00:00:00:43 – 00:00:20:37
Clint Loveall
Hello friends. Happy Tuesday! Hope you’re doing well. Thanks for being with us as we continue through Ephesians, as we get close to wrapping up the book of Ephesians. We find ourselves late in the sixth chapter, in the 18th verse, just a couple of verses coming out of a I think what is a well known section that we talked about yesterday.

00:00:20:38 – 00:00:44:02
Clint Loveall
If you’ve not had a chance to see that, it might be worth going back, because I do think that’s a beloved passage. Certainly had a lot of attention. This is one of those sections which unfortunately, I think sometimes gets uncoupled from that. And it’d be nice if they stuck together a little bit more, because I do think this flows naturally out of what Paul has said above about the armor of God.

00:00:44:02 – 00:01:14:35
Clint Loveall
But, we’ll jump in here at 18. Read a couple of verses and we’ll come back. Pray in the spirit at all times, in every prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert. Always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak a message for when I, so that when I speak a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains.

00:01:14:40 – 00:01:40:57
Clint Loveall
Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak. I think it’s really interesting here that as Paul draws to the end of the book, especially coming out of this section on the armor of faith, the armor of God, he turns to a section in which the most prevalent word, the most powerful word, is pray. Pray in the spirit at all times.

00:01:40:57 – 00:02:11:18
Clint Loveall
In every prayer, keep alert. Pray for the saints. Pray for me. Pray for the gospel’s. Pray that I might be bold. As much as we might, based on yesterday’s passage, like to envision ourselves as warriors for the gospel. I think Paul tempers that issue, that image here, Michael, with a call to something that isn’t particular in its imagery.

00:02:11:29 – 00:03:03:00
Clint Loveall
This isn’t military. There’s this is an attack. Anything this is pray, you know, fold hands, send thoughts to God, send words toward heaven. Pray for me. Pray for the saints. Pray constantly. Pray always. There’s there’s a separation that happens between the last text in this text that I think is unfortunate because as Paul talks about the the tools that we have and the the outfitting that is done in Jesus Christ is the helmet of peace, the helmet of righteousness and the breastplate, sorry, the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, the gospel shoes of peace, the sword of the spirit, that all of that leads him to this place with this heartfelt and, passionate

00:03:03:05 – 00:03:06:24
Clint Loveall
call to prayer. And I think that’s really interesting.

00:03:06:28 – 00:03:27:54
Michael Gewecke
I agree completely, I think that when you’re coming to a text like this, it’s easy to just simply read this as the closing thoughts of, epistle. And we do have that in some of the letter writing as you are coming to a conclusion and you offer prayers for different people in the congregation, or you lift up different concerns happening.

00:03:28:03 – 00:03:57:59
Michael Gewecke
That’s certainly, I think, built into the literature itself. But I think what’s fascinating here is how the helmet of salvation saw the spirit, how that might just sort of transform our imagination as to what this is, because I do think that there are some circles of the faith where prayer is thought of as an offensive tool. It’s thought of as a thing that you use spiritually, that it accomplishes a particular.

00:03:57:59 – 00:04:33:46
Michael Gewecke
And the thing that strikes me, and I’d like for you to note is here the constancy of this prayer, the idea that this is a lifelong practice, it’s an every day, every hour of that day kind of practice. And then you have this idea of the alertness, the persevering ness for the sake of the saints, and that for the sake of the saints, this is important language, because what it does is it reminds us that the reason for which we have these gifts is for the sake of relationship, and not just the relationship that’s in our most inner circle.

00:04:33:46 – 00:05:01:03
Michael Gewecke
The people that we know for all the saints, for all of those who’ve been transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the imagination pushing ness of the gospel is it calls us to recognize that there’s much further and more community beyond than the simple community that we’ve been given. I particularly love the idea. We started this at the beginning of this book, that the book to the Ephesians might have been an encyclical.

00:05:01:03 – 00:05:25:07
Michael Gewecke
It might have been a letter, not given just to one church, but might have been distributed and intended to have been read in several churches in a region. If that’s the case, imagine what it might have meant to them to say, be praying for your sister churches. Be praying for the saints who are living in other places and dealing with other struggles and who are seeking to be bearers of the gospel in their own place.

00:05:25:12 – 00:05:48:01
Michael Gewecke
There’s a beautiful kind of resonance and a hopefulness in this that I think puts us deeply in the promise that we see above, right? The idea that this armor of God exists not for the purpose of taking ground, but for recognizing. As the world presses in on the church, we will find one another supported by the gifts that we’ve been given.

00:05:48:14 – 00:05:53:27
Michael Gewecke
How do we practice that support? Through constant persevering, never ending prayer for one another?

00:05:53:33 – 00:06:17:06
Clint Loveall
I think in Paul’s mind, one of the most dangerous things that any Christian or church can do is to, fall out of contact with other Christians and other church to isolate themselves. And so, a beautiful picture of our connectedness here. Pray for all the saints and pray for me. Now, Paul, they have a relationship with Paul’s in trouble.

00:06:17:06 – 00:06:33:45
Clint Loveall
He’s he’s imprisoned. He’s an ambassador in chains. But pray in all times and every prayer and supplication. Keep alert. Pray for the saints. I think.

00:06:33:50 – 00:07:22:12
Clint Loveall
One of our struggles. And I think this is true. This isn’t an American problem. Sad Presbyterian problem, I think is just a human problem. We get wrapped up in our own circle, and so while we can are concerned with the things that happen in our community or in our church, and we pray over those who are hospitalized here, we pray over the needs of the church and the expansion and what we’re trying to do to share the gospel with others in word and indeed, I think probably most of us struggle to incorporate into our prayer life a regular moment where we pray for churches in China or the Soviet Union or the Caribbean,

00:07:22:12 – 00:07:48:28
Clint Loveall
or wherever they may be. Wisconsin, you know, I did, doesn’t it? The idea that Paul calls Christians to mindfully pray on behalf of other Christians, on behalf of other churches who they may or may not know, whose circumstances they may or may not be aware of. I, I, I think this is a neglected part of our church experience.

00:07:48:41 – 00:08:14:49
Clint Loveall
We try to we try to recall it. You know, Michael will often try to have a worldly component to our prayers in or a global component. Maybe it would be a better way to say that in worship. But I just think this is a thing that takes discipline. And I find it very interesting that Paul uses the last of his kind of teaching words in the letter aimed at prayer.

00:08:14:54 – 00:08:44:48
Michael Gewecke
We continue on and you mention this, but I just want to point this out. Pray for me. Pray for Paul so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. I think there’s ways in which it gets overplayed. And if I can just be honest with you for a second, I grew up in a tradition where the televangelist was a pretty common part of my experience of the faith as a young person.

00:08:44:52 – 00:09:20:52
Michael Gewecke
You hear that in television? Preachers pray for me, and it’s often followed by, and here’s the address to send your money. That is a trite and a hollow and an anemic response. If it’s I want you to pray and I want you to fund whatever this thing is, I do think, and Clint push back on this, if this isn’t true, but there is wisdom in praying for those who leave, because the tasks that they’ve been given in leadership requires more than what they’re capable of doing.

00:09:21:01 – 00:09:52:49
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that’s true today, in the same way that we are seeing the humility of a saint of the church, one of the most influential church leaders and not even close admitting that prayers are a necessary part of having the boldness to do the work. Now, whether that’s just for a pastor or a spiritual teacher, whether that’s for our civic and our governmental leaders.

00:09:52:49 – 00:10:13:34
Michael Gewecke
I think whether that’s for a business, you can look at it from a variety of ways, but I do think that there is a way in which we should be praying for those who’ve been called to tasks that, by definition, they need God’s strength to do. And we may not emphasize that as often as we should. And I think it’s clearly embodied here in this text.

00:10:13:39 – 00:10:44:21
Clint Loveall
I, I’m aware, have been told multiple times by people that I respect and whose faith I, I admire, and I look up to, on multiple occasions, I have been told by a parishioner in the church, the pastor, I pray for you daily, or I pray for you every Sunday morning, or I pray while you’re putting messages together and the the,

00:10:44:25 – 00:11:09:24
Clint Loveall
What a humbling thing. But what also a beautiful reminder that as, as we all try to live out this faith and, and, and some of us do it with some degree of responsibility for trying to teach or lead to to know that those efforts are undergirded by the prayers of the saints and the prayers of the faithful.

00:11:09:28 – 00:11:34:37
Clint Loveall
And I mean that that’s a beautiful thing. I, I take deep comfort in knowing that there are those who know well enough that I’m not up to the task, that they send their prayers regularly, asking for my help or asking that I will be helped. And, that’s that’s, I’ve always taken great comfort in that.

00:11:34:42 – 00:12:31:21
Michael Gewecke
We make it a mistake with each other, and I mean this as humans. But this is very, very much the case in the church where we forget that the other person is a human full of doubts and insecurities and previous experiences that have led them to be afraid of us saying or to be resistant to a thing. And I cannot help but be struck here in verse 20, pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak, because if you put this in contrast to first Corinthians, second Corinthians, and try to convince someone that Paul’s ever afraid to speak, you’ve got a guy who, when he shows up, he shows up with pointed, strong

00:12:31:21 – 00:12:59:58
Michael Gewecke
language, unafraid to step in the gap. In fact, that’s many reason why people struggle to read Paul is because they’re off put by that kind of energy. And yet here, pray that I may declare it boldly as I may speak, that he might have a fear of in the exact most important moment, not having courage that he would be afraid that he might not speak the truth boldly.

00:13:00:03 – 00:13:24:39
Michael Gewecke
That is a deeply human experience. And I think for every parent that is afraid to talk about faith with your kid or nervous about it, for every grandparent who is trying to navigate, how you help your kids, and yet you’ve got grandkids and are they in church? And what’s the best way to talk about faith with them when I’m not even confident of the words myself?

00:13:24:39 – 00:13:47:44
Michael Gewecke
Right. However, it lands on, on each of us as we receive this, we’re all going to have those human gaps. We’re all going to have those questions of those insecurities. It is comforting to see those embodied in our scriptures as well, and to recognize that the thing that we can do about it, going back just a bit, is pray is prayer.

00:13:47:45 – 00:14:12:06
Michael Gewecke
Prayer for ourselves, prayer for one another, prayer for our leaders, and recognizing in the midst of all that prayer, we’re connecting with a God who we trust to lead and guide us in the whole thing. I think that is a fascinating and I think a truly encouraging way of seeing the faith as it lands on us as humans, and not just as it lands in the scriptures as we receive them.

00:14:12:10 – 00:14:40:52
Clint Loveall
Yeah, a wonderful again I the wisdom I’m struck by Paul’s depth. As a pastor, if you. Think about his circumstances, perhaps in prison as he writes this, at least certainly that’s the image here. And the wisdom of closing with a call to prayer, I think is profound and and wise and beautiful.

00:14:40:57 – 00:14:57:29
Michael Gewecke
Thanks for being with us. Hope there’s been something here that, has been encouraging, for you. If so, give it a like if you would like to stick with us on studies like this as we engage, step by step through the text, we’d love to have you subscribe. So you don’t miss studies like this. And we look forward to seeing you all tomorrow.

00:14:57:34 – 00:14:58:07
Clint Loveall
Thanks for everybody.