Today, we’re going to look at a topic that we’ve looked at before from a couple of different angles–today is a mix of those angles plus a few others. Having said that, I’m going to go through a bunch of different verses throughout the sermon today. I’m going to give you a couple of verses upfront, and then another couple of verses later on.
The first set is from James 5:13-16; then Ephesians 6 [The “Full Armor of God” Chapter] and we’re going to read verses 18-20. And if you have a bookmark, later on, our second round of verses are from Luke 18 and then back a few chapters to Luke 11. Having said that, if you want, you can also put a bookmark in Hebrews Chapters 9&10 for communion. Like I often do, you’ll notice that my chapters in Luke are backward and so will be my chapters in Hebrews. It’ll be 10, then 9.
But first is James 5, then Ephesians 6.
When I was a teenager, there was a popular Christian rock song that had a little play on words called, “Get on your knees and fight like a man.”
A few years later, there was another song by Bob Carlisle with the words, “If you see me on my knees it’s not because I’m weak, I’m getting stronger.”
That’s what we’re going to talk about today. The power of fighting on our knees.
Prayer is a battle. When we pray, we’re not just praying to God, but we are also praying against our adversary, the Devil. We are praying against temptation, doubt, fear, negativity, all of those things we battle with. Let me say that again––all those things we battle with.
We’re not just to pray for ourselves but for others, too. Why? Because they need reinforcements. They need an extra Heavenly push to help them. And we’re going to focus today on praying as a form of warfare.
Let’s take a look at our scripture this morning. James 5:13-18.
Scripture: Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.
Did you catch that last part? Powerful and effective. It’s part of our spiritual warfare.
Now let’s look at warfare a little more closely: Eph. 6:18-20, this is from the chapter about the Full Armor of God.
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
I find it interesting that Paul lists prayer along with the armor of God, but if we were to read from verse one, we’ll notice that he never compares prayer to a piece of armor or as a piece of weaponry. By the time he gets to prayer, the armor is complete. But I don’t think it’s unintentional that he adds it here. It kind of reads like, “Oh, and by the way, speaking of warfare, pray.”
Paul knows that prayer, though not listed specifically as a piece of armor or weapon, is a very powerful action that we must do to combat the enemy.
The prayer of a righteous person isn’t just heard by God or granted by God. It is powerful and effective.
Some of you might say, “Well, the prayer of a righteous person–is that me? Am I righteous enough? I mean, I sin every day.”
Remember when Jesus called the Canaanite woman a dog? Why did he do that? Because it was expected that he did that. Canaanites were considered the dogs of Jewish society.
Jesus was testing her and getting the attention of those around him so that she and the others around Jesus might see what he does next. No, Jesus did not call her a dog because he “sinned” as a gay agnostic pastor by the name of Brandon Robertson believes.
This is what gotquestions.org says: In testing her, Jesus declined her request and explained that she had no legitimate expectation of His help. The woman, however, lived out the principle Jesus Himself taught in the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1–8). Her response proved that she understood fully what Jesus was saying, yet had enough conviction to ask anyway (Matthew 15:27). Jesus acknowledged her faith—calling it “great”—and granted her request (Matthew 15:28).
How about the woman at the well? Similar circumstance. She was a Samaritan, another group of people who were outcasts and looked down upon. In addition, she was ostracized and marked as immoral, because she was an unmarried woman living openly with the sixth in a series of men.
How about the centurion? We don’t know how or why the centurion’s heart was turned toward Christ. But centurions were commanders of 100 Roman soldiers and were a common sight in Israel. They had to be tough and gruff. But here, we see a centurion who had the humility to ask Jesus for help. Think about how unworthy a Roman commander was in the eyes of the Jewish people. They were expecting their messiah to take over Roman rule.
The centurion knew he was unworthy of Jesus’ help. He said, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, “Go” and he goes; and to another, “Come,” and he comes; and to my servant, “Do this,” and he does it.’”
But what did Jesus do? Rather, what did this do to Jesus? Jon Bloom wrote in Desiring God, that Jesus’ expression turned thoughtful. He pondered the words, “I am not worthy to have you come under my roof” and “I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me.” He nodded his head slightly and there was just a hint of a chuckle. This man was a Roman soldier, a representative of Israel’s enemy. And yet he understood what even these Jewish elders didn’t yet grasp. It was a marvel.
He looked back at the friend and then to the elders. Then he turned and scanned his eyes over his disciples and the small crowd of people who had followed him down the mountain. Then he said, loud enough for everyone to hear, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith” (Luke 7:9).
Another thing to point out is that the centurion’s servant and the Canaanite woman’s daughter were both healed in response to someone else’s faith and in both instances, the faith of those who were despised by the Jewish people.
What does this have to do with prayer? What does this have to do with the question “Am I enough of a righteous person to have powerful and effective prayers?” These examples tell us that it doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done. It doesn’t matter if you’re a little less holy than you were yesterday. It doesn’t matter if you’re well-known or well-liked in certain Christian circles. It doesn’t matter if someone criticizes you for whatever reason. Your faith can answer prayers not only for yourself but for others as well.
But now you say, “Well, do I have enough faith?” If you have a dime, I want you to get it out and take a look at it. Jesus said that if you have the faith of a mustard seed, you can move mountains. I think Mary pointed this out not too long ago. The size of a mustard seed is 1 to 2 millimeters in length. In other words, if you look at the face-side of a dime, a mustard seed would be between the size of Franklin Roosevelt’s eye and his ear–not the distance between his eye and ear–the size of his eye or ear. That’s how small a mustard seed is. See, it isn’t the size of your faith that matters, it’s who you place your faith in, that matters.
Let’s put this into greater perspective, Jesus said this to his disciples after they could not heal a demon-possessed boy. I don’t know about you, but I’d be a little skittish about healing someone who was demon-possessed. And here Jesus is reprimanding his own disciples, like, “Come on you knuckleheads, get it right. What’s wrong with you?” He was like a drill sergeant to his team.
Someone in boot camp might not know what they can do until their drill sergeant gives them a back-handed instruction like, “Do it, maggot!”
So what does that have to do with prayer? When it comes to prayer, we have to have faith that it can get done. The impossible becomes possible. Remember when Peter walked on water and then began to sink? Jesus said, “You of little faith. Why did you doubt?”
I’d be giving Peter some atta-boys, but Jesus was like, “Oh man, why did you doubt? You almost had it.”
1 John 5 says “14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”
In Mark 11:24 Jesus said, “I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Faith is not believing for something; it is believing in Someone. Our faith is in the character of God and His desire to bless and comfort us. When we pray, we should have faith that He hears us and will grant every request that is in line with His will for us.
If you have your Bibles still open, let’s take a look at Luke Chapter 18 now. This is sort of an odd parable that Jesus gives. And it kind of leaves you scratching your head a bit–like, well, can we pray too much? Does God get annoyed at us praying so much, over and over again? But we’ll delve into it after we read it.
Luke 18:1-8:
Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. 2 He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’
4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”
6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? 8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”
So right up front, Luke explains this parable. He said it was “to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Enduring Word said that Man is created with a spiritual instinct (Ecclesiastes 3:11), so prayer often comes naturally. Yet obstacles come in the way of effective and constant prayer, so Jesus knew we needed to be both taught and encouraged to pray.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a meme on Facebook that asked the question: “Does anyone else have prayer ADHD? Like you start praying, wander off, come back and you’re like “God I’m sorry, where was I?””
Thank God for grace, right? He must have a sense of humor to put up with our ADHD prayers. We have this problem with distraction, and no wonder why Jesus said in Matthew 6, starting with verse 6, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
And it’s there that Jesus goes into teaching his disciples about how we ought to pray–which is The Lord’s Prayer; and that, of course, is a sermon or even sermon series unto itself.
But notice two things, first God knows our needs before we even ask; and second, that we should pray in secret. Now, there is another context as to why we should pray in secret, so as not to be “one of those hypocritical praying Pharisees who like to show off their elaborate prayers,” but also, I think, so that we aren’t as distracted when we pray.
But notice how Jesus wants us to be persistent in prayer. Here’s another parable out of Luke, if you have your Bible and you want to follow along. This is back a few chapters in Luke 11, and this is interesting–just as a side note–because of the placement where Luke puts this–he puts this directly after the Lord’s Prayer, whereas Matthew puts a few of Jesus’ other teachings sandwiched in first. Just a thought and observation of how the two writers put things together.
Luke 11:5-13 says this: 5 Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
So, you see, it’s about comparing the goodness of the Lord with grumpy old humans. God is good. God is love. God wants to give us the desires of our hearts–so long as they are in accordance with His heart. David in Psalm 37 said, “3 Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Paul said to the Thessalonian church: “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually [without ceasing], 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
It may seem as if we’re bothering God to the point where he’ll say, “For crying out loud, leave me alone. If I was going to answer that prayer I would have done so already. Just give up.” Or, if he somehow decides that he is going to answer our prayer that he’s going to treat us like the persistent widow or annoying neighbor. But God wants us to be persistent. Remember, this is warfare, we have to be persistent.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Can you imagine D-Day without persistence? The Battle of the Bulge without persistence?
Satan is after us, and–talk about persistence–he’s relentless. And so we must be relentless against him.
From Enduring Word again, it says:
i. The woman had to overcome the judge’s reluctance to help. We often feel that we must do the same when we pray – use our persistence to overcome God’s reluctance. This misses the point of the parable entirely. Jesus did not say that men always ought to pray and not lose heart because God is reluctant, but because He isn’t, and that is our encouragement to prayer.
ii. Sometimes it does seem to us that God is reluctant to answer our prayers. Yet the delays in prayer are not needed to change God, but to change us. Persistence in prayer brings a transforming element into our lives, building into us the character of God Himself. It is a way that God builds into us a heart that cares about things the same way He does. “Too many prayers are like boy’s runaway knocks, given, and then the giver is away before the door can be opened.” (Spurgeon)
For whatever reason, sometimes God waits…and waits…and waits…to open that door. We don’t know why. It’s like I said not too long ago, we’re sitting in God’s waiting room. Then we get called into the examination room and wait some more–perhaps even longer than we did in the waiting room.
God is that way.
But we have to trust that God’s timing is perfect.
Just a few short verses before we close:
Lamentations 3: 25-26: “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.”
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (I’m sure you know this one) “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”
Proverbs 16:9“ In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”
2 Peter 3:8-9 “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.
…and one more…
Romans 8:25-27 “25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on First Baptist Church of Watkins Glen
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