A little sample of what we'll look at tonight when he comes.
Roger Nelson.
Thank you, Paul.
Greetings from Pasadena, California and my church, which is Lake Avenue Congregational
Church.
Those of you that know about Lake Avenue know that it's a church not unlike this one.
It's a large Christ-centered church.
And it's a real privilege to be here today and to participate in your service, which
I have enjoyed very much, by the way.
I would like to ask a question.
How many here have heard of Charles Wesley?
Please raise your hand.
Well that's very good.
Charles Wesley will not be here this evening.
However, you sang a hymn written by Charles Wesley this morning, and can it be?
Charles also wrote, Hark the herald angels sing, Christ the Lord has risen today, oh
for a thousand tongues, Jesus lover of my soul, love divine, all love excelling, and
many, many other hymns of the Christian faith.
And he was John Wesley's Cliff Barrows.
John Wesley was the Billy Graham of his day.
And this was exciting to me to find out as an actor in New York because I was in New
York for seven years.
And in my last year there, my pastor came to me one day and he said, I dreamed you were
John Wesley.
Why don't you put together a one-man play and travel around as John Wesley?
And I said, John who?
I thought he played second base for the Mets.
I wasn't really sure who he was.
But I did some research and was excited about doing a presentation on John Wesley.
And I prayed about a writer and the Lord brought along a playwright that did a great job in
writing the script.
Well, let me just do a brief excerpt from the play for you.
First I should mention that that dream was 900 performances ago from this time.
The Lord has opened doors in 30 countries and all six continents.
And it's been my privilege to give the man from Aldersgate some 900 times.
So I would encourage you to invite friends to come out.
The play has a good track record.
I gave a performance at Carnegie Hall once and the Stratford Festival Theater in Canada
and Stratford-upon-Avon-England and the Edinburgh Festival and many places that the Lord has
opened doors for a hearing of the gospel.
John Wesley kept a journal.
And in his journal he wrote about being held up by a highwayman at gunpoint.
And now you'll have to imagine that it's after two hours of makeup and this little blue insert
in your bulletin gives you an idea of what John Wesley will look like when he appears
here this evening.
He wrote, I parted with my purse rather abruptly one time at the hands of a highwayman.
Now understand me, money and I have never been the closest of friends.
In fact, if the truth were known, we are scarcely pausing acquaintances.
But this particular day my contributions were anything but voluntary.
The man relieved me of every shilling I possessed upon the threat of your money or your life.
Now I did not press the point that what is mine actually belongs to the Lord.
The finer aspects of theology are often lost to one at the point of a gun.
But one verse did come to mind.
So as the cowl stranger lifted my purse, I said to him, let me speak one word to you.
The time may come when you will regret the course of life in which you are now engaged.
Remember this, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin.
No more was said and we parted.
I to go my way and I much feared he to go his.
I feared for him because I knew that his way could only lead to the scaffolds at Tyburn
and the pits of hell.
But many years later I was leaving a church in which I had just preached when a stranger
stopped me and introduced himself in a most peculiar manner.
Now to find out who that stranger was and what he had to say to John Wesley, you'll
have to come back here at 6 o'clock this evening.
Thank you very much.
Thanks Roger.
We look forward to the presentation tonight.
I hope that you'll bring someone along with you for it.
One of the things that made John Wesley the man that he was was a praying mother.
She devoted herself to raising her children, which were many, and also to praying for them,
often with each one daily.
Today we want to talk about the important matter of prayer as we think about the church
as a community of prayer.
I invite you to take your Bible and open it with me to Ephesians chapter 6.
There may well be more verses in the book of Ephesians dealing with the issue of prayer
than any other single subject.
For example, in chapter 1 verses 15 through 19 there is a prayer for enlightenment to
spiritual truth.
In chapter 2 verse 18, an assurance of our access to God the Father in the Spirit and
through Jesus Christ.
In chapter 3 verse 12, a reminder of the confidence and freedom of speech that we enjoy before
God through our faith in Christ.
In chapter 3 again, verses 14 through 19, another prayer, this time a prayer for spiritual
power and fullness.
And then in our text for today, chapter 6 verses 18 through 20, there is a command to
enter into prayer as a result of the spiritual combat in which we are engaged.
With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit and with this in view,
be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and pray on my
behalf that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with
boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.
That in proclaiming it I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
There may be nothing the church gives more lip service to and less practice to than prayer.
Why is that?
It is because we Christians don't really believe in the power of prayer.
If we did, I'm sure we would practice it more.
Somehow we think that praying is ineffective when in fact it is the most powerful act that
we can do.
A small boy grasped that truth.
He said to his parents, I'm going to pray now, do you need anything?
In his simple faith he grasped that prayer gets results and it does.
Prayer is not our last resort, it is our first resource.
God commands us in this text and in others to be a community of prayer.
Let's examine what that means in the context of Ephesians 6.
First let's look at the context of prayer.
Pray at all times he says.
Now when someone mentions prayer perhaps you think in your mind of a monastic order where
you might be separated from the world and all of its stress and enjoy leisure hours
of contemplation and quietness.
Is that what you think of when you think of prayer?
Of course that can be prayer, but not in the context of Ephesians 6.
Rather here we need to imagine an army that is at war.
An army with its soldiers possessing the most sophisticated communication gear available.
In order to talk to the commander, to receive orders and to obtain necessary cover from
airstrikes to accomplish the mission.
When we think of prayer here we ought to think of engaging the enemy with weaponry that hits
the target every time.
That is why we are commanded pray.
Prayer is in the context of spiritual warfare.
I've heard it said that Satan fears nothing more than a Christian on his knees.
I don't agree with that.
I believe there is one thing at least that he does fear more and that is a church on
its knees.
Let's gather together in corporate prayer.
That is the context of Ephesians 6.
He is writing to a body of people, to a community of saints.
He says to them and to us, pray because you are at war.
The protection for the soldier is found in the strength of the Lord's might and in the
armor that is available which he describes earlier in this very paragraph.
What does he mean when he says be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might?
If you turn back to chapter 1 verse 19, Paul uses that same phrase again.
When he is praying for his readers and he says I pray that you may understand what is
the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe.
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might.
Notice that same phrase.
Which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places.
Paul in chapter 6 concludes the book by using the same phrase and saying be strong in the
Lord and in the strength of his might.
He is referring to the strength that is demonstrated in the resurrection and the exaltation of
Jesus Christ.
What is the soldier's strength?
It is the fact that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead and stands at the right
hand of God on his behalf.
The soldier's strength is the victory of Jesus Christ over sin, over Satan, over the world.
We can be strong in that strength and then we must put on the armor which refers to godly
character and godly lifestyle in the scene.
We find here the soldier's provision and resource in the end is prayer.
Prayer is used here in the context of a battle between good and evil, between God and Satan,
between the angelic forces of the Lord of hosts and the fallen demons of the God of
this world.
Prayer is used in that context for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against demonic
powers as he describes in verse 12.
Now what is the content of our prayer to be?
Well, we all know that when we pray we can use the acrostic acts, adoration, confession,
thanksgiving and supplication.
That's a wonderful way to remember the content of prayer.
Some of us like to use what is called the Lord's Prayer, better the disciples prayer
as an outline for our praying and work through the subjects and issues at hand by that.
Paul in this particular context uses just two words.
He says the content of our prayers should be prayer and petitions.
The word prayer is the most general word for prayer.
It embraces adoration and thanksgiving to God.
Confession of sin is a very broad word.
It means to have a conversation with God.
The word petition is more narrow.
It refers to the specific needs that we have, our requests for particular benefit from God.
The content of our prayer should be the general conversation with God and then narrowing it
down to those things that we specifically are asking God for, both broad praying and specific petitions
should be included in the content of prayer.
What about the character of our praying?
Well, at least five phrases are used here to modify His command to us to pray.
It helps us understand the character of our praying.
First of all, our prayer is to be at all times.
In other words, at every opportunity we are to pray, we must learn to relate every part
of our daily experience to God, to develop a God awareness so that whatever our experience
may be at the moment, we are including Him and conversing with Him.
Pray at all times, says the apostle.
Secondly we are to pray in the Spirit.
It means in the sphere of the Spirit or in the atmosphere of the Spirit.
The idea means that we are to depend upon the Holy Spirit for our enablement in prayer.
We are not to pray merely in our own strength and wisdom, but we are to come before Him
with the Holy Spirit energizing us.
We are to pray in the Spirit.
Third, he says, pray being on the alert.
In other words, we must be vigilant, watchful.
The word here means to pass a sleepless night on guard at the duty post.
It is true that we have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are more than conquerors through Him.
It is true that Satan and his hosts are already defeated and have been led in an open display
of defeat by our Lord at the cross.
Praise the Lord for that.
But it's also true that we must be on the alert.
We must be vigilant.
Not to gain the victory.
That's been done, but to enforce the victory on the kingdom of darkness.
To claim the ground from the enemy that He still hangs onto as a squatter.
We are to be vigilant in our praying, not to go to sleep.
We are to pray with all perseverance.
The word literally means holding out.
It was used in papyri, that is some ancient documents from this time, in the context of
waiting for a court hearing.
You think the legal system is bad just today, it's always been slow.
And in that day they used this word to describe waiting on your hearing in court.
It was also used in the sense of remaining diligent at your work.
So he says that we are to pray that way, with diligence.
Waiting, holding on in prayer.
And finally, we are to pray with petition for all saints.
In other words, we are to look beyond our own personal concerns and needs, not forgetting
them of course, but to look beyond them eventually, so that we incorporate a kingdom mentality.
So that we understand God's work is going on in other places than in just our own lives
and our own church.
That we pray for all the saints with specific petitions.
It is a marvelous thing to consider that this morning in this service, we can pray for John
and Terri Nanda and know that that fast there is result in India where they are ministering.
What a marvelous powerful privilege is prayer.
You need to understand that every word you speak in prayer, believing God, that there
is impact from that.
You cannot see it perhaps.
You cannot measure it.
But every word you speak in believing prayer has impact that is dynamic and powerful.
And the first place it impacts is in the spiritual realm, in the heavenlies, where our warfare
is.
The consequence of prayer is that there is victory over spiritual forces, opposing the
community of the saints.
That's why he tells them here to pray.
Go back and look at the context of the city of Ephesus in Acts.
It is a city where there is magic, where there is black magic, where there are drugs, there
are demons, where there is idolatry, where there is paganism.
No, I'm not talking about the Twin Cities today.
I could be.
I'm talking about Ephesus of old.
And he says that we need to understand that when we pray there are consequences.
What the consequences are include victory over spiritual forces that are in opposition
to the local church.
He also says, pray for me that I can speak the gospel boldly.
Another result of our praying, another consequence is that the gospel advances.
The gospel advances into new territory.
God's kingdom is extended into lives when we pray.
That's why he says to us, we must be a community of prayer.
The tragedy of our day is not unanswered prayer but unoffered prayer.
Perhaps the most grievous sin of which the broad community of the saints needs to repent
of is that of prayerlessness.
It is one thing to say our prayers.
It is another thing to pray.
That's what we're talking about today.
John has captured the power of prayer in these verses.
Moses prayed, his prayer did save a nation from death and grave.
Joshua prayed, the sun stood still, his enemies fell in veil and hill.
Hannah prayed, God gave a son, a nation back to the Lord he won.
Solomon prayed for wisdom, then God established his kingdom.
Elijah prayed with great desire, God gave him rain and sent the fire.
Jonah prayed, God heard his whale and then delivered him from the whale.
Three Hebrews prayed, through flames they trod, they had as a companion the son of God.
Elisha prayed with strong emotion, he got the mantle and a double portion.
Daniel prayed.
The lion's claws were held by the angel who locked their jaws.
Ten lepers prayed, the priests were sent, glory to God they were healed as they went.
Peter prayed, and Dorcas arose to life again from death's repose.
The thief who prayed for mercy cried, he went with Christ to paradise.
The church, it prayed.
Men got a shock when Peter answered his prayer with a knock.
Abram stopped praying, cities fell with all their sins into hell.
The disciples kept praying, the spirit came with cloven tongue and revival flame.
Conviction filled the hearts of men, 3,000 souls were born again.
When Christians pray, as they prayed of Yor.
In one accord, united stand, revival fire shall sweep the land and sinners shall converted
be and all the world God's glory see.
There is power in prayer.
Martin Luther said, none can believe how powerful prayer is and what it is able to effect but
those who have learned it by experience.
I want to call upon you to be a person of prayer.
But beyond that I want to call upon us to be a people of prayer.
To be a community of prayer as God commands us to be.
And to learn by experience prayer's power.
And to see with our own eyes what God will do when people pray.
Would you bow with me please?
In just a moment we're going to have a song that reminds us of the importance of prayer
and the life of another person.
Before we close this part of the service I want us with bowed heads to think together
regarding our own personal prayer experience.
Are you a praying child of God?
Have you entered into the resource of prayer?
Can you begin to grasp today what it would mean to you, to your church, to the kingdom
of God if you would enter into the practice, the discipline of prayer?
And I wonder if where you're seated in the quietness of this moment as we allow the Spirit
of God to work, if you would be willing to say to God something like this, Heavenly Father,
I desire to be a person of prayer.
And I want our church to be a community of prayer.
Teach me to pray.
I commit myself to discipline to that end.
And as I learn that discipline and as you train me to pray, I pray that your kingdom
will be advanced in the Twin Cities and around the world.
If there are 25 people in this congregation this morning who prayed that or something
like that from their hearts, it's going to make a difference.
Can you imagine what would happen if all 300 or 350 of us were to make that same commitment?
God, I pray that you will cause us this morning deeply in our spirits to understand that prayer
is vital to our lives, that we will be defeated on the spiritual battlefield of life unless
we learn to take up and enter into this resource that you have made available to us.
So impress that in our hearts that we cannot go away from here, the same people as we came
in, and that our lives will be different next Sunday and a year from now and when we stand
before you because of the new understanding of prayer that we have committed ourselves
to this day.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Somebody's praying, I can feel it.
Somebody's praying for me.
Lady hands are guiding me to protect me from what I can't see.
Lord, I believe.
Somebody's praying for me.
I can feel it.
Angels are watching over me.
There's many miles ahead till I get home.
Still I'm safely kept before your throne.
Lord, I believe.
Angels are watching over me.
Well, I've walked the barren wilderness where my pillow was a stone.
And I've been through the darkest caverns where no light had ever shone.
Still I went on, cause there was someone who was down on their knees.
And Lord, I thank you for those people praying all this time for me.
Somebody's praying, I can feel it.
Somebody's praying for me.
Mighty hands are guiding me to protect me from what I can't see.
Lord, I believe.
Somebody's praying for me.
Thank you.