A Sermon delivered to All Saints Anglican Church on August 30, 2009 at the Convent Chapel of St. Mary's Medical Center, Huntington, WV, and based on Eph 6:10-20:
The Whole Armor of God
"10Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For 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. 13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, 15and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. 16In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; 17and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, 18 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, 19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."
When I was kid, I used to watch old movies with my friends after school, including Grade z Gladiator movies made in Italy, Hercules, various super heroes, and … The Three Musketeers.
I can vividly remember them gallantly crossing their swords and crying out together, “All for One and One for All!”
It was a rallying cry, urging the Musketeers on into war. In a similar way, the Apostle Paul urges us to take up the full armor of God, and issues a rather similar exhortation that we'll call
“4 Alls for prayer in the Spirit”. Namely:
1) all times
2) all prayer
3) all perseverance
4) all the saints
These ‘alls’ come from v. 18 of our reading from Ephesians Chapter 6, in which Paul instructs believers in prayer, and this verse comes in the context of Paul’s exhortation to believers to Put on God's armor because we are engaged in spiritual warfare.
Verse 12: “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.” The evil we see manifested around us starts as a spiritual force.
We are by nature spiritual beings who have a physical body. We are enfleshed spirits. Therefore, to keep a truly Christian outlook and mindset, we must think in spiritual terms. Not to think spiritually is to be led by the flesh, as Paul tells the Corinthians:
“But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way.” (I Cor. 3:1)
Flesh and Spirit are contrasted here as opposing one another. The flesh is understood as an evil principle that dwells within me and which can drag me down into sin, but the Spirit is the source of life and peace, as in Eph 5: 18: “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit”…
To be focused on the flesh at its worst is to indulge in debauchery, excess, or pleasures of the flesh which dissipate our life energy, or which may cause us to be addicted to various substances or actions, such as gambling or drinking. In a more subtle way, we become fleshly when we seek to be self-sufficient and do things “my way' without any thought of the Lord or what He wants.
We may not be engaging in any gross or carnal sins, but I guarantee that every one of us struggles with self-centeredness and self-sufficiency every day. It's as natural to us as breathing. And that's the point: it's natural or fleshly. We don't have to think about it or choose it, we do it as the default setting.
To be filled with the Spirit is the opposite of being fleshly. It's God’s plan for us to become fruitful as Christians. The result of being filled with the spirit is found in Eph. 5:19,20:
“…addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
So then, the primary fruits of the spirit are gratitude to God and worship of God, accompanied by mutual submission to our brothers and sisters in Christ – in other words, the fulfillment of the two great Commandments: Love God and Love others.
To be led by the Spirit is to be directed by and controlled by the Spirit, just as Jesus was when he was here on earth. His continual practice was to only do what he saw the Father doing and to speak that which the Father wanted him to speak. In Henry Blackaby's terminology, Jesus observed what God the Father was doing, and joined him in it.
If we are to emulate Him and do greater things than he did, we must be Spiritually minded and we must be led by and directed by the Spirit. We do this on a day to day basis primarily through prayer.
To pray in the Spirit is to pray in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. We are not naturally able to do this and we are pitifully limited when it comes to understanding God’s will for us, but Thanks be to God, …”the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. “ (Rom. 8: 26, 27)
So we really don’t know what we’re doing when we pray, but Prayer is the fuel that starts us up and keeps us going as a Christian, and it is the vehicle that God has determined to use in order to get things done. So Paul instructs us when to pray, how to pray, and for whom to pray in this very short teaching on prayer ‘in the spirit”.
Let’s look at each of these All’s individually:
1) All Times: We are to pray always, in all circumstances (v.16), to pray without ceasing (I Thes. 5:17), (Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.) In Luke 18:1, Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray...
So how do we do that?
2) All Prayer
One of the oldest applications of this exhortation to pray always is called the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This is simple and basically says everything we need to say in prayer. And it has been used as the basis for continual prayer for thousands of years. One technique of applying this is to use of prayer rope and to intersperse the Our Father along with the Jesus Prayer. The idea is to practice this to such an extent that it becomes the “Prayer of the Heart”, as natural as breathing. TheAnglican Rosary is based on this idea.
But there are perhaps as many ways to pray as there are people. Here are some possible ways we can pray:
Memorize Scripture and pray it back to God.
Sing to the Lord in Prayer
Pray in a 'Prayer Language”
Pray while you walk around the neighborhood
Pray over every step you make while you slowly walk around your
yard or garden.
Read a passage of Scripture slowly and then stop when something stands out to you, contemplating it and then praying over it to God. (Lectio Divina)
Use a map of the World to pray over hotspots and the work of different churches or ministries. Last week, we prayed for Justin and Hunter, who will be studying in Evanston and Scotland respectively. Our friends, Larry and Cathy Westfall will also be travelling to Scotland to help establish a church so we could go to Mapquest pray over Illinois and Scotland.
Write out a list of answers to prayer and thank God for them.
Pray in concert with others for revival – as we did during the Divine Experiment.
Establish a prayer room– as we wish to do at Hope House and then line up as many people to pray as possible, establishing a 24/7 approach to prayer. The Moravians have actually had a prayer room going continuously for 130 years! Now that's prayer without ceasing!
Pray the daily offices using the forms from the Book of Common Prayer. Last night Cindy and I had the interesting experience of logging on to Skype and praying Compline with a group of folks from Chattannooga! The list is endless.
Our prayer is worship in the Spirit, just as Jesus said in John 4: 23, 24: “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship is spirit and truth.”
Moving on to the third of our 'Alls”, we must pray with:
3)Peseverance: In Luke 18:1 Jesus tells us that we “ought always to pray and not lose heart.” Much of our prayer will be dry, dusty, cold and mechanical. It's just part and parcel of being human, made of dust. We can't endure very much excitement or extraordinary spiritual experience. It wears us out. Therefore, we should expect that our prayers will be routine.
This is not sinful or unspiritual. Many people who criticize Christians for praying mechanically have never tried to pray regularly much less always. Anyone who has every tried to pray frequently can tell you that the human body does not cooperate well with regular or constant prayer. It gets tired and is easily distracted. God knows this and is not offended. What he likes is when we press through the tiredness and pray anyway!
Francis DeSales had this to say about dryness in prayer:
“Be willing to accept dryness and lack of consoloations for however long they last. Beat upon the heavens with your cry but, at the same time, preserve a kind of holy indifference. “God, I will endure this as long as you want me to. Just support me.”...This kind of prayer, the prayer which we force ourselves to make, is most acceptable to God. “ (The Committed Life, pg.138).
Finally, 4) All the Saints:
Paul shows us the way here as in many of his letters he tells the believers he is praying for them:
Romans 1:10: ...”without ceasing I mention you always in my prayers”...
Phil 1:3,4: “ I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy”...
Col. 1:3: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you”...
Col. 4:12: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always struggling on your behalf in his prayers”...
1 Thes 1:2: “We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers”...
2 Thes. 1:11,12: “To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
We echo this in our prayer cycle during the prayers of the people, praying not only individual prayer needs, but for other churches on our list. We pray for 'all the saints' – yet another reason why our church name is significant, and possibly why it is such a popular name for Anglican churches.
Summary
God is looking for people who want to know Him, who want to communicate with Him and Cooperate with him in his work. The way we do this is to Pray in the Spirit. I invite and challenge us all to Pray always, in all manner of prayer, with all perseverance, for all the saints. As we do this we will indeed become God's intimate friends and partners in His work. AMEN.
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