Continue Steadfastly in Prayer - Jesse Barrington

Over the last ten days,

as I began to pray about

what to preach this morning,

I finished two sermons to preach

this morning.

And last night, I was walking

to my room.

Brother Tim turned to me and said,

"Brother, do you know what

you're going to preach on?"

And I said, well, I finished two sermons,

but they've both flown away from me.

And so last night, I went to the room,

and just began to pray.

And bits of conversations that I've had

with Tim and Mack and Mike

over the last two days

started to come to mind

and bring conviction to my heart.

And I'm convinced that the Lord

has brought me to this conference

to do a work in my heart;

to preach to my own soul

and my own life.

We all desparately and continually

need to be growing

in our doctrine and our theology.

One brother said,

if the "you" of today,

doesn't look at the
"you" of five years ago

and call that man a heretic,

you're not growing fast enough in truth.

By God's grace, over
the last fourteen years,

I can see where the Lord
has grown me much

in understanding of the Gospel

and the Scriptures,

and doctrine and theology.

Scripture is continually sharpening

my understanding

and shaping my theology and my doctrine

and challenging what I was taught

growing up.

And that's a good thing.

But there's also a
potential danger there -

a danger to be avoided as we grow

in doctrine and theology.

You see, fourteen years ago

I didn't have a lot of understanding.

I didn't have a lot of experience.

And that's dangerous too.

But with a little bit of understanding

and the little experience I had then,

I only had one place that I could lean.

And that was in total and complete

dependence upon the Lord.

Do you know where that dependence

on the Lord was reflected most

in my life?

It was in devotion to prayer.

It was in devotion to prayer.

Steadfast prayer.

Last night, I began to wonder

how much have I really grown

in understanding and doctrine

and theology?

Because if those things really have

their effect in your heart

and they play themselves out in your life

to the degree that they should,

they should be manifested in many ways,

but one way a true understanding

of doctrine and theology

should manifest in

is a deeper devotion to prayer.

A deeper leaning upon the Lord.

As I listened to the brothers preach

those three sermons yesterday -

and praise God for their sermons -

I learned a lot and there's much to apply

in my life.

But last night, I laid in the room

and prayed.

I thought about Mack's sermon:

The Garden of Gesthemane.

And there's so much to learn in that

of what my brother preached.

But what stood out to me last night

in the room was the
example of Jesus Christ

and His fervency and dependence

upon the Father in prayer.

If you would just read through

the book of Luke

and highlight the prayer life of Christ

in the book of Luke

and look at the dependence

of the Son upon the Father.

As I listened to brother Mike

preach on the sovereignty of God,

that He controls all things,

and if we don't let that go

to the fatalistic mindset,

which we should not,

what impressed my heart last night

was if He is really in control

of all things,

determining the end from the beginning,

how can it not manifest itself in my life

in devotion to prayer

and dependence upon the One

Who holds the universe in His hand?

You say, well, how are you going to tie

Brother Tim's sermon in from Hebrews 11?

With Rahab?

How'd you get to prayer from there?

And I thought, I'm not going to try

to make a way to prayer from there.

It was so clear

that it was a leading to prayer for me.

Because one of the
reasons that we struggle

in coming to the Lord

and approaching the Lord in prayer

is because we look at ourselves,

our scarlet letters,

our Rahabs upon all of us,

and we say, He doesn't want to listen

to someone like me.

I'm not worthy to come to the throne.

But Brother Tim reminded us last night

that because of the blood of Jesus Christ,

I'm counted worthy.

I can boldly come to the throne,

not on my own righteousness,

but on the righteousness of Another,

and He delights in the
prayers of the upright.

Brothers and sisters,

what I need -

what we all need,

what New England needs -

is God.

We need churches.

We need faithful pastors and preachers.

We need evangelists.

We need faithful brothers and sisters

living upright and godly lives.

But in all of those,

they're all dependent upon God.

You can have a church

that has right theology,

but it's not lived itself out

demonstrated through a
dependence upon God

and steadfast prayer.

So I want to begin and just pray

because we so need it.

I so need it.

And ask the Lord to do a work

in my heart first.

And if that's selfish,

I'm going to be ok being selfish.

And I'll pray for you as well.

Father, we come in
the name of Jesus Christ.

God, we come, not minimizing our sin;

not continuing in it that grace may abound

but acknowledging it
and confessing it, God.

Believing that You have counted us worthy

in Your Son Jesus.

And in Him, we boldly come.

God, we come because we need.

We have so much need

and we come because we don't realize

how much need we have

and we need to see that.

I need to see that, Lord.

God, would You show me things

that I am leaning on instead of You?

Would You show me things

that we are trusting in

instead of You?

Would You show us Your willingness;

would You show us Your desire

for us to come, Lord?

Draw us, God.

As we draw near to You,

draw near to us, God.

Open up Your Word to us.

And guard me, Father.

But let this Word go into my own

heart and soul this morning, God;

into the hearts and souls

of Your people here, God;

that Your name would be great here.

In the name of Jesus,

Amen.

Please open your Bibles

to the book of Colossians 4.

We'll just be looking at
one verse this morning.

Colossians 4.2

"Continue steadfastly in prayer,

being watchful in it,

with thanksgiving."

The New American Standard renders it,

"Devote yourselves to prayer,

keeping alert in it,

with an attitude of thanksgiving."

Paul here exhorting the church

at Colossae.

Living lives consistent

with the revelation of who Jesus Christ is

from chapter 1.

He's exhorting them to live consistent

in light of all that he has taught them

in chapter 1.

A Gospel-consistent life.

And he calls them here to

continue steadfastly in prayer,

to devote themselves to prayer.

To be courageously persistent in prayer.

Holding fast to and not letting go of God

in prayer.

Enduring in prayer.

Not fainting away.

Let's first remember

that this is a command.

An imperative through Paul from God

in Scripture.

And what it teaches us right away

is that God does not want us

to give up in prayer.

God does not want us to quit in prayer,

but rather to persevere

and be devoted to Him in prayer.

Brothers and sisters,

God knows our need for Him.

No one knows your need for God

better than God does.

God knows our great need for Him.

And so what does He do?

He commands you to come.

Do you see the grace and love

of a God Who knows our greatest need

and then commands us

in regards to that great need?

And it's not a command
to just come and pray,

it's a command to come and commune.

To be with Him.

The work of redemption on the cross

was not an end.

It was a means

to bring us to Him

in relation,

to commune with Him

and never to leave.

To be with Him eternally.

And we all know that for the true believer

the commandments of God

are not burdensome.

They're a delight.

They're a delight.

But you know what can make

the command of prayer burdensome?

Pride.

Pride makes the commandment of prayer

burdensome.

Listen, there's discipline in prayer.

You must prioritize your life for prayer.

But prayer becomes burdensome

in a negative way

because of pride.

Because we fail to see our need

and our weakness.

This command from God to continue

in prayer -

Him knowing our greatest need -

is like a man turning to a starving man

and saying this:

"I command you to come eat.

And I will provide a
buffet for you to feast."

Now I want to ask you,

is that a burdensome command

to a starving person?

Come and eat

at the table

and feast on My Son Jesus Christ.

That's not a burdensome prayer.

That is a gracious and loving command

of our God,

unless we don't realize that we're hungry.

"I'm full. I'm not hungry right now, Lord.

And You want me to come eat?

I'm not hungry.

I don't need to eat right now.

I'll eat later on."

It's burdensome if we don't see

and acknowledge our need.

Brothers and sisters,

everyone in this room
is dependent upon God

and in great need at this very moment,

whether we realize it,

whether we feel it or not.

Everyone here is completely,

wholly, utterly, totally dependent

upon God.

Fourteen years ago,

without much understanding;

without much experience,

I was totally dependent upon God

and what God convicted me of last night

is fourteen years later,

I am in the same place

of utter and total dependecy

and the need for God,

but I've allowed knowledge and experience

to be something I feel like I can lean on,

and that's foolishness,

and it just reveals,

I really don't have that much knowledge.

A true knowledge of God should make us

even more dependent upon Him

as we grow in the revelation of Who He is,

what He has done,

and who I am in Jesus Christ,

it should draw me to greater prayer

and greater dependence;

not the ability to stand

because I'm a strong man now.

Paul boasted in his weakness.

He was proud of it

because he knew that in his weakness

he was strong.

We need preachers.

We need evangelists.

We need churches.

We need faithful church people.

But we need God.

You know what your
prayer life truly reveals?

Your pride life.

Our prayer lives, brothers and sisters,

are a direct reflection of one thing:

our pride.

I repented last night of pride.

Pride in understanding;

pride in experience.

Here's how gracious our God is:

When we don't understand

the depth of understanding of our need

and dependence upon Him,

or when we forget it

and begin to place that in other things;

here's how gracious and
loving this God is:

He teaches you and He reminds you

of your need for Him.

How?

Through trials,
tribulation, and suffering.

We talked about the sovereignty of God

last night.

The hidden things belonging to Him.

But one thing that we can
learn from Scripture,

is that God is sovereign over

our trials, tribulations, and suffering.

And they are meant for our good.

They are meant to teach
us our need for God;

our dependence upon God,

and the willingness of God.

If He is sovereign over my life,

and He is bringing into my life

these things,

it has a purpose:

to draw me back to weakness

and dependence upon Him.

I often feel very overwhelmed.

The Lord has found it fit to save

many people in Dallas.

He has found it fit to draw

many people to our assembly.

And I look at what He's doing

and I come to Him in a place

of [being] overwhelmed,

and I say, Lord, what are You doing?

This is overwhelming, God.

I'm not equipped for this, God.

And last night, it was as though

I had the understanding again:

"Don't you know?

I'm teaching you your weakness now?

I'm showing you how dependent

you must be upon Me."

Can I encourage all of us in our trials,

tribulations and sufferings

come into our lives,

that our first prayer

wouldn't be for deliverance from them.

That our first prayer would be

that we would learn our need for Him;

our weakness outside of Him,

and that we would learn in this

to be more devoted to Him in prayer.

As the brother said the other day,

many times we're praying for God

to conform us to the
image of Jesus Christ.

And He does that work.

Then, we pray for deliverance
from His conformity.

Pray that we would remember and know

His power is made perfect in weakness.

Pray that at the revelation
of our weakness

and our need for Him

that we don't try to pretend we're strong.

But because of the Gospel,

we acknowledge our weakness.

Not that we can continue in any sin,

but acknowledge our weakness

and come to Him in prayer.

God doesn't need strong people.

God's not going to bring strong people

into New England.

God is going to bring people

who recognize their weakness

upon a very strong, mighty, and holy God

and who are devoted to Him in prayer.

And through those people,

He will work.

Because He gets the glory.

So I asked myself last night

and I'll ask you:

Do you want revival in your own heart?

Do you want revival in the church

that you're in right now?

Do you want revival in this whole

New England area?

Are you given to prayer?

Are we given to prayer then?

Are we continuing in it?

Are we being steadfast in it?

Are we devoted to it?

Because there's an inconsistency to say,

God, we want You to come,

but not being revealed in our consistency

in prayer.

We were talking the other day.

We need to plant.

And we need to strategize.

Those are good things.

You can read through Scripture.

Paul says, I made plans to come to you.

He plans things out.

That's good.

Planning and strategy is good.

But I can tell you this,

planning without prayer
amounts to nothing.

It is just the plans of men then.

So does God really want us

to continue in prayer?

It seems some of us have been praying,

but we're beginning to lose heart

because we're not seeing God move yet.

So I began to ask,

does God really want us
to continue in prayer?

Does He really want us to
be devoted to prayer?

And when you begin to lose heart in prayer

what do you do?

Oh, God forbid that we would stop praying.

When you are praying and praying

and being devoted to it

and you begin to lose heart in prayer,

I hope you turn to the Scriptures

and preach to your own soul.

I hope you look at
commands in Colossians 4:2

where God through Paul

commands you to continue steadfastly

in prayer.

But I want to give you two other texts

to preach to your soul

when you begin to lose heart.

So turn if you will to Luke 11.

Luke 11.

As you're turning there, I'll remind you

at the beginning of Luke 11

is when the disciples are with Jesus

and they are seeing Him pray.

And they turn to Him and they say,

Lord, teach us to pray.

Teach us how to pray, Lord.

And you know at the
beginning of chapter 11

He leads them through
the Lord's prayer there.

But we're going to pick up in verse 5

at the second thing the Lord teaches them

about prayer.

Look at v. 5 with me.

"And He said to them,

which of you who has a friend

will go to him at midnight and say to him,

'friend, lend me three loaves

for a friend of mine has arrived

on a long journey,

and I have nothing to set before him.'

And he will answer from within..."

This friend didn't even open the door.

Lend me three loaves.

Wouldn't even open the door.

Talking through the door right now.

"... and he answers from within,

'Do not bother me.

The door is now shut and my children

are with me in bed.

I cannot get up and give you anything.'"

V. 8, "Jesus says, 'but I tell you,

though he will not get up

and give anything
because he is his friend,

yet because of his impudence

he will rise and give him
whatever he needs."

Because of his shamelessness...

Because of his nerve...

this other friend who was knocking

had the nerve to knock at midnight

and keep knocking.

And the friend didn't get up

and answer the door

because they had a good relationship;

because their friendship was so strong;

because he had so much affection

for this other person,

but because of the boldness

and the nerve that this person would have

to sit there and continue to knock.

This so-called friend will finally say,

fine, here's what you need.

Take it.

And then Jesus applies it here in v. 9.

"I tell you,

ask and it will be given to you.

Seek and you will find.

Knock and it will be opened to you.

For everyone who asks receives,

and the one who seeks finds,

and to the one who knocks,

it will be opened.

What father among you

if his son asks for a fish

will instead of a fish

give him a serpent?

Or if he asks for an egg

will give him a scorpion?

If you then, who are evil,

know how to give good gifts

to your children,

how much more will the heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit to those who ask."

If a bad friend, because of the nerve

of the other friend,

and their continual knocking -

the boldness of that person -

will finally give in

and give them what they need,

how much more

will the loving heavenly Father

Who demonstrated His love

through the crucifixion of His Son,

Who's commanding us to remain in prayer -

how much more will He give

to those who ask.

It's not an issue of ability.

It's not an issue of His willingness.

It is an issue of
continual, steadfast prayer.

Turn to the right 7 chapters to Luke 18.

Is God really willing?

Does God really desire for us

to continue in prayer?

Does God really want us to seek Him?

Are you losing heart

leading to quitting in prayer?

Then we need to preach texts

like Luke 18:1-8 to our soul.

"And He told them a parable to the effect

that they ought always to pray

and not lose heart."

You see, Jesus knows that we will pray

and we will not hear when or what we want

and we will begin to lose heart,

so He says I'm going to address that

because I know that's going to happen,

and I want you to pray

and not lose heart.

I want you to pray

and not stop.

I want you to continue in prayer.

So I'm going to remind you of this.

And He says to them in v. 2,

"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,

and saying, 'give me justice

against my adversary.'

For awhile 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

with her continual coming.'

And the Lord said,

'Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

and will not God give justice

to His elect who cry to Him day and night?

Will He delay 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 the earth?'"

Do you see the comparison He makes?

A judge who does not fear God;

who does not respect man,

yet why?

Because this woman will continually come

and continually ask

and will not leave him alone,

and she keeps bothering him,

this evil man will reluctantly,

finally just say, "here,

take what you've been asking for.

Just leave me alone."

Then how much more

this God Who chose you

and set you apart

at the cost of His own Son

and adopted you,

and commands you to come

and petition and don't give up.

If the evil judge will give in to this,

how much more will the sovereign King

Who loves you and has adopted you

give you what you ask?

Does He want us to come?

That's exactly what He wants us to do.

And He wants us to continue.

The last line of that is very important

because He says,

"Will He find faith on the earth?"

What does that teach us?

The issue of continuing in prayer

is a lack of faith in God.

He's not going to answer...

I prayed for two years.

He hasn't answered yet.

You say, well, it says
He'll come speedily.

Well, the secret things
belong to the Lord.

Speedily is different for you

than it is for Him.

Part of faith is trusting in His timing.

If you're going to say,

I'll pray and remain steadfast

as long as You work on my timetable,

you've just put yourself
in a position of sovereignty.

Brothers and sisters,

we need to preach these verses to our soul

when we find our hearts

beginning to become weary.

Quickly now, just the last two parts

of Colossians 4.

Not only are we to
remain steadfast in prayer

and be devoted to it,

but he says we are to keep alert

and be watchful in our prayer.

It literally has the
idea of staying awake.

And Brother Mack just led us through

the Garden of Gethsemane yesterday.

And when our model Jesus Christ

is petitioning the Father and continuing

steadfastly in devotion to prayer

which was His style of life,

the disciples were on the side asleep.

Not alert.

Not keeping watch.

Jesus actually says to them,

"Keep watch that you might
not fall into temptation."

And they fall asleep.

And Jesus said I know

that the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.

And so in this command from Paul,

we are called not only
to continue steadfastly

in prayer, but to keep alert

and be watchful in it.

So what does that mean?

As you begin to try to apply:

continue steadfastly in prayer,

there's a temptation at some point

to say, "Well, I'll just sit here

and do this command

and then God will answer it."

And we can begin to do that

without an awareness of mind

of even what we are praying.

And we need to have our minds

alert and focused and be praying

for specific things.

Our minds need to be
engaged in this prayer.

It is not just filling up
this quota of prayer.

That if I hit this certain number,

then I'll manipulate God
to move in some way.

It is a continuing in prayer,

but it is a watchful prayer.

It is an awareness prayer of the mind.

It is specific prayers to be prayed.

God's not impressed with
how long you can pray.

It is the awareness of
how much we need Him

that we pray with our minds.

That's where our doctrine
and theology comes in -

Teaching us His sovereignty,

our weakness and our great need.

Then He says at the end here,

with thanksgiving -

or with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Continuing steadfastly in prayer,

being devoted to prayer,

being watchful in it,

keeping alert in it,

but with an attitude of thanksgiving.

And I loved it so much

that when Brother Tim prayed,

he said nearly that very thing.

We are here asking God to come,

asking God to move

in our hearts,

in our churches,

in this area -

but we still have so
much to give thanks for

that He has redeemed a wretch like me.

There is so much He has done

that as we are continuing steadfastly

in prayer and petitioning the Father,

continuing in it,

not letting Him go,

we also need to keep in mind

all that He has done

and be giving Him thanks.

Hearts of thanksgiving.

I was reminded last night of John 15:5.

The vine and the branches.

And v. 5 says this,

"Without Me you can do nothing."

And what convicted me last night was this:

I thought with knowledge and experience

I could actually do something without Him.

And as much as you grow

in knowledge and experience

and maturity in Christ,

that verse will never change.

Without Him you can do nothing.

So as I sat last night,

I said how much do I really believe

that verse?

"Without Him I can do nothing."

And here's the answer:

I believe it to the degree

that I continue steadfastly in prayer.

That's how much I believe it.

To the degree that I'm continuing

steadfastly in prayer,

I believe that verse.

And when I stop or I grow weary,

I stop believing that.

Brothers and sisters,

I can't tell you when God's going to come

and pour out His Spirit in your heart

or over New England.

Those are the secret things

that Brother Mike was speaking about.

I can't tell you when
He is going to do that,

but I can tell you this,

it will not be apart from steadfast

devotion to prayer.

It will not be apart

from steadfast devotion to prayer.

And I'll encourage you in this:

When the Lord does answer that prayer,

don't stop praying.

When the Lord brings a man into your city,

proclaims the Gospel,

people start getting saved,

a church is established by God,

there is healthy life and fellowship

with Jesus Christ at the center;

you're beginning to see lives transformed;

do not stop praying.

It is then that we need to pray even more.

Let me finish with Isaiah 62.6-7.

"On your walls, O Jerusalem,

I have set watchmen.

All the day and all the night,

they shall never be silent.

You who put the Lord in remembrance,

take no rest,

and give Him no rest

until He establishes Jerusalem

and makes it a praise in the earth."

Brothers and sisters,

give the Lord no rest.

He commands you to give Him no rest

until His name is praised in the lands.

So I pray that that was encouraging

yet convicting.

But I truly believe it was
for my own soul.

And by God's grace, I left 15 minutes.

So here's what I'd like
to do if it's alright.

I'd like to just pray.

I think the greatest thing you can do

when you hear a sermon

that convicts or encourages

is as fast as you can,

begin to implement that in your life.

And so, if I can just pray,

and you guys can pray with me

and just in the next five minutes or so,

praying about these things to the Lord.

For your own heart

and for this land.

So if you'll bow with me.

Father, in the name of Jesus,

Lord, I confess even this morning,

even a difference from last night.

Last night, I seemed so aware

of my weakness, God.

So aware of my need for You, Lord Jesus.

And even today I sense

that that is beginning to wane, Lord.

Lord, I know that I am just as needy

last night as I am today, Lord,

but I struggle to see it so often, God.

God, we need You to see these things.

We are asking now

in each of the hearts of people

represented here,

and churches represented here, God,

that You would help us to see, Lord,

these things.

See our great need, Lord;

see Your willingness, God;

see that You've made the way for us

to be able to come through Jesus Christ.

That we come, God, not on our own merit;

not on our own righteousness.

On the righteousness of Christ, we come.

God, as we approach Your Word

and we grow in doctrine and theology, God,

let it lead to a greater revelation

of weakness and dependence.

Let it lead to a greater revelation

of You and Your willingness, God.

God, when we grow faint of heart,

let us remember these petitions

You've put before us;

You're calling us and commanding us, God,

to be persistent;

to have the nerve to come

to the King of the Universe.

And to stay there, God.

To remain there.

To be devoted there.

God, thank You,

for Your loving chastening hand

when we forget these things,

to draw us back;

to teach us.

We want Your glory, God.

We need You, Father.

And so as I ask with
my brothers and sisters

that You come, Lord.

I pray that it wouldn't
be just here and now

in this moment,

but that You would keep us in a weak place

where we are constantly

and continually reaching for You

in utter dependence

manifested in devotion to prayer.

Thank You for Your patience, Lord.

Thank You for Your
grace and kindness to us.

Help us.

In the name of Jesus our Savior,

Amen.