Sermon
The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God - Part 10
Life's Limitless Reach
April 25, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

Now for most of you who have joined with us for the last number of weeks, we've been talking about a very, very interesting subject and that is Paul's identification of the armor, the spiritual armor, that each Christian should put on. He talks about the belt of truth, and he talks about the breastplate of righteousness, and the feet shod with the gospel of peace, and he talks about the sword of the spirit, and we've talked about all of those; and now we come to the conclusion of Paul's writing on that subject and these are the verses that are before us, and I'll read them for you.

In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 18 he concludes his discussion on those items of spiritual armor. He says, "Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit with all manner of prayer and entreaty. To that end, keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people). And [pray] also for me, that [freedom of] utterance may be given me, that I may open my mouth to proclaim boldly the mystery of the good news (the Gospel). For which I am an ambassador in a coupling chain [in prison. Pray] that I may declare it boldly and courageously, as I ought to do."

Now let me make a confession. All my years of ministry when I preach on prayer I always walk away and I kind of feel like...When you walk into a restaurant and they set down before you this beautiful plate of food, so you sit there, you talk about it, it looks good, it's been presented well, it's probably nutritious and you observe it, but it really has no benefit and no joy until you eat it. And you know, I kind of have that feeling about prayer. I can talk to you about prayer. I can analyze the subject. I can tell you what great thinkers have said on it. I can lay the platter out, but unless you pray you don't know what I'm talking about.

And so I have prayed this week, dear God, help me to excite our congregation to becoming greater prayer warriors and lovers of prayer time with You. Now another factor about prayer is oft times when the preacher preaches the first thing he does is lay a guilt trip on you. We preachers do that. We start our sermon by saying, and how many hours did you spend this week in prayer? And immediately because so many of us fail in that area we turn off real quick, and when it says pray without ceasing; we say I can't do it so why try? My prayer today is that the subject can become so exciting that you'll want to pray more.

If the president of the United States sent you an invitation and the invitation said Hugo, I want you in my office at a certain day at a certain time because I just want to sit down and talk with you, get acquainted. I'd like to meet you. I want you to come, open up your heart to me. Now I can assure you that Hugo would do everything in his power to make sure he kept that invitation.

But ladies and gentlemen, God Almighty, the God of creation, opens up His throne room to us through the rent veil. Christ went to that cross and the veil that separated man from God was rent in two, and the God of all creation says, come, let's enjoy each other's fellowship, and far too frequently we ignore that wonderful invitation. My prayer is that we will prize the privilege of prayer and spend more time with Almighty God. Now let's go to our notes.

I begin our notes...our lesson says: In our previous lessons, we have considered the various pieces of spiritual armor that Paul has admonished every believer to wear in this spiritual battle with the enemy of our souls...the devil. But, with all this his shining armor, the soldier's equipment is not yet complete. There is one other vital thing to be named, and this the Christian warrior must take along with him, for his warfare will be hopeless if he leaves it behind. In his own power the soldier can do nothing against so great a foe. As he takes and puts on each piece of his armor and as he makes use of it in the battle he must pray for God's blessing and God's protection.

Now hold your finger there. I found a beautiful poem. I put it in my notes.
I met God in the morning
when the day was at its best,
And His Presence came like sunrise,
Like a glory in my breast.

All day long the Presence lingered,
All day long He stayed with me,
And we sailed in perfect calmness
Over life's tempestuous sea.

Other ships were blown and battered,
Other ships were sore distressed,
But the winds that seemed to drive them,
Brought us peace and rest.

When I thought of other mornings,
With a keen remorse of mind,
When I too had loosed the moorings,
But I had left the presence behind.

So, I think I know the secret,
Learned from many a troubled day:
You must seek Him in the morning
If you want Him through the day!
Back to our notes. The Apostle makes a very special point of it that the soldier's communion with his general, and the believer's fellowship with his God should not be of just one kind. Some people are always asking for things. That's their entire prayer life, but prayer has many other things involved. It's the crying out for help, it's the confession of sin, it's the profession of faith, it's a time of adoration, a time of thanksgiving, and sometimes a time of great deep intercession for others. Our prayer life should be definite. In our supplications and our petitions we ask for specific things, and we anticipate that God will hear.

In his Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan tells of Christian's weapon called prayer, which when everything else failed, would enable him to defeat the fiends in the valley of the shadows. Isn't it sad that oft times prayer is the last thing we do.

Over a hundred years ago Charlotte Elliot wrote the words to this hymn:
Christian, seek not yet repose,
Cast thy dreams of ease away;
Thou art in the midst of foes;
Watch and pray.

Principalities and power,
Mustering their unseen array,
Wait for thy unguarded hours;
Watch and pray.

Watch as if on that alone
Hung the issue of the day,
Pray that help may be sent down;
Watch and pray.

Now this hymn points up the reality that victory over Satan and his hosts in the great spiritual warfare in which we are engaged demands unceasing and diligent commitment to prayer. And that is exactly what the apostle Paul says as he closes his appeal to the Christians to put on the full armor of God.

Prayer is the closing theme of Ephesians, and though closely related to God's armor, it is not mentioned as part of it because it is much more than that. Prayer is not merely another godly weapon, as important as those are, but all the while that we are fighting in the girdle of truth, and the breastplate of righteousness, with the shoes of the gospel of peace, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, we are to be in prayer. Prayer is the very spiritual air that the soldier of the Christ breathes. It is the all-pervasive strategy in which warfare is fought.

Jesus urged His disciples to pray always and not to lose heart. He knows that when the battle gets hard, soldiers easily become tired, and weak, and discouraged, and in the struggle with Satan it's either pray or faint. So Paul's closing admonition for believers to "pray at all times" is not accidental. Not only does it give final instructions about the believer's warfare, but it is the climactic truth of the entire epistle because prayer fills all the Christian life.

Prayer is the crescendo at the end of Paul's anthem of Ephesians, and no New Testament book so fully delineates the resources and blessings of the believer as does the book of Ephesians. Throughout the book, Paul magnifies and expands the truth that he briefly mentioned in Colossians when he said, "in Him you have been made complete." And Peter also touches on the subject, he writes, "His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness."

Now here is a monumental catalog of all that is ours in Jesus Christ. You remember last Sunday when Pastor Leighton preached to us he gave us an assignment at the end of the sermon. And he told us to go through the book of Ephesians and list all the benefits that are ours as Christians that nonbelievers do not enjoy. So I did my homework and I brought it along so you can claim it too. I went through the book of Ephesians and look at the blessings that are ours because we're Christians!

Paul begins Ephesians with the comprehensive declaration that "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places." He then proceeds to tell us that we are chosen, predestined, and adopted as God's children. We've been lavished with His grace. We are redeemed and forgiven. We've been given the mystery of His will. We're the receivers of an inheritance. We have been sealed with the Holy Spirit. We've been greatly loved by God. We've been made alive with new life. We are the workmanship of Christ created in Him for doing good works. We've been given God's own peace. We've been made one with Christ and with every other believer in His Body. We've been made citizens of God's kingdom and members of His family. We've been built into God's own temple and the dwelling place of His Spirit. We've been given boldness and confident access to God. We've been made powerful beyond our imagination. We've been given the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, individually and uniquely gifted by Christ. We've been blessed with specially gifted leaders to equip us in the work of the ministry. We've been taught by Jesus Christ. We've been given a new self in God's holy likeness. We've been made light. We've been offered the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We've been given the instructions and the resources to make all our relationships with others what God intends them to be, and God has given us a full armor to make us invincible against Satan. Now that's a list, isn't it?

After a believer contemplates that breathtaking list of blessings he possesses as an exalted child of God, Paul realizes the great danger that is likely to follow: temptation to self-satisfaction and spiritual arrogance. Paul has already given us the warning, "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." The magnificent and boundless blessings described in Ephesians are so enriching that Satan will try to use them to turn our thoughts to ourselves as the blessed ones rather than to the One who gives us the blessings. In light of our immeasurable and wondrous privileges, we can easily begin to think we are adequate in ourselves and thereby lose the essential sense of dependence on God.

Isn't that true in the natural folks? When life has given us all the resources and the sufficiencies, our attentions turn to the things away from the One who gave us those things, and Paul has that deep concern. It's in the same true in the spiritual sense.

Top of page 4: Ephesians begins by lifting us up to the heavens, and it ends by pulling us down to our knees. "Don't think," Paul concludes, in effect, "that because you have all of these blessings and resources that you can now live the Christian life without further help from God." God's armor is neither mechanical nor magical. Stop.

In recent months I've had folks come to me and say, Pastor, everyday I put on the full armor of God. I go through this putting on the full armor, and I'm thinking that must be a wonderful spiritual exercise. Implied is if we do it maybe in itself it has a magical source of help, and I say no; it's neither mechanical nor magical. We cannot simply take hold of it on our own and expect it automatically to produce supernatural feats. Our divine gifts, marvelous as they are, are bare without the divine Giver.

So Paul concludes in our lesson today, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel."

Prayer -- Be careful for nothing; but in every thing, every thing, in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Now in my library I have a book entitled, LORD, TEACH US TO PRAY. It's written by the great Scottish theologian Alexander Whyte. Now I purchased the manuscript from a used book dealer some years ago, and inside the front cover is an interesting history. It was originally sold for $4.95, then it was resold for $2.50, and later on it was sold again for $1.95. Now each price is marked through or crossed out when resold. Now the book did not sell so the present shopkeeper marked it down to $1.00. No takers. Marked down again to the price of .50 cents and still no takers. So in desperation the price was once more scratched, and a new price of .35 cents was entered on the page. And finally, I came along one afternoon and found that valuable manuscript and purchased it for 35 cents. But the subject of prayer and the experience of approaching the throne room of the universe is much more valuable than 35 cents. For earth is at its very best, and heaven is at its highest, when men and angels magnify their office of prayer and of praise before the God of all creation.

Abraham prayed and brought God down almost to his own terms. Elijah prayed and called down fire from heaven. Daniel prayed and was saved from the lions. Paul prayed and the prison walls were broken. Luther prayed and the gates of Rome shook. Knox prayed and Queen Mary trembled. Wesley prayed and a great revival saved England. Muller prayed and great orphanages were reared. Prayer does change things.

If radio's slim fingers
Can pluck a melody
From night and toss it over
A continent or sea;
If the petaled white notes
Of a violin
Are blown across a mountain
Or a city's din;
If songs, like crimson roses,
Are culled from thin, blue air,
Why should mortals wonder
If God hears and answers prayer?

Nothing, nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer, except that which lies outside the will of God. One single lovely young lady concluded her prayers with a very modest appeal. "Lord, I'm not asking for myself, but please send my mother a wonderful son-in-law."

It's related of Alexander the Great, that on one occasion a courtier asked him for some financial aid. This great leader told him to go to his treasurer and ask him for whatever amount he wanted. A little later, the treasurer appeared and told Alexander the man had asked for an enormous sum, and that he hesitated to pay out so much. "Give him what he asks for," replied the great conqueror; "He has treated me like a king in his asking, and I shall be like a king in my giving."

Greatly grieved must be our God because of the smallness of our requests of Him. Jeremiah 33:3 says: "Call upon Me and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Ah, what an invitation. In the Hebrew Old Testament and in the Greek of the New, there are quite a number of different words translated in our English bible by just one term "prayer." Here are those words: confession, supplication, entreaty, intercession, thanksgiving, desire, adoration, praise, worship, meditation, outpouring of self, communion. Prayer is simply communing with God.

Now in the subject of prayer, I want to draw your attention just to some very important matters that influence our prayer life.
(1) The ground of prayer is the person or the being of God. There is a specific reason why prayer is related to the person or being of God, and when men disbelieve, overlook, misunderstand, or underestimate the reason, then the purpose and place of prayer is lost, or at least diluted. The Bible makes it very clear...sin has separated man from God and unredeemed man cannot pray to God.

Psalm 66:18 says: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me." And Isaiah admonishes us, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." Now this is man's tragic predicament. His estrangement from his Creator renders it impossible for him to talk to Him except under circumstances that preserve both the holiness of God and His justice. Stop there.

I'm suggesting as one of the most important aspects of this whole subject of prayer is where my heart stands before God in terms of holiness and righteousness, because the Scripture says if I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me. It simply says that if I live life seeking to cover sins that I know are displeasing to my God...I can rationalize, I can justify, but that's not important; it's how God sees it. And if I go on with those sins, prayer life will be diminished to zero because there'll be no joy in praying and there's no delight in communicating to a deaf ear.

Some years ago I had a very painful spiritual experience and I share it with you because I'm making this journey right along with you. But one time in a very intense moment of prayer I said, God, I want to open my heart and life and I want You to turn the searchlight of Your truth upon my heart, and I want...I'll listen, but I want You to open to me and reveal to me areas of my life that may hinder or are hindering our fellowship and our communion; and God, I mean that. And I spent hours waiting before God and praying. I'll tell you when the searchlight went on, I realized that there are people I had to go to to seek forgiveness, there were things that I had to change, and when I went through that process, which was many days, in fact, I still remember talking to someone just weeping; I said, you know, I didn't realize it -- and I don't remember the time length, but I didn't realize that I had really brought this injury to you, and I want you to forgive me because I'm sorry. God's revealed it, but this has been wrong. And I'll tell you folks, when I went through that experience and it was all over, the dimension of my prayer life changed dramatically because I realized then very clearly that we can almost be nonchalant about the way we live our lives. But if we do, and sin is allowed, the fellowship ceases and prayer becomes a burden.

And ladies and gentlemen, if you find that prayer doesn't excite you, if you're not drawn to that throne room of the eternal, maybe it's because you're allowing sin to injure your relationship. If I regard iniquity in my heart my prayer life really becomes diminished, if not ceases.

Now the next verse that I've listed for us is found in Hebrews, I think. Hebrews chapter 10, Having therefore brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart of full assurance.

Now the time is almost gone, but I'm going to point to the most important sentence in this sermon. I'm up about five or six lines from the bottom of page 6. Here's a truth. If you'll grapple with it, it will change your prayer life. God will not do for us without prayer what He has promised to do for us through prayer.

I had a gentlemen come up to me just recently and he said, Pastor, why do we waste time praying? God is sovereign, He's got everything in charge, He's going to do it His way. Why should I waste my time trying to tell Him what He's already made up His mind to do? That man doesn't understand the whole concept of prayer.

God is sovereign but He allows us to be a part of His action. And I write: It simply acknowledges that God in His eternal purposes has made the prayers of His people essential to the fulfillment of His Divine plan. Now that's the heart; that's the reason for prayer. God wants you and me involved in the accomplishment of His will, because it's in that prayer time that our wills are altered and His will becomes supreme. And so the involvement of being part of prayer, seeing God's will performed is a process that also grows and matures us. And that's why God says the throne room is open, come, let's talk; open your hearts to Me.

And ladies and gentlemen, when you and I can see prayer as that glorious moment when we walk into the eternal presence of God and know that He listens. I cannot tell you how deeply that one touches my own spirit. Jesus went to that cross, died and said it's finished, and when it was finished that veil was rent so the veil that separated man from God has forever been torn apart. When you and I can just walk into His presence and say, Jesus...He's there, and you can sense His presence. You know you've responded to His invitation and communion begins.

My prayer is that throughout this week you will hear that invitation in your spirit; come, let's talk things over. Ladies and gentlemen I'll tell you this, if our prayer life is right, and correct, and scriptural, we'll be strong soldiers for Christ. Amen? And that's Paul's reasoning - tie it altogether with prayer. Let's pray.

Father, thank you for Your word. Thank you for the glorious privilege of calling You our Father, our God, our wonderful Lord, our matchless Redeemer, our blessed Savior, our King of kings. We worship You today, and may we prize above everything else that invitation from You to have communion with You. I pray this in Jesus' name, and everybody said, amen. God bless you.