winning. And we’re just going to walk through these verses and we’re going to make applications as we go along. So, we’ll start with prayer. And if you are taking notes, and I always encourage you to take notes, I want you to notice several things that the Apostle Paul emphasizes about prayer in these verses. Ephesians 6:18, he says this, “18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication” The word prayer simply means to ask for something or to make a request. And the word supplication actually is defined as the action of asking or even begging for something. Asking for someone to supply your need. And I want you to notice, that is what prayer is. When you boil down prayer, it is the act of asking God for your needs now.
Keep your place there in Ephesians chapter 6. That’s our text for tonight. But go with me if you would to the book of Philippians, Philippians chapter 4. If you talk to these real deep theologians or if you read a book on prayer written by a theologian, they’re going to give you all these complicated definitions. They’re going to tell you that prayer is coming to God and adoration. And they’ll give you like a 12-step program for praying. And you got to do this and you got to do that. But when you study the Bible, you find that in the Bible prayer is simply this, bringing your request to God. Bringing your needs to God. Praying and asking God, And of course we should worship God during our time of communion and we should praise God and all those things. When we’re talking about prayer, we are referring to the fact that we are asking and making requests of God. Philippians 4:6 “6 Be careful for nothing;”. And when the Bible says be careful for nothing, that’s not talking about don’t be cautious. The word care in our King James Bible is like the word anxious. He says be anxious for nothing. He says be nervous about nothing. He says don’t worry about anything. He says be careful for not “but in every thing”. Notice our words “by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.”.
And when we talk about prayer, we’ve got to begin with this idea. Number one – The Petitions of Prayer. And here’s the question that I have for you, and we’ve been talking a lot about prayer over the last several weeks and I just feel like this is what God wants us to deal with. But when we’re talking about prayer, we’re talking about you making requests, you having petitions to God. Go to the book of Matthew if you would in the New Testament, the first book of the New Testament. Matthew Chapter 7.
And I want you to just think about this in your own mind and your heart. But ask yourself, do you have a time in your day when you pray? Do you have a time? And I’m not talking about when you pray to eat like “Thank you Lord for this food. Bless our bodies. Amen” as the fork is making its way to your mouth. I’m talking about that you have a time set aside during the day when you make your requests. Your requests are made known unto God when you bring your petitions to the Lord. Because whether you get this or not, God wants to supply our needs. God wants to answer our prayers. He is just waiting for us to ask.
Look at Matthew 7:7 “7 Ask, and it shall be given you;”. Why is it oftentimes not given you? Because oftentimes we don’t ask. He says “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”. Look, God says I will answer every prayer. If you ask you will receive. And if you seek you will find. And if you knock it shall be opened. Now let me just say this, God may not answer your prayer the way you want it answered. And we’re going to talk about that later on in the sermon. He might not answer it the way you want it but God makes this promise, if you ask, he’ll answer. If you seek, you’ll find. If you knock, it shall be opened unto you. Notice verse 9 “9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?”. He says look, if you have a little baby or a little child and they are hungry and asking for bread, will you give them a stone? “10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?”.
He says, “11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”. See, God says I want to supply your needs in the same way that you want to supply the needs of your children. He said, I’m your heavenly Father, I want to supply your needs. And I will give good things, I will supply to them that ask. So, what’s the problem? The problem with prayer is often that we don’t ask. Ye lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain, ye fight and war James says. Yet ye have not because you ask not. Sometimes people say, “The problem with prayer is that it doesn’t work.”. And I would submit to you, the problem with prayer is that we don’t pray, that we don’t ask. It is that we don’t make a request to God. James 4:3 “3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.”
And I would just say this, you need to ask need to set aside a time in your life when you ask, when you bring your petitions to the Lord, when you make requests. And you got to write them down. You got to have a list. And you should mark them. And there’s something encouraging about having a list that I’m just asking for these things. And as God answers those prayers, you can check those things off. You can cross those things off. Look, we need to make our requests. And you’ll be surprised how God will answer.
I remember listening to Curtis Hutson preach one time on the subject of Prayer. Curtis Hutton is a great preacher of yesteryear and he’s of course passed away now. He told his story about how he was coming back from a preaching event. And this was back in the heyday of The Sword of the Lord. This was back when they would have these subscriptions and people were subscribed to these newspapers that would go out. And they’d have preaching and all that. Of course, now today we have Facebook and YouTube. But this was kind of back in the 70s and 80s as a big thing with Sword of the Lord. And he had all these people that have signed up for the Sword of the Lord and they paid their subscriptions and all these things. And he had it all in his briefcase. And he was coming back from this preaching engagement and he had this briefcase and had to go get the luggage. And his wife said “I can hold your briefcase while you get the luggage.”. He said “Hey listen honey, I’ve got lots of money in there and there’s lots of people that have subscribed to the Sword of the Lord. I’ve got sermons that I’ve written there and I’ve got stuff I’m working on. It is really important”. And she looked at him and said, “I’m a grown woman okay. I can take care of your briefcase. I’ll hold your briefcase while you get the luggage. Is that okay?”. He said “Alright, no problem.”. And he went and she took the briefcase and he got the luggage.
And they got in their car and they drove 2 hours from the airport. They drove back home and they had dinner and got ready for bed. And right before they went to bed, he heard a scream and it was his wife. And he says “What’s wrong with you?”. She said “Your briefcase. I set it down at the airport and left it there”. And he was upset and of course he was a man of God but he was telling his wife how she ruined his ministry. He’s like “All these people signed up for the Sword of the Lord. And now they’re going to think I stole from them and all this.”. And she said “Let’s pray and let’s go.”. And he said “There’s no way that briefcase is there. That was two hours ago.”. And they got in the car and their son got in the car and they started driving towards the airport. And his wife said “You need to pray.”. And he was upset in the flash and he said “Okay.”. He started praying and he was praying kind of sarcastically, just taking jabs at his wife. He said “Lord, you are the God that parted the Red Sea. You are the God that stopped the Sun in the air. And if you want to God, you can send some guardian angels and guard that briefcase because we know that since that briefcase is not there. Amen”.
And they drove the rest of the way in silence. And he tells the story and he get out of his car and he starts going to the area where the briefcase was. The cop stops and he says “Where are you going?”. He said, “I left my briefcase.”. The cop said “Did you lose a briefcase?”. And he said “Well I didn’t lose the briefcase but my wife lost a briefcase. But you know she’s a grown woman so she can do that.”. And the cop said “We have your briefcase. Walk with us.”. And he walked him over there and when he walked over there, there were four armed police officers surrounding that briefcase. And he said “What are these cops doing?”. He said, “They’re guarding the briefcase to make sure nobody touches.”. He said “Why?”. And they said, “We’re waiting for the bomb squad to come and make sure that there’s not a bomb in it”.
But here’s the point, he prayed that there would be guards sent from God to keep the briefcase safe. And he got there and there were guards sent from God to keep the briefcase safe. And here’s all I’m telling you, ye he has not because you ask not. The reason that we don’t get our prayers answer from God is because we don’t make requests to God. And here’s all I’m trying to get you to do, get in the habit of asking God. Asking God for something big, for something great for your life, for your family. Look, ask God for big requests. I was thinking recently, and I didn’t ask permission to give this illustration so I hope it’s okay. But I was thinking recently about little baby Arabella in the Sweeten family. They’ve been praying and we’ve been praying for years for this baby. It reminded me of this verse in 1 Samuel 1:27, when Hannah has been asking for a baby. “27 For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:”. Prayer is asking. Prayer is making requests, bringing your requests, making your requests known unto God. And here Paul says “praying always with all prayer and supplication”. He says we need to bring our petitions unto the Lord. Go back to Ephesians 6:18.
I want you to notice a second thing here about prayer. He says, not only is prayer supplication, not only is prayer a petition, not only is prayer a request, he talks about the petition of prayer. But then he talks about the power of prayer. Notice verse 18 “18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication”. Then he says these words “in the Spirit,”. It’s interesting because I just had somebody ask me about praying in the Spirit. And it’s just kind of interesting that I was preaching tonight from Ephesians chapter 6 where Paul says “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit”. And what’s really interesting is that phrase “in the Spirit” in connection to prayer. It is only found in Ephesians chapter 6. It’s the only place you’ll find that phrase. You’ll find the phrase “in the Spirit” in connection to other things, being caught up in the Spirit, walking in the Spirit. But in regards to praying in the Spirit, you only find that phrase in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. And somebody asked me about this. I want to take the time to kind of explain what the Bible is teaching here and what the Bible says about “in the Spirit”. I want to share with you another passage. Go to the book of Jude.
Ephesians 6:18 is the only passage where you find prayer and supplication being referred to in the Spirit. In Jude 1:20, you do have something extremely similar but the words are different. Jude 1:20 says this “20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,”. So here we are told to pray in the Spirit and we’re also told to pray in the Holy Ghost. Now what does this mean? Go to the book of Acts if you would. Acts chapter number two. And let me just say this, we hear at Verity Baptist Church are Baptists. You say, what does that mean? What does it matter if you’re a Baptist? I bring that up to say this. As Baptist we are Biblicists which means that the Bible is the final authority of all matters of faith and practice in our church. So, what that means is whenever a question is asked like “What is praying in the Spirit”, the only way that we can answer that question is by saying, “Well what does the Bible say about that. What does the Bible teach about praying in the Spirit, about praying in the Holy Ghost”.
Because today there’s a belief where people say, “Praying in the Spirit is speaking in tongues”. And it’ll be often used by the charismatic movement. The Pentecostal movement will say “When you speak in tongues you’re praying in the Spirit”. And I want to show you why we don’t believe that here at Verity Baptist Church. First of all, there’s only two times where you find that phrase used. Ephesians Chapter 6 “Praying always with all prayer in the Spirit”. And I want you to notice that in the entire chapter and entire book, there is no mention of speaking in tongues. And then in Jude, when he says praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, there’s no mention in Jude about speaking in tongues. Now the reason I had you go to Acts chapter 2 is because I want to take some time to kind of answer this. Because I want to answer with the Bible, what does the Bible say? What do we believe about speaking in tongues? What do we believe about tongues speaking? Acts chapter two, look at verse one. We can only believe what the Bible says. We can only derive our beliefs from the Word of God.
So, I want you to notice what the Bible says in Acts 2:1 “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come,”. And of course, Pentecost was a celebration. It was a holiday where many Jews came from all over the world back into Jerusalem to celebrate this. And this is where the Pentecostals will take their name from, Acts chapter two. It says “And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”. So, I want you to notice, on the day of Pentecost, you had this miracle happen where there came a sound from heaven as of a mighty rushing wind. And this was something that God did. This is not something where they use microphones with or speakers and technology. God brought this mighty sound. And not only that, but the Bible says that there were cloven tongues like us of a fire and it sat upon each of them.
Notice verse 4, “4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,”. Now here the Bible talks about being filled the Holy Ghost. And I preached sermons about the filling of the Holy Ghost in the past. I’m not going to delve into that tonight. But this is why they’ll say “Well praying in the Spirit is speaking in tongues”. Because they were filled with the Holy Ghost but I want you to notice what the Bible says happen on the day of Pentecost. “4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”. Now if you stop right there, you might say “Well there you go. Speaking with tongues in the Spirit as the Spirit gave them utterance.”. But keep in mind, we must allow the Bible to define itself. Listen, we have to allow the Bible to tell us. Okay. So, what does this mean when it says that they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance? What is that referring to?
Notice verse 5, “5 And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men,”. Now God mentioned some things here. Because it’s important for us to know that this is their Pentecost. And there are dwelling at Jerusalem because they’re there for the day of Pentecost. Jews he says. “devout men, out of every nation under heaven.”. He says there were Jews there. There were Jewish people but they came from every nation under heaven. Notice verse 6 “6 Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded,”. The word confound means they were confused. Why were they confused? “because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”. Now if you don’t mind writing in your Bible, just draw a line between the word language in verse six and the word tongues in verse four. Because the Bible just defined for us what the word tongues means. In verse four it says “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues”. And you say okay, well what does that mean? What happened? Well here’s what it means, “that there was devout man out of every nation and every man heard them speak in his own language”. So, I want you to notice, that on the day of Pentecost, when the hundreds came down filled with the Holy Ghost and began to preach, they were speaking languages that people understood. That these men from all over, from every nation under heaven understood. In fact, they were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
Look at verse 7 “7 And they were all amazed and marvelled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans?”. Notice the context. What they’re saying to each other is these people that are speaking our languages, aren’t they all Galileans? Galilee was the local area. They’re saying, aren’t these all locals from this area? Aren’t they all local people that live here in Galilee? Look at verse eight. “8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?”. I want you to notice, and if you don’t mind writing in your Bible, you should draw a line between the word language in verse six and the word tongue in verse eight. Because now the Bible is not only defining this word but it’s using it interchangeably. Verse four, tongues. Verse six, language. Verse eight, time. And these guys are confused and they’re amazed because they’re saying “Hey, aren’t these all Galileans? Aren’t these all locals? How here we every man in our own tongue, in our own language, wherein we were born?
Now notice verse 9. Look, that’s pretty clear. Isn’t it? I mean it’s pretty clear that these 120 were speaking languages that these people that came from all over the world were able to understand. They were not speaking languages that nobody understood or heavenly languages. They were speaking tongues and languages from every nation. But just to make sure, just to make sure that’s what you get from this passage, in verses 9, 10 and 11, God gives us a list of 15 different locations of the languages they were speaking. “9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, 10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers” The word stranger means foreigners. “of Rome, Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretes and Arabians,”. Notice what they say last “we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.”.
You say, do you believe in tongues speaking? Well if you’re asking me do, I believe what happened in Acts chapter 2, absolutely. I believe everything the Bible says. But if you ask, do you believe in tongues speaking like the modern charismatic movement does, where they have church services and people get up and speak in tongues and they don’t know what they’re saying and nobody knows what they’re saying and someone has to interpret it because it’s an angelic language; Well here’s the thing, I don’t know where you got that from but that’s not what happened in Acts chapter 2. That’s not what happened on the day of Pentecost. Now if you want to say that you do tongues being like they did at the day of Pentecost, well here’s the thing, at the Day of Pentecost they spoke languages that people understood. You say well what was the miracle? Well number one, the miracle was that there was fire on top of their head and didn’t burn them up. That’s pretty miraculous. I’ve never seen that happen in any service where anybody claimed to speak in tongues. But you know the real miracle was? The miracle was that they were speaking languages they never learned. They never learned these languages. They didn’t know these languages. And the Holy Ghost was giving them the ability to walk up to someone who spoke Spanish, someone who spoke Mandarin, someone who spoke Italian, someone who spoke languages that they never learned. And the people were confounded saying how do we hear them speak in our own language or in our own tongue or in our own tongues, the wonderful works of God.
So, what happened on the day of Pentecost? Here’s what happened. 120 in the upper room came down through the Holy Ghost and began to speak languages that people from all over the world heard and understood. For the purpose of what? Preaching the gospel. I mean at Pentecost, what happens is 3,000 people are saved and baptized. Notice verse 12 “12 And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this?”. So usually you say “Well, praying in the Spirit is speaking in tongues”. Well if you’re referring to the modern charismatic movement tongue speaking, that’s not what happened at the Day of Pentecost number one. And number two, there’s only two passages that use the word praying in the Spirit or praying in the Holy Ghost and neither one of those passages mentions speaking and in a heavenly language or an angelic language. You say, well then what is praying in the Spirit?
Well go to Romans chapter number 8. We have to allow the Bible to define for us. We can’t just decide we believe what we believe because some denomination told us or some Bible College told us or some preacher told us. We have to go back to the Bible. You say, what is the Bible saying? So, when you look at the passages in the Bible that have to do with praying and the Holy Ghost, Romans chapter 8 is going to be your biggest passage kind of dealing with that. How does the Holy Ghost play a part in our prayers? Romans 8:26 “26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities:”. He says “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:”. Have you ever felt that way? A situation comes up and you know you should pray about it but you’re just like “I don’t even know what to pray. I’m not even sure what the right thing in this situation is. I’m not sure what should happen here.”. He says, “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints”.
You say, what is this referring to? He’s making intercession. What does that mean? They mean that he’s going between us and God the Father. God the Holy Spirit is going between us and God the Father. You say yeah, but it says there “with groanings which cannot be uttered.”. That’s the Holy Spirit speaking. God the Father, he’s interceding on our behalf. He’s taking our prayers and interceding and going to God the Father. Because he’s saying look, the context says, when you don’t know what to pray. “for we know not what we should pray for as we ought:”. The Holy Spirit takes your prayer and takes it to God the Father. “but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us”. The Saints according to the will of God. So, here’s what the Holy Spirit does. He takes your prayer. Because the Holy Spirit of God knows what the will of God is. So, he takes your prayer. You say why does it say with groanings which cannot be uttered? Because sometimes he changes your prayer to things that you would never say and then delivers it to God.
Look, some of you got to be careful. You may not want to pray. Because you sit there and say “God, I need a million dollars. God, give me a million dollars. God, if you gave me a million dollars I would have started tithing. I promise if you gave me a million dollars that I will start tithing.”. And the Holy Spirit takes that and says “No you won’t. God, if he can’t be trusted when he’s making $12.50 an hour, giving him a million dollars isn’t going to help. You know what he needs? He needs a car accident. God, he needs to be humbled. He needs you to chasten him”. So, he takes over. So, you say “God, I need a million dollars”. And the Holy Spirit says, “God, he needs to lose his job.”. Because the Holy Spirit knows that when you lose your job, you’re going to draw closer to God. So, you sit there and say “God, I need you to give me this fancy housing”. And the Holy Spirit is like “No, he needs to just start going soul-winning God. So just make him lose his house”.
And I’m not saying he makes it the opposite but I’m just saying that God takes the Holy Spirit, takes your prayer. You say what does it mean? What does it mean to pray in the Spirit? You walk up to God and you say “God, there’s this situation. I’m not even sure what the right thing to do is.”. Look, I’m telling you this is how I pray. My wife and I pray. We walk up to God and we say “Look, I’m not even sure what the right thing to do is. I’m going to make a request. Here’s the request Lord. Here’s what I’m asking for. But I’m not even sure if that’s right Lord. So, I’m praying in the Spirit that the Holy Spirit would conform my prayer according to your will. Because at the end of the day God, I trust you. So, Job could have sat there and prayed “Lord. Just give me my family back. Lord give me my finances back. Lord give me a peace again.”. And Job got those things eventually. But you know, there was a long time there when those prayers, God was changing. “No, he needs this in his life”. Because God knows better than you do what you need.
So sometimes we pray but when you pray in the Spirit, “26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”. Praying in the Spirit is this, that the Holy Spirit takes your prayer and he conforms it to the will of God. That’s why God says “if you ask, I’ll answer every time”. But it might not be the same prayer you asked. Because if you pray in the Spirit, the Holy Spirit is going to change that prayer to make it conform to the will of God. So, this can give you some relief when it comes to prayer. Because as a Pastor, I have situations that I come across and people ask me to pray. And obviously sometimes I’m like “Lord, I don’t even know what to pray. These people are asking me to pray for X, Y & Z. But I’m not sure if that’s what you want. I’m going to pray for that God but just know I’m praying according to your will.
We see Jesus praying “let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.”. Well guess what, when Jesus prayed that prayer, “let this cup pass from me”. The Holy Spirit took that prayer and said instead “No, he needs to drink God. That prayer can’t be answered”. What I’m saying that’s what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit with Thanksgiving. I’m just trying to help you with your prayer time. Often times I’ll say “Lord, here’s what I’m asking for. You may or may not grant that. You may or may not want that. That may or may not be your will. I’m praying that your will is done because I trust you God. But just help me to know when the prayer is answered.”. And you’d be surprised. Sometimes I’m going through my list and it’s like wow, that was answered. Exactly how I asked. Wow, that was answered. Exactly how I asked. Wow, that was answered. Not exactly how I asked. But I can see that that was what God wanted. I can see that that’s what God was working. So, we see here the Apostle Paul.
Go back to Ephesians chapter 6. We see him referring to the petitions of our prayer. Then we seem referring to the power in our prayer. What’s the power in our prayer? The power in our prayer is that we can involve the Holy Spirit of God. And he gives us confidence. He gives us confidence to bring our supplications. Now I want to notice the third characteristic here of Prayer. Verse 18 “18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”. Not only do we see the petition of prayer in this verse, not only do we see the power of prayer in this verse, but we see thirdly the perseverance of prayer. The word perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving success. God not only wants us to pray in the power of the Holy Spirit, he also wants us to persevere in our prayer. What does that mean? Well go to Book of Luke if you would.
Jesus actually gave a parable regarding prayer about perseverance. Luke 18:1, the Bible says this
“And he spake a parable unto them to this end,”. When Jesus gave this parable, he had a goal. It was there for a purpose. He gave this parable unto them to this end. To what end. “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”. So, the purpose of this parable is to teach us that we should always pray or persevere in our prayers or be persistent in our prayer. And that we should not faint and we should not quit on prayer. But notice a parable. And a parable of course is a story that Jesus told. It’s just a made-up story that is an earthly story with a spiritual application. “2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:”. It’s probably not hard for you to imagine that living in California, a judge that feared not God neither regarded man. We’ve got a lot of those. Look at verse 3 “3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.”. So here we have a widow going to the judge who she’s supposed to go to because her adversary was wrong. She should have been advanced. So, she goes to the judge and says I need you to bring judgment upon this adversary, avenge me of my adversary.
Verse 4 “4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; 5 Yet because”. So, he didn’t want to answer her prayer. He only does things for bribes. If you don’t bring him money then he’s’ not motivated to help the woman and he wouldn’t answer for a while. But he ended up answering her prayer. Why did he answer her petition? Verse 5, he says “5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. 6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith. 7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”. Look, Jesus is saying that God wants you to bother him with your prayer. God wants you to be persistent in prayer. God wants you to pray. He taught this parable “that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;”. God wants you to bring your prayers continually unto Him.
Now let me just say this. Jesus taught against vain and repetitious prayers. But there is a difference between vain and repetitious prayers and prayers that we often repeat to God. You say what’s the difference? The difference is that vain means empty. See, when you get a book of prayers and you just read prayers to God “Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come thy will be done,”. You know, I don’t know I wasn’t a Catholic. But you know “Mary whatever”. And they just repeating the prayers over and over and over again. Yeah but they’re vain. It’s empty. There’s nothing there. When I come to him every day and pray for my wife and my children and my family and my church family, he doesn’t mind hearing that. There’s nothing empty about that. God wants you to bring your prayers.
He doesn’t mind when Brother Scott & Ms. Lisa kept bring a petition and say “Lord, open the door and give us another baby.”. He loves hearing that over and over and over again. In fact, God sometimes, although he wants to hear a prayer, in fact I believe and I’m convinced of this and I’ll just say this to you and you do what you want with it. I’m convinced that sometimes God puts us in a bind because that’s the only time he ever hears from us, the only time he ever hears from you is when you’re in trouble. The only time he ever hears from you is when you’re in the emergency room, when you’re at the mechanic, when you’re at the payday loan place. They keep sending you to the emergency room or to the mechanics, that’s the only time he hears from you. I’m just to the place where I say, “You know what God, I’m not going to, I don’t want you to feel like you have to force me to pray. I’m going to pray everyday so you just bless me and help me. And not you bringing chastisement upon my life”.
But sometimes God, I think sometimes he doesn’t answer our prayer as quickly as we want to because he just likes to hear his children. So, there’s the power of prayer. There’s a petition in prayer. There’s a persistence in prayer. He said “5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”. And then Jesus says “7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?”. God wants to hear from you. When it comes to prayer it doesn’t work if you don’t bring your petitions. It doesn’t work if you don’t bring the power of God and pray in the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? That means that you say “God, I’m praying in your will and the Holy Spirit knows better than I do. Here’s what I’m praying Lord. Here’s what I’m asking.”. And look, often many of my prayers I’m saying “Lord, I’m asking with our church, I’d like this and this. And I’m praying for this situation. And here’s what I want God. But if that’s not your will, then you just work it out. Not my will but thine be done.”. And then there’s a persistence in prayer.
Go back to Ephesians 6. Look at verse 18. He says, “18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;”. The persistence in prayer, the power in prayer, the perseverance in prayer. But in verse 19, he kind of shifts gears. And we’re going to shift gears in this sermon. And he stops talking about prayer and he starts talking about soul winning. Notice verse 19, he says “19 And for me,”. And the way that he’s connecting this is because he just got done talking about prayer. And in verse 19 he’s actually going to put in his prayer request. Just like we have a time where you put in on your communication card, you write a prayer request. we put on the prayer list and then we pray for it. This is the Apostle Paul submitting his prayer request to the church of Ephesus. Ephesians 6:19. He just got done talking about prayer and now he’s going to tell them “Here’s how I want you to pray for me”.
Ephesians 6:19 “19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,”. I want you notice several things here. And we’ll try to move through this quickly. Number one, he talks about how we should communicate in our soul-winning. Notice the word utterance. He says “19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me,”. The word utter means a spoken word, a statement, or a vocal sound. Go to the Book of Colossians if you would. Colossians chapter 4.
And here’s the point. You have to actually go and confront people and communicate with people and bring the gospel to them. It doesn’t work if we don’t actually go and talk to them. Colossians 4:3. Notice how this is very similar to Ephesians 6. He talked about prayer and soul-winning. Verse 3 “3 Withal praying also for us, that God”. Notice “would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: 4 That I may make it manifest,” I love these words “as I ought to speak.”. And the word manifest means this, to show clearly. Look, when it comes to soul winning, your goal is this, to communicate clearly. That’s it. I think sometimes and I’m not trying to belittle anyone, I hope you don’t take it that way, but sometimes people make a big deal about soul-winning and they’re like “I’m not ready and I can’t do it”. Look, if you’re saved you can go soul-winning. In fact, let me rephrase that. If you’re saved you should go soul-winning. You say why? Because look, Jesus called it being a witness.
Sometimes we refer to witness as a verb. It’s something we do. And it is something we do but witnessing only works when it’s first a noun. You are a witness that will be a witness. Do you understand? He talks about the Holy Ghost coming upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me. You are going to be a witness. You should be a witness. But if you first are a witness now, if you’re saved, what does the witness do? They go up and they take an oath and they promise. “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”. And then they witness, they testify of what they saw. “Here’s what I saw. Here’s what happened. This happened first and this happened second.”. They don’t have to sit there and think about it. The only time you have to think about it is when you lie. If you’re just saying the truth, here’s what happened, well guess what, if you’re saved, then you just tell somebody how you got saved. “The Bible says that I’m a sinner and Jesus died for my sins and I called upon him for salvation”. That’s it.
And obviously we need the Word of God. I’m not minimizing that. I’m just saying that I think sometimes we make a big deal about it. And here’s what soul-winning is, you take a verse and you clearly explain to someone. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. I read it, then I explain to someone what this verse means is that we’re all sinners. I’m not trying to belittle or minimize. I’m just telling you this is the goal of soul winning, to clearly communicate the gospel. In fact, if you’re soulwinning presentation is convoluted and confusing, you’re doing it wrong. It’s not that complicated. We’re all sinners. We deserve to die and go to hell. As a result of our sin, Jesus died to pay for us and I don’t have to pay for it by my good works. He paid for it on the cross. Once I have it, I can’t lose it. And I have to call upon him for salvation. Just communicate it to him clearly. Now look, obviously the more you do it, the more you go, you can add other verses and you can add illustrations and you can add things that are good. But the point is this, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. That I know that he says to open unto us a door of utterance. To speak the mystery of Christ. That I make it manifest. My goal, and by the way for you guys who preach the goal, preaching is just to clearly communicate with people truth from God’s Word. If you make it too complicated, you’re not helping anybody. Just get up there and say here’s what the Bible says. Here’s how we apply it to our lives. It’s just communicating clearly the gospel.
Go back to Ephesians chapter 6. So, he talks about how we communicate. And the goal is to just communicate clearly. The goal is this, just communicate clearly. The soulwinning seminar, that’s how we teach it. You read the passage. You reveal the truth. And you review the concept. You read the passage; you explain it. For the wages of sin is death. Here’s what that means. There’s a payment for our sin and that payment is death, not just physical death but the second death of the lake of fire. You read it. You reveal the truth. You explain it. You review it with them to understand. Does that make sense to you? And you move on. You just clearly communicate the gospel. He says number one, how we communicate. Then he says, by what authority we communicate. Notice verse 19 “19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”. We need to not only communicate clearly but we need to communicate boldly. Go to Matthew chapter 7. He does not mean being arrogant or rude. But it means that we have confidence. We make it clear and we communicate with confidence. We communicate clearly and we communicate boldly the Word of God. And now please understand, I’m not trying to make it seem light. Soulwinning is a big deal and it’s something that we should do, we should practice, and you should take the time to learn. You should be a silent partner for a while and watch the videos in the soulwinning seminar. All those things are true but don’t let it become this giant thing that “I could never do that.”. It’s just communicating clearly the gospel. You do it clearly and you do it with confidence.
Matthew 7:28 “28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: 29 For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”. Notice Jesus taught with authority. Go to Matthew 28. And by the way, all this applies to preaching as well. When you get up to preach with authority, not being a jerk but with authority, everything you do for God should be done with authority. And you get up here to read the text, read it with authority. You get up here to lead the music, lead it with authority. You get a chance to preach, preach with authority. Anything you do, do it with authority. Why? Because we’re special? No, because we represent a God that is powerful. You say what’s your authority to go out there? What gives you the right to go out there and knock on people’s doors who you don’t know and who you didn’t ask? What’s our right? Look at Matthew 28:18.
Matthew 28:18 “18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying,”. Notice what Jesus said. This is after he died and resurrected from the grave. He resurrected from the grave. This is the ascendant Christ and here’s what he said to his disciples. He says “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”. Now usually when we talk about the Great Commission, we look at the next two verses. And we’re going to look at the next two verses but I want you to see as a context of the next two verses. Because the context of Matthew 28:19 and 20 is Matthew 28:18. “18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”. Then in verse 19 “19 Go ye therefore,”. Whenever you see that word “therefore”, you got to figure out what it’s there for. Because that word “therefore” is referring back to the previous verse. The word “therefore” means for this reason. Jesus says, go ye therefore. He says go for this reason. Go for what reason? Well, “all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth”. “19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”.
Here’s what I’m trying to tell you, the authority for us to go out and preach the gospel is given to us by Jesus Christ himself. “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”. And he says, because of that “19 Go ye therefore,”. Well what if the government doesn’t give us authority? It doesn’t matter if they don’t give us authority. What if they passed a law? My authority comes from the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m not talking about being out there being arrogant. We’re saying that we are to walk out there on the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. All power is given unto him in heaven and in earth. And he sent me. “Go ye therefore”.
Go to John 20. This is another Great Commission passage. Jesus gives the Great Commission in every one of the Gospels. He gives the Great Commission and they’re all a little different. He said it multiple times because it’s important. In John 20:21 he says this, “21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you:”. Notice what he says “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”. He says here’s my authority. Jesus would say my authority as the Son of God is that God the Father sent me to earth. He says “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”. Do you understand what he just said? He said my authority is from God the Father. In the same way that God sent me, even so send I you. By what authority do we go? We go in the authority of Christ.
Go to Acts 4. Here’s all I’m saying, you say I struggle with boldness. And look, I understand that. I can understand it’s intimidating to go out soul-winning and talk to someone you don’t know. It could be intimidating, in fact that’s why the Apostle Paul is praying. He’s asking “19 And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,”. He’s praying that the church at Ephesus would pray that he would have boldness. So, if you struggle with that, the first thing I would say is you got to pray that God gives you boldness, that God helps you with boldness. But there’s another thing you could do. Notice Acts 4:13 “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,” Notice the word boldness. “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men,” They had not gone to Bible College. They had not received any theological training. “13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”. You say how can I get boldness? Spend time with Jesus. So how do I do that? Spend time with his word. Look, spend time in the Word of God. It’ll give you boldness.
You say Pastor, how do you have the boldness to get up there three times a week and tell people you need to do this, you need to do that, and you need to stop doing this? Well here’s the thing, I wouldn’t have that boldness if I just had to tell you “You need to do this.”. I don’t know what you should do. That’s why when I’m praying, I’m like “God, I don’t know what to do. The Holy Spirit needs to take care of this one because I’m not sure”. But you know, I can get up here and preach with boldness. You know why? Because though I don’t have all the answers, I know this book has all the answers. If I can stand up and say “Hey, I’m not sure what you’re going through. If you told me your story, I might cry with you and if you told me your story you might sway me. But at the end of the day, this is what the Bible says”. But I can look at the Bible and say here’s what it says. I can say that with boldness. “Well let me tell you about my husband and why I want to leave.”. Look, you might tell me about your husband and I might want to leave him by the time you’re done with your story. But God says don’t get a divorce. I can say that with boldness. I don’t have to question it. God says to spank your children. Whatever the Bible says, we can have boldness knowing that God is right all the time. When we go soulwinning, we can have boldness and say people are going to hell. Well look, you got to do it kindly, you got to use some tact. But my authority comes from Jesus Christ. And when I’m preaching the Word of God, I can have boldness knowing that I’m preaching the truth.
Ephesians 6:20. Here’s a third characteristic. He says this “20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”. He tells us about how we communicate. We communicate clearly. He tells us about with what authority we communicate. We command and communicate confidently. And then he tells us of who we represent. Look, we are ambassadors. He says “20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds:”. Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter five. We’re almost done. Well we will be done here very soon. 2nd Corinthians chapter five. This word ambassador means an official representative. A representative or a leader or a head of state. 2 Corinthians 5:18 “18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,”. Jesus said as my father hath sent me, so send I you. God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;”. God reconciled us to himself through Jesus. And then Jesus gave us the Ministry of reconciliation. In verse 19 “19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.”.
Verse 20 “20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ,”. You say how can you go out there with authority? Well, I’m not going with my authority. I’m going with the authority of Jesus Christ. And in fact, I’m an ambassador for Jesus Christ. I am a representative of Jesus Christ. “20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us:”. Notice these words “we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.”. When I stand at that door and I knock on the door and I ask somebody “Do you know for sure if you were to die today that you’ll go to heaven?”. They say I’m not sure. I say “Well, can I show you from the Bible”. And they say sure. And I sit there and I open the Bible and I begin to clearly communicate and I begin to confidently communicate and I begin to teach them and show them what the Bible says. “You’re a sinner. The Bible says that our sin has condemned us to hell. But Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sin. You don’t have to earn it or work for it. Once you have it, you can’t lose it. All you have to do is by faith call upon Jesus”. When I’m sitting there and trying to reconcile, the Bible says that I’m doing that in Christ’s stead.
What does that mean? That means that I’m there instead of Christ. That Christ sent me in his place. I’m an ambassador. See, when an ambassador goes to another country, it is because the president can’t go to every country. So, he sends a representative. That ambassador doesn’t go with their authority, they go with the authority of the President. They go with the power of the presidency. You and I get to be ambassadors for the king of Kings. And by the way, I’ll just throw this up there. That’s why I think, do what you want with this and it doesn’t bother me, you do what you want. And look, I’m happy that people just go soulwinning but that’s why I think it matters how you represent yourself out there. When you’re soulwinning, you do what you want, I’m not trying to beat you up, but there’s a reason why you don’t see Pastor Jimenez show up to soulwinning in a t-shirt and shorts and flip-flops. You say, what’s wrong with that? Well, President Trump wouldn’t like you to show up like that representing him anywhere. And Jesus is much greater than President Trump or Obama or Bush or any President. None of them would allow you to look like that.
I think it matters who we represent when we’re out there. You’re not only representing Jesus Christ; you represent Verity Baptist Church. Make sure you keep a good attitude. Make sure you don’t go out there and try to pick fights with people. Make sure you’re not out there making Jesus look bad. Because you’re not there preaching your gospel, you’re there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, as an ambassador of Jesus Christ, with the authority of Jesus Christ, preaching the word of Jesus Christ. It’s not me. I’m there in Christ’s stead as an ambassador for Christ. So, Paul talks about soulwinning. And he talks about how we communicate clearly. He talks about how we communicate confidently. He talks about how we represent him as an ambassador.
Notice verse 20 again. “20 For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”. And then in the last four verses of this chapter, we’ll read them. He gives us just a conclusion and gives us a goodbye. He says “21 But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things: 22 Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts. 23 Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.”. That is the book of Ephesians.
Let’s pray.