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7.21.21 MOC Session #6 Nathan Anderson · HBCWestminster

• 0:00
  We're going to be studying a man named Epaphras. Epaphras is a guy who we find limited information about, but a man who I think we can glean some really specific things about prayer. As I was preparing for tonight and I was thinking about this topic of prayer, prayer in our lives as men, prayer in my life and throughout my lifetime,
• 0:30
  Well, I have a question. My question for you guys is, who here is a car guy? Like, you see a 1964 Pontiac GTO, and you start to drool a little bit. I was hammered a little bit by Scott, by the way, for one of the cars that I'm going to mention. But I'll get through it. You see that Shelby Cobra come by, and you get weak in the knees a little bit.
• 1:02
  I have loved muscle cars since I was a kid. I love a V8 engine in a small car is just the best thing man has ever done. Cars built out of steel that smell like gas even when the car isn't running. That is just the best. When I was younger, in high school, I actually dreamed of...
• 1:29
  buying a muscle car and fixing it up for my first car. That was the thing I wanted to do but I never got a chance to do that. My grandpa, who was a huge car guy, lived in Iowa. We lived in Colorado. He definitely would have done it but it would have been quite the trip back and forth in order to make that happen. However, I did have a friend whose dad wanted to do this with him.
• 1:53
  And so he bought him a 1971 Ford Fairlane V8 engine in the hopes that they would fix it up together throughout the summer. And he would then drive that as his first car. My friend, on the other hand, actually had zero interest in this. I would go over, when I heard it, I was so excited. I like rode my bike down the street, went over to see it, met his dad.
• 2:22
  Went in the backyard, took a look at it. I mean, it needed a lot of work. But, I mean, it had a V8 engine. That's all I cared about. And he just had zero interest. I would go over there and ask him. I'd be like, hey, you know, how is it going? Like, how's the progress going on the car? And he's like, I don't know. It's over in the backyard somewhere.
• 2:42
  And then I'd go talk to his dad, and his dad would be like, yeah, I can't get him to do anything with me on it. I'm just working on it and putzing around on it myself. And he ended up kind of slowly fixing it up on his own, and he ended up actually selling it because his son never really had interest in it. Meanwhile, my first car that I had that I was driving around was a 1988 Dodge Aries K car, a little four-cylinder.
• 3:10
  grandma mobile and literally was a grandma car because i called up my grandma maggot because when i was driving around i would get waved at by all the other grandmas because they were driving around the same thing those things were built like they were the safest vehicle you could probably ever drive because it was just steel but because it was a underpowered four-cylinder it was not
• 3:32
  I'm going to do any sort of burning rubber or anything like that. Even when you dropped it, which I did many times, revering it as high as I could and then dropping the automatic into drive just to try and hear a little. But my friend had no interest in this and it drove me crazy. I was so frustrated that he wanted nothing to do with this car. Sometimes I think this is how we treat the gift of prayer.
• 3:58
  in our lives. Our Heavenly Father has given us access to the muscle car, to one of the most powerful things a Christian can do. Namely, come before the very throne of God and pray. Yet sometimes we can be like my friend, and when someone asks us about our prayer life, we say, I don't know, it's somewhere in the backyard.
• 4:23
  As we consider the call to be men of the church, not simply men in it, I want to draw our attention to one man's example of prayer and consider what we can glean and take from this and his example as we consider how a man of the church ought to be a man of prayer. We are going to be in Colossians. Colossians chapter 1. I just put my hands next to my face and they smell horrible.
• 4:53
  It smells like fish, yes. Colossians chapter 1, we're going to read verses 3 through 9, and then we're going to jump over to chapter 4, verse 12 as well. Colossians chapter 1, verse 3 says this. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have.
• 5:19
  For all the saints. Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before. In the word of the truth. The gospel. Which has come to you. As indeed in the whole world. Is bearing fruit and increasing. As it also does among you.
• 5:38
  Since the day you heard it and understood it, the grace of God and truth, just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved and fellow servant, he is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf and has made known to us your love in the Spirit. And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom.
• 6:08
  And understanding. Turn with me probably a couple pages in your Bible. To chapter 4 of Colossians. And here we will read one more verse. Referencing Epaphras. Chapter 4 verse 12 says this. Epaphras who is one of you. A servant of Christ Jesus. Greets you always. Struggling on your behalf in prayers. That you may stand mature. And fully assured. In all the will of God.
• 6:38
  Let's pray. Father in heaven, we pray that you would guide us, direct us this evening. Father, in this time now, Father, I pray that you would instill in us the truths that we need to hear. Encourage us, strengthen us, challenge us tonight. Father, that we might infuse our lives with the activity of prayer, this powerful and amazing gift you have given to us. We pray these things in your name.
• 7:09
  Amen. Amen. So who is this dude, Epaphras? His name and Paul's comment from Colossians 4.12 indicates that Epaphras was a Gentile. We can also surmise that he was from Colossae in Asia Minor since his name appears in the letter to the church there. And Paul says he is one of you to the Colossians, that Epaphras is one of them. According to Paul,
• 7:38
  Writing during his first Roman imprisonment, Epaphras was the one who shared the gospel with the Colossians and possibly started the church there. Paul speaks of the day you heard the gospel and reminds them that you learned it from Epaphras. We saw that in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 1. Epaphras traveled to Rome to visit Paul.
• 8:01
  informing Paul about the Colossians and their love in the Spirit. We saw that in verse 8 of chapter 1. Epaphras is actually only mentioned three times in the New Testament. Here in Colossians twice and then in the book of Philemon. He was a believer in Christ who served with the Apostle Paul, who referred to him as a fellow servant, a faithful minister, and a servant of Jesus Christ.
• 8:32
  That's who Epaphras was, but what can we learn from him? What can he teach us in terms of being men of prayer? When we read these very short verses on Epaphras, what things can we glean about his prayer life? I think there are three things that we want to consider.
• 8:55
  observe from these verses and how they reference his prayer life. First, that it was ceaseless. Second, he did it as to contend. And third, it was direct. It was directed with purpose. It was ceaseless. Verse 9 of chapter 1 and verse 12 of chapter 4 bring this out.
• 9:17
  The Bible, and especially the Apostle Paul, speak constantly about being in prayer without ceasing, being constant in prayer, in constant communication with the Lord. A few verses that speak of this is Romans chapter 12, verse 12, where Paul says, be constant in prayer. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16, pray without ceasing.
• 9:45
  Ephesians 6.18, praying at all times. Colossians 4.2, continue steadfastly in prayer. 2 Thessalonians 1.11, to this end we always pray. 1 Chronicles 16.11, seek the Lord and His strength. Seek His presence continually. The Bible is...
• 10:15
  full of these verses calling on the follower of Christ, follower of God, to be in communion with him at all times. And for some reason, though, I think this is really hard for many of us. In fact, some might even describe their prayer life as kind of an inverted reality of this call, that it's actually completely dead, that it has completely ceased. It is not ceaseless. It is ceased, non-existent.
• 10:45
  Here in Colossians, Paul describes Epaphras as always struggling on their behalf in prayer. That Paul and Epaphras always thanked God the Father when they pray for the church at Colossae. When you read that, do you guys feel kind of like I do when you hear those charges to pray without ceasing, to be in constant prayer, to be in constant communication with the Lord? Do you guys not feel like...
• 11:15
  You're like, how? How does that work? How do we do that? Feel a little bad that we probably feel as though we're failing in this. I think part of the reason why it's easy for us to struggle to be in prayer more often is because we have a little bit of an effeminate view of prayer. As guys, I think we can see it as a dainty.
• 11:50
  A thing that kind of expresses a weakness in us somehow. Because we're going to somebody else for help. I think when we understand what prayer is and what it can do, I think we can be encouraged to take it on more and more in our lives. Epaphras was a man who was constantly in prayer. And I think...
• 12:19
  As we move forward into these next two things that we observe from him, I think the reasons why were because he understood the power in it. We can be inspired, I think, as we go forward from here to turn over the engine of prayer and rev up those RPMs and hear, as we hear the incredible power, the sound of the revving power of prayer in our lives. Guys, God really does listen and he really does act.
• 12:49
  When we pray. We have seen this over and over at Highland. We have seen people on death's door come back. Because people have prayed. This is no wimpy thing. I think the reason why Epaphras was able to pray so consistently in his life. Was because he saw it as a battleground.
• 13:16
  As something which took effort and should be agonized over. He prayed without ceasing and he contended. He contended. We see that in verse 12 of chapter 4 where it says struggling on your behalf. Struggling on your behalf.
• 13:36
  This word used here for struggling is the same root Paul used in Romans chapter 15 verse 30 where he says to strive together. This word means to contend, to struggle, to compete. It means to contend with an adversary. That's what this word struggle means. When he says that Epaphras was struggling on their behalf, he was contending, he was wrestling with.
• 14:05
  The prince of darkness, he was contending with the many enemies of our souls. Brothers, we have an adversary, the enemy of our souls who seeks to devour us. Paul says, Epaphras believed that the most effective way to contend was with prayer. You know, when I was in college, my junior year,
• 14:32
  As we developed closer bonds as guys, and in the middle of Wyoming, there's not that many things to do. In our freshman year, we'd already gotten airsoft banned because we broke all the vacuums because we had airsoft bullets all over the dorm. So we weren't allowed to do that. So instead, our junior year, we decided we would begin having Friday night wrestling matches.
• 14:58
  The only thing that we got at the end, aside from rug burns and bruises, was bragging rights. But at the end of the night, we would always shake each other's hands, no hurt feelings. But there's something about young men that want to contend, want to battle, want to wrestle, battling one another each week to establish those pecking orders.
• 15:31
  Guys would have rug burns and bruises from the battles, but we didn't care. I think sometimes we men do not pray, as I said, because we have a view of it as dainty and weak. We don't understand what it actually is, that it's actually contending, it's actually wrestling against the forces of darkness. Ephesians chapter 6 has this to say.
• 15:59
  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. Brothers, when we pray, we are contending. We are wrestling against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil. This should excite us.
• 16:28
  We get to contend for the faith. We get to contend for one another. We get to come before the very throne of God and cast our cares, our anxieties, our worries, our struggles before him. Brothers, this thing called prayer is not for sissies.
• 16:54
  This is no dainty thing. I can remember a few times in Carla and my marriage at times where something crazy would happen. A huge change would happen in our lives. And we would be kind of shocked for a little while. And all of a sudden one of us would come to the other one and say, I have something I have to confess. What's that? For the last three weeks I've just been praying that God would do something.
• 17:21
  that he would shake us up, that he would move in our lives. So I'm sorry. We would inevitably tell the other one, could you just give me a heads up, like when you're praying crazy? We contend. We wrestle.
• 17:42
  When we pray, this is what Epaphras understood. He was a man of prayer and a man who contended, strived, struggled in his prayer because he knew it was against the spiritual forces he was waging war. Brothers, our homes is the first place that we contend for in prayer.
• 18:05
  If we are not praying for our homes, if we are not praying for our wives, if we are not praying for our kids, we are missing a tremendous opportunity, a tremendous role that God has given us as men in our homes, men of the church of our homes. As we contend, though, we must be purposeful. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9, verse 26, So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air.
• 18:37
  When we run, when we start that engine, when we contend, we must not do so aimlessly. Epaphras, we learn, was purposeful in his prayer. He was direct in his prayer. We see that at the end of verse 12 of chapter 4 in Colossians. As it says, he struggled on their behalf in his prayers. What did he pray for? He prayed that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will.
• 19:07
  His prayer was direct that they may be mature, fully assured. Epaphras took his prayer serious and in so doing was direct in what he was praying for. Epaphras did not just always pray. He contended. He struggled in his prayer. And he did not just contend. He was direct. He was purposeful in what he prayed for.
• 19:36
  He had forethought. Brothers, we have a tremendous opportunity as we watch our wives, as we observe our wives, as we learn about who they are, how they tick. We can pray intelligently about them. The longer we are married to them, the longer we are with them, we know them more intricately. We know their struggles. We know what they need, what they need to be prayed for, encouraged with. We must...
• 20:08
  Be purposeful in our prayer. And brothers, our kids, look around us. Our kids are at risk. Our kids, this generation that is growing up is being contended for by somebody. Are we contending for them? Are we contending for their souls? Are we praying for our kids' salvation? Are we praying for them to come to a place
• 20:33
  personal and real and deep relationship with their heavenly father who loves them, who loves them and wants them to know him. We must contend. We must always be praying. We must be purposeful, direct in our prayers. Brothers, we have been gifted an incredibly powerful tool in the life of a believer. Prayer is that muscle car.
• 21:06
  It's that V8 engine that revs when we turn it on. It's ready to burn some rubber in our lives. Are we ready to use it? Are we ready to contend against the cosmic powers of this age? Contend for our kids. Contend for our wives. Contend for our loved ones, our neighbors, our coworkers. I fear some of us can fall into the trap of being indifferent to this.
• 21:39
  We might, when asked about prayer in our lives, say, I don't know, it's in the backyard somewhere. May it not be true of us, brothers. May I encourage us tonight, turn on the engine, begin praying, begin contending, begin wrestling. You will not be disappointed with the results.