[What follows is a Chapel message I delivered (more or less) to introduce our Prayer Chapel at
CIU-SSM on Friday, January 25, 2008]
“
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.” (Eph 6:18-20)
I. v. 18, “
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.”
R.A. Torrey said that when a child of God reads these words, he must be driven to say, “I must pray, pray, pray. I must put all my energy and all my heart into prayer. Whatever else I do, I must pray.” Consider and evaluate our current working definition of prayer, “a conversation with God.” Is that it? Does that really describe prayer? We tend to lose the loftiness of prayer because we focus more on the “conversation” part of the definition, than the object of the conversation . . . and that object is not us, but God.
We cannot be sleepy when it comes to prayer. Take a walk down the "Hall of Alls": “with
all prayer and petition;” “pray at
all times in the Spirit;” “be on the alert with
all perseverance and petition;” “for
all the saints.”
Nor can we be weak when it comes to prayer. Look at these strong words: “with all
prayer and
petition;” “
pray at all times
in the Spirit;” "
be on the alert with all
perseverance and
petition;” Prayer must be made to happen, as it will not happen on its own accord.
J. Oswald Sanders defined prayer as: the most complex simplicity; the speech of infants received as a sublime oratory; the philosophy of a small child; a sporadic and sudden utterance of an attitude of a lifetime; “The expression of the rest of faith and of the fight of faith.” Agony and ecstasy; That which lays hold of God and binds the devil.
This is closer to where Paul is when he says “
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.” We pray because:
1. God is:
a. There, and He is strong and mighty (go back and read from v. 10);
b. The one in whom we live, move and have our being. Since He is our life, so our life-work is submission to Him through the Spirit. My wife calls this “Yielded heart posture.”
2. There is a devil, who:
a. Attacks
b. Schemes
c. Contends
d. Is armed
This is why Paul says we must be on alert and persevere for “all the saints.”
II. v. 19, “
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.”
What is Paul getting at, asking for prayer for the saints and for himself? Is he asking for personal well-being, or for comfort? After all, he is writing from prison, right? No, he is asking for a pouring out before God on behalf of any and all who are the "gospellers". We are what William Shakespeare called "cobblers." You remember what a "cobbler" is don't you? A cobbler is one who fixes shoes--menders of bad soles (souls). One of those Shakespearean puns.
Paul is asking for prayer because he not only wants to be supercharged with boldness, but that others would be as well. He wants those who are praying to be supercharged with boldness as well! Gospel work is not a “job” left to “professionals.” Do you know how I know this? Because ANYONE can pray. There are four books I believe should be on the shelf of every Christian worker:
1. R.A. Torrey’s book, “
How to Pray” where you will find him repeatedly encouraging mothers with children to pray, the bed-ridden to pray, etc.
2. Read R.A. Torrey’s books, “How to Work for Christ” (
Vol. 1;
Vol. 2;
Vol. 3) and you will find him encouraging mothers with children in the gospel ministry, the evangel of the bed-ridden and home-bound, etc.
Listen to this, what has been called “The Christian’s Bugle-blast:”
Soldiers of Christ, arise and put your armor on,
strong in the strength which God supplies thru His eternal Son;
strong in the Lord of hosts and in His mighty pow’r:
Who in the strength of Jesus trusts is more than conqueror.
Stand then in His great might, with all His strength endued,
and take, to arm you for the fight, the panoply of God;
that having all things done, and all your conflicts past,
ye may o’ercome thru Christ alone and stand entire at last.
Leave no unguarded place, no weakness of the soul;
take ev’ry virtue, ev’ry grace, and fortify the whole.
From strength to strength go on; Wrestle and fight and pray;
tread all the pow’rs of darkness down and win the well-fought day.
III. v. 20, “
for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”
As to prayer, notice what Paul is doing while in prison: he is an ambassador. He is not thinking of himself, but others; and in so doing, we are encouraged to stop praying so much for ourselves, and begin to ask for unselfish things. A.B. Simpson says it best: "Try the effect of praying for the world, for definite things, for difficult things, for glorious things, for things that will honor Christ and save mankind. After you have received a few wonderful answers to prayer in this direction, see if you will not feel stronger to touch your own little burden with a divine faith and then go back again to the high place of unselfish prayer for others."
A few years back when the Gulf War got underway, one pastor told his congregation, "This week, I'm doing missionary work in Iraq--I'm praying. We will not sit idly by and do nothing while the Middle East is on fire--we will pray. We will not wring our hands or march in the streets or hyperventilate over the news--we will pray. Prayer is not the least nor the last thing we can do, but the first, the best and the most."
As to speaking the gospel boldly, consider this:
Do you now Papageno? He is the character of a bird-catcher in Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute." The opera opens with the slaying of a dragon by three fairies. Papageno comes along, finds the dead dragon, and while he is wondering what happened, Tamino comes on the scene and asks what happened. Papageno tells Tamino that he killed the dragon. To punish Papageno, the fairies lock his mouth with a golden lock, so Papageno cannot talk and must finish the scene by humming--the duet is a masterpiece! Why are you now speaking the gospel boldly? Is your mouth sealed with a golden lock?
Imagine your house is on fire. The first person you would want on the scene would be a firefighter, right? What would you expect a firefighter to have (besides water)? Training to fight the fire, strength, courage, alertness, boldness, concern for others . . .
Do you have those things? Are you concerned about the eternal state of others? Are you sober, alert, diligent? Are you as horrified about the thought of what eternal fire can do as the fireman knows what an earthly fire can do? Are you strong in prayer and faith? If not, THESE ARE THINGS TO PRAY FOR! What would you think of the firefighter who attended classes on firefighting, read books on firefighting and stayed in the truck.
Do you realize that if you can say to someone, "Hello, how are you today?" (which means nothing on the scale of eternal matters) you can also say, "Did you get one of these?" and hand them a gospel tract? If you can't do that, just say, "here, hold this for me!"
Remember Paul's words to the Corinthians! (
2 Cor 2:1-5). If you are knock-kneed, you fit the job description!
Here's what this means:
1. When we set our hearts on God, then those to whom we go can set their hearts on God;
2. When we set our hearts on God, then those with whom we go can keep their hearts set on God;
3. When we set our hearts on God, then those we send can keep their hearts set on God;
4. If our first prayer was, "Be merciful to me, a sinner," aren't we about hearing those words from the lips of those to whom we go?
Rise up, O men of God! Have done with lesser things; give heart and mind and soul and strength to serve the King of kings.
