Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Inglewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Thank you for joining us live.
Those listening online right now, you missed a whole bunch of
info commercials. Maybe, maybe they were recorded.
But thanks for joining us as believers.
We really do have a mission to fulfill.
I know I talk about that a lot. I use that word a lot.
I mean to, but and we also have an enemy who wants to stop us
from doing that. And I want to revisit a passage
that I preached about in the Seven Essential series.
But we're going to look at it from a very different angle
tonight, as well as some other things.
So how do we deal with this mission and conflict?
Mission and conflict are a part of our existence as believers.
Especially if you're a believer who's trying to be the best
believer you can be. You're constantly going to
hopefully be trying to pursue what God wants you to do.
At the same time, you're constantly in conflict because
of sin and because you live in a fallen world, etcetera.
So how do we fulfill His plan when we're just kind of
struggling to get through sometimes?
How do we become disciples when we're just trying to survive?
So we we recognize first of all, that we're not in this alone.
So understand that that you may have a lot of struggles in your
life right now. And I'm sorry and I'm sure
they're real and painful, but you also need to take some hope
and joy in the fact that you're not alone in these spiritual
battles. The whole world is struggling
and, and you really do need to remember that this whole entire
world is struggling. All of creation is fallen and
this world is groaning until the redemption of its and the
restoration at the end of time. And so first John 519 says we
know that we are from God and the whole world lies in the
power of the evil. 1 And so in God's grace and God's love, he
has a permissive will that allows us to have choice.
And I've talked to you before about the problem of evil.
And the problem of evil in his simplest summary, which is
oversimplification, is that it's the result of our choice to a
large degree. We make bad choices, other
people make bad choices, and we have an enemy who helps us do
those things. And so because of that, we're
surrounded by sin and we live in this fallen creation, but also
recognize that other Christians struggle.
Peter wrote about it in First Peter 5.
Be sober minded, be watchful, your adversary, the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour,
resisting firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of
suffering or be experienced by your brotherhood throughout the
world. And you can sit there and say
well that's a 1st century writing and you're right.
But last year over 300,000 Christians were persecuted that
we know of, were persecuted for their faith.
Every year thousands of Christians die because of their
faith. And so we don't often recognize
that here thousands more are imprisoned and 10s of thousands,
hundreds of thousands are persecuted.
So there are brothers and sisters all around the world who
suffer for their faith. And it scares me some time
because it's awfully easy to be content here.
It's awfully easy to be comfortable here, to think that
that doesn't affect us and touch us, but it does me because I
have friends. I have friends who've died.
I have friends in prison. I have friends who are who have
lost their homes. I have friends who've lost their
churches and lost body parts. I mean, every gruesome thing you
can think of. And so this is a real thing.
And so our enemy wants us overwhelmed.
He wants us overwhelmed by the burden of life.
I mean, you need to, you need to hear his voice and think about
what he's saying in the sense he's going to tell you to focus
on your problems. He's going to tell you to try to
do this by your own strength, lift your own load by yourself,
fix your own problems. He's going to try to convince
you that you can do this alone. You can do this by yourself.
And so sometimes we can be so focused, or he's going to want
us to be so focused upon the fears that surround us in this
fallenness that we're too distracted to commune and to
communicate with the Creator who's sovereign and who who
seeks to strengthen and to guide us.
And that's the whole point of prayer.
But he says, don't abide in prayer.
Satan is terrified of prayer. And so he doesn't want you to
abide in prayer. He doesn't want you to pray
continually with a sense of dependence and anticipation.
These are words of the enemy. These are not words of the Lord.
So I want you to listen to a passage we've visited before.
It's a common passage. But again, we're going to take
pieces of this, perhaps differently than what we've done
before. This Ephesians 6 Finally, be
strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might.
Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand
against the schemes of the devil.
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. So even though here and here we
are at Easter, so here at Easter we're celebrating Christ's
victory. And we should, we should do it
loudly, we should do it proudly, we should do it with a sense of
great joy and appreciation. And so, but here we are at
Easter, celebrating that perfect victory that he accomplishes
through the cross, his death, burial, resurrection.
But at the same time, we recognize that the fight isn't
over, that the battle continues. And so Satan and I really need
to, I've said this to this part to you before, but I really want
you to grab a hold of this because it's going to be
important in a minute. The word here and your different
translations will have different words.
But to stand against this translation, ESV has schemes of
the devil. You might have Wiles or you
might have strategies. All those words are great.
The word methodia here is an orderly.
You can understand how technical this is.
This is an orderly, technical, deliberate, ambushing scheme or
plan or method. This is not some haphazard
temptation attack. This is a plan for your life
that the enemy has. It's an orderly plan.
He has an ambush strategy for you and your family and this
church. And so we need to understand
that and we need to have a strategy to stay strong and to
fulfil the mission of God. So Ephesians 6 tells us our
source of strength and, and defense.
And I talked about that when I talked about the seven
essentials. So we're not going to spend time
there. But what we also recognize is,
and I mentioned this before, we got to put on the whole armor
and you have to put on the armor.
It doesn't, it doesn't fly on you.
This is not Iron Man to where you can push a button and
suddenly the Iron Man suit comes on.
You OK, You, you have to put. And some of you understood that,
some of you have no idea what I just said, but but you, you've
got to put on the armor all of it, not some of it.
You don't just put one of the pieces on, You got to put it all
on. And you have to do that.
It's written in an imperative. You must put on the armor of
God. It's not autopilot.
And so we recognize that. But I want us to focus on one
aspect of this missional conflict in which we find
ourselves. And an additional passage really
is helpful, and that's the one in 2nd Corinthians 10.
And so if you want to turn to something in your Bibles, I
would turn to 2nd Corinthians 10.
And so you know, this passage probably, but I want us to
really talk about a couple of things here because it's very,
very important for us. I want to talk about conflict
and what that means and how it affects us and how we relate to
it or not. 2nd Corinthians 10 three says For though we walk in
the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have
divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
Sometimes when I've listened to people teach this passage and
I've probably been guilty of it myself, we'll emphasize certain
parts. And I feel like we don't
probably emphasize sometimes the most important parts.
And I want to do that tonight, and I'll make that make sense in
a second. So it says we need to destroy
sinful patterns. We we need to destroy sinful
habits, we need to destroy sinful tendencies, we need to
destroy things that become a stronghold for Satan.
So most of these are going to be led by some misdirected fear,
misdirected love, misdirected faith.
We love the wrong things, we're afraid of the wrong things or we
believe in the wrong things. And that's where, that's where
most of our sins going to come from.
It's this misaligned, misdirected fear, love, faith,
etcetera. And so this gives Satan this
opportunity and a, and a place for him to tempt us because he
has a, he has an orderly scheme. So he, so he's testing the wall
and he's going to find the chink.
And once he finds that chink, he's going to focus on that hole
and he's going to drill in that hole and drill in that hole and
drill in that hole because he won't sleep.
He won't give up, he won't relent.
He hates us. He hates Christ, He hates all of
this, and he wants it to be destroyed.
You got to understand what the Bible says.
He wants to destroy us. And so he's going to find that
little niche and he's going to work it and work it.
And so we got to be careful not to allow him an opportunity
time, not to allow the weak spot, not to give him a
stronghold it there may be a moment where we stumble and fail
and we realize, wow, that wasn't good.
And I, he's a, he's tempted me here and I fell prey to that.
I need to confess that, get rid of that.
But then I need to reinforce the wall.
Don't let him come back to that spot again, because the idea of
a stronghold means that he's actually dug in.
He he's able to dig in and to build and even to divide.
So the passage says, and you got to think about the Corinthian
people who are hearing this for the first time.
They come from such a Pagan background.
And he's saying, listen, you got to take every thought captive,
but you got to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised
against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to
obey Christ. And I want to talk about how do
we do that? How are we going to destroy
these arguments, these lofty human opinions, satanic opinions
that surround us in this world today that they're raised
against the knowledge of God? And then I'm going to take every
one of my thoughts captive. I'm going to I'm going to
control my mind and my thought life so that I can obey Christ.
So, so let's talk about this for a minute.
How, how are we going to do that now?
Now follow me. I promise I'm going to circle
you back, but follow me for a few minutes because I want I
want to talk about conflict for a minute.
So when we face the conflicts of this world that compete with
that distract from, I was in a conversation earlier today where
I believe with all of my heart there's a Satan satanic
distraction attempt taking place.
I said that out loud and I believe it with all my heart.
So when we face these conflicts that compete with, distract
from, and are seeking to tempt us away from God's orderly plan
for us, His strategy, His mission, and, and they seek to
move us toward the strategy, this technical, ambushing,
orderly planned by the enemy, how do we respond?
So I want to talk about conflict for a minute and, and what that
means. Conflicts with the, with truths
of this world that seem to be contrasting or arguing are
against the truth of God's word, truths of this world that that
it seems everybody else thinks is OK.
I talked about this Sunday. What used to be wrong not long
ago is now normal. Listen, Teresa and I, or maybe
it's me because Teresa doesn't do this because she's sweet and
kind and Christ like. I sit in front of my TV and I
gripe. I talk to my TV and I gripe
about it because I I, I may be watching what, what is an OK TV
program, but then these stinking, ungodly commercials
pop up and I'm about tired. I don't need to see the drag
queen competition when I'm trying to watch Andy Griffith.
You understand what I'm saying? But it's OK.
It's OK now. In fact, it's so OK.
I was reading an article today about a young a young lady who's
a student at Boyce College at Southern Seminary in Louisville,
KY. It's the undergrad program at
Southern Seminary. You just got fired as a barista
in a coffee house because one of the employees that she worked
with knew she was a Christian and a student at that college
asked her questions about what she thought about sexuality,
gender, and some of the issues of the world today.
She responds with biblical responses and her faith and they
fire her because she's being oppressive in sharing and
forcing her faith upon this other employee.
Now there are legal people who are trying to remedy that
situation because you can't do that.
But it's just amazing. It didn't used to be that way,
but I promise you it's not going to get better.
Read the book. It does not get better and so
we've got to learn how how am I going to deal with these
conflicts with the the truth of this world seem to believe that
contrast with the word of God and and and that everybody else
seems to be think it's OK. They even think it's right.
But you know in your heart, you know in God's word that it's not
right. This is not right.
And so these conflicts that are caused by the brokenness of
humanity and, and our poor choices, frankly, our free will,
whether they be our choices or those of others that have a
direct impact upon us, these things happen.
So the conflict of sin, the lives of the devil, the
devaluation of life that are that's often a part of this and
even just basic misunderstandings.
So in other words, the daily life on this planet right now,
right? This is where we live.
I teach a lot about conflict. That was not a goal.
I I teach everything over the years I've taught everything
from certificate level to I just taught APHD seminar on conflict.
And so I'm kind of known as the conflict guy.
That ought to say something about next former member of
Inglewood needs to be careful. I'm going to push that button to
somebody gets mad at me. Just cracks me up.
I mean, they run all the way. She'll tell you.
I mean, I'm, you know how you know Lowe's, you know, Lowe's
the store. You know how big that is?
And I'm like down there against that wall.
The guy comes running from the other side of the store just to
tell me that. Well, thank you.
I'm you're welcome back anytime. Maybe might be a good reason
you're a former member need to be careful.
Maybe maybe revival happens by attrition as well as addition.
So you know, anyway, I'll, I'll try to stop, but I teach a lot
about conflict. So I, so I've, you know, I've
read a lot about it and had to and all that kind of stuff.
And here's what I know. People respond to conflict in
different ways. Churches do this too.
So over the years, the reason I'm known for this is because of
what I did in church life, consultation life, not 'cause
conflict, but try to sell solve it.
Although who knows? But people respond to conflict,
especially in their personal relationships in very different
ways. Let's see which one of these you
relate to. Some people flee.
They just can't stand to be in conflict.
I mean, they will physically leave the room.
They just can't, they just can't take it.
They can't stand it. They can't stand to be there.
Same thing happens in church life.
But people flee conflict. They just withdraw.
They can't do it. They, they, they may not know
how to fight fairly or they're just afraid to, or frankly just
worn out and they don't want to fight anymore.
But what they don't understand is their absence actually allows
the conflict to continue. So it's still a problem.
Others seek to win in a conflict.
Kind of the opposite. These people get hysterical and
historical, but they wanted that.
Their goal is to win the debate. Their goal is to actually win
the argument, regardless sometimes of even the cost.
And in the end they might win the battle, but they often lose
the war. They can end up in damaging,
abusive, overbearing, often loud positions seeking to have their
own way rather than God's way. And this can be true in a
marriage, can be true in a church, can be true out in the
world. Others yield, they stick around,
but they give in to get along, often to one of those who seeks
to win. They don't believe in what
they've done necessarily, but they just want to end the
conflict, have peace, and so they surrender, but they don't
necessarily leave. Still others seek to compromise.
And we often talk about compromise is a good word, but
in conflict it's not always a good word.
It might, it might be a good first step, it might stop the
yelling, it might stop the bleeding, But in the end, it can
simply be two sides giving in, two sides yielding.
Neither party's happy. Neither party's satisfied with
what they agreed to. And the long term outcome will
be that they just wanted to get out of the immediate conflict
and they're going to repeat it. They'll repeat it and they'll
repeat it because it's not resolved.
And these responses are very common.
Perhaps you relate to, have experienced or you are guilty of
one or more of these. We all are probably.
But but where our ultimate going conflict is resolution.
And this is what I want to get to, and this is going to tie
back into our passage because we want to get to this idea of
resolution. And, and and I want to talk
about the fact that true long term resolution requires
diagnosing the actual source of the conflict, the disease, and
not simply to treat the symptoms.
And so many people just treat symptoms, they don't deal with
the disease, right. And so it's interesting because
I've said it before, I'll say it a billion more times, and I'll
refer to the same passage over and over and over and over
again. But resolution requires
replacement. And so our ability to deal with
2nd Corinthians 10 does too. Resolution requires a change,
not just stopping something, but also starting something.
And you got to recognize that. Stopping something, stopping
your sinful habits, stopping the area where you gave Satan a
stronghold is only a temporary short term fix.
If you don't replace the thing that created the hole in the 1st
place, he's just going to come back and with his pickaxe and
he's going to get right back in. This is the cycle of addiction.
I'm going to quit, I'm going to quit.
I feel bad. I'm going to quit and then two
weeks later I haven't quit because something has to change.
A physical disease is going to result in a diagnosis that
requires medicine. It requires treatment.
It might perhaps even require a change in lifestyle habits.
We got to think physical health like that.
I've got to do something different.
I can't, you know, as a diabetic, I can pretend like I
can eat all the cake I want, but I can't.
I just can't. Something had to change.
So now I have a sugar monitor. I get slivers of things.
So I'm talking about Colossians 3 again.
Don't turn there. But this is that whole passage
again, and I've shared it with you enough.
I preached on it when I first got here.
But Paul says you got to take off.
This stuff has a whole list of things, and then you got to put
on this whole list of things. And these are imperatives.
You have to do this, you have to put on the armor, you have to
put on these things in your life.
So we recognize that the real cause of the conflict, often
wrapped up in our misplaced loves and fears, must be
replaced by the positive resources of the Lord.
Now let's go back to 2nd Corinthians 10.
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according
to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not of the flesh, but have divine power.
And often we don't focus on those two words, we focus on the
stronghold word. They have the divine power to
destroy strongholds. So that's how we destroy
arguments. That's how we destroy every
lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and that's how
we take every thought captive to obey Christ.
We have access to the proper spiritual equipment with which
to equip ourselves to put on the armor of God, to take off the
junk that needs to get taken off, and to put on the good
stuff that needs to be put on. We have divine power to destroy
strongholds. You have access to that.
Are you living that way though? Do you engage God that way?
Do you believe that? So we have the armor of God.
But but, but, and these are not verses to just read and
castaway. These are instructions.
This is the guidebook for how you implement A discipled life
on this. But we destroy, we take every
thought captive. But you don't do that on your
own. You're not good enough.
Neither am I. I may be an expert on conflict,
but that doesn't mean I know how to handle it.
Listen, we have to access the divine weaponry.
Now that this really needs to sink in.
You have to access this divine. You have divine power.
We walk in the flesh. We're humans.
We're in this mixed up fallen crazy world and we're not going
to be able to deal with it by my own strength.
I don't care how good you are, how good looking, how smart you
think you are, how self-sufficient you think you
are, what all you've read, what all you know, it's not going to
be enough. Satan's stronger than you are.
He's a fallen Angel. Don't make him more than that.
That's all he is. And the heaven, hell and the
hereafter. We're going to talk about Satan
and demons and angels and all kinds of stuff and don't make
them more than they are, but also don't let them be less than
they are. He's not a mini God.
He's not omnipresent, He's not omniscient.
He's a fallen Angel, but an Angel stronger than I am.
And so I need to access what's stronger than he is.
Carnal weapons are not going to get the victory done.
Human ideas, human strategy, human methods are not enough.
This whole adage, you pull yourself up by your own
bootstraps, you don't even know where that where that comes
from. Pull yourself up by your own
bootstraps. You know you can't do that.
You can't do it. It's actually a joke.
It's satirical. You cannot pull yourself up by
your own bootstraps. And yet it gets used as this
term of my self-sufficiency and my ability to do my own thing by
myself. You can't.
You sit down sometime and pull on those bootstraps and see if
you can stand up. You can't.
Your brain and your will alone are just not enough.
So there has to be divine weaponry that undergirds and
empowers us. So, so we recognize what some of
these pieces are. We've been talking about them.
There's a reason why I'm talking about what I'm talking about.
Everything connects. We've been, we, we started the
year by talking about abiding in the word.
That's a sword. That's the sword of the spirit.
So one of my divine weapons is is the word of God Responding in
worship can be a weapon. These seven essentials are
weapons. These 7 essentials are not ideas
created out of thin air so that we can make cool artwork on the
wall here at Inglewood. These were driven in in days of
prayer and searching the Scriptures.
They're driven. This is how the early church
obeyed and exploded with mission fulfillment.
But there's one essential that we've been discussing in these
sessions that we're going to finish tonight, Ephesians 618,
praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and
supplication. To that end, keep alert with all
perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints.
So we're finishing our series on abiding in prayer with
dependence and anticipation. But that has to be more than
just words. Dependence.
These words were chosen very carefully.
Dependence, anticipation. Do you live that way?
Is that how you pray? Is that, Is that what you're
doing? Are you recognizing his
authority? Are you recognizing his ability?
Are you recognizing his divine weaponry?
And then you have this assured hope that that he listens and he
acts. It's called faith.
So we connect to God's divine power in prayer.
We understand that as we pray, we're allowing Him.
We're allowing him, asking him, begging him.
I pray to align our thoughts with his we're We're asking and
allowing Him to transform my mind so that we can destroy
arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the
knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.
God can empower us through to a personal prayer strategy, just
just like Satan's got a strategy he's got, he's got a technical,
orderly ambush plan for you. He's waiting to trip you up.
He's looking for that, looking for that little hole, prodding,
poking, probing. We better have a strategy for
protection as well as not just defense, but offense.
So how do I develop a personal prayer strategy?
Let's talk about that for a minute.
Let's just talk about this verse for a few minutes.
So we developed this personal private prayer plan by
incorporating a few of the things that we've discussed in
this whole series. We go back to verse 18, praying
at all times in the Spirit. So the first thing we see is we
pray continually. Nothing new here, nothing
radical. These are things you've probably
heard before, but we got to recognize, and Chuck Lawless
told you this a few weeks ago, prayer needs to be proactive and
not simply reactive. This is an offensive effort, not
just a defensive effort. We pray for protection, great.
We pray for the protection of others, great.
But I'm just, I'm not only going to pray for protection, I'm
going to pray that they are empowered and possessed by the
Holy Spirit to go out and move. See, go on the offensive.
Don't just sit back and allow this world and our enemy to beat
you into submission and recognize that prayer.
I said this last time, prayer is, is more than something you
do. Prayer must be who you are.
This is this is a part of your being.
God answers you, not necessarily your ritualistic words.
He's answering you. So live in that constant
communication, that constant communion with the source, the
owner of divine power. I mean, it's really amazing to
me when I think about that, if I could really wrap my brain
around that and recognize that I have access to the greatest
power in the universe at my disposal, who wants me to come,
wants me to access it, wants to give it to me.
And you know, I'm too busy. I don't have time to pray.
I wish I prayed more. Those kinds of things.
First Thessalonians 5, you know this passage, Pray without
ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the
will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Now often we just talk about the praying without ceasing and
giving thanks in all circumstances and how hard that
second part is, but we need to recognize that this is the will
of God. There's no debate.
I don't have to wonder. This is not some Gray area.
This is not some brownie, this is black and white.
This is the will of God in Christ Jesus that I pray this
way. Do not quench the Spirit.
Verse 19 says, so we have to be, we must be, we're commanded to
be in this continuing prayer mindset, this continuing prayer,
heart set, always going to the Father, first, second, third,
fourth and last, always going to the Father.
So when a thought occurs, when a sight is seen, when an attack is
experienced, when a person's encountered who runs all the way
across Lowe's pray. My wife's laughing.
She was there when a thought occurs.
You got to take a captive. So ask God to fill our day, to
fill us with divinely empowered prayer prompts and thoughts.
See that's what I need. I need, I need, I need that
replaced. You got to replace this.
God help me to replace this. I'm going to share my testimony
and a couple of weeks and I'm going to talk about replacement,
a miraculous divine replacement that took place in my own life.
People can argue with me all day long about whether there's a
God. I know there's a God.
He saved me, changed me. And so that thought is locked
up. That one's secure.
But we're also supposed to pray in the Spirit.
That's what that that passage says, praying at all times in
the Spirit. So we, we pray prayers both
again, this communion and this communication with the commander
for the conflict. And we've got to stay in touch
with him. We abide in prayer with this
sense of dependence. We, we, we, we live there, we
dwell there, we pitch our tent there, we rest there in the
Spirit. So you have to ask yourself, am
I truly dependent upon the Holy Spirit's power, or am I trying
to handle most of life on my own?
And then I only really reach out to him reactively when there's a
crisis. There's a real problem now it's
time to talk to God. I don't proactively talk to God.
I reactively talk to God when there's a big crisis that all of
a sudden I realize I can't handle.
It's too much for me. So we got to recognize that that
that misses the whole point of prayer.
Prayer. Prayer is not some spiritual
911. I mean, it can be that I I
certainly am not saying don't cry out to God in Christ.
It's certainly you do that, but that's not all it is.
That's not even the the most of what it is.
It's a constant abiding walk and talk with God.
We're dependent upon the Holy Spirit to reveal to us what we
ought to pray and to convict us about those things.
How do I know how to pray according to God's will?
He gives us the proper words to understand God's Word and will.
How do I know that I'm going to get a guaranteed positive
reception from God? Well, God's Word and God's
Spirit are here to help us with that, to help us pray the right
things. So the Creator God of the
universe calls us to come. God the Son paves the way.
The Holy Spirit intercedes and allows to know how it's an
amazing trinitarian, wonderful thing.
And by the way, that's unique to biblical Christianity.
So we engage in relationship with him and you know that a
relationship can't remain healthy or grow without close
proximity and communication. You have to talk and and here he
is giving us all the time we need undivided attention.
I mean, prayer really is amazing.
Prayer really is a privilege and we need to enjoy the privilege.
He'll help us to enjoy it if we seek him.
But there's more that verse 18 says we we pray at all times in
the spirit and then it it the second part says to that end,
keep alert with all perseverance.
So, so we need to pray with alertness and perseverance too.
So there's, there's still this battle plan involved, there's
still this, this defensive protection involved.
It's not just offensive, it is defensive as well.
We have both. And so we recognize this isn't
just about frequency, although we're supposed to pray at all
times. It's not just about frequency.
This is also about intensity. So you can stand on the street.
Corner like Jesus would condemn and chant prayers all day long
and they they don't mean anything but but when prayers
done with a sense of intensity and a sense of communion and a
sense of, of abiding, it will heighten your spiritual senses.
That's why I'm such an advocate about praying for lost people by
name. This is why in our reach
ministries and our connect groups, we need to not just pray
for one another and people in the church.
We've got to be reaching out into the community and praying
for lost people by name. What happens is our spiritual
senses. Get heightened and we're more
aware of God, but we're also more aware of the enemy.
You can see him and. Smell him.
You're not getting you. You're not getting away with it.
This time I I fell for. That last time.
But no more sucker, you don't. Get it this time.
God gets it this time, because, because.
I I I can sense. You abiding in prayer, We're
more discerning about truth. We're more discerning about
lies. We see the deception.
Of this world more clearly. Just because the world says
something is cool and right and has and has a bunch of followers
doesn't mean it's right. I follow Jesus and my.
Wife and I don't. Need any other followers?
Following me, I hope they follow Jesus, but I find this whole
phenomenon. And I'm around it a lot.
I mean, I'm a guy who's developed massive
technologically driven platforms for training and education used
all around the world, so I'm not out of tune of technology, but
the narcissism of social media I find fascinating.
I want to be an influencer, just think.
About what you just said, be careful about what you mean by
that. You mean an influence for Jesus?
Knock yourself out if you mean an influencer so you can get
your own followers. You're a cult leader.
But it makes us more aware to discern.
We see the deceptions. We we also become more burdened
for the lost. It's like a fog that gets
lifted. And so we abide in prayer with a
sense of anticipation. Show me God, show me God, let me
see God. And so I expect and I'm alert
enough to be aware of how and where God is working as well as
where Satan, what he's up to slinking around.
And I I say this is where God's working, and I have the
sensitivity and the drive to join God in what he cares about.
So will you persevere in? Prayer or not.
I've shared this with you before, but not.
All of you have ever heard this story?
I was asked this just the other day.
Why do I like bears? If you go to my inner office,
which very few people go in there, it's a little scary in
there, a little messy, lots of bears in there.
The whole room is decorated in bears.
But but it comes from this quote from William Carey.
Believe it or not, it's not about bears really.
It's about perseverance, about strength and endurance.
It's about not giving up. The American grizzly bear can
smell you miles away, and he's just going to keep coming and
keep coming and keep coming and keep coming.
That's where that imagery comes from.
William Carey was asked after 40 years on the mission field with
very little quantitative result, how did you survive that?
And one, a part of his answer is, I can persevere through any
definite pursuit. To this I owe everything.
He just. Kept on coming and.
Kept on coming and never quit. Do we grow too weary?
Do we grow too bored? Do we grow too frustrated?
Do we grow too pessimistic to keep praying and going to God?
Remember the story of Luke chapter 18.
And he told them a parable. And notice it's a parable to the
effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart.
And he said, in a certain city there was a judge who neither
feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that
city who kept coming to him, saying, Give me justice against
my adversary. For a while he refused, but
afterwards he said to himself, Though I neither fear God nor
respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will
give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her
continually coming and the Lord. Said Hear what the unrighteous.
Judge says and will not. God give justice to his A.
Leg to cry to him day and night will he delay over long over
them. I tell you He will give justice
to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of
Man comes, will he find faith on earth?
God answers prayer in his way. And his time.
But he seeks faith. It's what Jesus did too, in his
earthly. Ministry Throughout His
ministry, if you pay close attention to Jesus, often times
you'll see Him working or healing on behalf of others who
demonstrated a belief in Him. Your faith has made you what
well they believed. Will He find us faithful when He
comes again? Praying.
Communion. Communing.
With him, communicating with him, expecting from him,
anticipating from him, depending upon him, still pursuing.
Will he find us that way when he takes us?
Home, either through our death or through his second coming.
So one of these days, remain faithful, remain thankful no
matter what. And when his answer comes,
remember His motive is always going to be the best end result
for us, regardless of whether we agree with him or liked it or
not. You got to trust in Him.
You don't get to have your way. We need to find His way.
Believe in him. So again.
This passage goes. On in Ephesians 6 that he also
says to in the middle. To that end, keep alert with all
perseverance, making supplication for all the Saints
and also for me, verse 19, that words may be given to me, and
opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the
Gospel. So we pray with supplication.
How are you praying for one another?
Not just some generic prayer. For all the Christians in the
world, but specifically for them, one of the reasons you saw
the video tonight wasn't just because we didn't have time to
show it on Sunday. We're going to show the UUPG
video every Sunday night again because I have a fear.
We talk about it as a staff because we worry about it
amongst ourselves. Do I even remember the name of
the people group by the end of the worship service on Sunday
morning? And so.
We want to reinforce that. And here you are, the prayer
people, the prayer team. And so every Wednesday night,
we're going to reshow the video that we show on Sunday morning
most weeks. How are you praying for your
connect group? I harp on it.
I know I won't stop either. Next time, a former member of
Inglewood. I'm just going to ask him if
they were ever in the Connect group anyway.
I'll be no sure. Yeah, I'm going to let it go.
It'll happen again tomorrow, though.
I'm not. Kidding.
They doesn't go by I. Don't hear something about a
former member of Inglewood. It's amazing y'all could have
10,000 people in this church. How are you praying for your
connect? Group your leaders, your
neighbors, your family. How are you praying for the
people who ought to be here for Easter?
How are you praying for the city?
Pray for alertness. Pray for perseverance.
Pray that you would abide in prayer, and then it would it
would be in the prayer of one another, of each other as you
join together, praying for one another's dependence and
anticipation. Praying that you grow as
disciples. Praying that that that that
struggling, straying church member would come back.
Teresa met. A member who didn't claim former
but who hadn't been here in a long time says he'll be here
Sunday. I don't I.
Don't know, we'll see. If he does, I'll hug him hard.
Do you pray for me? Do you pray for my preaching and
teaching? If you don't like it, pray
harder. Do you pray for your Connect
group leaders teaching for their facilitation of the group that
they're working with? What about the leaders of our
students? You know, one of the things
we're focusing upon every week now is a ministry area.
Do you pray for our children? Do you pray for our
preschoolers? We need the undergirding of
divine weaponry. And as we pray for one another,
we can. Help and then.
Ephesians 619. And 20 again it says, and also
for me, that words may be given to me, and opening my mouth
boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I'm an
ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to
speak. Chuck Lawless mentioned this
passage. We need to pray for bold
witness. When people intercede for one.
Another and they begin to intercede for the unchurched.
Their hearts can become more sensitive to God's desire to see
people saved. Burden is developed and and, and
and we don't just interpret this as simply praying for lost
people, though we we must do that.
This is also a prayer for fellow believers.
This is a. Prayer that the fellow.
Believers would step up and testify that they do boldly,
that we'd accept the responsibility of being his
ambassadors, to speak out there like we ought to.
And so are we doing that? Are you in a connect group that
does that? There's an opportunity over
these next few weeks, like very few times in the year people
come to. Church on Easter.
Who don't even want to come to church on Easter, but they come
to church on Easter because grandma wants them to come, or
Mama wants them to come, or somebody wants them to come and
they'll be here and they're going to hear about Jesus, the
gospel, and the resurrection. Some of them probably think it's
the only sermon that ever gets preached in church because it's
the only one they ever hear once a year.
But but what a, what a? Prayer, that would be.
What an opportunity we have. Grab these cards, invite
everybody. You know, we're going to go door
to door in our neighborhood and invite everybody.
And I'm praying for something more.
I'm praying that Easter becomes a catalyst for so much more.
I'm praying that Easter at Inglewood becomes a powerful
movement of the Spirit not only in our midst, but that overflows
into this community. It's time for this church to be
the United spiritual force in this community that it's
intended to be. We're to be the church.
That prays for the. Souls of this community and
loves them as ourselves. And so the power of prayer and
the power of the Gospel combined as allies in this war against
the present darkness, pray in such a way that Satan and his
demons know our names. Let's 'cause him concern.
Let's cause him to worry. Instead of falling, sitting back
and falling prey to him, letting us worry and causing us to
worry, let's give it to him dependent, anticipating, abiding
prayer. So very practically then
everything that we've talked about in in our series together.
Here's some application. Let's create a personal prayer
plan you should know most of. This, but let me just put.
It together for you. First you got to make a
commitment and that's the biggest part probably.
Are you committed to actually doing this?
Ask the Holy Spirit to help and convict you.
Ask him to give you the strength.
Ask him to give you the focus that you need so that when you
prayer you're not drifting off everywhere in the world.
Ask him to place on your heart a burden.
Ask him to give you a specific prayer.
Request things that you care about to pray for.
You got to budget and make time. It's not going to happen by
accident. There must be great
intentionality and a passage that gets misinterpreted
greatly, especially in the prosperity.
Gospel. Movement is Psalm 37.
You know these verses. Delight yourself in the Lord and
He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord, trust in Him, and He will act.
Here's what this this passage does not mean and has never
meant and will never mean. It doesn't mean I can get
whatever I want. That is not.
What this passage is? Talking about it means that if I
abide with him and I commit my way to Him closely, love Him
more than anything else, God will provide what my heart and
my mind should seek. He will give me that desire.
He will put that in me. That's not my wish list.
That's the things I ought to be thinking about and praying for.
And so He's going to make my heart's desire the same as his.
And so that means engaging His word, abiding in prayer, and
growing in all the other five essentials that we need to in
order to be a disciple. So we need to fall in love with
Jesus on an even deeper level, and prayer can guide us to that.
So covenant with God, pursue him in this commit your way, your
daily life. That's what it would mean to
him. Commit your faith, trust fully
in him. Commit your prayer life to him.
Dedicate yourself to spend time alone with him every single day.
So then we need to come up with a plan.
So you. Need to develop a practical.
Schedule plan you need to make a daily appointment with God that
you honestly seek to keep that you're committed to now for me
right now and and it is very because of my travelling life
usually because sometimes morning and night we're all over
the place. But right now for me this is.
Early in the morning when I'm alone and I I can have my daily
Bible study as well as when I'm exercising.
I have my Bible study and then I go and I exercise.
That's almost every single morning.
I know I don't look like it, but if I didn't do this you would be
shocked at how I would look. So I go to bed earlier than.
I probably ever have in my entire life.
I think that's true. I probably go to bed earlier
right now than I ever have in order to get up early so I can
do this, you know, Gee, and I'm not saying morning's the only
time to do it. That's often suggested.
But you know, Jesus rose very early in the morning and mark
one while it was still dark and he departed and went out to a
desolate place and there he prayed.
But for you. And in this morning and our
staff devotions, John Rosal was sharing.
And because of the little kids in his house, he has to have his
time at night after they're in bed.
So life. Might.
Dictate this for you. They're up early in the morning
jumping all over him so he can't it's hard for him to have prayer
time and so he puts them to bed and he loves his kids.
In fact, one of his kids came up to him this morning, says,
Daddy, why are you always reading the Bible when what a
what a thing, what a thing. But.
You may have to wait until your hat you.
Have the house to yourself in peace and quiet.
But you need to schedule a normal set aside time.
You have to make time, not try to take time.
You got to make it. You got to set this.
Something else is always going to come up.
I promise you. You got an enemy, He'll
distract, he's going to interfere, he's going to do
everything he can. And so keep this time like you
would your most important appointment.
If you really need to go see a doctor, you try to keep that
appointment. Now, you may sit in the waiting
room for an hour and a half, but you got to.
You go sit right and see the doctor.
Or you go see the dentist. Or whoever it is, keep this
appointment, calendar it, outlook it, set an alarm for
whatever it takes. So if we do that, if it's
humans, you, you don't, you know, heaven forbid I missed
that lunch date or I missed that appointment with the boss or
whatever I've got to go to. I wouldn't miss that for
anything. What are we doing with God?
And then I recommend you organize the.
Place. Maybe this is just me.
I I need things to be in a certain place for me, but I want
to organize the place that's going to help me to pray.
I need to be quiet and conducive for focus, but I need my Bible.
Maybe you need some music. Maybe you need a journal.
Whatever tools you need ready to go.
I have a little book light that I.
Use almost every morning that my wonderful wife bought me because
I don't turn on all the lights early in the morning necessarily
and it helps me then you need. To follow up.
A personalized system or method for prayer that that works for
you if it. I know this is a great
statement. I think I wrote this down for
you. If it doesn't work for you, it
will not work for you. So you can.
Try other people's methods and maybe you'll figure it out, but
you're going to have to find one that really is good for you.
Now, there's all kinds of things I've listed here that might be
helpful to you. And so you, these are pretty
standard things that you can read, but then commit and you
think I'm going to leave it alone because I believe so
strongly and I don't just believe in this.
This is based on studies and statistical evidence and 4000
hours of whatever her consulting I've done, you know, whatever it
is more than that probably, but you got to commit to being in a
connect group that prays for and with one another.
You need the accountability of being together in being helpful
to help other people in discipleship.
So you need to pray through our Reach ministry.
You need to experience the prayer support of an intimate
church family group where you can share burdens.
And they're going to pray for you, and they're really going to
pray for you, and you're going to pray for them because it
matters. You're going to be much more in.
Tune and you're going to want to know about their answers to
prayer. You know, tell me about we last
week we prayed for John. Tell me about you're going to be
engaged in that. You're going to be thinking
about that. It helps you and it's going to
help you in your personal prayer time by doing that.
And so you agree with one another to.
Pray and and to help one another and then you share with each
other about the way God answers prayer.
And then I think you ought to attend midweek, which is a
little ironic to share with you also for those you listening
online. But each week we're going to
pray together for reach requests.
We're going to pray for UUPGS. We're going to pray for
missionaries. We're going to pay for mission
trips. We're going to pray for our core
church ministries and we're going to pray for upcoming
church events. And we're going to study the
word of God and seek his seek the access that we need to his
divine weaponry. We're going to do that together.
But God doesn't answer prayer. Simply for us to hide His
Amazing Grace and power. Prayer ought to lead to
testimony. Prayer ought to lead to US
sharing with others about what He's done.
Got to put it into action. I didn't know it.
When I share my testimony with you and I'm not going to say too
much right now, but my testimony is really fairly embarrassing to
me in many parts now The end result is great glory to Christ.
I pray it's the way I want to share it, but but there's
there's a massive prodigal thing in there embarrassing for me.
I failed miserably and when God got me back, so to speak,
dramatically. I didn't know it at the time,
but sometimes even. Years later, some just a few
days and weeks later, I I. I found out that.
There was a whole lot of people praying for me.
I didn't know it, and I might not have even appreciated it in
the frame that I was in at the time.
But I look back at it now and I. Think back to my Christian life.
When I was first saved. I had two senior adult men.
I don't know why they did this. I'll be honest with you.
I stand here right now and I can't.
I can see their faces. I can't remember their names,
which is horrible. That's horrible of me.
But. They met with me every single
week. And prayed over me.
Because they knew I was alone. That my family wasn't a part of
the journey and every single week they had me come and meet
them and they laid hands on me and prayed for me every single
week. And then I rejected everything
and I'll. Talk about this when I share my
testimony and came back. And I realized that those.
Two men, much older, much older, were still praying for me.
They came up to. Me and they.
Still met together every week just to pray for me.
Don't ever underestimate divine. Weaponry.
We need to, we need to seek it. We need to embrace it.
We need to appreciate it greatly, Father.
Thank you that you don't leave us alone, Father.
It would have been. Better just to save.
Us kill us and take us home. But but that's not the plan.
You leave us. Here for a reason.
And there there are multiple reasons you leave us here so we
can bring you glory, We can worship you, we can walk with
you, we can we can know you. You also leave us here so we can
tell other people about that. And Father, I pray that.
We won't take lightly the access that we have to you.
It's so easy in our comfort. So easy in our contentment,
perhaps even our laziness, for us to just take spiritual
disciplines and church for granted.
Little. Father, I just wish people.
Understood that all around the world right now, brothers and
sisters in Christ are hurting, desperate, desperate for you,
seeking you, wishing they had access to tools and resources.
So, Father, I pray that we will. We will take.
The mantle of. Responsibility of the
stewardship of where we live and how we live and the mantle of
the the stewardship. Responsibility of discipleship
that we have to grow so that we can we can share with others and
we can send people to those brothers and sisters in Christ
to encourage them. Lord, we need your divine
weaponry. We need to be able to take every
thought captive that is not according to your will.
Lord, I pray, I pray. For the movement of.
Your spirit that I'm begging you for every day, begging you for
it. God that Easter becomes a
catalyst that Easter. Begins a movement.
Like that we've never seen a movement of your spirit of
revival and spiritual awakening, not only in this church, but in
this community, this entire area that Father, not only would you
bring people here who you will save the Father, we will take
seriously our growth and our responsibility to serve.
Father, help us forgive us. Lord, we want to abide with you
in prayer, independence and with great anticipation.
Thank you for. That in Christ's name.
Amen. God bless you all.
Thank you so much for listening today.
And I also hope that you'll go to
ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com as well as our app and find many
other resources that will bless you and your families.
Thank you once again.