Teach People to Pray

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to Ephesians chapter 1. We'll read the Apostle Paul's prayer, actually both prayers, Ephesians 1:17–23 and chapter 3:14–21. The title for today if you're taking notes is "Teach People to Pray," and I'd like to pull back and zoom out just a little bit and see what Paul is doing. He's worthy of mimicking, and take a look at his prayers and perhaps equip us to pray in like fashion. And as we zoom out and take a look at these passages today as we're going through on the subject of prayer, I would like to say do not miss the next two weeks — "Ask the Elder David Parker to Preach" — and he is going to finish off chapter 1 with the Exalted Christ. You don't want to miss the next two weeks, and so come and enjoy those messages. For today, teach people to pray.

Look with me if you would on these two prayers in one epistle. And now notice that Paul is not only praying, but he is teaching people how to pray as well by writing these wonderful subjects inside of his prayers so that the Ephesian church can develop their prayer life as well. So let's read together in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 17 and following: "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the full knowledge of Him so that you, the eyes of your heart, having been enlightened, will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His might, of His strength, which He worked in Christ by raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all."

And now turn over to chapter 3 and look with me in verse 14 and following. Chapter 3 and verse 14 — both of these prayers finish off the chapter. So chapter 3 and verse 14 and following, the prayer, the second prayer is this: "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would give you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. And now to Him who was able to do far more abundantly and beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."

I think it'd be appropriate to pause for prayer. Father, thank you for these prayers in the book of Ephesians, this wonderful epistle, this anointed letter that was intended to circulate throughout all of the known land, all of the churches, not just those in Galatia, but in the epistles that we have written in Your Word. But furthermore, it would go and go and go all the way to us now and to the saints who still are yet to be. I pray, Father, through the richness of this letter, we would enrich our prayer lives today to be able to see these wonderful subjects and to be able to pray intercessively for others whom we care about, whom we know and love in like fashion. God, we love You, and in Christ's name we pray. Amen.

And so you see these two prayers in one epistle, and the emphasis being on prayer today. These two prayers are equipping the saints to be able to pray, and so they were not only just to hear orally what the text says, but to also put it into practice. And so in doing that, I'd like to analyze for you today a way to pray.

But first of all, let's talk about Paul. Having the greatest education known to man at his time, plus being a Pharisee having access to all of the writings of the prophets prior to being converted, he would know the writings of the prophets. He would know the Torah. He would know these things in Jerusalem. And now having been saved somewhere between the age of 27 to 31, which was around 33 to 36 A.D., and having written now this Ephesian letter around 60 to 62 A.D., using round numbers, then let's just say Paul born at A.D. 5, an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin in Tarsus — Acts 22:13 attests to this — and perhaps being saved at 30 years of age while traveling, Acts 9:1–9 attests, which makes the year A.D. 35 at his conversion, for which Paul would write all of these epistles.

Let me go in order for you. Galatians was the first. First and Second Thessalonians were the second and the third. First and Second Corinthians were the fourth and the fifth. Romans sixth. Philemon seventh. Colossians eighth. Ephesians ninth. Philippians tenth. First Timothy eleventh. Titus twelfth. And then lastly and victoriously, Second Timothy thirteenth. I believe those are correct. My point is, however, though, that Paul was around 30 years old when he was saved in A.D. 35, and using these round numbers, it's safe to estimate that he was around 55 at writing this Ephesian letter. Forgive me if my numbers are off. That's not the point.

The point is, having the education that he has had and being saved for so long, no doubt this man of God has relived what the prophets have written over and over and over again. Perhaps by candlelight, because he had no TV to waste his time like we. Perhaps he has relived Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy — the Torah — so that he now can see Christ being foretold in a brighter light, for which the Israelites, whom he is of, should see. And now this prayer for those in Ephesians to be able to see and enjoy Christ is overwhelming.

And so my point is, no wonder Ephesians is known as a rich epistle, as a rich letter. All of these subjects for which Paul is praying now is seemingly all that what he would hope for on the highest level for us to be able to know and do. So what is a Christian and what are we to pray for those around us to be able to be? Who are we? The subjects brought up in these two prayers are climactic and they're worthy of our acute attention for you to go home and to outline them on your own time and to put into practice how to pray these concepts intercessively for your family and for your friends. This is paramount. This is climactic. This is Paul at his best here writing Ephesians more towards the end of his ministry career. No wonder Ephesians is so rich, and today we step back to implement how to mimic Paul in his rich prayer life. By the way, the high priestly prayer is a prayer of intercessory prayer and these prayers are too. And so excitedly, Paul must have enjoyed reading and rereading the prophets to see how they should have had their eyes opened to Christ and how the Israelites were intended to be God's chosen people and now to be able to spread the gospel for them to have known Christ.

But in fact it is reasonable to presume that Paul was perhaps rereading Jeremiah before God used him to write Ephesians. Look with me if you would in Jeremiah chapter 9. Hold your finger in Ephesians because I want you to see the repeated themes in both this Ephesian prayer and the prophet Jeremiah. No doubt Paul reread these prophets over and over and over again, having access to them and reliving them in his mind. And there are certain parts of the writings of the prophets that seem to be memorable. And these climactic themes are not only in Ephesians but they're also in Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 23 and 24. And there's a kicker right here at the end when Jeremiah mentions these themes and that God mentions that He delights in these things. And so it's really worthy of our attention, and I'll give you the answer before we read it.

These themes that are repeated are wisdom, riches, and power, and knowing Christ. Yes, Jeremiah the prophet spoke of these things. He does the same things that Paul was praying about. And so in Jeremiah chapter 9:23 it says, "Thus says Yahweh, let not a wise man boast in his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast in his might. And let not a rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows Me, that I am Yahweh, who shows loving kindness and justice and righteousness on earth. For I delight in these things, declares Yahweh."

And now these things are contrasted in the Ephesian letter as well in that Ephesus was right in the middle of a profitable trade route. And so the riches that were able to be gained perhaps by the pagans and by commerce and by business was nothing in comparison to the riches in Christ. And the same thing for the wisdom of the world — the wisdom in Ephesus, or the knowledge of the library that could be gained, was nothing in comparison to the wisdom of God, and so forth and so on. And the same thing for the power that is gained in the world — it is nothing in comparison to the power of God.

And so you see in Jeremiah chapter 9 the contrast: "Thus says Yahweh, let not the wise man boast in his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast in his might. Let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let he who boasts boast in this that he understands and knows Me." Knowing God, knowing Christ is the theme of Paul's prayer back in Ephesians. And so in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 17, the knowledge of Christ, the knowledge of Him is the main idea. It is the substance for which all of the other subcategories branch off from. Knowing God, Jeremiah says, and Paul says knowing Christ — Jesus is God. And to know Him, that's the main emphasis of it, and all the details seem to flow from that. And so both Jeremiah and Paul include these subjects of wisdom and power and riches in knowing. They're all repeated.

Not only that, look in the second prayer in Ephesians chapter 3. You see as well the repeated themes of power, riches, and knowing. "For this reason I now bow my knees before the Father" — this is Ephesians 3:14 — "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would give you according to the riches" — the repeated theme — "of His glory. To be strengthened with power" — the repeated theme of might and power right here — "through His Spirit in the inner man." And then if you skip to verse 19, it's knowing Christ, knowing the love of Christ. And so what is Paul doing? Well, obviously he is praying intercessively. And so my question to us today is, are Paul's prayers worth outlining and mimicking? Well, I would hope that you would say a resounding yes, because it is Scripture. It's beyond Paul the person. It is essentially what God wants for us. And so in Jeremiah chapter 9 and verse 24 he says, "I delight in these things," the emphasis of that being knowing God.

So the prophet Jeremiah is talking about how to know God, and Paul is talking about how to know Christ, and this God delights in. And so overflowingly, Paul is praying that the Ephesian congregation would know Christ and have His abundant wisdom and work and serve Him in His power. And not only in their own power, but also knowing their power and having knowledge of the riches that complete them and help them to feel full in Christ — these spiritual riches as opposed to the physical meaning of wealth — and thereby bring delight to God, delight to Yahweh. This God delights in.

And so my first point, if you're taking notes, is: aim at pleasing God by teaching people. Aim at pleasing God by teaching people. Paul is not just acting here. He is not just praying here. But he is actually showing what he wants the Ephesian church to do. He wants them to pray intercessively. And he wants them to pray these things. He wants them to make this prayer their own prayer. He's giving them a means of how to pray. It's written down. It's given to them there to copy this epistle, and they are to do likewise. They have a role model here in the Apostle Paul, and this is how to pray and to make God One whom delights in you. And so Paul, he's not just a missionary. He's not just one who travels and preaches the gospel.

Pastor Paul stayed in Ephesus for three years and church planted this church. He planted it. So you can call him a pastor as well. And so he has a paternal heart, a fatherly heart, one who is protective and benevolent, but also he has a heart to teach just like a father has. A father wants to teach his children. And so Paul is teaching his children in the faith how to pray. And this is pleasing to the Lord. And if you would want to be pleasing unto the Lord like Paul's aim was to be pleasing unto God, then you will also teach people the most important things.

Point number one again: aim at pleasing God by teaching people. And God declares explicitly what He delights in. And so logically, if God does not want men according to Jeremiah chapter 9 to boast in themselves — in their own wisdom, their own power, and their own riches — but to boast in knowing God, logically then His wisdom, His power, and His riches, then we ought to utilize these in a way to teach people how to pray and please God. This is logical — to be able to say, okay, we know what pleases the Lord. He said it. Jeremiah recorded it. Paul's repeating it. He's doing it. And he's actually writing it and distributing it. The expectation is logical here for us then to do in like fashion.

If you get down to the heart of hearts, it was Paul's aim to please God. And he told the Corinthian church this in 2 Corinthians 5:9. It says, "Therefore we also having as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to God, to be pleasing to the Lord." And so his ambition, his motives, were not to please himself, were not to please the people, but to please God. And he was content with that. If God was happy with him, he's good. Mankind can be against him and a lot of them were. A lot of things could rise up against him. A lot of things happened. But as long as he felt like God was pleased with him, he was happy. And one of the things that he did on purpose was he taught people. And here we see his prayers repeated in this Ephesian epistle.

And so people praying for people pleases God. Paul knew that, and he did that in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 17 to 23 and Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 to 21. So people praying for people pleases God. Paul's pleasing God. He's praying for people. That pleases God. We ought to do that, but we also ought to teach people how to do that.

People understanding God pleases God. We just read that in Jeremiah 9:24. It pleases God for people to know God. That's pleasing to God. It makes God happy. That is a way that we can bring joy to our Father. And if you look around the world at all the things that are displeasing to the Lord, don't you want to be part of the remnant who actually pleases the Lord? That He would look down from heaven and see you and say, "Man, I am pleased with this family. I am pleased with this person. I am pleased with how this prayer life is developing." You have a Father in heaven who cares — down to the minutest details of your life and your thought life and your heart motives. He knows and He cares. And He is pleased with your progress in your prayer life.

And so this is how you can develop your own prayer life. You can stretch yourself in prayer. You can move from how you are praying now to praying more deeply, praying longer, praying more. This pleases God. People understanding God pleases God. And people understanding God pleases God so much so that He writes it over and over again.

Not only that, turn with me to 3 John if you would and see that people walking with the Lord pleases God. 3 John verse 4. It's hard to find — it's right before Revelation and Jude. 3 John, a little rich letter here. "I have no greater joy than this." 3 John verse 4. That's a stout statement. Knowing that this is Scripture from up above — I, obviously John writing about the church, but it coincides with God towards His children — "I have no greater joy than this: to hear that my children are walking in the truth." And you know that as a parent.

You have no greater joy than when you see your children right with Christ and walking with Him in righteousness. It's more than soothing. It makes you elated inside to see them growing in the relationship with Christ. And for a pastor it's the same. For a pastor to see the people growing in Christ, there's nothing better. Everything can be going wrong in life, but he can sit back and say, "Man, I love my people." To see them thriving in Christ, there's no greater joy. This is amazing. And I have that joy. Thank you for being so faithful to Christ. God, in the same way as a parent, same way as a pastor, has no greater joy than to see His people walking in the truth. I mean, if this is truly true, then He would say it again, right? Turn back to 2 John and verse 4.

2 John and verse 4. "I rejoice greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we received commandment from the Father." So this being from the Father — isn't this cool? That God sees people walking in the Word and it truly brings Him no greater joy. This is amazing.

And so I would say for us today, just by observation of the text in Ephesians — in fact there are two prayers — Paul is praying these repeated themes. Point number one: you should do it also. Aim at pleasing God by teaching people.

Point number two: please God by teaching people how to pray. Please God by teaching people how to pray. This is something that I believe Paul did. I believe he sat down and he taught Timothy how to pray. He didn't just do it publicly. He didn't just do it after he got through preaching or before he was preaching or with the congregation in church. He was a prayer warrior at home as well. And I believe with all of my heart that he sat down and he personally taught people how to pray. I believe that.

And so you would say applicationally, if I am to please God by teaching you how to pray, me teaching you how to pray intercessory prayers, the easiest way for me to teach you how to pray is to point to the Scriptures. Because you have your Bibles — it's at home with you, and all you have to do is open up the Word of God, perhaps make some brackets around these two prayers and perhaps circle the ideas in these two areas. And you'd make this divine outline your prayer outline.

Perhaps the easiest way for me to equip you to be able to pray — by way of application and mimicking Paul to be able to teach people how to pray, to be able to please God — is to show you that in these prayers are some wonderful ideas for us to outline. So if you were to read chapter 1 verses 17 to 19, you would see how to pray for others to have a spirit of wisdom in verse 17, to have a full knowledge of God and to know God's hope in verse 18, and to know God's spiritual riches and to know God's surpassing power that's toward us in verse 19. And then in chapter 3, in verses 16 to 21, you would see how to pray for others to be inwardly strengthened. Boy, don't we need to be inwardly sound before the Lord and sound before the world? And to be firmly rooted — you know, not just a shallow faith that is like a flower that withers when it gets hot outside, but to have deep roots — and to pray for people to be firmly rooted in Christ, see Ephesians 3:17, and to be grounded in love, and to comprehend and to know the love of Christ. What a vast subject. And to be filled with God and to do much work in the church. These are some of the subjects that Paul brings up in this passage.

And if you outline this and make this your prayer, I think that we could expand our prayer life and pray intercessory prayers for each other. And man, I really appreciate all of you who already are praying for me — keep it up! And I hope to be able to stoke your fire even more to pray not only for me, but for others as well as one another yourselves. These divine ideas. So today I want to preach in such a way as to perhaps raise your prayer life to the next level, to help even make a procedural change in your daily and weekly routines. If I could preach to you in such a way that it would be impacting enough for you to be able to say, "This is important enough for me to change the way I live, to implement a different way of praying, to put it into my regular routine, to be able to say, I pray at this time, and I'm going to learn better how to pray. I want to pray in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. I want to please God."

This is one way that you could please God — by not only getting to know Him more in these ideas, but also to pray intercessively for others, to get beyond ourselves and to pray specific prayers, scriptural prayers for each other. This is truly, in my opinion, a matter of urgency. We see our children growing up before our very eyes. This is a matter of urgency that we pray for our children to be able to get these concepts, to really truly know God before they're out from underneath our influence. They're here. We want to raise them and keep them. And so it's a matter of urgency for the people to pray for each other, for the people to love on the children, for us to get these concepts, because time is just passing by so fast.

And so my appeal for us is to have a greater adherence to praying scripturally. Praying scripturally. You know you don't know it all, but we pray like we know it all. You know that at the forefront of your mind you don't have the most important things in mind. You know that. And so yield your prayer life to the Scriptures and come underneath the authority of the Scriptures and pray this way. Learn these concepts even more. Dig into it yourselves so that as you are like a rock skipping across a pond that you've just thrown, you're throwing out these prayers and you're hitting these subjects — knowing God and praying wisdom for one another — and being able to see them walk in a way that is inwardly strengthened as you're hitting across these subjects. As you're studying them, you're able then to go deeper in your prayer life. And these are just trigger points in your prayer life. They're just trigger points. So you actually know what Paul is talking about on a deeper level. As you are praying, it becomes your own prayer. And so this is the divine outline, and we need to pray scripturally.

Now, before we actually pray together, I want to ask you a question. Do you believe that prayer changes things? All right. Oh boy, I'm on the same page with you. Then we should be experts in prayer.

We should be ones who should be praying like we are eating all the time. We should be ones who are praying like we're breathing all the time. We should be ones who are praying like we are working, leaning into prayer because it works. We should be praying our very best for people, our very best. And these prayers, I'll be honest with you, are far beyond my normal prayer life. And so I must also yield to these scriptural ideas and expand my prayer life greatly. And I use my Bible while I pray to help me to pray, to remind me of these wonderful subjects.

And so I think that we could theologically say that our prayer life corresponds with our confidence in God. Little prayer, little confidence in God. Much prayer, much confidence in God. If you have a mighty prayer life — don't you love our family discipleship church? Love it, really do — if your prayer life is great, you have a great God. If your prayer life is little, then in your estimation — which God knows, your heart sees how big an estimation of God you have in your life — how dependent you are upon Him.

Guys, we've got to get to a desperation in our prayer life and pray like Jesus prayed and pray like Paul prayed and pray like David prayed. You've got to pray. His prayer, according to the psalmist, moves you from desperation to the actual nuts and bolts of life, back to having confidence in God and praising Him. If your prayers move to praise, if you're praying scripturally, like David, praying in a way that moves you from "Oh, poor me" prayers, "Eeyore" prayers, somber prayers — I'll be honest with you, if I bow my head with someone who is praying somber prayers, it is drudgery: "Oh, Lord, help him wrap up quickly." But if I pray with someone who serves a big God, they serve victoriously, and they see God in a way that is going to see His will through, then I'm like, "I'm in it! I'm right there with it!" Isn't that great to pray with someone who is praying victoriously? Man, I so appreciate that. You know, James 4:2 says this: "You have not because you ask not."

And so again, I say to you theologically, our prayer life truly corresponds to how much we believe in a sovereign king. And I believe, like E.M. Bounds said, that prayer, and I quote, "is the language of need; not to pray declares nothing is needed."

It is independence of God, a self-sufficient ruling of God out of your life. Prayerlessness, according to E.M. Bounds, declares, "We do not need God." Hence, we do not pray. He goes on to say, "The Laodicean Church received this correction," and I quote, Revelation 3:17: "because you say I have need of nothing."

May we not be guilty of prayerlessness, because it communicates to God we need You not.

And so this is most alarming if one is trusting in themselves and not praying desperately, which communicates trusting in God. And so prayerlessness, according to Revelation chapter 3 verse 16, in the context for which E.M. Bounds is portraying, is lukewarmness. Oh, let us not be lukewarm in our prayer life. Help us to strive in our prayer life. Help us to mark it down and to pray with desperation, to pray with a need to pray desperately.

And so I want to leave you today with five tips for one little aspect of your prayer life. If there are ten aspects of a healthy prayer life, I've given you one today in regards to praying scripturally, okay? And we're going to give you an outline to be able to do that specifically. But I want to give you five tips in addition to today's text to teach you how to do what's called mental prayer. Mental prayer, okay? Follow along with me. Verbal prayer we can do together. But mental prayer I'm convinced we can do better. Five tips for mental prayer, and before I give them to you — mental prayer is with the heart and mind and not with the mouth, okay? This is one area of your prayer life. Mental prayer — it's communing with God without speaking.

Mental prayer is communing with God without speaking. And so mental prayer — it's with the heart and with the mind, not the mouth. It's engaging and crying out without verbal words. It's mental. It's heartfelt. And when your soul lifts itself up to God and there isn't a word said, but the utterances of your heart cry up to God who alone knows and hears, that is mental prayer.

God hears your heart. And when you are lifting your soul to Him, He hears your prayer. It's called mental prayer. And for this, as an example, Moses cried unto God in Exodus chapter 14 and verse 15, but yet there's not any of the prayer recorded — no words, no text, no nothing — but he was crying out to God. His heart cried to God, was heard by God. It reminds me of a prayer warrior whom most of us know of: Paul Washer. What an amazing man of prayer. A few times past, his wife would stand at the door and guard his prayer time so that he could commune with God and have no interruptions. So his wife would stand guard just so that he could have this close and intimate communion with the Lord.

And this is amazing. Obviously Paul Washer's missions ministry is named Heart Cry. And I think that is probably based upon his prayer life — his heart cry unto the Lord for the nations to come to Christ. And God has richly blessed the ministry, I believe, because he is a man of prayer.

And so this mental prayer — five aspects. Number one: let your heart lift your desires constantly. Let your heart lift your desires constantly. Be communing with the Lord without ending. Be lifting up to the Lord the desires of your heart all of the time. Your desires will be refined as you are seeking and praying and lifting them up to the Lord. It's pretty easy to be able to discern while you're praying whether or not that is a self-centered prayer or a righteous prayer. Lifting your desires up to the Lord, thinking about what you are mentally praying, helps to refine your motives and who you are in Christ. It weeds out that which should not be in your heart. And it reinstalls the things that should be, because before God you are lifting your heart to Him. It's not just as you're driving — it's as you're going in life. So lift your heart and your desires constantly to Him.

Point number two: consistent engagement will hinder your estrangement. Consistent engagement in mental prayer with God — it will hinder your estrangement. It will hinder you from being estranged from God. It will keep you underneath the shelter of His wings. It will help you as you're walking in this world. Consistently praying to the Lord will keep you close to Christ and it will hinder your departure from Him. It will keep you, it will help you. And Jesus prayed, "Keep them" — for His own disciples, one of the main aspects in John chapter 17 was "keep them, Lord, keep them." And if you were one who would submit and be kept by God, you will be praying intercessively all the time for yourself, for your family, for your church, for your desires, for your work. And what you're to do today is just always be communing with the Lord regularly without ceasing. At every point in life you're praying and lifting up, and this will keep you from being estranged.

And I want to prove that point number three is: praying is resisting. It is a form of offense. You are actively resisting Satan when you are praying. In Matthew chapter 4 verses 1 to 11, Jesus was quoting Scripture and resisting him. But in Matthew chapter 26 — the Bible, turn there if you would — we got time. Matthew chapter 26.

I know it's Mother's Day, and if you're trying to get to the restaurants on time, don't worry about it. I hope this food is better. Matthew chapter 26 verse 41. And I want to prove to you that praying is resisting.

We're all tempted, and Satan is trying like crazy to find out your weaknesses, to find out where he can tempt you and to destroy you. But look at this. In Matthew chapter 26 verse 41, it says, "Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation." Isn't that great? So it is by you praying that it keeps you from being tempted. If you're praying, it's hard for Satan to tempt you. If you're praying, it's hard to fall prey to a trap. If you are praying, you are not lusting. If you're praying, you're not coveting.

If you're praying, you're not cheating and lying and gossiping. All of these traps that are set out there before your life — every single day there is a bear trap of temptation. There is a bear trap of lust. There is a bear trap of gossip. And if you, being a mere person, step into a bear trap, which has a gauge of steel that is so thick you could not have the strength to pull it off of your leg, it would crush your leg and you could not get it off — there are bear traps of sin waiting for you every single day. If you are praying, you are less likely to be trapped by sin. This is so important for the believer to get on the offense in regards to his prayer life.

And so praying is resisting. Matthew 26:41. And James 4:7 says, "To resist the devil and he will flee from you." We need to be praying and resisting Satan in our lives. And in order to be able to do that, we've got to sharpen our swords. We've got to sharpen our axes. And we've got to sharpen these tools, these means for which we succeed in life. And prayer is one of the best tools in the shed. Do you work with prayer? Do you work prayer? Do you use it like a pen? Like a shovel? Like a bulldozer? Do you use prayer to get things done in your life? Do you lean upon prayer? Do you believe in prayer? And if you do, then you will keep these things up to date in your life and you will be able to resist Satan by praying. And you'll be constantly engaged to prevent your estrangement from Christ by praying, and you're lifting up your heart's desire to pray.

So that's points number 1, 2, 3. Number 4 is very simple: begin and end every day with prayer. As soon as you wake up, start praying. And as you are going to sleep, pray yourself to sleep. What a wonderful habit that would be.

I don't know about you — do you wake up in the middle of the night and you're just communing with the Lord? I mean, this is an amazing spiritual tip: to begin and end each day with prayer. And ones, you beloved ones who value prayer, you inwardly are like, "This is some of the best times of my day." That's when I'm communing with the Lord. I'm lifting up my desires to Him. I'm thinking and dwelling upon Him and His Word. And I'm praying for those whom I love. I'm praying for my children, myself. Just praying.

Number 5, lastly: prayer and praise are best together. They're best friends. Prayer and praise are best together. And the psalmist illustrates this over and over and over again. He could not write a poem without praying and praising. He could not have a conversation with someone without praying and praising. He couldn't go through a trial without praying and praising. He couldn't look at anything in life. This is who he was. David was a man after God's own heart. And he was known for starting off a psalm in prayer, crying out to the Lord from the ends of the earth, describing the elements: "Oh, the world is against me. Absalom, my son wants to kill me. I'm hiding in a cave. Lord, help!" And crying out to the Lord — and then ending confidently and praising God through the circumstances. Man, psalms — they're wonderful.

So I say to you, mental prayer is communing with God without speaking. And so, how sharp should we be in praying? I think we should be as sharp as a samurai sword, to be able to cut through anything in this life. And how pitiful our condition if we have a sword — prayer — and are at war, you know it every day, and yet lift it not.

And so prayer, it's a duty. Don't be lazy. Prayer, it's a tool. Put it to work. Let's pray.

Father, we do love You. And as we pray together, what a joy it is to be able to come before You, Lord. The veil has been torn from top to bottom. No man could have done that. You have made it possible for us to walk right into Your presence. Just forgive us, dear God, where we have sinned against You. Purify our hearts, Lord. God, I pray that we would be first of all people of repentance, that we come before You respectfully and reverently and ask You, dear Jesus, "Show us Your ways, O Lord. Teach us Your paths." And, Father, as we confess, we are a needy people, ones who go astray all the time. Bring us back underneath the shelter of Your wing, dear Jesus, we pray.

And as we, Lord, learn from the great Apostle Paul on how to pray, I ask that You would help us, Lord, to know You more, to be able to have a hope that is in Christ alone and not in ourselves. Help us not to be hopeless and to be depressed, but to have hope in You. Help us, Lord, then also to know the riches of this glorious inheritance — being You in us. Colossians 1:27 says, "Christ in us, the hope of glory." God, help us to recognize that we have You, unfathomable riches, You Yourself in us. And we are in You — this dual idea of You inheriting believers and we inheriting You. God, help us to know these riches.

And so, Lord, I also ask, according to Your surpassing greatness, that You would help us to be empowered by Your energies and by Your information and by Your motives, by Your direction. Help us, dear Jesus, to make the inside of our hearts and souls pure before You so that the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing unto You, our Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Give us the inner power and the strength, Lord, to serve You, to please You. It's not of ourselves. None are good. We can't do this on our own. So, God, we ask You for Your knowledge, Your hope, Your riches, and Your power.

God, help us to comprehend that You are seated far above all of earthly authorities. Help us not to diminish Your rulership by being depressed about the rulers of the world. God, help us to have hope in You that is unshakable. Help us to understand as well that You are head over the church and that You reign and You rule and there's no reason ever to be hopeless, but to always be hopeful in You — of who You are, dear Lord. Show us Your power. Show us Your wisdom. Show us Yourself, dear Jesus. Help us, I pray, to be not only ones who pray for ourselves, but who pray for each other.

And, Father, if there's one here who knows not that they have been born into sin and they know not that their sin is against You and that they are condemned for their sin — pray, God, that You would lift the blinders, that You would help them to see that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and all need You, dear Jesus Christ. Pray, Father, that You would help the blind to be able to see that the problem is sin and it is condemning them unto hell for eternity unless they believe by faith that You made a way by sending Your Son to take on their sin and punishment. Pray, God, that You would help them to take on the punishment, to take on the payment of sin, which is death, that You died on the cross in their place. Lord, lift their blinded eyes and help them to see that You are the only way, that they could never measure up, that we don't have a "hope so" faith — we have a "know so" faith. Pray, God, that they would know You and not be hopeful in themselves, and that their good righteous deeds would get them into heaven, because none are righteous and none of our deeds are even good. It's only You through us, dear Jesus, that amounts to anything. Especially our words — that I pray for the lost to come to Christ. Pray, if there's anyone here, dear Jesus, that they would repent sorrowfully, that they are sinners in need of You, dear Jesus. Pray, God, that they would repent and believe this gospel. Thank You, Father, for Your wonderful work inside of our hearts, and may we continue as imperfect people to serve You, a perfect Lord. In Christ's name we pray, amen.