SERMON OUTLINE

Your Key Prayer Request Ephesians 6.19-20

Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.   Ephesians 6.19-20

Introduction

“What is your key prayer request for fulfilling God’s calling upon your life in the midst of spiritual battle?”

The Context of the Prayer Request

-Spiritual warfare and putting on the armor of God

-Verses 14 to 20 one Greek sentence with a common theme

-Prayer the means of putting on the armor of God

-Pray for all the saints and Paul’s personal prayer request

-The Devil is determined to keep you from God’s calling

Paul’s Key Prayer Request

-For words to fill his mouth and to speak with boldness

1) Paul knew what God had called Him to do in Christ

-You need to know what God has called you to do

-God’s general call: Christlike character; Disciple

making

-God’s specific call: Daily fellowship; Spiritual

gifts; faith and obedience

2) Paul was determined not to work in his own strength

3) Paul was abandoned to God’s calling. Philippians 3.12

Conclusion

For you to have a clear key prayer request you will need to know who you are in Christ and what God has called you to do in His kingdom. For you to ask others to pray for you with the most strategic of prayers, you will need to be abandoned to God’s call upon your life and refuse to fulfill that call in your own strength.

SERMON NOTES

Your Key Prayer Request Ephesians 6.19-20

-Let me begin by asking you a question. “What is your key prayer request for fulfilling God’s calling upon your life?” When you ask others to pray for you what is the most important thing you ask them to pray for? Forming a key prayer request will help you to focus your life. I am going to ask you this question again at the end of this message and hopefully you will have a better understanding of your key prayer request for fulfilling God’s calling upon your life.

-The first thing I want us to notice this morning is the context of these verses. These verses are part of Paul’s teaching on spiritual warfare and taking our stand against the devil’s schemes by putting on the armor of God. Verse 12 says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”. In the struggle against spiritual forces we are to put on the armor of God. Verse 13, “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand”. Then in verse 14 Paul begins to describe the armor of God.

-Something that is not evident in our English translations is that verses 14 to 20 are one sentence in the Greek text. We cannot form sentences these long sentences in English because English sentences depend on word order, but in Greek the word endings connect words together so a writer can mix up words and make long sentences, and that is what Paul does here. [Chapter 1, verses 3 to 14 are one sentence in Greek.]

-Having verses 14 to 20 as one sentence in the Greek joins together all the subject matter in those verses. What this means is that the comments on prayer in verses 18 to 20 are very much a part of the whole armor of God. After listing all the armor parts in verses 14 to 17 Paul says in verse 18, “by means of all prayer and petition, praying at every time in spirit, and to it watching in all perseverance and petition concerning all the saints”. The armor of God is put on by the means of prayer. We are to pray for ourselves and for all the saints. Prayer is a vital part of the armor of God and the means by which we are to put on the armor of God and help others to put on the armor of God as well. Prayer is not just added on after the armor of God but is part of putting on the armor of God.

-In verse 19 Paul presents to the Ephesians his personal prayer request. At the end of verse 18, Paul asked the Ephesian believers to pray for all the saints in the spiritual battle and now he is giving them his personal prayer request. As we study this prayer request I hope to show you that Paul knows very clearly God’s calling upon his life, and that he refuses to rely on his own strengths and abilities to fulfill God’s calling in his life. Paul’s prayer request teaches me about the importance of prayer in the fulfillment of God’s calling. Paul’s focused prayer is the result of a focused life.

-In the spiritual battle that we are in, the Devil is determined to keep you away from fulfilling God’s calling upon your life. He does this through diverting your focus toward other things, through temptation to sin, through fear, through cultural lies, through busyness, and so many other things. The Devil is doing a good job of disabling the church from fulfilling its calling to make disciples of all the nations. Paul’s key prayer request teaches us about some import factors in fulfilling the calling of God in our lives in the midst of spiritual battle.

-In his personal prayer request Paul asks the Ephesian believers to pray for two things. Paul asks them to pray that God will fill his mouth with words so that he will make the mystery of the gospel clearly known. Then Paul asks them to pray that he will speak boldly as he should speak. These two parts of Paul’s prayer reveal much about Paul and teach us what we should know about God’s purpose for our lives as well.

-First of all Paul knew what God had called him to do in Christ. Because Paul knew what God had called him to do in Christ his key prayer request was focused on fulfilling that call. Paul knew that God had called him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and that was what Paul was determined to do. Paul saw himself as an ambassador of Christ with a call to deliver the King’s message to the Gentiles. So Paul asks the Ephesians to pray that God will fill his mouth with words that clearly make known the gospel to all those who will listen.

-Notice that Paul does not pray that God will open his mouth. Paul is determined to open his mouth whenever he has opportunity. He asks them to pray that God will fill his open mouth with wise and powerful words that make the gospel clear to the hearers. Paul is not asking them to pray that God will do for him what he is supposed to do for himself, which is open his mouth. Paul is praying that God will empower him as he opens his mouth.

–In order for you and I to have a key prayer request we need to know God’s calling upon our life. In knowing God’s calling upon your life you will know what you are required to do with your life and what you need God to do to fulfill your calling. You can then ask God to fill that need and you can make that key request known to others. For Paul his key prayer was to have God fill his mouth with words and to speak those words out with boldness.

-Not many of us are clear about God’s calling upon our life. What is God’s calling upon your life? Can you answer that question this morning? If you are not a Christian this morning God’s call is for you to turn from your sin and to be saved in Jesus Christ. Romans 1.6-7 “Called to belong to Jesus Christ. …Called saints”.

-For the Christian God’s calling is general for all and then specific to the individual. Let me quickly sum up these two callings and encourage you to pursue them.

–God’s general call is to 1) Christlike Character. To become like Christ in holiness and love is God’s purpose for you. God desires you to take on the thoughts and attitudes and actions of Jesus in your character. God has called you to be godly in Christ Jesus. Much of Christianity is about character. God has called every Christian to be a follower of Christ in order to become like Christ. A follower is a disciple. A disciple is not only a learner of truth but an apprentice of godly character.

2) Disciple Making. The Christian is called to be involved in the process of making disciples by winning people to Christ, developing them, and supporting the discipleship process.

-God’s general call is to conversion, godly character/discipleship, and disciple making.

–God’s specific call is to, 1) Daily Fellowship with God. To practice a daily devotional discipline of communion with God through prayer and Bible reading.

2) Practice spiritual gifts. Get involved in different kinds of service for gift discovery and development. When you recognize what energizes you and what God is blessing continue to do that.

3) Faith and obedience. Keep taking on new challenges as God leads you in faith and obedience to God.

-Very few Christians get God’s direct supernatural call to specific ministry as Paul did. God has a place of service for all of us and we are to pursue God’s specific call upon our life through faith and everyday obedience to God.

-Know what God has called you to do in Christ and formulate a key prayer that fulfills that call.

-The Second thing this prayer teaches me is that Paul was determined not to do God’s work in his own strength. Paul prayed for God’s power to work through him. Paul prays for words, and Paul prays for boldness. Paul naturally possessed in himself both the ability to speak and great courage but he refused to depend upon them. Paul wanted God’s calling upon his life to be fulfilled by God’s power and not by his own strength. Paul wanted to know his own weakness so that he could rely on God’s power to work for eternal fruit.

-The last thing this prayer teaches me is that Paul was abandoned to God’s calling. The only thing Paul desired was that God empower him to fulfill his calling. Paul did not ask the Ephesians to pray for him to get released from jail, or that his wounds would be healed, or for better food, or for more comfortable circumstances. All Paul wanted was for God to fulfill His calling in him. As Paul wrote in Philippians 3.12, which was written at the same time as the letter to the Ephesians, “I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me”.

-So when I read and think about Paul’s prayer request I see a man who knows who he is in Christ and knows what God has called him to do in the kingdom of God. I see a man who refuses to trust in his own abilities and strengths but wants God’s work done in God’s way. And I see a man who is completely abandoned to God and not concerned about his own comfort and desires but only about God’s purposes. In all of these things I see a man who is making a key prayer request so that he will fulfill God’s calling upon his life in the midst of a spiritual battleground.

-So I end this morning as I began, with this question. “What is your key prayer request for fulfilling God’s calling upon your life?” For you to have a clear key prayer request you will need to know who you are in Christ and what God has called you to do in His kingdom. For you to ask others to pray for you with the most strategic of prayers, you will need to be abandoned to God’s call upon your life and refuse to fulfill that call in your own strength.

-Let me encourage you to develop a key prayer request that shows that you know God’s call for your life and that you are abandoned to God to fulfill that call in His power as you stand against the spiritual forces of evil that are working against you and the kingdom of God.

-My prayer for all of us is that we will have key prayer requests in relation to our individual lives, and in relation to God’s call upon this fellowship.