Our Biggest Asset, Prayer

Prayer is highlighted as our greatest asset in the passage. It is emphasized that prayer is essential in spiritual warfare and that it should be continuous. The magnitude of prayer is emphasized, and it is mentioned that prayer should be mixed with supplication. The passage also highlights the many blessings and resources that God has given to believers in Jesus Christ. It is emphasized that although we have been given powerful armor, prayer is still necessary for protection and strength. It gives us probably our biggest asset that we can have. And we've looked at some pretty amazing things that we have that God has given us in Jesus Christ to suit up on, to take and to put upon us in order that we might be able to stand, but probably none of them can compare to what we find today in verse 18. Paul says, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. We look at this passage of Scripture this morning and we'll go ahead and here in a minute we'll read the rest of this chapter and finish it out today and move on to something else. But as we think about that, prayer is our greatest asset. As a matter of fact, when we look at the New Covenant and we look at the New Testament, we find that Jesus Christ Himself began this idea and it said He spake a parable unto them to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Well, we're in a battle. War is tough. War is hard, especially when it is spiritual. You know, I tell a lot of times I can deal with the physical parts of the ministry, the bad parts or sometimes the middle parts, the spiritual things that end up to affect us and bring us down. And then when we think about it and we think about Ephesians, and I just want to do a very, very quick review because I want us to see how much God has done for us. In Ephesians, starting in verse 3, it tells us that we are super blessed with all spiritual blessings. He says in verse 4 to verse 6 that God loves us and cares for us. He tells us in verse 7 that God has forgiven us and redeemed us by His precious blood. Chapter 1 verse 8 says that we are given wisdom by God the Father. Verse 11 says we are made rich. Verse 13 says we are secure and sealed with the Holy Spirit. Chapter 2 says in verse 4 that we are alive with new life. Verse 7 says we are the objects of eternal grace. Verse 10 tells us that we are God's masterpiece. Again, chapter 2 and verse 10, we are called to a life of good works, which God won't require us to do, but that God wants to do through us. Verse 13 through 18 of chapter 2, we are one with God and with every other Christian. We are one. Chapter 2 verse 19, we are members of God's intimate family. Chapter 2 verse 22, we are the very habitation of the Holy Ghost. Chapter 3 verse 20, we are powerful beyond our own imagination. Verse 21, we are able and capable of glorifying God. What an incredible definition of a human being. Amazing what God has done for us. And beyond anything we can even imagine. And when you move from there, you go into the next chapter and it just keeps on going. In chapter 4 and verse 3, we are told that we possess the living Spirit of God within us. In verse 4 through 6 of chapter 4, it tells us that we are members of the body of Christ. Verse 11 through 13 says we have received gifts and gifted men to perfect us to do the work of the ministry. Verse 20 through 24 says we have Jesus Christ to teach us to walk a new life. You turn to chapter 5, verse 1 and 2, and we are received the love of God so that we can walk in love in this wicked world. We find in verse 8 of chapter 5 that we have received God's very light so that we may dwell in that light. We find in verse 15 through 17 that we have received the wisdom and the truth of God so that we can walk wisely in this world. We find out in chapter 5, verse 18 that we have received the power of the fullness of the Spirit of God. Verse 21 through chapter 6, verse 9, we have received all of the resources to make every human relationship all that God ever intended it to be. And then we came to chapter 10 and verse 17 where we have found out that guess what? That we are invulnerable. That we are invincible. We have this powerful armor that we use against Satan who tries to attack us and destroy us. And climaxing through all of that armory, we saw last week where we have the sword of the Spirit. The weapon that is first of all defensive, but then is made offensive. And that's a tremendous picture. And as we go through Ephesians, man, that's why I entitled this series From Rags to Riches. We didn't do any of that. God has done every bit of that for us in spite of who we are. And you know, when you think about all that God has done for us, there is a problem that begins to creep up in every one of our lives. And I believe that God understood this and I believe that Paul understood this as he wrote to 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12. He says, "...Wherefore, let him that think that they standeth take heed, lest he fall." And man, when we look at everything that God has given us in spite of ourselves and the armor that He has given us to protect us in the battle, to hang on, to fight, it's very easy for us to look at ourselves as being invincible and indestructible, right? And think that we are sometimes better than what we actually are. The problem with that is, is guess what? When we start thinking that way, it's very easy for us to fall. It's very easy for us to slip and be destroyed. We've learned that this armor is not mechanical and it's not magical. It needs God. God has to be the source of this armor. And what God does is take Jesus Christ and infuses Himself into our resources with His power and His energy that He gives us. And so as we look at this today and we notice this word prayer, I want us to understand as our greatest asset, the greatest thing that we can do, and yes, we take the armor. We hold on to the armor, but listen, the armor is absolutely no good if we don't continue in prayer. Continue in prayer. Notice the magnitude of prayer. He begins this verse off by saying praying always. Praying always. Prayer is not some little thing, but He says that we are to pray always, giving us the magnitude of prayer. You realize that some, and I don't know every one of your religious backgrounds. I know a lot of you have religious backgrounds, but there are some religious groups and there are some cultures in our world today that actually get up and they read prayers out of a book. I've got several on my computer, books of prayer, and they will open them up and they will sit there and they would literally read these prayers out to God. There's other cultures and the Jews being one of them that had certain times of day where they would go to pray. Not only did they have specific words, but they had specific times that they met. But as we think about that, Jesus gave us this principle in the New Testament that we are to continue to pray lest we faint. This prayer is to be always for you and I as a believer. It's not necessarily in what we pray. It's not necessarily when we are to pray, but it's that we are to pray always. That is the magnitude of prayer. Jesus Christ said in Luke 21 and verse 36, He says, "...watch you therefore, watch you therefore, and pray always that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of God." What has Paul told us to do? Paul has told us to be careful and to watch because we fight against not flesh and blood, but against spiritual fallacies and spiritual forces and wickedness, right? And the same thing that Jesus Christ told us to be watching but to be praying. Know that we're vulnerable. Know that even though I have all of this in Jesus Christ, guess what? I am still living in flesh and bone. I am still not perfect. I am still not complete. We see that the disciples, the apostles of Jesus Christ took this pattern from Jesus Christ. And we find in Acts 6 and verse 4 where Peter and John are arrested and brought into court and they tell the courts there that in Acts 6 there's problems going on in the church actually and people are arguing and everything. They come to the apostles and say, hey, will you come take care of this? And we find in verse 4 the apostles' response is, we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the Word. We find in Romans 12 and verse 12 that Paul wrote, Rejoice in hope, patience and tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. And so it's not about the prayers that we read. It's not about the beads where we go through and have a necklace full of beads and we go through listing things and naming things and creeds and deals. It's not that we set up certain times of the day. But in the New Testament, we are asked to pray continually. As a matter of fact, if you go through your Bible real quickly, it doesn't take you long to find that Colossians 4, 2 says continue in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving. Philippians 4 and verse 6 says, Be careful for nothing, in other words, quit worrying, quit being anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, We pray without ceasing. And we go on and on and on and we can find more and more places in the Bible where we see not only the frequency of prayer, but not only is the magnitude of prayer, but we also find that in the New Testament, Scripture teaches us of the mixture of prayer. There's all kinds of prayers. There's all kinds of ways to pray. And as we think about this word prayer that he mentions here, he's just praying always with all prayer and supplication. And what he's talking about here is prayer is a simple word that generally means request. It's from the word prosyche. In other words, that psyche has to do with our mind. As you think about it, as you come across it, as it pops into your mind, when you read the word prayer, we're talking about in that general sense. You know, when I'm going through my life and all of a sudden a thought pops into my mind, what do I do? I text my wife and tell her something that I thought about or something that I've seen and I communicate that to her and that's what we're talking about with God. Just this generalized conversation and meeting with God. But then it uses the word supplication. And the word supplication is an idea of a more specific prayer. More intent. More diagnosed into a specific thing that we are praying for. And so really what Paul did was he used two different words to basically tell us that we are to pray always, generally and specifically is what Paul is trying to get across at this time. You know, when we think about we are in prayer all the time and we're to be in supplication all the time. Well, you can pray in public. You can pray in private. You can pray verbal. You can pray silent. You can pray loud cries or quiet whispers. You can pray deliberately and planned. Or you can even pray spontaneously. There can be requests or thanksgiving. Confessions and humiliations. Praise. You could be kneeling, standing, lifting up holy hands, lying prostrate. He's simply saying pray all the time and always. There is a mixture of ways that we can pray. Don't ever think because of all of the infinite resources that Jesus Christ has given us and explained to us in Ephesians, don't you think for just one moment that you're not every bit dependent upon the power of God? Because God has to be there because you are. Let everything become a prayer. The Apostle Paul told young Timothy in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 8, he said, I will therefore that men pray everywhere, how? Lifting up holy hands without wrath and without doubting. When you study prayers in the Bible, you can find a variety of different prayers. You can find a multitude of different positions that people prayed in. You can find all of these different things, but I want you to understand this morning that prayer has to become a way of life. It doesn't matter how you do it or where you do it, but the important thing is is that we pray. And we pray generally and we pray specifically. A soldier, a warrior, that we are called to be in Jesus Christ, a warrior, is to be praying at all times. So no matter what happens in the battle, no matter what comes along, even if it is a surprise attack, you will be ready. You will be prepared. You have that kind of life that's opened up to God 100% totally. So it becomes an idea of fellowship, of communion. God created us and saved us so that we can have fellowship and communion with Him. And what He's telling us is yes, take these things of Jesus Christ. Take this armor and put it upon you, but you better not step out of the fellowship and the communion of God the Father. You need to be in tune at all times, at all costs. And then He goes on in this verse of Scripture, pray always with all prayer and supplication, but notice the mode of prayer. He says, in the Spirit. In the Spirit. Learn to pray in concert with the Spirit. In other words, make your prayers a duel with the One who is there to ever intercede on your behalf. Paul tells us in Romans 8 and verse 26, Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray, for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Praying in the Spirit. When he says pray in the Spirit always, is simply lining up your own prayers to be consistent with the mind and the will and the Spirit of God. In other words, as we read this morning in the model prayer, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We would have a lot more prayers answered in our life if we were praying specifically and lining ourselves up in the Spirit to pray what God's desires are and not necessarily our desires. Paul told us in Ephesians 5 and verse 18 to be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And as we think about that, he went on and told us in verse 19 what happens when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. And notice these parts of prayer. He said, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things unto God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, you begin to look at the blessings of God. You begin to sing about the blessings of God. You begin to be thankful. But notice what he's talking about here. He goes on, and this is the mode we have to be in the Spirit when we pray. However, notice the manner. He says, therefore, thereunto, with all perseverance and supplication. And again, what do we mean by perseverance? We're talking about this idea of sticking with it. We're talking about this idea of being able to stand when the battle gets tough. To stand when the battle gets hard. To stay there. To hang in there. To don't run. To don't flee. To don't give up ground to Satan and his demons. We are to continue to persevere praying continuously while we are watching. Prayer is to be alert to the issues. Alert to what's happening. Go through the New Testament sometimes and just look if you ever have a concordance or you even want to do it on the Bible program or probably even Google. Go through and watch and see how many times Jesus Christ used the words, watch, watch, watch. And what would happen? When you tell them to watch, they would either be gone to get food. They would fall asleep. They would be gone somewhere else doing something else. And what did Jesus constantly remind them? Watch. Watch. Be ready. As a matter of fact, Peter finally understanding that a little bit when he wrote his first letter in 1 Peter 4 and verse 7 said, but the end of all things is at hand. Be you therefore sober and watch and pray. Watch and pray. What's he saying? Watch unto prayer. You remember when Jesus Christ told Peter for the first time to Peter, stay up and watch and pray. And what happened? Peter went to sleep. And Peter, he woke him up again. He said, Peter, do you realize what? I'm fixing to die. I'm fixing to be taken. And Peter, watch, pray. He realized how serious this is. And what did Peter do? He went back to sleep. And when he finally awakened, what happens? He took those into the flesh. He's not in the Spirit. And he ends up taking out the sword and Jesus rebukes him again. Peter, this is not your fight. Watch and pray. You worry about denying me. You worry about what you're going to be doing when this battle happens. We talk about specific prayer. Why do we need to pray specifically? Why do we pray specifically? If all we ever do is pray in general, guess what? God works generally. And you know what? When we pray generally, He could be answering anybody's prayers, not necessarily my prayers. But when we pray specifically, when we get into specifically praying, then what begins to happen is when we pray specifically, we see how God specifically works through our prayers and in our prayers. And guess who gets the glory? Not us. God gets the glory. And do you realize that the whole purpose behind prayer is to glorify God? Jesus Christ said in John 14 and verse 13, Whatsoever you shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in My name, I will do it. We're talking about specific prayer. And God answers specific prayer in order that His power might be on display so that God will be glorified. If you don't pray specifically, then God can never display His power. And a lot of times, that's why our prayers don't get answered. And so Paul is telling us to watch, to be alert. Do you know what's going on in the people around you? Remember when he started this duty portion of the book of Ephesians back in chapter 4. What did he say? He said we are one body. We are members made up together. We are all in this thing. And when we look at this term, watch here, it tells us a little bit also about what we're looking out rather than in. It tells us that when we are watching, we are being observant. And I think this is where a lot of us fall short when it comes to our prayer life. See, that's not where we need to be spending our time in prayer. It's not within ourselves. When we are filled with the Holy Spirit, what are we doing? We're singing hymns, praising God, and giving thanks. That's what we are doing. That's what we're looking in. But notice the prayer here is for the outside. It's for looking outside. And we mess up so much because when was the last time we really stopped and took notice of our brothers and sisters in Christ and specifically prayed for their needs? It's hard to pray specifically for needs if we don't know what the needs are. And it's hard to find out what needs are if we don't communicate and talk with each other. If we just run into church and we ask about the weather and we talk about the rain and we leave out of here, how in the world can we pray for somebody else specifically? And I know we have prayer requests sometimes and sometimes we get specific stuff that is there, but I want to give you a very, very simple illustration this morning. Most of us never really get serious about prayer until something happens in our own life, right? Then all of a sudden, you know, I never hear anybody call and tell how God answered prayer or stop praying, but man, the minute some tragedy happens or whatever, then I get a call and say, hey preacher, will you please pray? The reality is that we are ten times more intense about our own problems than we really are about anybody else's problems, right? You know, I used to say as a youth minister, you know, when boys and girls would date and they would break up and they would come to church, they'd be all sad and discouraged and somebody would talk about, oh, that's just puppy love, right? It's not puppy love to the puppy, is it? You know, when it becomes your problem, it becomes a little bit bigger, right? When we see somebody on the side of the road out of gas, that's their problem, right? But when we're out of gas, we get on the phone, call them on the phone and we start trying to do something about it. Paul is telling us here that we are to be persevering. We are to be intense, continuing, steadfast, watching and praying. Being alert to the needs of others. And by the way, I could add here, get past the physical stuff. We are spiritual people. And yes, I understand, and there is a time. Listen to me very, very carefully. There is a time to pray for physical stuff. But it's not at the beginning of our prayer. The physical stuff comes at the end of our prayer. We need to be observing and praying for each other spiritually. We need to be concerned about the spiritual battle that we are engaged in. The warfare that we are engaged in. We need to be concerned, are we winning the battle? Are you winning the battle? Are you finding life and life more abundantly? Or is your life in defeat and shambles? See, we need to be interested in each other's spiritual, not just the physical. That's why we are commanded here to pray. And to pray always. It's not easy for you to fight a battle, so I pray for you. I understand Satan's battles. I understand what's going on. And so I pray now and then for your physical deals. But do you realize I pray more for your spiritual? If you'll know, when I pray, I pray for God to be glorified. I pray for spiritual things to happen in your life that you will be able to see the power of God. That you will be able to see the strength of God. You know, I really don't care what happens to my physical body as long as we gain the victory for the glory of God. I'm worried about what Jesus Christ is going to say when He sees me. That's what I'm concerned about. That's the battle. That's the issue. So we concentrate on the thing that is most needful. And Paul says here when he gives prayer requests, he doesn't say, oh, pray for me. Where is Paul when he wrote this letter to the church at Ephesus? He's in jail, right? He's in chains and bondage. He's chained up to a Roman guard. Does Paul here ask for the church to pray for him that he would be released out of prison? Does Paul ask them, could you pray that my wrists and my ankles that have this chain bound to them that is getting raw, that is getting sore from having this soldier and being chained up all the time, could you pray that this gets well or this is healed? That's not what we find Paul praying for. We don't see Paul pray for one single thing. The food's better, you know. I don't imagine they ate very good in a Roman prison. Not like our prisons and stuff today. But what does he say? Look at what he says in verse 19. For me, here's how you can pray for me. That utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. In other words, Paul says pray I win the battle. Pray that even while I am here in prison... You know, can you imagine? Put yourself in Paul's place. Why is Paul arrested for to begin with? He's arrested because he has preached Jesus Christ. He is arrested because he has talked about Jesus Christ. He has shared Jesus Christ. What has God called Paul to do? To preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And now he is in prison for doing what God has asked him to do. And he doesn't pray get me out of prison or get me back in more pulpits or get me back on more mission trips. No, what does he do? Even right here where I'm at, give me boldness to speak. Because it would be real easy, right, to know when you're already in prison that you know what, if I talk about Jesus today, I may not get suffered. I may have to skip a meal. They may remove my cot if I talk about Jesus Christ. And so Paul says here that he needs to pray persistently. He says look at my needs. Here's my needs. Don't look at my physical stuff. Look at the spiritual stuff. Do you really know the needs of the people around you? I want you to stop just a second and look around at the people beside you. Look to the one to your left, to your right. Look who's sitting in front of you. Who's looking behind you. And look at them and ask yourself the question, do you really know what they need? Some of you that are married here today, look over at your spouse. Look at your child. Children, look at your parents. Do you know what they really need? Do you know where they are in their spiritual life right now? Do you know the spiritual needs of your children? Your friends? Your neighbors? People in Bible study group? Do we really pray for them as they are fighting a battle? See, not only are we in a spiritual battle, but guess what? All of us are in a spiritual battle. And you know what? God has brought us all together in the church to be His body. And when one of us cannot function, guess what? It affects the functioning of all of us. And so that makes praying for others very much personal. Do you really pray for each other as we fight in this battle? Sometimes all we ever do is pray when disaster comes. And maybe every once in a while, we'll throw in some type of prevented prayer that God will watch after or God will take care in some way that they could be helped. But when was the last time we really, really prayed for the needs of others? But look at what He says. And He goes into this. And this is what He's talking about. Nowhere in this passage of Scripture does it say pray always for yourself. But just in case you're not getting this or just in case you're not understanding this, look at where our prayer should be marked by. This is for all saints. For all saints. We're to be praying for each other. It doesn't tell us to pray for ourselves. That isn't the priority. The priority is to be praying for others. Now I want to go back to that phrase in the Spirit, because this is what ties it together. Sometimes, especially when it's fleshly things and physical things, I really don't know what I need. Right? How many of you have all the answers for yourself? Okay, at least you're honest or you're not listening to me, but none of you raised your hand which is a good thing. If I'm walking in the house and I stub my toe, have you ever done that before? My toe signals to my brain that it just got hurt. Does my toe know what it needs? No. But what does it do? The pain, the need of my toe runs through my nerves to my brain and triggers my brain to say, guess what, it needs this. And so all of a sudden, what does it usually happen? You get flushed with a bunch of blood, a bunch of oxygen right down to your nose to get it to stop throbbing, to get it to stop hurting. See, my whole body pitches in and all of a sudden, they stop what they're doing. They stop what they're focused on. And what do they do? How do we fix this toe? And Paul said that we as a church are all different body parts. And guess what? If we're only focused on ourself, what happens if you ignore the signs of a hurt toe? If you ignore the pain and go on, it could be something minor. It may be a break that ends up taking a while to heal and you kind of limp and stumble along. It could even be more serious for a diabetic. You could have broke your skin and guess what? You can end up with infection getting in there and end up not only losing the toe but losing your foot also. And so Paul is telling us here, pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And here, look at here, because this is not something I am making up. Paul gives us an illustration. And most of the time, we want to stop and we don't want to finish out the letters because he's talking about people, right? And he's introducing and he's closing out and making his last minute remarks. And we know once the invitation is going, we're thinking about something else, going somewhere else, and we just kind of read over what's being said. But notice what Paul says when he tells us to pray for others. As for me, here's how you pray for me. Paul's not there at Ephesus with them. He is in prison sending this letter to this church and he says, as for me, that utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, I'm in prison, that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. You say, well, you know, I'd like to pray for other people, but I really don't have that information. I really don't know what other people need. Well, welcome to the ministry of the pastor because God doesn't give us visions and dreams. Right? I get on to you all the time. Why didn't you tell me you had a doctor's appointment? Why didn't you tell me you had this burden? Why didn't you tell me you were struggling financially? Why didn't you tell me these things are going on in your life where I can specifically pray so I can see God answer these prayers and be glorified? So Paul answers that for us in verse 21 and 22. Look at what he says. "...but that you also may know my affairs." See, I'm in prison, and I'm telling you I need to be able to speak boldly because guess what? That's what Satan wants me to do. Satan wants me to focus on myself. He wants me to focus on these chains. He wants me to focus on this bondage. He wants me to focus on these bad meals and this bad bed. And he wants me to get all on these things and get concerned about these physical things so that I will not speak boldly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So therefore, "...but that you also may know my affairs and how I do. Tychius, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things." Paul said I don't have time in this letter to give you all of the details, but Tychius has been here with me. And I love him very deeply. And guess what? I'm sending him with this letter to your church. And when he gets there, not only will he tell you about me needing to pray for boldness, but he'll tell you what conditions I'm living in that show you why I may not want to speak boldly. I may not want to give up the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He goes on in v. 3. There he says, "...a faithful minister in the Lord shall make known to you all things whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose that you might know our affairs, and that He might comfort your hearts." Folks, if we're going to know about the needs of each other, we have to communicate them needs. We have to communicate them. None of us have the visions and dreams. None of us, God's just going to come and say, hey, you know what? So-and-so's really struggling here. 99.9% of the time, I find out and I'm asked to pray once it's done turned into something that's almost irreparable or that leaves irreparable damage in your spirit. Not only do you have to communicate, but guess what? We also have to listen. Do you realize communication is two ways? It's talking and listening. It's talking and listening. We have got to be God's conscience. Selfless, watchful, Holy Spirit-filled, persistent, bold people seeking only God's glory in our prayers. And I believe as we live that kind of life and pray those kind of prayers that we will be more and more fitted into the image of Jesus Christ. And as we pray for each other, the body will be built up. Jesus Christ will be glorified. And that's where He comes to the climax of this letter. We are in a spiritual battle. And you can put on Jesus Christ all day long, but guess what? You cannot win without each other. I think the author of Hebrews tells us that with a passage of Scripture that's used out of context so many times where he says, forsake not the assent of ourselves together. But if you go read the context of that, why does he say forsake not the assent of forsaking to live together? And even so much more as you see the day approaching. What day? The return of Jesus Christ. Because what's going to happen in the end of Jesus Christ? Go read Matthew 24, 25, and 26. There's going to be wars and rumors of wars. There's going to be pestilence. There's going to be famine. There's going to be a lot of bad things that's going to happen in our life that is going to try to get us off of spiritual stuff. That is going to try to get us off of the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And he said forsake not yourselves together because we need each other to edify each other, to encourage each other, to pray for each other. Do you realize if you started praying, if every one of you would quit praying for yourself and pray for me or pray for someone else, then not only, because I don't know how to pray sometimes, right? But the Holy Spirit, praise God, takes my prayers and He turns them into what God wants and what God needs. And if all of you are praying for me, then guess what? It's going to teach you how to pray. But guess what? We're going to be bombarded with God's protection and prayers. See, I would rather 50 people be praying for me than me praying by myself. And when Jesus Christ went up alone to pray, He always was praying for others. He wasn't praying for Himself, but as He prayed for others, and then what did the disciples say? When we read this morning, the disciples came to Him and said, Lord, will You teach us how to pray? Well, first of all, you've got to realize who God is. Second of all, you've got to start praying in the will of God. You've got to be in the Spirit. Next, what? And He doesn't say give me my daily bread. What does He say? Give us! Not only do I need to eat, but you need to eat. And so get focused on other people. Especially the saints. And He finishes with these two verses. And oh, they're so important, and I could probably preach a whole message on them next week, but we're going to stop Ephesians right here. But look at what verse 30 is. I'm just going to read them and then I'm going to comment. Paul says, after praying for one another, peace be to the brethren in love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. We cannot win the battle alone. We can't do it. And that's why so many churches are failing today. It's because the pastors are trying to do it alone. Church members are trying to do it alone. Folks, we cannot fight this battle alone. God has brought all of us together because every one of us is put here to be able to help out in all areas that we may represent Jesus Christ. I've got two questions for you. One question is, do you have my back? Do you have my back? You know, the number one rule when you go into warfare in the military is what? You are responsible for the person before you and after you. That's your responsibility. Not for yourself. You're for the one that's there. And if everybody is taking care of the other one, and everybody is watching and doing what they're supposed to be doing, then guess what? We were going through as a group and we'll make it to safety. But if all you're doing is worried about yourself, what's going to happen? You're going to go AWOL. When it gets tough, you're not going to stick with the group and you're going to separate and you're going to isolate. And what happens when a lion is about to attack a herd of gazelles? Which one gets eaten? The one that stays in the crowd or the one that panics and gets off by itself? That's the one the lion gets. And our churches are not being destroyed by those that are gathering. Unfortunately, our churches are being destroyed by those that are isolating themselves from the church. And we're not praying for their specific needs. And Satan is picking them off one by one. And we come back and guess what? We look at our congregation. We look at our herd. And what happened to so-and-so? What happened to so-and-so? Where is so-and-so today? And what happened? We just start all of a sudden dwindling down and dwindling down until all of a sudden it's too late. And we realize, you know what? Half of my body is gone. It's been destroyed. And so do you have my back? And then the second question is do we have each other's backs? Because listen to me, and I've said this before, and you've heard it said a thousand times, it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. And guys, I need you. I need you. If I am going to walk in and hear Jesus Christ say, well done, thy good and faithful servant, it's going to take you. And if you're going to do that, it's going to take me and each other praying and helping each other through this battle. We are in the Lord's army. Remember the song? Stop fighting on ourselves. We march in God's infantry. We fly in His army. We are in the Lord's army. And we are moving together. And the more we get together, and the more that we pray for each other and lift each other up, the mightier we become. Because guess what? It's not about us. It's about Jesus Christ. Jesus said if I will be lifted up, I will draw all men unto Me. And Satan will be destroyed. And we know that's going to happen. But do you realize that Satan can be destroyed right now? We can live in triumph and victory right now. He says there's going to be a great falling away, but He doesn't say everyone is going to fall away. Those that hang in there together and pray for each other aren't going to endure until the end. As we stand and have a verse of invitation, pray always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, especially for us saints as we sing.