SPEAKER_00: Sermon text this morning comes from the book of Ephesians, chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty well known passage on putting on the Christian armor.
SPEAKER_00: Before we read the text, though I wanted to mention also uh prayers for Rachel Linnell.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Rachel and Matt come to this service.
SPEAKER_00: Rachel fell on the ice the other day and broke her wrist.
SPEAKER_00: Dislocated.
SPEAKER_00: She's got a cast, and many of you know she's carrying a baby, and the baby seems to be fine.
SPEAKER_00: We thank God for.
SPEAKER_00: But uh pray for Rachel and her healing.
SPEAKER_00: Also tonight, right here in this room.
SPEAKER_00: 75 people are gonna show up for science.
SPEAKER_00: We've never had so many people in one year.
SPEAKER_00: Sunship.
SPEAKER_00: Uh just because you sign up for science doesn't mean your church is gospel renewal.
SPEAKER_00: What I asked.
SPEAKER_00: Why would you pray?
SPEAKER_00: God would do a marvelous work of gospel renewal in the hearts of all who show up tonight.
SPEAKER_00: The work that only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in a series on prayer in the month of January.
SPEAKER_00: And we've got that break.
SPEAKER_00: God put in that snow break.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one of our deacons told me this morning afterward, he said, uh, you know, I I was really so looking forward to the next sermon that I was gonna come through the snow and ask you just to preach to me.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm glad he did.
SPEAKER_00: Today I get to preach.
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm excited about this sermon because I think it's an important subject.
SPEAKER_00: Uh not only about the whole armor of God, but specifically we're gonna focus on what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So hear the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.
SPEAKER_00: Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand the evil day, and having done all, stand firm.
SPEAKER_00: Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace.
SPEAKER_00: In all circumstances, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one, and at all times in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
SPEAKER_00: To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.
SPEAKER_00: This is the reading of God's holy and infallible and inerrant word that we sit under this morning, so we pray that God's Spirit would teach us.
SPEAKER_00: Father, that we come to your word, your precious word.
SPEAKER_00: And we pray that your spirit would give us insight to really see and value the precious work of your son on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We started this new series last September.
SPEAKER_00: The big series for the year is the topic of being priest in God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And we preached on that last September quite a bit.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_00: If you are a Christian, you are a priest.
SPEAKER_00: There is no such thing as a Christian who is not a priest.
SPEAKER_00: And we looked at 1 Peter chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Christian, you have been called out of darkness into God's marvelous light, into the priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: And so being in the priesthood has nothing to do with having a seminary degree.
SPEAKER_00: Even with all the education.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to go to seminary to be a great priest.
SPEAKER_00: It's about seeing the work of Christ on your behalf.
SPEAKER_00: And believing that.
SPEAKER_00: And we're priests.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're focused on this year.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we looked at in some detail last September was first and foremost what priests do is to declare the praises of God, the excellencies of God, 1 Peter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Let me paraphrase that.
SPEAKER_00: Our first calling as priests is to be good worshipers.
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing more important in life, if you're a Christian, than to worship God well in spirit and truth.
SPEAKER_00: But then also we saw two weeks ago in Revelation chapter 5 that our calling as priest also means that we pray, we intercede for others.
SPEAKER_00: To the Lamb who sits on the throne, as we looked at two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, we looked at, we look considered that concept, the golden bowls that are full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.
SPEAKER_00: And we consider the fact that it's our privilege to pray as priest.
SPEAKER_00: We consider the fact that our prayers are precious in God's sight.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, that our prayers are powerful when they're presented through the work of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're going to take a closer look at one of the keys to priestly praying, which is praying in the Holy Spirit, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to put this up front.
SPEAKER_00: This may be one of the least taught topics in evangelicalism.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just the Presbyterians.
SPEAKER_00: Don't just gang up on the Presbyterians.
SPEAKER_00: Just about all the denominations struggle with this.
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to pray in the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: And we suffer because of our lack of knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're going to look at that in more detail.
SPEAKER_00: One commentator put it like this: many of you are familiar with the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful epistle on the beauty of Christ's church.
SPEAKER_00: The first three chapters are just chock full of the blessings that we have because we're in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is the way he put it.
SPEAKER_00: The book of Ephesians begins by lifting us up into the heavenlies, but it ends by pulling us down on our knees in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's so all these doctrines, some of them are very lofty, but that they don't just stay in our head, they fill our head, they guide us, but they lead to prayer.
SPEAKER_00: They lead us to praying these truths in.
SPEAKER_00: It's not enough just to hear doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: The goal is that we believe it, that we take it in, which we cannot do apart from the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But it also leads us to get on our knees and pray it in.
SPEAKER_00: And so this chapter, putting on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The devil does have schemes, you know that.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's a day that goes by for me as your pastor that I'm not aware of some of the schemes as I meet with you, as I talk with you.
SPEAKER_00: The devil has so many schemes.
SPEAKER_00: How do we counter that?
SPEAKER_00: Notice that prayer is not mentioned as one of the pieces of armor.
SPEAKER_00: Paul lists six distinct pieces of armor to put on.
SPEAKER_00: But prayer is not one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Why is that?
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is how you put them on.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is what unites us to Christ so that the pieces of armor actually we shield ourselves with.
SPEAKER_00: We clothe ourselves with.
SPEAKER_00: But you can't really do that without praying in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see that.
SPEAKER_00: It's the power source that connects us to this divine power by faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's just how we access these amazing truths that we find here.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to take a closer look.
SPEAKER_00: And I again I just let me say this up front.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think this is about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think this is about speaking in tongues.
SPEAKER_00: When he says pray in the Holy Spirit, I don't think he's saying you need to, it's not a technique.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a technique.
SPEAKER_00: It's not some special thing you have to go to school to learn.
SPEAKER_00: It's much more about our character than our gifts.
SPEAKER_00: It's yielding to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's emptying ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's seeing more and more, and we're going to get into this, but how empty and weak we are.
SPEAKER_00: And the more we see that, and the more we believe that, the more we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit, the more we open up.
SPEAKER_00: We're actually filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit gives us this boldness and he gives us this power that we don't have otherwise.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the verse 18, Paul talks about the four alls.
SPEAKER_00: Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, with all perseverance for all the saints.
SPEAKER_00: That little word that means so much at all times.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's prayer for the Christians, whether it's at Ephesus or Alexandria today, is that we would understand that He wants, God wants us to be in a state of prayer 24 hours a day.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mean you go around actually praying specifically, but to be in such a frame of mind, in such a connection with God, that it's your knee-jerk reaction.
SPEAKER_00: When you get into trouble, your knee-jerk reaction is to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: When you're aware of your weakness, that you cry out to God, that you don't just do what we normally do too much of the time.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've got to figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to marshal my resources.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: All times in the Spirit, we'll come back to that.
SPEAKER_00: With all prayers and supplications, these are two different Greek words that Paul uses, but probably don't make too much of that.
SPEAKER_00: The prayers is more general, general things, but the supplications, yeah, they are more specific.
SPEAKER_00: The things that you're going to write on your prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Insert.
SPEAKER_00: Something that you can identify, that you clearly know you need in your life, and you're asking God to give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a mountain that you know that only God can move.
SPEAKER_00: Supplications.
SPEAKER_00: With all perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: Now why does he say that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he knows how weak we are.
SPEAKER_00: What does it take to stop you from praying, both individually or corporately?
SPEAKER_00: Paul exhorted the Colossians to devote themselves to prayer, chapter 4, verse 2.
SPEAKER_00: That word devoted means to be constant, to be steadfast, to be persevering.
SPEAKER_00: You might recall that on one occasion in Luke chapter 18, Jesus is teaching his disciples about prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
SPEAKER_00: Don't we quickly lose heart?
SPEAKER_00: What does it take to defeat us?
SPEAKER_00: And to think, well, it really is not going to make any difference.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I could pray, I could go to a prayer meeting or not go to a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: It really doesn't matter in the end.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00: It really does.
SPEAKER_00: That my knee-jerk response in life is to cry out to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants us to do and not give up.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you know, one of my favorite spiritual mentors, he doesn't know it, he's in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But George Bueller, I've learned so much.
SPEAKER_00: I've read so many of his books.
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the stories from his life that encourages me the most.
SPEAKER_00: Right after he got Christ saved, converted to Christ as a young man, God put five men that he knew pretty well on his mind to pray for their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed for 18 months before the first man was saved.
SPEAKER_00: And then it was another five years before the second man was saved.
SPEAKER_00: And then it was another six years later before the third man was saved.
SPEAKER_00: And then the fourth one was right before his death.
SPEAKER_00: About 70 years later.
SPEAKER_00: The fifth one was converted after his death.
SPEAKER_00: He prayed every day for these men.
SPEAKER_00: He longed to see them with him in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Boy, that's an encouragement to me of praying with all perseverance.
SPEAKER_00: When do you stop praying?
SPEAKER_00: Why do you stop praying?
SPEAKER_00: On belief?
SPEAKER_00: What's not happening?
SPEAKER_00: It's not happening fast enough.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I'm telling you this parable so that you will not lose heart and stop praying.
SPEAKER_00: Praying at all times in the Spirit, which means the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Again, perhaps one of the least understood truths in the church today.
SPEAKER_00: As I said, I don't think this is talking about the charismatic gifts.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think this is talking about learning how to speak in tongues.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know when in the book of Acts, not to digress too much, but we when we read about the filling of the Spirit, it's almost always in connection with witnessing.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00: It's almost always with witnessing, not just my own private time alone with God.
SPEAKER_00: It's for powerment, it's for ministry.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit unites us to Christ by faith to apprehend, to grasp all that he offers us.
SPEAKER_00: If you go back to Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, Paul prays that he may grant you to be strengthened with power.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to this prepositional phrase, through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It does not happen any other way.
SPEAKER_00: In your inner being.
SPEAKER_00: In your heart, in the real you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't get stuck in your head, like a lot of us do.
SPEAKER_00: Don't live the Christian life simply in your head.
SPEAKER_00: Well, I heard that teaching, and I, you know, I think about that teaching every once in a while.
SPEAKER_00: I find that teaching interesting.
SPEAKER_00: I can discuss it, I can teach it, I can debate it.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't count for anything.
SPEAKER_00: Is that truth capturing your heart?
SPEAKER_00: That's what Paul's prayer is.
SPEAKER_00: That the Spirit gives us eyes to see the beauty of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Remember two weeks ago, the soul-ravishing sightings of Christ that Edwards used to describe worship.
SPEAKER_00: Eyes to see the finished work of Christ on your behalf and to actually lay hold of it by faith, living as though you believe it.
SPEAKER_00: That the things of Christ come alive to us, as we say in sonship, that we don't just have the words to the music, but the music itself.
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear the beat of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: Can you hear the rhythm of the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So that even the things that you learned a long time ago become like new.
SPEAKER_00: The problem with many of us, and myself included, I've been in church all my life.
SPEAKER_00: I have missed very few Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: Very few.
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle with that?
SPEAKER_00: We're not always learning new things, but the things that we've learned ought to be coming alive in us and fresh, in a new way.
SPEAKER_00: One example of this is Romans chapter 8, verse 26, where the apostle Paul wrote, The Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought.
SPEAKER_00: But the Spirit Himself intercedes for the saints with groanings too deep for words, according to the will of God.
SPEAKER_00: That is an amazing passage.
SPEAKER_00: Let me paraphrase.
SPEAKER_00: When you don't know what to pray for, you're going through something hard in life.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it just seems overwhelming and you're just bent.
SPEAKER_00: You're exhausted emotionally.
SPEAKER_00: You're worn out.
SPEAKER_00: You're overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We all get this, right?
SPEAKER_00: We've all been there.
SPEAKER_00: You just don't know.
SPEAKER_00: It's hard.
SPEAKER_00: It just feels like this weight on you.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't even know how to pray about this.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to this.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit is inside of you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit takes your need to the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, Father, this is what Tom needs.
SPEAKER_00: There's some things that Tom knows what he needs, and there's things that he doesn't know.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit goes to the throne of God and he says, Father, this is what Tom needs.
SPEAKER_00: Would you please give this to Tom?
SPEAKER_00: And not only does he know all things, does he know the will of God, the mind of God, which is amazing that he's omniscient.
SPEAKER_00: Of course he is.
SPEAKER_00: He's part of the triune God.
SPEAKER_00: But that he cares that deeply.
SPEAKER_00: Does that shock you?
SPEAKER_00: There is nobody in your life, including your spouse or your child, there is nobody in your life who cares more about what you need than the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that means even when you're alone and there aren't people with you, you can go to God and the Holy Spirit is interceding for you.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit is going to the throne of God, and the Holy Spirit is saying, Father, this is what they need.
SPEAKER_00: And He in the groan.
SPEAKER_00: It just amazes me.
SPEAKER_00: He takes our needs and pleads and intercedes for us.
SPEAKER_00: Praying in the Holy Spirit, I'm going to say it again, is not a technique.
SPEAKER_00: It's much more about learning how we yield to the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Empty ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Remember the illustration I preached on this last winter when we went through Galatians.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be drunk with wine.
SPEAKER_00: What does wine do?
SPEAKER_00: If you get too much wine, if you get too much alcohol in your body, what does it do?
SPEAKER_00: It makes you a different person, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're under the influence of the alcohol.
SPEAKER_00: So you behave differently.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, don't be drunk with wine.
SPEAKER_00: Be filled, be drunk with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the more that you're filled with the Spirit, the more you're going to be a different person.
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to be like your old self.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to demonstrate and exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have more love.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have more joy.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to have more peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self control.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to be growing in your awareness of how.
SPEAKER_00: How full of yourself you are.
SPEAKER_00: How full of myself I am in the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: And repent.
SPEAKER_00: And as I confess my sin and get out of the way, we just kind of learn how to get out of our own way.
SPEAKER_00: Is that a problem for you?
SPEAKER_00: Do you just kind of get in your own way too much?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I do.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, why did I say that?
SPEAKER_00: Why did I do that?
SPEAKER_00: You know, that was dumb.
SPEAKER_00: That didn't help.
SPEAKER_00: Praying at all times in the Holy Spirit, as we move toward the finish line.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you just three applications of this.
SPEAKER_00: Praying in the Holy Spirit requires, first of all, humility to admit that we are that weak.
SPEAKER_00: To realize how weak we are in ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's about a growing humility.
SPEAKER_00: Shutting the orphan spirit, making excuses, defending ourselves, promoting ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's just kind of learning how to get out of the way.
SPEAKER_00: It requires brokenness, which we seem to be allergic to, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you a couple more thoughts.
SPEAKER_00: God has been giving me over the weeks.
SPEAKER_00: Praying, again, praying in the Spirit is not about technique.
SPEAKER_00: It's not about the gift either.
SPEAKER_00: It's about a yielding, it's submitting to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's about being filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But we need fresh fillings of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When you became a Christian, you were baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We grieve the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We quench the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's learning how to come to God and saying, God, would you please fill me anew?
SPEAKER_00: It's about a growing relationship with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit is the one who enables me to accept the Father's delight.
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle accepting God's delight for you?
SPEAKER_00: If there's anybody in this room that can't say yes, I'm not buying it.
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle with actually believing that the Father, the scriptures say that you are the apple of his eye?
SPEAKER_00: Is that hard to believe?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It's only the Spirit that can enable us to actually believe that.
SPEAKER_00: It's only the Spirit that enables us to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ and to live our life based on his righteousness and not ours.
SPEAKER_00: It's only the Holy Spirit that can enable us to learn how to trust and follow the leadings and the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that on your own.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we pray in the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: By first of all, realizing how powerless we are even to pray.
SPEAKER_00: We can't even pray right ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: To come alive and become aware of the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So it requires much more than simply with our head.
SPEAKER_00: It's more about our heart engagement.
SPEAKER_00: It's more about a character of our heart.
SPEAKER_00: It's about that humility.
SPEAKER_00: It's a sense of faith and desperation.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's so elusive.
SPEAKER_00: It requires brokenness, which so often we seem to be allergic to.
SPEAKER_00: We just have too many degrees behind our names.
SPEAKER_00: We have too many years of experience and training and professionalism.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's a city in the world, and I'm saying this very sincerely, I don't know if there's a city in the world more than Washington, D.C., where this is harder to understand.
SPEAKER_00: It's that spirit, I can do this.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't used to be able to do this, but now I've had the training.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I've cultivated my gifts.
SPEAKER_00: The power cord, when you start thinking like that, you know what you just did?
SPEAKER_00: You just pulled out the power cord.
SPEAKER_00: I've done that many times.
SPEAKER_00: I've had to repent of that.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, I don't even know how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Would you teach me how to pray?
SPEAKER_00: And I can't do that if there's not a growing humility.
SPEAKER_00: If there's not a growing brokenness, it will not happen.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, praying in the Holy Spirit requires faith to believe that God is offering us so much more.
SPEAKER_00: I like the way one commentator put it.
SPEAKER_00: It's like a living voice speaking into a living ear.
SPEAKER_00: This is the way Oswald Chambers, I know some of you are big Oswald Chambers fans, this is good.
SPEAKER_00: The prayer of the feblest saint who lives in the Holy Spirit and keeps right with God is a terror to Satan.
SPEAKER_00: The very powers of darkness are paralyzed by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: No wonder Satan tries to keep our minds fussy, in active work, until we cannot pray.
SPEAKER_00: Man, that's true.
SPEAKER_00: And so the challenge and the danger always is when you form a committee.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's a building committee, whether it's a discipleship Sunday School committee, whether it's an outreach evangelism committee, you name the committee.
SPEAKER_00: And you know how this works.
SPEAKER_00: A prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: That's like can be the worst.
SPEAKER_00: When you have a prayer meeting and almost all the time is talking about our problems, going into great detail about our problems, and a little bit of time to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: That's not a prayer meeting.
SPEAKER_00: Stop calling it a prayer meeting if that's what it is.
SPEAKER_00: That's a people meeting.
SPEAKER_00: A prayer meeting is when you stop the talking after a certain amount, and you go directly to God, and you do more praying than talking.
SPEAKER_00: You do more praying than thinking.
SPEAKER_00: You do more praying than worrying.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer cannot be an addendum to our meetings.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer needs to be at the heart of our meetings.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Andrew Bonard put it like this: all merit is in the Son of God, all power is by the Holy Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we pray in the name of Christ, we are praying on the basis of his finished work on the cross.
SPEAKER_00: I don't, God's not, it's not my score sheet, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's not my merits.
SPEAKER_00: It's based on the merit of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But all power is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The more you understand this, it'll change your life.
SPEAKER_00: It'll change the way you pray.
SPEAKER_00: Again, are we really so frail that we need the Holy Spirit's empowering to simply pray the right way?
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit directs our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit creates our prayers within us.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy Spirit empowers us to offer our prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Thirdly, praying in the Holy Spirit requires a desire to be more like Christ and to have that kingdom impact in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is learned by praying.
SPEAKER_00: Matt, I appreciated your testimony in this room at that prayer meeting two weeks ago on Sunday night.
SPEAKER_00: I appreciated your prayer, your testimony of how God has been teaching you how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And I know you're the first one to say that you've got a long way to go, as we all do.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things that Matt said that, you know, is just how he's learned how to pray by being with people who pray.
SPEAKER_00: If you go to a prayer meeting, you don't have to, you don't have to pray out loud.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't love you any less.
SPEAKER_00: But just go and pray with people who do know how to go to God's throne and learn.
SPEAKER_00: You'll learn a lot.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is learned by praying, and the heart usually learns faster than the head.
SPEAKER_00: There again, I think we struggle.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a cry.
SPEAKER_00: One of the strangest verses in the Bible, Hebrews chapter 5, verse 7, and Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prayed.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't only at Gethsemane that this was true of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Now, why would Jesus, perfect, son of God, cry with loud cries and tears?
SPEAKER_00: Because he needed his father.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't mail it in.
SPEAKER_00: He needed his father.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think you need him any less?
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever cry when you pray?
SPEAKER_00: Do you really open you open your heart when you pray sometimes?
SPEAKER_00: It's just a cry.
SPEAKER_00: And the Holy Spirit is helping you to form that prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever prayed out?
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever prayed loudly?
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: Do our prayers have to be, you know, quiet and well organized, formal.
SPEAKER_00: Do you think there's some prayer guide that you have to follow exactly everything in order for God to hear you?
SPEAKER_00: That's just not true.
SPEAKER_00: What he wants is your heart.
SPEAKER_00: What he wants is your weakness.
SPEAKER_00: He wants me to come to him saying, God, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: God, I don't have it.
SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm coming to you.
SPEAKER_00: Look at the lesson in verse 19, Paul says.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is in prison in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: He's not free to go about.
SPEAKER_00: He really needs God.
SPEAKER_00: What does he pray for?
SPEAKER_00: Two things specifically.
SPEAKER_00: He says to the, he says, He says to the Ephesians, people that he knew.
SPEAKER_00: Alright?
SPEAKER_00: You ready for this?
SPEAKER_00: Pray that God would give me boldness because I'm scared.
SPEAKER_00: Mr.
SPEAKER_00: Super Apostle.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's true.
SPEAKER_00: He got scared.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't, there were times when he didn't want to witness because he didn't know what that was going to bring.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to say the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to lose people's approval.
SPEAKER_00: He struggled with that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, pray for me that I will have a boldness, that I'll actually say the things that God wants me to say.
SPEAKER_00: And the second thing he asks for him to pray about is that God would give me the very words.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God, would you give me the very words that I need in this conversation?
SPEAKER_00: This is Paul.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is not about some magical, mechanical, formal list.
SPEAKER_00: Praying, people praying in the Holy Spirit, pray.
SPEAKER_00: As I close, I just want to read a couple quotes from one of my favorite expositors, Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Martin Lloyd-Jones.
SPEAKER_00: And he was a really smart guy.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was the assistant to the physician to the Queen of England.
SPEAKER_00: Smart guy.
SPEAKER_00: Our ultimate position as Christians is tested by the character of our prayer life.
SPEAKER_00: It's more important than knowledge or understanding.
SPEAKER_00: Do not imagine that I am detracting from the importance of knowing your Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I spent most of my life trying to show the importance of knowing the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: It's vitally important.
SPEAKER_00: There's only one thing more important.
SPEAKER_00: And that's prayer.
SPEAKER_00: The ultimate test of my understanding of the scriptural teaching is when I spend my time in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: A theology is ultimately the knowledge of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the more theology I know, the more it should drive me to seek to know God.
SPEAKER_00: Not to know about Him, but to actually know Him.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says all forms, all kinds of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: You should pray in private.
SPEAKER_00: You should pray in public.
SPEAKER_00: There's a secret prayer, there's a closet prayer, there's a lonely, isolated prayer, but we should always be engaged in it.
SPEAKER_00: There's a public prayer, a church prayer, a common prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It's all around us.
SPEAKER_00: The same applies to a church or to a group of churches or any denomination.
SPEAKER_00: There have been always churches in the history where we have been so thoroughly orthodox in our theology, but we have been utterly ineffective and useless.
SPEAKER_00: This state of things could be illustrated from the long history of the church.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing so tragic as a dead Orthodox church.
SPEAKER_00: And the explanation always is that they have forgotten Paul, his teaching here.
SPEAKER_00: Having put on every piece of the armor carefully and thoroughly, they have stopped going to the point of praying always.
SPEAKER_00: This is an appalling fact, and in some ways one of the most alarming positions possible, especially to those of us that are so theologically minded.
SPEAKER_00: Is there any denomination that's more theologically minded?
SPEAKER_00: There might be a few, but there aren't many.
SPEAKER_00: But they don't go to prayer meetings.
SPEAKER_00: They don't seem to need to go to prayer meetings.
SPEAKER_00: Why is the church so ineffective today?
SPEAKER_00: My answer is that she lacks this power of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: She's not praying, she's not interceding as she ought.
SPEAKER_00: And there are terrible possibilities in this scenario.
SPEAKER_00: The church seems so lethargic, she's not got power, and it's largely because she does not know how to pray.
SPEAKER_00: And she cannot pray until the Holy Spirit energizes her in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And when the Spirit comes, he moves Christians to pray.
SPEAKER_00: Read the history of the great revivals in the church, and you will find that in revival, people begin to pray who have never prayed.
SPEAKER_00: Is this convicting?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: So what are you going to do with the conviction?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to just beat yourself up?
SPEAKER_00: Are you going to walk out of here with your head hung low?
SPEAKER_00: There's something better.
SPEAKER_00: Repent.
SPEAKER_00: Say, God, forgive me.
SPEAKER_00: I have so often put more confidence in me.
SPEAKER_00: And as you repent, lift your head up.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's the same God that delights in you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's waiting for you to reach out in your brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: Believe that.
SPEAKER_00: Take what he's offering you today.
SPEAKER_00: It can change your life.
SPEAKER_00: This is how I want to close.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 12.
SPEAKER_00: What an amazing text.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_00: Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: As I said a couple weeks ago, the job of the preacher is to point you to the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: The job of the preacher is to point you to the high priest.
SPEAKER_00: The high priest knows what to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: The sermon is not about the preacher.
SPEAKER_00: So many people, when they hear great preaching, sit back and admire, oh, that was just an amazing sermon.
SPEAKER_00: If that's not bringing you to the throne of grace, it wasn't a good sermon.
SPEAKER_00: The point of the sermon is to bring you to the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus knows what to do with you there.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what to do with myself.
SPEAKER_00: But I know that when I come to the throne of grace, Jesus, the high priest, knows what to do with me.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do with my sins, he knows what to do with my fears.
SPEAKER_00: He knows what to do with my life.
SPEAKER_00: And he knows what to do with you.
SPEAKER_00: Only the Holy Spirit can convince you of that.
SPEAKER_00: See, there's benefits of the second sermon.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great doxology.
SPEAKER_00: From all places, the book of Jude.
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time you read Jude?
SPEAKER_00: But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith in praying in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That almost sounds on PCA, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Build yourselves up in your most holy faith.
SPEAKER_00: There's a part that we play.
SPEAKER_00: By the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Build yourselves up in your most holy faith by praying in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we're going to do now.
SPEAKER_00: Before we come to the table, let's come to the throne.
SPEAKER_00: Trevor's going to play for a few minutes, and I just I'm going to ask you just simply, keep it simple.
SPEAKER_00: Where do you need help today?
SPEAKER_00: What do you need help with?
SPEAKER_00: And come to come to the throne and meet Jesus there.
SPEAKER_00: And as you pray to God the Father, you're not praying alone.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is interceding for you, as well as the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And they know what to do with what you bring.